The latest development of facilities for investment strikes outside observers
as an odd one. There is a perfect mania for the formation of Trust Companies, associations which invest their shareholders' capital in all kinds of securities,—foreign railways, telegraph companies, gas companies, and what not. Within a year or two, 225,000,000 have been asked for by these Companies and obtained, and their immense purchases are now driving many securities up to unprecedented figures. The idea of the public seems to be that as such Companies divide their investments, they must be safe; but if that is the case, why cannot investors divide their committals for them- selves, and so save not only the cost of management, but the additional risk involved in the chance that a Trust Secretary may steal the bonds ? Is it laziness that influences them, or humility ? We believe that the latter feeling is infinitely more potent than is suspected, and that a Trust Company would attract business though it invested only in what are called Trustee Securities, and divided only n per cent. There are masses of money in the hands of people who have absolutely no self-confidence at all.
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