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Show WALL STREET GLAD 10 BE INVESTIGATED Welcomes Committee Which Is !o Correct Some Wrongs of the Street. ispeciul to The Tribune. NEW YORK, Dec. 25. This has been an Important week for Wall Ktreut in fact, for the wholo country, for that I which affects Wall street Is felt by ill I whole Innd. Governor Hughes appointed I a commission to investigate Wall atrect J and Us methods of doing buslneax, and In congress a bill was aimed at Wall street I and the representative who presented it ! made tho statement that but "10 per : cent of tho business of the stock ex- change was real business." This state- , ment Is ridiculous on Its face. There ; have been abuses on tho stock exchange und there will always be, but tho cx-chnngos cx-chnngos are a necessary part of the business busi-ness machinery of this country. There Is speculation, but speculation Is a good thing for tho man with securities that he desires to turn suddenly Into casu. Many persons who know as much about the street and its methods as the member mem-ber of i he house mentioned above are crying out against short sales, demanding demand-ing that no broker sell a bond or stock unless he Is In actual physical possession of that piece of paper. A law stopping short selling would be a calamity. In fact. it. would be ns disastrous as the French law that stopped short soiling of Kusslan bonds during tho Russo-Japanese war, when the Russian bonds went many polnis lower than they would have gone had there been a short interest. The stock exchango will come out of the investigation with Hying colors. There arc some errors within the exchange, due to ultra-conservatism nnd to the fact that each man objects whon he sees something wrong to bring the matter before the board or governors, for It will take tip a little of his time and might make him unpopular with a few of his fellow members. mem-bers. This cowardice has had moro to do with the growing up of a number of bud practices than anything else. |