cupation
unfit him to be a successful speculator.

The Banker's training is to judge intrinsic values, his outlook must be
broad and comprehensive, his plans must take account of the longer
future. The Speculator's business is to discern and take advantage of
immediate situations, his outlook is for tomorrow, or anyhow for the
early future; he must indeed be able at times to disregard intrinsic
values.

[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.

To the Members of the Exchange

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 f