To provide for the thousands of millions of dollars annually needed by our railroads and other industries, would vastly overtax the resources of all the greatest financial houses and groups taken together, and therefore the financier or group of financiers undertaking such transactions _must_ depend in the first instance upon the co-operation of the financial community at large. For this purpose such houses or groups associate with themselves for every transaction of considerable size, a large number of other houses, thus forming so-called syndicates. But even the resources thus combined of the entire financial community would fall far short of being sufficient to supply the needed funds for more than a very limited time, and appeal must therefore be made to the absorbing power of the country as a whole represented by the ultimate investor. Now, let a financial house, either through lack of a high standard of integrity in dealing with the public, or through lack of thoroughness and care, or through bad judgment, forfeit the confidence of its neighbors or of the investing public, and the very roots of its being are cut. I do not mean to claim that high finance has not in some instances strayed from the highest standard, that it has not made mistakes, that it has not at times yielded to temptation--and the temptations which beset its path are indeed many--that there have not been some occurrences which every right thinking man must deplore and condemn. But I do say and claim that practically all such instances have occurred during what may be termed the country's industrial and economic pioneer period, a period of vast and unparalleled concentration of national energy and effort upon material achievement, of tremendous and turbulent surging towards tangible accomplishment, of sheer individualism, a period of lax enforcement of the laws by those in authority, of uncertainty regarding the meaning of the statutes relating to business and, consequently, of impatience at restraint and a weakened sense of the fear, respect and obedience due to the law. In the mighty and blinding rush of that whirlwind of enterprise and achievement things were done--generally without any attempt at concealment, in the open light of day for everyone to behold--which would not accord with our present ethical and legal standards, and public opinion permitted them to be done. To quote one instance out of many: Campaign contributions by corporations were a recognized and almost universal practice. The acceptance of such contributions did not shock the most tender political conscience. Now they are rightly forbidden, and what up to a few short years ago was not only not prohibited but sanctioned by the custom of a generation and more, is now made and considered a crime.