Little Board

The Washington Stock Exchange, less than two blocks from the White House, afforded a fine view of this week's Inaugural parade (see p. 11). Although the exchange was closed for the day, its members showed up anyway, simply transferred their attention from board to windows.

Such clubby use of the Washington exchange was nothing new: it is one of the nation's most informal financial institutions. Its office is a single 20-by-40-ft. room on the sixth floor of the Washington Building (which also houses a nightclub, a liquor store, a nut shop, a division of the U. S. Treasury). At 11:15 each morning (10:15 on Saturdays), twelve to 15 of its 40 young members (only two are bald) gather on the floor to smoke, talk politics, discuss sporting events, occasionally trade in 40 stocks and nine bonds for their own or customers' accounts. Of the 49 listed securities, four account for 75% of the trading (Washington Gas Light common and preferred, Capital Transit, Mergenthaler Linotype). Some days there are no sales at all.

The W. S. E. was founded in 1881 by bankers who wanted a market for securities they had taken as collateral. So as not to interfere with their regular jobs, they gave it a one-hour-a-day schedule. The members are now mostly brokers instead of bankers, but the one-hour schedule is still in effect. By 1910 a seat cost $10,200; today the price is about $250. Brokers who worked their seats for $10,000 in 1929 are now happy to clear $800 a year.

Last year members traded 20,974 shares, equal to less than ten minutes' sales on the New York Stock Exchange, but a sharp increase over 1939's 15,741 shares. Sales on Manhattan's Big Board last year were the smallest since 1921 (207,600,000 shares). Cleveland's volume was up 8% over 1939, Cincinnati up 11%, Salt Lake City up 22%. But the W. S. E.'s increase was 33%, best showing of any of the 20 registered exchanges in the U. S. Reason: of the 75,000-odd persons drawn to Washington by the defense program since last May, many are big-time manufacturers used to stock trading. Members have a feeling that, thanks to Washington's defense boom, 1941 will find the W. S. E. more of a stock exchange, less of a social club.

__________

Real-estate owners in Green Haven, N. Y. (pop. 38) found themselves on the verge of a boom that has nothing to do with defense. Reason: construction of a new $8,000,000 State prison (for Sing Sing overflow).

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