Follows a tabulated statement of the expense item. The figures are approximated. The books of the corporation, which are now in the possession of the Department of Justice of the United States Government, will probably show that the annual expense was larger. The books not being readily available, an attempt is made here to be ultra-conservative in setting down figures:
ANNUAL EXPENSE OF B. H. SCHEFTELS & COMPANY
| Establishment of main office and six branch offices(furniture, fixtures, etc.) | $ | 40,000 |
| Office rentals | 35,000 | |
| Private wire system connecting branch offices insix cities with New York | 25,000 | |
| Telephones | 5,000 | |
| Telegraph tolls | 100,000 | |
| Salaries (all offices) | 200,000 | |
| Daily and Weekly Market Letter (printing andpostage) | 100,000 | |
| General office expense, etc. | 100,000 | |
| Miscellaneous postage | 25,000 | |
| Miscellaneous printing and stationery | 25,000 | |
| Advertising, publicity, etc. | 200,000 | |
| Expert accountants | 15,000 | |
| Commissions and salaries to Curb brokers | 50,000 | |
| Mining examinations, engineers' fees, legal fees,etc. | 50,000 | |
| Interest charges | 30,000 | |
| Total | $ | 1,000,000 |
Before the Scheftels corporation was in business a month it became plain that it was "filling a long-felt want." In almost every branch it was performing some function in a manner more satisfactory to mining-stock speculators and investors than were its competitors.
Its Market Letter news service, usually 16 pages, was the prime article. It soon gained a circulation of 34,000 among the highest class and best informed stockholders of mining companies in the country. It was also regularly sent to more than 2,500 stock brokers, including members of the New York Stock Exchange, New York Cotton Exchange, Boston Stock Exchange, New York Produce Exchange, etc.
Before the Scheftels corporation was five months old the work of its Market Letter was supplemented by the Mining Financial News, a weekly newspaper which had been published for a long period at Reno as the Nevada Mining News, latterly as the Mining Financial News, and which removed to New York when the Scheftels company found the mining-stock public was hungry for real live news and the truth regarding the mining propositions of other States as well as those of Nevada. The Mining Financial News and the Scheftels Market Letter, which were published three days apart, were supplied with news from practically the same sources. The newspaper was mailed to all readers of the Market Letter.
The ablest and most reliable mining correspondents obtainable for money in Tonopah, Goldfield, Ely, Rawhide, Cobalt, Butte, Globe and other mining camps, and the most experienced market news-gatherers in the mining-stock-market centers of Salt Lake, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto and New York, were placed on the pay-roll. Brokers in these and other cities, including Duluth, Seattle and Butte, supplied more news.
Wherever there was mining or market activity, representation of the very highest character was sought. News was always wired, no matter what the cost, whenever it was important to traders in mining shares. Expense was never spared when the information was considered of value to the speculator or investor. In the New York offices of the Scheftels corporation and the Mining Financial News, which adjoined each other, a staff of newspaper men with a mining financial experience of years was gathered. Little that transpired in the mines or the markets ever got away from them. Days before the mining newspapers of the West reached the East the Scheftels Market Letter or the Mining Financial News communicated the news regarding mine developments. They also contained a daily and weekly stock-market diagnosis and prognosis. These were based on the news, as gathered by trained forces and aided from time to time by secret information which filtered into the offices. This service soon obtained an accuracy theretofore unknown on the Street.
There is probably not one stock broker in five hundred that would know a mine underground if he saw one. On the pay-rolls of B. H. Scheftels & Company and the Mining Financial News there were thirty men who had been literally brought up in the mines and who, when they put their pen to paper, knew what they were writing about. The Scheftels company and the newspaper furnished mine and market information of quality to investors who had before been inundated with misinformation, guesses and twaddle. It sought to guide mining-stock speculators right.
It was really a delicate job to handle the Mining Financial News in a manner which would not lead stupid people to believe that it was an entirely independent paper. It was desirable that its independence be maintained to a degree, so that the full value of the Mining Financial News, as a property, might grow. The intention was some day, when the Mining Financial News found itself on a paying basis, to sever the Scheftels alliance.