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326    THE COMMUNIST

limit was designated in the jargon of the stock market as "future profits." The investment trust was wondrous in a two-fold manner. Instead of buying a few securities himself, the investor bought the shares of the investment trust which, in turn, with the funds of thousands of investors at its disposal, bought a wide variety of securities (or should have). This widespread buying by the investment trust provided a diversification that the ordinary investor couldn't get through his own purchases of various issues. It cut the chances of loss to the extent that it diversified. In addition, since most investment trusts were organized by the racketeers of Wall Street-- that is, investment bankers, brokers, banks, etc.-- the investor could feel sure that the investments trust would pick only the stocks that were going up particularly those that were going up the fastest. The investment trust was a fool proof means of participating in the profits of the stick market boom. Over 20 percent of the total of new corporate issues put out in 1929 were of the investment trust-trading-holding company category.

New Corporate Issues in the United States

[[4 column table]]

[[year]] | Inv. Trust, etc. | Total | Per Cent
1929 | 2,223,730,898 | 10,036,361,129 | 22.15
1928 | 790,670,670 | 7,817,877,031 | 10.11
1927 | 174,906,978 | 7,319,195,804 | 2.39
1926 | 71,100,000 | 5,299,553,720 | .74
1925 | 15,070,000 | 4,738,109,691 | .32

The growth of the investment trust during the past several years is a characteristic of the development of American imperialism. Its extremely rapid growth during the past two years is characteristic of the "prosperity" period of American capitalism in the third period - in which profits piled up rapidly in the stock exchange and in which the investment trust appeared to be the mechanism of the investment trust securities have gone the way of all paper values. The investment trust has ceased to function as the medium to grab stock market profits- it remains as an integral part of the development of American imperialism in the absorption of foreign securities and as means for diversifying the holdings of the individual capitalist.

VI.

The contradictions of this period have been reflected in the means that have been used to get rid of the goods that "prosperity" has produced. Not only has the stock market boom been the result of American "prosperity" but it contributed a great deal to the growth and maintenance of that "prosperity." Benjamin Anderson,