Economic Thought in the United Recent years have seen in the United States a development of economic thought not surpassed is any country. With the exception of H. C. Carey, American economists had usually fol lowed the teachings of the classical school, until the brilliant writings of ' F. A. Walker (1840 97), who attacked the wage fund theory and developed the idea of enterpriser's profits. The formation of the American Economic Associa tion in 1885 was a sign of the growing interest, and this has been followed by the establishment of half a dozen journals devoted to economic affairs. As might be expected in a new country, which was rapidly developing and whose natural resources were being exploited, there was con siderable revolt against the pessimism and ab straction of the classical school. Many of the members of the rising group of writers had received their economic training in Germany and were in sympathy with the historical school And finally the theories of the Austrian school have been accepted and carried forward by still another group. So that the development of economic thought in the United States parallels that which has taken place elsewhere, but has been characterized by much that is original and noteworthy. Among those who may be mentioned as having established a claim to recognition are H. C. Adams, T. N. Carver, J. B. Clark, J. R. Commons, R. T. Ely, H. J. Davenport, D. R. Dewey, F. A. Fetter, I. Fisher, A. T. Hadley, E. J. James, D. Kinley, Laughlin, S. Patten, E. R. A. Seligman, . W. Taussig and T. Veblen. It is difficult to draw any con clusions from an account of the development of the science of economics, for the one outstand ing fact in this study is that it has been full of change and that the end is not yet. Out of
the conflict of ideas however there has de veloped a body of knowledge which affords a common ground for all and constitutes the science of economics of to-day. The subject matter of this science, so far as it is a pure science, has moreover narrowed, having sloughed off such subjects as political science and soci ology, now treated independently. In one re spect it seems to have completed the circle : start ing with theological conceptions it gradually eliminated all motives but the purely economic; but recently, under the influence of the social ists and of a greater humanitarianism, ethical considerations are being given more emphasis, at least in the practical application of economic principles.
Carman, E., 'A History of the Theories of Production and Distribution in English Political Economy from 1776 to
(London 1893; 2d ed., 1903) ; Cossa, L., An Introduction to the Study of Political Econ omy> (translated from the Italian by L. Dyer, London 1893) ; Davenport, H. J.,
and Distribution, a Critical and Constructive Study' (New York 1908) ; Eisenhart, H.,