The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-02-04
REFORM THE STOCK EXCHANGE

REFORM THE STOCK EXCHANGE.
The New York Stock Exchange is a
private club, ruled by house COM
mittee. It's membership is limited to
100 and the seats are worth all told
about $9O,OOo,OOO.
To pay interest on that sum, cover
expenses and provide incomes for
1,10O men and their thousands of
partners, great volume of business
is necessary. Stocks and bonds of the
par value of 2,757, ,254 900 were sold
last year in this one Exchange. This
sum is six times as great as all the
savings-banS deposits of the country.
1t is six billions greater than tho
yearly product of all the vast manu-
featuring industry of the country. 1t
is thirty times as great as the net
earnings of all our railroads. 1t ex-
ceeds even the total capitalization of
the railroads by sum nearly equal
ling all the wealth of Spain.
If Exchange members were brokers
merely this flood of transactions, of
which not more than 3 per cent. repre-
sent purchases for income investment,
would cost the cummunity only $685.
900 a year, the nominal amount OF
the kitty. But Incompatible greater
loss is incurred, immeasurably greater
damage to legitimate business Is suf-
fered, through the use of general bank
ing resources In speculation. The
Hooking poo. operations would have
been impossible, as Willard V. King
points out. had not banks loaned
nj Of rms -
ket value" at $3.50, of stock now
priced at $14.
In every-such case II is trust funds
that are risked. The wages of worlmen
laid away in savings bank for n rainy
day; the provision of thrifty men,
through insurance, for their families
after their death; the working capital
of merchants and manufacturers; the
earnings of lawyers, preachers, teach
ers, doctors, deposited in banks all
these, through the interlocking of fl
nanclal institutions are jeopardized by
Wall street gambling. And, since the
death of l.. H. Hartman led to o
truce between the Morgan and Stand
ard Oil groups" all these are now
manipulated by a Money Trust,
WHICH InONt5 up anu uD"h W
extending or calling loans.
No other great nation permits itself
to be so exploited. More stock-gam-
bling Is done in London than in New
York; but the banks do not furnish
chips for the game. There is in Lon
don no pretense of actual transactions
such as is made here in daily deliver
les Stock gambling debts are settled
once fortnight. The public which
wishes investments Is protected
against gross cheats by the criminal
law In New York County a Whit
taker Wright need not have com
mitted suicide In London the Ship
Building Trust could not have been
floated, the Metropolitan Railway
robbed without some one going to
iail for IT, And London brokers do not
gamble in stocks,
The financial strength of France Is
a standing marvel of the business
world. There too gambling and invest
ment are kept separate. There are
only seventy brokers on the Paris
Bourse Each provides guarantee
fund of $500. 900. The $35,OOO0OO 80 pro-
cured insures any customer OF any OF
the seventy against loss The $4,000
600 value of New York seats on
Change is the property of the mem
bers. II a broker fails, his customers
lose, ever though they be investors
and not gamblers. But the sS5'OoO'oOO
fund of the Paris BoGrse Is the pro
lection of the Republic. Every Bourse
broker has his appointment signed by
the President of the Republic. He Is
an official, He must not gamble Near
Iy every thrifty peasant invests In
securities. His bank puys them Tor
him and permits him TO pay In in
stallments, but it will not lend to