The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1909-04-13
The Committee and the Exchanges.

The Committee and the Exchanges.
Times-Democrat:
1t is announced that the committee
appointed by Governor Hughes to in
vestlgate the commercial exchanges
of New York will present it's report
on April "a. The personnel Of the
committee is quite up to the mark,
and the chairman, (Horace E. White,
an editor of the Evening POST is an
economist of national The
verdict will consequently do much to
mold public opinion with regard to
this important subject. 1t is coming
to be understood that the exchanges
should be so regulated by law as to
minimize the evils while maximizing
the advantages of the part they play
in our industrial life. The old idea
that an exchange was a money-making
club has few adherents to-day, be.
cause it is perceived that men who
have so much to do with fixing val
ues cannot be safely left to them
selves. The quotations of the New
York Stock Exchange affect investors
throughout the land. So, too, the
the prices made fer cotton or wheat
concern millions of farmers from
ocean to can 1t is essential that
there should be no thimblerigging in
| a hr1cinocc Of c,,ob u,oo NJ.
dals of the last three years have shak-
en- the %country's faith in Wall street
and the demand for drastic reform a
no longer be stif1ed.
Unfortunately, two causes combine
to shear the Whites committee report
of the prestige which it would other
wise have. The committee had no
legislative authority to send for per-
sons and papers, and we may pre-
sumo that the evidence does not pierce
to the marrow of the case. Then,
again, Mr.. White and his colleagues
unwisely resolved to sit behind closed
doors, thus depriving themselves of
the help which full publicity would
give. The opposite course was persu-
ed when the the life insurance COM
panies were probed to the quick. So
thorough and open was the Armstrong
inquest that the fate of the system
for which Mccall and McCurdy stood
was certain from the first. And yet
there are the best reason to believe
that men of the same type have been
reaping a rich harvest by manipulating
stocks and bonds to suit their own
sinister ends. But the entire story can
not be written until a committee of ex-
perts, armed with inquisitorial powers
and taking the public completely into
its counsels, shall do for the exchange
what the Armstrong committee did for
the giant concerns which had grown
so careless with pol~icyholders' funds.
The inquiry conducted by the com
missioner of corporations revealed the
abuses which had become i~ntolerable
to cotton trade and sounded the signal
for f%ar-reaching changes. Mr.. Smith
published the evidence verbatim, to-
gether with IN exhaustive essay on the
broad aspects of the theme. In all the
economic literature of the time there
is not, so far as we know, a precise
parallel to Mr.. Smiths feat in steer
ing absolutely clear of even the slight
est technical error while dealing with
matters to the last degree technical
and abstruse. 1t is as if a man had
given no particular thought to the
higher mathematics should write a
profound book on the calculus. We
should like to think that Mr.. White
and his colleagues are about to emu
late this tour de force and that they
have the material for the task. Alas,
it is not to be expected that volunta-
ry witnesses will lay bare secrets
which may hurt the high flnanciers
who can make or unmake brokers at
pleasure. Rather it is to be expected
that we shall get the h%alf-truths which
are more d%elusory than whole lies.
Elk parte evidence may serve for franz
ing an indictment, but does not suffice
for q trial. The limelight should be
turned on the New York exchanges
lest the scheners sud swindlers es-
cape through the gloom.