754 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 518. 



America, Asia and the Pacific, with Special 

 Reference to the Eusso-Japanese War and 

 its Results. By Wolf von Schierbrand, 

 Ph.D., with thirteen maps. New York, 

 Henry Holt & Co. 1904. 

 Greater America. By A. K. Colquhoun, 

 F.E.G.S. With Maps and Diagrams. New 

 York, Harper and Brothers. 1904. 

 Dr. Fetter's ' Principles of Economics ' will 

 rank high as a text-book. In technical equip- 

 ment and class-room experience few men are 

 better fitted than he. The most valuable parts 

 of the book to the student of theory are to be 

 found in those chapters in which he has recast 

 many of the conclusions of economic thought, 

 based on a much wider scope of generalization 

 than is usually credited to earlier writers on 

 economic principles. There is also a larger 

 blending of the historical with the scientific 

 method of treatment ; the author has, there- 

 fore, been able to work out the various theories 

 far more in harmony with facts than many of 

 his predecessors have done. He has also shown 

 the effect of statistical material upon the state- 

 ment of principles. On the whole, his hope 

 has been realized — ' to further sound economic 

 reasoning and to extend among American 

 citizens a better understanding of the eco- 

 nomic problems set for this generation to 

 solve.' There are some parts of the volume, 

 however, which, like the early words of the 

 foregoing quotation, leave one in doubt as to 

 just what is meant. 



Dr. Petter treats the subject from a stand- 

 point of the study of values, as constituting 

 the core of economic science. Values, accord- 

 ing to his view, have an objective as well as 

 a subjective aspect, and his classification is 

 divided into three main heads: Values of ma- 

 terial things, of human services, and social 

 aspects of values, under each of which are a 

 series of subheads, as indicated by the follow- 

 ing outline: 



I. Value of material things : Wants and 

 present goods, wealth and rent, capitalization 

 and time-value. 



II. Value of human services: Labor and 

 wages, enterprise and profits. 



III. Social aspects of value: Relation of 



private income to social welfare, relation of 

 the state to industry. 



The measure of success is highly encourag- 

 ing in the effort to apply principles to the 

 discussion of problems. The questions and 

 critical notes add materially to the value of 

 the volume, showing that the author has fully 

 appreciated the position of the student. 



From the standpoint of scientific method less 

 can be said. There is much more to be done 

 before economic science, in the United States 

 especially, shall have shifted its center of 

 gravity from theoretical speculation to strictly 

 scientific research. At the present time there 

 is a great deal of restlessness at the barrenness 

 of economic science, largely due to the too 

 general prevalence of the speculative methods 

 of treatment. 



Economists, as a rule, have not felt called 

 upon to be scientists; they have more often 

 played the role of speculative inquirers, of eco- 

 nomic philosophers — of privileged thinkers in a 

 field over which their authority has gained in 

 proportion to their regard for facts, rather 

 than for theories applied to conditions which no 

 longer exist, or which exist in no such degree 

 as the theories imply. Thus it happens that 

 chemistry, technology, geology and other sci- 

 ences of economic content have gradually un- 

 dermined popular confidence in economists. In 

 many cases the engineer, for example, is more 

 of an economist than the most orthodox pro- 

 fessor of economics, because his judgment, and 

 not that of the economist proper, has guided 

 economic development. 



' The United States and Porto Rico,' by Pro- 

 fessor L. S. Eowe, of the political science 

 faculty. University of Pennsylvania, and 

 lately of the Porto ■ Rican Code Commission, 

 deals more generally with the political aspects 

 of American influence in the West Indies. 

 His volume has special reference to the prob- 

 lems arising out of our contact with Spanish- 

 American civilization. While it is true that 

 he looks at the subject chiefly from the legal 

 standpoint, he has brought into order clear 

 recognition of the social and economic condi- 

 tions which have dominated government. The 

 author shares the national hopefulness, as ex- 

 pressed in the final paragraph : 



