Evening journal., 1913-07-15

part OF the business on the stock ex-
change today is speculation pure and
simple. There are those, to be sure.
who think It neither pure nor simplei
but If It is fact that speculation
largely predominates in this great
market place, 80 much the better the
market, and so much the safer the
investor.
The speculator is a pioneer. hewing
paths and building causeways through
the great jungle Of barter and trade.
IL is his business to take chances, to
weigh and measure probabilities, to
study conditions. to analyze all matters
tnat at1ect the nerve centers of the
politics and finances of the nations.
Infinitely daring in attempting to do
what others shrink from doing, he Is
at grips with life. He is the live wire
of a well organized machine, perform
ing task of worldwide significance.
His is a genuine profession, meeting a
genuine need.
Having diagnosed a situation, the
hundreds of thousands of spectators
in the worlds capitals record their
various judgments through the pur-
chase and sale of securities. MANY of
them may reach one conclusion, and
many another. II is the epitomized
reflection of their different points Of
view that establishes market prices
and serves as a guide 10 all lines of
business. The more Of them there
are the closer the price they make.
Unconsciously but none the less GER
tainly we have come to look upon the
work Of these highly trained and alert
experts as furnishing a most relia-
BILE index to current conditions. With
out them new undertakings would be
helpless, the many arteries Of trade
sluggist and unresponsive. Investors
would have no guide, banks no depen-
dable index to credit conditions.
The work of spectators in security
markets may be likened to the func-
ton Of a barometer. Just as the bar
ometer receives its impressions from
atmospheric pressure and transmits
those Impressions IN the form Of
warnings and signals, so the sensi-
tive machinery Of speculation, record
ing the effect of every important thing
/ that takes place the world over, trans
mits in the form OF prices for the
things that represent enterprise,
warnings and signals TO the world of
/ industry. II is a pity that so impor-
/ tant a part of the mechanism of bust
ness should be so little understood.
The casual observer does not see
clearly the contributory usefulness of
much that is called speculation in Sc
/ curities. He is prone to attach too
I great an importance to the drones
that infest the hive and to the para
sites that cling to It. But we must re-
member that opportunities for wrong
doing increase just in proportion to
! the development Of all human activi-
ties, and that the advantages resulting
from the free play of useful energies
| should not be obscured by the para
site manifestations that accompany It,
In the mass. spectators in securi-
ties are doing what the world wants
! done, and they are doing it in the besi
way that human ingenuity has de-
vised. Just as Dr. Holiness Scarbee
who spent his lifetime investigating
an obscure tribe Of insects contribu
ted something TO scientific knowledge
just as every loaf of bread consumed
is factor in the price of wheat, so all
! these speculative purchases and sales
of bits Of paper called securities are
factors in the vast industrial under
takings that go to make up the
worlds beehive. They are what
I the great economist Ricardo
called "the impereeptibles of CON-
merce." Interfere with them or dc
away with them, and we restrict en-
terprise by depriving large undertak-
ings of a market for capital. Conf
dence would cease in such an event
through the withdrawal Of those who
make prices. The industrial system
would collapse in terror. Thinking
of these things led Paul Leroy-Beau-
lieu to say "the evils that speculation
prevents are much greater thar
those it causes" Finally, great as is
the difference between a good and q
bad speculator, even a very inferior
one is immensely superior to none al
all. Friends of the stock exchange
will do well to take this advanced
I ground. and hold il Valiantly.