THE MOBILITY OF CAPITAL.

The article calls attention to some of the less overt but highly pervasive sources and processes of capital mobility. It says that the mobility of invested capital is much greater than that indicated by the volume of formal depreciation charges, however. The prevailing forms of capital and the prevailing business practices in this country are such that a very considerable diversion of capital from one industry to another is constantly taking place through ordinary business transactions, without the intervention of banking institutions, and often without the formal decision of those whose capital is affected. In the first place, it is curious to observe that many of those who ascribe the utmost fluidity to capital in the abstract confine their concept of capital goods to highly durable instruments. The fact is that a very considerable proportion of this country's capital--both consumer's and industry's--consists of goods that have a relatively short length of life. The capital embodied in quasi-durable consumers' goods alone--in furniture, clothing, pleasure automobiles, and the like, in the hands of consumers--was estimated by the Bureau of the Census to have a value of approximately 42 billions of dollars at the end of 1922, an amount exceeding by 5 billions the aggregate value of all movable capital equipment in the hands of industry, trade and agriculture.