764 REPORT — 1895. 



Section F.— ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 

 President of the Section— L. L. Price, M.A., F.S.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 



The President delivered the foUowing Address : — 



At the Oxford meeting of the British Association a report was presented on 

 ' Methods of Economic Training in this and otlier Countries,' ' the general com 



the 

 general conclu- 

 sion of which pointed to a deficiency in this country in the organisation of 

 instruction and the recognition given by the examinations of the Universities, 

 of the public service, and the legal profession. In the spring of the present 

 year Mr. Goschen, presiding at a dinner of the Economic Association, commented - 

 on the inopportune contempt of the practical man for economic reasoning at a time 

 when many of the questions engaging public attention were economic in character. 

 The phenomena thus noted may be connected, and a disregard of economic 

 reasoning explained by a lack of systematic economic instruction. At any rate, 

 the rnembers of this Section will scarcely feel more certain of the fact that the 

 questions of the day are largely economic in character than of the illumination 

 obtained by an acquaintance with Economic Science and Statistics. They mav not 

 succeed in winning the attention of the practical man, but they are not unl'ikely 

 to find solace in the flattering conviction that the loss is on his side, and not on 

 their own. The proceedings of the Section in this and in previous years will 

 prove beyond dispute that, whether or not the practical man troubles himself to 

 ascertain or to follow the opinion of the professors, the professors are not seldom 

 busy in the consideration of the practical questions of the day. 



I make this assertion with the more boldness because "it requires no extra- 

 ordinary keenness of vision to detect signs in the practical man of a disposition 

 hardly consistent with the scorn he is prone to bestow. I believe that, in spite of 

 what we may regard as his worse impulses, he manifests a growing inclination to 

 seek counsel— and even imperatively to demand guidance— on social and political 

 problems from economic professors. I do not know how otherwise to explain 

 the fact that a well-known firm of London publishers has issued, and, I imagine, 

 found it profitable to issue, a series of books on social subjects which now numbers 

 upwards of eighty volumes. Many of these books may not be scientific in 

 character, but so large an issue, taken in conjunction with other significant cir- 

 cumstances, such as the recent revival of a desire for economic lectures on the 

 part of the clients of University Extension, does afford some presumption in 

 favour of a fresh growth of popular interest. Indeed, I have heard more than 

 one practical man complain, not that it was unreasonable to look for guidance in 

 economic matters from economic experts, but that, with every disposition to 

 hear the advice of professors, it was impossible to obtain it. This complaint 

 may or may not be founded on reality; but the professors may be pardoned 



' See Report of the Brithh Association for 1894. 



' See Economic Journal for June 1895, vol. v. No. 18, p. 301. 



