Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1920 — OIL WILDCATTING AS A FINE ART [ARTICLE]

OIL WILDCATTING AS A FINE ART

How the Swindler Plays tha Game in Texas. LAW CANNOT REACH THEM “Blue Bky“ Legislation Fails to Provide Way of Bringing Offenders to Justice—With an Initial Capital of 25,000 Many Easily Make Profit of SIOO,OOO to 1200,000 Within a Few Months. Notwithstanding the accumulating evidence that systematic oil well swindles are being perpetrated on an extensive scale In Texas, no way has as yet been discovered for bringing offenders within the reaches of the law. It has been found that the so-called “blue-sky" law of Texas is practically worthless, so far as preventing the organization of irresponsible oil companies and the sale of stock which has no value. It Is In the wildcat well-drilling game that the biggest swindles are pulled off. It has been proved time after time that it Is possible for a man or set of men with an Initial capital of $25,000 to easily make a profit of SIOO,OOO to $200,000 within a period of a few months at the game of drilling wells in wildcat territory. The money In most Instances comes from the peopie of the community In which the fake well is drilled. There is hardly a county in Texas that has not been the scene of one or more well-drilling operations of this kind. Of course, there are a great many legitimate companies that are drilling or have drilled wildcat wells, and In many Instances these holes have had to be abandoned, for one reason or another, before they were completed. It is the professional swindler of whom the land owners and people generally are beginning to complain loudly. Enormous blocks ol stocks of these swindling companies have been sold to people outside M Texas. '

How It I* Worked. J. O. Burkett of Taylor county de scribes bow the wildcat oil well me# operate: “All at once there will appear upor the streets of the town two or three strangers, and in a few days they will let It out in some way that they an making investigations to know if there are men in the section who will lease their land for oil purposes. They wall about among the farmers and ranchmen and- soon secure 15,000 or 20,Q0< acres for a dollar an acre or less. “Then they send for an 'expert' geologist to go over the land and locate t place to put in a well. He make* an eTsmtnstton and gives a favorable report. In a short time a man is employed to put down a well, and in I few weeks the derrick is put up, anc the owners of the leases begin to make arrangements to sell leases at higt prlrea After the well Is down 300 <N 400 feet, the owners of the leases make it known that the ‘log’ of the well it first class —just like the wells ai Ranger, Caddo, or some other oil field This creates a little more excitement and some of the leases that cost M cents or a dollar now sell for $5 or $H per acre. But the greatest excitemeni haw not come yet Wait until they gc down about 1,500 feet and then sei what will take since. “All at once the report goes out like wildfire over the town and the coun try where the well is located that thej have struck a ‘showing of gas,’ anc the excitement runs a little hlghei and leases go up again. “If you are not careful a bit wil get hung about this time, but it maj be a little later on. Then Comes the Cleanup.

"When they get down about 100 few farther, then the thing comes off jusl right; they strike a showing of oil By this time the oil dealers are wilt with excitement and the leases go uj again. “Now they get ready and put a guart about the well and allow no one except some oil ‘expert’ to go about it Soon afterward a bit gets hung 01 a casing is pulled apart, and there if a six-weeks’ delay, and during this de lay the owners get busy and sell at several thousand dollars per acre neai the well. “Just as soon as the excitement be gins to die down they send out a re port that the bit Is hung and It is impossible to pull it, and they take down the derrick and leave the country with a fine bag of money and the commo nity In wonder as to why they did no< get more than a ‘showing* of oil." The fakers got just what they weni after—the people’s money, and when they got that they pulled up and left Once in a hundred times itmay be that such men really find oil and the neighbors make money, but In moat cases the well is a fake and poor men and women are stripped of their ' ■ ■ - ‘