48 ECONOMIC THEORY 



or a definite abandonment of the search for them. What is claimed 

 in this paper is that the new facts which are appearing will inevitably 

 prompt, not only scientists but practical men who think at all, to try 

 to discover the principles underlying them. The facts will not go 

 without interpretation. What Aristotle said of the general phe- 

 nomena of the universe applies in a concrete way to industrial 

 developments: "We must philosophize." It is not in the nature of 

 the mind to see what is occurring without trying to discover the 

 forces that cause it and the laws which govern their action. The 

 search for such laws holds the investigator in the world of realities, 

 and the modern extension of theory will meet the demand for know- 

 ledge which is, before all else, practical. 



While much of the investigation of early economists could be 

 carried on without elaborate historical data and even without very 

 elaborate statistics, the special character of the new theoretical pro- 

 blems requires us to go below the recent and startling movements 

 in business life and see, if we can, what forces control them; and of 

 course we cannot do this successfully if we get at all out of touch with 

 the facts themselves. Ultra theoretical indeed will be the pure 

 economic science w r hich is thus to be attained and formulated. It 

 will be as far as possible from catering to a really philistine demand 

 for bare facts and figures and from showing any timidity as to the 

 use of the reasoning powers. It will not fear to analyze and general- 

 ize. It will do so boldly and confidently, but not without an inti- 

 mate acquaintance with markets, the organization of labor, and the 

 consolidation of capital, and not without a study of the new economic 

 influence of the law-making power and of party machinery. Philo- 

 sophical thought and practical life will thus come into the closest 

 connection, and the man of affairs will be worth most when he has in 

 mind correct theoretical principles, while the theorist, on his part, 

 will get most from the world and give most to it when he pursues 

 more rigorously than he ever pursued before, his analytical and 

 deductive work. 



Intricate and difficult are the specific problems that now have 

 to be solved. Changes are in progress, the effects of which go 

 through the very structure of society itself. Population is increasing, 

 capital is accumulating, migrations are going on, revolutionary 

 inventions are in progress, the languid Orient is suffering invasions 

 by the irrepressible Occident and is itself about to undergo a radical 

 transformation and also to act in a powerful way on the destinies of 

 the West. These movements do not go on so completely of them- 

 selves as to permit no promoting or interfering by the state. Nations 

 seek to control and guide them in a conscious and purposeful way. 

 Diplomacy, war, and experimental law-making, not to mention 

 more experimental platform-making, range themselves among the 



