John Koren
Published: 2015-07-21
Total Pages: 790
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Excerpt from The History of Statistics, Their Development and Progress in Many Countries: In Memoirs to Commemorate the Seventy Fifth Anniversary of the American Statistical Association The motive that inspired this volume was to mark the Seventy fifth Anniversary of the American Statistical Association by a serviceable contribution to our knowledge of statistics. The opportunity was found in preparing a history of the development and organization of official statistics throughout the world. By the aid of certain commemorative publications and other scattered documents one could piece together more or less complete sketches of the status of statistics in this or that country covering various periods of time; for most countries comprehensive and authoritative statements were lacking. The story had not yet been written as a whole and in detail how different nations have systematized information about themselves, what statistical means they employed, and what has been accomplished to the end that national forces and resources might be placed under wise direction and legislation. The history of the development and organization of official statistics is not a barren record of steps in a scientific process of dealing with facts, but of efforts to get a working knowledge about the fundamental elements in the life of a country - the population, its environment, and its manifold economic and social relations. By taking measure of these elements, statistics reveal the condition of growth and trend in every direction and set out the milestones for the guidance of the administrator and legislator. But the manner in which the science of statistics has been applied also carries many practical lessons, for out of the abundant experience of others the rest of us must learn. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.