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Dr. THORP. Here are various fuels as shown in this chart, "production of fuels." The dark line is bituminous coal; the dashed line is anthracite; the petroleum industry is the one which comes up so rapidly here, dotted; the natural gas industry is the dot-and-dash line. These are a few industries which are in fairly active competition with each other.

(The chart referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 76" and appears. on this page. The statistical data on which this chart is based are included in the appendix on p. 238.)

Dr. THORP. There are various sources of sugar. The top line represents sugar shipments to the continental United States, or imports of sugar; this middle line represents the cane-sugar production, and the dotted line is our beet-sugar production.

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I think it is particularly interesting to note that apparently for a period of time the domestic cane-sugar-production industry was losing ground from somewhere around 1905 until 1926. The more recent period shows a decided advance in cane sugar production, but not so much at the expense of the beet-sugar industry as at the expense of sugar imports. The industry picture is a composite of these groups which are basically different groups, these being foreign enterprises, and cane sugar and beet sugar being produced in different sections of the country and by different processes.

(The chart referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 77" and appears on p. 143. The statistical data on which this chart is based are included in the appendix on p. 240.)

Senator KING. The imports do not include the importation of sugar from Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, from territory under the jurisdiction of the United States. They ought not to be classified, it seems to me, as imports.

Dr. THORP. On this chart those are included as part of the imports. These are sugar shipments to the continental United States. (Senator O'Mahoney resumed the chair.)

The CHAIRMAN. That was called the offshore sugar?
Dr. THORP. That is right.

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1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 SOURCE: BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

Here is a further chart showing various textile fibers, in which we have cotton, wool, silk, and rayon, with decided variations in their records, the extraordinary thing being the way in which rayon has moved up and the fact that in recent years there has been a decided shift in the trend of the silk industry.'

Of course, all these are more or less in competition with each other, and, therefore, if one were to talk about concentration in control in any particular one of them, there still remains a problem of competition with the others as part of the picture.

As far as industries are concerned, therefore, the sort of picture which I hope I have presented has been one which shows the difficulty of defining an industry, which shows that as far as industries are concerned, we have in this country varying degrees of concentration, but there are a considerable number of situations in which a small number of large companies dominate the industry, and that the patterns behavior of industries are extremely varied.

See also pp. 39 and 40, supra.

(The chart referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 78" and appears on this page. The statistical data on which this chart is based are included in the appendix on p. 241.)

Senator KING. When you use the word "dominate," do you mean in price or in quantity, or in determining the policy of the entire industry?

Dr. THORP. The measures which I am introducing are measures in terms of share of total production. One would have to go a good deal further to know the degree to which any one or several companies dominated the price picture or the marketing structure.

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GENERAL SHIFTS IN THE ECONOMY

Dr. THORP. There are certain broad influences that need to be kept in mind as one thinks about our economic structure. There are basic changes, there are things which require continual adjustment and which explain a good many of the things which have happened.

I shall not take the time to elaborate on them, but rather to present them and perhaps at some later time they can be analyzed more fully. Here is a chart which shows the percentage distribution of gainfully occupied persons 16 years of age and over in the United States. Of course, the striking thing is the fact that we have changed from a country where 53 percent of the people were employed in agriculture to a country where 21 percent are employed in agriculture. That is the outstanding thing that appears in that chart. The absorption has, of course, appeared in a number of different points scattered through all the other types of activities, but our basic characteristic is evident in the decline in agriculture.

(The chart referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 79" and appears on p. 145. The statistical data on which this chart is based are included in the appendix on p. 243.)

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Dr. THORP. Now, let us take the national income which. Mr. Lubin talked about yesterday in terms of what people were able to get, and think about it in terms of where it comes from.

The next chart breaks this down into three broad groupings: The commodity-producing division, the commodity-handling division, and the service division of our national income. I don't want to present that as being anything very final or very exact, but it is a useful picture of just what has happened over this period from 1919 to 1937. You notice, for example, how the depression was primarily a depression in the commodity-producing-division group-not exclusively, but the narrowing was a narrowing in that particular area. Notice that over the period of time there is an upward tendency in the service division. That is an increasing part of our activities.

(The chart referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 80" and appears on p. 146. The statistical data on which this chart is based are included in the appendix on p. 243.)

Dr. THORP. Just to show the break-down of these things, here is a chart which takes the commodity-producing division and gives you its component industries. Manufacturing, which is the biggest part of our sources of national income, showed the widest fluctuations; agriculture is not very steady; construction and mining are less important but show considerable variation in their behavior.

(The chart referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 81" and appears on p. 146. The statistical data on which this chart is based are included in the appendix on p. 244.)

Dr. THORP. If we take this chart which is the commodity-handling division, you can see the fluctuations in trade and transportation and other public utilities, which is a more stable part of the picture.

(The chart referred to was marked "Exhibit No. 82" and appears on p. 147. The statistical data on which this chart is based are included in the appendix on p. 244.)

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1919 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 1937

SOURCE: BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

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