Tag: Gay

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exams for European and U.S. Economic History. Gay and Klein, 1911

This post adds  final examinations for the 1910-11 academic year to previous posts dedicated to two economic history courses taught by Edwin F. Gay during the second decades of the twentieth century at Harvard. 

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Instructors: Edwin F. Gay, Julius Klein

Biographical information

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Reading list: First term, 1910-11.
Economics 6a.

European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Final exam. First term, 1910-11.
Economics 6a.

[European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century]

  1. (a) “The essence of the industrial revolution is the substitution of competition for the mediaeval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth….Competition came to be believed in as a gospel.” (Toynbee.)
    Give illustrations of the substitution of competition, and state why, in your opinion, the good rather than the evil of competition was emphasized at this period.
    (b) Toynbee said: “The effects of the industrial revolution prove that free competition may produce wealth without producing well-being.” A Boston reformer, speaking of the advent of machinery, says, “The profits from the machine were absorbed by capital,” so that the people did not have their share. Does the economic history of the nineteenth century support these views?
  2. (a) Trace concisely the influence of agricultural interests upon the tariff history of England, France and Germany in the nineteenth century.
    (b) Has England been more affected by the agricultural depression of the last thirty years than other European countries? Why has it not been more influenced by the “protectionist reaction?”
  3. How has the French railroad policy differed from that of Prussia? Which has been the more beneficial? Give reasons.
  4. Do the actual conditions warrant the assertions concerning “the ominous situation of British trade?” Give reasons.
  5. State succinctly the chief facts concerning:—
    (a) Assignats.
    (b) British shipping subsidies.
    (c) Crisis of 1857.

Source: Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, Mid-years (HUC 7000.55). Box 8, Examination Papers, Mid-years, 1910-11.

cf. Final exam. First term, 1914-15.
Economics 2a.

European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

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Reading list: Second term, 1910-11.
Economics 6b.

Economic and Financial History of the United States.

 

Final exam: Second term, 1910-11.
Economics 6b.

[Economic and Financial History of the United States]

  1. Outline fully the topics you would discuss if you were to write a thesis on the history of the iron and steel industry in the United States.
  2. Comment on the following:—
    1. “We import annually millions of dollars’ worth of tropical products that could be grown in the United States.” (Report of Secretary of Agriculture for 1901.)
    2. “The sum paid by American producers and manufacturers to these foreign bottoms during the past year was $500,000,000, a sum sufficient to dig the Panama Canal and operate it for twenty years. Remember that all this good American money has gone into the pockets of foreigners.” (Admiral Evans in a recent magazine article.)
  3. (a) Outline our tariff history since 1890.
    (b) Comment on Senator Aldrich’s statement: “I do not believe there are any duties levied in this bill [the tariff act of 1909] that are excessive or are prohibitory.”
    (c) The American experience with reciprocity. Are you in favor of the reciprocity treaty with Canada? State your reasons.
  4. Rhodes in his history of the United States says: “This tendency [the accumulation of large fortunes and the development of abject poverty] had begun before the War and has been the result rather of the constantly deteriorating character of the European immigration than of industrial changes on our own soil.”
    Do you agree with this view? Give your reasons.
  5. Comment on the following: “The year 1896 was in fact one of those periods rare in the history of any country of which it could be said that a given chapter had definitely closed and that another was about to open.”
  6. Compare briefly the conditions before and after the Civil War in respect to
    1. The defects of our banking system;
    2. The public land policy;
    3. Governmental assistance to and control of transportation enterprise.

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 44. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.

cf. Final Exam. Second term, 1914-15.

Economics 2b
Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay and Julius Klein, respectively, from The World’s Work, Vol. XXVII, No. 5 (March 1914) and Harvard Album 1920.

 

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. European Economic History from the Industrial Revolution. Gay, 1934

 

 

A brief biography of Harvard economic historian and first Dean of the Harvard Business School, Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) is found in the earlier post for his course “Recent Economic History” that was also taught at Harvard in the 1934-35 academic year. Below we have the course announcement, enrollment figures, reading list, and final exam for the course on European Economic History from the Industrial Revolution.

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Course Announcement

Economics 2a 1hf. European Economic History from the Industrial Revolution

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor Gay.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1934-35, second edition. Published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXI, No. 38 (September 20, 1934), p. 125.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 2a 1hf. Professor Gay.—European Economic History since the Industrial Revolution.

Total 50:  3 Graduates, 21 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 8 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1934-35, p. 81.

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Assigned and Suggested Readings

ECONOMICS 2a
[pencil insert: 1934-5]

European Economic History from the Industrial Revolution

Hour Test on November 13 [Pencil insert: Extended to Nov. 15] will cover Groups I and II.

I. SOCIAL THOUGHT AND PROGRESS

A. V. Dicey—Law and Public Opinion in England (1908). Lectures 4-7 (Pages 62-258)

J. M. Keynes—The End of Laissez Faire. (1926)

G. Wallas—Life of Francis Place (1918). Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 (pages 1-92, 157-240)

II. TRANSPORTATION

E. A. Pratt—A History of Inland Transport and Communication in England (1912). Chapters 8-22 (pages 51-311)

J. H. Clapham—Economic Development of France and Germany (1921). Chapters 5, 7, 12 (Pages 104-120, 140-157, 339-375)

III. AGRICULTURE

Lord Ernle—English Farming, Past and Present (3d edition, 1922). Chapters 17, 18

J. H. Clapham—Economic Development of France and Germany (1921). Chapter 9 (pages 195-231)

C. L. Christensen—Agricultural Cooperation in Denmark. Pages 9-54, 81-87

IV. TARIFF POLICY

P. Ashley—Modern Tariff History (1920). Part 1, Part 3 (pages 3-128, 269-355)

J. Morley—Life of Richard Cobden (1881). Chapters 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 16 (pages 140-172, 209-247, 290-307, 355-389)

V. BANKING

A. Andreades—History of the Bank of England (1909). Vol. 1, part 4; Vol. 2, Introductory chapter and Part 1 (pages 161-294)

H. Feis—Europe The World’s Banker, 1870-1914 (1930). Part I; Part II; Part III, Chapters 12, 13 (pages 3-190-258-313)

VI. READING PERIOD ASSIGNMENT

Choose ONE of the following groups:

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

P. Mantoux—The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century (English translation, 1928)

Part I, Chapter 2
Part II, Chapters 1, 2, 3
Part III, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4
(pages 93-139-193-317, 349-489)

J. H. Clapham—Economic Development of France and German. Chapters 3, 4 (pages 53-103)

LABOR

S. & B. Webb—History of Trade Unionism (1920 edition). Chapters (in part) 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 (pages 64-112, 153-179, 180-204, 249-298, 358-421, 472-546, 594-611, 634-676, 677-704)

Cambridge Modern History—Volume 12—Chapter 23—Social Movements (by Webb) (pages 730-765

BRITISH INDUSTRY AND CAPITAL

A. Siegfried—England’s Crisis (1933 edition)

L. H. Jenks—The Migration of British Capital to 1875 (1927). Chapters 1, 5, 7, 11. Pages 1-24, 126-157, 193-232, 326-336)

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING—NOT ASSIGNED

A. Birnie—Economic History of Europe 1760-1930 (1930)

C. Day—Economic Development in Modern Europe (1933)

J. H. Clapham—An Economic History of Modern Britain—2 vol. 1926-32 [3 vols. 1926-1938]

L. Domeratzsky—The International Cartel Movement (1928)

R. J. S. Hoffman—Great Britain and the German Trade Rivalry 1875-1914 (1933)

P Fitzgerald—Industrial Combination in England (1927)

L. C .A. Knowles—The Economic Development of the British Overseas Empire, 2 vols. (1924-1930)

F. L. Nussbaum—A History of the Economic Institutions of Modern Europe (1933)

H. M. Robertson—Aspects of the Rise of Economic Individualism (1933)

L. C .A. Knowles—Economic Development in the Nineteenth Century (1932)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics 1934-1935”

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1934-35
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 2a1
[Final. 1935.]

Comment briefly on THREE of the statements in part I, and discuss more fully TWO of the questions in Part II.

Part I

  1. “During the period 1785-1802 there was an increase rather than a decrease of the yeomen proper in England.”
    “The Industrial Revolution was responsible for a decrease in the number of yeomen.”
  2. “The solution for the problem of agricultural distress is to be found, as the example of Denmark clearly shows, not in protective tariffs but in coöperative organization.”
  3. “The Bank was right in 1811 in rejecting the main recommendations of the Bullion Committee and in thereby refusing to follow the counsels of doctrinaires.”
  4. “The Trade Union of today is a direct descendant of the old Gild.”
  5. “The fact that the landlords supported the Factory Acts and that the manufacturers agitated for the repeal of the Corn Laws indicates that both of these powerful antagonists desired the welfare of the working class and that this class, as yet unenfranchised, wielded great political power.”

Part II

  1. “It was the increase of population which rendered necessary the Industrial Revolution.” (Lewinski.)
    “The cotton industry by its demand for the labor of women and children was chiefly responsible for the great increase of population in the towns during the generation and a half preceding the Reform Bill.”
    Comment and give your own view concerning the movement of population in Great Britain and its relation to the Industrial Revolution.
  2. “The community as a whole benefits more by falling than by rising prices.” (Layton.)
    Is this statement supported by the experience of England in the nineteenth century?
  3. Show the chief difference (giving reasons therefor) between France and Germany in railroad development and control.
  4. “The manifold connections and activities of British commerce and finance achieved for Great Britain in their freedom a vigorous expansion.” (Feis) Explain and exemplify.
  5. Summarize concisely:
    1. Bullion Report.
    2. New Unionism.
    3. Cobden Chevalier Treaty.
    4. Méline Tariff.
    5. Bank Act of 1844.
    6. Taff Vale Case.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 12. Volume: Examination Papers. Mid-Years, 1934-35.

Image Source: Edwin Francis Gay in Harvard Class Album 1934.

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Columbia Economists NBER

Columbia Alumnus Arthur F. Burns applies to NBER for Research Associateship, 1930

 

 

Arthur F. Burns was twenty-five years old when he submitted the following application for a Research Associate position that provided 11 months funding at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Results from this project would be ultimately incorporated into Burns’ doctoral dissertation published as the NBER monograph Production Trends in the United States Since 1870 (1934).

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Arthur F. Burns’ late NBER application forwarded to Edwin Gay

National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

February 25, 1930

Dr. Edwin F. Gay
117 Widener Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

Dear Dr. Gay:

The attached application of Mr. Arthur Frank Burns has just been received. Athough the time limit has passed, you might wish to consider it, and I am therefore forwarding it to you.

Yours very truly,
[signed] G. R. Stahl
Executive Secretary

GRS:RD

[handwritten note]
[Frederick C.] Mills knows something about this man and regards him favorably.

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NBER Research Associate Application of Arthur F. Burns
(February, 1930)

National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

51 Madison Avenue
New York

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES’ APPLICATION FORM

Applications and accompanying documents should be sent by registered mail and must reach Directors of Research not later than February 1, 1930. Six typewritten copies (legible carbons) should accompany each formal application.

Candidates should have familiarized themselves with the main objects and work of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Candidates are expected to be in good health, free from physical or nervous troubles, and able to complete their work in New York without predictable interruption.

Research Associates will not accept other remunerative employment while connected with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Candidates’ names should be written plainly on each manuscript.

Title of Project

A Study of Long-Time Indexes of Production

Name of Candidate

Arthur Frank Burns

Date of Application

February 21, 1930

 

THE CANDIDATE

PERSONAL HISTORY:

Name in full: Arthur Frank Burns
Home address: 34 Bethune St., New York City
Present occupation: University teaching
Place of birth: Stanislawow, Poland
Date of birth: April 27, 1904
If not a native-born citizen, date and place of naturalization: About 1920; Bayonne, New Jersey
Single, married: Married
Name and address of wife or husband: Helen, 34 Bethune Street
Name and address of nearest kin if unmarried: [blank]
Number, relationship, and ages of dependents: [blank]

Name the colleges and universities you have attended; length of residence in each; also major and minor studies pursued.

Columbia College, Sept. 1921-Feb. 1925. Majors—Economics, German. Minors—English, History
Columbia University, Feb. 1925-June 1927. Major—Economics. Minor—Statistics.

List the degrees you have received with the years in which they were conferred.

B.A.—Feb. 1925
M.A.—Oct. 1925

Give a list of scholarships or fellowships previously held or now held, stating in each case place and period of tenure, studies pursued and amount of stipend:

Columbia College Scholarship, 1921-1924. $250 per annum
Gilder Fellowship, Academic Year 1926-1927, Columbia University. Stipend $1200. Chief study pursued—Monetary Theory

What foreign languages are you able to use?

French and German

 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Give a list of positions you have held—professional, teaching, scientific, administrative, business:

Name of Institution

Title of Position

Years of Tenure
Columbia University

Instructor in Extension

Feb. 1926-June 1927

Soc. Science Res. Co.

 Report on Periodicals Summer of 1927
Rutgers University Instructor

1927 to date

Of what learned or scientific societies are you a member?

Phi Beta Kappa
American Statistical Society

Describe briefly the advanced work and research you have already done in this country or abroad, giving dates, subjects, and names of your principal teachers in these subjects:

Master’s essay on Employment Statistics, under Professors F.A. Ross and W.C. Mitchell, in 1925
Studies in the field of Business Cycles, under Professor W.C. Mitchell, 1926 to date
Studies in the field of Monetary Theory, under Professors Mitchell and Willis, 1926-1927
Work on Negro Migration, under Professor F.A. Ross, Summer of 1925
Work on Instalment Selling, under Professor E.R.A. Seligman, Summer of 1926
Report on Social Science Periodicals for the Social Science Research  Council, under Professor F. Stuart Chapin, Summer of 1927.

Submit a list of your publications with exact titles, names of publishers and dates and places of publication:

See separate sheet on publications

THE PROJECT

PLANS FOR STUDY:

Submit a statement (six copies) giving detailed plans for the study you would pursue during your tenure of an Associateship. This statement should include:

(1) A description of the project including its character and scope, and the significance of its presumable contribution to knowledge. Describe how the inquiry is to be conducted, major expected sources of information, etc.
(2) The present state of the project, time of commencement, progress to date, and expectation as to completion.
(3) A proposed budget showing the amount of any assistance, whether of a statistical or clerical nature, or traveling expense that you would require to complete your project.

REFERENCES:

Submit a list of references

(1) from whom information may be obtained concerning your qualifications, and
(2) from whom expert opinion may be obtained as to the value and practicability of your proposed studies.

_____________________

Arthur F. Burns

THE PROJECT
A Study of Long-Time Indexes of Production

            Several years ago I embarked upon an inquiry into the broad problem “The Relationship between ‘Price’ and ‘Trade’ Fluctuations.” The study had two main purposes: (1) to provide a systematic description and analysis of one structural element of the “business cycle,” (2) to determine and appraise the empirical basis for the widely held view that “business stability” may be attained through the “stabilization of the price level.” But soon enough I found it difficult to adhere to the project that I had formulated. The task in the course of execution in the statistical laboratory loomed more formidable than in the “arm-chair” in which it found its inception. But another circumstance proved even more compelling in bring about a restriction of the area of the investigation: no sooner was a small segment of the plan that served as my procedural guide completed, but a host of new queries, not at all envisaged in the original plan, arose and pressed for an answer. Thus, impelled by considerations of a practical sort—working as I did single-handed, and by a growing curiosity, I subjected the project to successive reductions of scope. The present project, “A Study of Long-Time Indexes of Production,” is the untouched, and perhaps an unrecognizable, remainder of the original inquiry. On this limited project I have been at work intermittently for about a year and a half.

            The object of the present project is to study the “secular changes” in “general production” in the United States, and thereby throw light on one important constituent aspect of the trend of “economic welfare.” The establishment of a theory of secular change in general production calls, in the main, for the performance of two tasks. In the first place, the rate of growth of the physical volume of production and its variation have to be determined. In the second place, the empirical generalizations so arrived at have to be interpreted. The general plan of the investigation is built around these two problems; but to perform these tasks adequately, a host of subsidiary problems have to be met.

            Some details of the organization of the project, as well as the point to which work on the project has been carried thus far, may best be indicated by setting forth the extent to which the tentative individual chapters have been completed. The first chapter treats of the contents of the concept “economic welfare,” and traces, analytically and historically, problems in the measurement thereof; this chapter is practically finished. The materials for the second chapter, which is devoted to the history of production indexes, have, for the greater part, already been collected; and a preliminary draft of the chapter has been completed. Much of the third chapter, which is concerned with an analysis of a conceptually ideal measure of the physical volume of production, and the special bearing of this analysis on long-time indexes of production, is written; this chapter is to be but an extension of the paper on “The Measurement of the Physical Volume of Production,” which was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 1930. In the fourth chapter, an analysis of the available long-time indexes of production is made; this chapter covers a much more extensive area than the brief reference to it may lead one to suppose; and though several months of continuous work have already been devoted to it, considerable literary research and statistical routine remain. The fifth and six chapters will present the results of the computations on the rate of secular change in physical production; though much ground has been covered (over one hundred trends have already been determined), even more remains to be done. Of the next and final two chapters, in which an interpretation of the computed results is to be offered, very little has been put into written form; but a substantial body of literature has been abstracted; and a preliminary outline of some portions of the theory to be presented, now that many of the calculations are completed, has been worked out.

            It will be apparent from this statement of the work already done on the project that it has reached a point where completion by the middle of 1931 may well be expected. In fact, the freedom to pursue the investigation unencumbered by academic duties may make possible a more intensive cultivation of the demarcated field than is presently contemplated; or, if it be deemed advisable, an extension of the investigation, now confined to the United States, to several other countries for which what appear to be reasonably satisfactory materials have of late become available.

            Needless to say, the above statement of the project constitutes no more than a report on its present status. There probably will be modifications of some importance. One change, in fact, is now being seriously considered: the replacement of Chapters II and III by a brief section, to be worked into the introductory chapter, to the end that a nicer balance between the divisions on, what may be described as, “data and method” and “results” be achieved.

            In continuing with this study there will be no travelling expenses to speak of. At the most, there will be a trip or two to Washington. It goes without saying that the study will proceed more rapidly if clerical assistance is had. Only a single statistical clerk would be needed, and a halftime clerk might suffice.

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Arthur F. Burns

References

Group I

Professor Robert E. Chaddock, Columbia University
Professor Wesley C. Mitchell, Columbia University
Professor H. Parker Willis, Columbia University
Professor Eugene E. Agger, Rutgers University
Professor Frank W. Taussig, Harvard University

Group II

Professor Wesley C. Mitchell, Columbia University
Professor Wilford I. King, New York University
Mr. Carl Snyder, New York Federal Reserve Bank
Dr. Edmund E. Day, Social Science Research Council
Dr. Simon Kuznets, National Bureau of Economic Research

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Arthur F. Burns

Publications

A Note on Comparative Costs, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1928

The Duration of Business Cycles, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1929

The Geometric Mean of Percentages, Journal of the American Statistical Association, September, 1929

The Ideology of Businessmen and Presidential Elections, Southwestern Political and Social Science Quarterly, September, 1929.

Thus Spake the Professor of Statistics, Social Science, November, 1929

The Quantity Theory and Price Stabilization, American Economic Review, December, 1929

The Relative Importance of Check and Cash Payments in the United States: 1919-1928, Journal of the American Statistical Association, December, 1929

The Measurement of the Physical Volume of Production, Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 1930

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Reference Letter:  H. P. Willis

Columbia University
in the City of New York
School of Business

February 27, 1930.

Mr. G. R. Stahl,
Executive Secretary,
National Bureau of Economic Research,
51 Madison Avenue,
New York City.

My dear Mr. Stahl:

            I have received your letter of February 26. Mr. Arthur F. Burns, whom you mention, was a student here some years ago, passed his doctorate examination with money and banking as one of his topics. I had general supervision of his work in money and banking and also came into contact with him individually now and then. I thought him a specially acute and capable student of the subject and it seemed to me that he had rather unusual research ability. He has been teaching, I believe, at Rutgers University for a couple of years past and during that time he has occasionally written articles in the scientific magazines and has sent me copies. I have read them with substantial interest and have thought that they showed steady growth in the grasp of the subject and in ability to present it.

            I do not know exactly what kind of work you would be disposed to assign him in your bureau were you to appoint him, and hence it is difficult for me to give specific opinion of his “strong and weak points”, for strength and weakness are relative to the work to be done. I should suppose that in a statistical research relating to monetary and banking questions, and particularly to the price problem, Mr. Burns would be decidedly capable. I do not think of any elements of corresponding weakness that need to be emphasized, but perhaps you might find him less devoted to the necessary routine work that has to done in every statistical office, than you would to the planning of investigation and the initiation of inquiries in it. Put in another was this might be equivalent to saying that Mr. Burns is perhaps stronger in conception and planning than he is in execution and yet I do not know that he is in any way to be criticized for his power of execution. I simply mean that he does not seem to be as outstanding in that direction as he is in the other.

            I, however, commend him unreservedly to you as a capable man in connection with price, banking and credit research.

Yours very truly,
[signed] H. P. Willis

HPW:S

_____________________

Reference Letter:  Willford I. King

AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION

Secretary-Treasurer
Willford I. King
530 Commerce Building, New York Univ.
236 Wooster Street, New York City

February 27, 1930.

Mr. G. R. Stahl,
National Bureau of Economic Research,
51 Madison Avenue,
New York City.

Dear Mr. Stahl:

            I have met Mr. Arthur F. Burns two or three times but do not know very much about his record. One thing, however, stands out strongly in his favor. He recently published in the AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW a very fine piece of work on the equation of exchange. This indicates to me that he is competent to do research work of high quality.

Cordially yours,
Willford I. King.

WIK:RW

_____________________

Reference Letter: F. W. Taussig

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 28, 1930

Dear Mr. Stahl:

            I have a high opinion of A. F. Burns. I have watched his published work, and some I have examined with care. As will be noted, he has an article in the current issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics which I consider first-rate. He is a keen critic, and handles figures well. He writes more than acceptably, and in my judgment gives promise of very good work in the future. You will have to go far to find a man clearly better.

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

Mr. G. R. Stahl
National Bureau of Economic Research
51 Madison Avenue
New York City

_____________________

Reference Letter:  E. E. Agger

Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Department of Economics

March 5, 1930

Mr. G. R. Stahl,
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
51 Madison Avenue,
New York City

Dear Mr. Stahl:

            Replying to your letter of February 26th I may say that I have known Mr. Arthur F. Burns ever since his undergraduate days. He was one of my honor students when I was at Columbia and when he finished his graduate work I brought him to Rutgers as an Instructor. I think that he will be promoted to an Assistant Professorship next year.

            He has been a specialist in the field of Statistics and Economic Theory and would therefore, in my judgment, be ideally equipped for the post of Research Associate. He is meticulously careful and most painstaking. You are doubtless familiar with some of his writings during the past year or so. They have seemed to me excellent pieces of work. We shall sorely miss him should he ask for leave to accept possible appointment under you, but on the other hand, I believe that in the end it will add to his value to us, at the same time that you are getting the use of his services. In short, I recommend him without qualification.

Sincerely yours,
[Signed] E.E. Agger

EEA:H

_____________________

Reference Letter:  Carl Snyder

COPY
Thirty Three Liberty Street
New York

March 5, 1930

Dear Mr. Stahl:

            I have followed the work of Arthur F. Burns, of whom you wrote, with a great deal of interest. It seems to me careful, conscientious, well-planned work. He has the inquisitive mind, and that is the great thing. His ideas seem to me sound and his statistical methods well grounded.

            The problem in which he is interested is one in which we have done a great deal of work here, and I know of nothing of greater importance. I wish very cordially to endorse the recommendation for his appointment as a Research Associate.

Please believe me, with very best regards,

Sincerely yours,
Carl Snyder

Gustav R. Stahl, Esq.,
National Bureau of Economic Research
51 Madison Avenue, New York City

_____________________

Reference Letter:  Simon Kuznets

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
51 Madison Avenue, New York

March 3, 1930

Committee on Selection,
National Bureau of Economic Research
51 Madison Avenue,
New York City

Gentlemen:

            Arthur F. Burns who is applying for appointment as a Research Associate is my former classmate from Columbia University, and has always impressed me by his keen powers of observation and analysis. His work speaks for itself, for he has had opportunity to publish some of the by-products of his doctor’s thesis in the form of articles.

            He has a thorough statistical training, both in theory and in technique, for he has studied statistics, taught it, and applied its principles. He is also thoroughly versed in economic theory, having studied it under Professors W. C. Mitchell and H. L. Moore.

            On the whole, Mr. Burns is a candidate of high promise. He is still quite young in years, but is quite experienced in research work. He ought to prove equal to the opportunities which an appointment as a research associate will provide for him.

Yours respectfully
[signed] Simon Kuznets
[Research Staff member, NBER]

_____________________

Reference Letter:  Robert E. Chaddock

Columbia University
in the City of New York
Faculty of Political Science

March 3, 1930.

Mr. G. R. Stahl, Executive Secretary
National Bureau of Economic Research
51 Madison Avenue, New York City

Dear Mr. Stahl,

            I have expressed my opinion as to the qualifications of Cowden, Gayzer and Leong as candidates for Research Associate. Mr. Arthur F. Burns is superior to any of these in qualifications for research, in my opinion. All his inclinations and his critical attitude toward his own and the results of others point to research as his field. He has unusual technical preparation in Statistics and does not lose sight of the logical tests of his knowledge. He has been publishing articles constantly since entering upon his teaching at Rutgers University where he is successful as a teacher so far as I know. I would not rate him ahead of the candidates I have described before in matters of personality and personal contact, but I do regard him as a very superior candidate in respect to qualifications for research and scholarly productivity.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Robert E. Chaddock

REC:CT

_____________________

Letter:  Edwin F. Gay to Arthur F. Burns

NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
51 Madison Avenue, New York

June 25, 1930

Mr. A. F. Burns
34 Bethune Street
New York City

My dear Mr. Burns:

            At a recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Bureau it was decided that since all the members of the regular staff are not available until the end of September, the Research Associates should be asked to report here on October 1, 1930, instead of September 15. You may, of course, come earlier but full provision for your work cannot conveniently be made before the date indicated. The stipends of the Research Associates are to run from October 1, and also the salaries of such statistical assistants as are designated for the service of the Research Associates.

            Upon your arrival you are to report to Dr. Frederick C. Mills, who will have direct responsibility as your adviser. You will be free, of course, to consult with any of the members of the staff.

            In regard to arrangements for statistical and other assistance, you will consult with Mr. Pierce Williams, the Executive Director.

            It gives me great pleasure, in behalf of the directors and staff of the National Bureau, to welcome you as a research associate. We trust that you will find the eleven months with us not only scientifically profitable but personally enjoyable.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Edwin F. Gay]
Director of Research

RD

[handwritten note] P.S In looking over your application, I [word illegible] certain [items?] which I think should be filled out. These are: the date of arrival in this country, precise date of naturalization; pre-college education.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Arthur F. Burns Papers, Box 2, Folder “Correspondence/NBER, 1930”.  IMG_8329.JPG

Image Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Arthur F. Burns Papers, Box 6. Folder “Photographs, B&W I”. Note: “1930s” written on back of photograph.

 

Categories
Economists Germany Harvard

Harvard. Thomas Nixon Carver’s German Summer of 1902.

 

Preparing the previous blog post which provides the syllabus with reading assignments for Thomas Nixon Carver’s 1902-03 Harvard course, Economics 14 “Methods of Social Reform, including Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.”, I came across the following brief description of his trip with his family to Germany during the summer of 1902. In his autobiography, Carver briefly recounted his contact with colleagues at economic seminars in Halle and Berlin.

For visitors who can read German, I strongly recommend the website “Die Geschichte der Wirtschaftswissenschafte an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin”. During the Winter Semester of 2012, Till Düppe harnessed raw student seminar power to assemble much interesting material about people, organizational structures and the developing curriculum in the Berlin University and its East Berlin successor, the Humboldt University.

________________

Thomas Nixon Carver’s European Summer Vacation (1902)

I had never been abroad and had always wanted to see something of Europe. At the end of the academic year 1901-1902 we decided to make the trip. I got permission from President Eliot to leave Cambridge as soon as examinations were over without waiting for commencement. Just a few days before sailing, I came down with the grippe, as it was then

called. It looked for a day or two as though we might have to cancel the trip, but with Dr. F. W. Taylor’s help I recovered sufficiently to undertake it. I had a Ph.D. examination to conduct during the afternoon of the evening we had to start. The rest of the family called at the University for me with a hack, on the way to the South Station, where we took the train for New York, from which we sailed for Antwerp.

… We went armed with a supply of Baedeckers, American Express Company checks, and several letters of introduction….

Our destination was Germany where we planned to spend a few weeks first at Eisenach and then to Berlin….At Eisenach we stayed at a pension which had been recommended by Professor Albert Bushnell Hart. …

After a week or two I … went on to Berlin, stopping for a few days at Halle, where I visited Professor [Johannes] Conrad and attended one meeting of his seminar. There I met George Thomas, who had been at Harvard but was about to take his Ph.D. at Halle and who has since become president of the University of Utah. One afternoon I went with him to call on Professor Conrad at his home. He offered us beer or cold tea, both in bottles. He had been in America, had a daughter living in Buffalo, New York, and knew that many Americans did not drink liquor. He himself drank no liquor except wine.

I also took time to visit the breeding farm attached to the University of Halle where they were experimenting with all sorts of crossbreeding of animals brought from the ends of the earth.

In Berlin I took rooms in a pension and found it pretty well filled with American students, with a few from Russia, Romania, and Hungary. Edwin F. Gay had been recommended for a position in economic history, to follow Professor Ashley, at Harvard. He was in Berlin finishing his work for the Ph.D. degree at the university. I looked him up almost at once, called on him, and we had several talks. He had made a distinguished record at the university and was soon to take his final examination, which he passed with flying colors. His appointment as instructor at Harvard was confirmed by the Governing Boards and he began his teaching the following autumn.

While in Berlin I attended seminars by Professors [Adolph] Wagner in taxation, Schmoller in economic history, Ausserordentlich Professor [Adolph von] Wenckstern on socialism, and Professor [Max] Zering on Agrarpolitik. Wenckstern, a young man, had been in the army and still held the rank of lieutenant. One night after one of our sessions he invited me with the seminar group to his country place. We left the university about 10 p.m., took a train and traveled nearly half an hour, got off at a country station, walked a mile or so through fields and came to a sizable country house. …

Professor Wagner was getting along in years but seemed fairly vigorous. He was reasonably courteous when he was convinced that I was really an assistant professor at Harvard. My visiting card had merely said “Mr. Thomas N. Carver,” after the American custom, whereas a German would have had all his titles and degrees embossed on his visiting card. Schmoller was genial but dignified. His classes were crowded and he was very busy conferring with his students.

After about four weeks Flora and the children joined me in Berlin. Soon after they arrived Professor and Mrs. Charles J. Bullock turned up in Berlin, also a Miss McDaniels of Oberlin, who had been one of my students. Together we visited Dresden, mainly for the purpose of seeing the famous Art Gallery….

Source:   Thomas Nixon Carver, Recollections of an Unplanned Life (1949), pp. 135-139.

Image Source: The Friedrich Wilhelm University in the old Palace of Prince Heinrich (ca. 1820)

 

Categories
Economists Gender Harvard Transcript

Harvard/Radcliffe. Economics PhD alumna and Wharton professor, Anne C. Bezanson, 1929

 

The materials in this post are presented in the opposite order that they were actually assembled. I began with three pieces of correspondence and a transcript of economics courses for a Radcliffe graduate who was ABD (= “all but dissertation”) and still interested in submitting a thesis more than a decade after her last course work at Harvard. The economics department chairman, Harold H. Burbank, made no fuss and we can see from the record that Annie Catherine Bezanson was indeed awarded an economics Ph.D. in 1929.

After I filled in the course titles and professors for her transcript, I then proceeded to gather biographical/career information for Bezanson. It of course did not take very long to discover that shortly after being awarded her Ph.D. she was promoted to a  professorship with tenure, the first woman to have cleared that professional hurdle at the University of Pennsylvania. What turned out to be more challenging was to find any photo whatsoever. Fortunately I stumbled upon a genealogical site that posted a picture of Anne Catherine Bezanson along with the obituary that begins the content portion of the post…

_______________________

Obituary from Bezansons of Nova Scotia

Died, Feb. 4, 1980, Dr. Anne Bezanson bur. Riverside Cemetery, Upper Stewiacke. Professor Emeritus, Wharton School of Finance & Commerce, U. of Pennsylvania, d… Hanover, Mass.

Born Mt. Dalhousie, N.S. daughter of the late John and Sarah (Creighton) Bezanson. Dr. Bezanson went to the United States in 1901, where she received her A.B. degree, A.M. & PhD. from Radcliffe…member of the Phi Beta Kappa…awarded an honourary doctor of science degree from University of British Columbia and from the University of Pennsylvania…served as Director of the Industrial Research Dept., Wharton School of Finance and Commerce; was professor at the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania…served on the staff of the U.S. Coal Commission..member of Conference of Price Research, advisor to the Social Services Research Project, Rockefeller Foundation…wrote numerous articles in various professional economic journals …member American Economic Associationn; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Economic History Association., serving as President from 1946-1948; American Statistical Association; Econometrics Society; Vice-President Delta Chapter Phi Beta Kappa, University of Pennsylvania.

Source: From the Website: Bezansons in North America

_______________________

PIONEER IN ACADEMIC BUSINESS RESEARCH
ANNE BEZANSON, PROFESSOR

ANNE BEZANSON had not yet completed her PhD in economic history in 1921, yet she was about to make history herself. At Wharton, the young Canadian helped establish the first business school research center, the Industrial Research Unit (later known as Industrial Research Department or IRD), with Professor Joseph Willits. The founding marked Wharton’s shift toward becoming an academic business research hub — defining a new role for business schools that continues today.

Bezanson’s 1921 article on promotion practices became the first product of the IRD. Bezanson continued her practical research in the early 1920s, writing a series on personnel issues, focusing on turnover, worker amenities, and accident prevention.

Willits and Bezanson designed an ambitious research program to explore and help civilize industrial working conditions, with the goal of social change. In 1922, Bezanson and Willits spent a year studying the earnings of coal miners at the U.S. Coal Commission. Employer associations, government agencies, and international organizations continued to look to the IRD for timely and practical knowledge.

In 1929, Bezanson finished her Harvard PhD and became the first female faculty member of Penn’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Under her leadership as co-director (which continued until 1945), the IRD had many women on its team and pursued research into the economic status of workers, revealing for the first time hard proof of the disparities in salaries and promotions for women and minorities across many industries.

Bezanson became the first woman to get full tenure at Penn, and in the 1930s sat on the National Bureau of Economic Research Price Conference. From 1939 to 1950 Bezanson was a part-time consultant at the Rockefeller Foundation, where she organized the first-ever roundtable on economic history in 1940. As a result of this involvement, Bezanson played a crucial role in the creation of the Economic History Association in the early 1940s, serving as president between 1946–1947. She died in 1980.

Source:  University of Pennsylvania. The Wharton School.Wharton Alumni Magazine, 125th Anniversary Issue (Spring 2007).

_______________________

Harvard/Radcliffe Academic Record

A.B. magna cum laude in economics.

 Source:  Report of the President of Radcliffe College for 1914-1915, pp. 10,13.

 

A.M. Annie Bezanson….Southvale, N.S. [Nova Scotia]

Source:   Report of the President of Radcliffe College for 1915-1916, p. 12.

 

June 1929 Doctor of Philosophy

Annie Catherine Bezanson, A.B. (Radcliffe College), 1915; A.M. (ibid.), 1916. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Labor Problems. Dissertation, Earnings and Working Opportunity in the Upholstery Weavers’ Trade.

Source: Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1928-29, p. 321.

_______________________

Economics Coursework

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
(Inter-Departmental Correspondence Sheet)

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Miss Anne Bezanson, A.B., Radcliffe 1915; A.M., 1916.

1911-12

Ec 1….B [Principles of Economics, Prof. Taussig et al.]
Ec 5….B, A- [Economics of Transportation, half course. Prof. Ripley]

1912-13

Ec 23….A- [Economic History of Europe to the Middle of the Eighteenth Century. Dr. Gray]

1913-14

Ec 11….B [Economic Theory. Prof. Taussig]
Ec 24….A [Topics in the Economic History of the Nineteenth Century. Prof. Gay]

1914-15

Ec 7….. [Theories of Distribution. Prof. Carver, Excused for Generals.]

1914-15

Ec 13….A [Statistics: Theory, Method and Practice. Asst. Prof. Day]
Ec 34….A [Problems of Labor. Prof. Ripley]
Ec 12….B+ [Scope and Methods of Economic Investigation. Half-course. Prof. Carver]
Ec 33….B [International Trade and Tariff Problems in the United States. Half-course. Prof. Taussig]
Ec 20….A- [Course of Research. Probably Economic History with Prof. Gay]
Ec 14….A [History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Prof. Bullock]

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 3.

_______________________

Handwritten letter from Bezanson to Burbank

January 2, 1928 [sic]

My Dear Prof. Burbank:

A long time ago, I talked with Professor Young, as well as Professors Carver and Gay about submitting one of my studies in part fulfillment of the requirement for a doctor’s thesis. This request is the result of the difficulty of leaving my present work to complete the study upon which I was at work from 1915 to 1918 on the Industrial Revolution in France. This month when I completed the first analysis of the Earnings of Tapestry Weavers, I sent it to Professor Gay with the hope that it would be, or could be, made acceptable to the Department of Economics.

All this discussion has been informal and, of course, unofficial. I am now writing to you for advice about the official steps: should I apply to the Dean of the Graduate School for permission to change the thesis subject? or should this request go from you? Do you advise such a request and if so can it be made without changing my field of concentration?

Briefly my difficulty is that though I passed the General Examination in October, 1916, I have since not completed the thesis and final examination requirements. A degree seems to have some value in promotion here. Yet, I am engaged on studies which I cannot drop and go back to a subject as remote as French conditions. Dean Gay has been in touch with the progress of Tapestry Earnings and I am acting upon his suggestion in asking for an opinion upon the possibility of offering that study as a thesis.

Very sincerely yours
[signed]
Anne Bezanson

Industrial Research Department
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pa.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 3.

_______________________

Copies of responses by H.H. Burbank to Bezanson

 

January 7, 1929

Miss Anne Bezanson,
Index Research Department,
University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pa.

Dear Miss Bezanson:

I see no reason why the program which you have offered for the Ph.D. cannot be changed to allow you to present your study on “Earnings in the Upholstery Weavers Trade”.

There will be some red tape about it. I expect I shall have to secure the consent of the Dean of the Graduate School and of the Department, but I foresee no difficulties in either direction.

I will write you as soon as there is a definite decision.

One question that is certain to be raised is whether or not the research is entirely your own work or whether it was carried on by an organization. I should like to have your reply to this as soon as possible. Your preface throws some light on this. I note that you say: “All analysis and interpretation of material has been made by the Index Research Department”. Does this mean that your own work was strictly limited to the writing of the report in the preparation of the material on which the investigation was based?

Very sincerely,
[H.H. Burbank]

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

January 9, 1929

Miss Anne Bezanson,
Index Research Department,
University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, Pa.

Dear Miss Bezanson:

This is more or less a continuation of the note I sent to you yesterday. Last evening I talked to the members of the Department regarding your request. I think something can be worked out for you without very much trouble.

For your General Examination you presented Theory, Statistics, International Trade, Labor, and American History, reserving Economic History as your special field. It is my guess that you have done very little indeed with the literature of the field of Economic History during the last ten years, and that to prepare this field for a special examination would involve an inordinate amount of work. Further, it would require quite a stretch of the imagination to include your study of “The Upholstery Weavers” as Economic History.

Would it not be more within your general field of interest to present Labor problems as the subject for intensive examination. In spite of the fact that you presented this subject in your General Examinations it could be included as a special field. By a stroke of good fortune the Department put into effect this fall a ruling whereby candidates for the PhD may present an honor grade in an approved course in lieu of an oral examination in a subject. Ordinarily you would be required to stand for examination in Economic History as well as in Labor Problems, but under this new ruling we are able to accept the grade of A in Economics 24 taken in 1915.

Briefly then, it is my suggestion that your special field be Labor Problems, within which the dissertation which you are now presenting naturally would fall.

Please let me know if this meets with your approval.

Very sincerely,
H. H. Burbank.

HHB:BR

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 3.

Image Source: Website Bezansons in North America.

 

 

 

Categories
Courses Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Economics course descriptions, enrollments, final exams. 1915-16.

 

In this post I have assembled all the Harvard economics examinations I could find for the academic year 1915-16 and then supplement these with the annual enrollment data published in the President’s annual report which incidentally identifies the course instructors. Next I thought it would be even nicer to add course descriptions, but unfortunately I did not have access to the published 1915-16 announcement for the Division of History, Government, and Economics so I have added the course descriptions from 1914-15 or 1916-17 where the course titles and instructors exactly match.

For year-long courses, only the year-end final examination was included in the Harvard publication of examination papers, i.e. the mid-year final exams from January are missing for those courses. However, for the principles course and Taussig’s graduate theory course I have been able to find copies of those exams filed elsewhere in the Harvard archives (see notes).

Primarily for undergraduates:

Principles of Economics (Day with selected topics by Taussig)

For undergraduates and graduates
Statistics (Day)
Accounting (Davis)
European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century (Gay)
Economic and Financial History of the United States (Gay)
Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises (Anderson)
Economics of Transportation (Ripley)
Economics of Corporations (Ripley
Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation (Bullock)
Trade Unionism and Allied Problems (Ripley)
Economic Theory (Taussig)
Principles of Sociology (Carver)
Economics of Agriculture (Carver)

Primarily for graduates
Economic Theory (Taussig)
The Distribution of Wealth (Carver)
Statistics: Theory, Method, and Practice (Day)
History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 (Bullock)
Analytical Sociology (Anderson)
Public Finance (Bullock)

 

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Principles of Economics (Day with selected topics by Taussig)

ECONOMICS A: Course announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] A. (formerly 1). Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11.
Professor TAUSSIG and Asst. Professor DAY and five assistants.

Course A 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. Course A may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

ECONOMICS A: Enrollment [1915-16]

 [Economics] A. Asst. Professor Day; and Dr. J. S. Davis and Mr. P. G. Wright, Dr. Burbank, and Messrs. Monroe, Lincoln, R.E. Richter, and Van Sickle. With Lectures on selected topics by Professor Taussig. — Principles of Economics.

Total 477: 1 Graduate, 28 Seniors, 111 Juniors, 278 Sophomores, 13 Freshmen, 46 Other.

ECONOMICS A: Mid-Year Examination [1915-16]

Plan your answers carefully before writing. Write concisely. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions, beginning each on a new page.

  1. What are the characteristic features of each of the following: (a) horizontal combination; (b) a bill of exchange; (c) bimetallism; (d) marginal cost; (e) subsidiary coinage?
  2. Give four important economic advantages of (a) the complex division of labor; (b) large-scale production; (c) the corporate form of organization.
  3. Indicate any important connections existing between (a) the corporation and large-scale production; (b) large-scale production and dumping; (c) dumping and a protective tariff; (d) a protective tariff and the geographical division of labor.
  4. What conditions of demand and supply tend to promote, what to impede, organized speculation? What are the functions, and what the chief consequences of, organized speculation in agricultural products?
  5. In what ways, if at all, is monopoly price affected by (a) cost of production per unit? (b) an elastic demand for the product? Illustrate by diagrams, assuming conditions of (1) constant cost, (2) decreasing cost.
  6. Briefly describe the Panic of 1907 in New York. What provisions of the Federal Reserve Act do you consider most likely to be effective in preventing or allaying future financial panics in the United States? Give your reasons in detail.
  7. What has been the general course of the sterling exchange rate since the beginning of 1914? What factors have been influential in causing changes in the rate? How has each factor operated?

Source note:  This mid-year examination was found at Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Course reading lists, syllabi, and exams 1913-1992. (UA V 349.295.6) Box 1, Folder “Economics I, Final Exams 1913-1939”.

ECONOMICS A: Final Examination [1915-16]

Plan your answers carefully before writing. Write concisely. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions, beginning each on a new page.

  1. What is meant by (a) marginal cost; (b) the representative firm? How, if at all, is marginal cost connected with the short- and long-time values of (a)fresh vegetables; (b) wheat; (c)a railroad rate; (d) a gold dollar?
  2. Explain: (a) free coinage; (b) undervalued metal; (c) overissue; (d) “creation of deposits”; (e) bank reserve; (f) currency premium.
  3. “Think of it! British ships are bringing in foreign tires; British money is going abroad to pay for them1; and British motorists are using them. The available supplies of British-made tires are ample for all needs. Imported tires are inessentials; they hurt British credit2, they lower the exchange of the English pound3, they increase freights4, they make necessities dearer5, and increase our national indebtedness6.” To what extent is the reasoning valid at the several points indicated?
  4. Explain what is meant by (a) the unearned increment of land; (b) “the unearned increment of railways”; (c) increment taxes; (d)the incidence of taxes on land; (e) the Single Tax.
  5. What effects upon wages, if any, should you expect to result from (a) free industrial education; (b) collective bargaining; (c) limitation of output by organized labor; (d) introduction of labor-saving machinery?
  6. What should you expect to be the effect of immigration into the United States on (a) the increase of population here; (b) wages in the United States; (c) American urban rents; (d) profits of American business men?
  7. What is to be said for and against (a) unemployment insurance; (b) compulsory arbitration for public service industries; (c) profit-sharing as an agency for industrial peace?
  8. Explain: (a) restraint of trade at common law; (b) restraint of trade under United States statute law; (c) “rule of reason”; (d) “unfair competition”; (e) Kartel.

 

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Statistics (Day)

ECONOMICS 1a1: Course announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 1a 1hf. Statistics. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Asst. Professor DAY, assisted by Mr. F. E. RICHTER.

This course will deal primarily with the elements of statistical method. The following subjects will be considered: methods of collecting and tabulating data; the construction and use of diagrams; the use and value of the various types and averages; index-numbers; dispersion; interpolation; correlation. Special attention will be given to the accuracy of statistical material. In the course of this study of statistical method, examples of the best statistical information will be presented, and the best sources will be indicated. Population and vital statistics will be examined in some measure, but economic statistics will predominate.

Laboratory work in the solution of problems and the preparation of charts and diagrams will be required.

ECONOMICS 1a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 1a 1hf. Asst. Professor Day, assisted by Mr. Cox. — Statistics.

Total 44: 2 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 7 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 1a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. What is meant by “the statistical method”? What is the scientific importance of the method? What are its limitations?
  2. Describe concisely the essential steps in the preparation for a population census.
  3. Sketch briefly the history of wage statistics in the United States.
  4. Describe in detail, and criticize, the Babson method of forecasting business conditions.
  5. Explain briefly: (a) law of statistical regularity; (b) probable error; (c) series; (d) mode; (e) the normal frequency curve; (f) skewness.
  6. Formulate a set of rules for the construction of frequency tables and graphs.
  7. By what different statistical devices may the structure — or distribution — of two different groups of data be compared?
  8. Explain briefly: correlation; ratio of variation.
    Criticise fully the following statement: “A very large degree of regression — that is, a large deviation of the line of regression from the line of equal proportional variation — indicates a slight degree of correlation.”

 

________________________

Accounting (Davis)

ECONOMICS 1b2: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 1b 2hf. Accounting. Half-course (second half-year). Lectures, Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30; problems and laboratory practice, two hours a week. Dr. J. S. Davis, assisted by Mr. F. E. RICHTER and—.

This course will deal with the construction and the interpretation of accounts of various types of business units, designed to show the financial status at a particular time, the financial results obtained during a period of time, and the relation between the results and the contributing factors. In other words, it will be concerned with the measurement, in terms of value, of economic instruments, forces, products, and surpluses.

Some attention will necessarily be given to the fundamentals of book-keeping, but emphasis will be placed chiefly upon the accounting principles underlying valuation and the determination of profits and costs. Problem work will be regularly assigned, and published reports of corporations will serve as material for laboratory work.

ECONOMICS 1b2: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 1b2 hf. Dr. J. S. Davis, assisted by Mr. Cox. — Accounting.

Total 116: 49 Seniors, 62 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 2 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 1b2: Final Examination [1915-16]

Be concise. Reserve at least 45 minutes for Question 8. If desired, one of the first five questions may be omitted.

  1. What purposes are served by a Journal? a Ledger? Is it possible to keep complete and accurate accounts with these books alone?
    b. Name five other account books commonly found, and indicate briefly the nature and special function of each.
  2. Explain briefly: posting, contingent liability, corporate surplus, amortization table, secret reserve.
  3. With respect to each of the following, indicate (preferably in tabular form) (a) whether it would normally show a debit or credit balance, (b) whether it would appear on balance sheet or income statement, and (c) what kindof account it represents.

Rentals of Properties Owned
Sinking Fund Securities
Insurance Unexpired
Reserve for Accrued Depreciation
Depreciation on Equipment
Premium on Stock Issued
Advances to Subsidiary Companies
Extraordinary Flood Damages

  1. Draft journal entries (omiting explanations) for the following transactions of the General Utility Company:
    1. Sale of six desks to Jackson & Jackson, @ $15, 30 days, receiving in part payment their 30-day note for $50.
    2. Declaring dividends of $200,000, setting aside out of current income a fire insurance reserve of $100,000, and adding the balance of the year’s income ($60,000) to the surplus.
    3. Making the semi-annual interest payment on a million-dollar 6 per cent bond issue, the bond premium being simultaneously amortised to the extent of $2000.
    4. Loss by fire of a building which cost $60,000, and upon which depreciation of $10,000 had accrued and been allowed for.
  2. What is the purpose of a balance sheet? What are its essential elements? What are the main items or groups of items on the balance sheet of a railroad company? At what points are balance sheets frequently defective, inaccurate, or misleading?
  3. Do the following, in a railroad report, ordinarily signify improvement or retrogression? Under what circumstances, if any, might each signify the opposite? How could you ascertain which was actually signified?
    1. Decline in operating ratio.
    2. Increase in maintenance of freight cars per freight car.
    3. Decrease in freight train miles.
  4. Explain the purpose of the “funding accounts peculiar” to governmental accounting, and illustrate their use.
    b. What accounting distinctions are of especial importance in municipal accounting?
  5. Below are comparative figures (in thousands of dollars) of a company manufacturing railway equipment. Summarize what they reveal of its history, condition, and policy, commending or criticising the statements or policy as occasion requires.

 

Income Account, Years ended December 31
1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913
Gross Earnings Not reported 5,920 7,843 10,035 6,160 9,041 7,688
Operating and Mfg. Expenses, etc. “ 4,775 5,782 7,734 4,793 6,600 6,216
Depreciation and Maintenance “ 170 194 350 150 360 *
Net Earnings 2,320 975 1,866 1,951 1,217 2,081 1,472
Bond Interest 217 209 203 196 232 357 350
Dividends 1,485 1,350 945 945 945 945 945
Surplus for the Year 618 **584 718 810 40 779 177

*Included in “operating expenses.”  **Deficit.

 

General Balance Sheet, December 31
Assets 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913
Plants, Properties, etc. 30,291 30,536 30,568 30,267 33,746 33,373 33,320
Inventories 2,341 1,914 1,927 2,210 1,622 1,927 1,593
Stocks, Bonds, etc. 185 217 222 242 400 704 686
Accounts Receivable 2,349 1,212 1,667 1,464 1,148 1,986 1,411
Other Items 84 75 38 32 28 41 48
Cash 264 344 382 871 1,484 1,225 1,814
Total 35,514 34,298 34,804 35,086 38,428 39,256 38,872
Liabilities
Common Stock 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500
Preferred Stock (7% cumulative) 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500 13,500
Bonded Debt 4,223 4,083 3,945 3,808 7,172 7,037 6,901
Accounts Payable 1,239 588 672 212 148 350 186
Bills Payable 50 200 … … … … …
Reserves for Dividends, Interest, Taxes, etc. 147 156 197 266 268 251 260
Surplus 2,855 2,271 2,990 3,800 3,840 4,618 4,525
Total 35,514 34,298 34,804 35,086 38,428 39,256 38,872

 

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European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century (Gay)

ECONOMICS 2a1: Course announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 2a1hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course(first half-year).Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Professor GAY, assisted by—.

Course 2a undertakes to present the general outlines of the economic history of western Europe since the Industrial Revolution. Such topics as the following will be discussed: the economic aspects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic régime, the Stein-Hardenberg reforms, the Zoll-Verein, Cobden and free trade in England, labor legislation and social reform, nationalism and the recrudescence of protectionism, railways and waterways, the effects of transoceanic competition, the rise of industrial Germany.

Since attention will be directed in this course to those phases of the subject which are related to the economic history of the United States, it may be taken usefully before Economics 2b.

ECONOMICS 2a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 2a1hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Messrs. A. H. Cole and Ryder.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 94: 23 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 33 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 5 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 2a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Speaking of the industrial revolution in England, a writer says: “It is to a revolution in three industries, — agriculture, cotton and iron, — that this transformation is principally due.” Do you agree? Give your reasons.
  2. Account historically for the present condition of the agricultural laborer in England, in East Prussia. What have been the social consequences in both cases?
  3. Hadley says of railway construction: “The Englishman built for the present and future both; the American chiefly for the future.” Account for this difference, and show its effect on capitalization, on service and on inter-railway relations.
  4. Trace the influence of the agrarian and industrial interests on tariff legislation in Germany and France since 1880.
  5. Give an account of the development of the iron and steel industry in England and Germany in the last half of the nineteenth century. Account for the later development in the latter country, and trace the competition between the Ruhr and Lorraine districts.

(Take one of the following two questions)

  1. Comment on Ashley’s statement regarding English exports:

“We shall more and more exhaust our resources of coal, and we shall devote ourselves more and more to those industries which flourish on cheap labor.”

  1. How have the laboring people of England by voluntary collective action tried to meet the exigencies of the modern industrial system? Compare with Germany.

 

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Economic and Financial History of the United States (Gay)

ECONOMICS 2b2: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 2b 2hf. Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 9. Professor GAY, assisted by —.

The following are among the subjects considered: aspects of the Revolution and commercial relations during the Confederation and the European wars; the history of the protective tariff policy and the growth of manufacturing industries; the settlement of the West and the history of transportation, including the early canal and turnpike enterprises of the states, the various phases of railway building and the establishment of public regulation of railways; banking and currency experiences; various aspects of agrarian history, such as the public land policy, the growth of foreign demand for American produce and the subsequent competition of other sources of supply; certain social topics, such as slavery and its economic basis, and the effects of immigration.

ECONOMICS 2b2: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 2b 2hf. Professor Gay, assisted by Messrs. A. H. Cole and Ryder. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 94: 23 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 33 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 5 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 2b2: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. “The expulsion of the French from Canada made it possible (for the American colonies) to dispense with English protection. The commercial restrictions made it to their interest to do so.” Do you agree? Give your reasons for or against.
  2. “As to the strength of slavery as an institution in Southern society after it had been thoroughly established, its basis was partly economic and partly social.” Explain. Which do you think the more fundamental? Why?
  3. (a) Give the reasons for the turn in our favor of the balance of trade in the seventies. (b) Into what periods would you divide the history of our export trade since that time? Characterize each period. What do you think are the probabilities for the future? Give your reasons.
  4. Compare the marketing of grain with the marketing of wool. Why the difference?
  5. In how far were the policies of the national government responsible for the panics of 1837 and 1893? Give your reasons.
  6. (a) Describe briefly the development of the iron industry in the United States. (b) What effect has this development had upon American shipping before and after 1870?

The following questions are for graduates who did not take the tests:

  1. Take one of the following subjects: (a) the history of American agriculture since 1860; or (b) Manufacturing development in the United States before 1860; or (c) the history of American transportation since 1860. Outline the periods and topics you would discuss in lecturing on it. Give also a short list of the chief books or papers you would consult, with critical estimates.
  2. What criteria would you hold most significant in determining the successful application of protection to young industries. Draw your evidence from the manufactures we have considered.

 

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Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises (Anderson)

ECONOMICS 3: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Asst. Professor ANDERSON, assisted by —.

This course undertakes a theoretical, descriptive, and historical study of the main problems of money and banking. Historical and descriptive materials, drawn from the principal systems of the world, will be extensively used, but will be selected primarily with reference to their significance in the development of principles, and with reference to contemporary practical problems. Foreign exchange will be studied in detail. Attention will be given to those problems of money and credit which appear
most prominently in connection with economic crises. Though emphasis will be thrown upon the financial aspects of crises, the investigation will cover also the more fundamental factors causing commercial and industrial cycles.

ECONOMICS 3: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 3. Asst. Professor Anderson, assisted by Mr. Silberling. — Money, Banking and Commercial Crises.

Total 69: 2 Graduates, 25 Seniors, 31 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 8 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 3: Final Examination [1915-16]

Omit either question 6 or 7.

  1. State and discuss Fisher’s version of the quantity theory of money.
  2. Discuss the relations of the banks and the stock exchange.
  3. Contrast the Bank of England with the Banque de France:
    (a) with reference to reserves;
    (b) with reference to the discount rate;
    (c) with reference to specie payments;
    (d) with reference to relations with the government;
    (e) with reference to foreign exchange policy.
  4. In precisely what ways does our Federal Reserve system seek to remedy the defects in our banking system?
  5. Discuss the development of State banking since the Civil War. Compare it with the development of the National Bank system. Explain the tendencies.
  6. Give an account of the main movements in the prices of the war stocks since Oct. 1, 1915, and explain these movements as far as you can: (a) by reference to general causes; (b) by reference to factors affecting particular securities as far as you know them.
  7. Explain the movements in demand sterling since the outbreak of the War. Give figures and dates as accurately as you can.
  8. Summarize Wesley Mitchell’s theory of business cycles.
  9. For what purposes does the farmer need credit? What is the extent of agricultural indebtedness in different sections in the United States? What agencies supply credit to the farmer? What rates of interest does the farmer pay in different parts of the country?
  10. Contrast the Panic of 1893 with the Panic of 1914.

 

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Economics of Transportation (Ripley)

ECONOMICS 4a1: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 4a 1hf. Economics of Transportation. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor RIPLEY, assisted by —.

A brief outline of the historical development of rail and water transportation in the United States will be followed by a description of the condition of transportation systems at the present time. The four main subdivisions of rates and rate-making, finance, traffic operation, and legislation will be considered in turn. The first deals with the relation of the railroad to shippers, comprehending an analysis of the theory and practice of rate-making. An outline will be given of the nature of railroad securities, the principles of capitalization, and the interpretation of railroad accounts. Railroad operation will deal with the practical problems of the traffic department, such as the collection and interpretation of statistics of operation, pro-rating, the apportionment of cost, depreciation and maintenance, etc. Under legislation, the course of state regulation and control in the United States and Europe will be traced.

ECONOMICS 4a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 4a 1hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Cameron. — Economics of Transportation.

Total 121: 3 Graduates, 47 Seniors, 54 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 10 Other.

ECONOMICS 4a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Discuss the propriety of the capitalization by a railroad of a surplus which had gradually accumulated during a period of twenty or more years. Would the recency of the surplus make any difference? How about the geographical location of the road?
  2. Describe the existing situation as concerns the relation of American railroads to their employees.
  3. What are the prime essentials of a railroad reorganization, necessary to insure its success?
  4. In case of the creation of a Congressional commission on railway legislature, what are the topics which it would probably consider?
  5. Outline the means which have been employed to bring about unity of action among the hard coal roads as to prices.
  6. State briefly for the leading countries which have taken over their railways as government enterprises, the peculiar circumstances which have no counterpart in the American situation.
  7. What is the trouble with the so-called basing point system?
  8. What is the present condition of affairs concerning the relation of railroads to water lines, coastwise or lake?
  9. When and how did the conflict of Federal and state powers over regulation of common carriers first become acute?
  10. Why was the United States Commerce Court ‘abolished’ judging by the tenor of its decisions?

 

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Economics of Corporations (Ripley)

ECONOMICS 4b2: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 4b 2hf. Economics of Corporations. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor RIPLEY, assisted by —.

This course will treat of the fiscal and industrial organization of capital, especially in the corporate form. The principal topic considered will be industrial combination and the so-called trust problem. This will be broadly discussed, with comparative study of conditions in the United States and Europe. The development of corporate enterprise, promotion, and financing, accounting, liability of directors and underwriters, will be described, not in their legal but in their economic aspects; and the effects of industrial combination upon efficiency, profits, wages, prices, the development of export trade, and international competition will be considered in turn.

ECONOMICS 4b2: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 4b 2 hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Cameron. — Economics of Corporations.

Total 115: 9 Graduates, 39 Seniors, 49 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 4b2: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Discuss critically the “economics of Industrial Combination.”
  2. What peculiarity of the American situation has given especial prominence to the holding company, in contrast with European countries?
  3. What principle of corporate finance, not of commercial practice, is illustrated by the experience of the following companies? Limit each answer to five words.
    1. U.S. Leather Co.
    2. International Mercantile Marine Co.
    3. American Ice Co.
    4. U.S. Steel Corporation.
    5. American Tobacco Co.
    6. The Glucose combination.
    7. The Asphalt combination.
  4. What is the most insistent feature in an industrial reorganization? How is the desired result commonly brought about?
  5. Outline the relation of organized labor to the amendment of the Sherman Act in 1914.
  6. “Competitors must not be oppressed or coerced. Fraudulent or unfair, or oppressive rivalry must not be pursued….Then, too, prices must not be arbitrarily fixed or maintained … an artificial scarcity must not be produced….The public is also injured if quality be impaired….Other injuries are done, if the wages of the laborer be arbitrarily reduced, and if the price of raw material be artificially depressed.”
    Associate each of the foregoing practices named in a recent judicial opinion with some particular industrial combination.
  7. How successful has the Department of Justice been in effecting the corporate dissolution of combinations? Outline the experience.
  8. Describe those factors of British corporate financial practise which are essentially different from our own.
  9. Compare the organization of the American and German combinations in the iron and steel industries; briefly, point by point.
  10. If high prices constitute a grievance of the public against industrial combination, what are the objections to an attempt to regulate these prices directly by law? Discuss the proposition from as many points of view as possible.

 

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Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation (Bullock)

ECONOMICS 5: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 5. Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor BULLOCK.

This course covers the entire field of public finance, but emphasizes the subject of taxation. After a brief survey of the history of finance, attention is given to public expenditures, commercial revenues, administrative revenues, and taxation, with consideration both of theory and of the practice of various countries. Public credit is then studied, and financial legislation and administration are briefly treated.

Systematic reading is prescribed, and most of the exercises are conducted by the method of informal discussion. Candidates for distinction will be given an opportunity to write theses.

Graduate students are advised to elect Economics 31.

ECONOMICS 5: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 5. Professor Bullock. — Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

Total 60: 27 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 5 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 5: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Trace historically the position occupied by the customs revenue in the finances of the United States. What principles should be observed in establishing a system of customs duties? Discuss the incidence of these duties.
  2. To what extent and for what reasons has the working of the general property tax in Switzerland been different from the working of the same tax in the United States?
  3. Discuss briefly and concisely the characteristic features of three of the following: (a) The impôt-personnel mobilier; (b) The French business tax; (c) The Prussian business tax; (d) inheritance taxes in the United States.
  4. Explain and discuss critically the methods employed in the taxation of incomes in England and in Prussia.
  5. (a) What are the different theories regarding the best method of apportioning taxes?
    (b) Distinguish between “funded” and “unfunded” incomes. On what grounds can the heavier taxation of funded incomes be urged?
  6. What principles should govern the prices charged for the services of public commercial undertakings?
  7. Enumerate and discuss critically all the maxims, or canons, of taxation, with which you are familiar.
  8. State either the case for or the case against the single tax.

 

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Trade Unionism and Allied Problems (Ripley)

ECONOMICS 6a1: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 6a 1hf. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Professor RIPLEY, assisted by —.

This course will deal mainly with the economic and social relations of employer and employed. Among the topics included will be: the history of unionism; the policies of trade unions respecting wages, machinery, output, etc.; collective bargaining; strikes; employers’ liability and workmen’s compensation; efficiency management; unemployment, etc., in the relation to unionism, will be considered.

Each student will make at least one report upon a labor union or an important strike, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice.

ECONOMICS 6a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 6a 1 hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Weisman. — Trade-Unionism and Allied Problems.

Total 61: 24 Seniors, 29 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 7 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 6a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Illustrate by a sketch the interrelation between the constituent parts of the American Federation of Labor.
  2. Criticise the following premium wage plans for mounting “gem” electric lamp bulbs.
Daily Output Wage per thousand
Under 900 $1.03
900-1000 $1.07
1000-1100 $1.12
Over 1100 $1.17
  1. Have you any impression whether Webb favors craft or industrial unionism? What instances does he cite?
  2. Define (a) Federal union; (b) Device of the Common Rule? (c) Jurisdiction dispute.
  3. Is there any real difference between an “irritation strike ” of the I. W. W.and the British “strike in detail”?
  4. Contrast the British and American policies of trade union finance, showing causes and results.
  5. Describe the Hart, Schaffner and Marx plan of dealing with its employees.
  6. Is the Standard Wage merely the minimum for a given trade or not? Discuss the contention that it penalizes enterprise or ability.
  7. Is there any relation logically between the attitude of labor toward piece work and the relative utilization of machinery?
  8. What is the nature of the business transacted at the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor?

 

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Economic Theory (Taussig)

ECONOMICS 7a1: Course Announcement [1916-17]

[Economics] 7a1 hf. Economic Theory. Half-course(first half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30, and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor TAUSSIG.

Course 7a undertakes a survey of economic thought from Adam Smith to the present time. Considerable parts of the Wealth of Nations and of J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy will be read, as well as selected passages from the writings of contemporary economists. No theses or other set written work will be required. The course will be conducted chiefly by discussion. It forms an advantageous introduction to Economics 7b.

Students who have attained in Economics A a grade sufficient for distinction (A or B) are admitted without further inquiry. Others must secure the consent of the instructor.

ECONOMICS 7a1: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 7a 1hf. Professor Taussig. — Economic Theory.

Total 27: 12 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 7a1: Final Examination [1915-16]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. “The wages of the inferior classes of workmen, I have endeavored to show in the first book, are everywhere necessarily regulated by two different circumstances: the demand for labor, and the ordinary or average price for provisions. The demand for labor, according as it happens to be either increasing, stationary, or declining, or to require an increasing, stationary or declining population, regulates the subsistence of the laborer and determines in what degree it shall be either liberal, moderate, or scanty.”
    Explain (1) in what way Adam Smith analyzed the “demand for labor”; (2) the nature of the reasoning which led to his conclusions regarding the influence on wages of increasing or declining national wealth.
  2. Explain in what way J. S. Mill analyzed the demand for labor, and wherein his analysis resembled Adam Smith’s, wherein it differed; and consider whether Mill’s conclusions regarding the influence of increasing national wealth on wages were similar to Adam Smith’s.
  3. Explain:
    (a) The Physiocratic notion concerning productive labor;
    (b) Adam Smith’s distinction between productive and unproductive labor;
    (c) Adam Smith’s doctrine as to the way in which equal capitals employed in agriculture, in manufactures, in wholesale or retail trade, put in motion different quantities of productive labor.
    What reasoning led Adam Smith to arrange industries in the order of productiveness indicated in (c) and what have you to say in comment on it
  4. Why, according to Adam Smith, is there rent from land used for growing grain? from land used for pasture? from mines? What would a writer like Mill say of these doctrines of Adam Smith’s?
  5. How does Mill (following Chalmers) explain the rapid recovery of countries devastated by war? Do you think the explanation sound?
  6. Wherein is Mill’s analysis of the causes of differences in wages similar to Adam Smith’s, wherein different?
  7. What, according to Mill, is the foundation of private property? What corollaries does he draw as regards inheritance and bequest? What is your instructor’s view on the justification of inheritance and bequest?
  8. Explain wherein there are or are not ” uman costs” in the savings of the rich, of the middle classes, and of the poor; and wherein there are or are not “economic costs” in these several savings.
  9. Hobson says: (a) that” the traditional habits of ostentatious waste and conspicuous leisure . . . induce futile extravagance in expenditure”; (b) that “the very type of this expenditure is a display of fireworks; futility is of its essence”; (c) that “the glory of the successful sportsman is due to the fact that his deeds are futile. And this conspicuous futility is at the root of the matter. The fact that he can give time, energy, and money to sport testifies to his possession of independent means.” Consider what is meant by “futility” in these passages; and give your own opinion on the significance of “sport.”
  10. Explain the grounds on which Hobson finds little promise for the future in (a) consumers’ cooperation; (b) producers’ cooperation; (c) syndicalism.

 

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Principles of Sociology (Carver)

ECONOMICS 8: Course Announcement [1916-1917]

[Economics] 8. Principles of Sociology. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Professor CARVER, assisted by Mr. —.

A study in social adaptation, both passive and active. Problems of race improvement, moral adjustment, industrial organization, and social control are considered in detail.  [Note: in 1916-17 this became a two-term course]

ECONOMICS 81: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 8 1hf. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr. Bovingdon.— Principles of Sociology.

Total 130: 14 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 45 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 15 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 81: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. How would you distinguish between progress and change?
  2. Just what is meant by self-centered appreciation? Should the range of the average individual’s appreciations be widened? Give reasons for your answer.
  3. What do you think of the economic test of the individual’s fitness for survival?
  4. What is the function of religion? To what extent do you think that it is performing its function in the United States?
  5. What is the function of an educational institution? To what extent do you think that Harvard University is performing its function?
  6. What effect do you think that the increase of government ownership and operation of industrial capital in the United States will have upon the “open road to talent”?

 

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Economics of Agriculture (Carver)

ECONOMICS 91: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 9 1hf. Economics of Agriculture. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. Professor CARVER.

A study of the relation of agriculture to the whole industrial system, the relative importance of rural and urban economics, the conditions of rural life in different parts of the United States, the forms of land tenure and methods of rent payment, the comparative merits of large and small holdings, the status and wages of farm labor, the influence of farm machinery, farmers’ organizations, the marketing and distribution of farm products, agricultural credit, the policy of the government toward agriculture, and the probable future of American agriculture.

ECONOMICS 91: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 9 1hf. Professor Carver, assisted by Mr. Shaulis.— Economics of Agriculture.

Total 58: 4 Graduates, 32 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 91: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. What are the factors which determine the migration of rural people; of urban people?
  2. What are the chief periods in the development of American Agriculture, and how would you characterize each period?
  3. In what ways could a citizen acquire title to a piece of the public land of the United States at the following dates, 1850, 1870, 1900?
  4. What do you regard as the necessary steps to the solution of the problem of rural credit in the United States? Explain your reasons.
  5. What are the essentials to be achieved in the building up of a market for agricultural products?
  6. Discuss the place of animal husbandry in the economy of the farm and also in the economy of food production from the standpoint of society in general.
  7. Summarize the effects of modern farm machinery. Discuss the degree of its utilization in different sections of the United States.
  8. Outline briefly a scheme for the organization of a rural community, and give your reasons for the main features of your scheme.
  9. Outline the chief areas of production in the United States of the following crops: Potatoes, wheat, oats, hay and forage.
  10. What are the chief forms of tenancy in the United States, and where is each form most common?

 

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Economic Theory (Taussig)

ECONOMICS 11: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 11. Economic Theory. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Professor TAUSSIG.

Course 11 is intended to acquaint the student with some of the later developments of economic thought, and at the same time to train him in the critical consideration of economic principles and the analysis of economic conditions. The exercises are accordingly conducted mainly by the discussion of selected passages from the leading writers; and in this discussion the students are expected to take an active part. The writings of J. S. Mill, Cairnes, F. A. Walker, Clark, Marshall, Böhm-Bawerk, and other recent authors, will be taken up. Attention will be given chiefly to the theory of exchange and distribution.

ECONOMICS 11: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 11. Professor Taussig. — Economic Theory.

Total 29: 18 Graduates, 1 Grad.Bus., 6 Seniors, 3 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

 

ECONOMICS 11: Mid-year Examination [1915-16]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. On what grounds is it contended that there is a circle in Walker’s reasoning on the relation between wages and business profits? What is your opinion on this rejoinder: that Walker, in speaking of the causes determining wages, has in mind the general rate of wages, whereas in speaking of profits he has in mind the wages of a particular grade of labor?
  2. According to Ricardo, neither profits of capital nor rent of land are contained in the price of exchangeable commodities, but labor only.” — Thünen.
    Is there justification for this interpretation of Ricardo?
  3. “Instead of saying that profits depend on wages, let us say (what Ricardo really meant) that they depend on the cost of labour. . . . The cost of labour is, in the language of mathematics, a function of three variables: the efficiency of labor; the wages of labour (meaning thereby the real reward of the labourer); and the greater or less cost at which the articles composing that real reward can be produced or procured.”   — J. S. Mill.
    Is this what Ricardo really meant? Why the different form of statement by Mill? What comment have you to make on Mill’s statement?
  4. State resemblances and differences in the methods of analysis, and in the conclusions reached, between (a) the temporary equilibrium of supply and demand (e.g. in a grain market), as explained by Marshall; (b) “two-sided competition,” as explained by Böhm-Bawerk; (c) equilibrium under barter, as explained by Marshall.
  5. Explain concisely what is meant in the Austrian terminology by “value,” “subjective value,” “subjective exchange value,” “objective exchange value.”
    Does the introduction of “subjective exchange value” into the analysis of two-sided competition lead to reasoning in a circle?
  6. “Suppose a poor man receives every day two pieces of bread, while one is enough to allay the pangs of positive hunger, what value will one of the two pieces of bread have for him? The answer is easy enough. If he gives away the piece of bread, he will lose, and if he keeps it he will secure, provision for that degree of want which makes itself felt whenever positive hunger has been allayed. We may call this the second degree of utility. One of two entirely similar goods is, therefore, equal in value to the second degree in the scale of utility of that particular class of goods. . . . Not only has one of two goods the value of the second degree of utility, but either of them has it, whichever one may choose. And three pieces have together three times the value of the third degree of utility, and four pieces have four times the value of the fourth degree. In a word, the value of a supply of similar goods is equal to the sum of the items multiplied by the marginal utility.” — Wieser.
    Do you think this analysis tenable? and do you think it inconsistent with the doctrine of total utility and consumer’s surplus?
  7. “If the modern theory of value, as it is commonly stated, were literally true, most articles of high quality would sell for three times as much as they actually bring.” What leads Clark to this conclusion? and do you accept it?

Source note: Mid-term exam from Harvard University Archives, Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935 (Scrapbook).

ECONOMICS 11: Final Examination [1915-16]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Allow time for careful revision of your answers.

  1. “The productivity of capital is, like that of land and labor, subject to the principle of marginal productivity, which is, as we have seen, a part of the general law of diminishing returns. Increase the number of instruments of a given kind in any industrial establishment, leaving everything else in the establishment the same as before, and you will probably increase the total product of the establishment somewhat, but you will not increase the product as much as you have the instruments in question. Introduce a few more looms into a cotton factory without increasing the labor or the other forms of machinery, and you will add a certain small amount to the total output…. That which is true of looms in this particular is also true of ploughs on a farm, of locomotives on a railway, of floor space in a store, and of every other form of capital used in industry.” Is this in accord with Clark’s view? Böhm-Bawerk’s? Marshall’s? Your own?
  2. What is the significance of the principle of quasi-rent for
    (a) the “single tax” proposal;
    (b) Clark’s doctrine concerning the specific product of capital;
    (c) the theory of business profits.
  3. Explain what writers use the following terms and in what senses: Composite quasi-rent; usance; implicit interest; joint demand.
  4. On Cairnes’ reasoning, are high wages of a particular group of laborers the cause or the result of high value (price) of the commodities made by them? On the reasoning of the Austrian school, what is the relation between cost and value? Consider differences or resemblances between the two trains of reasoning.
  5. “This ‘exploitation theory of interest’ consists virtually of two propositions: first, that the value of any product usually exceeds its cost of production; and, secondly, that the value of any product ought to be exactly equal to its cost of production. The first of these propositions is true, but the second is false. Economists have usually pursued a wrong method in answering the socialists, for they have attacked the first proposition instead of the second. The socialist is quite right in his contention that the value of the product exceeds the cost. In fact, this proposition is fundamental in the whole theory of capital and interest. Ricardo here, as in many other places in economics, has been partly right and partly wrong. He was one of the first to fall into the fallacy that the value of the product was normally equal to its cost, but he also noted certain apparent ‘exceptions,’ as for instance, that wine increased in value with years.” Is this a just statement of Ricardo’s view? Of the views of economists generally? In what sense is it true, if in any, that value usually exceeds cost?
  6. Explain carefully what Böhm-Bawerk means by

(a) social capital;
(b) the general subsistence fund;
(c) the average production period;
(d) usurious interest.

In what way does he analyze the relation between (b) and (c)?

  1. Suppose ability of the highest kind in the organization and management of industry became as common as ability to do unskilled manual labor is now; what consequences would you expect as regards the national dividend? the remuneration of the business manager and of the unskilled laborer? Would you consider the readjusted scale of remuneration more or less equitable than that now obtaining?
  2. What grounds are there for maintaining or denying that “profits” are (a) essentially a differential gain, (b) ordinarily capitalized as “common stock,” (c) secured through “pecuniary,” not “industrial” activity? What method of investigation would you suggest as the best for answering these questions?

 

________________________

The Distribution of Wealth (Carver)

ECONOMICS 121: Course Announcement [1916-17]

[Economics] 12. 1hf. The Distribution of Wealth. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 9. Professor CARVER.

An analytical study of the theory of value and its applications, the law of diminishing utility, the nature and meaning of cost, the significance of scarcity and its relation to the general problem of social adjustment, the law of variable proportions and its bearing upon the problem of a better distribution of wealth.

ECONOMICS 121: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 12 1hf. Professor Carver. — The Distribution of Wealth.

Total 6: 3 Graduates, 1 Senior, 2 Juniors.

 

ECONOMICS 121: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Is there any close connection between economic value and moral value? Explain and justify your answer.
  2. How would you harmonize the Ricardian doctrine of rent with the doctrine that rent is determined by the specific or net productivity of land?
  3. What is cost and what are its leading forms at the present time? How is it related to wages, interest, and profits?
  4. What is meant by the intensive and by the extensive margins of cultivation and how are they related each to the other?
  5. Can you see any connection between the wage fund doctrine and the doctrine of non-competing groups? Explain and justify your answer.
  6. What would be the main items of your program for improving the present distribution of wealth? Give your reasons for each item.

 

________________________

Statistics: Theory, Method, and Practice (Day)

ECONOMICS 13: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 13. Statistics: Theory, Method, and Practice. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Asst. Professor DAY.

The first half of this course is intended thoroughly to acquaint the student with the best statistical methods. Such texts as Bowley’s Elements of Statistics, Yule’s Introduction to the Theory of Statistics, and Zizek’s Statistical Averages, are studied in detail. Problems are constantly assigned to assure actual practice in the methods examined.

The second half of the course endeavors to familiarize the student with the best sources of economic statistical data. Methods actually employed in different investigations are analyzed and criticized. The organization of the various agencies collecting data is examined. Questions of the interpretation, accuracy, and usefulness of the published data are especially considered.

ECONOMICS 13: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 13. Asst. Professor Day. — Statistics: Theory, Method, and Practice.

Total 10: 8 Graduates, 2 Radcliffe.

 

ECONOMICS 13: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. Explain and criticize the following statistical table:
PER CENT OF FAMILY INCOME CONTRIBUTED BY EACH CLASS OF WORKERS BY INDUSTRIES1
Per cent of family income contributed by each class of workers in—
Cotton industry Ready-made clothing indus-try Glass indus-try Silk indus-try
New England group South-ern group
Fathers 37.7 34.0 48.4 56.0 50.5
Mothers 32.4 27.9 26.8 25.1 33.0
Male children 16 years of age and over 31.1 27.3 36.5 37.8 37.0
Female children 16 years of age and over 42.6 35.2 39.7 26.7 35.1
Children 14 and 15 years of age 18.7 22.9 14.2 18.9 16.6
Children 12 and 13 years of age 14.3 17.6 10.0 15.7 13.3
Children under 12 years of age 2 3.6 13.5

1These per cents apply only to the incomes of families having wage earners of the specified class.
2Based on incomes of two families, each having one child under 12 at work.

  1. Enumerate the means by which a bureau, charged with the administration of a state registration law, may ascertain the completeness of birth registration in any registration district.
  2. Describe and illustrate the construction of a logarithmic curve. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a curve for the purpose of graphic presentation?
  3. What is the logical distinction, if there be any, between a weighted and a simple arithmetic mean? What are the reasons for and against weighting? Under what conditions may weighting safely be omitted?
  4. Retail price quotations for two articles are reported from fifty markets as follows:
Article A Article B
Price per dozen Number of markets reporting this price Price per bushel Number of markets reporting this price
21¢ 1 $1.00 8
22¢ 2 $1.05 12
23¢ 7 $1.10 15
24¢ 11 $1.15 10
25¢ 15 $1.25 5
26¢ 9 50
27¢ 4
28¢ 1
50

Measure by the standard deviation the relative variability in price of these two commodities. Employ the short-cut method.

  1. “Imagine an ideal republic, in some respects similar to that designed by Plato, where not only were all the children removed from their parents, but where they were all treated exactly alike. In these circumstances none of the differences between the adults could have anything to do with the differences of environments and all must be due to some differences in inherent factors. In fact, the environment correlation coefficient would be nil, whilst the heredity correlation coefficient might be high.”
    Comment upon the italicized statement.
  2. Outline a correlation study of two economic variables both of which tend to increase steadily with the growth of population, and both of which are sensitive to the fluctuations of the seasons and of the business cycle.
  3. What conditions are essential to simple sampling?
    The expected proportion of accidents per year in a certain industry is 150 per 1000 workers. A company employing 2500 workers reports 405 accidents during the year 1913. Assume that the conditions of simple sampling are met; analyze the returns to determine whether the difference between the actual and expected number of accidents is significant.

 

________________________

History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848 (Bullock)

ECONOMICS 14: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 14. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Professor BULLOCK.

The purpose of this course is to trace the development of economic thought from classical antiquity to the middle of the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed upon the relation of economics to philosophical and political theories, as well as to political and industrial conditions.

A considerable amount of reading of prominent writers will be assigned, and opportunity given for the preparation of theses. Much of the instruction is necessarily given by means of lectures.

ECONOMICS 14: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 14. Professor Bullock. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

Total 14: 13 Graduates, 1 Radcliffe.

 

ECONOMICS 14: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. What did the mercantilists teach concerning: (a) economic structure; (b) economic functions; (c) economic ideals; and (d) economic policies?
  2. At what important points does Adam Smith draw upon the works of earlier writers? What important original contributions does he make?
  3. At what points are Smith’s ideas inadequately developed or inconsistent?
  4. What important changes were made in English economic doctrines by Ricardo and Mill?
  5. Give the rest of the examination period to writing an essay upon the life, works, and economic doctrines of any economist prior to Adam Smith.

 

________________________

Analytical Sociology (Anderson)

ECONOMICS 18a1: Course Announcement [1916-17]

[Economics] 18a 1hf. Analytical Sociology. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 3.30. Asst. Professor ANDERSON.

The centre of this course will be in the problems of social psychology: the raw stuff of human nature, and its social transformations; imitation, suggestion and mob-mind; the individual and the social mind; social control and the theory of social forces; the relation of intellectual and emotional factors in social life. These problems will be studied in their relations to the whole field of social theory, which will be considered in outline, with some emphasis on the influence of physiographic factors and of heredity. Leading contemporary writers will be studied, and some attention will be given to the history of social theory. Instruction will be by lectures, discussion, and reports.

ECONOMICS 18a2: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 18a 2hf. Asst. Professor Anderson. — Analytical Sociology.

Total 18: 16 Graduates, 2 Seniors.

 

ECONOMICS 18a2: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. What is the bearing of the Mendelian theory on social problems?
  2. What difference does it make for sociology whether or not we accept the doctrine of the inheritance of acquired characters? To what extent, if at all, and in what connections, does Giddings make use of this doctrine? How far, if at all, are his conclusions incompatible with Weismann’s doctrine?
  3. Explain what is meant by the “social mind.” By “social values.”
  4. Summarize the theory of McGee as to the origin of agriculture.
  5. Compare the views of Boas and W. B. Smith as to the comparative roles of race and environment in the case of the American negro. What is your own view?
  6. What did you get from your reading of Tarde? Of Le Bon? of Ross’ Social Psychology? Let your summaries be brief, but not vague! Differentiate the books.
  7. Summarize Giddings’ chapter on Demogenic Association.
  8. Illustrate the social transformation of the raw stuff of human nature by the case of either the instinct of workmanship, the sex instinct, or the instinct of flight and hiding.
  9. What reading have you done for this course?

 

________________________

Public Finance (Bullock)

ECONOMICS 31: Course Announcement [1914-15]

[Economics] 31. Public Finance. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. Professor BULLOCK.

The course is devoted to the examination of the financial institutions of the principal modern countries, in the light of both theory and history. One or more reports calling for independent investigation will ordinarily be required. Special emphasis will be placed upon questions of American finance. Ability to read French or German is presupposed.

ECONOMICS 31: Enrollment [1915-16]

[Economics] 31. Professor Bullock. — Public Finance.

Total 16: 14 Graduates, 2 Seniors.

 

ECONOMICS 31: Final Examination [1915-16]

  1. If you were writing a treatise on public finance how far would you utilize Adam Smith’s chapter on taxation?
  2. What is Eheberg’s opinion concerning any two of the following taxes: the Ertragssteuern, the Wehrsteuer, and the property tax?
  3. What is Leroy-Beaulieu’s opinion concerning any two of the following taxes: octrois, increment taxes, and the French patente?
  4. With what different opinions concerning the incidence of the house tax are you familiar? State briefly your own opinion.
  5. Discuss the doctrine that consumption taxes tend to be “absorbed,” and state your opinion concerning the practical conclusions that follow from it.
  6. What is the incidence of the usual tax on mortgages in the United States?
  7. Compare French and British direct taxation.
  8. State the principles upon which a policy of public borrowing should be based. Should public debts be extinguished?

 

Sources:

Enrollment data: 

Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1915-1916, pp. 59-61.

Examinations (except where noted):

Harvard University. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, History of Religions, History of Science, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Ethics, Education, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College (June, 1916), pp. 45-63.

Course Announcements: 

Division of History, Government, and Economics 1914-15 printed in Official Register of Harvard University, Volume XI, No. 1, Part 14 (May 19, 1914), pp. 62-70.

Division of History, Government, and Economics 1916-17 printed in Official Register of Harvard University, Volume XIII, No. 1, Part 11 (May 15, 1916), pp. 61-69.

Image Source:

Card catalog in Widener Library at Harvard University, ca. 1915. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Categories
Courses Gender Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Economics course offerings, 1915-1920

 

Here are six previous installments in the series “Economics course offerings at Radcliffe College”:

Pre-Radcliffe economics course offerings and Radcliffe courses for 1893-94,  1894-1900 , 1900-1905 , 1905-1910 , 1910-1915.

______________________________

 

An asterisk (*) designates Graduate courses in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty.

Economics
1915-16

Primarily for Undergraduates:

A. Asst. Professor DAY. — Principles of Economics.

9 Se., 20 Ju., 24 So., 1 Fr., 5 Unc., 2 Sp. Total 61

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:

2a1 hf. Professor GAY.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

2 Gr., 1 Se., 2 Ju., 1 So., 1 Unc., 2 Sp. Total 9

2b2 hf. Professor GAY.— Economic and Financial History of the United States.

3 Gr., 2 Se., 5 Ju., 1 So., 1 Unc., 1 Sp. Total 13

6a1 hf. Mr. P. G. WRIGHT.— Trade-Unionism and Allied Problems.

4 Se., 1 Ju., 1 Unc. Total 6

6b2 hf. Mr. P. G. WRIGHT.— The Labor Movement in Europe.

4 Se., 1 Ju., 1 So., 1 Unc. Total 7

7b2 hf. Asst. Professor ANDERSON.— The Single Tax, Socialism, Anarchism.

1 Ju., 2 So., 1 Sp. Total 4

8a1 hf. Professor CARVER.— Principles of Sociology.

2 Gr., 9 Se., 12 Ju., 1 So., 1 Unc., 3 Sp. Total 28

8b2 hf. Asst. Professor ANDERSON.—  Principles of Sociology.

2 Gr., 2 Se., 5 Ju., 1 Unc. Total 10

Accounting

Associate Professor COLE.— Principles of Accounting.

5 Se. Total 5

Economic Theory and Method

Primarily for Graduates:

*11 Professor TAUSSIG.— Economic Theory.

1 Gr., 1 Se. Total 2

*13. Asst. Professor DAY. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

1 Se. Total 1

*14. Professor BULLOCK. — History and Literature of Economics to the Year 1848.

1 Gr. Total 1

Economic History

*23. Dr. GRAS (Clark College). — Economic History of Europe to the Middle of the Eighteenth Century.

1 Gr. Total 1

Course of Research

20a. Professor GAY. — Economic History.

1 Gr. Total 1

 

Source:  Annual Report of Radcliffe College for 1915-1916. Report of the Chairman of the Academic Board (September 1918), pp. 40-1.

______________________________

Economics
1916-1917

Primarily for Undergraduates:

1. A. Asst. Professor E. E. DAY.— Principles of Economics.

2 Gr., 7 Se., 23 Ju., 19 So., 1 Fr., 3 Unc., 2 Sp. Total 57

For Undergraduates and Graduates:

1a1 hf. Associate Professor COLE.— Accounting.

6 Se., 5 Ju., 1 Sp. Total 12

1b2 hf. Dr. J. S. DAVIS— Statistics.

3 Gr., 3 Se., 4 Ju., 1 Unc. Total 11

1c2 hf. Associate Professor COLE.— Accounting (advanced course).

2 Se., 3 Ju. Total 5

2a1 hf. Professor GAY.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

3 Gr., 7 Se., 3 Ju., 1 Unc., 1 Sp. Total 15

2b2 hf. Professor GAY.— Economic and Financial History of the United States.

3 Gr., 8 Se., 6 Ju., 1 So., 1 Unc., 1 Sp. Total 20.

5. Dr. BURBANK, with lectures on selected topics by Professor BULLOCK.— Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

5 Se., 3 Ju. Total 8

6a1 hf. Mr. P. G. WRIGHT.— Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.

3 Se., 2 Ju., 3 Unc. Total 8

6b2 hf. Mr. P. G. WRIGHT.— The Labor Movement in Europe.

1 Se., 2 Ju. Total 3

7. Asst. Professor ANDERSON.— Economic Theory.

3 Gr., 1 Se., 1 Ju. Total 5

8. Professor CARVER.— Principles of Sociology.

1 Gr., 4 Se., 10 Ju., 1 Unc. Total 16

Economic Theory and Method

Primarily for Graduates:

*11. Asst. Professor DAY.— Economic Theory.

1 Gr. Total 1

*121 hf. Professor CARVER.— The Distribution of Wealth.

2 Gr. Total 2

Applied Economics

*34. Professor RIPLEY.— Problems of Labor.

2 Gr., 2 Se. Total 4

Course of Research

20d. Professor GAY. — Economic History.

1 Gr. Total 1

 

Source:  Annual Report of Radcliffe College for 1916-1917. Report of the Chairman of the Academic Board (September 1918), pp. 91-2.

 

______________________________

Economics
1917-1918

Primarily for Undergraduates:

1. A. Asst. Professor E. E. DAY. — Principles of Economics.

1 Gr., 8 Se., 16 Ju., 29 So., 1 Fr., 7 Unc. Total 62

For Undergraduates and Graduates:

1a1 hf. Associate Professor COLE.— Accounting.

12 Se., 3 Ju., 3 So., 1 Unc. Total 19

1b2 hf. Asst. Professor E. E. DAY.— Statistics.

2 Gr., 5 Se., 3 Ju., 1 Unc. Total 11

1c2 hf. Associate Professor COLE.— Accounting (Advanced Course).

5 Se., 1 Ju., 3 So., 1 Unc. Total 10

2a1 hf. Professor GAY.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

6 Gr., 6 Se., 1 Ju., 1 So., 2 Unc. Total 16

2b2 hf. Asst. Professor GRAS (Clark University).—Economic History of the United States.

2 Gr., 4 Se., 1 Ju. Total 7

32 hf. Dr. LINCOLN.— Money, Banking, and Allied Problems.

3 Gr., 7 Se., 4 Ju., 1 So. Total 15

5. Dr. BURBANK, with lectures on selected topics by Professor BULLOCK.— Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

1 Gr., 4 Se. Total 5

6a1 hf. Dr. LINCOLN.— Labor Problems.

2 Se., 1 Ju., 1 So. Total 4

7. Asst. Professor ANDERSON.— Theories of Social Reform.

4 Se., 1 Ju., 1 So., 1 Unc. Total 7

8. Professor CARVER.—Principles of Sociology.

2 Se., 5 Ju., 5 Unc. Total 12

Primarily for Graduates:

Accounting

Associate Professor COLE.— Accounting Problems.

1 Gr., 3 Se. Total 4

Economic Theory and Method

*11. Professors CARVER and BULLOCK.— Economic Theory.

1 Gr. Total 1

Economic History

*241 hf. Professor GAY. — Topics in the Economic History of the Nineteenth Century.

1 Se. Total 1

Applied Economics

*322 hf. Professor CARVER. — Economics of Agriculture.

1 Gr., 3 Se. Total 4

*34. Professor RIPLEY. —Problems of Labor.

1 Gr., 1 Se. Total 2

Course of Research

20d. Professor GAY and Asst. Professor GRAS (Clark University). — Economic History.

1 Gr. Total 1

 

Source:  Annual Report of Radcliffe College for 1917-1918. Report of the Chairman of the Academic Board (January 1919), pp. 44-45.

______________________________

Economics
1918-1919

Primarily for Undergraduates:

1. A. Dr. BURBANK. — Principles of Economics.

11 Se., 30 Ju., 16 So., 1 Fr., 13 Unc. Total 71

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:

1a1 hf. Professor COLE. — Accounting.

1 Gr., 6 Se., 6 Ju., 3 So. Total 16

1c2 hf. Professor COLE. — Accounting (advanced course).

1 Gr., 2 Se., 4 Ju., 2 So. Total 9

2a1 hf. Dr. E. E. LINCOLN. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

1 Gr., 7 Se., 3 Ju., 1 So., 2 Unc. Total 14

2b2 hf. Dr. E. E. LINCOLN. — Economic History of the United States.

8 Se., 1 Ju., 1 So., 2 Unc. Total 12

32 hf. Dr. E. E. LINCOLN. — Money, Banking, and Allied Problems.

1 Se., 4 Ju. Total 5

5. Dr. BURBANK, with lectures on selected topics by Professor BULLOCK. — Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

3 Se. Total 3

6a1 hf. Dr. E. E. LINCOLN. — Trade-Unionism and Allied Problems.

5 Se., 3 Ju., 1 So. Total 9

7a. Professor BULLOCK. — Economic Theory.

9 Se., 3 Ju., 1 Unc. Total 13

8. Professor CARVER. —Principles of Sociology.

5 Se., 6 Ju., 1 So. Total 12

 

Primarily for Graduates:

Accounting

Professor COLE. — Accounting Problems.

1 Gr., 1 Se., 3 Ju., 1 So. Total 6

 

Economic Theory and Method

*13. Dr. PERSONS. — Statistics. Theory, Method, and Practice.

1 Gr., 1 Se., 1 Ju. Total 3

Applied Economics

*34. Professor RIPLEY. —Problems of Labor.

2 Se. Total 2

 

Source:  Annual Report of Radcliffe College for 1918-1919. Report of the Chairman of the Academic Board (January 1920), pp. 41-42.

______________________________

Economics
1919-1920

Primarily for Undergraduates:

1. A. Asst. Professor DAY. — Principles of Economics.

9 Se., 24 Ju., 23 So., 1 Fr., 6 Unc., 2 Sp. Total 65

For Undergraduates and Graduates:

1a1 hf. Professor COLE.— Accounting.

2 Gr., 10 Se., 3 Ju., 2 So., 1 Unc., 1 Sp. Total 19

1b2 hf. Asst. Professor J. S. DAVIS.— Statistics.

9 Se., 6 Ju., 2 So., 2 Unc. Total 19

1c2 hf. Professor COLE.— Accounting (advanced course).

1 Gr., 6 Se., 1 Ju., 2 So., 1 Sp. Total 11

2a1 hf. Dr. E. E. LINCOLN.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

2 Se., 1 Ju., 2 Unc. Total 5

2b2 hf. Dr. E. E. LINCOLN.— Economic History of the United States.

1 Gr., 6 Se., 2 Ju., 1 Unc. Total 10

32 hf. Dr. E. E. LINCOLN.— Money, Banking, and Allied Problems.

4 Se., 2 Ju., 2 Unc. Total 8

4b1 hf. Asst. Professor DAVIS. — Economics of Corporations.

1 Gr., 6 Se., 1 Ju. Total 8

5. Asst. Professor BURBANK. — Public Finance, including the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

10 Se., 1 Ju. Total 11

6a1 hf. Dr. E. E. LINCOLN. — Trade-Unionism and Allied Problems.

1 Gr., 1 Se., 3 Ju., 1 Unc. Total 6

8. Professor CARVER. —Principles of Sociology.

2 Gr., 3 Se., 6 Ju., 1 So., 1 Unc. Total 13

Economic Theory and Method

Primarily for Graduates:

*11. Professor TAUSSIG. — Economic Theory.

2 Gr., 3 Se. Total 5

*121 hf. Professor CARVER. — The Distribution of Wealth.

1 Gr., 2 Se. Total 3

*14. Professor BULLOCK. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848.

2 Gr. Total 2

Applied Economics

*322 hf. Professor CARVER. — Economics of Agriculture.

1 Se. Total 1

*332 hf. Professor TAUSSIG. — International Trade and Tariff Problems.

1 Gr., 1 Se. Total 2

*341. Professor RIPLEY. — Problems of Labor.

3 Gr., 4 Se., 1 Ju. Total 8

Statistics

*41. Asst. Professor DAY. — Statistics: Theory and Analysis.

2 Gr. Total.2

*42. Asst. Professor DAY. — Statistics: Organization and Practice.

2 Gr. Total 2

Course of Research in Economics

*20. Professor CARVER.

1 Se. Total 1

 

Source:  Annual Report of Radcliffe College for 1919-1920. Report of the Chairman of the Academic Board (January 1921), pp. 41-42.

Image Source:  Barnard and Briggs Halls, Radcliffe College, ca. 1930-1945. Boston Public Library: The Tichnor Brothers Collection.

 

 

Categories
Harvard Teaching Undergraduate

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

 

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.

 

 

Categories
Curriculum Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Economics course offerings, 1910-1915

 

Here are five more installments in the series “Economics course offerings at Radcliffe College”…

Pre-Radcliffe economics course offerings and the Radcliffe courses for 1893-94,  1894-1900 , 1900-1905 , 1905-1910 have been posted earlier.

________________

1910-1911
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. HUSE and DAY. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Socialism, Labor, Railroads, Trusts, Foreign Trade, Money, and Banking.

45 Undergraduates, 6 Special students. Total 51.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology.—Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

3 Graduates, 31 Undergraduates, 1 Unclassified student.  Total 35.
(1 Graduate, 2d half only).

6a1. Professor GAY. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st  half-year.

1 Graduate, 8 Undergraduates. Total 9.

6b2. Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2d half-year.

2 Graduates, 12 Undergraduates, 2 Special students, 2 Unclassified students. Total 18.

81. Dr. HUSE. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 1st half-year.

7 Undergraduates. Total 7.

82. Dr. DAY. — Banking and Foreign Exchange. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

5 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 6.

14a1. Professor CARVER. — The Distribution of Wealth.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1st half-year.

2 Graduates, 11 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 15.

14b2.  Professor CARVER. — Methods of Social Reform.—Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 11 Undergraduates, 3 Special students, 1 Unclassified student. Total 16.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

COURSES OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — (a) The Millinery Trade in Boston. 1 Graduate. (b) The Small Loan Business in Boston. 1 Graduate.

Total 2.

**20b. Professor CARVER. — The Laws of Production and Valuation.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

[Note] The courses marked with two stars (**) are Graduate courses in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1910-11, pp. 49-50.

_______________

1911-1912
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. DAY and Mr. J. S. DAVIS. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Consumption, Distribution, Exchange, Socialism, Labor Problems, Trusts, Money, Banking, and Public Finance.

43 Undergraduates, 8 Special students, 1 Unclassified student.
(1 Undergraduate, 1 Special student, 1 Unclassified student 1sthalf only.)  Total 52.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology. — Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

4 Graduates, 18 Undergraduates, 6 Special Students. (1 Special student, 1st half only.)  Total 28.

6a1. Professor GAY. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st  half-year.

1 Graduate, 4 Undergraduates, 3 Special students, 1 Unclassified student. Total 9.

6b2. Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2d half-year.

2 Graduates, 9 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 14.

14a1. Professor CARVER. — The Distribution of Wealth.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1st half-year.

3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

14b2.  Professor CARVER. — Methods of Social Reform.—Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 2d half-year.

3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 4.

*18. Asst. Professor COLE. — Principles of Accounting. 3 hours a week.

6 Undergraduates. (4 Undergraduates, 1st half only; 1 Undergraduate, 2d half only.)  Total 6.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

COURSES OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — (a) The Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century. 1 Graduate. (b) Economic Policy of England from 1625 to 1660. 1 Graduate. (c) Women in the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts. 2 Graduates.

Total 4.

20b. Professor CARVER. — Economic Theory.

1 Undergraduate. Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1911-12, pp. 53-54.

_______________

1912-1913
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. DAY. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Consumption, Distribution, Exchange, Socialism, Labor Problems, Trusts, Money, Banking, and Public Finance.

24 Undergraduates, 8 Special students, 4 Unclassified students.
(1 Special student, 1st half only.) Total 36.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

2a1 (formerly 6a1). Professor GAY. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st  half-year.

3 Graduates, 4 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 8.

2b2 (formerly 6b2). Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2d half-year.

3 Graduates, 5 Undergraduates. Total 8.

7 (formerly 14). Professor CARVER. — Theories of Distribution and Distributive Justice. 3 hours a week.

9 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 11.

8 (formerly 3). Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology.—Theories of social progress. 3 hours a week.

27 Undergraduates, 2 Special students, 2 Unclassified students. (1 Undergraduate, 1st half only.)  Total 31.

9 (formerly 18). Asst. Professor COLE. — Principles of Accounting. 3 hours a week.

5 Undergraduates. Total 5.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

I
ECONOMIC THEORY AND METHOD

**121 (formerly 13). Professor CARVER. — Scope and Methods of Economic Investigation. Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1sthalf-year.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

**13 (formerly 4). Professor RIPLEY. — Statistics, Theory, method and practice. 2 hours a week.

3 Graduates. Total 3.

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

**23 (formerly 11). Dr. GRAY. — Economic History of Europe to 1760. 3 hours a week.

1 Special student. Total 1.

[Note] The courses marked with two stars (**) are Graduate courses in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty.

 

COURSES OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — Selected Topics in Modern European Economic History.

2 Graduates. Total 4.

20b. Professor CARVER. — Economic Theory.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1912-14, pp. 42-43.

_______________

1913-1914
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Asst. Professor E. E. DAY and Mr. BURBANK. — Principles of Economics. 3 hours a week.

33 Undergraduates, 5 Special students, 2 Unclassified students.  Total 40.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

2a1 (formerly 6a1). Professor GAY.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st  half-year.

1 Graduate, 10 Undergraduates, 2 Special students, 1 Unclassified student. Total 14.

2b2 (formerly 6b2). Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2d half-year.

2 Graduates, 9 Undergraduates, 1 Special student, 1 Unclassified student. Total 13.

7 (formerly 14). Asst. Professor ANDERSON. — Economic Theory: Value and Related Problems. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 5 Undergraduates.  Total 6.

9 (formerly 18). Associate Professor COLE. — Principles of Accounting. 3 hours a week.

5 Undergraduates. Total 5.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

I
ECONOMIC THEORY AND METHOD

**11. Professor TAUSSIG. — Economic Theory. Half-course. 3 hours a week.

1 Undergraduate. Total 1.

**14. Professor BULLOCK. — History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

II
ECONOMIC HISTORY

**24. Professor GAY. — Topics in the Economic History of the Nineteenth Century. Two consecutive evenings a week.

1 Undergraduate. Total 1.

 

[Note] The courses marked with two stars (**) are Graduate courses in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty.

 

COURSES OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — Economic History.

2 Graduates (1 Graduate, 1st half only). Total 2.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1912-14, pp. 99-100.

_______________

1914-1915
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:

1. Asst. Professor E. E. DAY. — Principles of Economics.

5 Seniors, 14 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 3 Unclassified students, 4 Special students.  Total 42.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:

2a1 hf.  Professor GAY. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

3 Graduates, 3 Seniors. Total 6.

2b2 hf.   Professor GAY. — Economic and Financial History of the United States

3 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior.  Total 6.

7. Professor CARVER. — Economic Theory.

1 Graduate, 3 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 2 Sophomores.  Total 9.

8. Asst. Professor ANDERSON. — Principles of Sociology.

6 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 1 Special student. Total 10.

Accounting

Associate Professor COLE. — Principles of Accounting.

5 Seniors, 1 Junior.  Total 6.

 

Economic Theory and Method

Primarily for Graduates:

**121hf. Professor CARVER. — Scope and Methods of Economic Investigation.

1 Graduate.  Total 1.

**13. Asst. Professor DAY. — Statistics: Theory, method, and practice.

1 Graduate.  Total 1.

Applied Economics

**33 hf. Professor TAUSSIG. — International Trade, with special reference to Tariff Problems in the United States.

1 Graduate.  Total 1.

**34. Professor RIPLEY. — Problems of Labor.

1 Graduate.  Total 1.

Course of Research

20a2 hf. Professor GAY. — Economic History.

2 Graduates.  Total 2.

 

[Note] The courses marked with two stars (**) are Graduate courses in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President of Radcliffe College 1914-15, pp. 41-42.

Image Source: From front matter of the bound version of  The Radcliffe Bulletin, 1912-13 in the Harvard University Library.

 

 

Categories
Cornell Economic History Gender Harvard Home Economics

Cornell. Home Economics. Radcliffe economic history A.M. (1913), Blanche Hazard

 

Having returned from a trip to the U.S. that included participation at the History of Economics Society 2018 meeting in Chicago, I have gone now two weeks without posting. It is easy to explain away the first ten days that actually involved Michigan road-tripping followed by conferencing with colleagues when the opportunity cost of blogging exceeded the joy of welcoming visitors to the latest artifacts posted at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. The last several days have been more a matter of jet-lag recovery and of overcoming the inertia associated with this extended pause from an almost unbroken three year rhythm of select, transcribe, post and tweet. OK, an intertemporally-savvy blogger would have gradually built up an inventory of artifacts and maintained an uninterrupted flow, but that is not, alas, the way this scholar rolls.

This post ventures into the neighboring field of home economics, in particular, to touch upon the brief career of Cornell’s first professor of woman’s studies, Blanche Evans Hazard (1873-1966) who was trained as an economic historian at Radcliffe/Harvard, A.M. awarded by Radcliffe (1913). She lectured on her dissertation topic: “The Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century” at the March 18, 1912 of the seminary in economics. Her economics professors included Thomas Nixon Carver and Edwin Francis Gay.While she did not complete the final examination for the Ph.D., her dissertation was published by Harvard University Press. Here a link to texts by Hazard at archive.org.

_______________________

Blanche Hazard, brief biography

Blanche Hazard came to Cornell in 1914 as an assistant professor of home economics, with a special responsibility to develop courses on the history of women and women’s work. After spending two years at Thayer Academy and two years at Radcliffe College, Hazard taught history in both public and private schools, and was head of the Department of History at Rhode Island Normal School from 1899 to 1904. During this period, she was also an officer of the New England Association of Teachers of History in Colleges and Secondary Schools. She became well-known for her lectures at teachers’ conventions on historical methods, as well as for her collaboration with Harvard’s Albert B. Hart on a book about children in the Colonial Era. In 1904, Hazard returned to Radcliffe, where she earned a B.A. in 1907 with first honors in history and government. In 1913, she completed a Ph.D.  at Harvard in history [sic, A.M., according to Earle (see below) who found that Hazard never actually completed the final examination for the Ph.D. though she did in fact complete and publish her dissertation]; her dissertation, The Organization of The Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts Before 1875 (1921), was the first book written by a woman published by Harvard University Press. At Cornell, Hazard and Martha Van Rensselaer collaborated in creating an early version of women’s studies. Hazard taught courses on “Women in Industry,” “Women in the State,” and “History of Housekeeping.” She also wrote a number of pamphlets for the Farmers’ Wives Reading Course, including Civic Duties of Women (1918), which was widely used and reprinted as women prepared to exercise their suffrage. When she left Cornell in 1922 to return to New England and marry, Hazard was a full professor of home economics.

 

Image Source:   From the webpage of the History Center in Tompikins County, Ithaca, N.Y. announcing the March 3, 2018 lecture by Corey Ryan Earle, “Blanche hazard: Pioneering Local Suffragist & Women’s Studies Education”.

Source: Cornell University Library, Division of Rare & Manuscript Collection’s website: From Domesticity to Modernity, What was Home Economics (2001). Webpage: Faculty Biographies: Blanche Hazard.

_______________________

Blanche Hazard, longer biography

See the paper written by Corey Ryan Earle, “An Overlooked Pioneer: Blanche Evans Hazard, Cornell University’s First Professor of Women’s Studies, 1914-1922” that provides much detail, though unable to explain Hazard’s marriage and her withdrawal from academic life. The paper was written during the summer of 2006 when the author was supported by a Dean’s Fellowship in the History of Home Economics by the College of Human Ecology of Cornell University.

_______________________

Image Source: Faculty of Home Economics at Cornell. Cornell University Library, Division of Rare & Manuscript Collection’s website: From Domesticity to Modernity, What was Home Economics (2001). Webpage: Early Faculty Biographies. Note: second row, leftmost is Blanche Hazard.