Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Graduate student teaching assistant, A.M. but no Ph.D. Frank Richardson Mason, 1906

Not all graduate students complete the requirements for a Ph.D. and, early in the 20th century, it was quite common for the Master’s degree to be the terminal degree and not all career paths lead to economics education and/or research. From time to time your curator of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror stumbles upon career information of the one or other graduate student of economics who left the formal study of economics for that so-called real world and the information is added as a biographical post. 

Here we feature two reports from the Harvard Class of 1905 graduate (summa cum laude), Frank Richardson Mason. A trace of his academic life was encountered in the previous post that dealt with the Principles of Economics course taught at Harvard in 1905-06.  Earlier we found mention of his Special Examination for the Ph.D. that was scheduled for May 14, 1908. Presumably something must have wrong in his special examination, because he looked to be on track for a Ph.D., having passed his general examinations and published a paper on his thesis topic in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

_______________________________

From the Class of 1905
Twenty-fifth Reunion (1930)

FRANK RICHARDSON MASON

BORN: Hebron, Ill., Oct. 6, 1882. PARENTS: Ralph Nathaniel Mason, Helen May Richardson.

PREPARED AT: John Marshall High School, Chicago, Ill.

IN COLLEGE: 1901-1905. DEGREES: A.B. summa cum laude 1905; A.M. 1906.

MARRIED: Jennie Louise Barr, Chicago, Ill., Sept. 25, 1912. CHILDREN: Alfred Barr, Sept. 5, 1914; Jennie Louise, Oct. 19, 1917; Donald Frank, March 17, 1926.

OCCUPATION: Accountant.

ADDRESSEs: (home) 1124 No. Harvey Ave., Oak Park, Ill.; (business) 10 So. LaSalle St., Chicago, Ill.

For three years after graduating I was in the Graduate School, where I held a teaching fellowship, specializing in economics. For two years I was secretary of Northwestern University School of Commerce, and since then have been in various business positions. For seven years, 1912 to 1919, I was office manager for J. W. Butler Paper Company, in Chicago. For the past several years I have been a public accountant on my own, operating under the firm name of F. R. Mason & Co.

My life has been singularly free from either high lights or shadows. Outside of one trip to Europe before the war, I have had no mad adventures. My chief preoccupation has been raising a family. I meet the Chicago boys of our class about once a month, and so keep in vicarious touch with the past and present glories of our Alma Mater.

PUBLICATIONS: “The Silk Industry in the United States,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1908; “Business Organization and Principles,” (Cree Pub. Co., 1910); various translations from French and German.

MEMBER OF: Harvard Club, Chicago, Ill.

Source: Harvard Class of 1905, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report (June, 1930), pp. 410-11.

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From the Class of 1905
Thirtieth Reunion (1935)

FRANK RICHARDSON MASON has spent the last five years “accounting, and getting clients out of trouble when Uncle Sam thinks they’ve ‘rationalized’ on their income tax” During this time he has performed the following public service: “gone to one Phi Beta Kappa dinner and stuck it out to the bitter end; contributed generously to Samuel Insull’s total of defalcation.” He has also written several diatribes condemning the new dealers for not paying the swatters for the home runs they didn’t make, and has spent a good deal of time standing on his head to see if he can’t make the new deal look right side up. His chief aversion is “The guy with one idea which will solve the world’s problems.” But he adds seriously, “After a life of frugal toil, having accumulated a few thousands by diligence and self denial, I have lost everything — except faith, hope, and charity.

Faith — that the American people will rise with the strength of their own backbone out of the Slough of Despond in which they have been wallowing for the past five years; Hope — that there are greater horizons further on than those we have already seen, and that dauntless souls will forge ahead to call us on to the visions discernible from the new heights; Charity — for the loud-mouthed demagogues continually shouting a rallying cry for every mirage that shimmers over the barren desert of our economic outlook. I still have Faith, Hope, and Charity, and I agree with St. Paul, the greatest of these is Charity.” Address: 10 South La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill.

Source:  Harvard Class of 1905, Thirtieth Anniversary Report (June, 1935),  p. 91.

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Frank Richardson Mason died Jan 22, 1953 in Oak Park, Illinois.

Source: Find-a-grave website.

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Image Source: Frank Richardson Mason’s 1905 Class Album picture and his twenty-fifth reunion portrait.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Principles of Economics Exam. Taussig et al., 1905-1906

Over the next couple of weeks Economics in the Rear-view Mirror will be posting the printed economics course exams from Harvard for the academic year 1905-06.  Economics in the Rear-View Mirror has already transcribed and posted nearly every economics exam at Harvard University up to this year. You will find links to them in the Catalogue of Artifacts, then use page search for, e.g.,”Exam” to be awed if not shocked by the sheer quantity of material available to you.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 1. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Asst. Professor [Abram Piatt] Andrew, assisted by Messrs. [Silas Wilder] Howland, [Chester Whitney] Wright, [Seldon Osgood] Martin, [William Hyde] Price, [Frank Richardson] Mason, and [Stuart] Daggett. — Principles of Economics.

Total 470: 1 Graduate, 9 Seniors, 87 Juniors, 266 Sophomores, 63 Freshmen, 44 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1905-06

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Answer nine questions, five from Group I, four from Group II.

Group I

  1. Which of the following would you class as capital:—
    1. stocks of goods in retailers’ hands;
    2. a theatre:
    3. the skill, acquired through training and education, of highly efficient workmen;
    4. agricultural land permanently improved by drainage, embankments and the like.
  2. Explain concisely,
    1. the law of diminishing returns;
    2. intensive and extensive margin of cultivation;
    3. marginal utility.
  3. Suppose all agricultural land to be equally fertile and equally distant from the market; suppose all to be under cultivation: would there be rent? If so, why and where? if not, why not?
  4. Explain in what way the value of monopolized commodities is influenced on the one hand by cost of production, on the other hand by marginal utility.
  5. Explain in what way the value of commodities produced at joint cost is influenced on the one hand by cost of production, on the other hand by marginal utility.
  6. State two different ways in which expense of education and training affects variations of wages in different occupations.

Group II

  1. “The extra gains which any producer or dealer obtains through superior talents for business, or superior business arrangements, are very much of a similar kind [to rent]. . . . All advantages, in fact, which one competitor has over another, whether natural or acquired, whether personal or the result of social arrangements, bring the commodity, so far, into the Third Class, and assimilate the possessor of the advantage to a receiver of rent.” —Mill.
    Explain what is the “third class” of commodities here referred to by Mill; wherein “personal” advantages differ from those which are “the result of social arrangements”; and how far the general doctrine set forth in this extract is found also in Walker and in Seager.
  2. State concisely the residual theory of distribution, as set forth by Walker.
  3. Suppose the number of laborers to increase greatly, the other factors in production (capital, land) remaining unchanged: what changes in wages would ensue, and in what manner would they be brought about, according to Mill? Walker? Seager?
  4. Explain concisely,
    1. the capitalization of rent;
    2. the capitalization of monopoly profits;
    3. the statement that the rate of interest determines the value of land and securities;
    4. innocent investors and acquired rights.
  5. A corporation organized to do a mercantile business buys an expensive city site, erects a building thereon, carries on the operations of buying and selling, and in due time distributes dividends among its stockholders. What is the nature of the return received by the stockholders?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

Omit one question from each group.

I.

  1. Define capital, and mention two articles of wealth which are always capital, two which never are, and two which sometimes are and sometimes are not.
  2. Under what conditions would there be no economic rent?
  3. Explain briefly the salient influences which will determine the value (1) at any given moment, (2) in the long run, of the following:
    1. an uncopyrighted book,
    2. a copyrighted book,
    3. an ounce of gold.
  4. What are the limits to the price-fixing and profit-earning powers of monopolies? Are there any other conditions which will tend to check the indefinite growth of combinations?

II.

  1. Is it true of all commodities that changes in supply affect their value proportionally? Is it true of the commodity money? If in your opinion there is any difference, explain it.
  2. Can a commodity change its value without changing its price? Can it change its price without changing its value? Suppose the commodity were gold bullion, would your answer vary?
  3. Suppose an increase in the volume of our currency, due to a new issue of silver, what would be the effect upon international trade? Would this effect be lasting? Would your answer depend at all upon the condition of our currency at the time the increase occurred?
  4. If the merchandise imports from England to the United States equalled the exports from the United States to England (a) what would be the state of exchange on London? (b) Would there be any greater advantage to either of the countries engaged in trade?

III.

  1. Would a tariff “for revenue only” differ from a protective tariff, the product of which is entirely devoted to revenue? Has either any advantage over the other?
  2. “A man is of all sorts of luggage the most difficult to be transported.” What is the bearing of this fact upon the theory of international trade?
  3. (a) How are loans affected when the reserve limit (as established either by law or custom) is reached in England, Germany, and in the United States?
    (b) Show whether a system of “combined reserves” is needed in France, England, or Germany.
  4. Arrange the following items in their proper order as they would appear in the statement of a national bank. What criticisms would a bank examiner make? Would these criticisms vary if the bank were situated in New York, Boston, or the town of Lexington?
Loans,

360 thousands of dollars
Capital,

50      “                “       “
Reserve,

50      “                “       “
Real estate,

28      “                “       “
Deposits,

300    “                “       “
Undivided profits,

3        “                “       “
Notes,

115    “                “       “
Other assets,

20      “                “       “
Bonds and stocks,

40      “                “       “
Surplus,

30      “                “       “

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), pp. 26-27.

Image Source: Portrait of Professor Frank W. Taussig in the Harvard Class Album 1906.

Categories
Columbia Funny Business

Columbia. Fairy tale by economics PhD alumnus (1953), Thomas Mayer

The monetary economist whose methodological contributions will likely be read long after the heated debates about monetarism lie cold in university archives or buried in the footnotes of historians of economics, Thomas Mayer, was born January 18, 1927 in Vienna. His family was able to leave Austria in the late 1930s which gave him the opportunity to go to college (Queens) and graduate school (Columbia) in New York City. This led to a long, distinguished academic career that culminated in a professorship at the University of California, Davis. He died in Berkeley, California June 12, 2015. 

This post adds to the subcollection “Funny Business” here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror that is dedicated to attempts at nominal and real humor by economists. At the time of the writing of the following “Fairy Tale” (est. ca. 1952-53), Thomas Mayer was probably still a doctoral candidate, or perhaps a freshly-minted Ph.D., in economics at Columbia University. Martin Bronfenbrenner thought enough of this little mimeographed paper to have kept it in his files of macroeconomic teaching materials. There is no clue there, when or how he came to have a copy of the paper. In preparing this post, I discovered that only some archival boxes away at Duke’s Economists’ papers archive there is also another copy of the “Fairy Tale” in the Thomas Mayer Papers collection.

In his brief biographical tribute to Thomas Mayer, Kevin Hoover (see below for exact citation) wrote “Tom reported that Keynes’s General Theory was perhaps the first economics book that he read while still in school in England and that he was driven to keep studying economics until he was able to understand the book – a feat that he, unlike many others, claims to have accomplished”.  My favorite lines from Hoover are the following:

[Thomas Mayer] was neither a market fundamentalist nor a government romantic, but occupied the ideologically uncomfortable middle: the left thought that he was a monetarist; the right, a Keynesian. He reported having been cast off the monetarist Shadow Open-Market Committee for left-wing deviationism.

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Tributes to Thomas Mayer

Monetarism and the Methodology of Economics, edited by Kevin D. Hoover and Steven M. Sheffrin (Edward Elgar, 1995) is a collection of 14 original essays in honour of Thomas Mayer focusing on the themes of monetarism, the transmission mechanism for monetary policy, the political economy of monetary policy and the methodology of empirical economics. Contributions by: King Banaian, Mark Blaug, Martin Bronfenbrenner, Richard C.K. Burdekin, Thomas F. Cargill, Milton Friedman, C.A.E. Goodhart, D. Wade Hands, Abraham Hirsch, Kevin D. Hoover, David Laidler, Thomas Mayer, James L. Pierce, Steven M. Sheffrin, Richard J. Sweeney, Thomas D. Willett, Wing Thye Woo.

Hoover, Kevin D. (2015). Thomas Mayer. Journal of Economic Methodology 22 (4):526-527.

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AER Membership Bio, 1974

Mayer, Thomas, academic; b. Vienna, Austria, 1927. Educ. B.A. Queens Coll., 1948; Ph.D., Columbia U., 1953. Doc. Dis. The Population Argument of the Stagnation Thesis, 1953. Fields 310, 020. Pub. Permanent Income, Wealth and Consumption, 1972; Monetary Policy in the United States, 1968; Intermediate Macroeconomics, 1972. Res. Interpretation of Interest Rate Snap-Back; Explanation of Excess Reserves in 1930’s. Prev. Pos. Vis. Assoc. Prof., U. of Calif., 1961-62, Assoc. Prof., Mich. State U., 1956-61, Asst. Prof. U. of Notre Dame, 1954-56. Cur. Pos. Prof., U. of Calif., since 1962. Address 3054 Buena Vista Way, Berkeley, CA 94708.

Source: American Economic Review (October 1974). Directory of Members, 1974, p. 262.

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A FAIRY TALE1

By Anon Ymous2

Long, long ago there lived in a far and distant country a Happy Family. They were the Natural and the Market Rate of Interest. They loved each other dearly, and had two beautiful and good children: Price Level Stability and Full Employment. The parents always stuck together, for they knew that if they should part their children would be lost.

Near their house was a big wood. It was largely unexplored, and in it there lived a fierce Giant with the terrifying name of Central Bank Policy. He was a great, big, strong man. But instead of helping the two parents to keep their children happy, he would often fight with them. He pretended to love their two children dearly, but in reality he loved his own child more. His child had a shock of golden blond hair, and was for that reason known as Goldie Standard. Sometimes this child would get sick, and then her father wanted to separate our happy family. He would try to take the mother, the Market Rate of Interest, into the wood with him to take care of Goldie Standard, and to make her well again. Of course the father, poor Natural Rate of Interest, could not follow. The two sweet children would not have had the care they needed, and would starve. Poor little Full Employment would lose her full, round cheeks, and her sister, Price Level Stability, would feel so weak that she would stumble and fall many times. But Central Bank Policy did not mind this, though he pretended to, for he loved Goldie Standard above anything in the world — even though she was often naughty, and taught little Price Level Stability many naughty tricks like climbing up and down all over the Time Series.

Since the giant Central Bank Policy would have had great difficulty in stealing dear Market Rate of Interest by himself alone, he had a group of supporters called Orthodox Economists. They were on his side, for they thought that if Goldie Standard should die there would be nobody to exercise loving care over him; then, in a fit of temper, he might start to play around with the Printing Press.

One bright day a fair prince from far away arrived in this country. His name was Prince Keynes. He was the son of the ruling house of Cambridge. He saw at once what was going on in the country. Indeed, he did not find this difficult, for he had once read a vague prophecy by a Swede that such a country existed. He soon had Tract the matter down, and decided to help the poor family, but at first he did not quite know how. He studied for a long, long time, writing down his observations in a big diary. So that the giant would not find it, he hid it in a tree (not in a pumpkin [Curator’s note: a clear reference to the “Pumpkin papers” hidden by Whittaker Chambers then revealed in the case of Alger Hiss. Very much in the news 1949-50]), and for this reason it is until this day called “Tree-t’is”. (Sorry!)

Now in watching the animals playing around, especially the bears and the bulls, Prince Keynes got an idea. He built a trap, with a Schedule like a ladder; and if you followed it down you fell into a Liquidity Preference. Now the Giant’s helpers, the Orthodox economists, did not know this, and themselves fell into it, and became All Wet. Then Prince Keynes came up and told them: “I will help you out and will tell you a great Secret, if you will help me to free the poor mother, dear Market Rate of Interest.” They agreed, and so in a low voice he told them: “Always and ever and ever, when the sun setteth and when it rises, in every land and on every sea, S equals I.”

The orthodox economists were very glad to learn this Secret, and led Prince Keynes to the place where the poor mother, dear Market Rate of Interest, was imprisoned. They were the Prince’s friends by now, and went with him wherever he went, always telling each other: S equals I. Then they visited the Giant and taught him a new Canticle our Prince had invented. It went like this:

“To keep the Economy in a boom?3
Raise the Propensities — Invest and Consume —
For the rate of interest is but the consequence
Of the amount of money and liquidity preference.
And S = I whatever you say,
Unless you use young Robertson’s “day”.
Under-employment an equilibrium can be
As during the thirties any fool could see.
Wage-cuts can never full employment quite bring;
To be sure that you know it, this ditty I sing.”

The Giant was more or less convinced by this Canticle. And in any event, Goldie Standard had been so naughty that even the lady who lived in Threadneedle Street, and loved her like a mother, did not want to have anything more to do with her.

So the Giant decided to make peace with the family; and he grew to love both children, though he preferred Full Employment to Price Level Stability. Not only did he spend [his] time in keeping the family happy, but he even persuaded an animal which had inhabited the woods with him, called Fish-Call-Policy, to join him in this enterprise. So then all lived happily ever after until the next Depression.

With apologies,4
Thomas Mayer

Columbia University

Footnotes
  1. The following is an excerpt from the author’s forthcoming magnus opium, “Economics for Every Child”.
  2. The author is Lecturer in Economics and Nursery Tales at the Progressive Progress Kindergarten, Atlantis 5. He is indebted for help and criticism to himself, who however is not to be charged with any responsibility for the following. Since consumption determines the course of production, all the responsibility rests with the reader.
  3. Just what did you expect to find down here? A definition of a boom, perhaps? You might have known that a paper like this has no sensible footnotes. Of course, if you are scholarly enough to insist on a reference, look at pages 385-403 of the General Theory, where you will find an excellent summary of its doctrines — arranged alphabetically. [Curator’s note: pages are the index of Keynes’ General Theory.]
  4. The author categorically refuses to apologize to the reader. If he has read this far it is his own fault and it serves him right, and anyone who had not read this far has no business looking at the final footnote.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, 1939-1995. Box 25, Folder “Teaching Materials: Macro-econ n.d.”.

Copy also in Box 1 of the Thomas Mayer Papers, also in the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard International Economics Suggested Reading

Harvard. Undergraduate International Economics. Book list and final exam. Caves, 1963-1964

Harvard Square in February 1964

While the memo to the libraries promises a full reading list for the course on international trade and finance to come as soon as possible, there was no copy of Richard Caves’ full reading list for the first semester of 1963-64 to be found with other economics course syllabi in the Harvard archives. Still the twenty items arranged in approximate order of use together with the final exam questions for the course give us a good idea of the course content.

________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 148. International Trade: Basic Facts and Policies

Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., (S.), at 12. Professor Caves

Treats such problems as the balance of payments, the dollar market, capital movements, exchange rates, exchange control, European integration and the relation of domestic and international policies.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Science. Courses of Instruction for Harvard and Radcliffe. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. LX, No. 21 (September 4, 1963) p. 104.

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Book list for Economics 148

September 11, 1963

To: Lamont, Radcliffe, Littauer Libraries
From: Richard E. Caves
Subject: book list for Economics 148, Fall Semester, 1963-64

The following books and other special materials which I plan to assign for Economics 148 (“International Trade: Basic Facts and Policies”) are arranged in the approximate order of use during the term. Heavy assignments will be made in those titles preceded by an asterisk; in general, only relatively short passages will be assigned from other titles.

Students will be urged to purchase as a basic text Charles P. Kindleberger, International Economics, 3rd ed. (Homewood, Ill.: Richard 3 D. Irwin, 1963). I expect an enrollment in the course about the same as last year, 90 to 100.

A full reading list will follow as soon as possible.

Lary, Hal B. Problems of the United States as World Trader and Banker. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1963.

Allen, W. R., and Allen, C. L., eds. Foreign Trade and Finance: Essays in International Economic Equilibrium and Adjustment. New York: Macmillan, 1959.

Meier, Gerald M. International Trade and Development. New York: Harper and Row, 1963.

Kenen, Peter B. Giant Among Nations: Problems in United States Foreign Economic Policy. Chicago: Rand, McNally, 1963.

Daedalus, Summer and Fall numbers, 1962.

Vaccara, Beatrice N. Employment and Output in Protected Manufacturing Industries. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1960.

Myrdal, Gunnar. An International Economy: Problems and Prospects. New York: Harper & Bros., 1956.

Triffin, Robert. Europe and the Money Muddle. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957.

*Salant, Walter S. et al. The United States Balance of Payments in 1968, Washington, D.C. Brookings Institution, 1963.
[Note: Chapters 2-9 were the Reading Period assignments]

Harris, Seymour E., ed. The Dollar in Crisis. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961.

*Factors Affecting the United States Balance of Payments, Compilation of Studies, U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee, Subcommittee on International Exchange and Payments, 87th Congress, 2nd session. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1962.

Tew, Brian. International Monetary Cooperation, 1945-1956. London: Hutchinson’s University Library, 1956.

Tew, Brian, The International Monetary Fund: Its Present Role and Future Prospects. Essays in International Finance, No. 36. Princeton, N.J.: International Finance Section, Princeton University, 1961.

Machlup, Fritz. Plans for Reform of the International Monetary System, Special Papers in International Economics, No. 3. Princeton, N.J.: International Finance Section, Princeton University, 1962.

Tinbergen, Jan. Shaping the World Economy: Suggestions for an International Economic Policy. New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1962.

Asher, Robert E. Grants, Loans, and Local Currencies: Their Role In Foreign Aid. Washington, D. C.: Brookings Institution, 1961.

Millikan, M. F., and W. W. Rostow. A Proposal: Key To An Effective Foreign Policy. New York: Harper & Bros., 1957.

Mikesell, R. F. Promoting United States Private Investment Abroad. Washington, D.C. National Planning Association, 1957.

*Balassa, Bela. The Theory of Economic Integration. Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, 1961.

Sannwald, Rolf F., and Jacques Stohler. Economic Integration: Theoretical Assumptions and Consequences of European Integration. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1959.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 8, Folder “Economics, 1963-1964”.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Economics 148
Final Examination
January 21, 1964

Answer question No. 1 and three of the remaining five. The answers to all questions will be weighted equally.

  1. Describe the basic model used in the Brookings report (The United States Balance of Payments in 1968) to forecast the balance of payments and evaluate its completeness and correctness in terms of international trade theory.
    (Note: Make sure that you distinguish between the structure of the model and the assumptions made about independent variables used in the model.)
  2. Do underdeveloped countries face a conflict between the “gains from trade” and the “gains from growth”?
    Discuss critically the arguments which have been advanced for the restriction of imports by developing countries, distinguishing between arguments for across-the-board restrictions and those for restricting the inflow of particular types of commodities.
  3. A country devalues its currency. Show how the price and income adjustment mechanisms respond to affect the balance of payments. Would you normally expect the balance to improve? Is it possible for no net improvement to occur, although the price effect is favorable?
  4. Discuss the elements of the “international liquidity problem.” Would the problem disappear if the United States balance of payments (miraculously) returned to equilibrium? Appraise the extent to which at least two of the proposals for dealing with the liquidity problem would solve the essential elements of that problem, as you see them.
  5. A country forms a customs union with another. Illustrate the following effects for any one traded commodity, using diagrams, and assuming that the world’s and the partner country’s supply functions are perfectly elastic, while the domestic supply and demand functions are neither perfectly elastic nor perfectly inelastic:
    1. Tariff revenue foregone
    2. Transfer from the government to the consumers
    3. Transfer from domestic producers to consumers
    4. Change in consumers’ surplus
    5. Trade creation
    6. Trade diversion
      Briefly, how might the net effect (gain or loss) of the union on the country’s welfare be measured?
  6. Can industrialized countries increase their rates of economic growth by forming customs unions? Appraise the possible gains from faster growth in the setting of Western European economies. Could some of the effects of a customs union hamper growth, either among members or in excluded countries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Social Sciences. Final Examinations January 1964 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 150).

Image Source: Harvard Square Snowstorm, February 1964. Boston Public Library, Boston Herald-Traveler Photo Morgue Collection. Copy downloaded from the Digital Commonwealth website.

Categories
Economists Germany Public Finance Transcript

Germany. Wolfgang Stolper’s Seminarschein for a public finance seminar. Schumpeter, 1932

Back in the day before German universities began awarding Bachelor and Master degrees instead of their historical Diplom and Magister degrees (a process initiated in August 2002 and essentially completed by 2010), German students collected their certificates seminar-by-seminar, signed by their instructors, that together constituted their entry tickets required for degree examinations. I began teaching in a German university (Freie Universität Berlin) in 1994 and have signed such “Seminarscheine” for my students. The printed fonts had changed and typed insertions replaced hand-written ones, but the Scheine themselves were essentially identical to those used by earlier generations.

Below we have the image of the Seminarschein obtained by Wolfgang Stolper who attended Joseph Schumpeter’s advanced seminar in public finance in 1932. Official course transcripts are of considerable informational value but when it comes to antiquarian charm, I’ll take a stack of Seminarscheine any day over a registrar’s one page (stamped) transcript.

__________________________________

Stolper’s Seminarschein
for a Schumpeter seminar
in Bonn, 1932

Staatswissenschaftliches Seminar
der Universität Bonn

Bonn, den 26 Juli 1932
Herr Wolfgang Stolper hat im Sommer-Winterhalbjahr 1932 an meinem finanzwissenschaftlichen Vollseminar—Proseminar
Besprechungen zur _____________________________
mit gutem Fleiß und gutem Erfolg teilgenommen und folgende Arbeiten geliefert:

Hausarbeiten

Aufsichtsarbeiten
mit Auszeichnung:
gut:  ___1___
voll befriedigend:
genügend:
nicht genügend:

[signed] Schumpeter

Translation

Political Science Seminar
of the University of Bonn

Bonn, 26 July 1932
Mr. Wolfgang Stolper was enrolled in my public finance advanced/ introductory seminar during the summer/winter semester 1932.
Tutorial on  _______
His participation demonstrated good work and good performance, completing the following assignments:

Written home assignments

Proctored written examinations
with distinction: [blank]

[blank]
good:  ___1___

[blank]
satisfactory: [blank]

[blank]
sufficient: [blank]

[blank]
insufficient: [blank]

[blank]

[signed] Schumpeter

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Wolfgang F. Stolper papers, 1892-2001. Add. 02/207: Box 23, Folder unlabeled (job search 1940-41 correspondence).

Image Source: Harvard University Archives, from Schumpeter’s 1932 German passport. J. Schumpeter Papers. Box 2 (Correspondence and Papers relating to death of JAS), Folder “Dept of Labor–citizenship”.

 

Categories
Economists Harvard War and Defense Economics

Harvard. Account of his government service during WWI. Gay, 1920

Edwin Francis Gay

Edwin F. Gay was an 1890 alumnus of the University of Michigan (A.B.) whom the Harvard Class of 1890 elected to honorary class membership its 25th anniversary. Five years later we find in the 30th anniversary report of the class a short note paying tribute to Gay’s war service. That note is posted below. Rather than overthink what might be new information worth putting into the digital record here, Economics in the Rear-view Mirror simply decided to transcribe the entire artifact. 

The previous post highlights the role Edwin F. Gay and Wesley Clair Mitchell played at the creation of the “Survey of Current Business” of the Department of Commerce, an important legacy of then Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover.

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In-depth look at the life and career of Edwin Francis Gay

Herbert Heaton. A Scholar in Action, Edwin F. Gay. Harvard University Press, 1952.

Contents

Introduction—The man and his work

    1. A Scholar in the Making, 1867-1902
    2. Harvard, 1902-1917
    3. Wartime in Washington, 1917-1919
    4. The New York “Evening Post,” 1919-1923
    5. Harvard and the Squirrel Cage, 1924-1936
    6. In and Out of the Ivory Tower, 1936-1946

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From the 1920 Report
of the Harvard Class of 1890

EDWIN FRANCIS GAY

DEGREES: (Harvard) LL.D. (Hon.); (Berlin) Ph.D.; (University of Michigan) A.B. 1890.

OCCUPATION: Publisher New York Evening Post.

Offices held in Harvard: instructor in Economics, 1902-03; assistant professor of Economics, 1903-1906; professor of Economics, 1906-1919; dean of Graduate School of Business Administration, 1908-1919. Graduated from the University of Michigan in the class of 1890 and came to Harvard as the dean of the School of Business Administration. He was elected an honorary member of our class at the time of our twenty-fifth anniversary. During the war he went to Washington where he was in charge of the allocation of shipping and at the close of the war he came to New York as the editor of the New York Evening Post where he now is.

Gay really did a wonderful work in Washington in bringing his statistical data to practical results. He started in on the Shipping Board and conceived the idea of restricting imports that were not particularly needed for war work and thus gaining space in ships for carrying munitions, food and men for our Army and those of our Allies from this country abroad. He established a splendid number of expert statisticians, each one of whom made a certain commodity a specialty. These were mostly college deans and professors who quickly acquired a book knowledge of needs and supplies of these various commodities.

For instance, a man would be devoted to the study of rubber. He would know the whole subject and have at his fingers’ ends the amount of rubber imported into this country during the last ten years; the growth of the use of rubber, and what percentage of this total could properly be called essential – to which amount importations might be safely limited without in any way injuring our war preparations. Another man would have similar knowledge of wool; another of minerals; fruits; peanuts; rabbit skins for hats; rattans and reeds for furniture; tobacco, etc., down the list of hundreds of raw materials. In this way over seven hundred and fifty thousand tons of shipping were found for the necessities of the war.

So successful was Gay in quickly starting this bureau that he was made a member of the War Trade Board, and afterwards the War Industries Board, and was the strongest man on both. He was a tremendous worker himself, and had the magnetism to inspire enthusiasm in others. It was generally conceded that he was one of the few strong men in Washington who made it possible for men and supplies to get across the water; a man of great knowledge, but no bigotry. His department was as full of Socialism as were all others in Washington. These college professors were so enthusiastic in keeping out unnecessary commodities that they laughed with glee when an unfortunate business man faced ruin as a result; but the main business was to win the war and it was confidently planned that if the armistice had not come on November 11th, on the following July the United States would have had four million men in Europe and the necessary munitions and supplies.

Source: Harvard College, Class of 1890.Thirtieth Anniversary, 1920, Secretary’s Report, No. 7, pp. 76-77.

Image Source: Portrait of professor Edwin Francis Gay (colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror) from the Harvard Class Album 1914.

Categories
Federal Government Statistics Suggested Reading

Government Statistics. Centenary History of the U.S. Survey of Current Business. Reamer, 2020

While trawling the internet for a ca. 1920 photo of Edwin Francis Gay for another post (coming attraction), I found the following history of the Department of Commerce’s publication “Survey of Current Business” commissioned for the occasion of the centenary celebration of its founding. We encounter Herbert Hoover, Wesley Clair Mitchell, Edwin Francis Gay, and Simon Kuznets on page one of the history…

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The Origins of
the Survey of Current Business:
A Window on the Evolution of Economic Policy, Research, and Statistics

By Andrew D. Reamer

For decades, the Survey of Current Business, the flagship monthly publication of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), has provided macro-, industry, international, and regional economists with data, analysis, and methodological research concerning the national economic accounts. This was not always so.

The Survey was founded in July 1921 as Department of Commerce (DOC) Secretary Herbert Hoover’s primary tool to promote macroeconomic stabilization. Specifically, the Survey published current, detailed industry-specific data from hundreds of public and private secondary sources so businesses might make better operational and investment decisions. One decade and a Great Depression later, the extensive statistical clearinghouse feeding the Survey became the foundation for Simon Kuznets’ famed study of national income and the subsequent development of national economic accounting.

The Survey’s creation and its later repurposing were the results of efforts by economists Edwin Gay and Wesley Mitchell, largely through a series of collaborations with Hoover between 1921 and 1933. As members of Hoover’s Joint Census Advisory Committee, Gay and Mitchell recommended the Survey’s development, modeled on the statistical clearinghouse they created to guide federal economic planning in the First World War. As founding leaders of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), they guided path-setting studies of national income and business cycles, several commissioned by Hoover; trained and hired Kuznets, who contributed to several NBER studies, including one for Hoover; and detailed Kuznets to the DOC to prepare the groundbreaking national income report.

This article begins by describing the Survey’s role in economic stabilization policy in the 1920s and the development of national economic accounting in the 1930s. The succeeding sections unpack this story by delving into how the Survey came to play these successive roles, particularly through Gay, Mitchell, and Hoover’s efforts. …

Source: From “Chronicling 100 Years of the U.S. Economy,” Survey of Current Business Vol. 100, No. 10 (October 2020)

Links to archived versions of the full article: htm; pdf.

Image Source: Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, ca.1921. From the blog of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Exam Questions Fields Harvard History of Economics Industrial Organization Money and Banking Public Finance Sociology Theory Undergraduate

Harvard. Division Exams for A.B., General and Economics, 1921

The Harvard Economics department was once one of three in its Division in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The Departments of History and Government shared a general division exam with the Department of Economics and also contributed their own specific exams for their respective departmental fields. This post provides the questions for the common, i.e. general, divisional exam, the general economics exam, and all the specific exams at the end of the academic year 1920-21 for those fields falling within the perview of the economics department.

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Previously posted
Division A.B. Exams

Division Exams 1916
Division Exams, January 1917
Division Exams, April 1918
Division Exams, May 1919
Division Exams, April/May 1920

Division Exams 1931

Special Exam for Money and Government Finance, 1939
Special Exam Economic History Since 1750, 1939
Special Exam for Economic Theory, 1939
Special Exam for Labor and Social Reform, 1939

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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT AND ECONOMICS

EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF A.B.
1920-21

DIVISION GENERAL EXAMINATION

PART I

The treatment of one of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of this examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on one question only. Insert before your answer to this question a sketch of your plan of treatment.

  1. Discuss the relations of civilization to climate.
  2. Does history show that the periods of a nation’s political and literary greatness tend to coincide?
  3. Was America’s entrance into the World War a consequence or a violation of her policies and traditions?
  4. Discuss the following: “One of the great difficulties, as well as one of the great fascinations of history is the constantly changing point of view; but we should beware of interpreting the past in the light of the present.”
  5. What have been and what should be the limitations upon the application of the principle of self-determination in national relations?
  6. Contrast Roman provincial, and nineteenth-century colonial relations.
  7. What should be the limits of nationalization of essential industries?
  8. What have been the marked characteristics of three great states at the time of their greatest power?
  9. “Society has departed very widely from the strict rule of non-interference with industry by the State; indeed, the policy of non-interference was never carried out logically by any State.” Comment.
  10. Discuss: “The patriotism of nations ought to be selfish.”
  11. What are the standards of social justice?

PART II

The treatment of four of the following questions in Part II is required and will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of this examination, and should therefore occupy one hour. The four questions are to be taken from the Departments in which the student is NOT CONCENTRATING; two questions from each of the two Departments.

A. HISTORY

  1. Briefly characterize, with approximate dates, five of the following: Alexander, Aristotle, Augustus, Francis Bacon, Frederick Barbarossa, Bolivar, Calvin, Chatham, Franklin, Richelieu.
  2. Give a short account of the rise of the Christian Church down to the period of the Crusades.
  3. Estimate the importance of the Netherlands in the development of Europe.
  4. Discuss the relations of England and the United States during the past one hundred years.
  5. Write a brief historical account of slavery in the Western Hemisphere.

B. GOVERNMENT

  1. Discuss: “Not independence but interdependence is the hope of nations.”
  2. Explain the evolution and significance of trial by jury.
  3. What is the significance of the following headlines in March, 1921?
    1. “Austria in dangerous unrest.”
    2. “Briand voted confidence on reparations.”
    3. “Crown prince is plotting.”
    4. “Lenin knows his Italian friends.”
  4. What are the limits of uniform state legislation?
  5. What political unities can best control:
    1. police,
    2. water supply,
    3. roads?

C. ECONOMICS

  1. “The fundamental fact in history is the law of decreasing returns. It is the cause of the origin and development of civilization. . . . It is equally, and for the same reason, the source of poverty and war.”
    State, explain, and indicate the significance of the law of decreasing (diminishing) returns.
  2. What are the fundamental features of the organization of modern industrial society?
  3. Discuss one of the following statements:
    1. “Employees have the right to contract for their services in a collective capacity, but any contract that contains a stipulation that employment should be denied to men not parties to the contract is an invasion of the constitutional rights of the American workmen, is against public policy, and is in violation of the conspiracy laws.”
    2. “In the old days, America outsailed the world. . . . I want to acclaim the day when America is the most eminent of shipping nations. . . . A big navy and a big mercantile marine are necessary to the future of the country.”
  4. Why should there be a labor party in England and not in the United States?
  5. What are the economic essentials of socialism?

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GENERAL EXAMINATION
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

I

The treatment of two of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of the examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on two questions only.

  1. Give the author, approximate date, and general character of five of the following works:
    1. National System of Political Economy.
    2. Essays in Political Arithmetick.
    3. England’s Treasure by Forraign Trade.
    4. Essay on the Principle of Population
    5. Principles of Political Economy.
    6. The Wealth of Nations.
    7. Das Kapital.
    8. Lombard Street.
    9. Capital and Interest.
  2. Explain four of the following terms:
    Abstinence; Manchester School; stationary state; iron law of wages; produit net; non-competing groups; Scholasticism; Utilitarianism.
  3. Locate on an outline map:
    1. The world’s principal sources of five of the following raw materials: cotton; copper; sugar; silk; wheat; tin; rice; nitrate; petroleum; gold.
    2. The more important routes of overseas transportation.
    3. The world’s chief regions of manufacture.

II

The treatment of three of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-half of the examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on three questions only. Be concise.

  1. Define “thrift” and discuss its social significance.
  2. Analyze the determination of normal value under competitive conditions of joint cost.
  3. What is meant by “monetary inflation”? How is it to be measured and what is its importance?
  4. What has been the course of the interest rate in modern times? What probably will be the course of the rate during the next few years? Why?
  5. What are the purposes and limits of progressive taxation?
  6. Discuss the future of public utilities in the United States.
  7. To what extent and in what respects, if at all, is labor legislation of the times a corrective of the more serious defects of the existing social order?
  8. Discuss: “Perpetual prosperity would be a national calamity.”

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SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMIC THEORY

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What is the concept of “justice” in the theory of the distribution of wealth?
  2. Comment on the validity and significance of the following contention: “Labor is the source of all wealth.”
  3. “Whether capital is productive depends simply on the question: Are tools useful? It matters not how much or how little tools add to the product — if they add something, capital is productive.” Do you agree? Explain.
  4. “The forces which make for Increasing Return are not of the same order as those that make for Diminishing Return. . . . The two ‘laws’ are in no sense coordinate. . . . The two ‘laws’ hold united, not divided, sway over industry.” Comment critically.
  5. What relations exist between the accounting and economic concepts of “cost of production”?
  6. “The differences in the productive powers of men due to their heredity or social position give to certain individuals the same kind of an advantage over others that the owner of a corner lot in the center of a city has over one in the suburbs. If the income from a corner lot is a surplus and can therefore be described as unearned, the income of a man of better heredity, education or opportunity must also be regarded as a surplus income and therefore unearned.”
    Discuss this statement with reference to your general theory of distribution.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than wto

  1. Give a brief historical account of the theory of population.
  2. Trace the development of the theory of international trade.
  3. In what ways have the following influenced the history of economic thought: Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Malthus, Ricardo, J.S. Mill, Marx?
  4. Outline the evolution of the theory of economic rent.

C

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. “The profits of speculation on the Stock Exchange are just as unearned as the increment in the value of urban building sites; unlike the profits of speculation in produce, they represent no service to society.” Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  2. “There is a point beyond which advertising outlay is extravagant.” Explain.
  3. “I do not see how we can retain our home markets, upon which American good fortune must be founded, and at the same time maintain American standards of production and American standards of living unless we make other peoples with lower standards pay for the privilege of trading in the American markets.” Discuss.
  4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the closed shop?

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMIC HISTORY

Answer six questions 

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. “The opening of the Erie Canal affected both intensive and extensive agriculture in the United States.” Explain. Have there been analogous changes in later periods?
  2. Discuss the following statement: “The enactment of corporation laws by the various states is the most important step made during the past century in the development of American manufactures.”
  3. Analyze the important economic after-effects of the World War.
  4. Briefly explain the most satisfactory methods for separating the different types of variation in time series.

B

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. Write a brief account of one of the early English trading companies.
  2. Sketch the rise of the modern factory system.
  3. Compare changes in farm ownership and tenancy during the nineteenth century in England and the United States.
  4. Outline the history of banking in the United States from 1830 to 1860.
  5. Write a brief narrative of the early development of the railroad.
  6. Give the history of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
  7. Trace the evolution of the middle class and forecast its future.

C

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Give a critical account of the policy of the Federal Government in its regulation of industrial combinations.
  2. Discuss the history and consequences of immigration into the United States since 1840.
  3. Review the development of German foreign trade before the War with special reference to the methods of trade promotion.
  4. Analyze the causes, extent, and consequences of changes in the price level in the United States since 1914.

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
PUBLIC FINANCE

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. A law of 1691 authorizes the municipal corporations of New York “to impose any reasonable tax upon all houses within said city, in proportion to the benefit they shall receive thereby.” How far is this a correct principle of taxation and how far has it continued to be applied?
  2. Present a classification of Federal expenditures for a national budget system.
  3. Give a brief account of the financial statistics issued currently by the Federal Government.
  4. Discuss the proposal for the cancellation of all inter-allied debts.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. How has the Federal Constitution influenced national and state tax systems in the United States?
  2. Trace the history of an important fiscal monopoly.
  3. Give a brief account of the financial history of one of the American states.
  4. What connections have existed between currency systems and government finance? Illustrate fully.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. Compare the total expenditures in the United States in normal times for (a) national, (b) state, and (c) municipal purposes. What changes, if any, in the proportions are to be expected?
  2. To what extent is it desirable to separate state and local revenues in the United States?
  3. Indicate the nature and significance of the “grant in aid” in British public finance.
  4. What arguments have been used in European countries for and against a capital levy?
  5. Should the poll tax be abolished? Why, or why not?
  6. Discuss critically the present condition of the public debt of the United States.

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
MONEY AND BANKING

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. What part, if any, do commercial banks play in (a) the process of investment; (b) the increase of capital; (c) the course of industrial development; (d) leadership in the business world? In what respects, if at all, may the influence of commercial banks be economically inexpedient?
  2. Discuss the desirability of uniform bank accounting in the United States.
  3. Describe critically the more important sources of statistics of currency and credit in the United States.
  4. Analyze the successive phases of the business cycle. What are the causes of financial panics; industrial crises?

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Give a brief account of the life and work of John Law.
  2. Trace the history of usury laws.
  3. Outline the political background of American monetary history from 1870 to 1900.
  4. Give a brief history of the Reichsbank.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. “It is quite clear that the money question no longer survives as a political issue.” Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  2. To what extent has the status of the gold standard been affected by the World War?
  3. “This little neutral country [Switzerland], surrounded by four great continental belligerents, and bordering on the two principal battle-fronts of Europe, possesses at present, curiously enough, an exceptional purchasing power. This is the consequence of the high level of Swiss currency, which is 250 per cent above the usual parity with the currency of the neighbor in the east, Austria-Hungary; 100 per cent higher than that of the neighbor in the north, Germany; 90 per cent higher than that of the neighbor in the south, Italy; and 20 per cent higher than that of the western neighbor, France. Even in overseas countries, Swiss currency has a higher buying power than the English sovereign or the American dollar.” Explain fully.
  4. What changes have been made in the original Federal Reserve System? What have been the purposes and effects of the changes? What further changes, if any, seem desirable?
  5. Compare the provisions for agricultural credit in two important countries.
  6. Comment upon the following statement: “Prosperity continued through the war, and gave the nation such a tremendous start in business activity that we would still be rejoicing in a period of great prosperity had it not been for the death-dealing blow of deflation of credit given by Mr. Wilson’s Federal Reserve Board.”

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
CORPORATE ORGANIZATION, INCLUDING RAILROADS

Answer six questions

 A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. State the theory of value under conditions of monopoly. In what ways, if at all, is monopoly price affected by (a) cost of production per unit; (b) potential competition; (c) an elastic demand for the product; (d) the existence of satisfactory substitutes for the product; (e) hostile public opinion?
  2. Formulate a statistical classification of business organizations in the United States.
  3. Discuss the apportionment of railway operating expenses between freight and passenger service.
  4. Analyze the valuation of corporate assets from the standpoint of the principles of accounting.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Compare the history of business corporations in England and the United States.
  2. Trace connections between railroad construction in the United States and related political and economic events.
  3. Give a brief narrative of the trust dissolutions of the Federal Government.
  4. What provisions of the Federal Constitution have been most important in determining policies of government regulation of public utilities?

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. Discuss the following statement: “The enactment of corporation laws by the various states is the most important step made during the past century in the development of American manufactures.”
  2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of non-par stock?
  3. Discuss the probable consequences of the Supreme Court decision that stock dividends are not income under the income tax law.
  4. What is the nature and importance of good-will in corporation finance?
  5. To what extent may there be differences in the fair valuation of public utilities for the purposes of rate-making, condemnation, taxation, and capitalization?
  6. Did the Government act wisely in returning the railroads March 1, 1920 to their corporate owners for operation? Why, or why not?

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE

Answer six questions 

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Analyze the doctrine of economic rent from agricultural land.
  2. What are the functions of organized speculation in staple agricultural products?
  3. Describe the methods to be employed in making an annual farm inventory.
  4. What subjects are covered by the decennial Federal census of agriculture? What is the statistical value of the results of the several inquiries?

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Trace the history of the relations between landlords and tenants in England.
  2. What have been the most important changes in American agriculture since 1890?
  3. Give a critical account of the land policies of the Federal Government.
  4. Outline the development of the beet sugar industry in Europe.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What factors determine the most efficient size of farms?
  2. What are the advantages of diversification of crops?
  3. Discuss the future of the meat supply of the United States.
  4. Describe and estimate the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods of marketing farm produce.
  5. State and defend a forest conservation policy for the United States.
  6. Compare the provisions for agricultural credit in two important countries.
  7. What are the principal problems of rural community life in the United States?

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
LABOR PROBLEMS

Answer six questions

 A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Discuss the proposal to restrict immigration into the United States by limiting the number of each nationality admitted each year to 3 per cent of the foreign-born of that nationality resident in this country in 1910.
  2. Describe the technique of statistical measurement of the high cost of living.
  3. What are the principal difficulties encountered in the collection of wage statistics?
  4. Analyze the relations between high money wages and high commodity prices.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Describe the early development of the factory system.
  2. Trace the origins of trade-unionism in the United States.
  3. Write a brief narrative of the movement for a shorter working day.
  4. Review the relations between organized labor and the steel industry in the United States.

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What is “the labor problem”?
  2. Compare American and British labor leadership. How do you account for the differences?
  3. “Employers must be free to employ their work people at wages mutually satisfactory, without interference or dictation on the part of individuals or organizations not directly parties to such contracts.” Comment.
  4. Discuss a proposed law providing that “in the establishment of salaries for school teachers in the city of—, there shall be no discrimination based on sex or otherwise, but teachers and principals rendering the same service shall receive equal pay.”
  5. “The principle that each industry shall support its own unemployed is one that must be established if a real solution of unemployment is to be made.” Do you agree? Why, or why not?
  6. Discuss the relation of shop committees to trade-unionism.

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DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY

Answer six questions

A

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Discuss the following contention: “The landlord is a parasite since he consumes without producing.”
  2. What is the meaning of “over-population”?
  3. “Hitherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being.” Comment critically.
  4. What are the interactions of human instincts and modern factory labor?
  5. Discuss the nature and bases of economic prosperity.

B

Take from this group at least one and not more than two

  1. Describe the evolution of language.
  2. Trace the history of the middle class and forecast its future.
  3. Give a brief historical account of the status of women.
  4. What have been the chief cultural consequences of the machine process?

C

Take from this group at least two and not more than four

  1. What is the province of sociology?
  2. Discuss the family as a necessary social unit.
  3. Describe the leading forms of conflict and their effect upon group life. Why are some forms to be preferred to others? What are the factors which determine the forms actually prevailing at any time?
  4. Analyze the sources of prestige and influence in modern society.
  5. “From the standpoint of progress, the value of the individual depends on the excess of his production over his consumption.” Discuss.
  6. What are the criteria and causes of racial superiority?

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Examinations not transcribed for this post

History:

General Examination
Special Examinations: Mediaeval History; English History; Modern European History to 1789; Modern History since 1789; American History

Government:

General Examination
Special Examinations: American Government; Municipal Government; Political Theory; International Law

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Source: Harvard University Archives. Divisional and general examinations, 1915-1975 (HUC 7000.18). Box 6, Bound Volume (stamped “Private Library Arthur H. Cole”) “Divisional Examinations 1916-1927”.

Categories
Exam Questions Queen's University Theory

Queen’s University at Kingston. Comprehensive Economic Theory Exam in Economic Theory, 1974

The Coat of Arms of Queen's University

Your curator of the economic artifacts so lovingly transcribed here for future digital generations of historians of economics, human or artificially intelligent, has a weakness for orphaned examinations that he discovers upon riffling through the archival papers of defunct professors of economics. While I have no illusions about being able to give each worthy artifact I stumble upon a warm post in this collection, perhaps others will be inspired by my efforts to join in. Transcribe and upload!

About a dozen years ago I found a folder of University of Chicago economics exams in George Stigler’s papers in which rested a forlorn ten-page Ph.D. comprehensive examination in economic theory from Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, Canada (May 1974). I found no clue to the backstory of how this exam happened to have found its way to George Stigler’s papers. Was it from Stigler demand (“Could you send me a copy of your most recent Ph.D. exam in economic theory”) or was it a Queen’s colleague’s pride of workmanship that resulted in the supply? My maximum-likelihood-gut-instinct estimate is that the source was Richard Lipsey, then Sir Edward Peacock Professor of Economics, but it would come as no surprise if there was some Chicago Ph.D. alum on the faculty then at Queen’s who shared the examination with Stigler out of fealty. But the backstory is unimportant for our purposes here, below you will find an excellent comprehensive exam that expands our international cross-section of economic theory questions. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror hereby raises the following artifact from literal archival obscurity to virtual visibility. 

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QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY AT KINGSTON
Department of Economics

Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination
ECONOMIC THEORY
May, 1974

Answer FOUR (4) questions — one from each of the four parts of the examination. All questions are of equal value.

PART I

  1. Consider a world in which there are two commodities, beer and whisky and four individuals described by the following utility functions:

Tom: UT = 2B + W
Sally: US = B + W
Dick: UD = min (B, W)
Jane: UJ = min (B/2 , W)

where utility (U) is measured in utils, beer (B) in bottles and whisky (W) in shots. Bottles of beer and shots of whisky are perfectly divisible.

    1. Draw the one-util indifference curve for each of these individuals.
    2. Construct Tom’s and Dick’s uncompensated demand curves for beer under the assumption that each has a money income of $10 and the price of whisky is 50¢ a shot.
    3. How much beer would Tom and Dick each consume if their money incomes were each $10 and a bottle of beer and a shot of whisky cost 25¢ and 50¢ respectively? Construct each of their compensated demand curves for beer through this point.
    4. Suppose that Tom and Sally are stranded on an island with 15 shots of whisky and 10 bottles of beer. Use an Edgeworth box diagram to derive the set of efficient (Pareto optimal) allocations of beer and whisky between them.
    5. Suppose that Tom had been stranded with Jane rather than Sally in Part (d). Derive the set of efficient allocations of the 15 shots of whisky and 10 bottles of beer between Tom and Jane.
    6. Suppose finally that Dick and Jane had been caught in the predicament described in Part (d). Derive the set of efficient allocations of the beer and whisky in this case.
    7. Suppose that Dick and Jane had decided to use a price system to sustain one of the efficient allocations in Part (f). What would be the effect on the price of whisky of a decrease in the endowment of whisky from 15 to 12 shots?
  1. Assume a simple Keynesian type model in equilibrium with unemployed resources. Consider the effects on the velocity of circulation of money of (a) an upward shift in the consumption function, and (b) an open market purchase by the central bank. Answer the question under each of the following alternative assumptions.
      1. The money supply is fully exogenous.
      2. The money supply is partly exogenous and partly endogenous, the endogenous part being a function of national income and “the” rate of interest.
      3. The money supply is wholly endogenous because the monetary authorities are stabilizing domestic interest rates.

In answering this question assume a general demand for money function of the form

MD = L(Y,r)

in which the only restrictions are LY > 0, Lr  ≤ 0.

You should also pay attention to the following two special cases:

a) Lr = 0, LY > 0 and b) Lr > 0, (Y/M)LY = 1.

In so far as you have time, give explanations of your results.

  1. Make the following assumptions about the market for cloth and yarn in a small country:
    1. One spool of yarn is required for the manufacture of one bolt of cloth.
    2. The world price of yarn is $1 per spool and the world price of cloth is $3 per bolt.
    3. The domestic demand curve for cloth, the domestic supply curve of yarn, and the domestic supply curve of factors of production (other than yarn) in the manufacture of cloth have constant elasticities, and these elasticities are -1, 1 and 2 respectively.
    4. In free trade, domestic consumption of cloth is 1,000,000 bolts, domestic production of yarn is 100,000 spools, and domestic production of cloth is 200,000 bolts.
      1. What tariff on cloth would just compensate factors of production in the manufacture of cloth for the imposition of a 15 percent tariff on yarn?
      2. What is the total welfare loss of imposing both tariffs?
      3. What would be your answer to (ii) above if the 15 percent tariff on yarn were imposed without the compensating tariff on cloth?
      4. In general, if there is to be a tariff on yarn, how does one determine the welfare implications of imposing a tariff on cloth, too?
      5. How would your answers to Parts (i) and (ii) above be affected if the elasticity of substitution between yarn and other factors in the manufacture of cloth were greater than zero?

PART II

  1. Consider an economy producing two goods, X1 and X2, according to constant returns to scale production functions of the following form:

(1)        X1 = F1(L1)
(2)        X2 = F2(L2, X12)

where Xi is the gross output of the i-th good, X12 is the amount of X1 used as an input in the production of X2, Li is the amount of labour used in the production of Xi and the total supply of labour is fixed

{L_{1}+L_{2}=\bar{L}}

Tastes in this economy can be represented by the utility function

U = AXi.25 X2.75

A) Suppose that equations (1) and (2) are of the particular form:

(1′)       X1 = 2L1
(2′)       X2 = L2

and the total labour supply is 200 units.

    1. Construct the economy’s production possibilities set.
    2. What will be the effect on the equilibrium relative price of X1 of:
      1. an increase of the labour force to 225 units,
      2. a doubling of the efficiency of labour in the X1 sector?

B) Suppose now that equations (1) and (2) are of the particular form:

(1”)      X1 = 2L1
(2”)      X2 = min (L2, 4X12)

Answer Questions A(a) and A(b) under these circumstances.

C) Answer the same questions in the case where a second production process is made available to the X2 sector so that the production functions are of the form:

(1”’)     X1 = 2L1
(2”’)      X2 = (min (L2, 4X12)   or   min (.75L2, 8X12)

D) What would be the general shape of the production possibility curve if X2 could be produced according to a differentiable concave constant returns to scale production function of the general form of (2) (e.g., Cobb-Douglas) while the production function for X1 remained X1 = 2L1?

  1. Standard demand theory predicts that if a man buys more apples when his income goes up he buys less apples when their price goes up. Say whether this prediction continues to follow, and why or why not, under each of the following circumstances.
      1. The quality of apples is judged by their price.
      2. The man is upset by his neighbour’s discarded apple cores.
      3. The man owns an apple orchard.
      4. The man loves the scent of apple blossoms.
      5. Apples are storable cheaply enough that one can speculate in them.
      6. The man drinks cider, the market price of which is positively related to the price of apples.
      7. Apples are a heavily advertised good.
      8. Apples and flour are only consumed in fixed proportions, in the form of apple pies.
      9. The price of apples divided by the price of pears is not equal to the man’s marginal rate of substitution between apples and pears.
      10. All goods are rationed, in such a way that they must be paid for not only with money but also with ration coupons, each consumer having a fixed total coupon allowance. (Coupons may not be bought and sold.)

6. [Capital theory and functional income distribution]

    1. You are dealing with an economy in which there is only one product which is used either as a consumption good or as a capital good. Each period’s output is divided in some proportion between consumption use and additions to the capital stock. Capital goods do not depreciate. There are two factors of production, labour and capital goods, available in fixed supply in the short period. There is no unemployment of any factor that has a positive price.
      1. In what circumstances will the functional distribution of income be determined by conditions in the factor market only?
      2. Given that investment is exogenously determined and consumption is functionally related to incomes, in what circumstances might the functional distribution of income be determined from conditions in the product market?
      3. In what circumstances would the distribution of income be indeterminate?
      4. In what circumstances might conditions in the factor and product markets be inconsistent with a determinate distribution of income?
    2. Now consider an economy with two consumer goods, one of which can also be used as the single capital good, both products being produced by labour and capital goods. Again there can be positive investment in each period and there is no depreciation.
      What would your answers to questions (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv) of part (a) be now?

PART III

  1. An economy producing only one commodity, which may be used either as a consumer good or as a capital good, has a production function of the form

{Y_{t}=e^{\lambda t}K^{\alpha }_{t}L^{1-\alpha }_{t}}

and we are given that

{L_{t}=e^{gt}L_{0}}

where Yt is the quantity of output; Kt  is the capital stock; Lt the number of units of labour; g is the rate of growth of the labour force; {\lambda}  is the rate of Hicks neutral technological change; and {\alpha} takes the values 0 < {\alpha} < 1.

a) [“Golden-rule”]

      1. Derive the general formula that determines the golden rule capital-labour ratio when there is no technical change.
      2. Let g = 0.02, {\lambda} = 0, {\alpha} = 0.25. Calculate the golden rule level of the capital-labour ratio. (Carry your calculation to the last stage in which the solution is set up in the form of logs or as a power of a number.)
      3. Now let the growth rate of the labour force rise to .03. Find the ratio of the new golden rule capital-labour ratio, k1, to the old golden rule capital-labour ratio, k0.
      4. Maintain the growth rate of the labour force, g1 at .03 and make {\lambda} = .0225. Obtain the golden rule values of the path of the capital-labour ratio, labour being measured in natural units.

b) [Optimal steady state growth]

      1. Derive the rule that determines the capital-labour ratio of the optimal steady state growth path when there is positive subjective discounting of future per capita utilities at the rate, {\rho}.
      2. Assume that g = .02, {\lambda} = 0, {\alpha} = 0.25 and {\rho} = .04. Calculate the capital-labour ratio of the optimal steady state growth path.

8. [Keynesian macroeconomic theory]

    1. Investigate the consequences for fiscal and monetary policy in a simple Keynesian model of assuming that consumption expenditure is unrelated to current income (because it is related to permanent income which is assumed constant over the time period in which we are interested). Would it matter whether or not there were some other element of aggregate expenditure that was related to current national income?
    2. Explain how the permanent income hypothesis reconciles the observations drawn from long and short period time series and cross section studies that appeared inconsistent with the Keynesian consumption function. Is the weight of evidence such that we can have substantial confidence in the truth of the general concept that consumption relates to permanent rather than current income?
    3. Briefly discuss the significance for the efficacy of short-term fiscal policy of establishing that consumption is a function of permanent income rather than current income.
  1. Examine the validity of the following statements: a) when wages are only flexible upwards and b) when wages are fully flexible.
      1. Government spending in excess of tax revenue is inflationary in the long run.
      2. Union wage pressure can reduce unemployment due to the stimulating effects of higher wages on aggregate demand.
      3. Sooner or later automation will cause unemployment.
  1. “Thinking about saving and investment from this technocratic point of view has convinced me that the central concept in capital theory should be the rate of return on investment. In short we really want a theory of interest rates, not a theory of capital.” (Solow: Capital Theory and the Rate of Return, p. 16. Italics in the original.)
    1. What is the relationship between the two sentences in Solow’s quotation that makes the second sentence follow from the first? In your answer elaborate on the concept of the rate of return.
    2. Can stocks of capital goods (or the aggregate of asset values) be more or less excluded from capital theory, which among other things must include a theory of intertemporal choice?

PART IV

  1. Various officials and ministers of the Canadian government have expressed concern and implemented or at least suggested policies in response to recent increases in the world prices of certain commodities. One instance has been the imposition of a tax on exports of Canadian oil. This move has been hailed by members of the government on various grounds: its “anti-inflationary consequences”, its “benefit to the poor and to fixed income classes to whom cheap energy is so vital” and “the stimulus it will provide to the Canadian manufacturing sector”. Some observers have been obviously impressed with the success of this policy and have suggested a similar two-price system for certain Canadian agricultural exports because “there is no reason the Canadian consumer should suffer due to a world scarcity of these commodities when there is an abundant supply in Canada.”
    1. Attempt to give a precise formulation to the exact policy goals which might be implied by each of the above quotations.
    2. How would an export tax help to achieve each of these goals?
    3. What would be the nature of the economic costs resulting from the use of an export tax to achieve these goals and what would determine the magnitude of these costs?
  1. A certain country, previously without an unemployment insurance system, sets one up. Its rules are as follows:
      1. A minimum of 10 weeks work must be done before any benefits can be drawn.
      2. For each week worked above 10, a person is entitled to two-thirds of a week on unemployment benefits, except that no more than 12 weeks of benefit can be received in a year.
      3. While on benefit the weekly payment is three-quarters of the weekly wage previously earned.

To simplify the problem, the following assumptions may be made: how the system is financed is irrelevant; each year is self-contained, in the sense that benefits earned must be used up in the year or lost; one can draw benefit even if one quits voluntarily; no time is ever lost in finding a job if one wants one; a year is 50 weeks long.

    1. Establish that a person’s income-leisure opportunity locus consists of four line segments, and draw them on the accompanying graph paper.
    2. Will anyone ever work exactly 10 weeks under the new unemployment insurance system? Explain.
    3. If leisure is a superior good, prove that those who used to work between 28 and 38 weeks a year (before the new unemployment insurance system) will now work less.
    4. Define a “full-time worker” as one who works more than 38 weeks a year. Would you expect such a worker to work less after the scheme is introduced?
    5. Demonstrate the possibility that people who did not work before will now work. Could they conceivably become “full-time” workers? Why or why not?
  1. Consider a country with the following attributes:
      1. It has a floating exchange rate.
      2. It has a substantial rate of inflation which it is trying to lower.
      3. It has recently taken monetary action that has raised interest rates relative to those of other countries.
      4. It is buying quite large amounts of foreign exchange, apparently to have a dampening effect on the rise in the exchange value of its currency.
      5. This foreign exchange is acquired by use of government cash which requires extra government borrowing to the extent that the exchange accumulation was not foreseen (the country has been lucky in its foreign exchange receipts and disbursements for oil roughly matching).
      6. The country has outstanding large amounts of non-negotiable savings bonds which are redeemable on demand at face value, which have coupon rates considerably lower than rates of comparable securities, and which are being cashed in substantial quantities.
    1. Are the objectives implied by the above actions mutually consistent? Always? In some circumstances? Never? In your answer elaborate on the relevance of some of the parameters of the system to it.
    2. The federal government of this country will be bringing down its annual budget soon. What policies would you recommend (i) to alleviate inconsistencies in the implied objectives noted above, and (ii) to reinforce the impact of the actions described above?

Source: University of Chicago Archives. George Stigler Papers, Addenda. Box 33. Folder “Exams & Prelim Questions.”

Image Source: “Coat of Arms” in the on-line Queen’s Encyclopedia.

Categories
Biography Economists

Before he was Frank Samuelson, father of Paul, he was Ephraim Chodorowski from Ratzki-Russia (now Poland)

Thanks to an inquiry regarding Paul Samuelson’s father’s geographic roots from loyal Economics in the Rear-view Mirror friends Krzysztof Nowak-Posadzy and Piotr P. Pieniążek, I have pulled up a few artifacts to add to the digital record of Paul Samuelson’s ancestry.

In case you ever wondered: the pre-Samuelson surname of the family was “Chodorowski”.

Ephraim Chodorowski arrived in New York on the steamship Blücher in November 1904, sailing in steerage (the historical analogue to what economy class air travel has become). The records indicate that he used both his birth name as well as his new name “Frank Samuelson” for about a decade.

On the issue of Paul Samuelson’s parents being first cousins: from death records of the state of Illinois for Frank Samuelson and Ella Lypski Samuelson’s brother Alfred Meyer Lypski we find:

Frank Samuelson’s parents (Leo Chodorowski and Jennie Epstein);
Ella Lypski’s parents (Meyer Lypski and Anna Epstein)

It is not too much of a stretch to presume that Jennie and Anna Epstein were sisters which is entirely consistent with Frank Samuelson and Ella Lypski having been first cousins.

A low-quality copy of Frank Samuelson’s 1922 passport photo turned up in my search of the ancestry.com databases. Still it is cool to have found.

Somewhat inconsistently (apologies) I use underlined italics to indicate handwritten insertions into official records. Bold-face is sometimes used within documents to indicate information that has been stamped into spaces for the declarations of intention for naturalization.

________________

Frank Samuelson’s 1939 obituary

SAMUELSON—Frank [Chodorovski] Samuelson, beloved husband of Ella, dear father of Harold, Paul, and Robert, fond brother of Herman, Irving, Edda Gurevitz of Kovno, Rachiel, and Rachel Schah of Kishinev. Funeral Tuesday. 3 p.m., at chapel, 3125 Roosevelt-rd. Burial Jewish Waldheim.

Source: Chicago Tribune (May 9, 1939), p. 25.

________________

State of Illinois Death Record
for Frank Samuelson

Name: Frank Samuelson
Birth Date: 1 Aug 1886
Birth Place: Ratzki, Poland
Death Date: 8 May 1939
Death Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Burial Date: 9 May 1939
Burial Place: Forest Park, Cook, Ill.
Cemetery Name: Cong. A Israel
Death Age: 52
Occupation: Pharmacist
Race: White
Marital Status: M
Gender: Male
Residence: Chicago, Cook, Ill.
Father Name: Leo Samuelson (sic)
Father Birthplace: Ratzki, Poland
Mother Name: Jennie Epstein
Mother Birth Place: Ratki, Poland
Spouse Name: Ella Samuelson
FHL Film Number: 19153415

Source: Illinois, U.S., Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 accessed through Ancestry.com

________________

From the Passenger Lists
from Hamburg, November 1904

Name: Ephraim Chodorowski
Gender: Male
Ethnicity/Nationality: Russian
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Kaufmann [most likely meaning retail salesperson]
Departure Age: 20
Birth Date: abt 1884
Residence Place: Racki (sic)
Departure Date: 19 Nov 1904
Departure Place: Hamburg, Germany
Arrival Places: Dover; Boulogne-sur-Mer; New York
Ship Name: Blücher
Shipping Line: Hamburg-Amerika Linie (Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft)
Ship Type: Steamship
Ship Flag: Germany
Accommodation: Steerage

Source:  Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934. Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Auswandererlisten, Volume 373-7 I, VIII A 1, Band 160. Accessed through ancestry.com website.

________________

Declarations of intention for naturalization
by Frank Samuelson (Ephraim Chodorowski) and his cousin Frank Lipski
filed on 18 March 1910

United States of America
Department of Commerce and Labor
Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization
Division of Naturalization

DECLARATION OF INTENTION
(Invalid for all purposes seven years after the date hereof)

Circuit Court of the United States, Northern District of Illinois

ss: In the Circuit Court of The United States

I, Ephraim Chodorowski, aged 24 years, occupation Druggist, do declare on oath/affirm that my personal description is: Color white, complexion fair, height 5 feet 6 inches, weight 143 pounds, color of hair brown, color of eyes gray other visible distinctive marks none; I was born in Ratzka Russia, on the 15th day of September, anno Domini 1885; I now reside at 1137 Desplains Street.

I emigrated to the United States of America from Hamburg Germany on the vessel Bluecher; my last foreign residence was Varsau Russia.

It is my bona fide intention to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and particularly to Nicholas II Emperor of all the Russias, of which I am now a citizen/subject; I arrived at the port of New York, in the State of New York on or about the 30th day of November, anno Domini 1904; I am not an anarchist; I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy; and it is my intention in good faith to become a citizen of the United States of America and to permanently reside therein: SO HELP ME GOD.

[signed] Ephraim Chodorowski
(Original signature of declarant)

Subscribed and sworn to/affirmed before me this 18th day of March, anno Domini 1910

H. S. STODDARD, Clerk of the Circuit Court of the United States, Northern District of Illinois.
By Alma [sp?] V. Shoemaker, Deputy Clerk.

Source: U.S. Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991. Circuit Court, Northern District, Illinois. Declarations V. 6 (P29-End)-9, 1909-10. Accessed at ancestry.com.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

United States of America
Department of Commerce and Labor
Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization
Division of Naturalization

DECLARATION OF INTENTION
(Invalid for all purposes seven years after the date hereof)

Circuit Court of the United States, Northern District of Illinois

ss: In the Circuit Court of The United States

I, Frank Lypski, aged 19 years, occupation Druggist, do declare on oath/affirm that my personal description is: Color white, complexion fair, height 5 feet 5 inches, weight 145 pounds, color of hair brown, color of eyes brown other visible distinctive marks none; I was born in Suvalki Russia, on the ???th [28th in other records] day of December, anno Domini 1890; I now reside at 1135 Desplains Street.

I emigrated to the United States of America from Liverpool England on the vessel Romania; my last foreign residence was Suvalki Russia.

It is my bona fide intention to renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and particulary to Nicholas II Emperor of all the Russias, of which I am now a citizen/subject; I arrived at the port of New York, in the State of New York on or about the 23rd day of March, anno Domini 1902; I am not an anarchist; I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy; and it is my intention in good faith to become a citizen of the United States of America and to permanently reside therein: SO HELP ME GOD.

[signed] Frank Lypski
(Original signature of declarant)

Subscribed and sworn to/affirmed before me this 18th day of March, anno Domini 1910

H. S. STODDARD, Clerk of the Circuit Court of the United States, Northern District of Illinois.
By Alma [sp?] V. Shoemaker, Deputy Clerk.

Source: U.S. Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991. Circuit Court, Northern District, Illinois. Declarations V. 6 (P29-End)-9, 1909-10. Accessed at ancestry.com.

________________

1910 U.S. Census
Chicago City, Cook County, Illinois
Enumerated April 16, 1910

Head of Household: Jacob Stiene (28 yrs)
[note original name probably Gladstein as seen in a letter to Alfred Lypski in his passport application, in other records the surname was spelled “Stine”.]

Wife of Head of Household: Fannie Stiene (22 yrs)

Brothers-in-law of head of household: Alfred (23 yrs, single) and Frank (19 yrs, single) Lypski

Sisters-in-law of head of household: Ella (22 yrs, single) and Sarah Lypski (16 yrs, single)

[So the Lypski siblings were Fannie, Alfred, Frank, Ella, and Sarah. Ella and Fannie look to be twins. Jacob and Frank share a grandfather.]

Frank Samuelson:

Cousin of Head of Household: [sic, actually Frank was the cousin of the wife of the household and so necessarily cousin of her brothers and sisters listed.]

Age in 1910: 24
Birth Date: 1886
Birthplace: Russia
Home in 1910: Chicago Ward 19, Cook, Illinois
Street: 1135 Des Plaines Street
Race: White
Gender: Male
Immigration Year: 1904
Relation to Head of House: Cousin
Marital Status: Single
Father’s Birthplace: Russia
Mother’s Birthplace: Russia
Able to speak English: English
Occupation: Drug [store]
Industry: Clerk
Employer, Employee or Other: Wage Earner
Attended School: Y
Able to read: Y
Able to write: Y
Out of work: N
Number of weeks out of work: 0

______________

Naturalization Petition: C-362

Family name: Chodarowski (sic)
Given name or names: Efhraim
Address: 1780 Broadway, Gary, Ind.
Certificate no. (or vol. and page): P-782
Title and location of court: US Dist., Lake Co., Hammond Ind.
Country of birth or allegiance: Russia
When born (or age): Sept. 15, 1885
Date and port of arrival in US: [blank]
Date of naturalization: Oct. 16, 1917

Source: U.S. Federal Naturalization Records, District and Circuit Courts, Northern District, Illinois, Index to Naturalization Petitions. Accessed through Ancestry.com

________________

DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD, 1918

First name: Frank
Middle name: [blank]
Last name: Samuelson
Permanent Home Address: 508 Polk, Gary, Lake County, Ind.
Age in years: 33
Date of birth:  August 15th, 1885
Race: White [checked]
U.S. Citizen: Naturalized [checked]
Present Occupation: Druggist
Employer’s Name: Economical Drug Store
Place or Employment or Business: 1651 Broadway, Gary, Lake County, Ind.
Nearest Relative: Ella Samuelson, 508 Polk, Gary, Lake County, Ind.

[signed] Frank Samuelson

REGISTRAR’S REPORT

Description of Registrant

Height: Medium
Build: Medium
Color of Eyes: Gray
Color of Hair: Brown
Has person lost arm, leg, hand, eye, or is he obviously physically disqualified? (Specify.) No.

[Signed by Magistrar]
Date of Registration Sept. 12, 1918

Local Board
Div. No. 1
Gary, Indiana
Federal Bldg.

Source.  U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, Indiana, Gary City 1. Accessed through Ancestry.com

________________

U.S. Passport Application
(Form for Naturalized Citizen,
edition of January, 1919)

United States of America,
State of Indiana
County of Lake

I, Frank Samuelson, a Naturalized and Loyal Citizen of the United States, hereby apply to the Department of State, at Washington, for a passport. For myself.

I solemnly swear that I was born at Ratzki-Russia on August 15th, 1885; that my father, Leo Samuelson, was born in Russia and is now residing at Roumania; that I emigrated to the United States, sailing from Hamburg Germany about Nov 1st , 1904; that I resided 17 years, uninterruptedly, in the United States from 1904 to 1922, at Chicago IIl. 5 Yrs. Gary Ind. 12 Yrs that I was naturalized as a citizen of the United States before the District Court of United States at Hammond Indiana, on Oct. 16th, 1917, as shown by the Certificate of Naturalization presented herewith; that I am the identical person described in said Certificate that I have reside outside the United States since my naturalization at the following places on the following periods: [left deliberately blank] and that I am domiciled in the United States my permanent residence being at Gary in the State of Indiana, where I follow the occupation of Druggist.

My last passport was obtained from Never had one on [“Date”, left deliberately blank] and was [“Disposition of passport”, left deliberately blank]. I am about to go abroad temporarily, and intend to return to the United States within one year with the purpose of residing and performing the duties of citizenship therein: and I desire a passport for use in visiting the countries hereinafter named for the following purposes:

Roumania, Poland, Lithawania to visit father, sisters and other relatives.

I intend to leave the United States from the port of New York , sailing on board the Olympia on Aug 12, 1922.

OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.

Further, I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion: So help me God.

[signed:]  Frank Samuelson

Sworn to before me this 13th day
of July, 1922
Chas . [illegible]
Deputy Clerk of the U.S. Dist. Court at Hammond Indiana

Description of Applicant.

Age: 36 years
Stature: 5 feet, 6 inches, Eng.
Forehead: High
Eyes: gray
Nose: medium
Mouth: small
Chin: medium
Hair: brown
Complexion: medium
Face: medium
Distinguishing marks: moles on right cheek

IDENTIFICATION

July 13, 1922

I, Jacob Brooks, solemnly swear that I am a native/naturalized citizen of the United States; that I reside at Chicago, Illinois; that I have known the above, named Frank Samuelson personally for 10 years and know him/her to be the identical person referred to in the within-described certificate of naturalization; and that the facts stated in his/her affidavit are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

[signed:] Jacob Brooks
(Occupation) Druggist
(Address of witness) 915-E 55th St., Chicago Ills

Sworn to before me this 13th day
of July, 1922
Chas . [illegible]
Deputy Clerk of the U.S. Dist. Court at Hammond Indiana

Applicant desires passport to be sent to the following address:

Frank Samuelson
356 Adams St.
Gary Indiana

A signed duplicate of the photograph to be attached
hereto must be sent to the Department with the appli-
cation, to be affixed to the passport with an impression
of the Department’s seal. [see top of this post]

Source.  U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925. Roll 2017/1922. Accessed through Ancestry.com

________________

Illinois Death Index

Name: Alfred Meyer Lypski [brother of Ella Lypski Samuelson]
Birth Date: abt 1887
Death Date: 12 Feb 1936
Death Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
Death Age: 49
Gender: Male
Father Name: Meyer Lypski
Mother Name: Rebecca Epstein
Spouse Name: Jennie Lypski
FHL Film Number: 1926849

Source: Illinois, U.S., Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 accessed through Ancestry.com