Categories
Bryn Mawr Columbia Gender

Bryn Mawr. Catholic economics instructor threatened with termination, 1921

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When I came across the correspondence in this post, what caught my eye was that a Columbia doctoral student in economics had written to her adviser asking for advice in the face of a seemingly certain termination of her instructorship at Bryn Mawr simply on the grounds of her being Catholic. I thought it good to post a reminder just how broad the category of “the Other” was not even a century ago. 

What is also interesting is the fact that her advisor, E.R.A. Seligman farmed out the draft of her dissertation to a former student of his for a referee report that became the basis of his decision for a revise-and-resubmit of the thesis.

The Bryn Mawr economics instructor/Columbia graduate student, Marjorie Lorne Franklin, was born August 30, 1892 in Albany, New York. She received her B.A. from Barnard College in 1913 and her M.A. from Columbia University in 1914. According to the Bryn Mawr Calendar 1921 (p. 4): Marjorie Franklin was Graduate Scholar, Bryn Mawr College, 1913-14 and Fellow in Economics, 1914-15; Columbia University, 1915-16; Library Assistant, American Telephone and Telegraph Co., 1916-17; and before coming to Bryn Mawr she served as an instructor at Vassar College in 1917-18. However according to the Vassar College yearbook, The Vassarion 1918 (p.30), Franklin was working 1915-16 as Tariff Assistant in Foreign Tariffs Division of U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.  From the 1925 Barnard College Register of Alumnae we learn that she married Dr. Walter Freeman in 1924 and was working as a special expert at the U.S. Tariff Commission.  According to the 1940 U.S. census she reported that she was employed as an economist with the Tariff Commission and she was the mother of five sons and one daughter. She died in San Mateo, California on April 22, 1970. I have found no record that Marjorie Franklin Freeman was ever awarded a Ph.D. in economics.

A biographical detail that is irrelevant for understanding the history of economics but much too fascinating to leave unmentioned is that Marjorie Franklin’s husband Walter Freeman (II) was  a neurologist famous for having introduced the Freeman-Watts prefrontal lobotomy procedure— (His papers are archived at George Washington University; there is even a PBS documentary about him “The Lobotomist”). 

 

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Franklin to Seligman: Bryn Mawr terminating her because she is a Catholic

BRYN MAWR COLLEGE
Department of Economics and Politics
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Low Buildings,
February 27, 1921

Professor E.R.A. Seligman
Columbia University
New York City

Dear Professor Seligman:

Religious prejudice has entered into my life for the first time in a way that shocks and stuns me. After three years of successful teaching here, President Thomas has decided that the fact that I am a Catholic makes me persona non grata. She states that my work has been successful and admits that I have not allowed my religious ideas to influence my teaching, but claims that from the point of view of the outside world, it is bad for the college to have a Catholic hold my position, considering the political activities of the Catholic Church. The situation is complicated by the fact that Dr. Fenwick, Professor of Political Science in the department is also a Catholic, and President Thomas has decided that one of us must go. I have no intention of protesting the matter, for I realize that it is futile to argue against religious prejudice.

It is doubtless unnecessary to say to you that my ideas on the subject of religion have always been to me something quite apart from my work, and represent, chiefly, my ethical and moral standards, not at all, my political and economic ideas which have been the result of modern scientific training at Barnard and Columbia. Dr. Giddings, who knows my Father, also a graduate of Union College, would testify that I had been brought up in a broad, tolerant atmosphere.

The whole question of religious prejudice seems utterly medieval to me, but since it is evidently effective in the sphere of teaching, it makes me want to turn to the field of business and finance. So I want to talk over with you in the near future the possibility of openings in the banking field.

During the past two months, work on my thesis has been at a standstill due to the fact that my Father has been rather suddenly incapacitated by some spinal trouble which has made him quite helpless. He was operated on two weeks ago by Dr. Elsberg, the famous spinal surgeon, at the Neurological Hospital on East 67th Street, and his fate is still in doubt. As a result I cannot go to him for advice, and so am running the risk of boring you by setting forth conditions in such detail. However, it may be better for you to have a clear statement of the facts in my case before I go up to New York to see you. I should be glad to make an appointment to call any time within the next few weeks.

Very sincerely yours,
[signed] Marjorie L. Franklin

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Franklin to Seligman: Vassar reverses itself, making her an offer

BRYN MAWR COLLEGE
Department of Economics and Politics
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Low Buildings,
March 10, 1921

Prof. Edwin R.A. Seligman
Columbia University
New York City

My dear Professor Seligman:

Due to the efforts of Mrs. Smith, my department chief, and other members of the Bryn Mawr Faculty on the Appointment Committee, President Thomas has capitulated completely and has offered e a contract on the most favorable terms, ignoring the late unpleasentness completely.

If I were to consider my own feelings in the matter, I would reject all overtures, but since Mrs. Smith and others went so valiantly to the front for me, stating that they would resign if I were forced to leave, there is now a strong feeling of noblesse oblige on my part toward them.

However, I should like very much to talk things over with you, in general, and particularly to submit to you a substantial draft of my thesis. In view of this, I would rather postpone my interview set for March 16th and make arrangements with Mrs. Stewart to see you later, just before or just after the Easter vacation.

Appreciating your kindness in this situation,

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Marjorie L. Franklin

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Newcomer’s report to Seligman on Franklin’s thesis draft

435 West 119 St.,
New York,
June 20, 1922.

My dear Dr. Seligman:

I have gone over Miss Franklin’s dissertation again rather carefully. It seems to me it has been improved, but frankly it still leaves me with no very clear picture of Philadelphia’s financial condition. It gives a fairly good idea of political conditions, and something of the financial consequences of these conditions; but at no time is there given a definite summarized statement of the actual sources of revenue and the relative importance of each. A statement, e.g., of the actual percentage of revenues obtained from the tax on real estate over a period of years would be illuminating. Most of the data which would be required for such comparisons are available in the tables now included in the appendix, but these data would have to be rearranged and summarized. In their present form they are not of much assistance.

The same indefiniteness appears in the discussion of assessments. The account of correct assessment methods and the shortcomings of those employed in Philadelphia is full and clear; but as to the degree of underassessment and the seriousness of the inequalities one is left in doubt.

Another criticism that I would make is that in some places Miss Franklin introduces material which scarcely seems pertinent because she fails to apply it definitely to the situation in Philadelphia. A case in point is the long discussion of the taxation of land values at the end of chapter four.

Further I find the relative weight granted the various parts of the subject not altogether satisfactory. For instance, special assessments are too important a factor in municipal financing to be introduced first in the conclusions. Also, with full recognition of the bearing of all of the matters discussed on the system of taxation, I still feel that taxation itself has not received its full share of attention.

Finally, I do not find the conclusions convincing. I am afraid that this is rather severe criticism. Let me hasten to add that I think the strictly historical survey of the subject is very good, and I like Miss Franklin’s treatment of the political and administrative problems. I suspect that many of the difficulties which I find are inherent in the subject itself.

I am leaving the manuscript, together with a copy of this letter in Mrs. Stewart’s office.

With best wishes for a pleasant summer, I remain

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Mabel Newcomer

Note: Mabel Newcomer (B.A. Stanford, 1913; M.A. Stanford, 1914; Ph.D. Columbia, 1917) taught at Vassar 1917-1957.

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Seligman’s decision not to accept Franklin’s thesis draft

Lake Placid, N.Y.,
June 24th, 1922.

Miss Mabel Newcomer,
New York.

Dear Miss Newcomer:-

Many thanks for your kind and explicit letter. I have written to Miss Franklin, embodying most of your points I my letter and have asked her to try again.

I may bother you again when she presents her next, and let us hope, her final draft.

With kind regards,

Faithfully yours,
[E.R.A. Seligman, unsigned in copy]

Source: Columbia University Archives. Edwin Robert Anderson Papers. Box 36, Folder “Box 99, Seligman, Columbia 1918-1924 (A-Z)”.

Image Source: Marjorie Lorne Franklin’s senior year picture in The Mortarboard 1913, p. 195.

Categories
Chicago Economists

Chicago. Career data for first 60 Economics PhDs. 1894-1926

Economics in the Rear-View Mirror proudly adds a new data base for the history of economics community:  biographical data for the first sixty Ph.D. economists turned out by the University of Chicago from 1894-1926.

Additions and corrections are welcome! Just add a comment with your suggestions.  

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Discussion of “Road to Serfdom”. Sorokin, Leontief, Usher. 1945

The previous post provided the syllabus (with links to the readings) for Abbott Payson Usher’s 1921 course “European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century”. While looking for some background on Usher in the on-line archive for the Harvard Crimson, I came across the following two stories about a public discussion of Hayek’s Road to Serfdom that involved both Usher and Wassily Leontief.

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Newly-Formed Group To Hold First Meeting

Harvard Crimson, April 10, 1945

Following close on the heels of two seminars conducted here this past weekend by Friedrich A. Hayek, author of the currently-controversial book “The Road to Serfdom,” the newly-organized, non-partisan Harvard Political Science Forum is presenting in its first meeting a three-way discussion on the question “Is a planned economy the ‘Road to Serfdom’?”

Sharing the platform in the Lowell House Junior Common Room Thursday evening at 7:30 o’clock will be Pitirim A. Sorokin, professor of Sociology, Wassily W. Leontief, associate professor of Economics, and Abbott P. Usher, professor of Economics.

 

SOROKIN HITS HAYEK THESIS
Usher Deplores Trend to Planned Economy at Forum

Harvard Crimson, April 13, 1945

No political or economic machinations-not Yalta nor Dumbarton Oaks nor any other agreement-can give us lasting peace so long as the corpse of the capitalist economy continues to exist.” Thus declared Pitirim A. Sorokin, professor of Sociology, speaking last night together with Wassily W. Leontief, associate professor of Economics, and Abbott P. Usher ’04, professor of Economics, on the topic “Is the planned economy ‘the Road to Serfdom’?” at the first forum of the newly-organized Harvard Political Science Forum.

“I am not, however,” stressed Sorokin, “a partisan of totalitarian economy. I am merely ‘a conservative Christian anarchist’; I do not like any government.” With this declaration, Harvard’s stormy sociologist clarified his position in the controversy that, is currently raging over Friedrich A. Hayek’s new book “The Road to Serfdom.”

Usher Defends Hayek’s Ideas

Speaking first on the program, Professor Usher developed Hayek’s basic antithesis between that society which sets up a definite, unflexible end toward which it must constantly strive, and that society which recognizes a multiplicity of ends.

“This concept of ‘end result,'” said Usher, “Is in conflict with the concept of unplanned social evolution, which has characterized the growth of society.”

Professor Leontief, choosing the middle road between the two other speakers, took issue with Hayek’s thesis that society has, after several thousand years of growth, reached the peak of its development, beyond which we can progress no further. In seeking to forestall the inevitable evolution of the planned economy, Hayek is attempting, said-Leontief, to “prevent, as it were, the consummation of a solar eclipse.”

 

Image Source: Sorokin, Usher and Leontief from Harvard Album, 1946.

Categories
Economic History Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. European Economic History, Usher. 1921

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Abbott Payson Usher (1883-1965) first taught his nineteenth century European economic history course at Harvard in the fall semester of 1921-22 at the rank of Lecturer. Usher received his A.B., A.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1904, 1905, 1910, respectively. 

The syllabus for the course is provided in this post and all readings are linked to their respective texts!

Before returning to Harvard, Usher was professor of History of Commerce and Economic History of the College of Business Administration at Boston University for the 1920-21 academic year [possibly 1921-22 too?], coming from Cornell University where he taught as Instructor (1910-14) and then Assistant Professor of Economics (1914-1920).

Material from his Modern Economic History Seminar, 1937-41, was posted earlier.

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Course Announcement for 1921-22

2a 1hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century
Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Dr. Usher.

 

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1921-22, 3rd edition. p. 109.

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READING ASSIGNMENTS
Economics 2a
1921-22

I. The Industrial Revolution

Usher, Industrial History, Chapters 1, 10, 12, 13, 14

II. Agrarian Movement, Continent

Usher, Industrial History, pp. 112-20
Seeley, Life & Times of Stein, Rand [Benjamin Rand, Selections illustrating Economic History Since the Seven Years’ War. 5th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1911], pp. 86-98
Brentano, Agrarian Reform in Prussia – Econ. Jour. 1-20
Von Sybel, – in Rand, pp. 55-85

III. Agrarian Movement, England.

Usher, Industrial History, pp. 225-40
Curtler, Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 190-262

IV. Agricultural Depression

Prothero, R. E. (Baron Ernle) English Farming Past & Present, pp. 316-31, 346-418
Usher, Industrial History, pp. 240-47

V. Free Trade Movement, England

Armitage-Smith, Free Trade & Its Results, 39-60, 130-163
Morley, Life of Cobden, chs. XV & XVI

VI. Tariff History, Continent

Ashley, P. Modern Tariff History, (1910) 3-63, 359-372

VII. Recent Tariff History

U. S. Tariff Commission, Reciprocity & Commercial Treaties, 461-510

VIII. Commerce & Shipping

Bowley, England’s Foreign Trade in the 19th Century, ed. 1905 pp. 55-96
Grosvenor, Gov’t Aid to Merchant Shipping, 45-61, 75-86, 135-65

IX. Transportation – Private Ownership

Cunningham, W. J. Characteristics of British R. R., N. E. R. R. Club 8-60
Usher, Industrial History, chs. 17 and 18

X. Transportation – State Ownership

Raper, Railway Transportation, pp. 134-177, 278-305

XI. Industrial Development: England

Ashley, W. J. ed. British Industries, 2-38 (Jeans, British Iron and Steel/1902)
Clapham, J. H. Woolen & Worsted Industry, 1-24, 125-173

XII. Industrial Development: Continent

Copeland, Cotton Manufacturing Industry, 275-311

XIII. Industrial Combination

British Ministry of Reconstruction, Report on Trusts, 1919, pp. 15-30
Marshall, Industry & Trade, pp. 544-65, 577-98
Usher, Industrial History, ch. 19

XIV. Banking & Finance

Riesser, The German Great Banks, 703-750
Andréadès, History of the Bank of England, 331-69

XV. Labor Problems & Public Health

Usher, Industrial History, chs. 15, 16 & ch. 20 secs. 2 & 3

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1921-1922

Image Source: Harvard Album, 1923.

Categories
Courses Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. History of Economics Reading List. Schumpeter, 1949

Joseph Schumpeter offered his graduate course “History and Literature of Economics since 1776” nine times during the period 1940-1949. The core readings were basically unchanged. In an earlier post I provided the reading list and examinations from the 1939-40 academic year. This post provides the much stripped down reading list for the last time Schumpeter offered the course. The only addition to the reading list was George Stigler’s 1941 book,  Production and Distribution Theories.

Below you will find the course enrollment figures and the reading list for the Spring semester of 1949.

 

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Course Enrollment Statistics:

Graduates Seniors Juniors Radcliffe Other Total
1939-40 9 3 1 0 3 16
1940-41 11 2 0 3 1 17
1941-42 5 1 0 4 1 12
1942-43 10 3 0 6 3 22
1943-44 2 1 0 3 3 9
1944-45 Not offered
1945-46 18 2 5 25
1946-47 21 1 0 6 7 35
1947-48 17 4 0 2 7 30
1948-49 2 1 0 0 1 4

Note: course number was Economics 113b until the academic year 1947-48, then Economics 213b thereafter. Joseph Schumpeter died in January 1950.

 

Source: Harvard/Radcliffe Online Historical Reference Shelf. Harvard President’s Reports.

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Economics 213b
Spring 1949

Reading List

 

This course will cover the period between and including A. Smith and A. Marshall. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the Ricardian system of economic theory. The new edition of Gide and Rist, History of Economic Doctrines, Heath & Company, 1948, is recommended for survey purposes.

  1. Richard Cantillon, Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (1755), English translation by Higgs (1931).
  2. David Hume, Political Discourses (edition by Green and Grose, 1875), Vol. I. [Miller edition]
  3. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Cannan’s (Modern Library) edition.
  4. David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy. (Everyman’s Library).
  5. Thomas R. Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). [1803 edition, enlarged]
  6. William N. Senior [sic: should be “Senior, Nassau William”], Outline of the Science of Political Economy (1836).
  7. John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, also read introduction to Ashley’s edition.
  8. Karl Marx, first volume of Das Kapital (English translation, Modern Library).
  9. Augustin Cournot, Principles of the Theory of Wealth (Fisher’s edition, 1927).
  10. Knut Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy (Robbins’ edition, 1934) [Vol. I; Vol. II].
  11. Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, particularly Book V.

Further suggestions:

E. Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, Vol. I.
E. Cannan, Theories of Production and Distribution (1924). [2nd ed., 1903]
F. W. Taussig, Wages and Capital (1896).
G. Stigler, Production and Distribution Theories (1941).
J. Bonar, Malthus and his Work (1924). [1885 ed.]
M. Bowley, Nassau Senior and Classical Economics (1937).
J. R. Hicks,Leon Walras,” (Econometrica, 1934).
J. M. Keynes, Essays in Biography (mainly the essays on Malthus and Marshall).
J. Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade (1937).

 

Source: Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Harvard University Archives, HUC 8522.2.1. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1948-1949 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source:  Harvard Album, 1947.

 

Categories
Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Reading List for the Russian Economy. Gerschenkron, 1948.

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The economic historian Alexander Gerschenkron was an associate professor when he taught the graduate seminar on the Russian [sic, “Soviet” should have been in the title] Economy in the Fall semester of 1948-49 at Harvard. The reading list has two parts:  the first for the Soviet Economy, the second for socialist economics.

Leontief taught the course the previous year.

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Enrollment in Economics 212b

[Economics] 212b. (Seminar) The Russian Economy (F). Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Total 3:  3 Graduates

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1948-49, p. 77.

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READING LIST
Economics 212 B                 Fall term 1948/1949

Alexander Gerschenkron, Instructor

  1. Selected References on Soviet Economy

Arnold, A. Z.: Banks, Credit and Money in Soviet Russia. New York 1937.

Baykov, A. M. The Development of the Soviet Economic System. Cambridge (New York, Macmillan) 1946.

Baykov, A. M.: Soviet Foreign Trade. Princeton 1946.

Bergson, A.: The Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge 1944.

Bergson, A.: “The Fourth Five Year Plan.” Political Science Quarterly. June 1947.

Bienstock, G., S. M. Schwartz, and A. Yugow: Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture. New York 1944.

Brutzkus: Economic Planning in Soviet Russia. London 1935.

(Central Administration of Social and Economic Statistics): Socialist Construction in the USSR. Statistical Abstract. Moscow 1936.

(Central Administration of Social and Economic Statistics): Socialist Construction in the USSR (1933-38). Moscow 1939.

Chamberlin, W. H.: The Soviet Planned Economic Order. Boston, 1931.

Clark, C.: A Critique of Russian Statistics. London 1939.

Condoide, M. V.: Russian-American Trade. Columbus, Ohio, 1946.

Cressey, C. G.: The Basis of Soviet Strength. New York 1945.

Dobb, M.: Soviet Economic Development since 1917. London 1948.

Dobb, M.: Soviet Economy and the War. New York 1943.

Dobb, M.: Soviet Planning and Labor in War and Peace. New York 1943.

Freeman, J.: The Soviet Worker. New York 1932.

Gordon, Manya: Workers before and after Lenin. New York 1941.

From the First to the Second Five Year Plan. A Symposium. Moscow 1933.

Gerschenkron, A.: Economic Relations with the USSR. (The Committee on International Economic Policy in cooperation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.) New York 1945.

Gregory, J. S., and D. W. Shave: The USSR. New York 1944.

Grinko, G. F.: The Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union. A Political Interpretation. New York 1930.

Hoover, C. B.: The Economic Life of Soviet Russia. New York 1931.

Hubbard, L. E.: Soviet Trade and Distribution. London 1938.

Hubbard, L. E.: The Economics of Soviet Agriculture. London 1939.

Hubbard, L. E.: Soviet Labor and Industry. London 1942.

Lorimer, F.: The Population of the Soviet Union. Geneva 1946.

Mandel, W.: A guide to the Soviet Union. New York 1946.

Maynard, J.: The Russian Peasant. London 1942.

Miller, M. S.: The Economic Development of Russia (1905-14). London 1926.

The Land of Socialism To-day and To-morrow. Reports and Speeches at the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. (Moscow, 1939)

Nodel, W.: Supply and Trade in the USSR. London 1934.

Notestein, F. W., and others: The Future Population of Europe and the Soviet Union. League of Nations. Geneva, 1944.

Ossinsky, V., and others: Socialist Planned Economy in the Soviet Union. New York 1932.

Prokopovicz, S. N.: Quarterly Bulletin of Soviet Russian Economics. (All volumes).

Reddaway, W. B.: The Russian Financial System. London 1935.

Schwartz, H.: Russia’s Postwar Economy. Syracuse 1947.

Stalin, I. V.: Problems of Leninism. Moscow 1940 or New York 1942.

(State Planning Commission of the U.S.S.R.): The Soviet Union Looks Ahead. The Five Year Plan for Economic Construction. New York 1929.

(State Planning Commission of the U.S.S.R.): Summary of the Fulfillment of the First Five Year Plan. Report of the State Planning Commission. Moscow 1933.

(State Planning Commission of the U.S.S.R.): The Second Five Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the U.S.S.R. (1933-37). Moscow 1936.

Turin, S. P.: The U.S.S.R. An Economic and Social Survey. London 1944.

Timoshenko, V. P.: Agricultural Russia and the Wheat Problem. Stanford 1932.

Varga, E.: Two Systems: Socialist Economy and Capitalist Economy. New York 1939.

Voznessensky, N.: The Growing Prosperity of the Soviet Union. (Pamphlet). New York 1941.

Yugow, A.: Russia’s Economic Front for War and Peace. New York 1942.

 

  1. Selected References on Socialist Economics

Bergson, A., The Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge 1944, Ch. II

Bergson, A. “Socialist Economics” in: H.S. Ellis, ed. A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia, 1948.

Bober, M.M., “Marx and Economic Calculation”, American Economic Review, June 1946.

Bergson, A. “Russian Defense Expenditures”, Foreign Affairs, January, 1948.

Baran, P.A.: Currency Reform in the U.S.S.R. Harvard Business Review, March 1948.

Bettelheim, Charles: La planification Soviétique. (Paris 1945)

Bogolepov, M.I.: The Soviet Financial System. (pamphlet) London 1945.

Birmingham Bureau of Research on Russian Economic Conditions.

Memorandum No. 4, February 1932. (“The Balance of Payments and the Foreign Debt of the U.S.S.R.”)
Memorandum No. 7, (“Foreign Trade, Monetary Conditions, Indices of Wholesale Prices, State Budget”)

Dickinson, H.D., Economics of Socialism, Oxford 1939.

Dobb, M.H., “Economic Theory and the Problem of a Socialist Economy”, Economic Journal, December 1933.

Dobb, M.H., Political Economy and Capitalism, London 1937, Ch. VIII.

Dobb, M. H., Soviet Economic Development since 1917. (Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd) London, 1948.

Durbin, E.F.M., “Economic Calculus in a Planned Economy”, Economic Journal, December 1936.

Haensel, Paul, “The Public Finance of the U.S.S.R.” The Tax Magazine, September, October, November, December, 1938. Reprinted and published as a pamphlet, Evanston, Illinois, 1938.

Hayek, F.A., ed., Collectivist Economic Planning. London, 1935.

Hayek, F.A., “Socialist Calculation: The Competitive Solution”, Economica, May 1940.

Hayek, F.A., “The Use of Knowledge in Society”, American Economic Review, September 1945.

Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Money and Finance.

Journal of Farm Economics, May 1948. (N. Jasny, “The Plight of the Collective Farms”)

Journal of Farm Economics (May 1945) (N. Jasny, “Labor Productivity in Agriculture in USSR and USA”)

Journal of Political Economy, August, 1947. (N. Jasny, “Intricacies of Russian National Income Indexes”)

Journal of Economic History, 1947, Supplement. (A. Gerschenkron, “The Rate of industrial Growth in Russia since 1885)

Lange, O., On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minneapolis, 1938.

Lange, O., Working Principles of the Soviet Economy. (Pamphlet, Reprinted from USSR Economy and the War, Speeches delivered at the First Public Conference of the Russian Economic Institute, New York, 1942)

Lenin, V.I., State and Revolution.

Lerner, A.P., “Economic Theory and Socialist Economy”, Review of Economic Studies, October 1934.

Lerner, A.P., “Statics and Dynamics in Socialist Economics”, Economic Journal, June 1937.

Lerner, A.P., The Economics of Control, New York, 1946.

Marx, Karl, Critique of the Gotha Programme (International Publishers Edition, New York 1938.)

Mossé, Robert, L’Économie Collectiviste. (Paris 1939)

National Bureau of Economic Research, Cost Behavior and Price Determination. (Appendix B by P. Baran “Cost Accounting and Price Determination”)

National Bureau of Economic Research. Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth (New York, 1946).
(Studenski, Paul, “Methods of Estimating National Income in Soviet Russia”)

Pasvolsky, L. and H.G. Moulton, Russian Debts and Russian Reconstruction. (New York, 1924)

Pigou, A.C., Socialism vs. Capitalism. London, 1937.

Political Economy in the Soviet Union (Pamphlet), International Publishers, New York 1944; or “Teaching of Economics in the Soviet Union”, American Economic Review. September 1944 (These are both translations of the same article from the Soviet journal Pod Znamenem Marxizma). See also the comments on this article by R. Dunayevskaya, P. Baran, O. Lange, C. Landauer in American Economic Review, June 1944, September 1944, December 1944, March 1945, September 1945.

Review of Economic Statistics, November 1947. (Appraisals of Russian Economic Statistics)

Schumpeter, J.A. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, New York 1947.

Sokol’nikov, G.Y. and Associates, Soviet Policy in Public Finance, 1917-1928. (Stanford, 1931)

School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London,

Monograph No. 3, November 1934, “Money and Prices and Gold in the Soviet Union.”
Monograph Nos. 4-5, February 1935. “Banking and Credit in the Soviet Union”.

Schwartz, H. “On the Use of Soviet Statistics” Journal of the American Statistical Association. September, 1947.

Schwartz, H. “Prices in the Soviet Economy”. American Economic Review, December, 1946.

Social Research, December 1946. (Wyler, Julius, “The National Income of Soviet Russia”)

S.N. Prokopovicz, Der Vierte Fünfjahrplan der Sowjetunion 1945-1950. Zurich – Vienna, 1948.

S.N. Prokopovicz, Russlands Volkswirtschaft unter den Sowjets. (Zurich – New York, 1944)

Sweezy, A. R., “The Economist’s Place under Socialism”, in Explorations in Economics: Essays in Honor of F.W. Taussig, New York 1936.

Sweezy, P.M., The Theory of Capitalist Development. New York, 1942.

Trotsky, The Permanent Revolution, New York 1931.

Voznesenski, N.A., Soviet War Economy. Public Affairs Press, (Washington, D.C., 1948)

The American Slavic and East-European Review – April 1948. (A. Gerschenkron, A Note on Russian Industry in 1947)

American Economic Review, March, 1946. (Sumberg, T.A., “The Soviet Union War Budgets”.)

Gerschenkron, A. Rate of industrial growth in Russia.

Gerschenkron, A. Note on Russian industry in 1947.

La Conjoncture, June 15, 1948.

Chossudowsky, E.M. De-rationing in the U.S.S.R. (Rev. of Econ. Studies, Nov. 1941)

Chossudowsky, E.M. Rationing in the U.S.S.R. (Review of Economic Studies, June 1941.

Voznesenski Report on the 4th five year plan. Information bulletin of the U.S.S.R. March 15, 1946.

Moscow news. March 23, 1947 and March 27, 1947.

Dictionary of socio-economi statistics, 1944 (P.D. Prof. Gerschenkron).

Source: Harvard University Archives (HUC 8522.2.1) Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1948-49 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source:  Harvard Album, 1952.

Categories
Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Economic Seminary 1903-04

 

The economic seminary schedule for the following years have also been posted:

1903-1904
1904-1905

1922-1923
1923-1924
1924-1925
1925-1926
1926-1927

_________________

THE ECONOMIC SEMINARY, 1903-1904.

Edited by Associate Professor J. H. Hollander.

During the current academic year, the Economic Seminary has continued its investigation into the history, activities and influence of labor organizations in the United States. Its membership has been more narrowly limited to advanced students preparing for a scientific career in economic study, and its primary design has been the development of sound method in economic research. The regular fortnightly evening sessions have been supplemented by briefer morning sessions in alternate weeks. The material resources necessary for the inquiry have been supplied by the continued generosity of the citizen of Baltimore, whose original gift made its inception possible.

“A Trial Bibliography of American Trade Union Publications,” in the preparation of which the Seminary has been engaged since October, 1902, has been completed and issued as a brochure of 110 pages under the editorship of Dr. Barnett, in the Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science (January-February, 1904). Appreciable progress has also been made by individual members of the Seminary in the study of specific aspects of the several questions assigned for investigation. Daring the summer, field work was carried on in various carefully selected localities, and the data thus collected have since been supplemented and corrected by documentary study and personal interview. It is hoped that during the next academic year, a cooperative volume of studies in American trade unionism can be issued by the Seminary, embodying the preliminary results of the various investigation now in progress and ultimately designed for monographic publication.

The record of the proceedings of the Seminary, and abstracts of certain of the papers there presented, are appended:

October 14. Reports of the summer’s field work, by Associate Prof. Hollander, Dr. Barnett, Messrs. Hilbert, Kirk, Motley, Ranft and Sakolski.
October 20. “Collections of American Trade Union Publications,” by Dr. George E. Barnett.
October 28. “Shop Rules of the International Typographical Union,” by Dr. George E. Barnett.
November 3. “Opportunities for Social Work in Baltimore,” by Dr. Walter S. Ufford, General Secretary of the Charity Organization Society of Baltimore.
November 11. “The Development of the Knights of Labor Movement,” by William Kirk.
November 17. “The Condition of Women and Children in the Factories of Baltimore,” by Charles F. Ranft.
November 23. “The Finances of Representative Trade Unions,” by A. M. Sakolski.
December 1. Plan of a monographic study of “The Printing Trade,” by Dr. George E. Barnett.
December 8. “Employers’ Associations in the United States,” by F. W. Hilbert.
December 15. Reports on local labor conditions, by Messrs. Blum, Hilbert and Motley.
January 6. (a) “The Apprentice in the Building Trades,” by J. M. Motley.

(b) “The Future of the Trusts,” by L. G. McPherson.

January 12. (a) Preface to “A Trial Bibliography of American Trade Union Publications,” by Dr. George E. Barnett. (b) The New Orleans meeting of the Economic Association, by Associate Professor Hollander.
January 20. “The Structure of the International Cigar Makers’ Union,” by T. W. Glocker.
January 26. “Evolution of Railroad Rates,” by L. G. McPherson.
February 3. “Shop Rules in the Building Trades,” by S. Blum.
February 17. (a) “Beneficiary Features of the Cigar Makers’ International Union,” by J. B. Kennedy.

(b) “High License in Baltimore,” by H. S. Hanna.

February 23. A review of recent French and German works on Sociology, by W. H. Buckler.
March 2. “The Beneficiary Departments of Transportation and Mining Corporations,” by L. G. McPherson.
March 8. “Oyster Legislation in Maryland,” by M. O. Shriver, Jr.
March 16. “The Theory of a Standard Rate of Wages,” by William H. Buckler.
March 22. “Labor Unionism and Industrial Efficiency,” by Mr. Henry White, General Secretary of the United Garment Workers of America.
March 28. “A Comparison of the Functions of the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor,” by William Kirk.
April 12. Plan of a monographic study of “The Structure of American Trade Unions,” by T. W. Glocker.
April 13. “The Cost of Strikes to Trade Unions,” by A. M. Sakolski.
April 19. Plan of a monographic study of “The Shop Regulations of American Trade Unions,” by S. Blum.
April 27. “Trade Agreements in the Iron Molders’ Union,” by F. W. Hilbert.
May 3. Plan of a monographic study of “The Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions,” by J. B. Kennedy.
May 11. “Trade Union Membership in the Building Trades,” by J. M. Motley.
May 17. Plan of a monographic study of “Trade Unionism and the Standard Wage,” by W. H. Buckler.
May 25. “Collective Bargaining in the Printing Trade,” by Dr. George E. Barnett.

 

Source: Johns Hopkins University Circular. New Series, 1904. No. 3. (May, 1904), pp. 1-3. Also available at the Internet Archive.

Image Source: Johns Hopkins University ca. 1903. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalogue.

Categories
Harvard Salaries

Harvard(?). Professor’s standard of living, 1905

In an old email (2003!) from my Berliner Humboldt Universität colleague/buddy Michael Burda, I found a gem he forwarded to me from Brad DeLong’s Semi-Daily Journal (July 6, 2003). I was unable to establish a link to the original page at DeLong’s current website. 

Today’s post is an article from 1905 that provides spending data based on family accounts kept by the wife of an anonymous professor over a nine year period. Let me provide my thoughts why I believe the professor in question was at Harvard University.

Note that the G.H.M. in the byline to the article appears to be reporting what he was told by an unnamed professor. From the Table of Contents for vol. 95 of The Atlantic Monthly, there is an article (The Ethics of Trust Competition) written by one Gilbert Holland Montague (note: G.H.M.), whom I conclude was the author of the article “What Should College Professors Be Paid?” posted below.

Montague received his BA (1901) and MA (1902) at Harvard where he also went to law school, graduating in 1904. He was an instructor in economics at Harvard while a law student. It would appear from the biographical sketch below that he probably was working at a New York law firm at the time the article was published.

I suppose it would be possible to identify the anonymous professor assuming he overlapped with Montague’s years at Harvard. It seems reasonable to begin a search in the Harvard Law School or the Harvard department of economics. From the article posted below we are told the accounts are based on household records for 9 years (perhaps: 1895-1904) covering two years at the rank of instructor, two years as assistant professor and the last five years at the rank of associate professor. The nine year of accounts begins with the marriage of the couple that had its first child (or servant) after two years. Maybe somebody will track down the Harvard professor, but for my purposes, I am satisfied with establishing a likely Harvard connection.

_____________________________

Gilbert Holland Montague, 1880-1961

Lawyer, pro-business economist, book collector; economics instructor of FDR.

Born Springfield, Mass., 1880; BA Harvard, 1901; MA 1902; instructor in economics at Harvard while attending Harvard Law school, Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of his students; graduated Harvard Law School, 1904; worked for New York legal firm; clerked for NY Supreme Court, 1908-1910; special deputy attorney general prosecuting election fraud; taught engineering contracts at Brooklyn Polytechnic, 1906-1917; leading practitioner of antitrust law (Sherman and Clayton acts ); employed representing nearly all the large oil companies; actively involved in pro-business “lobbying” and public policy; involved in numerous congressional investigations and committees; served as an advisor to the Treasury and Justice departments; on Attorney General’s Commission to Study Antitrust Laws, and authored most of its 405-page final report calling for reduced government restrictions on private enterprise, 1955.

He is particularly of note for his collection of over 15,000 books and 20,000 pamphlets. He collected manuscripts, including a 14th century copy of the Magna Carta. He was a relative of Emily Dickinson and kept a collection of over 900 of her items. He became somewhat of an expert on Emily, and donated his collection to Harvard in 1950, enabling a number of questions about her life to be answered.

A firm believer in free trade, he wrote diligently in defense of free markets and reduced government involvement in business. He wrote a number of books, including Business Competition and the Law (1917) and Rise and Progress of the Standard Oil Company (1903). He chaired numerous bar association panels, including the ABA’s Antitrust Division, the Committee on Monopolies and Restraints of Trade, and the Committee on the Federal Trade Commission.

Gilbert and his wife maintained a summer home in Seal Harbor, Me., which they called Beaulieu.

Source: Montague Millennium Homepage, page Gilbert Holland Montague, 1880-1961.

____________________________

WHAT SHOULD COLLEGE PROFESSORS BE PAID?

BY G. H. M.
[Gilbert Holland Montague(?)]

A GREAT deal has been written of late, especially in the annual reports of college presidents, regarding the inadequacy of the compensation received by university teachers. The writer, to whom the question is one of vital importance, has seen many of these general statements, but has failed to find any which has taken up the matter in conclusive form. This he hopes to do here concisely.

Primarily the question is one of standard of living. If a grocery clerk can maintain his family in a suitable degree of decency and comfort on seventy-five dollars a month, have we a right to expect that a college instructor can do the same? The answer to this involves the demands which society makes upon the respective individuals.

To get at this point the writer analyzed the itemized household accounts which his wife has kept for the past nine years, during which time he has been connected with one of our large and wealthy universities. Two years were spent as instructor, two as assistant professor, and the next five as associate professor.

Summing up his total expenditures for these nine years, and in like manner his salary for the same period, he finds his expenditures have been to his salary in the ratio of 2.1 to 1.

His average annual expenditure has been $2794.27.

His average salary has been $1328.15.

For the privilege of teaching he has paid the difference, or $1466.12 annually, from private means.

Even the unbusinesslike professor must pause before such a state of affairs, and try to fathom the reason for this discrepancy, when his firm belief is that he is living on as low a scale of economy as is possible for him in his position.

In order to find out where the bad management might be, — if bad management there was, — he divided his expenditure account into thirty-one separate items, arranged in tabular form under the following heads: —

  1. Household Furnishing and Repairs.
  2. Groceries, Meat, Fruit, Vegetables, etc.
  3. Servants.
  4. Fuel.
  5. Light and Water.
  6. Gardener and Grounds.
  7. Laundry.
  8. Taxes.
  9. Life Insurance.
  10. Fire Insurance.
  11. Rent, or Interest on House and Lot.
  12. Bicycles and repairs. Horse, care and feed.
  13. Doctors and Dentists.
  14. Hospitals, Nurses, Drugs.
  15. Death Expenses.
  16. Legal Services.
  17. Interest on Borrowed Money, for running expenses.
  18. P. O. Box, Postage, Stationery, Telegrams, Telephone, Express, etc.
  19. Newspapers, Books, and Periodicals.
  20. Clothing, Dry Goods, Shoes, etc.
  21. Learned Societies and Social Clubs.
  22. University Gifts and Supplies. Typewriting, Printing and Mimeographing.
  23. Children’s Tuition and Pocket Money.
  24. Subscriptions and Charity.
  25. Theatre, Concerts, Athletic Sports.
  26. Christmas and other Gifts. Entertainment of Friends.
  27. Wine, Beer, Tobacco, Candy, and other Luxuries.
  28. Personal and Toilet Supplies.
  29. Business and Recreation Trips, Hotels, R.R. Fare, Carfare, etc.
  30. Family Obligations, or Payment of Education Debt.
  31. Savings, other than Life Insurance, looking toward old age.

He believes that, assuming that a college professor has the right to marry and have two or three children, there is not a single one of these items which may be omitted from a consideration of expenses to cover a period of years. The whole question, then, resolves itself into this: how much per year is it reasonable to allow for each of these items?

In the community in which he lives, with a family of two adults, two children, and one servant, at the present high prices of the necessities of life, he believes that the sums he mentions are the very least upon which his household can be conducted. And he bases this belief upon a most accurate analysis of fully itemized accounts.

Taking up the items in detail: —

  1. Household furnishing and repairs.

This item must cover, for a period of years. the original cost of household furniture of all descriptions. In addition, it must look after natural wear, tear, and breakage of furniture, glass, dishes, kitchen utensils, rugs, curtains, bedding, etc., as well as carpentry, plumbing, and the like. It must also provide for pictures, “works of art,” and household adornments in general.

Does $75 a year seem excessive for this? Say $6 a month.

  1. For five persons a grocery bill of $25 per month, a meat bill of $15, milk, $5, fruit, vegetables, butter and eggs, $10, or a total of $55 ($11 per person), should not seem unreasonable.
  2. We must pay $25 a month for even a passable servant. Shall we expect our wives to bear and rear children, do all of the housework, sustain their social duties, and remain well and strong?
  3. Kitchen, fireplace, and furnace fuel will aggregate $120 per year, or $10 a month.
  4. Light and water average with us just $5 a month.
  5. The labor of a gardener one day a month is $2.
  6. Our laundry averages just $10 monthly. Our servants will do no laundry work.
  7. An investment of $5000 in house and lot, together with personal property and poll tax, makes this $10 a month.

If there were no house owned, the rent item (11) would have to be increased.

  1. To protect the family of a man who is not in a position to save, $5000 life insurance is not too much. The monthly premium on this amount, assuming a twenty-payment ordinary life policy, will be $10.
  2. $3000 insurance on house, and $2000 on personal property, makes $18 per year, or $1.50 a month.
  3. Six per cent on $5000 invested in house and lot is $300 annually, or $25 a month. This does not provide for depreciation, maintenance, and repairs. No desirable house on the campus can be rented for less than $35.
  4. Not caring to pay so large a rent, we live off the campus and use bicycles. Their depreciation and repairs average $2 a month. Keeping a horse would cost $8 a month.
  5. An experience of ten years shows us that not less than $10 a month may be set down for doctors and dentists for the family. A single attack of appendicitis in ten years will take the whole of this.
  6. Hospitals, nurses, and drugs average $5 a month.
  7. Since the average duration of life is about forty years, in a family of four individuals one death is to be expected every ten years. This item may be set down at $2 a month.
  8. Occasional notary and minor legal services average $1 a month.
  9. Certain expenses, like life insurance and taxes, being payable in large amounts, necessitate loans from the bank, which are gradually repaid. This item may be set down at fifty cents monthly.
  10. For a live family with connections, postage, stationery, telegrams, telephones, express, freight, cartage, and allied items, will aggregate $3 a month.
  11. Newspapers, books, and periodicals college professor is supposed to revel in this sort of thing. Suppose we allow him $5 a month.
  12. To clothe four individuals neatly and completely cannot cost less than $180 a year, can it?

This is $15 a month.

  1. Learned society and social club initiation fees and dues must amount to at least $2 monthly.
  2. University gifts and supplies, type-writing, etc. We are constantly going into our pockets for small items which the university will not or cannot furnish without unbearable delay; or we may be working on lines of investigation which call for outlay. Say $1 a month.
  3. In our case, our children are of the kindergarten and primary school age, so this item is only $9 a month.

Older colleagues, whose children have advanced to the music lesson and preparatory school age, say they must allow $50 to $60 monthly.

  1. Some families belong to a church. We all have charitable instincts, we are of that class to which the call of needy or suffering humanity appeals.

May we allow $2 a month?

  1. Our education has given us a refined appreciation of the drama, and we have a knowledge of and love for the best music. The annual foot-ball game is a social event which every loyal member of the college community is supposed to attend. We cut this out long ago. Grand opera exists for us only in the memory of our German days.

Let us keep the spark alive by taking our wives once a month to a cheap concert; say $1.

  1. We have children and friends; there are birthdays and anniversaries, as well as Christmas. Is $50 a year too much? This is $4 a month. Dinners, receptions, and the like, are not for us.
  2. Occasionally a man is jaded; he has a wild desire to “blow himself.” May he have $1 a month pocket money, to share with his wife?
  3. Most of us can shave ourselves, but we cannot cut our own hair, although we may invert a bowl over the heads of our youngsters, and trim around the edges.

Here is another $1.

  1. When summer comes, a teacher is pretty nearly always exhausted. His work is trying and confining. His family requires an occasional change of air.

His professional needs may call for a long journey to attend an important meeting of fellow workers, etc. For an average geographical location $100 a year, or $8.50 a month, is not too much to cover these items. For an exceptional location, like the extreme Pacific coast, this item should be trebled.

  1. The writer has known many colleagues whose education expenses had put them under obligations which they were pledged to repay. In most cases it takes ten years to wipe out these obligations. Sometimes at the end of this period not even the beginning of discharging the debt has been made. Our college professors often come from families whose means are small. The support of aged parents or other relatives may have to be borne by them in common with their brothers and sisters. Every man is apt to have some such claim on himself or his wife.

To cover these items let us allow him $10 a month.

  1. A few, a very few, of our colleges pay pensions to their old and worn-out teachers. In such cases perhaps there is no need for a man to lay aside something for his old age, or to make provision for his children’s start in life.

Perhaps he owes a duty to his children, to give them as good an education and chance as he himself received. If so, he must begin to lay aside for it.

Where there is no pension, should he not aim, after thirty years of faithful service, to have $10,000 laid aside? He is not in a position to know of places where he can get large returns on his small investments.

Shall we allow him $250 a year to put aside (providing there are no “exceptional and unusual” expenses that year, as there always are)?

Let us say $20 per month.

SUMMARY

These are certainly not great demands. Yet, summing them up, taking the smaller of the two when two sums are mentioned, we have $262.50 monthly, or $31501 per year. Let us talk no more of bad management,—we and our wives face an impossible problem.

CONCLUSION

If this seems extravagant to those who have to determine upon the proper minimum compensation for a man of long training, education, and refinement, we must ask them to look over these items carefully, one by one, and put down what they think a fair sum for each item for a family of the college professor’s social status. Then let them foot up the total. The average college professor’s salary, in the United States, is about $2000.2 The inevitable deduction from the table of analyzed expenses, borne out by the experience of the writer and of all of his colleagues whom he has consulted, is that this must be increased sixty per cent, —the increase to be uniform in all grades, from instructor to head professor.

If the profession of teaching is to attract the highest type of efficient manhood, a living salary must be paid. A man who devotes his life to the cause of the advancement of education must feel a “call ” to it. He should be of a type which joyfully relinquishes all desire to accumulate worldly wealth or to live in luxury. Large salaries, commensurate with what equal ability would bring in other lines of work ($10,000 to $50,000), might be just, but would be undesirable, as they would tend to serve as bait to attract mercenary and lower types of men.

But a man fit to occupy a chair in a university should be paid enough to enable him to live in decency and comfort, rearing and educating his children, and retiring in his old age to something other than absolute penury.

The writer would commend a careful study of his table to all college trustees.

Can a man, whose energies are spent in so unequal and impossible a struggle to make both ends meet, maintain freshness and vigor in his work, be an inspiration to his students, and fulfill in scholarship the promise of his early years? The alternative demanded by the conditions is celibacy.

The difference between this sum and the writer’s average of $2,794.27 is accounted for by the fact that he has saved nothing, and that his accounts begin with his first year of married life, when both his wife and he were well supplied with clothing, books, pictures, and certain items of household furnishings. No children and no servant for the first two years. Owning our own home since the second year, we have not included anything for rent or interest.

This includes not merely full professors, but the other ranks as well.

Source:   The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 95, no. 5 (May, 1905), pp. 647-650.

Categories
Columbia Computing

Columbia. Statistical Lab Equipment for Economics Faculty Request, 1948

__________________________

One detects George Stigler’s style in the justification below for the purchase of two pieces of calculating equipment for the use of economics faculty at Columbia in 1948: “…the economist requires more than a library, a pen, a desk, and possibly a crystal-ball to prosecute his studies. He requires empirical material, lots of it, and this material is often numerical.” In the same budget request we also find a list (with current costs) of mundane faculty office furniture items, classroom accessories, and a dictionary for the department administrator.

Cf. An earlier posting for the purchase of a calculator by Henry Schultz at the University of Chicago in 1928.

__________________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
[New York 27, N.Y.]

FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

January 13, 1948

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, Acting President,
213 Low Memorial Library.

Dear Mr. President:

I beg to submit the requests of the Department of Economics for fixed equipment and physical changes for the fiscal year 1948-49. The greater part of the sum asked is for non-recurring items. The total request is for $1,465, divided as follows:

1) New furniture necessitated by recent alterations in Fayerweather and Hamilton Halls

$270.00

2) Ordinary needs for 1948-49

$195.00

3) Statistical equipment for Economics Faculty

$1000.00

            Item 1) represents furniture equipment urgently needed as a result of the alterations in the two halls. The details are given on the following page. A part of this equipment has already been asked for during the present fiscal year and all of it should, if possible, be provided at once and paid for on the present budget.

Item 2) is explained on the second page following.

Item 3) represents a request for technical equipment which would be of great service in the work of members of the Department. This request is explained and justified in detail in the appended statement prepared by a Departmental committee consisting of Professor Stigler, chairman, and Professors Haig and Harriss.

Respectfully yours,
[signed] Carter Goodrich

__________________________

1) [New furniture]

Item For Cost
Book shelves A. R. Burns $30.00
Clothing tree A. R. Burns $ 5.00
Club chair R. Nurkse $75.00
Legal size filing cabinet R. Nurkse $75.00
6 straight chairs H. Taylor $30.00
Swivel chair C. L. Harriss $15.00
4 coat racks H. Taylor $20.00
Small table O. Hoeffding $20.00
[Total] $270.00

2)        Ordinary needs for 1949-49

Item For Cost
Wall map of Europe R. Nurkse $   20.00
Grid-panel blackboard in classroom W. S. Vickrey $   20.00
Dictionary G. D. Stewart $     5.00
Other needs $150.00
[Total] $195.00

 

3) Proposal of a Statistical Laboratory for Faculty in Economics

$1,000.00

  1. The need

Contrary to a widely held opinion, the economist requires more than a library, a pen, a desk, and possibly a crystal-ball to prosecute his studies. He requires empirical material, lots of it, and this material is often numerical. Statistical analysis, broadly defined, is the social scientist’s laboratory, and in principle the social scientist must spend more time in his laboratory than the natural scientist in his because the social scientist’s findings become obsolete even in the absence of improved techniques and doctrines. The statistical method is important in all branches of economics; it is noteworthy that the present proposal is energetically supported by five teachers of economic theory.

Granting the necessity for quantitative work, and noting the frequency with which such work leads to fairly extensive computations, the faculty requires access to computational equipment (and, one is tempted to say, assistance). At present this access is small and fortuitous. The available computational equipment is being used extensively by students, and it is common to be unsuccessful for several days before obtaining use of a machine. Since the department of economics has no such equipment, a protracted use of the machines (that is, more than say 6 hours a week) is properly objected to by the administrator of the laboratory, but usually this is an unattainable limit.

  1. The detailed proposal

1.  Equipment. We propose to purchase two machines:

Underwood Sundstrand, tape adding machine, Model 1014p
Marchant Calculator, Model ACT – 10M

2. Cost. The purchase price of these machines would be:

Sundstrand: $330 less 10 percent plus 6 percent = $316.80
Marchant:     $750 less 15 percent plus 6 percent = $682.50,

a total of $999.30. The annual cost of servicing the machines would be (1) nothing the first year, (2) $18 for the Sundstrand and $36 for the Marchant thereafter. In addition there would be the cost of the tapes for the Sundstrand, electricity, and space.

These machines will last, at a very conservative minimum, 10 years. Hence, the pro-rate annual cost of the laboratory would be on the order of $170 (of which $100 is depreciation), or $10 per member of the department.

  1. Administration. The machines would be most generally useful if they were placed in some small room to which the faculty had access. A much less efficient alternative would be to keep them in the departmental office when not in use.

 

Source: Columbia University Archives, Central Files 1890- (UA#001). Box 406. Folder “1.1.313 (1/4);  Goodrich, Carter; 7/1946 – 6/1948”.

Image Source: Marchant Calculator, Model ACT-10M. Smithsonian. The National Museum of American History.

Categories
Chicago Fields

Chicago. Doctoral Examination Committees by Fields 1923-24

____________________________

Three memos that propose the faculty members in Political Economy (and Commerce and Administration) to prepare the written doctoral examination questions by fields, 1923-1924 along with a list of the names of the examinees by fields for the summer quarter of 1925.

____________________________

October 24, 1923

MEMORANDUM to the PERSONS mentioned below
SUBJECT:       Written Examinations for the Doctorate. Autumn Quarter, 1923.

  1. New questions will need to be prepared in the fields indicated below.
  2. It has been customary to have the questions cover a very broad territory and to give a considerable number of options. Each examination lasts for three and a half hours.
  3. Will Mr. Clark and Mr. Viner assume joint responsibility for the questions in “Economic Theory”.
  4. Will Mr. Wright and Mr. Clark assume joint responsibility for the questions in “Capitalistic Organization”.
  5. Will Mr. Barnes and Dr. Duddy assume joint responsibility for the question in “The Manager’ Relationship to the Market”.
  6. Will Mr. Wright prepare the questions in “The Historical Evolution of Industrial Society”.
  7. Will Mr. Millis and Mr. Douglas assume joint responsibility for the questions in “Labor”.
  8. Will Mr. Field and Mr. McKinsey assume joint responsibility for the questions in “Statistics and Accounting”.
  9. Will Mr. Viner assume responsibility for the questions in “Economics of Government Administration”, conferring with such other persons as seems to him appropriate.

W. H. Spencer, for Commerce and Administration
C. W. Wright, for Political Economy

WHS:EL

____________________________

 

January — 1924

Memorandum to the persons mentioned below
Subject:          Written Examination for the Doctorate. Winter Quarter, 1924.

 

  1. New questions will need to be prepared in the fields indicated below. Please remember that the examinations are in fields and not in courses.
  2. It has been customary to have the questions cover a very broad territory and to give a considerable number of options. Each examination lasts for three and a half hours.
  3. Will Mr. Clark prepare a paper on “Economic Theory”, consulting with Mr. Viner?
  4. Will Mr. Christ prepare a paper on “Social Direction and Control of Economic Activity”, conferring with Messrs. Wright, Spencer, and Clark?
  5. Will Mr. Marshall prepare a paper on “The Pecuniary and Financial System” and the “Manager’s Relationship to Finance”?
  6. Will Mr. Douglas assume the responsibility for the paper on “Capitalistic Organization”, consulting with Messrs. Marshall, Viner, and Wright?
  7. Will Mr. McKinsey and Mr. Field assume joint responsibility of preparing a paper in “Statistics and Accounting”?
  8. Will Mr. Millis, Chairman, and Mr. Douglas prepare a paper on “Labor and the Manager’s Relationship to Personnel”?
  9. Will Mr. Viner prepare a paper on “The Economics of Government Administration”, consulting, perhaps, with Messrs. Merriam and Millis?
  10. Will Mr. Wright prepare a paper on “Historical Evolution of Industrial Society”, conferring with such other persons as seems to him appropriate?

____________________________

 

WRITTEN EXAMINATION FOR THE DOCTORATE, SPRING QUARTER 1924

Memorandum to the persons mentioned below:

  1. New questions will need to be prepared in the fields indicated below. Please remember that the examinations are in fields and not in courses.
  2. It has been customary to have the questions cover a very broad territory and to give a considerable number of options. Each examination lasts for three and a half hours.
  3. Will Mr. Clark prepare a paper on “Economic Theory”, consulting with Mr. Viner?
  4. Will Mr. Christ prepare a paper on “Social Direction and Control of Economic Activity”, conferring with Messrs. Wright, Spencer, and Clark?
  5. Will Mr. Marshall prepare a paper on “The Pecuniary and Financial System” and the “Manager’s Relationship to Finance”?
  6. Will Mr. Viner prepare the paper on “Capitalistic Organization”, consulting with Messrs. Millis, Douglas, and Wright?
  7. Will Mr. McKinsey and Mr. Field assume joint responsibility of preparing a paper in “Statistics and Accounting”?
  8. Will Mr. Millis, Chairman, and Mr. Douglas prepare a paper on “Labor and the Manager’s Relationship to Personnel”?
  9. Will Mr. Viner prepare a paper on “The Economics of Government Administration”, consulting, perhaps, with Messrs. Merriam and Millis?
  10. Will Mr. Wright prepare a paper on “Historical Evolution of Industrial Society”, conferring with such other persons as seems to him appropriate?

THIS MATTER NEEDS TO BE RUSHED THIS CURRENT QUARTER; WE NEED TO HAVE ALL EXAMINATION PAPERS IN SOME CONSIDERABLE TIME AHEAD OF THE BEGINNING OF THE EXAMINATION PERIOD. SEVERAL COLLECTIONS OF PAPERS HAVE TO GO TO OUTSIDE PARTIES TO ADMINISTER THE EXAMINATIONS. WE OUGHT TO SEND THESE EXAMINATIONS IN ONE BUNCH.

LCM: EL

____________________________

 

SUMMER QUARTER, 1925

August 1.       Economic Theory

Mr. [S. E.] Beckett
Mr. [Clifford Austin] Curtis
Mr. [Harold Amos] Logan
Mr. [Royal Ewert] Montgomery
Mr. [H. V.] Olson
Mr. [Christian] Van Riper

August 8.       Govt. Finance

Mr. [Harold Amos] Logan
Miss [Mabel] Magee

August 8.       Social Direction and Control

Mr. [Christian] Van Riper

August 15.     Labor

Mr. [S. E.] Beckett
Mrs. [Helen] Homan
Miss [Leila] Houghteling
Mr. [Harold Amos] Logan
Mr. [H. V.] Olsen

August 22.     Economic History

Mr. [S. E.] Beckett
Mrs. [Helen] Hohman
Mr. [H. V.] Olsen

 

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics. Records, Box 26, Folder 9.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf4-01703, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.