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THE
VOL. 85. No. 5
REVIEW
Published Weekly. Federated Business Publications, Inc., 420 Lexington Ave., New York, N. Y., July 30,1927
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*Jl.o c o°C4lS e n t B
50% Own Pianos
In Families of Thirty-six Cities
Survey Conducted by the Literary Digest, New York, and Published Under
Title of "Zanesville", Shows Slightly Over Half of Homes Investigated
So Equipped—Music Ranks High Among Leading Interests of Homes Reported
W I D E degree of uniformity has long
been noted as one of the marked charac-
teristics of cultural conditions and the
degree of comfort in the modern American
home.
North, South, East or West to-
day conditions in the average community
are largely similar, given an identity of popu-
lation and general income, and this is one of
the factors which makes regional or local
market surveys of such value in determining
general conditions in similar communities
throughout the country.
A survey of this type, which was recently
published by the Literary Digest, of New York,
entitled "Zanesville" and based on conditions
in this Ohio community as typical of those
existing in similar municipalities throughout the
country, is an extremely valuable record of the
modern American home, its possessions and
the degree of comfort and culture which exists
therein. The formation along these lines ob-
tained from a survey of the conditions existing
in Zanesville itself was carefully checked up
against similar information obtained from a
survey conducted in thirty-six cities, two of
them of 500,000 population and over; five be-
tween 100,000 and 500,000; six between 50,000
and 100,000, eleven between 25,000 and 50,000,
and thirteen under 25,000.
The survey itself included home ownership,
value of homes, number of bathrooms per
home, exterior and interior upkeep of homes,
home conveniences, heating equipment, cooking
equipment, kitchen and cleaning equipment,
additional electric devices, employment of
servants, total number in household, vocations
of heads of households, food consumed, income
and how it is expended, out-of-door entertain-
ment, including automobile ownership, indoor
entertainment, including ownership of cameras,
radio, musical instruments, etc., as well as a
general survey of what, for want of a better
term, is called "Hobbies."
Of course the music trades are particularly
interested in musical instrument ownership,
etc.
Out of a total of 4,527 homes in Zanes-
ville, 3,165, or 69.9 per cent, were owned, and
A
1,362, or 30.1 per cent, were rented compared
with 6222 homes in thirty-six cities, of which
4,445, or 71.4 per cent, were owned, and 1,777,
or 28.6 per cent, were rented. The average
value of the homes in Zanesville was $5,048,
as compared with $8,671 in thirty-six cities.
The heads of families in these homes of Zanes-
ville were engaged in the following professions
and vocations: Executives, 2.8 per cent; pro-
r
HE survey recently conducted by the
Literary Digest of homes in Zanesville^
Ohio, in conjunction with an investigation
of homes in thirty-six leading cities of the
country, presents interesting and valuable
information, especially when taken in con-
junction with a survey undertaken by the
General Federation of Women's Clubs which
covered a total of 1,940,183 families and
which showed that 40.4 per cent, of these
families owned such instruments.
fessional, 4.8 per cent; merchants, 7.6 per cent;
sub-executives, 3.6 per cent; public service, 2.5
per cent; salesmen and traveling executives,
4.6 per cent; clerical, 5 per cent; skilled crafts-
men and artisans, 3.8 per cent; skilled labor,
29.2 per cent; unskilled labor, 25 per cent;
miscellaneous, 11.1 per cent. The percentages
of professions and vocations in thirty-six cities
are as follows: Executives, 7.3 per cent; pro-
fessional, 10 per cent; merchants, 9.3 per cent;
sub-executives, 6.8 per cent; public service, 4.3
per cent; salesmen and traveling executives, 6.8
per cent; clerical, 9.4 per cent; skilled crafts-
men and artisans, 6.4 per cent; skilled labor,
25 per cent; unskilled labor, 8.2 per cent; mis-
cellaneous, 7 per cent.
Ownership of musical instruments in these
homes is reported as follows: In Zanesville,
43.3 per cent of the families own pianos, 3.2
per cent own organs, 54 per cent own phono-
graphs and 7.8 per cent own other musical
instruments; in thirty-six cities, 50.8 per cent
own pianos, 1.1 per cent own organs, 58.9
per cent own phonographs and 11 per cent own
musical instruments of other types.
Ownership of radio is reported as follows:
In Zanesville, 84 per cent have no radio, 3
per cent have a crystal set, 5 per cent have
a one-tube set, 9 per cent have a two-tube
set, 3 per cent have a three-tube set, 1.8 per
cent have a four-tube set, 6.4 per cent have
a five-tube set, 1.6 per cent have a six-tube
set, 3 per cent have a seven-tube set and 1.1
per cent have an eight-tube set; in thirty-six
cities, 63.9 per cent have no radio, 4.7 per cent
have a crystal set, 1.1 per cent have a one-tube
set, 1.7 per cent have a two-tube set, 8.3 per
cent have a three-tube set, 3.3 per cent have a
iour-tube set, 13.2 per cent have a five-tube
set, 1.5 per cent have a six-tube set, 6 per cent
have a seven-tube set and 1.4 per cent have an
eight-tube set.
In the report of the family hobbies, music in
Zanesville ranks second, 25 per cent of the
families interviewed giving it as their greatest
interest. Other hobbies reported in Zanesville
were magazines 29.1 per cent, books 16.9 per
cent, radio 10 per cent, motoring 16.3 per cent,
golf 1 per cent, gardening 13.6 per cent, moving
pictures 15.5 per cent, miscellaneous 29.1 per
cent. In thirty-six cities music ranked fifth
with 16.7 per cent. Other interests reported
vvere magazines 18 per cent, books 15.2 per
cent, radio 16.9 per cent, motoring 25 per cent,
golf 6.5 per cent, gardening 5.3 per cent, mov-
ing pictures 17.4 per cent, theatre 5.8 per cent
and 40.2 per cent miscellaneous.
It is interesting to compare these figures
with those published by the General Federation
of Women's Clubs, whose investigators recent-
ly reported on a total of 1,940,183 families,
distributed over forty-eight States. These
figures showed that out of this number of
families, 782,994 families owned pianos, or 40.4
per cent.