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                     THE 1930'S
   A S WE ENTrER the '3os, we instinctively revert to our initial ob-
       servationas stated by Paul Vanderbilt in the Spring, i95
          issue of Wisconsin Magazine of History:
             "The main objective is not so much the mere tracing
backward of historical streams to their remote sources, as the induce-
ment of a vision of the current history flowing toward us from the
past."
  How dramatically obvious this is as we visualize the economic her-
itage bequeathed by the 1920'S to the succeeding decade. Business
was good during the third decade of the century, following a tempo-
rary recession of I92O and 21. The securities market mounted steadily,
until in August of 1928, the head of a prominent investors' service,
writing in one of America's well-known magazines, voiced among
other things:
  " * * . the belief that a long period of peace is in store for the
civilized nations
of the World."
  Under the title, "A New Era in Wall Street," he evaluated all
of the
factors then undergirding the nation's financial structure, and, sum-
ming up, reached this conclusion:
  "Naturally enough, forecasts made in 1923, which correctly foreshadowed
what
subsequently has happened in the security markets, would have been looked
upon
as fantastic by the average man;- any present forecast of the coming few
years may
also be looked upon as fantastic. Nevertheless, there seem to be many reasons
for
believing that the coming period may prove quite as stable and constructive
in this
country as have the past five years, if not more so.
  And though the prices of investment securities of standard quality look
high to
us today, they easily may, by 1933, be quoted in many cases at far higher
values."
The Bank Holiday
  What happened fourteen months later is common knowledge. From
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