Section F. 



ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SCIENCE AND" 

 STATISTICS. 



Address by the President, 

 E. TEECE, F.I.A. 



A NEW THEORY OF THE RELATIONS OF WAGES AND PROFIT. 



My first duty in addressing you is to acknowledge my 

 obligations to the Council for the honour it has conferred 

 upon me iby electing me to the position of President of this 

 Section. I cannot hope to fill the position with the same 

 credit to myself or with such advantage to the Association 

 as my predecessors in the office have done, but I have 

 endeavoured, in the few fugitive hours which I have been 

 able to snatch from the demands of a busy life, to put together 

 a few thoughts, which more matured judgments than my own 

 may be able so to develope as to make them in some small 

 measure a welcome contribution towards the elucidation of 

 one of the greatest economic problems of the age, 



I propose to submit to you for your indulgent consideration 

 what I conceive to be a new theory regarding the relations 

 of Wages and Profit ; but before I enunciate this theory I 

 must ask you to bear with me while I make a brief historical 

 retrospect of the past and a passing glance at the present 

 position of that great economic problem which has come to 

 be known as the conflict between Labour and Capital. 



The most casual observer cannot have failed to notice that for 

 many years past there has been a growing discontent on the 

 part of that great section of humanity which, for purposes of 

 distinction, we call the " labouring classes," with the conditions 

 of life in which they find themselves placed. It is no part of 

 my purpose now to discuss the question whether these con- 

 ditions are more favourable now than they were 50 or 100 

 years ago : both sides of this question have had able advo- 

 cates. All that concerns me is that this feeling of discontent 

 is a real factor in our national life, and my purpose is to 

 attempt to discover its cause and to suggest its cure. 



