Author: Irwin Collier

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Curriculum Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Francis Bowen’s Final Exam for Political Economy, 1869

 

 

While collecting old economics examination questions at the Harvard University Archives, I happened to come across a final examination for Political Economy from the pre-Dunbar years. The senior year course during the academic year 1868-69 was taught by Francis Bowen who assigned his own textbook, The Principles of Political Economy applied to the Condition, the Resources, and the Institutions of the American People (2nd edition, 1859). In the following year (1870) Bowen published American Political Economy; including Strictures of the Currency and the Finances since 1861. One probably can presume his lectures were closer to the latter of the two books. 

For this post I have included Bowen’s obituary published by the Harvard Crimson as well as a summary of the Harvard College curriculum in 1868-69 as published in the annual report of the President of Harvard College.

 

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Bowen’s Examination Questions

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

  1. Explain the difference between the laws of England, France, and the United States in respect to the rights of inheritance and bequest of real estate and personal property, showing the economical results of each of the three systems.
  2. What are the Metayer system, the Allotment system, Tenant Right, the Cottier Tenure, Peasant Proprietors, and the advantages and disadvantages of each?
  3. Show the difference between Exchange Value, Market Price, and Cost of Production. What is the law of the Equation of Demand and Supply?
  4. Wherein does Monopoly or a Scarcity Value differ from ordinary Cost of Production? According to Ricardo, is Rent an element in the Cost of Production;–and why.
  5. How is the interchange of commodities between distant countries regulated not by their absolute, but their comparative, Cost of Production? Explain the Equation of International Demand, and show the influence of cost of carriage on International Values.
  6. By what is the Rate of Interest regulated? Does this Rate depend on the Value of Money? How does it affect the price of land?
  7. What are the fundamental rules of Taxation? Distinguish between Direct and Indirect taxation:–what provision in the Constitution of the United States on this subject? How ought this provision to affect the Income Tax?
  8. What effect has the Rate of Taxation on the amount of revenue collected? Ought taxes to be at the same rate on large and small incomes?
  9. When did the National Debts begin, and wherein do they differ from private debts? What is the Funding of a National Debt?
  10. How came both England and the United States to be in debt for a much larger amount than they ever received from their creditors? What are the arguments in favor of paying off a National Debt within the lifetime of the generation that contracted it?

Sen. Ann. June, 1869.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final Examinations 1853-2001. Box 1, Folder “Final examinations, 1868-1869”.

 

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An Obituary for Francis Bowen

Francis Bowen.
Harvard Crimson, January 22, 1890

Late yesterday afternoon it was announced that Professor Francis Bowen had died at his home at one o’clock of heart failure. He was born on September 8, 1811, at Charleston, Mass., and was therefore in his seventy-ninth year. In 1833 he was graduated from the college in the same class with Professor Lovering, Professor Torrey, Dr. M. Wyman, Professor J. Wyman, and the late Dr. George E. Ellis of Boston. During the four years following his graduation he was an instructor here in intellectual philosophy and political economy. In 1843 he succeeded Dr. Palfrey as editor and proprietor of the North American Review which he conducted until 1854. He was appointed professor of history in the college in 1850, but the board of overseers refused to confirm the appointment on account of his unpopular views on politics. Three years later, however, he was unanimously confirmed as Alford professor to succeed Dr. Walker. In this capacity he continued to serve the college until December, 1889, when he resigned the professorship; so that he has been in active service over thirty-six years. He was a prompt and constant attendant at lectures and always interested in his work. Of late years he has done only half-work and is not well-known to many of the undergraduates. But his influence on the graduates has been remarkably strong, many of them remembering him with the greatest affection.

In the early days of the Lowell Institute he was one of the most popular lecturers in the country. In 1848-9 he lectured before the Institute on the application of metaphysical and ethical science to the evidences of religion; in 1850 on political economy; in 1852, on the origin and development of the English and American constitutions; and subsequently on English philosophers from Bacon to Sir William Hamilton. The most of these lectures were subsequently published. He also published an annotated edition of Virgil, Critical Essays on the History and Present Condition of Speculative Philosophy, Principles of Political Economy, a text book on Logic, Sir William Hamilton’s essays on metaphysics, condensed and edited, and not more than five years ago he prepared the report of the U. S. Silver Commission. In 1879 the degree of L. L. D. was conferred upon him by the University, an honor fifty crowning his years of usefulness. The last years of his life have been quiet and uneventful.

 

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Overview of Harvard College Courses of Instruction, 1868-69

APPENDIX.
I.

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF THE COURSE OF INSTRUCTION PURSUED IN THE SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY DURING THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1868-69.

I. ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT.

 

  1. RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

INSTRUCTION in Ethics and in Christian Evidences was given by the Acting President. During the First Term he heard recitations from the Freshman Class, twice a week, in Champlin’s First Principles of Ethics, and Bulfinch’s Evidences of Christianity.

During the Second Term he met the Senior Class twice a week, hearing them recite in Peabody’s Christianity the Religion of Nature, and delivering Lectures on the Christian Scriptures and the Evidences of Christianity. During the entire year the service of Daily Prayers was attended by him; and he supplied the Chapel pulpit on Sunday.

Two hundred and seventy-five students had leave of absence from Cambridge to pass Sunday at home; one hundred and forty-five attended worship in the College Chapel; and one hundred and sixteen attended other churches in Cambridge.

 

  1. PHILOSOPHY.

The means of instruction in this Department are recitations familiarly illustrated at the time by the Professor, lectures occasionally substituted for recitations, and written forensic exercises.

The Department was under the charge of Francis Bowen, A. M., Alford Professor, assisted by William W. Newell, A.B., Instructor in Philosophy. During the First Academic Term the Senior Class recited three times a week in Bowen’s Ethics and Metaphysics, and Bowen’s Political Economy. During a portion of the Second Term the same Class recited twice a week in Bowen’s Ethics and Metaphysics. An elective section of the same class also recited three times a week in Mill’s Examination of Sir W. Hamilton’s Philosophy, Schwegler’s History of Philosophy, Mansel’s Limits of Religious Thought, and Bowen’s Essays. The Junior Class recited twice a week to Mr. Newell in Bowen’s Logic, Reid’s Essays, and Hamilton’s Metaphysics. The Sophomores recited to Mr. Newell twice a week during one term in Stewart’s Philosophy of the Mind.

Forensics were read, in the First Term, once a month by the Seniors, half of the Class attending each fortnight. The Juniors also read Forensics once a month during one term.

 

  1. RHETORIC AND ORATORY.

This Department is under the superintendence of Francis J. Child, Ph. D., Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, assisted in the teaching of Elocution by James Jennison, A. M. Instruction was given to elective sections of the three higher classes in the Early English Language and Literature.

Sophomores had two lessons a week, and studied Vernon’s Anglo-Saxon Guide and Morris’s Specimens of Early English.

Juniors had three lessons a week, and studied Vernon’s Anglo-Saxon Guide, Morris’s Specimens, and Morris’s edition of the Prologues and Knightes Tale from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

The Senior section read Thorpe’s Analecta Anglo-Saxoniea and Mätzner’s Altenglische Sprachproben.

One fifth of the Sophomore Class wrote Themes, and attended a critical exercise upon them, each week throughout the year.

The Juniors wrote Themes, and attended a critical exercise upon them, once every three weeks during the First Term.

The Senior Class had four Themes during the Second Term.

The inspection of performances for Commencement and for the other public Exhibitions is committed to this Department.

The foregoing statement relates to the duties of the Professor.

There are separate courses of instruction in Elocution, and in Reading, which are wholly under the care of the Tutor in Elocution.

The Sophomores and Freshmen attended him once every week during the year as required, and he gave instruction to extra sections from all the classes.

He superintended rehearsals of performances for the Public Exhibitions of the year; the final rehearsal for each of which is regularly attended by the Professor.

 

  1. HISTORY.

In this Department instruction was given to the whole Senior Class by Professor Torrey and Professor Gurney; the textbooks used being the Abridgment of Story’s Commentaries on the Constitution, Guizot’s Civilization in Europe, Arnold’s Lectures, and Hallam’s Middle Ages. An elective class read with Professor Torrey May’s Constitutional History and Mill on Representative Government. A special examination was held of students who had offered themselves as candidates for Honors after having pursued an additional course of study.

The Sophomore Class recited to Professor Gurney in “ The Student’s Gibbon ” during the First Term.

The Freshman Class recited to Mr. Lewis, in the Second Term, in Duruy’s “Histoire Grecque.”

 

  1. MODERN LANGUAGES.

This Department is under the superintendence of James R. Lowell, A. M., Smith Professor of the French and Spanish Languages, and Professor of Belles-Lettres. Elbridge J. Cutler, A. B., Assistant Professor, has special charge of the instruction in French and German. Bennett H. Nash, A. M., is instructor in Italian and Spanish. Thomas S. Perry, A. M., is Tutor of Modern Languages. Louis C. Lewis, A. M., was Tutor of Modern Languages during the last year.

French is a required study during the First Term of the Freshman year; and Ancient History is taught from a French textbook during the Second Term of that year. French is an elective study during the Senior year. German is a required study during the Sophomore year; and an elective during the Junior and Senior years. During the last year the Sophomores studied French instead of German, they having failed to study French during their Freshman year, for reasons given in the last Annual Report. Spanish is studied as an extra, i. e. without marks, during the Junior year, and as an elective during the Senior year. Italian is an elective in the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years, and the students are allowed to study Italian during any one or two of these three years; but no Senior beginning Italian is allowed to receive marks for the same.

The Professor gave a course of lectures to the Seniors during the Second Term.

The Assistant Professor taught elective German to the Seniors in two sections, three times a week throughout the year. Text-books, Otto’s and Weisse’s German Grammars, “Egmont,” “Taugenichts,” “Braune Erica,” Schiller’s “Maria Stuart,” and Goethe’s “Wahrheit und Dichtung.” He also taught elective French to the Seniors in two sections, three times a week. Textbooks, Beaumarchais’s “Barbier de Seville,” La Fontaine’s Fables, Racine’s “Athalie,” “Selections from French Prose-Writers,” and Pylodet’s “ Littérature Française.”

Instruction was given in Italian as follows :—

To a section of the Senior Class, in three recitations a week. This section read portions of Tasso’s “Gerusalemme ” and of Dante’s “Divina Commedia,” upon which the Instructor gave explanatory lectures. The section also handed in written translations from English into Italian, and had exercises in writing Italian from dictation. They had one written examination beside the annual examination.

To a section of the Junior Class, in two recitations a week. The textbooks used were Cuore’s Grammar, Nota’s “La Fiera,” and Dall’ Ongaro’s “La Rosa dell’ Alpi.” They attended one private written examination, practised writing Italian from dictation, and gave in written translations from English into Italian.

To two sections of the Sophomore Class. Each section had two recitations a week in the same text-books as the Juniors. Each section was exercised in writing Italian from dictation. Beside the annual examination at the close of the Second Term, the Sophomores attended three written examinations.

Instruction was given in Spanish as follows : —

To a section of the Senior Class, which attended three recitations a week, and read Moratin’s “El sí de las niñas,” Lope de Vega’s “La Estrella de Sevilla,” and portions of “Don Quijote.” This section wrote Spanish from dictation, and also translations from English into Spanish. They had one private examination in writing, beside the Annual Examination at the close of the Second Term.

To a section of the Junior Class, which recited twice a week, studying Josse’s Grammar and Reader, and portions of Le Sage’s “Gil Blas.”

 

  1. LATIN.

During the last year this Department was under the superintendence of George M. Lane, Ph. D., University Professor of Latin, aided by Mr. James B. Greenough and Mr. Prentiss Cummings, Tutors. The instruction of the Senior and Junior Classes was conducted by Professor Lane, that of the Sophomore Class by Mr. Cummings, and that of the Freshman Class by Mr. Greenough.

Instruction was given to the Freshman Class in Lincoln’s Selections from Livy (two Books), the Odes of Horace, Cicero’s Cato Major, Roman Antiquities, and in writing Latin:

To the Sophomore Class, in Cicero’s Laelius, Cato Major, and Select Epistles; Terence’s Phormio, Eunuchus, and Adelphi; Quintus Curtius, selections from Ovid, Seneca’s Hercules Furens, and in Writing Latin:

To the Junior Class, in Horace’s Satires, Tacitus’s Annals, and Juvenal :

To the Seniors, in Juvenal, Cicero de Deorum Natura, Lucretius, and Plautus, in the regular elective division. Besides this, instruction was given to the candidates for Honors, in Tacitus and in Latin Composition.

 

  1. GREEK.

The Greek Department, in the absence of William W. Goodwin, Ph. D., Eliot Professor of Greek Literature, was under the charge of Evangelinus A. Sophocles, LL.D., University Professor of Ancient, Byzantine, and Modern Greek, and Isaac Flagg, A. M., and William H. Appleton, A.M., Tutors in Greek.

The Freshmen were instructed by Mr. Flagg and Mr. Appleton. They were divided into four sections, and attended four recitations a week during each Term, besides exercises in Greek Composition. The text-books were Xenophon’s Memorabilia, the Odyssey, and Lysias.

The Sophomores were instructed by Mr. Flagg. They recited twice a week, in four sections, and read the Prometheus of Aeschylus, the Birds of Aristophanes, and the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes. The elective section in advanced Greek read also Plato’s Apology and Crito, the Alcestis of Euripides, and half of the First Book of Herodotus. The Class was also instructed in Greek Composition.

An elective section of Juniors read the first three books of Polybius with Professor Sophocles. A section of Juniors read Aeschines, and Demosthenes on the Crown with Mr. Flagg.

An elective section of Seniors read Plato’s Apology and Crito, and the Electra of Sophocles with Mr. Flagg; and another section read the Antigone of Sophocles, the Alcestis of Euripides, and Thucydides with Professor Sophocles.

 

  1. HEBREW.

This Department, vacant the First Term, was filled the Second Term by Rev. Edward J. Young, Hancock Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental Languages, who gives instruction twice a week to such students as desire it.

 

  1. NATURAL HISTORY.

This Department, now wholly elective, was, in the absence of Professor Gray, under the care of Wm. T. Brigham, A.M.

The course was attended by sixty-four Students of the Junior Class; and the instruction was given by recitations in Structural Botany, lectures on Vegetable Physiology and Organography, and practical work in plant-analysis with the microscope, followed by oral and written examinations. Each student was occupied three hours each week in the lecture-room. From the Thanksgiving recess to the end of the First Term the Class attended recitations and lectures on Animal Physiology and Anatomy, under the care of Jeffri9es Wyman, M. D.

 

  1. ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.

A course of twenty Lectures on the Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrated Animals was delivered during the First Term, to members of the Senior Class, and to members of the Professional Schools, by Jeffries Wyman, M.D., Hersey Professor of Anatomy. The Lectures were given on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 12 M. During the second half of the First Term, fifty members of the Junior Glass attended recitations from a text-book on Physiology, on Wednesdays and Fridays, from 10 to 12 A.M.

 

  1. CHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGY.

The instruction in this Department was given by Josiah P. Cooke, A.M., Erving Professor, and George A. Hill, A.B., Tutor in Physics and Chemistry. During the First Term the Sophomore Class studied Cooke’s Chemical Physics, reciting in three divisions twice each week, and passing two private examinations during the Term. In the Second Term the same Class studied “The First Principles of Chemical Philosophy,” passing one private examination, and the usual public examination at the end of the year. They also attended a course of Lectures, one each week, on General Chemistry.

Those of the Junior Class who elected this department attended during the whole year a course of instruction in Practical Chemistry, giving their attendance in the Laboratory six hours each week, in addition to the three regular hours of recitation. The text-books used were Galloway’s Qualitative Chemical Analysis and Cooke’s Chemical Philosophy; but the course is specially designed to train the faculties of observation and to teach the methods of scientific study, and hence the greater part of the instruction is necessarily oral. The course of Lectures on General Chemistry begun in the Second Term of the Sophomore was continued during the First Term of the Junior Year, two each week until the end of the Term.

Those of the Senior Class who elected Chemical Physics received instruction in Crystallography during the First Term (the text-book used being Cooke’s Chemical Physics), and during the Second Term in Blowpipe Analysis and in Mineralogy, the course consisting of Lectures and practical instruction in the laboratory and cabinet. Elderhorst’s Blowpipe Analysis and Dana’s Manual of Mineralogy were used as books of reference.

 

  1. PHYSICS.

During the last academic year instruction in this Department was conducted by George A. Hill, A.B., Tutor in Chemistry and Physics. Joseph Lovering, A.M., Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, was absent in Europe through the year, so that the usual courses of Lectures on Physics to the Senior and Junior Classes were not given.

The whole Junior Class recited to Mr. Hill three times a week during the First and Second Terms; and read Herschel’s Outlines of Astronomy and Lardner’s Course of Natural Philosophy [Optics]. This Class was examined at the end of the Second Term in both books.

The Class recited in three Divisions; each Division remaining with the instructor one hour at every exercise; in all nine hours a week.

 

  1. MATHEMATICS.

The instruction in this Department was given by Benjamin Peirce, LL.D., Perkins Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics; James Mills Peirce, A.M., Assistant Professor of Mathematics; Edwin P. Seaver, A.M., Tutor; and George V. Leverett, A.B., Instructor.
The Freshman Class recited, throughout the year, in four sections three times in the week, and in two sections, once in the week, from the following text-books: Peirce’s Plane and Solid Geometry, and Peirce’s Algebra. The Freshmen were also instructed in Plane Trigonometry.
The study of Mathematics was elective during the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years.
In the Sophomore year the instruction in Pure and Applied Mathematics was arranged in four courses of two lessons a week each, and Students were allowed to elect one or more of these courses. The subjects taught were Analytic Geometry (Puckle’s Conic Sections, and lectures on the Elements of Analytic Geometry of Three Dimensions), the Differential Calculus (lectures and examples), Spherical Trigonometry
(lectures and examples), Elementary Mechanics (Goodwin and Kerr), and the Theory of Sound (Peirce).
Instruction was given to those who elected Mathematics in the Junior and Senior years, by lectures and recitations, on three days in the week, throughout the year, in Differential, Imaginary, Integral, and Residual Calculus, in the Calculus of Quaternions, and in the Mathematical Theory of Mechanics and Astronomy.
Applied Mathematics (Kerr’s Elementary Mechanics) was also an elective study in the Junior year.

[…]

 

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION FOR THE ACADEMICAL YEAR, 1868-69.

[…]

SENIOR CLASS.
FIRST TERM.

  1. Philosophy. Bowen’s Ethics and Metaphysics.—Bowen’s Political Economy.—Forensics.
  2. Modern History. Guizot’s and Arnold’s Lectures.—Story’s Abridged Commentaries on the Constitution.

ELECTIVE AND EXTRA STUDIES.

  1. Philosophy. Mill’s Examination of Hamilton’s Philosophy.—Last 140 pages of Bowen’s Logic.
  2. Mathematics. Peirce’s Analytic Mechanics.
  3. History. May’s Constitutional History.—Mill on Representative Government.
  4. Chemistry. Crystallography and Physics of Crystals.
  5. Greek. The Antigone of Sophocles.—The Alcestis of Euripides.
  6. Latin. Juvenal.—Cicero de Deorum Natura.—Tacitus’s Annals and Latin Exercises, with an extra Division.
  7. German. Goethe’s Egmont.—Schiller’s Wallenstein’s Lager und Maria Stuart.—Exercises in Writing German.
  8. French. Mennechet’s Littérature Française Classique.—La Fontaine’s Fables.—Writing French.
  9. Advanced Spanish. Moratin’s El sí de las niñas.—Lope de Vega’s La Estrella di Sevilla.
  10. Advanced Section. Tasso’s Gerusalemme.
  11. English. Thorpe’s Analecta Anglo-Saxonica.—Mätzner’s Alt-englische Sprachproben.
  12. Modern Literature. Lectures.
  13. Patristic and Modern Greek.
  14. Geology. Lectures.
  15. Anatomy. Lectures.

SECOND TERM.

  1. History. Hallam’s Middle Ages, one volume.
  2. Religious Instruction.
  3. Political Economy. Bowen’s, finished.
  4. Rhetoric. Themes.

 

ELECTIVE AND EXTRA STUDIES.

  1. Philosophy. Schwegler’s History of Philosophy (Selections).—Mansel’s Limits of Religious Thought.—Exercises and Lectures.
  2. Mathematics. Peirce’s Analytic Mechanics.—Lectures on Quaternions.
  3. Greek. Thucydides, First two Books.—Homer’s Iliad, Book IV.
  4. Latin. Lucretius and Plautus (Selections).
  5. History. Constitutional History.—Constitution of the United States, and the Federalist.
  6. Chemistry. Mineralogy and Determination of Minerals.
  7. German. Die Braune Erika.—Goethe’s Hermann and Dorothea.—Faust.—Writing German.
  8. French. Mennechet’s Littérature Française Classique.—Molière’s Misanthrope.—Beaumarchais’s Barbier.—Lessons in French Pronunciation.
  9. Advanced Spanish. Don Quijote.
  10. Advanced Section. Dante’s Divina Commedia.
  11. English. Studies of First Term continued.
  12. Zoölogy. Lectures.
  13. Modern Literature. Lectures.
  14. Patristic and Modern Greek.

[…]

 

The required studies of the Senior Class are History, Philosophy, and Ethics (together five hours a week). The elective studies are Greek, Latin, Mathematics, Physics, Chemical Physics, History, Philosophy, and Modern Languages (French, German, Italian, and Spanish). In each elective department there will be three exercises a week. Each Senior may choose three or two electives (at his pleasure), and receive marks for the same. Special students for honors may be permitted to devote the whole nine hours to two elective departments, under such restrictions as may be prescribed. Marks will be allowed in Modern Languages in the Senior year to advanced students only.

 

 

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1868-69.

Image Source:  Portrait of Francis Bowen from the Harvard Square Library (Unitarian Universalism). The Harvard Book: Portraits.

 

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. Business Organization and Control. Mason and Kaysen, 1950-51

 

The frequency of posting has been reduced during this three week trip to archives for more material. From yesterday’s haul from the Harvard archives I have transcribed the syllabus for an industrial organization and regulation course taught at mid-century by Edward S. Mason and Carl Kaysen.

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Economics 261 (formerly Economics 161a and 162b). Business Organization and Control

Full course. Mon., Wed., Fri., and 3. Professor Mason and Assistant Professor Kaysen.

 

Source: Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (Sept. 1950), p. 86.

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Obituary: IN MEMORY OF Carl Kaysen
February 9, 2010

Twenty years ago, as the crumbling of the Berlin Wall signaled the end of the Cold War, Carl Kaysen wrote an essay whose title asked: “Is War Obsolete?” Coming from someone else, the question might have seemed rhetorical or whimsical, but Dr. Kaysen’s career brought to his musings the force of history.

He was President John F. Kennedy’s personal representative to talks that resulted in the 1963 signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty to prevent nuclear bomb tests in the atmosphere, underwater, and outer space. He succeeded J. Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the Manhattan Project, as director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.

John Kenneth Galbraith, the noted economist who died in 2006, once called Dr. Kaysen “the most widely read, the most widely informed man I know.”

“He was a very wise man, one of Kennedy’s wisest counselors,” said Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy’s special counsel and speechwriter.

Dr. Kaysen, a professor emeritus of political economy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died in his sleep Feb. 8 at his home in Cambridge. He was 89. His health had failed after a bad fall in October and a decade of battling spinal stenosis.

In the Kennedy administration, Dr. Kaysen was deputy special assistant for national security affairs, a second-in-command to McGeorge Bundy, the president’s national security adviser.

As Kennedy, Bundy, and others spent 13 days and nights of brinksmanship during the Cuban missile crisis, “Carl was essentially in charge of all other White House foreign policy matters during that time,” Sorensen said. “The president had complete confidence in him.”

Dr. Kaysen’s leadership led some in the White House to nickname him the “vice president in charge of the rest of the world.” Reflexively modest, he never trumpeted that role.

“He was low-key, never loud, and maybe that’s why he is an unsung hero,” Sorensen said. “He received much less publicity and attention compared to other people in Kennedy’s White House and inner circle.”

Although Dr. Kaysen’s career as an economist took him to teaching posts at Harvard and MIT, along with the Institute for Advanced Study, his most lasting contribution may lie in his work for Kennedy while negotiating the Partial Test Ban Treaty.

“I think he was the principal officer in the White House helping to shepherd that through,” said Sorensen, who added that he would miss Dr. Kaysen, one of his closest friends.

“He spent his entire life, right up to last week, trying to deflect and change the impulse toward war,” said James Carroll, a columnist for the Globe’s opinion pages who chronicled some of Dr. Kaysen’s contributions in the 2006 book, “House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power.”

Dr. Kaysen “played a pivotal role at what is the pivot of the whole story, when Kennedy basically shifted US policy from arms buildup to arms control,” Carroll said. “Kaysen was critical in putting in place the arms control regime, which ultimately enabled the Soviet Union and the United States to end the conflict nonviolently.”

In his 1990 essay, Dr. Kaysen searched for a way for the world to stop seeing war as inevitable.

“The international system that relies on the national use of force as the ultimate guarantor of security, and the threat of its use as the basis of order, is not the only possible one,” he wrote. “To seek a different system with a more secure and a more humane basis for order is no longer the pursuit of an illusion, but a necessary effort toward a necessary goal.”

Born in Philadelphia, Dr. Kaysen graduated in 1940 with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, then did graduate studies at Columbia University while serving on the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

During World War II, Dr. Kaysen served as an intelligence officer, helping pick targets for bombardiers in the Army Air Corps.

“We invented a form of poetry called bomb damage assessment,” he told Carroll during interviews for “House of War.”

Rather than send planes to bomb civilian areas, Dr. Kaysen and his colleagues sought to specify locations, such as oil refineries, that would hobble the German Army.

After the war, he went to Harvard, where he studied economics and received a master’s and a doctorate. He began teaching at Harvard in the mid-1950s and, except for his work with the Kennedy administration, stayed until 1966, when he became head of the Institute for Advanced Study. He resigned from that position in 1976 and joined MIT’s faculty.

Dr. Kaysen married Annette Neutra, whom he had known since they sat next to each other in first grade, in 1940. They had two daughters, Susanna of Cambridge and Jesse of Madison, Wis., and moved where his career took them: to Washington, D.C., to London on one study grant and Greece on another.

His wife died in 1990. Four years later, he married Ruth Butler, a writer.

“He did great things, but he was extremely modest,” Butler said. “There was a quietness about his sense of his own life that was really enchanting.”

Dr. Kaysen, she added, “had a beautiful voice,” the kind that — combined with his intellect —could dominate any room and any discussion, though he usually chose to avoid doing so.

“He was a famously great teacher,” said Susanna, who wrote the acclaimed memoir “Girl, Interrupted.” “Of course, I never took a class from him, but my whole life was a class from him.”

She said her father, who was known for reading a few books at a time, had tastes that ranged from high culture to popular fare. He could quote the German writer Goethe and liked to listen to jazz pianist Fats Waller.

For decades, Dr. Kaysen was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, and cochaired its Committee on International Security Studies. In 2002, he coauthored “War With Iraq: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives.”

Leslie Berlowitz, CEO of the organization, said with “a very quiet wisdom and a wry, ironic sense of humor,” Dr. Kaysen brought “his wealth of experience in arms control and international negotiations to the academy,” which became a key area of study.

“He was the soul of calm and kindness,” Carroll said of Dr. Kaysen’s leadership at the academy. “He was the most unfailingly gracious person, and was profoundly respectful of other people.”

Dr. Kaysen also leaves a sister, Flora Penaranda, of Bogot·.

A memorial service will be announced.

— Bryan Marquard
The Boston Globe

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Tech. Volume 130, Issue 3 (February 9, 2010).

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READING ASSIGNMENTS
Economics 261a
1950-51

Authorized for purchase by veterans:

R. A. Gordon, Business Leadership in the Large Corporations.
Twentieth Century Fund, Electric Power and Government Policy.

First Week: History and Legal Structure of the Corporation.

Reading:

Purdy, Lindahl and Carter, Corporate Concentration and Public Policy, Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Second, Third, and Fourth Weeks:

Determination of Corporate Income.
Depreciation and Replacement.
Patterns of Corporate Financial Structure.
Flow of Funds—Savings and Investment.

Reading:

A. S. Dewing, Financial Policy of Corporations, either 3rd or 4th Editions; Book III, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6.
Richard Ruggles, National Income and Income Analysis, Chapters 2 and 3.
T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 37, pp. 1-71.
T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 12, Part III.

Fifth Week: Internal Organization of the Corporation.

Reading:

R. A. Gordon, Business Leadership in the Large Corporation, Chapters 3, 4, 12, 13, and 14.
Peter Drucker, Concept of the Large Corporation, Part II.
Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property. Book IV.

Sixth and Seventh Weeks: Economic Concentration and the Position of the Large Corporation.

Reading:

Federal Trade Commission, The Merger Movement.
John Lintner and Keith Butters, “The Effect of Mergers on Industrial Concentration”, Review of Economics and Statistics, February, 1950.
Willard Atkins, George Edwards, and Harold S. Moulton, The Regulation of Security Markets.

Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Weeks: Public Utility Regulation—Electric Power.

The Nature of Public Utilities.
Cost and Demand Structure of the Power Industry.
History and Prospects of Regulation.
Theory of Rate-Making.
Government vs. Private Power Operations; Power in Multi-Purpose Projects.

Reading:

Twentieth Century Fund, Electric Power and Government Policy, Chapter 1; 4; 9, pp. 480-540;10.
Bauer, J., Transforming Public Utility Regulation, Chapters 1 through 8.
W. A. Lewis, Overhead Costs, Chapter 2.
A. M. Henderson, “The Pricing of Public Utility Undertakings”, Manchester School, September, 1947.

Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Weeks: Railroad Transportation.

Demand and Cost Conditions in Transportation.
Structure of Freight Rates.
Interrelations of Freight Rates and Industrial Location.
Railroad Regulation: Aims, Problems and History.
Intercarrier Competition.

Reading:

D. P. Locklin, Economics of Transportation, 3rd Edition, Chapters 2, 3, 7, 8 18, 19.
D. H. Wallace, “Joint and Overhead Costs in Railway Rate-Making”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1934.
C. Dearing and W. Owen. National Transportation Policy, Chapters 9, 11-16 inclusive.
W. A. Lewis, Overhead Costs, Chapter 1.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 261
1950-51
Reading Assignments—Second Term

First Three Weeks:

Cost Behavior and Price Determination.

National Bureau of Economic Research, “Cost Behavior and Price Policy”, Chapters 2, 3, 5, 10, 11.
Fritz Machlup, “Marginal Analysis and Empirical Research”, American Economic Review, September, 1946.
E. G. Nourse, Price Making in a Democracy, Chapters 7, 9, 10, 11.
Blakiston, Survey of Contemporary Economics, Chapters 3, 4.

Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Weeks:

  1. Oligopoly.

W. J. Fellner, Competition Among the Few, Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 7.

  1. Integration and Price Discrimination (Including Basing-Point Systems).

T.N.E.C. Monograph 27, Part VI, The Product Structure of Large Corporations, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5.
D. H. Wallace, Market Control in the Aluminum Industry, Chapters 8, 9, 10 Sec. 3 (pp. 216-224) only, 16.
M. A. Adelman. “The Large Firms and Its Suppliers, Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1949.
Fritz Machlup, The Basing Point System, Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7.
Carl Kaysen. “Review of Machlup”, Review of Economics and Statistics, August, 1950.

  1. Patents and Industrial Research.

A. A. Bright, Jr. and R. Maclaurin, “Introduction of the Flourescent Lamp”, Journal of Political Economy, October, 1943.
R. L. Bishop, “The Patent System and Patent Reform”, (mimeographed).
H. Bergson, “Patents and the Anti-Trust Laws” (mimeographed).

Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Weeks:

Anti-Trust Policy.

T.N.E.C. Monograph 38, A Study of the Concentration and Enforcement of the Federal Anti-Trust Laws.
Other reading to be assigned.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 5. Folder “Economics 1950-51 (2 of 2)”.

 

Image Sources: Edward S. Mason, Harvard Class Album 1950; Carl Kaysen, 1955 fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

 

Categories
Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Thirteen Economics Ph.D. Examinees, 1908-09.

 

 

This posting lists the five graduate students in economics who took their subject examinations for the Ph.D. at Harvard from March 12 through May 21, 1908. The examination committee members, academic history, general and specific subjects are provided along with the doctoral thesis subject, when declared. Lists for 1903-04, 1904-05, 1905-06, 1907-08, 1915-16, and 1926-27 were posted previously. In the same archival box one finds lists for the academic years 1902-03 through 1904-05, 1906-07 through 1913-14, 1915-16, 1917-18 through 1918-19, and finally 1926-27. I only include graduate students of economics (i.e. not included are the Ph.D. candidates in history and government).

Titles and dates of Harvard economic dissertations for the period 1875-1926 can be found here.

________________________________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.

1908-09

Edmund Thornton Miller.

General Examination in Economics, January 7, 1909.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Gay, Sprague, and Mitchell.
Academic History: University of Texas, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-03, 1907-09; A.B. (University of Texas) 1900; A.M. (ibid) 1901; A.M. (Harvard) 1903. Instructor in Political Science, University of Texas, 1904-; Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1908-09.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History since 1750. 4. Money, Banking and Transportation. 5. Public Finance and Financial History. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Public Finance and the Financial History of the United States since 1789.
Thesis Subject: “The Financial History of Texas.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

Charles Edward Persons.

General Examination in Economics, February 25, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Gay, MacDonald, and Ripley.
Academic History: Cornell College (Iowa), 1898-1903; Harvard Graduate School, 1904-05, 1906-09; A.B. (Cornell College) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1905. Instructor in Economics at Wellesley College, 1908-.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History from 1750. 4. Sociology and Social Reform. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Industrial History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The History of the Ten-Hour Law in Massachusetts.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Frank Richardson Mason.

Special Examination in Economics, May 3, 1909.
General Examination passed May 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Bullock, Ripley, Mitchell, and Sprague.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-08; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906. Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1906-08.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Silk Industry in America.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Bullock, and Sprague.

 

Robert Franz Foerster.

Special Examination in Economics, May 12, 1909.
General Examination passed May 21, 1908.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Peabody, Carver, Ripley, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-05; University of Berlin, 1905-06 (Winter Semester); Harvard Graduate School, 1906-09; A.B. (Harvard) 1906. Assistant in Social Ethics (Harvard), 1908-09.
Special Subject: Labor Problems.
Thesis Subject: “Emigration from Italy, with special reference to the United States.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Ripley, and Gay.

 

David Frank Edwards.

General Examination in Economics, May 13, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Ripley, MacDonald, Mitchell, and Sprague.
Academic History: Ohio Wesleyan University, 1899-1903; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-06; A. B. (Ohio Wesleyan) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1906. Teacher, High School of Commerce (Boston), 1907-.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization (and Social Reform). 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 4. Commercial Geography and Foreign Commerce. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: International Trade and Tariff Problems.
Thesis Subject: “The Glass Industry in the United States.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Harley Leist Lutz.

General Examination in Economics, May 14, 1909.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Carver, Gay, MacDonald, and Sprague.
Academic History: Oberlin College, 1904-07; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-09; A. B. (Oberlin) 1907; A.M. (Harvard) 1908. Assistant (Oberlin), 1906-07; Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1908-09.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750, with especial reference to England. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 5. Public Finance and Financial History. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Public Finance and Financial History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “State Control over the Assessment of Property for Local Taxation.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

Joseph Stancliffe Davis.

General Examination in Economics, May 17, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Bullock, Ripley, Mitchell, and Dr. Tozzer.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1904-08; Harvard Graduate School, 1908-09; A. B. (Harvard) 1908; Assistant in Economics (Harvard) 1908-09.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Progress. 4. Money, Banking, and Industrial Organization. 5. History of American Institutions, especially since 1783. 6. Anthropology, especially Ethnology.
Special Subject: Corporations (Industrial Organization).
Thesis Subject: “The Policy of New Jersey toward Business Corporations.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

James Ford.

Special Examination in Economics, May 19, 1909.
General Examination passed May 16, 1906.
Committee: Professors Carver (chairman), Peabody, Ripley, Taussig, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-04; Harvard Graduate School, 1904-06, 1907-09; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906. Robert Treat Paine Travelling Fellow, 1906-07; Assistant, Social Ethics (Harvard), 1907-09.
Special Subject: Social Reform (Socialism, Communism, Anarchism).
Thesis Subject: “Distributive and Productive Coöperative Societies in New England.” (With Professor Carver.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Carver, Peabody, and Taussig.

 

Edmund Ezra Day.

Special Examination in Economics, May 20, 1909.
General Examination passed May 23, 1907.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Ripley, Munro, and Mr. Parker.
Academic History: Dartmouth College, 1901-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-07, 1908-09; S.B. (Dartmouth) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906. Instructor in Economics, Dartmouth College, 1907-.
Special Subject: Public Finance and Financial History of the United States since 1789.
Thesis Subject: “The History of the General Property Tax in Massachusetts.” (With Professor Bullock.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Bullock, Taussig, and Ripley.

 

Clyde Orval Ruggles.

General Examination in Economics, May 20, 1909.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Carver, Taussig, Gay, and MacDonald.
Academic History: Hedrick Normal School, 1895-96; Iowa State Normal School and Teachers’ College of Iowa, 1901-06; State University of Iowa, 1906-07; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-09; A. B. (Teachers’ College) 1906; A.M. (State Univ.) 1907.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology and Social Reform. 3. Statistics. 4. Economic History to 1750, with especial reference to England. 5. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Money and Banking.
Thesis Subject: “The Greenback Movement with especial Reference to Wisconsin and Iowa.” (With Professors Andrew and Mitchell.)

 

Edmund Thornton Miller.

Special Examination in Economics, May 21, 1909.
General Examination passed January 7, 1909.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Mitchell, and Sprague.
Committee on Thesis: Professors Bullock, Taussig, and Mitchell.
(See first item for Academic History etc.)

 

Emil Sauer.

General Examination in Economics, May 21, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Gay, Mitchell, Munro, and Ripley.
Academic History: University of Texas, 1900-03, 1904-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-09; Litt.B. (University of Texas) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1908.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Statistics. 4. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 5. Transportation and Industrial Organization. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 and the Relations between the United States and Hawaii, 1875-1900.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Charles Edward Persons.

Special Examination in Economics, May 24, 1909.
General Examination passed February 25, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Peabody, Bullock, Ripley, and Sprague.
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Bullock, and Ripley.
(See second item for Academic History etc.)

 

Carl William Thompson.

General Examination in Economics, June 2, 1909.
Committee: Professors Carver (chairman), Taussig, Sprague, Ripley, Cole, and MacDonald.
Academic History: Valparaiso College, 1899-1901; University of South Dakota, 1902-03; Harvard Graduate School, 1903-04; A.B. (Valparaiso) 1901; B.O. (ibid) 1901; A.B. (South Dakota) 1903; A.M. (ibid.) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1904. Professor of Economics and Sociology, University of South Dakota.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology and Social Reform. 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 4. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 5. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization.. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: (undecided).
Thesis Subject: (undecided.)

 

Arthur Norman Holcombe.

Special Examination in Economics, June 7, 1909.
General Examination passed April 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Ripley, Bullock, Cole, and Munro.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-09; A.B. (Harvard) 1906; Assistant in Economics (Harvard), 1906-07; Rogers Travelling Fellow, 1907-09
Special Subject: Public Service Industries.
Thesis Subject: ”The Telephone Situation.” (with Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Ripley, and Munro.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D. 1908-09”.

Image Source:  Harvard Gate, ca. 1899. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

Categories
Columbia Economists Harvard Stanford

Columbia Ph.D. alumnus. Two images of Kenneth Arrow.

Kenneth Arrow, one day before turning 90 years old

 

Many economists are sharing their personal memories of Kenneth Arrow. Today I’ll just share the photo heading this post that I took on August 22, 2011, one day before his 90th birthday. Taking a break from working in the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford, I visited Kenneth Arrow in his office to interview him about his own graduate education and memories of Columbia University. 

Those same intense eyes can be seen in his 1936 high-school yearbook photo (Townsend Harris High School in Flushing, NY).

Categories
Chicago Economists

Chicago. J.L. Laughlin Reminisces About Coming to Chicago, 1892

 

 

Another copy of the following brief memoir by the first head of the University of Chicago’s department of political economy is found in the Goodspeed papers at the University of Chicago Archives. The copy transcribed in this post comes from a copy in J. Laurence Laughlin’s papers at the Library of Congress. As persuasive a university president as Chicago’s Harper clearly was, it is pretty clear from below that the generous financial package offered to Laughlin was a necessary part of getting to yes.

___________________________

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE FOUNDING OF THE UNIVERSITY.
J. Laurence Laughlin.

I had left business in Philadelphia and accepted the professorship at Cornell University vacated by E. Benjamin Andrews who had just been elected President of Brown University. I went to Cornell in the Fall of 1890 and remained there during two academic years. In the Fall of 1891 President Harper made a visit to Cornell University, and I first met him at a little reception given at the house of Professor Hale. Later I had a walk with him about the campus, in which we discussed universities and men. Of course, there never entered my head at that time the idea of leaving Cornell. On this occasion I remember President Harper asked me what I thought of Edmond J. James. I happened to be able to sum up my judgment concisely in a number of adjectives which covered the whole case, and I recall President Harper’s interested surprise at the concise characterization.

Later, I think it was in the first week of December, 1891, the Baptist Social Union, of New York City, had a debate on “Silver”, in which Ex-secretary Fairchild and Horace White were on one side, and Senator Stewart, and Representative Newlands, of Nevada, were on the other side. A few days before the meeting I had a telegram saying Ex-secretary Fairchild was ill, and asking me to take his place in the debate. I agreed to do so, and very distinctly recall the occasion which was held at Delmonico’s. The debate evidently stirred up Senator Stewart. I did not know at the time that president Harper was seated at one of the tables below. At the end of the affair President Harper joined me and suggested a long walk before we should feel like retiring. To walk off the effects of my coffee, I agreed. We walked for several hours, bringing up, in the basement restaurant, I think, of the Murray Hill Hotel. While we were disposing of a little supper there the President proposed to me that I should come to Chicago in charge of the Department of Political Economy. It was, of course, a great surprise to me, but I agreed to take it under careful consideration.

A little later I found out that Professor Hale, at Cornell, had also been invited. Then I was urged by the President to come to Chicago and look the situation over. At that time no great endowment had been made for the University, and it might be supposed, as was said by Benjamin Ives Wheeler, that there would be “hard sledding ahead”. Or, as it was expressed by another, “We must have great faith, for it would be like hitching our fortunes to a star”. I recall the interest of Henry W. Sage, who expressed his admiration of Harper as “a man of great faith”, and later when he came to see me in Chicago he wanted to meet the President for that reason. In December, at some time before the Holidays, I came to Chicago, visiting the President at the Grand Pacific Hotel. I believe I also called upon him at the then offices of the University in the Chamber of Commerce building. I was placed in the charge of Frank Frost Abbott to be shown the site of the University. By an unfortunate fate he took me out on the Cottage Grove street cars when a partly melted snow on the ground, blackened by coal soot, gave an impression of Chicago more disagreeable than could now be imagined. Mentally I vowed that a team of wild horses could not drag me to live in such a city. When we reached the grounds the scene was, if possible, still more desolate. Cobb Hall and the Divinity dormitories were then built only to the top of the basement, and this was filled nearly to the brim with green, stagnant , swampy water. It was too swampy to pass eastward across the middle of the present campus. There was no drainage system then, and wide stretches of water extended in pools over the surface here and there. The present site of Haskell was a small pond. Another pond spread out in front of what is now Walker. The only way of getting eastward was to go into the Midway and jump from hummock to hummock. Abbbott had been instructed by the President to show me the progress on the building of the Fair; but the desolate external appearance of the University campus removed all interest in the Fair. I asked to be told the height of the level of this land above the surface of Lake Michigan. Abbott then conducted me to the house of Judge Shorey, who told me the land was eight feet above the level of the lake, and in general removed my depression.

President Harper made strenuous efforts to induce me to accept the appointment before I left Chicago. He brought every possible pressure to bear. I had, by the way, meanwhile lunched with him and Dr. Eri B. Hulburt. Finally I left Chicago without having made up my mind. Some differences arose in regard to what the salary of the head professor should be. After I returned to Ithaca, in consultation with Professor Hale, we felt that we would do a service to the professorial body by trying to put the salaries on a higher basis that had before existed. it was in this way that the salary was fixed at $7,000. I believe that this was not arrived at until we met Messrs. Ryerson and Hutchinson in New York City on their way to Europe. On condition that the salary should be $7,000 both Professor Hale and myself accepted.

In this connection I was consulted regarding Professor von Holst coming from Europe. It happened that I then knew very well Mr. and Mrs. Henry Villard. Mr. Villard was at that time at the height of his railway career. A short time before he had brought over a number of scholars and distinguished men from Europe at the driving the last spike on the Northern Pacific Railroad. Professor von Holst was one of this invited body. I soon discovered that Professor von Holst was getting Mr. Villard’s opinion as to the wisdom of accepting the Chicago position. Then Mr. Villard came to me to know what advice should be given to Professor von Holst. We then canvassed the situation, discussing all the advantages and disadvantages. I think some of these interviews went on before I had signified my own acceptance. One of the things which affected my decision was the policy of President Harper in trying to call the strongest men he could find, whether in Europe or America. This policy undoubtedly affected the acceptance by von Holst, as it did that of many others, no doubt. I was thereby thrown into terms of intimacy with Professor von Holst which continued with increasing ties of affection and friendship until his departure for Europe and his death.

During the following Winter some serious difficulties arose. The graduate bulletin had been put out and some of the proposed plans struck us as possibly undesirable from the point of view of the best development of the University. Of course, opinions must differ. Professor Hale and I might have been right or wrong. At any rate, some differences arose between us and President Harper. He then came to Ithaca at once, and we had long and serious conferences about the fundamental organization of the University. I can remember distinctly when sitting in Professor Hale’s house with him and President Harper, I said, “We have been deciding here very large questions of University policy. It is not right that these far-reaching conclusions should be arrived at on the judgment of two or three professors in consultation with the President. These matters ought to go properly to a body composed of the heads of all the departments of the University, and their opinions should be decisive in forming the University organization with which we should begin work.” I remember clearly how the President, sitting at the end of a sofa, looked up at me and in a flash said, “That’s right! It should be the Senate”. And the Senate was born then and there.

That evening, while sitting in my library until rather late, we found that our differences had been composed. At first they had seemed to us so serious that we had wished to withdraw our acceptances. I mention this because it brought out a special characteristic of the President. It was his open-mindedness. After the most thorough and frank discussion, he was willingly to make adjustment with others. Moreover, difficulties of that sort never left and scars.

In all the days after that, in Ithaca and after I came to Chicago in June, 1892, his enthusiasm and confidence in the future of the University was infectious. His dominating thought in those early days, often expressed to me, was, “Now we must all stand together.”

 

Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Papers of J. Laurence Laughlin. Box 7, Folder “Recollections of the Founding of the University”.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03687, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Columbia Economists

Columbia. Faculty of Political Science Minute in Memory of E.R.A. Seligman, 1939

 

This Columbia Faculty of Political Science minute dedicated to the memory of E.R.A. Seligman is the second biographical item posted for him in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. The earlier item was published in Universities and Their Sons (vol. 2) in 1899.

 

________________________________

Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, 1861-1939

Through the death of Professor Seligman on July 18, the Faculty of Political Science has lost a colleague distinguished in many ways and beloved for many qualities. No member of the University except President Butler has served Columbia for so many years, and none had contributed more as investigator, teacher, editor, and counsellor to its work. What he did for science and for education grew out of a keen interest in social welfare and grew into multiform activities as a philanthropist, a citizen, and an adviser to lawmakers and public officials. Our sorrow at his passing is mingled with pride in his career a life-long effort to make learning help toward solving problems that confront mankind.

Inheritance and environment combined to produce Professor Seligman’s alert intellect and his social sympathies. Born in New York City on April 25, 1861, eleven days after Fort Sumter fell, he was christened Edwin Robert Anderson in honor of its defender. Growing up in a family of vitality, wealth, and wide cultural interests, he responded to the stimulating influences of his circle with remarkable precocity. Even more remarkable was his industry. After studying in the Columbia Grammar School, he entered Columbia College at fourteen. In his senior year the teaching of Professor John W. Burgess focussed his interests upon political science. On graduating at eighteen he chose a scholar’s life despite his father’s wish that he enter the family bank – a choice the more noteworthy because he possessed a quickness in analyzing complicated problems, and ability in negotiation, and drive toward incessant activity that would have won success in business.

In 1879, still only eighteen, he went abroad for post-graduate study. Two years in Germany, and one in France, supplemented by vacations in Italy and England, gave him a broad view of European work in the fields he wished to cultivate and acquainted him with many of the workers. Returning to New York in 1882, he entered this School of Political Science that had just been formed at Columbia, and, at the same time, begin the study of law. Within two years he was awarded the degrees of M.A. and LL.B. and in one year more that of Ph.D.

Promptly appointed to a prize lectureship in the School of Political Science, young Dr. Seligman began his career as a teacher in 1885 – a career that continued for forty-six years. His early courses dealt with the history of economics, railway problems, and tariffs. Presently what he’d like to call a “mere accident of departmental organization” led him to take up public finance. It proved to be a subject admirably suited to one who united capacity for analysis with extraordinary mastery of realistic detail, and unflagging energy.

A notice in the Political Science Quarterly sense of his work in this field:

“Professor Seligman early recognized the practical importance in the scientific interest of incidence and progression and he made these two subjects peculiarly his own province, pushing the analysis to borders far beyond those reached by earlier writers. His monographs in dealing with these topics served as the foundation stones of his reputation. However, as he was drawn into the discussion of the many important fiscal issues that arose during his lifetime, he wrote the luminously on almost every aspect of public finance – on the income tax, the general property tax, the inheritance tax, on war finance, and international double taxation, and on many other topics, dignifying and illuminating every subject he discussed.

“It has been an occasion for regret, particularly by his host of students, that Professor Seligman never published a systematic treatise covering the general field of public finance. His reason for not doing so reveals one of his most appealing characteristics, that in his constant and passionate questing for new truth. He made plans for such a treatise and carried the work forward to an advanced stage; but no draft was ever satisfactory, judged by his own high standard, for he was always modifying and adjusting his views and his analysis in the light of further observation, study and reflection. Only five years before his retirement he published in this Quarterly a remarkable series of articles, entitled “The Social Theory of Fiscal Science”, in which he radically modified many of the fundamental concepts and definitions used in his earlier work. The mind of Professor Seligman continued to grow until the very end. It would not be surprising if his monumental theory of fiscal science, the fruit of his last seven years since retirement, should prove, when published, to be the most valuable and significant of his contributions.”

In addition to the enormous amount of work devoted to his “specialty”, Professor Seligman somehow found time and energy for other undertakings that would have overtasked most mortals. He helped to organize the first university settlement in this country, and later served both Greenwich House and the Neighborhood Guild. He took an effective share in fighting the spoils system in local government, and was among the founders of the City Club of New York and the Bureau of Municipal Research. Housing reform was one of his life-long interests. The Society for Ethical Culture counted him among its staunchest supporters. Though he grew up in a great city and made his home there, he loved nature, and labored with the characteristic shrewdness and vigor for the preservation of wildlife.

Economists are grateful to Professor Seligman not only for his scientific contributions but also for the active party took in founding the American Economic Association, for the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences which he did more than anyone else to turn from a dream into an accomplishment, and for the loving care with which he assembled his great collection of books relating to the development of economics. Purchased by Columbia, the Seligman Library ranks high among the University’s treasures, and will be used for generations to come by scholars who are interested in the gradual unfolding of men’s thoughts about their social institutions.

All who believe in liberty of thought are indebted to him for wise and forceful championship of academic freedom. Long before the American Association of University Professors was founded, he had defended scholars who were under fire for expressing what they held to be true, and he kept this course through praise and blame after many others had rallied to his side. What he said carried weight because he stressed the duty of a teacher to maintain a scientific attitude in discussing controversial issues not less strongly than he stressed the duty of administrators and trustees to remember the Bill of Rights.

As the years went on, the calls for his help multiplied beyond any man’s power to meet. Especially was his advice sought upon questions of public finance. No one has contributed so much directly and through pupils, to improve the fiscal systems of American governments, local, state and national. Generously as he gave time to philanthropic and public service, he never neglected his university duties. Year after year he taught classes that grew in size, and carried the burden of administration for his department. He served long terms as editor of the Political Science Quarterly and of the Columbia Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law. His acts of kindness to youthful colleagues and his students are memories treasured by many in our circle, and by more who are far away.

Recognition came to him in abundance – honorary degrees, medals, membership in foreign academies, decorations. His numerous books were translated into many tongues. And every quarter of the globe he had devoted pupils and friends, from Ambedkar of the Untouchables in India, to Lord Stamp in Great Britain and the Chief Justice of the United States. We who had the privilege of working by his side wherever the qualities to which his friendship, fame, and honors were spontaneous tributes, and shall seek to emulate as best we can the example he set of on resting search for knowledge.

 

Source: Columbia University Archives. Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science, 1920-1939. November 17, 1939, pp. 856-859.

________________________________

Columbia Honors Late Dr. Seligman

The late Dr. Edwin R. A. Seligman, economist and tax authority will be honored at a Memorial meeting sponsored by Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler and trustees of Columbia University in Low Memorial Library at 4:30 P, M. today.

Dr. Butler will read a letter from Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice of the United States, extolling Professor Seligman, who died July 18. Dr. Seligman was a member of the Columbia teaching staff for fifty-four [sic, 45] years, and was professor emeritus from 1931 until his death.

 

Source: Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume LXIII, Number 52, 13 December 1939.

Image Source: Clipping from portrait in American Economic Review, 1943.

 

Categories
Economists M.I.T.

MIT. No Job Offer to Frank D. Graham, 1942

 

 

From the following copy of a letter written by MIT President Karl Taylor Compton in June 1942 to the distinguished professor of international finance at Princeton, Frank D. Graham (1890-1949), we see that MIT at least considered adding a prominent senior person to its economic department but in the end decided to stick with the strategy of hiring young economists of promise. Graham, a Frank Taussig student, earned his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1920.

In Memoriam: Frank Dunstone Graham 1890-1949, The American Economic Review, Vol. 40, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Sixty-second Annual Meeting of the American Economic Asociation (May, 1950), pp. 585-587.

 

____________________

 

Office of the President
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

COPY

June 23, 1942

Personal

Professor Frank D. Graham
Department of Economics and Social Institutions
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J.

Dear Frank:

I am returning the copy of the very fine testimonial to you from your recent group of graduate students, and was interested to receive your letter supplementing our conversation at the time of your visit.

So far as I can evaluate our situation in Economics, I do not believe that we would be justified or able to offer you a position which would be anywhere near appropriate to a person of your attainments and distinction. With the limitations of our resources it is generally agreed that our best procedure is to try to assemble a group of very promising younger men, giving them the best opportunities for professional development which we can offer and hoping to hold at least some of them permanently on the staff. This is the program which Professor Freeman has been following and I am decidedly enthusiastic about the younger group which he has in the department at the present time.

It is conceivable that some situation might develop which would require a reevaluation of our program. In fact, we have scheduled for early July a thorough study of our personnel situation in this department. It seems to me, however, that any change in the situation which would make it possible for us to offer you an appropriate position would be the result of some presently unexpected occurrence.

I am sorry that this reply is not more constructive because the possibility of your attachment to our staff is very intriguing to me, both on personal and on professional grounds. Professor Freeman and I are both glad to have had this possibility suggested to us, even though it seems remote, and I shall certainly let you know it there is any turn in the situation which might open up the possibility which we have discussed.

Very sincerely yours

President

KTC/L

 

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries. MIT. Office of the President, 1930-1956. Records, 1930-1959. Box 93, Folder 7 “Freeman, R. E.”.

Image Source: Princeton Yearbook, The Bric-a-Brack 1942.

Categories
Harvard Statistics Syllabus

Harvard. Syllabus for Undergraduate Course, Economic Statistics. Frickey, 1940-41

 

In the last post we saw the final exam for the course taught by Edwin Frickey on Economic Statistics at Harvard during the first term of the 1938-39 year. The earliest syllabus for this course that I have been able to  find comes from the collection of course outlines at the Harvard Archives. The syllabus was unchanged (except updating for the current academic year) from 1940-41 through 1946-47.

_____________________________

 

Course Listing

Economics 21a 1hf. Introduction to Economic Statistics

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Associate Professor Frickey.

Two hours a week laboratory work are required.

 

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1940-41. (First edition). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII, No. 31 (May 21, 1940), p. 56.

_____________________________

 

Course Enrollment

Economics 21a 1hf. Associate Professor Frickey.—Introduction to Economic Statistics

Total 92: 10 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 23 Juniors, 31 Sophomores, 5 Others.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of the Departments, 1940-41, p. 58.

_____________________________

 

Economics 21a
1940-41

References:

C.P.T.—Crum, Patton and Tebutt, Economic Statistics;
N.P.—mimeographed Notes and Problems

 

  1. Introduction to Course

Outline of course. Relation of statistics to economics. Elementary concepts. Introductory problem, designed to get students familiar with sources and the nature of statistical analysis in economics.

C.P.T., Ch. I

  1. The Description of a Statistical Series by Charts, Tables, and Statistical Measures

The description of a statistical series by these various devices; the condensing of information. Principles of table and chart construction, illustrated by laboratory work. The description of a statistical series by statistical measures, developed by means of an example—the study of profits and certain economic problems connected therewith. Averages, dispersion, skewness: the criterion for choice of statistical measures; technique of computation; basis for critical judgment.

C.P.T., Chs. V to IX, XI, XII, XIV.
N.P., pp. 81-90, 111-119, 131-132, 161-167.

  1. Index Numbers

Use of index numbers in economics. Basic concepts. Points of view as to the nature of an index number. The simpler methods of computation—weighted aggregate, arithmetic mean of relatives, geometric mean of relatives—and the assumptions behind them. The Fisher formula: advantages and limitations. Various aspects of the problem of weighting. Non-technical discussion of topic of “bias,” indicating its practical importance.

C.P.T., Chs. XVIII, XIX.
N.P., pp. 201-233.
Bulletin No. 284, U.S.B.L.S. (Wesley C. Mitchell on Price Index Numbers), first half of pamphlet.

  1. Time Series

Use of index numbers in economics. Basic concepts. Points of view as to the nature of an index number. The simpler methods of computation—weighted aggregate, arithmetic mean of relatives, geometric mean of relatives—and the assumptions behind them. The Fisher formula: advantages and limitations. Various aspects of the problem of weighting. Non-technical discussion of topic of “bias,” indicating its practical importance.

C.P.T., Chs. VIII, XX to XXIII.
N.P., pp. 300-311, 338-345, 381-388.
Frickey, “The Problem of Secular Trends,” Review of Economic Statistics, September 1934.

  1. Correlation: the Study of Relationships

Use of statistical correlation procedure in economic problems. Basic concepts. Linear versus non-linear correlations. The three fundamental aspects: description, sampling inference, causation. The questions which correlation analysis attempts to answer. The correlation coefficient and related measures: step-by-step development of the logic of the various modes of explanation. The drawing of inferences from the results of a correlation study pertaining, explicitly or implicitly, to a sample. The relation of correlation to causation. Cautions regarding the calculation and interpretation of correlation measures.

C.P.T., Chs. XV, XVI.
N.P., pp. 401-437.
Day, Statistical Analysis, Chs. XII, XIII.
Mills, Statistical Methods, pp. 370-374 and Ch. XI.

  1. Sampling

The various sampling methods used in economics; their advantages and limitations. The precise significance of random sampling and “probable errors.”.

C.P.T., Chs. XIII.

  1. Basic Statistical Data

Statistical Sources. The collection of statistical data. The problem of obtaining homogeneity. The possibilities for misuse of statistical data—illustrated by problems.

C.P.T., Chs. II to V.
Mills, Statistical Methods, Ch. I.
Chaddock, Principles and Methods of Statistics, Chs. I to III.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives, Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1940-41”.

Image Source: From the cover of Harvard Class Album 1946.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Undergraduate Introduction to Economic Statistics. Final Exam, 1939

 

The exam questions seen below, even making an allowance for coming from an undergraduate course (nonetheless 13 of the 87 students were graduate students), indicate that the statistical training of economists at Harvard was a fairly low-grade affair even by the late 1930s, only a mechanical manipulation of different measures of central tendency and dispersion with a dash of trend-fitting and seasonal adjustment for good taste.

_____________________________

Course Listing

Economics 21a 1hf. Introduction to Economic Statistics

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Associate Professor Frickey.

 

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1938-39. (Second edition). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXV, No. 42 (September 23, 1938), p. 147.

_____________________________

Course Enrollment

 

Economics 21a 1hf. Associate Professor Frickey.—Introduction to Economic Statistics

Total 87: 13 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen, 3 Others.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of the Departments, 1938-39, p. 98.

_____________________________

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 21a1

Part I

(One hour and thirty minutes.)
Answer any THREE questions.

    1. You are faced with the problem of computing an index of physical production of agricultural products for the years 1910 through 1935.
      1. What significant differences would you expect to find between the results of indexes computed as the weighted geometric mean of relatives and as the weighted arithmetic mean of relatives? Which average would you choose, and why?
      2. What difference would you expect to find among indexes computed respectively on the bases 1910, 1926, and 1935? Would you choose one of these three base periods, or some other base period?
      3. What sort of system of weights would you employ? Why?
    2. During a given interval in 1936, the wages paid to individual laborers in two New England cloth mills were recorded. A frequency table of wages paid was drawn up for each mill, and from the frequency tables, the following characteristics were computed.
Mean Wage Median Wage Standard Deviation of Individual Wages
Company A $25 $25 8.367
Company B $25 $16 23.875
    1. Inferring from the above data, describe the general nature of the frequency distribution of wages for each firm, and compare the wage conditions in the two firms.
    2. What “typical average” would you choose for the distribution of Company A? For that of Company B?
  1. The monthly ordinates of trend found by fitting a linear or curvilinear trend line to a time series of price data would be held by some to represent “long-run normal prices”—that is, the values which the price data would have assumed in the absence of short run cyclical disturbances. Others would maintain that these same trend ordinates are merely the outcome of the particular trend—fitting procedures applied by the statisticians, and therefore reflect only his arbitrary definition of what constitutes “trend” and what constitutes “cycle” in the price series. Evaluate the relative merits of these two points of view toward statistical trend lines, and state your own viewpoint.
  2. In an investigation conducted to ascertain the correlation existing between the value of the assets of firms and the amount of their annual net earnings, the following results were among those obtained. For the specialty store field, the line of regression of annual earnings on asset values gave a “standard error of estimate” of $1000. For the service station field, a similar line of regression of annual earnings on asset values showed a “standard error of estimate” of $500.
    Can we conclude from this that the correlation between earnings and assets is twice as great for service stations as for specialty stores? Why or why not? What additional data would you require in order to ascertain the actual correlation in each case and thereby clinch your argument?

 

PART II

(One hour and thirty minutes.)
Answer question 1, and either 2 or 3.

    1. (Approximately one hour.) The following is a segment of a time series for which certain statistical values have already been computed.
1st quarter 2nd quarter 3rd quarter 4th quarter
1924 21 27 34 40
1925 32 36 28 30
1926 35 37 31 35
1927 36 41 35 39

The central ordinate of trend (a), and the annual increment of trend (b), based on annual averages of quarterly data for a longer period, have been found to be as follows: a = 35; b = 4. The center of the trend period for which these quantities were computed falls at the middle of the year 1924.
The median link relatives, showing typical quarter to quarter change for a longer period, have been found to be:

1st q ÷ 4th q = 110
2nd q ÷ 1st q = 105
3rd q ÷ 2nd q = 85
4th q ÷ 3rd q = 112

Given the preceding data, compute for the period 1924 through 1927 the following:

    1. The quarterly ordinates of trend
    2. The relatives of actual items to the trend.
    3. The seasonally adjusted relatives to trend, to the base 100. (This last step will require also the computation of a seasonal index by the Persons method.)
  1. For the following frequency series, compute the quartile deviation, the coefficient of variation, and determine a good empirical mode. (Show your computations, but do not compute any square roots.)
Wages (dollars per week) No. of Men
0—5 22
5—10 29
10—15 18
15—20 12
20—25 9
25—30 5
30—35 3
35—40 2

 

  1. (a) From the data below compute a price index for 1933 on 1932 as a base, using the Fisher formula.
Commodity Unit Price per unit Physical quantity
1932 1933 1932 1933
A bu. $0.50 $0.60 60 50
B lb. $3.00 $3.30 22 20
C bu. $0.30 $0.24 240 200

(b) If the Fisher formula price index for 1934 on 1933 as a base is 110, and for 1935 on 1934 as a base is 90, construct from the index which you have computed and from the results just given an index for the four years 1932-1935 by which each year is related to a common base.

 

Mid-Year. 1939.

 

Source: Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “Dust Proof File”.

Image Source: Harvard Album 1947.

Categories
Chicago Fields Regulations

Chicago. L. C. Marshall Memos Regarding Doctoral Field Committees and Advising, 1926-27

 

 

The following set of memoranda from the head of the department of economics at the University of Chicago provides us with an academic administrator’s perspective of the organization of a doctoral program and the departmental structure by fields. We see to which fields different economics professors were associated (consigned?), none of which we couldn’t guess, but memoranda like these help to nail these things down for sure. It is dull reading, and perhaps next time I make it to the University of Chicago archives, I’ll be able to find some of the actual written responses by field which should provide us more content. Still I find it interesting to see just how underwhelming was the prompt response to the chair’s request to his colleagues to meet with each other and write something up as seen in his three part reminder/nudge/nag memorandum dated about a half-year after his first requests! 

 

__________________________________

Memo #1. Formalizing Academic Advising

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Memorandum to: P. H. Douglas, H. A. Millis, Jacob Viner C. W. Wright

from L. C. Marshall

October 13, 1926

I am inclined to think it would be a good plan if we arranged for a somewhat decentralized system of advice for our students who are preparing for the doctorate. I refer particularly to their four fields.

When a man has decided that he wishes to use fields a, b, c, d (let us say) for the doctorate, would it not be a good plan for someone in each field to take him in hand and talk the whole situation over with him? What formal previous training has he had? What informal? What practical experience? What courses in Economics here would be useful to him? What courses in other Departments would be useful? What informal reading might wisely be covered, etc., etc.

If such a scheme were carried out there ought to be some sort of formal written record of the comments and recommendations of the group advisor, so that there could be no future misunderstanding and so that a temporary absence of the advisor would not cause any embarrassment.

It would be easy to provide a memorandum pad that would provide an original for the candidate, a duplicate for the registering representative and a triplicate for the group advisor.

Won’t you give me suggestions of the kind of thing that ought to appear on a pad of this kind?

__________________________________

Memo #2. Coordinating Fields within Common Economics & Business Doctoral Program

 

November 22, 1926

Memorandum to all persons mentioned herein:

The problem attacked in this memorandum is that of carrying through effectively the legislation which has established the single Ph.D. degree for work in our group.

The particular aspect of that problem which is taken up below is the matter of securing competent advice and counsel (not compulsion) in the fields in which candidates present themselves for written examinations.

Will the person whose name in underscored in each group undertake (within the next week, if reasonably possible) the responsibility of calling a meeting of the members of his group with the idea of

(a) listing the resources (mainly courses) available in our own offerings
(b) listing the resources (mainly courses) available in other divisions of the University
(c) listing fruitful lines of practical endeavor or outside experience
(d) and in particular, developing any other fruitful lines of counsel and suggestion for candidates in the field.

And will each leader of these group discussions please put the outcome in writing and send it to the undersigned? It is possible that (d) above will yield results that will cause all of us to get together for further discussion.

FIELDS FOR THE SINGLE DEGREE

  1. Economic Theory and Principles of Business Administration

(a) Viner, Douglas, Cox, Nerlove, Kyrk [in pencil: “Edie, Schultz, Knight”]
(b) McKinsey, Meech, Stone, Barnes

  1. Statistics and Accounting: Theory and Application of Quantitative Method

(a) Cox, Schultz, Nerlove
(b) Rorem, McKinsey, Daines

  1. Economic History and Historical Method

Wright, Sorrell, Viner, Palyi

  1. The Financial System and Financial Administration

Mints, Cox, Meech, Palyi

  1. Labor and Personnel Administration

Millis, Douglas, Stone

  1. The Market and the Administration Marketing

Duddy, Palmer, Barnes, Dinsmore

  1. Risk and its Administration

Nerlove, Cox, Millis, Mints

  1. Transportation, Communication and Traffic Administration

Sorrell, Wright, Duddy, Douglas

  1. Resources, Technology and the Administration of Production

Mitchell, Marshall, Schultz, Sorrell

  1. Government Finance

Viner, Millis, Douglas, Stone

  1. Social Direction and Control of Economic Activity

Spencer, Wright, Millis, Christ, Pomeroy

  1. Population and the Standard of Living

Kyrk, Douglas, Viner

  1. Field proposed by the candidate

L. C. Marshall

 

__________________________________

Memo #3. Advanced General Survey Courses by Field

November 30, 1926

Memorandum from L. C. Marshall to All Persons Mentioned Herein:

 

The problem attacked in this memorandum is that of carrying through effectively our arrangements with respect to our advanced general survey courses—courses that in the past we have sometimes referred to as “Introduction to the Graduate Study of X,” although we are not now following this terminology.

The following background facts will need to be kept in mind:

  1. We are to have introductory point of view courses designed to give an organic view of the Economic Order. These courses are numbered 102, 103, 104.
  2. Our next range of courses is designed primarily to deal with method. This range includes: 1. Economic History; 2. Statistics; 3. Accounting; 4. Intermediate Theory.
  3. The foregoing seven courses are the only courses for which we assume responsibility as far as the ordinary [pencil: “Arts & Literature] undergraduate is concerned. It may well be that from time to time some member of the staff will be interested in giving for undergraduates a course on some live problem of the day, but this is an exceptional matter and not a matter of our standard arrangement.
  4. Our best undergraduates may move on to the type of courses referred to above in the first paragraph, such as courses 330, 340, 335, 345, etc. In general the prerequisites for admission to these courses (as far as undergraduates are concerned) would be a certain number of majors in our work plus 27 majors with an average of B. Under the regulations which the Graduate Faculty has laid down, students who have less than 27 majors could not be admitted to these courses except with the consent of the group and Dean Laing.

It is highly essential that our work in these advanced survey courses such as 330, 340, 335, 345, etc. shall:

  1. Really assume the method courses mentioned above: really be conducted at a level which assumes that the student possesses certain techniques
  2. Really assume an adequate background of subject-matter content.

Will the person whose name is underscored in each group undertake (as promptly as reasonably may be) the responsibility of conducting conferences designed

  1. To lead to explicit definite arrangements looking toward the actual utilization of the earlier method courses in these advanced survey courses.
  2. To prepare a bibliography that can be mimeographed and placed in each student’s hands who enters one of these advanced survey courses. This bibliography is not to be a bibliography of the course (that is a separate matter) but a bibliography of what is assumed by way of preparation for the course. Whether a somewhat different bibliography should be made for the Economics course and the Business course in a given field is left for each group to discuss. Personally I hope that it will be a single bibliography for the two. Mr. Palyi suggests the desirability of a bibliographical article (worthy of pulication) for each field. This seems to me an admirable suggestion—one difficult to resist.

Will each leader of the group referred to below please put the outcome of your discussion in writing and send to the undersigned? It is to be hoped that you will find other matters to report upon in addition to the foregoing.

GROUPS

  1. The Financial System and Financial Administration

Meech, Mints, Cox, Palyi

  1. Labor and Personnel Administration

Douglas, Millis, Stone, Kornhauser

  1. The Market and the Administration Marketing

Palmer, Duddy, Barnes, Dinsmore

  1. Risk and its Administration

Nerlove, Cox, Millis, Mints

  1. Transportation, Communication and Traffic Administration

Sorrell, Wright, Duddy, Douglas

  1. Government Finance

Viner, Millis, Douglas, Stone

  1. Population and the Standard of Living

Kyrk, Douglas, Viner

  1. Resources, Technology and the Administration of Production

Mitchell, Daines, McKinsey

The following fields are not included in this memorandum either because of specific course prerequisites or because of obvious difficulties in the case:

  1. Economic Theory and Principles of Administration
  2. Statistics and Accounting
  3. Economic History and Historical Method
  4. Social Direction and Control of Economic Activity

__________________________________

Memo #4. Written Field Examinations

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
THE WORK IN ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS

Memorandum to:
Members of the Instructing Staff from L. C. Marshall, January 27, 1927

This communication is directed toward carrying one step farther the work of the various groups which are preparing for the effective administration of the single doctorate.

You will remember that in each functional field an analysis has been made of our resources. This looks in the direction of more competent advice to students concentrating in the various fields. You will also remember that in each functional field certain steps have been taken looking toward the more effective operation of the courses that in the past we have sometimes referred to as “Introduction to the Graduate Study of X.”

The primary purpose of this present memorandum is to suggest to each functional group that it now examine carefully the matter of the written examination in that field; giving attention to the character of the standards which should be insisted upon, the number and type and grouping of questions which should be asked, and any other significant issues. After each group has examined the issues and difficulties in its particular field it may prove necessary to have a general meeting of all groups to determine general policies in these matters. It seems unnecessary to hold a general meeting in advance of the special meeting since we can assume our existing standards and practices as at least a point of departure for the group discussions.

Will the person whose name is underscored undertake as promptly as reasonably may be the responsibility of conducting group conferences on this matter of written examinations for the doctorate.

  1. Economic Theory and Principles of Administration (Here is the only really difficult problem in the whole matter. This field is to be required of all candidates and the outstanding problem is how to formulate an examination that will properly cover the case. Probably there will be little or no difficulty in the case of economic theory for students who are primarily interested in Business Administration for they would certainly have covered 301, 302, 309 and they would almost certainly have covered a theoretical course in some special field, e.g., Wages, in the field of Labor. The case is different in the matter of the Business Administration requirement for persons who are primarily interested in orthodox Economics, since Business Administration courses are confessedly not as well organized as courses in Economic Theory. The difficulty may, however, be exaggerated in our minds. Under our new groupings most candidates will automatically have come into contact with an administrative course in one or more functional fields. Probably a little practical wisdom in arranging requirements for a brief transition period will leave us with few problems in this matter after the transition is over.)
    Douglas, Viner, Millis, Cox, Nerlove, Spencer, McKinsey, Meech, Stone
  2. Statistics and Accounting; theory and application of quantitative method. (Our general standard has been general knowledge of both fields and detailed knowledge of one in case this field of work is offered.)
    Daines, Wright, Cox, Schultz, Nerlove, Rorem, McKinsey
  3. Economic History and Historical Method (Since no particular change is occurring in this field the leader of the group may be able to cover the case by informal conversations.)
    Wright, Sorrell, Viner, Palyi
  4. The Financial System and Financial Administration.
    Cox, Mints, Meech, Palyi, Wright
  5. Labor and Personnel Administration.
    Stone, Millis, Douglas, Kornhauser
  6. The Market and Market Administration
    Barnes, Duddy, Palmer, Dinsmore
  7. Risk and its Administration
    Nerlove, Cox, Millis, Mints (Since no particular change is occurring in this field the leader of the group may be able to cover the case by informal conversations.)
  8. Transportation, Communication and Traffic Administration. (Since no particular change is occurring in this field the leader of the group may be able to cover the case by informal conversations.)
    Sorrell, Wright, Duddy, Douglas
  9. Resources, Technology and Administration of Production. . (Since no particular change is occurring in this field the leader of the group may be able to cover the case by informal conversations.)
    Mitchell, Daines, Schultz, Sorrell
  10. Government Finance. . (Since no particular change is occurring in this field the leader of the group may be able to cover the case by informal conversations.)
    Millis, Viner, Douglas, Stone
  11. Social Direction and Control of Economic Activity. (Although no great change is taking place in this field, the problem is sufficiently difficult to justify a conference.)
    Pomeroy, Spencer, Wright, Millis, Christ
  12. Population and the Standard of Living. (In Mr. Field’s absence let us omit discussion of the written examination.)

__________________________________

Memo #5. Please Respond to Memos #2-#4

May 25, 1927

Follow up Memorandum to persons mentioned herein from L. C. Marshall

On November 22, 1926, a memorandum was sent to certain groups of committees dealing with the problem of securing competent advice and counsel in the fields in which candidates present themselves for written examinations. The committees were asked to list the resources available in the University in each field; to list fruitful lines of practical endeavor or outside experience; and to indicate other fruitful lines of counsel and suggestion for candidates.

It was hoped that data would become available in time to make the circular for 1927-28 more attractive and in time to prepare mimeographed sheets for the use of students this year.

Below is a statement of the committees, with their chairmen. The asterisk indicates that the committee has reported. Will those who have not yet reported please do so as soon as possible.

Theory, Viner
Administration, McKinsey*
Statistics, Cox*
Accounting, Rorem*
Econ. Hist. etc. Wright
Finance etc. Mints
Labor etc. Millis*
Market etc. Duddy*
Risk etc. Nerlove*
Transportation etc. Sorrell
Resources etc. Mitchell*
Govt. Finance, Viner
Social Direction etc. Spencer*
Population etc. Kyrk

* * * * * *

On November 30, 1926, a memorandum was sent to certain groups of committees dealing with the problem of carrying through effectively our arrangements with respect to our advanced general survey courses. Each committee was asked to indicate what definite things can be done in the way of making certain that the preparatory method courses will eventually be utilized; what can be done in the way of mimeographed bibliography indicating what is assumed by way of preparation for each advance survey course; what other things can be done.

It was hope that the data would be available in time to enable us to take quite a long step forward in this matter in connection with the 1927-28 advanced survey courses.

Below is a statement of the committees with their chairmen. The asterisk indicates that the committee has reported. Will those who have not yet reported please do so as soon as possible.

Finance etc. Meech*
Labor etc. Douglas
Market etc. Palmer*
Risk etc. Nerlove*
Transportation etc. Sorrell
Govt. Finance, Viner
Population etc. Kyrk
Resources etc. Mitchell

* * * * * *

On Feb. 3, 1927 a memorandum [Probably the memorandum was that dated January 27, 1927] was sent to certain groups of committees dealing with the problem of the character of the written examination in each functional field.

It was hoped that we could start the year 1927-28 with a clearer view of what should be our positions with respect to these examinations.

Below is a statement of the committees with their chairmen. The asterisk indicates that the committee has reported. Will those who have not yet reported please do so as soon as possible?

Economic Theory and Principles of Business Administration, Douglas
Statistics and Accounting: Theory and Application of Quantitative Method, Daines
Economic History and Historical Method, Wright
The Financial System and Financial Administration, Cox
Labor and Personnel Administration, Stone
The Market and the Administration Marketing, Barns*
Risk and its Administration, Nerlove
Transportation, Communication and Traffic Administration, Sorrell
Resources, Technology and the Administration of Production, Mitchell
Government Finance, Millis
Social Direction and Control of Economic Activity, Pomeroy*

Source: The University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics. Records. Box 22, Folder 6.