To be eligible for the office of Committeeman, one must have been a member for at least five years. The office is and always has been honorary, but now and again it is suggested that the Committee should consist, at least partly, of paid experts. Its duties are arduous, and it frequently has to settle points of the most delicate nature, whereas it is frequently complained that it does not consist of the best or most experienced members of the Stock Exchange, who do not see in the honour and dignity of the position sufficient inducement for the sacrifice of the time its duties involve. However, generally speaking, the members are held in high esteem, and seldom, indeed, does it occur that there is even an expression of disloyalty to the dictates of the Committee even on the part of those who most desire its reform.
It is questionable whether throughout the whole world any body of men so constituted is endowed with more important functions or with more arbitrary power. The Committee can make practically any additions to or alterations in the code of rules, which was originally based on the deed of settlement of the Stock Exchange. Those rules have become more drastic than the law of the land. Practices which would be perfectly legal, although not very reputable, constitute a contravention of the rules of the Stock Exchange which would bring dire consequences upon any member who indulged in them. Members have been expelled the House by the Committee under the rules for an offence of which the law of the land would not take cognisance. The rules of the Stock Exchange, as administered by the Committee, are a code of honour rather than a code of law.
In the course of administering this code of honour the duties of the Committee become exceedingly varied. It holds an ordinary meeting every Monday, but special meetings may be called at an hour's notice, only seven members out of the thirty being required to form a quorum in the ordinary way. Its fiat may go forth censuring, suspending, or expelling a member--expulsion, of course, meaning the loss of his profession, practically the end of his career, and probably ruin. Or its fiat may go forth in mild protest against smoking in the House a few minutes before the regulation time, or, as the temptations of the 5th of November approach, appealing to members to desist from firework displays in the House. With the Committee, of course, rest the admission and re-election of members. It decides whether the House shall be closed on any day except the usual holidays--there is always the excuse of structural alterations, and, as everyone knows, building operations can be carried on much more readily on a fine summer Saturday than during the dark frosts of winter. It decides all disputes between members; arbitration amongst the members themselves is encouraged, but they frequently refer to the Committee as a last resort. From its decision there is no appeal. To have recourse to the law courts without the permission of the Committee--which is, of course, granted in special cases--probably means the loss of membership by the member, who at the very outset undertakes to submit absolutely to the Committee and its rules. The Committee may summon any member before it and demand information; its power is inquisitorial. It fixes the days of settlement of the various transactions which take place in the market, and it decides what stocks or shares shall or shall not be quoted in the Official Price List, which emanates daily from the Stock Exchange under the Committee's superintendence. The principal officers of the Stock Exchange responsible to the Committee are its Secretary, the Secretary of the Share and Loan Department, the Official Assignee, the Deputy Official Assignee, the Manager of the Settlement Department, and the Manager of the Buying-In and Selling-Out Department. The nature of their duties will become clear as we proceed.