32 WORLD-POWER AND EVOLUTION 



the Civil Service Examinations. The number of persons taking 

 the examinations increased from about 14,000 in 1883 to well 

 over 200,000 in 1910. The applicants for Civil Service positions 

 represent all classes of society. They come from all over the 

 country, although the great majority live in the northeastern 

 quarter represented by the health curve. The examination papers 

 are graded by a large number of persons representing a variety 

 of bureaus. There is no reason to think that there have been any 

 marked changes in the severity with which the papers are graded. 



Deaths 

 (Inverted) 



Civil Service 

 Examinations 



Liquor 



Consumption , ,„^ 

 anverted) +10* 



1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 



Figure 2. Health, Examinations, and Temperance 



Psychologists have concluded that such examinations furnish an 

 admirable test of mental capacity, and that they can be graded 

 with much accuracy. Hence this set of statistics probably gives 

 a good idea of the general mental alertness of the American people 

 as a whole. The curves of health and of examinations in Figure 2 

 show a marked agreement. Good health from 1884 to 1886 is 

 followed by a high percentage of success in the examinations of 

 1886. A slight drop in both lines is followed by good health in 

 1889 and good examinations in 1890. Then comes 1891, a year 

 of piany deaths and poor health. See how the examinations fall 

 off the next year. It is not necessary to trace the curves further. 

 They rise and fall almost in harmony except that good or bad 

 health systematically precedes success or failure in the exami- 

 nations by about one year. 



