Besides principles of accounting the Harvard economics department also offered Professor Bruce Wyman’s course on the law of industrial relations for undergraduates contemplating careers in business. This post provides material for the 1910-11 academic year.
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Course material from earlier years
1901-02. Autobiographical note, enrollment, course description, syllabus, exams.
1902-03. 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.
1909-10. Enrollment and exam.
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 Teaching Assistant
Robert Mann Johnson. Harvard A.B. 1908, LL.B. 1911.
Source: Harvard University. Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates 1636-1930, pp. 1043.
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Johnson graduated from Boston Latin School in 1905. He was working for American Telephone & Telegraph Co. New York City, N.Y. in 1918.
Source: Graduates of the Public Latin School in Boston, 1816-1917. Boston: 1918.
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World War I Selective Service Registration Card (May 1917)
Robert Mann Johnson, b. 28 Feb 1888 in North Weymouth Massachusetts
Home address: 808 Cranston St, Cranston, R.I.
Employed by American Tel. & Telegraph Co. 195 Broadway
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Married Margaret M. Callahan 30 Aug 1919 in NYC. Two daughters.
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World War II, Selective Service Registration Card (26 April 1942)
Robert Mann Johnson b. 28 Feb 1888 in Weymouth, Massachusetts
Home address: 350 East 25 St., Brooklyn, Kings, New York.
Employer’s Name and Address: Milbank, Tweed and Hope. 15 Broad St. NYC
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Robert Mann Johnson died 29 July 1948, NYC of a heart attack as he entered his law firm at 15 Broad St. He lived at 58 Linwood Road, Scarsdale. From his obits: he practiced law in Massachusetts before going to New York and being admitted to the New York bar in 1921. First with the firm of Masten and Nichols from 1928-1931. Later with the firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hope and Hadley since 1931.
Source: Daily News (New York City), 30 July 1948, p. 49. The Herald Statesman (Yonkers, NY) 30 July 1948, p. 2.
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Course Announcement and Description
1910-11
[Economics] 21 2hf. Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Mr. Joseph Warren [sic], assisted by Mr. R. M. Johnson.
Course 21 is not open to students before their last year of undergraduate work. The course considers certain rules of the law governing the course of modern trade and the organization of modern industry. The problems brought forward are actual and the rules of law discussed are specific, so that the instruction may prove of service in a business career. The course forms a natural introduction to the study of law, as it involves many of the elementary principles. And as the course deals with adjudication and legislation on questions of first importance in the economic development of modern times, it may also be of advantage to all those who wish to equip themselves for the intelligent discussion of issues having both legal and economic aspects. In 1910-11 four principal topics will be discussed: Competition; Combination; Association; Consolidation, — some very briefly, some with more detail. The conduct of the course will be by the reading and discussion of cases from the law reports which are contained in an edited series of case books.
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. 62.
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Course Enrollment
1910-11
Economics 21 1hf. Professor Wyman, assisted by Messr. R. M. Johnson. — Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations.
Total 164: 4 Graduates, 103 Seniors, 47 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 4 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, p. 50.
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ECONOMICS 21
Mid-year Examination, 1910-11
Give reasons clearly
- Two railroads, the A railroad and the X railroad, run from L to M. The X railroad lets shippers from L to M know that if they will agree to ship all their freight by this road they will be given free cartage at M for the delivery of their goods. By this means several very profitable shippers are induced to stop shipping by the A road altogether. Can the A road have an injunction in its own right, or must it wait for the Attorney General to take action?
- In the construction of a certain building there are employed certain members of the roofers’ union, the plasterers’ union, etc., etc. These unions are all affiliated with a local trades’ council. The roofers strike for higher wages, and, not getting an immediate response to their demands, they appeal to the trades’ council which calls a general strike on the building. The strikers thereupon put advertisements in the local newspapers requesting that no laboring man shall take the place of any striker. They also station two pickets at the head of the street leading to the house to distribute copies of this advertisement to people coming down the street, the pickets having strict orders not even to engage anyone in conversation. What injunction can the contractors who are building a house get under these circumstances?
- A retail druggists’ association is formed in a certain city, its membership including practically all the druggists in that city except A, who is a notorious rate cutter. The association votes that none of its members shall buy any of the remedies made by any manufacturer who shall sell to A without making A agree not to cut the regular price, provided, however, that any member of the association may send a special order to any manufacturer in response to the request of a particular costume. A is now not able continue his price cutting sales, which have been a source of great profit to him. Can he sue X, a member of the association, against whom he has a particular grudge, for all the damages he has suffered?
- In a certain partnership there are two partners X and I. Their partnership articles state that their business is to buy and sell drygoods. A salesman comes to their office and begins to negotiate with X a sale of print goods at a distinctly high price and succeeds in inducing X to feel that an extraordinarily large purchase of these goods would be advisable. Y comes in just before the contract is made and protests against it: X nevertheless signs the contract on behalf of the firm. Any reasonable man in the trade would say that the purchase was a foolish one. X dies the next day. Can Y cancel the contract?
- A corporation which is the result of the merger of concerns manufacturing 60% of the wall paper in the United States adopts the policy of selling its products only to jobbers, billing it to them at a very high price, but giving them at settlement time a rebate of 33 1/3 % provided that the selling company is satisfied that the jobbers have not handled the wall paper of any other manufacturers during the period covered by the settlement. One jobber after having got and resold wall paper billed to him at $100,000, refuses to make any payment to the wall paper corporation when settlement day comes. How much can the wall paper corporation recover from him?
- A director in a railroad corporation makes a contract with it to sell it a steamboat, for which he has paid $500,000, for $500,000. Impartial appraisers would not consider the steamboat worth more than $450,000. The steamboat is delivered to the railroad corporation which has already sent it on one voyage to get freight to carry over its line, when it is sunk by an accident. The railroad has not as yet paid the director for the steamboat. How much can he get from the railroad?
- Four manufacturers of iron pipe form a pool agreeing among themselves not to sell below a certain price, to be fixed from time to time by a central committee. To secure the performance of this agreement by each member, each member deposits with a certain trust company $25,000, with the provision that any member breaking the agreement shall forfeit his deposit to the remaining members of the pool. One of the four members of the pool breaks from the pool, whereupon the other three decide to dissolve it. The trust company refuses to pay out any of the money. How much can one of the remaining three concerns recover by suing the trust company?
- The principal manufacturers of plumbers’ supplies agree among themselves at a meeting of their association that no member of the association shall sell on credit to any plumber whose indebtedness to any member has not been settled within three months after his bills were due, reserving to any member the right to sell for cash to any plumber, however much he may be in arrears to any member of the association. Is this such a combination as to come within the provisions of the Federal Anti-Trust law, so that a plumber whose business is injured by the enforcement of these policies may sue one of its members for treble damages?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1910-11.