The mirror., 1916-12-14
Americas Financial Street
CONTINUED from first page)

to day, subject to the rules and regulations
of the exchange as to delivery of stock, the
prompt meeting of obligations etc.. On
the floor of the exchange, around the walls,
are innumersble telegraph and telephone in
struments, each member having his own
direct telegraph and telephone connection
not only with his own office in the financial
district, by means of which he receives in
structions from his clients and advises them
of purchases and sales but also with his
branch offices in New York and other cities
throughout the United States. In fact the
floor of the New York Stock Exchange is
the active head and brain of the financial
fabric of the entire United States, for al
most every city in the country is directly
connected with it by ttpIivate wires" which
wires are leased by the New York brokers
from the telegraph companies at enormous
yearly rentals and are operated directly from
each brokers Office by his own telegrapher.
Over these private wires, extending even
into the larger cities of Canada, such as
Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg, flow
the large streams of orders to purchase and
sell those stocks which then clients wish to
deal in. Thus during every minute of the
day by means of this vast network of wires
emanating from the fulcrum at Wall Street,
every nook and Granny in the United States
is constantly advised of the fluctuations in
price of the various stocks dealt in. Usually
in the Offices of local brokers throughout the
country these quotations are simultaneously
marked up on black k-board where the
prospective trader may determine instantly
the course that any particular stock is taking
and may govern his own actions accord
ingly.
Another valuable aid to the dissemination
of price quotations, as they are made on the
floor of the exchange, is the device known
as the "ticker.'' This is a patented ma
chine owned and controlled by Dow, Jones
& Co. of New York City, who lease them
to brokers, hotels, banks and other public
concern which is vitality interested in price
fluctuations. The machine itself is COM
bination telegraph instrument and type
writing or rather printing machine, elec-
trically operated by means of wires con-
nected directly with the floor of the stock
exchange itself and manipulated therefrom,
it transmits and records, by printing on
narrow strip of paper about half an inch
wide, each sale as it actually takes place on
the floor of the exchange. Thus for instance
the cashier of any large bank in New York
can simply take hold of the ribbon or paper
or ''tape,'' as it is called-and follow the
sales of all stocks in which the bank is
particularly interested. This information
must be available instantaneously to all
large banks as they make huge loans, called
''call loans," to brokers and private parties
on slender margins and if these margins
(which shall explain later on) are not pro-
tected, the bank must be in a position to
appropriate the particular stock or stocks
held as collateral security for the loans and
in this way protect itself.
In addition to an exact record of all actual
transactions on the exchange, the ticker
also, after the exchange closes. conveys out
side information, such as important news
items from abroad which are likely to effect
the price of stocks, baseball scores and
during the racing season, the racing results
from Belmont Park and Rockaway.
We have then in a cursory manner de-
scribed the mechanical part of the stock
exchange and have shown how by its phys
ical connections with the entire country it
is enabled to transact its daily business.
What comodities then does it deal in?
The only things bought and sold on the
New York Stock Exchange are the stocks
and bonds of those incorporated companies
which are LISTED" on the exchange. With
out entering into any detailed explanation
of the "listing'' of stocks may say that
listed stocks and bonds are those, the secur-
ty of which have been Investigated by the
Board of Governors and passed by them as
fulfilling all the stringent regulations pro-
vided by the exchange in that behalf and
these are confined almost exclusively to the
undertakings of power to supply the in
creasing market, and as all this transforma-
ton of the processes of manufacture in
volved the necessary utilization of large
amounts of capital, with the dawning of
what is known at the present time as the
industrial age,'' the era of capitalism ar
rived, Whereas prior to that time each
artisan was the individual owner of his tools
of trade, now he found that singIe-handed
he could not buy and equip factory or
build and operate railroad or steamship
line and so in order to supply this need
cooperation in rhe form of the joint-stock
company came into existence and at the
present day all businesses of any magnitude
are carried on in this way.
A company therefore, as it is known to
the law, is nothing more ner less than the