water
when you think you are buying a tonic. In the same way the proportion
of water in a stock issue should be plainly and publicly shown.

The purchaser should not be permitted to be under the impression that
he is buying a share in tangible assets when, as a matter of fact, he
is buying expectations, earning capacity or goodwill. These may be, and
often are, very valuable elements, but the purchaser ought to be
enabled to judge as to that with the facts plainly and clearly before
him.

[Sidenote: _Does the public get fleeced?_]

The main evil of watered stock lies not in the presence of water, but
in the concealment or coloring of that liquid. Notwithstanding the
unenviable reputation which the popular view attaches to watered stock,
there are distinctly two sides to that question, always provided that
the strictest and fullest publicity is given to all pertinent facts
concerning the creation and nature of the stock.

Do "Big Men" Put the Market Up or Down?

Question:

_Is it not a fact that some of the "big men" get together from time
to time and determine to put the market up or down so as to catch
profits going and coming?_

Answer:

As to "big men" meeting to determine the course of the stock market,
that is one of those legends and superstitions inherited from olden
days many years ago when conditions were totally different from what
they are now, and when the scale of things and morals, too, were
different, which it is hard to kill.

The fluctuations of the stock market represent the views, the judgment
and the conditions of thousands of people all over the country, and
indeed, in normal times, all over the world.

The current which sends market prices up or down is far stronger than
any man or combination of men. It would sweep any man or men aside like
driftwood if they stood in its way or attempted to deflect it.

[Sidenote: _Do "big men" put the market up or down?_]

True, men at times discern the approach of that current from afar off
and back their judgment singly, or sometimes even a few of them
together, as to its time and effect. They may hasten a little the
advent of that current, they may a little intensify its effect, but
they have not the power to either unloosen it or stop it.

If by the term "big men" you mean Bankers, let me add that a genuine
Banker has very little time and, generally speaking, equally little
inclination to speculate, and that his very training and oc