Flight to Reno

Once again Californians are about to vote solemnly--on November 7--on a screwball proposition lovingly called "ham-&-eggs"--pensions of $30 a week, payable every Thursday, to unemployed citizens over 50, to be financed in part by a tax of 3% on gross incomes (including securities sales) of over $3,000 a year.

Last week, while betters were offering

2 1/2-to-1 that "ham-&-eggs" would be defeated and Marlene Dietrich, new U. S. citizen, was registering to cast her first vote (see cut), many a California businessman was wondering what he would do if $30-every-Thursday became a reality.

Beyond the wondering stage and into reality went the San Francisco Exchange, which handles some $100,000,000 in sales annually, could clearly see its business vanishing into other States if "ham-&-eggs" brought the threat of an annual tax of $3,000,000--a tax greater than the total of brokers' commissions. If "ham-&-eggs" passed, announced President William R. Bacon, the Exchange would move to taxfree, divorce-famed Reno, Nev. No idle bluff was Frisco's Stock Exchange making. For last week papers for the incorporation of The San Francisco Stock Exchange Inc. were filed in Reno, and a Reno realtor was readying specifications for a handsome stock exchange building, safely across the line from California's 3%.

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