268 The Stock Market Crash—dAnd After 
omies, labor cobperation, prohibition and other 
causes. All these advantages have been heightened 
by a more secure expectation of increased earnings 
residing in the stable purchasing power of the dollar 
during the past seven years. As theretofore unstable 
money had hindered business, so now stable money 
promotes business. With this promotion there has 
been an economic change in the attitude of investors 
toward the risks of investment in common stock. 
Bonds were once regarded as safe, and stocks as 
unsafe; now, with the elimination of risks in diversi- 
fied investments, and in changing investments as a 
result of constant scrutiny of business prospects, 
common shares have become popular because of 
their comparative safety. I still hazard the state- 
ment that in spite of the tremendous harm that has 
been done to common stocks during the panic of 
1929, investment trusts have made it safer to invest 
in common stocks than ever before. 
Because of these solid achievements of the past 
seven years, their present continuance, and the 
assurance that they will be prolonged into the imme- 
diate future, I feel that the threat to business due to 
the dislocation of purchasing power by reason of 
transfers of stock holdings will be temporary. Ful- 
filment of the pledges by the nation’s business leaders 
that industrial programs will be adhered to, that 
wages will not be reduced, and that the “tempo” of 
production on which all our prosperity has been 
built will be maintained, should suffice to bridge 
across the business recession that slightly antedated