244 The Stock Market Crash—dnd After 
York Stock Exchange in 1914 (published by the 
Country Life Press, 1915). Mr. Noble says: 
“The reopening was accompanied by the restraint 
of certain arbitrary minimum prices, below which 
securities could not be sold. It was felt that, owing 
to the critical and indecisive state of the war, there 
was a continuing possibility of some news that might 
renew a crisis in the market. While this possibility 
lasted, the maintenance of minimum prices furnished 
an automatic check upon sudden panic, which would 
avoid raising the question of a second closing of the 
exchange. In order to regulate these minimum 
prices and so change them from time to time and to 
keep them in accord with normal supply and demand, 
it was necessary to appoint a committee, and the 
original Five were continued in office with this sole 
regulative power. As bonds were similarly restricted, 
the Committee of Three [in charge of the bond side 
of the market] also lingered on the scene for the 
same purpose. The two committees performed this 
unusual function up to the first of April, 1915, when 
the very marked improvement in conditions led to 
the abandonment of this last vestige of artificial 
restraint.” 
Thus from December 15, following the report of 
the Special Committee of Five to the governing com- 
mittee of the Stock Exchange announcing that it 
might be reopened, until the following April of 1915, 
the Exchange explained that prices of securities were 
restricted as a safeguard against some unforeseen 
shock to confidence.