Letter To the Editor

• Published date: 01 May 1942
• Date: 01 May 1942
• DOI: 10.1177/000271624222100190
• Subject Matter: Articles

245

with

it

comment

favorably

upon

its

clear

and

stimulating

presentation.

Its

usefulness

could

be

increased

by

bringing together

in

one

place

every

important

formula

em-

ployed,

and

in

a

few

instances

by

a

more

schematic,

step-by-step

presentation

of

the

procedures

to

be

followed

by

the

student.

The

charts

are

excellent,

and

an

appendix

contains

tables

frequently

used

as

aids

to

computation.

HUGH

CARTER

University

of

Pennsylvania

INTER

AMERICAN

STATISTICAL

INSTITUTE.

Statistical

Activities

of

the

American

Na-

tions,

1940.

Pp.

xxxi,

842.

Washington,

1941.

$2.00.

With

the

coming

of

war,

reliable

social

and

economic

information

pertaining

to

each

of

the

twenty-two

American

nations

becomes

of

the

utmost

importance.

This

reference

work,

which

describes

the

statisti-

cal

services

and

activities

and

lists

the

sta-

tistical

personnel

of

each

of

these

twenty-

two

nations,

goes

a

long

way

toward

making

the

existing

information

readily

available.

The

volume

was

prepared

by

Elizabeth

Phelps

under

the

direction

of

Stuart

A.

Rice,

Halbert

L.

Dunn,

E.

Dana

Durand,

and

Walter

F.

Willcox,

who

comprise

the

Temporary

Organizing

Committee

of

the

recently

founded

Inter

American

Statistical

Institute.

Material

is

presented

for

each

nation

under

the

following

headings:

(1)

facilities

for

statistical

education:

extent

of

statisti-

cal

training,

professional

standards

in

sta-

tistics,

statistical

research;

(2)

statistical

libraries

and

depositories;

(3)

statistical

associations;

(4)

major

semiofficial

and

nono~cial

statistical

agencies

and

their

pub-

lications ;

(5)

officials

statistics:

national

population

censuses,

principal

government

agencies

compiling

statistics,

with

notes

on

tabulating

equipment

used,

supplementary

statistical

work

carried

on

by

local

govern-

ments,

and

so

forth;

(6)

principal

ofhcial

serial

statistical

publications.

Brief

evaluations

are

given

of

the

ade-

quacy

of

educational

and

library

facilities

and

the

published

statistics.

The

principal

article

for

each

nation,

contributed

by

an

administrator

of

statistical

work

in

that

nation,

is

in

the

language

of

the

country.

There

is,

however,

an

English

summary

of

from

three

to

a

dozen

pages

for

each

non-

English

article.

Most

of

the

material

is

as

of

the

end

of

1939,

though

most

of

the

summaries

were

brought

up

to

date

late

in

1940.

About

sixty

pages

are

devoted

to

a

bio-

graphical

directory

of

statistical

personnel,

arranged

by

nations,

and

including

informa-

tion

as

to

fields

of

special

interest,

educa-

tion,

publications,

and

mailing

address.

Ap-

pended

also

are

sixty

pages

of

&dquo;Notes

on

the

Statistical

Sources

of

Latin

America,&dquo;

reproduced

from

The

Economic

Literature

of

f

Latin

America,

Harvard

University

Press,

1935-36.

The

biographical

directory,

first

of

its

kind,

is

admittedly

incomplete

and

is

in

some

places

fragmentary.

With

this

ex-

ception,

however,

Statistical

Activities

of

the

American

Nations

is

a

remarkably

com-

prehensive

and

satisfactory

work.

It

will

do

valuable

service

in

times

to

come.

W.

S.

ROBINSON

Columbia

University

LETTER

TO

THE

EDITOR

Professor

Peel’s

review

of

my

book

De-

mocracy

or

Anarchy?

A

study

of

propor-

tional

representation

in

the

January

1942

issue

of

THE

ANNALS

is

the

type

of

a

rea-

soned

analysis

by

an

opponent

which

every

author

will

regard

as

the

most

stimulating,

and

therefore

most

welcome.

Needless

to

say,

I

differ

with

his

interpretations,

but

they

fall

in

the

category

of

those

which

a

reviewer

is

privileged

to

express

and

an

author

obliged

to

accept.

There

are

two

statements

of

fact

in

this

review,

however,

in

regard

to

which

I

beg

the

editor’s

(and

Professor

Peel’s)

permission

to

make

a

correction.

First,

Professor

Peel

says

that

Professor

Friedrich,

in

his

Introduction,

&dquo;admits

that

proportional

representation

has

succeeded

in

Belgium,

the

Netherlands,

Sweden,

Norway,

Denmark,

and

Ireland,&dquo;

and

he

refers

to

p.

xxv

of

the

book.

However,

in

this

passage

Professor

Friedrich

was

quoting

what

he

had

written

in

his

work

on

Constitutional

Government

and

Politics,

and

he

continues

on

p.

xxvi

of the

Introduction:

&dquo;This

view

must

now

be

modified

in

the

light

of

Dr.

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