During seventeen years the business of the country was regulated by the quotations of the Gold Exchange. The export trade of the country necessitated the selling of gold in advance of its delivery. A buyer of wheat or cotton for export would make his purchase according to the current price of gold, but he would not get his returns from abroad in some weeks. If the price of gold should fall, meanwhile, he would be a loser. So, he would sell at once the gold he expected to receive later.... Black Friday and its evil consequences were due to the existence of a bad currency and a fluctuating standard of value. The Gold Room was at that time a necessity. Business could not be carried on without it, but it offered temptations and facilities for gambling which could not be resisted.[91] In the various States of the Union, where law-making goes on all the time with surprising zeal, there is, of course, a bewildering array of crazy-quilt laws on the statute books dealing with speculation, but these are relatively unimportant. Some of the States, Wisconsin, Louisiana, California, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, have laws similar to those of New York State, legalizing short sales of commodities and securities. Other States prohibit dealing in futures, short sales, corners, forestalling and speculation in general, and two States actually license bucket-shops.[92] It by no means follows because of the failure of the German Bourse Law of 1896 and of all similar earlier attempts to regulate or restrict speculation, that the issue has become moribund and that nothing more will be heard of it. On the contrary, just as each one of these abortive attempts at legislation; and each of the Government Commissions we have described grew out of excess in speculation and consequent losses to the public, so, no doubt, future extravagance in the world of speculative undertakings will be attended by similar outcries and similar results. There were debates in Congress for three years over the Hatch Anti-Option Bill, and while this measure failed of enactment into law, something akin to it will no doubt come up again one day when the public is in the mood.