2 
ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
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with Clark is organic relation rather than objective coincidence. 
In 1876 Dunbar had admitted, “The United States have thus 
far done nothing toward developing the theory of political 
economy,” and four years later Cliffe Leslie had particularized: 
“American political economy is in the main an importation from 
Europe, not an original development.” But the extraordinary 
changes in American economic organization were already begin- 
ning to exert influence. A new spirit of realistic study of sur- 
rounding phenomena was becoming manifest, with an accompany- 
ing reflex of doctrinal controversies then raging among English 
economists. 
More notable than these factors was the return to the United 
States in the early eighties of a remarkable company of young 
scholars from post-graduate study in German universities. Their 
arrival and activity effected a virtual renascence in American 
economic thought. With others trained in this country lodgment 
was found in leading universities; student bodies gathered, and 
productive scholarship developed. 
The dominant characteristics of the group were an avowal of 
the historical inductive method, and an election in the main of 
concrete problems for inquiry. At Harvard, Taussig traced the 
growth and influence of American protectionism; at Yale, Hadley 
concerned himself with railway transportation, and Farnam with 
social problems; at Columbia, Seligman studied the theory and 
practice of public finance and Mayo-Smith pursued statistical 
inquiries; at Johns Hopkins, Ely made pioneer studies of local 
taxation and of the labor movement; at Pennsylvania, James 
studied municipal economics and at Michigan, H. C. Adams 
became identified with fiscal studies. A “statement of principles” 
proposed and accepted in the formation of the American Eco- 
nomic Association at Saratoga in 1885 as “a general indication 
of the views and the purposes” of the founders contained the 
declaration: “While we appreciate the work of former economists, 
we look not so much to speculation as to the historical and 
statistical study of actual conditions of economic life” for the 
further development of political economy. 5 
In the organization and early activity of the American 
Economic Association the extreme “historical” tendency in 
the United States spent itself. Stirred by militant challenge, 
heartened by clearness of issue, supplied with convenient chan-