Harvard. Railroad and Corporate Finance. Description, enrollment, exam. Ripley, 1910-1911

The course content is at the intersection of the economics department and the business school. 

________________________

Course Announcement and Description
1910-11

[Economics] 30 ¹hf. Problems in Railroad and Corporation Finance. Half-course (first half-year). Tu. and Th., hours to be arranged. Professor Ripley.

This course in research will afford opportunity for detailed examination of typical cases of financing, both American and European. The method will be by conference and special reports on chosen topics. Students should preferably have taken Economics 5 and 9b; but this condition is not imperative.

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. 61.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1910-11

Economics 30¹hf. Professor Ripley. — Problems in Railroad and Corporation Finance.

Total 11: 2 Graduates, 9 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, p. 50.

________________________

ECONOMICS 30¹
Mid-year Examination 1910-1

1. Trace the development of the principle that valuation of assets is a factor in fixing reasonableness of charges, in the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.
2. What was the first use made of collateral trust bonds by the old Union Pacific railroad in connection with its dealings with the United States?
3. State four main reasons why convertible bonds have been so popular of late years.
4. A stock is selling at $165 per share. One new share at par is offered to stockholders for each four shares held. What will the “rights” be normally worth; and what the market price of shares “ex-rights”?
5. Explain, in detail, the method used in “Intercorporate Relations” for ascertaining the net capitalization of the railway system of the United States.
6. Has the Union Pacific railway been mainly financed by means of stock or bond issues since 1900? What is its present status in a general way?
7. State the main elements in the problem of reorganizing a bankrupt railway, numbering each distinct feature separately.
8. What is the main argument adduced in favor of abolishing the par value of capital stock?
9. Discuss the issuance of bonds below par as an expedient for raising funds. How does it appear in the accounts?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1910-11.

Image Source: Luther Daniels Bradley, “Design for a Union Station”. From 1906-07 the holdings and business practices of railroad administrator and financier Edward Henry Harriman, became the focus of an investigation by the Interstate Commerce Commission. The committee charged that Harriman’s use of Union Pacific resources (the company of which he was president since 1903) to invest in the stocks, bonds, and securities of competing railways, was an unlawful attempt to squelch competition and gain control of the market.
Published in: Chicago Daily News, October 18, 1907.
Image from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.