When compilations are completed for a particular State or county, a preliminary statement is issued in mimeographed form, except for the census of manufactures. In the manufactures census, the more recent policy has been to pub lish first the totals for cities through the local chambers of com merce, then the totals for industries, and finally those for States. Later, a printed bulletin is issued for each State or industry, according to the particular census covered, and these separate bulletins are finally collected into a bound volume covering the entire census, which is sold as a regular government publication. For the biennial census of manufactures, the industry totals are made public from 3 to 12 months after the end of the year to which the figures relate, the time depending largely upon the num ber of establishments reporting and the complexity of the detailed data on the industry's products. The complete volumes for the manufactures and agricultural censuses appear about two years after the end of the year to which the figures relate. The results of the mid-decennial census of agriculture are issued in three octavo volumes, while statistics for the biennial manufactures census are contained in one volume. The results of the decennial census of 1920 were published as 11 quarto volumes, four cover ing population, three, actually split into five, covering agriculture, irrigation and drainage, three covering manufactures and one covering mines and quarries. In addition, an abstract of the census and a statistical atlas were issued. Compendiums giving all the data for population, agriculture, manufactures, etc., for each State are compiled in connection with the decennial censuses.
Since the World War, there has developed an insistent demand for business statistics issued at more frequent intervals, in order to gauge the current trend of business. Production figures particularly have been demanded at monthly intervals, as indicators of the amount of commodities being supplied for consumption. The result of this demand has been the collection by Government departments, by trade associa tions, and by other agencies of periodical data on production, stocks, shipments, orders, etc., for most of the important indus tries and many of lesser importance. Complete current data are collected by the bureau of the census monthly on cotton con sumption and stocks, activity of cotton spinning, cotton-seed and cotton-seed products, and leather production (including hide, skin and leather stocks), quarterly on stocks of leaf tobacco and semi monthly during the ginning season on ginnings of cotton. These
data, which are collected in compliance with specific acts of Con gress relating to these particular reports. cover their respective industries completely and are published in mimeograph form shortly after the close of the period to which they relate. In addition, monthly or quarterly data on production (semi-annual in a few cases) are collected by the bureau of the census under its general organic law, at the request and with the co-operation of the several industries concerned. At the present time about 50 commodities are covered in this manner, the results being pub lished in mimeograph form as promptly as possible. These cur rent production reports do not in every case cover an industry completely, but for these monthly figures absolute completeness is not so essential as promptness in revealing the trend from month to month as ascertained by reports from a representative number of firms.
The vast number of monthly business statistics now available are assembled in summary form in a monthly publication of the department of commerce called the Survey of Current Business, which is compiled in the bureau of the census. This publication covers 1,500 items of current statistics taken from various recog nized sources, both governmental and private, and consists of semi-annual issues containing complete descriptions of the items, their sources, and their early data—monthly issues containing recent monthly figures and comparisons, and weekly supplements giving the bare figures as soon as available. Business executives, sales managers, purchasing agents and business analysts use these data currently in deciding upon the best business policies in view of conditions shown by these statistics. Index numbers are also computed to show the composite trend of production, commodity stocks, unfilled orders, etc. Thus, by means of these indexes, any individual commodity or industry may be compared with the group of which it forms a part and with the composite of all industries, and its relative progress ascertained. Many of these relationships are charted in the Survey of Current Business.
(M. B. L.)