9o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



economists to direct national operations. On the other hand, our econ- 

 omists themselves are becoming more and more worthy of such trusts. 

 The inductive study of their science brings them into closer contact 

 with men and with enterprises. By this means they become students 

 of administration as well as of economics. They realize the value of 

 individual effort as well as the limitations which bound all sorts of 

 executive work, in a republic. " Only a few years ago," writes a cor- 

 respondent, " the teachers of economics were far more generally un- 

 favorable critics of government work which interested them. They 

 have become more and more disposed to cooperate at the beginning 

 rather than to condemn at the end. Just as economics has taken a 

 more kindly and hospitable attitude towards politics, so similarly has 

 it towards business, as illustrated in the rapid rise of courses in com- 

 merce." The demand for trained economists in public affairs is 

 ' compelling the teachers of economics more and more to seek contact 

 with the men who are grappling face to face with economic problems.' 



The relation of economic theory to administration is a subject on 

 which there is much diversity of opinion. It is claimed by able author-* 

 ity that " Economic science, by becoming ultra-theoretical, has come 

 into far closer touch with practical life than it ever attained before. 

 Laws, the statement of which seems like a refinement of theory, deter- 

 mine the kind of legislation required on the most practical of subjects." 

 On another hand, it is claimed by high authority that our country must 

 have its own political economy. " The generalizations arising solely 

 from the uniformity of human nature are so few that they can not 

 constitute a science. The classical or orthodox Political Economy of 

 England was conditioned from start to finish by the political problems 

 it had to face. We are only beginning to acquire our national inde- 

 pendence." 



Still another view is that " all that has been achieved in the field 

 of economics that is of any value, has been the result of logical analy- 

 sis applied to the phenomena and experiences of every-day industrial 

 life. The stages of past development can be determined and inter- 

 preted only in the light of this analysis. The lesson which the his- 

 torical economist has never learned, is the importance of that principle, 

 which lies at the bottom of the whole modern theory of evolution, and 

 which was made use of by Lyell and Darwin, namely, the principle that 

 historical changes of the past are to be accounted for by the long 

 continued action of causes which are at this present moment in 

 operation and can be observed and measured at the present day." 

 (< This," says my correspondent, " needs saying and resaying, until it 

 is burned into the minds of all students of economics." 



The recent progress of economics in America has lain in part in 

 the development of economic theory by critical and by constructive 

 methods. An important reason for welcoming the exact and critical 

 study of economic theory is this: In the promulgation of imaginary 



