THE VALUE OF STATISTICS. 449 



offenses coming under this distinction are adultery, fornication, 

 lewd conduct, drunkenness, carrying concealed weapons, extor- 

 tion. From official returns made to the Secretary of the Common- 

 wealth of Massachusetts from the various prisons for the year in 

 which the previous study was made, it appeared that more than 54 

 per cent of the commitments were for crimes which in Virginia 

 would have been punished by fine only, and the persons so pun- 

 ished never would have appeared, of course, in the prison statistics 

 of the former State. Statistically speaking, then, the only com- 

 parisons that would approach fairness, under the conditions 

 named, would be to reduce the actual number of prisoners con- 

 fined for crimes in Massachusetts 33 per cent to conform to the 

 number of crimes known to the two States in common. The bal- 

 ance, then, would have to be reduced 54 per cent on account of the 

 crimes punishable in Massachusetts by imprisonment for which a 

 fine only is imposed in Virginia. This illustration indicates how 

 unwise it is to undertake to prove the moral or immoral condition 

 of one community as compared with another by criminal statis- 

 tics. The more accurate the statistics, the more unjust and 

 vicious the comparison. 



Another exceedingly effective illustration drawn from criminal 

 statistics relates to some of the most perfect statistical showings 

 I have ever had occasion to examine. From the year 1860 to 1879, 

 inclusive, the criminal statistics of Massachusetts are perfect, and 

 are the results of the certified reports of the clerks of all the 

 criminal courts in the State. From the official statistics, as re- 

 ported by the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor in its 

 Eleventh Annual Report, January, 1880, I have drawn certain 

 comparative columns covering the crime of Massachusetts for the 

 twenty years named. These columns are shown in the table on 

 page 450. 



What would a superficial examination of the foregoing figures, 

 which, as I have said, are among the most accurate statistics I 

 have evei examined, prove as to the progress of crime in the State 

 named ? I will use what I have seen or have known others to use, 

 referring to these statistics. The increase in population in Massa- 

 chusetts for the twenty years covered by the table was 50'4 per 

 cent. The percentage of increase of crime for the same period 

 was 70-4 per cent. If we look back to 1875, we shall find that the 

 table shows that the population increased 34*1 per cent over 1860, 

 and that for the same period crime increased 144 per cent, while in 

 1873 the increase of crime was 179"3 per cent. These figures, per- 

 fectly true and accurate, used deftly, give an exceedingly black 

 eye to the State of Massachusetts, and no one can gainsay the bare 

 statistical conclusion or attack the accriracy of the figures on 

 which the conclusion is based. A very casual study of all the 



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