Political economy has been most frequently discussed in its
relation to the growth of the industries and the increase of
national wealth. The classes by whose labor wealth is created
have been considered along with lands and chattels as important
factors in the production of wealth ; but their own well-being
has been too often regarded only in its relations to production,
and without independent consideration of the moral and social
welfare of the common people. But much attention has been
given by recent writers to the study of economic questions, with
the distinct purpose of ascertaining what, if anything, may be
done to ameliorate the condition of the laboring classes. The
growth of wealth in the hands of a relatively small number of
persons has been so unprecedented, so out of all proportion to
the services which these persons may be supposed to have ren-
dered, the power which they have thus acquired over the for-
tunes of others has become so threatening, as to weaken faith
in some of the dogmas which, for nearly a century, have been
accepted as ultimate truths of political science. There is a feel-
ing of alarm, a sense of something wrong in the adjustment of
social forces.
