Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Current Economic Affairs (1924).pdf/126



I propose to address you upon the present economic situation in the United States in the light of what seems to me to be that of commonsense, looking at facts and interpreting their meaning. I am not going to expound any abstract economic principles, although I may incidentally touch upon several. We have gained during the last five years a great deal of knowledge respecting the amount of our national wealth, our national annual income, our living expenses and savings that we did not previously possess. There is much data of such nature that we still need and for which our research men are diligently seeking. With the results of their work we shall every year be able to have a better understanding of current conditions. In the meanwhile the basic data that we have already gained enable us to form clearer ideas than ever before. Incidentally they dispel a great many illusions.

If I should undertake to submit to you our present collection of facts, even in their most concise expressions, my address would be largely statistical and consequently wearisome. I am therefore going to ask you to believe that the statements that I shall make to you are founded on facts. I am an economist who is