LXIV ADMINISTKATIVE BEPOET [eth. an.v. 20 



(!auses are multitudinous. Much of demotic iuA-ention is 

 exercised for tlie purpose of discoveriug tlie particular cause 

 most easily modifiable in the interest 'of human pur])oses. In 

 the multitude of such devices tlie causes are examined in a 

 multitude of ways b}' a multitude of peojjle who naturally 

 seek verification for their inferences as to the best methods of 

 modifying causes. In sociology this verification is by statis- 

 tics, and any arrangeixient of figures which appears to A'erify 

 an hypothesis may easily be believed to indicate the true or 

 modifiable cause of the efi'ects considered. 



In all the field of human thouo-ht there is no region in which 

 verification is more important than in sociology, nor is there 

 anj' field in which pseudo-verification entails more misery on 

 mankind. ]\Ien may claim to verify their speculations about 

 motors, and arrive at conclusions in which perpetual motions 

 are supposed to be invoh'ed in mechanical constructions; but 

 oiil}' the deluded persons themselves who are engaged in such 

 enterprises as inventors, promoters, or capitalists, are deceived. 

 But when social inventions which are supposed to accomplish 

 "perpetual justice" are adopted hj men as bodies politic, 

 calamity for the multitude is the result. 



Statistics are collected by governments in all their units as 

 nations, states, counties, cities, townships or wards, iuid families. 



Within the governmental organization there ai'e many other 

 bodies corporate, such as educational institutions, ecclesiastical 

 institutions, and industrial institutions. Everv body of people 

 is interested in the statistics which pertain to its functions. 

 These secondarj^ institutions are hereafter to be classified. 



We have thus found that the elements of statistics are classi- 

 fication, mensuration, enumeration, information, and verification. 



Economics 



When, on the frontier, a log house is to be built, the man 

 who proposes its erection invites his neighbors to a house 

 raising. The logs cut from the surrounding forest are brought 

 to accessible places around the cabin site, and a yoke of oxen 

 is made to drag them one bv one into position for use. Four 

 logs are placed on r<)cks as a foundation; u])on these logs 



