Bifocals

After a tough struggle with its mountain of statistics, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics formally brought forth the minutest statistic of the week: from mid-June to mid-July, the cost of living for city workers went down 0.8%. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins emerged from the Cabinet morgue to find this droplet impressive.

Her reaction to statistics varies. When 0.5% of the nation's man-days of labor were lost by strikes in 1942, Miss Perkins had dismissed the figure as insignificant.

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