Inventories Still Mount

The cost value of inventories on hand at the end of April for 1,800 wholesalers was up 1 percent from the beginning of the month, and was 12 percent over April 30, 1940. Though accumulation during April was moderate, the increase over a year ago is as large as any previously noted in the past 3 years.

April is the twenty-first consecutive month in which the dollar volume of inventories was at a higher level than in the corresponding month of the year before.

Collections Improve

Collections on accounts receivable for 2,422 wholesalers were significantly more favorable in April of this year than those reported by these same establishments for April 1940. Collections during April equaled 78 percent of accounts receivable as of April 1, compared with collection percentages of 73 for April 1940 and 75 for March 1941. Reflecting recent expansions in sales volume, accounts receivable were 20 percent greater on April 1, 1941, than at the same date in 1940, and 6 percent higher than on March 1, 1941.

To calm the fears of the millions who get terror-stricken when a thunderstorm comes along, the Census Bureau computes that the chance of being killed by lightning is only cre in about 338,000.

The chance of dying as the result of vencmous poisoning is less than one in a million.

A breakdown by the Census Bureau of the causes of the 92,623 accidental deaths in 1939 shows that lightning took only 390 lives; venomous poisoning, 102; sunstroke, 527; excessive cold, 190; starvation or thirst, 36; airplane accidents, 396; 396; streetcar accidents, 356; motorcycle accidents, 439; and suffocation, 1,226. Drowning took 5,450 and the accidental discharge of firearms 2,582. Attacks by animals took 279 lives.

The number of accidental deaths in 1939 was a decrease of 1.3 percent from the previous year. Deaths by accident amounted to 70.9 out of each 100,000 population. Excluding the returns for 1921 and 1922, the 1939 accident death rate was the lowest ever recorded by the Census.

Auto Accidents Far in the Lead

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The five leading causes of accidental deaths these five causes accounting for 75 percent of all were motor vehicle accidents; injury by fall or crushing; drowning; burns, and railway accidents. Automobile accidents took 30,468; falling accidents, 22,878, and railway accidents (except collisions with motor vehicles), 3,394.

Fatal agricultural accidents numbered 1,604, and accidents in mines and quarries, 1,540. The number burned to death was 1,794. Rhode Island had the lowest accident death rate 51.3 per 100,000 population and Nevada with 203.1 had the highest rate.

Conspicuous among the states with highest accident death rates were the mountain states of Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Montana, and Idaho. The Pacific States also had high accident rates. Other states which reported accident death rates above the average were Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Census figures show that accidental deaths are more numerous among older people and that, as people get older the proportion of deaths from falls increases.

ies showing increases and decreases in loan volume during April 1941 compared to the same month of 1940. Additional figures also show typical percent changes in loan volume (April 1941 vs. April 1940) for each region.

The "typical change" figures are based on median values. In other words, the median percentage change in loan volume is the figure at the midpoint of an array of individual company percent changes in loan volume for April 1941 vs. April 1940, listed from the greatest decrease to the greatest increase.

Thus the typical change for a region may be quite different from the change in total industrial bank loan volume in that region, as the total figures would be heavily weighted by the results of the larger companies, a factor

eliminated in the typical change figures.

As compared to April 1940, typical charges in loan volume for April 1941 are shown as increases in 5 regions and decreases in 4 regions. In the West North Central region, typical industrial bank loan volume went ahead 12 percent with 79 percent of the reporting companies showing increases for April 1941 over April 1940.

At the other extreme, April 1941 loan volume of the typical industrial bank reporting from the South Atlantic and Mountain regions was 2 percent below volume of April last year. No more than 48 and 43 percent respectively of the companies reporting for these regions revealed increases for April 1941 as compared to the same month a year ago.

The gross income of farmers in 1940 is estimated by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics at $10,352,000,000 or 5 percent more than the $9,896,000,000, total in 1939. With the exception of 1937 when the total was $10,606,000,000, gross farm income last year was the largest since 1930.

The gross income estimates include: cash income from farm products sold or placed under loan in the calendar year; the quantities of farm products retained for human consumption on farms where grown, valued at average prices received by farmers; and Government payments to farmers.

Cash income from farm marketings in 1940, as revised to incorporate more complete data on sales of livestock and livestock products, amounted to $9,123,000,000 compared with $8,665,000,000 in 1939, an increase of about 5 percent.

However, the value of products retained for home consumption declined from $1,231,000,000 in 1939 to $1,229,000,000 in 1940 as declines in the value of fruits, sugar crops, forest products, pork and lard, and poultry slightly more than offset increases in the value of most other products retained for home consumption.

The total of Agricultural Conservation, Price Parity, and Sugar Act payments declined from $807,000,000 in 1939 to $766,000,000 in 1940.

Gross Income from Crops up 4 Percent

Gross farm income from all crops in 1940 amounted to $3,966,000,000 and was 4 percent higher than in 1939. Income from grains recorded the largest increase of any pricipal group of crops. While income from nearly all grains was higher in 1940 than in 1939, the largest percentage increases were in returns from corn, oats, flax, and rice, as increased sales of these products were accompanied by substantial advances in prices.

Income from cotton and cottonseed, vegetables, hay, soybeans, and peanuts also was higher in 1940 than in 1939, but income from tobacco, fruits, sugar crops, legume and grass seeds was somewhat smaller.

Gross income from livestock and livestock products in 1940 totaled $5,620,000,000 and was 6 percent higher than in 1939. Income from all of the principal livestock items except hogs and chickens shared in the increase, with the most pronounced increases occurring in the

income from dairy products, cattle and calves, and wool.

The marked increase in sales and home consumption of hogs in 1940 was slightly more than offset by lower prices, and gross income was about 1.5 percent less than in 1939. Sales and home consumption of chickens in 1940 were slightly less than in 1939 and gross income was down about 8 percent.

Lower Prices of Hogs

Lower prices of hogs and smaller farm consumption of chickens largely account for the decline of 1 percent in the total value of livestock products consumed on farms. Although the amount of pork and lard used on farms in 1940 was slightly larger than in 1939, the value of home consumption dropped from $170,000,000 to $147,000,000 because of the marked decline in hog prices.

The value of poultry and eggs consumed on farms declined from $241,000,000 in 1939 to $234,000,000 in 1940 because of the decline in the number of chickens. The value of dairy products used on farms, which normally amounts to more than one-fourth of the value of all products produced for home consumption, was about 5 percent higher than in 1939.

The value of crops retained on farms for home consumption in 1940 amounted to $430,000,000 compared with $425,000,000 in 1939. value of farm gardens increased from $162,000,

The

000 in 1939 to $173,000,000 in 1940, and the value of other vegetables and grains retained for home consumption was also higher than in 1939, but the value of fruits and sugar crops retained for home consumption was slightly smaller.

Gross Income Mostly Higher

Gross farm income, including Government payments, in 1940 was higher than in 1939 in all but 10 of the 48 States. The largest increases in income were in the area from Montana and Wyoming eastward to Wisconsin. Crop production in this area was the largest in several years, and livestock production has increased sharply since the marked liquidation of livestock numbers in the drought years 1934 and 1936.

The greatest declines in income were in the Gulf Coast States from Florida to Louisiana. In this area crop production was restricted somewhat during 1940 by unusually cold weather during the early months of the year and unfavorable growing conditions for cotton, sugar crops, and rice during the summer months.

Income in North and South Carolina also was smaller in 1940 than in 1939, largely because of the marked decline in income from tobacco in these 2 States. In most of the remaining States gross income in 1940 ranged from 97 to 107 percent of the income received in 1939.

8.

Industry should "make more goods for more people at lower cost."

To achieve the program, it is added, industry needs new tools, better, faster, and more efficient methods of production in order to produce more goods for more people at lower cost.

As regards the need of older men, it is pointed out that youth has great enthusiasm but that experience comes only with the years. Specialized skill and knowledge of methods and materials, "a sixth sense" of the best way to get things done these come only through experience.

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