Earnings

The earnings of great corporations in transportation, communication, power & light, cinema, or automotive, iron and steel industries are important for two main reasons: 1) They are barometers of the rise and fall of prosperity; 2) the multitude of the stock and bond holders depends on their earnings for livelihood and luxury. But there exists a vastly greater number of concerns, more or less obscure, more or less subsidiary, whose earnings constitute a greater part of U. S. income. A few such concerns, and their 1926 earnings as reported recently, are--

Life Savers--candymakers infuse tart flavors in hard candies-- profits: $1,304,088.

Eaton Axle & Spring--supplies, axles, springs and bumpers for motor cars--profits: $962,054.

American Hide & Leather--raw hides come from slaughterhouses; are tanned for leathers--loss: $150,754.

Gotham Silk Hosiery -- bright needles, madly darting, blink at silk threads; tubes of stockings come out of machines--profits: $2,879,409.

Air Reduction--powerful pumps compress oxygen, hydrogen or acetylene into tall, slim, thick-walled steel tanks for welding or burning through metal; incandescent bulb makers buy nitrogen and argon--profits: $2,271,841.

Dictaphone--the salesmen are as industrious as the factory workers --profits: $506,638.

Prophylactic Brush--the shipping clerks brag of their commercial geography knowledge; they ship these toothbrushes everywhere in the world--profits: $607,906.

Century Ribbon Mills--miles of slick ribbons coil out of looms--loss: $155,690.

Robert Reis--makes underwear, and advertises them--loss: $140,750.

Jewel Tea--the house-to-house salesmen comport themselves with the dignity of small businessmen, and are really so--profits: $1,258,052.

U. S. Gypsum--white rocks are crushed, pulverized, heated--profits: $8,375,747.

Cluett-Peabody--inspectors hunt for skipped stitches in collars and shirts--profits: $1,772,223.

Loose-Wiles--employes must change their clothes completely before they may work at cracker making--profits: $1,662,823.

Bon Ami--tidy machines wrap up the cakes of this cleanser, like a chicken pecking at snails-- profits: $1,050,393.

The securities of practically all these concerns are held by relatively few people. Against these are the "billion" dollar companies, which (except Ford) have thousands of investors:

TOTAL MARKET ASSETS TOTAL VALUE

A. T. & T . . . . $2,066,642,000 $1,645,565,374 U. S. Steel. . . 1,778,803,000 2,445,643,331 Gen. Motors. . . 1,521,316,000 950,144,106 N. Y. Central. . . . 1,251,728,000 1,486,332,000 Pennsylvania . . . . 1,184,057,000 1,818,550,564 S. O. of N. J. . . . . .1,072,488,000 1,369,170,371 Union Pacific. . . . 869,809,000 1,139,607,532 South'n Pac. . . . 749,687,000 1,032,858,233 Ford Motor. . . . 1,000,000,000 742,913,568 Atchison . . . . 792,271,000 1,071,019,911