UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON SURVEY. OF CURRENT BUSINESS MARCH, 1927 No. 67 COMPILED BY ' BUREAU OF THE CENSUS - ' " ' ' ·BUREAU.. OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE BUREAU OF STANDAR!JS IMPORTANT NOTICE. In addition to figures given from Government sources, there at:e also. incorporated for completeness of , krvite figures from ·other -sources .generally acqepted by the trades, the authority and respoh,sibil#y for which are noted in the "Sources of Data," on pages I35-I38 oftheFelwuary setrtiannualissue . ' .. Subscription price of the SuRVEY OF CuRRENT BusiNESS is $1.50 a year; sing!~ copies (monthly), lO cents; semiannual issues, 25 cents. Foreign subscriptions, $2.25; single copies (monthly issues), including postage, 14 cents; semiannual issues, 36 cents. Subscription price of CoMMERCE ~EPORTS is $4 a year; with the SuR:VEY, $5.50 a year. Make remittances only to Superintendent of Documents, Washington, :Q. C., by postal money order, express order, or New York draft. · Currency at sender's risk; Postage stamps or foreign ~oney not accepted U. I~ -QOVERNME'JIT PR'iNTIIfO OFFICE INTRODUCTION THE SuRVEY OF CuRRENT BusiNESS is designed to Relative. numbers may also be used to calculate the present each month a picture of the business situation approximate percentage increase or decrease in a move­ .by setting forth the principal facts regarding the vari- ment from one period to the next. Thus, if a.relative . ous lines of trade and industry. At semiannual inter­ number at one month is 120 and for a later month it vals detailed tables are published giving, for each item, is 144 there has been an increase of 20 per cent. monthly figures for the past two years and yearly In many instances comparable figures for the pre­ comparisons, where available, back to 1913; also blank war years are not available, and in such cases the year lines sufficient for six months have been left at the 1919 has usually been taken as the base. For some bottom of each table enabling those who care to do industries 1919 can not be regarded as a proper base, so to enter ;new figures as soon as they appear (see due to extraordinary conditions in the industry, and issue for February, 1927, No. 66). In the intervening some more representative period has been chosen. In months . the :r;nore important comparisons only are many cases relative numbers of les~ importance have given in the table entitled "Trend of business move­ been temporarily omitted. · ments." Most of the relative numbers appear in a special ADVANCE SHEETS section of the semiannual issues, as in Tables 111 to 131 of the August, 1926, number, thus allowing easy Realizing that current statistics are highly perish­ comparison on a pre-war base for all items for which able and that to be of use they must reach the business relatives could be computed. · man at the earliest possible moment, the department has arranged to distribute advance leaflets every week to subscribers in the United States. The leaflets are INDEX NUMBERS usually. mailed on Tuesdays and give such information as bas been received during the preceding week. The When two or ·more series of relative numbers are ·.information contained in these leaflets is also reprinted co~b~ed by a. system' of weightings the res~lting in "ComiiJ.erce Reports," issued weekly by the Bureau series IS denommated an mdex number. The mdex of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. The monthly number, by combining, many 'relative number8, is bulletin is distributed as quickly as it can be completed · designed to show the .trend of an· entire group of and printed. · industries or for the country as a whole, instead of for BA.SIC DATA .the single commodity or industry which the relative number covers.. Comparisons with the base year or The figures reported in the accompanying tables ~tre with other periods are made in the same nianner as in very largely those already in existence. The chief the case of relative numbers. ·function of the department is to bring together these data which, if available at all, are scattered in hun­ RATIO CHARTS dreds of different publications. A portion of these data are collected by Govern,ment departments, other In many instances. the charts used in ·the SuRVEY figures are compiled by technical journals, and still oF CuRREN'l' BusiNESS are of the type termed "Ratio others are reported by trade associations. Charts" (logarithmic scale), notably the Business RELATIVE NUMBERS Indicator charts on page 2. These charts show the percentage increase and allow direct comparisons T.ofacilitate compltrison between different items and between the sl<~pe of one curve and that of any other render ·the trend of a movement more apparent, rela­ curve regardless ofits location on the diagram; that tive· numbers (often called "index numbers," a term is, a 10 per cent increase in. an item is .given the same refemng more particularly to a special kind of number vertical movement whether its curve is near the bot­ described below) have been. calculated. The relative tom or near the top of the chart. , numbers enable t]le · reader to :see at a glance the· The 9-ifference between this and the ordinary form . ge~eral upward or downward tendency of a move­ of a chart can be made clear by an example. lf a ment which can no,t so easily be gra~ped from the certain item, having a relative number of 400 in one actual figures. month, increases 10 per cent in the following month, In computing these relative numbers .the last pre­ its relative ,number will be 440, and on an ordinary war yea),', 1913, or in .some instance a five-year aver­ chart would be plotted 40 equidistant scale points age,l909-1913,'has been used as a base equal to 100 higher than the preceding month. Another move­ . wherever possible. .. .· ment with a relative number of, say, 50 also increases · The 1;elative numbers are computed by allowing the 10 pe~ cent, making its relative number 55. On the mon.thly ,average for the base year or period to equal · ordin.ary .(arithmetic) scale this item would ri,se only 5 · 100. ·If the .movement for a current month is greater equidistant points, whereas th¢ previous item rose 40 .than the base, the relative numb~r willl;>e greater than points, yet each showed the same pereentage increase . 100, and'vice versa. The qifference between 100 and The ratio charts avoid. this difficulty and give to each· the relative ·numqer will give at once the per cent of the two mo.vements. exactly the same vertical rise increase or. ~e.crease compared w:ith the. base period. and hence the slopes of the two lines are directly. Thus a relative number of 115 nieans an mcrease of.l5 eomparable. The ratio .charts· .compare percentage .Per cent over the ba.Se period, .while a relative number · changes, while the arithmetic charts compare absolute of 80 means a decrease of 20 per cent from the base. changes. · ' . This issue presents/mictieally complete data for the month of December and also,item$ corJering ~he early weeks of January receir;ed up to February 28. (~ee c.,.arts and table, PP! 4 and 5.) . As most. data corJering a particular month's. business are not available until from 15 to 30 days after the close of the month,· a complete picture of that month's operations can not be presented at an early date, but the advance leaflets gi~e .. erJery week the lo,test 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. 67 MARCH 1927 CONTENTS SUMMARIES INDEX BY SUBJECTS Text Table Page page page Preliminary summary for February__________________ 1 Textiles _____________ -_--______ -------_------ 12 31 Course of business in January ___ -------_____________ 9 Metals and metal products___________________ _ 13 33 Monthly bueiness indicators (table and chart)_________ 2, 3 Fuels--------------------------------------- 14 37 Weekly business indicators (table and chart)__________ 4,.5 Automobiles and rubber _____________________ _ 14 35,38 Hides and leather___________________________ _ Wholesale price comparisons (table and charts) _______ 6, 7, 11 14 38 Indexes of business: Paper and printing__________________________ _ 14 39 Condensed summary _________ ------- __________ _ 9 Building construction and housing ____________ _ 15 40 Lumber products ___________________________ _ Text and chart _____ - _________________________ _ 10 15 41 Detailed indexes (production, prices, sales, etc.) ___ _ 20 Stone, clay, and glass products _______________ _ 15 42 Chemicals and oils __________________________ _ Basic steel and related products (charts) _____________ _ 8 16 43 16 45 Foodstuffs----------------------------------Tobacco ___________________________________ _ NEW DETAILED TABLES 16 48 Census of manufactures ____________________________ _ 19 Transportation _____________________________ _ 17 48 Steel castings _____________________________________ _ 23,24 Public utilities _____________________________ _ 50 Other iron and steel products ______________________ _ 24 Employment and wages ____ ------------------ 11 50 Factory labor and rayon __________________________ _ 25 Distribution movement (trade, advertising, etc.)_ 17 51 Paper boxes and miscellaneous items ________________ _ 26,27 Banking and finance ________________________ _ 17 52 Debits to individual accounts, by clearing house centers_ 28 Foreign exchange and trade, gold and silver ____ _ 18 54 PRELIMINARY SUMMARY FOR FEBRUARY The dollar volume of business in February, as meas­ comparison in the case of call-money rates. Prices ured by check payments, although smaller than in of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange averaged January, was greater than a year ago. The movement higher than in either the preceding month or Febru­ of goods into consumption, as seen from figures on ary, a year earlier.