San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-08-09

leases IN several lleluS ana garry
out an extensive drilling campaign.
The oil was there; saw no reason
why we should not strike il by a
really thorough drilling programme.
We eventually sold a good deal
of stock and added much property
to our holdings by merging weak
and defunct companies which yet
had some valuable land or produc-
ton.
To market our shares and raise
the large sums required for our
programme we advertised extern
sively. Naturally, when one has
something for sale, he seeks to
present it in the most favorable
light compatible with fair dealing.
The clothing merchant advertises
his garments with pictures which
look better than the clothes will
on the body of the buyer; the au-
tomobile salesman tells his pro-
spective customers the best points
of the car he is working to sell.
So in offering stock of the Pc
troleum Producers Association to
the investors we stressed the posi-
bilities for great profit in the
stock, rather than dwelt on the
misfortunes that might fall upon
our operations and reduce the
value of our shares.
Prospects were bright for big
earnings in the Spring of 1923.
We had producing wells and We're
drilling others in good territory.
felt that the company was surely
established on the way to prosper
ity.
Then fell the stunning blow that
wrecked me financially, broke up
my company and flung me at last
into a prison cell. Federal postal
detectives investigated our stock
selling methods, and charged me
with making fraudulent Use If the
mails. An indictment was re-
turned in Federal Court at Fort
Worth, with twenty-three men be-
sides myself named as defendants.
Few of them were in any way "e-
sponsible for the company's opera
tions. -,
Inevitably following the indict-
ment and trial came a recelvershlp
for the company, fight as | did to
stave off this ruinous proceeding
IL is well nigh a certainty that no
assets ever are left from an oil
company receivership, after the
receiver and the lawyers have
taken out their fees and the costs
of litigation have been paid.
Of the company's many proper,
ties its assets of equipment and
production, not a penny was saved
for the stockholders from the re-
ownership wreck. l personally lost
$4,000 cash | had put into the
business, nor had | ever drawn
dollar of salary or commission
from stock sales, though as sole
trustee ! was entitled to COM
mission on all stock sold.
Never, in the indictment or the
trial, did the Government charge
that any one connected with the
company had Incorporated or
converted to his own use any OF
the money accruing through stock
sales or otherwise. The Govern
ment auditor checked our books
and found them hawless.
Firm in the belief that / had
committed no crime, ] refused to
plead guilty to the mail fraud
charge and accept light sentence.
Instead, paid the last of my di-
minished fortune to employ coun-
sci for a fight to the bitter end.
When the last witness had been
excused, the last argument con-
cluded, the Courts charge deliver
ed, the liberty and regulations, the
future of myself and those of my
associates who had fought to the
end were given into the custody Of
the twelve jurymen. ! was re-
signed by this time to expect a
verdict Of guilty, so the strain OF
the overnight wait for the jury's
report was not extreme. | slept,
though fitfully, that night, for the
last time a free man. Half waking,
l reviewed my career in vivid
dreams. saw the flag and the
snow hut at the Pole, the Haunting
mirages under the spiralling sun
the tall cliffs of Cape Sparbo, the
muskox lunging against the seal.
skin moose, the walrus sprawled on
the drifting pans.
Always in times of stress my
thoughts and my dreams revert to
the Arctic. ! am marked with the
memories of that terrible, wonder,
full, alluring Kingdom of the Frost
On the next day ! went to the
courtroom and heard the jury pro,
nounce the expected verdict; heard
the Court denounce me and sen,
tcnce me to fourteen years anC
nine months in prison. That night
and nearly five hundred others tC
follow | spent in the Fort Worth
Jail.
Friends rallied to me, in person
and by message, when the news Of
my conviction and sentence wa!
blazoned on the newspaper front
pages all over the nation. FIX
pressions of faith and sympathy
offers of material help, came to mt
from the length and breadth o.
America and beyond the seas, anC
meanwhile | appealed the verdict
Two months later, the Appellate
Court handed down its decision
My conviction and sentence were af
frmed. Hope died to a puny spark