Weekly journal-miner., 1919-12-24
OIL CAME NOT ALI WEALTH
 SAYS HEAP
tFrom Wednesdays paily.)

"IO II0
 (From Wednesdays paiIy.)
 The difficulty about making money from oil wells. according tq Harry Heap, is that after you get oil, you are worse of than before.
 Heap, who went to Burkburnett, Texas, weeks ago to follow closely the work of syndicate of local men in that field, has returned for the holidays. With him is Raymond T. Belcher, former clerk oi the board oi supervisors, who is connected with the organization.
 Frontier days, plus boom times, have made the new Texas wildcat fields q fearful and wonderful thing. What man has failed or neglected to do, Nature has contributed, in the form of unprecedented rain, that has rendered the soggy black gumbo flats of Texas an indescribable morass. Moreover, in the madness over the black gold that flows from the earth, man has apparently neglected every other consideration except the drill ing and equipping of wells and the appurtenances thereof. Roads have been allowed to become quagnires {; crossroads are traps in which motor cars become stalled, virtually for the sole purpose oi providing a highway man with a team, with large quanti- ties oi money for services rendered.
 Cities of 50,00O are now situated where villages of few hundred ex- isted few short months ago; equip ment for the comfort of human be- ings is either lacking altogether, or so scane that men live in cubby holes. for which they pay $lOO a month, and supply their own furniture and service.
 Where the Money Goes.
 Oil companies, organized by pro- motors, financed with the mites of suckers throughout the realm, oper- ated by amateurs, who are forced to pay excessive prices for every piece of timber and every stroke of work, sometimes strike oil, Mir. Heap says. Then, if there is any profit, it is dis sipated throughout huge capitaliza- tion, so that no individual ever gains any real return on his investment. More frequent, however, is the case ot the wildcat proposition that is turned into success" by the arrival of a gusher. The bringing in of a well. says the former mayor, too often means that the comparatively tiny independent concern finds itself up against the organization that domin- ates the field. Two great companies cover the entire district, and make their bids for the individual produc- ton. Unless the accepted figure is quite low, 1t will be found that the high bidder cannot at this time take the oil, on account of one of dozen good excuses. Maybe a pipe line can not be constructed just at that time. or possibly the only available storage or refinery facilities are ovcrt9xed.
 The usual result is that the small company then finds it necessary 10 cap its well and trust that when it is uucorked, there will be a little pres sure left.
 Later, however, when the company gets plumb good and tired of holding the sack, the big combine will buy il in at low figure, thus adding an other record to the pages of oil field finance.
 The companies that are making money for themselves, and possibly paying on the investment, are those that go seriously into the business and after securing production, take care of it, building or buying storage and refinery plants. Marketing oil the refined products is comparatively easy, as there is demand enough to assure every producer customer for the wares. Ii is only, however, by' it a purely business venture, and watching and supervising it as one would look after ones grocery store or dry goods emporium, that any man makes the riches out of oil that the boomer recites so glibly. In other words, syndicates, rather than stock companies with infinitely scat tered shares, make the money in the Texas oil fields.
 The Ranger field, touted at the be- ginning of the. newer excitement asl the Great Big Oil Jazz, is practically played out, Heap declares. Where there were rigs shooting skyward like fast growing forests, and later, great gushers spraying the derricks, are now hundreds of little pumping plants, redeeming a few barrels a day from the strata, or idle wells without enough pressure to blow up a kids bicycle tire.
 NatuI ally, the camp follower whose prototype was found in every bon anza gold and silver camp in the !, West, is on hand with both feet. All the grafters, pickpockets, prohteers, | loose women and lesser trash i'll the 1 union seem to be congregating in the o;1 J;etr;c4s NEOrtb,- ci+;zapc lao