The hunting season on utility and financial magnates, never enjoying a closed season to be sure but comparatively quiescent since Wiggin, Chase et al were salted away last year, seems to be enjoying another period when game is plentiful. Samuel Insull, recently trapped after a long pursuit by Federal authorities, has now been followed by O. P. van Sweringen as prey to the righteous. Unlike the Insull case, which is virtually over with the exception of refunding losses to the suckers and casting Insull into durance vile, the van Sweringen affair may yet have repercussions which will make the Federal authorities wish they had given the high sign to the bank examiners who detected the alleged window-dressing tactics of the van Sweringens.

The brothers, though they defaulted recently on their maturing obligations to the House of Morgan, nevertheless enjoy the unique status of a going concern. Their maze of holding companies are based on paying properties such as the Chesapeake and Ohio and Nickel Plate Railroads, to name only the most promising. Whatever the merits of the case may be, it will be unfortunate in the extreme if the entire structure should be jeopardized by the forthcoming investigation since it can be anticipated that many thousands of innocent investors throughout the U. S. will suffer directly or indirectly. At any rate, if nothing more serious than putting $10,000,000 worth of government bonds temporarily on the list of the assets of the defunct Union Trust of Cleveland can be charged against the famous pair, they will have proven themselves financiers of an exceptional order of morality. The practice is as common as an alley cat, and it's a poor bank indeed that cannot list at least a few government bonds on its balance sheet when call day comes around. WOTAN