Whitney Out

Last week, for a change, the stockmarket went up. It was led by utility shares, which climbed on the growing conviction that the Administration's bill to abolish holding companies would never reach the White House in its present form. And abruptly that aggregation of mercurial individuals called Wall Street decided that the country was not, as they had thought for weeks, going straight to Hell.

But brightening Wall Street sentiment had nothing to do with a sudden shift in the internal affairs of the New York Stock Exchange, which is something of a world to itself. The prospect of a hot contest for the presidency in the coming Exchange elections disappeared when Richard Whitney decided not to run for a sixth term. Since it was a foregone conclusion that the nominating committee would not pick Mr. Whitney to succeed himself, his friends were loudly urging him to break all precedent by standing on an independent ticket in order to vindicate his turbulent administration (TIME, April 8).

Apparently the hard-hitting broker, who has spent most of his five years in office battling his institution's enemies, preferred harmony to an open fight. He informed the nominating committee that he would be pleased to accept a place on their official slate as a candidate for one of the ten regular governorships open each year. And with Mr. Whitney out of the race the next president of the New York Stock Exchange will be the nominating committee's choice--Charles R. Gay. head of the oldest house on the Floor, Whitehouse & Co. On him will devolve the problem of reselling the stockmarket to the U. S. public, whose waning patronage sent the price of Exchange seats last week down to $65,000, lowest since 1919.

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