l interference with or control of the Exchange. The act
of closing necessitated the prompt decision of men thoroughly familiar
with the circumstances in a period of time actually measured by
minutes. If it had been necessary to reach government officials
unfamiliar with details, convince them of the necessity of action, and
overcome the invariable friction of public machinery, the financial
world would have been prostrated before the first move had been made.
If the Exchange had been an incorporated body, and had been closed in
the face of the difference of opinion and possible conflict of
interests that existed at the time, it would have been possible for a
temporary injunction to have been brought against its management
restraining its freedom to meet the emergency. Long before the merits
of such an injunction could have been argued in court the harm would
have been done, and ruin would have overtaken many innocent people.
The full power of a group of individuals thoroughly familiar with the
conditions to act without delay or restraint prevented a calamity
which can safely be described as national.

It is a fact, which will probably never be appreciated outside of the
immediate confines of Wall Street, that the Exchange was unexpectedly
thrown into a position where the interests of the whole country were
put in its hands, and that through the prompt and energetic action of
the thirty-six men who faced the awful responsibility on July 31st
financial America was saved. It is true that in saving the community
they saved themselves, but so do the soldiers who win upon the
battle-field, and in neither case is the obligation cancelled by the
selfish considerations involved. When in future the perennial outcry
against the Exchange is being fostered by those whose minds are
exclusively occupied with the evils that are inseparable from every
human institution, let us hope that once in a while some friendly
voice may be raised to remind the world of July thirty-first, nineteen
hundred and fourteen.

CHAPTER II

THE PERIOD OF SUSPENSION

During the same morning on which the momentous action of closing was
taken the Committee of Five met and elected the President of the
Exchange as their Chairman. The acute crisis was over, the danger of a
cataclysm had been averted, but the situation that remained was big
with problems full of menace and uncertainty.

Just what effect the closing of the market would have was a matt