Evening star., 1925-11-13
Tax Publicity
And Everybody's Business
BY WILLIAM p. HELM. JR.

porting eloped with one-third Of all
the manufacturing profits.
When analysis is made CT that pros
porous one -eighth-the metal manu-
facturers-it is found that 1872 big
companies, or less than per cent of
the total, enjoyed net incomes run
| ming to more than s1,000,00O apiece.
These companies reported net income
Of nearly $977 900 ,O00 or two-thirds of
the total net income of the country's s
5000 manufacturing corporations.
Within that group OF 192 big com
panies, 81 reported net income of
more than $5.000,000 apiece and ag-
gregate net income of 1856, 1893, Gal.
These 81 companies, constituting less
than one-twenty- fifth of l per cent of
all the manufacturing corporations in
the United States, managed, because
of their size. organization and i'm
proved methods of doing business, to
lock up about % per cent of all the
profit made by the entire incorporated
| manufacturing industry of the coun-
try.
II Il X
With this group of 1872 big com
panies skimming the cream of the
profits, what happened to the others?
Here is the way the Government
answers that question:
1858 corporations averaged net
profit of about 81 900.
1876 reported net profit of $4,000 to
IS 900 each.
1,l96 reported net profit of $1,000 to
SO 900 each.
Simple addition shows that these
three groups numbered $685. com
panies. Thus upward Of so per cent
of the prosperous firms in the metal
manufacturing group showed profits OF
less than $4,000 each. In fact, the
average net income for those 5,535
companies was almost exactly $4,000
each and the total net income of the
entire $685. was but a shade over
SIG 500 900.
Here is the way the Government
has grouped the other classes Of manu-
featuring firms that reported net in.
come on the years business, together
with the number OF firms and the
amount reported by each group:
1856 corporations making
food products, liquors
and tobacco reported net
income of ............. s5o6.e24,3s6
1873 textiles and textile
products ...... 563,412 ,301
1921 leather and leather
products ...:....... 72,3ss,337
2I3 rubber and rubber
goods ........... 45,s24. 1856
$3.50 lumber and wood
products .............. 2se. .o4s,s57
1,24O paper. pulp, paper
products, etc. 1o9, ,197
6,1s3 printing and pub
fishing ............... 165,947, Jos
3,472 chemicals and allied
substances ........ 41s, s,5ss,s4f
ESQ stone, clay and glass
products ............ 1s7,s4s.s42
1O,16S metal manufacture
ing plants. .............. ,427,495 sS9
6,66i all other manufacture
ing plants. s............ ,420,323
X X
The figures show that 53.7a5 mann.
featuring corporations engaged in the
foregoing classified induStrieS-wh
include all manufacturing by incorpo.
rated mpanies-made net income OF
S4,271, ,S99, ,4t9. On the other side OF
the ledger. however. the figures show
that a grand total of 81 ,404 concerns
or nearly 40 per cent of the total lost
money in manufacturing. the aggre.
gate Of their losses being placed at
S701 ,0I1,G8I.
Taking the manufacturing industries
as whole, therefore, the net profits.
after deducting losses of improbable
firms, aggregated about S3,57l 900 600
And that is almost exactly the amount
of money that Calvin Coolidge will
soon ask Congress to appropriate as
running expenses for the Federal Gov
ernment for the coming fiscal year, in
Guiding the postal service
In other words, If all the annual
profits of all the manufacturing corpo-
rations in the United States were to
be swept by a single stroke into the
Federal Treasury, there would be just
about enough to run the National Gov
ernment for II months
Copyright, 1929