The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-07-29

Washington, d. G.. July N.--ln
that clatter Of the tongue and
scratch OF the lead pencil that goes
On from the time one 10 born to
the day Of hIs last slow ride. what
word OF all those In the dictionary.
do you suppose, he uses the great
ct number Of times? Would you
like to know the word that is the
second favorite. the one that Is
enunciated third most frequently.
and the one that occupies fourth
place among verbal tools?
This unusual fact has recently
been determined. Folks use the
word 1.-THE" twice as often as any
other. Next to it is and" Then
follow "of' and to-" Since all of
us are cyclists, the little pronoun
~ is the nth word In use, and oc-
ours one-third oftener than the
pronoun you" A. in. that, for, it,
was. is. will and as appear in or
der.
In eliciting the above facts the
statistician has disproven the wide
ly accepted theory that he is a
dull and tedious individual who
may be depended upon to select for
his enumerations some obscure and
technical subject in which the aver
age run of men and women are NOT
| interested. Here is one man OF
tables and averages who is human
He was, during the World war, Co
lionel Leonard P. Ayres, attached
to the Office of the chief of staff
He is now Mr.. Ayres. director OF
education for the Russell Sage
foundation.
Save These War Figures.
At the close of the war Colonel
Ayres compiled for the war de-
partment a statistical summary
which showed at a glance wha,
had happened during those month:
Of conflict. His summary showed
for instance that the total battl,
deaths in the recent war were
greater than the deaths in all war!
for hundred years before; tha
Russia suffered most, despite hel
withdrawal; that Germany lost 8.
times as many men as the United
States; France % times as many
and Great Britain Is times a.
many. In this war So men in 100,
were killed in battle in a year
while in the Civil war 3 in LOO,
were so killed, and in the Mexican
war Is in each 1000. Thus tn,
death rate in battle during tn,
World war was highest of all wars
| Colonel Ayres further reporte,
that during the Mexican war III
in each 1000 men died of disease
and that IS in each 1000 men wer
lost from the same cause durin,
the Civil war. But during tn
World war the loss from diseas
was only 10 in each 1000 men, S,
that the late conflict scored a grea
success through making a scienc
Of cleanliness.
| Now the man who compiled thes
vital figures has been counting tn
words people use. The 10 mex
most used words are have, no,
with. be, your, at. we, on, he, by
They are all little fellows, who
like Peter Pan, never grow up.
Colonel Ayres, in his study o
educational problems, develope,
the theory that the words in tn
spelling books should be thos
which people use in that most com
mon form OF writing which appear
in the letters they transcribe
Spoken words do not need to b
lspelled. Few people write any
thing other than business and per
sonal letters. Would it be posi-
BILE. he asked, to find out wha
words were used in this sort @
writing. and to make sure tina
they were in the spelling books?
Few Words Are Used.
He went to a dozen different OF
CARNATIONS which received typica
letters, and got great packs G
them for statistical analysis. Fl
tabulated letters running into NOR
than 100000 words altogether. TIL
surprising fact was developed ths