Evening star., 1923-07-25
Pretense Of Victory Enabled
Bucket Shops to. Cain Heauily
Found Great Ease of Operation While
Public Vas Beguiled With Idea
of Defeat in Courts.


organization, it became necessary for
market sponsors to make known to
the officials OF the Curb Market Asso-
!, citation the character and extent Of
distribution of stock. The method
used by professional planters" in
ensnaring bucket shops was described
in the preceding article of this series,
and the reader is familiar with the
reasons why stock that is distributed
to any fair extent is unsulted for use
in the operation of such syAem.
Considering that condition. 1t is worth
while to pursue the questionnaire
issued by the New York Curb Market
Association at that Ame, to be filled
out by individuals w.lo sought the
listing of a stock.
The QUESTIONABLE.
The questionnaire covered those mat
ters with regard to distribution which
so much concern the bucket shop in
such a manner that when some pro-
moters first reach the questionnaire
they jokingly asked whether it hadn't
been written by bucketecr.
There is no intention to suggest
here that any one in the district at
torney's Office at that time was seek
ing to aid the bucket shops. 1t is not
meant to suggest that the Curb Mar
ket Association officials of that time.
In advocating the moving of the curb
market indoors, were seeking to aid
the bucket shops. AS to the question
naire, ii was of a form that hit at
questionable promotions. and its pos
sibilities of benefit to bucket shops
could have been merely incidental
Nor is it meant to suggest that the
curb officials may not have believed
, that the bringing of curb market op-
erations wholly under their super
vision Through
market indoors would not soon put a
damper on bucketing operations. In
that connection, it is only just to state
that within the past few months.
when the association has used some
OF. the powers vested in it. which
were not used at that time, it has
shown itself able to deal powerful
blows at the bucket shop system. OF
the good work done very recently by
the New York Curb Market Associa-
tion more will be told in later ar
ticle of this series.
What il is desired to piace>forcibly
before the reader. however, is the
fact that the 1919 clamor against
the operations of the curb bucketeers,
instead of resulting in a lessening of
those activities, or in any punishment
of the bucketeers, was really followed
by an era of greater ease for their
operations, SO far as curb market con-
ditions We're concerned, and that the
! bucheteers were in nowise hampered
by any activities on the part of pub
| lie authorities.
Sought 10 Evade Law.
The bucket shops had sensed that
| the one big public agency to which
| the country would first look for a
vigorous prosecution of bucket shop
crimes was the district attorneys Of
! fee in New York county. 1t is easy
to see how the bucket shop may have
acted to divert the crusading efforts
| of the district attorneys Office away
J from themselves without the prose-
cutting officials being aware of under
hand methods being used to misguide
| them. 1t is easy to see how the men
in the district attorneys office at that
time might have been guilelessly
! "steered" into an investigation of ir-
regularities in promotions and there
by all the more easily steered away
from prosecution of the bucket shops
1t was scattered public which
! was calling for Curtailment of
! bucket shop operations. There were
mo real organized forces to guide
that endeavor The bucket shops. on
, the contrary, had d remarkably well
organized system, and the district
attorneys office-according to- vari-
Gus reports which drifted into the
financial district-was supplied with
a mass of data regarding promo
tions and promoters by rema rk bly,
willing informants. who may have
had much more friendly relations
with leading bucketeers than people
in the district attorneys Office sus-
pected.
Meanwhile men who were looked
upon as constituting the brains in
some of the biggest of the bucket
shop houses had established vcry
friendly relations with individuals
who stood high in New York citys
political machinery.
Asked Pointed Question.
The street heard OF that connection.
Not unnaturally. it began to ask to
what extent anybody in the district
attorneys office. even an employe
of low rank, might be obligated to
that machine. Men in the street who
had denounced the bucket shops for
about in this strain: why has not
one big move by any Of the public
authorities, county, state or federal,
been made against the curb bucket
shop system? This system has now
been Haunted in our faces for years"
The bucketeeers. apparently deem
ing themselves free from prosecution,
were now emboldened to reach out
beyond the field of curb market Sc
curities. in which they had operated
for years, and apparently to defy
some of the largest financial inter-
ests of the country by bringing New
York Stock Exchange securities once
again within the bucket shop sphere.
Legitimate brokers who were de-
claiming against the spread of the
bucketing evil seemed powerless to
stop it. New bucket shops began to
spring up thick and fast, and horde
of criminals from the great white
way-who also appeared not to be
without their high political connec-
tions-swept into the financial dis
trict Details on that bold era of
bucketeering will be told in the next
article OF this series.