Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-30
NATION ESCAPES
FINANCIAL CRASH
Enormous Drop in Stock Mar
ket Has Not Impaired
Business Structure.
,neciaI Dispatch 10 The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, October 30.-The most
astonishing phase Of the entire stock
market situation, which yesterday took
a more ominous character than on last
Thursday or on Monday, was the ability
of Wall Street and the interior ex-
changes Of the country to go through
the crash without bringing on financial
troubles.
Never has this happened before. even
when the public and the banks were less
tied in with the losses in securities than
! they are at the present time. This Is
not only an evidence Of strength in
money resources Of the average specula-
tor and investor, but it represents the
caution that stock exchange houses and
lending institutions have all along ex-
hibited on demanding margins and
marking down the prices Of collateral
on a scale that was regarded as ridicu-
lous, but which proves to have been the
saving element In the situation. It Is
also testimony to the steadying infiu-
ence of the much maligned Federal Re-
serve system.
Severity Of Test.
When it Is recognized that individual
stocks that were much exploited have
declined In little over a month from
70 to over 140 points, that the general
average Of so selected stocks Is on 100
points and industrials and public utili-
ties together an average Of more than
$50 points, the severity of the test the
| commission houses and banks that they
| have had to meet, becomes apparent.
ShrinkageS in market values have
| reached figures that ere beyond the
conception of even those who daily deal
with large figures. Together those Of
10 et rHt1r ~ al
mated at approximately $25, 900, 900 900,
with another IS 900 000, 900 to $8,o0O,-
| 000, 900 added as q result Of the collapse
yesterday. In other words, between 80
and IS per cent Of the total value OF
| stocks listed on the big board" has dis
appeared in the cataclysm that began
on September 10 and continued at a
longer and more violent rate than any
In American history.
The size OF the participation in the
market for weeks and months has been
much commented on as showing how
at every cross road in the country there
was an interest in Wall Street. This
is now one of the handicaps with which
the market has to deal. It was repre-
sented IN the flood Of orders that came
over private wires yesterday from every
State in the Union and compelled such
initial transactions as $4,000 shares in
Standard Oil of New Jersey, Chrysler
and United Corporations, $4,000 shares
in Anaconda, and Consolidated Gas,
$4,000 shares in International Nickel,
$4,000 shares in Columbia Graphophone,
5000 shares in Kennecott and West
inghouse Electric and 20,000-share lots
in Montgomery Ward, Sinclair, Column
bia Gas g. Electric, Erie common and
Keith-Radio. Nothing like this has
ever been here before It tailed I'D
sales so rapidly that in the first half
hour yesterday, more business was done
than during the entire five-hour ses-
sions of other panicky markets three
years ago.
Bankers Watched.
So much has been said in the last
few days of banking support" that
the man in the street. wondered why
it was being withheld at such a critical
hour. Conferences were held and o
consortium Of the largest banks and
trust companies made statement that
they were only requiring their customers
now to put up IS per cent margins.
This was an intimation that they
thought stocks were approaching their
bottom figures. What Wall Street want
ed to see, however, was more evidence
that the bankers were giving practical