The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-15
WHAT sPECULATORs RELY UPON

l ht IS based upon two | important considerations. One is the certainty that the worlds demand for oil and it's various products is to he l steadily and even very greatly in i creased The other motive for specu- | lation is found in the various reports. some of them highly romantic which tell of the sudden increase in wealth | que to the discovery of oil in places where few years ago it was not pre-
 sumed to exist. These are said to be
 reasonable bases for speculation Men l who thus venture aie presumed to be dlscounting the future. The state of 1 Texas it is the understanding. is ex- pected to produce in this calendar year | eo,ooe,00O barrels of oil The daily pro- ] auction now is very large and no small part of 1t comes from regions where
 two or three years ago there was nc
 idea that oi. wells or pools lay be- | meath the ground
 I The late Thomas A Scott rndertoo,, 10 build railroad across Texas being nrmiy or the belief that he would es-
 tablish transcontinental line to which
 would come large business. He had earlier discovered that trade follows the rails quite as rapidly and surely as it | follows the flag
 But the adventure was an unfortuna te one. It overtaxed the resources of Colonel | scott and much of the wealth he had gained earlier was absorbed in this rail- road proposition.
 WHAT SCOTT AND GOULD DID Later Jay Gould took hold of the prop erty with not very gratifying results to him. Had either Colonel Scott or Goul6 had the slightest inkling that beneath Inc soil of the right of way over which this railroad company was buin there existed very large pools and reservoirs or oil the history of that railroad so far as Colonel Scott and Mir Goulds asso- clatlon with it is concerned would have been different from the record Already in this column report has been made Of the remarkable increase in the quota ticns of offerings for the stock of the Texas and Pacific Coal and Oil company The par is 100 The market value based upon bids for stock was recently a lit- tie in excess of 5000 It was also re- ported at that time that there is no record of other stock whose par is 100 whose market value increased in excess of 5000. That statement it should have been said referred to the record of ap- preciations of stocks as that has been made in New York city. Men who have had long experience in the securities market would not recall any case where stock of this kind had so greatly ap- preciated in this market in so short a time at least.
 
 country much more sensational increases ir quotation for oil stocks. William J. Doran of Los Angeles calls attention to the fact that the Standard Oil company of Indiana declared a stock dividend .S0o per cent, all of which was given out. right to the stockholders The new stock is, MT. Doran says, quoted at 800 bid or at the rate of $24,00O for one of the orig. inal shares.
 This probably makes the highest rec- ord of appreciation of stock of any oil company It undoubtedly was due to the highly increased value of the properties owned by this company. The belief pre- vails among some of the experts that in. creased values in oil properties are to be created through the discovery and ex- ploitation of new wells. Texas seems to be an excellent neighbor of Mexico when her riches in oil are under consid- eration. The Texas discoveries and op- eiations must greatly increase the wealth of the state, for millions of dollars are invested there in oil, heavy transporta- tion is involved and of course there are large expenditures for the establishment of plants and pipe lines.
 There appears to be a wonderful sub teranean basin or reservoir running south parts of Texas con ntRining oil whose dis covery and developrnent may go far to- wards removing apprehension that our oil supplies will be exhausted within 20 years if the present world demand for oil con- tinues and increases. It would not cause astonishment if in other parts of Texas than those in which oil has been dis covered and developed that other discov- cries may be made