Category: Economists

Harvard. Charles F. Dunbar Obituary by Taussig, 1900

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-12-13

In this posting I first provide links to six successive editions of Charles F. Dunbar’s textbook on the theory and history of banking (four of which revised and expanded posthumously).

Next, following President Eliot’s memoir from the last posting, I append here the obituary for Charles F. Dunbar written by Frank W. Taussig published February 3, 1900 in the Cambridge Tribune.

Another memoir (written by Edward H. Hall) regarding Dunbar was published in vol. 14 (1900-01) of the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, pp. 218-228.

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Dunbar, Charles F. Chapters on Banking, privately printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Zero edition, 1885. Eight chapters printed for the use of classes in Harvard University.

Dunbar, Charles F. Chapters on the Theory and History of Banking. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press.

First edition, 1891. Added introductory chapter, chapter on combined reserves or the system of Clearing-House loan certificates and one on the Bank of Amsterdam.

Note: title shortened for second through fourth edition to The Theory and History of Banking.

Second edition, 1901. Enlarged and edited by O. M. W. Sprague.

Third edition, 1917. Enlarged by Oliver M. W. Sprague to include three new chapters on Foreign Exchange, Central Banks and on the Federal Reserve System.

Fourth edition, 1922. With chapters on foreign exchange and central banks by Oliver M. W. Sprague and a supplementary chapter presenting the record of the Federal Reserve System by Henry Parker Willis.

Fifth edition, 1929 With supplementary chapter presenting the record of the Federal Reserve System by Henry Parker Willis. Revised and in part rewritten with additional material by Oliver M. W. Sprague. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

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Charles Franklin Dunbar.

Charles Franklin Dunbar, professor of Political Economy in Harvard University, died at his house, on Highland street, on the night of Monday, January 29. He had been ill for some weeks, but his friends had not thought the end would come so soon.

Professor Dunbar was born July 28, 1830, and graduated from Harvard College in 1851. Among his class-mates were Professors Goodwin and Langdell, and Dr. S. A. Green; and, among those whom death has already carried away, Professor W. F. Allen of the University of Wisconsin, General Francis W. Palfrey, and Messrs. George O. Shattuck and Augustus T. Perkins of Boston. Professor Dunbar studied law after graduation, but in a few years became connected with the Boston Advertiser. To that paper he gave some of the best years of his life. He became editor-in-chief in 1862, and so was in charge of the paper during the greater part of the civil war. While always independent in his judgments, he was a fervid supporter of the Union cause, and many of his editorials rang through New England like a trumpet blast. In 1869 the paper changed hands, and Professor Dunbar resigned as editor and disposed of his interest. He was invited shortly to accept the professorship in Harvard University, and after two years spent in travel and study in Europe, assumed the duties of the professorship, in 1871. For the rest of his life he was in active service, and a resident of Cambridge through these thirty years.

Professor Dunbar’s sagacity and tact led to his selection for important administrative offices. He was dean of the Faculty of Harvard College from 1876 to 1882, and was the first dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in Harvard University when that body was organized in 1890. He remained its dean till 1895. From 1886 to 1896 he was editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, established by the University in the first named year.

Professor Dunbar was distinguished by solidity of learning, sanity of judgment, independence of views, and scholarly thoroughness in probing to the bottom every subject he took up. His favorite topics were banking, currency and financial administration. He was interested alike in the history of these subjects and in current problems connected with them. Probably no man was better equipped by attainments and by justness of views to give advice on the financial questions which have been before the American community for the last thirty years. His writings on them gave but fragmentary indication of his attainments. He published a compact volume on the “Theory and Practice of Banking,” [sic, correct title is “The Theory and History of Banking”] which, though brief, is the best book on this subject in the English language, and in some respects perhaps the best in any language. To the Quarterly Journal of Economics he contributed frequent articles on financial subjects, and on some questions of theory; and he had abundance of material for others which he had planned but unhappily was not able to prepare. His administrative duties absorbed a large share of his strength, and stood in the way of the execution of his literary plans.

Professor Dunbar was a member of the Massachusetts Historical society, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was at one time president of the American Economic association. His reputation abroad was at least as high as it was in the United States: among economists the world over he was known as a scholar of the first rank.

An easy and graceful writer, he was also a clear and attractive lecturer, with a remarkable faculty for the consecutive and systematic exposition of difficult subjects. The weakness of his voice was the only obstacle which ever stood in the way of the interest and easy comprehension of his lectures. With small classes of advanced students he was at his best, and no one who came in contact with him under such circumstances failed to cherish feelings of admiration and affection far him. Staunch in his own opinions, open-minded as to those of others, free from all vanity or ostentation, strong in his affection for those with whom he came into close association, he left a memory which will be cherished by his associates and former students. F. W. Taussig.

Source: Cambridge Tribune, Vol. XXII, No. 48 (February 3, 1900), p. 4.

Image Source: From cover of the 1885 copy privately published Chapters of Banking.

Tags Dunbar, Taussig

Economists Harvard

Harvard. Biographical memoir of Charles F. Dunbar, 1900

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-12-12

Only a few days after Harvard’s first professor of Political Economy died on January 29, 1900, the President of Harvard himself, Charles William Eliot, read the following memoir of the life of Charles Franklin Dunbar before the Massachusetts Historical Society on February 8, 1900. The memoir was published in The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine‘s June, 1900 issue and reprinted along with biographical sketches of other “Sons of the Puritans” in 1908. Page numbers for the 1908 reprint of the memoir have been placed within square brackets below. The account of Dunbar’s Harvard career begins on page 75.

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CHARLES FRANKLIN DUNBAR

By Charles W. Eliot

[59] Charles Franklin Dunbar, born at Abington in July, 1830, was of Scotch descent, as his sandy hair and complexion, his shrewdness, reticence, and quiet humor plainly testified. He was much interested in his family descent, and gave no little time to tracing it both in Scotland and in Massachusetts. In one of his journeys to Scotland he visited the chief seats of the Dunbar Clan in Morayshire, and found reason to believe that from and after the year 1400 Dunbar was one of the prevailing names in that region. The first Dunbar in Massachusetts was Robert Dunbar of Hingham, who said of himself, in a deposition he made in court in 1659, that he was a servant of Mr. Joshua Foote when Mr. Foote lived in Boston. By a series of careful investigations Charles Franklin Dunbar established the strong probability that this Robert Dunbar who was held to the services of Joshua Foote for a term of years as early as 1655, and possibly as early as 1652, was one of Cromwell’s Scottish prisoners taken at the battle of Dunbar in 1650, [60] or at the battle of Worcester in 1651. It is certain that some of the prisoners taken at the battle of Dunbar were sent to the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1650-51, after having endured frightful sufferings which killed three quarters of the prisoners originally captured. Robert Dunbar, who died in Hingham in 1693 at about sixty years of age, was therefore, in all probability, of very tough fibre.

The father of Charles Franklin Dunbar was Asaph Dunbar, who was born in 1779 and died in 1867. Charles was Asaph’s youngest child. He had three brothers, all of whom filled out a reasonable span of life, and two sisters, one of whom died in infancy and the other at the age of twenty-one. The father’s business was making boots and shoes, and Charles’s three older brothers grew up in that business in Plymouth County, but while still young went away to New Orleans to sell there the goods which their father manufactured. One of these three brothers returned to New York to establish himself there in the same business. Charles was the only one of the brothers who received a liberal education. He was sent to Phillips Academy, Exeter, — probably because he had always shown a strong desire to read and an aptitude for study. The [61] success with which he accomplished the academic course at Exeter determined his being sent to Harvard College, where he graduated with credit in 1851. The fact that he was sent to Exeter at thirteen years of age determined his subsequent career; and he always felt unbounded gratitude to that ancient academy, a gratitude which he expressed by serving it for many years as a member of the board of trustees. At Harvard College he won the respect and friendship of scores of young men, many of whom have come to the front in one way or another during the forty-eight years which have elapsed since he graduated. Some of them were associated with him in after life; and he always retained their warm regard and admiration.

After leaving college he went for a time to his brothers in New Orleans; but soon came back, first to New York and then to Boston, applying himself steadily to business. A threatening of serious trouble in the lungs obliged him to abandon this indoor occupation; whereupon he bought a farm at Lexington, and entered cheerfully on the quiet out-of-door life of a farmer, for which he developed a strong taste and aptitude. Here he soon recovered his health and strength; so that he took up the study of the law at the [62] Harvard Law School, and in the office of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, and was in due course admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1858. Practice coming to the young lawyer but slowly, he had ample time to write for the Boston Daily Advertiser, and, finding this occupation congenial, he became within a little more than a year editor and part owner of that influential newspaper. In this enterprise he was supported and helped by the occasional labors of a group of young men whom he had known at Exeter and in College; but he himself gave his whole time and strength to the paper. He remained in the position of editor for ten years, — all through the Civil War, and through the early years of reconstruction and gradual pacification. During the Civil War he personally wrote every editorial article in any way related to the war which appeared in that newspaper. The Advertiser became by common consent the leading paper in Boston, and no newspaper since has exercised the same influence in this community. His position brought him into contact with a large proportion of the leading men of the time in eastern Massachusetts, — with merchants, manufacturers, politicians, soldiers, lawyers, and preachers. He wrote, of course, constantly on military [63] events and prospects; but the subjects he best liked to deal with were financial, economic, or political, — such as the war loans, tariffs, and banking acts, the suspension of specie payments, and the measures taken to collect a great internal revenue. The amount and the quality of the work he did in the ten years between 1859 and 1869 were remarkable, considering that he began this work at twenty-nine and ended it at thirty-nine years of age. At thirty years of age he was wielding an influence which would now seem almost impossible of attainment at that age.

A few citations from his editorials will suffice to give an idea of the elevation of their tone, and of their moderation, judicial quality, and prophetic insight.

As early as July 4, 1861, he thus defined the objects of the war for the Union, and the spirit of the Northern people: —

“We are fighting now, as eighty-five years ago, to defend a cause in which the grandest principles of government and the highest interests of man are involved. Our people now as then have thrown aside all remembrances of old divisions, and have united in an enterprise which they believe to be just and holy. Life, fortune, and sacred honor [64] are again pledged to the support of the patriotic declarations with which the second war for liberty has been undertaken; and again has Congress assembled, prepared to forego the ordinary topics of political strife, to forget as is believed all tests save the one question of fidelity to country, and to take counsel in singleness of heart for the one great object.”

Immediately after the heavy defeat of the Union troops at the first battle of Bull Run, he wrote, July 23, 1861: —

“We said at the outset that this reverse had temporarily defeated the scheme for advancing through Virginia. Let no man to-day whisper the thought of abating a jot of our vast undertaking. Taught by one reverse the nation will rise above its misfortune, and press on in its just and holy cause. The people who have poured out their blood and treasure so freely will be kindled to new efforts. … Our present misfortune will disclose to all the true secret of our weakness, and will teach all that the advance for which some have so long clamored is not to be accomplished in a single effort. With a full knowledge on all hands of the nature of our undertaking, and with such further preparation as must now be made for this grand enterprise, we can doubt its final success as little as we can doubt the justice of the cause in which [65] it is undertaken, or the wisdom of the Providence which rules all things for our good.”

He early foresaw the fate of slavery as an institution. Writing on the last night of the year 1861 a survey of the events of the year, he made this prophetic utterance a year before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued: —

“It leaves our own people with renewed courage, united beyond all hope in support of the government in a most trying case, and fully ahve to the importance of closing the war at once. It also leaves the majority with an unshaken resolution to confine the war to its proper objects, and to sustain the President in the firm and conservative course which he has pursued through the ten months in which he has held office. At the same time, the year has demonstrated to our whole people the great fact, that in the designs of Omnipotence the South has been led through its own folly to write the doom of slavery. Heavier and heavier are the blows which descend upon that institution, and more and more significant are the proofs that the South built upon a weak foundation, when, within this very year, it announced slavery as the cornerstone of its fabric, political and social.”

Near the close of the year 1862 Secretary Chase communicated to the Committee on Ways [66] and Means the draft of a bill to provide the necessary resources for the prosecution of the war. The second section authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to borrow nine hundred million dollars in any of the modes heretofore authorized for making loans. The bill also contained the details of the national bank scheme. Mr. Dunbar’s comments on this bill are in part as follows: —

“The most important feature of this bill, so far as regards the immediate emergencies of the country, is the second section, and this it seems to us has been well conceived. . . . Should this power be granted by Congress, we trust that the secretary will use it with liberal forethought. Armed with full powers, he will be able to feed the market with such securities as are most popular, at times when prices are favorable. Unrestricted by needless trammels, he can avail himself of the most favorable proposals which may be suggested from time to time by those who have money to loan, or who can present well-considered plans for meeting the wants of the Treasury with the least cost to the nation.”

Of that very important part of the bill which related to the establishment of the national bank system he speaks as follows, in his few words [67] showing that he had a clear vision of the wide scope and far-reaching consequences of the project:—

“It has been taken for granted that this measure will provoke a violent opposition, which, nevertheless, as yet has not manifested itself in any very definite shape. It is nowhere denied that the Secretary’s plan insures several very decided advantages; it looks rather to the establishment of a sound currency for the country upon a permanent basis than to any immediate results. If it be said that it will be time enough to legislate to this end when we have got out of the war and the financial difficulties incident thereto, it may be answered with at least equal force that the necessity of reform will then be less generally apparent. ‘Why don’t you mend your roof ?’ asked a traveler of a negro in whose leaky hut he had taken refuge during the shower. ‘Cause it rains’ was the answer. ‘But why don’t you mend it at some time when there is no rain ?’ ‘Cause then it don’t leak.’ This sort of logic will hardly justify Congress in refusing a careful attention to Mr. Chase’s plan, notwithstanding the statement paraded in advance, that ‘the majority of the Ways and Means are hostile to Mr. Chase’s scheme,’ and that ‘this sentiment of disapproval cannot possibly be changed.’”

[68] After the great victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, July 3-5, 1863, Mr. Dunbar wrote as follows on the 8th of July: —

“We speak of these events as of extreme political importance, because they have now for the first time fairly established the ascendency of the national power over the rebellion. Hitherto the struggle has been often a drawn game, and even in our moments of success has left the military strength of the rebels so formidable as to keep their hopes alive. The handwriting is now on the wall in characters which the rudest may read, warning the rebels that henceforth theirs is a hopeless cause, and that from this time their efforts must decline. We may now, at any rate, count upon the moral effect of defeat and loss of faith in their cause, and may hope for the appearance of those discontents and divisions to which despondency gives rise, and which precede the final ruin of a cause which, like the rebellion, has no root in sound principle.”

Looking back on this statement after an interval of thirty-seven years, we are struck with its absolute accuracy.

In his review of the year 1863, on the 31st of December, his comments on the Proclamation of Emancipation illustrate the perfect balance of his judgment: —

[69] “The most distinctly marked event in the conduct of the war for the year, however, is unquestionably the Proclamation of Emancipation issued on the 1st of January, 1863. Of this measure it can now be said, that it has equally disappointed its advocates and its opponents. It has failed to effect the dissolution of the rebel power which was so confidently predicted as certain to be its instantaneous effect, and has left the actual work of emancipation to be performed by the steady advance of military operations. On the other hand, it has failed to make that disastrous division among the loyal which was predicted by many of its opponents. The mass of the people have acquiesced in it as a military measure taken in good faith. But we must remark, they have done this the more readily since on independent grounds the policy of emancipation has gained favor in the popular mind rapidly during the year.”

Speaking of the extraordinary sales of 5-20 bonds in the summer and autumn of 1863, he writes as follows: —

“Throughout the country these bonds have been eagerly sought, with the noblest demonstrations of confidence and affection towards the government in defense of which the money is contributed. The success with which the government now deals with a debt of great magnitude has inspired the country [70] with faith in its ability to cope with the future, heavy as are the burdens promised by the Secretary of the Treasury.”

How far-seeing is the following paragraph, which occurs in the same review of the year 1863: —

“The feelings of the French Emperor towards the United States had long been suspected, but were first fully appreciated by our people when his designs in Mexico were fairly unmasked, and when he announced his deliberate design of erecting a throne in that country to be occupied by a prince nominated by himself. It was immediately perceived that France had created for herself upon this continent an interest adverse to that of the United States. The occupation of the Rio Grande by our forces, however, together with the established certainty that the Emperor will for the present find enough to do in dealing with the Mexican people, who do not accede to the fiction that Maximilian is their choice, has finally quieted all fears as to the course of France for the present.”

In his review of the year 1864, Mr. Dunbar wrote as follows: —

“Never has the struggle seemed so gigantic as in this year, never have the contending forces so [71] convulsed the continent with their efforts, or so appalled the spectators of a strife as terrible and unrelenting as the of the elements. Indeed, this is an elemental strife, which we have seen approaching its climax and crisis, — a strife which, in the words of a philosophic observer who was lately among us, is waged ‘not only between Aristocracy and Democracy, between Slavery and Social Justice, but between ferocious Barbarism and high Civilization.

“It is only when we view the contest in this light that it is possible to realize completely the futility of such efforts at pacification as that which has characterized this year, and which was defeated by the will of the people a few weeks ago. These raging elements are as far beyond the reach of all such attempts to quiet their agitation as is the tempest which purifies the physical atmosphere. The forces have long been gathering, they are in the full height of their sublime power, and are not to be stayed until the mission assigned to them by Providence is accomplished. A great political party thought otherwise, and sought by months of carefully studied effort to still the contention by premature peace; and it finds itself to-day shivered to atoms, and its candidates swept aside like chaff and forgotten. The judgment of the nation and its will have risen to the height of the occasion, and have settled irrevocably the devotion of this [72] people to their grand task to the very end. In its moral aspects, then, the result of the election has been the great event of the year and of the war.”

Mr. Dunbar was often called upon to express the strongest emotions of the people under circumstances of tremendous excitement. After listening all day to the rejoicings in the streets of Boston over the surrender at Appomattox, he wrote at night an editorial in which two out of the four paragraphs are as follows: —

“Four years ago this morning we were obliged to say in this place ‘we do not seek to pierce the gloom which now seems to overspread the future.’ Four years of that future as they have enrolled themselves have shown many another crisis, or agony more acute, but none of gloom so depressing as settled on us all in that week of uncertainty. This day is the anniversary of the humiliating correspondence between General Beauregard and Major Anderson, in which he demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter as a foregone necessity. To-morrow is the anniversary of the day on which he opened his fire. These four years have called upon the nation to show its steadfast endurance. They have called for that loyalty to institutions which does not seek to pierce the gloom of the future. They have bidden the nation stand firm on the eternal principles of its government, [73] and trust God to give it victory, when for victory the time had come. Through that gloom, or the flushes of hope which at one moment or another varied it, the nation has stood firm, and at last the end has come. . . .

“Such are the moral advantages of the victory. They make a nation so strong that war in its future is wholly unnecessary, — it seems hardly possible. This nation is just, — it can be as generous as it is just. It has no entangling foreign alliances, it need have no petty foreign jealousies. God has shown it His mercy in a thousand ways, and now that He blesses it with Peace, it has His promise that Peace shall lead in every other angel of his Kingdom.”

At the close of the year 1865 he wrote as follows, prophesying a period of discussion and evolution which has not yet ended: —

“The year, we may trust, is the last in the succession of years which by striking and exciting events compete for the leading place in our annals. The period of great deeds is perhaps over; we now have remaining questions of magnitude to be debated and settled, or to be suffered to work towards their own solution by process of time, and not concentrating their fierce interest into single great transactions, of which we have known so many since 1860. The question as to the future [74] of the freedmen is not to be settled by the turn of any crisis, but by many discussions, the long-continued operation of opinions, and the progress of immigration, of industry, and of ideas. Financial questions, of which we have so many of importance, are as little to be determined by any special action, but cast their shadow far over the coming years. The foreign questions, of which the closing year leaves us a supply not trifling in importance if scanty in number, are as little likely, we may hope, to assume such form as to bring back the unhealthy excitements which have long been familiar, but will rather relapse into the ordinary course of international litigation, or be settled by causes and influences which in power are far above the counsels of emperors. In short, we now enter in public matters upon a period of discussion; and if results appropriate to this method of action are wrought out with half the skill and power which we have seen displayed in the marvelous twelvemonth now ending, we shall find our prosperity and happiness, and our development in all that ennobles a people, settled on a foundation more solid than our fathers ventured to hope for.”

During his administration the Advertiser as a property increased greatly in value; so that when in 1869 Mr. Dunbar found it necessary again to pay attention to his health, and to give [75] up work for a time, he sold his interest in the newspaper for a sum which amounted to a competency for himself and his family. This was really a value which his own mental gifts and moral character had imparted to the newspaper. There is no more satisfactory way in which a man can earn a competent support for his family before he is forty years of age. All through his life Mr. Dunbar was a careful, frugal, and successful man of business, although he gave but a very small portion of his time to that side of life.

In order to recover from the nervous exhaustion which he experienced in 1868, he made two journeys to Europe, the first alone, but the second with his family. I had come into the Presidency of Harvard College in 1869, and one of the first measures which the Corporation resolved to prosecute with vigor was the establishment of a Professorship of Political Economy, and the selection of an incumbent for the chair. Mr. Dunbar being well known to all the members of the Corporation, the appointment was offered to him in 1869, and he gave a conditional acceptance to take effect two years later. A quiet life in various parts of Europe restored his health and gave him opportunity, [76] for the prosecution of studies which prepared him further for his new function; and In 1871 he took up the work of his professorship, to which he thereafter steadily devoted himself for more than twenty-eight years.

Professor Dunbar was the first Professor of Political Economy that Harvard University ever had. That great subject had previously been one of the numerous subjects assigned to the Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity. Professor Dunbar announced for the year 1871-72 a course prescribed to Juniors on Rogers’s “Political Economy” and Alden’s “Constitution of the United States,” two hours a week for half a year, and an elective course in Political Economy for the Senior Class, based on Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” Bowen’s “American Political Economy,” and J. S. Mill’s “Political Economy;” but these courses were announced under the head of Philosophy. The elective course was attended by seventy-five Seniors. The next year his elective course appears under its proper heading, — Political Science, — the description of the course being altered to the following: J. S. Mill’s “Political Economy,” McCulloch on Taxation, Subjects [77] in Banking and Currency. Professor Dunbar also conducted in 1872-73 a required course for Juniors in Political Science, two hours a week during half a year. That year he used as textbooks for the Junior’s Fawcett’s “Political Economy” and the Constitution of the United States. In 1873-74 Professor Dunbar had for the first time the assistance of an instructor, because the required course in the Elements of Political Economy was transferred from the Junior to the Sophomore year, — on its way to extinction, — so that this required course had to be given that year to two large classes. Under Professor Dunbar’s elective course, Bagehot’s “Lombard Street “appears for the first time. In the next year Professor Dunbar gave, in addition to the prescribed Political Economy, two elective courses parallel to each other, one being preferable for students of History. The rapidly increasing number of students in the department made it desirable to offer these two parallel courses, so that neither class should be too large. One hundred and thirty-one students chose these electives. In 1875-76 Professor Dunbar was conducting three progressive courses: the prescribed elementary course, a first elective course on J. S. Mill’s “Political Economy,” [78] and the Financial Legislation of the United States; and an advanced course on Cairns’s “Leading Principles of Political Economy;” and McKean’s “Condensation of Carey’s Social Science;” and the number of students attending his course was steadily increasing. In the following year Professor Dunbar became Dean of the College Faculty, an administrative position which he held for six years. The prescribed course in Political Economy for Sophomores now disappeared. The elective courses were fully maintained. Professor Dunbar had some assistance in the elementary elective course, because of the necessity of devoting a good deal of his time to the administrative work of the Dean’s office. His assistant in the year 1877-78 was Mr. Macvane, now Professor of History in Harvard University. The next year his assistant was Dr. James Laurence Laughlin, who had the title of Instructor in Political Economy. In 1880-81 another course in Political Economy was added to the two already given, Professor Dunbar working in all three courses, but being assisted in the first two by Dr. Laughlin. The most advanced elective under Professor Dunbar was based on Cairns’s “Leading Principles of Political Economy,” [79] McLeod’s “Elements of Banking,” Bastiat’s “Harmonies Economiques.” In the year 1882-83 Professor Dunbar took leave of absence in Europe. His work was carried on by Dr. Laughlin and a new instructor, Mr. Frank W. Taussig, now Professor of Political Economy in Harvard University. A new half-course was added this year, — a course on the Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, Germany, and Russia. The next year brought considerable expansion to the Department. Professor Dunbar returned to his work; Dr. Laughlin was made an assistant professor; and Dr. Taussig offered for the first time a course on the History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. The number of courses offered by the Department suddenly expanded to four courses running through the whole year, and three running through half a year. Economic History appeared for the first time as part of the instruction given by the Department, Professor Dunbar having charge of the course. It was in that year that the plans of Professor Dunbar for the development of his department in the University became apparent to the academic world. Dr. Taussig soon became an assistant professor; Dr. Laughlin was [80] promoted to a full professorship at Cornell University, whence he was subsequently transferred to the University of Chicago; and a series of young men, all selected by Professor Dunbar, were brought forward in the Department as teachers. The number of teachers and courses increased until, in 1894-95, this Department, called Economics since 1892-93, employed three full professors, one assistant professor, and three instructors, and the number of courses had risen to six full courses and seven half-courses. In 1899 the lowest elective course in Economics was opened to Freshmen; so that the Harvard student thenceforth had access to that subject in all the four years of his college course. For the present year, 1899-1900, courses were announced which gave employment to three full professors, one assistant professor, and six instructors. In the academic year 1898—99 the choices made of courses in Economics numbered 1263.

Such was the development given in twenty-eight years to a subject which certainly should be second to none in value or dignity at an American university. At every step of the process it was Professor Dunbar’s sagacity, sobriety, and fairness which commanded confidence [81] and secured success. He thus made, in the course of twenty-eight years, as it were with his own hands, a complete collegiate instrument for training young Americans in Political Economy, the first such instrument ever constructed. If it should occur to any one that this growth was made possible by the general atmosphere at Harvard, the answer would be that Professor Dunbar had much to do with determining the quality of that atmosphere.

In 1886 a timely gift of a fund of $15,000 from one of Professor Dunbar’s pupils enabled the Corporation to establish the Quarterly Journal of Economics, published for Harvard University. They took this step by the advice of Professor Dunbar, and on the condition that he should edit the Journal. He acted as editor for ten years, and in that time established the position of the Journal in this country and in Europe as a valuable medium for economic discussions and researches. The subjects of some of the articles which he wrote for this Journal will indicate the wide range of his studies: In 1886, “The Reaction in Politics;” in 1887, “Deposits and Currency,” and a note on Ricardo’s Use of Facts; in 1888, a notice of an old tract entitled “The New-Fashioned Goldsmiths,” [82] a tract which appears to have been the source of the generally accepted statement as to the origin of private banking in London in the seventeenth century. In the same year appeared “Notes on Early Banking Schemes “from his pen, and an article on “Some Precedents Followed by Alexander Hamilton.” At the end of this last paper, after a learned review of the system advocated by Hamilton, and of the sources of the measures which he recommended, Professor Dunbar said in conclusion: “No statesman could have a greater task set for him, and political science can hardly have in store any greater triumph than this application of the experience of other men and other nations.” In 1889 he wrote for the Quarterly Journal an article on the Direct Tax of 1861, the conclusion of which was, “The direct tax provided for by the Constitution has at last been discredited as a source of revenue, and it has also been too prolific of misconception and confusion to have any Influence henceforth as a practical measure of finance.” A single sentence from an essay he published in the Journal in 1891 on the academic study of political economy admirably expresses the true conception of the function of an instructor in any moral [83] science: “That the student should learn to reason truly is of far more consequence than that he should perceive and accept any particular truth, and the real success of the instructor is found, not in bringing his students to think exactly as he does, — which is unlikely to happen, and, indeed, unnatural, — but in teaching them to use their own faculties accurately and with a measure of confidence.” In another passage in the same essay, speaking of the conditions under which an instructor may or may not be silent concerning his own beliefs, he says, “There are few men whose weight of authority is such as to compel any extraordinary caution in the declaration of their minds.” Those two statements are highly characteristic of Professor Dunbar’s habitual attitude towards his own students.

One may easily trace through all the activities of Professor Dunbar as a teacher and writer the effect on his mind of his ten years’ work as the editor of a daily paper during a period of startling and far-reaching military, financial, social, and political events; but it is interesting to observe that commercial and economic questions began to engage his attention some years before the war. Thus we find in the North American Review an article by him on the Danish [84] Sound Dues written as early as 1856, when he was twenty-six years of age. His services as a university teacher grew naturally out of the studies and interests of his early manhood.

Professor Dunbar was Dean of the old College Faculty for six years, from 1876 to 1882, and the first Dean of the new Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1890 to 1895. He therefore gave a large amount of administrative service to the University. As an administrative officer he was prompt, efficient, and wise. One peculiarity he had which was rather trying to some of the many students and parents of students with whom he came into contact, — he was sometimes too reticent and silent. He would listen patiently to a long tale in which the narrator felt great interest, and take it all in, but hardly utter a word in reply. Sometimes, however, after his interlocutor had despaired of getting an answer, he would give a concise but comprehensive reply which showed how sympathetically he had apprehended the whole subject under discussion. Ordinarily patient and cautious, he was entirely capable of quick decision and prompt action. On a reconnaissance he was circumspect and thorough; but when he once made [85] up his mind how the land lay and how the adversary was intrenched, he moved on the position, in the safest possible way, to be sure, but with energy and persistence. As a rule, his aspect was serene and mild; but on occasion his face could become set, and from his blue-gray eyes there came a steel-like gleam dangerous to his opponent. In his judgment of others he was gentle, unless he became satisfied that some man he had been observing did not play fair, or was untrustworthy at the pinch; then he became stern and unrelenting. It was these qualities which made him the successful journalist that he was at thirty years of age. The Faculty was always afraid to take a step of which he did not approve, and seldom did so, unless his occasional infirmity of silence had concealed from them his opinion. They felt in him a remarkable sagacity combined with quick insight and unwavering disinterestedness; and they found him to be uniformly just. If he now and then betrayed a prejudice, they felt sure that he had good grounds for it, and were much disposed to share it with him. Every one who has seen much of the world will perceive how rare a combination of qualities was [86] embodied in this modest and retiring man, and will understand how great a loss the University has suffered in his death.

In addition to the solid satisfactions Mr. Dunbar derived from his forty years of professional work, he had great delights in his domestic life. He married, soon after leaving college, Julia Ruggles Copeland, of Roxbury, and he survived his wife only two months. Five children were born to them between 1855 and 1862, of whom three sons and a daughter survive their father and mother.

I have already mentioned the life of the young family at Lexington. When he became editor of the Advertiser, he moved, first, to Roxbury; but finding the inevitable exposures of returning to Roxbury from his office late at night (often after the omnibuses had ceased to run) too great for his strength, he moved to a small house on River Street, at the foot of Beacon Hill. This house was comparatively sunless, and, though close to Beacon Street, had no outlook whatever. It was a great Relight to him and his wife and his growing children to establish the household in 1872 in a spacious house on the hill which rises north of Brattle Street, Cambridge, not far from Elmwood, [87] a house which commanded a charming prospect, and was surrounded by fine trees. He had earned the luxury of fine prospects, abounding sun and air, and garden grounds, as product of the work of his own brain. His tastes and habits were simple, but refined. Luxuries and superfluities had no charm for him. He was fond of driving and sailing, but needed no elaborate equipment for obtaining these pleasures. He valued these sports mainly as means of getting into contact with the beauties of nature by land and by sea. He had the natural healthy enjoyment in food and drink, but always preferred simple things to elaborate, and was displeased by extravagance or excess.

In 1886 he bought the larger part of Bear Island, off Mount Desert, the smaller part being already occupied by the United States as the site of a lighthouse; and here he built in 1893 a cottage for the summer occupation of his family. When visiting friends on the neighboring shore of Mount Desert, he had often marked the beautiful form of this island, and admired the exquisite views it commanded in several directions. In deciding upon the site of his house on this island, it was his chief care to avoid impairing the aspect of the island from [88] the neighboring shores, — a thoughtful result which he perfectly achieved. All his life he had great pleasure in carpentering. He always had a carpenter’s bench in any house he occupied, and delighted in good tools and in using them with skill. He could build with his own hands fireplaces, corner buffets, desks, tables, and other pieces of furniture. At Bear Island he built a large boat-house with chambers in its upper story, doing most of the work with his own hands, after the heavy framing had been put up. He enjoyed thinning the woods which covered the northern shore of the island, and studying the flora and fauna of his isolated kingdom. A thrifty little spruce, looking as if it could easily resist all the ice and snow, all the gales, and all the droughts of that northern clime, a single graceful birch, a mountain ash loaded with red berries, or a clump of ferns, sufficed to give him great enjoyment. With reading and writing interspersed, such pleasures filled his summer days so completely and so happily that he seldom wished to leave his island. Friends came to stay with him; but he seldom cared to go far from his cottage, unless on a sail or a drive with one of his neighbors of the main island. There was no road on his island, [89] and hardly a path, except little tracks between the hummocks and ledges; and there were no sounds, except the beat of the waves on the rocky shores, the singing of birds, and the rushing of the wind through the trees. One of the peculiarities of the climate of the Maine coast had singular charm for Professor Dunbar. On almost every summer evening near sunset, there falls a great calm and stillness. No matter how boisterous the day may have been, near sundown there comes a widespread, profound silence, unspeakably grateful to such a temperament as his. The hills of Mount Desert, in full view from his island, reminded him of the similar hills built of primary rocks which his Scottish forbears had looked on in far-away Morayshire.

Outside his family circle his intimate associates were not numerous; but his friendships were intense, and his rare and concise expressions of affection were overwhelmingly strong. As I look back on this completed life, it seems to me filled with productive labors and large services from which came deep satisfactions. Grave trials and sorrows hallowed it; but its main warp and woof were both made of innumerable threads of happiness and content.

[90] In his religious convictions he was a Unitarian, and he valued highly that simple and optimistic faith; but his mind was hospitable to all forms of theological opinion, while he was strenuously averse to ecclesiasticism and aestheticism in religion. Simplicity, cheerfulness, duty, and love were the articles of his faith, and human joy and well-being their natural fruit.

Source: Sons of the Puritans. A Group of Brief Biographies. Boston, American Unitarian Association, 1908. Sketches reprinted from The Harvard Graduates’Magazine, Vol. VIII, No. 32 (June, 1900), pp. 469-484.

Image Source: The Harvard Graduates’Magazine, Vol. VIII, No. 32 (June, 1900), Frontspiece. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Dunbar, Laughlin, Taussig

Economists M.I.T. Regulations

MIT. Graduate Economics Program and Fellowships. 1950-51

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-12-09

Already by the academic year 1950-51 the M.I.T. economics department could boast seven economics professors who would still be around over a quarter of a century later, including Samuelson, Solow and Kindleberger. The printed departmental brochure along with a one-page announcement of twelve graduate fellowships, presumably sent to be posted on college and university bulletin boards, have been transcribed for this posting. Minor changes in formatting have been used to enhance readability.

_________________________

Graduate Work in the Department of Economics and Social Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

THE PROGRAM

Our program in Economics is confined to students for the doctorate who are primarily interested in advanced study and research in

Economic Theory
Industrial Economics
Industrial Relations
International Economics
Statistics

We have an active program of continuing research in each of these fields and should like to invite a selected group of graduate students to participate with us in our explorations after they have completed their requirements for the general examinations here.

The work in Economic Theory is under the leadership of Professor Paul A. Samuelson. This includes, in addition to price analysis, the study of national income determination and business cycles. Research in these fields has been vigorous in recent years, and our objective is to train economists capable of understanding and appraising the results of this research and of adding to our empirical and theoretical understanding of these areas.

Industrial Economics, under the guidance of Professors W. Rupert Maclaurin and Max Millikan, is concerned primarily with the economic problems of the individual firm and of particular industries. The work should be enriched by the active research program now under way in the Department on “the economics of innovation,” “the process of business decisions,” and “the economics of the size of the firm.” We are anxious to have some advanced students who would like to participate in these research programs which are being worked out through “laboratory-type” collaboration of particular firms and industries.

Industrial Relations, under the leadership of Professors Charles A. Myers and Douglass V. Brown, is concerned with investigating the fundamentals of labor-management relations in modern industrial society. In addition to basic work in Economics, the program of study centers upon courses in Labor Economics, Collective Bargaining, Public Policy in Labor Relations, Personnel Administration, Social Psychology and Human Relations. A number of research projects are carried on by the Industrial Relations Section, which is a division of the Department.

Our work in International Economics is under the direction of Professors Charles P. Kindleberger and Richard M. Bissell, Jr. (who returns in June to M.I.T. from his position as Deputy Administrator of ECA). Emphasis in International economics is shared between the traditional fields of international trade and finance and that of national economic development. The training is designed to qualify the student for work in departments of government, including international institution., concerned with foreign and international economic problems. While no specialized courses are offered in the practical aspects of foreign trade, it is believed that the broad training will be regarded with increasing interest by American business concerns to aid them in the solution of their complex problems relating to foreign operations.

Instruction in Statistics, under Professor Harold Freeman, is largely centered in three areas: general theoretical statistics; probability and its foundations; modern theories of time series and prediction, particularly as applied in Economics. Some of the courses in these areas are given by the Departments of Economics and some by the Department of Mathematics. Courses are offered at elementary, intermediate, advanced and research seminar levels.

While there is ample opportunity at M.I.T. for the student interested in any one of these five fields to go as far as he wishes with his subject, there is also a common core of basic courses which the student will be expected to take in preparation for his general examinations.

We are also attempting to introduce greater realism into our program by operating a “practice school” in the summer between the first and second years of graduate study, in which we try to arrange internship experience in industry. This activity is under the guidance of Professor Paul Pigors.

For those who are going into university teaching, some pre-doctoral teaching experience will be encouraged and a considerable number of teaching fellowships will be available to students after they have completed their first year.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO GRADUATE STUDENTS

For the year 1950-51 we will offer up to five fellowships of $2,500, available to outstanding students in the fields mentioned above. These include the Westinghouse Educational Fellowship and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Fellowship.

In addition, about eight fellowships and teaching scholarships will be available, ranging up to $1,600. This group includes the Clarence J. Hicks Memorial Fellowship in Industrial Relations, given by Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc., of New York.

REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION

(a) General requirements: S.B. or A.B. degree with a good academic record from a university of recognized standing. Special emphasis will be placed on recommendations from professors or administrative officers of the college. Only students with high qualifications will be admitted.

(b) Course requirements: Three full-year college courses in social science chosen from the fields of Economics, Psychology, Sociology and History. One full-year course in college mathematics (including at least a half-year of calculus) and a full-year course in college physics are required. However, students who have had no Physics can make up this deficiency by taking a special one-semester course at the Institute. In special cases a deficiency in calculus may also be satisfied in this manner.

At the end of the second year the candidate will normally take a general examination chosen from such fields as the following: Economic Theory, Industrial economics, Economics of Innovation, Labor Economics and Labor Relations, Human Relations, Personnel administration Statistical Methods and Theory, Economic Fluctuations and Fiscal Policy, and International Economics.

Following the Institute rules the candidate for the doctor’s degree will be required to take a minor in a related filed. Possibilities include: Business Administration, History, Regional Planning, Mathematics, or any of the technical fields of specialization at the Institute in which the student is qualified to participate. Exchange arrangements between M.I.T. and Harvard University also make it possible for graduate students at either institution to take advance work at the other without extra tuition.

In addition, the candidate for the Ph.D. degree must meet the usual language and thesis requirements.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Those persons who are interested in learning more about the program or who wish to obtain application blanks for fellowships to aid in financing such graduate work may direct inquiries to Professor Robert L. Bishop, Department of Economics and Social Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

INSTRUCTING STAFF
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

Ralph Evans Freeman, M. A., B. Litt.
Professor of Economics; in charge of the Department

Donald Skeele Tucker, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics

William Rupert Maclaurin, D.C.S.
Professor of Economics

Norman Judson Padelford, Ph.D., LL.D.
Professor of International Relations

Paul Anthony Samuelson, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics

Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor of Economics

Charles Andrew Myers, Ph.D.
Professor of Industrial Relations

Paul Pigors, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Industrial Relations

Harold Adolph Freeman, S.B.
Associate Professor of Statistics

Charles Poor Kindleberger, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Economics

Max Franklin Millikan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Economics

Alex Bavelas, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology

Robert Lyle Bishop, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Economics

Edgar Cary Brown, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Economics

Morris Albert Adelman, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Economics

George Pratt Shultz, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Industrial Relations

Robert Solow, M.A.
Assistant Professor of Statistics

Lecturer

Joseph Norbert Scanlon

Instructors

John Royston Coleman, M.A.
Stanley Martin Jacks, A.B., LL.B.
James Earnest Boyce, A.M.
Louis Cass Young, S.M.
John Lang Rawlinson, A.M.
Gilbert Koreb Krulee, S.B., M.Ed.
Roy Olton, M.A.
Herman Thomas Skofield, M.A.
Jesse Harris Proctor, Jr., M.A.

Research Associates

Robert Keen Lamb, Ph.D.
Kingman Brewster, Jr., LL.B.
Peter Robert Hofstaetter, Ph.D.

Research Assistants

William Theodore Bluhm, M.A.
Sidney Layton Smith, S.M.

Teaching Fellows

Hugh Gilbert Lovell, B.A.
Jack Dean Rogers, B.S., M.B.A.

Assistants

Ralph Haskel Bergmann, A.B.
Kenneth Alden Bohr, S.M.
Daniel Monroe Colyer, B.A.
Harold Emil Dreyer, B.S.
David Allen Eberly, S.B.
Herman Gadon, A.B.
Stuart Lee Knowlton, A.B.
Walter Sparks Measday, A.B.
Beatrice Allen Rogers, A.B., S.B.
George Joseph Strauss, B.A.

Librarian

Barbara Klingenhagen, A.B.

_________________________

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Department of Economics and Social Science

Graduate Fellowship
1950 – 1951

In the year 1950-1951 M.I.T. will offer:

Up to five fellowships of $2,500 for students in the following fields:

Economic Theory
Industrial Economics
Industrial Relations
International Economics
Statistics

Up to seven fellowships with stipends up to $1,600 for specialization in these same fields.

Fellowships are available to students who wish to undertake a program of graduate work in Economics leading to the degree of doctor of philosophy. Applicants should have an A.B. or S. B. degree or anticipate the award of such a degree not later than July 1, 1950. Fellowships are awarded for one year, with possibility of renewal. They include the Westinghouse Educational Fellowship , the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Fellowship and the Clarence J. Hicks Memorial Fellowship in Industrial Relations, given by the Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc., of New York.

Fellowships are offered to those who seek career opportunities in university teaching and research, in industrial concerns in this country or abroad, in research departments of unions, and in government agencies concerned with the regulation of industry.

The Institute’s close contacts with industry, and the development within the Department of Economics and Social Science of specialized work in economic theory, the economics of innovation, industrial relations, statistics, and international economics have created a suitable environment for advanced study and research in these particular fields.

Teaching fellowships are also available; but these are normally reserved for second and third-year students.

Requests for further information or for application blanks should be addressed to Professor Robert L. Bishop, Department of Economics and Social Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Applications should be filed by March 15, 1950.

_________________________

Source: MIT Archives. Office of the President. Records, 1930-1959. Box 77 (AC4/77), Folder 10: Economics Department 1934-49.

Image Source: MIT, Technique, 1949.

Tags Adelman, Bavelas, Bishop, Bissell, BrownEC, FreemanHA, FreemanRE, Kindleberger, Maclaurin, Millikan, Myers, Padelford, Pigors, Samuelson, ShultzG, Solow, TuckerDS

Berkeley Economists

Berkeley. Ira B. Cross memoir, Portrait of an Economics Professor, 1967

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-12-04

When I tried to find an internet link to a copy of the book Domestic and Foreign Exchange: Theory and Practice by Ira B. Cross (1923) for Paul Douglas’ 1925 Amherst reading list, I came upon the following contribution to the oral history of the Berkeley Economics Department by Cross that includes his “review of the troops”.

Portrait of an Economics Professor. An Interview Conducted by Joann Dietz Ariff (1967)

The transcript and 10 page appendix “Economics at the University of California, 1871-1942” (135 pages includes his “Bibliography on Chrysanthemums”, cf. Simkhovitch at Columbia who himself was an expert on delphiniums)

The actual recording (Two parts, 97 minutes)

I append here some biographical information on Cross who appears to have been quite a character (“gadfly of the Academic Senate”).

_________________________________________

Excerpt from University of California:
In Memoriam, September 1978

Ira Brown Cross, Economics: Berkeley
1880-1977
Flood Professor Emeritus

On April 2, 1953, Professor Cross sent an autobiographical statement to the information office, Berkeley campus. In an accompanying letter, he explained his purpose. “I know what difficulties are involved in obtaining data on a deceased member of the faculty…so I have prepared some `stuff’ for your files–which I hope you won’t have to use for years to come.” His hope was fulfilled; death occurred twenty-four years later on March 24, 1977 in his ninety-seventh year. The statement placed in the files reads as follows:

Ira Brown Cross was born at Decatur, Illinois, December 1, 1880, a descendant of Governor William Bradford and John and Priscilla Alden of Plymouth Colony. He was educated in the public schools of Decatur and Moline, Illinois, at the University of Wisconsin (A.B., 1905; M.A., 1906) and at Stanford University (Ph.D., 1909). In 1951, the University of Wisconsin conferred the honorary degree, Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) upon him in recognition of his contributions to the field of economics.

He served on the faculties of Stanford University, 1909-1914, and the University of California, 1914-1951, where he was Professor of Economics on the Flood Foundation from 1919 until the time of his retirement in June 1951. At various times he has been chairman of the Department of Economics and Acting Dean of the College of Commerce. While at Stanford University he served as chairman of the Probation Committee of the Juvenile Court of Santa Clara County. Because of his interest in criminology he became associated with Professor A.M. Kidd, Chief of Police August Vollmer, and Dr. Hoag of Pasadena in the establishment of the Berkeley Police School, which became internationally recognized, and for several years thereafter participated in its activities as a member of its staff.

Dr. Cross has served as a member of the faculties of the Stockton, Oakland, Fresno, and San Francisco chapters of the American Institute of Banking, which is the educational branch of the American Bankers Association, and from 1915 until 1960 [dates added] served as dean of the faculty of the San Francisco Chapter. In 1928 he prepared texts on “Economics” and “Money and Banking” for the national organization. In 1923 he declined appointment to the position of national educational director of the American Institute of Banking. He was one of the original board of regents of the Graduate School of Banking established at Rutgers College by the American Institute of Banking in 1935.

In 1921 the San Francisco Building Trades Council conferred honorary membership upon him because of briefs which he had prepared at various times for local unions engaged in arbitration proceedings. In 1934 he was chairman of the Fact Finding Committee appointed by the late Governor Rolph, which brought to a satisfactory conclusion the violent cotton pickers’ strike in the lower San Joaquin Valley.

During the First World War and under the auspices of the War Industries Board, Dr. Cross gave a course in employment management to a group of personnel relations men and women who were at that time supervising the labor relations of twenty-eight industries engaged in war work in western states. It was the second course of its kind in the United States, the first having been given at Harvard University. He was also active in the formation of the California State Employment Managers Association in 1918, the first in the nation, and for some years thereafter served as its economist and adviser. He also pioneered in labor education by arranging a series of lectures by University professors before the San Francisco Labor Council and by establishing the first labor school on the Pacific Coast.

Dr. Cross wrote numerous articles on economic subjects and the following volumes: A History of the Labor Movement of California (1935); History of Banking in California (two volumes) (1927); Essentials of Socialism (1911); Collective Bargaining in San Francisco (1917); Cooperative Stores in the United States (1906); Economics (1931); Money and Banking (1931); Domestic and Foreign Exchange (1923); and editor of Frank Roney, Irish Rebel and California Labor Leader (1931). He was on the staff of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin as associate book reviewer during 1907-1913, and was editorial writer on the Coast Banker (San Francisco) during 1914-1916.

He was a recognized grower and hybridizer of iris and chrysanthemums, and was the first president of the East Bay Chrysanthemum Study Club.

“The Doc,” as he was called affectionately by associates, his former teaching fellows, and many hundreds of students, portrayed himself in the traditional format of academic biography; but he did not, and no doubt, could not interpret his finest contribution to the University of California. He was undoubtedly one of the greatest teachers on the Berkeley campus during his career. Quantitatively, it is estimated that more than 60,000 students sat below his rostrum in his classes in elementary economics and in money and banking. In addition, many thousands more were enrolled in his courses in the American Institute of Banking and in his popular public lectures. One of his former students, now an Emeritus Professor at UCLA, informed the chairman of this committee that “The Doc” was “extraordinarily influential as a teacher, probably had more impact on more students than any other professor at the Berkeley campus.” He took clean-cut positions in economic and social issues, was thoroughly iconoclastic with respect to some social mores, and above all, was a stern disciplinarian in handling his large lecture classes. There are literally dozens of stories, often by now with considerable embellishment, about episodes in his classes. An important reason for his enormous impact was his basic desire to shake the students (as well as his colleagues) out of their complacency. He was considered the gadfly of the Academic Senate.

One of his former students, Richard G. Gettell, characterized The Doc’s teaching method as “education by sting.” President Robert Gordon Sproul, in conferring the honorary LL.D. degree in 1957, characterized him as “a teacher blessed in the memory of generations of students as a skillful disturber of complacency and a begetter of inquiring minds, seeking always to lead youth from illusion to reality, through a world of panaceas and proverbs.”

The Doc was not only a great teacher, he was also a trainer of teachers. The teaching fellows working with him became members of an extraordinarily well-organized and supervised educational program. He kept in touch with his former assistants up to the very end. His son, Ira B., Junior, has compiled a list of 228 such persons from his records, many of whom have predeceased him. His former assistants took the initiative in founding the Ira B. Cross room in Barrows Hall with its portrait by Peter Blos.

Ira B. Cross truly enjoyed three careers–one in the field of labor and social reform–another in finance and banking–and finally, after academic retirement, as a practicing botanist. In each of these fields he won outstanding recognition.

In 1911, he was married to Blanche Mobley. They had two sons, Ira B., Jr., and Carleton Parker. His wife and second son both predeceased him. Professor Cross is survived by his son Ira B. Cross, Jr. and his wife and four grandsons, and two great-grandchildren.

E.T. Grether M.M. Davisson R.A. Gordon F.L. Kidner

Source: University of California: In Memoriam, September 1978. A publication of the Academic Senate, UC Berkeley.

Image Source: Blue and Gold 1922. (University of California yearbook)

Tags Cross

Economists

Amherst. Charles W. Cobb and Paul H. Douglas, 1926

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-12-02

Speaking of the Cobb-Douglas production function… In preparing the previous posting on Paul H. Douglas’ honors section of introductory economics at Amherst in 1925, I thought of searching for an internet copy of the Amherst College yearbook, The Olio, for that year and thanks to the Digital Collections folks at the Amherst College Archive, I was able not only to get a picture of Paul H. Douglas but even a portrait of his colleague Professor Charles W. Cobb. So here we have side-by-side Cobb and Douglas during their Amherst years together. This and the following image along with some biographical information (from the 1925 Olio, p. 29) are the only images of Cobb I was able to find on the internet (I admit, I did not look for more at the Olio collection for other years).

Image Source: Amherst College, Digital Collections. Olio 1926: Charles W. Cobb on p. 34; Paul H. Douglas on p. 36.

Tags Cobb, Douglas

Economists Harvard

Harvard. Economics General Examination. Lauchlin Currie and Harry D. White, 1927

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-11-22

Few characters in the history of economics are quite as titillating as those who serious historians have concluded indeed passed confidential materials to the Soviet Union, namely, Lauchlin Currie and Harry Dexter White. Before they grew up to be card-carrying members of the economics profession, they too were once graduate students. Here from the Harvard General Examination for the Degree of Ph.D. we have their respective examination committees, academic histories, subject fields, and thesis subjects/advisers.

Lauchlin Currie received his Harvard Ph.D. in 1931 with the dissertation “Bank Assets and Banking Theory.”

Harry Dexter White was awarded his Harvard Ph.D. in 1930 with the dissertation “The International Balance of Payments for France, 1880-1913.”

________________________________

From:
Division of History, Government and Economics, Examinations for the Degree of Ph.D., 1926-27, pp. 10-11.

21. Lauchlin Bernard Currie.

General Examination in Economics, Monday, April 11, 1927.

Committee: Professors Young (chairman), Burbank, A. H. Cole, Usher, and Wright.

Academic History: St. Francis Xavier College, 1921-22; London School of Economics, 1922-25; Harvard Graduate School, 1925-. B.Sc., London, 1925

General Subjects.

1. Economic Theory.
2. Economic History since 1750.
3. Public Finance.
4. International Trade and Tariff Policy.
5. History of Political Theory.
6. Money, Banking, and Crises.

Special Subject: Money, Banking, and Crises.

Thesis Subject: Monetary History of Canada, 1914-26. (With Professor Young.)

[…]

23. Harry Dexter White.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, April 14, 1927.

Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Dewing, Elliott, Monroe, and Usher.

Academic History: Columbia University, 1921-23; Stanford University, 1924-25; Harvard Graduate School, 1925-. A.B., Stanford; A.M., ibid., 1925. Instructor in Economics, Harvard, 1926- .

General Subjects.

1. Economic Theory and its History.
2. Money, Banking, and Crises.
3. Economic History since 1750.
4. Economics of Corporations.
5. History of Political Theory.
6. International Trade.

Special Subject: International Trade.

Thesis Subject: Foreign Trade of France. (With Professor Taussig.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC7000.70. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. Folder “1926-27”.

Image Source: Laughlin Currie and Harry D. White from Harvard Class Album 1934.

Tags Burbank, ColeAH, Currie, Dewing, Elliott, Monroe, Taussig, Usher, White, Wright, Young

Economists Harvard Transcript

Harvard. Coursework of Frank W. Fetter for A.M., 1923-24

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-11-17

Frank Whitson Fetter (born May 22, 1899 in San Francisco, CA; died July 7, 1991 in Hanover, NH). A.B. from Swarthmore College (1920), A.M. from Princeton (1922), also A.M. from Harvard (1924). Ph.D. from Princeton (1926). His father was Princeton economics professor Frank Albert Fetter.

During the course of his career Fetter taught at Princeton, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Dartmouth.

The 1942 copy of his A.M. course transcript below matches an undated transcript (or report card) from the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for the academic year 1923-24 found in the same folder at the Duke Economists’ Papers Project.

____________________________

[Course titles and instructors]

From Economics Group I, Economic Theory and Method

11 Professor Taussig — Economic Theory.

From Economics Group III: Applied Economics

37 ¹hf. Professor Persons — Commercial Crises

39 ²hf. Asst. Professor Williams — International Finance

From Economics Group V: Course of Research in Economics

20 Professors Taussig, Carver, Ripley, Bullock, Young, and Persons — Economic Research

From History, Group IV. American History

17a ¹hf. Professor Turner—The History of the West.

39 ²hf. Professor Turner—History of the United States, 1880-1920.

Source: Harvard University Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College for 1923-24. History, p. 103; Economics, p. 107.

____________________________

Harvard University
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

24 University Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts
November 30, 1942

Transcript of the record of Mr. Frank Whitson Fetter
1923-24

COURSE	GRADE
Economics 11 (1 course)	A
Economics 20 (1 course)	A
Economics37¹ ( ½ course)	A
Economics 39²( ½ course)	A minus
History 17a¹ ( ½ course)	A minus
History 39² ( ½ course)	A

Mr. Fetter received the degree of Master of Arts in June, 1924.

The established grades are A, B, C, D, and E.

A grade of A, B, Credit, Satisfactory, or Excused indicates that the course was passed with distinction. Only courses passed with distinction may be counted toward a higher degree.

[signed] Lawrence S. Mayo
Associate Dean

Source: Duke University, Rubenstein Library. Frank Whitson Fetter Papers. Box 50, Folder “Student Papers, Transcripts, grades, Harvard University (1923-1924).

Image Source: (ca. 1937) John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Tags FetterFW, Persons, Taussig, Turner, Williams

Economists Germany Johns Hopkins

Germany. The Seminary Method. Reported by Herbert B. Adams, 1884

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-11-15

The “Seminary” was the graduate student research workshop of its day. This innovation that combined research with graduate education was imported from Germany at the end of the nineteenth century. The historian Herbert Baxter Adams at the Johns Hopkins University provides us with a wonderful tour of the leading German seminaries of history, art/archeology, economics and statistics. Seminary libraries and museums provided the texts and artifacts that served as the toys of these scientific nurseries.

The Seminary Method. Introduction.

Heidelberg Seminaries

Bluntschli’s Seminary

Knies’ Seminary of Political Economy

Historical Seminary at Bonn

An American Student on German Seminaries

Paul Frédéricq on German Lectures and Historical Seminaries

Seminaries of Art and Archeology

Seminary Libraries

Statistical Seminary in Berlin

Excerpt from: II. New Methods of Study in History by Herbert Baxter Adams (1884)

[p. 64]

4.— THE SEMINARY METHOD.

The Seminarium, like the college and the university, is of ecclesiastical origin. Historically speaking, the seminary was a nursery of theology and a training-school for seminary priests. The modern theological seminary has evolved from the mediaeval institution, and modern seminary-students, whether at school or at the university, are only modifications of the earlier types. The Church herself early began the process of differentiating the ecclesiastical seminary for the purposes of secular education. Preachers became teachers, and the propaganda of religion prepared the way for the propaganda of science. The seminary method of modern universities is merely the development of the old scholastic method of advancing philosophical inquiry by the defense of original theses. The seminary is still a training-school for doctors of philosophy; but it has evolved from a nursery of dogma into a laboratory of scientific truth.

A young American, Professor of Greek at Dartmouth College, John Henry Wright, in an admirable address on the Place of Original Research in College Education, explains very clearly the transitional process from the theological seminary to the scientific seminary. “The seminaries were instituted that theological students, who expected to teach on the way to their profession, might receive special pedagogical training in the subjects in which they would be called upon to give instruction in the schools. As the subject-matter of liberal instruction was mainly the languages and literatures of Greece and Pome, the seminaries became philological in character. The first seminary that actually assumed the designation of philological was that founded at Goettingen in 1733, by Gesner the famous Latinist. This seminary has been, in many respects, the model for all later ones.”¹

1 An address on The Place of Original Research in College Education, by John Henry Wright, Associate Professor of Greek in Dartmouth College, read before the National Educational Association, Department of Higher Instruction, July 14, 1882, Saratoga, N. Y. From the Transactions, 1882. This address and Prof. E. Emerton’s recent contribution on “The Historical Seminary in American Teaching,” to Dr. G. Stanley Hall’s volume on Methods of Teaching and Studying History, are the best American authorities on the Seminary Method.

[p. 65]

The transformation of the Seminarium into a laboratory of science was first accomplished more than fifty years ago by Germany’s greatest historian, Leopold von Ranke. He was born in the year 1795 and has been Professor of History at the University of Berlin since 1825. There, about 1830, he instituted those practical exercises in historical investigation (exercitationes historicae) which developed a new school of historians. Such men as Waitz, Giesebrecht, Wattenbach, Von Sybel, Adolph Schmidt, and Duncker owe their methods to this father of historical science. Through the influence of these scholars, the historical seminary has been extended throughout all the universities in Germany and even to institutions beyond German borders. Let us consider a few seminary types.

Heidelberg Seminaries.

At the university of Heidelberg, as elsewhere in Germany, there are seminaries for advanced training in various departments of learning, chiefly, however, in philology and in other historical sciences. The philological seminary, where the use of the Latin language for formal discussion is still maintained at some universities, is perhaps the connecting link between mediaeval and modern methods of scholastic training. In the Greek seminary of the late Professor Koechly, at Heidelberg the training was pre-eminently pedagogical. The members of the seminary took turns in occupying the Professor’s chair for one philological meeting, and in expounding a classical author by translation and comment. After one man had thus made trial of his abilities as an instructor, all the other members [p. 66] took turns in criticizing his performance, the Professor judging the critics and saying what had been left unsaid.

In the historical seminary of Professor Erdmannsdoerffer, the method was somewhat different. It was less formal and less pedagogical. Instead of meeting as a class in one of the university lecture-rooms, the historical seminary, composed of only six men, met once a week in a familiar way at the Professor’s own house, in his private study. The evening’s exercise of two hours consisted in the critical exposition of the Latin text of a mediaeval historian, the Gesta Frederici Imperatoris, by Otto, Bishop of Freising, who is the chief original authority upon the life and times of Frederic Barbarossa. As in the Greek seminary, so here, members took turns in conducting the exercises, which, however, had less regard for pedagogical method than for historical substance. Each man had before him a copy of the octavo edition of Bishop Otto’s text, and the conductor of the seminary translated it into German, with a running comment upon the subject matter, which he criticised or explained in the light of parallel citations from other authors belonging to Bishop Otto’s time, who are to be found in the folio edition of Pertz’s Monumenta Germaniae Historica.

From this method of conducting the seminary, it would appear as though one man had all the work to do for a single evening, and then could idly listen to the others until his own turn came once more. But it was not so. Subjects of discussion and for special inquiry arose at every meeting, and the Professor often assigned such subjects to the individuals most interested, for investigation and report. For example, he once gave to an American student the subject of Arnold of Brescia, the Italian reformer of the twelfth century, who was burnt to death in Home in 1155, having been delivered up to the pope by Frederic Barbarossa. The investigation of the authorities upon the life-work of this remarkable reformer, the precursor of Savonarola and of Luther, occupied the student for many weeks. On another occasion, Seminary discussion [p. 67] turned upon the origin of the Italian Communes, whether they were of Roman or of Germanic origin. An American student, who had been reading Guizot’s view upon the origin of municipal liberty, ventured to support the Roman theory. The Professor referred the young man to Carl Hegel’s work on the Constitution of Italian Cities and to the writings of Von Maurer. That line of investigation has occupied the American student ever since 1876, and the present work of the historical seminary at the Johns Hopkins University is to some extent the outgrowth of the ererni brought to Baltimore from the Heidelberg seminary.

Bluntschli’s Seminary.

As an illustration of seminary-work, relating more especially to modern history and modern polities, may be mentioned the private class conducted for two hours each week in one of the university rooms by the late Dr. J. C. Bluntschli, professor of constitutional and international law at Heidelberg. In his seminary, the exercises were in what might be called the comparative constitutional history of modern European states, with special reference to the rise of Prussia and of the new German empire. Bluntschli himself always conducted the meetings of the seminary. Introductory to its special work, he gave a short course of lectures upon the history of absolute government in Prussia and upon the influence of French and English constitutional reforms upon Belgium and Germany, lie then caused the seminary to compare in detail the Belgian constitution of 1830 with the Prussian constitution of 1850. Each member of the seminary had before him the printed texts, which were read and compared, while Bluntschli commented upon points of constitutional law that were suggested by the texts or proposed by the class. After some weeks’ discussion of the general principles of constitutional government, the seminary, under Bluntschli’s skillful guidance, entered upon a special and individual study of the relations between [p. 68] church and state, in the various countries of Europe, but with particular reference to Belgium and Prussia, which at that time were much disturbed by conflicts between the civil and the ecclesiastical power. Individual members of the seminary reported the results of their investigations, and interesting discussions always followed. The result of this seminary-work was an elaborate monograph by Bluntschli himself upon the legal responsibility of the Pope, a tractate which the Ultramontane party thought inspired by Bismarck, but which really emanated from co-operative studies by master and pupils in the Heidelberg seminary.

Seminary of Political Economy.

At Heidelberg a seminary in political economy is conducted by Professor Knies, who may be called the founder of the historical method as applied to this department. His work on Politische-oekonomie vom Standpunkt der geschichtlichen Methode was published in 1853 and ante-dates the great work of Roscher by one year. The seminary method encouraged by Knies consists chiefly in the reading and discussion of original papers by his pupils upon assigned topics. The latter were sometimes of a theoretical but quite frequently of an historical character. I remember that such topics as Turgot’s economic doctrines were often discussed. The various theories of wealth, from the French mercantilists and physiocrats down to Henry C. Carey, were examined. The meetings of the seminary were held every week and were not only of the greatest service in point of positive instruction, but also, in every way, of a pleasant, enjoyable character. Men learned to know one another as well as their professor. A most valuable feature of the seminaries in political science at Heidelberg was a special library, quite distinct from the main university library. Duplicate copies of the books that were in greatest demand were at the service of the seminary.

[p. 69]

The Historical Seminary at Bonn.¹

1 See L’Université de Bonn et l’enseignement supérieur en Allemagne, par Edmond Dreyfus-Brisac, (editor of the Revue international de l’enseignement). “Les Séminaires.”

The object of this seminary, as of all German historical seminaries, is to introduce special students to the best methods of original research. The Bonn seminary is one of the most flourishing in all Germany. It is an endowed institution. It was instituted in the year 1865 and enjoys the income of a legacy of forty thousand marks left it by Professor Wilhelm Pütz. The income is devoted to three stipends, each of about 600 marks, for students of history and geography who have successfully pursued one or both of these sciences for two years. Said stipends are awarded annually by the philosophical faculty upon recommendation by the director of the seminary. It is said that a student of Bonn university has a better chance of obtaining such stipend than does a candidate from outside. In addition to this endowment of ten thousand dollars, the Bonn seminary of history is allowed a special appropriation, in the annual university budget, for general expenses, for increasing the seminary library, and for the director’s extra salary. Any unused balance from the fund devoted to general expenses is expended for library purposes.

The historical seminary of Bonn has now four sections, each under the guidance of a professor, representing a special field of history. The four professors constitute a board of control for the entire seminary. The director is appointed from year to year, the four professors rotating in the executive office. The student membership for each section is restricted to twelve. The meetings occur once a week, from 5 to 7 o’clock in the evening. All members are expected to be present, although no individual student makes more than one contribution during a semester. Members are subject to expulsion by the board of control for failure to discharge any obligations, for inadequate work, or for mis-use of the library.

[p. 70]

The library consisted, in 1879, of 308 works, and was kept in the charge of one of the members of the seminary. Among the books noticed by Dreyfus-Brisac, at the the time of his visit, were the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum, the complete works of Luther, the Annales Ecclesiastici edited by Baronius, Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae, Muratori’s Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, The Glossary of Mediaeval Latin, by Ducange, a set of Sybel’s Historische Zeitschrift, Forschungen (Munich), the writings of Curtius, Mommsen, Ranke, Sybel, etc.

Dreyfus-Brisac mentions other seminaries at Bonn University, notably that of the late Professor Held in Political Economy, held privately in his own house, and the pedagogical seminary of Bona-Meyer. The observing, critical Frenchman says that he knows of nothing more remarkable in German educational methods, nothing more worthy of imitation, than the seminaries of Bonn.

An American Student on German Seminaries.

Dr. Charles Gross,¹ an American student who has recently taken the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Goettingen in the department of History, with the highest honors, and who is now studying English Municipal History in the British Museum, has written by request the following account of German historical seminaries, in which he has had long and varied experience : ” The German historical seminary aims to inculcate the scientific method. It is the workshop in [p. 71] which the experienced master teaches his young apprentices the deft use of the tools of the trade. In the lecture room the professor presents the results of his investigations; in the Seminar (or Uebungen) he shows just what he had to do in order to secure those results. The German student lays far more stress upon his seminar than upon his lectures. He may “cut” the latter for weeks at a time, while he is very assiduous in his attendance upon the former. The latter may be obtained from books or from the Heft of some more conscientious student ; but the scientific method, the German maintains, is the gift of time and the seminary only, — the result of long contact between the mind of the master and the mind of the disciple.

1 Dr. Gross presented for his doctor’s dissertation at Goettingen a thesis on the Gilda Mercatoria, an important contribution to English municipal history, originally suggested by the late Professor Pauli. The subject has an interesting bearing upon the merchant associations, which furnished men, capital, and government for the English colonies in America. Dr. Gross is now writing an Introduction to American Municipal History, to be published in this series.

” Two different kinds of work predominate in the German historical seminary : the writing of short theses (Kleine Arbeiten) or the critical reading of some document or documents, more frequently of some chronicler or chroniclers. The professor selects a list of subjects for theses from the field of his special line of investigation and assigns them to the students, the latter’s particular tastes being generally consulted. A member of the seminary rarely has more than one thesis during the semester, frequently not more than one during the year, and during his first two or three semesters none at all. The professor points out the sources and authorities, and the student consults with him whenever difficulties arise in the preparation of the work. One or two critics (Referenten) are appointed for each thesis, who comment upon the production after it has been read. A free discussion of the subject then follows, the professor and students doing all in their power to show the utter lack of Wissenschaft in the author’s method.

“As regards the other element of seminary work, viz., critical reading of some chronicler, to each student is assigned a certain portion of the text, which, — with the aid, if necessary, of other contemporaneous sources pointed out to him by the professor — he is expected to treat in accordance with the canons of historical criticism, the other students commenting ad libitum.

[p. 72]

” Now these two elements are variously combined in different Seminars. Generally both are carried on side by side, an hour perhaps being taken up with the thesis and the other hour of the session with some text. (That, e.g., is the plan of Prof. Bresslau of Berlin). Sometimes the seminary is divided into two sections, one for the Kleine Arbeiten and the other for the critical manipulation of some chronicler (e. g. Giesebrecht’s Seminar in Munich). Sometimes one of the two elements is excluded (v. Noorden in Berlin had no theses in my day ; Droysen nothing but theses). Sometimes the students are not required to do any work at all, the professor simply commenting upon some text for an hour or two. (That was Weizsäcker’s and Pauli’s method).”

Paul Frédéricq on German Lectures and Historical Seminaries.

One of the best accounts of German university instruction in history is that given by Paul Frédéricq, Professor in the University of Liège, Belgium. He made two excursions to German university-centres in the years 1881 and 1882, and published a most instructive article in the Revue de l’instruction publique (supérieur et moyenne) en Belgique, in 1882. The article is entitled, De l’enseignement supérieur de I’histoire.¹ It will probably be soon translated for publication in America. M. Frédéricq visited Berlin, Halle, Leipzig, and Goettingen. He describes, in a pleasant way, the various lectures that he attended, the professors he met, and the methods that he learned. To one acquainted with life at the Berlin university, its professors of history, and its lecture-courses, M. Frédéricq’s picture seems almost perfect. One sees again, in fancy, Heinrich von [p. 73] Treitschke, the brilliant publicist and eloquent orator, with his immense audiences, everyone of them an enthusiastic seminary of Prussian Politics. The following felicitous sketch of Gustav Droysen will be appreciated by all who have seen that distinguished professor in the Katheder : “Je le vois encore, tenant en main un petit cahier de notes à converture bleue et accoudé sur un grossier pupitre carré, exhaussé au moyen d’une allonge, qui se dressait à un demi-mêtre au-dessus de la chaire. II commença à mi-voix, à la manière des grands prédicateurs français, afin d’obtenir le silence le plus complet. On aurait entendu voler une mouche. Penché sur son petit cahier bleu et promenant sur son auditoire des regards pénétrants qui perçaient les verres de ses lunettes, il parlait des falsifications dans l’histoire. … A chaque instant une plaisanterie très réussie, toujours mordante et acérée, faisait courir un sourire discret sur tous les bancs…. J’y admirai la verve caustique, la clarté et la netteté des aperçus, ainsi que l’habileté consommée avec laquelle le professeur lisait ses notes, de manière à faire croire à une improvisation.”

1 Another good authority upon the subject of German seminaries is M. Charles Seignobos, of Dijon, France, in his critical article on L’enseignement de I’histoire dans les universités allemandes, published in the Revue Internationale de l’ enseignement, June 15, 1881. Cf. pp. 578-589.

The historical seminary conducted by Professor Droysen is one of the best at the University of Berlin. Although Professor Frédéricq failed to obtain access to this seminary as well as to that of Mommsen’s, being told qu’ on y exercait une critique si sévère, si impitoyable que la présence d’un étranger était impossible, yet he quotes in a work¹ more recent than the article above mentioned the observations made in 1874 by his colleague, Professor Kurth, of Liège: “M. Droysen, dans sa Société historique, tient aux travaux écrits, parce qu’ ils semblent donner plus de consistance aux études et que c’est quelque chose qui reste; ils fournissent plus facilement l’objet d’une discussion, ils font mieux apprécier le degré de force d’une élève ainsi que ses aptitudes scientifiques; enfin, ils permettent [p.74] à ses condisciples de profiter mieux de son travail. La correction de celui-ci en effet, est confiée à un autre élève qui, sous les auspices du professeur, en critique les erreurs et le discute dans la réunion suivante avec l’auteur; de là, des controverses souvent animées, auxquelles chaque assistant peut prendre part, et qui offrent l’aspect d’une véritable vie scientifique.”

1 De l’enseignement supèrieur de l’histoire en Belgique, XV. Published as an introduction to the Travaux du Cours Pratique d’Histoire National de Paul Frédéricq. [Gand et La Haye, 1883.].

M. Frédéricq describes with evident pleasure the privilege he enjoyed, through the courtesy of George Waitz, in being admitted to the latter’s seminary, held every Wednesday evening, for two hours, in his own house. The seminary consisted of nine students. They were seated at two round tables, which were loaded with books. The students had at command the various chronicles relating to the times of Charles Martel. The exercise consisted in determining the points of agreement and disagreement among original authorities, with reference to a specific line of facts, in how far one author had quoted from another, &c. “The professor asked questions in a quiet way, raised objections, and helped out embarrassed pupils with perfect tact and with a kindly serenity.” M. Frédéricq noticed how, at one time, when a student had made a really original observation, the professor took out his pencil and made a note of it upon the margin of his copy of the chronicle. In such simple ways the spirit of independent thought and original research is encouraged by one of the greatest masters. George Waitz is the successor of G. H. Pertz as editor of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. To see upon the professor’s desk great bundles of printer’s proofs for this vast work, only deepened M. Frédéricq’s impressions that here in this private study was really a workshop of German historical science.

Seminaries of Art and Archeology.

M. Frédéricq describes another phase of historical training which is eminently worthy of imitation in all colleges or universities, where there is convenient access to an archaeological [p. 75] museum. Ernst Curtius is perhaps even more famous in Berlin as a classical archaeologist than as the historian of Greece. His lectures upon Grecian art are accompanied by a weekly visit of his class to the museum, where an hour or two is spent in examining plaster-casts and fragments of antique sculpture under the guidance of Curtius himself. Having enjoyed this very experience on many occasions in Berlin, the writer can attest the literal truth of the following description:

” L’après-midi, M. Curtius nous avait donne rendez-vous au Musée des antiques où il fait chaque semaine une leçon sur l’archéologie grecque et romaine. A son arrivée les étudiants qui l’attendaient en flânant à travers les collections, le saluèrent silencieusement, puis remirent leur chapeau. M. Curtius resta couvert aussi et commença sur-le-champ sa promenade de démonstrations archéologiques. Armé d’un coupe-papier en ivoire, il allait d’un objet à l’autre, expliquant, indiquant les moindres particularités avec l’extremité de son coupe-papier, tantôt se haussant sur la pointe des pieds, tantôt s’agenouillant pour mieux détailler ses explications. A un moment même il se coucha par terre devant un trépied grec. Appuyé sur le coude gauche et brandissant de la main droite son fidèle coupe-papier, il s’extasia sur les formes élégantes et sur les ornements ravissants du petit chef-d’oeuvre. On comprend aisément combien des leçons faites avec chaleur par un tel professeur, dans un musée de premier ordre, doivent être utiles aux élèves. La leçon que j’ai entendue ne roulait que sur des points secondaires : trépieds, candélabres, vases en terre cuite, etc., et malgré cela il s’en dégageait une admiration communicative et une sorte de parfum antique. On m’a assure que lorsqu’il s’occupe de la statuaire, M. Curtius atteint souvent à l’éloquence la plus majestueuse ; et je le crois sans peine.”

The same method of peripatetic lectures, as described by M. Frédéricq, was also pursued when I was in Berlin, 1874-5, by Herman Grimm for the illustration of art-history. Once a week he would meet his class at the museum for the examination [p.76.] of works illustrating early Christian plastic and pictorial art, for example, that of the Catacombs; also works illustrating Byzantine and Germanic influences, and the rise of the various Italian, French, German, and Flemish schools of painting and sculpture. More was learned from Grimm’s critical commentary upon these works of art, whether originals, photographs, or engravings, than would be possible from almost any course of lectures upon the philosophy of art or aesthetics, without concrete realities to teach the eye. The wealth of that great museum of Berlin — for student-purposes one of the finest in the world — is best appreciated when a man like Grimm or Curtius points out its hidden treasures.

The same illustrative methods in ancient and modern art were also practiced by the late Professor Stark, the archaeologist and art historian of Heidelberg. Although the museum of the latter university is small, when compared with that of Berlin, yet it serves to illustrate what any institution of moderate resources can accomplish for its students in the way of supplying original sources of art-history, at least in the shape of casts, photographs, and other fac simile reproductions of artistic objects. If Stark did not have original tripods, candelabras, and terra cottas, he had, nevertheless, images of almost every important object mentioned in his lectures. One of the exercises in Stark’s archaeological seminary consisted in the explanation at sight, by individual members, of pictorial representations upon Greek vases, which were inexpensively reproduced in colored plates, so that every man could have before him a copy of the work under discussion. There is a great future for American student-research in the field of arthistory, which Herman Grimm used to call die Blüthe der Geschichte. The quick success in England of Dr. Charles “Waldstein, a pupil of Stark’s at Heidelberg, shows what possibilities there are beyond German borders for the science of art and archaeology. The popularity of Professor Norton’s seminary and art-courses at Cambridge, Massachusetts, shows that interest in such matters is kindling upon this side of the [p. 77] Atlantic. The art collections begun by Yale, Amherst and Smith, Vassar and Cornell, Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University indicate that the day of art seminaries is not far off. Indeed, since this writing, there was instituted (March 1, 1884,) in Baltimore a so-called Art-Circle, consisting of about twenty graduate students, under the direction of Dr. A. L. Frothingham,¹ a fellow of the University, who has lived many years in Rome and is a member of the Società dei Cultori dell’ Archeologia cristiana. The Circle will meet every Saturday morning in the library of the Peabody Institute, and, under the guidance of Dr. Frothingham, will spend an hour or two in the examination of plates, photographs, and other works illustrating the history of art. The subjects of study for this semester are: the catacomb frescoes; the sarcophagi; mosaics; ivory sculpture ; metal sculpture ; romanesque architecture; gothic architecture; sculpture in France (gothic period); renaissance sculpture in Italy; schools of painting in Italy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. An art-club, with eight members, has also been instituted among the undergraduates for the systematic reading of art-history.

1 Dr. Frothingham is the author of the following monographs: L’Omelia di Giacomo di Sarûg sul Battesimo di Constantino Imperatore (Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1881-2) ; Il Tesoro della Basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano dal XIII al XV Secolo (Roma, 1883) ; Une Mosaïque Constantinienne inconnue à Saint-Pierre de Rome (Revue Archéologique, Paris, 1883); Les Mosaïques de Grottaferrata (Gazette Archéologique, for December, 1883-January, 1884); Letter to the Society for Biblical Archaeology on a Hebrew inscription on a mosaic of the V cent. at Ravenna.

Dr. Frothingham and Dr. Alfred Emerson (fellow of Greek and classical archeologist) have been the most active spirits in lately founding an Archeological Society in Baltimore, which will enjoy the co-operation of distinguished archaeologists in the old world.

Seminary Libraries

One of the most interesting and important features of the German historical, political, and archaeological seminaries is [p. 78] the special library, distinct from the main university collections. We have already noticed the existence of such libraries at Heidelberg and Bonn ; and it may be said in general that they are now springing up in all the universities of Germany. So important an auxiliary have these seminary -libraries become that in some universities, where the seminaries have been recognized by the state, a special appropriation is granted by the government for library purposes. The government of Saxony granted Professor Noorden of Leipzig 6,500 marks for the foundation of his seminary-library and an annual subsidy of 1,200 marks. This revenue for the purchase of books is considerably increased by a charge of ten marks per semester, paid by every student who has access to the seminary -library. The privileges of this working-library are regarded as analogous to the privileges of using laboratory apparatus or attending a clinique.

In addition to a special library, German seminaries are now procuring special rooms, not only for regular meetings, but for daily work. The historical seminary at Leipzig, embracing four sections like that at Bonn, has had, since 1880, five rooms at its disposal ; one consultation-room or Sprechzimmer for the professors, one room for maps and atlases, and three large rooms where the students work, with their special authorities around them. Every student has for himself a table containing a drawer of which he keeps the key. The rooms are inaccessible to all except members of the seminary, who are intrusted with pass-keys and can enter the library at any time from nine o’clock in the morning until ten o’clock at night. The rooms are warmed and lighted at university expense. Each student has a gas-jet above his own table and is absolutely independent of all his neighbors. Individuality is a marked feature of student-life and student-work in Germany. Men never room together ; they rarely visit one another’s apartments ; and they almost always prefer to work alone. Society and relaxation they know how and where to find when they are at leisure. By general consent German [p. 79] students attend to their own affairs without let or hindrance. This belongs to academic freedom. It belongs to the seminary and it belongs to the individual student.

M. Seignobos, in his excellent article on l’enseignement de l’histoire en Allemagne,¹ says “tout seminaire historique d’Etat possède sa bibliothèque propre et sa salle de travail réservées à l’usage de ses membres. Là, au contraire, tous les livres sans exception, restent à demeure, afin que l’étudiant soit toujours sûr de les trouver.” M. Seignobos gives a list of some of the chief works that are to be found in the historical seminary library at Leipzig. He noted Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae; Jaffé, Regesta Pontificum; Jaffé, Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum ; Böhmer, Regesta imperatorum ; Böhmer, Fontes rerum Germanicarum ; Muratori, Scriptores; Bouquet, Historiens des Gaules; Wattenbach and Lorenz, Quellengeschichte; Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte; Archiv der Gesellschaft fur deutsche Geschichte; Historische Zeitschrift; Walter, Corpus juris Germanici; Zöpfl, Rechtsgeschichte; Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte ; Gengler, Codex juris municipalis; Annales ecclesiastici; Migne, Vies des Papes; Giesebrecht, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit; Giesebrecht, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches; Scriptores rerum prussicarum ; Huillard-Bréholles, Frédéric II; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte; Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom; Collection Byzantine; Sickel, Monumenta graphica ; Potthast, Bibliotheca medii aevi.

1 Revue internationalde l’enseignement, June 15, 1881. “Bibliothèques.”

The Statistical Seminary in Berlin.²

2 Authorities: Dr. Engel, Das Statistische Seminar des Königl. Preussischen Statischen Bureaus in Berlin, 1864. Programmes of courses.

This government institution, while dealing with Prussian statistics, is also a regular seminary for the training of university graduates who have passed the examinations required for [80] entrance to the higher branches of the civil service. The seminary, which was first opened in November, 1862, was under the direction of Dr. Edward [sic, “Ernst” is correct] Engel, chief of the Bureau of Statistics, aided by various university professors. The idea was that the government offices of the statistical bureau should become laboratories of political science. Not only are the facilities of the department utilized for training purposes, but systematic courses of lectures are given to the statistical seminary by university professors co-operating with the chief and his assistants. Subjects like the following are treated: the theory and technique of statistics; agrarian questions; conditions and changes of population; political economy in its various branches ; insurance; social questions ; administration; prison discipline and prison reform in various countries ; sanitary questions, physical geography, etc.

The amount of original work produced by the bureau and seminary of statistics is very great. One has only to examine the Verzeichniss der periodischen und anderen Schriften,¹ which are published by these government offices, in order to appreciate the scientific value of the scholar in politics. These publications are of international significance, by reasons of the lessons which they teach. Whoever wishes to study, from a comparative point of view, the subject of national or municipal finance; the relations of church and school; sanitation; insurance ; trade and commerce ; industries ; population ; land and climate; cities; development of the science of statistics; statistical congresses; markets; fairs; genealogies of royal families; tables of mortality; education; administration, etc., will be richly rewarded by consulting the published works of the Prussian Statistical Bureau, which can be obtained at catalogue prices.

1 For this catalogue, one should address the Verlag des Koniglichen Statistischen Bureaus, Berlin, S. W., Lindenstrasse, 28.

[p. 81]

Library of the Statistical Seminary.

Among the publications of the Prussian Statistical Bureau is the catalogue of its library in two royal octavo volumes. In the first, the authors and titles are arranged according to the sciences which they represent. In the second, the contents are grouped by States. Probably there is in existence no other such complete guide to political science in its historical, theoretical, and practical aspects.

This library, now numbering over 70,000 volumes, has been used by Johns Hopkins University men, two of whom have belonged to Dr. Engel’s Seminar, and they would fully endorse the published statement by Dr. Engel, in his account of the Statistical Seminary, made as long ago as 1864. He says: “If we may believe the admissions of many specialists, there exists far and wide no library so rich, no collection of periodicals so select, no map collection so excellent, as those in the royal bureau of statistics. All new contributions to this branch of literature, whether in Germany, France, England, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, North and South America, are brought to the eyes of members of this seminary. A series of more than seventy special magazines of political economy, statistics, and the allied branches of industry, agriculture, commerce and trade, public; works, finance, credit, insurance, administration (municipal and national), social self help, — all this is not only accessible for seminary-use, but members are actually required to familiarize themselves with the contents of these magazines inasmuch as one of the practical exercises of the seminary consists in the preparation of a continuous report or written abstract of these journals.”

Source:

Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, ed. by Herbert B. Adams.
Second Series: Methods in Historical Study. January-February, 1884.

Image Source: Portrait of Herbert B. Adams (between 1870 and 1880). Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs.

Tags AdamsHB, Engel, Knies

AEA Economists Statistics

AEA. The Study of Statistics in College by Carroll D. Wright, 1887

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-11-12

Carroll D. Wright can be counted among the founding fathers of official government statistics in the United States. H ere a few biographical details from an encyclopaedia published shortly after the paper below was presented. For impatient readers (sorry, he didn’t write with the Twitter-feeding generation in mind) my favorite quote:

“Know thyself” applies to nations as well as to men; and that nation which neglects to study its own conditions, or fears to study its own conditions in the most searching and critical manner, must fall into retrogression. If there is an evil, let the statistician search it out; by searching it out and carefully analyzing statistics, he may be able to solve the problem. If there is a condition that is wrong, let the statistician bring his figures to bear upon it, only be sure that the statistician employed cares more for the truth than he does for sustaining any preconceived idea of what the solution should be. A statistician should not be an advocate, for he cannot work scientifically if he is working to an end. He must be ready to accept the results of his study, whether they suit his doctrine or not. The colleges in this connection have an important duty to perform, for they can aid in ridding the public of the statistical mechanic, the man who builds tables to order to prove a desired result. These men have lowered the standard of statistical science by the empirical use of its forces.

The statistician writes history. He writes it in the most concrete form in which history can be written, for he shows on tablets all that makes up the Commonwealth…

Also worth reading are his admiring words for Ernst Engel’s statistical seminar in Berlin…yes indeed, the Engel-Curve Engel.

____________________

The Study of Statistics in College
By Hon. Carroll D. Wright

United States Commissioner of Bureau of Labor.

Paper read at the joint session of the American Economic and Historical Associations, at Cambridge, Mass., May 24, 1887.

America has no counterpart to the continental school of statisticians, whose members have entered their particular field of science after special training by a systematic course of instruction. We have our statisticians, to be sure, but they have taken up their work accidentally, and not as a profession. Men engaged in the practice of law or of medicine, or in the other learned professions, enter them only after careful preparation. Our government trains its soldiers and sailors; our colleges and higher institutions of learning fit men for various special scientific and professional labors, but we have not yet reached the advanced stage of educational work in this country which comprehends administration in its broadest terms. The European has an advantage over those engaged in statistical work in this country. Many of the leading colleges and universities of the continent make special effort to fit men to adopt statistical science as a branch of administration, or as a profession.

Körösi, Neumann-Spallart, Ernst Engel, Block, Böhmert, Mayr, Levasseur, Bodio, and their score or more of peers, may well excite our envy, but more deeply stimulate the regret that one of their number, [6] from his brilliant training and his scientific attainments, cannot present to you to-day the necessity of copying into the curricula of our American colleges the statistical features of the foreign school. For magnificent achievement the American statistician need not blush in the presence of the trained European, for, without conceit, we can place the name of our own Walker along with the names of those eminent men I have enumerated. With all the training of the schools, the European statistician lacks the grand opportunities which are open to the American. Rarely has the former been able to project and carry out a census involving points beyond the simple enumeration of the people, embracing a few inquiries relating to social conditions; such inquiries seldom extending beyond those necessary to learn the ages, places of birth, and occupations of the population. Such a census, compared with the ninth and tenth Federal enumerations of the United States, appears but child’s play.

Dr. Engel once said to me that he would gladly exchange the training of the Prussian -Bureau of Statistics for the opportunity to accomplish what could be done in our country. For with it all, he could not carry out what might be done with comparative ease under our government. The European statistician is constantly cramped by his government; the American government is constantly forced by the people. The Parliament of Great Britain will not consent to an industrial census, the proposition that the features of United States census-taking be incorporated in the British census being defeated as regularly as offered. Nor does any continental power yet dare to make extensive inquiries into the condition of the people, or [7] relative to the progress of their industries. The continental school of statisticians, therefore, is obliged to urge its government to accomplish results familiar to our people. The statistics of births, deaths, and marriages, and other purely conventional statistics, are substantially all that come to the hands of the official statisticians abroad. In this country, the popular demand for statistical information is usually far in advance of the governments, either State or Federal, and so our American statisticians have been blessed with opportunities which have given them an experience, wider in its scope, and of a far more reaching character than has attended the efforts of the continental school. Notwithstanding these opportunities which surround official statistics in this country, the need of special scientific training for men in the administration of statistical work is great indeed. This necessity I hope to show before I close.

It is not essential, in addressing an audience of this character, to spend a moment even upon definitions. The importance of statistics must be granted: the uses of the science admitted. But it may be well, before urging specifically the needs of this country for statistical training, to give a few facts relative to such work in European schools.¹

¹President Walker, of the Institute of Technology; Dr. Ely, of Johns Hopkins; Prof. R. M. Smith, of Columbia College; Dr. Dewey, of the Institute of Technology; and Dr. E. R. L. Gould, of Washington, have very kindly placed at my disposal information supplemental to that which was at hand.

The best school for statistical science in Europe is connected with the Prussian statistical bureau, and was established a quarter of a century ago by Dr. Ernst Engel, the late head of the bureau, probably [8] the ablest living statistician in the old world. The seminary of this statistical bureau is a training school for university graduates of the highest ability, in the art of administration, and in the conduct of statistical and other economic inquiries that are of interest and importance to the government. The practical work is done in connection with the government offices, among which advanced students are distributed with specific tasks. Systematic instruction is given by lectures, and by the seminary or laboratory method, under a general director. Government officers and university professors are engaged to give regular courses to these advanced students. It is considered one of the greatest student honors in Berlin for a university graduate to be admitted to the Statistical Seminary. One graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, a doctor of philosophy, is already under a course of instruction in the Prussian laboratory of political science.

The work of taking the Census of the Prussian population and resources is entrusted to educated men, many of them trained to scientific accuracy by long discipline in the Statistical Seminary, and by practical experience. (Circulars of Information, U. S. Bureau of Education. No. 1, 1887, by Prof. H. B. Adams.)

In this seminary there are practical exercises under the statistical bureau during the day time, with occasional excursions to public institutions, in addition to lectures held mostly in the evening. A recent programme of the seminary comprehends:

Theory, technique, and encyclopedia: once a week.
Statistics of population and of dwellings: once a week.
Medical statistics: once a week. [9]
Applied mathematical statistics: once a week.
Agrarian statistics: once a week.
Exercises in political economy, finance, and financial statistics: 2 hours a week.

The students assist in the work of the statistical bureau without compensation. This is a part of their training, and by it theory and practice are most successfully combined.

I believe there are courses in statistics in nearly all the universities in Germany, certainly in the more prominent institutions of that country, but there are no distinct chairs of statistics. Statistical science is considered a part of political economy, and professors of the latter science give the instruction in statistics.

The most prominent announcements for the leading European universities, for the year 1886-7, are as follows:

University of Leipzig: Professor W. Roscher lectures on agricultural statistics, this branch being a part of one course, taking one or two hours a week. One hour a week is also given to political economy and statistical exercises by Dr. K. Walker.

University of Tübingen: Prof. Gustav von Rümelin devotes three hours a week to social statistics, while Professor Lorey includes in his lectures a treatment of the statistics of forests.

University of Würzburg: Professor G. Schanz devotes four hours a week to general statistics.

University of Dorpat (a German institution in Russia): Professor Al. v. Oettingen teaches ethical statistics two hours each week.

University of Breslau: Professor W. Lexis uses one hour a week on the statistics of population.

University of Halle: Professor Conrad has a seminary of five hours a week, in which statistical subjects, among others, are carefully treated.

University of Kiel: Professor W. Seelig devotes four hours a week to general statistics, and statistics of Germany.

University of Königsberg: Professor L. Elster lectures two hours a week on the theory of statistics.

[10] University of Munich: Dr. Neuberg has a course of one to two hours a week on statistics.

University of Strasburg: Professor G. F. Knapp teaches the theory and practice of statistics three hours a week, and with Professor Brentano has a seminary two hours a week, in which, among other matters, they treat statistical subjects.

University of Prague: Professor Surnegg-Marburg teaches the statistics of European States three hours each week.

University of Vienna: Professor von Inama-Sternegg devotes two hours each week in a statistical seminary.

In addition to the university work outlined, much work is done in the technical schools, as, for instance, at the technical school in Vienna there are given regularly two courses of statistics:

First, ” General comparative statistics of European States ;” their surface, population, industries, commerce, education, etc.

Second, “Industrial statistics of European States;” methods and “technik” of industrial statistics.

These courses are given by Dr. von Brachelli, who is officially connected with the Government Bureau of Statistics.

At Dresden, Dr. Böhmert lectures at the Polytechnic on “The elements of statistics,” and has a statistical seminary. Böhmert is the director of the statistical bureau in the department of the interior. Part of the instruction is given at the bureau. Courses are also given at Zurich on the elements of statistics.

Some of the more important announcements connected with the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, of Paris, for the year 1886-7, are as follows:

By Professor Levasseur, the theory of statistics, and the movement of population, one hour a week for the first quarter.
By M. de Foville, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics, one hour a week in the second quarter upon statistics, commerce, and statistics of foreign commerce.
By Professor Pigeonneau, one exercise each week, in which he treats, among other subjects, of commercial statistics.

[11] In the programme of the University of Brussels, for 1878 and 1879, an announcement for a course of political economy and statistics twice each week, by Professor A. Orts, was made.

Something is being done in Italy, but how much I am not at present able to learn.

These courses, it will be seen, are devised for special training in the practical statistics of the countries named.

A great deal of effort has been expended in Europe through statistical congresses since 1853 to secure uniform inquiries in census-taking, and it is to be regretted that the Congresses have not accomplished the results sought. It was unfortunate that the attention of the statisticians of the world, as brought together in the congresses, was given to the form of inquiry to the exclusion of the form of presentation. In tracing the discussions and deliberations of these congresses, the absence of the intelligent treatment of the presentation of facts, even when drawn out by uniform inquiries. becomes apparent. The art of the statistician in his administrative work found but little encouragement in the long discussions on forms of inquiry, and less was accomplished by these congresses, which are not now held, than has been accomplished through training in the universities of Europe. The great statistical societies abroad have done much in stimulating statistical science, and out of these societies there has now been organized the International Statistical Institute, the first session of which was held in Rome during last month; much is to be hoped from the labors of this Institute, for the men who compose it bring both training and experience to the great task of unifying statistical inquiries [12] and presentations, so far as leading generic facts are concerned, for the great countries comprehended under the broad term, “the civilized world.” For this great array of work, the outlines of which I have briefly and imperfectly given as carried on in Europe, America has no parallel.

Our colleges are beginning to feel that they have some duty to perform, in the work of fitting men for the field of administration, and specifically in statistical science. Dr. Ely is doing something at Johns Hopkins, giving some time, in one of his courses on political economy, to the subject of statistics, explaining its theory, tracing the history of the art or science, and describing the literature of the subject. He attempts, in brief, to point out the vast importance of statistics to the student of social science and to put his student in such a position that he can practically continue his study. Johns Hopkins, as soon as circumstances will admit, will probably secure teachers of statistics and administration, in addition to its present corps of instructors.

Dr. Davis R. Dewey, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is also devoting some time, in connection with his other work, to statistical science. He has two courses:

First, A course of statistics and graphic methods of illustrating statistics, in which attention is chiefly given to the uses of official statistics of the United States. Students are directed to the limitations there are in this respect, what compilations have been and are made, and to the possible reconciliation of discrepancies which appear in official reports. This course is taken in connection with a course in United States finance, and the student is trained to [13] find and use the statistics which will illustrate the points taken up, and to present them graphically.

Second, An advanced course is given in statistics of sociology, in which social, moral, and physiological statistics are considered, in short, all those facts of life which admit of mathematical determination to express the “average man.” Some of Dr. Dewey’s actual problems may serve to illustrate the practical work of his course. Samples of the problems which he gives to his students are as follows:

Are the Indians increasing or decreasing in numbers?
Criticise by illustrations the statement that the value of the products of manufacture of the United States in 1880 was $5,369,325,442.
What margin of error would you allow, if called upon to test the accuracy of the returns of population under one year of age in the Federal census returns?
Can you devise a method to determine from the census reports on population, Table XXI., which is the healthier state, Massachusetts or Connecticut?
Is it true that Massachusetts has more crime per capita than Alabama or Georgia? Can you offer any explanation or facts modifying such a statistical conclusion? Do the census reports afford information as to the increase or decrease in crime?

Perhaps the most systematic teaching of the science of statistics in America is given at Columbia College, under the direction of Professor Richmond M. Smith. He has lectured on the subject of statistical science in the Columbia College School of Political Science since the year 1882. His course is an advanced one for the students of the second or third year of that school. In the first year of the work there were but three students of statistical science; at present there are about twenty-five. Professor Smith gives them lectures two hours per week through the greater part of the year. The theoretical lectures cover a brief history of statistics; a consideration of statistical [14] methods; of the connection of statistical science with political and social science; of the attempt to establish social laws from statistical induction; the doctrine of probabilities, etc., this part of the course being based on German and French writers, principally Mayr, Engel, Wagner, Knapp, Oettingen, Quetelet, Block, and others. The practical part of the Columbia course covers the ordinary topics of statistical investigation, and the statistics are taken, as far as possible, from official publications. These latter lectures are of course comments on the tables and diagrams themselves. Wall tables are used to a certain extent, but experience has found it more convenient to lithograph the tables and diagrams, giving a copy to each student, which he can place in his note-book, and thus save the labor of copying.

From a circular of information from the Columbia College School of Political Science I find the following, relating to the teaching of statistical science:

“Statistical science: methods and results. This course is intended to furnish a basis for a social science by supplementing the historical, legal, and economic knowledge already gained, by such a knowledge of social phenomena as can be gained only by statistical observation. Under the head of statistics of population are considered: race and ethnological distinctions, nationality, density, city and country, sex, age, occupation, religion, education, births, deaths, marriages, mortality tables, emigration, etc. Under economic statistics: land, production of food, raw material, labor, wages, capital, means of transportation, shipping, prices, etc. Under the head of moral statistics are considered: statistics of suicide, vice, crime of all kinds, causes of crime, condition of criminals, repression of crime, penalties and effect of penalties, etc. Finally is considered the method of statistical observations, the value of the results obtained, the doctrine of free will, and the possibility of discovering social laws.”

There may be other instances of the teaching of statistical science in American colleges, but those given are all that have come to my knowledge. At [15] Harvard, Dr. Bushnell Hart is teaching the art of graphically presenting statistics, while at Yale and other institutions the theory and importance of statistics are incidentally impressed upon ‘the students in political economy. It will be seen, therefore, that if there is any necessity for such a course as has been cited, the necessity is being met only in slight degree.

Is there such a necessity? Speaking from experience I answer emphatically, Yes. There has not been a single day in the fourteen years that I have devoted to practical statistics that I have not felt the need, not only in myself, but in the offices where my work has been carried on, of statistical training; training not only in the sense of school training, but in the sense of that training which has come to our American statisticians only through experience. My great regret on this occasion is that I can address you with the statistical bureau only as my alma mater, but perhaps the lack I have seen and felt of a different alma mater may give force to my suggestions.

The problems which the statistician must solve, if they are solved at all, are pressing upon the world. Many chapters of political economy must be rewritten, for the study of political economy is now brought under the historical and comparative method, and statistical science constitutes the greatest auxiliary of such a method. There is so much that is false that creeps into the popular mind, which can be rectified only through the most trustworthy statistical knowledge, that the removal of apprehension alone by it creates a necessity sufficient to command the attention of college authorities. The great questions of the day, the labor question, temperance, tariff reform, all great topics, demand the auxiliary aid of [16] scientific statistics, and a thorough training is essential for their proper use. But in the first place there should be a clear understanding of what is necessary to be taught. We read many chapters on the theory and practice of statistics. What is the theory of statistics? The use of the word theory, in connection with statistical science, is to my mind unfortunate, for the word theory, when used in connection with positive information, antagonizes the public mind. When you speak of the theory of statistics, the word theory meaning speculation, the popular feeling is that theoretical statistics are not wanted, but facts. Theory may be fact; statistics may substantiate theory or controvert it. All this we know, and yet I feel that the word is used unfortunately in this connection. If I understand it correctly, the theory of statistics is simply a statement of what it is desired to accomplish by statistics.

Every branch of social science serves to explain the facts of human life. There are some facts which can be explained only by statistics. For instance, it is asserted that there is an alarming amount of illiteracy in Massachusetts. Statistical inquiry shows that by far the greater number of these illiterates are of foreign birth, so that the fault is not with the public school system, but the evil is due to a temporary cause, namely, immigration.

Again, it has been freely asserted that in the United States women of native birth do not have as many children as women of foreign birth. The Census of Massachusetts will show that although American women do have a less number of children, on the average, yet a larger number survive. Common observation would never have shown these things, or would not have shown them accurately.

[17] So everywhere statistics attempt to explain the facts of human life, which can be explained in no other way, as for instance, the effect of scarcity of food on births, on marriages, or crime; the effect of marriage laws on the frequency of divorce, etc. The theory of statistics points out where the statistical method is applicable, and what it can and cannot accomplish. In my opinion, however, it would be better to avoid the use of the word theory entirely, and adopt a concrete term like statistical science, which has three branches: collection, presentation, and analysis. Statistics is a science in its nature, and practical in its working.

The science of statistics, practically considered, comprehends the gathering of original data in the most complete and accurate manner; the tabulation of the information gathered by the most approved methods, and the presentation of the results in com- pact and easily understood tables, with the necessary text explanations. It is the application of statistics which gives them their chief popular value, and this application may, therefore, legitimately be called a part of the science of statistics. The theoretical statistician is satisfied if his truth is the result of statistical investigation, or if his theory is sustained. The practical statistician is satisfied only when the absolute truth is shown, or, if this is impossible, when the nearest approximation to it is reached. But the belief that theory must be sustained by the statistics collected, or else the statistics be condemned, is an idea which gets into the popular mind when the expression, theory of statistics, is used. I would, therefore, avoid it, and I hope that should our colleges adopt courses in statistical science, they will agree [18] upon a nomenclature which shall be expressive, easily understood, and comprehensive in its nature.

The necessity of the study of statistical science would not be so thoroughly apparent if the science was confined to the simple enumeration and presentation of things, or primitive facts, like the number of the people; to tables showing crops, exports, imports, immigration, quantities, values, valuation, and such elementary statements, involving only the skill of the arithmetician to present and deal with them. The moment the combinations essential for comparison are made, there is needed something beyond the arithmetician, for with the production of averages, percentages, and ratios, for securing correct results, there must come in play mathematical genius, and a genius in the exercise of which there should be discernible no influence from preconceived ideas. The science of statistics has been handled too often without statistical science, and without the skill of the mathematician. Many illustrations of this point involving the statistics of this country could be given.

In collating statistics relating to the cost of production, the best mathematical skill is essential, even the skill which would employ algebraic formulae. So with relation to statistics of capital invested in production. To illustrate, the question may be asked, what elements of capital are involved in the census question of “capital invested?” Is it simply the cash capital invested by the concern under consideration, or is it all the money which is used to produce a given quantity of goods? If the members of a firm con- tribute the sum of $10,000, and they have a line of discounts of $100,000, the avails of which are used in producing $200,000 worth of completed goods, what [19] is the capital invested? What is the capital invested which should be returned in the census? If a man has $5,000 invested in his business as a manufacturer, and he buys his goods on 90 days, or four months, and sells for cash, or 30 days, what is his capital invested? This question is one among many of the practical problems that arise in a statistical bureau, but which has not yet been treated scientifically. What has been the result of the reported statistics relating to capital invested? Simply that calculations, deductions, and arguments based on such statistics have been, and are, vicious, and will be until all the elements involved in the term are scientifically classified. Another illustration in point arises in connection with the presentation of divorce statistics, especially when it is desired to compare such statistics with marriages, or to make comparisons to show the progress, or the movement of divorces. Shall the number of divorces be compared with the number of marriages celebrated in the year in which the divorces are granted, or with the population, or with the number of married couples living at the time? I need not multiply illustrations. The lies of statistics are unscientific lies.

The conditions of this country necessitate knowledge as to the parent nativity of the population, features not included in any foreign census, and need not be. Such features lead to what may be called correlated statistics; for instance, where there are presented three or more facts relating to each person in the population, the facts being coordinate in their nature. In this class of work skill beyond that which belongs to the simple operations in arithmetic becomes necessary. There must be employed [20] some knowledge of statistical science beyond elementary statistical tables, or the correlations will be faulty, all the conclusions drawn from them false, and harm done to the public. While the scientific statistician does not care to reach conclusions from insufficient data, he much less desires to be misled by the unscientific use of correct data, or from data the presentation of which has been burdened with disturbing causes. The analytical work of statistical science demands the mathematical man. While this is true, it is also true that the man who casts a schedule (for instance, to comprehend the various economic facts associated with production), should have the ability to analyze the tabulated results of the answers to the inquiries borne upon the schedule. In other words, the man who casts the schedule should not only be able to foresee the work of the enumerator, or the gatherer of the answers desired, but he should foresee the actual form in which the completed facts should be presented. Furthermore, he should foresee the analysis which such facts stimulate and not only foresee the detail, but foresee in a comprehensive way the whole superstructure which grows from the foundation laid in the schedule. He should comprehend his completed report before he gathers the needed information.

How can these elements in one’s statistical education be secured? The difficulties in the way of the best statistical work are not slight. Dr. Dewey, in a recent address upon average prices, before the American Statistical Association, gave an exceedingly valuable, and a very clear explanation of the difficulties which underlie all efforts to secure average prices ranging over a period of years; he pointed out the [21] different methods of securing such averages, and I can do no better than to use Dr. Dewey’s own words, as taken from the address referred to. He says:

“There is first the ordinary ‘index method ‘ introduced by Mr. Newmarch, and continued by the Economist and Mr. Jevons. In this there is no attempt to take account of the varying importance of the commodities where prices are averaged together, but equal consideration is given to all.

“A second method is to give each commodity, where price enters into the averages, a weight proportionate to the quantity of it sold during a fixed period of time.

“In the third method account is taken of the varying importance of the commodities by regarding the part each plays in the exports and imports of a country. This system has been used by Messrs. Giffen and Mulhall. Mr. Giffen’s process in detail is to find the average value of the different articles in the exports and imports; combine these in the proportions of the different articles to the totals of the exports and imports, and then reduce the totals for a series of years to the values they would have been equivalent to had prices remained unchanged.”

This simply indicates that no statistician has yet arrived at a method for securing average prices that shall be considered absolutely correct; that is, in other words, the science of average prices has not been reached, because, if it had been, there would be but one method of securing them. There is but one multiplication table; all men agree to it, because every part of it has been demonstrated to be true. The principle of the multiplication table in statistical operations indicates that science triumphs, for no scientific conclusion is reached so long as skilled men, men of experience and of training, differ relative to methods or results.

The teaching of statistical science in our colleges involves three grand divisions:

The basis of statistical science, or, as it has been generally termed in college work, the theory of statistics.

The practice of statistics, which involves the preparation of inquiries, the collection and examination of the information sought, and the tabulation and presentation of results. [22]

The analytical treatment of the results secured.

These three general elements become more important as the science of statistics becomes more developed; that is, while in conventional statistics, or official statistics if you prefer, meaning those which result from continuous entry of the facts connected with routine transactions, like custom house’ operations, the registration of births, deaths, and marriages, etc., these three elements may not be apparent. But when considered as regards the collection of information from original sources by special investigation through the census, through our bureaus of statistics of labor and kindred offices, and through the consular service, these three grand elements assume a vast importance, and statistical science demands that men be employed who comprehend thoroughly and clearly all the features of the three elements of the science, for the variety of facts to be collected suggests the variety of features connected with the work.

Last year I had the honor to address the American Social Science Association upon popular instruction in social science, advocating the teaching in the public schools of the elementary principles of social science, comprehending those things which are most essential in the conduct of life, in the preservation of health, and in the securing of good order. The Association discussed the practicability of teaching social science in our higher institutions of learning. The suggestion that the school and the college be utilized for propagating the science was met with but one [23] objection of any moment. This objection was that in the colleges and schools the whole time is now exhausted in teaching the branches of human knowledge already established as a part of the curricula of such schools; an excellent objection from a narrow point of view, but a thoroughly inadmissible objection from a point of view which takes in the development of the human race on the best basis, and on a high standard. It was met by the counter-statement that if there is no time in the ordinary college to teach all that the college now teaches, and devote a few hours per week to social science, and all that social science means, so far as teaching is concerned, then drop something else and introduce the social science. But nothing need be dropped in order to teach social science in the colleges and schools of the country. Now, the only objection which I anticipate to the teaching of statistics in our colleges is the same that was made to the proposition to teach social science generally in such institutions, that there is no room for the introduction of instruction in the new science. To my own mind this objection is not only trivial, but of no account whatever in the practical working of institutions of learning. Every well appointed college has its chair of political economy, and this department can be broadened sufficiently to take in statistical science, without impairing efficiency in this or any other department. If this cannot be done, then I would say to the colleges of America that the institutions which soonest grasp the progressive educational work of the day will be the most successful competitors in the race. That college which comprehends that it is essential to fit men for the best administrative duties, not only in government, but [24] in the great business enterprises which demand leaders of as high quality as those essential for a chief magistrate, will receive the patronage, the commendation, and the gratitude of the public. The college or the university which comprehends the demand of the day and institutes new forms of degrees to be conferred upon the men and women specially qualified in special science is in the van. Why should there not be a degree for sanitary science? Why should there not be a degree for social science? Doctor of Philosophy is not enough; it means nothing in popular estimation. The Doctor of Philosophy must understand various things; must be taught and thoroughly trained in the branches necessary to secure the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, but he may know nothing of other branches of human knowledge, except in the most incidental way, which are so essential to fit him for the best administrative duties. The organization of industry demands the very highest type of mind. I sometimes think that the great industrial chieftains of the world are far superior in their capacity, and in their general comprehensive ability, to the great statesmen, to the great leaders of politics, and the great lights that carry nations through crises even. The men who are the best trained, who have learned the practical work of special sciences, are the ones that are guiding the people, and so the colleges or the universities which grasp these things, introducing the teaching of statistical science along with all the other great features of social science, including the branches which bring knowledge nearest to the community itself, are the colleges which will secure success; and not only success in a pecuniary point of view, but success in that grander field of the best [25] work for the race. I urge, therefore, that our American colleges follow the example of European institutions. I would urge upon the government of the United States, and upon the government of the States, the necessity of providing by law for the admission of students that have taken scientific courses in statistics as honorary attachés of, or clerks to be employed in the practical work of, statistical offices. This is easily done without expenditure by the government, but with the very best economic results.

We take a census in the United States every ten years, but as a rule the men that are brought into the work know nothing of statistics: they should be trained in the very elementary work of census-taking and of statistical science. How much more economical for the government to keep its experienced statisticians busily employed in the interim of census- taking, even if they do no more than study forms, methods, and analyses, connected with the presentation of the facts of the preceding census. Money would be saved, results would be more thoroughly appreciated, and problems would be solved.

Our State and Federal governments should be vitally interested in the elevation of statistical work to scientific proportions; for the necessary outcome of the application of civil service principles to the conduct of all governmental affairs lies in this, that as the affairs of the people become more and more the subjects of legislative regulation or control, the necessity for the most accurate information relating to such affairs and for the scientific use of such information increases.

The extension of civil service principles must become greater and greater, and the varied demands [26] which will be created by their growth logically become more exacting, so that the possibilities within the application of such principles are therefore not ideal, but practical in their nature. And these potentialities in the near future will enhance the value of the services of trained statisticians.

The consular and diplomatic service, as well as other fields of government administration, come under this same necessity. The utilization of the consular service for original investigations creates in itself a wide reaching statistical force, and one which should be competent to exercise its statistical functions with all the accuracy that belongs to science. So government should supplement college training with practical administrative instruction, acquired through positive service in its own departments.

This appeal that statistical science be taught in our colleges comes to the Economic Association more forcibly than to any other. The beginning which has been made in this direction in this country is honorable indeed. Shall it be supplemented in the great universities and leading colleges of America? Do not think for a moment that if the teaching of statistical science be incorporated in our college courses the country will be flooded with a body of statisticians. There is enough work for every man who understands statistical science. He need not be employed by government. The most brilliant achievements of the European statisticians have been secured in a private or semi-official way. The demand will equal the supply, and the demand of the public for statistical knowledge grows more and more positive, and the supply should equal the demand.

[27] General Walker in a letter in 1874 said: “The country is hungry for information: everything of a statistical character, or even of a statistical appearance, is taken up with an eagerness that is almost pathetic; the community have not yet learned to be half skeptical and critical enough in respect to such statements.” He can add, Statistics are now taken up with an eagerness that is serious.

The statistician writes history. He writes it in the most concrete form in which history can be written, for he shows on tablets all that makes up the Commonwealth; the population with its varied [28] composition; the manifold activities which move it to advancement; the industries, the wealth, the means for learning and culture, the evils that exist, the prosperity that attends, and all the vast proportions of the comely structure we call State. Statistical science does not use the perishable methods which convey to posterity as much of the vanity of the people, as of the reality which makes the Commonwealth of to day, but the picture is set in cold, enduring, Arabic characters, which will survive through the centuries, unchanged and unchangeable by time, by accident, or by decay. It uses symbols which have unlocked to us the growth of the periods which make up our past—they are the fitting and never changing symbols by which to tell the story of our present state, that when the age we live in becomes the past of successive generations of men, the story and the picture shall be found to exist in all the just proportions in which it was set, with no glowing sentences to charm the actual, and install in its place the ideal; with no fading colors to deceive and lead to imaginative reproduction, but symbols set in dies as unvarying and as truthful in the future as in the past. The statistician chooses a quiet and may be an unlovely setting, but he knows it will endure through all time.

Source: Publications of the American Economic Association, Vol. 3, No. 1, (March 1888), pp. 5-28.

Image Source: Library of Congress Photograph Collection. Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, 1894 Aug. 9, p. 86.

Tags Engel, WrightC

Economic History Economists

Portrait of Prof. Ernst Louis Étienne Laspeyres of Price Index-Number Fame

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2015-11-10

It just didn’t seem fair, posting a portrait of Paasche without giving his famous price index-number counterpart Laspeyres the benefit of a quick internet search. Sure enough, two portraits of the good Gießen professor can be found at the link to the Gießen University Archive given below.

Ernst Louis Étienne Laspeyres, a.k.a. Ernst Ludwig Stephan Laspeyres, was born November 28, 1834 in Halle and died August 4, 1913 in Gießen, Germany.

Image Source: Universitätsarchiv, Universität Gießen

P.S. from the same archive, a picture of his grave.

Tags Laspeyres

Charles Franklin Dunbar.

Graduate Work in the Department of Economics and Social Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology

THE PROGRAM

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO GRADUATE STUDENTS

REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION

FURTHER INFORMATION

INSTRUCTING STAFF DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Department of Economics and Social Science

Graduate Fellowship 1950 – 1951

Excerpt from University of California: In Memoriam, September 1978

Ira Brown Cross, Economics: Berkeley 1880-1977 Flood Professor Emeritus

[Course titles and instructors]

Transcript of the record of Mr. Frank Whitson Fetter 1923-24

Excerpt from: II. New Methods of Study in History by Herbert Baxter Adams (1884)

4.— THE SEMINARY METHOD.

Heidelberg Seminaries.

Bluntschli’s Seminary.

Seminary of Political Economy.

The Historical Seminary at Bonn.1

An American Student on German Seminaries.

Paul Frédéricq on German Lectures and Historical Seminaries.

Seminaries of Art and Archeology.

Seminary Libraries

The Statistical Seminary in Berlin.2

Library of the Statistical Seminary.

The Study of Statistics in College By Hon. Carroll D. Wright

United States Commissioner of Bureau of Labor.

Graduate Work in the Department of Economics and Social Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

INSTRUCTING STAFF
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Department of Economics and Social Science

Graduate Fellowship
1950 – 1951

Excerpt from University of California:
In Memoriam, September 1978

Ira Brown Cross, Economics: Berkeley
1880-1977
Flood Professor Emeritus

Transcript of the record of Mr. Frank Whitson Fetter
1923-24

The Historical Seminary at Bonn.¹

The Statistical Seminary in Berlin.²

The Study of Statistics in College
By Hon. Carroll D. Wright