Month: July 2017

Categories
Germany Michigan

Michigan. Philo Parsons’ gift of the Karl Heinrich Rau personal library, 1871

 

The fact that the University of Michigan’s library was able to acquire the personal library of the Heidelberg economics professor Karl Heinrich Rau (1792-1870) in 1871 and thereby  increase its holdings by an estimated 20-25% has fascinated me. I was curious to find out more about the man who paid $1200 (gold-basis) for Rau’s books and pamphlets. The collection is described and the story is told by Z. Clark Dickinson in his paper “The Library and Works of Karl Heinrich Rau” in  Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft/Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, Bd. 114, H. 4. (1958), pp. 577-593.

For this posting I include an image of one of the book labels from the collection, an announcement of the acquisition in the 1871 report of the President of the University of Michigan to the Board of Regents, and an excerpt from Philo Parsons’ brother’s privately printed Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons. (Second) from 1900 that provides some biographical detail about Philo Parsons, who among other career accomplishments was the  founding president of the First National Bank of Detroit.

One puzzle remains. There was a small steamship (136 feet), owned by Selah Dustin and named the Philo Parsons, that ran a regular schedule between Detroit and the southern ports of Lake Erie, including Sandusky.  The Philo Parsons played a featured role in Civil War history after Confederate agents highjacked the side paddle wheel packet steamer in a failed plot to free confederate prisoners held on Johnson Island in Lake Erie, near Sandusky, Ohio. Why the ship bore that name is something I haven’t been able to figure out (yet). Perhaps the fact that Philo Parsons’ brother, Lewis B. Parsons, served as Major General in the U.S. Army during the Civil War as the Chief of Rail and River Transportation could have played a role? 

 

__________________________

THE “PARSONS LIBRARY.”

Until the beginning of the present year no considerable donation has ever been made to the University library. Since that time, however, a very large and valuable private library has been purchased and presented to the University by Philo Parsons, Esq., of Detroit. It consists of the entire collection of the late Professor Rau of Heidelberg, made during his long service of fifty years as Professor of Political Economy in Heidelberg University, and embracing all the most valuable literature contained in the European languages on political science and kindred topics. The number of volumes in this collection is 4034, and of pamphlets more than two thousand. While this munificent gift is of great importance on account of the intrinsic worth of the collection, it is not less valuable as an example which cannot fail to find imitators.

Many of the volumes, as is almost always the case in libraries of this kind, are unbound, or require rebinding before they can be placed on the shelves and catalogued. Mr. Parsons, I understand, has already made arrangements for the binding necessary to be done.

The Librarian has prepared a general description of this collection as a part of his report on the General Library. It is undoubtedly as nearly perfect as a library can be made on the specialty which it represents. And it was the well authenticated statement of this fact, which influenced the authorities at Yale to send an order for the purchase of it before it was known to have been secured for this University.

While, however, it possesses this specific character, it contains also a large number of works of inestimable value on other subjects. The most important of these is the series of volumes issued by the Academy of Vienna, and those on the original sources for the history of the house of Hapsburg; a work of great importance in the study of European history. The languages represented in the Parsons library are German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Greek, Hollandish, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Servian [sic], Polish, Hungarian, Russian, and the Slavic languages of the Lower Danube. A perfect university library must contain, first, all the standard literary productions, or classics, of all polite languages, and, second, all works in all languages necessary to the investigation and treatment of every special branch of science and learning. The building up of such a library is of itself a great work, not indeed to be perfected by one generation. Nothing, however, can contribute so much to its consummation as the acquisition from time to time, as opportunity may offer, of those complete topical libraries, so often collected in these days by eminent German and English savans, and not unfrequently offered for sale after their decease. At the same. time it should be observed that a university library which is known to be perfect even in one branch of knowledge, has gained much in the estimation of the literary public.

Source: President’s Report to the Board of Regents for the Year Ending June 30, 1871 published in Proceedings of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan from January, 1870, to January, 1876 (Ann Arbor, 1876), pp. 115-116.

__________________________

TRIBUTE BY JOSEPH L. DANIELS OF
OLIVET COLLEGE, MICHIGAN,
TO
PHILO PARSONS.

Mr. Philo Parsons was born at Scipio, N. Y., February 6th, 1817. He was the second in a family of ten children. His father, Lewis Baldwin Parsons, was born at Williamstown, Massachusetts, April 30th, 1793, and died at Detroit, Michigan, December 21st, 1855. He was a man of rare native gifts, uncommon energy and force of character, independent and positive in his religious belief, yet catholic and tolerant toward all. His whole life was one of systematic benevolence and he left most of his property for the founding of Parsons’ College at Fairfield, Iowa.

He was married November 10, 1814, to Miss Lucina Hoar, a member of the famous Hoar family which migrated to this country in 1640 and located at Concord, Massachusetts. She was born at Brimfield, Massachusetts, October 31st, 1790, and died at Gouveneur, New York, October 3d, 1873. Mrs. Parsons was a woman of even temperament and self-poise, a devoted mother, an intelligent and earnest Christian, maintaining a lively interest in affairs of church and state, even to the advanced age of 83 years. Her pastor, Reverend Joseph R. Page, describes her as a “Mother in Israel, and a model in all the relations of life and of all the Christian graces.”

From such an ancestry with a record traceable back to the founders of Massachusetts was Mr. Philo Parsons descended. His early years were spent in Gouveneur, Homer and Perry, New York. At the latter place he entered into business with his father under the firm name of L. B. Parsons & Son. And he also married there in 1843 Miss Ann Eliza Barnum, Their long and happy married life was terminated in 1893 by the death of Mrs. Parsons, Mr. Parsons following her three years later, dying at Winchenden, Massachusetts, January 20, 1896. Eight children were born to them, of whom seven survived their parents. In 1844, Mr. Parsons removed to Detroit, Mich., and entered upon the grocery business under the firm name of Parsons & James. A few years later he established a private bank. In 1861, when the Government created the National banking system as an aid in carrying on the war, Mr. Parsons was the leader in organizing the First National Bank of Detroit, and was its first president and for many years one of its directors. He did much to promote the commercial prosperity of Detroit. He entered heartily into the project for bringing the Wabash Railroad into the city, was an active member of the Board of Trade, and for a time its President. For many years he represented his own city in the National Board of Trade and was honored repeatedly as one of its Vice-Presidents. His discussions in these National Conventions show a wealth of information, a candor and breadth of view and a discrimination akin to prophesy. He was an ardent lover of his own city and State, and yet on one occasion explained his vote, apparently against their interests as “for the greatest good of the greatest number.”

Mr. Parsons was active in the municipal affairs of Detroit, and for a time was a member of its council. The State, too, more than once conferred upon him honors and trusts; notably as Commissioner to the Yorktown Centennial, and as chairman of the Commission to secure the statue of General Lewis Cass to be placed in the Capitol at Washington. He brought to this work all the enthusiasm of a lifelong friendship and a patriotic pride for the honor of his beloved State. The statue, almost vocal with life, crowned his many months of toil and effort, and was one of the joys of his life. He honored himself in honoring the State.

Yet political offices and honors he did not seek. He even declined to consider them when they merely appealed to his personal ambition. Too much Puritanic and Revolutionary blood flowed in his veins to ever regard public offices as anything but a sacred trust, a patriotic service. Mr. Parsons had a lively interest in agriculture, was an active member of the State Agricultural Society of Michigan and served most acceptably as its President. He was an enthusiast in horticulture and fruit culture, and found relaxation and pleasure in personal work in his own garden, one of the finest in Detroit. He was a royal entertainer and was never happier than when sharing the hospitality of his elegant home with his friends.

His benevolence was a matter of principle. He took special delight in aiding young men who were preparing for the work of the Christian ministry. He was one of the largest and most systematic givers to the cause of missions. He was an enthusiastic believer in education.

While several institutions were looking with eager eyes toward the Ram [sic, Rau is correct] Library at Heidelberg, Mr. Parsons bought and donated it in its entirety to the Michigan State University [sic, University of Michigan is correct]. In keeping with his father’s spirit, he was especially devoted to the Christian College. He early became interested in Olivet College, Michigan. For thirty-six years he was a member of its Board of Trustees. He built his name into the history and even the very walls of the College. Parsons Hall and the Parsons Professorship are honored words to-day. Not only his munificent gifts, but his wise counsels and his lifelong devotion to the work at Olivet are gratefully remembered. And no less were these deeds of benevolence a grateful remembrance to Mr. Parsons himself. They were his glory and joy in his later years of illness. He found a rich reward in the satisfaction of building himself into institutions of education and religion. Olivet College grew dearer to him. His home church, the First Congregational Church of Detroit, grew dearer. His beloved pastor and his intimate friends at Olivet received frequent letters full of gratitude and joy for what he had been permitted to do, and full of trust and hope in prospect of a blessed immortality. In this spirit, he entered into rest. His death was literally a sleep. He slept on earth to awake in Heaven.

Source:  Genealogy of the Family of Lewis B. Parsons. (Second).  Parsons-Hoar (St. Louis, 1900), pp. 48-51

 

 

Categories
Curriculum Michigan

Michigan. Prussian university as the model for higher education. Tappan, 1852-53

 

Digging around the history of economics instruction at the University of Michigan, I stumbled across the fact that the first President of the University of Michigan was a huge fan of the organization of Prussian education. Henry P. Tappan‘s extended statement of his vision for American colleges and universities can be read in his 1851 book University Education. One sees his ambition to restructure the University of Michigan along Prussian lines in the excerpt below taken from the  first catalogue published under Tappan’s  leadership in 1852-53.

There are several things that struck me when I read the 1852-53 Michigan catalogue:  counting Tappan, the University of Michigan’s faculty of science, literature and arts was all of eight professors; the entire undergraduate student body in 1852-53 was sixty students; undergraduates who passed the admissions examinations had to be at least fourteen years old to be enrolled; the B.A. and B.S. degrees both included a mandatory single term course in political economy in the junior year; reponsibility for the political economy courses at the collegiate (undergraduate) and university (graduate) levels was with the Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy (Henry P. Tappan).

______________________________________

First President of the University of Michigan

HENRY PHILIP TAPPAN was born at Rhinebeck on the Hudson, New York, April 18,1805. His father’s family was of Huguenot extraction; on his mother’s side he was Dutch. He entered Union College at the age of sixteen and was graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1825. Two years later he was graduated from the Auburn Theological Seminary and became associate pastor of the Dutch Reformed church in Schenectady, New York, for one year. He was next settled as pastor of the Congregational church at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. To this charge he took with him his newly married wife, a daughter of Colonel John Livingston, of New York. At the end of three years he was obliged to seek health and made a trip to the West Indies. On his return in 1832 he was elected professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy in the University of the City of New York. He had been a critic of the American college. He felt that it was not equal to the demands of American society, and now that he had become a teacher he began to study the problem more closely. He saw the need of better libraries and apparatus, better equipped faculties, and more freedom in the choice of studies; but his superiors were not yet prepared for his advanced ideas, and he resigned his chair. This was in 1838. He now turned his attention to authorship, at the same time conducting a private school. In 1839 appeared his “Review of Edwards’s Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will”; in 1840, “The Doctrine of the Will Determined by an Appeal to Consciousness”; in 1841, “The Doctrine of the Will Applied to Moral Agency and Responsibility”; in 1844, “Elements of Logic”; in 1851, a treatise on “University Education “; and in 1852, ” A Step from the New World to the Old and Back Again.” In 1852 he was invited to resume his former chair of Philosophy in the University of the City of New York, and the same year he was elected to the presidency of the University of Michigan. He accepted the call from Michigan and became the first President of the University, and Professor of Philosophy. He believed that a university worthy of the name must arise from the successive stages of primary and secondary schools. But these could be secured in completeness and perfection only by state authority, and by state and municipal appropriations derived from public funds and public taxation. These conditions he found partially established in the State of Michigan. Hope took possession of his heart, and he proceeded to create the American university according to his idea; but he moved faster than the circumstances would warrant, and after eleven years of labor he left the work to other hands. The seed he sowed took root, and in due time his controlling idea was embodied in practice, which was the university lecture and freedom in the choice of studies. A more detailed account of his work at Ann Arbor will be found in the chapter devoted to his administration. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Union College in 1845 and the degree of Doctor of Laws from Columbia in 1854. In 1856 he was elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Institute of France. On leaving Michigan in 1863 he went immediately to Europe. In Berlin, Paris, Bonn, Frankfort, Basel, and Geneva he found literary friends and cultivated circles glad to welcome him. He resided at Basel for some years, and finally purchased a beautiful villa at Vevey, on the shores of Lake Geneva, where he passed his declining years, and where he died November 15, 1881. He lies buried, with his entire family, high up on the vineclad slopes above Vevey, facing the lake, with its heavenly blue, and the glorious mountains of Savoy beyond. Thither more than one of his old Michigan boys have found their way in the after years to do homage at his tomb.

Source: Burke A. Hinsdale, History of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, 1906), pp. 217-218.

______________________________________

Reception of Tappan’s Vision of a University

President Tappan incurred much opposition and ridicule on account of his persistent advocacy of the German
ideal. “So much was this foreign school system the burden of his discourse that it brought upon him a storm of
censure and abuse from some of the journals of the state, whose editors were alarmed for the glory of the American eagle, or, possibly, were glad of a theme so potent to rouse the stout patriotism of their American hearts. Of all the imitations of English aristocracy, German mysticism, Prussian imperiousness, and Parisian nonsensities, he is altogether the most un-Americanized, the most completely foreignized specimen of an abnormal Yankee we have ever seen. Such was the style of the attacks made upon him, worth notice only as pointing to the source from which opposition came.” — History of the University of Michigan, Elizabeth M. Farrand, Ann Arbor, 1885, pp. 112-113.

Source: Burke A. Hinsdale, History of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, 1906) p. 86.

______________________________________

Excerpts from First Catalogue of Tappan Presidency

ORGANIZATION OF THE UNIVERSITY.

THE system of Public Instruction adopted by the State of Michigan is copied from the Prussian, acknowledged to be the most perfect in the world.

Hence the Constitution ordains, first of all, that there shall be a Superintendent of Public Instruction, who “shall have a general supervision of public instruction.” This office corresponds in its general features to the Minister of Public Instruction in Prussia.

With respect to the Primary Schools, the Constitution has ordained that “a school shall be kept, without charge for tuition, at least three months in each year, in every school district in the State; and all instruction in said schools shall be conducted in the English language.” These schools it is designed to make as comprehensive and perfect as possible. To this end a system of Union Schools is going into operation, constituted by throwing together several District Schools. By this means the material of learning is increased, the course of study enlarged, and more competent teachers are provided.

The Union Schools will become the elementary classical and scientific schools preparatory to the Collegiate or Gymnastic Department of the University. This, too, is in accordance with the Prussian system, which makes the Primary Schools preparatory to the Gymnasia.

The Normal School, constituted for the education of Teachers, is an essential part of the Primary School system.

In the University, it is designed to organize all the Faculties with the exception of the Theological, which will be left to the different denominations. It is to be hoped, however, that schools of Theology will be established at Ann Arbor. In some departments of Theological science it may be possible for the different denominations to unite in establishing common professorships. In others they will naturally choose to have separate professorships. But every one will perceive, at once, the advantages to be derived from collecting all the learned Faculties in one place, where the students can enjoy the common benefit of the University library, and attend, at their pleasure, while engaged in particular professional studies, lectures on other branches of literature and science. Thus, too, a more general spirit of scholarship will be awakened, and a generous competition kept alive.

There are already organized two Faculties, that of Science, Literature and the Arts, and that of Medicine.

In the first named department, that grade of studies has been established which in our country is usually designated as the Collegiate or Undergraduate. This, in all our Colleges, corresponds in general to the course in the Gymnasia of Germany. In the University of Michigan, it is a cardinal object to make this correspondence as complete as possible. Hence, it is proposed to make the studies here pursued not only introductory to professional studies, and to studies in the higher branches of science and literature, but also to embrace such studies as are more particularly adapted to agriculture, the mechanic arts, and to the industrial arts generally. Accordingly, a distinct scientific course has been added, running parallel to the classical course, extending through the same term of four years, and embracing the same number of classes with the same designations. In this course, a more extended range of Mathematics will be substituted for the Greek and Latin languages. Students, who have in view particular branches as connected immediately with their pursuits in life, and who do not aim at general scientific or literary study, will be admitted to partial courses. The schools of Civil Engineering and Agricultural Chemistry will be among the partial courses.

The design of the Regents and Faculty is, to make the Collegiate or Gymnastic department as ample and rich as possible, and to adapt it to the wants of all classes of students that properly come within its range.

The classical and scientific courses, whether full or partial, will be conducted by the University Faculty of Science, Literature and the Arts.

But the Regents and Faculty cannot forget that a system of Public Instruction can never be complete without the highest form of education, any more than without that primary education which is the natural and necessary introduction to the whole. The Undergraduate course, after all that can be done to perfect it, is still limited to a certain term of years, and, necessarily, embraces only a limited range of studies. After this must come professional studies, and those more extended studies in Science, Literature and the Arts, which alone can lead to profound and finished scholarship. A system of education established on the Prussian principles of education, cannot discard that which forms the culmination of the whole. An institution cannot deserve the name of a University which does not aim, in all the material of learning, in the professorships which it establishes, and in the whole scope of its provisions, to make it possible for every student to study what he pleases, and to any extent he pleases. Nor can it be regarded as consistent with the spirit of a free country to deny to its citizens the possibilities of the highest knowledge.

It is proposed, therefore, at as early a day as practicable, to open courses of lectures for those who have graduated at this or other institutions, and for those who in other ways have made such preparation as may enable them to attend upon them with advantage. These lectures, in accordance with the educational systems of Germany and France, will form the proper development of the University, in distinction from the College or Gymnasium now in operation.

Such a scheme will require the erection of an observatory, a large increase of our library and our philosophical apparatus, and additional Professors. A great work, it will require great means: but when once accomplished, it will constitute the glory of our State, and give us an indisputable pre-eminence.

The Medical Department already established belongs to the University proper. Here instruction is carried on by lectures, and it is presumed that students, by the aid of these lectures the design of which is to present them a complete outline of medical science, and to direct them in their studies-by the study of learned works, and, availing themselves of all the preparations made for the thorough study of their profession, shall be enabled to compose the Theses and pass the examinations which are to test their scholarship and prove them worthy of being admitted as Doctors of Medicine.

Source: Catalogue of the Corporation, Officers and Students in the Departments of Medicine, Arts and Sciences, in the University of Michigan 1852-53 (Detroit, 1853), pp. 19-22.

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE AND THE ARTS.
FACULTY.

REV. HENRY P. TAPPAN, D.D.,
CHANCELLOR,
And Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy.

REV. GEORGE P. WILLIAMS, LL.D.,
Professor of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics.

ABRAM SAGER, A.M., M.D.,
Professor of Zoology and Botany.

SILAS H. DOUGLASS, A.M., M.D.,
Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology.

LOUIS FASQUELLE, LL.D.,
Professor of Modern Languages.

JAMES R. BOISE, A.M.,
Professor of the Greek Language and Literature.

ALVAH BRADISH, A.M.,
Professor of Fine Arts.

REV. E. O. HAVEN, A.M.,
Professor of Latin Language and Literature.

[…]

[In the Department of Literature, Science and Arts there were a total of 60 undergraduates (10 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 18 Sophomores  and 11 Freshmen)]

[…]

TERMS OF ADMISSION.

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE AND THE ARTS.—UNDERGRADUATE COURSE

  1. CLASSICAL COURSE. — No person will be admitted to this course unless he sustain a satisfactory examination in the following studies, namely: In English Grammar, Geography, Arithmetic and Algebra through equations of the first degree; in the Latin Grammar, Caesar’s Commentaries, Cicero’s Select Orations, and six books of the Æneid of Virgil, or in some equivalent amount of classical Latin; in the Greek Grammar and the Greek Reader, or in some equivalent amount of classical Greek; in the writing of the Latin and Greek (with the accents); and in Grecian and Roman Geography.
  2. SCIENTIFIC COURSE. — The examinations for admission to this course will be particularly rigid in the following studies, namely: English Grammar, Geography, Arithmetic, and Algebra through equations of the first degree.
  3. PARTIAL COURSE. — Those who do not desire to become candidates for a degree, may be admitted to any part of the classical or scientific course, for such length of time as they may choose, in case they exhibit satisfactory evidence of such proficiency as will enable them to proceed advantageously with the studies of the class which they propose to enter.

No person shall become a candidate for admission to any of the above courses until he have completed his fourteenth year, nor without presenting satisfactory evidence of unexceptionable moral character.

[…]

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.

DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND SCIENCES.—UNDERGRADUATES.

Classical Course

Scientific Course

FIRST YEAR

First term
Latin, English Language and Literature,
Greek, History,
Algebra. Algebra.

Second term
Algebra and Geometry, Algebra and Geometry,
Latin, History,
Greek. English Language and Literature

Third term
Geometry, Geometry,
Greek, French,
Latin. History.

SECOND YEAR

First term
Rhetoric, Rhetoric,
Trigonometry and Conic Sec., Trigonometry and Conic Sec.,
Latin or Greek. French.

Second term
Latin, German,
Rhetoric, French,

Greek.

 Mensuration, Navigation,[and Surveying].

Third term
Latin or Greek, German,
French, Descriptive and Analytical Geometry,
Natural Philosophy. Natural Philosophy.

THIRD YEAR

First term
Political Economy, Political Economy,
Natural Philosophy, Natural Philosophy,
French. German

Second term
German, Drawing, Perspective and Architecture,
Latin or Greek, Calculus,
French. Rhetoric.

Third term
German, Civil Engineering,
Astronomy, Mental Philosophy,
Latin or Greek. Chemistry.

FOURTH YEAR

First term
German, Civil Engineering,
Mental Philosophy, Mental Philosophy,
Chemistry. Chemistry.

Second term
Moral Science. Moral Science,
Mental Philosophy and Logic, Mental Philosophy and Logic,
Chemistry. Chemistry.

Third term
Moral Science, Moral Science,
Animal and Vegetable Physiology Animal and Vegetable Physiology,
Geology. Geology.

Lectures through the year, once each week, on Natural Theology and Evidences of Christianity, to all the classes.

Exercises in declamation and English composition, for each class, weekly, through both courses. Original declamations through the last two years.

[…]

UNIVERSITY COURSE.

This Course is designed for those who have taken the degree of Bachelor of Arts or the degree of Bachelor of Sciences, and for those generally who, by previous study, have attained a preparation and discipline to qualify them for pursuing it.

The Course will be conducted exclusively by lectures. Besides attending these the student will have full opportunity of availing himself of the library and all other means that can aid him in literary cultivation and scientific researches.

This Course, when completely furnished with able professors and the material of learning, will correspond to that pursued in the Universities of France and Germany.

The following scheme will present, in general, the subjects proper to such a course:

  1. Systematic Philosophy.
  2. History of Philosophy.
  3. History and Political Economy.
  4. Logic.
  5. Ethics and Evidences of Christianity.
  6. The Law of Nature — The Law of Nations — Constitutional Law.
  7. The Higher Mathematics.
  8. Astronomy.
  9. General Physics.
  10. Chemistry.
  11. Natural History.
  12. Philosophy.
  13. Greek Language and Literature.
  14. Latin Language and Literature.
  15. Oriental Languages.
  16. English Language and Literature.
  17. Modern Literature.
  18. Rhetoric and Criticism.
  19. The History of the Fine Arts.
  20. The Arts of Design.

[…]

OF DEGREES

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE AND THE ARTS.

The degree of Bachelor of Arts, in accordance with general usage, will be conferred on students who complete the Classical Course and pass the examinations in the same.

The degree of Bachelor of Sciences will be conferred on students who complete the Scientific Course and pass the examinations in the same. This title, borrowed from the French Colleges, has already been introduced into the Lawrence Scientific School, of Harvard, and into the University of Rochester, to mark the graduation of a similar class of students.

The degree of Master of Arts will not be conferred in course upon graduates of three years standing, but only upon such graduates as have pursued professional or general scientific studies during that period. The candidate for the degree must pass an examination before one of the Faculties. He must also read a Thesis before the Faculties of the University at the time of taking the degree.

[…]

OBSERVATIONS ON THE COURSES OF STUDY PURSUED IN THE UNIVERSITY

[…]

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

This study is conducted by the use of text books, accompanied with lectures. Essays on subjects connected with the course are read by the students and criticised by the professor. One is read at each recitation. Reference is made to the standard works of ancient and modern writers on philosophy.

A complete development of this branch of knowledge must necessarily be reserved for the University Course.

HISTORY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY

History, particularly that of the Greeks and Romans, is connected with the study of the ancient languages.

Political Economy is, at present, assigned to the Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy [Chancellor Rev. Henry P. Tappan, D.D.]. Instruction is here given, as in Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, by the use of text books, accompanied with lectures and by references to the standard works on Political Economy. The students are here also required to read original essays on subjects connected with the course.

 

Source: Catalogue of the Corporation, Officers and Students in the Departments of Medicine, Arts and Sciences, in the University of Michigan 1852-53 (Detroit, 1853), pp. 13, 23-26, 28, 30.

Image Source: Web transcription of Elizabeth S. Adams,  “Henry Philip Tappan Administration” in The University of Michigan, An Encyclopedic Survey in Four Volumes, Wilfred B. Shaw, editor, Volume 1, Part 1 (Ann Arbor, 1942),  pp.  39-52.

Categories
Michigan

Michigan. Economics within Political Sciences, 1843-1910

 

The Department of Economics at the University of Michigan emerged from the interdisciplinary pool of “Political Science” at the start of the twentieth century. The idea of a school of political science following a German model was quite like that of the Columbia Faculty of Political Science that was established ten months before the University of Michigan program (June 1881). Another account of the history of the Michigan economics department that goes forward to 1940 has been posted earlier. 

Political Science at the University of Michigan
[up to 1910]

In February, 1910, the Regents of The University of Michigan authorized Acting President Harry B. Hutchins to recommend a candidate for Professor of Political Science. The duties of the first Professor of Political Science at the University would be to give the courses previously taught by Dr. James B. Angell and to relieve the History Department of its instruction in the field of government. In April of that year, Jesse S. Reeves, assistant professor of political science at Dartmouth College, was appointed to this position.

Thus in September, 1910, the Department of Political Science was formally established as such at The University of Michigan. In its first school year the Department offered American Government (federal, state, and local), Municipal Government, Public International Law and History of American Diplomacy, plus a seminar in the History of Political Theory. During the year a total of 250 registrations were recorded.

Although the formal beginning of the Political Science Department occurred in 1910, the teaching of political science seems to have anticipated Regental action by as much as fifty years. The course of study in philosophy, as announced in the Catalog of 1843-44, was divided into three parts: (1) language and literature, (2) mathematics and physics, and (3) intellectual and moral science. Instruction in political science was included within intellectual and moral science. Professor Edward Thomson, later president of Ohio Wesleyan University, listed among the texts for his courses: Wayland’s Political Grammar and Political Economy and Story’s Commentaries on The Constitution. However, it appears that these studies were not continued and a return to them awaited the stimulus provided by President Henry Philip Tappan in 1852.

Under President Tappan interest in the general area of the social sciences was revitalized. This was due in part to his high educational ideals and broad intellectual interests and in part to his establishment of the university course. In his plan for a university or graduate course, President Tappan had made provision for twenty areas of study, two of which would be included in our present concept of political science: (1) history and political economy, and (2) the law of nature, the law of nations, and constitutional law.

The University System

Not only was Tappan a man of distinction as a scholar and a teacher, but he drew others with comparable qualities to the faculty. One of these was Andrew Dickson White who, when he was appointed in 1857, brought with him a manner of teaching which was new to the American college campus. Rather than using daily recitations, he introduced the lecture system and gave his students an introduction to historical criticism and original investigation. Through White’s concept of history the way was prepared for later emphasis on political studies.

Catalogs from the sixties stated that the effort of the History Department was threefold: (1) a review of general history; (2) an insight into the philosophy of history; and (3) a foundation for a thorough study of the political and constitutional history of our own country.

Instruction in the field of political science, as such, officially began in 1860, when the Regents voted to require the resident law professor to deliver a course of lectures on Constitutional Law and History to the senior class of the Academic Department. In 1861, Professor, later Judge, Thomas McIntyre Cooley began these lectures which were continued until 1865.

With the termination of Professor Cooley’s lectures, instruction in government was placed solely in the hands of the History Department. Professor Charles Kendall Adams, a graduate of Michigan, offered lectures on the Government of Great Britain, the Governments of Continental Europe, and the Political History of the United States.

In 1867 Professor Adams became chairman of the History Department, succeeding Andrew D. White. At this time the seniors were receiving, during the second semester, lectures on the Characteristics of the Constitution of the United States and the Growth of Liberty in England. In 1871-72, this course, given to seniors, was made an elective and extended to the length of a school year. The Catalog of that year explained that the course covered three subjects: growth of parliamentary government in England; constitutional history of the United States; and constitutional characteristics of the principal governments of Europe. Later the program provided English Constitutional History and American Constitutional History, both one semester courses.

In 1870, while Professor Henry S. Frieze was serving as Acting President, the library facilities in the field of political science were greatly enhanced by a gift, which was the first important addition made to the University library by a private donor. Philo Parsons, Esq., of Detroit, purchased for the University the library of Professor Karl Heinrich Rau of Heidelberg. It consisted of about 4,000 volumes and 5,000 pamphlets dealing with the science of government, political economy and related subjects. Mr. Parsons also volunteered to fill out important sets of books and periodicals that were found to be incomplete. This gift proved to be one of the major justifications for the subsequent establishment of a separate School of Political Science.

With the coming of President James B. Angell to the University in 1871, and due to his active interest in public and international affairs, a course in International Law was added to the curriculum. He himself taught it and at this time emphasized to the Regents the need for more extensive work in the “political sciences.” Later he also offered a course in Political Economy.

Seminar Instruction

President Angell, in his report of 1871-72, gave the first printed account of the seminar method of instruction which had been introduced by Adams. Shortly after this time, the same system was introduced at Harvard and other American universities. Adams patterned the seminar after the German method of instruction which he had observed during a visit to that country the previous year. During the second semester the seminar group, which was open to seniors and graduate students, studied the constitutional history of the United States and also dealt with the fundamental principles of political philosophy through the means of a comparative study of ancient and modern political constitutions.

Under the direction of Adams, the History Department developed and the curriculum was enlarged. Among the new courses offered were: Political Institutions, English and American Constitutional History, and Comparative European Government. President Angell added another course, History of Treaties, which with International Law, he continued to teach until 1910.

During his administration as president, Dr. Angell was called by the government to serve as Minister to the Ottoman Empire and to China. While President Angell was absent as Minister to China, action was taken by the Regents in June, 1881, to organize a School of Political Science within the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Although a similar school had been organized at Columbia ten months earlier, Michigan’s was the first in the West. The University Catalog stated “the aim of the School is to afford exceptional opportunities for students interested in public questions to specialize in History, Political Economy, International Law, and kindred subjects under guidance of their instructors.” On October 3, 1881, the new School opened with Professor Charles K. Adams as dean. Its faculty of seven included: President James B. Angell (Dr. Henry Carter Adams served in his absence), Professor Thomas M. Cooley, Professor Charles K. Adams, Assistant Professor Richard Hudson, Professor Edward S. Dunster, Assistant Professor Victor C. Vaughan, and Assistant Professor Volney M. Spalding.

The address Dean C. K. Adams delivered at the official opening presented a case for the advantages which their instruction in political science had brought to the practice of European governments. He proceeded to dispose of the argument that American political institutions were superior to those of Europe and that, therefore, America had no need of political science. The argument was revealing in its exclusive emphasis upon the practical benefits to be expected. He pointed out the areas which political science could help to improve and then summed up by saying:

It is for the purpose of aiding in the several directions that have been hinted at, and in others that would be mentioned if there were time, that the School of Political Science in the University of Michigan has been established. It finds its justification where the other schools of the University find theirs: in the good of the people and the welfare of the State.

Professor Hans J. Morgenthau in his “Reflections on the State of Political Science,” has noted Dean Adam’s address as illuminating in its outline of the purpose of political science and has commented that its growth was a response to the needs of the day. Professor Morgenthau wrote:

The first departments of political science in this country, then, did not grow organically from a general conception as to what was covered by the field of political science, nor did they respond to a strongly felt intellectual need. Rather they tried to satisfy practical demands, which other academic disciplines refused to meet. For instance, in that period the law schools would not deal with public law. It was felt that somebody ought to deal with it, and thus it was made part of political science. There was a demand for instruction in journalism, but there was no place for it to be taught; thus it was made part of political science. There was a local demand for guidance in certain aspects of municipal administration; and thus a course in that subject was made part of the curriculum of political science.

In other words, political science grew not by virtue of an intellectual principle germane to the field, but in response to pressures from the outside. What could not be defined in terms of a traditional academic discipline was defined as political science. This inorganic growth and haphazard character of political science is strikingly reflected in the curricula of the early departments of political science, such as those of Michigan, Columbia, and Harvard.

In 1881-82

In the 1881-82 Catalog, seven subject areas were listed in the political science program: history, political economy, international law, sanitary science, rights, social science, and forestry. Dean Adams stated in 1882 that he thought this was the first time that the courses in Rights and Forestry had been offered in any university. It was intended that the course content and the method of instruction would be the same as those offered in the schools of political science at Paris, Leipzig, Tubingen and Vienna. H. B. Adams remarked “the courses were not required as at Columbia, and the plan was like the elective system of German universities.”

In his The Relations of Political Science to National Prosperity, Dean Charles K. Adams outlined the program:

A prominent place was to be given to studies in history, such as general history, history of political institutions, recent political history of Europe, and the political and constitutional history of England and of the United States. Courses in political economy were also included in the program. “Social Science” was to deal with crime prevention and public welfare service. A course in Political Ethics was also outlined to furnish the proper basis for judging the relations of the individual to the state, as well as of nation to nation. Allied to this and crowning the whole were to be courses on: The Idea of the State; Nature of Individual, Social and Political Rights; History of Political Ideas; Government of Cities; Theories and Methods of Taxation; Comparative Constitutional Law; Comparative Administrative Law; Theories of International Law; and History of Modern Diplomacy.

School of Political Science

Students to be admitted to the new School must have completed two years of study in the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts—sixty hours—including all the work for the first two years of the program prescribed for a bachelor’s degree. Students from other institutions who had done an equivalent amount of work were also accepted as candidates. Although the new School was organized under the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts, it was not limited to undergraduate study. All degree candidates were required to write examinations at the close of each semester; also, they were to appear before a committee of the faculty to present and defend a thesis showing evidence of original research and, finally, pass an examination in three areas of study, a major and two minors. A student who completed all these requirements was recommended for a Doctor of Philosophy degree. No specification was made in regard to time except that no one would be recommended in less than three years after enrollment in the School. A year later, in 1882-83, provision was made for obtaining bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

The new School was successful in developing interest in its program. The first year a total of 889 registrations were listed in the nineteen courses offered—481 during the first semester and 408 the second.

In 1882, the library received another sizeable gift which furthered the study of political science. Mr. J. J. Hagerman of Colorado Springs gave the University 2,000 volumes, including works on political and constitutional history and methods of local government in Europe and America, plus a collection of great serial publications. The following year Cooley offered a course on Comparative Administrative Law with special emphasis on local government, using these materials.

Under the leadership of Angell, Adams and Cooley, the School of Political Science attracted considerable attention, both in the United States and in Europe. During those years Michigan shared with Columbia and Johns Hopkins pre-eminence among the universities of the United States for training in the field of political science—a pre-eminence that was to lapse before blossoming again.

Electives

The University System of study, which had been an integral part of the School of Political Science, survived the School by a number of years. Immediately upon establishment, the School pointed the way to a freedom of study, permitting greater concentration with large concessions to the student’s choice, both of subjects and methods. Various faculty members began to argue that areas other than political science should be accorded these advantages. There was the feeling that this system was an approach to the German universities with their distinction between preparatory and graduate or genuine university work. Within this plan of study the student would be granted a bachelor of arts degree if his examination at the end of four years proved to be satisfactory. The student might be granted a master of arts degree if he wrote a brilliant examination and presented a meritorious thesis. Making the distinction between a “satisfactory” and a “brilliant” examination was, of course, the source of some of the difficulties that arose.

From the outset, the School progressed and appeared promising; however, its position as a graduate school with its own dean, organized within the framework of an undergraduate school, was indeed awkward. Faculty members of the School of Political Science were also serving in other departments of the University, and the establishment of the School necessitated a revision of the prevailing rules regarding doctor’s degrees. Conditions, it was said, “produced numerous conflicts and misunderstandings and various exhibitions of human nature in its less endearing forms.”

In spite of the administrative difficulties, the School continued until 1887-88. The Catalog for that year noted: “Since the establishment, in 1881, of the School of Political Science, experience has shown that, under the flexible elective system now in force in this Department, instruction in the studies peculiar to such a school may be provided without maintaining any sharply defined independent organization.”

An announcement in the Catalog the following year read: “It has been found unnecessary to retain an independent School of Political Science, under the form of organization described in the calendars of previous years.”

In addition to the above mentioned difficulties, there had been other circumstances that contributed to the disappearance of the School. C. K. Adams resigned in 1885 to accept the presidency of Cornell. T. M. Cooley succeeded him as dean; however, he also left the University in 1887 to become chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission when it was established during that year. It seems that no one on the faculty was interested in accepting responsibility for carrying on the School after that time.

The feeling seemed to be that the plan for a School of Political Science was premature; however, this did not halt the teaching of many of the subjects under the prior purview of the former School. The history courses continued to be predominantly constitutional. Semester courses in International Law and the History of Treaties were still taught by President Angell. The changing of some titles to include “institutions” was the chief difference in the next few years.

Instruction in Constitutional Law and Political History of the United States was started by McLaughlin in 1891 and continued beyond 1900. This was also the period when Comparative Constitutional Law, as taught by Richard Hudson, was introduced to the Michigan campus.

In 1892, Fred M. Taylor and Charles Horton Cooley came to the University to instruct in the field of political economy. Encouraged by H. C. Adams, Cooley offered courses in sociology which were so successful that in 1895-96 the name of the Department was changed to Political Economy and Sociology.

During the following years another notable man gave instruction in the field of political science. John Dewey, who had come to the University to work in philosophy and psychology, gradually turned his psychology courses over to his younger colleagues and interested himself in ethical and social problems. He offered courses in the Theory and Institutions of Social Organization, Special Studies in the History of Political Philosophy (topic changed each year). Movements of Thought in the Nineteenth Century, and Political Philosophy or Ethics of Human Relations.

In 1896-97, a new course was added to the program by Hudson—first semester, Municipal Government in Great Britain and second semester. Municipal Government in Continental Europe.

With the disappearance of the University System which President Tappan had instituted in 1852, instruction in the subjects of political science was taken over by the History Department. In spite of this relegation, political science was consistently receiving more attention. In 1900, the history courses were officially announced under two topics: history and government. At this time the work of government was placed under the direction of John A. Fairlie, who was then appointed Professor of Administrative Law. He gave instruction in Municipal Administration, while courses in American Constitutional Law and Political Institutions were taught by Andrew Cunningham McLaughlin. In addition to these Undergraduate Studies graduate research courses in these fields were also given.

The ten years prior to the establishment of the present Political Science Department witnessed an ever increasing amount of activity which portended the final separation of the master discipline. Some of the more outstanding activities were: 1900-01, the formation of a Political Science Club; 1902-09, the evolution of Political Economy, Industry, Commerce and Sociology as a separate department; 1909-10, a further change in departmental title to Political Economy and Sociology.

[…]

Source: Gerald Eitig Faye,  Political Science at the University of Michigan 1910-1960 (Ann Arbor, Michigan: 1960?).

Image Source: “Who Was James Angell” by James Tobin [not the Yale economist!] in Michigan Today, July 29, 2013.

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Regulation of Public Utilities and Transportation. Chamberlin, 1939-40

 

This is the third industrial organization/regulation semester course offered at Harvard in the immediate pre-WWII era. Syllabi and other material have previously been posted for E. S. Mason and P. Sweezy’s “The Corporation and its Regulation” and Mason’s “Industrial Organization and Control”. Edward H. Chamberlin’s teaching portfolio at Harvard included transportation economics from 1931. Here the focus is on regulation of natural monopolies such as public utilities and railroads.

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Course Description, 1940-41

[Economics 63b 2hf. Public Utilities (including Transportation).] Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 12. Professor Chamberlin.
Omitted in 1940-41; to be given in 1941-42.

The regulation of the public utility and transportation industries as a phase of the control over economic activity exercised by the modern state. Rates, service, earnings, efficiency, financial practices, holding companies and consolidations, coordination, national planning, government competition with private enterprise, and public ownership.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics Containing an Announcement for 1940-41, Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940), p. 57.

______________________

Enrollment 1939-40

[Economics] 63b 2hf. Professor Chamberlin.—Public Utilities (including Transportation).

Total 90: 1 Graduate, 43 Seniors, 34 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 7 Other.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1939-40, p. 99.

______________________

Economics 63b
1939-40

Reading List

Principal books used:

D. P. Locklin, Economics of Transportation (revised ed.)
Mosher & Crawford, Public Utility Regulation
Wilfred Owen, Highway Economics
G. L. Wilson, [J. M.] Herring, [R. B.] Eutsler, Public Utility Regulation

 

Week

Assignment

1

 Development of railroad transportation and regulation to 1920 Locklin, Chs. 1-5, 9, 10

2

 Theory of railroad rates — competition and control Locklin, Chs. 7, 14

3

 Particular rates, discrimination: railroads Locklin, Chs. 6, 8, 20

4

 Particular rates, discrimination: utilities Mosher & Crawford, Introduction and Chs. 17-21

5

 Legal and economic criteria for public utilities
Commissions, legislatures and courts		 Mosher & Crawford, Ch. 1
Mosher & Crawford, Chs. 2-6
Locklin, Ch. 13

6

 Railroad consolidation Locklin, Ch. 11
Jones, Principles of Railway Transportation, Ch. 17
Locklin, Ch. 19, pp. 315-21, 643-42

7

 Railroad consolidation, financial regulation
(Hour examination, Thursday, March 21)		 Locklin, Chs. 12, 25, 26

8

 Public Utility Holding Company
National Power Policy		 Wilson, et al. Ch. 11; pp. 310-319, Chs. 15, 16

Vacation

9

 Control of investment, general rate level, earnings Mosher & Crawford, Ch. 7
Locklin, Chs. 15-18

10

 Control of investment (continued)
Highway transport		 Mosher & Crawford, Chs. 8, 9, 16
Owen, whole essay

11

 Highway, water and air transport; coordination Locklin, Chs. 33, 34, 31, 35, 36

12

 Public ownership Locklin, Ch. 29
Mosher & Crawford, Chs. 32-34 and Conclusion

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950 (UAV.349.10). Box 23, Folder “Course outlines 1935-37-38-42”.

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Reading Period Assignment

Economics 63b: Read one of the following:

  1. First Report of the Federal Coördinator of Transportation, pp. 1-37.
    Fourth Report of the Federal Coördinator of Transportation, pp. 1-60.
    Report—Immediate Relief for Railroads (April, 1938), 19-71 (75th Congress, 3rd Session, House Doc. No. 583).
    Report of Committee Appointed by the President—Recommendations upon the General Transportation Situation (Dec., 1938), pp. 3-64 (Committee on Public Relations of Eastern Railroads).
  2. S. Daggett, Principles of Inland Transportation (revised edition). Chs. 36-37 [3rd edition, 1941].
    Three articles by H. E. Dougall on French Railways in Journal of Political Economy, June, 1933; June, 1934; April, 1938.
    Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science. January, 1939, pp. 185-226.
  3. A. L. Gordon, The Public Corporation in Great Britain, Chs. 1, 3, 4, 6.
  4. Bauer and Gold, Public Utility Valuation for Purposes of Rate Control, pp. 155-362.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder “1939-40 (1 of 2)”.

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1939—1940
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 63b2

Write on FIVE questions, including numbers 1 and 6.*

  1. According to what principles do you believe the level of earnings of railroads and utilities should be regulated? Discuss the chief problems arising out of applying your principles to the situation as you find it in the United States.
  2. Contrast and evaluate the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 and the Tennessee Valley Authority as alternative methods of public utility regulation.
  3. What various solutions have been proposed for the strong and weak road problem? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.
  4. Discuss the possibilities and limitations of reducing the cost of railroad transportation (a) through consolidation or coordination without government ownership; (b) through government ownership.
  5. Do you believe this country should subsidize directly or indirectly any means of transportation? If so, what means, to what extent and why? If not, why not?
  6. Answer the question corresponding to your reading period choice:
    1. (Coördinator’s and other reports) which of the recommendations in the several reports assigned would you consider most relevant to the transportation problem as it appears in 1940? Indicate your own evaluation of them.
    2. (Foreign railways) Contrast the French rate-making scheme set up by the Convention of 1921 with the rate-making arrangement prevailing in the United States after 1920. How do you account for the differences?
    3. (Gordon) “More than any other existing institution in Great Britain, the Central Electricity Board has faced and met a task of economic rationalization on a national scale.” What were the factors which led to a demand for rationalization and how was this rationalization accomplished?
    4. (Bauer and Gold) Discuss any two or three of the chief issues raised by your reading in Bauer and Gold relative to valuation for rate making purposes.

*If you prefer, instead of answering specific questions, you may write a three hour essay describing what you consider to be the chief problems confronting the railroad and utility industries in the United States today and outlining (and defending) a program of legislation to meet them.

Final. 1940.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28) Box 5. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions,…Economics,…,Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1940.

Image Source: Edward H. Chamberlin from Harvard Class Album 1946.

 

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Curator's Favorites ERVM

ERVM. Curator’s Favorites. Third in the Series

 

 

The newest addition to the series of Curator’s Favorites is the fully-linked list of 18 Popular Economic Tracts from 1880-1891 published by the Society for Political Education.

The second item in the series of Curator’s Favorites is the list of reading assignments extracted from Frank W. Fetter’s student notes from 1923-24 when he took Frank W. Taussig’s course “Economics 11”, Economic Theory. This list too has links to the individual items on the reading list.

The first of the series of Curator’s Favorites is the list of items “Recommended Teacher’s Library of Economics” put together by J. Laurence Laughlin and published in 1887. 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Syllabus and Final Exam for Industrial Organization and Control. Edward S. Mason, 1939-40

 

Following the first term course Economics 61a (The Corporation and its Regulation) that he co-taught with Paul Sweezy, Edward S. Mason taught the following term course Economics 62b (Industrial Organization and Control) that was focussed on market structures and antitrust policies.

Besides being the co-director for the Department of Labor’s studies for the Temporary National Economic Committee (The Online Books Page provides links to TNEC publications), during the immediate period before the U.S. entered WWII he was a consultant  for raw material problems for the Office of Production Management. In 1941 he joined the Office of Strategic Services where he served as the deputy director of the Research and Analysis Branch. This and some of his following government service is discussed in his Oral History Interview  at the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum.

Fun Fact:  John F. Kennedy took this course in the second semester of his senior year (1940).

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Course Description, 1940-41

Economics 62b 2hf. Industrial Organization and Control. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Mason.
Economics 61a is a prerequisite for this course.

This course deals with the nature of monopolistic and competitive markets, the economic problems of large scale enterprises and combinations, the trust problem, and trust policy. Particular attention will be paid to recent changes in our system of industrial control.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics Containing an Announcement for 1940-41, Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940), p. 57.

______________________

Enrollment 1939-40

[Economics] 62b 2hf. Professor Mason.—Industrial Organization and Control.

Total 95: 1 Graduate, 20 Seniors, 53 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 8 Other.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1939-40, p. 99.

 

______________________

Economics 62b
1939-40

Industrial Organization and Control
Outline and Assignments

 

Week of

 Lectures

Assignment

I
THE ECONOMICS OF THE FIRM

1. Feb. 5-10

 1. Outline of field.
2. The decline of competition?
3. The problem of monopoly in law and economics.		 Burns, Chs. 1, 9.

2. Feb. 12-17

 1. The market position of the individual firm.
2. Costs and rate of output.
3. The relation of size to costs.		 Hamilton, pp. 320-88, 395-429, 449-500.

3. Feb. 19-24

 1. The flexibility of costs.
2. Vacation.
3. Section.		 Structure of the American Economy, Chs. 7, 8.

II
TYPES OF INDUSTRIAL MARKETS

4. Feb. 26-March 2

 1. Cotton textiles.
2. [continued]
3. The problem of excess capacity.		 Whitney, Chs. 2, 3.

5. March 4-9

 1. Price discrimination.
2. Bsing point systems and other types of geographical price discrimination.
3. [continued]		 Burns, Chs. 6, 7.

6. March 11-16

 1. Markets in which sellers are few, agricultural implements.
2. Automobiles.
3. Examination.		 Burns, Chs. 3, 4.

7. March 18-23

 1. Aluminum.
2. Construction industries.
3. [continued]		 Burns, Ch. 5.
Price Research in Steel and Petroleum, Part II.

8. March 20-25

 1. Competition between channels of distribution.
2. Non-price competition.
3. Section.		 Burns, Ch. 8.
Cassels, Q.J.E.
Chain Stores—Final Report, pp. 23-49.

Vacation

III
GOVERNMENT REGULATION

9.   April 8-13

 1. The anti-trust acts.
2. Mergers and restraints of competition.
3. Robinson-Patman Act.		 Seager & Gulick, Chs. 17-20.

10. April 15-20

 1. Federal Trade Commission.
2. Problem of unfair practices.
3. Bituminous Coal Commission.		 Seager & Gulick, Chs. 21-23.

11. April 22-27

 1. N.R.A.
2. N.R.A.
3. Section		 National Recovery Administration, Chs. 20-24.

12. April 29-May 4

 1. Fair trade legislation.
2. Issues in the Monopoly
3. Present status of the monopoly problem.		 National Recovery Administration, Chs. 25-30.

 

Titles of books assigned.

A. R. Burns, The Decline of Competition.
Seager and Gulick, Trust and Corporation Problems.
W. Hamilton, Price and Price Policies.
Lyon and others, The National Recovery Administration.
S. Whitney, Trade Associations and Industrial Control.
J. M. Cassels, “The Marketing Machinery in the United States,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1936.
Federal Trade Commission, Final Report on Chain Store Investigation, Senate Document No. 4, 74th Congress, 1st Session.
National Resources Committee, The Structure of the American Economy.
National Bureau of Economic Research, Price Research in the Steel and Petroleum Industries.

Reading period assignment to be announced.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder “1939-40 (2 of 2)”.

______________________

Reading Period Assignment

Economics 62b: Read one of the following:

  1. Lloyd Reynolds, The Control of Competition in Canada.
  2. National Bureau of Economic Research, Textile Markets.
  3. B. Gaskill, The Regulation of Competition.
  4. Pribram, Cartell Problems.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder “1939-40 (1 of 2)”.

______________________

Course Final Exam

1939—1940
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 62b2

I
About 45 minutes

  1. Write a critical appraisal of the book you read for the reading period assignment.

II
Answer both questions

  1. Do you think that the use of a basing-point system of price quoting in the iron and steel industry eliminates price competition? Discuss.
  2. How would you explain the fact that in the middle of the 1920’s competition in the automobile industry noticeably shifted from an emphasis on price to an emphasis on non-price factors?

III
Answer all questions

  1. The Robinson-Patman Act is “an anti-competition statute slipped into the anti-trust laws.” Discuss.
  2. Do you think that, as the Courts have interpreted the anti-trust acts, a different standard of legality has been applied to “integrated” than to “loose” combinations? Discuss.
  3. Assuming that the preservation of competition is a desirable objective, what do you consider to be the largest gaps in our anti-trust legislation?

Final. 1940.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28) Box 5. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions,…Economics,…,Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1940.

Image Source: Webpage “Oral History Interview with Edward S. Mason. Harry S. Truman Library & Museum. Portrait of Edward S. Mason.

Categories
Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Corporation and its Regulation. Syllabus and readings. Mason and P. Sweezy, 1939-40

 

The teaching duo of Edward S. Mason and Paul M. Sweezy taught a popular course on the theories of socialism at Harvard as well as the course of today’s posting that provides the syllabus and reading assignment for a one semester course on corporations. Also two problem sets discussed in the recitation sections were found filed with the course outline and are transcribed below. 

This course was a prerequisite for Mason’s second term course “Industrial Organization and Control”.

______________________

Course Description, 1940-41

Economics 61a 1hf. The Corporation and its Regulation. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Mason and Dr. P. M. Sweezy.

This course deals with the development of the modern business corporation, and corporate accounting, and financial practices. Particular attention will be paid to the internal organization of the corporations including the relation between security owners and management. State and Federal regulation of incorporation and security issue and the nature of the government corporation will form a part of the course.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics Containing an Announcement for 1940-41, Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940), pp. 56-57.

______________________

Enrollment 1939-40

[Economics] 61a 1hf. Professor Mason and Dr. P. M. Sweezy.—The Corporation and its Regulation.
Total 169: 2 Graduates, 51 Seniors, 84 Juniors, 19 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 11 Other.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1939-40, p. 99.

______________________

Economics 61a
1939-40

Outline

 

Date Lecture Subjects Reading
Sept. 27-30 Introduction
History of the Corporation		 C. C. Abbott, “The Rise of the Business Corporation” [Ann Arbor, 1936]
Oct. 1-7 History of the Corporation
Capital and Capitalization
Financial Problems		 Dewing I: 2-4
Oct. 8-14 Valuation and Depreciation
Valuation and Depreciation
Section		 Dewing III:1-4,   IV:3-5
Oct. 15-21 Corporate Reorganization
Case Studies in Corporate Reorganization		 Dewing IV:7-8, VI: 1-2
Oct. 22-28 Ownership, Management, and Control
Case studies of individual companies
Section		 Berle and Means I:1-6, II: 5-6
Oct. 29-Nov. 4 The Economics of the Firm
Size and Efficiency
Examination		 Clark, “Economics of Overhead Costs” Chs. 4,6;
[Henry] Dennison, Management in
[Recent Economic Changes in the United States, New York, 1929], Vol. 2
Nov. 5-11 Management Problems
Corporation and the Theory of Profits
Section		 Knight “Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit” Chs. 7, 9, 12
Nov. 12-18 The Corporation and Private Property
Case Study
Corporate Concentration of Economic Control		 Berle and Means IV:1-4;
Structure of the American Economy, Chs. 7,9; Appendices 9-13
Nov. 20-26 The Stock Market
Sale of New Securities
Ownership of Securities		 20th Century Fund “The Security Markets” Chs. VIII, IX, XI, XIII
Nov. 27-Dec. 3 Ownership of Securities
Holiday
Section Meeting		 “The Security Markets” Chs. III, IV, VI
Dec. 4-10 Institutional Investment
Development of Corporation Law
Development of Corporation Law		 Berle and Means, Book II
Dec. 11-17 The Securities Act and the Securities and Exchange Commission
The Government Corporation		 4th Annual Report of the Securities and Exchange Commission
J. H. Thurston “Government Proprietary Corporations” Chs. I, VI

 

Economics 61a
Section Meeting
Oct. 13-14, 1939

  1. Discuss the significant differences between the modes of raising capital of the following firms, as indicated by their capital stock and funded debt:
    1. United States Steel Corporation (1934)

Common Stock

$870,000,000

Preferred Stock

360,000,000

Surplus

520,000,000

Bonds guaranteed by U.S.S.C.

50,000,000

Not guaranteed

40,000,000

Purchase Money Obligations

16,000,000

$1,856,000,000
  1. International Harvester Company (1937)

Common Stock

$170,000,000

Preferred stock

82,000,000

Surplus

75,000,000

$327,000,000
  1. Associated Gas and Electric Company (1937)

Capital Stock and Surplus

$148,000,000

Minority Interest

94,000,000

Convertible Bonds

49,000,000

Other Funded Debt

598,000,000

$889,000,000
  1. New York Central Railroad Company (1937)

Capital Stock

$562,000,000

Surplus

204,000,000

Equipment Obligations

31,000,000

Mortgage Bonds

513,000,000

Debenture Bonds

5,500,000

Collateral Trust Bonds

90,000,000

$1,405,500,000
  1. Discuss the influence of dividend policy on the interests of the following types of shareholder:
    1. Common stock.
    2. Non-participating, non-cumulative preferred.
    3. Non-participating, cumulative preferred.
    4. Participating, non-cumulative preferred.
    5. Participating, cumulative preferred.
    6. Debenture bond.
  2. Until about 1930 the courts generally held that non-cumulative preferred shareholders had a claim against the company for dividends equal to the stated percentage in their shares provided such dividends had been earned but not declared. Does this mean, in effect, that no company could really issue non-cumulative preferred stock prior to 1930? Can you see any reason why the courts should take such a stand?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder “1939-40 (2 of 2)”.

______________________

Reading Period Assignment
Jan. 4-17, 1940

Economics 61a: Read one of the following:

  1. Kennedy, E. D., Dividends to Pay.
  2. Flynn, J. T., Security Speculation
  3. Gordon, Lincoln, The Public Corporation in Great Britain.
  4. Crum, W. L., Corporate Size and Earning Power.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 2, Folder “1939-40 (1 of 2)”.

Image Source: Edward S. Mason and Paul Sweezy from Harvard College Class Album 1937.

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Alumnus (A.B., Ph.D.) Professor Seymour Edwin Harris, 1945 and 1970

 

The Silver and Gold Anniversary Class Reunions (25th and 50th, respectively) of Harvard College publish reports sent by class members to the class secretary. For answering the question, whatever happened to X, Class of ‘YY, these class reunion volumes can be useful. While it is not hard to discover what happened to Seymour Harris, a member of the Harvard Class of 1920 who went on to become a professor of economics at Harvard, the personal notes from this Harvard man, crimson to the bone, provide us a glimpse at least of how he wanted himself to be viewed by his former classmates..

_____________________

SEYMOUR EDWIN HARRIS
[1945]

Home Address: Four Winds Farm, West Acton, Mass.
Office Address: Room 234, Littauer Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Born: Sept. 8, 1897, New York, N.Y. Parents: Henry Harris, Augusta Kulick.
Prepared at: Morris High School, New York, N.Y.
Years in College: 1918-1920. Degrees: A.B. cum laude, 1920; Ph.D., 1926.
Married: Ruth Black, Sept. 3, 1923, Honesdale, Pa.
Occupation: Professor of economics, Harvard University.
Military or Naval Record: Harvard Unit, Students’ Army Training Corps, 1918.
Wartime Government Posts: Director, Office of Export-Import Price Control; member, Policy Committee of Board of Economic Warfare; member, Secretary of State’s Committee on Post-War Economic Policy; adviser on Price Control and Stabilization to several Latin American governments; economic adviser to vice-chairman, War Production Board.
Offices held: Managing Editor, Review of Economic Statistics.
Member of: Harvard Faculty Club.
Publications: Thirteen volumes in economics; Twenty Years of Federal Reserve Policy; Post-War Economic Problems; Economics of America at War; Price and Related Controls in American Economy; Economic Problems of Latin America; Inflation in War and Post-War.

SEYMOUR HARRIS gives us a reading time of five minutes for the following account: “We—my wife and I—live twenty-five miles outside of Boston. We have a 40-acre farm and an old colonial house. This offers a much-needed escape from Cambridge, as the latter in turn is an escape from wartime Washington. I wish that I could say that we were doing a good job on the farm. Actually, help is not available, and the amount of time to be squeezed out these days for its care is limited. Our only farming this year has been a 7000-foot vegetable garden, one spraying of our two apple orchards, and frequent encounters with millions of ants, potato bugs, skunks, bats, crickets, etc.

“My working hours are divided among the following: teaching, writing, editing, and war work for the government. The last is the most maddening and the most interesting—also the most futile, tiring, and exasperating, yet rewarding. The newsworthy fact is not that so little, but that so much is accomplished in Washington. In retrospect this is hard to understand, for the se-up is such that progress would seem impossible. Yet we have increased our national income by 125 per cent, put eleven millions into the armed services, and produced war goods twice the value of our whole national income in 1932. Tens of thousands of little bureaucrats (including the writer) and tens of thousands of ingenious business men and millions of loyal workers have achieved what to most experts seemed to be the impossible in 1940. We have produced the mightiest war machine and the highest standard of living in our modern civilization. Our number one economic problem of the post-war is to do an equally effective production and distribution job. Upon our success or failure rests the future of private enterprise.

“Writing has become a habit with me—a drug, if you will. I have written (had printed) at least two million words. As I look back, I am surprised that I have had the patience to write so much. As I look forward, I am impatient to write even more. I can scarcely wait to finish a book so that I can start another. At present one is in page proof, another is in press, a third is about to go to press, a fourth is being planned. I ask myself why. It is certainly not because I hold that the world is waiting for my pontificalia. In fact, I often wonder if books are ever read. But the publishers seem to find printing books profitable, and they have sold 6,000 to 7,000 copies of at least one book of mine—practically a best-seller for technical books. Perhaps a slight contribution to the world’s knowledge is made, and it is hoped that in some manner or other we do have a very small effect on public policy.

“My wife, who has always given me editorial and proofreading assistance, does her best to discourage me—perhaps in self-defense. But there is as little hope for me as for the alcoholic, cures of which, I am told, are less than ten per cent. So long as paper and pencil are to be found my energies will go into writing, and so long as Scotch is available, the alcoholic will go after it. A psychiatrist might cure me, but I shall not give him a chance. The cure would leave me with little to do.

“My views are not always orthodox. Even the Saturday Evening Post has editorialized against some of my unacceptable (to them) views. To state them: I would like to see a revival of capitalism. I am not sure that private enterprise can carry the ball. But we should give it the best possible milieu. Several years in government work have convinced me more than ever that regimentation is not for the American people. And the bureaucrat soon learns to hate controls even more than those whom he subjects to controls. I hope that we can have a minimum of government participation in our economic life. Yet I fear that unplanned capitalism will not work. Can we have a society half capitalistic and half socialistic? Here is hoping that the thirties were not so significant as many of us fear.

“Lest you conclude that I work and farm and that’s all, let me add that I like to play tennis, golf, and especially to ski. I learned how to ski at forty, when I took an enforced vacation. I ski cautiously as old men must, but I manage to ski everything and so far with few bad spills. I have covered as much as thirty miles downhill in one day—riding up, of course.

“All this proves once more that I write too much. I want to conclude by saying that I have had one good break—a fine wife.

“And here are an additional 1,000 words—writing time thirty minutes, reading time five minutes. I shall not read what I have written, for if I do, I shall never send it.”

Source:  Harvard Class of 1920. Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report (Cambridge, 1945), pp. 337-339.

_____________________

SEYMOUR HARRIS
[1970]

SEYMOUR HARRIS was born September 8, 1897, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Henry and August (Kulick) Harris. He prepared at Morris High School, New York City, and at Harvard received an A.B., cum laude, in 1920 and a Ph.D. in 1926. From Monmouth College in 1961 he received an LL.D. In Honesdale, Pennsylvania, on September 3, 1923, he married Ruth Black, who died September 9, 1965. In Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 27, 1968, he married Dorothy Heron. He reports the following offices held, honors and awards: member of executive board and vice-president, American Economic Association; David A. Wells Prize, Harvard; Alexander Hamilton award, U. S. Treasury, 1968; Gold Medal for contribution to New England Economy; joint winner, Post War Plan for Greater Boston. His publications include: fifty books, the latest, The Economics of Harvard, 800 pages (in press); and edited the McGraw-Hill Economic Handbook Series. A college professor and writer, and a professor at Harvard for forty-three years he writes:

“I am finishing my fiftieth year of teaching—two years at Princeton, forty-three at Harvard, and five years at the University of California, San Diego. Am now Littauer Professor, Political Economy, emeritus, Harvard (since 1946).

“I have been an editor of four journals, including twenty years as editor of the Harvard Review of Economics and Statistics.

“I served on eight committees at Harvard, inclusive of General Education, Athletics, and Fringe Benefits.

“Over a period of thirty years I served on twenty-three committees or departments of the U.S. government, including chief advisor of the secretary of the treasury, 1961-68, and testified and wrote statements for about fifty congressional committees; was an advisor to three Massachusetts governors, and to the Conference of New England Governors.

“I was an advisor of President Kennedy and also Governor Stevenson in three presidential campaigns.

“I have also served as president of the Harvard Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

“Upon the occasion of my retirement from Harvard in December 1963, letters of congratulation and commendation were received from a number of eminent men, including, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Adlai E. Stevenson, United States Representative to the United Nations, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Clinton P. Anderson, United States Senate, Joseph S. Clark, United States Senate, Paul H. Douglas, United States Senate, Abe Ribicoff, United States Senate, Walter W. Heller, Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers, Washington, Sherman Adams, Lincoln, New Hampshire, Dennis J. Roberts, Providence, Rhode Island, and President Nathan Pusey of Harvard.”

Home Address, 9036 La Jolla Shores Drive, La Jolla, Calif. 92037. Office Address, Dept. of Economics, Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, Calif. 92037.

 

Source:  Harvard Class of 1920. Fiftieth Anniversary Report (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 183-184.

Image Source:  Harvard Class of 1920. Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report (Cambridge, 1945), p. 1046.

 

Categories
Chicago Exam Questions

Chicago. Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy Exam for A.M. and Ph.D. Friedman, Mints, Marschak, 1952

 

 

 

The committee for the Money, Banking and Monetary Policy examination for the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees for the Winter Quarter 1952 at the University of Chicago consisted of Milton Friedman (chairman), Lloyd Mints, and Jacob Marschak. The date of the examination was February 12, 1952 taken by 25 students. From Milton Friedman’s notes it appears that the committee agreed to pass ten examinees at the Ph.D. level, ten at the A.M. level and five were failed.

_________________________________

MONEY, BANKING, AND MONETARY POLICY
Written Examination for the A.M. and Ph.D. Degrees
Winter Quarter, 1952

 

Write on the first three and two other questions. Time: 4 hours.

DO NOT PLACE YOUR NAME ON YOUR PAPER. GIVE ONLY YOUR NUMBER.

 

  1. Suppose that (1) the national income is $270 billion; (2) the total wage bill is $180 billion; (3) the average annual wage is $3000, with only negligible variation among individual wages; (4) government’s demand for goods and services is $60 billion, and consumers’ demand is $200 billion. Suppose that, through joint action of employers and labor unions the wage rate is increased by 10%, and that the real volume of government demand is not changed. Indicate further conditions (such as, for example, the monetary policy, fiscal policy, technological conditions, initial level of employment, the behavior of consumers and of entrepreneurs) that you deem particularly important for a rough estimate of the effects of the rise in wages upon the levels of (present and future) consumption and of prices. Give two or three such estimates on the basis of your own hypothetical numerical specifications of those conditions.
  2. “It will be sound policy for the Treasury to borrow new funds insofar as possible from nonbank sources, to minimize the inflationary potential of the deficit.” (January 1952 Economic Report of the President, pp. 141-2.)
    Discuss the basis for and validity of this view. In your answer, distinguish between the effects of borrowing from the Federal Reserve Banks and from other banks; and justify your conclusions in detail.
  3. According to the Keynesian theory of income and employment, the change in money income equals the change in “investment,” or, more generally, the change in “autonomous expenditures” times the “multiplier.”
    (a) Explain the terms in quotation marks. How, if at all, does the value of the “multiplier” depend on the distribution of income, the stock of money, the rate of interest?
    (b) A shift from a balanced government budget to a deficit because of an increase in expenditures would generally be regarded as a corresponding increase in “autonomous expenditures,” and therefore, other things the same, as leading to an increase in money income equal to the multiplier times this amount. Can this statement, which suggests that any effect on money income of the deficit depends only on its size and the size of the multiplier, be reconciled with the quotation in question 2, which implies that “the inflationary potential of the deficit,” presumably meaning the rise in money income it produces, depends on the method of financing the deficit?
  4. It has been claimed that the British made the gold content of the pound sterling too high when they returned to gold in 1925. What would be the effects of such action? Did these effects actually appear to any significant degree? In any case, what means were available, if any, for determining the “correct” content of the pound?
  5. “The great difficulty, if not the impossibility, of reversing a downward movement [of business activity] by monetary means alone must be accepted as demonstrated by experience.” Is this statement warranted? Support your position.
  6. “Lowness of interest is generally ascribed to plenty of money. But money, however plentiful, has no other effect, if fixes, than to raise the price of labour…It is in vain…to look for the cause of the fall or rise of interest in the greater or less quantity of gold and silver, which is fixed in any nation” (David Hume, 1752).
    Discuss in light of “modern” theories of the rate of interest.

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman. Box 76, Folder 9 “University of Chicago Econ 300A”. [sic, this and other money, banking and monetary policy exams have been filed with material for the price theory course]

Categories
Courses Statistics Suggested Reading Wisconsin

Wisconsin. Seminary in Statistical Research. Harry Jerome, 1937-38

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Carillon Tower in Madison -- Wisconsin's capital city.

 

Harry Jerome taught statistics in the economics department of the University of Wisconsin from 1915-1938. The following course materials for a research seminar that he taught were found in Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution in a file “Student Years”. Since there is no indication of either university or instructor for these materials and with only the course number and academic year to go on, it seems likely that an archivist presumed these might have been from a course at Chicago or Columbia which can be clearly seen not to be the case upon consulting the respective course catalogues.

Possible explanations why Milton Friedman had this Wisconsin material was that he was recruited by Harold Groves as a potential successor to Harry Jerome in the economics department and the material was sent to him in the course of the recruitment or that Friedman came across the stuff in his review of statistics instruction at Wisconsin. In any event, given Friedman’s and Jerome’s common NBER connection, it is not surprising that a research seminar on Wisconsin income statistics would be something that Milton Friedman was naturally interested in.

______________________________________

 

Harry Jerome (1886-1938)

“Professor Harry Jerome, economist and author, was born March 7, 1886, to Sarah and Moses Jerome at Bloomington, Illinois, and died September 12, 1938, at Madison, Wisconsin. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1914 and took his post-graduate work there, receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1918.

He was instructor in economics from 1914 to 1918 at Wisconsin. From that year until his death in 1938 he held the position of professor of economics at Wisconsin, and was chairman of the economics department from 1931 until 1936.

In 1919 and 1920 Jerome was district assessor of incomes for the Wisconsin State Tax Commission. He was a member of the staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research from 1923 to 1925, and was one of the directors of that organization for many years. He also served as a member of the advisory board for an income tax study by the Wisconsin Tax Commission. From 1936 he was consultant for a survey of productivity and changing industrial techniques by the Federal Works Progress Administration in cooperation with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Jerome was the author of three books, Statistical Methods (1924), Migration and Business Cycles (1926), and Mechanization In Industry (1934).”

Source: Harry Jerome Papers, Finding Aid. Wisconsin Historical Society.

 

Research Tip: Boxes 5 and 6 of Harry Jerome’s papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society  have material on the NBER and the Wisconsin department of economics.

______________________________________

 

Course Announcement

[Econ.] 230. SEMINARY IN STATISTICAL RESEARCH. Yr; 2 cr. Cooperative research in one or more economic problems, each member of the class concentrating on a selected phase of the common subject. Subject for 1937-38: amount and distribution of wealth and income, with special attention to Wisconsin. Reports on current developments in statistical method. Fee $1.00. 7:15-9:15 Th. Mr. Jerome.

Source: Copy of page 148 from the course catalogue of the University of Wisconsin College of Letters and Science for 1937-38 that was provided Economics in the Rear-View Mirror by fellow historian of economics Professor Marianne Johnson of the College of Business, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.

______________________________________

Course Materials from Econ 230, University of Wisconsin
1937-38

TREATISES ON NATIONAL INCOME AND THE FORMATION OF CAPITAL

List for Review in Econ. 230, 1937-38

  1. W. I. King, The Wealth and Income of the People of the United States.
  2. National Bureau of Economic Research: Vol. I, Income in the United States
  3. Same as (2) – Volume II.
  4. Federal Trade Commission, National Wealth and Income, 69th 1st. Sess. Sen. Doc. No. 126.
  5. W. I. King, The National Income and its Purchasing Power. (NBER)
  6. Maurice Leven, et al, America’s Capacity to Consume (Brookings)
  7. Robert F. Martin, National Income and its Elements (NICB)
  8. U. S. Department of Commerce:

National Income, 1929-36, supplemented by National Income, 1929-32, Sen. Doc. 124, 72d Cong. 2d Session, 1934; and National Income in the United States, 1929-35.

  1. Simon Kuznets, National Income, 1919-35, NBER Bul. 66, supplemented by bulletin on National Income and Capital Formation, (in press).
  2. Harold G. Moulton, The Formation of Capital (Brookings)
  3. Robert F. Martin, Income in Agriculture, 1929-35 (NICB)
  4. Colin Clark, National Income and Outlay (Great Britain)
  5. John A. Slaughter, Income Received in the Various States, 1929-35, (NICB)

 

GROUP A. ESTIMATES OF INCOME PRODUCED IN WISCONSIN, BY INDUSTRIES, 1929-1937

  1. Agriculture
  2. Manufacturing
  3. Construction
  4. Transportation

Railroads and other freight and passenger traffic

  1. Other public utilities
  2. Trade: wholesale and retail
  3. Finance
  4. Service occupations
  5. Government

 

GROUP B. SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN INCOME STATISTICS (WISCONSIN)

  1. A plan for estimating income and number of recipients below the reporting levels for income tax purposes.
  2. Methods of estimating income from currently available data, for tax administration purposes
  3. Distribution of income in Wisconsin by objects of expenditure
  4. Geographical distribution of Wisconsin income
  5. Interstate movement of income: to and from Wisconsin

 

GROUP C. STUDIES IN THE AMOUNT AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH

  1. Estimates of distribution of wealth in a selected county or counties, based on probate records.

 

 

REPORTS FOR October 14, 21 and 28.

  1. A. L. Bowley, “The Definition of National Income”, Econ. Journal, vol. xxxii (1929), pp. 1-11.
  2. Simon Kuznets, “National Income”, in Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. II, pp. 205-224.
  3. J. Stamp, “Methods used in different countries for estimating national income; with discussion. Royal Statistical Society Journal. 97 No. 3: 423-66; no. 4: 541-57.

Papers in Studies in Income and Wealth (as yet unpublished [NBER, 1937])
by the Conference on Research in National Income and Wealth:

  1. Gerhard Colm, “Public Revenue and Public Expenditure in National Income”
  2. M. A. Copeland, “Concepts of National Income”
  3. Solomon Fabricant, “On the Treatment of Corporate Savings in the Measurement of National Income”
  4. Simon Kuznets, “Changing Inventory Valuations and Their Effect on Business Savings and on National Income Produced”
  5. Solomon Kuznets, “Some Problems in Measuring Per Capita Labor Income”
  6. Carl Shoup, “The Distinction between ‘Net’ and ‘Gross’ in Income Taxation
  7. O. C. Stine, “Income Parity for Agriculture”

 

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman. Box 5, Folder 12 “Student years”.

Image Source:University of Wisconsin’s Carillon Tower from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 .