Chart B is our own chart based on exactly the same figures. Both arc correct as far as arithmetic is concerned. The only difference, but what a difference, is the vertical scale. If Chart A went down to zero at the bottom, as does Chart B, it would be sixty inches high, but the exaggerated scale makes good advertising copy. By the same process, even a payroll increase of .oopoi per cent could be made to look 'ike the side of the Washington monument.

The problem is not limited to statistical charts. The scale or standard against which one measures events makes a tremendous difference. The optimist compares present standards of living with those a century ago, and glories in the gains. The next man sets the present against 1929, or even 1936, and is subject to moderate melancholia. The pessimist takes our potentials as his standard, and weeps over our great failures to realize them. Each one starts with the same facts but sets them in a different perspective. It is the old struggle against exaggeration or deprecation. Perhaps the best one can do is to try to keep always in mind which end of the telescope he is looking into.

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Dim's Rfvirw for May 1038

Two Charts Illustrating the Importance of a Zero Line. III 'III' Hill Mill Hi

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GRAPHIC CHARTS IN ADVERTISING

LOOK TO TOUR SALES MILEAGE

Tha topmott map npnaunit America at il }ooka when ttattt are drawn in proportion to butintu trantacfed. Mulual'i •//ectiV* covera0« cu«a (tbown ia bJack) twtlh doubJe in tarmt of tola* -- quick yardttick of productive broadcoMting.