“So you admit, then,” said the professor, “that the higher education elevates a business man’s standard of morals?” “Undoubtedly. That is one of its chief drawbacks,” said the banker, with a laugh. “Well,” I said, with the deference due even to a man who had only a million or two, more or less, “we must allow _you_ to say such things. But if the case is so bad with the business men who have made the great fortunes--the business men who have never had the disadvantage of a university education--I wish you would explain to Mr. Homos why, in every public exigency, we instinctively appeal to the business sense of the community as if it were the fountain of wisdom, probity, and equity. Suppose there were some question of vital interest--I won’t say financial, but political or moral or social--on which it was necessary to rouse public opinion, what would be the first thing to do? To call a meeting over the signatures of the leading business men, because no other names appeal with such force to the public. You might get up a call signed by all the novelists, artists, ministers, lawyers, and doctors in the state, and it would not have a tithe of the effect, with the people at large, that a call signed by a few leading merchants, bank presidents, railroad men, and trust officers would have. What is the reason? It seems strange that I should be asking you to defend yourself against yourself.” “Not at all, my dear fellow, not at all,” the banker replied, with his caressing bonhomie. “Though I will confess, to begin with, that I do not expect to answer your question to your entire satisfaction. I can only do my best--on the instalment plan.”