New-York tribune., 1918-02-08
Agitation to Put
Curb Market Under
Roof Is Renewed
Trading Reforms Proposed
in Line With Federal Con-
troll of Capital Issues

Members Of the New York Curb Mar
ket Association have revived the move
ment, started about two years ago and
shortly thereafter abandoned, to take
the Broad Street open air market in
doors. E. R. Mccormick, chairman of
the association, is head of a special
committee which will prepare a plan
by which it is expected the change
will be effected. The committee, Mr..
Mccormick says, is determined to
carry out its purposes, despite any
opposition that may arise from Stock
Exchange firms who contribute practi-
cally 80 per cent of the business that
is transacted on the outside market.
One of the factors that has been
taken into consideration in the present
agitation for reform among the curb
brokers is the appointment of capital
issues committee by the Federal Re-
serve Board, whose functions will be to
aid the government in restricting all
new security issues to those that are
essential to the successful conduct of
the war. Mr.. Mccormick said yester-
day he believed that with the curb
market under roof the board of rep
resentatives could not only exercise
closer supervision over the trading in
its listed securities but could prevent
altogether dealings in many "cats and
dogs" that in the past have changed
hands through brokers that are not
members of the Curb Association,
Purity League" Indorses Move
More than score Of curb brokers
who sided in with ffty-one Stock Ex-
change firms two years ago in move
ment to defeat the plan for placing
the open air market under roof have
organized themselves into an organiza-
ton known as the Purity League. This
body met with the board of represen-
tatlves of the Curb Association at a
special meeting on Thursday and gave
It's hearty Endorsement Of the new
movement
One of the reasons advanced bv
members of the Stock Exchange for
their opposition to the curb going in
doors two years ago was that thew
would be prohibited from dealing with
the curb brokers because of a clause
IN the exchange constitution that pre
vents members of the Stock Exchanoe
from dealing with the members of anv
other exchange, the opinion being that
the curb market under roof would
be nothing less than an exchange for
dealing in securities. Several mem
Ders OF the governing committee of the
STOCK Exchange at first expressed
themselves as favoring the proposed
change, and the opposition which later
developed among members of the big
board was more clearly explained.
Opportunity to Remedy Evils
The Hughes committee, which con-
Quoted an investigation of the Stock
Exchange in 1909, said in it's report
That many of the abuses that have
arisen on the outside market had been
due to this provision of the Stock
Exchange constitution. The report
added:
"The present apparent attitude of
the exchange toward the curb seems
TO us clearly inconsistent with its
moral obligations to the community at
large. Its governors have frequently
avowed before this committee a pur-
pose to cooperate to the greatest ex-
tent for the remedy of any evils found
to exist in stock speculation. The curb
market as at present constituted af-
lords ample opportunity for the exer-
else of such helpfulness.
The Stock Exchange should compel
the formulation and enforcement Of
such rules as may seem proper for the
regulation of busisess on the curb, the
conduct of those dealing thereon and
particularly for the admission of secur-
tiles to quotation.
If the curb brokers were notified
that failure to comply with such re-
quirements would be followed by an
application of the rule of non-inter-
course there is little doubt that the
orders of the exchange would be
obeyed. The existing connection with
the exchange gives it ample power to
accomplish this, and we do not sue-
gest anything implying more intimate
connection.
Under such regulation the curb
market might be decently housed, to
the relief Of its members and the gen
eral public"
Mr.. Mccormick said that he hoped
to be able to make public an outline
of the Curb Associations plan for
going indoors in about month. Asked
as to what provision would be made
for the Standard Oil issues that are
actively dealt in on the outside mar
ket, but are not listed, he said he
!, thought that the existing plan for
"admitting them to quotation" wou;d
be continued