Frederick A. Bushee, a social scientist at Colorado College, was one o f many in 1911 who believed that social science held the key to human progress:

The social sciences supplement the natural and biological sciences by making their work more effective. The science of politics should perfect the general social organization and promote efficiency in all kinds of collectivc activity. The science of economics should aid in the conquest of nature by a better direction of the agents of production and exchange and should further human efficiency and well being by improving the process of the distribution of wealth. Similarly, jurisprudence, ethics and other social sciences -should help to eliminate those who seek to prey upon society and should smooth out the social relations of the rest.

The social sciences, therefore . . . contribute to progress by correcting certain evils left by the...