Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
Columbia Economists Gender Smith Vanderbilt

Columbia. Economics Ph.D. alumnus Charles Emerick, 1897.

 

In the previous post we met Margaret Mulford Lothrop who taught social problems in the Stanford economics department through 1928. Preparing that post, I looked at the Smith College Classbook for 1905 in search of her yearbook picture. I then glanced at the portraits of the faculty to see who would have been at Smith to teach her economics. There I discovered Charles Franklin Emerick, whom I decided to pursue now for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

At the genealogy website ancestry.com (available at many libraries for free online use, otherwise requiring a subscription) there is a public family tree of the Emerick family that includes some interesting material about Charles Franklin Emerick’s life.

Emerick was appointed instructor in political economy at Smith College to cover the courses taught by Prof. Henry Moore who was granted a year’s leave of absence for a year. (from an unsourced newspaper report, dateline Northampton, Sept. 21, 1899 “Largest Woman’s College—Smith Opens with Over 1200 Students and a Big Entering Class—Faculty Changes.”)

In the Smith College Bulletin for 1919/20, Emerick was listed as “Professor of Economics and Sociology on the Robert A. Woods Foundation”. He served on the Smith Faculty standing committee on graduate instruction at the time of his death.

I have included below the better part of a paragraph that concludes his serial essay “The Struggle for Equality in the United States” (1913-14) and that sounds distressingly familiar. Considering that Emerick taught at a woman’s college, it would appear somewhat ironic that he exclusively uses male gender pronouns whenever referring to college students. 

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Vital Data

Birth:    17 Nov 1867 Montgomery County, Ohio, USA

Death: 22 Mar 1920 (aged 52) Northampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, USA

Burial: Miltonville Cemetery. Miltonville, Butler County, Ohio, USA

Source: Find A Grave.

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Obituary:

Prof. Charles Emerick—The sudden death of Prof. Charles Emerick, head of the department of sociology and economics at Smith college, occurred suddenly from heart failure at the residence in Northampton, Mass., Tuesday, according to word received here. He was the nephew of F.A.Y. Kumler of this city, and had often visited here. While Prof. Emerick was in a weakened condition from an illness of influenza, no cause of alarm had been felt. The body will be taken to Hamilton for burial by his brother. Owing to the illness of a son, Charles Jr., Mrs. Emerick cannot attend the funeral

Source: Transcribed from a scanned newspaper clipping included in the Emerick Family Tree at ancestry.com that does not cite the exact source of the obituary.

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Announcement of Emerick’s death in AER

Professor Charles Franklin Emerick, head of the department of economics and sociology at Smith College, died March 22, 1920. Professor Emerick had been a member of the Smith College faculty for twenty-one years.

Source:  “Notes.” The American Economic Review 10, no. 3 (1920): 707-18.

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Personal Note 1898, Vanderbilt University Appointment

Vanderbilt University.—Dr. Charles Franklin Emerick has been appointed Instructor in Economics in Vanderbilt University. Dr. Emerick was born November 17, I867, near Dayton, Ohio. He studied at the Cooper Academy in Dayton, and in 1885 entered Antioch College, where he remained two years. He then entered Wittenberg College and graduated in 1889 with the degree of A. B. The next year he entered Michigan Agricultural College and received the degree of M. S. in 1891. Dr. Emerick was then appointed teacher of History and Political Economy at Avalon College, Trenton, Mo., where he remained until 1894. The next two years he studied at the University of Michigan, receiving in 1895 the degree of Ph. M. He was then appointed Fellow in Economics at Columbia University and received the degree of Ph. D. from that institution in 1897. During the past year he has been Assistant in Economics at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Emerick has written:

“An Analysis of Agricultural Discontent in the United States.” Pp. 100. Political Science Quarterly, September and December, 1897, and March, 1898. Reprinted for doctor’s dissertation at Columbia.

Source:  “Personal Notes.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science12 (1898): 85-87.

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Other Publications

Charles Franklin Emerick, Ph.D., The Credit System and the Public Domain (Nashville,Tenn., Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House, 1899), publication of the Vanderbilt Southern History Society.

“College women and race suicide.” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XXIV, No. 2 (1909), pp. 269-283.

“A neglected factor in race suicide” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XXV, No. 4 (1910), pp. 638-655.

Eight part series “The Struggle for Equality in the United States,” in Popular Science Monthly, Vols. 83/84 (Dec. 1913-July 1914).

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From the Conclusion of “The Struggle for Equality in the United States” (1914)

…I am not unmindful of the perils which attend the period upon which we have entered. Some of them have been alluded to in the course of these pages. In addition I will mention the following. First, is the prevalence of a superficial habit of reading and thinking. Few college graduates, even, are capable of sustained thought. Many voters read nothing but a party newspaper. Second, is the difficulty which many voters experience in foreseeing the distant consequences of some kinds of political action. Third, is the vice of indifference and irresponsibility to which some voters are subject. In a large population, the amount of sovereignty that resides in the individual is so small that he is tempted to wonder if it makes any difference whether he votes or not. Fourth, is the temptation to assume that the majority is invariably right, or, at any rate, that it is irresistible and that it is not worth while to try to reverse it. Fifth, the press is interested in selling news and has a certain bias in favor of war. It is therefore tempted to pander to prejudice against foreigners and to foment international ill-feeling. The manufacturers of armor plate and other military supplies are subject to the same temptation. These and other perils, however, seem to me for the most part as inevitable as the dangers which attend the young man who leaves home to go to college, or is set adrift in the world to shift for himself. Moreover, they are largely offset by the critical spirit which has taken the place of a blind obedience to authority and precedent among a large number of the population. As responsibility is the making of the man that is in the boy, so political institutions that depend upon the self-control, public spirit and wisdom of the masses tend to bring out the better side of human nature….

Image Source:  Smith College, Class Book 1920,p. 16.

 

 

Categories
Economists ERVM Funny Business

Attention subscribers to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror

 

Some historian of economics had to do it. Economics in the Rear-View Mirror is proud to announce the creation of a new portrait collection: Economists Wearing Bowties. Bookmark that page to follow as I add to the collection. We begin with the poster wunderkind of bowtied economists, Paul A. Samuelson.

Categories
Gender Smith Social Work Stanford

Stanford. Economics instructor for Social Problems. Lothrop, 1915-1928

 

Examining a catalogue for Stanford from the early 1920’s, I came across the name of an instructor for social problems, Margaret Mulford Lothrop. Still at that time sociology and social work were topics taught in the economics department there. From Lothrop’s biography (see below) we see she is reported to have taught at Stanford through 1928. 

While she did not complete a Ph.D. (nor do I have any evidence this was something she ever attempted), she did cover courses in the Stanford economics department and perhaps some enterprising student in Massachusetts (where perhaps personal papers might be located) will follow up on this lead. Lothrop came from a distinguished home but 

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Coursed taught by Lothrop from Stanford’s Register for 1922/23

Lothrop, Margaret Mulford, Instructor in Economics

A.B., Smith, 1905; A.M., Stanford, 1915. At Stanford since 1915.

67a. Seminar in Social Investigation.—Practical experience in some small investigation. Open only to seniors and graduates who have taken Economics 67 (Introduction to Social Investigation).

Autumn quarter (Lothrop)
autumn, 21

67b. Seminar

Winter quarter (Lothrop)
Winter, 5

103. Care of Dependents.—A study of the problems of the care of dependents and defectives in institutions and in their homes, with special reference to conditions in California. Three trips of inspection will be required.

4 units, autumn quarter (Lothrop) MTWTh 11
autumn, 39

104. Problems of Poverty.—A study of the factors causing poverty, crime, disease, and mental defectiveness, as evidences of social maladjustment; a survey of the possible means of prevention and of the social agencies attempting such work, with special reference to California. Trips of inspection will be included.

4 units, summer quarter MTWTh 11
Summer, 12

105. Crime as a Social Problem.—A study of the problems of crime: the criminal and his characteristics, the treatment of the criminal, the causes and the prevention of crime, with special reference to conditions in California. Three trips of inspection of institutions will be required.

5 units, winter quarter (Lothrop) MTWThF 11
winter, 42

117. Problems of Child Welfare.—A brief survey of problems of child protection and care from the social viewpoint, with special reference to conditions in California.

2 units, summer quarter (Lothrop) TTh 10
summer, 14

118. Seminar in Social Problems.—Practical experience in some investigation.

Winter quarter (Lothrop) By arrangement
Winter, 12

Source: Leland Stanford Junior University, Register for 1922/23, pp. 34, 162-164
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Biography of Margaret Lothrop from National Park Service

Margaret Lothrop was born to Daniel and Harriett Lothrop on July 27, 1884 at The Wayside in Concord, Massachusetts. She was the only child of parents who were focused on literature and were interested in the preservation of history. Her mother wrote many books under the pen name of Margaret Sydney, including the children’s series the Five Little Peppers, and her father was a publisher, owning the D. Lothrop Publishing Co.

They had purchased The Wayside because of its history, being the house lived in by authors Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and being a witness house to the British troops marching in and out of Concord on the fateful day of April 19, 1775. With this patriotic and literary upbringing, Margaret became the first member of the National Society of Children of the American Revolution, newly founded by her mother in 1895.

Margaret saw many social events at her home, hosted by her mother, including the Hawthorne Centenary in 1904 where a monument was placed in the yard at The Wayside in honor of Hawthorne, and including fundraisers for such organizations as the Massachusetts Volunteer Aid Society. Margaret knew some of the great literary figures of the time, including John Greenleaf Whittier, Julia Ward Howe, and Samuel Francis Smith. She also saw her mother open their house for sight-seers.

Education

Margaret attended Concord schools, graduating from Concord High School known as a scholar and horsewoman. She attended Smith College, where she was a member of the Philosophical Society, the Italian Club, and a half back on the women’s field hockey team, graduating in 1905. She moved to California in 1912 where she earned her M.A. in Economics at Stanford University.

Career Woman

She moved back to Massachusetts where she worked at the Women’s Education and Industrial Union and the YWCA in Boston from 1913-15. She then returned to Stanford University where she was an instructor in the College of Arts and Sciences through 1928.

During WWI she was in the Red Cross where she was assigned as a Casualty Searcher in France, which included documenting graves, searching for families of men with memory loss, and speaking with dying men to identify their families.

Returning to The Wayside

Following the death of her mother in 1924, Margaret formed a committee in Concord to plan to open The Wayside for tourists in 1928. After serving as the Secretary of the California Society of the Prevention of Cruelty of Children for two years, she returned to The Wayside in 1932. Margaret researched the occupants of the house, coordinated staff and maintained the house for tours, tried to find organizations that would purchase the house for education purposes (to no avail), and wrote the book The Wayside: Home of Authors (published in 1940).

Preservation of The Wayside

During WWII, Margaret served as a member of the Red Cross and the Massachusetts Women’s Defense Corps. Through the 1940s to early 1960s, Margaret continued to maintain the house for tours, responded to letters from other researchers, wrote articles including “My House and the Minute Men,” and conducted her own research, including direct communication with the Hawthorne family.

She worked to have The Wayside declared a National Historic Landmark in 1963, and she sold the house to the National Park Service to become part of Minute Man National Historical Park on June 18, 1965. Margaret worked closely with the NPS staff, including contributing the bulk of her research to the park, giving oral histories, and speaking to groups.

Margaret Mulford Lothrop died in Concord on May 14, 1970. She left an extensive legacy, especially The Wayside, where she had been born and had spent so much time preserving for future generations. The house was re-opened by the NPS on April 17, 1971.

Source: National Park Service. Margaret Lothrop webpage. Also source of the image of Margaret Lothrop in her Red-Cross uniform.

Categories
Chicago Economists

Chicago. Chancellor Hutchins interrogated regarding Lange’s leave of absence, 1949

 

One of the things that is so nice about stumbling through the hathitrust.org collection is that you really never know when you’re about to discover an interesting but really obscure publication. Today we get to attend hearings conducted  in the Spring of 1949 at the Illinois House of Representatives regarding communists among the students and faculty of the University of Chicago and Roosevelt College. In the excerpt below we have part of the opening statement of the Chancellor of the University of Chicago as well as his responses to a hostile line of questions regarding the distinguished Chicago economics professor, Oscar Richard Lange, who had been on leave from the University to serve as Polish Ambassador in Washington and whohad by 1949 returned to Poland. Chancellor Hutchins acquitted himself honorably.

Just how “red” was Oscar Lange in fact? I think the greatest lower bound lands him comfortably in the category “useful idiot economist”.

Notes from a 2 hour 15 minute official meeting of Oscar Lange with Joseph Stalin and V. M. Molotov, May 17, 1944.

One partially encrypted  message regarding Oscar Lange, a.k.a. “Friend” (August 1944) from the Venona project.

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Investigation of the University of Chicago and Roosevelt College, 1949, special report;
public hearings held in House of Representatives Chamber, State Capitol Building,
April 21, 22, 23, 1949, May 19, 1949.
(pp. 25-28 for Q&A)

Robert M. Hutchins, Chancellor of the University of Chicago
examined by Dr. J. B. Matthews, Chief Investigator

…Mr. Chairman, I should like, first of all, to express my appreciation for the courtesy shown me in allowing me to make my opening statement. My name is Robert M. Hutchins, and I have been chief executive officer of the University of Chicago for twenty years, and I am now Chancellor of the University. The subpoena which I have received summons me to testify concerning subversive activities at the University of Chicago. This is a leading question, and the answer is assumed in the question. I cannot testify concerning subversive activities at the University of Chicago because there are none….

…The Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of speech and the right of the people peaceably to assemble. The American way has been to encourage thought and discussion. We have never been afraid of thought and discussion. The whole educational system, and not merely the University of Chicago is a reflection of the American faith in thought and discussion as the path to peaceful change and improvement. The danger to our institutions is not from the tiny minority who do not believe in them. It is from those who would mistakenly repress the free spirit upon which those institutions are built. The miasma of thought control that is now spreading over the country is the greatest menace to the United States since Hitler. There are two ways of fighting subversive ideas. One is the policy of repression. This policy is contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution of this country. It cannot be justly enforced, because it is impossible to tell precisely what people are thinking; they have to be judged by their acts. It has been generally thought that the widest possible latitude should be given to freedom of speech and publication, on the ground that the expression of differing points of view, some of which are bound to be unpopular, is the way to progress in the State. Hyde Park Corner in London, where anybody may say anything, has long been a symbol of the confidence of the Anglo-Saxon world in the ability of democratic institutions to withstand criticism and also even to nourish itself upon it. There are numerous laws already on the books which provide for the punishment of subversive acts. The policy of repression of ideas cannot work and never has worked. The alternative to it is the long and difficult road of education. To this the American people have been committed. It requires patience and tolerance, even in the face of intense provocation. It requires faith in the principles and practices of democracy, faith that when the citizen understands all forms of government he will prefer democracy, and that he will be a better citizen if he is convinced, rather than he would be if he were coerced….

Q. Doctor, you are quite definite in your statement that there are no subversive activities on the campus of the University of Chicago, is that my correct understanding?

A. I say that no professor is a Communist, or has ever advocated the overthrowing of the government by violence. I say that one or two students have announced publicly that they are Communists. However, if they have advocated the overthrowing of the government by violence, then the proper officials of this State should institute proceedings other than Seditious Activities, or rather, Seditious proceedings against them.

Q. If a professor’s name was carried as an active professor, or a professor emeritus, or on leave of absence, is it not true that that individual is still connected with the University?

A. I don’t understand the tendency of your question. I am sorry. Professor Oscar Lange, Professor of Economics, is listed as “on leave of absence”.

Q. Would you give us the present status of Professor Lange?

A. Well, the present status is that he is on leave of absence. He, therefore, is not in contact with our students or with his colleagues on the faculty. That’s all there is to it.

Q. But the fact that his name is still carried in the University’s catalogue means there is some kind of connection in that….

A. (Interrupting) …He has no connection with the University while on leave of absence, if that is what you mean.

Q. Just a minute…I did not finish my question. You interrupted me.

A. I beg your pardon. Go ahead.

Q. Would it be true that he is what is known as on Tenure?

A. He is on a leave of absence.

Q. Do you have any doubts about Professor Lange being a Communist?

A. Oh, yes.

Q. You know, do you not, that he renounced his American citizenship in order to become an ambassador to a Communist form of government?

A. If that is because he regarded it his patriotic duty to his native land, then it would be my guess that he would be assassinated rather shortly if he were here.

Q. Was that sentence concluded.

A. Oh, yes.

Q. Do you know where he is now at the moment?

A. No. I should think it would be very dangerous for him to be at home.

Q. You think, in other words, that it would be very dangerous for him to be in this country?

A. I believe I said “at home”.

Q. You stated, I believe, that his patriotic duty to the land of his birth compels him to renounce his American citizenship. Does anyone have a duty to the land of his birth if he is a citizen of the country in which he is residing?

A. You recall the situation when Professor Lange was repressed by the government of his country. The war had just been concluded. The Polish State has just been reconstructed. The choice he had to make was extremely difficult because both sides felt that he should make great contributions with, or to the leaders between the United States and Poland. He had that choice to make which was extremely difficult.

Q. Were you so apprized by the government at Washington…by the economic department of the University regarding that information?

A. I don’t know the sources of the information; but in view of the demand under which it was made, it should only be reasonable.

Q. Are you acquainted with the record of voting by Professor Lange at the United Nations?

A. I am.

Q. Did he vote with the so-called Soviet Block?

A. I don’t know that he did.

Q. Just a minute, Doctor. Let me ask the question this way: did he vote consistently with the so-called Soviet Block?

A. I don’t know that he did. It all depends upon what the word “consistently” means as you are using it. I don’t suppose that is correct, but if you mean that he usually did, I would say it was.

Q. You would not state then, Doctor, that he consistently voted that way?

A. That is not my recollection.

Q. In view of this, would Professor Lange be received back at the University of Chicago if he asked to come back?

A. I am not acquainted with Professor Lange’s present views. If his views are now what they were when he went on leave of absence…if we had the money to pay his salary…he would be welcome back. I don’t know if his views are different now from what they were.

Q. Do you recall that he made a statement renouncing the United States?

A. I do.

Q. But he will be taken back, as a professor at the University of Chicago, if he so desires, is that right, even though he is an objector of this form of government?

A. This certain policy of the United States is the same to which many loyal Americans objected.

Q. How long is it a practice to carry such a professor as he on leave of absence status?

A. Well, we carried the present vice-president of the Marshall-Field Company for ten years; and the vice-president of the Ford Motor Company for ten years….J. O. McKenzie also for about ten years.

Q. Since you do not know where Professor Lange is at the present time, are you prepared to state when the University last heard from him?

A. I do not know. It is not my understanding that your information is correct. It is not my understanding that he is carried in the catalogue of the University.

Q. For your information, Doctor Hutchins, I would like to note here that the latest available catalogue from the University of Chicago was dated May 25, 1948, and is the catalogue from which I take the information that he is still listed, although designated as on leave of absence.

A. To my knowledge, that is incorrect.

Q. Then there is a later catalogue?

A. Yes. [Note: Lange was not listed in the 1949-50 catalogue published July 1, 1949]

Image source: Wikipedia/commons.

 

Categories
Columbia Economists Harvard NBER Stanford

Columbia. Economics Ph.D. alumnus. Moses Abramovitz, 1939

 

 

The professional career of Moses Abramovitz shows what a blend of Harvard and Columbia training in economics crowned by an NBER post-doc could get you back in the day. His contributions to the study of long-term growth and to the Stanford economics department’s rise to prominence are truly important legacies.

The first item of the post gives us Abramovitz’s personal quarter-century report to his Harvard classmates of 1932. This is followed by excerpts from Abramovitz’s memoir for his family that provide a rich account of his economics training at Harvard and then Columbia. A link to download the entire memoir is provided below. The post closes with a memorial resolution written by Abramovitz’s Stanford colleagues. But the real treat, is found in Moses Abramovitz’s description of his economics education and economists important for his development. Among other things we learn, the chairman of the Harvard economics department, Harold Burbank, was indeed anti-Semitic enough for Abramovitz not to have dignified him by name. Also we learn that in 1934 “Milton [Friedman] was much less ideological then than he later became, so he was a very pleasant and agreeable companion.”

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From the 25th reunion report of the Harvard Class of 1932

MOSES ABRAMOVITZ

Home address: 543 W. Crescent Drive, Palo Alto, Calif.
Office address: Dept. of Economics, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.
Born: Jan. 1, 1912, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Parents: Nathan Abramovitz, Betty Goldenberg.
Prepared at: Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Years in College: 1928-1932.
Degrees: A.B. summa cum laude, 1932; Ph.D. (Columbia Univ.), 1939.
Married: Carrie Glasser, June 13, 1937, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Child: Joel Nathan, July 19, 1950.
Occupation: Professor of economics, Stanford University; member research staff, national Bureau of Economic Research.
Offices Held: Member editorial board, American Economic Review, 1951-54.
Member of: American Economic Association; American Statistical Association; American Economic History Association; Royal Economic Society; American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Publications: Price Theory for a Changing Economy; Inventories and Business Cycles; The Economics of Growth; “Capital Formation and Economic Growth,” editor; The Growth of Public Employment in Great Britain (with Vera Eliasberg).

I LEFT Harvard supported by a Sheldon Fellowship and exhilarated by the prospect of a year in Europe—no small piece of luck at any time and a pot of good fortune in 1932. Together with Dave Popper, I saw Paris and the Rhine country as they were before the second deluge. We saw our first Storm Trooper rallies in Heidelberg and, if we were not too innocent, we were certainly too full of good spirits to be greatly disturbed. But those charming days were suddenly cut short. From Nuremberg, I was called home by my father’s death.

Back in New York I began graduate work in economics at Columbia and continued there until 1935. In 1936, I was lucky enough to be brought back to Harvard as an instructor for two years and had the fun and satisfaction of being again in Cambridge as a teacher while my memories of life at college were still warm. At Columbia I had met another young economist whom I had known years before. I shall stick to the essentials. The young economist was a woman. We were married in 1937, so Carrie has had a year at Harvard, too.

In 1938, we were back in New York again, this time to work at the National Bureau of Economic Research. In the years that followed I learned what I know about scientific investigation from Wesley Mitchell and Arthur F. Burns. Together they were in the midst of their wide-ranging investigation of business cycles. They set me to work studying inventory fluctuations. In the fullness of time I got some results and published a book, a hefty volume called Inventories and Business Cycles. It got some notice and caused some controversy, and a certain number of copies continue to serve as ballast for bookcases that might otherwise be disturbed by a fresh breeze.

Early in 1942, I went to Washington to help Bob Nathan and the W.P.B. Planning Committee, first to goad the military into laying out programs big enough to make use of a national productive capacity they could not believe existed, and then to keep them from losing the munitions they really needed under the load of programs too large for even our capacity. A year later I was at O.S.S. working for Professor Langer and Dean Mason on German economic intelligence. My particular job was probably of little use during the war itself, but it produced a collection of materials and a few more or less knowledgeable individuals, and both were needed after the German defeat. I became involved in the negotiations about German reparations and in that way came to see Moscow in the months right after V-E Day. Our work, as we all now know, foundered in the general wreck of American-Soviet relations. Together with many other stalemated delegations on many other subjects, ours eventually came to Potsdam to be witnesses at the beginning of the partition of Germany and Europe.

Since 1948 I have been a professor at Stanford. We have one child, a boy now six. We think living here near San Francisco as comfortable and delightful as it can be; so I rush back east as often as I can to disgorge the lotus and discharge my guilt.

My chief activity is still, as it has been for many years, research in economics—a stubborn, unyielding, frustrating and altogether exasperating subject from which I don’t know how to shake loose. What do I believe? One’s bent of mind is shaped by one’s work. Mine is inclined to skepticism, not beliefs, still less belief. Very likely I have much to learn. Oh yes! I believe both parties are right – in what each says about the other.

Source:  Harvard Class of 1932, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report (1957), pp.6-8.

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Undergraduate and graduate student days: memories of Harvard and Columbia

…My fourth course [freshman year at Harvard] was different. It was elementary economics. I was lucky. I drew an excellent instructor named Bigelow. Using Frank W. Taussig’s Principles, he introduced us to the general logic of the neoclassical theories of relative prices of commodities and of the factors of production, land, labor, and capital, to the distribution of income among these primary factors, to the theory of international trade, and to the virtues of free markets. He offered us a list of supplementary readings, one of which was called simply Supply and Demand, by an English economist, H.D. Henderson. It was a thin book, but it was a notable example of the lucid presentation of the logic of the economics of value and distribution. One could see all around one examples in ordinary life of the validity and importance of the theory. The way in which the various parts of the subject hung together in an interdependent system seemed not only analytically deep; it emerged as a beautiful structure, an aesthetic as well as a logical and tested structure. More than any other experience, it was this little book that drew me to go on with economics. When I returned to Harvard in September 1929, therefore, I chose economics as my field of concentration. And, indeed, when the economy began its collapse in October of that year, it confirmed me in my choice. It was a decisive experience.

Concentrating in Economics

Having chosen to concentrate in economics, I was assigned a tutor. Here again I was lucky. He was Edward S. Mason, then a still young assistant professor. But he was destined for both academic leadership and, as my story unfolds, for a real influence on practical affairs. Even more important for me, however, was the fact that this young man was already recognizably “wise,” a man of good judgment in both scholarly decisions and practical matters. He took a liking to me, and he remembered his friends! He was due to turn up with support and help at several critical junctures in my story.

My very first meeting with Mason was an exciting moment. It was late September or early October in 1929, that fateful year. We chatted, and then, more brash than usual, I said, “Well, Professor, when is the stock market going to break?” He answered, without hesitation, “Almost immediately.” And when I returned for our second meeting, it had happened. And then, still brash, I said, “Well, Professor, you must have made a mint of money.” And then I learned something about him and perhaps most academics of the time. He said, “Are you crazy? I have never owned a share of stocks in my life.”

… Like many, but not all, of the young economists of the time, who had no deep commitment to mainstream economics, I saw clearly enough that mainstream theory offered us no guidance in understanding the Great Contraction and Depression, and it was consequently a poor basis for public policy. Something new was needed, a theory that dealt more adequately with recurrent recessions and expansions of business and particularly with the very serious depressions and eventual recoveries which in the U.S. had succeeded one another at intervals of about 15 to 20 years since the 1830s. For the moment, I did not get beyond dissatisfaction with the older wisdom, Real enlightenment came only in 1936 with the publication of J.M. Keynes’s General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. When I had absorbed Keynes’s reasoning, I became an enthusiasticKeynesian and I remain so to this day.

There was also a quite personal effect of these developments on my own work history. They prepared me to join the National Bureau of Economic Research when the chance came in 1937 and to do empirical research on business cycles under the direction of Wesley Mitchell and Arthur Burns, the most notable people doing such work at that time.

Still an undergraduate in 1929, however, at the beginning of the economic contraction and depression, I still had three years of undergraduate work to do. Guided by Mason and later by Douglas V. Brown, I took Taussig’s famous course in price theory at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Taussig was then the leading American price theorist of his time and by far the most influential person in the Economics Department. In these courses, conducted by Socratic methods, he clearly formed a good opinion about me. I am sure he was of help to me behind the scenes at several junctures. I also remember two enlightening courses, Sumner Slichter on Labor Economics and John Williams on Money and Banking. In Williams’s course, I read Keynes’s earlier books and began to become familiar with his way of thinking. Anyhow, I did well in all these courses and in others in economics, history, and in one really interesting course in literature. That was Irving Babbett on Rousseau and Romanticism. I was apparently a natural-born good student and exam taker. The upshot was that I was graduated summa cum laude and I was given a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship.

For me, this last was more than an honor and more than a year of support and European travel and study at a time when money was so scarce and jobs for new college graduates almost nonexistent. My tutors and professors, including the influential Taussig, had already been encouraging me to think about going on to graduate study in economics and to an eventual academic career. To my parents and my brother, such a course was strange and uncertain. Abe began to call me “meshugana Moishele.” But it was clear that in the end they would support me in any decision I made. And the fellowship, which was tangible proof of the good opinion of the Harvard faculty, confirmed me in a career choice I had already more than half made: It was a decisive event.

[late June of 1932 left for Europe but Moses Abramovitz’s father died in September 1932]

… I resigned my scholarship and in that September of 1932 walked along Nostrand Avenue to Eastern Parkway and took the subway (IRT, Broadway and 7th Avenue Line) to Broadway and 116th Street. Half a block away, one entered Columbia. I walked in and registered and began three years of graduate work in economics. This was a big departure from the program I had thought lay before me, but I cannot remember any feeling of distress or resistance. I was glad to provide some degree of solid continuity for my mother, and I felt confident about the future. Columbia would also be a good start.

 

Columbia as a School of Economics

By forgoing Vienna, Cambridge, and Harvard, I had made a bigger change than I realized when I started in Columbia. Vienna, Cambridge, and Harvard were all centers in which understanding of the domestic economy of a country and of its international economic relations was squarely based on theoretical economics. This, in turn, was a doctrine logically derived from certain basic primary assumptions: that economic agents (consumers, savers, business firms, investors generally) were well informed, foresighted, and rational, and acted to promote their own individual interests, that they faced competitive markets and, as business firms, acted under the pressures of competition; they operated subject to the constraints of income and wealth and of market prices which they could not by their own actions significantly influence. Actions in this context were perceived as leading to an equilibrium of prices, wages, profits, etc., and of consumer satisfactions in which change might be harmful to some but would be more than offset by benefit to others. Thus, there was no room or occasion for public action except such as was necessary to enforce contracts, maintain competition, prevent or punish fraud and generally keep the peace. Changes in technology and in consumer tastes would lead to a new equilibrium of prices, rewards, incomes, etc., but such changes were viewed as “exogenous,” not the result of economic action or motivation and beyond the ken of economics.

The Columbia economists, however, rejected this structure of theory or, at least, its general application. They conceded its usefulness in explaining very simple matters: why a grand piano cost more than a pair of shoes, and, in general, why there is a rough association between the prices of commodities and their costs of production. They were skeptical, however, about the theoretical assumptions that agents were foresighted, well-informed, and rational. They saw markets as characterized by various degrees of monopoly power, with business firms capable not only of profiting by constraining production and raising prices more than costs alone would justify; they also often had the power to shape consumer tastes, for example by advertising, and, most important, to invest in research and development and so to advance and sometimes to retard—technological progress. They tended to see the economy as a whole, not as tending to an equilibrium, but as generating long-term growth of productivity, income, and wealth. This tendency did not, however, emerge continuously and at a stable rate but subject to recurrent fluctuations, loosely called “cyclical,” in which advance was sometimes fast,sometimes slow, and sometimes negative.

As I absorbed all this, I saw the justice of the Columbia outlook and came to appreciate its radical departure from the economics in which I had been trained as a Harvard undergraduate. Columbia economics, as it stood in the Thirties, however, had its own serious limitations. It was well advanced in its understanding of two subjects. One was in the study of the behavior of firms that had acquired and enjoyed various kinds and degrees of monopoly power. This was the province of Arthur Robert (“Columbia”) Burns—not the Arthur Frank (“Bureau”) Burns with whom I later did research on business cycles.

The other subject was another sphere of monopoly power, that of labor unions. Why were they so much less important in the U.S.A. than in Europe? What activities were successfully unionized and which not? And why? This was the area over which Leo Wolman ruled. Wolman later played a considerable role in the Roosevelt Administration, especially in connection with the disorders in the labor market stemming from the organizing drives of the AFL/CIO. He worked as chairman of the Automobile Labor Board, where he tried to keep the peace in that important industry—an effort that won him no friends in the unions. Wolman’s teaching, however, was as far from academic as can be imagined. It came directly from his own experience with labor unions. Although a professor at Columbia, he also worked as the economic advisor of Sidney Hillman, the president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, the men’s clothing union. Wolman learned as much as he advised. He saw clearly that in the flexible and mobile population conditions of the American continent, the only unions that could exercise strong and stable monopoly power were those operating in industries frozen in location. The newsprint industry was an example. The book print industry was not. Where the industry could move, it could flee from a union whose wage and other demands were excessive. Such a condition faced the Amalgamated, and Wolman used his influence to restrain labor’s demands. Even so, the industry moved from New York City to upstate New York, then down South, then to Chicago and on to California. It was the barrier to movement posed by small nation-states that made European unions stronger and more stable than America’s.

These subjects then were well taught at Columbia, and I felt I learned much from A.R. Burns and Leo Wolman. The basic academic tone of the faculty, however, stemmed from Wesley Mitchell. He had been the dominating influence on the faculty since he joined it just before the First World War. According to Mitchell’s own view of himself, his outlook stemmed in part from his early Midwestern origins. He was the son of a physician who was a small town practitioner in central Illinois. The down-to-earth pragmatism of the neighboring family farmers ran strongly in his personality. It was quite natural, therefore, that he should have been drawn to the philosophical schools of William James and John Dewey when these became prominent. Experience, not the logical implications of some generalized ideal, had to be our guide to life. He told about teasing his good Baptist grandmother and her conception of a God of Love who could yet condemn unbaptized infants to the torments of Hell.

[…]

Mitchell carried out his scheme and reported his findings, together with his evidence, in a large book with the simple title, Business Cycles. The book began with a summary of earlier work relevant to the subject together with the “speculations” (one of Mitchell’s favorite characterizations of largely theoretical but inadequately verified ideas). He used these as suggestions of subjects needing investigation. There followed Mitchell’s own quantitative studies of these and other subjects: production (agricultural and other), income, sales, retail, wholesale, manufacturing, etc., commodity prices, the prices of stocks and bonds, and the profits and interest rates they paid. Mitchell’s quantitative descriptions involved tracing the fluctuations of the behavior in these activities and of their long-term trend and seasonal fluctuations so that the fluctuations connected with business cycles could be seen free of the influence of trends and seasonal factors. The book ended with a statement of Mitchell’s views of how the concatenation of the behavior of the separate activities led to expansions of business activities in general followed by similarly general contractions, which in turn produced the conditions that generated another business expansion.

Mitchell’s book made a notable impression on economists. This was partly because now, for the first time, students of economics could base their attempts to explain business cycles and to develop a theoretical model based on definite quantitative information about the typical behavior of the major business activities. But it was partly, perhaps mainly, because it gave economists at large a new vision of how economic research could be carried on. It need not mainly consist of logical deductions from a set of preannounced assumptions. It could instead take the form of observed behavior, together with empirical tests of the hypotheses so formed based on fresh observations independent of those from which the hypotheses originally proposed had been drawn. It was this vision of an empirically based economics that was the spirit of the Columbia program, and it stood in sharp contrast to the program at Harvard, where I was introduced to the subject, and, indeed, with the economics then taught in the other leading universities.

I did not give up my allegiance to Harvard easily. Two episodes illustrate my resistance. Mitchell gave a course on business cycles. I chose to take it. It was a course that, in a sense, was a duplicate of his 1913 book, refreshed by data not available in 1913. But as I listened to Mitchell’s “analysis” of one time series after another—amplitude, lead or lag relative to the “reference” peak or trough (that is, relative to the peak or trough of the general business cycle), rates of expansion or contraction in successive thirds of the fluctuations, and more—I could make nothing of it. After some weeks I dropped the course. Mitchell signed the necessary form without demur and, apparently, never held it against me—a characteristic of his liberal and tolerant attitude.

In other respects, my year was pleasant and rewarding. I found Eli Ginzberg and began a lifelong friendship, the closest and most intimate in my life. Like other graduate students, I occupied a “cubicle” on the top floor of the new Butler Library—just enough space for a table, chair, and file cabinet. A friend said: “It’s all right if I am in there alone, but if I get an idea, I have to move into the corridor.” One day, there was a knock on my door, and in walked Eli. He had just returned from a scholarship, traveling the country and interviewing business executives, union bosses, politicians, etc. On his return, he asked Mrs. Stewart, the all-knowing department secretary, what new people were interesting. She mentioned me, and there he was. He sat down and began to tell me about his travels, the first of many sessions on the same subject.

One early reward of my new friendship was to come to know his parents. They occupied an eighth-floor apartment on 114th Street, directly behind the Butler Library. Eli’s father, Louis Ginzberg, was a professor in the Jewish Theological Seminary at 120th Street. He was perhaps the most notable Jewish scholar of his time, a specialist in Talmudic history and interpretation based on a wide knowledge of ancient Middle Eastern languages and in the history of its peoples. Eli began to bring me to their Friday evening suppers. I found old Louis to be a wise and humorous man, a fine companion and host for a pleasant evening.

On one of my first visits, Eli took me into Louis’s study to show me a lampshade that one of Louis’s students had made. The parchment shade was decorated. All around the shade were drawn the spines of books, and on each spine there appeared the title of one of Louis’s books, perhaps 14 or 15 in all. And then the student had an inspiration. He added one more spine and on it drew the title of Eli’s first book, his Ph.D. dissertation, The House of Adam Smith. At the time, we wondered whether Eli could duplicate his Father’s achievement. In fact, he did so many times over, in quantity at least, if not always in depth—something to which Eli did not aspire.

[…]

Now back to my struggle between Harvard and Columbia economics. In that second year at Columbia, the internal conflict found two new exponents. On the Columbia side was Eli. He was someone of great personal interest to me, but as an economist, he was an eccentric. He was a skeptic about anything theoretical and served mainly as an exemplar of Columbia’s tolerance for talent in whatever way it showed itself. On the Harvard side, there now appeared a powerful supporter. He was Milton Friedman, who had come to Columbia on a scholarship for a year of graduate work. We soon became good friends. It emerged that we two were the only Columbia students who had had a real training in neoclassical price theory, the very bedrock of the economics of the time. The faculty, moreover, refused to sanction a course in the subject, and the students realized what they were missing. Milton and I undertook to do something to fill the gap. We organized a student-run seminar, worked out a list of topics, assigned students to prepare papers, and guided the presentation and discussion. The other students benefitted and so did we. We were having our first teaching experience. For the moment, however, it helped keep my mind running in the grooves of my Harvard training

My friendship with Milton was solidified when a Columbia classmate invited us to join him in a long holiday in his family’s fishing camp on the French River in Northern Ontario, still a wild and unsettled area. It turned out, however, that our friend was ordered to work in his family’s business concern for the summer. We were invited to use the camp ourselves, and we did. So we spent a wonderful six weeks together. We drove north in my Model A Ford roadster until we reached a tiny settlement on the French River called Bon Air. There we parked the car at a general store where we hired some cots, some cooking utensils, a gasoline cookstove, and a canoe, and where we bought some canned and packaged foods as well as eggs and Canadian back bacon. The general store owner piled all these objects in his motorboat and, with the canoe in tow, took us out to our camp 3½ miles down the river on a tiny island in the stream. We were the only inhabitants. There he literally threw our stuff on the shore and took his leave. From now on, we had to depend on our canoe to get back and renew supplies at Bon Air.

Neither of us at first knew anything about canoeing, but we had good teachers by example in the Indians from a reservation across the river. Watching them, we soon learned the J stroke and became fairly competent. We canoed to Bon Air twice weekly and soon organized our camp. We had a privy some 50 yards away. We had the usual first experience trying to cook rice, but we learned to get along. We swam twice a day, and, as we gained confidence in the canoe, took overnight canoe trips down the river. These were fun, especially because of occasional rapids which we could run going down the river but had to portage around on the way back. The one thing we did not try was fishing. In fact, we became known along the river as those strange boys who did not fish, so many men returning in the late afternoon would throw us a fish or two. We had a valuable supplement to our diet of canned goods.

The thing we did do all day long, every day, was talk—about everything, but mostly economics. Milton was much less ideological then than he later became, so he was a very pleasant and agreeable companion; that was especially important in 1934, in the depths of the Depression when Roosevelt’s New Deal was just taking shape, when it included so much that was controversial, and when the menace of Hitler was becoming clearly visible.

As things turned out, however, the most important thing for me in that academic year of 1933-34 was the advent of Carrie [whom he would marry]. But that belongs in a chapter of its own.

…When I finished my graduate course work in 1935, I was given an instructorship at Harvard, I owed it to the sponsorship of Ed Mason, my old tutor. With all this arranged, we determined to get married. I was to have a first year to get started at Harvard, and Carrie was to have a year to complete her Columbia course. We would marry in June 1937. We told our parents and friends. Everyone was pleased.

…You will recall that on completing my graduate work at Columbia, I returned to Harvard as an instructor and tutor in 1936. I spent the first year on my own; then, following our marriage, Carrie joined me there. We lived in a comfortable little apartment at 31 Concord Avenue, near the RadcliffeYard.

It turned out to be an unsatisfactory time, which brought each of us into our only serious confrontations with discrimination. For Carrie it was a brush with what would now be called “sexism.” She heard that Wellesley was looking for a young instructor. She thought correctly that her graduate work and teaching experience qualified her. She appeared for an interview, which was conducted by John Dunlop, a Harvard professor. They reviewed her background, and, he conceded, she was qualified. And then he told her, with expressions of regret, that her application could go no further. Wellesley, a women’s college, wanted only a male.

My own problem was an example of that anti-Semitism that still infected Harvard and most other universities. During my time back at Harvard, I had taught Ec A and a course in Labor Market Economics, and I had tutored a full quota of economics majors in my tutorial rooms in Dunster House. I thought it had gone pretty well.

To this I should add the tale of an amusing development. When I returned to Cambridge in September 1937 together with Carrie, I was told by the department chairman that my salary, then $2,500 a year, would be raised by $200. And then he carefully explained that that was not because, as a married man, my expenses were higher. It was because I was married that he could add Radcliffe girls to my list of tutees. Needless to say, the relation of women to men has since changed radically. Harvard and Radcliffe are now fully merged. Women and men are now equally Harvard professors and Harvard students. The days when Radcliffe girls were thought to be at special and intolerable risk if they met an unmarried tutor have long gone.

In the spring of 1938, I received another summons from the chairman [Harold Burbank]. He received me cordially, and after the usual preliminary politenesses, he explained that it was time we discussed my future at Harvard. His opening was itself a warning about what was to come. “Now, Moe, we are both men of the world.” And then he went on to say that I had done well. I had a promising future. “But you must understand; we could not promote Jakey, so you must not expect to stay on here.” I had formed no such expectation, but I understood perfectly. “Jakey” was Jacob Viner, a truly notable economist. He had done brilliant theoretical work early. He was Taussig’s favorite student. Clearly, Harvard’s president at the time was a bar. He would not accept the appointment of Jews, something widely whispered. They might be scholars, but, by Lowell’s Boston Brahmin standards, they could not be gentlemen. So all this was hardly a complete surprise. But my chairman’s quiet but open expression of anti-Semitism was a shock.

I have often wondered whether it was not really a subtle way of ending my appointment without saying that I simply had not measured up. Perhaps, but that could hardly apply to Viner, who went on to do brilliant work, and who ended his career as a colleague of Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Had a Nobel Prize for Economics existed at the time, he would certainly have been a Nobel laureate.

So I left the interview knowing that I had to make plans to move. My opportunity was not long in coming. Later that same spring, I appeared again at Columbia for the defense of my dissertation, the last step on the way to the doctorate. The committee was chaired by Wesley Mitchell, the man whose course on business cycles I had dropped six year earlier. It made no difference to the examination. Apparently, I passed easily. Indeed my thesis won the Seligman Prize for the best of the year. When the committee adjourned, Mitchell asked me to stay behind. He wanted to ask me whether I would be willing to join the National Bureau to work with him on the Bureau’s business cycles project. My salary would be $3,500 year, a thousand dollars above my Harvard salary. In my circumstances it did not take me long to decide. In a couple of days he had my answer. I would be delighted. So now, after our first summer in Maine, Carrie and I moved to New York. I can guess now how the Bureau appointment had come about. My friend Milton Friedman (see Chapter Six), had just joined the Bureau with an appointment like my own, but to work on another subject. Milton was a friend and also the favorite student of Arthur F. Burns, at the time Mitchell’s chief assistant, who was already the really effective head of the business cycles work. My guess is that Milton became aware of Burns’s interest in finding an associate for business cycles to work especially on the cyclical role of inventories. My dissertation included a chapter on inventories. So he probably told Burns, and then events took their course.

 

Source:  Moses Abramovitz, Days Gone By: A Memoir for my Family (2001), pp. 32-34, 41-49, 77-79. (Link to download the memoir as .pdf)

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Stanford Faculty Memorial Resolution

MOSES ABRAMOVITZ
(1912-2000)

Moses Abramovitz, William Robertson Coe Professor of American Economic History Emeritus, died December 1, 2000, at Stanford University Hospital, just one month before reaching his eighty-ninth birthday.

Known by his family, friends, and colleagues as “Moe,” Abramovitz was one of the primary builders of Stanford’s Department of Economics. He taught at Stanford for almost thirty years, taking leave only during 1962-63 to work as economic advisor to the secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. He served as chair from 1963 to 1965, and from 1971 to 1974, both critical junctures in the department’s history. During his tenure at Stanford and after his retirement in 1976, Moe gained international renown and admiration for his pioneering contributions to the study of long-term economic growth.

Moe was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Romanian Jewish immigrant family. After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School, he entered Harvard in 1928. Like many of his generation, Moe’s interest in economics was stimulated by the experience of the Great Depression. So, in 1932 he continued his undergraduate studies of the subject at Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1939. At Columbia, Moe began a lifelong friendship with Milton Friedman. In later years, Moe liked to joke that he had been debating with Friedman for more than fifty years, and consistently winning — except when Milton was present. Columbia connections also led Moe to join the National Bureau of Economic Research in 1937, where he helped to launch the business cycle studies for which the Bureau became famous, working with such figures as Wesley Mitchell, Simon Kuznets and Arthur Burns.

Also at Columbia, Moe became re-acquainted with his Erasmus classmate Carrie Glasser, who was also working for her doctoral degree in economics. Moe and Carrie were married in June of 1937, and were devoted to each other until Carrie’s death in October 1999. When Moe came to Stanford in 1948, Carrie began what became a highly satisfying and successful career as a painter, sculptress and collage artist. Their only son, Joel, born in 1946, is a practicing neurosurgeon in Connecticut.

During World War II, Moe served first at the War Production Board, working with Simon Kuznets to analyze the limits of feasible production during wartime. He then moved to the Office of Strategic Services as chief of the European industry and trade section. During 1945 and 1946, he was economic advisor to the United States representative on the Allied Reparations Commission. Moe’s modest but strong character was well displayed in an episode during the postwar reparations debate. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau had proposed a plan to deindustrialize the German economy. An OSS research team headed by Moe wrote a memorandum arguing that this plan would destroy Germany’s capacity to export, leaving it unable to pay for food and other essential imports. At a meeting with Moe and two other OSS economists, Ed Mason and Emile Despres, Morgenthau angrily asked: “Who is responsible for this?” Moe recalled: “Mason looked at Despres, and Emile looked at me. I had no one else to look at. The buck stopped with me. So, rather meekly, I said I was responsible.”

This anecdote and many others may be found in a charming memoir that Moe completed shortly before his death, “Days Gone By,” accessible on the Stanford Economics Department website.

At Stanford Moe began the studies of long-term economic growth that established his reputation among professional economists. A 1956 paper provided the first systematic estimates showing that forces raising the productivity of labor and capital were responsible for approximately half of the historical growth rate of real U.S. GDP, and close to three quarters of the growth rate of real GDP per capita. Subsequently he made seminal contributions in identifying the factors promoting and obstructing convergence in levels of productivity among advanced and developing countries of the world. For these studies and others, Moe received many academic honors. He was elected to the presidency of the American Economic Association (1979-80), the Western Economic Association (1988-89), and the Economic History Association (1992-93). From abroad came honorary doctorates from the University of Uppsala in Sweden (1985), and the University of Ancona in Italy (1992); he took special enjoyment from an invitation to become a fellow of the prestigious Academia Nazionale de Lincei in 1991 — “following Galileo with a lag,” he said, with a characteristic self-deprecatory twinkle.

Committee:

Paul A. David
Ronald McKinnon
Gavin Wright

Source: Stanford Report, July 9, 2003.

Image Source: Harvard Class of 1932, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report (1957).

 

 

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Development of Industrial Society. Course outline, readings, exam. Usher, 1933-34

 

An earlier post provides biographical information as well as links to other economic history courses taught by Abbott Payson Usher at Harvard. This post provides course enrollment data, outline and reading assignments, and the final examination questions for Usher’s course on the industrial history of western Europe up through English industrialisation.

__________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 10b1 hf. Associate Professor Usher. – The Development of Modern Industrial Society, 1450-1850.

Total, 12: 10 Graduates, 2 Juniors.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1933-34, p. 85.

__________________

Reading, Economics 10b.
1933-34.

  1. Industrial Development, 1450-1850. To be completed, Oct. 30.

Bober, M.M. Karl Marx’ Interpretation of History, pp. 192-201.

Parsons, T. Capitalism in recent German Literature, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 36, pp. 641-661; vol. 37, pp. 31-51.

Usher, A.P. History of Mechanical Inventions, pp. 1-31, 221-355.

Mantoux, P. The Industrial Revolution in the 18thCentury, pp. 47-93, 193-317, 349-452.

Nef, J.U. The Rise of the British Coal Industry, I, 19-22, 165-189; II, 319-330.

Usher, A.P. Industrial History of England, 195-224, 247-271, 314-380.

Webb, S. and B. History of Trade Unionism, pp. 57-161.

  1. The reorganization of the agrarian system. To be completed, Nov. 13.

Mantoux, P. The Industrial Revolution in the 18thCentury, pp. 140-160.

Ernle, Lord. English Farmers Past and Present, (ed. 1917, 1919, 1922.) pp. 55-102, 148-175, 290-315.

Clapham, J.H. The Economic Development of France and Germany, pp. 6-52.

Renard, G. and Weulersse, G. Life and Labor in Modern Europe, pp. 205-247. (French ed. pp. 272-330.)

  1. The Rise of Economic Liberalism. To be completed, Nov. 27.

Armitage-Smith, G. Free Trade and its Results, pp. 39-61.

Marshall, Industry and Trade, (1923) 749-766. (British Move. to F.T.)

Barnes, D.G. History of the English Corn Laws, pp. 68-98, 117-156, 239-284.

Ashley, P. Modern Tariff History, (3rd. Ed.) pp. 3-132.

  1. The Beginnings of the Railroad. To be completed, Dec. 8.

Pratt, E.A. A History of Inland Transport in England, pp. 165-185, 195-257.

Usher, A.P. Industrial History of England, pp. 431-458.

Raper, C.L. Railway Transportation, pp. 61-82, 134-149, 166-177.

Clapham, J.H. Economic History of Modern Britain, I, pp. 75-97.

  1. The Rise of the Bank of England, To be completed, Dec. 22.

Richards, R.D. The Early History of Banking in England, pp. 23-64, 132-175, 189-201.

Andreades, A. History of the Bank of England, pp. 60-71, 284-294, 312-331, 370-389.

Silberling, N.J. The Financial and Monetary Policy of Great Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, Q.J.E., vol. 38, pp. 214-233, 397-439.

Clapham, J.H. Economic History of Modern Britain, II, pp. 333-385.

Reading Period

Economics 10b.

Readings for the graduate members of the course will be found posted in the Graduate Economics Library.

Undergraduates are to read 350 pages from any two of the following titles:

(1) Ashton, T.A., Iron and Steel in the Industrial Revolution.
(2) Nef, J.U., The Rise of the British Coal Industry.
(3) Wadsworth, A.P. and J. Mann, The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire.
(4) Chapman, S.J., The Lancashire Cotton Industry.
(5) Daniels, G.W., The Early English Cotton Industry.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, Course Outlines and Reading Lists, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics 1933-34”.

__________________

European Industry and Commerce
1450-1850
Books for review.

Moffit, Louis W. England on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.

Bowden, Witt. Industrial society in England towards the end of the eighteenth century.

Redford, Arthur. Labour migration in England, 1800-1850.

Tawney, R.H. Religion and the rise of capitalism.

Weber, Max. The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism.

Warner, Wellman J. The Wesleyan movement in the Industrial Revolution.
and
Grubb, Isabel. Quakerism and Industry before 1800.

Daniels, George W. The early English cotton Industry.

Wadsworth, A.P. and Mann, Julia. The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600-1780.

Unwin, George. Samuel Oldknow and the Arkwrights.

Heaton, Herbert. The Yorkshire Woollen and Worsted industries.

Ashton, Thomas. Iron and Steel in the Industrial Revolution.

Ashton, T. and Sykes, J. The Coal Industry of the eighteenth century.

Roll, Erich. An experiment in Industrial organization.

Allen G.C. The Industrial development of the Black Country.

Hovell, Mark. The Chartist movement.

Pomfret, J.E. The struggle for land in Ireland.

Albion, Robert. Forests and Sea Power.

Ackworth, A.W. Financial reconstruction in England, 1815-22.

Lord, J. Capital and Steam Power.

Brady, Alexander. William Huskisson.

Ramsay, Anna. Sir Robert Peel.

Cole, G.D.H. Life of William Cobbett.

Jenks, L.H. Migration of British Capital to 1875.

Siegfried, A. La crise Britannique au XXe siècle.

Rappard, William. La révolution industrielle et les origines de la protection légale du travail en Suisse.

Lewinski, Jan de St. L’évolution industrielle de la Belgique.

Hammond, J.L. The age of the Chartists.

Hammond, J.L and B. The skilled labourer.

______________. The rise of modern industry.

Bessemer, Sir Henry. Autobiography.

Wallas, Graham. Life of Francis Place.

Berdrow, W. Krupp: a great business man seen through his letters.

Roe, J. W. British and American Toolmakers.

[handwritten additions follow]

Ballot, Charles. L’introduction du machinisme dan l’industrie française.

Sée, H. Modern Capitalism.

Sée, H. L’Évolution commerciale et industrielle de la France.

Hauser, H. Les débuts du capitalisme.

Boissonnade, G. Colbert et la dictature du travail.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, Course Outlines and Reading Lists, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics 1933-34”.

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Final Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 10b2
June 1934

I
(About one hour.)

  1. Write an essay on one of the following topics:
    1. Graduates:
      the position of Malthus in the light of historical studies of population,
      primary factors affecting the increase of population in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century,
      vital indices and the measurement of material well-being,
      biological laws of population growth,
      the processes of invention and achievement.
    2. Undergraduates:
      an episode in the history of any one of the following industries, cotton, coal, or iron,
      Sée’s concept of modern capitalism and its development, the processes of invention and achievement.

II
(About two hours.)
Answer four questions.

  1. Discuss the development of the factory system in the eighteenth century.
  2. In what ways did the introduction of crop rotations furnish motives for the enclosure of arable land.
  3. What were the purposes of the Corn Laws in the period 1815 to 1840? What was the actual effect of these laws?
  4. Describe the relations between the State and the Railways in France, 1840-1883.
  5. Sketch the development of central banking in England to 1860.

Source: Harvard University. Examination Papers, Finals 1934. (HUC 7000.28) Vol. 76 of 284.

Image Source: Abott Payson Usher faculty picture in Harvard College, Class Album 1939.

Categories
Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate economics syllabus. Socialism, O.H. Taylor, 1955

 

 

The economics of socialism was a regular undergraduate course offering at Harvard from the turn of the twentieth century to well into the second half of the century. Besides the syllabus with assigned readings  along with the final examination questions.

Transcriptions of related course materials at the following links:

Economics of Socialism (Ec 111) taught by Taylor in 1952-53

Economics of Socialism (Ec 111) taught by Schumpeter, Taylor with lectures by Gerschenkron and Galenson in 1949-50.

Economics of Socialism (Ec 11b) taught by Schumpeter in 1945-46

Economics of Socialism (Ec 11b) taught by Schumpeter in 1943-44

Economics of Socialism (Ec11b) taught by Sweezy in 1939-40

Economics of Socialism (Ec11b) taught by Mason and Sweezy in 1937-38

Programs of Social Reconstruction  (Ec 7c) taught by Mason  in 1933

Economics of Socialism, Anarchism and the Single Tax  (Ec 7b) taught by Carver  in 1920

Socialism and Communism (Ec 14) taught by Carver and Bushnee in 1901-02

____________________

Course enrollment

[Economics] 111. Socialism. Dr. O. H. Taylor. Half course. (Spring)

Total, 9: 1 Graduate, 3 Seniors. 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore, 3 others.

 

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1954-55. P. 89.

   ____________________

Course Syllabus

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics
Spring Term, 1955

Economics 111

  1. Feb. 2-11. Pre-Marxian Socialism.

Reading due Feb. 11: H. Laidler, Social-Economic Movements, chs. [8-12]

Wed., Feb. 2. Introductory Lecture, about the course.

Fri., Feb. 4. Lecture: Antecedents of Socialist thought in European culture — ancient, mediaeval, and early-modern.

Mon., Feb. 7. Lecture: Antecedents of socialist thought, II—The “enlightenment,” liberalism, and socialism; A. Smith, Bentham, Ricardo, and others.

Wed., Feb. 9. Lecture: The “utopian” socialists—St. Simon, Fourier, and R. Owen.

Fri., Feb. 11. Discussion.

  1. Feb. 14-Mar. 4. Marxian Socialism—the Doctrinal System of Karl Marx.

Reading due Feb. 18: Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto
J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part I

Mon., Feb. 14. Lecture: “Utopian” socialism, Hegel, Ricardo, and Marx’s “scientific” socialism.

Wed., Feb. 16. Lecture: Hegel and Marx, philosophers of history; and Marx’s “science” of society and history.

Fri., Feb. 18. Discussion.

Reading due Feb. 25: P. M. Sweezy, Theory of Capitalist Development, parts I, II.

Mon., Feb. 21. Lecture: Marx’s economics. 1—Theories of value, wages, surplus value, accumulation of capital, and evolving capitalism.

Wed., Feb. 23. Lecture: Marx’s economics. 2—Theory of capitalism’s evolution and decline or life-cycle; crises (business cycle), change from competitive to monopoly capitalism, and transition to socialism.

Fri. Feb. 25. Discussion.

Reading due Mar. 4: P. M. Sweezy, Theory of Capitalist Development, Part IV.
J.A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, Part II.
O. H. Taylor article, “Schumpeter and Marx,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1951.

Mon., Feb. 28. Lecture: Modern Marxist (Communist) additions to Marx’s doctrines about capitalism in decline, and the transition; theory of “imperialism,” etc.

Wed., Mar. 2. Lecture: Schumpeter and Marx—two views of capitalism and its history and destiny—a comparison and contrast, illuminating Marxism.

Fri., Mar. 4. Discussion.

  1. Mar. 7-18. Marxian Socialism in Germany and Europe—Party Histories—to World War I.

Reading due Mar. 11: Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Part V.
P. M. Sweezy, Socialism, Chs.

Mon., Mar. 7. Lecture: Marx, Lasalle, and the German Social Democratic Party, to the Gotha Program.

Wed., Mar. 9. Lecture: The Revisionist Controversy of the German Socialists.

Fri., Mar. 11. Discussion.

Reading due Mar. 18: [blank]

Mon., Mar. 14. Lecture: Histories of French and Italian Socialism.

Wed., Mar. 16. Lecture: History of Scandinavian Socialism.

Fri., Mar. 18. Discussion.

  1. Mar. 21-April 1. English Socialism—History.

Reading due Mar. 25: G.D.H. Cole, A Short History of the British Working Class Movement, Part I, chs. 5-9 incl. and Part II.
The Fabian Essays.

Mon., Mar. 21. Lecture: From Owen to the Fabians.

Wed., Mar. 233. Lecture: Fabian Socialism.

Fri., Mar. 25. Discussion.

Reading due April 1: New Fabian Essays.

Mon., Mar. 28. Lecture: Evolution (since 1900) of the English Labor Party and its Socialism.

Wed., Mar. 30. Lecture: English Socialism, 1945-50—Partial Realization, and Changing Outlook.

Fri., April 1. Discussion.

April 3-10. SPRING RECESS.

  1. April 11-22. Russian Communism and the Soviet System.

Reading due April 15: M. Dobb
A. Baykov, Dev. Soviet Econ. System

Mon., Apr. 11. Lecture: Lenin, the Russian Revolution, and Early Evolution of the Soviet System.

Wed., Apr. 13. Lecture: The Five-Year Plans; Russia’s Industrialization and Economic Policies

Fri., Apr. 15. Discussion

Reading due April 22: [blank]

Mon., Apr. 18. Lecture: The Russian Economy—Operation.

Wed., Apr. 20. Lecture: Russian Society, State, and Civilization—Extra-Economic Features of the System.

Fri., Apr. 22. Discussion.

  1. April 25-May 2. Economic Theory of Liberal Socialism—The Lange Model.

Reading due May 2: Lippincott (ed.), Economics of Socialism

Mon., Apr. 25. Lecture: History of Modern Theory of “Competitive” Socialism: Von Mises, Barone, Lange, etc.

Wed., Apr. 27. Lecture: The O. Lange Model and Argument

Fri., Apr. 29. Lecture: Problems of Full Socialism in Practice.

Mon., May 2. Discussion.

 

Reading Period

David M. Wright. Capitalism (entire book).

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 6, Folder “Economics, 1954-1955 (1 of 2)”.

   ____________________

1954-55
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 111
[Final Examination. June, 1955]

Write half-hour answers to six of the following questions including no. 8

  1. (a) Explain and discuss (as to its validity) all that you think Marx meant in describing pre-Marxian socialist thought as “utopian,” and in claiming that his own new kind was “scientific.”
    (b) Briefly characterize the outlook and program either of Fourier or of Robert Owen, and discuss the questions whether, how far, and wherein it was “utopian” in Marx’s sense.
  2. Summarize briefly, and discuss critically, Marx’s general theory of the process and pattern of all human history, or social evolution.
  3. Give a general account and criticism of the main ideas in Marx’s critical analysis of capitalism and its prospects—the main things that he claimed to see and/or foresee as the economic system’s destined-to-become-fatal flaws, and the way in which they would develop and bring on its doom and the advent of socialism.
  4. Discuss what have tended to be the chief problems or difficulties of Marxian socialist parties, endeavoring to adhere closely to the teachings of Marx and at the same time to cope with the practical exigencies arising in their careers as political parties. Illustrate your points from the history of the German Social Democratic Party.
  5. Give a general account of English Fabian socialism—its main distinctive characteristics, ideas, aims, and tactics—in comparison and contrast with Marxian socialism.
  6. Explain and discuss what you think are the main attractions and disattractions of present-day Communism for the world’s economically backward countries.
  7. State and explain your opinions about (a) the theoretically possible and (b) the likely actual success of a (realized) socialism that would do its best to carry out Oscar Lange’s proposals, in serving the economic welfare of the people better than it could be served by private capitalism.
  8. Write a critical review of or commentary on Pigou’s essay “Socialism vs. Capitalism.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Naval Science, Air Science, June, 1955. Included in bound volume Final Exams, Social Sciences, June, 1955 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 110).

Image Source: O.H. Taylor in Harvard College, Class Album 1952.

Categories
Economists Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Portrait of undergraduate Abram Bergson (Burk), ca. 1930

 

Virtually thumbing through old Johns Hopkins yearbooks (the Hullabaloo) that have been digitized by the Johns Hopkins archives, I was hoping to find a college yearbook photo of the economist Abram Bergson, but I could not find him in the Hullabaloo for the class of 1933 or earlier.

While at Johns Hopkins and then in grad school at Harvard, Bergson was still going by the American version of his father’s name, “Burk”.  This was the name he used for the original publication of his justly famous Quarterly Journal of Economics article that introduced the “social welfare function” into the economist’s box of tools : “A Reformulation of Certain Aspects of Welfare Economics“, QJE, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Feb. 1938), pp. 310-334.  

Abram Bergson was born April 21, 1914 and graduated from Johns Hopkins in June 1933…you can do the math. Fortunately I searched other Johns Hopkins archival websites and struck gold.  According to the Johns Hopkins archive data for this photo, the portrait below was taken approximately in 1930. It is certainly the face of a teenager. I have taken the liberty of cropping the photo and cleaning some of the dust and scratches. Here is a link to the original, it is, alas, just as unfocused as what you see here. Visitors to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror can compare and contrast the young and old faces to confirm for themselves.

Portrait of the teenage Abram Burk: Johns Hopkins graphic and pictorial collection.

Portrait of Professor Abram Bergson. See Paul A. Samuelson, “Abram Bergson, 1914-2003: A Biographical Memoir”, in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, Volume 84 (Washington, D.C.: 2004).

Categories
Johns Hopkins Seminar Speakers

Johns Hopkins. Economic Seminary, presenters and topics. 1925-26

 

 

The graduate economic seminary at Johns Hopkins University kept good records of the weekly sessions so that we know the names of all the presenters and their topics. I have added the academic backgrounds from the published Johns Hopkins Circular for all the graduate students either attending or presenting.

The economic seminary schedule for the following years have also been posted:

1903-1904
1904-1905

1922-1923
1923-1924
1924-1925
1925-1926
1926-1927

_____________

POLITICAL ECONOMY

…The Economic Seminary

“The students following Political Economy as a principal subject for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy met weekly under the direction of Professors Hollander and Barnett. The work of the year centered in the investigation of representative forms of industrial development in the United States, and in the analysis of significant activities of American labor organizations…”

 

Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular, Annual Report of the President of the Johns Hopkins University 1925-1926, (October 1926, Vol. 45, No. 375), pp. 106.

_____________

MEMBERS OF THE ECONOMIC SEMINARY
1925-1926

Students and visitors

[G = Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; SE = Social Economics; T = Teachers College. The small “s” following a capital letter indicates a special student. Roman numeral indicates year of residence.]

Fonaroff, Frank Israel. (Gs) I. S.B. Eng. Johns Hopkins University 1918; M.B.A. Harvard University 1924. Political Economy.

[Froehlich, Wolfgang. (G) I. Graduate, St. Elisabeth Real-Gymnasium, Breslau 1924. Political Economy.]

Fulton, Maria Kent.  (SE) (G) II. A.B. Hollins College 1924. Political Economy.

Hart, William Sebastian. (Gs) II. A.B. Johns Hopkins University 1924. Political Economy.

Helbing, Albert Theodore.(G) II. Ph.B. Denison University 1923. Political Economy.

Hilberg, Mildred Edith.(SE) (G) II. A.B. Goucher College 1923. Political Economy.

Hoops, Walther Dietrich. (G) I. Ph.D. Heidelberg University 1923. Political Economy.

Howard, Charles Harold. (G) II. S.B. Gettysburg College 1923. Political Economy.

Mitchell, Elizabeth W. (SE) (G) II. A.B. Goucher College 1924. Political Economy.

Mitchell, George Sinclair. (G) III. A.B. University of Richmond 1922. Political Economy.

Newman, Andrew J. (G) II. A.B. Washington University 1910. A.M. University of Missouri 1911. Political Economy.

Northcutt, Elizabeth. (SE) (G) I. S.B. in Education, University of Missouri 1924. S.B. in Business and Public Administration 1925. Political Economy.

Powlison, Keith Eon. (G) II. A.B. Columbia College 1922. Political Economy.

Rea, Leonard Owens. (G) II. A.B. Johns Hopkins University 1924. Political Economy.

Richardson, Ellen L. (SE) (G) II. A.B. Wellesley College 1919. Political Economy.

Richardson, Hayes Ayres. (Ts) (G) I. A. B. Randolph-Macon College 1922. Political Economy.

Robinson, Carolyn A. (G) I. A.B. Wellesley College 1924. Political Economy.

Schneider, David M. (G) II. E.E. University of Kieff [sic, Kyiv?] 1921. Political Economy.

Townsend, Clarissa L. (SE) (Gs) III. A.B. Goucher College 1923. Political Economy.

 

Faculty

Professor Jacob H. Hollander, Professor of Political Economy

Professor George E. Barnett, Professor of Statistics

Dr. William O. Weyforth, Associate Professor of Political Economy

Dr. Broadus Mitchell, Associate in Political Economy

Miss Theo Jacobs, Associate in Social Economics

Dr. George Heberton Evans, Jr., Instructor in Political Economy

_____________

Seminar Presentations 1925-26

October 7, 1925

The session’s opening meeting of the Seminary was held in the Seminary Room, 315 Gilman Hall, at 2 o’clock. Accounts were given of summer experiences. The list of the members of the Seminary is given on another page [see above].

October 14, 1925

Professor Hollander read a paper on “The History of the Manuscript of Ricardo’s ‘Notes on Malthus’.”

October 21, 1925

Professor Barnett read a paper on “The Introduction of Machinery and the Displacement of Skill”.

October 28, 1925

Dr. Weyforth read a paper on “The ‘Current Rate of Wages’ in Baltimore”.

November 4, 1925

Dr. Mitchell read a paper on “Simon Newcomb and Simon N. Patten”.

November 11, 1925

Mr. Mitchell read a paper on “The Progress of the Unions in the Southern Textile Industry. (1900-1925).”

November 18, 1925

Mr. Powlinson read a paper on “Historical Sketch of the Hours of Labor Movement.”

November 25, 1925

Mr. Rea read a paper on “The Development of Uniform Municipal Accounting.”

December 2, 1925

Mr. Newman read a paper on “Definition of Income.”

December 9, 1925

Mr. Schneider read a paper on “The Workers’ Party in the Machinists’ Union”.

December 16, 1925

Mr. Helbing read a paper on “Structure and Function of the Building Trades Department of the A. F. of L.

Christmas Recess.

January 6, 1926

Mr. Howard read a paper on “Promotion and Tenure in the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.”

January 13, 1926

Professor Hollander read a paper on “Introduction to Ricardo’s Notes on Malthus”.

January 20, 1926

Professor Barnett read a paper on “The Introduction of Machinery and Trade Union Policy”.

January 27, 1926

Dr. Mitchell read a paper on “The Economic Opinions of William Gregg and J. H. Hammond”.

February 3, 1926

Miss Townsend read a paper on “Sight-Saving Classes in Baltimore”.

February 10, 1926

Miss Jacobs read a paper on “The Attitude of Trade Unions toward Social Work.”.

February 17, 1926

Mr. Mitchell read a paper on “Trade Unions in the Southern Textile Field”.

February 24, 1926

Miss Richardson read a paper on “The Shriners’ Hospitals for Crippled Children”.

March 3, 1926

Mr. Schneider read a paper on “Union Cooperative Management Plans”.

March 10, 1926

Dr. Hoops read a paper on “The German Iron Industry.

March 17, 1926

Mr. McDaniel read a paper on “The Leather Workers”.

March 24, 1926

Mr. Froehlich read a paper on “The Reconstruction of German Finances”.

March 31, 1926

Miss Mitchell read a paper on “The Intake of the Henry Watson Children’s Aid Society”.

April 14, 1926

Professor Barnett read a paper on “Family Endowments”.

April 21, 1926

Professor Hollander read a paper on “Differences between Ricardo and Malthus as to Rent”.

April 28, 1926

Miss Hilberg read a paper on “Public Welfare in Maryland”.

May 5, 1926

Miss Northcutt read a paper on “The Housing of Common Laborers in Baltimore”.

May 12, 1926

Mr. Richardson read a paper on “Treasury Certificates of Indebtedness”.

May 19, 1926

Mr. Newman read a paper on “The Distinction between Capital and Income as Revealed by the Income Tax”. This was the last meeting of the seminary for the session 1925-26.

 

 

Sources:   

Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower Library, Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy, Series 1. Minutes of the Economic Seminary, 1892-1951. Folder “1922-1940”.

The Johns Hopkins University Circular, University Register, 1925-26, (November 1925, Vol. 44, No. 365).

The Johns Hopkins University Circular, Annual Report of the President of the Johns Hopkins University 1925-1926, (October 1926, Vol. 45, No. 375), pp. 106-107. Also lists names and topics for seminar speakers.

 

Image Source: Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University from the Johns Hopkins’ yearbook Hullabaloo (1924) .

 

Categories
Courses Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Economics course descriptions, enrollments, final exams. 1915-16.

 

In this post I have assembled all the Harvard economics examinations I could find for the academic year 1915-16 and then supplement these with the annual enrollment data published in the President’s annual report which incidentally identifies the course instructors. Next I thought it would be even nicer to add course descriptions, but unfortunately I did not have access to the published 1915-16 announcement for the Division of History, Government, and Economics so I have added the course descriptions from 1914-15 or 1916-17 where the course titles and instructors exactly match.

For year-long courses, only the year-end final examination was included in the Harvard publication of examination papers, i.e. the mid-year final exams from January are missing for those courses. However, for the principles course and Taussig’s graduate theory course I have been able to find copies of those exams filed elsewhere in the Harvard archives (see notes).

Primarily for undergraduates:

Principles of Economics (Day with selected topics by Taussig)

For undergraduates and graduates
Statistics (Day)
Accounting (Davis)
European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century (Gay)
Economic and Financial History of the United States (Gay)
Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises (Anderson)
Economics of Transportation (Ripley)
Economics of Corporations (Ripley
Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation (Bullock)
Trade Unionism and Allied Problems (Ripley)
Economic Theory (Taussig)
Principles of Sociology (Carver)
Economics of Agriculture (Carver)

Primarily for graduates
Economic Theory (Taussig)
The Distribution of Wealth (Carver)
Statistics: Theory, Method, and Practice (Day)
History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 (Bullock)
Analytical Sociology (Anderson)
Public Finance (Bullock)

 

________________________

Principles of Economics (Day with selected topics by Taussig)

ECONOMICS A: Course announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] A. (formerly 1). Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11.
Professor TAUSSIG and Asst. Professor DAY and five assistants.

Course A 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 A may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

ECONOMICS A: Enrollment [1915-16]

 [Economics] A. Asst. Professor Day; and Dr. J. S. Davis and Mr. P. G. Wright, Dr. Burbank, and Messrs. Monroe, Lincoln, R.E. Richter, and Van Sickle. With Lectures on selected topics by Professor Taussig. — Principles of Economics.

Total 477: 1 Graduate, 28 Seniors, 111 Juniors, 278 Sophomores, 13 Freshmen, 46 Other.

ECONOMICS A: Mid-Year Examination [1915-16]

Plan your answers carefully before writing. Write concisely. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions, beginning each on a new page.

  1. What are the characteristic features of each of the following: (a) horizontal combination; (b) a bill of exchange; (c) bimetallism; (d) marginal cost; (e) subsidiary coinage?
  2. Give four important economic advantages of (a) the complex division of labor; (b) large-scale production; (c) the corporate form of organization.
  3. Indicate any important connections existing between (a) the corporation and large-scale production; (b) large-scale production and dumping; (c) dumping and a protective tariff; (d) a protective tariff and the geographical division of labor.
  4. What conditions of demand and supply tend to promote, what to impede, organized speculation? What are the functions, and what the chief consequences of, organized speculation in agricultural products?
  5. In what ways, if at all, is monopoly price affected by (a) cost of production per unit? (b) an elastic demand for the product? Illustrate by diagrams, assuming conditions of (1) constant cost, (2) decreasing cost.
  6. Briefly describe the Panic of 1907 in New York. What provisions of the Federal Reserve Act do you consider most likely to be effective in preventing or allaying future financial panics in the United States? Give your reasons in detail.
  7. What has been the general course of the sterling exchange rate since the beginning of 1914? What factors have been influential in causing changes in the rate? How has each factor operated?

Source note:  This mid-year examination was found at Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992. (UA V 349.295.6) Box 1, Folder “Economics I, Final Exams 1913-1939”.

ECONOMICS A: Final Examination [1915-16]

Plan your answers carefully before writing. Write concisely. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions, beginning each on a new page.

  1. What is meant by (a) marginal cost; (b) the representative firm? How, if at all, is marginal cost connected with the short- and long-time values of (a)fresh vegetables; (b) wheat; (c)a railroad rate; (d) a gold dollar?
  2. Explain: (a) free coinage; (b) undervalued metal; (c) overissue; (d) “creation of deposits”; (e) bank reserve; (f) currency premium.
  3. “Think of it! British ships are bringing in foreign tires; British money is going abroad to pay for them1; and British motorists are using them. The available supplies of British-made tires are ample for all needs. Imported tires are inessentials; they hurt British credit2, they lower the exchange of the English pound3, they increase freights4, they make necessities dearer5, and increase our national indebtedness6.” To what extent is the reasoning valid at the several points indicated?
  4. Explain what is meant by (a) the unearned increment of land; (b) “the unearned increment of railways”; (c) increment taxes; (d)the incidence of taxes on land; (e) the Single Tax.
  5. What effects upon wages, if any, should you expect to result from (a) free industrial education; (b) collective bargaining; (c) limitation of output by organized labor; (d) introduction of labor-saving machinery?
  6. What should you expect to be the effect of immigration into the United States on (a) the increase of population here; (b) wages in the United States; (c) American urban rents; (d) profits of American business men?
  7. What is to be said for and against (a) unemployment insurance; (b) compulsory arbitration for public service industries; (c) profit-sharing as an agency for industrial peace?
  8. Explain: (a) restraint of trade at common law; (b) restraint of trade under United States statute law; (c) “rule of reason”; (d) “unfair competition”; (e) Kartel.

 

________________________

Statistics (Day)

ECONOMICS 1a1: Course announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 1a 1hf. Statistics. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Asst. Professor DAY, assisted by Mr. F. E. RICHTER.

This course will deal primarily with the elements of statistical method. The following subjects will be considered: methods of collecting and tabulating data; the construction and use of diagrams; the use and value of the various types and averages; index-numbers; dispersion; interpolation; correlation. Special attention will be given to the accuracy of statistical material. In the course of this study of statistical method, examples of the best statistical information will be presented, and the best sources will be indicated. Population and vital statistics will be examined in some measure, but economic statistics will predominate.

Laboratory work in the solution of problems and the preparation of charts and diagrams will be required.

ECONOMICS 1a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 1a 1hf. Asst. Professor Day, assisted by Mr. Cox. — Statistics.

Total 44: 2 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 7 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 1a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. What is meant by “the statistical method”? What is the scientific importance of the method? What are its limitations?
  2. Describe concisely the essential steps in the preparation for a population census.
  3. Sketch briefly the history of wage statistics in the United States.
  4. Describe in detail, and criticize, the Babson method of forecasting business conditions.
  5. Explain briefly: (a) law of statistical regularity; (b) probable error; (c) series; (d) mode; (e) the normal frequency curve; (f) skewness.
  6. Formulate a set of rules for the construction of frequency tables and graphs.
  7. By what different statistical devices may the structure — or distribution — of two different groups of data be compared?
  8. Explain briefly: correlation; ratio of variation.
    Criticise fully the following statement: “A very large degree of regression — that is, a large deviation of the line of regression from the line of equal proportional variation — indicates a slight degree of correlation.”

 

________________________

Accounting (Davis)

ECONOMICS 1b2: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 1b 2hf. Accounting. Half-course (second half-year). Lectures, Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30; problems and laboratory practice, two hours a week. Dr. J. S. Davis, assisted by Mr. F. E. RICHTER and—.

This course will deal with the construction and the interpretation of accounts of various types of business units, designed to show the financial status at a particular time, the financial results obtained during a period of time, and the relation between the results and the contributing factors. In other words, it will be concerned with the measurement, in terms of value, of economic instruments, forces, products, and surpluses.

Some attention will necessarily be given to the fundamentals of book-keeping, but emphasis will be placed chiefly upon the accounting principles underlying valuation and the determination of profits and costs. Problem work will be regularly assigned, and published reports of corporations will serve as material for laboratory work.

ECONOMICS 1b2: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 1b2 hf. Dr. J. S. Davis, assisted by Mr. Cox. — Accounting.

Total 116: 49 Seniors, 62 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 2 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 1b2: Final Examination [1915-16]

Be concise. Reserve at least 45 minutes for Question 8. If desired, one of the first five questions may be omitted.

  1. What purposes are served by a Journal? a Ledger? Is it possible to keep complete and accurate accounts with these books alone?
    b. Name five other account books commonly found, and indicate briefly the nature and special function of each.
  2. Explain briefly: posting, contingent liability, corporate surplus, amortization table, secret reserve.
  3. With respect to each of the following, indicate (preferably in tabular form) (a) whether it would normally show a debit or credit balance, (b) whether it would appear on balance sheet or income statement, and (c) what kindof account it represents.

Rentals of Properties Owned
Sinking Fund Securities
Insurance Unexpired
Reserve for Accrued Depreciation
Depreciation on Equipment
Premium on Stock Issued
Advances to Subsidiary Companies
Extraordinary Flood Damages

  1. Draft journal entries (omiting explanations) for the following transactions of the General Utility Company:
    1. Sale of six desks to Jackson & Jackson, @ $15, 30 days, receiving in part payment their 30-day note for $50.
    2. Declaring dividends of $200,000, setting aside out of current income a fire insurance reserve of $100,000, and adding the balance of the year’s income ($60,000) to the surplus.
    3. Making the semi-annual interest payment on a million-dollar 6 per cent bond issue, the bond premium being simultaneously amortised to the extent of $2000.
    4. Loss by fire of a building which cost $60,000, and upon which depreciation of $10,000 had accrued and been allowed for.
  2. What is the purpose of a balance sheet? What are its essential elements? What are the main items or groups of items on the balance sheet of a railroad company? At what points are balance sheets frequently defective, inaccurate, or misleading?
  3. Do the following, in a railroad report, ordinarily signify improvement or retrogression? Under what circumstances, if any, might each signify the opposite? How could you ascertain which was actually signified?
    1. Decline in operating ratio.
    2. Increase in maintenance of freight cars per freight car.
    3. Decrease in freight train miles.
  4. Explain the purpose of the “funding accounts peculiar” to governmental accounting, and illustrate their use.
    b. What accounting distinctions are of especial importance in municipal accounting?
  5. Below are comparative figures (in thousands of dollars) of a company manufacturing railway equipment. Summarize what they reveal of its history, condition, and policy, commending or criticising the statements or policy as occasion requires.

 

Income Account, Years ended December 31
1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913
Gross Earnings Not reported 5,920 7,843 10,035 6,160 9,041 7,688
Operating and Mfg. Expenses, etc. “ 4,775 5,782 7,734 4,793 6,600 6,216
Depreciation and Maintenance “ 170 194 350 150 360 *
Net Earnings 2,320 975 1,866 1,951 1,217 2,081 1,472
Bond Interest 217 209 203 196 232 357 350
Dividends 1,485 1,350 945 945 945 945 945
Surplus for the Year 618 **584 718 810 40 779 177

*Included in “operating expenses.”  **Deficit.

 

General Balance Sheet, December 31
Assets 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913
Plants, Properties, etc. 30,291 30,536 30,568 30,267 33,746 33,373 33,320
Inventories 2,341 1,914 1,927 2,210 1,622 1,927 1,593
Stocks, Bonds, etc. 185 217 222 242 400 704 686
Accounts Receivable 2,349 1,212 1,667 1,464 1,148 1,986 1,411
Other Items 84 75 38 32 28 41 48
Cash 264 344 382 871 1,484 1,225 1,814
Total 35,514 34,298 34,804 35,086 38,428 39,256 38,872
Liabilities
Common Stock 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500
Preferred Stock (7% cumulative) 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500
Bonded Debt 4,223 4,083 3,945 3,808 7,172 7,037 6,901
Accounts Payable 1,239 588 672 212 148 350 186
Bills Payable 50 200 … … … … …
Reserves for Dividends, Interest, Taxes, etc. 147 156 197 266 268 251 260
Surplus 2,855 2,271 2,990 3,800 3,840 4,618 4,525
Total 35,514 34,298 34,804 35,086 38,428 39,256 38,872

 

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European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century (Gay)

ECONOMICS 2a1: Course announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 2a1hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course(first half-year).Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Professor GAY, assisted by—.

Course 2a undertakes to present the general outlines of the economic history of western Europe since the Industrial Revolution. Such topics as the following will be discussed: the economic aspects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic régime, the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, the Zoll-Verein, Cobden and free trade in England, labor legislation and social reform, nationalism and the recrudescence of protectionism, railways and waterways, the effects of transoceanic competition, the rise of industrial Germany.

Since attention will be directed in this course to those phases of the subject which are related to the economic history of the United States, it may be taken usefully before Economics 2b.

ECONOMICS 2a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 2a1hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Messrs. A. H. Cole and Ryder.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 94: 23 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 33 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 5 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 2a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Speaking of the industrial revolution in England, a writer says: “It is to a revolution in three industries, — agriculture, cotton and iron, — that this transformation is principally due.” Do you agree? Give your reasons.
  2. Account historically for the present condition of the agricultural laborer in England, in East Prussia. What have been the social consequences in both cases?
  3. Hadley says of railway construction: “The Englishman built for the present and future both; the American chiefly for the future.” Account for this difference, and show its effect on capitalization, on service and on inter-railway relations.
  4. Trace the influence of the agrarian and industrial interests on tariff legislation in Germany and France since 1880.
  5. Give an account of the development of the iron and steel industry in England and Germany in the last half of the nineteenth century. Account for the later development in the latter country, and trace the competition between the Ruhr and Lorraine districts.

(Take one of the following two questions)

  1. Comment on Ashley’s statement regarding English exports:

“We shall more and more exhaust our resources of coal, and we shall devote ourselves more and more to those industries which flourish on cheap labor.”

  1. How have the laboring people of England by voluntary collective action tried to meet the exigencies of the modern industrial system? Compare with Germany.

 

________________________

Economic and Financial History of the United States (Gay)

ECONOMICS 2b2: Course Announcement [1914-15]

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

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.

ECONOMICS 2b2: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 2b 2hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Messrs. A. H. Cole and Ryder. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 94: 23 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 33 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 5 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 2b2: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. “The expulsion of the French from Canada made it possible (for the American colonies) to dispense with English protection. The commercial restrictions made it to their interest to do so.” Do you agree? Give your reasons for or against.
  2. “As to the strength of slavery as an institution in Southern society after it had been thoroughly established, its basis was partly economic and partly social.” Explain. Which do you think the more fundamental? Why?
  3. (a) Give the reasons for the turn in our favor of the balance of trade in the seventies. (b) Into what periods would you divide the history of our export trade since that time? Characterize each period. What do you think are the probabilities for the future? Give your reasons.
  4. Compare the marketing of grain with the marketing of wool. Why the difference?
  5. In how far were the policies of the national government responsible for the panics of 1837 and 1893? Give your reasons.
  6. (a) Describe briefly the development of the iron industry in the United States. (b) What effect has this development had upon American shipping before and after 1870?

The following questions are for graduates who did not take the tests:

  1. Take one of the following subjects: (a) the history of American agriculture since 1860; or (b) Manufacturing development in the United States before 1860; or (c) the history of American transportation since 1860. Outline the periods and topics you would discuss in lecturing on it. Give also a short list of the chief books or papers you would consult, with critical estimates.
  2. What criteria would you hold most significant in determining the successful application of protection to young industries. Draw your evidence from the manufactures we have considered.

 

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Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises (Anderson)

ECONOMICS 3: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Asst. Professor ANDERSON, assisted by —.

This course undertakes a theoretical, descriptive, and historical study of the main problems of money and banking. Historical and descriptive materials, drawn from the principal systems of the world, will be extensively used, but will be selected primarily with reference to their significance in the development of principles, and with reference to contemporary practical problems. Foreign exchange will be studied in detail. Attention will be given to those problems of money and credit which appear
most prominently in connection with economic crises. Though emphasis will be thrown upon the financial aspects of crises, the investigation will cover also the more fundamental factors causing commercial and industrial cycles.

ECONOMICS 3: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 3. Asst. Professor Anderson, assisted by Mr. Silberling. — Money, Banking and Commercial Crises.

Total 69: 2 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 31 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 8 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 3: Final Examination [1915-16]

Omit either question 6 or 7.

  1. State and discuss Fisher’s version of the quantity theory of money.
  2. Discuss the relations of the banks and the stock exchange.
  3. Contrast the Bank of England with the Banque de France:
    (a) with reference to reserves;
    (b) with reference to the discount rate;
    (c) with reference to specie payments;
    (d) with reference to relations with the government;
    (e) with reference to foreign exchange policy.
  4. In precisely what ways does our Federal Reserve system seek to remedy the defects in our banking system?
  5. Discuss the development of State banking since the Civil War. Compare it with the development of the National Bank system. Explain the tendencies.
  6. Give an account of the main movements in the prices of the war stocks since Oct. 1, 1915, and explain these movements as far as you can: (a) by reference to general causes; (b) by reference to factors affecting particular securities as far as you know them.
  7. Explain the movements in demand sterling since the outbreak of the War. Give figures and dates as accurately as you can.
  8. Summarize Wesley Mitchell’s theory of business cycles.
  9. For what purposes does the farmer need credit? What is the extent of agricultural indebtedness in different sections in the United States? What agencies supply credit to the farmer? What rates of interest does the farmer pay in different parts of the country?
  10. Contrast the Panic of 1893 with the Panic of 1914.

 

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Economics of Transportation (Ripley)

ECONOMICS 4a1: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 4a 1hf. Economics of Transportation. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor RIPLEY, assisted by —.

A brief outline of the historical development of rail and water transportation in the United States will be followed by a description of the condition of transportation systems at the present time. The four main subdivisions of rates and rate-making, finance, traffic operation, and legislation will be considered in turn. The first deals with the relation of the railroad to shippers, comprehending an analysis of the theory and practice of rate-making. An outline will be given of the nature of railroad securities, the principles of capitalization, and the interpretation of railroad accounts. Railroad operation will deal with the practical problems of the traffic department, such as the collection and interpretation of statistics of operation, pro-rating, the apportionment of cost, depreciation and maintenance, etc. Under legislation, the course of state regulation and control in the United States and Europe will be traced.

ECONOMICS 4a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 4a 1hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Cameron. — Economics of Transportation.

Total 121: 3 Graduates, 47 Seniors, 54 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 10 Other.

ECONOMICS 4a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Discuss the propriety of the capitalization by a railroad of a surplus which had gradually accumulated during a period of twenty or more years. Would the recency of the surplus make any difference? How about the geographical location of the road?
  2. Describe the existing situation as concerns the relation of American railroads to their employees.
  3. What are the prime essentials of a railroad reorganization, necessary to insure its success?
  4. In case of the creation of a Congressional commission on railway legislature, what are the topics which it would probably consider?
  5. Outline the means which have been employed to bring about unity of action among the hard coal roads as to prices.
  6. State briefly for the leading countries which have taken over their railways as government enterprises, the peculiar circumstances which have no counterpart in the American situation.
  7. What is the trouble with the so-called basing point system?
  8. What is the present condition of affairs concerning the relation of railroads to water lines, coastwise or lake?
  9. When and how did the conflict of Federal and state powers over regulation of common carriers first become acute?
  10. Why was the United States Commerce Court ‘abolished’ judging by the tenor of its decisions?

 

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Economics of Corporations (Ripley)

ECONOMICS 4b2: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 4b 2hf. Economics of Corporations. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor RIPLEY, assisted by —.

This course will treat of the fiscal and industrial organization of capital, especially in the corporate form. The principal topic considered will be industrial combination and the so-called trust problem. This will be broadly discussed, with comparative study of conditions in the United States and Europe. The development of corporate enterprise, promotion, and financing, accounting, liability of directors and underwriters, will be described, not in their legal but in their economic aspects; and the effects of industrial combination upon efficiency, profits, wages, prices, the development of export trade, and international competition will be considered in turn.

ECONOMICS 4b2: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 4b 2 hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Cameron. — Economics of Corporations.

Total 115: 9 Graduates, 39 Seniors, 49 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 4b2: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Discuss critically the “economics of Industrial Combination.”
  2. What peculiarity of the American situation has given especial prominence to the holding company, in contrast with European countries?
  3. What principle of corporate finance, not of commercial practice, is illustrated by the experience of the following companies? Limit each answer to five words.
    1. U.S. Leather Co.
    2. International Mercantile Marine Co.
    3. American Ice Co.
    4. U.S. Steel Corporation.
    5. American Tobacco Co.
    6. The Glucose combination.
    7. The Asphalt combination.
  4. What is the most insistent feature in an industrial reorganization? How is the desired result commonly brought about?
  5. Outline the relation of organized labor to the amendment of the Sherman Act in 1914.
  6. “Competitors must not be oppressed or coerced. Fraudulent or unfair, or oppressive rivalry must not be pursued….Then, too, prices must not be arbitrarily fixed or maintained … an artificial scarcity must not be produced….The public is also injured if quality be impaired….Other injuries are done, if the wages of the laborer be arbitrarily reduced, and if the price of raw material be artificially depressed.”
    Associate each of the foregoing practices named in a recent judicial opinion with some particular industrial combination.
  7. How successful has the Department of Justice been in effecting the corporate dissolution of combinations? Outline the experience.
  8. Describe those factors of British corporate financial practise which are essentially different from our own.
  9. Compare the organization of the American and German combinations in the iron and steel industries; briefly, point by point.
  10. If high prices constitute a grievance of the public against industrial combination, what are the objections to an attempt to regulate these prices directly by law? Discuss the proposition from as many points of view as possible.

 

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Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation (Bullock)

ECONOMICS 5: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 5. Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor BULLOCK.

This course covers the entire field of public finance, but emphasizes the subject of taxation. After a brief survey of the history of finance, attention is given to public expenditures, commercial revenues, administrative revenues, and taxation, with consideration both of theory and of the practice of various countries. Public credit is then studied, and financial legislation and administration are briefly treated.

Systematic reading is prescribed, and most of the exercises are conducted by the method of informal discussion. Candidates for distinction will be given an opportunity to write theses.

Graduate students are advised to elect Economics 31.

ECONOMICS 5: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 5. Professor Bullock. — Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

Total 60: 27 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 5 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 5: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Trace historically the position occupied by the customs revenue in the finances of the United States. What principles should be observed in establishing a system of customs duties? Discuss the incidence of these duties.
  2. To what extent and for what reasons has the working of the general property tax in Switzerland been different from the working of the same tax in the United States?
  3. Discuss briefly and concisely the characteristic features of three of the following: (a) The impôt-personnel mobilier; (b) The French business tax; (c) The Prussian business tax; (d) inheritance taxes in the United States.
  4. Explain and discuss critically the methods employed in the taxation of incomes in England and in Prussia.
  5. (a) What are the different theories regarding the best method of apportioning taxes?
    (b) Distinguish between “funded” and “unfunded” incomes. On what grounds can the heavier taxation of funded incomes be urged?
  6. What principles should govern the prices charged for the services of public commercial undertakings?
  7. Enumerate and discuss critically all the maxims, or canons, of taxation, with which you are familiar.
  8. State either the case for or the case against the single tax.

 

________________________

Trade Unionism and Allied Problems (Ripley)

ECONOMICS 6a1: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 6a 1hf. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor RIPLEY, assisted by —.

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

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

ECONOMICS 6a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

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

Total 61: 24 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 7 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 6a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Illustrate by a sketch the interrelation between the constituent parts of the American Federation of Labor.
  2. Criticise the following premium wage plans for mounting “gem” electric lamp bulbs.
Daily Output Wage per thousand
Under 900 $1.03
900-1000 $1.07
1000-1100 $1.12
Over 1100 $1.17
  1. Have you any impression whether Webb favors craft or industrial unionism? What instances does he cite?
  2. Define (a) Federal union; (b) Device of the Common Rule? (c) Jurisdiction dispute.
  3. Is there any real difference between an “irritation strike ” of the I. W. W.and the British “strike in detail”?
  4. Contrast the British and American policies of trade union finance, showing causes and results.
  5. Describe the Hart, Schaffner and Marx plan of dealing with its employees.
  6. Is the Standard Wage merely the minimum for a given trade or not? Discuss the contention that it penalizes enterprise or ability.
  7. Is there any relation logically between the attitude of labor toward piece work and the relative utilization of machinery?
  8. What is the nature of the business transacted at the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor?

 

________________________

Economic Theory (Taussig)

ECONOMICS 7a1: Course Announcement [1916-17]

[Economics] 7a1 hf. Economic Theory. Half-course(first half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30, and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor TAUSSIG.

Course 7a undertakes a survey of economic thought from Adam Smith to the present time. Considerable parts of the Wealth of Nations and of J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy will be read, as well as selected passages from the writings of contemporary economists. No theses or other set written work will be required. The course will be conducted chiefly by discussion. It forms an advantageous introduction to Economics 7b.

Students who have attained in Economics A a grade sufficient for distinction (A or B) are admitted without further inquiry. Others must secure the consent of the instructor.

ECONOMICS 7a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 7a 1hf. Professor Taussig. — Economic Theory.

Total 27: 12 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 7a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. “The wages of the inferior classes of workmen, I have endeavored to show in the first book, are everywhere necessarily regulated by two different circumstances: the demand for labor, and the ordinary or average price for provisions. The demand for labor, according as it happens to be either increasing, stationary, or declining, or to require an increasing, stationary or declining population, regulates the subsistence of the laborer and determines in what degree it shall be either liberal, moderate, or scanty.”
    Explain (1) in what way Adam Smith analyzed the “demand for labor”; (2) the nature of the reasoning which led to his conclusions regarding the influence on wages of increasing or declining national wealth.
  2. Explain in what way J. S. Mill analyzed the demand for labor, and wherein his analysis resembled Adam Smith’s, wherein it differed; and consider whether Mill’s conclusions regarding the influence of increasing national wealth on wages were similar to Adam Smith’s.
  3. Explain:
    (a) The Physiocratic notion concerning productive labor;
    (b) Adam Smith’s distinction between productive and unproductive labor;
    (c) Adam Smith’s doctrine as to the way in which equal capitals employed in agriculture, in manufactures, in wholesale or retail trade, put in motion different quantities of productive labor.
    What reasoning led Adam Smith to arrange industries in the order of productiveness indicated in (c) and what have you to say in comment on it
  4. Why, according to Adam Smith, is there rent from land used for growing grain? from land used for pasture? from mines? What would a writer like Mill say of these doctrines of Adam Smith’s?
  5. How does Mill (following Chalmers) explain the rapid recovery of countries devastated by war? Do you think the explanation sound?
  6. Wherein is Mill’s analysis of the causes of differences in wages similar to Adam Smith’s, wherein different?
  7. What, according to Mill, is the foundation of private property? What corollaries does he draw as regards inheritance and bequest? What is your instructor’s view on the justification of inheritance and bequest?
  8. Explain wherein there are or are not ” uman costs” in the savings of the rich, of the middle classes, and of the poor; and wherein there are or are not “economic costs” in these several savings.
  9. Hobson says: (a) that” the traditional habits of ostentatious waste and conspicuous leisure . . . induce futile extravagance in expenditure”; (b) that “the very type of this expenditure is a display of fireworks; futility is of its essence”; (c) that “the glory of the successful sportsman is due to the fact that his deeds are futile. And this conspicuous futility is at the root of the matter. The fact that he can give time, energy, and money to sport testifies to his possession of independent means.” Consider what is meant by “futility” in these passages; and give your own opinion on the significance of “sport.”
  10. Explain the grounds on which Hobson finds little promise for the future in (a) consumers’ cooperation; (b) producers’ cooperation; (c) syndicalism.

 

________________________

Principles of Sociology (Carver)

ECONOMICS 8: Course Announcement [1916-1917]

[Economics] 8. Principles of Sociology. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor CARVER, assisted by Mr. —.

A study in social adaptation, both passive and active. Problems of race improvement, moral adjustment, industrial organization, and social control are considered in detail.  [Note: in 1916-17 this became a two-term course]

ECONOMICS 81: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 8 1hf. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr. Bovingdon.— Principles of Sociology.

Total 130: 14 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 45 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 15 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 81: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. How would you distinguish between progress and change?
  2. Just what is meant by self-centered appreciation? Should the range of the average individual’s appreciations be widened? Give reasons for your answer.
  3. What do you think of the economic test of the individual’s fitness for survival?
  4. What is the function of religion? To what extent do you think that it is performing its function in the United States?
  5. What is the function of an educational institution? To what extent do you think that Harvard University is performing its function?
  6. What effect do you think that the increase of government ownership and operation of industrial capital in the United States will have upon the “open road to talent”?

 

________________________

Economics of Agriculture (Carver)

ECONOMICS 91: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 9 1hf. Economics of Agriculture. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. 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.

ECONOMICS 91: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 9 1hf. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr. Shaulis.— Economics of Agriculture.

Total 58: 4 Graduates, 32 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 91: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. What are the factors which determine the migration of rural people; of urban people?
  2. What are the chief periods in the development of American Agriculture, and how would you characterize each period?
  3. In what ways could a citizen acquire title to a piece of the public land of the United States at the following dates, 1850, 1870, 1900?
  4. What do you regard as the necessary steps to the solution of the problem of rural credit in the United States? Explain your reasons.
  5. What are the essentials to be achieved in the building up of a market for agricultural products?
  6. Discuss the place of animal husbandry in the economy of the farm and also in the economy of food production from the standpoint of society in general.
  7. Summarize the effects of modern farm machinery. Discuss the degree of its utilization in different sections of the United States.
  8. Outline briefly a scheme for the organization of a rural community, and give your reasons for the main features of your scheme.
  9. Outline the chief areas of production in the United States of the following crops: Potatoes, wheat, oats, hay and forage.
  10. What are the chief forms of tenancy in the United States, and where is each form most common?

 

________________________

Economic Theory (Taussig)

ECONOMICS 11: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 11. Economic Theory. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professor TAUSSIG.

Course 11 is intended to acquaint the student with some of the later developments of economic thought, and at the same time to train him in the critical consideration of economic principles and the analysis of economic conditions. The exercises are accordingly conducted mainly by the discussion of selected passages from the leading writers; and in this discussion the students are expected to take an active part. The writings of J. S. Mill, Cairnes, F. A. Walker, Clark, Marshall, Böhm-Bawerk, and other recent authors, will be taken up. Attention will be given chiefly to the theory of exchange and distribution.

ECONOMICS 11: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 11. Professor Taussig. — Economic Theory.

Total 29: 18 Graduates, 1 Grad.Bus., 6 Seniors, 3 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 11: Mid-year Examination [1915-16]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. On what grounds is it contended that there is a circle in Walker’s reasoning on the relation between wages and business profits? What is your opinion on this rejoinder: that Walker, in speaking of the causes determining wages, has in mind the general rate of wages, whereas in speaking of profits he has in mind the wages of a particular grade of labor?
  2. According to Ricardo, neither profits of capital nor rent of land are contained in the price of exchangeable commodities, but labor only.” — Thünen.
    Is there justification for this interpretation of Ricardo?
  3. “Instead of saying that profits depend on wages, let us say (what Ricardo really meant) that they depend on the cost of labour. . . . The cost of labour is, in the language of mathematics, a function of three variables: the efficiency of labor; the wages of labour (meaning thereby the real reward of the labourer); and the greater or less cost at which the articles composing that real reward can be produced or procured.”   — J. S. Mill.
    Is this what Ricardo really meant? Why the different form of statement by Mill? What comment have you to make on Mill’s statement?
  4. State resemblances and differences in the methods of analysis, and in the conclusions reached, between (a) the temporary equilibrium of supply and demand (e.g. in a grain market), as explained by Marshall; (b) “two-sided competition,” as explained by Böhm-Bawerk; (c) equilibrium under barter, as explained by Marshall.
  5. Explain concisely what is meant in the Austrian terminology by “value,” “subjective value,” “subjective exchange value,” “objective exchange value.”
    Does the introduction of “subjective exchange value” into the analysis of two-sided competition lead to reasoning in a circle?
  6. “Suppose a poor man receives every day two pieces of bread, while one is enough to allay the pangs of positive hunger, what value will one of the two pieces of bread have for him? The answer is easy enough. If he gives away the piece of bread, he will lose, and if he keeps it he will secure, provision for that degree of want which makes itself felt whenever positive hunger has been allayed. We may call this the second degree of utility. One of two entirely similar goods is, therefore, equal in value to the second degree in the scale of utility of that particular class of goods. . . . Not only has one of two goods the value of the second degree of utility, but either of them has it, whichever one may choose. And three pieces have together three times the value of the third degree of utility, and four pieces have four times the value of the fourth degree. In a word, the value of a supply of similar goods is equal to the sum of the items multiplied by the marginal utility.” — Wieser.
    Do you think this analysis tenable? and do you think it inconsistent with the doctrine of total utility and consumer’s surplus?
  7. “If the modern theory of value, as it is commonly stated, were literally true, most articles of high quality would sell for three times as much as they actually bring.” What leads Clark to this conclusion? and do you accept it?

Source note: Mid-term exam from Harvard University Archives, Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935 (Scrapbook).

ECONOMICS 11: Final Examination [1915-16]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Allow time for careful revision of your answers.

  1. “The productivity of capital is, like that of land and labor, subject to the principle of marginal productivity, which is, as we have seen, a part of the general law of diminishing returns. Increase the number of instruments of a given kind in any industrial establishment, leaving everything else in the establishment the same as before, and you will probably increase the total product of the establishment somewhat, but you will not increase the product as much as you have the instruments in question. Introduce a few more looms into a cotton factory without increasing the labor or the other forms of machinery, and you will add a certain small amount to the total output…. That which is true of looms in this particular is also true of ploughs on a farm, of locomotives on a railway, of floor space in a store, and of every other form of capital used in industry.” Is this in accord with Clark’s view? Böhm-Bawerk’s? Marshall’s? Your own?
  2. What is the significance of the principle of quasi-rent for
    (a) the “single tax” proposal;
    (b) Clark’s doctrine concerning the specific product of capital;
    (c) the theory of business profits.
  3. Explain what writers use the following terms and in what senses: Composite quasi-rent; usance; implicit interest; joint demand.
  4. On Cairnes’ reasoning, are high wages of a particular group of laborers the cause or the result of high value (price) of the commodities made by them? On the reasoning of the Austrian school, what is the relation between cost and value? Consider differences or resemblances between the two trains of reasoning.
  5. “This ‘exploitation theory of interest’ consists virtually of two propositions: first, that the value of any product usually exceeds its cost of production; and, secondly, that the value of any product ought to be exactly equal to its cost of production. The first of these propositions is true, but the second is false. Economists have usually pursued a wrong method in answering the socialists, for they have attacked the first proposition instead of the second. The socialist is quite right in his contention that the value of the product exceeds the cost. In fact, this proposition is fundamental in the whole theory of capital and interest. Ricardo here, as in many other places in economics, has been partly right and partly wrong. He was one of the first to fall into the fallacy that the value of the product was normally equal to its cost, but he also noted certain apparent ‘exceptions,’ as for instance, that wine increased in value with years.” Is this a just statement of Ricardo’s view? Of the views of economists generally? In what sense is it true, if in any, that value usually exceeds cost?
  6. Explain carefully what Böhm-Bawerk means by

(a) social capital;
(b) the general subsistence fund;
(c) the average production period;
(d) usurious interest.

In what way does he analyze the relation between (b) and (c)?

  1. Suppose ability of the highest kind in the organization and management of industry became as common as ability to do unskilled manual labor is now; what consequences would you expect as regards the national dividend? the remuneration of the business manager and of the unskilled laborer? Would you consider the readjusted scale of remuneration more or less equitable than that now obtaining?
  2. What grounds are there for maintaining or denying that “profits” are (a) essentially a differential gain, (b) ordinarily capitalized as “common stock,” (c) secured through “pecuniary,” not “industrial” activity? What method of investigation would you suggest as the best for answering these questions?

 

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The Distribution of Wealth (Carver)

ECONOMICS 121: Course Announcement [1916-17]

[Economics] 12. 1hf. The Distribution of Wealth. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor CARVER.

An analytical study of the theory of value and its applications, the law of diminishing utility, the nature and meaning of cost, the significance of scarcity and its relation to the general problem of social adjustment, the law of variable proportions and its bearing upon the problem of a better distribution of wealth.

ECONOMICS 121: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 12 1hf. Professor Carver. — The Distribution of Wealth.

Total 6: 3 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Juniors.

 

ECONOMICS 121: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Is there any close connection between economic value and moral value? Explain and justify your answer.
  2. How would you harmonize the Ricardian doctrine of rent with the doctrine that rent is determined by the specific or net productivity of land?
  3. What is cost and what are its leading forms at the present time? How is it related to wages, interest, and profits?
  4. What is meant by the intensive and by the extensive margins of cultivation and how are they related each to the other?
  5. Can you see any connection between the wage fund doctrine and the doctrine of non-competing groups? Explain and justify your answer.
  6. What would be the main items of your program for improving the present distribution of wealth? Give your reasons for each item.

 

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Statistics: Theory, Method, and Practice (Day)

ECONOMICS 13: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 13. Statistics: Theory, Method, and Practice. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Asst. Professor DAY.

The first half of this course is intended thoroughly to acquaint the student with the best statistical methods. Such texts as Bowley’s Elements of Statistics, Yule’s Introduction to the Theory of Statistics, and Zizek’s Statistical Averages, are studied in detail. Problems are constantly assigned to assure actual practice in the methods examined.

The second half of the course endeavors to familiarize the student with the best sources of economic statistical data. Methods actually employed in different investigations are analyzed and criticized. The organization of the various agencies collecting data is examined. Questions of the interpretation, accuracy, and usefulness of the published data are especially considered.

ECONOMICS 13: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 13. Asst. Professor Day. — Statistics: Theory, Method, and Practice.

Total 10: 8 Graduates, 2 Radcliffe.

 

ECONOMICS 13: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Explain and criticize the following statistical table:
PER CENT OF FAMILY INCOME CONTRIBUTED BY EACH CLASS OF WORKERS BY INDUSTRIES1
Per cent of family income contributed by each class of workers in—
Cotton industry Ready-made clothing indus-try Glass indus-try Silk indus-try
New England group South-ern group
Fathers 37.7 34.0 48.4 56.0 50.5
Mothers 32.4 27.9 26.8 25.1 33.0
Male children 16 years of age and over 31.1 27.3 36.5 37.8 37.0
Female children 16 years of age and over 42.6 35.2 39.7 26.7 35.1
Children 14 and 15 years of age 18.7 22.9 14.2 18.9 16.6
Children 12 and 13 years of age 14.3 17.6 10.0 15.7 13.3
Children under 12 years of age 2 3.6 13.5

1These per cents apply only to the incomes of families having wage earners of the specified class.
2Based on incomes of two families, each having one child under 12 at work.

  1. Enumerate the means by which a bureau, charged with the administration of a state registration law, may ascertain the completeness of birth registration in any registration district.
  2. Describe and illustrate the construction of a logarithmic curve. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a curve for the purpose of graphic presentation?
  3. What is the logical distinction, if there be any, between a weighted and a simple arithmetic mean? What are the reasons for and against weighting? Under what conditions may weighting safely be omitted?
  4. Retail price quotations for two articles are reported from fifty markets as follows:
Article A Article B
Price per dozen Number of markets reporting this price Price per bushel Number of markets reporting this price
21¢ 1 $1.00 8
22¢ 2 $1.05 12
23¢ 7 $1.10 15
24¢ 11 $1.15 10
25¢ 15 $1.25 5
26¢ 9 50
27¢ 4
28¢ 1
50

Measure by the standard deviation the relative variability in price of these two commodities. Employ the short-cut method.

  1. “Imagine an ideal republic, in some respects similar to that designed by Plato, where not only were all the children removed from their parents, but where they were all treated exactly alike. In these circumstances none of the differences between the adults could have anything to do with the differences of environments and all must be due to some differences in inherent factors. In fact, the environment correlation coefficient would be nil, whilst the heredity correlation coefficient might be high.”
    Comment upon the italicized statement.
  2. Outline a correlation study of two economic variables both of which tend to increase steadily with the growth of population, and both of which are sensitive to the fluctuations of the seasons and of the business cycle.
  3. What conditions are essential to simple sampling?
    The expected proportion of accidents per year in a certain industry is 150 per 1000 workers. A company employing 2500 workers reports 405 accidents during the year 1913. Assume that the conditions of simple sampling are met; analyze the returns to determine whether the difference between the actual and expected number of accidents is significant.

 

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History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 (Bullock)

ECONOMICS 14: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 14. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Professor BULLOCK.

The purpose of this course is to trace the development of economic thought from classical antiquity to the middle of the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed upon the relation of economics to philosophical and political theories, as well as to political and industrial conditions.

A considerable amount of reading of prominent writers will be assigned, and opportunity given for the preparation of theses. Much of the instruction is necessarily given by means of lectures.

ECONOMICS 14: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 14. Professor Bullock. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 14: 13 Graduates, 1 Radcliffe.

 

ECONOMICS 14: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. What did the mercantilists teach concerning: (a) economic structure; (b) economic functions; (c) economic ideals; and (d) economic policies?
  2. At what important points does Adam Smith draw upon the works of earlier writers? What important original contributions does he make?
  3. At what points are Smith’s ideas inadequately developed or inconsistent?
  4. What important changes were made in English economic doctrines by Ricardo and Mill?
  5. Give the rest of the examination period to writing an essay upon the life, works, and economic doctrines of any economist prior to Adam Smith.

 

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Analytical Sociology (Anderson)

ECONOMICS 18a1: Course Announcement [1916-17]

[Economics] 18a 1hf. Analytical Sociology. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 3.30. Asst. Professor ANDERSON.

The centre of this course will be in the problems of social psychology: the raw stuff of human nature, and its social transformations; imitation, suggestion and mob-mind; the individual and the social mind; social control and the theory of social forces; the relation of intellectual and emotional factors in social life. These problems will be studied in their relations to the whole field of social theory, which will be considered in outline, with some emphasis on the influence of physiographic factors and of heredity. Leading contemporary writers will be studied, and some attention will be given to the history of social theory. Instruction will be by lectures, discussion, and reports.

ECONOMICS 18a2: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 18a 2hf. Asst. Professor Anderson. — Analytical Sociology.

Total 18: 16 Graduates, 2 Seniors.

 

ECONOMICS 18a2: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. What is the bearing of the Mendelian theory on social problems?
  2. What difference does it make for sociology whether or not we accept the doctrine of the inheritance of acquired characters? To what extent, if at all, and in what connections, does Giddings make use of this doctrine? How far, if at all, are his conclusions incompatible with Weismann’s doctrine?
  3. Explain what is meant by the “social mind.” By “social values.”
  4. Summarize the theory of McGee as to the origin of agriculture.
  5. Compare the views of Boas and W. B. Smith as to the comparative roles of race and environment in the case of the American negro. What is your own view?
  6. What did you get from your reading of Tarde? Of Le Bon? of Ross’ Social Psychology? Let your summaries be brief, but not vague! Differentiate the books.
  7. Summarize Giddings’ chapter on Demogenic Association.
  8. Illustrate the social transformation of the raw stuff of human nature by the case of either the instinct of workmanship, the sex instinct, or the instinct of flight and hiding.
  9. What reading have you done for this course?

 

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Public Finance (Bullock)

ECONOMICS 31: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 31. Public Finance. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. Professor BULLOCK.

The course is devoted to the examination of the financial institutions of the principal modern countries, in the light of both theory and history. One or more reports calling for independent investigation will ordinarily be required. Special emphasis will be placed upon questions of American finance. Ability to read French or German is presupposed.

ECONOMICS 31: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 31. Professor Bullock. — Public Finance.

Total 16: 14 Graduates, 2 Seniors.

 

ECONOMICS 31: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. If you were writing a treatise on public finance how far would you utilize Adam Smith’s chapter on taxation?
  2. What is Eheberg’s opinion concerning any two of the following taxes: the Ertragssteuern, the Wehrsteuer, and the property tax?
  3. What is Leroy-Beaulieu’s opinion concerning any two of the following taxes: octrois, increment taxes, and the French patente?
  4. With what different opinions concerning the incidence of the house tax are you familiar? State briefly your own opinion.
  5. Discuss the doctrine that consumption taxes tend to be “absorbed,” and state your opinion concerning the practical conclusions that follow from it.
  6. What is the incidence of the usual tax on mortgages in the United States?
  7. Compare French and British direct taxation.
  8. State the principles upon which a policy of public borrowing should be based. Should public debts be extinguished?

 

Sources:

Enrollment data: 

Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1915-1916, pp. 59-61.

Examinations (except where noted):

Harvard University. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College (June, 1916), pp. 45-63.

Course Announcements: 

Division of History, Government, and Economics 1914-15 printed in Official Register of Harvard University, Volume XI, No. 1, Part 14 (May 19, 1914), pp. 62-70.

Division of History, Government, and Economics 1916-17 printed in Official Register of Harvard University, Volume XIII, No. 1, Part 11 (May 15, 1916), pp. 61-69.

Image Source:

Card catalog in Widener Library at Harvard University, ca. 1915. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.