ubjects which have a
financial bearing. On every such question we see wide differences of
opinion without any common basis to rest upon.

It may be said, in reply, that in these cases there are really no
grounds for forming an opinion, and that the contests which arise over
them are merely those between conflicting interests. But this claim is
not at all consonant with the form which we see the discussion assume.
Nearly every one has a decided opinion on these several subjects;
whereas, if there were no data for forming an opinion, it would be
unreasonable to maintain any whatever. Indeed, it is evident that there
must be truth somewhere, and the only question that can be open is that
of the mode of discovering it. No man imbued with a scientific spirit
can claim that such truth is beyond the power of the human intellect.
He may doubt his own ability to grasp it, but cannot doubt that by
pursuing the proper method and adopting the best means the problem can
be solved. It is, in fact, difficult to show why some exact results
could not be as certainly reached in economic questions as in those of
physical science. It is true that if we pursue the inquiry far enough
we shall find more complex conditions to encounter, because the future
course of demand and supply enters as an uncertain element. But a
remarkable fact to be considered is that the difference of opinion to
which we allude does not depend upon different estimates of the future,
but upon different views of the most elementary and general principles
of the subject. It is as if men were not agreed whether air were
elastic or whether the earth turns on its axis. Why is it that while in
all subjects of physical science we find a general agreement through a
wide range of subjects, and doubt commences only where certainty is not
attained, yet when we turn to economic subjects we do not find the
beginning of an agreement?

No two answers can be given. It is because the two classes of subjects
are investigated by different instruments and in a different spirit.
The physicist has an exact nomenclature; uses methods of research well
adapted to the objects he has in view; pursues his investigations
without being attacked by those who wish for different results; and,
above all, pursues them only for the purpose of discovering the truth.
In economic questions the case is entirely different. Only in rare
cases are they studied without at least the suspicion that the student