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Harvard. Social Ethics Courses. Enrollments and Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1912-1913

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-10-06
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Room 2 of Harvard's Social Museum (1911)

Social Ethics 1-7
1912-13

Social Ethics 1. Social Problems in the Light of Ethical Theory
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 4. Social Problems of Immigration and Race
Social Ethics 5. The Housing Problem
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in Europe
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

The courses in this group are designed to apply philosophical principles to the modern problems of philanthropy, industry, and social life. They begin with a general introduction to Social Ethics and proceed to methods of applied ethics which approach those of a professional school. Students should have already elected courses both in Philosophy and in Economics, and should regard the courses in Social Ethics as concerned with the transition from academic to practical life.

Previously posted course material for social ethics at Harvard.

________________________

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Francis Greenwood Peabody

________________________

Social Ethics 1.
Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance and the Labor Question

[Social Ethics] 1. The Problems of Poor -Relief, The Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of Ethical Theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor [Francis Greenwood] PEABODY, Dr. [James] FORD, and Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 69.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 1. Professor [Francis Greenwood] PEABODY, Dr. [James] FORD, and Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER. — Social Problems in the light of Ethical Theory. Poor relief, the family, temperance, and the labor question.

Total 75: 16 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 19 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 1

So allot your time that you may answer all questions

What advantages would be secured by each of the devices described by Seager for dealing with unemployment?
Describe the method employed for dealing with industrial disputes in (a) England, (b) New Zealand. What are the respective advantages and disadvantages of these methods?
Compare and contrast the Victorian and the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Laws.
What was the case of Priestley vs. Fowler? What were its consequences? What are the provisions of the present British law by which the problem in question is dealt with?
What are the difficulties and dangers in the application of “welfare work “? Under what conditions, if any, should “welfare work” be undertaken by employers? (Treat specifically (a) “welfare work within the factory; (b) provision of facilities for recreation.)
Define industrial partnership, copartnership, workers ‘ cooperative production. Show in how far these terms overlap.
Criticize the following:–
1. “Co-operation is incapable of raising wages and shortening hours.”
2. “The aim of co-operation is to abolish utterly the wage system.”
“Syndicalism asks that each industrial group of workers should control the instruments of production which it uses the railway — men, the railways; the miners, the mines; and so on. “Is this a practicable program? Give argument and evidence in detail.
Outline the history, aim, structure, and methods of the British Co-operative Union.

Source: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College(June 1913), pp. 71-72.

___________________________________

Social Ethics 2.
Practical Problems of Social Service

* 2 ²hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. [Jeffrey Richardson] BRACKETT.

This course is for advanced students, especially for those who plan, as ministers, teachers, or as citizens, whatever their vocation, to be actively interested in charity, correction, or any form of social work. It is also an introduction to Social Ethics 20c, the School for Social Workers. It is a study of tendencies in Social Service, of law and custom, especially in England and the United States, bearing directly on such topics as neighborhood improvement, forms and sources of relief, modification of charitable trusts, treatment of special types of the needy, organization of charity, financial management, supervision of work by public and private agencies.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, pp. 69-70.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 2 ²hf. Dr. [Jeffrey Richardson] BRACKETT. — Practical Problems of Social Service: public aid, charity, and neighborhood work.

Total 23: 3 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 2

“At the beginning of the study of the causes of poverty, the personal causes, as we have seen, were chiefly emphasized.”
Explain this statement.
What is the present tendency in weighing causes of poverty and misery?
What is your judgment as to tendencies?
You are asked what a social settlement is for. What is your answer?
What are the places in modern philanthropy:–
1. Of “volunteer” or unpaid workers, usually giving part time, as compared with
2. The professional workers who are usually paid for full time service?
Illustrate your view of the meaning of social work by the treatment of two of the following types of need:–
1. The feeble-minded.
2. The blind.
3. Offenders.
4. Dependent children.
What should be the chief results of a well used confidential bureau for exchange of information of needy families?
What arguments do you give
1. For,
2. Against, the use of public money for private charity?
What are the chief lessons of value which you have learned from the field work which has been accepted as practice work for this course?

___________________________________

Social Ethics 3.
Criminology and Penology

[* 3 ¹hf. Criminology and Penology. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and reports. Half-course (first half-year).]

Omitted in 1912-13.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 70.

___________________________________

Social Ethics 4.
Social Problems of Immigration and Race

* 4 ¹hf. Social Problems of Immigration and Race. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and a research. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER.

This course deals principally with immigration into the United States, in its international aspects and as an internal problem; secondarily with the American negro problem. Emigration from foreign countries is first studied — in its causes, its historical course, and its consequences for the countries from which it proceeds. Next are considered the history and changes of immigration into the United States; the condition of immigrants in this country; and the effects, transitory and permanent, upon the United States, under social, industrial, and racial aspects. Questions of American internal policy (contact, utilization, assimilation) and the question of national policy (restriction, non-restriction, selection, protection) are studied, partly in relation to emigration and immigration legislation of other countries. To the negro problem less time is devoted; yet the rural and urban populations, their economic and social changes in the post-slavery period, and the broad questions of public and private policy will be considered.

The method of the course will be as far as possible analytical rather than historical or descriptive. Special emphasis will be laid on the thesis and from time to time research conferences will be substituted for lectures.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, pp. 70-71.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 4 ¹hf. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER. — Social Problems of Immigration and Race.

Total 20: 6 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 4

So allot your time that you may answer all questions. Carefully indicate the reasons for your conclusions.

Is there an instinct of migration? Are there other peculiarly psychological causes of emigration? What psychological factor is of noteworthy consequence after arrival of immigrants in this country?
Show the connection of immigration with the problem of insanity in the United States. What is our present legislation in regard to insane aliens?
“Recent immigration has not reduced the rates of wages, nor has it prevented an increase in the rates of wages; it has pushed the native and older immigrant wage-earners upward on the scale of occupations.” Discuss both of these propositions, giving in some detail reasons for the position you take.
A Massachusetts congressman recently said: “The literacy test, as I have repeatedly shown, discriminates strongly against the class of laborers who are most needed in the United States.” By what argument would that position be supported? Indicate the grounds of your agreement or disagreement with the argument.
Compare the occupational position of the negro in the rural South with that in New York City. Upon what grounds are the differences to be explained? What is Murphy’s solution of the occupational problem?
What can be said of the effects of (a) race mixture, (b) environment, upon the future race stock of the United States?
What are the effects of emigration upon Greece?

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Social Ethics 5.
The Housing Problem

* 5 ¹hf. The Housing Problem. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and research. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. [James] FORD.

Primarily a course in social research. Each student is required to make an intensive original survey of housing conditions in a selected district, or to undertake detailed field work in some phase of the subject. The lectures and prescribed reading will deal with methods and results of existing housing surveys. Examination will be made of the causes and remedies of lot and room congestion, problems of construction, sanitation, and maintenance of tenements, lodging houses, and cottages. The agencies of improved construction of dwellings — philanthropic, coöperative and governmental — will be treated, together with methods of residential and industrial decentralization. The function of health and building codes, taxation, land reform, city planning, in the regulation and improvement of housing conditions, will be examined in detail.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 71.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 5 ¹hf. Dr. [James] FORD. — The Housing Problem.

Total 6: 1 Graduate, 3 Seniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 5

State the arguments for and against the construction by philanthropic corporations of improved dwellings for the working classes. Under what conditions is the philanthropic construction of model tenements of net social advantage?
State the present provisions in the New York Tenement House Act designed to prevent lot congestion. Show in detail how these provisions are socially justifiable.
What do New York statistics show to be the most frequent places of origin of tenement house fires? How do such fires spread?
State the provisions (a) of the New York Tenement Act, (b) of the Massachusetts Tenement House Act for towns, which are designed to prevent such fires.
What are the sources of the gross business profits of British Copartnership Garden Suburbs? How are net profits distributed to tenant members?
What social advantage is there in the construction of homes for employees by employers of labor? What are the disadvantages of such a plan to the employer? To the employee? How can each disadvantage be obviated?
A criticism of Howard’s “Garden Cities of Tomorrow” :—
1. What parts of the scheme are impracticable?
2. What suggestions are practicable and of value?
Could housing conditions in American cities be improved by the application of local zone systems? What principles should govern the determination of zone boundaries?
What size and shape of lot would you advocate for the construction of suburban homes for wage-earners? Why?

___________________________________

Social Ethics 6.
Social Amelioration in Europe

* 6 ²hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. — Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER.

This course is mainly concerned with schemes of social amelioration that have so far been little considered in the United States. Remedial methods of dealing with poverty will be treated only incidentally. Chiefly the course will make a comparative study of the preventive and constructive measures, public and private, of several countries. After a brief consideration of the place of thrift institutions, unemployment and the important recent efforts to meet it will be discussed at some length. The experience of several countries in providing for the indigent in case of accident, sickness, invalidity, and old age will, in turn, be examined. The course will close with a study of recent developments of legislation governing conditions of labor.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 71.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 6 ²hf. Dr. [Robert Franz] FOERSTER. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 11: 3 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 6

So allot your time that you may answer all questions

Suppose that in a country of 250,000 workmen the number of unemployed persons has been, over a long period of years, never less than 10,000. How far could the amount of unemployment be reduced by the following remedies (applied individually)?
1. The erection of an industrial establishment by state authority, permitting the employment of 10,000 persons.
2. Such a reduction of the hours of labor by law as would result in an undiminished output, if 10,000 more persons were to be employed.
Point out the differences of the St. Gall and English schemes of unemployment insurance. Do these differences make for a difference of result?
Describe the German system of sickness insurance in its present form in respect of:
1. Source of financial support;
2. Organization and administration;
3. “Benefits” provided;
4. Arrangements with physicians.
What measures have the insurance authorities of Germany taken to reduce the extent of disease?
How far is the workmen’s insurance of Germany a burden upon industry and how far is it not?
“In Germany and other countries in which the system has been wholly or partly established, they [the socialists] work for the elimination of the workingmen’s contributions to the insurance funds on the theory that it is the duty of the state to insure the life and existence of the worker, without curtailing his wages for that purpose.” (Hillquit, “Socialism in theory and practice.”) What are the grounds of your own agreement or disagreement with the attitude of the socialists? How far does your knowledge of the instincts, as they are described by McDougall, affect your answer?
What system of labor exchanges do you regard as the best? Why?

___________________________________

Social Ethics 7.
Rural Social Development

* 7 ²hf. Rural Social Development. — Lectures, prescribed reading, and thesis. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. [James] FORD.

This course will study the methods and results of rural social research. It will treat the social problems of rural communities — race composition, poverty, housing, health, recreation, labor, etc. The means of development of country life from without through “Back-to-the-Land” and other movements; and rural reconstruction from within through adaptation of existing local institutions, coöperative movements, and State activities will be considered.
The third hour of each week will be devoted to the discussion of prescribed reading or to direction of research.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. IX, No. 16 (May 10, 1912). Division of History, Government and Economics, 1912-13, p. 72.

Course Enrollment

[Social Ethics] 7 ²hf. Dr. [James] FORD. — Rural Social Development.

Total 15: 1 Graduate, 10 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1912-1913, p. 62.

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 7

State in detail the possible sources of data for an exhaustive social survey of a New England rural township.
Outline (a) the causes, (b) the local results of the rural exodus. State carefully in how far the causes can be eliminated by conscious social policy?
Summarize the findings of the U. S. Immigration Commission with reference to the (a) economic status, (b) rapidity of assimilation, (c) contribution to community development, of immigrant farmers in the United States.
Discuss:
1. The conditions and results of marriage selection among the Hill Folk.
2. The value of early placing-out of children as a means of meeting the social problem of a degenerate community (illustrate from the Hill Folk).
What diseases may be transmitted through the farm water supply? State how each of the following may be contaminated: shallow wells; driven wells; cisterns. (Lipman “Bacteria,” and Ogden “Rural Hygiene.”)
What powers for health control in rural communities reside in the best equipped State Boards of Health? Should any of these powers be left with local health officials and not with the State? Give reasons. (Fairlie and Lectures.)
Name and classify the agencies of adult education in rural communities. Show the form and methods of university extension in rural communities, employed by State colleges of agriculture (especial reference to Massachusetts).
State in detail the (a) organization, (b) business methods, of co-operative associations for disposal of eggs. What specifically is the importance of such associations in the betterment of rural social conditions? (Wolff and Lectures.)

Image Source: Room 2 of the Harvard’s Social Museum. Francis G. Peabody, The Social Museum as an Instrument of University Teaching. Publications of the Department of Social Ethics in Harvard University, Number 4 (Cambridge, MA: 1911).

_____________________________

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1911/12

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

Earlier 20th century course material:

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.
1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.
1908-09. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford and Foerster.
1909-10. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, and Foerster.
1910-11. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, Foerster, and Brackett. [complete set of social ethics exams]
1911-12. Taught by Peabody, McConnell, Ford, Foerster, and Brackett. [complete set of social ethics exams]

Tags Brackett, Foerster, FordJM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Social Insurance Social Work

Harvard. Social Ethics Courses. Enrollments and Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1911-1912

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-08-07

Harvard professor Francis G. Peabody and his team tried to establish something like a school of social work at Harvard that offered courses covering a great range of economic and social policy. As befitting a “Department of Social Ethics” the emphasis was on applied ethics, which is something distinct from the interest of a Department of Economics in applied economics. The intersection of the two was located in real-world problems.

Previously posted course material for social ethics at Harvard.

________________________

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Ray Madding McConnell
Francis Greenwood Peabody

________________________

Social Ethics 1-7
1911-12

Social Ethics 1. Application of Ethical Theory
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 4. Selected Topics in Social Ethics
Social Ethics 5. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State [omitted 1911-12]
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in Europe
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp. 70-74.

________________________

Application of Ethical Theory
to Present Social Problems

Course Description
1911-12

The Problems of Poor-Relief, The Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of Ethical Theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster.

The following courses are planned for students who take or have taken Social Ethics 1 or its equivalent.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 70.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 1 ²hf. Professor Peabody, Drs. Ford and Foerster. — Social Problems in the light of ethical theory.

Total 43: 3 Graduates, 11 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

Explain briefly: —

“Economic determinism”;
“Social labor time”;
“The capitalistic appropriation of surplus value”;
“The class-conscious conflict.”

Lassalle and Marx compared as influences on German socialism.
What legislation on Woman and Child Labor has been enacted in the United States? (Adams & Sumner, pp. 30–37.)
What is the Sweating-System, and what forms does it take? (Adams & Sumner, pp. 114–119.) What legislation has been enacted to deal with it? (pp. 122–126.)
Explain and criticise the following statement: “Co-operation differs from profit-sharing primarily by reason of the fact that, in its industrial form, at least, its aim is to modify radically, and finally to utterly abolish, the wage system.” (Adams & Sumner, p. 379, and Dr. Ford’s Lectures.)
Compare the advantages of industrial partnership under the direct-bonus plan with those of a pension system or a stock offering.
The conclusions of physiology concerning the function of alcohol.
The history of the liquor traffic in Boston from 1875 to 1894. What are the comparative merits of the three types of licensing boards operating in Boston during that period?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 87-88.

________________________

Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work:
Practical Problems

Course Description
1911-12

²hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. Brackett.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), pp. 70-71.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 2 ²hf. Dr. Brackett. — Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work.

Total 14: 2 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 2

In all answers, give your reasons.

“A community can have as much pauperism as it will pay for.” Comment on this, with illustrations from English or American history.
What are the “feeble-minded”? In what ways would you have provision made for them?
A homeless, able-bodied machinist, who says there is no one dependent upon him, but he is at the end of his money, tells you he can have a good job in Providence, R.I., where he formerly lived, if he can get there tomorrow and be ready for work the next morning. He asks a railroad ticket to that place. What would you do, and why?
What have been the chief steps in progress in the treatment of offenders?
—
1. What was the chief principle for administration of public aid, laid down by the English poor-law commission of 1832–34?
2. How was it to be carried out?
—
1. In taking up neighborhood work, what kinds of persons in the neighborhood, would you aim primarily to reach?
2. When and how would you decide what methods to use for reaching them?
What is meant by “organizing charity”? I.e., when we speak of the work of an associated charities or other agency for organizing charity.
—
1. To what extent would you advise residents in a “settlement” to give material relief to persons in the community?
2. To what extent would you advise pastors of churches to give it?
What are the chief lessons you have learned from your field work connected with this course?

________________________

Criminology and Penology

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

¹hf. Criminology and Penology. Lectures, prescribed reading, and reports. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Dr. McConnell.

This course aims to offer a brief general study of crime and its prevention. As a necessary preparation for the meeting of present problems some investigation of historical as well as of present conditions will be attempted. The subjects considered will include the following: methods of study in criminology; classes of crimes and of criminals; causes and effects of crime; prevalent conceptions of crime and of the treatment which society should accord it; agencies especially intended for the punishment and prevention of crime (including certain features of criminal law and its administration, the identification of criminals, the indeterminate sentence, institutions for the detention, punishment, and reformation of criminals, the supervision and aid of convicts on probation or parole or after discharge, and special methods for dealing with young criminals); the influence on the volume of crime of various agencies designed for general social betterment.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 71.

________________________

Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Course Description
1911-12

¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12.

Subjects for 1911-12: –

The State and Charity. Dr. Brackett.
The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. McConnell.
The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Dr. Ford.
The Ethics of Immigration. Dr. Foerster.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 71.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 4 ¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Dr. Brackett. — The Ethics of Public Aid and Private Charity.
Dr. Ford. — The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation.
Dr. Foerster. — The Ethics of Immigration.

Total 10: 2 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 4

What do you say (1) in favor of, and (2) in opposition to the provision by the state of non-contributory old-age pensions for all persons beyond the age of 69, and below a small income line?
How are profits divided in (1) the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers’ Society; (2) the Scottish Wholesale Society; (3) a typical Copartnership Housing Association; (4) an Irish Co-operative Dairy; (5) the New England Cranberry Sales Co. (or some other American Co-operative Sales Association)?
Describe the economic and co-operative features of the credit unions of Massachusetts. What are the essential dissimilarities in method and purpose between the credit unions and the “co-operative banks” of this State?
“Distributive co-operators are anti-capitalists and class-conscious.” Examine carefully and in detail the truth of this statement as applied to the distributive movements of England, Belgium and Germany.
What are the usual features of the padrone commissary system?

Devote not less than one hour to this question.

The following citations give the main arguments of an address recently reported in the newspapers.
1. 1. “Why exclude the immigrant when there is so much room for him? . . . Texas alone could support our entire population without worrying about the problem of congestion. . . . The trouble in America is usually not a lack of work but a lack of workers.”
  2. “If he accepts a small wage, his need is responsible and it is to be deplored that Americans should be content to take advantage of this desperate need and convert the hunger of this stranger into more dollars for themselves.”
  3. “Thirty of every ten thousand immigrants become paupers. . . . While the thirty are costing us $3000 a year, the other 9970 are adding almost $40,000,000 to the wealth of the land. And this exclusive of the taxes each pays.”
  4. “There is a higher rate of crime among the native born than among the foreign born.”
  5. “The solution . . . is distribution, not exclusion. . . . We should be undeserving our blessings if we selfishly refused to share them.”

Illustrate your answer to the following questions from the reading and lectures of the course. So divide your time that you may write upon all questions; avoid generalities. The lettered divisions correspond with those just given.

1. In what sense does a lack of workers exist? When would it not exist, — e.g., when Texas should be as densely populated as Europe?
2. Is the immigrant underpaid? What consequences would follow for employers, consumers, and immigrants if employers were compelled to pay their immigrant workmen wages not less than twice as high as they are now paying? What effect has immigration had on wages in the United States?
3. In what sense is wealth “added”? If, by adding wealth, immigrants save Americans labor, should they not be welcomed like any other labor-saving device — a machine, typically? What kind of relation has immigration with dependency?
4. Describe the criminal aspects of immigration.
5. What can the best system of distribution accomplish? What can it not accomplish?

________________________

Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

²hf. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. McConnell.

This course considers the fundamental ethical principles involved in the organization of the modern State, and the duties of public authorities in regard to defectives, charity, the child, and public health.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

________________________

Social Amelioration in Europe

Course Description
1911-12

²hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. Foerster.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 6 ²hf. Dr. Foerster. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 19: 7 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 6

So allot your time that you may answer all questions.

“Putting these unemployed men to work in industries already fully manned or over-manned would solve nothing. . . . The problem which the Labour Party desires the state to face is therefore that of the development of its unused resources. . . . Neither relief works nor the National Workshops of 1848 (except for training, perhaps) are asked for, but a policy of national development. . . . As part of this programme, the Socialist has long been crying for afforestation, national drainage and reclamation, labour farm colonies . . . and the pressure of social misery and depopulation has at length come to his aid.” (J. R. Macdonald, The Socialist Movement.) What is the value of such a policy in dealing with the problem of unemployment?
What are the salient features of the English Workmen’s Compensation Act? What are its defects? How are these defects avoided in the legislation of other countries?
What effect upon the industriousness and thrift of the population have the following?
1. Provision for old age in Denmark.
2. Provision for old age in England.
3. Savings bank insurance in Massachusetts.
4. Provision for sickness, old age, etc., in the mutual aid societies of France.
5. Unemployment benefits under the Ghent system.

In each case show specifically to what feature of the institution in question the effect is to be traced.

Why did state insurance in Germany signify a less radical departure from previous social policy and thought than it would signify in the United States? How serious a burden has it laid on employers?
Mr. Lloyd George said of the English old age pensions plan, that “it is just as much a contributory scheme as one financed directly by means of contributions arranged on the German basis.” Indicate in detail by what course of reasoning this statement may be supported. Or, if you believe it false or in part false, indicate precisely the gounds of your opinion.
Present the best arguments you can for compulsory (and subsidized) insurance against unemployment. Then make out the best case against compulsion. Which way does the net advantage lie? In answering this question it may be assumed that a system of well-organized labor exchanges exists.
Outline the Swiss methods of dealing with vagrancy.

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Rural Social Development

Course Description
1911-12

¹hf. Rural Social Development. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. Ford.

One hour will be devoted each week to the discussion of prescribed reading.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 72.

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics 7 ¹hf. Dr. Ford. — Rural Social Development.

Total 17: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Freshman.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 69.

SOCIAL ETHICS 7

What is meant by a “rural social survey”? What facts must be gathered? (Give reasons in each instance.) What are the probable sources of this material for a Massachusetts or New York community?
—
1. What essential differences do you note between the pleasures of the village and of the rural population in Blanktown?
2. What is meant by pleasures of receptive sensation? What part have they played in the social evolution of Blanktown? (Williams, An American Town.)
What is the rural housing problem in America? State the problem in detail with reference to construction and interior arrangement of farm houses.
(a) Outline the rural health problem. (b) Under what conditions do each of the following matters require action by local or state boards of health? What sort of action is necessary? Why?
1. 1. Illness in the farm home.
  2. Farm water supply.
  3. Farm sanitation.
  4. Milk production.
—
1. “When the rural social sense is thoroughly established, we shall be in a new epoch of rural civilization.” (Bailey, The Country Life Movement.) What is meant by this statement?
2. By what methods can the “rural social sense” be developed in this generation? In the next?
3. Describe in detail the structure and function of any three local socializing agencies (excluding church and school).

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Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1910/11

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

Earlier 20th century course material:

Image Source: Francis G. Peabody, The Social Museum as an Instrument of University Teaching. Publications of the Department of Social Ethics in Harvard University, Number 4 (Cambridge, MA: 1911).

Tags Brackett, Foerster, Ford, McConnellRM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Social Insurance Social Work

Harvard. Complete Course Offerings in Social Ethics. Descriptions, Enrollments, Final Exams. Peabody et al., 1910-1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-06-15

This post covers all of the courses taught at Harvard during the academic year 1910-11 from the subfield of social ethics that was located at the intersection of economics, philosophy, and social policy.

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Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888-1910

A short history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics through 1920.

Exam questions for late 19^th century versions of Francis Greenwood Peabody’s course on the Ethics of Social Reform have been transcribed and posted:

1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

Earlier 20th century course material:

Francis Greenwood Peabody. The Approach to the Social Question. New York: Macmillan, 1912. “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

Social Ethics Course Instructors
1910-11

Jeffrey Richardson Brackett
Robert Franz Foerster
James Ford
Ray Madding McConnell
Francis Greenwood Peabody

_____________________________

Social Ethics 1-7
1910-11

Social Ethics 1. The Ethics of Modern Industrialism
Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service
Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology [omitted 1910-11]
Social Ethics 4. Selected Topics in Social Ethics
Social Ethics 5. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State
Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in EuropeSocial Ethics
Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

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. 65.

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The Ethics of Modern Industrialism

Enrollment Social Ethics 1
1910-11

Social Ethics 1 ²hf. Professor Peabody, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster. — The Ethics of Modern Industrialism.

Total 104: 2 Graduates, 27 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 27 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 1
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 1. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Dewey and Tufts’ Ethics]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Spencer’s Principles of Sociology] the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Warner’s American Charities]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems and Schaeffle’s Quintessence of Socialism]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations conducted by the Committee of Fifty]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation. Students are advised, before beginning the study of Social Ethics, to take courses both in Economics and Philosophy; and must have taken a course, or the equivalent of a course, in one of these subjects.

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1910-11

Describe the development of Employers’ Associations in the United States. (Adams & Sumner, pp. 279 ff.)
Trace the development of Joint Conferences and Trade Boards of Arbitration in the United States. (Adams & Sumner, pp. 305ff.）
Describe in detail an example of: —
1. The bonus system in industry;
2. deferred participation;
3. industrial partnership.
  On what grounds may each of these systems be criticised as hostile to the higher interests of labor? (Adams & Sumner, ch. IX.)
How far has social history since Marx verified the principles of: —
1. the class-conscious conflict;
2. economic determinism?
“Freedom of demand is a first essential of freedom in general. If the means of life and culture were somehow allotted to each from without, and according to an officially drawn-up scheme, no one could live out his own individuality or develop himself according to his own ideas; the material basis of freedom would be lost.” (Schaeffle, p. 40.) Explain this statement and indicate how far, in Schaeffle’s opinion, it correctly describes the position of demand in the Socialist State.
What are the essential features of: —
1. the doctrine of contributory negligence;
2. the doctrine of common employment;
3. the Employers’ Liability Act of 1880;
4. the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1906?
  (Dr. Foerster’s Lectures.)
Millennial Socialism and Militant Socialism; — their economic and ethical effects defined and compared
Methods in force in Switzerland for the promotion of employment and the control of the unemployed.
Show concisely the effects of alcoholic liquors (a) in moderate use, (b) in immoderate use, on:
1. the digestive system;
2. the nervous system;
3. resistance to disease.
  (The Liquor Problem, ch. I, and Dr. Ford’s Lectures.)
Discuss: —
1. Methods of granting licenses in the United States;
2. Methods of removing the element of profit from the sale of liquor.
  (The Liquor Problem, 56 ff. & pp. 151 ff.)

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, pp. 79-80. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Practical Problems of Social Service

Enrollment Social Ethics 2
1910-11

Social Ethics 2 ²hf. Dr. Brackett. — Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work.

Total 15: 7 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 2
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 2 ²hf. Practical Problems of Social Service: Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work. Lectures, prescribed reading, and observation of work under skilled direction. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. Brackett.

This course is for advanced students, especially for those who plan, as ministers, teachers, or as citizens, whatever their vocation, to be actively interested in charity, correction, or any form of social work. It is also an introduction to Social Ethics 20c, the School for Social Workers. It is a study of tendencies in Social Service, of law and custom, especially in England and the United States, bearing directly on such topics as forms and sources of relief, modification of charitable trusts, treatment of special types of the needy, organization of charity, financial management, supervision of work by public and private agencies.

SOCIAL ETHICS 2
Year-end Exam 2010-11

What place do you give to the changes in the English Poor Law in 1834 as reform measures making for progress?
What is insanity?
What is feeble-mindedness ?
Choosing one of these types, give the chief features of a programme for care which a state should adopt.
—
1. A young mother, unmarried, asks a child saving agency to take her infant from her: What would you do with the child?
2. An infant is found exposed in a public place, with no trace of relatives. In what way would you care for it? Why?
What do we mean by the word adequacy in the expression “adequacy of relief”?
What is to be said in favor of grants of public money to private charities? What against such grants?
Discuss briefly the effect of charity on the continuance of the least “fit” to survive.
How do you value the field work which you have done in connection with this course?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 80. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Enrollment Social Ethics 4
1910-11

Social Ethics 4 ¹hf. Dr. Brackett, Dr. McConnell, Dr. Ford, and Dr. Foerster. — Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Dr. Brackett. — The State and Charity.
Dr. McConnell. —The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs.
Dr. Ford. —The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation.
Dr. Foerster. —The Ethics of Immigration.

Total 14: 5 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 4 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 4
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 4 ¹hf. Selected Topics in Social Ethics. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. , at 12.

Subjects for 1910–11:—

Methods of Poor-Relief in Great Britain and Germany Compared. Professor Peabody.

The State and Charity. Dr. Brackett.

The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. McConnell

The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Dr. Ford.

The Ethics of Immigration. Dr. Foerster.

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

—
1. It is proposed, following English and Australian precedent, to improve the economic position of the poorly paid working people of New York, by providing that wages less than a legal minimum shall not be paid. How far may such a measure be expected to be successful? Explain your opinion.
2. “Any one may become a bricklayer in New York City, but whosoever enters the trade as a unionist must agree not to accept less than a certain rate and must, therefore, be an efficient worker with a high standard of living. The American workingman believes that there is ample room in this country for all men who are efficient and willing to demand wages commensurate with the American standard of living.” How far do you agree with the conclusion of this statement? Explain your opinion.
What economic loss does emigration signify for a country? Is there a corresponding economic gain to the country of immigration?
—
1. Briefly outline the position of the Slavs in agriculture in the United States.
2. For what reasons would you, or would you not, favor an effort systematically to settle upon the land those of our immigrants who have lived in rural districts in their country of origin?
What disposition of the gross profits of business is made: —
1. In co-operative associations of the Rochdale model?
2. In the London Civil Service Stores?
3. In the Belgian Socialist Stores?
Which of the above methods of disposition of profits is most conducive to business strength? To working-class progress? Give reasons in detail.
What are the principles of the co-partnership housing movement? Would this form of co-operation be practicable in America?
Discuss the various legal provisions which could be effective in checking the evils of child labor.
Discuss legislation governing hours of labor, and give special attention to (a) practicability, (b) constitutionality, (c) uniformity.
Discuss the “moral quality” of each of the socialist principles of distribution — “To each according to his works,” “To each according to his needs.”

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 81. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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The Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Enrollment Social Ethics 5
1910-11

Social Ethics 5 ¹hf. Dr. McConnell. — The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State.

Total 10: 2 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 5
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 5 ²hf. The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. McConnell.

This course considers the fundamental ethical principles involved in the organization of the modern State, and the duties of public authorities in regard to crime, defectives, charity, the child, and public health.

SOCIAL ETHICS 5
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

—
1. Differentiate the theories of Lombroso and Ferri with reference to the origins of crime.
2. What are the chief agencies which society may utilize with the express aim at prevention of crime?
3. Briefly suggest the principal advantages and defects of the jury. (Omit either a, b, or c.)
Argue against “reformation” as the rightful aim of punishment.
Argue in favor of each of the following propositions, and show how they may be maintained consistently together: “All criminals are morally irresponsible for their deeds,” “All criminals are socially accountable for their deeds.”
Briefly suggest the successive steps, with underlying principles, from beginning to end of the treatment of a case of juvenile delinquency in a modern juvenile court.
—
1. “The whole prison problem so far as it concerns philanthropy is largely an unnecessary problem. … Improving the economic status of the people would cut the prison problem in half.” To what classes of prisoners do these statements of Gray’s refer?
2. Discuss “The Law of Settlement” and “Settlement Laws.”
—
1. Discuss the necessity of public agencies for the relief of the poor.
2. Discuss the proper division of labor between public and private charities.
Outline the work of the State Board of Charity of Massachusetts.
—
1. State the leading causes of death in the United States. (Give approximate rates, or state the causes in the order of their importance.)
2. State approximately the ratio of preventability of death from each of these causes.
3. Explain the means on which such prevention depends.
Mention the various duties of the Health Department of the city of Boston.

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 82. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Social Amelioration in Europe

Enrollment Social Ethics 6
1910-11

Social Ethics 6 ²hf. Dr. Foerster. — Social Amelioration in Europe.

Total 20: 4 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 6
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 6 ²hf. Social Amelioration in Europe. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. Foerster.

This course is mainly concerned with schemes of social amelioration that have so far been little considered in the United States. Remedial methods of dealing with poverty will be treated only incidentally. Chiefly the course will make a comparative study of the preventive and constructive measures, public and private, of several countries. After a brief consideration of the place of thrift institutions, unemployment and the important recent efforts to meet it will be discussed at some length. The experience of several countries in providing for the indigent in case of accident, sickness, invalidity, and old age will, in turn, be examined. As far as time permits, a study of legislation governing conditions of labor, and of the housing movement, will be included.

SOCIAL ETHICS 6
Year-end Examination
1910-11

Answer the questions in the order asked. So allot your time that you can answer all questions.

“Mr. H— is devoting his life to the solution of the problem of the unemployed. He proposes an amendment to the constitution of Missouri which declares that it is the duty of the State to provide relief works, including factories and farms, to employ men when necessary.” How far has the experience of France with such a measure as this been successful? of England? of Germany? What have been the causes of success or failure? What would be the probable outcome of the establishment of relief works in the United States?
—
1. What share of the cost of the compensation for accidents falls to the employer in Germany? in Austria? in Norway? in England?
2. A distinguished lawyer holds: “The funds required to make compensation should be raised by contributions from both employer and employee, preferably in equal shares.” What arguments can be advanced for and against this opinion?
3. What division of cost should, in your opinion, be made? Why?
Discussing the bill recently introduced into the English Parliament for compulsory insurance of workmen (premiums to be paid by employer, employee, and State) against unemployment and sickness, a Boston newspaper editorial says: “American workmen want nothing of this kind… they would be the first to realize that any socialistic scheme of the Lloyd-George kind would inevitably harm them”; because, “As President Hadley well says: ‘The payments to the insurance funds must chiefly, if not wholly, come out of wages. Even though they be nominally levied upon the employer, he is compelled, by competition with other employers not subject to the levy, to reduce in corresponding degree the wages he pays?’”
Discussing the same bill, a London newspaper says: “Including the existing old age pensions charge of £13,000,000, £18,500,000 will be contributed by the general taxpayer… The greater part of this £18,500,000 which is said to be supplied by that metaphysical entity, the state, will be really supplied, in their capacity as taxpayers, by the same persons who, in their other capacity of employers, are called upon to produce about £9,000,000 under the new bill.”
Criticise the reasoning of these positions, and indicate your own reasoning as to the burden of insurance.
—
1. What are the kinds, and advantages and disadvantages, of the several types of savings banks?
2. What are your reasons for thinking that savings accounts would or would not increase in number and size in a country which had such an old age pensions system as that of England? Such an old age insurance system as that of France?
Discuss the nature and development of
1. the insurance of widows and orphans in Europe;
2. the industrial insurance of the casualty insurance companies of the United States.
Describe as fully as you can the nature of the measures which has been taken by the Social Insurance authorities of Germany to reduce risks.
—
1. Are the functions of employers’ welfare establishments (such as the activities embraced under the “Welfare Fund” of the firm of D. Peters & Co.) more properly assumed by the State?
2. On the basis of the success or failure of plans discussed in this course, what general attitude do you consider that the State should adopt toward the amelioration of social conditions?
(To be answered if you have time.) What can, and what cannot, a well-organized system of labor exchanges do toward solving the problem of unemployment?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, pp. 83-84. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

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Rural Social Development

Enrollment Social Ethics 7
1910-11

Social Ethics 7 ¹hf. Dr. Ford. — Rural Social Development.

Total 13: 4 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 1 Junior, 2 Sophomores, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-11, p. 50.

Description of Social Ethics 7
1910-11

[Social Ethics] 7 ¹hf. Rural Social Development. Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. Ford.

This course is concerned with rural life as a problem in itself and as a solution of urban problems. It will study the distribution of population and its consequences; the development of country life from without, through suburban, “Garden-city,” “Back-to-the-land,” and other movements, — and rural reconstruction from within, through private initiative (e.g., the country church, village improvement societies), coöperative movements (e.g., the Irish Agricultural Organization Society), and State activity (e.g., homestead commissions, departments of agriculture).

One hour will be devoted each week to the discussion of prescribed reading.

SOCIAL ETHICS 7
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

In how far is a natural tendency to industrial decentralization recorded (by the U.S. Statistics of Manufactures for 1905) for the United States as a whole? For the Boston Industrial District (500 square miles)? What are the causes of this tendency? In what types of industry is it inoperative?
“In no field does corporate (philanthropic) operation promise more for the betterment of human conditions; for a higher standard of morals, and of education, or great certainty of profit for capital, than by systematically aiding (city) men to obtain farms.” Examine and criticise this statement in detail.
Under what conditions will “aiding men to obtain farms” assure fair profits for capital? better rural society? better society in general?
What is the sociological significance of the “abandoned” farm in New York State? (Bailey, “The State and the Farmer,” Pt. I.)
—
1. Show by example what part physical environment plays in the social history of Blanktown.
2. What forms of “selection” are described as operative in Blanktown? (Williams, “An American Town.”)
What are the comparative advantages of (1) district, (2) township, (3) county school systems with reference to
1. Maintenance of rural schools?
2. Supervision of rural schools?
3. The use of agriculture as a means of general training?
4. The teaching of professional agriculture?
“The ideal of rural betterment is to preserve upon our farms the typical American farmer. …
“What is wanted … is the breaking down of those barriers which have so long differentiated country from urban life; the extinction of that social ostracism which has been the farmer’s fate.”
Examine both quotations critically. What institutions or lines of social effort could be made to contribute to both ends?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, pp. 84-85. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

Tags Brackett, Foerster, Ford, McConnellRM, Peabody

Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollment and semester examinations for principles of economics. Taussig, 1910-1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-02-01

After a pause dedicated to revising a paper, I return to the task of transcribing the economics mid-year and year-end examinations from Harvard University. The first table below provides links to four decades worth of introductory exams, ending in January and June 1910. Material for the other economics courses taught at Harvard in 1910-11 will be posted over the next couple of months.

In 1910-11 Frank Taussig was back in the saddle after a leave of absence taken during the previous year. He completed the first edition of his Principles of Economics [Volume I; Volume II] in March 1911 [Preface]. Links to the references from that first edition have been posted.

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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1909/10

1871-75	1880-81	1890-91	1900-01
	1881-82	1891-92	1901-02
	1882-83	1892-93	1902-03
	1883-84	1893-94	1903-04
	1884-85	1894-95	1904-05
	1885-86	1895-96	1905-06
1876-77	1886-87	1896-97	1906-07
1877-78	1887-88	1897-98	1907-08
1878-79	1888-89	1898-99	1908-09
1879-80	1889-90	1899-00	1909-10

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Course Announcement
1910-11

Principles of Economies. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Taussig, assisted by Drs. Huse, Day, and Foerster, and Messrs. Sharfman, and Balcom.

Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second year of their college career. Students who plan to take it in their first year are strongly advised to consult the instructor in advance. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics 1.

[…]

Course 1 gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, international trade, and taxation. The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States will be treated in outline.

The course will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading.

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Course Enrollment
1910-11

Economics 1. Professor Taussig, assisted by Drs. [Charles Phillips] Huse [Ph.D., 1907] , [Edmund Ezra] Day, [Ph.D. 1909] and [Robert Franz] Foerster [Ph.D. 1909], and Mr. [Alfred Burpee] Balcom [A.M. 1909] — Principles of Economics.

Total 531: 5 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 96 Juniors, 272 Sophomores, 99 Freshmen, 45 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, p. 48.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers
strictly in the order of the questions.
Give your reasons in all cases.

“Economic productivity is not a matter of piety or merit or deserving, but only of commanding a price. Actors, teachers, preachers, lawyers, [sic, “prostitutes,” was the last item on H. J. Davenport’s list on p. 112, see link.] all do things that men are content to pay for. So wages may be earned by writing libels against a rival candidate, or by setting fire to a competitor’s refinery. The test of economic productivity in a competitive society is the fact of private gain, irrespective of any ethical criteria.” [H.J. Davenport. Social productivity versus private acquisition. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol 25, No. 1 (Nov. 1910), pp. 96-118.]
Would you agree? In which of the cases above-mentioned, if any, do you find economic productivity?
Draw a diagram illustrating how the price of a commodity is related to its cost of production under conditions of diminishing return (i.e. increasing cost). Explain the diagram, and indicate rent on it.
What is the influence of cost of production on value in the case of a copyrighted book? cotton seed? a bushel of wheat?
Suppose prices to have been as follows: —

	1909	1910
Wheat (bushel)	$1.00	$1.20
Cotton (pound)	0.10	0.12
Iron (ton)	10.00	13.00
Copper (pound)	0.10	0.06
Quicksilver (pound)	1.00	0.50

(a) Construct an index number, using the simple arithmetic mean, to show how general prices in 1910 were related to prices in 1909.

(b) Next, weight the commodities,—

…giving to wheat	a weight of 5
…giving to cotton	a weight of 4
…giving to iron	a weight of 4
…giving to copper	a weight of 1
…giving to quicksilver	a weight of 1

Construct a second index number, using the weighted arithmetical mean.

Which index number would you consider the more trustworthy!

In spite of recent great increases in the world’s gold production, the price of an ounce of gold in the United States has remained steadily at $20.67; in England, at £3 17s. 10½d. How do you explain this steadiness? Has there been the same steadiness in the value of gold?
Explain briefly: —

Free coinage.
Mint ratio.
Bimetallism.
Limping standard.
Subsidiary coin.

In 1850 the United States coined silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1. The market ratio then was 15.7 to 1. Which metal would you expect to be brought to the mint for coinage, and why?
Wherein is the regulation of note-issue for the Reichsbank of Germany similar to its regulation for the Bank of England? Wherein different? Which of the two plans of regulation has proved the more successful?
Explain briefly: —

Legal reserves.
“The essential similarity of notes and deposits.”
“Deposits as currency.”

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

________________________

ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers
strictly in the order of the questions.
Answer all the questions.

Suppose a great issue of inconvertible paper money (fiat money) in the United States: what would be the effects, temporary or permanent, on the rate of interest; the value of money; the rate of foreign exchange; imports and exports?
Is it true that “rent does not enter into the cost of production of agricultural produce”?
A shop-keeper, on a side street off Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, advertised: “We can sell at low prices because we pay low rent.” Do you think it probable that he could?
A corporation is formed, with a capital (paid in) of $1,500,000. It buys a city site for $1,000,000, and erects on it an office building which costs $1,000,000; the sum of $500,000 toward the cost of the building being borrowed at 5%. By good management it succeeds in paying to its stockholders from the rentals of the offices (after meeting all expenses and interest on the money borrowed) dividends of 8%.
What determined the price at which the site was purchased? Is the return received by the stockholders interest, rent, business profits, wages?
A business firm is made up of three partners, A and B, active partners, and C, an inactive (or silent) partner. The firm has $150,000 capital, contributed in equal shares by the three partners. Its articles of agreement provide that the net earnings shall be divided as follows: first, a dividend of 6% on the capital; second, if net earnings permit, a salary of $4,000 to each of the active partners; lastly, any remainder to be distributed as further dividend on the capital. The firm’s net earnings in 1908 were $23,000.
What were the “business profits” of the firm? What were its “profits” in the sense in which Mill used that term?
Explain: —

non-competing groups;
“real” differences of wages;
“the forces of environment”;
social stratification.

Would you regard a great extension of public ownership (to such industries as railways, street railways, gas works, coal mines) as “socialistic”? If so, in what sense? If not, why not?
Would you regard a tax on the future increase of economic rent as “socialistic”? If so, in what sense? If not, why not?
From a speech made in 1909 by a member of Congress: —
“During the past few years the United States have imported from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 worth of antimony… largely from Japan, Mexico, China, and Labrador. Practically every ton of it is imported, notwithstanding the fact that in ten or twelve of the western states it is found in abundance…. I have no doubt that (with a proposed duty on antimony) within twelve months, instead of importing all our antimony, we shall produce every pound of it in the United States. We shall have the money and our antimony too.”
What would you say of this reasoning?
Can a country advantageously import a commodity in producing which its labor is more effective than labor is in producing that commodity in the country whence it is imported?
Can a country (A) send exports to a country (B) if the current rate of wages is $2.00 a day in country A and $1.00 a day in country B?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11 (HUC 7000.25) Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1911), pp. 38-39.

Image Source: From the cover of the Harvard Class Album 1946.

Tags Balcom, Day, Foerster, Huse, Taussig

Exam Questions Harvard Labor Policy Social Insurance Social Work

Harvard. Topics in Social Ethics. Outline, enrollment and final exam. Peabody et al, 1909-1910

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-12-31

Picket "Girls" on Duty: Ladies' Tailors Strike, New York City [1910 Feb]

The faculty teaching this course on selected topics in social ethics that was taught at Harvard in 1909-10 was based in the philosophy section of the School of Divinity. Social Ethics at that time was closely related to the economics department and its survey course Social Ethics 1 was a relatively popular outside field for economics graduate students. Social Ethics 4 appears to have been a course that went into greater depth on four topics: poor relief, government intervention/regulation, cooperation and immigration with emphasis on the normative issues involved.

________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Announcement
1909-10

Selected Topics in Social Ethics (Social Ethics *4²hf.).

— Subjects for 1909-10:
— The Ethical Approach to the Social Question. Professor [Francis Greenwood] Peabody.
— Sources of Relief in Cases of Need. Dr. [Jeffrey Richardson] Brackett.
— The Ethical Relations of the State to Industrial Affairs. Dr. [Ray Madding] McConnell.
— The Ethical Aspects of Industrial Coöperation. Mr. [James] Ford.
— The Ethics of Immigration. Mr. [Robert Franz] Foerster.

Lectures and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th, Sat., at 12.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1909-10, p. 24.

________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Enrollment
1909-10

Social Ethics 4^1[sic]hf. Professor [Francis Greenwood] Peabody, Dr. [Jeffry Richardson] Brackett, Dr. [Ray Madding] McConnell, Dr. [James] Ford, and Dr. [Robert Franz] Foerster. — Selected Topics in Social Ethics.

Total 19: 8 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Divinity.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Final Examination
1909-10

Discuss and illustrate by historical instances the ethical principles involved in the State’s interference with the individual’s freedom of contract.
(a) Discuss Compensation for Accidents — Employer’s Liability; (b) Discuss Injunctions in Labor Disputes.
Describe the constitution and business methods of the Civil Service co-operative stores in London. State all points of divergence from Rochdale principles. What are the relative advantages or disadvantages of Civil Service co-operative methods?
Do you believe that any form of co-operation could be instituted in New England villages with reasonable expectation of success? State reasons explicitly.
“The girls have become convinced… that the only effective remedy for their unsatisfactory condition is a union, in full control of every shop on the side of the employees, and authorized to bargain with the employers on their behalf. They are willing that every one shall belong to the union.” How far do you consider that the remedy proposed by the striking shirt waist makers of New York may be effective? Explain the influence of immigration on wages in the United States.
Discuss the connection of Immigration with: (a) poverty in the United States; (b) cycles of prosperity and depression; (c) municipal government in the United States.
What are the effects of Emigration upon the countries from which it proceeds?
In what degree are the ethical principles indicated in the Introduction of this Course, verified or illustrated in the case of: State activity; or of Co-operation; or of Immigration?

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).

Image Source: Picket girls on duty: Ladies’ Tailors Strike, New York City (Feb 1910). Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Tags Brackett, Foerster, Ford, McConnellRM, Peabody

Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Course Readings for Economics and Social Ethics, 1920-1921

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-11-13

Old Gate at Harvard College (August 6, 1920)

The artifact transcribed and linked for this post was found in last of ten boxes in the Harvard Archives collection “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003”. I had worked through the previous nine boxes containing folders chronologically ordered by academic year. Box 10 contained five folders of poorly sorted course materials that were undated, requiring some effort to establish a probable time range for any of the artifacts.

In the first folder I found an eight page typed list of courses, with the names and assigned readings (for most of the courses offered to both undergraduate and graduate students, though no reading lists for the courses that were primarily offered for graduate students) which was relatively easy to date by looking at the course staffing announced in the annual catalogue for the Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1920-21. There is one reference to Taussig’s third edition (Dec. 1921) in the list which would suggest that the list was probably prepared for the 1921-22 or 1922-23 year using materials gathered from the earlier 1920-21 academic year. But the perfect correspondence of course staffing between the transcribed list below and the published announcement for 1920-21 is sufficient for me to assign the 1920-21 academic year to the post.

Square brackets […] have been used to distinguish additional information from the typed list. All explicit titles have been linked, increasing the value of this post considerably.

______________________

Course Descriptions for
Economics and Social Ethics,
1920-21

Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1920-21 published in the Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XVII (May 22, 1920) No. 27.

______________________

One Harvard Graduate’s Memoir
of the 1920s

Carlson, Valdemar. “The Education of an Economist before the Great Depression: Harvard’s Economics Department in the 1920’s.” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 27, no. 1, 1968, pp. 101–12.

______________________

ASSIGNED READINGS IN ECONOMICS

A. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

[Assistant] Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank and assistants

Readings:

Taussig, [Frank William], Principles of Economics

[First Edition (1911): Volume I; Volume II]
[Second Edition, Revised (1915): Volume I; Volume II]
[Third Edition, (Dec. 1921): Volume I; Volume II]
[Fourth Edition (1939) requires readers to set up an individual account at archive.org for temporary access: Volume I; Volume II]

[Questions on the Principles of Economics by Edmund Ezra Day and Joseph Stancliffe Davis (Revised for the thrid edition of Taussig’s Principles of Economics) edition, 1922.]

* * * * * * * * * * * *

1a. ACCOUNTING

Asst. Professor [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis

Readings:

[none listed]

* * * * * * * * * * * *

1b. STATISTICS

Asst. Professor [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis

Readings:

Secrist, Introduction to Statistical Methods, 1-77, 116-424

King, Elements of Statistical Method, pp.1-19, 64-82, 167-196

Elderton, W. P. and E. M., Primer of Statistics, ch. 1-4

U.S. Census, The Story of the Census, 1790-1915

Field, “Some Advantages of the Logarithmic Scale in Statistical Diagrams,” Journ. Pol. Econ., Oct. 1917

Persons, W. M., Measuring and Forecasting General Business Conditions

Joint Committee on Graphic Standards, Preliminary Report
[Publications of the American Statistical Association 14, no. 112 (1915): 790–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/2965153]

Additional;

Unprescribed portions of King and Secrist

List of references appended to chapters in King and Secrist

References for Statistical Work (Prepared for Economics 1b, 1920)

Questions and Exercises in Statistics (Prepared for Economics 1b, 1920)

The Review of Economic Statistics

Lists of references in specific fields

* * * * * * * * * * * *

2a. EUROPEAN INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

Readings:

See printed bibliography on file in Tutorial Library

* * * * * * * * * * * *

2b. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

Readings:

See printed bibliography on file in Tutorial Library

* * * * * * * * * * * *

3. MONEY, BANKING, AND COMMERCIAL CRISES

Professor [Allyn Abbott] Young

Readings:

[none listed]

* * * * * * * * * * * *

4a. ECONOMICS OF TRANSPORTATION

Professor [William Zebina] Ripley

Readings:

Ripley, Railroad Rates, vol. 1, (not vol. II)

Ripley, Railway Problems

* * * * * * * * * * * *

4b. ECONOMICS OF CORPORATIONS

Professor [William Zebina] Ripley

Readings:

Ripley, Trusts, Pools, and Corporations

Haney, Business Organization and Combination

* * * * * * * * * * * *

5a. PUBLIC FINANCE, EXCLUSIVE OF TAXATION

Asst. Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank

Readings:

Bastable, Public Finance

Bullock, Selected Readings in Public Finance
[Second edition, 1921]

Daniel [sic], Public Finance [Possibly: Winthrop More Daniels, Elements of Public Finance (1899)]

Adams, H. C., Public Finance [sic]
[Probably: The Science of Finance, An Investigation of Public Expenditures and Public Revenues (1912)]

Seligman, Essays in Taxation

Darwin, Municipal Trade

Stourm, The Budget

* * * * * * * * * * * *

5b. THE PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF TAXATION

Asst. Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank

Readings:

Bastable, Selections on Public Finance

Bullock, Selected Readings in Public Finance
[Second edition, 1921]

Seligman, Essays in Taxation

Means, Methods of Taxation

* * * * * * * * * * * *

6a. TRADE-UNIONISM AND ALLIED PROBLEMS

Professor [William Zebina] Ripley

Readings:

Webb, Industrial Democracy

Commons, Trade Unionism

* * * * * * * * * * * *

7a. THEORIES OF VALUE AND DISTRIBUTION

Professor [Edmund Ezra] Day

Readings:

Marshall, Principles of Economics

Carver, The Distribution of Wealth

Taussig, Principles of Economics (1921 edition)
[Third Edition, (Dec. 1921): Volume I; Volume II]

Clark, The Distribution of Wealth

Walker, Political Economy

Fisher, The Rate of Interest

Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest

Fetter, Economic Principles

Davenport, Economics of Enterprise

Veblen, The Theory of Business Enterprise

Hobson, Work and Wealth

Anderson, Social Value

Anderson, The Value of Money

* * * * * * * * * * * *

7b. SOCIALISM, ANARCHISM, THE SINGLE TAX

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

See printed circular on file in the Tutorial Library

* * * * * * * * * * * *

8. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

Bristol, Social Adaptation

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress

Sumner, Folkways

Spencer, Principles of Sociology [Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3]

Carver, Essays in Social Justice

Giddings, Sociology

Tardl [sic], Social Gains [sic] [Looks like a typographical error. Probably Social Laws, An Outline of Sociology by Gabriel Tarde (1899 translation from the French)[

Kidd, Social Evolution

* * * * * * * * * * * *

9a. ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

Carver, Principles of Rural Economics

Carver, Selected Readings in Rural Economics

Various bulletins and reports

* * * * * * * * * * * *

9b. INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND TARIFF POLICIES

Professor [Frank William] Taussig

Readings:

Taussig, Free Trade, the Tariff and Reciprocity

Mill, Principles of Political Economy

Smith, Wealth of Nations

State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff

Taussig, Selected Readings (to appear shortly)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

10. ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND INSTITUTIONS

Dr. [Arthur Eli] Monroe

Readings:

Aristotle, Politics, Bk. I, ch. 1-11; Bk. II, ch. 1-6; IV, ch. 11-13; V, ch. 1-9

Maine, Ancient Law, ch. 5-8

Ashley, Economic History of England, vol. I, ch. 3

Mun: England’s Treasure by Forraign Trade

Turgot, Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth

Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, 1-3, 5-9, 11 (secs. 1,2)

Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. II, 3-5; IV, 1, 2, 9

Malthus, Essay on Population, [Vol. I, 6th ed. ] Bk I, 1, 2; Bk. II, 13; [Vol. II, 6th ed.] III, 2, 3; Bk. IV, 1, 2, 3. (Or selections in Ashley’s Classics)

Mill, Political Economy [Vol. I], Bk. I, 5; Bk: II, 11; Bk. III, 1-5

Mill, Political Economy [Vol. II], Bk. IV, 3,4; Bk. V, 8, 10, 11 (sec. 1-9)

List, National System of Political Economy, Bk. II, 2-5, 7

Carlyle, Past and Present (selected chap.) or
Ruskin, Unto this Last, ch. 1, 3

Bücher, Industrial Evolution, chs. 3, 4

Ashley, Economic Organization of England, ch. 1-7

Wells, Mankind in the Making

(Several optional assignments to be announced later)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

11. ECONOMIC THEORY

Professor [Frank William] Taussig
[“Maurice Beck Hexter’s notes from Harvard University, 1921-22” and “Supplemental notes from F.W. Taussig’s Course in economic theory with contributions by A.A. Young” edited by Marianne Johnson and Warren J. Samuels in Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 28-C (2010), pp. 11-176]

Readings:

Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy
[Third edition, 1821]

Mill, Principles of Political Economy

Marshall, Principles of Economics

Clark, Distribution of Wealth

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital

Fetter, Principles of Economics

Hobson, Work and Wealth

Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise

Divers separate articles and chapters in other books

* * * * * * * * * * * *

9a. THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

Carver, Distribution of Wealth

Marshall, Principles of Economics

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital

Fisher, The Rate of Interest

Clark, The Distribution of Wealth

Taussig, Work [sic] and Capital [Wages and Capital]

* * * * * * * * * * * *

14. HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF ECONOMICS TO THE YEAR 1848

Professor [Charles Jesse] Bullock

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

15. MODERN SCHOOLS OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Professor [Allyn Abbott] Young

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

31. PUBLIC FINANCE

Professor [Charles Jesse] Bullock

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

32. ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO AMERICAN CONDITIONS

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

33. INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND TARIFF PROBLEMS

Professor [Frank William] Taussig

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

34. PROBLEMS OF LABOR

Professor [William Ripley] Ripley

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

35a. BUSINESS CORPORATIONS

Asst. Professor Davis

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

35b. BUSINESS COMBINATIONS

Asst. Professor [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

36a. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP: HISTORICAL, THEORETICAL, AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

36b. PUBLIC REGULATION AND CONTROL OF PRIVATE INDUSTRY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO PUBLIC SERVICE INDUSTRIES

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

37. COMMERCIAL CRISES

Professor [Warren Milton] Persons

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

38. SELECTED MONETARY PROBLEMS

Professor [Allyn Abbott] Young

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

* * * * * * * * * * * *

[ASSIGNED READINGS]
IN SOCIAL ETHICS

1. SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND SOCIAL POLICY

Asst. Professor [Robert Franz] Foerster and Asst. Professor [James] Ford

Readings:

Booth, Life and Labour of the People of London, vol. 1 of Series 1, 3-8, 24-73, 131-171

Conklin, Heredity and Environment, rev. ed. pp.197-242, 256-258, 297-306, 416-456, 475-497

Dewey, and Tufts, Ethics, ch. 15, pp. 297-304; ch. 18-26, pp. 364-606

Flexner, and Baldwin, Juvenile Courts and Probation, Pts.1, 2, pp. 3-78

Oppenheimer, The Rationale of Punishment, pp. 1-4, 171-175, 234-295

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, vol. 1, pt. 3, ch. 9 and 12, pp. 686-724, 745-756

Warner, American Charities, 3rd ed., ch. 4, 6-10, 12, 14-15, 17-22, pр. 64-90, 113-225, 248-284, 305-346, 363-476

Wines, Punishment and Reformation, ch. 8, 10, 12-14 (3rd ed.) pp. 133-167, 199-234, 265-412

Committee of Fifty to Study the Liquor Problem, Summary of Investigations, pp. 15-134

Burritt, Dennison, Gay, Heilman, and Kendall, Profit Sharing, pp. 159-257

Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation, pp. 1-414, 454-464

Fay, Cooperation at Home and Abroad, pp. 273-285, 310-354

Foerster, A Promising Venture in Industrial Partnership, Annals American Academy of Political and Social Science, Pub. 703, November 1912, pp. 97-103

Hoxie, Scientific Management and Labor, pp. 25-139

King, Industry and Humanity, ch. 7, 8, pp. 167-303; ch. 10, pp. 364-390

British Labor party, Sub-committee on Reconstruction, report, Labor and the New Social Order, reprint from the New Republic, Feb. 16, 1918, pp. 12

Lee, Play in Education, pp. 319-391, 423-494

Schaeffle, Quintessence of Socialism, pp. 39-127

Schloss, Industrial Remuneration, pp. 286-309

Spargo, Applied Socialism, pp. 87-325

Veiller, Housing Reform, pp. 3-190

Williams, Profit-sharing, pp. 17-42, 146-171

* * * * * * * * * * * *

4. AMERICAN POPULATION PROBLEMS: IMMIGRATION AND THE NEGRO

Asst. Professor [Robert Franz] Foerster

Reading:

Byington, Homestead: The Households of a Mill Town, ch. 9-11, pp.131-157

Fairchild, Immigration, ch. 1-5, 7, 9, 10, 12-14, 16, pp. 1-105, 123-143, 163-212, 233-368, 393-415

Foerster, The Italian Emigration of Our Times, ch. 21-24, pp. 415-525

Ibid. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug.1913, Review of Hourwich’s book on immigration, pp. 656-671

Hourwich, Immigration and Labor, ch. 4, 5, 12-15, 18, 23, pp. 82-112, 284-352, 375-383, 489-501, 414-431 and in chapter 21, Report of the MASS. COMMISSION ON IMMIGRATION, 1914, pp. 54-104

Millis, The Japanese Problem in the United States, ch. 1, pp. 1-29

Reely, Selected Articles on Immigration (Debaters’ Handbook) pp. 131-134, 200-204, 219-222, 225-229

Roberts, The New Immigration, ch. 9, 11-13, pp. 124-138, 156-199

Ross, The Old World in the New, ch. 1-4, 6, 11, pp. 1-92, 120-140, 259-281

U. S. Immigration Commission, vol. 39, pp. 5-81, 127-129

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, vol. 2, pp. 417-426

Warne, Slav Invasion, pp. 28-38, 47-83

U. S. Immigration Commission, vol. 1, pp. 491-541; vol. 4, pp. 239-281, 337-348

Ovington, Half a Man, ch. 4-8, pp. 75-217

Shaler, The Neighbor, pp. 278-336

Stone, Studies in the American Race Problem, pp. 149-208

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, Amer. Econ. Review, May 1902, pp. 28-45, 60-79, 102-170

* * * * * * * * * * * *

6. UNEMPLOYMENT AND RELATED PROBLEMS OF THE WORKING CLASSES

Asst. Professor [Robert Franz] Foerster

Readings:

Beveridge, Unemployment, pp. 1-237

Webb, Seasonal Trades, ch. 1, 2, pp. 1-90

U. S. Bureau of Labor, Report on Women and Child Wage-Earners, vol. 7, pp. 43-60, 64-67, 177-192

Barnes, The Longshoremen, pp. 55-92, 199-206, 210-227

Chicago, Report of the Mayor’s Commission on Unemployment, 1914, pp. 107-165

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 206, B. Lasker, British System of Labor Exchanges, pp. 1-56

Kellor, Out of Work, Ch. 6, pp. 157-193

Gibbon, Unemployment Insurance, pp. 187-203

Dawson, Vagrancy Problem, ch. 4, 11, pp.104-132; 229-249

Ibid. Social Insurance in Germany, ch. 2-4, 7-9, pp. 22-127,182-265

Gibbon, Medical Benefit …Germany and Denmark, ch. 2, 6, 9, 12, 18 pp. 10-14, 43-52, 81-106, 125-131, 192-203

Rubinow, Standards of Health Insurance, Ch. 5-9, pp.67-152

Belloc, The Servile State, pp. 155-189

24th Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Labor, 1909, Vol. 2, pp. 1499-1530, 1540-1544

Foerster, The British National Insurance Act, Q. J. of Econ., Feb. 1912, pp. 275-298, 305-312

Bernhard, Undesirable Results of German Social Legislation, pp. 39-75

Mass. Commission on Old Age Pensions, 1910 Report, pp. 112-122, 164-203, 224-259, 268-284, 300-344

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin 195, Unemployment in the United States, 1916

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 10, Folder “Economics, undated (1 of 5)”.

Image Source: Old Gate at Harvard College (Leon H. Abdalian, photographer). Boston Public Library Arts Department. [No Copyright – United States]

Tags Burbank, Carver, DavisJS, Day, Foerster, Ford, Lincoln, Monroe, Ripley, Taussig, Young

Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy Social Work

Harvard. Description, enrollment and exam for Social Ethics. Peabody, 1908-1909

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-06-10

At the turn of the 20th century social policy at Harvard was a subject for the department of social ethics located at the intersection of economics and philosophy. It was taught as a subfield of philosophy (Social Ethics) by divinity professor Francis Peabody together with a changing cast of junior instructors to assist him.

__________________________

Exams from past years

Exam questions this course from the late 19^th century have been transcribed and posted: 1888-1889; 1889-1890; 1890-1891; 1892-1893; 1893-1894; 1894-1895; 1895-1896.

1902-03. Listed as Philosophy 5. Taught by Peabody and Ireland.

1904-05. Listed as Philosophy 5 and Ethics 1. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1906-07. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

1907-08. Taught by Peabody and Rogers.

__________________________

Francis Greenwood Peabody. The Approach to the Social Question. New York: Macmillan, 1912. “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

Peabody’s own short bibliography on the Ethics of Social Questions was published in 1910.

Another post provides the history of Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics up through 1920.

________________________

DR. RAY MADDING McCONNELL

Harvard Instructor in Social Ethics Had Made Long Study of Important Problems

Dr. Ray Madding McConnell, long active in educational work, died early this morning at a private hospital in Cambridge. Dr. McConnell, who was a graduate of Harvard, class of 1902, was born in Tennessee in 1875, and had been since his college days a great student of sociological problems and recently instructor in social ethics at Harvard.

Dr. McConnell received numerous honorary degrees, including his A.B. from Southern University in Alabama, in 1899, his S.T.B. from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee in 1901, his A.M. from Harvard in 1902, and from that university his Ph.D. in 1908. He was a writer on the subject to which he had given so many years of earnest study and research, and last year his book on “The Duty of Altruism” was brought out and he had at this time another book in preparation, “Philosophy of Crime.” He had contributed frequently to the International Journal of Ethics, and at Harvard he had given courses of lectures on “Moral Obligations of the Modern State.”

Dr. McConnell was married, in 1907, to Miss Phoebe Estes Bedlow of Ithaca, N.Y., by whom he is survived, as well as by a young son, Frank McConnell.

Source: Boston Evening Transcript (June 24, 1911), p. 14.

________________________

Course Description
1908-09

Social Ethics. — The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor Peabody assisted by Messrs. [Ray Madding] McConnell [d. 1911 of thematic fever and pneumonia], [James] Ford, and [Robert Franz] Foerster.

This course is an application of ethical theory to the social problems of the present day. It is to be distinguished from economic courses dealing with similar subjects by the emphasis laid on the moral aspects of the Social Question and on the philosophy of society involved. Its introduction discusses various theories of Ethics and the nature and relations of the Moral Ideal [required reading from Mackenzie’s Introduction to Social Philosophy, and Seth’s Study of Ethical Principles]. The course then considers the ethics of the family [required reading from Bosanquet’s The Family]; the ethics of poor-relief [required reading from Devine’s Principles of Relief]; the ethics of the labor question [required reading from Adams and Sumner’s, Labor Problems]; and the ethics of the drink question [required reading from The Liquor Problem; a Summary of Investigations]. In addition to lectures and required reading two special and detailed reports are made by each student, based as far as possible on personal research and observation of scientific methods in poor-relief and industrial reform. These researches are arranged in consultation with the instructor or his assistant; and an important feature of the course is the suggestion and direction of such personal investigation, and the provision to each student of special literature or opportunities for observation.

Rooms are expressly assigned for the convenience of students of Social Ethics, on the second floor of Emerson Hall, including a large lecture room, a seminary-room, a conference-room, a library, and two rooms occupied by the Social Museum. The Library of 1800 volumes is a special collection for the use of students of Social Ethics, with conveniences for study and research. The Social Museum is a collection of graphical material, illustrating by photographs, models, diagrams, and charts, many movements of social welfare and industrial progress.

Source: Announcement of the Divinity School of Harvard University, 1908-09, p. 24.

________________________

Course Enrollment
1908-09

Social Ethics 1. Professor Peabody, assisted by Dr. McConnell and Messrs. Ford and Foerster. — Social Ethics. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory.

Total 136: 3 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 65 Juniors, 29 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

________________________

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1908-09

The place in the modern labor question of:—

Leclaire.
Lassalle.
Conseils des Prud’hommes.

Discuss the following:—

“Labor is the original source of all value.”
“Property is robbery.”
“Surplus-value.”

What is:—

“Economic determinism”;
“A class-conscious conflict”;
“Collective bargaining”?

Ruskin’s criticism of the economists, and his own theory of value. [“Unto this Last” by John Ruskin]
The evidences of progress on the part of the working-classes since the introduction of the factory-system. (Adams and Sumner, pp. 502-526.)
The legal aspects of strikes. (Adams and Sumner, p. 187 ff.)
The development in England of the principle of Employer’s Liability.
The prospects of Industrial Co-operation in Great Britain and in the United States. The relative advantage of Federalism and of Individualism applied to Coöperation.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Relief-Department; its organization, operation, and the criticisms which it encounters.
The physiological action of alcohol and its relation to intellectual work. (Lectures, and The Liquor Problem, pp. 19-42.)
The Scandinavian Liquor-System. (The Liquor Problem, p. 153ff.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 69.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Foerster, FordJM, McConnellRM, Peabody

Bibliography Harvard Policy Suggested Reading

Harvard. Short Bibliography of Social Insurance for “Serious-minded Students”, Foerster, 1910

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-09-22

In 1910 Harvard published 43 short bibliographies covering “Social Ethics and Allied Subjects”, about half of which were dedicated to particular topics in economics and economic sociology. The project was coordinated by Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Francis G. Peabody.

Social Insurance is one such “allied subject” covered in the bibliography provided by Dr. Robert Franz Foerster, instructor in social ethics who had recently been awarded his Harvard economics Ph.D., and transcribed below along with links to digital copies of the items found at archive.org, hathitrust.org, as well as at other on-line archives.

Previously posted bibliographies from “Social Ethics and Allied Subjects”:

Economic Theory by Professor Frank Taussig

Taxation by Professor Charles J. Bullock

Trade Unionism by Professor William Z. Ripley

_____________________________

From the Prefatory Note:

The present list represents an attempt to make this connection between the teaching of the University and a need of the modern world. Each compiler has had in mind, not a superficial reader, nor yet a learned scholar, but an intelligent and serious-minded student, who is willing to read substantial literature if it be commended to him as worth his while and is neither too voluminous nor too inaccessible. To such an inquirer each editor makes suggestions concerning the contents, spirit or doctrine of a book, not attempting a complete description or a final judgment, but as though answering the preliminary question of a student, “What kind of book is this?” The plan thus depends for its usefulness on the competency of the editors concerned, and each editor assumes responsibility for the section to which his name is prefixed.

Source: Prefatory Note by Francis G. Peabody. A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the Use of General Readers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1910, p. vi.

_____________________________

IV.13. SOCIAL INSURANCE
ROBERT F. FOERSTER

[Note: items in square brackets have been added
by the curator of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror]

In this section are comprised works upon those measures, usually public but not always technically insurance, which aim to protect the working classes from the economic consequences of sickness, accident, invalidity and old age. Ways of meeting the problem of unemployment, though in part logically finding a place here, are for special reasons treated in a separate section. The importance, in this connection, of such titles described under Thrift Institutions as Henderson’s “Industrial insurance in the United States” and the report by the United States Commissioner of Labor on “Workmen’s insurance and benefit funds in the United States” is obvious.

I. GENERAL

United States Library of Congress. Select list of references on workingmen’s insurance. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908, pp. 28.

A helpful compilation.

Zacher, Georg, editor. Die Arbeiterversicherung im Auslande. Berlin: A. Troschel, 1898 –.

This, the most valuable work of reference on social insurance, is a collection of historical and descriptive monographs for all important countries, except Germany, published at intervals since 1898. Each volume discusses the results of laws, contains a special bibliography, and prints the texts of laws both in the original language and in German. As significant changes have occurred, supplementary volumes have been added.

[Erster Band (1900). Heft 1-12: Dänemark, Schweden, Norwegen, Frankreich, England, Italien, Oesterreich, Ungarn, Russland, Finland, Schweiz, Belgien.]

[Heft XVII. Charles Richmond Henderson, Die Arbeiterversicherung in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-Amerika (1907)]

Bellom, Maurice. Les lois d’assurance ouvrière à l’étranger. 10 vols. Paris: Arthur Rousseau, 1892-1909.

A compilation second in importance only to Zacher, but different in procedure and omitting France. Like Zacher, it supplies historical and descriptive matter and texts, but instead of treating each country independently, it discusses, in one volume, sickness insurance; in six, accident insurance; in two, invalidity and old-age insurance; and in a supplementary volume, published four years after its predecessor, describes recent changes and additions.

[I. Assurance contre maladie (1892)]

[II. Assurance contre les accidents: 1ème parti (1895); 2ème partie (1896); 3ème partie (1900); 4ème partie (1901); 5ème partie (1903)]

[III. Assurance contre l’invalidité, 1ère partie (1905)]

Congrès Internationaux [des Accidents du Travail et] des Assurances Sociales. Publications. Paris: 1890.

The international congress has usually been held triennially, since 1889, and its proceedings, including many important papers, have been published in French and German.

[Paris (1889) Volume I; Volume II; Berne (1891); Milan (1894) Volume I, Volume II; Bruxelles (1897); Paris (1900), Volume I; Düsseldorf (1902); Vienne (1905), Volume I, Volume II; Rome (1908); Washington (1915)]

The quarterly Bulletin of the Congress, published by the Comité Permanent (Paris: Arthur Rousseau), is the best current source of information on all branches of social insurance. It includes texts of bills and laws, and able discussions.

Willoughby, William Franklin. Workingmen’s insurance. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1898, pp. xii, 386.

This volume, dealing mainly with European plans, can still, despite the great extension of insurance since its appearance, reliably be used for an understanding of the earlier developments.

United States. Fourth Special Report of the Commissioner of Labor. Compulsory insurance in Germany. Prepared by John Graham Brooks. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1893, pp. 370. [Revised Edition, 1895]

Although important amendments have been enacted and fresh experience gained since this volume was written, it is still one of the most useful accounts in English of the origin, nature and problems of social insurance in Germany.

Lass, Ludwig, and Zahn, Friedrich. Einrichtung und Wirkung der deutschen Arbeiterversicherung. Dritte Ausgabe. Berlin: A. Asher, 1904, ix, 274 S.

Probably the best non-technical exposition of the nature, operation and effects of the German insurance plan. Though the work is semi-official, and its tone laudatory and defensive, the arguments are skillfully chosen, well put and persuasive.

Pinkus, N. Workmen’s insurance in Germany. Yale Review, February, 1904, pp. 372-389; May, 1904, pp. 72-97; November, 1904, pp. 296-323; February, 1905, pp. 418-434.

Discusses the principles and effects of German insurance.

Farnam, Henry W. The psychology of German workmen’s insurance. Yale Review, May, 1904, pp. 98-113; February, 1905, pp. 435-438.

Argues that insurance has not made the workman better disposed to state or employer and has reduced his self-reliance.

Taussig, F. W. Workmen’s insurance in Germany: some illustrative figures. Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1909, pp. 191-194.

Measures the employers’ burden.

Seager, Henry Rogers. Social insurance: A program of social reform. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910, pp. v, 175.

An attractive statement, in simple terms, of the principles of social insurance, with special reference to American needs.

Lewis, Frank. State insurance. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1909, pp. 233.

An argument for compulsory insurance; good in its exposition of the German plan, questionable in its economic logic.

Kennedy, James B. Beneficiary features of American trade unions. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1908, pp. 128.

A concise study, based on original sources. Only national and international unions are considered.

Weyl, Walter E. Benefit features of British trade unions. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 64, May, 1906, pp. 699-848.

A history and description, with statistical results.

II. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS AND DISEASE

Hoffman, Frederick L. Industrial accidents. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 78, September, 1908, pp. 417-465.

Discusses the frequency of accidents in the more dangerous occupations.

Oliver, Thomas, editor. Dangerous trades. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1902, pp. xxiii, 891.

Probably the best available volume in its field. The sixty chapters deal more generally with disease than accidents. Of a more popular character is the author’s later volume on “Diseases of occupations” (London: Methuen & Co., 1908, pp. vi, 427).

Andrews, John B. Phosphorus poisoning in the match industry of the United States. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 86, January, 1910, pp. 31-146.

Sommerfeld, Th., and others. List of industrial poisons. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 86, January, 1910, pp. 147-168.

Two good additions to the literature on industrial disease.

Foreign Workmen’s Compensation Acts, Summary of. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 74, January, 1908, pp. 121-143.

A compendious, classified statement of the enactments of twenty-two countries, convenient at once for a rapid view of the legislation of one country and for international comparison.

McKitrick, Reuben. Accident insurance for workingmen (Comparative Legislation Bulletin No. 20). Madison: Wisconsin Library Commission, 1909, pp. 70.

The legal and financial principles of various forms of accident insurance clearly explained.

Aronson, V. R. The Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1906. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1909, pp. 559.

“The object of this book is to present a complete view of the law of workmen’s compensation as contained in the Act of 1906, and in the decisions of the English and Scotch courts both prior and subsequent to that act” (preface, page 5). In this aim the book admirably succeeds; it is thorough, clear and, in its comparisons with the older acts, highly instructive.

Parker, Launcelot. The British Workmen’s Compensation Acts. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 70, May, 1907, pp. 579-638.

A history of previous acts and an exposition, with the text, of the Act of 1906.

Clark, Lindley D. The legal liability of employers for injuries to their employees in the United States. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 74, January, 1908, pp. 1-120.

An excellent statement of the American law.

Eastman, Crystal. Work-accidents and the law. (The Pittsburgh Survey.) New York: Charities Publication Committee, pp. xvi, 345.

An important study, by the secretary of the New York State Employers’ Liability Commission, of the causes of industrial accident in the Pittsburgh district, the operation of present liability laws, and the best method of reform. There are interesting appendices.

New York. Commission on employers’ liability. First report, March 19, 1910. Albany, 1910, pp. v, 271.

An able preliminary discussion of present difficulties and of remedies.

Wisconsin. Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics. Thirteenth biennial report. Part I: Industrial accidents and employer’s liability in Wisconsin. Madison, 1909, pp. 1-143. Fourteenth biennial report. Part II: Industrial accidents in Wisconsin. Madison, 1909, pp. 69-142.

These reports discuss conditions in Wisconsin, and foreign and American remedies, tried and proposed.

The State Coöperative Accident Insurance Fund of Maryland. United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin No. 57, March, 1905, pp. 645-648.

History of an ill-conceived and ephemeral, but not uninstructive, American plan of state insurance. The text of the law appeared in Bulletin No. 45, pp. 406-408; the grounds of its unconstitutionality are set forth in Bulletin No. 57, pp. 689, 690.

III. INVALIDITY AND OLD AGE

Massachusetts. Report of the Commission on Old Age Pensions, Annuities and Insurance. Boston, 1910, pp. 409.

A comprehensive survey of existing systems, public and private, national and local. Issues are discussed with special reference to an American community; and a conclusion adverse to the institution of a state scheme for Massachusetts is reached.

Brandeis, Louis D. Massachusetts savings-bank insurance and pension system. Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical Association, March, 1909, pp. 409-416.

A brief exposition of an interesting voluntary scheme.

Sutherland, William. Old age pensions. London: Methuen & Co., 1907, pp. x, 227.

A concise critical description of the various plans proposed in England before the act of 1908, and a thoughtful discussion of the factors of the pension problem. In an appendix are reviewed the chief foreign systems. The book serves incidentally as a guide to the important Parliamentary papers on the subject.

Old Age Pensions: A collection of short papers. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903, pp. 247.

Many of the articles are of general significance and are written by eminent students.

Source: Teachers in Harvard University, A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, Lists of Books and Articles Selected and Described for the Use of General Readers. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, 1910, pp. 203-209.

Image Source: Assistant Professor of Social Ethics, Robert Franz Foerster in Harvard Album 1920.

Tags Foerster

Economists Harvard

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, Hermann F. Arens, 1918

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-01-20

Besides being a typical addition to the collection of posts “Meet an Economics Ph.D. alumna/us”, we may consider the life/career of Hermann Franklin Arens (Harvard A.B., A.M., and Ph.D.) as that of a poster-child of a “non-survivor” in the history of economics. Serious historians worry about the survivor-bias in the accounts that are read that would systematically miss evidence of potentially productive scholarly/scientific paths not attempted. Evidence of what has actually happened to those who voluntarily or involuntarily separated from active careers in economic research will be haphazard and difficult to gather (e.g., I have been unable to find Arens’ date of death in a casual search), but at least Economics in the Rear-view Mirror can provide an occasional empirical reminder of these least-studied characters in the history of economics.

Even within the truncated autobiographical account of Arens’ post-Harvard career, we pick up the following self-deprecating and heavily ironic remark that points to his status as a “non-survivor”:

Outside of making a living for a family, I have accomplished practically nothing.

_________________

Harvard Class 1907, 25th Anniversary Report (1932)

HERMANN FRANKLIN ARENS

Born: Boston, Mass., May 3, 1882. Son of Edward Johannes, Adelma Sohmes (Atkinson) Arens.

Prepared at Dummer Academy, and Newburyport High School, Newburyport, Mass.

In College: 1903-06. Degrees: A.B. 1907; A. M. 1913; Ph.D. 1918.

Married Elizabeth Clare McNamara, Sept. 11, 1907. New York, N.Y. Children: Hermann Athanasius, May 4, 1911; Winifred Adelma, Feb. 16, 1914; Friederich Vincent, April 6, 1916; Mary Elizabeth, March 28, 1918 (died April 28, 1928); Konrad, Jan. 11, 1920 (died April 24, 1931).

Occupation: Economist.

Address: 2 Woodworth St., Neponset, Mass.

At present I am the staff economist and editor for the United Business Service, Boston, and instructor in economics at Northeastern University, Boston.

My most extensive travels were a trip to Japan and China in the winter of 1922-23.

I have a small wind-jammer, and yachting is the only sport that interests me.

Outside of making a living for a family, I have accomplished practically nothing.

Member: American Economic Association; Royal Economic Society (life fellow).

Source: Harvard Class of 1907. Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report, Sixth Report. Norwood, Mass.: Plimpton Press, June 1932.

_________________

General Exam Report (1914)

Hermann Franklin Arens.

General Examination in Economics, Friday, May 15, 1914.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Sprague, Anderson, Foerster, and Yerkes.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1903-06; Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, 1906-08; General Theological Seminary, New York, 1908-09; Harvard Graduate School, 1912—. A.B., Harvard, 1907; A.M. ibid., 1913. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1912-13; Assistant in Social Ethics, 1913—.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology. 3. Socialism and Labor Problems. 4. Philosophy. 5. Agricultural Economics. 6. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.
Special Subject: Sociology.
Thesis Subject: (undecided).

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1913-14”.

_________________

Harvard Ph.D. Report (1918)

Hermann Franklin Arens.

Special Examination in Economics, Monday, April 29, 1918.
General Examination passed May 15, 1914.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1903-06; Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, 1906-08; General Theological Seminary, New York, 1908-09; Harvard Graduate School, 1912-16. A.B., Harvard, 1907; A.M., ibid., 1913. Assistant in Economics, 1912-13; Assistant in Social Ethics, 1913-14; Assistant in Economics, 1914-15.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology. 3. Socialism and Labor Problems. 4. Philosophy. 5. Agricultural Economics. 6. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.
Special Subject: Sociology.
Committee: Professors Carver (chairman), Day, Anderson, and Foerster.
Thesis Subject: “The Relation of the Group to the Individual in Political Theory.” (With Professor Anderson.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Anderson, Carver, and Yeomans.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1917-18”.

_________________

1926 Directory of Harvard Ph.D.’s

1918. Arens, Hermann Franklin [Economics].

Thesis title: The relation of the group to the individual in political theory.

A.B. Harvard University, 1907; A.M. Harvard University, 1913.
1918. Economics Expert, Babson Statistical Organization, Wellesley Hills, Mass.
1926. Editor, United Business Service Co. 210 Newbury St., Boston, Mass.

Sources:

Harvard University. Doctors of Philosophy and Doctors of Science Who have received their Degree in Course from Harvard University, 1873-1926, with the Titles of their Theses. Cambridge: 1926.

Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, Reports of the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (available at the Harvard Archives Online Reference Shelf).

Image Source: Harvard Class of 1907. Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report, Sixth Report. Norwood, Mass.: Plimpton Press, June 1932.

Tags Anderson, Arens, Carver, Day, Foerster, Taussig, Yeomans

Harvard Teaching Undergraduate

Harvard. Memos on teaching assistants and grading in economics courses, 1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-11-09

Six memos primarily concerned with the supervision of teaching assistants in economics courses, but also other interesting incidental detail is revealed. Of the six professors listed on economics department letterhead, Taussig was able to get a memorandum from everyone except for O. M. W. Sprague.

I have provided additional information from the published course announcements, annual Presidential Reports, along with some additional information on the subsequent careers of some of the teaching assistants named.

__________________

Taussig’s Cover Letter

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 22, 1911.

Dear Mr. Blake:

You remember that you made some inquiries on the President’s behalf concerning the extent to which the work of assistants was supervised in the various courses. I enclose a batch of memoranda concerning the courses in our Department, and think they tell the whole story. If further information is desired, we shall be glad to supply it.

Very truly yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

Mr. J. A. L. Blake

__________________

Frank W. Taussig and Edmund Ezra Day’s Courses

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 1. Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Taussig, assisted by Drs. [Charles Phillips] Huse [Harvard Ph.D., 1907], [Edmund Ezra] Day [Harvard Ph.D., 1909], and [Robert Franz] Foerster [Harvard Ph.D., 1909], and Messrs. Sharfman [not included in ex-post staffing report in President’s Report] and [Alfred Burpee] Balcom [Harvard A.M. (1909), S.B. Acadia (1907), Nova Scotia].

[Economics] 18b ²hf. Banking and Foreign Exchange. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day [Harvard Ph.D., 1909].

[Economics] 12 ¹hf. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day [Harvard Ph.D., 1909].

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Memorandum regarding Economics 1

The professor in charge lectures twice a week. For the third hour the men are divided into sections, conducted on the familiar plan. Every Thursday afternoon, throughout the year, I meet the section instructors and discuss the work of the week with them. Questions to be asked at the section meetings are proposed by the instructors, are approved, vetoed, or modified, by myself. Usually we come to an understanding as to the topics to be discussed in the sections after the papers have been written. Not infrequently we arrange for diagrams or figures to be used, identically in all the sections; these touching points which it is desired to make clear. Immediately after the mid-year and final examinations I always meet the instructors and we read a batch of blue books together; we compare our grades, questions by questions, and try to make sure that the same standard is applied in all cases. My experience is that there is substantial uniformity in the grading.

Some of my instructors, who have charge of large numbers in their own courses, have readers to assist them in the examination of the weekly papers. Dr. Day reports as follows concerning the weekly papers in his sections: “I always instruct the “reader” as to exactly what is expected in answer to the question assigned. Students are encouraged to refer to me any cases of grading where injustice seems to have been done and, where such cases disclose any error or inaccuracy in the grading, the matter is carefully reviewed with the reader.” I may add that Dr. Day reports that he personally grades all the papers both in Economics 12 and 8b.

__________________

Courses of Thomas Nixon Carver

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 3. Principles of Sociology.—Theories of Social Progress. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Professor Carver and an assistant [Lucius Moody Bristol listed in President’s Report 1910-11 as the course teaching assistant].

[Economics] 14a ¹hf. The Distribution of Wealth. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Thu., at 1.30.Professor Carver.

[Economics] 14b ²hf. Methods of Social Reform.—Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Thu., at 1.30. Professor Carver.
Open only to those who have passed satisfactorily in Economics 14a.

Information about the teaching assistant actually named by Carver

Harvard A.M. (1911), but no Harvard Ph.D.

Philip Benjamin Kennedy received his A.M. from Harvard in 1911; A.B. Beloit (Wis.) 1905; Litt.B. Occidental (Cal.) 1906.

Source: Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University 1636-1915.p. 574.

Additional biographical information.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Taussig:

In Economics 3 the class is divided into two sections for Friday conferences. Mr. Kennedy, the assistant, takes one section and I take the other, but we alternate. Each section has a fifteen-minute paper on the day when Mr. Kennedy has it. There is no paper in the section meeting when I conduct it.

As to blue book reading, etc., I do not read any of the Friday papers. I read hour and final examination papers only in those cases where Mr. Kennedy gives and A or an E, where he is doubtful, and where the student is dissatisfied with his mark. Then, too, I always read the paper for any student who asks me to. Mr. Kennedy and I go over all the grades together and make up the final return.

In Economics 14a and 14b, there are no section meetings. The blue books are marked and the term averages made out in the same way as in Economics 3.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
T. N. Carver
[initials: O.H.]

Professor Taussig.

__________________

William Morse Cole’s Accounting Course

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 18. Principles of Accounting. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Asst. Professor Cole and an assistant [Messrs. Johnson and Platt].
Course 18 is not open to students before their last year of undergraduate work. For men completing their work at the end of the first half-year, it may be counted, with the consent of the instructor, as a half-course.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 23, 1911

Dear Professor Taussig

With regard to the supervision of assistants’ work in Economics 18, I have to report as follows:

There are no section meetings in charge of assistants, though if competent assistants were available I might have such work done. The work of my chief assistant is reading short papers written in the classroom and reading outside written work and blue-books. I have attempted to keep a uniform standard where several men have been reading for me at once by having a bunch of papers read by all the readers and then by me in their presence for comparison and comment. Even then there has been some variation and I have sometimes myself reread all questions where variation seemed most likely to occur. For that reason, I have this year had all reading of short papers and blue-books done by one man, who has shown himself of unusually sound judgment. I have been over all short papers with him, and read after him a bunch of mid-year books—-after I had been through several books with him. In all cases where a few points would affect a man’s grade I have personally examined the blue-book in confirmation of my assistant’s judgment. This is his third year of work for me, and I have very great confidence in him, for after innumerable checks on his work I have never found it erring more than human frailty is bound to err.

His other work has been of two parts: assisting me occasionally in the voluntary conferences which I offer weekly for assistance to men who cannot keep the pace that I set for the class work as a whole (on the principle that the quick men should not be required to attend three meetings a week if the third is necessary only for those who do not take naturally to this sort of thing); and holding required conferences with thesis writers, and reading theses. I have not had much check on the conference work and the reading of theses, for two reasons: the theses are on reports of corporations, and since no man can be familiar with the annual reports of many score of such corporations, he can not determine omissions of facts (since there is no uniformity), but only the application of certain fundamental principles, which I know that my assistants are familiar with; the theses are written merely to give the men practice in reading between the lines of actual reports, and the result of that practice shows not only in the theses themselves but in all a man’s work, especially in the final examination, so that the reading of the thesis is done rather to determine whether a man has used the opportunity afforded him for practice, than to determine how much good he has got out of it—-for the amount of good is reflected in many ways, and to pass judgment on the correctness of the conclusions drawn in each particular thesis would require that the judge should have devoted long study to the reports with which the thesis is concerned.

The reading of theses, and the conference work in connection with them, is done by four or five assistants.

With the additional funds allowed by the contribution of the visiting committee, I shall have more short papers done in the third-hour meetings and shall make attendance required for men whose work shows that they need it.

Sincerely yours
[signed]
William Morse Cole

__________________

Economic history courses of Edwin F. Gay

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Fall term, 1910-11 taught by Professor Edwin Francis Gay, assisted by Julius Klein.

Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States. Spring term, 1910-11 taught by Professor Edwin Francis Gay, assisted by Julius Klein.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Office of the Dean

Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 4, 1911

Dear Taussig:

I have assistance, as you know, in only one course, 6a and 6b. In this course as I have run it this year a half-hour test on reading is given every fortnight and a thesis is written. The reading of the papers for the half-hour test is left almost entirely in the hands of the Assistant. When I am breaking in a new man I usually look over some of the papers at the beginning to see that he gets the proper idea in regard to grading. He holds a series of conferences with the students in regard to their theses, referring them in cases of difficulty to me. The Assistant reads the theses but I myself make it a point to read them all in addition, since it is very difficult to grade these properly. The Assistant reads the final blue books in the course but I myself sample the final blue books and in all doubtful cases read the final blue book in addition to the thesis.

I think this answer the points raised by your question.

Very truly yours,
[signed]
Edwin F. Gay.

Professor F. W. Taussig

__________________

Public Finance Course of Charles Bullock

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 7 ²hf. Public Finance, considered with special reference to the Theory and Methods of Taxation. Half-course (second half-year) Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Professor Bullock and an assistant.

[Note: in the ex post staffing report in the President’s Report the instructor is listed as Dr. [Charles Phillips] Huse [Harvard Ph.D., 1907], assisted by Wilfred Eldred (Harvard Ph.D. 1919) and Roscoe Russell Hess (Harvard A.B. (1911) magna cum laude)]

Possible Harvard Undergraduate as a teaching assistant

Roscoe Russell Hess [I am guessing this was the teaching assistant in the public finance course]

Source: Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University 1636-1915.p. 449.

Bowdoin Prizes for dissertations in English for undergraduates: first prize of $250, Roscoe Russell Hess ’11, of Seattle, Wash., on “The Paper Industry and Its Relation to the Conservation and the Tariff”

Source: Harvard Crimson, May 17, 1911.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 7, 1911

My dear Taussig:

My arrangements with the assistants in Economics 7 are substantially as follows:

I meet with them on Wednesday at 3.30 and go over with them fully the work for the conferences on Friday and Saturday. We first select questions for the paper that we set the men at the sections, aiming of course to make the questions given the different sections a nearly as possible of equal difficulty. I also go over the subjects treated in the assigned reading for the week and indicate the points which I think the assistants would better emphasize in the oral discussion in the sections.

During the early part of the half-year I also meet the assistants each week to confer with them about the marking of the weekly papers. The method that we follow is to read together several papers in each of the divisions, discussing the proper marks to be assigned to the papers until we find that we have come to substantial agreement.

I think in general you can say that the method followed in 7 is substantially like the method followed in Economics 1.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
C. J. Bullock
[initials: O. H.]

Professor Taussig

__________________

Labor and Transportation Courses taught by W. Z. Ripley

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 5 ¹hf. Economics of Transportation. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Thu., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Whitnack.

[Economics] 9a ¹hf. Problems of Labor. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Thu., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Whitnack.

Teaching assistant Whitnack probably never awarded Ph.D. from Harvard

According to the Quinquennial catalogue, Ralph C. Whitnack did receive an A.M. from Harvard in 1911. Ralph Cahoon Whitnack, formerly Ralph Cahoon Whitenack; A.B. Brown 1906; Prof. Pol. Eco., Keio Univ. (Japan) 1914-.

Source: Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University 1636-1915.p. 574.

Whitnack’s dissertation listed being “in progress” in 1915

Doctoral dissertation “Social stratification” in progress listed in the AER list of doctoral dissertations in progress American Economic Review, Vol. 5, No. 2 (June 1915), p. 477.

Whitnack’s death in 1919

Professor Ralph Cahoon Whitnack, formerly professor of economics at Keio University, Tokio, died April 14, 1919. At the time of his death Professor Whitnack was serving as joint revenue commissioner for the native state of Baroda, India. He had direct jurisdiction over the departments of excise and customs, agriculture and cooperative credit. During 1918 and until his death he was price controller and director of civil supplies.

Source: Notes in American Economic Review, Vol. 9, No. 4 (December 1919), p. 946.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts
24 February 1911.

Dear Professor Taussig,–

I have pleasure, in accordance with your note of even date, and in the absence of Professor Ripley, in submitting the following memorandum concerning the relations between instructor, assistant and students in Economics 5 and 9a.

The weekly section meetings are held under the direction of the assistant, after conference in each case between the assistant and instructor as to the issues to be discussed and general methods pursued.

Conferences concerning theses are held concurrently by the instructor and assistant at advertised hours. Each student is required to confer at least once with either instructor or assistant before handing in thesis.

The instructor has three hours per week, and the assistant one or more as required, for general conference with students who seek it.

The correction of weekly papers is done by the assistant.

The correction and grading of hour examinations, theses and blue books is done by the assistant under the supervision and in conference with the instructor. In particular all grades of E, A and D are scrutinized by the instructor, who goes over the blue-books and theses and assigns finalgrades in consultation with the assistant.

Very sincerely yours,
R. C. Whitnack
Austin J. Fellow: Ec. 5 and 9a.

__________________

Source for the memoranda:

Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers, 1909-1914. Box 15, Folder 413 “1909-14”.

Source for course listings information:

Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1910-11.

Source for ex post staffing of courses:

Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, pp. 48ff.

Source for Harvard economics Ph.D.’s:

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror’s page “Harvard. Doctoral Dissertations in Economics, 1875-1926”.

Image Source: Harvard University #2, Cambridge, Mass, c1910. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Tags Balcom, Bristol, Bullock, Carver, ColeWM, Day, Eldred, Foerster, Gay, Huse, KennedyPB, KleinJulius, Ripley, Sharfman, Taussig, Whitnack

Social Ethics 1-7 1912-13

Social Ethics Instructors 1911-12

Social Ethics 1. Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance and the Labor Question

Course Enrollment

Year-end Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 1

Social Ethics 2. Practical Problems of Social Service

Course Enrollment

Year-End Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 2

Social Ethics 3. Criminology and Penology

Social Ethics 4. Social Problems of Immigration and Race

Course Enrollment

Mid-year Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 4

Social Ethics 5. The Housing Problem

Course Enrollment

Mid-year Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 5

Social Ethics 6. Social Amelioration in Europe

Course Enrollment

Year-end Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 6

Social Ethics 7. Rural Social Development

Course Enrollment

Year-End Examination SOCIAL ETHICS 7

Social Ethics à la Peabody 1888/89—1911/12

Earlier 20th century course material:

Social Ethics Instructors 1911-12

Social Ethics 1-7 1911-12

Application of Ethical Theory to Present Social Problems

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Final Examination 1911-12

Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work: Practical Problems

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 2

Criminology and Penology

Course Description Not taught in 1911-12

Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 4

Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State

Course Description Not taught in 1911-12

Social Amelioration in Europe

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 6

Rural Social Development

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 7

Social Ethics à la Peabody 1888/89—1910/11

Social Ethics à la Peabody 1888-1910

Social Ethics Course Instructors 1910-11

Social Ethics 1-7 1910-11

The Ethics of Modern Industrialism

Enrollment Social Ethics 1 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 1 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 1 Year-end Examination 1910-11

Practical Problems of Social Service

Enrollment Social Ethics 2 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 2 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 2 Year-end Exam 2010-11

Selected Topics in Social Ethics

Enrollment Social Ethics 4 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 4 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4 Mid-year Examination 1910-11

The Moral Responsibilities of the Modern State

Enrollment Social Ethics 5 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 5 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 5 Mid-year Examination 1910-11

Social Amelioration in Europe

Enrollment Social Ethics 6 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 6 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 6 Year-end Examination 1910-11

Rural Social Development

Enrollment Social Ethics 7 1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 7 1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 7 Mid-year Examination 1910-11

Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines) of economics at Harvard 1870/71-1909/10

Course Announcement 1910-11

Course Enrollment 1910-11

Social Ethics 1-7
1912-13

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Social Ethics 1.
Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance and the Labor Question

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 1

Social Ethics 2.
Practical Problems of Social Service

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 2

Social Ethics 3.
Criminology and Penology

Social Ethics 4.
Social Problems of Immigration and Race

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 4

Social Ethics 5.
The Housing Problem

Mid-year Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 5

Social Ethics 6.
Social Amelioration in Europe

Year-end Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 6

Social Ethics 7.
Rural Social Development

Year-End Examination
SOCIAL ETHICS 7

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1911/12

Social Ethics Instructors
1911-12

Social Ethics 1-7
1911-12

Application of Ethical Theory
to Present Social Problems

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

Public Aid, Charity, and Neighborhood Work:
Practical Problems

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Course Description
Not taught in 1911-12

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888/89—1910/11

Social Ethics à la Peabody
1888-1910

Social Ethics Course Instructors
1910-11

Social Ethics 1-7
1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 1
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 1
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 2
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 2
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 2
Year-end Exam 2010-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 4
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 4
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

The Moral Responsibilities
of the Modern State

Enrollment Social Ethics 5
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 5
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 5
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 6
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 6
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 6
Year-end Examination
1910-11

Enrollment Social Ethics 7
1910-11

Description of Social Ethics 7
1910-11

SOCIAL ETHICS 7
Mid-year Examination
1910-11

Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1909/10

Course Announcement
1910-11

Course Enrollment
1910-11

ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers
strictly in the order of the questions.
Give your reasons in all cases.

ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers
strictly in the order of the questions.
Answer all the questions.

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Announcement
1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Course Enrollment
1909-10

SOCIAL ETHICS 4
Final Examination
1909-10

Course Descriptions for
Economics and Social Ethics,
1920-21

One Harvard Graduate’s Memoir
of the 1920s

[ASSIGNED READINGS]
IN SOCIAL ETHICS

Course Description
1908-09

Course Enrollment
1908-09

SOCIAL ETHICS 1
Year-end Examination 1908-09

IV.13. SOCIAL INSURANCE
ROBERT F. FOERSTER

[Note: items in square brackets have been added
by the curator of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror]

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS