In the December 1898 issue of the Columbia University Quarterly an overview of the curriculum for economics and social science (i.e. sociology with a bit of anthropology without political science that was split between the subjects of history and public law) offered by the Faculty of Political Science was sketched by Professor Richmond Mayo-Smith. I have appended the Economics and Sociology course offerings for 1898-99 (which can be compared to an earlier posting for 1905-07). In the early years of graduate education there was considerable overlap between undergraduate and graduate course offerings so that an understanding of the graduate training in economics at least in these early years requires us to keep an eye on undergraduate curriculum as well.
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Department of Economics and Social Science.—The courses in this department have been so systematized as to meet the needs of both undergraduate and graduate students, while offering to other members of the University and of allied institutions the opportunity to broaden their studies by some knowledge of social theory and social problems.
The undergraduate begins with the Economic History of England and America (Economics 1), which gives him that understanding of the evolution of economic institutions, such as the systems of land tenure, the factory system, the institutions of commerce and trade, which is necessary for any approach to economic discussion. That is followed by the Elements of Political Economy (Economics A), where the fundamental principles of the science are laid down and illustrated by contemporary events. These courses are usually taken during the Junior year, but may be taken a year earlier by students desiring to specialize in this direction. The lettered course is required of every student, and is in the nature of logical discipline for clear reasoning and a preparation for good citizenship. The College is held thereby to have discharged its duty to itself, in fulfilling the minimum required for the degree of A.B., and to the community, in inculcating sound principles in its graduates.
For the majority of undergraduates these courses are but the preliminary sketch, the details of which are to be filled out by the more intensive study of Senior year. For this abundant opportunity is offered in the course on modern industrial problems, money, and labor (Economics 3), in the treatment of finance and taxation (Economics 4) and in the critical consideration of theories of socialism (Economics 11) and projects of social reform (Economics 12). At the same time the elements of sociology (Sociology 15) furnish a broader foundation for generalization in regard to the fundamental principles of social life, and afford the student on the eve of graduation an opportunity to coordinate his knowledge of history, economics, philosophy, and ethics into a theory of society.
These courses of Senior year constitute the fundamental university courses, and are frequented by graduates of other colleges and by many students from the law school, the theological seminaries, and Teachers College, who find them valuable as auxiliary to their main lines of study. For the specialist and special student these courses in their turn are preliminary. They form the introduction to the university courses proper.
Here the specialist finds opportunity for development in economic theory (Economics 8, [Economics] 9, and [Economics] 10) and for further practical work (Economics 5 and [Economics] 7), for sociological theory (Sociology 20, [Sociology] 21, and 25 [sic, perhaps “Sociology 24” intended, no record found here or in earlier/later years for a course “Sociology 25”], for the treatment of problems of crime and pauperism (Sociology 22 and [Sociology] 23), and for the theory and practice of statistics as an instrument of investigation in all the social sciences (Sociology 17, [Sociology] 18, and [Sociology] 19). Crowning the whole are the seminars in political economy and sociology, and the statistical laboratory, where the student is trained for original work.
Columbia University has attempted thus to formulate in the Department of Economics and Social Science a programme that shall be systematic, in the sense of orderly development and logical sequence (the course covers four or five years), and at the same time flexible, for the purpose of meeting the just demands of a great variety of students—the undergraduate, the specialist, and the special student.
R. M.-S. [Richmond Mayo-Smith]
Source: Columbia University Quarterly, Vol. 1, December, 1898, pp. 76-77.
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COURSES OF STUDY AND RESEARCH
Group III — Economics and Social Science
It is presumed that students before entering the school have studied the general principles of political economy as laid down in the ordinary manuals, and possess some knowledge of the facts of economic history. Students who are not thus prepared are recommended to take the following courses in Columbia College: [The lettered course is required of all candidates for A.B. in Columbia College.]
Economics 1 — Economic History of England and America. — This course studies primarily the economic history of England, as affording the clearest picture of the evolution of economic life from primitive society to the complicated mechanism of modern industrial life. Incidentally a comparison is made with the contemporary movements in other European countries. Beginning with the seventeenth century, attention is directed to facts of American economic development, and the last part of the course is devoted exclusively to the study of the economic and social conditions underlying the history of the United States.-Three hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman and Mr. [Arthur M.] Day.
Economics A — Outlines of Economics. — Bullock’s introduction to the study of economics, and lectures on the evolution of the modern economic organization, the principle of economic freedom and the institution of private property.— Three hours a week, second half-year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith and Mr. [Arthur M.] Day.
The university courses fall under two subjects: A. Political Economy and Finance. B. Sociology and Statistics.
Courses 3, 4, 11, 12, 15 and 16 are open to Seniors in Columbia College, and count towards the degree of A. B. If taken for the higher degrees, such additional work must be done in connection with them as may be prescribed by the instructor.
Subject A — Political Economy and Finance
Economics 3 — Practical Political Economy. — This course is divided into four sections as follows:
(a) Problems of Modern Industry . — This part of the course is devoted to a special study of the modern industrial organization and of the application of economic principles to social life. The principal topics are: The scope, method and function of political economy; the physical environment; law of population; economic freedom and private property; theory and problems of consumption; theory and problems of production, land-tenure, labor and machinery, the growth of capital; forms of productive enterprise, the concentration of industry; monopolies and trusts; governmental enterprise; effects of modern methods of production on producer and consumer. Three hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]
(b) The Problems of Exchange. — (Money and Trade.) This course is devoted to a study of the mechanism of exchange with special reference to modern currency and commercial questions. The principal topics are: Value and prices, speculation, law of monopoly prices, commercial crises; money, bimetallism, the silver question in the United States; credit, banking, paper money; international exchange; transportation and commerce. Three hours a week, second half-year (1899-1900) [For students desiring to take (a), (b) and (c) in one year a short résumé of the omitted course (b) or (c) will be given.]: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]
(c) The Problems of Distribution. — (Labor and Capital.) This course is devoted largely to the labor question. The principal topics are: The theory of distribution, history and present condition of the laboring class, wages, trades unions and strikes, arbitration and conciliation, co-operation and profit-sharing; factory laws, employer’s liability; interest, profit and rent; social distribution; distributive justice. Three hours a week, second half-year (1898—’99), alternates with above. [For students desiring to take (a), (b) and (c) in one year a short résumé of the omitted course (b) or (c) will be given.]: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]
(d) Readings in Marshall’s Principles of Economics. — This course constitutes a fourth hour in connection with the lectures under (a), (b) and (c). It is open to candidates for A.B. by special permission, but the hour cannot be counted towards that degree. It, or its equivalent, is required of all candidates for the degrees of A.M. and Ph.D., taking Economics III. as a major or minor. One hour a week: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]
Economics 4 — Science of Finance. — This course is historical as well as comparative and critical. After giving a general introduction and tracing the history of the science, it treats of the various rules of public expenditures and the methods of meeting the same among different civilized nations. It describes the different kinds of public revenue, including the public domain and public property, public works and industrial undertakings, special assessments, fees and taxes It is in great part a course on the history, theories and methods of taxation in all civilized countries. It considers also public debt, methods of borrowing, redemption, refunding, repudiation, etc. Finally, it describes the fiscal organization of the state by which the revenue is collected and expended, and discusses the budget, national, state and local. Although the course is comparative, the point of view is American. Students are furnished with the current public documents of the United States Treasury, and the chief financial reports of the leading commonwealths, and are expected to understand all the facts in regard to public debt, revenue and expenditure therein contained. — Two hours a week: Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]
Economics 5 — Fiscal and Industrial History of the United States. — This course endeavors to present a survey of national legislation on currency, finance and taxation, including the tariff together with its relations to the state of industry and commerce. Attention is called to the fiscal and industrial conditions of the colonies; to the financial methods of the revolution and the confederation; to the genesis of the protective idea; to the fiscal policies of the Federalists and of the Republicans; to the financial management of the war of 1812; to the industrial effects of the restriction war period; to the crises of 1819, 1825 and 1837; to the tariffs of 1816, 1824 and 1828; to the distribution of the surplus and the Bank war; to the compromise tariff and its effect on industry; to the currency problems before 1863; to the era of “free trade,” and the tariffs of 1846 and 1857; to the fiscal problems of the Civil War; to the methods of resumption, conversion and payment of the debt; to the disappearance of the war taxes; to the continuance of the war tariffs; to the money question and the acts of 1878 and 1890; to the loans of 1894-1896; to the tariffs of 1890, 1894 and 1897. The course closes with a discussion of the current problems of currency and coinage, and with a general consideration of the arguments for and against protection as illustrated by the practical operation of the various tariffs. Two hours a week, first half year (1899-1900): Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman.
Economics 7 — Railroad Problems; Economic, Social and Legal. — These lectures treat of railroads in the fourfold aspect of their relation to the investors, the employees, the public and the state respectively. A history of railways and railway policy in America and Europe forms the preliminary part of the course. The chief problems of railway management, so far as they are of economic importance, come up for discussion.
Among the subjects treated are: Financial methods, railway construction, speculation, profits, failures, accounts and reports, expenses, tariffs, principles of rates, classification and discrimination, competition and pooling, accidents, and employers’ liability. Especial attention is paid to the methods of regulation and legislation in the United States as compared with European methods, and the course closes with a general discussion of state versus private management. — Two hours a week, second half-year (1899-1900): Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman.
Economics 8 — History of Economics. — In this course the various systems of political economy are discussed in their historical development. The chief exponents of the different schools are taken up in their order, and especial attention is directed to the wider aspects of the connection between the theories and the organization of the existing industrial society. The chief writers discussed are:
I Antiquity: The oriental codes; Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Cato, Seneca, Cicero, the Agrarians, the Jurists.
II Middle Ages: The Church Fathers, Aquinas, the Glossators, the writers on money, trade, and usury.
III Mercantilists: Hales, Mun, Petty, Barbon, North, Locke; Bodin, Vauban, Boisguillebert, Forbonnais; Serra, Galiani; Justi, Sonnenfels.
IV Physiocrats: Quesnay, Gournay, Turgot, Mirabeau, etc.
V Adam Smith and precursors: Tucker, Hume, Cantillon, Steuart.
VI English school: Malthus, Ricardo, Senior, McCulloch, Chalmers, Jones, Mill.
VII The continent: Say, Sismondi, Cournot, Bastiat; Herrmann, List, and Thunen.
VIII German historical school: Roscher, Knies, Hildebrand.
IX Recent development: England: Rogers, Jevons, Cairnes, Bagehot, Leslie, Toynbee, Marshall; Germany: Wagner, Schmoller, Held, Brentano, Cohn, Schaffle; Austria: Menger, Sax, Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser; France: Leroy-Beaulieu, De Laveleye, Gide, Walras; Italy: Cossa, Loria, Pantaleoni; America: Carey, George, Walker, Clark, Patten, Adams.
—Two hours a week: Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman.
Economics 9 — Economic Theory I. — This course discusses the static laws of distribution. If the processes of industry were not changing, wages and industry would tend to adjust themselves according to certain standards. A study of the mechanism of production would then show that one part of the product is specifically attributable to labor, and that another part is imputable to capital. It is the object of the course to show that the tendency of free competition, under such conditions, is to give to labor, in the form of wages, the amount that it specifically creates, and also to give to capital, in the form of interest, what it specifically produces. The theory undertakes to prove that the earnings of labor and of capital are governed by a principle of final productivity, and that this principle must be studied on a social scale, rather than in any one department of production. — Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [John Bates] Clark.
Economics 10 — Economic Theory II. — This course discusses the dynamic laws of distribution. The processes of industry are actually progressing. Mechanical invention, emigration, and other influences, cause capital and labor to be applied in new ways and with enlarging results. These influences do not repress the action of the static forces of distribution, but they bring a new set of forces into action. They create, first, employers’ profits, and, later, additions to wages and interest. It is the object of the course to show how industrial progress affects the several shares in distribution under a system of competition, and also to determine whether the consolidations of labor and capital, which are a distinctive feature cf modern industry, have the effect of repressing competition. — Two hours a week, second half-year: Prof. [John Bates] Clark.
Economics 11 — Communistic and Socialistic Theories. — This course studies the theories of St. Simon, Fourier, Proudhon, Rodbertus, Marx, Lassalle, and others. It aims to utilize recent discoveries in economic science in making a critical test of these theories themselves and of certain counter-arguments. It examines the socialistic ideals of distribution, and the effects that, by reason of natural laws, would follow an attempt to realize them through the action of the State. — Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [John Bates] Clark. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]
Economics 12 — Theories of Social Reform. — This course treats of certain plans for the partial reconstruction of industrial society that have been advocated in the United States, and endeavors to determine what reforms are in harmony with economic principles. It treats of the proposed single tax, of the measures advocated by the Farmers’ Alliance and of those proposed by labor organizations. It studies the general relation of the state to industry. — Two hours a week, second half-year: Prof. [John Bates] Clark. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]
Economics 14 — Seminar in Political Economy and Finance. — For advanced students. — Two hours, bi-weekly: Professors [Edwin R. A.] Seligman and [John Bates] Clark.
Subject B— Sociology and Statistics
Sociology 15 — Principles of Sociology. — This is a textbook course. — Two hours a week: Professor [Franklin H.] Giddings. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]
Sociology 16 — Applied Anthropology. — This course is composed of two distinct parts. In the first half-year under Dr. Farrand of the Faculty of Philosophy, primitive institutions, language, mythology and religions are considered primarily from the psychological point of view. This is important for sociological work. Anthropometry and the history of the science of anthropology are also treated. The second half-year work given by Dr. [William Z.] Ripley is primarily concerned with the anthropology and ethnology of the civilized peoples of Europe. This is intended to subserve two ends. It is an ethnological preparation for the historical courses, especially those concerning the classic peoples of antiquity; and it also provides a groundwork for the statistical and demographic study of the populations of Europe. In this sense it is distinctly sociological in its interests. — Two hours a week. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]
Sociology 17 — Statistics and Sociology. — This course is given every year, and is intended to train students in the use of statistics as an instrument of investigation in social science. The topics covered are: Relation of statistics to sociology, criteria of statistics, population, population and land, sex, age and conjugal condition, births, marriages, deaths, sickness and mortality, race and nationality, migration, social position, infirmities, suicide, vice, crime, nature of statistical regularities. — Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.
Sociology 18 — Statistics and Economics. — This course covers those statistics of most use in political economy, but which have also a direct bearing on the problems of sociology. These include the statistics of land, production of food, condition of labor, wages, money, credit, prices, commerce, manufactures, trade, imports and exports, national wealth, public debt, and relative incomes. Two hours a week, second half-year, given in 1898-99 and each alternate year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.
Sociology 19 — Theory, Technique, and History of Statistical Science. — This course studies the theory of statistics, law of probabilities, averages, mean error, rules for collecting, tabulating and presenting statistics, graphical methods, the question of the freedom of the will, the value of the results obtained by the statistical method, the possibility of discovering social laws. Some account will also be given of the history and literature of statistics, and the organization of statistical bureaus. — Two hours a week, second half-year, given in 1899-1900, and each alternate year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.
Sociology 20 — General Sociology . — A foundation for special work is laid in this fundamental course. It includes two parts, namely: (1) the analysis and classification of social facts, with special attention to the systems of Aristotle, Comte, Spencer, Schäffle, De Greef, Gumplowicz, Ward, Tarde and other theoretical writers; (2) an examination of sociological laws, in which the more important social phenomena of modern times and the principles of theoretical sociology are together brought under critical review in a study of social feeling, public opinion, and organized action. In this second part an attempt is made to analyze the causes of emotional epidemics, panics, outbreaks of mob violence, and revolutions; to explain by general principles the growth of public opinion on great questions; and to prove from history and from current events that public action is governed by definite laws of social choice. — Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Franklin H.] Giddings.
Sociology 21 — Progress and Democracy. — The phenomena of social progress are the general subject of this course, which includes two parts, namely: (1) a study of the historical evolution of society, with special attention to social origins; to the development of the family, of the clan and of the tribe; and to the beginnings of civilization; (2) the social as distinguished from the political organization of modern democracies. This part of the course may otherwise be described as a study of the modern “state behind the constitution.” The forms of voluntary organization are observed, and the question is raised, To what extent are the non-political associations of men in modern democracies themselves democratic? Do business corporations labor unions, churches, and associations for culture and pleasure, tend to become more or less democratic? The democratic social ideals of equality and fraternity are examined, and an attempt is made to show their relations to social order and to liberty. Modern philanthropic movements, including the work of university and other social settlements, and many social phases of municipal reform are touched upon in this course. —Two hours a week, second half-year: Prof. [Franklin H.] Giddings.
Sociology 22 — Pauperism, Poor Laws and Charities. — This course begins with a study of the English poor law, its history, practical working, and consequences. On this foundation is built a study of pauperism in general, but especially as it may now be observed in great cities. The laws of the different commonwealths in regard to paupers, out-relief, alms-houses, and dependent children, are compared. Finally the special modern methods of public and private philanthropy are considered, with particular attention to charity organization, the restriction of out-door alms, and the reclamation of children.— Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Franklin H.] Giddings.
Sociology 23 — Crime and Penology — The topics taken up in this course are the nature and definitions of crime, the increase of crime and its modern forms, criminal anthropology, the social causes of crime, surroundings, parental neglect, education, the question of responsibility, historical methods of punishment, the history of efforts to reform prison methods, modern methods, the solitary system, the Elmira system, classification of criminals, classes of prisons, reformatories, and jails. — Two hours a week, second half year: Prof. [Franklin H.] Giddings.
Sociology 24 — The Civil Aspects of Ecclesiastical Organizations. — The purpose of this course is to define the present relations of the institutional church to the other institutions of American society; the state, the government, marriage, family, education and public wealth. An analysis is made of the guarantees of religious liberty contained in the federal and commonwealth constitutions, of the civil status of churches in terms of constitutional and statute law, of the methods of incorporation, of the functions of trustees, of legislative and judicial control, of denominational polity according to its type, of the functional activity of churches in their departments of legislation, administration, adjudication, discipline and mission, of the influence of churches on ethical standards, of the distribution of nationalities among the denominations, of the territorial distribution of denominational strength, of the relation of polity to density of population and of the current movements in and between various organizations tending toward changes of function and structure. One hour a week: Dr. [George James] Bayles.
Sociology 29 — Laboratory Work in Statistics. — The object of the laboratory is to train the student in methods of statistical analysis and computation. Each student will pursue a course of laboratory practice dealing with the general statistics of population, the relation of classes, the distribution of wealth, and the statistics of crime, vice and misfortune. He will be taught how to judge current statistics and to detect statistical fallacies; in short, to become an expert in judging of the value of sociological evidence. Each year some practical piece of work on an extensive scale is undertaken by the class. — In connection with courses 17, 18 and 19: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.
Sociology 30 — Seminar in Sociology and Statistics. — Discussions and papers, theses and dissertations presented in the seminar may be upon any of the following topics:
I
POPULATION
1 The growth of population in the United States, inducing studies of birth rates and death rates.
2 Immigration into the United States.
3 The migration of population within the United States.
II
RACES AND NATIONALITIES
4 The social traits, habits and organization of any race (e. g. negro or Indian) in the United States.
5 The social traits, habits and organization of any nationality (e. g. Irish or German or Italian) in the United States.
Ill
THE FAMILY
6 Historical or statistical studies of marriage, of divorce, or of the parental care and education of children in the United States.
7 Studies of legislation affecting the family in the United States.
IV
COMMUNITIES
8 Descriptive or historical studies of peculiar, exceptional or otherwise noteworthy communities or sections.
V
THE SOCIAL LIFE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE SELF-SUPPORTING POOR
9 Dwellings and surroundings.
10 Expenditure and domestic economy.
11 Marriages, domestic festivals, funerals, family life and morals.
12 Education.
13 Religious ideas, habits, meetings, festivals and institutions.
14 Amusements, celebrations, social festivals and clubs.
15 Trade unions.
16 Political and legal ideas, affiliations and activities.
VI
PAUPERISM AND CHARITY
17 Historical studies of the origin, growth and forms of pauperism.
18 Statistical studies of the extent and causes of pauperism.
19 Historical and comparative studies of poor laws and public relief.
20 Historical and comparative studies of the methods of private charity.
VII
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
21 Historical studies of the origin, increase and forms of crime.
22 Statistical studies of the extent and causes of crime.
23 Critical studies of criminal anthropology or criminal sociology.
24 Historical and comparative studies of punishment and reformation.
Two hours bi-weekly: Profs. [Franklin H.] Giddings and [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.
Source: Columbia University, School of Political Science, Announcement, 1898-99, pp. 29-40.