f this great emergency, and to
estimate fairly the conduct of the financial community in its efforts
to save the day.

The conditions on the Stock Exchange, when the storm burst, were in
some respects very helpful. Speculation for several years had been at
a low ebb, so that values were not inflated nor commitments extended.
Had such a war broken out in 1906, with the level of prices then
existing, one recoils at the thought of what might have happened.
Furthermore, the unsettled business outlook due to new and untried
legislation had fostered a heavy short interest in the market, thereby
furnishing the best safeguard against a sudden and disastrous drop.
This short interest was a leading factor in producing the
extraordinary resistance of prices in New York which caused so much
favorable comment during the few days before the closing. It were well
if ill-informed people who deprecate short selling would note this
fact.

During the week preceding July 31st, therefore, in the face of a
practical suspension of dealings in the other world markets, the New
York market stood its ground wonderfully. The decline in prices,
though it became violent on July 30th, showed no evidence of collapse.
There was a continuous market everywhere up to the last moment, and
call money was obtainable at reasonable prices. Here was a perplexing
problem when the closing of foreign Bourses raised the question of how
long we should strive to keep our own Exchange open.

To close the recognized public market for securities, the market which
is organized and safeguarded and depended upon as a standard of
values, is an undertaking of great responsibility in any community. To
take this step in New York, which is one of the four preeminent
financial centers of the world, involved a responsibility of a
magnitude difficult adequately to estimate. Upon the continuity of
this market rest the vast money loans secured by the pledge of listed
securities; numberless individuals depend upon it in times of crisis
to enable them to raise money rapidly by realizing on security
investments and thus safeguarding other property that may be
unsaleable; the possessor of ready money looks to it as the quickest
and safest field in which to obtain an interest return on his funds;
and the business world as a whole depends upon it as a barometer of
general conditions.

Add to this the fact that speculative commitments by individuals from
all over the world, which hav