SELECTING INVESTMENTS.
At the close of the book, as I shall show shortly, Mr. Withers makes out a strong plea for investors seeking safety through the medium of a well-organized Trust. Recognising not only the highly complicated problems involved in the investment of capital, the author of this book quite rightly regards the selection of investments as a task more for the expert than the ordinary individual, and I quite agree with him, though whether when times of activity come again nine out of every ten individuals not prefer the blind " tip " to the safe paths indicated ay Mr. Withers is another matter.
In describing, however, towards the end of his book the good Trust companies as a kind of haven for investors; I am inclined to think that Mr. Withers scarcely does justice to the earlier portions of his book devoted to pointing out to the investor not only the many pitfalls and e' quicksands, but the way to avoid those dangers by a more careful attention to the circumstances surrounding the loan or the company in which the investor is about to embark his capital. It is quite true that, even after reading the latest text- books on balance sheets, company procedure, and so forth, the man in the street may have some difficulty in quickly gathering from a balance sheet or a prospectus the full meaning of the facts and figures contained therein. I think, however, that if he follows the very careful analysis of specimen balance sheets given in Mr. Hartley Withers' book and carefully studies his comments upon the composition of directorates and also the warnings against unsound speculation, he will not go very far wrong in the employment of his capital.
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