Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-09
CENSUS TO CHECK
ALL DISTRIBUTORS
Plan Will Provide Reliable
Estimate of Marketing for
All Merchandise.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
When President Hoover during the
next few days affiXes his signature 10
the 1880 census bill, about to be agreed
upon by both houses of Congress, it
will contain one important provision
for which he is more or less directly
responsible. 1t is the clause calling
for a census of distribution" of all
and sundry goods, wares. articles, prod
uce and merchandise that enter into
the domestic commerce of the United
States. No Nationwide census of the
sort has ever been taken before. Since
1890, when Uncle Sans official nose
counting system was inaugurated, the
Government has always enumerated the
number of growers and producers of
commodities. Through the population
figures, the grand total Of consumers,
viz, the inhabitants of the country,
is made known. But it never occurred
to anybody before to tabulate the exact
aggregate number Of 'diStributors'-
the grand army of middlemen who
function between the grower and pro-
Queer and the consumer. That is now
to be done. Mr.. Hoover, while Secre-
tary of Commerce, evolved the idea
that some day it should be undertaken.
To Include Domestic Trade.
nestle trade amounting to so or 70
billion dollars year are the ones whom
it is intended in 1880 to include in the
census of distribution" The country
at large doesn't always realize that our
domestic business dwarfs our much bet
ter advertised foreign trade into reha-
tive inSignificance. American exports
amount to a mere 10 billion dollars a
year, or something like one-sixth of the
means to find out is just how many
butchers and bakers, clothiers and
grocers, purveyors and peddlers there
are in the United States, and in every
corner of 1t, both wholesale and retail.
Strange as 1t may seem in this age of
high-preSsure commercial efficiency,
there is no reliable source of knowledge
whatever on this important score.
President Hoover while at the head
more than seven years, had constant
occasion to observe the desirability of
such information and the handicap
under which cur whole economic system
suffers through the lack of it. One of
the business branches which took the
keeneSt interest in bringing about a
census of distribution" is the advertis-
ing world. Heretofore advertising
agencies and newspapers specializing in
national advertising have had more or
less to guess at the distributing situa-
ton in any given community or area of
the Union. They have never been in
position to say to a manufacturer that
in such and such a region there are
so and so many dealers in particular
article of goods. This Is, of course,
factor in trade expansion almost as
important as the buying power of any
district.
Useful in Emergencies.
During the one or two crises in the
coal industry during the Hoover secre-
taryship of commerce it was borne in
upon the Californian how exceedingly
useful it would have been. on some
emergency occasion, to know without
delay how many retail coal dealers
there were within a given radius. The
development of the chain-store idea,
which was an accompaniment of the
years in which Mr.. Hoover conducted
the Commerce Department. is another
thing which made him realize the value
of an authentic census of retailers i'll
all lines. In this connection, this writer
has just been informed in competent
Washington quarter that the chain
store has not caused the ravageS among
retail distributors which the general
public popularity SuppoSeS. The over
Whelmlng Dulk OF American retail DuSl-
ness is declared still to be in the hands
of independent shopkeepers, who appear
to be holding their own against the
restless advance of the chains
No objection was raised in either the
House or the Senate to the proposal to
make a census of distribution" when
the field force of 100 900 cenSus-takerS
clear for action in 1880. When their
work is done we shall know for the first
time exactly how many dealers, large
or small, there are in any and every
hamlet town, city and county in the
land. In 1927 a partial census of this
sort was made in a few of the principal
cities. This next year will be widened
to take in the whole country.
The census of distribution" becomes
the newest and fifth grand division of
the decennial census. which at first
1879 years ago-waS little more than a
simple count of the population by family
groups and by sex and color Now it
covers in detail the following general
subjects: % Population, including oc-
cupation: % agriculture, including irri-
CATION and drainage; 90 manufactures;
"a mines, quarries, and oil and gas
wells, and go distribution.
(Copyright, 1929