PREFACE 
This book was originally published in March, 1922. Until 
the present time, its text has not been revised except in a few 
minor details. 
[n the New York Stock Exchange, these intervening years 
have been extraordinary, not only in respect to the tremendous 
increase in the scope and activity of the securities market, but 
also in respect to qualitative and frequently novel changes in 
its methods of administration. Rarely if ever before in the 
long annals of the Exchange have so few years produced so 
wide-spread a transformation. In consequence, the revision 
of this book has had to be extensive in proportion. 
The events of the past few years have thus been such as 
to render a revision of this study increasingly desirable, and 
at the same time very effectually to prevent the author from 
accomplishing it. For, apart from the pressure of other duties, 
the process of evolution and change occurring within the Ex- 
change has proved too swift and incessant to permit a-fresh 
description of its activities to possess an even relatively adequate 
finality. 
Just as the original text of this book was written in the 
dull financial period which followed the crash of 1920, so this 
revision has been prepared in the doldrums subsequent to the 
panic of 1929. While this has occurred more by accident than 
design, there is a real advantage in it. Photography is so much 
easier when the subject sits still. Nevertheless, the growth and 
development of the Stock Exchange still imposes a difficult 
problem on the author. Too many novel administrative under- 
takings, and too significant an economic evolution still lie ahead 
of America’s premier capital market to render prophecy in this 
revised edition much easier than in its predecessor. The author 
has, however, consistently endeavored to indicate such future 
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