great. The study of principles makes demands upon thought that are
open and unmistakable; its conclusions, drawn in the cold light of
reason, are uncolored by feeling, and are acceptable of all men so
long as the precise application that may justly be made of them is
not foreseen. But conclusions regarding practical questions of public
policy, tho they may appear to be simple, usually are biased and
complicated by assumptions, prejudices, selfish interests, and
feelings, deep-rooted and often unsuspected.

No practical problem in the field of economics can be solved as if
it were solely and purely an economic problem. It is always in some
measure also a political, moral, and social problem. The task of the
economist "as such" is the analysis of the economic valuation-aspects
of these problems. We may recall Francis A. Walker's comparison of the
economist's task with that of the chemist, which task, in a certain
case, was to analyze the contents of a vial of prussic acid, not to
give advice as to the use to make of it. Accordingly, in the following
pages, the author has endeavored primarily to develop the economic
aspects of each problem, and has repeatedly given warning when the
discussion or the conclusions began to transcend strict economic
limits. In many questions feeling is nine-tenths of reason. If the
reader has different social sympathies he may prefer to draw different
conclusions from the economic analysis.

The outlook and sympathies that are expressed or tacitly assumed
throughout this work are not so much those personal to the author as
they are those of our present day American democratic society,
taken at about its center of gravity. When the people generally feel
differently as to the ends to be attained, a different public policy
must be formulated, tho the economic analysis may not need to be