Business: Women on Wall Street

Last week the smart Plaza Trust Co., Manhattan, held a symposium on banking at which a speaker estimated that 41% of U. S. wealth belongs to women. Since many a woman prefers womanly advice. Wall Street brokers noted the figure with interest, wondered if the number of women in finance will increase. Significant, however, seemed the fact that the firm of Sartorius & Smith, in which Helen Smith Sartorius and Carrie F. Smith are special partners, last week filed a notice with the Stock Exchange that it will dissolve March 31, reorganize April 1, without the women.

Although a woman partner of a firm is rare, Wail Street and Women have recently become more familiar. For the most part, Wall Street Women occupy positions as customers women, bond specialists, contact getters, sometimes astrologers. Few have gone higher, fewer remained higher. Last week grief came to a woman who claims to have been the first to enter the brokerage business.

Miss Margaret E. McCann, 49, started her own firm in 1924, dealing in securities but not as a member of any exchange. In September 1928, five grand larceny indictments were returned against her. Last week, convicted, she faced a sentence of five to ten years. When the prosecutor told the jury that "on her own testimony Miss McCann is a thief.' she jumped up and cried "How dare you?': Later she explained to a friend: "I think the jury misunderstood the whole thing. I was a victim of circumstances. What I did was to take money from some to pay others. Had my creditors given me an opportunity, I would have gathered enough money in time to pay all of them."