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Contrary to popular belief, the Crash of 1929 did not take place in one or two days. It stretched out for weeks, gathering momentum through the autumn. On the day after Black Thursday, President Hoover bestirred himself and declared that the "fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis." Share prices remained stable that Friday and Saturday. (Yes, markets were open on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, until 1952.)
But then came a new collapse. On Monday, Oct. 28, the Times industrials sank an additional 49 points. Then came Black Tuesday, the most devastating day of all. Three million shares were sold in the first half-hour, and often there were no takers at any price. One block of White Sewing Machine Co., which had been 48 a share a few months before and 11 the previous night, reportedly went for 1 because a bright messenger boy made that offer and there were no others.
Once again the bankers met, but this time they gave up all hope of rallying the whole market; they agreed only to help fill "air holes," stocks that could find no buyers at all. This time no Dick Whitney went marching out to snap up U.S. Steel. Instead, Whitney and the rest of the exchange's governing committee met secretly in a room directly under the exchange floor to decide whether the markets should be temporarily shut down.
"The 40 governors came to the meeting in groups of two and three as unobtrusively as possible," Whitney recalled. "The office they met in was never designed for large meetings of this sort, with the result that most of the governors were compelled to stand or to sit on tables. As the meeting progressed, panic was raging overhead on the floor . . . The feelings of those present were revealed by their habit of continually lighting cigarettes, taking a puff or two, putting them out and lighting new ones -- a practice which soon made the narrow room blue with smoke." After due deliberation, they decided to let the market run its course. By the end of that Black Tuesday, a record 16.4 million shares had changed hands, and the Times industrials had fallen 43 points more.
The ups and downs continued. The next day, U.S. Steel declared an extra dividend, the market took heart and the Times industrials gained 31 points. John D. Rockefeller, now 90, announced his optimism: "Believing that fundamental conditions of the country are sound . . . my son and I have for some days been purchasing sound common stocks." Retorted Comedian Eddie Cantor: "Sure, who else had any money left?"
Not until Nov. 13, finally, did the market groan down to its low point for the year. By then the Times's 25 industrials had sunk from 452 in September to 224. Of the $80 billion that the entire market's stocks had been worth in September, $30 billion had vanished into thin air.
As the year faded, President Hoover promised a tax cut, recommended public works, called a series of conferences with business leaders, and declared that "we have re-established confidence." But in the course of 1930, the Times industrials sank to 199, and the entire economy kept contracting; some 1,000 banks failed, wheat slumped from $1.35 per bu. to 76 cents, and panhandlers proliferated. Hard times were here to stay.