CORPORATE FACTORS IN PROGRESS 379 



amount of speculation is inseparable from business of any 

 kind in stocks or staple produce. Instead, therefore, of mak- 

 ing a futile attempt as the German government did to sup- 

 press it, they allowed it to organize itself on the safest attain- 

 able lines. The Americans have consequently the greatest 

 freedom of speculation and more abundant facilities for it 

 than any other people. They have created the largest num- 

 ber of speculative methods and devices . ' ' Futures, " " options, ' ' 

 "straddles," and every known kind of contingent dealing are 

 familiar to them. 



These facts are worth mentioning, not for their own 

 sakes but in order to show that in the case of the Americans 

 we are not dealing with a people who are squeamish or fastid- 

 ious in speculative matters. An American speculator will 

 be allowed both by law and public opinion to go farther — 

 considerably farther— than would be tolerated anywhere else. 

 Therefore whatever oversteps the American code of specula- 

 tive ethics is likely to be rather rank. Here we shall judge 

 the Americans by their own code, and not by that of any 

 European community. Transactions that would be penal 

 in Berlin form a large part of the day's work in New York or 

 Chicago; and things that would scandalize London are mere 

 passing sensations in Wall street. 



These rather elastic principles of Wall street and the 

 produce exchange have another noteworthy peculiarity — 

 they are steadily growing more elastic. The question before 

 us now is, what effect this laxity may be expected to have on 

 the industrial future of the United States. It may be best 

 answered, not by elaborate descriptions of Wall street and 

 other centers of speculation, but by a few examples of the 

 length to which speculative plunging is now carried. It 

 would seem as if all the most dangerous precedents of the 

 past were being revived for the purpose of out-Heroding 

 them. In the phenomenal outburst of American prosperity 

 there is much that foreigners can cordially admire. Threaten- 

 ing as it may be to their own interests, they can respect the 

 splendid business abilities associated with it. But there are 

 some phases of the boom which cannot be regarded either 

 by Americans or foreigners without grave alarm. 



