everything to do and nothing to do it with; we had to hew our own
paths along new lines; we had little experience to go on. Capital was
most difficult to get, credits were mysterious things. Whereas now we
have a system of commercial ratings, everything was then haphazard and
we suffered from a stupendous war and all the disasters which
followed.

Compare this day with that. Our comforts and opportunities are
multiplied a thousand fold. The resources of our great land are now
actually opening up and are scarcely touched; our home markets are
vast, and we have just begun to think of the foreign peoples we can
serve--the people who are years behind us in civilization. In the East
a quarter of the human race is just awakening. The men of this
generation are entering into a heritage which makes their fathers'
lives look poverty-stricken by comparison. I am naturally an optimist,
and when it comes to a statement of what our people will accomplish in
the future, I am unable to express myself with sufficient enthusiasm.

There are many things we must do to attain the highest benefit from
all these great blessings; and not the least of these is to build up
our reputation throughout the whole world.

The great business interests will, I hope, so comport themselves that
foreign capital will consider it a desirable thing to hold shares in
American companies. It is for Americans to see that foreign investors
are well and honestly treated, so that they will never regret
purchases of our securities.

I may speak thus frankly, because I am an investor in many American
enterprises, but a controller of none (with one exception, and that a