[Letter] Nov.22,1887,Smith College [to F.H. Giddings]

Nov. 22, 1887, Smith College.

Dear Mr. Giddings,
      I like the suggestions
very much, and think we
are, thanks to them, on
the right track. Have we not,
however, now so limited our
title as to promise less than
we give? Perhaps not. I have
thought over the phrase so
much as to lose my present
capacity for getting the
fresh and natural impression
from it. What I mean is this;
we are, as I think, making
a study of the actual mode of
determining prices, profits
and wages since the last
social evolution (capitalization
and combinations). We do not, as
I understand, accept as accurate
the analyses already made of
the test processes of economics
and simply supplement them
by showing how the processes
change their phases. We try
to make a complete analysis
from the beginning, and to
carry it through to the end.
We state much concerning
the permanent laws of the
division of wealth, and try to
make a more systematic
analysis of a certain part of the process
than has been made.
The distinctively modern part of the
subject matter is not, as I
take it, quite the whole of it.
Am I right? Would a reader
underestimate the scope of the
book if it were spoken as
Modem aspects of list.?
( ), moreover, the term
aspects seem to suggest modes
in which outward appearances
present themselves, rather than
actual modes of working? I put
all this in interrogative form, not
for effect, but because I have
thought too long to be able to
judge well. In return please
criticise what I suggest, and
do it the more freely that I
am wholly in doubt about the
forms. I like the quaint
effect, as well as the accuracy
of the sub-title. Ought we,
if we use this form, to carry
out the effect by means of
old type? If we conclude not
to use a distinctly antique
form we can keep nearly all
there is in the form suggested,
and by changing a word or two
make it harmonize with a modem
environment, as it were, that is
with a plain and cheap cloth
binding. I think it would sound
modern if we were simply to omit
the word Being, and substitute
A study for Considerations. Is it
best to make it modem to this
extent? I wish you all a
very pleasant holiday season.

      Yours Very Truly,
           J. B. Clark

 Suggestions concerning title:
 Best Questions of Modern Distribution

 of the Nature and Amount of
 Profits, and of the Law of
 Wages, in the Indus-
trial Society of
 Today