Business: Nothing Short of Criminal

When Government lawyers opened their antitrust suit against 17 investment bankers in Manhattan 16 months ago (TIME, Dec. 11, 1950 et seq.), Federal Judge Harold R. Medina asked that they lead him along "like a child" through the complexities of investment banking. Since then, Medina has often complained that he was being led through nothing but fog. But last week his hopes went up again. On the stand as a prosecution witness was Chicago's Harold L. Stuart, president of Halsey, Stuart & Co., which floated the biggest dollar total of new issues last year.

For five days, the Government lawyers questioned Stuart,...