st always remain
important. There is the chance of unexpected political events, such
as war, riot, and legislation on money, tariffs, credit, and business
relations. These things are caused, it is true, by the action of men,
but it is a collective action out of the control of the individual.
There is the chance of human carelessness causing fire, explosions,
and wrecks on misplaced switches. There is the chance of physical or
mental collapse, as the sudden insanity or the sudden death of one
performing responsible duties. There is the chance of sickness that
often wrecks the plans and the fortunes of a whole family. There is
the chance of economic alterations in methods of production and of
transportation, in fashions and demand in this direction or for those
materials.

Some of these chances are more connected with money-lending, others
with manufacturing, some with agriculture, others with commerce; but
all are present in some degree in every industry. Some events are
unique in nature and seem unlikely ever to occur again; others are of
a kind occurring so irregularly that no reasonable prediction can be
made as to the time and frequency of their occurrences. Still others
occur frequently and to many different persons; but no individual can
tell when and how they will occur to him. A general average of chances
in different lines of business causes some to be called safe, others
extra-hazardous. Chance has its favorable as well as its unfavorable
aspects. Chances are averaged and added algebraically to the profit or
loss in an industry, for an extra-hazardous enterprise must in general
afford a higher average of profit in order to induce men to engage in
it. It is folly to take a risk without ascertaining its degree so far
as general experience enables one to choose. But inasmuch and in so
far as the gains and losses fall unequally upon different individuals,
income depends upon chance.

Sec. 2. #Uneconomic character of gambling.# This prevalence of chance
sometimes tempts men to say that business is "a gamble." But a
distinction in principle must be made between gambling and legitimate
risk-taking. The chances enumerated above are not sought, but avoided
as far as possible; yet they must be borne by some one if productive
enterprise is to continue, and the burden must somehow be distributed
throughout the community. Gambling is, however, a kind of risk-taking
which has a very different economic and moral quality. Ga