THE EVOLUTION OF SECURITIES 21 
In Europe it is quite exceptional for shares to be issued 
without some par or nominal value, and this was until the 
twentieth century also the situation in the United States. In 
recent years, however, no-par shares have become very prav- 
alent here among the major American industrial and other 
companies. To some extent this tendency here has provided 
material for controversy. Advocates of continuing the older 
practice declare that it is necessary to have a par value for 
shares in order readily to determine the amount of share capi- 
talization, and for other purposes. On the other hand, those 
who prefer the new practice declare that since shares are not as 
a rule repayable, such a par value is unnecessary, and also that 
such great disparities occur between par and actual or market 
values for shares through emphatic success or lack of success 
in the company’s affairs, that a par value only misleads the 
public as to the shares’ actual worth. For the purpose of this 
study, it is only pertinent to point out the increasing popularity 
of no-par shares. Of the 1,142 American share issues listed 
on the New York Stock Exchange on January 1, 1929, there 
were 604 par and 478 no-par share issues. 
Ordinarily, American common share issues convey to their 
holders a pro-rata vote in the proceedings of the company. 
But to this general theory there are certain qualifications in 
practice. Multiple-voting shares are nothing like as usual here 
as abroad. But since the war, American corporations have 
in certain cases put out double common stock issues called “A” 
stock and “B” stock, only one of which may possess the voting 
privilege. This new practice has in turn been attacked on the 
ground that it unfairly deprived common shareholders of their 
vote, and defended on the ground that few such shareholders 
in practice ever actually vote or care anything about voting. 
Common stock is of course the most fundamental of all 
corporate securities. Every corporation must have common 
stock, while it need not necessarily have bonds, preferred stocks, 
or other securities. Theoretically, common stock is usually