(3 of 5)
"Sec. 15 requires every director, officer or owner of more than 5% of any class of a listed security to file . . . at the time of listing or when he becomes a director, officer or such owner of securities and also within ten days after the close of each calendar month in which there has been any change in the amount of such securities owned by him, a statement indicating the extent of his ownership. . . . It further prohibits any director, officer or such owner . . . from purchasing such listed security with the intention . . . of selling the same within six months. . . . From selling such listed securities which he does not own [selling short]. . . . From disclosing any confidential information. . . .
"These powers are so extensive that the Federal Trade Commission might dominate and actually control the management of each listed corporation.
"The other provisions . . . will affect listed corporations only indirectly by destroying the market for their securities. . . . The prevalent belief that the bill applies only to stock exchanges and dealers in securities has led many people to over look the provisions which it contains directly affecting corporations and subjecting them to the control of the Federal Trade Commission. Faithfully yours. . . . ''
What Mr. Whitney wished he could do in addition last week was to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with every small businessman in the land. The Stock Exchange president was sure that he had a case which could win countless little fellows over to his side — the man with the small tool factory in Indianapolis, the owner of a little cannery in California, the proprietor of Grand Rapids' biggest department store. Each of these little corporations had stock which was unlisted on any exchange. The Exchange Bill, as Mr. Whitney wanted to tell each small businessman, made this stock ineligible as collateral for loans either at banks or brokerage offices. The local corporation might get it listed on some registered exchange but, if so, the corporation officers would be brought directly under the power of the Federal Trade Commission and would incur all the contingent liabilities provided for in the proposed law. Mr. Whitney's whole argument was based on the idea that the little businessman would feel the pinch of the Exchange Bill just as much as the big businessman.
Hard on the heels of the Big Board in trying to build up a businessman's counterattack against the Exchange Bill was the New York Curb, second largest exchange in the U. S. Able young President E. Burd Grubb, elected only last week, lost no time in emulating President Whitney's methods. President Michael J. O'Brien of the Chicago Stock Exchange, third largest in the U. S., did the same thing.* To businessmen throughout the land who thought that the proposed legislation was no concern of theirs, lawyers, brokers, bankers and dealers preached the same simple gospel: ''Read the bill! Read the bill! READ THE BILL!"