134 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION F. 
Or, 
If we separate P™into labourers (L) and instruments (1), the 
fruit of former efforts, saved from previous consumption, and 
devoted by inventive skill and energy to more or less permanent 
aids to L, we have a more perfect statement of (4) thus :— 
N= ibe IE ==@5 ; oP 
Cae Sa i Ce ) =The ideally best conditions for 
ioe een the attainment of the highest 
of satisfactions satisfactions of human wants 
with the least expenditure of 
human energy. 
Understanding by m and 7 the indices of the maximum and 
minimum of the various conditions, then it would logically follow 
that the converse or worst possible conditions for attaining the 
necessary satisfactions of human wants, involving also the 
greatest expenditure of human energy, would be when the 
equation becomes 
(B) IN" (L?,.1)-OF 
C= Ny 
This being so, it also follows that this stage will be coincident 
with conditions which favour the maximum of cost for each 
satisfaction, thus :— 
N: (ig I) Ie oO 
@z 
Similarly, the conditions favourable to the attainment of 
minimum of lowest cost or price (P") would coincide with stage 
A, thus’ 
Ss 
= 
ifn Cl mets 
(OF 
Reasoning from these premises, it is clear that the results 8 and 
P, or their values, can never be satisfactorily known, unless we 
can gauge the values of thcir respective co-efficients. That is, 
we must know not merely what is the tendency of any one 
factor, but we must also know the tendency of all factors affect- 
ing the problem. Nay, more, if Political Economy is ever to be 
dignified by the name of “The Sczence of Political Economy,” it 
must not merely take cognisance of the tendency of every one of 
these factors, but, like the skilled physicist, its disciples must not 
tall of the “teachings” “or conclusions” drawn from them until 
they are prepared to place approximate values against the 
tendency of each factor, and then to strike a balance showing 
the ultimate effects of the ever-varying combinations in ever- 
varying localities. 
The difticulty of the problem is no excuse for ignoring the 
necessity for the adoption of this course. Hitherto, to a great 
=p! 
