Monday, Aug. 05, 1929

Statistics

Last week, among many a statistic, the following were noteworthy:

42,027,470,000 is the number of ton-miles of freight handled by U. S. Class 1 railroads in May. It means that U. S. freight trains did a job equivalent to carrying a one-ton weight some 42 billion miles. It was the best May mark in rail-road history. In May 1929 the average freight train carried a load of 26.6 tons, moved this load 32.9 miles per day, at the record-breaking speed of 13.3 m.p.h.

51.2% records much of the power and glory of the British Empire. It is the percentage of world shipbuilding that is being carried on in British and Irish shipyards, thus establishes Great Britain as builder of slightly more than one-half the world's total ship tonnage. At the close of June there were 2,838,225 tons of ships being built throughout the world. Of this tonnage, British and Irish yards were contributing 1,454,906; all other countries 1,383,319.

184 recorded the number of fatal industrial accidents in New York State in June. It was a large statistic of its kind. Many a fatality had occurred in construction work. Among causes of deaths were: Motor vehicles, 24; trains, 13; elevators and hoists, 5; cranes and conveyors, 5: falling objects, 2; steam shovels, 2; falls. 25; handling of objects, 18; explosions, hot substances and electricity, 14.

3,584,700 measured a record-breaking turnover one day last week on the New York Curb Market. It was about a quarte-million shares over the previous high total (June 28). Utility trading accounted for the new high, 895.100 shares of Niagara Hudson Power turning over during the day.

75% of the world's radio sets bear the inscription Made In America. Some 25,000,000 sets are now in operation.

10,900,000 is the estimate of the num-ber of passengers who ride each day on elevators in New York City. Elevator speeds vary from 700 ft. to 1,000 ft. per minute. There are 28,104 elevators in Manhattan. Chances are 218,000,000 to 1 that an elevator-passenger will be alive at the end of a trip. Buildings with most elevators are: Equitable, 59; New York Life, 38; New York Central and Graybar, 37 each. Tall Woolworth has only 30. Manhattan had 105 elevator accidents last year. Many of these involved not elevators but careless persons falling down the shafts.

$5,908,000,000 represents last week's loans-to-brokers. It was a new high record in brokers' loans with a $95,000,000 gain for the week. It was also considerably higher than the figures prevailing during the Reserve Board v. Stock Market excitement last February and March.

2,000,000 was stamped last week on a model A Ford. The first million took 13 months; the second million six months, 20 days. Third million will take even less time.