Chapter 471 Saving the Bank

The bank run and the stock market crash happened together. Even though Morgan Jr. had seen a lot, he couldn't stand it. He grabbed his assistant by the collar and asked, "How much did it crash?"

After getting the current data, Morgan Jr. shook his body. "I've lived for more than 30 years, and I've never seen the stock market plummet like this. It's simply forcing people to hang themselves."

Having said that, the problem still exists: whether to rescue the stock market or to rescue the banks. After a brief consideration, Morgan Jr. decided to ignore the stock market and maintain the original plan to save the banks.

Morgan Jr. was confident enough to deal with a bank run, but now he had no idea who his opponent was when he used his money to save the stock market. Moreover, the stockholders in the stock market were in a panic, and anyone who got in would die. This would not change because of the Morgan family. The banking industry was different. He only had to deal with other bankers, so he had a better chance.

The speculators of U.S. Steel Corporation, who saw no good news for a long time and the stock market continued to plummet, finally realized that the rescue they had been expecting was no longer possible. Panic was transmitted like a virus, and U.S. Steel's stock price plummeted wildly, soon catching up with Carnegie Steel, which had sold off early.

"Don't do anything today. Buy back stocks the next day." Rockefeller Jr. said to the assistants around him, "The buyback volume will be a quarter of today's. Let's wait and see what happens in the market."

There were reports of suicides on that day, and the next day's New York newspapers were filled with death notices like obituaries. These suicides showed how true it was that the stock market was risky.

If the bank run in New York was not enough to wake Roosevelt up, the run had spread across the country and had received attention from the White House, which had made efforts to quell the panic. However, things got out of control too quickly, so quickly that people could not react. How could things turn out like this in just ten days?

The stock market crash and bank runs made Roosevelt unable to sit still. He called Attorney General Knox to the White House. He urgently needed to know what was going on. How could it be that you had a cold yesterday and there was an obituary today?

Alice Roosevelt, with her ears perked up and expressionless not far away, felt that she should stay.

"It now appears that the crisis originated from a failed speculative act. A New York trust company speculated on copper prices, but its opponent was Sheffield United. In the end, the merger was terminated and the stock price plummeted. Rumors about the trust company's broken capital chain spread, causing a run on the trust company, and the run spread to banks and reached the whole country." Attorney General Noske sorted out the development of the matter in detail based on the evidence he has seen so far. "Now the stock market has also plummeted due to the outbreak of the crisis."

"The only surprising thing is that things developed so fast that it was unbelievable. This was related to some irresponsible media that fanned the flames."

Justice Minister Noske was very competent and pointed out the suddenness and rapidity of the crisis, which was followed by a flurry of political jargon that was essentially just a bunch of repetitive talk.

"We must stabilize the market and get through this crisis." Roosevelt was very dissatisfied when he heard this. "These greedy big companies are deliberately creating a crisis to embarrass the federal government. This is a challenge to the authority of the federal government! There must be big companies involved, I'm sure of it."

"Mr. President, you are wise!" Attorney General Knox said with a wry smile. "It is now obvious that the big companies that have fallen into deep crisis include Morgan Bank of the Morgan family, Standard Oil of the Rockefeller family, and United Company of the Sheffield family. Among them, Sheffield United Company has made the biggest move, and is going to lay off more than 50,000 employees in its subsidiaries."

"These greedy bastards, what they are doing will only plunge citizens into despair. How can they do this? How dare they do this?" Roosevelt cursed angrily. The most powerful companies in the United States showed up, but they were not saving the country. Instead, they treated the outbreak of the crisis as a feast. That was absolutely the case. Roosevelt was not wrong.

"How could you do this? How dare you do this?" Outside the gate of the Chicago steel plant, countless steel workers formed a crowd and angrily accused the managers of the steel plant. Overnight, without any explanation, many people lost their jobs.

A group of Black and Gold Company members wearing khaki clothes and black and gold armbands stood in a row, each holding an iron rod and a shield in their hands. Behind them, there were countless people holding guns.

Jesla stood out from the crowd and climbed up the thick wall. Standing on the wall, he looked at the steel workers who had gathered. There were so many people... Although he thought so, Jesla directly shouted with a loud speaker, "It's a crisis in the banking industry. Now the factory is not making any profit, and there is no choice but to lay off employees. Don't blame anyone but the greedy bankers. That's it. I hope everyone can accept the reality. When the crisis improves, everyone can come back. It's best not to act rashly now. Once a conflict occurs, it will be a tragedy. Don't forget the conflict a few years ago."

The last sentence has a threatening tone. It refers to the incident in which Carnegie suppressed a workers' strike. It is a reminder to the laid-off workers to be careful of the consequences and get out of here as soon as possible.

"Why not lay off the black workers?" The leading worker representative shouted incoherently when he saw Jesla was about to jump.

Jesla, who had already turned around, smiled, but it quickly disappeared, and he shouted, "The black workers have already accepted a pay cut, so the layoffs do not include black people."

Labor scabs, traitors! Stupid niggers! The workers blocking the entrance to the steel mill were furious. The members of the Black Gold had already stepped aside. They were definitely not afraid of the workers, but they were afraid of being hit by bullets. Da da da! A group of Black Gold members fired at the land in front of the workers, splashing a cloud of dust, which also brought the protest to an abrupt end. The leading man shouted, "Everyone can go back. This is not the place to protest. The land is privately owned."

Once the emotions are exaggerated, there might be an illusion that there is strength in numbers, and some trouble might arise. The Black Gold Company's style of doing things is to strike first and shoot first. As for the consequences, there will always be someone to clean up their messes anyway.

"Yes, well done for keeping the blacks." Sheffield praised generously while holding the microphone, "Great job."

Edith Rockefeller waited until Sheffield hung up the phone before she said, "Don't you hate black people the most?"

"Who said that?" Sheffield denied it flatly. "In my eyes, white people and black people are the same. In the eyes of slave owners, there is only a difference between slave owners and slaves, not a difference between white people and black people. I just let the white community think that they are different from black people. In reality, what is the difference? Keeping black workers is just to give the laid-off workers a place to vent. Those white people who think they are superior will vent their anger on black people, and no one will bother us. Jesla did the right thing."

"So that's how it is!" Edith Rockefeller raised her eyebrows and said with an expression that she had lost, "You have thought of it all."

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"Of course, no one understands slaves better than slave owners!" Sheffield also raised his eyebrows and imitated Edith Rockefeller's expression. "Who is a friend and who is an enemy? I will not make a mistake on this most basic question. I always attract hatred for black people just because they are few in number. If the majority ethnic group in this country is black, do you think I will not stand on the side of black people? And I have never intended to kill all black people. I want to keep them in a controllable number. It is probably enough for the total number to reach less than 5%."

If Sheffield wiped out black people from the United States, then there would be no way to use racial issues to cover up class issues in the future. There must be an ethnic group to serve as the scapegoat to make the white group feel that although I am bad, I am still better than black people. Only with this mentality of comparing to the worse can people live happily.

At least Sheffield has been living a happy life recently. Although his net worth has hit new lows, the cash flow of United Bank has not only not decreased, but has continued to rise, especially in the Midwest. Evelyn puts the gold on the counter, which is a little inelegant and unreserved, but it is a very effective publicity.

While banks in the Midwest continued to collapse, long lines of people waiting to deposit money appeared in front of the Union Bank in Los Angeles, which was the exact opposite of the bank runs at other banks. This was the role of gold in the eyes of citizens.

At noon, news came from New York that Morgan Jr. had contacted a group of bankers to officially rescue the bank run. He used the reputation of Morgan and his sons as a guarantee, called the bankers to Morgan's house for a meeting, and came up with a rescue plan. In terms of saving the stock market and saving the banks, Morgan Jr. finally chose to save the banks. Banks are the foundation of the Morgan family. If there is a problem in this regard, let alone bottom-fishing expansion, even maintaining the current prestige will be a problem.

After weighing the pros and cons, Morgan Jr. made the most prudent choice. This choice also showed that he could not use the money anywhere else. Creating a crisis to expand at the bottom, at least this time, the Morgan family had basically no chance. Unless the citizens' confidence in the major banks was restored, but the crisis was not over, he could use the time difference to take the money out of the bank and save the stock market. Starting from noon of this day, Morgan Jr. invested 25 million US dollars to inject the first batch of capital into the banks that were hit by the run, and at the same time began to raise the second batch of funds. Many bankers breathed a sigh of relief that they would not go bankrupt.

(End of this chapter)