538 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 
there is a school of biologists who contend that acquired characteristics’ aré 
never inherited, and that therefore all education and improvement of environ- 
ment can only be useful inasmuch as they promote the generation of the best 
types—but that, unscientifically used, these and other means of improyement 
may, by promoting the survival of the most unfit, only damage humanity. The 
truth or falsehood of this statement is no concern of this Section of the Asso- 
ciation; only one may be permitted the remark that, if it is really.a law 
applicable to the human race, and if it is ignored, it seems most probable that 
the law will remain here on earth, and that it is not the law, but the race that 
ignores it, which will go to Saturn. Or, to take an example more directly con- 
nected with political economy, it is alleged by the students of that science 
that there are certain laws which regulate wages. They are not altogether in 
agreement upon the laws, still less upon the mode of expressing them, or upon 
the modifications which are necessary to make them true. This is only natural 
in a science that is only just entering upon a positive stage. But I suppose 
most economists would agree that (provided suitable meanings are given to the 
words) ‘ Wages in a free market depend upon the demand and supply of labour.’ : 
A Legislature, wishing to remedy. social inequalities and evils, might, resolve 
to render the market no longer free—to impose a minimum wage, or to put a tax 
upon wages, or in other ways to regulate them by statute. And legislation 
might go so far as to render wages wholly dependent on scales fixed by 
authority or by custom. Or, again, a powerful combination, either of .em: 
ployers or of workmen, might unite to fix rates of wages and render it impossible 
in practice for any other rates to be paid. Systems established by these means 
might be wise or foolish, beneficial or injurious. But could it be said that 
the authors of them had succeeded in sending political economy to Saturn? 
Certainly not. They might have rendered inapplicable that chapter of political 
economy which deals with price as fixed by exchange in a free market, but only 
to bring the case under the next chapter, entitled ‘Price as fixed under con- 
ditions of monopoly.’ The political economy would-be there surely enough, 
with its laws, and with their consequences for those who ignore its teachings. 
I am not, mind, arguing against such attempts. Man is a social animal, not 
merely an individual unit, and it may be wise and desirable that certain of his 
dealings should be regulated by conditions depending on legal regulations 
rather than on the free play of demand and supply. I only point out that if 
political action be taken in the field of economics such action will, whether 
the authors of it wish it or not, be governed by the laws of economics, and 
those who purpose such action must. consider what effect it will have on the 
flow and investment of capital, the demand for commodities, and, in fact, duly 
take into account the whole problem. For, if they do not, it-is not the laws 
of supply and demand that will go to Saturn. Again, before settling a scheme 
of taxation we ought to study the cases in which a tax levied on one class falls 
on another, as, for instance, a tax intended to be paid by landlords which 
really falls upon their tenants; of taxes levied on tenants which fall on their 
landlords; of taxes levied on producers that can be shown ultimately to fall on 
- consumers, and of taxes levied upon commodities that can be shown to fall on 
the workmen by whom they are produced. For a tax often resembles an 
arrow shot into the air; though apparently aimed in a definite direction it may 
fall one knows not where, obedient to the laws of the. incidence of taxation, 
just as an arrow in its flight is subject to the inflexible laws of air resistance, 
friction, and gravity. Or, again, when we prohibit work of children or young 
persons, to whom such work is detrimental, we must consider not only one side 
of the question; but we must also take into account the loss that may ensue 
in wages, and the consequences to the nutrition of the family, and also indirectly 
to the growth of population. 
In fact, in all these and similar cases, unless we possess the power of 
making the sun and moon stand still in their courses, we must have regard to the 
operation of natural laws, from which we can no-more escape than we can from 
the air in which we breathe. 
I may perhaps pass by the criticisms or even attacks on political economy by 
those whose schemes of action appear to contravene its principles. It has been 
called a ‘dismal science.’ But to a bankrupt, arithmetic is a dismal science, 
