THE "DISMAL SCIENCE" DECADENT 



By THOMAS ELMER WILL 



IN HIS address at the annual meet- 

 ing, Rev. Edward Everett Hale 

 spoke of having, as a boy, studied 

 Jean-Baptiste Say's Political Economy, 

 "which was a science comparatively 

 new then. It was called the 'dismal 

 science,' and with very good reason, for 

 the political economy of those days was 

 founded on the Devil's philosophy, 

 which is 'the Devil take the hindmost 

 and evervbody cut throats for him- 

 self.' " 



One of the infallible dogmas of the 

 "dismal science" was the doctrine of 

 laisscr faire. It rested on the assumption 

 that the existing economic status, in- 

 cluding private property in practically 

 all land and tools, and the uncontrolled 

 conduct of industry by private individ- 

 uals for private profit, was divinely de- 

 creed, fixed and eternal ; that the opera- 

 tions of such an economic system were 

 regulated by "natural laws" as irrepeal- 

 able as the laws which govern the 

 motions of the planets, and that the 

 outcome was a system of "economic 

 harmonies" • beautiful to contemplate 

 and, ' like the Ark of the Covenant, 

 sacredly to be guarded against the pro- 

 fane touch of man or government. 



Archbishop Whately (quoted in 

 Francis Bowen's Principles of Political 

 Economy, 1863, pages 20-22) illus- 

 trates the automatic workings of this 

 system in the feeding of a city like 

 London. After explaining the perfec- 

 tion of the mechanism, he exclaims: "It 

 is really wonderful to consider with 

 what ease and regularity this impor- 

 tant end is accomplished, day after day, 

 and year after year, through the sa- 

 gacity and vigilance of private inter- 

 ests operating on the numerous class 

 of wholesale, and more especially retail, 

 dealers. Each of these watches at- 

 tentively the demands of his neighbor- 

 hood, or of the market he frequents, for 



such commodities as he deals in. The 

 apprehension, on the one hand, of not 

 realizing all the profit he might, and on 

 the other, of having his goods left on 

 his hands, — these antagonist muscles 

 regulate the extent of his dealings and 

 the prices at which he buys and sells. 

 An abundant supply causes him to 

 lower his prices, and thus enables the 

 public to enjoy that abundance ; while 

 Jie is guided only by the apprehension 

 of being undersold. On the other hand, 

 an actual or apprehended scarcity 

 causes him to demand a higher price 

 or to keep back his goods in expecta- 

 tion of a rise. Thus he cooperates, un- 

 knowingly, in conducting a system 

 which no human wisdom directed to 

 that end could have conducted so 

 well, — the system by which this enor- 

 mous population is fed from day to day. 



"I say, 'no human wisdom' ; for wis- 

 dom there surely is, in this adaptation 

 of the means to the result actually pro- 

 duced. In this instance, there are the 

 same marks of benevolent design which 

 we are accustomed to admire in the 

 anatomical structure of the human 

 body. * '•' * The heavens do in- 

 deed 'declare the glory of God,' and 

 the human body is fearfully and won- 

 derfully made ; but man. considered 

 not merely as an organized being, but 

 as a rational agent and as a member of 

 society, is perhaps the most wonder- 

 fully contrived product of Divine wis- 

 dom that we have any knowledge of." 



On this. Professor Bowen com- 

 ments : 



"It is on a large induction from such 

 cases as this, that political economists 

 rest their most comprehensive and 

 most noted maxim — the laisser- faire, 

 or 'let-alone' principle — the doctrine of 

 non-interference by the government 

 with the economical interests of society. 



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