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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Prof. Hadley describes his book on 

 Economics* as an attempt to apply the 

 methods of modern science to the problems 

 of modern business. As among the impor- 

 tant changes in economic theory that have 

 taken place within the last thirty years, he 

 mentions the application, by different schools 

 of investigators, of the principle of natural 

 selection and of the results of psychological 

 study to account for the aspects of the sub- 

 ject to which they may severally apply. But 

 these things have combined to make the 

 economic science of the present day very dif- 

 ferent from that which formed the basis of 

 John Stuart Mill's presentation : " Mean- 

 while, new problems have been developing 

 in modern business life ; most conspicuously? 

 perhaps, in connection with large invest- 

 ments of capital in factories and railroads. 

 The time which elapses between the render- 

 ing of labor and the utilization of the prod, 

 ucts of labor is now so long that the work 

 of the speculator has far greater importance 

 than it had a generation ago. The size of 

 the units of capital is so large that free com- 

 petition often becomes an impossibility, and 

 theories of economics which are based upon 

 the existence of such competition prove 

 blind guides in dealing with modern price 

 movements. We have to study, far more 

 closely than we once did, the effect of 

 combinations upon the interests of the con- 

 sumers on the one hand and the laborers on 

 the other ; to examine the results of meet- 

 ing organizations of capital with organi- 

 zations of labor, and of controlling them 

 by special legislation, or by direct govern- 

 ment ownership. We have to deal with so- 

 cialism, not as the theory of a few vision- 

 aries who try to destroy property rights, but 

 as a series of practical measures, urged by 

 a large and influential body of men who are 

 engaged in extending the functions of gov- 

 ernment." The endeavor is made to supply 

 the lack of any general work in the English 

 language dealing comprehensively with these 

 problems of modern economics. The book 

 is written for students who are thinkers and 

 for men who are engaged in doing the world's 

 work, and is hardly likely to be found 



* Economics : An Account of the Relations be- 

 tween Private Property and Public Welfare. By 

 Arthur Twining nadley. New York and Lon- 

 don: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 490. Price, $2.50. 



adapted to superficial readers. The special 

 subjects treated are Public and Private 

 Wealth, Economic Responsibility, Competi- 

 tion, Speculation, Investment of Capital, 

 combination of Capital, Money, Credit, Prof- 

 its, Wages, Machinery and Labor, Co-opera- 

 tion, Protective Legislation, and Government 

 Eevenue. 



Mr. Thomas S. Blair, taking up the 

 question embodied in the second title of his 

 book on Human Progress,* and finding the 

 present state of knowledge inadequate to 

 furnish an answer, reasons that the complex- 

 ity of the facts of human experience has 

 been too much for the philosophers, seeks 

 for an instance of better results elsewhere, 

 and finds.it in the case of the successful man 

 of affairs. In this book he undertakes to 

 present the conclusions he has reached 

 through the application of business methods 

 to his subject. He supposes man himself to 

 have become the chief agency in the further- 

 ance of the Creator's scheme for his evolu- 

 tion, his efficiency as such being brought 

 through the operation of his experience of 

 the natural laws controlling his evolution, 

 whereby he becomes acquainted with them 

 and learns to assist in giving them free play. 

 According to the author's philosophy, human 

 knowledge is limited to the form of working 

 hypotheses as guides of action, but is capa- 

 ble of indefinite expansion within its limita- 

 tions, and includes a large scope of knowl- 

 edge of objective realities ; the knowledge of 

 the actual existence of the basis of religious 

 sentiment is as unequivocal, direct, and con- 

 clusive as the knowledge of our own exist- 

 ence, and thus religion is established on a 

 rigidly scientific foundation; and the active 

 principle in the scheme of human progrees 

 is the impulse to satisfy wants, operating 

 under a law of man's being, according to 

 which the satisfaction of a want is followed 

 by the emergence of a new want, which is 

 normally of a higher order than the want 

 which it succeeds. Confirmation of these 

 conclusions is looked for in the provision 

 which Nature has made for the satisfying of 

 wants of various kinds and the awakening of 

 higher ones. The statements of principles 



* Human Progress : What can Man do to 

 Furtlier it ? By Thomas 8. Blair. New York : 

 William R. Jenkins. Pp. 573. Price, $1.50. 



