Evening journal., 1913-07-15
THE SPECULATOR IN SECURITIES
From tho Kansas city journal.

In the attempt to justify the use
fulness Of speculation in securities we
observe tendency on the part Of re-
cent defenders Of stock exchange mat
ters TO exaggerate the importance OF
collateral facts. Everybody is a specu-
lator they say, hence that particular
form Of speculation which finds ex-
preston in our great security mar
kets is merely a manifestation Of hu-
man nature. They tell us the farmer
speculates when he plants his crops,
and when he sells them, as he often
does before they have matuTed. They
lay great stress on the fact that the
contractor who accepts your money
and undertakes to build your house IS
speculaung on his ability to procure
the labor and the materials entering
into that construction True enough.
So Columbus was a speculator when
he sailed into the great unknown; so
-Archimedes, Euclid and Pythagoras
Calico, Newton and Darwin; Kelvin,
Pastaur and Lister were all specuia-
tors in. greater or less degree. But
the man who sees in our great stock
markets only gambling and wrong
doing is far from being convinced by
these axioms He says this form of
argument begs the question. II does.
The stock exchange in New York
has a much more effective argument
than a tn quoque diversion from the
real matters at issue. Professor VII
1nf &
OF what he called pragmatism that as
phenomena appear, persist and be-
come mighty in accordance with nat
ural evolution and in spite Of opposi-
ton. so they demonstrate their ulti-
mate good and their usefulness. The
presence of an active and continuous
speculation in the stock exchanges
which exists today in every center of
the civilized world is one of these
phenomena. There have always been
people who opposed it, and there al
ways will be. AS early as 1893, when
securities first came into being in
England, a play appeared satirizing
stock brokers and spectators. In
1862, one John Rice, q stock broker,
was hanged for "bucketing" a Gus
toner's order. DR.. Parker defined the
stock exchange as the bottomless
pit" and DR.. Johnson set all the ad-
jectives in his dictionary jumping in
denunoiation of the craft. All the old
,Jacobites and Tories hated specula-
tion in stocks because it made London
rich and threatened the extinction of
that fine old institution, the Eng
lish country gentleman. Even today
IN spite of the obvious advantages OF
free and unrestricted speculation in
securities politicians are found op-
posing it and legislatures seeking to
restrict it. Yet this form of specula-
ton persists and is a mighty force
wherever on the face of the earth
large creative activities are at work
Why is this?
Securities in America represent a
third Of the nations wealth and they
are owned By more than two million
people. These bonds and stocks are
not, as so many suppose, chips anc
counters in. a gampling game; they
are actual wealth created by mans
industry, and circulating by virtue o.
the real causes that create and main
tain commerce. 1t is highly essen.
tial that dealings in these evidences
of the production and consumption o.
wealth should be rendered easy, quick
and safe; that the prices established
for them in the New York Stock Ex-
change, which is our central and pri.
mary market, should represent the
nearest possible approach to real
values, and that in this effort the
largest opportunity should be afforded
for the free play Of bargaining ant
competition on the part Of those in
terested, because only in this way are
stable markets created. Another and
equally important essential in such {
market is the maintenance Of a higl
standard of honor enforced witt
Draconian severity through proper
rules.
That such a code exists in our great
est stock market is not disputed. MOI
is it disputed that the stock exchange
is doing today all that can be done t
discourage speculation on small mar
gins by people ill-equipped for sucl
ventures
We are told that by far the greater