GRAPHIC METHODS FOR PRESENTING FACTS
Chapter I
COMPONENT PARTS
After a person has collected data and studied a proposition
with great care so that his own mind is made up as to the best
solution for the problem, he is apt to feel that his work is about
completed. Usually, however, when his own mind is made up, his
task is only half done. The larger and more difficult part of the work
is to convince the minds of others that the proposed solution is the
best one—that all the recommendations are really necessary. Time
after time it happens that some ignorant or presumptuous member
of a committee or a board of directors will upset the carefully-thought-out
plan of a man who knows the facts, simply because the man with
the facts cannot present his facts readily enough to overcome the
opposition. It is often with impotent exasperation that a person
having the knowledge sees some fallacious conclusion accepted, or
some wrong policy adopted, just because known facts cannot be marshalled
and presented in such manner as to be effective.
Millions of dollars yearly are spent in the collection of data, with the fond expectation that the data will automatically cause the correction of the conditions studied. Though accurate data and real facts are valuable, when it comes to getting results the manner of presentation is ordinarily more important than the facts themselves. The foundation of an edifice is of vast importance. Still, it is not the
