Month: August 2026

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. US Economic History. Description, enrollment, final exam. Gay, 1912-1913

Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. Painted by N.C. Wyeth

 

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Earlier Harvard courses
on U.S. economic history

Links to earlier course material for U.S. Economic History taught at Harvard, 1901-1902 through 1911-12.

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ECONOMICS 2b
Course Description
1912-13

[Economics] 2b 2hf. (formerly 6b 2hf.). Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. ——.

The following are among the subjects considered: aspects of the Revolution and commercial relations during the Confederation and the European wars; the history of the protective tariff policy and the growth of manufacturing industries; the settlement of the West and the history of transportation, including the early canal and turnpike enterprises of the states, the various phases of railway building and the establishment of public regulation of railways; banking and currency experiences; various aspects of agrarian history, such as the public land policy, the growth of foreign demand for American produce and the subsequent competition of other sources of supply; certain social topics, such as slavery and its economic basis, and the effects of immigration.

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, Courses of Instruction, 1912–13, p. 60.

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ECONOMICS 2b
Course Enrollment
1912-13

Economics 2b 2hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Dr. M. T. Copeland. Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 124: 18 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 50 Juniors, 27 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 6 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 57.

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ECONOMICS 2b
Year-end Final Examination
1912-13

  1. “The most important feature of life in a newly settled community is its commercial connection with the rest of the world.” Why? How is this illustrated (a) by the history of the American colonies and (b) by the history of the West?
  2. What were the causes for the decline of the American merchant marine? What attempts have been made to assist its recovery? With what results?
  3. Compare in its main features the economic history of the decade 1830-40 with that of the decade 1880-90.
  4. Compare the conditions which stimulated industrial combinations in the ’90’s with those which resulted in railroad combinations in the ’70’s.
  5. Within the last twelve months the New England Cotton Yarn Company, the U. S. Finishing Company, and the International Cotton Mills Corporation have each undergone reorganization. What was the earlier history of these companies and how far did that history foreshadow the necessity for such reorganizations?
  6. If you were to establish a mill for manufacturing silk goods at the present time, how would the conditions which you would meet in that industry differ from those which confronted a silk manufacturer forty or forty-five years ago? Why have these changes taken place? How far are they typical of the general industrial development of the United States during this period?
  7. (a) Comment on the following statement, which was made in a speech in Congress in 1846. “It is a protective tariff which gives to American industry the only effectual guaranty that it will not be brought down to a level with the degraded labor of Europe. It furnishes the only security that our standard of wages is not to be measured by the cost of production in those countries where the life of the laborer is but an incessant struggle for bread.”
    (b) Judging from the history of the years 1893-1900, as well as from present conditions, is the present year more or less opportune than 1909 for a downward revision of the tariff? Why?

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College (June 1913), pp. 40-41.

Image Source: Website of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Webpage: History. Lincoln and the Founding of the National Banking System.

“Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. N.C. Wyeth painted this mural in the lobby of what was then the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The former bank building is today the Langham Hotel.”

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Economic History Materials
Posted Earlier

Economic History of the United States

1901-02. Economics 6. Economic History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague and J.H. Patten]

1902-03. Economics 6. Economic History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague]

1903-04. Economics 6. Economic History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague]

1904-05. Economics 6. Economic and Financial History of the United States. [O.M.W. Sprague]

1905-06. Economics 6. Economic and Financial History of the United States [with Frank W. Taussig]

1906-07. Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States. [E.F. Gay]

1907-08. Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States. [E.F. Gay]

1908-09. European and U.S. Economic History. Reading Lists and Exams. [E.F. Gay]

1909-10. European and U.S. Economic History. Reading Lists and Exams. [E.F. Gay and H.L. Gray]

1910-11. Economic and Financial History of the U.S. [Gay and Klein]. Including reading list.

1911-12. Economics 6b. U.S. Economic History. E.F. Gay with J. Klein].

Categories
Columbia Statistics

Columbia. Statistics as a method not separate science. Frederick C Mills, 1924

One wonders what Professor Seligman’s motivation was for asking 32 year old associate professor of business statistics whether statistics was a “separate science” or a “method”, but since we only have Frederick C. Mills’ response, it is anyone’s speculation for what Seligman was after. I find the letter interesting because Mills names three contemporary textbooks he regarded as “standard” at that time.

Fun fact: At age 22 Frederick C. Mills performed undercover fieldwork to study hobos in the wild. His reports and field notes were compiled, edited, and published as Gregory R. Woirol compiled and edited them as In the Floating Army: F. C. Mills on Itinerant Life in California, 1914 (University of Illinois Press, 1992). And what did you do for summer vacation?

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Meet the correspondents

Frederick C. Mills  (Columbia Ph.D. Dissertation, Contemporary Theories of Unemployment and of Unemployment Relief, published 1917)

Edwin R. A. Seligman (from a 1939 memorial) (and about the same man four decades earlier, 1899)

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Columbia University
in the City of New York

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

492 Engle Street,
Englewood, N.J.
Dec. 12, 1924.

Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman,
Kent Hall,
Columbia University, N.Y.

Dear Professor Seligman,

            You have requested me to send you a list of references which might serve to show that Statistics is a legitimate science, rather than a method. On thinking the matter over at some length, I am afraid that I can give you no reference which might prove your point. For indicating the content of the usual courses in Statistics any of the standard text-books would serve. I might mention

Yule, G. Udney.  An Introduction to the Theory of Statistics.

Kelley, Truman L.           Statistical Method.

Bowley, A.L.      Elements of Statistics.

In each of these, more evidence might be found for the view that Statistics is essentially a method than for the view that it is a separate science. I am inclined, myself, to consider Statistics as a method, at least in its practical bearing upon our own particular problems. Sciences, I suppose, are differentiated from each other primarily with respect to subject matter. From this viewpoint, the body of Statistics is concerned with methods of dealing with material drawn from many different fields of knowledge, the chief requirement for statistical treatment being that the data are quantitative in character.

Is it not possible to admit as much, and still have a strong plea for adequate treatment of statistical economics? The statistical method is one method, not the only one, by any means, for handling the data of economics and for investigating certain types of relationships. It is a method the application of which calls for a certain type of technical training, and instruction in this technique is essential to a well-rounded curriculum in economics. Statistics is at least a distinct discipline, and as such calls for specialized training. On such grounds, I think, a strong argument for a statistical economist might be based.

Faithfully yours,
[signed]
Frederick C. Mills.

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson Collection, Box 37 (Box 100: Columbia 1924-1930).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Principles of Economics. Description, enrollment, and final exams. Taussig and Day, 1912-1913

Frank William Taussig and Edmund Ezra Day

In the beginning (of economics instruction) was Economics 1. And the Word was Frank Taussig’s at early 20th century Harvard.

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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1911/12

1871-75 1880-81 1890-91 1900-01 1910-11
1881-82 1891-92 1901-02 1911-12
1882-83 1892-93 1902-03
1883-84 1893-94 1903-04
1884-85 1894-95 1904-05
1885-86 1895-96 1905-06
1876-77 1886-87 1896-97 1906-07
1877-78 1887-88 1897-98 1907-08
1878-79 1888-89 1898-99 1908-09
1879-80 1889-90 1899-00 1909-10

 Frank Taussig completed the first edition of his Principles of Economics [Volume I; Volume II] in March 1911 [Preface]. Links to the references from that first edition have been posted. Taussig expected his students to acquire a personal copy of the textbook and wrote a letter (transcribed and posted here) to Harvard President Lowell, dated October 6, 1911 giving his reasons for not putting a large number of copies into libraries as a reference book for students for them to consult. Taussig did allow one major exception to his textbook ownership policy: “I do not want to compel the poor fellows to buy my book. There is a text-book loan library in Phillips Brooks House, and this I have supplied with a sufficient number of copies for the use of the needy.”

For those seeking further questions, one might consult the book first published in 1915 by Edmund Ezra Day and Joseph Stancliffe Davis, Questions on the Principles of Economics (New York: Macmillan, 1915).  From their Preface (p. vi):  “The book is arranged particularly for use with Professor Taussig’s ‘Principles of Economics’ (revised edition, 1915).”

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Meet the Teaching Assistants
Econ. 1. Principles of Economics
1912-13

Heilman, Ralph Emerson. Ph.D. Harvard 1913.

RALPH EMERSON HEILMAN, Ph.B. (Morningside Coll.) 1906, A.M. (Northwestern Univ.) 1907.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Social Ethics. Thesis, ” Chicago Traction: A Study in the Efforts of the City to Secure Good Service.” Assistant Professor of Economics, State University of Iowa.

Source: Report of the President 1912-13, p. 90.

Jones, Eliot. Ph.D. Harvard 1913.

ELIOT JONES, A.B. (Vanderbilt Univ.) 1906, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1908.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Railroad Transportation. Thesis, ” The Anthracite Coal Combination in the United States, with some Account of the Early Development of the Anthracite Industry.” Instructor in Economics, University of Pennsylvania.

Source: Report of the President 1912-13, p. 90.

Burbank, Harold Hitchings. Ph.D. Harvard 1915.

HAROLD HITCHINGS BURBANK, A.B. (Dartmouth Coll.) 1909, A.M. (ibid.) 1910.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Public Finance. Thesis, ” The General Property Tax in Massachusetts, 1775 to 1792, with some Consideration of Colonial and Provincial Legislation and Practices.” Instructor in Economics, and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Source: Report of the President 1914-15, p. 103.

Crosgrave, Lloyd Morgan. A.B. (Indiana) 1909, A.M. (Harvard University) 1911.

Travelling Fellow. Frederick Sheldon Fellow. Economics. Brussels. Instructor in Economics, University of Minnesota. From Report of the President 1913-1914, p. 98.;

Source: Harvard University. Quinquennial catalogue (1930), pp. 63, 712.

Lloyd M. Crosgrave

BIRTH. 21 Apr 1887. Jamestown, Chautauqua County, New York, USA

DEATH. 19 Jun 1961 (aged 74). Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana, USA

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

LLOYD CROSGRAVE, EX-UNIVERSITY PROF, DIES HERE

Lloyd M. Crosgrave, 74, 2320 S. Walnut St., died at home at 11:30 a.m. Monday after an extended illness. Crosgrave was born in Jamestown, N.Y., and moved to Muncie when he was five years old.

He attended Purdue University, received his bachelor’s degree at Indiana University and his master’s in economics at Harvard. He taught economics at Harvard, IU, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Pittsburgh.

He retired from teaching several years ago due to failing health. Since then he has owned and operated a greenhouse at his home where he grew house plants, specializing in the growing of African violets.

Crosgrave was a member of the Senior Citizens of Muncie.

He is survived by a sister, Miss Pearl G. Crosgrave, who resided at the same address.

Muncie Evening Press. Mon, Jun 19, 1961, p. 8

Source: Find-A-Grave webpage for Lloyd W. [sic] Crosgrave.

Eldred, Wilfred. Ph.D. (Harvard University, 1919).

WILFRED ELDRED, A.B. (Washington and Lee Univ.) 1909, A.M. (ibid.) 1909, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1911. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic History. Thesis,’ The Wheat and Flour Trade of the United States under the Control of the Food Administration.” Statistician, U. S. Grain Corporation, 42 Broadway, New York, N. Y.

Source: Report of the President 1918-19, p. 81.

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ECONOMICS 1
Course Description
1912-13

Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second year of their college career. It may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics 1….

[Economics] 1. Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day, assisted by Messrs. ——, ——.

Course 1 gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, international trade, and taxation. The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States will be treated in outline.

The course will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. Course 1 may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, Courses of Instruction, 1912–13, pp. 57-58.

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ECONOMICS 1
Course Enrollment
1912-13

[Economics] 1. Professor Taussig and Dr. E. E. Day, assisted by Messrs. Heilman, Jones, Burbank, Crosgrave, and Eldred. Principles of Economics.

Total 481: 1 Graduate, 21 Seniors, 93 Juniors, 307 Sophomores, 21 Freshmen, 38 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 57.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Final Examination
1912-13

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions; and give your reasons in every case.]

  1. Give examples of each of the following:—

vertical combination;
internal economies;
localization of industry;
increasing returns.

  1. In the case of a commodity produced under constant returns, does demand determine the price of the commodity or the quantity produced? Illustrate by diagram.
    Would your answer be the same if the commodity were produced under diminishing returns?
  2. The cost of raising wheat on new land in Canada is said to be far below the average cost raising of wheat in the United States. Supposing this to be the case, can wheat grown in the United States continue to be sold in foreign countries in competition with Canadian wheat?
  3. How would a great increase in the world’s supply of gold affect:—

(1) The value of the gold dollar.
(2) The value of the silver dollar.
(3) The price of silver bullion.
(4) The price of gold bullion.

  1. State briefly what was the course of prices in the United States (a) between 1860 and 1870, (b) between 1900 and 1910. What were the causes of the price changes in each period; what evils arose; and how could the evils have been avoided?
  2. Arrange the following items of a bank statement in their proper order:—
Loans $380,000
Bonds $50,000
Notes $50,000
Capital $100,000
Other Assets $40,000
Surplus $30,000
Undivided Profits $10,000
Real Estate $22,000
Deposits $350,000
Due from banks $10,000
Notes of other banks $3,000
Cash $35,000

Could this be the statement of a national bank, conducting its business in conformity to law?
Suppose the bank to sell bonds which on this statement are carried as worth $20,000; selling them at a profit of $1,000, and receiving cash for them. Rearrange the statement, and consider whether it could then be the statement of a national bank conducting its business in conformity to law.

  1. How would a great increase in the production of gold in the United States affect:—

the imports and exports of the United States;
the “balance of trade” of the United States;
the price of foreign exchange in New York?

  1. Suppose large remittances to be made by immigrants from the United States to their native countries: what consequences would you expect on (1) the stock of specie circulating in the United States; (2) the relation between merchandise exports and imports; (3) the gain which the people of the United States secure from foreign trade?
  2. Which of the following would you reckon as part of the wealth of the country? as part of its capital?

The Great Lakes,
The Panama Canal,
Deposits in banks.

  1. Is the establishment of a manufacturing industry, brought into existence by a protective tariff, advantageous in that it creates a home market for agricultural products?

Source: Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 9, bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1912-13.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1912-13

  1. To what extent and in what manner do the following contribute to the formation of capital: (a) a government loan; (b) the stock exchange; (c) commercial banks; (d) the corporate form of business organization?
  2. Explain “margin of cultivation.” Distinguish between the intensive margin of cultivation and the extensive margin of cultivation. What is the relation between (a) the margin of cultivation in agriculture and the price of a bushel of wheat; (b) the margin in gold mining and the value of an ounce of gold?
  3. Assume that a monopoly produces a commodity under conditions of constant cost. What determines the extent to which the monopoly price will be above the price which competition, if existent, would establish? Illustrate by diagram.
  4. The rentals from a New York office building amount to $50,000 a year. The building is worth $200,000. To provide for insurance, depreciation and such fixed items, $10,000 is expended annually. The current rate of interest upon investments of equal security is 5%. What is the value of the land?
  5. What is “dumping “? What induces it? To what extent is it dependent upon (a) monopoly conditions; (b) tariff barriers?
  6. Explain briefly why (a) the rates of wages are generally higher in the United States than in Germany; (b) higher for plumbers than for unskilled laborers; (c) for domestic servants than for women employed in shops and factories. Suppose a socialist community apportioning wages on the basis of equality of sacrifice: would these differences persist?
  7. How are the wages and the number employed within a particular industry affected, immediately and ultimately, by the invention of labor-saving devices in that industry?
  8. Explain: (a) railroad rebates; (b) over-capitalization; (c) public service industries; (d) “reasonable restraint of trade”; (e) stoppage at the source.

Sources: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College (June 1913), pp. 38-39.

Image Source: Frank William Taussig and Edmund Ezra Day’s portraits from The Harvard Class Album, 1915.

Categories
Exam Questions M.I.T. Theory

M.I.T. General Examination in Economic Theory. May, 1956

[M.I.T.]

GENERAL EXAMINATION
IN ECONOMIC THEORY

May 14, 1956

Answer FIVE questions in all. If you have studied mathematical economics you are urged to take at least one, but not more than two questions from Part II.

PART I
  1. “Within the restrictions of static-equilibrium analysis, an increase of demand will normally increase price, whether the good is produced under conditions of pure competition or monopoly.” Explain fully why you agree or disagree.
  2. It is sometimes implied that the duopoly problem has a unique solution provided that the duopolists fully recognize their mutual interdependence. What can be said for and against this view?
  3. “Under the complex conditions of the real world, marginal productivity concepts are relevant in explaining the factor quantities that an individual firm will use, but those concepts have no relevance in explaining the distribution of income.” Discuss.
  4. Treating each situation separately identify the underlying conditions that are implied such that each of the following will be possible:
    1. a redistribution of given total quantities of goods such that all consumers are better off;
    2. a reallocation of given total quantities of factors such that greater quantities of all goods can be produced;
    3. a reallocation of given total quantities of factors such that more of one good and less of another will make all consumers better off;
    4. an increase of the working day such that more goods and less leisure will make all laborers better off.
  5. In a truly competitive economy with just two goods (food and clothing) and two factors (labor and land), assume that the food industry is unambiguously the relatively land-intensive one. Supposing now that an innovation makes it possible to produce more food than before with any given factor quantities, discuss the alternatively possible effects on the welfare of both laborers and landlords.
  6. It has been suggested that the main result of the pure theory of consumer demand is the following proposition: if demand for a commodity increases when income increases, the demand will also increase when its price falls.
    1. Prove that this proposition is indeed true.
    2. Do you agree that this is the main consequence of the pure theory of demand?
    3. How important a part of economic theory is the theory of demand?
  7. An apple orchard and a bee-keeper exist next to each other. The more carefully the orchard is cultivated, the more honey the bees can extract from the blossoms. The more bees there are in the apiary, the more they pollinate the apple blossoms and the higher the yield of fruit. What kinds of misallocations of resources are likely to occur in this situation? How could they be corrected? Does this situation have any important parallel in the modern world?
  8. Compare the interest theories of Böhm-Bawerk, Fisher, and Keynes. Are they fundamentally compatible?
Part II
  1. Crusoe maximizes

U = ⅓ log x₁ + ⅔ log x₂

subject to
p₁x₁ + p₂x₂ = I

Derive his econometric demand functions.

  1. What is the difference between Hicksian stability and “true dynamic stability”? Assuming income effects can be neglected, show that the concepts turn out to be identical.
  2. State Euler’s theorem on homogeneous functions and give two or three different economic applications. Show that a Cobb-Douglas function is the only first degree homogeneous function for which relative shares are constant. Deduce the elasticity of demand for labor for a C-D function.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, Box 33, Folder “Teaching Exams. 1952 and 1956”.

Image Source: The M.I.T. beaver featured on the cover the cover of Technique 1949.

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions Theory

Chicago. PhD Exam in Economic Theory. Autumn 1946

 

Links to previously posted Chicago prelim exams.

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ECONOMIC THEORY

Written Examination for the Ph.D. Degree
Autumn Quarter, 1946

Ph.D. Candidates:  4 hours.  Answer all the questions.  Papers will be taken up after 10 or 15 minutes warning.

  1. Define or explain:
    1. Elasticity of Demand; point and arc elasticity; income elasticity; cross elasticity.
    2. Demand curve; utility curve; indifference curve; indifference map; marginal rate of substitution.
    3. Substitution effect and income effect.
    4. Complementary goods.
    5. Real vs. alternative cost.
    6. Price-determined vs. price-determining cost.
    7. Rent and quasi-rent.
    8. Profit.
  2. In what sense and under what conditions (if at all) does cost of production determine price, (a) in the long run, (b) in the short run.(If it never does, explain the fallacy.)
  3. Briefly describe the three or four main contributions (naming the chief author of each) to the development of the concept of capital and theory of interest, beginning with Ricardo and ending with what you consider “correct” doctrine.In each case bring out the relation of capital to other “productive factors” and to money, and that of its yield to other forms of income.
  4. —
    1. Define profit for the purpose of distribution theory.
    2. Discuss the social advisability of a legal limitation, in advance from the beginning, on the rate of return on investment in fields where it is highly uncertain (such as public utilities and explorative and development of natural resources – i.e. single tax).
    3. Comment on the ethics and policy of imposing such a limitation, by regulation or taxation, on enterprises already proven highly profitable.
  5. Discuss the wisdom of the policy described in the following quotation:

“In conversations with gold mining engineers a phrase glibly and frequently repeated is ‘sweetening the ore.’ By this phrase reference is made to the practice of diverting production in profitable periods to the poorer ores and perhaps restricting output in the richer fields. Under this practice the better ores are preserved for periods in which mining costs have risen so that over a long period of time output can be held more steady. Contributing also to a policy of sweetening the ores is the reluctance of producers to install capital equipment in a period in which the tendency is for mining expenses to increase with the general advance of wages and living costs. By the time the equipment is installed it might be expected that wages and price levels would be adjusted to the increased price of gold.”

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 76, Folder “76.2 “University of Chicago ‘Economic Theory’”.

Image Source: Detail from the Social Science Research Building. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07448, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

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Preliminary and Field Exams from the economics graduate program of the University of Chicago

Note: The chronological ordering of quarters at the University of Chicago during a calendar year goes Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn. For this reason the following is arranged chronologically.

Categories
Bryn Mawr Economists Gender Illinois

Illinois. Economics PhD alumna. Janet Montgomery Hooks. 1960

Janet Montgomery Hooks, 1933 and 1967

For the post on the Rockefeller Foundation funded series: The Ethics and Economics of Society, I came across the name of Janet M. Hooks who collaborated with Elizabeth E. Hoyt, Margaret G. Reid, and Joseph L. McConnell, on the volume American Income and Its Use (1954). Because I found relatively little about her through my  searches, I figured I ought to share those facts that I have been able to string together about Janet M. Hooks’ life and career. 

________________________

Janet Montgomery Hooks (Bassie)
Her Biographical Timeline

Born April 25, 1912, in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Parents: David Munro Hooks and Maud E. Montgomery.

A.B., Mount Holyoke College, 1933 — major in Economics (Honor Work), minor in History.

A.M. Bryn Mawr College (1934).

1936. Federal Consumer Purchases Study at Toledo, Ohio.

Married Oct. 2, 1937 (Saturday), to V. Lewis Bassie of Chicago, in a private ceremony at the Hooks family home in West Englewood, N.J., performed by the Rev. William K. Russell of Christ Episcopal Church, West Englewood. Attendants were her sisters Vida and Maida Hooks; best man was Charles Coe of Washington, D.C. The couple honeymooned to Bermuda on the S.S. Monarch of Bermuda and settled in Washington, D.C.

Source: “Miss Hooks Married to V. L. Bassie,” The Record (Hackensack, N.J.), Oct. 4, 1937, p. 14.

Groom’s background per the same announcement: “Mr. Bassie is an alumnus of the University of Chicago and is with the Federal Reserve Board.”  V. Lewis Bassie (1907/08–June 5, 1997) took his Ph.D. at Chicago in 1931, later becoming a well-known business-cycle forecaster, joining the University of Illinois economics faculty in 1948 as director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, and retiring in 1976. Illinois economics department’s historical profile of V. Lewis Bassie.

She was to publish professionally under her maiden name “Janet M. Hooks”.

1940 U.S. Census: listed as “Jr. economist,” Government — living in Arlington, Va., with her husband, economist V. Lewis Bassie. By the April 1940 census date she was already a federal government economist.

1940-48: Research Division, U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau.

Source: Biographical Listing of Members of the American Economic Association. American Economic Review, December 1989), p. 221.

Catalog record: catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003493587
Full view: babel.hathitrust.org (uiug.30112104139305)

1941: Employment of women in the Federal Government, 1923 to 1929 by Rachel Fesler Nyswander and Janet M. Hooks.  U.S. Department of Labor, Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau, no. 182.

Catalog record: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003493587 
Full view: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112104139305

Feb. 2, 1942, p. 24 — Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) identified her as an active member on the Workers’ Education Committee that sponsored a party to raise funds for the American Labor Education Service. Others named in the article constitute a list of a Washington women’s who’s who of economic policy loc.gov (Feb. 2, 1942, p. 24)

1944: author, British Policies and Methods in Employing Women in Wartime, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 200 (Washington: GPO, 1944).

Catalog record: catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003493702
Full view: babel.hathitrust.org (uiug.30112102049118)

1947: author, Women’s Occupations Through Seven Decades, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 218 (Washington: GPO, 1947). The bulletin’s own foreword states: “The analysis was made and the report written by Janet M. Hooks, of the Bureau’s Research Division.”

PDF: fraser.stlouisfed.org (Bulletin 218)
Full text: fraser.stlouisfed.org (fulltext)
FRASER author page: fraser.stlouisfed.org/author/hooks-janet-m

1948: Her husband V. Lewis Bassie joined the University of Illinois faculty.

1949–1950: co-author (with Mary E. Pidgeon), Women in the Federal Service, 1923–1947. U.S. Dept. of Labor, Women’s Bureau, 1949–1950), 2 vols. NOTE: vol. 2 was written without participation of Janet M. Hooks.

Catalog record: catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011397919
Full view Volume 1: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112102049753
Full view Volume 2: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112102049761

1950: U.S. Census. Family of V. Lewis Bassie (age 42, b. in Illinois) and Janet M. Bassie (age 37, b. in Massachusetts), daughter Carol M. (age 6, b. in Virginia) and son William C. (age 1, b. in Washington, DC) Father is listed as Professor of Economics, Director of Business research at the state university. Mother has no occupation listed.

1954: Co-author with Joseph L. McConnell of Part III The Changing Family and its Dependents in the volume American Income and Its Use (1954) by Elizabeth E. Hoyt, Margaret G. Reid, Joseph L. McConnell, and Janet Montgomery Hooks, published in the Rockefeller Foundation funded series: The Ethics and Economics of Society (Harper & Brothers). Note: Margaret Reid was at the University of Illinois 1948-51. Also Howard Bowen (a principal in the Rockefeller Foundation project was Dean at the University of Illinois, removed as dean in 1951).

1960: Awarded Ph.D. in economics per the Report of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, meeting of June 14, 1960 (pp. 1333–35): under “In Economics” — “Janet Montgomery Hooks, A.B., Mount Holyoke College, 1933; A.M., Bryn Mawr, 1934.” Dissertation: The Contribution of Household Production to the National Income.

1963-1977. Eastern Illinois University. [Just over 50 years old, having completed her doctorate in Economics at Illinois in 1960 — 26 years after her Bryn Mawr A.M., about a decade after her husband V. Lewis Bassie joined the Illinois faculty (1948), and roughly a decade after her last confirmed Women’s Bureau byline (1949–50), she becomes a full fledged academic economist.]

Source: Biographical Listing of Members of the American Economic Association. American Economic Review, December 1989), p. 221.

1967: Assistant Professor of Economics, Eastern Illinois University (The Warbler, 1967, p. 67)

1977: Professor emeritus. Eastern Illinois University

Source: Biographical Listing of Members of the American Economic Association. American Economic Review, December 1989), p. 221.

Died April 4, 2002, in Urbana, Illinois.

Source: Obituary: “Janet Montgomery Hooks Bassie,” News and Record (Greensboro, N.C.), April 6, 2002, p. 19.

Image Sources: Yearbook of Eastern Illinois University, The Warbler, 1967

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Social Insurance Social Work

Harvard. Social Ethics Courses. Enrollments and Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1911-1912

Harvard's Social Museum, Room 1

Harvard professor Francis G. Peabody and his team tried to establish something like a school of social work at Harvard that offered courses covering a great range of economic and social policy. As befitting a “Department of Social Ethics” the emphasis was on applied ethics, which is something distinct from the interest of a Department of Economics in applied economics. The intersection of the two was located in real-world problems.

Previously posted course material for social ethics at Harvard.

________________________

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Ray Madding McConnell
Francis Greenwood Peabody

________________________

Social Ethics 1-7
1911-12

Social Ethics 1. Application of Ethical Theory
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 4. Selected Topics in Social Ethics
Social Ethics 5. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in Europe
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

The courses in this group are designed to apply philosophical principles to the modern problems of philanthropy, industry, and social life. They begin with a general introduction to Social Ethics and proceed to methods of applied ethics which approach those of a professional school. Students should have already elected courses both in Philosophy and in Economics, and should regard the courses in Social Ethics as concerned with the transition from academic to practical life.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp. 70-74.

________________________

Application of Ethical Theory
to Present Social Problems

Course Description
1911-12

  1. The Problems of Poor-Relief, The Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of Ethical Theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the social situation and on the philosophy of society involved. In addition to lectures and required reading a special and detailed report is made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructors; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation and the provision to each student of special literature and opportunities for observation. Students are advised, before beginning the study of Social Ethics, to take courses both in Economics and Philosophy; and must have taken a course, or the equivalent of a course, in one of these subjects.

The following courses are planned for students who take or have taken Social Ethics 1 or its equivalent.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 70.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 1 2hf. Professor Peabody, Drs. Ford and Foerster. — Social Problems in the light of ethical theory.

Total 43: 3 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

  1. Explain briefly: —

“Economic determinism”;
“Social labor time”;
“The capitalistic appropriation of surplus value”;
“The class-conscious conflict.”

  1. Lassalle and Marx compared as influences on German socialism.
  2. What legislation on Woman and Child Labor has been enacted in the United States? (Adams & Sumner, pp. 30–37.)
  3. What is the Sweating-System, and what forms does it take? (Adams & Sumner, pp. 114–119.) What legislation has been enacted to deal with it? (pp. 122–126.)
  4. Explain and criticise the following statement: “Co-operation differs from profit-sharing primarily by reason of the fact that, in its industrial form, at least, its aim is to modify radically, and finally to utterly abolish, the wage system.” (Adams & Sumner, p. 379, and Dr. Ford’s Lectures.)
  5. Compare the advantages of industrial partnership under the direct-bonus plan with those of a pension system or a stock offering.
  6. The conclusions of physiology concerning the function of alcohol.
  7. The history of the liquor traffic in Boston from 1875 to 1894. What are the comparative merits of the three types of licensing boards operating in Boston during that period?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 87-88.

________________________

Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work:
Practical Problems

Course Description
1911-12

  1.  2hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. Brackett.

This course is for advanced students, especially for those who plan, as ministers, teachers, or as citizens, whatever their vocation, to be actively interested in charity, correction, or any form of social work. It is also an introduction to Social Ethics 20c, the School for Social Workers. It is a study of tendencies in Social Service, of law and custom, especially in England and the United States, bearing directly on such topics as neighborhood improvement, forms and sources of relief, modification of charitable trusts, treatment of special types of the needy, organization of charity, financial management, supervision of work by public and private agencies.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp. 70-71.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 2 2hf. Dr. Brackett. — Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work.

Total 14: 2 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 2

In all answers, give your reasons.

  1. “A community can have as much pauperism as it will pay for.” Comment on this, with illustrations from English or American history.
  2. What are the “feeble-minded”? In what ways would you have provision made for them?
  3. A homeless, able-bodied machinist, who says there is no one dependent upon him, but he is at the end of his money, tells you he can have a good job in Providence, R.I., where he formerly lived, if he can get there tomorrow and be ready for work the next morning. He asks a railroad ticket to that place. What would you do, and why?
  4. What have been the chief steps in progress in the treatment of offenders?
  5. —
    1. What was the chief principle for administration of public aid, laid down by the English poor-law commission of 1832–34?
    2. How was it to be carried out?
  6. —
    1. In taking up neighborhood work, what kinds of persons in the neighborhood, would you aim primarily to reach?
    2. When and how would you decide what methods to use for reaching them?
  7. What is meant by “organizing charity”? I.e., when we speak of the work of an associated charities or other agency for organizing charity.
  8. —
    1. To what extent would you advise residents in a “settlement” to give material relief to persons in the community?
    2. To what extent would you advise pastors of churches to give it?
  9. What are the chief lessons you have learned from your field work connected with this course?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 88-89.

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Criminology and Penology

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

  1.  ¹hf. Criminology and Penology. Lectures, prescribed reading, and reports. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Dr. McConnell.

This course aims to offer a brief general study of crime and its prevention. As a necessary preparation for the meeting of present problems some investigation of historical as well as of present conditions will be attempted. The subjects considered will include the following: methods of study in criminology; classes of crimes and of criminals; causes and effects of crime; prevalent conceptions of crime and of the treatment which society should accord it; agencies especially intended for the punishment and prevention of crime (including certain features of criminal law and its administration, the identification of criminals, the indeterminate sentence, institutions for the detention, punishment, and reformation of criminals, the supervision and aid of convicts on probation or parole or after discharge, and special methods for dealing with young criminals); the influence on the volume of crime of various agencies designed for general social betterment.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 71.

________________________

Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Course Description
1911-12

  1. ¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12.

Subjects for 1911-12: –

The State and Charity. Dr. Brackett.
The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. McConnell.
The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Dr. Ford.
The Ethics of Immigration. Dr. Foerster.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 71.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 4 1hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Dr. Brackett. — The Ethics of Public Aid and Private Charity.
Dr. Ford. — The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation.
Dr. Foerster. — The Ethics of Immigration.

Total 10: 2 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 4

  1. What do you say (1) in favor of, and (2) in opposition to the provision by the state of non-contributory old-age pensions for all persons beyond the age of 69, and below a small income line?
  2. How are profits divided in (1) the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers’ Society; (2) the Scottish Wholesale Society; (3) a typical Copartnership Housing Association; (4) an Irish Co-operative Dairy; (5) the New England Cranberry Sales Co. (or some other American Co-operative Sales Association)?
  3. Describe the economic and co-operative features of the credit unions of Massachusetts. What are the essential dissimilarities in method and purpose between the credit unions and the “co-operative banks” of this State?
  4. “Distributive co-operators are anti-capitalists and class-conscious.” Examine carefully and in detail the truth of this statement as applied to the distributive movements of England, Belgium and Germany.
  5. What are the usual features of the padrone commissary system?

Devote not less than one hour to this question.

  1. The following citations give the main arguments of an address recently reported in the newspapers.
      1. “Why exclude the immigrant when there is so much room for him? . . . Texas alone could support our entire population without worrying about the problem of congestion. . . . The trouble in America is usually not a lack of work but a lack of workers.”
      2. “If he accepts a small wage, his need is responsible and it is to be deplored that Americans should be content to take advantage of this desperate need and convert the hunger of this stranger into more dollars for themselves.”
      3. “Thirty of every ten thousand immigrants become paupers. . . . While the thirty are costing us $3000 a year, the other 9970 are adding almost $40,000,000 to the wealth of the land. And this exclusive of the taxes each pays.”
      4. “There is a higher rate of crime among the native born than among the foreign born.”
      5. “The solution . . . is distribution, not exclusion. . . . We should be undeserving our blessings if we selfishly refused to share them.”

Illustrate your answer to the following questions from the reading and lectures of the course. So divide your time that you may write upon all questions; avoid generalities. The lettered divisions correspond with those just given.

    1. In what sense does a lack of workers exist? When would it not exist, — e.g., when Texas should be as densely populated as Europe?
    2. Is the immigrant underpaid? What consequences would follow for employers, consumers, and immigrants if employers were compelled to pay their immigrant workmen wages not less than twice as high as they are now paying? What effect has immigration had on wages in the United States?
    3. In what sense is wealth “added”? If, by adding wealth, immigrants save Americans labor, should they not be welcomed like any other labor-saving device — a machine, typically? What kind of relation has immigration with dependency?
    4. Describe the criminal aspects of immigration.
    5. What can the best system of distribution accomplish? What can it not accomplish?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 89-90.

________________________

Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

  1. 2hf. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. McConnell.

This course considers the fundamental ethical principles involved in the organization of the modern State, and the duties of public authorities in regard to defectives, charity, the child, and public health.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

________________________

Social Amelioration in Europe

Course Description
1911-12

  1. 2hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. Foerster.

This course is mainly concerned with schemes of social amelioration that have so far been little considered in the United States. Remedial methods of dealing with poverty will be treated only incidentally. Chiefly the course will make a comparative study of the preventive and constructive measures, public and private, of several countries. After a brief consideration of the place of thrift institutions, unemployment and the important recent efforts to meet it will be discussed at some length. The experience of several countries in providing for the indigent in case of accident, sickness, invalidity, and old age will, in turn, be examined. The course will close with a study of recent developments of legislation governing conditions of labor.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 6 2hf. Dr. Foerster. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 19: 7 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 6

So allot your time that you may answer all questions.

  1. “Putting these unemployed men to work in industries already fully manned or over-manned would solve nothing. . . . The problem which the Labour Party desires the state to face is therefore that of the development of its unused resources. . . . Neither relief works nor the National Workshops of 1848 (except for training, perhaps) are asked for, but a policy of national development. . . . As part of this programme, the Socialist has long been crying for afforestation, national drainage and reclamation, labour farm colonies . . . and the pressure of social misery and depopulation has at length come to his aid.” (J. R. Macdonald, The Socialist Movement.) What is the value of such a policy in dealing with the problem of unemployment?
  2. What are the salient features of the English Workmen’s Compensation Act? What are its defects? How are these defects avoided in the legislation of other countries?
  3. What effect upon the industriousness and thrift of the population have the following?
    1. Provision for old age in Denmark.
    2. Provision for old age in England.
    3. Savings bank insurance in Massachusetts.
    4. Provision for sickness, old age, etc., in the mutual aid societies of France.
    5. Unemployment benefits under the Ghent system.

In each case show specifically to what feature of the institution in question the effect is to be traced.

  1. Why did state insurance in Germany signify a less radical departure from previous social policy and thought than it would signify in the United States? How serious a burden has it laid on employers?
  2. Mr. Lloyd George said of the English old age pensions plan, that “it is just as much a contributory scheme as one financed directly by means of contributions arranged on the German basis.” Indicate in detail by what course of reasoning this statement may be supported. Or, if you believe it false or in part false, indicate precisely the gounds of your opinion.
  3. Present the best arguments you can for compulsory (and subsidized) insurance against unemployment. Then make out the best case against compulsion. Which way does the net advantage lie? In answering this question it may be assumed that a system of well-organized labor exchanges exists.
  4. Outline the Swiss methods of dealing with vagrancy.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 90-91.

________________________

Rural Social Development

Course Description
1911-12

  1. ¹hf. Rural Social Development. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. Ford.

This course is concerned with rural life as a problem in itself and as a solution of urban problems. It will study the distribution of population and its consequences; the development of country life from without, through suburban, “Garden-city, “ “Back-to-the-land,” and other movements, and rural reconstruction from within, through private initiative, coöperative movements, and State activity.

One hour will be devoted each week to the discussion of prescribed reading.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 7 1hf. Dr. Ford. — Rural Social Development.

Total 17: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Freshman.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 7

  1. What is meant by a “rural social survey”? What facts must be gathered? (Give reasons in each instance.) What are the probable sources of this material for a Massachusetts or New York community?
  2. —
    1. What essential differences do you note between the pleasures of the village and of the rural population in Blanktown?
    2. What is meant by pleasures of receptive sensation? What part have they played in the social evolution of Blanktown? (Williams, An American Town.)
  3. What is the rural housing problem in America? State the problem in detail with reference to construction and interior arrangement of farm houses.
  4. (a) Outline the rural health problem. (b) Under what conditions do each of the following matters require action by local or state boards of health? What sort of action is necessary? Why?
      1. Illness in the farm home.
      2. Farm water supply.
      3. Farm sanitation.
      4. Milk production.
  5. —
    1. “When the rural social sense is thoroughly established, we shall be in a new epoch of rural civilization.” (Bailey, The Country Life Movement.) What is meant by this statement?
    2. By what methods can the “rural social sense” be developed in this generation? In the next?
    3. Describe in detail the structure and function of any three local socializing agencies (excluding church and school).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], p. 92.

_____________________________

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1910/11

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

Earlier 20th century course material:

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.
1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1908-09. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford and Foerster.
1909-10. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, and Foerster.
1910-11. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, Foerster, and Brackett. [complete set of social ethics exams]

Image Source: Francis G. Peabody, The Social Museum as an Instrument of University Teaching. Publications of the Department of Social Ethics in Harvard University, Number 4 (Cambridge, MA: 1911).

Categories
Accounting Exam Questions Harvard Industrial Organization

Harvard. Corporation Finance. Description, Enrollment, Final Exam. Dewing, 1911-1912

Arthur Stone Dewing was reborn as an economics instructor in 1911 according to his own account. He went on to become a finance professor at the Harvard Business School. A busy, full and complete life, successful by any metric, and yet the sort of academic that requires a professional historian of economics to go deep into the weeds just to seek an interesting trace of a lasting contribution. His Boston Globe obit credits him with the introduction of the case method into the Harvard Business School program. Worth checking if in fact a true claim.

___________________________

From Dewing’s Entry in the 1922 Report of the Harvard Class of 1902

ARTHUR STONE DEWING

BORN at Boston, Mass., April 16, 1880.
PARENTS: Charles Hamlet, Eliza Williams Stone (Paine) Dewing.
SCHOOL: Cambridge High School, Cambridge, Mass.

DEGREES: A.Β. 1902; A.M. 1903; Ph.D. 1905.

MARRIED: Frances Hall Rousmaniere, Boston, Mass., June 3, 1910.
CHILDREN: Mary Stone, March 18, 1911; Abigail Starr, June 1, 1912; Ruth Rousmaniere, Aug. 31, 1915.

OCCUPATION: Assistant Professor of Economics.

ADDRESS: (home) 469 Broadway, Cambridge, Mass.; (business) Upper Massachusetts Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

THE proper preface to an account of this kind is the altogether prosaic comment that my biography is of little interest; it is quite uninteresting and adventureless. After graduation I spent a year in the Graduate School, and later a year in Germany studying philosophy. I tutored awhile and taught science in a private school to keep the pot boiling, meanwhile serving as an assistant in philosophy courses at Harvard. For a while I taught philosophy at Simmons, and then spent some time in Europe. The outstanding feature of this period was a delightful trip through Greece. In 1911 I decided to teach economics instead of philosophy, and somewhat later was appointed instructor at Harvard. I was at Yale for a couple of years, and saw the “bowl” properly baptized by the victorious Harvard eleven. Not having absorbed enough of that subtly elusive Yale spirit I was told to return whence I had come, a wiser but not a sadder man. Incompatibility of temperament, ran the decree. For three years I lived quietly in Belmont doing some writing and some private work and teaching. I had devoted quite a little study to the Sherman Act of 1890 and its judicial interpretation; and a considerable task at this time was the preparation of the appellant’s brief of the facts for a larger industrial consolidation in its appeal to the United States Supreme Court from a decree of dissolution. In 1920 I was appointed Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard. Since that time I have also taught in the Business School. Needless to say I am especially interested in the ideals of the Business School as interpreted by the present Dean. As I understand them they are the inculcation in college graduates, likely to become business executives, of the economic and social foundations of modern industry; and with this goes the belief that the morale of business can be put on a new and lighter level by developing a professional spirit among business executives.

My hobbies are few and simple. I am as interested as ever in mountain climbing and the woods. I don’t play golf, nor belong to a country club. I’m a director of a number of public utilities. I’m cursed with the collectors’ bacillus, — at present it’s old colonial furniture, and if any of you gentlemen know of any old chairs made here in New England before 1620, please send word.

PUBLICATIONS: Chemistry laboratory note book, L. E. Knott, Boston; Biology laboratory note book, L. E. Knott, Boston; Introduction to the History of Modern Philosophy, 1903, J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia; Life as Reality, 1910, Longman’s, New York. In National Cordage Company, 1913, Harvard University Press, Cambridge; Corporate Promotions and Reorganizations, 1914, Harvard University Press, Cambridge; The Financial Policy of Corporations, 5 volumes, 1920, The Ronald Press, New York. Have also published numerous magazine articles.

MEMBER: American Economic Association; New England Historical Geneological society; Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Source:  Secretary’s Sixth Report, Harvard College Class of 1902 (June, 1922), pp. 134-135.

___________________________

Obituary
Arthur Stone Dewing
(b. 16 Apr 1880 in Boston;
d. 29 Jan 1971 in Cambridge)

Arthur Stone Dewing, 90, of 8 Willard st., Cambridge, noted author, philosopher, professor and businessman, died yesterday afternoon at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Mr. Dewing, once referred to as the “best loved professor at Harvard,” was still active in business and various other interests until he entered MGH in the first week of December.

He was born in Boston April 16, 1880, to Charles Hamlet and Eliza Williams Stone and spent most of his life in this area.

Mr. Dewing received an A.B. degree in 1902, an A.M. in 1903, and a Ph D in philosophy in 1905, all from Harvard University. He also did graduate work at the University of Munich in Germany.

In 1910, he married the late Frances Hall Rousmaniere, by whom he had three daughters, all of whom survive.

Mr. Dewing served in the Harvard faculty as an assistant in philosophy between 1902 and 1911, when he became an instructor in economics for a year before resigning his time solely to business.

He rejoined the Harvard faculty in 1919 as an assistant professor of economics and served as an associate professor of finance from 1922 until 1927, when he was made a full professor.

Mr. Dewing, who was considered an international authority in the field of corporation practice, was one to the professors who founded the Harvard University School of Business.

He resigned his position of professor of finance at the school in 1933 because of what he termed attempts by Dean Wallace B. Donham to direct by dictation his teaching methods and private affairs.

Dr. Dewing was considered an innovator while at Harvard and formulated the case study method, which is still in use. In 1951, Business Week magazine referred to him as “the best loved professor at Harvard.”

Among the companies he headed were: the Portland, Chatham, Hazardville and Jewett City water companies; the Illinois Gas Co.; Pinetum, Inc.; Wetmore Gas Producing Co.; and the Granite State Gas and Electric Co.

He was also on the board of directors of the Manchester (N.H.) Gas Co.; Edward Durant Investment Co.; Fall River Gas Co.; and the Keene (NH.), Sentinel Publishing Co. He was chairman of the board of the Old Colony R.R. Bondholders Protective Committee.

Dr. Dewing was a member of the Numismatic Society and Royal Numismatic Society, and his extensive collection of Greek coins is presently on loan at the Fogg Art Museum.

He was a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a member of the board of visitors to the classical art department of the Boston Museum of Science.

His other memberships included the American Friends of Greece, Massachusetts Historical Society, Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities (past president), and the Archeological Institution of America.

He had a life-long interest in wild animals and was vice president of the Ross Allen Reptile Institute in Florida.

Among the many books he authored were Corporate Promotions and Reorganization, published in 1914, which is considered a classic. It was reprinted in American Life and Culture in 1969.

He also wrote Life as Reality (1910) Financial Policy of Corporations (1920) The Corporation — A Study of Its Financial Structure (1934), two books on philosophy, and one each on chemistry and biology.

Mr. Dewing leaves three daughters, Mrs. Lloyd L. Morain of San Francisco; Mrs. Stuart B. Avery Jr. of Lincoln; and Mrs. James D. Ewing of Keene, N.H. He also leaves eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Arrangements for a memorial service are being made.

Source: The Boston Globe, January 21, 1971, Page 47.

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Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 30 1hf. The Financial Aspects of Combinations. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Dr. [Arthur Stone] Dewing.

The course considers the financial aspects of combinations in the United States, giving attention, however, to the economic rather than to the business or legal problems involved. Examples of financial history and policy will be considered in some detail. The psychological as well as the economic conditions that determine the market price of railroad and industrial securities will be described with the purpose of formulating general principles. Each student will select a typical episode in the history of some combination and some general subject, such as promotion, minority rights, effect on prices, and will present reports at conferences which will sometimes replace the lectures of the course. This course is open only to those who have passed in Economics 1.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp. 65-66.

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Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 301 hf. Dr. [Arthur Stone] Dewing. — The Financial Aspects of Industrial Combinations.

Total 19: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

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ECONOMICS 30
CORPORATION FINANCE
Mid-year Final Exam
1911-12

Be concise.

THEORY. (¾ hour.)

  1. Does the law of diminishing returns usually operate in the investment of capital in (a) new steam railroads in an undeveloped country; (b) four tracking of steam railroad in a thickly settled region; (c) extensions to an electric lighting system; (d) a large cotton mill; (e) the “Westinghouse Company” (see Haskins & Sells report to receivers)?
  2. (a) What is pure interest? (b) Compensation for risk? (c) How do you determine what proportion of any given dividend return belongs to each? (d) Are there other factors included in the ordinary returns on capital? If so state the relation to (a) and (b).
  3. State briefly the most universal circumstance that has led to the necessity of re-organization in those industrial corporations which you have studied?

FINANCE

The following questions are to be answered directly from the Corporation reports PLACED IN YOUR HANDS. (1¼ hours.)

  1. See U. P. Reports for 1909–10, page 29. The capital liability on June 30, 1910 is less than on June 30, 1909. Explain.
  2. See “Western Maryland Railroad Co.’s” report June 30, 1907, page 2. Note decrease of surplus for year. Show from statistics in other parts of the report, whether or not this decrease foretells impending disaster.
  3. See U. S. Steel Report, 1910. Consolidated balance sheet (between pages 32 and 33). The last entry of liabilities calls for $33,704,439.32. Explain the significance of this entry. Should it be used as a basis for the declaration of dividends? Could a similar entry appear in a railroad report? Why?
  4. See Massachusetts Electric Company’s Report, 1910. Explain the presence of the two balance sheets, pages 10, 12 and 13. From an examination of these balance sheets what would you consider the weakest point, from an investment point of view, of the stocks of Massachusetts Electric Companies?
  5. Amalgamated Copper Company’s Report, 1911, p. 10.

Assets. Is “investment in securities” a good basis for estimating the assets of a mining corporation? Why? Suggest, if you can, a better basis?

INVESTMENTS.  (1 hour.)

  1. A trust estate purchased two underlying bonds of the “Illinois Central” of approximately the same security and both maturing the same year (1951); one bears interest at 3% and is bought at 75; the other bears interest at 5% and is bought at 115. State how you would think it just to deal with the interest and principal in both cases.
  2. The following securities all pay 8% on par value. They are all non-taxable in Massachusetts. Which one should you select for a trustee to invest in, provided the trust already held none of them?
    Arrange the others in the order of their intrinsic merit. Give basis for your judgment.
  1. New York, New Haven, & Hartford Stock, market price 140. (For financial condition see your reports.)
  2. Arlington Mills. (Lawrence, Mass.)

Dividends, 1877–1903, 6%; 1903, to date, 8%; market price, 124; 63,000 cotton spindles, 202,804 worsted spindles.

Assets

1910 1909 1908 1907
Real Estate & Machinery $4,750,000 $3,500,000 $3,500,000 $3,500,000
Merchandise & in Process 7,884,672 8,630,718 6,729,446 5,784,449
Cash & Debts Receivable 2,550,891 2,213,565 1,810,229 2,650,131
Miscellaneous 257,741 207,457 179,934 163,865
$15,443,304 $14,551,740 $12,219,609 $12,098,445

Liabilities

1910 1909 1908 1907
Capital stock $8,000,000 $6,000,000 $6,000,000 $6,000,000
New Cap. stock pay Acc’t. 1,434,530
Debts payable 4,924,911 4,292,901 4,499,662 4,187,708
Surplus 2,518,393 2,824,309 1,719,947 1,910,737
$15,443,304 $14,551,740 $12,219,609 $12,098,445
    1. American Glue Company—Preferred Stock, market price 152.

Assets

1910 1909 1908
Real Estate & Machinery $477,412 $508,701 $520,597
Stock in Process 1,015,578 941,247 1,361,245
Cash & Debts Receivable 1,551,164 1,394,607 830,917
Other items — (largely securities) 1,439,520 1,503,032 1,489,616
$4,483,674 $4,347,587 $4,202,375

Liabilities

1910 1909 1908
Capital Stock Preferred $1,600,000 $1,600,000 $1,364,300
Capital Stock Common 800,000 800,000 800,000
Account Payable 1,120,165 1,054,290 1,257,714
Surplus 963,509 893,297 780,361
$4,483,674 $4,347,587 $4,202,375
    1. American Telephone & Telegraph Company Stock, market price, 139.

Assets

Stocks & Bonds of Associates Co.’s $393,712,837.53
Telephones, Real Estate & Lines 59,702,088.10
Cash & Short Term Notes 13,736,806.84
Special Demand Notes 16,970,229.34
Accounts Receivable 6,093,415.42
Treasury Bonds 17,300,000.00
$507,515,377.23

Liabilities

Capital Stock $263,335,600.00
Bonds, etc. 146,618,000.00
Dividend, Interest, and Taxes accrued but not due 8,027,025.26
Depreciation Reserve 37,425,080.08
Surplus 52,109,671.89
$507,515,377.23

 

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF EARNINGS AND EXPENSES FOR 1909–1910

Earnings

1909 1910
Dividends $15,949,213.73 $19,205,494.35
Interest and other revenue from Ass. Co.’s 10,661,431.03 10,838,442.84
Telephone Traffic (net) 4,360,104.94 4,893,513.39
Real Estate 95,723.97 95,119.69
Other sources 1,694,867.76 325,758.44
Total $32,761,341.43 $35,358,328.71
Expenses 2,570,575.57 3,425,114.22
Net Earnings $30,190,765.86 $31,933,214.49
Deduct Interest 7,095,377.34 5,077,321.33
Balance $23,095,388.52 $26,855,893.16
Dividends Paid 17,036,275.64 20,776,822.12
Balance $6,059,112.88 $6,079,071.04
Carried to Reserves 3,000,000.00 3,000,000.00
Carried to Surplus 3,059,112.88 3,079,071.04
$6,059,112.88 $6,079,071.04
  1. Examine carefully the following investment list. The current rates of dividend for stocks can be ascertained from your reports. (a) Arrange the securities by letters (not repeating the titles), in the order of their merit, bearing in mind both security and return. (b) If the list were to be taken over by a trust, the beneficiary of which was a widow of middle age, what securities, if any, should be sold? . . . Briefly indicate the basis for your judgment. Suggest other securities which it would be desirable to purchase in place of those sold.

The principal is about evenly divided among the following:—

    1. Union Pacific stock at 166.
    2. Chicago & Alton 1950 Prior lien 3½’s at 67.
    3. N. Y. Westchester & Boston 1st M. 1946 4½’s at 98. (N. Y. New Haven & Hartford guarantor.)
    4. Brooklyn Rapid Transit stock at 74.
    5. Westinghouse Electric & Manuf. Co. stock at 73%.
    6. U. S. Steel Preferred stock at 111.
    7. New York Central Lines Equipment 1925 4½’s at 102.
    8. Detroit Edison Convertible 6’s 1920 at 115.
    9. Southern Pacific stock at 110.
    10. Erie Ry. (N. Y. & Erie 1st M. 4’s 1947) at 100.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 66-70.

Image Source: The Harvard Business School Yearbook 1924-25, p. 14.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Agricultural economics. Description, enrollment, final exam. Carver, 1911-1912

In 1911 Harvard economics professor Thomas Nixon Carver published a textbook Principles of Rural Economics  that undoubtedly encompassed the content of his course on agricutural economics first taught in 1903-04. Somewhat unusually his book is prefaced with an eight page bibliography.

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Carver’s Earlier Courses
on Agricultural Economics

Links to earlier course material for agricultural economics at Harvard, 1903-04 through 1908-09.

________________________

Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 23 2hf. Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Professor Carver.

A study of the relation of agriculture to the whole industrial system, the relative importance of rural and urban economics, the conditions of rural life in different parts of the United States, the forms of land tenure and methods of rent payment, the comparative merits of large and small holdings, the status and wages of farm labor, the influence of farm machinery, farmers’ organizations, the marketing and distribution of farm products, agricultural credit, the policy of the government toward agriculture, and the probable future of American agriculture.

This course is open to students who have passed in Economics 1, and, with the consent of the instructor, to Juniors and Seniors of good standing who are taking Economics 1 at the same time.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 65.

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Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 23 2hf. Professor Carver. — Economics of Agriculture. With special reference to American conditions.

Total 95: 4 Graduates, 36 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

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ECONOMICS 23
Year-end Final Exam
1911-12

  1. Why is agriculture growing less rapidly than other industries in the United States?
  2. What new agricultural products did the American continent contribute to the commerce of the world?
  3. For what is American agriculture indebted to the following countries: England, Holland, France?
  4. What determines the migrations of rural and of urban people?
  5. Why does an excessive economy of land sometimes result in a waste of labor?
  6. How, in general, do the problems of the producer of staple crops differ from those of the producer of agricultural specialities?
  7. What are the functions of the middleman, and what are the advantages of co-operation?
  8. What are some of the social results of absentee landlordism?
  9. Outline the chief stages in the development of the public land policy of the United States.
  10. What is meant by non-competing crops?
  11. Is tenancy increasing or decreasing in the United States? Why?
  12. Does the landowner as such perform any useful functions? Give your reasons.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], p. 65

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Earlier material

ca. 1904 Problem set
1903-04 Final exam
1905-06 Final exam
1908-09 Description, enrollment, final exam
1910-11 Description, enrollment, final exam

 

Image Source: Ruddy Harvest Oil, the farmer’s friend (ca. 1870-1900). 19th Century American Trade Cards collection of the Boston Public Library.

Categories
Exam Questions France Germany Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. German and French Economics. Description, enrollment, final exam. Gay, 1911-1912

Gustav (von) Schmoller

An interesting difference between the final exams for this course is that all the earlier exams included a translate-from-German question or two. This time around the presumed “moderate reading knowledge” was not put to the test.

This picture of the young Gustav Schmoller with his hairless chin reveals what would appear to have been an incel long before it was fashionable.

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Gay’s Earlier Courses
on French and German Economists

Links to earlier course material for 19th century French and German Economists at Harvard, 1902-03 through 1908-09.

________________________

Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 22. German and French Economists of the Nineteenth Century. Two consecutive evening hours per week, to be arranged with the instructor. Professor Gay.

In this course selections from the works of a number of the more important German and French economists will be read and informally discussed. The influence of the English classical school will be traced, together with the criticism directed against this school by the socialists and the historical economists. Attention will also be given to the question of methods in economic investigation.

A moderate reading knowledge of German and French will of course be necessary.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 60.

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Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 22. Professor Gay. — French and German Economists of the Nineteenth Century

Total 5: 5 Graduates.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

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ECONOMICS 22

  1. Discuss the value theories of Hermann, Cournot, Marx, and von Wieser.
  2. Trace the development of the theory of business profits.
  3. The views of Bastiat, List, Schmoller and Wagner on a protective tariff policy.
  4. Compare the English classical school and the German historical school as to motives, methods, and results.
  5. Assuming that you are writing a text-book on economics, how would you outline the chapters on capital and interest?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], p. 64.

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Previously offered

1902-03. Exam for 19th century German Economic Thought

1904-05. No exam found for 19th century French and German Economics.

1906-07. Exam for 19th century French and German Economics

1908-09. Enrollment, description, final exam for 19th century French and German Economists.

Image Source: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. Webpage “Gustav (von) Schmoller” of the Universitätsarchiv.