Small Businesses

The National Industrial Conference wanted to know the relation of small to big businesses in the U. S. Its investigators found, they reported last week, that concerns engaged in manufacturing, mining and commerce employ on the average ten persons each; manufacturing plants average 44.7 each, wholesale houses 14 to 15, retail establishments five to six. Mail order houses, chain stores and department stores handle only 30% of the national business. However, in 1925, one-third of the manufacturing plants produced nine-tenths of the country's manufactured products and employed nearly nine-tenths of the wage-earners in industry. Significance: small businesses can and do exist by the side of big businesses.