18,794 names.[1] This list purports to include the distinguished men from every walk of life in the United States. The compilation is necessarily incomplete. There are, of course, omissions; while the mere classification of a name in "Who's Who in America" is no guarantee of distinction. On the whole, however, it may justly be said th.at the proportion of distinguished men whose names are inserted in "Who's Who in America" is about the same for the various professions. Furthermore, there is no reason to suppose that the proportion secured from different sections of the country would show any material variation. All things considered, these 18,794 names seem to offer the most available basis for a study that would answer the questions regarding the supremacy of New England in its production of distinguished persons.
A study of the data in "Who's Who" was made in the following manner. A schedule was arranged to show, first, the profession; second, the decade of birth; and third, the place of birth of the consecutive names, beginning with the first page of the volume. In order to make the information as usable as possible, the returns for each state were separately tabulated, as were the returns for those cities which reported a population of more than 20,000 in 1850. These items of information were secured for the first 10,000 native-born persons. The generalization from the first 10,000 names can safely be applied to the remainder of the volume.
The first point of interest arises in connection with the number and per cent, of distinguished persons from each section of the United States and the per cent, of the total population of the United States in the respective sections. These figures (Table I.) show at a glance the proportion of distinguished persons born in the various localities.
These returns, on their face, accord to New England a lead in the total number of distinguished persons produced that is little short of phenomenal. With less than a fourteenth of the population, New England has been the birthplace of almost a quarter of the total number of distinguished persons whose names appear in "Who's Who." The Middle Atlantic States, with a fifth of the population, report somewhat less than a third of the distinguished men; the East North Central States report almost equal proportions of distinguished persons and of population; while the other sections show a proportion of population considerably above the proportion of distinguished persons born. There are
- ↑ "Who's Who" is published in Chicago. The editor, Albert Nelson Marquis, was born in Ohio. "The standards of admission to 'Who's Who in America' divide the eligibles into two classes: (1) Those who are selected on account of special prominence in creditable lines of effort, making them the subjects of extensive interest, inquiry or discussion in this country; and (2) those who are arbitrarily included on account of official position—civil, military, naval, religious or educational—or their connection with the most exclusive learned or other societies." From a statement following the preface, 1912-13 edition.
