210 The Stock Market Crash—And After 
month, who were added to the more than 250,000 
shareholders already on the company’s books. Gen- 
eral Motors, also, gained about 40,000 share- 
holders during the three months of record declines 
in the market, representing an increase of more than 
one-third, while the value of its shares fell by nearly 
50 per cent. 
Preliminary reports by other large corporations 
led to the same conclusion, namely, that the break in 
stock prices was not followed by a decline in the rela- 
tive popularity of common stocks as investments. 
These increases in shareholders helped confirm the 
opinion during the sharp declines in brokers’ loans, 
for example, while prices of stocks were increasing 
during the week ended November 20th, that stocks 
carried on margin were being transferred to buyers 
who paid cash. In fact, the commercial banks re- 
ported a heavy stream of orders from customers 
who were taking advantage of the decline to pur- 
chase stocks for cash. They had held back their 
purchasing power until they saw their favorite issues 
available, in many instances at the lowest level in 
two years or more; then they came into the market 
and bought after the reaction. 
Such was the momentum of the movement of 
preference for stocks as against bonds, which per- 
sisted after the long bull market since 1922. During 
the bull market the flight to common stocks away 
from bonds was shown by the increase in prices of 
equity securities. Thus total value of long- and short- 
term bonds issued during the first eight months of