Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-20

sertion of the proper figures. has been
prepared in advance. Every member OF
the board has such a blank report-and
every interested newspaper man has one
also.
At about ten minutes of IL or there
aboutS the board fills in its figures. Then
the men sit and wait-with the doors still
lccked-not member daring to leave
the room.
At five minutes of IL Dr. Olmsted
arises, gathers up all the filled-in re-
i'orts. looks them over to see that no
error has been made in the insertions
ana tfen unlocks the door of his Office.
Accompanied by the board. he then
marches downstairs to the waiting news
paper men and places the reports. face
DOWNWARD, on the table. Then. watches
In hand he, the other board members
and goodly array of staiwart watch
men stand guard over them.
Each newspaper man places his hand
on one copy, ready to seize it and run
when The word is given. Not a news
paper man but that would give much 10
take just one peep at the hidden side of
the paper he hods-but not one Of them
9ares. Mayhap newcomer Will ask
rev questions, but Iitying grins from his
teiloW-craftsmen and smiles from the
BOARD members will be his only reply
Inc telephone opera tor, stationed ONLY a
few feet distant. begins to toll off the
minutes ard half-minutes -Four min
utes CT l.. she drones out Three and
one-half minutes of 1o-three minutes of
1.-two and one-half minutes-two min
u1es-a minute and half-one minute
half minute"
Dr.. Olmsted's voice booms out. Get
ready! he rulnbles i'm deep bass
iWel-, the telephone operator be-
gins 10 call-but before she has finished
the word Dr. Olmsted's bass rumbles out
again.
CO." he shouts-and instantly every
newspaper man runs as IL for his very
NE NE 10 the telephone that is awaiting
him. On the other end Of the line some
one Is waiting with another report In
Diank, ready to fill in the ail-important
hgures: These the correspondent reads
o oa WITHOUT Ihe slightest preliminary
ana second later those figures are
piaceo on the wires and sent huulning
70 every STOCK exchange i'm the world
4 OF Europe takes almost as much inter
States. Wild joy and utter noiserw a.,
equal division follow the reception ~ ths
report-according to whether the nerson
concerned has "yuess.,d a., J P.i Soia
wrong. ieH' oE
Our reports are usually inst at,out
rect s2ld Dr. Osnsted discussing his
work. "Of course they rsualIv ar. .
, na.e or Few bushels out OF the way-;r
my are exact the fact is due more To
luck than anything else. Rut lpcL 6oes
not msure In the framing of the reports
AT aii-they are framed on facts and fie-
ures. ana the differences between our es-
Inmates and the actual figures which
come Few weeks later are so siipht
that they are negligible.
Inc accuracy is necessary foo far
some or the larger market manipuIators
nave pooled their capital and organized
statistical bureau Of their own. They
DO not conduct il in competition with
ours. or cOurse-that would be foolish
But they conduct in the hope OF getting
a line on our report-in other words in
stead of merely guessing on whether the
government report will be buliish or
bearish, they want a basis of KNOWLEDGE
They spend good many hundreds OF
thousands of dollars a year on their prf.
1ate bureau, too. but, although there
may be. as there frequently is. a wide
divergence between the reports of the
wo they always accept the government
innings without question. For they
know our estimate is just about as near
accurate as 1t is possible to get.
Il make no claim that the bureau in
perfect. nor do claim that il is fnfalli-
lie. Occasionally We make mistakes and
probably We always will But those mis-
axes are few and far between and when
hey do occur they usually are so minor
Irof RhGlr 10,