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About these salaries and bonuses Mr. Pecora began to ask questions: Q. Who had fixed the amount of Mr. Wiggin's compensation? A. His fellow officers. "And I helped to fix theirs,'' added Mr. Wiggin. ". . . We all sat together." Q. Who had fixed the bonuses paid by the bank to officers? A. Mr. Wiggin had fixed the bonuses, his own bonus excepted. "What usually happened was that my associates suggested the amount, and I cut it down." Q. He had not been charged when the bank lost money—the bonus system only worked one way? A. (Mr. Wiggin smiling faintly) "Yes." Q. How had his retirement pension of $100,000 been fixed? A. It had been voted by the executive committee and approved by the board of directors in a resolution proposed by Frederick H. Ecker (president of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.) "to discharge in some measure the obligation of the bank" and because Mr. Wiggin's advice would continue to be available to the bank's officers. Mr. Wiggin had suggested the amount. Q. Had his proposal aroused opposition? A. "On the contrary, enthusiasm." Q. Had he advised the dissolution of the bank's security affiliate and dropping the securities business? A. He had not been consulted. He had approved the action by proxy. "I am absolutely in favor of backing up the management of the bank. . . . Very probably if I were still senior officer of the bank I might have done just what Mr. Aldrich has recommended. I do not know. Up to the time I left the bank I did not think that it was necessary. . . ." Q. What services had Mr. Wiggin rendered for his $100,000 retirement salary? A. "I think I am a direct influence in holding a very large business for the bank." He always had the interest of the bank "very much to the front.'' and partly due to his efforts the Chase's assets tied up in Germany had been reduced from $100,000,000 to less than $40,000,000. Q. Was he aware that the time when his $100,000 a year salary was voted that the Chase bank and its securities affiliate had had hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. A. "I know that the losses have been very large . . . but I cannot give the figure off-hand."
Arithmetic for Stockholders. Mr. Wiggin, good-natured, sure that he had not been overpaid, lost some of his good humor when questioned about Chase Securities Corp. Mr. Pecora made him admit figure by figure that the company (which sold $6,000,000,000 of securities, 5.68% of which went into default) had to reserve for losses 77% ($120,000,000) of its aggregate capital and earnings since 1917. To Mr. Pecora's charge that the company's reports to stockholders* had hidden losses Mr. Wiggin entered denials. Mr. Pecora gave him the company's reports for 1930 and 1931, asked him to calculate upon the spot. His face growing red, Mr. Wiggin calculated. His answer was wrong by $1,000,000.