Professor William Zebina Ripley of Harvard had comfortably settled in his fields of statistics, labor problems and corporate finance/industrial organization by 1904-05. In that year he co-taught his labor course with his dissertation student Vanderveer Custis, who went on to teach economics at the University of Washington and later at Northwestern University where he attained professorial rank.
Fun fact: According to the 1907 University of Washington yearbook Tyee (p. 22), Assistant Professor of Economics Vanderveer Custis was a lineal descendant of Martha Custis Washington.
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Other Labor Related Posts
for William Z. Ripley
Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization, 1902-1903.
Short Bibliography of Trade Unionism, 1910.
Short Bibliography of Strikes and Boycotts, 1910.
Trade Unionism and Allied Problems, 1914-1915.
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Vanderveer Custis
[1878-1961]
Chicago, June 17. Vanderveer Custis, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, died today in a rest home in Arlington Heights. He was 82 years old.
Mr. Custis studied at Harvard University, where he took degrees of Bachelor of Arts [1901], Master of Arts [1902] and Doctor of Philosophy [1905].
He taught economics at the University of Washington from 1905 until 1922, when he went to Northwestern as Associate Professor of Economics. He was made a full professor in 1937 and retired in 1944.
Source: New York Times (18 June 1961).
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Vanderveer Custis
Ph.D. exams
Special Examination in Economics, Wednesday, June 7, 1905.
General Examination passed May 20, 1904.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Ripley, Bullock, Sprague, and Wyman.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1901-04; A.B. (Harvard) 1901; A.M. (ibid.) 1902.
Special Subject: Industrial Organization.
Thesis Subject: “The Theory of Industrial Consolidation.” (With Professor Ripley).
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1904-1905”.
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Course Enrollment
1904-05
Economics 9a 1hf. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley and Mr. [Vanderveer] Custis. — Problems of Labor.
Total 128: 10 Graduates, 29 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 23 Sophomores, 7 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.
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Course Description
1904-05
[Economics] 9a 1hf. Problems of Labor. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 1.30. Professor Ripley.
The work of this course will be concerned mainly with the economic and social questions relating to the relations of employer and employed, with especial reference to legislation. Among the topics included will be the following, viz.: methods of remuneration, profit sharing, cooperation, collective bargaining; labor organizations; factory legislation in all its phases in the United States and Europe; strikes, strike legislation and legal decisions, conciliation and arbitration; employers’ liability and compulsory compensation acts; compulsory insurance with particular reference to European experience; provident institutions, friendly societies, building and loan associations; the problem of the unemployed; apprenticeship, and trade and technical education.
Each student will be expected to make at least one report upon a labor union, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice.
Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 43.
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ECONOMICS 9a1
Year-end Examination, 1904-05
- State two objections to a general policy of insurance against unemployment, as tried in Switzerland.
- What peculiar trade conditions may make the National Union outweigh the locals in importance? Illustrate.
- State the two principal grounds on which employees were first denied damages for injuries about 1837.
- As a commercial venture how does compulsory insurance, as in Germany, differ from ordinary insurance, as it exists in the United States.
- What is the present status of the “closed shop” before English and American courts?
- In what respects does the British Trades Union Congress differ from the Annual Convention of the British Federation of Labor?
- What were the main causes of the downfall of the Knights of Labor? How is the American Federation protecting itself in these regards?
- How far has arbitration in labor disputes by governmental agency proceeded in the United States?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 29-30.
Image Source: The 1907 edition of the University of Washington yearbook, Tyee.