Frank Knight, an eminent economist, said recently that one of the most deleterious influences on the science of economics was the impact of the Papal Encyclicals because these had introduced the ethical element into the science. Mr. Knight, together with a large group of economists, including some Catholics, maintains that the introduction of the ethical element into such a science is adding a foreign condition to it, which of necessity will prove a handicap to the progress of the science. The economist is not a moralist, they contend. The accusation by Mr. Knight gives us an indication of one of the most basic disputes among economists. The majority of economists, in the spirit of scientism, have always maintained that a scientific economist must remain only within the sphere of economics to the total exclusion of ethical and philosophical implications of his research. But lately there has been growing a minority, especially the welfare economists, both Catholic and non-Catholic, who have emphasized the necessity of an economist's taking into consideration the philo? sophical implications of economic matters. Mr. Knight's accusation, at the same time, gives the clue to what seems to be, the special role of the Catholic economist as an economic scientist. Of course, this statement presumes that there is such an individual or a group as Catholic economists. The economist is a Catholic economist precisely because, as a Catholic, he has a special contribution to make to the field of economic studies. And Mr. Knight, in his criticism of a fundamental guide of the Catholic economist, the Encyclicals, indicates the special contri? bution of the Catholic economist to economic studies. He can and must contribute a sound ethical basis for these studies. He can do