COPY NOB. Thousands of pounds Thousands of animals Dellars per pound 1912 monthly average. 1914 monthly averago. 1918 monthly average. 1923 meathly average. 1927 monthly average. 1929 monthly average. ,715 6372 7,473 5,684 4,576 25,671 6,321 4,078 34,053 6,607 23,683 7,086 120 3. 457 4,247 Juss.. 831 5.391 1,407 101 144 7.3 3.433 1,150 771 3,039 1242 774 990 to the Survey of Current Business TH Foreword THIS 1938 Supplement to the SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS brings together in revised form data presented in the regular monthly issues of the SURVEY since publication of the 1936 Supplement. These data comprise more than 2,000 time series and are drawn from over 200 different Government and non-Government sources. The statistics are given by months for the years 1934 through 1937, together with annual data beginning in 1913 where available. The 1932 and 1930 Supplements gave monthly data for the years 1923-33, and part of this material, more particularly that shown in the 1936 Supplement, is comparable with the data contained in this volume. Reference to monthly data for earlier years, as published in the 1932 and 1936 Supplements or in a special table in one of the monthly issues of the SURVEY, is given for each series in the notes starting on page 167 The 1936 Supplement is still available at the office of the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., but sales copies of the 1932 Supplement are exhausted. The latter, however, is available in the various Government depository libraries located throughout the country. The notes in the back of this publication contain explanatory material for each series, and references to the sources of the data, which greatly enhance the value of the statistics. Users of the SURVEY should examine these notes carefully since a large proportion of the time series presented are computed on the basis of sample data, and in some instances are not homogeneous for the entire period covered by reason of the shifting character of the sample. This supplement is indispensable for all who use the monthly issues of the Survey of Current Business, and to research workers, students, and others interested in time series analysis. To librarians and all others interested in the sources and uses of current economic statistics, this volume is an essential source book. 40 cents per copy. . 217 pages packed with essential facts NOTE.-Copies of the 1936 Supplement to the Survey of Current Business are still available. Most of the data have been presented in the 1938 Supplement, but the earlier editions contain monthly data for 1932 and 1933 (two years of historical importance) as well as some series which have subsequently been dropped. The price of the 1936 Supplement is 35 cents. Remittance should be made to the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., or to any district office of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. ESTIMATED SALES OF WHOLESALE GROCERS 1938 These estimates, compiled by the Marketing Research Division of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, will appear in DOMESTIC COMMERCE, February 20. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE HARRY L. HOPKINS, SECRETARY BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE DOMESTIC COMMERCE A Current Review of Business Research and Information M. JOSEPH MEEHAN, CHIEF PREPARED BY THE DIVISION OF BUSINESS REVIEW CONTENTS F. STIRLING WILSON, EDITOR Returns Made by Business and Individuals to the Federal Government......... Page 69 72-74 75-76 76 "Research A National Resource", Issued by National Resources Committee........... The Force Nobody Knows American Industry...... 77 78 Releases in "1938 Rate Series" by Federal Power Commission..... New Lists of Basic Information Sources Issued........... Half of Low Salary City Diets Below Standard, Survey Shows.......... 27th Annual Meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States... Latest Releases of the Census Bureau....... Federal Aid to Public Education.............. Federal Power Commission Summary of 18th Annual Report. State Trade Barriers - Their Effect Upon Interstate Commerce. 79-80 81 83 83 83 83 83 83 84 84 85 Bills Introduced on 1st Session, 76th Congress, Affecting Domestic Commerce... 87 89,90 91,92 TABLES AND CHARTS Percent of Increase in Sales: 1937 Over 1935 By Kinds of Business..... 1 29 States for Which Data are Shown Separately - Wholesale Distribution... A National Picture of Retailer-Owned Cooperative Grocery Stores.......... Chain Store and Other Sales Data Collected.. Retail Sales, Independent Stores, Population Groups and Kinds of Business, Dec. 1938 PUBLISHED ON THE 10th, 20th, and 30th OF EACH MONTH 70 71 82 88 89 90 The Department of Commerce assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of statements from nongovernmental sources. RETURNS MADE BY BUSINESS AND INDIVIDUALS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT From an Address by Stuart A. Rice, Chairman, United States Central Statistical Board, Before the American Management Association, New York, January 26, 1939, "More than 135,000,000 returns on 4,700 different report forms were made to Federal agencies during the twelve months covered (July 1, 1937 to June 30, 1938). These included both 'administrative returns' and 'nonadministrative returns'. The first provide information needed to enable some Federal agency to apply a law or regulation directly to the respondent or his employees. Examples of this type are income tax returns, financial and operating statements to regulatory agencies, and applications for all types of services and benefits. Nonadministrative returns, although smaller in number, tend to dominate the popular conception of 'governmental questionnaires'. The information supplied in these returns is used, not for direct application of a law or regulation to the respondent, but for general statistical purposes. An example was the 1937 Census of Unemployment. "Almost ninety-eight million returns were administrative, while only thirty-eight million were nonadministrative. Of the administrative returns, about eighteen million were from farms, while forty-seven million were from business men in all fields. The total number of business returns, both administrative and nonadministrative, was about sixty million. "Although the study dealt only slightly with returns to State governments, the scanty available evidence suggests that these are more often of administrative type than are returns to the Federal Government. It is probable that the total returns to State and municipal governments and to private organizations like trade associations combined is as great as the number of returns of the Federal Government... "Let us now turn to some of the problems that have been created. Three of these especially deserve attention: first, the duplcation of requests for data by different agencies; second, the diversity of business records necessitated by the variety of definitions prescribed; third, the seasonal variation in the volume of work required in preparing returns. .. "An important factor in the general problem of duplication is the relation between the Federal Government and the States. Thus, because most States as well as the Federal Government tax income and participate in the social security program, employers must in many instances report the individual earnings of their employees four times for each reporting period. This suggests the desirability of a consolidated report of individual earnings to be used for both social security and income tax purposes, for both the State and the Federal governments. However, this proposal involves statutory issues which lie beyond the scope of a management report. "Another frequent cause of duplication is the unnecessarily strict application of laws and regulations intended to protect the confidential status of data collected by Federal agencies... It is often impossible for one agency to secure for statistical purposes data already collected by another, even though such an arrangement would forestall a second request for the same material... "Such managerial efficiency in the Federal statistical services as would permit a substantial reduction in the reporting burdens laid upon business depends to no small degree upon an ability which government agencies do not now have to make efficient use for statistical purposes of information already collected by other agencies. In my opinion, the interpretation of provisos against the disclosure of respondents' information by one statistical agency to another statistical agency, has been carried to such an absurd length that it is directly responsible for much of the burden about which respondents complain. "The second problem is the diversity of business records necessitated by laws or regulations administered or prescribed by Federal agencies. There have unquestionably been cases of neglect to recognize current business practice in the formulation of report forms... "The third problem pertains to the timing of reporting requirements... A larger number of returns and a still larger number of answers to individual questions fall in the first quarter than in any other quarter of the calendar year. Changes in this situation would again depend largely upon legislation." |