260 Folkmar—The Duration of School Attendance. 
time the Chicago portion of this paper was written) the weari¬ 
some copying for many days of the manuscript reports of over 
two hundred principals for the years 1889-94 and the adding 
of endless columns. The figures published herewith are, 
therefore, the only ones to be found in print. 1 The Chicago 
data have not been brought down to the present year, since 
this would necessitate not only special trips to Chicago but the 
expenditure of a large amount of time in copying the manu¬ 
script files without materially changing the results already se¬ 
cured. Neither had the enrollment previous to 1879-80 been 
published by grades, although the same regularity noticeable 
in it may be demonstrated as far back as 1875 from the data of 
Table II, giving the average daily membership (Chicago), 
1875-76 to 1880-81. 2 
Preceding 1875 the necessary comparisons cannot be made. 
Since a ten-grade system was in vogue until that year, the per 
cents before and after 1875 are incommensurable. The fifteen 
years, however, from 1880 to 1894 give a sufficient basis for 
the deductions sought. 
The Annual Reports of the School Board of Milwaukee are 
still more unsatisfactory to the statistician than those of the 
Chicago Board, since there never has been published a total 
enrollment by grades since the twelve-grade system was intro¬ 
duced. All that can be done, therefore, under the deductive or 
enrollment method, is to tabulate the average enrollment since 
the year just named, as is shown in the discussion of the table 
(p. 263, infra). However, the average enrollment is quite 
satisfactory for comparison with the Chicago table of total en¬ 
rollment. 
1 Table I. Enrollment of Public Schools {Chicago). Fifteen Years r 
p. 282 infra. The data for this table, for the years 1880-89, are compiled 
from tables in the appendixes of the annual reports; e. g. Report for 1889, 
pp. 142 and 152. 
2 Page 283 infra. The data for this table are compiled from tables in 
the appendixes of the annual reports; e. g., Report for 1889, p. 146. 
