The New York herald., 1922-06-08
EXCHANGE GUILTY
IN BUCKETING CASE
Continued from First Page.

outcome of the trial may be CLEANED
from the summation OF George Gordon
Battle of their counsel, who told the
jury In tho forenoon that a verdict
against the Exchange will mean its
| ruin" He said.
This trial is of very great import
snce to this defendant, and verdict
against the defendant means verdict
of condemnation of this young and ris-
irg and striving and struggling institu-
tion, the American Cotton Exchange A
verdict against 1t will mean its ruin and
destruction. 1t will mean the ruin and
destruction of all those brokers who do
business there. 1t will mean ruin and
destruction of the property of those six
oil seven hundred men who own men,
berships
TT means destruction of the business
of these brokers, some sixty or seventy
altogether. who have practically dealt
at various times on the Exchange. 1t
means more than that--it means the
ruination of the hopes of many men who
have seen in this institution a chance
for the smaller planter and farmer in
the South to get protection by the way
OF the hedging contract, which up to
the present time only rich men have
been able to get"
Mr.. Battle also stressed what he al
legged was the influence of the New
York Cotton Exchange in seeking to
wreck its younger competitor. He re-
cited that at a luncheon at the Reform
Club last February representatives of
the New York Cotton Excnange and the
Chicago Board of Trade, through Louis
Brooks, governor of the former, deter
mined to take steps against the Ameri-
can Exchange. He went on:
THAT was a very powerful aggrega-
| tion of men. They represented the great
est institutions of that sort in the coun-
try and the greatest in the world. In
| fact the New York Stock Exchange, the
New York Cotton Exchange and the
Chicago Board of Trade. You cannot
get n more powerful aggregation than
| that. and II they made their minds up
q: that meeting to crush this American
| Cotton Exchange, IL j had been broker
ir the American Cotton Exchange and
lad heard of that, l would have re-
signed. I would not have waited"
Mr.. wintner In his summation took
pains to deny that the prosecution was
prompted by conspiracy. The purging OF
the situation among brokers was com
parable to steps taken by members of
the bar against other lawyers for alleged
improper practices, he said, adding:
\
a part Of the general crusade which has
been made by the District Attorney.
Mr. Brooks, who is member or the
/ New York Cotton Exchange, happens to
know Gov. Hardwick CThomas w. Hard
! wick Governor Of Georgia). He Is mere
( ly an agent OF the Cotton Exchange. Tie
meets the Governor who tells him that
the whole South is infested with agents
of these brokers' that negroes. boot
blacks and wash women are investing.
| Mr.. Brooks came back to New York and
| laid the matter before his board OF man
ayers. He has spent time and money
| In purging the city OF these gamblers
and this fake Institution which was
created for nothing but what II would
take from it's customers"
Mr.. wintner denied that II was neces-
sary according TO the statute to show
| that customers had lost "a single dollar
through the exchange, and said that the
! law under which the indictment had
been drawn was devised to protect Gus
toner's ignorant OF the way OF brokers,
so that no single broker could bet against
300 or 500 customers. He then con-
tinued:
What does one OF these fly by night
1 brokers do? He closes his shop, has a
friend f1lc a petition In bankruptcy, goes
away, grows n beard, and then returns
TO business either here or elsewhere--it
may be New Orleans, Chicago or Newark
and starts again.
why. these bootblacks In the South
didn't want cotton. They had no more
use for cotton than they would for a
volume OF Shakespeare. They wanted
to gamble. and so these fellows gave
them n run--a rotten run, and an un-
sportsmanlike run. The whole thing
was a hollow mockery"
The American Cotton Exchange
founded In 1916, was indicted in April
Tor bucketing after a John Doe inquiry
conducted by Chief Magistrate William
McAdoo.