METAPHYSICAL ELEMENT IN STATISTICS. 



119 



The auditors' account is as follows 



Assets. 



Cash in bank £ 250,000 



Cash iu hands of banking agencies 



and corporations 75,000 



Clearances and exchanges 75,000 



Stocks and bonds, real value 200,000 



Short loans on securities (estimated 



to yield) 100,000 



Mercantile loans after writing off 



losses and allowing for doubtful 



accounts 1,850,000 



Mercantile discounts, real value 



after making same allowance 3,940,000 



Claims against acceptances, real 



value 475,000 



Bank premises and other property, 



saleable value 75,000 



Total assets £7,040,000 



Liahililics. 



Notes in circulation £ 325,000 



Depositors 2,750,000 



Cuireut accounts 2,500,000 



Banking correspondents 120,000 



Acceptances 565,000 



Total liabilities £6,260,000 



Surplus 780,000 



$7,040,000 

 Reserved fund all gone and only half 

 capital left. 



These are surprisingly different figures from the former ones. And when creditors or 

 stockholders meet there is an indignant outcry. Nothing can be more natural in such 

 cases. The object of the present paper is not to discuss the degrees of culpability attach- 

 ing to directors who have put forth the former statement. It may consist of simple neg- 

 ligence in some and of gross negligence in others. Some may have been negligent in but 

 seldom attending meetings of the board. Others, who have really paid attention to the 

 business, may have made great and even culpable errors of judgment in computations of 

 the outcome of insolvent and doubtful estates, spread over vast areas of country and, per- 

 haps, over different countries of the world. 



Or there may have been on the part of one or two, and possibly of all, such an amount 

 of knowledge as would make the presentation of the former set of figures a deliberate act 

 of misrepresentation or concealment, and such as to imply fraud and criminality. 



These considerations might be enlarged on almost to any extent. It is, however, 

 sufiicient for the purpose of this paper merely to suggest them, and to add that when the 

 statements of vast numbers of merchants, corporations, or moneyed institutions are gathered 

 together into the immense totals which appear in the returns relating to nations and 

 countries, due allowance should be made for such considerations as the foregoing. 



12. To illustrate the bearing of the line of thought with which we set out, let us con- 

 sider whether, and to what extent, this moral element will affect statistics of wealth, 

 population, etc., on the two sides of the Atlantic respectively. 



Let us take first the case of the United States and note what elements, if any, there 

 are which would affect the calculation, and sway any doubtful issues towards one side or 

 the other. 



