Evening star., 1925-11-09

| pect has improved, however, taken as
a whole, since 1921. During that
bleak and hungry year more than
half Of the corporations doing bust
ness in the United States. the figures
show, lost money. Fifty-two out of
every 100 declared a deficit then, in
stead of dividends. The 1923 showing
discloses how far we have Travelled
since then. The mortality rate has
been reduced 20 per cent.
| Doing business in the United States
is hazardous or not, according to the
| business. In the mining business. I'm
Gle Sans experts figure, 72 per cent
of all the corporations involved lost
money in 1923 and only % per cent
| operated at profit. This was large
| ly due to the poor showing made by
the coal industry. OF 1872 companies
engaged in mining coal 2,481 lost $751;
| 9OO,O 900 and only 1891 made a profit.
The net income Of the latter group,
| which was composed of the larger and
| stronger companies, ran to more than
$l33, 900, however, offsetting loss.
| es reported by the other group and
| bringing the industry as whole to
a net profit of about s77,000,000.
X x X
With that figure in mind, turn to
| the production figures of the coal in
| dustry, likewise compiled by the Fed.
| eral Government They show that
| $50 ,OO0,0 900 tons of anthracite and BIZ
luminous coal were produced. Thus
| the equation comes down to some
thing like this: Production, $50 ,O0O, :
600 tons; net profit, SIT 200 900; profit
I per ton. on the average, about 12
! cents.
And there you have the truth about
the coal industry. Ten years ago, be-
lore the Federal tax law was fully
operative, the figures had never been
compiled. 1T was all guessWork then;
today 1t is worked out to the decimal
of cent.
Other revelations similarly disclosed
by this unexpected sidelight of the old
tax law are that So per cent Of the
corporations engaged in agriculture
iost money in 1923; 81 per cent of all
the manufacturing plants Of every
description wound up the year with a
dencit; two out of every three con
struction companies made a profit
and only 65 per cent of the country
banking and financial institutions
made money. The average trading
| corporation-depart store, jobber,
retailer and the like-stood only a two
to-one chance to make money, for
nearly one-third failed to do So
x
AiiolieT lnlTS. Inc Government has
listed the gross sales of all it's corpo.
rations. They run to more than S1l9,.
0O,O0O,000. The net profits, after
taxes were paid. mount to $6,697 600.
600. Here is a profit Of about ~
per cent on the turnover for all OF
American business conducted through.
out the entire year by corporations.
Certainly 1t cannot be termed exces.
SiVe, taking 1t as d whole
And still another thing: The total
taxes of all kinds paid by these cor
poratlons ran 10 more than $3.50
600, 200, or about 40 per cent Of their
profits. In other words, where the
stockholders got 81 the tax collector
got 40 cents-a high levy.
The Government has prepared its
disclosures in great detail 1t has
grouped the 100000 corporations into
l67 separate classifications, covering
virtually every big business in the
country. 1t shows the profits, losses,
percentage of failures and so on in
each case. The lists run the range
from cotton farming to airplane
manufacture: from keeping a restau-
rant to wrecking a building. They
cover thoroughly manufacturing, agri-
culture, finance, transportation, con-
struction, trade and personal service.
From them can be learned with
exact precision the state Of each in
dustry. Into their details the writer
will delve in the subsequent articles
of this series, selecting those of most
general appeal.
(Copyright. 1925o