it takes. In fact a certain amount of risk is involved by every investment in industry. But the risk may be reduced to a negligible minimum, in the case of a first charge on the earnings of a great railway company, and may range up to a level requiring a great deal of speculative courage, or recklessness, in facing it, as in the case of the shares in a mining company or in a company formed to work a new patent or an untried industry. Capitalism has ingeniously provided different kinds of securities to suit the taste of investors and speculators. For those who want security chiefly it gives what are called mortgage bonds and debentures, investors in which are not shareholders in, but creditors of, the company which issues them. In this case, if the company is prosperous and sound the risk attached is almost nil and the rate of interest is accordingly low. Preference securities are a compromise, ranking behind the creditors and before the ordinary shareholders, who usually come last and take whatever profit is left after all claims on the company have been met, or pocket the loss of their profit and their capital if the company is a failure. They are thus adventurers and speculators, risking what they put into industry
