ECONOMIC SCIENCE IN AMERICA.

N the University Extension Bulletin Mr. Edward T. Devine, Ph.D., writes on the subject "Economic Science in America." This article is published apropos of the Summer Meeting of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, at which will appear as lecturers and instructors representatives of the various phases of the new economics which since the seventies has swept like a wave over America. Until 1876, says Dr. Devine, there had been in the economic thought of the United States two distinct and antagonistic schools, the orthodox English system and the native American economics. The first of these schools had its chief interpretation in the translation of the political economy of J. B. Say, though there were American editions of the "Wealth of Nations," and the works of Ricardo, Malthus and McCulloch were familiar to students. After 1848, Mills' political economy to some extent supplanted that of Say as the standard text-book. The native school dates from Henry C. Carey, the Philadelphia economist, whose first book appeared in 1835. The orthodox political economy, strongest in the New England colleges and in the South, stood for hard money and free trade. The economics of Carey stood for protection and expansion of the currency. The former was in harmony with the natural conservative temper of the English race. The latter was an expression of the spirit of enterprise called forth by the American people, or better, perhaps, forced upon them by economic conditions.

GENERAL WALKER'S LEADERSHIP.

"Such," continues Dr. Devine, "was the general tone of economics in America when in 1876 Gen. Walker published his Wages Question.' This and the Political Economy' of 1883 mark a new epoch. General Walker would doubtless prefer to be classed, if a classification is necessary, with the orthodox school of economists. He does not break with its earlier representatives on what they would have regarded as fundamental questions. His book naturally displaced Mill as the ordinary text at Oxford and Cambridge. Even in the discussion of distribution where Walker proposes his most radical departures, he starts with the Ricardian doctrine of rent, and declares, explicitly, that on this question he is a 'Ricardian of Ricardians.' Nevertheless the appearance of these books in America mark the close of a long and, with the exceptions that have been noted, an almost barren epoch. Several text-books, a few of them excellent for their purpose, had been prepared by American writers, but whatever originality they contained appeared chiefly in the omission, from the reproduction of the orthodox system, of particular dogmas which were felt to be inconsistent with the industrial conditions with which the writers were

familiar. Unlike his predecessors General Walker did not merely omit-he examined and analyzed those conditions, and when he was compelled to form new conclusions he neither attacked the old system entire, because of its errors, nor made the mistake of regarding his discoveries as slight modifications of detail. It has become clear that the changes were important, though they were not revolutionary."

INFLUENCE OF GERMAN UNIVERSITIES.

Almost immediately after Mr. Walker's views became known a new influence worked its way into American economics. So widely had General Walker and Mr. David A. Wells aroused interest in econom

GEN. FRANCIS A. WALKER,
First President of the Amer. Economic Ass'n.

ics that the universities were unable to meet the demand for competent guidance in these studies, and students began to seek such instruction abroad.

"The greater hospitality of the German universities, the unrivaled reputation of the founders of the German historical school of economics, and a feeling that more would be gained by foreign residence in a country whose institutions differ radically from our own were among the causes that combined to attract the American students almost exclusively to the Ger

man universities. Within a few years the American colleges began to give evidence of the new movement in the expansion of the curricula, the founding of new chairs and the increase of students. The English influence had been communicated by the importation and republication of books. The German influence came through personal channels. This difference in the method of communication accounts in part for the astonishing difference in results. In the case of the English communication there were at hand standards of orthodoxy, a 'system' in crystallized form. In the college classes there was produced a real conviction of the correctness of certain principles and dogmas. In the case of the German influence such standards were lacking.

IMPULSE RATHER THAN SYSTEM.

"Each new doctor of philosophy brought back the ideas of his instructors and associates in the foreign

DR. RICHARD T. ELY, First Secretary of the Amer. Economic Ass'n. universities not in a formulated exact system, but in the form in which they had been impressed upon himself. He brought not so much a system of economics as an enthusiasm for independent research. The result is that no 'system' has been transplanted by the newer economics, but only tendencies and a quickening impulse to activity in every branch of economic investigation, and already the impulse is seen to be of more importance than the particular tendencies.

THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. "When the American Economic Association was formed in 1885, as a tangible evidence of the new

birth, a platform was adopted committing the association, though not the individual members, to favor increased industrial activity in the State, increased emphasis on the ethical element in economics, and increased attention to the historical method as distinguished from the deductive method which some of the leaders of the new organization believed to have been responsible for the decay of interest in economic science. But this platform was found to be too narrow, and in a few years it was discarded for a simple statement that any one might be chosen a member who is interested in the study of economics. General Walker was elected the first president of the association and continued in that office until 1892. Dr. Richard T. Ely, who served as secretary until the same year, labored indefatigably in the interests of the association, building up its membership and also for a time editing its publications. In 1893 Professor Charles F. Dunbar, of Harvard, became president, and Professor Edward A. Ross, then of Cornell, secretary, and for the present year Professor John B. Clark, of Amherst, is president, and Professor J. W. Jenks, of Cornell, the secretary of the association. Professor F. H. Giddings succeeded Dr. Ely as chairman of the publication committee, a position which is held at present by Professor H. H. Powers, of Smith College.

ECONOMICS IN THE COLLEGES.

The seven annual meetings of the American Economic Association have served as milestones of a rapid development of the science. Its position in the universities as a regular discipline of the university curriculum has become every year more secure. Thirty or forty professors and assistants are engaged in teaching its principles. Schools of finance and economy, departments of political and social science, lectureships on special economic topics abound. Every college has either an independent chair of political economy or a combined chair of economics and history or some other subject. The larger universities have now organized and in some instances liberally endowed these departments until they rival the best equipped corresponding departments of German, French and Italian universities. The movement which began in the seventies by sending dozens of students across the Atlantic, already bears fruit in courses of study sufficiently attractive to hold at home scores of students quite as ambitious and as discriminating.

There must be noticed finally a new movement coming in part from the Austrian economists, in part from the English economist Jevons, and in part originating with native American writers, a movement which has been pronounced by some critics reactionary, but by its friends the most promising of all the various phases of our economic thought, the movement in the direction of deductive theory. Professor Patten's "Premises of Political Economy" and Professor Clark's "Philosophy of Wealth." published respectively in 1885 and 1886, were its first fruits; and abundant evidences of its subsequent

fruitfulness are to be found in the monographs of the Economic Association, in articles published in economic journals and in the later literature generally.

THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY.

One group of writers belonging with the newer movement, but devoting its energies directly to sociological studies, gives promise of rescuing that much misconceived branch of study from the hands of its injudicious representatives and putting it upon a high scientific plane. Professor F. H. Giddings, who will become Professor of Sociology in Columbia College on July 1 of the present year, is the foremost scholar of this group, and the first man in any American university to occupy a chair with this designation. The future of economic science in American universities is bright with promise of scholarly and useful work

PRESIDENT ELIOT'S TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF

SERVICE.

NE of the leading educational articles of the

ONE of the leasident Thwing's estimate, in the

Forum, of President Eliot's Twenty-five Years of Service." The President of Adelbert College is appreciative of the good work which the President of Harvard has accomplished, and seeks to point out the place which that distinguished university administrator occupies in the educational field of America. To abstract from President Thwing's article: President Eliot, like his predecessor, Quincy, regards the administration of a university as a business. He is not like Hopkins, who for thirty-six years was president of Williams College, first a great teacher, and secondly, administrator. He is not like Porter, of Yale, first an author, and secondly, administrator; nor is he like Mr. Porter's predecessor, Woolsey, first a scholar, and secondly, an administrator. Rather he is first, last and only a university administrator. In a word, President Eliot illustrates the fact of making the college presidency a business, and to the doing of this business he brings a vigorous and impressive personality, distinguished for moral and intellectual parts. The intellectual side is more conspicuous and dominant, but the will of this personality is more conspicuous and dominant than the intellect, calling to mind the remark of Schopenhauer that the normal inan is two-thirds will and one-third intellect.

THE SECRET OF HIS SUCCESSFUL ADMINISTRATION.

After pointing out that President Eliot's power lies in dealing with the students as a body rather than with the individual student, President Thwing then considers what he regards as one of the most important points in Dr. Eliot's entire administrative career, namely, his relation to the community. It is right here, he says, that one finds the secret of his administration: "This is, that he has kept himself and the university in vital touch with the community. He has co-ordinated it with the other social, commercial and educational forces of the time. He has

made it a university for the men who are to rule affiairs in the last years of the present and the first years of the next century,-a university for citizens of the United States. President Eliot himself says: 'It is the principal function of a university to train leaders,-men who have originating power, who reach forward, and in all fields of activity push beyond the beaten paths of habit, tradition and custom.' This intimacy of relationship between the community and the university has not resulted from an appeal to prejudice, or to any unworthy principle of human life or character. It has resulted from a constant and impressive recognition of the highest elements in humanity. The President himself has set up the

PRESIDENT ELIOT, OF HARVARD.

standards to which the community ought to come, and he has done much toward bringing public sentiment and action up to these standards.

"No work of the university represents more closely the endeavor to put itself into touch with the best life of the community than the recent history of its two largest professional schools, those of medicine and of law. The state of the best of these schools in the last half of the seventh decade of the century was bad. Most of them were proprietary. The course of instruction covered only two years; and in each year of the medical school the chief instruction was given in a winter term,' covering only the shortest days and the longest nights of the calendar year. The law schools were not so wretchedly off as the medical; but they admitted almost every applicant, and the requirements for receiving the degree of

bachelor of laws were notoriously lax. The community more easily appreciated the danger of turning loose upon itself hundreds of ill-trained doctors than of ill-trained lawyers. Therefore the improvement of our medical schools preceded and is still preceding the improvement of our law schools. The lengthen

unlike the present President of Harvard College to continue his work be remote."

ATHLETICS AND SCHOLARSHIP. How Iowa College Regulates Athletics.

of examinations, the larger introduction of clinics and of laboratory work, are only the endeavor to cause the university to minister more simply, more powerfully and more constantly to the welfare of the community. This improvement President Eliot has probably been more instrumental than any other in bringing about. The secret of President Eliot's administration lies, then, in putting the university in touch with humanity itself, and one cannot doubt, says President Thwing, that this movement is already having two results: 1, It is increasing the variety of callings which graduates may enter, 2, is tending to extend the geographical range whence students come to college.

A NEW TYPE OF UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT.

"President Eliot is the first example in our time of a new type of university president. It is well that this example should be so magnificent. One can hardly help comparing this best representative of the new with the best representative of the old. This representative is President Hopkins. President Hopkins and President Eliot stand alike for virility, mighty personality, wisdom, comprehensiveness of plan, devotion to duty, and greatness of desire to benefit their fellow-men. But President Hopkins touched men as individuals, President Eliot touches them as a body. President Hopkins was first and last a teacher; President Eliot is first and last an administrator, a man of affairs, an executive. President Hopkins was concerned with men; President Eliot is concerned with means, measures, methods. President Hopkins avoided opposition by removing its causes, or melted opposition by the warmth of his

leges so as to conserve physical energy without impairing scholarship appears to have been successfully solved by the students of a Western college. In the Midland Monthly Mr. Henry Smith McCowan tells us that recently the students of Iowa College inserted in the by-laws of their athletic association a provision denying the privilege of entering any competitive athletic sport to those falling below a stipulated grade in classroom work: "Those who would otherwise be poor students are compelled to maintain a respectable average with the class. This effort to make athletics subservient to scholarship is the project of the students, and is an evident outgrowth of the self-governing principle of the institution. Of course, the faculty warmly approve such a plan, for they, too, are ardent supporters of athletics so long as the practice does not interfere with study. After the closing game of football for the season of '93, in which the championship of the State was again won for Iowa College, President Gates, in behalf of the faculty, presented Elston F. King, the captain of the team, with a beautiful gold football watch charm, thus showing their appreciation of diligent application in physical as in mental culture. This responsive sympathy between faculty and students has created a fine independence and has found an admirable equilibrium between books and sports with almost no friction. And this is not strange, for tolerant independence is the secret of harmony. Thus Iowa College has built up a reputation for scholarship and athletics hardly equaled by any other Western institution."

MILITARY TRAINING IN SCHOOLS.

blocks of opposition by the sheer blows of his mighty will. President Hopkins was distinguished for wisdom; President Eliot is distinguished for strength. The one was the more discreet; the other was the more fearless. President Hopkins elevated the moral and religious above the intellectual, or rather permeated the intellectual with the religious and moral; President Eliot emphasizes more the simple intellectual. President Hopkins began on the moral and religous basis, and so continued; with President Eliot the moral and religious basis has become more conspicuous with the passing years. President Hopkins's baccalaureate sermons treat of man's duty to God; President Eliot's farewells would relate—were they formally spoken-more to a man's doing his duty in this world. President Hopkins's teachings and counsels were religious; President Eliot's are more ethical. The like of President Hopkins we shall not soon see again, and may the need of trying to see one who shall be sufficiently like and sufficiently

some of the advantages of military discipline as a factor in the school life of boys. "Military discipline and drill are found to be of great assistance in preserving good government, in holding the student's attention to study, and in sharpening the intellectual faculties. There results an increased excellence in academic work. Obedience and a proper respect for authority become second nature. The cadet in learning to obey develops in himself that rarest and most precious gift, the power of self-control, which marks the noblest type of man. Moreover, there is a charm and an incentive in a military atmosphere that appeal to the most sluggish nature and inspire one to increased effort to excel. Hence it is that many indifferent students, on passing from a common school to a military institution, surprise their former teachers and acquaintances by earnest application and brilliant results. Rank and office being the reward for good deportment and scholarship, the student is impelled by a motive power not existing elsewhere. The cadet