Chapter 7

judgment as to "the best" policy 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