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COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
CHARLES W. GERSTENBERG

All Rights Reserved

.G4

THIS DEDICATION

to

DEAN JOSEPH FRENCH JOHNSON

DEAN CLARENCE D. ASHLEY and
DEAN ARCHIBALD L. BOUTON

Leaves me still immeasurably in their debt

PREFACE

THIS Source book has been compiled to facilitate the study of corporation finance in classes where the use of the original documents is impossible or impracticable. Commenting upon the very recent publication of an English compilation of select documents in English Economic History, The New Statesman says: "It may not be so valuable as a means of passing examinations, but it is ten times as instructive to get the student to read some of the actual documents about the manor or gild, instead of composing the most elegantly expressed essay upon the subject." The reviewer then suggests that a source book of "Political Economy itself . . . might put some ‘élan vital' into economic teaching. It would at least enable us to realize what it was that the professors were talking about.”

That this compilation will do for the subject of corporation finance what a source book of economics is promised to do for the field of economics is the desire of the compiler. To sustain the student's interest I have refrained from editing unless, as in the cases of acknowledgments and of the similarly expressed clauses in the long mortgages and equipment trust agreements, much valuable space would be unnecessarily wasted. For the most part, the student may rely upon having a faithful transcript of the original documents; the form, in many cases, unhappily, has been changed on account of the limitations of the size of the printed page.

The contents of this book have been collected in various ways during the seven years last past. I have many people to thank for assistance-too many to enumerate here. Not the least part of the book is made up of contributions from my students. To those who have made direct contributions I express my hearty thanks; but to all my students, who have always helped to make corporation finance an entrancingly interesting subject, I acknowledge my large debt of gratitude for their assistance and inspiration.

I have leaned heavily on the ready assistance of Messrs. Richard P. Ettinger and Hugh D. Hite, and to them, as well as to Miss Ethel A. Watson and Mr. Lars P. Meyer, who have helped in the difficult task of proofreading, I express my deep thanks.

New York University,

January 12, 1914.

C. W. G.

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