THE CALL OF THE LAND 



leisure class. To such people the pros- 

 pectus of a new enterprise is wonderfully 

 attractive. In exchange for a few thousands 

 it offers them a fortune. The offer dazzles 

 them. Their desires benumb their judg- 

 ment. The risk of the undertaking is for- 

 gotten. Few of those who put their money 

 into a speculative scheme enter it with the 

 thought of risk. The calm balancing of 

 chances is the exercise of a superior order of 

 mind. The speculator does not buy a 

 chance, he buys what he thinks is a fortune. 

 He has had a vision of a vein of ore or a 

 great reservoir of oil. He has seen a popu- 

 lous town arise around the factory in which 

 he has invested. He has forsaken the diffi- 

 cult paths of reason for the flowery fields of 

 imagination and conjecture."* In this way 

 many millions yearly pass from the pockets 

 of the poor into the tills of unscrupulous 

 promoters. 



In another class of cases the fraud worked 

 by promoters is less complete. The promo- 

 ter knows that he is offering a valuable 



* E. S Meade : "Trust Finance," 136. 



264 



