Financial History Issue 129 (Spring 2019) | Page 36

Certificate for preferred stock in the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, issued to J.S. Bache, 1886. John E. Leslie, who had been with Bache since 1955, became chairman of the exec- utive committee, succeeding George Weiss. Weiss, who had been with Bache & Co. since 1928 and a partner since 1937, became vice chairman. Harry A. Jacobs, Jr. became president. In 1969, Les- lie was named chairman and Weiss was named honorary chairman. The following year, Leslie was also made chief executive officer. A native of Austria, John E. Leslie immigrated to the United States in 1938. Trained as a lawyer and a graduate of the University of Vienna, Leslie gradu- ated from Columbia University’s business school, where he studied accounting. He joined Bache & Co. in 1954 and became a general partner in 1955. In 1970, during Leslie’s tenure, the firm ran into finan- cial difficulties. According to The New York Times, Leslie “declined to comment on Bache’s loss, but he did say, ‘I think an appropriate increase in the rate of commission is absolutely essential. This is true for the entire industry, not just for Bache. It is in the public interest.’” In a letter to the firm’s employees and stockholders, Leslie “attributed the lack of earnings mainly to ‘the tremendous increase in costs, wages, prices, automa- tion, rent etc.’” He also blamed low com- mission rates, shortened trading hours and reduced trading volume. He stated, “For a while…this unbelievable situation was overshadowed by unusually heavy volume. Now the volume has come down and stock prices are lower and the conse- quences have become crystal clear.” Despite these challenges, Bache & Co. changed with the times and even expanded in the early 1970s. In 1971, Bache & Co. became “the second publicly listed securi- ties company in the country,” after Mer- rill Lynch. Two years later, Bache & Co. bought the firm of Halsey, Stuart & Co., Inc. Leslie stated that the merger gave “the firm Bache’s existing experience with 34    FINANCIAL HISTORY  |  Spring 2019  | www.MoAF.org individual investors, and Halsey’s experi- ence with institutional and investment banking.” Founded in 1916, Halsey Stuart & Co. was the result of Harold L. Stu- art’s acquisition of “the Chicago office of the 15-year-old investment firm of N.W. Halsey & Co., Inc.” It became known by 1970 as “a specialist in the management and marketing almost exclusively of debt securities.” In 1974, the firm created a holding company for the securities firms called Bache Group Inc. Bache Group Inc. (f. 1974, New York) Bache Halsey Stuart (f. 1975, New York) Bache Halsey-Stuart Shields (f. 1977, New York) In 1975, the Bache Group Inc. merged its brokerage subsidiaries Bache & Co. and Halsey Stuart & Co. into Bache Halsey Stuart. In 1977, the Bache Group Inc. merged with Shields Model Roland Inc.