On October 24, 1929, people began selling their stocks as fast as they could. Sell orders flooded market exchanges. On a normal day, only 750 to 800 members of the New York Stock Exchange started the Exchange. However, there were 1100 members on the floor for the morning opening. The Exchange also directed all employees to be on the floor since there were numerous margin sell orders placed overnight. Even extra telephone staff was arranged at the members' boxes around the floor. The Dow Jones Industrial Index closed at 299 that day. October 29 was the beginning of the Crash. Within the first few hours the stock market was open, prices fell so far as to wipe out all the gains that had been made in the previous year. The Dow Jones Industrial Index closed at 230. Since the stock market was viewed as the chief indicator of the American economy, public confidence was shattered. Between October 29 and November 13, when stock prices hit their lowest point, over $30 billion disappeared from the American economy. It took nearly twenty-five years for many stocks to recover. Up until the very end, it was possible to read encouraging reports of the stock market in the newspaper. Headlines in the New York Times, on October 23 were still fairly encouraging. They reported that stocks had gained sharply and that "vigorous recovery" marked "most of the day". (10/23 N.Y. Times) While the newspaper did admit that stocks fell slightly at the end of the day, the overall tone of the article was summed up by the line "market gloom lessened." The decline at the end of the day saw the loss of any gains that had been made during the day. However, most stocks still closed at about the same as their opening levels, with "gains ranging from a point to more then 15 throughout a long list of representative issues". (10/23 N.Y. Times).
By the next day, the tone of the article that ran on the front page of the New York Times was totally different.
