In this particular instance, there are two mitigating factors. George Drayton Strayer was hung up on accurate numbers, throughout his career. And the reason that they used the 1903 numbers in their 1913 book is that those were solid. They were and are verifiable - at least to the extent that if they were made up, they were made up long before Thorndike got ahold of them. (and the numbers and pattern are actually pretty much consistent with what is seen in other places during that period.)

So, out of curiosity, how do you feel about Whipple, Terman, and Hollingworth? (Leta, not George)