Business: Bear Hunt

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Mr. Whitney: We have brought this country, sir, to its standing in the world by speculation. You think you can affect the world by changing the rules of a stock exchange or board of trade?

Senator Brookhart: Yes, we can change them by abolishing the stock exchange and board of trade, so far as speculation is concerned.

Mr. Whitney: And then the people of the United States will go to Canada and Europe to do those very things and pay their taxes there.

The meeting adjourned with Senator Glass wondering why Mr. Whitney had been called at all. Three days later Mr. Whitney told the Senate Finance Committee that the proposed ¼ of 1% tax on stock and ⅛ of 1% on bonds might force his Exchange to close.

Back before the Banking & Currency committee. Mr. Whitney presented a list of 24,000 traders on April 8 (day before the "billion-dollar bear raid" was to have been staged). The committee began sorting out the short-sellers. Many of them bore "nationally known names" but Senator Walcott demurred against their publication. Said he: "You wouldn't print them if they were made public." Washington, realizing how glad the Administration would have been to catch some big Democratic bears, wondered if some big Republicans had been found in bear's clothing.