Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
July,  1917. 
Investment  in  Mines. 
321 
formed  buying  is  no  competition  to  the  careful  business  man ;  but  on 
the  contrary  it  often  gives  him  an  opportunity  to  secure  bargains 
which  he  would  not  be  able  to  get  if  other  buyers  were  not  wasting 
their  money  on  trash.  The  purchaser  of  a  mine  or  of  mining  stock, 
who  purchases  without  knowledge  or  competent  and  independent 
advice,  is  not  a  formidable  competitor  to  the  man  who  knows  thor- 
oughly what  he  is  purchasing.  In  spite  of  the  wails  and  protests  of 
those  who  have  lost  money  by  buying  pieces  of  paper  which  they 
were  gullible  enough  to  believe  would  soon  represent  wealth  to  be 
derived  from  new  mines,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  at  the 
present  time  investments  in  mines,  if  made  intelligently  and  on  com- 
petent and  independent  advice,  will  yield  larger  and  more  certain 
returns  than  investment  in  any  other  class  of  securities  on  the  market. 
There  may  be  some  timid  mining  engineers  who  will  say  that 
they  do  not  invest  any  money  that  they  may  possess  in  mining  se- 
curities. Such  engineers  must  be  avoided  as  financial  advisers.  If 
they  have  not  sufficient  confidence  in  their  knowledge  and  ability  to 
separate  good  mines  from  bad  ones,  and  to  stake  their  own  money 
on  that  knowledge,  you  may  take  it  for  granted  that  they  are  not 
capable  of  judging  of  the  value  of  mines  in  which  others  should  in- 
vest. But  there  are  engineers  who  make  a  study  of  the  value  of 
mines,  and  who  are  not  afraid  to  put  their  money  into  them.  The 
advice  of  such  men  will  usually  lead  to  successful  investments.  It 
may  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  vagaries  of  the  stock  market,  and 
it  is  rarely  that  a  purchaser  will  buy  on  such  advice  stock  which  is 
selling  at  $2.00  to-day  and  which  will  be  selling  at  $4.00  to-morrow, 
but  he  will  buy  stock  in  mines  which  have  intelligent,  honest  di- 
rectors, are  well  managed,  have  large  ore  reserves,  and  are  certain 
to  pay  good  dividends  for  years  to  come. 
If  the  capitalist  has  money  to  spare,  and  wishes  to  take  long 
chances  in  the  hope  of  larger  returns,  he  may  be  directed  to  buy 
stock  or  interests  in  mining  properties  in  their  early  stages  of  de- 
velopment which  have  good  prospects  of  becoming  dividend  payers, 
and  be  will  be  directed  to  avoid  the  many  properties,  no  matter  how 
glaringly  advertised,  which  have  no  such  prospects.  In  the  case  of 
such  speculative  purchases  no  advising  engineer  of  any  reputation  or 
standing  will  guarantee  success,  but  he  will  increase  the  chances  of 
success  manyfold. 
Such  speculative  purchases  are  the  ones  usually  thought  of  when 
men  talk  about  "  putting  their  money  into  mines,"  and  the  successes 
