Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street. Chapter 6. Making the Customers Whole
发布时间 来源
Episode 设置
这一章节详细描述了1963年涉及经纪公司Ira Haupt & Company的危机，该公司与联合粗炼植物油公司（Allied Crude Vegetable Oil Refining Corporation）的灾难性关联，以及纽约证券交易所（NYSE）前所未有地决定偿还Haupt客户的事件。
危机始于Ira Haupt的管理合伙人莫顿·卡默曼（Morton Kamerman）向纽约证券交易所发出警报，称由于联合公司在植物油期货方面的大规模投机造成的损失，其公司的资本储备已低于要求的水平。 联合公司由安东尼·迪安杰利斯（Anthony DeAngelis）领导，通过Haupt和另一家经纪公司Williston and Bean的信贷，积累了大量的棉籽油和大豆油合约。 油价下跌迫使Haupt向联合公司要求提供额外的现金，但该公司无法提供。
Haupt处境危险，负债累累地为联合公司的投机提供资金，并接受了存储在联合公司贝永仓库中的石油的仓库收据作为抵押品。 风险程度惊人，Haupt向联合公司提供了3700万美元，而该公司的资本仅为800万美元。
当联合公司申请破产，纽约商品交易所暂停棉籽油期货交易时，情况迅速恶化。 事实证明，这些仓库收据大部分是伪造的，它们所代表的石油根本不存在。 这一披露使拥有2万名客户的Haupt陷入了全面的危机，危及了无辜投资者的储蓄。
最初，纽约证券交易所的官员认为Haupt的状况是可以控制的。 但随着欺诈规模变得显而易见，交易所意识到这对Haupt客户的严重影响。 与此同时，肯尼迪总统遇刺的消息使股市陷入暴跌，进一步危及投资者。
纽约证券交易所主席G. Keith Funston意识到这对投资者信心可能造成的灾难性损害，提出了一个非同寻常的解决方案：交易所及其会员公司将偿还Haupt的客户。 Funston说服了主要经纪人，公众福利和股市的稳定取决于这一行动。
纽约证券交易所面临着获得Haupt的债权银行同意的挑战，这些银行被欠3600万美元。 在周末的紧张谈判之后，包括大通曼哈顿银行和摩根担保信托公司在内的银行同意推迟收款工作，允许交易所优先偿还客户。 芝加哥大陆伊利诺伊银行最初犹豫不决，但最终加入了协议，James P. Mahoney（纽约证券交易所成员）被任命为清算人。
与向Haupt贷款550万美元的四家英国银行出现了一个重大障碍。 纽约证券交易所理事古斯塔夫·阿列维（Gustav Allevi）前往伦敦，说服他们参与其中。 这些贷款没有抵押，潜在的回收机会很小。 阿列维成功地说服了英国银行，合作符合他们的最佳利益。
与此同时，面临个人责任的Haupt合伙人将对其公司资产的控制权移交给清算人。 该协议规定，他们应执行授权书，赋予清算人对Haupt事务的完全控制权。 《华尔街日报》记者罗素·沃森（Russell Watson）偶然发现了会议，并很快被带走。
最终，经过艰苦的谈判过程，各方签署了协议。 纽约证券交易所将750万美元存入清算人的账户，并在几个月内，几乎所有Haupt的客户都得到了全额补偿，纽约证券交易所最终支付了950万美元。
纽约证券交易所的行动受到了广泛赞扬。 媒体和约翰逊总统都赞扬交易所对投资者保护的承诺。 获救的客户表示感谢，该协议被视为朝着激发投资者信心和避免潜在市场恐慌迈出的积极一步。 虽然一些会员公司抱怨承担另一家公司的损失，但他们基本上接受了评估。
尽管受到赞扬，纽约证券交易所强调，此举并非先例。 官员们承认，对公共责任的改变态度影响了这一决定。 Ira Haupt 案标志着纽约证券交易所的一个转折点，表明其对投资公众的责任感更强。
This chapter details the 1963 crisis involving the brokerage firm Ira Haupt & Company, its disastrous connection to Allied Crude Vegetable Oil Refining Corporation, and the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) unprecedented decision to reimburse Haupt's customers.
The crisis began when Morton Kamerman, managing partner of Ira Haupt, alerted the NYSE that his firm's capital reserves fell below required levels due to losses incurred by Allied's massive speculation in vegetable oil futures. Allied, led by Anthony DeAngelis, had amassed vast cottonseed and soybean oil contracts on credit from Haupt and Williston and Bean, another brokerage firm. A drop in oil prices forced Haupt to demand additional cash from Allied, which the company couldn't provide.
Haupt, in a dangerously precarious situation, had borrowed heavily to finance Allied's speculations, accepting warehouse receipts for oil stored in Allied's Bayonne tanks as collateral. The extent of the risk was staggering, with Haupt extending $37 million to Allied while the firm's capital only amounted to $8 million.
The situation worsened rapidly when Allied filed for bankruptcy, and the New York Produce Exchange suspended trading in cottonseed oil futures. The warehouse receipts, it turned out, were largely forged, and the oil they represented didn't exist. This revelation plunged Haupt, with its 20,000 customers, into a full-blown crisis, jeopardizing the savings of innocent investors.
Initially, NYSE officials viewed Haupt's situation as manageable. But as the scale of the fraud became apparent, the exchange realized the dire implications for Haupt's customers. Simultaneously, news of President Kennedy's assassination sent the stock market into a tailspin, further endangering investors.
NYSE President G. Keith Funston, recognizing the potential for catastrophic damage to investor confidence, proposed an extraordinary solution: the exchange and its member firms would reimburse Haupt's customers. Funston convinced leading brokers that the public welfare and the stability of the stock market hinged on this action.
The NYSE faced the challenge of securing agreement from Haupt's creditor banks, who were owed $36 million. After tense negotiations over the weekend, the banks, including Chase Manhattan and Morgan Guarantee Trust, agreed to defer collection efforts, allowing the exchange to prioritize reimbursing the customers. The Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago initially hesitated, but ultimately joined the agreement, and the liquidator was assigned, which was James P. Mahoney of the NY stock exchange.
A significant hurdle arose with the four British banks that had lent $5.5 million to Haupt. Gustav Allevi, an NYSE governor, traveled to London to persuade them to participate. These loans were unsecured and their potential recovery slim. Allevi successfully convinced the British banks that cooperation was in their best interest.
Meanwhile, the Haupt partners, facing personal liability, signed over control of their firm's assets to a liquidator. The agreement prescribed that they were to execute powers of attorney, giving a liquidator full control over Haupt's affairs. A Wall Street Journal reporter, Russell Watson, stumbled into the meeting and was quickly escorted out.
Finally, after a grueling negotiation process, the parties signed the agreement. The NYSE deposited $7.5 million into an account for the liquidator, and within months, nearly all of Haupt's customers were made whole, with the NYSE ultimately disbursing $9.5 million.
The NYSE's actions were widely praised. The media and President Johnson applauded the exchange for its commitment to investor protection. The rescued customers were grateful, and the agreement was seen as a positive step towards inspiring investor confidence and avoiding potential market panic. While some member firms grumbled about covering the losses of another firm, they largely accepted the assessment.
Despite the praise, the NYSE stressed that this action wasn't a precedent. Officials acknowledged that changing attitudes towards public responsibility had influenced the decision. The Ira Haupt case marked a turning point for the NYSE, demonstrating a greater sense of accountability to the investing public.
中英文字稿 
第六章 补偿客户
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Chapter 6 Making the Customers Whole
1963年11月19日，星期二上午，一位穿着得体但看起来憔悴的中年男人来到了纽约证券交易所位于华尔街11号的行政办公室。他自称是Ira Hopeton公司——一家证券交易所会员的经纪公司——的管理合伙人莫顿·卡梅尔曼，并表示希望见交易所会员公司部门的负责人弗兰克·J·科伊尔。接待员核实后礼貌地解释说，科伊尔先生正在开会。来访者说他的事情十分紧急，请求见该部门的二号负责人罗伯特·毕晓普。但接待员发现，毕晓普也因一通重要电话而无法接待他。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
On the morning of Tuesday, November 19, 1963, a well-dressed but haggard-looking man in his middle thirties presented himself at the executive offices of the New York Stock Exchange at 11 Wall Street, with the announcement that he was Morton Kamerman, managing partner of the brokerage firm of Ira Hopeton Company, a member of the Stock Exchange, and that he wanted to see Frank J. Coyle, head of the exchange's member firm's department. After checking, a receptionist explained politely that Mr. Coyle was tied up in a meeting, where upon the visitor said that his mission was an urgent one, and asked to see Robert and Bishop, the department's second in command. Bishop, the receptionist found, was unavailable too. He was tied up with an important phone call.
最后，卡梅尔曼显得越来越焦虑，被带到了级别较低的交易所官员乔治·H·纽曼面前。他正式传达了自己的信息，称据他所知，被帮助的公司的资本储备已低于交易所对会员公司的要求，并根据规定正式报告了这一事实。当这一令人震惊的消息传递时，比肖普正在附近的办公室里继续进行他重要的电话谈话。比肖普拒绝透露电话另一端的华尔街内幕人士是谁。电话那头的人告诉比肖普，他有理由相信，两家证券交易所会员公司——J.R.威利斯顿与比恩公司以及艾拉·霍普顿公司——正面临足以引起交易所关注的严重财务问题。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
At length, Kamerman, who seemed to be growing more and more distracted, was ushered into the presence of a less exalted exchange official named George H. Newman. He then duly delivered his message, that to the best of his belief, the capital reserve of the helped firm had fallen below the exchange's requirements for member firms and that he was formally reporting the fact in accordance with regulations. While this startling announcement was being made, Bishop in a nearby office was continuing his important telephone conversation. The second party to which was a knowledgeable Wall Streeter whom Bishop has since declined to identify. The caller was telling Bishop he had reason to believe that two Stock Exchange member firms, J. R. Williston and Bean, Incorporated, and Ira Hopeton Company, were in financial trouble serious enough to warrant the exchange's attention.
挂断电话后，主教拨通了办公室内部电话给纽曼，告诉他自己刚刚听到的消息。令主教惊讶的是，纽曼已经知道这件事或者其中的一部分。纽曼说，实际上，卡梅尔曼现在就在我这里。在这个平淡无奇的办公环境中，开始了一场证券交易所历史上最具挑战性、在某些方面最严重的危机之一。在这场危机结束之前，由于肯尼迪总统遇刺所引发的更大危机，这场危机变得更加严重。最终，证券交易所在这场危机中暂时损失了近1000万美元，但在至少一部分国民的心目中，其声誉却提升了无可估量的地步。证券交易所过去并不总是以维护公众利益而著称，几个月前更是被证券交易委员会指责为有将自己视作私人俱乐部的反社会倾向。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
After hanging up, Bishop made an interoffice call to Newman to tell him what he had just heard. To Bishop's surprise, Newman already had the news or part of it. As a matter of fact, Kamerman is right here with me now, he said. In this humdrum setting of office confusion, there began one of the most trying and in some ways one of the most serious crises in the Stock Exchange's long history. Before it was over, this crisis had been exacerbated by the greater crisis resulting from the assassination of President Kennedy, and out of it the Stock Exchange, which has not always been noted for acting in the public interest and indeed had been accused only a few months before by the Securities and Exchange Commission of an anti-social tendency to conduct itself like a private club, emerged temporarily poorer by almost $10 million, but incalculably richer in the esteem of at least some of its countrymen.
曾将豪普特、威利斯顿和比恩带入困境的事件，实际上是一段历史，或者更确切地说是未来的历史。这起事件涉及一项突然变质的大规模投机活动，这两家公司连同一些未加入证券交易所的经纪人一起，代表某个单一客户参与了这项活动。这个客户是新泽西州贝永市的一家联合原油植物油和精炼公司。投机的对象是购买大量棉籽油和大豆油的期货合同。此类合同被称为商品期货，其投机性在于到交货日期时，这些商品的市值可能会比合同价格高或低。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The event that had brought Haupt and Williston and Bean into straightened circumstances is history, or rather future history. It was the sudden souring of a huge speculation that these two firms, along with various brokers not members of the Stock Exchange, had become involved in on behalf of a single customer. The allied crude vegetable oil and refining company of Bayon, New Jersey. The speculation was in contracts to buy vast quantities of cottonseed oil and soybean oil for future delivery. Such contracts are known as commodity futures, and the element of speculation in them lies in the possibility that by delivery date the commodity will be worth more or less than the contract price.
植物油期货每天在纽约的Broadway 2号农产品交易所和芝加哥的贸易委员会进行交易。大约有四百家属于证券交易所并从事公共业务的公司中，约有八十家公司代表客户进行买卖。在Caymerman到交易所的那天，Haupt公司为其联盟客户持有大量的棉籽油和大豆油合约，这些合约是赊账购买的。因此，商品价格每磅哪怕只变动一美分，都会导致其联盟账户在Haupt的价值发生1200万美元的变动。在之前的两个交易日，也就是15日星期五和18日星期一，价格平均下跌了不到每磅一美分半，结果Haupt要求联盟客户支付约1500万美元的现金，以维持账户的稳定。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Vegetable oil futures are traded daily at the New York produce exchange at two Broadway and at the Board of Trade in Chicago, and they are bought and sold on behalf of customers by about eighty of the four hundred odd firms that belong to the Stock Exchange and conduct a public business. On the day that Caymerman came to the exchange, the Haupt firm was holding for allied, on credit, so many cottonseed oil and soybean oil contracts that the change of a single penny per pound in the prices of the commodities meant a twelve million dollar change in the value of the allied account with Haupt. On the two previous business days, Friday the 15th and Monday the 18th, the prices had dropped in average of a little less than a cent and a half per pound, and as a result Haupt had demanded that allied put up about fifteen million dollars in cash to keep the account seaworthy.
Allied拒绝这样做，因此，像任何在信用操作中遇到客户违约的经纪人一样，Haupt面临着出售Allied合同的必要性，以收回其提供的信贷。Haupt所承担风险的巨大程度在于，尽管公司在11月初的资本仅约800万美元，却借款足够为单个客户Allied提供约3700万美元用于石油投机。更糟糕的是，事实证明，它接受了Allied库存中大量实际棉籽油和大豆油作为部分信贷的抵押。这些油存在于Bayon的罐中，并由仓库收据证明了确切的数量和油品种类。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Allied had declined to do this, so Haupt, like any broker when a customer operating on credit has defaulted, was faced with the necessity of selling out the allied contracts to get back what it could of its advances. The suicidal extent of the risk that Haupt had undertaken is further indicated by the fact that while the firm's capital in early November had amounted to only about eight million dollars, it had borrowed enough money to supply a single customer, allied, with some thirty-seven million dollars to finance the oil speculations. Worse still, as things turned out, it had accepted as collateral for some of these advances enormous amounts of actual cottonseed oil and soybean oil from Allied's inventory, the presence of which in tanks at Bayon was attested to by warehouse receipts stating the precise amount and kind of oil on hand.
Haupt从各大银行借来了资金，并将大部分仓库收据作为抵押品提供给这些银行。如果后来这些仓库收据没有被发现有很多是伪造的，这一切本该顺利进行。实际上，这些收据所指的石油大多并不存在，甚至可能从未在Bayon出现过。而Allied公司的总裁Anthony Deangelis后来因一系列指控被送进监狱，他似乎实施了自火柴大王Yvar Kruger以来最大的商业欺诈。那么，消失的石油在哪里呢？Allied公司的直接和间接债权人，包括美国和英国的一些最强大、最有经验的银行，怎么会如此彻底地上当受骗？整个事件的损失总额会像某些权威估计的那样最终达到1.5亿美元，甚至更多吗？
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Haupt had borrowed the money it supplied allied with from various banks, passing along most of the warehouse receipts to the banks as collateral. All this would have been well and good, if it had not developed later that many of the warehouse receipts were forged, that much of the oil they attested to was not and probably never had been in Bayon, and that Allied's president, Anthony Deangelis, who was later sent to jail on a whole parcel of charges, had apparently pulled off the biggest commercial fraud since that of Yvar Kruger, the Match King. Where was the missing oil? How could Allied's direct and indirect creditors, including some of the most powerful and worldly wise banks of the United States and Great Britain, have been so thoroughly gold? Would aggregate losses on the whole debacle finally total $150 million as some authorities had estimated, or would the bill be even bigger?
像哈普特这样一家领先的证券交易公司，怎么会愚蠢到为单一客户承担如此不可思议的高风险承诺呢？这些问题在11月19日时甚至还没有被提出，更不用说得到答案了。其中一些问题至今尚未解答，有些可能在几年内都无法解答。11月19日开始显露出来的情况，在接下来的几天中逐渐清晰：对于哈普特公司这样拥有约两万名个人股市客户的公司，以及威利斯顿和比恩公司这样拥有约九千名客户的公司，这场即将到来的灾难直接影响到许多完全无辜的人的个人储蓄，他们甚至都没听说过Allied，对商品交易只了解得非常模糊。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
How could a leading stock exchange firm like Haupt have been so foolish as to take on such an inconceivably risky commitment for a single customer? These questions had not even been raised, let alone answered on November 19th. Some of them have not been answered yet, and some of them may not be answered for years. What began to emerge on November 19th, and what became clear in the harrowing days that followed, was that in the case of Haupt, which had about 20,000 individual stock market customers on its books, and in the case of Williston and Bean, which had about 9,000, the impending disaster directly involved the personal savings of many totally innocent persons who had never heard of Allied, and had only the vaguest notion of what commodity trading is.
卡梅伦向证券交易所提交的报告并不意味着Haupt公司破产了，而且在他报告时，卡梅伦自己也并不认为他的公司已经破产。破产和仅仅未能满足交易所严格的资本要求之间有很大区别，这些要求旨在提供安全的保障。事实上，许多证券交易所官员表示，在那个星期二的早晨，他们并不认为Haupt的情况特别严重，而Williston和Bean的情况从一开始就更加不严重。交易所会员事务部门的初步反应之一是遗憾，认为卡梅伦在交易所通过其复杂的审计和检查系统发现问题之前，就先主动向交易所报告了问题。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Camerman's report to the stock exchange did not mean that Haupt had gone broke, and at the time he made it, Camerman himself surely did not think that his firm had gone broke. There's a great difference between insolvency and a mere failure to meet the exchanges rather stringent capital requirements, which are intended to provide a margin of safety. Indeed, various stock exchange officials have said that on that Tuesday morning they did not consider the Haupt situation to be especially serious, while the Williston and Bean situation, it was clear from the first, was even less so. One of the first reactions in the member firm's department was Shagrin that Camerman had come to the exchange with his problem before the exchange, through its elaborate system of audits and examinations, had discovered the problem for itself.
交易所固执地坚持（虽然有些无力）认为这只是运气不好，而不是管理不当的问题。按照常规，交易所要求其每个会员公司每年多次填写有关其财务状况的详细问卷。另外，作为额外的检查措施，交易所的专业会计师每年至少会对每个会员公司的账簿进行一次突击检查。Ira Haupt 公司最近一次填写问卷是在十月初，而在之后，与 Allied 相关的大量商品头寸的积累才发生，因此问卷并未显示任何问题。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
This, the exchange insists stubbornly, if a bit lamely, was a matter of bad luck rather than bad management. As a matter of routine, the exchange required each of its member firms to fill out detailed questionnaires on its financial condition several times a year, and as an additional check, an expert accountant from the exchange staff descended unexpectedly on each member firm at least once a year to subject its books to a surprise inspection. Ira Haupt and Company had filled out its most recent questionnaire early in October, and since the huge buildup in Allied's commodities position, with Haupt took place after that, the questionnaire showed nothing amiss.
关于突击检查，交易所的人正在Haupt办公室进行检查，恰巧就在问题出现的时候。这位审计员已经在那里呆了一周，他一直专心研究Haupt公司的账本。但是这种检查的工作非常繁琐，截至11月19日，审计员还没有对Haupt的商品部门进行检查。一位交易所官员后来表示，他们把我们的人安排在一个没有任何异常情况的部门办公。现在说他应该察觉到问题很容易，但当时他确实没有注意到。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
As for the surprise inspection, the exchange's man was in the Haupt offices conducting it at the very time the trouble broke. The auditor had been there for a week, his nose buried in Haupt's account books, but the task of conducting such an inspection is a tedious one, and by November 19th, the auditor hadn't got around to examining the Haupt commodities department. They had said our man up with a desk in a department where nothing unusual was going on, an exchange official has since said. It's easy to say now that he should have smelled trouble, but he didn't.
在19日星期二的上午，科尔和毕晓普与凯默曼坐下来讨论该如何解决霍普特面临的问题，以及有什么可以采取的措施。毕晓普记得会议的气氛并不沉重。根据凯默曼的统计数据，霍普特所需的资金大约是18万美元，对于霍普特这样的公司来说，这几乎是一个微不足道的数目。霍普特可以通过从外部筹集资金或者将其持有的证券转换成现金来弥补资金不足。毕晓普建议走后者这条更快速的途径，于是凯默曼立即打电话给他的公司，指示他的合伙人立刻开始出售他们的一些证券。问题似乎就这样简单地解决了。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
At mid-morning on Tuesday the 19th, coil and bishop sat down with Caymerman to see what needed to be done about Haupt's problem and what could be done. Bishop remembers that the atmosphere of the meeting was by no means grim. According to Caymerman's figures, the amount of capital that Haupt needed to bring it up to snuff was about $180,000, an almost paltry sum for a firm of Haupt's size. Haupt could make up the deficiency, either by obtaining new money from outside or by converting securities it owned into cash. Bishop urged the latter course, as the quicker insurer, whereupon Caymerman telephoned his firm and instructed his partners to begin selling some of their securities at once. The difficulty apparently was going to be solved as simply as that.
在Caymerman离开11 Wall后的那一天里，危机呈现出一种在政治圈中被称为升级的趋势。傍晚时分，一则不详的消息传来。Allied公司刚刚在纽瓦克申请了自愿破产。从理论上讲，破产不影响其前经纪人的财务状况，因为他们持有提供资金的担保。然而，这消息令人担忧，因为它暗示着可能会有更糟糕的消息。果然，不久之后，更糟的消息就传来了。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
During the rest of the day after Caymerman had left 11 Wall, the crisis showed a tendency to go through the process that in political circles had come to be called escalation. In the late afternoon, an ominous piece of news arrived. Allied had just filed a voluntary bankruptcy petition in Newark. Theoretically, the bankruptcy did not affect the financial position of its former brokers, since they held security for the money they had supplied with. Nevertheless, the news was alarming in that it provided a hint of worse news to follow. Such news indeed was not long in coming.
同一晚上，纽约商品交易所的经理们为了防止市场混乱，决定暂停棉籽油期货的所有交易，直至另行通知，并要求立即按他们规定的价格结算所有未完成的合约。由于所规定的结算价格一定会很低，这意味着帮忙或威利斯顿及比恩有利条件下摆脱联合投机的最后一丝机会已经消失了。那天晚上，在会员事务部，毕晓普拼命试图联系证券交易所的主席G. Keith Funston，而他先是在市中心出席一场晚宴，随后又乘火车前往华盛顿，准备在第二天向国会委员会作证。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The same evening, word reached the stock exchange that the managers of the New York produce exchange, in an effort to forestall chaos in their market, had voted to suspend all trading in cottonseed oil futures until further notice, and to require immediate settlement of all outstanding contracts at a price dictated by them. Since the dictated price would have to be a low one, this meant that any remaining chance that helped or Williston and Bean had of getting out from under the Allied speculations on favorable terms was gone. In the member firm's department that evening, Bishop was frantically trying to get in touch with G. Keith Funston, the president of the stock exchange, who was first at a midtown dinner and then on a train bound for Washington, where he was scheduled to testify the next day before a congressional committee.
由于种种原因，毕晓普整个晚上都忙于办公室的事务。到了半夜，他发现自己是公司部门里最后一个人。因为觉得回新泽西州范伍德的家已经太晚，他便在科伊尔的办公室里的一张皮革沙发上倒下休息。他在那里过得很不安稳，虽然清洁工的动静很小，但电话却整夜不断。周三早上9点30分，股票交易所的理事会准时在六楼理事会议室召开会议。会议室铺着华丽的红地毯，挂着威严的老画像，还有镀金的雕花柱子，给人一种华尔街历史不堪回首的感觉。按照交易所规定，理事会投票决定暂停一些公司的交易，因为它们面临资金困难。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
What with one thing and another, Bishop was busy in his office all evening. Toward midnight, he found himself the last man in the member firm's department, and, having decided it was too late to go home to Fanwood, New Jersey for the night, he collapsed on a leather couch in Coyle's office. He had a restless night there, the cleaning women were considerably quiet, he said afterward, but the phones kept ringing all night long. Promptly at 9.30 on Wednesday morning the stock exchange's board of governors met in the sixth floor governor's room, which, with its regal red carpet, fierce old portraits, and fluted gilt columns, carries rather uncomfortable connotations of Wall Street's checkered past, in accordance with exchange regulations, voted to suspend, hopped, and willessent and been, because of their capital difficulties.
在交易日早上 10 点开市后几分钟，董事会主席亨利·M·沃茨二世公开宣布了暂停交易的消息。他站上能俯瞰交易大厅的讲台，敲响通常用来标志交易日开始或结束的钟声，并宣读了这一公告。对于公众而言，此举的直接影响是，这两家被暂停交易的公司近 30,000 名客户的账户被冻结。也就是说，这些账户的持有者既不能卖出他们的股票，也无法提取他们的钱款。股票交易所的高管们被这些不幸客户的困境所触动，于是着手帮助陷入困境的公司筹集足够的资金，以解除暂停状态，让账户恢复正常。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The suspension was made public a few minutes after trading opened at 10 o'clock by Henry M. Watts Jr., chairman of the Board of Governors, who ascended a rostrum that overlooks the trading floor, rang the bell that normally signals the beginning or ending of a day's trading and read in announcement of it. From the point of view of the public, the immediate effect of the action was that the accounts of the almost 30,000 customers of the two suspended firms were now frozen. That is, the owners of the accounts could neither sell their stocks nor get their money out. Touched by the plight of these unfortunates, the stock exchange brass now set about trying to help the beleaguered firms raise enough capital to lift the suspensions and free the accounts.
在威利斯顿和比恩的情况下，他们的努力取得了巨大成功。事情发展到这家公司需要大约五十万美元才能重新开始营业，结果有很多同行经纪人站出来帮助提供贷款，以至于公司不得不拒绝一些多余的出借意愿。最终，这笔五十万美元部分来自沃尔斯顿公司，部分来自美林证券、皮尔斯、芬纳和史密斯公司的支持。有趣的是，比恩就是当初公司名为“美林证券、皮尔斯、芬纳和比恩”时的那个人。通过这笔及时的资金注入，威利斯顿和比恩得以恢复财务健康，公司的业务暂停也随之解除，其9,000名客户的担忧在星期五中午刚过就得以消除，这距离暂停业务已经过去了略超过两天。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
In the case of Williston and Bean, its efforts were triumphantly successful. It developed that this firm needed about half a million dollars to get back into business, and so many fellow brokers came forward to help out with loans that the firm actually had to fight off unwanted offers. The half million was finally accepted, partly from Wallston and Company, and partly from Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fennar, and Smith. Cozily, the bean of Williston and Bean was the very man who had been the caboose when the firm's name was Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fennar, and Bean. Restored to financial health by this timely injection of capital, Williston and Bean was relieved of its suspension and its 9,000 customers were relieved of their anxiety, just after noon on Friday, or slightly more than two days after the suspension had been imposed.
但是，Haupt的情况却不一样。到了星期三，人们清楚地知道，18万美元的资本短缺只是一个过于乐观的梦想。尽管如此，看起来这家公司可能仍然可以偿付其债务，尽管其因被迫出售石油合约遭遇了损失，但这有一个条件。这个条件是，Allied公司曾经作为抵押物承诺给Haupt的、现在因Allied违约而属于Haupt的Bayon储罐中的石油，能够以一个合理的价格出售给其他石油加工商。与他几乎所有的同事不同的是，作为交易所理事的理查德·M·克鲁克斯是商品交易方面的专家，他认为，如果Bayon的石油能够这样处理，Haupt有可能稍微盈利。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
But in the case of Haupt, things went differently. It was clear by Wednesday that the capital shortage figure of $180,000 had been the rosiest of dreams. Even so, it appeared that the firm might still be solvent to spite its losses on the forced sale of the oil contracts on one condition. The condition was that the oil in Bayon tanks that Allied had pledged to Haupt as collateral, and that now, through Allied's default, belonged to Haupt, could be sold to other oil processors at a fair price. Richard M. Crooks, an exchange governor who, unlike nearly all his colleagues, was an expert on commodities trading, figured that if the Bayon oil were thus unloaded, Haupt might still end up slightly in the black.
因此，他打电话给了该国几家主要的植物油加工商，鼓励他们对这些油进行投标。他收到的回复非常一致且令人震惊。这些主要的加工商都拒绝投标，并且他们给了他一种感觉，他们对Haupt持有的Bayon仓库收据表示怀疑，怀疑其中一些或全部是伪造的。如果这些怀疑是有根据的，那么可以推断仓库收据证明的油部分或全部并不在Bayon。Crooks说，情况非常简单。仓库收据在商品交易中几乎和货币一样被接受，但现在出现了这样一种可能性，即Haupt数百万美元的资产是由假货币组成的。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
He therefore telephoned a couple of the country's leading vegetable oil processors and urged them to bid on the oil. The replies he received were unanimous and startling. The leading processors declined to make any bid at all, and they left Crooks with a feeling that they were suspicious of the Bayon warehouse receipts held by Haupt, that they suspected some or all of them to be forgeries. If these suspicions were well-founded, it would follow that some or all of the oil attested to by the receipts was not in Bayon. The situation was very simple, Crooks said. Warehouse receipts are accepted in the commodities business as practically as good as currency, and now the possibility had been raised that millions of dollars of Haupt's assets consisted of counterfeit money.
尽管如此，周三上午，Crooks明确知道的是，各大加工商不会对Allied公司提供的石油报价。在接下来的周三和整个周四，交易所疯狂地试图帮助Haupt公司恢复元气，与此同时也帮Wilson和Bean公司恢复。毫无疑问，Haupt公司的十五位合伙人也忙于同样的努力。为了配合这个行动，Caymerman在周三晚上乐观地告诉《泰晤士报》，Ira Haupt公司是有偿付能力的，且其财务状况非常优良。此外，周三晚上，Crooks还与一位来自芝加哥的资深商品经纪人在纽约共进晚餐。虽然我性格上是个乐观主义者，但我的经验告诉我，这种事情总是比刚开始看起来要糟糕得多，Crooks最近这样说道。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Still, all that Crooks knew definitely on Wednesday morning was that the processors would not bid on Allied oil, and throughout the rest of Wednesday and all day Thursday, the exchange furiously went on trying to help Haupt get back on its feet, along with Wilson and Bean. Needless to say, the fifteen partners of Haupt were busy at the same endeavor, and in aid of it, Caymerman told the Times, buoyantly on Wednesday evening, Ira Haupt and company is solvent and is in an excellent financial position. Also on Wednesday evening, Crooks said dinner in New York, with a veteran commodities broker from Chicago. Although I'm an optimist by temperament, my experience tells me that these things always turn out to be much worse than they look at first, Crook said recently.
我告诉我的经纪人朋友这件事，他表示同意。第二天早上大约十一点半，他给我打电话说：「迪克，这件事情比你想的还要严重得多。」稍后，在星期四中午，交易所的会员公司部门发现，确实有许多Allied公司的仓单是假的。根据目前可以确定的情况，Haupt公司的合伙人大约也在同一时间发现了这一糟糕的事实。不管怎么说，他们中的一些人星期四晚上没有回家，而是整夜待在办公室，位于百老汇1-11号，努力弄清他们的处境。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
I mentioned this to my broker friend and he agreed. The next morning, at about 1130, he called me and said, Dick, this thing is a hundred percent worse than even you think. A bit later at midday on Thursday, the exchange's member firm's department learned that many of Allied's warehouse receipts were indeed fake. As nearly as can be determined, the Haupt partners were making the same unhappy discovery at about the same time. At any rate, a number of them did not go home Thursday evening but spent the night at their offices. At 1-11 Broadway, trying to figure out what their position was.
主教那天晚上回到家中，本想借助电扇帮助入眠，但他发现自己并没有比在科伊尔的沙发上睡得好多少。因此，他黎明前就起床，搭乘5点08分的泽西中央火车去了城里，凭着直觉去了霍普特公司。在合伙人的办公室区域，那里刚刚重新装修过，摆放着现代风格的弧形椅子、镶有大理石台面的档案柜以及伪装成办公桌的冰箱。主教发现几位合伙人留着胡子、衣冠不整，昏昏欲睡地靠在椅子上。他们当时已经十分疲惫，主教后来表示，这也难怪。被他叫醒后，他们告诉主教，他们整晚都在计算，并在凌晨三点左右得出结论，他们的处境已经无可救药。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Bishop got home to fan with that night, but he found that he could sleep hardly any better there than on Coyle's couch. Accordingly, he rose before dawn, took the Jersey Central's 5-8 to the city, and on a hunch, went to the Haupt offices. There in the partners' area, recently redecorated with modern contour chairs, marble-topped filing cabinets, and refrigerators disguised as desks, he found several of the partners, unshaven and unkempt drowsing in their chairs. They were pretty shot by then, Bishop said later, in no wonder, after being awakened they told him that they had been up all night calculating, and that, at about three o'clock, they had come to the conclusion that their position was hopeless.
由于仓库收据毫无价值，Haupt公司破产了。Bishop带着这个坏消息去了证券交易所，在那里等候天亮，等其他人上班。星期五下午1点40分，当证券市场已经因Haupt公司即将破产的传闻而动荡不安时，总统遇刺的最初传闻以混乱的形式传到了交易大厅。Crooks当时在那里，他说他听到的第一个消息是总统中枪了，第二个消息是总统的哥哥、司法部长也中枪了，第三个消息是副总统心脏病发作。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
In view of the worthlessness of the warehouse receipts, the Haupt firm was insolvent. Bishop took this disastrous intelligence with him to the Stock Exchange, where he waited for the sun to come up and for everyone else to come to work. At 1-40 on Friday afternoon, when the stock market was already badly rattled by the rumors of Haupt's impending failure, the first reports of the President's assassination reached the exchange floor, in garbled form. Crooks, who was there, says that the first thing he heard was that the President had been shot, the second was that the President's brother, the Attorney General, had also been shot, and the third was that the Vice President had had a heart attack.
"谣言像机关枪子弹一样袭来," Crooks 说，它们的冲击力不亚于枪弹。在接下来的二十七分钟里，没有任何确切的消息来缓解那种末日的气氛，结果股价以交易所历史上无与伦比的速度下跌。在不到半小时内，已上市股票的市值蒸发了130亿美元，如果不是董事会在下午两点零七分时关停了市场，股值无疑会继续下跌。这场恐慌对Haupt公司的直接影响是，导致两万个被冻结账户的状况变得更加恶劣，因为现在如果Haupt公司破产，许多账户被迫清算，就要在恐慌的价格下进行，帐户持有人将面临巨大的亏损。达拉斯事件更大而无法预见的影响是一种使人绝望的瘫痪。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
"'The rumors came like machine gun bullets,' Crooks says, and they struck with comparable impact. In the next twenty-seven minutes, during which no hard news arrived to relieve the atmosphere of the apocalypse, the prices of stocks declined at a rate unparalleled in the exchange's history. In less than half an hour, the values of listed stocks decreased by $13 billion, and they would no doubt have dropped further if the Board of Governors had not closed the market for the day at seven minutes past two. The panic's immediate effect on the Haupt situation was to make the status of the twenty thousand frozen accounts far worse, because now, in the event of Haupt's bankruptcy and the consequent liquidation of many of the accounts, the cashing in would have to be done at panic prices with heavy losses to the accounts' owners. A larger and less calculable effect of the events in Dallas was paralyzing despair.
然而，华尔街，或者说某些华尔街人士，相对于其他地区的人们而言，具有一种心理上的优势，因为他们有事情要忙。这一系列灾难让他们面临一个明确的任务。在星期三下午于华盛顿作证后，冯斯顿当天晚上便返回了纽约，并在星期四的大部分时间以及星期五的上午，致力于帮助威利斯顿和比恩恢复业务。在这段时间内，随着情况逐渐明朗，大家发现霍普特实际上并不是缺乏资金，而是资不抵债，冯斯顿开始相信证券交易所及其成员公司必须考虑采取某种几乎前所未有的措施，也就是用他们自己的钱来补偿霍普特轻率行为的无辜受害者。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
However, Wall Street, or rather some Wall Streeters, had a psychological advantage over the rest of the country in that there was work at hand to be done. This convergence of disasters confronted them with a definable task. Having testified in Washington on Wednesday afternoon, Funston had returned to New York that evening, and had spent most of Thursday as well as Friday morning working on getting Williston and Bean back in business. Some time during that period, as it was gradually made clear that Haupt was not really short of capital but actually insolvent, Funston became convinced the exchange and its member firms must consider doing something virtually unprecedented, that is, reimburse the innocent victims of Haupt's imprudence with their own money.
对于这种行动，最接近的先例是霍姆斯公司中的杜邦事件。杜邦是一家小型证券交易公司，由于一位合伙人的欺诈行为，在1960年破产。交易所后来向公司客户偿还了他们被盗的约80万美元。现在，芬斯顿在市场紧急关闭前匆忙从午餐约会中赶回办公室，开始实施他的计划。他召集了大约三十位办公室恰好在附近的主要经纪人，要求他们立即代表会员组成一个非官方代表团，前往交易所。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The nearest thing to a precedent for such action was the case of DuPont, Holmesian Company, a small stock exchange firm that went bankrupt in 1960 as a result of fraud by one of its partners. The exchange then repaid the firm's customers the money they had been divested of about $800,000. Now having hurried back to his office from a lunch date, shortly before the emergency closing of the market, Funston set about putting his plan into action, calling about thirty leading brokers whose offices happened to be nearby and asking them to trot over to the exchange immediately as an unofficial delegation representing its membership.
在三点刚过的时候，经纪人们聚集在南委员会会议室，这个房间比总裁室小一些。芬斯顿向他们陈述了他所了解的豪普特案的事实，以及他解决问题的计划大纲。事实是这样的：豪普特欠了美国和英国银行集团大约三千六百万美元。因为其中超过两千万的资产是以现在看来毫无价值的仓库收据作为抵押，豪普特几乎无力偿还这笔债务。在正常情况下，豪普特会在下周法院重开时，被债权银行起诉。豪普特为其客户保管的现金和许多证券会被债权方冻结，根据芬斯顿比较乐观的估计，可能一些客户在经过漫长的法律延迟后，最终可能只能拿回每美元债务约六十五美分。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Shortly after three o'clock, the brokers were assembled in the South Committee Room, a somewhat smaller version of the Governor's Room, and Funston set before them the facts of the Haupt case as he then knew them, along with an outline of his plan for a solution. The facts were these. Haupt owed about $36 million to a group of United States and British banks. Since over twenty million of its assets were represented by warehouse receipts that now appeared to be worthless, there was no hope that Haupt could pay its debts. In the normal course of events, therefore, Haupt would be sued by the creditor banks when the courts reopened next week. The cash and many of the securities held by Haupt for its customers would be tied up by the creditors, and according to Funston's liberal estimate, some of the customers might end up getting back after an extended period caused by legal delays, no more than sixty-five cents on the dollar.
这个案件还有另一面。如果霍普特破产了，其心理影响，加上霍普特大量资产涌入市场的直接影响，很可能会导致已经在大幅下跌的股市进一步低迷，而当时正值国家面临严重危机的时期。所以，不仅仅是霍普特客户的利益受到威胁，可能连国家利益也会受到影响。方斯顿的计划相对简单明了：由证券交易所或其会员提供足够的资金，让所有霍普特的客户能够取回他们的现金和证券，从而在银行业务中重新恢复正常。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
And there was another side to the case. If Haupt were to go to bankruptcy, the psychological effect of this, combined with a palpable effect of Haupt's considerable assets being thrown on the market, might well lead to further depression of a stock market already in wild retreat at a time of grave national crisis. Not only the welfare of the Haupt customer was at stake then, but perhaps the national welfare too. Funston's plan, simple enough and outline, was that the stock exchange, or its members, put up enough money to enable all the Haupt customers to get back their cash and securities, to be once again whole in the banking expression.
这个银行术语在词源学上是有依据的。"whole"（全部、完整）这个词源自古英语的"Hau"，意思是未受伤或从伤病中恢复，该词也衍生出德语的"Haupt"。Funston进一步建议说，Haupt的债权人，即银行，应该被劝说推迟任何催款行为，直到他们的顾客得到妥善照顾为止。Funston估计，完成这项任务可能需要七百万美元甚至更多。几乎所有在场的经纪人都同意支持这个有公益精神的计划，尽管不是完全明确无误。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The banking expression is etymologically sound. Whole derives from the Anglo-Saxon Hau, which meant uninjured or recovered from injury, and from which Haupt is also derived. Funston further proposed that Haupt's creditors, the banks, be persuaded to defer any efforts to collect their money until the customers had been taken care of. Funston estimated that the amount needed to do the job might run to seven million dollars or even more. Almost to a man, the assembled brokers agreed to support this public spirited, if not downright, elymazinary plan.
在会议结束之前，出现了一个困难。既然证券交易所和会员公司已经决定进行自我牺牲，双方面临的问题在某种程度上是如何安排让对方进行牺牲。芬斯顿建议会员公司全面接管此事，会员公司婉拒了这个建议，并以请求证券交易所处理此事作为回击。“‘如果是我们处理，’芬斯顿说，‘你们必须偿还我们支付的款项。’”经过这段不太体面的对话，双方达成了协议：最初的资金将从交易所的资金库中支付，然后再由会员公司分担偿还。由芬斯顿负责的三人委员会被授权进行谈判，以促成交易。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
But before the meeting was over, a difficulty arose. Now that the stock exchange and the member firm said decided on a deed of self-sacrifice, the problem confronting each side, to a certain extent anyway, was how to arrange to have the other side do the sacrificing. Funston urged the member firms to take over the entire matter, the firms declined the suggestion with thanks, and countered by urging the stock exchange to handle it. "'If we do,' Funston said, "'You'll have to repay us the amount we pay out.'" Out of this not very dignified dialogue emerged an agreement that initially the funds would come out of the exchange's treasury, with repayment to be apportioned among the member firms later. A three-man committee headed by Funston was empowered to conduct negotiations to bring the deal off.
需要进行谈判的主要方是Haupt的债权银行。获得他们一致同意对于计划的实施至关重要，因为即便只要有一家银行坚持要立即清算其贷款，整个计划就会崩溃，正如交易所主席亨利·沃茨形象地说的。亨利是一位哈佛大学的毕业生，并曾参加过1944年的奥马哈海滩战役。在这些债权人中，四家享有盛誉的本地银行尤其引人注目，分别是大通曼哈顿银行、摩根担保信托公司、第一国民城市银行和制造商信托公司，这四家银行总共借给Haupt大约1850万美元。尽管有三家银行对其向Haupt提供的具体贷款额度保持沉默，但责怪他们就像责怪一个对输牌夜讳莫如深的扑克玩家。然而，大通银行披露称，Haupt欠他们570万美元。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The chief parties that needed negotiating with were Haupt's creditor banks. Their unanimous consent to the plan was essential because if even one of them insisted on immediate liquidation of its loans, the pot would fall in as the exchange's chairman, Henry Watts, a fatherly-looking graduate of Harvard and of Omaha Beach, 1944, pungently put it. Prominent among the creditors were four local banks of towering prestige, Chase Manhattan, Morgan Guarantee Trust, First National City, and Manufacturers Handover Trust, which among them had lent Haupt about $18.5 million. Three of the banks have remained notably reticent about the exact amount of their ill-fated loans to Haupt, but blaming them for their silence would be like blaming a poker player who was less than garless about a losing night. The Chase, however, has said that Haupt owed it $5,700,000.
在这周早些时候，摩根大通银行（Chase）的主席乔治·钱皮恩给冯斯顿打了电话。钱皮恩不仅向他保证，交易所与摩根大通银行关系密切，银行也准备在豪普特（Haupt）事件上提供一切帮助。现在，冯斯顿打电话给钱皮恩，说他准备接受他的提议。然后，他和毕晓普开始努力召集摩根大通银行和其他三个银行的代表，召开一个紧急会议。毕晓普记得，他对在星期五下午五点召集一群银行家感到非常悲观，即使是这样一个特殊的星期五。但令他惊讶的是，他发现几乎所有人都在各自的岗位上，愿意直接来到交易所。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Earlier in the week, George Champion, chairman of the Chase had telephoned Funston. Not only did the stock exchange have a friended Chase, champion assured him, but the bank stood ready to give any help it could in the Haupt matter. Funston now called Champion and said he was ready to take him up on his offer. He and Bishop then began to try to assemble representatives of the Chase and the three other banks for an immediate conference. Bishop remembers that he felt highly bearish about the chances of rounding up a group of bankers at five o'clock on a Friday. Even such an exceptional Friday as this one. But, his surprise, he found practically all of them at their battle stations and willing to come straight to the exchange.
丰斯顿和他的交换谈判伙伴，主席沃茨和副主席沃尔特·N·弗兰克，与银行家从五点多一直商谈到晚饭时间。尽管气氛有些紧张，但会议还是富有建设性。丰斯顿后来回忆说：“首先，我们都同意这是一个棘手的局面。接着我们进入正题。当然，银行家们希望兑换中心能承担所有责任，但我们很快打消了他们的念头。” 丰斯顿向银行家们提出了一个建议：“我们愿意拿出一定的金额，用于惠及Haupt客户。作为交换，对于我们每投入的一美元，银行将推迟收回，即暂时延缓对两美元的止赎行动。”
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Funston and his fellow negotiators for the exchange, Chairman Watts and Vice Chairman Walter N. Frank, conferred with the bankers from shortly after five until well into the dinner hour. The meeting was constructive, if tense. First, we all agreed that it was a devil of a situation all around, Funston subsequently recalled. Then we got down to business. The bankers, of course, were hoping that the exchange would pick up the whole thing. But we quickly disabused them of that notion. Instead, I made them an offer. We would put up a certain sum and cash solely for the benefit of the Haupt customers. In exchange for every dollar that we put up, the banks would defer collection, that is, would temporarily refrain from foreclosing on two dollars.
如果，正如我们当时估算的那样，需要2250万才能使Haupt保持偿付能力，我们会提供750万，而银行则会推迟收取1500万。他们对我们的数字不太确定，认为我们估算得太低，并坚持认为交易所要从Haupt资产中收回任何贡献款项的要求，必须在银行对其贷款的索赔之后。对此，我们同意了。我们进行了激烈的讨论和谈判，最终回家时大家对事情的总体框架达成了一致。当然，所有人都明白这次会议只是初步的。首先，并不是所有的债权银行都有代表出席，而且很多细节工作和艰苦的谈判必须在周末完成。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
If, as we then estimated, 22.5 million was needed to make Haupt solvent we would put up seven and a half, and the banks would defer collection of fifteen. They weren't so sure about our figures. They thought we were too low, and they insisted that the exchange's claim to get back any of its contribution out of Haupt assets would have to come after the bank's claims for their loans. We agreed to that. We all fought and negotiated, and when we finally went home there was general agreement on the broad outline of the thing. Of course, everyone recognized that this meeting was only preliminary. To begin with, by no means all the creditor banks were represented at it, and that both the detail work and much of the hard bargaining would have to be done over the weekend.
就在周六，人们才意识到接下来需要进行的细节工作和艰难谈判有多么繁重。交易所的董事会在上午十一点召开会议，三十三名成员中超过三分之二出席。由于Haupt危机的影响，一些董事取消了周末计划，另一些甚至从乔治亚和佛罗里达等偏远地区赶来。董事会的第一个决定是在总统葬礼那天，也就是星期一，继续关闭交易所。这个决定让大家大大松了一口气，因为这个假期将为谈判人员争取到额外的二十四小时，以便在法院和市场重新开放前达成协议。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Just how much detail work and hard bargaining lay ahead became manifest on Saturday. The exchange's board met at eleven, and more than two-thirds of its thirty-three members were present. Because of the Haupt crisis, some governors had cancelled weekend plans, and others had flown in from their regular stands in such outposts as Georgia and Florida. The board's first action, a decision to keep the exchange closed on Monday, the day of the president's funeral, was accomplished with deep relief, because the holiday would give the negotiators an additional twenty-four hours in which to hammer out a deal before the deadline represented by the reopening of the courts and the markets.
富恩斯顿向州长们更新了有关霍普特财务状况的最新信息，以及与银行进行的谈判的进展。他还给出一个新的估算，即需要九百万美元才能使霍普特的客户不受到损失。在短暂的沉默之后，几位州长站起来表示，他们认为不仅仅是金钱的问题。这关系到证券交易所与数百万投资者之间的关系。会议随后暂时休会，并且在州长们高尚的意图支持下，由三人组成的交易所委员会开始与银行家进行谈判。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Funston brought the governors up to date on what was known about Haupt's financial position and on the status of the negotiations that had been begun with the banks. He also gave them a new estimate of the sum that might be required to make the Haupt customers whole—nine million dollars. After a fractional moment of silence, several governors rose to say, in essence, that they felt that more than money was at stake. It was a question of the relation of the stock exchange to the country's many million investors. The meeting was then temporarily adjourned, and, with the authority of the governor's lofty sentiments to back it up, the exchange's three-man committee got down to negotiations with the bankers.
因此，周六和周日的模式已经确定。当全国的人们都呆呆地坐在电视机前，而曼哈顿下城的街道就像19世纪初黄热病流行时期一样冷清时，华尔街11号六楼却是一片忙碌的景象。 交易所的委员会与银行家们密切会谈，直到Funston和他的同事们需要进一步授权为止。这时候，理事会会再次开会，决定是否授予新的权限。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Thus, the pattern for Saturday and Sunday was set. While the rest of the nation sat stupefied in front of its television sets, and while the downtown Manhattan streets were as deserted as they must have been during the yellow fever epidemics of the early nineteenth century, the sixth floor of eleven Wall Street was a nexus of utterly absorbed activity. The exchange's committee would remain closeted with the bankers until a point was reached at which Funston and his colleagues needed further authorization. Then the Board of Governors would go into session again and either grant the new authority or decline to do so.
在会议期间，管理人员聚集在走廊里，或者在空办公室里抽烟沉思。一个平时不太起眼的部门——交易所的行为和投诉部，这个周末也异常忙碌。那里的六名工作人员不停地接打电话，处理客户焦急的询问，他们感受不到任何舒心。当然，到处都是律师。一位资深的证券交易所人士说，他这辈子从没见过这么多律师。据估计，周末大部分时间，在华尔街11号大楼里有超过一百人。而且由于几乎所有的本地餐馆和交易所自己的餐饮设施都关闭了，食物问题非常严重。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Between sessions, the governors congregated in the hallways or smoked and brooded in empty offices. An ordinarily obscure corner of the exchange bureaucracy called the Conduct and Complaints Department was having a busy weekend, too. A staff of half a dozen there was continuously on the phone, dealing with anxious inquiries from Haupt customers who were feeling anything but hail. And, of course, there were lawyers everywhere. I never saw so many lawyers in my life. One veteran stock exchange man has said. Coil estimates that there were more than a hundred people at eleven Wall Street during most of the weekend, and since practically all local restaurants, as well as the exchange's own eating facilities were closed, the food problem was acute.
星期六，一个位于市中心的午餐柜台在营业期间的所有餐点被买光，人们食用完毕后，一辆出租车被派往格林尼治村购买更多的食材。星期天，一位交易所秘书贴心地带来了一台电咖啡机和一大袋杂货，并在主席的餐厅内开始准备食物。正在进行谈判的银行家委员会中，现在也包括了两家此前未在周五中代表的Haupt债权人：纽瓦克国家州银行和芝加哥大陆伊利诺伊国家银行及信托公司。然而，四家英国债权人，包括Henry Ann的资助者William Brant's Sons and Company Limited、S. Chaffet and Company Limited和Kleinwort Benson Limited，仍然没有代表出席。况且，随着周末已经过半，他们似乎暂时无法派出代表。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
On Saturday, the entire output of a downtown lunch counter that had truly stayed open was bought up and consumed, after which a taxi was dispatched to Greenwich Village for more supplies. On Sunday, one of the exchange secretaries thoughtfully brought in an electric coffee maker in a huge bag of groceries and set up shop in the chairman's dining room. The bankers negotiating committee now included men from two Haupt creditors that had not been represented on Friday. The National State Bank of Newark and the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago still unrepresented with the four British creditors. Henry Ann's backer in company, William Brant's Sons and Company Limited, S. Chaffet and Company Limited, and Kleinwort Benson Limited. Moreover, with the weekend half gone, they seemed to be temporarily unrepresentable.
决定在没有英国银行的情况下继续谈判，然后在星期一早上将任何协议提交给他们以获得批准。现在关键的问题是证券交易所需要提供多少现金来履行其承诺。银行家们接受了冯·斯滕的方案，根据该方案，他们将推迟收取证券交易所为此贡献的一美元相应的两美元。他们坚信哈普特手中有约两千两百五十万美元的无用仓单。然而，他们不愿意将这个数字作为清算哈普特所需的最大金额。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
It was decided to continue negotiating without the British banks, and then, on Monday morning, present any agreement to them for approval. A crucial point at issue it now developed was the amount of cash that would be needed from the stock exchange to fulfill its part of the bargain. The bankers accepted von Sten's formula under which they would defer collection of two dollars for every dollar that the exchange contributed to the cause, and they did not doubt that Haupt was stuck with about twenty-two and a half million dollars' worth of useless warehouse receipts. However, they were unwilling to take that figure as the maximum amount that might be necessary to liquidate Haupt.
为确保安全，他们提出，金额应基于Haupt公司对他们的全部债务来计算，共计三千六百万。因此，这意味着交易所的现金注入不仅是七百五十万，而是需要达到一千两百万。另一个需要讨论的问题是：交易所应将这笔商定的款项支付给谁。一些银行家认为，这笔钱应直接进入Ira Haupt公司的账户，由该公司自行分配给其客户。然而，交易所的代表迅速指出，这一建议的问题在于，交易所的出资将完全失去控制。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
To be on the safe side, they argued, the amount ought to be based on Haupt's overall indebtedness to them. Thirty-six million. And this meant that the exchange's cash contribution would have to be not seven and a half million, but twelve. Another point at issue was the question of to whom the exchange would pay whatever sum was agreed upon. Some of the bankers thought the money ought to go straight into the coffers of Ira Haupt and Company, to be dispensed by the firm itself to its customers. The trouble with this suggestion, as the exchange's representatives were not slow to point out, was that it would put the exchange's contribution entirely beyond its control.
作为最后一个复杂因素，大陆伊利诺伊银行对参与这笔交易显得特别犹豫。大陆银行的人主要在考虑他们银行的风险敞口，交易所的人对此表示理解。 他们认为，与其说我们的安排可能最终对他们更加有害，倒不如说一场正式的破产和接管更有利。他们需要时间来考虑，以确保他们采取适当的行动，但我必须说，他们还是很配合的。确实，因为主要是证券交易所的声誉处在这个计划交易的中心，看起来所有银行都表现得非常合作。毕竟，银行家在法律和道义上都有责任为其储户和股东争取最大利益，因此很难寄希望于他们为公众利益慷慨行事。即使他们的目光冷峻，内心也许也是善良的，但这种善良却常常被压抑。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
As a final complication, one bank, the Continental Illinois, was distinctly reluctant to enter into the deal at all. The Continental's people were thinking in terms of their bank's exposure, and Exchange Man has explained sympathetically. They thought our arrangement might ultimately be more damaging to them than a formal Haupt bankruptcy and receivership. They needed time to consider, to make sure they were taking the proper action, but I must say they were cooperative. Indeed, since it was primarily the stock exchange's good name that was at the center of the planned deal, it would appear that all the banks were marvels of cooperation. After all, a banker is legally and morally charged with doing the best he can for his depositors and stockholders, and is therefore hardly in the position to indulge in grand gestures for the public good. If his eyes are flinty, they may mask it kind, but stifled heart.
关于大陆银行，它行动缓慢是有原因的，因为它的风险敞口超过了一千万美元，远远高于任何其他银行。没有人愿意具体说明大陆银行坚持的要点是什么，但可以安全地假设，任何援助金额不到一千万美元的银行或个人无法确切了解大陆银行的感受。到星期六晚上六点左右谈判暂停时，各方在主要问题上达成了妥协，其中包括关于现金争议的协议，即交易所初期将提供七百五十万美元，并承诺在必要时增加到一千二百万美元。此外，关于如何向受援助客户支付资金的争议，也达成了一致，即由交易所的首席审查员担任清算人，负责处理受援事宜。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
As for the Continental, it had reason to be particularly slow to act, because its exposure amounted to well over ten million dollars, or much more than that of any other bank. No one concerned has been willing to say exactly what the points were on which the Continental held out, but it seems safe to assume that no bank or person who had lent help less than ten million dollars can know exactly how the Continental felt. By the time the negotiations were recessed at about six o'clock Saturday evening, a compromise had been reached on the main issues, on the amount of cash controversy, by an agreement that the exchange would put up in initial seven and a half million, with the pledge to go up to twelve million if it became necessary, and on the controversy about how the money would be paid to the helped customers by agreement that the exchange's chief examiner would be appointed liquidator of helped.
但大陆银行依然顽固不化，当然，英国银行表示甚至还没有被接洽。无论如何，每个人都结束了当天的事务，承诺第二天下午早些再回来，尽管第二天是星期天。康斯坦感冒严重，回家了，居住在格林威治。银行家们则回到了像格伦科夫和巴斯金里奇这样的地方。来自费城的顽固通勤者沃茨回到了宁静的费城。甚至主教也回到了范伍德的家。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
But the Continental was still recalcitrant, and of course the British bank said not yet even been approached. In any event, everybody shut up shop for the night, with pledges to return early the next afternoon, even though it was Sunday. Constan, who was coming down with a bad cold, went home to Greenwich. The banker is went home to places like Glen Cove and Basking Ridge. Watts, a die-hard commuter from Philadelphia, went home to that tranquil city. Even Bishop went home to Fanwood.
星期天下午两点，交易所的理事们与来自洛杉矶、明尼阿波利斯、匹兹堡和里士满的竞争者们一起召开了联合会议。参加会议的还有三十位会员公司的代表，他们渴望了解自己将参与的事项。当前协议的发展状态解释清楚后，他们一致投票赞成继续推进协议。随着下午的进展，甚至连大陆伊利诺伊银行也软化了反对立场。大约六点钟，在一系列紧张的长途电话和努力追踪在火车上和机场中的大陆银行官员之后，芝加哥银行同意参与。他们解释说，此举是为了公共利益，而不是依据其官员的最佳商业判断。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
At two o'clock Sunday afternoon, the exchange governors, their ranks now augmented by rivals from Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Richmond, met in joint session with the thirty representatives of member firms who were anxious to learn what they were being committed to. After the current status of the emerging agreement had been explained to them, they voted unanimously in favor of going ahead with it. As the afternoon progressed, even Continental Illinois softened its opposition, and at about six o'clock, after a series of frantic long-distance telephone calls and attempts to track down Continental officers on trains and in airports, the Chicago Bank agreed to go along, explaining that it was doing so in the public interest rather than in pursuance of its officer's best business judgment.
大约在同一时间，《泰晤士报》的金融编辑托马斯·E·马拉尼打电话给福斯顿，表示他听到了一些关于计划不顺利的传闻。在整个谈判过程中，他和其他媒体一样，被严格禁止进入第六楼。由于英国的银行可能会因为第二天早晨的媒体报道中看到有方案处理他们的贷款却未征得他们的同意或甚至未获知情而感到不满，福斯顿不得不做出回应，这只能进一步降低等待的两万客户的情绪。他说：“没有这样的计划。”
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
At about the same time, the Times' financial editor, Thomas E. Malaney, who, like the rest of the press, had been rigidly excluded from the sixth floor throughout the negotiations, called Funston to say he had heard rumors of a plan unhelped in the offing. Because the British banks would have reason to be miffed, at the very least, if they should read in the next morning's air additions of a scheme to dispose of their credits without their agreement or even their knowledge, Funston had to give reply that could only depress still further the spirits of the waiting twenty thousand customers. There is no plan, he said.
周日下午早些时候，就谁来承担说服英国银行的微妙任务这个问题进行了讨论。尽管感冒了，芬斯顿仍渴望前往。一方面，他后来承认这种戏剧性的情节对他有吸引力，他还让秘书预定了一张飞机票。但随着下午的推进，当地问题仍然难以解决，最后决定他无法抽身前往。其他几位董事很快主动提出愿意前往，最终选择了其中一位，古斯塔夫·阿莱维，因为他的公司金色撒克逊与克莱沃特·本森银行有着长期密切的关系，而阿莱维本人也与一些克莱沃特·本森的合伙人关系良好。后来，阿莱维接替瓦茨成为董事长。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The question of who would undertake the delicate task of cajoling the British banks had come up early Sunday afternoon. Funston, despite his cold, was anxious to make the trip. For one thing, he has since admitted the drama of it appealed to him, and had gone as far as getting a secretary to reserve space on a plane. But as the afternoon progressed and the local problems continued to appear intractable, it was decided that he couldn't be spared. Several other governors quickly volunteered to go, and one of them, Gustav Allevi, was eventually selected, on the ground that his firm, Golden Saxon Company, had had a long and close association with Kleinwort Benson, one of the British banks, and that Levy himself was on excellent terms with some of the Kleinwort Benson partners. Levy would later succeed Watts as chairman.
根据以上内容，利维与一家银行的执行官和一位律师一同离开了11号华尔街，时间是五点多。他们可能希望通过这种安排为英国银行树立一个合作的榜样。在晚上七点，他们搭上了一架飞往伦敦的飞机。在飞行的大部分时间里，三人一直熬夜，仔细计划他们在早晨该如何与银行家们交涉。他们这样做是明智的，因为英国银行没有任何理由表现出合作的意愿。他们的证券交易所并没有遇到麻烦。而且，不仅限于此。根据可靠来源，四家英国银行共借出了550万美元的贷款，而这些贷款与许多外国银行提供给美国经纪人的短期贷款一样，没有任何抵押担保。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Accordingly, Levy accompanied by an executive and a lawyer of the chase, who were presumably included in the hope that they would set the British banks an inspiring example of cooperation, left 11 Wall Street shortly after five o'clock, and caught a London bound jet at seven. The trio sat up on the plane most of the night, carefully planning the approach they would make to the bankers in the morning. They were well advised to do so, because the British banks certainly had no cause to feel cooperative. Their stock exchange wasn't in trouble. And there was more to it than that. According to unimpeachable sources, the four British banks had lent out a total of five and a half million dollars, and these loans, like many short-term loans made by foreign banks to American brokers, had not been secured by any collateral.
一些稍微更可靠的消息来源指出，有些贷款是在最近才发放的，也就是说，在事件发生前一周甚至更短的时间内发放。这些贷款资金已知为“欧元美元”，这是一种存在于欧洲银行的美元存款构成的虚拟但仍然有用的货币。当时大约有四十亿美元的欧元美元在欧洲金融机构之间活跃交易，而向受困方提供五百五十万美元贷款的银行，首先是从其他地方借来了这些资金。一位国际银行业的本地专家称，欧元美元通常是以巨额的形式进行交易，利润非常微薄。例如，一家银行可能会以4.25%的利率借入一批资金，然后以4.5%的利率贷出，从中每年净赚四分之一个百分点的利差。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Sources only fractionally more impeachable maintained that some of the loans had been extended very recently, that is a week or less before the debacle. The money lent is known to have consisted of euro dollars, a phantom but nonetheless serviceable currency consisting of dollar deposits in European banks. Some four billion euro dollars were actively traded among European financial institutions at that time, and the banks that lent the five and a half million to help had first borrowed them from somebody else. According to a local expert in international banking, euro dollars are customarily traded in huge blocks at a relatively tiny profit. For instance, a bank might borrow a block at four and a quarter percent and lend it at four and a half percent at a net advantage of one-fourth of one percent per annum.
显然，这样的交易被认为几乎没有风险。五百五十万美元的四分之一的百分之一在一周内相当于264.42美元，这在一定程度上显示了四家英国银行原本可以在这笔援助交易中分得的利润，如果一切按计划进行并扣除费用的话。然而，结果却是他们面临全盘损失。那天，沉重疲惫的押送人在天气阴沉细雨飘落的黎明后不久，眼睛红红地抵达伦敦。他们先去萨沃伊酒店换衣服并吃早餐，然后径直前往伦敦的金融区。他们的第一次会议是在芬教堂街上的威廉·布兰特之子公司进行的，该公司承担了550万美元中的一半以上。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Obviously, such transactions are looked upon as practically without risk. One-fourth of one percent of five and a half million dollars over a period of one week amounts to two hundred and sixty-four dollars and forty-two cents, which gives some indication of the size of the profit on the help deal that the four British banks would have been able to divide among themselves, less expenses, if everything had gone as planned. Instead, they now stood to lose the whole bundle. The heavy and the chasemen arrived red-eyed in London shortly after daybreak on a depressingly drizzly morning. They went to the Savoy to change their clothes and have breakfast, and then headed straight for the city, London's financial district. Their first meeting was at the Fenn Church Street establishment of William Brant's Sons, which had put up over half of the five and a half million.
布兰特的合伙人礼貌地对总统的去世表示哀悼，美国人也表示同意，这确实是一件很糟糕的事情。随即，双方切入正题。布兰特的人知道有些帮助将面临危机，但不知道现在有一个计划正在展开，旨在通过避免正式破产来拯救那些需要帮助的客户。莱维对此进行了讲解，接下来进行了数小时的讨论。在这个过程中，英国人表现出一定的不情愿，这也可以理解。刚刚被一群美国人欺骗过，他们自然不愿意立刻再被另一群美国人骗一次。据莱维所说，他们非常不开心，作为纽约证券交易所的代表，我受到了他们的猛烈批评，因为正是交易所的一名成员让他们陷入了这个困境。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The Brant partners courteously offered condolences on the death of the president, and the Americans agreed that it was a terrible thing. Whereupon both sides came to the point. The Brant men knew of help some pending failure, but not of the plan now afoot to rescue the help customers by avoiding a formal bankruptcy. Levy explained this, and in hours' discussion followed, in the course of which the Britain showed a certain reluctance to go along, as well they might. Having just been taken in by one group of Yankees, they were not anxious to be immediately taken in by another. They were very unhappy, Levy says. They raised hell with me as a representative of the New York Stock Exchange, one of whose members had got them into this jam.
他们想要与我们进行交易，希望在我们同意推迟收款的同时，获得在其债务回收上的优先权。但他们的谈判地位并不是很好，因为在破产程序中，他们基于无担保贷款的债务会在持有担保的债权人之后才得到考虑。依我看，他们根本拿不到什么钱。另一方面，根据我们的提议条款，除了客户之外，他们会与其他没有担保的债权人同等对待。我们必须向他们解释，我们并不进行这样的交易。布兰特公司的代表答复说，他们在作出决定之前需要考虑一下这个问题，同时也想听听另一家英国银行的意见。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
They wanted to make a trade with us, to get a priority in the collection of their claims in exchange for coming along with us in agreeing to defer a collection. But their trading position wasn't really good, in a bankruptcy proceeding their claims, based on unsecured loans, would have been considered after the claims of creditors who held collateral, and in my opinion, they would have never collected a nickel. On the other hand, under the terms of our offer, they would be treated equally with all the other hob creditors except the customers. We had to explain to them that we weren't trading. The Brant men replied that before deciding they wanted to think the matter over, and also to hear what the other British bank said.
美国代表随后前往伦敦隆巴德街的大通公司办事处，根据事先安排，他们在那里与其他三家英国银行的代表会面，莱维也得以与他在克莱因沃特·本森的朋友重聚。重聚的气氛显然不太愉快，但莱维表示，他的朋友们能够现实地看待他们的处境，甚至以英勇的客观态度，帮助其他英国人理解美国方面的观点。然而，这次会议和之前的一样，没有人作出任何承诺。莱维和他的同事们在大通公司共进午餐，随后步行前往英格兰银行，因为他们对帮助贷款的兴趣在于一旦违约将影响英国的国际收支。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The American delegates then repaired to the London office of the Chase on Lombard Street, whereby pre-arrangement they met with representatives of the three other British banks, and Levy had a chance for a reunion with his Kleinwort Benson friends. The circumstances of the reunion were obviously less than happy, but Levy says that his friends took a realistic view of their situation, and, with heroic objectivity, actually helped their fellow Britons to see the American side of the question. Nevertheless, this meeting, like the earlier one, broke up without commitment by anyone. Levy and his colleagues stayed at the Chase for lunch, and then walked over to the Bank of England, which was interested in the helped loans to the extent that their default would affect Britain's balance of payments.
英格兰银行的一位副行长通过其代表向访问者表达了对美国国家悲剧和华尔街自身问题的深切关注。他建议，尽管英格兰银行无权指示伦敦的银行该怎么做，但根据他们的判断，这些银行如果支持美国的计划将会是明智的。大约在下午两点，三人小组回到伦巴德街，紧张地等待银行方面的消息。同时，在华尔街也开始了类似的等待，当时是周一早上的九点。温斯顿刚到办公室，意识到只有一天时间来完成这笔交易，他在办公室里踱步，等待伦敦方面是否会妨碍协议达成的电话。克莱沃特·本森公司和S. Jaffet公司是第一批同意合作的企业，利维回忆道。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The Bank of England, through one of its deputies, assured the visitors of its distress over both America's national tragedy and Wall Street's parochial one, and advised them that while it lacked the power to tell the London banks what to do, in its judgment they would be wise to go along with the American scheme. Then, at about two o'clock, the trio returned to Lombard Street to wait nervously for word from the banks. As it happened, a parallel vigil was then beginning on Wall Street, where it was nine o'clock on Monday morning, and where Winston just arrived in his office and very much aware that only one day remained in which to get the deal wrapped up was pacing his rug as he waited for a call that would tell him whether London was going to cause the pot to fall in. Kleinwort Benson and S. Jaffet and Company were the first to agree to go along, Levy recalls.
然后，在大约半小时的沉默中，Levy和他的同事们开始感受到在纽约时间一分一秒的流逝所带来的焦虑，这时Brandt传来了肯定的答复。这是关键的一步。有了主要债权人和另外两个债权人的支持，几乎可以确定Anzbacher也会加入。大约在伦敦时间下午4点，Anzbacher果然加入了，Levy终于拨通了Winston一直等待的电话。任务完成后，美国人直奔伦敦机场，并在三小时内乘飞机返乡。收到好消息的Winston感到整个协议终于大功告成，因为要做到这一点只需要15位普通合伙人的签名，而他们在这个计划中似乎是得益无损。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Then, after a silence of perhaps half an hour, during which Levy and his colleagues began to have an agonizing sense of the minutes ticking away in New York, an affirmative answer came from Brandt. That was the big one. With the chief creditor and two of the three others in line, it was all but certain that Anzbacher would join up. At around 4 p.m. London time, Anzbacher did, and Levy was finally able to place the call that Winston had been waiting for. Their mission accomplished, the Americans went straight to the London airport, and within three hours were on a plane headed home. On getting the good news, Winston felt that the whole agreement was pretty well in the bag at last, since all that was needed to seal the bag was the signatures of the fifteen helped general partners, who seemed to have nothing to lose and everything to gain from the plan.
尽管如此，获取那些签名的任务仍然是至关重要的。除非进行破产诉讼，而这是大家都想避免的，否则没有任何清算人能够在没有合伙人的许可下分配公司资产，甚至连大理石台面的柜子和冰箱也不例外。因此，在周一下午晚些时候，这些被援助的合伙人，各自带着律师，来到证券交易所的主席沃茨的办公室，了解华尔街的大佬们为他们安排了什么。对这些被援助的合伙人来说，预计的协议内容几乎谈不上愉快，因为协议中规定，他们必须签署授权书，赋予清算人对公司事务的全部控制权。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Still, the task of getting those signatures was a vital one. Short of a bankruptcy suit, which everyone was trying to avoid, no liquidator could distribute the helped assets, not even the marble-topped cabinets and refrigerators, without the partner's permission. Accordingly, late on Monday afternoon, the helped partners, each accompanied by his lawyer, tripped into Chairman Watts' office at the Stock Exchange to learn exactly what faked the Wall Street powers had been arranging for them. The helped partners could hardly have found the projected agreement pleasant reading, inasmuch as it prescribed, among other things, that they were to execute powers of attorney, giving a liquidator full control over helped's affairs.
然而，其中一位律师给他们进行了一次简短而犀利的演讲，指出他们对公司的债务负责，无论他们是否签署协议。因此，不如抱着为公众服务的精神去签署。此外，他们实际上已骑虎难下；其中许多人后来提交了个人破产申请。在这场阴郁的会议中，一个令人吃惊的事件打破了平静。不久，在那位律师结束他的事实陈述后，有人注意到人群中一个陌生而引人注目的年轻面孔，并询问他的身份。他毫不犹豫地回答说：“我是拉塞尔·沃森，《华尔街日报》的记者。”
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
However, one of their own lawyers gave them a short, pungent talk, pointing out that they were personally liable for the firm's debts, whether or not they signed the agreement, so they might as well be public spirited and sign it. More briefly, they were over a barrel; many of them later filed personal bankruptcy papers. One startling event broke the even tenor of this gloomy meeting. Shortly after the helped lawyer had wound up his disquisition on the facts of life, someone noticed an unfamiliar and striking youthful face in the crowd and asked its owner to identify himself. The unhesitating reply was, "I'm Russell Watson, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal."
当时有片刻的震惊与沉默，大家意识到，如果消息不幸泄露，可能会打破协议中金钱和情感之间的微妙平衡。事后，华森解释了他如何进入会议，以及他在什么情况下离开。他今年24岁，已经在这一新闻杂志工作了一年。他后来表示：“那时候，我刚开始报道证券交易新闻。当天早些时候，有消息称芬斯顿可能会在晚上某个时候举行新闻发布会，于是我就去了证券交易所。在主入口处，我问一位保安芬斯顿先生的发布会在哪里。保安告诉我在六楼，并领我乘电梯上去。我想，他可能认为我是个银行家、合伙人或律师。”
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
There was a short, stunned silence and recognition of the fact that an untimely leak might still disturb the delicate balance of money and emotion that made up the agreement. Watson himself, who was twenty-four and had been on the journal for a year, has since explained how he got into the meeting and, under what circumstances he left it. "I was new on the stock exchange beat then," he said afterward. "Earlier in the day there had been word that Funston would probably hold a press conference sometime that evening, so I went over to the exchange. At the main entrance, I asked a guard where Mr. Funston's conference was. The guard said it was on the sixth floor and ushered me into an elevator. I suppose he thought I was a banker, a helped partner, or a lawyer."
在六楼，人们到处闲逛。我刚下电梯，走进了会议室所在的办公室，没有人拦我。我对现场的情况没太明白。我感觉无论争论的焦点是什么，大伙基本上达成一致，但细节上还在激烈磋商。我只认得出一个叫方斯顿的人。我安静地站了大约五分钟，才有人注意到我，然后大家几乎异口同声地说：“能麻烦您离开吗？”他们实际上没有把我赶走，但我知道是时候离开了。在接下来的漫长争论过程中，受助方及其律师把瓦茨的办公室当作指挥部，而银行代表和他们的律师则在走廊尽头的北委员会室安营扎寨。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
On the sixth floor, people were milling around everywhere. I just walked off the elevator and into the office where the meeting was. Nobody stopped me. I didn't understand much of what was going on. I got the feeling that whatever was at stake, there was general agreement, but still a lot of haggling over details to be done. I didn't recognize anybody there but Funston. I stood around quietly for about five minutes before anybody noticed me, and everybody said pretty much at once, "Could God get out of here?" They didn't exactly kick me out, but I saw it was time to go. During the haggling phase that followed, a painfully protracted one had developed, the helped partners and their lawyers made a command post of Watts office, while the bank representatives and their lawyers camped in the North Committee Room, just down the hall.
芬斯顿决心在第二天市场开盘前让投资者知晓和解消息，他因急躁和焦虑而发狂。为了加快进程，他充当了一种信使和特使的角色。他回忆道："整个星期一晚上，我一直在来回奔走，不停地说，你看，他们在这一点上不肯让步，所以你们得让步，或者我会说，你看，现在几点了，离明天市场开盘只有12小时了，赶快在这里签字。"
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Funston, who was determined that news of a settlement should be in the hands of investors before the opening of the market next morning, was going wild with irritation and frustration. In an effort to speed things up, he constituted himself a sort of combination messenger boy and envoy. All Monday evening, I kept running back and forth saying, look, they won't give in on this point, so you've got to, he recalls, or I'd say, look what time it is, only 12 hours until tomorrow's market opening, initial here.
在凌晨12点15分，距离市场重新开盘还有九个小时又四十五分钟时，28个相关方在南委员会会议室签署了协议。参与者形容当时的气氛是既疲惫又如释重负。周二早上一开门，股票交易所就将750万美元（大约是其可用储备的三分之一）存入一个账户，以便清算人可以使用。当天上午，清算人詹姆斯·P·马霍尼，这位交易所的资深员工，亲自进驻了相应的办公室，开始接管工作。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
At 15 minutes past midnight, nine and three-quarters hours before the market's reopening, the agreement was signed in the South Committee Room by the 28-parties at interest in an atmosphere that a participant has described as one of exhaustion and general relief. As soon as the banks opened on Tuesday morning, the stock exchange deposited $7.5 million, a sum amounting to roughly one-third of its available reserve, in an account on which the helped liquidator could draw. The same morning, the liquidator himself, James P. Mahoney, a veteran member of the exchange's staff, moved into the helped offices to take charge.
受新总统的信心或和解消息，或两者共同影响，股市迎来了历史上最大单日上涨，完全弥补了周五的损失。一周后，12月2日，马霍尼宣布，已经从股票交易账户中支出了175万美元，用于帮助客户。到12月12日，这个数字上升到540万美元，而到圣诞节时达到了670万美元。最后，1964年3月11日，交易所能够报告已发放了950万美元，除了极少数无法找到的人，被帮助的客户都恢复了。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The stock market, encouraged by confidence in the new president, or by news of the helped settlement, or by combination of the two, had its greatest one-day rise in history, more than eliminating Friday's losses. A week later, on December 2nd, Mahoney announced that $1,750,000 had already been paid out of the stock exchange account to bail out helped customers. By December 12, the figure was up to $5,400,000, and by Christmas to $6,700,000. Finally, on March 11, 1964, the exchange was able to report that it had dispensed $9.5 million, and that the helped customers, with the exception of a handful who couldn't be found, were whole again.
有些人认为，这份协议明确暗示了华尔街的高层现在对其成员的不当行为甚至是不幸所造成的公众伤害感到有责任感。对此，人们产生了各种反应。那些获得救助的客户自然是感激不已。 《纽约时报》称，这份协议展现了一种责任感，激励了投资者的信心，并可能有助于避免潜在的恐慌。在华盛顿，总统约翰逊在他上任后的第一个办公日中断了自己的工作，打电话给芬斯顿表示祝贺。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The agreement in which some people saw an unmistakable implication that Wall Street's establishment now felt accountable for public harm caused by the misdeeds or even the misfortunes of any of its members gave rise to a variety of reactions. The rescued-hop customers were predictably grateful, of course. The Times said that the agreement was evidence of a sense of responsibility that served to inspire investor confidence and may have helped to avoid a potential panic. In Washington, President Johnson interrupted his first business day in office to telephone Funston and congratulate him.
美国证券交易委员会主席威廉·L·克里平时并不常对证券交易所赞誉有加，但在十二月时，他表示交易所展现了其实力，以及对公众利益的极大关注和令人印象深刻的表现。世界其他各地的证券交易所对此事保持沉默，但如果根据大多数交易所进行交易的理性方式来判断，一些外地的官员对纽约市发生的奇特现象必定感到困惑不已。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The chairman of the SEC, William L. Kerry, who was not ordinarily given to throwing bouquets at the stock exchange, said in December that it had furnished a dramatic, impressive demonstration of its strength and concern for the public interest. Other stock exchanges around the world were silent on the matter, but if one made judge by the unsentimental way that most of them do business, some of their officials must have been indulging in a certain amount of head-shaking over the strange doings in New York.
证券交易所的会员公司在三年内被征收了950万美元的费用，整体上看来他们对这一结果表示满意。虽然有少数公司抱怨说，那些有着良好口碑和专业能力的老牌公司不应该承担那些贪婪的新兴公司因过度冒险而遭受的损失。有趣的是，几乎没有人对英国和美国的银行表示感谢，这些银行恢复了大约一半的损失。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
The stock exchange's member firms, who were assessed for the nine-and-a-half million dollars over a period of three years, appeared to be generally satisfied. Although a few of them were heard to grumble that fine old firms with justified reputations for skill and property should not be asked to pay the losses of greedy upstarts who overstep and get caught out. Oddly, almost no one seems to have expressed gratitude to the British and American banks, which recouped something like half of their losses.
人们可能只会在电视广告中感谢银行，而不是在现实中。同时，股票交易所对于接受祝贺感到既羞涩又谨慎，虽然它可能优雅地表示，所作的一切不应被视为先例，也不一定会再次这样做。交易所的官员们也不确定如果类似的情况发生在早些时候，甚至是稍微早一点的时候，他们会不会采取同样的措施。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
It may be that people simply don't thank banks, except in television commercials. The stock exchange itself, meanwhile, was torn between blushingly accepting congratulations and prudently, if perhaps graciously, insisting that what it had done wasn't to be regarded as a precedent, that it wouldn't necessarily do the same thing again. Nor were the exchange's officials at all sure that the same thing would have been done if the hop case had occurred earlier, even a very little earlier.
在20世纪50年代初担任交易所主席的Crooks认为，在他的任期内采取这种行动的可能性大概是五成。Fontson于1951年上任，他觉得在自己任期初期，这个问题还是有争议的。他表示，对公众责任的理解是一个不断变化的过程。他尤其对一个让他烦恼的观点感到不满，那就是有人反复提到交易所是出于内疚感而采取行动的。他认为对这一事件的精神分析解释是多余的，甚至可以说是无礼的。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
Crooks, who was chairman of the exchange in the early 1950s, felt that the chances of such action during his term would have been about 50-50. Fontson, who assumed his office in 1951, felt that the matter would have been questionable during the early years of his incumbency. One's idea of public responsibility is evolutionary, he said. He was particularly annoyed by the idea, which he had heard repeatedly, that the exchange had acted out of a sense of guilt. Psychoanalytic interpretations of the event he felt were gratuitous, not to say, churlish.
至于那些年龄较大的州长，他们可能从州长办公室和南北委员会会议室带着责备的眼神怒视着谈判，对于整个过程，他们的反应可以想象，但无法真正知道。
▶ 英文原文 ⏱
As for those older governors who glared quite possibly bailfully at the negotiations from their guilt frames in the governor's room and the north and south committee rooms, their reaction to the whole proceeding may be imagined, but cannot be known.