115 
although this periodical gives (in 320 pages) 
the last four years’ prices, dividends and yields 
at present prices of upwards of 5,000 individual 
securities, yet this number of stocks is only a 
tithe of all the investments of the world. 
Every paper has to confine itself to a few 
stocks only, and these again are selected 
according to the individual ideas of the 
editor, who is usually not influenced by the 
relative inj^oortance of various stocks, but 
by the amount of public attention any given 
security happens to command for the time 
being. Thus, frequently, prices of unim 
portant speculative securities are recorded 
by all papers to the exclusion of the 
quotations of really safe, solid, important 
investments. Frequent newspaper references 
to any one stock are tantamount to a large 
number of trade advertisements of a com 
mercial article. Publicity does, doubtless, 
create a demand for much-advertised articles, 
but in the same way as it does not 
follow that any particular soap is the best 
because its name is on every hoarding, so the 
Allsopp Brewery issues have not proved the 
best investment of their kind because during 
a number of years they have been constantly 
quoted and commented upon in every British 
financial paper and in every City article.