1 9 o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



18,794 names. 1 This list purports to include the distinguished men 

 from every walk of life in the TJnited States. The compilation is neces- 

 sarily incomplete. There are, of course, omissions ; while the mere classi- 

 fication of a name in " "Who's Who in America " is no guarantee of dis- 

 tinction. On the whole, however, it may justly be said th.at the propor- 

 tion of distinguished men whose names are inserted in "Who's Who in 

 America " is about the same for the various professions. Furthermore, 

 there is no reason to suppose that the proportion secured from different 

 sections of the country would show any material variation. All things 

 considered, these 18,794 names seem to offer the most available basis for 

 a study that would answer the questions regarding the supremacy of New 

 England in its production of distinguished persons. 



A study of the data in "Who's Who" was made in the following 

 manner. A schedule was arranged to show, first, the profession ; second, 

 the decade of birth; and third, the place of birth of the consecutive 

 names, beginning with the first page of the volume. In order to make 

 the information as usable as possible, the returns for each state were 

 separately tabulated, as were the returns for those cities which reported 

 a population of more than 20,000 in 1850. These items of information 

 were secured for the first 10,000 native-born persons. The generaliza- 

 tion from the first 10,000 names can safely be applied to the remainder 

 of the volume. 



The first point of interest arises in connection with the number and 

 per cent, of distinguished persons from each section of the TJnited 

 States and the per cent, of the total population of the United States in 

 the respective sections. These figures (Table I.) show at a glance the 

 proportion of distinguished persons born in the various localities. 



These returns, on their face, accord to New England a lead in the 

 total number of distinguished persons produced that is little short of 

 phenomenal. With less than a fourteenth of the population, New Eng- 

 land has been the birthplace of almost a quarter of the total number of 

 distinguished persons whose names appear in "Who's Who." The 

 Middle Atlantic States, with a fifth of the population, report somewhat 

 less than a third of the distinguished men ; the East North Central States 

 report almost equal proportions of distinguished persons and of popula- 

 tion ; while the other sections show a proportion of population consider- 

 ably above the proportion of distinguished persons born. There are 



i" Who's Who" is published in Chicago. The editor, Albert Nelson Mar- 

 quis, was born in Ohio. "The standards of admission to 'Who's Who in Amer- 

 ica' divide the eligibles into two classes: (1) Those who are selected on account 

 of special prominence in creditable lines of effort, making them the subjects of 

 extensive interest, inquiry or discussion in this country; and (2) those who are 

 arbitrarily included on account of official position — civil, military, naval, religious 

 or educational — or their connection with the most exclusive learned or other so- 

 cieties." From a statement following the preface, 1912-13 edition. 



