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Show ISTOCK EXCHANGE IS AGISHIIE Bill I John G. Milburn Voices Ob. I jections of Speculators to I the Owen Measure. I WORD STEALING USED I Nelson of Minnesota Believes I in Calling Things by Their I Right Names. I WASITINTGTON. Feb. 12. John G. Mil- I burn, counsel for the New York Stock I exchanse. finished his statement today I beforo the senate banklnpr comniltteo at I its hearing on the Owen bill, to rcgu-I rcgu-I lato stock cxclmnges. I He objected to the requirement that I before tho securities of any corporation I shall be listed on the stock exchange, I the directors shall file with the exchange I a statement as to Phe natuvo and value I of the assets of tho corporation, toseth-I toseth-I fr with other Information as to Its busl-I busl-I nesa, including copies of all contracts and I agreements affecting- the securities. He I thought. It might ho proper to require the tiling of that information somewhere, I but tho tiling of U ought to .have nothing I to do with the question of regulating the I transmission of stock quotations through I the malls, f Tho discussion led Into a mention of ' the New York, New Haven & Hartford I railroad affairs. Senator Hitchcock used the word "stealing." "Don't call it stealing." said Mr. Mil-lai-n. "Oh. let's call things by their right I names," interjected Senator Nelson. "It's i the meanest kind of stealing. The man 1 who breaks Into my houso is an honest j man In comparison." ; Too Much Legislation, i Mr. Milburn said too much legislation ' was taking away from the individual his vigor and tho sense of necessity for fight-i fight-i ing his own battles. The requirement In the bill tliat members mem-bers of the exchange should keep books of account of all transactions open at all times to the inspection of the postmaster post-master general, he said, was unreasonable. unreason-able. The enforcement of such a provision, provi-sion, ihe eald, would cause an. exodus from the exchange. Present members would be succeeded, hesaid, by a "lot of "two-dollar brokers" who keep no books. Senator Hitchcock asked why It would not bo a good thing to have the postmaster postmas-ter general examine the books of all credits for the United States senate to eee how they made their fortunes. Mr. Milburn replied that he could see no stopping place. Mr. Milburn defended the operations in California Petroleum, which iad been cited by Samuel Untermyer as an exam- OFFICERS of the Western Retail Lumbermen's association. associa-tion. Left to right: Vice President F. H. Wheelan of Fresno, President Robert Anderson of Logan, Secretary A. L. Porter of Spokane. pic of manipulation of stocks by the New York Stock exchange, contending that the operation:! wore simply to steady the market and were legitimate. Jamca A. Jackson and Charles F. WphiJ. representing a. committee of the Boston chamber of commerce, presented a report recognizing the advisability or reasonable regulation of stock exchanges, but challenging tho wisdom of granting to the postmaster general such wide authority au-thority ns tho bill proposes. Untermyer Replies. Mr Untermyer replied to statements of tho representatives of the stock exchange. ex-change. He declared that Improper dealings deal-ings were permitted on tho exchango, but that to curb them would Involve tho sacrifice of large profits. Ho especially condemned loaning a customer's stocks to facilitate short sales. He said that was the Invariable custom of the exchange. As to manipulation and tho extent to which It Is practiced, he said there had been an effort to shift the issue by discussing dis-cussing the wisdom or unwisdom of prohibiting pro-hibiting speculating or 6hort selling. The bill he said, was only intended to deal with manipulation. Senator Hitchcock said that he had heard that Mr. Untermycr's support of tho bill was due to experiences ho had had with the stock exchango which had omblttorcd him against it, Mr. Untor-myer Untor-myer said that was utterly untrue; that ho never peculated, and that some of his best friends and clients were members of the exchange. He sold ho was actuated by puhllc spirit and that he had been asked by the chairman of the committee to appear. |
