Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-09-30 | Page 5 | 'Blue Sky' Bill Corrects Error

' BLUE S KY B I LL ' iCDRRECTS ERROR ! j Measure Re-enacts and Makes Stronger Present x Legislation. To Koprpsontativo .. L. ("ar-ioo, ho intro.mc.J the "blue ky " law piiM-t-i j at the last sor-Mon of the Inoislat urt', wilj tli honor of entering the now! bill at the pe'-ial .session. Mr. Car- lon probably will offer the bill today. ! It will be virtually a re enact rWnt of! the obi bill parsed, with a few eor-re-Mious and a.Iditiuns to take eare of I the questions whieh have arison during j the adminiMrution of tlio securities law j .since last April. The new draft corrects, the clerical J error of the engrossing clerk, who no- glected to insert one amendment made i by the house. This error reeentlv whs! brought into question by counsel for the United States "Wool eompanv, which withdrew its application for a license" on the grounds that the law w-as void because it was not the one passed ! by the legislature. j A change has been mnde which will; speeificnllv require building nnd loan , associations to get licenses from the securities commission. Some such as- ' soeiations have argued that they were i state banks, under authority of the ! state bank commissioner, and therefore j were not required to apply for a license I to pell stock. Another amendment changes the re- j quirements for a filing fee. It provides pro-vides that the fee shall be one-tenth of i one per cent of the price at which ft is proposed to dispose of the stock. The present law provides for a fee of one-tenth one-tenth of one per cent of the par value. The commission contends that this allows al-lows companies to place an extremely low par value on their stock in order to avoid payment of an adequate fee. The new bill specifically grants the commission discretionary powers in the issuance of licenses. The original law-provided law-provided that after certain information was filed by companies the commission "may issue" licenses. Some companies com-panies have contended that the construction con-struction of this clause should be that when thr companies had complied with the requirements, the commission should issue a license and had no discretion, whether it considered the companies responsible or not. The commission and the attorney general, who is a member of it, have contended that the "may" inferred a discretionary power, which has been exercised. In order to clear up any doubt in the matter, the new-law new-law inserts the provision that the commission com-mission may grant a license to sell stock "if deemed advisable." Three new sections have been added, the purport of which are to validate the actions which have been taken by the commission since its establishment, in case the courts hold the old law void.