Flight From Bonds to Stocks 213 
Chairman of the Board of the Equitable Trust Com- 
pany of New York, reported during November that 
49 per cent of the assets of large estates were in 
equity securities. 
Furthermore, savings banks and other fiduciary 
institutions were seeking added legislation to invest 
in common shares. Even during heavy declines in 
stock, for example, the President of the Boston Five 
Cent Savings Bank said on October 16, 1929: 
“We must serve our depositors by investing in 
that type of securities that they desire. It is their 
money that we are handling. If we do not invest it 
according to their wishes, then they will withdraw 
it from our institution. That has been amply demon- 
strated during the past year. As it is clearly their 
desire to invest their money in common stocks, we 
must be able to invest it as they desire when it is 
left in our charge. 
“If we are to change our laws so as to permit in- 
vestments in common stocks of the highest grade, 
we must necessarily also have the right to increase 
our surplus, perhaps from 25 to 50 per cent or pos- 
sibly 100 per cent. With this accumulated surplus 
there would be large earnings that ought to be ap- 
plied to the current dividends.” 
Now the change toward stocks has taken place. 
The average monthly output of new bond offerings 
in 1927 was more than four times as large as in 
1919; in 1928 it was only three and one-half times 
as large as in 1919, and for the first ten months in 
1929, it diminished to two and one-half times the