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HARDWOOD RECORD 



Under the title "The Price of Success" the following is a speci- 

 men of the literature with which an alleged lumber company in 

 Philadelphia is circularizing the country, seeking to induce invest- 

 ments in its enterprise. This particularly alluring article is said to 

 be a quotation from the Journal of Commerce of Philadelphia: 



It is little wonder, in view of the unprecedented success 

 which has been merited to the International Lumber & Devel- 

 opment Company, with home offices in this city, that there 

 should be awakened, In competitive circles, more or less 

 adverse criticism of the corporation. At this time when 

 lumber is higher than it has ever been it is but natural 

 that an individual company which, through its business en- 

 terprise, can profit by marketing lumber at lower than 

 market rates, should thereby invite the disapproval of its 

 rivals. 



It is undeniably true that the immense wealth lying un- 

 developed, or partially so, in the hemp and lumber districts 

 of southern Mexico and Yucatan has brought into the field 

 many unscrupulous development concerns. The government 

 of Mexico, one of the most conservative in the world and 

 the most enterprising in protecting its people against fraud 

 of all kinds, recently inaugurated a thorough investigation 

 into those companies (many of which were capitalized in 

 this country) which were conducting or pretending to con- 

 duct their business within the nation below the Rio Grande. 

 The action of the International Lumber & Development Com- 

 pany during this crisis in Mexican financial history at once 

 marks it as a thoroughly trustworthy concern. Despite the 

 fact that its holdings were in Yucatan, beyond the Mexican 

 borders, it courted governmental investigation, and the result 

 of the inquiry into its affairs by the Mexican experts by far 

 exceeded the most sanguine hopes of all concerned. It was 

 shown that the company rather than overestimating its re- 

 sources had placed an undervalue upon them. It was shown 

 that the company was operating upon a perfected system ; 

 that its 283,000 acres were divided into departments each 

 under a competent head ; that It is dealing in lumber, cattle, 

 horses, mules and goats, rubber, coffee, cocoa, bananas and 

 other tropical fruits and vegetables ; that its charter is con- 

 structed upon the safest and broadest lines. 



One of the most interesting commodities which the com- 

 pany raises and markets is a plant of the cactus family, 

 known as Ilenequin (Mex. Jenlquen) or Sisal hemp, from 

 which rope and matting is made. This is one of the most 

 Important products of Mexico and Central America. The 

 total export of this product from the town of Progreso 

 between the years 1880 and 1892 amounted in money value 

 to ?187,n37,955. In Merida, the capital of Y'ucatan, there 

 are forty-two millionaires to a population of 85,000. Sisal 

 hemp has produced this wealth. The International Lumber 

 & Development Company has just planted 1.200,000 plants 

 of this millionaire maker, and are about to plant seven 

 million more. 



The income from this source alone will be far more than 

 is necessary to pay the guaranteed eight per cent to every 

 stockholder of the company. Meanwhile other sources of 

 income are being developed with careful haste. 



The company is capitalized at six million dollars, which is 

 divided into twenty thousand shares, limited and non- 

 assessable, with par at three hundred dollars. 



Mr. C. M. McMahon, upon whom much of the executive 

 work has developed, has proved himself a man of exceptional 

 capabilities. During his incumbency of the secretary-treas- 

 urership he has won a host of friends in this city, meriting a 

 greater measure of their confidence with each new move he 

 has made tending toward the advancement of the company. 



Mr. John R. Markley, active manager, and Mr. I. B. 

 Miller, his associate, have each had an extended experience ' 

 in the work which they have undertaken to carry Into 

 successful issue for the International Company. They have 

 won new laurels for themselves since this concern was in- 

 corporated. They have set about their work with a deter- 

 mination that would not be daunted by obstacles, and in 

 consequence the stockholders of the company are reaping 

 rich rewards. 



The president of the company, Mr. William H. Armstrong, 

 Is known throughout the entire country as one of the most 

 capable railroad commissioners the United States has yet 

 produced. Vice president Col. Alexander K. McClure is so 

 universally recognized as one of the greatest journalists of 

 the present century as to need no further comment in these 

 columns. 



Associated with these gentlemen upon the board of direc- 

 tors of the company may be found the names of such well- 

 known merchants, financiers and professional m«n as Mr. 



H. A. Merrill, president of the City National Bank of Mason 

 City, Iowa ; Judge John B. Barnes of the supreme court of 

 Nebraska : Mr. Victor du Pont of the du Pont Powder 

 Works of Wilmington, Del., and Mr. McMahon, of whom 

 reference has been made in a previous paragraph. 



Under date of May 25 last the International Lumber & Develop- 

 ment Company issued the following circular letter, addressed to its 

 representatives : 



This will nutify you that on July 31, 1006. our books will 

 be closed for receipt of money on which an extra two per 

 cent dividend will be paid to the stockholders of this com- 

 pany. 



This dividend is independent of the regular guarantee of 

 eight per cent per annum, payable April 1 and October 1 of 

 each year. 



This dividend will be paid from our rapidly increasing 

 profits realized from the sale of our mahogany, Spanish 

 cedar lumber and veneers ; profits from our four merchandis- 

 ing stores on our land: sale of tropical products, etc. 



We are pleased to announce the rapidly increasing sale 

 of our shares. At the close of business tonight we have 

 3,957 individual stockholders upon our books, who have pur- 

 chased from one to 310 shares each, and the number is 

 increasing rapidly. 



We earnestly recommend that you push the sale of our 

 stock rapidly, so that you will be able to get your share of 

 the business before our books are closed for the sale of our 

 capital stock. Every day is valuable to an active and suc- 

 cessful representative of this coiipany. Yours very truly, 



I.VTERXATIOXAI, LUMBER & DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, 



Per C. M. McMahon, Treasurer. 



Evidence constituting proof has been presented in recent numbers 

 of the Hardwood Record showing that the representation made by 

 the International Lumber & Development Company that it earned 

 twelve per c.ent dividends between April 1, 1905, and Jan. 31, 1906, 

 from the sale of mahogany lumber, was a commercial impossibility. 

 What the company may have earned from its dealings in "cattle, 

 horses, mules, goats . . . and other tropical fruits and vege- 

 tables'" is unknown to the Hardwood Record and none of its busi- 

 ness. It simply wishes to reiterate the statement that the publicly 

 promulgated representations made by this company, in regard to 

 its profits ou mahogany lumber, by means of which it attempts to 

 induce investments in its enterprise, lack not only probability but 

 possibility. 



Apropos of the foregoing, it will be pertinent to quote a para- 

 graph from a letter printed a few days ago in the New Orleans 

 Times-Democrat, addressed to Col. Thos. T. Wright of Nashville, 

 and written by Col. A. K. ilcdure, vice president of the Interna- 

 tional Lumber & Development Company. The letter is a glittering 

 panegyric on the south country, and is of such character as to war- 

 rant a eulogistic editorial by the New Orleans newspaper. However, 

 the paragraph of the letter which is pertinent to this article is the 

 following: 



We are now living in a floodtide of conflicting currents 

 reaching into all speculative channels, and the temptation 

 is great on the one hand to be engulfed in speculative 

 schemes and on the other hand fall into the slimy embrace of 

 socialism, that is simply the vestibule of anarchy. You 

 have hundreds of thousands of brave, earnest and energetic 

 young men who are to meet these new conditions, and the 

 natural tendency will be to make a hasty escape from the 

 exactions of poverty to the delusive promises of speedy 

 wealth. Let them avoid both, as they would avoid the pesti- 

 lence, for only by legitimate industrial and commercial prog- 

 ress can substantial wealth be obtained. 



Look on this picture and then on that! What can be thought of 

 a man, or of an institution for which he acts as figure-head, that 

 will make the representations vouchsafed by the International Lum- 

 ber & Development Company, and then utter the platitude that is 

 involved in the paragraph last quoted? It is up to the public to 

 decide ! 



