HC Deb 06 March 1922 vol 151 cc826-7
12. Mr. HURD

asked the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the statistics of production and wages issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States showing that the percentage of wages to the total returns of industry in that country has risen from 68.7 in 1909 to 77.3 in 1918, leaving 23.7 as the percentage for management, rentals, royalties, etc., in 1918, as compared with 313 in 1909; and whether he can present or cause to be prepared from the censuses of wages and production similar figures relating to British industry as a whole or to the fully organised industries?

Mr. BALDWIN

I am aware that official figures have been issued in the United States showing the value of the products, and the total wages, in various industries in that country. In the United Kingdom no census of wages has been taken since 1906, and no census of production since the War; the census of wages was partial, and based on voluntary returns, and no direct comparisons can be made between the results of that census and those of the compulsory censuses of production of 1907 and 1912. The answer to the second part of the question is accordingly in the negative.