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Economists Germany Harvard Minnesota Northwestern

Halle. Economics PhD Alumnus, John Henry Gray (Harvard AB, 1887), 1892

 

The Harvard graduate, John Henry Gray (A.B. 1887), was an instructor of political economy at his alma mater in 1888-1889. His European tour as a graduate student took him from Halle (Germany) to Paris, Vienna, and Berlin. He returned to the U.S. with a doctorate from the University of Halle to begin his academic career at Northwestern. A chronology of his life and subsequent career is included below.

Fun Fact: John Henry Gray donated his private library of about one thousand volumes to Carleton College. It included a third edition of Wealth of Nations.

__________________

John Henry Gray

1859. Born March 11, 1859 at Charleston, Ill.

Prepared for college at State Normal University in Illinois.

1881-1882. Principal of the High School of Centralia, Illinois.

1883. Enters Harvard College. Sophomore year he began his studies of Political Economy.

1887. A.B., magna cum laude.  Harvard with special honors in Political Science. Phi-Beta-Kappa.

1887-1888. Graduate student, Harvard University.

1888-1889. Appointed instructor of political economy following resignation of Professor J. L. Laughlin.

July, 1889. Rogers Fellow of Harvard for graduate study of two semesters at Halle with Professors Conrad and Loening (1889-1890); seven months at Paris (1890-1891), with Levasseur, Leroy-Beaulieu, Sorel, De Foville; one semester at Vienna with Carl Menger, Böhm-Bawerk and v. Miaskowski (1891); and more than a semester in Berlin with Wagner, Schmoller and Gneist (1891-92).

1892. Doctorate awarded by the University of Halle, magna cum laude. Thesis: Die Stellung der privaten Beleuchtungsgesellschaften zu Stadt und Staat. Die Erfahrungen in Wien, Paris und Massachusetts. Jena, 1893.

1892-1907. Professor of political economy and social science, Northwestern University.

1893. Chairman of the World’s Congress Auxiliary on Political Science in Chicago.

1894-1896. Chairman of the municipal committee of the Civic Federation of Chicago.

1902. Consultant to the United States Department of Labor to investigate restrictions of output in Great Britain.

1902. International Cooperative Congress in Manchester, England as representative of the U.S. Commissioner of Labor.

1902. U.S. representative to Congresses of labor, commerce and industry in Düsseldorf (Germany) and Ostend (Belgium).

1905. Member of the National Civic Federation Commission on Municipal Ownership.

1907-1920. Professor of economics, University of Minnesota.

1911-1914. National Civic Federation Commission on Municipal ownership, regulation of public service corporations.

1913. Author of compilation and analysis of all American statutes relating to the regulation of public service corporations.

1914. President of the American Economic Association.

1917-1919. Chief analyst and examiner in the bureau of valuations, Interstate Commerce Commission.

World War I. Lt. Col., U.S. Army and member of the board of appraisers of all property commandeered for the Army.  Second man to enroll in the American Legion.

1920-1925. Professor of economics, Carleton College.

1925-1928. Chief analyst and examiner in the bureau of valuations of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

1928-1932. Head of department of economics in the graduate school of American University.

1929. Joint author with G. W. Terborgh of a study of Urban Mortgages in the United States since 1920.

1933. Co-author with Jack Levin, The Regulation and Valuation of Public Utilities. Harper & Brothers.

1946. Died April 4 in Winter Park, Florida.

Sources:

Personal Notes, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 3 (Sept., 1892), pp. 112-113.

Jesse S. Robinson. John Henry Gray, 1859-1946. American Economic Review, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Sept. 1946), pp. 664-666.

 

Image Source: University of Minnesota Libraries, UMedia. Gray, John H. webpage.

 

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Agricultural Economics Chicago Iowa Minnesota Suggested Reading Syllabus

Minnesota. Course outline and reading for graduate macroeconomics. Brownlee, probably 1959

 

Based on a pamphlet in which he argued that “properly fortified margarine ‘compared favorably’ with butter in nutrition and palatability”, the economics Ph.D. student, Oswald Harvey Brownlee (1917-1985), brought the wrath of the Iowa Farm Bureau among others down upon himself and his economist seniors. After the President of Iowa State caved to the state’s dairy interests in the matter, Theodore  W. Schultz, D. Gale Johnson, and O. H. Brownlee were all to ultimately head off to the University of Chicago.

Oswald Harvey Brownlee. Putting dairying on a war footing, 64 page pamphlet published by Iowa State College Press, 1944.

See: Seim, David L. “The Butter-Margarine Controversy and “Two Cultures” at Iowa State
College.” The Annals of Iowa 67 (2008), 1-50.

Also mentioned in: Milton and Rose Friedman, Two Lucky People: Memoirs, p. 193.

Brownlee went on to teach at the University of Minnesota, where we found him teaching a graduate macroeconomics course. Clearly that was still time that the hatches separating microeconomics and macroeconomics were not so securely battened as today. “Public finance” was Brownlee’s major field so his broad fiscal policy interests make sense.

The course outline transcribed in this post comes from Martin Bronfenbrenner’s papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University. Bronfenbrenner taught at the University of Minnesota from 1959-1962 and we can presume that the copy of Brownlee’s macroeconomics course outline with readings was for either 1958-59 or 1959-60.  A second, apparently later, version of the course outline for “Economics 176A” with “Brownlee” handwritten in the upper right corner is also found in the same folder. Three new readings from the second copy have been added and placed within square brackets below. The readings in Parts I and II, IX and X were not included in the second outline for “Economics 176A”.

_______________________

Handwritten note at top:
“Martin, Here is the outline for the Macro theory. Which part do you want to teach? [signed] Oz”

 

Economics 176A-B
Course Outline and Suggested Readings

This brief outline and reading list is intended to serve as a general summary of the materials to be considered during the course and as a guide to class discussion and to outside reading. The detail in the outline does not necessarily correspond to the detail in class discussion. The most significant readings are starred (*). The literature in this field has grown so rapidly during the past decade that this reading list cannot be considered as a complete bibliography of relevant writings.

It is hoped that during the quarter the student will gain an adequate understanding of how the equilibrium values of the relevant variables (gross national product, employment, the general level of prices and the rate of interest, for example) might be determined, and how changes in certain exogeneous variables (including various economic policy variables) might affect these equilibrium values. Although the primary emphasis of the course is on equilibrium levels of certain variables, an introduction to dynamic analysis (a description of the path of a variable over time) will be offered. This will provide the basis for subsequent discussion of business cycle theory and growth models.

  1. General Orientation of the Course
    1. Relationship of macro-static theories to other classes of economic theories
    2. Limitations of macro-static analysis as a basis for policy statements
  2. The firm’s Demand for Labor
    1. Importance for labor hired by business firms in the labor market as a whole
    2. Static theory of production with emphasis on the demand for labor.
      1. Nature of the firm’s production function
      2. Determinants of equilibrium level of employment within the firm
      3. Comparisons of equilibrium levels of employment under various resource market, product market and technological conditions
    3. Effects of Changes in Quantities of Other Resources Upon Demand for Labor

Readings:

1—K. E. Boulding, Economic Analysis, Chapter 31 (revised edition)

2—George Stigler, The Theory of Price, Chapters 6-11.

3—Paul A. Samuelson, Foundations of Economic Analysis, Chapter 3, pp. 21-33.

4—Joan Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Books VII and VIII.

  1. Equilibrium in the Labor Market for the Economy as a whole
    1. Aggregation of outputs, labor inputs, wage rates and prices
    2. Determination of various combinations of general level of prices and “real” output which will maintain equilibrium in the labor market—an “aggregate supply” function.
      1. With money wage rate autonomously determined: a wage “floor”, a wage “ceiling”, both a “floor” and a “ceiling”.
      2. With supply of labor dependent upon “real” wages.
      3. With supply of labor dependent upon “real” and money wages: the effects of asset holdings.
    3. Degree of Determinateness of relevant variables given only equilibrium in the labor market.
      1. Price level, real output and employment not uniquely determined
        1. Various combinations of price level and real output will maintain equilibrium in labor market, given the autonomously specified money wage or given fixed monetary debts and credits and flexible money wages.
        2. Employment is determined only upon the real wage, real output and employment are uniquely determined, but price level is not.

Readings:

1.*—Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lectures 19 and 20.

2.—Sidney Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis, Chapters 11 and 13.

3.—Francis M. Boddy, et al., Applied Economic Analysis, pp. 229-248.

4.—O. H. Brownlee, Economics of Public Finance, pp. 47-51.

5.—Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, IX-XII.

6.—Louis Hough, “An Asset Influence in the Labor Market”, Journal of Political Economy, June 1955.

7.—Robert Solow, “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function”, Review of Economics and Statistics, August 1957.

[8.*—Gershon Cooper, “Taxation and Incentive in Mobilization” in Readings in Taxation edited by Musgrave and Shoup.]

  1. Aggregate Demand for Goods and Services: The “Crude Classical Theory”
    1. The Quantity Identity
      1. The Demand for Money—a linear function of money income (expenditure)
      2. Assuming the supply of money (M) and the fraction of income which people with to hold as cash balances are independently determined, the equilibrium level of total money expenditure is determined.
      3. Effects of changes in money demand and money supply upon equilibrium level of money income or expenditure.
      4. Incorporation of assets as a variable influencing the demand for money
      5. Information obscured by the simple quantity identity (that omitting assets as a variable)
        (Note: further analysis of the quantity identity in terms of the kind of aggregate demand function for goods and services which it might imply will be made in subsequent sections).
    2. Equilibrium in the Labor, Money, and Commodity Markets under the assumption of the quantity identity.
      1. Quantity of labor supplied a function only of money wages
      2. Quantity of labor supplied a function only of “real” wages
      3. Division of “real” output between consumption and investment.

Readings:

1.*—J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Chapters 2 and 19

2.—L. Klein, The Keynesian Revolution, Chapter 1 and the technical appendix, pp. 199-205

3.—Albert G. Hart, Money, Debt and Economic Activity, Chapters IV-VI and VIII

4.—Alvin Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chapters 1-3

5.—Franco Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money”, Econometrica, 12: 45-88 (January, 1944)

6.—Seymour Harris, (editor) The New Economics, Part IX, Chapter XLI

7.—Francis M. Boddy, et al., Applied Economic Analysis, Chapter 12, 13 (pp. 222-229)

8.*—Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lecture 2.

9.—Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, I-VIII

10.—Archibald and Lipsey, “Monetary and Value Theory,” Review of Economic Studies, October, 1958

11.*—Milton Friedman, Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, Chapter I

12.—James Tobin, “The Interest-Elasticity of Transactions Demand for Cash”, Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1956

13.—H. Rose, “Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds,” Review of Economic Studies, XXIV (1956-57)

14.—Don Patinkin, Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds, Economica, November, 1958

15.—Vera Lutz, “Multiplier and Velocity Analysis: A Marriage”, Economica, February, 1955

16.—G. C. Archibald, “Multiplier and Velocity Analysis: An Amendment”, Economica, August 1956

[17.—Ira O. Scott, “The Availability Doctrine: Theoretical Underpinnings”, Review of Economic Studies, XXV No. 1, 41-48]

  1. Aggregate Demand for Goods and Services: The “Keynesian Theory”
    1. Equilibrium in the “Commodity Market”
      1. Consumption (and Saving)
        1. Relationship to income
        2. Relationship to rate of interest
      2. Investment
        1. Relationship to the rate of interest
          1. The marginal efficiency of capital
          2. Uncertainty and the level of investment
        2. Relationship to current income
      3. The Equating of Savings and Investment (Aggregate Demand for Commodities = Aggregate Supply of Commodities)
      4. Determination of various combinations of the rate of interest and real income which will fulfill the condition for equilibrium in the commodity market (will make savings = investment)
    2. Equilibrium in the Money Market
      1. The Liquidity Preference Schedule (The Demand for Money)
      2. With money supply (M) autonomously determined, there will be various combinations of the rate of interest, real output and the price level which will provide for equilibrium in the money market.
        1. The general case
        2. The special “Keynesian” case
    3. Simultaneous Equilibrium in the Money and Commodity Markets: An Aggregate Demand Function
      1. Equilibrium rates of real output and price level which fulfill the conditions for equilibrium in both the money and commodity markets.

Readings:

1.*—Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

2.—The Keynesian Revolution (*particularly Chapter 3)

3.*—J.R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the Classics”, Econometrica, 4: 147-159 (April, 1937); also included in Readings in Income Distribution, The Blakiston Co.

4.*—Franco Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money”, Econometrica, 12; 45-88 (January, 1944)

5.—Alvin Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Chapters 4-6

6.—Sidney Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis, Part II

7.—K.E. Boulding, The Economics of Peace, Chapters 7-9

8.—Wassily Leontief, “Postulates; Keynes” General Theory and the Classicists”, included in The New Economics, Part 4, Chapter XIX

9.—The New Economics, Parts 3 and 9

10.—Abba P. Lerner, The Economics of Employment, Part II

11.*—Jacob Marschak, Income, Employment and the Price Level, Lectures 3-18

12.—O.H. Brownlee, “The Theory of Employment and Stabilization Policy” Journal of Political Economy, Oct. 1950, pp. 412-24.

13.—Ira O. Scott, Jr., “An Exposition of the Keynesian System”, The Review of Economic Studies, XIX, (1), pp. 12-18

14.—Joan Robinson, “The Generalization of the General Theory”, included in The Rate of Interest and Other Essays.

15.—Louis Hough, “The Price Level in Macroeconomic Models”, The American Economic Review, June, 1954, pp. 269-86.

16.—Milton Friedman and Gary S. Becker, “A Statistical illusion in Judging Keynesian Models”, Journal of Political Economy, February, 1957

17.—L. R. Klein, “The Friedman-Becker Illusion,” Journal of Political Economy, December, 1958; and Friedman & Becker, “Reply”, same issue.

18.—Martin J. Bailey, “Saving and the Rate of Interest”, Journal of Political Economy, August, 1957.

[19.—Hans Brems, Output, Employment, Capital and Growth, Part I.]

  1. The Equilibrium Levels of Output, Employment, Prices and the Rate of Interest in the Keynesian System.
    1. Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand with Flexible Money Wages
    2. Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand with Labor Supply Perfectly Elastic at a Given Money Wage
    3. Effects of Changes in Autonomous Variables and Parameters
      1. The autonomous component of investment
        1. The multiplier
      2. Government expenditure for goods and services
      3. The export surplus
      4. Money wage rates
      5. Technology
      6. The degree of monopoly and employers’ market expectations
      7. Population and the labor supply
      8. The money supply
      9. Marginal propensities to consumer and invest
  2. An alternative Macro-Static System
    1. Some weaknesses in the Keynesian theory
      1. A change in the structure of the system required to explain U.S. postwar experience
      2. Increased savings: income ratio as income increases not empirically verified.
    2. Assets consumption as a variable affecting
      1. Real Assets
      2. Monetary assets (cash and government debt)
      3. Aggregate demand for goods and services when assets are included as a variable in the consumption function
        1. Comparison with quantity theory
        2. Comparison with Keynesian theory
    3. The Duesenberry-Modigliani Hypothesis
    4. Including assets in other Functions: Labor Supply and Demand for Money

Readings:

1.*—Don Patinkin, “Price Flexibility and Full Employment”, American Economic Review, 38: 543-64 (September, 1948).

1a.*—Don Patinkin, Money, Interest and Prices, XIII-XV and appropriate appendices.

2.—__________, “The Indeterminancy of Absolute Prices in Classical Economic Theory”, Econometrica, 17: 1-27

3.—__________, “Involuntary Unemployment and the Keynesian Labor Supply Function”, Economic Journal, LIX: 360-83

4.—Haavelmo, Hickman, Leontief and Phipps on Patinkin, Econometrica 18: 1-26 (January, 1950)

5.—James Tobin, “Money Wage Rates and Employment”, included in The New Economics, Part 8, Chapter XL.

6.—Arthur Smithies, “Effective Demand and Employment”, included in The New Economics, Part I, Chapter XXXIX.

7.—A. P. Lerner, “Mr. Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money”, Reprinted in The New Economics, Part 3, Chapter XI

8.*—Milton Friedman, “A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability”, American Economic Review, 38: 245-64 (June, 1948)

9.—A. C. Pigou, “Economic Progress in a Stable Environment”, Economica, 1947, pp. 180-90

10.—A. C. Pigou, “The Classical Stationary State”, Economic Journal, 53: 343-51 (1943)

11.*—James Duesenberry, “Income-Consumption Relations and Their Implications”, included in Income, Employment and Public Policy, Essay III in Part One, and as Chapter I in Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior.

[11a.—John H. Power, “Price Expectations, Money Illusion, and the Real-Balance Effect”, Journal of Political Economy, April, 1959, 1331-43.]

12.*—Franco Modigliani, “Fluctuations in the Saving-Income Ratio: A Problem in Economic Forecasting”, included in National Bureau of Economic Research, Studies in Wealth, Volume XI, pages 371-443.

13.—Paul A. Samuelson, “The Simple Mathematics of Income Determination”, included in Income Employment and Public Policy,” Essay VI in Part One.

14.—Oscar Lange, Price Flexibility and Employment, particularly Chapters I-V and IX-XI.

15.—Donald M. Fort, “A Theory of General Short-Run Equilibrium,” Econometrica, 13: 293-310 (October, 1945)

16.—Sidney Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis, Part III

17.—G. L. Bach, “Monetary-Fiscal Policy Reconsidered”, Journal of Political Economy, LVII: 383-94 (October 1949)

18.—George Terborgh, The Bogey of Economic Maturity.

19.—A. P. Lerner, Economics of Employment, parts IV and V.

20.*—William Hamburger, “The Determinants of Aggregate Consumption”, Review of Economic Studies, XXII (1), pp. 23-34

21.*—Franco Modigliani and Richard Brumberg, “Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function”, included in Kenneth Kurihara, The Post Keynesian System—Essays in Honor of John Maynard Keynes.

22.—O. H. Brownlee, Economics of Public Finance, Chapters 3-6

23.—__________, “The Theory of Employment and Stabilization Policy”, Journal of Political Economy, October, 1950, pp. 412-24.

24.*—Milton Friedman, A Theory of the Consumption Function (particularly chapters 1-4.)

  1. Monetary-Fiscal Policy
    1. Effects of changes in government expenditures for goods and services, net tax collections, the tax structure and the supply of money on the demand for and supply of goods and services.
      1. In the Keynesian System
      2. In the Alternative System
    2. Built-In Flexibility vs. Ad. hominum [sic, “ad hoc”] changes.

Readings:

1.—Robert L. Bishop, “Alternative Expansionist Fiscal Policies: A Diagrammatic Analysis”, Lloyd A. Metzler, ed. Income, Employment and Public Policy.

2.—O. H. Brownlee, “Taxation and the Price Level in the Short Run”, The Journal of Political Economy, February, 1954, pp. 26-33.

3.—__________, The Economics of Public Finance, Chapter 6.

4.—Paul A. Samuelson, “Principles and Rules in Modern Fiscal Policy: A Neo-Classical Reformulation”, included in Money, Trade, and Economic Growth.

5.*—Milton Friedman, “the Effects of a Full-Employment Policy on Economic Stability: A Formal Analysis”, included in Essays in Positive Economics.

6.—E. Cary Brown, “The Static Theory of Automatic Fiscal Stabilization”, Journal of Political Economy, October 1955.

7.—Alfred Conrad, “The Multiplier Effects of Redistributive Public Budgets”, Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1955.

8.—William A. Salant, “Taxes, Income Determination and the Balanced Budget Theorem”, Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1957.

[9. Bent Hansen, The Economic Theory of Fiscal Policy.]

  1. Some Applications of Static Macroeconomic Analysis to Other Problems
    1. Disaggregated Systems
    2. Effects of Shifts in Expenditure and Income in One Sector upon Income in Other Sectors.

Readings:

1.—John S. Chipman, The Theory of Inter-Sectoral Money Flows and Income Formation.

2.—D. Gale Johnson and O. H. Brownlee, “Reducing Price Variability Confronting Primary Producers”, Journal of Farm Economics, May, 1950, 176-193.

  1. Macrodynamic Analysis
    1. The Nature of “Business Cycle” Theories.
    2. First-Order Difference Equations
      1. The Cobweb Theorem
      2. Lagging of Consumption or Investment by One Period
      3. Introduction of Disturbances
      4. A Dynamic “Keynesian” Model
    3. Models Involving Higher Order Difference Equations
      1. “Interactions between the ‘Multiplier’ and the ‘Acceleration Principle’”.
      2. Inventory decisions as related to changes in consumption or investment in Plant and Equipment.
    4. Problems of Prediction

Readings:

1.*—Paul A. Samuelson, “Interactions Between the Multiplier and the Principle of Acceleration”, included in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, 261-69.

2.—Mordecai Ezekiel, “The Cobweb Theorem”, included in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, 422-42.

3.—J. M. Clark, “Business Acceleration and the Law of Demand”, included in Readings in Business Cycle Theory.

4.—R. F. Harrod, The Trade Cycle, Chapter 2.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, Box 25, Folder “Macroeconomics, Problems & exercises. 1 of 2. 1961-70, n.d.”.

Image Source: Douglas Clement, “A Golden History” in Minnesota Economics (Fall 2006), p. 2.

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Economic History Funny Business Minnesota

Minnesota. What are economic historians made of? Heaton, 1949

 

My serious blog work has regrettably kept me lately from adding more to the series of “Funny Business” posts in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. So as a late St. Nicholas present for 2020, I give you today’s post “What are economic historians made of?” composed by the University of Minnesota economic historian, Herbert Heaton.

Chapters from Heaton’s textbook Economic History of Europe (Revised, 1948) were assigned in the first economic history course I ever took; Harry Miskimin at Yale (Fall Semester, 1971) taught that class.

Heaton began his Presidential address before the Economic History Association with the following “foul doggerel” based on the children’s rhyme about “Snips and snails / And puppy dogs’ tails” (boys) and “Sugar and spice / And everything nice” (girls) and published in The Journal of Economic History, vol. 9, Supplement: The Tasks of Economic History (1949), pp. 1-18.

Heaton was the chair of the University of Minnesota’s history department from 1954 until 1958 when he retired. His short obituary in the New York Times (Jan. 26, 1973) also noted that Heaton was a visiting professor at Princeton in 1939-1940.

Of further interest

Heaton, Herbert. Edwin Gay, A Scholar in Action (1952).

Herbert Heaton papers at the University of Minnesota.

Biographical leads

Bourke, Helen. Heaton, Herbert (1890-1973). Australian Dictionary of Biography.

King, Jack. Herbert Heaton: A Scholar ‘Exiled’. History of Economics Review, Winter 2006

_____________________

What are economic historians made of?

Open fields and lord’s domains,
Venice loses, Antwerp gains.
Gold and silver that were Spain’s,
Factories, slums, and smelly drains.
Oople1 profits, workers’ chains,
Secular trends, depression pains.
Westward movements cross the plains,
Marx, Max Weber, Sombart, Keynes,
That’s what economic historians are made of.

1That is the English pronunciation of “entrepreneurial.”

_____________________

Biographical Snapshot from 1931
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

HERBERT HEATON

Fellow: Awarded 1931
Field of Study: Economic History
Competition: US & Canada
Born: 06-06-1890
Died: 01-24-1973

As published in the Foundation’s Report for 1931–32:

HEATON, HERBERT:  Appointed to complete collection of material in Yorkshire and London for a volume on the Industrial Revolution in the Yorkshire woolen and worsted industries; tenure, twelve months from August 1, 1931.

Born June 6, 1890, in England. Education: University of Leeds, B.A., 1911, M.A., 1912, D.Litt., 1921; University of Birmingham, M. Com., 1914.

Assistant Lecturer in Economics, 1912–14, University of Birmingham; Lecturer in History and Economics, 1914-16, University of Tasmania; Lecturer in Economics, 1917-25, University of Adelaide; Head of Department of Economic and Political Science, 1925-27, Queen’s University, Canada; Professor of Economic History, 1927—, University of Minnesota.

Publications:  History of the Yorkshire Woolen and Worsted Industries from the Earliest Times to the Industrial Revolution, 1920;  Modern Economic History, with Special Reference to Australia, 1921. Articles in Thoresby Society Transactions, Economic Journal, Journal of Economic and Business History, Economic History Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Australian Economic Record, American Economic Review, Dalhousie Review, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, Journal of Canadian Bankers Association, Queen’s Quarterly, Minnesota History, Virginia Quarterly Review. Contributor to Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences.

Source (also source of the image): John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Fellows page for Herbert Heaton.

 

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United States. Courses of Study of Political Economy. 1876 and 1892-93.

 

The first article in the inaugural issue of The Journal of Political Economy, “Courses of Study in Political Economy in the United States in 1876 and in 1892-93,” was written by the founding head of the University of Chicago’s department of political economy, J. Laurence Laughlin. This post provides Laughlin’s appendix that provided information about economics courses taught in 65 colleges/universities in the United States during the last quarter of the 19th century. The bottom line of the table is that “aggregate hours of instruction in 1892-3 [were] more than six times the hours of instruction given in 1876”.

__________________________

How little Political Economy and Finance were taught only fifteen years ago, as compared with the teaching of to-day, must be surprising even to those who have lived and taught in the subject during that period…. At the close of the war courses of economic study had practically no existence in the university curriculum; in short, the studious pursuit of economics in our universities is scarcely twenty years old. These considerations alone might be reasons why economic teaching has not yet been able to color the thinking of our more than sixty millions of people. But about the close of the first century of our national existence it may be said that the study of Political Economy entered upon a new and striking development. This is certainly the marked characteristic of the study of Political Economy in the last fifteen years. How great this has been may be seen from the tables giving the courses of study, respectively, in about 60 institutions in the year 1876 and in 1892-3. (See Appendix I.) The aggregate hours of instruction in 1892-3 are more than six times the hours of instruction given in 1876.” [Laughlin, p. 4]

__________________________

Courses of Study in Political Economy in the United States in 1876 and in 1892-93.

Note: Returns could not be obtained from Johns Hopkins University, Amherst College, and some other institutions.

Institution.

Description of Courses.

1876.

1892-3.

No. hours per week.

No. weeks in year. No. hours per week.

No. weeks in year.

University of Alabama.

Text Book and Lectures, Senior Year

Finance and Taxation

4

2

36

36

[Total hours of instruction per year] 216
Boston University. Principles of Political Economy 3 20
[Total hours of instruction per year] 60
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.

Elementary (Required)

Advanced (Elective)

5

14

4

4

12

10

[Total hours of instruction per year] 70 88
Brown University, Providence, R. I.

Elementary

History of Econ. Thought

Advanced Course

[2nd] Advanced Course

Seminary of History, Pol. Sci., and Pol. Econ.

16-17

3

3

3

3

2

33-34

11-12

11

11

23

[Total hours of instruction per year] 40-42½ 242-250
University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. 1.     Introductory Political Economy

2.     Descriptive Political Economy

3.     Advanced Political Economy

4.     Industrial and Economic History

5.     Scope and Method

6.     History of Political Economy

7.     Unsettled Problems

8.     Socialism

9.     Social Economics

10.   Practical Economics

11.   Statistics

12.   Railway Transportation

13.   Tariff History of U.S.

14.   Financial History of U.S.

15.   Taxation

16.   Public Debts

17.   Seminary

5

4

5

4

4

5

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

12

12

12

24

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

12

36

[Total hours of instruction per year] 996
Colby University, Waterville, Maine.

Elementary [1st]

Elementary [2nd]

Theoretical

Historical

5

7

2

2

4

4

13

10

13

10

[Total hours of instruction per year] 35 138
Columbia College (School of Political Science, New York City. 1.     Principles of Political Economy (Element.)

2.     Historical Practical Political Economy (Advanced)

3.     History of Economic Theory (Advanced)

4.     Public Finance (Adv.)

5.     Railroad Problems (Adv.)

6.     Finan. History of U.S. (Adv.)

7.     Tariff History of U.S. (Adv.)

8.     Science of Statistics (Adv.)

9.     Communism and Socialism (Adv.)

10.   Taxation and Distribution (Adv.)

11.   Seminarium in Political Economy (Element.)

12.   Seminarium in Public Finance and Economy (Adv.)

13.   Law of Taxation (Adv.)

3 and 5, 6 and 7, 8 and 9
given in alternate years.

2

 

 

 

17

 

 

 

2

 

3

2

 

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

 

 

2

2

17

 

34

34

 

34

25

34

17

34

34

17

34

 

34

17

[Total hours of instruction per year] 34 764
Columbian University, Washington, D.C. Elements of Political Economy 5 8
[Total hours of instruction per year] 40
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 1.     Elementary Political Economy

2.     Advanced Political Economy

3.     Finance

4.     Financial History

5.     Railroad Problems

6.     Currency and Banking

7.     Economic History

8.     Statistics

2

11

3

2

2

2

2

2

2

1

34

34

34

13

11

10

34

34

[Total hours of instruction per year] 22 408
Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. 1.     Elementary

2.     Advanced

3.     Advanced Finance and Tariff

6

6

6

6

6

6 2/3

4 1/6

3 1/3

[Total hours of instruction per year] 36 85
University of Denver, Col. 1.     Ely’s Introduction

2.     Ingram’s History

3.     Gilman’s Profit-Sharing

4.     Ely, Labor Movement in America

5.     Kirkup’s and Rae’s Socialism

6.     Finance and Taxation

7.     International Commerce

2

1

1

2

2

4

2

15

5

5

5

5

5

5

[Total hours of instruction per year] 90
DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.

Economics (Elementary)

Seminarium (Advanced)

4

12

4

2

18

36

[Total hours of instruction per year] 48 144
Drury College, Springfield, Mo. Elementary Course 5 6 5 12
[Total hours of instruction per year] 30 60
Emory College, Oxford, Ga. Jevons’ Text, and Lectures. 5 12
[Total hours of instruction per year] 60
Franklin and Marshall College. Political Economy, (Walker’s) 2 15 2 20
[Total hours of instruction per year] 30 40
Georgetown College, Ky. 1.     General Economics

2.     Special Topics

5

15

3

3

20

20

[Total hours of instruction per year] 75 120
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 1.     Introductory

2.     Theory (Advanced)

3.     Economic History from 1763

4.     Railway Transportation

5.     Tariff History of U.S.

6.     Taxation and Public Debts

7.     Financial Hist. of U.S.

8.     Condition of Workingmen

9.     Economic Hist. to 1763

10.   History of Theory to Adam Smith

Seminary

3

3

30

30

3

3

3

3

2

3

2

3

3

2

2

30

30

30

15

15

30

15

30

30

15

30

[Total hours of instruction per year] 180 735
Haverford College, Pa. Economic Theory 2 40
[Total hours of instruction per year] 80
Howard University, Washington, D. C. Elementary 5 10 5 10
[Total hours of instruction per year] 50 50
Illinois College and Whipple Academy, Jacksonville, Ill. Newcomb’s Polit. Economy, Seniors 5 15
[Total hours of instruction per year] 75
University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill. Senior Class 5 11 5 11
[Total hours of instruction per year] 55 55
Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa.

Political Economy

Taxation

Railroad Problems

Socialism

5

10

3

3

3

3

37

14

12

11

[Total hours of instruction per year] 50 222
State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

Elements of Economics

Currency and Banking

Industrial Revolutions of 18th Century

Recent Econ. History and Theory

Railroads, Pub. Regulation of

Seminary in Polit. Econ.

5

 

14

 

5

5

2

 

2

2

1

14

11

14

 

11

10

35

[Total hours of instruction per year] 70 230
Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kan. Elementary, 4th year 5 8 5 11
[Total hours of instruction per year] 40 55
Kansas State University, Lawrence, Kansas. 1.     Elements of Political Economy

2.     Applied Economics

3.     Statistics

4.     Land Tenures

5.     Finance

5

19

5

3

2

2

2

19

19

19

19

19

[Total hours of instruction per year] 95 266
Lake Forest University, Lake Forest, Ill. 1.     Elementary

2.     Advanced

3

11

3

3

16

13

[Total hours of instruction per year] 33 87
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. 1.     Political Economy, Elem., Junior Year

2.     Financial Hist. of U.S., Jun. and Sen. Year

3.     Taxation, Junior and Senior Year

4.     History of Commerce

5.     History of Industry, Junior and Senior Year.

6.     Socialism, etc. (Option), Jun. and Sen. Year

7.     History of Economic Theory (Opt.), Senior

8.     Statistics and Graphic Methods, Junior

9.     Statistics and Sociology (Option) Senior

2

 

 

 

15

 

 

 

3

3

 

3

3

 

3

2

 

2

3

15

15

 

15

15

 

15

15

 

15

15

[Total hours of instruction per year] 30 375
Michigan Agricultural College. Primary Course 5 12
[Total hours of instruction per year] 60
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 1.     Elements of Political Economy

2.     Elements of Political Economy

3.     Hist. Devel. of Industr. Society

4.     Finance

5.     Problems in Pol. Econ

6.     Transportation Problem

7.     Land Tenure and Agrarian Movements

8.     Socialism and Communism

9.     Currency and Banking

10.   Tariff History of U.S.

11.   Indust. and Comm. Develop. of U.S.

12.   History of Pol. Econ.

13.   Statistics

15.   Economic Thought

16.   Labor and Monopoly Problems

17.   Seminary in Finance

18.   Seminary in Economics

20.   Social Philosophy with Economic Relations

21.   Current Econ. Legislation and Literature

 

18

 

3

4

3

4

4

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

1

1

1

2

2

1

 

2

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

18

 

18

[Total hours of instruction per year] 45 756
Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont. 1.     Elementary (Junior Class)

2.     Advanced (Senior Class)

3.     Finance (Senior Class)

4.     Seminary

4

4

10

10

3

2

2

1

35

21

14

21

[Total hours of instruction per year] 80 196
University of Minnesota. 1.     Elementary

2.     Advanced

3.     Am. Pub. Economy

4.     Undergraduate Seminary

5.     Graduate Seminary

5

13

4

4

4

2

1

13

13

10

23

36

[Total hours of instruction per year] 65 226
University of Mississippi, University, Miss. Advanced 5 30
[Total hours of instruction per year] 150
Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.

Polit. Econ. (General)

Polit. Econ. Seminary

4

2

12

12

[Total hours of instruction per year] 72
College of New Jersey at Princeton.

Pol. Econ. (Elem., Elective)

Pol. Econ. (Elem., Required)

Finance (Elective)

Historics—Econ. Semin.

2

13

2

2

2

16

16

15

[Total hours of instruction per year] 26 94
College of the City of New York. 16
[Total hours of instruction per year] 48*
New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Hanover, N. H. Elementary—Perry or Walker 4 10-12 5 10
[Total hours of instruction per year] 48 50
Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. 1.     Elementary Polit. Econ.

2.     Advanced Polit. Econ.

3.     Finance

4.     History Econ. Thought

5.     Economic and Social Problems

6.     “Money,” etc.

5

12

5

5

3

3

3

2

11

12

25

13

12

36

[Total hours of instruction per year] 60 337
Ohio State University.

Elementary

Advanced

Finance

Seminary (Indust. History)

2

2

2

2

38

26

12

38

[Total hours of instruction per year] 228
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio. 4 12 4 12
[Total hours of instruction per year] 48 48
Penn. Military Academy, Chester, Penn. Elementary 5 13
[Total hours of instruction per year] 65
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton, School of Finance and Economy, Philadelphia, Penn. 1.     Grad. Course in Finance

2.     Grad. Course in Theoretical Polit. Econ.

3.     Grad. Course in Statistics

4.     Elem. Course in Finance

5.     Elem. Course in Theoret. Polit. Econ.

6.     Elem. Course in Statistics

7.     Elem. Course in Practical Polit. Econ.

8.     Course in Money

9.     Course in Banking

10.   Advanced Course in Political Economy

11.   Economic History of Europe

12.   Grad. Course in Practical Polit. Econ.

13.   Econ. and Fin. History of U.S.

14.   Grad. Econ. History of the U.S.

15.   Grad. English Econ. History from 13th to 17th century

16.   Modern Econ. History.

 

 

1

2

3

3

2

2

2

2

1

2

3

2

2

4

 

3

3

30

30

30

30

30

15

15

15

30

30

30

30

30

30

 

30

30

[Total hours of instruction per year] 1020
Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. Elementary Course 3 19
[Total hours of instruction per year] 57
Randolph Macon College, Ashland, Va. Elementary 2 32 2 32
[Total hours of instruction per year] 64 64
University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.

Elementary

Econ. Polit. History U.S.

5

14

5

1

14

20

[Total hours of instruction per year] 70 90
Rutger’s College. Polit. Econ. (Elementary) 3 12 4 22
[Total hours of instruction per year] 36 88
Smith College, Northampton, Mass.

Elementary Course

Adv. Course in Theory

Seminarium

Practical Studies

3

12

3

3

2

2

14

14

10

12

[Total hours of instruction per year] 36 128
South Carolina College, Columbia, S.C.

Polit. Econ. Senior Class

Applied Polit. Econ.

2

2

40

20

[Total hours of instruction per year] 120
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Penn.

Polit. Econ. (Walker)

Finance

Protection and Free Trade

Money and Banking

History of Econ. Theories

4

4

4

4

4

20

10

10

10

10

[Total hours of instruction per year] 240
Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.

Elementary

Finance

Industrial Development since 1850

Seminary

3

2

2

2

14

10

12

38

[Total hours of instruction per year] 162
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.

Elementary

Advanced (Post-Graduate)

3

2

20

Varies

[Total hours of instruction per year] 100?
University of Texas, Austin, Texas. General 3 36
[Total hours of instruction per year] 108
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.

Elementary

Advanced

Finance

4

13

3

4

2

17

17

17

[Total hours of instruction per year] 52 153
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

Political Economy, Elementary

Political Economy, Advanced

3

36

3

3

36

36

[Total hours of instruction per year] 108 216
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York.

Principles of Economics

Economic History

Railroads, Trusts, and Relation of State to Monopolies

Labor Problem and Socialism

Seminary

 

 

3

3

2

 

2

2

18

18

18

 

18

18

[Total hours of instruction per year] 216
University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.

Elementary

Advanced

3

2

20

20

[Total hours of instruction per year] 100
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

Theory of Economics

Science of Society

3

26

3

16

16

[Total hours of instruction per year] 78 88
Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pa. Political Economy 3 11 3 16
[Total hours of instruction per year] 33 48
Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.

Elementary

Advanced

3

3

14

26

[Total hours of instruction per year] 120
Washington University, St. Louis. Prescribed Course 3 20 3 20
[Total hours of instruction per year] 60 60
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.

Industrial History

Economic Theory

Statistics (Seminary)

Socialism (Seminary)

3

3

3

3

18

18

18

18

[Total hours of instruction per year] 216
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.

General Introductory (Sen.)

General Introductory (Jun.)

Economic Problems

36

2

3

2

36

18

36

[Total hours of instruction per year] 54 198
West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Elementary Pol. Economy

Advanced Pol. Economy

2

2

14

36

[Total hours of instruction per year] 100
Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. Political Economy 6 14 3 15
[Total hours of instruction per year] 84 45
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.

Econ. Seminary

Distribution of Wealth

History of Pol. Econ.

Money

Public Finance

Statistics

Recent Econ. Theories

Synoptical Lectures

Outlines of Economics

2

5

5

5

3

3

3

1

4

37

14½

12

10½

37

12

14½

15

37

[Total hours of instruction per year] 612½
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Pol. Econ.**—Elem. (2)

Pol. Econ.—Adv. (3)

Economic History (2)

Finance, Public (2)

Finance, Corporate (2)

Mathematical Theory (1)

Seminary Instruction (2)

3

2

 

36

36

36

4

3

4

2

3

1

1

36

36

36

36

36

36

36

[Total hours of instruction per year] 180 648

* [College of the City of New York] A few hours additional are given in the work of the Department of Philosophy; the whole number amounting to some 52 or 53.

** [Yale University] Figures in brackets represent numbers of courses under each head.

SourceAppendix I to “The Study of Political Economy in the United States” by J. Laurence Laughlin, The Journal of Political Economy, vol. 1, no. 1 (December, 1892), pp. 143-151.

Image Source:  J. Laurence Laughlin drawn in the University of Chicago yearbook Cap and Gown (1907), p. 208.

 

 

Categories
Chicago Columbia Economists Gender Minnesota Social Work

Columbia. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus Max Ira West, 1893.

 

 

Max Ira West (b. Nov. 11, 1870 in St. Cloud, MN; d. Jan 7, 1909 in Washington, D.C.) entered government service relatively soon after being awarded his Ph.D. in economics at Columbia University with a dissertation on the inheritance tax. He was a student of E.R.A. Seligman. West died at age 38, leaving a wife and five children. 

Max West and his future wife Mary Mills were fellow officers of the University of Minnesota’s Class of 1890. She was the designated class “prophet” and he served as the class “statistician”. Max was a professional economist of the family and rightly the main subject of this post. Max’s widow deserves some mention in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror for her later work. Mary attained great prominence for her pamphlets on pre-natal and infant care for the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor that were analogous to Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care for later generations of parents. The Children’s Bureau was an absorbing state for the careers of many a professional woman economist of the time.

________________________

Announcement of death of Max Ira West

The following communication with reference to the unfortunate death of Dr. Max West is printed at the request of the committee whose names appear below:

The members of the Association have no doubt read of the recent death, under most unfortunate circumstances, of Dr. Max West, of the Bureau of Corporations, Department of Labor, Washington, D. C.

Dr. West died after a short illness, a slight cold developing into pneumonia. He has left a wife and five children, ranging from thirteen years to only nine months, with no visible means of support, save a very small annuity terminable in ten years. Friends in Washington have contributed a considerable sum for immediate needs, including the expenses pertaining to Dr. West’s sickness and death, and have secured for Mrs. West a temporary position in the Government, which we hope will become a permanent position. This, with the closest economy, will enable Mrs. West to look after the bare physical needs of her five little children, but will leave no margin at all either for education or for contingencies.

It has therefore occurred to us and to some of the other friends of Dr. West that it might be possible to solicit and collect a fund for such a purpose. It is hoped to raise a fund of at least $5000. The suggestion is to be sent to all those who may be supposed to have known Dr. West personally, or to be in sympathy with the scholarly work for which he stood, and the committee will be very glad to receive any subscriptions that you may deem fit to make.

Checks may be sent to Mr. Edwin R. A. Seligman, at No. 324 West 86th street, New York, who has consented to act as treasurer for the committee.

Respectfully yours,

EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, Columbia University.

JACOB H. HOLLANDER, Johns Hopkins University.

E. DANA DURAND, Dept. of Commerce and Labor, Washington.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Dr. Max West died of pneumonia at his home in Washington, D. C., on January 7, 1909.

Dr. West was born at St. Cloud, Minnesota, in November, 1870. He was graduated from the University of Minnesota at nineteen, and went at first into newspaper work. In 1891 he went to Columbia University as a fellow in economics. There he received his master’s degree the next year, and his doctorate the year following. From 1893 to 1895 he was connected with the University of Chicago, first as an honorary fellow and then as a docent. The great railroad strike of 1894 drew him again into newspaper work; he reported it for the Chicago Herald. In 1895 he was an editorial writer for the Chicago Record. During the academic year 1895-1896 he lectured at Columbia.

In 1896 he entered the government service, to which the rest of his life was chiefly devoted. For four years he was connected with the Division of Statistics of the Department of Agriculture, and for nearly two years with the Industrial Commission. During the latter part of this period, from 1900 to 1902, he was also associate professor of economics in Columbian University, Washington, and in 1902 he again lectured at Columbia. In that year he became assistant registrar of the Tenement House Department of New York City. In 1903 he went to Porto Rico as chief of the island Bureau of Internal Revenue. His health did not permit him to continue there, and in 1904 he returned to Washington as a special examiner of the Bureau of Corporations. Here he remained until his death.

Dr. West’s chief published work was The Inheritance Tax, which appeared in 1893, was translated into French in 1895, and was republished in a revised and enlarged edition in 1907. A projected work, entitled Principles of Taxation, is left unfinished. He wrote many articles for periodicals, dealing oftenest with taxation, but sometimes with sociological subjects, questions of constitutional law, and other topics.

More of Dr. West’s scanty strength than he could well spare was devoted to the promotion of public well-being. During his two years in Chicago he was a resident successively of Hull House, the University of Chicago Settlement, and the Chicago Commons. At Washington he was warmly interested in social settlement work and in the Associated Charities, and he was the most active and efficient member of the Civic Center.

Source: American Economic Association, The Economic Bulletin, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Apr., 1909), pp. 12-14.

________________________

Mary Mills West, ca. 1926

The following photograph was from a short alumna feature in the University of Minnesota yearbook The Gopher (1926). It is noted there that she was a member of the class of 1890, an editor of that year’s Gopher, and a member of the Delta Sigma literary society. The entry adds:

In 1909, she entered the Government service and filled various offices for the following ten years. She took a great interest in the newly created Children’s Bureau, and while there wrote three pamphlets regarding the health and care of mothers and babies which are widely distributed throughout the United States.

Mrs. West resigned her position with the Children’s Bureau in 1919, and moved to Berkeley where she engaged in newspaper syndicate work and other writings. She is, at present, an instructor in short-story writing for the University of California, and is gaining a considerable foothold in fiction writing for herself. She recently submitted a story to the Forum short story contest of 1924 and was awarded second place by a jury of noted writers and critics.

Image Source: University of Minnesota, The Gopher, 1926, p. 181.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Production of Mary Mills West’s pamphlets

West’s publications became the best-selling pamphlets of the Government Printing Office in the 1910s. The first edition of West’s pamphlet, Prenatal Care, sold out in two months. Only six months later, the Bureau had distributed 30,000 coopies and could have sent out twice that number but for the inability of the printeres to keep up with the demand. …Nearly a million and a half copies of West’s second pamphlet, Infant Care, were disseminated between 1914 and 1921.

Source:  Robyn Muncy. Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform, 1890-1935 (Oxford University Press, 1991) p. 55.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Children’s Bureau Publications of Mary Mills West

(with Nettie McGill) Child-Welfare Programs: Study Outlines for the Use of Clubs and Classes. U.S. Department of Labor, Children’s Bureau. Bureau Publication No. 73, Children’s Year Follow-up Series, No. 7. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1920.

Prenatal Care. Care of Children Series, No. 1 Children’s Bureau Publication No. 4. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1913.

Infant Care. Care of Children Series, No. 2 Children’s Bureau Publication No. 8 (Revised) Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921. (first published in 1914)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Mary Mills West’s obituary

Mrs. Mary West, Writer, Dies at 88

BERKELEY, Aug. 13. Mrs. Mary Mills West, whose pamphlets’ on infants and children’s care have been distributed by the United States Children’s Bureau to millions of American homes, died here yesterday. Her home was at 549 Santa Barbara Road.

Mrs. West, 88, was the widow of Dr. Max West, an economic consultant for the U.S. Departments of Labor and Commerce. She became associated with the Children’s Bureau when it was organized in 1915. After moving to Berkeley 30 years ago, she was associated with the University of California Extension Division as a writing instructor.

Surviving Mrs. West are two daughters, Mrs. W. R. Lorimer of Honolulu and Mrs. Charles Manson of Wausau, Wis., and a son, Philip S. West of Berkeley. Three grandchildren also survive.

Funeral services will be held at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow; in the Berkeley Hills Chapel, Shattuck Ave. and Cedar St .The Rev. Ray L. Wells, assistant pastor of the First Congregational Church, will officiate.

SourceOakland Tribune (Oakland, California), August 3, 1955, p. 30.

________________________

Image Source: Alumnus feature on Max West published in University of Minnesota, The Gopher, 1896, p. 133.

 

 

Categories
Courses Minnesota

Minnesota. Proposal for Seminar on Business Cycles. Friedman, 1945-46

The format of the following seminar proposal matches exactly the template also used for the National Income and Product Accounting course taught by Milton Friedman at the University of Minnesota, 1946. The folder the proposal is found in was incorrectly labelled “University of Chicago. Seminar on Business Cycles” in Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution Archives. I still need to check whether this seminar was approved and actually taught.

One can hear in this proposal the rumblings of the future debate to be initiated by Tjalling Koopmans in his 1947 paper, “Measurement without Theory”  One can speculate where Friedman stood with respect to the opposite extremes in empirical business cycle research at this time.

Also of interest is his paragraph on the importance of lags in the implementation of stabilisation policy.

___________________

Description of Proposed Course: “Seminar on Business Cycles”

  1. Purpose: To supplement the existing one-quarter course in business cycles, thereby enabling graduate students to get a fuller training in current work on cyclical fluctuations.
  2. Content: The course would deal primarily with empirical work on cyclical fluctuations and with proposals for the control of cycles. A cursory acquaintance with the leading theories of cyclical fluctuations would be assumed. Analysis of the bearing of empirical findings on the validity of the various theories, and consideration of the theoretical assumptions implicit in proposed measures for mitigating cyclical fluctuations would provide an opportunity for more intensive discussion of the various theories. The following three paragraphs indicate in somewhat more detail the range of topics to be covered:
    1. Description of cyclical fluctuations

The students would study actual time series covering a variety of economic activities; they would attempt to isolate and to date cyclical fluctuations in these series. The aim would be to give a realistic picture of the temporal behavior of economic activity; to bring home the diversity of movement; to exorcise the naïve notion that cyclical movements consist of clearly delineated synchronous, and uninterrupted upward and downward movements in practically all sectors of economic activity; and to leave with the student a knowledge of the character and timing of the business cycles in this country during the past few decades.

    1. Empirical studies of cyclical fluctuations

The emphasis under this topic would be on both techniques of studying cyclical fluctuations and the substantive findings of various investigators. At least two techniques would be considered: (1) the National Bureau technique; (2) the technique of constructing a system of simultaneous difference equations from statistical data (e.g. Tinbergen’s work). The reason for choosing these is that they represent techniques at opposite extremes; the guiding principle of the Bureau technique is to describe the facts compactly and exactly without departing from them, at least in the initial stages of the work; the guiding principle of the simultaneous equations technique is to replace the facts by a mathematical model as early in the analysis as possible.

  1. Measures for controlling cyclical fluctuations

A variety of proposals would be considered. The discussion of each would include analysis of the theoretical assumptions underlying it, the practical problems involved, and the empirical evidence, if any, on its possible success. The success of most of the measures depends critically on (1) the lag between the need for action and the recognition of the need (2) the lag between the action and its results. Some attention will therefore be given to the possibility of forecasting and to possible lags between action and effect.

  1. Title: “Seminar on Business Cycles”
  2. Prerequisites: B.A. 112, Econ. 149, B.A. 101-102.
  3. Duration: Two quarters

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers. Box 76, Folder  3 “University of Chicago [sic]. ‘Seminar on Business Cycles’”.

Image Source: Milton Friedman in 1947 at the founding meeting of the Mt. Pelerin Society. Collected Works of Milton Friedman website at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Categories
Exam Questions Minnesota Suggested Reading Syllabus

Minnesota. Readings and Final Exam for National Income and Wealth. Friedman, 1946

 

 

The course materials transcribed for this post are found in a folder in Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution with the label “University of Chicago. Econ 129”. The handwriting on the folder is that of an archivist (i.e. not Friedman) and the material in the folder is neither dated nor can the name of the university be found. The most recent publication included in the reading list is from February 1946 (“Recent Figures…”). Also there is an item in the reading list “Blakey et al., Analyses of Minnesota Incomes, Parts One and Two” that points to the state of Minnesota. Milton Friedman did teach economics and statistics at the University of Minnesota for the academic year 1945-46 and no graduate course at the University of Chicago had a course number in the 100’s. Further, the academic calendar in Minnesota, like Chicago, followed a quarter system. Thus it seems almost certain that we are dealing with a course that Milton Friedman taught at the University of Minnesota during the latter quarters of the 1945-46 academic year. I don’t have access to the course catalogue from Minnesota for that year, so this should be easy to verify conclusively down the road.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

O-M [typed in the upper left corner]

Description of proposed course in “Statistical Economics”

  1. Purpose: The course proposed is designed primarily to provide training in the quantitative analysis of economic problems. As a by-product it should also acquaint the student with some coherent body of quantitative data and some important empirical studies.
  2. Content: The emphasis in the course would be on research method: the utilization of statistical data, statistical method, and theoretical analysis to attack an economic problem. The approach to method would be via substantive empirical work in particular fields. The fields considered would shift from quarter to quarter.

For the first quarter, it is proposed to consider.

National Income and Wealth: concepts of income and wealth—problems of valuation, treatment of government contribution and of gifts, capital gains, and other borderline items; problems of measurement—techniques of measurement, sources of data, estimates for segments of the economy for which data are scanty, precision of estimates; distribution of income by industry, type of payment, final product, and region; distribution of income and wealth by size; uses and misuses of income and wealth data.

Basic text material: Simon Kuznets, National Income and its Composition; Studies in Income and Wealth; Consumer Incomes in the United States; Department of Commerce publications and British white papers on national income.

For subsequent quarters, possible topics are:

Secular movements: Statistical studies of long-run changes in economic activity in the United States; examination of evidence bearing on “mature economy” or “stagnation” thesis.

Economies of scale: Empirical work on the relation of the size of enterprises to their economic efficiency, including conceptual problems in measuring economic efficiency and in distinguishing private from social economics of scale, statistical derivation of cost curves, and studies of profits in relation to size of enterprise.

  1. Potential students: Seniors and graduate students, particularly those interested in economic research
  2. Prerequisites: B.A. 101-102; B.A. 112. Undergraduates with consent of instructor..
  3. Duration: One quarter.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Syllabus and Readings for
Economics 129: Statistical Economics

Topic: National Income and Wealth

Note: Starred readings are required; others are recommended.

  1. Recent figures on National Income and National Products

*Survey of Current Business, February 1946, pp. 4 to 9.

  1. Concepts of National Income and Wealth

General:

*Hicks and Hart, pp. 125-232.
Kuznets, National Income and Capital Formation, pp. 1-7.
*Kuznets, National Income and its Composition, pp. 1-60.
*Hicks, Value and Capital, pp. 171-181.
Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. II, pp. 1-82; *Vol. III, Preface (vii-xv).
J.E. Meade and R. Stone, “The Construction of Tables of National Income, Expenditure, Savings and Investment”, Economic Journal, June-Sept., 1941, pp. 216-33.

Capital gains:

Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. I, pp. 97-101, 159-62.

Government Services:

Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. Two, pp. 317-27; Vol. Six, pp. 1-44.
J.R. and U.K. Hicks, “Public Finance in the National Income”, Review of Economic Studies, Feb. 1939, pp. 147-55.

  1. Concept of Gross National Product

*Gilbert and Jaszi, “National Product and Income Statistics”, Dun’s Review, 1944

  1. Measurement

*Kuznets, National Income and its Composition I, pp. 96-132, Vol. II, pp. 475-537.

  1. Correction for Price Change

*Keynes, Treatise on Money, Vol. I, pp. 95-120.
Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume II, pp. 85-135.

  1. Temporal changes in National income in the United States

*Kuznets, National Income and its Composition, pp. 135-160.
Kuznets, National Income and Capital Formation, pp. 8-11.

  1. British estimates

*British White Paper Cmd. 6623. (Reprinted in Federal Reserve Bulletin, August, 1945).

  1. Distributions of income

1.  By Industry

Kuznets, National Income and Capital Formation, pp. 12-22.
*Kuznets, National Income and its Composition, pp. 161-214.

2. By type of payment

Kuznets, National Income and Capital Formation, pp. 23-28.
*Kuznets, National Income and its Composition, pp. 215-265.

3. By Final Product

Kuznets, National Income and Capital Formation, pp. 34-57.
*Kuznets, National Income and its Composition, pp. 266-291.

4. By region

F. Schwartz, “State Income Payments in 1944”, Survey of Current Business, August 1945.

5. By size

*National Resources Committee, Consumer Incomes in the United States.
Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume V, Income Size Distributions, Part I, pp. 1-98.
Blakey et al., Analyses of Minnesota Incomes, Parts One and Two.

 

Economics 129: Statistical Economics
Books on Reserve

Main Library

R.G. Blakey, Wm. Weinfeld, J.E. Dugan, A.L. Hart, Analyses of Minnesota Incomes, 1938-39.
Clark, Colin, The Conditions of Economic Progress.
Clark, Colin, National Income and Outlay.
Fabricant, Solomon, Capital Consumption and Adjustment.
Hicks, J.R., Value and Capital.
Keynes, J.M., A Treatise on Money.
Kuznets, Simon, National Income and Capital Formations.
Kuznets, Simon, National Income and its Composition (2 Volumes).
W.C. Mitchell, W.I. Kerg, F.R. Macauley, and O.W. Knauth, Income in the United States (2 volumes).
Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth, Volumes I, II, III, V, VI.
National Resources Committee, Consumer Incomes in the United States.

Materials Room

Barger, Harold, Outlay and Income in the United States, 1921-38.
J.R. Hicks and A.G. Hart, The Social Framework of the American Economy.
Kuznets, Simon. National Income and its Composition.
Martin, R.F., National Income in the United States, 1799-1938.
Conference on Research in Income and wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth, Vol. V, Part I.

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Final Examination
Economics 129—Statistical Economics

The Income payments concept differs from national income in part…

  1. T or F…because the former excludes and the latter includes undistributed corporate profits;
  2. T or F …because relief benefits are included in the former and excluded from the latter;
  3. T or F …because food consumed on the farm is excluded from the former and included in the latter;
  4. T or F …because imputed rents are excluded from the former and included in the latter;
  5. T or F …and because social security taxes are excluded from the former and included in the latter.
  6. T or F Imputed rents are not included in the Department of Commerce estimates of national income but are include in Kuznets.
  7. T or F In a self-contained economy without government national income would equal gross national product.
  8. T or F In Commerce Department estimates the value of government product is measured by taxes except for education.
  9. T or F “Transfer payments” are gifts from one individual to another.
  10. T or F A major difference between national income and gross national product is dividend payments to foreigners.
  11. T or F The growth of Victory gardens was in part responsible for the rise of national product from 1940 to 1943.
  12. T or F Undistributed corporate profits plus individual savings equals net capital formation plus government deficit.
  13. T or F Product of non-profit institutions is valued at cost in national product.
  14. T or F Government savings in Kuznets’ estimates is measured by excess of receipts over expenditures.
  15. T or F Business taxes includes all taxes paid by business except excess profits taxes.
  16. T or F Capital outlays charged to current expense are items of fixed capital that become obsolete within the year.
  17. T or F Business savings are equal to undistributed profits plus expenditures on plant and equipment.
  18. T or F The adjustment for inventory revaluation is designed to eliminate changes in value due to spoilage, change of style, and fire losses.
  19. _____ Which of the following was not an important factor in our economic mobilization for war? [choose “a”, “b”, “c”, or “d”]
    (a) Curtailment of gross capital formation
    (b) Curtailment of consumers non-durable goods expenditures
    (c) Increase in average hours worked per week
    (d) Heavy government expenditures for plant and equipment
  20. T or F The basic source of profits estimates in the national income is Statistics of Income.
  21. T or F The method used to derive estimates of wages in manufacturing is number of employed multiplied by average wages.
  22. T or F Advertising is treated as investment in the national product.
  23. T or F In estimating wages allowance is made for expenses involved for transportation to and from work.
  24. T or F Gross capital formation includes all automobiles produced but no other consumers durable goods.
  25. T or F Capital gains and losses are not allowed for in the national income except in the case of security and commodity brokers.
  26. T or F Subsistence of the armed forces is included in the national income because war expenditures are in essence a type of capital formation.
  27. T or F National debt interest is included in the national income because of Hamilton’s theory that the debt would strengthen the union.
  28. T or F The British include interest on the national debt as a measure of the services of government property.
  29. T or F Income payments to individuals could be derived entirely by adding up income reported for tax purposes if everyone were required to file a return.
  30. T or F Size distribution of income must be based upon income payments rather than national income.
  31. T or F Intermediate government products are products on the borderline between current services and capital goods.
  32. T or F Income from illegal activities is excluded from the national income.

Given the following items:

Wages and salaries 100
Supplements to wages and salaries 3
Transfer payments (net) 4
Lend-lease shipments 10
Profits before dividends 8
Dividends 4
Interest on the national debt 2
Interest and rent 7
Business taxes 25
Income of proprietors 24
Imputed return on govt. property 1 1
Personal taxes 18
Depreciation 8
Consumers expenditures 90
Net capital formation 3
Savings bond sales 12
Subsistence to armed forces 10

33, 34, 35. _________ State amount of National Income.

36, 37, 38. _________ State amount of income payments

39, 40, 41. _________ State amount of gross national product

42, 43, 44. _________ State amount of individual savings

45, 46, 47. _________ State amount of Govt. expenditure for goods and services

48, 49, 50. _________ State amount of total government expenditures.

51, 52, 53. _________ State amount of government deficit.

  1. T or F Wealth is measured as a stock at a point in time while income is measured as a flow over a period of time.
  2. T or F Capital formation consists of all business purchases of producers goods except additions to inventory of finished consumption goods.
  3. _____ The gross national product for any year will consist of all the following items except [list all the items that are not included]—

(a) sales of single use consumer goods
(b) sales of single use producers goods
(c) change in business inventories
(d) sales of durable use consumers goods
(e) sales of durable use producers goods
(f) sales of consumers services
(g) sales of producers services

  1. T or F Omitting imputed rents from the national income results in too high an estimate of savings.
  2. T or F A gun purchased by a gangster is not included in the national product because it is for use in illegal activities.
  3. T or F Capital formation tends to fluctuate more widely over the business cycle than consumers expenditures.
  4. T or F In Kuznets’ estimates national income equals net national product.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Answer Key

  1. True;
  2. True;
  3. False;
  4. False;
  5. True;
  6. True;
  7. False;
  8. False;
  9. False;
  10. False;
  11. False;
  12. True;
  13. True;
  14. False;
  15. False;
  16. False;
  17. False;
  18. False;
  19. (b);
  20. True;
  21. False;
  22. False;
  23. False;
  24. False;
  25. True;
  26. False;
  27. False;
  28. False;
  29. False;
  30. True;
  31. False;
  32. True;

33/34/35. = 100+3+8+24+7=142;
36/37/38. = 142+4–4=142;
39/40/41. = 142+8+25=175;
42/43/44. = 142 – 18 – 90 = 34;
45/46/47. = 175–90–(3+8)  = 74;
48/49/50. =175–90–(3+8) +4 =78;
51/52/53. = 78 – 25 – 18 =35

  1. True;
  2. False;
  3. (b),(g);
  4. False;
  5. False;
  6. True;
  7. True.

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 76, Folder 5 “University of Chicago [sic], Econ 129”.

Image Source: Columbia University, Columbia 250 Celebrates Columbians Ahead of Their Time.

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U.S. Bureau of Education. Contributions to American Educational History, Herbert B. Adams (ed.), 1887-1903

 

I stumbled across this series while I was preparing the previous post on the political economy questions for the Harvard Examination for Women (1874). I figured it would be handy for me to keep a list of links to the monographs on the history of higher education in 35 of the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. Maybe this collection will help you too.

Contributions to American Educational History, edited by Herbert B. Adams

  1. The College of William and Mary. Herbert B. Adams (1887)
  2. Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. Herbert B. Adams (1888)
  3. History of Education in North Carolina. Charles L. Smith (1888)
  4. History of Higher Education in South Carolina. C. Meriwether (1889)
  5. Education in Georgia. Charles Edgeworth Jones (1889)
  6. Education in Florida. George Gary Bush (1889)
  7. Higher Education in Wisconsin. William F. Allen and David E. Spencer (1889)
  8. History of Education in Alabama. Willis G. Clark (1890).
  9. History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education. Frank W. Blackmar (1890)
  10. Higher Education in Indiana. James Albert Woodburn (1891).
  11. Higher Education in Michigan. Andrew C. McLaughlin. (1891)
  12. History of Higher Education in Ohio. George W. Knight and John R. Commons (1891)
  13. History of Higher Education in Massachusetts. George Gary Bush (1891)
  14. The History of Education in Connecticut. Bernard C. Steiner (1893)
  15. The History of Education in Delaware. Lyman P. Powell (1893)
  16. Higher Education in Tennessee. Lucius Salisbury Merriam (1893)
  17. Higher Education in Iowa. Leonard F. Parker (1893)
  18. History of Higher Education in Rhode Island. William Howe Tolman (1894)
  19. History of Education in Maryland. Bernard C. Steiner (1894).
  20. History of Education in Lousiana. Edwin Whitfield Fay (1898).
  21. Higher Education in Missouri. Marshall S. Snow (1898)
  22. History of Education in New Hampshire. George Gary Bush (1898)
  23. History of Education in New Jersey. David Murray (1899).
  24. History of Education in Mississippi. Edward Mayes (1899)
  25. History of Higher Education in Kentucky. Alvin Fayette Lewis (1899)
  26. History of Education in Arkansas. Josiah H. Shinn (1900)
  27. Higher Education in Kansas. Frank W. Blackmar (1900)
  28. The University of the State of New York. History of Higher Education in the State of New York. Sidney Sherwood (1900)
  29. History of Education in Vermont. George Gary Bush (1900)
  30. History of Education in West Virginia. A. R. Whitehill (1902)
  31. The History of Education in Minnesota. John N. Greer (1902)
  32. Education in Nebraska. Howard W. Caldwell (1902)
  33. A History of Higher Education in Pennsylvania. Charles H. Haskins and William I. Hull (1902)
  34. History of Higher Education in Colorado. James Edward Le Rossignol (1903)
  35. History of Higher Education in Texas. J. J. Lane (1903)
  36. History of Higher Education in Maine. Edward W. Hall (1903)

Image Source: Cropped from portrait of Herbert Baxter Adams ca. 1890s. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

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Economist Market Funny Business Minnesota

Minnesota. Parody letters of recommendation. Bronfenbrenner, ca. 1961

 

To achieve a cultural understanding of modern economics, samples of successful and unsuccessful attempts at humor by economists are valuable artifacts seeking proper interpretation. The following five parody letters of recommendation were written by an economist for whom I have achieved a sort of archival sympathy. The reader can imagine my surprise upon transcribing (especially) letter II below that casts a fairly unflattering light on its author (even allowing for his genuine satiric intent seen in the letters regarded as a whole). 

Without apologies, dear colleagues, five teachable moments….

____________________

MEMORANDUM

To: Staff and Nonsense [presumably a joke at the expense of “Non-staff”], School of Business Administration, University of Minnesota
From: Administrative Assistant to the Assistant Administrator.

Subject: Letters of Recommendation.

The silly season is once more with us, when letters of recommendation are composed in connection with teaching and other positions. Five model forms are presented below. You will note that they are more than perfunctory, and show sincere interest in the candidates being recommended.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

I

Chairman, Department of Economics
Valley University
Death Valley, Cal.

Dear Sir:

We appreciate your inquiry regarding Dr. Wilfred (“Solid-State 880”) Jones in connection with a teaching position in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics at your eminent institution.

Minnesota is proud of Dr. Jones. In his graduate education we have established a record high marginal rate of substitution of mathematical training for native intelligence. Mr. Jones’ I.Q. was only 70 when he enrolled here. It has since been lowered systematically by special courses from the illiterate Japanese statisticians Mekura, Tsumbo, and Oshi in Summer Institutes at Swineford University. Dr. Jones has nevertheless produced a truly outstanding dissertation on the logical and topological foundations of strabismic [visual defect when both eyes are unable to focus together on an object due to an imbalance of the eye muscles] utility. This masterpiece, written under Professor Haffwitz’ [“half-wit”] O.N.R. research grant, explains not only the purchase of naval surplies [sic, either “supplies” or “surplus” or a deliberate synthesis] by cross-eyed and schizophrenic naval officers, but also the consumer behavior of civilian Siamese Twins.

The psychological trauma and Parrot Fever [disease humans can catch by inhaling bacteria from shed bird-feathers] involved in this accomplishment by a man with Dr. Jones’ handicaps have had their effects upon his personality. He started his graduate career a typical dead fish [a cold, nonresponsive person] wrapped in wet blankets [as in a wet blanket used to smother a fire, i.e. a kill-joy]. As his nickname indicates, he has been accused of becoming a desiccated robot, but we can assure you that he is not only clinically alive but likely to remain so for some time.

There are certain definite advantages to Valley University in employing Dr. Jones. Since he can no longer talk, there is no need to stockpile other econometricians or mathematical economists for him to talk to. Also, unlike many new Ph.D.s completely helpless without electronic computers, Dr. Jones can and does count on his fingers. (Also on his toes, when his shoes and stockings are taken off.)

We have humanitarian reasons for wishing particularly to place Dr. Jones at Valley University. The rigor of his Minnesota training has impaired his ability to come in out of the rain, but it never rains in Death Valley.

Cordially yours,

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

II

Head, Division of Social Studies and Humanities
Everglades College and Seminary
Dismal Swamp, Fla.

Dear Sir:

Minnesota is delighted to hear of your interest in our Mr. Ebenezer Akubongo to teach Social Science, Economic Principles, Economic Development, Alligator Husbandry, and allied subjects at Everglades. Mr. Akubongo is perhaps the most under-developed economist in any American graduate school, just as Everglades is the most under-developed college in the country. Mr. Akubongo and Everglades fit each other very well, especially since, you tell us, Immigration Service agents have been unable to penetrate the Everglades as far as Dismal Swamp. It would be to everyone’s advantage, we are sure, for you to modify your segregationist policies in Mr. Akubongo’ s favor provided that, as you propose, he assumes full-time janitorial responsibilities in addition to your customary 24-hour weekly teaching load.

Mr. Akubongo was born in Karra-Wanga, one of the Cannibal Islands. Well-intentioned missionaries secured him a scholarship to the Minnesota Bible College in Minneapolis, but he found himself on the wrong side of University Avenue and enrolled here instead. (We have not yet determined why the University admitted him.)

Mr. Akubongo’s Americanization has been proceeding apace for the past decade. He now wears shoes and headgear habitually during the winter months. His few recent reversions into cannibalism have been inspired by succulent milk-fed Minnesotans under the age of five. (We have no evidence that he would eat a Florida Cracker [Note: not necessarily intended as a racial epithet for a white person. Apparently also a self-description by families having lived generations in Florida] or Seminole Indian of any age, but perhaps you should pay him somewhat above the usual church-related-college scale, for insurance purposes.) Although he still has communication difficulties with others, we have reason to believe that Mr. Akubongo himself understands more than half of what he says in English. After bringing to this country his wife and four children, Mr. Akubongo was passed in his M.A. examinations on his third attempt. He now has two wives and eight children, and may pass his Ph.D. examinations on his nth attempt. His thesis, however, will be delayed until September, as explained below.

Mr. Akubongo is writing his doctoral thesis on the Economic Development of Karra-Wanga, and has been waiting for Karra-Wangan source materials. Their receipt involves certain difficulties; Analgesic [drug to relieve pain], the literary language of Karra-Wanga, has not been reduced to writing. Mr. Akubongo, however, is willing to compose his own source materials to whatever extent necessary to meet a reasonable thesis deadline.

In reply to your query regarding Mr. Akubongo’s loyalty to the Free Market and the American Way of Life, we doubt that Mr. Akubongo has ever had any ideas of any kind relating to these subjects. If he had, he could express them only in Karra-Wangan, which could not be understood by your students, trustees, and American Legion post. Your cherished traditions of economic freedom (which Minnesota shares with you) are therefore entirely consistent with your employment of Ebenezer Akubongo.

Sincerely yours,

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

III

Dean, School of Business
Hog Hollow State College
Hog Hollow, Mo.

Dear Mr. Dean:

We hear you have a vacancy in General Business, and present the name of Mr. August Dummkopf Sitzfleisch as the most vacant candidate available here or anywhere else. Gus’ devotion to Business and Education may be known to you, since your school is largely responsible for him. Unable to qualify as an Office Boy after High School graduation, he tried twice more after B.S.B. [probably “Bull-shit Bachelor”] and M.B.A. degrees from Hog Hollow State. Two more failures discouraged him not; Gus will receive his Ph.D. in Business Administration at Minnesota this June, but his age now disqualifies him for Office Boy positions and he plans to teach instead. We feel that you should have the first opportunity to hire Gus, since it was your recommendation which first won him admission to our doctoral program. If you do not hire him, we should be glad to do so ourselves—except for our reluctance to inbreed. This leaves the C.I.A. and F.B.I. as Gus’ last resorts, if you reject him now.

Gus’ record in useless abstract theory has, we admit, not been exactly outstanding but even here his manner of expressing himself has won widespread admiration. Whatever he says and writes in such courses manifests the usual effects of overindulgence in alcohol and opium derivatives, but Gus has satisfied our Dean of Students, our Health Service Psychiatrist, and several campus clergymen that the cause is pure and simple confusion! Gus has done better in such applied courses as Salesmanship, Office-Boymanship, Pickpocketry, Embezzlement, and Fraud. He has worked his way through school by practical experience in certain of these fields, and become a specialist in the production and distribution of automobile license plates in several communities. [i.e., has served time in prison, manufacturing license plates]

Gus’ Ph.D. thesis leans heavily, we are proud to say, on Professor Sodapopopoulos [“Soda-pop”-opoulos] famous course in Research Methodology in Business and Economics. Here he learned to use not only Scissors and Paste, but scotch Tape and Thermofax as well. The resulting 1500-page thesis, weighing 25 pounds (bound), which took Gus six years to write, is a veritable gold mine of case materials on all aspects of Business Administration. It is organized along strictly stochastic and aleatory [literally, “dicey”] lines, and unfortunately lacks an Index. Its French title, “Collage Commerciale,” which has no precise English equivalent, bears witness to Gus’ literary and artistic culture, unusual in most doctoral candidates in this field.

Forever thine,

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

IV

Personnel Office,
Minnesota Manacle, Mace, and Maul Company
Mayhem and Massacre Roads, WSE
Minneapolis, Minn.

Fellow-Americans!

The Industrial Relations Center is disappointed at your reluctance to include Simon Legree II in your distinguished organization. Perhaps you will reconsider after we answer the questions you have raised about the Center itself.

In the first place, Si is a hundred-percent 4-M type. He once killed a man with a whip at his fraternity initiation. After exhausting his athletic eligibility, he put himself through school at Minnesota as a masked wrestler, under the name of “Mr. 4-M.” What greater proof do you need?

It is true that our milk-and-water State Legislature makes the Center provide training for labor agitators as well as personnel men. But these classes are not given at the same time, so red-blooded Americans are protected from contamination. It is also true that University rules require management people to take a few courses in parlor-pink “social science” outside the Center’s jurisdiction but before each class of this sort we supply sleeping pills, for your protection as well as their own.

Only one professor within the Industrial Relations Center teaches both personnel men and labor fakers. This is Professor Adolf Hitler K.M. Doppelganger, but I know your criticism of Professor Doppelganger is unfair. His heart is in the right place. Every Monday and Wednesday night he re-reads the collected works of Henry Hazlitt and also his file of the Reader’s Digest, so the Commies cannot lead him astray next day. He spends every week-end painting swastikas on synagogues somewhere in the Twin Cities. He spends every Summer in Mississippi setting up White Citizens’ Councils all over the State. Next year he will go to Spain and West Germany on sabbatical leave, helping the Government hold the line against Communist subversion by agents of the Kremlin.

Under these circumstances, I know you will want to withdraw your attacks upon Professor Doppelganger, whose distasteful affiliations with Leftist organization have been undertaken only at the special request of the House Un-American Activities Committee. And then, once Professor Doppelganger’s true position is clear, won’t you give Si Legree a personnel-office job? He lives just to be a 4-M man, and to honor the best traditions of the Industrial Relations Center in its own home town.

Yours for Free Enterprise!

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

V

Local 1, Organizers Union
Communist Party of U.S.A.
State Department
Washington 25, D.C.

Comrades!

The Industrial Relations Center is disappointed at your reluctance to include Jefferson Lincoln Washington in your revolutionary vanguard. Perhaps you will reconsider after we answer the questions you have raised about the Center itself.

In the first place, Jeff is a hundred-percent C.P. type. He once killed a scab with one blow of his fist on the picket line. After exhausting his athletic eligibility, he put himself through school at Minnesota as a masked wrestler, under the name of “Red October.” What greater proof do you need?

It is true that our reactionary State Legislature makes the Center provide training for Fascist bloodsuckers as well as leaders of the toiling masses. But these classes are not given at the same time, so single-minded revolutionaries are protected from contamination. It is also true that University rules require revolutionary proletarians to take a few courses in bourgeois “social science” outside the Center’s jurisdiction, but before each class of this sort we supply sleeping pills, for your protection as well as their own.

Only one professor within the Industrial Relations Center teaches both fighters for labor’s rights and their mercenary exploiters. This is Professor Karl Marx A.H. Doppelganger, but I know your criticism of Professor Doppelganger is unfair. His heart is in the right place. Every Tuesday and Thursday night he re-reads the works of Nikolai Lenin and his file of Masses and Mainstream, so the Fascists cannot lead him astray next day. He spends every week-end photographing R.O.T.C. preparations for the Cuban invasion somewhere in the Twin Cities. He spends every summer in Mississippi organizing Freedom Riders all over the State. Next year he will go to Hungary and East Germany on sabbatical leave, helping the People’s Democracies hold the line against capitalist subversion by agents of Wall Street.

Under these circumstances, I know you will want to withdraw your attacks upon Professor Doppelganger, whose distasteful affiliations with Rightest organizations have been undertaken only at the special request of the Soviet Embassy. And then, once Professor Doppelganger’s true position is clear, won’t you give Jeff Washington an organizing job? He lives just to be a C.P. organizer, and to honor the best traditions of the Industrial Relations Center in the nation’s capital.

Yours for the Revolution!

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archives. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers. Box 7, Folder “McCarthyism, 1953-62”.

Image Source: Martin Bronfenbrenner. University of Minnesota Archives/Libraries/Umedia.

Categories
Chicago Economists Kansas Minnesota

Chicago. Economics PhD alumnus. Jens Peter Jensen, 1926

 

Born in Denmark and educated at Dakota Wesleyan University, University of Minnesota, and the University of Chicago, Jens Peter Jensen is now officially added to our Meet-an-Economics-Ph.D. series with the profile below written for the 1937 yearbook at the University of Kansas.

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From the List of Economics Ph.D. dissertations of the University of Chicago
(1894-1926)

1926. Jensen, Jens Peter.

Thesis Title: The general property tax.

A.B. Dakota Wesleyan University, 1913; A.M. University of Minnesota, 1917.

1883, April 8. Born in Trustrup, Denmark.
1900. Emigrated to U.S.
1917-18. Fellow in Political Economy, University of Chicago.
1918-19. Taught at Beloit College.
1919. Instructor, University of Chicago.
1919-21. Assistant Professor of Economics and Commerce. University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.
1921-. Associate Professor of Economics and Commerce. University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.
1924. Problems of Public Finance. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Company.
1930-31 (Visiting) Associate professor of economics, University of Chicago.
1931. Professor of Economics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.
1937. Government Finance. New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Company.
1938. Professor of Economics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan.
1942, August 26. Died in Brush, Colorado.

Obituary:  In Memoriam: Jens P. Jensen, 1883-1942 by John Ise in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Apr., 1943), pp. 391-392.

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Profile of Kansas Economics Professor Jens Peter Jensen (1937)

… Jens Peter Jensen, native of Denmark, gives advice to the state of Kansas on problems of taxation, public revenues, and text collections. In February, 1935, he was a member of the commission which surveyed the state government of Oklahoma and its system of public finance. Frank Marland, then Sooner governor-elect, proposed the plan that caused this commission to be organized.

Since 1925, Mr. Jensen has written the annual report of progress in the field of land and public taxation and corporation and bank taxation for the American Yearbook.

For the Tax Research Foundation (under the New York Tax Commission), he prepares the Kansas charts to indicate the status of tax law and legislation in this state.

Since 1920, Mr. Jensen has been a member of the National Tax Association, has been Kansas’ delegate to its annual conventions, and has served three years on the association’s executive committee. Too, he was for a time an associate editor of the association’s official Bulletin.

Under the auspices of the Kansas State Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Jensen, with Harold Howe, professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State College, Manhattan, prepared “Tax Studies in 13 Lessons.” Distributed by the sponsors, these lessons were used in study clubs and civic organizations of the state for adult education in public finance.

Among the books which Mr. Jensen has written are A Text in Public Finance, Property Taxation in the United States, The Tax System in Colorado, and Government Finance. He has contributed articles to the Annals of the American Association of Social and Political Economy, Law and Contemporary Events (published by Duke University), American Economic Review and Journal of Political Economy.

Especially noteworthy is the fact that Mr. Jensen has done all of this work in 31 years. Born of a Swedish father and a Danish mother on April 8, 1883, twenty-one-year-old Jens Jensen left Denmark in 1905. Son of a poor family, he had to terminate his common school education in the eighth grade to work on the farm and then to learn to creamery trade.

Landing in the United States with only his tradesmen’s knowledge, he journeyed to Minnesota, got a job. But by 1907 he left his job, went to Mitchell, South Dakota, where he enrolled in the Academy and College of Dakota Wesleyan University, graduated with an A. B. degree in 1913. His alma mater honored him within honorary doctor of laws degree only last spring. In 1917, he received his A. M. degree from the University of Minnesota; his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1926.

Since 1919, Mr. Jensen has been associated with the University of Kansas. He has taught in two summer sessions at the University of West Virginia. In 1930-31, he was given leave of absence to do a year’s work on research and government finance of counties. He did this work at the University of Chicago.

Married, Mr. Jensen has one daughter. His hobby is traveling, and he has been in three-fourths of the states of the United States and in all but two of the Canadian provinces. He returned for his first visit to Denmark in 1926, visiting also Scotland, England, Norway and Sweden.

Here is a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church, the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, and the University club. The most tedious three months in his life, he says, were spent in the Student Army Training Corps at the University of Minnesota in 1918. Previous to his enlistment he was statistician and economist for the food administration under the then Secretary of Commerce, Hoover.

 

Source of text and image: University of Kansas, Jayhawker (yearbook). Christmas number, 1937, p. 100.