Third place in economics course enrollments at Harvard in 1909-10 was taken by the sop vocational course offered to undergraduates on the legal aspects of industrial relations that was taught by the law professor Bruce Wyman. First place was taken unsurprisingly by the Principles of Economics course and the second place by the Elements of Accounting course.
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Material from earlier years
1901-02. Autobiographical note of Bruce Wyman, enrollment, course description, syllabus, exams.
1902-03. Wyman’s Obituary, enrollment, course description, exams.
1903-04. Enrollment and exams.
1904-05. Enrollment, course description, exams.
1905-06. Enrollment, paper assignments, exams.
1906-07. Enrollment, paper topics, exams.
1908-09. Enrollment and exams.
1910. About Wyman’s reputation as a soft-grader (a “snapper problem”) and the scandal that led to the resignation of his Harvard law professorship in 1913.
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Course Enrollment
1909-10
Economics 21 1hf. Professor Wyman, assisted by Messrs. [Dana] Brannan and [John Mortimer Richardson] Lyeth [A.B. Harvard, 1907; A.M. 1908; Ll.B. 1910; New York Times Obituary (24 Dec 1957)] — Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations.
Total 183: 3 Graduates, 113 Seniors, 56 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 6 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.
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ECONOMICS 21
Mid-year Examination, 1909-10
Give reasons clearly
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- Smith has made the “Perfect Safety Razor” for years. Jones now puts on the market a “perfect safety razor” in a black square box like Smith’s, with a similar inscription on the side, “No Stropping — No Honing.” On the box is this warning in large letters: “Do not be deceived by my rival. I make the only perfect safety razor. John A. Jones.” Can Smith restrain Jones’s methods in any way?
- Suppose Smith’s razor required stropping.
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- Suppose Jones publishes this advertisement: “Beware of Smith’s razors; they always rust, causing blood-poisoning; the blades crack easily; no man ever used one without cutting himself.” Assuming that the whole advertisement is false, is any part of it legally actionable?
- Would it affect your answer if Jones had added the additional false statement that “Smith is knowingly infringing my patents. I will prosecute all users of his razors”?
- May a combination of traders be sued by a rival company for:
- Giving $10 bonus with every 100 lbs. of tea bought by a patron who will leave one of their rivals and deal with them exclusively?
- Locating an agency next door whenever a rival starts a store, cutting prices till the rival is ruined, and then discontinuing the agency?
- Refusing to give credit to a rival?
- Selling at wholesale to an individual only on condition that he does not resell to a rival?
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- A, B, and C are expressmen in Cambridge. D is the publisher of a directory in which he includes a list of Cambridge expressmen, making no charge for so doing. He has hitherto always inserted A’s name. B and C go to D and by paying D $100 induce D to omit A’s name in the next edition of D’s directory. Can A sue B?
- Suppose the owners of several Boston theatres by paying an extra price induce the agency having charge of the street car advertising to display no theatre advertising but theirs, can the owner of a rival theatre sue them?
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- A was a druggist in Boston. He sold out his business to B and covenanted not to engage in the drug business within a radius of five miles of his store for ten years. The next week he formed the A corporation in which he took all the shares to himself except six, which he distributed among the members of his family. The general enabling statute provided that seven persons could incorporate. The A corporation immediately bought a druggist shop in the next block to A’s old stand. Can B sue the A corporation for doing business?
- Suppose a sign is put up, “A, now incorporated,” would that make any difference?
- A salesman is proposing to sell a large amount of silk to a partnership at a very high price. There are four partners. Two of them write to the salesman and say they refuse to buy. Nevertheless, the salesman after the receipt of these letters goes to the partnership place of business and concludes the sale with one of the other partners, the only one he could find. Could the salesman recover the price from the partnership, (a) supposing the fourth partner in fact assented, and (b) supposing he objected?
- Three railroads, X, Y, and Z, are competing in the carriage of coal from certain coal fields. A owns practically all the shares in the X railroad. He buys the majority of the stock in the M coal company, the largest producer in the field, and thereafter all the coal from M goes over the X railroad. A also buys the controlling interest in the Y railroad; and then conveys all his holdings to the X railroad. Under the Federal Anti-Trust Law:—
- Can the attorney-general move for a dissolution of this combination?
- Can the Z railroad sue it for treble damages?
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- What was the form of organization of the original trusts? and describe the proceedings by which they were broken up.
- Give the history of the successive cases under the Federal Anti-Trust Law in which the question was raised whether the combination involved was substantially suppressing interstate commerce.
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), pp. 53-54.
Image Source: Harvard Law School ca. 1901 from the Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection (Library of Congress).