Doodlebug

In Montreal is La Luz Mining Corp., operator of a Mexican gold mine. La Luz lately sought to register with the U. S. Securities & Exchange Commission and sell U. S. investors 100,000 shares of preferred stock at $1.50 a share. In its prospectus it based the value of its mine on the showing of a "mineral indicator" invented by "Professor Philip Haas, scientist and geologist with a world-wide reputation."

SEC summoned Inventor Haas to Washington, asked for a demonstration of his device, consisting of a leather thong to which was attached a small leather-covered cylinder. When suspended over gold-bearing ground, the indicator was supposed to vibrate. Explained Septuagenarian Haas: "I call it a mineral vibrator. . . . The principle on which it works is affinity with affinity. I have to have a gold affinity to detect gold. . . . My instrument is loaded with affinity. ... I tune in with my gold vibrator. It is like a radio. You dial until you get a certain station. . . . When I take it in my hands I am dialed in for gold."

Dialed in for gold at SEC headquarters, Mr. Haas approached a table on which were five covered boxes. Four contained assorted fruits & vegetables. One contained gold. Holding his indicator in his right hand, the grey-haired oldster moved it along over the line of boxes until it reached a box at which it began to vibrate vigorously. The box was opened. It contained an apple.

Mr. Haas, who once was a fruit-grower himself, explained that somewhere in the earth below the apple a gold deposit must exist. He also explained that his indicator would do much more than locate an ore body. If, when suspended above an ore body, it swung back & forth 100 times, then the bottom of the ore body was 100 feet below the earth's surface. If it oscillated in a circle 20 times, then the ore contained one ounce of gold to the ton. Judging how far below the earth the top of an ore body might be was more difficult but Mr. Haas could make an estimate if he was careful to hold the indicator in his right hand and keep the fingers of his left hand pressed against his solar plexus.

Dr. W. William Lee of the U. S. Bureau of Mines was called in to judge the Haas method of finding gold. Said that Federal expert: "This is a doodlebug."

Last week SEC ordered the La Luz registration suspended for "untrue statements," went on to declare: "Science and common sense combine to tell us that gold cannot be located by the use of 'doodlebugs.' It is reprehensible that such positive claims as to the value and presence of gold should be presented to prospective investors with no better basis than such examination as has been described."

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