Category: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania. Share of doctoral dissertations by field that used (cited?) foreign language titles, 1954-55

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-04-09

The previous post included a column from a table that ranked economics graduate programs in 1957 included in the appendix to a study written at the University of Pennsylvania that also included the following table.

I cannot help but tweak an old joke,

What do you call a graduate student who knows three languages?…Trilingual.
What do you call a graduate student who knows two languages?…Bilingual
What do you call a graduate student who knows one language?…An American economics graduate student.

(I’ll show myself out…)

_____________________

Before economists stopped writing their Ph.D. dissertations in English…

A study of the doctoral dissertations accepted [at the University of Pennsylvania] in 1954-1955 shows the extent to which foreign language titles were used in the preparation of the dissertation.

Foreign languages	100%
Linguistics	80%
Natural Sciences	77%
Political Science	58%
History	50%
English	43%
Education	33%
Behavioral Sciences	21%
Economics	17%

Source: Hayward Keniston. Graduate Study and Research in the Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania (January 1959), p.95.

Image Source: Cover of English Sounds for Foreign Tongues: A Drill Book by Sarah Tracy Barrows (Columbus: Ohio State University, 1918).

Economics Departments and University Rankings by Chairmen. Hughes (1925) and Keniston (1957)

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-04-09

The rankings of universities and departments of economics for 1920 and 1957 that are found below were based on the pooling of contemporary expert opinions. Because the ultimate question for both the Hughes and Keniston studies was the relative aggregate university standing with respect to graduate education, “The list did not include technical schools, like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, nor state colleges, like Iowa State, Michigan State or Penn State, since the purpose was to compare institutions which offered the doctorate in a wide variety of fields.” Hence, historians of economics will be frustrated by the conspicuous absence of M.I.T. and Carnegie Tech in the 1957 column except for the understated footnote “According to some of the chairmen there are strong departments at Carnegie Tech. and M.I.T.; also at Vanderbilt”.

The average perceived rank of a particular economics department relative to that of its university might be of use in assessing the negotiating position of department chairs with their respective university administrations. The observed movement within the perception league tables over the course of roughly a human generation might suggest other questions worth pursuing.

Anyhow without further apology…

______________________

About the Image: There is no face associated with rankings so I have chosen the legendary comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello for their “Who’s on First?” sketch. YouTube TV version; Radio version: Who’s on First? starts at 22:15

______________________

From Keniston’s Appendix (1959)

Standing of
American Graduate Departments
in the Arts and Sciences

The present study was undertaken as part of a survey of the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania in an effort to discover the present reputation of the various departments which offer programs leading to the doctorate.

A letter was addressed to the chairmen of departments in each of twenty-five leading universities of the country. The list was compiled on the basis of (1) membership in the Association of American Universities, (2) number of Ph.D.’s awarded in recent years, (3) geographical distribution. The list did not include technical schools, like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, nor state colleges, like Iowa State, Michigan State or Penn State, since the purpose was to compare institutions which offered the doctorate in a wide variety of fields.

Each chairman was asked to rate, on an accompanying sheet, the strongest departments in his field, arranged roughly as the first five, the second five and, if possible, the third five, on the basis of the quality of their Ph.D. work and the quality of the faculty as scholars. About 80% of the chairmen returned a rating. Since many of them reported the composite judgment of their staff, the total number of ratings is well over 500.

On each rating sheet, the individual institutions were given a score. If they were rated in order of rank, they were assigned numbers from 15 (Rank 1) to 1 (Rank 15). If they were rated in groups of five, each group alphabetically arranged, those in the top five were given a score of 13, in the second five a score of 8, and in the third five a score of 3. When all the ratings sheets were returned, the scores of each institution were tabulated and compiled and the institutions arranged in order, in accordance with the total score for each department.

To determine areas of strength or weakness, the departmental scores were combined to determine [four] divisional scores. [Divisions (Departments): Biological Sciences (2), Humanities (11), Physical Sciences (6), Social Sciences (5)]….

… Finally, the scores of each institution given in the divisional rankings were combined to provide an over-all rating of the graduate standing of the major universities.

From a similar poll of opinion, made by R. M. Hughes, A Study of the Graduate Schools of America, and published in 1925, it was possible to compile the scores for each of eighteen departments as they were ranked at that time and also to secure divisional and over-all rankings. These are presented here for the purpose of showing what changes have taken place in the course of a generation.

The limitations of such a study are obvious; the ranks reported do not reveal the actual merit of the individual departments. They depend on highly subjective impressions; they reflect old and new loyalties; they are subject to lag, and the halo of past prestige. But they do report the judgment of the men whose opinion is most likely to have weight. For chairmen, by virtue of their office, are the men who must know what is going on at other institutions. They are called upon to recommend schools where students in their field may profitably study; they must seek new appointments from the staff and graduates of other schools; their own graduates tum to them for advice in choosing between alternative possibilities for appointment. The sum of their opinions is, therefore, a fairly close approximation to what informed people think about the standing of the departments in each of the fields.

OVER-ALL STANDING
(Total Scores)

1925			1957
1.	Chicago	1543	1.	Harvard	5403
2.	Harvard	1535	2.	California	4750
3.	Columbia	1316	3.	Columbia	4183
4.	Wisconsin	886	4.	Yale	4094
5.	Yale	885	5.	Michigan	3603
6.	Princeton	805	5.	Chicago	3495
7.	Johns Hopkins	746	7.	Princeton	2770
8.	Michigan	720	8.	Wisconsin	2453
9.	California	712	9.	Cornell	2239
10.	Cornell	694	10.	Illinois	1934
11.	Illinois	561	11.	Pennsylvania	1784
12.	Pennsylvania	459	12.	Minnesota	1442
13.	Minnesota	430	13.	Stanford	1439
14.	Stanford	365	14.	U.C.L.A.	1366
15.	Ohio State	294	15.	Indiana	1329
16.	Iowa	215	16.	Johns Hopkins	1249
17.	Northwestern	143	17.	Northwestern	934
18.	North Carolina	57	18.	Ohio State	874
19.	Indiana	45	19.	N.Y.U.	801
			20.	Washington	759

ECONOMICS

1925			1957
1.	Harvard	92	1.	Harvard	298
2.	Columbia	75	2.	Chicago	262
3.	Chicago	65	3.	Yale	241
4.	Wisconsin	63	4.	Columbia	210
5.	Yale	42	5.	California	196
6.	Johns Hopkins	39	5.	Stanford	196
7.	Michigan	31	7.	Princeton	184
8.	Pennsylvania	29	8.	Johns Hopkins	178
9.	Illinois	27	9.	Michigan	174
10.	Cornell	25	10.	Minnesota	96
11.	Princeton	23	11.	Northwestern	70
12.	California	22	12.	Duke	69
13.	Minnesota	20	13.	Wisconsin	66
14.	Northwestern	18	14.	Pennsylvania	45
15.	Stanford	17	15.	Cornell	32
16.	Ohio State	15	16.	U.C.L.A.	31

According to some of the chairmen there are strong departments at Carnegie Tech. and M.I.T.; also at Vanderbilt.

Source: Hayward Keniston. Graduate Study and Research in the Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania (January 1959), pp. 115-119,129.

Economists Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania. A protectionist professor forced to leave the Wharton School, Robert Ellis Thompson, ca 1894

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-04-02

More and more universities are putting digitized, searchable copies of the student newspaper online. Up to now I have made ample use of the archives of the Harvard Crimson, the Columbia Spectator, and the U of M Daily. While sampling the Yale Daily News archive, I came across the name of a guest lecturer from the University of Pennsylvania, Robert Ellis Thompson in the January 28, 1885 issue.

It was reported that Thompson had been instructor, then assistant professor of mathematics before receiving “a chair of Social Science”. Thompson was also reported to have just delivered a course of lectures on the subject of “Protection” at Harvard. Wondering why I had not come across (or noticed) his name before, I reached for volume three of Joseph Dorfman’s Economic Mind in American Civilization, and came up with relatively little:

…there was general agreement in the academic world on most major [economic] issues. The one exception was the question of the tariff, but even here, by the end of the period, only one leading Eastern institution and a few Midwestern state universities could be said to be clearly protectionist. The one was the University of Pennsylvania, where the Reverend Robert Ellis Thompson (1844-1924), professor of social science, held to Carey’s views throughout, even on money.*

*Robert Ellis Thompson’s Social Science and National Economy (Philadelphia: Porter-Coates, 1875), was promoted far and wide by the powerful protectionist Industrial League of Pennsylvania. For biographical detail, see “Memorial Meeting in Honor of Robert Ellis Thompson,” The Barnwell Bulletin, February 1925, pp. 3-23; James H. S. Bossard, “Robert Ellis Thompson, Pioneer Professor in Social Science,” The American Journal of Sociology, September 1929, pp. 239-49.

Source: Joseph Dorfman. The Economic Mind in American Civilization. Vol 3, 1865-1918 (New York: Viking Press, 1949), p. 80, bibliographic notes p. xvi.

___________________________

Sketch of Life and Career of Robert Ellis Thompson

The University of Pennsylvania archives provides the following sketch of Robert Ellis Thompson’s life and career. One’s curiosity is naturally aroused by the indication that Thompson had been eased/forced out of his professorship by the Provost. Was there a political/philosophical issue involved? Plot-spoiler: Thompson appears to have been at cross-purposes with the direction of the Wharton School of Finance and Economy and his way or the highway led to an off-ramp into a very successful, 27-year second career as president of Central High School in Philadelphia for him.
On the founding of the Wharton School, see Chapter 8 of Edgar Potts Cheyney’s History of the University of Pennsylvania 1740-1940 , esp. pp. 288-293. This reference and more detail about the Penn economics department are found at Gonçalo L. Fonseca’s History of Economic Thought Website.

Robert Ellis Thompson
1844 – 1924

A.B. 1865, A.M. 1868, D.D. (hon.) 1887
Member of Zelosophic Society and University Chess Club
Phi Beta Kappa, class salutatorian, and Junior English Prize recipient
Professor of mathematics, social science, history, and English literature

Born in Lurgan, County Down, Ireland, on April 15, 1844, Robert Ellis Thompson was the son of Samuel and Catherine Ellis Thompson. The family came to Philadelphia when Robert was thirteen years old.

Thompson entered the University as a freshman in the Class of 1865 and served as class historian in his sophomore year. During his college years he was a member of the Zelosophic Society and the University Chess Club. He was also a Phi Beta Kappa honoree, recipient of the Junior English Prize, and the class salutatorian.

Thompson’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania included an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1887. Additionally, he earned a Ph.D. from Hamilton College in 1879 and received a LL.D. from Muhlenberg College in 1909.

A Presbyterian clergyman and educator, Thompson began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in 1868 as an instructor in mathematics; in 1871 he was promoted to an assistant professor of mathematics. From 1874 until 1883 he taught at Penn as professor of social science, and then from 1883 to 1893, he was John Welsh Centennial Professor of History and English Literature. During these years, Thompson lectured at Harvard and Yale from 1884 to 1887 and also at the Princeton Theological Seminary. Thompson was editor of Penn Monthly from 1870 to 1880, and of The American from 1881 to 1892. He published Social Science and National Economy in 1875, and also served as editor for the first two volumes of the Encyclopedia Americana, a supplement to the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica from 1883 to 1885.

In 1892 Provost William Pepper (nephew of Class of 1865 classmate John Sergeant Gerhard) requested Thompson’s resignation from the John Welsh Chair of History and English Literature. Thompson refused to resign and also declined a proposed transfer to a chair of biblical literature, American church history, and industrial history. Eventually however, he was unsuccessful in the attempt to keep his job and, in 1894, took over the presidency of Central High School in Philadelphia. He remained there for twenty-seven years until he was forced out of this post under a state law which fixed the retirement age for teachers at seventy years. He was an outspoken defender of labor unions (1911) and proponent of female suffrage, predicting in 1911 that a woman would be elected mayor of Philadelphia by 1961. He married Mary Neely in 1874. She died in 1894, while Robert Ellis Thompson died on October 19, 1924 in Philadelphia.

Source: Robert Ellis Thompson (1844-1924). University of Pennsylvania. University Archives & Record Center. Web series “Penn People”.

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Selection of publications by Robert Ellis Thompson
[results of a relatively casual bibliographic search]

Books

Social Science and National Economy (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1875).

Thompson’s Social Science and National Economy, reviewed. Penn Monthly, Vol. 6 (September 1875), pp. 692-698.

Third, revised edition published as Elements of Political Economy with Especial Reference to the Industrial History of Nations (Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1882).

Relief of Local and State Taxation through Distribution of the National Surplus. [Series of revised articles in The American.] Philadelphia: Edward Stern & Co., 1883.

Protection to Home Industry. Four lectures delivered to Harvard University, January, 1885. (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1886)

De Civitate Dei—the Divine Order of Human Society. Princeton Stone Lectures (Philadelphia: John D. Wattles, 1891).

Syllabus of a Course of Six Lectures on Money and Banking. University Extension Lectures, Series D, No. 3. American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, 1894. [Transcription at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror]

Political Economy for High Schools and Academies. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1895.

A History of the Presbyterian Churches of the United States. New York: The Christian Literature Co., 1895.

The History of the Dwelling-House and its Future. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1914.

Articles published in Penn Monthly

The Old Education. Vol. 1 (February 1870), pp. 52-60.

A Current Revolution. Vol. 1 (April 1870), pp. 121-130.

Ulster in America. Vol. 1 (June 1870), pp. 202-209.

Harbaugh’s Harfe. [Review of Gedichte in Pennsylvanisch-Deutscher Mundart von H. Harbaugh] Vol. 1 (August 1870), pp. 202-286.

The Three Arches. Vol. 1 (September 1870), pp. 202-329.

The Protective Question Abroad. Vol. 1 (Nov. 1870), pp. 436-440.

The Revision of the Old Testament. Vol. 2 (January 1871), pp. 44-52.

Zeisberger’s Mission to the Indians. [Review of Edmund de Schweinitz’s The Life and Times of David Zeisberger, the Western Pioneer and Apostle to the Indians] Vol. 2 (February 1871), pp. 97-106.

The Race and the Individual in their Parallel Development. Vol. 2 (May 1871), pp. 250-263.

The German Mystics as American Colonists.—I. Vol. 2 (August 1871), pp. 391-403.

The German Mystics as American Colonists.—II. Vol. 2 (September 1871), pp. 443-451.

The German Mystics as American Colonists.—III. Vol. 2 (October 1871), pp. 487-497.

Darwin on his Travels. [Review of second American edition of the Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World] Vol. 2 (November 1871), pp. 562-572.

The Origin of Free Masonry. [Review of G.. W. Steinbrenner’s The Origin and Early History of Masonry] Vol. 2 (December 1871), pp. 617-626.

Some German Critics of Adam Smith. [unsigned, perhaps Thompson] Vol. 3 (Nov. 1872), pp. 586-96.

Review of E. Dühring’s Kritische Geschichte der Nationalökonomie und des Socialismus. Vol. 3 (Nov. 1872), pp. 631-33.

The Communisms of the Old World. Vol. 5 (January 1874), pp. 12-28

The Teutonic Mark. [This article is in great measure supplementary of the series on “The Communisms of the Old World.”] Vol. 5 (August 1874), pp. 557-578.

Prof. Cairnes on Political Economy. Vol. 5 (September 1874), pp. 637-750

The Economic Wrongs of Ireland. Vol. 5 (October 1874), pp. 713-750

Communism and Serfdom in Russia. Vol. 5 (November 1874), pp. 791-808

National Education.—IV. Vol. 6 (May 1875), pp. 327-341

Carey and Ricardo in Europe. Vol. 8 (July 1877), pp. 548-557.

Recent Economic Literature. Vol. 8 (December 1877), pp. 956-968.

Is Christianity on the Wane among Us?. Vol. 9 (January 1878), pp. 45-65.

Use and Abuse of Examinations. [L. Wiese, German Letters on English Education, 1854 and 1876] Vol. 9 (May 1878), pp. 379-400.

De Laveleye’s Primitive Property. Vol. 9 (August 1878), pp. 620-633.

How It Strikes a Stranger. [Review of Hermann Grothe, Die Industrie Amerikas] Vol. 9 (October 1878), pp. 782-793.

The Commercial Future. Vol. 9 (November 1878), pp. 869-889.

My Neighborhood as a Starting-Point in Education. [Substance of an Address delivered before the National Educational Association, July 31, 1879] Vol. 10 (September 1879), pp. 664-676.

The Proposed Franco-American Treaty. Vol. 10 (October 1879), pp. 772-778.

Henry Charles Carey. [Memorial] Vol. 10 (November 1879), pp. 816-834. Frontpiece.

The Silver Question in England. Vol. 11 (January 1880), pp. 64-74.

Spiritualism in Germany. Vol. 11 (February 1880), pp. 97-117.

The Issues of the Campaign. Vol. 11 (August 1880), pp. 630-649.

Lessons of Social Science in the Streets of Philadelphia. Vol. 11 (December 1880), pp. 919-941.

The Future of our Public School System. Vol. 12 (April 1881), pp. 282-292.

Image Source: Robert Ellis Thompson, ca. 1880. University of Pennsylvania. University Archives & Record Center. Web series “Penn People”.

Tags ThompsonRE

Chicago Columbia Economist Market Harvard Michigan Pennsylvania Salaries

Chicago. Instructional Staff Salaries by Rank, 1919

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-10-09

The following transcription of a draft copy of a report on the University of Chicago salary scale for instructional staff from ca. 1919 is interesting because it begins with a brief chronology of the salary scale from the founding of the University of Chicago to the time of the report. Since pay raises were being recommended, figures are given for other universities for comparison. The ratio between a Head professor to a beginning assistant professor was 3.5 to 1 during the early years of the University of Chicago. The compression was relatively minor by 1919, with the committee recommending a ratio of 3.33 to 1. For nearly the first thirty years the top salary for a professor at the University of Chicago was $7000.

Handwritten additions to the draft are indicated by the use of italics in the transcription that follows.

________________

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON SALARY SCALE

The Board of Trustees,
The University of Chicago,

Gentlemen:

The Committee appointed at the May meeting of the Board herewith submits the following report on the scale of salaries in the teaching staff of the University with recommendations for the modifications of the same.

At the time of the organization of the University in the autumn of 1891, the following scale of salaries was informally determined:

Head Professor, $4000, to $5000.
Professor, $3000.
Associate Professor, $2500.
Assistant Professor, for a four year term, $2000.
Instructor, for a three year term, $1200, $1400, $1600.
Associate, for a two year term, $1000, $1100.

In the minutes of the Board there is no record of this definite scale, which the various actions recorded implied. At the November meeting, 1891, the salary of the Head Professors was fixed at $6000. At the December meeting, 1891, it was increased to $7000. This change in the salary of a Head Professor, was due to obvious circumstances connected with securing suitable men for the new institution. No change was made in the rest of the scale.

In 1894 and thereafter new Head Professors were appointed, but on the original scale of $4000 to $5000. It thus appears, although not specifically recorded in the minutes of the Board, that the $7000 salaries were merely adapted at the organization of the University as a temporary expedient.

In 1907 the salary question was again taken into consideration by the Board. It was plain that the salary of a Professor, $3000, was too low, and that a general reorganization was desirable. At the meeting of the Board in December, 1907, it was tentatively agreed, 1^st: that for members of the permanent staff in each of the three grades a maximum and a minimum salary shall be fixed, and that for any individual within those grades the exact salary paid shall depend, not on the time of service, but on the discretion of the Board, and, 2^nd: that for members of the Faculty appointed for a term of years, a maximum and a minimum salary shall be fixed, with advances depending on term of service.

At the meeting of the Board in January, 1908, the following salary scale was enacted:

Heads of Departments, maximum [sic] $4000, minimum [sic], $6000.
Professors not Heads of Departments, Minimum, $3000; Maximum, $4500.
Associate Professor, Minimum, $2500; Maximum, $3000.
Assistant Professor, four years, $2000; On reappointment, $2500.
Instructors, three years, $1200, $1400, $1600; On reappointment, $1800.
Associates, two years, $1000 to $1200.

* * * * * *

At the meeting of the Board in January, 1911, it was voted that thereafter the administration of Departments should ordinarily be conducted by a chairman, to be appointed by the President, to serve three years, at the end of which term a new Chairman shall be appointed or the same one reappointed.

At the meeting in February, 1908, action was taken ratifying the action of the Trustees of the Baptist Theological Union, of the previous day. Scale of salaries in the Divinity School was enacted as follows:

Heads of Departments, Minimum, $3500; Maximum, $4500.
Professors not Heads of Departments, Minimum, $3000; Maximum, $4000.

The remaining scale as in the Faculties of Arts, Literature, and Science.

It was also voted that salaries paid or ranks given to members of a Department shall be determined without reference to the method of departmental administration, and that whenever the interest of the University seems to make it desirable, more than one person in the same Department may be given the maximum rank and salary.

Considering conditions relative to the cost of living, it becomes desirable now in all institutions of learning so far as practicable to provide larger salaries. This matter is receiving similar consideration throughout the country. In the University of Michigan the State Legislature made an additional appropriation of $300,000.00 at its last session for the purpose of increasing salaries. The scale was altered for Professors from the former rate of minimum $2500 and maximum $4000, to a minimum of $3200 and a maximum usually of $5000. Several have been advanced to $5500, and a small number to $6000. The increase in the salaries of Professors has reached an average of approximately 25%. Associate Professors have been advanced from a scale of $2100 to $2400, to a scale of $2800 to $3100, the advance in individual cases being about twenty five percent.

Assistant Professors are advanced from a scale of $1500 to $2000, to a scale of $2200 to $2700, the increase being about 30%.

Instructors are advanced from a scale of $900 to $1600, to a scale of $1300 to $2100, an increase of about 30%.

In Yale University the salary of an Associate Professor isadvanced to $3500, being about 30% increase. The salary of Assistant Professors isadvanced to $2500 for three years and $3000 for two additional years, or about 20%. Instructors for four years have salaries ranging from $1250 to $2000, at an increase of 25%. In the Law School the maximum for Professors isadvanced from $7000 to $7500. The present scale for Professors is at a minimum of $4000 and a maximum of $6000. It is intended to increase that in the autumn at a probable rate of about 25% in individual cases. The new maximum is therefore not yet enacted.

In Harvard the present scale of Professors salaries has a minimum of $4000 and a maximum of $5500; Associate Professors at $3500—after five years service—$4000; Assistant Professors, for the first five years, $2500, for the second five years, $3000; Instructors ranging from $1000 to $1500. Harvard is engaged in a plan for raising an $11,000,000 endowment, the greater part of which is to be used for salaries.

Columbia University has not an exact scale. Professors’ salaries range from $4000 to $15,000. There are twenty receiving a salary of $6000, eight a salary of $6500 to $7000. Those whose salaries are above $7000 are mostly in professional schools. There are thirty with a salary of $5000. No immediate change in the salary scale is contemplated.

In the University of Pennsylvania the maximum for a full time professorship is $8000. As a matter of fact there are very few whose salaries are $6000, or more. It is intended to make an increase of 20% for all receiving $4000 or $6000, 10% for all receiving over $6000, and 20% for all receiving less than $4000. This increase is to come into effect in the autumn of 1919.

Under all the circumstances and with the funds available from the present income of the University the committee recommends the following:

PROPOSED NEW SCALE.

In the Faculties of Arts, Literature and Sciences.

Professor, Minimum, $4000; Maximum, $7000.
Associate Professor, Minimum, $3000; Maximum, $3600.
Assistant Professor, Minimum, $2100; Maximum, $2700.
Instructors, for three years, $1500, $1600, $1700. On reappointment to a maximum of $2000.
Associates, for two years, $1200, $1300.

In the Faculty of the Divinity School.

Professor, Minimum, $4000; Maximum, $5000.
Other ranks as in Arts, Literature and Science.

In the Faculty of the Law School.

Professor, Minimum of $6000, increased by $500 at the end of each three years of satisfactory service to a maximum of $8500. For Assistant and Associate Professors no change. These last appointments in the Law School are usually temporary and a considerable flexibility is desirable. It is recommended that for the Faculty of the Law School the new scale take effect fro the fiscal year 1920-1921. It will involve an addition of $5250 to the budget of that year over the present budget of 1919-1920.

Respectfully Submitted
[Signed] M. A. Ryerson
H. G. Grey
H. P. Judson

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records. Box 76. Folder: 4, “Salaries, 1916-1920”.

Image Source: 1894 University of Chicago Convocation. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf3-00416, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Economist Market Economists Harvard Pennsylvania Williams

Harvard. Job placements of economics PhDs. Jewish candidates, 1928-29

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-10-02

In this post I provide transcriptions of four letters concerning Harvard Ph.D.s on the job market. Two of candidates (Mandell Morton Bober and Richard Vincent Gilbert) were Jewish and this was considered an important characteristic to signal to prospective employers. Nothing from the Harvard side indicates anything other than a willingness to provide information that would be revealed in the process of recruitment anyway. In an earlier post we could read a similar letter by Allyn Young’s on behalf of his protégé Arthur William Marget for a position at the University of Chicago in 1927. In the cases below we again see anti-Jewish prejudice on the demand side of the market for academic economists.

Before getting to the letters (that are also interesting for providing a glimpse into job placement at the time), I provide a bit of information about each of the Harvard alumni discussed.

______________

Harvard Ph.Ds discussed

Beach, Walter Edwards

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1929.
Thesis title: International gold movements in relation to business cycles.
A.B. Stanford University, 1922; A.M. Harvard University.
1929. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Bober, Mandell Morton

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1925.
Thesis title: Karl Marx’s interpretation of history.
S.B. University of Montana, 1918; A.M. Harvard University, 1920.
1925. Instructor in Economics, Boston University.
1926. Instructor in Economics. and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass.

Gilbert, Richard Vincent

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.
Thesis title: Theory of International Payments.
S.B. Harvard University, 1923; A.M. Harvard University, 1925.

Hohman, Elmo Paul

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1925.
Thesis title: The American whaleman: a study of the conditions of labor in the whaling industry, 1785-1885.
A.B. University of Illinois, 1916; A.M. University of Illinois, 1917; A.M. Harvard University, 1920.
1925. Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University.
1926. Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University. Evanston, Ill.

Patton, Harald Smith

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1926.
Thesis Title: Grain growers’ cooperation in Western Canada.
A.B. University of Toronto, 1912; A.M. Harvard University, 1921.
1926. Associate Professor of Economics, University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, O.

Remer, Charles Frederick

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1923.
Thesis title: The foreign trade of China.
A.B. University of Minnesota, 1908; A.M. Harvard University, 1917.
1923. Instructor in Economics, and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.
1926. Orrin Sage Professor of Economics, Williams College. Williamstown, Mass.

Roberts, Christopher

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1927.
Thesis title: The History of the Middlesex Canal.
S.B. Haverford College, 1921; A.M. Harvard University 1922.
1927. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Smith, Walter Buckingham

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1928.
Thesis title: Money and prices in the United States from 1802 to 1820.
A.B. Oberlin College, 1917; A. M. Harvard University, 1924.
1928. Assistant Professor Economics, Wellesley College.

Taylor, Overton Hume

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1928.
Thesis title: The idea of a Natural Order in Early Modern Economic Thought.
A.B. University of Colorado 1921.
1928. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Source: Harvard University. Doctors of Philosophy and Doctors of Science Who have received their Degree in Course from Harvard University, 1873-1926, with the Titles of their Theses. Cambridge: 1926. Also Annual Reports of the President of Harvard College.

______________

Carbon copy
Possible candidates for Charles Frederick Remer successor at Williams College

June 19, 1928.

Dear Professor Taussig:

Professor Burbank has asked me to write to you in answer to your letter of the 13^thregarding possibilities for Remer’s position at Williams.

He believes that Bober can be recommended in the highest terms, but that the matter of his race should be mentioned. Gilbert, now at Rochester, is very able and in spite of the fact that he still has to complete his work for the Ph.D., might well be considered. He does not think so very highly of Patton; Hohman at Northwestern is fully as good.

He wonders what you would say regarding Walter Smith. He has some personal qualities that might cause trouble at Williamstown, but he is fully as capable as Remer.

If Professor Bullock has not left for Europe he suggests that he should be consulted since he knows the Williamstown situation very well.

Sincerely yours,

[unsigned, departmental secretary?]

______________

Carbon copy
Possible candidates for position at St. Lawrence University

January 28, 1929.

My dear Mr. Cram:

I have your note regarding the position at St. Lawrence University.

Beach probably will not go out next year. He wishes to stay here another year, and if we can make adequate provision for him we will do so.

If St. Lawrence is insistent upon the Ph.D you might recommend in very strong terms Christopher Roberts. If they will take a Jew you can recommend in superlative terms Professor M. M. Bober, now at Lawrence College; and also you might recommend under the above conditions, but perhaps less strongly R. V. Gilbert whom we expect to take the Ph.D this June.

However, before making any recommendations you should have the salary terms, the amount of teaching required, and the subjects to be taught.

Very sincerely,

H.H. Burbank.

HHB:BR

______________

Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Wharton School of Finance and Commerce

May 16, 1929.

Professor H. H. Burbank
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Professor Burbank:

Thanks for your letter of May 8, informing me that Mr. Gilbert is of Jewish extraction. Professor Taussig had already told me that such was the case.

However, this will make no difference to us so long as his personality and bearing are attractive.

I am giving serious consideration to Mr. Gilbert, along with two other men who have been suggested to me from other sources. If Gilbert receives his Ph.D. this year, we may make him an offer, but we cannot consider him if he has not completed his work for the doctorate.

Sincerely yours,

[signed|
Raymond T. Bye
Acting Chairman
Department of Economics

RTB:T

______________

Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (cont.)

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Wharton School of Finance and Commerce

June 17, 1929.

Professor H. H. Burbank
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Professor Burbank:

I hope that I did not cause you and your colleagues any inconvenience in pressing you and Dr. [O. H.] Taylor for an immediate decision on our offer to him. Things had dragged along here so long that I felt something must be done quickly and I know that I had prepared both Dr. Taylor and you for the possibility of our making him an offer, so that I felt it would not be difficult for you to make arrangements on short notice.

When I met you in Boston I was so well impressed with what you and Professor Vanderblue told me about Dr. Bober that I arranged for him to come here to meet us. We were all favorably impressed and I made every effort to secure his appointment to the position, but the Provost of the University was not willing to recommend a person of the Jewish race, so I had to give him up. It was then that I made the offer to Taylor. I think Dr. Taylor will fit into our problem for next year very nicely, for we need someone primarily to teach graduate courses. I question, however, whether we shall want to keep him permanently because, as I understand it, he is less effective as an undergraduate teacher. That is why I asked you to let him go on a year’s leave of absence. However, it is possible that the men here may like him so much that they will want to keep him permanently if he will stay. That will be for Professor E. M. Patterson to decide. He will be back as chairman of the department next year.

I want to thank you most cordially for your very material assistance in helping me to find a man to fill the vacancy here.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Raymond T. Bye
Acting Chairman
Department of Economics

RTB:T

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Econoics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950.Box 14, Folder “Positions for 1929-30”.

Image Source: Left, Senior year picture of R.V. Gilbert and, right, tutor picture of M.M. Bober (1926) in Harvard Class Album, 1923 and 1926, respectively.

Tags Beach, Bober, Bullock, Burbank, GilbertRV, Hohman, PattonHS, Remer, RobertsC, SmithWB, Taussig, TaylorOH

Berkeley Chicago Columbia Cornell Economics Programs Economists Harvard Illinois Johns Hopkins Michigan Minnesota Northwestern Ohio State Pennsylvania Princeton Stanford Toronto Wisconsin Yale

Economics Graduate Programs Ranked in 1925

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-09-14

Filed away in the archived records of the University of Chicago’s Office of the President is a copy of a report from January 1925 from Miami University (Ohio) that was based on a survey of college and university professors to obtain a rank ordering of graduate programs in different fields. The following ordering for economics graduate programs 1924-25 is based on two dozen responses. I have added institutional affiliations from the AEA membership list of the time and a few internet searches. The study was designed to have a rough balance between college and university professors and a broad geographic representation. What the study lacks in sophistication will amuse you in its presumption.

_____________________

This rating was prepared in the following way: The members of the Miami University faculty representing twenty fields of instruction were called together and a list of the universities which conceivably might be doing high grade work leading to a doctor’s degree in one or more subjects was prepared on their advice. Each professor was then requested to submit a list of from forty to sixty men who were teaching his subject in colleges and universities in this country, at least half of the names on the list to be those of professors in colleges rather than in universities. It was further agreed that the list should be fairly well distributed geographically over the United States. [p. 3]

ECONOMICS

Ratings submitted by: John H. Ashworth [Maine] , Lloyd V. Ballard [Beloit], Gilbert H. Barnes [Chicago], Clarence E. Bonnett [Tulane], John E. Brindley [Iowa State], E. J. Brown [Arizona], J. W. Crook [Amherst], Ira B. Cross [California], Edmund E. Day [Michigan], Herbert Feis [ILO], Frank A. Fetter [Princeton], Eugene Gredier, Lewis H. Haney [N.Y.U.], Wilbur O. Hedrick [Michigan State], Floyd N. House [Chicago], Walter E. Lagerquist [Northwestern], W. E. Leonard, L. C. Marshall [Chicago], W. C. Mitchell [Columbia], C. T. Murchison [North Carolina], Tipton A. Snavely [Virginia], E. T. Towne [North Dakota], J. H. Underwood [Montana], M. S. Wildman [Stanford].

Combined Ratings: (24)

	1	2	3	4-5
Harvard	20	4	0	0
Columbia	11	9	2	1
Chicago	9	7	3	2
Wisconsin	8	7	4	2
Yale	3	3	9	3
Johns Hopkins	2	4	8	3
Michigan	0	6	4	5
Pennsylvania	0	3	6	8
Illinois	0	5	4	4
Cornell	0	2	7	5
Princeton	2	1	4	4
California	0	3	4	5
Minnesota	0	2	4	6
Northwestern	0	2	3	6
Stanford	0	1	4	6
Ohio State	0	1	2	8
Toronto	0	2	2	3

Staffs:

HARVARD: F.W. Taussig, E.F. Gay, T.N. Carver, W.Z. Ripley, C.J. Bullock, A.A. Young, W.M. Persons, A.P. Usher, A.S. Dewing, W.J. Cunningham, T.H. Sanders, W.M. Cole, A.E. Monroe, H.H. Burbank, A.H. Cole, J. H. Williams, W.L. Crum, R.S. Meriam.

COLUMBIA: R.E. Chaddock, F.H. Giddings, S.M. Lindsay, W.C. Mitchell, H.L. Moore, W. Fogburn, H.R. Seager, E.R.A. Seligman, V.G. Sinkhovitch, E.E. Agger, Emilie J. Hutchinson, A.A. Tenney, R.G. Tugwell, W.E. Weld.

CHICAGO: L.C. Marshall, C.W. Wright, J.A. Field, H.A. Millis, J.M. Clark, Jacob Viner, L. W. Mints, W.H. Spencer, N.W. Barnes, C.C. Colby, P.H. Douglas, J.O. McKinsey, E.A. Duddy, A.C. Hodge, L.C. Sorrell.

WISCONSIN: Commons, Elwell, Ely Garner, Gilman, Hibbard, Kiekhofer, Macklin, Scott, Kolb, McMurry, McNall, Gleaser, Jamison, Jerome, Miller, S. Perlman.

YALE: Olive Day, F.R. Fairchild, R.B. Westerfield, T.S. Adams, A.L. Bishop, W.M. Daniels, Irving Fisher, E.S. Furniss, A.H. Armbruster, N.S. Buck.

JOHNS HOPKINS: W.W. Willoughby, Goodnow, W.F. Willoughby, Thach, Latane.

MICHIGAN: Rodkey, Van Sickle, Peterson, Goodrich, Sharfman, Griffin, May, Taylor, Dickinson, Paton, Caverly, Wolaver.

PENNSYLVANIA: E.R. Johnson, E.S. Mead, S.S. Heubner, T. Conway, H.W. Hess, E.M. Patterson, G.G. Huebner, H.T. Collings, R. Riegel, C.K. Knight, W.P. Raine, F. Parker, R.T. Bye, W.C. Schluter, J.H. Willits, A.H. Williams, R.S. Morris, C.P. White, F.E. Williams, H.J. Loman, C.A. Kulp, S.H. Patterson, E.L. McKenna, W.W. Hewett, F.G. Tryon, H.S. Person, L.W. Hall.

ILLINOIS: Bogart, Robinson, Thompson, Weston, Litman, Watkins, Hunter, Wright, Norton.

CORNELL: W.F. Willcox, H.J. Davenport, D. English, H.L. Reed, S.H. Slichter, M.A. Copeland, S. Kendrick.

PRINCETON: F.A. Fetter, E.W. Kemmerer, G.B. McClellan, D.A. McCabe, F.H. Dixon, S.E. Howard, F.D. Graham.

CALIFORNIA: I.B. Cross, S. Daggett, H.R. Hatfield, J.B. Peixotte, C.C. Plehm, L.W. Stebbins, S. Blum, A.H. Mowbray, N.J. Silberling, C.C. Staehling, P.F. Cadman, F. Fluegel, B.N. Grimes, P.S. Taylor, Helen Jeter, E.T. Grether.

MINNESOTA: G.W. Dorwie, J.D. Black, R.G. Blakey, F.B. Garver, N.S.B. Gras, J.S. Young, A.H. Hansen, B.D. Mudgett, J.E. Cummings, E.A. Heilman, H.B Price, J.J. Reighard, J.W. Stehman, H. Working, C.L. Rotzell, W.R. Myers.

NORTHWESTERN: Deibler, Heilman, Secrist, Bailey, Pooley, Eliot, Ray Curtis, Bell, Hohman, Fagg.

STANFORD: M.S. Wildman, W.S. Beach, E. Jones, H.L. Lutz, A.C. Whitaker, J.G. Davis, A.E. Taylor, J.B. Canning.

OHIO STATE: M.B. Hammond, H.G. Hayes, A.B. Wolf, H.F. Waldradt, C.O. Ruggles, W.C. Weidler, J.A. Fisher, H.E. Hoagland, H.H. Maynard, C.A. Dice, M.E. Pike, J.A. Fitzgerald, F.E. Held, M.N. Nelson, R.C. Davis, C.W. Reeder, T.N. Beckman.

Compiled with the assistance of J.B. Dennison, associate professor of economics.

Source: Raymond Mollyneaux Hughes, A Study of the Graduate Schools of America. Oxford, OH: Miami University (January 1925), pp. 14-15. Copy from University of Chicago. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records, Box 47, Folder #5 “Study of the Graduate Schools of America”, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago.

Image Source: Four prize winners in annual beauty show, Washington Bathing Beach, Washington, D.C. from the U. S. Library of Congress. Prints & Photographs. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b43364

Columbia Economists Pennsylvania

Columbia. Memorial minute for Professor Henry Seager, 1930

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-05-30

Earlier posts dealing with Columbia professor Henry Seager provided his syllabus on the trust problem and a link to his 22-page general lecture on economics from 1907/08. This post provides a report of his death in Kiev from bronchial pneumonia while traveling through the Soviet Union, details from an endowment for economic research in his will, and a memorial minute delivered by his colleague Wesley Clair Mitchell (that probably reveals at least as much about Mitchell as it does about Seager.

_________________

HENRY SEAGER DIES ON TOUR OF RUSSIA
Columbia Spectator. September 30, 1930.

Professor Henry Roger Seegar [sic], former professor at Columbia, […] died during the Summer vacation period.

Professor Seegar [sic], formerly of the Department of Political Economy, died in Kiev, Russia, in August. He was on tour with twenty-five other economists who were making a study of the Soviet Government’s five-year industrialization plan. After spending some time in France and Germany, the group left for Russia on July 7.

Professor Seegar [sic], was taken ill with bronchial pneumonia a month later. His condition grew worse and several days after the first attack, he died.

Member of Party

One of the leading economists in the country, Professor Seegar [sic], had been asked to accompany the party which was under the leadership of one of his former pupils, David Ostrinsky. The purpose of the expedition was to study at first-hand the conditions in the Soviet Republic.

[…]

Source: The Columbia Spectator, Vol. 54, No. 1 (September 25, 1930) p. 8.

_________________

ENDOWMENT GIVEN BY SEAGER’S WILL
Late Professor Leaves Fund for Advancement of Study and Research
Columbia Spectator. October 16, 1930.

A foundation to be known as the Schuyler Fiske Seager Endowment for the Advancement of Economic Study and Research “is to be established at Columbia from the residuary estate of the late Dr. Henry Rogers Seager, Professor of Political Economy here for twenty-five years, according to terms of his will published yesterday. Since the will has not as yet been probated, the total amount of the endowment cannot be ascertained yet, it was learned yesterday at the office of Frederick A. Goetze, Treasurer of the University, who was named executor of the estate.

The will falls in line with a statement recently made by Professor James C. Egbert of the School of Business, who declared in his report to Dr. Butler that an endowment for economic study would be highly desirable. Professor Egbert was of the opinion that such a sum could be used for the formation of a bureau of public utility economics.

Was Noted Economist

Dr. Seager who died this Summer while at the head of a group of economists studying conditions at Kiev, Russia, was known as an outstanding figure in academic economics. He was classed as an authority whose opinion frequently was sought in the practical determination of affairs.

Until the death of the first of seven relatives, the will stipulates, the foundation will not be started. These seven are to receive the residuary income during their lives and upon the death of the survivors the balance of the share of each in the principal is to be added to the fund.

The Trustees of the University have been named trustees of the residuary fund by Dr. Seager and they are to make the payments to the seven beneficiaries, who include his an uncle, an aunt, two nieces and two nephews. Dr. Seager wrote that he was establishing the foundation in memory of his father, Schuyler Fiske Seager, and his son who bears the same name. The will directs the trustees to expend the incom. of the fund each year “for such purposes as they shall deem most likely to contribute to the advancement of economic study and research during such year.”

Source: The Columbia Spectator, Vol. 54, No. 16 (October 16, 1930) pp. 1,3.

_________________

Memorial minute for Professor Seager

There being no reports from the Standing committees the Faculty proceeded to the election of a Chairman of the Committee on Instruction to succeed Professor Seager. The President [Nicholas Murray Butler] recognized Professor [Wesley Clair] Mitchell, who offered the following resolution:

The Faculty of Political Science records with deep sorrow the loss of one of its most distinguished and best-loved members, Professor Henry Rogers Seager, who died in Kiev, August 23^rd, 1930.

Coming to Columbia from the University of Pennsylvania in his thirty-second year, Professor Seager gave his life to those high interests for which universities stand—the increase of knowledge, the training of future investigators, and the effort to raise the level of human life by taking thought. His contributions to economics were characterized by keen analytic insight and by wide acquaintance with actual conditions. No student of labor problems was held in higher esteem by the various interests concerned with that warmly controversial field. His sound judgment, his accurate knowledge, and is impartiality made him equally successful in dealing with the various forms assumed by business organizations and the efforts of government to prevent abuses of corporate powers. As a teacher Professor Seager won the affectionate gratitude of successive generations of students, whom he helped with their personal as well as their intellectual problems. As a colleague, he was generous and just, winning the confidence and the affection of his associates, young and old. As a citizen he was zealous and sensible: working ardently for causes which commanded his sympathy, yet shrewd in planning and efficient in execution—the type of “social reformer” who uses the wisdom of the serpent in the service of noble ideals.

It was characteristic of Professor Seager’s fresh mind and courage at an age when most men relax that he should become an active student of the extraordinary experiment in social reorganization now being conducted in Russia. Popular prejudice had never deterred him from taking a scientist’s interest in any social development and he hesitated as little at sixty as in his youth. Always eager for first-hand knowledge, and eager to share with others, he organized a group of economists to make a tour of inspection in Russia, with the expectation of returning presently for more through researches. It was characteristic also that he should overtax his physical strength in making the most of the opportunities for observation by his companions and himself. He died as he had lived, in the pursuit of knowledge and in the service of others.

The Resolution was adopted by a rising vote of the Faculty…

Source: From the copy of the official minutes of the regular meeting of the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University (October 10, 1930) in Columbia University Archives, Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science 1920-29, pp. 656-657.

Image Source: Henry R. Seager (1915) from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Tags Mitchell, Seager

Pennsylvania Regulations

Pennsylvania. Rules for graduate degrees, 1897-98

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-26

The previous post provided the list of graduate courses in economics and related fields (Politics, Sociology, and Statistics) offered at the University of Pennsylvania in 1897-98. This post adds the regulations governing admission, residence requirements, degree requirements for the M.A. and Ph.D. and tuition fees (plot spoiler: annual tuition was $100).

The graduate courses of instruction were arranged in sixteen groups that together constituted the Department of Philosophy. Hence, the doctoral degrees awarded for a major subject (e.g., economics) within one of these groups was logically called “doctor of philosophy”, i.e., Ph.D.

The unit of instructional account was the “standard course” which would be a lecture course of one hour per week for one academic year” so a two hour course for one term would be credited as one standard course and a one hour course for one term would be credited as 1/2 standard course. The overwhelming majority of courses offered in the group “Economics, Politics, Sociology and Statistics” were two-hour, one-term courses.

A Master’s degree required at least twelve standard courses, i.e. twelve hours of lectures to attend per term for two terms, the normal load for one academic year. A doctoral student was required to complete at least twenty-four standard courses, so two-years of course work. A doctoral student was to declare three “branches of learning” in which proficiency was to be achieved. The choice of the three branches was subject to the approval of a Group Committee. The major subject would be the principal subject selected within the particular group and two minor subjects, one of which was recommended to be taken from outside of the group, presumably from history, philosophy, ethics or psychology if one’s major was, say, economics. “In every case the minor subjects shall be so related to the major as to conduce to some recognized and approved end.” The minimum foreign language requirement was a good reading knowledge of two European languages besides English, at least one of which had to be “a modern tongue”.

Following the presentation of a thesis “upon some topic in the line of his major subject, showing high attainment or power of original and independent research” and its approval by the Group Committee in which his major lies, the candidate for the Ph.D. had to pass “a private written examination conducted by his instructors” as well as a public oral examination covering both the major and minor subjects.

__________________

Regulations for Graduate Degrees in the Department of Philosophy
University of Pennsylvania, 1897-98

The Department of Philosophy offers advanced instruction in the various branches of Literature and Science The instruction is intended primarily for persons who have profited by the advantages of a full college course, and who are desirous of continuing their studies upon lines more strictly defined and specialized. Others, however, may be admitted to study in the Department, under conditions hereinafter specified.

The session of 1897-98 will begin on Friday, October 1.

ARRANGEMENT OF COURSES.

The courses of instruction offered in this Department are arranged under the sixteen following groups:

Semitic Languages.
American Archaeology and Languages.
Indo-European Philology.
Classical Languages.
Germanic Languages.
Romanic Languages.
English.
Philosophy, Ethics, Psychology and Pedagogy.
History.
Economics, Politics, Sociology and Statistics.
Mathematics.
Astronomy.
Physics.
Chemistry.
Botany and Zoology.
Geology and Mineralogy.

All persons authorized to give instruction within a group constitute the Group Committee. To the several Group Committees are entrusted the arrangement of their respective courses, and the oversight of students taking majors within the group.

The instruction given within a group is subdivided into lecture courses, seminary courses and laboratory courses.

In stating the minimum requirements for residence and degrees a ”standard” course is used; this is a lecture course of one hour per week for one academic year. The lecture courses as actually given will be either multiples or fractional parts of this standard. The ratio of value of the several seminary and laboratory courses to the standard is variable, and will be set in each case by the Group Committee.

ADMISSION.

Students desiring to enter this Department must present themselves in person to the Dean.

Any person may be admitted by the Dean as a special student, not a candidate for a degree, upon the presentation of written statements from the instructors with whom he desires to work, certifying to his fitness and consenting to his admission.

Any person holding the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science from some college or university whose degrees are recognized by this University as equivalent to its own may be admitted by the Dean as a candidate for a higher degree. In such cases the applicant’s diploma must be submitted to the inspection of the Dean.

Students who are allowed to become candidates for a higher degree are termed regular students. Those who are not candidates for a degree a.e termed special students.

If the degree has been taken five or more years before the date of application, the Dean may at his discretion require of the applicant further evidence of his ability to pursue with profit his studies in the Department.

Persons who do not hold a Bachelor’s degree may, in exceptional cases, be admitted as candidates for a degree; provided they satisfy the Executive Committee of the Faculty, by examination, or in such other way as the Committee may in each case determine, that they possess not only the knowledge necessary to the profitable pursuit of the subjects they may select, but also that general cultivation and training which is the result of a properly conducted college course.

Students already registered as candidates for a degree in other Departments of the University are allowed to pursue courses in this Department, and regular students of this Department are allowed to pursue courses in other Departments by the concurrent action of the respective Deans.

After admission, each student will be furnished with a matriculation card; no student who cannot show his matriculation card will be allowed to take any course. These cards are good only for the year in which they are issued, and must be renewed from year to year. For such renewal, personal application must be made at the office.

RESIDENCE.

All candidates for higher degrees are required to spend at least one year in residence at this University. To be construed in residence at this University, a student must pursue not less than six standard lecture courses or their equivalent, simultaneously. Work done at other universities may be accepted by the several Group Committees in lieu of a part of the work required for a degree.

When only one year is spent in residence at this University, it must be the last year of the student’s course.

DEGREES.

The degrees conferred in the Faculty of Philosophy are Doctor of Philosophy, (Ph.D.), Master of Arts, (A.M.), and Master of Science, (M.S.).

The right to recommend a candidate to the Board of Trustees for a higher degree is vested in a Board of Examiners, consisting of the Dean and three members of the Faculty, representing those branches of study in which the candidate has been working. Before a student can offer himself for examination, he must present to the Dean suitable written certificates from the Group Committees under whose supervision his work has been prosecuted, setting forth that he has not only complied with all conditions prescribed by the rules, but is also in the judgment of those committees fitted by his ability and attainments to receive the degree in question. No student can acquire a right to such recommendation merely by attending lectures, passing examinations, or by compliance with any prescribed conditions whatever. The requirements for degrees hereinafter specified must therefore be regarded as minimum requirements only, and it remains within the power of any Group Committee to refuse to grant any student a recommendation for the higher degree. All degrees are conferred at the annual commencement in June.

THE MASTER’S DEGREE.

Only those who have received the degree of Bachelor of Arts can proceed to that of Master of Arts.

Only those who have received the degree of Bachelor of Science can proceed to that of Master of Science.

The work for the Master’s Degree will occupy the student’s undivided time for at least one academic year. The candidate will be required to elect, with the consent of the Dean, not less than twelve standard courses or their equivalent, and to pursue them to the satisfaction of the committees offering them. He must then pass a private written examination under the direction of his instructors, and a public oral examination in the presence of the Board of Examiners, and of such members of the Faculty as desire to attend.

THE DOCTOR’S DEGREE.

The degree of Doctor of Philosophy is conferred solely in recognition of marked ability and high attainments in some definite branch of learning.

The degree will in no case be granted before the expiration of two years after the date of the candidate’s baccalaureate degree, nor upon a candidate who has not completed twenty-four standard courses or their equivalent. A student of ability, who has already had a good undergraduate course and pursues in graduate work the same topics to which he devoted special attention as an undergraduate, will usually be able to attain his degree in three years; but students whose college training has been in any respect defective, or who cannot devote their undivided attention to the work, will require a longer period of time.

The candidate for the Doctor’s degree must, upon entering the Department, elect the group within which he intends to do the greater part of his work, and will then pass under the jurisdiction of the committee in charge of that group. He must designate, with the consent of the committee, three branches of learning in which he desires to become proficient. One of these, which shall be known as his principal or major subject, shall lie within the group; although the Group Committee may direct him to courses given in other groups, and may allow them to be accounted part of the major work. The other two shall be known as his subordinate or minor subjects. It is recommended that at least one minor be taken outside the group in which his major lies. In every case the minor subjects shall be so related to the major as to conduce to some recognized and approved end.

Every candidate for the Doctor’s degree must possess a good reading knowledge of those languages which are judged by the committee in charge of the major essential to the prosecution of his major work.

Under no circumstances may a candidate present himself for his degree before he can show a good reading knowledge of two European languages besides English, one of which must be a modern tongue.

He must also present a thesis upon some topic in the line of his major subject, showing high attainment or power of original and independent research. This thesis must be presented and approved by the Group Committee in which his major lies before he can be admitted to the examinations.

The thesis must be typewritten or printed, unless upon recommendation of the committee in charge the Dean authorize the acceptance of a written thesis. The committee may require the thesis to be printed before recommending the candidate for the degree. If the thesis is written or typewritten, one copy must be deposited in the Library of the University before the student can be recommended for his degree; if printed, fifty copies must be deposited.

The candidate for the Doctor’s degree must pass a private written examination conducted by his instructors, and a public oral examination. The final examination is conducted by the Board of Examiners as hereinbefore provided, representing the candidate’s major and two minor subjects respectively, in the presence of such members of the Faculty as may desire to attend.

FEES.

For regular students the tuition fee is one hundred (100.00) dollars per annum. The graduation fee is twenty-five (25.00) dollars.

For special students a fee is charged according to the number of courses taken The fee for a course is found by multiplying ten dollars by the number of hours of instruction offered per week throughout the year, and adding five dollars to this product. If several courses be taken with the same instructor, this five dollars is added only once. Fees are payable to the Registrar in two instalments, on November 1 and February 1, strictly in advance.

Source: Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania. Fasciculus of the Department of Philosophy. Announcements for Session 1897-98, pp. 17-21.

Image Source: University Library (built 1890, Furness, Evans & Co., architect; now Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library), interior, reading room, 1898. University of Pennsylvania Digital Image Collection.

Courses Curriculum Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania. Economics Course Offerings, 1897-98

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-25

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in 1897/98 corresponded to what today is generally called the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The subjects of economics, politics, sociology, and statistics constituted the tenth group of the sixteen groups making up the Department of Philosophy. A Ph.D. candidate would select a major subject from the group and two minor subjects (recommended that “at least one minor be taken outside the group in which the major lies”). The course offerings and their short descriptions for group X have been transcribed below.

___________________

Departments of the University of Pennsylvania
as of 1897/98
and the year they were established.

(1740. Charitable School; out of which grew, in)
1751. The College.
1765. The Department of Medicine.
1 790-1850. The Department of Law.
1865. The Auxiliary Department of Medicine.
1874. The University Hospital.
1878. The Department of Dentistry.
1883. The Department of Philosophy.
1884. The Department of Veterinary Medicine.
1885. The Veterinary Hospital.
1885. The Department of Physical Education.
1889. The Museum of Archaeology and Paleontology.
1891. The University Library. (Building erected)
1892. The Laboratory of Hygiene.
1892. The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology.

Department of Philosophy

Semitic Languages
American Archaeology and Languages
Indo-European Philology
Classical Languages
Germanic Languages
Romanic Languages
English
Philosophy, Ethics, Psychology and Pedagogy
History
Economics, Politics, Sociology and Statistics
Mathematics
Astronomy
Physics
Chemistry
Botany and Zoölogy
Geology and Mineralogy

The degrees conferred in the Faculty of Philosophy are Doctor of Philosophy, (Ph. D. ), Master of Arts, (A. M.), and Master of Science, (M.S.).

___________________

Faculty: 10. Economics, Politics, Sociology and Statistics

Simon N. Patten, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy
Roland P. Falkner, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Statistics
John Quincy Adams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science
Emory R. Johnson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Transportation and Commerce.
Samuel McCune Lindsay, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology
Leo S. Rowe, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science
Henry R. Seager, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Economy
James T. Young, Ph.D., Lecturer, Administration

___________________

X. ECONOMICS, POLITICS, SOCIOLOGY AND STATISTICS.

Professor Patten, Chairman; Associate Professor Falkner; Assistant Professors Adams, E. R. Johnson, Lindsay, Rowe and Seager; Dr. Young.

Majors —

Political Science, Economics, Transportation and Commerce, Statistics, Sociology.

Minors —

1. Political Science; A 1, 4; B 10.
2. Public Finance; A 3, and B 1, 2, or C 1, 2.
3. Administration; A 8, 6, 3, or A 9, 2, 4b; and C 5d.
4. Economic Theory; B 1, 2, and, B 10, or Mill’s Political Economy(2 hours a week).
5. History of Economic Thought; B 1, 2, 3, 4.
6. Economic History; B 10, and Group IX. C 2, 4.
7. Transportation and Commerce; B 11, 12, and A 4, or B 1, 2, or C 1, 2.
8. Statistics; C 1, 2, 3, 4, or C 1, 2, 3, and A3 (one term), or B 11.
9. Sociology; C 5c, 6, B 1, or C 5b, 6, 1, or C 5c 5d, A 4.

A.—POLITICAL SCIENCE, FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION.

Assistant Professor Adams.

History of Modern Political Ideas (2 hours per week)

Lectures covering the period from Bodin to the present, supplemented by prescribed reading. Relation between political thought and economic and social conditions will be studied, with special reference to the recent political development of England.

Readings in Political Science (1 hour per week)

Reading and discussion of a few recent works on special phases of political problems.

Public Finance (2 hours per week)

Taxation; the classification, incidence and effect of the several taxes. Methods of raising federal revenue in the United States; the revenue systems of the leading States (Second Term).

Assistant Professor Rowe.

The Individual and the State (2 hours per week)

(a) (First Term.) The concept of individual liberty at different periods of political development. Relation to law and government. Distinction between civil and political liberty. Guarantees, legal and political. The idea of social liberty in democratic communities.

(b) (Second Term.) Relation of the State to industrial action. Socialism and Individualism. Influence of economic and social changes on the sphere of activity of the State. Growth of free contract. Effect of recognition by the State of new forms of association.

History and Theory of the State (2 hours per week)

(a) (First Term.) The general principles of political science. Its province and problems. Relation to the social sciences. Nature of political association; origin of the State; source and function of law. (Omitted in 1897-98.)

(b) (Second Term.) The concept of the State at different epochs. Growth of the distinction between State and government. Ends of the State; sphere of its authority; forms of the State and of government. (Omitted in 1897-98.)

Municipal Government and Institutions (2 hours per week)

(a) (First Term.) The city and conditions of city life in the ancient, mediaeval and modern world. The relation between city and State in Europe and the United States.

(b) (Second Term.) Problems of modern city life. Relation to quasi-public works. Social problems.

The Analytical School of Jurisprudence in its Relation to Political Science. (Second Term) (2 hours per week)

Selected readings from Bentham, Austin, Holland, Maine and Pollock. Relation of this school of thought to the doctrine of natural law and natural rights. Contrast between the historical and analytical concepts in political science.

Dr. Young.

Administration (1 hour per week)

Local rural administration. A comparison of the organization and methods of local administration in Europe and America. Provinz, Bezirk, Kreis; Department, Arrondissement ; County, Township, etc. Modern growth and tendencies.

Practical Problems in Administration (1 hour per week)

Studies in special questions, such as the formation and growth of systems of Civil Service; the development of boards and commissions of administrative control; the administration of factory legislation.

B. — ECONOMIC THEORY, ECONOMIC HISTORY, AND TRANSPORTATION AND COMMERCE.

Professor Patten.

History of Political Economy (First Term) (2 hours per week)

The rise and development of the classical school of economists. Adam Smith and Ricardo form the natural centre of the study. Especial attention is given to the sources on which Smith’s Wealth of Nationsis based; and, in the latter part of the course, to the interpretation of Ricardo’s writings.

Recent Development of Political Economy (Second Term) (2 hours per week)

The American economists are carefully studied. Prominence is given to the recent development of the theory of rent, to the theory of marginal utility, to the new aspects of the science resulting from an emphasis of the dynamic causes of social progress, to recent attempts to substitute consumption for production as the starting point of investigation and the basis of theory.

The Relation of English Philosophy to Economics in the Eighteenth Century (First Term) (2 hours per week)

Philosophy and economics have in England been intimately related. The purpose of this course is to bring out the facts, character and extent of this relation and its results on both sides.

Scope and Method of Political Economy (Second Term) (2 hours per week)

Limitations of scope in economic investigation; its causes as deducible from the history of the science. The method of this science will be compared with that of others. The processes by which the great writers established their characteristic doctrines will be particularly considered. (Omitted in 1897-98.)

Practical Applications of Economic Theory (First Term) (2 hours per week)

The object is to show the practical importance of the new theories, and the changes they will work in public opinion. Among the topics considered will be: taxation, wages, money, retail prices, population, the causes of poverty, the standard of life, co-operation, trades unions, the dependent classes. The distribution of the surplus will be specially considered, along with its proper weight as a factor in practical problems. (Omitted in 1897-98.)

The Problems of Sociology (Second Term) (2 hours per week)

The possibility of a science of sociology; the attempts to found such a science, and the obstacles encountered; the relation of economics to sociology.

Investigation of Special Topics (2 hours per week)

To promote original work and aid in the preparation of theses, special hours are assigned for the discussion of these investigations. Each student must select a topic, and give three hours a week to it throughout the year.

Assistant Professor Seager.

Economic Conference (2 hours per week)

Assigned portions of the following works will be read and discussed: Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital; Hadley, Economics; Smart, Studies in Economics. Reports will be made on cognate topics of special interest.

Advanced Reading in German and French Economics (2 hours per week)

Roscher, Grundlagen der Nationalökonomieand Philippovich, Allgemeine Volkswirthschaftslehre.
Leroy-Beaulieu, Traité théorique et pratique d’économie politique.

The Industrial History of England and the Development of Economic Theory from 1750 to 1870 (2 hours per week)

The main features of the industrial revolution will be described, and the effects of the growth of the factory system on the position of the wage-earner, on legislation and on economic thought, will be considered. Then attention will be directed to the Corn-Law agitation, growing out of the Napoleonic war period; and the results of the Free Trade policy, inaugurated in 1846, will be discussed. Topics will be assigned for special reports. Lectures and assigned reading.

Assistant Professor E. R. Johnson.

Theory of Transportation (1 hour per week)

General Theory of Transportation. The economic functions and the ideal organization of transportation. Competition and co-operation in railway management. The past and present functions of traffic associations. Relation of the State to transportation. Theories underlying governmental regulation in the United States and other countries. The theory of rates. Lectures accompanied by an outline of assigned readings.

American Railway Transportation (2 hours per week)

Seminary, based mainly upon documentary sources. The work comprises (1) an examination of the salient features of the organization and management of railway transportation in the United States; and (2) a special study of railway regulation by the States and by the Federal government.

Transportation Systems of the United Kingdom and Germany (1 hour per week)

Organization, relation to the government, results of regulation of railways in the United Kingdom, and of State ownership in Germany. (Omitted in 1897-98.)

History of Commerce since 1500 (1 hour per week)

Lectures, assigned readings and investigations. Special attention will be given to the causes that have given the United Kingdom the commercial supremacy of the world. (Omitted in 1897-98.)

C. — SOCIOLOGY AND STATISTICS.

Associate Professor Faulkner.

Introduction to Statistics (First Term) (2 hours per week)

A study of the statistics of population will serve to develop the general aspects of the science, the organization of statistical work, and the possibilities and limitations of statistical argument. Familiarity with the literature and the sources of statistical information will be the chief aim.

Statistics of Economic Problems (Second Term) (2 hours per week)

This course supplements course 1: foreign commerce, railroads, banks, coinage, prices, strikes, wages, cost of living, will be studied from a statistical point of view. The literature will be reviewed and criticised.

History and Theory of Statistics (First Term) (2 hours per week)

Summary of statistical efforts and statistical theory, culminating in the elaboration of statistical methods. Consideration of statistics as a science of method; the basis and form of statistical judgments. (Open to students who have taken courses 1 and 2.)

Statistical Organization (Second Term) (2 hours per week)

The history, organization and function of statistical agencies at home and abroad will be surveyed. The factors that contribute to the efficiency of census departments, labor bureaus, etc., will be studied. The statistical offices of the United States will be studied and their methods criticised. (Open to students who have taken courses 1 and 2.)

Assistant Professor Lindsay.

Theory of Sociology (Two Years) (2 hours per week)

A systematic course in four parts; each part requiring two hours per week for half a year, and constituting an independent course.

(a) Methodology of the social sciences; their relations to economics. The problems of sociology. Brief review of the leading attempts to construct sociology as a science — Aristotle, Montesquieu, Comte, Spencer, Ward and Giddings.

(b) Primitive Society. Evolution of social organization and social control among primitive men. Special study of the forms of the family, and of the psychology of primitive society. Particular attention is given to the records of the American Indians.

(c) Structure of Modern Society. A study of the forms of social organization and social control resulting from modern demogenic association. The basis and relative strength of educational, political, religious and philanthropic factors.

(d) Social Movements of Modern Times. A discussion of the leading practical social problems of to-day, with a view to establishing a consistent theoretical point of view, and a method as a guide to the study of temporary and changing social conditions.

Note. — 5 d is open only to students who have had parts a, bor c, or an equivalent.

Social-Debtor Classes (2 hours per week)

This course deals with those groups and individuals in modern society who contribute nothing to the social surplus, but who participate in it, and hence are social debtors. They are considered under the heads of (1) the reclaimable class; (2) the naturally dependent class; (3) the pauper class; (4) the criminal classes. The methods of dealing with these groups are likewise classified and discussed.

Sociological Field Work (2 hours per week)

For special investigation of local social conditions and institutions. Opportunities for visiting industrial, educational and philanthropic institutions are afforded. Each student is expected to select a topic and make a careful study of some concrete social problem, with special reference to conditions in Philadelphia. Meetings for private conference and discussion are assigned.

Note. — In the academic year 1896-97, a special sociological investigation of the condition of the Negroes in the Seventh Ward of Philadelphia, is being carried on under the direction of William E. Burkhardt Du Bois, A. B., Ph. D., who was appointed for the year Assistant in Sociology for this purpose. The College Settlement of Philadelphia is co-operating in this investigation, and has appointed Miss Isabel Eaton, B. L., Fellow in charge of its work.

SEMINARY.

Seminary in Political Science, Economics and Sociology (2 hours per week)

The seminary meets each Monday evening during the academic year, for the presentation and discussion of papers prepared by the members under the direction of the professors in charge of the several topics in Group IX.

Source: Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania. Fasciculus of the Department of Philosophy. Announcements for Session 1897-98, pp. 44-50.

Tags DuBois, Falkner, JohnsonER, Lindsay, Patten, Seager

Chicago Columbia Cornell Economists Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania. Ph.D. Alumnus, William H.S. Stevens, 1912

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-21

The following letter from E.R.A. Seligman that recommended the appointment of three young economists to junior positions in Columbia College for 1912/13 was the starting point for this post. B. M. Anderson, Jr. and R. M. Haig were already well known to me. The third economist, W. S. Stevens, was completely new however, even though I have become reasonably familiar with the comings and goings of people who had taught economics at Columbia during the first half of the 20^thcentury. And so I went to work to figure out the future career (with respect to this April 23, 1912 letter) of Mr. W.S. Stevens. My results are found below, following the letter and they present a teachable moment about the use of the subscription genealogical website ancestry.com in tracking down economists of yore. Incidentally many research and public libraries provide access to ancestry.com for their users. That site together with the digital archives of hathitrust.org and archive.org were used to follow this economist’s career.

What did I learn from this exercise? Well, a reprint of a single QJE article represented a dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania in 1912. Also the life of an itinerant scholar is a real challenge to reconstruct, but especially for those cases when the absorbing state turns out to be a job outside of academia. An obituary or a tip from a death certificate pointing to the last employment is extremely useful should you be able to find one.

Incidentally, for those with more of a genealogical interest in this economist: W. S. Stevens was married three times: to Edyth Josephine Frost (1911-1922, divorce; one child, Joseph Libby Stevens b. 1913, d. 2000); to Mary E. Laird (1923-?); and to Rachel Bretherton (?-1966, died in 1966).

_________________

Copy of Seligman letter recommending three instructional appointments to Columbia College

April 23, 1912

Mr. F. P. Keppell
Dean, Columbia College.

My dear Dean Keppel:-

I take pleasure in nominating herewith the following gentlemen for positions in the College:-

Dr. B. M. Anderson, Jr., [A.B., Missouri, 1906; A.M., Illinois, 1910; Ph.D., Columbia, 1911] instructor, reappointment.

W. S. Stevens, Colby College, A.B., 1905; George Washington University, A.M., 1909; Chicago University, Summer, 1910; Cornell University, 1910-11; Chicago University, Summer, 1911; University of Pennsylvania, 1911-12; Fellow in Economics and Political Science, George Washington University, 1908-1909; Fellow in Economics, Cornell, 1910-1911; Assistant in Economics, Pennsylvania, 1911-12, lecturer in Economics.

R. M. Haig, A.B., Ohio Wesleyan University, 1908; A.M., University of Illinois, 1909; Secretary and Research Assistant to the Dean of Graduate School, University of Illinois, 1909-11; Garth Fellow, Columbia, 1911-12, lecturer in Economics. (Will receive degree of Ph.D. this autumn).

If there is any further information that I can give you about these gentlemen, pray command me.

Faithfully yours,

SE-S

Source: Columbia University Archives. Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman Collection, Box 36, Folder “Box 98A, Columbia (A-Z) 1911-1913”.

_________________

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972
Publications

William Harrison Spring Stevens (University of Pennsylvania). The powder trust, 1872-1912. [cover: “Ph.D. Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1912. Reprint of QJE article].

William S. Stevens (William S. Stevens). The powder trust, 1872-1912. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 26, No. 3 (May, 1912), pp. 444-481.

W. S. Stevens (Columbia University). A group of trusts and combinations. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 26, No. 4 (August, 1912), pp. 593-643.

William S. Stevens (Ph.D. Columbia University), ed. Industrial combinations and trusts. New York: Macmillan, 1914.

William H. S. Stevens (Ph.D. Sometime Professor of Business Management in the Tulane University of Louisiana). Unfair Competition: A Study of Certain Practices. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1917. [Dedication: “To Professor James C. Egbert of Columbia University with pleasant recollections of my experience in administrative work as his subordinate”]

_________________

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972
C.V.

Born April 15, 1885 [3, 4] in Eau Claire, Wisconsin [4]

Colby College, A.B., 1905 [1]

George Washington University, A.M., 1909 [1]

Chicago University, Summer, 1910 [1]

Cornell University, 1910-11 [1]

Chicago University, Summer, 1911 [1]

University of Pennsylvania, 1911-12 [1]

Fellow in Economics and Political Science, George Washington University, 1908-1909; [1]

Fellow in Economics, Cornell, 1910-1911 [1]

Assistant in Economics, Pennsylvania, 1911-12, lecturer in Economics. [1]

University of Pennsylvania. Ph.D., 1912 [2]

Instr. in econ., Columbia Univ., 1912-15 [2]

Prof. bus. management, Tulane Univ. of La., 1915-16 [2]

Special expert, Federal Trade Commission, 1917 [2]

Assistant chief economist, Federal Trade Commission [3]

Economist at Interstate Commerce Commission, 1942 [4]

Last occupation. “Dr. of Econ., Fed Government” [5]

Died September 14, 1972 in Alexandria Virginia [5]

Sources:

[1] Seligman letter (above) April 23, 1912

[2] General Alumni Catalogue, University of Pennsylvania, 1917, p. 474.

[3] World War I, Draft Registration Card. September 12, 1918.

[4] World War II, Draft Registration Card, April 27, 1942

[5] Death Certificate, State of Virginia September 20, 1972

_________________

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972
Fun Fact: Son of the American Revolution

“John Boyes, my great grandfather, enlisted in April 1777 in the 6^thCompany, 3d N.H. regiment; Daniel Livermore Capt., Alex Scammell Col. He served three years, participated in battles of Hubbardstown, Stillwater, first and second Monmouth and was in Gen. Sullivan’s expedition against the six Indian Nations (Iroquois). He was wounded in the arm at Stillwater and later was captured and transported to Limerick, Ireland, and thence to Mill Prison in England where he was confined for one year. He was honorably discharged after three years service, on April 6, 1790.”

Source: Application by William H. S. Stevens (September 24, 1962) for Membership in the Virginia Society of the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution. as great-grandson of John Boyes (27 September 1760 in Boston, died 2 May 1833 in Madison Maine).

Image Source: William H. S. Stevens class portrait from the his college yearbook, Colby Oracle, 1906.

Tags Anderson, Haig, Seligman, StevensWHS

Before economists stopped writing their Ph.D. dissertations in English…

Economics

17%

From Keniston’s Appendix (1959)

Standing of American Graduate Departments in the Arts and Sciences

OVER-ALL STANDING (Total Scores)

1925

1957

ECONOMICS

1925

1957

Sketch of Life and Career of Robert Ellis Thompson

Robert Ellis Thompson 1844 – 1924

Selection of publications by Robert Ellis Thompson [results of a relatively casual bibliographic search]

Books

Articles published in Penn Monthly

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON SALARY SCALE

Harvard Ph.Ds discussed

Carbon copy Possible candidates for Charles Frederick Remer successor at Williams College

Carbon copy Possible candidates for position at St. Lawrence University

Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (cont.)

ECONOMICS

Combined Ratings: (24)

Staffs:

HENRY SEAGER DIES ON TOUR OF RUSSIA Columbia Spectator. September 30, 1930.

Member of Party

ENDOWMENT GIVEN BY SEAGER’S WILL Late Professor Leaves Fund for Advancement of Study and Research Columbia Spectator. October 16, 1930.

Was Noted Economist

Memorial minute for Professor Seager

Regulations for Graduate Degrees in the Department of Philosophy University of Pennsylvania, 1897-98

ARRANGEMENT OF COURSES.

ADMISSION.

RESIDENCE.

DEGREES.

THE MASTER’S DEGREE.

THE DOCTOR’S DEGREE.

FEES.

Departments of the University of Pennsylvania as of 1897/98 and the year they were established.

Department of Philosophy

Faculty: 10. Economics, Politics, Sociology and Statistics

X. ECONOMICS, POLITICS, SOCIOLOGY AND STATISTICS.

Majors —

Minors —

A.—POLITICAL SCIENCE, FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION.

B. — ECONOMIC THEORY, ECONOMIC HISTORY, AND TRANSPORTATION AND COMMERCE.

C. — SOCIOLOGY AND STATISTICS.

SEMINARY.

Copy of Seligman letter recommending three instructional appointments to Columbia College

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972 Publications

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972 C.V.

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972 Fun Fact: Son of the American Revolution

Standing of
American Graduate Departments
in the Arts and Sciences

OVER-ALL STANDING
(Total Scores)

Robert Ellis Thompson
1844 – 1924

Selection of publications by Robert Ellis Thompson
[results of a relatively casual bibliographic search]

Carbon copy
Possible candidates for Charles Frederick Remer successor at Williams College

Carbon copy
Possible candidates for position at St. Lawrence University

HENRY SEAGER DIES ON TOUR OF RUSSIA
Columbia Spectator. September 30, 1930.

ENDOWMENT GIVEN BY SEAGER’S WILL
Late Professor Leaves Fund for Advancement of Study and Research
Columbia Spectator. October 16, 1930.

Regulations for Graduate Degrees in the Department of Philosophy
University of Pennsylvania, 1897-98

Departments of the University of Pennsylvania
as of 1897/98
and the year they were established.

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972
Publications

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972
C.V.

William Harrison Spring Stevens, 1885-1972
Fun Fact: Son of the American Revolution