The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-05-09
NEA Service Writer

Washington - The great stock market Investigation, which started out as a simple bear hunt in which the hunters were only supposed to shout "Boo!" at the bears, has spread into the pastures after the bulls, up into the trees toward the buzzards and even Into the water to disclose q vast school Of poor fish.
 Nearly everyone concerned has been made to look a little silly al one time or another and almost any day of tho investigation thus far would have been appropriate for Texas uuinan to have sat at the committee table and hollered Hello. sucker" at somebody.
 WHO'S A SUCKER NOW?
 The wooziness of the inquiry, the strange way in which 1t turn cd back on It's instigators and made suckers of them along with oth- CTS and the unexpected revelations of everything except what was ex- pected, must astonish those who followed 1t day by day.
 ono startling high spot devel- oped when Senator Walcott Of Connecticut, President Hoovers personal handy man who began the whole thing, was barred from secret sessions of the "steerinE committee" of tho Banking and Curreny Committee which sudden ly took over tho strategy.
 Weeks ago Walcott came from n conference with Hoover and told tho newspaper correspondents that tho name of q dozen bears who had been raiding the stock market and nullifying the splendid Hoover program for revival of prosperity were about to be exposed.
 The senate authorized the inves- tIgation he wanted and then the thing was allowed to drag to the point where most people thought 1t was all off, especially us Wal colt seemed to have forgotten the promise to name the bears.
 WALCoTvps "FoREIGN PLOT"
 But one Friday Walcott was found in q lather of excitement. announcing discovery. of foreign plot to wreck the market In | frightfui "Black Saturday" the like OL .WHlCIl tUG WOTIu uuu HCNcI ECVUi
 '1ie had received q wire from ver's best friends. There was q tremendous sensation, the Banking and Currency committee hastily decided to begin hte investigation and crowds stormed the committed room on the day Richard r. Whit. ney. head of the stock exchange appeared as the first witness.
 The great "billion-doIlar bear raid" Is still a mystery. Whitney didn't know anything about it. except for Walcott's assertions Neither. apparently, did anyone else. Walc0tt sat placidly Ut the committee table, saying never . word despite the furore he had caused.
 Beyond Their Depth
 The senator's on the committee seemed far beyond thcir depth IN they questioned Whitney. Unpre. pared and ignorant Of the subject they seemed u little silly before the smooth broker who knew his stuff 50 well. Mir. Whitney applied the whitewash brush and their first at- tuIHptb tD IiuUuie IlIil WtTu huttlp
 He did, however, admit that bull- lsh statements by public officials had helped sustain the disastrous market imitation. The only republi. cans that pleased were such gents as Chairman Norbeck and Senatot Brookhart.
 Then tho committee got a smart criminal lawyer from Philadelphia to ask its questions and Whitney had to admit that his firm had helped peg the market for some German bonds while tho Morgan firm sold them to the public. After support wasswithdrawn the bonds sank from % to 23 and the public is still holding the bag with the bonds at around SC.
 
 Rockefeller and Isask0b
 By this time, pro-administratlon newspapers were decrying the "de- pressing effectn of the investigation