In this Index the names of Contributors of Articles are printed in Italics. Esthetics, Modern French. Art. American Board and the late Bos- ton Council. Article. Noah Por- Architecture in America. Article. 416 225 Starbuck (Charles C.), The Sects Stuckenberg (J. H. W.). Introduc- tion to the study of Philosophy. Turner (Samuel Epes), A sketch Thompson (Daniel Greenleaf.), A system of Psychology. Noticed, threatens. Art. W. L. Kingsley, 225 Schopenhauer and Omar Khayyam. Schuman (Jacob G.), The Ethical Import of Darwinism. Noticed, 70 Sects and Christianity. C. C. Star- Sheffield (D. Z.), Review of Dr. Sill (Edward Rowland), Poems. South Carolina, Gov. Chamberlain's Speculation. The Economics of. Spirits in Prison. Article. F. C. Spurgeon (C. H.), My Sermon - 416 24 · 371 366 Address at the 37 anniversary of the Yale Divinity Warner (Francis), Physical Expres- sion, its Modes and Principles. Welch (William H.), Some of the Advantages of the Union of the Medical School and University, Whitney (Ernest), E. R. Sill's Whiton (James Morris), The reac- tion of Ethics upon Economics. 73 Whiton (J. M.), Turning Points of 95 To speculate is American. In no other country is speculation carried to such an extent as in ours. The sum total of our speculative trade presses close upon the aggregate of our national wealth. The practice of speculation is well nigh universal. We have professional speculators and amateur speculators. We speculate in produce, we speculate in land. We speculate in manufactures, in railways, in mines, in stocks and bonds, in gold, in iron, in live stock. We speculate in anything and everything. The rich speculate and the poor speculate. Saints speculate and sinners speculate. Not only bankers and brokers, but merchants, mechanics, lawyers, doctors, legislators, ministers of the Gospel, dry goods clerks, newsboys, and bootblacks, endeavor to multiply their legitimate earnings by some form of speculation. Even ladies who must earn their own livelihood are trying their skill in the way of speculation; and many a snug little fortune has been accumulated by the keen speculating instinct of women. VOL. XIII. 1 Of course the entire amount of the speculative trade throughout the country cannot be accurately estimated; for its methods and forms are too complex to be easily traced. But a glance at the work of some of the principal centers of speculation is sufficient to show how enormously disproportionate is this element in our national commerce. The transactions of the Chicago Board of Trade amount to more than three billions of dollars in a single year; of which more than seven-eighths are purely speculative. The speculative trades of the various Exchanges in New York are estimated at from four to five billions annually. These sums are however small in comparison with the deals of the Stock Exchange. Several years ago it was estimated that the par value of the annual sales in the New York Stock Exchange exceeds twentytwo billion dollars. The entire wealth of the country in 1880 was less than forty-four billion dollars, or less than double the sum involved in the transactions of this single Exchange. The smaller cities have their Boards of Trade which do a business corresponding with their size and importance. The transactions of the Stock Exchange are repeated with small amounts in almost every broker's office in the land. In every community we find men trying to imitate with their limited resources the movements of the Bulls and Bears of Wall Street. These minor enterprises taken separately appear insignificant in comparison with the traffic at the great centres of speculation; but the vast number of them taken together gives an aggregate which is by no means trifling. It needs no argument to prove that this speculative element in our commerce, involving as it does such immense sums of money and extending so widely through all classes of society, exerts a controlling influence for the quickening or depression of trade, and becomes an important factor in the distribution of wealth. Plainly the economic effect of so much speculation must be either very good or very bad; but whether it is good or whether it is bad is not so plain. Opinions differ very widely upon the subject. One class of economists declares that "Speculation is the soul of trade." Another class with equal confidence asserts that speculation is subversive of the interests of legitimate trade. A financial panic sweeps over |