THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE 



opher will not need to be reminded once more 

 that the greatest and most ruthless of human 

 of great have always pertained to the chances 

 passions speculative profits. 



Mr. Hayes says: "It is perfectly clear, 

 however, that in the large the outside specu- 

 lators and the producers and consumers, 

 among them, lose money to a class of men 

 that do not really pretend either to produce, 

 to transport or to manufacture; and that 

 they also [producers and consumers] pay the 

 expenses of running an expensive speculating 

 machine." 



He overlooked the fact that this expensive 

 speculating machine, as its wheel whirls and 

 whirls like that at Monte Carlo, may sweep 

 away from the farmer the fruits of a year of 

 drudging labor. The plowing, the harrowing, 

 the seeding, the cultivating, the harvesting, 

 the threshing, the long journey to market 

 with the staff of the world's existence, and 

 all made of no avail because somebody has 

 manufactured a cable from Buenos Ayres or 

 a story about good weather in India, that the 

 speculative machine may spin this way or 

 that. But the farmer has not overlooked tlit 

 fact; and nothing could be more preposterou> 

 than to suppose that, knowing it, he will 

 always patiently endure it. 



The committee of the national House of 

 Representatives, to which I have several 



161 



