Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1930-12-11

and successful industries. Mining is
no exception.
Opportunities are found. Promoters
and organizers lay out the plans for
public financing. Every one Of them
starts from a small beginning. Some
body has to start every one of them.
Strange as it may seem, there are more
failures in every other line than there
are inSmining, yet it is easier to inter-
est people in other lines Market touts,
ad tipsters, prey upon the public with
the words stable industries and
sterling securities" but no security is
stable in any business unless and until
it is made so. The line doesn't make
it stable.
Sale Resistance.
When mining promoter under
takes to aggregate number Of small
investments into a fund to explore,
develop and equip a mining PROPOSE
ron, he steps into an atmosphere of
sales resistance greater than exists
in any other field of activity.
That atmosphere permeates into the
minds of every stock buyer. Mining is
called risky" hence the promoter
himself will use the argument that the
buyer should take a chance and
often says its good gamble BY,
this very attitude of the promoter he,
is appealing to the gambling in
stincts" instead of to the investment
judgment" of the buyer, even when he
is making an honest effort to finance
mineral deposit as an industry for
moving body of ore from the place
where nature put it to place where
mankind can use it.
This is an admission Of risk Ii
leaves the door open for any old kind
of an unworthy mining promotion to
use the same appeal-"take a chance
1t draws no distinction between fl
nancing for equipment and market
gambling or risky speculations.
Is Mining So Risky?
Is mining really any more risky than
other industries that start with public
capital?
Mining has the risk of qualifications,
experience, management, and integrity
in the personnel, but so has every
bank, factory, power company, bus
line, railroad, and mercantile business,
Dishonesty, inexperience and incom-
potency can wreck any Of them. Min
ing has one more risk-the risk with
which nature has surrounded 1.-THE
quantity and quality Of the ore
All other business has the risk Of
competition, public patronage, hard
times, supply and demand, location,
fashion and fads, and markets as con-
ditions change. Gold mining has none
of those risks. The risk Of earthquakes,
fires and floods can be protected by
insurance, in mining as well as in any
other industry. Of course, there are i'm
provements in methods that continually
affect all industries, mining included.
Some industries can produce power,
automobiles, collar buttons or other
commodities cheaper than their COM
petitors. So can some mines produce
ore at lower cost per ton than others,
but that is problem in qualifications
and equipment in both mining and in
dustry.
It's Merely Moving Job.
Mining is moving job, not unlike
digging a cellar, running a railroad
tunnel, or building a subway Quail
fications and equipment for moving
the ore or rock at the lowest cost per
ton are practically alike in all three
of these jobs. There is no more risk
in one than the other If we'd try to
run railroad tunnel, or build sub
way, with a wheelbarrow and couple
OF men, it would be an expensive and
long drawn out job; SO it is with min
ing. 1t is question of pre- uaiifica-
ton and equipment.
Equipment requires finance to pur-
chase and install upon the job, hence
the necessity for aggregating capital.
The better the qualifications and
equipment, the lower the cost per ton
for moving.
What is there about moving ore ton
mage that is more risky than NOV
ing the rock tonnage of highway, a
railroad tunnel or subway? All are
merely engineering jobs, requiring
qualifications and equipment Why
should 1t be any more difficult to fl
nance one than the other2
This Is the Difference.
There is one difference. In mining
the return of the cost must come out