Until recently, students of the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries concentrated on technological changes or on labor and social problems but neglected capital and the capitalist. Mantoux gave 160 pages to technology, 100 to labor, and only 34 to capital. Mrs. Knowles devoted 8½ pages out of 392 to capital, companies, and combinations. The Hammonds have given us volumes on the town laborer, the skilled laborer, and the village laborer, but we still lack the book Unwin once hoped they would write on the working life and ideals of the entrepreneur.

All things considered George Smith and J. Young Scammon were the two outstanding bankers in Chicago history from 1836, when the city's first bank (a branch of the State Bank) was opened, to the turn of the century. Both men became actively identified with the life of the pioneer community in their twenties. One was a Scottish banker of extraordinary ability, the other was a public-spirited lawyer with strong leanings toward banking throughout his life. One saw in legal restraints on banking only unfortunate restrictions to a successful banker, the other strove for laws to prescribe bank practice.