Tag: Foerster

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Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Thirteen Economics Ph.D. Examinees, 1908-09.

 

 

This posting lists the five graduate students in economics who took their subject examinations for the Ph.D. at Harvard from March 12 through May 21, 1908. The examination committee members, academic history, general and specific subjects are provided along with the doctoral thesis subject, when declared. Lists for 1903-04, 1904-05, 1906-07, 1907-08, 1915-16, and 1926-27 were posted previously. In the same archival box one finds lists for the academic years 1902-03 through 1904-05, 1906-07 through 1913-14, 1915-16, 1917-18 through 1918-19, and finally 1926-27. I only include graduate students of economics (i.e. not included are the Ph.D. candidates in history and government).

Titles and dates of Harvard economic dissertations for the period 1875-1926 can be found here.

________________________________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.

1908-09

Edmund Thornton Miller.

General Examination in Economics, January 7, 1909.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Gay, Sprague, and Mitchell.
Academic History: University of Texas, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-03, 1907-09; A.B. (University of Texas) 1900; A.M. (ibid) 1901; A.M. (Harvard) 1903. Instructor in Political Science, University of Texas, 1904-; Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1908-09.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History since 1750. 4. Money, Banking and Transportation. 5. Public Finance and Financial History. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Public Finance and the Financial History of the United States since 1789.
Thesis Subject: “The Financial History of Texas.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

Charles Edward Persons.

General Examination in Economics, February 25, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Gay, MacDonald, and Ripley.
Academic History: Cornell College (Iowa), 1898-1903; Harvard Graduate School, 1904-05, 1906-09; A.B. (Cornell College) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1905. Instructor in Economics at Wellesley College, 1908-.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History from 1750. 4. Sociology and Social Reform. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Industrial History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The History of the Ten-Hour Law in Massachusetts.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Frank Richardson Mason.

Special Examination in Economics, May 3, 1909.
General Examination passed May 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Bullock, Ripley, Mitchell, and Sprague.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-08; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906. Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1906-08.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Silk Industry in America.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Bullock, and Sprague.

 

Robert Franz Foerster.

Special Examination in Economics, May 12, 1909.
General Examination passed May 21, 1908.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Peabody, Carver, Ripley, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-05; University of Berlin, 1905-06 (Winter Semester); Harvard Graduate School, 1906-09; A.B. (Harvard) 1906. Assistant in Social Ethics (Harvard), 1908-09.
Special Subject: Labor Problems.
Thesis Subject: “Emigration from Italy, with special reference to the United States.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Ripley, and Gay.

 

David Frank Edwards.

General Examination in Economics, May 13, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Ripley, MacDonald, Mitchell, and Sprague.
Academic History: Ohio Wesleyan University, 1899-1903; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-06; A. B. (Ohio Wesleyan) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1906. Teacher, High School of Commerce (Boston), 1907-.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization (and Social Reform). 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 4. Commercial Geography and Foreign Commerce. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: International Trade and Tariff Problems.
Thesis Subject: “The Glass Industry in the United States.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Harley Leist Lutz.

General Examination in Economics, May 14, 1909.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Carver, Gay, MacDonald, and Sprague.
Academic History: Oberlin College, 1904-07; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-09; A. B. (Oberlin) 1907; A.M. (Harvard) 1908. Assistant (Oberlin), 1906-07; Austin Teaching Fellow (Harvard), 1908-09.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750, with especial reference to England. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 5. Public Finance and Financial History. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Public Finance and Financial History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “State Control over the Assessment of Property for Local Taxation.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

Joseph Stancliffe Davis.

General Examination in Economics, May 17, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Bullock, Ripley, Mitchell, and Dr. Tozzer.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1904-08; Harvard Graduate School, 1908-09; A. B. (Harvard) 1908; Assistant in Economics (Harvard) 1908-09.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Progress. 4. Money, Banking, and Industrial Organization. 5. History of American Institutions, especially since 1783. 6. Anthropology, especially Ethnology.
Special Subject: Corporations (Industrial Organization).
Thesis Subject: “The Policy of New Jersey toward Business Corporations.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

James Ford.

Special Examination in Economics, May 19, 1909.
General Examination passed May 16, 1906.
Committee: Professors Carver (chairman), Peabody, Ripley, Taussig, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-04; Harvard Graduate School, 1904-06, 1907-09; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906. Robert Treat Paine Travelling Fellow, 1906-07; Assistant, Social Ethics (Harvard), 1907-09.
Special Subject: Social Reform (Socialism, Communism, Anarchism).
Thesis Subject: “Distributive and Productive Coöperative Societies in New England.” (With Professor Carver.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Carver, Peabody, and Taussig.

 

Edmund Ezra Day.

Special Examination in Economics, May 20, 1909.
General Examination passed May 23, 1907.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Ripley, Munro, and Mr. Parker.
Academic History: Dartmouth College, 1901-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-07, 1908-09; S.B. (Dartmouth) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906. Instructor in Economics, Dartmouth College, 1907-.
Special Subject: Public Finance and Financial History of the United States since 1789.
Thesis Subject: “The History of the General Property Tax in Massachusetts.” (With Professor Bullock.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Bullock, Taussig, and Ripley.

 

Clyde Orval Ruggles.

General Examination in Economics, May 20, 1909.
Committee: Professors Ripley (chairman), Carver, Taussig, Gay, and MacDonald.
Academic History: Hedrick Normal School, 1895-96; Iowa State Normal School and Teachers’ College of Iowa, 1901-06; State University of Iowa, 1906-07; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-09; A. B. (Teachers’ College) 1906; A.M. (State Univ.) 1907.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology and Social Reform. 3. Statistics. 4. Economic History to 1750, with especial reference to England. 5. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Money and Banking.
Thesis Subject: “The Greenback Movement with especial Reference to Wisconsin and Iowa.” (With Professors Andrew and Mitchell.)

 

Edmund Thornton Miller.

Special Examination in Economics, May 21, 1909.
General Examination passed January 7, 1909.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Mitchell, and Sprague.
Committee on Thesis: Professors Bullock, Taussig, and Mitchell.
(See first item for Academic History etc.)

 

Emil Sauer.

General Examination in Economics, May 21, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Gay, Mitchell, Munro, and Ripley.
Academic History: University of Texas, 1900-03, 1904-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1907-09; Litt.B. (University of Texas) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1908.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Statistics. 4. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 5. Transportation and Industrial Organization. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 and the Relations between the United States and Hawaii, 1875-1900.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Charles Edward Persons.

Special Examination in Economics, May 24, 1909.
General Examination passed February 25, 1909.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Peabody, Bullock, Ripley, and Sprague.
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Bullock, and Ripley.
(See second item for Academic History etc.)

 

Carl William Thompson.

General Examination in Economics, June 2, 1909.
Committee: Professors Carver (chairman), Taussig, Sprague, Ripley, Cole, and MacDonald.
Academic History: Valparaiso College, 1899-1901; University of South Dakota, 1902-03; Harvard Graduate School, 1903-04; A.B. (Valparaiso) 1901; B.O. (ibid) 1901; A.B. (South Dakota) 1903; A.M. (ibid.) 1903; A.M. (Harvard) 1904. Professor of Economics and Sociology, University of South Dakota.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Sociology and Social Reform. 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 4. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 5. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization.. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: (undecided).
Thesis Subject: (undecided.)

 

Arthur Norman Holcombe.

Special Examination in Economics, June 7, 1909.
General Examination passed April 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Ripley, Bullock, Cole, and Munro.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-09; A.B. (Harvard) 1906; Assistant in Economics (Harvard), 1906-07; Rogers Travelling Fellow, 1907-09
Special Subject: Public Service Industries.
Thesis Subject: ”The Telephone Situation.” (with Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Ripley, and Munro.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D. 1908-09”.

Image Source:  Harvard Gate, ca. 1899. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

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Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Five Economics Ph.D. examinees, 1907-08

 

This posting lists the five graduate students in economics who took their subject examinations for the Ph.D. at Harvard from March 12 through May 21, 1908. The examination committee members, academic history, general and specific subjects are provided along with the doctoral thesis subject, when declared. Lists for 1903-04, 1904-05, 1906-07, 1915-16, and 1926-27 were posted previously. In the same archival box one finds lists for the academic years 1902-03 through 1904-05, 1906-07 through 1913-14, 1915-16, 1917-18 through 1918-19, and finally 1926-27. I only include graduate students of economics (i.e. not included are the Ph.D. candidates in history and government).

Titles and dates of Harvard economic dissertations for the period 1875-1926 can be found here.

______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.

 

1907-08

Walter Wallace McLaren.

Special Examination in Economics, Thursday, March 12, 1908.
General Examination passed April 10, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), McLean (University of Toronto), Gay, Bullock and Munro.
Academic History: Queen’s University (Canada), 1894-99; Queen’s University Theological College, 1899-1902; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-08; A.M. (Queen’s Univ.) 1899; B:D. (ibid) 1902.
Special Subject: Canadian Economic History.
Thesis Subject: “History of the Canadian Tariff.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Gay, Munro. 

Edmund Thornton Miller.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 6, 1908.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Hart, Ripley, Gay, and Andrew.
Academic History: University of Texas, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-03, 1907-08; A.B. (University of Texas) 1900; A.M. (ibid) 1901; A.M. (Harvard) 1903.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History since 1750. 4. Money, Banking and Transportation. 5. Public Finance and Financial History. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Public Finance and the Financial History of the United States since 1789.
Thesis Subject: “The Financial History of Texas.” (With Professor Bullock.)

Melvin Thomas Copeland.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 13, 1908.
Committee: Professors Gay (chairman), Taussig, Carver, Hart, Ripley, and Andrew.
Academic History: Bowdoin College, 1902-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-08; A.B. (Bowdoin) 1906; A.M. (Harvard) 1907.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Statistics. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “Cotton Manufacturing in the United States since 1860.” (With Professor Taussig.)

Frank Richardson Mason.

Special Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 14, 1908.
General Examination passed May 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Gay, Bullock and Andrew.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-07; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Silk Industry in America..” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Carver, and Gay.

Robert Franz Foerster.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 21, 1908.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Royce, Carver, Ripley, Gay, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-05; University of Berlin, 1905-06; A.B. (Harvard) 1906.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Statistics. 5. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization. 6. Philosophy.
Special Subject: Labor Problems.
Thesis Subject: “Emigration from Italy, with special reference to the United States.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1907-1908”.

Image Source: Memorial Hall, ca. 1900. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

 

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Economists Harvard Princeton

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus. Robert Franz Foerster, 1909


Robert Franz Foerster (b. July 8, 1883; d. July 29, 1941) was the son of the American composer Adolph Martin Foerster, earned his BA from Harvard a year ahead of his class and went on at Harvard to earn a Ph.D. in economics on the topic of Italian emigration. The first twenty years of his career following his undergraduate education is sketched in the following four notes he submitted to the secretary of the Class of 1906. Foerster went on to become Professor of Industrial Relations at Princeton University. Some details about his undergraduate years can be gleaned from the Secretary’s First Report Harvard College Class of 1906, Cambridge, Crimson Printing, June 1907.

_______________________________

1912

ROBERT FRANZ FOERSTER

Graduating in 1905, as of 1906, I spent in Europe fourteen months of 1905-1906, travelling in England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Holland and Belgium. For four months I was in Italy, for five in Berlin, where I took courses at the university. In the fall of 1906 I returned to Harvard, where for three years I was in the Graduate School. In 1909 I received the degree of Ph.D. in economics, my thesis dealing with Italian emigration. From 1908-1909 I was an assistant at Harvard in social ethics, from 1909-1911 an instructor, and since 1911 an instructor on the Faculty. I am chairman of the Immigration Committee of the American Unitarian Association and director of the Social Research Council of Boston. The latter has recently been affiliated with the department of social ethics, with offices in Emerson Hall, Cambridge. Books or plays of my authorship: “A Statistical Survey of Italian Emigration,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1908; “The French Old Age Insurance Law of 1910,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1910; “The British National Insurance Act,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 1912; reviews and translations in economic journals; bibliographies in “A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects,” Harvard University, 1910. Member: American Economic Association, American Statistical Association, American Association for Labor Legislation. Business address: Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Present residence: 71 Perkins Hall, Cambridge, Mass.

 

Source:   Secretary’s Second Report Harvard College Class of 1906, Cambridge, Crimson Printing, June 1912, pp. 99-100.

_______________________________

1916

ROBERT FRANZ FOERSTER

Born              Pittsburgh, Pa., July 8, 1883.

Parents         Adolph Martin Foerster, Henrietta Margaret Reineman.

School           Central High School, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Years in College 1902-1905.

Degrees         A.B., 1905 (1906); Ph.D., 1909.

Occupation   University Professor.

Address        (home) 11 Shady Hill Square, Cambridge, Mass. (business) Emerson Hall, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

I have continued to teach in the department of social ethics at Harvard. In 1913 I was promoted to an assistant professorship. Upon the retirement of Dr. Peabody, early in that year, Professor Ford and I took over the conduct of the course “Social Ethics 1” which our predecessor had for many years given as “Philosophy 5″—the first course of a department, established in 1906, which has continued to grow both in courses and in student enrolments. In 1912 I was appointed by Governor Foss chairman of a commission to study the question of the dependency of widows’ families. Our report was presented to the legislature in January of the following year. In the spring, after a considerable fight, a measure providing a system of “mothers’ aid,” based partly on the commission’s bill, was enacted. During the summer of 1913, in an absence from America of six or seven weeks, I journeyed, via the Azores, Madeira, and Algiers, to Sicily, Calabria, and Basilicata, regions in which I had become interested in a study of Italian emigration; I returned via the Tyrol, Switzerland, and France. The summer of 1914 I spent largely in Cambridge, doing a piece of work for Dr. Mackenzie King in connection with the department of industrial relations newly established by the Rockefeller Foundation. In these several years I have maintained connections with various social and philanthropic enterprises. In 1915 I became engaged to Miss Lilian Hillyer Smith, Radcliffe 1915, of Forest Hills, Mass, subsequently of Princeton, N. J. After our marriage, we expect to settle, in the fall, in No. 11 Shady Hill Square, Cambridge. I have written: Report (majority) of the Massachusetts Commission on the Support of Dependent Minor Children of Widowed Mothers (Boston, 1913). Member: Colonial Club, Cambridge, Harvard Club of Boston, American Economic Association, American Association for Labor Legislation, American Statistical Association.

 

Source:   Secretary’s Third Report Harvard College Class of 1906, Cambridge, Crimson Printing, 1916, pp. 139-40.

_______________________________

1921

ROBERT FRANZ FOERSTER

Address:       (home) 11 Shady Hill Sq., Cambridge, Mass.

Occupation: University Professor.

Married:       Lilian Hillyer Smith, Princeton, N. J., June 5, 1916.

I continued after the War broke out to teach at Harvard, and by the Spring of 1918 was the only person left teaching in my department. I had been overworking for a considerable period and suffered a breakdown in April, 1918. Though I continued to teach for the remainder of the Spring Term, I found it impossible to return to the University in the Fall. The Fall and Winter were devoted to the effort to regain my health and included a considerable stay in Johns Hopkins Hospital. At the end of March, 1919 I returned to Harvard to teach. Last Summer (1920) I went abroad with my wife, returning in much sounder health than when I went away, and to-day I regard myself as quite restored to health. (But what an absurdly common thing it is for professor folk at some stage or other to go to pieces!) Late in 1919 I published a comprehensive volume on Italian emigration, which had been on my hands for some years and which I had virtually completed, except for seeing through the press, by the Spring of 1918.

Have written: “The Italian Emigration of our Times” (558 pages). (Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., December, 1919.)

Member: American Economic Association; American Association for Labor Legislation; American Statistical Association.

 

Source:   Harvard College Class of 1906, Fifteenth Anniversary Report (No. 4), Cambridge, Massachusetts: University Press, 1921, pp. 112-113.

_______________________________

1926

ROBERT FRANZ FOERSTER

Address:       4 College Rd., Princeton, N. J.

Occupation:  Economist.

Married:       Lilian Hillyer Smith, Princeton, N. J., June 5, 1916.

Children:      Lilian Egleston, born April 16, 1922; Margaret Dorothea, born October 15, 1924.

In the summer of 1920 I went with my wife to Europe, visiting scenes familiar and unfamiliar. In the late summer of the following year I entered upon various field studies dealing with labor relationships, first in Colorado and subsequently in Western Pennsylvania, and chiefly concerned with the coal industry.

In the summer of 1922 I was appointed to a professorship of economics in Princeton University, where my duties were essentially those of a director of the Industrial Relations Section, an organization interested mainly in constructive action in the field of industrial relations. My immediate duty here was the assembling of documentary information on labor relationships. I have had unusual opportunities for contact with employers and with representatives of the employed and have traveled considerably to places where interesting activities were being carried on.

During my free time in recent years I have undertaken advisory or research work in labor subjects. The results of one such employment, undertaken for the Secretary of Labor, were published in 1925 under the title “The Racial Problems Involved in Immigration from Latin America and the West Indies to the United States,” and brought a variety of interesting reactions.

            Have written: “The Italian Emigration of our Times” (558 pages). (Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., December, 1919.) Various articles; and a report, “The Racial Conditions Involved in Immigration from Latin America and the West Indies to the United States,” published by the Department of Labor, Washington, 1925.

Member: American Economic Association; American Statistical Association; American Association for Labor Legislation; American Management Association; Advisory Committee, Washington Branch Internal Labor Office; Committee on Immigration of Social Science Research Council; Committee on Personnel Management of American Management Association.

 

Source:   Harvard College Class of 1906, Twentieth Anniversary Report (No. 5), Cambridge, Massachusetts: University Press, 1926, pp. 95-96.

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

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Economists Harvard

Harvard. Taussig’s use of own text in his Principles of Economics Course, 1911

“Let those who will—write the nation’s laws—if I can write its textbooks.”
Paul A. Samuelson. 

In 1911 the biggest gun of the Harvard economics department, Frank W. Taussig, published the first edition of his two-volume textbook Principles of Economics. In this posting I provide first his preface that I find particularly interesting for the following two statements:

“…a suitable place for taxation was not easy to find. I concluded finally to put the chapters on this subject at the very close, even though they may have the effect of an anticlimax, coming as they do after those on socialism.”

“[I] have said little on such a topic as the subjective theory of value, which in my judgment is of less service for explaining the phenomena of the real world than is supposed by its votaries. These matters and others of the same sort are best left to the professional literature of the subject.”

The second item is a letter he wrote that fall to the President of Harvard that provides his apologia for requiring students taking his course to own (or as he wrote “at least control”) a copy of his textbook. He says he contributed a number of his textbooks to the Phillips Brooks House Loan Library so “poor fellows” would not feel compelled to buy the book. That library had some three thousand textbooks in 1921 according to the Harvard Crimson. Cf. “The Phillips Brooks House. Formal Transfer to the University. Memorial Mass Meeting in Sanders.” The Harvard Crimson January 24, 1900.

______________________________________

PREFACE

[Taussig, Frank W. Principles of Economics. (2 vols., New York, 1911). Volume I  ; Volume II.]

I have tried in this book to state the principles of economics in such form that they shall be comprehensible to an educated and intelligent person who has not before made any systematic study of the subject. Though designed in this sense for beginners, the book does not gloss over difficulties or avoid severe reasoning. So one can understand economic phenomena or prepare himself to deal with economic problems who is unwilling to follow trains of reasoning which call for sustained attention. I have done my best to be clear, and to state with care the grounds on which my conclusions rest, as well as the conclusions themselves, but have made no vain pretense of simplifying all things.

The order of the topics has been determined more by convenience for exposition than by any strict regard for system In general, a subject has been entered on only when the main conclusions relating to it could be followed to the end. Yet so close is the connection between the different parts of economics that it has been necessary sometimes to go part way in the consideration of matters on which the final word had to be reserved for a later stage. Taxation has offered, as regards its place in the arrangement, perhaps the greatest difficulties. It is so closely connected with economics that some consideration of it seemed essential; whereas public finance in the stricter sense, whose problems are political quite as much as economic, has been omitted. Yet a suitable place for taxation was not easy to find. I concluded finally to put the chapters on this subject at the very close, even though they may have the effect of an anticlimax, coming as they do after those on socialism.

The book deals chiefly with the industrial conditions of modem countries, and most of all with those of the United States. Economic history and economic development are not considered in any set chapters, being touched only as they happen to illustrate one or another of the problems of contemporary society. Some topics to which economists give much attention in discussion among themselves receive scant attention or none at all. I have omitted entirely the usual chapters or sections on definitions, methodology, and history of dogma; and have said little on such a topic as the subjective theory of value, which in my judgment is of less service for explaining the phenomena of the real world than is supposed by its votaries. These matters and others of the same sort are best left to the professional literature of the subject. I hope this book is not undeserving the attention of specialists; but it is meant to be read by others than specialists.

Though not written on the usual model of textbooks, and not planned primarily to meet the needs of teachers and students, the book will prove of service, I hope, in institutions which offer substantial courses in economics. The fact that it is addressed to mature persons, not to the immature, should be an argument in favor of such use rather than against it. Being neither an encyclopedic treatise nor a textbook of the familiar sort, it offers no voluminous footnotes and no detailed directions for collateral reading. When facts and figures not of common knowledge have been cited, my sources of information have been stated. At the close of each of the eight Books into which the whole is divided, I have given suggestions for further reading and study, mentioning the really important books and papers.

I have expressed in the text, as occasion arose, my obligations to the contemporary thinkers from whom I have derived most stimulus. For great aid in revising the manuscript and proof, on matters both of form and substance, I am indebted to my colleagues Drs. B. F. Foerster and E. E. Day of Harvard University.

F. W. TAUSSIG.

Harvard University,
March, 1911.

______________________________________

[Letter:  Professor F. W. Taussig to Harvard President A. L. Lowell]

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
October 6, 1911.

Dear Lawrence:

It is due to you to explain what course I finally follow in regard to the use of my book in Economics 1.

After consultation with various colleagues, – – Haskins, Hurlbut, Channing, and others, – – I came to the conclusion not to put a large number of copies into the libraries for students’ use. The book is not a reference book, but a textbook. It is not meant for occasional consultation, but for sustained study through the year. Library reading of the book is almost of necessity somewhat hurried; this is a book the students want to read and re-read. At all events, if it is not worth sustained study, it is not worth using in the course at all. We always treated other books used in the course in the same way, never making any pretense of supplying them in the library. Moreover, there is a serious practical difficulty in turning hundreds of students into the reading room at about the same time in the course of each week. This last, however, is a minor matter. The essential consideration is that ownership, or at least control, of the book, is for the intellectual advantage of the men.

One perplexity I have avoided like putting a supply of copies, for the use of poor men, in Phillips Brooks House. I do not want to compel the poor fellows to buy my book. There is a text-book loan library in Phillips Brooks House, and this I have supplied with a sufficient number of copies for the use of the needy. Hurlbut and Arthur Beane between them will see that these copies get into the proper hands.

Sincerely yours,

[signed]

F. W. Taussig

President A. Lawrence Lowell.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers (UAI.5.160), 1909-1914 Nos. 405-436. Box 15, Folder 413.