rket for you. I often do that for customers of the
bank. I'm naturally in a position to know what's going on. By the way,
how much money have you to invest?"

"I have twelve thousand dollars in New York----"

"Where the interest rates are small," interrupted Tandy. "You want to
bring it West, where it will earn more. I understand. You're right in
that. The West is the place for men and money to do the best they can
for themselves. This part of the country is growing like Jack's
beanstalk. You must have noticed it."

"I certainly have. Indeed, I suppose that never before in all history
did any region grow so fast or so solidly."

"There! You've hit the nail on the head," said Tandy. "Solidly! And that
accounts for many things. The conservative people of the East never saw
anything like it, and they can't quite believe it. They don't realize
the wonderful soundness of things out here. They have learned to think
that high interest means poor security. In the East, where there is
plenty of money and very little development going on, it does. But here
in the West the case is different. Here, interest is high and dividends
large, simply because the country is growing so rapidly, and developing
its resources so wonderfully fast. Let me illustrate. My friend, Captain
Hallam, recently bought a mine up the State. It hadn't been properly
developed, so he bought it at a low price and capitalized it at cost,
adding a trifle for improvements. That mine is now paying twenty per
cent, dividends on its stock, in addition to a large expenditure every
month for improvements. Then, again, Captain Hallam is selling off the
farms on the surface at a price that will presently pay the whole first
cost of the mine. When that is done, the mine will stand him in just
nothing at all, and all the dividends the stockholders get will be just
like so much money found--picked up from the prairie grass, I might say.
Is there any danger in that sort of thing? Is a share of that stock a
doubtful security to the man who has already got back the entire
purchase price? True, it pays twenty per cent, dividends on its face,
and that scares the conservative galoots in New York. That's just
because they have got it ground into their minds that high interest
always means poor security. But, come, I want to take you for a drive
around Cairo, to show you what we are doing here and what we are
planning to do. I think when you see it you'll know for yourself where