Maxim: Figures don't lie, but liars do figure (1884 February 29)

[Victor Steinbok]

Part II.

Now, for attribution. Plenty of 1890-1910 citations refer to anonymous
or semi-anonymous users.

http://bit.ly/dpxHCD
The Photographic Times. Vol. 27:5. New York: November 1895
Photography and Art. By R. R. Bourland. p. 263
> First, photography is (like all natural phenomena) truthful, as
> figures are truthful. I heard a statistical minister once say,
> "Figures will not lie, /but liars/ will sometimes figure," and just so
> photography does not lie, but liars may photograph as well as figure.

Other semi-anonymous mentions are "a modern philosopher" (who "amended"
the "old proverb").
http://bit.ly/cPBnLV

But not all such sources remain anonymous. The first that got my
attention was James Blaine (of the "Continental Liar" fame).

http://bit.ly/9oehOF
Proceedings of the 21st Annual Convention of the National Association of
Railway Commissioners. November 16-19, 1909 [published 1910]
Railway Depreciation Accounts. By W. J. Meyers. [The paper was not
delivered at the Convention, but was voted on to be printed in the
Proceedings.] p. 410
> No uniform system of accounts will run itself, and it will doubtless
> remain true that, as late James G. Blaine remarked, "figures will not
> lie, but liars will figure."

Another one is particularly interesting because Carroll D. Wright
figures prominently in it, but not in the provenance of the phrase.

http://books.google.com/books?id=sR3QAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA162
The Public. Vol. 92:324. June 18, 1904. p. 162
> Bolton Hall writes ... : "Upon calling the attention of one author to
> some of these reckless figures he wrote me that he had taken them
> 'from an article in some newspaper' and that he did not know anything
> about them, but that they were good figures, and that the article
> would have a large circulation." By way of comment Mr. Hall adds : In
> my judgment economic reform of any kind and chiefly the single tax is
> strong enough not to need bolstering up by reckless statements and
> statistics, as one would expect from Carroll D. Wright. I ask for the
> publication of this because the evil is a growing and disgusting one."
> We cordially agree with Mr. Hall. One of the irritating phases of
> economic discussion is reckless misuse of statistics. Carroll D.
> Wright and the plutocratic scribblers who copy from him are especially
> culpable. He and they are also especially dangerous, for they usually
> lend some weight of expert authority to what they say. But this vice
> is a bad one for reformers to imitate. It is bad for them personally,
> and it is bad for any cause they champion. Thomas G. Shearman used
> often to quote, "figures won't lie, but liars will figure," and we
> suggest that this species of figuring be left to the experts who
> invented it.

Ironically, the very next issue has another instance with similar text:

The Public. Vol. 92:335. September 3, 1904.
Europe's Municipal Street Cars, and the Economic Lesson They present to
the American People. By Judson Grenell. p. 348
> Glasgow is an excellent place from which to study the street car
> problem. It is probable that the statistics furnished by Glasgow
> officials have been more quoted than from any other municipality, but,
> after all, figures are not everything, and, as has been before
> remarked, while figures do not lie, liars sometimes figure.

Another odd location for the phrase is as an advertising slogan.

http://bit.ly/9CHWPc
The L.A.W. Bulletin and Good Roads. Boston: March 24, 1899. p. 409
> TOMREED says: "Figures don't lie, but liars sometimes figure."
> Circulation liars leave the figuring to the advertiser.
==

        VS-)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org