STOCK DIVIDENDS 
7 
all these corporations is not available for the two full 7-year periods 
prior and subsequent to the date of closing nearest January 1, 1920. 
Only 2,846, or considerably over one-half the total number, furnished 
this information and this number represents the largest group for 
which it is possible to compare both stock capitalization and stock 
dividends for approximately the same periods. Such comparisons 
are subject to some slight qualification, however, with reference to 
those corporations which did not close their books as of December 
31. The majority of the reports were on a calendar-year basis and 
in consequence the capitalization at the beginning and end of the 
two periods and the dividends reported in each period are for exactly 
the same seven years. Where a corporation reported for the full 
14 years but closed its books on other than a calendar-year basis, 
the dividends reported may have referred to either the fiscal or the 
calendar year. On the fiscal-year basis the dividends reported in 
each period would cover the full seven years between the beginning 
and the ending balance sheets in each period but neither would coin- 
cide exactly as to time with the capitalization and dividends of the 
calendar-year companies, even though the dividends in the former 
case are for a full seven years in each period and the beginning and 
ending capitalization in each period are exactly seven years apart. 
Furthermore, if the books were closed on a fiscal-year basis divi- 
dends may have been reported on a calendar-year basis, in which 
case the dividends reported cover the same period of time as those 
of the calendar-year companies, but the capitalization reported for 
the two periods, though covering seven years in cach case, begins and 
ends either a little earlier or a little later than those of the calendar 
year companies. As each of the periods covered, however, is so long 
and the majority of corporations are on a calendar-year basis, the 
foregoing discrepancies may be safely disregarded for purposes of 
statistical comparisons. 
During the first seven years the increase in stock capitalization of 
these corporations aggregated only 36.36 per cent, while during the 
second seven years the increase was 142.27 per cent. This appears 
from the following table of stock capitalization at the beginning 
and end of each period: 
TasLr 3.—Slock capitalization of 2,846 corporations for the seven-year periods 
beginning and ending as of the closing date nearest to January 1, 1920 
FITSE7] YOrS. conn ennecrmes numa aman mmm 
Becond 7. Years. i ceee rs taanmnrmrinnsnan tram: 
14 years... a 
Stock capitalization 
Beginning 
balance sheet 
Ending 
balance sheet 
1, 580,870,985 $2, 155, 754, 346 
2,156, 754,846 5, 222, 673, 092 
1, 580, 870, 985 | 5, 222, 673, 092 
Inerease 
Amount 
Per cent 
$574, 883, 361 
3, 066, 918, 746 | 
3 641. 802. 107 
36. 36 
142.27 
230.37