Month: January 2017

Categories
Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Programs of Social and Economic Reconstruction, Leontief and Taylor. 1942-43

This course on socio-economic reform and revolution was team taught the previous year by Wassily Leontief, Paul Sweezy and Overton Taylor. Sweezy took leave from Harvard to join the War effort so he was unavailable for the 1942-43 version of this course that has been in the Harvard economics course catalogue almost as long as courses in public finance and labor problems.

____________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 115. Associate Professor Leontief and Dr. O. H. Taylor.—Programs of Social and Economic Reconstruction.

Total 10: 3 Graduates, 1 Junior, 1 School of Public Administration, 4 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of the Departments for 1942-43, p. 47.

____________________________

 

Course Assignments

Reading for the Monday Oct. 19 Meeting of Ec 115

Bastiat Frédéric. Harmonies of Political Economy, pp. 1-46, 196-217.

Sismondi, Simond de. Essays on Political Economy, pp. 113-122, 224-244. (Nouveaux Principes d’Economie Politique, Vol. I and II[,] to browse For those who read French)

Gray, John. A Lecture on Human Happiness, pp. 1-72.

Clark, J. B. Distribution of Wealth, pp. 36-76.

Carver. Essays in Social Justice, pp. 232-263.

Keynes, J. M.  The General Theory of Interest and Employment, pp. 372-384.

 

Economics 115
Assignment for October 26

  1. Handbook of Marxism, pp. 313-38.
  2. Capital, Vol. I, Ch. X, Sections 1, 2, 5, 6.
  3. Marx-Engels Selected Correspondence, Letter no. 214.
  4. Lenin, State and Revolution.
  5. J. Laski, The State in Theory and Practice, Ch. 2.

 

Economics 115
November 2, 1942
Social and Economic Theories of the New Deal

  1. Immediate Background
  2. New Deal Movement as a Dynamic Organism of Diverse Potentialities
  3. Specific Analysis of the Program Adopted
  4. Significance of the New Deal
  5. Where did the New Deal Fail?

Assignment

Background for those who need it:

A. M. Schlesinger, New Deal in Action
or
R. H. Jackson, The Struggle for Judicial Supremacy

For everyone:

Golden and Ruttenberg, The Dynamics of Industrial Democracy, pp. 317-42.
Robert and Helen Lynd, Middletown in Transition, Chs. IV, XII.
C. A. Beard, Economic Interpretation of the Constitution, pp. 149-188.
F. D. Roosevelt, Papers and Addresses, Vol. I, nos. 139, 141; Vol. II, nos. 1, 50, 101; Vol. III, nos. 1, 102; Vol. V, nos. 1, 53, 176.

Also recommended:

Thurman Arnold, Folklore of Capitalism
Thorstein Veblen, Absentee Ownership

 

Economics 115
November 9, 1942
The Revisionist Movement in German Socialism

  1. The beginnings of reformist socialism in Germany
  2. Bernstein and the Revisionist offensive
  3. The counterattack and the split on the Left
  4. The social roots of reformism
  5. German Social-Democracy vs. socialism: 1914, 1919, 1933

Assignment

Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism, pp. ix-xviii, 1-94, 165-199
Rosa Luxemburg, Reform or Revolution
M. Philips Price, Germany in Transition, pp. 18-47

 

Economics 115
Assignment for Nov. 16, 1942

CLASSICAL LIBERALISM AND NEO-LIBERALISM
–A Comparison and a Critique—

  1. The historical development of Liberalism.
  2. Common elements in both types of Liberalism.
  3. Political implications of the divergence.
  4. Neo-Liberalism — Will it work?

Assignment:-

J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Bk. V, ch. 11.
Herbert Spencer, Social Statics (Abridged Edition, D. Appleton & Co., 1892) pp. 55-61, 121-140.
Walter Lippman, The Good Society, chs. 10 and 11.
Henry Simon, Positive Program for Laissez-Faire.
Max Lerner, It is Later Than You Think, Chs. 1 and 6.
J. M. Keynes, The End of Laissez-Faire, pp. 39-54.

Suggestions for those who may wish to go further into the problem:-

John Dewey, Liberalism and Social Action.
Articles “The Rise of Liberalism” and “Individualism and Capitalism” in the Introduction to The Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
Thorstein Veblen, “Preconceptions of Economic Science,” in The Place of Science in Modern Civilization.

 

Economics 115
Assignment for November 23, 1942
The Economic Doctrines of the Bolsheviks

  1. The relationship between Marxism and Bolshevism—Marxism restored and militant.
  2. The Bolshevik elaboration of the Marxian theory of capitalist development; its application to the analysis of the period of monopoly capitalism or imperialism.
    1. The transition from free competition to monopoly as a result of the concentration and centralization of capital.
    2. Finance capital and the role of the banks.
    3. The struggle for markets, for raw materials and for outlets for capital export and the resulting tariff and colonial policy of imperialism
    4. The growth of international cartels and the ‘theory’ of ultra-imperialism.
    5. The progressive intensification of the contradictions of capitalism — crises, wars and catastrophe.
    6. The proletarian revolution as the only way out.
  3. The political implications of the Bolshevik analysis of imperialism — the working class must gird itself for a struggle à outrance for the overthrow of world capitalism and the establishment of a socialist order.

Assigned Reading

Lenin: Imperialism.
P. M. Sweezy: The Theory of Capitalist Development, Part IV.

Suggested Reading

Marx-Engels: The Communist Manifesto.
Marx: Value, Price and Profit, Chapter VI to the end.
Lenin: The Proletarian Revolution.

 

Economics 115
The Theory of Marx and Engels Concerning the Transition From Capitalism to Socialism
November 30, 1942

  1. Sources and Constituent Parts of Marxism
  2. Class-Domination Theory of the State
  3. The Overthrow of the Bourgeois State by Revolution
  4. Establishment of Proletarian Dictatorship — First Phase of the Communistic Society
  5. Withering Away of Proletarian State and the Higher Phase of the Communistic Society

Assignment:

Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, pp. 9-15.
Burns, A Handbook of Marxism, pp. 537-570.
Engels, The Origin of the Family, Chap. 9.
Lenin, The State and Revolution, Chaps. 1 and 5.
Engels, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, Chap. 3.
Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism, Chap. 9.
Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program.

Suggested:

Chang, Sherman, The Marxian Theory of the State.

 

Economics 115
January 3, 1943
Socialism In The British Labour Party

  1. A definition of the term Socialism
  2. Necessary reforms arising from frictions of the Industrial Revolution
  3. Socialist gains acquired through self-interest of pressure groups
  4. Growth of the Labour Party
  5. Socialism as a policy of the Labour Party
  6. Socialist administrations
  7. Future of Socialism in England

Assignment

Clifford Allen, Labour’s Future At Stake.
G. D. H. Cole, British Working Class Politics, Epilogue.
Arthur Greenwood, M. P., The Labour Outlook.
J. Ramsy McDonald, A Policy for the Labour Party.

Optional

Arthur Henderson, The Aims of Labour.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 3, Folder “Economics, 1942-43 (2 of 2)”.

Image Source: Leontief and Taylor from Harvard Class Album 1939.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Economists Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Readings for Chinese Economic Problems, 1947

 

Today I thought I would have a light posting, not even a page of readings for a course offered at Harvard University on the Chinese economy in the spring semester of the 1946-47 academic year. Transcribing the reading list itself was child’s play. Next I wanted to get the course enrolment found in the annual report of the Harvard president that also provided the name of the instructor, “Dr. Lindsay”. I had never come across his name so I decided to try to track down Dr. Lindsay. Fortunately that name and China narrows down the field considerably.

Long story short: Michael Francis Morris Lindsay, 2nd Baron Lindsay of Birker certainly led an exciting life before coming to offer that course at Harvard as seen in the newspaper article about his exploits and his obituary. The obituary of his Chinese wife adds a few other details to the story.

I end the post with Lindsay’s list of course readings for Economics 14a: Chinese Economic Problems.

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British economist who aided China’s guerrilla resistance
By Cui Shoufeng

The Telegraph
25 Aug 2015

Englishman Michael Lindsay helped smuggle supplies to guerrilla fighters during the Second World War and spent years behind enemy lines

Michael Lindsay arrived in Beijing in 1938 to teach Keynesian economics, but instead he played an important part in China’s resistance against the Japanese.

The Englishman helped to smuggle supplies to guerrilla fighters during the Second World War and spent years behind enemy lines, where he even started a family.

War had already broken out by the time Lindsay arrived to take up a lecturing post at Yenching University (later Peking University).

The Japanese army’s all-out invasion of China began in July 1937, and three months later the first village massacre was reported in Hopei Province (now Hebei).

In the capital, Lindsay was “distressed by his students’ stories of the way they were treated by the Japanese police at the city gate”, said his granddaughter, Susan Lawrence.

The Washington-based scholar said her grandfather also witnessed appalling acts by the occupying forces.

The economist, just 28, had a life-or-death decision to make: flee or fight?

In the spring on 1938, Lindsay learned of a resistance movement forming outside Beijing and travelled with colleagues to the communist-led Jinchaji base in central China.

Inspired, he returned to the capital and began to send supplies, mostly medicine and radio parts, through secret channels to the guerrilla forces.

Due to his foreign appearance, “the Japanese troops … couldn’t search him like they did to all the locals”, said Prof Lyu Tonglin at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who is an authority on foreigners involved in China’s resistance during the Second World War.

The economist enlisted the help of a student to re-label the items he bought, to avoid stores facing any backlash if Japanese soldiers intercepted his shipments. That student was Hsiao Li, who later became his wife.

The surprise attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, which led to the United States declaring war on Japan, meant Lindsay’s face no longer protected him, so he and his bride left for the Jinchaji base where he became a full-time radio technician.

To improve communications, he tinkered with the radio sets to make them more powerful, reliable and easier to carry over rough terrain.

Annoyed by the fact that the world — including southern China — knew hardly anything about the resistance in the north, Lindsay offered his expertise to Yan’an, the Communist Party’s central base in Shaanxi province.

A large transmitter and a directional aerial built there by Lindsay enabled the Xinhua News Agency to send reports to Washington.

“Xinhua’s radio broadcasts were of interest to Washington,” Prof Lyu explained. “It wanted to know more about the Japanese deployment and operations.”

Lindsay also wrote notes and took photographs, shared his opinions with overseas contacts, and passed advice and criticism to leaders of the resistance, including Nie Rongzhen, the top commander at Jinchaji.

In his reports to the embassies of the United States and Britain and newspapers, he wrote about what he saw in Jinchaji and Yan’an and said he believed the atrocities by the Japanese would motivate more people to join the resistance.

Securing success lied not only in the guerrillas’ military capabilities, he said, but also in their ability to mobilise the masses. Two of Lindsay and Li’s three children were born during their time in Yan’an.

After the war, the family moved to England where, upon his father’s death the economist became the second Baron Lindsay of Birker, making Li a baroness and Britain’s first Chinese-born peeress.

After a spell teaching in Australia, Lindsay and his family settled in the United States, where he died in 1994. He made only a few low-profile visits to China after the war.

It has been only recently that Lindsay has begun to gain attention in China. Today, more people are hailing him as a rare internationalist who helped the Chinese people through their most diffcult time.

Luo Wangshu contributed to this story, which was originally produced and published by China Daily.

_____________________________

MICHAEL LINDSAY DIES AT 84

Washington Post
February 22, 1994

Michael Francis Morris Lindsay, 84, retired chairman of the Far East program of the American University School of International Service, died of lymphoma Feb. 13 at his home in Chevy Chase. He had lived in the Washington area for 35 years.

He retired in 1975 after 16 years as a professor of Far Eastern studies at American University. During the 1950s, he was a senior fellow in international relations at Australian National University in Canberra.

Mr. Lindsay was a native of London and a graduate of Oxford University, where he also received a master’s degree in economics. In 1952, he inherited property in the English Lake District county of Cumbria and became Baron Lindsay of Birker. Since then, Mr. Lindsay, an Australian citizen, had sat periodically in the House of Lords.

Mr. Lindsay began his teaching career in Beijing in 1937. He taught economics at Yenching University until 1942. During World War II, he was a technical adviser to the Chinese Communists.

After the war, he was a visiting lecturer in East Asian studies at Harvard University and a lecturer in economics at University College in Hull, England.

He was the author of five books about China, including “The Unknown War.” His articles about China appeared in publications that included the Times of London, the Manchester Guardian and China Quarterly.

He was a member of the Oxford Society of Washington and the Asia Society.

Survivors include his wife, Hsiao Li Lindsay of Chevy Chase; two children, James F. Lindsay, an Australian diplomat now based in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Mary Lindsay Abbott of Knoxville, Tenn.; a brother, Martin Lindsay of Brussels; a sister, Drusila Scott of Aldeburgh, England; and five grandchildren. A daughter, Erica Lindsay, died in December.

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Obituary: Lady Lindsay of Birker

The Telegraph
9 June 2010

Lady Lindsay of Birker, who has died aged 93, was the daughter of a rich Chinese landowner and became a British peeress after falling in love with Michael Lindsay, later the 2nd Lord Lindsay of Birker, an English professor teaching in Beijing in the late 1930s during the Japanese occupation of China.

For four years from 1941 Hsiao Li and her husband performed dangerous work behind enemy lines smuggling radio parts, teaching English and supporting the communist resistance in Yenan in north-west China, for which they won the personal thanks of Mao Tse-tung and other communist commanders.

After the war – but not before attending a farewell dinner thrown by Chairman Mao and his wife – the couple left for Britain, where Michael’s father was the newly ennobled Master of Balliol College, Oxford. The peerage passed to Michael in 1952, making Hsiao Li – the new Lady Lindsay – the first Chinese peeress in history, an event remarked upon by The New York Times.

Hsiao Li was born Li Yueying in Taiyuan, in China’s northern Shanxi province, on July 17 1916. A fine horsewoman, she showed an early rebellious streak, taking part in student demonstrations at Taiyuan Normal University before fleeing to Beijing, where she changed her name after being blacklisted by the authorities.

In Beijing she was admitted to Yenching University, where she met Michael Lindsay, a professor who was already using his protected foreign status to assist the communists in obtaining medical and radio supplies. Hsiao Li, one of his brightest students, was quickly recruited to the cause.

With her parents’ blessing, but nonetheless breaking the taboos of the time, the couple married in June 1941. But their wartime adventures were nearly brought to an end after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that December suddenly rendered Michael liable to arrest as a citizen of an enemy power.

The Japanese, long suspecting the Lindsays’ covert activities, moved quickly to arrest the couple – but not quickly enough. “As we escaped through one gate, the Japanese secret police came through another gate to arrest us,” recalled Hsiao Li in her memoir Bold Plum: With the Guerrillas in China’s War Against Japan, written shortly after the war but not translated into English until 2007.

So began four years of dangerous work behind enemy lines, Michael working in the communists’ all-important Radio Department and later at the New China News Agency while Hsiao Li taught English to the cadres.

Hsiao Li always credited her rebellious character to her father, Li Wenqi, an army officer who in 1912 had defied his landowning family to join Sun Yat Sen’s republican movement, running a training school for a local warlord. When Hsiao Li asked to bind her feet, he refused.

After two years in the guerrilla region, the couple completed a circuitous 500-mile journey on foot to reach the communist HQ in Yenan, taking shelter with local peasants who risked torture and death if discovered by the Japanese.

During that period Hsiao Li gave birth to two children: Erica was delivered in a hut high in the mountains, with no running water or electricity, after a Japanese offensive caused the hospital to be evacuated; James was born in the hospital cave in Yenan.

After moving to Britain, Hsiao Li followed her husband’s career – first to Australia, where Michael Lindsay taught at the Australian National University; and then, in 1959, to Washington, DC, where he had joined the faculty of the Far Eastern programme at American University. They remained in Washington after he retired in 1975.

In 1949 and 1954 the couple made two visits to China – where Hsiao Li said she “never stopped thinking” of living – but in 1958 they were refused visas after Michael criticised the communist leadership; his wife later revealed that he had supported the leadership not out of ideological sympathy but because he believed in the patriotic right of the Chinese to resist occupation.

Later Hsiao Li, who became a United States citizen in 1975, would echo Soong May-ling, the wife of Chiang Kai-shek, in saying that China’s totalitarian system was “worse than Hitler or Stalin”, remarking in one speech reported in the American press in 1975 that the communists had “destroyed individual belief in one’s self and have ignored human dignity”.

It was not until the late 1970s, after the death of Mao Tse-tung, that the couple were able to return to China. They made extensive visits, renewing acquaintances with old friends from their Yenan days, among them now some of the most senior members of the Chinese government.

Within six weeks of her husband’s death in 1994 Hsiao Li returned to live full time in China, taking up the offer of a Beijing apartment provided by the Chinese government “in gratitude” for her work during the wartime years. She remained in the Chinese capital until 2003, when she returned to Washington to live with her granddaughter, Susan Lawrence.

Hsiao Li Lindsay, who died on April 25, is survived by her son James (the 3rd Lord Lindsay of Birker) and another daughter, Mary Lindsay Abbott. Erica died in 1993.

Note: an English translation of her account of the war years in China was published: Hsiao Li Lindsay, Bold Plum (2006).

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 14a. (spring term) Dr. Lindsay.—Chinese Economic Problems.

Total 13. 5 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Business School.

 

Source: Harvard University, Reports of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1946-47, p. 69.

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Course Readings: Chinese Economic Problems

Economics 14a
1946-47

J. B. Condliffe: China Today, Economic; Ch. 195.132.5
R. H. Tawney: Land and Labour in China; Ec. 6444.232
Chen Ta: Population in Modern China; Ch. 194.146
G. B. Cressey: China’s Geographical Foundations; Ch. 189.34
J. L. Buck: Land Utilization in China; Ec. 6444.237
———— Chinese Farm Economy; Ec. 6444.230.2
Fei Hsiao-tung; Peasant Life in China; Ch. 195.139
——————- Earthbound China; Ec. 6444.245
Chen Han-seng: Landlord and Peasant in China; Ec. 6444.236
——————– Industrial Capital and the Chinese Peasant; Soc. 1405.240
R. P. Hommel: China at Work; Ch. 189.37.20
D. K. Lieu: Chinese Industry and Finance; Ch. 195.127 B
F. M. Tamagna: Banking and Finance in China; Ch. 196.42
W. Y Lin: The New Monetary System of China; Ch. 196.57
Chang Kai-ngau: China’s Struggle for Railway Development
H. D. Fong: Post-war Industrialization of China; Ch. 195.01
—————– China’s Industrialization; Oc. 3.9.60

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. HUC 8522.2.1 Box 4, Folder “Economics 1946-47”.

Image Source: Michael Lindsay tuning a radio receiver at the Jinchaji base in Hebel province, sometime between 1941 and 1944. China Daily April 8, 2015.

Categories
Columbia Salaries

Columbia. Average Salaries by Rank 1913/14-1932/33.

 

The following page comes from a folder holding miscellaneous items from George Stigler’s days at Columbia. One presumes it comes from a report, presumably before his time there, giving reference average salaries by rank for three budget years. Since salaries within a department are set with an eye to the university pay policy as well as the salaries paid elsewhere, this is interesting information for the immediate pre-WWI period, the peak before the Great Depression, and the Great Depression’s trough.

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SALARIES IN NON-PROFESSIONAL GRADUATE SCHOOLS
AND COLUMBIA COLLEGE (BUDGET YEARS)

Total number
in grade

 Minimum salary
in grade		 Total of all salary payments in grade

Salary
Average
Instructors:

1913-14

63

 $1,000 $91,000

$1,444

1929-30

125

 2,400 341,000

2,728

1932-33

132

 2,400 357,000

2,704
Assistant Professors:

1913-14

45

 2,000 105,300

2,340

1929-30

76

 3,500 293,400

3,860

1932-33

73

 3,600 285,400

3,909
Associate Professors:

1913-14

17

 3,000 58,700

3,453

1929-30

45

 5,000 236,500

5,255

1932-33

53

 5,000
($4,500 [for] 1)		 281,500

5,311
PROFESSORS:  corrected

1913-14

67

 3,500
(3,000 [for] 2)		 320,775 4,787

4757

1929-30

114

 7,500 955,500

8,381

1932-33

119

 7,500
(6,000 [for]1)		 1,009,500

8,484
Grand totals of above:  corrected

1913-14

192

 $575,775 $2,998

$2,390

1929-30

360

 1,826,400 5,074

5,080

1932-33

377

 1,933,400 5,128

5,120

 

Source: University of Chicago Archives. George Stigler Papers. Addenda, Box 33; Folder “Papers from Columbia University 1947-58”.

Source Image: 1913 Columbia University, Library. New York Public Library, Digital Collections .

 

Categories
Barnard Columbia Economists

Columbia. Budgeting John Bates Clark’s Salary After His Retirement, ca. 1911

 

The following undated memorandum comes from Prof. E.R.A. Seligman’s papers in a folder of Columbia related material for 1911-1913. From the Bulletin of the Faculty of Political Science we know that Prof. Simkhovitch took over Clark’s course on socialism in 1908 (Seligman below writes that Simkhovitch gave a similar course “at Columbia for the last two or three years”). Robert E. Chaddock took up the statistics assistant professorship mentioned in the memo in 1911. So it is pretty clear that this memorandum was written to motivate the economics department decision not to seek a senior professor with the funds released by Clark’s retirement but instead divided the funds between hiring someone for statistics, additional compensation for Henry Roger Seager to continue his teaching a labor course at Barnard and additional compensation for Professor Vladimir Simkhovitch to take over Clark’s course on Socialism at Barnard.

_____________________________

MEMORANDUM in reference to PROFESSOR CLARK’S RETIREMENT.

Professor Clark’s retirement is a serious loss to the Department of Economics and to Barnard College. Ordinarily the withdrawal of such a distinguished member of the faculty should lead to the appointment of a successor of equal prominence. In this case, however, there is no one of equal distinction available, and after making a thorough and impartial survey of the field, the department is convinced that it will be wiser to call the most promising younger man to be found as assistant professor then to call in a full professor who might prove disappointing. This plan has the advantage, moreover, of permitting a readjustment of the courses in economics to be open to Barnard students that would be highly advantageous for the College.

It will be remembered that when the original arrangement was entered into the trustees of Barnard agreed to provide the sum of $5,000 toward the higher or university work in economics at Columbia, on condition that certain courses at Columbia be open to women graduates, and on the further understanding that the Department of Economics should provide six hours a week of lectures in economics to Barnard Seniors at Barnard College. Later on, by special arrangement with Dean Gill, as ratified by the trustees, it was provided that two of these six hours might be given at Columbia instead of Barnard. It is now proposed to readjust the courses so as to provide ampler opportunities for Barnard students.

In considering the interests of Barnard, three facts should be held in view. First, experience has shown that merely throwing open courses given at Columbia to Barnard students fails adequately to meet their needs. The plan adopted when Professor Clark was called here of having six hours advanced work in economics given at Barnard ought to be reintroduced. Second, the number of students desiring to take advanced work in economics is steadily increasing and for their benefit every opportunity should be seized which will open to them additional courses at Columbia. Third, the most important field of economics study not now covered by the courses offered at Barnard is that of economic and social statistics. Not only does the ordinary student need a knowledge of statistical methods to apply economic theories to the facts of every day life, but Barnard graduates are concerned to an ever increasing extent with different forms of social service. Some become the paid agents of settlement, charitable societies or municipal departments concerned with social work. Others become officers in reform and charitable organizations. For both classes, training in the manipulation and interpretation of statistics would be of great value.

Having regard to these three facts the plan which the Department of Economics recommends is as follows: –

(1) that $2,500 of the $5,000 released by Professor Clark’s withdrawal be used to pay the salary of an assistant professor, who shall give a course on social and economic statistics to Barnard Seniors. While this professor under the terms of the original agreement, is to be primarily a graduate professor, he may, if so desired, be asked temporarily to relieve Professor Mussey of one of the Junior sections in Economics A1–A2 in exchange for a university course by Professor Mussey. It is also proposed that in further recognition of a similar course to be given by the new instructor at Columbia and of supervising work in the statistical laboratory at Columbia, which might be open to Barnard students for research work, the Department of Economics should admit Barnard Seniors to Columbia courses given by Professors Seligman, Giddings, Seager, and Mussey, that is, Sociology 151-152, Economics 101-2, Economics 107-108, Economics 106, and Economics 104.

(2) That Professor Seager be asked to continue his course on the Labor Problem at Barnard and that a contribution of $1,500 towards his salary be paid out of the $5,000 released. Professor Clark’s withdrawal will add to Professor Seager’s burdens at Columbia and his natural inclination would be to meet the situation by discontinuing his course at Barnard. If he continues his course it seems but fair that a contribution toward his salary should be paid out of Barnard funds.

(3) That Professor Simkhovitch be asked to give at Barnard the course on Socialism and Social Reform formerly given by Professor Clark and that the remaining $1,000 of the $5,000 fund be contributed to his salary. Fortunately Professor Simkhovitch is specially qualified to give such a course acceptably, having given a similar course at Columbia for the last two or three years.

By carrying out this plan the Barnard trustees will not only secure a reintroduction of the six hours of advanced instruction in economics for the special benefit of Barnard Seniors, courses even better adapted to the present needs of such Seniors than those previously given, but will also secure admission for Barnard students to eight of the most valuable courses in economics and social science offered at Columbia, without any increase in the appropriation for economic instruction. Inasmuch as at the present time only four hours are given to Barnard Seniors, and only five Columbia courses are open to them, we believe that the plan is fair to all concerned and that it will prove highly advantageous to Barnard College.

 

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Seligman, Edwin Robert Anderson Collection. Box 98a, Folder “Columbia (A-Z) 1911-1913”.

Image Source:  Barnard College student council. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

Categories
Funny Business

Now for something completely different…

In honor of the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017, I have written new lyrics to a famous production number from the musical The Producers. My version has the title “Springtime for Twittler“. 

Categories
Chicago Curriculum

Chicago. Foreign Language Requirements for Ph.D. 1931-68

 

This post is a fairly straightforward pair of memos from 1968 that provide a chronology of the foreign language requirement for the Ph.D. in the Division of Social Sciences from 1931 to 1968 as well as a particular substitution of additional foreign language training for matrix algebra in 1968.

Language requirements at Columbia in 1950.

___________________________

January 12, 1968

TO: Faculty, Division of the Social Sciences

FROM: D. Gale Johnson, Dean Division of the Social Sciences

In re: Foreign Language requirements for the Ph.D.

At a meeting of the faculty of the Division of the Social Sciences held November 18, 1931, the following statement was adopted as one of the requirements for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D.:

“The ability, demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Board of Examiners, to read two foreign modern languages approved by the department or interdepartmental committee, one of which must be French or German. It is advised that this requirement be met as early as possible in the student’s program of study.”

On January 15, 1943, the faculty of the Division modified the language requirement and made it read as follows:

“Demonstration of the ability to use one or more foreign languages effectively toward the objective of the student’s academic program. This ability in the case of at least one language will be tested by: (I) the passing of an examination administered and evaluated by the Board of Examinations; and (II) in addition to the examination, the writing of the paper or series of papers, or oral work, judge satisfactory by the Department in connection with the student’s program of study, in which extensive use is made of works in the foreign language. Departments may at their discretion specify the particular foreign language or languages required of their candidates for the doctorate. Exceptions in individual cases may be made by the Dean of Students on the recommendation of aDepartment.”

At its meeting on December 4, 1967, the faculty of the Division approved the following motion:

“That each Department or Committee in the Division should have the right to substitute for the divisional language requirement for the Ph.D. degree a requirement that the student demonstrate proficiency in a substantive field other than that of the department in question. The degree of proficiency to be required in such a field should be comparable or superior to that represented by the present divisional language requirement. The department at its option, may require that proficiency be demonstrated in a particular substantive field or may leave to the student, in some or all cases, the option of deciding whether to demonstrate proficiency in a language or a substantive field.”

If a department or committee wishes to act under the motion approved by the faculty of the Division Mr. Zimring and I urge that it do so with reasonable promptness to permit students to make their plans with full information concerning the requirements. Until a department or committee has taken action and so informs the Office of the Dean, it will be assumed that the language requirement as it existed on December 1, 1967, shall continue in force.

At the time a department or committee takes action, if any, to modify its language requirement, it should indicate the date on which any changes become effective and that date could be within a few days after action has been taken. I feel that before a departmental or committee action is made effective that Mr. Zimring should be given time to study it and to determine if his interpretation is the one that has been intended.

Mr. Zimring and I strongly urge that departments and committees accept a self-denying ordinance, namely the changes in the requirements will not be made more than once a year and the changes affecting 1968-69 be made by March 15, 1968.

The action taken with respect to the divisional language requirement does not change current procedures with respect to examination if the department retains a language requirement. It is my interpretation that while departments can require a supplementary or additional examination to be administered by the department, it cannot dispense with the examinations given by the Office of the University Examiner.

DGJ:BP

___________________________

 

Department of Economics                             University of Chicago

May, 1968

 

To: Graduate Students, Department of Economics

From: Arnold C. Harberger, Chairman

Re: Revision in Foreign Language/Mathematics Requirement

Foreign Language and Mathematics Requirement

Each Ph.D. candidate, before admission to candidacy for the Ph.D., must demonstrate effective command of relevant mathematical tools, including calculus and matrix algebra. The Department of Economics will accept three courses in calculus (mathematics 151, 152, and 154, or equivalent), and one course in linear algebra (mathematics 250, 252, Business 372, or equivalent) as meeting, respectively, the calculus and matrix algebra requirements.

In place of demonstration of competence in matrix algebra, students may opt to demonstrate proficiency at a high level in a foreign language by means of an examination administered by the Office of the University Examiner and must demand to the satisfaction of the Department ability to translate at site with reasonable ease material in economics in the foreign language. Any foreign language other than Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, or Swedish must be approved by the Department.

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 194, Folder “194.9 Economics Dept. A-G”.

Image: Lecture Hall 1, Social Science Research Building. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07482, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Chicago

Chicago. Soliciting Contributions of Alumni/ae to Fund for Graduate Fellowships, 1931

Scarcely a week goes by for anyone with a Ph.D. these days that does not bring some sort of request for a financial contribution from the one or other alma mater. I can easily imagine that the sort of letter transcribed below from the head of the department of economics at the University of Chicago was still something of a novelty in 1931.

Looking at the list of the former Chicago economics fellows from whom contributions had been requested, I noticed that the first four names are alphabetically arranged, the next four names are likewise alphabetically arranged, the next four names (with one exception) are also so arranged as are the next two and the final three. The facts, that (i) the sample letter (December 16, 1931 to Trevor Arnett) was addressed to the 13th person on the list and (ii) dated only two days before the cover letter to University of Chicago Trustee James Stifler was sent, lead me to conclude that Chairman Millis had a response rate of two for the dozen letters he first sent out. I am somewhat surprised he even sent off his letter to James Stifler before receiving at least one positive response. Maybe Millis was told something like “Why don’t you folks write to some of your earlier fellows and ask for money” and he just wanted to show for the record that he had tried.

___________________________________

 

The University of Chicago
Department of Economics

December 18, 1931

Dr. James M. Stifler
The President’s Office
Faculty Exchange

Dear Mr. Stifler:

I enclose a carbon copy of a letter written to Mr. Arnett, one of the former fellows in Economics, and a list of the seventeen persons to whom such letters were sent. For your information, I may say that to date I have had only two replies, both of them in terms of “I regret.”

Sincerely yours
[signed]
H. A. Millis

 

HAM-W
Encl.

___________________________________

 

December 16, 1931

COPY

 

Mr. Trevor Arnett
General Education Board
61 Broadway
New York City

Dear Mr. Arnett:

I have talked over an idea I have had for some time with a few men who have held fellowships in Economics at the University of Chicago, and, finding a favorable reaction to it, now write you. The idea is this: that those of us who feel so inclined should contribute at our convenience some part of all of the stipend received when fellows to a fund to finance fellowships in Economics at the University. The underlying thought is that there is a good case for those of us who were fortunate enough to have assistance at a crucial time in our training to lend help to others in the generation following us. The need for well trained men is great; many very promising young men and women cannot get the necessary training without some financial aid. Last year, for example, our Department had 175 applications for fellowships and scholarships. Twenty of the applicants for fellowships, and twenty-seven altogether, we graded as A-1, but, with some funds secured from the outside, we were able to grant fellowships to only six of the twenty. From the information I have, it would appear that more than one-half of the remaining fourteen have had to forego entirely or postpone their program of work leading to the doctorate in Economics here or elsewhere. Next year we shall have less fellowship money from the sources available this year.

Do you feel inclined to join some of us in this plan? If you do, will you not write me and state to what extent you wish to contribute and when? In making your decision, you will, of course, keep in mind that there is no desire to exert pressure upon any one, and that there is no thought that a fellowship granted has not been fully earned.

Sincerely yours,
H. A. Millis

HAM-W

 

List of those written:

1. Professor Henry Rand Hatfield Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, California
2. Dr. Simon J. McLean Board of Railway Commissioners, Ottawa, Canada
3. George G. Tunell The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, Railway Exchange Building, Chicago, Ill.
4. Professor Henry P. Willis Columbia University, New York City
5. Professor C. A. Arbuthnot Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
6. Dr. Earl Dean Howard Hart, Schaffner & Marx, 36 South Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois
7. Professor W. W. Swanson Department of Economics, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada
8. Miss Anna Pritchitt Youngman 97 Columbia Heights Post Office, Brooklyn, New York
9. Professor H. G. Moulton The Brookings Institution, 744 Jackson Place, Washington, D.C.
10. Professor W. C. Mitchell c/o D. H. MacGregor, Oxford University, Oxford, England
11. Professor Duncan A. MacGibbon Board of Grain Commissioners, Winnipeg, Canada
12. Professor James A. Moffat University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana
13. Mr. Trevor Arnett General Education Board, 61 Broadway, New York City
14. Professor Stephen B. Leacock McGill University, Montreal, Canada
15. Professor Spurgeon Bell Department of Economics, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
16. Miss Hazel Kyrk University of Chicago, Faculty Exchange
17. Professor Sumner Slichter School of Business Administration, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

___________________________________

 

[Carbon copy]

December 21, 1931

 

Dear Mr. Millis:

I have received and read with great interest the letter which you sent to Mr. Trevor Arnett. It seems to me to be an excellent letter and I do not see how anybody could object to it.

I fancy that you may receive some further regrets but I hope that there may be a considerable number who will feel that they can fall in with the plan.

Faithfully yours,

James M. Stifler

Mr. H. A. Millis
Department of Economics
Faculty Exchange

___________________________________

 

 

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Hutchins Administration. Records. Box 72, Folder “Economics Dept, 1929-1931”.

Image: Social Science Building, University of Chicago.

 

Categories
Chicago Courses Economists Gender Home Economics

Chicago. Remedial Economics Course for Entering Graduate Students, Hazel Kyrk. 1926

 

Today’s artifact documents a working link between the educational programs of the Chicago Department of Political Economy and the Department of Home Economics and Household Administration in the person of Hazel Kyrk, a pioneer in the fields of consumer and family economics. From the brief memo written by the chair of the department of political economy, L. C. Marshall, we see that Kyrk was tasked with teaching a course that would be open to seniors in the College and to entering graduate students for either home economics or economics “who have not had work in this field”. By “advanced” one presumes an accelerated introductory course perhaps covering the material of a couple of freshman level courses. Still it is interesting to see that a graduate student in 1926, completely innocent of all formal economic training, could start the graduate program of economics with (or after) only a quarter of remedial education.

I have added to this post the course listings for the year before the creation of the new course Economics 202 (The Economic Order, Advanced Course) and the following year.

For more about Hazel Kyrk: Andrea H. Beller and D. Elizabeth Kiss. “On the Contribution of Hazel Kyrk to Family Economics” (June 2008). 

A chronology of her career is included on my page of Chicago economics Ph.D.’s 1894-1926. 

_______________________________________

 

Carbon Copy of Memo from L.C. Marshall

May 22, [19]26

[To:] J. M. Clark, P. H. Douglas, J. A. Field, Hazel Kyrk, L. W. Mints, H. A. Millis, W. H. Spencer, C. W. Wright, Jacob Viner

[From:] L. C. Marshall

I have arranged with Miss Blunt to have Home Economics 141 dropped and to substitute for this course Economics 202, The Economic Order, Advanced Course, prerequisite 18 majors, given by Miss Hazel Kyrk.

As will be apparent from this statement Miss Kyrk’s work will serve as a one major survey of the economic order for senior college and graduate students who have had no previous work in economics. There is a considerable constituency of such persons who need this work as a preliminary to their work in Home Economics. Then, too, as time goes on we shall probably be under the necessity of offering this course once each quarter for our own senior college and first year graduate students who have not had work in this field. This latter matter, however, is one for later adjustment.

LCM:MLN

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics. Records. Box 22, Folder 7.

_______________________________________

 

General and (Some) Intermediate Course Listings

1925-26

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

A. General Survey Course

101*. Industrial Society.—Mj. Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring, Professor Marshall and Others.

[*Limited-credit course: After a student has credit for 18 majors but less than 27, this course will be credited at one-half major; after he has credit for 27 majors, it will not be credited at all.]

See also Home Economics 141. The Household in Modern Industrial Society.

 

B. Intermediate Courses

201. Principles of Economics.—Mj. Spring, —

[…]

Source: University of Chicago. Annual Register covering the Academic Year Ending June 30, 1925, with Announcements for the Year 1925-1926. P. 146.

1926-27

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

A. General Survey Course

101. Industrial Society.—Mj. Summer, 8:00, Dr. Montgomery.

102*, 103, 104. The Economic Order I, II, III.—Mj. Autumn, Winter, and Spring, Professor Marshall and Others.

[*Limited-credit course: After a student has credit for 18 majors but less than 27, this course will be credited at one-half major; after he has credit for 27 majors, it will not be credited at all.]

 

B. Intermediate Courses

201. Principles of Economics.—Mj. Winter, 10:00, Mr. Palyi; Spring, —

202. Economic Order, Advanced Course.—Mj. Autumn, 1:30, Associate Professor Kyrk and Assistant Professor Mints.

[…]

 

Source: University of Chicago. Annual Register covering the Academic Year Ending June 30, 1926, with Announcements for the Year 1926-1927. P. 138.

 

 

1927-28

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

A. General Survey Course

102*, 103, 104. The Economic Order I, II, III.—Mj. Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring, 8:00, 11:00 and 1:30, Professor Marshall and Others.

[*Limited-credit course: After a student has credit for 18 majors but less than 27, this course will be credited at one-half major; after he has credit for 27 majors, it will not be credited at all.]

See also Home Economics 141. The Household in Modern Industrial Society.

 

B. Intermediate Courses

201. Intermediate Economic Theory.—Mj. Autumn, Winter, Spring, 8:00, Professor Douglas, Associate Professor Sorrell, and Assistant Professor Cox

202. Economic Order.—Mj. Autumn, Winter, and Spring, 9:00, Associate Professor Kyrk and Assistant Professor Mints.

[…]

Source: University of Chicago. Annual Register covering the Academic Year Ending June 30, 1927, with Announcements for the Year 1927-1928. P. 162.

_______________________________________

 

Image Source: Photo of Hazel Kyrk from her 1918 U. S. Passport Application. National Archives. Roll 0504, 20 April 1918.

 

 

 

Categories
Chicago Courses Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Chicago. International Trade and Finance. Jacob Viner, 1933.

 

The first four pages of written notes taken by Milton Friedman for Jacob Viner’s course, International Trade and Finance, provide something of a course syllabus and list of suggested reading assignments. The notes are undated but in his civil service job applications, Friedman provided a list of courses by university, semester or quarter and course instructor. Milton Friedman took Jacob Viner’s course during the Winter quarter (January to mid-March) of 1933. Generally Friedman’s handwriting is easy to read, knowing the context, though some checking of authors’ names was required. I provide one sample from a particulary difficult five or six lines and welcome any alternative readings. Otherwise I am extremely confident in my transcription.

Elsewhere in his files, Milton Friedman had what appears to be a later photocopy of an exam for this course. The folder is labelled “Biographical: Class Exams circa 1932-1938”. “University of Chicago” and “Milton Friedman” are handwritten on the photocopy of the original typed copy of the exam.

Don Patinkin took the same course that was still taught by Viner in 1944: the course outline, readings and some exam questions are available in an earlier post.

_____________________________

International Economic Relations: Course Description

[Economics] 370. International Trade and Finance.—This course deals with the theory of international values, the mechanism of adjustment of international balances, foreign-exchange theory, the international aspects of monetary and banking theory, and tariff theory. Prerequisite: Economics 301 or its equivalent. Winter, Viner.

 

Source: University of Chicago. Announcements. Arts, Literature and Science, vol. XXXII, no. 12 (for the sessions of 1932-33), p. 361.

_____________________________

From Milton Friedman’s Course Notes

✓Mun England’s Treasure Ch. 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, 21

✓Hume Essays Moral & Political. Vol I—Essays (of Commerce/of the Balance of Trade)

✓Viner   Early English Theories. J.P.E. June & Aug, 1930. All of June article. pp. 418-431, 442-448 in Aug. article.

 

Bullionist Controversy

✓Silbering, Fin[ancial] & Mon[etary] Policy [of Great Britain During the Napoleonic Wars] Qu. Jour of Ec 1924

✓Angell ch III & Appendix A

✓Ricardo High Price of Bullion in works also in Gonner. Ricardo’s Essays

✓Viner Canada’s Balance, pp. 191-20[last digit smeared, might be “4”]

J.P.E. Oct 1926 pp. 600-608

✓J.S. Mill Principles Bk III Ch XXIV

✓Walker Money. Ch XIX & XX

Mill Principles Book III, Ch XIX, XX, XXI, XXII

Taussig, International Trade. Ch XVII, XVIII

 

1) Canada’s Balance pp. 202-212, 145-190

Angell pp. 170-174, 505-510

2) Ohlin. Is the Young Plan Feasible? Index Feb 1930

3) Angell-Q.J.E. May 1928

Rogers in Recent Ec. Changes Vol. II, Ch. II
Taussig, Int. Trade 325-332

4) Moulton on War Debts in Schanz Festgabe [Festgabe für Georg von Schanz zum 75 Geburtstag. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr. 1928. 2 vols. Papers by Beckerath, Lotz, Jèze, Einaudi, Stamp, Moulton, and others.]

____________________

with respect to 1) find answer:

  1. to what factor does Viner assign & to what factor does Angell says Viner assigns the immediate responsibility for the rise in prices. Also to what fact[or] he assigns it.
  2. What role does Viner assign & what role does Angell say Viner assigns & what role does Angell assign to the expansion of Canadian Bank loans.
  3. What is order of priority acc[ording] to Viner & acc[ording] to Ang[ell] of fluctuation in Canada bank demand liabilites & outside reserves.
  4. (cf. th[eory] by Mill or Tau[ssig]) If outside reserves was held as gold in Canada what role in the mechanism would the classical theory assign to them

 

Comparative Costs

Ricardo-Principles ch 7

Viner Welt-Archiv Oct, 1932

____________________

Manoïslesco Theory of Protection [Reviewed by Viner in JPE, Feb. 1932, pp. 121-125]

Grunzel Joseph. Handbuch der internationalen Handelspolitik (probably)]

Cherbuliez [, Antoine] Précis de la Science E., pp. 375-391

Walras “Théorie du Libre Échange. Revue d’Économique Politique XI (1897) pp. 651-664

or ‘Études d’Éc. Pol. Applique, pp. 286-304 [1898 reprint of previous article].

Pareto-Cours

Angell

Taussig. Int. Trade

Weber, Alfred. “Die Standortslehre und die Handelspolitik Archiv für Sozial. XXXII (1911) 667-688
____________________
Choose one & in about 10 days give appraisal thereof.

J.S. Mill Principles Bk III Ch XVII XVIII

Marshall. Money Credit & Commerce Bk III Ch VI, VII, VIII Appendix J[?] pp. 330-342

Terms of Trade

Taussig: Int. Trade see Index under Barter Terms of Trade.

Yntema Ch. 5.

Wilson Capital Imports, Ch 4.

Depreciated Paper

Taussig, Int. Trade 336-408

Graham Exchange Prices & Prod. in Germany. 97-99; 117-149

Cassel Money & Foreign Exchange after 1914, pp. 137-186

Cassel The Treatment of Price Problems. Ec J. Dec 1928

Ohlin International Trade Relations. Index Aug 1930

Bastable. Theory of Int’l Trade Ch 6.

League of Nations. [Financial Committee] Report of Gold Delegation, 1932 [Official no.: C.502.M.243.1932.II.A]

____________________

Read letter in last issue of Economica of a letter on the true something or other.

 

Source: Hoover Institution. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 120, Bound notes (Economics 370/J. Viner/10 a.m. S.S.B. 107).

_____________________________

Final Exam Questions Winter Quarter 1932-33

Economics 370

  1. Write notes on the following:
    1. “Increasing Returns” and the Comparative Cost Doctrine
    2. The “Law of Reciprocal Demand” and the “Equation of International Exchange.”
    3. The possibilities of partial specialization under free trade.
  1.       a.  Discuss the part played by international shifts in money incomes in adjusting balances of payments to international capital movements.
    b.  Explain briefly the part played in the lending country in connection with the same process by bank deposits and by bank loans.
  2. “The principles governing the rate of exchange may be illustrated by the following mechanical example. Represent two countries by two cisterns, and their stock of legal tender money by water, so that the depth of the water in either cistern may be taken to be the general level of prices in the corresponding country. If water cannot pass from either cistern to the other any divergence of depth may be produced at will by adjusting the respective quantities of water in them. This corresponds to the case of countries with independent currencies. If, however, the water can flow through a pipe leading from the base of one cistern to the base of the other, the depths in the two cisterns will always be identical.”
    Hawtrey, Good and Bad Trade, 1913, pp. 109-110.
    Comment briefly.

 

Source: Hoover Institution. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 115, Folder 13. “Biographical: Class Exams circa 1932-1938”.

Categories
Columbia Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus

Columbia. Foundations of Social Economics. J.M. Clark 1937

 

Working with the papers of John Maurice Clark is not for historians who abhor dirt and disorder. Simply imagine going into an attic and finding the papers of your grandparents dumped shelf by shelf, pile by pile, with or without the social contrivance of filing, and now image the dust of decades has penetrated the recesses of box and folder. And yet there is much interesting stuff for the hardy to be found in the rummage of Clark’s career.

Three items are posted today from J. M. Clark’s course on the foundations of social economics: (i) five pages describing a course project for students to think about an economic constitution for a newly discovered, virgin continent that is 1/10 the scale of the United States which would be colonized by 1/10 of the U.S. population but run as an experiment in economics; (ii) an undated handwritten course bibliography; (iii) an undated typed final examination for the course.

Examination questions for one of the two courses taught back-to-back from a few years earlier can be found in Milton Friedman’s papers.

_________________________________

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Economics 109—Foundations of social economics. 3 points Winter Session. Professor J. M. Clark.
M. and W. at 2:10. 401 Fayerweather.

The course pays attention to the nature of man, and of joint organizations which act as economic men; the economic ideal, viewed dynamically; the social meaning of wealth; the institution of exchange; the principles of choice, value, and cost; a functional analysis of production; the basic institutions of control; economic guidance; negotiation and bargaining; the factors of production and the laws of return; the problem of waste.

Economics 110—Dynamics of value and distribution. 3 points Spring Session. Professor J. M. Clark.
M. and W. at 2:10. 401 Fayerweather.

The functions of value and price; the dynamics of supply and demand for commodities and factors of production; the institution of competition; social vs. competitive schemes of distribution; value and expenses of production; expenses and ultimate costs of production; cumulative vs. self-limiting changes; the level of prices; economic rhythms.

 

Source: Columbia University Bulletin of Information, Thirty-seventh series, No. 28 (June 26, 1937). History, Economics, Public Law, and Social Science. Courses offered by the Faculty of Political Science for Winter and Spring Sessions 1937-1938, p. 27.

_________________________________

Typed copy of Course Project, Econ 109
Winter Semester 1937

[handwritten note at top of page
“P.P. [per person?] 2-3 Objectives. 4-5 Strategic decisions.”]

Tentative project for Econ. 109.
(May be used as a carry-over in early meetings of 110 this year—Jan.-Feb., 1938)

Specifications for a new economic system.

A new continent, unoccupied and reproducing the area and resources of the U.S. on a one-tenth scale, has been discovered in the Pacific, and recognized as belonging to the U.S. Recognising that our present economic system is unsatisfactory, the Government has decided to use this area as a laboratory experiment in the setting-up of an altered system, starting from scratch with the advantage of hindsight as to the evils of our present system and trying to improve on them. More than one-tenth of our population, including quotas from all walks of life, have signified their willingness to try the experiment and to cooperate loyally in whatever system is selected. We needn’t take Al Capone [Chicago gangster kingpin] if we don’t want him, but we can have Owen Young [founder of RCA, the Young Plan regarding the reduction of German reparations was his namesake], Henry Dennison [important figure in scientific management movements] and others of like complexion if we want them.

This class has been designated as one of a number of groups to draw up and submit proposals, from which a plan for developing the area will ultimately be selected or otherwise made up. There are other groups concerned with religion, education and political government, and there will be interchange between all the groups before their various proposals are knit together. The political-government group is marking time until it finds what kind of a system it will have to devise a government for. There may be other groups set up on health, penology, family and social relations, art and possibly other matters as developments seem to require them.

[Handwritten title insert] First Strategic decision.

            We shall use modern scientific and technical methods of production. In departing from the pattern of the existing system, we are free to go all the way to the most complete communism, or to move in the other direction and try to set up a system more genuinely individualistic (and presumably more competitive) than the present one, if we think the chief trouble is that it is not individualistic enough.

Desirable ends, formulated as standards, so far as possible.

            “Maximum individual welfare”, including physical and mental health, personalities adjusted to social living, well-rounded exercise of faculties and adequate stimulus thereto, liberty of choice, within limits, barring things demonstrably harmful to individual or society but including choice of occupation, particular forms of recreation and consumption, adequate guidance in the exercise of liberty, possible special stimulation to activities regarded by proper and competent bodies as especially valuable.

More goods, for those who need them most, implying much greater equality of distribution that at present, but not neglecting importance of increasing total. Flat equality, or distribution (of all goods) according to need, debatable. What kinds of goods? Not much more food, not very much more clothing, much more adequate housing, more adequate education, much more adequate health service (but our religious board includes a couple of Christian Scientists!) “More goods” calls for stimuli to efficiency of production in all grades, and liberty to try new processes and new goods. Whole question of bureaucratic morale, of differentiated material rewards varying with performance (or in proportion to commercial worth of superior performance?) of comparative, quasi-competitive or completely competitive tests of performance.

Right to opportunity to work.

Relative stability of rate of production.

Adequate supply of capital to ensure progressive efficiency of production, with future product rationally weighted against present privation.

Rational distribution of family income over time, with balanced provision for old age and emergencies. (This may or may not be tied up with the provision of capital funds, as at present).

National defense, to the extent deemed necessary (We shall assume that it does not call for a totalitarian system.) [Handwritten note: “Can we safely assume that in 1947?]

Strategic decisions.

            Scope of consumers’ preference in deciding what goods and services shall be produced. We shall surely let them decide what color wall-paper and furnishings to have, and beyond certain minimum requirements what books to read and what recreations to follow. We may ration some things—if so, what?—but there will be some realm within which we let them have purchasing power which they are free to use as they choose. This will be our money, and goods will have a price, within this realm.

Shall we also let them choose whether to spend or not to spend? The dangers here are two: fluctuations of total spending (including that on capital formation) and excess saving not spent on capital formation. Unless incomes and the feeling of insecurity fluctuate heavily, the first danger is not great. With large concentrated incomes eliminated, the second danger would be practically removed. Fluctuating credit for busing durable consumers’ goods would create more danger; and for industrial investments, more still. Control of credit can be made effective downward, but not very well upward, even if credit is a public monopoly.

As to public services, I shall assume that we keep the present list, with reservations as to poor-relief if the need is changed or other agencies substituted; and that the question is as to additions. The big question is whether we make the main body of production a public service. If we do, it will be for two main reasons: to control inequality of distribution, and to control the relation between the current volume of production and the spendings (consumer and capital) it depends on to take the goods off the market, to the end that utilized production may be limited only by power and willingness to produce, no fall short of that limit as at present.

If we do that, problems arise of means to secure efficiency from workers and managers, source and allotment of capital and possible place and reward for private savings, determination of production programs and of kinds of goods and services to be produced, including new ones, organization of invention and incentives, determination of wages, of prices, of income devoted to free public series, pensions, etc. procedure concerning workers’ choice of occupation and shifting from one to another, selection of workers and treatment of those nobody wants—that’s enough to start with and to give some idea of the sort of thing that would be encountered. How combat the stagnation of bureaucracy, the multiplication of supervisors, the business of passing the buck and finding scapegoats for poor performance (I assume we shouldn’t want the scapegoats shot)? What sort of “social accounting” shall we use?

If we permit private saving, what shall we do about inheritance, and how prevent evasions of our policy.

We can embody the essentials of our plan in a constitution; how shall we provide for amendment? Shall the whole be in the hands of elected officials? If so, will anyone dare to support an opposition ticket? Will dissatisfied elements believe that a reelection was genuine and fair? Will such factors as these lead the system into a dictatorship of force, even if it did not start that way?

_________________________________

Bibliography for Economics 109
[no date]

Economics 109

Veblen:         “The Place of Science in Modern Civilization”

The Theory of Business Enterprise
The Theory of the Leisure Class
The Instinct of Workmanship.

Davenport, H. J. “Economics of Enterprise”

Anderson, B. M. “Social Value”

Cooley, C. H. : “Social Process”

Hobson, J. A. : “Work & Wealth”.

Pigou, A. C.: “Economics of Welfare” or “Wealth & Welfare”

Tugwell, (ed):  “The Trend of Economics”.

Boucke, O. F.: Critique of Economics”.

Mill, J. S.:      “Principles of Economics”

Essays on “Liberty” and “Utilitarianism”.

Clark, J. B.    “The Philosophy of Wealth”.

“Essentials of Economic Theory”.

Dickinson: Motives in Economic Life

Parker, Carleton: The Casual Laborer.

Wicksteed: “The Common Sense of Pol. Econ.”

Watkins: G. P. “Welfare as an Economic Quantity”.

Hoover Committee “Waste in Industry”

Chase, Stuart: The Tragedy of Waste”.

Clark, J.M.: “Social Control of Business”

“Economics of Overhead Costs”.

Ely: “Property & Contract”.

Commons: “Legal Foundations of Capitalism”.

Sidgwick: Principles of Political Economy.”

Tawney: The Acquisitive Society”

Edie: Principles of the New Economics.”

[Day, Clarence] “This Simian World.”

_________________________________

Economics 109
Final Examination
[undated]

 

Answer two questions, but not more than one of questions 3-8, inclusive.

  1. Discuss effects of recent military techniques on problems of the economic organization of a country.
  2. With respect to equality as a social-economic objective, what does the prevailing American social judgment favor? Note questions of degree of equality or inequality, and questions of different matters in respect of which people may be equal or unequal.
  3. “Individuals allocate expenditures so as to secure equal marginal utilities from money spent for different things, or to put themselves on a basis of indifference as between different expenditures”. Discuss. If true, why and by what psychological process; if not true, suggest amendments in the light of more realistic psychology.
  4. If you were founding a new society, what would you do about consumers’ freedom of choice, and why? If you allow such freedom in important degree, consider how far this commits you to other features of the present economic system.
  5. Discuss the economic importance of the “instinct of workmanship”.
  6. Compare the theory of “balked dispositions” with the tradition utilitarian treatment of the subjective sacrifices of production.
  7. Discuss economic significance of intelligence tests, in the light of the question what kind of a population is suitable or unsuitable to a system of private enterprise, either complete or modified.
  8. Discuss the social productivity of advertising and salesmanship, and compare this problem with the traditional concept of production, as bearing on the social productivity of private enterprise.
  9. Do the same for the social productivity of “bargaining” activities.
  10. Discuss the range of possible kinds of agencies available to perform economic functions.
  11. Would you assume that the attempt to maximize profits (with or without competition) standardizes economic behavior sufficiently to warrant using this assumption as a sufficient basis for deductive theorizing: that is, as furnishing all the basis such theorizing needs to take account of?
  12. Discuss the meaning of supply schedules or demand schedules, taking account of complexities or difficulties involved.

 

Source: Columbia University Libraries. Manuscript Collections. Papers of John M. Clark. Box 24, Unlabeled Folder.

Image Source: Detail from Columbia University group photo of economics department from the early 1930s. Columbia University Libraries. Manuscript Collections. Columbiana, Department of Economics Collection, Box 9, Folder “Photos”.