The Stock Market Crash 
9 
It is significant that the bank stocks should have 
fallen in price so rapidly, despite the fact that margin 
requirements in these cases—although they are 
usually bought outright—ranged from 50 to 80 per 
cent. Presumably their fall signalized the distress 
of wealthy operators. 
The Big Market Drop 
On the 29th, the day of heaviest trading, not only 
for October but for all time, declines in a long list 
of well-known shares ran from 25 to 40 points, some 
of the highest grade shares showing losses from the 
previous week’s closing figures ranging from 735 to 
87 points. This outpouring of stocks, thrown on the 
market regardless of price, came in the whirl of blind 
panic. Many holders later found that they had in- 
curred needless losses, while the buyers of the best of 
these stocks, at the depth of market demoralization, 
were fortunate indeed. It was manifest that many 
and capacious strong-boxes had been emptied of their 
contents in the midst of the hysteria of selling. 
Speculative plungers sent in orders from every corner 
of the land, and added to the chaos in this record 
speculative panic of stock market history. The out- 
siders constituted an army of camp followers whose 
number vastly exceeded those of the better disci- 
plined army of Wall Street. 
Favorable news made no impression on such a 
débacle. In vain the United States Steel Corpora- 
tion reported quarterly earnings with net receipts 
in August, except for the preceding May, the largest