STOCK EXCHANGE AND AMERICAN BUSINESS 479
tutional investors in this country and are an important factor
in the Stock Exchange bond market.
So it is, too, with the insurance companies, whose enormous
assets are largely invested in Stock Exchange securities. The
economic importance of insurance to the country today as a
stabilizer of the risks of death and disaster to property is generally
 realized, yet the assistance which the Stock Exchange
gives to this beneficial business is often forgotten. The ability
of the insurance companies to pay their policyholders promptly
largely depends upon the ability of the Stock Exchange to
render its listed securities speedily negotiable.

The San Francisco Earthquake.—A striking instance of
this fact was afforded in the great San Francisco earthquake.
At that time the ease and readiness with which the insurance
companies indemnified their policyholders caused very general
and flattering comment. Yet the fact that the companies were
able to get cash mainly by liquidating securities in the Stock
Exchange, and that no small part of the economic burden imposed
 by the great catastrophe consequently fell on the organized
 securities market in New York, is not so often remembered.
 Many men and many companies carry insurance, not
only as a protection, but as an investment, and in large measure
 they unconsciously depend upon the steadiness and liquidity
which the Stock Exchange imparts to its listed securities.

Importance of Agriculture to the United States.—Coming
 now to the different American occupational classes for
whom the Stock Exchange renders a daily though often little
recognized service, one should at once recall our great farming
population. The tremendous economic significance to this
country of our vast and fertile fields, and of our great and
progressive farming population is sometimes overlooked in the
turmoil and clamor of city life. When the city dweller delves
into statistics, when he learns of the several “billion-dollar
crops” which these men raise each year, and their importance
to our entire foreign and domestic commerce, or when he dis-