THE DISTRIBUTION OF SECURITIES 97
These agreements, along with other matters, are covered in
the so-called listing “questionnaire” and related documents, the
texts of which are reproduced in an appendix to this chapter.*®
This demand by the Stock Exchange that corporations and
foreign governments listing their securities upon it give wide
and adequate publicity to their affairs, is made primarily on
behalf of the public. The information received by the Com-
mittee on Stock List concerning any security which is listed is
available to the public. The Committee in fact refuses to
receive statements from a corporation which cannot be printed
in the listing application, or be made accessible to its stock-
holders and to investors generally.
Corporations with securities listed on the Stock Exchange
are also required, subsequent to listing, to make public at suit-
able intervals their earnings and other essential and current
statistics. The Exchange requires the companies in question
to publish such information in the press and thus make it
readily available to people all over the world.
The Stock Exchange has and seeks no power over the cor-
porations of the country. If it should attempt to set itself up
as a self-appointed censor of all American business, the Ex-
change would invite and deserve public criticism. If its
regulations with regard to listing should become excessive and
inequitable, they would soon prove valueless, since the corpora-
tions would refuse to list their securities there. The Exchange
can and does, however, employ moral suasion with the corpora-
tions of the country, and thus has been all along an important
factor in the constantly rising standards of corporation ethics
which are apparent in this country.
The Test of Distribution.—As to the questionnaire men-
tioned above, an examination of it as it appears in the accom-
panying appendix suffices to reveal its purpose. A further
word is, however, necessary concerning the distribution state-
ments which are reproduced on accompanying pages (Figures
—
'3 See Appendix IVh.
