A Billion Dollars a Year

Total Valuation of Building Cities Eleven Billions

The importance of the construction industry is manifest when we -consider that in 20 selected irhportant cities the valuation of building permits taken out during the 1l-year period from 1914 to 1924 equals $100 for every man, woman, ind child in the United States, says The American Contractor.

The enormous grand total for the l1 years in these cities is $11,021,036,000. The apportionment between the years is sharply graded. The year 1924 contributed more than 2 t-l} fittion dollars fo valuation, or nearly one-fifth of the total for 11 years. The year 1923 contributed slightly less -iust a trifli more than 2 billion dollars' The word trifle in-this case describes the balance ovet 2 billion lying in the exact figure $2,O74,W4,I25. Quite a sizeable trifle, which being ig:nored merely emphasizes the immensity of the figures dealt with.

In 1914 the total for these same cities was $499,399,128. Not quite half of 1 billion in that year was,piled up; but, of course, we must consider that construction costs then were practically half of what they are now. One dollar did the work then that 2 dollars do at the present time; so instead of saying that the valuation that year was only onefourth of what it is this year, we may more accurately say that the value of the completed construction of that year in these same cities was one-half of what it was ]n 1924.

The following tabulation gives the valuation of. permits granted in these cities for each year of the time period mentioned above.

Permits Issued in Twenty for Past 11 Years

In l9l7 and 1918 the effects of throttled construction are evident in the valuations. In 1919 the construction industry (Continued on Page 52')