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Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus. Robert Franz Foerster, 1909


Robert Franz Foerster (b. July 8, 1883; d. July 29, 1941) was the son of the American composer Adolph Martin Foerster, earned his BA from Harvard a year ahead of his class and went on at Harvard to earn a Ph.D. in economics on the topic of Italian emigration. The first twenty years of his career following his undergraduate education is sketched in the following four notes he submitted to the secretary of the Class of 1906. Foerster went on to become Professor of Industrial Relations at Princeton University. Some details about his undergraduate years can be gleaned from the Secretary’s First Report Harvard College Class of 1906, Cambridge, Crimson Printing, June 1907.

_______________________________

1912

ROBERT FRANZ FOERSTER

Graduating in 1905, as of 1906, I spent in Europe fourteen months of 1905-1906, travelling in England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Holland and Belgium. For four months I was in Italy, for five in Berlin, where I took courses at the university. In the fall of 1906 I returned to Harvard, where for three years I was in the Graduate School. In 1909 I received the degree of Ph.D. in economics, my thesis dealing with Italian emigration. From 1908-1909 I was an assistant at Harvard in social ethics, from 1909-1911 an instructor, and since 1911 an instructor on the Faculty. I am chairman of the Immigration Committee of the American Unitarian Association and director of the Social Research Council of Boston. The latter has recently been affiliated with the department of social ethics, with offices in Emerson Hall, Cambridge. Books or plays of my authorship: “A Statistical Survey of Italian Emigration,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1908; “The French Old Age Insurance Law of 1910,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1910; “The British National Insurance Act,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 1912; reviews and translations in economic journals; bibliographies in “A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects,” Harvard University, 1910. Member: American Economic Association, American Statistical Association, American Association for Labor Legislation. Business address: Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Present residence: 71 Perkins Hall, Cambridge, Mass.

 

Source:   Secretary’s Second Report Harvard College Class of 1906, Cambridge, Crimson Printing, June 1912, pp. 99-100.

_______________________________

1916

ROBERT FRANZ FOERSTER

Born              Pittsburgh, Pa., July 8, 1883.

Parents         Adolph Martin Foerster, Henrietta Margaret Reineman.

School           Central High School, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Years in College 1902-1905.

Degrees         A.B., 1905 (1906); Ph.D., 1909.

Occupation   University Professor.

Address        (home) 11 Shady Hill Square, Cambridge, Mass. (business) Emerson Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

I have continued to teach in the department of social ethics at Harvard. In 1913 I was promoted to an assistant professorship. Upon the retirement of Dr. Peabody, early in that year, Professor Ford and I took over the conduct of the course “Social Ethics 1” which our predecessor had for many years given as “Philosophy 5″—the first course of a department, established in 1906, which has continued to grow both in courses and in student enrolments. In 1912 I was appointed by Governor Foss chairman of a commission to study the question of the dependency of widows’ families. Our report was presented to the legislature in January of the following year. In the spring, after a considerable fight, a measure providing a system of “mothers’ aid,” based partly on the commission’s bill, was enacted. During the summer of 1913, in an absence from America of six or seven weeks, I journeyed, via the Azores, Madeira, and Algiers, to Sicily, Calabria, and Basilicata, regions in which I had become interested in a study of Italian emigration; I returned via the Tyrol, Switzerland, and France. The summer of 1914 I spent largely in Cambridge, doing a piece of work for Dr. Mackenzie King in connection with the department of industrial relations newly established by the Rockefeller Foundation. In these several years I have maintained connections with various social and philanthropic enterprises. In 1915 I became engaged to Miss Lilian Hillyer Smith, Radcliffe 1915, of Forest Hills, Mass, subsequently of Princeton, N. J. After our marriage, we expect to settle, in the fall, in No. 11 Shady Hill Square, Cambridge. I have written: Report (majority) of the Massachusetts Commission on the Support of Dependent Minor Children of Widowed Mothers (Boston, 1913). Member: Colonial Club, Cambridge, Harvard Club of Boston, American Economic Association, American Association for Labor Legislation, American Statistical Association.

 

Source:   Secretary’s Third Report Harvard College Class of 1906, Cambridge, Crimson Printing, 1916, pp. 139-40.

_______________________________

1921

ROBERT FRANZ FOERSTER

Address:       (home) 11 Shady Hill Sq., Cambridge, Mass.

Occupation: University Professor.

Married:       Lilian Hillyer Smith, Princeton, N. J., June 5, 1916.

I continued after the War broke out to teach at Harvard, and by the Spring of 1918 was the only person left teaching in my department. I had been overworking for a considerable period and suffered a breakdown in April, 1918. Though I continued to teach for the remainder of the Spring Term, I found it impossible to return to the University in the Fall. The Fall and Winter were devoted to the effort to regain my health and included a considerable stay in Johns Hopkins Hospital. At the end of March, 1919 I returned to Harvard to teach. Last Summer (1920) I went abroad with my wife, returning in much sounder health than when I went away, and to-day I regard myself as quite restored to health. (But what an absurdly common thing it is for professor folk at some stage or other to go to pieces!) Late in 1919 I published a comprehensive volume on Italian emigration, which had been on my hands for some years and which I had virtually completed, except for seeing through the press, by the Spring of 1918.

Have written: “The Italian Emigration of our Times” (558 pages). (Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., December, 1919.)

Member: American Economic Association; American Association for Labor Legislation; American Statistical Association.

 

Source:   Harvard College Class of 1906, Fifteenth Anniversary Report (No. 4), Cambridge, Massachusetts: University Press, 1921, pp. 112-113.

_______________________________

1926

ROBERT FRANZ FOERSTER

Address:       4 College Rd., Princeton, N. J.

Occupation:  Economist.

Married:       Lilian Hillyer Smith, Princeton, N. J., June 5, 1916.

Children:      Lilian Egleston, born April 16, 1922; Margaret Dorothea, born October 15, 1924.

In the summer of 1920 I went with my wife to Europe, visiting scenes familiar and unfamiliar. In the late summer of the following year I entered upon various field studies dealing with labor relationships, first in Colorado and subsequently in Western Pennsylvania, and chiefly concerned with the coal industry.

In the summer of 1922 I was appointed to a professorship of economics in Princeton University, where my duties were essentially those of a director of the Industrial Relations Section, an organization interested mainly in constructive action in the field of industrial relations. My immediate duty here was the assembling of documentary information on labor relationships. I have had unusual opportunities for contact with employers and with representatives of the employed and have traveled considerably to places where interesting activities were being carried on.

During my free time in recent years I have undertaken advisory or research work in labor subjects. The results of one such employment, undertaken for the Secretary of Labor, were published in 1925 under the title “The Racial Problems Involved in Immigration from Latin America and the West Indies to the United States,” and brought a variety of interesting reactions.

            Have written: “The Italian Emigration of our Times” (558 pages). (Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., December, 1919.) Various articles; and a report, “The Racial Conditions Involved in Immigration from Latin America and the West Indies to the United States,” published by the Department of Labor, Washington, 1925.

Member: American Economic Association; American Statistical Association; American Association for Labor Legislation; American Management Association; Advisory Committee, Washington Branch Internal Labor Office; Committee on Immigration of Social Science Research Council; Committee on Personnel Management of American Management Association.

 

Source:   Harvard College Class of 1906, Twentieth Anniversary Report (No. 5), Cambridge, Massachusetts: University Press, 1926, pp. 95-96.

Image Source: Assistant Professor of Social Ethics, Robert Franz Foerster in Harvard Album 1920.

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Economists Harvard

Harvard. Seven Personal Reports to the Class of 1879, Frank Taussig. 1882-1914


Serendipity struck again during an unrelated search of hathitrust.org. This time I stumbled across Harvard class reports  (i.e. B.A. cohorts) irregularly submitted by the secretaries of the respective classes and published as part of the annual Harvard commencement exercises (e.g. for the Class of 1879). I decided to sample the reports for the biggest gun in the Harvard economics department at the turn of the 20th century, Frank W. Taussig, and was delighted to find what turns out to be essentially personal notes written to his classmates about the course of  his post-undergraduate career. Today I provide Taussig’s notes from the second through eighth reports of the Class of 1879.

In a later post  I shall provide information about Taussig’s undergraduate life from information culled from the Class of 1879/Secretary’s Report/No. I./1879.

________________________________

1882

[p. 98-99]

FRANK WILLIAM TAUSSIG.

“In September, 1879, I went abroad with E. C. Felton. After spending a few weeks together in London, we separated. I went to Germany, and spent a winter, from October till March, at the University of Berlin, studying Roman Law and Political Economy. In March, I left Germany, and rejoined Felton in Italy. We spent two months together in Italy, and then went to Paris, by way of Geneva. In Paris, in May, we again separated, Felton going to England, on his way home, while I travelled in different parts of Europe, chiefly in Austria and Switzerland. I returned to America in August, 1880. In September, 1880, I went to Cambridge, intending to enter the Law School. The position of secretary to President- Eliot was offered me and accepted. Since this time, I have continued to act as secretary to the President, and have, at the same time, studied for the degree of Ph.D., which I hope to obtain in June, 1883. The special subject which I have studied for the degree has been the History of the Tariff Legislation of the United States. In March, 1882, was appointed instructor in Political Economy, in Harvard College, for the year 1882-83. While in Europe, wrote some articles, which were published in the New York Nation.”

 

Source: Harvard College. Class of 1879. Secretary’s Report. No. II. Commencement, 1882.

________________________________

1885

[pp. 34-35]

EDGAR CONWAY FELTON.

(April 26.)—” You will remember that my communication for the last Triennial Report reached you too late for insertion, so I will begin my contribution to your second report with my graduation.

“In September, 1879, Frank Taussig and I started for Europe together. We stayed in London about a month enjoying ourselves hugely, and among other short excursions going to Oxford, where I had a cousin, an undergraduate in New College, who gave us rather exceptional facilities for observing this the oldest of the English Universities. In London we separated, I going to Paris where I stayed about six weeks, sight-seeing and attending occasional lectures at the University. From Paris I went to Vienna, stopping on the way at Munich. Christmas and New Year’s I was in Vienna with my uncle, who has lived there for about thirty years. Then I went south to Rome, where I found Ned Hale, and many a pleasant walk and talk we had together in the Eternal City. Here Frank Taussig joined me again, having finished a semester at the University, and we started off together, going though the Italian cities, making the tour of the Italian lakes, and crossing into Switzerland by the Simplon. After a short stay in Paris I started for home, taking a run through some of the cathedral towns of England and into Scotland on the way…

 

[pp. 65-66]

FRANK WILLIAM TAUSSIG.

(February 8.)—” I have lived in Cambridge since the date of the last Class Report. In 1882 I was appointed instructor in Political Economy in Harvard College, and devoted my time for the year 1882-3 entirely to teaching, and work of that kind. In the course of that year I published an essay on ‘Protection to Young Industries as Applied in the United States,’ which gave the results of investigations in the economic history of the country in the years 1789-1830. In June, 1883, I received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard University.

“In the fall of 1883 I entered the Harvard Law School with the intention of taking the regular three years course, and of practising after I got through the school. At the same time I continued my connection with the college as instructor in Political Economy, having been re-appointed to that office. I gave a course on the Tariff History of the United States, a subject to which I have given special attention. During the past year (1884-5) I have continued my studies in the Law-School as a second-year student, and have also continued as instructor in the college, giving the same course as in the previous year.

“In 1884, I wrote an introductory notice to the English translation of Laveleye’s ‘Elements of Political Economy,’ and added a supplementary chapter on some economic questions of present practical importance. In 1885 I published a second small volume on economic history, this being a ‘History of the Existing Tariff. It gives an account of the tariff legislation of the country from 1860 to 1883, with more or less comment from the point of view of one who adheres to the principle of free trade. I have written occasionally for the newspapers, on economic questions, chiefly for the Boston Herald and Advertiser, and a little for the New York Nation. I have been, and am still, a member of the committee to edit the Civil Service Record, a monthly paper published for the promotion of civil service reform, and have written regularly for it.”

Is a member of the Massachusetts Reform Club, and of the Cobden Club. Since April 1 has conducted the course on American History in the college during the absence of Hart.

 

Source: Harvard College. Class of 1879. Secretary’s Report. No. III. Commencement, 1885.

________________________________

1890

[p. vi-viii]

…In 1886 our classmate Taussig was appointed Assistant Professor of Political Economy, a signal honor for so young a man, the next to the youngest in the class. In April of that year a movement was started in the class to raise funds to equip a special library and reading-room for the Political Economy department of the college, the money to be used under Taussig’s direction. Six hundred and seventy-five dollars and seventy cents was raised and formally presented to the President and Fellows of Harvard College, and gratefully accepted by them.

The names of the subscribers are as follows, the subscriptions ranging from one to one hundred dollars: Almy, Andrews, Amen, Baily, Baylies, Bissell, Brooks, Burr, Carey, Cary, Churchill, R. W. Ellis, Evans, Felton, Gilbert, Hale, S. H. Hill, Hoadly, Holmes, Hubbard, Hudson, Hyde, Keene, Kidder, C. J. Mason, McLennan, Rindge, Sheldon, Somerby, St. John, H. Stetson, Taussig, Thorp, Trimble, Urquhart, Warren, Wright.

In June, 1887, Taussig furnished the following account of the way the money had been used and the practical working of the room:

“Of the sum contributed by members of the class ($675.70), about $400 has so far been expended for books. We have gone slowly in buying books, as needs change from time to time and better selection was likely to be got by buying when a want arose, rather than by anticipating wants. A considerable number of books will probably be added next year, but even as it stands, the collection is fairly complete for certain courses, and is exceedingly useful. It contains the works of the classic economists, like Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus most of them in duplicate; and also the works of the leading economists of more recent times, such as Cairnes, Sidgwick, Marshall, Jevon, Rogers, Walker, among English writers; Wagner, Cohn and Schoenberg, among German; and Bastiat and Leroi-Beaulieu among French. Many of these also are duplicated. There is a good working collection on tariff and financial matters for the United States, on railroads and on economic history in general. A considerable number of dictionaries and books of reference have been put in, such as ‘Lalor’s Political Science Cyclopaedia,’ the French ‘Dictionnaire d’Économie Politique,’ McCulloch’s “Commercial Dictionary,’ Kolb’s ‘Condition of Nations.’

“In addition there are a number of government publications, which are by no means the least useful part of the library. Besides the statistical abstracts of the United States, England and France, there are sets of United States Census Reports (including a full set of the census of 1880), Massachusetts Census Reports, the Finance Reports (U. S.) since 1870, Reports of the Comptroller of the Currency since 1876, the Statutes at Large, a full set of the Massachusetts Labor Reports, documents and reports on railroads and tariff legislation, and important foreign documents, such as the well-known British Reports on the Depreciation of Silver (1876) and on Railroads (1881). Among the periodicals kept on file are the Financial Chronicle, The Railroad Gazette, The Political Science Quarterly and our own [Quarterly] Journal of Economics.

“The library has undoubtedly been of great service to instructors and students. It has been very freely used by the latter, and it has been a frequent and pleasant experience to hear their expressions of acknowledgment of the aid and pleasure it has given them.

“It is interesting and significant that a similar plan is to be put in operation next year in the department of American History and Politics. A Working Library is to be provided, and will probably be put in the room now used for the Political Economy Library, so that the two will be used together. The money comes in a way from our class, being given in memory of our classmate, Glendower Evans, whose death last year made so sad a gap in our ranks.”

Each volume bears a neat book plate stating that it is given by members of the Class of 1879 to the Political Economy Department.

 

[pp. 86-88]

FRANK WILLIAM TAUSSIG

(Cambridge, April 2.)—”In 1885-86 I took my third year at Harvard Law School, receiving the degree of LL. B. in June, 1886. But some months before this I had been offered and had accepted an appointment as Assistant Professor of Political Economy in Harvard University, and in the fall of 1886 entered on the duties of that position. Since then I have lived the uneventful life of a college teacher. I was so fortunate as to be appointed just in time to take part in the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the University, and, being then the youngest member of the faculty, seem to have a better chance than any other member of taking part in the 300th anniversary when that comes around.

“On June 29, 1888, I was married at Exeter, N. H., to Edith Thomas Guild, of Boston, daughter of George Dwight Guild, of the class of ’45, and of Mary Thomas Guild (now Mrs. William H. Gorham). On May 3, 1889, we had born a son, William Guild Taussig. During the past summer (1889) we have built a house on land formerly belonging to Professor Norton, off Kirkland Street, and hope to live here in peace and quiet for many years to come.

“In connection with my teaching work, I have written and published on economic topics. Most of my writing has been for the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which was established by the University in 1886. In 1888 I published a volume entitled, ‘The Tariff History of the United States,’ made up, with revisions and additions, of the two smaller books published previously (on ‘Protection to Young Industries’ and on the ‘History of the Present Tariff’), and of the two other essays on tariff history mentioned in the subjoined list, which I have prepared at the request of our inquisitive Secretary. During the year 1889-90, in the absence of Professor Dunbar, I have edited the [Quarterly] Journal of Economics.

“In 1888 I was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. I am also a member of various scientific societies, to which my work naturally leads me, such as the American Economic and Historical Associations and the Political Economy Club. The list of my publications since 1885, not including minor articles in periodicals, is, in chronological order:

( 1) “Translation, with comment, of Wagner on the Present State of Political Economy; Quarterly Journal of Economics, October, 1886.

(2) “The Southwestern Strike of 1886; ibid., January, 1887.

(3) “Translation of Soetbeer’s Materials on the Silver Question, undertaken for the government, and published in Mr. Edward Atkinson’s Report on Bi-metallism, 1887.

(4) “A Suggested Re-arrangement of Economic Study; Quarterly Journal of Economics, January, 1888.

(5) “The Tariff of 1828; Political Science Quarterly, March, 1888.

(6) “The Tariff, 1830-1860; Quarterly Journal of Economics, April, 1888.

(7) “The Tariff History of the United States; New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1888.

(8) “How the Tariff Affects Wages; The Forum, October, 1888.

(9) “Some Aspects of the Tariff Question; Quarterly Journal of Economics, April, 1889.

(10) “Political Economy and Business; The Harvard Monthly, June, 1889.

(11) “Workmen’s Insurance in Germany; The Forum, October, 1889.

(12) “The Silver Situation in the United States; Quarterly Journal of Economics, April, 1890.

“I have also done a good deal of miscellaneous editorial work on the Quarterly Journal of Economics in arranging letters and appendix matter, and in writing notes and memoranda, and have written occasionally for the Nation and other papers. My address is 2 Scott Street, Cambridge, Mass.”

 

Source: Harvard College. Class of 1879. Secretary’s Report. No. IV. Commencement, 1890.

________________________________

1895

[pp. 95-8]

FRANK WILLIAM TAUSSIG.

(Florence, Italy, April 9.)—Since our last report, my life has moved in the easy current of the University stream, in which it seems likely to remain for the rest of my days. In 1892 I was promoted from the Assistant Professorship, which I then held, to a Professorship of Political Economy, and in the following year was made Chairman of the Department of Economics. As the tenure of a professorship is for good behavior, and as I trust I shall neither behave ill nor become useless to the University, I may hope to live in Cambridge and work for Harvard until I die.

“Among domestic happenings, I can report the birth of a second child, Mary Guild Taussig, on May 8, 1892.

“Becoming entitled, under the University regulations, to a sabbatical year, I determined to take advantage of the opportunity, and accordingly am spending this year (1894-95) in Europe. We left home in early October, and sailed direct for the Mediterranean. After a stop at Gibraltar and a glimpse of Spain, we proceeded to Naples, and remained for over two months in Southern Italy. I took a flying trip to Sicily, but spent most of the time with my family at the Island of Capri, which I can recommend to weary travelers in search of quiet and peace, beautiful scenery, healthful air, and quaint people. Thence we moved to Rome, where another two months passed pleasantly and where I learned something of Italian public affairs and of Italian economic literature. During the winter I have added to my professional equipment by acquiring a reading knowledge of Italian. We are in Florence at this writing and shall move north with the season.

“Among other happenings which have left an impression in my memory, I mention a trip to Washington in 1892, as member of a committee sent from Boston to protest against threatened legislation for free silver. I got a glimpse of President Harrison and of other prominent public men, which was interesting and instructive. Of a very different sort, but no less interesting, and much more satisfactory in its tangible results, was a trip to the woods of Maine in the summer of 1894, with R. W. Lovett, ’91, during which I first experienced the delights of trout fishing.

“In University politics, I am a firm advocate of the shortening of the College course to three years, and of the modification of the admission requirements in such manner as no longer to give Greek any preference or premium among the subjects that may be offered by candidates. On the vexed athletic question I have made a confession of my faith in an article in the Graduate Magazine for March of this year. In University finances I am a firm believer in the endowment of higher education in general, of Harvard University in particular, and of the Political Economy Department of Harvard University in special particular. In politics I am a disgusted independent, awaiting the appearance of a new party that shall stand squarely on the platform of a moderated tariff, sound money, and, above all, civil service reform and honest government. I may mention here that in 1893-94 I was a member of the School Committee of the City of Cambridge, and should have gladly continued to fill that modest public office had not the sabbatical vacation made it necessary for me to resign.

“The tale of my interests and activity is best told by my publications. Residing, as I do, far away from home, I cannot give any such a complete list of them as the ever methodical Almy would wish, but can recall enough to indicate what subjects have occupied my attention. In 1892 a second edition of my ‘Tariff History of the United States’ was published, in review and much enlarged form. In 1891 (I am not sure of the exact date) appeared a monograph on the ‘Silver Situation in the United States,’ first issued by the American Economic Association, and afterwards published in a second and enlarged edition by the firm of Putnam’s. I have contributed freely to periodicals, and especially to the Quarterly Journal of Economics, published by the University. In that journal I recall the following papers: ‘A Contribution to the Theory of Railway Rates,’ 1891; ‘Reciprocity,’ 1892; ‘The Duties on Wool and Woolens,’ 1893; ‘The Wages-Fund Doctrine at the Hands of German Economists,’ 1894. I gave aid and comfort to the enemy in 1893 by contributing to the Yale Review an article on ‘Recent Investigations on Prices in the United States.’ In 1894 there appeared, simultaneously in the Economic Journal of England and the Political Science Quarterly of New York, a paper on ‘The Tariff of 1894.’ My very last article is on ‘II Tesoro degli Stati Uniti’ (The Treasury of the United States), which appeared in the Giornale degli Economisti in March, 1895. This I will confess not to have written in Italian; it was translated from my manuscript. I may mention that in 1890-91 this same Italian Giornale degli Economisti had an article of mine on the McKinley tariff act, which was afterwards translated in the English Economic Journal, and finally became the basis of the chapter on the tariff of 1890 in the second edition of my ‘ Tariff History.’ During this winter (1894-95) I have been at work completing a book on ‘Some Aspects of the Theory of Wages,’ which I hope to give to the press on my return home in the autumn.

“I am the American correspondent of the British Economic Association, and in that capacity have contributed various shorter articles to the journal published by that Association. I am told that the position as correspondent has caused me to be regarded in some quarters as a suborned and traitorous enemy to American prosperity, but I am content to accept it as an honorable appointment from a body of distinguished men of science.

“My address is 2 Scott street, Cambridge, off Kirkland street, where classmates who may pilgrimize it to Cambridge will always be welcome.”

 

[pp. 134-5]

Taussig.—

“The Tariff History of the United States.” First edition, New York, 1888; second revised and enlarged edition, New York, 1892. (Of this volume, two parts had previously appeared in independent form; an essay on “Protection to Young Industries, as Applied in the United States,” in two editions, Cambridge, 1883, and New York, 1884; and a “History of the Present Tariff, 1860-1883,” New York, 1885. The other parts of the volume had also been previously published in the form of periodical articles for the Quarterly Journal of Economics and for the Political Science Quarterly. All were revised for the first and second editions of the book.)

“The Silver Situation in the United States.” First edition, Baltimore, 1892 (in the publications of the American Economic Association); second revised and enlarged edition, New York, 1893.

“Introductory Note and Supplemental Chapter to Laveleye’s Elements of Political Economy,” New York. 1884.

“Translation of Soetbeer’s Materials toward the Elucidation of the Economic Questions Affecting the Precious Metals,” undertaken for the Department of State. U. S. Senate Executive Documents, Fiftieth Congress, first session, No. 34, pp. 57-286, 1888.

“The Southwestern Strike of 1886,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, January, 1887.

“Prices in Great Britain, Germany, France and the United States,” (with J. L. Laughlin), Quarterly Journal of Economics, April, 1887.

“The Tariff Literature of the Campaign of 1888,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, January. 1889.

“A Contribution to the Theory of Railway Rates,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, July, 1891.

“Reciprocity,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, October, 1892.

“Recent Literature on Protection,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, January, 1893.

“The Wages Fund Doctrine at the Hands of German Economists,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, October, 1894.

“Recent Discussions on Railway Management in Prussia,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, October, 1894.

“How the Tariff Affects Wages,” Forum, October, 1888.

“Political Economy and Business,” Harvard Monthly, June, 1889,

“Workmen’s Insurance in Germany,” Forum, October, 1889.

“The Working of the New Silver Act of 1890,” Forum, October, 1890.

“La Tarifa McKinley,” Giornale degli Economisti, January, 1891. “The McKinley Tariff Act,” a translation of the preceding; Economic Journal, July, 1891.

”The Homestead Strike,” Economic Journal, June, 1893.

“Why Silver Ceases to be Money,” Popular Science Monthly, Sept., 1893.

“Results of Recent Investigations on Prices in the United States,” Yale Review, November, 1893. Also printed in the Bulletin of the International Statistical Institute.

“The United States Tariff of 1894,” published simultaneously in the British Economic Journal for December, 1894, and in the Political Science Quarterly of New York, for December, 1894.

“II Tesoro degli Stati Uniti,” Giornale degli Economisti, April, 1895.

In addition various articles and book reviews in the Nation, book reviews in the Political Science Quarterly, and notes and memoranda in the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

 

Source: Harvard College. Class of 1879. Secretary’s Report. No. V. Commencement, 1895.

________________________________

1900

[pp. 99-100]

FRANK WILLIAM TAUSSIG.

(Cambridge, May 4.)—”My last biographical instalment for our reports was written in April, 1895, at Florence, Italy, in the course of a sabbatical year spent abroad. I returned to Cambridge in September of 1895, and since then have been steadily in academic harness; and the happenings in my life have been such as naturally come to a University Professor. I have had plenty of work to do in teaching, for the resort of students to the department of political economy is large and growing. The introductory course (what used to be Political Economy —now Economics) has over 500 students, and the more advanced courses have numbers in proportion. The lectures to these 500 men — the instruction is now in good part by lectures — I find a serious tax on my strength, but also a great source of satisfaction, since they give an inspiring opportunity of reaching the mass of the undergraduates.

“A good part of my time of late years has been given to my editorial duties on the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the University’s publication in my subject. In 1896, Professor Dunbar resigned from the post of editor, to which I was appointed by the corporation. The Journal attained high repute among students of economics under Professor Dunbar’s management, and it is my endeavor to maintain the standard which he set. I have also acted, since 1896, as Chairman of the Publication Committee of the American Economic Association, and in that capacity have had still further editorial and administrative work to do. In 1897 I was appointed by Governor Wolcott member of a commission to examine and report upon the laws on taxation in the State of Massachusetts, and, being chosen Secretary of the commission, gave much time and labor to its investigations. Indeed, the report of the commission, though it presented, of course, not my own conclusions but those of the commission as a whole, was drafted almost entirely by myself, and occupied me throughout the summer of 1897. In the winter of 1897, and again in 1898, I was sent to the Indianapolis Monetary Convention as delegate from the Boston Merchants’ Association. In 1896 I was elected a member of the School Committee of the City of Cambridge, and have served on the committee since that date.

“This year (1900) wrote three considerable articles in consecutive numbers of the Quarterly Journal of Economics,— two on the ‘Iron Industry of the United States,’ one on the ‘New Currency Act’ wrote another article on the ‘Currency Act’ for the British Economic Journal; prepared an article on ‘Tariffs’ for the new edition of the Cyclopedia Britannica; and delivered a Commencement Address on ‘Education for the Business Man’ before the University of Missouri, on July 4th.

“I append a list of my writings [see Bibliographical Record], which indicates what subjects have chiefly engaged my attention.”

Married in 1888: one son, three daughters.

 

[p. 130]

Taussig.—

“Wages and Capital: An Examination of the Wages Fund Doctrine,” New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1896.

Also, new editions of older books:

“The Silver Situation in the United States,” third enlarged edition, New York, Putnam’s, 1896.

“The Tariff History of the United States.” Fourth enlarged and revised edition, New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1898.

Articles in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, published for Harvard University:

“The Employer’s Place in Distribution” ; Vol. X., October, 1895.

“Rabbeno’s ‘American Commercial Policy'”; Vol. X., October, 1895.

“The International Silver Situation”; Vol. XI., October, 1896.

“The Tariff Act of 1897”; Vol. XII., October, 1897.

“The United States Treasury in 1894-96” ; Vol. XIII., January, 1899.

“The Iron Industry in the United States: I. A Survey of Growth; II. The Working of Protection”; Vol. XIV., February and August, 1900.

“The Currency Act of 1900 ” ; Vol. XIV., May, 1900.

”Bond Sales and the Gold Standard,” Forum, November, 1896.

“The United States Tariff Act” (of 1897), British Economic Journal, December, 1897.

“The Taxation of Securities” (an address delivered at the University of Michigan), Political Science Quarterly, March, 1899.

“The Problem of Secondary Education, as Regards Training in Citizenship,” Educational Review, May, 1899.

“Charles Franklin Dunbar” (an obituary sketch), Harvard Monthly, February, 1900.

 

[p. 137]

MARRIAGE AND BIRTH RECORD

TAUSSIG EDITH THOMAS GUILD Exeter, N.H., June 20, 1888
William Guild Cambridge, Mass., May 3, 1889.
Mary Guild Cambridge, Mass., May 8, 1892.
Catharine Crombie Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 8, 1896.
Helen Brooke Cambridge, Mass., May 24, 1898.

 

 

Source: Harvard College. Class of 1879. Secretary’s Report. No. VI. Commencement, 1900.

________________________________

1905

[pp. 112-3]

FRANK WILLIAM TAUSSIG (Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 10). “I am sorry to say that I have not much to show for the last five years. In 1901 I felt seriously the strain of overwork, and was compelled to spend two years in complete idleness. I went abroad with my family in the autumn of 1901, expecting to need only one year for recovery; but a second year proved to be needed, and it was not until 1903 that we returned. We spent the first winter at Meran, in the Austrian Tyrol, the summer of 1902 in Switzerland, and the greater part of the winter of 1902-03 on the Italian Riviera. In the autumn of 1903 I resumed my work in the University, and was able to carry on my teaching work, but not to do a great deal besides. During the current academic year (1904-05), I have been able to accomplish more, but do not yet feel that I have recovered full working strength.

“In the course of 1899-1900 I published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics two articles on the ‘Iron Industry in the United States,’ and a third article on the ‘Currency Act of 1900.’ These were the last things I was able to achieve for a considerable time. In 1904 I was elected President of the American Economic Association, and prepared a presidential address, which was delivered at the meeting of the Association at Chicago in December, 1904, on the ‘Present Position of the Doctrine of Free Trade.’ Having been re-elected President of the Association, I am now preparing a second address, to be delivered in 1905. I resumed the editorship of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which continues to flourish, and holds, I believe, no unworthy place among the publications of the University.

“In 1901 the title of my post in the University was changed, or rather my appointment was changed. Having previously simply been Professor of Political Economy, I was made Henry Lee Professor of Economics. The Lee professorship was founded by the widow and children of the late Colonel Henry Lee, and is the first endowed professorship established at the University in my subject.”

 

Source: Harvard College. Class of 1879. Secretary’s Report. No. VII., 1905.

________________________________

1914

[pp. 293-8]

FRANK WILLIAM TAUSSIG, son of William and Adèle (Würpel) Taussig, was born at St. Louis, Missouri, December 28, 1859. He entered Harvard from Washington University in October, 1876, as a sophomore.

In September, 1879, he went abroad with E. C. Felton. After a few weeks together in London they separated, and Taussig went to Germany, where he remained until March, 1880, studying Roman law and political economy at the University of Berlin. In March he again joined Felton, and spent the next two months with him in Italy and at Paris. In May they again separated, and Taussig traveled for a time in Europe, chiefly in Austria and Switzerland. During his stay in Europe he wrote several articles for the New York Nation. He returned to America in August, and in September went to Cambridge, intending to enter the Law School; but the position of secretary to President Eliot was offered him, and he accepted it and at the same time began study for the degree of Ph.D., selecting as his special subject the history of the tariff legislation of the United States. In March, 1882, he was appointed instructor in political economy at Harvard for the year 1882-83. He resigned his secretaryship and during the next year devoted all his time to his teaching and the work connected with it. “In the course of that year,” he wrote, “I published an essay on ‘ Protection to Young Industries as Applied in the United States,’ which gave the results of investigations in the economic history of the country in the years 1789-1830. In June, 1883, I received the degree of Ph.D. from Harvard University.” In the fall of 1883 he entered the Harvard Law School, “with the intention of taking the regular three years’ course and of practising after I got through the School.” At the same time he continued his work as instructor in political economy, giving a course on the tariff history of the United States. “In 1884 I wrote an introductory notice to the English translation of Laveleye’s ‘Elements of Political Economy’ and added a supplementary chapter on some economic questions of present practical importance. In 1885 I published a second small volume on economic history, this being a ‘ History of the Existing Tariff.’ It gives an account of the tariff legislation of the country from 1860 to 1883, with more or less comment from the point of view of one who adheres to the principle of free trade.” He wrote at this time occasionally for the Boston Herald and Advertiser and for the Nation and was a member of the committee to edit the Civil Service Record, a. monthly paper published for the promotion of civil service reform, and wrote regularly for it. He joined the Massachusetts Reform Club and the Cobden Club. During the spring of 1885 he conducted the course on American history at Harvard in the absence of A. B. Hart, ’80, the regular instructor.

In June, 1886, he graduated from the Law School, with the degree of LL.B. Meanwhile he had been offered and had accepted an appointment as assistant professor of political economy at Harvard, and in the fall of 1886 entered on the duties of that position. “Since then,” he wrote in 1890, “I have lived the uneventful life of a college teacher. … In connection with my teaching work, I have written and published on economic topics. Most of my writing has been for the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which was established by the University in 1886. In 1888 I published a volume entitled ‘The Tariff History of the United States,’ made up, with revisions and additions, of the two smaller books published previously . . . and of the two other essays on tariff history” (on “The Tariff of 1828,” published in the Political Science Quarterly for March, 1888, and “The Tariff, 1830-1860,” published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics for April, 1888). During the year 1889-90, in the absence of Professor Dunbar, he edited the [Quarterly] Journal of Economics. In 1888 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He had also become a member “of various scientific societies, to which my work naturally leads me, such as the American Economic and Historical associations and the Political Economy Club.”

In 1892 he was made professor of political economy at Harvard and, in the following year, chairman of the department of economics. In 1892 he went to Washington as a member of a committee sent from Boston to protest against threatened legislation for free silver. “I got a glimpse of President Harrison and of other prominent public men, which was interesting and instructive. Of a very different sort, but no less interesting and much more satisfactory in its tangible results, was a trip to the woods of Maine in the summer of 1894 with R. W. Lovett, ’91, during which I first experienced the delights of trout fishing.” The year 1894-95 he spent in Europe with his family, remaining for two months in southern Italy and then passing two months in Rome before going further north. He continued to contribute freely to various periodicals, especially to the Quarterly Journal of Economics. “I gave aid and comfort to the enemy in 1893 by contributing to the Yale Review an article on ‘Recent Investigations on Prices in the United States.’ . . . My very last article,” he wrote from Florence, Italy, in April, 1895,” is on ‘ II Tesoro degli Stati Uniti’ . . . which appeared in the Giornale degli Economisti in March, 1895. This I will confess not to have written in Italian; it was translated from my manuscript.” In 1890-91 he had published an article in the Giornale on the McKinley tariff act, which was afterwards translated in the English Economic Journal, and finally became the basis of the chapter on the tariff of 1890 in the second edition of his

“Tariff History.” As the American correspondent of the British Economic Association he had contributed various articles to the journal published by the association. “In politics,” he wrote at this time, “I am a disgusted independent, awaiting the appearance of a new party that shall stand squarely on the platform of a moderated tariff, sound money and, above all, civil service reform and honest government…. In 1893-94 I was a member of the school committee of the city of Cambridge, and should have gladly continued to fill that modest public office had not the sabbatical vacation made it necessary for me to resign.”

In 1896 Professor Dunbar resigned as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Taussig was appointed by the President and Fellows to succeed him. In the same year he was made chairman of the Publication Committee of the

American Economic Association, involving much editorial and administrative work. In 1897 he was appointed by Governor Wolcott member of a commission to examine and report upon the laws on taxation in the State of Massachusetts, and as secretary of the commission gave much time and labor to its investigations. The drafting of its report was almost entirely his work and occupied him throughout the summer of 1897. In the winter of 1897, and again in 1898, he was sent to the Indianapolis Monetary Convention as delegate from the Boston Merchants’ Association. In 1896 he had been elected again a member of the school committee of Cambridge, and was still serving on the committee when he wrote for the Class Report of 1900. Besides articles in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, he had written an article on the “Currency Act” for the British Economic Journal, had prepared an article on “Tariffs” for the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and had delivered a commencement address on “Education for the Business Man” before the University of Missouri, July 4, 1900. In 1901 he was appointed to the newly established Henry Lee professorship of economics, founded in memory of the late Colonel Henry Lee by his widow and children, and the first endowed professorship established at Harvard in the department of economics. That year the strain of overwork compelled him to go abroad for rest. After two years in Europe with his family he returned, and in the fall of 1903 resumed work in the University. In 1904 he was elected president of the American Economic Association, and at its annual meeting at Chicago in December, 1904, delivered an address on ” The Present Position of the Doctrine of Free Trade,” which was printed in the Publications of the Association, February, 1905. He was reelected president of the Economic Association, and at the annual meeting in December, 1905, delivered an address on “The Love of Wealth and the Public Service,” which was printed in the Publications of the Association, February, 1906, and also in the Atlantic Monthly for March, 1906.

He writes, July 28, 1912, “My life during the past seven years has been quiet, the winters at work in Cambridge, the summers spent at our house at Cotuit. I continue to conduct nearly the same courses as in previous years, and give a large part of my energy to Economics I, the first course in the subject, and now the largest elective course on the College list. It is the policy of our department, and indeed of the College in general, not to put the much frequented general courses into the hands of young instructors, but to keep them under the older and more experienced members of the teaching staff. Not a few descendants of ’79 have sat under me during the past decade. In the spring of 1912 I took a brief journey to Europe as representative of the Boston Chamber of Commerce at an international meeting at Brussels. There is to be an International Congress of Chambers of Commerce in Boston in September, 1912, and I have been asked to act as chairman of the Committee on Programme for that congress. For the settlement of the programme it was necessary that some one should meet the representatives of the other countries taking part in the congress, and I was asked to appear for the Boston Chamber. I had a pleasant journey, spending a couple of weeks in London and there seeing something of men in public life. Among publications the chief has been my ‘Principles of Economics,’ in two volumes, published by Macmillan in the autumn of 1911. It is the result of many years of teaching and reflection, and its writing has occupied most of my spare time since our last report.”

He was married at Exeter, New Hampshire, June 20, 1888, to Edith Thomas Guild of Boston, daughter of George Dwight Guild of the Class of ’45 and Mary Thomas Guild, now Mrs. William H. Gorham. She died April 15, 1910. Their children are: William Guild, born at Cambridge, May 3, 1889; Mary Guild, born at Cambridge, May 8, 1892; Catharine Crombie, born at Cambridge, December 8, 1896; and Helen Brooke, born at Cambridge, May 24, 1898.

Taussig’s address is 2 Scott Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Source: Harvard College. Class of 1879. Secretary’s Report. No. VIII. Commencement, 1914.

Image Source: Frank Taussig from Harvard Album 1900.

Categories
Berkeley Economists Harvard

Harvard Ph.D. Alumnus (1906) and Berkeley Professor Stuart Daggett

I have my eye out for such Faculty memorial minutes like the following from the University of California System for Berkeley professor Stuart Daggett. In the previous post you can find the list of fields chosen by Daggett for his doctoral examination.

___________________________

 

Stuart Daggett, Transportation Engineering: Berkeley
by E. T. Grether, I. B. Cross, and P. S. Taylor

Stuart Daggett was born on March 2, 1881, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His career ended on December 22, 1954, at his home in Berkeley. It was characteristic of him that on the same day on which his final illness struck him, he had been at the University collecting materials dealing with the St. Lawrence Seaway. Although he had just sent to his publisher the revised manuscript of the fourth edition of his monumental Principles of Inland Transportation, first published in 1928, he was already beginning another major investigation. His physician has remarked that it would have been mental and physical bondage for Stuart Daggett to have given up systematic scholarly pursuits.

Stuart Daggett received all three of his degrees, the A.B. in 1903, the A.M. in 1904, and the Ph.D in 1906, from Harvard University. During 1906 to 1909 he was Instructor at Harvard, but in 1909 accepted appointment to the University of California as Assistant Professor of Railway Economics on the Flood Foundation. From that day until his death he was a faculty member at Berkeley. When he came to the campus he joined that small, distinguished pioneering company of scholars in economics, which then included Adolph C. Miller, Wesley Clair Mitchell, Carl Copping Plehn, Lincoln Hutchinson, Jessica B. Peixotto, A. W. Whitney, and Henry Rand Hatfield. Professor Daggett was the last surviving member of this group. His notable contributions to teaching, research, scholarly writing, and University and public service over the years more than amply justified the wisdom of the University administration in bringing him into this extraordinarily able assembly of economists. Only six years after his arrival at the University, he was appointed Professor of Transportation on the Flood Foundation.

Professor Daggett was the author of numerous books, contributions to scholarly publications, and reviews. Among his most significant publications were Railroad Reorganization, Chapters on the History of the Southern Pacific, Principles of Inland Transportation (four editions), Railroad Consolidation West of the Mississippi River, and Structure of Transcontinental Railroad Rates.

Professor Daggett was often called upon to render federal, state, and local public service. In 1912 he served as expert for a committee to advise the governor of California on the equalization of taxes. During World War I, he was with the War Industries Board, Division of Planning and Statistics. In 1924 he was expert for the Presidential Committee on Coördination of Rail and Water Facilities. During World War II, he was public member of various War Labor Board panels. He also made important contributions to private industry in various ways, including publication in trade papers, participation in business conferences, and acting as private arbitrator.

Professor Daggett’s greatest influence, however, was through his services as a teacher, administrator, and colleague on the faculty of the University of California. In the classroom his lectures were marked by extraordinary care in preparation and presentation. Running through the orderly discussion were numerous evidences of subtle humor, much to the delight of those students whose thirst for knowledge included also an appreciation of the lighter touch. His judicious temperament and ability in carrying heavy responsibilities brought him many demands in University government and administration. From 1920 to 1927 he was Dean of the College of Commerce (replaced by the School of Business Administration in 1943). The truest evidence of his stature among his colleagues was his inevitable membership or chairmanship on those committees concerned with the most serious, urgent, and critical issues of University government. Over the years, he was a member or chairman of almost all of the leading committees of the Academic Senate, and in 1948 became its Vice-Chairman. In 1951, on the recommendation of the Senate committee, he was elected Faculty Research Lecturer, the highest accolade bestowed by the Academic Senate.

Stuart Daggett was truly one of the great statesmen of the University of California. In a sense, too, he may be characterized as a “professor’s professor,” for he possessed to a high degree so many of the talents and qualities characteristic of the academic scholar–objectivity, meticulous precision, unyielding integrity, high standards of performance and personal dignity. His intimates and members of his immediate family realized that behind his reserve and dignity there was also warm friendliness, kindliness, affection, and a high degree of sensitivity.

 

Source: Academic Senate of the University of California System. University of California: In Memoriam [1957], pp. 45-47.

Image Source:  University of California Yearbook. Blue and Gold, 1922.

 

Categories
Chicago Economists Exam Questions

Chicago. Price and Distribution Theory. Taught by Viner and attended by Samuelson, 1935.

The graduate economics course at the University of Chicago “Price and Distribution Theory” as taught by Jacob Viner was often referred to by Paul Samuelson. From the Paul A. Samuelson papers at Duke University we have a copy of the examination questions for that course together with a copy of Jacob Viner’s evaluation of his “with one possible exception, the most promising undergraduate I have ever encountered since I began teaching some twenty years ago”. Any clues as to who might have claimed the status of the “one possible exception”? Viner’s cover note to Samuelson and the latter’s gracious response are included for the sake of completeness.

I have already posted the reading list for the 1932 vintage of the course.

___________________________________

Course Description

[Economics] 301. Price and Distribution Theory.—A study of the general body of economic thought which centers about the theory of value and distribution and is regarded as “orthodox theory,” including the critical examination of some modern systems of this character. Prerequisite: Economics 209 or its equivalent and the Bachelor’s degree. Summer, 9:00 Knight; Winter, 10:00, Viner.

 

Source: Announcements. The University of Chicago. The College and the Divisions for the Sessions of 1934-35, p. 286. (Note the 1936-37 course description Announcements is identical to that of 1934-35, so we can assume the course announcement in the 1935-36 Announcements would too.)

___________________________________

 

[Samuelson’s handwritten note and the copy of the 1935 examination for Economics 301]

My Final Exam for Viner’s famous course. Only 3(a) caused me trouble (no wonder!)
PAS 6/30/72

Examination in Economics 301
Winter Quarter, 1935-

  1. Discuss the relationship of marginal cost to prices:
    1. under short-run competitive equilibrium;
    2. under long-run competitive equilibrium

when (1) the industry is subject to external diseconomies of large production; (2) the industry operates under conditions of constant cost.

  1. In order that an industry shall operate at constant costs as its output is varied, what conditions must hold as to:
    1. the definition of “industry”;
    2. the supply curves, general and partial, of the factors used by that industry;
    3. the mode of operation of the law of diminishing returns in that industry;
    4. the presence or absence of internal diseconomies of large-scale firms in that industry;
    5. the size of the changes in output?
  2. Comment briefly on the following statements:
    1. “If labor has effective occupational mobility, the prices of all commodities under competitive conditions will tend to equal their marginal labor costs.”
    2. “Labor is paid out of current product, and if advances are made, they are made by laborer to employer, rather than vice versa.”
    3. “Saving is necessary only in an expanding economy. No one need wait for the product of his labor or property in a stationary economy.”
    4. “Any increase in investment lengthens the production period, and the production period cannot be lengthened unless more investment takes place.”

___________________________________

 

Jacob Viner’s Handwritten Note to Paul Samuelson, 1963

Jacob Viner
13 Newlin Road
Princeton, New Jersey

Aug. 7, 1963

Dear Paul,

I have just run across my carbon copy of a 1935 appraisal of you by me and am sending you a reproduction of it not to raise your ego but to raise mine. I recall your report at Pittsburg of a less perspicacious appraisal of about the same period by Paul Douglas. In this instance at least I showed skill apparently as a forecaster.

Cordially yours,
Jack

___________________________________

 

Jacob Viner’s Recommendation for Paul Samuelson to SSRC, 1935

The Social Science Research Council
230 Park Avenue
New York City

Mr. Paul A. Samuelson, although an undergraduate, did distinctly better work than any other member of my graduate course in Economic Theory during the past Quarter. He is a sober, careful and extremely able student, equipped with extensive mathematical technique, zealous, original and independent, without the belligerence and the arrogance that so often marks young men with keen minds and the knowledge that they are superior in mental capacity to their classmates. Mr. Samuelson shows all the signs of having it in him to become a very distinguished economic theorist, and is, with one possible exception, the most promising undergraduate I have ever encountered since I began teaching some twenty years ago. I have only known him for some four months, but I do not think that this is a too hasty judgment.

Jacob Viner
Professor of Economics
Chicago, Illinois

April 15, 1935
University of Chicago

___________________________________

 

Paul Samuelson’s response to Jacob Viner, 1963
Carbon copy

August 23, 1963

Dear Jack:

I had to be flattered by your August 19 note and the enclosed carbon of your 1935 evaluation of me. I feel as proud of that young man as if he had been my son and prouder still after your early discernment of his “growth-stock” potential.

Your 1935 graduate course certainly stimulated me. It sent me to Harvard well-prepared—over-prepared some of my teachers may have thought!

Last June I basked in the reflected glory of your Harvard degree.

Our love to Frances,

___________________________________

 

Source: Duke University.   Rubenstein Library. Paul A. Samuelson Papers, Box 74, Folder “Viner, Jacob (corresp) 1935-1990”.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-08490, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

Categories
Columbia Economists Harvard UCLA

Columbia. Ph.D. alumnus (1911) Benjamin M. Anderson, Obituary

_____________________

Benjamin McA. Anderson, Economics: Los Angeles

by Earl J. Miller, Marvel Stockwell, John Clendenin, Vern O. Knudsen

BENJAMIN MCALESTER ANDERSON (May 1, 1886-January 19, 1949), son of Benjamin McLean and Mary Frances (Bowling) Anderson, was born in Columbia, Missouri. He married Margaret Louis Crenshaw May 27, 1909. He is survived by his wife and three children, John Crenshaw, William Bent, and Mary Louise (Brown). A fourth child, Benjamin M. Anderson III, died in 1919.

Professor Anderson received the A.B. at the University of Missouri in 1906, the A.M. at the University of Illinois in 1910, and the Ph.D. in Economics at Columbia in 1911. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an active member of the American Economic Association, in which he served as vice-president and a member of the Executive Committee. He served as Professor of History in the State Normal School at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1905; Professor of English Literature and Economics at Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Missouri, in 1906; Professor of History and Economics at the State Teachers College, Springfield, Missouri, from 1906 to 1911; Instructor in Economics at Columbia from 1911 to 1913; Assistant Professor of Economics at Columbia, 1913; Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard, 1913-1918; economic advisor in the National Bank of Commerce in New York, 1918-1920; economist for the Chase National Bank of New York, 1920-1939; Professor of Economics in the University of California at Los Angeles, 1939-1949 (Connell Professor of Banking, 1946-1949).

Professor Anderson enjoyed a rich experience as a youth in his home at Columbia, Missouri. His father was for many years a prominent member of the Missouri State Legislature. Their home was the scene of innumerable political conferences to which Dr. Anderson was invited and from which he developed a keen interest in the then current political and economic problems.

Dr. Anderson’s publications were extensive, including four books and many articles and reviews. Outstanding among them were his books, Social Value, 1911; The Value of Money, 1917; Effects of the War on Money, Credit and Banking in France and the United States, 1919; Financing American Prosperity (coauthor with J. M. Clark, Columbia; A. H. Hansen, Harvard; S. H. Slichter, Harvard; H. S. Ellis, California at Berkeley; and J. H. Williams, Harvard), 1945. Much of his time during the last few years of his life was devoted to the writing of another book entitled Economics and the Public Welfare, a financial and economic history of the United States, 1914-1946. This extensive work was ready for proofreading at the time of his death. The book has now been published. It is a further major contribution to the field of economic literature comparable in quality to the high standard set in his previous works.

He contributed articles to many magazines and journals. Among them were the American Economic Review; Annals of the American Academy; Political Science Quarterly; Quarterly Journal of Economics; The New York Times; The Commercial and Financial Chronicle; The Bankers Magazine (London); The London Times; and the Wall Street Journal. During the past ten years he has published eight issues of the Economic Bulletin under the sponsorship of the Capital Research Company of Los Angeles. He associated himself for many years with a group of well-known economists in the organization known as the Economists’ National Committee on Monetary Policy, and served as President of that organization. Several of his articles were reprinted and circulated on a wide basis by that organization.

While economist for the Chase National Bank of New York, Professor Anderson published over two hundred issues of theChase Economic Bulletin, which was distributed and read extensively in government, banking and educational circles in many countries. Representing the Chase National Bank he traveled extensively in foreign countries to conduct negotiations with leading government and banking officials. He was called on numerous occasions to testify before committees of the U.S. Congress and the New York State

Legislature on questions of state, national and international policy relating to the fields of money and banking. These activities together with the wide circulation of his books, and of his articles in professional and financial journals and magazines, made him one of the best-known and most distinguished economists of his generation in both the national and international fields.

The firsthand contact with practical banking, with American and foreign banking officials, and with government agencies concerned with our economic and monetary affairs, which Dr. Anderson had enjoyed through many years, greatly enriched the content of his teaching and enabled him to provide for his students a sound and thoroughly practical experience. He originally possessed a scholarly command of history, literature, and languages which added impressively to his work, and he brought to his teaching and advisory tasks a broad perspective and keen judgment which made his pronouncements on economic affairs surprisingly accurate and wise.

Professor Anderson was a modest and distinguished scholar and a man esteemed by his colleagues for his personal qualities of kindly manner, stimulating humor, sympathetic appreciation and helpful cooperation. As a scholar and as a man he made a memorable contribution to the community in which he lived.

 

Source: Academic Senate of the University of California. University of California: In Memoriam 1949, pp. 1-4.

Image Source:  Wikipedia article on Benjamin McAlester Anderson.

Categories
Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Subjects Chosen by Economics Ph.D. Candidates for Examination.1904

______________________________

This posting lists the seven graduate students in economics who took their subject examinations for the Ph.D. at Harvard in 1904.  The examination committee members, academic history, general and specific subjects are provided along with the doctoral thesis subject, when declared. Lists for 1915-16 and 1926-27 were posted previously. In the same archival box one finds lists for the academic years 1902-03 through 1904-05, 1906-07 through 1913-14, 1915-16, 1917-18 through 1918-19, and finally 1926-27. I only include graduate students of economics (i.e. not included are the Ph.D. candidates in history and government).

Titles and dates of the economic dissertations for the period 1875-1926 can be found here.

______________________________

 

DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.
1903-04

 

Charles Beardsley.

General Examination in Political Science, Wednesday, February 24, 1904.
Committee: Professors Ripley, Lowell, Haskins, Carver, Bullock, Gay and Dr. Sprague.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1888-92; Graduate School, 1893-94, 1896-97, 1902-03; Harvard, 1897[sic, he received his A.B. in 1892] (A.B.); Harvard, 1902 [sic, he received his A.M. in 1897] (A.M.)
General Subjects: 1. Constitutional History of England since the beginning of the Tudor Period. 2. Modern Government and Comparative Constitutional Law. 3. Economic Theory and its History. 4. Applied Economics: Money and Banking, International Trade, Taxation and Finance. 5. Economic History of the United States, with special reference to the Tariff, Financial Legislation, and Industrial Combinations. 6. Sociology, including the Labor Question. 7. (Special subject.).
Special Subject: Tariff Legislation and Controversy in England since the time of Adam Smith.
Thesis Subject: “Huskisson’s Tariff Reforms in England.” (With Professors Taussig and Gay.)

[Note: Charles Beardsley, Jr. was never awarded a Ph.D. from Harvard. More about Charles Beardsley’s life is found in my earlier posting taken from the Secretary’s Report of the Harvard Class of 1892 (1912).

 

William Hyde Price.

General Examination in Political Science, Wednesday, April 13, 1904.
Committee: Professors Carver, Macvane, Taussig, Ripley, Bullock, Gay, and Dr. Sprague.
Academic History: Tufts College, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1901-04; Tufts, 1901(A.B.); Harvard, 1902 (A.M.).
General Subjects: 1. Constitutional History of England since 1500. 2. Modern Government and Comparative Constitutional Law. 3.(a) History of Economic Theories; (b) Statistics. 4.(a) Public Finance; (b) Transportation; (c) Labor and Industrial Organization. 5. European Economic History. 6. American Economic History. 7. Sociology.
Special Subject: English Economic History since the Sixteenth Century.
Thesis Subject: “Elizabethan Patents of Monopoly.” (With Professor Gay.)

 

George Randall Lewis.

General Examination in Political Science, Thursday, April 14, 1904.
Committee: Professors Ripley, Macvane, Turner, Taussig, Carver, Gay, and Dr. Sprague.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1898-1902; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-04; Harvard, 1902 (A.B.).
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Applied Economics; Labor and Railroads. 3. Economic History of the United States and Europe. 4. Economic History of the United States, with special reference to the Tariff, Financial Legislation, and Railroads. 5. Sociology. 6. History of American Institutions. 7. International law and Diplomatic History.
Special Subject: Economic History of Europe.
Thesis Subject: “Mines and Mining in Mediaeval England.” (With Professor Gay.)

 

David Hutton Webster.

General Examination in Political Science, Monday, May 2, 1904.
Committee: Professors Ripley, Lowell, G.F. Moore, Carver, Andrew, Bullock and Dr. Sprague.
Academic History: Stanford University, 1893-97; Assistant in Economics, Stanford University, 1899-1900; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-04; Stanford University, 1896 (A.B.); Stanford University, 1897 (A.M.); Harvard University, 1903 (A.M.).
General Subjects: 1. History of Religion. 2. Theory of the State. 3. Economic Theory and its History. 4. Applied Economics: Money and Banking, International Trade, Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization. 5. Economic History of the United States, with special reference to the Tariff, Financial Legislation, and Transportation. 6 and 7 Sociology (double subject).
Special Subject: Sociology.
Thesis Subject: “Primitive Social Control: A Study of Tribal initiation Ceremonies and Secret Societies.”

Special Examination in Political Science, Friday, May 27, 1904.
Committee: Professors Carver, Wright, Peabody, Ripley, Gay and Dr. Dixon.

 

Albert Benedict Wolfe.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 11, 1904.
Committee: Professors Ripley, Carver, Bullock, Gay, Hart, Andrew, and Dr. Sprague.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1899-1902; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-04; 1902 (A.B.); 1903 (A.M.); South End House Fellow, 1902-04; Final Honors at graduation in 1902.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology and Social Reform. 3. Statistics. 4. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization. 5. United States History and International Law. 6. Economic History of Mediaeval Europe and of the United States.
Special Subject: Not yet announced.
Thesis Subject: “The Lodging House Problem in Boston, with some Reference to other Cities.”

 

Vanderveer Custis.

General Examination in Political Science, Friday, May 20, 1904.
Committee: Professors Carver, Macvane, Taussig, Ripley, Andrew, Gay, and Dr. Sprague.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-04; Harvard, 1901 (A.B.); Harvard, 1902 (A.M.).
General Subjects: 1. Constitutional History of England since the beginning of the Tudor Period. 2. Modern Government and International Law. 3. Economic Theory and Statistics. 4. Applied Economics: Money and Banking, Industrial Organization, Taxation, and Finance. 5. Economic History of Europe and the United States. 6. Economic History of the United States, with special reference to the Tariff, Financial Legislation, and Transportation. 7. Sociology.
Special Subject: Industrial Organization.
Thesis Subject: “The Theory of Industrial Consolidation.”

 

Chester Whitney Wright.

General Examination in Political Science, Thursday, May 26, 1904.
Committee: Professors Carver, Haskins, Turner, Ripley, Andrew, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-04; Harvard, 1901 (A.B.); Harvard, 1902 (A.M.).
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Statistics. 3. Money, Banking, Commercial Crises. 4. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 5. The Economic History of the United States and Industrial Organization. 6. United States History since 1789.
Special Subject: The Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: Not yet announced.

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1903-04”.

Image Source: John Harvard Statue (1904). Library of Congress. Photos, Prints and Drawings.

Categories
Agricultural Economics Economists Harvard

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

___________________

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

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

___________________

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

18. EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT, PUBLICATIONS, ETC.

18(a). Chronological Record.

Education

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

 

Foreign Travel

Summer, 1931         Travel in 12 countries of Europe.

 

Employment (Part-time= *)

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

 

 

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

Graduate Courses at Harvard University

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The procedure was divided into four parts:

(1) Conditions in the livestock and meat markets.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            (3) The RESULTS of these policies.

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

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

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

 

18(c). List of Publications

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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Hall of Distinguished Alumni
[University of Kentucky]

William Hord Nicholls

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Vanderbilt University Memorial

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

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

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

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

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

Categories
Chicago Economists

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

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

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

Categories
Economists Harvard

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

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

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Newly-Formed Group To Hold First Meeting

Harvard Crimson, April 10, 1945

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

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

 

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

Harvard Crimson, April 13, 1945

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

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

Usher Defends Hayek’s Ideas

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

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

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

 

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

Categories
Columbia Economists Exam Questions History of Economics

Columbia. Classical Economics Exam by J.M. Clark. 1951

John Maurice Clark

John Maurice Clark taught a history of economic theory sequence at Columbia University that had its origins in a similar course that had been taught earlier by Wesley Clair Mitchell. On the back of Clark’s examination questions for the first session of the 1950-51 academic year one finds a list of names and grades that we can strongly presume constitute the grade distribution for the course. 43 students were listed by John Maurice Clark in his handwritten grade sheet for the first semester of formative types of economic theory, of whom 26 received grades (3.12 average on a 4 point scale, median 3.17). Mark Blaug, whose magnum opus Economic Theory in Retrospect has served as a staple of the analytic narrative of the evolution of economics, received only a grade of B- (2.67) which put him tied with two other students at rank 21. A few years later Blaug was to find his mentor and dissertation adviser, George Stigler.

The later Congressional Research Service economist John P. Hardt (Columbia Ph.D., 1954) was  on the list but not awarded a grade for the course.

Oops it happens every so often, I have repeated myself. The original posting along with another year’s examination can be found here.

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Course Announcement

Economics 115-116 — Formative types of economic theory.
3 points each session. Professor Clark.
M. W. 12. 313 Fayerweather.

Readings and critical discussion of outstanding examples of the parent stock of classical economics with some regard to historical setting, and of subsequent outstanding contributions.

Source: Columbia University. Announcement of the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions 1950-51, p. 46.

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Course Description

Economics 115-116—Formative types of economic theory. 3 points each session. Professor Clark.

M.W. 12.         313 Fayerweather.

Readings and critical discussion of outstanding examples of the parent stock of classical economics, with some regard to historical setting, and of subsequent outstanding contributions.

Source:   Columbia University. Announcement of the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions 1950-51, p. 46.

_______________________________

Take-Home Examination Questions

Economics 115
Final Examination
January, 1951

Answer any two questions, taking about the time for the actual writing that a regular examination would take. Those who do the work during Christmas holidays will please return papers January 8; others Friday, January 26, unless otherwise specified.

  1. Do the views of ancient writers (Hebrew, Greek or Roman) afford the same kind of evidence as the writings of modern economists as to economic conditions and practices of their time?
  2. Discuss extent of applicability of medieval doctrine on price; variations or relaxations; and how far the doctrine was effective in practice.
  3. Explain and appraise Quesnay’s “Tableau Économique”.
  4. State key doctrines of the Physiocrats and indicate how they could be regarded as adaptations to an historical situation.
  5. Compare views of Smith and Ricardo on the relation of labor to value.
  6. Compare treatment of rent in Smith, Malthus and Ricardo.
  7. On what grounds did Adam Smith sanction departures from laissez-faire?
  8. Topic: dominant conceptions of what economic activity is for. Compare the dominant conception (or at most a few dominant conceptions) of as many of the following as you feel you can reasonably cover: typical Mercantilists, Physiocrats, Ricardo, John Stuart Mill.
  9. What does Bentham’s theory contribute to the basic rationale of economics, aside from his ideas on economic matters themselves? (Book V of J. S. Mill’s “Principles of Political Economy” might contain hints.)
  10. State doctrines of Ricardo which had roots in historical conditions of the time, and indicate the connection.
  11. Compare Ricardo’s treatment of value with either Adam Smith’s or John Stuart Mill’s.
  12. What were the sources of J. S. Mill’s departure from strict Ricardianism?

_______________________________

Probable Grade Distribution

Letter Grade

 Number of students
A

2

A to A-

 1
A-

5

B+

 5
B

6

B to B-

 1
B-

2

C+

 1
C

3

Note:  Mark Blaug received the B to B- grade.

Source: Columbia University Archives. John M. Clark Papers. Box 24 (Courses Misc.), Unlabeled Folder.

Image Source: Portrait of John Maurice Clark from the collection of portraits of economists presented in 1997 as a gift to the Department of Economics of Duke University by Professor Warren J. Samuels of Michigan State University. Free use of these portraits in Web documents, and for other educational purposes, is encouraged: users are requested to acknowledge that the images come from The Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University.