Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-28

Other Ra1h y M Mr.
bama and Mr. Coke Of Texas were OF the
enough. They contended that Congress.
under the Constitution, had authority to
| suppress all forms of speculation. In their
report to the Senate. dated July 2, 1897
| these three senators declared that:
! They believe that Congress has con-
stitutional powers to prohibit dealing IN
| options and futures as defined in the OIL
| They also believe that the evil growing
out of such dealings is great and de.
mands the prompt and efficient action OF
| Congress.
They also believe that the taxing power
was granted to Congress solely 1or .ne
| purpose of raising revenue. and that II ID
a perversion of this power to use II LOT
| the purposes of this bill.
! They believe that Congress has full
power, under the power to regulate COM
| merce between the states and with Tor
eign nations to suppress the evil by df-
rect action, and that such power ought to
be exerted by the passage OF proper
| bill"
| Senator Mitchell Of Oregon went still
further and demanded that speculation in
| farm products be prohibited absolutely
under severe penalty by appropriate
| legislation on the ground that 1t is an
| obstruction Of Interstate commerce The
! effect of such legislation" he said in his
report, will have tendency to minimize
the evil effects Of speculative gambling in
agricultural products; a system that
creates most deleterious and destructive
| competition in the sale of actual farm
| products, which tends to reduce the price
| of every bushel of grain. every pound
| of pork and every bale of cotton, and
affects adversely the material interests OF
| the many million people who cultivate
| farms in this country
| Mr.. Plat of Connecticut. speaking for
the majority Of the committee, reported
as follows:
haI; bat = -, ocrt
! cultural products by persons not having
the ownership or the right to the owner
| ship of such products constitutes a great
evil and injury which ought to be reme
died. If there Is any power under the Con-
stitution to remedy the same, the COM
mittee have been unable to agree either
upon the House bill or any other bill to.
remedy the evil. and, believing that the
matter ought not longer to be delayed in
committee, report back the bill without
recommendation.
The advocates of the measure We're not
satisfied with this failure. and by resolu-
ton of the Senate investigation was
ordered and conducted by Senator George
of Mississippi The results VIII be found
In Senate report No 9S6 Fifty-third Con-
gress, third session. Senator Georges
committee took the groun>. that gambling
in cotton might be considered beyond
federal jurisdiction and wholly matter
OF the internal policy of the several
states, provided interstate and foreign
. commerce was not affected thereby But
as speculation In cotton and other agri-
cultural commodities had always had
more or less effect upon the prices at
which they were bought and sold. such
speculation directly affected both foreign
ana interstate commerce, and was there
tore, within the jurisdiction of tn. fed
eral authority. The Senate committee also
look the ground that while Congress could
nave no jurisdiction over trading between
cltIzehs or the same state, IT did possess
I complete jurisdiction over trading between
clt!zenS of different states. 1t was show,
by the official statistics that although
more than 10000 600 bales of cotton were
bought and sold on the exchange in the
city or New York annually, no cotton was
grown in that state and very little COZ.
ION was ever seen or handled there.
Stock Speculation.
No attempt has ever been made nv
Congress to regulate speculation in stocks
1t is generally conceded that such trans
actions are beyond the jurisdiction of the
federal government, although certain
lawyers have held that Congress has inst
as much right to regulate trading in the
shares of interstate railroads as it has to
regulate their passenger or freight rates
FOR several years there has been an ag-
tation against bucket shops and strjn-
gent laws have been passed In Massachu-
sets. Pennsylvania. New York Missouri
ana otHeF states. Ih1S movement mas been
inspired and supported by the stock ex-
changes. the Chicago Board of Trade.
the cotton exchanges of New York and
New Orleans, and other regularly organ
lied commercial aSSocia ions whose bust
ness has been interfered with and de-
moralized by bucket shop trading 1t has
been frequently asserted that twice as
much business Is done by the bucket
shops the regular EXCHANGES,
although their transactions are very
small AT one time almost every village
IN the country had It's bucket shop with
wires running to the centers of specula-
ton so as to secure quotations of the
genuine sales of stocks, grain, cotton etc
In these bucket shops it is possible to
gamble on very small margtn-$5 to $40
and even less. The consequences are very
demoraizing to the wage earners and
men of small means who have not suffi-
cient capital to do business through regu-
lar brokers who are members Of the
boards of trade and stock exchanges 1t
is difficult to see. however where the line
should be drawn. If 1t is bad policy to
allow men to gamble on a ten-dollar mar
gin why Is II right to allow them to gam
bic on ten-thOuSandd dollar margin?
Two years ago the legislature of New
York attempted to drive the bucket shops
Ing all transactions. and now every
a tax of 81 for every one hundred shares
always comes out of the pockets of the
customers and the volume of speculation
has not been affected to any noticeable