A First Course in Statistics (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A First Course in Statistics

Fifty years ago a large section of the general public were not only uninterested in what we now call the social problem, but they scarcely gave a thought to the existence of such a problem. They felt vaguely perhaps, during periods of acute distress due to lack of employment, that all was not well and they thought the Government or possibly the big landowner was to blame, but only the more enlightened realized the complexity of the body politic and how fearfully and wonderfully it is made. To-day all this is changed, and comparatively few imagine that a single panacea - the prohibition of drink, the nationalization of land, or a levy on capital will cure all evils.

The very fact that nearly the whole civilized world has given itself up for over four years to the destruction of life and the dragging down of the social fabric in all countries on so vast a scale has led to a surfeit and a reaction in which thoughtful men are eager to take part in proclaiming again a common brotherhood and in building a better world. Those who have always been interested in this kind of architecture welcome the change of spirit, but they also recognize the difficulty of the task undertaken and the need for no little mental effort to second the good-will, which is the first essential for success. To pull down no teacher is needed, but we must learn to build.

This leads one to the subject of the present book. The man who wishes his work to stand must make sure of its foundations. He cannot afford to rest satisfied, as too often the politician and social worker do, with wild and ill-informed generalizations where more exact knowledge is possible, and there are few human problems in the discussion of which some acquaintance with the proper treatment of statistics is not in the highest degree necessary.