Highlights of the 1935 Census of Business

Abstract

THE 1935 Census of Business is the most comprehensive business statistical undertaking that has ever been known. It is interesting to check the growth of this enterprise since its beginning in 1927. In that year a test Census of Retail and Wholesale Trade was made covering 11 cities, in which there were collected 111,000 schedules. The 1929 Census of Distribution included retail and wholesale trade, hotels, construction, and distribution of sales by manufacturers. There were 1,873,000 business units included in that census. The scope of the 1933 Census of American Business was changed so as to include service establishments and places of amusement and exclude construction and distribution of sales. During that year there was a total of 2,193,000 reporting establishments. The 1935 Census of Business includes retail and wholesale trade, service establishments, places of amusement, hotels, construction, bus and truck transportation, radio broadcasting, insurance and real estate, advertising agencies, warehousing, banking and finance, distribution of sales by manufacturers, and the operation of commercial and other non-residential buildings, for which there have been obtained approximately 3,000,000 reports. The information for the 1929 census was obtained on 15 comprehensive schedule forms. In 1933 the information was collected on a single form which was prepared in such a way as to obtain basic facts only from all kinds of business coming within the scope of that census. In 1935 we have used 16 schedule forms which provide more or less detailed information covering various fields of business. In determining the detail in which the information should be obtained, consideration was given to the availability of statistical information from all Governmental sources so as not to duplicate the work of other agencies. It was decided, for example, that the only essential additional information that should be obtained for banks and financial institutions was employment and pay roll data by occupational classes. In contrast, the wholesale questionnaire, counting each commodity item separately, included more than 300 questions for which we attempted to obtain information. Most of you are familiar with the type of tables that are used in presenting the results of a Business Census. I shall, therefore, not