STOCK SPECULATION—DANGERS AND BENEFITS 149 
crumbling walls of our burned-down palaces “Finis Galliae,” the 
Bourse kept its faith in France and her fortune, and that faith in 
France was spread by it all around, at home and abroad. 
Speculation was patriotic in its way; it exhibited a confidence in 
our resources which the discretion of many a wise man rated as fool- 
hardy. Have we already forgotten our great loans for liberation? 
Without the Bourse, these colossal loans, the amounts of which ex- 
ceeded the dreams of financiers, would never have been subscribed for, 
or, if ever, it would have been only at rates much more onerous for 
the country. . . . 
If France regained her rank among the nations of the world so 
quickly, the credit for it should be given mainly to the Bourse. And 
to its services in war, we should, if we wanted to be just, also add its 
services in time of peace. Without the extensiveness of the Paris 
market, and the stimulus given to our capitalists through speculation, 
how many things would have remained unaccomplished in the reck- 
lessly overdriven condition of our finances? We should have been 
unable to complete our railroad system, or renew our national stock of 
tools, or create beyond the seas a colonial empire which shall cause 
France to be again one of the great world powers. When the Bourse 
is on trial, such credentials should not be overlooked. Before con- 
demning it in the name of morality and private interests, a patriot 
should give due consideration to its services rendered for the national 
weal; if all its defects and misdeeds be heaped up on one scale tray, 
then services of like importance will easily counterbalance them. 
This is the testimony, bear in mind, of a member of the 
Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, and a citizen of 
France, that thriftiest and most cautious race of investors in 
the world. 
A More Recent Example.—Nor do we need go so far 
afield as France, nor so far back as a half-century, to cite 
equally significant instances of the intervention of the specu- 
lator to maintain civilization during a time of stress and doubt. 
The vast readjustment from war to peace conditions, after 
the fleeting and feverish boom of 1919-20, threw the whole 
world into the depths of an economic depression unparalleled 
in modern times. Age-old thrones had crashed. Novel experi- 
ments in government were being attempted. ILong-established