LAND ECONOMICS 
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stage the relationships were few. Now we live in an age of com- 
mercialized agriculture and the relationships are many and 
varied. We have likewise a vast number of relationships with 
respect to urban land and other kinds of land. 
In an address given about three years ago Chancellor David 
Starr Jordan said this: “Science is human experience tested and 
set in order.” This is entirely in accord with the idea of science 
just expressed by the writer. Chancellor Jordan said, further- 
more, that science had three great purposes: usefulness, the 
foundation of ethics, and the development of the human mind. 
Now land economics meets all of these tests. It is most useful 
as a guide in helping us to utilize the land. It helps us lay the 
foundation of ethical conduct, and its various ramifications offer 
every opportunity to train the human mind. It requires the best 
powers we have. 
Science wins ever new territory and its scope is constantly 
expanding. Law and medicine offer illustrations and now land 
economics has come into being. We can get at this matter of 
science in this way. If land economics is becoming a science, it 
should develop a profession to deal with the land, just as we have 
professions to deal with law and medicine. Dr. Charles F. 
Thwing, president emeritus of Western Reserve University, has 
given us permanent and outstanding characteristics of a pro- 
fession. They are as follows: (1) Money making is regarded as 
a condition, not as an aim; (2) The sense of brotherhood among 
the members; (3) Public service; (4) The possession of certain 
standards for entrance; (5) A body of literature concerning the 
profession. The real estate business meets these tests and is 
slowly but gradually becoming a profession. The better men 
in the business meet all these tests and we have a growing 
body of literature dealing with the profession. 
Now that we have discussed land economics as a science, we 
observe in its evolution the development through specialization 
and differentiation of new fields as seen in the separate treatment 
of different kinds of land, of which one of the most important is 
urban land. Urban land economies includes such topics as causes 
of urbanization, the location, structure and future of cities, the 
peculiar characteristics of urban land utilization, public control 
of urban land utilization including planning and zoning, urban 
land tenure and tenancy, taxation and valuation. It is strange