APPENDIX. 



613 



writers in their private studies, pay very little attention to diagrams illustrating 

 controverted topics, because they must constantly guard against false impres- 

 sions. They study the tables, and if they desire diagrams thoy construct them, 

 which any one can do who will take the trouble to draw the spaces evenly. 



I can best illustrate this by an example, and for this purpose will take a 

 subject which is illustrated in this way perhaps more frequently than any other 

 — the variations in the ratio between gold and silver since 1873. Diagrams I., 

 II., and III. represent precisely the same thing, as a careful inspection will show, 

 and yet, when drawn separately, upon a blackboard, they would produce a 

 very different effect upon an audience. Diagram I. differs from II. merely in 

 having its vertical spaces twice as large, while diagram III. differs from IT. only 

 in having the horizontal spaces doubled. They all represent the appreciation 

 of gold, as compared with commodities, according to the tables of the London 

 Economist, for the period covered. (See pages 614 and 615.) 



3. Statistical Authorities. — The original authorities relating to the 

 production and stocks of the precious metals, and emissions of paper money, are 

 mainly the records of the governments of the world. The principal nations now 

 publish this information annually, compiled from official sources. The earlier 

 estimates were compiled by eminent statisticians from researches in govern- 

 mental archives, and such other sources as in their judgment are entitled to 

 respect. The basis of confidence is in the competence of the compiler. None 

 are included here which have not received the endorsement of the Director of the 

 United States Mint, or the Finance Committee of the United States Senate by 

 being included in official publications. The same may be said as to the table of 

 ratios. In regard to prices, the most exhaustive study ever made in any country 

 is that made under the direction of a sub-committee of the Finance Committee 

 of the United States Senate, and found in Senate Report No. l,394r, Fifty-second 

 Congress, second session (1893). The period covered begins with 1840, and 

 ends with 1891. These tables include the course of wholesale prices of from two 

 to three hundred articles in the United States. These tables have never been 

 continued. There are many similar tables compiled by statisticians, of which 

 those most commonly referred to are those of Dr. Augustus Sauerbeck, of 

 London, of forty-five articles in England, and the London Economist, of 

 twenty-two commodities. These are regularly continued each year. Another 

 • very valuable set of tables is that of Dr. Adolf Soetbeer, of Germany, and 

 continued, after his death, by others. These tables give the wholesale prices of 

 one hundred commodities in Germany, and fourteen English articles. Other 

 recognized statistical authorities are the Journal of the Koyal Statistical 

 Society, London, which is made up of original contributions, and Mulhall's 

 Dictionary of Statistics, which is a compilation. For convenient reference 

 Waldron's Handbook of Currrency and Wealth (Funk & "Wagnalls, New 

 York, 1896, Price fifty cents) is an excellent compendium, containing most of 

 the tables to which it is usual to refer in discussing currency topics. For care- 

 ful study all these tables require the aid of explanatory matter which always 

 accompanies their original publication, but for which there is no space in a 

 compact summary. 



