THE WORK OF THE PROMOTER 235 



intelligence the statistics of operation and construction, but 

 bej^ond this he would be unlikely to have any practical knowl- 

 edge, relying upon the judgment and estimates of reputable 

 engineers to supplement his more general information. Wil- 

 liam H. Moore, for example, who has within recent years pro- 

 moted several large steel corporations, is understood to have 

 had but little practical knowledge of the steel industry. The 

 professional promoter, and it is with him that this study is 

 chiefly concerned, in forming his judgment, relies largely upon 

 the trained judgment of experts, civil, mining, mechanical or 

 electrical engineers, lumber viewers, chemists, geologists, 

 metallurgists, machinists. These experts, whose income de- 

 pends upon their accuracy, give him the necessary technical 

 information about the proposition which he has in mind. 

 They tell him if the coal seam is regular or faulted, if the pro- 

 posed operation will be self draining or if pumping machinery 

 must be installed, if the coal is high or low in sulphur and 

 silicon, whether it will make a strong or a weak coke, or if 

 designed for steam purposes, whether it will be high or low 

 in ash. The professional promoter in the course of his busi- 

 ness, and from his association with technical experts, must 

 necessarily accumulate a great store of information, and his 

 ability to make a technical judgment should constantly in- 

 crease, but if he is in the promoting business, it is next to im- 

 possible that he should master all the sciences whose conclu- 

 sions are put at his service by the experts whom he employs, 

 and whose opinions he relies upon as an aid to convincing 

 the investor. 



Given the technical information, there remains the field 

 where the promoter must rely more largely upon his own abil- 

 ity, the financial aspect of the proposition. Will it pay? In 

 the case of a coal mining proposition, he must determine the 

 price per acre at which the land can be purchased, the rates 

 of freight which will be charged and the price which can be 

 obtained at the different markets. He must consider the 

 labor conditions of the region, the laws of the state regulating 

 the company store, the attitude of the railroads toward an 

 independent enterprise. To spend but a moment upon this 

 last point as illustrating the supreme importance of the pro- 



