Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1890-10-23
A GUESS AT LAnoR's RIDDLE.
"A Hook That IIiumines Our Modern In
dustrIal Life.
Especial Washington Lc.ter.l

Especial Washington Lctterl
"This will come to be accepted as one
OF the great books of this generation.
So spoke Major Powell, director of the
United States Geological Survey, and
one of our most thoughtful public men.
He was speaking Of DR.. Van Buren,
Denslow's volume entitled principles
of Economic Philosophy" Senator
ingalls, has expressed the same opinion,
and Senator Blaine remarked to the
author you have hit the nail on the
head.
Senator Casey, of North Dakota, re-
Gently wrote brother Senator, II find
that this book contains all the merit
with which you accredited it. and shall
at once purchase copy for my own
library"
Nowhere else, in any of the multi.
farious political economics of our time,
are the questions of our prevailing life
50 intelligently discussed. To Professor
OenslOw's conclusions on the tariff there
will he dissent; but his treatment Of the
difficulties which it presents is so lucid
and SO fair as to challenge the admira-
come of his logic.
On the general relations of capital and
tabor the work is an encyclop1 liza, COM
pact and comprehensive. The method
of it is above praise. Indeed, VIC do
not remember any other book on these
desiccated topics, unlessit be the treatises
of Herbert Spencer. whose style is SO
fascinating-factsm arshaled with grace
and illuminated with fancy. Its. more
over, replete with information illustrat-
ing every branch of economics. SO tire.
mendous in amount that it must have
been the accumulation of life of in.
delightful surprises at every paragraph,
whether he agrees or disagrees with the
conclusion reached by the author.
DR.. Denslow now lives in New York,
but lie is best known as a journalist.
For half generation he was the chief
editorial writer on the Chicago Tribune,
and his brilliant and voluminous work
is an important factor in the history of
that paper.
Following are some of the headings of
the Economic Philosophy:
Socialism,; Ownership by tbs Tribe;
Wealth Dependent on Exchanges; Can
Poverty he Abolished; Whence Comes
Value; How Prices are Made; Land
Grants; Capital and Labor Partners;
Does Risk of Loss Give Valid Title to
Profit; Wealth Causes Productions;
Getting Rich is Doing Good; Capital as
an Emancipation; Wages are Capital;
True Cause of Rent; The Wage Fund"
Doctrine; Labor Agitations; Machinery;
The Margin of Profit; What is Money;
Whence Come Panics; Competition.
These titles are suggestive; but it will
perhaps be more interesting to the reader
to copy the last two pages of this re-
markable contribution to the solution of
current problems:
~The reader should also be admonished
against the sophistry of assuming that
simplicity and even beauty in the state
nent of IA policy are to be mistaken for
simplicity and beauty in its operation.
A policy which may be extremely SIM
Pile in its statement may be infinitely
complex and painful in its operation.
On the contrary, policy which may be
rs full of entanglements in its state
ments as fort is of buttresses and ram.
parts, may be as delightfully."- direct and
simple in its operation as that fort is
on an invading foe. Hcrod's decree.
Kill all the babes under two years of
age;' Solomon's decree, Divide the babe
equally between the two women who
claim 10 be its MOTHER tho Russian
Cars decree, Build the railway from
ST. Petersburg to Moscow in the straight
line between those cities rs now draw
my pencil;' and the compromise tariff
decree of 1888 in the United States, Re-
.duce the tariff 10 per cent. each alter
nate year until it stands at 90 per cent.
ALI around We're models of simplicity in
their statement. but of complicated bar
barity and multifarious torture in their
operation.
But time would not avail to caution
the student against the multifarious
forms which fallacy may assume. Fal.
lacy, like fraud, defies accurate detini-
ton in advance by wearing new coat
every time it appears. Hence it is that
economic works, however ample, truth
full, and explicit may be their contents
and very few of them are either ample,
truthful, or explicit-can never brace
1.-THE student certainly and finally against
error. They are useful in cultivatinc
the habit of detecting error, but in theil
nse there must arise the new men who
,me wiser than the old books. and who
are as the new wine that can not be held
in the old bottles. Such men will see ir
each exigency, as it shall arise, the facts
which distinguish it from all preceding
cases, and will detect in advance that
right way which books can only point
out after it has been trod. These pio
s,eers in industry and in legislation are
the actual economists, who stand in :
like relation to the science as the grea
lawyers do to the law. They absorb it.
past learning, but they mold its future