AbstractLet C=(cij) be an m ×n matrix with real entries. Let b be any nonzero m-vector. Let K = {π:Cπ = b, π ⩾ 0} be bounded. Let x = (x1, x2,…,xn), y = (y1, y2,…,yn) be two nonnegative vectors with y ϵ K and xj = 0 ⇔ yj = 0 for any coordinate j. Then it is shown that there exists a π ϵ K and positive numbers z1, z2,…, zm such that πj = xj∈mi = 1 zciji for all j. Th theorem slightly generalizes a theorem of Darroch and Ratcliff in loglinear models with a completely different proof technique. The proof relies on an extension of a topological theorem of Kronecker to set valued maps and the duality theorem of linear programming. Many theorems in scaling of matrices and multidimensional matrices are direct consequences of this theorem. The main...