ies against the public welfare. I was speaking
on this very subject in one of the great cities of the country some
months ago, and at the close of the address, a judge commended my
criticism and declared that most of the lawyers practising in his
court were constantly selling their souls. The lawyer's position
is scarcely less responsible than the position of the journalist,
and if the journalists and lawyers of the country could be brought
to abstain from the practises by which the general public is
overreached, it would be an easy matter to secure the remedial
legislation necessary to protect the producing masses from the
constant spoliation to which they are now subjected by the privileged
classes.

If a man who is planning a train-robbery takes another along to hold a
horse at a convenient distance, we say that the man who holds the horse
is equally guilty with the man who robs the train; and the time will
come when public opinion will hold as equally guilty with the plunderers
of society the lawyers and journalists who assist the plunderers to
escape.

Most of you are, I presume, engaged in what is known as business,
altho I confess that I have no sympathy with the narrow definition
which is often given to the word business. Every person who
contributes by brain or muscle to the nation's wealth and greatness
is engaged in business and is a necessary factor in the world's
progress.

Commerce is an increasing factor in the business world. It includes
both exchange and transportation and stands next in importance to
production. Production comes first, but production could only be
conducted on a limited scale without the exchange of merchandise. To
desire to gain an honorable distinction in this department of labor
is a worthy ambition. He who improves the instruments of trade by
bringing purchaser and consumer nearer together, thus facilitating
exchange, may count himself a real benefactor. But even here there
are temptations to be avoided. Let me suggest three. First,
speculation. I do not mean to say that the element of chance can be
entirely eliminated from any kind of business. The farmer takes his
chances upon the seasons; the merchant takes his chances upon the
market; the railroad owner takes his chances upon both the season and
the market; and we all take our chances upon sickness and death.
Uncertainty enters into every human calculation, but a distinction
can be drawn between those uncertainties which a