228 HISTORY OF ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS 



men of other races and lands is an index of a broadening and elevating 

 influence that will delocalize Anglo-American traditions and make 

 us truly cosmopolitan. Such interruptions and transformations 

 of tradition narrow the realm of social predictions as strictly as do 

 the modifications of economic conditions. 



The present crisis demands a knowledge of the transformation 

 in tradition when breaches occur between it and the economic situa- 

 tions in which it arose. But we cannot safely go into an unknown 

 future with a mere knowledge of present economic conditions. Nor 

 can we safely follow the traditions of the past formulated as the 

 basis of historical and social prediction. We must study the past 

 through the present and the present through the past. This is 

 economic interpretation, and it is a vital present need. 



