Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1908 — WILDCAT MINING SCHEMES [ARTICLE]

WILDCAT MINING SCHEMES

Methods Less Dangerous and More Profitable ar Present MINES ARE WORTHLESS Cheapest Form of Stock Gambling— If Property Should Prove Valuable the Crook Relocate* i«—Promoters Strfve to Retpia a Controlling he interest in their Corporations. Immediately after the discovery of a new gold camp Tbe coining stock : swindlers get the busiest. For a few hundred dollar* tit shark can buy or locate in the vicinity of the new camp shreds sod patches of ground that have no present or prospective value as raloe*. A mining corporation, with so attractive name and a million or iwo of capitalisation, is formed. A few friends are called in and' a set of oflP-ers and directors is selected. 'l'hev at once negotiate a deal whereby sli or nearly all of the stock is utroed over to the owners of the claim lo payment for it. Then whatever stock of the company has been issued l« owned by the promoters, while ijhe company has the claims. If toe latter cost $ 1,000 and ther eiock Urtoed, 2,000,- j 000 shares, fs sold as so average of five cents the clean up is close to SIOO,OOO. ; . All of this, howeyet-. la ooi velvet. Tbpre must be e*peo*i»Hy fined up offices, a corps qf clerk* and, stenographers, adyertfsios expsoaea and various Uttle detail* lo- be rpvereti., All of which cost money. The whole object df tbe campaign' is o get rid df the stock quickly. a ‘/ear Is the usual limit. . There are many legitimate mining brokers but there at* liarpies In abundance also. Jr la difficult, save through experience or pievious.careful inquiries, to dtetf the real mining broker from rh» aham. The latter is a close imitator He, too, controls some broket*** or financial company, and be. too advertises hts sole business s« b- handling of sound stocks of p»o**d »alue. Ofttimes a group of ib**e abarks will organize a half dp*** companies. One is thus able to giiat a me# to Inquirers the solvency or rbe l»gi'iaiacy of another, and by freely com mending one another’s proposition* h»lp to swell the number of sna-ker*. Many of these tnioe* ate located In territory that baa been prospected and found to be practically worthless. Any one cam ride out, put up a notice saying ibai he £ia* discovered the "Little Monarch." that be claims 150 by 1,500 feet in* a--northerly direction, that he claim* aixty days in which to do loe a**e*«ment work and thirty days le which so file notice with the Co-tjjty <!l*rk or R*-_ corder. In a few hour* be can stake off half a dozer* claims, and within sixty days he cuo »<*• a hole put in each one for SJS. . If be is Impecuoiou* oe may go to a friend and tell him rbat if be will put up enough tuooey for the floating of the corooratioo he will make him president aoci gi'e him half of tbe promotion stock. Half of capitsUlzatfon wilt be uuen as pay for the promotion a«id the remainder is sold as the tvea*»•( *■ atock.

Another plan of displays remarkable fio»nci«l ingenuity. A, shark will go two a din'( let and get an option on » p4e«-e of worthless ground for a fe-w hood red doTlari. He organizes » compsoy. but aa a guarantee of solid(rv * a n ounces that it will be incOrDOi steij ooly when the sale of the ct■:>••** t>«* o»t*n assured. As the head of in jioooand mining company he make* * coo tract with the brokerage comn*ay la which be Is also imercsled. by the latter gets 60 or TO per «"oi. commission for selling the trea.iuy nock. After the work cense* oo tbs jopatented ground, the claim ,-<*'•»■ m o the Government sod is oi>»o tor relocation by the first comsi *n*i January 1 following. If if should happen that one of the claim* lo<-*i»d by these sharks shows todi<-«>loo of giving good returns to ore »iK*isinent work will be abandoned sad the claim quietly refocated by to* shark himself. Instances b»*e b-*a known al&> where small dlrid-od* hive been declared and paid out of me money received for the sals of »<o<-k. This often proves a good lnv»#'<uent for the promoter, sines the re* eloi of a dividend t* likely •<£ ••#'•»* a good demand. Promoters al »*»* »*u»* to retain for a time a cootolMoj interest in their corporal lou*. This Is done through the remoilou of the promotion slock, usuallyuslf of the amount Issued, if the prospeef s developed and proves a u**iny on* it la dooe upon the mousy fm.iished by the purchasers of !b« ne»*nry stock, but the promoters f < so yaual dividend upon stock th*i cos' itiviu ooly tbe preliminary expanse. If It proves n failure, the pion>o<*i. >be man oo the Inside, ha* <hs • #»•<•* to unload bin atork hefors ih« o ibllc hears of the Axsling ou l . PMiidstpbl* Record.