The only way a new stockholder can possibly determine whether he wishes to buy some more stock or sell what stock he already has, is to hunt up some other stockholder or some banker who may happen to have a file of the annual reports over a period of years. Assuming that a complete file of annual reports can be found, most stockholders, if left to their own resources, would be hopelessly confused in trying to reach any correct basis for analyzing the figures. Each stockholder would have to take a sheet of paper and copy off, into different columns for various important items of the operating statement and balance sheet, figures for a number of years so that the figures for different years could all be seen at one time and compared. This means that each stockholder would have to make practically a cross-index of the most important data contained in a series of annual reports in order to study the different phases of operation independently. Even if the stockholder should know how to make such a cross-index properly, there are very few stockholders who would be willing to give the time and the mental effort requisite to make a tabulated comparison of the kind necessary.

The absorption of good securities by the public has increased in the last ten years at a tremendous rate. The Wall Street Journal has compiled statistics of the stockliolders of the larger railway and industrial corporations showing that the numbers have grown as follows :