Page:David Atkins - The Economics of Freedom (1924).pdf/67

 advantage of entering the field of economic enquiry after a great deal of the labor of the day is over.

As a matter of fact, the engineer who ventures in the economic field is much in the position of a transit-man who follows the long and patiently-sought route to the far-seen mountain gateway of a projected transcontinental road: he can check levels and estimates by triangulation from many hard-won clearings. With gratitude and admiration he traces the footsteps of a straggling line of pioneers: and since these were truly pioneers, pursuing varying paths, there are pathetic divergences to record as well as some very happy intersections. A few of these pioneers, because they did not tread identically the same path as the men who went before them, had to break new trails; and for their toil and perplexity they claimed the reward of originators, treating their fellow-investigators with.

From the standpoint of the engineer, the political-economists differ so widely when they disagree, they surely cannot all be right, and there should be no hesitation in saying so; for we have to deal with economic explorers of the type of both Cook the Captain and Cook the Doctor; but even for those whose bones lie bleaching far off the logical levels, the engineer can only have the deepest respect and should acknowledge frankly the clearings which have made his task so feasible.

There is one point which cannot be over-emphasized: a survey by triangulation will show logical termini and some obvious intermediate stations, so that the plotting of the long up-hill gradient on paper is a comparatively simple undertaking which may well result in a persuasive small-scale chart; but some of the facile projections, however logical, may lightly bridge heart-breaking problems of excavation, fill and drainage; and there is no one more ready than the engineer to acknowledge the cost and difficulty of this kind of work.

In going back over the contributions made to economics it seems evident that there has been in some instances a sense of unexplored territory sufficiently great to account for much mental wandering. But there are notable exceptions. Many of the writers, instead of merely binding the available data in separate sheaves and leaving it ingeniously piled in the rick,