Annual Survey of Statistical Information: Capital Formation and the Flow of National Income in the United States

Abstract

OF recent years there has been much speculation and argument regarding the nature of savings and investments and the rates of income received by such groups as entrepreneurs, property owners, creditors, industrial managers, the white-collar class, workingmen, and farmers. Unfortunately, arguments and opinions on these questions have not generally been supported by facts, for the reason that adequate statistical information has not been available. With the advent of the Deal in the United States and the accompanying rapid growth of new governmental agencies, often created with the avowed intention of bringing about a distribution of income and each possessing a division created to collect and interpret statistics, it was inevitable that a wealth of new data on the flow and use of income should become accessible. Furthermore, largely owing to the guidance of the new Central Statistical Board, composed of representatives of various departments and agencies, much of this information is thoroughly reliable. As a result of the activities of this Board, some of the older indexes have been revised to meet criticisms, and established departments of the government have often enlarged the scope of their work. Such new organizations as the National Recovery Administration, which required statistics on a variety of economic problems, greatly stimulated the collection of data by both governmental and private agencies. During the life of NRA,1 many of the six hundred or more code authorities which governed industries collected and analyzed statistics bearing on their particular activities. Data which had previously been gathered in inadequate samples by trade associations became vastly better because of increased coverage and many indexes were greatly improved. Under NRA, some industries preferred to hire private statistical agencies, such as Dun and Bradstreet of New York City, Real Estate Analysts, Inc., of St. Louis, Missouri, and Price, Waterhouse and Company of New York, to collect and interpret their material. In spite of the Supreme Court decision, several of these organizations are continuing to publish statistical series begun at the instance of code authorities. Indeed, the Real Estate Analyst has so vastly enlarged its