468 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE
are primarily aimed at institutions run for the maximum obtain-
able profits, are therefore in many ways inapplicable when
applied to such an organization. With members located all
over the nation, the Stock Exchange has the same interest as
the public at large in the conduct of its affairs, rather than a
local and specialized interest opposed to the public interest.
In concluding this scanty and yet already overlong discus-
sion of the dangers of incorporating the Exchange, the fact
should be noted that the Hughes Investigation of 1909 refused
to recommend incorporation,® and that after a careful investi-
gation by the British Royal Commission of 1877, the London
Stock Exchange was likewise not required to incorporate, but
was permitted to continue its internationally beneficial work as
a voluntary association.® In both the two largest stock ex-
changes of the world,** then, as indeed in smaller ones, the ar-
gument for forcible incorporation has been thoroughly ex-
ploded.
Jurisdiction of Stock Exchange.—We have seen that the
Exchange is essentially a market place with rules for the main-
tenance of “just and equitable principles of trade” therein.
Over its membership it has full and necessary power, but there
its authority naturally and rightfully ends. John R. Dos
Passos, an acknowledged authority on the laws of the Wall
Street securities markets declared that the jurisdiction of the
Stock Exchange should be confined and limited “to those mat-
ters which arise between its members in the course of their
business with each other as brokers; otherwise its judicial
powers might be extended to embrace every affair of human
life, which was never intended and which the law would not
permit.” And this general position in regard to its proper jur-
isdiction, the Exchange itself takes also.
The possible extension of the Exchange’s powers, curiously
enough, has been urged more strongly by amateur critics than
3 See Appendix XVIj.
3 See Van Sty pp. 231-234,
0 See Appendix XVIk.
