Ten-cent Paper

There are, according to the Hoover Economic Survey (see p. 75) some 17 million U. S. citizens engaged in playing the Stock Market. Most of these investors are new, small, ignorant. They speculate to double their capital rather than invest to get a steady increase. They are motivated by faith.

Nor have they much chance of becoming intelligently informed. Financial literature is usually written for financiers only. A corporate announcement concerning the issue of 20 million dollars in 4 1/2% convertible debentures makes little sense to the simple soul who is merely looking for a good aero stock. Neither are the standard financial columns, vague in their statements, technical in their language, obscure in their significance, of much help to him. Thus the small investor is forced to select his stocks largely by the Blindfold Test.

Last week, however, the People's Market was given the assistance of a financial daily written in the People's Language.

Published by famed Bernarr Macfadden (pink tabloid Graphic, lurid confessional magazines), the new daily -- New York Daily Investment News -- described itself as designed to "help the public understand Wall Street." When the Investment News was first announced (TIME, April 8), many a scoffer wondered how Publisher Macfadden, previously more interested in short skirts than in short selling, in swimming pools rather than in stock pools, could successfully turn to the Facts of Finance from the Facts of Life. Yet well was the transition made. There is no sex in the Investment News. There are no cosmographs. It is a tabloid in size only. It sells for 10 cents per copy.

The greatest difference between Investment News and the more conservative financial papers is in the Macfadden publication's willingness to give specific tips on specified stocks. Thus in one day's issue, there was definite bull advice on International Business Machines (headed for the 200 mark), on General Electric (may split 4 for 1), Baltimore & Ohio (earnings may be $15 a share this year), and on many another stock. There was also definite bear counsel on Public Service of New Jersey (priced too high), American Power & Light (why buy stocks at their high?), Wright Aero (headed for lower levels soon) and others, including general disapproval of coppers and oils.

In all that has been written about Publisher Macfadden, he has seldom been credited for his undeniable talent for discovering and reaching new publishing markets. There were physical culturists before him, but not many physical culturists who succeeded in getting the man on the street to read about physical culture. In his group of confessional periodicals, typified by True Stories, he has reached down into an obscure stratum of society and found more than two million men and women who previously read few. if any, magazines. His tabloid Graphic, though not first in its field, out-tabloided the other tabloids and found its own public among people who read newspapers only for thrills and will gladly dispense with the news if the thrills come fast enough. And now, since the Stock Market has become of interest to the People, it is Publisher Macfadden who provides the People's Stock Market paper.

Certainly Publisher Macfadden understands his People and its desires. He gives himself freely to it. The People wants pictures, and many a picture of Publisher Macfadden it has seen. The people wants human interest stories and many a story it has read about Publisher Macfadden, his wife and their many lusty offspring. The Macfadden publications are not ahead of the People or behind the People; they are of the People.