a8 A REPLY TO CRITICISMS OF THE 



was made that each of the seventeen porters got 2os. 6d.y 

 but the statement was made that porters followed a trade 

 the grade of which was 20s. 6d. as compared, for example, 

 against masons with a 345-. i^. trade. It was perfectly 

 clearly stated that the wages given were average trade 

 wages and used to grade the trade and not the man. The 

 object was, of course, to ascertain whether the sober and the 

 drinking workmen followed the same trades, or the latter 

 had, as Professor Marshall asserted, sunk to * low class jobs '. 



But there are still more typical examples of Sir Victor's 

 accuracy in the paragraph cited. He finds that I have 

 seventeen porters, and in his own superficial examination 

 of the Report he only discovers thirteen. He then at once 

 starts with accusing me of creating imaginary porters. 

 This is markedly characteristic ; instead of inquiring what 

 has been done before he makes a gross blunder and an 

 absolutely unjustifiable assertion, he rushes into print with 

 his ' imaginary porters '. Now the rule of our Laboratory, 

 and I believe of most trained statisticians, when dealing 

 with trades and classifying for small numbers is to adopt 

 the Registrar-General's scheme — in this case identical 

 with that of the Registrar-General for Scotland. The 

 Registrar-General's group contains Messenger^ Porter, &c, 

 {not Railway) and he uses this in his table for the 

 Effects of Alcoholic Excess} Are then the 'four imaginary 

 individuals invented for this trade' the messengers cus- 

 tomarily included by statisticians with porters? Not at 

 all, only two of them have this origin, namely : 



No. 341. Messenger, in regular employ, wage 21^. and 

 excellent character for steadiness and trustworthiness. 



^ Supplement to the Fifty -Sixth Annual Report, Part I, 1908, p. cix, and 

 also Instructions to the Clerks employed in Classifying the Occupations and 

 Ages of the People. England. 



