The New York herald., 1922-02-23
UNTERMYER IS WITH
WAR ON BUCKETEERS
Declares District Attorney
Banton Is on Right Track
of Spectators.
WOULD HAVE REGULATION
Points to Reforms in New
York Exchange as Result
of Agitation.

Special Dispatch to THE NEW YORK HERALD.
PALM BEACH, Feb. 22.-Samuel Inter
myer, in discussing to-day the regula-
ton OF stock exchanges, mentioned the
interview of District Attorney Banton Of
New York as of interest all over the
country because of the frauds practced
on investors through bucket shops" and
speculation.
Mr.. Banton is on the right track"
said Mr.. Untermyer. 81 am glad to find
that somebody is agitating this impor-
tant subject but fear that neither Mr..
Banton nor any other single public Off
cial will accomplish anything against
the powerful interests that are concen-
trated in the Stock Exchange. and no
legislation will be worth the paper On
which 1t is written that does not include
that and all other exchanges.
my Judgment is based upon ten years
experience in trying to force Govern
mental regulation of the stock exchange.
Speculation there is on a big, semi-re-
spectacle scale, and there is a hundred
times as much stock gambling and
manipulation as in the less reputable
places.
''It is not unusual when a stock ex-
change house fails to find that the part
ners have been gambling on the short
side of the market, carrying their short
transactions by the use of their custom
ers stock.
"In my opinion, stock brokers should
be stock brokers. They should be pro-
hibited from dealing in stocks on mar
gin in their own account. If man is
broker he should be limited to the
business of buying and selling for
others. He should not be permitted to
be an operator, which inevitably means
that TO a certain extent at least, how
ever honest may be his operations in
the generally accepted use of the term,
he is still in the last analysis dealing
with his clients securities.
perhaps it is not generally known
that many of the richest men in New
York who do not do n dollars worth
of business for other people hold seats
in the New York Stock Exchange for
the purpose of their own operations. 1t
enables them to buy and sell stocks on
a large scale without paying the regu-
lar commission. / could name twenty
of our leading financial men who are
members but who have no stock
brokerage business
''It is a reproach upon our institutions
that the New York Stock Exchange.
which should be and if properly regu-
lated would be the greatest and safest
security market in the world should be
despotic institution, being a law unto
itself. free from all supervision or regu-
lation by Federal or State authorities.
1T is bigger than any aggregation of
banks and trust companies, and yet it
is unsupervised. In the past it has
been a veritable gambling den where
the insiders with marked cards played
the game against the outside public.
"As the result of the agitation TO
force regulation Of the exchange the
latter has been wise and far seeing.
It has made many important reforms.
Manipulation is not as easy as 1t used
to be, but the public is still far from
having the security to which II is strong
enough to force proper protection OF
their interests. but hope l shall prove
to be mistaken"