Mr.Morgan and his associates were of course fighting hard to prevent the loss of confidence and the panic distrust from increasing to such a degree as to bring any other big financial institutions down; for this would probably have been followed by a general, and very likely a worldwide, crash.

The Knickerbocker Trust Company had already failed, and runs had begun on, or were threatened as regards, two other big trust companies.

These companies were now on the fighting line, and it was to the interest of everybody to strengthen them, in order that the situation might be saved.

It was a matter of general knowledge and belief that they, or the individuals prominent in them, held the securities of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, which securities had no market value, and were useless as a source of strength in the emergency.

The Steel Corporation securities, on the contrary, were immediately marketable, their great value being known and admitted all over the world--as the event showed.