Commerce Report

The gloomiest part of Secretary Hoover's report for the business year that began July 1, 1926 and ended June 30, 1927, related to farm products. The report, published last week, stated that during that fiscal year the value of crops and animal products, deducting crops fed to animals, used for seed and wasted, was $12,080,000,000. The previous fiscal year it had been $12,670,000,000. Cause: Low cotton prices last year and depression in the prairie states. The coal business had not been prosperous, nor the textile business.

The cheeriest part of his report was his statement on the condition of agriculture since July of this year. Said he: "Advance has been particularly conspicuous in the case of cotton as a result of a much reduced crop. As the prices of other commodities had meantime declined somewhat, the relative position of farm products has materially improved. On a pre-war basis the index for them now stands quite as high as the average for nonagricultural articles." Textile manufacture has also improved.

Some of the fiscal year's business and financial accomplishments, and their relation to the 1925-1926 business year, were:

Bank deposits $51,612,000,000....gain

Foreign loans $1,850,000,000....gain

Exports $4,968,000,000....gain

Imports $4,253,000,000.... loss

New building $7,000,000,000....gain

He could not report the number of aircraft manufactured during that 12- month period. But he did know, through William P. MacCracken, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, between January and July of 1927, aircraft manufacturers made more planes than during all of 1926. At present, working two and three shifts of mechanics, they cannot supply the demand excited by the summer transoceanic flights and by the airmail success.

Another significant development which he considered worth noting was: "Seventy-two railroads now use trucks to supplement regular shipping service--46 in terminal operations, 15 in the form of store delivery, and 11 to replace local freight trains. On Jan. 1, 1927 railways had more than 225 trucks operating, the route mileage being 4,226. Competing services had 43,207 trucks covering 607,029 route miles. Registration of all trucks in the U. S. was 2,764,222, compared with 2,432,017 the previous year."

U.S. living standards remained higher "than anywhere else in the world or than any other time in world history." The wages of those who worked averaged $1,280 for the year 1925, most recent year for which authentic figures are available.