Morning journal and courier., 1885-10-23
COMMUNICATIONS.

To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 In the future some philosophical critic will find the material for an elaborate essay con- l corning "The Influence of German Thought l upon the United States.'' Contact with
 Germany's theological criticism in the last l two generations has profoundly affected the
 course of our doctrinal thought. German l educational methods and theories have en- 1 joyed an easy dominance here. Mulford's
 s'The Nation,'' in which book our political
 philosophy touched a highwater mark, con-
 tains the doctrine of Hegel. German eco
 homie thought, which has always retained a certain amount of hostility to the English school, has been Altering in among us in continually increasing streams. Henry O.. Carey, who founded what, with all it's crude
 ness, must be called the only American School of Political Economy, undoubtedly 1 drew inspiration from Frederic List. Se-
 curely enthroned in their collegiate chairs, l the adherents of the classical school derided 1 the disciples of the Pennsylvania Idea,"
 and have supposed their own position inn | pregnable and their own science complete. l Meanwhile an unbroken procession of young | American scholars has been crossing and re-
 crossing the Atlantic Ocean to become the pupils of the founders and leaders of the so- | called German Historical School of Political
 Economy of Professors Knies, Roscher, Schmoller and Conrad The way was thus | prepared for an inevitable revolt against | the traditions of the classical school, | which induced a well known Professor of Political Economy in New England college | to declare ''I can teach all that there is of political economy in sixty hours" How ex tended the feeling of revolt is; how many
 collegiate instructors have for various req
 sons, become dissatisfied with the old eco | homie creed, are questions that have been
 answered by the recent formation at Sarato- l ga, Sept. 7-10, of the American Economic association Even before the association
 sembled there were enrolled in it's favor about
 sixty names of authors, teachers and practical workers in the domain of political economy. | The list of officers chosen for the association comprised twenty two separate names of rep resentatives from fifteen different college fac l ulties. The president of the association is | General Francis A. Walker; Professors H. c. | Adams of Cornell, E. J. James of the Uni l T l Smith college are vice presidents, while the l secretary and the treasu.eI are respectively, l Drs R. T. Ely of the Johns Hopkins university, 1 and E. R. A. Seligman, lecturer in the Co., | lumbia college. The members of the asso- | citation have not as rule been long aware of 1 each others position. They mostly | young men who, from separate environ ! ments and for peculiar causes, have been | working along different lines toward the
 same results; those who were within hailing l distance of one another have now become an | organized body.
 The prime movers of the association were
 trained in Germany in the opinions and l methods of the historical school. The pupils | of Knies, Roscher, Wagner and Conrad were at Saratoga. Not only have some of them l brought home a distrust of deductive reason | ing and saof abstract statements in political
 economy, but they have become imbued with the prevalent theory of the State some
 thing more than an aggregation of individu- l als. Through them the fruitful Hegelian | philosophy of the State, which has already entered into our political thought, will en- deavor to exert an idealizing influence upon l the course of economic thought also.
 | One section of the association is distin- guished by varying degrees of allegiance to l State socialism. These gentlemen have | learned to admire the discipline and perfec- | tion of the German civil service, and the pre- cision with which the Prussian system can
 attain a given object: They can contem- plate, without shuddering, socialist theories | of state railways, telegraphs, fore sts and
 mines. They will accord to those theories 8 careful serious and sympathetic investiga tion, whereas the established economic | church has greeted such propositions either with pity or with indignant scorn. Another | wing of the association represents that | which is distictively known as Chris
 tian socialism. Into the study of class relations the new school | brings profession of unusual interest in the | condition of 1aborers, and it invokes in their | behalf the active powers of civil, social and | religious institutions. The problems of dis
 tribution are discussed not only as phases of
 an economic struggle, but also as questions profoundly modified by our religious con- sciousness, and as capable of solution only | through the assistance of the highest ethical teachings.
 The association has thus secured the earn est cooperation of such friends of labor as Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, Rev. Dr. Washing l ton Gledden, and of many other clergymen | and laymen, who think that the church alone
 can bridge the widening chasm between the
 rich and the poor: The classical school i is as to the Christian thinker | political economy speaks by the mouth of Carroll D. Wright with tone too long un-
 used. s'The divorce between ethics and po- l litical economy pronounced when the latter was but bride must be no longer contin-
 ued." It was upon this principle particular | ly that the different members of the Saratoga meeting found a common resting place. Those who took advanced ground concerning the ideal existence and function of the State | were but few; the various shades of social | ism, except in isolated cases, were rather in l definable; the shibboleths of finance and currency were avoided; the statement that the theorems of political economy were of l little practical use without repeated exami | nations in the light of history and statistics was approved almost without discussion; but the assertion that ethical considerations must exert controlling in- ] fluence in economic thought called forth em- phatic assent and enthusiastic support. Pro- l lessor Sumner wrote his volume on the mu- | tual obligations of social classes with an acid | philosophy, powerful enough to cause a strong reaction against his mode of thought. Opposition to the harsh doctrine of that
 book was universal among the Saratoga economists. The expression of feeling may fairly be called national" Professors of
 political economy from Dartmouth, Am herst, Brown, Columbia, Princeton, Johns
 Hopkins. Cornell, Michigan, Kansas, Minne-
 sota, Kentucky and Pennsylvanla, in tho
 name of their science, united in repudiating an economy that in theory or practice, al
 lows a ledger balance to outweigh conscience and love.
 What, therefore, does the American Eco
 homie association meana It is deeply sensible of modern social phenomena with which Ricardo and McCulloch were unacquainted, and which their followers have condemned
 or ignored. It is an organization of academ- ic workers and harbors no design of promo
 ting political fortunes of either Free Trade or
 Protection. It does intend to inculcate by
 practice and by precept the idea that economic questions are to be studied by watching the
 course of economical development as re- | corded in history and by passing induction upon eyer-enlarging collections of facts. In another respect it is an endeavor to secure at least fair hearing for more generous theory of state-life But especial Iy it is an effort to spiritualize, to vitalize political economy. Into whatever terms
 the token may be translated, it