Business: Profits

The Government (Department of Commerce) has been slowly surveying its past income tax returns to find out who is making money in this country by manufacturing. All told, the survey, based on 1923 income figures covers 53,795 manufacturing concerns, which in that year made a total net income of $4,271,889,449. After classifying these according to the several industries represented, the following results appeared:

No. of

Firms Products Net Income

1,168 Metal manufactures $1,427,495,889

7,678 Textiles and textile products 563,412,301

8.666 Foods, liquors, tobacco…. 506,924,386

6,664 Miscellaneous manufacturing 473,420,323

3,472 Chemicals and allied substances 419,583,646

5,250 Lumber and wood products 299,049,957

2,880 Stone, clay, glass products 187,843,942

6,183 Printing and publishing 165,947,105

1,240 Pulp, paper and paper products 109,909,197

1,321 Leather and leather products 72,388,337

273 Rubber and rubber goods 45,924,366

Metal manufacturing is thus revealed as America’s biggest moneymaker. In that group, 192 concerns—only 2% of the total—had incomes of over $1,000,000 a piece, while only 37 concerns reported incomes of over $5,000,000.

The net profits on all the manufacturing industries, after deducting losses of unprofitable firms, amounted to approximately $3,571,000,000—slightly more than the sum that will be needed to run the Federal Government for the coming fiscal year.