The author’s debt for information, inspiration, and assistance in various phases of the work is a large one.  The debt is owing to many,—­authors, colleagues, and students.  A few of the sources that have been drawn upon will be indicated in a pamphlet following the plan of the “Manual of References and Exercises in Economics,” already published for use in connection with Volume I; but the limits of space will prevent a complete enumeration.  I wish, however, in particular, to acknowledge gratefully the aid and friendly criticisms given in connection with the chapters on money and banking, on labor problems, and on the principles of insurance, respectively, by my colleagues, E.W.  Kemmerer, D.A.  McCabe, and N. Carothers.

In completing, at least provisionally, the present work, the author cherishes the hope that it will be of assistance not only to teachers and to students in American colleges, but also to citizen-readers seeking to gain a better and a non-partisan insight into the great economic problems now claiming the nation’s conscience and thought.

F.A.F.

Princeton, N.J., October, 1916.

MODERN ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

PART I RESOURCES AND ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER I

MATERIAL RESOURCES OF THE NATION

Sec. 1.  Politico-economic problems.  Sec. 2.  American economic problems in the past.  Sec. 3.  Present-day problems:  main subjects.  Sec. 4.  Attempts to summarize the nation’s wealth.  Sec. 5.  Average wealth and the problem of distribution.  Sec. 6.  Changes in the price-standard.  Sec. 7.  A sum of capital, not of wealth.  Sec. 8.  Sources of food supply.  Sec. 9.  The sources of heat, light, and power.  Sec. 10.  Transportation agencies.  Sec. 11.  Raw materials for clothing, shelter, machinery, etc.

Sec. 1. #Politico-economic problems.# The word “problem” is often on our tongues.  Life itself is and always has been a problem.  In every time and place in the world there have been questions of industrial policy that challenged men for an answer, and new and puzzling social problems that called for a solution.  And yet, when institutions, beliefs, and industrial processes were changing slowly from one generation to another and men’s lives were ruled by tradition, authority, and custom, few problems of social organization forced themselves upon attention, and the immediate struggle for existence absorbed the energies and the interests of men.  But our time of rapid change seems to be peculiarly the age of problems.  The movement of the world has been more rapid in the last century than ever before—­in population, in natural science, in invention, in the changes of political and economic institutions; in intellectual, religious, moral, and social opinions and beliefs.