Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, December 1899: Vol. LVI, November, 1899 to April, 1900Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, December 1899: Vol. LVI, November, 1899 to April, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Statistics reveal also the consciousness which men have of their
resemblances and their differences. It is statistically known that the
geographical distribution of nationalities is not accidental or
capricious. Immigrant Italians, Germans, and Scandinavians find their
way to those parts of the country where men of their own blood and
speech are already established. Intermarriages of men and women of
different nationalities are statistically known to be frequent where
no differences of religion exist, and infrequent where different
nationalities profess different faiths. The statistics of political
elections are quite as much statistics of the consciousness of kind as
of differences of mental type itself.
The most significant fact of all, however, has still to be named. It
is this: From the first known beginnings of statistical research to
the present time every extension of statistical inquiry has been in a
large measure due to the consciousness of kind. The first statistical
surveys of communities of which we have any record were such tribal
enumerations as those recorded in the book of Numbers, the avowed
object of which was to ascertain the strength and resources of the
various tribes by clans, lesser gentile groups, and households, not
more for utilitarian reasons than for the gratification of gentile and
tribal pride. The census taken in Greece in 594 B. C. was for the
purpose of dividing the people into four classes and levying taxes
according to wealth. The constitution of Servius Tullius, 550 B. C.,
distinguished six property classes, and the attempt to determine these
statistically was one of the earliest experiments in census-making at
Rome. The Domesday Book of William I (1086) is the first great
statistical document in English history, and its origin was due to a
desire to know not only the military and fiscal strength of the
nation, but also its class distinctions and feudal relationships. The
great stimulus given to statistical investigation by the French
Revolution was an obvious product of class feeling. Most of the
refinements of statistical inquiry in later years have had a like
origin. Such, for example, was the cause of the discrimination in our
own census of the foreign born from the native born, and of the native
born of foreign parents from both native and foreign born. Such has
been the cause of the attempt to get more exact statistics of
religious denominations, of labor organizations, and of the
distribution of wealth. Had there been no reason for including these
costly inquiries in statistical investigations, except that of their
general utility and scientific interest, the appropriation for them
would have been denied in Congress without an instant's hesitation.
They have been included because of the political deference given to
class feeling and to various forms of religious and educational
prejudice.
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