on june 27, 1949, the president of the st. louis chamber of commerce, george c. smith, said that the proposed september 1 merger between the st. louis exchange with three exchanges would cause "some grave injuries" to the city. the banks also maintained that they might lose most of the exchange business to chicago banks, where the new proposed exchange would be headquartered. a group opposing the merger sought a new ballot on the project, maintaining that the merger would omit from slower moving st. louis stocks from the chicago listings, leaving them to be sold over-the-counter in st. louis.