In 1937 the Harvard Department of Economics was caught up in a storm that came to be known as the Sweezy-Walsh Affair. Alan R. Sweezy (A.B. Harvard, 1929; Ph.D. Harvard, 1932) and J. Raymond Walsh (B.A. Beloit College, 1921; Ph.D. Harvard, 1934) were given notice in March 1937 that their first-term appointments as faculty instructors that were to expire on August 31, 1937 would be followed by two year “terminating appointments”. A public uproar ensued involving allegations that these dismissals had been politically motivated.
The Sweezy-Walsh Affair ultimately resulted in a pair of reports written by a committee of senior Harvard faculty. Both reports are important documents in the history of American higher education, but today’s post is limited to cherry-picking two appendices from the second report (Report on Some Problems of Personnel in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences) that provide a few interesting statistics on the Ph.D. recipients from the departments of English, History, Government, Economics and Physics during the period 1931-35.
From the Preface
…In May, 1937, a Memorandum signed by 131 junior teachers in Harvard College was sent by them to the following full professors: E. Merrick Dodd, Jr. [Law], Felix Frankfurter [Law], Elmer P. Kohler [Chemistry], Edmund M. Morgan [Law], Kenneth B. Murdock [English], Samuel E. Morison [History], Ralph Barton Perry [Philosophy], Arthur M. Schlesinger [History], and Harlow Shapley [Astronomy]. This Memorandum set forth certain “misgivings” of the signers relating both to the particular case of the terminating appointments given to Drs. Walsh and Sweezy of the Department of Economics, and to the general question of the status of junior teachers in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
By the letter dated May 18,1937, eight of the nine professors to whom the Memorandum was addressed urged upon the President the desirability of an investigation, “conducted by a committee regularly appointed by the President,” which should report on “the action taken in the cases of Walsh and Sweezy” and also on “the larger and more fundamental question of whether the method by which in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences the fitness of younger men for appointment, reappointment, and promotion is decided, insures fair judgment of the merits of scholars and teachers, and guarantees academic freedom.” In a letter dated May 26, 1937, the President requested the nine professors to whom the Memorandum was addressed “to make the investigation which the petitioners desire” and “appointed them a committee for that purpose.” At the Committee’s suggestion, Professor William S. Ferguson [History] was appointed in place of Professor Samuel E. Morison [History], who was to be absent on leave. Professor Elmer P. Kohler [Chemistry] died on May 24, 1938, and his place was not filled.
…the Committee sent to 221 younger teachers within the jurisdiction of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, including (with a few exceptions) all annual instructors of two or more years of service, faculty instructors, and assistant professors, a questionnaire in which they were asked to give their opinions on various matters covered by the inquiry. A similar questionnaire was later sent to 62 other teachers (6 associate professors, 56 annual instructors and assistants) who had signed the Memorandum. A letter of inquiry was sent to chairmen of departments. All of the chairmen and 201 of the teachers (164 of the first group, and 37 of the second group) replied, and the Committee has made full use of their statements and suggestions.
After completion of the first report in May, 1938, various topics were assigned to the individual members of the Committee for preliminary investigation and analysis. The Committee reassembled in September, 1938, and since then has devoted every Wednesday afternoon and numerous additional meetings to the discussion of its problems and to the consideration of initial drafts of portions of this report, prepared either by individual members or by sub-committees.
… Statistical and other materials compiled by the Committee but not published in the present report, will, so far as they are non-confidential in nature, and conceivably useful for future inquiries, be deposited in the archives of the University.
APPENDIX II
Analysis of careers of graduate students in English, History, Government, Economics, and Physics taking their doctorate in the years 1931-35 inclusive.
I. Their present representation on Harvard staff.
Of the 293 men who took degrees between 1931 and 1935 inclusive, 18 are now on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; 3 are in other departments (2 in the Business School and 1 in the Medical School). Of the 18, 6 are in English or English and Comparative Literature, 4 in History, 3 in Government, 2 in Economics, and 3 in Physics.
Percentages are:
| English | 7.3 |
| History | 5.33 |
| Government | 8.33 |
| Economics | 2.95 |
| Physics | 8.37 |
| Average [of the above] | 7.17 |
Of the 293, 82 took their Ph.D. before their 28th year. Of these 6, or 7.2%, were on the Faculty in 1937-38.
II. Gross average age of men at time of taking doctorate.
| English | 31.11 | 82 men |
| History | 31.83 | 75 men |
| Government | 30.61 | 36 men |
| Economics | 30.76 | 68 men |
| Physics | 28.50 | 32 men |
| [Average of above] | 30.86 |
Omitting men who entered late or dropped out for a relatively large number of years during the course of study (viz. 15, 14, 8, 11, and 1 in English, History, Government, Economics, and Physics respectively) the normal ages at which the doctorate was taken were:
| English | 29.3 | 67 men |
| History | 30.05 | 61 men |
| Government | 28.60 | 28 men |
| Economics | 29.20 | 57 men |
| Physics | 28.2 | 31 men |
| [Average of above] | 29.55 |
III. Distribution of youngest groups by departments.
The percentages of all men taking the doctorate while under 27 (I) years and under 28 (II) years of age were:
|
I |
II |
|||
|
Per cent |
Number | Per cent |
Number |
|
|
English |
17.0 | 14 | 24.4 | 20 |
| History |
10.66 |
8 | 16.0 |
12 |
| Government |
19.4 |
7 | 38.9 |
14 |
| Economics |
20.6 |
17 | 30.9 |
21 |
|
Physics |
40.66 | 13 | 46.9 |
15 |
IV. Academic year-span.
Omitting as abnormal men taking 10 or more academic years between entering Harvard and getting the doctorate, the academic year-span in the five Departments was as follows:
| English | 5.72 |
| History | 5.72 |
| Government | 5.41 |
| Economics | 4.85 |
| Physics | 4.83 |
| Average [of the above] | 5.36 |
The abnormal men mentioned above were distributed as follows:
| Per cent | Number | |
| English | 15.85 | 13 |
| History | 24.0 | 18 |
| Government | 5.5 | 2 |
| Economics | 11.76 | 6 |
| Physics | 9.37 | 3 |
V. Distribution by departments of men who dropped out temporarily, left before taking final examinations, or stayed on to the end.
Percentages of normal men (here or hereafter in the sense of II) whose courses were interrupted by absence from Harvard between entering and discontinuing graduate studies here were as follows:
|
Per cent |
Number |
|
| English |
52.25 |
35 |
| History |
22.95 |
14 |
| Government |
35.71 |
10 |
| Economics |
24.56 |
14 |
| Physics |
12.90 |
4 |
The following percentages of normal men left Harvard and took their degrees one or more years afterwards:
| Per cent | Number | |
| English |
31.34 |
21 |
| History |
59.01 |
36 |
| Government |
60.71 |
17 |
| Economics |
49.12 |
28 |
| Physics |
16.13 |
5 |
Normal men whose program toward the doctorate was uninterrupted by either of these reasons:
| Per cent | Number | |
| English | 34.32 | 23 |
| History | 36.06 | 22 |
| Government | 17.86 | 5 |
| Economics | 35.08 | 20 |
| Physics | 70.96 | 22 |
Men who both dropped out and “left”:
| English | 18 |
| History | 11 |
| Government | 3 |
| Economics | 5 |
| Physics | 0 |
This accounts for the excesses in the percentages given above.
VI. Analysis of numbers of men whose study was uninterrupted.
| Number | Per cent | Average of acad. years | Average age | Non-teachers | Teaching at Harvard | Teachers before coming to Harvard* | |
| English | 23 | 34.32 | 4.217 | 27.83 | 14 | 3 | 7 (1) |
| History | 22 | 36.06 | 5.73 | 29.52 | 7 | 14 | 5 (4) |
| Government | 5 | 17.86 | 4.0 | 27.21 | 0 | 4 | 2 (1) |
| Economics | 20 | 35.08 | 4.9 | 28.78 | 3 | 16 | 3 (2) |
| Physics | 22 | 70.96 | 4.63 | 27.27 | 8 | 14 | 1 (1) |
*[in parentheses, “both” taught at and previous to Harvard]
VII. Effect of teaching on age at graduation.
| English: | Teachers normal age | 29.47 |
| Non-teachers normal age | 27.05 | |
| History: | Teachers normal age | 30.64 |
| Non-teachers normal age | 28.19 | |
| Government: | Teachers normal age | 28.19 |
| Non-teachers normal age | 29.16 | |
| Economics: | Teachers normal age | 29.13 |
| Non-teachers normal age | 29.18 | |
| Physics: | Teachers normal age | 29.18 |
| Non-teachers normal age | 26.09 |
VIII. Teaching of normal men.
| Non-teachers | Taught at Harvard | Taught elsewhere | Percentage of Teachers | ||
| Number | Per cent | ||||
| English | 27 | 17 | 25.4 | 23 | 59.7 |
| History | 18 | 31* | 50.8 | 12 | 70.5 |
| Government | 10 | 13 | 46.4 | 5 | 46.4 |
| Economics | 18 | 30 | 52.6 | 9 | 68.4 |
| Physics | 10 | 20 | 67.7 | 1 | 67.7 |
*In History, readers who had a corporation appointment are included though they occasionally received as little as $150 salary: these should be eliminated. Similar eliminations should probably be made in other departments.
Some of the non-teachers may have taught outside Harvard: the records are incomplete.
[…]
APPENDIX IV
| No. of graduate-student tutors | No. of their tutees | Total Concentration | Percentage tutored by graduate-students | |
| English | 14 | 156 | 336½ | 46.3 |
| History | 2 | 47 | 273½ | 17.1 |
| Government | 11 | 168 | 389 | 43.2 |
| Economics | 18 | 284 | 462½ | 61.4 |
| Physics | 3 | 19½ | 49 | 39.8 |
Source: Special Committee appointed by the President of Harvard University. Report on Some Problems of Personnel in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1939, pp. vii-ix, 160-163.