Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-04-03 | Page 12 | Blue Sky Knocks Oil off Exchange

BLUE SKY KNOCKS OIL OFF EXCHANGE Mining Mart Temporarily Prohibited From Dealing in Petroleum Stocks. In accordance with the power invested In him by the recently passed "blue sky" ordinance governing the sale of stocks In -Salt Iake City, Charles W. Iwrence, city license assessor and collector, yesterday yes-terday served notice on the Salt Lake Stock & Mining exchange that the call of oil stocks must be suspended until information in-formation demanded in the ordinance is supplied for the inspection of the city license li-cense department. The notice was served upon William H. Child, chairman of the listing1 committee of the exchange. Pursuant to the notice and the terms of the ordinance, the list of oil stocks will be dropped from the board of the exchange, effective today. Accord ins? to the terms of the ordinance, stocks which wore listed on the exchange prior to January 1, I'.il, will be accepted by the city on the strength of the report of tiit sei Tctury of the exchange. Those listed later must be approved by the city Ik-enso collector. Inasmuch as the oil stocks wore not placed on the board until t lie hit ter part of Ja nuary, they come under the temporary ban. A e the brokers become more familiar with rise terms of the ordinance the wails a::ainst some of the provisions grow more piemii ill. By some it is suites ted that the ortIin;in e is defeating ; he very pur-li.vs.j pur-li.vs.j tor which it wa s intended. The op; n ion is rapidly hecttminir general that it will l'o a lout; ways tow ai d defeat) up :iny oil boom which may be headed : own id Salt Lake. None of the brokers denies that intelligent retaliation of slock a!es is irnirh to lie desired, but they balk at w! at thev term "discriminatory legis- iHUnn." The Ironclad ruling with reference to oil stoi ks on the mining excha rige is printed out as one of the discriminations. L'nless all the data specified in the ordinance ordi-nance is furnished t lie city license coi-k-r ior and meets with his approval, none of the stocks may ue called on the ex-thaue. ex-thaue. At the same time pru.'aMy half t lie siockfl which were being called are listed on outside exchanei-H and may he purchased at the brokerage houses oper-f oper-f t inu' pri va to w i res. A not her Important feature In this connection con-nection is the attitude of the oil companies compa-nies toward furnishing the required information. in-formation. Inasmuch as the trading In o'l s cocks i n Salt 1 ,a k e is as ye t e x t ro mol y low. It is sugi:0Ml',d that the concerns that nave disposed of nil stock neesary to Ins ii re proper development wilt care but httio whether their h to-Its nre listed In Salt Lake and therefore decline to meet tin demands of t he ordinance. At t lie same time these issues are. as a rule, active at.d really desirable buys. (in t he other ha nd, the com pan lea which are .still In the speculative or promotion pro-motion stage, if they desire to enter the h. a I nriilo-t, may be pet fectlv ncreonble to furnishing (he necessary data and may be given the stamp of approval by t lie city. Thus, the rr;il invest ment securities securi-ties may be burred from t lie locul ex--liami.'H. while those in the promotion and h. it: lily specula t ive st iik'e may be accented. accent-ed. Hut at I he sa me time, in so far as !t has been Ascertained, there is nothing to prohibit 1 1 a nsact ions in anv stocks hs'ed fni outside markets throuu'h tne medium me-dium of the pt i ate-wire houses. That promot loos ure neces.ary to the development of (he state and to the market, mar-ket, and that private-wire house. flre much to be desired, the brokers are free to udrnlt. However, they desln the same prl vilenes In I riidlt;1; as prlva tr-wlre houses In stocks which flre generally rec-ui:rii7.fd rec-ui:rii7.fd ns standard Investments, Vnder tiie ruMnvH promnltra ted m far fnch Issues Is-sues s Standard Oil. Ohio. Merritt nnd Sinclair would be taboo on thn local excha ngo until their In I vidua 1 ped igrecs were tiled with the city officials.