Sales Talk

At first glance, the investment circular looked like a joke. "Amazing sale!" it said. "Up to 60% off original prices." But Manhattan's First Colony Corp.'s circular was no gag. It was simply an eye-catching way, usually frowned on by Wall Street, to get the public interested in buying stocks selling at far less than their book value. Said First Colony President J. G. Sittig: "The market needs a shot in the arm."

To give it one, the Association of Stock Exchange Firms was also at work. It had prepared a stock-market primer aimed at the non-investor. "There's no more mystery about [investing]," said the folksy little brochure, "than buying groceries, a suit of clothes or an automobile. And there is satisfaction, prestige and pride in owning stocks & bonds in corporations." Brokers hoped that the booklet would help them catch many a small customer.

As part of the grass-roots campaign to bring Main Street to Wall Street, the Stock Exchange itself was launching a $500,000 advertising campaign. Its theme was that those with small incomes should buy stocks in the same regular way they buy insurance. Said New York Stock Exchange President Emil Schram: "An investor can buy any number of shares on the Stock Exchange--i, 10, 14, 20, or more--and such orders are welcomed by our member firms and given just as much attention as 100 shares."

The New York Exchange was not the only one in the doldrums. Because of lack of business, the Baltimore Stock Exchange got SEC's approval to merge on March 5 with Philadelphia's Exchange.

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