A lifetime of work with investors has impressed me with the prodigious losses that result from the trying to get something for nothing in the realm of speculation and investment. Everybody is complaining about taxes. Statistics show that by saving the money annually contributed to crooks and incompetents, confidence men and blue sky operators, bunco steerers, and business imbeciles - with this huge sum conserved - no other taxation would be necessary. Incidentally I would recommend for the consideration of Congress, a bill providing that for every dollar which a person loses in get-rich-quick schemes, he should be assessed another dollar as tribute to the government. All other taxes to be abolished.

But what I have in mind now in speaking of this apparently unquenchable desire to get something for nothing, is not so much the financial aspect as the spiritual. For instance, we usually think of the Biblical account of Ananias and Sap-phira as the classic example of the liar. Dr. La-velle, former U. S. Minister to Guatemala, has pointed out, however, that the real significance of this story is the sin of trying to get something for nothing. The story as told in Acts 4:34-37 is as follows:

"Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold. And laid them down at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

"But a certain man named Ananias, with Sap-phira, his wife, sold a possession, and kept back a part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

"But Peter said: 'Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whilst it remained, was it not thine own and after it was sold, was it not thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.'

"And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost; and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, bound him up, carried him out, and buried him. It was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.

"Peter said unto her: 'Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much?' and she said, 'Yea, for so much.'

"Then Peter said unto her: 'How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.'

"Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost; and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things."

To quote Dr. Lavelle's commentary: -

"Now, that is the story of a conscienceless and shrewd attempt to get something of value for less than it was worth. A certain honor was attached to this deposit in a common fund from which the need of every one was to be supplied without discrimination. Those who deposited much, those who deposited little, and those unable to deposit anything were to be helped. No distinction was to be made between those who sacrificed everything and those who had nothing to sacrifice.

"You do not have to approve this primitive effort to create a practical sort of communism, or even agree that such an attempt toward the economic solution of the problem of living was either wise or possible, in order to appreciate the spirit of brotherhood that marked those who sacrificed their worldly possessions in this wholly unselfish way. Neither is it difficult for us to understand how those who made the sacrifice would regard those who were not willing to make it, and how utterly they would loathe everybody who would, by some dishonest and fraudulent scheme, attempt to compass the honor attached to the sacrifice.

"This is what Ananias and his wife attempted to do. They were unwilling to go without the honor, but they were not willing to pay full price for it. They 'kept back part of the price.' They desired to stand on the same level with their fellow-disciples, but wanted to do so at a lower and a cheaper rate. It was not only an attempt to practice a fraud on their brethren, it was more and worse than that. The apostle characterized it as an attempt to practice a deliberate fraud on God. Nobody can do that successfully; and the record declares that the two who attempted to perpetrate this fraud were overtaken by a disastrous and well-deserved fate.

"Even in the material world it is a difficult thing to get something for nothing. It is done sometimes, although the effort to do it commonly fails. But in the moral and spiritual world it is not possible to win values without paying full price for them. You cannot get them at a discount, under their value. There are no auction sales where moral values can be bought below cost, or above it."