THEORY OF PRODUCTIVE EFFICIENCY 19§

[Index Numbers Base, 1914 = 100
Product Per
Wage-Earner
Actual 914
Prod: we Alar

Census

Year
1899
1904
1909
1914
1919
1921
1923
1078

Horsepower
Per Wage-Karner


Product Per
Wage-Earner
Actual 1914
‘ol'~rs Dollars
P44
9
N12

a |

The following table includes practically the same years
(1898-1926), but also introduces a comparison of three
periods. It is abridged from a compilation made by Mr.
Woodlief Thomas, of the Research and Statistical Division
of the Federal Reserve Board.* The striking reduction in
the number of industrial workers and the increase in output
 per worker during the period 1920-1926 are evident
from a glance at the comparisons:
AVED

’RODUCTION OF MAJOR
USTRY, BY PERIODS.
©98-1926
Manufactures indexes are computed from data for 1899, 1909,
1919, and 1925. Other data dre means of three years—with a
few exceptions.

Number of
workers
thousands)

Index for end of
period
(Beginning—100)
Output
per
Worker
120
15
1

Period and Branch

Beginning

898-1900 +.
908-1910
918-1920
QOR_1Q1N

1 nL

End of
~riod
ar

-)

-

Wr

The foregoing figures are symptomatic of industry in
general. There had been increases in industrial output,
of course, per employee and per man-hour, accompanied
by decline in labor costs, but at a rate much less than that
1 American Economic Review. Proceedings. Fortieth Annual Meeting, Derember.
 1927. b. 124