to DIVIDENDS to pay us back our PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST also. When
the mine is done, our principal is gone. But how many mining
investors ever thought of that? And how many, when offered a ten
per cent. "guaranteed dividend" for five years on their money,
ever stop to reflect that, for instance, I could take your money
and put it in a cracker box, and myself make money by paying it
back to you, ten per cent. a year for nine years--and then
explaining what had happened to the cracker box! Now, most of us
are just such cracker-box investors. We pay out millions and
millions annually, just that foolishly. And our nation, our
states, allow us to do it. They even--as recent legal proceedings
prove--allow the "inside" operating stockholders to borrow money
to pay dividends to the "outsiders." That keeps up the "values"
in the market. It does not enhance the real value in the mine.


ENGLISH VS. AMERICAN MINE REPORTS

Again, granted even a valid and a well-managed mine, how much
information regarding it does the average investor in the stock
secure? In a general way, he knows in advance that all mining,
whether placer or quartz, is very expensive. Beyond that, he gets
the annual report of the officers, which will tell perhaps the
names of the men who are spending his money, the total earnings,
the total output, the balance sheet, the statement of capital
stock issued--and little else. All of which means nothing!

A well-regulated English company is obliged to go much farther
than this. A good annual report will show the advertisement of
the general meeting of stockholders, the list of directors and