1893 - State Library Information Center

56 STATISTICS OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES,The idea is somewhat general that the science of politicaleconomy is of recent origin, that the Physioerates or Adam Smithwere its originators. In fact, Adam Smith is often spoken of asthe " father" of political economy. But the institutions ofAthens and Sparta are quite familiar to us, as is also the magnificentadministrative work of the Romans. In both these peoplesof antiquity we may find the origin of nearly all the institutionsof modern government. In the laws of Lycurgus there were incorporatedmore of the aspirations of modern society than peoplegenerally are inclined to believe. Partisan spirit ran as high atRome during the prescription of Sylla, the quarrels of plebeiansand patricians were as venomous as during the Reign of Terror.If we compare the withdrawal of the Roman people to theBacred hill when the land monopoly was the burning question inRome, and which sealed the fate of the Gracchi, with the insurrectionsand turmoil raised by the working people in variouscountries in recent times, the resemblance is very similar.We may say that two thousand years were occupied in fearlessattempts to solve the question of freeing mankind from industrialslavery and the incubus of pauperism on a very extensivescale, by the most civilized and ingenious people of antiquity.History has preserved to us the results of such experiments madeby the Greeks and Romans. And it is not too much to say thatmodern methods of dealing with the same problems arc nothingmore than a repetition of the same experiments, often withoutthe same necessity and with no more ability. Those who cannotsee this fact fail to grasp the lessons of history and to comprehendthat it is but the story of man's progress and development. It istrue the ancients left no works summing up in book formtheir economic science. Their economic systems must bo seenin their institutions, deciphered from their monuments, comprehendedfrom the remnants of their handicrafts and read in theirjurisprudence. The care with which the Romans maintainedtheir aqueducts and highways shows how fully they comprehendedthe primary and most important necessities of civilization.The maintenance of open communication from Rome toYork by an ever-ready relay of horses, shows a higher developmentof the organization of exchange and intercommunication, relativelyto the forces at their command, than can be shown by many