Though Fig. 1 has not been used in any annual report, it shows a type of chart which could very readily be included in a financial report to give complete facts to stockholders regarding complex conditions on which the average stockholder would gather very little information from the kind of corporation financial report ordinarily sent to him.

The railroads have used charts in their annual reports to a greater extent than the industrial corporations. Some of the railroad charts, Jiowever, are not put up in such form as to be easily understood and,

GRAPHIC METHODS

with many of the charts, there is danger of misinterpretation. For instance, it is not at all easy to analyze Fig. 220 so that its four different subjects may be compared.

PER CENT OF INCREASE OVER 1902 |

YEAR

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I903

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REVENUE FROM FREIGHT

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190S 190S

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TONS REVENUE fREIGHT CARRIED ONE MILE

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I905

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MILES RUN Br FREIGHT CARS

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MILES RUN Br LOCOMOTIVES IN FREIGHT TRAIN SERVICE.

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Fig. 220. Percentage Increase in Freight Service on the Illinois Central Railroad Since 1902. This Illustration Was Taken from the 1912 Annual Report of the Company

Four distinct subjects are treated in this chart, but the horizontal bars are arranged in such manner that the reader is likely to think there is only one subject. Probably most readers would prefer to turn the chart so that it may be read from the left-hand edge as four separate curves. To a trained reader this information would be much more clear if put in the form of curves like those seen in Figs. 224, 225, 226, 227