Categories
AEA Economists Statistics

AEA. The Study of Statistics in College by Carroll D. Wright, 1887

Carroll D. Wright can be counted among the founding fathers of official government statistics in the United States. Here a few biographical details from an encyclopaedia published shortly after the paper below was presented. For impatient readers (sorry, he didn’t write with the Twitter-feeding generation in mind) my favorite quote:

“Know thyself” applies to nations as well as to men; and that nation which neglects to study its own conditions, or fears to study its own conditions in the most searching and critical manner, must fall into retrogression. If there is an evil, let the statistician search it out; by searching it out and carefully analyzing statistics, he may be able to solve the problem. If there is a condition that is wrong, let the statistician bring his figures to bear upon it, only be sure that the statistician employed cares more for the truth than he does for sustaining any preconceived idea of what the solution should be. A statistician should not be an advocate, for he cannot work scientifically if he is working to an end. He must be ready to accept the results of his study, whether they suit his doctrine or not. The colleges in this connection have an important duty to perform, for they can aid in ridding the public of the statistical mechanic, the man who builds tables to order to prove a desired result. These men have lowered the standard of statistical science by the empirical use of its forces.

The statistician writes history. He writes it in the most concrete form in which history can be written, for he shows on tablets all that makes up the Commonwealth…

Also worth reading are his admiring words for Ernst Engel’s statistical seminar in Berlin…yes indeed, the Engel-Curve Engel.

____________________

 

The Study of Statistics in College
By Hon. Carroll D. Wright

United States Commissioner of Bureau of Labor.

Paper read at the joint session of the American Economic and Historical Associations, at Cambridge, Mass., May 24, 1887.

America has no counterpart to the continental school of statisticians, whose members have entered their particular field of science after special training by a systematic course of instruction. We have our statisticians, to be sure, but they have taken up their work accidentally, and not as a profession. Men engaged in the practice of law or of medicine, or in the other learned professions, enter them only after careful preparation. Our government trains its soldiers and sailors; our colleges and higher institutions of learning fit men for various special scientific and professional labors, but we have not yet reached the advanced stage of educational work in this country which comprehends administration in its broadest terms. The European has an advantage over those engaged in statistical work in this country. Many of the leading colleges and universities of the continent make special effort to fit men to adopt statistical science as a branch of administration, or as a profession.

Körösi, Neumann-Spallart, Ernst Engel, Block, Böhmert, Mayr, Levasseur, Bodio, and their score or more of peers, may well excite our envy, but more deeply stimulate the regret that one of their number, [6] from his brilliant training and his scientific attainments, cannot present to you to-day the necessity of copying into the curricula of our American colleges the statistical features of the foreign school. For magnificent achievement the American statistician need not blush in the presence of the trained European, for, without conceit, we can place the name of our own Walker along with the names of those eminent men I have enumerated. With all the training of the schools, the European statistician lacks the grand opportunities which are open to the American. Rarely has the former been able to project and carry out a census involving points beyond the simple enumeration of the people, embracing a few inquiries relating to social conditions; such inquiries seldom extending beyond those necessary to learn the ages, places of birth, and occupations of the population. Such a census, compared with the ninth and tenth Federal enumerations of the United States, appears but child’s play.

Dr. Engel once said to me that he would gladly exchange the training of the Prussian -Bureau of Statistics for the opportunity to accomplish what could be done in our country. For with it all, he could not carry out what might be done with comparative ease under our government. The European statistician is constantly cramped by his government; the American government is constantly forced by the people. The Parliament of Great Britain will not consent to an industrial census, the proposition that the features of United States census-taking be incorporated in the British census being defeated as regularly as offered. Nor does any continental power yet dare to make extensive inquiries into the condition of the people, or [7] relative to the progress of their industries. The continental school of statisticians, therefore, is obliged to urge its government to accomplish results familiar to our people. The statistics of births, deaths, and marriages, and other purely conventional statistics, are substantially all that come to the hands of the official statisticians abroad. In this country, the popular demand for statistical information is usually far in advance of the governments, either State or Federal, and so our American statisticians have been blessed with opportunities which have given them an experience, wider in its scope, and of a far more reaching character than has attended the efforts of the continental school. Notwithstanding these opportunities which surround official statistics in this country, the need of special scientific training for men in the administration of statistical work is great indeed. This necessity I hope to show before I close.

It is not essential, in addressing an audience of this character, to spend a moment even upon definitions. The importance of statistics must be granted: the uses of the science admitted. But it may be well, before urging specifically the needs of this country for statistical training, to give a few facts relative to such work in European schools.1

1President Walker, of the Institute of Technology; Dr. Ely, of Johns Hopkins; Prof. R. M. Smith, of Columbia College; Dr. Dewey, of the Institute of Technology; and Dr. E. R. L. Gould, of Washington, have very kindly placed at my disposal information supplemental to that which was at hand.

The best school for statistical science in Europe is connected with the Prussian statistical bureau, and was established a quarter of a century ago by Dr. Ernst Engel, the late head of the bureau, probably [8] the ablest living statistician in the old world. The seminary of this statistical bureau is a training school for university graduates of the highest ability, in the art of administration, and in the conduct of statistical and other economic inquiries that are of interest and importance to the government. The practical work is done in connection with the government offices, among which advanced students are distributed with specific tasks. Systematic instruction is given by lectures, and by the seminary or laboratory method, under a general director. Government officers and university professors are engaged to give regular courses to these advanced students. It is considered one of the greatest student honors in Berlin for a university graduate to be admitted to the Statistical Seminary. One graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, a doctor of philosophy, is already under a course of instruction in the Prussian laboratory of political science.

The work of taking the Census of the Prussian population and resources is entrusted to educated men, many of them trained to scientific accuracy by long discipline in the Statistical Seminary, and by practical experience. (Circulars of Information, U. S. Bureau of Education. No. 1, 1887, by Prof. H. B. Adams.)

In this seminary there are practical exercises under the statistical bureau during the day time, with occasional excursions to public institutions, in addition to lectures held mostly in the evening. A recent programme of the seminary comprehends:

  1. Theory, technique, and encyclopedia: once a week.
  2. Statistics of population and of dwellings: once a week.
  3. Medical statistics: once a week. [9]
  4. Applied mathematical statistics: once a week.
  5. Agrarian statistics: once a week.
  6. Exercises in political economy, finance, and financial statistics: 2 hours a week.

The students assist in the work of the statistical bureau without compensation. This is a part of their training, and by it theory and practice are most successfully combined.

I believe there are courses in statistics in nearly all the universities in Germany, certainly in the more prominent institutions of that country, but there are no distinct chairs of statistics. Statistical science is considered a part of political economy, and professors of the latter science give the instruction in statistics.

The most prominent announcements for the leading European universities, for the year 1886-7, are as follows:

University of Leipzig: Professor W. Roscher lectures on agricultural statistics, this branch being a part of one course, taking one or two hours a week. One hour a week is also given to political economy and statistical exercises by Dr. K. Walker.

University of Tübingen: Prof. Gustav von Rümelin devotes three hours a week to social statistics, while Professor Lorey includes in his lectures a treatment of the statistics of forests.

University of Würzburg: Professor G. Schanz devotes four hours a week to general statistics.

University of Dorpat (a German institution in Russia): Professor Al. v. Oettingen teaches ethical statistics two hours each week.

University of Breslau: Professor W. Lexis uses one hour a week on the statistics of population.

University of Halle: Professor Conrad has a seminary of five hours a week, in which statistical subjects, among others, are carefully treated.

University of Kiel: Professor W. Seelig devotes four hours a week to general statistics, and statistics of Germany.

University of Königsberg: Professor L. Elster lectures two hours a week on the theory of statistics.

[10] University of Munich: Dr. Neuberg has a course of one to two hours a week on statistics.

University of Strasburg: Professor G. F. Knapp teaches the theory and practice of statistics three hours a week, and with Professor Brentano has a seminary two hours a week, in which, among other matters, they treat statistical subjects.

University of Prague: Professor Surnegg-Marburg teaches the statistics of European States three hours each week.

University of Vienna: Professor von Inama-Sternegg devotes two hours each week in a statistical seminary.

In addition to the university work outlined, much work is done in the technical schools, as, for instance, at the technical school in Vienna there are given regularly two courses of statistics:

First, ” General comparative statistics of European States ;” their surface, population, industries, commerce, education, etc.

Second, “Industrial statistics of European States;” methods and “technik” of industrial statistics.

These courses are given by Dr. von Brachelli, who is officially connected with the Government Bureau of Statistics.

At Dresden, Dr. Böhmert lectures at the Polytechnic on “The elements of statistics,” and has a statistical seminary. Böhmert is the director of the statistical bureau in the department of the interior. Part of the instruction is given at the bureau. Courses are also given at Zurich on the elements of statistics.

Some of the more important announcements connected with the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, of Paris, for the year 1886-7, are as follows:

  1. By Professor Levasseur, the theory of statistics, and the movement of population, one hour a week for the first quarter.
  2. By M. de Foville, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, one hour a week in the second quarter upon statistics, commerce, and statistics of foreign commerce.
  3. By Professor Pigeonneau, one exercise each week, in which he treats, among other subjects, of commercial statistics.

[11] In the programme of the University of Brussels, for 1878 and 1879, an announcement for a course of political economy and statistics twice each week, by Professor A. Orts, was made.

Something is being done in Italy, but how much I am not at present able to learn.

These courses, it will be seen, are devised for special training in the practical statistics of the countries named.

A great deal of effort has been expended in Europe through statistical congresses since 1853 to secure uniform inquiries in census-taking, and it is to be regretted that the Congresses have not accomplished the results sought. It was unfortunate that the attention of the statisticians of the world, as brought together in the congresses, was given to the form of inquiry to the exclusion of the form of presentation. In tracing the discussions and deliberations of these congresses, the absence of the intelligent treatment of the presentation of facts, even when drawn out by uniform inquiries. becomes apparent. The art of the statistician in his administrative work found but little encouragement in the long discussions on forms of inquiry, and less was accomplished by these congresses, which are not now held, than has been accomplished through training in the universities of Europe. The great statistical societies abroad have done much in stimulating statistical science, and out of these societies there has now been organized the International Statistical Institute, the first session of which was held in Rome during last month; much is to be hoped from the labors of this Institute, for the men who compose it bring both training and experience to the great task of unifying statistical inquiries [12] and presentations, so far as leading generic facts are concerned, for the great countries comprehended under the broad term, “the civilized world.” For this great array of work, the outlines of which I have briefly and imperfectly given as carried on in Europe, America has no parallel.

Our colleges are beginning to feel that they have some duty to perform, in the work of fitting men for the field of administration, and specifically in statistical science. Dr. Ely is doing something at Johns Hopkins, giving some time, in one of his courses on political economy, to the subject of statistics, explaining its theory, tracing the history of the art or science, and describing the literature of the subject. He attempts, in brief, to point out the vast importance of statistics to the student of social science and to put his student in such a position that he can practically continue his study. Johns Hopkins, as soon as circumstances will admit, will probably secure teachers of statistics and administration, in addition to its present corps of instructors.

Dr. Davis R. Dewey, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is also devoting some time, in connection with his other work, to statistical science. He has two courses:

First, A course of statistics and graphic methods of illustrating statistics, in which attention is chiefly given to the uses of official statistics of the United States. Students are directed to the limitations there are in this respect, what compilations have been and are made, and to the possible reconciliation of discrepancies which appear in official reports. This course is taken in connection with a course in United States finance, and the student is trained to [13] find and use the statistics which will illustrate the points taken up, and to present them graphically.

Second, An advanced course is given in statistics of sociology, in which social, moral, and physiological statistics are considered, in short, all those facts of life which admit of mathematical determination to express the “average man.” Some of Dr. Dewey’s actual problems may serve to illustrate the practical work of his course. Samples of the problems which he gives to his students are as follows:

Are the Indians increasing or decreasing in numbers?
Criticise by illustrations the statement that the value of the products of manufacture of the United States in 1880 was $5,369,325,442.
What margin of error would you allow, if called upon to test the accuracy of the returns of population under one year of age in the Federal census returns?
Can you devise a method to determine from the census reports on population, Table XXI., which is the healthier state, Massachusetts or Connecticut?
Is it true that Massachusetts has more crime per capita than Alabama or Georgia? Can you offer any explanation or facts modifying such a statistical conclusion? Do the census reports afford information as to the increase or decrease in crime?

Perhaps the most systematic teaching of the science of statistics in America is given at Columbia College, under the direction of Professor Richmond M. Smith. He has lectured on the subject of statistical science in the Columbia College School of Political Science since the year 1882. His course is an advanced one for the students of the second or third year of that school. In the first year of the work there were but three students of statistical science; at present there are about twenty-five. Professor Smith gives them lectures two hours per week through the greater part of the year. The theoretical lectures cover a brief history of statistics; a consideration of statistical [14] methods; of the connection of statistical science with political and social science; of the attempt to establish social laws from statistical induction; the doctrine of probabilities, etc., this part of the course being based on German and French writers, principally Mayr, Engel, Wagner, Knapp, Oettingen, Quetelet, Block, and others. The practical part of the Columbia course covers the ordinary topics of statistical investigation, and the statistics are taken, as far as possible, from official publications. These latter lectures are of course comments on the tables and diagrams themselves. Wall tables are used to a certain extent, but experience has found it more convenient to lithograph the tables and diagrams, giving a copy to each student, which he can place in his note-book, and thus save the labor of copying.

From a circular of information from the Columbia College School of Political Science I find the following, relating to the teaching of statistical science:

Statistical science: methods and results. This course is intended to furnish a basis for a social science by supplementing the historical, legal, and economic knowledge already gained, by such a knowledge of social phenomena as can be gained only by statistical observation. Under the head of statistics of population are considered: race and ethnological distinctions, nationality, density, city and country, sex, age, occupation, religion, education, births, deaths, marriages, mortality tables, emigration, etc. Under economic statistics: land, production of food, raw material, labor, wages, capital, means of transportation, shipping, prices, etc. Under the head of moral statistics are considered: statistics of suicide, vice, crime of all kinds, causes of crime, condition of criminals, repression of crime, penalties and effect of penalties, etc. Finally is considered the method of statistical observations, the value of the results obtained, the doctrine of free will, and the possibility of discovering social laws.”

There may be other instances of the teaching of statistical science in American colleges, but those given are all that have come to my knowledge. At [15] Harvard, Dr. Bushnell Hart is teaching the art of graphically presenting statistics, while at Yale and other institutions the theory and importance of statistics are incidentally impressed upon ‘the students in political economy. It will be seen, therefore, that if there is any necessity for such a course as has been cited, the necessity is being met only in slight degree.

Is there such a necessity? Speaking from experience I answer emphatically, Yes. There has not been a single day in the fourteen years that I have devoted to practical statistics that I have not felt the need, not only in myself, but in the offices where my work has been carried on, of statistical training; training not only in the sense of school training, but in the sense of that training which has come to our American statisticians only through experience. My great regret on this occasion is that I can address you with the statistical bureau only as my alma mater, but perhaps the lack I have seen and felt of a different alma mater may give force to my suggestions.

The problems which the statistician must solve, if they are solved at all, are pressing upon the world. Many chapters of political economy must be rewritten, for the study of political economy is now brought under the historical and comparative method, and statistical science constitutes the greatest auxiliary of such a method. There is so much that is false that creeps into the popular mind, which can be rectified only through the most trustworthy statistical knowledge, that the removal of apprehension alone by it creates a necessity sufficient to command the attention of college authorities. The great questions of the day, the labor question, temperance, tariff reform, all great topics, demand the auxiliary aid of [16] scientific statistics, and a thorough training is essential for their proper use. But in the first place there should be a clear understanding of what is necessary to be taught. We read many chapters on the theory and practice of statistics. What is the theory of statistics? The use of the word theory, in connection with statistical science, is to my mind unfortunate, for the word theory, when used in connection with positive information, antagonizes the public mind. When you speak of the theory of statistics, the word theory meaning speculation, the popular feeling is that theoretical statistics are not wanted, but facts. Theory may be fact; statistics may substantiate theory or controvert it. All this we know, and yet I feel that the word is used unfortunately in this connection. If I understand it correctly, the theory of statistics is simply a statement of what it is desired to accomplish by statistics.

Every branch of social science serves to explain the facts of human life. There are some facts which can be explained only by statistics. For instance, it is asserted that there is an alarming amount of illiteracy in Massachusetts. Statistical inquiry shows that by far the greater number of these illiterates are of foreign birth, so that the fault is not with the public school system, but the evil is due to a temporary cause, namely, immigration.

Again, it has been freely asserted that in the United States women of native birth do not have as many children as women of foreign birth. The Census of Massachusetts will show that although American women do have a less number of children, on the average, yet a larger number survive. Common observation would never have shown these things, or would not have shown them accurately.

[17] So everywhere statistics attempt to explain the facts of human life, which can be explained in no other way, as for instance, the effect of scarcity of food on births, on marriages, or crime; the effect of marriage laws on the frequency of divorce, etc. The theory of statistics points out where the statistical method is applicable, and what it can and cannot accomplish. In my opinion, however, it would be better to avoid the use of the word theory entirely, and adopt a concrete term like statistical science, which has three branches: collection, presentation, and analysis. Statistics is a science in its nature, and practical in its working.

The science of statistics, practically considered, comprehends the gathering of original data in the most complete and accurate manner; the tabulation of the information gathered by the most approved methods, and the presentation of the results in com- pact and easily understood tables, with the necessary text explanations. It is the application of statistics which gives them their chief popular value, and this application may, therefore, legitimately be called a part of the science of statistics. The theoretical statistician is satisfied if his truth is the result of statistical investigation, or if his theory is sustained. The practical statistician is satisfied only when the absolute truth is shown, or, if this is impossible, when the nearest approximation to it is reached. But the belief that theory must be sustained by the statistics collected, or else the statistics be condemned, is an idea which gets into the popular mind when the expression, theory of statistics, is used. I would, therefore, avoid it, and I hope that should our colleges adopt courses in statistical science, they will agree [18] upon a nomenclature which shall be expressive, easily understood, and comprehensive in its nature.

The necessity of the study of statistical science would not be so thoroughly apparent if the science was confined to the simple enumeration and presentation of things, or primitive facts, like the number of the people; to tables showing crops, exports, imports, immigration, quantities, values, valuation, and such elementary statements, involving only the skill of the arithmetician to present and deal with them. The moment the combinations essential for comparison are made, there is needed something beyond the arithmetician, for with the production of averages, percentages, and ratios, for securing correct results, there must come in play mathematical genius, and a genius in the exercise of which there should be discernible no influence from preconceived ideas. The science of statistics has been handled too often without statistical science, and without the skill of the mathematician. Many illustrations of this point involving the statistics of this country could be given.

In collating statistics relating to the cost of production, the best mathematical skill is essential, even the skill which would employ algebraic formulae. So with relation to statistics of capital invested in production. To illustrate, the question may be asked, what elements of capital are involved in the census question of “capital invested?” Is it simply the cash capital invested by the concern under consideration, or is it all the money which is used to produce a given quantity of goods? If the members of a firm con- tribute the sum of $10,000, and they have a line of discounts of $100,000, the avails of which are used in producing $200,000 worth of completed goods, what [19] is the capital invested? What is the capital invested which should be returned in the census? If a man has $5,000 invested in his business as a manufacturer, and he buys his goods on 90 days, or four months, and sells for cash, or 30 days, what is his capital invested? This question is one among many of the practical problems that arise in a statistical bureau, but which has not yet been treated scientifically. What has been the result of the reported statistics relating to capital invested? Simply that calculations, deductions, and arguments based on such statistics have been, and are, vicious, and will be until all the elements involved in the term are scientifically classified. Another illustration in point arises in connection with the presentation of divorce statistics, especially when it is desired to compare such statistics with marriages, or to make comparisons to show the progress, or the movement of divorces. Shall the number of divorces be compared with the number of marriages celebrated in the year in which the divorces are granted, or with the population, or with the number of married couples living at the time? I need not multiply illustrations. The lies of statistics are unscientific lies.

The conditions of this country necessitate knowledge as to the parent nativity of the population, features not included in any foreign census, and need not be. Such features lead to what may be called correlated statistics; for instance, where there are presented three or more facts relating to each person in the population, the facts being coordinate in their nature. In this class of work skill beyond that which belongs to the simple operations in arithmetic becomes necessary. There must be employed [20] some knowledge of statistical science beyond elementary statistical tables, or the correlations will be faulty, all the conclusions drawn from them false, and harm done to the public. While the scientific statistician does not care to reach conclusions from insufficient data, he much less desires to be misled by the unscientific use of correct data, or from data the presentation of which has been burdened with disturbing causes. The analytical work of statistical science demands the mathematical man. While this is true, it is also true that the man who casts a schedule (for instance, to comprehend the various economic facts associated with production), should have the ability to analyze the tabulated results of the answers to the inquiries borne upon the schedule. In other words, the man who casts the schedule should not only be able to foresee the work of the enumerator, or the gatherer of the answers desired, but he should foresee the actual form in which the completed facts should be presented. Furthermore, he should foresee the analysis which such facts stimulate and not only foresee the detail, but foresee in a comprehensive way the whole superstructure which grows from the foundation laid in the schedule. He should comprehend his completed report before he gathers the needed information.

How can these elements in one’s statistical education be secured? The difficulties in the way of the best statistical work are not slight. Dr. Dewey, in a recent address upon average prices, before the American Statistical Association, gave an exceedingly valuable, and a very clear explanation of the difficulties which underlie all efforts to secure average prices ranging over a period of years; he pointed out the [21] different methods of securing such averages, and I can do no better than to use Dr. Dewey’s own words, as taken from the address referred to. He says:

“There is first the ordinary ‘index method ‘ introduced by Mr. Newmarch, and continued by the Economist and Mr. Jevons. In this there is no attempt to take account of the varying importance of the commodities where prices are averaged together, but equal consideration is given to all.

“A second method is to give each commodity, where price enters into the averages, a weight proportionate to the quantity of it sold during a fixed period of time.

“In the third method account is taken of the varying importance of the commodities by regarding the part each plays in the exports and imports of a country. This system has been used by Messrs. Giffen and Mulhall. Mr. Giffen’s process in detail is to find the average value of the different articles in the exports and imports; combine these in the proportions of the different articles to the totals of the exports and imports, and then reduce the totals for a series of years to the values they would have been equivalent to had prices remained unchanged.”

This simply indicates that no statistician has yet arrived at a method for securing average prices that shall be considered absolutely correct; that is, in other words, the science of average prices has not been reached, because, if it had been, there would be but one method of securing them. There is but one multiplication table; all men agree to it, because every part of it has been demonstrated to be true. The principle of the multiplication table in statistical operations indicates that science triumphs, for no scientific conclusion is reached so long as skilled men, men of experience and of training, differ relative to methods or results.

The teaching of statistical science in our colleges involves three grand divisions:

  1. The basis of statistical science, or, as it has been generally termed in college work, the theory of statistics.
  1. The practice of statistics, which involves the preparation of inquiries, the collection and examination of the information sought, and the tabulation and presentation of results. [22]
  1. The analytical treatment of the results secured.

These three general elements become more important as the science of statistics becomes more developed; that is, while in conventional statistics, or official statistics if you prefer, meaning those which result from continuous entry of the facts connected with routine transactions, like custom house’ operations, the registration of births, deaths, and marriages, etc., these three elements may not be apparent. But when considered as regards the collection of information from original sources by special investigation through the census, through our bureaus of statistics of labor and kindred offices, and through the consular service, these three grand elements assume a vast importance, and statistical science demands that men be employed who comprehend thoroughly and clearly all the features of the three elements of the science, for the variety of facts to be collected suggests the variety of features connected with the work.

Last year I had the honor to address the American Social Science Association upon popular instruction in social science, advocating the teaching in the public schools of the elementary principles of social science, comprehending those things which are most essential in the conduct of life, in the preservation of health, and in the securing of good order. The Association discussed the practicability of teaching social science in our higher institutions of learning. The suggestion that the school and the college be utilized for propagating the science was met with but one [23] objection of any moment. This objection was that in the colleges and schools the whole time is now exhausted in teaching the branches of human knowledge already established as a part of the curricula of such schools; an excellent objection from a narrow point of view, but a thoroughly inadmissible objection from a point of view which takes in the development of the human race on the best basis, and on a high standard. It was met by the counter-statement that if there is no time in the ordinary college to teach all that the college now teaches, and devote a few hours per week to social science, and all that social science means, so far as teaching is concerned, then drop something else and introduce the social science. But nothing need be dropped in order to teach social science in the colleges and schools of the country. Now, the only objection which I anticipate to the teaching of statistics in our colleges is the same that was made to the proposition to teach social science generally in such institutions, that there is no room for the introduction of instruction in the new science. To my own mind this objection is not only trivial, but of no account whatever in the practical working of institutions of learning. Every well appointed college has its chair of political economy, and this department can be broadened sufficiently to take in statistical science, without impairing efficiency in this or any other department. If this cannot be done, then I would say to the colleges of America that the institutions which soonest grasp the progressive educational work of the day will be the most successful competitors in the race. That college which comprehends that it is essential to fit men for the best administrative duties, not only in government, but [24] in the great business enterprises which demand leaders of as high quality as those essential for a chief magistrate, will receive the patronage, the commendation, and the gratitude of the public. The college or the university which comprehends the demand of the day and institutes new forms of degrees to be conferred upon the men and women specially qualified in special science is in the van. Why should there not be a degree for sanitary science? Why should there not be a degree for social science? Doctor of Philosophy is not enough; it means nothing in popular estimation. The Doctor of Philosophy must understand various things; must be taught and thoroughly trained in the branches necessary to secure the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, but he may know nothing of other branches of human knowledge, except in the most incidental way, which are so essential to fit him for the best administrative duties. The organization of industry demands the very highest type of mind. I sometimes think that the great industrial chieftains of the world are far superior in their capacity, and in their general comprehensive ability, to the great statesmen, to the great leaders of politics, and the great lights that carry nations through crises even. The men who are the best trained, who have learned the practical work of special sciences, are the ones that are guiding the people, and so the colleges or the universities which grasp these things, introducing the teaching of statistical science along with all the other great features of social science, including the branches which bring knowledge nearest to the community itself, are the colleges which will secure success; and not only success in a pecuniary point of view, but success in that grander field of the best [25] work for the race. I urge, therefore, that our American colleges follow the example of European institutions. I would urge upon the government of the United States, and upon the government of the States, the necessity of providing by law for the admission of students that have taken scientific courses in statistics as honorary attachés of, or clerks to be employed in the practical work of, statistical offices. This is easily done without expenditure by the government, but with the very best economic results.

We take a census in the United States every ten years, but as a rule the men that are brought into the work know nothing of statistics: they should be trained in the very elementary work of census-taking and of statistical science. How much more economical for the government to keep its experienced statisticians busily employed in the interim of census- taking, even if they do no more than study forms, methods, and analyses, connected with the presentation of the facts of the preceding census. Money would be saved, results would be more thoroughly appreciated, and problems would be solved.

Our State and Federal governments should be vitally interested in the elevation of statistical work to scientific proportions; for the necessary outcome of the application of civil service principles to the conduct of all governmental affairs lies in this, that as the affairs of the people become more and more the subjects of legislative regulation or control, the necessity for the most accurate information relating to such affairs and for the scientific use of such information increases.

The extension of civil service principles must become greater and greater, and the varied demands [26] which will be created by their growth logically become more exacting, so that the possibilities within the application of such principles are therefore not ideal, but practical in their nature. And these potentialities in the near future will enhance the value of the services of trained statisticians.

The consular and diplomatic service, as well as other fields of government administration, come under this same necessity. The utilization of the consular service for original investigations creates in itself a wide reaching statistical force, and one which should be competent to exercise its statistical functions with all the accuracy that belongs to science. So government should supplement college training with practical administrative instruction, acquired through positive service in its own departments.

This appeal that statistical science be taught in our colleges comes to the Economic Association more forcibly than to any other. The beginning which has been made in this direction in this country is honorable indeed. Shall it be supplemented in the great universities and leading colleges of America? Do not think for a moment that if the teaching of statistical science be incorporated in our college courses the country will be flooded with a body of statisticians. There is enough work for every man who understands statistical science. He need not be employed by government. The most brilliant achievements of the European statisticians have been secured in a private or semi-official way. The demand will equal the supply, and the demand of the public for statistical knowledge grows more and more positive, and the supply should equal the demand.

[27] General Walker in a letter in 1874 said: “The country is hungry for information: everything of a statistical character, or even of a statistical appearance, is taken up with an eagerness that is almost pathetic; the community have not yet learned to be half skeptical and critical enough in respect to such statements.” He can add, Statistics are now taken up with an eagerness that is serious.

“Know thyself” applies to nations as well as to men; and that nation which neglects to study its own conditions, or fears to study its own conditions in the most searching and critical manner, must fall into retrogression. If there is an evil, let the statistician search it out; by searching it out and carefully analyzing statistics, he may be able to solve the problem. If there is a condition that is wrong, let the statistician bring his figures to bear upon it, only be sure that the statistician employed cares more for the truth than he does for sustaining any preconceived idea of what the solution should be. A statistician should not be an advocate, for he cannot work scientifically if he is working to an end. He must be ready to accept the results of his study, whether they suit his doctrine or not. The colleges in this connection have an important duty to perform, for they can aid in ridding the public of the statistical mechanic, the man who builds tables to order to prove a desired result. These men have lowered the standard of statistical science by the empirical use of its forces.

The statistician writes history. He writes it in the most concrete form in which history can be written, for he shows on tablets all that makes up the Commonwealth; the population with its varied [28] composition; the manifold activities which move it to advancement; the industries, the wealth, the means for learning and culture, the evils that exist, the prosperity that attends, and all the vast proportions of the comely structure we call State. Statistical science does not use the perishable methods which convey to posterity as much of the vanity of the people, as of the reality which makes the Commonwealth of to day, but the picture is set in cold, enduring, Arabic characters, which will survive through the centuries, unchanged and unchangeable by time, by accident, or by decay. It uses symbols which have unlocked to us the growth of the periods which make up our past—they are the fitting and never changing symbols by which to tell the story of our present state, that when the age we live in becomes the past of successive generations of men, the story and the picture shall be found to exist in all the just proportions in which it was set, with no glowing sentences to charm the actual, and install in its place the ideal; with no fading colors to deceive and lead to imaginative reproduction, but symbols set in dies as unvarying and as truthful in the future as in the past. The statistician chooses a quiet and may be an unlovely setting, but he knows it will endure through all time.

 

Source: Publications of the American Economic Association, Vol. 3, No. 1, (March 1888), pp. 5-28.

Image Source: Library of Congress Photograph Collection. Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, 1894 Aug. 9, p. 86.

Categories
Bibliography Courses Economic History Harvard

Harvard. Recent Economic History. Readings, Edwin F. Gay, 1934-35

 

 

Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) came to Harvard in 1902 as an instructor of economic history taking over William Ashley’s courses after having spent a dozen years of training and advanced historical study in Europe (Berlin, Ph.D. in 1902 under Gustav Schmoller, also he was in Leipzig, Zurich and Florence). He and Abram Piatt Andrew received five-year contracts as assistant professors of economics in 1903. In just four years he actually advanced to the rank of professor. He served as a principal advisor to Harvard President Charles Eliot in establishing the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1908. After the favored candidate to be the founding dean of the business school, William Lyon Mackenzie King (Ph.D., Harvard 1909) turned down the offer, instead continuing as deputy minister of labor in Canada then later becoming prime minister of Canada, President Eliot turned to Gay. In nine years Gay put his stamp on the Harvard Business School, apparently playing an instrumental role in the use of the case method (pedagogic transfer from the law school) with a strong emphasis on obtaining hands-on experience through practical assignments with actual businesses. He is credited with establishing the academic degree of the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration), the credential of managers.

During WW I Gay worked as adviser to the U.S. Shipping Board and then went on to become editor of the New York Evening Post that would soon go under, giving Gay “an opportunity” to return to Harvard where he could teach economic history up through his retirement in 1936. Gay was among the co-founders of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Council of Foreign Relations. He and his wife moved to California where he worked at the Huntington library where his bulk of his papers are to be found today. 

Since this item was first posted, I have transcribed the questions from the final examination for the course’s second semester

________________________________

[From Course Announcement]

Economics 23. Recent Economic History.

Tu., Th., at 4. Professor Gay.

Note: “A double dagger(‡) indicates that the course is open under certain conditions to properly qualified students of Radcliffe.”

 

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1934-35. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 31, No. 38 (September 20, 1934), p. 128.

________________________________

[Course Enrollment]

[Economics] ‡23. Professor Gay.—Recent Economic History.

16 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Other, 4 Radcliffe: Total 22

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1934-1935, p. 82.

________________________________

ECONOMICS 23

First assignment [first semester]

Bertrand Russell, Freedom vs. Organization, 1814-1914. (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1934)

For review

P. Mantoux, The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, (English translation) 1928
or
H. Heaton. Article: The Industrial Revolution in The Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 8, (1932), pp. 3-13.

J. H. Clapham, An Economic History of Modern Britain, 2 vol., 1926 (2nd ed.o 1932. Cambridge University Press.

Industrial History, Vol. I, chapters 5, 10, 14, Vol. II, chs. 3, 4, 11.
Agriculture, Vol. I, ch. 4; vol. II, ch. 7.
Transportation, Vol. I, chs. 3, 9.
Commerce and commercial policy, vol. I, ch. 12, vol. II, chs. 6, 8.
Also Vol. II, chs. 1, 2, 10.

J. H. Clapham, Economic Development of France and Germany, 1921 (1923), chs. 1-9 inclusive.

E. C. Kirkland, History of American Economic Life, chs. 1-9 inclusive.

L. H. Jenks, The Migration of British Capital to 1875. (1927), pp. 1-262.

A. E. Feavearyear, The Pound Sterling, Oxford, 1931. Chs. 8-11 inclusive (pp. 138-298)

Percy Ashley, Modern Tariff History, 1926

F. W. Taussig, Tariff History of the United States. (to and including tariff of 1890).

_____________________________

ECONOMICS 23                                           1935

Second assignment: [second semester] references in brackets are optional

Wells, D. A. Recent Economic Changes, 1890 (written 1887-9).

[Marshall, A. Industry and Trade (1919) Bk. I, chaps. 5-8, pp. 86-162]

Sharfman, I. L. Interstate Commerce Commission, vol. I. chaps. 1-4, pp. 11-176.

Royal Institute of International Affairs, World Agriculture (1932), pp. 1-252.

Nourse, E. G. Chapter on “Agriculture” in Recent Economic Changes, vol. II, chap. viii, pp. 547-602.

Black, J. D. Agricultural Reform in the United States (1929) Part I. The Setting, Chaps. 1-3, pp. 1-84.

Royal Institute of International Affairs. Monetary Policy in the Depression, (1933), pp. 1-81.

Committee on Finance and Industry. (Macmillan Report) (1931), pp. 1-185.

[Department of Commerce (U.S.) Bulletin on “Balance of International Payments” 1934 (for 1933)]

Mitchell, W. C. Business Cycles, the Problem in its Setting. (1927) pp. 61-188, 424-450.

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. History of Trade Unionism (1920 or 1926), chaps. 7-11, pp. 358-704 (718).

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. Consumers’ Cooperative Movement (1921) Chap. 6, pp. 383-487.

Clay, Henry. The Problem of Industrial Relations (1929), pp. 74-102.

Perlman, S. History of Trade Unionism in the United States.

Seager, H. R. and Gulick, C. A. Trust and Corporation Problems (1929) chaps. 5, 6, 18-26; pps. 49-85, 367-627.

Berle A. A. and Means, G. C. The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1933) Bk. I, chaps. 1-3, Bk. IV, chaps. 1-4, pp. 1-46, 333-356.

Mitchell, W. C. “A Review,” Recent Economic Changes, vol. II, pp. 841-910.

Hansen, A. H. Economic Stabilization in the Unbalanced World (1932), pp. 271-380.

Morrison, Herbert. Socialisation and Transport (1933) Chaps. 8, 9, 13, 15; ppps. 131-176, 213-242, 280-297.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1894-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 2, Folder “1934-1935”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1934.

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. Undergraduate Public Finance Reading List. H. H. Burbank, 1936

Harold Hitchings Burbank (1887-1951) has gone down in the history of economics as being the chairman of the Harvard economics department who let the up-and-coming Paul Samuelson get away to M.I.T. A more positive legacy perhaps was the role he played in his younger years as one of the founders of Harvard’s tutorial system and its administrator within the department of economics. In any event Burbank’s footprints in the sands of the history of economics have only survived as Jurassic fossils of that pre-Samuelson era of economics and he is mostly remembered as the incarnation of the Dark Side in the familiar legend of the rise of M.I.T. economics. 

Burbank was a specialist in Public Finance and this posting features the syllabus for his Public Finance course for undergraduates and graduate students requiring remedial work in the field.

New addition: from the fantastic Harvard archives collection of old final examinations, I am able to provide a transcription of the final examination in public finance for this course.

_____________________________

[Course Announcement]

Economics 4 2hf. Public Finance

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor Burbank.

 

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Course of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1935-36 (second edition), p. 137.

_____________________________

 

[Course Enrollment]

[Economics] 5 2hf. Professor Burbank.—Public Finance

35 Seniors, 27 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 1 Other:   Total 66.

Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1935-36, p. 82.

_____________________________

 

Economics 52
Public Finance
1935 — 1936

 

The required reading assignments and the suggested readings are given on the following pages.

A report on some special subject in the general field of Public Finance is required of all students registered in the course. Seniors, candidates for honors in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, are expected to undertake the report. The reports may be either written or oral. If written they will be graded and included in the course grade; if oral, they will not be graded, but they must be completed satisfactorily to secure final credit for the course.

Reports are due:

For seniors: On or before April 6
For others: On or before May 1

For selection of subjects and bibliography suggestions, all students should consult Dr. Eugene E. Oakes during the first three weeks of the course. He will be available by appointment in Kirkland H-15 at the following hours:

Monday 10-11 A.M.
Tuesday 3-5 P.M.
Thursday 3-5 P.M.

Appointments may be made before or after the lectures. Office hours for the oral reports will be announced later.

An attempt is made in all cases to arrange topics which are of particular individual interest, or are suitable as correlative work in fields of concentration in preparation for the divisional examinations. No report is acceptable unless the subject has been approved.

Possible subjects, among others, are as follows:

(1) Special problems on the relation of public and private finance.
(2) The present taxation problem in a particular state or county.
(3) A critical study of some particular kind of tax—income taxes, inheritance taxes, business taxes, etc.
(4) Theories of the incidence of taxes.
(5) Various administrative problems, such as budget or assessment procedure.
(6) The financial history of the United States.

Assignments and Readings in Public Finance

 

Attention is directed particularly to the following books:

Bastable, C.F. Public Finance
*Bullock, C.J. Selected Readings in Public Finance (3d. ed.)
Dewey, D.R. Financial History of the United States (11th ed.)
Fagan, E.D., and Macy, C.W. Public Finance
Hibbard, B.H. A History of the Public Land Policies
Lutz, H.L. The State Tax Commission
Mills, M.C. and Starr, G.W. Readings in Public Finance and Taxation
Seligman, E.R.A. Essays in Taxation (10th ed.)
Seligman, E.R.A. The Income Tax
Seligman, E.R.A. Studies in Public Finance
Great Britain Report of the Committee on National Debt and Taxation (The Colwyn Report, 1927)
Great Britain Report of the Committee on National Expenditure (The May Report, 1931)
National Tax Association Proceedings
National Tax Association Bulletin
*Lutz, H.L. Public Finance (2d ed.)

 

February 3 – 14 Public Expenditures, Public Works, and the Budget.

Required Lutz, Public Finance, Ch. 1-7.
Bullock, Selected Readings, Ch. 2, 3 (Sect. 9, 13)
Suggested Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. I, ch. 1-8.
Fagan and Macy Public Finance, Ch. 1-4.
Great Britain, Report of the Committee on National Expenditure (1931)
Haig, R.M., Public Finances of Post War France, Ch. 20.
Mills & Starr, Readings, Ch. 1-5.
National Industrial Conference Board, Cost of Government in the United States, 1925-26, 1926-27, 1929-30.
National Industrial Conference Board, Federal Finances, 1923-32.
National Industrial Conference Board, Report on Recent Social Trends, Vol. II, Ch. 25-26.
Willoughby, W.F., Financial Condition and Operations of the National Government, 1921-30.
Clark, J.M., Economics of Planning Public Works
Gayer, A.D., Public Works in Prosperity and Depression
Buck, A.E., The Budget in Governments of Today.
Mallet,British Budgets, 1887-1913
Mallet & George, British Budgets (Second Series) 1913-1921, and 1921-1933.

 

 

February 17 – 28 Public Revenues Other than Taxes; the Public Domain; Public Ownership; Administrative Revenues.

Required Lutz, Public Finance, Ch. 8-12.
Mills & Starr, Readings, Ch. 7, 9.
Suggested Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. II, Ch. 1-5.
Fagan and Macy Public Finance, Ch. 5-7.
Hibbard, A History of the Public Land Policies.
Knoop, D., Principles and Methods of Municipal Trading.
Mills & Starr, Readings, Ch. 7-8.
                           Report of the National Resources Board, Part II.
                           Report of the United States Post Office.
Seligman, Essays in Taxation, Ch. 14-15.
Splawn, Government Ownership and Operation of Railroads.
Taussig, Principles of Economics (3rd. ed.), Vol. II, Ch. 62.

 

March 2 – 13 Taxation: Principles and Incidence.

Required Lutz, Public Finance, Ch. 13-14.
Bullock, Selected Readings, Chs. 8-9.
Taussig, Principles of Economics, Ch. 68, 70, 71.
Mills & Starr, Readings, Ch. 11 (sect. 24).
Suggested Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. III, Chs. 3, 5.
Brown, H.G., Economics of Taxation.
Carver, T.N., Essays in Social Justice, Ch. 17.
Dalton, H., Principles of Public Finance, (8th ed.), Ch. 6-12.
Fagan and Macy Public Finance, Ch. 8-9.
Seligman, Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice.
Seligman, Shifting and Incidence of Taxation, (3rd ed.), Part I.
Silverman, H.A., Taxation, Its Incidence and Effects.
Stamp, J.C., The Fundamental Principles of Taxation.
Taussig, Some Aspects of the Tariff Question (3rd ed.), Ch. 1.

 

March 16 – 27 Taxation of Land; Single Tax; General Property Tax; Taxation of Business.

Required Lutz, Public Finance, Ch. 17-18.
National Tax Association, Second Report of a Model System of State and Local Taxation.
Tax Policy League, The Place of State Income Taxation in the Revenue Systems of the State.
Mills & Starr, Readings, Ch. 17 (sect. 42, 43).
Suggested Blakey, Taxation in Minnesota, Ch. 5, 6.
Fagan and Macy Public Finance, Ch. 10-14.
Fairchild and Associates, Forest Taxation in the United States.
Jensen, J. P., Property Taxation in the United States.
Leland, S., Classified Property Tax.
Mills & Starr, Readings, Ch. 12-13.
National Industrial Conference Board, State and Local Taxation of Business Corporations.
Watson, J.P., The City Real Estate Tax in Pittsburgh.
Welch, R.B., State and Local Taxation of Banks in the U.S.

 

March 29 – April 4   Vacation

 

April 6 – 17 Income Tax; Inheritance Tax; Sales Tax.

Required Lutz, Public Finance, Ch. 19-23.
Bullock, Selected Readings, Ch. 11 (sect. 46)
Mills & Starr, Readings, Ch. 14 (sect. 36), 16 (sect. 40).
Suggested  

Blakey, Taxation in Minnesota, Ch. 15.

The State Income Tax.

Buehler, General Sales Taxation.
Haig, R.M., Taxation of Excess Profits in Great Britain.
Haig & Shoup, The Sales Tax in American States, pp. 1-108.
Fagan and Macy Public Finance, Ch. 15-21.
Mills & Starr, Readings, Ch. 14-20, 25, 26.
National Industrial Conference Board, General Sales or Turnover Taxation.
National Industrial Conference Board, State Income Taxes.
National Industrial Conference Board, Sales Taxes: General, Selective, and Retail.
Rignano, E., The Social Significance of the Inheritance Tax.
Seligman, Essays in Taxation, Ch. 22-24 (War Finance).
Shultz, The Inheritance Tax.

 

April 20 – May 1. Public Credit.

Report on Special Subject: Final Date for Students other than Seniors — May 1.

Required Lutz, Public Finance, Ch. 24-29.
Mills & Starr, Readings, Ch. 24 (sect. 58).
Suggested Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. V.
Brown, H.G., Economics of Taxation, Ch. 1-2.
Bullock, Selected Readings, Ch. 22-24.
Burgess, W.R., Reserve Banks and the Money Market, Ch. 6.
Fagan and Macy Public Finance, Ch. 22-27.
Hargreaves, The National Debt.
Hendricks, The Federal Debt, 1919-30.
Love, R.A., Federal Financing, esp. Ch. 8-14.
Pigou, Public Finance, Part III.
Seligman, Essays in Taxation, Ch. 23-24.
Studensky, P., Public Borrowing.
Beckhart, B., New York Money Market, Vol. IV, Part II.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 2, Folder “1935-1936”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1934.

Categories
Economic History Economists

Portrait of Prof. Ernst Louis Étienne Laspeyres of Price Index-Number Fame

It just didn’t seem fair, posting a portrait of Paasche without giving his famous price index-number counterpart Laspeyres the benefit of a quick internet search. Sure enough, two portraits of the good Gießen professor can be found at the link to the Gießen University Archive given below.

Ernst Louis Étienne Laspeyres, a.k.a. Ernst Ludwig Stephan Laspeyres, was born November 28, 1834 in Halle and died August 4, 1913 in Gießen, Germany.

Image Source: Universitätsarchiv, Universität Gießen

P.S. from the same archive, a picture of his grave.

Professorengräber auf dem Alten Friedhof in Gießen

Categories
Curriculum Harvard

Harvard. Stricter division between undergraduate and graduate courses. Ca. 1910-11

A copy of this report written by economics professors Charles J. Bullock and Thomas N. Carver is found in the papers of Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell. The report itself is undated but a comparison with the course catalogues for the period 1909-1914 shows almost a perfect fit for the course staffing in the academic year 1910-11.

Harvard-wide courses were divided into three groups:

Courses primarily for Undergraduates (lower group);
Courses for Undergraduates and Graduates (middle group);
Courses primarily for Graduates (upper group).

In the 1912-13 Announcements of the Courses of Instruction, the recommendations of the committee were implemented to limit undergraduate access to the upper group of courses: only after a “special vote of the Department” or for undergraduate senior “candidates for the degree with distinction” would undergraduate students be admitted to courses designated “primarily for Graduates”. The new course numbering beginning with 1912-13 does not match the ordering of courses given in the report.

Handwritten names added to the Report have been placed within square brackets “[…]”.

_________________________________

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE UPON COURSES OF INSTRUCTION

The Committee appointed at the last meeting of the Department to consider the courses of instruction in the Department of Economics, submits the following preliminary report as a basis for discussion at the next meeting of the Department:

The Committee recommends in the first place that there shall be hereafter a complete separation of the graduate and undergraduate courses. it seems to us that this can be done by adopting the principle that in undergraduate courses the work of the students is to be carefully supervised, and that in the graduate courses the students are to be thrown wholly upon their own resources and be tested only by the final examinations. This plan will enable the Department to concentrate its elementary instruction upon a smaller number of courses specially adapted to the needs of undergraduates, and will free the members from work of supervision in the courses offered for graduates.

It will not be inconsistent with this plan of separating graduate from undergraduate work to admit to the graduate courses undergraduates who are candidates for honors; and your Committee recommends that if the separation be effected this privilege be offered to undergraduates. The Department can safely assume that a candidate for honors in Economics can be trusted to pursue an advanced course without supervision, and can be treated precisely like a graduate student. Such an arrangement will prevent the proposed plan from reducing the opportunities offered to men of exceptional capacity and interest in economic study.

Nor will it be inconsistent with the plan to admit to the undergraduate courses graduate students whose previous training in economics has been deficient, provided such students be placed upon a somewhat different footing from undergraduates. Graduate students in the courses designed for undergraduates should not be subject to supervision, and should not be required to attend the weekly conferences or to take the weekly or fortnightly examinations. On the other hand they should be required to do somewhat more work than is expected from undergraduates; and this requirement might well take the form of a provision that such graduate students be required to do additional reading upon which one or two special questions will be set in the final examination. it would be possible also in the larger courses, where the instructor meets the class but twice a week, for him to have a fortnightly conference for the graduate students. This conference may be devoted to the discussion of the assigned reading. (Professor Carver suggests that this requirement might be made for candidates for the A. M. degree and not for candidates for the Ph. D. degree.)

If the separation of courses is effected, the Committee believes it desirable that hereafter the undergraduate courses should be considered a Department matter rather than a matter wholly under the control of the individual instructors. It seems to us that the Department should, in a general way, determine the scope and methods of the instruction offered, as well as the kind of examinations to be given in these courses. We also believe that there should be regular inspection of the work done in these courses. Inspection of the examination books is already provided for, but not carried out. In addition to this, we believe it is worth while for the Department to consider the desirability of securing inspection of the undergraduate courses by some competent person outside the Department.

There are two other matters which the Committee may later bring to the attention of the Department, but which need not be considered in connection with the proposed plan.

The first is the proposal to have instructors adopt hereafter a uniform system of lecture notes by which, if the Department ever cares to do so, it will be possible to make available to present and future members of the Department the notes used by instructors in giving the several courses. In this way the embers of the Department will gradually pool their experience; and whenever changes occur in the instructors conducting courses new men will have the benefit of the experience of their predecessors. Such a system would require not only uniform methods of keeping lecture notes, but uniform filing cards and filing cases.

The other matter is the question of whether the members of the Department can do more than is done at present in the direction of bringing students into direct contact with original sources of information. Something has already been done by books like Professor Dunbar’s Laws relating to Currency and Finance, and by Professor Ripley’s series of Selections and Documents. The Committee may desire later to raise the question whether, at least in our undergraduate courses, more systematic effort may not be made in this direction,

The Committee has examined our present list of courses with a view to determining which were best suited to the needs of undergraduates, and recommends that the following courses be hereafter offered in the undergraduate group:

  1. Economics I, as at present [Prof. Taussig.]
  2. The Economic History of England and the United States (the present Courses 6a and 6b) [Prof. Gay.]
  3. Money, Banking and Crises (the present Course 8) [Drs. Day & Huse]
  4. Public Finance (the present Courses 7a and 7b) [Prof. Bullock.]
  5. The Labor Problem and Socialism (the present Courses 9a and 14b) [Profs. Ripley & Carver.]
  6. Corporations and Railway Transportation (the present Courses 9b and 5) [Prof. Ripley.]
  7. Sociology (the present Course 3) [Prof Carver.]
  8. Accounting (the present Course 18) [Prof. Cole.]
  9. A course in Economic Theory (One suggestion is that this be a course in Classical English Economics. Professor Carver suggests a course in the Distribution of Wealth. The Committee confines itself to recommending one advanced course in Economic Theory for undergraduates. (the present Course 2) [Prof. Taussig.]

(Professor Carver would prefer to add to this list Economics 28, but the Committee merely raises this question, and makes no recommendation upon the point.)

With these courses placed in the undergraduate group, there would remain in our present offering a substantial amount of graduate instruction. The Committee suggests, but without making a definite recommendation, the following:

  1. Theories of Value and Distribution: with consideration of methods of economic investigation. Carver. (A consolidation of Courses 13 and 14a)
  2. Ripley.
  3. History of Economic Theory. Bullock. (In place of the one course, there could be offered two courses given in alternate years: the first covering the history of economics up to 1776; the other covering the period from 1776 to 1848, or even some later date.)
  4. French and German Economics. Gay. (The present Economics 22)
  5. Mediaeval Economic History. Gray. (The present Economics 10)
  6. Modern Economic History. Gay. (The present Economics 11)
  7. Economic History of Antiquity. Ferguson. (The present Economics 26) The committee recommends, however, that unless this course can be given next year, it shall be dropped from the Catalog.
  8. Economics of Agriculture. Carver. (The present economics 23, unless this be included in the list of courses offered undergraduates)
  9. Financial Aspects of Combinations. Dewing. (The present Economics 30)
  10. Bullock. (The present economics 16)
  11. Research Courses (20a, b, c, d, e ,f, g, h)

In addition to these courses, it may be possible to provide two or three new courses by members of our present staff, if additional assistants can be secured in the group of courses offered to undergraduates. Professor Taussig has expressed a desire sometime to undertake a course in International Trade. Then if the undergraduate courses in the Labor Problem and Socialism could be given by a new instructor, Professor Ripley would be free to offer another advanced course. But this matter, however, like some others, is obviously one that cannot be settled at the present time; and the Committee mentions it merely to point out the possibilities of its proposed plan.

Signed,

Charles J. Bullock
T. N. Carver

Source: Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers, 1909-1914, Box 15, Folder 410.

Image Source:  Harvard Class Album 1915.

Categories
ERVM Irwin Collier

Six Months of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror

Thus far I have managed to blog 140 artifacts from the history of economics over the past six months. A word of thanks again to the kind folks at the Institute for New Economic Thinking who provided me the initial funds to accumulate a wonderful stock of material bearing on academic economics in the United States. 

Let me encourage all  regular visitors to this blog to add comments to the artifacts whenever they can share context, perspective and useful pointers for the rest of us.

See you next posting,

Irwin (Bud) Collier

 

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. The Corporation and its Regulation. Course Syllabus. Crum, Mason & Chamberlin, 1934

The division of labor among the three professors jointly responsible for this course appears to be according to topic. The accounting business clearly fell to Crum.  Why Mason is listed ahead of Chamberlin (seniority? or order of topic within the course) is not explicit. For now I’ll just conjecture that Mason taught the Dewing (i.e. Finance) part of the course and Chamberlin then taught the Berle and Means material. The enrollment numbers indicate it was a popular course (maybe as pre-law or pre-MBA preparation for economics majors?).

More recently added:  the final examination questions for the course.

______________________________

[From the Course Catalogue]

Economics 4a 1hf. The Corporation and its Regulation

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Crum, Associate Professor Mason, and Associate Professor Chamberlin.

 

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1934—35 (second edition). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 31, No. 38 (September 20, 1934), p.126.

______________________________

[Course Enrollment]

4a 1hf. Professor Crum, Associate Professors Mason and Chamberlin.—The Corporation and its Regulation.

161 Total: 1 Graduate, 52 Seniors, 86 Juniors, 11 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University Archives, Report of the President of Harvard College and the departments for 1934-35, p. 81.

______________________________

 

Economics 4a
The Corporation and its Regulation

Reading Assignments, 19341935

BOOKS:

S. Baldwin, Modern Political Institutions
Paton and Stevenson, Accounting Principles
A. S. Dewing, Financial Policy of Corporations (1934 edition) [link to 1926 edition]
Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property
Bonbright and Means, The Holding Company
Seager and Gulick, Trust and Corporation Problems
J. B. Hubbard, ed., Current Economic Policies

* * * * * * *

October 1-6: Baldwin, Ch. 6.
October 8-13: Paton and Stevenson, pp. 1-207 (Omit Ch. 5)
October 15-20: Paton and Stevenson, Ch. 22.
October 22-17: Dewing, Book IV, Chs. 7, 8,9.
October 29-November 3: Dewing, Book III, Chs. 3, 4.
November 5-10: Dewing, Book I, Chs. 3, 4, 5.
November 12-17: Dewing, Book V, Ch. 3 and pp. 730-736.
November 19-24: Berle and Means, Book II, Chs. 1, 2, 3.
November 26-December 1 Berle and Means, Book II, Chs. 5-8, Book IV (complete).
December 3-8: Bonbright and Means, Chs. 1, 2, 3, 6 (omit Supplment), 13.
December 10-15: Berle and Means, Book III (complete).
Hubbard, pp. 575-610.
December 17-22: Seager and Gulick, Chs. 25, 27.
Hubbard, pp. 110-126.

* * *  * * * *

Reading Period: Dewing, Book V, Chs. 9, 11, 12; Book VI, Ch. 5.
Berle and Means, Book I, Chs. 3, 4.
Hubbard, pp. 610-636.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder “1934-1935”.

Image Source: Crum, Mason and Chamberlin from Harvard Album 1934.

Categories
Economists ERVM

Portrait of Hermann Paasche of index number fame, 1907

Until I myself became a blogmeister, I had been blissfully unaware of the backside design choices involved in blogmeistering. Indeed there awaited an entirely new set of meanings associated with words long comfortable in my pre-blog vocabulary such as “theme”. When you set up a blog, you must first enter a virtual showroom of themes, a collection of templates that package color schemes, page widgets, plugins etc for you, the blogmeister, to fill with your postings. Being a rookie in this league, I chose what I expected would be a keep-it-simple-stupid (KISS) theme that would allow me to concentrate on providing text content. Soon I realized that having a nice graphic for each posting provides welcome visual relief and, I hoped, a memory tag to make the posting-visitor bond strong enough to outlast the session. 

Because there are so many more good (and not-so-good) economists than great (and truly important wrong) economic ideas, a serious history of economics soon falls victim to the curse of dimensionality. Portraits help me keep the names straight and to never forget that economists are indeed economics made flesh and they too were once young. Dealing primarily with defunct academic scribblers necessarily implies that most of the photographs are monochromatic which turns out to be a feature since black-and-white images fit quite well into the black-and-white-with-red-accents theme chosen for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. Given my ambition to be blogger of (mostly) new content, I figured a little search for less-iconic images and especially those close in time to the content of my postings would result in higher value-added.

One truly great source of historical images is the U.S. Library of Congress.  When I searched for “economists”, the 96th image was that below for Dr. Paasche. In my earlier research life I was deeply into economic index numbers (e.g. my 1999 comment  (beginning page 87) that follows a NBER chapter about the theory of multilateral index numbers written by Erwin Diewert and  “The DM and the Ossi Consumer: Price Indexes During Transition” published in 2012) so I was absolutely delighted to find myself looking Hermann Paasche straight in the eye for the first time. 

1907_PaascheHermann_LOC

The Hamburg photography studio of Emilie Bieber (1810-1884) was taken over by her nephew Leonard Berlin (1841-1931) in 1872.  In 1890 he opened the “E. Bieber” photography studio in Berlin. In 1897 Leonard began to go by the name Leonard Berlin-Bieber.  In that year he was also awarded the title “Photographer of the Court” by King Wilhelm II of Prussia. Having a photo portrait done at the Bieber studio was something that one just had to do. In 1911 Leonard Berlin-Bieber closed the Berlin studio and his son Emil Bieber took over the business now concentrated in Hamburg. In 1938 Emil was forced to sell the business and the family emigrated first to England then to South Africa. This particular image comes from the George Grantham Bain Collection (a collection of photographic files of an early U.S. news picture agency).

The University of Rostock where Hermann Paasche was a professor has a website Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium where you can find the following outline of his career. At the bottom is noted “died early April 1925 in Detroit while travelling in North America.”

Image Source: Library of Congress website.

Categories
Courses Minnesota Syllabus

Minnesota. Fiscal Policy Reading List. Walter Heller, 1950

This course reading list from the Spring quarter of 1950 at the University of Minnesota was enclosed with a thank-you letter dated April 27, 1950 from Walter W. Heller to Milton Friedman thanking him for having sent three reprints of “A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability” (AER, 1948) that Heller had included in the required readings for his Minnesota course.

A brief biography of Walter Heller is provided in the Finding Aid for his papers at the University of Minnesota Archives and here a memoir of a former student.

________________________________

University of Minnesota
School of Business Administration

Economics 195Fiscal Policy
(Spring, 1950)

Abbreviations Textbooks
KKK K.K. Kurihara, Monetary Theory and Public Policy, New York, W. W. Norton, 1940.
IEPP Metzler, et al, Income, Employment, and Public Policy, New York, W. W. Norton, 1948.
Douglas Report Subcommittee on Monetary, Credit and Fiscal Policies of the Joint Congressional Committee on the Economic Report, Monetary, Credit, and Fiscal Policies (Sen. Doc. No. 129, 81st Cong., 2nd Session)
PFFE Musgrave et al, Public Finance and Full Employment, Fed. Res. Bd. Postwar Economic Studies, No. 3, December 1945.
 

Additional References

BCT American Economic Association, Readings in Business Cycle Theory.
SCE American Economic Association, A Survey of Contemporary Economics.
B&B Bowman and Bach, Economic Analysis and Public Policy.
H-1 Hansen, Fiscal Policy and Business Cycles.
H-2 Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy
NE Harris et al, The New Economics.
Hart Hart, Money, Debt, and Economic Activity.
“Green Book” Joint Committee on Economic Report, Monetary, Credit and Fiscal Policies. [Possibly this set of hearings is intended]
EC Lerner, Economics of Control.
Murphy Murphy, The National Debt in War and Transition.
S-1 Simons, Federal Tax Reform.
S-2 Simons, Economic Policy for a Free Society.
FAP Twentieth Century Fund, Financing American Prosperity.
AER American Economic Review
CED Committee for Economic Development.

Assignments (Do not expect the assignments to fit perfectly into the course outline; you will find that many fit only partially or obliquely and that there is much overlap)
Asterisk (*) means assigned; others are suggested.

 

I. BACKGROUND AND REVIEW

A. Monetary Policy and Concepts

1.* B&B, Ch. 11 (Ch. 40 also suggested)

2.* KKK, pp. 3-39

B. Public Finance

1.* B&B, Book VI (for quick review)

2. H-1, Part Two

C. Theory of Employment, Income, and Interest

1.* KKK, Part II (But beware of the dogma!)

D. Business Cycles

1.* B&B, Ch. 14 (for review, as needed)

2. Hart, Part III

II. NATURE AND OBJECTIVES OF FISCAL POLICY

1*. Gerhard Colm, “Fiscal Policy” (NE, Ch. 34)

2.* Alvin Hansen, “Keynes on Economic Policy” (NE, Ch. 16)

3.* Hart, Ch. 19

4.* Everett Hagen, “Direct v. Fiscal-Monetary Controls: A Critique” (Mimeograph- to be published in A. E.A. Proceedings, May, 1950)

5.* Smithies, “Federal Budgeting and Fiscal Policy”, (SCE, pp. 174-192)

6.* Wright, “Income Redistribution Reconsidered”, IEPP

7. Vickrey, “Limitations to Keynesian Economics”, Social Research, December, 1948

8. United Nations, National and International Measures for Full Employment, 1949

9. Meade, Planning and the Price Mechanism, The MacMillan Co., 1948

10. “The Problem of Full Employment”, by Hart, Sweezy, et al, AER, Proceedings issue, May, 1946, pp. 280-335.

III. ECONOMIC REQUISITES FOR FULLEMPLOYMENT EQUILIBRIUM

A. Introduction

1. G. L. Bach, “Economic Requisites for Economic Stability” (to be published in AEA Proceedings, May, 1950)

B. The Income Claims Requirement (and cost-price problems)

1. Walter Morton, “Trade Unionism, Full Employment, and Inflation”, A.E.R., March, 1950

2.* FAP: Ellis, pp. 176-198; Hansen, pp. 256-260; Machlup, pp. 426-440; 460-466 (Suggested also: Clark, pp. 97-125; Williams, pp. 367-373)

C. The Adequate Money Demand Requirement

1. The general problem

a. Samuelson, “The Simple Mathematics of Income Determination”, IEPP

b. Smithies, “Effective Demand and Employment”, NE

c.* Review Kurihara assignment

2. The consumption function

a.* Duesenberry, “Income-Consumption Relations”, IEPP

b. Lubell, “Effects of Redistribution of Income on Consumers’ Expenditures”, AER, December, 1947

3. Investment

a.* Domar, “Investment, Losses, and Monopolies”, IEPP

b.* Higgins, “Concepts and Criteria of Secular Stagnation”, IEPP

c.* Sweezy, “Declining Investment Opportunity”, Ch. 32, NE

d. Higgins, “The Concept of Secular Stagnation”, AER, March, 1950

e. Hansen, H-1, Chs. 16 and 17

f. Wright, “The Great Guessing Game”, Review Econ. Statistics, February, 1946

IV. LONGRUN FISCAL POLICY

A. General

1. Bishop, “Alternative Expansionist Fiscal Policies: A Diagrammatic Analysis”, IEPP

2.* Smithies, SCE, pp. 192-195

3.* Hansen, H-2, Ch. 13

4.* Williams, “Deficit Spending”, BCT, Ch. 13

5.* Musgrave, “Fiscal Policy, Stability and Full Employment”, PFFE

B. Taxation

1.* Smithies, SCE, pp. 195-200

2.* Musgrave, “Federal Tax Reform”, PFFE

3.* Simons, S-1, Ch. 2

4. Hansen, H-1, Ch. 19

C. Expenditure Policy

1. Higgins, Ch. 35, NE

2.* Smithies, SCE, pp. 200-204

V. DEBT MANAGEMENT

1.* Domar, “Public Debt and National Income”, PFFE

2.* Wallich, “Public Debt and Income Flow”, PFFE

3. Lerner, “The Burden of the National Debt”, IEPP

4.* Simons, “On Debt Policy”, S-2

VI. ANTICYCLICAL FISCAL POLICY

A. Political and Administrative Requisites for (and Barriers to) Effective Fiscal Policy

1. Roy Blough, “Political and Administrative Requisites for Achieving Economic Stability”, to be published in Proceedings issue of AER, May, 1950

2.* Alexander, “Opposition to Deficit Spending”, IEPP

B. General

1. Fellner, “Employment Theory and Business Cycles”, SCE

2.* Smithies, SCE, pp. 204-209

3.* Lerner, EC, Ch. 24

C. Automatic Devices

1.* Hart, Chs. 21 and 22

2.* Friedman, “A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Greater Economic Stability,” AER, Je., 1948

2a. “Comment” on above, and “Rejoinder”, AER, Sept., 1949

3. CED Taxes and the Budget (Policy Statement), 1947, pp. 10-34

D. Discretionary Policy

1.* Hart, Chs. 23 and 24

2.* Hansen, H-2, Ch. 12

3.* Margolis, “Public Works and Economic Instability”, JPE, August, 1949

E. State and Local Finance

1. Mitchell, Litterer, and Domar, “State and Local Finance”, PFFE

VII. SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS OF FISCAL POLICY

A. The Wartime Case

1.* Murphy, Chs. 5, 6, 7, 18, 19

2. Keynes, How to Pay for the War, Macmillan, London, 1940

B. A WarDevastated Economy

1.* Heller, “The Role of Fiscal-Monetary Policy in German Economic Recovery”, AER, Proceedings issue, May, 1950 (also mimeographs on reserve)

C. The U.S. Economy in Peacetime (?)

1.* Douglas Report, pp. 1-32

2.* The Green Book, pp. 395-424 (skim and scan)

3. CED. Monetary and Fiscal Policy for Greater Economic Stability, (Policy Statement), 1948

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives, Milton Friedman Papers, Box 28, Folder 5 (Correspondence: Heller, Walter W.).

Categories
Economists Michigan

Michigan. Organization of Behavioral Sciences. Report to Ford Foundation, 1954

Here an except from the University of Michigan’s Survey of the behavioral sciences, the fourth university of five participating in the Ford Foundation Project of 1953-54 on the behavioral sciences. Harvard, Chicago, Stanford and Michigan’s reports are in the public domain and available at hathitrust.org. I have been unable to locate the University of North Carolina’s report but perhaps some kind visitor to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror (attention colleagues at Duke!) can track that one down for us sometime. These reports provide a very nice set of artifact-bookends for my project on graduate economics education in the United States that I truncate around mid-twentieth century. Link to Michigan’s Economics-Pantheon here.

___________________________________

[p. 11]

THE ORGANIZATION OF
BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

At the University of Michigan there is no general administration of Behavioral Science or of Social Science as such. The teaching activities of the University are organized in a College of Literature Science and the Arts, a Graduate School, and 13 professional schools. Research and special services are carried on in each of the teaching units, and also in special bureaus, institutes and centers which are authorized for particular continuing operations and which, depending on their scope, may report to a department, a school, or to the central university administration.

Since 1934 there has been a Division of the Social Sciences1, comprised of representatives from the relevant departments and schools. Its function is primarily advisory and it has no budget or administrative responsibility. The General Committee of the Division nominates a Research Committee which advises the Board of the Graduate School on allocations for research projects in the field of social science.

The administrative units concerned with the Behavioral Sciences are described in the following sections:

1) Departments of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts
2) Professional Schools
3) Institutes and Research Agencies.

[p. 12]

DEPARTMENTS OF THE COLLEGE
OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND THE ARTS
 

Anthropology

The present organization of the Department of Anthropology, in a sense a transitional one, involves a staff of 15 members of whom five hold full-time teaching appointments in the Department of Anthropology and five hold full-time appointments in the Museum of Anthropology. Of the other five, two hold joint appointments with the Department of Sociology, one with the Department of Near Eastern Studies, one with the Institute of Human Biology, and one with the English Department. These complicated administrative arrangements are the result of a long-standing and well established tradition of separation of Museum and Department, and a general overlap of research interests with other disciplines.

In 1939 the Department had a staff of three men, one of whom devoted most of his time to his duties as Director of the Museum of Anthropology and of the University Museums, while the others taught full-time. It offered an undergraduate major and an A. M. degree. Museum staff members, not including the Museum Director, were three men who devoted themselves to research and curatorial work, their chief contact with students being consultation on research topics involving Museum collections. Owing to war absences in 1944-45, the Museum staff members were called upon to participate in the regular teaching program of the Department, and shortly thereafter this practice was formalized by granting them professorial titles, although no change was made in budgetary arrangements. This growth of departmental resources made possible a considerably expanded curriculum, and it was decided to press for further expansion of staff with a view to establishing a full-fledged doctoral program. This goal was achieved in 1948.

Joint appointments, particularly in the specialized fields of social organization, culture and personality, and linguistics, materially aided the rapid staff expansion. A fairly well rounded representation of the various areas of special interest within anthropology has resulted, although the staff and administrative structure are by no means thought to have attained any final or ideal form. The development of smoothly functioning working arrangements among the units involved in anthropology is an important problem; presumably these arrangements will evolve [p. 13] in response to problem situations as they arise. No difficulties have as yet come up which are insoluble under the present organization.

Research in anthropology at Michigan reflects several currents of influence. Traditional, individual research in descriptive ethnography and culture theory is well represented by the work of White and Titiev, and in prehistoric archaeology by the Museum staff; Beardsley, Schorger, and others participate in area interdisciplinary team research through such programs as those of the Center for Japanese Studies and the Department of Near Eastern Studies; and topical research interest in the problems of kinship and social organization is represented by Aberle and Miner. There does not appear to be any strong “official” emphasis along any of these lines from the standpoint of the insider, but the outside image of Michigan research is probably still influenced by the pre-expansion situation when the archaeological work of the relatively large Museum staff was especially visible.

No well defined trend is now evident, and it seems likely that Michigan anthropological research will be as difficult to characterize sharply in ten years as it is now. Presumably the archaeological research collections of the Museum will continue to be exploited, the dominant interest of the Michigan physical anthropologists in population genetics will persist, and the various area programs will continue to operate.

 

Economics

The Department of Economics has been in the forefront of the post war development of economics in two principal and interrelated directions, increased attention to economics as part of the study of human behavior as a whole, and greater emphasis on quantitative economics and econometrics.

Five members of its staff of 17 hold joint appointments with other departments and institutes, and 10 teaching fellows and predoctoral instructors are engaged in elementary course teaching.

Student enrollment consists of about 127 undergraduate concentrates and 62 graduate students of whom about two-thirds are working at the doctoral level.

The fields of economics in which research is being carried on are:

Economic Theory: Ackley, Boulding, Dickinson, Katona, Morgan, Palmer, Suits
[p. 14]
Money and Banking: Musgrave, Watkins
Labor: Haber, Levinson
International Economics: Remer, Stolper
Public Control and Regulation: Peterson, Sharfman
Public Finance: Ford, Musgrave
Quantitative Economics, Statistics and Research Methods: Katona, Klein, Suits
Economic History: Dickinson
Interdepartmental, Interdisciplinary, Area Programs, etc.: Ackley, Boulding, Remer, Stolper, Suits

The trend at Michigan to relate the study of economics to human behavior as a whole and thus to integrate it with the problems and results of other disciplines is shown in many activities of its staff. Of particular interest is the work of George Katona on the psychological foundations of economic behavior, and Kenneth Boulding’s explorations into problems in the integration of the social sciences. Members of the economics staff participate in the interdisciplinary seminars in the Japanese, Near Eastern and Latin American area programs, and in the Metropolitan Community Seminar and the Seminar on Land Utilization.

Considerable emphasis is placed upon quantitative economics and econometrics. The number of courses in this field has been increased from the two courses in economic statistics formerly available, to include a semester’s work in mathematical economics, now required of all doctoral candidates, a year’s work in econometrics under Klein, a semester of research methods under Katona, and a continuing research seminar in quantitative economics. In addition, an increasing amount of quantitative research is being carried on in the substantive seminars. Particularly notable are the recent studies in the incidence of taxation carried out by Musgrave in his seminar on Fiscal Policy, and studies of interregional development directed by Stolper.

The location of the Survey Research Center here has greatly encouraged and facilitated the development in these two directions by providing personnel, materials and additional methodology for the conduct of quantitative research. It has stimulated graduate student interest in these problems through participation in research and in many cases through employment. The annual appointment of two post doctoral visiting economists as research associates of the Center, broadening the area over which ideas are interchanged, was made possible by Carnegie Corporation funds.

[p. 15] The Interdisciplinary Program in Mathematics and the Social Sciences and the Detroit Area Study, both established under the 1950 Ford Foundation grant, have made important contributions to mutual understanding of problems by mathematicians and social scientists. The Detroit program makes an annual sample survey of the population in that area, providing training for graduate students as well as a research facility for faculty members.

These developments have had a natural effect on the interests and work of graduate students. Five students at the doctoral level are now employed by the Survey Research Center as study directors. Five others are engaged as half-time research assistants in the research seminar in quantitative economics. One student is engaged in an independent sample survey project growing out of the interregional studies mentioned above, and two students are pursuing independent research utilizing data obtained from the Survey of Consumer Finances conducted annually for the Federal Reserve Board by the Center.

Quantitative research by graduate students is limited by two factors. In the first place, the costs involved in processing quantitative data in any volume discourage such activity except where the expenses can be met by the research institute, program or seminar in which the student is participating. No free departmental funds are available for this purpose.

Secondly, the department itself has not yet overcome the “cultural lag” between its encouragement of quantitative research on the one hand and its formal doctoral program on the other. Traditionally the department has placed primary emphasis on theory rather than research. The student has been required to familiarize himself with economic theory and the institutional background of economic activity. Introductory courses in statistics and accounting have long been required as research “tools” for graduate students, but although further study has always been encouraged, no formal place in the graduate curriculum has been provided for it. The members of the Economics faculty are well aware of this contradiction and it is expected that it will be resolved in the near future.

 

Political Science2

[p. 16] Although lectures in political science were given as early as 1860 (by members of the law faculty) and courses in political institutions were found in the history department from 1870 on, a political science department as such was not established until 1910. An abortive “Institute of Political Science” had been established in 1887, but administrative difficulties caused it to disappear from the scene in a few years.

The department gradually grew in size until its faculty by 1933 numbered 12. In the post war days this number doubled, and there are now 24 members on the department staff. In the early days the department expanded by adding new courses in public law, political theory, municipal government and administration, and foreign governments. The work in public administration increased gradually from 1914, when a special curriculum was organized, until 1937 when an Institute of Public and Social Administration was created, which in turn led to a separate Institute of Public Administration in 1945. From the mid-thirties on the department has expanded primarily by the addition of staff in the fields of international relations and politics.

Today there are 1887 student enrollments in a total of 43 courses. There are 71 graduate students, and 176 undergraduate concentrates. Fifteen graduate students are in the process of writing dissertations.

The department divides its program into the following six fields of specialization: American government and constitutional law, foreign governments, political parties and public opinion, political theory, public administration, international law and relations. The staff is divided unequally in these fields, reflecting the demands of undergraduate and graduate instruction. The largest number of courses in the department, according to a recent report of its Curriculum Committee, are of the institutional-descriptive type (about 40). The political theory courses follow the traditional pattern of chronological analysis of great ideas. Two methodology courses are given each for one semester only: Scope and Method of Political Science, and Bibliography and Methods of Research. A growing interest in political behavior is indicated by three courses in this area and by the use of behavioral methods and materials in other courses.

The content and method of doctoral dissertations reflects an orientation of staff and courses toward institutional-descriptive materials. Of the 56 dissertations completed since 1947 or now being written, about one-half are legal-structural studies in American national, state or local government. Another 10 [p. 17] are in the international field, with half of them in international law. Six are traditional political theory studies. Eight can be classified strictly as behavioral and these have been written in the last two or three years.

The department has several interdisciplinary linkages, both formal and informal. Four members of its staff are involved in the Japanese Research Center, the Russian Studies Program, the Latin-American Program, and the Near Eastern Studies Program. The department regularly participates in the Metropolitan Community Seminar and the Land Use Seminar. By invitation of the government and the University of the Philippines, and supported by a government contract, it organized and operates a Public Administration Training Center in Manila. It has set up special courses in conjunction with the schools of Public Health, Forestry, and Education. Its linkages with Sociology are close on occasion. The Institute of Public Administration has had a sociologist on its staff for the past year. Political science staff and graduate students were on the staff of the Detroit Area Study during two of the three years it has been going on. The Political Behavior Program has granted a research assistantship to a Sociology graduate student for the past two years. The Phoenix Project in the Institute of Public Administration, includes a sociologist as well as economists on its staff.

The most significant behavioral developments in the department, especially from a student-training standpoint, are the Political Behavior Research Program inaugurated in 1950 with Ford funds, and the Phoenix project in public administration and legislative aspects of atomic energy control. Currently several members of the department are planning a collaborative program of research on the representative process. A program of behavioral research and training is thus seen to have a substantial and promising start. It will develop by the addition of staff members in this area and by the inclusion of more research training for graduate students, in proportion as the demonstrated achievement of the current activities earn departmental support and succeed in gaining financial support.

 

Psychology3

A major development in the Department of Psychology was undertaken in the years following 1946. Prior to the war the [p. 18] department had been small, with primary emphasis in experimental work. Walter Pillsbury retired as chairman in 1943 and during the war there was greatly restricted activity. After the war, with the establishment of a training program in clinical psychology, and with the expansion in social research, the staff was trebled and the graduate program greatly broadened.

The staff now consists of 55 members, only a few of whom are appointed full time on the teaching budget. The sum of their fractional teaching appointments is 24. The other parts of their appointments are in the Institute for Social Research, on research grants, and in clinical agencies.

The main directions of activity in graduate research and training may be conveniently considered as three; clinical, social, and general experimental. There is a certain amount of administrative separation of the three, and the students tend to group in these categories, but a deliberate effort has been made to integrate their work. Four-fifths of the work of the first graduate year is common for all students; specialization begins in the second year; after prelims many of the seminars again find all kinds of students together.

There are about 110 graduate students working toward the doctoral degree in Psychology. The number is arbitrarily limited by the admission of not more than 25 or 30 graduate students each year. They are selected from 200 or more qualified applicants. Admissions are planned so that there will be about the same number of students in clinical, social and general. Only two or three a year drop out for personal or academic reasons. The Department undertakes to find half-time positions for practically all students in research, teaching or clinical work which will contribute to their training. There are 30 appointments in the Veterans Administration, 5 to 8 in other clinical agencies, 5 on United States Public Health Service stipends, about 20 in teaching, and 10-20 on research projects. Ordinarily two students hold University fellowships and two to nine hold outside fellowships. The capricious inflexibility of this system is obvious, and it is frequently impossible to provide the job most appropriate for the student’s level and direction of training.

Active research programs are carried on in the following fields, usually with some assistance from outside grants:

Visual psychophysics: Blackwell, Kristofferson
Physiological: McCleary, Smith
Learning: Walker, Birch
[p. 19]
Motivation: Atkinson, Clark
Perception: Brown
Therapy: Bordin, Raush, Hutt, Segal
Counseling and Psychodynamics: Blum, Miller, McNeil, Allinsmith
Personality Assessment: Kelly
Mathematical Methods: Coombs, Milholland, Hays
Attitude Change: Katz, Newcomb, Peak, Rosenberg
Teaching Process: McKeachie
Industrial Human Relations: Maier
Others in Institute for Social Research

Laboratory and practicum facilities, in addition to the I.S.R., include the well equipped Vision Research Laboratory, a 10- room animal research laboratory, and a 10-room experimental laboratory in addition to a 10-room teaching laboratory, all in Mason Hall. A three-room machine and wood shop is fully equipped. In the Bureau of Psychological Services is a Psychological Clinic directed by Frederick Wyatt, and a Student Counseling Service directed by Edward Bordin, both extensively used for training. Hospital facilities are favorable for training in Pediatrics, less so in Psychiatry.

One of the continuing objectives of the Department of Psychology is to realize a reasonable balance of strengths. Before the war the emphasis was almost exclusively on laboratory experimental work. With the advent of the Veterans Administration program in 1946 the emphasis became heavily clinical. The establishment in 1948 of the Institute for Social Research created an immediate emphasis in social psychology. Only in the last year or two has general experimental psychology been strengthened by new appointments, new laboratories, and outside research grants to the point where reasonable balance has been attained.

 

Sociology

Courses in sociology have been taught at Michigan for about 60 years. During half of that period the leading figure was Charles Horton Cooley, an outstanding exponent of the psychological approach to the analysis of social life. In 1930, after Cooley’s death, sociology became a separate department, under the leadership of Roderick D. McKenzie. McKenzie’s interest in human ecology was a counterfoil to the Cooley tradition. Both approaches, developed through the years, are reflected in the current work of the department.

[p. 20] The major areas of research and graduate training concern four fields: Social Organization, Human Ecology and Population, Social Psychology, and Methodology. A series of substantive courses and seminars are offered in each of these areas. Some of the principal research areas in which graduate and faculty research go on within each of these general fields are as follows:

Social Organization

Social Stratification: Landecker, Lenski, Swanson
Political Sociology: Janowitz, Campbell
Social Integration: Angell
Industrial Sociology: Carr
Comparative Community Structure: Miner
Family and Kinship: Aberle, Blood
International Social Organization: Angell and Landecker
Collective Behavior: Swanson, Aberle
The Urban Community: Hawley, Janowitz, Freedman
Religious Institutions: Lenski
The Dynamics of Small Groups: Lippitt, Swanson

Population and Human Ecology

Population Distribution: Hawley, Kish
Fertility Trends: Freedman
Migration: Freedman, Hawley

Social Psychology (see next section of report)

Methodology

Survey Research Techniques: Likert, Campbell, Kish
Group Dynamics Methodology: Lippitt
General Quantitative Methodology: Williams

The department has major responsibilities in undergraduate teaching. In the fall semester of 1953 there were 1708 course elections in sociology. Most of the undergraduate elections are in introductory courses. In the fall of 1953 there were 60 undergraduate concentrates in sociology and 24 concentrates in pre-professional social work. There were approximately 50 graduate students.

Many ties with other University units are maintained. Two staff members have joint appointments in anthropology; three have joint appointments in psychology; and four are on the staff of the Institute for Social Research. Twelve of the 24 graduate courses offered for credit during the current semester are also listed by at least one other department.

[p. 21] There has been considerable revision in the graduate curriculum during the post-war period. Outstanding trends have been increasing emphasis on (1) systematic theory, oriented to the empirical testing of hypotheses and (2) training in and utilization of new methodological developments for empirical work. Illustrative of the first trend is a seminar in Theories of Social Organization required of all doctoral candidates. Illustrative of the second trend is the required participation in the Detroit Area Study of all first year graduate students.

At the present time approximately one-third of all graduate students have their primary orientation in the field of Human Ecology and Population; the remaining two-thirds in Social Organization. Students whose major orientation is in Social Psychology generally enter the special doctoral program in that field. The department now has rather large groups of students trained for work in these three fields.

Continuing research programs involving students and faculty in these areas compose the chief development needs felt at the present time.4 These needs are reflected in part in the proposal for a social organization research program, presented elsewhere in this report. The Department assigns the highest priority to the continuation of the Detroit Area Study as a central focus for its training of first year graduate students.

Work in the area of Social Psychology is carried on mainly through the special doctoral program in Social Psychology and is described in the next section of the report. The Sociology Department makes a special contribution to this program in its emphasis on the relationship between aspects of social organization and psychological variables. Illustrative of this contribution are courses in mass communication, personality and culture, and collective behavior. Eight members of the department do teaching directly related to the social psychology program.

 

Doctoral Program in Social Psychology

In 1947 the Departments of Psychology and Sociology, wishing to avoid overlapping and competition in the field of common interest, and hoping to provide better advanced training jointly than either could provide alone, were authorized by the Graduate School to create the jointly sponsored Doctoral Program in Social Psychology. Its policies are determined by an Executive [p. 22] Committee appointed by the Dean of the Graduate School from the faculties of the two departments. The chairman, Theodore Newcomb, holds a professorship in each department.

The Program has its own requirements for admission, for courses of study and examination, and recommends candidates for the Ph.D. degree. It has no teaching staff of its own and there is no formal faculty status labeled “Social Psychology.” Instruction is provided by staff members from the Sociology and Psychology Departments. There are about 20 staff members holding graduate faculty status in one or both of the two departments who regard social psychology as their primary specialization and who give instruction in this area. Several of these people hold full-time teaching appointments; most of the rest hold primary appointments in the Institute for Social Research, characteristically teaching a one-semester course each year.

Because social psychology draws heavily upon both sociology and psychology, early specialization is discouraged. Admission to the Social Psychology Program presupposes at least one year of graduate work in one of the two “parent” fields. Certain advanced theory courses in the field which was not the student’s previous specialty are required in the program. Another important way in which students are kept in close touch with the parent fields is through the preliminary examinations; two of the four which are required in Social Psychology (Personality, Social Organization) are the same as those taken in Psychology and Sociology respectively.

Curricular requirements include a series of units in theory (mostly in small seminars), one year of advanced statistics, and three methods courses, two of which involve active experience in gathering and analyzing data. A paid assistantship, most commonly in research, less often in teaching, is found for every student for at least one of his years in the Program. Many of these are provided by the Institute for Social Research.

Only about ten students are admitted to the Program each year, roughly half from each of the two parent fields, out of a much larger number who apply. Very few of them have been Michigan undergraduates, but about half have begun their graduate study here. One advantage of selecting among applicants who have already completed a year of graduate work is that mortality is very small. The nine or ten Ph.D’s granted each year make this Program the fourth largest in the University.

Of the 35 persons who completed their degrees during the Program’s first four years, more than half now hold full-time or part-time research positions; the next largest number (about [p. 23] one-quarter) have academic teaching positions. There has been no greater difficulty in finding suitable positions for these people — perhaps less — than for Ph.D’s in Psychology or Sociology.

 

PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS

The University’s constituent schools have strength and considerable autonomy. In addition to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies there are 13 professional schools: Architecture and Design, Business Administration5, Dentistry, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Music, Natural Resources6, Pharmacy, Public Health and Social Work. The Deans of the various schools meet together at the Deans’ Conference—an important agency in the formation of overall University policies. The major part of this report is concerned with activities centered in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts and in the School of Graduate Studies. However, every professional school in the University also has certain activities with a behavioral science aspect. A special study of these activities is reported in Chapter X.

 

INSTITUTES AND RESEARCH AGENCIES

Institute for Social Research7

The Institute for Social Research, consisting of the Survey Research Center and the Research Center for Group Dynamics, [p. 24] was established by Regents’ action in 1948. It is organized on a University-wide basis, administratively independent of the teaching departments and schools, but closely allied with many of them through research, teaching, and professional interests. The Board of Regents specified that “the Institute shall be under the direction of a Director (Dr. Rensis Likert) appointed by the Board of Regents on recommendation by the President and assisted by an Executive Committee.” It provided further that “the Executive Committee shall be responsible for the determination of general policies regarding the nature and scope of the activities of the Institute…” In keeping with the broad relevance of the Institute’s activities, members of the Executive Committee have been drawn from various schools of the University.

From the time of its establishment the Institute has conceived its objective as having four main aspects: (1) the conduct of fundamental research on a variety of problems of both practical and theoretical significance, (2) the dissemination of research results in ways that maximize the usefulness of the research to other scientists and to the public at large, (3) the development of behavioral science through the training of research people and the provision of assistance and consultation to researchers at Michigan and elsewhere, and (4) the development of improved methods for social research.

The Institute conducts a broad program of quantitative research on economic and political behavior, social organization and leadership, group functioning, human relations, the process of planned and unplanned change, and the effects of group membership on individual motivation and adjustment. The research undertaken employs recently developed techniques of sampling, interviewing, quantification of verbal materials, observation and quantification of group functioning, and the experimental control and manipulation of variables determining the phenomena under investigation.

The Institute contributes to graduate training through participation in formal teaching and by providing opportunities for graduate students to take part in ongoing research projects. During the year 1953-54 eighteen members of the Institute staff held joint appointments with seven teaching departments or schools, and taught twenty-five courses. Ordinarily about forty graduate students hold appointments in the Institute, and many of these complete doctoral dissertations in conjunction with this employment.

[p. 25] The research of the Institute is administered within the two major Centers in a number of program areas under the supervision of senior professional staff members. This senior staff consists, in the Survey Research Center, of Angus Campbell, Director, and Charles F. Cannell, Robert L. Kahn, George Katona, Leslie Kish, and Stephen Withey. In the Research Center for Group Dynamics it is composed of Dorwin Cartwright, Director, and John R. P. French, Jr., Ronald Lippitt, and Alvin Zander. The regular staff of the Institute consists of about fifty research scientists, a central clerical and administrative staff of about sixty persons, and a staff of part-time field interviewers located throughout the country numbering over two hundred.

The major portion of the Institute’s financial support comes through research contracts with governmental agencies, private business firms, and professional organizations/ and through grants from research supporting foundations. The Institute during recent years has operated on a budget of approximately $800,000 per year.

 

Institute of Human Biology8

The Institute of Human Biology is a research unit of the University devoted to “the discovery of those fundamental principles of biology which may be of importance for man and the application of biological principles to human affairs.” It is supported in part by general funds of the University and in part by grants from outside sources. Its regular scientific staff of 16, supplemented by 12 other research associates or collaborators, is organized around specific research projects as research teams.

Certain Institute projects have directly significant implications for behavioral science. The Heredity Clinic functions as an outpatient clinic for the University Hospital, giving advice to referred patients on medical problems of hereditary origin and conducting research on the genetics of various defects. The Community Dynamics section conducts ecological studies with particular emphasis on communities in which man is a conspicuous member. The Assortative Mating Study is investigating the effects on the heredity of a city population which may be produced by the tendency of persons with similar traits to marry [p. 26] more or less frequently than would be expected by chance. The Hereditary Abilities Study is an elaborate investigation of human heredity using the method of comparison of identical twin, fraternal twin, and sibling pairs on a large number of psychological, bio-chemical and anthropometric variables.

 

Institute for Human Adjustment

The Institute for Human Adjustment was established by Regents’ action in 1937, its purpose being “to discover means of applying the findings of science to problems of human behavior, to train professional workers, to disseminate new information and techniques among professional workers, and as far as staff, funds, and selection of problems permit, to perform distinct social services. The actual program of the Institute is carried out through five operating units, each administratively responsible to Dean Ralph Sawyer of the Graduate School who serves also as Director of the Institute.

(1) The Division of Gerontology, Wilma Donahue, Director, engages in research in the psychosocial aspects of aging; offers educational programs for older adults in conjunction with communities, business, and industry; assists in the training of professional and volunteer workers through institutes, workshops, conferences, and publications; and serves as a consultation and information center about the problems of aging.

(2) The Fresh Air Camp, Edward Slezak, Director, provides courses in sociology, education and social work, experience in organizing group programs with children, and opportunity for systematic, supervised observation of child behavior.

(3) The Social Science Research Project, Amos Hawley, Director, is a facility for giving students of the social sciences actual field experience in research. The laboratory is the metropolitan community of Flint.

(4) The Speech Clinic, Harlan Bloomer, Director, provides opportunity for the observation, diagnosis, and treatment of all types of speech disorders, for experience in the rehabilitation of persons with hearing loss, and for research in speech pathology.

(5) The Bureau of Psychological Services, E. Lowell Kelly, Director, carries out its program through four divisions as follows:

[p. 27]
(a) Evaluation and Examining (E. J. Furst, Chief) is responsible for all university testing programs and through consultation is of service to individual staff members as well as schools and departments in improving programs of student evaluation.

(b) Student Counseling (E. S. Bordin, Chief) is designed to help students in solving their problems of educational, vocational and social adjustment.

(c) Reading Improvement (Donald Smith, Chief) provides noncredit training in reading speed and comprehension.

(d) Psychological Clinic (Frederick Wyatt, Chief) serves the general public and is especially interested in the early identification and treatment of psychological problems in the family.

Most of the units of the Institute are affiliated directly or indirectly with one or more of the teaching units of the University, and have planned their programs to contribute to the training of specialists in the fields of human adjustment as well as to provide services to individuals. Financial support for the several programs is derived from endowments of the Horace H. and Mary A. Rackham Funds, from general funds, private contributions and fees for services. In general, the funds available from these combined sources are not sufficient to provide any substantial research support in addition to the service and training functions.

 

Museums

One unit of the University Museums, the Museum of Anthropology, is concerned with social science. It is administratively distinct from the Department of Anthropology, although its curatorial staff hold academic appointments and ranks in the Department and teach two or three courses each year.

The scientific staff of the Museum consists of a director and three curators who are responsible for the collections of the Museum and who conduct research in addition to their teaching. They act only in an advisory capacity with regard to the exhibits of the Museum which are installed and maintained by a special department. The research activities of the Museum curators are in the fields of archaeology and ethnobotany and hence do not fall within a strict definition of behavioral science.

Two series of publications are issued by the Museum; any topic within the general field of anthropology is acceptable for these publications and several members of the Department staff [p. 28] have used this outlet for publications in behavioral science.9 The Museum maintains an anthropological library which is used by students and the staff of the Department.

 

The Institute of Public Administration10

The Institute of Public Administration integrates instruction, research, and service in the field of public administration. The major instructional emphasis of the Institute is its full-time graduate program for people who wish to enter the public service. The Institute also develops inservice training courses for persons already employed in public positions. Through its Bureau of Government, the Institute undertakes a governmental research program and provides technical advice and assistance on problems of local, state, and national government.

The graduate program in public administration is conceived as a training course for administrative generalists. The positions which graduates are likely to fill are those which involve staff assistance to key administrators, administrative research and procedures analysis, or personnel and fiscal management. The curriculum in public administration leads to the degree of Master of Public Administration and utilizes courses throughout the University.

The Bureau of Government is the research and public service unit of the Institute of Public Administration. One of the oldest organizations in this country devoted to governmental research, the Bureau of Government was established in 1914 as a center of information on government. Its activities now include (1) a program of research on governmental problems, (2) bulletins and pamphlets based on research findings, (3) an information service on public problems which may be used by any citizen or governmental agency, and (4) the research training of the graduate students holding research assistantships in the Institute of Public Administration.

[p. 29] Recent research publications11 have dealt with career attitudes of the personnel of a federal agency, the use of admissions and income taxes by municipalities, and the public personnel activities of professional and technical associations. Problems outside Michigan are being examined in current research on civil-military leadership and an analysis of recent changes in state constitutions. Research now being done on Michigan problems concerns highway finance, elections, and the preparation of an assessors manual to be used by all the assessors in the state.

The Bureau is undertaking a study of “Public Administration Aspects of the Atomic Energy Program,” with a special staff of research associates and assistants, under a grant from the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project.

The Institute of Public Administration, in cooperation with the University of the Philippines and the Foreign Operations Administration of the Federal Government, is now engaged in the operation of a new Institute in Manila, Philippine Islands. Under the terms of the agreement the initial personnel of the Philippine Institute are supplied by the University of Michigan, and the University of the Philippines will gradually assume complete direction. Financial support is provided jointly by the Foreign Operations Administration and the Philippine government.

 

Area Research and Training Programs

Area research and training programs at the University of Michigan include the Program in Far Eastern Studies, the Center for Japanese Studies, the Program in Latin American Studies, and the Department of Near Eastern Studies.

As the title indicates, the program in Near Eastern Studies is organized as a full department offering a concentration program to undergraduates and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees to graduate students and having an independent staff and course list. Its basic program consists primarily of historical and linguistic training, but a close association with other departments is maintained and students are expected to develop skills in traditional disciplines. Interdisciplinary field training sessions in the Near East are held in alternate years under the guidance of two faculty members. These sessions last for a [p. 30] full year and are flexible in organization to permit the student to specialize in his particular interest.

The remaining area programs are staffed by members of various departments, and the listed courses are compilations from the offerings of those departments. Undergraduate concentration is permitted only in the Program in Far Eastern Studies. All three offer the M.A. degree and some students preparing for business or government service stop there; students continuing in graduate school transfer to one of the regular departments for the Ph.D. degree.

The Center for Japanese Studies12 maintains a special library on the campus, a field station at Okayama in Japan, and has an extensive publication program for the research of faculty and students.13

The activities of the area programs are by no means confined to the behavioral sciences. All have literary and historical interests, and elementary linguistic training is an important phase of the student’s training. Behavioral science is fostered however; community studies, for example are a characteristic activity, and the integrated multidisciplinary approach is well exemplified in the faculty seminar conducted in each program.

 

FACILITIES AND SERVICE AGENCIES

Statistical Services

The University has a variety of statistical facilities located in a number of different units.

A major facility is the Tabulating Service which is well equipped with IBM machines. These machines are available to those research projects having budgets adequate to meet the service charges. The bulk of the work done by Tabulating Service is for the Registrar’s Office and the Business Office. A significant portion is devoted to tabulations for the Institute for Social Research. Only a small part is for other research projects on the campus. In addition to the customary IBM equipment, the Tabulating Service has a 602A Calculating Punch which is used a great deal. In the spring of 1952 an IBM Card Programmed Electronic Calculator (CPC) was acquired on a trial [p. 31] basis, but there has been insufficient demand from contract research to meet the full costs of this relatively expensive machine.

The Statistical Research Laboratory exists for the express purpose of assisting faculty members and graduate students with their individual statistical problems. The laboratory maintains a small but fairly complete IBM installation (including a 602A Calculating Punch). Automatic desk calculators are also available. Most of this equipment may be used without charge provided the use is for pure, (unsponsored) research, such as doctoral dissertations.

Small IBM installations, consisting of little more than a punch and sorter, are located in other units of the University. Of major relevance to behavioral science research are those in the Institute for Social Research and in the School of Public Health.

High speed, large capacity automatic computing machines are available at the Willow Run Research Center. These are of both the analog and digital types. These facilities appear to be capable of handling statistical problems as complex as behavioral scientists are likely to encounter for some time. They are primarily used at the present time by those conducting research in engineering, natural sciences, and mathematics.

Recently a group of staff members closely associated with the various statistical services of the University submitted an unofficial report to the administrative authorities urging that steps be taken toward establishing a centralized facility for both training and research in all aspects of computation, and it is hoped that the development of the North Campus will include such a computation center more readily available to all interested University personnel.

 

Photographic Services

The University has an adequate and efficient Photographic Service, equipped to handle a wide variety of work in the field of photography. It is prepared to produce slides of all sizes in black and white or color, film strips, motion pictures, and prints. It does photomacography and photomicography. It also does a large volume of photo-offset work.

The Photographic Service has a photostating section which is equipped to handle many kinds of duplicating processes. Its Ozalid facilities are used extensively for reproducing transcripts and theses. Its map service may be used for photographing maps and modifying their scale.

[p. 32] These services are available at cost to anyone connected with the University. At the present time 11 people are engaged in the work of the Photographic Service.

 

Publication Facilities

The University has very limited facilities for scholarly publication. Some funds are regularly available from the University budget for publications, but only a very small portion of this sum is available to the behavioral sciences. Editorial facilities are so limited that few scholars are willing to endure the publication lag involved in obtaining editorial help. The Institute for Social Research has employed a full-time editor to facilitate its own publications.

The University of Michigan Press, organized in 1930, is currently undergoing study and reorganization and there is widespread hope that it will become a more significant and effective agency in Michigan scholarship.

 

The Library

The University has a large library with a competent and efficient staff. Lack of sufficient space, however, has operated to reduce the efficiency of library service. The University General Library Building is badly overcrowded. Many acquisitions of research materials cannot be made easily available because of inadequate shelves and files. Lack of space has also led to an excessive dispersion of materials in numerous special collections housed in various buildings about the campus. The groupings of materials at separate locations has not always been functional from the point of view of the behavioral scientist with an interdisciplinary interest. The University administration regards the improvement of library facilities as a first priority in general development plans, and important steps are now being taken to relieve the overcrowding by the construction of a stack building on the North Campus and of the Kresge Medical Library building.

 

Audio-Visual Education Center

The University has a well-equipped Audio-Visual Education Center, with a large collection of sixteen-millimeter sound and silent motion pictures, filmstrips, tape recordings, and art reproductions. It also is prepared to produce a variety of audio-visual materials and to provide consultation on the use of audio-visual [p. 33] materials. The staff of the Center offer graduate and undergraduate courses in audio-visual methods in the School of Education and in the Extension Service. Instructors in schools and departments on the campus may obtain materials from the Center without charge for instructional purposes. Projection service is also available without charge for any regularly scheduled University class.

 

GENERAL LEVEL OF BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE ACTIVITY

In order to bring together the relevant data about the departments the following table has been prepared. These data are for the year 1953-54. They are provided for confidential use and should not be published in any form. Figures on numbers of students and on class enrollments are particularly difficult to use in comparisons between universities because of the differences in methods of calculation.

1954_Michigan_BehSciencesTable

 

[NOTES]

 

  1. Appendix item 5; The Division of the Social Sciences: Reprinted from “The University of Michigan, An Encyclopedia Survey” Ann Arbor, Univ. Mich. Press, 1942, Vol. I, pp 304-306. Appendix item 6; List of Members, General Committee of the Division of the Social Sciences, University of Michigan, 1953-54. Appendix item 7; News Letters of the Division of Social Sciences, University of Michigan, April, 1950, June, 1952, January, 1953, May, 1953. Appendix item 8; List of Faculty Members in the Social Sciences, University of Michigan, 1953.
  2. Appendix item 9; The Department of Political Science. Reprinted from “The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedia Survey” Ann Arbor, Univ. Mich. Press, Part IV, 1944, pp 702-708.
  3. Appendix item 10; The Department of Psychology, Reprinted from “The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedia Survey” Ann Arbor, Univ. Mich. Press, Part IV, 1944, pp 708-714.
  4. Appendix item 11; Suggestions to the Dean and Executive Committee from the Department of Sociology on the Development Council Request.
  5. Appendix item 12; Publications, School of Business Administration, Bureau of Business Research, Bureau of Industrial Relations, Univ. of Michigan, 1953.
  6. Appendix item 13; Dept. of Conservation: The First Three Years (1950-1953) Univ. of Mich. School of Natural Resources. Appendix item 14; The School of Natural Resources and the Social Sciences, 1951.
  7. Appendix item 15; Institute for Social Research, Survey Research Center, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Univ. of Mich., 1952. Appendix item 16; Executive Committee and Staff of the Institute for Social Research, 1953. Appendix item 17; Publications of the Institute for Social Research, September, 1952 through November, 1953.
  8. Appendix item 18; Institute of Human Biology, Univ. of Mich. Appendix item 19; Publications, Institute of Human Biology, March 1, 1953.
  9. Culture and Agriculture by Horace M. Miner, Occasional Contributions from the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan, No. 14, 1949; Araucanian Culture in Transition by Mischa Titiev, Occasional Contributions from the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan, No. 15, 1951; Spanish-Guarani Relations in Early Colonial Paraguay by Elman R. Service, Anthropological Papers, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, No. 9, 1954.
  10. Appendix item 20; Institute of Public Administration, 1954- 55 Announcement, University of Michigan, Official Publication.
  11. Appendix item 21; Publications. Bureau of Government, Institute of Public Administration, February, 1953.
  12. Appendix item 22; Center for Japanese Studies, Announcement, June 11, 1954.
  13. Appendix item 23; Publications, Center for Japanese Studies and Near Eastern Studies, 1953.

 

Source: University of Michigan. Survey of the Behavioral Sciences. Report of the Faculty Committee and Report of the Visiting Committee. Ann Arbor, Michigan: July 1, 1954.