is largely the result of unusual and superior ability in guessing. Under modern methods, most of these great businesses are conducted by corporations, whose stocks can readily be obtained on the Exchange. It is manifest, therefore, that if this power of forecast really existed, those happily possessing it would shortly divide the wealth of the world. It is equally manifest that if the agents of Government, or members of juries could, even in a majority of cases, forecast such matter, no amount of salary that could be paid them would be adequate to keep them in Government employ. The world would be at their feet. The truth is that if laws against profiteering could be just, there would be no occasion for profiteering at all; for if there were no excessive risks or inordinate losses to be guarded against, there would be no occasion for equal profits to balance them, as all men could grow enormously rich, by the continued flow of never-failing gain. A broker, some years since, stated that not one per cent. of his customers, who continued to trade, ultimately made money, and that the most successful of them were those who acted on the principle that the general estimates must prove wrong, and so bought in contradiction of the general belief. That all this has been realized by the generations who have built up the Common Law upon the subject, through an unvarying experience, came from the fact that during that time the nature and character of business was gradually being learned and understood.
Later, that the writer may not be thought to stand alone in his conclusions, undisputed authority will be quoted to sustain the views expressed. The present effort is only to state their results succinctly. The primary distinction of business from other means of gaining livelihood is "risk taking." The business man
