Harvard’s semester course “The Labor Movement in Europe” was introduced by Professor William E. Rappard in 1912-13 and 1913-14 but then not offered again until 1923-24 and 1924-25 when it was taught by Richard Stockton Meriam. The course was then once again bracketed in the annual course announcements until 1930-31 when it was “reintroduced” by Dr. William Thomas Ham.
Judging from the examination questions below, Meriam appears to have dedicated about a third of his course to socialist economics and socialist labor movements.
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Meriam’s Harvard Ph.D. record, 1921
Richard Stockton Meriam, A.B. 1914.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Social Ethics. Thesis, “Trade Unions in Germany, 1865-1914.” Instructor in Economics, and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1920-21.Page 62.
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Course Announcement
6b2 hf. The Labor Movement in Europe. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Asst. Professor Meriam.
This course will deal primarily with the development of trade unionism, of the coöperative movement, and of the political labor movement in Europe from the beginning of the nineteenth century and with the trend of opinion concerning their significance. Special attention will be given to the theories of the relations of labor to industry in the state which have gained adherents among wage earners or have influenced the labor policies of European states. The development of labor legislation and of social insurance prior to the war and the labor problems of the war and reconstruction periods will also be examined.
Candidates for distinction will be given an opportunity to write theses.
Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1924-25. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. XXI, No. 22 (April 30, 1924), page 69.
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Course enrollment
2nd semester 1923-24
[Economics] 6b2 hf. Dr. Meriam.—The Labor Movement in Europe.
Total 30: 3 graduates, 12 seniors, 11 juniors, 1 sophomore, 3 others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1923-24. Page 106.
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 6b2
Final examination 1924
I. (One hour)
- Write a critical review of the Webbs’ The Consumer’s Coöperative Movement, discussing in particular
- the Webbs’ interpretation of the movement;
- their comparison of the coöperatives with private enterprise;
- their comparison of the coöperatives with government enterprise.
II. (One hour)
Answer 2 and either 3 or 4.
- What do you consider the most important single step to be taken in the United States either (a) to obtain for this country the benefits of the labor movement in Europe, or (b) to avoid its dangers?
- Do you accept Sombart’s thesis that “there is a distinct tendency in the social movement to uniformity”?
- Answer two.
- Compare the characteristics of the German labor movement in 1875, 1890, in 1913.
- Compare the position of trade unionism within the labor movement in France and Great Britain in the period 1905-13.
- Account for the peculiarities of the French labor movement prior to 1900.
III. (One hour)
Explain and criticize four of the following quotations.:
- “The books on socialism deal largely with controversies which do not proceed to the heart of the matter. This seems to me to hold of K. Marx, Das Kapital, the most famous and influential of socialist books.”
- “Property is theft.”
- “Though it (the program of the British Labor Party) lacks a single constructive feature, though it is made up exclusively of scraps of Marxian jargon, catchphrases, and shibboleths, nevertheless it is the kind of program which any class is likely to adopt in its own interest when it for the first time concludes that it can outvote other classes and controlled the state.”
- “Even if the state of affairs characterized by peasant protectorship is destined by fate to disappear, socialism does not have to precipitate its disappearance. Its role is not to separate property and labor, but on the contrary to reunite in the same hands these two factors of production, whose division results in the servitude and poverty of the workers who have fallen to the state of proletarians.”
- “All this (the schemes of guild socialists) is quite different from producers’ coöperation.”
Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers. Finals 1924.(HUC 7000.28, vol. 66). Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions,… , Government, Economics, Anthropology,… , Psychology, Social Ethics. (June 1924).
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Course enrollment
2nd semester 1924-25
[Economics] 6b2 hf. Asst. Professor Meriam.—The Labor Movement in Europe.
Total 34: 10 graduates, 8 seniors, 12 juniors, 1 sophomore, 3 others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1924-25. Page 75.
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Economics 6b2
Final examination 1925
(Avoid duplication in selecting questions)
I. (One hour)
- Write an essay on one of the following subjects:
- Marxian socialism and the labor movement.
- “Democracy has forced one concession after another from the pure theory of individualism.”
- “Violent political passions have but little hold on those who have devoted all their faculties to the pursuit of their well-being. The ardour which they display in small matters calms their zeal for momentous undertakings.”
II. (One hour)
Answer 2 and either 3, 4, or 5
- (20 minutes for a or b.) What are the obstacles to the formation in the United States of the Labour Party like either (a) the British Labor Party or (b) the German Socialist Party?
- Does a comparison of the characteristics of the labor movement in various European countries in the period 1865-1875 with those in the period 1905-1914 support Sombart’s thesis on The Tendency to Uniformity?
- Do you agree with the conclusion of the following quotation from an article on the “labor banks” recently established in the United States? –
“The labor movement in America is far in advance of that in any other country. This will sound strange to ears which are tuned to the current phrases regarding labor movements. They who are still thinking in terms of the primitive tactics of class war will, of course, repudiate it at once. The labor movement of this country is passing out of the primitive fighting stage in which leadership concerned itself chiefly with the immediate tactics of battle. It is passing into a stage in which it is concerning itself with the higher strategy of maneuvering for permanent advantage. The leaders of labor in no other country show any sign of being aware of the first principles of this higher strategy, nor, for that matter, do the more vociferous self-appointed champions of labor in this country. They are fighting capital either directly or politically. They are not even encouraging laborers to become their own capitalists, or to get possession of the machinery of production by the one effective method of purchase.”
- Account for:
- The comparative results of consumers’ and producers’ coöperation.
- The comparative strength of consumers’ coöperation in the United States and Great Britain.
- The persistence of the ideal of producers’ coöperation among the wage-earners.
III. (One hour)
Explain and criticize four of the following quotations:
- “The final goal is nothing; the movement is everything.”
- “Instead of the conservative motto, ‘A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work!’ they ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword, ‘Abolition of the wages system!’”
- “Universal suffrage considered by 89 to 96 per cent of the population as a question of the belly and spread throughout the entire national body with the belly’s warmth! Have no fear, gentlemen. There is no power that could withstand it long. Universal suffrage is the standard you must raise. This is the standard which will give you victory.”
- “We do not regard Co-operation particularly as a method by which poor men may make savings and advance their own position in the world.… To us the social and political significance of the Co-operative Movement lies in the fact that it provides a means by which, in substitution for the Capitalist System, the operations of industry may be….carried on under democratic control without the incentive of profit-making, or the stimulus of pecuniary gain.”
- The Bolsheviki are followers of Karl Marx, in their experiment was based upon his teachings.”
- “If the Co-operators would guarantee to the Trade Unionists in their employment distinctly preferential terms, and if the eight million Trade Unionists would, in return, give, not merely all their custom to the Co-operative Societies, but also absolute continuity of service, even when striking against profit-making employers, and an actual superiority in conscientiousness and skill in Co-operative employment, this ‘Direct Action’ would… transfer trade after trade to the joint control of the democracy of consumers in alliance with the democracy of producers without the necessity of paying any compensation to the capitalists.”
Source:Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers. Finals 1925.(HUC 7000.28, vol. 67). Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History of Science, History,… , Government, Economics, Philosophy,… , Anthropology, Military Science. (June 1925).
Image Source: Robert Stockton Meriam in the Harvard Class Album 1925.