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for the fine job. Both of them, particularly Hinrichs, are very imaginative men, by which I mean they have orderly, systematic, disciplined imaginative qualities which they use in this field of statistical research. It's a very real talent. It's a little different from being an ordinary good, flat-footed statistician in the Bureau of the Census. You have to be able to forsee, to project your mind into a situation that never has been, and to think out how you could collect the information necessary to answer the questions that will certainly be raised. You first have to think out what the questions will be and then think out how you will find the method by which you can answer them.

At that time we were more concerned with other facets of the industrial problem and of the research and statistical work that had to be done so we had not taken into account the great demand that there would be for knowledge about the cost of living, which, of course, started right up as soon as there began to be utilization of raw materials, and so forth. I think before we had gone too far Hinrichs came up with the idea one day that, “You know, the cost of living has begun to go up. If this struggle in Europe keeps on, it's going to grow worse. How are we going to know what it is? Are the cost of living figures we collect here adequate? Is our sampling adequate?”