New-York tribune., 1893-12-28
ECONOMICS AND LABOR.
NEW WORKS BY ENGLISH. AMERICAN AND
GERMAN WRITER'S.

J. Shield Nicholson: Vol. Octavo PIP 4'-
OUTLINES OF ECONOMICS. BY ,,l Richard ao' T..
E Octave p9 c-,,, 81 H9nt GinciSna q hp'0" Ne"
IAIFOR AND THE POPULAR WELFARE: By
". H. Mallock. octave. PIP. 1856. Adam &
Charles Black, London.
THE DISTRIBUTION or WEALTH. ,,I;yr By John ~ H.
New-York and London.
ENGLAND.s FOREIGN TRADE IN THE nm; NM
GSnGcn CaxS GRR cRares les scr5"crs i Sons Nc~York
COMMERCIAL law BY j. + C. MunrC sr9 2ciayo. INg
apn 9pi i'i Ma''"''1" * Co. Ns"- -O'" anu '
rHE2sy AND Po1SY or tARor ASg By T. C
0E' co LonSoa v0 inHpor;ed HS by chSrleS scriOacra
AN OLD MASTER AND OTHER POLITICAL
ESSAYS. By Woodrow Wilson: Small ,o OCT octave
AN INTRODUCTORY TO THE STUDY OF 20
I.ITICAL ECONOMY. Ey Luigi Cossa. Trans
lated by Louis Dyer. Octave, PIP 5SS MacInil-
Ian & Co, London
The first volume OF Professor NichOlson's S
"Principles Of Political Economy embodics a re-
version from the methods and principles of John
Stuart Mill to the habits of historical exposition
of Adam Smith The Scotch Professor entering
upon his duties as a lecturer in the University
of Edinburgh with Mills "Prnciples of Politi-
cal Economy" as a textbook has gradually re-
cast the teaching until his notebooks have sup
piled material for fresh work on the subject
lie complains in his preface that Mills treat
ment has become less satisfactory every year
as a survey of economic science. and in the same
breath he acknowledges his obligations to Adam
Smith whom his former master regarded as the
father of political economy. The authors work
follows the lines Of the textbook which it affects
to displacc. production being considered under
the heads Of utility consumption. nature. labor.
,i,1er In of
diminishing and increasing returns. population
and the growth of material capital; and distri-
button including institution of private property.
bequest. Inheritance property in land, competi-
ton custom feudasIn, modern ownership Of
land contracts for the hire of land. wages.
profits economic rent and economic utopias. The
main departures from Mills great work are in
method, more attention being paid to economic
history than to abstract economic theory.
1t is almost exclusively an English work. and
IS prepared on the assumption that other
country has had any economic experience that is
worthy Of consideration. Adam Smith would
have applied the historical method more COM
prehensively so to include Il survey Of the
economic conditions of other civilized countries
The United States has made during the last
fifty years n wonderful record Of progress. which
is as valuable as England's industrial develop
and Mill but the Scotch professor makes only
beggarly references TO that experience. There
is hardly anything that is not English in the
polemics Of this volune The style is like Mills.
hard. analytical and luminous There Is the
same tendency to treat political economy as an
exact science Ike mathematics. The time Is
coming when there will be greater neXibihty or
method. The industrial and social history of the
century teaches with unerring force the broad
principle that political economy is the science
of human nature and markedly different from
the whole range of exact sciences.
II is this larger view Of economics that renders
Professor Ey's new work pre-eminently useful
He holds that economics is not an exact or
mathematical cience. though certain portions
of the subject may possibly become so. 1T is,
he says IAN approximate and partially descrip-
tive science like all sciences dealing with man.
or even with life. The inexactness Of the social
sciences is due TO the very thing which gives
them their supreme value-the nature Of man
and the greatness of their subject" The laws
Of economics are not natural and external to
man. but social and dependent upon his en-
vironment and progress. Political economy is a
study Of the development of man. and general
izations from it are necessarily local and tenn
porary, ard not valid for all times and places
1t is a dynamic science. or a science Of forces
in action
An author who sets out with these funda-
mental principles necessarily writes compre-
hensve and progressive work. Outlines Of
Economics" is an admirable work Of the highest
Informing quality, complete in its scope, broad
minded and catholic in its methods Of treatment
and philosophical in its tone 1t is a book designed
primarily for students. and it possesses the rare
merit of dealing impartiay with controversial
questions Whether Free Trade and Protection.
or the relations of the State TO private enter
prise. or the newest forms Of Socialist contro~
vcrsy are under discussion. the reader is pro-
v!ded with a faithful abstract Of the arguments
on each side. We know of recent work on
economics which contains as much information
as this well-digested treatise. or which cquips
so fully candid reader for forming an inde-
pendent judgment on nearly all the controversial
questions of the time.
Mr. Mallock's volume on Labor and the POpu-
lar Welfare" offers 4 marked contrast with the
works which we have been examining. 1t deals
with the labor question and the social claims Of
the masses as connected with practical politics.
Like Professor Ely's work it is excursion
into the true domain Of political economy the
progressive science of human nature; but il is
as fresh and exhilarating a Journey into a
new country. The author in his opening chapter
states an elementary principle which is the key
to his object in writing his book 1t is this:
That the end Of government is TO secure adc-
quate incomes fer the greatest possible number
and thereby to provide the external conditions
for human happiness. He maintains that this
view is not necessarily naterialisic or
patriotic. since income is necessary for mental
as we'll as physical welfare, and since patriotism
will only flourish in country which secures for
It's citizens the conditions Of a happy lfc. The |
economic ana political gospel which he breaches |
Is simple and ineligible. 1t implies that the |
welfare Of the home secured by sufficient !
income is the test and the end of human govern +
ment
By what sort OF social legislation may the in |
comes Of the great mass OF the community be |