The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-21

perform overt nets, it might with equal
truth be laid down that the desire to do
anything Mt 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 and
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 smaller number accumulation
becomes passion, "a controlling desire main
ly for its own sake or for the power which
such accumulations confer upon their nos
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 an imperious appetite
to acquire 1t, who do not attempt to earn
money by being useful to others, but to
acquire 1T 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 Verres, who swept into
their Golfers the spoils of whole provinces.
with n Seneca, writing hord treatises on
morals with his right hand, while his left
hand received usuries of so per cent. And
yet there is difference These historic
Harpagons 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 Liam
who Is short of stocks which he can ONLY
deliver by buying them ut 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 do 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 n Semper
Augustus who 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 lar
ger price than was demanded by the owner
and with more implicit and conscientious
faith In its real value. Artotrogus, in the
play OF "Plautus," is not more forward to
sound the praises of the brag9art soldier
than the crowd of small spectators who
surround some chief brigand of the ex-
change are to laud his honesty and beneyo-
lent prescience
The fallacy that underlies the majority
OF speculative schemes, even when organ
lied by men of the greatest ability, is the
altruism on which they profess to be based.
Each and every man in the community
may know that all his own actions IRE
baseG on self interest and yet he is strange
~ disposed to believe that other and larger
minded men are planning and scheminp tn
benefit those Gf the community who are
willing TO take shares in their enterprises
This nad similar fallacies appear to he q.
useful and in CcsHary in the task of floating
shares IN 'l:" i"ail;ct as the announcements
OF dry go Is i"inii,is that their goods are
offered icrsiic III cost or below The en-
tire public nay not believe such state
mentS. bat IL portion credit the palpable
talsch"cd, and the shops thrive on the de-
ception.
Speculation then, when it cuts loose from
the supply of the positive material needs
o. The community rs TO their everyday life. /
becomes necessarily il field of such decep-
tions as result from ardent and reckless
imaginations working upon lower order
of intelligence. with whose mental PROC
esses is mingled the passion for gain What
ever structure mankind may build in it's
ambitions to becolIe rich and powerful.