KING'S VIEWS OF  THE  NEW YORK STOCK  EXCHANGE
 

FRANCIS L. FAMES*

FAMES & MOORE.    PRESIDENT 189.
 

are afforded for the transmission of such messages, and instances are on record
where a quotation has been cabled to London and an order based thereon
returned inside of two minutes. Then Wall Street must have the news, accu¬
rately, and above all quickly, since everything that goes on in this or other
countries may influence prices. Hence it has two fully equipped agencies, Dow,
Jones & Co. and New York News Bureau, with their special correspondents in
every direction, gathering all the news that in any way would interest the stock
market. As the items come in they are printed by specially designed fast
presses on bulletins and distributed to the subscribers of the agencies. Dow,
Jones & Co. disseminate their news by the ingenious electrical page printer, the
only machine of its kind in New York. The only other page printers are in use
in London, Paris and Chicago. The Exchange has a gallery from which, when
the Board is in session, the public can witness its proceedings, and which visitors
in New York from other parts of the country seldom fail to include in their
itinerary of the metropolitan sights.

Around the Stock Exchange, like satellites, are a number of other organiza¬
tions and instrumentalities for dealing in securities. There are private bankers
who buy and sell foreign exchange, municipal bonds, investment securities and
commercial paper. There are also '' outside " brokers who conduct transactions
in gas, electric railroad and other securities not dealt in on the E.xchange, and
who congregate in front of the Mills Building on Broad Street. Such transactions
are in the slang of " the Street" said to be " on the curb." There are dealers in
gold and silver bullion and foreign
currencies, loan brokers who effect
loans upon securities, and brokers in
foreign exchange. The Consolidated
Stock and Petroleum Exchange of
New York is a minor body of i,8oo
members, which deals in stocks under
conditions similar to those existing in
the large exchange, and which owns
and occupies a large building on
Broadway, Exchange Place and New
Street.

Not far from Wall Street rises
the beautiful square tower and large
building of the New York Produce
Exchange, which affords a market for
grain and produce second in impor¬
tance only to the Board of Trade in
Chicago. Its 3,000 members can in
fact assert that a very large pro¬
portion of the country's exports of
grain and provisions are arranged
through it.

The New York Cotton Exchange
in Hanover Square is a central factor
in recording the
price of the
country's cotton
product. Its
building is in an
architectural
sense one of the
handsomest in
the city, and its
membership in¬
cludes represent¬
atives of a large
number of the
foremost Wall
Street interests.
The Coffee Ex¬
change in Beaver
Street is another
body of more than
local importance
and of high re¬
spectability, and
elsewhere are the
Real Estate and
the Wool Ex¬
changes.

It   has   been

said with truth that Wall Street is the focus of the country's business. It might be
called a barometer that measures with unfailing accuracy the condition of trade.
When depression fell upon the country, when money was hoarded and distrust
prevailed, when crops were poor and grain low, when farmers suffered and
mechanics were unemployed, and merchants and manufacturers found no market
for their goods, when railroads were going into bankruptcj', the stock ticker
with unfailing accuracy sent out day by day and hour by hour a disheartening
record of falling prices for shares and bonds.

Recently we have had the reverse of this picture. Confidence has reasserted
itself, crops are good and prices for them high, the agricultural community
is prosperous, merchants have brisk trade in full prospect, labor finds employment,
and mills and manufactories are starting into new activity. Wall Street reflects
these evidences of national prosperity by a "boom" in stock values, even if
speculation has its ups and downs, and "reactions" sometimes overtake a too
sanguine market, which then has to wait for a "rally,"

These, however, are only simple illustrations of the process always going on in
Wall Street. It is the investor, the real owner of stocks and bonds, who creates
the fluctuations in values. If trouble appears on the horizon he sells, and if on
the contrary conditions are favorable he buys. Wall Street consequently watches
with the closest attention all that can afi^ect the material interests of the country,
and the most successful speculator is simply the one who can most accurately read
the facts in this connection.   Without the genuine legitimate basis for fluctuations
 

_ the speculator would have nothing upon which to base his operations. Constant
as the speculation in Wall Street is, it is onljr an incident, though an important
one, in the functions which that great financial mart plays in the organization
of business in the United States.

Part of the distrust, not to say hostility, that is often expressed toward Wall
Street is due to a lack of knowledge of what the money market and the stock
market are. Much of it also arises from the misuse of its name by mere gamblers,
who under the guise of what are called bucket shops have for some years past
plied their vocation, using the fluctuations in stock prices as the paraphernalia of
their nefarious trade. These people simply invite the public to bet upon the course
of quotations, and the so-called customers' loss is their gain. They invite all with
any money, large or small in amount, to enter their game. An equally harmful
class are the managers of so-called discretionary pools, who promise unheard-of
returns as the result of small amounts committed to their charge for speculative
purposes. All of this is far from the legitimate methods of the real Wall Street.
Any one with money in sufficient amount to invest in the New York market should
make sure that they are dealing through the New York Stock Exchange or some
bank or banks in direct communication with it. The mercantile agencies like
Bradstreet's and Dun's afford direct and satisfactory information on this point.

At the close of his " Early History of Wall Street" Oswald G. Villard pays
this tribute: "If it is to-day no longer the haunt of statesmen or the lounging-
place  of fashion,   its fame has in no wise decreased, for it  contains now the

commercial leaders of the republic as
it did the political leaders one hun¬
dred years ago. If there is much in
its life to-day which calls for the
deepest censure and regret, it is still
the pulse which records the heart¬
beats of the nation, and still the wall,
the bulwark, to which the people look
for the means of defence of the city,
the state, and the nation in times of
financial danger and national peril."
HENRY E. WALLACE,

Financial Editor Bradstreet's.
 

RANSOM H.  THOMAS*

R. H. THOMAS & CO.    VICE-PRESIDENT
 

WILLIAM McCLURE*

CHAIRMAN NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
 

OFFICERS OF THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
 

EXCHANGE PRESIDENTS

FROM 1817 to 1898

The   chief   offices  in  the   Stock
Exchange have been always regarded
as a distinction which men of   the
highest  position   in   the   New York
business and social world were eager
to obtain.   Among the living ex-pres¬
idents of the Exchange are William
Alexander  Smith,   the  dean   of   the
Stock Exchange membership, having
joined it as long ago as 1844; Salem T.
Russell,   long   a
member of the
Governing   Com¬
mittee   and   also
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is sought ; and
Edward King,
now President of
the Union Trust
Co. Among more
recent presidents
have been Bray-
ton Ives, until
lately President
of the Western
National Bank;
Donald Mackay,
of Vermilye &
Co. ; Commodore
James D. Smith,
of Jas. D. Smith
& Co.; J. Edward
Simmons, now
the executive
head of the
Fourth National
Bank; Watson B.
Dickerman, of
Dominick    &

Dickerman; William L. Bull, of Edward Sweet & Co., and Frank K. Sturgis, of
Strong, Sturgis & Co., a firm which succeeded the historic Wall Street house of
Work, Strong & Co., founded by Frank Work, the favorite broker of Commodore
Cornelius Vanderbilt in his great operations a generation ago. In its whole history
the Exchange has had only six treasurers and an equal number of secretaries.

THE   PRESIDENTS

A. Stockholm,

g. s   mumford,

Edward Lyle,

James W. Bleeckek,

Russell H. Nevins,

John Ward,

R. D. Weeks,

Edward Prime,

R. D. Weeks,

David Clarkson,

H. G. Stebbins,

C. R. Marvin,   .

John H. Gourlie,

H. G. Stebbins,

W. H. Neilson,    .

W. R. Vermilye,

Abram B. Baylis,

H. G. Stebbins,

William Seymour, Jr.,

Robert L. Cutting,

William Alexander Smith,
 

treasurer since
 

GEORGE W. ELY*
secretary of the exchange since
 

I8I7
 

John Warren,
 

1867
 

iS18-24
 

William Searles,
 

1868
 

1824-25
 

W. H. Neilson,     .
 

1869
 

1826-29
 

William Seymour, Jr.,    .
 

1870
 

1830
 

W. B. Clerke,
 

1871
 

1831-33
 

Edward King,
 

1872
 

1834
 

H. G. Chapman,    .
 

1S73
 

1835
 

George H. Brodhead,
 

1874
 

1836
 

George W. McLean,    .
 

1875
 

1837-50
 

Salem T. Russell,    .
 

1S76
 

I85I
 

Henry Meigs,
 

1877
 

1852-56
 

Brayton Ives,   .
 

1878-79
 

1857
 

Donald Mackay,
 

.    1880-81
 

1858
 

Frederick N. Lawrence,
 

1882
 

1859-60
 

Alfrederic S. Hatch,
 

1883
 

I86I
 

J. Edward Simmons,
 

1884-85
 

1862
 

James D. Smith,   .
 

.   1886-87
 

1863
 

William L. Bull,
 

1888-89
 

,    1864
 

Watson B. Dickerman,
 

.   1890-gi
 

1865
 

Frank K. Sturgis,   .
 

1892-94
 

1866
 

Francis L. Fames,
 

.   1S94-9S