SCOPE AND METHOD OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 65 



highest scientific possibility, must adopt a larger mode of inquiry, 

 a mode analogous to that employed by the natural sciences, and 

 described as extensive or experimental rather than intensive or 

 historical. He must derive his subject-matter not from past history 

 alone, nor from the present experience of restricted localities; but 

 he must observe and collate the phenomena under consideration 

 from an area practically coextensive with their manifestation; he 

 must interpret each group of facts in the light of the conditions pre- 

 vailing in that particular place, and he must test the uniformities 

 revealed by reference, as tentative hypotheses, to conditions in still 

 other localities. 



If he is attempting safe and useful generalizations, he must con- 

 sider, for example, the taxation of corporations not by one state but 

 by every state. He must study the structure and functions of 

 trade-unions, not with respect to a handful of labor organizations 

 and a few convenient cities, but in the light of the policy and prac- 

 tice, declared and actual, of every important national labor-union as 

 displayed in many representative localities. In a word, the basis 

 of economic induction must henceforth be, to a much greater degree 

 than heretofore, qualitative data, amassed as deliberately and labor- 

 iously as chemical or physical data are collected by the natural 

 scientist in his laboratory, and at least approximating in compre- 

 hensiveness the quantitative material which the public statistician 

 makes available with increasing efficiency. 



The successful conduct of economic investigation along the exten- 

 sive or experimental course thus outlined involves the use of a group 

 of workers, instead of the individual student, as the unit of research. 

 Until such time as the number of independent investigators shall have 

 greatly multiplied, the well-equipped department of political econ- 

 omy in the university will, naturally, be the prime agent of scientific 

 activity. Such an economic laboratory or seminary will include 

 not only a directing and teaching staff and a body of students actu- 

 ally in residence, but affiliated workers in the field and associated 

 beneficiaries of subventions, desirous of operating from an academic 

 base. A particular body of contemporary economic phenomena 

 will be selected for collective rather than cooperative investigation; 

 and specific aspects thereof will be assigned to individual workers for 

 research in accordance with an organic plan. A student showing 

 special interest in or capacity for investigation along lines other than 

 that selected for collective effort will be encouraged to follow his 

 particular bent; otherwise his energies will be directed, by delib- 

 erate assignment, to the seminary topic. Class instruction and the 

 use of bibliographical and documentary materials will serve as the 

 preparation for systematic laboratory and field work. 



In regard to books and documents, the investigator must be able 



