gulator of
minimum prices, issued a public statement that they were under no
circumstances going to valorize or sustain prices but merely expected
to maintain a safeguard against some unforeseen shock to confidence,
many people wrote them urgent letters asking that in certain
properties a minimum should be maintained which would render selling
impossible. It was quite futile to try to disabuse some of these
correspondents of the idea that no decline should be allowed in
properties that they were interested in.

* * * * *

To one who meditates upon the singular experience which was thus
abruptly brought to a close, there are a few features of it which
stand out as meriting the especial attention of all members of the
Stock Exchange. First of all it was most impressively shown what
apparently hopeless tasks can be accomplished by loyal cooperation. If
at any time up to July, 1914, any Wall Street man had asserted that
the stock market could be kept closed continually for four and
one-half months he would have been laughed to scorn, and yet this
supposed impossibility was performed by the joint and determined
action of the financial community. On the other hand, and as a
counterpart to this valuable experience, it must never be lost sight
of that the extraordinary war measures of 1914 may be a danger to the
future if they are misinterpreted. There is a possibility (even a
probability) that when ordinary crises arise in times to come, people
who find themselves financially embarrassed will bring enormous
pressure upon the authorities of the Exchange to renew the drastic
expedients of the famous thirty-first of July. It is to be sincerely
hoped that there will always be firmness enough in the Governing
Committee to resist this pressure. The great world war coming, as it
did, without warning was a rare and epoch-making event that warranted
unheard of action and to indulge in such action for any lesser cause
would be utterly disastrous.

The Committee of Five seems to have been brought into existence under
a lucky star. That five men called together so suddenly in such an
emergency should have worked with absolute harmony for so long a time
is quite remarkable. Their unanimity was never troubled but once. On
one of the first few days of their career a rather positive and
aggressive member, arguing with a colleague, said "you must remember
that you are only one of this Committee." The Committe