Evening star., 1934-02-15

President RooseveIt's program of re-
form for the stock market Is greeted
with sympathetic interest by the pub
lie, which has been following the
report Of the special commission end
the introduction of bills in Congress.
ut Is not q matter which a day
can SETTLE" advises the st. Louis Post
Dispatch, with recognition that "the
exchanges are powerful and have pow
erful allies" That paper observes
curtailment in formerly popular types
Of market activities, and makes the
comment: There is nothing new in
this. 1t is what happened in Eng
land after the South Sea Bubble,
and it Is what happened in France
after the Mississippi Bubble. The
Prosperity Bubble pointed the way to
reform in our own country exactly as
its predecessors pointed the way to
reform in Europe. The unregulated
exchanges of the United States are
unique in the civilized world. If we
have tolerated them because we some
how thought them to be essential to
the national development, we must by
this time realize that they are the
greatest Of all impediments to q ma
tional society"
"The committee proposes" it is
pointed out by the Wall Street Jour-
nal, "that the Federal Government
shall see to it that every security ex-
change establishes and enforces regu-
lations adequate to make the specific
practices of the market reliable and
Clean and to assure that fluctuations
In market values shall as far as pos
sible approximate fluctuations in the
position OF the enterprise itself and
Of general economic conditions These
are exactly the objeetives Of every
legitimate security market: they are
and long have been the active concern
Of the governors of the New York
Stock Exchange. As to the precise
means by which the committee would
effect these correct objectives there is
ample room for honest difference of
opinion, despite the detachment with
which the committee has done Its
work"
The Wall Street paper feels that ga
commission endowed with ample
power to obtain the facts concerning
any phase of stock market operation
or the trading in a given issue or the
affairs of one or all corporations
whose securities were listed, able to
get the information quickly and COM
municate 1t to the press, would serve
every purpose of regulation which the
committee had in mind" The Jour-
nal concludes that arming the COM
mission with the deadly weapon Of q
searchlight would be real control"
Referring to the wild speculation"
Of 1929, the Chattanooga News holds
that values of securities were not
regulated by the conditions Of the cor
porations they represented, but by the
hectic gambling on the floor of the
Exchange" The News concludes that
the proposed regulations all tend to
decrease gambling and to permit Sc
curities to seek and maintain their
proper level of values" The Portland
(Me.) Press Herald feels that, "using
the report as q base, 1t Is probable
that Congress will be able to adopt
law which will correct some Of the
evils ofSthe stock exchanges and not
interfere too much with legitimate
business"
bills prepared by Senator Fletcher
and Representative Rayburn," accord
| ing to the Cleveland News, "are de-
signed for the protection of the real
investor as against the speculator, for
the safeguarding of the little fellow"
The News adds: Congress Is given the
task, largely, of working out its own
remedies, but the instructions from the
White House are definite enough. The