The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-10-25

HENRY CLEWs.
perform overt acts, it might with equal
truth be laid down that the desire to do
anything at all is the root of all evil. The
logical result of such dogmas is to drive
men into religious quietude. They have
produced the silent monks Of Europe n
the immovable fakirs of India, but they
never have produced and never will produce
useful citizens.
An Imperious Appetite.
The handspring of all human effort is the
necessity of providing sustenance for the
individual and for those who are dependent
upon him. When this need is satisfied, a
certain proportion of the community look
beyond and forward and take measures to
provide for the unproductive season of old
age. With a smaller number accumulation
becomes a passion n controlling desire main
ly for it's own sake or for the power which
such accumulations confer upon their pos
SCISSORS. From this number are recruited the
ranks of those who speculate, who pursue
gain not because they need it, but because
they are ruled by IN imperious appetite
to acquire it, who do not attempt to earn
money by being useful to others, but to
acquire it by such active combinations of
capital and skill as shall compel others to
pay tribute.
These men are cast in the same mold
with Il Sulla or a Verress who swept into
their Golfers the spoils of whole provinces;
with a Seneca, writing ford treatises on
morals with his right hand, while his left
hand received usuries Of SO per cent. And
yet there is a difference. These historic
H%arpagons were less circumscribed by law,
and they operated in comparatively sure
things. There is not much speculation in
extortion where the victims are powerless
and in usury where the lender holds the
pledges. At present all tribute must be
the result of voluntary contract. The man
who is short of stocks which he can only
deliver by buying them at three times their
value must have placed himself in that
position by his own voluntary acts, and the
man who exchanges good money for your
inflated and fallacious shares must have
brought himself to the conclusion to dc SO
after listening to your arguments or read
ing your prospectus.
Thriving on Deception.
During the progress Of the tulip specula-
ton in Holland each owner Of q Semper
Augustus WIG loudly valued his bulb at
so many Thousand guilders had his little
coterie Of satellites who went about trying
to dispose of the precious root at even a Ar
ger price han was demanded by the owner
and with a more implicit ant conscientious
+ faith in it's real value. Artotrogus, in the
| play of "Plautus," is not more forward to
sound the praises Of the braggart soldier
than the crowd Of small spectators who
| surround some chief brigand of the ex,
change are to aud his honesty and benevo-
lent prescience.
The fallacy that underlies the majority
Of speculative schemes, even when organ,
| lied by men of the greatest ability, is the
! altruisn on which they profess to be based.
Each and every man in the community
may know that all his own actions are
based on self interest, m yet he is strange.
| ly disposed to believe that other and larger
minded men are planning and scheming to
benefit those of the community who are
| willing to take shares in their enterprises.
| This and similar fallncies appear to be az
| useful and necessary In the task Of floating
| shares in the market as the announcements
| of dry goods retailers that their goods are
| offered for sale at cost or below. The en-
tire public may not believe such state.
ments, but a portion credit tho palpable
falsehood, and the shops thrive Oh the dc,
ception.
Speculation then. when 1t cuts loose from
the supply of the positive material needs
Of the community as to their everyday life,
becomes necessarily a field Of such decep-
tions ~ result from ardent and reckless
i~naginations working upon a lower order
Of intelligence, with whose mental proc
esses Is mingled the passion for gain. What.
sver structure mankind may build In its
ambitions to become rich and powerful,
/ --l.I A.. HAL ..u H.. - -. 81
arc sure to be OF clay.
Ralph Wald" Emerson's Dream.
1t was q beautiful dream Of Ralph Waldo