An Editorial Farewell
| Published date | 01 June 1961 |
| Date | 01 June 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1961.tb00159.x |
CURRENT TOPICS
AN
EDITORIAL FAREWELL
THIS
issue
of
the
Journal
is
the last that will appear under my
editorship. Since the Society drafted
me
nearly eight years ago I
have been given plenty of
rope
and would not have been
in
the least
surprised
if
the freedom with which
I
used it had brought my term
of
office to
a
much less agreeable conclusion. I have depended heavily
on
the goodwill
of
the Society’s members, the forbearance
of
contri-
butors and the unfailing competence
of
printers and publishers. With
their help the
Journal
has
won
a
place for itself which
I
am confident
it
will maintain.
The hopes with which it began have not altogether been fulfilled.
We remain a small, relatively professional, society conducting its
affairs informally and dependent for its solvency on the Scottish
Universities and the Scottish Banks. We have not been able to
establish that bridge with influential lay opinion in Scottish business
and public
life
which was one of our original objects. Like other
economic societies, we seem destined to give increasing weight
to
the
priestly over the lay element in our affairs, not
so
much through the
zeal
of
the priestly as the indifference of the lay. Yet we can take
comfort, both from the rising circulation and reputation of the
Journal
and from the greater frequency
of
contact that is now maintained
between economists working in Scotland.
I
think
it
possible also that
the
Journal
may have made a marginal contribution
to
the improve-
ment which
I
detect over the past decade in the level of public
discussion of Scottish economic problems-low though that level
remains.
It
is
a great source
of
satisfaction
to
me
to
be
succeeded
in the
editorship by two distinguished Scottish economists whose names are
already well-known to readers of the
Journal.
Donald Robertson,
who succeeds me at Glasgow, was the author
of
an article in the very
first issue and has contributed several articles since. Alan Peacock,
who
followed our President in the Edinburgh Chair, has always taken
a keen interest in the
Journal,
has already acquired wide experience
as an editor, and enjoys an international reputation. In bowing myself
out
of
the editorial chair,
I
wish the
two
of them all success as they
sque-ze into
it,
and the same loyal support from the members of the
Society which it has been
my
good fortune to enjoy. A.
K.
C.
166
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