For as long as advanced electives in economics had been offered at Harvard there was a course on transportation economics, in the beginning exclusively on the economics of railroads. This post includes links to the exams from 1887-88 through 1909-10 as well as the most recent transcription of course material for the 1910-11 academic year.
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Earlier exams etc. for Economics 5,
Pol Econ 9
(Economics of Transportation/ Railroads)
1887-88 (James Laurence Laughlin)
1888-89 (John Henry Gray)
1889-90 [Omitted]
1890-91 (Frank William Taussig)
1891-92 (Frank William Taussig)
1892-93 (Frank William Taussig)
1893-94 (Frank William Taussig)
1894-95 (George Ole Virtue)
1895-96 (Frank William Taussig)
1896-97 (Frank William Taussig)
1897-98 (Hugo Richard Meyer)
1898-99 (Hugo Richard Meyer
1899-1900 (Hugo Richard Meyer)
1900-01 (Hugo Richard Meyer)
1901-02 (Ripley with Hugo Richard Meyer)
1903-04 (Ripley alone)
1904-05 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett)
1905-06 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett)
1906-07 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett and Walter Wallace McLaren). Also with the Assignment of Reports.
1907-08 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett)
1908-09 (Ripley with Edmund Thorton Miller)
1909-10 (Ripley with Eliot Jones)
….etc.
1906-07. Ec 17. Railroad Practice (Dr. Stuart Daggett)
1907-08. Ec 17. Railroad Practice (Dr. Stuart Daggett)
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Monographs/Books on Transportation by W. Z. Ripley
Transportation. Chapter from the Final report of the U.S. Industrial Commission (Vol. XIX) and privately issued by the author for the use of his students and others. Washington, D.C., 1902.
Railway Problems, edited with an introduction by William Z. Ripley (Boston: Ginn & Company, 1907).
Railroads: Rates and Regulation (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1912).
Railroads: Finance & Organization (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1915).
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Course Announcement and Description
1910-11
APPLIED ECONOMICS
For Undergraduates and Graduates
5 1hf. Economics of Transportation. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley assisted by Mr. [Ralph Cahoon] Whitnack.
A brief outline of the historical development of rail and water transportation in the United States will be followed by a description of the condition of transportation systems at the present time. The four main subdivisions of Rates and Rate-Making, Finance, Traffic Operation, and Legislation will be considered in turn. The first deals with the relation of the railroad to shippers, comprehending an analysis of the theory and practice of rate-making. An outline will be given of the nature of railroad securities, the principles of capitalization, and the interpretation of railroad accounts. Railroad Operation will deal with the practical problems of the traffic department, such as the collection and interpretation of statistics of operation, pro-rating, the apportionment of cost, depreciation and maintenance, etc. Under Legislation, the course of state regulation and control in the United States and Europe will be traced.
Course 5 is open to all students who have taken Economics 1.
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. VI,I No. 23 (June 21, 1910), p. 57.
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Course Enrollment
1910-11
Economics 5 1hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. [Ralph Cahoon] Whitnack.— Economics of Transportation.
Total 142: 4 Graduate, 48 Seniors, 65 Juniors, 18 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 2 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, p. 49.
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ECONOMICS 51
Mid-year Examination, 1910-11
- What is the principal feature of the law of 1910 respecting rate making power of the Interstate Commerce Commission? Explain the necessary procedure.
- How does the law of 1910 affect the long-and-short-haul clause? Show how the new law contrasts with the law before amendment. Does it affect water competition? If so, how?
- What was the gist of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Illinois Central car-distribution case? Show how it was related to pending legislation.
- Describe the plan adopted for eliminating railway competition in trunk line territory since 1901. Why were the coal roads so troublesome?
- Cite or invent a case of true commercial competition as it affects rate-making. Show wherein it differs from ordinary railroad competition.
- Describe how a branch line may be administered or its affairs dealt with in accounting as to conceal the real financial condition of the main company?
- What use did you make of the balance sheets of your railroad in connection with your thesis? (If it was an analysis of one or more railroads.) If your theses was of another sort, explain what is the significance, or lack of it, of the main items on a balance sheet.
- Describe the nature of the pending railroad rate increase cases before the Interstate Commerce Commission. Set forth the leading arguments on either side.
- Outline the plan involved in the Keene Southern Pacific pool of 1902-3.
- Define the following: —
- Immunity bath.
- Differential rates.
- Voting trust.
- Stock watering.
- Commodity rate.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1910-11.
Image Source: “The Highland Light.” Print. 1910. Digital Commonwealth, Massachusetts Collections on Line.
The Highland Light, a 4-4-0 or American type which William Mason built at Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1867 for the Cape Cod Railroad (now part of the New Haven system), was one of America’s most graceful iron horses. Mason created “melodies cast and wrought in metal,” according to Matthias N. Forney, himself a great locomotive designer. “He was a wonderfully ingenious man and embodied with his ingenuity a high order of the artistic sense, so that his work was always most exquisitely designed.” Mason declared that locomotives should
“look somewhat better than cookstoves on wheels.” A distinctive feature of the Highland Light was the pairs of decorative brackets that joined the hubs of her tender wheels. Mason’s ornamental monogram was placed proudly between her driving wheels.