Evening star., 1935-12-08
INCOMES ADVANCE
At VARIED RATES
DURING RECOVERY
Wages Suffer in Decline, but
Rebound SharpIy-Sal-
aries Slower.
BY HARDEN COLFAX.

BY HARDEN COLFAX.
If we look upon the changes in our
national income since 1929 as indica-
tors of business and industrial activ-
ity, We can now see real, if slow,
business improvement Chief among
these changes are: First, a substantial
reduction in the draft business has
been forced to make each year upon
its accumulated surplus and other as
sets to meet current expenses, and,
second, real increase in the incomes
of farmers.
A study of national income was
undertaken several years ago by the
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com
merce, in cooperation with the Ma
tional Bureau of Economic Research.
Later, the Department of Agriculture,
the National Industrial Conference
Board and Brookings Institution also
made studies. The primary purpose
of all these surveys was to determine
just how worldwide depression af-
fects the flow of purchasing power.
The first figures were released in the
form of a Senate document and were
used in consideration of tax legisla-
ton.
Flexibility Retained.
In general, the results of the studies
confirm the conclusion that those
elements Of income and purchasing
power that are most flexible and show
the greatest increase in times of rising
business activity, retain their hexibil-
ity at the bottom of the decline. Put
in another way, wages, it has been
found, suffer very much when indus
try is curtailed, but they increase rap
idly when business picks up. Salaries,
on the other hand, moving on an an
nual basis, do not increase as rapidly,
but also resist decline for a larger
period.
In each year since 1880, according
to these studies, it does not appear on
the surface that business made much
money. Each year, however, it dimin-
ished its losses. During 1888, wages
leveled off and practically ceased to
decline. Salaries, dividends and rents,
however, went down. Based, as they
are, on semi-annual distributions, they
are slower to act.
Climbs Nine Billion.
From the depression low in 1892,
according to Robert r. Nathan of the
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com
merce, who has been in charge of the
survey by that unit, the national in
come produced in the United States
increased by $4,000, ,O0O, 900, or % per
cent, to a total of 48.6 billion dollars
in 1884. From 1893 to 1884, the in
crease in income produced was 81
billion dollars, or 16 per cent, as COM
pared with gain of So billion dollars,
or II per cent, in the national income
paid out. AS a result of the larger
gain in income produced, business
losses declined by nearly so per cent
from 1933-to 1884.
The draft upon business resources
necessary to maintain income pay
ments in the form of wages, salaries,
dividends, interest, entrepreneurial
Withdrawals and rents had reached
the huge total of 8.8 billion dollars in
1882. BY 1884, these business losses
were reduced to 1.6 billion dollars.
In spite of the enormous totals of
income produced and paid out-even
in depression years-there are Sobering
thoughts that come to us in considera-
ton of the way this income is dis
tributed. According to DR.. Harold G.
Moulton of the BrookingS Institution,
in figures just published, II per cent,
or 20,000,000 of the 27,500,000 families
in 1929 received an income of less than
50, 500 "a year, or less than an adequate
standard of living; go per cent received
less than $4,000 year or less than a
bare living wage, or practically sub
sistance wage with some small provi-
sion for health and comfort added;
10000 600 families, or more than AZ
per cent, had incomes of less than
$1,000 per annum; almost 100000
families, or more than 81 per cent of
the total, were below the poverty level,
or had incomes below 81 900 per an
mum; and, while there was some in
crease in 1929 in the incomes of the
poorer families, there was relatively
a much greater increase in the income
If families in the higher income groups.
(Copyright, 1850