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  unimportant ­
  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  commercial ­
  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.