The Washington times., 1902-03-10


looking handsome to now to make a mil
lion dollars. Therefore it is not a COM
plete surprise to find that statistics-dry,
meaningless. lifeless. as the average man
uIay think them-have been included in
the list of learnable things. transformed
iIito a subject of interesting study. and
set forth in regular course.
General Course.
AT the Massa chusetts Institute of Tech
nology, in Boston, there is what they call
a general course" for the benefit of
those who prefer not TO commit them
selves to any particular technical line, but
would rather prepare for a more general
career in the business world. Compared
with other more specialized courses, it
boasts no great number of students, for,
naturally. the average technology man has
marked preference for one technical
line or another; but for the chosen few
who take advantage of it-future bankers
or brokers, "publicists,' politicians, edi-
tors, and SO OMIT is one of the most use
full divisions; and the study of statistics
comes in as one of the principal depart
Compiling Figures.
Everyone has heard that the superla-
tive OF lies is statistics. In other words,
statistics, like the Photographic camera,
though unable to lie themselves, are yet
when wrongly manipulated or mistrans-
lated, as misleading as testimonials, en-
dersements at the polls, or sign boards on
Halloween.
The object at the institute, therefore,
is to teach the student how to compile
and represent certain facts and figures
brought under his notice, graphically,
numerically, or in whatever way their
meaning will be most obvious under the
circumstances; next, to make him per-
fectly familiar with the sources of facts
end figures such he is likely to use.
that he may be able both to compile sta
tistics OF his own and also to go back to
their source and check up figures which
have already appeared; and, finally, to
enable him to reason on statistics. to
get the desired and correct facts and in
ferences out of them, TO tell good ones
from bad ones, and right ones from wrong
ones.
Drawing Comes First.
The steps leading TO these ends are
gradual. Oddly enough, the student be-
gins with what seems more like prelim-
mary course in mechanical drawing. With
ruling pen and paper he practices laying
out conventional figures-squares, cir
cles. triangles-and shading them vari-
ously. Next, he makes the acquaintance
of set of brushes and water colors and
practices various methods of tinting and
shading All this is for the benefit of the
work he is afterward to do in graphical
representations.-like the colored compil-
ations SO often found in aliases and cy-
ciopedias.
Next or even at the same tine, they
give hira tasks. for instance. like dcscrib-
ing In brief notes the contents of a GER
tain official report or transcribing from
its pages a few figures in answer to writ
ten questions-all a very simple process.
but valuable on two accounts. 1t sends
the student learning the contents of such
volumes as finance reports reports on
commerce and navigation, reports of la
Dor bureaus, and so on, which he may
never have understood the use of be-
fore.
Accuracy and Order.
Also. for the second subject, it tends
to bring his mind into hacits of accuracy
and order. The first lime Re presents the
results of his labors they are probably
far from being free of errors of copying
The next time he will have included un-
necessary data and left out some essen
tials; next he will have all the desired
Information, but not in the most concise
and compact form-but always keeping at
it till he is able to do precisely what he
is told Ia rare accomplishment and ex-
press his task in a nutshell.
While he is learning whete to go for
fa ot nd in hat char tn 10
he also receives lessons in how TO repre-
sent them graphically. This is a science
in Itself. Whether it were best to repre-
sent, for instance, the populations of the
various States by straight lines OF pro-
portionate length OF by squares of pro-
portionate area; whether the exports and |
imports of a country could best be dis !
played by different sized segments of a !
circle or pyramids Of proportionate bases |
all these are matters not of guesswork, |
but of definite consideration.
An Interesting Work
These graphical methods OF portraying
statistics are so interesting, so delight
fully obvious, and furnish such a short
cut for drawing numberlesS inferences
that would lie forever unnoticed IL
couched in long figures. that there is |
usually great difficulty in preventing the
student from putting too much time on |
them to the detriment of his more pro- |
sale studies.
One might, for example look over the !
figures expressing the marriage rate in |
England from year to year. then glance |
at those expressing the value of exports |
for the same period, and find no obvious |
connection between the two. But were |
he to plot out the marriage rates in So |
called curve" (which is not necessarily |
a curve at all, but may be a very irregu- |
lar line) allowing his horizontal distances !
to represent years and his vertical dis |
tances the rates of marriage; then add on
the same sheet an export curve-vertical |
distances standing for money yalues-he |
would instantly see the relation between
the two.
When the export trade was good we'd
ding-bells chimed more merrily and vice |
versa.
Easy to Follow.
One merit of these methods of graphical !,
is that il makes ordinarily
dull figures alive and Interesting. Thus,
TO keep track of the amount OF money in
the United States Treasury from day to
day merely by figures would be rather
solemn work; but to tack sheet of paper
On the wall marked in little squares, each
horizontal division representing a day
and each vertical division representing so
many dollars, then, with the daily Treas
Try reports at hand. to plot out on IT each
morning a line and a distance represent
ng the figures, and watch the crooked
inc SO made creep across the sheet, now
ip, now down, and to speculate on all the
possible causes for its fiuctuations-such