America's "Arsenals of Democracy" will soon stand out in every community.

The Office of Production Management has sent all defense prime contractors specifications and designs for three signs, with a letter from William S. Knudsen, Director General.

"I feel sure that every defense worker-whether in management or labor--will feel a closer personal relationship with the defense effort through the display of this identification," Mr. Knudsen wrote. "I am sure also that everyone will feel more keenly the tremendous responsibility of being a part of the ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY."

Prime contractors are requested to extend permission to subcontractors.

The text of Mr. Knudsen's letter follows: "Hundreds of requests and suggestions have been made to this Office for some type of identification to be displayed by plants working on defense orders. The OPM believes that these factories which are the ARSENALS OF DEMOCRACY throughout the world should be properly identified.

"The OPM is authorizing all plants which devote half or more of their facilities to defense work to display the identification.

"I feel sure that every defense workerwhether in management or labor--will feel a

Bureaus of Business Research wish to study business problems with businessmen and pretend to no peculiar ability to forecast or to prophesy. They are built on the fundamental idea that progress toward better business will move with greater certainty, will cause less wreckage and will yield a net result of more good when business problems are studied in a careful and impartial manner by persons who are trained in the necessary technical methods.

It is only honest to say that there is not much of a place for business research unless businessmen wish to encourage an attitude of facing facts calmly and dispassionately; unless they are willing to accept the unfavorable along with the favorable, the critical along with the commendatory.

Business research looked upon as primarily a means of gathering choice brickbats to hurl at opponents is likely to be a disappointment-too many of the brickbats can be picked up and hurled right back again.

Business research may help business in protecting itself from unwarranted and unwise attacks but it should have its greatest usefulness in helping business to avoid being unwise itself and in finding and following the paths that wisdom would dictate.

Three Lines of Activity

What does business research have to offer? First, Bureaus of Business Research offer the service of persons trained in the habit of study and in the technical methods which have been and are being developed for the study of business and economic problems--particularly accounting, statistics and economic theory.

Practically every Bureau of Business Research is associated directly with a School of Commerce and with a University possessing a

This means that in addition to its regular staff members it has ready access to specialists in many fields.

Second, a Bureau of Business Research is continuously engaged in the accumulation of information on business problems. Every new question results in an addition to its store-always through the rounding out of the experience and knowledge of staff members; sometimes through the special collection and analysis of facts not previously available; sometimes through the acquisition of the literature on a point that had not previously been brought to its attention; sometimes by the reexamination of data which it already has at hand.

Every Bureau of Business Research, either through its own direct connections or through its University Library, has access to the special material on any subject which is deposited in the great libraries of the country. Its staff members are trained and experienced in the procedure of locating pertinent information.

In other words, the Bureau of Business Research is a door through which business can gain access to all of the accumulated experience with and knowledge of business problems which has found its way into written form.

Third, a Bureau of Business Research is actively engaged in carrying on studies of special problems. The results of these studies are put into reports and made available to any who wish to use them.

These studies may be on subjects entirely of its own choosing but every Bureau of Business Research welcomes suggestions from those who are directly engaged in business and would like to work on the problems of most importance to the businessman of its area.

Friendly Relations with Business Essential

A Bureau of Business Research wishes to maintain a friendly and cooperative relation with business and to develop a program of work in which each can have an active part.

Bureaus of Business Research make no extravagant claims. They do not know all the answers. Research cannot promise to solve all the problems. Merchants are often faced with the necessity of making decisions promptly. They cannot always delay long enough to ponder their issues. But they may well give careful consideration to the development of agencies whose function it is to watch and to study and to suggest.

Members of the staffs of Bureaus of Business Research have no grounds for taking a highhat attitude. There is a great deal that they do not know. If this can be said about those who are engaged in business research, it can be said with equal truth about those who are engaged in retailing.

And yet each group has a wealth of knowledge about the realm in which they live and work. The one in active business operations; the other in investigation and study; both will benefit by cooperation.

The work of Bureaus of Business Research will have its maximum value only when businessmen give the research workers an opportunity to draw upon the facts and the experience which they have in their individual business establishments.

Retail merchants will benefit when the truths, the half truths, and the myths, which they have developed in their individual experiences are brought together, compared to each other, tested and refined.

These merchants will benefit when they acquire the means and develop the habit of drawing upon the experience of retailers everywhere who are facing or have faced the same problems. The reason for existence for Bureaus of Business Research lies in making such benefit possible.

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The Census Bureau issued the following releases on the Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, copies of which may be obtained from the Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C. Correction of Revised Housing Figures in Release for State of Michigan Series H-2, No. 37, Dated January 25, 1941.

Census of Manufactures: 1939 Consumption of Materials by Quantity for the Rayon and Silk Manufactures Subgroups. Prime Movers, Generators and Motors; Electric Energy Consumed-Country as a Whole and 33 Industrial Areas. Industrial Areas. Wage Earners, by Months. Agriculture: Farm Finances and Facilities; Fruits and Vegetables. (List upon request.) Financial Statistics of Cities: 1939. (List upon request.)

Financial Statistics of States: 1939. (List upon request.)

Mineral Industries: 1939

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Glass Sand.

Industries

Flat

The following publications of the Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, may be purchased from the Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., for the prices indicated. Manufactures: 1939 Glass; Glass Containers; Tableware, Pressed or Blown Glass, and Glassware not elsewhere classified; Mirrors and Other Glass Products Made of Purchased Glass. Price 10 cents. Manufactures: 1939 Hats except Cloth and Millinery Subgroup; Finishing of Men's and Boys' Hats Industries. Price 5 cents. Manufactures: 1939 - Children's and Infants' Outerwear. Price 5 cents. Population - First Series habitants: Florida, Oregon, each, 10 cents. Census of Business Service Establishments: 1939 States, Counties, and Cities. Price 45 cents.

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Number of In

Officials of the United States Weather Bureau, not satisfied with the margin of verification of weather predictions of 85 to 90 percent shown by recent surveys are seeking to employ the laws of science to further reduce the percentage of error.

Among the studies and research projects carried on for this and other purposes is an exhaustive study of solar radiation, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard's Blue Hill Observatory.

Irving F. Hand, in charge of the Weather Bureau's solar investigations at Blue Hill, likens solar radiation energy rays from the sun to what are known to the layman as radio waves. These rays arrive at the earth's surface in waves of various lengths and frequencies. They are much shorter in wave-length than radio waves and much longer than X-rays.

They include visible (light) rays, invisible heat (infra-red) rays and the so-called health rays or ultraviolet rays. Like radio waves, the solar rays are grouped in bands, and various bands can be "tuned in" by means of different colored glass filters.

Of great value in forecasting weather is the knowledge or the approximate amount of precipitable water in the atmosphere. This is computed by measuring special component bands, which are "tuned in" by means of red and yellow

filters. These filters cut off a certain amount of radiation, but allow a portion of the solar energy curve free from water vapor absorption to get by. The amount of precipitable water in the atmosphere can be roughly determined in this way.

It has long been the belief of many meteorologists that a knowledge of the amount of ozone in the upper air would be a valuable factor in day to day forecasting. A project is now under way to measure it. This will be done by breaking up the ultraviolet rays, which are the extremely short waves of solar radiation.

Meteorologists point out that sunshine data are an essential part of the climatologiical record of any region. These data include a report on the quantity, intensity and kind of rays that are actually received at the earth's surface.

That such information is of great value to agriculture is shown by the fact that a large sugar beet company found it impossible to operate at a profit in Michigan, but by moving its project to Idaho got out of red ink.

An investigation demonstrated that the Michigan location was unadapted to the production of beets with a profitable sugar content due to the type of solar radiation received there, while In idaho conditions were vorable.

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