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 dividends
 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 corporations
 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 employed
 these ratios of stock and cash to total dividends, and the percentages
 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 comprehensiveness
 of financial manual data in recent years.
RELATION OF DIVIDENDS TO SURPLUS

A full appreciation of the change that has taken place in corporation
 dividend policy since the Supreme Court decision, however,
can not be obtained from a comparison of the cash and stock dividends
 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 corporations
 for each seven-year period, together with its disposition: