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206 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. xiii (1939)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0206 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD Tars volume covers a wide range of subjects of economic import within the broad question of governmental policy. It is a symposium of views gathered within the general outline of the sub- ject as reflected by the table of contents. There has been no effort made to pre- sent contrary views on each particular topic, it being believed that within the compass of the entire volume a sufficient variety of viewpoints would be revealed. This has proved to be true. No effort has been made by initial selection or by guidance of the authors to develop any particular or well-defined philosophy of governmental relation to economic life, each writer being chosen for his known competence in treating the subject as- signed. Lest the fact pass unobserved, this volume has been written almost entirely by economists. Even those whose pro- fessional titles might indicate some other point of approach are nevertheless per- sons whose intellectual interests and ex- perience have caused them to be con- cerned with economic considerations in public policy. This is not to imply that none but economists should speak upon the economic functions of government. All citizens, no less than their academic compatriots, are concerned with the problems of describing and analyzing what these functions are, and of formu- lating judgments as to what they should be. Many economists and other social sci- entists are loath to give voice to their views in matters of policy. So trained are their minds to objectivity, so stead- fastly do they seek to guard the repute of their professions in the scientific as- pects, that they are only with great difficulty persuaded to reveal their own philosophy of economic and political ac- tion. However, here indeed should be the place where the knowledge possessed by the economist of economic processes could be most helpful. In the past the interest of economists in reasonable and sound policy has been present in every period of development. It has not, however, been present in every economist in the same degree. Some few have eschewed anything not strictly science, refusing even to develop the scientific aspects of applied econom- ics, declaring that the economist had no responsibility to give advice but had only a role of observation, description, and analysis. Many, however, in recent years have not hesitated to develop a larger emphasis upon applied economics, not only in the business sense but also in the sense of political economy and welfare economics. The concern for the practical utility of economics may not have brought economists as a whole back to the Smithian concept of giving advice to statesmen, but certainly much modern economic literature contains rec- ommendations as to policy involving value judgments, although often not consciously so. By the very nature of economic life this has continued the dis- cussion of the economic functions of government which has always been at least a related part of the development of economics, both in its philosophical and practical aspects. A careful inspection of the table of contents will reveal that this volume does not present a complete or exhaus- tive treatment of all the economic func- tions of government historically or con- temporaneously existent or advocated. Space limitations must govern. Fur- thermore, economy certainly should be followed in a presentation of economic problems as well as in the solution of these problems themselves. Certain aspects might have been given broader treatment, notably those of international significance. Today, X1i1

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