A TYPICAL INVESTMENT TRANSACTION 167
in any other kind of modern business.’ There is no “welching
on a trade” afterward; no evasion of a contract is sought or
allowed. The wave of canceled contracts which occasionally
sweeps commercial America never passes the threshold of the
Exchange. No business institution or group in this or any
other country can boast of higher commercial ideals, or of
stricter adherence to what its constitution calls the “just and
equitable principles of trade,” than the New York Stock
Exchange.
Origin of Demand.—An inquiry into the demand or buy-
ing side of this sale—that is, into what impelled Wilkins, the
broker, to enter the Steel crowd and bid for stock, will lead us
to San Francisco, three thousand miles from Wall Street. At
almost the same moment that Jones was reflectively fingering
his 100-share Steel certificate in the Baltimore brokerage office,
a Mr. Smith was pondering over the ticker tape in a similar
branch office of Wilkins & Co. in San Francisco. Smith has
prospered in the Oriental exporting business and finds himself
with a surplus of $15,000, which he desires to invest. He at
length selects U. S. Steel common stock as the security best
fitted to his needs. Accordingly, he turns over his check for
$15,000 to the San Francisco branch of Wilkins & Co. and
makes out a “buy” ticket for 100 shares of Steel, limiting the
order to a price of 150% or less. In due course this order
speeds through channels similar to those observed in the case of
Mr. Jones's order to sell. The order clerk in San Francisco
sends the order over a private telegraph wire to the New York
office of Wilkins & Co.; thence it is relayed by private phone
to the Stock Exchange floor, where a clerk takes it down on a
buying slip (Figure 10) ; then Wilkins obtains and executes it.
And, like the capable broker that he is, Wilkins obtained the
stock 14 under the price limit set for its purchase by his far-
away customer, by observing conditions and waiting at the post
T 1 See Appendix Vie.
