120 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE
financial contacts and sources of information. The collapse of
the bucketshops in 1921-22° impelled such security buyers,
often for the first time, to seek to do business through legiti-
mate brokerage houses.
But an even more serious foe to sound security investment
than bucketshops, has always been the irresponsible vendor of
fraudulent securities. The frauds committed by both these
varieties of financial wolves have not only injured unfortunate
and helpless persons of small means, but have also tended to
undermine the faith of the American people in legitimate se-
curity dealers, legitimate securities, and even in thrift itself.
It has been small wonder that the victims of these iniquities,
who frequently have known little about securities or the se-
curity business, should be inclined in their righteous wrath to
lay the blame for their misfortunes upon the legitimate stock
exchanges, reputable security firms and in fact upon everything
and everybody connected with the security business in any way.
In recent years, however, the strenuous efforts made by
the Stock Exchange to protect the public from the security
swindler have borne fruit not only in rendering security
swindling itself a more hazardous occupation, but also in a
wider public understanding of the functions and character of
the New York Stock Exchange itself and the facilities for pro-
tecting security investors which it maintains. In almost every
direction are clear indications that the new American investors
are becoming increasingly well-informed in these respects.
After all, the bread and butter of Stock Exchange men con-
sists in the interest and faith exhibited by the American people
in buying listed securities. In a rather especial way, the New
York Stock Exchange has long represented the otherwise inar-
riculate and inexperienced security investors, and its policies in
this respect have been intensified and deepened from decade to
decade, and even from year to year.
“8 See Appendix IVo.
