Statistics in the Modern State

Abstract

IN his presidential address to the Royal Statistical Society on November 22, Lord Woolton said that the progress in statistics in public affairs in Great Britain during the last half-century has enabled the reading public to form political opinions and provided precise information for Ministers of the Crown, business men and the trade union movement. By 1939 the supply of information was comprehensive enough to show the size of the resources of the country and how they were being used; but there were many gaps in the information available, and those who found themselves in 1939 responsible for the government of the country in the rapidly changing conditions of the War had very little to help them. The proved competence of the statistician, both in the field of financial forecast and in the operations of Government, have given much stimulus to those who believe in national planning, and in particular, to its use in preventing economic waste and personal tragedy. Unemployment is the most urgent social problem confronting the modern State, and Lord Woolton believes that the use of the statistical method of ordering those operations of our economic life that are within the control and competence of Government can in a large measure solve the problem. We must have knowledge of facts, and capacity to forecast future trends from those facts; but it is useless and aggravating to call for information in greater detail than is necessary to provide proper guidance to action. Enumerating the principal classes of statistics that must be obtained for the efficient operation of an employment policy, Lord Woolton said that to collect the information involves maintaining close collaboration between statisticians in Government services and their professional colleagues in trade associations, in the universities and research institutes.