Evening star., 1932-05-04

their way through the modern invest
ment jungle. These millions have had
their faith shaken because of what has
happened to them. Merely showing up
the shorts will not restore their con-
fidence"
Referring to the investigation as "a
bear hunt" the Fort Worth Star-Tele-
gram asks, Can it be that the hunters
are merely staging an act illustrative Of
the way to hunt bears when the hunters
will not know exactly what to do with
the bears if perchance they come upon
them in blind financial canyon, or
something?" The Charleston Is. c.
Evening Post draws the conclusion,
THE chief lesson that the public will
learn from all the revelations, If it has
not already learned it, is that when the
small outsider engages in stock specu-
lation he is a plain sucker. He may as
well shoot craps, ard If he does his
gambling that way he will get more
action for his money and can at least
see it go This applies not to legiti-
mate investment in stocks, which has
nothing to do with the case and is not
the subject Of the Senate investigation,
but with the pure speculation in which
so large a part of the public partic-
ipated during recent years. Most of
lose in the end, as Wall Street sta
tistics prove beyond a shadow of a
doubt. For the small man there is not
the semblance of a chance"
r 4
Trading companies" demands the
Chicago Daily News, must not be per-
mitted TO screen the principals in short
selling raids, which have depressed the
% e..
their true values" That paper adds,
President Whitney's defense Of the
Stock Exchange was made with the air
of one who believed that institution to
occupy a raTefied atmosphere of impec-
cable sanctity as the temple of specu-
lation. He resents rude intrusion upon
Its rites and mysteries. But the Ameri-
can people are not convinced by his
high-priestlv attitude. Short selling
has its legitimate functions, but it is
also subject to grave abuses, and there
is good cause to believe that, for reasons
that shun the light, It has been used
deliberately to hammer values to un-
justified low levels. To measure Amer
lean capacity for recovery by the syn
copated yardstick of Wall Street bears
is to cheat confidence The cheating
trick must be exposed"
Business should demand that the
market be not manipulated" AYERS the
Salt Lake Deseret News. The Cincinnati
Times-Star comments, wall Street has
the reputation Of being the place where
money is made rather than earned.
Can 1t afford to get the popular repu-
tation Of being place where boorns are
made also and then disastrously un-
made?" The Topeka Daily Capital
offers the opinion. ''Mr. Whitneys case
was weakened by the comparison he
drew between the short sale, or selling
something not the property of the sell-
er, and the practice of the building con-
tractor OF bidding on a contract when
ne did not yet possess the materials to
Guild with. When resort must be had
to such obvious sophistries there is
something wrong with the case of legal
gambling institutions"
Action by the committe and Con-
gress should remove some serious
abuses" contends the Lincoln Stats
Journal. The Spokane Spokesman-Re-
view finds that the Senate Banking
Committee rs on a hot trail" and.
quoting Senator Watson on the subject
Of the relation Of the market to war
debts. that paper concludes: Senator
Watsons conviction that a ring OF in
ternational bankers. brokers and stock
manipulators are in a conspiracy to mn
down the prices of securities. prolonr
-he depression and trick the American
people into acceptance Of cancellation
of the allies debts as cure-all for the
economic depressions in Europe and
America, appears to have substantial
foundation in fact"