Business: Fire Hazard

Before Charles Richard Gay was elected president of the New York Stock Exchange last spring, the senior partner in the conservative old Wall Street firm of Whitehouse & Co. had lived his 60 years obscurely in bourgeois Brooklyn. But the very fact that he was a personal unknown made him a likely candidate for the tough job of reselling the Stock Exchange to a suspicious public.

Though President Gay indulged in no spectacular upheavals upon assuming office, he did display an amazing talent for public relations. He went to Washington for a friendly chat...