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Sources Cited in
Valuable Extinct Securities

compiled by
R[oland] M[ulville] Smythe

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BOOKS WE USED

During the forty years we worked together, the Big Four accumu-
lated quite a library. There were two publications which stood ahead
of all others, and which we found vital to the business. These were
the Commercial & Financial Chronicle and Poor's Manual of Rail-
roads. In the "Chronicle" you can find everything worth finding. It
is a continuous story of the financial world. There is nothing else to
equal it that I ever found. It began to be of use to us in the 1870
issue and has so continued up to date. It is now too bulky to continue
binding it and takes up too much room in the ordinary broker's office,
but they must have it all the same. It is the successor to Hunt's
Merchants' Magazine, which we had no use for.

 In the same class is Poor's Manual of Railroads. The issue of
1870 was the first we found of use. It contained everything of impor-
tance condensed but complete to the present date. After 1924 it became
too bulky for every office in the same way the Chronicle did. The
country is too large now to put its financial corporations in any one
volume. Poor's Manual was preceded by the Ashcrofts Manual of
Railroads, which existed from 1861 to 1869. It was on the same plan
as Poors but gave only a skeleton description of each railroad. We
did not find it of much use, but it filled in the gap to 1860. Before
that we found Stowe's Capitalists Guide and Railroad Manual, 1859.
This was on the same plan as Poors, and was most excellent in every
-way. But one issue was ever made. This book not only gave the his-
tory of the roads but also what became of them and other details of
importance. Mr. Stowe also had his opinions of the Directors and
managers of the railroads and had no hesitation in stating how lucky
some of them were to keep out of jail. As they were contemporaries
of his and some near neighbors, he must have led an active and ex-
citing life.

Next in importance to the foregoing giants of financial publications,
we find Moody's Manual, mostly of industrials. This began in 1900
and continued to date. It was very good but about 1907 it began to
intrude on the domain of the Bankers' Directories. It recovered from
this but had one bad fault. It dropped companies without telling what
became of them. This was not entirely the fault of the Manual, as
industrials are at times very shy about giving information The Manual
might have at least said, as Poor's did, that the company refused all
information.

Moody's later became as bulky as the others and is now taking up
too much room in the ordinary office.

Seven years before the first Moody's Manual was issued, there was
published by J. P. Crittenden and Chas. B. Helferich in 1893 a bulky
volume called New York Securities. It covered both railroads and
industrials. This is a very good work but only one issue was made,
1893. This was the first industrial manual issued in New York as far
as I know.

In Philadelphia the same men began the issue of a manual called
"Philadelphia Securities" in 1891. This was also a very fine work and
covered  everything in Pennsylvania, both railroads and industrials. It
also contained a list of defunct companies and one of the companies
about which no definite information could be obtained. This work
continued up to 1898.

As far as we could learn, these were the first manuals of any im-
portance, covering industrials, in the United States.

A small manual was issued at Chicago much later but we found it of
no use or interest.

A very good general manual but much condensed was the Manual
of Statistics. Issued from 1880 to 1921. It covered everything and
also gave quotations on everything. All were very condensed. It went
out of business about 1922. It was most useful.

The only important book on Mining Companies was the Copper
Handbook, issued from 1901 to date, but now called the Mines Hand-
book. This was published by Horace J. Stevens of Houghton, Michi-
gan. He knew his business and was a very good correspondent of ours.
There were some other sporadic issues of Mining Manuals but none of
any importance, and all died very young.

One of our most valued books was the New York Corporation
Directory. We had this from about 1832 to date. The numbers before
1880 are of little use as they relate to private partnerships mostly. I
gave them, with other curiosities, to the public library.

For English companies, we used the London Year Book from 1880
to date, and also Skinner's Mining Manual of the same dates. They
cover everything of any importance with full details.

If you have access to the foregoing books you need nothing else
but brains, money and luck to make a success in this or any other
business.

         

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