The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-03-01
STOCK EXCHANGES WHOLESOME ACTION Suspension of Broker Camille WeidenfeId AppIauded GOSSIP OF ROCKEFELLER Standard oil Kings Simple Diet-His Health Said to Be lmproVing-ls
 Setter Than He Was a
 Year Ago.
GOSSIP OF ROCKEFELLER
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.


 sion of Camille Weidenfeld from the New York Stock Exchange is a body blow to the combination of traders and lawyers engaged in the practice of hold ing up" corporations and obstruetlng im- portant financial plans. The summary action of the governors of the exchange has thrown the group into a panic anu will tend to harshly discourage that kind of enterprise. The purpose of the ex- change to discipline one or more of Its members for taking part in these repre- hensible campaigns has been advertised for a good while back in the inner circles of Wall street. but the long delay in taking the threatened action led to the belief that the programme had been abandoned. The developments of this week have shown that. the postponement was merely to get the machinery of the "Bogardus kicker' into smooth working order so that there could be no slip. The result Is that one of the chief sinners now finds himself on the outside clamor- ing for re-admission to the floor of the exchange, and at the same time opening up a cannonade of libel suits against everybody concerned.
 To those familiar with the organization of the New York Stock Exchange and the powers vested in it's governing com mittee the action taken in firing Broker Weidenfeld may seem harsh and without warrant. The victim and his at- torneys are seeking to create the impress sion that he was not given a fair show, and that he was ralroaded off the floor in an illegal and entirely unjustidabe manner. It is explained, however that the stock exchange is an unincorporated institution and is in reality nothing more nor less than private club. In the con- duct of its own affairs it is a law unto itself and has extraordinary powers of discipline
 Members of the club voluntarily subject themselves to its rules, pledging obedi- ence thereto, knowing the risks they take. The courts very generally uphold the rights of commercial, financial and social organizations to enforce discipline upon members even where they are in- corporated. This was shown a number of times in the Chicago Board of Trade which found it necessary to suspend and expel large number of members during the last few years for uncommercial con duct. The board has been turned down occasionally, but in the main it's powers are sustained almost as fully as on the New York Stock Exchange, although there is a difference which is well un- derstood by those who comprehend the fine distinction between Incorporated and unlncorporated associations 'es I The greatest care is ex1sfcfsed in fram- ing the rueSH,of the stock exchange and their enforci iment gives members no valid grounds F contest. It has never been admittedT even remotely, that a member ship Son the exchange carries with it est ted rights The membership Is held
 be nothing more than admission to the privileges of the floor.-- Consequently when member Is disciplined lie has no .ecourse and it is the unwritten law f the association or club that any men- ser who kicks against the bricks invites further trouble and will get 1t. Conse- quently MT Wedenfeld Is in line for sup plemental discipline if the governing committee sees fit to administer it.
 Mystery in the Delay. There is a mystery in the delay Tn bringing the Northern Securities case to issue before the supreme court of the United States. The case has been drag ging along in the courts of New Jersey and the northwestern states and before refefees. masters in chancery and all that sort of thing, for fully a year and a half, and it Is apparently as far from finality as ever. Of course, the litigation is making progress, but it is too slow for many impatient people in Wall street. The case is recognized involving points of supreme importance in the de- velopment of high finance. and vast deals
 
 decision. Several consultations have been proceeded with under cover of hold ing companies and they are seemingly working all right, but other great inter- ests are in waiting attitude and are likely to so continue until it is known definitely what view the supreme court will take on the points that have arisen in the Northern Securities matter.
 It Is true that many of the holding companies now in active operation are organized on lines somewhat different from the Northern Securities Company, and are free from the perils found there. For instance, few of them have that dangerous point which is the menace of MT Hills combination viz: a consoli- dation of competing railroads in open defiance of state laws. This question is not involved in the slightest degree in the case of Rock Island for instance conse- quenty that combination is unmolested, although frivolous litigation was com menced against it in Chicago a few weeks ago by persons identified with the bunch of professional litigants, of which Broker Camille Weidenfeld is the leading spirit. The United States Steel Corpora tion is holding company and it's posi- uon in every point seems to have been upheld by the courts, so far. The Metro polftan Street Railway Company of New York has finally been lodged in hold ing company, the property traveling a devious path to md lodgment in the lap of one of these institutions The tobacco trust and the sugar trust stand alone. What they have they own outright and have not yet found 1t necessary to use the machinery of a holding company.
 Among the great combinations which are awaiting the supreme court decision in the Northern Securities case may be named the Southern railroad merger a plan of great scope and importance the Gould holding company, which is to take in all the Gould properties east of the Mississippi river; the Vanderbilt deal plan of great scope; the anthracite coal trust and the express companies, although there is some doubt whether the latter will ever range themselves formally un- der organized head-this from mo- tives of policy. There are many others, but those named are among the most important
 There is a theory held that the delay is due to knowledge that the composition of the supreme court was not favorable to the holding company idea. Meantime, however, the supreme court is in the pre- cess of reconstruction, and 1t is by no lody of the corporations and those who have plans of high finance. will be stronger in the future than now The retirement of Justice Shiras Is popularly supposed 10 have weakened the corpora ton hold on the supreme court Judge Day. who succeeds him, is known to en- tertaln decided views on some questions of importance to those responsible for