48 What My Critics will Say 



something without work. Every little town in 

 the country sends its money to the great city 

 to be matched against the money from some- 

 where else. These precious brokers are the 

 bankers in the game. To pretend that the 

 business is a whit better than gambling with 

 dice and cards has always seemed to me hypoc- 

 risy ; the man who deals in lard, honestly buy- 

 ing lard and selling lard, and not simply betting 

 upon the future price of lard, may be doing 

 useful work in getting lard where it is plenty 

 and carrying it to places where it is scarce, and 

 so throughout the whole range of legitimate 

 mercantile life. The man who keeps a retail 

 shop of any kind is of actual service to the com- 

 munity. But the typical broker what does 

 he produce in the course of a year to pay for 

 the large sums of money he receives? This is 

 an old topic, and I have nothing new to say 

 about it. But when people point to me as an 

 idler, wasting my time and neglecting my op- 

 portunities, and at the same time point to my 

 neighbor, the successful broker, as an example, 

 I must decline to be impressed. At -least, I 

 give something in return for what the world 



