"More Than $1,000"

On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange one morning this week the gong bonged as usual at 10 a. m., opening the day's trading. Slowly the ticker tapped out the first sale--100 shares of Lehman Corp. at $25.50 per share. The market was dull. Suddenly the bell rang again, bringing trading to a sharp halt. As a man the hushed brokers turned toward the rostrum to hear an astounding announcement: the firm of Richard Whitney & Co. was unable to meet its obligations.

The brokers could not believe their ears. Indeed, as the report shot through Wall Street it was not believed until the Stock Exchange issued a public statement. For Richard Whitney was the Depression president of the Stock Exchange, is a brother of Morgan Partner George Whitney. Richard Whitney & Co. had always been known as "the Morgan brokers." It was in behalf of a Morgan banking group that Richard Whitney strode across the floor to U. S. Steel post on a dark day in 1929 to bid $2.05 per share for 25,000 shares of steel --15 points above the market. That spectacular bid temporarily stayed the avalanche and the tall figure of Richard Whitney became the hero of the crash.

And it had been Richard Whitney who had led the Stock Exchange's long and losing fight against Government regula-ions--wrongly, according to some, gallantly according to all. Yet the curt Stock Exchange announcement declared last week that there was "evidence" that this Groton-bred Harvard man's company had been guilty of "conduct apparently contrary to just and equitable principles of trade." The Street promptly cracked in its usual savage humor that "Snow White had become a Dwarf."

Just what brought failure to Richard Whitney was not disclosed. It was reported that the firm was heavily involved in Philippine Railway bonds, in cheap railway stocks, in a Curb issue called Distilled Liquors. Meantime the Stock Exchange scheduled a hearing next fortnight, the New York Attorney General launched an investigation, and Richard Whitney & Co. filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy in Federal court, listing debts of "more than $1,000."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.