A tailor cannot tell when he is laying in a stock of woolens whether they will meet the public taste. He depends entirely upon his judgment when placing his orders, which he does months before the season has set in. Is he not speculating?

Why, even the grocer speculates when in the early morning he drives his wagon to the market for his daily supply of greens, vegetables, and dairy products. So does the butcher in his trade. He figures that his regular patrons will order a certain supply of meat. He also knows that if they fail to do so, what is left over must be made good out of his daily profits.

When the farmer tills his soil and puts it to seed in the spring, he speculates, does he not, on a favorable outcome of his harvest ? Not only does he speculate but long before the time has been reached to garner the fruits of his season's toil, he has already pledged part of the harvest for loans at his bank, depending entirely upon his crops to take them up.

Human endeavor, whichever way it is directed, largely speculates upon a favorable outcome. Thejnanu-facturer invests considerable money in raw products to turn into finished articles, and in labor, counting upon a steady demand from consumers for his profits. If he needs money, he borrows from the bank, expecting to repay the loans from his sales. The wholesale merchant, whether he deals in dry goods, coal, groceries, jewelry, or the dozen and one staple commodities, does the same and assumes the same risk, pitting his judgment against the future.

In going into these minute details, I merely attempt to show what a misconception exists regarding speculation. The critics take the shadow for the substance and hold the substance responsible for the evil effects of the shadow.

If a man fails in speculation and is ruined in consequence, he is pitied and speculation pilloried before public opinion as a crime.

If he fails in business as a result of misjudging his opportunities, he is not pitied, but condemned as an incapable business man, although underlying both misfortunes there must have been the same cause, a greed to bite off more than could be cared for, or greed to acquire a fortune quickly, even at the risk of rashness.

There are any number of people who buy real estate or farm lands every year, knowing full well they have not the money to purchase them outright. They make their purchases subject to the encumbrances or mortgages already standing against the property. What money they pay out is for the equity and nothing else. They are confident of their ability to care for the interest on the mortgages. They expect their equity to increase in value sufficiently to enable them to turn over their property to some other buyer at a good profit.

Even the more humble wage-worker does this when he buys his home on the installment plan from a builder, who himself, to construct the house, has already plastered it with a mortgage to his bank, the interest on which mortgage the wage-earner must pay in addition to paying off the equity in easy installments.

In each instance, the buyer is buying on a margin, exactly as he would buy on a margin certain stocks or certain quantities of grain or cotton. Someone else lends him the money on the unpaid balance of which he pays interest. Yet some people hold the open trading in margins to be wrong, to be gambling, while they hold the purchase of real estate on part payment and financing the remainder by a loan to be a legal and ethical transaction. If the one be wrong, the other is also.

Moreover, there are as many failures through overextension in real estate operations as in stock speculation. As many people have their property sold through foreclosure, because of their inability to meet their interest, as have their speculative commitments in stocks closed out through inability to provide more margin.