Indeed for years it looked as if stocks could only go one way--up. Therefore the whole speculative fraternity arrayed itself on the up-side; and it actually happened that vast numbers of traders who had formerly bought stocks to sell at only a point or two profit, now accumulated them to keep indefinitely. The trading element, emboldened by one success after another, concluded that we were in a new era--that the stock market millennium had become a reality. In travel we advanced from the stage coach to the automobile and the aeroplane; from the slow sailing craft to the ocean greyhound. The radio and the telephone had linked the whole universe together in conversation, and in the art of creating wealth the old-fashioned slow-moving process of conservatism had become as obsolete as the stage coach. These facts were all too obvious to be disputed. And to prove there was simply no limit to modern inventions the stock market, backed by the new investment trust scheme, supplied a new financial vehicle without any reverse gears. It was fast and easy riding, the sensation was thrilling, and it required neither skill nor experience to operate. In 1924-6 during the try-out period of this marvellous get-rich-quick machine there were many skeptics who doubted its safety and efficiency; but confidence gradually increased and one after another became convinced, until eventually the whole populace clambered aboard. Business was good, the country was rich and prosperous, and it was argued that a financial structure built upon such confidence and prosperity could not be shaken by anything short of a universal earthquake. Basic values had become so stabilized in the minds of the people that there was no more reason to expect them to crumble than there was to expect the Washington Monument to topple over. Even the gray-haired wizards of Wall Street who had preached caution for two or three years, finally fell into line with the new order of things, and not only did they plunge into the market long after it had passed the point of safety, but they organized more investment trusts running into billions of dollars, and advertised far and wide for the public to buy their stock and join them in amassing fortunes. They would manage everything, and all the people had to do was to furnish the money. These cold-blooded Wall Street magnates, suddenly converted to the theory of universal brotherhood, undertook to espouse the cause in which everybody works for one another. Verily the Biblical prophecy was more than fulfilled; for it came to pass that not only could the lamb lie down in safety with the lion,--he could feed with him at the Wall Street manger. The public was thus taken into these co-operative partnerships and enabled to enjoy all the advantages to be derived from the superior genius and directorship of the giants of wealth and commerce. The small investors and speculators, highly flattered by the opportunity of being admitted into such society, threw