The Share-Pushing Evil - It - is -well- that the
-bucket-shop evil should have been exposed at the Law Society meeting at Nottingham on Tuesday, and plain words spoken about it. There are reertain dangers against which in -the national interest the 'public should be protected. They are protected against dishonest lawyers by the existence of the Law Society itself (and in the other branch by the General Council of the Bar).- They are protected against medical in- competence and malpractice by the General Medical Council. They are protected against dishonest members of the Stock Exchange by the Stock Exchange Com- mittee. But to buy and sell shares there is no need to belong to the 'Stock Exchange. All that is needed is -enough money (often enough borrowed money) to rent -an office and print plausible circulars by which cheques can be extracted from the pockets of the credulous. That there are many perfectly honest outside brokers is not for -a moment to be denied. But the margin between investment and speculation is indeterminate, and speculation is a hazardous enough pursuit without -the incitement of alluring invitations to invest in ques- tionable enterprises. If outside brokers are to continue at all, they should be required, as was suggested in the Law Society discussion, to obtain a licence from the London, or some provincial, Stock Exchange.
* * * *
Previous page
