Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Introductory Economics
In a democratic State economic science should be for the many, not for the few. The science is admittedly a difficult one; and until a royal road through its domains has been found, there is ample justification for the publication of a new text-book on economics, for the many excellent manuals now before the American public have not reached all classes nor met all needs. It has appeared to the writer that an economics text-book of moderate dimensions, dealing with only the more fundamental problems of the science, and written, so far as this is possible, in the language of every-day life, would prove useful to at least a limited class of students, and especially to those students of mature mind who seek to gain an introduction to modern economic thought, but who are not in a position to avail themselves of the advantages of class-room instruction. What students of this class - as well as many other students - most need is not a compendium of economic facts nor even an exhaustive treatment of economic principles, but a series of rigorous exercises in economic reasoning which will enable them better to organize the mass of practical economic knowledge that their daily experience affords.
The distinctive character of modern economic theory consists chiefly in its method of applying the principles of diminishing utility and diminishing returns. The student who is thoroughly familiar with these two principles, and who is trained to recognize their operation in practically every economic problem, will be able to follow the reasoning of the most profound of the modern economists, provided, of course, that this reasoning is not rendered unintelligible by a special terminology. But it is not alone as an introduction to economic theory that training in the use of these two principles is of vital importance.
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