Plowed-Back Earnings
That was a gain of 14 per cent. For the first nine
months the same 600 companies had net profits of
$3,223,620,000 as compared with $2,679,934,000
for the corresponding nine months of 1928; a gain
of $543,000,000, or 20 per cent! The circular of
the National City Bank adds the following comment :
“This showing is excellent in itself, but must be regarded
 as particularly impressive considering the
fact that the comparison is with 1928, a year that
surpassed all previous records in earnings.” This
record is eloquent in justification of a heightened
level of common stock prices during 1929.
Excluding railroads and utilities, the manufacturing
 and trading companies revealed in the third
quarter of 1929 a gain of 15 per cent over the same
Quarter of 1928, and of 26 per cent for the full nine
months over the corresponding months of 1928.

1929 Profits Rise Faster Than Stocks
That is an increase in profits at a greater rate than
the increase in stock prices, even during its record
climb of 1928 and 1929, with the exception of two or
three months antedating the panic.
Similar comparisons of increased gains for industrial
 utilities and railroads are found in the estimates
of total and plowed-back earnings calculated from
the averages of the Standard Statistics Company,
Inc, and from the compilations of Ernst & Ernst,
accountants.
The Corporation Earnings Bulletin of Ernst &
Ernst for the first nine months of 1929 showed that