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"I urge, therefore, that our American colleges follow the example of European institutions. I would urge upon the government of the United States, and upon the government of the States, the necessity of providing by law for the admission of students that have taken scientific courses in statistics as honorary attachés of, or clerks to be employed in the practical work of, statistical offices. This is easily done without expenditure by the government, but with the very best economic results.

We take a Census in the United States every ten years, but as a rule the men that are brought into the work know nothing of statistics: they should be trained in the very elementary work of Census taking and of statistical science. How much more economical for the government to keep its experienced statisticians busily employed in the interim of Census taking, even if they do no more than study forms, methods, and analyses, connected with the presentation of the facts of the preceding Census. Money would be saved, results would be more thoroughly appreciated, and problems would be solved."

It is impossible here to mention but a small part of the details that a statistician will find connected with his practical work. The plan of tabulation changes with each subject, and instructions for one would be inapplicable to another. But with each practical success will come the desire and ability to undertake new investigations and follow them to their presentation to the public.

General principles or points of instruction to guide the teacher in his work may be stated. From these must be evolved the details inherent in the subject considered.

1. Supply the students with blank printed schedules.

2. Supply the information to be written in.

3. Give practical instruction in filling schedules.

4. Examine the schedules when filled and point out errors and omissions.

5. Have the students act as special agents or enumerators, the teacher giving the answers.

6. Have the teacher stimulate inquiry by unsatisfactory replies. 7. Have the students present in writing a statement of all the points of information supplied by the schedules.

8. Have the students discriminate between the valuable and the simply interesting classes of information.

9. Teach the proper system of classification of the schedules. 10. Sketch tables for presentation; examine and improve them. 11. Have samples of principal tables put into type. Consider rule work, typography, punctuation, general effect, etc.

12 Decide upon the plan of tabulation.

13. Work to secure the correlation of facts in the tabulation and

presentation.

14. Teach the uses of mechanical devices for quick computation. 15. Prepare suitable result sheets to take down the results of tabulations.

16. Prepare the intermediary or office copy from the result sheets.

17. Endeavor to condense tables, and cut out weak or useless

lines.

18. Prepare copy for press, and criticize carefully.

19. Give instructions regarding proof reading and corrections. 20. Make proper records of the dealings with the printer. 21. Give instructions concerning "revises," "second revises," "plate proof," corrections, and ordering to press.

22. Have each student write an analysis or consideration of the tables prepared.

Although the preparation of schedules comes first in the prosecution of actual statistical work, yet the preparation of schedules with accompanying explanations, instructions, and illustrations is the highest form of practical statistics, and should not be attempted until the student is thoroughly grounded in the other branches of this division of the science. In fact, a student might be proficient in all the other branches, which are executive or progressive in their nature, and yet be unable to prepare a satisfactory schedule or blank, this part of the work being fundamental, inventive, and constructive.

The best plan would seem to be to settle upon some subject for investigation. Have each student prepare a series of inquiries, the maximum number being fixed by the teacher.

The various lists should then be examined and criticized and a final list, with the least number of inquiries possible, adopted. Each student should then put this list into shape for printing. These blanks or schedules should then be examined and criticized, as before, and the best one adopted. The usual result will be that the best forms submitted will have to be put into a new blank, differing in some respects from any particular one submitted by the students. Then explanations and instructions should

be prepared in a similar way and made to go undergo thorough consideration and careful criticism. The blank or schedule should then be put in type and the "proof" again criticized. When the schedules are printed a plan of filling in the schedules should be devised. Each student may fill out a certain number, or each student may obtain a schedule from all the other students. They should not endeavor to make each schedule complete, but “refusals to answer certain inquiries," "indefiniteness in replies," "false returns," etc., may be introduced, and their presence in the tabulation will give the students practice in handling incomplete and unreliable returns. These schedules may now be put through the successive stages of examination, tabulation, presentation, and the final consideration of results secured. This consideration should be limited to the necessary text and notes to make plain the meaning of the tables. Discussions as to what the tables prove, and their application to the body politic, are outside of the domain of practical statistics. The same line divides the practical statistician and the "applied" statistician as comes between the author, artist, or composer and the critics of their works.

A careful examination of the statistical field for the past fifty years, as regards all countries, shows that statisticians have given nearly all their time and attention to the consideration of statistical results. But little can be learned concerning the practical part of the work. No papers or books have considered at length the questions to which this volume is devoted, and it is to be presumed that, with a few exceptions, the practical work of statistics has been done in the old way without the advantage of improved methods of quick computation. In all progressive countries, at the present day, in every industry the most improved time-saving and labor-saving devices are used, and in the teaching of practical statistics in this country it would seem to be in accord with progress if the old forms of work were superseded by what are found to be improved methods. The difficulty, as in all reforms, is in getting "out of the old ruts" and into the new ones; but the change should be made if for no other reason than that it will give the same results for less money and more results for the same money.

As has been stated strongly, we must have educated statisticians, and they must study before engaging in actual statistical work.

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The plan in the past has been to throw the burden of a census upon individuals who were willing to work but who were unprepared, scientifically and practically, to cope with such a task. The apprentice learns the use of tools under competent supervision, the future chemist practises his future work in his laboratory, and the student physician attends instructive and realistic clinics. Practice before practising is a specially good rule for statisticians, and the students of the new science should have opportunities supplied for preliminary work before endeavoring to superintend a "figure factory." Printing is called "the art preservative of all arts," and, in its own peculiar way, statistics is an ally and a conservator of many other sciences.

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