228 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tury answer the question regarding the utility of vaccination. 

 Whether those of the coming century will answer that regarding 

 the utility of inoculation as a preventive not only of cholera, but 

 of other infectious or contagious diseases, remains to be decided. 



FALLACIES OF MODERN ECONOMISTS.* 



By AETHUE KITSON. 



IN matters scientific as well as religious a conflict of opinion 

 among professors is apt to produce skepticism among schol- 

 ars. Nothing tends to discredit the teachings of a system more 

 than want of harmony among its exponents. For such discord- 

 ance is an acknowledgment of doubt and uncertainty, of failure 

 to discover the truth. Before any branch of human inquiry can 

 properly be dignified with the name of science, there must be 

 some sort of general recognition of at least the fundamental prin- 

 ciples upon which it is built — some general agreement as to what 

 laws govern the phenomena with which it deals. 



Not until conflicting theories and opinions have been settled 

 and a uniform classification arrived at, can we be said to have 

 entered the realm of exact science. Scientific exactness is, in fact, 

 marked by the absence of intelligent criticism. Like religion, 

 science has had and still has its battle-grounds, where scientist 

 wars on scientist. Such disputes, however, are usually confined 

 to mere speculations, undemonstrable theories, or undeveloped 

 fields of inquiry. When once the speculation ripens into a de- 

 monstrable truth, all contention ceases. For the aim of science 

 is the discovery of truth. Of modern sciences, none stands more 

 discredited by the average reader than the so-called science of 

 economics. The cause of this becomes apparent when we consider 

 the contradictory nature of the theories taught by modern econo- 

 mists, the utterly discordant answers given to social problems, 

 and the extreme divergence of the paths proposed for reaching 

 social happiness. For instance, we are informed by one econo- 

 mist that the cause of all or nearly all the crime and misery sur- 

 rounding us is due to the system of private ownership in land ; 

 another attributes it to the profit system, another to industrial 

 warfare engendered by competition, another to privileges granted 

 by governments to specially favored classes and individuals, an- 

 other to the drink traffic, and so on. And the remedies pre- 

 scribed are equally varied. One school directs us to nationalize 



* Abstract of a lecture delivered before Friendship Liberal League, Philadelphia, June 

 10, 1892. 



