'' * MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT TO'COMMERCE •' UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF WASHINGTON SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSIN ^"TT'lTTEt-x ! '^'^$$$A : '- '''."., '<> .'":A f^iw^k;, , iM^^V'W8' "• DECEMBER, 1925 > -• • ',,!. > MhtrfirS-* '" rt '"• •'^''^wl¥*''c-v •'•-H . «V$mi No. 52 •m ,;:':/:5iR; V "<• COMPILED BY 't BUREAU OF THE CENSUS BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC BUREAU OF STANDARDS IMPORTANT NOTICE 7w addition to figures given from Government sources, there are .also incorporated f service figures from other sources generally accepted by the trades, the,authority if^'v-.;; 3 for which are noted in the "Sources of Data" on pages 152-155 of the August, 19251 ' ; t*fe'fe*^.^.^ Subscription price of the SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS is $1,50 a year' ; single copies (monthly).',. 10.c^t^\y\x^;sMi»?>:<||^mn^ ' issues, 25 cents. Foreign subscriptions, $2.25; single copies (monthly issues), including postage, 14 cents^ eem^mial issues, 36 cents, Subscription price of COMMERCE REPORTS is $4 a year; with the Sv^vJ&^^SSG^iJ^^^^^:^ remittances only to Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D, C., by postal money ordef, exprfesi; ^W^'^W^IM^U : 1 i, York draft; Currency at sender's ri^k, Postage stamps or foreign money not"aceeptexl;^vi^'^^fJf i WASHINGTON 5 OOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE { I9tf INTRODUCTION SiJEVBT OF CURRENI* BUSINESS is designed to per cent over the base period, while a relative number ;S <%r$sent each month a picture of the business situation of 80 means a decrease of 20 per cent from the base. ; ; py setting forth the principal facts regarding the vari- Relative numbers may also oe tised to calculate the , ;• ^pis Unes of; trade and industry. At semiannual inter- approximate percentage increase or decrease in a move- v; "fvajs detailed tables are publisned giving, for each item, ment from one period to the ne£t. Thus, if a relative r ^^sapntidy figures for the past two years and yearly com- number at one month is 120 and for a later month it , |; prisons, where available, back to 1913; also blank is 144 there has been an increase of 20 per cent. \l ^liries sufficient for six months have been left at the In many instances comparable figures for the pre- !yj bottom of each table enabling those who care to do war years are not available, and in such cases the year ; 1;,so to enter new figures as soon as they appear (see 1919 has usually been taken as the base. For some 1 issue for August, 1925, No, 48). In the intervening industries 1919 can not be regarded as a proper base, ; f Vflaonths the more important comparisons only are due to extraordinary conditions in the industry, ana ^jpvfcq, in the table entitled "Trend of business move- some more representative period has been chosen. :, /tnents" as in the present number. In many cases relative number^ of less importance have been temporarily omitted. J ADVANCE SHEETS Most of the relative numbers appear in a special section of the semiannual issues, as in Tables 103 to {J: Realizing that current statistics are highly perish- 123 of the August, 1925, number, thus allowing easy ^::/-{able and that to be of use they must reach the business comparison on a pre-war base for all items for which /,; i^an at the earliest possible moment, the department relatives could be computed. /Uljfjia7 g arrange^ to distribute advance leaflets every week ;f; ;v|o subscribers in the United States. The leaflets INDEX NUMBERS i| ate usually mailed on Tuesdays and give su^h infer- '> ^Icaation as has been received during the preceding When two or more series of relative numbers ate , :; l^reek. The information contained in these leaflets fe combined by a System of weightings the resulting fJ:|Jso reprinted in "Commerce Reports/' issued weekly series is denominated an index number. The index ?i^ *^e Bureau °' Foreign and Dom^tie CommerciB. number, by combining many relative numbers, is : The monthly bijlletin is distributed AS quickly as it designed to show tlie trend of an entire group of in- * <6an be completed and printed. dustrips or for the country as a whple, instead of for * ;' t'^T -' " •, ' '', ' ' ' ; the single commodity or industry which ^the relative number covers. Comparisons with the base year or *;•!$<{. ,' '- - -' V, BASIC DATA '''• - with other periods are made in the same manner as in ;{ v The figures reported in the accompanying tables aj*e the case of relative Cumbers. vl very largely those already in existence. The chief V\v 1 function of tfae department fe to bring together these RATIO CHARTS f/fv4ata which, if available at all, are spattered in hun- In many instances the charts used in the SURVEY >^v dreds of different publicaitions. A portion of these OF CUBBBNT BUSINESS are of the type termed "Ratio ^; V data are collected by Government departments, other Charts" (logarithmic scale), notably the Business 'I., figures are compiled by technical journals, and still : Indicator charts on page 2. These charts show the j,: l^otners are reported by trade associations. percentage increase and allow direct comparisons be- tween the slope of one curve arid that of any other •'Jf';;'' //• ^ RELATIVE N10MBERS ' V curve regardless of its location on tlie diagram; that ^;] To facilitate comparison between different items and is, a 10 per cent increase in an item is given the same ;;fVtender the trend ot $ movement more apparent, r01a- vertical movement whether its curte is near the bot- ,;' fciVe,numbers (often called "index numbers," a term tom or near the top of the chart. , ^k 5^vi^ef€«rring more particularly to a special kind of number The difference between this arid the ordinary form ^ *<•& described bglow) have been tjalculated. The relative of a chart can be made clear by an example. If a ;V;§|:i|umbers liable the reader,to see at a glance the certain item, having a relative number of 400 in one !|< general upwapd or downward tendency of a move- month, increases 10 per cent in the following month, >>. s^ment which can not so easily be grasped from the ;ts relative number mil be 440, and:on an ordinary '/;^vo|eitual figures. - ' -.'..- chart would be plotted 40 equidistant scale points <; f: In computing these relative numbers the last pre- higher than the preceding month. Another move- f(,\ war year, 1913> or in some instances a five-year av^r- ment with a relative number of, say, 50 d^o increases I:^l^-'m&, 1909-1913, l$fjs been used as a base equal to 100 10 per cent, making its relative number 55. On the ;>*">'*:;wherever,possible. , , ordinary (arithmetic) scale this item wotdd rise only 5 '^v.h-,;^jv> The relative numbers are computed by allowing the equidistant points, whereas the pluvious item rose 40 I?1 /monthly average for the base year or period to equail points, yet each showed the same percentage increase. ,^ ; ;100« If the movement for a current month is greater The ratio chartsi avoid this difficulty and give to each ;v \ ^tEan the b&se, the relative number will be greater than of the two movements exactly the same vertical rise ;^ 1QO, and vice versa. The difference between 100 and and hence the slopes of the two lines are directly V|/ v|he relative number will give &t once the per cent comparable. The ratio charts compare percentage ^/,,;!Increase or decrease compared with the base period. changes, while the arithmetic charts compare absolute ^> • : Thuis a relative number of 115 means an increase of 15 changes^ . '.:;.....' ' This issue presents practically complete data for the month of October and also items, covering November 1925, received • •••',:'• up to December 14. As most data covering a particular month99 business are not available until from 15 to 30 days after the *'v,.;,.* wose of th& month, a complete picture of that month's operations? including relative numbers, cumulative totals* text* and charts, can hot be presented in printed form under 4$ days after its close, but the advance leaflets described above give 7 ,. considerable information as early as 15 days after its close, and present almost every week the latest data available. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS COMPILED BY BUREAU OF THE CENSUS BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE BUREAU OF STANDARDS No. 52 DECEMBER 1925 CONTENTS TEXT MATERIAL TREND OP BUSINESS MOVEMENTS Page Page Preliminary summary for November . 1 Textiles 26 Course of business in October: Metals and fuels 27 General conditions 7 Automobiles and rubber 30 Summary of indexes of business 8 Hides and leather 31 Review by principal branches of industry and commerce. 10 Paper and printing 32 Buttons, glass, and optical goods 32 BASIC CHARTS Building construction and housing 33 Business indicators 2 Chemicals and oils 35 Wholesale prices in November 4 Foodstuffs and tobacco 37 Employment in manufacturing industries 6 Transportation and public utilities 40 Production, stocks, and unfilled orders 8 Employment _ 41 Comparison of wholesale price index numbers, by groups.- 9 Distribution movement 42 Banking and finance and foreign exchange 43 GENERAL TEXT TABLES United States foreign trade - 45 Canadian trade and industry 46 Business indicators 3 Wholesale price comparisons 5 NEW DETAILED DATA Business summary 7 Apparent consumption of butter 21 Indexes of business (production, prices, sales, etc.) 23 Prices of condensed and evaporated milk and print cloths.. 22 PRELIMINARY SUMMARY FOR NOVEMBER When allowance is made for the difference in the Traffic through the Sault Ste. Marie canals, though length of month, the gains in industrial output as seasonally smaller than in October, was considerably recorded in October were extended in November in larger than in November, 1924.