Page:Graphic methods for presenting facts (1914).djvu/65

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earnings, expenses, etc., as in Fig. 50. In the case of financial reports it is always the latest year which is of chief interest, and for this reason the arrangement of Fig. 50 seems permissible in order that the figures and the account names may be side by side. The problem in Fig. 49 is so entirely different from that in Fig. 50, that the method of Fig. 50 cannot be held as a precedent to justify the reversed arrangement of dates shown at the left of Fig. 49. The fact that one needs an umbrella on a rainy day is not sufficient reason for carrying an umbrella at all times.

New York Times Annalist

Fig. 50. Brief Financial Statement Regarding the Union Bag and Paper Company


In condensed statements of this sort there seems to be good reason for placing next to the headings at the left the column of figures for the latest fiscal year, since this information is of most vital interest to the reader. Columns for other years are then printed to the right for comparative purposes. The earliest year is shown at the extreme right

Though this reversed arrangement of years seems permissible for the purpose of printed reports as here used, there is no justification for the use of the reversed arrangement in chart work. As a general rule material given by years should be shown with the earliest year at the left


Fig. 51 is an illustration photographed down from a large drawing used in a wall exhibit. It is a fair example showing what can be done to arouse interest by the judicious embellishment of charts, especially of those for wall exhibits intended to reach a miscellaneous audience having an average of rather limited education. Note the smoke-stacks in Fig. 51. The smoke-stack at the left is the same height as the bar for the year 1906-07, and the taller smoke-stack at the right the same height as the bar for 1912-13. As this drawing was made for a wall exhibit to show the co-operation of manufacturing companies with the college, the pictorial embellishment seems quite justifiable and useful to attract attention to this particular exhibit. A pictorial