Author: Irwin Collier

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Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Enrollment and exams on Adam Smith, Ricardo and followers. Mixter, 1902-1903.

 

Charles Whitney Mixter (b. Sept. 23, 1869 in Chelsea, MA; d. Oct. 21, 1936 in Washington, D.C.) taught a year-long course at Harvard on Adams Smith, Ricardo, and their dissenting followers in 1902-03.

Mixter received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1897 with the thesis “Overproduction and overaccumulation: a study in the history of economic theory.” Further biographical information about Charles Whitney Mixter (1869-1936) is found in the post about his course offered 1901-1902. Also Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has a post with a student’s description of Mixter as economics instructor at the University of Vermont.

One of the dissenting followers of Adam Smith considered in Mixter’s course below was John Rae. Mixter edited a reprint of the 1834 book by John Rae, which he retitled The Sociological Theory of Capital. A few years before, Mixter had written two Quarterly Journal of Economics articles comparing Rae with Böhm-Bawerk:

“A forerunner of Böhm-Bawerk”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, January, 1897. [“the first article by me upon Rae…had a title which was also in great measure a misnomer. Rae is not a mere ‘anticipator of the discoverer’ (to use one of Cannan’s phrases), but the discoverer himself. By reason of the lack of a theory of invention, Böhm-Bawerk’s doctrine of capital, although coming much later, is in essentials the less complete of the two.”]

“Böhm-Bawerk on Rae,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1902. [Review of Chapter XI of the second edition of the Geschichte und Critik der Capitalzins-Theorien].

In the preface to his reprint of Rae’s book, Mixter provides us with some backstory to his research revealing the support of Frank Taussig and Irving Fisher at the beginning and the end of this book project:

When I first became interested in Rae’s theory of capital, under Professor Taussig’s direction in the economic seminary at Harvard University, there existed no printed information (except in his Preface) in respect to Rae himself; and for a long time nothing could be learned through inquiry in quarters which promised well in Canada and Great Britain. The late Professor Dunbar of Harvard, who always displayed a keen interest in the undertaking, urged me to persist, and at length a letter printed in the Montreal Star drew forth two replies, one from the Canadian antiquary Mr. H. J. Morgan, the other from the late Robert S. Knight of Lancaster, Ontario, a grand-nephew of Rae. This set me upon the right road to get into communication with several people who knew Rae personally. Of these the one who could tell me most was the late Sir Roderick W. Cameron of New York, a former pupil and life-long friend, at whose summer residence on Staten Island Rae died. Better still, I was able through the interest and kindness of this gentleman to come into possession of what few papers Rae left at his death. That is, I obtained all Rae’s effects of a literary nature which seem now to be in existence. Apparently, from statements made by Sir Roderick, there was another set of papers which Rae had with him at the time, but which were destroyed or in some way lost. The papers I obtained were little more than odds and ends, mostly unfinished fragments on a great variety of subjects, unfortunately but little on economics. Their chief use has been to help me to a fair understanding of Rae’s life, which I have been able, however, only very imperfectly to set forth.

I have received much information and kind assistance in this part of my work from not a few people in Canada, the United States, Honolulu, and Great Britain. I trust they will accept this general acknowledgment of my sense of indebtedness to them.

To Mr. L. W. Zartman of Yale University my especial thanks are due for assistance in preparing the copy for the printer, and in reading the proofs. I am also much indebted to Mr. Wilmot H. Thompson of the Graduate School of Yale, for revision of the classical quotations.

Finally, I wish here to express my obligations to Professor Irving Fisher of Yale University. His interest and encouragement have been of unfailing support. The proof sheets of the whole book have passed his able scrutiny, and his direct help in many other ways has been invaluable.

C. W. M.

Burlington,
Vermont, July, 1905.

______________________

Course Description

  1. a. Selected Topics in the History of Economic Thought since Adam Smith. , Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri, at 12. Dr. Mixter.

The chief subject to which attention will be directed in this course is the school of dissenting followers of Adam Smith — Lauderdale, Rae, and those influenced by them — who carried forward Smith’s work to very different results from those attained by the Ricardians. This study of a little known tradition gives a fresh point of view as to the general method of formulating and presenting economics. Some of the other subjects to be discussed are, — the classic doctrine of over-production, and the opposition to that doctrine; the economics of absenteeism; the history of the theory of colonization; early American economic theory.
The exercises will be conducted largely by means of discussion. Oral reports on assigned topics will be required.

  1. d 2hf. Adam Smith and Ricardo. Half-course (second half-year). Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professor Taussig.

In this course, a careful study will be made of large parts of the writings of Adam Smith and Ricardo, and comparison made with contemporary authors as well as with the later writers who accepted the teachings of the earlier English school.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 20a. Dr. Mixter. — The History of English Economic Theory from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill.

Total 5: 3 Gr., 2 Se.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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Mid-Year Examination 1902-03

ECONOMICS 20a

It is expected that questions 3 and 7 will be answered more at length than the other questions.

  1. Who was Bentham and what does he stand for in the history of economics?
  2. What is the nature of Rae’s reply to Smith’s 5th argument against protection?
  3. What would Adam Smith say to the assertion that trades unions are necessary in the United States to prevent a fall of general wages? In what various aspects did Smith examine the subject of wages?
  4. What are Adam Smith’s four canons or “maxims” of taxation?
  5. Is “capital” or “labor” the leading concept in the economics proper of the Wealth of Nations?
  6. What idea of most value have you obtained from Cannan?
  7. Discuss the Malthusian theory with respect to errors and shortcomings:—
    1. In its original form of statement and proof.
    2. In its original application.
    3. Sum up the modernized Malthusian doctrine in the form which seems to you most sound and useful.
  8. How has “the Commerce of the Towns contributed to the Improvement of the Country”?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).

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Year-End Examination 1902-03

ECONOMICS 20a

Omit two of the last five questions.

  1. Criticise the following statement: “What he [Ricardo] really ‘endeavored to show’ was that the rate of profit depends on the productiveness of the last employed, or no-rent-paying agricultural industry, and it is not of much importance to his theory whether this dependence is brought about through rises and falls of money wages, or also by the direct influence of variations in the productiveness of industry.”
  2. What is Lauderdale’s significance in the history of economics?
  3. What are the points of similarity and of difference between Rae and Böhm-Bawerk?
  4. What portions of a complete treatise on economics are lacking in Rae’s work? Give some examples of peculiar terminology.
  5. Give an account of one of the following writers: Chalmers, Wakefield, Longfield, Senior.
  6. “His [the capitalist’s] profit consists of the excess of the produce above the advances; his rate of profit is the ratio which that excess bears to the amount advanced.” Comment on this.
  7. Criticise the phrase “the profits of stock are only another name for the wages of accumulated labour.” Who first advanced this idea?
  8. What was John Stuart Mill’s treatment of the subject of general overproduction?
  9. When it is said that a certain writer “took as his type of capital, machinery instead of wage-fund,” what do you understand by the expression? Mention several writers who have done this.
  10. Give a brief account of Cannan’s description of the discovery of the law of diminishing returns.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: Harvard scores (1905),  John Jepson (artists), Boston. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Exam for German Economic Thought. Gay, 1903

Edwin Francis Gay

This must have been a quick addition to the course offerings for 1902-03 since the course was not announced in the June 1902 brochure for the Division of History and Political Science for the coming academic year. In the following year Edwin Francis Gay (Berlin, Ph.D. in 1902 under Gustav Schmoller) expanded the course to cover both French and German economic thought.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 22. 2hf. Dr. Gay. — Outlines of the Development of Economic Thought in Germany in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 4: 3 Gr., 1 Se.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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ECONOMICS 22

  1. Translate from Conrad, pp. 69 [p. 64-65 in 1897 ed.], § 66, Die Grundrente.
    1. Describe briefly von Thünen’s concentric circles.
    2. Outline Rodbertus’s theory of rent and its relation to his explanation of crises.
  2. Translate  §69 [pp. 68-69 in 1897 ed.] , Die Regulierung des Lohnes.
    1. What features in this passage remind you of von Hermann’s treatment of wages?
      [Note: no (b) or any other parts to the question were printed]
  3. Karl Marx: a concise note concerning his life, his works, his theory of value, his influence in Germany at present.
  4. Give an account of the German historical school of economists.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

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

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Economists Funny Business NBER

NBER. An Ode to Arthur F. Burns, sung to the tune of “Silver Dollar”, George Shultz, 1970

George P. Shultz and Arthur F. Burns

 

 

As I was paging through images of some documents I had examined a few years ago in the papers of Arthur F. Burns at Duke University’s Economists’ Papers Archive, I found an image of a sheet of paper with the following brief  “Ode to Arthur Burns.” It was typed (perhaps printed) in the lower left quadrant of a sheet of paper. As often happens to us archive rats, we find an interesting document but one that comes with no clear indication of either authorship or the circumstances surrounding the creation of the particular document.

I will admit that I liked the Ode because it captures the essence of the Schmoller-Menger Methodenstreit and its 20th century revival seen in the Koopmans-Burns-and-Mitchell controversy regarding the proper dosage of theory required for scientific economic measurement. Recall: Burns and Mitchell got burned pretty badly by Koopmans’ review of Measuring Business Cycles.

Moderation was to come to the Cowles Commission in its 1952 shift from its chosen motto “Science is Measurement” to “Theory and Measurement”. On the other side, the NBER has long become a lot more like the Cowles Commission of old than it has to its statistical-institutionalist ancestors of the first half of the 20thcentury.

The theory versus empirical split is analogous to the normative versus positive economics split recognized in the earliest methodological tracts of philosophically inclined economists. Working economists in the mainstream view themselves bathed in the flattering light of moderation along both methodological dimensions. Both-side-ism is not just a journalistic weakness. Those who work on the frontiers of human knowledge love striking an Aristotelian pose of reasonable moderation (don’t we all?).

But getting back to the issue of the authorship of the Ode and its larger context, let me identify the two suspects of Ode authorship swept up in my duly diligent Google search:

  • George P. Shultz (1920-2021): a 1949 M.I.T. Ph.D. alumnus in industrial economics, Dean of the Business School at the University of Chicago, and successively Secretary of Labor, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Secretary of the Treasury, and Secretary of State in Republican Administrations.
  • Edward Teller (1908-2003): the “father of the hydrogen bomb”, and if not Stanley Kubrick’s human model for Dr. Strangelove then a Doppelgänger to a second-order approximation. It is not altogether obvious how he could possibly fit into the picture.

So Whodunnit? We begin at the scene of the literary crime.

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Ode to Arthur Burns

A fact without a theory
Is like a ship without a sail,
Is like a boat without a rudder,
Is like a kite without a tail.

A fact without a theory
Is as sad as sad can be
But, if there’s one thing worse
In this universe,
It’s a theory without a fact.”

Source: Duke University, David M. Rubinstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Arthur F. Burns Papers. Box 6, Folder “Other papers 1926-1987 (1 of 2)”,

__________________________

Sometimes it just turns out that you get lucky with a Google search using just a snip of a quotation. George Shultz was reported to be the author of lyrics that he sang to “the lively tune of Silver Dollar”. This title meant nothing to me. But before turning to the further power of the internet, let us enter the relevant portion of the Time magazine profile of George Shultz with its lede that takes the reader back to a “VIP-stacked Manhattan dinner”, ca. 1970. We note minor differences in the middle of the second stanza but it seems likely that at the latest the Ode was performed in 1970.

The Economy:
Another Professor with Power

CONCLUDING a speech on economic policy at a VIP-stacked Manhattan dinner three years ago, George Shultz startled the audience by abruptly breaking into song. To the lively tune of Silver Dollar, the then director of the Office of Management and Budget [sic, he was Secretary of Labor at the NBER dinner in 1970] belted forth in full voice:

A fact without a theory
Is like a ship without a sail,
Is like a boat without a rudder,
Is like a kite without a tail.

 

A fact without a figure
Is a tragic final act,
But one thing worse
In this universe
Is a theory without a fact.

Shultz is seldom short on either fact or theory, although the softspoken, smooth-faced economist seldom expresses his ideas in song. His quick grasp of facts and theories, his skill in persuading the federal bureaucracy to act on them—plus an ironclad loyalty to the President—are the qualities that have prompted Richard Nixon to keep investing his Treasury Secretary with added clout. By now Shultz has become one of the two or three most powerful men in Washington….

Source: Time Magazine. Monday, Feb. 26, 1973.

__________________________

This evidence was enough to get me to take a deeper dive into another folder in Burns’ papers at Duke where I had found a copy of the pamphlet that was prepared as memorial to Arthur F. Burns after his death with brief tributes from President Ronald Reagan, Rabbi Joshua Haberman, Milton Friedman, Senator Pete Domenici, Fed Chairman Paul Volcker, Secretary of State George Shultz, and former Presidents Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon.

In his tribute George Shultz clearly staked a claim of authorship to the Ode to Arthur Burns. 

George P. Shultz

O’Bie [nickname of George Shultz’s wife, née O’Brien] and I have a wonderful friend in Arthur Burns. We have lost him, but his influence and example live on with us. As Arthur Burns has touched and enriched our lives as individuals, so he has left our country an enduring legacy of scholarship and statesmanship.

Arthur lived according to deeply held values, both moral and intellectual. There was never a more devoted, or a more effective, defender of democratic freedoms — political and economic, and also intellectual — than soft-spoken Arthur Burns.

Arthur’s scholarship was truly of Biblical scope. Helmut Schmidt called him the Pope of Economics. But he was also a great student of the bible, and he lived by the values he found in the Scriptures. Arthur believed in learning, in work, in service, in personal discipline. He thrived on the creative tension between an idea and its application. His legendary tolerance for debate and discussion was a measure of his rigorous respect for intellectual integrity. This same respect for human intelligence also meant that Arthur suffered no fools gladly.

Facts held a fascination for him that no grand theories could match. He insisted that statements be meticulously accurate. He believed that theories, like his beloved New England houses should stand four-square on a solid foundation of facts.

Arthur suspected that someone who was careless with facts was likely to be careless in thought and unsound in judgment. For a dinner in his honor years ago. I wrote words to an old tune to describe this attitude of his:

(Sung)

A fact without a theory is as sad as sad can be.
But if there’s one thing worse
In this universe,
It’s a theory without a fact.

This combination of intellectual and moral values, an insatiable capacity for disciplined work, and an ability to bridge the distance between concept and reality gave Arthur Burns a tremendous force of personality. When convinced of something Arthur was more powerful in his advocacy than just about anyone I have known. But convinced he had to be. Ever the student, Arthur was the first to admit when he didn’t know something and the first to seek out an answer.

I remember seeing Arthur in Germany in 1982, not long after his arrival as ambassador. He was already in his late seventies; yet, like a kid with a new toy, he was determined to master the German language and to understand the society and the economy. Master them he did, during a period of special challenge for our bilateral relations and for the NATO alliance. He never stopped learning. That’s why his life was so full.

Arthur is now mourned on both sides of the Atlantic on both sides of the aisle, in government, in business, in finance in academia. For years to come, Presidents and professors, Secretaries of State, and students of economics, even Governors of the Federal Reserve, will continue to learn from Arthur Burns, through the enduring force of his intellectual legacy.

We — his family, friends, colleagues — have had the great joy and privilege of knowing Arthur, the man. We will miss his infectious curiosity. We will miss his kindness. We will miss his counsel, his candor and his integrity. And, we will carry him in our hearts always.

Source: Duke University, David M. Rubinstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Arthur F. Burns Papers. Box 6, Folder “Memorial and remembrances, 1987-2003”, pp. 19-20.

__________________________

50th Anniversary Celebration
of NBER

The New York Times (March 2, 1970 p. 55 ) reported a dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to honor the 50thanniversary of the National Bureau of Economic Research where both Arthur F. Burns (chairman of the Federal Reserve Board) and George P. Shultz (Secretary of Labor) were in attendance.  

THE HONORABLE GEORGE P. SHULTZ…now let me talk for a moment about Burns’ Laws, and here I’m talking to the Federal Reserve Board staff, of course. (Laughter)

Well! First, all calculations must be checked at least twice, independently.

Second, we must develop measurements of all the key variables. Be sure they’re as good as possible, and understand their strengths and limitations.

Third, always identify the logical structure of the argument, and if it has none, discount it and him. (Laughter)

Fourth, be willing to live with ambiguity, have patience, suspend judgment, wait for the facts to come in.

Fifth, certainly don’t be satisfied with examination of the aggregates. Look below the aggregates and the over-all movement of the figures; at the components, as certainly the components may be the most revealing, let alone appealing.

An finally, it’s important to examine the facts, and as Professor Leontief stated, to have a good conception for the relationship of the facts to the theory.

And so I would like to close with a little song, which I will try to sing to you. And this is by way of a sort of a ballad for Arthur Burns, and it’s my nomination for the alma mater, at least for the old National Bureau, if not for the new, and the theme song for the new Federal Reserve Board. And I’ll tell you I’ll give it a riffle through the first vers, and then I expect especially the head table, which has some briefing, to at least join me on the second, but I expect all of you to join me, too.

Ready? (Laughter)

A fact without a theory,
Is like a ship without a sail,
Is like a boat without a rudder,
Is like a kite without a tail!

A fact without a theory
Is like a tragic final act.
But if there’s one thing worse
In this universe
It’s a theory—I said a theory—I mean a theory—
Without a fact! (Laughter and applause)

[…]

THE HONORABLE ARTHUR F. BURNS: …And then I heard George sing a song, second time I heard it, and I’m puzzled. I asked George, sitting beside him, what would be the subject of his address tonight? And he mumbled, oh, something about guidelines. I said, “Oh no, you ought to sing that song, George.” Now I don’t know whether I inspired George to sing that song or whether the thought occurred to him independently. Somehow George and I have been on the same wavelength for so long, that though communicated itself from one to the other….

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research. Fiftieth Anniversary Dinner: Transcript of Proceedings, A Supplement to National Bureau Report 6 (June 1970) p. 20, 25.

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Handwritten copy of the Ode in Edward Teller’s desk
on White House stationery.

One shouldn’t think that the issue of authorship of the Ode would be a slam-dunk affair. Actually the first lead Google provided me was to an article in Hungarian (!) about the poetry (I am not making this up) of the nuclear physicist Edward Teller.

Having no reason to doubt Google’s translation of the Hungarian text, I learned that after the death of Edward Teller “a small note was found in a drawer.” An image of a handwritten note on White House stationery (without a date) was included and is provided below.

Source: Nyomhagyók Rovat, “Gyönyörködni titkos, mély harmóniákban” Teller Ede versei. Ponticulus Hungaricus, XXIII. évfolyam 12. szám ·2019. December.

This handwritten text bears more than a passing resemblance to the Ode found in Burns’ papers at Duke as well as the NBER version of the Ballad for Burns above. The second and fourth lines of the second stanza differ significantly. It is not unusual for songs and covers of songs to display variations after all. The author of the Hungarian article claimed/suggested the English original had been composed by Edward Teller.

Perhaps some kind visitor to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror  has easy access to Edward Teller’s and/or George Shultz’s handwriting to make a determination of the identity of the above scribe in the White House. But even if the note should turn out to be written in Teller’s hand, it does not exclude the possibility that he just copied the verses he heard or read.

In any event it seems to me less likely that Shultz would have plagiarized from Teller than Teller would have instead kept a copy for himself. Besides, Schultz had significantly more opportunity to jot down notes on a White House memo pad than Teller did. This doesn’t take away from the mystery of how this alternate Ode came to Teller’s desk. 

My final forensic note is that Teller was the sort of Central European intellectual who moved from home to home with a Steinway piano throughout his life compared to George Shultz who was a veteran of the U.S. Marines known to have a Princeton tiger tattooed on his (ahem) butt cheek. Which of the two men seems more likely to have recalled the words from a hit single in the early 1950s that covered a 1907 recording? 

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Which recording served as inspiration to George Shultz?

There are numerous interpretations recorded of Silver Dollar. The Website SecondHandSongs displays 32 versions.

Fun fact: Petula Clark, singer of the Hit “Downtown” (1964), also covered Silver Dollar in December 1950!

But for my silver dollar, the closest variation to the Shultz version is found in a 78 rpm record released in 1950.

Silver Dollar by Clancy Hayes
and his Washboard Five

A man without a woman is like a ship without a sail,
Like a boat without a rudder, just like a kite without a tail.
Yes, a man without a woman is the saddest thing what am.
But if there’s one thing worse in this universe,
It’s a woman without a man! […]

Image Source: Time Magazine cover August 16, 1971.

 

Categories
France Princeton

Princeton. French Reading Proficiency Exam for Economics, 1949

Gaëtan Pirou (1886-1946)

 

The following Ph.D. examination for French reading proficiency (Princeton, 1949) was found in Martin Shubik‘s papers at the Duke University Economists’ Papers Archives.   Thanks to the BnF Gallica website, I was able to identify the source of the quote: Traité d’économie politique. 1er volume. Introduction à l’étude de l’économie politique (2e édition revue et mise au courant), pp. 86-88. The text is taken from the definition of political economy offered by  Gaëtan Pirou (1886-1946), author of the Traiteé cited. I have restored the use of italics from the original text.

____________________________

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics and Social Institutions

French Examination
December 8, 1949

Parmi les besoins qu’éprouvent les hommes, il en est dont l’apaisement est aisé parce que la nature offre les moyens d’y pourvoir dans des conditions d’abondance et de gratuité telles que les individus, au moment où le besoin se fait sentir sont assurés de trouver, sans peine ni perte de temps, les éléments d’une suffisante satisfaction. Prenons l’exemple du besoin d’air. Il n’en est sans doute pas de plus impérieux que celui-là, puisque, si l’homme cessait de pouvoir respirer seulement pendant quelques instants, il mourrait. Pourtant, dans la vie courante et en circonstances normales, nous n’avons pas à nous préoccuper de ce besoin; sa satisfaction ne nous demande aucun effort et n’implique de notre part aucune combinaison préalable, parce que l’ambiance dans laquelle nous vivons contient, et met à notre disposition, une quantité d’air très supérieure à ce qui nous est nécessaire.

Pour un grand nombre de nos besoins, il en est autrement. La nature ne nous offre pas spontanément et gratuitement les moyens d’y satisfaire. Il est donc nécessaire que les hommes suppléent à cette pauvreté naturelle en appliquant, sur les éléments du milieu dont ils disposent, une série d’efforts, et opèrent certaines transformations en vue de modifier le milieu et d’en extraire des objets susceptibles d’apaiser leurs besoins, de combler leurs désirs. Ces efforts seront de nature et d’importance très variables selon les cas; ils consisteront tantôt en un déplacement de l’homme qui ira à la chasse ou à la pêche pour se procurer le gibier ou le poisson qu’il convoite, tantôt en une préparation des choses, que la nature renferme mais qui nécessitent, pour être aptes à l’apaisement de nos besoins certain aménagements: cuisson du poisson ou du gibier, dépouillement de l’animal, etc.; tantôt enfin il y aura nécessité d’une véritable fabrication, où l’action humaine sera si profonde que l’on ne reconnaitra plus, dans l’objet finalement obtenu, les matières qui auront servi de point de départ à l’opération. De toute façon, à quelque degré, l’homme aura dû consacrer du temps et fournir du travail pour assurer la satisfaction de ses désirs. Celle-ci aura donc un coût; elle sera onéreuse.

Dans les sociétés primitives chaque individu s’applique, par son effort personnel — et généralement à l’aide d’une technique rudimentaire — à tirer du milieu les moyens de sa propre satisfaction. Si la nature ne lui offre pas un abri suffisant contre les intempéries, il abattra des branches d’arbres, les émondera, les taillera, hypothèse, se construira une hutte. En cette hypothèse un seul et même individu accomplit toute la série des actes qui vont de l’effort à la satisfaction; il parcourt tout le cycle, de la production à laconsommation.

Dans la vie sociale moderne, il n’en est plus ainsi.

Généralement, ce n’est pas le même homme qui produit et qui consomme tel ou tel objet déterminé. Celui qui mange une banane n’a pas d’ordinaire consacré de temps et de travail à faire pousser le bananier. Le vêtement a été fabriqué par d’autres que celui qui le porte. Chaque individu, en effet, se spécialise sous des conditions et des influences que nous aurons plus tard à rechercher, cans la production d’une catégorie particulière d’objets. Un boulanger consacre la plus grande partie de sa journée ou de sa nuit à faire cuire des pains. Un opticien pendant des années s’adonne à la fabrication de lunettes. Le boulanger ne consommera lui-même qu’une très minime fraction des pains qui sortiront de son four. L’opticien, s’il a une vue normale, ne se servira aucunement des verres qu’il taille.  Ainsi, la plupart des individus coopèrent à des productions qui ne sont pas destinées, au moins pour la plus grande part, à l’apaisement de leurs désirs personnels. Ces articles, qu’ils produisent et qu’ils ne consomment pas, ils les vendent, c’est- à-dire qu’ils les échangent contre de la monnaie. Puis, grâce à cette monnaie, ils achètent à d’autres producteurs ou à des commerçants les marchandises diverses qui permettront l’apaisement de leurs désirs les plus variés.

A mon sens, l’économie politique a pour objet l’étude de ces faits d’échange par lesquels un individu abandonne à un autre ce qu’il détient pour obtenir en contre-partie ce qu’il désire — faits grace auxquels est établi le pont entre la production des richesses et la satisfaction des besoins.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Shubik Papers, Box 2. Folder “Exams, University of Toronto and Princeton 1947-50”.

Image Source: Faculté de Droit de Paris. Webpage: LXX (ou 70). Professeurs de Droit de Paris en caricatures (3/3).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy

Harvard. Ethics of the Social Questions. Course description, enrollment, final exam. Peabody, 1902-1903

One fairly popular field chosen for doctoral exams by Harvard’s economics students in the early 20th century was Social Ethics that combined elements of so-called “practical economics”, sociology, philosophy, and religion. That field and later department was chaired by Professor Francis Greenwood Peabody who served in both Harvard College and the Harvard Divinity School.

________________________

A short biography of Francis Greenwood Peabody can be found at the Harvard Divinity School History webpage.

A previous post provides the history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics up through 1920.

Peabody’s book, The Approach to the Social Question: An Introduction to the Study of Social Ethics (New York: Macmillan, 1909), presumably captures much, if not all, the spirit (Spirit?) of his ethical teachings.

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Biographical note on
Francis Greenwood Peabody

Francis Greenwood Peabody (1847–1936), Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, was associated with Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School from 1880 to 1912, serving as a lecturer, professor, and dean. He received his Harvard AB in 1869 and graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1872; while a junior, Peabody was first baseman on the first Harvard baseball team to play against Yale. In 1874, he was ordained as minister of the First Parish in Cambridge, a position he maintained until 1880, when he resigned due to poor health. Harvard Divinity School Dean Everett then asked Peabody to lecture, but President Eliot, whose first wife was Peabody’s eldest sister, opposed the appointment due to nepotism. Later that year, however, he was appointed lecturer on ethics and homiletics. His courses, “The History of Ethics,” and “Practical Ethics” were the first of their kind in American theological education. While at Harvard, he ended compulsory worship and helped transform the Divinity School from a denominational seminary into a non-denominational theological school.

Peabody was named Parkman Professor of Theology in 1882, and became Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in 1886, also taking charge of Harvard College’s Appleton Chapel. He retired in 1913. Peabody also served as Acting Dean of the Divinity School on two occasions during the absence of Dean Everett, and was Dean himself from 1901 to 1905. Throughout his career, Peabody published many works, served as an Overseer of Harvard College, and was on the Board of Trustees of the Hampton Institute. Peabody died in 1936.

Source: Harvard Archives. Guide to Papers of Francis Greenwood Peabody webpage.

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Earlier, at the end of the 19th century

Exam questions for earlier years of this course have been transcribed and posted:

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

A history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics has also been posted earlier.

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The Ethics of the Social Questions
Course Description, 1902-03

Philosophy 5. The Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody assisted by Mr. —.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the social situation and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses the various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [Required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy; and Muirhead’s Elements of Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [Required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3]; the ethics of poor-relief [Required reading from Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People (see links to volumes below)]; the ethics of the labor question [Required reading: Carlyle’s Past and Present; Ruskin’s Unto this Last; Schäffle’s Quintessence of Socialism]; and the ethics of the drink-question [Required reading from Fanshawe’s Liquor Legislation in the United States]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation. Students are advised to take both Philosophy 1 and Economics 1 before taking this course, and must have taken either the one or the other, or its equivalent. A special library of 650 carefully selected volumes is provided for the use of students in this course. Attention is also called to the Paine Fellowship, the holder of which should pursue advanced study in the same direction.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People:

(Original) Volume I, East London;
(Original) Volume II, London;
(Original) Appendix to Volume II;
Note: the previous three original volumes were re-printed as four volumes that then were followed by
Volume V, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VI, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume VII, Population Classified by Trades;
Volume VIII, Population Classified by Trades (cont.);
Volume IX, Comparisons, Survey and Conclusions.

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The Ethics of the Social Questions
Course Enrollment, 1902-03

Philosophy 5. Professor Peabody, assisted by Mr. Ireland. — The Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 134: 5 Gr., 60 Se., 37 Ju., 15 So., 17 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 69.

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Mid-Year Examination, 1902-03

[to be added]

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Philosophy 5
The Ethics of the Social Questions
Final Examination, 1902-03

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

  1. The place in the modern Labor Question of:—

Chalmers;
Proudhon;
von Ketteler;
William Morris;
Leclaire.

  1. Carlyle on:

Democracy;
Permanence;
Captains of Industry.

  1. Ruskin on:

Ad valorem;
Veins of Wealth;
Ideals of Education. (Preface to: Unto this Last, p. xi.)

  1. Anarchism and Communism compared with each other and with the present industrial order.
  2. Lasalle and Marx compared as influences on German socialism.
  3. “Social labor-time” as a standard of value; the view of Marx (Schäffle, p. 81 ff.); the criticism of Schäffle (ch. VI, VII); the ethical effect to be anticipated.
  4. The scheme of industrial conciliation proposed by the Anthracite Coal Commission and its relation to French and English methods of arbitration and conciliation.
  5. The scheme of industrial partnership proposed by the U.S. Steel Corporation — its plan, results, and relation to other types of profit-sharing.
  6. The ethical principles underlying all forms of liquor legislation. Compare the liquor legislation of Massachusetts with that of Pennsylvania. (Fanshawe, ch. XI and XII.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Enrollment and Exam for Statistics. Ripley, 1902-1903

Young William Zebina Ripley

At the turn of the 20th century the breadth of Harvard’s course offerings grew faster than the depth of its instructional bench. Thomas Nixon Carver was teaching economic theory, sociology, social reform, and agricultural economics while William Zebina Ripley covered statistics, railroads, European resources, industrial and labor organization.

This post adds another year’s worth of Harvard statistics exams to the Economics in the Rear-View Mirror collection of transcribed artifacts. 

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Course Description

  1. hf. Statistics. — Theory, method, and practice. Half-course. Tu., at 11. Professor Ripley.

This course is intended to serve rather as an analysis of methods of research and sources of information than as a description of mere results. A brief history of statistics will be followed by an account of modes of collecting and tabulating census and other statistical material in the United States and abroad, the scientific use and interpretation of results by the mean, the average, seriation, the theory of probability, etc. The main divisions of vital statistics, relating to birth, marriage, morbidity, and mortality, life tables, etc.; the statistics of trade and commerce, such as price indexes, etc.; industrial statistics relating to labor, wages, and employment; statistics of agriculture, manufactures, and transportation, will be them considered in order. The principal methods of graphic representation will be comprehended, and laboratory work, amounting to not less than two hours per week, in the preparation of charts, maps, and diagrams from original material, will be required.

Course 4 is open to students who have taken Economies 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economics 1. It is especially recommended, in connection with Economies 2, for all candidates for advanced degrees.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 4. hf. Professor Ripley. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

Total 15: 10 Gr., 2 Se., 2 Ju., 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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Economics 4
Mid-Year Examination
1902-03

  1. The population of Massachusetts in 1870 was 1,457,351, in 1875 was 1,651,912, in 1880 was 1,783,085. The births in 1878 were 41,238. The Massachusetts Registration Report gives the birth rate in that year as 24.73. How was this obtained?
  2. The birth rates for 1885 in Massachusetts by counties were as follows: Barnstable, 17.4; Berkshire, 25.7; Dukes and Nantucket, 14; Suffolk, 28.7; Middlesex, 24.7; Worcester city, 27.1; Fall River city, 31.07; Cambridge, 27.04; Newburyport, 17.79, etc.
    How would you determine the real significance of these differences?
  3. Padding of the enumerator’s returns in Delaware counties in 1900, being known, how could you estimate the probable amount, assuming no considerable migration of population to have occurred?
  4. What are the main tests for determining the amount of migration in a given population between census periods?
  5. What single merit has the card system of tabulation used by the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, over the use of electric machines as in the Federal Census?
  6. Compare the rate of increase of the population of the United States with that of principal European countries. What probable future movement is indicated?
  7. What are the principal demographic results of an inequality in the distribution of the sexes? Illustrate by the United States.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).

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Economics 4
Year-End Examination
1902-03

  1. What is meant by the “duration of life”? What figures are apt to be confused with it in mortality statistics?
  2. What are the main objections to the use of index numbers, illustrating by examples?
  3. What is the “modulus” as applied to wage statistics? In what different ways may it be ascertained?
  4. Where would you seek for examples of the best practice in interpretation of (a) price statistics; (b) wage statistics?
  5. May the “cost of production” in manufactures be determined with precision? Where has the attempt has been made and with what results?
  6. Where are the best statistics of imports and exports compiled? How does the system differ from those of the United States?
  7. How is a logarithmic curve constructed; and for what purpose?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: MIT Museum website. William Zebina Ripley. Image colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Johns Hopkins Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

John Hopkins. Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy. Course outline, reading list, exams. Domar, 1956

Evsey D. Domar

Evsey Domar turned 42 years old towards the end of the Spring term of 1955-56 when he taught his intermediate fiscal policy course to Johns Hopkins’ undergraduates. From his papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Archive we can bring together the tightly focussed reading list, two midterm exams, and the final exam for Political Economy 4. 

One notes that the actual dates of the mid-term exams were lagged one week relative to the announced dates in the syllabus. Happens to the best of us. I wonder if students still (ever?) read the syllabus back in the middle of the 20th century. 

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Course Announcement

Political Economy
Specialized intermediate work

Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy 4. Professor Domar. Three hours weekly, second term.

The nature and causes of economic fluctuations. The economic role of government. Principal policy measures designed to achieve economic stability.

Prerequisite: Political Economy 3, or its equivalent.

Source: Johns Hopkins University. Undergraduate Programs, Announcements of Courses 1955-1956 in Circular 1955-1956. New Series 1955, Number 8, p. 102.

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Course Outline and Readings

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
AND FISCAL POLICY
(Political Economy 4)

E. D. Domar
Spring Term 1955-56

Course Schedule

SOURCES:

On College Reserve:

Colm, Gerhard, Essays in Public Finance and Fiscal Policy, Oxford University Press, New York 1955.

Due, John F., Government Finance—an Economic Analysis, Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Homewood, Ill., 1954.

Gordon, Robert A., Business Fluctuations, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1952.

Lindholm, Richard W., J. J. Balles, J. M. Hunter, Principles of Money and Banking Related to National Income and Fiscal Policy,W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1954.

Public Finance and Full Employment, published by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, 1945.

Ritter, Lawrence S., Money and Economic Activity, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1952.

To Be Acquired by the Students:

Maxwell, James A., Fiscal Policy, Henry Holt & Co., New York, 1955.

Economic Report of the President, January 1956.

SCHEDULE:

Week of February 13th:

Maxwell, Ch. 1,
Ritter, pp. 20-36
Lindholm, pp. 17-31.

Week of February 20th:

Ritter, pp. 99-113,
Maxwell, Ch. 2.

Week of February 27th:

Ritter, pp. 120-130,
Lindholm, pp. 330-348

Week of March 5th:

Lindholm, pp. 370-408.

HOUR EXAMINATION: March 12th

Week of March 12th:

Maxwell, Ch. 3, 4 & 5.

Week of March 19th:

Maxwell, Ch. 6, 7, & 8,
Federal Reserve, pp. 1-21,
Colm, pp. 188-219.

Week of March 26th:

Maxwell, Ch. 9, 10, & 11,
Colm, pp. 258-286.

Week of April 2nd:

Maxwell, Ch. 12 & 13,
Federal Reserve, pp. 22-52,
Review – Due, pp. 29-61, 427-39.

Week of April 9th:

Maxwell, Ch. 14 & 15.

HOUR EXAMINATION: April 16th

Week of April 16th:

Federal Reserve, pp. 53-68, 101-130.

Week of April 23rd:

Review – Gordon, Ch. 13 & 14, and pp. 559-74.

Week of April 30th:

Gordon, Ch. 16, 17 & 18.

Week of May 7th:

Economic Report of the President

Week of May 14th:

Economic Report of the President

Week of 21st:

General Review of the Course

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar. Box 15, Folder “MacroEconomics, Old Reading Lists”.

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First Hour Test

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy
(Political Economy 4)
Spring Term 1955-56

March 19, 1956

E.D. Domar

Answer all questions in any order you wish. Indicate carefully every step in your reasoning.

  1. (40%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “Central Bank Monetary Policy” with special reference to our Federal Reserve System. Your essay should include the following points:
    1. The structure of the Federal Reserve System.
    2. The relation between commercial and Federal Reserve Banks.
    3. Objectives of Federal Reserve Policy.
    4. Powers given to the Federal Reserve System and methods used by it to achieve the objectives indicated in (3) under different economic conditions.
      1. General measures
      2. Selective measures
    5. Evaluate the performance of the Federal Reserve System since its inception.
      How successful has it been in achieving the objectives stated in (3)?
    6. Conclusion: the virtues and defects of Monetary Policy.
  2. (25%) Indicate clearly how DEMAND DEPOSITS, REQUIRED RESERVES, EXISTING RESERVES and EXCESS RESERVES of the commercial member banks taken as a whole are affected by the following transactions.
    Assume that all payments are made by check, that the member banks add all receipts to, and subtract all amounts paid out from, their reserves with the Federal Reserve Banks, and that the U.S. Treasury keeps all its funds with the Federal Reserve Banks:
  3. 25% Legal requirements are 15 per cent.
  4. When a transaction consists of several parts, indicate each part separately and then show the total effect.
    AFTER EACH TRANSACTION GIVE A BRIEF VERBAL ANALYSIS OF ITS ECONOMIC EFFECTS.

    1. The U.S. Treasury collects $15 million of corporate income taxes from the U.S. Steel Corporation and uses the proceeds to redeem a bond held by Mr. Smith who deposits the check with his bank.
    2. Same as (1), but the bond is held by the First National Bank.
    3. Jones borrows $1000 from the First National Bank. After a while he uses the proceeds to meet his payroll. His employees invest their earnings in Federal bonds.
    4. The U.S. Treasury sells bonds for $100 million to the public, and uses the proceeds to buy land for highway construction. The owners of the land deposit their checks at their banks. The Federal Reserve Banks buy $100 million worth of Federal bonds from (a) the public, and (b) commercial banks.
    5. The Federal Reserve Board changes reserve requirements from 20 to 18 per cent. (Assume that the amount of deposits outstanding equals to $100 billion.) Thereupon banks extend loans to their customers of $1 billion.
  5. (35%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “The Identity and Divergence between Private and Social Cost.” Illustrate your discussion with examples. Why is this question important to the subject matter of our course and to economic policy in general. (No credit will be given for vague generalities.)

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 16, Folder “Misc. Examinations”.

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Second Hour Exam

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
AND FISCAL POLICY
(Political Economy 4)
Spring Term 1955-56

Hour Examination
April 23, 1956

E.D. Domar

Answer all questions in any order you wish. Indicate carefully every step in your reasoning. No credit will be given for vague generalities.

  1. (15%) Define and describe the following terms or expressions and indicate their use in economic discussions:
    1. The Multiplier;
    2. Parity;
    3. Balanced budget theorem;
    4. Cash vs. conventional budget;
    5. Carryovers and carrybacks;
    6. Income elasticity of taxation;
    7. Regressive taxation;
    8. Payroll taxes;
    9. Grants-in-aid;
    10. Accelerated depreciation.
  1. (20%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “Built-in Flexibility as an Instrument of Fiscal Policy.” Explain what is meant by this expression, how this instrument works, how effective it is likely to be, and what can be done to increase its effectiveness. Give a critical evaluation. Be as comprehensive and specific as you can.
  2. (20%) Write a comprehensive essay on the subject of “The Agricultural Problem in the United States since the Second World War.” Explain the origin and causes of the problem, government policies which have been adopted, and their effectiveness in dealing with the problem. Indicate and justify your own recommendations.
  3. (30%) Analyze with great care all important economic effects of agricultural price support program on the assumption of (1) that the funds for this purpose are raised by borrowing, and (2) that they are raised by taxation, in both cases under conditions of (a) unemployment, and (b) full employment. Indicate in all cases what kind of borrowing and what kind of taxation you have in mind. Give examples. When would you recommend one or the other method?
  4. (15%) “The main objective of the Federal policy should be not the balancing of the Federal budget, but of the national economic budget.” Comment.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 16, Folder “Misc. Examinations”.

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Final Exam

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
AND FISCAL POLICY
(Political Economy 4)

FINAL EXAMINATION – Three hours
June 1, 1956

E. D. Domar

Answer all questions. Be specific.

  1. (25%) Compare and contrast monetary and fiscal policies as methods of achieving economic stabilization (reasonably full employment without inflation) in a growing society. Include (but don’t limit yourself to) the following points:
    1. The theoretical foundation of each;
    2. Methods used by each;
    3. Effects on distribution of income and wealth;
    4. Social and political effects;
    5. Their effectiveness and limitations.

Do they overlap? Can you work out a synthesis of both?

  1. (10%) Describe how business fluctuations spread internationally and discuss critically the various measures for insuring international stability that have been suggested.
  2. (15%) Suppose that sizable gold deposits were discovered in this country (a) in 1933 and (b) in 1955. Trace the economic effects of the mining of this gold as completely as you can, both on the American economy and on that of other countries.
  3. (20%) Describe the origin, functions and performance of the Council of Economic Advisers from its beginning.
    State and evaluate the basic economic philosophy and the major recommendations of the 1956 Economic Report of the President.
  4. (15%) “One of the first objectives of this Administration should be at least a partial repayment of the Federal Debt. To do otherwise is to undermine the integrity on which this Administration is founded, and to adopt a course which inevitably loads to higher taxes, inflation, the destruction of our national wealth and economic insolvency.” Comment fully.
  5. (15%) Discuss SAVING as an economic problem.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 16, Folder “Misc. Examinations”.

Image source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Papers of Evsey Domar, Box 18, Folder “Photographs Domar”. Copy also available at the MIT Museum website. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Bibliography Chicago Economists Gender Social Work

Chicago. Economics Ph.D. alumna. Linked publications list. Edith Abbott, 1905

Edith Abbott by Melvin H. Sykes (1919)

The second woman to receive a Political Economy Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Edith Abbott, became the first woman dean of a U.S. graduate school in 1924 (The University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Social Service Administration). In her day there were two main paths to an academic career for women economists: home economics and “social economy”. She and her long-time collaborator, Sophonisba Breckinridge, (the first woman to receive a political science Ph.D. at the University of Chicago…note: on an economics topic “A Study of Legal Tender in England“) were fellow research directors at Jane Addams’ Hull House. 

In Germany Sozialpolitik was, like virtually all academic disciplines, Männersache. In Anglo-American academic life social policy was where women could participate.

With this post Economics in the Rear-View Mirror very proudly offers historians of economics and social policy links to well over 90% of her publications.

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Life and Career of Edith Abbott
Economics Ph.D. alumna (1905),
Department of Political Economy
University of Chicago

Thesis Title: A statistical study of the wages of unskilled labor in the United States, 1830-1900.
Published in The Journal of Political Economy (June, 1905) as “The Wages of Unskilled Labor in the United States 1850-1900”.

1876, September 26. Born in Grand Island, Nebraska.
1888-93. Graduated as valedictorian of Brownell Hall, a private school in Omaha, Nebraska.
1893-95. Taught at Grand Island High School, Nebraska.
1901. A.B. University of Nebraska.
1901-03. Graduate Student, University of Nebraska. and Instructor in Mathematics, Lincoln High School.
1902. Summer school at the University of Chicago.
1903-05.Fellow, Department of Political Economy, University of Chicago. Supported by J. L. Laughlin and Thorstein Veblen.
1905. Ph.D. in Political Economy from the University of Chicago.
1905. Post-Ph.D. she worked two jobs in Boston: (1) Secretary at the Women’s Trade Union League and (2) assisted in the U.S. industrial history research project of Carroll D. Wright for the American Economic Association funded by the Carnegie Institution. She lived at the social settlement Dennison House.
1906. Full-time work for the Carnegie Institution. Moved in January to New York City for research. Lived at College Settlement. Next moved to Washington, D.C.
1906-07. With funds from a competitive fellowship awarded by the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, supplemented by Carnegie Institution funds, she went for postgraduate study at the London School of Economics. She took a course “Methods of Social Investigation” taught by Beatrice Webb [see description of Abbott’s own methods course taught 1909-10 at the University of Chicago below]. Lived at St. Hilda’s Settlement in Bethnal Green.
1907-1908. Instructor of economics at Wellesley College.
1908-20. Resident of Hull House. Associate Director of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy.
1909-10.Special Lecturer in Political Economy, University of Chicago.
1918-19. Vice President of the American Economic Association.
1920. Appointed Associate Professor of Social Economy in the Graduate School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
1924-42. Dean of the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago.
1926. Established Cook County (Illinois) Bureau of Public Welfare.
1927.Together with Sophonisba P. Breckinridge co-founded Social Service Review.
1929-31.  Chaired the Committee on Crime and the Foreign Born of the Wickersham National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement
1935. Assisted in drafting the Social Security Act.
1942-1953. Dean Emeritus.
1953. Returned to Grand Island, Nebraska and lived with her brother Arthur.
1957, 28 July. Died in Grand Island, Hall County, Nebraska8

Sources:
Costin, Lela B. 1983. Two Sisters for Social Justice: A Biography of Grace and Edith Abbott. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Deegan, Mary Jo and Michael R. Hill. 1991. “Edith Abbott (1876-1957).” Pp. 29-36 in Women in Sociology: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook, edited by Mary Jo Deegan. New York: Greenwood Press.

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Edith Abbott report on her year at L.S.E.
1906-07

Your [Association of Collegiate Alumnae] fellow of last year, Miss Abbott, went in September to the London School of Economics where her principal work was the study of statistical methods, taking both lecture and research work with Mr. Bowley, and also taking advantage of the opportunity of attending other lecture courses both in economic theory and in economic history and in methods of social investigation. She also found helpful work in University College, and in the spring attended some lectures at the School of Sociology. The part of the year that she counted most valuable, however, was the time spent with Miss Collet, Investigator of Women’s Trades for the English Labor Department, who for the past 20 years has been studying various questions connected with the employment of women. In the winter she made an investigation in connection with the “Outer London Inquiry,” and in the summer she had an opportunity of studying the working of the Unemployed Act. A short account of one phase of this “Municipal Employment of Unemployed Women in London” will appear in the current number of the Journal of Political Economy. Her History of the Industrial Employment of Women has made some progress. She will publish in the December number of the Journal of Political Economy, “Women in Manufactures: A Supplementary Note,” and in the January, 1907, she published a paper on “The History of the Employment of Women in Cigar-Making.” She has been appointed instructor at Wellesley College to carry on some of Professor Comane’s work during the latter’s leave of absence.

Source: The Association of Collegiate Alumnae Magazine III.17 (Jan. 1908) pp. 140-141.

______________________________

Faculty Blurb and Course Description,
University of Chicago, 1909-10

Edith Abbott, Ph.D., Special Lecturer in Political Economy.

A.B., University of Nebraska, 1901; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1905; Fellow in Political Economy, ibid., 1903 -05; Research Work for Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1906; European Fellow of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae and Student at the London School of Economics, 1906 -7; Instructor in Political Economy, Wellesley College, 1907-8; Associate Director Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, 1908—; Special Lecturer in Political Economy, University of Chicago, 1909—.

  1. Methods of Social Investigation. A course designed primarily to acquaint students with the purpose, methods, and results of the most important work that has been done in the field of social research. Such investigations as Le Play’s Ouvriers européens, Booth’s Life and Labor of the People of London, Rowntree’s Poverty, women in the printing trades, and the recent Dundee and West Ham inquiries will be studied, as well as some selected reports of Royal Commissions and of the English and American Labor Departments. The application of statistical methods to social problems, the collection and tabulation of data, the use and misuse of averages, index-numbers, and weighting will be treated briefly; and the use and limitations of experiment, the interview, the document, and personal observation will be considered.

Students may supplement this course by practical work in investigation in connection with one of the Inquiries being carried on by the Research Department of the School of Civics and Philanthropy. An additional major’s credit will be given to students who give not less than 12 hours a week to this part of the course. Mj. or 2 Mj. Winter Quarter, 9:30, Dr. Abbott.

Source: University of Chicago. Annual Register,  July, 1908—July, 1909 with Announcements for 1909-1910 (Chicago: July 1908),  pp. 50, 237.

_________________________________

Jane Adams of Hull House:
Introducing Edith Abbott

From Jane Addams’ preface to the pamphlet The Wage-Earning Woman and the State by Edith Abbott and Sophonisba P. Breckinridge published by the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government (1910)

…Miss Edith Abbott was graduated from the University of Nebraska, and later received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics and Law from the University of Chicago. She was for two years a Fellow of the University, and studied in Europe for one year at the University of London in the School of Economics. After teaching political economy at Wellesley College for one year, she entered the School of Civics and Philanthropy, where she has been Associate Director for the last five years. She is the author of a very authoritative work entitled « Women in Industry; A Study in American Economic » Her knowledge of the conditions surrounding working women is by no means confined to America. She is in constant correspondence with the people most interested in the conditions of working women in England and the continental countries, and by travel and correspondence has kept herself well informed concerning the legal and industrial changes which affect the lives of women the world over. Both Miss [Sophonisba P.] Breckinridge and Miss Abbott are personally acquainted with hundreds of working women. Miss Abbott has been a resident of Hull House for the last few years, and Miss Breckinridge is in residence each year during her three months’ vacation from teaching at the University. They thus add to their scholarly qualifications a keen and living interest in thousands of working women.

JANE ADDAMS.
Hull House, Chicago.

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Back story of  the Graduate School of Social Service Administration

The most recently established of the graduate schools of the University makes its entry somewhat timidly for the first time in the rather jovial surroundings and setting provided by the Cap and Gown. The School deals with almost discordantly sombre themes — pauperism, crime, drunkenness, insanity, and vice. Its laboratories are the mean streets of the West Side, the deteriorated area of “Lower North,” the industrial district to the south along the banks of the Calumet. But the School is older, in its traditions at least, than its debut would indicate.

First established more than twenty years ago as the Institute of Social Science under the auspices of the University of Chicago, University College, the School numbered among its first members of its faculty Professor Graham Taylor of the Chicago Commons, Professor Charles Richmond Henderson of the University, and Miss Julia C. Lathrop of Hull House. In May, 1908, the Institute of Social Science became the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and maintained an independent existence from 1908 to 1920, when it was combined with the philanthropic service division that had been organized under the rapidly expanding School of Commerce and Administration, with Mr. [Leon Carroll] Marshall as the first dean of the new School. The present Graduate School of Social Service Administration is therefore the successor of the Chicago School of Civics and the Philanthropic Service Division of the School of Commerce.

The School differs from other schools in the social service field in that it offers the student not only a series of graduate professional courses but also the opportunity of combining his professional work with a wide choice of graduate courses in the Social Service departments of a great University.

Source: University of Chicago. The Cap and Gown 1924, p. 220.

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Edith Abbott’s Writings

Over 125 items in the following bibliography are accessible via the links that have been collected by the curator of Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. Alas, seven items have not (yet) been found, of which four are significant books published by University of Chicago Press and still under copyright protection.

“Wage Statistics in the Twelfth Census.” Journal of Political Economy, 12 (June 1904), 339-61. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1833345/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Elements of Political Economy by J. Shield Nicolson. In School Review 12 (Nov. 1904), 754-755. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1075897/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Trade Unionism and British Industry by Edwin A. Pratt. Journal of Political Economy 13 (Dec. 1904), 129-132. https://archive.org/details/paper-doi-10_1086_251116

Review of Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociological Study, edited by J. Ramsay MacDonald. In Journal of Political Economy 13 (March 1905), 299-303. https://archive.org/details/paper-doi-10_1086_251145/mode/2up

“Are Women Business Failures?” Harper’s Weekly, 49 (Apr. 8, 1905) Issue 2520, 496. https://archive.org/details/sim_harpers-weekly_1905-04-08_49_2520/page/496/mode/2up

“Wages of Unskilled Labor in the United States, 1850-1900.” Journal of Political Economy, 13 (June 1905), 321-67. (Ph.D. Dissertation) https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819499/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Labor Organization among Women by Belva Mary Herron. In Journal of Political Economy 13 (Sept. 1905), 605-607. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1817853/page/n1/mode/2up

“Harriett Martineau and the Employment of Women in 1836.” Journal of Political Economy, 14 (Dec. 1906), 614-26. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819994/page/n1/mode/2up

“Employment of Women in Industries: Twelfth Census Statistics.” Journal of Political Economy, 14 (Jan. 1906), 14-40 (with Breckinridge). https://www.jstor.org/stable/1817279

Review of Trade Unions by Geoffrey Drage. In Journal of Political Economy 14 (Jan. 1906), 53-56. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1817284/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of The Clothing Industry in New York by Jesse Eliphalet Pope. In Journal of Political Economy 14(April 1906), 252-254. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1817940/page/n1/mode/2up

“The History of Industrial Employment of Women in the United States: An Introductory Study.” In  Journal of Political Economy, 14 (Oct. 1906), 461-501. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1817741/page/n1/mode/2up

“Woman Suffrage Militant: The New Movement in England.” The Independent, 61 (Nov. 29, 1906), 1276-78. https://archive.org/details/sim_independent_1906-11-29_61_3026/page/1276/mode/2up

“Employment of Women in Industries: Cigar Making — Its History and Present Tendencies.” Journal of Political Economy, 15 (Jan. 1907), 1-25. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1817494/page/n1/mode/2up

“Municipal Employment of Unemployed Women in London.” Journal of Political Economy, 15 (Nov. 1907), 513-30. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819109/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Women’s Work and Wages: A Phase of Life in an Industrial City by Edward Cadbury et al. In Journal of Political Economy 15 (Nov. 1907), 563-565.  https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819119/page/n1/mode/2up

“Women in Manufactures: A Supplementary Note,” Journal of Political Economy, 15 (Dec. 1907), 619-24 (with Breckinridge and Anne S. Davis). https://archive.org/details/jstor-1820425/page/n1/mode/2up

“A Study of the Early History of Child Labor in America.” American Journal of Sociology, 14 (Jul. 1908), 15-37. https://archive.org/details/jstor-2762758/page/n1/mode/2up

“English Working Women and the Franchise.” Atlantic, 102 (Sept 1908), 343-46. https://archive.org/details/sim_atlantic_1908-09_102_3/page/342/mode/2up

“The Public Moralist and the Working Woman. Association of Collegiate Alumnae Magazine, III.18 (Dec. 1908), 12-18. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/iau.31858028383911?urlappend=%3Bseq=188%3Bownerid=13510798903605987-200

“History of the Employment of Women in the American Cotton Mills.” Journal of Political Economy:

Part I. 16 (Nov. 1908), 602-21; https://archive.org/details/jstor-1820913/page/n1/mode/2up

Part II. 16 (Dec. 1908), 680-92; https://archive.org/details/jstor-1821966/page/n1/mode/2up

Part III. 17 (Jan. 1909), 19-35. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819902/page/n1/mode/2up

“Women in Industry: The Manufacture of Boots and Shoes.” American Journal of Sociology, 15 (Nov. 1909), 335-60. https://archive.org/details/jstor-2762515/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Where Shall She Live? The Homelessness of the Woman Worker by Mary Higgs and Edward E. Hayward. In American Journal of Sociology 16 (Sept. 1910), 272-273. https://archive.org/details/jstor-2763060/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Frederick William Maitland by H.A.L. Fisher. In Journal of Political Economy 18 (Nov. 1910), 750-751. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1820690/page/n1/mode/2up

Women in Industry. A Study of American Economic History. New York: Appleton and Co., 1910. https://archive.org/details/WomenInIndustryStudy/page/n4/mode/1up   

The Housing Problem in Chicago. (with Breckinridge). (parts I, VI-X written by others)

  1. Introductory Note to “Housing of Non-Family Groups of Working Men” by Milton B. Hunt. American Journal of Sociology, 16 (Sept. 1910),145-146 (with Breckinridge). https://archive.org/details/jstor-2763051/page/n1/mode/2up
  2. “Families in Furnished Rooms.” American Journal of Sociology, 16 (Nov. 1910), 289-308 (with Breckinridge). https://archive.org/details/jstor-2763087/page/n1/mode/2up
  3. “Back of the Yards.” American Journal of Sociology, 16 (Jan. 1911), 433-68 (with Breckinridge). https://archive.org/details/jstor-2763005/page/n1/mode/2up
  4. “The West Side Revisited.” American Journal of Sociology, 17 (July 1911), 1-34 (with Breckinridge). https://archive.org/details/jstor-2763253/page/n1/mode/2up
  5. “South Chicago at the Gates of the Steel Mills.” American Journal of Sociology, 17 (Sept. 1911), 145-76 (with Breckinridge). https://archive.org/details/jstor-2762945/page/n1/mode/2up

“English Poor-Law Reform.” Journal of Political Economy, 19 (Jan. 1911), 47-59. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1820483/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Child Labor Legislation in Europe by C.W.A. Vedite. In American Economic Review (March 1911), 110-112. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1802931/page/n1/mode/2up

Finding Employment for Children Who Leave the Grade Schools to Go to Work: Report to the Chicago Woman’s Club, the Chicago Association of Collegiate Alumni, and the Women’s City Club. Chicago: Hollister Press, 1911 (with Breckinridge and Anne S. Davis). https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t33205206

“Women in Industry: The Chicago Stockyards.” Journal of Political Economy, 19 (Oct. 1911), 632-54 (with Breckinridge). https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819424/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of The Solution of the Child Labor Problem by Scott Nearing, in American Economic Review (Dec. 1911), 846. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1806913/page/n1/mode/2up

The Delinquent Child and the Home. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1912 (with Breckinridge). https://archive.org/details/cu31924030383214/page/n7/mode/2up

Review of Wages in the United States, 1908-1910 by Scott Nearing. In Journal of Political Economy 20 (May 1912), 529-531. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1822107/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of The Living Wage of Women Workers: A Study of Incomes and Expenditures of Four Hundred and Fifty Women Workers in the City of Boston by Louise Marion Bosworth. In American Economic Review (June 1912), 380-382. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1827614/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of The Prevention of Destitution by Sidney and Beatrice Webb. In Journal of Political Economy 20 (July 1912), 754-756. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1820154/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Making Both Ends Meet: The Income and Outlay of New York Working Girls by Sue Ainslie Clark and Edith Wyatt. In American Economic Review (September 1912), 652-654. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1804628/page/n1/mode/2up

“The First Chief of the Children’s Bureau.” Life and Labor, 2 (Oct. 1912), 299-301. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924069101354?urlappend=%3Bseq=343%3Bownerid=27021597770090515-357

Wage-earning Woman and the State: A Reply to Miss Minnie Bronson. Boston: Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government, 1912 (with Breckinridge). https://archive.org/details/wageearningwoman00abbo

“Women’s Wages in Chicago: Some Notes on Available Data.” Journal of Political Economy, 21 (Feb. 1913), 143-58. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819961/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Progress and Uniformity in Child-Labor Legislation. A Study in Statistical Measurement by William F. Ogburn. In American Economic Review, 3 (June 1913), 397-399. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1827991/page/n1/mode/2up

“Public Pensions to Widows and Children.” American Economic Review, 3 (June 1913), 473-78. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1828023/page/n27/mode/2up

Reviews of The American Girl in the Stockyards District by Louise Montgomery; Women in Trade Unions in San Francisco by Lillian R. Matthews; Artifical Flower Makers by Mary Van Kleeck. In American Economic Review (March 1914), 164-166. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1805013/page/n1/mode/2up

“A Forgotten Minimum Wage Bill.” Life and Labor, 5 (Jan. 1915), 13-16. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015010962978?urlappend=%3Bseq=21%3Bownerid=13510798887191435-25

“Progress of the Minimum Wage in England.” Journal of Political Economy, 23 (Mar. 1915), 268-77. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819662/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Minimum Rates in the Chain-making Industry (Studies in the Minimum Wage, No. 1) by R. H. Tawney. Journal of Political Economy 23 (April 1915), 400-401. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819291/page/n1/mode/2up

“Statistics Relating to Crime in Chicago.” In Report of the City Council Committee of Chicago on Crime in the City of Chicago, pp. 17-88. Chicago: City Council Committee, 1915. https://archive.org/details/reportofcitycoun00chic/page/16/mode/2up

“The Copycat Vote.” New Republic, 2 (Apr. 24, 1915), 304. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hxqfnz?urlappend=%3Bseq=366%3Bownerid=27021597764513068-380

“Education for Social Work.” In Department of Interior, Bureau of Education, Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year Ended June 30, 1915, vol. 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1915). https://archive.org/details/reportofcommissi00unit_51/page/344/mode/2up

“Field-Work and the Training of the Social Workers.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Charities and Correction at the Forty-Second Annual Session held in Baltimore, Maryland, May 12-19, 1915, pp. 615-21. Chicago: Hildmann Printing Co., 1915. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_may-12-19-1915_42/page/614/mode/2up

“Statistics in Chicago Suffrage.” New Republic, 3 (June 12, 1915), 151. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015086341164?urlappend=%3Bseq=191%3Bownerid=13510798902096126-219

“Are Women a Force for Good Government?” National Municipal Review, 4 (July 1915), 437-447. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044106250632?urlappend=%3Bseq=497%3Bownerid=27021597765335525-549

The Real Jail Problem. Chicago: Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago, 1915. https://archive.org/details/realjailproblem00abbo/page/n3/mode/2up

The One Hundred and One County Jails of Illinois and Why They Ought to Be Abolished. Chicago: Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago, 1916. https://archive.org/details/onehundredonecou00abbo/page/n3/mode/2up

“Cheap Clothes and Nasty.” New Republic, 4 (Jan. 1, 1916), 217-219. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hxqfp4?urlappend=%3Bseq=274%3Bownerid=27021597764513482-278

“The Woman Voter and the Spoils System in Chicago.” National Municipal Review, 5 (July 1916), 460-465. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044106250624?urlappend=%3Bseq=498%3Bownerid=27021597765323744-544

Review of Women in Modern Industry by B. L. Hutchins. In American Economic Review (June 1916), 399-400. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1813274/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Summary of the Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United States, Bulletin of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In American Economic Review, 662-664. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1808551/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Old Age Pensions: Their Actual Working and Ascertained Results in the United Kingdom by H. J. Hoare. American Journal of Sociology (Sept. 1916), 277-278. https://archive.org/details/jstor-2763833/page/n1/mode/2up

“Administration of the Illinois Funds-to-Parents Laws.” United States Department of Labor Bulletin 212, pp. 818-34. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1917. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.a0004011193?urlappend=%3Bseq=980%3Bownerid=13510798903282064-1000

“The Experimental Period of Widows Pension Legislation.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1917, pp. 154-65. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_june-6-13-1917_44/page/154/mode/2up

“Charles Booth, 1840-1916.” Journal of Political Economy, 25 (Feb 1917), 195-200. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1819721/page/n1/mode/2up

“The War and Women’s Work in England.” Journal of Political Economy, 15 (July 1917), 641-678. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1821772/page/n1/mode/2up

“Field Work Training with Social Agencies.” In Report of the Association of Urban Universities, November, 1917, pp. 92-103. Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1917-18. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/iau.31858045945593?urlappend=%3Bseq=274%3Bownerid=117203284-282

Truancy and Non-Attendance in the Chicago Schools: A Study of the Social Aspects of the Compulsory Education and Child Labor Legislation of Illinois. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1917 (with Breckinridge). https://archive.org/details/truancynonattend00abbo/page/n5/mode/2up

Democracy and Social Progress in England. University of Chicago War Papers, 8. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1918. https://archive.org/details/democracysocialp00abbo/mode/2up

“The Social Case Worker and the Enforcement of Industrial Legislation.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1918, pp. 312-19. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_may-15-22-1918_45/page/312/mode/2up

“Pensions, Insurance and the State.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1918, pp. 388-89. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_may-15-22-1918_45/page/388/mode/2up

“Crime and the War.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, 9 (May 1918), 32-45. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1133731/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of three works on women workers. In American Journal of Sociology 23 (Jan. 1918), 551-552. https://archive.org/details/jstor-2763523/page/n1/mode/2up

Reviews of six books on women and war work. In American Economic Review (Dec. 1918), 819-824.https://archive.org/details/jstor-1803702/page/n1/mode/2up

“Health Insurance in Great Britain.” In Report of the Health Insurance Commission of the State of Illinois, May 1, 1919, pp. 600-624. Springfield: Illinois State Journal Co., 1919. Also in Report of the Ohio Health and Old Age Insurance Commission, February, 1919, pp. 312-40. Columbus: F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1919. https://archive.org/details/cu31924002406951/page/600/mode/2up

“Probation and Suspended Sentence” (Report of Committee “B” of the Institute). Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, 10 (Nov. 1919), 341-50. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1133813/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Report of the War Cabinet Committee on Women in Industry in American Economic Review (June 1920), 358-362. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1804881/page/n1/mode/2up

Review of Italian Emigration of our Times by Robert F. Foerster. In American Political Science Review 14 (Aug. 1920), 523-524. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1946285/page/n1/mode/2up

The Administration of the Aid-to-Mothers Law in Illinois. U.S. Children’s Bureau. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1921 (with Breckinridge).https://archive.org/details/administrationof00abbo/page/n3/mode/2up

Review of The Passing of the County Jail: Individualization of Misdemeanants through a Unified Correctional System by Stuart Alfred Queen. The American Journal of Sociology (May 1921), 792-793. https://archive.org/details/jstor-2764348

“The Promise and Practice of Social Legislation.” University Journal (alumni edition, University of Nebraska), 17 July 1921), 4-11. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015080407714?urlappend=%3Bseq=6%3Bownerid=13510798897152302-10

“Police Brutality in Chicago.” The Nation, 114 (Mar. 8, 1922), 286-87. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/pst.000068744618?urlappend=%3Bseq=308%3Bownerid=13510798902987282-322

“Tragedy of the Excess Quota.” New Republic, 30 (Mar. 8, 1922), 52-53. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hwqwpg?urlappend=%3Bseq=66%3Bownerid=27021597767357933-72

Review of Immigration and the Future and The Federal Administration and the Alien both by Frances Kellor. In Journal of Political Economy 30 (Apr. 1922), 312-314. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1822697/page/n1/mode/2up

Discussion of “Immigration under the Percentum Limit Law,” by W. W. Husband. In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1922, pp. 463-66. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_june-22-29-1922_49/page/462/mode/2up

What the Women of Illinois Ought to Know and Ought to Do about the Questions of Social Hygiene: A Report Submitted to the Committee Appointed at the Request of the Joint Conference of the Women’s Clubs of Chicago, 1922.

“Recent Statistics Relating to Crime in Chicago.” Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, 13 (Nov. 1922), 329-58. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1133931/page/n1/mode/2up

“Training in Case Work and Special Administrative Problems in a University.” In The Social Service of the Courts: Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of The National Probation Association, 1922, pp 59-68. New York: National Probation Association, 1923. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101067578383?urlappend=%3Bseq=65%3Bownerid=27021597769832968-69

Review of The History of Public Poor Relief in Massachusetts, 1620-1920. In American Journal of Sociology(Nov. 1922), 364-366. https://archive.org/details/jstor-2764686/page/n1/mode/2up

“The English Census of 1921.” Journal of Political Economy, 30 (Dec. 1922), 827-40. https://archive.org/details/jstor-1822472/page/n1/mode/2up

“Is One Per Cent in Quarantine a Public Health Measure?” Illinois League of Women Voters Bulletin, 3 (1923), 7-9.

Review of Penology in the United States by Louis N. Robinson. In American Journal of Sociology 29 (July 1923), 105-106. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2764420

“Federal Immigration Policies, 1864-1924.” University Journal of Business, 2 (1924), (Mar. 1924), 133-56; (Jun. 1924), 347-67; (Sep. 1924), 455-80. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2354831 ; https://www.jstor.org/stable/2354665 ; https://www.jstor.org/stable/2354651

“Immigration Legislation and the Problems of Assimilation.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1924, pp. 82-91. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_june-25-july-2-1924_51/page/82/mode/2up

Immigration: Select Documents and Case Records. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1924. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015010521006

“English Statistics of Pauperism during the War.” Journal of Political Economy, 33 (Feb. 1925), 1-32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1821974

Historical Aspects of the Immigration Problem. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1926. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015008786579

“Training for the Policewoman’s Job.” Woman Citizen, 10 (Apr 1926), 30. https://archive.org/details/sim_womans-journal_1926-04_10_13/page/30/mode/2up

“The Civil War and the Crime Wave of 1865-70.” Social Service Review, 1 (June 1927), 212-34. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1927-06_1_2/page/212/mode/2up

“The Webbs on the English Poor Law.” Social Service Review, 3 (June 1929), 252-69. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1929-06_3_2/page/252/mode/2up

Report on Crime and Criminal Justice in Relation to the Foreign Born, National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (Wickersham Commission). No. 10. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1931. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b4628567

Social Welfare and Professional Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1931, and ed. 1942.

“Poor People in Chicago.” New Republic, 72 (Oct. 5, 1932), 209. https://archive.org/details/sim_new-republic_1932-10-05_72_931/page/208/mode/2up

“The Fallacy of Local Relief.” New Republic, 72 (Nov. 9, 1932), 348-50. https://archive.org/details/sim_new-republic_1932-11-09_72_936/page/347/mode/2up

“The Crisis in Relief.” The Nation, 137 (Oct. 11, 1933), 400-402. https://archive.org/details/sim_nation_1933-10-11_137_3562/page/400/mode/2up

“Abolish the Pauper Laws.” Social Service Review, 8 (Mar. 1934), 1-16. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1934-03_8_1

“Don’t Do It, Mr. Hopkins!” The Nation, 140 (Jan. 9, 1935), 41-42. https://archive.org/details/sim_nation_1935-01-09_140_3627/page/40/mode/2up

“Evictions during the Chicago Rent Moratorium Established by the Relief Agencies, 1931-1933.” Social Service Review, 9 (Mar. 1935), 34-57 (with Katherine Kiesling). https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1935-03_9_1/page/34/mode/2up

“The Pauper Laws Still Go On.” Social Service Review, 9 (Dec. 1935), 731-56. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1935-12_9_4/page/730/mode/2up

“Jane Addams Memorial Service.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1935, pp. 3-5. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_june-09-15-1935/page/2/mode/2up

The Tenements of Chicago, 1908-1935. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1936 (with Breckinridge).

“Federal Relief Sold Down the River.” The Nation, 142 (Mar. 18, 1936), 346. https://archive.org/details/sim_nation_1936-03-18_142_3689/page/346/mode/2up

“Training for the Public Welfare Services.” Public Welfare News, 4 (Mar. 1936), 5.

“Public Welfare and Politics.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1936, pp. 27-45; https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_may-18-23-1936/page/26/mode/2up  also in Social Service Review, 10 (Sept. 1936), 395-412. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1936-09_10_3

“Public Assistance—Whither Bound?” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1937, pp. 3-25. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_may-23-29-1937/page/n11/mode/2up

Some American Pioneers in Social Welfare: Select Documents with Editorial Notes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937.

“Is There a Legal Right to Relief?” Social Service Review, 12 (June 1938), 260-75. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1938-06_12_2/page/260/mode/2up

“Poor Law Provision for Family Responsibility.” Social Service Review, 12 (Dec. 1938), 598-618. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1938-12_12_4/page/598/mode/2up

“A Sister’s Memories.” Social Service Review, 13 (Sept. 1939), 351-408. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1939-09_13_3

“Unemployment Relief a Federal Responsibility.” Social Service Review, 14 (Sept. 1940), 438-52. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1940-09_14_3/page/438/mode/2up

“Relief, the No Man’s Land, and How to Reclaim It.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1940, pp. 187-98. https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_may-26-june-01-1940/page/186/mode/2up

Public Assistance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940. Vol. I [Note: very incomplete copy at archive.org] ; Vol. II https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.544099/page/n7/mode/2up

United States, 76th Cong., 3rd Sess., House, Select Committee to Investigate the Interstate Migration of Destitute Citizens, Aug. 19, 20. and 21, 1940, pp. 1179-90. https://archive.org/details/interstatemigrat03unit/page/1178/mode/2up

“Work or Maintenance: A Federal Program for the Unemployed.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1941, pp. 332-43 https://archive.org/details/sim_national-conference-on-social-welfare-bulletin_june-01-07-1941/page/332/mode/2up ; revised in Social Service Review, 15 (Sept. 1941), 520-32. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1941-09_15_3/page/520/mode/2up

“Twenty-one Years of University Education for the Social Services, 1920-41.” A Report to the Alumni with a Register of Alumni Who Received Higher Degrees, 1920-1942, and Their Dissertation Subjects. Social Service Review, 15 (Dec. 1941), 670-705. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1941-12_15_4/page/670/mode/2up

“Juvenile Delinquency during the First World War, Notes on the British Experience 1914-1918.” Social Service Review, 17 (June 1943), 192-212. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1943-06_17_2/page/192/mode/2up

“Some Charitable Bequests in Early English Wills (1284-1580) and Statutes (1414-1601) to Protect Charitable Gifts.” Social Service Review, 20 (June 1946), 231-46. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1946-06_20_2/page/230/mode/2up

“Three American Pioneers in International Social Welfare.” The Compass, 28 (May 1947), 6.

“Work of Thomas H. Gallaudet and the Teaching of the Deaf.” Social Service Review, 21 (Sept. 1947), 375-86. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1947-09_21_3/page/374/mode/2up

“Sophonisba P. Breckinridge Over the Years.” Social Service Review, 22 (Dec. 1948), 417-23. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1948-12_22_4/page/n7/mode/2up

“Grace Abbott and Hull-House, 1908-21. Social Service Review 24, Part I, (Sept. 1950), 374-94. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1950-09_24_3/page/374/mode/2up; and Part II, (Dec. 1950), 493-518. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1950-12_24_4/page/492/mode/2up

“The Survey Award: Acceptance Speech.” In Proceedings of The National Conference of Social Work, 1951, pp. ix-x. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/n/ncosw/ACH8650.1951.001/16?rgn=full+text;view=image

“The Hull-House of Jane Addams.” Social Service Review, 26 (Sept. 1952), 334-38. https://archive.org/details/sim_social-service-review_1952-09_26_3/page/334/mode/2up

Sources:
Rachel Marks, The Published Writings of Edith Abbott: A Bibliography, American Journal of Sociology 32 (March 1958), 51-56;
Lela B. Costin (1983). Two Sisters for Social Justice: A Biography of Grace and Edith Abbott. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 287-293.

Image Source: Portrait of Edith Abbott by Melvin H. Sykes (1919). University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-00004, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Image colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Industrial Organization

Harvard. Railways and public utility regulation. Exam questions. Meyer, 1902-1903.

Besides adding to the database of economics examination questions, this post provides us with additional biographical information for the railroad and municipal utility expert, Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus Hugo Richard Meyer (1866-1923). He was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago in 1903-05.

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From a review of Meyer’s book,
Government Regulations of Railway Rates

Hugo Richard Meyer is a native of Cincinnati, O., and is now 39 years of age. He attended the pubic schools of that city in early childhood and in 1877 he was taken by his parents to Germany, where he remained five years. From Germany, his father returned to America and made his home in Denver, Colo., where in the high school young Meyer prepared for Harvard college, from which he was graduated in 1892. Afterward he attended Harvard Graduate school five years.

Prof. Meyer’s usefulness began as an instructor of political economy in Harvard, serving from 1897 until 1903. In 1903 he was one of three commissioners appointed by the Governor to investigate and report on the wisdom of amending the laws of Massachusetts, governing the exercise of the right of eminent domain by cities in public improvement. In 1903, he wrote a series of leaflets on the subject of municipal ownership, taking the side of private ownership. Mr. Meyer began the study of economics with a prejudice in favor of socialism, but came out in a strong belief of individualism. He has studied socialism in Australia and the operation of municipal ownership in Great Britain. He especially has paid attention to the government regulation of railroad rates in the United States, Germany, France, Austria Hungary, Russia and Australia. In his book, Government Regulation of Railway Rates [a study of the experience of the United States, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Australia] , he gives a comparative study of the experiece of public regulation of railway rates in countries where he has been.

In addition to this book, Mr. Meyer has two other works in preparation. One deals with municipal ownership in Great Britain [followed by The British State Telegraphs (1907) and Public Ownership and the Telephone in Great Britain (1907)] and the other with state socialism in Australia. Mr. Meyer has written also articles on the regulation of railway rates in Europe, and an article entitled, “Rate Making by Government,” which were published respectively in 1903 and 1905.

Mr. Meyer came into national prominence in May last, when he appeared before the Senate sub-committee of interstate commerce and gave his views on the question of rate making by government. It was the clearest statement given by any witness on either side of this great question. He presented an array of facts that no other witness had summoned, and when he left the chair it was the judgment of all that he had been the most impressive witness that had appeared before the committee.

Source: The Topeka Daily Herald, October 14, 1905, p. 8.

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Course Description
Economic 5
1902-1903

  1. 1hf. Railways and other Public Works. under Public and Corporate Management. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 1.30. Mr. Meyer.

This course reviews the history and working of different modes of dealing with transportation, and deals with the questions of street railways, gas, and electric light supply.

The manner in which Germany [Municipal Ownership in Germany. Journal of Political Economy, (1906), 14(9), 553–567.], France [The Breakdown of State Railway Building in France. Journal of Political Economy (1906), 14(7), 450–453.], and Russia have regulated railway rates, either by exercising control over private corporations, or by assuming public ownership and operation, will be studied with special reference to the effect of such regulation upon the elasticity of railway rates and the ability of the railways to develop trade and industry. In this connection will be studied the part played by the railways and by the waterways in the development of the leading industries of Germany, France, and Russia; as well as the question why Germany, France, and Russia are obliged to have recourse to the waterways for the performance of services that in the United States are rendered by the railways.

The attempts of the railways of the United States to regulate railway rates through pools will be compared with the attempts of the several states and of the federal government to regulate rates through legislation and through commissions. Typical decisions of pools, of state commissions, and of the Interstate Commerce Commission will be studied for the purpose of ascertaining whether those decisions are founded on a body of principles that may be said to have the character of a science, or whether they express merely the judgment of administrative officers on questions of fact to which no body of scientific principles can be made to apply. In conclusion, the question whether railway rates should be regulated through pools or through legislation and commissions will be discussed by means of a comparison of the experience of the European countries, the United States under the régime of regulation by pools, and the United States under the régime of regulation by state and federal legislation and by commissions.

The problem of the public ownership and operation of the railways will be discussed under the following heads: the difficulties experienced by Prussia, France, Italy, Russia, and the Australian Colonies, in making the railway budget fit into the state budget; the problem of a large body of civil servants in a self-governing community, as illustrated in the experience of the Australian Colonies.

The question of the regulation and control of private corporations operating street railways, gas, and electric light plants will be studied by means of a review of the experience of Massachusetts, which exercises control by means of legislation and commissions; and the experience of Great Britain, which exercises control by means of legislation, and, in many instances, supplements that control by the policy of municipal ownership.

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Enrollment
Economics 5
1902-1903

Economics 5. 1hf. Mr. Meyer. — Railways and other Public Works under Public and Corporate Management.

Total 60: 1 Gr., 30 Se., 14 Ju., 5 So., 1 Fr., 9 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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ECONOMICS 5
Mid-year Examination
1902-1903

Give one hour to question 1

  1. If the Act to Regulate Commerce has been enacted at the close of the Civil War, and if it had been interpreted and enforced in the spirit in which the Interstate Commerce Commission has interpreted it, what, in your opinion, would have been the effect upon the development of the resources of the United States; and what would be the present position of affairs as to local discriminations and personal discriminations? Indicate briefly the facts upon which you base your opinion, but do not recite the details of those facts.
  2. If you were asked to ascertain with what efficiency and reasonableness of charges the railways of a country were serving that country, what information should you seek to obtain?
  3. What facts, and what statistics should you use, were you asked to discuss the question whether the “basing-point” system concentrates trade and population?
  4. Among the dicta of the Interstate Commerce Commission is this one, that the railways have no right to drive out of business the vessels upon the rivers. Discuss the soundness of this dictum, basing your discussion upon the experience of several countries.
  5. The Northern Pacific Railroad Co. charges 65 cents per 100 Ibs. for carrying Pacific slope sugar from the Pacific slope to St. Paul. That charge is fixed by the lake and rail route which carries Atlantic sea-board sugar from the Atlantic sea-board to St. Paul. The N. P. R. Co. charges 97 cents per 100 lbs. for carrying sugar from the Pacific slope to Fargo, which is 240 miles west of St. Paul, on the direct line between the Pacific slope and St. Paul. It also charges 32 cents per 100 lbs. for carrying sugar from St. Paul to Fargo.
    The distance from New York to St. Paul is 1373 miles; from San Francisco to St. Paul, 2300 miles. The charge of 97 cents from San Francisco to Fargo is reasonable per se.
    The San Francisco output of refined sugar is 140,000 tons to 150,000 a year; and of that output, between 30,000 tons and 40,000 are sold to St. Paul, the balance being sold to points upon the Pacific slope and points in the mountain districts between the Pacific slope and St. Paul.
    M. Raworth, a wholesale grocer at Fargo, complains that the rates charged by the N. P. R. Co. are in violation of Clause 4 of the Act to Regulate Commerce.
    What, in your opinion, would be (1) the decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission; (2) the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States?
    Base your opinion upon decisions made respectively by the Commission and the Supreme Court.
  6. State the conditions under which the Interstate Commerce Commission said that certain cuts in the rates on “grain for export” were “a gratuitous gift to the foreigner”; and criticize the reasoning with which the Commission sought to support its position.
  7. When it was suggested in England that the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas be constituted a railway tribunal, Lord Campbell, afterward Lord Chancellor, in behalf of his associates declined the responsibility, saying: “This is not a code which the judges can interpret, it leaves them altogether to exercise their discretion as to what they may deem reasonable. They are, besides, to form a just judgment on all matters of complaint relating to railway management that may come before them, and they are to lay down a code of regulation for the government of railway companies. The judges, himself among the number, feel themselves incompetent to decide on these matters. He had spent a good part of his life in studying the laws of his country, but, he confessed, he was wholly unacquainted with railway management, as well as the transit of goods by boat. He knew not how to determine what is a reasonable rate…”
    What judicial opinion does this quotation recall to your mind; and what is the significance of that opinion?
  8. A recent Siberian Census revealed the fac that there were large and fertile regions in Siberia in which the farmers cultivated, on an average, sixteen acres of land. The farmers in question had emigrated from European Russia in the seventies. What do you presume to be the reasons for that state of affairs?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).
Also included in: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).

Image Source: A newspaper sketch of Hugo Richard Meyer from 1905 reproduced in Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Chicago Curriculum Statistics

Chicago. Report of the Committee on Mathematical Statistics. Henry Schultz, 1938

Henry Schultz

 

The following report on the work of the Committee on Mathematical Statistics by economics professor Henry Schultz to President Robert M. Hutchins of the University of Chicago was written shortly before he left Chicago to go on sabbatical leave at the University of California at Los Angeles. Schultz had just published his magnum opus, The Theory and Measurement of Demand, earlier that Spring. 

Henry Schultz, his wife and both daughters tragically died November 26, 1938 in a horrific automobile accident about sixty miles east of San Diego on U.S. highway 80, near Laguna Junction. 

_____________________________

The University of Chicago
Department of Economics

Aug. 6, 1938

President Robert M. Hutchins,
University of Chicago.

Dear Mr. Hutchins:

            The Committee on Mathematical Statistics, which was organized on March 6, 1936, and which began to work in the Autumn Quarter of 1936, completed its first series of courses in the Spring Quarter of 1938. It is, therefore, appropriate that I give a brief report of our activities.

            During the last two years the Committee gave six courses in which there were enrolled a total of 104 students from seven different departments. The courses and the professors in charge were:

Course

Professor
Statistics 301—Survey of Mathematical Statistics I.
The Elements (Autumn 1936)
1 Major		 Thurstone
Statistics 302—Survey of Mathematical Statistics II.
Probability and Least Squares (Winter 1937)
1 Major		 Bartky
Statistics 301—Survey of Mathematical Statistics I.
The Elements (Autumn 1937)
1 Major		 Bartky
Statistics 302—Survey of Mathematical Statistics II.
Probability and Least Squares (Winter 1937)
1 Major		 Bartky
Statistics 311—Correlation and Curve-fitting
(Winter 1937)
2 Majors		 Schultz
Statistics 312—Probability, Sampling, and Frequency Distributions
(Spring 1938)
2 Majors		 Schultz and Bartky

            The courses given did not, and were not intended to, avoid such duplication as may exist in the teaching of statistics on the campus. As is clearly stated in the Committee’s announcement, the instruction for which this Committee takes a co-ordinating responsibility is intended for those who have the conventional courses in analytic geometry and in the differential and integral calculus as well as a good introductory course in statistics, preferably one given in the Department in which the student intends to do his major work.

It is this policy of the Committee which is the source of its strength and of its weakness. It is a source of strength, because the prerequisite of a course in statistics in the Department in which the student intends to do his major work, has made it clear to the various Departments that the Committee was not interfering with the courses in elementary statistics given by them and has secured for it the good will of the statisticians on the campus. The policy is also a source of weakness, because it makes the Committee dependent on the various Departments for students and for providing them with the necessary prerequisites. Unless a Department is liberal in granting credits to its students for courses taken with the Committee the student cannot, as a rule, afford to take the entire sequence of courses offered.

This is probably the most important factor in the requests which we have received for a separate degree in statistics. We believe, however that the time is not yet ripe for a serious consideration of this question. In the first place, there are no positions for “pure statisticians” except to teach other “pure statisticians,” i.e., mathematicians. The demand is generally for a statistically trained biologist, psychologist, or economist but not for a ”pure” mathematical statistician. The situation in this respect is, however, likely to change.

In the second place, we are not prepared to grant degrees even if we wished to, and had the authority of the three members constituting this Committee, one is primarily an economist, the other is primarily a psychologist, and the third is primarily a mathematical astronomer.

            The economist and the psychologist have so much to do in their respective fields that they will be compelled, before long, to give up the attempt to keep in intimate touch with the very rapid developments in probability and mathematical statistics. This would leave only one person, Professor Bartky who could be counted upon to follow the developments in mathematical statistics and probability and do research in this field. What we need, therefore, ls at least one additional mathematician who has the ability and is qualified by training and experience to make the field of statistical inference his life work, and who is also at home in at least one empirical science. We believe that Professor S. S. Wilks of Princeton University comes close to meeting excellently all these requirements. We recommend that you look into his qualifications for work on this Committee and for consultation with the various statisticians on matters falling within his field of competence.

            The field of statistical inference is expanding at a very rapid rate. The University of California, Iowa State College, the University of Iowa, Princeton University, George Washington University, and other institutions have recently appointed men to develop their work in statistics. If the University of Chicago is to continue to do distinguished work in this field it will have to attract the most promising men it can find and to provide them with favorable conditions for their creative activities.

            The Committee requests that a sum of $300 be appropriated to it for the part-time services of a qualified graduate student to assist in the preparation of lecture and text materials. This sum requested is to supplement that obtained for mimeographing from the Social Science Division. It is understood that the money will not be used unless a qualified person can be obtained for the work.

Sincerely yours,

[signed]
Henry Schultz, Chairman,
Committee on Mathematical Statistics.

HS DH

_____________________________

Carbon Copy of President Hutchins Reply

September 9, 1938

Dear Mr. Schultz:

            I have read with much interest your report of August 6 on the first series of courses given by the Committee on Mathematical Statistics. The Committee is to be congratulated on the splendid progress which has been made.

            The financial aspect of this matter will have to be deferred until preparation of the budget for the year 1939-40. Your request for an appropriation for the part-time services of a graduate student to assist in the preparation of lecture and text materials will be considered at that time.

Sincerely yours,
ROBERT M. HUTCHINS

Professor Henry Schultz
404 Social Science Research Building
FACULTY EXCHANGE

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the Presdient. Hutchins Administration. Records. Box 283, Folder10, “Economics”.