Category: Economists

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Columbia Economic History Economists Germany Illinois Indiana Princeton

Halle (Germany). 1897 economics PhD alumnus and later Illinois professor, Ernest L. Bogart

 

Today’s post provides some biographical information about the American economic historian and long-time University of Illinois economics professor, Ernest L. Bogart. I might have begun my search beginning from the fact that Bogart was the 1931 President of the American Economic Association, but no, I stumbled across his name during an examination of the Columbia University Quarterly of March, 1899 where I read “Mr. E. L. Bogart, graduate student in 1897-98, has been appointed Professor of Political Economy at Indiana University”.  I could find no record of Bogart actually completing a degree at Columbia, so I slipped on my gum shoes and proceeded to do a background check. It wasn’t hard and again found an example of an economist who had lived a very successful academic life but has become dependent on the helping hand of a historian of economics to be dusted off, properly preserved, and displayed in a collection of artifacts. 

Ernest L. Bogart began his academic life as a Princeton man (A.B., 1890; A.M.,1896) and went on to the Johannes Conrad Seminar in Halle Germany to write a doctoral dissertation published as Die Finanzverhältnisse der Einzelstaaten der Nordamerikanischen Union [in Sammlung nationalökonomischer und statistischer Abhandlungen des staatswissenschaftlichen Seminars zu Halle a.d.S. herausgegeben von Johannes Conrad. Vol. 14. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1897]. He passed through Columbia University for one year in what we would today call a post-doc, then on to appointments at Smith College (probably filling in for Henry L. Moore on leave), then University of Indiana, Oberlin College, back to Princeton, and then to the University of Illinois in 1909.

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MEET THE FACULTY: ERNEST L. BOGART

After serving the University and his country—and even acting in an international capacity—for nearly a third of a century, Ernest L. Bogart, head of the department of economics from 1920 until the beginning of the current school year, and now professor of economics, emeritus, has retired, and, with Mrs. Bogart, is residing temporarily in New York City.

Mr. Bogart, whose notable, writings in the field of economics, are numerous and whose service to the nation has been wide and varied, assisted the Persian government in 1922-23. He was adviser on banking and currency to that Government and is credited with having aided materially in Persian monetary matters.

Born March 16, 1870 in Yonkers, N.Y., Mr. Bogart received his A.B. degree in 1890 and his A.M. degree in 1896, both from Princeton University. In 1897 he obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Halle, German.

Two years as an assistant professor of economic and social science at Indiana University were followed by five years service—1900-05—at Oberlin College. He then returned to his alma mater and for four years was assistant professor of economics. In 1909, he came to the University as professor of economics, a position he held until this year.

In addition to his service here, Mr. Bogart was professor of banking and finance, Georgetown School of Foreign Service, 1919-20, professor of economics, Claremont College, 1929-30 professor of economics during the summer sessions at Columbia University, University of California, University of Texas, and Southern California.

Mr. Bogart’s government service includes membership on the committee of public information, 1918, in charge of commodity studies bureau of research, War Trade Board, 1918, regional economist, foreign trade advisor, State Department, 1919-20, advisory committee, National Economic League since 1920, delegate of State Department to convention of foreign trade council, 1920, advisory committee, Stable Money Association since 1924, committee on monetary policy of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, 1933, government’s commission on unemployment, 1933, and economists’ national monetary commission since 1934.

The economist is a member of the National Park Association, Econometric Society (British), Foreign Policy Association, Persian-American Association, American Economic Association, Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Gamma Sigma, Delta Sigma Pi, and Phi Kappa Epsilon.

Source: From the Daily Illini, November 29, 1938, p. 3. Transcription also found at: University of Illinois. Conference on Iran’s Economy, December 11-13, 2008.

Image Source: Ernest L. Bogart, Historical faculty, department of economics, University of Illinois.

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Curriculum Economists Gender

Smith College. Henry L. Moore’s teaching, 1898-99

 

Looking for something quite different, I stumbled upon this picture of the young Henry Ludwell Moore from 1898 when he taught at Smith College. Since I very much like to display pictures of members of the economists’ pantheon from when they were young, I decided to look for some artifact associated with Moore’s teaching at Smith to include with the picture. For those interested in the history of economics education of women, such course catalogue excerpts from the traditional women’s colleges are of considerable interest.

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ECONOMICS.

Professor, Henry L. Moore.

  1. General Economics. A thorough course in the elements of the science. Lectures, recitations and papers. Text-book, Walker’s Political Economy (Advanced Course). Elective for Juniors, and, together with 2, alternate with History 5 or 8 in the group-system. Three hours a week for the first semester.
  2. Applied Economics. The Tariff; Railroad Transportation; Money. Lectures, recitations and debates. Elective for Juniors, and, together with 1, alternate with History 6 or 8 in the group-system. Three hours a week for the second semester.
  3. Modern Industrial Combinations. A study of Trusts, Pools and Corners. Elective for Seniors. Two hours a week for the first semester.
  4. Socialism and Social Reformers. A critical study of theories of the French and German Socialists, the Christian Socialists in England, the Fabians and the Nationalists. Elective for Seniors. Two hours a week for the second semester.

Source:   Official Circular of Smith College.  1898-99, p. 23.

Image Source:  Henry L. Moore in Classbook of 1898, Smith College.

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Agricultural Economics Chicago Economists Harvard

Chicago. Economics Professor William Hill. Events leading to his leave of absence, 1894

 

 

The “peculiarly sad circumstances”, apparently a manic break in a bi-polar disorder, were reported for University of Chicago economics professor William Hill in 1894. I was able to trace much of the c.v. of this Harvard economics A.M. for today’s post. Apparently his last professional station was at Bethany College in West Virginia where his wife was able to get an appointment teaching history. I’ll keep my eyes open for more biographical information about William Hill (not an uncommon name). There were probably also episodes of depression in his life.

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HE GOES TO KANSAS.
PROF. HILL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO GIVEN A VACATION. [1894]

Peculiarly Sad Circumstances Said to Surround the Action of the Faculty in Giving Mr. Hill Chance to Rest and Recuperate – He Is Deeply Interested in Irrigation Affairs, and a Lecture Before the Political Economy Club is Stopped by Physicians.

Prof. William Hill of the University of Chicago has been granted vacation under peculiar and sad circumstances.

Mr. Hill, who is instructor in tariff history and railway transportation, lives in Graduate Hall, occupying Suite No. 16. In addition to his duties in the university, Prof. Hill has been greatly interested in a scheme for the irrigation of arid land in the western part of Kansas. He has always been noted for his studious habits, and, having perfected his plans for reclaiming the Kansas property, he has recently been trying to form a company to give them practical application. At 4 o’clock Thursday morning of last week Night Watchmen Wilson was making his last rounds through Graduate Hall. He had just put out the lights on the third floor and was just about to descend when he heard stealthy footsteps on the floor below.

“Who is there?” He called. “Hill,” was the answer.

Going down Wilson was met by Prof. Hill, who was partially undressed.

“Do you want to make some money?” He asked.

The watchmen expressed his willingness to get rich.

“I’ll show you how you can make thousands,” said the professor, leading the astonished man into his room. There he proceeded to outline his plan for irrigating the dry lands of Kansas and to talk glibly of the vast sums of money to be made in the work.

Wilson was impressed with the peculiar manner of the professor and reported it to his superior officer. The same evening in Cobb Hall Prof. Hill was scheduled to deliver an address before the Political Economy club. He kept his appointment and began his lecture, but before going far the rambling manner of his talk so alarmed his listeners that a physician was summoned, who forbade him to finish. Later the same night Pres. Harper of the university and Prof. Laughlin were driven to the rooms of Prof. Hill and had a conference over his condition. In view of the fact that Prof. Hill’s condition is not considered serious it was decided not to remove him from his rooms, his brother coming on to attend him. Wednesday Prof. Hill was granted a vacation by the faculty and started for his old home in Kansas where he will remain until he has entirely recovered his health.

One of the launchers in graduate Hall was awakened before daylight Tuesday by hearing the professor talking in a loud and disconnected way. He was laboring under the delusion, apparently, that the faculty did not properly understand his case. “The facts must be laid before the members in a proper way,” said Prof. Hill, “so that they will know all about it. I know I am ill. Of course I am ill, but if the thing is not done right who is to know it?”

“What the professor was saying,” said the one who overheard him last night, “and his manner of saying it was like that of a man in a delirium. He has been overworked and overexcited over something. Once I went into his room and found a stranger there with him. The stranger had some sort of a machine, which he was showing Prof. Hill. I understood it was something to be used for irrigating purposes. The interest the professor showed in it was intense.”

When a call was made on Prof. J. Lawrence Laughlin last night the following conversation took place:

“It is said Prof. Hill, one of the instructors in your Department of Political Economy, is ill. Will you tell me how he is?”

“The report is utterly untrue, utterly untrue; Prof. Hill is away on his vacation.”

“Is there nothing the matter with him?”

“Nothing at all; the story is utterly untrue.”

[William Hill graduated from the University of Kansas in 1891 and spent the next year at Harvard where he took his masters degree under Dr. Taussig. At Harvard he also won the Lee Memorial Fellowship. He is the author of the American Economical Association monograph on “Colonial Tariffs.” He came to Chicago University in October, 1892 and has since then become popular with both students and faculty he is Acting President of the Political Economy club of the University and his known as a bicycle rider and tennis expert.]

Source:  Chicago Daily Tribune, 15 December 1894, p.1.

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Chicago Years

William Hill. Associate in Political Economy, 1893-94; Instructor, 1894-97; Assistant Professor, 1897-1908; Associate Professor, 1908-12.

Source: James Laurence Laughlin, Twenty-Five Years of the Department of Political Economy, University of Chicago. Chicago: Privately printed, 1916.

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Harvard Years

Resident Fellow

Henry Lee Memorial Fellowship, William Hill, A.B. (Univ. of Kansas) 1890, A.B. (Harvard Univ.) 1891, a student of Political Science.

Source:Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1890-91, p. 90. and  Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 96.

Henry Lee Memorial Fellowship

For 1892-93: WILLIAM HILL, A.B. (Kansas State Univ.) 1890, A.B. (Harvard Univ.) 1891, A.M, (Ibid.) 1892. Res. Gr. Stud., 1891-93. II. year of incumbency and as a student in the School. Studied at this University. Withdrew at the close of the year, and is now Instructor in Political Economy at the University of Chicago.

Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1892-93, p. 125.

Harvard Publications

William Hill, Colonial Tariffs, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 7, Issue 1, October 1892, Pages 78–100.

William Hill, “The First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States,”  Proceedings of the American Economic Association, 8 (1893), 452-614.

List of publications by William Hill at jstor.org.

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Bethany College, West Virginia

William Hill, A.B., A.M., Dean of Agriculture and Land Director.

Graduate of Friends’ Bloomingdale Academy,’ 87; Student in Earlham College [Richmond, Indiana], ’87-’88; Student in Kansas State University, ’88-’90; A.M., Harvard University, ’90-’93; Henry Lee Memorial Fellow in Harvard University, ’92-’93; Instructor in Economics in The University of Chicago, ’93-’95; Assistant Professor, ’95-’08; Associate Professor, ’08; Organizer and Director of the Agricultural Guild, ’08; Dean of Agriculture, Bethany, 1911 –

Wife:  Caroline Miles Hill, A.M., PhD., Professor of History.

A.B., Earlham College, 1887; Teacher in Friends Bloomingdale Academy, 1887-1889; A.M., Michigan State University, 1890; Fellow in History, Bryn Mawr College, 1890-1891; Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1892; Professor of History and Philosophy, Mount Holyoke College, 1892-1893; Professor of History, Wellesley College, 1893-1895; Studied in Europe, 1895-1896; Engaged in Educational and Social Work in Chicago, 1896-1910; Principal of Friends  Bloomingdale Academy, 1910-1912; Professor, Bethany, 1912 —

Source: Bethany College Bulletin, 1912 and 1913, p.8.

Source for marriage

Hill, William: s. 87-88; m. Caroline Miles, A 1887; l. add. Chicago, Ill.

Source: Who’s Who Among Earlhamites 1916, p. 82.

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Caroline Miles Hill, Instructor in History, ’93-’95, has recently published a valuable anthology, “The World’s Greatest Religious Poetry” [Macmillan, 1923].

Source:  The Michigan Alumnus. Vol 33 (1926-27), p. 127.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Columbia Economists

Columbia. Economics department in WWII. Excerpt from letter to President Butler, Nov. 1942

 

There is a lot of information packed into the annual budget requests submitted by an economics department. Below I have limited the excerpt from the November 30, 1942 budget submission by the head of the economics department to Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler to a brief introduction that provides an executive summary of the state of staffing and enrollment one year into the Second World War for the U.S. 

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Excerpt from R. M. Haig’s Budgetary Requests for 1943-44

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

File: R. M. Haig
November 30, 1942

President Nicholas Murray Butler
Columbia University

My dear Mr. President:

[…]

Introductory

Before turning to the detailed proposals, it may be helpful to outline certain facts regarding the general situation we face.

  1. The war has made heavy inroads on both our staff and our students. Two ([James W.] Angell and [Arthur R.] Burns) of our ten regular professor offering graduate instruction are in Washington on war service and most of those who remain are devoting a substantial portion of their time to the war effort. The staff of Columbia College has been even more heavily hit. Of the men giving instruction in the college in 1940-1941, [Carl Theodore] Schmidt and [Charles Ashley] Wright are now army officers, [Hubert Frank] Havlik, [Clement Lowell] Harriss, [Walt Whitman] Rostow and [Donald William] O’Connell are in war work in Washington, and [Robert] Valeur is devoting most of his time to aiding the Free French. However, we have been exceedingly fortunate in the substitutes we have been able to secure and (especially as compared with other institutions) we present a strong front in spite of our losses.
  2. It was apparent a year ago that the demand from Washington for persons with graduate training would sweep large numbers of our students from their classrooms before the completion of their courses. Requisitions for economists continue to arrive in almost every mail although we have long since placed in positions everyone on our eligible lists. Yet, as we anticipated last year, our body of graduate students still remains at a figure that makes it desirable and necessary to offer substantially all of our fundamental courses. The decline in the number of our students since our peak year (1938-1939, when 340 were registered) has been very great. However, we still are the largest graduate department of economics in the country by a wide margin. I am told that at Harvard, where there were 115 students last year, only 33 are in attendance this semester, and that at Chicago a similar loss has been suffered. In my letter dated December 30, 1941, it was suggested that we might have as many as 150 graduate students registered in our department this year. The latest count shows 130, with a fair prospect that the figure of 150 will be reached in the Spring session. A poll of the staff shows that, in the opinion of some, the number will be fully as large next year and the consensus is that the number will not be less than 100. Moreover all agree that with the coming of peace we shall be faced with an influx of students which may easily swamp the facilities of our graduate staff. For Columbia College, where this year the enrollment has been large, the outlook for economics in 1942-1943 is very obscure. At this time, it appears probable that the regular offering of courses, at least in skeleton form, will be required to serve a small number of regular students. Fortunately the commitments of the University to individuals on the College staff are such that the situation is highly flexible and can be accommodated with relative ease to whatever special program may be adopted for the undergraduates. In this budget, request is made for appropriations in blank for several instructorships, to be utilized only in case the need for them develops as plans for the college become more definite.
  3. Because of retirements, actual or more or less immediately impending, the department is faced with a serious problem of wise replacement of staff in its graduate division, if we are to maintain in the future the position of eminence we have held in the past. In view of this problem, it has seemed wise to make a virtue of our necessities and to utilize the need for temporary replacements for professors absent on leave during the emergency as an opportunity to invite as visiting professors certain men whom we rate high in the list of possible future staff members. This year we have three such men on the campus ([Oskar] Lange, Arthur F. Burns and [Clarence Arthur] Kulp). We believe that it will be wise to continue this policy of exploration and experimentation next year with funds released from the appropriations for the salaries of [James W.] Angell and Arthur R. Burns, in case the war continues and they do not return to their regular posts.
  4. As an incident to the policy referred to in the preceding paragraph, we have been able this year to offer a remarkably strong series of courses in the field of economic theory. However, we are this year relatively weak in economic history, socialism and industrial organization, offering no courses at all in the last-named subject. The chief embarrassment experienced this year by the unsettled staff situation has been in connection with the supervision of student research. Some of our students who have dissertations in progress have been seriously inconvenienced by the absence of the professors under whom they initiated their studies.

[…]

Source: Columbia University Archives. Central Files 1890-. Box 386, Folder “Haig, Robert Murray 7/1942—1/1943”.

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Berkeley Chicago Economists Germany Harvard New School Princeton

Harvard. Curriculum vitae submitted by Albert O. Hirschman, ca. 1942

 

One of those serendipitous finds in rummaging through a department’s correspondence in search of one thing (curricular material in my case) is the artifact transcribed for this post, a c.v. submitted to the Harvard department of economics by a 27 or 28 year old Rockefeller Foundation fellow,  O. Albert Hirschmann. It is written in a narrative, autobiographical style as was the custom in Europe of the time. Because I had the great pleasure of having worked as Albert O. Hirschman’s assistant at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton during the 1980-81 academic year, I photographed his early c.v. in an act of filial piety. Of course all this and more can be found in the prize-winning biography written by Jeremy Adelman: Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman. Princeton University Press, 2013. Nonetheless, the c.v. possesses the charm of being the original words chosen by Hirschman to market himself back when he was just one of dozens of European economist émigrés looking for steady work.

Thanks to Adelman’s book I learned (p. 203) that one of my Yale mentors, William Fellner, taught a general seminar on the principles of economics at Berkeley that Albert Hirschman took during his Rockefeller Foundation fellowship. Historically speaking, it’s a small world! 

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O. Albert Hirschmann
1751 Highland Place
Berkeley, Calif.

CURRICULUM VITAE

I was born on April 7th, 1915, in Berlin. My nationality is Lithuanian. In 1932 I began to study law and economics at the University of Berlin. In April, 1933, I left for Paris, where I registered at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (H.E.C.) and at the Institut de Statistiques de l’Université de Paris at the Sorbonne. In 1935 I had obtained the diplomas of both these institutions.

At the end of 1935, I went to England, in order to study for several months at the London School of Economics and Political Science under a scholarship granted to me by the International Student Service, which had already granted to me by the International Student Service, which had already helped me during my former studies. I had courses with Professors Robbins [1898-1984], T. E. Gregory [1890-1970] and B. A. Whale [Philip Barrett Whale, 1898-1950]. I worked in particular under Mr. Whale on French monetary policy since the stabilization of the Franc.

At the end of 1936, after a short stay at Paris, I applied for, and obtained a place as an assistant at the Institute of Statistics of the University of Trieste. I remained there until the middle of 1938, when I was compelled to return to Paris because of the anti-foreign and anti-semitic policy of the Fascist government. At Trieste, I worked under Professor P. Luzzatto-Fegiz [1900-1989]. I became much interested in Population Statistics and a part of my researches in this field was published in an article in the Giornale degli Economisti, January, 1938: “Nota su due recenti tavole di nuzialità della popolazione italiana.” (“A note on two recent nuptiality tables of the Italian population”.) I worked also on several problems of economic statistics and in particular on the statistics of the national income and of family budgets. At the same time I studied for my Doctor’s degree, which I obtained with the grade 120 points in a total of 120, in June, 1938. My thesis was a continuation and an expansion of the work on French monetary policy which I had begun at the London School of Economics. The thesis was to be printed in the Annals of the University, but this was rendered impossible by the subsequent political developments.

While still in Italy, during the first months of 1938, I tried to acquaint myself thoroughly with the Italian financial and economic situation. I finally sent an extensive report to Paris, which was published as a separate booklet, without naming the author, in June, 1938, by the Bulletin Quotidien de la Société d’Études et d’Informations Économiques, under the title: “Les Finances et l’Économie Italiennes – Situation actuelle et perspectives.” This report attracted some attention in Paris because by combining data from various sources I had thrown some light on the Italian economic and financial development which was surrounded by official secrecy. It was upon this report that Professor Charles Rist [1874-1955] offered me to collaborate in his Institut de Recherches Économiques et Sociales. Italy was my special field and from July, 1938, to April, 1940, I wrote regularly three-monthly reports on Italian economic development in L’Activité Économique, which was the publication of the Institute.

I also wrote a small booklet for the above named Bulletin Quotidian on the subject: “L’Industrie Textile Italienne et l’Autarcie.”

In November, 1938, Professor J. B. Condliffe [1891-1981], who was then acting as the director of studies for the International Studies Conference at Bergen, and in this capacity was organizing an international inquiry into the national systems of exchange control, entrusted me with the preparation of a report on the exchange control system of Italy. I also worked on other problems in connection with the Conference and, in particular, devised a new method of measuring the tendency toward bilateralism as completely distinct from the tendency towards equilibrium of foreign trade. Professor Condliffe encouraged me to write a small paper on this idea, and thus I presented two reports at the international Studies Conference at Bergen in 1939: (1) “Le Contrôle des Changes en Italie”—a report of ninety mimeographed pages by the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, which for various reasons was not signed, (2) “Étude Statistique de la Tendance du Commerce International [extérieur] Vers l’Équilibre et le Bilatéralisme”—a shorter paper also mimeographed and signed. A recent publication of the U.S. Tariff Commission on “Italian Commercial Policy (1922 – 1940)” has made an extensive use of my report on Italian Exchange Control, whereas Professor Condliffe has quoted my figures on bilateralism in his book “The Reconstruction of World Trade”.

I had registered as a volunteer for the French Army in case of war, in April, 1939. I was called as early as August, 1939. The stationary character of the war gave me the opportunity to prepare still two reports on the Italian economy, the necessary source-material being sent from Paris. After the armistice, in July, 1940, I was demobilized at Nîmes, in Southern France. From there I went to Marseilles, where I met Mr. Varian Fry [1907-1967], who had been sent to Marseilles by the Emergency Rescue Committee in order to evacuate political and intellectual refugees from France. I collaborated with him from August to December, 1940, when, upon the recommendation of Professor Condliffe, I obtained a Rockefeller fellowship, and thereupon the American visa. I arrived in this country on January 14, 1941.

After a short stay in the East, I went to the University of California at Berkeley to work in connection with a research project on Foreign Trade, directed by Professor Condliffe. Soon after my arrival at Berkeley, I met my wife and we were married in June 1941.

My original research plan was to give a statistical analysis of recent quantitative trends in world trade and my first months were spent in working out the specific problems which I intended to study. I wrote several papers on the measurement of concentration and related subjects in descriptive statistics which I hope to publish either as appendices to my main manuscript or as separate journal articles. The next step in my research was to apply the statistical methods which I had worked out to the foreign trade statistics. This required extensive calculations for which Professor Condliffe put an assistant at my disposal. I also participated in several graduate seminars and took a course in the theory of probability.

Upon the renewal of the Rockefeller fellowship for another year and after a two months illness during the winter of 1941-1942, I began to work at the theoretical and historical aspects of the problems which I had first studied from a purely quantitative point of view. The result of my research has now been embodied in a manuscript of 300 pages entitled “National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade”, of which only the concluding section remains to be written.

Professors Howard S. Ellis [1898-1992] and Condliffe have given me the assurance that the manuscript would be published by a series edited by the newly established Bureau of Economic and Business Research of the University of California. One chapter of the manuscript giving a new statistical analysis of the composition of world trade according to commodity groups, is somewhat loosely connected with the rest and it has been suggested to me to have it published as a separate article. The Rockefeller Foundation has granted me the expenses for a trip to the Middle West and East on which I have just had the opportunity to discuss my manuscript with Professor Viner [1892-1970] at Chicago, Professors Haberler [1900-1995] and Staley [Eugene Alvah Staley (1906-1989) was at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy] at Harvard, Professors Staudinger [1889-1980] and Lowe [1893-1995] at the New School of Social Research and with Professor Loveday [1888-1962] and Mr. [Folke] Hilgerdt [1894-1956] of the Economic Intelligence Service of the League at Princeton.

As a result of my training, I have acquired a certain specialization in statistical methods on the one hand and in the field of international economics on the other (theory and history of international trade, international monetary problems, exchange control, foreign trade statistics, etc.) Through my work in Europe I am well acquainted, in particular, with the economic problems of Italy and France.

Having studied for prolonged periods in Germany, France and Italy, I speak and write with complete fluency the languages of these countries. I also have a reading knowledge of Spanish.

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 5, Folder “H”.

Image Source: Albert O. Hirschman before he was dispatched to North Africa, circa 1943. From Michele Alacevich’s Introduction to “Albert Hirschman and the Social Sciences: A Memorial Round-Table” posted July 25, 2015.

Categories
Economists Michigan Suggested Reading Syllabus

Michigan. National Income Syllabus. Gardner Ackley, 1958

 

The following syllabus for Gardner Ackley’s 1958 course on Keynesian macroeconomics was found in the Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University. I have added three short biographical items for this midwestern economist who served as chairman of President Johnson’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1964-68. 

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GARDNER ACKLEY
Minute of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

On February 12, 1998, University Professor Emeritus Gardner Ackley passed away at the age of 82, and the economics profession lost one of its true stars.

Gardner Ackley.

  • Served as a distinguished member of the Michigan faculty from 1940 until his retirement in 1984,
  • Chaired the department with great distinction from 1954 to 1961,
  • Published the textbook, Macroeconomics Theory (1961), which defined that field for a generation of economics students around the world,
  • Served President Lyndon Johnson as Chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers from 1964 to 1968,
  • Served the nation as American Ambassador to Italy during 1968-69, and,
  • Was rewarded by his profession with election to the Presidency of the American Economic Association in 1982.

These accomplishments and honors distinguish the career of Gardner Ackley as among the most stellar of his generation, and they define a standard worthy to inspire the succeeding generations of professional economists.

No celebration of Gardner Ackley, however, should conclude without mentioning at least the following two of the many significant challenges he shouldered during his distinguished career. His years as Chair of the Michigan Department of Economics included the period of challenge to academic freedom and McCarthyism. Gardner stood solidly in support of students and colleagues in those years in ways that marked him as a man of extraordinary courage and integrity. Later, as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, he stood up once again for what he believed, this time challenging the President of the United States to adopt a proper, if unpopular, anti-inflationary policy as the war in Vietnam stretched the economic capacities of an already fully-employed nation.

Those of us who knew Gardner, whether as a colleague, mentor, or teacher, feel privileged to have known him and appreciate the dimension of his loss.

Source:  University of Michigan, Faculty History Project. LSA Minutes, Gardner Ackley.

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From the University of Michigan Alumni Magazine
February 13, 1954

GARDNER ACKLEY, AM. ’37, Ph.D. ’40, who was named Chairman of the Department of Economics effective February 1, has divided his time almost equally since 1940 between the University and the Federal government. He joined the faculty in 1940 as an Instructor, and became a full Professor in 1952. Professor Ackley’s government service has been with the National Resources Planning Board, the wartime OPA, the Office of Strategic Services, the Economic Stabilization Agency, and, during 1951 and 1952, as Economic Advisor and Assistant Director of the Office of Price Stabilization. Professor Ackley earned his A.B. at Western Michigan College; he is a member of the American Economic Association and the Econometric Society. He has served on numerous University committees, including the Board in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics.

Source: Classroom Profile. The Michigan Alumnus (February 13, 1954) p. 214.

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Biography from Guide to Gardner Ackley Papers

(Hugh) Gardner Ackley was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 30, 1915. In 1936, Ackley received his baccalaureate degree from Western State Teachers College (now Western Michigan University) in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 1937, a master’s degree was conferred upon Ackley by the University of Michigan and in 1940 he received a doctoral degree from the same institution.

In 1939 and 1940, Ackley was an instructor at Ohio State University, returning to teach at the University of Michigan in late 1940. Throughout the Second World War he served as a member of the government in Washington. From 1941 to 1942, and again from 1944 to 1946 he worked at the Office of Price Administration. In 1943 and 1944 he was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services. Concluding his wartime service, Mr. Ackley returned to the University of Michigan where he resumed his academic career in the Department of Economics.

Ackley returned to government service in 1951, serving for two years as the assistant director of the Office of Price Stabilization. After completing this assignment he once again returned to Ann Arbor to carry on scholarly pursuits.

Gardner Ackley left Ann Arbor for Washington for the third time in August 1962 when President John Kennedy named him as a member of the Council of Economic Advisors. He served as a member of the council until November 14, 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson named him the new chairman of the CEA. Early in 1968, Mr. Ackley left the council to become ambassador to Italy, a post he held until 1969. After returning from Italy, Ackley again resumed his academic career at the University of Michigan.

From 1969 until 1984 Ackley was the Henry Carter Adams University Professor of Political Economy at the University of Michigan. During this same period, he served on many national commissions and councils devoted to economic issues. He was a member of the Trilateral Commission from 1977 to 1983 and during 1978-1979 he was a member of the Advisory Council on Social Security. He also served as president of the American Economics Association during 1982.

Among his many honors, Ackley received the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award at the University of Michigan in 1976 and he was also elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science. Ackley has been professor emeritus since 1984.

Gardner Ackley died February 12, 1998.

Source:  University of Michigan. Bentley Historical Library. Guide to Papers of Gardner Ackley.

__________________

Syllabus 1958

[Handwritten note by Bronfenbrenner: G. Ackley (Michigan)]

Economics 151
NATIONAL INCOME I
Reading List

Second Semester, 1957-58

In the following list selected readings on topics to be covered in the course are arranged under two headings: “Assignments,” which all students should study, and “References,” which usually (but not always) present a more advanced or more specialized treatment, or a conflicting point of view. No effort is made to supply references on topics only lightly touched on in the course. Publisher and date of publication are given only upon first listing. Additional assignments may be made in class.

All students should purchase J. M. Keynes, General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, Harcourt-Brace, 1936. (This will be referred to as “Keynes.”) In addition, each student should purchase, at the Cashier’s Office in the Administration Building, a “lab ticket” for this course (price $3.75). This will entitle him to receive a copy of the preliminary edition of G. Ackley, An Introduction to Macroeconomic Theory, which will be distributed in class. (This will be referred to as “Ackley.”)

Modern textbooks which treat the general field covered by this course include the following:

  1. R. and N. Ruggles, National Income and Income Analysis (McGraw-Hill, 2nded., 1956).
  2. T. Schelling, National Income Behavior: An Introduction to Algebraic Analysis (McGraw-Hill, 1951)
  3. A. P. Lerner, Economics of Employment (McGraw-Hill, 1951)
  4. S. Weintraub, Income and Employment Analysis (Pitman, 1951)
  5. R. V. Clemence, Income Analysis (Addison-Wesley, 1951)
  6. J. P. McKenna, Aggregate Economic Analysis (Dryden, 1955)
  7. T. Morgan, Income and Employment (Prentice-Hall, 2nded., 1952)

In this reading list no references are given to these textbooks. The student who wishes to use any of them can, however, easily find the appropriate sections from the table of contents.

Two other books which many students find helpful in understanding Keynes’ General Theory are A. H. Hansen, Guide to Keynes (McGraw-Hill, 1953); and D. Dillard, The Economics of J. M. Keynes (Prentice-Hall, 1948).

There will be one or more written problems which all students will be expected to hand in. Graduate students will be expected to write a paper.

  1. INTRODUCTION (Feb. 6,8)

Assignments:

  1. Ackley, Ch. I.

References:

  1. K. Kurihara, Introduction to Keynesian Dynamics (Columbia University Press, 1956), ch. 1

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. MEANING AND MEASUREMENT OF NATIONAL INCOME AND PRODUCT  (Feb. 11 – 18)

Assignments:

  1. Ackley, Chs. II and III.
  2. National Income Supplement to the Survey of Current Business, 1954 edition
    (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 1954), Parts I and II. Every student is urged to purchase this useful volume.)

References:

  1. National Income Supplement, Part III.
  2. A System of National Accounts and Supporting Tables, Studies in Methods, No. 2 (Series F). (United Nations, 1953)
  3. A Simplified System of National Accounts (Organization for European Economic Cooperation, 1952)
  4. H. C. Edey and A.T. Peacock, National Income and Social Accounting, (Hutchinson’s University Library, 1954)
  5. R. and N. Ruggles, National Income Accounts and Income Analysis. (McGraw-Hill, 1956) pp. 3-210.
  6. C. S. Shoup, Principles of National Income Analysis. (Houghton, Mifflin, 1947
  7. S. Kuznets, National Income: A Summary of Findings. (National Bureau of Economic Research, 1946) Especially pp. 111-139.
  8. C. S. Shoup, “Development and Use of National Income Data,” in Survey of Contemporary Economics. (H.S. Ellis, ed., Blakiston, 1949), pp. 288-313.
  9. S. Kuznets, “National Income and Economic Welfare,” in Economic Change. (Norton, 1953), pp. 145-215.
  10. J. R. Hicks, “Valuation of Social Income,” Economica, Vol. VII (new series), May 1940
  11. K. E. Boulding, “Income or Welfare,” Review of Economic Studies, Vol. XVII, 1949-50.
  12. J. P. Powelson, Economic Accounting. (McGraw-Hill, 1955), Chs. 14-20.
  13. Keynes, Ch. 6.
  14. The National Economic Accounts of the United States: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Economic Statistics of the Joint Economic Committee (U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1957), esp. pp. 101-299.

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. OUTPUT AND EMPLOYMENT (Feb. 20 – 25)

Assignments:

  1. National Income Supplement, Part IV.
  2. G. Bancroft, “Current Unemployment Statistics of the Census Bureau and Some Alternatives,” in The Measurement and Behavior of Unemployment (Princeton University Press, 1957), pp. 63-119.

References:

  1. Keynes, Ch. 4
  2. M. Gilbert and I.B. Kravis, An International Comparison of National Products and the Purchasing Power of Currencies (Organization for European Economic Cooperation, 1954). Also see references under II, especially items 7 and 9.
  3. Other papers in Measurement and Behavior of Unemployment.

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. THE “CLASSICAL” ECONOMICS (Feb. 27 – March 8)

Assignments:

  1. Ackley, Chs. V, VI.
  2. Keynes, Ch. 2
  3. A. H. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy (McGraw-Hill, 1949) Ch. 3
  4. Ackley, Chs. VII, VIII.

References:

  1. F.M. Taylor, Principles of Economics(Ronald, 9thed., 1921), pp. 196-205.
  2. K. Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy(English translation by L. Robbins, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1935), Vol. II, especially pp. 159-208.

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. OBSTACLES TO FULL EMPLOYMENT (March 11 – 15)

Assignments:

  1. Ackley, Ch. IX
  2. Keynes, Chs. 13, 15.

References:

  1. A. H. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Ch. 4.
  2. A. P. Lerner, “Interest Theory,” in The New Economics (S.E. Harris, ed., Knopf, 1947), pp. 655-661.
  3. L. R. Klein, The Keynesian Revolution (Macmillan, 1949), pp. 69 (top), – 73 (Middle), 117-123.
  4. Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution. (Selected by a Committee of the American Economic Association, Blakiston, 1946), articles by Keynes, Robertson, Hicks, Somers, and Lutz.
  5. A. G. Hart, Money, Debt, and Economic Activity. (Prentice-Hall, 1948), Ch. 8.
  6. Keynes, General Theory, Ch. 17.
  7. D. H. Robertson, “Some Notes on the Theory of Interest,” in Money, Trade, and Economic Growth (Macmillan, 1931), pp. 193-209.
  8. S. C. Tsiang, “Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds Theories, Multiplier and Velocity Analyses: A Synthesis,” American Economic Review, XLVI (Sept. 1956), pp. 539-555.
  9. G. Ackley, “Liquidity Preference and Loanable Funds Theories of Interest: Comment,” ibid., XLVII (Sept. 1957), pp. 662-73.
  10. K. Kurihara, Introduction to Keynesian Dynamics, ch. 4.

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. HOUR EXAMINATION (March 18)

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. CONSUMER EXPENDITURES AND THE SIMPLE KEYNESIAN MODEL (March 20 – April 2)

Assignments:

  1. Ackley, Ch. X.
  2. Keynes, Chs. 1, 3, 5, 8, 9.
  3. G. Katona, “The Variability of Consumer Behavior and the Survey Method,” in Contributions of Survey Methods to Economics (L.R. Klein, ed., Columbia Univ. Press, 1945) pp. 49-67, 78-88.

References:

  1. R. Ferber, A Study of Aggregate Consumption Functions. (Technical Paper 8, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1953)
  2. Ruth Mack, “Economics of Consumption,” in A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Vol. II, with comment by J.S. Davis and J. Marschak (ed. B. Haley, Irwin, 1952), Ch. 2.
  3. G. Katona, Psychological Analysis of Economic Behavior. (McGraw-Hill, 1951), pp. 63-192.
  4. G. Katona and E. Mueller, Consumer Attitudes and Demand, 1950-52. (Survey Research Center, 1956).
  5. G. Katona and E. Mueller, Consumer Expectations, 1953-1956. (Survey Research Center, 1956).
  6. Savings in the Modern Economy, ed. W.W. Heller, F.M. Boddy, and C.L. Nelson. (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1953), Chs. 7, 8, 13.
  7. E. F. Denison, “Saving in the National Economy,”Survey of Current Business, January 1955, pp. 8-24.
  8. I. Friend (with V. Natrella), Individual Saving: Volume and Composition (John Wiley, 1954). Especially pp. 118-154.
  9. R. Klein, ed., Contributions of Survey Methods to Economics.
  10. J. S. Duesenberry, Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, (Harvard University Press, 1949)
  11. J. S. Duesenberry, “Income-Consumption Relations and their Implications,” in Income, Employment, and Public Policy. (Norton, 1948), pp. 54-81.
  12. J. Tobin, “Relative Income, Absolute Income, and Saving,” in Money, Trade, and Economic Growth. (Macmillan, 1951), pp. 135-156.
  13. J. Tobin, “Asset Holdings and Spending Decisions,” American Economic Review, XLII (May 1952) pp. 109-123.
  14. J. R. Hicks, A Contribution to the Theory of the Trade Cycle (Oxford University Press, 1950), Chs. 2, 3.
  15. R. F. Harrod, Towards a Dynamic Economics, (Macmillan, 1949), pp. 35-62.
  16. A. C. Pigou, Employment and Equilibrium (2ndedition, Macmillan, 1949), pp. 28-46.
  17. M. Friedman, A Theory of the Consumption Function (Princeton University Press, 1957)
  18. K. Kurihara, Introduction to Keynesian Dynamics, ch. 2.
  19. F. Modigliani and R. Brumberg, “Utility Analysis and the Consumption Function: An Interpretation of Cross-Section Data” in K. Kurihara (ed.), Post-Keynesian Economics. (Rutgers University Press, 1954), pp. 388-436.

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. APPLICATIONS AND EXTENSIONS OF THE SIMPLE KEYNESIAN MODEL (Apr. 3, 5, 15, 17)

Assignments:

  1. Ackley, Ch. XII.
  2. Keynes, Chs. 7, 10.
  3. P. A. Samuelson, “Simple Mathematics of Income Determination,” in Income, Employment, and Public Policy, pp. 133-155.

References:

  1. G. Haberler, “Mr. Keynes’ Theory of the Multiplier,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, selected by a committee of the American Economic Association (Blakiston, 1944), pp. 193-202.
  2. F. Machlup, “Period Analysis and Multiplier Theory,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 203-234.
  3. R. M. Goodwin, “The Multiplier,” in The New Economics. (S.E. Harris, ed., Knopf, 1947), pp. 482-499.
  4. G. Ackley, “The Multiplier Time Period,” American Economic Review, June 1951.
  5. R. Turvey, “Some Notes on Multiplier Theory,” American Econ. Review, June 1953
  6. L. A. Metzler, “Three Lags in the Circuit Flow of Income,” in Income, Employment and Public Policy, pp. 11-32.
  7. A. P. Lerner, “Saving Equals Investment,” in The New Economics, pp. 619-626.
  8. L. R. Klein, The Keynesian Revolution, pp. 75 (bottom) – 80 (top), 110-117.
  9. F. A. Lutz, “The Outcome of the Saving-Investment Discussion,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 158-168.
  10. A. P. Lerner, “Saving and Investment,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 158-168. [sic]
  11. A. H. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy (McGraw-Hill, 1949), pp. 219-225.
  12. A. H. Hansen, Business Cycles and National Income (Norton, 1951), pp. 156-163, 606-616.
  13. K. Kurihara, Introduction to Keynesian System, chs. 5, 6, 7.

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. THE COMPLETE KEYNESIAN SYSTEM (April 19 – May 1)

Assignments:

  1. Ackley, Chs. XIII, XIV
  2. Keynes, Chs. 14 (Appendix optional), 18, 19 (Appendix optional), 20 (Sec. I optional) 21 (Sec IV optional), 24.
  3. A. P. Lerner, The Economics of Control. (Macmillan, 1944), Chs. 22, 23.

References:

  1. A. H. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Ch. 5, 7, 8, 9.
  2. J. R. Hicks, “Mr. Keynes and the ‘Classics’,” in Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution, pp. 461-476.
  3. O. Lange, “The Rate of Interest and the Optimum Propensity to Consume,” in Readings in Business Cycle Theory, pp. 169-178 (only).
  4. D. Patinkin, “Price Flexibility and Full Employment,” in Readings in Monetary Theory. (eds. F.A. Lutz and L.W. Mintz, Blakiston, 1951), pp. 252-58.
  5. F. Modigliani, “Liquidity Preference and the Theory of Interest and Money,” Readings in Monetary Theory, pp. 186-239.
  6. A. P. Lerner, “Relation of Wage Policies and Price Policies,” in Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution, pp. 314-329.
  7. L. G. Reynolds, “Relations between Wage Rates, Costs, and Prices,” in Readings in the Theory of Income Distribution, pp. 294-313.
  8. J. Tobin, “Money Wage Rates and Employment,” in The New Economics, pp. 572-587.
  9. J. Lintner, “The Theory of Money and Prices,” in The New Economics, pp. 503-537.
  10. L. R. Klein, The Keynesian Revolution, pp. 72-75, 80-90, 106-110, 199-206.
  11. L. R. Klein, “Theories of Effective Demand and Employment,” Journal of Political Economy, April, 1947.
  12. E. S. Mason, “Prices, Costs, and Profits,” in Money, Trade, and Economic Growth, pp. 177-190.
  13. J. R. Schlesinger, “After Twenty Years: The General Theory,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (November 1956), pp. 581-602.
  14. “Keynesian Economics after Twenty Years,” (Papers and comments by W. Fellner, D. Dillard, D. Wright, W.A. Salent, and T. Scitovsky), American Economic Review, XLVII (May 1957), pp. 67-95.
  15. A.C. Pigou, Keynes’ General Theory(Macmillan, 1950).
  16.  K. Kurihara, Introduction to Keynesian Dynamics, ch. 10.

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. HOUR EXAMINATION (May 3)

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. INFLATION (May 6, 8)

Assignments:

  1. A. H. Hansen, Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, ch. 11
  2. A. P. Lerner, Economics of Employment, chs. 13, 14 (15 and 16 optional).

References:

  1. K. Kurihara, Introduction to Keynesian Dynamics, ch. 8.
  2. A. Smithies, “The Behavior of Money National Income under Inflationary Conditions,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, LVII (1942)
  3. T. Koopmans, “The Dynamics of Inflation,” Review of Economic Statistics, XXIV (1942)
  4. J. Duesenberry, “The Mechanics of Inflation,” and F. Holzman, “Income Determination in Open Inflation,” Review of Economics and Statistics, XXXII (1950).
  5. B. Hansen, A Study in the Theory of Inflation (Allen and Unwin, 1951), especially ch. VII.

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. THE THEORY OF INVESTMENT (May 10 – 17)

Assignments:

  1. Ackley, Ch. XV.
  2. Keynes, Chs. 11, 12, 16, 22.
  3. J. R. Meyer and E. Kuh, The Investment Decision (Harvard Univ. Press, 1957), Ch. 1.

References:

  1. A. P. Lerner, Economics of Control, Ch. 25
  2. L. R. Klein, Keynesian Revolution, pp. 62-69.
  3. A. Smithies, “Economic Fluctuations and Growth,”Econometrica, 25 (January 1957), pp. 1-52.
  4. K. Kurihara, Introduction to Keynesian Dynamics, ch. 3.

*  *  *  *  *  *

  1. ECONOMIC POLICY AND THE PRESENT SITUATION (May 20 – 27)

Assignments:

  1. Lerner, Economics of Control, Ch. 24.
  2. M. Friedman, “A Monetary and Fiscal Framework for Economic Stability,” in Readings in Monetary Theory, pp. 369-393.
  3. To be announced.

*  *  *  *  *  *

    1. MISCELLANEOUS FURTHER REFERENCES:

  1. J. Robinson, Essays in the Theory of Employment (Macmillan, 1937).
  2. R. F. Harrod, The Life of John Maynard Keynes. (Harcourt-Brace, 1951).
  3. J. A. Schumpeter, “John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946,” American Economic Review, Sept. 1946 (reprinted in The New Economics, pp. 73-101).
  4. The New Economics, Chs. 1-8, 11-19, 31-35, 39, 41, 42.
  5. A. F. Burns, Economic Research and the Keynesian Thinking of our Times (26thAnnual Report of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., June 1946).

 

Source:  Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Martin Bronfenbrenner Papers, Box 25, Folder “Macro-Econ, n.d.”.

Image Source:  University of Michigan, Faculty History Project, Gardner Ackley page.

 

Categories
Berkeley Economists Yale

Berkeley and Yale. Short c.v. of William Fellner. Haberler’s remembrance, 1983

 

In earlier posts I provided the reading lists for courses that my Yale mentor, William John Fellner, offered at Harvard in 1950-51 (History of Economics, Advanced Economic Theory). The last time I spoke with Mr. Fellner was at lunch in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., ca. 1976. He brought along his regular lunch companion, Gottfried Haberler. I had no idea at the time who Gottfried Haberler was, and Haberler wasted no words with me, but I did take away one impression. The man ate faster than any human that I had ever met before. There is a German proverb to the effect that you work the way you eat so I presumed Gottfried Haberler was a genuine Arbeitstier (work+animal). Anyhow today’s post offers transcriptions of two items about William Fellner from Gottfried Haberler having to do with my dear mentor William Fellner.

First, three other obituaries:

____________________

November 1982

William Fellner

Born in Budapest, Hungary, May 31, 1905. Citizen of the United States since 1944. Studied at the University of Budapest; at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (Dipl. Ing. Chem. 1927); and at the University of Berlin (Ph.D., Econ., 1929). Partner in a family enterprise in the Hungarian manufacturing industries 1929-38; member of the Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 1939-52; Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1952-73 (Sterling Professor of Economics 1959-73; Emeritus since 1973). Member of President’s Council of Economic Advisers, 1973-75; at present Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C., also Project Director of and contributor to Contemporary Economic Problems (a volume of studies published yearly since 1976 by the American Enterprise Institute).

Past President (1969) of the American Economic Association; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; consultant of the Congressional Budget Office.

Honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa since 1952. Awarded Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the German Federal Republic, 1979. Awarded Bernhard-Harms Prize of the Institute of World Economics, University of Kiel (1982). Corresponding Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

Publications include among others: Monetary Policies and Full Employment (1946), Competition Among the Few (1949), Trends and Cycles in Economic Activity (1955),Emergence and Content of Modern Economic Analysis (1960), Probability and Profit (1965), Towards a Reconstruction of Macroeconomics: Problems of Theory and Policy (1976).

In addition, articles in scientific journals and contributions to symposia. Some recent items among these are Correcting Taxes for Inflation (with Kenneth W. Clarkson and John H. Moore), American Enterprise Institute, June 1975; “Lessons from the Failure of Demand-Management Policies: A Look at the Theoretical Foundations”, Journal of Economic Literature, March 1976; “The Valid Core of Rationality Hypotheses in the Theory of Expectations”, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, Supplement to November 1980 issue; and “The Bearing of Risk Aversion on Movement of Spot and Forward Exchange Relative to the Dollar”, Flexible Exchange Rates and the Balance of Payments: Essays in Memory of Egon Sohmen, edited by John S. Chipman and Charles P. Kindleberger (1980). “Economic Theory Amidst Political Currents: The Spreading Interest in Monetarism and in the Theory of Market Expectations” (Bernhard-Harms Award lecture, published also in Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, September 1982). Also “The High-Employment Budget and Potential Output” in Survey of Current Business, U. S. Department of Commerce, November 1982.

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Gottfried Haberler. Box 43, Folder: “Blue”

____________________

Gottfried Haberler
October 1, 1983

Dear Valerie, Dear Friends, Ladies, and Gentlemen:

We are gathered here to pay tribute to the memory of a great man. William Fellner was a giant among economists. This is not the occasion to go deeply into Willy’s economic work, but a few highlights must be mentioned. His work covers a large area, ranging from problems of abstract theory to questions of current economic policy. He was a prolific writer and hard worker, active and alert to the very end. My memories go back almost fifty years to when I met Willy for the first time in the summer of 1934 in Stresa, Italy, at a conference that was attended by, among others, Friedrich A. von Hayek and by Luigi Einaudi, the Italian economist who after the war became the first president of Italy. I met Willy the next time and you, Valerie, for the first time four years later, when you came to the United States. We saw each other from time to time when Willy taught at the University of California and Yale University, and we were in daily contact after he came to Washington ten years ago until his death.

Recalling our first meeting, I am struck by how little he changed over these fifty years. The same impeccable manners, the same old-world courtliness, the same sharpness of mind, the same dignified appearance and demeanor, the same courteous and conciliatory tone, even in heated discussions—up to the day of his death.

Willy was an indefatigable worker. His bibliography lists seven books and more than fifty important papers in professional periodicals and books. His major field of interest was what is now called macroeconomics, including money, business cycles, inflation, and unemployment. His first writings appeared during the heyday of the Keynesian revolution. His second book, Monetary Policy and Full Employment (1946), shows the influence of Keynes. Willy admired Keynes but not uncritically. In fact, his criticism of Keynes anticipated or foreshadowed much of what has come to be known as the monetarist counterrevolution, as well as of the modern theory of rational expectations. In later writings he referred to these two schools extensively and gave them their due. But he was too modest to let his readers know that he himself had discussed those issues years before.

In recent years he concentrated on the problem of inflation. He was one of the first to recognize that there can be no permanent trade-off between inflation and unemployment. If inflation is not brought down to near zero, he argued, we will be condemned to continue the vicious pattern of stop and go, with the stops—recessions—becoming increasingly severe. The consequences would be ever-increasing government expenditures and deficits and more and more controls of wages and prices. As a convinced liberal in the classical nineteenth-century tradition, he was a staunch advocate of free enterprise, free markets, and free trade. He opposed government central planning and controls not only on grounds of economic efficiency but also because in the long run central planning and comprehensive controls are incompatible with a free, democratic society.

Like all great economists, Willy was more than an economist. He had a keen sense of history; he put current events and policies in historical perspective. Willy was a man of great culture, fluent in several languages, and well versed in Hungarian, English, and German literature.

Willy held strong views on many issues; he was a shrewd and often stern judge of people. But Willy was at the same time one of the most generous, kind, and considerate persons I have met. He had many friends, even among those with whom he strongly disagreed on important questions. His untimely death leaves a great void. But his scientific work will endure and will inspire future generations of economists.

Ladies and gentlemen, I know I speak for all of us when I thank you, Valerie, for all you have done to make Willy’s imposing lifework possible. Without your loving care and understanding, he could not have achieved as much as he did. Please accept this expression of our profound gratitude.

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of J. Herbert Fürth. Box 5.

Image Source:  William Fellner’s Presidential portrait, American Economic Association.

Categories
Economists Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Harvard-Radcliffe. Economics Ph.D. alumna, Eleanor Dulles, c.v. early 1960s

 

This morning I stumbled across a c.v. for the Radcliffe M.A. and Ph.D. alumna, Eleanor Lansing Dulles,  that I found earlier in the papers of Herbert Fürth (Gottfried Haberler’s brother-in-law and Federal Reserve Board economist) at the Hoover Institution archives. While there is no date on the c.v., it would appear that it could have been prepared around 1961, though one item (International Board for construction in Berlin) is listed as running through 1964.

Her obituary in the New York Times (November 4, 1996). Best quote:

”[The State Department] is a real man’s world if ever there was one,” she said in 1958. ”It’s riddled with prejudices. If you are a woman in Government service you just have to work 10 times as hard — and even then it takes much skill to paddle around the various taboos. But it is fun to see how far you can get in spite of being a woman.”

Worth viewing are the few minutes taken from the National Portrait Gallery’s video interview of Eleanor Dulles (at age 93) conducted by Marc Pachter on November 28, 1988. She was 101 years old at the time of her death.

The major collection of her papers are at George Washington University. Papers are also to be found at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and at Princeton University.

__________________

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Radcliffe College

Eleanor Lansing Dulles, A.M.
Subject: Economics.
Special Field: International Finance.
Dissertation: “TheFrench Franc Since the War.”

Source: Radcliffe College, Report of the Dean 1925-26, p. 25.

__________________

ELEANOR LANSING DULLES

Employment Record
(See also studies)
1917-1919 Refugee relief work—France
1920-1921 Employment Management—Steel Mill, etc.
1921-1922 London School of Economics—Investigation of English Industrial methods in 75 firms
1924-1936 Teaching 8 years

Simmons College
Bryn Mawr
University of Pennsylvania
Research 1925-26, 1928-1932
Study of Unemployment Insurance in England (for President Hoover) 1931
Economic advisor to investment counselor
New York City, 1932
Government
1936 Social Security Board

Director of Financial Research
(Tax, income, and investment studies)

Represented U.S. Government at Geneva Conference on Investment of Social Security Funds, 1938
1942-1961 Department of State

Postwar planning Germany, Austria, UNRRA, British balance of payments, etc.

Bretton Woods Banks (attended conference)

Vienna, Austria (1945-49) Financial Attaché

Berlin reconstruction, investment, (1952-1960)

Underdeveloped countries
(Studies of 60 Asian, African and Latin American countries, travelled in 42)
Detailed to National Production Board 1951-52

Representative on Petroleum Committee for Defense
Originator of Benjamin Franklin Foundation

International Board for construction in Berlin 1956-1964
Personal Rank of Minister—1960
Awards and Degrees
1934 Phi Beta Kappa, University of Pennsylvania
1950 LL.D., Wilson College
1955 Distinguished Service Medal, Radcliffe
1957 Dr. h. c. rerum, Political & Econ. Science, Free University of Berlin
1957 LL.D., Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio
1957 Carl Schurz-Steuben Plaque for Distinguished Service in furthering German-American cultural relations, presented at Berlin
1959 Ernst Reuter Medallion for Service to Berlin
1960 Citation for Distinguished Service, Bryn Mawr College
Studies and Fellowships
1914-17 A.B. Bryn Mawr College
(First New England scholarship, 1914)
1919-20 M.A. Bryn Mawr College
(Fellow labor & industrial economics)
1921-22 London School of Economics
1922-26 M.A., Ph.D. Radcliffe and Harvard College
1925-27 Faculté de Droit, University of Paris
Other courses: Bonn, Germany; Geneva, Switzerland

Languages: French, German, Spanish
Public Relations
For many years I have been on the roster for public speaking for the Department of State.

I have given some 100 or more speeches mainly in this country and have appeared on television and radio.
Publications
The French Franc, 1914-1928.
MacMillan, New York, 1929, pp. 570

A study of inflation, public finance, speculation, and changing international financial relationships with consideration of political and economic factors.
The Bank for International Settlements at Work.
Macmillan, New York, 1932, pp. 631

The origins and early operations of the BIS, the hopes for a world bank, plans for international investment and clearance mechanism, bank policy in relation to the central banks of various nations.
The Dollar, the Franc, and Inflation.
MacMillan, New York, 1933, pp. 100

A short discussion of recurrent characteristics of inflation, the dangers to special groups, and to the economy as a whole.
Depression and Reconstruction—A Study of Causes and Controls.
University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1936, pp. 340

A review of alleged causes of the depression of 1929 and subsequent years, an appraisal of major national and international maladjustments and areas of disturbance and relationships changing in the development of a dynamic policy.
Financing the Social Security Act, 1936

Basic study of the tax and benefit laws and formuli.
Fiscal Capacity of States

Planned (1938) and supervised a five year study in Social Security Board of the income and capacity to pay taxes of the states & localities.

Among the several hundred articles published are for instance:
The Evolution of Reparation Ideas
The French Franc, 1928-1934
The Export-Import Bank—The First Ten Years, 1943
War and Investment Opportunity
Inflation
The Impact of the United States on Europe
The Arithmetic (financial) of Postwar Occupation
Africa—Hopes and Contradictions

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives, Papers of J. Herbert Furth, Box 4.

Image Source:. World Bank webpage: The Bretton Woods Institutions turn 60/Breaking the Mold.

Categories
Columbia Economists Harvard

Harvard. Career of A.M. in economics alumnus, Arthur Morgan Day (1867-1942)

 

This post began as a simple transcription of two typed pages that Alvin S. Johnson sent to Joseph Dorfman, who at the time was collecting material on the history of economics at Columbia University. The Columbia economics instructor who was the subject of Johnson’s letter, Arthur Morgan Day, was new to me, and I presume something of an unknown even to Joseph Dorfman. My curiosity sparked a chase through a variety of genealogical sources accessible at Ancestry.com, then a search through yearbooks of Barnard College and Columbia University catalogues at archive.org, and eventually a discovery of the reports of the Harvard Class of 1892 (available at hathitrust.org) that taken together provide us a fairly good account of Day’s life and career through age 55.

I have located only a single source that gives the year of his death: “Arthur Morgan Day (1867-1942)” in the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 31. New York: James T. White & Co., 1944.

_______________

Alvin Johnson’s recollection of Arthur Morgan Day at Columbia College

THE NEW SCHOOL
66 West 12th St. New York 11
[Tel.] Oregon 5-2700

July 17, 1951

Dear Joe Dorfman:

This is the best I can do on Day. If you don’t like it, throw it into the waste-basket.

Sincerely,
[signed]
Alvin Johnson

encl.

Dr. Joseph Dorfman
Faculty of Political Science
Columbia University
New York 27, N.Y.

[Handwritten addition by Johnson]

I’m trying to write
something on the
Faculty
AJ

* *  *  * *

Alvin Johnson’s attachment to his letter to Joseph Dorfman of July 17, 1951

When I presented myself to Dean Burgess for registration in November 1898 and announced that I wished to study economics, the Dean advised me to register for the Marshall course by Mayo-Smith, the course on History of Economics by E. R. A. Seligman, the course on theory by John Bates Clark. I confessed that my training had been in classics; that I had never attended a course, nor even a single lecture in economics. I asked whether I ought not to take the course in elementary economics, under an instructor, Arthur Morgan Day. No, said Dean Burgess, that course was only for undergraduate cubs, who had no desire to know economics. The Committee on College Requirements had seen fit to make a required course out of it; but a mature man would be wasting his time under Day.

I did not register for Day’s course. I’m sorry I did not. For Day was a true representative of the old, solid economics of Adam Smith and Malthus and Ricardo, of Senior and Cairnes and John Stuart Mill. He made shift to comprehend the marginal utilitarianism of Marshall, but it gave him no inspiration. He saw no advance in Clark’s theory and he regarded Seligman’s Historismus as merely a change of venue in economic reasoning.

Day detested me, for my ardent devotion to J. B. Clark, for my eager acceptance of Seligman’s wide explorations in all literatures. He pitied me for my destiny of going forth into the world equipped only with fluff and froth, with no sense of the grand old economists who looked facts in the face and wrote in language that the most unlicked cub of a business man could understand. When I was awarded a fellowship Day proposed that I should have the privilege of reading and grading all his examination papers, a privilege I was too immature to appreciate. The President of the University vetoed the proposal. I had my year of complete freedom, to follow my teachers, Clark and Seligman, with uncrippled ardor.

Yet I came to realize that Day was a better economist than we then assumed. It was not possible for him to follow the marginal utility calculus into a field of abstractions divorced from the comprehension of the ordinary citizen. Any man, however sodden in business thinking, could follow John Stuart Mill, agreeing, or most likely disagreeing. Only the intellectual elite could follow Menger and Wieser and Böhm[-]Bawerk, Marshall and Clark, Fisher and Fetter.

If Day were living he would find justification for his repugnance to the marginal utility theories. Keynes, an adept in marginal theory, shifted the emphasis from value to price.

Said Chesterfield, “In mixed company I always talk bawdy, for that is something in which all men can join.” Keynes always talked price. Day, prematurely, talked price, believed in talking price. There was no place for him in the marginal utility universe of talk, of those days. But I surmise, Day was a good deal of a man.

[signed]
Alvin Johnson

 

Source:  Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Joseph Dorfman Collection, Box 13, Folder “C.U. Dept.al history”.

_______________

From the Columbia College Catalogue, 1898-99

Economics A—Outlines of Economics—Recitations, lectures, and essays. 3 hours, second half-year. Professor Mayo-Smith and Mr. Day. [Economics A was required of juniors in the College, and open to sophomores who have taken economics I.]

Economics 1—Economic history of England America—Selected textbooks, recitations, essays, and lectures. 3 hours, first half-year. Professor Seligman and Mr. Day. [Economics I was open to juniors and qualified sophomores in the College.]

[Note: p. 11 under officers of instruction, Assistants. Address given as 128 West 103d Street.]

Source:  Columbia University in the City of New York. Catalogue 1898-99, p. 74.

_______________

1900 U.S. Census

Name: Arthur M Day
Age:    33
Birth Date:     Apr 1867
Birthplace:      Connecticut
Home in 1900:           Danbury, Fairfield, Connecticut
Ward of City: 2
Street: Westoria Avenue
House Number:          28
Race:   White
Gender:           Male
Relation to Head of House:   Son
Marital Status:           Single
Father’s name:            Josiah L Day
Father’s Birthplace:    New York
Mother’s name:          Ellen L Day
Mother’s Birthplace:  Connecticut
Occupation:    College Instructor
Months not employed:         0
Can Read:       Yes
Can Write:      Yes
Can Speak English:    Yes
Household Members:

Josiah L Day  60
Ellen L Day    58
Arthur M Day           33

_______________

From Mortarboard 1902
[Barnard College Yearbook]

Leisure Hours of Great Men
or
Intimate Glimpses of the World’s Workers at Play

Arthur Morgan Day

It is certainly pathetic
How he smothers the aesthetic
Under money, banking, trusts and corporations,
But he soothes his longing heart,
Studying dramatic art,
And high tragedy completes his aspirations.

Source: 1902 Mortarboard , p. 71.

_______________

From the Columbia Daily Spectator, 1902

Mr. Day Resigns

Mr. A. M. Day, Instructor in Economics, has resigned his position at Columbia to take a position on the new Tenement House Commission of New York City. He is to serve as one of two men to take charge of registration and compilation of statistics of tenement houses in the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Mr. Henry Raymond Mussey, Fellow in the Department, has taken Mr. Day’s position as instructor in Economics for the time being. Mr. Mussey has already acquired much popularity and confidence among the students in his classes.

*  *  *  *  *

Congratulations for Mr. Day.

The members of the Course Economics I have sent the following message of congratulation to their instructor, upon his appointment as chief of the Bureau of Statistics of the New York City Tenement House Commission. “We the undersigned members of the course, Economics I, of the current University year, having heard with pleasure of the great honor which has been conferred upon our former instructor Mr. Arthur Morgan Day, desire to extend to him our sincere congratulations and to assure him of our best wishes for a successful career in his new office.

 

Source:  Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume XLV, Number 42, 21 March 1902, page 1.

_______________

From Harvard College Class of 1892 Reports

Arthur Morgan Day (1892)

[Joined the Harvard Class of 1892 in the junior year, received A.B. together with the degree of A.M.]
Honorable Mention: English Composition; Political Economy; History.

 

Source:  Secretary’s Report Harvard College Class of 1892, Number I, (1893), pp. 6, 27, 29.

 

*  *  *  *  *

Arthur Morgan Day (1896)

“1892-93, graduate student in History and Economics, H.U.; 1893-94, graduate student in History and Economics and assistant in History, H.U.; 1894-95, assistant in Economics, School of Political Science, Columbia College; 1895-96, assistant and lecturer in Economics, School of Political Science, Columbia College, and lecturer in Economics, Barnard College.”

Published “Syllabus of six lectures on ‘Money’ for Extension Department of Rutgers College, 1895.”

Delivered “six lectures on ‘Money,’ Univ. Ex. course, New Brunswick, N.J., December-January, 1894-95; two lectures on ‘Monetary Literature in U.S.’ in course of ‘Free Lectures to the People,’ under direction of Board of Education, N.Y.”

Source:  Secretary’s Report Harvard College Class of 1892, Number II, (1896), pp. 30-31.

*  *  *  *  *

Arthur Morgan Day (1902)

From 1892 to 1894 was graduate student in History and Economics at Harvard; 1893-4, was assistant in History at Harvard; 1894-1902, was successively assistant lecturer, and instructor in Economics at Columbia and Barnard Colleges, and also assistant editor of “Political Science Quarterly” and “Columbia University Quarterly “; in March, 1902, resigned from Columbia to become Registrar of the Tenement House Department of New York City for Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond.

Has given numerous courses of lectures for the New York Board of Education; has lectured also in extension department of Rutgers College and in the Educational Alliance. Has published syllabi of lectures on “Money” and “Economic History”, signed reviews in the “Political Science Quarterly” and elsewhere, and editorials in a New York daily. Assisted in the preparation of Seligman’s “Essays in Taxation” and “Incidence of Taxation”, Giddings’ “Democracy and Empire “, Clark’s “Distribution of Wealth,” and the second edition (rewritten) of White’s “Money and Banking.”

Source:  Harvard College, Record of the Class of 1892. Secretary’s Report No. III for the Tenth Anniversary (1902),  pp. 46-47.

*  *  *  *  *

Arthur Morgan Day (1907)

Son of Josiah Lyon Day and Ellen Louisa (Baldwin) Day. Born at Danbury, Connecticut, April 12, 1867. Prepared for college at the Danbury High School.

Received A.M. in 1892. From 1892 to 1894 was a graduate student in History and Economics at Harvard; 1893-94, was Assistant in History at Harvard; 1894-1902, was successively Assistant, Lecturer, and Instructor in Economics at Columbia and Barnard Colleges; also Assistant Editor of Political Science Quarterly and Columbia University Quarterly; in March, 1902, resigned from Columbia to become Registrar of the Tenement House Department of New York City for Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond. In May, 1902, resigned Registrarship to become Assistant to President of Manhattan Trust Co.; in July, 1903, was made Secretary and Treasurer of Casualty Company of America; in January, 1905, entered publicity business. Has published syllabi of lectures on “Money” and “Economic History,” signed reviews in the Political Science Quarterly and elsewhere, and editorials in a New York daily. Assisted in the preparation of Seligman’s “Essays in Taxation” and ” Incidence of Taxation,” Giddings’ “Democracy and Empire,” Clark’s “Distribution of Wealth,” and the second edition (rewritten) of White’s “Money and Banking.” Belongs to Harvard Club of New York.

Source:  Secretary’s Report for the Fifteenth Anniversary. Harvard College Class of 1892, Number IV, (1907), p.48.

*  *  *  *  *

Arthur Morgan Day (1912)

Son of Josiah Lyon Day and Ellen Louisa (Baldwin) Day. Born at Danbury, Connecticut, April 12, 1867. Prepared for college at the Danbury High School.

Attended Harvard 1888-92, A.B. and A.M.; Graduate School 1892-94.

1892 to 1894, graduate student in history and economics at Harvard; 1893-94, assistant in history at Harvard; 1894-1902, successively assistant, lecturer, and instructor in economics at Columbia and Barnard colleges; also assistant editor of Political Science Quarterly and Columbia University Quarterly; in March, 1902, resigned from Columbia to become registrar of the Tenement House Department of New York City for Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond. In May, 1902, resigned registrarship to become assistant to president of Manhattan Trust Company; in July, 1903, was made secretary and treasurer of Casualty Company of America; in January, 1905, entered publicity business; in June, 1906, employed by United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia; in August, 1906, serious attack of typhoid caused long absence from business; in June, 1908, with Blair & Co., bankers, New York; in April, 1910, began independent work as financial agent for various clients; in January, 1912, entered bond department of Prudential Insurance Company at Newark. Has published syllabi of lectures on “Money” and “Economic History,” signed reviews in the Political Science Quarterly and elsewhere, and editorials in a New York daily. Assisted in the preparation of Seligman’s “Essays in Taxation” and “Incidence of Taxation,” Giddings’ “Democracy and Empire,” Clark’s “Distribution of Wealth,” and the second edition (rewritten) of White’s “Money and Banking.” Belongs to Harvard Club of New York.

Source:  Secretary’s Report for the Twentieth Anniversary. Harvard College Class of 1892, [Number V, (1912)], p.54.

*  *  *  *  *

Arthur Morgan Day (1917)

Born at Danbury, Conn., April 12, 1867. Son of Josiah Lyon and Ellen Louisa (Baldwin) Day. Prepared for College at Danbury High School, Danbury, Conn.

Attended Harvard:  1888-92; Graduate School, 1892-94.

Degrees: A.B. and A.M. 1892.

Occupation: Investments.

Address: (home) 28 Westville Ave., Danbury, Conn.; (business) 37 Wall St., New York, N.Y

FROM 1892 to 1894 I was a graduate student in history and economics at Harvard, and during 1893-94 I was assistant in history at Harvard. From 1894 to 1902 I was successively assistant, lecturer, and instructor in economics at Columbia and Barnard colleges; also assistant editor of the Political Science Quarterly and the Columbia University Quarterly. In March, 1902, I resigned from Columbia to become registrar of the Tenement House Department of New York City for Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond. I held this position until May, 1903, when I resigned to become assistant to the president of the Manhattan Trust Company. In July, 1903, I was made secretary and treasurer of the Casualty Company of America; and in January, 1905, I entered publicity business. I was employed by the United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia in June, 1906, but a serious attack of typhoid fever in August of that year caused a long absence from business. In June, 1908, I was with Blair & Co., bankers, in New York, and in April, 1910, I began independent work as financial agent for various clients. In January, 1912, I entered the bond department of the Prudential Insurance Company at Newark, and since December 1, 1915, I have been with Wood, Struthers & Co., bankers, 37 Wall St., N. Y.

Publications: Syllabi of lectures on “Money” and “Economic History,” signed reviews in the Political Science Quarterly and elsewhere, and editorials in a New York daily. Assisted in the preparation of Seligman’s “Essays in Taxation” and “Incidence of Taxation,” Giddings’ “Democracy and Empire,” Clark’s “Distribution of Wealth,” and the second edition (rewritten) of White’s “Money and Banking.”

Clubs and Societies: Harvard Club of New York.

Source:  Secretary’s Report for the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. Harvard College Class of 1892, Number VI, (1917), pp. 68-69. Includes Graduation picture.

*  *  *  *  *

Arthur Morgan Day (1922)

Born at Danbury, Conn., April 12, 1867. Son of Josiah Lyon and Ellen Louisa (Baldwin) Day. Prepared for College at Danbury High School, Danbury, Conn.

Attended Harvard: 1888-92; Graduate School, 1892-94.
Degrees: A.B. and A.M. 1892.

Occupation: Investments.
Address: (home) 152 Deer Hill Ave., Danbury, Conn.; (business) 5 Nassau St., New York, N.Y.

Since December 1, 1915, I have been with Wood, Struthers & Co., bankers, 5 Nassau Street, New York.

Clubs and Societies: Harvard Club of New York.

Source:  Harvard College Class of 1892, Thirtieth Anniversary Report, Number VIII, (1922), p. 70.
[note: Number IX, June 19-22, 1922 is the Supplementary Report of the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebration]

_______________

From the State of Connecticut, Military Census of 1917

State of Connecticut

By direction of an act of the Legislature of Connecticut, approved February 7th, 1917, I am required to procure certain information relative to the resources of the state. I therefore call upon you to answer the following questions.

MARCUS H. HOLCOMB, Governor.

TOWN or CITY: Danbury
DATE: March 4, 1917
POST OFFICE ADDRESS: 28 Westville Ave.

  1. What is your present Trade, Occupation or Profession ? Banking and Brokerage
  2. Have you experience in any other Trade, Occupation or Profession? College Professor
  3. What is your Age? 49
    Height? 5 ft 8 in
    Weight? 165
  4. Are your Married? Single? or Widower? Single
  5. How many persons are dependent on you for support? None wholly
  6. Are you a citizen of the United States? Yes
  7. If not a citizen of the United States have you taken out your first papers? [not applicable]
  8. If not a citizen of the United States, what is your nationality? [not applicable]
  9. Have you ever done any Military or Naval Service in this or any other Country? No
    Where? [not applicable]
    How Long? [not applicable]
    What Branch? [not applicable]
    Rank? [not applicable]
  10. Have you any serious physical disability? Yes
    If so, name it. Near sighted
  11. Can you do any of the following:
    Ride a horse? [No]
    Handle a team? [No]
    Drive an automobile? [No]
    Ride a motorcycle? [No]
    Understand telegraphy? [No]
    Operate a wireless? [No]
    Any experience with a steam engine? [No]
    Any experience with electrical machinery? [No]
    Handle a boat, power or sail? [No]
    Any experience in simple coastwise navigation? [No]
    Any experience with High Speed Marine Gasoline Engines? ? [No]
    Are you a good swimmer? [Yes]

I hereby certify that I have personally interviewed the above mentioned person and that the answers to the questions enumerated are as he gave them to me.

[signed]
Chas A Stallock[?]
Military Census Agent

Source: Connecticut Military Census of 1917. Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut State Library. [available as database on-line at Ancestry.com]

 

Image Source: Class portrait and current portrait (ca 1917) of Arthur Morgan Day from Secretary’s Report for the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary. Harvard College Class of 1892, Number VI, (1917), pp. 68-69.

 

Categories
Economists M.I.T.

Italy. Terror victim, economics professor Ezio Tarantelli (1941-1985)

 

While skimming the oral history interview of Berkeley economist Lloyd Ulman (Harvard PhD, 1950), I learned that he was in Rome the day that his Italian colleague, Professor Ezio Tarantelli, was assassinated by two members of the Red Brigades in a parking lot outside of the building where he had just lectured. 

I met Ezio during my first year of graduate school at M.I.T. in 1974-75 through my classmate Francesco Giavazzi. While I probably had discussed economics and politics with him only a few times and probably less than for a couple of hours, he impressed me with a combination of intelligence, warmth, and humility that I was to discover to be relatively rare, and not just in a university setting. 

When I read the news that this mild-mannered professor of political economy in Rome had been murdered by political terrorists, I was utterly dumbfounded. Clearly having a name and a face for the victim of an act of senseless political violence made all the difference. Today I decided to add this post, a minor tribute to the memory of a most decent man and fellow economist.

___________________

About Ezio Tarantelli

Red Brigades Kill Rome Economics Professor,  by Sari Gilbert. Washington Post, March 28, 1985.

Chapter 2, “Ezio Tarantelli: Sketches of an Intellectual Biography” in Giovanni Michelangoli, Ezio Tarantelli—Economic Theory and Industrial Relations. Springer, 2012.

Italian Documentary by Monica Repetto:  Ezio Tarantelli, La forza delle idee.

___________________

Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Lloyd Ullman

Uhlman: …I became heavily involved with Bob Flanagan and David Soskice, whom I had met in Oxford, on a Brookings project which ultimately materialized in Wage Restraint: A Study of Incomes Policies in Western Europe (1983). While working on this project, David Soskice and I were invited to give back-to-back talks to Ezio Tarantelli’s class in labor economics in Rome. My topic was the role played by collective bargaining as a second-best choice when employers were confronted by an existential threat to the capitalist order. It just so happened that Italy was experiencing considerable unrest and inflation at the time. Furthermore, Tarantelli, our host, was attracting a good deal of attention as an advocate of moderating the Scala Mobile, the national system of wage escalation which was regarded at the time by many as an important generator of inflation. Which made him a prime target of the Red Brigade on the far left.

Koya: Was the Scala Mobile between the laborers or employers or was the state also involved?

Uhlman: Laborers and employers.

Koya: No state intervention here in Italy?

Uhlman: More of a neo-corporatist arrangement.
Ezio Tarantelli was a very accomplished and very intelligent, imaginative fellow. So he invited David and me to give twin seminars in a single meeting of his class one day. I spoke about the threat of radicalism as an employer inducement to bargain collectively. He regarded it as very provocative, as he put it. That evening he took Lassie and me out to dinner. David had something else to do. And so in the usual Italian style, we ate at about ten o’clock. The restaurant was quite empty. There was a couple across the room and Lassie noticed they were looking at us all the time. Later, Tarantelli said, “Look,” he said, “when I was a student, I was a guide, a tour guide, and I’m now going to drive you through Rome in the moonlight.” It was an enchanted, lovely ride. We said goodnight and spoke about getting together soon again.
The next morning I had a meeting with the head of the non-communist labor federation at the time, the CISL [Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori or Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions]. Someone broke into our discussion and then left. The CISL head said, “Excuse me, but a friend of mine has just died and I have to see some television people.” Then we learned that Tarantelli had been killed by members of the Red Brigade[s]. That morning when he came to class, somebody shouted, “Professor Tarantelli!” He turned around, and they shot him. That was the most horrendous episode in my life, I can say.

Koya: So the provocation?

Uhlman: What? The provocation was that he was on the wrong side. That’s the provocation. That evening a small group of us had a meeting. David’s friends in the academic community met at the home of Ida Regalia, a well-known labor economist. We all brought over some bottles of wine and we sat around talking all evening and that was that.
Everything has a comic side to it, I guess. The next morning I had to get a haircut. My previous barber was an Oxford product, of course. The Italian barber took a look at me, walked all around me, my head, and said, “Atsa a bad haircut.” Later I walked back and Lassie and I met with David. I said, “David, sit down. I must tell you something.” I told him the story. It was just a horrible thing.

 

Source: Lloyd Ulman: An Oral History. Riyad Koya interviewer (Audio File 16, Interview October 20, 2011) pp. 233-234. University of California, Berkeley. Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library.

Image Source: Screen shot from Monica Repetto’s  Ezio Tarantelli, La forza delle idee.