The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1921-07-19
SHOULD NOT EXPLOIT
. OIL SHA[E BUSINESS
Continued from Page One)


doing It as a business man should.
He is brave in investing great
amounts In experimentation; and ul-
timately he will reap his reward.
The editor of the independent
when advising that writing men
should have first-hand knowledge of
what they are talking about men
lions paraffin as a product of shale
oil. Your correspondent can tell him
first hand that pure paraffin, In
chunks and balls. may be found in the
sands eighty miles north OF Elko, and
probably at other places. If Hale
will look over the Elko county records
| believe he will find that lands have
been located in about that locality as
shale lands. The shale talk reminded
one of Divide mines.
Nevada has been all but ruined by
one-cylinder publicity men and wild
cat miners. The monument to fail
ure which stands on S. p. section 10
near Elko. is but one in hundreds.
Nevada's black eye is chronic. Men
come to the state to look up the
shale business" and find there is
none. They come as the tenderfoot
comes to look for silver mines, ex-
pecting to find silver In chunks. The
fairy tales have gone to their heads
until they believe. as they have been
definitely told. that oil shale grounds
may be located, and the shale scooped
up by steam shovels and converted
into valuable oil.
Men come to Nevada to go into the
ranching business, into the business
of making paper from free sagebrush
into every imaginable sort of mining
eating projects-because they are
told how easy II is by people who
do not know what they are talking
about. They go away to denounct
Nevada the remainder of their natur-
al lives.
This sort of credulity is blame
worthy, to he sure, and perhaps de
serves no sympathy. But that doesn'i
hinder Nevada getting the worst of II
dozen men. perhaps. among the
most capable mine promoters your
,orres pOndent has known have tolc
him stories about approaching East
ern capitalists with really meritori
Gus propositions, only TO be met by
the rebuff, you may talk anything
to me except Nevada"
Elko and Denver newspapers have
made Wild claims about shale oil, and
this publicity has made easy shedding
for INSCRIPTIONS promoters of stock.
selling schemes. Hundreds OF people
have been stung. Your correspondent
has been in an elaborate suite of of
fees. with splendid stock selling lit
erature Astounding, and an exhibi
room as big as an ordinary drue
store, containing hundreds of labeled
bottles. showing shale oil lubricants
illuminants, fuels, and perfumes, al
bearing certificates OF Detroit, Phila
delphia, and St Louis laboratories
They were genuine exhibits. And the
visitor was assured that a small in.
vestment In the So-and-So Shale Oh
Company would assure a fortune fol
him within few years. Real hand
some certificates were offered In re
ceipt for the investment, too.
John Catlin. and DIR. Bonner. ant
the United States Bureau OF Mines
and your correspondent. and lots Of
other people. know that the yer,
worst stumbling block to be placed
In the pathway Of oil-shale advance
ment Is the promoter of swindlinf
stock-selling schemes. Good men de
sire to keep the genus rascal out O
the business. A few thousand O
United States citizens fleeced are {
great deterrent to any new industry
Mormons in Utah distilled crud,
oil from shale fifty years ago. II wa.
useful to them in a certain way. Blu
you don't see any Of them in the shall,
oil business. and I doubt II any O.
their rooms are papered with pretty
stock certificates. Pointing will
pride to crude oil. or paraffin, or any
refined products of oil shale Is Xix,
indicating the dump piles in front o.
countless abandoned mines as proof.
of profitable business. And that /.
not knocking silver or shale.
c. D. AYRES.