until the police hit upon the plan of giving to each
individual a ticket denoting his place in the line. The Trust Company of
America alone paid $34,000,000 across its counters and still crowds
thronged the streets. At length the enormous reserve of the Treasury was
exhausted and it became necessary to delay and deliberately to make slow
payments. Through loans made by other banks the Trust Company of America
and the Lincoln Trust Company, which had endured the hardest sieges,
were saved and now the panic entered its second stage.

[Illustration: Hundreds of people waiting in line.]
The panic of 1907. Run on the Colonial Trust Company.
Line of depositors in Ann Street waiting their turn.

The country was thoroughly aroused, and to avoid a nation-wide raid upon
banking houses the bankers took radical steps. The first measure
resorted to was the enforcement of the rule requiring savings-bank
depositors, at the option of the institution, to give sixty days' notice
before withdrawing deposits. The second expedient was one which had been
resorted to during former years of financial unsteadiness. "Emergency
currency" was issued. This currency took various forms. (1) The
clearing-house loan certificates issued in denominations ranging from
$500 to $20,000, used for settling inter-bank balances; (2)
clearing-house certificates in currency dimensions to be used by banks
in paying their customers; (3) clearing-house checks which took the form
of checks drawn upon particular banks and signed by the manager of the
clearing-house; (4) cashier's checks (in opposition to the National Bank
act) secured by approved collateral; (5) New York drafts which were
cashier's checks drawn against actual balances in New York banks; (6)
negotiable certificates of deposit, and (7) pay checks payable to bearer
drawn by bank customers upon their banks in currency denominations.
These were guaranteed by the firm which issued them.

Other devices were used to aid the banks and to block the spread of the
panic by limiting cash payments by the banks. The governors of Nevada,
Oregon, and California declared legal holidays continuously for several
weeks, thereby allowing the banks to remain closed. In some places the
size of withdrawals was limited to $10 or $25 daily.

The panic was felt to a great degree on the New York Stock Exchange
because the banks refused to make loans, but this stringency was
relieved by a bankers' pool, headed by J. P. Morg