146 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
Moreover, in the course of unsuccessful experimentation 
financed by the speculator many invaluable by-products have 
Seen accidentally discovered. The medizval alchemists failed to 
liscover the philosopher’s stone which would turn base metals 
into gold, but they laid the foundation of modern chemistry. 
The original American oil men sought only the raw material 
for a patent medicine, but they laid bare the Pennsylvania 
petroleum fields. Raleigh mistook iron pyrites for gold, but he 
started the colonization of North America. It is probably no 
axaggeration to say that most of the scientific discoveries upon 
which modern civilization is so largely based, have resulted 
‘rom the accidental discoveries of a disappointed and unsuc- 
-essful speculator. 
Thus, in the onward march of civilization the speculator is 
‘he advance scout and pioneer of economic civilization. It is 
he who reconmoiters the posts of danger, who first attracts the 
enemy's fire and bears the first brunt of his resistance. From 
Friar Bacon to Edison, inventors and the speculators who 
snanced them have been the eyes of business, without whom 
industry and trade would lose their sense of direction. Very 
often the speculator is quite unconscious of the larger economic 
significance of his work. He simply wants a profit. Yet just 
this willingness to take risks for possible profits has made the 
United States the dynamic and progressive country that it is 
today. It has been by such blind groping and stumbling toward 
the light that modern civilization has been achieved. 
Exploration Replaced by Exploitation.—The age of 
Balboa and Magellan is past. In the field of pioneering the 
isks of exploitation have replaced the risks of exploration. 
Speculation today is concerned, not with “lands beyond the 
sunset” or “perilous seas forlorn,” but with new oil conces- 
sions, new railroads, and new industrial projects organized as 
corporations, with shares to sell. In consequence, Wall Street 
has become the last frontier and the true haunt of the modern