MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON ISE men have told us that you can prove anything by statistics, and that it is therefore uncultivated to attach
credence to such modern methods as Mass Observation, Listener Research or Gallup polls. I have no doubt that these spoil- sports are justified in giving us this warning, and that it would be a mistake to base public policy or private conduct entirely upon the data supplied us by these fascinating percentages. I admit also that one must be very gullible indeed to take literally all the answers supplied to the questionnaires which from time to time investigators will address to the public. Only a few of those who fill up and return these questionnaires can be guided by an unflinching desire to tell the truth, and the majority may well be influenced by such secondary motives as a desire to mock Mr. Gallup, to indulge in day-dreams or to vaunt. Moreover, the questions addressed by the investigators to their victims have to be answered, either by a direct affirmative or negative, or else by that delightful rejoinder "Don't know." I have never as yet been approached by Mr. Gallup or his imitators, but I am sure that if they did ask me questions I should find it very difficult to give any positive answer. If I were asked whether I liked Mao Tse-tung, I should reply unhesitatingly, "Don't know." But if I were asked, yes or no, whether I liked cheese or Picasso, I could not answer directly, but would want to rask further questions, namely, what sort of cheese do you mean and which of Picasso's many manners have you in mind ? Yet, although I am well aware of all these dangers and defects in the questionnaire system, I remain fascinated by such enquiries, and fnever fail to study the statistical tables which they provide. The ,ones I like best take the form of diagrams in which the several 'income groups arc represented by pictures of little men in rows. I find it a dull thing when the question, "How many black-coated workers do crossword puzzles ? " is answered by a curt 34 per cent. I like to see the black-coated worker portrayed in person. I like to sec some twenty identical black-coated workers scurrying along with their brief-cases and the last in the row sliced neatly in half.
It is not right moreover, to assume that such statistics invariably provide misleading information. It may be that a portion of the answers given are returned in a mood of levity or even with a wish to deceive. But the majority of black-coated workers, if asked with tact and charm whether they did crossword puzzles, would probably answer quickly and distinctly whether they did or -not. Thus although the information provided may not always be so accurate as to form a sound basis for future legislation, it does certainly indicate tendencies, and is therefore frequently illuminating. I have Phis week been reading a fascinating pamphlet entitled Hours Away from Work, which has been compiled by the National Association of Girls' Clubs and Mixed Clubs and by the National Council of Social Service. The purpose of the enquiry thus jointly conducted was to find out how young people of the modern generation like to employ their leisure. The report of the investigation held among some 3,000 boys belonging to clubs has been written by Dr. J. Macalister Brew. The societies who sponsored this enquiry do not, of course, claim that the results apply to all classes of boys and adolescents. They admit that a certain percentage of those who filled up the rather complicated questionnaire may have been puzzled or not have taken the enquiry with sufficient seriousness. But they also claim, and to my mind convincingly, that these 3,000 answers from boys attending clubs do provide those responsible for running these clubs with valuable information.
The boys who were asked to fill up a questionnaire indicating their personal. tastes and preferences were divided into categories of occupation and into their several age groups. Thus, on the one hand, you have such categories as shop-assistants, clerical workers, or trained and untrained labourers, and, on the other hand, the age- froups of fifteen and under, of sixteen to nineteen and of twenty and over. One of the interesting discoveries is that tastes do not vary markedly between the several categories of occupation, and that the variations between the several age groups are more or less constant, whatever may be the calling in which the person is engaged. Another valuable piece of information which the enquiry has divulged is that boys do not really enjoy boxing. Dr. Brew points out that many Youth Leaders persuade themselves that it is good and manly to box, and that therefore their boys, being very good and very manly, prefer boxing to anything else. They are mistaken in that assump- tion. The vast majority of boys, in every age group, do not care for boxing at all ; and nor do I. I have a feeling that many Scout Masters will read this analysis with some distress. It shows, for instance, that some 48 per cent, of boys attending clubs indulge in some form of gambling, whether it be football pools, backing horses or playing cards for money. Yet what is strange is that this addiction to gambling is most marked in the middle age group, and that the taste for such forms of excitement seems to die down in a boy when he has passed the age of nineteen. The most popular of all physical activities is football, followed by swimming, camping, dancing and billiards.
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What renders this pamphlet so stimulating is that it disproves many assumptions in which, all carelessly, one had been apt to indulge. One had always taken it for granted that the present genera- tion of boys were more interested in politics than they were in religion. This is not so. Only 20 per cent, of boys over nineteen belong to any political organisation and only 33 per cent, even to a trade union. More than half of the boys attended some form of religious worship. In the fifteen and under age group the percentage of those attending a church service was 54 per cent. In the second age group, between sixteen and nineteen, it drops to 48 per cent. What is so surprising is that in the over twenty age group it rises again to 56 per cent. It is encouraging also to observe that thc taste for reading is more widely distributed than might have been supposed. Thus among the untrained manual workers as many as 20 per cent. are members of some lending library. Detective novels and adventure stories are, as one would have expected, the most popular form of reading. It is interesting to note that boys mad less poetry than do girls, a fact which Dr. Brew attributes to the circumstance that boys regard poetry as "unmanly." The one form of literature that both boys and girls heartily dislike is that which I had imagined to be the most popular in the middle age group. So far from liking school stories, they detest them. I find that a most encouraging discovery. Another fact which this enquiry discloses is that a very large number of boys and girls (as much as 66 per cent.) enjoy listening to music. As many as 27 per cent., when asked what they would most like to do, replied that they would like to sing. That also is an engaging response. The wireless, again. is a constant diversion. The first favourite, as was to be expected, is what is called "variety," an emetic form of entertainment. But it is encouraging that the percentage of those who listen to talks rises, in the later age groups, from 17 per cent. to 33 per cent. Which is good.
Some of the tendencies and preferences disclosed by this question- naire are to me inexplicable. It seems, for instance, that up to the age of fifteen both boys and girls find their best friends among people older than themselves ; at sixteen their chosen friends are more (Jr less of their own age ; after seventeen they tend tocprefer boys and girls who are younger than themselves. I leave the problem to the psychologists. On the whole, this enquiry, so admirably conducted and presented, leaves one with a happy feeling. Our younger genera- tion is neither pagan, nor lethargic, nor glum. They want to Sin', they want to travel in distant countries ; they want to ramble and to hike; they like listening to music ; they enjoy reading and dancing, they have not lost the sense of adventure.
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