The Spanish American. [volume] (Roy, Mora Co., N.M.) 19??-19??, 1919-11-15
MANY FORTUNES ARE
LOST in SPECULATION.

States has participated, the people Of
the country have lined up waiting for
opportunity to plunge into the current
Of inconsidered speculation. Hundreds
Of millions of dollars have been lost
in these unwise ventures in the past
and billions are being lost to investors
in the present craze for stock gam
bling.
1t apparently makes little difference
that these speculations may be based
on industries which have been proved
profitable and legitimate. The pro-
duction of oil is one of the basic in
dustrial operations. Crude petroleum
is necessity, it commands staple
price, it's production is legitamate
business, and stockholders in produc-
ing companies are making money
Yet more fortunes have been lost in
oil stocks and oil lands than in any
other speculation.
The first oil boom in this country
occurred in the early sos, just after
Edwin L. Drake and his dri.ler, "Unce
Billy" Smith, brought IN the first drill
ed well in Pennsylvania. With the
news of brakes success, people from
all over the nation flocked 10 Vonango
county in the hope Of Striking oil'
and max ne a fortune over night.
Lana IN favorable localities sold
readily from $4,000 to $1,000 an acre
and farms brought from S50O,OO0 to
81 100000 each Speculation Of every
possible sort among all classes went
on to luch an unbridled extent that it
amounted to sheer madness. A plot
Of two acres sold for half million
and S4,OO0,0O0 was refused for fifty
! acres. which had been traded for a
yoke of oven less than year before
: Hundreds of wells were put down, buc
, their owners, without adequate capital
: or equipment, saw their means vanish
and poverty approach as a result Of
the unscrupulous and merciless deal
: ings of the land spectators.
4 Then came the FIRST of the guslRas:
$ In year oil was almost as cheap as
S water, and prices almost ceased to eN-
" ist, sales being made as low as ten
cents barrel. More fortunes We're
lost, but demand was gradually stimu-
lated and prices increased until the
close Of the civil war-The country
t was ripe for another stampede,
TIL rush to the Pithole region fol-
lowed, ard with that rush came the
extensive operation Of so-called stock
companies. In these companies people
B from all over the country were fleeced
Of their earnings and speculation in.
I such shares was tremendous. 1t is
. estimated that the companies in Penn
,sylvania alone at this period had a.
combined capital issue Of oven
q S6OO,OOO,OO0.
q Sane financiers and newspapers
u warned the public, but without avail.
An idea of the hold such speculation
: had may be gathered from the facr
n that when a Pittsburg paper printed
as satirical warning what repre-
sented to be the prospectus Of "the
/ Munchausen Philosophers Stene and
e Gull Creek Grand Consolidated Oil
q Company" thousands of people wrote
II to the paper for the address of the
. company in an attempt to buy stock
{ This make-believe prospectus repre-
u sented the company as having capital
stock of $4,000 100000 with working
capital of $3.50 and paying a guaran-
u teed dividends semi-daily, except Sun
: day. The Munchausen company, said
SS the article, held four tracts, the
- =. Munchausen having hole 100000
~ feet deep, yielding cooking butter,
, ale, turtle soup and bounty money!
u The "Ananias and Sapphira Tract"
- - was small, only embracing 65,000O00
= acres, while the "China and Hades
. Tract" was known to be especially
erich in tea"
: Then the bubble burst again.
= Floods and fires swept the fields.
y " Production was not maintained and
y the wild cat companies toppled over
right and left like row of bricks
:. carrying down to ruin thousands who
= had invested their intire capital
2 Drake, the inventor of modern drill
: ing methods, who knew oil as few men
= knew it, was among them. lie lost all
!. his property in speculation and his
. family was reduced to actual want.
} His former associates made Up purse
to relieve his necessities. Subsequent
ly the state granted him a pension of
$1,000 year for the services he had
rendered the country.
/. This nation is facing similar era
, of speculation at present. The meth
: ods of fraudulent promoters in selling
:, J" stock have been somewhat refined, but
y the dangers of get-rich-quick- invest
!. ment are not less than after the civil
war.
Repeated proof of the dangers Of
stock speculation has been given. The
- most secure protection against the
= lure of such investments is careful
and conscientious saving and regular,
safe and secure investment in govern
ment securities. War Savings Stamps,
!, Treasury Savings Certificates and
" Liberty Bonds. They do not guarsn-
: tee dividends semi-daily, except Sun
day." but they do guarantee security
against loss coupled with sure profit.
! They are always cashable for more
n than was paid for them.
y WILLIAM MATHER LEWIS,
$. Director Savings Division,
II TUoch;v,o.kn, n n