Wonderment is often expressed by men in other lines of business at the severity of the punishment sometimes inflicted by the governors in this autocratic control. To expel or even to suspend a member, and thus bring upon him great pecuniary loss as well as disgrace, all because of an offence which might go unpunished in other professions, naturally seems to an outsider to be unnecessarily severe. The answer to this is, of course, that the governors, recognizing their great duty, accept as a public trust the power and the ability to maintain it. No matter whose head is hit, the rules will always be vigorously enforced because they are designed to protect the public--a public, I am sorry to say, that has not always tried to understand what the Exchange stands for. That is why no statute of limitations can interfere to protect any one of its members from the penalties that attend a departure from the straight line of business morality. A rigid enforcement _from within_ is the only efficient way, and no one who knows the governors and their arduous labors on behalf of the principle for which the Exchange stands can ever doubt it. The members themselves, no matter who is punished, are a unit, and an enthusiastic unit, in upholding the disciplinary action of the governors every time. The best course for a young man to pursue who wishes to become a member is first to spend a year or more as clerk in a well-regulated broker’s office. The business is by no means intricate, and there are details with which he should familiarize himself. If in future years his partners are absent, he can then go over his firm’s books and acquaint himself, as he should, with all its affairs. A dishonest partner could ruin him, or, what is worse, disgrace him, for the governors recognize no distinctions as between partners, nor is ignorance accepted as an excuse. Office partners who are not members of the Exchange do not always understand the rules, nor the rigorous spirit in which they are enforced, and just as the Board member is held accountable for his partners, so he must pay the penalty for their misconduct.