His days on “the floor,” as it is commonly termed, will bring him in contact with many different types. He will find here all that is finest in human character, and many withering things that are most fatal to it; these he may find anywhere, because there will always be men who carry all sail and no ballast, “men who cannot believe life real until they make it fantastic.” But the Stock Exchange is a great leveler; infallibly its swift analysis of character will search him out, weigh him and measure him, and place him just where he deserves to be. Nowhere else among business men does this silent and sure appraisal of worth find a more perfect result. It has nothing to do with the size of one’s purse nor the blue in one’s veins; it takes no account of what a man has been nor of what his ancestors were. Commercial honor is what counts, and within these four walls it is raised to a high plane and maintained with reverence. They live a touch-and-go life, with quick changes and nerves all in action, but they make no mistakes when they analyze character in their great crucible. Those brutal aphorisms, “money talks,” “might makes right,” “whatever is, is right,” and all similar phrases, become meaningless in the matter-of-fact subordination of externals that one witnesses daily on ’Change, where life is stripped of all save elementals. It is character that “talks” here, not money; if might makes right, it is the might of decency and not of brute force or “pull”; whatever is, is “right” only so far as it conforms to the code of gentlemen and exalts the square deal. Unless a candidate understands this in its fullest sense, and is determined to make it his goal, he had better avoid the Stock Exchange. Conversely, we find in this critical atmosphere another reason why honorable men are ambitious to become members, for it is something inspiriting to have won the discriminating approval of a critical assembly abounding in experience and guided by good traditions. The New York Stock Exchange is an association and not an incorporated body. It resembles a club in its organization, and hence through its governing board it exercises a control over its members that could not be maintained by differently constituted authority. From the moment a man signs that Ark of the Covenant, the constitution, and thereby becomes a member, he places himself, his partners, his customers, his employees, his books and all his business affairs unreservedly in the hands of the Board of Governors. This body, which is composed of members of the Exchange, is chosen in classes of ten, by the full Board at an annual election. It consists of forty members, divided into eleven standing committees, of some of which the President, Vice-President, and Treasurer are also members.