The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-08-12

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 One is the spectacular battle of prices on the Big Board, about which everyone knows. The other, fierce behind-the-scenes conflict, is known only to those directly involved. But its outcome Is of far greater moment to the country and to the Exchange than the headlined ups and downs.
 The opposing forces in this se- cret struggle are, on one side, the Securities and Exchange Com mission plus the new liberal Stock Exchange regime headed by young President William Martin, and on the other the battered but still powerful Old Guard plus the bad of inside maket opeatos known as specialists and floor traders.
 The crucial issue at stake is whether these insiders should or should not be "segregated"-that is, prohibited from trading for themselves in stocks that they sell or buy for customers.
 This practice has been the subject of heated controversy ever since the Stock Exchange was put under the microscope by the Pecora investigation in
 1883. In the original draft of
 the Securities and Exchange Act
 there was a provision barring specialists and floor traders
 from buying and selling for
 themselves. Tn the involved jockeying over the legislation, this specific ban was eliminated and milder version giving the SEC certain discretionary pow CTS was substituted.
 Under Chairman Joe Kennedy and Jim Landis, the SEC made no move to utilize this authority. and the boys played ducks and drakes pretty much as they pleased. But when Bill Douglas, militant young liberal, became head of the commission, he promptly served notice on the Exchange that curbs had to be clamped down on the inside oper- ators.
 Poker With Mirrors
 Douglas took the position that for specialists and traders to be allowed to deal in stocks for themselves was synonymous to a man in a poker game hay ing mirrors over the shoulders of the other players.
 Douglas demand for a house. cleaning of the business rules of the Exchange precipitated the historic fight that was climaxed by the conviction of Richard Whitney, boss of the Old Guard, for theft, and the victory of the reform elements in the election of Martin as the first paid presi- dent of the Exchange.
 With Martin in the saddle, Douglas renewed his drive for segregation of the floor trad CTS. The new regime assured him 1t was willing to act, and asked for SEC help to formu- late regulations. These are now being drafted amid terrific
 undercover sniping and high
 pressure wire-puIling.
 The outcome of the secret struggle remains to be seen. The endangered traders are scared and jittery, but they are fight ing with their backs to the wall and are still far from licked. Robin Hood"
 Richard Whitney, former head of the New York Stock Exchange, is receiving more fan mail than any prisoner in the history of Sing Sing, where he is serving time for appropriating his cus- toners money.
 Many of the letters hail him as sort of Robin Hood because he robbed the rich. The fact that Whitney did not distribute his loot among the poor appears to have been either overlooked or considered of no significance by the writers.
 Mae Vests ArmOr
 A surprise disclosure in re- port just issued by the LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee is the fact that Mae West at one time was considering buying an ar- mored car.
 The information is contained in a letter written by Donald J. Wright, a salesman for Federal Laboratories, Inc, which sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of tear and sickening gas to city officials and anti-union employers to be used against strikers.
 Wright was very coy in his