Frank Exchange

In the course of his investigations of U. S. security markets, Ferdinand Pecora, counsel for the Senate Banking & Currency Committee, last week found one for which he could say a good word. It was the San Francisco Mining Exchange, second only to the New York Stock Exchange in age. On the strength of a statement from its president, Charles E. Hudson, Inquisitor Pecora publicly acclaimed it "a very frank stock exchange." Excerpts from the Hudson statement read to the committee:

"Our exchange may be termed a white chip trading rendezvous for stocks. Mining and oil stocks are naturally of a speculative character and we do not attempt to make the public think they are anything Ise. A hole in the ground today may be a mine of value tomorrow, while a mine of value today may be a hole of tremendous proportions the following day.

"Our stocks do not contain the immense quantity of water many of the industrials contain. In fact, our water comes "rom the desert area, while industrials are usually organized by promoters whose hydraulic pumps operate out of the Atlantic Ocean. The bankers, as a rule, do not help us because our activities inter-"ere with their game."

Founded in 1862 three years after the fabulous Comstock Lode was opened in Nevada, the San Francisco Mining Exchange was the vortex of a feverish speculative mining boom that burned the land or two decades after the Civil War. During the 1870's while the Floods, Mackays, O'Briens, et al. were plucking some $750,000,000 in gold and silver from the Comstock Lode, police guarded the portals of Mining Exchange as the public clamored to buy, buy, buy. Bodie was the favorite with Eastern investors and caused them more grief than any other stock on the mining list. Bell Isle was whirled from obscurity to $5.25 a share by the "Tuscarora Ring," then allowed to subside to $1.25. To West Coast octogenarians "PostWar boom" still means post-Civil War.

Even today almost every San Francisco businessman has his favorite among the penny shares of the Mining Exchange. Located at No. 327 Bush Street, it is one of the few U. S. exchanges that still cling to the old custom of calling off the full stock list 'at the opening of each daily session. After that, trading in the usual manner begins. There are no posts on the floor, each broker having his booth against the wall. All sessions are open to the public and only a low railing divides the visitors' gallery from the trading floor.

Now serving his fourth term as president, Broker Hudson is head of Hudson Sons Co., a direct successor to his father's concern which once had a firm grasp on the whole U. S. salt business. Broker Hudson went west from Ohio by easy stages, helped found the Salt Lake Stock Exchange, moved to San Francisco at the century's turn. He claims that never in his 78 years of life did he advise a customer to buy or sell a share of stock, holding to the West Coast tradition that every man has an inalienable right to do what he wants with his money.

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