The Minneapolis journal., 1902-06-28


other side AS the faithful attorney OF
his client, his party. It IS his duty to set
forth only what Is favorable or can be!
made favorable to- the party. g
Another common saying is that any:
thing can be proved with figures. This
is SO commonly accepted as the fact that
all discreet persons put check upon
themselves before Yielding conviction to
impressive arrays OF fgures. At the Min
nesota State Bankers convention the.
other day, Mr.. s. r. Flynn declared that
statistics were utterly svalueless unless
considered in the light OF conditions. That
Is only another way Of saying that iso->
lated statistical facts are OF lit
tie or no value Statistics are
valued chiefly as they reveal re-
lations. Thus some. time ago speaker
in the Canadian parliament undertook to
make comparison between the United
States and Canada disparaging to the lat
ter's fiscal management on the ground
that Canada with 100000 people spends
more money for public purposes than the
United States did when 1t had 20,000,0oo
people. The speaker made no reference
to the differences between the conditions
prevailing In the United States Of 1910
and the Canada of 1900. He was content
to say that 5000, 900 people were spending
more than 10000, 900 did. That ought to
be enough for any reasonable man. he.
thought. But as a matter, of fact his fg-
ures were useless, his conclusions value
less. because he told US nothing OF con-
ditions. He did not give the wealth Of
the Canada OF 1900 as compared with the
wealth of America of :1S40. He made no
mention Of the remarkable increase in
productivity since that time. -
Similarly in this country we see state.
ments from time to time citing 1t as an
ominous fact that federal expenditures
are increasing faster than the population.
That is an ominous fact If while our. dis
bursements increase our wealth does not
increase. But the spontaneous Increase
in the revenues, which more than keeps
pace with disbursements indicates that
natural wealth is increasing quite rapidly
enough to justify increased expenditures.
Suppose we do spend twice as much per
capita now as twenty years ago and we
are three times as wealthy. That would
show that instead Of being more extrava-
giant than formerly. we are really more
economical. @,=@:,s
In the Popular Science Monthly, Carroll
D. Wright calls attention to some tai
lacies in handling statistics. These fall
lacies are so common that they result In
great obscuration OF facts. For instance,
take the comomn method of striking av-
erages. If you ask an employer who has
twenty men at 81 per day, forty men at 81
per day and sixty men at So per day what
their average wages are. he will take an
average OF 81, 81 and $seana say 81 a day.
That. is not true wage average, for. it
takes no account Of Sthe number Of men,
but only Of the class rate. AS matter
of fact all these men earn $3.50 in one
day, or an average OF $2.33. And in q
question sof wages the difference of SO
cents may mean aedozen strikes or happy,
industrial peace. Is eaz&'%2: + % =
l. percentages are 1ofm OF STATISTICS
that entrap the superficial often, ?; and
sc metimes the profound. Mr. Wright
says that someone recently declared that
300 per cent fytheI Turks IN Washington
are criminals. An Investigation showed
that the one Turk who lives in Washing
ton had been arrested three times. An
other writer set OUT to prove that women
in co-educational institutions. married
more frequently than men. He found q
college In which there were 100 men and
two women. One of the men married one
4 of the women. Hence he sustained his
conclusion that one per cent OF the men
married while 50 per cent Of the women
married. Even SO good a work as Tho
rold Rogers six Centuries of Work and
Wages contains several instances OF
this '.pernicious use of percentages"
Such. errors flow from sacrifice Of
common sense to mere figures. Com
| mon sense must not be SO sacrificed, but
should be used to interpret figures and
| apply them In their true relations. T..