Author: Irwin Collier

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Courses Harvard Socialism Syllabus

Harvard. Socialism and Communism. Carver and Bushee, 1901

Beginning with his second year at Harvard, Thomas N. Carver regularly offered a course on schemes of social improvement which covered utopias through marxian socialism, including communistic experimental communities in America. He co-taught his first offering of “Socialism and Communism” in 1901 with the graduate student Frederick A. Bushée who was to go on to teach at Clark University, Colorado College and the University of Colorado. Following a brief c.v. for Bushée, enrollment numbers for the course and its reading list are provided in this post.

Carver’s course reading lists for 1919-20 and 1920 have been previously posted.

Since this post was completed, Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has acquired and transcribed a copy of the final exam for this course.

Links to all the readings but one (Anton Menger, The Right to the Whole Produce of Labor) can be found in the post for Economics 14 (1902-1903).

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Bushée, Frederick Alexander.

Harvard thesis title: Ethnic factors in the population of Boston. New York, Macmillan (London, Sonnenschein), 1903, 8°, pp. viii, 171 (Publ. Amer. Econ. Assoc., ser. 3, 4: no. 2). Preliminary portion pub. as “The growth of the population of Boston,” in Publ. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 1899, n. s., 6: 239-274.

1872, July 21. Born in Brookfield, Vermont.
1894. Litt. B. Dartmouth College.
1894-95. Resident South End House, Boston.
1895-96. Hartford School of Sociology.
1896-97. Resident South End House, Boston.
1897-1900. Graduate student, Harvard University.
1898. Harvard University, A.M.
1900-01. Collège Libre des Sciences Sociales, Collège de France, Paris; University of Berlin.
1901-02. Assistant in Economics, Harvard University.
1902. Harvard University, Ph.D. in Political Science.
1902-03. Instructor in Economics and History in the Collegiate Department of Clark University.
1903-08. Assistant Professor in Economics, Clark University.
1907-08. Instructor in Economics and Sociology, Clark University.
1910-12. Professor of Economics and Sociology at Colorado College.
1912. Hired by University of Colorado. Boulder, Colo.
1916. Professor of Economics and Sociology, and Secretary of the College of Commerce, University of Colorado. Boulder, Colo.
1925-32. Professor of Economics and Sociology, and Acting Dean of the School of Business Administration, University of Colorado. Boulder, Colo.
1939. Retired.
1960, April 4. Died in Boulder, Colorado.

Reminiscence of the Bushees by Earl David Crockett, the son of Bushee’s successor at the University of Colorado.

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[Course Enrollment]

[Economics] 14 1hf. Asst. Professor Carver and Mr. Bushée.—Socialism and Communism.

Total 27: 5 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1901-02, p. 77.

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ECONOMICS 14

Topics and references. Starred references are prescribed.

HISTORICAL

  1. *Ely, R. T. French and German Socialism.
  2. Russell, Bertrand. German Social Democracy.
  3. Rae, John. Contemporary Socialism.
  4. Kirkup, Thomas. A History of Socialism.
  5. Menger, Anton. The Right to the Whole Produce of Labor.
  6. Bliss, W. D. P. A Handbook of Socialism.
  7. Graham, William. Socialism New and Old.

 

EXPOSITORY AND CRITICAL

  1. *Schaeffle, Albert. The Quintessence of Socialism.
  2. [Shaeffle, Albert.] The Impossibility of Social Democracy.
  3. *Marx, Karl. Capital.
  4. [Marx, Karl] and Engels, Frederick. The Manifesto of the Communist Party.
  5. Engels, Frederick. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
  6. Gonner, E. C. K. The Socialist Philosophy of Rodbertus.
  7. [Gonner, E. C. K.] The Socialist State.
  8. Shaw, Bernard, and others. Fabian Essays in Socialism.
  9. Fabian Tracts.
  10. Ely, R. T. Socialism: an Examination of its Nature, Strength, and Weakness.
  11. Bernstein, Edward. Ferdinand Lassalle.
  12. Hyndman, Henry M. The Economics of Socialism.
  13. Webb, Sidney, and Mrs. Beatrice. Problems of Modern Industry.
  14. Simonson, Gustave. A Plain Examination of Socialism.

 

UTOPIAS

  1. *Plato’s Republic.
  2. *More, Sir Thomas. Utopia.
  3. *Bacon, Francis. New Atlantis.
  4. *Campanella, Tommaso. The City of the Sun.
    (Numbers 2, 3, and 4 may be found in convenient form in Henry Morley’s Ideal Commonwealths.)
  5. Cabet, Etienne. Voyage en Icarie.
  6. Morris, William. News from Nowhere.
  7. Bellamy, Edward. Looking Backward.
  8. [Bellamy, Edward.] Equality.

 

COMMUNISTIC EXPERIMENTS

  1. *Nordhoff, Charles. The Communistic Societies of the United States.
  2. Kautsky, Karl. Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation.
  3. Hinds, W. A. American Communities.
  4. Noyes, J. H. History of American Socialisms.
  5. Codman, J. T. Brook Farm Memoirs.
  6. Shaw, Albert. Icaria.
  7. Randall, E. O. History of the Zoar Society.
  8. Landis, G. B. The Separatists of Zoar.

 

WORKS WITH SOCIALISTIC TENDENCIES

[Under this heading is brought several classes of theories wrongly confused with socialism.]

A. CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM

  1. Lamenais and Kingley. Contemporary Review, April, 1882.
  2. Les Paroles d’un Croyant.
  3. Kingsley, Charles. Alton Locke.
  4. Gladden, Washington. Tools and the Man.
  5. Strong, Josiah. Our Country.
  6. [Strong, Josiah.] The New Era.

B. STATE SOCIALISM

An indefinite term, which is generally made to include all movements for the extension of government control or ownership, especially over Transportation and Lighting systems.

C. AGRARIAN SOCIALISM

  1. *George Henry. Progress and Poverty.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902”.

Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver in Harvard Album, 1906.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Economists Harvard

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. William H. Nicholls, 1941

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In his file at the President’s Office of the University of Chicago one finds a carbon copy of William H. Nicholls’ section 18 “Education, Employment, Publications” from what looks to be his U.S. Federal Civil Service application, perhaps required for his consultancy for the Office of Price Administration, Meats Section Washington in 1941-42. We have here a very complete accounting of his activities covering his graduate school years 1934-1940, both coursework and employment.

This post also includes a biographical sketch at his Kentucky alma mater’s Hall of Fame together with a memorial piece in his honor at the department of economics of Vanderbilt University where he was on the faculty for thirty years.

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[Carbon Copy from Federal Civil Service Application(?) ca. January 1941]

18. EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, PUBLICATIONS, ETC.

18(a). Chronological Record.

Education

1930-34
(School-years)		 University of Kentucky A.B., 1934 Graduated “with high distinction”, Phi Beta Kappa.
1934-37
(School-years)		 Harvard University A.M. in Economics, 1937 Also part-time assistantships (see “Employment” below[)].
Feb., 1941 Harvard University Ph.D. in Economics, 1941 Thesis completed in absentia.

 

Foreign Travel

Summer, 1931         Travel in 12 countries of Europe.

 

Employment (Part-time= *)

Place of Employment Dates Institution Immediate Employer Title Salary
Washington, D.C. June-Sep. 1934 Tobacco Section, AAA Dr. J. B. Hutson
Chief		 Statistical Clerk $1800.
Cambridge, Mass. Sep.1934-June 1935 Harvard Univ. Dr.John D. Black Research Assistant $600.*
Harrodsburg, Ky. June-Sep. 1935 Farm H.F. Parker Farm hand Room & board
Cambridge, Mass. Sep.1935-June, 1936 Harvard Univ. Dr. John D. Black Research Assistant $720.*
New England (Boston) June-Sep.1936 Bureau of Agri. Econ., U.S.Dept. of Agriculture Mr. R.L. Mighell Field Agent $2000.
Cambridge, Mass. Sep.1936-June 1937 Harvard Univ. Dr.John D. Black Research Assistant $500.*
New England (Boston) June-Oct., 1937 Bureau of Agri. Econ., U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Mr. R.L. Mighell Field Agent $2000.
Cambridge, Mass. Oct.1937-Jan.1938 (Independent Research at Harvard University)
Ames, Iowa Feb. 1938-July 1939 Iowa State College Dr. T.W. Schultz Research Assistant & Instructor $2430.
Ames, Iowa July, 1939-July, 1940 Iowa State College Dr. T.W. Schultz Research Assistant & Instructor $3000.
Ames, Iowa Iowa State College Dr. T.W. Schultz Assistant Professor $3300.

 

 

18(b). Graduate Courses at Harvard University and Research

Graduate Courses at Harvard University

Professor Title of Course Grade
F. W. Taussig Economic Theory A-
Joseph Schumpeter Economic Theory
W. L. Crum Theory of Statistics B, A
C. J. Bullock History of Economic Thought Audit
John H. Williams Theory of Money and Banking A-
E. F. Gay Economic History B plus
John D. Black Economics of Agriculture A-
O. H. Taylor Scope and Method of Economics A
John D. Black Interregional Competition A
John D. Black Commodity Prices and Distribution A-

 

  1. Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Field Agent, June-September, 1936.

Supervisors– Ronald L. Mighell, Senior Agricultural Economist, and Dr. John D. Black, Harvard University.

Nature of Work– The project concerned Interregional Competition in Dairying, and was a cooperative endeavor of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and Harvard University. The work consisted of taking farm-survey records on dairy farms in Vermont and Connecticut. The applicant was also responsible for collecting background material on milk marketing problems, including local hauling, operation of milk plants, milk prices and price plans, rail and truck transportation, governmental programs, and cooperative organization.

  1. Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Field Agent, June-October, 1937.

Supervisors– Ronald L. Mighell Dr. John D. Black, Harvard University.

Nature of Work– This was a continuation of the project outline above. The applicant was in charge of the marketing phases of the study in New England. This work consisted primarily of a study of milk distribution and milk control problems in Hartford, Worcester, and Boston, involving contacts with distributors, cooperative officials, administrators of milk control boards, and health officials in those milk markets, as well as research workers in milk marketing at the state colleges of Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. A manuscript of 189 pages was prepared, bringing together and analyzing the data gathered. Although this was to be used primarily as service material to the larger study of which it was only a part, it will later be published in some form.

  1. Research Assistant to Dr. John D. Black, Harvard University, September 1934-June, 1935: September, 1935-June, 1936; September, 1936-June, 1937.

Supervisors– Dr. John D. Black, Dr. John M. Cassels, and Dr. J. K. Galbraith, all of Harvard University.

Nature of Work- The duties of these part-time assistantships required some 20-27 hours a week, while the applicant carried a ¾ time graduate study program concurrently.

During the school-year 1934-35, he was responsible for a considerable part of the statistical work on Dr. Black’s book, “The Dairy Industry and the AAA”, as well as two articles in the Quarterly Journal of Economics by J. K. Galbraith and John M. Cassels, respectively.

During the school-year 1935-36 he assisted Dr. Black in the construction of index numbers and the study of farmers’ supply response to price, and made a brief study of tobacco marketing for use in Dr. Black’s course in Prices and Distribution.

During the school-year 1936-37 the applicant made an intensive study and analysis of the dairy-farm records and marketing data collected during the summer of 1936 on the Bureau of Agricultural Economics project. This work was supervised by Dr. Black.

  1. Independent Research, Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 1937-Jan. 1938.

Advisors– Dr. John D. Black and Dr. John M. Cassels of Harvard University.

Nature of Work-During this period, the applicant was working independently on a proposed Ph.D. thesis tracing the historical development of the marketing of manufactured dairy products. This period was one of an extremely intensive survey of the literature on dairy marketing since 1870 in libraries at Harvard and Washington, D. C. It also included several weeks of consulting with the staff of the Dairy Section of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. This project was dropped as a thesis subject in January, 1938, in order that the applicant might accept a position at Iowa State College. This work served as the foundation for several Iowa Experiment Station research publications at a later date (see next item).

  1. Member of Staff, Department of Economics, Iowa State College, Feb. 1938 to date.

In February, 1938, the applicant became a member of the staff of the Department of Economics, Iowa State College, of which Dr. T. W. Schultz is department head. His initial rank was “Research Assistant” at a salary of $2430. His duties involved full responsibility for initiating and carrying out a aresearch study of the price and production policies in the meat-packing industry. During the following year, largely outside of office hours, the applicant produced manuscripts on the butter and cheese industries, based on data collected just previous to his employment at Iowa State College, which were deemed worthy of publication as research bulletins (see “list of publications”).

The objective of the study of the eat-packing industry was to make a comprehensive survey of the industry, with intensive study of those phases which would shed light on the nature of competition and monopoly elements in the industry.

The procedure was divided into four parts:

(1) Conditions in the livestock and meat markets.

The purpose of this phase of the work was to compile background descriptive material such as was necessary as a foundation for the later, more important phases of the project. This general survey was completed, covering such things as the nature of supply of livestock, demand for meats, the marketing mechanism for livestock and for meats, the composition and degree of concentration in the industry, accounting methods in the industry, and the economics of large-scale plant and firm in the industry.

            (2) Price and production policies followed in the meat-packing industry.

The procedure here was to survey past attempts at control of monopoly in the industry, covering a period of some 50 years. The status of individual packers was examined, as well as the effects on competition of such policies as market sharing, price leadership, price discrimination, advertising and branding, handling of by-products and produce, storage, and trade associations. This program necessitated two important steps: (a) the examination of leading agricultural processing-distributing industries better to determine the true nature of competition in such industries, and the applicability to problems faced by the worker in agricultural marketing research of recent developments in the economic theory of monopolistic competition. The studies of the butter and cheese industries contributed a great deal in this direction, in addition to a full year’s empirical work on the packing industry. (b) the adaptation and extension of the existing theory of monopolistic competition to the somewhat peculiar requirements of the agricultural processing-distributing industries as opposed to the strictly “manufacturing” industries, which have been the main interest of the general economist. It should be realized that the applicant is working in an entirely new field—imperfect competition in agricultural processing and distribution and has, therefore, constantly had to develop or adapt new research techniques and tools.

As a result, under the encouragement of Dr. T. W. Schultz and Dr. John D. Black, the applicant devoted the year 1939-40 primarily to developing the pure theory of imperfect competition, with special application to the agricultural processing-distributing industries. In order to make this theory of as general application as possible, not only were problems of immediate concern in the meat-packing project covered, but the theoretical considerations were broadened to include the theoretical aspects of competition in fluid milk among local country-buying units, and under short-run dynamic conditions as well. Particular emphasis was given to the theory of market-sharing, price leadership, and price discrimination, with major attention to the markets between the farm and the processing-distributing “bottleneck”.

A 460-page manuscript, “A Theoretical Analysis of Imperfect Competition, with Special Application to the Agricultural Industries” resulted. This manuscript represented four times redrafting after critical reading by Professors Black and Mason of Harvard; Professor Stigler of Minnesota; Professors Schultz, Hart, Shepherd, Reid, Lynch and Tintner of Iowa State College; Dr. Frederick V. Waugh and Dr. A. C. Hoffman of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics; and Dr. Harold B. Howe, of the Brookings Institution. All of these critics are highly qualified general or agricultural economists, and their reactions have been generally favorable.

In September, 1940, the manuscript was submitted as a Ph.D. thesis at Harvard University, and has since been accepted by Professors Black and Chamberlin. Professor Chamberlin, the leader in this phase of economic theory, states in a letter of December 23, 1940, that it is “a very fine piece of analysis and a very much worthwhile one…….an chievement of first order ……I can honestly say that I have spent more time in going over and working through some of the complex arguments that I have ever spent on any preceding doctor’s theses. This was partly because I was naturally interested in the subject and also because the thesis itself merited. it.” The plan is to push the manuscript toward publication during the next few months. The applicant expects formally to receive his Ph.D. degree before February 15, 1941.

Beginning July 1, 1939, the applicant’s salary was advanced to $3000 per annum. During the school-year 1939-40, he taught elementary Principles of Economics one-quarter time. On July 1, 1940, he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Professor at a salary of $3300, continuing to teach one-quarter time and pursue research three-quarters time. In the spring of 1941, he is scheduled to initiate a course for graduate students on Imperfect Competition in Agricultural Processing and Distribution.

Concurrently with other work previously outlined, the applicant prepared and presented a paper (unpublished) before a round-table of the American Farm Economic Association on December 28, 1938, entitled “A Suggested Approach to a Research Study in Price and Production Policies of an Agricultural Processing Industry”. Through the combination of theoretical hypotheses and empirical support, as based on the previously described work, he presented a second paper before the American Farm Economic Association in December, 1939. This paper, “Market-Sharing in the Packing industry”, presents statistical data for 1931-37 showing that the four dominant packers still buy relatively fixed proportions of hogs and cattle on the terminal markets as they did in 1913-17. It indicates how this may be evidence of oligopsonistic behavior in buying, the possible limitations of “market-sharing” as a monopolistic device, and how it may affect producer and consumer. This paper, the first published results of the meat-packing project, represents that balanced combination of empirical and theoretical analysis which the applicant considers the ideal research method.

In the December, 1940, issue of the Journal of Political Economy, another article (“Price Flexibility and Concentration in the Agricultural Processing Industries”, pp. 883-88) was published, growing out of previous empirical and theoretical work. This paper discusses the terminology concerning price “Flexibility” and alleged relationships between price flexibility and concentration of control in a given industry. It is argues that, in the agricultural processing industries (where short-run control of the supply of the food product is impossible), unlike the manufacturing industries, flexibility of margins is the important consideration, not flexibility of prices. Previous work of Means, Backman, and others in this field have failed to recognize the necessity for making this important distinction.

The great bulk of the descriptive phases of the price and production policies in the meat-packing industry has been completed. The basis no exists, in the applicant’s opinion, for a much clearer understanding of the nature of competition in the industry. Two important steps yet remain, however:

            (3) The RESULTS of these policies.

This will involve the financial analysis of the leading firms (partially completed), the examination of the relationship of such monopolistic practices as do exist to market price differentials, costs and margins, the method of buying of livestock, and the results in terms of the effects on farmer and consumer. In other words, how far do actual results as to prices, profits, employment, and investment—depart from “ideal” results under more nearly perfect competitive conditions?

(4) Practicable solutions to eliminate any ill-effects on farmer and consumer which are found to exist.

This will involve the consideration as to whether or not reform is necessary. If it is, such alternatives as government regulation, distribution as a public utility, dissolution of large firms, cooperation, government competition, etc., will have to be considered.

 

18(c). List of Publications

“Marketing Phases of Interregional Competition in Dairying”, 189-page manuscript, 1937, to be published.

*Post-War Developments in the Marketing of Butter, Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta., Res. Bul. 250, Feb. 1939, 64 pages.

*”Some Economic Aspects of University Patents”, Journal of Farm Economics, May, 1939, pp. 494-98.

“Short-Circuiting the Butter Middlemen”, Iowa Farm Economist, Jan., 1939, pp. 13-14.

*Post-War Developments in the Marketing of Cheese, Iowa Agr. Exp. Sta., Res. Bul. 261, July, 1939, 100 pages.

“Concentration in Cheese Marketing”, Iowa Farm Econmist, April, 1939, pp. 5[?]-6.

*”Post-War Concentration in the Cheese Industry”, Journal of Political Economy, Dec. 1939, pp. 823-45.

“Suggested Approach to a Research Study in the Price and Production Policies of an Agricultural Processing Industry”, paper read at Round-table on Marketing Research, American Farm Economic Association, Detroit, Dec., 1938, 14 pages, to be published.

*”Market-Sharing in the Packing Industry”, paper read at Annual Meeting, American Farm Economic Association, Philadelphia, Dec., 1939. Published in Proceedings, Journal of Farm Economics, Feb., 1940, pp. 225-40.

Review of Malott and Martin, “The Agricultural Industries”, in American Economic Review, March 1940, pp. 147-48.

*”Price Flexibility and Concentration in the Agricultural Processing Industries2, Journal of Political Economy, Dec., 1940, pp. 883-88.

** A Theoretical Analysis of Imperfect Competition, with Special Application to the Agricultural Industries, Ph.D. Thesis, Harvard University, accepted in December, 1940; 460 pages. To be published on Iowa State College Press by summer of 1941.

 

* Copy available for submission upon request.
**Topical table of contents or summary available upon request.

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Hutchins Administration. Records. Box 284. Folder “Economics 1943-47”.

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Hall of Distinguished Alumni
[University of Kentucky]

William Hord Nicholls

Born in Lexington, Ky., on July 19, 1914. Died, August 3, 1978. University Professor and Administrator. University of Kentucky, A.B., magna cum laude, 1934.

Serving as President of the Southern Economic Association (1958-59) and the American Farm Economic Association (1960-61), his expertise in the area of farm economics has been recognized also by governmental agencies and by a number of professional journals and societies.

After graduating magna cum laude (A.B., 1934) from the University, he then earned an M.A. degree at Harvard University (1938), the Ph.D., (1941) also at Harvard, and did post-doctoral work as a Fellow at University of Chicago (1941-42).

He was instructor, assistant professor and associate professor of economics, Iowa State College, 1938-44; assistant professor of economics, University of Chicago, 1945-48, and went to Vanderbilt University as a professor of economics in 1948. He became Chairman of the Department of Economics and Business Administration there in 1958, serving until 1961, serving the following year as visiting professor of economics at Harvard University. From 1965-77, he was Director of the Graduate Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt, and was Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt, 1973-74.

He served briefly in 1934 as a statistical clerk for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Tobacco Section, Washington, D.C. During the summers of 1936 and 1937, he was field agent for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, New England. He was research fellow and research assistant to Prof. John D. Black at Harvard, 1934-37, and a consultant, Office of Price Administration, Meats Section Washington, 1941-42. He was managing editor of “Journal of Political Economy,” 1946-48, and a visiting lecturer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, summer of 1947.

He also was a member of the faculty, Salsburg (Austria) Seminar in American Studies, summer of 1949; economist and co-editor of “Mission Report,” “Turkish Mission,” “International Bank of Reconstruction and Development,” Turkey and Washington, in 1950; economist, Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic Advisers, Washington, 1953-54; technical director, Seventh American Assembly on U.S. Agriculture, Columbia University, 1954-56; consultant on Latin America,, Ford Foundation, Brazil and New York, 1960-64; agricultural economist, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro, during the summers of 1965, 1968 and 1970, and for a period in 1963 and early 1964, and guest consultant, Instituto de Planejamento Economics e Social, Ministry of Planning, Rio de Janeiro, 1972-73.

He has served on the board of editors of three professional journals, on a number of national committees and advisory boards, and has won a number of additional honors given by agencies he served in various ways.

His book, “Imperfect Competition Within Agricultural Industries,” (1941) went into a second printing in 1947. He also wrote numerous articles for professional publications, as chapters to books, as papers to be delivered at various professional meetings and as policy reports to various agencies.

William Hord Nicholls was named to the Hall of Distinguished Alumni in February 1965.

Source: Hall of Distinguished Alumni, University of Kentucky website.

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Vanderbilt University Memorial

William H. Nicholls was born in Lexington, Kentucky on July 19, 1914, and died in Nashville on August 4, 1978. Professor Nicholls did his undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky and his graduate work at Harvard University, where he received the Ph.D. in 1941. His doctoral dissertation, published that same year, on Imperfect Competition Within Agricultural Industries, established his reputation as one of the country’s leading agricultural economists. He began his teaching career at Iowa State University in 1938 and moved to the University of Chicago in 1945. While serving as assistant professor at the University of Chicago, he edited one of the major professional journals in economics, the Journal of Political Economy. Nicholls came to Vanderbilt as a full professor in 1948, where he continued his prodigious output of books and articles. He was president of the Southern Economic Association in 1958-59 and presidentof the American Farm Economic Association in 1960-61. He received the Centennial Distinguished Alumnus Award of the University of Kentucky in 1966 and was Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt in 1973. He chaired the Department of Economics and Business Administration from 1958 to 1961 and directed the Graduate Center for Latin American Studies at Vanderbilt from 1965 to 1977.

Distinguished Professor Nicholas Gerogescu-Roegen, writing in support of Professor Nicholls’ nomination for the Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professorship, said of him, “He is the originator of the field of regional development. One would be justified in speaking of a Nicholls’ school, which has attracted numerous doctoral students to our Economics Department, and has enhanced the prestige of the University. His works in the area of agricultural economics have no equal. They reflect a unique combination of theoretical power with a keen insight of the relevant aspects of actuality. The best example is supplied by his (now a classic) volume Imperfect Competition Within Agricultural Industries, in which Bill has created some new and efficient tools for the analysis of monopolistic structure.

“His scholarly interest in agricultural economics and its relation to economic development brought him in contact with the problems of Latin America, with Brazil in particular. Here, again, Bill showed his imaginative approach and his scholarly grip of difficult problems. The excellent name our own department (and implicitly the University) has in Latin America and among the specialists on Latin American Economics, is due in the greatest part to Bill’s contributions”.

Source: Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University, full biography link from the In Memorium webpage.

Image Source: Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University, in Memorium webpage.

Categories
Bryn Mawr Columbia Gender

Bryn Mawr. Catholic economics instructor threatened with termination, 1921

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When I came across the correspondence in this post, what caught my eye was that a Columbia doctoral student in economics had written to her adviser asking for advice in the face of a seemingly certain termination of her instructorship at Bryn Mawr simply on the grounds of her being Catholic. I thought it good to post a reminder just how broad the category of “the Other” was not even a century ago. 

What is also interesting is the fact that her advisor, E.R.A. Seligman farmed out the draft of her dissertation to a former student of his for a referee report that became the basis of his decision for a revise-and-resubmit of the thesis.

The Bryn Mawr economics instructor/Columbia graduate student, Marjorie Lorne Franklin, was born August 30, 1892 in Albany, New York. She received her B.A. from Barnard College in 1913 and her M.A. from Columbia University in 1914. According to the Bryn Mawr Calendar 1921 (p. 4): Marjorie Franklin was Graduate Scholar, Bryn Mawr College, 1913-14 and Fellow in Economics, 1914-15; Columbia University, 1915-16; Library Assistant, American Telephone and Telegraph Co., 1916-17; and before coming to Bryn Mawr she served as an instructor at Vassar College in 1917-18. However according to the Vassar College yearbook, The Vassarion 1918 (p.30), Franklin was working 1915-16 as Tariff Assistant in Foreign Tariffs Division of U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.  From the 1925 Barnard College Register of Alumnae we learn that she married Dr. Walter Freeman in 1924 and was working as a special expert at the U.S. Tariff Commission.  According to the 1940 U.S. census she reported that she was employed as an economist with the Tariff Commission and she was the mother of five sons and one daughter. She died in San Mateo, California on April 22, 1970. I have found no record that Marjorie Franklin Freeman was ever awarded a Ph.D. in economics.

A biographical detail that is irrelevant for understanding the history of economics but much too fascinating to leave unmentioned is that Marjorie Franklin’s husband Walter Freeman (II) was  a neurologist famous for having introduced the Freeman-Watts prefrontal lobotomy procedure— (His papers are archived at George Washington University; there is even a PBS documentary about him “The Lobotomist”). 

 

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Franklin to Seligman: Bryn Mawr terminating her because she is a Catholic

BRYN MAWR COLLEGE
Department of Economics and Politics
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Low Buildings,
February 27, 1921

Professor E.R.A. Seligman
Columbia University
New York City

Dear Professor Seligman:

Religious prejudice has entered into my life for the first time in a way that shocks and stuns me. After three years of successful teaching here, President Thomas has decided that the fact that I am a Catholic makes me persona non grata. She states that my work has been successful and admits that I have not allowed my religious ideas to influence my teaching, but claims that from the point of view of the outside world, it is bad for the college to have a Catholic hold my position, considering the political activities of the Catholic Church. The situation is complicated by the fact that Dr. Fenwick, Professor of Political Science in the department is also a Catholic, and President Thomas has decided that one of us must go. I have no intention of protesting the matter, for I realize that it is futile to argue against religious prejudice.

It is doubtless unnecessary to say to you that my ideas on the subject of religion have always been to me something quite apart from my work, and represent, chiefly, my ethical and moral standards, not at all, my political and economic ideas which have been the result of modern scientific training at Barnard and Columbia. Dr. Giddings, who knows my Father, also a graduate of Union College, would testify that I had been brought up in a broad, tolerant atmosphere.

The whole question of religious prejudice seems utterly medieval to me, but since it is evidently effective in the sphere of teaching, it makes me want to turn to the field of business and finance. So I want to talk over with you in the near future the possibility of openings in the banking field.

During the past two months, work on my thesis has been at a standstill due to the fact that my Father has been rather suddenly incapacitated by some spinal trouble which has made him quite helpless. He was operated on two weeks ago by Dr. Elsberg, the famous spinal surgeon, at the Neurological Hospital on East 67th Street, and his fate is still in doubt. As a result I cannot go to him for advice, and so am running the risk of boring you by setting forth conditions in such detail. However, it may be better for you to have a clear statement of the facts in my case before I go up to New York to see you. I should be glad to make an appointment to call any time within the next few weeks.

Very sincerely yours,
[signed] Marjorie L. Franklin

_______________________________________

Franklin to Seligman: Vassar reverses itself, making her an offer

BRYN MAWR COLLEGE
Department of Economics and Politics
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Low Buildings,
March 10, 1921

Prof. Edwin R.A. Seligman
Columbia University
New York City

My dear Professor Seligman:

Due to the efforts of Mrs. Smith, my department chief, and other members of the Bryn Mawr Faculty on the Appointment Committee, President Thomas has capitulated completely and has offered e a contract on the most favorable terms, ignoring the late unpleasentness completely.

If I were to consider my own feelings in the matter, I would reject all overtures, but since Mrs. Smith and others went so valiantly to the front for me, stating that they would resign if I were forced to leave, there is now a strong feeling of noblesse oblige on my part toward them.

However, I should like very much to talk things over with you, in general, and particularly to submit to you a substantial draft of my thesis. In view of this, I would rather postpone my interview set for March 16th and make arrangements with Mrs. Stewart to see you later, just before or just after the Easter vacation.

Appreciating your kindness in this situation,

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Marjorie L. Franklin

_______________________________________

Newcomer’s report to Seligman on Franklin’s thesis draft

435 West 119 St.,
New York,
June 20, 1922.

My dear Dr. Seligman:

I have gone over Miss Franklin’s dissertation again rather carefully. It seems to me it has been improved, but frankly it still leaves me with no very clear picture of Philadelphia’s financial condition. It gives a fairly good idea of political conditions, and something of the financial consequences of these conditions; but at no time is there given a definite summarized statement of the actual sources of revenue and the relative importance of each. A statement, e.g., of the actual percentage of revenues obtained from the tax on real estate over a period of years would be illuminating. Most of the data which would be required for such comparisons are available in the tables now included in the appendix, but these data would have to be rearranged and summarized. In their present form they are not of much assistance.

The same indefiniteness appears in the discussion of assessments. The account of correct assessment methods and the shortcomings of those employed in Philadelphia is full and clear; but as to the degree of underassessment and the seriousness of the inequalities one is left in doubt.

Another criticism that I would make is that in some places Miss Franklin introduces material which scarcely seems pertinent because she fails to apply it definitely to the situation in Philadelphia. A case in point is the long discussion of the taxation of land values at the end of chapter four.

Further I find the relative weight granted the various parts of the subject not altogether satisfactory. For instance, special assessments are too important a factor in municipal financing to be introduced first in the conclusions. Also, with full recognition of the bearing of all of the matters discussed on the system of taxation, I still feel that taxation itself has not received its full share of attention.

Finally, I do not find the conclusions convincing. I am afraid that this is rather severe criticism. Let me hasten to add that I think the strictly historical survey of the subject is very good, and I like Miss Franklin’s treatment of the political and administrative problems. I suspect that many of the difficulties which I find are inherent in the subject itself.

I am leaving the manuscript, together with a copy of this letter in Mrs. Stewart’s office.

With best wishes for a pleasant summer, I remain

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Mabel Newcomer

Note: Mabel Newcomer (B.A. Stanford, 1913; M.A. Stanford, 1914; Ph.D. Columbia, 1917) taught at Vassar 1917-1957.

_______________________________________

Seligman’s decision not to accept Franklin’s thesis draft

Lake Placid, N.Y.,
June 24th, 1922.

Miss Mabel Newcomer,
New York.

Dear Miss Newcomer:-

Many thanks for your kind and explicit letter. I have written to Miss Franklin, embodying most of your points I my letter and have asked her to try again.

I may bother you again when she presents her next, and let us hope, her final draft.

With kind regards,

Faithfully yours,
[E.R.A. Seligman, unsigned in copy]

Source: Columbia University Archives. Edwin Robert Anderson Papers. Box 36, Folder “Box 99, Seligman, Columbia 1918-1924 (A-Z)”.

Image Source: Marjorie Lorne Franklin’s senior year picture in The Mortarboard 1913, p. 195.

Categories
Chicago Economists

Chicago. Career data for first 60 Economics PhDs. 1894-1926

Economics in the Rear-View Mirror proudly adds a new data base for the history of economics community:  biographical data for the first sixty Ph.D. economists turned out by the University of Chicago from 1894-1926.

Additions and corrections are welcome! Just add a comment with your suggestions.  

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Discussion of “Road to Serfdom”. Sorokin, Leontief, Usher. 1945

The previous post provided the syllabus (with links to the readings) for Abbott Payson Usher’s 1921 course “European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century”. While looking for some background on Usher in the on-line archive for the Harvard Crimson, I came across the following two stories about a public discussion of Hayek’s Road to Serfdom that involved both Usher and Wassily Leontief.

____________________

Newly-Formed Group To Hold First Meeting

Harvard Crimson, April 10, 1945

Following close on the heels of two seminars conducted here this past weekend by Friedrich A. Hayek, author of the currently-controversial book “The Road to Serfdom,” the newly-organized, non-partisan Harvard Political Science Forum is presenting in its first meeting a three-way discussion on the question “Is a planned economy the ‘Road to Serfdom’?”

Sharing the platform in the Lowell House Junior Common Room Thursday evening at 7:30 o’clock will be Pitirim A. Sorokin, professor of Sociology, Wassily W. Leontief, associate professor of Economics, and Abbott P. Usher, professor of Economics.

 

SOROKIN HITS HAYEK THESIS
Usher Deplores Trend to Planned Economy at Forum

Harvard Crimson, April 13, 1945

No political or economic machinations-not Yalta nor Dumbarton Oaks nor any other agreement-can give us lasting peace so long as the corpse of the capitalist economy continues to exist.” Thus declared Pitirim A. Sorokin, professor of Sociology, speaking last night together with Wassily W. Leontief, associate professor of Economics, and Abbott P. Usher ’04, professor of Economics, on the topic “Is the planned economy ‘the Road to Serfdom’?” at the first forum of the newly-organized Harvard Political Science Forum.

“I am not, however,” stressed Sorokin, “a partisan of totalitarian economy. I am merely ‘a conservative Christian anarchist’; I do not like any government.” With this declaration, Harvard’s stormy sociologist clarified his position in the controversy that, is currently raging over Friedrich A. Hayek’s new book “The Road to Serfdom.”

Usher Defends Hayek’s Ideas

Speaking first on the program, Professor Usher developed Hayek’s basic antithesis between that society which sets up a definite, unflexible end toward which it must constantly strive, and that society which recognizes a multiplicity of ends.

“This concept of ‘end result,'” said Usher, “Is in conflict with the concept of unplanned social evolution, which has characterized the growth of society.”

Professor Leontief, choosing the middle road between the two other speakers, took issue with Hayek’s thesis that society has, after several thousand years of growth, reached the peak of its development, beyond which we can progress no further. In seeking to forestall the inevitable evolution of the planned economy, Hayek is attempting, said-Leontief, to “prevent, as it were, the consummation of a solar eclipse.”

 

Image Source: Sorokin, Usher and Leontief from Harvard Album, 1946.

Categories
Economic History Harvard Syllabus

Harvard. European Economic History, Usher. 1921

________________________

Abbott Payson Usher (1883-1965) first taught his nineteenth century European economic history course at Harvard in the fall semester of 1921-22 at the rank of Lecturer. Usher received his A.B., A.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1904, 1905, 1910, respectively. 

The syllabus for the course is provided in this post and all readings are linked to their respective texts!

Before returning to Harvard, Usher was professor of History of Commerce and Economic History of the College of Business Administration at Boston University for the 1920-21 academic year [possibly 1921-22 too?], coming from Cornell University where he taught as Instructor (1910-14) and then Assistant Professor of Economics (1914-1920).

Material from his Modern Economic History Seminar, 1937-41, was posted earlier.

________________________

Course Announcement for 1921-22

2a 1hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century
Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Dr. Usher.

 

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1921-22, 3rd edition. p. 109.

________________________

 

READING ASSIGNMENTS
Economics 2a
1921-22

I. The Industrial Revolution

Usher, Industrial History, Chapters 1, 10, 12, 13, 14

II. Agrarian Movement, Continent

Usher, Industrial History, pp. 112-20
Seeley, Life & Times of Stein, Rand [Benjamin Rand, Selections illustrating Economic History Since the Seven Years’ War. 5th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1911], pp. 86-98
Brentano, Agrarian Reform in Prussia – Econ. Jour. 1-20
Von Sybel, – in Rand, pp. 55-85

III. Agrarian Movement, England.

Usher, Industrial History, pp. 225-40
Curtler, Short History of English Agriculture, pp. 190-262

IV. Agricultural Depression

Prothero, R. E. (Baron Ernle) English Farming Past & Present, pp. 316-31, 346-418
Usher, Industrial History, pp. 240-47

V. Free Trade Movement, England

Armitage-Smith, Free Trade & Its Results, 39-60, 130-163
Morley, Life of Cobden, chs. XV & XVI

VI. Tariff History, Continent

Ashley, P. Modern Tariff History, (1910) 3-63, 359-372

VII. Recent Tariff History

U. S. Tariff Commission, Reciprocity & Commercial Treaties, 461-510

VIII. Commerce & Shipping

Bowley, England’s Foreign Trade in the 19th Century, ed. 1905 pp. 55-96
Grosvenor, Gov’t Aid to Merchant Shipping, 45-61, 75-86, 135-65

IX. Transportation – Private Ownership

Cunningham, W. J. Characteristics of British R. R., N. E. R. R. Club 8-60
Usher, Industrial History, chs. 17 and 18

X. Transportation – State Ownership

Raper, Railway Transportation, pp. 134-177, 278-305

XI. Industrial Development: England

Ashley, W. J. ed. British Industries, 2-38 (Jeans, British Iron and Steel/1902)
Clapham, J. H. Woolen & Worsted Industry, 1-24, 125-173

XII. Industrial Development: Continent

Copeland, Cotton Manufacturing Industry, 275-311

XIII. Industrial Combination

British Ministry of Reconstruction, Report on Trusts, 1919, pp. 15-30
Marshall, Industry & Trade, pp. 544-65, 577-98
Usher, Industrial History, ch. 19

XIV. Banking & Finance

Riesser, The German Great Banks, 703-750
Andréadès, History of the Bank of England, 331-69

XV. Labor Problems & Public Health

Usher, Industrial History, chs. 15, 16 & ch. 20 secs. 2 & 3

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1921-1922

Image Source: Harvard Album, 1923.

Categories
Courses Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. History of Economics Reading List. Schumpeter, 1949

Joseph Schumpeter offered his graduate course “History and Literature of Economics since 1776” nine times during the period 1940-1949. The core readings were basically unchanged. In an earlier post I provided the reading list and examinations from the 1939-40 academic year. This post provides the much stripped down reading list for the last time Schumpeter offered the course. The only addition to the reading list was George Stigler’s 1941 book,  Production and Distribution Theories.

Below you will find the course enrollment figures and the reading list for the Spring semester of 1949.

 

___________________________

Course Enrollment Statistics:

Graduates Seniors Juniors Radcliffe Other Total
1939-40 9 3 1 0 3 16
1940-41 11 2 0 3 1 17
1941-42 5 1 0 4 1 12
1942-43 10 3 0 6 3 22
1943-44 2 1 0 3 3 9
1944-45 Not offered
1945-46 18 2 5 25
1946-47 21 1 0 6 7 35
1947-48 17 4 0 2 7 30
1948-49 2 1 0 0 1 4

Note: course number was Economics 113b until the academic year 1947-48, then Economics 213b thereafter. Joseph Schumpeter died in January 1950.

 

Source: Harvard/Radcliffe Online Historical Reference Shelf. Harvard President’s Reports.

___________________________

Economics 213b
Spring 1949

Reading List

 

This course will cover the period between and including A. Smith and A. Marshall. Particular emphasis will be placed upon the Ricardian system of economic theory. The new edition of Gide and Rist, History of Economic Doctrines, Heath & Company, 1948, is recommended for survey purposes.

  1. Richard Cantillon, Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (1755), English translation by Higgs (1931).
  2. David Hume, Political Discourses (edition by Green and Grose, 1875), Vol. I. [Miller edition]
  3. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Cannan’s (Modern Library) edition.
  4. David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy. (Everyman’s Library).
  5. Thomas R. Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). [1803 edition, enlarged]
  6. William N. Senior [sic: should be “Senior, Nassau William”], Outline of the Science of Political Economy (1836).
  7. John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, also read introduction to Ashley’s edition.
  8. Karl Marx, first volume of Das Kapital (English translation, Modern Library).
  9. Augustin Cournot, Principles of the Theory of Wealth (Fisher’s edition, 1927).
  10. Knut Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy (Robbins’ edition, 1934) [Vol. I; Vol. II].
  11. Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, particularly Book V.

Further suggestions:

E. Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest, Vol. I.
E. Cannan, Theories of Production and Distribution (1924). [2nd ed., 1903]
F. W. Taussig, Wages and Capital (1896).
G. Stigler, Production and Distribution Theories (1941).
J. Bonar, Malthus and his Work (1924). [1885 ed.]
M. Bowley, Nassau Senior and Classical Economics (1937).
J. R. Hicks, “Leon Walras,” (Econometrica, 1934).
J. M. Keynes, Essays in Biography (mainly the essays on Malthus and Marshall).
J. Viner, Studies in the Theory of International Trade (1937).

 

Source: Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Harvard University Archives, HUC 8522.2.1. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1948-1949 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source:  Harvard Album, 1947.

 

Categories
Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Reading List for the Russian Economy. Gerschenkron, 1948.

__________________________

The economic historian Alexander Gerschenkron was an associate professor when he taught the graduate seminar on the Russian [sic, “Soviet” should have been in the title] Economy in the Fall semester of 1948-49 at Harvard. The reading list has two parts:  the first for the Soviet Economy, the second for socialist economics.

Leontief taught the course the previous year.

__________________________

Enrollment in Economics 212b

[Economics] 212b. (Seminar) The Russian Economy (F). Associate Professor Gerschenkron.

Total 3:  3 Graduates

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1948-49, p. 77.

__________________________

READING LIST
Economics 212 B                 Fall term 1948/1949

Alexander Gerschenkron, Instructor

  1. Selected References on Soviet Economy

Arnold, A. Z.: Banks, Credit and Money in Soviet Russia. New York 1937.

Baykov, A. M. The Development of the Soviet Economic System. Cambridge (New York, Macmillan) 1946.

Baykov, A. M.: Soviet Foreign Trade. Princeton 1946.

Bergson, A.: The Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge 1944.

Bergson, A.: “The Fourth Five Year Plan.” Political Science Quarterly. June 1947.

Bienstock, G., S. M. Schwartz, and A. Yugow: Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture. New York 1944.

Brutzkus: Economic Planning in Soviet Russia. London 1935.

(Central Administration of Social and Economic Statistics): Socialist Construction in the USSR. Statistical Abstract. Moscow 1936.

(Central Administration of Social and Economic Statistics): Socialist Construction in the USSR (1933-38). Moscow 1939.

Chamberlin, W. H.: The Soviet Planned Economic Order. Boston, 1931.

Clark, C.: A Critique of Russian Statistics. London 1939.

Condoide, M. V.: Russian-American Trade. Columbus, Ohio, 1946.

Cressey, C. G.: The Basis of Soviet Strength. New York 1945.

Dobb, M.: Soviet Economic Development since 1917. London 1948.

Dobb, M.: Soviet Economy and the War. New York 1943.

Dobb, M.: Soviet Planning and Labor in War and Peace. New York 1943.

Freeman, J.: The Soviet Worker. New York 1932.

Gordon, Manya: Workers before and after Lenin. New York 1941.

From the First to the Second Five Year Plan. A Symposium. Moscow 1933.

Gerschenkron, A.: Economic Relations with the USSR. (The Committee on International Economic Policy in cooperation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.) New York 1945.

Gregory, J. S., and D. W. Shave: The USSR. New York 1944.

Grinko, G. F.: The Five Year Plan of the Soviet Union. A Political Interpretation. New York 1930.

Hoover, C. B.: The Economic Life of Soviet Russia. New York 1931.

Hubbard, L. E.: Soviet Trade and Distribution. London 1938.

Hubbard, L. E.: The Economics of Soviet Agriculture. London 1939.

Hubbard, L. E.: Soviet Labor and Industry. London 1942.

Lorimer, F.: The Population of the Soviet Union. Geneva 1946.

Mandel, W.: A guide to the Soviet Union. New York 1946.

Maynard, J.: The Russian Peasant. London 1942.

Miller, M. S.: The Economic Development of Russia (1905-14). London 1926.

The Land of Socialism To-day and To-morrow. Reports and Speeches at the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. (Moscow, 1939)

Nodel, W.: Supply and Trade in the USSR. London 1934.

Notestein, F. W., and others: The Future Population of Europe and the Soviet Union. League of Nations. Geneva, 1944.

Ossinsky, V., and others: Socialist Planned Economy in the Soviet Union. New York 1932.

Prokopovicz, S. N.: Quarterly Bulletin of Soviet Russian Economics. (All volumes).

Reddaway, W. B.: The Russian Financial System. London 1935.

Schwartz, H.: Russia’s Postwar Economy. Syracuse 1947.

Stalin, I. V.: Problems of Leninism. Moscow 1940 or New York 1942.

(State Planning Commission of the U.S.S.R.): The Soviet Union Looks Ahead. The Five Year Plan for Economic Construction. New York 1929.

(State Planning Commission of the U.S.S.R.): Summary of the Fulfillment of the First Five Year Plan. Report of the State Planning Commission. Moscow 1933.

(State Planning Commission of the U.S.S.R.): The Second Five Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the U.S.S.R. (1933-37). Moscow 1936.

Turin, S. P.: The U.S.S.R. An Economic and Social Survey. London 1944.

Timoshenko, V. P.: Agricultural Russia and the Wheat Problem. Stanford 1932.

Varga, E.: Two Systems: Socialist Economy and Capitalist Economy. New York 1939.

Voznessensky, N.: The Growing Prosperity of the Soviet Union. (Pamphlet). New York 1941.

Yugow, A.: Russia’s Economic Front for War and Peace. New York 1942.

 

  1. Selected References on Socialist Economics

Bergson, A., The Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge 1944, Ch. II

Bergson, A. “Socialist Economics” in: H.S. Ellis, ed. A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia, 1948.

Bober, M.M., “Marx and Economic Calculation”, American Economic Review, June 1946.

Bergson, A. “Russian Defense Expenditures”, Foreign Affairs, January, 1948.

Baran, P.A.: Currency Reform in the U.S.S.R. Harvard Business Review, March 1948.

Bettelheim, Charles: La planification Soviétique. (Paris 1945)

Bogolepov, M.I.: The Soviet Financial System. (pamphlet) London 1945.

Birmingham Bureau of Research on Russian Economic Conditions.

Memorandum No. 4, February 1932. (“The Balance of Payments and the Foreign Debt of the U.S.S.R.”)
Memorandum No. 7, (“Foreign Trade, Monetary Conditions, Indices of Wholesale Prices, State Budget”)

Dickinson, H.D., Economics of Socialism, Oxford 1939.

Dobb, M.H., “Economic Theory and the Problem of a Socialist Economy”, Economic Journal, December 1933.

Dobb, M.H., Political Economy and Capitalism, London 1937, Ch. VIII.

Dobb, M. H., Soviet Economic Development since 1917. (Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd) London, 1948.

Durbin, E.F.M., “Economic Calculus in a Planned Economy”, Economic Journal, December 1936.

Haensel, Paul, “The Public Finance of the U.S.S.R.” The Tax Magazine, September, October, November, December, 1938. Reprinted and published as a pamphlet, Evanston, Illinois, 1938.

Hayek, F.A., ed., Collectivist Economic Planning. London, 1935.

Hayek, F.A., “Socialist Calculation: The Competitive Solution”, Economica, May 1940.

Hayek, F.A., “The Use of Knowledge in Society”, American Economic Review, September 1945.

Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Money and Finance.

Journal of Farm Economics, May 1948. (N. Jasny, “The Plight of the Collective Farms”)

Journal of Farm Economics (May 1945) (N. Jasny, “Labor Productivity in Agriculture in USSR and USA”)

Journal of Political Economy, August, 1947. (N. Jasny, “Intricacies of Russian National Income Indexes”)

Journal of Economic History, 1947, Supplement. (A. Gerschenkron, “The Rate of industrial Growth in Russia since 1885)

Lange, O., On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minneapolis, 1938.

Lange, O., Working Principles of the Soviet Economy. (Pamphlet, Reprinted from USSR Economy and the War, Speeches delivered at the First Public Conference of the Russian Economic Institute, New York, 1942)

Lenin, V.I., State and Revolution.

Lerner, A.P., “Economic Theory and Socialist Economy”, Review of Economic Studies, October 1934.

Lerner, A.P., “Statics and Dynamics in Socialist Economics”, Economic Journal, June 1937.

Lerner, A.P., The Economics of Control, New York, 1946.

Marx, Karl, Critique of the Gotha Programme (International Publishers Edition, New York 1938.)

Mossé, Robert, L’Économie Collectiviste. (Paris 1939)

National Bureau of Economic Research, Cost Behavior and Price Determination. (Appendix B by P. Baran “Cost Accounting and Price Determination”)

National Bureau of Economic Research. Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, Studies in Income and Wealth (New York, 1946).
(Studenski, Paul, “Methods of Estimating National Income in Soviet Russia”)

Pasvolsky, L. and H.G. Moulton, Russian Debts and Russian Reconstruction. (New York, 1924)

Pigou, A.C., Socialism vs. Capitalism. London, 1937.

Political Economy in the Soviet Union (Pamphlet), International Publishers, New York 1944; or “Teaching of Economics in the Soviet Union”, American Economic Review. September 1944 (These are both translations of the same article from the Soviet journal Pod Znamenem Marxizma). See also the comments on this article by R. Dunayevskaya, P. Baran, O. Lange, C. Landauer in American Economic Review, June 1944, September 1944, December 1944, March 1945, September 1945.

Review of Economic Statistics, November 1947. (Appraisals of Russian Economic Statistics)

Schumpeter, J.A. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, New York 1947.

Sokol’nikov, G.Y. and Associates, Soviet Policy in Public Finance, 1917-1928. (Stanford, 1931)

School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London,

Monograph No. 3, November 1934, “Money and Prices and Gold in the Soviet Union.”
Monograph Nos. 4-5, February 1935. “Banking and Credit in the Soviet Union”.

Schwartz, H. “On the Use of Soviet Statistics” Journal of the American Statistical Association. September, 1947.

Schwartz, H. “Prices in the Soviet Economy”. American Economic Review, December, 1946.

Social Research, December 1946. (Wyler, Julius, “The National Income of Soviet Russia”)

S.N. Prokopovicz, Der Vierte Fünfjahrplan der Sowjetunion 1945-1950. Zurich – Vienna, 1948.

S.N. Prokopovicz, Russlands Volkswirtschaft unter den Sowjets. (Zurich – New York, 1944)

Sweezy, A. R., “The Economist’s Place under Socialism”, in Explorations in Economics: Essays in Honor of F.W. Taussig, New York 1936.

Sweezy, P.M., The Theory of Capitalist Development. New York, 1942.

Trotsky, The Permanent Revolution, New York 1931.

Voznesenski, N.A., Soviet War Economy. Public Affairs Press, (Washington, D.C., 1948)

The American Slavic and East-European Review – April 1948. (A. Gerschenkron, A Note on Russian Industry in 1947)

American Economic Review, March, 1946. (Sumberg, T.A., “The Soviet Union War Budgets”.)

Gerschenkron, A. Rate of industrial growth in Russia.

Gerschenkron, A. Note on Russian industry in 1947.

La Conjoncture, June 15, 1948.

Chossudowsky, E.M. De-rationing in the U.S.S.R. (Rev. of Econ. Studies, Nov. 1941)

Chossudowsky, E.M. Rationing in the U.S.S.R. (Review of Economic Studies, June 1941.

Voznesenski Report on the 4th five year plan. Information bulletin of the U.S.S.R. March 15, 1946.

Moscow news. March 23, 1947 and March 27, 1947.

Dictionary of socio-economi statistics, 1944 (P.D. Prof. Gerschenkron).

Source: Harvard University Archives (HUC 8522.2.1) Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1948-49 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source:  Harvard Album, 1952.

Categories
Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Economic Seminary 1903-04

 

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

1903-1904
1904-1905

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

_________________

THE ECONOMIC SEMINARY, 1903-1904.

Edited by Associate Professor J. H. Hollander.

During the current academic year, the Economic Seminary has continued its investigation into the history, activities and influence of labor organizations in the United States. Its membership has been more narrowly limited to advanced students preparing for a scientific career in economic study, and its primary design has been the development of sound method in economic research. The regular fortnightly evening sessions have been supplemented by briefer morning sessions in alternate weeks. The material resources necessary for the inquiry have been supplied by the continued generosity of the citizen of Baltimore, whose original gift made its inception possible.

“A Trial Bibliography of American Trade Union Publications,” in the preparation of which the Seminary has been engaged since October, 1902, has been completed and issued as a brochure of 110 pages under the editorship of Dr. Barnett, in the Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science (January-February, 1904). Appreciable progress has also been made by individual members of the Seminary in the study of specific aspects of the several questions assigned for investigation. Daring the summer, field work was carried on in various carefully selected localities, and the data thus collected have since been supplemented and corrected by documentary study and personal interview. It is hoped that during the next academic year, a cooperative volume of studies in American trade unionism can be issued by the Seminary, embodying the preliminary results of the various investigation now in progress and ultimately designed for monographic publication.

The record of the proceedings of the Seminary, and abstracts of certain of the papers there presented, are appended:

October 14. Reports of the summer’s field work, by Associate Prof. Hollander, Dr. Barnett, Messrs. Hilbert, Kirk, Motley, Ranft and Sakolski.
October 20. “Collections of American Trade Union Publications,” by Dr. George E. Barnett.
October 28. “Shop Rules of the International Typographical Union,” by Dr. George E. Barnett.
November 3. “Opportunities for Social Work in Baltimore,” by Dr. Walter S. Ufford, General Secretary of the Charity Organization Society of Baltimore.
November 11. “The Development of the Knights of Labor Movement,” by William Kirk.
November 17. “The Condition of Women and Children in the Factories of Baltimore,” by Charles F. Ranft.
November 23. “The Finances of Representative Trade Unions,” by A. M. Sakolski.
December 1. Plan of a monographic study of “The Printing Trade,” by Dr. George E. Barnett.
December 8. “Employers’ Associations in the United States,” by F. W. Hilbert.
December 15. Reports on local labor conditions, by Messrs. Blum, Hilbert and Motley.
January 6. (a) “The Apprentice in the Building Trades,” by J. M. Motley.

(b) “The Future of the Trusts,” by L. G. McPherson.
January 12. (a) Preface to “A Trial Bibliography of American Trade Union Publications,” by Dr. George E. Barnett. (b) The New Orleans meeting of the Economic Association, by Associate Professor Hollander.
January 20. “The Structure of the International Cigar Makers’ Union,” by T. W. Glocker.
January 26. “Evolution of Railroad Rates,” by L. G. McPherson.
February 3. “Shop Rules in the Building Trades,” by S. Blum.
February 17. (a) “Beneficiary Features of the Cigar Makers’ International Union,” by J. B. Kennedy.

(b) “High License in Baltimore,” by H. S. Hanna.
February 23. A review of recent French and German works on Sociology, by W. H. Buckler.
March 2. “The Beneficiary Departments of Transportation and Mining Corporations,” by L. G. McPherson.
March 8. “Oyster Legislation in Maryland,” by M. O. Shriver, Jr.
March 16. “The Theory of a Standard Rate of Wages,” by William H. Buckler.
March 22. “Labor Unionism and Industrial Efficiency,” by Mr. Henry White, General Secretary of the United Garment Workers of America.
March 28. “A Comparison of the Functions of the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor,” by William Kirk.
April 12. Plan of a monographic study of “The Structure of American Trade Unions,” by T. W. Glocker.
April 13. “The Cost of Strikes to Trade Unions,” by A. M. Sakolski.
April 19. Plan of a monographic study of “The Shop Regulations of American Trade Unions,” by S. Blum.
April 27. “Trade Agreements in the Iron Molders’ Union,” by F. W. Hilbert.
May 3. Plan of a monographic study of “The Beneficiary Features of American Trade Unions,” by J. B. Kennedy.
May 11. “Trade Union Membership in the Building Trades,” by J. M. Motley.
May 17. Plan of a monographic study of “Trade Unionism and the Standard Wage,” by W. H. Buckler.
May 25. “Collective Bargaining in the Printing Trade,” by Dr. George E. Barnett.

 

Source: Johns Hopkins University Circular. New Series, 1904. No. 3. (May, 1904), pp. 1-3. Also available at the Internet Archive.

Image Source: Johns Hopkins University ca. 1903. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Online Catalogue.

Categories
Harvard Salaries

Harvard(?). Professor’s standard of living, 1905

In an old email (2003!) from my Berliner Humboldt Universität colleague/buddy Michael Burda, I found a gem he forwarded to me from Brad DeLong’s Semi-Daily Journal (July 6, 2003). I was unable to establish a link to the original page at DeLong’s current website. 

Today’s post is an article from 1905 that provides spending data based on family accounts kept by the wife of an anonymous professor over a nine year period. Let me provide my thoughts why I believe the professor in question was at Harvard University.

Note that the G.H.M. in the byline to the article appears to be reporting what he was told by an unnamed professor. From the Table of Contents for vol. 95 of The Atlantic Monthly, there is an article (The Ethics of Trust Competition) written by one Gilbert Holland Montague (note: G.H.M.), whom I conclude was the author of the article “What Should College Professors Be Paid?” posted below.

Montague received his BA (1901) and MA (1902) at Harvard where he also went to law school, graduating in 1904. He was an instructor in economics at Harvard while a law student. It would appear from the biographical sketch below that he probably was working at a New York law firm at the time the article was published.

I suppose it would be possible to identify the anonymous professor assuming he overlapped with Montague’s years at Harvard. It seems reasonable to begin a search in the Harvard Law School or the Harvard department of economics. From the article posted below we are told the accounts are based on household records for 9 years (perhaps: 1895-1904) covering two years at the rank of instructor, two years as assistant professor and the last five years at the rank of associate professor. The nine year of accounts begins with the marriage of the couple that had its first child (or servant) after two years. Maybe somebody will track down the Harvard professor, but for my purposes, I am satisfied with establishing a likely Harvard connection.

_____________________________

Gilbert Holland Montague, 1880-1961

Lawyer, pro-business economist, book collector; economics instructor of FDR.

Born Springfield, Mass., 1880; BA Harvard, 1901; MA 1902; instructor in economics at Harvard while attending Harvard Law school, Franklin D. Roosevelt was one of his students; graduated Harvard Law School, 1904; worked for New York legal firm; clerked for NY Supreme Court, 1908-1910; special deputy attorney general prosecuting election fraud; taught engineering contracts at Brooklyn Polytechnic, 1906-1917; leading practitioner of antitrust law (Sherman and Clayton acts ); employed representing nearly all the large oil companies; actively involved in pro-business “lobbying” and public policy; involved in numerous congressional investigations and committees; served as an advisor to the Treasury and Justice departments; on Attorney General’s Commission to Study Antitrust Laws, and authored most of its 405-page final report calling for reduced government restrictions on private enterprise, 1955.

He is particularly of note for his collection of over 15,000 books and 20,000 pamphlets. He collected manuscripts, including a 14th century copy of the Magna Carta. He was a relative of Emily Dickinson and kept a collection of over 900 of her items. He became somewhat of an expert on Emily, and donated his collection to Harvard in 1950, enabling a number of questions about her life to be answered.

A firm believer in free trade, he wrote diligently in defense of free markets and reduced government involvement in business. He wrote a number of books, including Business Competition and the Law (1917) and Rise and Progress of the Standard Oil Company (1903). He chaired numerous bar association panels, including the ABA’s Antitrust Division, the Committee on Monopolies and Restraints of Trade, and the Committee on the Federal Trade Commission.

Gilbert and his wife maintained a summer home in Seal Harbor, Me., which they called Beaulieu.

Source: Montague Millennium Homepage, page Gilbert Holland Montague, 1880-1961.

____________________________

WHAT SHOULD COLLEGE PROFESSORS BE PAID?

BY G. H. M.
[Gilbert Holland Montague(?)]

A GREAT deal has been written of late, especially in the annual reports of college presidents, regarding the inadequacy of the compensation received by university teachers. The writer, to whom the question is one of vital importance, has seen many of these general statements, but has failed to find any which has taken up the matter in conclusive form. This he hopes to do here concisely.

Primarily the question is one of standard of living. If a grocery clerk can maintain his family in a suitable degree of decency and comfort on seventy-five dollars a month, have we a right to expect that a college instructor can do the same? The answer to this involves the demands which society makes upon the respective individuals.

To get at this point the writer analyzed the itemized household accounts which his wife has kept for the past nine years, during which time he has been connected with one of our large and wealthy universities. Two years were spent as instructor, two as assistant professor, and the next five as associate professor.

Summing up his total expenditures for these nine years, and in like manner his salary for the same period, he finds his expenditures have been to his salary in the ratio of 2.1 to 1.

His average annual expenditure has been $2794.27.

His average salary has been $1328.15.

For the privilege of teaching he has paid the difference, or $1466.12 annually, from private means.

Even the unbusinesslike professor must pause before such a state of affairs, and try to fathom the reason for this discrepancy, when his firm belief is that he is living on as low a scale of economy as is possible for him in his position.

In order to find out where the bad management might be, — if bad management there was, — he divided his expenditure account into thirty-one separate items, arranged in tabular form under the following heads: —

  1. Household Furnishing and Repairs.
  2. Groceries, Meat, Fruit, Vegetables, etc.
  3. Servants.
  4. Fuel.
  5. Light and Water.
  6. Gardener and Grounds.
  7. Laundry.
  8. Taxes.
  9. Life Insurance.
  10. Fire Insurance.
  11. Rent, or Interest on House and Lot.
  12. Bicycles and repairs. Horse, care and feed.
  13. Doctors and Dentists.
  14. Hospitals, Nurses, Drugs.
  15. Death Expenses.
  16. Legal Services.
  17. Interest on Borrowed Money, for running expenses.
  18. P. O. Box, Postage, Stationery, Telegrams, Telephone, Express, etc.
  19. Newspapers, Books, and Periodicals.
  20. Clothing, Dry Goods, Shoes, etc.
  21. Learned Societies and Social Clubs.
  22. University Gifts and Supplies. Typewriting, Printing and Mimeographing.
  23. Children’s Tuition and Pocket Money.
  24. Subscriptions and Charity.
  25. Theatre, Concerts, Athletic Sports.
  26. Christmas and other Gifts. Entertainment of Friends.
  27. Wine, Beer, Tobacco, Candy, and other Luxuries.
  28. Personal and Toilet Supplies.
  29. Business and Recreation Trips, Hotels, R.R. Fare, Carfare, etc.
  30. Family Obligations, or Payment of Education Debt.
  31. Savings, other than Life Insurance, looking toward old age.

He believes that, assuming that a college professor has the right to marry and have two or three children, there is not a single one of these items which may be omitted from a consideration of expenses to cover a period of years. The whole question, then, resolves itself into this: how much per year is it reasonable to allow for each of these items?

In the community in which he lives, with a family of two adults, two children, and one servant, at the present high prices of the necessities of life, he believes that the sums he mentions are the very least upon which his household can be conducted. And he bases this belief upon a most accurate analysis of fully itemized accounts.

Taking up the items in detail: —

  1. Household furnishing and repairs.

This item must cover, for a period of years. the original cost of household furniture of all descriptions. In addition, it must look after natural wear, tear, and breakage of furniture, glass, dishes, kitchen utensils, rugs, curtains, bedding, etc., as well as carpentry, plumbing, and the like. It must also provide for pictures, “works of art,” and household adornments in general.

Does $75 a year seem excessive for this? Say $6 a month.

  1. For five persons a grocery bill of $25 per month, a meat bill of $15, milk, $5, fruit, vegetables, butter and eggs, $10, or a total of $55 ($11 per person), should not seem unreasonable.
  2. We must pay $25 a month for even a passable servant. Shall we expect our wives to bear and rear children, do all of the housework, sustain their social duties, and remain well and strong?
  3. Kitchen, fireplace, and furnace fuel will aggregate $120 per year, or $10 a month.
  4. Light and water average with us just $5 a month.
  5. The labor of a gardener one day a month is $2.
  6. Our laundry averages just $10 monthly. Our servants will do no laundry work.
  7. An investment of $5000 in house and lot, together with personal property and poll tax, makes this $10 a month.

If there were no house owned, the rent item (11) would have to be increased.

  1. To protect the family of a man who is not in a position to save, $5000 life insurance is not too much. The monthly premium on this amount, assuming a twenty-payment ordinary life policy, will be $10.
  2. $3000 insurance on house, and $2000 on personal property, makes $18 per year, or $1.50 a month.
  3. Six per cent on $5000 invested in house and lot is $300 annually, or $25 a month. This does not provide for depreciation, maintenance, and repairs. No desirable house on the campus can be rented for less than $35.
  4. Not caring to pay so large a rent, we live off the campus and use bicycles. Their depreciation and repairs average $2 a month. Keeping a horse would cost $8 a month.
  5. An experience of ten years shows us that not less than $10 a month may be set down for doctors and dentists for the family. A single attack of appendicitis in ten years will take the whole of this.
  6. Hospitals, nurses, and drugs average $5 a month.
  7. Since the average duration of life is about forty years, in a family of four individuals one death is to be expected every ten years. This item may be set down at $2 a month.
  8. Occasional notary and minor legal services average $1 a month.
  9. Certain expenses, like life insurance and taxes, being payable in large amounts, necessitate loans from the bank, which are gradually repaid. This item may be set down at fifty cents monthly.
  10. For a live family with connections, postage, stationery, telegrams, telephones, express, freight, cartage, and allied items, will aggregate $3 a month.
  11. Newspapers, books, and periodicals college professor is supposed to revel in this sort of thing. Suppose we allow him $5 a month.
  12. To clothe four individuals neatly and completely cannot cost less than $180 a year, can it?

This is $15 a month.

  1. Learned society and social club initiation fees and dues must amount to at least $2 monthly.
  2. University gifts and supplies, type-writing, etc. We are constantly going into our pockets for small items which the university will not or cannot furnish without unbearable delay; or we may be working on lines of investigation which call for outlay. Say $1 a month.
  3. In our case, our children are of the kindergarten and primary school age, so this item is only $9 a month.

Older colleagues, whose children have advanced to the music lesson and preparatory school age, say they must allow $50 to $60 monthly.

  1. Some families belong to a church. We all have charitable instincts, we are of that class to which the call of needy or suffering humanity appeals.

May we allow $2 a month?

  1. Our education has given us a refined appreciation of the drama, and we have a knowledge of and love for the best music. The annual foot-ball game is a social event which every loyal member of the college community is supposed to attend. We cut this out long ago. Grand opera exists for us only in the memory of our German days.

Let us keep the spark alive by taking our wives once a month to a cheap concert; say $1.

  1. We have children and friends; there are birthdays and anniversaries, as well as Christmas. Is $50 a year too much? This is $4 a month. Dinners, receptions, and the like, are not for us.
  2. Occasionally a man is jaded; he has a wild desire to “blow himself.” May he have $1 a month pocket money, to share with his wife?
  3. Most of us can shave ourselves, but we cannot cut our own hair, although we may invert a bowl over the heads of our youngsters, and trim around the edges.

Here is another $1.

  1. When summer comes, a teacher is pretty nearly always exhausted. His work is trying and confining. His family requires an occasional change of air.

His professional needs may call for a long journey to attend an important meeting of fellow workers, etc. For an average geographical location $100 a year, or $8.50 a month, is not too much to cover these items. For an exceptional location, like the extreme Pacific coast, this item should be trebled.

  1. The writer has known many colleagues whose education expenses had put them under obligations which they were pledged to repay. In most cases it takes ten years to wipe out these obligations. Sometimes at the end of this period not even the beginning of discharging the debt has been made. Our college professors often come from families whose means are small. The support of aged parents or other relatives may have to be borne by them in common with their brothers and sisters. Every man is apt to have some such claim on himself or his wife.

To cover these items let us allow him $10 a month.

  1. A few, a very few, of our colleges pay pensions to their old and worn-out teachers. In such cases perhaps there is no need for a man to lay aside something for his old age, or to make provision for his children’s start in life.

Perhaps he owes a duty to his children, to give them as good an education and chance as he himself received. If so, he must begin to lay aside for it.

Where there is no pension, should he not aim, after thirty years of faithful service, to have $10,000 laid aside? He is not in a position to know of places where he can get large returns on his small investments.

Shall we allow him $250 a year to put aside (providing there are no “exceptional and unusual” expenses that year, as there always are)?

Let us say $20 per month.

SUMMARY

These are certainly not great demands. Yet, summing them up, taking the smaller of the two when two sums are mentioned, we have $262.50 monthly, or $31501 per year. Let us talk no more of bad management,—we and our wives face an impossible problem.

CONCLUSION

If this seems extravagant to those who have to determine upon the proper minimum compensation for a man of long training, education, and refinement, we must ask them to look over these items carefully, one by one, and put down what they think a fair sum for each item for a family of the college professor’s social status. Then let them foot up the total. The average college professor’s salary, in the United States, is about $2000.2 The inevitable deduction from the table of analyzed expenses, borne out by the experience of the writer and of all of his colleagues whom he has consulted, is that this must be increased sixty per cent, —the increase to be uniform in all grades, from instructor to head professor.

If the profession of teaching is to attract the highest type of efficient manhood, a living salary must be paid. A man who devotes his life to the cause of the advancement of education must feel a “call ” to it. He should be of a type which joyfully relinquishes all desire to accumulate worldly wealth or to live in luxury. Large salaries, commensurate with what equal ability would bring in other lines of work ($10,000 to $50,000), might be just, but would be undesirable, as they would tend to serve as bait to attract mercenary and lower types of men.

But a man fit to occupy a chair in a university should be paid enough to enable him to live in decency and comfort, rearing and educating his children, and retiring in his old age to something other than absolute penury.

The writer would commend a careful study of his table to all college trustees.

Can a man, whose energies are spent in so unequal and impossible a struggle to make both ends meet, maintain freshness and vigor in his work, be an inspiration to his students, and fulfill in scholarship the promise of his early years? The alternative demanded by the conditions is celibacy.

1 The difference between this sum and the writer’s average of $2,794.27 is accounted for by the fact that he has saved nothing, and that his accounts begin with his first year of married life, when both his wife and he were well supplied with clothing, books, pictures, and certain items of household furnishings. No children and no servant for the first two years. Owning our own home since the second year, we have not included anything for rent or interest.

2 This includes not merely full professors, but the other ranks as well.

Source:   The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 95, no. 5 (May, 1905), pp. 647-650.