24 The Stock Market Crash—dAnd After 
branches of the industrial world. The assurances 
already obtained by the public service institutions 
and the governmental works would be a prime factor 
of stability by enabling construction and maintenance 
activities for 1930 to reach a ‘“‘higher level than that 
of 1929.” A second great balance wheel of stability, 
the President said, was in our foreign trade. But 
he cautioned that exports should be mainly for 
development work abroad, such as roads and utilities 
which increase the standards of living of the foreign 
nations and thus increase demand for goods from 
every nation. 
Finally, the President declared that all these 
efforts had but one end, namely, to “assure employ- 
ment¥and to remove the fear of unemployment.” 
First Concerted Action Against Depression 
The remedies and preventives proposed to the 
four hundred business leaders represented the first 
concerted effort made in this country by government 
and business to avoid threatened depression. “A 
more significant experiment in the technique of bal- 
ance,” Professor Wesley C. Mitchell declared in a 
paper before the Taylor Society, December 4, 1929, 
“could not be devised than the one which is being 
performed before our eyes.” 
The purpose of this action was magnificent. Its 
psychological application in allaying fear was, 
indeed, swiftly effective. It immediately turned the 
attention of the nation from despairing contempla- 
tion of losses to a confident preparation for quick 
recovery. It was designed to head off industrial con-