38                                FIRST ANNUAL REPORT.

at auction, and would receive back any amount that the sale of the article
pledged would realize over the amount due and expenses of sale.

We fully agree with Mr. Champion Bissell (see his article in
Lippincott's for February) that, under our democratic form of
government and under existing political conditions, the state or
the city, as such, can, for obvious reasons, not assume the man¬
agement of establishments for lending money on pledges, nor
should they be asked to do so.

But why should not a number of public-spirited and philan¬
thropic citizens combine to form a society for that purpose ?
Why should not a society, formed on the plans outlined above
and profiting by the experience gained elsewhere, succeed in
achieving the ends in view as a business enterprise 1 We believe
that, " ceteris paribus," any undertaking that can be carried out
successfully elsewhere, ought also to succeed in New York City.

James Speyer.