The Crash
(Reprint from the 1934 Youngstown Vindicator)
New York, Oct 24. - Five years ago this week crowds gathered in Wall Street to watch, unwittingly, the end of the "new era"...At three p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1929 exhausted traders had witnessed the sharpest crash in stock prices since the war, the beginning of the end of the fabulous era of the twenties. In the last 50 minutes of trading 2,600,000 shares were transferred. For five years the reason for the collapse has been sought. As the world has searched for a way back to "prosperity", one explanation after another has been hit upon, and then discarded as inadequate or inconsistent with the facts. First there was overproduction, then excessive bank loans. Then war debts got the blame and later the German credit collapse, European politics, monetary breakdown, maldistribution of gold, low commoditity prices, bankers, silver, artificial prices, lack of purchasing power, lack of confidence—all these factors have been blamed, singlarly or together, for what has taken place. The roots of the crash five years ago lie too deep in the past ever to unearth.