[Sidenote: _Do "big men" put the market up or down?_]
The temperamental and mental qualifications of the Banker and Speculator are fundamentally conflicting and it hardly ever happens that these qualifications are successfully combined in one and the same person. The Banker as a stock market factor is vastly and strangely over-estimated, even by the Stock Exchange fraternity itself.
May I add, in parenthesis, that a sharp line of demarcation exists between the speculator and the gambler? The former has a useful and probably a necessary function, the latter is a parasite and a nuisance. He is only tolerated because it seems impossible to abolish him without at the same time doing damage to elements the preservation of which is of greater importance than the obliteration of the gambler.
Now by this time the Committee would surely feel that it has had a surfeit of my wisdom, as I am sure you must feel, but if you will be indulgent a very little while longer, I should like to say a few words more to you whose guest I have the honor to be this evening.
My recent observation of and contact with Congressmen and others in Washington have once more fortified my belief that the men by and large whom the country sends to Washington to represent it, desire and are endeavoring, honestly and painstakingly, to do their duty according to their light and conscience, and that, making reasonable allowance for the element of party considerations, they represent very fairly the views and sentiments of the average American.
[Sidenote: _The pioneer period of economic development is ended_]
Most of them are men of moderate circumstances. Very few of them have had occasion to familiarize themselves with the laws, the history and the functionings of finance and trade; to come into relation to the big business affairs of the country, or to compare views with its active business men.
It may be assumed that, very naturally, not a few of them have failed to come to a full recognition of the facts that the mighty pioneer period of America's economic development came definitely to an end a dozen years ago, that with it came to an end practices and methods and ethical conceptions, which in the midst of the magnificent achievements of that turbulent period were, if not permitted, yet to an extent silently tolerated, and that business has willingly fallen into line and kept in line with the reforms which were called for in business as in other walks of our national life.