tion sheet.

I am familiar with the Stock Exchanges of London, Berlin and Paris, and
I have no hesitation in saying that, on the whole, the New York Stock
Exchange is the most efficient and best conducted organization of its
kind in the world.

[Sidenote: _Should the Exchange be regulated?_]

The recommendations made by the Commission appointed by Governor Hughes
at the time were immediately adopted in toto by the Stock Exchange.
Certain abuses which were shown to have crept into its system several
years ago were at once rectified. From time to time other failings will
become apparent--there may be some in existence at this very moment
which have escaped its attention--as failings become apparent in every
institution, and will have to be met and corrected.

I am satisfied that in cases where public opinion or the proper
authorities call attention to shortcomings which may be found to exist
in the Stock Exchange practice, or where such may be discovered by the
governing body or the membership of the Exchange, prompt correction can
be safely relied upon.

Sometimes and in some respects, it is true, outside observers may have
a clearer vision than those who are qualified by many years of
experience, practice and routine.

If there be any measures which can be shown clearly to be conducive
towards the better fulfilment of those purposes which the Stock
Exchange is created and intended to serve, I am certain that the
membership would not permit themselves to be led or influenced by
hidebound Bourbonism, but would welcome such measures, from whatever
quarter they may originate.

Is the Exchange Merely a Private Institution?

Question:

_Do I understand you to mean, then, that the Stock Exchange is simply
a private institution and as such removed from the control of
governmental authorities and of no concern to them?_

Answer:

I beg your pardon, but that is not the meaning I intended to convey.
While the Stock Exchange is in theory a private institution, it
fulfills in fact a public function of great national importance.

That function is to afford a free and fair, broad and genuine market
for securities and particularly for the tokens of the industrial wealth
and enterprise of the country, i.e., stocks and bonds of corporations.

Without such a market, without such a trading and distributing centre,
wide and active and enterprising, corporate activity could not exist.

[Sidenote: _Is the Exchange