INTRODUCTION

MANY causes have been assigned for the stock
market crash of 1929. These usually take the form
of putting the blame on different individuals or
groups. United States Senator Robinson of Arkansas
 blames President Hoover, Secretary Mellon and
Ex-President Coolidge for their “unduly optimistic
statements’ about business conditions, which he says,
worked the country into a fever of speculation. But
United States Senator Robinson, Republican, of Indiana,
 praises the administration, and holds that
John J. Raskob, Chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, was among those who were
“psychologically” responsible for the collapse, by
urging people to buy stocks.
Senator Glass blames the “stock gamblers.” The
Reverend John Haynes Holmes holds the brokers
and their unholy ways responsible. A prominent
banker ascribes the Wall Street crash largely to the
blocking of the Tariff Bill in Congress. New York
State Senator Hastings finds the cause in those who
“sold short.” Congressman Clyde Kelly blames
“this nation-wide gambling house which is called the
New York Stock Exchange.”
Mr. Daniel W. Blumenthal finds implicated in
the panic certain brokers “who successfully carried