SELECTIONS AND DOCUMENTS IN ECONOMICS EDITED BY WILLIAM Z. RIPLEY, PH.D. Professor oF ECONOMICS, HARVARD University SELECTIONS AND DOCUMENTS IN ECONOMICS Already published TRUSTS, POOLS, AND CORPORATIONS By William Z. Ripley, Ph.D., Professor of Economics, Harvard University TRADE UNIONISM AND LABOR PROBLEMS By John R. Commons, Professor of Political SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS SELECTED READINGS IN PUBLIC FINANCE By Charles J. Bullock, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University In preparation ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Vol. I, 1763-1860; Vol. II, 1860-1900 By Guy Stevens Callender, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy, Yale University RAILWAY PROBLEMS By William Z. Ripley, Ph.D., Professor of SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS A HANDBOOK FOR STUDENTS OF SOCIOLOGY COMPILED BY THOMAS NIXON CARVER, PH.D., LL.D. DAVID A. WELLS PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL ECONOMY A HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE LIBRARY OF COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 66.1 The Athenæum Press PREFACE The problem of human welfare, before which all others seem trivial in comparison, is not to be understood without the widest attainable knowledge of things pertaining to man. Up to the present time the economist is undoubtedly the one who has made the most searching and the most effective study of this problem. But other light is needed and a wider view is necessary than the economist is in the habit of taking. The present volume is compiled for the purpose of presenting to the student, in convenient form, material for this wider view. It is based upon twelve years of college and university teaching. The selections presented are those which the compiler has found by experience to be the most instructive, the most stimulating, and the most thought-provoking. No attempt has been made to select only such passages as embody the compiler's views, or even to select such as are invariably sound and accurate. The fact that a passage has proved brilliantly suggestive and provocative of serious inquiry has, in several cases, been the chief reason for including it. It is the hope of the compiler that this volume may prove useful both to the college student and to the general reader. In college classes it is designed to be used as supplementary to an elementary text-book, as collateral reading to a course of lectures, or as a basis for class-room discussions. The latter is by far the most effective method yet devised for the teaching of the social sciences, and in connection with this method the compiler ventures to hope that this volume may prove especially useful. The compiler wishes to express here his gratitude for the many courtesies which he has received from authors and publishers. He is under especial obligation to Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., |