The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-13
Punishment Is Inflicted Tor the
 Rock Island FIurry
NO WRONG WAS INTENDED
Simon B. chapin, Upon Whom Falls the Blame For the Wild Rock Island Trading, Says it Was
 Regular Business.

New York, January 12-simon B. Chap {; in' mead of the New York and Chicago
 firm of S. B. Chapin & Co. was sus-
 pended from the privileges of the New
 York stock exchange today for a period
 or 50 days for participation in the Rock
 Island fiasco of December 27 last when alleged III managed manipulation sent the
 common shares of the Rock Island coin-
 pany From 50 to 81 and back again in period of 12 minutes. F. D. Countiss. one
 Of Mr. chapin's partners, and the only other board member of the firm. was suspended at the same time for 30 days Notwithstanding all the recent runlors
 concerning the Rock Island deal, involv-
 ing name of Daniel G. Reid, chairman
 or the board of directors of the Rock Island company. for whom, it is said
 Chapin & Co. executed their buying or ders, the verdict of the stock exchange governors indicates that the infractions
 or the suspended members were not re-
 garded very seriously.
 They were found guilty as announced
 Of "acts detrimental to the welfare of
 the exchange" for which the constitu-
 ton Of the exchange prescribes suspen- sion Of not more than one year. Con-
 traryS to general expectations, no other members Of the exchange are to be pun ished, though it is known that the in- yestigaion of the special committee ap- pointed by the governors brought out
 facts supposed to have involved several other firms.
 The sessions of the Investigating com
 mittee were executive and the Inside or the entire transaction Is thus kept from the general public. As Wall street has analysed the situation. however, S. B. Chapin & Co. acted for MT Reid or others in the purchase of Rock Island
 stock. while a looked for selling order was not forthcoming. thus nipping ani intended match sale" which would have threatened q corner.
 The firm of s. B. Chapin 6 Co. was
 organized in the latter part of 19c1.
 Their main offices are in Chicago and
 their connections have always been of
 powerful and profitable character.
 They succeeded to much of the busi-
 ness of Harris, Gates & Co.,, when that firm dissolved several years ago.
 In addition to Messrs. Chapin and
 Countiss. the other members are Tracy
 L., Turner, William L. Ewald. Ira J.
 Couch and Oliver P. Cooke. The firms clientags ts largely from the west and
 It's wiresconnections have made it prom
 inent in the list of commission houes. 5. B. Chapin & Co. issued the follow ing statement tonight:
 We received an order on December 27 from . customer to buy 10000 shares of Rock Island common at the market at the opening, and were expressly directed to give 1t out to 20 brokers to buy 200e shares each. The execution of tho orders caused trouble and con fusion. but in doing this we simply acted as directed and our customer paid for the stock the following day. We were left without any dis erection in the matter. We had no req son to believe there was any purpose or design on the part Of the customer, except to acquire the shares mentioned, and in tho manner covered by his in- structions to us, nor did we have the slightest doubt on the subject. The result was purely an accident, which has not happened in a similar case. The disturbance could not possibly have been foreseen and a similar occurrence is unlikely to ever happen again. There has been no imputation or suggestion of wrong-doing on our part We will continue to conduct our business as usual, but will give out our orders for execution on the New York stock exchange to other brokers during the interval"