Conservative investors who are satisfied with from three to six per
cent. on their money do not buy mines or mining stocks. Speculators
(gamblers) who are willing to risk part of their fortune in the hope of
gaining fivefold or more in a year or a few years--these are the kind
who invest in mines and mining stocks.
There are legions of these. Not less than 500,000 men and women in the
United States, according to the best statistical information
obtainable, are stockholders of mining companies.
In fact, the gambling instinct finds employment in the mining industry
long before a property has reached the stage where it can be classed as
even a prospect worthy of exploration. The prospector who follows his
burro into the mountain fastnesses or across the desert wastes often
gambles his very life against the success of his search; those who
grub-stake him gamble their money.
The gambling instinct seems bound to continue to play an important rôle
in the mining industry for all time, or until either the
fortune-hunting instincts of man are eradicated or all the treasures of
the world shall have been mined.
Now, if the practice of catering to the gambling instinct is baneful,
I'm a malefactor. So, too, would then be such lofty-pinnacled
financiers as Messrs. Rothschild, Rockefeller, Morgan, the Guggenheims
and others. My own thought is that it is _custom_ and the times
which are responsible for the maintenance of the great game, and not
individuals.
The truth is, we are a race of gamblers and _we allow the captains of
industry to deal the game for us_.
Next to money and political power, publicity is recognized by all
"doers" as the most powerful lever to accomplish big things. Not
infrequently publicity will accomplish what neither money nor political
power can. Generally, publicity can be secured and controlled by either
money or political power.
When Rawhide was born I had neither money nor political power. The camp
needed publicity. I had nothing to secure publicity with but my wit. I
promptly requisitioned what wit I had, and used all of it.
There is an important difference between owning a series of excellent
gold-mine prospects, which have tremendous speculative possibilities,
and the public recognizing them to be such. It is one thing for a
manufacturer to be himself assured that his article is a better product
for the money than that of his competitor. It is another thing for the
consumer to be convinced. Therein lies the value of organized
publicity.
To focus the attention of the great American investing public on the
camp of Rawhide was the proposition before me. How was this to be
accomplished? Display advertising in the newspapers is costly and
requires large capital; the purchase of reading notices in publications
which accept that class of business, even more so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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