ABSTRACT
THE interest in the study of economic problems has increased steadily throughout this century. But truth and wisdom are prerogatives of no single generation, and we can profit by applying to the masters of economic science of preceding generations the same continuous and constructive criticism as is available for contemporary thought. This is the more important in economics, because present writers have matured under that oral tradition which has long characterized the teaching of economics in both Great Britain and the U.S.A. As a result neither they nor their pupils have always been aware of the sources of contemporary inspiration.
