Evening star., 1932-11-21
CHANGES TRACED
IN j. s. BUSINESS
Productivity Gains Cited in
Study as Amazing De-
veIopment.
BY J. r. BRACKETT,

Associated FTeSS BUSINESS WIltcI.
NEW YORK, November 21.-Basic
changes in Americas economic fabric,
changes that caused "a surge forward
In industrial productivity" rivaling the
industrial revolution of the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries, are de-
scribed in an exhaustive study Of the
National Bureau of Economic Research,
made public yesterday.
Publication of the study, entitled
Economic Tendencies in the United
States" written by Frederick c. Mills
Of the bureaus staff, has been spon-
sored by the Committee on Recent Eco
noanic Changes of the Presidents Con-
ference on Unemployment, which is in
terested, according to the bureaus
statement, 'in securing a factual basis
for an understanding Of the present de-
preston"
The committees membership In
cludes Owen D. Young, chairman of
the General Electric Co.; William
Green, president of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor; Daniel willard, presi-
dent of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad,
and other business leaders.
Population Growth Lags.
Among the primary changes In the
period 1922-29 recorded by Dr.. Mills
are retardation of population growth
emphasis on the production of durable
and capital goods, the maintenance Of
price disparities and the tremendous
increase in the productivity of manu-
featuring labor.
The population grew at the rate of
2 per cent a year in the pre-war period
against IA per cent in the 1929
period.
Per head of population, DR.. Mills
90, a4ac
of advance in industrial production
were IL per cent and "a, respectively
or q doubled rate of advance IN only
eight years In this same period pro-
ductivity Of labor increased, so that 10
men In 1929 could do the work that
required 100 men in 1919.
Another major change is found in
rate of displacement of men by tech
nical advance. Between 1899 and 1914
an average of 81 men out of every 1000
were forced out of given manufacturing
industries. But at the same time new
employment averaged 149 to 1000.
Markedly different" DR.. Mills says,
sis the postwar record. On the av-
erage 40 men of every 1000
employed were separated from given
manufacturing industries. Additions to
the number employed averaged As to
every 1000 on the pay rolls OF manu-
featuring plants"
An important change leading to in
stability was the new emphasis on the
production of durable, lasting goods.
Increases Rapidly.
Production of this sort of material
Increased at the rate of So per cent in
the 1929 period, while non-durable
goods increased at the rate Of 2.8 per
cent.
Accompanying this expansion were
large exports of capital, which enabled
other countries to buy much from the
United States, absorbing part of the
Nations extraord dinary productivity. At
the same time prices of raw materials
were low, so that the farmers and other
raw material producers did not receive
q proportionate share Of the national
income.
"The economic insecurity, the marked
Inequalities of distribution, the collapse
that crowned the expansion" DR.. Mills
says, we must learn to avoid. But the
period also brought increasing produc-
tivity, an expanding volume Of produc-
ton, an advance in the real rewards OF
the average ma1-Gesirs objectives
all, under any economic system"