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THE ART OF VISUAL PRESENTATION
(Continued from the September issue)
H. B. Auerbach and G. S. Chiles Chicago
CLERGYMEN, philanthropists, economists, workers in the field of science, municipal, state and national governments, financial and trade statisticians use statistics in some way. It is essential that they acquire some knowledge of the graphic art in order to make the statistical data with which they are constantly dealing more readable and digestible. Bookshelves are flooded with bulky volumes, poured from our presses in an endless stream. Long columns of figures and page after page of printed text are bewildering and it is but natural that they get to be viewed as "dry, uninteresting stuff." We are living in an age of the concrete. As modern life becomes more and more complex its standards become correspondingly severe and exacting. Traditional rule-of-thumb methods are no longer applicable. A new program has been ushered in, and that program demands that we get down to the heart of things with the least expenditure of time and energy. Inconsequential details and guess work must give way to worthwhile and scientific knowledge. Social and economic phenomena involve the operation of so complex a system of forces, that despite the accuracy and completeness with which the numerical data pertaining thereto may have been collected and classified, we must summon to our aid another working tool, namely, the visual appeal of graphic presentation. Only by charting the relations can we present them
and understand them in their full light, all preconceived ideas and personal prejudices to the contrary notwithstanding. By illustrating the data we make their story more significant, effective and real. Numerical abstractions and misconceptions are made to materialize into pictured realities, and conditions almost beyond comprehension seem to clarify and become relatively easy of interpretation.
Pictures and Illustrative Cartoons: — By way of further demonstrating the value of the pictorial appeal, we refer the reader to Figure 4 illustrative of "What It Takes To Raise A Crow"— an interesting little lesson in natural history. In an economic sense, the crow is in some respects one of our most important birds because of its enviable record, among other things, as a destroyer of insects and therefore as a protector of crops. The method employed in knowing to the point of exactness the food preferences of the crow involves both extensive and intensive examination. The U. S. Biological Survey now leads the world in this particular department of research. It will amaze the reader to know that no less than 2118 crow stomachs were collected from all parts of the bird's range, supplemented by observations of many able ornithologists and specialists and with the collaboration of practical farmers as well. A period of about five years was consumed in stomach examinations alone. More than 625 specifically dif
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