i8 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Muck Rake Department. 



The International Lumber & Development 

 Company. 



riiusijerable has bieeu told iu previous 

 issr.os of the Haedwood Eecord concerning 

 the men who act as figureheads for the In- 

 ternational Lumber & Development Company. 

 It has become apparent that the people 

 who aetuallv conduct the enterprise are John 

 E. Markley, I. B. Miller and C. M. Mc- 

 Mahon. These men formerly lived for some 

 time in Chicago, and it is thus that the 

 Great and Wind^- derives the credit of send- 

 ing such a coterie of ' ' development ' ' ex- 

 perts into the wise and effete East to teacli 

 even the past masters iu financial matters 

 how to handle big game and handle it right. 



The International Lumber & Development 

 Company is one of a number of enterprises, 

 all similar, with the exception of the lumber 

 f eaturv, known as the ' ' Markley group, ' ' 

 operated by .Joliii R. Markley and I. B. 

 Millei'. Aiiotlier i.s the Mexican Plantation 

 Company of Philadelphia which has con- 

 nected with it another of the group of of- 

 ficials, C. M. JIcMalion, who acts for it 

 and the International in the capacity of 

 secretary ami treasurer. The Mexican 

 Plantation Company has paid during the six 

 years of its existence dividends amouutiug 

 to forty per cent and over, but not on the 

 sale of mahogany or other hardwoods, of 

 which it has none, but on the sale of rubber, 

 coffee, and other tropical fruits. It was 

 said by people interested in the Mexican 

 Plantation Company that there had been 

 ti:nber on the land but that it was burned 

 off to make grouud for the planting of 

 crops. Many of the stockholders in the 

 first corajiany also have shares in the Inter- 

 national. 



Markley and Miller, who are developing 

 the land for the Mexican Company, are also 

 under bond to develop the land for the 

 International Lumber & Development Com- 

 pany. Their contract extends seven years. 



Markley was formerly a lawyer in St. 

 Louis, but thinking that his talents would 

 find a fitter field in other pursuits, removed 

 to California where he became a horticul- 

 turist. About twenty years ago he went to 

 Mexico and has been interested in operations 

 in that country ever since. As far as can 

 be learned he never liad any experience as 

 a practical lumberman except in working out 

 the mahogany alleged to have been sent to 

 the United States by the International Lum- 

 ber & Development Company. A man who 

 has been intimately connected with the com- 

 pany in Philadelphia, and is in a position 

 to know the facts, was asked how Markley 

 could do so well if he had never had any 

 previous experience iu the lumber business. 

 ' ' Oh, but he is an experienced lumberman, 

 now, ' ' was the answer, leaving the applicant 

 for information to understand that the get- 

 ting out of the logs sent to this country 

 had made him a finished lumberman even 



though previously he had done no practical 

 work iu that line. 



I. B. Miller was in business in the States 

 previously to being connected with the In- 

 ternational. He now acts as purchasing 

 agent for the company, buying machinery, 

 tools, and other supplies needed on the 

 plantation. 



C. M. McMahon was formerly a real es- 

 tate operator in Chicago. He has had no 

 practical experience in the lumber business, 

 solely acting as secretary and treasurer for 

 the companies. 



"W. H. Bell, said to be for many years a 

 ri'uber expert gettiug out fancy hardwoods 

 with C. L. Willey, of Chicago, was the ex- 

 pert who estimated the amount of mahogany 

 on the ground. Bell had headquarters at 

 Laguna, State of Campeche, Mexico, and was 

 at one time U. S. consular agent at that 

 ])lace, which is in the vicinity of the Inter- 

 national's plantation. It is not known what 

 price was paid Bell for his services, but 

 he was sent as inspector to the company's 

 estate and the result of his tour of in- 

 spection was the estimate of 396,000,000 feet 

 of marketable tiaiber in sight. His method 

 was to select a stated amount of ground 

 at various points in the estate, and measuring 

 the mahogany and other woods growing 

 thereon, make a computation of the whole 

 number of feet of lumber contained on the 

 timbered land. 



The dividends paid by the International 

 Lumber & Development Company are not 

 the net earnings on the whole amount of 

 stock sold or on the capitalization — they are 

 simply the receipts from sales of timber and 

 other products applied to the money paid 

 iu in the nature of dividends. The con- 

 tract of the company in one place states 

 as follows : 



" * * * and as fast as any cabinet 

 woods or other merchantable timber and dye- 

 woods are cut and made ready for ship- 

 ment, or any chicle and rubber extracted ; 

 or horses, mules, cattle, hogs and goats, are 

 ready to be sold, the said first party (the 

 company or its. contractors) shall sell the 

 same at the highest obtainable price to the 

 best possible advantage, and all the pro- 

 ceeds derived from such sales, after deduct- 

 ing the actual and necessary expenses of 

 harvesting, curing, and marketing the said 

 crop products and cutting, shipping and 

 selling the said cabinet and other merchant- 

 able timber and dyewoods, extracting and 

 marketing the said chicle and rubber, and 

 raising and disposing of said live stock, shall 

 be promptly accounted for by any such agent 

 or contractor and forthwith paid over to 

 the said company, who shall thereupon de- 

 posit the same to the credit of said com- 

 jiany in such bank or banks of established 

 financial credit in the city of Philadelphia, 

 as they may select. ' ' 



Further on the contract of stock savs; 



"And it is further agreed that the net 

 profits derived as aforesaid from the culti- 

 vation and use of said laud, and any money 

 realized from said premises from any 

 source whatever, shall be used solely and 

 exclusivelj- for the payments of dividends 

 to be duly declared semi-aunually, upon 

 araounts due from and paid by purchasers 

 to the company * * * and no part of 

 said dividend fund shall be applied to the 

 payment of salaries and other corporate 

 expenses. ' ' 



From reliable sources connected with the 

 company it was learned that all the de- 

 velopment expenses and all the oflfiee ex- 

 penses are paid out of the receipts from the 

 sale of stocks, and that the results of any 

 sales are declared dividends on such receipts, 

 the expenses having been paid by the money 

 subscribed. 



Stocks cannot be paid up iu full, pay- 

 ments of five dollars a month only being 

 allowed, so that it takes at the least five 

 years to pay up the $300 which entitles 

 the purchaser to a certificate of stock. Dur- 

 ing these five years money keeps constantly 

 coming in as installments and is applied to 

 development expenses. 



If any default by non-payment of the 

 installments due occurs the company has the 

 right to forfeit the sum paid and consider 

 it as liquidated damages arising through 

 failure to carry out the agreement, provided 

 that no such forfeiture shall be incurred 

 until thirty days after the delinquent has 

 been notified. 



One of the solicitors was approached by a 

 Hardwood Record representative and asked 

 whether it was true dividends were being 

 paid. He strongly asserted that it was. 

 When he was confronted with the evidence 

 that the so-called dividends were not divi- 

 dends at all, but merely the application of 

 receipts from the sales of lumber to the 

 siuns paid in without deducting the running 

 expenses, and that therefore the assertion 

 that dividends were paid was unfair, he re- 

 plied, "No, it isn't. We pay dividends on 

 the sum of money paid in. If you pa}' us 

 $300, we pay you dividends on it. We never 

 claimed to pay dividends on the whole sum 

 of money invested, or on the total capitaliza- 

 tion, but only on the amount of installments 

 turned into the company 's treasury. ' ' When 

 asked if he believed that the company could 

 really carry through successfully such a 

 scheme of not applying the results of sales 

 to the liquidation of office expenses and 

 other necessary outlays, he launched forth 

 into such a description of future wealth as 

 would make the El Dorado dreams of the 

 Spanish conquistadores pale away into noth- 

 ingness. 



The operations of this company will be 

 of interest for some time to come from the 

 fact that 200,000 acres of the 288,000 are 

 said to be timbered with mahoganv and other 



