ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (AMERICAN.; 



33 



The subject of his address was " The Historic 

 Method in Economics." The opening portion of 

 Mr. Blue's address was devoted to a historic sum- 

 mary of the conditions that led to the organization 

 of the various associations for the advancement of 

 science, beginning with the German Union of Natu- 

 ral Philosophers, which was founded in 1822 by Dr. 

 Lorenz Oken. He continued with the history of 

 the British Association, which was organized in 

 1831 : and then passing to the American Association, 

 he gave its history, with special reference to the 

 section on economic science and statistics. In 

 concluding the first portion of his address he said : 

 " The subjects of papers read in the economic sec- 

 tions of the British and American associations have 

 usually appertained to the industrial life of the hu- 

 man race under varying conditions and circum- 

 stances, and the method of treatment has largely 

 partaken of the concrete form. This was the case 

 almost without exception in the first quarter of a 

 century of the British Association, when, indeed, 

 the only method allowed was the statistical. But 

 ever since the enlargement of the scope of the sec- 

 tion in 1856, the abstract or deductive method has 

 had its exponents, and at least upon one occasion 

 was ably represented by a president of the section 

 by Prof. Henry Sidgwick at the Aberdeen meet- 

 ing in 1885. Personally, I favor the historical 

 method of investigating economic subjects, which 

 includes the use of statistics, because I find it easier 

 to work that way. But I do not say it is the best 

 for every one. for I think something depends on the 

 mental bias. The man with a strong turn for phi- 

 losophy prefers to study, criticise, and develop theo- 

 ries rather than to collect and systematize facts." 

 Quoting eminent authorities like James Bryce, John 

 Stuart Mill, and others, he showed their belief in the 

 historic method of considering economical questions. 

 " Let us not forget that society, or the state," he said, 

 *' is a developed organism, wherein every human will 

 and passion have play and every constituent indi- 

 vidual acts and reacts upon every other, and that to 

 understand it aright we must know its life history. 

 The story of nations abounds with events of every 

 kind, transpiring under an infinite variety of con- 

 ditions, each event the product of some antecedent 

 thought or act, and each making its impress for 

 good or ill upon the life of the community, of the 

 nation, or of the world, according to its own inten- 

 sity or impact. To study such events and their 

 operation and influence, in so far as they relate to 

 inquiries into the provision of subsistence for the 

 people and the supply of revenue for the state, ac- 

 cording to Adam Smith ; or into the nature of 

 wealth and the laws of its production and distribu- 

 tion, according to Mill; or into the way the wants 

 of the people in food, clothing, shelter, fuel, etc., 

 may be satisfied, and how the satisfaction of these 

 wants influences the national life, and how they are 

 in turn influenced by it. according to Roscher this 

 is the office of the political economist. It is not 

 merely to discover facts, but to collate them and 

 discover the method for ascertaining the laws of 

 the facts." This point of view he still further em- 

 phasized by illustrations taken from historic sources, 

 and in conclusion he called attention to the fact 

 that in all quarters of the world " events have trans- 

 pired during the lifetime of this association that are 

 probably destined to influence society powerfully 

 throughout the twentieth century." These he sum- 

 marized, and concluded with : " All these events 

 have quickened the world's life, and when affairs 

 are finally adjusted we shall move, I trust, on a 

 measurably higher plane in the twentieth century 

 than we have moved in the nineteenth. It is inev- 

 itable that there will be social and economic 

 changes, and it ought to be the business of econo- 

 VOL. xxxvni. 3 A 



mists to shape them in the light of experience to 

 secure permanency, progress, and peace." 



The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section : "The College of Fores- 

 try at Cornell University," by Bernhard E. Fer- 

 now ; " Higli Wages in Money ; or. What Money will 

 buy, the Consequent of Low Cost of Production," 

 " How to increase Exports and how not to," and 

 " The Inherent Vice of Legal Tender," by Edward 

 Atkinson: "Local Life by Local Times" and "A 

 Study of Competition and Suburban Prices," by S. 

 Edward Warren ; " Executive Discretion in the 

 United States," by Cora A. Benneson ; "The Short 

 Duration of School Attendance : Causes and Rem- 

 edies," by Mrs. Daniel Folkmar; "The Progress of 

 the Maritime Commerce of the World during the 

 Past Fifty Years," by Edward L. Corthell ; " Cuba : 

 Past. Present, and Future " and " Nicaragua and 

 the Canal," by Wolfred Nelson ; " Examination of 

 the Theory of Rent," by Edward T. Peters; "The 

 Price of Wool," by Henry Farquhar ; " The Trans- 

 portation Problem," by John S. Willison : "The 

 Formative Period of a Great City: A Study of 

 Greater New York," by William II. Hale ; " Devia- 

 tions from the Normal in the Annual Rate of Agri- 

 cultural Production." by John Hyde ; " Railway 

 Rates and Competition," by H. T. Newcomb ; " A 

 Sufficient Social Principle," by Charles A. Eaton ; 

 "Why not try a North American Zollvereinf " by 

 Richard T. Colburn : " The Gold Standard and the 

 Unemployed," by Charles B. Spahr; "The 'Effect 

 of Tariff 'Legislation on the Importation and Do- 

 mestic Production of Sugar in the United States," 

 by Frank R. Rutter ; " The Ethical Function of the 

 Economist " and " The Development of Colonial 

 Policy," by John Davidson ; " The Economic Status 

 of the Nurse," by Mrs. Helen Davidson ; " Ameri- 

 can Industrial Expositions, their Purposes and 

 Benefits," by Marcus Benjamin ; "Scientific Book- 

 making," by Charles W. Felt; "A Plea for Manual 

 Industrial Training in Horticulture," by William 

 R. Lazenby ; " On the United States's Alleged Pol- 

 icy of Imperialism, so-called, and in Connection 

 therewith Some Reasons for and against the Pro- 

 posed Anglo-Saxon Alliance," by W. Lane O'Neill; 

 " The Economic Possibilities of Cuba," by Robert 

 T. Hill ; " The Economic Value of Good Roads," by 

 A. W. Campbell; "The Study of Political Econo- 

 my in Canada," by S. Morley Wickett; "The Agri- 

 cultural Statistics of Ontario," by Charles C. James ; 

 " Canadian Forests and the Paper Industry," by 

 Thomas South woi'th ; and " A Catalogue of Scien- 

 tific and Technical Periodicals, 1665 to 1885," by 

 Henry C. Bolton. 



Affiliated Organizations. Other scientific 

 bodies, taking advantage of the gathering of so 

 many members at the meeting of the American As- 

 sociation, have adopted the practice of holding 

 meetings at the same place and contemporaneous 

 with the American Association, but at such hours 

 as not to interfere with the regular sessions of the 

 larger body. This plan, which has been growing in 

 practice, was found to be of conspicuous value in 

 Boston, for by combining the public meeting of the 

 society with those of the association a much larger 

 number of papers were presented, and at the strict- 

 ly business meetings a greater number of officers 

 were usually in attendance. A conference of as- 

 tronomers and physicists, similar to that which met 

 at the dedication of the Yerkes Observatory, was 

 held in the Harvard College Observatory on Aug. 

 18, 19. and 20. It adjourned to meet at a call of a 

 committee appointed to organize a permanent na- 

 tional astronomical and astrophysical society. The 

 Society for the Promotion of Engineering Educa- 

 tion held its fifth meeting in the Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology on Aug. 18, 19, and 20. with 



