The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-02-18
Statistics Of Failures.

.Brsrdstreet-s coinpany's little
book Of failure statistics, for.:19O3 and
comment thereon contains many. facts
and deductions that will interest the
business man. One is that2theN' Sf'..little
fellow held hiss.oWri2in the strenuous
and; stressful year of. / 9O3.' While some
big companies With, enormous liabilf-
ties were going to the wall, the little
fellow prospered. There were per
cent fewer failures in the United
States in 1903 than in 1902 and yet
the total liabilities eren,lafger. - COM
pared with 1880 the humber of trad
ers in. business ST., 2 ~ 9O9-shows a
in the number of failures: is only one
tenth of this, or, 1.3 per cent: T.. 81.
In 1903 lack of capital was 1.-THE
cause, of 1926 per cent Of all the fail
ures; Incompetence, 2o.5 per. cent in
experience, GA per. cent; unwise cred
it's, "a per cent; speculation, 1 per
cent; neglect, 2.S per cent; extraya-
gance, 90 per cent; fraudulent dis
position, 1914 per cent. The fat years
had a tendency to entice into business
ventures men, who; were not. competent
ITO manage them. Thus, while incom-
petence caused. one fifth of all :, THE
failures last year, it causefA .only 1about
II per cent Of the aiIhresoil kS96oanH
1897. One of theYgood signs offs last
years failures is :thatrcspecified> o6ndi-
tons, (which include; HappsT7fng s9b but
of the ordinary : such - as, thnha:lnneia]
stress, crop failures; fires, cetcsss%ead-
counted for only 1913 per icent iofHa
failures, which is. 4. Slight ..ateeereaasse1s sas
compared with 19N2;s The ofaHupe Yd1
others caused the ameaTpereeheags
of failures in 1903 as III. .1gQ 'xu
due competition did not cause so LARGE
i percentage of<fa ffhrsa, as in 1902. Thf
CONCLUSION dfa8n ffofns thfs fsstt ffsst !:
that 1908, while year of stresssfo oil
many who We're sp 2Fe1 y a4ixslyJnvo ESed
was after all a fairly favorable aSoi
for the average trader, over whose Maat
the. financial strain seems to HIVE
passed without much If any effects !
| EThese failure statistics throw art,in.
teresting light on the different bust
! ness conditions, prevailing sin .the
United StatesSar1d Canada - Aim osts 7C
tperscert Of the failures ,in$G Canada ARE
due to lack Of capital-considerab
more than ;tWiees as!snaa1ty as. i'm THE
| United States from this cause. Spe
cific conditions caused about twice& a.
/ large "a percentagesof the; whole nam
beri Of ct failu in this country,. ant
the failure Of others nearly four time.
as, large a proportion. On the othe1
| hand, s per, cent less failures occurred
in ! Cara Ga than .Ei1l:v this country OF
l account, of Incompetence. These diff
ferences in failure statistics would
seem to indicate that last year wa
| a harder year in Canada than tin. tn,
/ United States; that the Canadian hay
ing a small. capital is decidedly ven
turesome, but~that when it comes t,
entering a business without adequate
experience. he is not SO courageous "a
| the American. 1t is a curious fac
I that fraud caused exactly tile sam
j,percentage of sfailuresq.in -.hotl cdun
| trfes-viz.,s 1914 per cent. This fac
may be taken to prove that morally
as in so many other ways, the peopl
Of the neighboring countries are; OF
la par.