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Harvard, Boston University & Berlin. Career of alumnus Edward Everett Ayers

 

From the E.R.A. Seligman papers at Columbia I came across an unsolicited application for employment in economics and sociology submitted to the President of Columbia University by a man who received his A.M. from Harvard and a pair of doctorates from Boston University and the University of Berlin (I suspect the dissertation did double duty since both degrees were apparently awarded in 1901, but have not checked that out). Edward E. Ayers turns out to be a nice example of the mixture of economics, sociology and social reform that was found in economics departments around the turn of the 20th century. Before getting to the document-artifacts found in the Seligman papers, I have included information about Ayers’ life and career and a review of his German doctoral dissertation. The post ends with course descriptions for Ayres’ non-Biblical teaching at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. 

From his yearbook portrait for Greensboro College (The Echo) 1927 we see that Edward E. Ayers appears to have switched into Religious Education and entirely dropped economics/sociology/social reform at the end of his teaching career.

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Rev Edward Everett Ayers

Bio by: David Ayers

BIRTH:           16 Jul 1865. Egypt, Belmont County, Ohio, USA

DEATH:         20 Apr 1939 (aged 73). Lynchburg, Lynchburg City, Virginia, USA

BURIAL:        Fort Hill Memorial Park, Lynchburg, Lynchburg City, Virginia, USA

 

Edward Everett Ayers was the 9th of 14 children of Philander and Nancy (Eagon) Ayers. He grew up on their farm in Kirkwood Twp, Belmont Cty, Ohio.

Despite these humble beginnings he obtained an amazing education – B.C.S. from Mount Union College in Ohio in 1891 and then a Ph.B. from the same institution a year later, a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Boston University in 1896, then an A.M. from Harvard University in 1898, then separate Ph.D.s from both the University of Berlin (Germany) and Boston University in 1901. He published a small book on worker’s insurance and care for the poor, in German, in 1901. He also studied at Andover Theological Seminary from 1901-1903.

In the midst of all that he served 4 churches in and around Boston, MA between 1894 and 1908 as a Methodist Episcopal clergyman.

He married Caroline Eleanor Elder in Boston in 1899.

He then obtained another degree — S.T.D. – from Mount Union College in 1908.

In 1908 he secured a faculty position at Randolph Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, and remained there until 1925. He was Professor of Sociology and Bible. The later-famous Pearl Buck graduated from there in 1914, and given her interests and the size of the college he almost certainly had her as a student. He then accepted a faculty position at Greensboro Women’s College in 1926, staying there until he retired in 1936. He kept his home in Lynchburg during this time and it appears that his wife Caroline, stayed there. His daughter Virginia was in Wellesley College when he made this shift to Greensboro (1924-28). He appears in yearbooks for Greensboro Women’s College and appears to have been very well liked by students. He was certainly amazingly well-educated. Given his subject area, while he was studying in Berlin he almost certainly would have attended lectures by the great Georg Simmel.

 

Source: Memorial page for Rev. Edward Everett Ayers at the Find a Grave website. Includes pictures.

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Review of Ayres’ German dissertation

Arbeiterversicherung und Armenpflege. Von Edward E. Ayres, Ph.D. Berlin: E. Ebering, 1901.

Dr. Ayres belongs to an increasing number of young American clergymen who supplement their training in theology with a course in sociology. In selecting the above subject for his doctor’s thesis at Berlin he has appropriated one of the very choicest bits from the great social laboratory which the German states seem to have become. It appears that the German compulsory insurance — against sickness, accident, and old age — applies, in these different classes, to about 9,000,000, 16,500,000, and 12,000,000 of German working people, respectively. Dr. Willoughby, in his book on Workingmen’s Insurance, which appeared in 1898, explained the spirit and the letter of these experiments in paternalism, and now, after about twenty years of testing, it is time we were told something of the incidents, and it is to be  hoped that Dr. Ayres will turn his little book into English.

The chief thesis of the essay is that compulsory insurance has had a salutary influence upon conditions of dependency. This conclusion is reached after a study of the number of applicants for relief, for different periods, in a selected group of twenty-one towns, averaging in population about 40,000. The first discovery is that the number of cases of relief on account of sickness falling to women, who are less protected by the insurance, increased between 1880 and 1893 by about 20 per cent., while the population increased by nearly 50 per cent., and on account of sickness falling to men, who are more protected, there was an actual falling off in the number of cases. The showing is not quite so favorable in the class of relief on account of accident; but it is much more favorable in the class of relief on account of old age. The author’s conclusion is buttressed by a remarkable consensus of opinion, on the part of the administrators of the poor funds in the cities from which the figures are taken, that the burden of poor relief is greatly lightened as a result of measures of state insurance, and a number of them offer statistical reasons for their faith.

The general favorable view of the author is further strengthened by reports showing an increase of small savings-bank accounts, by different evidences of a higher standard of living, by the increased average annual income of insured persons from 641 marks in 1886 to 735 marks in 1898, and by a decline in emigration from 120,089 in 1891 to 20,837 m 1898.

The thesis certainly contains an interesting marshaling of pertinent coincidences, but in weighing the causal elements Germany’s phenomenal industrial awakening during the period studied should be considered, and this the author seems to neglect. Here he might shift his ground a trifle and say, “if insurance paternalism, as its enemies assert, leans in the direction of a slothful content (the future being cared for), it does not press sufficiently heavy to prevent the present era of industrial prosperity, and it has not proven to be as bad as some have prophesied.” But to say that “it was the cause of the industrial awakening” — not even Dr. Ayres would go that far. And that the industrial growth has been a factor in all the phenomena enumerated he would probably agree.

James H. Hamilton.
Syracuse University

 

Source: Review of Arbeiterversicherung und Armentpflege von Edward E. Ayres (Berlin, 1901) by James H. Hamilton in The American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 7, No. 2 (September 1901), pp. 281-282.

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Cover letter to President Butler
and Ayers’ c.v.

College Park, Lynchburg, Va.
Feb. 1, 1915.

Pres. N.M. Butler, LL.D.
New York

Dear Sir:-

Please find enclosed some personal testimonials of my preparation and work in economics and sociology. I would be very much pleased if you would keep these on file and, in case of a vacancy in this department of your institution, communicate with me.

Yours very truly,
[signed] Edward E. Ayers

* * *

            With a desire to make larger provision for my family I wish to be considered for any vacancy in the department of Economics or Sociology in your institution.

The following is a brief account of my education and experience: I spent five years in Mt. Union College, having received my preparatory education in the public schools of Ohio. In the college I completed the business course, the teacher’s course, and the philosophical course, and received the degrees C.S.B. and Ph.B. in 1892. Entering immediately upon a course of study in Boston University, I remained four years and completed a theological course, receiving the degree S.T.B. During my stay there I also took all the philosophy taught by Professor Borden P. Bowne and all of the economics and sociology offered in the University. In 1896 I entered Harvard University to specialize in sociology and remained there two years, and received the degree A.M. in 1898. Much of my time while in Boston University and Harvard was spent in a study of the practical social problems of Boston and vicinity. In 1899 I entered Berlin University, Germany, and spent two years in special work on sociology and economics under Professors Schmoller, Wagner, Sering and Von Halle. In connection with my university work I made excursions over Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France to study social questions and economic conditions. I took all the courses offered in agricultural economics, and with the professors made excursions out to the farms to study actual conditions. My early life until entering college was spent on a farm in Ohio. In 1901 I received the degree Ph.D. from Berlin. In the same year I also received Ph.D, from Boston University.

From 1901 to 1908 I spent in directing church work in the following cities or their suburbs: Lawrence, Mass., Boston and Springfield, Mass., at the same time continuing my work and interest in economics and social subjects.

In 1908 I received a call to Randolph-Macon Woman’s College of Lynchburg, Va., as head professor of the department of Bible and Sociology. My work has been a pleasure from the beginning. I am now offering courses in economics, money and banking, pathology, labor movement and socialism.

In 1908 I received the honorary degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology from my Alma Mater, Mt. Union College.

Trusting that I may hear from you, I am

Yours very sincerely,
[signed] Edward E. Ayers

[Note: testimonials have not been included here because they are not particularly informative]

Source:   Columbia University Archives. E.R.A. Seligman Collection. Box 98B [now in Box 36], Folder “Columbia, 1913-1917 (unarranged and incomplete)”.

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Faculty listing for E.E. Ayers at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College

Edward Everett Ayers, S.T.D.  Professor of Sociology and English Bible.

B.C.S., Mount Union College, 1891; Ph.B., 1892; S.T.B., Boston University, 1896; A.M., Harvard University, 1898; Ph.D., Boston University, 1901; Ph.D., University of Berlin, 1901; S.T.D., Mount Union College, 1908; Student, Andover Theological Seminary, 1901-03; Professor of Sociology and Bible, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, 1908—.

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Economics/Sociology Courses taught by Ayers at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College

SOCIOLOGY
Professor Ayers.

            Course 1. Introduction to Economics.— This course deals with the rise of modern industry and its expansion in the United States; production, distribution and consumption; value, price and the monetary system of the United States; tariff, labor movement, natural and legal monopolies; American railroads and trusts; economic reform; government expenditures and revenues; taxation and economic progress.

The last half of this course deals with the development of economic thought. This will include a brief survey of economic thought in classical antiquity and its development in Europe, England, and America. Mill, Turgot, Adam Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, and other writers will be considered.

The members of the class will be taken on tours of inspection through industrial institutions in and about Lynchburg.

Lectures, recitations, and discussions. Three hours a week throughout the year.

 

            Course 2. Introduction to Social Science.— This course deals with early social development, achievement, civilization, and the growth of modern social institutions; elimination of social evils; the social ideal; charities, compulsory insurance, and corrective legislation.

Particular problems of city and country life will be discussed. Students will be directed in personal investigation of social conditions in Lynchburg.

Prisons, almshouses, and other institutions will be studied. The aim of the course is to prepare students for social service.

One thesis is required of each student. Three hours a week throughout the year.

 

            Course 3. Socialism.— The purpose of this course is to acquaint the student with the various Utopian schemes of government in order to separate the transient from the permanent in political society. Some attention will be given to such writers as Plato, Fourier, Proudhon, Louis Blanc, Thomas More, and Edward Bellamy; but most of the time will be given to present socialistic theories and development. The nature, strength, and weakness of socialism will be considered; the golden mean of practical reform will be studied. Lectures, recitations, and discussions. One thesis will be required of each student. Three hours a week throughout the year.

 

            Course 4. The Labor Movement.— This course embraces a brief survey of the conditions of labor in the nations of antiquity and in mediaeval Europe. Most of the time will be given to modern labor movements in Europe, England, and America; the rise of labor organizations, strikes, boycotts, and injunctions, the sweating system, woman and child labor; wages, hours of labor, sanitary and safety devices. The labor of factories, farms, and stores will be studied to furnish concrete examples for the course. One thesis required of each student. Three hours a week throughout the year.

Any student taking two courses in sociology may be allowed to concentrate her work in writing one thesis instead of two.

 

Source: Randolph-Macon Woman’s College Catalogue 1913-1914 (Announcements 1914-1915), pp. 6, 61-2. Lynchburg, Virginia.

Image Source: Edward E. Ayres. Greensboro College. The Echo, 1927.

Categories
Courses Harvard Principles

Harvard. Report on the Recitation Sections of Principles of Economics, 1913-14

 

 

A member of the Department of Economics Visiting Committee, John Wells Morss, took it upon himself to sit in and observe classroom performance in the recitation sections of the Harvard Principles of Economics course during the Fall term of 1913-14. From the first paragraph of his report it would appear that the department of economics had invited him to provide a report to serve as a complementary (friendly?) assessment to the survey being (or to be) conducted by the Harvard Division of Education on teaching in the economics department. That Division of Education report was later published: The Teaching of Economics in Harvard University—A Report Presented by the Division of Education at the Request of the Department of Economics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1917. 

Morss’ report was passed along to President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard by the chairman of the department of economics, Charles Bullock, for-the-(positive)-record. While the report seems rather long-winded by today’s standards, it does provide us some good information, e.g. about the importance of the weekly questions discussed in the recitation sections. For a sample of the questions we are fortunate to have the published record.

Edmund Ezra Day and Joseph Stancliffe Davis. Questions on the Principles of Economics. New York: 1915.
“A few of the questions here presented are frankly borrowed from previously published collections…More of the questions have been drawn from a stock accumulated through several years in the hands of the instructing staff of the introductory course in Economics at Harvard University.” (p. vii)
The questions were arranged by topics to follow Taussig’s own textbook Principles of Economics (Second, revised edition of 1915: Volume One; Volume Two).

Another interesting takeaway is that Morss noted that over the four weeks that he attended sections, the average amount of assigned reading for these recitations was 33 pages per week from the Taussig textbook. This certainly seems modest from the perspective of today’s nominal reading lists but perhaps actually corresponds to the actual reading completed by the average undergraduate in an introductory or intermediate economics course.

Note: Since the following items come from the last folder from a box that contains the papers of President Lowell of 1909-14 and the month of February is significantly closer to the start than the end of the year, it seems likely that the date, “1913”, found in the typed date on Charles Bullock’s cover letter was mistaken and that both items transcribed below are from February 1914.

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Course Announcement and Description, 1913-14

[Economics] A. (formerly 1). Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11.

Professor Taussig and Asst. Professor Day, assisted by Messrs. Burbank, J. S. Davis, R. E. Heilman, and others.

            Course A gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, international trade, and taxation The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States will be treated in outline.

The course will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. course A may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

 

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1913-14, published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. X, No. 1, Part X (May 19, 1913) , p. 60.

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Course Enrollment, 1913-14

[Economics] A (formerly 1). Professor Taussig and Asst. Professor Day, assisted by Dr. J. S. Davis, and Messrs. P. G. Wright, Burbank, Eldred, and Vanderblue.—Principles of Economics.

Total, 494: 1 Graduate, 1 Business School, 13 Seniors, 129 Juniors, 280 Sophomores, 24 Freshmen. 46 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1913-1914, p. 54.

 

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Examination Questions for Economics A, 1913-14

Mid-year and Year-end final exams for 1913-14 for Economics A have been transcribed and posted earlier. 

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Cover letter from Professor Bullock (Economics)
to President Lowell

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 20, 1913 [sic].

Dear Mr. Lowell:

Mr. John Wells Morss of our Visiting Committee has recently completed a very thoro investigation of the work done in the sections of Economics A. I enclose herewith a copy of the Report, which I think, will be of great interest to you. Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of an hour’s conference with Mr. Morss, in which he told me somewhat more fully about this investigation; and I think it may be worth your while to confer with him upon the subject.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
C. J. Bullock.

__________________

Harvard University

THE SECTION MEETINGS OF ECONOMICS A

Notes by John Wells Morss
February, 1914.

When an amateur attempts to pass upon the work of professionals, a knowledge of his point of view is essential to one who would consider his conclusions. It therefore seems fitting to state that I was invited by the Department of Economics to make an examination of some of its work not because I was expected to reach results comparable to those expected from the examination now being conducted by the Department of Education, but because, as my invitation expressed it, the Department of Economics believed it “important to secure the opinion of some one who represents a different point of view, and brings to the work of inspection the experience of a man of business rather than of a student of education”. I have limited my examination to the work of the section meetings of the Economics Department, and shall limit this report to the work of the section meetings of Economics A, as that course has a large majority of the section meetings of the Department, and to consider them only greatly simplifies what I have to say. I have not compared my results with those of the Department of Education, and I have sought but little to obtain the views of those who conduct the section meetings as to their problems and difficulties lest they overwhelm my own observation.

Economics A, the introductory course to the subject most popular in Harvard College, has an enrollment of students this year of about five hundred and twenty-five. On Saturdays a lecture is delivered to the students in a body in the New Lecture Hall. On two other days of the week each student attends a meeting of the section to which he is assigned. There are twenty-one sections, each with a membership of about twenty-five. They are conducted by five instructors and Assistant Professor Day, all of whom will be referred to as the instructors. Twenty minutes or more of the one hundred minutes given weekly to the section meetings are devoted to writing an answer to a question set by the instructor. As twenty-one section meetings cannot be held at once, the same question cannot be put to all the students of the course; but the six different questions, prepared at a conference of the instructors, are all designed to serve the same purpose of testing the students’ knowledge and comprehension of recent work. I have not attempted to judge either questions or answers, but their usefulness seems to me to be unquestionable. After the answer is written the rest of the two meetings is devoted to a quiz with explanations and discussions based on the required reading which is usually from twenty to fifty pages of Prof. Taussig’s “Principles of Economics”. It is to this part of the work that I have given the most of my attention.

The attendance has been excellent at all the meetings at which I have been present. The maximum number of absences in a section of twenty-five does not ordinarily exceed two. One section had but five absences in six successive meetings beginning in the second week of the fall term. This record may not be equaled at meetings close to holidays and other special occasions, but on the whole the attendance is surprisingly good.

The preparation of the students is stimulated and tested by the questions asked of them by the instructor. So generally did it appear that substantially all the students of a section were called upon in an hour that I ceased after a time to attend to the point, though it seems plain that care should be used not to miss sluggish students assigned to seats in the back of the room. How generally the required reading had been done it was difficult to judge. Perhaps on the average three or four at each meeting answered that they were not prepared. At one meeting near the end of the year in another course than Economics A the preparation had been widely neglected, but that was a single case in my experience, and on the whole it seems that success is attained in the attempt to cause the students to work throughout the year with reasonable regularity.

The attention of the students seemed also satisfactory. Nobody went to sleep and apparently very few were near it. I saw no carving of the desks, though many results of such handiwork are visible. A half dozen raised hands would often indicate a strong desire to answer a question or join in the discussion. A considerable number of questions were asked in the class, some showing thought above the realization of ignorance. At some meetings a few students asked questions after the class, though the total number of those so doing was rather disappointing, considering the theoretical and stimulating nature of the subject.

The quality of the thinking done by the students did not seem to equal their attention. That they should show a lack of practical knowledge and of well considered opinions was to be expected in an elementary course; but they showed a striking incapacity for the simplest mental arithmetic, and on one occasion but few, if any, of them had had the curiosity, when studying the different kinds of currency, to look at the bills in their own pockets. And there was frequently illustrated the difference in result between reading and hard study. Often their ideas seemed hazy and too often a whole class seemed unable to answer a question adequately explained in the text. In other words, one who seeks the thoroughness required of a man is disappointed as is also he who expects to find among these students the indifference of an idle boy. When however one remembers that the average student of an elementary course in college is neither boy nor man, but in progress of development from one to the other, one is reasonably satisfied with the attitude and work of the students, and with their response to what is done for them.

In one particular however it seems that special effort should be made to improve the work of the students. In all the section meetings I attended comparatively few notes were taken. A reason may be that it is difficult to take notes of a running discussion; but the results of the discussions are often summarized by the instructor, and nobody can really take notes who can only report a slowly delivered lecture. Moreover in one case apparently not a single member of a section copied from the blackboard figures excellently illustrating the working of a clearing house. I for one should be glad to see lectures delivered to all the students of the College explaining the importance of note taking, and suggesting various practical methods. Further I would have the instructors of this course informally supplement such lectures from time to time by encouraging good note taking.

When the work of the instructor of a section meeting is considered, it is necessary early to realize that one of the most serious limitations under which he works is that of time. The maximum time available weekly for discussion in the section meetings is a short eighty minutes. The average number of pages assigned to be read in four successive weeks was thirty-three, and an experiment showed that it takes three minutes to read aloud one of those pages very rapidly. In other words there are but eighty minutes to discuss a text which cannot be read rapidly in less than one hundred minutes, and which is usually condensed in statement, closely reasoned and in many points debatable. There has therefore arisen a demand for an additional section meeting. This does not appeal to me. Economics A is a course which should be taken by every student in the College, and it should not require an exceptional amount of time from its students lest the number of them taking it be thereby limited. Moreover an additional fifty minutes would not solve the problem; the cry for still another hour would inevitably follow.

The work of the instructor is also rendered difficult by the exceptional nature of the course itself. Economics A is not only an introductory course, but is also the only course in Economics taken by a large proportion of its members. It embraces a great number of topics, each as a rule involving difficult questions of theory and based on a great variety of facts. The amount of ground to be covered is so great that of most topics only a cursory view can be had. It is impossible to pursue to any considerable extent the method of teaching by asking questions introduced into the Law School by Prof. Langdell. With that method, at least in the first year, but little ground can be covered, the facts must be few and certain, and the students either trained to reason closely or ambitious to become so trained. In Economics A the students are two or three years younger than in the Law School, and the facts and principles involved in a simple economic problem are generally of much greater complexity than those contained in the printed report of a law case. Moreover it is a rare person who does not believe that his general knowledge of economics questions is valuable. Therefore the attempt to teach elementary economics by questioning usually leads into a maze of disputed facts. Frequently therefore the instructor can ask questions only until the points are developed and then must make a statement relative to the matter under discussion. These statements are necessary and save much time, but one wonders occasionally if they are fully understood by the students, and whether a question or two after the statement would not furnish a useful test.

The variety, and to some extent the inconsistency, of the objects sought to be accomplished in the section meetings is another difficulty of the instructor. He seems called upon to see that his students do steady work; to check that work for deficiencies; to emphasize the more important, and explain the more difficult parts of a difficult subject; to stimulate intellectual interest and develop good mental habits; and, so far as time allows, to add to the contribution of others further facts and principles. In other words he must be a drill sergeant, an efficient and inspiring teacher, and an authority overflowing with his subject. An illustration of the problems caused by this diversity of objects presents itself when we consider whether it is better to ask single questions of one student after another, or to ask a considerable number of questions of one student before calling on another. If the latter course is followed, the subject can be more thoroughly and consistently developed, and the questioned student better tested and aroused. But then the poorer members of the class may fail to follow the line of questioning or may even regard the considerable time given to one man as an opportunity mentally to go to sleep. A rattling fire of single questions keeps the whole class wide awake.

An observer who has come to realize some of the difficulties of conducting a section meeting, and has seen different methods pursued by different instructors, is tempted to theorize and to select the methods which he thinks he would adopt if he were himself conducting a meeting. He would call upon his students in an order which they could not forsee, and would call on each one of them at least weekly to test his reading of the text. He would use the single question when the simplicity of the subject matter encouraged it, or the class seemed dull, and would seek the opportunity to develop with one student a more complicated problem by a series of questions. He would realize that the limitation of time made it necessary not to attempt to cover in the class all the ground covered by the text, but to plan carefully what topics should be touched upon and the amount of time to be given to each of them, even if his intention was not to hold rigidly to his plan, but to meet the needs of his class as it developed in the meeting. He would try to present in some measure of scale the most important points, although saving time on those which could not fail to be seized by the students because of their relative simplicity or general popular interest. In such an introductory course he would tend to emphasize reasons rather than conclusions, and theory rather than facts, although he would welcome an opportunity to explain and illustrate the actual working in detail of practical affairs. He would as a rule follow the opinions of the text and not complicate a problem by introducing too often his own opinions or those of other authorities; nor would he expect himself largely to contribute additional material to the discussion; yet he would avoid frequent references to the text by name, but endeavor to have a proposition rest not on the authority of the writer but on its own reasonableness. Realizing that a problem is half solved when the definitions of its terms are accurately determined, he would emphasize the importance of the exact meaning of words, and would not infrequently write on the blackboard a list of significant words and phrases as an outline for the work of the meeting.

But even if a method could be determined upon which would be better than any other, its creator would still be far from his goal. The very perfection of the method of one instructor may cause his class to bow to it and hardly ask a question, while the apparent deficiencies of another’s method seems to stimulate his class to ask questions until the ground is well covered. Again a method highly successful with one teacher cannot be effectively pursued by another; and the needs of the students, even of the students of the same section, vary greatly from time to time. Moreover almost every conclusion embodied in a method is a resultant of conflicting considerations and its application is a question of degree. One therefore is here led to an opinion often reached before in similar cases that good teaching is primarily a matter not of method, but of judgment, energy and skill in the teacher.

In studying the characteristics of the instructors of Economics A, one first notes that they are men of very diverse temperaments, experience and methods. So different are they that when I learned that they had a weekly meeting I thought that they might greatly help each other by consultation about their common work, especially as most of them obtain in in this course their first experience in teaching. I was distinctly disappointed when I learned that the object of their weekly meeting was mainly to prepare the questions for the written answer, rather than to consult about the next week’s teaching. Still much consultation, if attempted, might easily become formal or cramping, and it may be better that each should be left alone to work out his results, and that we should trust that freedom will continue to justify itself by its fruits. Whichever plan is followed, the probability that there will occasionally be employed an instructor of inferior quality is sufficiently great to raise the question whether it would not be desirable to have each section taught by different instructors in the first and second half years. This would guarantee to each section at least a half year’s good instruction, and in addition would give to the students the advantage of two methods and two points of view.

In conclusion I am happy to be able to report that in my opinion the instructors of the section meetings of Economics A, with all their differences, are men of an exceptionally high average of ability and earnestness, and that their instruction is notably good,–much better than I had expected to find. The expenditure in the past few years of additional money to better the grade of these instructors has been justified by results, and those responsible for it are entitled to congratulations.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers 1909-1914, Box 14, Folder 404.

Image Source:  Wikimedia Commons photograph by Bill McLaughlin : Lowell Hall, originally called “New Lecture Hall”, Harvard University.

Categories
Courses Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Introductory Economics. Supplementary Readings, 1938-39

 

 

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…Economics A is required for admittance into every advanced course, although there are a few which allow it to be taken at the same time. It is by no means too difficult for Freshmen, may be taken by them with the consent of the instructor, and concentrators urge all Freshmen who think they may go into the field to take this course during their first year. This will enable them to begin taking advanced courses their Sophomore year, as History and Government concentrators do, and thereby allow a much wider range of study during their last two years, both in courses and in tutorial. History 1 and Government 1 are both required for concentration in Economics. The former should be taken Freshman year….

Source: Articles on Fields of Concentration Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938.

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SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS FOR ECONOMICS A
Harvard University
1938-39

This bibliography has been prepared by members of the Economics A staff to supplement the assigned reading on the subject matter of the course. A division has been made in the reading: Part A listings are works and selections of a more general character, while those of Part B include more specialized or more advanced material. Students will also find the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences a valuable source of information on the various topics.

Introduction and Historical Background.

A

Johnson, E. A. J., Some Origins of the Modern Economic World.

Kaempfert, W., A Popular History of American Inventions (2 vols.).

Kirkland, E. C., A History of American Life, pp. 246-339.

Lipson, E., The Economic History of England, Vol. I, pp. 347-390.

Lynd, R. and H., Middletown; and Middletown in Transition.

Mantoux, P. The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 193-346.

Myers, G., History of Great American Fortunes.

See, Henri, Modern Capitalism.

Usher, A. P., The Industrial History of England, pp. 314-366.

Warshow, H. T., Representative Industries in the United States.

B

Bober, M. M., Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History.

Cole, A. H., The American Wool Manufacture, pp. 86-136, 219-244.

Fraser, C.E., and Doriot, G. F., Analyzing Our Industries.

Kautsky, Karl, The Class Struggle, pp. 7-87.

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

 

II. Institutions.

A

Adams, C. F., Chapters on the Erie.

Arnold, T., Folklore of Capitalism.

Berle, A., and Means, G. C., The Modern Corporation and Private Property.

Hunt, B., History of Joint-Stock Corporation in England.

Laski, H. J., Rise of Liberalism.

National Resources Committee, Recent Technical Changes.

Robinson, E. A. G., Structure of Competitive Industry.

Strachey, John, The Coming Struggle for Power.

B

Dewing, A. S., Corporation Finance.

Hammond, J. L., and B., Rise of Modern Industry.

Fortune Magazine, Nov. 1936, “The United States Steel Corporation.”

Steffens, L., Autobiography.

Tarbell, Ida, History of the Standard Oil Company.

Twentieth Century Fund, Big Business, Its Growth and Its Place.

 

III. Money, Banking and International Finance.

A

Bradford, F. A., Money and Banking.

Burgess, W. R., The Reserve Banks and the Money Market (1936 ed.).

Ely, R. T., Outlines of Economics.

Feaveryear, A. E., The Pound Sterling.

King, W. T. C., History of the London Discount Market.

Meade, J. E., An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy, Parts I and V.

Meyers, M. G., The New York Money Market.

Moulton, H. G., The Financial Organization of Society.

Robertson, D. H., Money.

White, H., Money and Banking (Historical Sections)

B

Catterall, R. C. H., The Second Bank of the United States.

Currie, L., The Supply and Control of Money in the United States.

Federal Reserve Bulletins and Annual Reports.

Gayer, Arthur, Monetary Policy and Economic Stabilisation;  Lessons in Monetary Experience.

Hawtrey, R. G., The Art of Central Banking.

Keynes, J. M., A Treatise on Money, Vol. I, Chs. 2, 9-14.

 

IV. Value Theory.

A

Burns, A. R., The Decline of Competition, Chs. I, III, V, VIII.

Gray, Alexander, Development of Economic Doctrine.

Henderson, H. D., Supply and Demand, Chs. I-V.

Marshall, A., Principles of Economics, Book I, Chs. I, II, III; Book IV, Chs. III, XIII; Book V, Chs. III, V.

Meade, J. E., Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy, Part II, Chs. I-IV.

B

Cassels, John, “Law of Variable Proportions,” Explorations in Economics, pp. 223-236.

Chamberlin, E., Theory of Monopolistic Competition.

Crum, Leonard, Rudimentary Mathematics for Economists and Statisticians (Quarterly Journal of Economics Supplement, May, 1938).

Keynes, J. M., “Alfred Marshall 1842-1924, “ Memorial of Alfred Marshall, A. C. Pigou editor, pp. 1-66.

Mill, J. S., Autobiography.

Robbins, Lionel, The Nature and Significance of Economic Science.

Robinson, Joan. Economics of Imperfect Competition, pp. 1-92.

Smith, Adam, Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chs. I-III.

 

V. Price Policy and Public Authority.

A

Black, J. D., Agricultural Reform in the United States.

Dennison, H. S., and Galbraith, J. K., Modern Competition and Business Policy.

Ezekiel, M., and Bean, L. H., Economic Bases for the A.A.A.

Hamilton, Walton H., and Others, Price and Price Policies.

Jones, Eliot, Trust Problem in the United States.

Jones, Eliot, and Bigham, T. C., Principles of Public Utilities.

Locklin, D. P., Economics of Transportation.

Mosher, W. E., and Crawford, F. G., Public Utility Regulation.

Lyons, L. S., and Others, The National Recovery Administration.

Nourse, E. G., Davis, J. S., and Black, J. D., Three Years of the A.A.A.

President’s Committee on Industrial Analysis, Report on the N.R.A.

Ripley, W. Z., Main Street and Wall Street.

Seager, H. R., and Gulick, C. A., Jr., Trust and Corporation Problems.

Watkins, M. W., Industrial Combinations and Public Policy.

B

Bauer, J., and Gold, N., Public Utility Valuation.

Cabinet Committee on Cotton Textile Industry, Report, Senate Document 126, 74th Congress, 1st

Daugherty, C. R., de Chazeau, M. G., and Stratton, S. S., Economics of the Iron and Steel Industry.

Wallace, Donald, Market Control in the Aluminum Industry.

Watkins, M. W., Oil: Stabilization or Conservation.

 

VI. Wages and Population.

A

Adamic, Louis, Dynamite.

Brooks, R., When Labor Organizes.

Carver, T. N., Distribution of Wealth, Ch. IV.

Henderson, H. D., Supply and Demand, Ch. IX.

Hicks, J. R., Theory of Wages, Ch. I-V.

Malthus, Thomas, Principles of Population (2nd).

Marshall, Alfred, Principles of Economics.

Taussig, F. W., Principles of Economics, Vol. II, Chs. 47, 48.

Walsh, J. R., I.O., Industrial Unionism in Action.

Wright, H., Population.

B

Millis, H. A., and Montgomery, R. E., Labor Progress and Some Basic Labor Problems (3 vols.).

National Resources Board, Problems of a Changing Population.

Perlman, S., History of Trade Unionism in the United States, Part I.

Perlman, S., and Taft, P., History of Labor in the United States 1896-1932, especially Section 4.

Robertson, D. H., Economic Fragments, “Wage Grumbles.”

Webb, S., and B., History of Trade Unionism, Chs. 1, 2, 7, 8.

Witte, E. E., The Government in Labor Disputes, Chs. 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 13.

 

VII. Interest.

A

Fisher, Irving, Capital and Income, Chs. 1-6; Theory of Interest.

Henderson, H. D., Supply and Demand, Ch. VIII.

Taussig, F. W., Principles of Economics, Vol. II, Chs. 38-40.

B

Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen v., Positive Theory of Capital, Books 1, 2, 5, 6, 7.

Hansen, A. H., Full Recovery or Stagnation, Ch. 1 “Review of J. M. Kenyes’s General Theory etc.”

Keynes, J. M., General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, 13-17.

Schumpeter, J. A., The Theory of Economic Development.

Wicksell, Knut, Lectures on Political Economy, pp. 101-218.

 

VIII. Rent.

A

Carver, T. N., The Distribution of Wealth, Ch. V.

Fetter, F. A., Economic Principles, Vol. I, Part II, pp. 89-158.

George, Henry, Progress and Poverty.

Henderson, H. D., Supply and Demand, Ch. VI.

B

Marshall, Alfred, Principles of Economics, Book IV, Chs. 2, 3; Book V, Chs. 8-11; Book VI, Chs. 9, 10.

Monroe, A. E., Value and Income, Chs. V, VI, VII.

Ricardo, David, Principles of Political Economy, Chs. 2, 3; “Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock,” E. C. K. Gonner, Economic Essays by David Ricardo.

 

IX. Profits.

A

Berle, A., and Means, G. C., Modern Corporation and Private Property, Book IV.

Carver, T. N., Distribution of Wealth, Ch. 7.

Henderson, H. D., Supply and Demand, Ch. VII.

Marshall, Alfred, Principles of Economics (8th), Book VI, Ch. 8.

B

Gordon, R. A., “Enterprise, Profits, and the Modern Corporation,” Explorations in Economics.

Knight, Frank, Risk, Uncertainty and Profits, Chs. 2, 9, 10.

Schumpeter, J. A., Theory of Economic Development, Chs. I-IV.

Veblen, Thorstein, Theory of Business Enterprise.

 

X. International Trade and Tariff.

A

Beveridge, Sir Wm., Tariffs: The Case Examined.

Ellsworth, P., International Economics.

Hansen, Alvin H., Commission of Inquiry on Naitonal Policy in International Economic Relations.

Harrod, R. F., International Economics.

Killough, U. B., International Trade.

Salter, Sir Arthur, Recovery, the Second Effort.

Smith, A., Wealth of Nations, Book IV.

Taussig, F. W., Tariff History of the United States; Readings in International Trade and Tariff Problems; Some Aspects of the Tariff Question.

Wallace, Henry, America Must Choose.

Whale, B., International Trade.

B

Delle Donne, O., European Tariff Policies.

Haberler, Gottfried, The Theory of International Trade.

Macmillan Report, Addendum III (Keynes)

Ohlin, Bertil, Interregional and International Trade.

Page, T. W., Making the Tariff in the United States.

Ricardo, David, Principles of Political Economy, Chs. VII, XIX, XXII.

 

XI. Public Finance

A

Clark, J. M., The Economics of Planning Public Works.

Gayer, Arthur, Public Works in Prosperity and Depression.

Gayer, Hansen et al, “Recent Depression and Public Works and Taxation,” New Republic Supplement, Feb. 1938.

Keynes, J. M., Means to Prosperity.

Robinson, M. E., Public Finance.

B

Bullock, C. J., Readings in Public Finance.

Colwyn Report, Great Britain: Report of the Committee on National Debt and Taxation, 1927.

Fagan, Elmer, and Macy, C. W., Public Finance: Selected Readings.

Lutz, H. L., Public Finance (third edition)

National Industrial Conference Board, Cost of Government in the United States 1935-37.

Silverman, H. A., Its Incidence and Effects.

Stamp, Sir J., Fundamental Principles of Taxation (second edition)

Twentieth Century Fund, Facing the Tax Problem.

 

XII. Business Cycles and Social Reform.

A

Cole, G. D. H., Principles of Economic Planning.

Ely, R. T., Outlines of Economics, Ch. 17.

Fisher, Allan, Clash between Progress and Security.

Hansen, Alvin H., Economic Stabilization in an Unbalanced World.

Meade, J. E., Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy, Part I.

Mitchell, W. C., “Description of Cycle,” in Moulton, H. G., Financial Organization of Society.

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

Robbins, L., The Great Depression.

Simons, H., Positive Program for Laissez-faire.

Wooton, B., Plan or No Plan.

B

Clark, J. M., Strategic Factors in the Business Cycle.

Haberler, G., Prosperity and Depression.

Hansen, Alvin H., Full Recovery or Stagnation; Business Cycles.

Keynes, J. M., General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.

Pigou, A. C., Economics in Practice; Economics of Welfare.

Robinson, Joan, Introduction to the Theory of Employment.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “Econ. A”.

 

 

Categories
Courses Gender Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Economics Course Offerings, 1894-1900

 

Besides documenting the course offerings available to Radcliffe students at the end of the 19th century, the post today offers us relatively thick course descriptions of what were essentially identical to Harvard economics courses that I have not found for that period. Pre-Radliffe economics course offerings and the first actual Radcliffe courses for  1893-94 have been posted earlier.

____________________________________

1894-95
ECONOMICS.

(Primarily for Undergraduates.)

PROFESSOR CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. This course gave a general introduction to Economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who had not further time to give to the subject. It was designed also to give argumentative training by the careful discussion of principles and reasoning. The instruction was given by question and discussion. J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy formed the basis of the work. At intervals lectures were given which served to illustrate and supplement the class-room instruction. In connexion with the lectures, a course of reading was prescribed. The work of students was tested from time to time by examinations and other written work. — 13 students.

PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — The Elements of Economic History from the Middle Ages to Modern Times. The object of this course was to give a general view of the economic development of society from the Middle Ages to the present time. It dealt, among others, with the following topics: the manorial system and serfdom; the merchant gilds and mediaeval trade; the craft gilds and mediaeval industry; the commercial supremacy of the Italian and Hanseatic merchants; trade centres, and trade routes; the merchant adventurers and the great trading companies; the agrarian changes of the sixteenth century; domestic industry; the struggle of England with Holland and France for commercial supremacy; the beginning of modern finance; the progress of farming; the great inventions and the factory system. Attention was devoted chiefly to England, but that country was treated as illustrating the broader features of the economic evolution of the whole of western Europe. Arrived at the 17th century, it was shown how English conditions were modified by transference to America. The opportunity was taken, throughout the course, to introduce the students to the use of the original sources. — 6 students.

 

(For Graduates and Undergraduates.)

PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — Aristotle to Ricardo. — Economic Theory. This course traced the development of economic theory from its beginnings to Ricardo. It was treated partly by lectures and partly by the discussion of selections from leading writers. The more important chapters of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, of Malthus’s Essays on Population, and Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, were read by students, and discussed in the class-room; and an attempt was made to show the relation of the “classical economists ” to more recent economic speculation. — 8 students.

PROFESSOR CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of Modern State, and of its Social Functions. An introductory course in sociology, intended to give a comprehensive view of the structure and development of society in relation to some of the more characteristic ethical and industrial tendencies of the present day. The course began with a theoretical consideration of the relation of the individual to society and to the state, – with a view to pointing out some theoretical misconceptions and practical errors traceable to an illegitimate use of the fundamental analogies and metaphysical formulas found in Comte, Spencer, P. Leroy Beaulieu, Schaeffle, and other writers. The second part followed more in detail the ethical and economic growth of society. Beginning with the development of social instincts manifested in voluntary organization, it considered the genesis and theory of natural rights, the function of legislation, the sociological significance of the status of women and of the family and other institutions, – with a view to tracing the evolution of certain types of society based upon a more or less complete recognition of the social ideas already considered. The last part dealt with certain tendencies of the modern state, discussing especially the province and limits of state activity, with some comparison of the Anglo-Saxon and the continental theory and practice in regard to private initiative and state intervention in relation to public works, industrial development, philanthrophy, education, labor organization, and the like. Each student selected for special investigation some question closely related to the theoretical or practical aspects of the course; and a certain amount of systematic reading was expected. —  7 students.

PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — Economic Seminary. Here four graduate students investigated the present industrial organization of the U. S.; one giving particular attention to the Woollen and Cotton Industries of New England; a second to the Coal and Iron Industries of Pennsylvania; a third to the Petroleum business; and the fourth to the Labor movement, especially around Chicago.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1894-95, pp. 48-49.

____________________________________

1895-96
ECONOMICS.

(Primarily for Undergraduates.)

1. PROFESSOR CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. This course gave a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics. It was conducted mainly by questions and discussions, supplemented by lectures. Large parts of Mill’s Principles of Political Economy were read, as well as parts of other general books; while detailed reference was given for the reading on the application and illustration of economic principles. — 20 students.

 

(For Graduates and Undergraduates.)

10. PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. The object of this course was to give a general view of the economic development of society during the Middle Ages. It dealt, among others, with the following topics: the manorial system in its relation to mediaeval agriculture and to serfdom; the merchant gilds and the beginnings of town life and of trade; the craft gild and the gild-system of industry, compared with earlier and later forms: the commercial supremacy of the Hanseatic and Italian merchants; the trade routes of the Middle Ages and of the sixteenth century; the merchant adventurers and the great trading companies; the agrarian changes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the break-up of the mediaeval organization of social classes; the appearance of new manufactures and of domestic industry. Special attention was devoted to England, but that country was treated as illustrating the broader features of the economic evolution of the whole of western Europe. — 6 students.

21. PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — Economic Theory, from Adam Smith to the present time.- Selections from Adam Smith and Ricardo. — 8 students.

22. PROFESSOR MACVANE. — Economic Theory. Modern Writers. — 4 students.

3. PROFESSOR CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. This course began with a general survey of the structure and development of society; showing the changing elements of which a progressive society is composed, the forces which manifest themselves at different stages in the transition from primitive conditions to complex phases of civilized life, and the structural outlines upon which successive phases of social, political, and industrial organization proceed. Following this, was an examination of the historical aspects which this evolution has actually assumed: Primitive man, elementary forms of association, the various forms of family organization, and the contributions which family, clan and tribe have made to the constitution of more comprehensive, ethnical, and political groups; the functions of the State, the circumstances which determine types of political organization, the corresponding expansion of social consciousness, and the relative importance of military, economic, and ethical ideas at successive stages of civilization. There was careful consideration of the attempts to formulate physical and psychological laws of social growth; the relative importance of natural and of artificial selection in social development; the law of social survival; the dangers which threaten civilization; and the bearing of such general considerations upon the practical problems of vice, crime, poverty, pauperism, and upon mooted methods of social reform. The student was made acquainted with the main schools of sociological thought, and opportunity was given for a critical comparison of earlier phases of sociological theory with more recent contributions in Europe and the United States. Regular and systematic reading was required. Topics were assigned for special investigation in connection with practical or theoretical aspects of the course. — 4 students.

 

(Primarily for Graduates.)

20. PROFESSOR ASHLEY. — Seminary in Economics. One student continued her investigation into mediaeval land tenure, and another began an inquiry into the relations between Adam Smith and Turgot. — 2 students.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1895-96, pp. 46-47.

____________________________________

1896-97
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates: —

1. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. Principles of Political Economy. Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. 3 hours a week.

15 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 18.

 

For Graduates and Undergraduates: —

11. Professor ASHLEY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe (from1400). 2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 1 Undergraduate, 1 Special student. Total 4.

9. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. 3 hours a week.

1 Undergraduate, 4 Special students. Total 5.

3. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. Development of the Modern State and of its Social Functions. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 1 Undergraduate, 4 Special students. Total 6.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1896-97, p. 38.

____________________________________

1897-98
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates: —

1. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. Principles of Political Economy. Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 20 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 26.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates: —

11. Professor ASHLEY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe (from1400). 2 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 3 Special students. Total 4.

9. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 5.

3. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. Development of the Modern State and of its Social Functions. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 2 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

6. Dr. CALLENDER. — The Economic History of the United States. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 1 Undergraduate. Total 2.

22. Professor TAUSSIG. — Economic Theory. Half-course. 3 hours a week. 2d half-year.

3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

 

Primarily for Graduates: —

20. Professor ASHLEY. — Seminary in Economics. The Mediaeval History of certain English manors.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1897-98, pp. 38-39.

____________________________________

1898-99
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates: —

1. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — Outlines ofEconomics. Principles of olitical Economy. Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation. 3 hours a week.

16 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 20.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates: —

112. Dr. CUNNINGHAM. — The Industrial Revolution in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 11 Undergraduates, 7 Special students. Total 19.

6. Dr. CALLENDER. — The Economic History of the United States. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 6.

3. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. Development of the Modern State and of its Social Functions. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 2 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

9. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. 3 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 4 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 8.

 

Primarily for Graduates: —

20. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — Seminary in Economics.

1 Special student. Total 1

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1898-99, pp. 35-36.

 

____________________________________

1899-1900
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates: —

1. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS and Dr. JOHN CUMMINGS. — Outlines of Economics. — Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions and Financial Legislation. 3 hours a week.

27 Undergraduates, 4 Special Students. Total 31.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates: —

11. Professor ASHLEY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe and America (from 1600). 2 hours a week (and occasionally a third hour).

8 Graduates, 7 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 17.

6. Dr. CALLENDER. — The Economic History of the United States.2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 5 Undergraduates. Total 7.

3. Asst. Professor CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State and of its Social Functions. 3 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 6 Special students. Total 8.

 

Primarily for Graduates: —

**15. Professor ASHLEY. — The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. 2 hours a week.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

**20c1. Professor Taussig. The Tariff History of the United States.Thesis. Half-course. 1 hour a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1899-1900, pp. 42-43.

Image Source:  Library in Fay House, 1890s. Schlesinger Library. Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University Webpage.

Categories
Courses Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Harvard. Pre-Radcliffe economics instruction for women, 1879-1893

 

Before there was a Radcliffe College, there was  “A Society for the Private Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and other Instructors of Harvard College”. Below are excerpts mostly relating to political economy and economics courses from the fourteen reports that preceeded the official establishment of Radcliffe College in 1893/94. I have highlighted the economics references but definitely recommend reading the other text as well. For several years early on enrollments in economics were actually zero. By 1892 seventeen women were enrolled in the introductory economics course. The course descriptions get more detailed in the last half-dozen or so reports.

________________________

REPORT OF THE WORK OF THE FIRST YEAR.
[1879-80]

The Managers of the plan for the Private Collegiate Instruction for Women by Professors and other Instructors of Harvard College take pleasure in making the following Report to the supporters of the undertaking. Funds amounting to more than sixteen thousand dollars were subscribed, by a small number of persons payable at various times within four years from the beginning of the work, according to the needs of the Managers. The Report of the Treasurer, given below, shows the sums paid in, and the mode of their expenditure during the year. The movement was first brought to public notice by a circular issued February 22, 1879. The requisites for admission to the courses of instruction were published in a second circular, issued April 19, and the first examination was held at Cambridge, September 24-27, after which the classes began to receive instruction immediately. Twenty-seven ladies began the year, one of whom soon after left to study abroad, and another withdrew on account of the difficulty of coming to Cambridge regularly while living in another town. The remaining twenty-five continued through the year. At the examination four ladies were examined on a preparatory course the same as that required for admission to college, one on a course akin to that of the Women’s Examination and the remainder in one or more branches. Three began a regular course, the studies taken being the same as those of a first year’s course in college. Another began a four years’ course of advanced studies. The others were special students, of whom thirteen took one study, four took two, and four took four.

Of the different departments of study,

Greek was taken by 6;
Latin by 9;
Sanskrit by 1;
English by 5;
German by 5;
French by 6;
Philosophy by 4;
Political Economy by 6;
History by 4;
Music by 1;
Mathematics by 7;
Physics by 3;
Botany by 5.

 

In Greek, three read Lysias, Plato, and Homer with Mr. L. B. R. Briggs.

One studied Greek Composition and Written Translation with Mr. White.

Two read the Agamemnon and Eumenides of Aeschylus, and Thucydides with Mr Goodwin.

In Latin, five read Livy and the Odes of Horace with Mr. Hale.

Three studied Latin Composition and Translation at Sight with Mr. Gould.

Two read Pliny’s Letters and Tacitus with Mr. Lane.

In Sanskrit, one studied with Mr. Greenough.

In English, four studied Composition with Mr. Hill.

In German, four took the elementary course with Mr. Bartlett.

One studied German Composition and Oral Exercises, and German Literature from Luther to Lessing, with Mr. Sheldon.

Two studied Goethe and German Literature of the XIX. Century with Mr. Bartlett.

In French, three took Mr. Bôcher’s course in La Fontaine, Racine, Taine, and Alfred de Musset.

Two studied the Literature of the XIX. Century with Mr. Jacquinot.

In Philosophy, three studied Metaphysics and Logic with Mr. Palmer.

In Political Economy, six studied with Mr. [James Laurence] Laughlin.

In History, one studied the period of the Revival of Learning and the Reformation with Mr. Emerton.

Two studied the period of the French Revolution with Mr. Bendelari.

In Music, one studied Harmony and Counterpoint with Mr. Paine.

In Mathematics, two studied Solid Geometry, Plane Trigonometry, and Advanced Algebra with Mr. G. R. Briggs.

Three studied Analytical Geometry with Mr. Byerly.

Two studied the Differential and Integral Calculus with Mr. J. M. Peirce.

One received instruction from Mr. Benjamin Peirce in Quaternions.

In Physics, three studied Descriptive Physics, — Mechanics, Light, and Heat with Mr. Willson.

In Natural History, three received Laboratory Instruction in the Microscopic Anatomy, Physiology, and Development of Plants with Mr. Goodale.

Regular examinations were held in the middle and at the end of the year, which were passed by the students with credit.

Recitation rooms were rented in two private houses on Appian Way, and there was also provided a separate apartment for the convenience of students who need a place where they can spend the intervals between recitations. Here some of the instructors have left books of reference from time to time. The students have been encouraged to make free use of this room. Blackboards, tables, etc., have been provided for there citation rooms

During the year the Secretary has kept a list of the names of those private families in which students could find board and lodging. On this list only such names were recorded as were approved by the Managers.

There has been no difficulty in finding comfortable and suitable homes for those students who were not provided for by their friends.

 

There are now forty-two ladies in the following classes:—

In Greek, 4 classes, and 18 students.
In Latin, 4 classes, and 15 students.
In English, 2 classes, and 10 students.
In German, 3 classes, and 10 students.
In French, 1 class, and 2 students.
In Italian, 1 class, and 2 students.
In Philosophy, 2 classes, and 8 students.
In Pol. Econ’y, 1 class, and 1 student.
In History, 3 classes, and 8 students.
In Mathematics, 4 classes, and 10 students.
In Physics, 1 class, and 4 students.
In Botany, 1 class, and 2 students.
In Astronomy, 2 classes, and 3 students.

The twenty-nine classes are taught by seven Professors, four Assistant Professors and twelve Instructors.

Ten ladies are pursuing the regular course of four years. Of the remainder, twenty-one take one course, seven take two curses, and four take four courses.

ARTHUR GILMAN,
Secretary.

Cambridge, Nov. 10, 1880

 

Source: Private Collegiate Instruction for Women in Cambridge, Mass. Courses of Study for 1880-81, with Requisitions for Admission and Report of the First Year. Cambridge, Mass.: William H. Wheeler, 1880. Pages 12-15.

________________________

Courses of Study for the Year 1880-1881

Two hours of instruction a week will be given in all courses not otherwise designated.

VIII. POLITICAL ECONOMY.

  1. Principles of Political Economy. Financial Legislation of the United States. Mr. Laughlin

  2. Advanced Course. Cairnes’ Leading Principles of Political Economy. Blanqui’s History of Political Economy. Mr. Laughlin

 

Source: Private Collegiate Instruction for Women in Cambridge, Mass. Courses of Study for 1880-81, with Requisitions for Admission and Report of the First Year. Cambridge, Mass.: William H. Wheeler, 1880. Pages 3, 5.

________________________

 

WORK OF THE SECOND YEAR
[1880-81]

During the second year of the operation of the plan for the Private Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and other Instructors of Harvard College, forty-seven ladies were connected with the classes.

Numbers in the Classes.

The following table exhibits the numbers in the different classes: —

In Greek, 4 classes, and 21 students.
In Latin, 4 classes, and 17 students.
In English, 2 classes, and 9 students.
In German, 3 classes, and 11 students.
In French, 1 class, and 2 students.
In Italian, 1 class, and 2 students.
In Philosophy, 2 classes, and 9 students.
In Pol. Econ’y, 1 class, and 1 student.
In History, 3 classes, and 12 students.
In Mathematics, 4 classes, and 11 students.
In Physics, 1 class, and 5 students.
In Botany, 1 class, and 2 students.
In Astronomy, 2 classes, and 4 students.

 

The twenty-nine classes were taught by eight Professors, three Assistant-Professors and twelve Instructors of Harvard College, and the instruction given is a repetition of that of the College in the different departments.

 

Work in the Class Room.

There were four classes in Greek. Three ladies read in Aeschylus, Pindar and Aristotle with Mr. Goodwin.

Three studied Greek Composition and Written Translation at Sight with Mr. White.

Four read from Plato (Phaedo), Sophocles (Ajax) and Euripides (Medea) with Mr. Wheeler.

Ten read Plato’s Apology and Crito, and Homer’s Odyssey with Mr. Briggs.

The Latin classes were the following: – Mr. Lane had three in Pliny’s Letters, Horace, Plautus and Cicero.

Mr. J.H. Wheeler had three in Composition and Translation at Sight.

Mr. Greenough had three in Cicero’s Epistles, Terence and the Epistles of Horace.

Mr. Gould had nine in the Odes and Epodes of Horace, Cicero de Amicitia and Composition.

In English, Mr. Hill had four in Composition and five in Literature.

In German, Mr. Bartlett had three in Parzival and other mediaeval poems, and five in Elementary German.

Mr. Sheldon had three in the Romantic School, Lyric Poetry and the practice of writing German.

In French Mr. Jacquinot had two in the study of French Prose.

In Italian, two took the elementary course under Mr. Bendelari.

In Philosophy, Mr. Palmer had six in Metaphysics and Logic and three in the study of Locke, Berkeley and Hume.

In Political Economy, Mr. [James Laurence] Laughlin gave the advance course to one student who had begun the study the previous year.

In History, Mr. Emerton had three in the European History of the Middle Ages.

Mr. MacVane had one in the Mediaeval and Modern History of France and England, who had begun the previous year.

Mr. Young had eight in an Introduction to the Study of History. This was a course of lectures begun by Mr. Emerton, but resigned to Mr. Young on account of an unexpected pressure of other work.

In Mathematics, Mr. Peirce had one student in Quaternions.

Mr. Byerly had two in the Differential Calculus.

Mr. H.N. Wheeler had two in Analytic Geometry.

Mr. Briggs had six in Solid Geometry, Plan Trigonometry and Algebra.

In Physics, Mr. Willson had five in Descriptive Physics, — Mechanics, Light and Heat.

In Botany, Mr. Goodale had four in Laboratory Instruction in the Microscopic Anatomy, Physiology and Development of Plants.

In Astronomy, Mr. Waldo had two students in Descriptive and Practical Astronomy.

 

Readings and Lectures.

The Calendar of the University has been regularly posted upon our bulletin-board, and the students thus notified of the Lectures by the Professors, and the Readings from classical authors, to which they were privileged to go. A number of them have been present at the readings by Professor Child from Chaucer, at the lectures of Professor Lanman on the Veda, and at the Greek readings of Professors Goodwin, White, and Palmer, and of Mr. Dyer and Mr. Briggs. The performance of the Oedipus Tyrannus in Sanders Theatre was an extraordinary opportunity for becoming acquainted with a phase of Greek literature and life which was of as great advantage to the young ladies as to the students of the University.

 

Courses Offered but not Called For.

A comparison of the studies actually pursued by the young ladies and the electives offered in the circular at the beginning of the year shows that thirty-one courses of instruction, offered by twenty-three instructors, were not called for by actual students. Though some of the present students will take some of these courses at other stages of their progress, the comparison seems to indicate on the part of women seeking the higher education a tendency towards the traditional classical curriculum and not towards science, and that the preparatory schools offer advantages for obtaining a knowledge of French and Italian sufficient for most women. All the courses in Greek were taken.

The following list shows the courses not called for:—

LATIN. Latin Poetical Literature, Lectures on the Latin Poets. MR. SMITH. – Cicero, Lucretius and Seneca. MR. GOULD.

SANSKRIT and Comparative Philology. MR GREENOUGH.

ENGLISH. Milton. Lectures on English Literature. MR. PERRY. – Elocution. MR. TICKNOR.

GERMAN. Niebelungenlied or Gudrun. Selections from Goethe or Schiller. MR. LUTZ. — German Literature (Goethe, Schiller and Jean Paul). DR. HEDGE.

FRENCH. Elementary Course. French Prose. MR. JACQUINOT. – Romance Philology. MR. SHELDON and MR. BENDELARI.

ITALIAN. Elementary Course. MR. BENDELARI. — Dante. MR. NORTON.

SPANISH. Course by MR. BENDELARI.

PHILOSOPHY. Psychology. DR. JAMES. – German Philosophy (Critical Study of Kant, Hegel or Schopenhauer). DR. EVERETT. – Ethics. DR. PEABODY. – Advanced Logic. DR. PEABODY.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. Principles. Financial Legislation of the United States. MR. [James Laurence] LAUGHLIN.

HISTORY. The French Revolution. MR. BENDELARI. – The First Ten Christian Centuries or Catholic Civilization of the Middle Ages. Mr. ALLEN.

MUSIC. Harmony and Counterpoint. History of Music. The Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and their successors. (Three distinct courses.) MR. PAINE.

MATHEMATICS. Cosmical Physics. Prof. BENJAMIN PEIRCE.

PHYSICS. Experimental Physics. (Mayer’s Treatise on Light and Sound.) MR. TROWBRIDGE.

MINERALOGY. Crystallography. Mineralogy. MR. MELVILLE.

NATURAL HISTORY. Physical Geography, Structural Geology and Meteorology. MR. DAVIS. – Elementary Botany. Under direction of MR. GOODALE. – Zoology. Lectures by MR. MARK. – Laboratory Work in the Anatomy and Histology of Animals. MR. MARK

[…]

The Future.

The Managers do not make prognostications regarding the future. Their simple purpose from the beginning has been to try the experiment of offering to women advantages that had previously been given to men only. They have in no way endeavored to attract students, but have merely proposed to supply the demands made upon them by duplicating the courses of instruction given in the College. Their success has been beyond their expectations. They have proved that there exists in the community a class of women capable of taking this grade of instruction, and requiring it. The co-operation of the Instructors of the College has been so cheerfully rendered and their work so carefully done that nothing is left to be desired in that direction.

The students have conducted themselves in a manner so exemplary and in all respects satisfactory, notwithstanding the almost entire freedom to which they have been left, that they have rendered the work of both Managers and Instructors pleasant, and have prepared the public to support the movement with heartiness.

The preparatory schools find that there is an increase in the number of young women taking the classical course, and they will soon become more effectual feeders to our classes. The prospect seems to be that the number of students entering for the course of four years will regularly increase, but a rapid augmentation of numbers can hardly be expected.

The Managers raised funds at the beginning of their work, sufficient, in their opinion, to carry it forward four years. Two of those have passed and the funds have not been drawn upon to so great an extent as was anticipated. It may be that the work can be continued for six years, but at the end of that time the Managers will consider that their work has been accomplished.

If, at that time, it appears that it is desirable to make the work permanent, the responsibility will be laid upon the public. Large funds will be required, and the Managers doubt not that they will be contributed.

The endowment at Cambridge of an Institution for Women of the high grade that the Managers have in view would be an honor to women, and women will be found ready to make it sure.

ARTHUR GILMAN.
Secretary

Cambridge, Mass.
December 10, 1881.

 

Source: Private Collegiate Instruction for Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Second Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary. Cambridge, Mass.: William H. Wheeler, 1881. Pages 3-6, 10.

________________________

THE SOCIETY FOR THE COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION OF WOMEN.
THIRD YEAR.
[1881-82]

The year that has just closed marks an era in the history of the instruction of women by the Professors and other Instructors of Harvard College, for during it the. Managers have obtained a Charter under the seal of the State of Massachusetts, and a legal name, “The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women.”

The Charter states the objects of the organization to be to promote the education of women with the assistance of the Instructors in, Harvard University, “and for this purpose it empowers the Society to “employ teachers, furnish instruction, give aid to deserving students, procure and hold books, suitable apparatus ,and lands and buildings for the accommodation of officers, teachers and students,” to “perform all acts appropriate to the main purpose of the Association.” and to transfer “the whole or any part of its funds or property to the President and Fellows of Harvard College,” whenever the same can be so done as to advance the purpose for which the Society is chartered, in a manner satisfactory to the Association.

The Charter is ample for the present needs of the Society, and places it in a position to receive funds and to hold and administer them legally for the purposes of the collegiate instruction of women. It makes it practicable for the Society to raise a proper endowment to establish the work upon a permanent basis, and it seems that the moment has arrived when the contribution of an adequate fund will found an institution that will give women advantages in Cambridge equal to those enjoyed from time immemorial by their more favored brothers. The students are here in considerable numbers, and they are properly prepared for the instruction that is offered for them. Others are now passing through preparatory courses with the intention of coming here, and there is a prospect that the classes will be kept up year by year by a succession of earnest women who will go out to raise the average of intelligence throughout various portions of the land.

It may be said with some confidence that a fund of one-tenth the size of that represented by the property and endowments of Harvard University, contributed to this Society now, will give women greater privileges than are within their reach in America, and will make them permanent.

The Society not Creating, but Satisfying a Demand.

It is not the purpose of the Society to stimulate a demand for the education that it offers. Its directors have never held the doctrine that it is the duty of every young woman to pass through a regular course of study such as is represented by the four years’ course of the candidates for the Bachelor’s degree in College. It is their wish simply to offer to women advantages for this highest instruction, and to admit to the privileges of the Society any who may actually need them.

The teachers of America are to a large degree women, and it is desirable that all women who select this profession should be as well prepared to perform its duties as the men are who are engaged in similar work. But it is not teachers only who wish the highest cultivation of the mental powers. Many women study with us for the sake of the general addition to their knowledge. It is not demanded that every man who takes a collegiate course shall become a teacher, and more must not be expected of women.

Numbers of Students in the Different Classes.

 

Department No. of Classes. No. of Students.
Greek 4 23
Latin 4 16
English 4 25
German 4 14
French 2 4
Italian 1 1
Fine Arts 1 1
History 2 11
Mathematics 4 12
Physics 1 3
Botany 1 5

 

[…]

Courses Offered but not Taken

Latin. One course offered was not called for.
Sanskrit. Two courses.
English. One course.
French. Two courses.
Italian. One course.
Spanish. One course.
Philosophy. One course.
Political Economy. Two courses.
History. Three courses.
Fine Arts. One course.
Music. Three courses.
Astronomy. Two courses.
Mineralogy. Two courses.
Physical Geography. One course.
Meteorology. One course.
Botany. One course.
Zoology. Two courses. (One of Lectures and one of Laboratory Work.)

It appears that twenty-eight courses were given during the year, and twenty-seven that were offered were not given. This shows that the courses offered are for the present beyond the immediate demand for any one year, but, as the demand varies from year to year, with the progress of the different classes and the differing tastes and needs, of the students, the list of electives cannot be curtailed to advantage.

It will be seen that the managers have endeavored to use a liberal discretion in the application of the privilege reserved to them, of withholding any course not applied for by three properly prepared candidates. They have waived the rule in the case of any student whose stage of progress made any special course a necessity for her during the year. It must at times happen that the highest courses will be applied for by small numbers, and in such cases the rule must be occasionally waived, or the most advanced students discouraged.

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Third Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary. Cambridge, Mass.: William H. Wheeler, 1882. Pages   3-5 ,7-8.

________________________

 

From Fifth Year [1883-84] Annual Report

Department No. of Classes. No. of Students
1882-83. 1883-84. 1882-83. 1883-84.
Sanskrit 0 1 0 1
Greek 5 6 23 43
Latin 4 4 22 27
English 3 4 15 38
German 3 3 14 18
French 1 1 4 5
Philosophy 1 2 5 11
Music 0 1 0 3
History 3 2 9 12
Mathematics 2 2 11 10
Physics 1 1 8 5
Astronomy 2 0 4 0
Botany 2 1 5 9
Totals 27 28 120 182

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Fifth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1884. p. 9.

________________________

From Sixth Year [1884-85] Annual Report

 

Department No. of Classes.
1884-85.		 No. of Students.
1884-85.
Greek 4 25
Latin 5 31
English 4 59
German 3 16
French 2 12
Philosophy 3 16
Political Economy 1 9
History 4 20
Mathematics 3 16
Physics 1 6
Zoology 1 4
Totals 31 214

[…]

Political Economy.

Nine heard lectures from Professor [James Laurence] Laughlin on Banking and on Finance, and studied under him Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Sixth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1885, p. 9, 11

 

_______________________

From Seventh Year [1885-86] Annual Report
November 16, 1886

[…]

Political Economy.

Professor [James Laurence] Laughlin. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. Lectures on Banking and the Financial Legislation of the United States.—6 [students].

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Seventh Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1886, p. 12

________________________

 

From Eighth Year [1886-87] Annual Report
October 25, 1887

[…]

Political Economy.

Professor [James Laurence] Laughlin. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. Lectures.—7 [students].

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Eighth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1887, p. 11.

________________________

From Ninth Year [1887-88] Annual Report
November 5, 1888

[…]

Political Economy.

Professor [James Laurence] Laughlin and Mr. Coggeshall. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. Lectures on Money, Finance, Labor and Capital, Coöperation, Socialism and Taxation.—5 [students].

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Ninth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1888, p. 18.

________________________

From Tenth Year [1888-89] Annual Report
October 29, 1889

[…]

Political Economy.

Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Mr. [Francis Cleaveland] Huntington. 1st half year. “Principles of Political Economy.” J. S. Mill (Laughlin’s Edition) Books I, II, III, and IV. Lectures on Co-operation (Mr. Taussig). 2nd half year, “Some Leading Principles of Political Economy.” J. E. Cairnes. The whole book except Chapters 4 and 5 of Part I. “History of Bimetallism in the United States.” J. L. Laughlin.—7 students.

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Tenth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1889, p. 16.

________________________

From Eleventh Year [1889-90] Annual Report
October 28, 1890

[…]

Political Economy.

Mr. [Edward Campbell] Mason. First half year. Principles of Political Economy. J. S. Mill. Books I, II (omitting Chapters V-X), III (Chapters I-XVI). Second half-year. The working Principles of Political Economy, by S. M. Macvane. Chapters XXV XXVI. Principles of Political Economy. J. S. Mill. Books III (Chapters XVII, XVIII), V (Chapters I-VII). Some Leading Principles of Political Economy, by J. E. Cairnes. The whole book except Chapter 5, Part I.—5 students.

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Eleventh Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1890, p. 25.

________________________

From Twelfth Year [1890-91] Annual Report
October 27, 1891

[…]

Political Economy.

Mr. [Edward Campbell] Mason and Mr. [William Morse] Cole — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy: Book I; Book II, Chap. XI et seq; Book III, to chap. XXIV; Book IV, to chap. VII. Cairnes’s Some Leading Principles of Political Economy. Lectures: Socialism; Banking; Recent Financial History in U. S. During the first half year attention was given to the main principles of Political Economy. In the second half-year the object was to illustrate the application of principles dealt with in the first half-year, and to give general information on certain economic questions of practical importance. The work was mainly descriptive and historical and was carried on partly by lectures and partly by the discussion of the books mentioned above.—8 students.

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Twelfth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1891, p. 23.

________________________

From Thirteenth Year [1891-92] Annual Report
October 25, 1892

[…]

Political Economy.

(Primarily for Undergraduates.)

Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Mr. [William Morse] Cole. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy: Production; Wages, Profits, Rent; Value; Money and Credit; International Trade; Progress of Society; Taxation. Cairnes’s Some Leading Principles of Political Economy. Lectures; Social Questions, Banking, Recent Financial History in the United States. During three-quarters of the year attention was given to the main principles of Political Economy. During the remainder of the year the work consisted of the application of principles and the description of some leading economic features of society. — 17 students.

 

(For Graduates and Undergraduates.)

Mr. [Edward] Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions.

An introductory course in sociology, intended to give a comprehensive view of the structure and development of society in relation to some of the more characteristic ethical and industrial tendencies of the present day.

The course began with a hypothetical consideration of the relation of the individual to society and to the State-with a view to pointing out some theoretical misconceptions and practical errors traceable to an illegitimate use of the fundamental analogies and metaphysical formulas found in Comte, Spencer, P. Leroy Beaulieu, Schaeffle, and other publicists.

The second part followed more in detail the ethical and economic growth of society. Beginning with the development of social instincts manifested in voluntary organization, it considered the genesis and theory of natural rights, the function of legislation, the sociological significance of the status of women and of the family and other institutions — with a view to tracing the evolution of certain types of society based upon a more or less complete recognition of the social ideals already considered.

The last part dealt with certain tendencies of the modern state, discussing especially the province and limits of state activity, with some comparison of the Anglo-Saxon and the continental theory and practice in regard to private initiative and state intervention in relation to public works, industrial development, philanthropy, education, labor organization, and the like.

Each student selected for special investigation some question closely related to the theoretical or practical aspects of the course; and a certain amount of systematic reading was expected. — 6 students.

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Thirteenth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1892, pp. 25-26.

________________________

From Fourteenth Year [1892-93] Annual Report
October 31, 1893

[…]

History

(Primarily for Graduates.)

Professors [William J.] Ashley and [Abert Bushnell] Hart.— Seminary in Economic and American History. The purpose of this research course was to train students in the use of sources, in the collection of material, and in reaching independent results on important questions. Each student had frequent conferences with one or other of the instructors; the general exercises were lectures on methods by the instructors, and papers prepared by the students as reports of their work. The subjects studied were Manumission in America; the early phases of the Anti-slavery movement; the Freedman’s Bureau; Serfdom in England; the Black Death; and the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. The students had the use of the Harvard College Library and of the various Boston libraries. — 6 students (1 graduate).

[…]

Economic [sic].

(Primarily for Undergraduates.)

Professor [William J.] Ashley and Mr. [William Morse] Cole. — The first half-year was devoted to a consideration of the main conceptions of Political Economy, and the work took the form of recitations based upon Mill’s Principles.
The class read the chapters on the functions of labor, capital and land and the laws governing their increase; on the distribution of produce among laborers, capitalists and landholders; on the exchange value, both domestic and international, of commodities; on the functions of money and the laws governing its value; on the influence of progress upon the production and distribution of wealth. The class-room work consisted of general informal discussion suggested by the chapters read, with the intent that the students should acquire facility in independent thinking upon economic subjects.
The second half-year was chiefly occupied by lectures on Socialism, Methods of Industrial Remuneration, Taxation, Protection, Banking and Currency. Students were required to read certain portions of Rae, Contemporary Socialism, Schloss, Methods of Industrial Remuneration, Dunbar, Banking, Taussig, Silver Situation, and other works. — 8 students.

 

Professor [William J.] Ashley. — The Economic History of Europe and America, down to the Eighteenth Century. This course of lectures and exercises dealt with the following topics, among others; the scope and purpose of economic history; the agricultural and industrial organization of the Roman Empire, — the villae and collegia; the tribal system of the Celts, Teutons, and Slavs; the problem of the origin of the manor; the manor in its complete form, and its subsequent transformation; the rise of commerce and industry, and the history of merchant gilds and craft gilds in relation thereto; the organization of international trade in the Middle Ages; the agricultural changes of the Sixteenth Century in England and elsewhere; the great trading companies; the woollen trade of England, and the domestic system of industry; the transition from English to American agrarian conditions. — 8 students.

 

(For Graduates and Undergraduates.)

Mr. [Edward] Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. An introductory course in sociology, intended to give a comprehensive view of the structure and development of society in relation to some of the more characteristic ethical and industrial tendencies of the present day.
The course began with a hypothetical consideration of the relation of the individual to society and to the State — with a view to pointing out some theoretical misconceptions and practical errors traceable to an illegitimate use of the fundamental analogies and metaphysical formulas found in Comte, Spencer, P. Leroy Beaulieu, Schaeffle, and other publicists.
The second part followed more in detail the ethical and economic growth of society. Beginning with the development of social instincts manifested in voluntary organization, it considered the genesis and theory of natural rights, the function of legislation, the sociological significance of the status of women and of the family and other institutions — with a view to tracing the evolution of certain types of society based upon a more or less complete recognition of the social ideals already considered.
The last part dealt with certain tendencies of the modern state, discussing especially the province and limits of state activity, with some comparison of the Anglo-Saxon and the continental theory and practice in regard to private initiative and state intervention in relation to public works, industrial development, philanthropy, education, labor organization, and the like.
Each student selected for special investigation some question closely related to the theoretical or practical aspect of the course; and a certain amount of systematic reading was expected. — 3 students.

 

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Fourteenth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1893, pp. 34-38.

Image Source: Fay House,   Radcliffe College Archives W359459_1.

 

Categories
Barnard Columbia Courses Curriculum

Columbia. Economics Courses with Descriptions, 1905-07

 

 

From time to time I mistakenly repeat the preparation of an artifact, as is the case with this list of instructors and courses offered in economics and social sciences by the Columbia University Faculty of Political Science in 1905-07. Still, I am getting better with respect to formatting, so I am replacing the V1.0 with this V2.0 today.

________________________________

OFFICERS OF INSTRUCTION
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
[Economics and Social Sciences (1905-07)]

EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, Ph.D., LL.D., McVickar Professor of Political Economy
[Absent on leave in 1905-06.]
FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Sociology
JOHN B. CLARK, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy
HENRY R. SEAGER, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy, and Secretary
HENRY L. MOORE, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Political Economy
VLADIMIR G. SIMKHOVITCH, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Economic History
EDWARD THOMAS DEVINE, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Social Economy

OTHER OFFICERS

ALVIN S. JOHNSON, Ph.D., Instructor in Economics
GEORGE J. BAYLES, Ph.D Lecturer in Ecclesiology [A.B., Columbia, 1891; A.M., 1892; LL.B., 1893; Ph.D., 1895.]
ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS, Ph.D., Lecturer in Sociology in Barnard College

________________________________

GROUP III—ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

GRADUATE COURSES

It is presumed that students who take economics, sociology or social economy as their major subject are familiar with the general principles of economics and sociology as set forth in the ordinary manuals. Students who are not thus prepared are recommended to take the courses in Columbia College or Barnard College designated as Economics 1 and 2 (or A and 4) and Sociology 151-152.

The graduate courses fall under three subjects: A—Political Economy and Finance; B—Sociology and Statistics; C—Social Economy.

Courses numbered 100 to 199 are open to Seniors in Columbia College.

Courses numbered 200 and above are open to graduate women students upon the same terms as to men.

All the courses are open to male auditors. Women holding the first degree may register as auditors in Courses numbered 200 and above.

Subject A—Political Economy and Finance

ECONOMICS 101-102—Taxation and Finance. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 1.30. 422 L.

This course is historical, as well as comparative and critical. After giving a general introduction and tracing the history of the science of finance, it treats of the various rules of the public expenditures and the methods of meeting the same among civilized nations. It describes the different kinds of public revenues, including the public domain and public property, public works and industrial undertakings, special assessments, fees, and taxes. It is in great part a course on the history, theories, and methods of taxation in all civilized countries. It considers also public debt, methods of borrowing, redemption, refunding, repudiation, etc. Finally, it describes the fiscal organization of the state by which the revenue is collected and expended, and discusses the budget, national, state, and local. Although the course is comparative, the point of view is American. Students are furnished with the current public documents of the United States Treasury and the chief financial reports of the leading commonwealths, and are expected to understand all the facts in regard to public debt, revenue, and expenditure contained therein.

Given in 1906-07 and in each year thereafter.

ECONOMICS 103—Money and Banking. Professor H. L. MOORE.
Tu. and Th. at 10.30, first half-year. 415 L.

The aim of this course is (1) to describe the mechanism of exchange and to trace the history of the metallic money, the paper money, and the banking system of the United States; to discuss such questions as bi-metallism, foreign exchanges, credit cycles, elasticity of the currency, present currency problems, and corresponding schemes of reform; (2) to illustrate the quantitative treatment of such questions as variations in the value of the money unit, and the effects of appreciation and depreciation.

ECONOMICS 104—Commerce and Commercial Policy. Dr. JOHNSON.
Tu. and Th. at 10.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course the economic bases of modern commerce, and the significance of commerce, domestic and foreign, in its relation to American industry, will be studied. An analysis will be made of the extent and character of the foreign trade of the United States, and the nature and effect of the commercial policies of the principal commercial nations will be examined.

ECONOMICS 105—The Labor Problem. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, first half-year. 415 L.

The topics considered in this course are: The rise of the factory system, factory legislation, the growth of trade unions and changes in the law in respect to them, the policies of trade unions, strikes, lockouts, arbitration and conciliation, proposed solutions of the labor problem, and the future of labor in the United States.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

ECONOMICS 106—The Trust Problem. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course special attention is given to the trust problem as it presents itself in the United States. Among the topics considered are the rise and progress of industrial combinations, the forms of organization and policies of typical combinations, the common law and the trusts, anti-trust acts and their results, and other proposed solutions of the problem.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

[ECONOMICS 107—Fiscal and Industrial History of the United States. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 3.30, first half-year. 415 L.

This course endeavors to present a survey of national legislation on currency, finance, and taxation, including the tariff, together with its relations to the state of industry and commerce. The chief topics discussed are: The fiscal and industrial conditions of the colonies; the financial methods of the Revolution and the Confederation; the genesis of the protective idea; the fiscal policies of the Federalists and of the Republicans; the financial management of the War of 1812; the industrial effects of the restrictive and war periods; the crises of 1819, 1825, and 1837; the tariffs of 1816, 1824, and 1828; the distribution of the surplus and the Bank war; the currency problems before 1863; the era of “free trade,” and the tariffs of 1846 and 1857; the fiscal problems of the Civil War; the methods of resumption, conversion and payment of the debt; the disappearance of the war taxes; the continuance of the war tariffs; the money question and the acts of 1878, 1890, and 1900; the loans of 1894-96; the tariffs of 1890, 1894, and 1897; the fiscal aspects of the Spanish War. The course closes with a discussion of the current problems of currency and trade, and with a general consideration of the arguments for and against protection as illustrated by the practical operations of the various tariffs.

Not given in 1905-07.]

[ECONOMICS 108— Railroad Problems; Economic, Social, and Legal. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 3.30, second half-year. 415 L.

These lectures treat of railroads in the fourfold aspect of their relation to the investors, the employees, the public, and the state respectively. A history of railways and railway policy in America and Europe forms the preliminary part of the course. The chief problems of railway management, so far as they are of economic importance, come up for discussion.

Among the subjects treated are: Financial methods, railway constructions, speculation, profits, failures, accounts and reports, expenses, tariffs, principles of rates, classification and discrimination, competition and pooling, accidents, and employers’ liability. Especial attention is paid to the methods of regulation and legislation in the United States as compared with European methods, and the course closes with a general discussion of state versus private management.

Not given in 1905-07.]

ECONOMICS 109 — Communistic and Socialistic Theories. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 2.30, first half-year. 406 L.

This course studies the theories of St. Simon, Fourier, Proudhon, Rodbertus, Marx, Lassalle, and others. It aims to utilize recent discoveries in economic science in making a critical test of these theories themselves and of certain counter-arguments. It examines the socialistic ideals of distribution, and the effects that, by reason of natural laws, would follow an attempt to realize them through the action of the state.

ECONOMICS 110 — Theories of Social Reform. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 2.30, second half-year. 406 L.

This course treats of certain plans for the partial reconstruction of industrial society that have been advocated in the United States, and endeavors to determine what reforms are in harmony with economic principles. It treats of the proposed single tax, of the measures advocated by the Farmers’ Alliance, and of those proposed by labor organizations, and the general relation of the state to industry.

ECONOMICS 201—Economic Readings I: Classical English Economists. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, first half-year. 415 L.

In this course the principal theories of the English economists from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill are studied by means of lectures, assigned readings and reports, and discussions. Special attention is given to the Wealth of Nations, Malthus’s Essay on Population, the bullion controversy of 1810, the corn law controversy of 1815, and the treatises on Political Economy of Ricardo, Senior, and John Stuart Mill.

Given in 1905-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

ECONOMICS 202—Economic Readings II: Contemporary Economists. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course the theories of contemporary economists are compared and studied by the same methods employed in Economics 201. Special attention is given to Böhm-Bawerk’s Positive Theory of Capital and Marshall’s Principles of Economics.

Given in 1905-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

ECONOMICS 203-204—History of Economics. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 3.30. 415 L.

In this course the various systems of political economy are discussed in their historical development. The chief exponents of the different schools are taken up in their order, and especial attention is directed to the wider aspects of the connection between the theories and the organization of the existing industrial society. The chief writers discussed are:

I. Antiquity: The Oriental Codes; Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Cato, Seneca, Cicero, the Agrarians, the Jurists.

II. Middle Ages: The Church Fathers, Aquinas, the Glossators, the writers on money, trade, and usury.

III. Mercantilists: Hales, Mun, Petty, Barbon, North, Locke; Bodin, Vauban, Boisguillebert, Forbonnais; Serra, Galiani ; Justi, Sonnenfels.

IV. Physiocrats: Quesnay, Gournay, Turgot, Mirabeau.

V. Adam Smith and precursors: Tucker, Hume, Cantillon, Stewart.

VI. English school: Malthus, Ricardo, Senior, McCulloch, Chalmers, Jones, Mill.

VII. The Continent: Say, Sismondi, Cournot, Bastiat; Herrmann, List, von Thünen.

VIII. German historical school: Roscher, Knies, Hildebrandt.

IX. Recent Development—England: Rogers, Jevons, Cairnes, Bagehot, Leslie, Toynbee, Marshall; Germany: Wagner, Schmoller, Held, Brentano, Cohn, Schäffle; Austria: Menger, Sax, Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser; France: Leroy Beaulieu, Laveleye, Gide, Walras; Italy: Cossa, Loria, Pantaleoni; America: Carey, George, Walker, Clark, Patten, Adams.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

ECONOMICS 205—Economic Theory I. Professor CLARK.
M. and W. at 2.30, first half-year. 406 L.

This course discusses, first, the static laws of distribution. If the processes of industry were not changing, wages and industry would tend to adjust themselves according to certain standards. A study of the mechanism of production would then show that one part of the product is specifically attributable to labor, and that another part is imputable to capital. It is the object of the course to show that the tendency of free competition, under such conditions, is to give to labor, in the form of wages, the amount that it specifically creates, and also to give to capital, in the form of interest, what it specifically produces. The theory undertakes to prove that the earnings of labor and of capital are governed by a principle of final productivity, and that this principle must be studied on a social scale, rather than in any one department of production. The latter part of this course enters the field of Economic Dynamics, defines an economic society and describes the forces which so act upon it as to change its structure and its mode of producing and distributing wealth.

ECONOMICS 206—Economic Theory II. Professor CLARK.
M. and W. at 2.30, second half-year. 406 L.

This course continues the discussion of the dynamic laws of distribution. The processes of industry are actually progressing. Mechanical invention, emigration and other influences cause capital and labor to be applied in new ways and with enlarging results. These influences do not even repress the action of the static forces of distribution, but they bring a new set of forces into action. They create, first, employers’ profits, and, later, additions to wages and interest. It is the object of the course to show how industrial progress affects the several shares in distribution under a system of competition, and also to determine whether the consolidations of labor and capital, which are a distinctive feature of modern industry, have the effect of repressing competition. It is a further purpose of the course to present the natural laws by which the increase of capital and that of labor are governed and to discuss the manner in which the earnings of these agents are affected by the action of the state, and to present at some length the character and the effects of those obstructions which pure economic law encounters in the practical world.

ECONOMICS 207—Theory of Statistics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, first half-year. 418 L.

The aim of this course is to present the elementary principles of statistics and to illustrate their application by concrete studies in the chief sources of statistical material. The theoretical part of the course includes the study of averages, index numbers, interpolation, principles of the graphic method, elements of demography, and statistical principles of insurance. The laboratory work consists of a graded series of problems designed to develop accuracy and facility in the application of principles. (Identical with Sociology 255.)

ECONOMICS 208—Quantitative Economics I: Advanced Statistics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
W. and F. at 11.30, second half-year. 418 L.

Quantitative Economics I and II (see Economics 210) investigate economics as an exact science. This course treats economics from the inductive, statistical side. It aims to show how the methods of quantitative biology and anthropology are utilized in economics and sociology. Special attention is given to recent contributions to statistical theory by Galton, Edgeworth, and Pearson. Economics 207, or an equivalent, is a prerequisite.

Given in 1905-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

ECONOMICS 210—Quantitative Economics II: Mathematical Economics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
W. and F. at 11.30, second half-year. 418 L.

This course treats economics from the deductive side. It aims to show the utility of an analytical treatment of economic laws expressed in symbolic form. The work of Cournot is presented and used as a basis for the discussion of the contributions to the mathematical method by Walras, Marshall, and Pareto. Economics 207, or an equivalent, is a prerequisite.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

ECONOMICS 241—The Economic and Social Evolution of Russia since 1800. Professor SIMKHOVITCH.
M. and F. at 9.30, first half-year. 418 L.

This course describes the economic development of the country, the growth of slavophil, liberal and revolutionary doctrines and parties, and the disintegration of the autocratic régime. (Identical with History 281.)

ECONOMICS 242—Radicalism and Social Reform as Reflected in the Literature of the Nineteenth Century. Professor SIMKHOVITCH.
M. at 9.30 and 10.30, second half-year. 418 L.

An interpretation of the various types of modern radicalism, such as socialism, nihilism, and anarchism, and of the social and economic conditions on which they are based.

ECONOMICS 291-292—Seminar in Political Economy and Finance. Professors SELIGMAN and CLARK.
For advanced students. Tu., 8.15-10.15 P.M. 301 L.

 

Subject B—Sociology and Statistics

SOCIOLOGY 151-152—Principles of Sociology. Professor GIDDINGS.
Tu. and Th. at 3.30. 415 L.

This is a fundamental course, intended to lay a foundation for advanced work. In the first half-year, in connection with a text-book study of theory, lectures are given on the social traits, organization, and welfare of the American people at various stages of their history and students are required to analyze and classify sociological material of live interest, obtained from newspapers, reviews, and official reports. In the second half-year lectures are given on the sociological systems of important writers, including Montesquieu, Comte, Spencer, Schäffle, De Greef, Gumplowicz, Ward, and Tarde. This course is the proper preparation for statistical sociology (Sociology 255 and 256) or for historical sociology (Sociology 251 and 252).

SOCIOLOGY 251—Social Evolution—Ethnic and Civil Origins. Professor GIDDINGS.
F. at 2.30 and 3.30, first half-year. 415 L.

This course on historical sociology deals with such topics as (1) the distribution and ethnic composition of primitive populations; (2) the types of mind and of character, the capacity for coöperation, the cultural beliefs, and the economic, legal, and political habits of early peoples; (3) early forms of the family, the origins, structure, and functions of the clan, the organization of the tribe, the rise of the tribal federations, tribal feudalism, and the conversion of a gentile into a civil plan of social organization. Early literature, legal codes, and chronicles, descriptive of the Celtic and Teutonic groups which combined to form the English people before the Norman Conquest, are the chief sources made use of in this course.

SOCIOLOGY 252—Social Evolution—Civilization, Progress, and Democracy. Professor GIDDINGS.
F. at 2.30 and 3.30, second half-year. 415 L.

This course, which is a continuation of Sociology 251, comprises three parts, namely: (1) The nature of those secondary civilizations which are created by conquest, and of the policies by which they seek to maintain and to extend themselves; (2) an examination of the nature of progress and of its causes, including the rise of discussion and the growth of public opinion; also a consideration of the policies by which continuing progress is ensured,—including measures for the expansion of intellectual freedom, for the control of arbitrary authority by legality, for the repression of collective violence, and for the control of collective impulse by deliberation; (3) a study of the nature, the genesis, and the social organization of modern democracies, including an examination of the extent to which non-political associations for culture and pleasure, churches, business corporations, and labor unions, are more or less democratic; and of the democratic ideals of equality and fraternity in their relations to social order and to liberty. The documents of English history since the Norman Conquest are the chief sources made use of in this course.

SOCIOLOGY 255—Theory of Statistics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, first half-year. 418 L.

This course is identical with Economics 207 (see [above]).

SOCIOLOGY 256—Social Statistics. Professor GIDDINGS.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, second half-year. 418 L.

Actual statistical materials, descriptive and explanatory of contemporaneous societies, are the subject-matter of this course, which presupposes a knowledge of statistical operations (Sociology 255) and applies it to the analysis of concrete problems. The lectures cover such topics as (1) the statistics of population, including densities and migrations, composition by age, sex, and nationality, amalgamation by intermarriage; (2) statistics of mental traits and products, including languages, religious preferences, economic preferences (occupations), and political preferences; (3) statistics of social organization, including families, households, municipalities, churches, business corporations, labor unions, courts of law, army, navy, and civil service; (4) statistics of social welfare, including peace and war, prosperity, education or illiteracy, vitality, and morality, including pauperism and crime.

SOCIOLOGY 259—Ecclesiology. Dr. BAYLES.
Tu. and F. at 4.30, first half-year. 405 L.

The purpose of this course is to define the present relations of the ecclesiastical institutions to the other institutions of American society: the state, the government, marriage, family, education, and public wealth. An analysis is made of the guarantees of religious liberty contained in the federal and commonwealth constitutions; of the civil status of churches in terms of constitutional and statute law; of the methods of incorporation, of the functions of trustees, of legislative and judicial control; of denominational polity according to its type; of the functional activity of churches in their departments of legislation, administration, adjudication, discipline, and mission; of the influence of churches on ethical standards; of the distribution of nationalities among the denominations, of the territorial distribution of denominational strength, of the relation of polity to density of population, and of the current movements in and between various organizations tending toward changes of functions and structure.

SOCIOLOGY 279-280—Seminar in Sociology. Professor GIDDINGS.
W. at 3.30 and 4.30, bi-weekly. 301 L.

The Statistical Laboratory, conducted by Professors GIDDINGS and H. L. MOORE, is equipped with the Hollerith tabulating machines, comptometers, and other modern facilities.

Subject C—Social Economy

SOCIAL ECONOMY 281—Poverty and Dependence. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, first half-year. 418 L.

The purpose of this course and of Social Economy 282, which follows, is to study dependence and measures of relief, and to analyze the more important movements which aim to improve social conditions. An attempt is made to measure the extent of dependence, both in its definite forms, as in charitable and penal institutions, and in its less recognized and definite forms, as when it results in the lowering of the standard of living or the placing of unreasonably heavy burdens upon children or widows. Among the special classes of social debtors which are studied, besides the paupers, the vagrants, the dissipated, and the criminals, who require discipline or segregation as well as relief, are: Orphans and other dependent children; the sick and disabled; the aged and infirm; the widow and the deserted family; the immigrant and the displaced laborer; the underfed and consequently short-lived worker.

Given in 1905—06 and in alternate years thereafter.

SOCIAL ECONOMY 282—Principles of Relief. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, second half-year. 418 L.

In this course the normal standard of living is considered concretely to secure a basis from which deficiencies may be estimated. A large number of individual typical relief problems are presented, and from these, by a “case system,” analogous to that of the modern law school, the principles of relief are deduced. Among the larger movements to be considered are: Charity organization; social settlements; housing reform; the elimination of disease; the restriction of child labor; and the prevention of overcrowding, and especially the congestion of population in the tenement-house districts of the great cities.

Given in 1903-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

SOCIAL ECONOMY 283—Pauperism and Poor Laws. Professor SEAGER.
M. at 3.30 and 4.30, first half-year. 418 L.

This is an historical and comparative course intended to supplement Social Economy 281 and 282. Lectures on the history of the English poor law are followed by discussions of farm colonies, the boarding-out system for children, old-age pensions, and other plans of relief currently advocated in England. On this basis the public relief problems of New York State and City and the institutions attempting their solution are studied by means of excursions, lectures, and discussions.

SOCIAL ECONOMY 285—The Standard of Living. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, first half-year. 418 L.

A concrete study of the standard of living in New York City in the classes which are above the line of actual dependence, but below or near the line of full nutrition and economic independence. While this course will not be given in the year 1905-06, assignments will be made in the School of Philanthropy for research in such portions of this field as suitably prepared students may elect to undertake.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

SOCIAL ECONOMY 286—The Prevention and Diminution of Crime. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, second half-year. 418 L.

This course will deal with the social function of the penal and police systems. Special attention will be given to such subjects as juvenile courts; the probation system; indeterminate sentence; treatment of discharged prisoners; the system of local jails; segregation of incorrigibles, and prison labor.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

SOCIAL ECONOMY 290—Crime and Criminal Anthropology. Professor GIDDINGS.

Students desiring to make a special study of crime, criminal anthropology, and the theory of criminal responsibility may take the lectures of Sociology 256 or of Social Economy 286 and follow prescribed readings under the direction of Professor GIDDINGS.

SOCIAL ECONOMY 299-300—Seminar in Social Economy. Professor DEVINE.
Two hours a week. Hours to be arranged.

The work of the Seminar for 1905-07 will be a study of recent developments in the social and philanthropic activities of New York City; e. g., the social settlements; parks and playgrounds; outside activities of public schools; children’s institutions; relief societies; agencies for the aid of immigrants, and the preventive work of organized charities.

COURSES IN THE SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY

The School of Philanthropy, conducted by the Charity Organization Society, under the direction of Professor Devine, offers courses* aggregating not less than ten hours a week throughout the academic year, and also a Summer School course of six weeks in June and July. These courses are open to regular students of Columbia University who satisfy the director that they are qualified to pursue them with profit, and are accepted as a minor for candidates for an advanced degree.

The program of studies for 1905-06 is as follows:

            A—General survey (forty lectures) ; B—Dependent families (fifty lectures); C—Racial traits and social conditions (thirty-five lectures); D—Constructive social work (fifty lectures) ; E—Child-helping agencies (forty lectures); F—Treatment of the criminal (thirty lectures); G—Administration of charitable and educational institutions (thirty lectures); H—The State in its relation to charities and correction (forty lectures).

* These courses are given in the United Charities Building, corner Fourth Avenue and 22d Street.

 

COURSES IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE

ECONOMICS 1-2—Introduction to Economics—Practical Economic Problems. Professors SELIGMAN and SEAGER, and Dr. JOHNSON.
Section 1, M. and W. at 9.30, and F. at 11.30. Section 2, M., W., and F. at 11.30. M. and W. recitations in 415 L. F. lecture in 422 L.

 

COURSES IN BARNARD COLLEGE

ECONOMICS A—Outlines of Economics. Professor MOORE and Dr. JOHNSON.
Three hours, first half-year.
Section 1, Tu., Th., and S. at 9.30. Section 2, Tu. and Th. at 11.30, and S. at 9.30.

ECONOMICS 4—Economic History of England and the United States. Professor MOORE and Dr. JOHNSON.
M., W., and F. at 10.30, second half-year.

ECONOMICS 105—The Labor Problem. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, first half-year.

The topics treated in this course are the rise of the factory system, factory legislation, the growth of trade unions and changes in the law in respect to them, the policies of trade unions, strikes, lockouts, arbitration and conciliation, proposed solutions of the labor problem, and the future of labor in the United States.

ECONOMICS 120—Practical Economic Problems. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, second half-year.

The topics treated in this course are the defects in the monetary and banking systems of the United States, government expenditures and government revenues, protection vs. free trade, the relation of the government towards natural monopolies, and federal control of trusts.

ECONOMICS 121—English Social Reformers. Professor MOORE.
W. and F. at 1.30, first half-year.

A critical study of the social teachings of Carlyle, Ruskin, John Stuart Mill, Kingsley, and Thomas H. Green.
Open to students that have taken Course A or an equivalent.

ECONOMICS 122—Economic Theory. Professor MOORE.
W. and F. at 1.30, second half-year.

A critical study of Marshall’s Principles of Economics. The principal aim of this course is to present the methods and results of recent economic theory.
Open to students that have taken Course A or an equivalent.

ECONOMICS 109—Communistic and Socialistic Theories. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, first half-year.

In this course a brief study is made of the works of St. Simon, Fourier, Proudhon, Owen, and Lassalle, and a more extended study is made of Marx’s treatise on capital. Recent economic changes, such as the formation of trusts and strong trade unions, are examined with a view to ascertaining what effect they have had on the modern socialistic movement.

ECONOMICS 110—Theories of Social Reform. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, second half-year.

In this course a study is made of modern semi-socialistic movements and of such reforms as have for their object the improvement of the condition of the working class. Municipal activities, factory legislation, the single tax, recent agrarian movements and measures for the regulation of monopolies are studied.

SOCIOLOGY 151-152—Principles of Sociology. Professor GIDDINGS.
Tu. and Th. at 2.30.

This is a fundamental course, intended to lay a foundation for advanced work. In the first half-year, in connection with a text-book study of theory, lectures are given on the social traits, organization, and welfare of the American people at various stages of their history, and students are required to analyze and classify sociological material of live interest, obtained from newspapers, reviews, and official reports. In the second half-year, lectures are given on the sociological systems of important writers, including Montesquieu, Comte, Spencer, Schäffle, De Greef, Gumplowicz, Ward, and Tarde.

SOCIOLOGY 153-154 —Family Organization. Dr. ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS.
Tu. at 3.30, bi-weekly.

Field work in the study of family groups. Consultations.
Open to Seniors.

In connection with the lectures and field work of this course opportunities are given to students to become acquainted with the more important private institutions for social betterment in New York City, and to study the organization and activity of the various public agencies charged with the welfare of the community.

 

COURSES IN THE SUMMER SESSION

sA—Economic History of England and America. Lectures, recitations, and essays. Dr. JOHNSON.
Five hours a week at 1.30. 501 F. Credit I
(Equivalent, when supplemented by prescribed reading, to Economics 4.)

sB—Principles of Economics. Lectures and class discussions. Dr. JOHNSON.
Five hours a week at 2.30. 501 F. Credit I.
(Equivalent, when supplemented by prescribed reading, to Economics 1.)

sA1—Principles of Sociology. Descriptive and theoretical. Professor GIDDINGS.
Five hours a week at 10.30. 415 L. Credit I, II.
(Equivalent to Sociology IS1-)

sA2—Principles of Sociology. History of sociological theory. Professor GIDDINGS.
Five hours a week at 9.30. 415 L. Credit I, II.
(Equivalent to Sociology 152.)

Source: Columbia University. Bulletin of Information. Courses Offered by the Faculty of Political Science and the Several Undergraduate Faculties. Announcement 1905-07. pp. 3, 24-36.

Image Source: Roberto Ferrari, Unveiling Alma Mater [Sept 23, 1903]. Columbia University Libraries. July 15, 2104.

Categories
Bibliography Columbia Courses Economists Suggested Reading

Columbia. Friedman’s lecture notes to first Hotelling lecture in Mathematical Economics, 1933

 

 

On October 3, 2017, Antoine Missemer tweeted an image of an undated examination question by Harold Hotelling “Describe two mathematical contributions to economics published before 1910”. One should note that asking students to talk about work published at least a quarter century before the current academic year is not necessarily a deep dive into the history of economics, though of course Cournot, Bertrand and Edgeworth had achieved “historical” fame by 1933.

From Harold Hotelling’s course in Mathematical Economics taught in the first semester of 1933/34 at Columbia, Milton Friedman kept about forty-five 3 by 5 inch index cards worth of notes (both sides). From his first lecture, we can put together a convenient “short list” of Hotelling’s chosen greatest hits in mathematical economics. I have taken the liberty of expanding Friedman’s abbreviations, figuring the main purpose of transcribing archival material is to ease digital search down the road.

Earlier postings include a list of Hotelling’s courses and his class rolls at Columbia as well as an outline and exam for his course in mathematical economics offered at North Carolina (1946, 1950).

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Milton Friedman’s student notes to Harold Hotelling’s first lecture in Mathematical Economics (1933)

9/2/33 (1)

Hotelling, Harold on Mathematical Economics

Has been stated that methodological difference between economics + natural sciences is that in former cannot + in latter do experiments

Not entirely true: in econonomics may experiment, + in some physical sciences (e.g. astronomy, meteorology etc.) do not experiment.

Better dividing line to be found in number of relevant factors

 

Use of Mathematics in Economics:

A. Cournot 1838

J. Bertrand 1883 Journal des Savants (reviewed Cournot)

F. Y. Edgeworth 1881 Math. Psychics. Papers relating to Pol. Economy.

Pareto

Alfred Marshall Principles of Economics

(Edgeworth laid foundation of many theories more modern than Marshall

Using higher Mathematics in Economics

G. C. Evans

C. F. Roos

Zeuthen

Pareto in Encyclopedie des Science Math, Vol I, Tome IV part 4 (Tome I, Vol. IV)

[Yes, that is all that Friedman wrote down for that lecture]

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 120, Class note cards.

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Links to Works Referred to by Hotelling

Cournot, Augustin. Recherches sur les Principes Mathématiques de la Théorie des Richesses. Paris: Hachett, 1838.

Nathaniel T. Bacon translation: Researches into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth with a bibliography of Mathematical economics by Irving Fisher. New York: Macmillan, 1897.

Bertrand, J. (Review of) Théorie Mathématique de la Richesse Sociale par Léon Walras: Recherches sur les Principes Mathématiques de la Théorie des Richesses par Augustin Cournot. Journal des Savants 67 (1883), 499-508.

Edgeworth, F. Y. Mathematical Psychics. An Essay on the Application of Mathematics to the Moral Sciences. C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1881.

Edgeworth, F. Y. Papers Relating to Political Economy.  Volume I;  Volume II; Volume III. London: Macmillan, 1925.

Pareto, Vilfredo. Économie mathématique, —in Encyclopédie des sciences mathématique, Tome I, vol. 4 (Fascicule 4, pp. 590-640), 1906 [?].

Marshall, Alfred. Principles of Economics (8th edition). London: Macmillan, 1920.

Griffith C. Evans. Mathematical Introduction to Economics. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1930.

Reviewed by Hotelling in Journal of Political Economy, 39, no. 1 (Feb 1931) pp. 107-09.

F. Zeuthen Problems of Monopoly and Economic Warfare. London: Routledge, 1930.

Reviewed by Corwin D. Edwards (New York University) in AER, 21, no. 4 (December, 1931), pp. 701-704.

Charles Frederick Roos. Dynamic Economics—Theoretical and Statistical Studies of Demand, Production and Prices. Monographs of the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics, No. 1. Bloomington, Indiana: Principia Press, 1934.

 

Image source: From a photo of the Institute of Statistics leadership around 1946: Gertrude Cox, Director, William Cochran, Associate Director-Raleigh and Harold Hotelling, Associate Director-Chapel Hill. North Carolina State University.

Categories
Chicago Courses Economists Undergraduate

Chicago. Monopoly course proposal by Abram Harris with George Stigler’s (Dis)approval, 1961

 

 

The brutal honesty of George Stigler’s memo in response to the new undergraduate course proposal submitted by Abram Lincoln Harris at the University of Chicago is somewhat tempered by Stigler’s display of collegial tolerance for a colleague approaching retirement age. But the absolutely gratuitous zinger at the end to “advise our majors to forget it” leaves a dubious taste in this reader’s mouth.

I have included a copy of the biography of Abram Lincoln Harris from the BlackPast.org website.
Definitely worth consulting:  “Introduction: The Odyssey of Abram Harris From Howard to Chicago” by William Darity, Jr. in Race, Radicalism, and Reform: Selected Papers of Abram L. Harris (1989).

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Harris, Abram Lincoln, Jr. (1899-1963)
Source: Abram Lincoln Harris from BlackPast.org.

Abram Lincoln Harris, Jr., the grandson of slaves, was the first nationally recognized black economist. Harris was highly respected for his work that focused primarily on class analysis, black economic life, and labor to illustrate the structural inadequacies of race and racial ideologies.  Harris’s major published works include The Negro Population in Minneapolis: A Study of Race Relations (1926), The Black Worker: the Negro and the Labor Movement (1931), and a book co-authored with Sterling D. Spero, The Negro as Capitalist (1936).  His final book, Economics and Social Reform, appeared in 1958.

Harris was a Marxist scholar and its theories influenced his work.  His The Black Worker was recognized as the foundation for future economic histories and assessments of the black condition.  The Negro as Capitalist argued that non-racial economic reforms were the key to solving black fiscal woes.  He also argued that capitalism was morally bankrupt and that employing race consciousness as a strategic way to enlighten a public was self-defeating.  W.E.B. DuBois described Harris as one of the “Young Turks” who challenged the then existing historical theories about blacks in a capitalist society while insisting upon using modern social scientific methods to further his analyses of African American life.

Born in 1899 in Richmond, Virginia to parents Abram Lincoln Harris, Sr., a butcher, and Mary Lee, a teacher, Harris grew up as part of the black middle class community in Richmond. After high school Harris earned a bachelor of sciences degree from Virginia Union University in 1922.

After graduation from Virginia Union, Harris enrolled at the New York School of Social Work and worked briefly for the National Urban League (NUL) and the Messenger, the leading black Socialist newspaper.  Harris taught for one year at the West Virginia Collegiate Institute (now West Virginia State University) and then earned an M.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1924. Harris was appointed head of the Department of Economics at Howard University in 1928 and later completed his doctorate in economics from Columbia University in 1930. Harris married his first wife, Callie McGuinn, in 1925 and later divorced in 1955.  Harris married his second wife Phedorah Prescott in 1962.

In the 1940s Abram Harris, along with E. Franklin Frazier, Allison Davis, and Ralph Bunche, was selected by the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal as “insiders” to work on his groundbreaking study An American Dilemma which was published in 1944.  Toward the end of the 1940s Harris began to retreat from his earlier work, progressive and race politics, and began to concentrate on economic philosophy.

Abram Harris died in Chicago, Illinois on November 16, 1963.  He was 64.

Sources:
Jonathon Scott Holloway, Confronting the Veil, Abram Harris Jr., E. Franklin Frazier, and Ralph Bunche, 1919-1941 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002); William Banks, Black Intellectuals: Race and Responsibility in American Life (W.W. Norton: New York, 1996); Cook County, Illinois Death Index.

Contributor:

Los Angeles City College

______________________

[Memo: Abram Harris to Al Rees]

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
CHICAGO 37, ILLINOIS
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

Faculty Exchange
Box 84
Oct 26th, 1961

Dear Al,

I am enclosing a preliminary statement of a course approved by the Policy Committee of the College Social Science Section. It is to be given in the Spring Quarter 1961-62. I wonder if the Department of Economics would want to include this course in its undergraduate offerings?

Sincerely,

[signed]
Abe Harris

Professor Al Reese[sic]
Chairman
Dept of Ec.
Univ. of Chicago

______________________

 

Countervailing Power, Monopoly, and Public Policy

A proposed 200 course in the College
Submitted by Abram L. Harris

The course will attempt to combine theoretical analysis in a survey of the ideas of some leading economists who have dealt with the problem of market imperfections and monopoly along with discussions of the early trust movement, federal anti-monopoly legislation, and some of the problems connected with the current administration of this legislation. Galbraith’s “Countervailing Power” has been selected as a stimulating point of departure.

A technical mastery of theoretical economics is not a prerequisite. One main purpose of the course is to stimulate undergraduate interest in theoretical economics, the history of economic ideas, and the relation of these ideas to current economic policy issues. The course should be open to beginning majors in economics, students who are undecided about a major in the social sciences, and to those who are just curious.

Class discussions are to be organized around the following topics: The Concept of “Countervailing Power”: Old wine in new bottles? Chamberlain on the use and derivation of the concept. Market imperfections and monopoly in some classical and neo-classical writings: Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Alfred Marshall. The trust movement in the late 19th century and early 20th century in the United States (John Bates Clarke and his student, Thorstein Veblen, on monopoly and “absentee ownership”). The Standard Oil and U. S. Steel cases and federal anti-trust legislation. Recent anti-trust cases: administrative interpretation and application of federal legislation. Marx’s thesis concerning industrial concentration and confirmation of it by the new liberalism of the 20th century. The extent and measurement of industrial concentration (Stigler, Nutter, Adelman, Adams, Wilcox, etc.). The ideal or goal of government (federal) policy and practice: monopoly or competition?

A term essay will be required of all students who take the course for credit. The essay may take the form of a review, e.g., Berle’s Twentieth Century Capitalist Revolution, Mason’s The Corporation in Modern Society, Chamberlain’s Labor Union Monopoly or may deal with some topic, relevant to the course, selected by the student in consultation with the instructor.

P.S. The content of the course may appear be heavy and, probably, cannot be entirely covered in a single quarter. The layout will have, no doubt, to be tailored as we proceed to give the course for the first time.

October 1961.

______________________

[Memo Al Reese to George Stigler]

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
DATE: Oct. 31 [1961]

TO: George Stigler

FROM: Al Rees

IN RE: Proposed Course by Abe Harris

What is your reaction? Please return his note and proposal when you have finished with them.

[signed]
Al

______________________

 

[Carbon copy of Stigler response]

[DATE:] 11/1/61

[TO:] Al Rees, Chairman                 [DEPARTMENT:] Economics

[FROM:] George J. Stigler

[IN RE:] propose 200 level course in the College by Abram L. Harris

Dear Al:

            This new course of Abe Harris arouses no enthusiasm on my part. It sounds like a protracted bull session, in which large ideas are neither carefully analysed nor empirically tested.

            Even if this is a correct prediction, it leaves open the question of our listing it. Abe is a nice guy, only about 3 years from retirement, and it serves no good purpose to hurt his feelings. My own inclination would be (1) to list it, with explicit proviso that it is only for as long as he teaches it, and (2) advise our majors to forget it.

Source: University of Chicago Archives. George Stigler Papers, Box 3, Folder “U of C, Miscellaneous [red folder]”

Image Source: Abram Lincoln Harris from BlackPast.org.

Categories
Chicago Courses Cowles

Cowles Commission’s List of Univ. of Chicago Courses, 1952

 

This listing of certain courses by the Cowles Commission offered at the University of Chicago ca. 1952 is probably more interesting as to what was not included, namely applied fields with the possible exception of international economics (though probably what was meant there was only the theory of international trade and payments). Otherwise the list and course descriptions seem completely contemporary…without either the word microeconomics or macroeconomics being used!

___________________

 

Courses at the University of Chicago in Econometrics, Mathematical Economics, Economic Theory, and Statistics*

* Not all of these courses are offered in any one academic year.

National Income and Related Aggregates. Survey of the sources and methods involved in estimating the economic structure. National income, capital formation, balance of payments, and the components of the input-output analysis. Formulation of national economic programs. Aggregates arc related to the data and methods of both business and government accounting. Attention is given to students’ practical work.

Price Theory. A systematic study of the pricing of final products and factors of production under essentially stationary conditions. Covers both perfect competition and such imperfectly competitive conditions as monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly.

Welfare Economics. Description of conditions defining production and utility “possibilities.” Implications of these conditions for appraising economic policies affecting resource allocation, income distribution, and the level of employment. Special applications are made in the appraisal of imperfect competition, various government fiscal policies, and alternative economic systems.

Allocation of Resources in Production. Criteria for optimal resource allocation. Prices are introduced as marginal rates of substitution under efficient allocation of resources. The use of prices as guides to allocative decisions. Applications to a variety of production and pricing problems, including those of the transportation industry, and problems of industrial location.

Choice and Possibilities in Economic Organization (with particular application to agriculture). Economic development. Economic fluctuations.

The Theory of Income, Employment, and Price Level. Government policies and other factors determining the employment of resources, the national income and its use, and the levels of prices, wage rates, and interest rates. These problems are linked with the behavior of individual firms and households.

Economics of Uncertainty. Probabilistic vs. deterministic social science, normative and descriptive. Optimal strategies under complete and incomplete information. Applications to private and public policy; choice of assets (liquidity, inventories, diversification); versatility.

Monetary Aspects of International Trade. Foreign payments and receipts. Classical and modern theories of adjustment of the balance of payments. Theories of exchange rates. Capital movements in the balance of payments. Postwar monetary plans.

Economic Aspects of International Relations. Price theory and international trade; the gains from international specialization. International trade and the distribution of income. Historical and theoretical discussion of the theory of tariffs. Commercial policies of particular countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. Commodity agreements and cartels. The growth of state trading. The new mercantilism.

Seminar on Modern Developments in Economic Theory. Discussion of selected topics from recent literature.

Seminar in Monetary Dynamics. The dynamic adjustment of the economy as a whole, with special emphasis on the role of the monetary and banking system. Student discussion of theoretical issues and empirical studies in this general field.

Scope and Method of the Social Sciences. The first of this sequence of three courses is an introduction to statistical methods as used in the social sciences.

Statistical Inference (sequence of three courses). The first two courses survey the principles of statistical inference. Among the subjects treated are: elements of probability; concepts of population sample, and sampling distribution; choice of estimates in the light of their sampling properties; testing hypotheses with reference to specific alternatives; principles of sampling and sample design; analysis of proportions, means, and standard deviations; simple, partial, and multiple regression and correlation. In the third course of the sequence students may carry out a statistical investigation; published statistical studies may be analyzed in detail; or some special field of application may be studied.

Introduction to Econometrics. Some properties of vectors, matrices, systems of linear equations. Analysis of simple economic models.

Statistical Problems of Model Construction. Discussion of problems arising when inference processes are directed to a postulated structure underlying the probability distribution of observed variables. Problems of identification of structural characteristics in a given model, of estimation of identifiable parameters, of estimation bias arising from incorrectly specified models, and of testing the specifications that define a model. Examples are drawn from econometrics, factor analysis, latent attribute analysis, and from the study of errors of observation.

Statistical Methods of Measuring Economic Relations.

Time Series. Stochastic difference equations, trends, moving averages, tests for randomness, correlograms, periodograms.

Sample Surveys. Theory of sampling from finite populations and especially its application to human populations.

Markov Processes. Three types of Markov process: discrete in space and time; discrete in space and continuous in time; continuous in both space and time. Use of certain of these processes as models in, e.g., genetics, evolution, diffusion, and communication.

Analysis of Variance and Regression. Algebra and geometry of vector spaces systematically applied to theory and application of subjects known variously as linear hypotheses, regression, analysis of variance, and least squares.

Estimation and Tests of Hypotheses. General methods, especially the theories of Neyman, Pearson, and Fisher.

Sequential Analysis. The sequential probability ratio test and its operating characteristics and average sample number functions; application to standard distributions; double dichotomies; sequential estimation; special problems.

Statistical Theory of Decision-Making. Critical review of modern statistical viewpoints, emphasizing general ideas as opposed to techniques. Interpretations of probability; the probabilistic utility theory; critique of Bayes’ theorem; methods proposed for avoiding Bayes’ theorem, especially Wald’s theory of minimum risk and the Neyman-Pearson theory; randomization; sufficient statistics and likelihood ratios; de Finnetti’s theory of personal probability.

Mathematical Statistics. An introduction to the theories of mathematical statistics that include discussions of point estimation, set estimation, and the testing of hypotheses.

Theory of Minimum Risk. Where practical, illustrations are drawn from standard statistical tests and estimates, but the treatment is for the most part on an abstract level. Existence theorems; general techniques of solution; simple dichotomies; asymptotic point estimation; symmetrical problems; sequential decisions.

Multivariate Analysis. The multivariate normal distribution. Related distributions such as the Wishart distribution and its noncentral analogue, and the distribution of the roots of determinantal equations. Hotelling’s cannonical correlations. Associated tests and estimation functions and the problem of classification.

The Design of Experiments. Design of experiments with special reference to the analysis of variance. Interaction and its exploitation in design, and the analysis of covariance. Numerical methods, analysis in the case of missing observations, and the effects of departure from the underlying assumptions of the analysis of variance are touched upon.

Non-Parametric Inference.

Econometrics Seminar. Reports by staff members, students, and visitors.

Statistics Seminar. Reports by staff members, students, and visitors.

Source: Cowles Commission for Research in Economics. Economic Theory and Measurement. A Twenty Year Research Report, 1932-1952 (University of Chicago, 1952), pp. 177-180.

Image Source: Cowles Foundation website: Social Science Building at the University of Chicago.

 

 

Categories
Courses Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Introductory Economics, Final Exams. Taussig, 1914-1915

 

Frank W. Taussig played a central role in Harvard’s economics at two important stages. He was the lecturer for the entry-level Principles of Economics course for undergraduates and the core economic theory course for graduate students. In addition he covered the field of international economics.

The course announcement, enrollment figures, and the final examination questions for his principles course come from four different sources, three of which are available on-line. Over the past few weeks, I have posted corresponding material from the twenty economics courses offered at Harvard during the 1914-15 year for which the final examination questions had been printed and subsequently published.

The following year (1915) Edmund E. Day and R. S. Davis (who belonged to the team of instructors and assistants for this principles course) published their Questions on the Principles of Economics (New York, Macmillan) that was arranged by topics to follow Taussig’s own textbook Principles of Economics (Second, revised edition of 1915: Volume One; Volume Two).

______________________ 

Course Announcement

Economics A. (formerly 1). Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11.
Professor Taussig and Asst. Professor Day and five assistants.

Course A is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second year of their college career. It may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics A. [p. 61]

Course A gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, international trade, and taxation. The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States will be treated in outline.

The course will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. [p. 62]

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1914-15. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XI, No. 1, Part 14 (May 19, 1914).

______________________ 

Course Enrollment

[Economics] A. Professor Taussig and Asst. Professor Day, assisted by Dr. J. S. Davis, and Messrs. P. G. Wright, Burbank, Vanderblue, W. C. Clark, and Monroe.—Principles of Economics.

Total 491: 1 Graduate, 30 Seniors, 137 Juniors, 260 Sophomores, 11 Freshmen, 52 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1914-15, p. 59.

______________________ 

Mid-year Examination

ECONOMICS A

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions; be concise; plan your answers with care; and leave time for revision at the close.]

  1. In what ways, if at all, is the development of the complex division of labor connected with (a) the monotony of labor; (b) the Industrial Revolution; (c) integration of industry; (d) the recurrence of industrial crises?
  2. Explain: external economies; internal economies. Which set of economies is most significant for the explanation of (a) the localization of industry; (b) increasing returns; (c) the development of monopoly?
  3. If possible distinguish between

(a) diminishing returns and diminishing utility;
(b) by-product and joint product;
(c) joint cost and joint demand;
(d) “corners” and monopolies;
(e) median and arithmetical mean.

  1. Explain briefly the immediate and the ultimate effects (if any) which each of the following changes, taken separately, will tend to have on the price of cotton, cotton-seed oil, and cotton-mill machinery; (a) prohibition of organized speculation; (b) a change of fashion toward greater use of cotton fabrics; (c) doubling of the population of the country. (Assume for all three cases that there is no international trade, and that the quantity of money remains the same.)
  2. In what direction and by what process, if at all, would the following tend to affect the value of money in the United States; (a) increased demand for gold ornaments; (b) increasingly lavish expenditures by spendthrifts; (c) a continued drain of specie to the East; (d) a larger output of silver in the United States; (e) abolition of all legally required banking reserves?
  3. Under what conditions does inconvertible paper money circulate as readily as specie? Under what conditions, not as readily?
    Under what conditions is the value of inconvertible paper money as great as that of specie? Under what conditions is its value less than that of specie?
    State two indications of its having less value than specie. Which of the two is the more significant? Which is the more easily ascertained?
  4. State points of similarity, points of difference, between the Federal Reserve system and the English banking system as regards (a) centralization of reserves; (b) centralization of note issue; (c) measures available for preventing panics.
  5. Under what circumstances, if any, can a country have a permanent excess of imports? Under what circumstances, if any, a permanent outflow of specie? Does an excess of imports lead to an outflow of specie?
    Wherein, if at all, does a country gain or lose in its foreign trade (a) if prices and money incomes are higher than in foreign countries; (b) if prices and money incomes are lower?

Mid-Year. 1915.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers in Economics, 1882-1935. Prof. F. W. Taussig. (HUC 7882). Scrapbook, p. 106.

______________________ 

Final Examination

ECONOMICS A

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Answer all the questions.

  1. Explain concisely: —

diminishing returns,
margin of cultivation,
equilibrium of supply and demand,
economic rent.

  1. Construct a simple index number of prices for 1914, using 1908 as the base.

 

1908

1914
Wheat, bbl.

$8.00

$12.00
Coal, ton

8.00

8.00
Iron, ton

18.00

9.00
Lumber, 1000 feet

20.00

15.00
Meat, lb.

.20

.30
Sugar, lb.

.10

.10

(1) Would the index-number point to a rise or a fall in the value of money? (2) Would a Board of Arbitration be justified in recommending a change in wages? If so, on what basis? If not, why not?

  1. Under what circumstances, if under any, will the imposition of a import duty cause the price of the dutiable commodity to fall? Under what will it fail to affect the price? Under what will it cause the price to rise?
  2. To what cause or causes should you ascribe: —

(a) the high level of general wages in the United States;
(b) the high wages of skilled workmen such as plumbers;
(c) the high wages of domestic servants in the United States;
(d) the high wages of trained nurses.

  1. Why is saving no less advantageous for laborers than lavish expenditure? Why do laborers usually favor ” making work “?
  2. “The standard of living affects wages not directly, but ” — how?
    What evidence of varying standards of living appears in the statistics of births and deaths for different countries? for different social classes?
  3. “The special question presented in this regard by the trust movement seems to be whether large-scale management adds something to the gains from large-scale production in the narrower sense. Here, too, it would appear at first sight that the matter may be allowed to settle itself. Let them fight it out and let that form of organization survive which does the work most cheaply.”
    Explain (a) what is meant by large-scale management and large-scale production; (b) what grounds there are for saying that they should be allowed to fight it out, what grounds for saying that they should not; (c) what legislation has recently been enacted in the United States on this subject.
  4. “Important distinctions exist between full-fledged socialism and public management of selected industries.” What are the distinctions?

Final. 1915.

 

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June 1915, pp. 39-59.

Image Source: Frank W. Taussig in Harvard Class Album, 1915.