ARITHMETIC 



34S 



ARITHMETIC 



the water department, the department of pub- 

 lic works, the department of health, the offices 

 of the various inspectors, etc. The farmer boy, 

 who will operate his own farm some day, 

 ought to know how to reduce many of his 

 problems to figures. Guesswork on the farm 

 is expensive. How much stovewood is in 

 that standing tree? How much lumber will 

 be required for a corn crib to hold 500 bushels? 

 How shall he prepare rations for farm stock 

 to get best feeding results? Does his poultry 

 pay a profit? How will he determine whether 

 his neighbor with a silo has a financial advan- 

 tage over him? 



Some grocers own computing scales, which 

 automatically show the value of a purchase. 

 The boy in a less progressive store will find 

 his chances of continued employment brighter 

 and his work easier if he so commands math- 

 ematical knowledge that mentally he can solve 

 his hundreds of problems daily. A stubby 

 pencil and peevish, waiting customers seldom 

 give the clerk serene and tranquil poise. 



The growth of scientific investigation and 

 the consequent keeping of statistics and set- 

 ting forth to the public in literature the re- 

 sults of this varied investigation has enlarged 

 the use of arithmetic and opened positions to 

 boys and girls and men and women who need 

 to be alert and capable in the use of figures. 

 More and more are young people turning to 

 civil service pursuits. That broad field is par- 

 ticularly inviting, but one will hardly get in 

 and much less stay in without a good knowl- 

 edge of the fundamentals which underlie arith- 

 metic. For example, the department of health 

 gathers extensive statistics from which it draws 

 conclusions of incalculable value to physicians 

 and to the public. Board of education census 

 bureaus, bureaus of public welfare and public 

 workers in sociology do extensive work in sta- 

 tistics. The water department must figure 

 the capacity of pipes, the flow of water, the 

 number of cubic yards of "dirt" to be exca- 

 vated, the cost of material and labor for lay- 

 ing pipes, etc. 



Government departments employ scores of 

 thousands of clerks whose positions are secure 

 as long as they are competent to perform their 

 tasks and there is need of simple arithmetic 

 and quickness in applying it in nearly every 

 office. Even the Department of State, given 

 almost wholly to diplomatic affairs, demands 

 mathematics in its consular reports. The De- 

 partment of Agriculture, with its many bureaus, 

 has large forces at work on statistics and per- 



centages. The Bureau of Weights and Meas- 

 ures keep employed numbers of workers in 

 simple arithmetical computations as well as 

 in advanced mathematics. The employees of 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission are 

 largely occupied with figures. There is there- 

 fore a tremendous demand for arithmetic and 

 more advanced mathematics. It would seem, 

 therefore, as true quite beyond dispute that 

 the science of numbers underlies conditions 

 in every walk of life where people seek to 

 earn their living. The demand appears where 

 many of us least expect to find it. 



At the present day the scientific trend of 

 thought and the vast growth of industrial life 

 are calling urgently for mathematics, simple, 

 accurate arithmetical computation, as well as 

 the most complex mathematical conclusions. 



Boys and girls, therefore, who desire to be 

 equipped well for the demands of industrial 

 life, to fill satisfactorily the positions of be- 

 ginners and business novices in the first months 

 and years after leaving school, and to progress 

 as the years go by and take leading places 

 in this great complex industrial life, should 

 go out from school (if they must leave early) 

 with a good knowledge of arithmetic; they 

 must work in addition, multiplication, sub- 

 traction and division with assurance, accuracy 

 and some fair degree of rapidity; they .must 

 work easily with common fractions, and pos- 

 sess a knowledge of how to attack large ones 

 if they meet them; the decimal fractions must 

 be, in their hand, a tool in perfect control. 

 (The decimal fraction is supplanting the com- 

 mon fraction in all scientific work, investiga- 

 tion and experiment, and very largely in in- 

 dustrial work.) They must be familiar with 

 ratio and percentage which forms a great part 

 of the arithmetic of the commercial as well 

 as scientific computations; they must have at 

 hand the means of estimating and measuring 

 accurately, and lastly they must be prepared 

 to go on with advanced work in mathematics. 



Culture Value of Arithmetic. Arithmetic is 

 a logical exercise which strengthens and invig- 

 orates the mind. The student may reason 

 clearly and demonstrate to his perfect satis- 

 faction all arithmetical relations, and need not 

 accept them on tradition or on the authority 

 of his text-books. Very early in the study the 

 student finds laws immutable with which he 

 must work in accord; for example, he finds 

 by experiment alone or with his class that 

 the area of a circle is 3.1416 times as great 

 as the square built upon the radius of that 



