ABSTRACT
At mid-century a group of college professors joined with some progressive businessmen to liberate economics from moral philosophy and redefine it as a normless science of wealth. To make economics a science of wealth, it was necessary first to establish it as a science. Instead of emphasizing a Baconian model as the ASSA social scientists did, laissez-faire economists relied on Newtonian analogies as a more powerful support for their a priori doctrines. Economics had become a science of wealth and a useful justification for entrepreneurs who were reaping the fruits of an expanding economy. The economists charged that selfish politicians would cheerfully legislate against the welfare of the people if someone made it worth their while. Though Arthur Twining Hadley was less hidebound in his economic thinking than William Graham Sumner was, German training never shook his habitual presumption in favor of laissez-faire or convinced him that economics was a science of welfare.
