New Britain herald., 1928-05-19
PROTECTING INVESTORS

Protection of the pubic rom uh- sound investments seems 10 be an issue in the mind of the state bank commissioner, Lester l.. Shippee. He has been pointine out that Connecti- cut lacks a punitive law, such as exists in New York-which may be a surprise to many Nutmeggers who have been under the impression that lhe state has had all the good laws ever invented. MT. Shippee pointedly says that such a law would solve many of the difficulties being eX- perienced throughout the state. especially during this period of lrenzied speculation.
 The Martin act of New York does not go as far as the blue sky laws in some of the other states but the bank commissioner thinks it goes far enough and has some advantages over the others. This may be a mat ter of opinion and where techni- cal experts disagree over technl- cal subject it is a rash individual who would offer advice. The best the Martin act does, however, accord- ing 10 the opinion of Mir. Shippec himself, is to offer excellent pro- tection," and would keep the state much freer of fraudulent stocks han it is at present. We get from this that the law is not 100 per cent proof against fraud, but only about so per cent.
 The bank commissioner believes that if the state, instead of having law similar to the Martin law, and q blue sky law it would require the establishment of a securities commission in Hartford, which would be another centralized bureau and would operate at some expense to the taxpayers. It seems to us that this is not much to worry about We already have bureaus of various descriptions in Hartford and we had been of the opinion that the state government is not averse to centralizing the state government nor to providing more political jobs. Such a commission would have to pass upon all securities offered in the state. It would have to approve securities and probably would be kept very busy. What of that. any way? Isn't that better than to have poor securities sold 10 suckers who haven't gense enough to do business with reputable concerns AS one politician once expressed it, il is the business of government to protect suckers against their folly.
 All ile idl tlil h'b III -NfN VI IN does is 60 permit the attorney gen. ,ral to act on complaint against q concern offering bad securities. Nine times out of ten the complaint would not como until the afflicted citizen had said goodbye to his money. This would mean more work for inc at ! torney general. work partly con ! Sisting of closing the garage door { after tn car had been stolen; and it also would mean more power to the attorney general. Ii the latter con- sented to to all this extra work and possess the increased responsibility without extra pay it would be sur prising and rather contrary to hu- man nature.
 Neither system is perfect. The best syst tenn is caution by the individual investor. II is surprising that so many men and women with money win SO readily allow themselves to 1 become .aSy marks for shitty sellers 1 of gold bricks We are supposed to be an educated f ople, but let | , sst-rirh-cuick promoter make q cal at I ali .emblauce of inc funda - neut7.- CT intelligence. in entirely too many instances. entirely vanisaes When people arr sick they go to a good doctor. when theg