Categories
Economists Michigan Research Tip Teaching

Michigan. Henry Carter Adams and School of Applied Ethics, 1891. With Biography.

 

Scavenging in digitized archives is certainly no less important an activity than risking the dust in conventional archival folders found in boxes to seek paper receipts of history. Last night I stumbled into the wonderful digitized archives of the University of Michigan’s daily newspaper (see link below). Like a kid in the proverbial candy store, I was riding a sugar high for most of the evening. This morning after a couple of cups of coffee, I put together the following material: biographical/career information about Professor Henry Carter Adams and a report of an interdisciplinary summer school he helped to establish in applied ethics (in 1891!).

I was well aware of Adams’ reputation as an expert in public finance, but I hadn’t noticed that he had been fired from Cornell for a lecture he gave on the Great Southwest railroad strike of 1886. “This man must go, he is 
sapping the foundations of our society.” We shouldn’t ever take our academic freedom for granted!

Other posts at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror dealing with the economist Henry Carter Adams:

Research Tips:

______________________


HENRY CARTER ADAMS
(31st December, 1851—11th August, 1921)

The following memorial to the late
 Professor Henry C. Adams was present
ed to the University Senate at a recent
 meeting. It was prepared by a commit
tee of which R. M. Wenley; Professor of 
Philosophy was the chairman. The other 
members were S. Lawrence Bigelow, 
 Professor of Chemistry and I. Leo 
Sharfman, Professor of Economics.

An obvious drawback of academic life is 
that titles tend to obscure persons: and when, 
as with our colleague Henry Carter Adams, 
 the man dwarfs the title, liability to misjudge
 or overlook becomes serious. Not till too
 late, death prompting inquiry or reflection, do
 we grow aware of the true reasons for the
 magnitude of our gain and loss. Even so, 
 when we attempt a fit Memorial, the Odyssey
 of the spirit is all too apt to evade our tardy 
heed. The career of Professor Adams furn
ishes a typical case in point.

Henry Carter Adams was born at Daven
port, Iowa, December 31, 1851. He came of
 old New England stock; his forebears had
 made the great adventure oversea in 1623. His
 mother, Elizabeth Douglass, and his father, 
 Ephraim Adams, were a like-minded pair, 
 representative of the soundest traditions of 
New England character and nurture. Ephraim 
Adams, one of a small band of missionaries
 from Andover Theological Seminary who for
sook everything for Christ’s sake, arrived on 
the open prairies of Iowa in 1842—the goal
 of three weeks’ hard journey from Albany, New York. Their mission it was to kindle 
and tend the torch, not merely of religion, but
 also of education, among the far-flung pioneers. 
 Consequently, it is impossible to understand
 why Henry Adams was what he was, became
 what he became, unless one can evoke sympa
thetic appreciation of the temper, which de
termined his upbringing. For example, it may
 well astonish us to learn that his nineteenth 
birthday was but a few months off ere he
 received his first formal instruction. The
 reasons thereof may astonish us even more. 
 The child had been sickly always, physicians 
informing the parents that he could not survive the age of fourteen. The “open prairies” 
proved his physical salvation. Given a cause 
and a gun, the boy roamed free, passing from
 missionary home to missionary home, some-
times bearing parental messages to the scat
tered preachers. In this way he outgrew 
debility and, better still, acquired a love for
 nature, and an intimacy with our average 
citizenry, never lost. Meanwhile, the elder
 Adams taught him Greek, Latin, and He brew
 as occasion permitted. At length, in 1869, he
 
entered Denmark Academy whence, after a
 single year, he was able to proceed to Iowa
 College, Grinnell, where he graduated in 1874. During these five years, the man whom we 
knew started to shape himself.

In the home and the wider circle of friends, the impressionable days of childhood had been 
moulded by Puritanism. God’s providence, 
the responsibility of man, the absolute distinc
tion between right and wrong, with all result-
ant duties and prohibitions, set the perspective. 
Fortunately, the characteristic Yankee interest 
in education—in intelligence rather than learn
ing—contributed a vital element. An active
 mind enlarged the atmosphere of the soul. De-
spite its straight limitations as some reckon 
them; here was a real culture, giving men in
ner harmony with self-secure from disturbance
 by the baser passions. As we are aware 
now, disturbance came otherwise. To quote
 Adams’ own words, he was “plagued by doc
trines” from the time he went to the Academy. 
 The spiritual impress of the New England
 home never left him; it had been etched upon 
his very being. But, thus early, Calvinistic 
dogma aroused misgivings, because its sheer 
profundity bred high doubt. As a matter of 
course, Ephraim Adams expected his son to 
follow the Christian ministry, and Henry him
self foresaw no other calling meantime. Hence, when scepticism assailed him, he was destined
 to a terrible, heart-searching experience, the
 worse that domestic affection drew him one
 way, mental integrity another. His first years 
at Grinnell were bootless; the prescribed stud
ies held no attraction and, likely enough, sick
ness had left certain lethargy. But, when 
he came to history, philosophy, and social
 questions, he felt a new appeal. His Junior
 and Senior years, eager interest stimulating, 
profited him much. Still dubious, he taught
 for a year after graduation at Nashua, Iowa. Then, bowing to paternal prayer and maternal 
hope, he entered Andover Theological Semi-nary, not to prepare for the ministry, however, 
 but “to try himself out”—to discover whether 
preaching were possible for him. In the Spring 
of 1876, he had decided irrevocably that it was 
not. Adams’ “first” education—education by
 the natal group—ended here. It had guaran
teed him the grace which is the issue of 
moral habit, had wedded him to the convic
tion that justice is truth in action. For, al-
though he abandoned certain theological for
mulae, the footfall of spiritual things ever 
echoed through hrs character. The union of 
winsome gentleness with stern devotion to 
humanitarian ideals, so distinctive of Professor Adams, rooted in the persistent influ
ence of the New England conscience.

The Second Education

Turning to the “second” education, destined 
to enroll our colleague among economic lead
ers, it is necessary to recall once again conditions almost forgotten now. When, forty-five
 years ago, an academy and college-bred lad, 
 destined for the ministry, found it necessary 
to desist, he was indeed “all at sea.” For 
facilities, offered on every hand today by the
 Graduate Schools of the great universities, 
 did not exist. The youth might drift—into 
journalism, teaching, or what not. But drift
ing was not on Adams’ programme. He wrote 
to his parents who, tragically enough, could 
not understand him, “I must obtain another 
cultural training.” His mind had dwelt already upon social, political, and economic prob
lems: therefore, the “second” education must
 be non-theological. Whither could he look? At this crisis his course was set by one of 
those small accidents, which, strange to tell, 
 play a decisive part in many lives. By mere
 chance, he came upon a catalogue of Johns
 Hopkins University, so late in the day, more-
over, that his application for a fellowship, 
 with an essay enclosed as evidence of fitness, 
arrived just within time limits. Adams was 
chosen one of ten Fellows from a list of more 
than three hundred candidates, and to Balti
more he went in the fall of 1876. His letters
 attest that the new, ampler opportunities at
tracted him strongly. He availed himself of 
concerts, for music always moved him. Here 
he heard the classics for the first time. Hither-
to he had known only sacred music. Sometimes 
he played in church and, as records show, he
 sang in our Choral Union while a young pro
fessor. We find, too, that he served as assistant in the Johns Hopkins library, not for 
the extravagant salary, as he remarks humor
ously, but on account of access to books—”I
 am reading myself full.” His summers were
 spent in his native State, working in the fields. 
 In 1878 he received the doctorate, the first 
conferred by the young and unique university.


Study in Europe

The day after graduation President Oilman
 sent for him, and told him, “You must go to
 Europe.” The reply was typical—”I can’t, I 
haven’t a cent.” Oilman continued, ”I shall
 see what can be done,” with the result that the benefactor to whom Adams dedicated his 
first book found the requisite funds. Brief
 stays at Oxford and Paris, lengthier at Berlin
 and Heidelberg, filled the next fourteen
 months. The journalistic bee still buzzing in 
his head, Adams had visited Godkin before
 leaving for Europe, to discuss the constructive
 political journalism he had in mind. Godkin 
received him kindly, but as Adams dryly re-
marks, had a long way to travel ere he could
 understand. In the summer of 1878, President
 Andrew D. White, of Cornell, traveling in 
Germany, summoned Adams, to discuss a 
vacancy in this university. To Adams’ huge
 diappointment, as the interview developed, it
 became apparent that White, with a nonchalance some of us remember well, had mistaken H. C. Adams, the budding economist, 
 for H. B. Adams, the budding historian. The
 vacancy was in history, not in political science 
or economics. Expectation vanished in thin 
air. But Adams was not done with. Return
ing to his pension, he sat up all night to draft 
the outline of a course of lectures which, as
 he bluntly put it, “Cornell needed.” Next day 
he sought President White again who, being
 half persuaded by Adams’ verbal exposition, 
 kept the document, saying he would communicate with Cornell, requesting that a place be
 made for the course if possible. Writing from
 Saratoga, in September 1879, Adams tells his 
mother that all is off at Cornell, that he must
 abandon his career and buckle down to earn
ing a livelihood. A lapse of ten days trans
formed the scene. The Cornell appointment
 had been arranged, and he went to Ithaca 
forthwith. So meagre were the facilities then 
offered in the general field of the social sci
ences that Adams gave one semester, at Cornell and Johns Hopkins respectively, to these
 subjects in the year 1879-80. The same ar
rangement continued till 1886, Michigan be
ing substituted for Johns Hopkins in 1881. As 
older men recall, Dr. Angell taught economics, 
 in addition to international law, till the time
 of his transfer to Pekin as Minister to China. 
 At this juncture, Adams joined us, forming a 
life-long association. He himself says that he
 “gave up three careers, —preaching, journalism, 
 and reform—to devote himself to teaching”
 where he believed his mission lay.

Dismissal from Cornell

There is no better index to the enormous 
change that has overtaken the usual approach
 to social questions than the circumstances
, which caused Adams’ expulsion from Cornell
 University. The Scientific American Supple
ment (p. 8861) of date August 21st, 1886, con
tains the substance of an address, “The Labor 
Problem.” We quote Adams’ comments, inscribed beside the clipping in his personal
 scrapbook.

“This is the article that caused my dismissal 
from Cornell. This article was given on the
 spur of the moment. Professor Thurston had 
invited a man from New York to address the
 engineering students, but the lecturer failed
 to come. I was asked to come in and say a
 few words on the Gould Strike. It was said 
to me that other members of the Faculty 
would speak, and that I might present my
 views as an advocate.

“The room was crowded for, besides the 
engineering society, my own students, getting 
word of it, came over to the Physical Laboratory room where the addresses of the society
 were given. A more inspiring audience no 
man could have, and I spoke with ease, with
 pleasure and, from the way my words were 
received, with effect. The New York papers 
reported what I said and, three days after, Mr. 
Henry Sage, than whom I know no more 
honest hypocrite or unchristian a Christian, 
 came into the President’s office and, taking
 the clipping from The New York Times out
 of his pocket said, “This man must go, he is 
sapping the foundations of our society.” It
 was not until then that I thought of putting
 what I said into print, but I then did it, fol
lowing as nearly as possible what I said and
 the way I said it.

“The effect of this episode upon myself was 
to learn that what I said might possibly be of
 some importance.

“Of course, there is a good deal of secret 
history connected with the matter, but I am 
not likely to forget that.”

This echo of old, far-off, unhappy things is 
most suggestive, because more than any other
 man, perhaps, Adams mediated the vast, silent 
change marking these last thirty-five years. 
 As has been aptly said, “he had a most roman
tic intellectual career.”

Appointment at Michigan

In 1887, he was appointed to the Michigan
 chair, which he greatly graced till death. At
 this time, too, on the urgent request of his
 close friend, Judge Thomas M. Cooley, then
 Chairman, he joined the Interstate Commerce
 Commission, much against his own inclination. 
 When he founded the Statistical Department, 
 he had the assistance of a single clerk; when
 he resigned, in 1911, the personnel numbered 
two hundred and fifty. Mutatis mutandis, a
 parallel expansion overtook our Department
 of Economics under his leadership.

It must suffice merely to mention his services with the Eleventh Census, the Michigan
 Tax Commission, and the Chinese Republic, 
 pointing out that such positions come only to
 men of high distinction and proven authority. 
 More than a quarter of a century has elapsed
 since his election to the Presidency of the
 American Economic Association, which he
 helped to found; nearly as long since he was
 presiding officer of the American Statistical
 Association. In short, he ranked among the
 most important and influential leaders in his
 chosen field. His Alma Mater honored her-
self in honoring him with the degree of LL.D 
twenty-three years ago; Wisconsin followed suit in 1903; Johns Hopkins in 1915. Needless 
to say, he had many offers, some most tempt
ing, to leave Michigan. But, entertaining pro
found confidence in the State University, be
lieving that it was destined to be instrumental 
in the diffusion of those opportunities in high
er education indispensable to a free democracy, 
he refused to move. In attachment to this
 University, like not a few men whom she has 
imported, he outdid many alumni.

His Original Work

Naturally, Adams produced a mass of orig
inal work. Upon two fields of economic investigation, particularly—public finance and
 public control—he imposed a durable imprint. 
His interest in public finance dated from his 
doctoral dissertation, Taxation in the United
 States, 1789-1816. In Public Debts, an Essay 
in the Science of Finance, later translated into
 Japanese, and in The Science of Finance, an 
Investigation of Public Expenditures and Pub
lic Revenues, he not only manifested wide
 economic grasp and remarkable power of an
alysis, but exhibited the principles of public 
finance as a scientific unity, in their manifold 
relations to social, political, and economic progress. His memorable essay, The Relation of the State to Industrial Action, marked his initial, and most significant, contribution in the 
field of public control. He subjected the preva
lent doctrine of laissez-faire to searching analysis, and, with profound appreciation of the
 demands of a dynamic world, formulated basic 
principles for the guidance of industrial leg
islation. His emphasis on the function of the
 State in moulding the plans of competitive ac
tion, in realizing for society the benefits of
 monopolistic control, and in restoring condi
tions of social harmony to the economic order, 
 foreshadowed much of the theoretical dis
cussion and practical reorganization of a later 
day. His subsequent achievements in the de
velopment of public control, especially over 
railroad transportation, are incorporated in the 
accounts and classifications which he slowly 
evolved as statistician of the Interstate Com
merce Commission. The universal acceptance 
today of statuted accounting and statistical 
practice as an indispensable instrument for the 
effective regulation of railroads and public
 utilities remains a lasting monument to the 
intelligence and validity of his pioneering ef
forts. It is a distinct loss to economic scholarship and to historical tradition that his Ameri
can Railway Accounting published seven years
 after his resignation from the Interstate Com
merce Commission, was but a commentary on 
these accounts and classifications rather than 
that graphic picture of their origin and de
velopment such as he alone was competent to
 produce.

The Social Philosopher

Throughout life, Adams’ intellectual ap
proach was that of a social philosopher rather 
than of a technical economist. This is plain 
throughout his published work. Intuitive yearn
ing for social justice, prompted by a Puritan
 conscience, stimulated by an analytical intel
lect, colored all his writings. Human rela
tions uniformly served as his point of depar
ture, and humane amelioration was ever the 
horizon toward which he moved. Such was
 the spirit of his Relation of the State to In
dustrial Action, and of his fundamental stud
ies in public finance. His papers on the social
 movements of our time, and on the social 
ministry of wealth, contributed to The Inter
national Journal of Ethics; his discussions, in 
the economic journals, of economics and jur
isprudence, publicity and corporate abuses, and 
of many of the more technical aspects of rail-
road taxation; of the developments of the
 Trust movement, budget reform, and foreign 
investments as a crucial element in international maladjustments, were moulded by a similar
 insight into primary human relations, and by 
a like desire to contribute to the realization of 
human betterment.

Accordingly, it was the more remarkable
 that Professor Adams proved himself so ef
fective a public servant in the formulation of 
practical and concrete machinery for the regulation of transportation agencies, in this 
country and in China. The reason for this 
success is to be found in his consistent adher
ence to the conception of accounts and sta
tistics as mere instruments of social control 
rather than as fields of inquiry for their own
 sake. From first to last, then, he remained the
 social philosopher. His plans for the future 
promised a return to the synthetic intellectual
 activity of his early career. Death overtook 
him with his labors unfinished, but the direc
tion of his interests was clear and unmistak
able.

In sum, then, remarkable as was the career, 
 formative as were its results, the personality 
overtopped all else, mainly because Adams’
 austere judgment of self, his nigh innocent 
attitude toward his great attainments, won
 upon others. Indeed, no one would have been
 more surprised than he at the words we have 
addressed to you this evening, —partly on ac-
count of his innate modesty, partly thanks to 
his very reticence, which prevented us from making known to him how we esteemed his
 deep, pervasive glow.

S. LAWRENCE BIGELOW

I. LEO SHARFMAN

R. M. WENLEY, Chairman

 

Source: The Michigan Alumnus 520-524. Transcribed at the  Henry Carter Adams page at the University of Michigan Faculty History Project.

______________________

School of Applied Ethics, 1891.
First Dean, Henry C. Adams of the 
University of Michigan

In this article we give a brief sketch of the school of Applied Ethics and Prof. Henry C. Adams’ work in connection with it.

The following, taken from the secretary’s report, describes the origin and purposes of the institution:

“The School of Applied Ethics held its first session at Plymouth, Mass., from July 1 to August 12, 1891. This was an experimental undertaking, and the first step towards the carrying out of a large and important educational project, the founding of a fully-equipped School of Applied Ethics in connection with some large university. It is proposed, not to found another school similar to and is as a rival of any schools already existing, but to meet a real educational need by furnishing systematic instruction in a field of investigation not especially provided for in established institutions.

The experiment of last summer proved so successful that it has been decided to hold a similar session another year at the same time and place, and the managers hope that not only the summer school, but also the permanent school referred to will be successfully established, and occupy in time an important place among educational institutions.

The proposition to establish a School of Applied Ethics, either independently or in connection with some large university, has been under discussion for several years. Attention was first called to the need of such a school, in a public address in Boston, by Prof. Felix Adler, during the May anniversary week of 1879. The project was afterwards discussed in the Index and other papers; but the plans were still too indefinite and public interest was not sufficiently awakened to the importance of the undertaking.

The subject was next brought to public notice, and in a more definite shape at the third convention of the Ethical Societies, held in Philadelphia, January, 1889. It was the topic of a special public meeting, and addresses were made by Prof. Adler, Mr. Thomas Davidson, Professor Royce, Rev. Wm. J. Potter, and others. Numerous letters endorsing the proposed school were received from distinguished representatives of different professions in various parts of the country. At the next convention of the Ethical Societies, held in New York, December, 1890, the project was again brought forward and endorsed at a public meeting by President E. Benj. Andrews, Rev. Lyman Abbott, Professor Daniel G. Brinton, Rev. R. Heber Newton, Dr. A. S. Isaacs, and Professor Adler. Definite action towards the realization of the project was taken in the following resolution, passed by the convention:

Resolved, That the Executive Committee be empowered to raise $4000 to establish a Summer School of Ethics for one year, and to hand over its management to a committee of nine, three of whom shall be lecturers of the Ethical Societies.

In consequence of this resolution a committee was appointed, which met in New York, March 2, 1891. There were present Professor H. C. Adams, of the University of Michigan, Professor C. H. Toy, of Harvard University, Professor Felix Adler, of New York, President E. Benjamin Andrews, of Brown University, Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr.,of the University of Pennsylvania, and Mr. S. Burns Weston, of Philadelphia. The trust implied by the above resolution was accepted by the committee, and plans were presented and adopted for a summer session of six weeks with the three departments of Economics, History of Religions, and Ethics. Professor Henry C. Adams was made director of the department of Economics, Professor C.H. Toy, of History of Religions, and Professor Felix Adler, of Ethics proper. It was decided that the office of Dean should be filled in rotation by the heads of the departments in the order given, and Prof. Adams became Dean of the school for the first year.

The first session opened July 1, at Lyceum Hall, Plymouth, Mass., with public addresses by Professors Adams, Toy, and Adler on the work to be done in their respective branches. The regular daily lectures began Thursday, July 2, with a good attendance.

In the department of economics the main course consisted of a series of sixteen lectures by Professor Adams, on the History of Industrial Society and Economic Doctrine in England and America, in which special attention was given to the gradual rise of those practical problems in the labor world, which cause so much anxiety and discussion today. The subjects of the lectures in this course were as follows:

The Modern Social Movement, and the True Method of Study. The Manor considered as the Unit of Agricultural Industry in Feudal Times. The Town considered as the Unit of Manufacturing Industry in Feudal Times. The Black Death and Tyler’s Rebellion considered in their Industrial Consequences. The Times of Henry VIII and Elizabeth considered as foreshadowing Modern Ideas of Capital. The Spirit of Nationalism as expressed in Industrial Legislation of the 17th and 18th’s Centuries. Liberal Writers of the Eighteenth Century, considered with Especial Reference to the Industrial Liberalism of Adam Smith. Industrial and Social Results of the Development of Textile Machinery. Critical Analysis of the Effect of Machinery on Wages. Industrial and Social Results of the Development of Steam Navigation. Mill’s Political Economy, considered as the most Perfect Expression of the Industrial Ideas of the Middle Classes. Changes in Economic Ideas since Mill; (a) Fundamental Economic Conceptions, (b) Relation of Government to Industries. Trades-Unions considered as the Workingman’s Solution of the Labor Question. Public Commissions considered as a Conservative Solution of the Monopoly Question. An Interpretation of the Social Movement of Our Time.”

 

The following, clipped from the article by Rev. W. H. Johnson in the Christian Register, shows that Prof. Adams sustained his well-merited reputation as a political economist of the first rank:

“The chief interest of the school seems to have centered in the Department of Economics, testifying to the growing appreciation of the profoundly vital manner in which the great social topics of the times touch us all. Here were numbers of people gathered together who had become tired of the cure-alls offered by narrow-minded enthusiasts, not less than heartsick of the social wrongs and miseries which bring this class into existence, and intensely anxious for some teaching which would point out clear landmarks. Only the existence of this feeling of earnest longing for some measure of authoritative exposition can account for the enthusiasm which has attended the economic course. In Prof. Adams, this department has had for its director and chief expositor a mastermind. Apart from the interest of the subject, it would be impossible to listen without keen satisfaction to his rigid analysis and lucid explanations of a subject which is, for the most of us, wrapped in “chaos and perpetual night.” Prof. Adams’ final lecture, summing up the economic teaching of the school during the six weeks’ course, was one of rare merit. He was at once overwhelmed with requests for its publication, to which he has consented.”

 

Source: The U. of M. Daily.Vol. II, No. 51 (December 3, 1891), p. 1.

Image Source: From the Henry Carter Adams page at the University of Michigan Faculty History Project.

 

Categories
Columbia Regulations Research Tip Salaries

Columbia. Excerpts from annual faculty meeting. GRE’s, Math, Salaries discussed, 1951

 

 

The Department of Economics at Columbia University was a constituent element of the Faculty of Political Science from its earliest days. The Columbia University Archives have a long series of bound, typed minutes of the Faculty of Political Science and some of its committee meetings [Research tip: these bound volumes run from 1897 to at least 1957, when I approached the end of my project’s historical window].  I have somewhat randomly selected today’s transcription. The meeting had four items directly relevant to the greater project of chronicling the education of economists (i.e., about four items above the mode) and a relatively descriptive account of presentation and debate. When the discussion turned to a motion to replace a foreign language with a math requirement, the secretary of the Faculty, Professor Barzun, threw in the towel as keeper of the minutes: “From this point forward the discussion became at once so lively and so subtle that the Secretary was unable to keep up with it, and can provide only a feeble rendering of its reality.”

_____________________

FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
April 27, 1951

The annual meeting of the Faculty of Political Science was held on April 27, 1951, at 4:10 P.M. in the Trustees’ Room.

Roll Call
[p. 1035]

Present:

Vice President Kirk
Dean Krout
Professors Anderson, Angell, Barzun, Bergson, Bonbright, Burns (A.F.), Burns (A.R.), Clark, Dorfman, Davis, Evans, Florinsky, Fox, Goodrich (Carter), Goodrich (L.M.), Greenberg, Hunt, Lazarsfeld, Lerner, Mattingly, Mills, Miner, Merton, Macmahon, Nurkse, Orchard, Peffer, Scheffé, Shoup, Strong, Steward, Stigler, Vickrey, Wagley, Wallace, Wilbur, Wolfowitz, Wuorinen.

Absent:

Professors Abel, Aly, Barghoorn, Baron, Berle, Brebner, Brunner, Carman, Clough, Commager, Dowling, Einaudi, Gellhorn, Haig, Hart, Haas, Hazard, Ho, Holborn, Jessup, Kroeber, Lehmann, Lipset, Lissitzyn, Lynd, MacIver, McNeill, Malone, Millett, Moley, Morris, Mosely, Neumann, Niebuhr, Nevins, Odlozilik, Pearden, Pennock, Polanyi, Robinson, Rogers, Saulnier, Sayre, Schuyler, Shapiro, Szeftel, Tannenbaum, Thomson, Truman, Westermann, Wolman.

[…]

Re-admission of graduate students
[p. 1036]

Dean Krout proposed the resolution of the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction concerning the readmission of graduate students, as follows:

RESOLVED, That any former graduate student who seeks re-admission for work in residence at a date more than five years following his latest residence, must have his earlier academic work re-evaluated and his essay or dissertation subject reconsidered, either prior to readmission, or during the first semester of renewed residence. The credit which such students shall receive shall be determined by the Admissions Office on the recommendation of the Department concerned.

In the case of a former graduate student who makes application for the final examination in defense of his dissertation, at a date more than five years following his latest residence, the department concerned may require a similar re-evaluation.

It was passed unanimously without discussion.

[…]

Salary Report (of Committee of Six)
[p. 1038]

Speaking for the Committee of Six representing the three Graduate Faculties, Professor Stigler spoke briefly about the Report on University Salaries, copies of which had been previously sent to all members of the Faculty. He again stressed the fact that the role of the Committee was not to recommend a salary schedule, nor to cope with the difficulties of financing, but simply to report comparative findings. He pointed out the inadequacy of data for the period 1914-1930, but expressed confidence in the statistical results for the period 1930-1950. “We have now reached”, he said, “the lowest point of the entire stretch, and a remedial rise, to be significant, would have to be about 20% generally, and relatively higher for the lower ranks”.

Professor Carter Goodrich moved approval of the general thesis of the report, namely, that it is of the utmost importance to the academic standing of the University that our competitive position expressed through our salary scale be maintained.

The motion was unanimously approved.


Requirement of Graduate Record Examination for admission rescinded
[p. 1039]

Professor Carter Goodrich offered a resolution for the Committee on Instruction regarding the Graduate Record Examination. In discussion he gave a brief history of the requirement and referred to published survey showing that college grades offer a better means of predicting success in Graduate Studies than the examination. Moreover, the Examination costs the student $13.00 and three afternoons, which seems a lavish expenditure for an uncertain measure of prophecy. The Faculty unanimously voted to rescind the requirement.

 

Proposal of Dep’t. of Sociology to substitute Mathematics for one foreign language as a Ph.D. requirement
[pp. 1039-1040]

Professor Lazarsfeld offered a resolution to permit students in Sociology and Economics to substitute Mathematics for one of the two foreign languages normally required for the Ph.D. degree. In the discussion Professor Wuorinen asked to be enlightened on the tendency of the motion. The answer was that Mathematics is a language and one far more necessary to the statistical student of society than any of the languages that consist of words.

Professor Evans opposed the motion on two grounds: first, the principle that all Doctors of Philosophy in Columbia University are rightly deemed able to use the literature of their fields in two foreign languages besides their own; second, the technicality that any change in the requirement must be approved by all three Faculties.

From this point forward the discussion became at once so lively and so subtle that the Secretary was unable to keep up with it, and can provide only a feeble rendering of its reality. Professor Angell urged the far greater range of ideas available in his field through mathematical formulations; Professor Bonbright uttered the suspicion that our language requirement was not really effective, and implied that a mathematics requirement would be. Dean Krout rose to reinforce Professor Evans’ point that we could not take separate action as a Faculty.

Professor Evans introduced an amendment of which the effect was to reduce the requirement to one language for all fields. The amendment was not accepted by the first mover and Professor ANGELL called for a test vote on the original motion. It was carried 25-10; but given the Faculty lack of power to act independently on this matter, Professor Angell moved the appointment of a committee to reconsider the language requirement for the Ph.D. degree. This suggestion was powerless to stem the debate. Professor Stigler urged that all departments be treated equally. Professor Wuorinen questioned the relevance of mathematics to the purpose served by the linguistic equipment. Professor Davis wondered how much mathematics would equal one language. Dean Krout likewise wished to know what would be meant by “mathematics”. Professor Lazarsfeld replied that a committee exists and has expressed itself on the nature of the mathematical equipment required by social scientists. Professor Angell revealed that the Department of Economics has the specifications all worked out. Professors Macmahon and Shoup both agreed in considering mathematics a language and raised the spectre of a three-language requirement.

Finally the question was called for, and Professor Angell’s motion to appoint a committee was passed 26-9.

[…]

The meeting adjourned at 5:35 P.M.

Respectfully submitted
[signed]
Jacques Barzun
Secretary

 

Source: Columbia University Archive, Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science, 1950-1962. pp.1035-1042.

Categories
Columbia Economists Harvard Illinois Missouri Research Tip UCLA

Columbia Ph.D. Alumnus. Benjamin M. Anderson, 1886-1949

 

 

While the bulk of my internet trawling time for Economics in the Rear-View Mirror is devoted to tracking down curricular material and texts, serendipity occasionally takes me to biographically interesting places. Benjamin Anderson is of interest to ERVM both as having earned an economics Ph.D. from the Columbia School of Political Science and later as an economics professor at Harvard and UCLA. 

Research Tip: The University of California’s series of In Memoriam volumes.

____________________

Benjamin McA. Anderson, Economics: Los Angeles
(1886-1949)

Earl J. Miller, Marvel Stockwell, John Clendenin, Vern O. Knudsen

BENJAMIN MCALESTER ANDERSON (May 1, 1886-January 19, 1949), son of Benjamin McLean and Mary Frances (Bowling) Anderson, was born in Columbia, Missouri. He married Margaret Louis Crenshaw May 27, 1909. He is survived by his wife and three children, John Crenshaw, William Bent, and Mary Louise (Brown). A fourth child, Benjamin M. Anderson III, died in 1919.

Professor Anderson received the A.B. at the University of Missouri in 1906, the A.M. at the University of Illinois in 1910, and the Ph.D. in Economics at Columbia in 1911. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an active member of the American Economic Association, in which he served as vice-president and a member of the Executive Committee. He served as Professor of History in the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1905; Professor of English Literature and Economics at Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Missouri, in 1906; Professor of History and Economics at the State Teachers College, Springfield, Missouri, from 1906 to 1911; Instructor in Economics at Columbia from 1911 to 1913; Assistant Professor of Economics at Columbia, 1913; Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard, 1913-1918; economic advisor in the National Bank of Commerce in New York, 1918-1920; economist for the Chase National Bank of New York, 1920-1939; Professor of Economics in the University of California at Los Angeles, 1939-1949 (Connell Professor of Banking, 1946-1949).

Professor Anderson enjoyed a rich experience as a youth in his home at Columbia, Missouri. His father was for many years a prominent member of the Missouri State Legislature. Their home was the scene of innumerable political conferences to which Dr. Anderson was invited and from which he developed a keen interest in the then current political and economic problems.

Dr. Anderson’s publications were extensive, including four books and many articles and reviews. Outstanding among them were his books, Social Value, 1911; The Value of Money, 1917; Effects of the War on Money, Credit and Banking in France and the United States, 1919; Financing American Prosperity (coauthor with J. M. Clark, Columbia; A. H. Hansen, Harvard; S. H. Slichter, Harvard; H. S. Ellis, California at Berkeley; and J. H. Williams, Harvard), 1945. Much of his time during the last few years of his life was devoted to the writing of another book entitled Economics and the Public Welfare, a financial and economic history of the United States, 1914-1946. This extensive work was ready for proofreading at the time of his death. The book has now been published. It is a further major contribution to the field of economic literature comparable in quality to the high standard set in his previous works.

He contributed articles to many magazines and journals. Among them were the American Economic Review; Annals of the American Academy; Political Science Quarterly; Quarterly Journal of Economics; The New York Times; The Commercial and Financial Chronicle; The Bankers Magazine (London); The London Times; and the Wall Street Journal. During the past ten years he has published eight issues of the Economic Bulletin under the sponsorship of the Capital Research Company of Los Angeles. He associated himself for many years with a group of well-known economists in the organization known as the Economists’ National Committee on Monetary Policy, and served as President of that organization. Several of his articles were reprinted and circulated on a wide basis by that organization.

While economist for the Chase National Bank of New York, Professor Anderson published over two hundred issues of the Chase Economic Bulletin, which was distributed and read extensively in government, banking and educational circles in many countries. Representing the Chase National Bank he traveled extensively in foreign countries to conduct negotiations with leading government and banking officials. He was called on numerous occasions to testify before committees of the U.S. Congress and the New York State Legislature on questions of state, national and international policy relating to the fields of money and banking. These activities together with the wide circulation of his books, and of his articles in professional and financial journals and magazines, made him one of the best-known and most distinguished economists of his generation in both the national and international fields.

The firsthand contact with practical banking, with American and foreign banking officials, and with government agencies concerned with our economic and monetary affairs, which Dr. Anderson had enjoyed through many years, greatly enriched the content of his teaching and enabled him to provide for his students a sound and thoroughly practical experience. He originally possessed a scholarly command of history, literature, and languages which added impressively to his work, and he brought to his teaching and advisory tasks a broad perspective and keen judgment which made his pronouncements on economic affairs surprisingly accurate and wise.

Professor Anderson was a modest and distinguished scholar and a man esteemed by his colleagues for his personal qualities of kindly manner, stimulating humor, sympathetic appreciation and helpful cooperation. As a scholar and as a man he made a memorable contribution to the community in which he lived.

Source: Calisphere website: University of California, In Memoriam 1949, pp. 1-4.

Image Source: Benjamin M. Anderson in Harvard Class Album, 1915.

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard Research Tip

Harvard. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems, Final Exam. Ripley, 1914-15

 

“Trade Unionism and Allied Problems” was a course open to both undergraduate and graduate students and taught by William Z. Ripley at Harvard in 1914-15. Like his colleague Thomas Nixon Carver, Ripley taught courses covering an enormous range of content from labor issues through railroads and corporations to applied problems of monopoly. The course announcement, enrollment figures, and the final examination questions come from three different sources, all of which are available on-line. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting corresponding material from the twenty economics courses offered during the 1914-15 year for which the final examination questions had been printed and subsequently published.

Of no small interest is his early work in sociology, in particular his 1899 book: Races of Europe. For a brief discussion of Ripley’s balancing act involving the factors of race and environment, see Christopher Donohue’s “The Weirdest Guest–William Z. Ripley: Economist, Financial Historian, and Racial Theorist“. 

Research Tip: The niche blog in the history of science and science and technology studies Ether Wave Propaganda–History and Historiography of Science by Will Thomas and Christopher Donohue. Alas, last posting September 6, 2016.

 

______________________

Course Announcement

Economics 6a1. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley, assisted by —.

This course will deal mainly with the economic and social relations of employer and employed. Among the topics included will be: the history of unionism; the policies of trade unions respecting wages, machinery, output, etc.; collective bargaining; strikes; employers’ liability and workmen’s compensation; efficiency management; unemployment, etc., in the relation to unionism, will be considered.

Each student will make at least one report upon a labor union or an important strike, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice. [p. 65]

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1914-15. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XI, No. 1, Part 14 (May 19, 1914).

______________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 6a 1hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Rufener.—Trade-Unionism and Allied Problems.

Total 76: 45 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 6 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1914-15, p. 59.

______________________

Final Examination

ECONOMICS 6a1

Answer in order; but cover only as many as the time limit permits.

  1. Speaking of English conditions, the Webbs on p. 707 say:

“Hence old-fashioned family concerns with sleepy management and obsolete plant, find the Trade Union regulations a positive protection against competition.” What do they mean? Show how it works out.

  1. Describe and discuss the recent decision of the U. S. Supreme Court in the Danbury Hatters case, especially in its bearing upon incorporation.
  2. Under any of the plans for eliminating labor contests which expressly prohibit striking, what offset is given to the employees for this limitation upon their freedom of action?
  3. The Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co. assures its operatives a fixed percentage of gross receipts as a wage fund. What is the object? Criticize the plan.
  4. What advantages may be expected to flow to a union from the adoption of a positive system of high dues and liberal benefits?
  5. The Eastern Engineer’s Arbitration Award of 1912 says:

“Therefore, considering the uncertainty of many of the factors involved, the arbitrators feel that they should not deny an increase of compensation to the engineers merely on the ground that the roads are unable to pay. They feel that the engineers should be granted a fair compensation. … In making their award they therefore eliminate the claim of the railroads that they are unable to pay an increased compensation.” Discuss the principle advanced.

  1. Is the closed-shop policy essential to successful trade unionism? Illustrate your argument.
  2. Theoretically, the Standard Wage is merely the minimum wage for the trade. How does it work out in practise?
  3. How do the efficiency engineers deal with restriction of output? Give imaginary examples, if you can?
  4. Where has insurance against unemployment been tried; and with what success?

 

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June 1915, pp. 49-50.

Image Source:  William Z. Ripley in Harvard Class Album, 1915.

 

Categories
Cornell Research Tip

Cornell. Economics in the Department of Political Science, 1900

 

 

Soon I’ll get back to the necessary work of transcribing exams to match remaining courses already entered into Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. While my core three departments (Harvard, Columbia and Chicago) constitute the source of the vast majority of the artifacts gathered thus far, regular visitors will have also noticed an occasional foray into other departments as have struck my fancy.

The next few postings are the result of my recent visit to the Library of Congress where I looked into the papers of the economic statistician Walter F. Willcox of Cornell. Following up, I checked out the digital repository of Cornell, eCommons that I can most highly recommend both to researchers (for historical material) as well as to university archivists (for its structure and user-friendliness).

Among other things I found (and immediately transcribed) the following “snap-shot” of Cornell’s department of political science in 1900 that was made up of three professors who were working on economic theory, policy and statistics. Modern eyes see there an economics department with an interdisciplinary social-scientific scope, not unsimilar to the early School of Political Science at Columbia.

Research Tip: The Cornell Register is an official Cornell University publication containing a record of the personnel and organization for the academic year.  PDF copies for 1882-1883 through 1931-32 at the digital repository of Cornell. Page views going back to 1869 from the hathitrust.org collection.

 

_____________________________

 

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

The Development of the Work—
What is being Accomplished Today.

Political Science has always been considered important at Cornell. President White, in his inaugural address, laid down the principle that “There are two permeating ideas which must enter into the work of the University in all its parts. The first is the need of labor and sacrifice in developing the individual man in all his nature and in all his powers as a being intellectual, moral, and religious. The second of these permeating ideas is that of bringing the powers thus developed to bear upon society. We should provide ample instruction in history, in political and social science and in the modern literature….We would give ample opportunity for those classes of study which give breadth to the mind, and which directly fit the student for dealing with state problems and world problems. In this view, historical studies and studies in political and social science will hold an honored place; but these studies will not be pursued in the interest of any party. On points where honest and earnest men differ, I trust we may have courses of lectures presenting both sides.”

Instruction in this line consisted at first of a course of lectures in Political Economy given during one term of each year by Dr. William D. Wilson, professor of moral and intellectual philosophy. A few years later, Theodore Dwight began a series of lectures on constitutional law, and in 1875 this course was superseded by a series of lectures on the constitution of the United States and American jurisprudence.

The department was formally organized in 1881, when a four years’ course in History and Political Science was established. Graduates from this course received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in History and Political Science. Courses in systematic politics, public finance, and practical economic questions were added to the curriculum year by year, and in 1887 the departments of History were organized into the President White School of History and Political Science, and a fellowship in political and social science was established. While Professor Laughlin was in charge of the work in economics, in 1890, two fellowships in that field were founded.

In 1891, Professor Jeremiah W, Jenks was called to a chair of municipal, political, and social institutions. The next year, the departments of economics and finance and of political and social institutions were brought under one head. Professors Walter F. Willcox and Charles H. Hull were appointed, with Professor Jenks, to take charge of the work, which is being carried on as a unit, in so far as this is practicable.

Each professor, with his assistants, has charge of some special branch of the work. Professor Jenks gives his time chiefly to the work in politics, political science, and economic legislation; Professor Willcox to social science and statistics; and Professor Hull to political economy and finance. The assistants, Mr. Brooks and Mr. Weston, divide their time between advanced work in economic history and municipal government and the text-book work with the classes beginning the study of economics. In all branches the aim is to make the work of direct, practical value, while not neglecting economic and political theories. Andrew D. White’s idea of presenting both sides of questions is carried out as far as possible. The political questions of the day are treated fully, and students are taught to think impartially and independently. For the last two years the department has invited the most eminent men in business and politics to give lectures before the University. John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of State, has lectured on “Diplomacy;” Charlton T. Lewis, counsel for the Mutual Life Insurance Company, on “Insurance;” W. H. Baldwin, Jr., president of the Long Island Railroad, on “Railroad Management;” and Edward Rosewater, editor of the Omaha Bee, on “Journalism.” A course of lectures on the work of the State departments by prominent State officials has been provided for this year. The object of these lectures is to give the students more accurately the point of the business man and the politician.

The work the professors are doing outside of the department shows that the practical nature of their work is widely recognized. Professor Jenks is now the expert agent of the United States Industrial Commission in their investigation of trusts and monopolies undertaken with the view of recommending legislation on the subject to Congress and the several states. He has had special charge of selecting and examining the witnesses for and against the trusts and of editing the testimony. In this connection, he has collected in one volume the laws of the United States and the different states which concert trusts, with a digest of all the decisions under these statues and leading common law decisions concerning trusts. A second volume will contain the testimony and the economic results of the study. He has, further, been assigned by the Commission the task of investigating the trusts of Europe during the coming summer. This investigation has also led Governor Roosevelt to call him into consultation several times this winter to aid in the preparation of his message and in proposing measures for state legislation concerning trusts and corporations.

The administration wished the national census department to come closely into touch with the universities of the country, and therefore appointed Professor Willcox one of the Chief Statisticians of the census. He is investigating “methods and results” and is planning the methods of taking the census and interpreting the results—the work which, more than any other, calls for breadth of statistical knowledge and soundness of judgment. To him has also been given the task, together with one of his colleagues on the Census, Mr. Gannett, of interpreting and writing up the results of our first Colonial Census, the one lately taken in Porto Rico and Cuba. His interest and experience in practical social questions is shown by his acting for years as a member of the local Board of Health, and by Governor Roosevelt’s appointing him a year ago a member of the State Board of Health. While Professor Willcox is in Washington, his work is ably carried on by Professor Powers, formerly of Leland Stanford University.

Professor Hull has just published one of the most scholarly books produced in this field for a long time. This book, a collection of the works of Sir William Petty, with an introduction and critical annotations, has been very favorably reviewed in all the principle countries of Europe. Beside his accurate scholarship and his remarkable critical acumen, Professor Hull is well known also for his sound judgment and business sense. These qualities have been long recognized by his colleagues in the faculty, of which he is Secretary. Upon earnest solicitation he has acted as President of the Cornell Coöperative Society from the beginning and is perhaps chiefly responsible for its success. For some years he has been Treasurer of the American Economic Association, and at its last meeting that body insisted on making him its Secretary also, thus putting practically all of its business—publishing included—into his hands. The joint committee of the Legislature on taxation submitted to him lately for criticism its new plan of taxation.

The department has been greatly aided in its work by having at its disposal excellent laboratory and library facilities. It has perhaps the best material in reports, apparatus, etc., for work in statistics possessed by any university in the country. It is unusually well equipped in periodical literature and rare books on the history of economics. The library of foreign statues is also large and growing rapidly.

The Seminary, for graduate students only, is carried on jointly by the three professors in the department. Each professor takes special charge of the work of those men whose theses are in his special field, and of the Seminary on days when reports on these theses are in order. Besides the regular thesis work, the Seminary usually has on hand some special subject. This year Colonial governments have been studied, the relations of our government to its dependencies is being considered, in the light of our own history, legal and political, and in that of the leading colonial powers.

The most prominent characteristic of the department throughout is that it has always tried to keep closely in touch with practical work in politics, in government, and in business, in order to prepare its students especially for practical work in life. This does not involve neglect of theory or neglect study of principles; but it does involve the effort to apply these principles to the solution of practical problems; while the experience of teachers in aiding our public men to solve non-partisan questions enables them to judge more soundly regarding what is really practical.

 

Source: Cornell Alumni News, Vol. II, No. 22 (March 7, 1900), pp. 143-144.

Image: (left to right) Jeremiah W. Jenks, Walter F. Willcox and Charles H. Hull taken from ibid.

Categories
Chicago Columbia Cornell Harvard Michigan Pennsylvania Research Tip Salaries

Professors’ and Instructors’ Salaries, ca. 1907

Some 103 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada provided useable answers to a survey of higher educational institutions having annual instructional salary budgets of over $45,000 (note assistant professors at the time cost about $2,000 per year) conducted by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Results were published in 1908 (the Preface is dated April 1908), so we can reasonably presume the information reported is either from budgetary data for the academic year 1907-08 or for the academic year 1906-07. The 101 page Bulletin even went on to present data for professorial incomes in Germany!

As the entire Carnegie Foundation Bulletin can be downloaded, this posting is more of a research tip/teaser. I present below an excerpt for the top ten universities (out of 103), ranked by their annual appropriations for the salaries of instructional staff.

Plucking two sentences in lieu of an executive summary, I offer the following quotes from the Bulletin:

“Good, plodding men, who attend diligently to their profession [law, medicine and engineering are meant here] but who are without unusual ability, often obtain in middle life an income considerably higher tthan a man of the greatest genius can receive in an American professor’s chair.” [p. 25]

“A German who possesses such ability that he may expect in due time to become a full professor and who prepares himself for university teaching must expect to study until the age of thirty with no financial return, to study and teach as a docent till nearly thirty-six with an annual remuneration of less than $200, and to teach from thirty-six to forty-one with an annual remuneration of from $600 to $2,000, by which time he may become a full professor and will continue to receive his salary until his death [my emphasis]…If he succeeds… he may hope for a much larger reward and be assured of security in old age.” [p. vii]

____________________________

Average Salaries for Ranks, Age at Start of Rank, Student-Instructor Ratios

Columbia Harvard Chicago Michigan Yale
Total annual income
(thousands of dollars)
1.675 1.828 1.304 1.078 1.089
Annual Appropriation for Salaries of Instructing Staff
(thousands of dollars)
1.145 .842 .699 .536 .525
Average Salary of Professor $4,289 4,413 $3,600 $2,763 $3,500
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Professor 37.5 39 35
Average Salary of Associate Professor $3,600 $2,800 $2,009
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Associate Professor
Average Salary of Assistant Professor $2,201 $2,719 $2,200 $1,624 $2,000
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Assistant Professor 32 33 29
Average Salary of Instructor $1,800 $1,048 $1,450 $1,114 $1,400
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Instructor 29 28 24
Average Salary of Assistant $500 $347 $666
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Assistant 24 26 23
Total Number of Students in University 4,087 4,012 5,070 4,282 3,306
Total Instructing Staff in University 559 573 291 285 365
Ratio 7.3 7 17.4 15 9
Total Number of Students in Undergraduate Colleges and Non-professional Graduate Schools 2,545 2,836 3,902 2,899 2,620
Total Instructing Staff in Undergraduate Colleges and Non-professional Graduate Schools 253 322 211 198 236
Ratio 10 8.8 18.4 14.6 11.1

 

Average Salaries for Ranks, Age at Start of Rank, Student-Instructor Ratios

Cornell Illinois Wisconsin Pennsyl-vania UC Berkeley
Total annual income
(thousands of dollars)
1.083 1.200 .999 .589 .844
Annual Appropriation for Salaries of Instructing Staff
(thousands of dollars)
.511 .492 .490 .433 .408
Average Salary of Professor $3,135 $2,851 $2,772 $3,500 $3,300
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Professor 32.8
Average Salary of Associate Professor $2,168 $2,081 $2,200
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Associate Professor 29.6
Average Salary of Assistant Professor $1,715 $1,851 $1,636 $1,850 $1,620
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Assistant Professor 28.6
Average Salary of Instructor $924 $1,091 $1,065 $1,000 $1,100
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Instructor 27.5
Average Salary of Assistant  … $660 $542 $650 $850
Average Age at Entrance to Grade of Assistant 24.5
Total Number of Students in University 3,635 3,605 3,116 3,700 2,987
Total Instructing Staff in University 507 414 297 375 350
Ratio 7.1 8.7 10.4 9.8 8.5
Total Number of Students in Undergraduate Colleges and Non-professional Graduate Schools 2,917 2,281 2,558 2,618 2,451
Total Instructing Staff in Undergraduate Colleges and Non-professional Graduate Schools 283 190 231 166 218
Ratio 10.3 12 11 15.7 11.2

 

[From the table notes:]

“The grade of associate professor is only given when there is also the distinct grade of assistant professor in the same institution; otherwise the associate professor is classed throughout this discussion as an assistant professor.

Professors who are heads of departments received on an average $5,800 at the University of Chicago.

Figures for Cornell do not include the medical school.

 

Source: Table II in The Financial Status of the Professor in America and in Germany. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Bulletin Number Two. New York City, 1908, pp. 10-11.

Image Source: Website of the Carnegie Foundation.

P.S. A list of all Carnegie Foundation Publications.

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard Research Tip

Harvard. Course. Money, Banking, Commercial Crises, 1937-38

 

The Harvard course, Economics 41 “Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises,” was a full-year course that James Tobin took as an undergraduate in 1937-38. Professor John H. Williams lectured during the first term and the vast bulk of lectures for the second term were held by Dr. Richard Vincent Gilbert (A.B., Harvard, 1923; Ph.D., Harvard, 1930. Dissertation: The theory of international payments). Associate Professor Seymour Harris does not appear anywhere in Tobin’s notes, so we can presume for now that Harris was substituted for by Williams and Gilbert and that the official enrollment report (see below) was the victim of a copy-paste error.

It appears from Tobin’s notes that Gilbert had been the section leader during the first term and was succeeded in the second term by the economics graduate student Kenyon Edward Poole (A.B., Harvard, 1929; A.M., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy 1934) whose doctoral dissertation “German recovery policies, 1932-1937” was accepted in 1938., A.B., Harvard 1929. Tobin wrote in a marginal note to his own student notes (dated 1992) that the section that met February 16, 1938 “was Gilbert’s last section.” Thus presumably, the earlier sections must have been Gilbert’s doing.

Course enrollment, 1937-38
Course readings, first term
January Reading Period list
Mid-year examination
Course readings, second term
May Reading Period list
Final exam
Research tip

___________________________ 

Official Course Announcement
for Economics 41, 1937-38

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

Economics 41 (formerly 3). Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises
Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 2. Professor Williams and Associate Professor Harris.

 

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXIV, No. 44. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1937-38. Second edition. October 1, 1937.

Copy in Harvard University Archives. HUC 8500.16. Box 5 “Courses of Instruction”, Folder “1937-38”, p. 149.

 

___________________________

Enrollment in Economics 41,
1937-38 by class

[Economics] 41.        (formerly 3). Professor Williams and Associate Professor Harris.—Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.

Registered total: 205, of which 3 Graduates, 49 Seniors, 121 Juniors, 30 Sophomores, 2 “Candidates for the Bachelor’s Degree out-of-course”.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1937-38, p. 85.

 

___________________________

Economics 41, 1937-38:
First Term Reading List

Economics 41
Readings: First Term [Handwritten note: “Excluding Reading Period”]

  1. The nature and function of banking
    Dunbar: Theory and History of Banking, Chs. 1,2,3,4. [pp. 1-60]
    White, Money and Banking, Ch. 16 [pp. 349-372]
  2. Creation of Deposits
    Phillips, Bank Credit, Ch. 3. [pp. 32-77]
    Currie, Supply and Control of Money, Chs. 5-7. [pp. pp. 46-83]
  3. Note Issue
    Dunbar, Ch. 5. [pp. 50-81]
    Currie, Ch. 10 [pp. 110-115]
  4. Commercial Loan Theory
    Robertson, Money, Ch. 5 [pp. 92-117|; Currie, Ch. 4. [pp. 34-46]
  5. U.S. Banking history
    White, Chs. 18-23 [pp. 387-529]
  6. The Federal Reserve System
    Dunbar, Ch. 6 [pp. 81-110]
    Burgess, Federal Reserve Banks and the Money Market [pp. 1-327],
    entire Federal Reserve Bulletin, July 1935, Supply and Use of Member Bank Reserve Funds. [pp. 419-428]
    Currie, Chs. 8,9. [pp. 83-110]
    Hardy, Credit Policies of the Federal Reserve System, Chs. 3-11. [pp. 34-243]
  7. Recent Banking Changes
    White, Chs. 29, 30. [pp. 670-738]
  8. Foreign Banking Systems
    Dunbar, Chs. 8-10 [pp. 139-235]

Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC 8522.2.1. Box 10, Folder “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1937-1938”.

 

Note: The page numbers were added to the 1937-38 readings in pencil for many items. In 1938-39, the identical titles plus pages were given for the same list of readings. The same information was copied by James Tobin into his course notes for 1937-38 (apparently correcting the page numbers listed for White under VII. to 679-738.)

 

___________________________

Economics 41, 1937-38:
Reading Period, January 1938

 

Economics 41: Read one of the following:

Hardy, Federal Reserve Policy.
Hawtrey, Art of Central Banking, pp. 116-303.
Keynes, Treatise on Money, Vol. II, Book VII.

 

Note: The Midyear Reading Period list for January 1938 was not found in the Course material folder archives, however for January 1936 and January 1939 the same three books were listed which we can presume constituted the choice of readings for January 1938. From Tobin’s notes for the course, he apparently chose the Hawtrey book.

 

___________________________

1937-38
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 41
MONEY AND BANKING
Mid-year Examination 1938.

Answer questions 1, 2 and three others.

  1. (One hour.) Supply and Use of Member Bank Reserve Funds.

(in millions of dollars.)

From
Dec. 1923 to July 1924

From
July 1924 to July 1925

Bills discounted

-430

+224

Bills bought

-332

+184

U.S. government securities

+389

-194

Other Reserve Bank credit

+9

+4

Monetary gold stock

+267

-144

Treasury and national bank currency

+9

-28

Money in circulation

-288

+36

Treasury cash and deposits with Federal Reserve banks

+18

-43

Non-member bank deposits

+9

-8

Other Federal Reserve accounts

-20

+7

Member bank reserve balances

+193

+54

    1. What is the meaning of each of the above items?
    2. Account for the changes in member bank reserve balances (or in bills discounted) in the two periods.
    3. What conclusions do you draw regarding the nature and instruments of Federal Reserve policy?
  1. Outline:
    1. Keynes’ views on the effectiveness of central banking control in England and the United States.
      (or)
    2. Hawtrey’s treatment of the development of central banking in England.
  2. “From the first, the banking system in this country has given expression to the American ideal of individuality and freedom.” Discuss
  3. Discuss the conflicting views of the role of banks in the creation of credit.
  4. Do banks create capital?
  5. Discuss the nature, purpose and wisdom of the provisions of the Federal Reserve Act concerning the issue of notes by the Federal Reserve banks.
  6. Discuss the merits of requiring the holding of reserves equal to a fixed percentage of deposits in the case of (a) central banks and (b) other banks.
  7. Discuss the relative effectiveness of open market operations and the rediscount rate as central bank instruments of control.
  8. What should be the central bank’s attitude towards the stock market?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943 (HUC 7000.55). Box 13: Mid-year Examinations, 1938. Papers printed for Mid-year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions,…,Economics,…,Military Science, Naval Science, January-February, 1938.

 

___________________________

Economics 41, 1937-38:
Second Term Reading List

[The following list of readings has been put together from Tobin’s class and reading notes for the course.]

Arthur D. Gayer—Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilization: A Study of the Gold Standard. 1935.
Fisher. Purchasing Power of Money, pp. 1-74 and 149-181.
Hawtrey. Currency and Credit, new ed. Chs 3-4.
Keynes. Treatise. Vol I, chs. 4,5,6 (Section 1), 7.
Hawtrey. Trade Depression and the Way Out
Foster and Catchings. Profits, Part 5
Haberler. Prosperity and Depression. Review of Theories.
Optional Keynes, ch 14 and ch on theory of inex numbers.
Taussig: International Trade: ch. 21. Adjustment on inconvertible paper.

 

Source: Yale University Library. Manuscripts Collections. James Tobin Papers. Group No. 1746, Box No. 6. Notes for Economics 41, 1937-38.

 

___________________________

Economics 41, 1937-38:
Reading Period, May 1938

Economics 41: Read one of the following:

  1. Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Future of Monetary Policy.
  2. International Chamber of Commerce, International Economic Reconstruction. Either Volume I or Volume II.
  3. Robbins, The Great Depression.
  4. Ohlin, Course and Phases of the World Depression, (League of Nations Study)
  5. Hansen, Economic Stabilization in an Unbalanced World.

 

Note: Tobin presumably chose this last item by Hansen since it is the last set of reading notes he included for the course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC 8522.2.1. Box 10, Folder “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1937-1938”.

 

___________________________

Economics 41, 1937-38:
Final Exam, June 1938

1937-38
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 41

  1. Discuss either (a) or (b).
    1. “Freedom of the exchange rates insulates the national economy against cyclical disturbances or monetary instability of foreign origin.”
    2. “A country which becomes a member of an international currency system, such as the gold standard provides, surrenders a part of its freedom of action, and assumes, along with the right to such benefits as it affords, certain very stern responsibilities.”
  2. Answer either (a) or (b).
    1. “Before 1914, changes in the value of gold were largely governed by the accident of gold discoveries or inventions bearing on methods of gold production.” Does the evidence support this view?
    2. Outline and criticize Fisher’s analysis of the factors determining the value of money.
  3. Discuss either (a) or (b).
    1. The underconsumption theories of the business cycle
    2. The investment theories of the business cycle.
  4. “One’s evaluation of a policy of flexible public works as an agency of economic stabilization depends upon the theory one holds of the fundamental nature of the business cycle.” Do you favor a policy of flexible public works? If so, on what grounds? If not, why not?
  5. Answer one of the following questions.
    1. Robbins’ views on the causes of the great depression.
    2. The Royal Institute of International Affairs’ analysis of the powers and limitations of the monetary authority.
    3. Hansen’s analysis of the breakdown of the international system in 1930-35.
    4. Gregory’s views on the major influences antagonistic to currency stabilization.
    5. Ohlin’s analysis of the causes of the great depression.
    6. Write a review of the book you read during the reading period.

Final. 1938.

 

Source: Yale University Library. Manuscripts Collections. James Tobin Papers. Group No. 1746, Box No. 6. Notes for Economics 41, 1937-38.

 

___________________________

Research Tip:

While at the Harvard Archives I came across Suggested Topics for Theses in Economics 41, 1938-39, HUC 8938.121.2. In it are listed 137 topics, each topic having between one to more than a dozen suggested references, running to 31 pages that includes twelve additional thesis subjects.

___________________________

Image: My photo taken of a box of James Tobin’s notes as a student at Harvard. Not only are they bound, they have been cleanly copied in pen and are legible at the 99.9% confidence level.

Categories
Cornell Economists Johns Hopkins Michigan Research Tip

Johns Hopkins. Education of Henry Carter Adams 1870’s

With John Cummings we saw the story of a professor who left Harvard to become a Unitarian minister. Here we see an American version of the reverse story of a young person who forsakes being/becoming a man of the cloth to ultimately become an economist (cf. Thomas Robert Malthus, Alfred Marshall…). Henry Carter Adams was awarded the first Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.

Excerpt from a memorial presented to the Senate of the University of Michigan by S. L. Bigelow, I. L. Sharfman and R. M. Wenley, published in 1922 in The Journal of Political Economy, Vol 30. pp. 201-205.

Research Tip: Henry Carter Adams Papers at the University of Michigan.

Portrait of Henry Carter Adams: Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

_____________________

“[…] Henry Carter Adams was born at Davenport, Iowa, December 31, 1851. He came of old New England stock; his forebears had made the great adventure over sea in 1623. His mother, Elizabeth Douglass, and his father, Ephraim Adams, were a likeminded pair, representative of the soundest traditions of New England character and nurture. Ephraim Adams, one of a small band of missionaries from Andover Theological Seminary who forsook everything for Christ’s sake, arrived on the open prairies of Iowa in 1842—the goal of three weeks’ hard journey from Albany, New York. Their mission it was to kindle and tend the torch, not merely of religion, but also of education, among the far-flung pioneers. Consequently, it is impossible to understand why Henry Adams was what he was, became what he became, unless one can evoke sympathetic appreciation of the temper which determined his upbringing. For example, it may well astonish us to learn that his nineteenth birthday was but a few months off ere he received his first formal instruction. The reasons thereof may astonish us even more. The child had been sickly always, physicians informing the parents that he could not survive the age of fourteen. The “open prairies” proved his physical salvation. Given a cayuse [pony] and a gun, the boy roamed free, passing from missionary home to missionary home, sometimes bearing parental messages to the scattered preachers. In this way he outgrew debility and, better still, acquired a love for nature, and an intimacy with our average citizenry, never lost. Meanwhile, the elder Adams taught him Greek, Latin, and Hebrew as occasion permitted. At length, in 1869, he entered Denmark Academy whence, after a single year, he was able to proceed to Iowa College, Grinnell, where he graduated in 1874. During these five years, the man whom we knew started to shape himself.

 

“In the home and the wider circle of friends, the impressionable days of childhood had been molded by Puritanism. God’s providence, the responsibility of man, the absolute distinction between right and wrong, with all resultant duties and prohibitions, set the perspective. Fortunately, the characteristic Yankee interest in education—in intelligence rather than learning-—contributed a vital element. An active mind enlarged the atmosphere of the soul. Despite its straight limitations as some reckon them, here was a real culture, giving men inner harmony with self secure from disturbance from the baser passions. As we are aware now, disturbance came otherwise. To quote Adams’ own words, he was “plagued by doctrines” from the time he went to the Academy. The spiritual impress of the New England home never left him; it had been etched upon his very being. But, thus early, Calvinistic dogma aroused misgiving, because its sheer profundity bred high doubt. As a matter of course, Ephraim Adams expected his son to follow the Christian ministry, and Henry himself foresaw no other calling meantime. Hence, when skepticism assailed him, he was destined to a terrible, heart-searching experience, the worse that domestic affection drew him one way, mental integrity another. His first years at Grinnell were bootless; the prescribed studies held no attraction and, likely enough, sickness had left a certain lethargy. But, when he came to history, philosophy, and social questions, he felt a new appeal. His Junior and Senior years, eager interest stimulating, profited him much. Still dubious, he taught for a year after graduation at Nashua, Iowa. Then, bowing to paternal prayer and maternal hope, he entered Andover Theological Seminary, not to prepare for the ministry, however, but “to try himself out”—to discover whether preaching were possible for him. In the spring of 1876, he had decided irrevocably that it was not. Adams’ “first” education—education by the natal group—ended here. It had guaranteed him the grace which is the issue of moral habit, had wedded him to the conviction that justice is truth in action. For, although he abandoned certain theological formulas, the footfall of spiritual things ever echoed through his character. The union of winsome gentleness with stern devotion to humanitarian ideals, so distinctive of Professor Adams, rooted in the persistent influence of the New England conscience.

 

“Turning to the “second” education, destined to enrol our colleague among economic leaders, it is necessary to recall once again conditions almost forgotten now. When, forty-five years ago, an academy- and college-bred lad, destined for the ministry, found it necessary to desist, he was indeed “all at sea.” For facilities, offered on every hand today by the graduate schools of the great universities, did not exist. The youth might drift— into journalism, teaching, or what not. But drifting was not on Adams’ program. He wrote to his parents who, tragically enough, could not understand him, “I must obtain another cultural training.” His mind had dwelt already upon social, political, and economic problems; therefore, the “second” education must be non-theological. Whither could he look? At this crisis his course was set by one of those small accidents which, strange to tell, play a decisive part in many lives. By mere chance, he came upon a catalogue of Johns Hopkins University, so late in the day, moreover, that his application for a fellowship, with an essay inclosed as evidence of fitness, arrived just within time-limits. Adams was chosen one of ten Fellows from a list of more than three hundred candidates, and to Baltimore he went in the fall of 1876. His letters attest that the new, ampler opportunities attracted him strongly. He availed himself of concerts, for music always moved him. Here he heard the classics for the first time. Hitherto he had known only sacred music. Sometimes he played in church and, as records show, he sang in our choral union while a young professor. We find, too, that he served as assistant in the Johns Hopkins library, not for the extravagant salary, as he remarks humorously, but on account of access to books—”I am reading myself full.” His summers were spent in his native state, working in the fields. In 1878 he received the doctorate, the first conferred by the young and unique university.

 

“The day after graduation President Gilman sent for him, and told him, “You must go to Europe.” The reply was typical —”I can’t, I haven’t a cent.” Gilman continued, “I shall see what can be done,” with the result that the benefactor to whom Adams dedicated his first book found the requisite funds. Brief stays at Oxford and Paris, lengthier at Berlin and Heidelberg, filled the next fourteen months. The journalistic bee still buzzing in his head, Adams had visited Godkin before leaving for Europe to discuss the constructive political journalism he had in mind. Godkin received him kindly, but, as Adams dryly remarks, had a long way to travel ere he could understand. In the summer of 1878, President Andrew D. White, of Cornell, traveling in Germany, summoned Adams to discuss a vacancy in this university. To Adams’ huge disappointment, as the interview developed, it became apparent that White, with a nonchalance some of us remember well, had mistaken H. C. Adams, the budding economist, for H. B. Adams, the budding historian. The vacancy was in history, not in political science or economics. Expectation vanished in thin air. But Adams was not done with. Returning to his pension, he sat up all night to draft the outline of a course of lectures which, as he bluntly put it, “Cornell needed.” Next day he sought President White again who, being half-persuaded by Adams’ verbal exposition, kept the document, saying he would communicate with Cornell, requesting that a place be made for the course if possible. Writing from Saratoga, in September, 1879, Adams tells his mother that all is off at Cornell, that he must abandon his career and buckle down to earning a livelihood. A lapse of ten days transformed the scene. The Cornell appointment had been arranged, and he went to Ithaca forthwith. So meager were the facilities then offered in the general field of the social sciences that Adams gave one semester, at Cornell and Johns Hopkins respectively, to these subjects in the year 1879-80. The same arrangement continued till 1886, Michigan being substituted for Johns Hopkins in 1881. As older men recall, Dr. Angell taught economics, in addition to international law, till the time of his transfer to Pekin as Minister to China. At this juncture, Adams joined us, forming a life-long association. He himself says that he “gave up three careers—preaching, journalism, and reform—to devote himself to teaching” where he believed his mission lay. […]”

______________________

 

Image source: Henry Carter Adams Page at the NNDB website.

Categories
Economists Harvard Research Tip

Harvard. Research Tip. Edward Cummings Papers

Edward Cummings papers, ca. 1875-1926

The papers of Edward Cummings (1861-1926) contain his personal and professional correspondence, including correspondence with his longtime friend J. Estlin Carpenter and with his mentor, Edward Everett Hale. This series also contains Edward’s personal and professional papers, including records from the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Penal Aspects of Drunkenness, the Theodore Parker Memorial, and the Russian Famine Relief Committee of Boston. Edward’s writings include essays, reports, and lecture notes. The largest portion of his papers consist of dated and undated sermons, addresses, and notes that span the period of his ministry at South Congregational Church in Boston (1900-1926). Also included are diaries, datebooks, notebooks, and scrapbooks that particularly emphasize his European study and travel from 1888 to 1891.See also Printed material, especially Harvard-related material, newspaper clippings about Edward Cummings, and the printed works of Edward Cummings.

Source: Cummings-Clarke Family Papers, 1793-1949

Categories
Economists Harvard Research Tip

Harvard Economics. Schumpeter. Harvard Crimson. March 1, 1934

Research Tip:

For the undergraduate point of view and reporting about Harvard developments:  The Archive of The Harvard Crimson.

Example: this written portrait of Joseph Alois Schumpeter by a student none-too-happy with the policy views of Harvard’s “Civil War School”.