* * * * The Slump on Wall Street The
London Stock Market this week reflected the severe slump which broke out on Wall Street last Friday, when the American market was described as demoralised. The Wall Street slump, however, corresponded to no recession in industrial activity, except in the steel industry, while the automobile industry is looking forward to record prosperity. Some have ascribed the decline in values on Wall Street to the restrictive effects of Mr. Roosevelt's stock exchange legis- lation, but such explanations have an obviously political motive, and it seems wiser to assume that, though recovery continues in America as here, it is subject periodically to market collapses which correspond to the more gradual decline in values which has taken place here since last year. If that is true, they may not be wholly unfortunate ; yet the uncertainty of the stock markets may perhaps be taken as a good indication of the precariousness of an economic prosperity, by which every country has benefited, in a period of extreme political tension. Speculators have taken advantage of this position to the full, especially on the international exchanges ; and it is interesting to find The Times describing their activities, which have made recovery in France even harder than it need have been, with the blunt word " piracy."
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