Arizona republican., 1920-07-02
EDITORIAL
OILS WELL THAT ENDS WELL
c. G. H.. Editor


 You know how it goes in movies. A pair of crooks get the inside track with the old couple garner Maw's and Paws savings of a life time and leave the old folks nothing but the story to tell to the desk sergeant.
 But here's a little fiction along that line, having it's setting right here in Phoenix. And while it is fact and not fiction. we call it fiction because we'll just because.
 They Have Wealth
 The old couple-whose names, of course. we are not at liberty to give by dint of hard work and judicious investments extending over years and years, had accumulated property. Quite a valuable piece of property, whose present value is easily around $150, ,000, Then there was a little money in the bank with probably a parcel or two of other property around town of com paratively inconsequential value.
 Enter now the two crooks, who, by means always available to their ilk, get acquainted with the old couple. Pretty smooth articles, these birds. No spill ing of the beans by precipitous invi- tations to the old man to buy his limit in some of their oil stocks. No. They got the old mans interest aroused and eventually permitted him to invest about a couple of hundred in com pany that gave every promise of be- ing a producing concern. And then they went away.
 Wait! Wait!
 "The poor fish." you exclaim as the train carrying the stock salesmen slides over the horizon But wait. Wait just a month. and To! and be- hold, the mail brings the old couple their first dividend on their invest ment. dividend amounting to near ly half of their investment. The com pany had struck oil and the faithful were receiving their just rewards.
 Another month brought another such dividend. only this time a. little larger. The company was doing better These oil stock salesmen were nc crooks. Still another month bringing another dividend proved that.
 Welcome Home
 And then one morning the salesmen returned and called on the old couple They received a hearty welcome which increased in warmth as they re- counted the healthy growth of the company and complimented the old man on his business sagacity in buy ing oil stocks. Having seen evidence of his business acumen. they now took the liberty of inviting him to make 2 real plunge in the oil promotion field They represented a company just form ing. that had options on oil land that gave every evidence of doing even bet 
 the company from which the old man was drawing these handsome divi- dends.
 Would the old gentleman wish to take the plunge? Well. he would, but he had no ready cash-only some busi- ness property. That was too bad. The new company needed the cash. And the pair of oil men departed leav- ing the old man in a wistful frame oi mind over the new oil company. A few days and the oily pair returned and reopened negotiations.
 To make it brief they finally con- descended to take the old couple: block of real estate in exchange foi considerable block of their oil stock
 Off With the Loot
 They left town again But this time they took with them the greater DOT tion of the $15O,000 they had realized on the old couples property. And the old couple, after these years O scratching and saving, have q block o oil stock in a company whose ability tC produce is decidedly questionable.
 In the movies. of course, it would turn out that the fake company, il it's efforts to make a showing woult set up a drilling rig on their ground miles from any oil producing stuff only to have a vast column of oil com,