Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Louis H. Bean/archive1

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Gog the Mild via FACBot (talk) 18 September 2022 [1].

Louis H. Bean[edit]

Nominator(s): Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 20:09, 28 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This article is about Mr. Bean, not that one, but one who was really good predicting elections, and was the "Lone Prophet" of Harry S. Truman's fantastic victory in the 1948 presidential election.

We don't know much about him, and he would have been a normal office assistant like million others, had he not developed a passion in election predictions. The article is mostly based on secondary sources about his life and career. The article was reviewed for GA by ExcellentWheatFarmer, and was copy-edited for FAC by Baffle gab1978. All constructive comments are more than welcome! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 20:09, 28 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Image review[edit]

CommentsSupport from EW[edit]

Congrats on Abbott, which I never got around to reviewing (sorry)—I'd be happy to review Mr. Bean instead! Some initial comments below; I'll do a full prose review in the coming days.

  • "born on April 15, 1896, in Lithuania" – can you mention that this was part of the Russian Empire at the time?
  • Does this 1953 NYT article have anything worth adding?
  • "Economical" in the infobox and short description – I think you mean economic; economical is a different word entirely.
  • "He accurately predicted the results of all presidential elections from 1936 to 1948" – this doesn't seem to be in the body
    • It is. "In the 1936 presidential election, when ... Truman defeated Dewey" cover all 4 election including 1940 and 1944. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 20:00, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
      • Oh, I see; I didn't realize that "He did not argue that the Republican Party's victory in the 1938 or 1942 congressional elections would help them win the 1940 or 1944 presidential elections" meant that he actually predicted Roosevelt's victory. Could that be made clearer? (By the way, perhaps choose another word than "victory": the Republicans didn't take control of either chamber of Congress, although they did gain a number of seats.) Extraordinary Writ (talk) 20:22, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Perhaps you could add a further reading section with some of Bean's works (e.g. How to Predict Elections and Ballot Behavior)
  • "In a letter on October 29, 1948—days before the election—Bean projected Truman's victory." – Rosenof (pg. 72) says this letter "quite explicitly stated his ambivalence and his ultimate expectations" of a Dewey win.
    • Adjusted a bit. So, long story short, Bean analysed and predicted Truman to win. Then days before the election, got influenced by the Gallup poll and "hesitatingly" changed his mind. But Truman won, and people credited Bean for the correct prediction. Great! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 20:28, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • "he published a book titled How To Predict Elections" – it's probably worth describing what this book said about the 1948 election: the NYT obit says "in that work...he correctly forecast that voters would return Truman...to the White House", although other sources are more skeptical.

Extraordinary Writ (talk) 07:13, 2 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

  • "According to author Theodore Rosenof" – does this need in-text attribution? Seems like an uncontroversial factual statement to me.
    • Removed.
  • 1936 United States presidential election is linked twice.
  • "accurately predicted Roosevelt to win both the presidential elections" – the source (Rosenof, pg. 68) doesn't really say that: it just says that "he did not argue" that the GOP would win in 1940 and that he thought their success in 1942 "by no means presaged" a 1944 victory.
    • Well, I don't have a fundamentalist approach here. By saying that GOP would not win, he did mean that the Democrats would win. That is my interpretation, and this is more clear that the previous version. If you insist, I can change back to the previous version, "He did not argue that the Republican Party's victory in the 1938 or 1942 congressional elections..." – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 09:38, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
      • I read the source to mean that Bean didn't think the Republicans were guaranteed to win, which is different from saying that he thought the Republicans would lose. Do you have a source that explicitly says "He accurately predicted the results of all presidential elections from 1936 to 1948"? If you do, just cite that source; if you don't, the "he did not argue" version is probably best. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 20:57, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • "In the book, Bean predicted Truman to win the election and the Democratic Party to gain majority in the Congress" – I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on due weight here since the sources are all over the map: the NYT says "he correctly forecast that voters would return Truman"; Campbell (pg. 69) calls the idea "that Bean had predicted Truman's victory" a "minor media myth"; and Rosenof (pg. 69) strikes a middle ground by saying that he "suggested the likelihood of a Democratic victory" but also "set forth more pessimistic possibilities". My instinct is that we shouldn't be saying he predicted Truman's victory in wikivoice, but I'd be interested to hear your views.
    • I remember thinking about this when I published the article the previous year, and yes this is a tricky part. Given the abundance of sources in favor of Bean, we can say that in Wikivoice. The recent Campbell source does says that the book which Bean authored in early 1948 (which would be before the election) contained "passages that suggested a Democratic victory in the presidential election that year wasn’t out of the question". And in the article, we say that he predicted Truman to win in the book. This is supported by the NYT source as well. We also have the fact that, days before the election, he did change his stand. We cannot, for sure, in 2022, know what happened in '48, but almost all modern sources used in the article agree that he is most famous for predicting Truman to win, including NYT, The Washington Post, and partially even Rosenof. We also have in the article the viewpoint the Bean made no clear prediction. Here is where the criteria 1c applies, "thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature", and even perhaps WP:VNT. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 09:38, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
      • I understand; it’s just that the "If different reliable sources make conflicting assertions about a matter, treat these assertions as opinions rather than facts, and do not present them as direct statements" part of WP:NPOV gives me pause. Perhaps consider something like this: "In his book, Bean—unlike almost all other observers—argued that a Truman victory was possible; he cited the likelihood of high turnout and the unpopularity of the Republican Congress’s policies to suggest that the political environment was favorable to Democrats. (Cite to pg. 23 of this book by Rosenof.)" Then keep the "On election day...'a major miracle'" sentence. "Bean’s book earned him a reputation for successfully predicting Truman’s victory (cite Rosenof’s article, pg. 69): Life magazine referred to him as the “Lone Prophet” of Truman’s victory, and the Alfred A. Knopf publishing company, which publicized Bean’s book, began advertising: "Oh Mr. Gallup! Oh Mr. Roper! Obviously you don’t know Bean’s How to Predict Elections." Rosenof, however, argues that "the truth ... was somewhat more complicated" (cite pg. 23 of this book) because Bean's personal correspondence suggests that "in the end, however hesitantly", he "accepted the polls that consistently showed Dewey solidly ahead nationally". (cite pg. 72 of Rosenof's article)" The idea is that it describes what Bean said without taking a position on the disputed issue of whether he actually predicted Truman's victory, while still providing both the mainstream view (the book "earned him a reputation for successfully predicting Truman's victory") and an alternative perspective from Rosenof. Hopefully that's helpful; feel free to use as much or as little of it as you like. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 20:57, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
        • Referred to the source and incorporated some parts of this in the article. Thanks a lot for being so helpful! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 18:35, 14 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Alfred A. Knopf publishing company" – perhaps "The Alfred A. Knopf publishing company"
    • Sure.
  • "Bean's HOW TO PREDICT ELECTIONS" – I think MOS:ALLCAPS would recommend removing the all-caps stylization.
    • I am not sure of this, as it is inside direct quotations, but I'll make the change anyways.
  • "Pollster Elmo Roper later argued in the book How to Predict Elections, Bean made no clear prediction" – this sounds like How to Predict Elections was Roper's book. "later argued that Bean made no clear prediction in How to Predict Elections" or something like that might be clearer.
    • Done.

More to come. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 08:25, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, by the way, I found this BusinessWeek article (cited by Rosenof) at the Internet Archive; perhaps it has something useful. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 20:57, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Extraordinary Writ, I have been trying to avoid using old sources (generally those earlier than 1960s) unless they are primary sources. This one from '51 is pretty old, but can still be used for uncontroversial information. Have added a line from this in the article. Thanks! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 18:35, 14 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • "In the 1936 presidential election..." – this sentence is a bit long and clunky. Perhaps "In the 1936 presidential election, Bean projected that Roosevelt would carry all of the states except Maine, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. His prediction of a Roosevelt landslide ran contrary to most of the polls, which believed it to be a close race, but the results..."
  • "confirmed Bean's projection. Roosevelt won" – a colon after "projection", perhaps
  • "projected the victory of Republican Thomas E. Dewey..." – "projected that Republican Thomas E. Dewey would defeat incumbent President Harry S. Truman by a decisive margin" might be a better wording.
  • The article mentions "Bean's analytic methodology", but we don't get much information about what that methodology was. Perhaps incorporate some of the material in pgs. 66–67 of Rosenof 1999 about how he went about predicting elections (his focus on cyclical trends, similarities to Schlesinger's ideas, anomalies, etc.).
  • Is there anything more we can say about The Art of Forecasting? Perhaps you could find some reviews in newspapers or elsewhere. It looks like EBSCOhost in the Wikipedia Library has two: one by Hubert D. Vos in Management Review and one by James L. Bicksler in the Journal of Retailing. (There's also a brief one in BusinessWeek, May 23, 1970, but it doesn't seem to be available through TWL; if you want to see it, you're welcome to email me and I'll send you the PDF.) I see Bean also wrote a book called How to Predict The 1972 Election (reviewed briefly in the NYT here); it might be worth mentioning as well.
    • During his career, Bean wrote many books. I have tried to cover in details only those which are prominent and have significant coverage in WP:RS. Only two stand out: How to predict elections and Ballot Behavior. These are the only two books notable enough for their own standalone article. It might be of concern to someone else if we focus or mention about his publications which aren't even notable per Wikipedia standards, and did not have much impact on his life; and 1b is satisfied. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 19:35, 25 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • The "later life" section doesn't flow very well. One way to organize it more naturally might be to retitle it "later life and legacy": then the first paragraph would contain the Rosenof quote, a discussion of his later books, and information about his death, while the second paragraph could contain the legacy-related information (everything from "Economist Karl A. Fox mentioned" to "Bean made no clear prediction"). You might also want to mention (per the NYT obit) that "he was a private consultant for various clients until he was in his mid-80's".
    • Done mostly, but did not include that he was a private consultant, and that would seem pretty vague. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 19:19, 25 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Perhaps remove the "years active" field from the infobox: it's not really useful in this sort of article (plus he was still "active" predicting elections after 1953).

Hopefully this is helpful; feel free to ignore anything that isn't. Cheers, Extraordinary Writ (talk) 00:36, 22 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Very helpful, thanks! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 19:48, 25 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Two little things:

  • "Bean refused to make a public projection, saying his method could not 'encompass the newer ingredients'" – these are Rosenof's words, not Bean's. Perhaps just paraphrase ("saying his method could account for new factors" or something like that).
  • There are still two links to 1936 United States presidential election.

Once that's taken care of, everything should be more-or-less satisfactory, so count me as a support. Cheers, Extraordinary Writ (talk) 21:24, 25 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Both taken care of. Thanks for your thorough review! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 14:02, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments and support from Gerda[edit]

Going to make notes as I read, again about an unfamiliar subject, lead to be last. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:34, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox and TOC look mostly good, I'd just not need four headers for the references, of nine altogether.

Early ...

  • I'd expect a link for Army, otherwise perhaps just army?
  • To get married and have children isn't exactly what I'd call education ;)

Economic ...

  • vice president under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, - I'd assume of the before-mentioned agency, but that could be clearer.

Political

  • Something is wrong with the grammar of the sentence about publishing Ballot Behavior.

That's it, short and sweet. Unusual! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:52, 9 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Gerda, addressed all comments except the Economic part, which I am not able to understand. Could you please clarify? – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 09:45, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
superficially reading, one might think served as vice president of the U.S., - while it's clear from the context that probably not, I think it would not hurt to clarify president of what.
I forgot the lead:
  • I'd like some hint in the first sentence how lonely he was with having that one right, for more prominence and the wish (in the reader) to find out more.
  • I believe adding "President" to Wallace would not hurt, for us foreigners who don't know all U.S. presidents' names.
  • Well, Wallace wan't the President. He was VP.
  • I'm not happy with that sentence, "and ... and also", but don't know what to do.
These are all minor points, and however you handle them, I support. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:52, 10 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

HF[edit]

Comments coming soon. Hog Farm Talk 02:51, 16 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

  • " In 1906, during the Russo-Japanese War, " - The Treaty of Portsmouth was ratified in late 1905 and the war was over before 1906 hit. Do the sources even make a causation connected between the war and the move? Lithuania was on the other side of Russia from most of what was happening in the war, so if there's no causation relationship I don't think it should even be mentioned.
  • "During World War I, he served in the Army as a lieutenant and was discharged in 1919." - if possible, indicate when he joined up
  • "He wrote articles including "Relation of Disposable Income and the Business Cycle to Expenditures",[14] "Wholesale Prices and Industrial Stock Prices During and Immediately After the Two World Wars",[15] and "Are Farmers Getting Too Much?"[16] for the journal The Review of Economics and Statistics." - this seems to be a weirdly hodge-podged sentence to me. The purpose appears to be to provide sampling of article titles. Surely some of the sources describing Bean's early work give a broader overview? IMO a couple sentences indicating what topics he wrote about and what sort of publications he was published in would be much more useful than a smattering of article titles
    • Rephrased by replacing the article titles with information about the topics which he wrote about, and publications where they were published. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 19:05, 16 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • " Bean accurately projected Roosevelt to win in a landslide, carrying all of the states except Maine, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. The results confirmed Bean's projection." - this gives the impression that Bean pegged the PA projection, which instead went to Roosevelt. Recommend rephrasing
    • Rephrased as "The results broadly confirmed Bean's projection", which seems more precise. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 18:41, 16 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Intend to look into the sources more deeply tomorrow. Hog Farm Talk 04:22, 16 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the comments, Hog Farm! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 19:05, 16 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
My computer is broken, so I'm going to have to bow out on finishing this review. Hog Farm Talk 23:30, 19 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Hi HF, just checking is your PC still down or are you able to complete this? No pressure of course... Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 18:48, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Ian Rose: - I just got it back on Monday. Several things I'm trying to catch up on, but could probably take a look over the next three days or so. Hog Farm Talk 19:01, 31 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Source-text integrity checks:

  • Albright 1949 - okay
  • Herberich et. al 2009 - okay
  • Penniman 1949 - okay
  • "third-party candidate Henry A. Wallace drew northern votes from Democrats, which reduced their electorate." - recommend rephrasing to make it clearer that this was only an expectation (the cited pages don't say if this actually occurred or not)
    • We already say "According to Bean", but have now added the word 'likely' as well to make it more clear. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 06:43, 3 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Checked pretty much all of the JSTOR refs.

  • After reading through the Businessweek refs, I'm not sure that we're treating his economic forecasting career adequately - there's a reference to a 1927 cotton futures prediction that got him called before Congress, and if I'm reading p. 68 correctly, one of his steel production forecasts of 100 million tons was used by the government. It also says he helped lay ground for a 1946 employment act
  • "and served as the secretary of the committee responsible for preparing the department's monthly price reports" - not finding this on either of the cited pages?
  • Recommend double-checking your pagination in the Businessweek source - at one point you cite pp. 64-65 but page 65 is exclusively an herbicide advertisement, so you really want pp. 64, 66

I think I'm probably at a neutral, as I'm concerned about coverage of the non-political areas of his career. Hog Farm Talk 22:17, 2 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Further discussion on this FAC talk page – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 07:03, 3 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by Wehwalt[edit]

  • "During the late 1930s, Bean began developing an interest in political analysis. He accurately predicted the results of many presidential elections. After his successful projection in the 1948 presidential election ..." if this is intended to be chronological, then Bean predicted two before Truman, which is hardly many, and there were few late in the campaign in 1940 or 1944 who would have predicted Willkie or Dewey winning. I note that the article doesn't specifically mention a correct prediction in a presidential race after 1948.
  • Not exactly meant to be chronological. I have rephrased a bit, if it helps. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 18:19, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Is there anything that can be said about Bean's WWI service? Did he go overseas?
  • "That same year, he was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree a year ahead of his class. " I imagine this was from Rochester. I would strike "was".
  • "During World War II, Bean served on the Board of Economic Warfare as the Budget Bureau's chief fiscal analyst. Wallace later became the vice president under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Bean continued to work for Wallace during his vice-presidency and later during his tenure as the secretary of commerce until 1946." The chronology is poor here and someone unfamiliar with when Wallace was VP might be confused.
  • "until the dissolution of his position" I might say "until his position was abolished"
  • "Secretary Wallace encouraged this initial spark" I might toss a bracketed [Henry A.] in there before "Wallace".
  • "Bean accurately projected Roosevelt to win in a landslide, carrying all of the states except Maine, Vermont, and Pennsylvania." I might delete "accurately". The measure of correctness of Bean's prediction is in the next sentence.
  • "at his home in Arlington County, Virginia.[5][6]" I would strike the word "County". What we know as Arlington takes up the entire county.
That's all I got.--Wehwalt (talk) 16:48, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Wehwalt, All done, except for what is mentioned above. Thanks! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 18:31, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support--Wehwalt (talk) 19:33, 21 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Source review[edit]

(Noting spotchecks in HF's review)

  • How are you ordering works without authors in Works cited?
    • By treating the publisher/magazine as "author" and putting it alphabetically. Now fixed. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:20, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Be consistent in whether you include publisher for journals
  • Kennedy: page? Nikkimaria (talk) 16:05, 4 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the source review, Nikkimaria! Is there anything else required? – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:20, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

No. Nikkimaria (talk) 12:39, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Note to coordinators

@FAC coordinators: : Just two things: (1) Can I nominate another article in a few days? (2) How is this one going? – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 13:44, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
You can nominate another one. Hog Farm Talk 18:36, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Note: - @Kavyansh.Singh:

  • If you need another review to get over the FAC finish line just ping me. Pendright (talk) 04:25, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Pendright, that is very kind of you. Yes, I think that another pair of eyes on this would be helpful. Gog the Mild (talk) 20:03, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! Courtesy ping to Gog the Mild. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 17:21, 18 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Support by Pendright[edit]

Start soon! Pendright (talk) 21:00, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]


Lead:

  • After receiving his preliminary education and graduating college with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he entered Harvard Business School in Massachusetts and in 1922, he received his Master of Business Administration degree.
  • Suggest: Delete the comma after 1922 and add a comma after Massachusetts
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • graduating "from" college has more acceptance in use than graduating college
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • In 1923, Bean became a member of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics at the United States Department of Agriculture, where he worked on estimates of farm income and price indices.
Replace the comma with a semicolon
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • He wrote articles for the academic journal, The Review of Economics and Statistics.
The link describes it as a peer-reviewed general journal
Done: removed 'academic' – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • During the late 1930s, Bean began developing an interest in political analysis, and predicted the results of many elections.
Add "he" after and or drop the comma after analysis
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
<>Note: I should think that the lead would include Bean's death. Another item that could be worth mentioning in the body and lead is when Bean became a citizen.
Done the first part. The sources don't tell when he became a citizen. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Early life:

  • Louis Hyman Bean was born on April 15, 1896, in Lithuania, Russian Empire.
If availabe, add the names of his parents.
Not done: Information not available in the source. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • After receiving preliminary education at several schools in Laconia, he enrolled at the University of Rochester in New York.
Do yoo mean New York state or city?
We already have it linked to the state article. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
<->Adding the state to your text wouod make it clear, concise, and reader friednly. Pendright (talk) 22:17, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • During World War I, Bean joined the United States Army in 1918 and served as a lieutenant until 1919.
Could you tell readers whether Bean was a Second lieutenant or a First lieutenant and the specific dates of his service?
Not done: Information not available in the source. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • That same year, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree a year ahead of his class.
Did he interrupt college to join the military, if so say so.
Not done: The sources I have doesn't specify that. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • He [then] enrolled at the Harvard Business School in Massachusetts and [earned[ received his Master of Business Administration degree in 1922.
Consider the above suggestions
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Bean married Dorothy May Wile in 1923, and they had a daughter called Elizabeth and a son named David.[5][6]
Consider the above suggestions
Done, sure! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
<>Note: When and whete did he become a US citzen?

Economic analyst:

  • In 1923, Bean joined the newly formed Bureau of Agricultural Economics at the United States Department of Agriculture.[2]
Is it Bureau of Agricultural [and or / or -] Economics?
Not done: Well, the name is "Bureau of Agricultural Economics" – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Bean's work in the Department of Agriculture was based on the use of statistical analysis as a basis for formulating policy.[7]
  • Show an example of his work
  • As an economic analyst, Bean worked on estimates of farm income and price indices, and served as the secretary of the committee responsible for preparing the department's monthly price reports.
  • Add "he" after the second and
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Show an example of how he did some of his work.
  • During his tenure, he made many successful forecasts about crops, business, and commodity prices.[2][8]
Could you provide an example
For all three points, replied below. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 11:05, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Charts prepared by Bean were used when the McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill was being discussed in Congress.
Could tell readers the bill did not pass.
Not done: Unnecessary as its passing or not has nothing to do with Bean. As for those "curious readers", we already have a link to the bill. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • In 1933, Henry A. Wallace, the Secretary of Agriculture, appointed Bean as the economic advisor of the Agricultural Adjustment Act; Bean advised Wallace on economic issues and also worked on several of Wallace's books.
the [new] Secretary of Agriculture
Not done: I don't think that'll be helpful. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Bean continued to work for Wallace during his vice-presidency and later during his tenure as the secretary of commerce.[2][9][11][5]
In what capacities
As his official duties in the Bureau of Agricultural Economics – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • He often wrote for many books, pamphlets, and magazines,[14] and authored articles on topics including disposable income and industrial stock prices for the journal The Review of Economics and Statistics.[15][16][17]
Suggest somethig like this: He also wrote many books, pamphlets, and magazine articles. In addition, Bean's work appeared in The Review of Economics and Statistics, a journal, on such topics as disposable income and industrial stock prices.
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
<>When he retired from the government seems to be missing.
We have: "... until his position was abolished in 1953" – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
<-> Abolished is not necessarily synonymous with retirement. Just add that he then retired. Pendright (talk) 22:46, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Political analyst:

  • In 1940, Bean published a book titled Ballot Behavior.
Bean wrote the book, but it was probably published by some publishing house.
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • The same year, he published How To Predict Elections, which Spencer Albright of the University of Richmond called "even more valuable than the excellent Ballot Behavior.
The same year, he published How To Predict Elections -> Same as above
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • In his book, Bean, unlike almost all other observers, citing the likelihood of a high voter turnout combined with unpopularity of the Republican Congress's policies, asserted that Truman's victory was possible.[25]
  • with [the] unpopularity
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • citing or cited
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Bean's earned a reputation for successfully predicting Truman's victory.[30]
  • Bean's or Bean?
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Not done: Unnecessary as we already have a link to Harry S. Truman 1948 presidential campaign in the "See also" section. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • In the 1952 presidential election, Bean refused to make a public projection, saying his method could account for new factors.[32]
could "not" accunt for new factors?
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Later life and legacy:

  • Bean is best known for his prediction in the 1948 presidential election.[6]
for his [sucessful] prediction
Done – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 10:53, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Finished - @Kavyansh.Singh: Pendright (talk) 14:40, 15 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot, Pendright, for the thorough review. I have done all I could do, but there are quite a few points where we don't have any information in the available sources, so I really can do anything. As for the examples you ask me to give, I'm not sure if they are really needed. The article is well comprehensive without them, and we don't really have to mention facts for our readers which don't have any major significance (same as my reasoning here). As I say in my nomination statement, "he would have been a normal office assistant like million others, had he not developed a passion in election predictions". I have previously worked at another obscure topic, Margaret Abbott, and had written it the same way. Feel free to let me know if you have any other comments! – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 11:06, 17 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]
(1) Understand!
(2) Simply put, I was suggesting that you "show" readers what Bean did rather than "tell" them what he did. This is an effective technique and commonly used in article writing.
(3) I've left a few responses to yours above.

@Kavyansh.Singh: None of the above are deal breakers - I support this nomination. Pendright (talk) 03:20, 18 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sure. I have implemented so of your suggestions. Thanks for your review and support. – Kavyansh.Singh (talk) 17:11, 18 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]


The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/Louis_H._Bean/archive1&oldid=1111033761"