38 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE
truth (but not the whole truth) that the higher organization
of markets has sometimes made it easier for reckless and unin-
formed people to injure themselves through speculation, just
as it is easier today to be killed by being run over by a steam
locomotive or an automobile than it formerly was by a stage-
coach. Yet, just as this latter fact does not constitute a valid
reason for urging that steam railways or automobiles be
“abolished,” or that stagecoaches be again legislated into use,
so too there can be little real justification for condemning the
stock exchanges because those who use their facilities carelessly
or recklessly now and then come to grief. The truth is that
people must somehow be taught not to speculate foolishly, just
as we are all learning to avoid getting in front of locomotives
or automobiles.
Future Marketing Probabilities.—The organization of
exchanges has been accomplished in comparatively recent times.
Yet so important a factor in the economic and social progress
of world civilization have they already proved, that not only
their permanence in the present economic machinery of the
world, but also their continued evolution in the future along
significant lines is assured. Great as are their functions and
beneficial services to mankind today, nevertheless it is obvious
to the economic historian that their present development is only
a stage in their larger and continuous evolution. Without
indulging in fanciful predictions, it is nevertheless interesting
to conjecture along what lines this future evolution of the
organized markets is likely to occur.
In the first place, it seems inevitable that the production and
consumption of many commodities will considerably increase
luring the coming century, and that they will consequently
come to be considered as staples. It will become more and
more dangerous and expensive to buy and sell such commodi-
ties in their present loose-jointed, unorganized, and precarious
markets, and accordingly exchanges may gradually be estab-
lished for their more economical sale and distribution. Many
