Category: Social Work

Harvard. Social Ethics Courses. Enrollments and Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1912-1913

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-10-06
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Room 2 of Harvard's Social Museum (1911)

Social Ethics 1-7
1912-13

Social Ethics 1. Social Problems in the Light of Ethical Theory
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 4. Social Problems of Immigration and Race
Social Ethics 5. The Housing Problem
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in Europe
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

The courses in this group are designed to apply philosophical principles to the modern problems of philanthropy, industry, and social life. They begin with a general introduction to Social Ethics and proceed to methods of applied ethics which approach those of a professional school. Students should have already elected courses both in Philosophy and in Economics, and should regard the courses in Social Ethics as concerned with the transition from academic to practical life.

Previously posted course material for social ethics at Harvard.

________________________

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Francis Greenwood Peabody

________________________

Social Ethics 1.
Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance and the Labor Question

[Social Ethics] 1. The Problems of Poor -Relief, The Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of Ethical Theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor [Francis Greenwood] PEABODY, Dr. [James] FORD, and Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 69.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 1. Professor [Francis Greenwood] PEABODY, Dr. [James] FORD, and Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER. — Social Problems in the light of Ethical Theory. Poor relief, the family, temperance, and the labor question.

Total 75: 16 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 19 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 1

So allot your time that you may answer all questions

What advantages would be secured by each of the devices described by Seager for dealing with unemployment?
Describe the method employed for dealing with industrial disputes in (a) England, (b) New Zealand. What are the respective advantages and disadvantages of these methods?
Compare and contrast the Victorian and the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Laws.
What was the case of Priestley vs. Fowler? What were its consequences? What are the provisions of the present British law by which the problem in question is dealt with?
What are the difficulties and dangers in the application of “welfare work “? Under what conditions, if any, should “welfare work” be undertaken by employers? (Treat specifically (a) “welfare work within the factory; (b) provision of facilities for recreation.)
Define industrial partnership, copartnership, workers ‘ cooperative production. Show in how far these terms overlap.
Criticize the following:–
1. “Co-operation is incapable of raising wages and shortening hours.”
2. “The aim of co-operation is to abolish utterly the wage system.”
“Syndicalism asks that each industrial group of workers should control the instruments of production which it uses the railway — men, the railways; the miners, the mines; and so on. “Is this a practicable program? Give argument and evidence in detail.
Outline the history, aim, structure, and methods of the British Co-operative Union.

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College(June 1913), pp. 71-72.

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Social Ethics 2.
Practical Problems of Social Service

* 2 ²hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. [Jeffrey Richardson] BRACKETT.

This course is for advanced students, especially for those who plan, as ministers, teachers, or as citizens, whatever their vocation, to be actively interested in charity, correction, or any form of social work. It is also an introduction to Social Ethics 20c, the School for Social Workers. It is a study of tendencies in Social Service, of law and custom, especially in England and the United States, bearing directly on such topics as neighborhood improvement, forms and sources of relief, modification of charitable trusts, treatment of special types of the needy, organization of charity, financial management, supervision of work by public and private agencies.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, pp. 69-70.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 2 ²hf. Dr. [Jeffrey Richardson] BRACKETT. — Practical Problems of Social Service: public aid, charity, and neighborhood work.

Total 23: 3 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 2

“At the beginning of the study of the causes of poverty, the personal causes, as we have seen, were chiefly emphasized.”
Explain this statement.
What is the present tendency in weighing causes of poverty and misery?
What is your judgment as to tendencies?
You are asked what a social settlement is for. What is your answer?
What are the places in modern philanthropy:–
1. Of “volunteer” or unpaid workers, usually giving part time, as compared with
2. The professional workers who are usually paid for full time service?
Illustrate your view of the meaning of social work by the treatment of two of the following types of need:–
1. The feeble-minded.
2. The blind.
3. Offenders.
4. Dependent children.
What should be the chief results of a well used confidential bureau for exchange of information of needy families?
What arguments do you give
1. For,
2. Against, the use of public money for private charity?
What are the chief lessons of value which you have learned from the field work which has been accepted as practice work for this course?

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Social Ethics 3.
Criminology and Penology

[* 3 ¹hf. Criminology and Penology. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and reports. Half-course (first half-year).]

Omitted in 1912-13.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 70.

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Social Ethics 4.
Social Problems of Immigration and Race

* 4 ¹hf. Social Problems of Immigration and Race. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and a research. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER.

This course deals principally with immigration into the United States, in its international aspects and as an internal problem; secondarily with the American negro problem. Emigration from foreign countries is first studied — in its causes, its historical course, and its consequences for the countries from which it proceeds. Next are considered the history and changes of immigration into the United States; the condition of immigrants in this country; and the effects, transitory and permanent, upon the United States, under social, industrial, and racial aspects. Questions of American internal policy (contact, utilization, assimilation) and the question of national policy (restriction, non-restriction, selection, protection) are studied, partly in relation to emigration and immigration legislation of other countries. To the negro problem less time is devoted; yet the rural and urban populations, their economic and social changes in the post-slavery period, and the broad questions of public and private policy will be considered.

The method of the course will be as far as possible analytical rather than historical or descriptive. Special emphasis will be laid on the thesis and from time to time research conferences will be substituted for lectures.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, pp. 70-71.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 4 ¹hf. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER. — Social Problems of Immigration and Race.

Total 20: 6 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 4

So allot your time that you may answer all questions. Carefully indicate the reasons for your conclusions.

Is there an instinct of migration? Are there other peculiarly psychological causes of emigration? What psychological factor is of noteworthy consequence after arrival of immigrants in this country?
Show the connection of immigration with the problem of insanity in the United States. What is our present legislation in regard to insane aliens?
“Recent immigration has not reduced the rates of wages, nor has it prevented an increase in the rates of wages; it has pushed the native and older immigrant wage-earners upward on the scale of occupations.” Discuss both of these propositions, giving in some detail reasons for the position you take.
A Massachusetts congressman recently said: “The literacy test, as I have repeatedly shown, discriminates strongly against the class of laborers who are most needed in the United States.” By what argument would that position be supported? Indicate the grounds of your agreement or disagreement with the argument.
Compare the occupational position of the negro in the rural South with that in New York City. Upon what grounds are the differences to be explained? What is Murphy’s solution of the occupational problem?
What can be said of the effects of (a) race mixture, (b) environment, upon the future race stock of the United States?
What are the effects of emigration upon Greece?

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Social Ethics 5.
The Housing Problem

* 5 ¹hf. The Housing Problem. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and research. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. [James] FORD.

Primarily a course in social research. Each student is required to make an intensive original survey of housing conditions in a selected district, or to undertake detailed field work in some phase of the subject. The lectures and prescribed reading will deal with methods and results of existing housing surveys. Examination will be made of the causes and remedies of lot and room congestion, problems of construction, sanitation, and maintenance of tenements, lodging houses, and cottages. The agencies of improved construction of dwellings — philanthropic, coöperative and governmental — will be treated, together with methods of residential and industrial decentralization. The function of health and building codes, taxation, land reform, city planning, in the regulation and improvement of housing conditions, will be examined in detail.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 71.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 5 ¹hf. Dr. [James] FORD. — The Housing Problem.

Total 6: 1 Graduate, 3 Seniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 5

State the arguments for and against the construction by philanthropic corporations of improved dwellings for the working classes. Under what conditions is the philanthropic construction of model tenements of net social advantage?
State the present provisions in the New York Tenement House Act designed to prevent lot congestion. Show in detail how these provisions are socially justifiable.
What do New York statistics show to be the most frequent places of origin of tenement house fires? How do such fires spread?
State the provisions (a) of the New York Tenement Act, (b) of the Massachusetts Tenement House Act for towns, which are designed to prevent such fires.
What are the sources of the gross business profits of British Copartnership Garden Suburbs? How are net profits distributed to tenant members?
What social advantage is there in the construction of homes for employees by employers of labor? What are the disadvantages of such a plan to the employer? To the employee? How can each disadvantage be obviated?
A criticism of Howard’s “Garden Cities of Tomorrow” :—
1. What parts of the scheme are impracticable?
2. What suggestions are practicable and of value?
Could housing conditions in American cities be improved by the application of local zone systems? What principles should govern the determination of zone boundaries?
What size and shape of lot would you advocate for the construction of suburban homes for wage-earners? Why?

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Social Ethics 6.
Social Amelioration in Europe

* 6 ²hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. — Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER.

This course is mainly concerned with schemes of social amelioration that have so far been little considered in the United States. Remedial methods of dealing with poverty will be treated only incidentally. Chiefly the course will make a comparative study of the preventive and constructive measures, public and private, of several countries. After a brief consideration of the place of thrift institutions, unemployment and the important recent efforts to meet it will be discussed at some length. The experience of several countries in providing for the indigent in case of accident, sickness, invalidity, and old age will, in turn, be examined. The course will close with a study of recent developments of legislation governing conditions of labor.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 71.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 6 ²hf. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 11: 3 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 6

So allot your time that you may answer all questions

Suppose that in a country of 250,000 workmen the number of unemployed persons has been, over a long period of years, never less than 10,000. How far could the amount of unemployment be reduced by the following remedies (applied individually)?
1. The erection of an industrial establishment by state authority, permitting the employment of 10,000 persons.
2. Such a reduction of the hours of labor by law as would result in an undiminished output, if 10,000 more persons were to be employed.
Point out the differences of the St. Gall and English schemes of unemployment insurance. Do these differences make for a difference of result?
Describe the German system of sickness insurance in its present form in respect of:
1. Source of financial support;
2. Organization and administration;
3. “Benefits” provided;
4. Arrangements with physicians.
What measures have the insurance authorities of Germany taken to reduce the extent of disease?
How far is the workmen’s insurance of Germany a burden upon industry and how far is it not?
“In Germany and other countries in which the system has been wholly or partly established, they [the socialists] work for the elimination of the workingmen’s contributions to the insurance funds on the theory that it is the duty of the state to insure the life and existence of the worker, without curtailing his wages for that purpose.” (Hillquit, “Socialism in theory and practice.”) What are the grounds of your own agreement or disagreement with the attitude of the socialists? How far does your knowledge of the instincts, as they are described by McDougall, affect your answer?
What system of labor exchanges do you regard as the best? Why?

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Social Ethics 7.
Rural Social Development

* 7 ²hf. Rural Social Development. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and thesis. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. [James] FORD.

This course will study the methods and results of rural social research. It will treat the social problems of rural communities — race composition, poverty, housing, health, recreation, labor, etc. The means of development of country life from without through “Back-to-the-Land” and other movements; and rural reconstruction from within through adaptation of existing local institutions, coöperative movements, and State activities will be considered.
The third hour of each week will be devoted to the discussion of prescribed reading or to direction of research.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 72.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 7 ²hf. Dr. [James] FORD. — Rural Social Development.

Total 15: 1 Graduate, 10 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 7

State in detail the possible sources of data for an exhaustive social survey of a New England rural township.
Outline (a) the causes, (b) the local results of the rural exodus. State carefully in how far the causes can be eliminated by conscious social policy?
Summarize the findings of the U. S. Immigration Commission with reference to the (a) economic status, (b) rapidity of assimilation, (c) contribution to community development, of immigrant farmers in the United States.
Discuss:
1. The conditions and results of marriage selection among the Hill Folk.
2. The value of early placing-out of children as a means of meeting the social problem of a degenerate community (illustrate from the Hill Folk).
What diseases may be transmitted through the farm water supply? State how each of the following may be contaminated: shallow wells; driven wells; cisterns. (Lipman “Bacteria,” and Ogden “Rural Hygiene.”)
What powers for health control in rural communities reside in the best equipped State Boards of Health? Should any of these powers be left with local health officials and not with the State? Give reasons. (Fairlie and Lectures.)
Name and classify the agencies of adult education in rural communities. Show the form and methods of university extension in rural communities, employed by State colleges of agriculture (especial reference to Massachusetts).
State in detail the (a) organization, (b) business methods, of co-operative associations for disposal of eggs. What specifically is the importance of such associations in the betterment of rural social conditions? (Wolff and Lectures.)

Image Source: Room 2 of the Harvard’s Social Museum. Francis G. Peabody, The Social Museum as an Instrument of University Teaching. Publications of the Department of Social Ethics in Harvard University, Number 4 (Cambridge, MA: 1911).

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Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1911/12

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

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

Earlier 20th century course material:

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.
1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1908-09. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford and Foerster.
1909-10. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, and Foerster.
1910-11. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, Foerster, and Brackett. [complete set of social ethics exams]
1911-12. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, Foerster, and Brackett. [complete set of social ethics exams]

Tags Brackett, Foerster, FordJM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Social Insurance Social Work

Harvard. Social Ethics Courses. Enrollments and Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1911-1912

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-08-07

Harvard professor Francis G. Peabody and his team tried to establish something like a school of social work at Harvard that offered courses covering a great range of economic and social policy. As befitting a “Department of Social Ethics” the emphasis was on applied ethics, which is something distinct from the interest of a Department of Economics in applied economics. The intersection of the two was located in real-world problems.

Previously posted course material for social ethics at Harvard.

________________________

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Ray Madding McConnell
Francis Greenwood Peabody

________________________

Social Ethics 1-7
1911-12

Social Ethics 1. Application of Ethical Theory
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 4. Selected Topics in Social Ethics
Social Ethics 5. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in Europe
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp. 70-74.

________________________

Application of Ethical Theory
to Present Social Problems

Course Description
1911-12

The Problems of Poor-Relief, The Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of Ethical Theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster.

The following courses are planned for students who take or have taken Social Ethics 1 or its equivalent.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 70.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 1 ²hf. Professor Peabody, Drs. Ford and Foerster. — Social Problems in the light of ethical theory.

Total 43: 3 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

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

Explain briefly: —

“Economic determinism”;
“Social labor time”;
“The capitalistic appropriation of surplus value”;
“The class-conscious conflict.”

Lassalle and Marx compared as influences on German socialism.
What legislation on Woman and Child Labor has been enacted in the United States? (Adams & Sumner, pp. 30–37.)
What is the Sweating-System, and what forms does it take? (Adams & Sumner, pp. 114–119.) What legislation has been enacted to deal with it? (pp. 122–126.)
Explain and criticise the following statement: “Co-operation differs from profit-sharing primarily by reason of the fact that, in its industrial form, at least, its aim is to modify radically, and finally to utterly abolish, the wage system.” (Adams & Sumner, p. 379, and Dr. Ford’s Lectures.)
Compare the advantages of industrial partnership under the direct-bonus plan with those of a pension system or a stock offering.
The conclusions of physiology concerning the function of alcohol.
The history of the liquor traffic in Boston from 1875 to 1894. What are the comparative merits of the three types of licensing boards operating in Boston during that period?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 87-88.

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Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work:
Practical Problems

Course Description
1911-12

²hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. Brackett.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp. 70-71.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 2 ²hf. Dr. Brackett. — Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work.

Total 14: 2 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 2

In all answers, give your reasons.

“A community can have as much pauperism as it will pay for.” Comment on this, with illustrations from English or American history.
What are the “feeble-minded”? In what ways would you have provision made for them?
A homeless, able-bodied machinist, who says there is no one dependent upon him, but he is at the end of his money, tells you he can have a good job in Providence, R.I., where he formerly lived, if he can get there tomorrow and be ready for work the next morning. He asks a railroad ticket to that place. What would you do, and why?
What have been the chief steps in progress in the treatment of offenders?
—
1. What was the chief principle for administration of public aid, laid down by the English poor-law commission of 1832–34?
2. How was it to be carried out?
—
1. In taking up neighborhood work, what kinds of persons in the neighborhood, would you aim primarily to reach?
2. When and how would you decide what methods to use for reaching them?
What is meant by “organizing charity”? I.e., when we speak of the work of an associated charities or other agency for organizing charity.
—
1. To what extent would you advise residents in a “settlement” to give material relief to persons in the community?
2. To what extent would you advise pastors of churches to give it?
What are the chief lessons you have learned from your field work connected with this course?

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Criminology and Penology

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

¹hf. Criminology and Penology. Lectures, prescribed reading, and reports. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Dr. McConnell.

This course aims to offer a brief general study of crime and its prevention. As a necessary preparation for the meeting of present problems some investigation of historical as well as of present conditions will be attempted. The subjects considered will include the following: methods of study in criminology; classes of crimes and of criminals; causes and effects of crime; prevalent conceptions of crime and of the treatment which society should accord it; agencies especially intended for the punishment and prevention of crime (including certain features of criminal law and its administration, the identification of criminals, the indeterminate sentence, institutions for the detention, punishment, and reformation of criminals, the supervision and aid of convicts on probation or parole or after discharge, and special methods for dealing with young criminals); the influence on the volume of crime of various agencies designed for general social betterment.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 71.

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Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Course Description
1911-12

¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12.

Subjects for 1911-12: –

The State and Charity. Dr. Brackett.
The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. McConnell.
The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Dr. Ford.
The Ethics of Immigration. Dr. Foerster.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 71.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 4 ¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Dr. Brackett. — The Ethics of Public Aid and Private Charity.
Dr. Ford. — The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation.
Dr. Foerster. — The Ethics of Immigration.

Total 10: 2 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 4

What do you say (1) in favor of, and (2) in opposition to the provision by the state of non-contributory old-age pensions for all persons beyond the age of 69, and below a small income line?
How are profits divided in (1) the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers’ Society; (2) the Scottish Wholesale Society; (3) a typical Copartnership Housing Association; (4) an Irish Co-operative Dairy; (5) the New England Cranberry Sales Co. (or some other American Co-operative Sales Association)?
Describe the economic and co-operative features of the credit unions of Massachusetts. What are the essential dissimilarities in method and purpose between the credit unions and the “co-operative banks” of this State?
“Distributive co-operators are anti-capitalists and class-conscious.” Examine carefully and in detail the truth of this statement as applied to the distributive movements of England, Belgium and Germany.
What are the usual features of the padrone commissary system?

Devote not less than one hour to this question.

The following citations give the main arguments of an address recently reported in the newspapers.
1. 1. “Why exclude the immigrant when there is so much room for him? . . . Texas alone could support our entire population without worrying about the problem of congestion. . . . The trouble in America is usually not a lack of work but a lack of workers.”
  2. “If he accepts a small wage, his need is responsible and it is to be deplored that Americans should be content to take advantage of this desperate need and convert the hunger of this stranger into more dollars for themselves.”
  3. “Thirty of every ten thousand immigrants become paupers. . . . While the thirty are costing us $3000 a year, the other 9970 are adding almost $40,000,000 to the wealth of the land. And this exclusive of the taxes each pays.”
  4. “There is a higher rate of crime among the native born than among the foreign born.”
  5. “The solution . . . is distribution, not exclusion. . . . We should be undeserving our blessings if we selfishly refused to share them.”

Illustrate your answer to the following questions from the reading and lectures of the course. So divide your time that you may write upon all questions; avoid generalities. The lettered divisions correspond with those just given.

1. In what sense does a lack of workers exist? When would it not exist, — e.g., when Texas should be as densely populated as Europe?
2. Is the immigrant underpaid? What consequences would follow for employers, consumers, and immigrants if employers were compelled to pay their immigrant workmen wages not less than twice as high as they are now paying? What effect has immigration had on wages in the United States?
3. In what sense is wealth “added”? If, by adding wealth, immigrants save Americans labor, should they not be welcomed like any other labor-saving device — a machine, typically? What kind of relation has immigration with dependency?
4. Describe the criminal aspects of immigration.
5. What can the best system of distribution accomplish? What can it not accomplish?

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Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

²hf. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. McConnell.

This course considers the fundamental ethical principles involved in the organization of the modern State, and the duties of public authorities in regard to defectives, charity, the child, and public health.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

________________________

Social Amelioration in Europe

Course Description
1911-12

²hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. Foerster.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 6 ²hf. Dr. Foerster. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 19: 7 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 6

So allot your time that you may answer all questions.

“Putting these unemployed men to work in industries already fully manned or over-manned would solve nothing. . . . The problem which the Labour Party desires the state to face is therefore that of the development of its unused resources. . . . Neither relief works nor the National Workshops of 1848 (except for training, perhaps) are asked for, but a policy of national development. . . . As part of this programme, the Socialist has long been crying for afforestation, national drainage and reclamation, labour farm colonies . . . and the pressure of social misery and depopulation has at length come to his aid.” (J. R. Macdonald, The Socialist Movement.) What is the value of such a policy in dealing with the problem of unemployment?
What are the salient features of the English Workmen’s Compensation Act? What are its defects? How are these defects avoided in the legislation of other countries?
What effect upon the industriousness and thrift of the population have the following?
1. Provision for old age in Denmark.
2. Provision for old age in England.
3. Savings bank insurance in Massachusetts.
4. Provision for sickness, old age, etc., in the mutual aid societies of France.
5. Unemployment benefits under the Ghent system.

In each case show specifically to what feature of the institution in question the effect is to be traced.

Why did state insurance in Germany signify a less radical departure from previous social policy and thought than it would signify in the United States? How serious a burden has it laid on employers?
Mr. Lloyd George said of the English old age pensions plan, that “it is just as much a contributory scheme as one financed directly by means of contributions arranged on the German basis.” Indicate in detail by what course of reasoning this statement may be supported. Or, if you believe it false or in part false, indicate precisely the gounds of your opinion.
Present the best arguments you can for compulsory (and subsidized) insurance against unemployment. Then make out the best case against compulsion. Which way does the net advantage lie? In answering this question it may be assumed that a system of well-organized labor exchanges exists.
Outline the Swiss methods of dealing with vagrancy.

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Rural Social Development

Course Description
1911-12

¹hf. Rural Social Development. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. Ford.

One hour will be devoted each week to the discussion of prescribed reading.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 7 ¹hf. Dr. Ford. — Rural Social Development.

Total 17: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Freshman.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 7

What is meant by a “rural social survey”? What facts must be gathered? (Give reasons in each instance.) What are the probable sources of this material for a Massachusetts or New York community?
—
1. What essential differences do you note between the pleasures of the village and of the rural population in Blanktown?
2. What is meant by pleasures of receptive sensation? What part have they played in the social evolution of Blanktown? (Williams, An American Town.)
What is the rural housing problem in America? State the problem in detail with reference to construction and interior arrangement of farm houses.
(a) Outline the rural health problem. (b) Under what conditions do each of the following matters require action by local or state boards of health? What sort of action is necessary? Why?
1. 1. Illness in the farm home.
  2. Farm water supply.
  3. Farm sanitation.
  4. Milk production.
—
1. “When the rural social sense is thoroughly established, we shall be in a new epoch of rural civilization.” (Bailey, The Country Life Movement.) What is meant by this statement?
2. By what methods can the “rural social sense” be developed in this generation? In the next?
3. Describe in detail the structure and function of any three local socializing agencies (excluding church and school).

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Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1910/11

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

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

Earlier 20th century course material:

Image Source: Francis G. Peabody, The Social Museum as an Instrument of University Teaching. Publications of the Department of Social Ethics in Harvard University, Number 4 (Cambridge, MA: 1911).

Tags Brackett, Foerster, Ford, McConnellRM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Social Insurance Social Work

Harvard. Complete Course Offerings in Social Ethics. Descriptions, Enrollments, Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1910-1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-06-15

This post covers all of the courses taught at Harvard during the academic year 1910-11 from the subfield of social ethics that was located at the intersection of economics, philosophy, and social policy.

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Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888-1910

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

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

Earlier 20th century course material:

Francis Greenwood Peabody. The Approach to the Social Question. New York: Macmillan, 1912. “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

Social Ethics Course Instructors
1910-11

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Ray Madding McConnell
Francis Greenwood Peabody

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Social Ethics 1-7
1910-11

Social Ethics 1. The Ethics of Modern Industrialism
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1910-11]
Social Ethics 4. Selected Topics in Social Ethics
Social Ethics 5. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in EuropeSocial Ethics
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1910-11. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VII No. 23 (June 21, 1910), p. 65.

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The Ethics of Modern Industrialism

Enrollment Social Ethics 1
1910-11

Social Ethics 1 ²hf. Professor Peabody, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster. — The Ethics of Modern Industrialism.

Total 104: 2 Graduates, 27 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 27 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 1
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 1. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Dewey and Tufts’ Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology] the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Warner’s American Charities]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems and Schaeffle’s Quintessence of Socialism]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations conducted by the Committee of Fifty]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation. Students are advised, before beginning the study of Social Ethics, to take courses both in Economics and Philosophy; and must have taken a course, or the equivalent of a course, in one of these subjects.

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1910-11

Describe the development of Employers’ Associations in the United States. (Adams & Sumner, pp. 279 ff.)
Trace the development of Joint Conferences and Trade Boards of Arbitration in the United States. (Adams & Sumner, pp. 305ff.）
Describe in detail an example of: —
1. The bonus system in industry;
2. deferred participation;
3. industrial partnership.
  On what grounds may each of these systems be criticised as hostile to the higher interests of labor? (Adams & Sumner, ch. IX.)
How far has social history since Marx verified the principles of: —
1. the class-conscious conflict;
2. economic determinism?
“Freedom of demand is a first essential of freedom in general. If the means of life and culture were somehow allotted to each from without, and according to an officially drawn-up scheme, no one could live out his own individuality or develop himself according to his own ideas; the material basis of freedom would be lost.” (Schaeffle, p. 40.) Explain this statement and indicate how far, in Schaeffle’s opinion, it correctly describes the position of demand in the Socialist State.
What are the essential features of: —
1. the doctrine of contributory negligence;
2. the doctrine of common employment;
3. the Employers’ Liability Act of 1880;
4. the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1906?
  (Dr. Foerster’s Lectures.)
Millennial Socialism and Militant Socialism; — their economic and ethical effects defined and compared
Methods in force in Switzerland for the promotion of employment and the control of the unemployed.
Show concisely the effects of alcoholic liquors (a) in moderate use, (b) in immoderate use, on:
1. the digestive system;
2. the nervous system;
3. resistance to disease.
  (The Liquor Problem, ch. I, and Dr. Ford’s Lectures.)
Discuss: —
1. Methods of granting licenses in the United States;
2. Methods of removing the element of profit from the sale of liquor.
  (The Liquor Problem, 56 ff. & pp. 151 ff.)

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, pp. 79-80. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Practical Problems of Social Service

Enrollment Social Ethics 2
1910-11

Social Ethics 2 ²hf. Dr. Brackett. — Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work.

Total 15: 7 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 2
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 2 ²hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. Brackett.

This course is for advanced students, especially for those who plan, as ministers, teachers, or as citizens, whatever their vocation, to be actively interested in charity, correction, or any form of social work. It is also an introduction to Social Ethics 20c, the School for Social Workers. It is a study of tendencies in Social Service, of law and custom, especially in England and the United States, bearing directly on such topics as forms and sources of relief, modification of charitable trusts, treatment of special types of the needy, organization of charity, financial management, supervision of work by public and private agencies.

SOCIAL ETHICS 2
Year-end Exam 2010-11

What place do you give to the changes in the English Poor Law in 1834 as reform measures making for progress?
What is insanity?
What is feeble-mindedness ?
Choosing one of these types, give the chief features of a programme for care which a state should adopt.
—
1. A young mother, unmarried, asks a child saving agency to take her infant from her: What would you do with the child?
2. An infant is found exposed in a public place, with no trace of relatives. In what way would you care for it? Why?
What do we mean by the word adequacy in the expression “adequacy of relief”?
What is to be said in favor of grants of public money to private charities? What against such grants?
Discuss briefly the effect of charity on the continuance of the least “fit” to survive.
How do you value the field work which you have done in connection with this course?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 80. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Enrollment Social Ethics 4
1910-11

Social Ethics 4 ¹hf. Dr. Brackett, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster. — Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Dr. Brackett. — The State and Charity.
Dr. McConnell. —The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs.
Dr. Ford. —The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation.
Dr. Foerster. —The Ethics of Immigration.

Total 14: 5 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 4 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 4
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 4 ¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. , at 12.

Subjects for 1910–11:—

Methods of Poor-Relief in Great Britain and Germany Compared. Professor Peabody.

The State and Charity. Dr. Brackett.

The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. McConnell

The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Dr. Ford.

The Ethics of Immigration. Dr. Foerster.

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

—
1. It is proposed, following English and Australian precedent, to improve the economic position of the poorly paid working people of New York, by providing that wages less than a legal minimum shall not be paid. How far may such a measure be expected to be successful? Explain your opinion.
2. “Any one may become a bricklayer in New York City, but whosoever enters the trade as a unionist must agree not to accept less than a certain rate and must, therefore, be an efficient worker with a high standard of living. The American workingman believes that there is ample room in this country for all men who are efficient and willing to demand wages commensurate with the American standard of living.” How far do you agree with the conclusion of this statement? Explain your opinion.
What economic loss does emigration signify for a country? Is there a corresponding economic gain to the country of immigration?
—
1. Briefly outline the position of the Slavs in agriculture in the United States.
2. For what reasons would you, or would you not, favor an effort systematically to settle upon the land those of our immigrants who have lived in rural districts in their country of origin?
What disposition of the gross profits of business is made: —
1. In co-operative associations of the Rochdale model?
2. In the London Civil Service Stores?
3. In the Belgian Socialist Stores?
Which of the above methods of disposition of profits is most conducive to business strength? To working-class progress? Give reasons in detail.
What are the principles of the co-partnership housing movement? Would this form of co-operation be practicable in America?
Discuss the various legal provisions which could be effective in checking the evils of child labor.
Discuss legislation governing hours of labor, and give special attention to (a) practicability, (b) constitutionality, (c) uniformity.
Discuss the “moral quality” of each of the socialist principles of distribution — “To each according to his works,” “To each according to his needs.”

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 81. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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The Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Enrollment Social Ethics 5
1910-11

Social Ethics 5 ¹hf. Dr. McConnell. — The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State.

Total 10: 2 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 5
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 5 ²hf. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. McConnell.

This course considers the fundamental ethical principles involved in the organization of the modern State, and the duties of public authorities in regard to crime, defectives, charity, the child, and public health.

SOCIAL ETHICS 5
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

—
1. Differentiate the theories of Lombroso and Ferri with reference to the origins of crime.
2. What are the chief agencies which society may utilize with the express aim at prevention of crime?
3. Briefly suggest the principal advantages and defects of the jury. (Omit either a, b, or c.)
Argue against “reformation” as the rightful aim of punishment.
Argue in favor of each of the following propositions, and show how they may be maintained consistently together: “All criminals are morally irresponsible for their deeds,” “All criminals are socially accountable for their deeds.”
Briefly suggest the successive steps, with underlying principles, from beginning to end of the treatment of a case of juvenile delinquency in a modern juvenile court.
—
1. “The whole prison problem so far as it concerns philanthropy is largely an unnecessary problem. … Improving the economic status of the people would cut the prison problem in half.” To what classes of prisoners do these statements of Gray’s refer?
2. Discuss “The Law of Settlement” and “Settlement Laws.”
—
1. Discuss the necessity of public agencies for the relief of the poor.
2. Discuss the proper division of labor between public and private charities.
Outline the work of the State Board of Charity of Massachusetts.
—
1. State the leading causes of death in the United States. (Give approximate rates, or state the causes in the order of their importance.)
2. State approximately the ratio of preventability of death from each of these causes.
3. Explain the means on which such prevention depends.
Mention the various duties of the Health Department of the city of Boston.

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 82. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Social Amelioration in Europe

Enrollment Social Ethics 6
1910-11

Social Ethics 6 ²hf. Dr. Foerster. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 20: 4 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 6
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 6 ²hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. Foerster.

This course is mainly concerned with schemes of social amelioration that have so far been little considered in the United States. Remedial methods of dealing with poverty will be treated only incidentally. Chiefly the course will make a comparative study of the preventive and constructive measures, public and private, of several countries. After a brief consideration of the place of thrift institutions, unemployment and the important recent efforts to meet it will be discussed at some length. The experience of several countries in providing for the indigent in case of accident, sickness, invalidity, and old age will, in turn, be examined. As far as time permits, a study of legislation governing conditions of labor, and of the housing movement, will be included.

SOCIAL ETHICS 6
Year-end Examination
1910-11

Answer the questions in the order asked. So allot your time that you can answer all questions.

“Mr. H— is devoting his life to the solution of the problem of the unemployed. He proposes an amendment to the constitution of Missouri which declares that it is the duty of the State to provide relief works, including factories and farms, to employ men when necessary.” How far has the experience of France with such a measure as this been successful? of England? of Germany? What have been the causes of success or failure? What would be the probable outcome of the establishment of relief works in the United States?
—
1. What share of the cost of the compensation for accidents falls to the employer in Germany? in Austria? in Norway? in England?
2. A distinguished lawyer holds: “The funds required to make compensation should be raised by contributions from both employer and employee, preferably in equal shares.” What arguments can be advanced for and against this opinion?
3. What division of cost should, in your opinion, be made? Why?
Discussing the bill recently introduced into the English Parliament for compulsory insurance of workmen (premiums to be paid by employer, employee, and State) against unemployment and sickness, a Boston newspaper editorial says: “American workmen want nothing of this kind… they would be the first to realize that any socialistic scheme of the Lloyd-George kind would inevitably harm them”; because, “As President Hadley well says: ‘The payments to the insurance funds must chiefly, if not wholly, come out of wages. Even though they be nominally levied upon the employer, he is compelled, by competition with other employers not subject to the levy, to reduce in corresponding degree the wages he pays?’”
Discussing the same bill, a London newspaper says: “Including the existing old age pensions charge of £13,000,000, £18,500,000 will be contributed by the general taxpayer… The greater part of this £18,500,000 which is said to be supplied by that metaphysical entity, the state, will be really supplied, in their capacity as taxpayers, by the same persons who, in their other capacity of employers, are called upon to produce about £9,000,000 under the new bill.”
Criticise the reasoning of these positions, and indicate your own reasoning as to the burden of insurance.
—
1. What are the kinds, and advantages and disadvantages, of the several types of savings banks?
2. What are your reasons for thinking that savings accounts would or would not increase in number and size in a country which had such an old age pensions system as that of England? Such an old age insurance system as that of France?
Discuss the nature and development of
1. the insurance of widows and orphans in Europe;
2. the industrial insurance of the casualty insurance companies of the United States.
Describe as fully as you can the nature of the measures which has been taken by the Social Insurance authorities of Germany to reduce risks.
—
1. Are the functions of employers’ welfare establishments (such as the activities embraced under the “Welfare Fund” of the firm of D. Peters & Co.) more properly assumed by the State?
2. On the basis of the success or failure of plans discussed in this course, what general attitude do you consider that the State should adopt toward the amelioration of social conditions?
(To be answered if you have time.) What can, and what cannot, a well-organized system of labor exchanges do toward solving the problem of unemployment?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, pp. 83-84. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Rural Social Development

Enrollment Social Ethics 7
1910-11

Social Ethics 7 ¹hf. Dr. Ford. — Rural Social Development.

Total 13: 4 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 7
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 7 ¹hf. Rural Social Development. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. Ford.

This course is concerned with rural life as a problem in itself and as a solution of urban problems. It will study the distribution of population and its consequences; the development of country life from without, through suburban, “Garden-city,” “Back-to-the-land,” and other movements, — and rural reconstruction from within, through private initiative (e.g., the country church, village improvement societies), coöperative movements (e.g., the Irish Agricultural Organization Society), and State activity (e.g., homestead commissions, departments of agriculture).

One hour will be devoted each week to the discussion of prescribed reading.

SOCIAL ETHICS 7
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

In how far is a natural tendency to industrial decentralization recorded (by the U.S. Statistics of Manufactures for 1905) for the United States as a whole? For the Boston Industrial District (500 square miles)? What are the causes of this tendency? In what types of industry is it inoperative?
“In no field does corporate (philanthropic) operation promise more for the betterment of human conditions; for a higher standard of morals, and of education, or great certainty of profit for capital, than by systematically aiding (city) men to obtain farms.” Examine and criticise this statement in detail.
Under what conditions will “aiding men to obtain farms” assure fair profits for capital? better rural society? better society in general?
What is the sociological significance of the “abandoned” farm in New York State? (Bailey, “The State and the Farmer,” Pt. I.)
—
1. Show by example what part physical environment plays in the social history of Blanktown.
2. What forms of “selection” are described as operative in Blanktown? (Williams, “An American Town.”)
What are the comparative advantages of (1) district, (2) township, (3) county school systems with reference to
1. Maintenance of rural schools?
2. Supervision of rural schools?
3. The use of agriculture as a means of general training?
4. The teaching of professional agriculture?
“The ideal of rural betterment is to preserve upon our farms the typical American farmer. …
“What is wanted … is the breaking down of those barriers which have so long differentiated country from urban life; the extinction of that social ostracism which has been the farmer’s fate.”
Examine both quotations critically. What institutions or lines of social effort could be made to contribute to both ends?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, pp. 84-85. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

Tags Brackett, Foerster, Ford, McConnellRM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Labor Policy Social Insurance Social Work

Harvard. Topics in Social Ethics. Outline, enrollment and final exam. Peabody et al, 1909-1910

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-12-31

Picket "Girls" on Duty: Ladies' Tailors Strike, New York City [1910 Feb]

The faculty teaching this course on selected topics in social ethics that was taught at Harvard in 1909-10 was based in the philosophy section of the School of Divinity. Social Ethics at that time was closely related to the economics department and its survey course Social Ethics 1 was a relatively popular outside field for economics graduate students. Social Ethics 4 appears to have been a course that went into greater depth on four topics: poor relief, government intervention/regulation, cooperation and immigration with emphasis on the normative issues involved.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Announcement
1909-10

Selected Topics in Social Ethics (Social Ethics *4²hf.).

— Subjects for 1909-10:
— The Ethical Approach to the Social Question. Professor [Francis Greenwood] Peabody.
— Sources of Relief in Cases of Need. Dr. [Jeffrey Richardson] Brackett.
— The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. [Ray Madding] McConnell.
— The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Mr. [James] Ford.
— The Ethics of Immigration. Mr. [Robert Franz] Foerster.

Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th, Sat., at 12.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1909-10, p. 24.

________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Enrollment
1909-10

Social Ethics 4^1[sic]hf. Professor [Francis Greenwood] Peabody, Dr. [Jeffry Richardson] Brackett, Dr. [Ray Madding] McConnell, Dr. [James] Ford, and Dr. [Robert Franz] Foerster. — Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Total 19: 8 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Divinity.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Final Examination
1909-10

Discuss and illustrate by historical instances the ethical principles involved in the State’s interference with the individual’s freedom of contract.
(a) Discuss Compensation for Accidents — Employer’s Liability; (b) Discuss Injunctions in Labor Disputes.
Describe the constitution and business methods of the Civil Service co-operative stores in London. State all points of divergence from Rochdale principles. What are the relative advantages or disadvantages of Civil Service co-operative methods?
Do you believe that any form of co-operation could be instituted in New England villages with reasonable expectation of success? State reasons explicitly.
“The girls have become convinced… that the only effective remedy for their unsatisfactory condition is a union, in full control of every shop on the side of the employees, and authorized to bargain with the employers on their behalf. They are willing that every one shall belong to the union.” How far do you consider that the remedy proposed by the striking shirt waist makers of New York may be effective? Explain the influence of immigration on wages in the United States.
Discuss the connection of Immigration with: (a) poverty in the United States; (b) cycles of prosperity and depression; (c) municipal government in the United States.
What are the effects of Emigration upon the countries from which it proceeds?
In what degree are the ethical principles indicated in the Introduction of this Course, verified or illustrated in the case of: State activity; or of Co-operation; or of Immigration?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1910).

Image Source: Picket girls on duty: Ladies’ Tailors Strike, New York City (Feb 1910). Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Tags Brackett, Foerster, Ford, McConnellRM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Social Work Socialism

Harvard. Description, enrollment and exam for Social Ethics. Peabody, 1909-1910

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-12-29

Themes of social policy were covered in the intersection of philosophy (ethics) and economics by Francis Greenwood Peabody and his staff at Harvard around the turn of the 20th century.

A brief biography of Francis Greenwood Peabody

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Social Ethics à la Peabody

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

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

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Material from earlier years

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of this course have been transcribed and posted:

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

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.

1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers

1908-09. Taught by Peabody, assisted by Dr. McConnell and Messrs. Ford and Foerster.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster. —The Problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 80: 7 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 12 Sophomores, 3 Freshman, 13 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

________________________

Course Description
1909-10

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

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Dewey and Tufts’ Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Bosanquet’s The Family]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Warner’s American Charities]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Rooms are expressly assigned for the convenience of students of Social Ethics, on the second floor of Emerson Hall, including a large lecture room, a seminary-room, a conference-room, a library, and two rooms occupied by the Social Museum. The Library of 1800 volumes is a special collection for the use of students of Social Ethics, with conveniences for study and research. The Social Museum is a collection of graphical material, illustrating by photographs, models, diagrams, and charts, many movements of social welfare and industrial progress.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1909-10, pp. 24-25.

________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1909-10

Consider briefly : —

(a) The social conditions necessary to produce a class-conscious conflict.

(b) Economic determinism as a working faith.

The development of the English and American law on labor combinations, from 1824. (Adams & Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 464 ff.）
The history and lessons of Employer’s Liability Acts in the United States. (Adams & Sumner, pp. 478 ff.)
How do the principles of compensation for accidents in England under the Workingmen’s Compensation Act of 1906 differ from those of the period before 1880? (Dr. Foerster’s lectures.)
The likenesses and differences between the organizations of workmen and those of the employers. (Dr. Brooks’s lectures.)
How might the assignment of laborers to tasks be accomplished in the Socialist State? Discuss three possibilities. (Dr. McConnell’s lectures.)
The French system of arbitration, as applied, first, to local disputes and, secondly, to collective bargains.
“Eventually it will be seen that industrial divisions should be perpendicular and not horizontal.” Explain and illustrate this citation.
Contrast the methods of the British (Rochdale) and Belgian (Socialist) coöperators as to distribution of the profits of coöperative business. (Dr. Ford’s lectures.)
Industrial peace, as promoted by :—

(a) The Maison Leclaire;

(b) The Pennsylvania R.R.;

Economic forces working for and against the consumption of liquor. (The Liquor Problem, a Summary of Investigations, pp. 127 ff.）

Image Sources: Radcliffe Yearbook 1914 (for Peabody), Radcliffe Yearbook 1915 for Ford and Foerster.

Tags Ford, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy Social Work

Harvard. Description, enrollment and exam for Social Ethics. Peabody, 1908-1909

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-06-10

At the turn of the 20th century social policy at Harvard was a subject for the department of social ethics located at the intersection of economics and philosophy. It was taught as a subfield of philosophy (Social Ethics) by divinity professor Francis Peabody together with a changing cast of junior instructors to assist him.

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Exams from past years

Exam questions this course from the late 19^th century have been transcribed and posted: 1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.

1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

__________________________

Francis Greenwood Peabody. The Approach to the Social Question. New York: Macmillan, 1912. “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

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

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DR. RAY MADDING McCONNELL

Harvard Instructor in Social Ethics Had Made Long Study of Important Problems

Dr. Ray Madding McConnell, long active in educational work, died early this morning at a private hospital in Cambridge. Dr. McConnell, who was a graduate of Harvard, class of 1902, was born in Tennessee in 1875, and had been since his college days a great student of sociological problems and recently instructor in social ethics at Harvard.

Dr. McConnell received numerous honorary degrees, including his A.B. from Southern University in Alabama, in 1899, his S.T.B. from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee in 1901, his A.M. from Harvard in 1902, and from that university his Ph.D. in 1908. He was a writer on the subject to which he had given so many years of earnest study and research, and last year his book on “The Duty of Altruism” was brought out and he had at this time another book in preparation, “Philosophy of Crime.” He had contributed frequently to the International Journal of Ethics, and at Harvard he had given courses of lectures on “Moral Obligations of the Modern State.”

Dr. McConnell was married, in 1907, to Miss Phoebe Estes Bedlow of Ithaca, N.Y., by whom he is survived, as well as by a young son, Frank McConnell.

Source: Boston Evening Transcript (June 24, 1911), p. 14.

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Course Description
1908-09

Social Ethics. — The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody assisted by Messrs. [Ray Madding] McConnell [d. 1911 of thematic fever and pneumonia], [James] Ford, and [Robert Franz] Foerster.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Seth’s Study of Ethical Principles]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Bosanquet’s The Family]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Devine’s Principles of Relief]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1908-09, p. 24.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1908-09

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. McConnell and Messrs. Ford and Foerster. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 136: 3 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 65 Juniors, 29 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1908-09

The place in the modern labor question of:—

Leclaire.
Lassalle.
Conseils des Prud’hommes.

Discuss the following:—

“Labor is the original source of all value.”
“Property is robbery.”
“Surplus-value.”

What is:—

“Economic determinism”;
“A class-conscious conflict”;
“Collective bargaining”?

Ruskin’s criticism of the economists, and his own theory of value. [“Unto this Last” by John Ruskin]
The evidences of progress on the part of the working-classes since the introduction of the factory-system. (Adams and Sumner, pp. 502-526.)
The legal aspects of strikes. (Adams and Sumner, p. 187 ff.)
The development in England of the principle of Employer’s Liability.
The prospects of Industrial Co-operation in Great Britain and in the United States. The relative advantage of Federalism and of Individualism applied to Coöperation.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Relief-Department; its organization, operation, and the criticisms which it encounters.
The physiological action of alcohol and its relation to intellectual work. (Lectures, and The Liquor Problem, pp. 19-42.)
The Scandinavian Liquor-System. (The Liquor Problem, p. 153ff.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 69.

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

Tags Foerster, FordJM, McConnellRM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy Social Work

Harvard. Description, enrollment and exam for Social Ethics. Peabody, 1907-1908

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-01-13

Social Ethics inhabited an academic borderland between the disciplines of economics and philosophy at Harvard in the early 20th century. Professor Francis Greenwood Peabody, himself a Unitarian minister and professor of theology, governed that territory which attracted many graduate students of economics interested in social policy.

This post adds to the collection of examinations given in his courses over the course of nearly two decades.

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Exams from past years

Exam questions this course from the late 19^th century have been transcribed and posted:

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

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.

1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

__________________________

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

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

__________________________

Course Description
1907-08

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

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Seth’s Study of Ethical Principles]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3)]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People (links below), and Devine’s Practice of Charity]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Carlyle’s“Past and Present”, Ruskin’s “Unto this Last”, Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1907-08, p. 22.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People:

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

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 108: 3 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 44 Juniors, 38 Sophomores, 2 Freshman, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 69.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1907-08

The economic doctrines of Carlyle and Ruskin compared and criticized.
[cf: “Past and Present” by Thomas Carlyle; “Unto this Last” by John Ruskin]
The philosophies of the anarchist and the communist compared.
The political origins of the Labor Question in Great Britain.
The German school of Socialism; its philosophy of history, its principles and its demands.
French and English precedents in Arbitration and Conciliation, applied to the circumstances of the United States. (Lectures, and Adams & Sumner, pp. 289-305.)
The progress of Labor Legislation in the United States, and its relation to the doctrines of free contract and class legislation. (Adams & Sumner, p. 466 ff.)
The “third party” to industrial disputes; and the American method of safeguarding its interests.
The Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act; its intention, limitations, and results.
The German system of Workingmen’s Insurance, its principles, methods, and applicability to the United States.
Four types of Industrial Partnership; their historical sequence, and relative importance.
The relation of the Drink Problem to poverty, crime and nationality, in the United States. (Summary of the Liquor Problem, ch. 4.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 58-59.

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

Tags Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Social Work Socialism

Harvard. Readings and final exam for social ethics. Peabody, 1906-07

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-11

The field of social ethics was taught by the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and then Dean of the Harvard Divinity School, Francis Greenwood Peabody. It was a rather popular secondary field chosen for the graduate general examination by economics graduate students in the early 20th century. In the spectrum of individualism through socialism, applied social ethics (poor-relief, family, temperance, and “the labor question”) were imported from philosophical/theological studies.

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Building blocks for Peabody’s course

Peabody’s short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions published in 1910.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1906-07

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 175: 6 Graduates, 41 Seniors, 54 Juniors, 50 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 23 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 72

__________________________

Thick Course Description
1906-07

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

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Muirhead’s Elements of Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology (Volume 1; Volume 2; Volume 3)]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People (links below)]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from J. A. Hobson’s The Social Problem, Schäffle’s The Quintessence of Socialism, Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Rooms are expressly assigned for the convenience of students of Social Ethics, on the second floor of Emerson Hall, including a large lecture room, a seminary-room, a conference-room, a library, and two rooms occupied by the Social Museum. The Library of 1500 volumes is a special collection for the use of students of Social Ethics, with conveniences for study and research. The Social Museum is a collection of graphical material, illustrating by photographs, models, diagrams, and charts, many movements of social welfare and industrial progress.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1906-07, p. 22.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Charles Booth’s Life and Labor of the People:

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Note: Besides the changes in course number, a few minor changes in the course description from (Philosophy 5) 1902-03 Also in the course description Philosophy 5 (1904-05).

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SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1906-07

Explain the significance of the titles:— “Past and Present” [by Thomas Carlyle]; “Unto this Last” [by John Ruskin]; and comment on the teachings involved.
Statistics of wage-loss, employer’s loss, and assistance to employees, in the United States (1881-1900); and their lessons.
The tendencies in contemporary life which appear to the scientific socialist to encourage his faith; with comments.
“The normal relation of the antithesis of which I spoke,” [Socialism and Individualism, Economic and Moral] “is that of cross-correspondence”? (Bosanquet, Civilization of Christendom, p. 316). Comment on this suggestion.
The effect of the growth of trade-unionism on the economic theory of wages. ( A. [Robert Archey] Woods.) [Probably Chapter 1 “The Labor Movement” in Woods’ English Social Movements (2nd ed., 1895), pp. 1-37.]
Distinguish Arbitration, Conciliation, and Coöperation, and indicate the place of each in the Ethics of the Labor Question.
Welfare work at Anzin, and the limitations of its usefulness.
Employer’s Liability, Workmen’s Compensation Acts, and the social philosophy involved. (Adams and Sumner, pp. 478-488.)
Distinguish “Profit-sharing,” “Gain-sharing,” and “Industrial Partnership,” and describe the method undertaken by the United States Steel Corporation.
Compare the operation of the South Carolina liquor-law with that of the Scandinavian System. (The Liquor Problem, pp. 151-156.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1907), p. 59.

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

Bibliography Chicago Economists Gender Social Work

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

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2023-02-12

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_________________________________

Jane Adams of Hull House:
Introducing Edith Abbott

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

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

JANE ADDAMS.
Hull House, Chicago.

_________________________________

Back story of the Graduate School of Social Service Administration

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

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

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

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

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Edith Abbott’s Writings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tags Breckinridge, Edith Abbott

Columbia Economists Gender Social Work Socialism

Columbia. Economics Ph.D. Alumna, Vera Shlakman, 1938

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-06-20

Vera Shlakman (1909-2017) was born in Montreal to an anarchist mother and social-democratic father, Jewish immigrants born in Vilna and Pinsk, respectively, who named their children after Eleanor Marx, Victor Hugo and the Russian revolutionary Vera Zasulich. “Whenever Emma Goldman and Rudolf Rocker came to Montreal to lecture they stayed with us.”

Vera and her siblings all studied at McGill University but then moved to New York to find jobs. Vera did her Ph.D. thesis work with the economic historian Carter Goodrich at Columbia University. Later at Smith College she worked together with, among other people, Dorothy Douglas (divorced from the economist and later U.S. Senator, Paul Douglas).

Vera Shlakman’s career as an economist was cut short in 1952 as a consequence of the Second Red Scare. She was later rehabilitated and actually received financial compensation for lost pension rights. Of no small interest are the recollections of the eminent historian of economics, Mark Blaug, included below.

__________________________

Biographical information for Vera Shlakman

Heins, Marjorie. Priests of Our Democracy–The Supreme Court, Academic Freedom, and the Anti-Communist Purge. New York: New York University Press, 2013.

Kessler-Harris, Alice. “Vera Shlakman, Economic History of a Factory Town, A Study of Chicopee, Massachusetts (1935).” International Labor and Working-Class History, no. 69 (2006): 195-200.

Avrich, Paul. Interview with Lena Shlakman, January 23 and 24, 1974, in Anarchist Voices. A Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995. Pages 325-328.

Vera Shlakman’s New York Times obituary, “Vera Shlakman, Fired in Red Scare, Dies at 108” was published November 29, 2017.

__________________________

Timeline of Vera Shlakman

1909. Born July 15 in Montreal to Louis Shlakman (tailor and shirtwaist factory foreman) and Lena Hendler (glove stitching, shirtwaist factory worker).

1930. B.A. in economics from McGill University in Montreal.

1931. M.A. in economics from McGill University.

1931/32-1932/33. In residence graduate work at Columbia University. Some months employed as research assistant to Professor Arthur R. Burns.

1933/34-1934-35. Research Fellow to the Council of Industrial Studies, Smith College.

1935. Publishes Economic History of a Factory Town: A Study of Chicopee, Massachusetts as volume 20, Nos. 1-4 (October, 1934-July, 1935) of the Smith College Studies in History.

Pasted on the title page: “Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University.”

1935-37. Instructor in the Department of Economics, Smith College.

1937-38. Instructor in the Department of Economics and Sociology at Sweet Briar College, Virginia.

1938. Ph.D. in economics awarded by Columbia University.

1938. Hired by Queens College as instructor.

1944-46. Reported to have been a member of the Communist Party. One of the reasons why the F.B.I. had placed her on a watch list. [Not aware of any record in which Shlakman had ever confirmed or denied such activity.]

1952. Assistant professor, but summoned as vice-president of the Teachers Union local for a public hearing of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. After taking the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination in response to questions regarding Communist Party activity, she (along with several others) was dismissed from Queens College.

1953. Unemployed.

1954-58. Employed as a secretary and bookkeeper with some intermittent teaching.

1959. Hired for an administrative position at Adelphi University.

1960. Teaching position in Social Work at Adelphi University, achieved rank of associate professor..

1966. Hired at the School of Social Work at Columbia University, Associate professor.

1967-68. Supreme Court of the United States declares the New York state laws under which Shlakman and others were dismissed as unconstitutional.

1978. Retired from Columbia University as professor emerita.

1980. Official apology received from City University of New York.

1982. Trustees of the City University announced a financial settlement for its dismissed faculty. Vera Shlakman received $114,599.

2017. Vera Shlakman died November 5 in Manhattan.

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AEA Listing 1938

Shlakman, Vera, Queen’s Col., Flushing, N.Y. (1938) a Queen’s Col., instr. b B:A:, 1930, M.A., 1931, McGill (Canada); Ph.D., 1938, Columbia. c Economic history of factory town: study of Chicopee, Mass. d American economic history; labor.

Source: American Economic Review, Vol. 28, No. 3, Supplement, Handbook, Who’s Who in the American Economic Association: 1938 (Sep., 1938). List of Members, p. 83.

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Testimony by the Historian of Economics, Mark Blaug

I doubt whether it would have taken me so many years to throw off the weight of Marxism if it had not been for an encounter in 1952 with the spectre of McCarthyism. McCarthy was riding high in 1952, the product of the anti-Communist hysteria that held America in its grip at the height of the Cold War. And it was a hysteria as the following story will show. I had graduated from Queens College of the City University of New York in 1950 and was in the midst of my preliminary year for the PhD at Columbia University when Arthur D. Gayer, the chairman of the economics department at Queens College, was killed in an automobile accident. The department looked around for someone to take over his courses in the middle of the semester and since I had worked for him as a research assistant, I was asked whether I would have a go. And so I suddenly found myself teaching a full load of courses in microeconomics, consumer economics and marketing, a subject I had never studied. I can remember being so nervous about my first lectures that I literally memorized them in their entirety the night before giving them.

I was just getting on top of all this teaching when the Un-American Activities Committee, chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy, arrived in New York city to investigate communism in the New York City college system. They called on three well-known professors to appear before them in order, no doubt, to ask them the familiar questions: “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”. All three refused to cooperate with the committee, pleading the First and Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits witnesses from incriminating themselves. Despite the fact that all three were tenured professors, they were promptly and summarily dismissed by their employer, the City University of New York.
One of these three professors was Vera Shlakman, Professor of Labour Economics at Queens College, a former teacher of mine and, at that point in time, a colleague. She was the president of the Teachers’ Union, a left-wing professional union of college teachers in the New York City area, and was herself left-wing and, for all I knew, a fellow-traveler. But having been taught by her, I knew that she was scrupulously impartial and leaned over back wards not to indoctrinate her students. A number of students organized a petition to the President of Queens College demanding Vera Shlakman’s reinstatement but, by the by-laws of the college, student petitions could not be submitted to a higher authority without an endorsing signature of at least one faculty member. The students went right through the economics department, which then numbered 40 professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and lowly tutors like myself, without encountering one person willing to endorse the petition. At the end of the line, they came to me and because of my personal regard for Professor Shlakman, and because I could not bear the thought of being pusillanimous, I signed the petition. Within 24 hours, I received a curt note from President Thatcher of Queens College (odd that I should remember his name after 40 years!) informing me that, unless I resigned forthwith, I would be dismissed, and black-listed for future employment.
For a day or two, I contemplated a magnifi cent protest, a statement that would ring down the ages as a clarion call to individual freedom, that would be read and recited for years to come by American high school students?and then I quietly sent in my letter of resignation.

I was now at my wit’s end. I had planned to apply for a scholarship to begin working on my doctoral dissertation and had been relying on my teaching salary from Queens College to carry me through the application period. I was broke and depressed by the entire experience when suddenly the telephone rang to inform me that I had been offered a grant by the Social Science Research Council to enable me to go abroad to write my PhD thesis: clearly, there were people here and there behind the scenes lending assistance to victims of McCarthyism.

Source: Mark Blaug, Not Only an Economist—Autobiographical Reflections of a Historian of Economic Thought, The American Economist, Fall, 1994, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Fall, 1994), pp. 14-15.

__________________________

Oscar Shaftel Papers

The Oscar Shaftel Collection documents Professor Shaftel’s tenure as a professor at Queens College, including his dismissal and his efforts to reinstate his pension. The bulk of the collection is from 1948 to 1982 and includes correspondence, flyers, printed materials, and hearing transcripts. The collection provides evidence of Oscar Shaftel’s personal experience at Queens College, as well as student activism on campus in the late 1940s and early 1950s. More broadly, the collection provides documentation of the McCarthyism and its effect on the New York City education system.

This series includes correspondence from Queens College President John T. Theobald (1953); a copy of the transcript from Oscar Shaftel’s testimony before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee; correspondence regarding Shaftel’s appeal of his termination by Queens College; testimony of former Queens College professor Vera Shlankman; court documents of former professors Dudley Straus and Francis Thompson (undated); and a letter written in support of Vera Shlankman and Oscar Shaftel from Queens College alumni.

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Image Source: Faculty portrait of Vera Shlakman, Social Work. Alephi University (Garden City, New York), The Oracle 1965.

Tags Blaug, Douglas, Goodrich, Shlakman

Social Ethics 1-7 1912-13

Social Ethics Instructors 1911-12

Social Ethics 1. Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance and the Labor Question

Course Enrollment

Year-end Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 1

Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service

Course Enrollment

Year-End Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 2

Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology

Social Ethics 4. Social Problems of Immigration and Race

Course Enrollment

Mid-year Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 4

Social Ethics 5. The Housing Problem

Course Enrollment

Mid-year Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 5

Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in Europe

Course Enrollment

Year-end Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 6

Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

Course Enrollment

Year-End Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 7

Social Ethics à la Peabody 1888/89—1911/12

Earlier 20th century course material:

Social Ethics Instructors 1911-12

Social Ethics 1-7 1911-12

Application of Ethical Theory to Present Social Problems

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Final Examination 1911-12

Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work: Practical Problems

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 2

Criminology and Penology

Course Description Not taught in 1911-12

Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 4

Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State

Course Description Not taught in 1911-12

Social Amelioration in Europe

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 6

Rural Social Development

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 7

Social Ethics à la Peabody 1888/89—1910/11

Social Ethics à la Peabody 1888-1910

Social Ethics Course Instructors 1910-11

Social Ethics 1-7 1910-11

The Ethics of Modern Industrialism

Enrollment Social Ethics 1 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 1 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Examination 1910-11

Practical Problems of Social Service

Enrollment Social Ethics 2 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 2 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 2 Year-end Exam 2010-11

Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Enrollment Social Ethics 4 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 4 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4 Mid-year Examination 1910-11

The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State

Enrollment Social Ethics 5 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 5 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 5 Mid-year Examination 1910-11

Social Amelioration in Europe

Enrollment Social Ethics 6 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 6 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 6 Year-end Examination 1910-11

Rural Social Development

Enrollment Social Ethics 7 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 7 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 7 Mid-year Examination 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4 Course Announcement 1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4 Course Enrollment 1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4 Final Examination 1909-10

Social Ethics 1-7
1912-13

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Social Ethics 1.
Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance and the Labor Question

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 1

Social Ethics 2.
Practical Problems of Social Service

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 2

Social Ethics 3.
Criminology and Penology

Social Ethics 4.
Social Problems of Immigration and Race

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 4

Social Ethics 5.
The Housing Problem

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 5

Social Ethics 6.
Social Amelioration in Europe

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 6

Social Ethics 7.
Rural Social Development

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 7

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1911/12

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Social Ethics 1-7
1911-12

Application of Ethical Theory
to Present Social Problems

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work:
Practical Problems

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1910/11

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888-1910

Social Ethics Course Instructors
1910-11

Social Ethics 1-7
1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 1
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 1
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 2
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 2
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 2
Year-end Exam 2010-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 4
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 4
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

The Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Enrollment Social Ethics 5
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 5
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 5
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 6
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 6
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 6
Year-end Examination
1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 7
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 7
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 7
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Announcement
1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Enrollment
1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Final Examination
1909-10

Course Enrollment
1909-10

Course Description
1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1909-10

Course Description
1908-09

Course Enrollment
1908-09

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1908-09

Course Description
1907-08

Course Enrollment
1907-08

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1907-08

Course Enrollment
1906-07

Thick Course Description
1906-07

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

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

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

Jane Adams of Hull House:
Introducing Edith Abbott