BUSINESS, THE GOVERNMENT, AND THE PROFESSIONS, IN A FREE and progressive society, all seek the broadest possible factual basis for
decision making, policy formulation, and the development of social and economic theory. It is the joining of these diverse interests in the
common search for economic and social facts which accounts in large part for the very great importance of statistics in the United States.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been expended for statistics in this country by public and private groups during the past twenty-five years
alone. The development of sampling during the same period made possible much of this activity. Sampling theory and methods therefore
are the proper concern of practical businessmen, public officials, and social scientists because they all do now, and will increasingly
henceforth, depend upon the results of sampling for much of their factual information.