Time after time it happens that some ignorant or presumptuous member of a committee or a board of directors will upset the carefully -thoughtout plan of a man who knows the facts, simply because the man with the facts cannot present his facts readily enough to overcome the opposition. It is often with impotent exasperation that a person having the knowledge sees some fallacious conclusion accepted, or some wrong policy adopted, just because known facts cannot be marshalled and presented in such manner as to be effective.

Millions of dollars yearly are spent in the collection of data, with the fond expectation that the data will automatically cause the correction of the conditions studied. Though accurate data and real facts are valuable, when it comes to getting results the manner of presentation is ordinarily more important than the facts themselves. The foundation of an edifice is of vast importance. Still, it is not the

GRAPHIC METHODS

foundation but the structure built upon the foundation which gives the result for which the whole work was planned. As the cathedral is to its foundation so is an effective presentation of facts to the data.

We daily see facts presented in the hope of creating interest and action for some really worthy piece of work to benefit the people as a whole. In many of these cases the attitude of the person presenting the matter seems to be that the facts will speak for themselves and that they need little or no assistance. Ordinarily, facts do not speak for themselves. "When they do speak for themselves, the wrong conclusions are often drawn from them. Unless the facts are presented in a clear and interesting manner, they are about as effective as a phonograph record with the phonograph missing.