The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-20
From the Boston Herald.

From the Boston Herald.
 NICE Massachusetts has reputa- NN tion for progressive methods in " statistical work, 1t is in order to suggest an opportunity for very impor- tant improvement of the state census now in hand Very naturally, the most con venient units for census areas are those contained within municipal limits, so that the population of a state In a county Is exhibited in detail by the exhibition of the population figures of the various cities and town The foremost statisti- clans of various communities are in many respects absolutely worthless when based upon such results. This is for the req son that municipal Hints are arbitrary; they often furnish no index whatever to the true extent and character of the population in a community that may be under consideration.
 The only proper way in which really correct statistical facts concerning a com munity can be ascertained Is to consider it as population center. irrespective of po- litical bounds. The political bounds furn- ish the artificial, the extent of concen- trated population the natural, unit for sta- tlstical purposes. The natural limits of such a population are defined by the lines within which the density of population for a given community rises above the average of the surrounding country. Means for determining this with approxi- mate accuracy should not be beyond the resources of statistical science.
 It has been said that there are threp kinds of untruth-'lies." damned lies" and statistical lies" Perhaps the worst lie of all is the statistical lie. Ordinary lies. whether white or black, can be dealth with. But the statistical lie poses as truth based upon mathematical and scien- tific accuracy of method. whereas in re- ality it leads the seeker for information far astray and nulifies the value of data collected with great pains and expense. Such, in fact. is the character of very great proportion of the statistics concern ing cities and towns. It would be bet ter to have no figures at all than mis- leading ones.
 In illustration of how worthless for comparative purposes statistics based upon the arbitrary political limits of city may be, let us glance at the case of Boston. As we well know hereabouts, while the population of Boston as a mu- nicipality, defined by the census of 1900 was 560, S92. it's real metropolitan popula- tion was something like twice that figure Nevertheless, St. Louis, with popuia- tion slightly in excess of Boston's census figures, passes for a larger city, whereas Boston actually Is twice the size of St. Louis. and looks 1t In every respect. When 1t comes to comparisons between Boston and some other great city, such as Phil adelphia or Chicago, where practically the entire metropolitan population is with in the corporate limits, it is evident that deductions concerning mortality, health wealth, nationality, crime, intelligence and various other important matters would be entirely worthless. The fact that whole communities like Brooklne, Milton. Ded- ham, Cambridge. Newton. etc., were not taken into account in one case, while similar populations were included in the other would lead to entirely different per- centages and averages and would abso- lutely vitiate the value of any conclusions that might be drawn. Therefore 1t would