Thomas Lawson Against Matched Trades
Mr. Thomas W. Lawson sends out a strong, characteristic appeal to the New York Stock Exchange, to Governor Hughes, and to President Taft, to stop above all things else the most serious phase of gambling in Wall Street, which he designates “a matched trade;” in other words, to expel from the Stock Exchange any member who directly or indirectly executes the buying or selling end of a trade which he knows or has good reason to know [is] a matched trade; and a matched trade he defines [as] one where the stocks, bonds, or securities involved do not in fact change ownership by or because of the transaction. It is pure fraud. And he declares that if that action were taken by the Exchange, there would be little trouble arise from it. In his appeal to President Taft he cites instances of how money is fraudulently piled up in this way. Wall Street is one of the storm centers. Supreme Court Justice Wesley O. Howard, of New York State, truly says, “While the extremest penalties are being provided for the suppression of penny-ante and kindred crimes, a gambling institution rivaling Monte Carlo in magnitude and audacity, and rivaling it in the wild uproar of its conduct, in the colossal magnitude of its stakes, and in its astonishing freedom from official interruption, is said to flourish in the very heart of the metropolis.”