New-York tribune., 1900-07-29

of the Boston Stock Excharge had also been
disciplined for "bucketing"
To the people who have only a passing ac-
quaintance with the Stock Exchange the fact
that its members are governed by strict rules
seems incOmprehensible. They have seen the
Board at work from the gallery and the work"
looked to them like a lung testing contest. Men
yell and howl and prance up and down and
make signs with their fingers and shake tiny
books and scraps Of paper under the noses of
their jostling neghbors and throw paper balls
al members who looking the other way, and
on the whole act like a lot of big boys a
lark while they do the work which establishes
values and causes the specuator to watch the
telltale ticker. But the who knows how
business is conducted "on Change" knows also
that the noise and buster the fights and the
wrangles are only small factors in the day
work, that the members are respectful to their
fellows and that ungentIemanly conduct or un-
husnesslike methods will not be tolerated on
the floor of the Exchange
y scale Of commissions has been established
10y the Board, and when member does business
for a lower commission than the one established
or practises what is known as splitting commits
sions" he lays himself liable to severe punish
ment The penalty for a violation of this rule
is for the first offence, suspension for a period
the penalty is expulsion, and in such cases the
membership of the expelled member may be
disposed of at once 10y the Committee on Admis-
sions.
There is also rule against fictitious sales
and the suspension for six months of an old
member some time ago for making a wash"
sale, the term applied to such transactions
showed that the rule to that offence is not a
dead letter The suspended member was a spe-
cialist in Erie preferred, and he was convicted
VI having bought and sold his own stock
Members also promptly suspended who
fail to comply with contracts or who become
insovent. There are number Of purely busi-
ness offences against which members are
warned by the rules of the Board but the gov
ernors pay attention to the decorum of the mem
bcrs also, and one Of the bylaws provides that
any member who shall be guilty of indecorous
language or conduct toward another member
Whl-e IN session shall, by a vote of two-thirds
OF the members present, be suspended from his
seat in the Board for not less than one week
nor more than one month while a repetition of
Nhe offence subjects the member to expulsion
ON the strength of the provision in the rule
'hat stipulates that members should not use in
aecorous language while in session" members
Aave waited for the Board to close before airing
their personal affairs. but they have usually
been punished for the offence, and the man who
recently said TO fellow member You are a
lar before 10 a. m. and after p. m" was pun
lshed, despite his diplomatic method Of express
ing an unfavorable opinion
There are unwritten laws to which the mem
bers of the Stock Exchange pay just as much
respect as they do to the ones which have come
down to them from the original Board
These rules said member. "alI rest with
one idea-that member of the Stock Exchange
is a gentleman. man NAV have his hat
smashed or his coat torn when he makes his
debut on the floor, but that only puts him on
better terms with the men with whom he hopes
to be associated But he will soon learn that
the Stock Exchange is no free and easy place"
1t was only few years ago that the MEM