10 STOCK DIVIDENDS 
larger than in the seven preceding years owing to the greater number 
of corporations covered in the later period by such publications. 
Otherwise, the lists were presumably unbiased. 
The comparative cash, stock, and other dividends in the two 
periods are presented in the following table: 
TaBLe 6.—Cash, stock, and other dividends paid for the seven years 1913-1919 
and the seven years 1920-1926 by 1,000 corporations which paid one or more 
stock dividends in the 14-year period 1913-1926 
Kind of 
dividend 
Cash. vo snuunenes 
Stok. aremre] 
Other. . ... oul 
Totalei. 
First 7 years 
Amount 
$2, 908, 797, 623 
659, 856, 048 
82, 677, 880 
3 651, 331. 551 
Per cent 
of total 
79. 66 
18.07 
2.97 
A OD 
Second 7 years 
Amount 
wr 
Per cent 
of total 
$5, 035, 334, 937 
3, 554, 513, 758 
55 933 730 
58.24 
41.11 
.65 
S. 545. 52. 425 
100. 00 
Increase (+) or decrease 
(=) in second period 
Amount 
i Per cent 
+82, 126, 537, 314 
+2, 894, 457, 710 
—26. 744. 150 
+73. 11 
+438. 65 
—32. 35 
4-136. 78 
4,994, 250, 874 
This table would indicate that the absolute increase in stock divi- 
dends was about 438 per cent in the second period as compared with 
an increase of only 73 per cent in cash dividends. In the second period 
the stock dividends were about 41 per cent of total dividends. In 
the first period they were about 18 per cent. This group, it will be 
noted, while composing less than 10 per cent of the 10,528 corpora- 
tions reporting stock dividends in the 14 years, paid over 70 per cent 
of the total dividends reported by the former group in the first seven 
years and over 60 per cent of those reported in the second period. 
In view of the method of selection and the size of the sample em- 
ployed these ratios of stock and cash to total dividends, and the per- 
centages of increase in such dividends constitute apparently the 
safest basis for estimating the relative increase in importance of 
stock dividends since the Supreme Court decision. Even these ratios 
should be used with care, however, since the sample employed is still 
presumably somewhat biased through the greater comprehensive- 
ness of financial manual data in recent years. 
RELATION OF DIVIDENDS TO SURPLUS 
A full appreciation of the change that has taken place in corpora- 
tion dividend policy since the Supreme Court decision, however, 
can not be obtained from a comparison of the cash and stock divi- 
dends paid in each period either with each other or with the total 
dividends. In order to thoroughly comprehend what has taken 
place it is necessary to carry the analysis a step further and consider 
the dividends in relation to the surplus for the two periods. 
Surplus, as well as cash, stock, and other dividends, was reported 
by 2,971 corporations, including corporations paying stock dividends 
before as well as after the Supreme Court decision. In the following 
table there is presented the total distributable surplus of these cor- 
porations for each seven-year period, together with its disposition: