population and over. Broad variations in rates are disclosed in this report and are indicated in the accompanying table. The character and density of the population, the diversity of their requirements, geographical conditions, accessibility to fuel or to water power, and seasonal usage, as well as the commercial policies of the companies and the varying success of regulatory bodies in adjusting rates to costs, influence the charges made.

Minimum and Maximum Charges for Typical Amounts of Domestic Electricity in Cities of 50,000 Population and Over, January 1, 1935

1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934

D.D.8334

Chart 21.-Average annual use of electricity (domestic customers) with comparative data on the cost of electricity and the cost of living.

NOTE.-Cost of living (National Industrial Conference Board) monthly average, 1923-25-100. Elec trical items are relatives computed from annual data of the Edison Electric Institute. The cost of elec tricity is the average rate per kilowatt-hour charged domestic customers.

The trend in the average amount of electricity used by domestic consumers, together with its cost and the index of the cost of living from 1919 through 1934, is shown in chart 21.

Revenues of central generating stations increased 3.6 percent during the year to a total of $1,837,000,000, but this increase was offset by a rise in operating costs and in taxes, making net revenues about equal to those of 1933. Domestic service revenues in 1934, amounting to $677,697,000, registered an advance of 3.2 percent over those of a year ago, and commercial service revenues increased 4.4 percent to $1,007,339,000.

New electric light and power customers during 1934 aggregated 513,000, bringing the total number of consumers on December 31 to

24,809,000, thus far the highest figure recorded. The year under review also witnessed a further growth in the number of farms utilizing central-station current. More than 30,000 farms were added to those already utilizing electricity, and the total number served is now approximately 12 percent of all farms.

WATER POWER DEVELOPMENT-FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROJECTS

During the past few years the Federal Government has been engaged in a huge program for the development of the country's water power. Outstanding among these projects are those located in the Tennessee Valley and on the Columbia and Colorado Rivers. The President signed the bill for the development of the Tennessee River Basin through the Tennessee Valley Authority, May 18, 1933. Of the $75,000,000 allocated to T. V. A., approximately $24,000,000 had been spent by the end of January 1935 for materials, at least half of which was expended outside the valley. About 13,000 people were employed on this project during the year, 10,000 of whom were engaged in construction and engineering work.

The Electric Home and Farm Authority, created by Executive order in January 1934, has a capital of $1,000,000 and a credit up to $10,000,000 with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The purpose of this organization, a subsidiary of T. V. A., is to further the use of approved electrical appliances and to finance the consumer in purchasing them at very low prices. In cooperation with about 40 leading manufacturers, 3 private power companies, and 300 independent dealers, the E. H. F. A. is making available to people in the valley, on long-term credit, inexpensive electric ranges, refrigerators, water heaters, and farm pumps.

Construction of the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River was begun in October 1933, and the allocation of funds up to January 31, 1935, has totaled $32,441,000. The estimated cost of the undertaking with the initial installation of two power units is $40,200,000. Expenditures at the end of January 1935 aggregated $7,184,000, while employment at that time averaged about 3,250 men.

Although only in the early stages, work on the Grand Coulee Dam and power plant of the Columbia Basin project is progressing steadily. For the initial development, which is solely a power project, with no irrigation included, the P. W. A. has provided an allotment of $15,000,000 with which to begin construction of the $63,000,000 project. This cost is divided as follows: Dam, $42,000,000, and power plant, $21,000,000.

Boulder Dam on the Colorado River was nearing completion in the early part of 1935, about 18 months ahead of the original schedule. With the closing of the bulkhead gate on February 1, 1935, the river was put under control and storage in the Boulder Dam reservoir was started. Construction of the power house is well under way and it is expected that the generation of electricity will begin in the early part of 1936. Appropriations for this project as a whole to the end of 1934 have totaled $94,660,000.

CONSTRUCTION

As has been evident from the foregoing discussion, the progress of economic recovery, while definite, has been irregular. Some industries have recovered to a point where goods are being produced and sold in greater volume than in 1929, while others have made only a slight recovery from the low point of the depression. Among the latter group is the construction industry which, in 1929, afforded direct employment to an average of approximately 3,000,000 persons and indirectly to an additional large, but indeterminate, number engaged in furnishing materials and supplies for construction projects and in furnishing goods and services to those directly employed. The number so engaged declined rapidly during the depression until 1933, in which year the average number directly employed was only slightly in excess of one-third of the 1929 figure. During 1934, there was a substantial gain in the number so employed.

The Public Works program was the major motivating force behind this improvement. Although financed through appropriations made in the middle of 1933, the actual work on this broadened program did not get underway on an extensive scale until the year 1934. The number employed on P. W. A. construction projects reached a high of about 625,000 in midsummer of 1934. It is worthy of note that more than half of the estimated number of persons directly employed in the construction industry during 1934 were working on highways; the proportion so employed in 1929 was approximately 10 percent.

VOLUME OF CONTRACTS INCREASED IN 1934

While the available monthly totals on contracts awarded cover only part of the contracts let, by reason of their geographic and other limitations, and do not include the large volume of construction work which is not undertaken by contract, they are, nevertheless, inclusive enough to afford a definite indication of the trend. In the 37 States covered by the F. W. Dodge Corporation statistics, total contracts awarded amounted to $1,543,000,000 in 1934. About two-thirds of this volume was publicly financed, leaving one-third for the contribution of privately financed contracts. This total represents an increase of 23 percent over 1933, wholly accounted for by the rise in work undertaken by means of public financing. Work privately financed has changed only slightly in the past three years, the total of such contracts receding from $583,000,000 in 1932 to $573,000,000 in 1933 and to $568,000,000 in 1934. During this same period the amount of publicly financed work increased about a fourth, or from $768,000,000 in 1932 to $975,000,000 in 1934.

The trend of the adjusted index of construction contracts was downward during the year, by reason of the large public projects placed under contract toward the end of 1933 and in the early part of 1934. The volume of public works contracted for gradually

tapered off at the same time that actual work was being speeded up. This is evident from chart 23. The continued low level of construction activity is indicated by the annual index for the year 1934, which was just under one-third of the 1923-25 average. For December, the adjusted index was 31 percent of the average for the base period. (See chart 22.)

Residential building, which was depressed to a greater extent than other classes of construction during the depression, did not recover during the year, although in the latter part of the period there were cvidences of improvement as a result of the removal of some of the

J F M A M J J A S O N DJ F M A M J JASON D

Chart 23.-Value of construction and force account awards on Public Works Administration construction projects (construction awards, Public Works Administration; employment, United States Department of Labor).

NOTE.-Force account construction is work carried on by Government organizations for which contracts were not let,

obstacles to a revival in this industry. These may be found in the improvement in the mortgage market, particularly in the amount of funds available for lending purposes, the reversal of the downward trend of rents, the reduction in the number of vacancies, the declining tendency of interest rates, and the loosening of credit for real-estate

uses.

Contracts let for residential construction during 1934, in the area covered by the F. W. Dodge Corporation reports, amounted to a quarter of a billion dollars, the same as in the year 1933. The size of this figure with reference to the volume of such construction carried on prior to the collapse in 1929 may be appreciated when it is stated that the 1934 total was smaller than for any one of the