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Columbia Exam Questions

Columbia. Exam questions for prospective PhD candidates, Jan 1949

 

An earlier post provides a transcription of questions from the corresponding May 7, 1949 exam given to prospective Ph.D. candidates in economics. That May exam was fished from the papers of Albert G. Hart and had only 29 questions. The January exam below comes from Martin Bronfenbrenner’s paper and consists of 46 questions. In both cases the examinees were to select five questions to answer. The large difference in the number of questions might be due to a missing page, but I suspect it has something to do with the number of prospective Ph.D. candidates taking the exam. 

_______________

EXAMINATION
for
PROSPECTIVE CANDIDATES FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D. IN ECONOMICS

(January 8, 1949, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.)

Questions on Specific Areas of Economic Study

Answer any FIVE but NOT MORE THAN FIVE questions.

  1. Write all answers legibly in ink or on a typewriter.
  2. Begin each question on a fresh sheet of paper. Write your name on all sheets used.
  3. Be as specific as the question permits.
  4. Be sure that your statements are relevant to the question.
  5. Allow yourself time to reread your answers before handing in the sheets.

__________________

  1. What characteristics of the U.S. population in 1935 and what major features of the original Social Security Act produced the controversy over full reserve vis-à-vis pay-as-you-go financing? What in your judgment is the strongest argument in support of each position?
  2. Analyze the relationship of the Keynesian aggregate consumption function to the consumption functions of individuals.
  3. “The legislation of 1933-1935 virtually put the Federal Reserve Board out of business as a policy agency.” Evaluate this assertion and state why you either accept or reject it.
  4. It is argued that any serious step to control the present inflation in this country would precipitate an even more costly depression. Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  5. Discuss the nature and causes of the “grain problem” that prevailed in the USSR on the eve of the First Five Year Plan.
  6. To what extent do prices in the USSR correspond to and to what extent deviate from “labor value”?
  7. Discuss the nature and merits of the so-called “value of the service” principle of utility and railroad rate making as distinct from the “cost of service” principle.
  8. Discuss the arguments for and against a public policy of subsidized rural electrification. Assume, for the purpose of the discussion, that without a subsidy only 60% of the farms of the country in question will be electrified.
  9. Write a commentary on the following statement appearing in a recent book on appraisal:
    “Modern writers in business finance have greatly clarified the problem of valuation by insisting that, with exceptions presently to be noted, the value of an enterprise is dependent entirely on prospective earnings.”
  10. Compare the factors influencing the relative quantities of different agricultural commodities produced in (a) Russia, (b) England, (c) New Zealand or Australia, and (d) any tropical area.
  11. Discuss, with examples, the influences affecting the speed and pattern of industrialization.
  12. Define marginal productivity and discuss the conditions necessary, if the factors of production are compensated on that basis, to the result that the sum of the shares should equal the total product.
  13. Define elasticity of demand, distinguishing price elasticity and income elasticity, and outline briefly the problems affecting the degree of success which is practicable in trying to measure such elasticities.
  14. Discuss the “just price” in relation to market price, in medieval economic thought.
  15. Write a critique of Veblen’s theory of business cycles.
  16. Trace the reasons for the balance of payment difficulties of Great Britain since 1945.
  17. Discuss Soviet legislation on collective farms (kolkhoz) enacted after the publication of the model statute of an agricultural artel in 1935.
  18. Imagine yourself a capitalist in about 1830 with money to invest in manufacture. What considerations would influence your decision whether to put your money into manufacturing in Great Britain or into manufacturing in the United States?
  19. “The businessmen alone could not overthrow them; nor could they flourish under them. Therefore the peasants had to be called in, as well as the labor groups. The movement was thus enlarged into one of the great revolutionary movements of history, uniting interests and schools of thought ranging from millionaires to Communists; but it went forward raggedly because businessmen, peasants, and labor did not want exactly the same things and did not want to move forward at the same speed.” This is from Owen Latimore’s discussion of the Chinese Revolution. What modifications would need to be made to turn the statement into a serviceable description of the American Revolution?
  20. Differentiate the various sacrifice theories of equity and point out their implications for progressive taxation.
  21. Some economists hold that “the business cycle” came to an end with 1914 and that subsequent economic fluctuations are of different character. Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  22. Do you believe that Federal Reserve policy in 1946-1948 was helped substantially in resisting inflation? Explain with reference to open-market operations, interest rates, reserve requirements, and handling of Treasury cash balances.
  23. Discuss the major changes that have occurred in the structure of prices in the United States since the outbreak of the First World War. Note important alternations in terms of exchange, and comment on the implications of these shifts. Appraise 1948 price and wage relations, with reference to earlier standards.
  24. To what extent is the theory of demand, as it applies to competitive conditions, open to testing? Discuss the chief attempts that have been made to establish demand functions empirically.
  25. What are the objectives of correlation analysis? What are the chief measurements needed to define the relationship between two variables? What is the relation between correlation and causation?
  26. Enumerate the main items, or groups of items, that make up a country’s balance of international payments. Then explain what is meant by “equilibrium” or “disequilibrium” in the balance of payments.
  27. Does the doctrine of comparative costs (in any of its various formulations) depend on the assumption of full employment? How, if at all, does unemployment affect the case for international specialization and exchange?
  28. Describe the uses of money in pre-literate society and the manner in which they may be found to be institutionalized separately.
  29. Discuss the view according to which capitalism developed in Western Europe in the course of a more comprehensive process involving the nationalization of the major fields of social activity.
  30. How would you explain the fact that short-term interest rates have been sometimes higher, sometimes lower, than long-term rates?
  31. How does the retention of income by corporations affect economic stability?
  32. Explain the factors responsible for the sharp rise in worker productivity in agriculture, 1940-1948.
  33. Discuss the problems which arise in attempting to apply the theory of the firm under conditions of pure competition to the actualities of, say, an Iowa corn-hog farm of 250 acres.
  34. State the points at issue in the treatment of the government sector in the national income accounts, and evaluate the alternative methods of computation.
  35. Give a critical appraisal of von Mering’s book on The Shifting and Incidence of Taxation.
  36. Why did industries such as steel and cement adopt the basing-point price system?
  37. What does it mean to say that utility is measurable or non-measurable? Is it measurable?
  38. Explain and comment on three of the following characterizations of money interest:
    1. Interest equals the marginal rate of time preference.
    2. Interest reflects a discount of future satisfactions.
    3. Interest reflects the marginal productivity of capital.
    4. Loss of interest is the price of liquidity.
    5. Interest reflects the rate at which aggregate capital grows.
    6. Interest is the appropriation by the banks of the profits inherent in the power to coin money.
    7. Interest on money loans is a sinful exploitation of the needs of the distressed.
  39. The assumption, frequently made in partial analysis, that the marginal utility of money is a constant
    1. implies
    2. is compatible with
    3. is inconsistent with
    4. is synonymous with

the further condition that one or more of the goods being considered is an inferior good. Explain your answer.

  1. Under static conditions, one is more likely to encounter “perversely” sloping supply curves than “perversely” sloping demand curves. Why?
  2. Explain the materials and methods available historically for comparing unemployment in the United States and England.
  3. Discuss the pros and cons of industry-wide bargaining.
  4. What specific problems of federal and state taxation are presented by insurance companies?
  5. Define income-elasticity, cross-elasticity, and “own-elasticity” (Marshallian concept) of demand. Explain their interrelations and place in economic theory. Show how each can be determined for a given consumer if we are informed about his indifference-surface.
  6. Discuss the contribution to knowledge of business cycles made by recent empirical studies.
  7. State the relation between marginal productivity and prices of productive services under perfect competition. Reformulate this statement to make it correct under assumptions (a) that the employer is a monopolist; (b) that he is a monopsonist (i.e., can influence his buying-prices by the scale of his purchases); (c) that he is both at once. Reformulate further to give a general statement applying to these cases as well as to that of perfect competition.

 

Source:  Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, Box 23, Folder “Exams: comprehensives 1949-73”.

Image Source:“Library Columbia University, New York City” The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 30, 2018.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exam questions for commercial crises. Persons, 1925

 

 

Warren Milton Persons (1878-1937) received his S.B. from the University of Wisconsin and Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin in 1916. His major professor was Richard T. Ely and his thesis had the title: “The Variability in the Distribution of Wealth and Income”. An obituary was written for the Journal of the American Statistical Association (Vol. 34, No. 206: June, 1939, pp. 411-415) by William Truant Foster.

Earlier posts in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror for the Harvard course Economics 37:

Reading list for Commercial Crises taught by Persons 1923,
Examination questions for Commercial Crises taught by Persons 1924.

______________

Course Description

[Economics] 37 1hf. Commercial Crises. Half-course(first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9, or by arrangement.Professor Persons.

The history, literature, and theories of economic prosperity, crises, and depression, with special reference to the problem of forecasting.
An analysis from the point of view of business cycles of the statistics of speculation, prices, production, trade, interest rates, money and banking.

 Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1924-25, Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXI, No. 22 (April 30, 1925), p. 74.

______________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 37 1hf. Professor Persons.—Commercial Crises.

Total 16: 9 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 3 Radcliffe, 2 Others.

Source:Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1924-1925, p. 76.

______________

1924-25
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 371

  1. ….a.   List, in order of severity of disturbance, the years of crisis, or beginning of marked business recession in the United States since 1837.
    1. Discuss your criteria for “severity of disturbance” and designate the years of crisis.
  2. Outline and discuss briefly the method of construction of the Harvard Index of General Business Conditions.
  3. What positions or movements of the constituent curves of the Index forecast business (a) revival from depression, (b) prosperity, (c) crisis, and (d) recession or depression? Discuss.
  4. Discuss with reference to business cycles:
    ….a.   Commodity prices and their interrelations.

    1. The volume of production of manufactures and mining.
    2. The volume of production of agriculture.
    3. Short-time interest rates.

In your discussion describe the general nature of the data available and indicate their significance.

  1. ….a.  Classify according to any scheme you please the theories of Veblen, Hobson, Aftalion, Bouniatian, Hawtrey, Robertson, Mitchell, Moore, and others.
    1. Discuss your classification.
    2. Outline, compare, and criticize the theories of any two of the writers.

Final. 1925.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, Finals, 1925. (HUC 7000.28, vol. 67). Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History of Science, History, …, Economics, …, Anthropology, Military Science.

Image Source:  ProfessorWarren M. Persons in Harvard Class Album 1920.

Categories
Bibliography Johns Hopkins Pedagogy

Johns Hopkins. Richard T. Ely on Teaching Political Economy, 1885

 

A few posts ago we saw what J. Laurence Laughlin thought about how economics should be taught. This post follows with a chapter contributed by Richard T. Ely that was written somewhat earlier and essentially on the same topic. Laughlin quoted Ely in his book chapter. The mystery “proudest institution in the United States” mentioned by Ely in his first paragraph that used Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners could very well have been Harvard. The Harvard Catalogue from 1874-75 indicates that Professor Charles Franklin Dunbar indeed used that textbook.

_____________

On Methods of Teaching Political Economy.
By Richard T. Ely,
Johns Hopkins University.

[61]

IT is easy to compress into the compass of a single sentence all the information needed to qualify any man of fair native ability and liberal education to teach political economy as it was taught eight years ago in one of the proudest institutions in the United States. The information in question is this: Buy Mrs. Fawcett’s “Political Economy for Beginners” [5th edition]; see that your pupils do the same; then assign them once a week a chapter to be learned; finally, question them each week on the chapter assigned the week before, using the questions found at the end of the chapter, and not omitting the puzzles which follow the more formal questions; as it is a test of the academical learning and grasp of economic science of a senior to have a puzzling problem like this hurled at him: “Is the air in a diving-bell wealth; and, if so, why?”

Let no one suppose this description satirical or exaggerated. It is the literal truth; and the hour a week for a part of a year of such instruction was absolutely all the teaching of political economy done in any department of the rich and powerful college. It is scarcely necessary to describe the state in which the students’ minds were left. They learned by heart a few truisms, as, e.g., that it is a [62] good thing to be honest, diligent, and frugal; that products are divided between capitalists, laborers, and landlords; and that values being defined as certain relations of things to one another, there cannot be a general rise or a general fall in values; and they acquired an imperfect comprehension of certain great fundamental facts, like the Ricardian theory of rent and the Malthusian doctrine of population. This, with not a very high opinion of political economy, was the sum-total of results for the student, and prepared him for the degree of A.B. first, and afterward for that of A.M. In our national banks we have a wonderful and unique economic institution, but they were not once mentioned, nor was a single allusion made to the financial history of this great country. And yet this instruction was to fit the elite of the youth of the land for the duties of citizenship

This is a true picture of one way to teach political economy, and it is a method of instruction for which a high salary was paid. Is it a state of things entirely exceptional? It is to be feared not. A preface to Amasa Walker’s “Science of Wealth,” edited 1872, contains these words, which seem to have met with very general approbation: “Although desirable that the instructor should be familiar with the subject himself, it is by no means indispensable. With a well-arranged text-book in the hands of both teacher and pupil, with suitable effort on the part of the former and attention on the part of the latter, the study may be profitably pursued. We have known many instances where this has been done in colleges and other institutions highly to the satisfaction and advantage of all parties concerned.”

The writer holds that better things than this are possible, even in a high school; and it is certain that political economy ought to be taught in every school of advanced grade [63] in the land.The difficulties are by no means insuperable. It is, in fact, easy to interest young people in economic discussions which keep close to the concrete, and ascend only gradually from particulars to generals.

1In Belgium it has been proposed to introduce political economy even into the elementary schools; and in view of the immense importance of the economic problems which will one day be pressing for solution in the United States, it is to be hoped that such a proposal at some future time will not be Utopian in our country.

The writer has indeed found it possible to entertain a school-room full of boys, varying in age from five to sixteen, with a discourse on two definitions of capital, — one taken from a celebrated writer, and the other from an obscure pamphlet on socialism by a radical reformer. As the school was in the country, illustrations were taken from farm life, such as corn-planting and harvesting, and from the out-door sports of the boys, such as trapping for rabbits. Some common familiar fact was kept constantly in the foreground, and thus the attention of the youngest lad was held.

Perhaps money is as good a subject as any for an opening lecture to bright boys and girls, and the writer would recommend a course of procedure somewhat like this: Take into the class-room the different kinds of money in use in the United States, both paper and coin, and ask questions about them, and talk about them. Show the class a greenback and a national bank-note, and ask them to tell you the difference. After they have all failed, as they probably will, ask some one to read what is engraved on the notes, after which the difference may be further elucidated. Silver and gold certificates may be discussed, and the distinction made clear between the bullion and face value of the five-cent piece, etc. Other talks, interesting and familiar, about alloys, the extent to which pennies and small coins are legal tender, the character [64] of the trade-dollar, etc., etc., will occupy several hours, and delight the class.The origin of money is a topic which will instruct and entertain the scholars for an hour. Various kinds of money should be mentioned; and it is possible you may find examples of curious kinds of money in some hill town not very remote, e.g., eggs, and you are very likely to find several kinds of money in use among the boys and girls, e.g., pins. In one boarding-school, near Baltimore, bits of butter, served the boys at meals in quantities less than they desired, passed as money, and quite an extensive use of bills and orders, “negotiable instruments,” was established.After this, a work like Jevons’s “Money and the Mechanism of Exchange,”or at least parts of it, will interest the pupils.

2The teacher will find the necessary information in the Revised Statutes of the United States (Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.), which should be in the school library. It is contained in more convenient shape in the “Laws of the United States relating to Loans and the Currency”  and “Instructions and Regulations in Relation to the Transaction of Business at the Mints and Assay Offices of the United States.” These pamphlets, like most other government publications, can be obtained gratis of the congressman of the district in which the school is situated. They are kept on sale by various book-dealers in Washington.
3Cf. Mr. John Johnston’s instructive paper, ”Rudimentary Society among Boys,” published in the “Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Sciences,” second series, No. XI, edited by Dr. Herbert B. Adams.
4This is published in paper covers in the Humboldt Library for forty cents, as well as in the ” International Scientific Series ” of D. Appleton & Co.

Banking, very properly comes under the head of political economy, performing as it does most important functions in industrial life; and the most prominent banking institutions in this country are the national banks, which have also played an important role in our history. There is likely to be one in every town where there is a high school, and it is well to continue the course of instruction with the village national [65] bank. Procure for this purpose “The National Bank Act,”5 and study it with your class in connection with reports and advertisements and circulars of the village bank. You will find a certain minimum number of directors prescribed by law: ascertain the number in the bank in question, and their functions. Some members of the class will be acquainted with them, and all the class will know of them, and this will give a personal interest to the study. Then compare the amount of capital required with the actual amount, and have the class ascertain from the law the amount of bank-notes which the bank could receive from the comptroller of the currency, and the actual circulation! After the various features of the bank have been examined, it is desirable that some bright boy should write a history of the bank, to read before the class, and afterwards, perhaps, to publish in the village paper. Files of the paper, to which the editor will doubtless give access, will contain all the published reports of the bank, as well as the proceedings and the village talk about the bank at its foundation. If officers of the bank are properly approached, they will assist with hints and information. In this way the pupils will acquire a new interest in banks; and when they pass by the national bank, it will never again seem quite the same lifeless institution. From the history of one national bank it is easy to pass over to the history of national banks in this country, and to a description of the State banking systems, which preceded the national banking system.Then the student may be glad to read what General Walker says on banks, in his “Political Economy,” [66] and in his “Money, Trade, and Industry,”and a work like Bagehot’s “Lombard Street”  will not be without attractions.8

5A government publication; also published by the Homans Publishing Company, 251 Broadway. Care should be taken to secure the latest edition, as there have been various changes in the banking laws.
6For this purpose the teacher should consult the reports of the comptroller of the currency, especially for the years 1875 and 1876.
7Published by Henry Holt & Co., New York.
8Published by the Scribners, New York.

Taxes can be studied in the town or village. The pupils can learn from their fathers what the taxes are, how they are assessed and collected, and what part of the revenues is used for village purposes, what part for schools, what part for the county, and what part for the State. In any village it cannot be difficult to induce one of the assessors to explain before the class in political economy the principles upon which he does his work. All the pupils can then write essays about taxation in the said place, and perhaps one of them will be able to write a financial history of the town. In this way the pupils will be prepared for the perusal of a work like the “Report on Local Taxation,” prepared by Messrs. Wells, Dodge, and Cuyler.It may be learned from the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury10 how the expenses of the federal government are defrayed. In this way a complete view of taxation in the United States is obtained,11 and in many respects a small town or village offers better facilities for such a course than a large city, where manners are less simple, and where city officials for well- known reasons often show a manifest unwillingness to impart information. This course will teach pupils to observe economic phenomena, will impart to them an interest in financial questions, and will prepare them in later years to deal with large problems. As Carl Ritter prepared himself for his [67] great geographical work by the study of the geography of Frankfort,12 so bright pupils, beginning with the study of local finance, will learn how to deal with even the difficult problems of war finance when they arise.

9Published by Harper & Brothers, New York.
10Government publications.
11The United States Census Reports contain valuable information, and every high school should be provided with copies.
12This illustration is taken from Dr. Adams’s paper, v. p. 161 of first edition.

The two great impelling causes of economic study have ever been financial difficulties of government and social problems, or discontent with the condition of social classes, coupled with a desire to improve this unsatisfactory condition, and it is with these two kinds of topics that political economy chiefly deals. In a manner similar in principle to that described, the administration of public charity and its relation to private charity may be studied in the town and county. If poorhouses, insane asylums, hospitals, etc., are in the vicinity, and can be visited, so much the better. The manner of caring for the criminal classes may be studied locally. Reports of State boards of charities will enable the pupils to connect local with State charities.13

13Teachers and pupils will find much useful information in the large work of Dr. Wines, entitled “The State of Prisons and of Child-Saving Institutions in the Civilized World,” Cambridge (Mass.), 1880.

Then there is the ordinary laborer. Let the pupils describe his manner of living, his wages, etc. If the school is a mixed one, some young girl of sufficient tact will be found to visit the ordinary laborers in their homes, to talk with them, and obtain their ideas. In some towns a real laboring population can scarcely be said to exist; but factory towns afford favorable opportunities for studies of this character. Many a Massachusetts factory town furnishes an excellent field for such study, and the reports of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics will be found helpful. [68] A book like “Work and Wages,” by Thorold Rogers,14will then be enjoyed by many of the class.15

14Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York.
15In his “French and German Socialism”   (Harper & Brothers), the writer has attempted to give a brief sketch of the more prominent Utopian theories in a manner adapted to school and college use. Albert Shaw has described admirably an American communistic society in his “Icaria: A Chapter in the History of Communism.” Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

After part or all of this ground has been gone over, it will then be time to take up the more systematic study of political economy. The work described might be gone over in exercises once a week, extending through one year, and the second year a systematic course might follow; and this is not too much time for so all-important a study in a high school. There are few good text-books of political economy, but for the English-speaking student the writer would recommend Francis A. Walker’s “Political Economy,” or Laveleye’s “Elements of Political Economy,” with additions by Taussig.16 Here is an admirable high-school course sketched out. All the works referred to ought to be accessible to the teacher, and should be mastered before he begins to teach.17 This may seem like requiring a great deal; but preparation is as necessary in a teacher of political economy as in a teacher of mathematics; and it is as absurd to venture to teach political economy, without a knowledge of the subject, as to teach trigonometry without a knowledge of trigonometry. It is because this has been attempted that such contempt has been thrown on the study of political economy, and that the science is in such a sad condition.

16If there is sufficient time, Walker’s larger work is preferable; if less time can be devoted to the study, Laveleye’s is better. The teacher should have both. Laveleye’s “Political Economy” is published by the Putnams, New York.
17Let one who proposes to teach political economy master, first of all, F. A. Walker’s “Political Economy.”

[69]

For a more advanced course, a preliminary training in logic is advisable, as the discussion of deductive and inductive methods, of conceptions and definitions, etc., will otherwise hardly be intelligible.18 Besides this, the training one obtains in the study of logic is excellent preparation for much of the work required in political economy. It teaches students to analyze conceptions, to combine elements, and to reason closely. The writer has often felt that a want of this training in his pupils was an obstacle in his way.

18The two little works by Thomas Fowler, “Deductive Logic”  and “Inductive Logic,” published in the Clarendon Press Series, Oxford, are recommended.

The more profound one’s knowledge of history the better for teacher in high school or college. This economic life, this working, buying, selling, this getting a living, is only one part of the historical life of a people; and the more that is known about the whole, the better will each part be understood. For the advanced investigation, a knowledge of foreign languages, especially of German, is indispensable. Roscher,19 Wagner,20 Knies,21 Schmoller,22 Schönberg,23 and Leroy-Beaulieu24 should be studied.

19System der Volkswirthschaft. [5 ed. (1864) Volume I; 3 ed. 1861, Volume II]
20Lehrbuch der politischen Oekonomie. [3d ed. (1893) Volume 1.1; 3d ed. (1894) Volume 2.1-33d ed. (1883) Volume 4.1; 2d ed. (1890) Volume 4.2; (1889) Volume 4.3; (1901) Volume 4.4]
21Die politische Oekonomie vom geschichtlichen Standpunkte”, and his “Geld und Credit.”
22Ueber einige Grundfragen des Rechts und der Volkswirthschaft.
23Handbuch der politischen Oekonomie. [3ed. (1890)]
24Traité de la science des finances. [5ed. (1891/2). Volume I; Volume II]

Colleges and universities ought also to provide periodicals like the “Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik,” “Jahrbuch fur Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirthschaft,” the “Tübinger Zeitschrift für die Gesammte Staatswissenchaft,” the “Journal des Économistes,” the English “Economist,” “Bradstreets,” and the “Banker’s Magazine.”

[70]

The teacher of college students, who ought always himself to be an original worker, should be perfectly independent. It is doubtless owing largely to a lack of independence on the part of the teacher that political economy has not made more progress in this country. Men are too often employed to teach free trade or to teach protection, — and as usually taught, it is difficult to tell which of the two is more unscientific, — or to teach Henry C. Carey’s system, or teach monometallism or bimetallism, whereas the teacher should be encouraged in the pursuit of truth, regardless of where it strikes.

Independence is nowhere more necessary than in the study of economies. A new theory of the iota subscript does not move the mass of men profoundly, but a new theory of taxation is bound to call forth from some one the cry “heresy.” In fact, as there are always large and powerful classes interested in the present condition of things, every change proposed, no matter what it is, is certain to meet with a storm of opposition. Ignorance, prejudice, and selfishness have always combined in their attacks on every political economist who has contributed to the advance of his science.

The political economist requires likewise, if he is to do his best work, a salary which shall enable him to mingle with the world, to become, to a certain extent, a man of the world, in order that he may the better understand the world with which he deals. He ought further to be able to travel and conduct investigations in industrial regions at home and abroad. So important is travel, indeed, that one great French school, that of Le Play, has made travel the chief method of investigation.25

25The following note on Le Play may be interesting in this connection: In 1820 Le Play began a series of journeys, which continued for over fifty years, and extended themselves into all parts of Europe, and even into the regions of Asiatic semi-civilization. These travels have borne plenteous fruits, of which the most prominent are the following: the publication of numerous works, the establishment of a method of study in social science, and the foundation of a school. Le Play’s method, which he calls ” La Méthode social,” centres in what maybe called the doctrine of travel. The quintessence of his theory is, that it is as essential for the economist to observe economic phenomena as for the mineralogist to observe minerals. The economist, however, not being able to gather together and arrange in a laboratory manufactories, laborers’ quarters in cities, agricultural villages, extensive mines, and the commercial phenomena of a great port, must travel to them, observe the manifestations of social and individual life which are there to be seen, and classify the results thus obtained in such manner that instructive and useful generalization may be drawn therefrom. The most important among the works of Le Play bears the title “les Ouvriers Européens,”[2d ed. (1879), Volume I; (1877), Volume II;  (1877), Volume III; (1877), Volume IV; (1878), Volume V; (1878), Volume VI] in which the author describes from actual observation the minutest details of separate laborers’ households in every part of Europe. The third service to science, which these journeys enabled Le Play to render, consists in the foundation of a school, called “L’École de la Paix Sociale,” which manifests its activity in various ways, of which the most striking is the publication of their semi-monthly organ, “La Réforme Sociale.”

[71]

The thoroughly equipped teacher of political economy ought, in addition to his qualifications in history and philosophy, including chiefly logic, to be a careful student of the principles of law. Evidence and practice, and the formal details of law, are not of great importance to him; but real- estate law, the law of contract and of banking, etc., are. The political economist lays the basis for legal study, he tells the reason why such and such legal institutions, e.g., private property in land, exist, and should exist; but he can manifestly lay a much better basis if he knows the superstructure which is to be erected thereon.26

26In many German universities every law-student is obliged to take a course in political economy. The study of political economy is likewise obligatory in French law-schools.

A legal friend, at the same time a political economist, recommends the following course in law for advanced students of political economy: “Blackstone’s Commentaries,”27  [72] which should be thoroughly digested; Parson on “Contracts“; Washburn on “Real Estate [4ed (1876, Volume I; 3ed (1868) Volume III],” Benjamin on “Sales of Personal Property,” and Bispham on “Equity.” I would add, at least, Morse on “Banks and Banking,” Cooley on “Taxation,” and Morawetz on “Corporations.”

27Chase’s edition is one volume.

Only one point more remains to be mentioned. The best original economic work is, for the most part, expensive. Laws, government reports, as blue-books and financial statements, and all sorts of original documents are required. Much economic work can be done only in connection with a learned institution or a government office, or by a very wealthy person. Any university which would have good work on the part of its teachers of political economy must not begrudge the expense of material as necessary to the economist as chemicals to the chemist. Of course, it cannot be expected that an American college will provide the political economist with a special library of seventy thousand volumes, like the Library of the Prussian Statistical Bureau; but it is doubtful whether a fair working university library of political economy can be produced for less than five thousand dollars.28

28It will readily be understood that a university library, designed to aid original research, is something quite different from a high-school library. One hundred dollars would purchase economic books which would answer fairly well the needs of a high school.

 

Source: Richard T. Ely, “On Methods of Teaching Political Economy,” in Vol. I. Methods of Teaching History (pp. 61-72) in the series Pedagogical Library, edited by G. Stanley Hall. Boston: D.C. Heath & Company, second edition, 1885.

Image Source: Universities and their sons; history, influence and characteristics of American universities, with biographical sketches and  of alumni and recipients of honorary degrees, Vol. IV (1900), p. 505.

Categories
Courses Curriculum Harvard

Harvard. Rich economics course descriptions, 1884-85

 

Harvard’s expansion of its course offerings in political economy starting in 1883-84 was a major milestone in university instruction in economics in the United States. A report from the Harvard Crimson and another from New York Post have been posted earlier in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. Following up the previous post that provided J. Laurence Laughlin’s thoughts from 1885 about how to best teach economics, thick descriptions of the Harvard courses in political economy listed for 1884-85 can be found below. The chapter from which the excerpts have been transcribed is in the same volume in which Richard Ely contributed a chapter, “On Methods of Teaching Political Economy” that was cited by Laughlin.  

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Excerpts from:

THE COURSES OF STUDY IN HISTORY, ROMAN LAW, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY, AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY.1
By Henry E. Scott, Harvard University.

A DESCRIPTION of the ground covered and of the methods used in the various courses in History and Political Science at Harvard must necessarily be preceded by a brief statement of the circumstances under which these studies are pursued there.

In the first place, all the courses offered in these branches — and in almost all other branches as well — are purely elective. The University requires each year a certain amount of work from every undergraduate who is a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts; but, with the exception of about two-fifths of the work of the Freshman year, and certain prescribed written exercises in English in the Sophomore, Junior and Senior years, the undergraduate has full liberty to select any course in any subject which his previous training qualifies him to pursue. The courses in History and in Political Science may therefore be elected by any undergraduate, by the Freshman as well as by the Senior; and they are also, it may be added, open to the students of the various professional schools embraced in the University, to resident graduates, and to special students whether graduates or not.

1In the preparation of the following article, the writer has been greatly assisted by the instructors in the several courses described, and their statements have been incorporated in the text with but little change.

[168]
In order to provide suitable recognition for those students who have confined their college work to one or two special fields, Honors of two grades — Honorsand Highest Honors — are awarded at graduation in almost all branches in which instruction is offered. The candidate for Honors in History or in Political Science must have taken in the department selected six full courses or their equivalent, i.e., he must have devoted to it about one-half of his last three years as an undergraduate, four full courses or their equivalent being the amount of elective work required each year of Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors; and he must have passed with great credit the regular examinations in those courses, and also, shortly before Commencement, a special examination covering all the six courses in question. Students who do not care to specialize to the extent necessary to obtain Honors can yet, by doing creditably about one-half as much work (i.e., by taking three full courses) in any one subject, receive at graduation Honorable Mention in that subject.

To pursue with advantage studies in History or in Political Science, the student must have easy access to books; and, in order to place within his reach the principal sources, authorities, and other helps necessary for the study of a given course, the system of “reserved books” was established some years ago in the Harvard College Library. The instructors in the various departments request the Library authorities to place upon the shelves of certain alcoves, assigned for this purpose in the reading-room of the Library, the books used by their classes for collateral reading and reference. The books thus reserved can be taken from the shelves by the students themselves without the formality of oral or written orders, and can be consulted in the Library during the day. At the close of library hours, they may, if properly charged, be taken out for the ensuing night only, [169] the borrowers promising to return them at 9 a.m. the next day. The right to use the reserved books is not limited to those students who take the particular course for which certain books have been reserved, but all persons entitled to the privileges of the Library are likewise entitled to use all the reserved books, the purpose of the system being not to withdraw the works from general use for the benefit of a narrow circle, but rather so to regulate their use that the greatest possible number of students may be able to consult them. Persons engaged in special investigations can, if necessary, obtain cards of admission to the shelves where the material they wish to use is stored; but, for the ordinary student, the reserved books, together with those ordered from the Library in the usual way, are sufficient.

The courses of instruction which are now to be described are classified — as are all courses offered in the College — as courses or half-courses, according to the amount of work required of the student and the number of exercises a week, a course having either three or two exercises a week, a half-course either two or one.Some of the courses are given every year, others every two years, others twice in three years. The more advanced courses can be taken only by special permission of the instructors, to obtain which students must give evidence of their ability to do the work expected of them. There are announced this year (1884-85) in the official pamphlet sixteen courses and two half-courses in History, one course and two half-courses in Roman Law, and four courses and four half-courses in Political Economy. There are actually given this year eleven courses and two half-courses in History, one course in Roman Law, and four courses and three half-courses in Political Economy,

1In the following description the half-courses are especially designated as such.

[170] the remaining courses being omitted in accordance with the arrangements mentioned above or for special reasons. The average number of hours of instruction per week devoted this year to History is thirty; to Roman Law, three; to Political Economy, fifteen.

[…]

THE COURSES IN POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Political Economy 1 (Mill’s “Principles of Political Economy “; Lectures on Banking and the Financial Legislation of the United States; three hours a week, Professor Dunbar and Assistant-Professor Laughlin) is designed (1) to provide for those students who intend to continue their economic studies for more than one year a suitable introduction to the elementary principles of the science, and their application to questions of practical interest; and (2) to furnish students whose time is chiefly devoted to other departments of study with that general knowledge of and training in Political Economy which all men of liberal education should desire. It has, therefore, its theoretical and its practical side. In the present year (1884-85) the new edition of Mill, prepared by Professor Laughlin, serves as a text-book for the main part of the course, and the remaining time is occupied by lectures on the elements of banking and the public finance of the United States (especially in the last quarter of a century). The instructor holds that for a course in the elements of Political Economy, where it is eminently desirable that the student should assimilate principles rather than memorize explanations of each subject, neither the recitation system nor the lecture system is best fitted, but that a judicious mixture of both is necessary; for the object of the instruction is in general not merely to give men facts, but to lead them to think. The text-book is supposed to furnish to the student a clear statement of the principles that are to be taken up at a given exercise. Then in the class-room the instructor, by questions, and by drawing the men into discussion and the free expression of difficulties, endeavors as much as possible to fix the knowledge of principles in the mind of the students, and to direct their attention to the workings of these principles in concrete cases. Graphic [186] representations of facts (such, for example, as are given by the charts in the text-book referred to) are often used to make the relation between theory and practice still clearer; and statements from the newspapers in regard to economic matters are sometimes read in the class-room, in order to test the student’s ability in applying abstract principles to the affairs of every-day life. To give the students practice in making accurate statements, questions are now and then written on the blackboard and answered in writing within fifteen minutes, and at the next hour these answers are criticised and discussed.

In the lectures on the elements of banking and finance in the latter part of the year, the three functions of banking — deposit, issue, and discount — are illustrated by references to the system of National Banks, of the old United States Banks, and of the Bank of England; and the sub-treasury system, the national debt, the methods of raising revenue during the war, the issue of legal tender paper, the resumption of specie payments, etc., are some of the topics discussed, Professor Dunbar’s pamphlet entitled “Extracts from the Laws of the United States relating to Currency and Finance” serving as a basis for the lectures on finance.

 

Political Economy 2 (History of Economic Theory — Examination of Selections from Leading Writers, three hours a week, Professor Dunbar) was in former years conducted by taking up, in the earlier part of the year, Cairnes’s “Leading Principles,” and, in the later part, some book of which the discussion and criticism would bring out more clearly the meaning of the generally accepted doctrines. Carey’s “Social Science,” [three volumes: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3] George’s “Progress and Poverty,” Shadwell’s ”Principles” — books which put the “orthodox” student in a defensive attitude — were used for this purpose. In addition, lectures were given on the history of political economy, and on examples of the working in practice of its principles, such as the working of the principles of international trade in the payment of the Franco-German indemnity in 1871-73, the commercial crisis of 1857, etc.

For the present year (1884-85) the course is remodelled. Nothing in the nature of a text-book is used. The subject is treated by topics. Such questions as the wages-fund controversy, the theory of international trade, the method of political economy, the theory of value, are to be taken up in succession. On each topic references to leading writers will be submitted to the students for examination and discussion. On the wages-fund question, for example, Mill’s retractation in the “Fortnightly Review” of his original views, Cairnes’s restatement of the theory, F. A. Walker’s position as found in his “Wages Question” and his “Political Economy,” George’s criticism of current views in “Progress and Poverty” will be read and discussed. The history of political economy is to be taken up in a similar way, by reference to characteristic extracts from the writings of the Physiocrats, Adam Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, Senior, Say, Bastiat, and their successors and critics in England and on the Continent. These extracts, read beforehand by the students and discussed in the class-room, will be supplemented by the comments and explanations of the instructor. By this method it is hoped that some familiarity with the literature of the subject will be obtained, as well as a more exact comprehension of its doctrines than can come from an elementary study like that of Course 1.

 

In Political Economy 3 (Discussion of Practical Economic Questions — Lectures and Theses, three hours a week, Assistant-Professor Laughlin) it is expected that the student, who is supposed now to have grasped firmly the general principles of political economy by at least one year’s previous study, will apply these principles to the work of examining [188] some of the prominent questions of the day, such as the navigation laws and American shipping, bimetallism, reciprocity with Canada, government and national bank issues, etc. At the beginning of each topic a general outline of the subject and its principal divisions is given by the instructor, together with more or less particular references to the most important authorities; but a complete list of books is not always furnished, the student being rather encouraged to hunt for material himself. The exercise in the class-room takes the form rather of a discussion than a formal lecture, references to authorities being given previous to each meeting, as the following examples will show: —

Standards of Value, see Jevons, “Money and the Mechanism of Exchange,” chaps, iii, xxv; S. Dana Horton, “Gold and Silver,” chap.iv, p. 36; F. A. Walker, “Political Economy,” pp. 363-368, “Money, Trade, and Industry,” pp. 56-77; Wolowski, “L’Or et l’Argent,” pp. 7, 22, 207; Mill, “Principles of Political Economy,” book iii, chap, xv; Walras, “Journal des Économistes,” October, 1882, pp. 5-13.

The third hour of the week (and also the mid-year examination) can be omitted by men who promise to prepare one considerable thesis (due in April) on a subject connected with some practical question of the day which has not been discussed in the class-room. Examples of such subjects are: the warehousing system; a commercial treaty with Mexico; the public land system; the remedy for our surplus of revenue; municipal taxation; characteristics of socialism in the United States; co-operation in the United States (productive and distributive co-operation, industrial partnerships, and cooperative banks); advantages and disadvantages of small holdings.

 

Political Economy 4 (Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War, three hours a week, Professor Dunbar) serves to connect Political Economy with  [189] History. It requires no previous study of Political Economy, although some historical knowledge of the period is presupposed. Among the more prominent subjects taken up are: the rise of the modern manufacturing system, more particularly in cottons, woolens, iron; the steam engine; the economic effects of American Independence and of the French Revolution; the factory system; the migration of labor; improved transportation by railroads and steamships; the application of liberal ideas to international trade; the new gold of California and Australia; the economic effects of the Civil War in the United States; American grain in Europe; the Suez Canal; the crisis of 1873, and commercial crises in general; the development of banking; and the resumption of specie payments in the United States.

The course is chiefly narrative, and is carried on by lectures, supplemented by references for collateral reading. A printed list of topics is distributed to the students, containing a summary of the lectures and references to books reserved in the Library. An extract from this list will most clearly indicate its character and purpose. It gives the topics and references for the first lecture on the new gold supply: —

Lecture XLVII. — The discovery of gold in California: “Robinson’s California” (see Larkin’s and Mason‘s Reports, pp. 17, 33); also Exec. Doc. of U. S., 1848, i, 1. — The discovery in Australia: Westgarth, “Colony of Victoria,” 122,315. — Establishment of miners’ customs: Wood,”Sixteen Months in the Gold Diggings,” 125; Lalor’s “Cyclopaedia,” ii, 851. — Increased supply of precious metals in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries small in proportion to that in nineteenth century: Soetbeer, “Edelmetall-Production” (in Petermann’s “Mittheilungen”), Plate 3; “Walker on Money,” Part I, chaps, vii, viii. — The discoveries of 1848 and 1851 needed to give effect to influences already stimulating trade and commerce.

Similar topics and references are given for each of the eighty or ninety lectures.

 

[190] In Political Economy 5 (Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, and Germany—Lectures and Theses, one hour a week, counting as a half-course, Assistant-Professor Laughlin) a branch of the science that has been but slightly considered in Course 1 is taken up, and, as in the other practical courses, an attempt is made to apply principles to facts. The following extract from the official pamphlet, describing the courses of study in Political Economy, will indicate the ground covered: —

“This course covers the questions now of political importance in England, Ireland, France, and Germany in their economic aspects, and embraces the following subjects: — In England: the land laws; relative position of landlord, tenant, and laborer in the last one hundred years; tenant-right; leases; prices and importation of grain; repeal of the corn-laws; American competition; peasant proprietorship. In Ireland: the ancient tribal customs; English conquests; relations of landlord and tenant; security of tenure; Ulster tenant-right; absenteeism; parliamentary legislation; acts of 1869, 1870, 1881, 1882; population; prices of food and labor. In France: feudal burdens on land; relation of classes, and condition of peasantry and agriculture before the Revolution; small holdings and the law of equal division; present condition of peasantry and agriculture; growth of population; statistics of production, wages, prices; peasant proprietorship. In Germany: reforms of Stein and Hardenberg; condition of agriculture; peasant proprietors; statistics of wages and prices.”

A subject taken up (for example, English land tenures) is divided into topics, some of which are treated by the instructor by means of lectures, others are assigned to the individual members of the class, who are expected to present the results of their study in writing. These short theses are criticised and discussed by the instructor and the class, authorities that have been overlooked are pointed out, and suggestions are made as to the way in which the question can be better handled. Perhaps five or six of these papers [191] are required from each student during the year, the intention being that at least one shall be handed in each week. As the natural tendency of such work is to “compile,” much more consideration is given to the quality than to the quantity of the thesis.

 

In Political Economy 6 (History of Tariff Legislation in the United States, one hour a week, counting as a half- course, Dr. Taussig) the history of tariff legislation from 1789 to the present day is studied. The method of instruction is by lectures and collateral reading, specific references being given beforehand on the subjects to be taken up; for example, the references on the tariff act of 1789 are as follows: Hamilton’s “Life of Hamilton,” iv, 2-7; Adams, “Taxation in United States,” 1-30, especially 27-30; Sumner, “History of Protection,” 21-25; Young’s “Report on Tariff Legislation,” pp. iv-xvi. Similar references are given when the economic effects of the tariff, more particularly in recent years, are discussed. The class-room work is based on the assumption that the passages referred to have been read by the students, and, though mainly carried on by lectures, includes questioning and discussion on the references. The economic principles bearing on tariff legislation are taken up in connection with the more important public utterances on the subject, such as Hamilton’s “Report on Manufactures,” Gallatin’s “Memorial of 1832,” Walker’s “Treasury Report of 1845,” and the speeches of Webster, Clay, and others. These are read by the students, and discussed in the class; and at the same time with them are considered the views of writers on the theory of economic science. In the course of the year the various arguments pro and con in the protection controversy are, in one shape or another, encountered and discussed. Towards the close of the year lectures are given on the tariff history of England, France, and Germany.

 

[192] Political Economy 7 (Comparison of the Financial Systems of France, England, Germany, and the United States, one hour a week, counting as a half-course, Professor Dunbar) deals with the principles of finance, and with the financial systems of the more important civilized countries. The budgets of France, Germany, and England are examined and compared, the financial methods of the United States are noted, and the principles of finance and the advantages and disadvantages of different taxes are discussed. The instruction is mainly by lectures. The course is not given in the present year (1884-85), and may be omitted in future years, though it will be retained on the elective list.

 

In Political Economy 8 (History of Financial Legislation in the United States, one hour a week, counting as a half- course, Professor Dunbar) the funding of the Revolutionary debt, the establishment and working of the first Bank of the United States, the financial policy of Hamilton and Gallatin, the effect of the War of 1812 on the finances and the currency, the establishment of the second Bank of the United States, the fall of the bank in Jackson’s time, and the years 1836-40, the independent treasury, the State banking system, the growth of the public debt during the Civil War, and its reduction and conversion since, the establishment and working of the National Bank system, — are the topics successively considered. The method of instruction is by lectures and by reference to the public documents and other writings bearing on the subject. It is advised by the instructors that Courses 6 and 8 in Political Economy be taken together; and this advice has been followed, most students who take one of these courses being also members of the other.

 

Source:  Henry E. Scott, “The Courses of Study in History, Roman Law, and Political Economy at Harvard University”  Vol. I. Methods of Teaching History (pp. 167-170, 185-192) in the series Pedagogical Library, edited by G. Stanley Hall. Boston: D.C. Heath & Company, second edition, 1885.

Image Source:  Charles F. Dunbar (left) and Frank W. Taussig (right) from E. H. Jackson and R. W. Hunter, Portraits of the Harvard Faculty (1892); J. Laurence Laughlin (middle) from Marion Talbot. More Than Lore: Reminiscences of Marion Talbot, Dean of Women, The University of Chicago, 1892-1925. Chicago: University of Chicago (1936).

Categories
Economists Harvard Pedagogy

Harvard. Methods of teaching political economy. J. L. Laughlin, 1885

 

This morning while trawling the Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper, for announcements of speakers and topics in Harvard’s Economics Seminary of over a century ago, I came across an 1885 review of a book published by the Harvard assistant professor, J. Laurence Laughlin, who was to later teach at Cornell and ultimately become the founding head of the department of political economy at the University of Chicago. Chasing down that book I found a chapter in which Laughlin discussed general pedagogical issues that come up when trying to inflict basic economic principles on the young. It is an interesting set of reflections with much insight. Given Laughlin’s role in building up the Chicago economics department (cf. the first 25 years of Laughlin’s department), I believe visitors to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror will be interested in hearing Laughlin’s practical advice of how to teach economics.

In an earlier posting we have Laughlin’s recommended library for instructors of economics from 1887 with nearly all items conveniently linked. You’re welcome!

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METHODS OF TEACHING POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Chapter Five of
The Study of Political Economy: Hints to Students and Teachers
by J. Laurence Laughlin, 1885

A NATION is sometimes so bitterly taught by sad experience in financial errors—as was the case with France in John Law’s time, and again in the issue of paper assignats during the Revolution—that, on the principle of the “burned child,” it afterwards finds that it unconsciously keeps to the right and avoids the wrong path. So that to-day France is a country where correct conceptions of money are almost universal, and whose public monetary experiments are, as a rule, most admirably conducted. In somewhat the same way does the individual gain his proper knowledge of political economy. Principles must be seen working in a concrete form. The key to efficient teaching of it is to connect principles with actual facts; and this process can go on in the beginner’s mind only through experience. By experience, I mean [116] the personal (subjective) effort of each one to realize the working of the principle for himself in the facts of his own knowledge. The pupil must be put in the way of assimilating for himself the principles of his subject in such a manner that he feels their truth because they are apparent in explanation of concrete things all around him. That this is the aim to be always kept in view by the teacher and student has been made clear, it is to be hoped, by the previous analysis of the character and discipline of political economy in Chapters II and III. It is now my purpose to make some suggestions as to the practical methods of teaching by which this can be carried into effect.

1. The relative advantages of lectures and recitations for political economy have never, to my knowledge, been openly discussed. An experience with both methods of teaching leads me to think that the lecture system, pure and simple, is so ineffective that it ought to be set aside at once as entirely undesirable. The disciplinary power to be gained by the study is almost wholly lost to the student by this method of teaching. Nothing is so useful as a sharp [117] struggle, an effort, a keen discussion, or possibly a failure of comprehension at the time; for nothing will so awaken one to intellectual effort, and finally result in the safe lodgment of the principle within one’s mind as an obstruction and its removal. This is not gained by listening to lectures. No matter how clear the exposition of the principles may be, no matter how fresh and striking the illustrations, it still remains that the student is relieved by the instructor from carrying on the mental processes which he ought to conduct for himself. In fact, the clearer the exposition by the instructor, the less is left to the student—the lecturer, in fact, is the chief gainer by the system. Moreover, while listening to a connected and logical unfolding of the principles, the student is lulled into a false belief that, as he understands all that has been so clearly presented to him, he knows the subject quite well enough; and the result is to send out a number of conceited men who really can not carry on a rational economic discussion. They wholly miss the discipline which gives exactitude, mental breadth, keenness, and power to express [118] themselves plainly and to the point. Then, not being forced to think over a principle in its application to various phases of concrete phenomena, they know the truth only in connection with the illustrations given by the lecturer, while they utterly fail to assimilate the principles into their own thinking. The subject then becomes to them a matter of memory. They memorize the general statements without ever realizing their practical side, and that which is memorized for the day of examination is forgotten more speedily than it is learned, and the sum total of the discipline has been simply a stretching of the memory. In fact, with the average student, in almost any subject the lecture system leads to cramming. At the best, it affords a constant temptation to put off that kind of mental struggle which ought to be carried on by the student himself—a period of doubts and questions—by which alone a clearer conception of the subject ultimately emerges. In fact, without it, it is doubtful if the student ever gets much, if any, of that mental attrition on the subject which is the most valuable part of the work. An experience of a year with [119] lecturing in an elementary course to a class of two hundred and fifty, including the best and the poorest men in the university, practically convinced me, when taken with other evidence, of the truth of the above position; for, as contrasted with the work of similar men in other years under a different system, their examination-books were the most unsatisfactory I had ever read.

The usual alternative to the lecture system is the plan of recitations from a text-book. Even the simplest form of recitations is, in my opinion, better than listening to lectures. At the very least, the student is put to it to express the sense in his own words, and that, too, under the criticism of the teacher. But this plan has its evident difficulties. If the pupil is called upon for only that which is contained in the book, he falls into the habit of memorizing, and fails to think for himself. If you give him the clew, he can tell you on what part of the page the statement is found, and he can talk in the language of the book; but he knows nothing of the power of applying it to what he sees. If the learner is very clever and [120] inquisitive, he may do something for himself, but the average pupil quite misses the real good of such a course.

2. As it is evident that neither lectures nor formal recitations in the old fashion are satisfactory, we are inevitably led to adopt a plan which possesses the advantages of both. Some text-book is essential as a basis for the instruction.* In it the pupil should find an exposition of the principles, and a provocation to apply them to practical things as he reads. Then he should come to the class-room as intelligently familiar with the principles as his reading can make him. Now comes the work of the instructor. With a class of beginners, it is [121] surprising how easy it is to show even to the best men a gap in their knowledge, or a misunderstanding of the principle. Present an illustration different from that of the book, and ask them to explain the situation, and very few will be able to respond. The necessity of seeing the essential point in the facts and the attempt to describe the operation of the principle will effectually rout the man who has merely memorized the book, and teach him to think out the matter more thoroughly for himself in the future. The teacher, also, will try to find out the accidental obstacles which in a young mind obstruct the understanding of the point in question. Let the pupil be asked to state the matter, and let the teacher note the imperfections. At the same time he can stimulate another student by questioning him as to one of these imperfections. If a correction is not obtained in a clear and connected manner from a member of the class, let the instructor apply the Socratic method. At first ask a question which the learner readily understands, and then lead him naturally and gradually by logical steps up to the point wherein he had failed of understanding. [122] He will then see his own difficulty, and at the same time he has had a little robust exercise for his mind. If this is carried on before his fellows, it will the better cultivate coolness and self-control before an audience.

* The question naturally arises in the teacher’s mind, What is the best text-book? This, of course, is a matter of individual experience and judgment, and competent persons will differ in offering advice. From my own point of view, I should strongly recommend for mature students, who can give to it fifty or sixty hours of recitation, Mill’s “Principles of Political Economy.” For those who wish a less severe course, for a shorter time, Mr. and Mrs. Marshall’s ”Economies of Industry” is an excellent book. For the same persons, a forthcoming book by Professor Simon Newcomb, to be published this summer (1885), would be admirable. I have seen the advanced sheets, and find the system of applying principles to facts at the end of each chapter admirably carried out. For books to be consulted by the teacher, he is referred to the “Library” list at the beginning of this volume.

3. Above all, the hour should not be wasted in simply rehearsing what has been read in the book. The student should go away from the class-room feeling that he has received some new idea, or some interesting fact which illustrates his subject. The work of the class-room should be cumulative in its effect as compared with the results of text-book reading. The teacher should in every way stimulate questions from members of his class, and urge the statement by them, either orally or in writing, of their doubts and difficulties. If there is some timidity in presenting a weakness in the presence of a class, ask a question of some more manly person of the number, and the timid student will soon see that others are not much better off than he. In fact, all will have difficulties in understanding, or in interpreting principles, some trivial, some serious; and the pupil will become discouraged unless these are removed. [123] When each one sees that others are also hindered by obstacles, there will be a greater freedom in asking questions. Moreover, in order to keep up a steady and regular training, which will produce the best disciplinary results, let the questions of the instructor every day run backward in review, and especially aim to bring out the connection of one part of the subject with another. It will be very effective if done just about the time that the past work is growing a little dim before the presence of newer ideas. In no subject, perhaps, more than in political economy, is it necessary to know the preliminary steps in order to understand the later work; so that the pupil must be actually in possession of principles previously expounded, for which he may be called upon at any time. It is simply impossible for a person to be absent and neglectful for a time in his study, and then come into the class-room to make a brilliant show on an intermediate fragment of the subject. He can be too easily exposed as a humbug to attempt it a second time. Moreover, thus to force him to do the work as he goes along is the greatest favor one [124] can do for the pupil; and the usual cramming before the examination becomes, in reality, a general review, which is very useful in bringing him to see the connection existing throughout the whole subject.

4. If the class is so large that it is impossible for the instructor to reach each member as often as he might wish with the above method, there is one device which is more or less useful. At the beginning of the hour let him write a question upon the blackboard, to be answered by each one in writing within the first ten or fifteen minutes. The attempt to write out an explanation clearly, without hint or clew from the instructor, will reveal to the best student the deficiencies and gaps in his knowledge. Each one will then have the keenest interest to know what is considered a satisfactory answer to the question. At the next exercise of the class, the instructor can read some good and some bad answers, point out the general mistakes, and advise his pupils for the future. No exercise can be better than this in cultivating the habit of careful expression, and in learning how to make a clear and pointed exposition of [125] a subject in a short space. This practice tends to secure the accuracy which in the oral discussions is made second to fluency and readiness. The teacher, I believe, will be forced to some such method as this, if he hopes to get a real idea of the prevailing difficulties in the minds of his class. They are in the nature of anonymous communications, in which, as no one else can know what he is writing, the student may without timidity show exactly what he can do. In fact, the written answers afford admirable means of judging how far the class have taken serious hold of the subject, and they enable the instructor to modify the nature of his questions to members, or to change the character of the exercise to suit a set of slower men. But one of the best uses of these written answers, in my experience, has been to break down the timidity which prevented questions in the classroom. The criticism of an answer before the class is certain to bring out as defender, either the writer, or one who gave a similar reply and the whole number of men will be very restive under criticism of a piece of work at which each has tried his hand. As soon as questioning [126] becomes natural and easy, the number of written exercises can be diminished, and the whole hour given to discussions with the class.

5. Since the chief work of the class-room is not to enable students to discover principles, but rather to understand and apply them, probably the most useful method of interesting a class is to present to them, in extracts from the newspapers of the day, bits of fallacious discussions* which may come under the head of the subject in hand, and then to ask for criticism and discussion. This will also suggest doubts and difficulties which had not been anticipated in the minds of some, and will aid in stimulating questions. The appositeness of a timely topic before the public is peculiarly serviceable for such purposes. In fact, the practical matters of our own country will never fail to excite a lively interest in almost any class; and through this interest the teacher can find a [127] way of leading men to study principles more carefully. A National or State campaign is very likely to furnish an instructor with a plentiful supply of extracts from speeches of an economic character for discussion by his class. The learner in political economy is not hindered by the same disagreeable obstacles, as hamper the medical student, in finding subjects on which to put his learning into practice.

* Professor W. G. Sumner has published a volume of “Problems in Political Economy” (1884), which adopts the plan above described for advanced classes. The system is also most excellently carried out in a forthcoming elementary treatise on Political Economy by Simon Newcomb, to be published during the coming summer.

6. Many minds are unable to keep hold on an abstraction, or general principle; or they may have been untrained in making nice distinctions between ideas or definitions. And these students form a very large proportion of the ordinary classes. To such persons a skillful teacher ought to offer some help. Diagrams have seemed to me most useful for this purpose, and a reason can be given for their use. Just as in beginning a strange language, when words of widely different meaning have a similarity to the untutored eye, the distinctions do not make much impression. So it is in regard to principles and definitions in political economy. Therefore, visible expression of the abstract relationships, by diagrams, or by any figures [128] which represent the abstract in a concrete form, will be of very considerable service to the average student. This matter seems to me to be of such practical importance in teaching that it will be worth while to illustrate my meaning by a few examples.

(a.) Since material wealth comprises all things that have value; since capital is only that wealth employed in reproduction, and not used by the owner himself; and since money is that part of wealth in circulation aiding in the transfer of goods — the relations between the three may be expressed to the commonest apprehension by some such device as the following, in which the area of circle A represents the total amount of wealth; B, the capital saved out of the total wealth; and C, the money by which goods are transferred—only that part of circle C being capital which, inside of circle B, is being used as a means to production.

Again, (b) it is seen that different classes of laborers, arranged according to their skill, [129] form, as it were, social strata, of which the largest and the poorest paid is composed of the unskilled laborers at the bottom. This may be shown to the eye at once by the section of a triangle, in which A represents the largest and least paid class; B, the better-educated, and relatively more skillful laborers; ending finally in the few at the top, of the most competent executive managers. Now, if A were to become as fully skilled as B, and competition should become free between all members of A and B; and if this were to go on in the same way to include C—the effects of this breaking down of the barriers which hinder competition might be illustrated by the following changes in the above triangle: the areas of A, B, and C may be thrown together into [130] one area within the whole of which movement and choice are perfectly free to the laborer, and wherein wages are in proportion to sacrifice. This can be done by striking out the lines of division between A, B, and C, and representing the change by the area included between the base and the dotted lines.

Examples might be multiplied in illustration of my method, but these must suffice. By such means there can be planted inside even the dull mind an outline of an idea which can then be modeled and shaded to the condition of a natural truth. The teacher will find, by experience, that an idea thus given is very seldom forgotten. The pupil has thus once turned the abstraction into a concrete form, and, after he has once grasped it, he can now [131] use it for himself. It does not at all imply that he will get hard and definite conceptions of human affairs by this process; for he is shown that the principle appears in other forms, and he is constantly seeing that it is so. Having found out how a principle explains one set of facts, he can be led to see its application to other conditions.

7. In close connection with this method, but having an entirely different end in view, is the use of charts and graphic representations of statistics. The method just described above aimed to help in finding concrete expressions for the general principles; but graphic methods usually serve best to assist in that part of the economic process heretofore referred to as verification. There is an abundance of economic facts in regard to which the connection between cause and effect is either unknown or grossly misunderstood. In truth, the subjects to which political economy applies are constantly changing, nay, are even multiplying. These data, after having been collected with great care (which is the duty of the statistician), are the materials for the process [132] of verification. By this “systematized method of observation,” says Cairnes,* “we can most effectually check and verify the accuracy of our reasoning from the fundamental assumptions of the science; while the same expedient offers, also, by much the most efficacious means of bringing into view the action of those minor or disturbing agencies which modify, sometimes so extensively, the actual course of events. The mode in which these latter influences affect the phenomena of wealth is, in general, unobvious, and often intricate, so that their existence does not readily discover itself to a reasoner engaged in the development of the more capital economic doctrines.” In this part of the process graphic representations of statistics are invaluable.

*”Logical Method,” p. 97.

Every one knows the common dislike of dreary statistics; to many persons columns of statistics are repellent or meaningless. Collections of facts regarding banking, finance, taxation, and wages become a tangle in which one’s direction is constantly lost. But arranged graphically the whole direction of a movement [133] is seen at once, and the mind takes in new and unexpected changes, which force an investigation into their cause. Moreover, there comes a certain breadth of treatment, when, in looking at the facts graphically expressed, one is able to see the whole field at once. There is no waste of thought on temporary and accidental movements, for the action is seen from beginning to end at one glance. There are many charts which would illustrate this meaning very distinctly; but perhaps none are simpler than the one here appended, showing the steady and continuous fall in the value of silver relatively to gold since the discovery of the New World. No one has ever claimed that there has been any “unfriendliness” displayed toward silver in the legislation of the chief countries of the world before the present century, at the farthest, and yet the white metal has been steadily on the decline ever since the Spanish galleons, in the fifteenth century, began to pour the precious metals of America into the coffers of Spain.

Another illustration of my meaning can be found in the study of the facts relating to [134]

[135] American shipping. We have heard—until the story is now worn threadbare—of the decline of our tonnage engaged in the foreign carrying trade; we have listened to explanations which attribute this decline wholly to our Civil War, or to the introduction of steam and iron (or steel) ships. But by collating the statistics for sailing-vessels alone, if we separate the question entirely from steam and iron, and compare our situation in regard to sailing-vessels with that before the use of steam— the period of our great shipping prosperity— the comparison gives some curious results. These are shown to the eye at a glance; and it would have been difficult to find them had not this graphic system been applied. The striking facts imperatively call for explanation. We see at once that, practically, to the end of the war our sailing tonnage changed only with the total; and that after 1869 it was the foreign tonnage which then rose and kept a close attendance on the total, while the American figures showed scarcely any relative change. The two lines, representing foreign and American vessels, after a short struggle with each

[136]

Chart showing the Tonnage of Sailing Vessels entered at Seaports of the United States each year, from 1844 to 1883, inclusive.

[137] other exactly changed their relative positions to the line representing the total tonnage. The graphic method lays bare the naked facts for the scalpel of the investigator. The student is then in a position to apply principles and discover explanations. No table of figures, I am convinced, would disclose vital relations in the statistics in the searching way by which it is done with the aid of a few lines on a chart.

In short, the more extended collection of economic data is now rendered possible through the better methods employed in census and statistical bureaus, and the resort to the work of verification of economic principles in the examination of these data is one of the best means by which political economy can be redeemed from the baseless and common charge of being made up of formulas which have no practical use. Into this work one can carry no instrument so effective and helpful as graphic representations. In fact, the investigator, after having collected his tables and columns of figures, will find his gain in first putting them in some graphic form, before he can intelligently see exactly with what he has to grapple; [138] then he can turn his energies directly upon the problems which are disclosed by the chart to every other eye as well as his own.

There are, however, other important gains to be derived from the use of charts by the teacher. Above all, they are interesting. They will attract the idler by something new which he can easily understand, although he can not explain the causes; they stimulate the quick by putting them at once in possession of the facts to be explained. When lecturing upon practical questions, one great difficulty presents itself to the teacher in trying to find the means of laying before his class the actual condition of the subject which is to be investigated. If it were proposed to place the statistics on the blackboard before him, the time of the lecturer would all be lost while the student was copying figures. The references to the books can be given where these figures dealt with by the lecturer are collected, but by a chart long columns of statistics are easily imported into the class-room, become the basis of discussion, and are photographed on the listener’s mind once for all in an attractive and interesting [139] way. The slow and painful work of months is in this way presented to a class in a few minutes, and the practical lessons caught at a glance. For this purpose, charts are the labor-saving machines of statistics.

A word or two as to the details of preparing charts may not be impertinent. They can be made on common glazed white cotton cloth (called sarcenet cambric), which receives ink or water-colors; but the labor of ruling the cloth in squares before the construction of the chart is very considerable. Use can be made, however, of heavy manila paper, made large enough by sticking two large sheets together. Some printers can now rule this paper in squares to suit the convenience of the worker; but these guiding-lines ought to be faint, and not so heavy as to overpower the lines of the chart. The instructor can also have a blackboard ruled with faint white lines, after the manner of co-ordinate paper, in his room, on which he can in half an hour put a simple chart, ready for the coming lecture. Different colored crayons serve the purpose admirably. Students can then use co-ordinate paper in their notes, [140] and draw off an accurate copy of the chart in a few moments, before or after the lecture. This is a necessary course, unless some more feasible method than now exists should be found by the instructor for multiplying copies from his single chart in such numbers as to supply all members of his class.

So far I have been speaking of charts for the class-room. Perhaps, in their own good time, such economic charts can be bought of educational agencies. But ordinary co-ordinate paper, on a small scale, is the best form in which first to construct the chart. It can be purchased in sheets at a small price, and is invaluable for both student and instructor. In fact, no lesson is more stimulating to a class than to give them the data of a subject and ask them to put it into graphic form with the use of such paper. For the first time they begin to realize that statistics are not dry; indeed, any one who has turned over the pages of Walker’s “Statistical Atlas” will find out for himself how the columns of census tables* can [141] talk to him in forms and colors not only without weariness, but with a sense of surprise at the interest they excite.

* Another successful attempt, on an elaborate scale, has been made with the materials of the census of 1880 by Messrs. Gannett and Hewes in Scribner’s “Statistical Atlas of the United States” (1885). [Fletcher Willis Hewes, Henry Gannett. Scribner’s Statistical Atlas of the United States: Showing by Graphic Methods Their Present Condition and Their Political, Social and Industrial DevelopmentCharles Scribner’s Sons, 1884]

8. When the instructor comes to examinations he will find some difficulties in combining an ideal plan with actual conditions. In making out a paper he ought, of course, to keep in view that the questions should be selected so as to test not the memory, but the power of the pupil to apply principles. For this reason the ideal paper should contain nothing which the student has seen in that form before. The facts he is called upon to explain ought to be fresh ones, and the fallacies he is to examine should be such as he had not previously considered. This, however, is not wholly necessary. The explanation of parts of the subject is certain to be difficult enough to warrant questions upon them even if they have been referred to in the class-room many times before. For practical purposes, however, it seems best to remember that a class is composed of all kinds of persons, and, while the majority of [142] the questions should be of the character which I have described, yet at least a few easier and more encouraging questions should be set. In the examination-room the student, moreover, should be instructed to study each question with care, and avoid haste in answering, before he is sure that he has really caught the pivotal point of the question. Fairly good students often write about the question but do not answer it. It should be definitely understood that no credit is to be given for irrelevant answers. Then, also, the examination can be used as a teaching process; since, by inserting an important subject, the attention given to it at these times will be such as to keep it from speedy oblivion. Moreover, it will be well, as soon after the examination as possible, to read a good and a poor answer to each question before the class. They will know better what is expected of them in the future—like troops after their first fight. After such an examination the instructor will find his class much more disciplined and more ready to exert themselves in the intellectual wrestling. The vigorous preparation for the examination has really given [143] them a better grasp of the subject, and the teacher can easily bring on a warm discussion now, because they really know something and feel that they know it. In all this it is understood, of course, that I have had in mind written examinations.

9. When first approaching the study, it has been found to be of service to some minds to suggest that on the first reading of the textbook they note in the margins in a few penciled words the gist of each paragraph as it is read; then, at the close of the chapter, that the reader review it by means of his marginal notes, and, finally, make a general but brief synopsis of the chapter. This will both save time and teach that essential thing—how to study rapidly but thoroughly. It will destroy aimless reading, which is so common in these days of many books.

10. Inasmuch as a vigorous contact of mind with mind on a subject which students are approaching for the first time is necessary to produce something more than a cartilaginous or veal-like quality in their knowledge, it is desirable to stimulate discussion among members of [144] the class outside of the class-room. To accomplish this purpose, I know of no better plan than to recommend students to form temporary clubs of three or four persons to meet two or three times a week for an hour’s discussion of the questions and topics which have been suggested by the text-book, by newspapers, or by facts of every-day observation. Such discussions, if the evil of irrelevancy can be frowned upon, will toughen the intellectual fiber, and give the means also of getting more from the instructor through questions upon difficulties and disagreements which have arisen in the clubs.* Congenial persons might group themselves together in this way with profit to their economic progress, and gain something also in social pleasure of a healthy kind.

* When about twenty, John Stuart Mill met twice a week in Threadneedle Street, from 8.30 to 10 A. M., with a political economy club, composed of Grote, Roebuck, Ellis, Graham, and Prescott, in which they discussed James Mill’s and Ricardo’s books. It was understood that a topic should not be passed by until each member had had full chance for a discussion of his difficulties and objections. In these meetings Mill elaborated whatever he has added to the knowledge of political economy.

11. In advanced courses, much of what has been said in regard to details in the conduct of [145] the class will be less important, because the teaching is necessarily different in kind. Such courses naturally fall either (1) into those which continue to study principles, as in the systems of various writers or schools of political economy in the past and present, or (2) into those which treat historical or practical questions. In the former, the lecture system is unsatisfactory for reasons already given; for the members of the class should themselves be constantly wrestling with the fuller discussion of subjects in which they can hitherto have had only a general knowledge. Experience seems to show that a topic, furnished with references to writers, affords the best method of procedure. This, of course, implies a good working library and a list of reserved books.

In the practical courses a large part of the training consists in teaching the student how to use books, how to familiarize himself with the principal storehouses of statistics, such as the English “Parliamentary Documents,” or our own Government publications; how to collect his materials in a useful form; how to apply graphic representations wherever possible; in [146] brief, to learn how to carry on an investigation in the economic field. Of course, the familiarity with the facts of several of the leading questions of the day will form no small part of the advantage of such work. But the greatest good comes, of course, from putting the student on his own resources at once and forcing him to find his own materials, look up his own books and authorities, and come to a conclusion on the subject assigned to him independently of all aid or suggestion. The instructor can then at the conferences take up a paper for criticism and discussion, or first assign it to another member for that purpose. This is a feasible plan; but, if carried on throughout a whole course, it requires of the student in a regular college course so much time that his other work must suffer, and, in addition, but few subjects can be taken up in this thorough and leisurely way. This plan can be properly carried out only when there are a few persons able to devote their whole time to some economic investigations. In practice it has been found best to use the lecture system partially. One subject can be taken up by the instructor at regular exercises, [147] for which he furnishes beforehand the references, and partly lectures and partly discusses the subject with his class, thus guiding them steadily over the field and directing the disposition of the time to be devoted to each subject. In this way many more subjects can be reached during the year. But the advantages of the investigating method can be partly retained by requiring a monograph from each member of the class on a practical subject of his own selection from a list prepared by the instructor, and this thesis can count for attendance on part of the lecture-work. In this thesis the student is pushed to do his best to give a really serious study to some particular topic, and he is expected to do it independently of any aid beyond general oversight and direction; and he is warned that the paper will be of greater value, provided it contains the bibliography of the subject and constant reference by page and volume to his authorities.

12. The preparation of bibliographies is part of a teacher’s duty. Moreover, he who has access to a rich and well-appointed library can do a service to the rest of his guild by leaving [148] behind him notes of his bookish experiences. He can in a few words say whether a book is good or bad for a particular use, or indicate what part of it contains a valuable discussion or useful facts in a subject within his study. For this purpose it has been a great convenience to have little blank-books of ordinary stiff manila paper, six inches by three, with each sheet perforated like postage-stamps near the butt of the book, so that it can be torn off smoothly. On each page a book can be entered under a suitable heading, with its exact title and author, and room still be left for a very generous amount of criticism or commendation, or for noting the contents of the book. The cards can be laid away alphabetically by subjects in a drawer, and will prove of invaluable aid at many times. Books of which one has heard but never seen, can also be entered with a star, to be erased when a book has been examined. This systematic habit is peculiarly desirable when one is hunting for the facts of a certain subject. By this means one will be saved the loss of time caused by failure to remember where a statement has once been seen.

[149] 13. In the foregoing remarks on methods of teaching political economy, I have kept in mind persons of the age and maturity possessed by usual college students. As a rule, these are the only persons who are given instruction in this subject. Still, knowing as we do the need of simple elementary instruction in political economy in the secondary and high schools, so that younger pupils of less maturity than the college student ought to have good effective teaching, something ought to be said as to the methods which may be serviceable for such classes.

A difficulty with which we are met at the outset is the lack of training among high-school teachers for original and suggestive object teaching in economics. Any scheme, based on such a system, implies the possession of a very considerable economic training by the teachers. What is meant may be seen by the following excellent suggestions for certain parts of the study made by Dr. Ely:*

* In Methods of Teaching and Studying History,” edited by G. Stanley Hall, p. 63.

“The writer has indeed found it possible to [150] entertain a school-room full of boys, varying in age from five to sixteen, with a discourse on two definitions of capital—one taken from a celebrated writer, and the other from an obscure pamphlet on socialism by a radical reformer. As the school was in the country, illustrations were taken from farm-life, such as corn-planting and harvesting, and from the outdoor sports of the boys, such as trapping for rabbits.”

In teaching the functions of money, the following approach to the subject, suggested by the same writer as a means of awakening an interest, is a good one: “Take into the classroom the different kinds of money in use in the United States, both paper and coin, and ask questions about them, and talk about them. Show the class a greenback and a national banknote, and ask them to tell you the difference. After they have all failed, as they probably will, ask some one to read what is engraved on the notes, after which the difference may be further elucidated.”

If the teacher is sufficiently master of the subject to proceed by such ways to acquire a [151] hold on the young pupil he will probably not— as things now go—be found in a high school. It is to be hoped that he may in the future; but, until that is the fact, some more practicable method of teaching must be adopted. Much must, therefore, depend on the text-book. But no fully satisfactory one is available for such purposes. Of existing books the following may be suggested: W. S. Jevons’s “Primer of Political Economy” (1878). This little treatise is marred by the treatment of utility and value; but yet it is a really good sketch of the subject in 134 pages. The teacher can further illustrate the principles to his class by familiar facts, as already explained. The instructor should set forth distinctly in his mind, as a general object to be kept before him, the attempt to leave in the understanding of his pupils some simple principle in each case. If he is talking of capital, the several illustrations should all lead the pupil back to the essential truth which is finally to be stated in general terms. Then, the pupil, when reviewing, should be required to reverse the process, and then called on for principles and asked to illustrate them. The aim of the [152] teacher should be, after awakening interest, not simply to teach some few facts to which economic principles apply, but to try to drive home a few fundamental truths, and exercise the pupil, as far as time and skill allow, in tracing their operation in facts. For economic facts are constantly shifting, while principles do not. A boy taught how properly to view one set of facts about paper money will go all right as long as the conditions remain exactly the same, but when they change he is very badly off for guidance. In elementary teaching, therefore, the teacher should aim at giving a clear comprehension of simple principles, and at offering materials for practice in applying these principles. Much, consequently, which has been said in regard to more mature students will be equally applicable to the teaching of young boys.

In this brief and inadequate way I have attempted to suggest from my own experience what may enable others to avoid difficulties, and possibly to aid in a more rational method of teaching political economy. It is scarcely more [153] probable that what I have said is all new than that others should agree with me throughout in what I have advanced; nor is it unlikely that other teachers may have many other suggestions to make in addition to mine. If my efforts may call them out and aid in better methods of teaching, I shall be amply repaid.

THE END.

 

Source:  J. Laurence Laughlin. The Study of Political Economy: Hints to Students and Teachers. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1885. Chapter V (pp. 115-153).

Image Source: From the University of Chicago yearbook Cap & Gown 1907.

Categories
Cornell Economic History Gender Harvard Home Economics

Cornell. Home Economics. Radcliffe economic history A.M. (1913), Blanche Hazard

 

Having returned from a trip to the U.S. that included participation at the History of Economics Society 2018 meeting in Chicago, I have gone now two weeks without posting. It is easy to explain away the first ten days that actually involved Michigan road-tripping followed by conferencing with colleagues when the opportunity cost of blogging exceeded the joy of welcoming visitors to the latest artifacts posted at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. The last several days have been more a matter of jet-lag recovery and of overcoming the inertia associated with this extended pause from an almost unbroken three year rhythm of select, transcribe, post and tweet. OK, an intertemporally-savvy blogger would have gradually built up an inventory of artifacts and maintained an uninterrupted flow, but that is not, alas, the way this scholar rolls.

This post ventures into the neighboring field of home economics, in particular, to touch upon the brief career of Cornell’s first professor of woman’s studies, Blanche Evans Hazard (1873-1966) who was trained as an economic historian at Radcliffe/Harvard, A.M. awarded by Radcliffe (1913). She lectured on her dissertation topic: “The Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century” at the March 18, 1912 of the seminary in economicsHer economics professors included Thomas Nixon Carver and Edwin Francis Gay.While she did not complete the final examination for the Ph.D., her dissertation was published by Harvard University Press. Here a link to texts by Hazard at archive.org.

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Blanche Hazard, brief biography

Blanche Hazard came to Cornell in 1914 as an assistant professor of home economics, with a special responsibility to develop courses on the history of women and women’s work. After spending two years at Thayer Academy and two years at Radcliffe College, Hazard taught history in both public and private schools, and was head of the Department of History at Rhode Island Normal School from 1899 to 1904. During this period, she was also an officer of the New England Association of Teachers of History in Colleges and Secondary Schools. She became well-known for her lectures at teachers’ conventions on historical methods, as well as for her collaboration with Harvard’s Albert B. Hart on a book about children in the Colonial Era. In 1904, Hazard returned to Radcliffe, where she earned a B.A. in 1907 with first honors in history and government. In 1913, she completed a Ph.D.  at Harvard in history [sic, A.M., according to Earle (see below) who found that Hazard never actually completed the final examination for the Ph.D. though she did in fact complete and publish her dissertation]; her dissertation, The Organization of The Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts Before 1875 (1921), was the first book written by a woman published by Harvard University Press. At Cornell, Hazard and Martha Van Rensselaer collaborated in creating an early version of women’s studies. Hazard taught courses on “Women in Industry,” “Women in the State,” and “History of Housekeeping.” She also wrote a number of pamphlets for the Farmers’ Wives Reading Course, including Civic Duties of Women (1918), which was widely used and reprinted as women prepared to exercise their suffrage. When she left Cornell in 1922 to return to New England and marry, Hazard was a full professor of home economics.

 

Image Source:   From the webpage of the History Center in Tompikins County, Ithaca, N.Y. announcing the March 3, 2018 lecture by Corey Ryan Earle, “Blanche hazard: Pioneering Local Suffragist & Women’s Studies Education”.

Source: Cornell University Library, Division of Rare & Manuscript Collection’s website: From Domesticity to Modernity, What was Home Economics (2001). Webpage: Faculty Biographies: Blanche Hazard.

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Blanche Hazard, longer biography

See the paper written by Corey Ryan Earle, “An Overlooked Pioneer: Blanche Evans Hazard, Cornell University’s First Professor of Women’s Studies, 1914-1922” that provides much detail, though unable to explain Hazard’s marriage and her withdrawal from academic life. The paper was written during the summer of 2006 when the author was supported by a Dean’s Fellowship in the History of Home Economics by the College of Human Ecology of Cornell University.

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Image Source: Faculty of Home Economics at Cornell. Cornell University Library, Division of Rare & Manuscript Collection’s website: From Domesticity to Modernity, What was Home Economics (2001). Webpage: Early Faculty Biographies. Note: second row, leftmost is Blanche Hazard.

Categories
Berkeley Economists Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumna Alice Bourneuf, 1955

 

 

In the continuing series, meet an economics Ph.D. alumnus/a, we have here an obituary for the Harvard Ph.D. (1955), Alice Bourneuf, whose career milestones included early work in the IMF through the building up the economics department at Boston College. Paul Samuelson counted her among Schumpeter’s circle of graduate students at Harvard in the 1930’s.

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Alice Bourneuf (1912-1980)
Boston College Obituary

Alice Bourneuf, professor emeritus, dies
Instrumental in shaping economics department

Alice E. Bourneuf, Boston College economics professor emeritus, died Dec. 7 in Boston after a long illness. Bourneuf, 68, was the first woman to hold a tenured professorate within the College of Arts and Sciences and was instrumental in making the department of economics the distinguished unit it is today.

President Monan was with Bourneuf in her final moments and was principal celebrant of a memorial Mass at the Chapel of the Most Blessed Trinity, Newton Campus, Dec. 13.

Bourneuf was born in Haverhill on Oct. 2, 1912. Her career in education and public service spanned four decades.

She graduated from Radcliffe in 1933 and continued her studies there, receiving the MA in 1939 and the PhD in 1955. An authority on national and international economies, her main fields of research and writing were macroeconomic theory, money and banking, public finance, business cycles, unemployment and investment.

She participated in the formulation of international monetary plans for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC from 1942 to 1946. From 1946 to 1948 she conducted research on exchange rates and internal financial problems for the International Monetary Fund. She was senior economist for the Marshall Plan in Norway and France from 1948 to 1953.

After teaching at Mt. Holyoke College and the University of California at Berkeley, Bourneuf joined the BC economics department as a tenured full professor in 1959. She retired in 1977.

Recalling Bourneuf, Assoc. Prof. Harold Peterson (Economics) said she was “one of the two or three people who’ve had a profound influence on my life.” He spoke of how she “revolutionized” and “modernized” the economics program here, bringing in new faculty to help her accomplish the task.

“Hers was a constant struggle,” Peterson added. “She showed us immense courage, both in her life and in her death.”

Prof. Michael Mann (Economics) called Bourneuf “a towering figure at BC.” Mann said she was an inspiration not only to her immediate colleagues, but to the entire university and the community-at-large as well. “Alice set standards for academic integrity—for good work, quality work,” Mann said. “Even those who disagreed with her respected her opinions.”

“The economics department at Boston College is now well-known,” said Harvard economist Richard E. Caves. “It’s rise is primarily attributed to Alice Bourneuf.”

MIT economist Paul Samuelson called Bourneuf “a magnificent person and economist.” Recalling Bourneuf’s recruitment activities on behalf of BC, Samuelson said, “When Alice Bourneuf and (economics professor) Fr. Robert McEwen appeared at American Economic Association conventions, department heads quaked for the ivory they were hoarding.”

In 1976, BC established the Bourneuf Award, which is given annually to the outstanding undergraduate in the field of economics. Bourneuf also received honorary degrees from Boston College (1977) and Regis College (1975) and was the recipient of numerous fellowships and honors during her lifetime. In October 1979 the University dedicated Bourneuf House, offices of the academic vice president. Asked about the honor at that time, Bourneuf said, “I can’t believe it or understand it. They should have named it after some famous person.” She leaves four sisters, two brothers and 18 nieces and nephews.

 

Source:   Boston College Biweekly, Volume 1, Number 8, 18 December 1980, pp. 1,4.

Image Source:  Webpage “Breaking the Mold” at the World Bank/IMF website: The Bretton Woods Institutions turn 60.

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Columbia. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, David Durand. Obituary, 1996

 

David Durand’s Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation (degree awarded in 1941) was published as Risk Elements in Consumer Instalment Financing. National Bureau of Economic Research, Financial Research Program, Studies in Consumer Instalment Financing, no. 8. New York: NBER, 1941. He is perhaps best known among economists, as Paul Samuelson notes, for his pioneering empirical work on the yield curve.

David Durand. Basic Yields of Corporate Bonds, 1900-1942. NBER, June 1942.

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Prof. David Durand of MIT Dies at 83
February 28, 1996

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–Dr. David Durand, a professor emeritus of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was an early adherent of applying statistical methods–especially sampling–to problems in corporate finance and other fields, died Monday, Feb. 26, at the MIT Infirmary. Dr. Durand, who lived in Lexington, Mass., was 83.

His family said the cause of death was aplastic anemia.

Raised in Ithaca, N.Y., Dr. Durand received a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University in 1934, and both a master’s degree (1938) and PhD (1941) from Columbia University. He was a lieutenant in the US Naval Reserve during World War II, serving in the Hawaiian Islands and on Guam.

Before coming to MIT in 1953, he was associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, then in Riverdale, N.Y., and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. He also did consulting work for the Twentieth Century Fund and taught part-time at Columbia.

It was at the National Bureau of Economic Research, said MIT economist Dr. Paul A. Samuelson, an Institute professor and Nobel laureate, that Dr. Durand “pioneered the empirical study of how long-term bonds usually require a higher yield than short. Everyone understands that today, but he was the first to document it.”

Dr. Durand’s first appointment at MIT was as a research associate at the Sloan School of Management. He became an associate professor in 1955 and professor in 1958. He retired in 1973.

In addition to the application of statistical methods to financial problems, his fields of specialization included term structure of interest rates and statistics.

His research in finance included a sampling analysis of default experience for consumer installment loans, farm mortgage lending experience and factors affecting bank stock prices.

His work with statistical methodology and techniques involved the early use of punched card equipment for general statistical tabulation as well as for mathematical computation.

He was the author of a textbook, Stable Chaos, as well as numerous articles for professional journals. He was an associate editor of Financial Management for a number of years.

Some of Dr. Durand’s strongly-held views stirred lively debate with other members of the management faculty.

One of his former doctoral students, Don Lewin of Lewin Associates of York, Pa., a consulting firm, said that Dr. Durand “used his keen intellect and statistical knowledge and skills to develop many ideas” and to question whether statistical models matched reality. “Frequently, this did not endear him to those enamored of a model. Indeed, his doubting approach caused him to be often in the center of a controversy.”

In one such case involving the cost of capital, Dr. Durand wrote that two Sloan colleagues who disagreed with him “have cut out for themselves the extremely difficult, if not impossible, task of being pure and practical at the same time. Starting with a perfect market in a perfect world, they have taken a few steps in the direction of realism; but they have not made significant progress…”

Dr. Durand insisted, too, Dr. Lewin said, that the model builder rely heavily on his or her own judgment. In Stable Chaos, Dr. Durand wrote, “Systematic procedures and objective tests serve to strengthen the analyst’s judgment, not to replace it; they enable him to learn more quickly and more effectively from his own experience, and to sharpen his critical faculties.”

Dr. Durand also championed good writing and enlivened some of his own journal articles with intriguing figures of speech. In one, he wrote: “To suppose that any imaginative analyst or responsible financial manager, interested in a comprehensive view, would be content to base an important appraisal and the subsequent investment decision on just one of the many useful numbers available is on a par with supposing that a hungry gourmet at a smorgasbord would be content to make a whole meal of pickled herring…”

Another former student, Dr. Paul D. Berger, professor and department chair in Quantitative Methods & Marketing at the Boston University School of Management, recalls Dr. Durand as “a special teacher and mentor to many students. He had a ‘jolly’ manner about himself that set students at ease and allowed them to enjoy the material he imparted to them. He cared about people and was dedicated to academic integrity and excellence.”

Dr. Durand was a member of the American Economic Association, the Finance Association, the American Society for Quality Control, the American Statistical Association, the Econometric Society, the Biometric Society, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the International Association for Statistics in Physical Science.

He leaves his wife, Edith (Elbogen) Durand of Lexington, and a daughter, Marie Durand of Princeton, N.J.

There was no funeral service.

A memorial service will be held in the MIT Chapel on April 13 at 1 PM.

Contributions may be made to Deep Springs College in Dyer, Nev. 89010.

Source:  MIT News. Obituary for Prof. David Durand, February 28, 1996.

Image Source:David Durand portrait at the MIT Museum Website  .