The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-09-07

STOCK INVESTIGATION OF
WASH SALE" FRAUD DAY.
SPAeM OF VIRTUE INTENDED
AS A COME-ON FOR THE
LAMBS.
6Y JACOB WALDECk.


the New York stock exchange are
investigating the fraud in the re.
cent million share Saturday and the
subsequent suspension of the gilded
house of A. o. Brown & Co., bleat
ing lambs the nation over are ex-
pected to lie down in green pas
lures while Wall street still waters
stock and restoreth nothing.
However amazed Wall street may
seem BY the discovery" Of crooked
methods that now are exposed,
everyone from the meanest ticket
boy to the head of the house of
Morgan knows that precisely SIM
liar methods have long been used,
and, unless the lawmakers at
Washington or at Albany compel
change, there will be no change
Wall street is not easily susceptible
to reform.
The present investigation is in
secret, statements to the contrary
notwithstanding. No one of any
responsibility will even disucss the
Brown failure or the fake manipu.
lation that led to it. The board
of governors are really at work on
a comprehensive movement which
has as it's object quick and easy
resumption of the thimble rigging,
sure thing game and clearing of
the cloud of doubt in the public
mind. They would remove fear from
the hearts of the simple lamb and
easy goat.
There is a chance, dim and shad
owy, that a grand jury may evince
a curiosity as to the doings in the
Wall street House of Mirth"-a
temple of honest trade in appear
ance and a slaughter house for
suckers in operation.
Worse even than the fear of pen
atty, however, is the sting that at
tends the realization of dollars lost.
The exposure has done more to cool
public interest in speculation than
any single event in recent years.
Many of the suckers thus fright
ened out will never return. Others
dazed by the fever of gambling
have returned to the game, but
there is notable net gain for good.
A touch of grim humor is given
this Illuminating affair by the fact
that the flittering details of the con
fidence game and the loudest con-
domination of it come from inside
Wall street circles. The work of
deception was so raw that news
papers heretofore spokesman and
steadfast defenders of high
finance" which is patron of so
much of bunko, have condemned it
as fraud on honest investors and
of the big Wall street bankers have
growled demand that the ex-
.change improve its methods. And
I. when those cold and taciturn boys
are stirred enough to growl at the
dealer it's time that the players sit
ting in the game listen for the dis
tant rattle of the patrol wagon.
These bankers handle billions of
dollars annually. The bulk of their
business consists in financing spec
ulators, and the margins on these
loans yield tons in profits. Now, no
Influence is going to CONCEAL that
money in the pockets of the COM
mon people who earned it If the
philanthropic bankers can prevent.
So they are for reform" Not too
much, but enough to reassure the
lambs.
You have no idea how bitter Wall
street is against Il. f. Buchanan,
head of the wrecked brokerage
firm, who is said to have mapped
out the campaign tEat caused all
the trouble. They say his work was
crude. The firm is reported to
have been short" 10000 shares
of stock. The tendency of prices
was upward In order to depress
prices it was planned to disorgan-
ize the market by an oyerwhelm-
ing mass of business and in the
confusion Cover" the 100000
shares at profitable prices. 1t was
an old game. Gates played it
when he needed to, but he never
chose a Saturday session, which
lasts only two hours, to pull 1t off,
In those 120 minutes, shouting
frenzied brokers on the y floor
"dealt" in $150.000,0OO worth of
stocks. They were gamblers, bet.
ting over $1,0O0,000 minute
Even the exchange hasn't the
gall to call it legitimate business
The great bulk of the betting was
done by Brown & Co. They were
wrecked and trial of their
clients reaching half across the
country lost money by the hun
dred thousand.
This bald attempt to create a
false market raised the scandal
1t was too obvious" 1t Is charged
that Brown & Co. had resorted to
\ matched orders and wash
= sales" in their manipulation of the
market. In matched orders" 9
brokerage house gives one broker