Show figures may not lie but on the basis of statistics may sometimes be very faulty commenting on this limi limitation tatian of the statisticians science carroll 1 S wright points out that in thee the matter of crime the number of sentences in a given state may vary with the legislation laws are constantly being pas passed d mr air I 1 wright says to raise moral delin quenches quen cies to io the grade of positive crimes and then after a thine tame such laws may be repealed with the result of vitiating causi conclusions cl usi ns obtained by comparing one year with another this is illustrated by the record of liquor legislation in connection with crimes prohibitory hibi tory legislation seems uni uniformly forin to increase drunkenness for the reason in large part that it increases if enforced the number of convictions A new class of statistics is called into existence it is to be nat noted ted also that as a rule the authorities of large cities are opposed to prohibitory prohibit ary laws deeming licenses more rational or expedient they are accordingly often led to enforce prohibitory laws with extreme rigor in order to make them odious and secure their repeal with nith a license law i they are lenient in mil miling making ing a arrests of drunken persons thus thug it comes about that statistics seem to prove prohibition extremely prolific in crime while licenses promote virtue in any case errors enter the record by reason of want of uniformity in methods in various parts of a given ghen state this want of uniformity uniform it a at a particular date is exceeded by the variations between different dates in recent years vears statis statistics td es are better kept hept than formerly with the effect of appearing to show an increase of crime erime but appearances are deceptive in this case mr wright thinks in asso 1880 the number of convie coa sets ts in pan penitentiaries aries was or to the million of population in 1890 the number of convicts was 45 or to the million of population |