The stories of countries is the story of people who tried to seek out new opportunities in the land they live in and make it better. Sometimes the better is for them as opposed to someone else; sometimes the better is for the vision they believe in; and sometimes the better is for everyone. One of the tasks in looking at the history of any country is how to organize it and getting that right leads to an interesting book. In the book The Men Who United the States by Simon Winchester, published by HarperCollins, NY, 2013 the organization has followed classical eastern lines. The organization is wood, fire, earth, metal and water.

There are many good people who made the US better, it has also had its share of rogues. One of the stories concerns why some of the public servants were considered the finest in the world. Before the start of the great railroad building across the mountains of the west, the land needed to be surveyed both above and below ground. The US was fortunate to have a gentleman named Clarence Rivers King to be the first ever director of the US Geological Society. Long after he made his reports in the 1860’s they were still being used. The story of the rogues is shortly after the gold rush, the Great Diamond Fraud was hatched. Two ragged looking men went into the bank to put in the vault a canvas bag into the safety deposit box. The bank cashier demanded to know what was inside and in turned out to be uncut diamonds, rubies and other gems. They men eventually said they had found them in the mountains, just waiting to be picked up. The owner of the bank formed a company, raised money to get the gems. He also had the existing gems appraised as well as used a consulting geologist to offer his opinion. All things were looking good and people wanted to own stock in the company – the price went up.

Mr. King thought it should very fishy for gems were not to found in the west – wrong geology for the gems. He used the weather to narrow the location and the rock formations others had seen. In turned out, the two men and others had put the gems in ant holes and invariably they had risen to the top. The desert was salted or the gems had been bought from Europe and placed – just waiting to be found. Not surprisingly the rogues had cashed their shares out at higher prices and skipped town when the information became known.

Mr. Winchester’s theme of the 5 elements lead to interesting stories about the reason why cities are where they are. In the case of the eastern seaboard, the geology changes and when the rocks are hard, the rivers flow faster, when the rocks are softer the river broadens out and eventually becomes estuaries. The broaden river is friendly to boats and boatman. Where the rocks are hard, boats had to be changed and mills were made. If you look at Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, Philadelphia they were are settled in similar fashion. Take a look at the bridges and try to imagine the water rushing by.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when there is a stock boom or gold rush, the desire to cash in and make money is very high and often scams are done. The simple and logical seem to fall out of the way, easy money and greed come upon many. One method to try not to fall for greed is investing in companies which make profits and pay dividends. The simple is making money and paying a dividend, if they can that is good, if they can not find alternatives. The total return over the years will be much better than the roller coaster of returns of many alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.