CHAPTER IV 
THE THREAT TO BUSINESS 
THE first effect of the stock market crash was 
to make nearly everybody think that twenty-six bil- 
lions lost in paper values of stocks listed on the New 
York Stock Exchange must impoverish the nation. 
If all that “money” had been lost, approximating 
the cost of the World War to the United States, 
what would be its effect on business? True, hun- 
dreds of millions of dollars had been put into Christ- 
mas Savings funds, and out of these sums much 
might be accomplished to keep business going until 
the end of the year. But would not the stock mar- 
ket panic be followed by an industrial panic or crisis, 
with all these billions of dollars lost in the market? 
A chill of fear swept the nation. Workmen discussed 
the panic anxiously with their families. Employers 
thought of loss of orders, shutdowns and hard 
times. To some the President's signalizing of the 
emergency by calling a national conference of busi- 
ness men accentuated the gravity of conditions. Thus 
Mr. H. Parker Willis, editor of the New York Jour- 
nal of Commerce, said of Mr. Hoover's conferences: 
“Their psychology is certainly bad, because they 
give the impression that there is something very