SHAREHOLDERS, December 20. business circles in which directors Two notable straggles in home
and a party of shareholders have fought a pitched battle have led the "Economist" to moralize upon "the helplessness of shareholders." The subject is one that may well command the widest attention and it is of interest to peruse the reflexions of this journalistic in the financial world.
Bread Company agitation and in the more serious problem presented the Law Guarantee Society's affairs the shortcomings of the joint-stock system in one direction were thrown into clear relief. When the proprietors of a company fall out, the " Economist " remarks, the machinery for settling the dispute is intolerably clumsy, and it is difficult to remember a case in which victory at the finish lay obviously with the right. An agitation, it continues, is seldom started until the management has greatly deteriorated, and yet when the battle is set the directors nearly always win. The trouble lies in the "inevitable ignorance under resent conditions of the share-olders. So little is told of a company's inner working, so little is made known in the directors' report or in the figures of the balance sheet, that intelligent criticism of a board's policy" is extraordinarily difficult. The diacussion at a general meeting is usually "the most futile thing on earth general remarks are made about the company's position, and whether
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