98 Social Environment 



general progress of the country; but since 

 states are here measured merely by the rank 

 they occupy, the only pertinent question is as 

 to the relative changes. The answer to the 

 question is summarized in the accompanying 

 graph which shows that even in the entire 

 period from i860 to 1910 no very great change 

 has occurred. Even the mild degree of change 

 that appears to have taken place in the ranking 

 of the states in elementary education is prob- 

 ably exaggerated, due to the irnpossibility of 

 getting a uniform standard of measurement. 

 The results are decisive enough to put aside all 

 doubt of the relative stability of the measured 

 factors of the environment during the period 

 of the development of any individual. 



A further question may be raised concerning 

 the census to be selected as the basis of the 

 work. On the evidence of 756 names taken 

 at random, Who's Who in America shows that 

 the "modal" age of the persons included in 

 the list of notables is nearly fifty; hence that 

 the census of 1870, and particularly that of 

 i860, would come close to the average date 

 of birth. A difficulty arises, however, out of 

 applying to all states generally any specified 

 census figures on population as the base in com- 



