Shorter Notices
The Stock Exchange. By Harold Wincott. (Sampson Low. 4s. 6d.) As Editor of the Investors' Chronicle Mr. Wincott knows both all there is to know about the Stock Exchange and how to tell the story. There was need for a book of about this size and compass and a book which shows the House as it stands today in a state of something like normality after the difficulties z.nd strains of war. Some of the author's references, e.g., to bonus issues, have already become more pertinent than when he sent them to the printer. There are some truths about the Stock Exchange which are par- ticularly well worth emphasising. One is the fact that, as the Cohen Committee showed, 67.5 of the holders of LI shares in ten typical companies large and small (as large as I.C.I. with its £43,590,000 capital) hold less than 200 shares apiece ; 86.6 hold less than 500. So much for the Stock Exchange and bloated capitalists ; it is the relatively small man whom Mr. Dalton hits when he taxes shares, even though most of the LI shares in these companies stand, of course, at much more than LI today. Another truth worth under- lining is that " in every country of the world there is a railway or a utility plant or a mine, oil-well or plantation or a farm or factory, built or developed with the aid of the Stock Exchange ". the House is not such a parasitic institution after all. As a whole dr. Wincott's book is a clear and comprehensive guide to operations which are often by no means clear to the common man. It would have been better if he would not write such things as " every time Moaning Minnie gave tongue," when he means " whenever the sirens sounded."
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