Evening star., 1934-05-01
EXCHANGE PROFITS
OF BILLION SHOWN
IN LAST SIX YEARS

Continued From First Page)
to submit also supplemental data OBJ
tanned from questionnaires to large
banks and corporations.
Most amazing of all the figures pre-
sented by Pecora were those show
ing the profits. They disclosed that,
while the Nation as a whole was max
ing and losing fortunes by the thou
sand, the brokers commissions con-
tinued to pour in.
The total net commissions of the
reporting member firms for the almost
six-year period were $1,502.7 ISL PTS.
These varied from a peak of s432,-
233,616 in 1929 down to Sl35, 100 ,492
in 1882 and back to $160,9l2, ,086 for
the first eight months of 1888.
Proof was afforded by the figures
that the so-called insiders" can lose
on the market as well as the general
public. The reporting films showed
total losses Of about $4,000 900 from
trading operations in 1880 and 1881.
Similar figures were presented by
individual members of the exchange.
whose profits were tabulated sep
arately from the 1888, 900 900 made by
member firms.
Charges Intimidation.
Chairman Rayburn OF the House
Commerce Committee yesterday de-
clared Wall Street firms had resorted
to intimidation of employees and soli-
citation of kilograms and letters in
their effort to defeat the stocks
measure.
Representative Wadsworth, Repub-
lican. OF New York. a critic of many
provisions of the bill, contended that
from the extreme nature of the
measure as 1t was first introduced it
was not to be wondered at that ex-
change officials came to Washington
in protest.
1T was calculated to throw fear
into the minds" Of brokers, bankers,
securities owners and heads Of cor
porations, he said. He added 'if it
had gone into effect. literally thou
sands of employees of brokerage houses
would have been thrown out OF work. 3"
and there was no question but the
Curb Exchange would have had to
close.
DO you blame them for coming to
us in protest?" he asked.
Rayburn produced letters and other
documents intended to prove his
point of an organized propaganda
campaign centralizing at one point
and paid for from a common source. L"
Calls Attack Vicious.
There has not been introduced, in
all the years that it has been my
privilege to serve in this body, a
measure that has been attacked as
viciously and in most instances as
senselessly as this legislation" Ray
burn said
Propaganda unequaled by any that
have seen has been leveled against
this legislation, against members Of
the committee and especially against
the chairman of the committee.
"The campaign of misrepresenta-
tion of the objectives of this legisla-
ton and the length to which men
have gone to try to prejudice the
minds of members of Congress who
did not serve upon the committee and
who were not in the hearings, is be-
yond anything I have known.
In order that you may know some
of the reasons these kilograms have
piled upon you. not from the Stock
Exchange so much as from the clerks
in the exchanges, I want to read you
some of the messages that have gone
out. Here is one that stirred up the
clerks in all of the brokerage houses
in the United States:
"'Will you please ascertain and ad-
wise what is being done by concerted
action of savings banks. corporations
listed and unlisted insurance COM
panies in this territory in the way OF
organized effort to fight the above
bill. Are your employees alive to the
fact that, with the passage Of the
bill, a great many of them will be out
of employment? Are they writing
their Senators and Representatives?
! Urged Personal Notes.
"'If not, they should do it at once
! using their own note paper, not firm
paper, and writing in their own way
protesting that the passage OF this bill
will rob them of employment. Please
advise
The President Of the United
States wrote me a letter before he
went away on a short vacation ir
which he called attention to this
propaganda and pointed out 1t came
from a common source; and. oi
course, it was paid for from COM
mon source.
The Associated Gas & Electric
System is circularizing everybody who
owns any of its stock. While it may
not be information to you, it is true
nevertheless. that the Associated Ca
& Electric System throughout its ex.
istence, and 1t Is $1,000 .000. .00(
concern, has been the most non-co-
| operative organization in the United
States. both with regard to Stats
commissions and to legislative bodies
This system, of course, is dom.
mated by the personality Of Mr.. Hob.
! son, and he is pretty hard to get be-
fore committee. as some Of yol
know"