216 The Stock Market Crash—And After 
been called investment trusts. These organizations 
are avowedly of the most speculative type and are 
more risky than the investment trust proper, because 
they may heavily concentrate their holdings. It is 
concerning investment trusts proper that Mr. 
Robinson says: 
“It 1s important to bear in mind that even in the 
recently closed period of excessive common stock 
emphasis, there were many investment trusts which 
were consistently buying in less buoyant foreign mar- 
kets and giving their securities portfolios a strong 
anchor to windward in the form of large bond hold- 
ings. A high proportion of seasoned and market- 
able securities, the ownership of bonds as well as 
stocks, and the ability to liquidate on foreign mar- 
ket have all contributed to give some investment 
trusts a further purchasing power during the recent 
doldrums.” 
Mr. Robinson finds that the investment trust move- 
ment as a whole seems to have been “relatively free 
from such systematic abuses as might have been 
feared in view of its recent origin, its amazingly rapid 
growth, and the unprecedented situation in the stock 
market.” He adds that it does not appear likely that 
the American companies as a whole will pass through 
“any such term of painful reconstruction, both of 
financial structures and of public confidence, as many 
of the British financial companies and investment 
trusts did in the years 1890 to 1896.” The majority 
of them show comparatively large ratios of total 
investment funds raised by issuance of capital stock.