The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-01-11
A. The deeced lamb suffers no

A. The feeced lamb suffers no
violence.
@. How does it differ from the
confidence game'2
A. The victim is not cheated; he
takes his chances and they are al
ways ten to one against him.
@. How does it differ from gam
bling?
A. Not materially.
@. What is future?
A. A future in the vernacular
of the street is term applied only
to cotton or produce. Ali contracts
for future delivery at fixed price
are futures"
@. Is dealing in cultures" right?
A. Yes, when, it is legitimate
business transaction. All business
in which success depends on fore
sight is in the nature of futures. -
@. When is it wrong?
A. When it is mere gambling
transaction.
Q. Explain what you mean by
Legitimate business.
A. Every man is put into the
world to add to its well being
That only is legitimate business
which is calculated to add to the
worlds wealth-pecuniary, intellec-
tual or moral-and In which the
profit is fair compensation for the
service rendered. That is illegiti-
mate in which one man takes money
out of another mans pocket with
out rendering him any equivalent
therefor.
@. Will you illustrate legiti-
mate culture?
A. A agrees in the winter to buy
wool of the farmers in the spring,
and price is fixed. In the spring
he takes the wool at the price agreed
upon, and delivers it to the manu-
facturer. Whether he makes or
loses depends upon the intermedi-
ate change in prices. This is a
legitimate future. 1t is necessary
to the carrying on of trade.
@. VIII you illustrate an illegiti-
mate future?
A. A agrees in the winter to buy
wool of his companion on the street,
i'll the spring, at fixed price. His
companionIhas no wool; A wants NO
wool. When settling day comes no
wool changes hands. If the price
has gone up A pays his companion
the difference; if it has gone down
he receizes the difference; This is
an illegitimate future"
Q. Why is it Legitimate?
A. Because it is not productive
industry; and no business is legiti-
mate which does not directly or in
directly help on the productive in
dustries of the community.
Q. How does such transaction
differ from betting?
A. Not at all.
@. Is it dishonest?
A, Not necessarily. But it is not
honest industry
Q. What harm does it do?
A. II unsettles prices;it makes ir-
regular markets; it produces I'M
natural fluctuations in trade; it oc-
cupies the time of the parties con-
cerned which might be profitably
occupied; but worst of all, it makes
young men disconnected with the
slow earnings of honest productive
industry. and produces a spirit of
gambling throughout the country.
O. What can the legisla -ure
do to stop this form of speculation
A. Nothing. Legislation cannot
prevent people from making foolish
promises, nor give them the ability
to fulfill them.
Q. Is there no remedy?
A. Stock gambling has grown
largely out of great corporations.
Possibly legislation, by bringing
corporations under stricter control,
could mitigate the evils of stock
gambling to some extent.
@. Is there no other remedy?
A. General intelligence; instruc-
ton by our common schools in the
laws and principles of political
economy; agitation by press and
pulpit; and above all "a development
of the moral sense, so that men will
realize that there are some things
in this world worth more than
Q. What, for instance?
A. Usefulness and character.