Without going into shades of encyclopedic meaning, I would define, for the purpose of this discussion, a financier as a man who has some recognized relation and responsibility toward the larger monetary affairs of the public, either by administering deposits and loaning funds or by being a wholesale or retail distributor of securities.
To all such the confidence of the financial community, which naturally knows them best, and of the investing public is absolutely vital. Without it, they simply cannot live.
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.
Then suddenly a mirror was held up by influences sufficiently powerful to cause the mad race to halt for a moment and to compel the concentrated attention of all the people. And that mirror clearly showed, perhaps it even magnified, the blemishes on that which it reflected.
With their recognition came stern insistence upon change, and very quickly the realization of that demand. That is the normal process of civilization in its march forward and upward.
And I claim that Finance has been as quick and willing as any other element in the community to discern the moral obligations of the new era brought about within the last ten years and to align itself on their side.
As soon as the meaning of the laws under which business was to be conducted had come to be reasonably defined, as soon as it became apparent that the latitude tacitly permitted during the pioneer period must end, finance fell into line with the new spirit and has kept in line.
I say this notwithstanding the various investigations that have since taken place, nearly all of which have dealt with incidents that occurred several years ago.
And in this connection I would add that it is difficult to imagine anything more unfair than the theory and method of these investigations as all too frequently conducted.
The appeal all too often is to the gallery, hungry for sensation; the method—to wash as much soiled linen as possible in public (even, if necessary, to make clean linen appear soiled), and to use a profusion of soap and water quite out of proportion to the actual cleaning to be done.
To innocent transactions it is sought to give a sinister meaning; what lapses, faults or wrongs may be discovered are given exaggerated portent and significance.
The Chairman is out to make a record, or to fortify a preconceived notion or accomplish a preconceived purpose.
Counsel is out to make a record. The principal witnesses are placed in the position of defendants at the bar without being protected by any of the safeguards which are thrown around defendants in a court of law.
To complete the picture, I must—saving your presence—add this other patch of black: The reporting is very frequently, if not generally, done by young men not very familiar with matters of finance and in search of incident and of high light rather than of the neutral tints of a sober and even record; and the job of headlining seems somehow to be entrusted always to a mortal enemy of the particular witnesses of each session, selected with great care for his ingenuity in compressing the maximum of poison gases into a few explosive words.
It may all be legitimate, according to political standards, but it is not justice, and what of benefit is accomplished could equally well be obtained, whatever of guilt is to be revealed could equally well and probably better be disclosed, without resorting to inflammatory appeal and without, by assault or innuendo, recklessly and often indiscriminately besmirching reputations and hurting before the whole world the good name of American business.
I do not know of any similar method and practice and spirit of conducting investigations in any other country.
By all means let us delve deep wherever we have reason to suspect that guilt lies buried. Let us take short cuts to arrive at the truth, but let us be sure that it is the truth that we shall meet at the end of our road, and not a mongrel thing wearing some of the garments of truth, but some others, too, belonging to that trinity of unlovely sisters, passion, prejudice and self-seeking.