The Indianapolis journal., 1892-02-16
TIE ECONOMIST AND TIE PUBLIC.
Why the College Variety Of the Former Has
Been Distrus;ed BY the latter.

TO the Editor OF the IndianaDois sournah
When difficult problems are o'be settled
wise public does not offer premiums for
Ignorance. nor does it despise long study
and special knowledge. Yet a traveller has
said: The people of the United States dis
trust man who has studied IN economic
problem more than three weeks" What is
the meaning of thisf Our American col
leges were founded. not as were German
universities for the purpose of raising ND
young men for the civil service and for
statesmanship. but for the purpose of quail
ifying youths for the ministry. And al
though many of our colleges have out
grown the narrowness of their origin, they
have retained the theological stamp. Un-
I'll recent years political economy was
taught for one term of the senior year by
the professor OF the moral and metaphy-
sical sciences. usually the president of the
college. and invariably an ex-clergyman.
The textbook was either Amasa Walker.
with his reproduction of the deductiys
economics of the Englishmsn, Ricardo
and Mill. or else Perry. with bis strong
bias toward the optimistic French school.
In either case the subject was sure
to be handled IN q theological way. The
harmonies OF economies were excellent
texts for homiies on providence and the
divine plan. In the vast majority of col
legos the teacher was IN no sense Of ths
word O specialist. He consulted no origi-
nal data, he had no touch with the business
world. he conducted no research and did no
original work. Theology. metaphy sizes and
morals possessed his interest and absorbed
his energies. And 90 II came that the dog
matism, the love of deduction. the fond
ness for distractions. the indiscrimipato
optimism so characteristic of she other
hro ohaa anr int n he fao Inc nf lt.s
cal economy. There was little inclination
TO see facts or TO respect them when seen.
There was no library OF economic lters-
ture. There was no reference 60 periodical
literature on economics, Tor none existed.
There was no resort TO sources OF facts and
statlstics, Tor the teacher could neither use
them himself nor direct others in their use.
So political economy. taught usually by
quite apart from the rush and the
roar of the industrial life. assumed
an air of unreality. of detachment and
remoteness from the pressing economic
questions of the time. DelIverances on the
burning topics OF the day were not want
ing. but these were often gwen with go
much dogmatism, 90 much assumption of
lnfallibility, 90 much self-sufhciency and
hnality, that men aware of the real dItfi-
culties of practical legislation became
piqued at college political economy. The
students who left college imbued with the
tenets of q closed science. warranted TO ac-
count for economic phenomena among all
peoples and at oil times. found their polIt-
ical economy fade away in the presence Of
the manifold and changing phenomena that
attend society's efforts 10 get living. Ad-
miration was turned into contempt aud
respect into ridlcule. And 70 arose the
feud between public men and college pro-
fessors. The latter. stung by neglect. be-
came, sometimes. querulous and denuncis-
tory. The former, with deep political de-
sign, often sought TO turn the people
against all economists alike, including even
that handful OF genuine experts that
brought the labors of lifetime to the So
luton of practical problems
The result was that both ooliticia and
economists drifted apart. 10 their mutual
injury. The neglect of economic teaching
checked the Developments of the science on
the one hand, and on the other caused an
alarming growth of strange heresies from
communism TO fat money. In view of THE
might we not welcome a reunion of Iegisla-
tion and economic scIence7 And 90 /
would ask the question-what claims has
the university economist of to-day on the
confidence OF the American peoplef
EDWARD A. Ross.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON, Feb. Is.