At firstmanyinvestors heldontotheirshares,
hopingthatpnceswou ldrise again.B uttheL111
becam e fast er.Apanicbegan. O n Thur sd ay ,
O cto ber 24. 1929- BlackThursday- 13 million
sharesw eresold. Onthefollo wingTuesday,
October 29 - T er rifyin gTues day -16.5 millionwere
sold.
By the endofth e year thevalueofall shareshad
dropped byS40,000m illio n.T housandsofpeople,
especiallythosewhohadborr o we drobuyo n the
margin, found themsel ves facingdebtandruin.
Somecommitt ed suicide.Thisw aswhatthe
policementhoug ht that th e w indowcleaner was
plannin g
ThiscollapseofAmericansharep ricesw asknownas
th e WallSt reet Crash.Itmarkedtheen dofthe
prosperityofth e 1920s.23 CR.\ SH ANDDE P R ESSION"Whath asgonewrong?"peo ple asked.Some
blam edtheblindnessofpoliticiansforth e Crash,
othe rsth egr eedofin vestors and stoc k bro ke rs.Butit
hadamore im po rtantcause.T hefact wasthatby the
en dofth e 1920s not eno ug hpeoplewereb u yin gthe
productso fAmerica's expandedind u st ries.Why?
Becausetoolittleofth e Unit ed Sta tes'increased
w ealth wasfindingitswayIntothehand softhe
country'swork er sand farmers.Themostim po rt ant
causeofthe WallStreetCras h was simplythis-that
to o fewA mcricans w ereearning enoughmoneyto
b u yth egoodsthat th eyth em selvesw ereproducing.
T h eCrash madepeopleu ncertainaboutthe future.
M an y decided to saveanymone y theyh adinsteadof
spendingitonsuch thingsasnew carsand radios.
A mer ican factorieswerealreadymak ingmoregoods
than theycouldsell.Nowtheyhadeven fewer
customers.CAMEL
~tVERP....CHEo..r OMTEDAnml,/!jlle.UI/employedpN"pleliue"pf"'fo"d."Ii""sill"times-"'I''''''',.'\"'Ii·Y"rk .ill,Iwe"rJy 19305.
97