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Wall Street's Prall. Meanwhile the Representative in whose district Wall Street itself is located said nothing at all. It is from the nonfinancial stretches of Staten Island that this Representative comes. He is Anning S. Prall, a perky, bright-eyed, chest-forward Tammany Democrat. The Manhattan financial section chances to be in Mr. Prall's Eleventh District, but skyscrapers do not vote and Mr. Prall does not "represent" Wall Street any more than he represents the Statue of Liberty which is also within his constituency.
Pro-Money, Anti-Money. It is difficult to say what Congressmen might speak for the money power, especially in an argument which lists money against money. Ogden Livingston Mills and James Wolcott Wadsworth were moneymen, but they have departed from the House and Senate, respectively. Senator David Aiken Reed of Pennsylvania, Secretary Mellon's haggard, Princeton-educated protege, might stand as the senatorial moneyman. In the House are New York's Snell, a florid, solid cheesemaker; Rhode Island's Richard S. Aldrich, son of the late great Senator Nelson Aldrich; and Pennsylvania's Harry Estep, a young Mellonite member of the Ways & Means Committee.
The leading anti-Wall-Streeter in the House is Henry T. Rainey, a tall, white-haired old Illinois farmer who has been in every Congress but the 67th since the 58th. In the Senate are Heflin, Norris, Brookhart, Shipstead and many another hinterlander whose eyes are vigilantly cocked for city-bred iniquities.
Upshot. It was doubtful whether anything would result from all the congressional speeches and resolutions, if only because the Federal Reserve Board itself was believed to be aghast at the thought of its delicate and vital functions being subject to congressional disturbance at such a critical moment.
Reserve Rate. Meanwhile Wall Street itself stirred uneasily. The early week market recovery proved to be largely whistling in the graveyard. As the week wore on and the tombstones stood out more clearly in the gathering darkness, the speculators stopped whistling and started to run. Directors of the New York Federal Reserve Bank held a lengthy and private meeting, after which, however, no change was announced in the rediscount rate.
The Advisory Council of the Reserve system (a group of private bankers & businessmen appointed by directors of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks) emphatically endorsed the Reserve Board's warning of last fortnight. The Reserve banks themselves began to tighten money by selling government securities and bankers' acceptances. Member banks beckoned for about $60,000,000 of outstanding call money.
The Market. None of these measures was by themselves particularly drastic (was offset, for example, by failure to raise the rediscount rate), but taken altogether they gave nervous speculators chills & fever. On Friday call money went from 6½% to 10% and the whole market went off in a sharp decline that continued through Saturday's closing. There was nothing resembling a panic but the orderly retreat was rapid, sustained, unchecked by short covering.
The market opened the week, however, with a general rally, caused by the fact that many good stocks had been oversold and that call money eased off to 7%. Coppers and utilities headed the rebound.