The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-28
Prof. Hadley's
Address.
SCIENCE REVIEWED
We Are Committed to In
perialian, He Says.

New Haven, Conn, Dec 27.-The
eleventh annual meeting of the Ameri-
can Economic Association opened here
this evening in the building of the New
Haven Colony Historical building, and
sessions viii be held tomorrow and
Thursday. Many distinguished econo-
mists from all sections of the country
are in attendance. The address of well
come was delivered by President Tim
othy Dwight of Yale University.
The convention then gave its atten-
ton to the annual address of President
Arthur I. Hadley. Prof. Hadley began
with a general view of the progress Of
interest in economic science, and said
that the trained economist is now find
! ing d growing field in journalism, in
/ finance and in railrOading and educa-
tional lines. In the one vital respect of
the economists influence on govern
ment and legislation, the economist
I finds not only less than he should find
to do, but less than was formerly true.
He pleaded for effort to reunite these
/ two spheres of activity in the inmedi-
ate future. At the end of the 18th CEN
1 fury, political economy was understood
as an attempt to apply the principles
/ of money getting to the conduct of ma
tional affairs, and with this view in
mind, financiers and statesmen studied
the science. The last and the present
! century have witnessed a reaction.
The new conception has broader aims
and broader foundations than the old.
But there has come to be a loss Of con-
/ creteness, and with this a loss of def
niteness and aim, the almost inevitable
result of substituting the principles of
a science for the practice of an art. The
( economists are partly to blame for this
in that they did not make as clear to
the statesmen as they should the mean
I ing of their points, but instead took
/ refuge in the SecluSion of the schools
1 and built up theories.
Meantime theories of government
1 We're in the midst Of a process of evo-
luton which tended to carry them
away from the influence of economic
/ theory. The judiciary, the legislature
and the administration were subject to
/ separate influences, which made them
I less ready to rely on the political econ
omists for advice. In the earlier times
! the economists and jurists were both
J concerned to connect their conclusions
/ with those of political ethics and each
! science was thus brought into vital
connection with the other. The legal
theory of the sovereignty of the courts
/ has had the same effect as the econ
omic theory of sovereignty of the in
dtvidual III separating from one an
other and from the needs of practical
politics two sciences whose best work
has been done hand in hand with each
other and in the most sedulous appli-
/ cation to those needs. The results of
this separation have been so serious
that efforts have been made to rein
troduce connection by means of com
missions" of various forms, railroad
commissions, tax, labor and an indie
finite number of other commissions.
They have too often proved a wholly
eXtraneous element in the development
Of the law; and that in assuming
quasi-judieial functions they have an
tagonized the courts instead of helping
them. As economists lost the chance of
influencing judicial decisions, were they
not face to face with a wider field for
influencing legislative debates? For
the better part of a century this pos
sibility existed, but the days of legis-
lative debate are numbered, if they are
not already ended.
The system of representative govern
ment devised originally as check
upon the administration and admirable
as a means for giving free discussion
to measures, has not proved equally
successful as a means of discussing
actual business in it's initiatory stages
The system of district representation
at first admirable, became under the
! new conditions positive disadvant-
age. In the creation of public senti-
ment it gave US exchange of opinions,
in the dispatch of public business it
means exchange Of favors. The econ
omist is at a disadvantage in influ-
encing members Of Legislature, because
his ends are different from their. He
is trying to pursue collective interests:
they are trying, perforce of necessary
conditions, to balance, to compromise
or in some fashion to reconcile diver
gent ones. This difference Of aims
ought to put the economist at a CORE
spending advantage in advising the
executive.
But the executive, however much he
/ may desire to avail himself of the SER
vices Of economists, cannot always do
so. 1t too often happens that the econ
omists cannot always do so. 1t too Of
/ ten happens that the economists. in
! their encouragement of independent
voting on each national issue as it
arises, deprive themselves of that in
/ huence within the party councils which
| is necessary for carrying any issue
whatsoever to its logical test and CON
! clusion. But things are by no means
at their worst. If we compare the
conditions of today with those of 30
/ years ago, we see a very marked in
! crease Of economic interests, methods
and influences in the work of govern
ment.
1 Whatever We may think of imperial
/ ism as a sentiment or of national ex-
pansion as a policy-and I was one of
those who looked upon them with re-
4 gret-these are things to which we are
already committed. This policy brings
new problems Of administration upon
US as nation, and renders it more nee
essary than before to study the art of
national government. And the need
( Of an efficient army will Of itself make
/ it necessary to give more independence
I to the administration and more oppor-
tunity to expert advisers. The need
for a government of our new colonies
which shall recognize the principle of
! trusteeship rather than of spoiiation
must conduce yet more strongly to-
/ ward the same results