Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1941-06-02
Wall Street Pleased
By Appointment Of
Purcell 10 ). {. t..
New Bourd Member
May Indicate Period
Of Harmony Ahead
By FRANK MacMILLEN.
The Stars Special News Service.

NEW YORK, June 2.-Nomlna-
ton to the Securities and Exchange
Commission this week of 36-year-
old Ganson Purcell, first career man
to rise to the top from the ranks
of the Governments market police
force, may foreshadow closer CO.
operation between Washington and
Wall Street, some financial men
said today.
Not since the appointment of
Joseph P. Kennedy. a Wall Street
man, and later Ambassador to the
Court of st. James, to the COM
mission, has a presidential choice
met such generally ready &C
ceptance from men in the securities
business.
Wall Street worked with the
boyish-looking, bespectacled young
lawyer when he was director of
the trading and exchange division
of the commission, job which re-
quired much complicated technical
knowledge of the operations of Sc
curitieS markets.
Men here who are masters of the
intricate trade of dealing in and
marketing stocks and bonds and
who have feuded with the New Deal
more or less continuously for a
decade over FEDERAL regulation Of
their business, today had such things
as this to say of the nomination:
Choice Is Applauded.
THE choice is generally applauded.
He is an experienced man"
He knows exchange problems.
He is both competent and rea-
sonable"
Purcell has every reason to know
the ms and outs of Government
regulation of the securities busi-
ness.
He had a hand. when only a few
years out of Harvard Law School,
as legislative counsel to the Sen
ate, in drafting both the "truth-in-
securities" act of 1888 and the Sc
curities and Exchange Act of 1894,
under which the New York Stock
Exchange and Curb Exchange. as
well as markets in other big cities
throughout the country, are regu-
lated
The Maloney Act of 1888, which
did the same thing for the tele-
phone-trading over-the-counter-
market that the Securities and Ex-
change Act did for organized deal
ing on the big trading floors. was
under the supervision of Purcell as
director of the trading and exchange
division.
But the young lawyer from San
Gabriel, Calf, first came into wide
contact with the men along Man.
hattans Broad and Wall Streets
after the spectacular crash and sub
sequent Imprisonment of Dick"
Whitney in 1888
1t was the debacle of Whitney. a
former president of the Stock Ex-
change, and long a power in Wall
Street, which forced through a re-
organization of the personnel and
machinery of the Stock Exchange
and of the curb market in 1888.
Served as Contact Man.
And Purcell was the Washington
contact man" who kept an eye on
things for the regulatory body, laid
down the law when necessary, and
watched the reform forces come to
victory over stand-pat "old guard"
faction In the exchange.
This was mostly behind closed
doors work for Purcell, but It
brought him into contact with many
men who are now powers in the
affairs of both the big New York
markets.
Whether the nomination of Pur-
cell, generally liked and respected in
Wall Street, was to be linked with
the recent choice of Emil Schram,
proteg of Federal Loan Admins
traitor Jesse Jones, and for several
years a Government administrator,
as head of the New York Stock Ex-
change was q question being widely
discussed in the financial district.
Wall Street men who are usually
well informed say there are growing
indications the administration in
Washington is dissatisfied with the
inactive state of trading in stocks
and bonds, which has dragged along
at starvation levels for the financial
businesses.
The administration, these reports
say, believes that heavy Govern
ment financing for defense would
be facilitated by generally active
markets for other kinds of securi-
ties.
At any rate, Wall Street men sug-