Average per Capita of Total Savings-bank Deposits in the United States

Whenever possible a chart containing curves should be so drawn that the zero of the vertical scale appears in the chart. If the zero line is not shown on the chart, that fact should be indicated by a wavy line at the bottom warning the reader that interpretation must be made from the vertical scale and not by visual measurement from the bottom line of the chart

A FEW CAUTIONS

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Indicatinq ll^CREASE In Deaths trom Degenerative Diseases and DECREASE from Tuberculosis

18 30 1890 1900 IfllO

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Pig. 246. Comparison of Death Rates in the United States, Showing Reduction in Death Rate for Tuberculosis and Increase in Death Rate for Degenerative Diseases

The chart gives the impression of very rapid decreases and increases, chiefly because the bottom line is not at the zero of the vertical scale. The figures used for the vertical scale are rather small in size and the rapid reader is not likely to notice that the scale does not begin at zero. Compare Fig. 2-17 and Fig.

somewhat greater amount of photographic reduction had been used in making the hne engraving or if the proportions between the horizontal- and vertical-scale distances had been changed somewhat. There is really no necessity for using the wavy line for the bottom of Fig. 245 since the chart would have been better made with the zero line showing the bottom. Fig. 245 will serve, however, as an example to illustrate how the wavy line can be drawn to any chart where it is really inconvenient to extend the chart itself so that the zero line may show.