Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/212

 expert; the expert in investigation as well as in the preparation and the administration of laws. If there is one thing which the Ely school of economics seems to have brought into our life it is the spirit of the German school, which inspires one to look not to theory but to the actual affairs of economic life. So we are looking for advice now, not from discredited followers of the old theory of the classic school but to the teachings of men like John R. Commons, B. H. Meyer or Richard T. Ely. It is true that we are not changing rapidly enough and that we are too prone to take the advice of the undiluted type of professor of the old school who has not been tried in the laboratory of public life and who often proves to be a dangerous man. He who is lost in his theories is often as bad an advisor as the most corrupt politician; his guidance often leads into realms in which there is no real knowledge and which bear no practical relations to real life. A reasonable hesitancy in choosing an expert at the present time will accomplish a great deal for good government. The land is full of men with doctrinaire theories who have never studied the actual problems of government at first hand and who, if received with open arms, may do so much harm to the work of the real student of government that a serious retrogression will occur in the construction of any science of administration. A so-called expert who has not given time and attention to economic ques-