matter.

In America we place the gold brick ahead of the gold mine. We mix
alloy of duplicity and greed with the virgin metal of our
standard of value. By improved mining methods we nearly double
our output of gold, and so cheapen it by well-nigh a half. This
shrunken gold dollar is small enough; but that is not all. We
adulterate and divide it by, say, another half when we falsely
double its cost. This we certainly do when we issue counterfeit
promises as against good coin; for in civilization and commerce
always the genuine coinage has to pay the cost of the
counterfeit. Your tailor charges you a stiff price for your suit
of clothes. That covers the clothes of the dead beats who did not
pay. To allow the sale of a fraudulent mining stock is to
depreciate the basis of this country's values. Such a wrong ought
not to be allowed in a country claiming an enlightened
government.

It is the thief who is protected in America, not his dupe. The
old law of caveat emptor protects the SELLER of fake mining
stocks, not the BUYER of them. There is little or no actually
enforced law to protect the latter. That is to say, there is
little or no actually enforced law to protect those who most need
protection, those of small incomes, orphans who have no
guardians, wage earners who have little education, widows whose
life insurance is not quite enough to support them, women engaged
in the desperate battle of life and needing more money, quick
money, better to protect themselves. The fence between these and
the natural perils of the world is slight enough. In America we
break it down entirely.