I remove downstep from the phonological inventory of English based on careful statistical study. In my data I find no distinction between tones labeled downstepped and tones labeled nondownstepped. If tones considered downstepped are indeed in a compressed pitch range relative to the preceding tone, then they should have a target drop in frequency that is different from the target for nondownstepped tones. Instead I find that the frequency drops obey a normal distribution that shows no evidence of bimodality. The values of the frequency drops for downstepped and nondownstepped tones form the right- and left-hand tails of this distribution.