- I. A. Hourwich 503. SILVER, PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF STEAMSHIP SUbsidies, Report of Select COMMITTEE ON TRADE UNIONS, INCORPORATION OF - Twelfth Census of Manufactures 343 Economic Interpretation of History South Australian State Socialism 280 New International Silver Movement 448 Quantity Theory and Its Critics: A Rejoinder 621 Loos, ISAAC A. Ann Arbor Conference on the Higher Commercial Education 457 MCVEY, FRANK L. Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Increase in Gold and the Price-Making Process 625 SCHOENHOF, JACOB History of the Working Classes and of Industry in France 416 Report of Proceedings of the Third International Congress for the Welfare American Merchant Ships and Sailors 491 ASTRESSE, PHILIPPE Württemberg BLONDEL, Georges BOLEN, GEORGE L. Traité général théorique practique des assurances mutuelles 133 BÖHM-BAWERK, EUGEN VON BOURGEOIS, LÉON - 125 La France et la Marché du Monde 309 The Plain Facts as to the Trusts and the Tariff 324 Positive Theorie des Capitals (Zweite Auflage) 145 Essai d'une philosophie de la solidarité 649 BRANDT, ALEXANDRE DE Droit et coutumes des populations rurales de la France The Last Days of the Ruskin Co-operative Association INAMA-STERNEGG Dr. Karl Theodor von Deutsche Wirtschaftgeschichte in KEEN, FRANK NOEL KIDD, BENJAMIN Deutsches Geld und deutsche Wahrung 486 Tramway Companies and Local Authorities 339 Principles of Western Civilization Contribution à l'étude de la législation impériale allemande 496 LAIR, MAURICE LAMP, DR. KARL KORN, ANDRÉ LAFFITTE, LOUIS L'organisation commerciale de notre réseau de voies navigables 306 Le paysan et la crise rurale 653 172 148 Burma Under British Rule and Before 321 NAUMANN, FRIEDRICH NISBET, JOHN PAISH, GEORGE PATTEN, SIMON N. The British Railway Position 493 PETRITSCH, LEO Die Theorie von der sogenannten günstigen und ungünstigen Progress upon Human Life and Thought THE JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY DECEMBER-1902 THE ADJUSTMENT OF CROP STATISTICS. THE publication of the reports of the twelfth census has furnished a useful corrective to many theories and has put to rout a good many false ideas which have been widely entertained. In no department of the census, however, has this result been more definitely produced than in the matter of crop statistics. It is not strange that the work of the Census Bureau. regarding agricultural statistics should be of such pre-eminent importance. There is perhaps no subject of more direct commercial interest than that of such statistics and the estimates based thereupon. How commanding a place is assigned to them by practical men of affairs may be readily seen from the consideration they receive at the hands of boards of trade and commercial bodies of every description. Nor is this work performed by private hands alone during the intervals between census years. In the Department of Agriculture at Washington there has been developed an elaborate mechanism designed to furnish the commercial world with estimates concerning the condition of crops during the growing season, which can be checked by more accurate returns gathered at the end of the crop year. In many states there are state agencies for the performance of the same work. But the result of all this effort has been disappointing. As the Vol. XI, No. 1. I crop statistics of the country have gone on developing, confusion has arisen. It was to be expected that the work of private estimators would be colored by their own pecuniary interest or hampered by inadequate means, or would be fragmentary. In the individual states, local prejudices and lack of means for the support of an elaborate statistical agency would naturally produce some unfortunate results. Until recently, however, it had been supposed that the returns of the Department of Agriculture at Washington were based upon a distinct system, carried out by reliable machinery, and yielding returns in which a very considerable degree of confidence could justly be reposed. Of late several things have occurred to weaken confidence in the work of the Department of Agriculture. Business interests, particularly in New York, have felt that its reports of crop conditions were unsatisfactory. There has been dissatisfaction with the way in which the reports have been brought out and the time at which they have been published. It has been felt too, either that the system employed in the Department of Agriculture was antiquated and unreliable, or else that the management of the statistical work of the department was such as could not be depended upon. But the most severe shock received by the department in popular confidence has resulted from the wide discrepancies noted since the publication of the returns of the census office, concerning agricultural products early in the year 1902. All these factors have had their part in stimulating the uneasiness existing in official circles at Washington for a long time past, and suggesting the wisdom of a change in the statistical work done by the government. Investigation has shown many flaws, extravagances, and duplications in this work, and it has been felt that not only in the interest of economy, but also in that of harmony between different bureaus and harmony in returns, it might be well to reorganize our crop service in a thoroughgoing way. In the following discussion it is proposed to suggest: 1. The facts of the present statistical discrepancy between the Census Bureau and the Agricultural Department. |