150 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE 
national boundaries were shattered by the stroke of a pen. 
Almost the whole complex system of international trade and 
finance was seriously dislocated. While over-production and 
unsalable surplus overflowed the warehouses of some countries, 
in others arose the greatest goods famine of modern times. 
Over all extensive unemployment cast its dark and lengthening 
shadow. Many serious thinkers declared that civilization had 
~ommitted suicide, that international finance would never re- 
cover, that the gold standard had been destroyed, and that 
industry and trade had received their death-blow. Only a 
ruinous period of economic prostration loomed ahead. 
Tt was under these conditions that the venturesome buyers 
of speculative securities dared to sustain both public and private 
credit by purchasing stocks and bonds. The New York market 
led the way, but presently other centers both here and abroad 
also rallied to the task. Confidence, exhibiting itself on the 
Stock Exchange feebly at first but soon stronger and stronger, 
followed the ticker tape’s ascending prices upwards. Loans 
were floated for embarrassed foreign governments and totter- 
ing industries. That virile spark of faith in the future first 
struck on the Stock Exchange spread from industry to industry, 
and from nation .to nation. And soon the factory chimneys 
of the world smoked again, its harbors swarmed anew with 
the bustle and clamor of commerce, and its mills shook with 
the roar of renewed production. 
Function of the Stock Speculator.—The stock speculator, 
then, is needed at all times by American industry to absorb and 
argely segregate its risks, and thus make conservative invest- 
ing possible for less daring men. New enterprises, and weak 
ancertain enterprises particularly, call for his constant courage 
and audacity. In more normal times we may perhaps complain 
of his occasional fits of overenthusiasm or overdespondency, 
albeit he has in general an uncanny way of correctly forecasting 
values. But we have and will invariably rely upon his courage