"COMMON STOCKS HAVE, IN EVERY TEST, SHOWN A HIGHER TOTAL INCOME THAN BONDS"

SMITH, Edgar Lawrence. Common Stocks as Long Term Investments. New York: Macmillan, 1925. Octavo, original blue cloth. $300.

First edition, second printing, of this work promoting the value of long-term investment in stocks.

"The study by Edgar Lawrence Smith is an original and important contribution to the understanding of the problems of investments. Mr. Smith comes to the conclusion that stocks have a large advantage over bonds as a medium for long term investment, and particularly for the private investor as compared with a financial institution. He disposes effectively of the tradition that bonds, and especially first mortgage bonds, are the best type of investment" (Herwitz, American Statistical Association, 576). Smith was president of Investment Managers Company, a mutual fund firm. This book was so influential in its time that it caught the attention of economics luminaries from outside the finance world; Keynes, in fact, reviewed the book in The Nation and Atheneum and invited Smith to join the Royal Economic Society. The 1929 Crash ultimately ended Smith's career, though his contentions were statistically supported. The first edition was published in 1924. Contemporary owner signature.

Interior fine, light rubbing to spine. A near-fine copy.