ADMINISTRATION OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 443 
in its meaning of an organization) can best be stated by quot- 
ing Article I of its Constitution: 
The title of this Association shall be the “New York Stock 
ExcHANGE.” 
Its objects shall be to furnish exchange rooms and other facilities 
for the convenient transaction of their business by its members; to 
maintain high standards of commercial honor and integrity among 
its members; and to promote and inculcate just and equitable principles 
of trade and business. 
This simple and straightforward statement of fact defines 
with exactness the limits within which the Stock Exchange 
pperates. 
Stock Exchange Membership.—From 1879 to 1929, the 
New York Stock Exchange as a voluntary association limited 
its total membership to 1,100; in 1929 this was increased by 
25% to 1,375 members.! Except in the recent interval when 
the increase of 275 new “seats” was being taken up, the Stock 
Exchange membership has always been maintained at its per- 
mitted maximum. Of the existing membership, some 200 
members live and carry on their chief if not their entire busi- 
ness outside of New York City. Also, some Exchange mem- 
bers are partners and representatives of various types of finan- 
cial houses, some are in business on the floor for and by 
themselves, and some are private capitalists who use their 
membership mainly to secure the lower rate of commissions 
permitted on orders given by one Exchange member to another. 
Corporations are not allowed to possess a Stock Exchange 
membership.? 
A non-member secures a “seat” (as it is still called) by 
purchasing from a retiring or recently deceased member, unless 
there should be authorized but unsold memberships available. 
The price of the seat varies with supply and demand, and the 
proceeds of its sale go to the member who is relinquishing it.® 
1 See Appendix IT: 
2 See Appendix XVla. 
3 See Appendix XVIb