Evening star., 1932-04-12
Whitney's Estimate Given
Hearing Covers Last Two
or Three Weeks.
INQUIRY Is RECESSED
UNTIL NEXT MONDAY
Loans Of Customers Holdings to
Short Sellers to Depress
Value Denied.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
Shrinkage in stock values during the
last two or three weeks was estimated
at $6000,000,000 today by Richard
whitney. president Of the New York
! Stock Exchange
Whitney made his estimate at the
conclusion Of his second day of testi-
mony In the Senate Banking Commit
tees investigation of short selling.
Tne inquiry was recessed until next
Monday when the names of short deal
ers will be presented by the Stock Ex-
change head.
With another huge crowd on hand
the Exchange head again defended
practices on the market.
/ he denied that brokers loaned custo-
mers' stocks to short sellers to depress
tner values and insisted that specula-
tion was essential to balanced market.
Signers Labeled Goats"
Whitney protested against this hue
| and cry, perhaps helped by the gentle
men of the press in regard to loaning
customers stocks, that has been in
vogue throughout the country for the
last two or three years"
Senator Couzens, Republican, Michi-
gan, remarked that any man who signed
the customers agreement which Whit
ney produced must have been a goat. {"
In response to questions from Couzens
Whitney said the minimum margin
indicated as good business by the New
York Stock Exchange is rs per cent
margin"
DO they ever go lower than IS per
cent?" asked Couzens.
Not If they know it. sir"
Absolutely" Couzens inquired.
ives air - nfd
The committee agreed to adjourn its
Investigation until Monday.
Short Holdings Made Public.
The committee made public the short
interest in all stocks from April 1 10
April s, showing the short holdings in
United States Steel greater than in any
other stock.
The short interest in Steel on Aprtl
was 3a6,422 shares, showing il de-
creased as the price went down.
Large short holdings in General Mo-
tors also were shown. They were 263,-
sos shares April and zs2.4os on
The short interest of Consolidated
OIL & Gas jumped from nothing on
April to 35.76s shares on April 4.
Short holdings in Sinclair Consoli-
dated OIL dropped from 1888 on April
to none on April 4.
Krueger g. Toll short holdings de-
creased from 181 ,4l0 shares on April
l to 77,489 April s.
The short interest in American Tele-
phone 81 Telegraph jumped from ls2,-
Ol9 April to 20l ,879 on April and
then dropped to 197,695 April s.
The total short interest in the mar
ket on April / was 3,279. .398; on April
4, 3,189,596; April 5, 3,059658 and on
April 6, 3,063.927.
The number of stocks in which there
was short interest for the four days,
respectively, was $50, 592, 6O2, 608.
One of the biggest jumps in short
holdings was in Wrigley, Jr., Co., from
$50 on April to 2,o50 on April s.
Other Short Holdings.
Other short holdings as of April l
and April 6, respectively, follow:
Westinghouse Electric & Manufac-
turing Co., 139,800 and 125,107.
American Can, 103,615 and 84,694.
American Tobacco Co., class "B,"
26,750 and 30,276.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, 14,552
and 2l,o79.
Bethlehem Steel, 6s.5es and $500.
]. l. Case Co.. 10l 500 and 1920.
Chesapeake Corporation, 4,l81 and
1891
Chrysler Corporation, 1885 and
20 SOS.
Coca Cola, 1875 and 24,612.
Commonwealth & Southern Corpora
ton 276 and $3.50.
Consolidated Gas 51,687 and 42.126.
Continued on Page 2. Column So