ECONOMICS AND THE LAW: ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT.

AMERICAN Economic Association 053432811

As it was taught centuries ago to men that "knowledge is to be found by careful investigation of nature, not by spinning cobwebs," and "turned men from disputations of words to an observation of the world around," so it is being taught today for the first time that economics is a science that has to do "with the affairs of this world and is not merely a part of abstract philosophy. It was also asserted that while production rested on physical laws, distribution rested on the conventions of society. People are just beginning to find out how wide of the mark the first part of this statement is however true within wide limits the latter may be. Until within a decade or two economics was considered the science of private pecuniary gain. Within very recent days the emphasis has shifted from private gain to human welfare. The traditional economics took definite shape at the moment when the world was passing from one economic system, method of production, and business organization to another. Its principles were drawn almost entirely from the conditions then rapidly passing away.