ADMINISTRATION OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 443
in its meaning of an organization) can best be stated by quoting
 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 permitted
 maximum. Of the existing membership, some 200
members live and carry on their chief if not their entire business
 outside of New York City. Also, some Exchange members
 are partners and representatives of various types of financial
 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