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OWNTOWN a similar scene D was spread before Wall street and lower Broadway. The Trust Company of America and the Lincoln Trust Company, with their branches, bore the brunt. And in the house of Morgan, J. Pierpont, hat on the back of his head, smoking one dusky cigar after another, growled at associates and stared into the fireplace. Earlier, before he left the house of a son-in-law for the bank, he had refused point blank to save the Knickerbocker. President Higgins and two directors called on Morgan. They begged for support until he cut them short. "I can't go on being everybody's goat," he was quoted as saying. "I've got to stop somewhere." That was that. But with the Knickerbocker closed, the National Bank of America suspended and the terrifying queues outside the Trust Company of America, every one in Wall Street knew that only drastic action would avert a collapse. Alexander Dana Noyes, eminent economist, in his "Forty Years of American Finance," calculated that the runs started that day "were such as have probably never been witnessed in the history of banking." Meanwhile, fear spread momentarily into every banking house. The bankers for a moment neglected to blame the trust-busting Roosevelt for the business troubles of the moment. But, as the panic passed and faith in the banks returned, the outcry agairst Roosevelt's threatened prosecutions of the "malefactors of great wealth" was revived. The indefatigable George Harvey, editor of Harper's Weekly, asserted: "No one but Mr. Roosevelt denies that he is at least somewhat responsible for the recent panic and even he is shown in his Nashville speech as in doubt." And William Sumner, at Yale, author of the "forgotten man" phrase, gravely chimed in, saying: "I think the actions of President Roosevelt are largely responsible for the present difficulties. His continued warring against corporate interests has upset public confidence." . In the next article the measures taken to preserve the credit structure during panic week will be recounted.
