Page:Graphic methods for presenting facts (1914).djvu/371

 somewhat greater amount of photographic reduction had been used in making the line 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.

Elmer Rittenhouse, in the New York Times

Fig. 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. 247 and Fig. 248

Data of Elmer Rittenhouse

Fig. 247. Comparison of Death Rates in the United States, Showing Reduction in Death Rate for Tuberculosis and Increase in Death Rate for Degenerative Diseases

This chart is made from the same data as Fig. 246. Here the zero line is shown and the changes in death rate appear much less rapid than they do in Fig. 246. See also Fig. 248