licy for the moment.
The present volume was planned some years ago as a revision of a part
of the author's earlier text, "The Principles of Economics" (1904).
The intervening years have, however, been so replete with notable
economic and social legislation and have witnessed the growth of a
wider public interest in so many economic subjects, that both in
range and in treatment this work necessarily grew to be more than
a revision. Except in a few chapters, occasional sentences and
paragraphs are all of the specific features of the older text that
remain. Suggestive of the rapid changes occurring in the economic
field is the fact that a number of statements made in the manuscript a
few months or a few weeks ago had to be amended in the proof sheets to
accord with recent events.
The author's debt for information, inspiration, and assistance in
various phases of the work is a large one. The debt is owing to
many,--authors, colleagues, and students. A few of the sources that
have been drawn upon will be indicated in a pamphlet following the
plan of the "Manual of References and Exercises in Economics," already
published for use in connection with Volume I; but the limits of space
will prevent a complete enumeration. I wish, however, in particular,
to acknowledge gratefully the aid and friendly criticisms given in
connection with the chapters on money and banking, on labor problems,
and on the principles of insurance, respectively, by my colleagues,
E.W. Kemmerer, D.A. McCabe, and N. Carothers.
In completing, at least provisionally, the present work, the author
cherishes the hope that it will be of assistance not only to teachers
and to students in American colleges, but also to citizen-readers
seeking to gain a better and a non-partisan insight into the great
economic problems now claiming the nation's conscience and thought.
F.A.F.
Princeton, N.J., October, 1916.
MODERN ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
PART I RESOURCES AND ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION
CHAPTER I
MATERIAL RESOURCES OF THE NATION
Sec. 1. Politico-economic problems. Sec. 2. American economic problems
in the past. Sec. 3. Present-day problems: main subjects. Sec. 4. Attempts
to summarize the nation's wealth. Sec. 5. Average wealth and the problem
of distribution. Sec. 6. Changes in the price-standard. Sec. 7. A sum of
capital, not of wealth. Sec. 8. Sources of food supply. Sec. 9. The sources
of heat, light, and power. Sec. 10. Transp
|