PEESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION F. 325 



held at the London University, presided over by the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer, with a view to the foundation of a British 

 Economic Association. The notice alleged that "it was rather 

 an anomaly that no organized scientific body exists in Great 

 Britain to promote that most important branch of knowledge 

 in which we have made more advance than all the rest of the 

 world — Economics." That newly -to -be -formed association 

 will scarcely say of this antipodean institution, Sequamur, sed 

 non (Bqiiis passibus. We hope, when the great Bi'itish founda- 

 tion has advanced beyond our more humble achievements, that 

 we shall keep it well in sight. 



The question constantly recurring, and not to be put down 

 till it is satisfactorily answered, is : Does the direction given 

 to labour by capitalists and other non- workers under present 

 conditions induce greater production, in its broadest sense, than 

 if labour had free and direct access to the soil, combined with 

 an organized co-operative system of its own ? We cannot dis- 

 sociate the various branches or classes of society. An Ameri- 

 can publication says, " In these days of labour-trouble, society 

 is tempted to forget, in the duty of saving itself, that the poor 

 are also society." A Leipsic journalist wrote, " The working 

 people are forced to fatten the more fortunate one who by 

 accident, bad laws, or by unscrupulous spoliation of his fellow- 

 man, has possessed himself of the means necessary for the pro- 

 duction of capital." The object of economics is first to dis- 

 cover if such testimony is true, and, if so, to correct the cause 

 of the wrong. Every individual is a member of the same 

 commonwealth, and, if any one class suffers, all others suffer 

 with it till the wrong is removed. From such premisses I con- 

 clude that we are all here for the purposes of considering how 

 the good of the whole community may be promoted, our care 

 being that none are left to want. It must not be supposed 

 that the shortcomings of social and political relations can be 

 rectified at once. Those enamoured of a Fabian policy adopt 

 the ancient dictum, Natura non facit saltum. However, 

 during the current century, Nature, aided by the skill of man, 

 has, at his suggestion, made astonishing leaps and bounds. 

 Instead of taking six months to convey by the breath of iEolus 

 the voice of science to the antipodes, the lightning speed of the 

 telegraph relates what took place the instant before. So we 

 may not altogether accept the voice of the classic legend. I 

 venture to state that this subject of high finance, when not 

 obscured by long-lived prejudice and the mental vision torted 

 by self-interests, after all is not so hard to be comprehended, 

 for, as a Home writer remarks, " there is a way of looking at 

 the question which will enable every person of average capa- 

 city and knowledge to form a practical conclusion upon it." I 

 submit as true the proposition that " general suggestions are 



