THE CALL OF THE LAND 



judgment that it is, at the very least, no 

 swindle. 



Reckless, riotous over-capitalization by 

 famous promoters and underwriters in a 

 few notorious cases aired since 1900 has 

 done more than all other causes in America 

 to smirch the whole business of promoting, 

 to make people feel that the only good 

 promoter is the dead one. 



T. W. Lawson, in Everybody's Magazine 

 for August, 1904, declares that the Amalga- 

 mated Copper Company has "been respon- 

 sible for more hell than any other trust or 

 financial thing since the world began." Its 

 1,550,000 shares, par $100, averaged to sell, 

 he says, at $115, /. e., at $15 apiece above 

 par. In 1903 the price had declined to 

 $33. On the other hand, a good clear case 

 of legitimate promoting is that of Coppers, 

 related by Lawson in Chapter VIII of 

 "Frenzied Finance." 



Mr. E. S. Meade (p. 375) has shown that 

 this frenzied finance of over-capitalization 

 might have been prevented by proper 

 national legislation, forbidding any inter- 



268 



