Platform: American Economic Association 1885

'1. We regard the state as an educational and ethical agency whose positive aid is an indespensible condition of human progress. While we recognize the necessity of individual initiative in industrial life, we hold that the doctrine of laissez faire is unsafe in politics and unsound in morals; and that is why it suggests an inadequate explanation of the relationship between the state and the citizens.'

AEA, Saratoga, New York, September 1885