The Stock Market Crash 
II 
cans abruptly abandoned their plans for winter vaca- 
tions and returned to New York in the hope of 
salvaging something from the wreckage. 
The sessions of the Stock Exchanges were cut 
to three hours each on four week days, partly to 
enable the overworked Exchange houses to catch up 
with their transactions, but chiefly to put a check 
upon further short selling and depression of the 
market. A vigorous closing rally on October 30th 
prefaced the strong and heartening rise in stock 
prices on the 31st, when 10,727,320 shares were 
traded and more than two and one-third billion dol- 
lars were regained by sixteen representative stocks. 
The rally of Thursday, the 31st, continued until 
noon, when the Exchange was closed for the balance 
of the week to ease the strain. The Board 
of Governors of the Stock Exchange announced 
that it had “reached a point of complete physical 
exhaustion.” 
The market recesses gave time to count up the 
losses in security values, and to gather from the 
nation’s business, financial and governmental leaders 
their opinions as to the probable causes and results 
of the panic and what measures might be taken 
to prevent a repetition of this painful ‘experi- 
ence. 
President Hoover called a series of conferences 
with business and banking leaders at the White 
House to devise ways and means of codrdinating the 
efforts of private business and Government to pre-