RELATIONS BETWEEN BUSINESS AND THE PUBLIC. From "Business Finds Its Voice", by S. H. Walker and Paul Sklar, "1. In reaction to the stock-market crash and the ensuing depression, the American people turned against business:- In response management determined to establish an enduring control over its relations with the public, and began trying to do this by selling itself to the public. "2. One method of selling business is to advertise and publicize the business philosophy, linked to the history of business' social and economic accomplishments. Accordingly management has been releasing a stream of printed and broadcast advertising, publicity, and commercial motion pictures for four years, all containing versions of this message. "3. Partly owing to the efforts of certain men and corporations, and partly to the disillusioning results of the 1936 election, business has recently qualified and revised its tactics; certain leading interests have begun to unify or 'co-ordinate' the activities and thinking of the rest of business in line with central policy; the expectation being that business will be 'sold' by the resulting personal and social pressures on the community level, with public-relations advertising serving a supplementary purpose. "Now it would be very unwise to make any large predictions on the basis of these facts, but it is possible to say a little. It seems probable that the persuasive technics of communication have been exploited to the point of diminishing returns. A more ingenious use of advertising, publicity, radio, and films is possible, but probably would not justify the cost --other factors remaining the same. This does not mean that these media will not continue to be used at about the present level of intensity, nor does it deny the relative usefulness of occasional new adaptations; nor is it to be taken as applying to anything but public-relations advertising properly so-called. "But it does mean that business men may decide that the way to strengthen business' effective control of its relations with the public is further to 'co-ordinate' business as a whole, and further to centralize and clarify the policy-making function. "The continuing process of decentralization shows that management is able, for various reasons, and willing to finance a considerable material reorganization, in order to bring about the desired 'co-ordination'. This, however, being the work of individual corporations, is a very partial solution. An increasing demand for some sort of unification of business as a whole is being pressed; and it is the more likely to be fulfilled because it has several reasons for being--partly economic, partly political... "This does not mean that such a unification will be carried out in the near future. But at least this much has been made clear: the men who manage American industry will continue to press their effort to control the relations between business and the public until they succeed, or until they substitute a new objective, or until some unforeseen event renders them helpless in this respect." NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS CONSERVES THE NATION'S ENERGY SUPPLIES Dr. H. C. Dickinson, Chief of the Heat and Power Division of the National Bureau of Standards, points out that the Bureau has played an important part in conserving energy supplies for future generations by its work in various fields. The thing that is perhaps most outstanding is the cooperative fuel research which was started more than fifteen years ago, the objective of which was to secure the maximum efficiency in the use of available petroleum supplies as used for automotive engine fuels. In other words, to obtain the most miles per gallon of crude petroleum used in producing fuel. It was estimated that this conservation of fuels has been worth at times $100,000,000 a year to the users of automobiles as the results of modified specifications written on the basis of results obtained. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TYPE OF HOUSE HEATING EQUIPMENT AND KIND OF FUEL USED By Guerry R. Smith, Consumer Market Section, Marketing Research Division. The table on pages 6 and 7, based on data reported by 148,989 families in 25 cities 1/ and representing approximately 16 percent of the family population in these cities, provides interesting statistics bearing on the relationship between type of heating equipment and kind of fuel used by reporting families of the various income classes. DOMESTIC COMMERCE readers are familiar with the series of studies "Consumer Use of Selected Goods and Services, by Income Classes" produced in the Consumer Market Section and published during 1935, 1936, and 1937 in reports for each of 50 individual cities covering a total of 228,692 families 2/. The basic commodity information for these studies was collected in 1934 from families reporting on family income for the preceding year. Since publication of this series the Bureau has been asked to make a number of special tabulations. Requests for special tabulations are concerned, for the most part, with data showing the extent to which users of one commodity also use or fail to use some other designated commodity. In addition to the information presented in this issue of DOMESTIC COMMERCE, correlations of this kind include unpublished tabulations on use of mechanical refrigerators by individual families reporting automobile ownership or non-ownership, and the extent to which individual families using gas or electricity for lighting report the use of either of these fuels for cooking. The accompanying table reveals that coal is used by 87 percent of the 56,000 families reporting warm air heating equipment and by more than three-fourths of the families having central heating plants of any kind. Within the group of 148,989 families studied, approximately 6,000 used oil as heating fuel, and about 21,000 used gas, but 97 percent of those reporting use of oil have either warm air, steam or vapor, or hot water plants while only about 30 percent of all families using gas for house heat have installed heating plants of any kind. Gas is consumed in heating stoves (heating equipment other than fire places or installed heating plants) in about two-thirds of the homes where gas is used as heating fuel. The figures indicate a definite tendency among reporting families in these 25 cities for the proportion of families using oil or gas to increase with each successively higher income class. In applying these statistics, full consideration should be given to the fact that family income figures are based on reported income for a year close to the low point in the depression. No later information exists which can be used as the basis of data showing, for a large random sample, the percentage of individual families of given income levels that use a designated kind of fuel in a given type of heating apparatus. (For data on national income trends see "Income in the United States 1929-37" published in 1938. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.) 1/ These cities, listed as follows, are distributed among the various sections of the country and differ widely in size, climate, geographic settings and other characteristics: 2/ A limited number of copies of the reports under the series, "Consumer Use of Selected RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TYPE OF HOUSE-HEATING EQUIPMENT AND KIND OF FUEL USED/1 (by 148,989 reporting families in 25 cities) -6 Having Hot Water Systems 3.5 3.6 1.9 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.5 7.2 10.4 14.8 Having Other 'pperatus 3.9 3.2 3.7 3.8 4.4 4.7 3.7 2.9 2.6 2.1 1 This table is published in DOMESTIC COMMERCE in response to persistent requests for special tables of this kind to supplement the data provided through the Bureau's series of studies known as "Consumer Use of Selected Goods and Services, by Income Classes" covering 50 widelyseparated cities and a total of 228,000 families. The basic information on commodities was collected in 1934 and covered income for the preceding year. This table and similar special tables for a limited number of other commodities, prepared but not previously published, could include only 25 of the 50 cities inasmuch as considerable detail was involved in checking, family by family, the indicated relationship. 2 The "No Income" group is apparently comprised of families who differ widely from each other in their departure from normal circumstances. In the absence of a stated income, their reported ownership or use of commodities has no particular significance. To complete the sample, and because it is of some interest to know the proportion of families in the entire sample who failed to have a reportable income for the year covered, this group is included in all tables. 113 LATEST RELEASES OF THE BUREAU OF THE CENSUS Census of Manufactures: 1937 Artificial Leather; Oilcloth; Boots and Shoes, Other than Rubber; Paper, Not Elsewhere Classified; Bread and Other Bakery Products; The Clay Products Industries; Canned and Cured Fish, Crabs, Shrimps, Oysters, and Clams; Canned and Preserved Fruits and Vegetables; Compressed and Liquefied Gases; Cordage and Twine, Jute Goods, and Linen Goods; Cutlery (Not Including Silver and Plated Cutlery); and Edge Tools; Electrical Machinery, Apparatus, and Supplies; Gum Turpentine and Rosin; Gypsum Products: Wallboard and Plaster, Building Insulation, and Floor Composition; Jewelry and Jewelers' Findings and Materials; Lace Goods; Leather: Tanned, Curried, and Finished; Lumber and Timber Products; Manufactured Ice; Marble, Granite, Slate, and Other Stone, Cut and Shaped; Mirrors and Other Glass Products Made of Purchased Glass; Miscellaneous Articles Not Elsewhere Classified; Nonclay Refractories; Nonferrous Metals; Paper Goods Not Elsewhere Classified; Petroleum Refining; Planing Mill Products; Plumbers' Supplies (Not Including Pipe or Vitreous China Sanitary Ware); Printing and Publishing; Pumps, Pumping Equipment, and Air Compressors; Ship and Boat Building, Steel and Wooden, Including Repair Work; Stamped and Pressed Metal Products; Steel-Works and Rolling Mill Products; Structural and Ornamental Metal Work (Made in Plants Not Operated in Connection With Rolling Mills); Tanning Materials, Natural Dyestuffs, Mordants and Assistants, and Sizes; Telegraph and Telephone Lines on Railway Right of Way; Vinegar and Cider; Waste and Related Products; Wire Drawn from Purchased Rods; Wirework Not Elsewhere Classified; Wood Distillation and Charcoal Manufacture. Releases were also issued on Financial Statistics of the State Government of Rhode Island for 1937; and Proposals Voted Upon in City Elections, 1938. Copies of the above releases are available free from the Census Bureau, Washington. RELEASES IN "1938 RATE SERIES" BY FEDERAL POWER COMMISSION Electric rates in the states of California, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan and West Virginia have been issued in the "1938 Rate Series" being published by the Federal Power Commission, Washington, D. C. Copies of the reports are available from the Commission for the price of 10 cents each. FTC SAYS COOPS NOT EXEMPT FROM ROBINSON-PATMAN ACT Cooperative organizations are not exempted from the provisions of the Robinson-Patman Act, according to an allegation contained in the Federal Trade Commission brief filed in the Quality Bakers case. The courts have not, of course, passed upon this contention as yet. CORRECTION In the issue for November 30, 1938 under "Recent Accessions in Domestic Commerce Field", the price for the "Market Data Book, 1939" was listed as $1.00 including subscription to magazine. This was an error, and the correct price for this publication is $2.00 including subscription to magazine, available from Advertising Publications, Inc., 100 East Ohio Street, Chicago. CHAINS PLAN COAST-TO-COAST PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN Practically all major chain store companies operating in the variety store, apparel, general merchandise, restaurant and other retail non-grocery fields are planning to participate in the coast to coast citrus fruit promotional campaign that will be undertaken from January 14 to February 4 through the Institute of Distribution, Inc. to help a multitude of Florida, Texas, California and Arizona growers dispose of a huge bumper crop of oranges, grapefruit, lemons, etc. |