Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-07-04
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Tie Teaching of the Free-Trade GOspe
in American Colleges.

4 Tie Teaching OF the Eree-Trade Gospel
in American Colleges.
There is a growing agitation in
favor of stopping the teaching of free
trade doctrines IN American colleges.
The chief textbooks on political econ
omy are either of English authorship
or written by Americans from a free
trade standpoint 1t may seem strange
that free-trade ideas are not more prev
alent, considering that nearly all chairs
of political economy in our colleges are
filed by free traders. But the stu
dents who go into active commercial
or industrial pursuits soon get the
moonshine theory knocked out Of
them by their experience with the
hard facts of actual business.
The plea is inadmissible that free
trade is the logical outcome of the
science" of political economy. 1t is
not true. In the first place, political
economy Is not an exact science. 1t is
fact too often forgotten that there is
but very. very small part of what is
called sciencT-or of human learning in
general-which is so demonstrably
true that it is accepted by every one
without question. In point of fact it
is not true of any department of
knowledge. save the mathematics,
pure and applied. The glorious old
Greeks, with their acute mental
grasp. recognized this fact when they
papoad tho l-pOwla1 ~, Of p,,,nbarS apd
dimensions mathend, 1.-the learning"
The facts pertaining to them are uni
versal and fundamental. Men will
quarrel over geology. or geography,
or religion; what A believes is secuted
as fallacious by B, and C denies what
A and B each believe. But all agree
that two and two are four and that
the three angles of triangle always
equal two right angles. No one can
conceive of a world wherein two and
two sometimes make five, or where the
elements of triangle are uncertain
quantities.
This is not true of any other depart
ment of human knowledge. The sci
ences are simply the results of human
observation as to certain natural phe-
nomena and the theoriZing of men
upon their probable causation. For
instance, the fact is observed in chem
istry that substances unite in definite
proportions. This is explained at
present on the atomic theory; but it
by no means follows that the atomic
theory is true. 1t is but working
theory, and will be abandoned or mod
flied when any phenomenon is OBJ
served which is explainable by it, or
which does not agree with its deduc-
tions. Our theories of light, of heat,
of electricity, are on no more sub
stantial basis. They are also working
theories, whose truth is probable, re-
viewed in the light of their present
knowledge, but liable to be over
thrown and abandoned by future steps
in scientific research.
How much less trouble, then, must
be the so-called principles" of po-
Hcal economy. which are mere de-
auctions from observations upon the
drift of human affairs, as exhibited in
civilized life There is nothing in it
which is so well founded that It is not
controverted by some one. In point
of fact, political economy is on far
weaker ground than the natural sci
ences; it is hardly admissible to call it
a science at all, because there is rela-
lively so little of the ground it Occu-
pies that is beyond controversy. Again,
it is probably true that all the factors
of human endeavOr are not yet given
their true place among its fundamen-
tails, and hence its conclusions are
necessarily more or less misleading. 1t
will, at least, not do to say that free
trade is its necessary and logical out
come; nor should American colleges
allow free trade to be taught as an in
tegral part of the dismal science"
Toledo Blade.