their savings into the melting pot with more confidence than as if they were putting them into a savings bank. Many of the trusts were legitimate; others were disguised gambling pools operating on other people’s money, along the lines proposed by the late “Tom” Lawson in the memorable advertising campaign he conducted in Bay State Gas. In most cases these gambling ventures were sponsored by names that inspired confidence; and those who bought participation certificates would undoubtedly have won if the stock market had never stopped going up. It was generally supposed that such men could not go financially wrong--and they didn’t; it was the public that went wrong in buying their certificates. One company after another launched its stock with great display advertisements, and no hungry trout ever bit at a fly with more avidity than the greedy public gobbled up these “investment” issues. Sober-minded people marvelled at the spectacle and wondered where all the money came from. In dozens of cases the advertisements stated that the stock had already been oversubscribed, and the notice appeared only as a matter of record. And so it happened that time and again the insatiate public was obliged to restrap its purse and wait for some new opportunity to be let in. It got so that many people felt it was about as difficult to get into these “closed” issues as it was to gain a membership in one of New York’s fashionable clubs. Many of these so-called investment trusts accumulated thousands upon thousands of highly speculative common shares that paid less than 2% income on their market value. Indeed one day in September, 1929, a statistician figured that the twelve most active stocks on the New York Stock Exchange averaged a return of only one and three-fifths per cent. on their selling price, and with no immediate prospect of increased dividends. With dozens of investment companies hoarding securities, all one had to do was buy the active stocks, hold them for a big rise, then unload them onto some new investment trust. The pot was kept boiling by all sorts of rumors of stock dividends, split-ups, consolidations and such-like enticements; and when things quieted down a bit, someone would bring out the old reliable rumor that while the public was taking a breathing spell the big bankers were quietly accumulating large lines. It worked like magic on the inflamed public mind--it always does. If the bankers are buying, why shouldn’t the public buy? Another popular device was to broadcast reports accredited to Messrs. Coolidge & Mellon, to the effect that after scanning the speculative horizon they could discover no reason why the market should not keep on going up. With such a bulwark of confidence there was but little reason to be afraid. It did not matter whether stocks paid small dividends, or no dividends. It did not matter if money loaned at ten, twelve, or fifteen per cent. The rise in values would take care of all that, with ample to spare.