Month: October 2018

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Chicago Columbia Economist Market Harvard Michigan Pennsylvania Salaries

Chicago. Instructional Staff Salaries by Rank, 1919

 

The following transcription of a draft copy of a report on the University of Chicago salary scale for instructional staff from ca. 1919 is interesting because it begins with a brief chronology of the salary scale from the founding of the University of Chicago to the time of the report. Since pay raises were being recommended, figures are given for other universities for comparison. The ratio between a Head professor to a beginning assistant professor was 3.5 to 1 during the early years of the University of Chicago. The compression was relatively minor by 1919, with the committee recommending a ratio of 3.33 to 1. For nearly  the first thirty years the top salary for a professor at the University of Chicago was $7000.

Handwritten additions to the draft are indicated by the use of italics in the transcription that follows.

________________

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON SALARY SCALE

The Board of Trustees,
The University of Chicago,

Gentlemen:

The Committee appointed at the May meeting of the Board herewith submits the following report on the scale of salaries in the teaching staff of the University with recommendations for the modifications of the same.

At the time of the organization of the University in the autumn of 1891, the following scale of salaries was informally determined:

Head Professor, $4000, to $5000.
Professor, $3000.
Associate Professor, $2500.
Assistant Professor, for a four year term, $2000.
Instructor, for a three year term, $1200, $1400, $1600.
Associate, for a two year term, $1000, $1100.

            In the minutes of the Board there is no record of this definite scale, which the various actions recorded implied. At the November meeting, 1891, the salary of the Head Professors was fixed at $6000. At the December meeting, 1891, it was increased to $7000. This change in the salary of a Head Professor, was due to obvious circumstances connected with securing suitable men for the new institution. No change was made in the rest of the scale.

In 1894 and thereafter new Head Professors were appointed, but on the original scale of $4000 to $5000. It thus appears, although not specifically recorded in the minutes of the Board, that the $7000 salaries were merely adapted at the organization of the University as a temporary expedient.

In 1907 the salary question was again taken into consideration by the Board. It was plain that the salary of a Professor, $3000, was too low, and that a general reorganization was desirable. At the meeting of the Board in December, 1907, it was tentatively agreed, 1st: that for members of the permanent staff in each of the three grades a maximum and a minimum salary shall be fixed, and that for any individual within those grades the exact salary paid shall depend, not on the time of service, but on the discretion of the Board, and, 2nd: that for members of the Faculty appointed for a term of years, a maximum and a minimum salary shall be fixed, with advances depending on term of service.

At the meeting of the Board in January, 1908, the following salary scale was enacted:

Heads of Departments, maximum [sic] $4000, minimum [sic], $6000.
Professors not Heads of Departments, Minimum, $3000; Maximum, $4500.
Associate Professor, Minimum, $2500; Maximum, $3000.
Assistant Professor, four years, $2000; On reappointment, $2500.
Instructors, three years, $1200, $1400, $1600; On reappointment, $1800.
Associates, two years, $1000 to $1200.

*  * *  *  *  *

            At the meeting of the Board in January, 1911, it was voted that thereafter the administration of Departments should ordinarily be conducted by a chairman, to be appointed by the President, to serve three years, at the end of which term a new Chairman shall be appointed or the same one reappointed.

At the meeting in February, 1908, action was taken ratifying the action of the Trustees of the Baptist Theological Union, of the previous day. Scale of salaries in the Divinity School was enacted as follows:

Heads of Departments, Minimum, $3500; Maximum, $4500.
Professors not Heads of Departments, Minimum, $3000; Maximum, $4000.

            The remaining scale as in the Faculties of Arts, Literature, and Science.

It was also voted that salaries paid or ranks given to members of a Department shall be determined without reference to the method of departmental administration, and that whenever the interest of the University seems to make it desirable, more than one person in the same Department may be given the maximum rank and salary.

Considering conditions relative to the cost of living, it becomes desirable now in all institutions of learning so far as practicable to provide larger salaries. This matter is receiving similar consideration throughout the country. In the University of Michigan the State Legislature made an additional appropriation of $300,000.00 at its last session for the purpose of increasing salaries. The scale was altered for Professors from the former rate of minimum $2500 and maximum $4000, to a minimum of $3200 and a maximum usually of $5000. Several have been advanced to $5500, and a small number to $6000. The increase in the salaries of Professors has reached an average of approximately 25%. Associate Professors have been advanced from a scale of $2100 to $2400, to a scale of $2800 to $3100, the advance in individual cases being about twenty five percent.

Assistant Professors are advanced from a scale of $1500 to $2000, to a scale of $2200 to $2700, the increase being about 30%.

Instructors are advanced from a scale of $900 to $1600, to a scale of $1300 to $2100, an increase of about 30%.

In Yale University the salary of an Associate Professor isadvanced to $3500, being about 30% increase. The salary of Assistant Professors isadvanced to $2500 for three years and $3000 for two additional years, or about 20%. Instructors for four years have salaries ranging from $1250 to $2000, at an increase of 25%. In the Law School the maximum for Professors isadvanced from $7000 to $7500. The present scale for Professors is at a minimum of $4000 and a maximum of $6000. It is intended to increase that in the autumn at a probable rate of about 25% in individual cases. The new maximum is therefore not yet enacted.

In Harvard the present scale of Professors salaries has a minimum of $4000 and a maximum of $5500; Associate Professors at $3500—after five years service—$4000; Assistant Professors, for the first five years, $2500, for the second five years, $3000; Instructors ranging from $1000 to $1500. Harvard is engaged in a plan for raising an $11,000,000 endowment, the greater part of which is to be used for salaries.

Columbia University has not an exact scale. Professors’ salaries range from $4000 to $15,000. There are twenty receiving a salary of $6000, eight a salary of $6500 to $7000. Those whose salaries are above $7000 are mostly in professional schools. There are thirty with a salary of $5000. No immediate change in the salary scale is contemplated.

In the University of Pennsylvania the maximum for a full time professorship is $8000. As a matter of fact there are very few whose salaries are $6000, or more. It is intended to make an increase of 20% for all receiving $4000 or $6000, 10% for all receiving over $6000, and 20% for all receiving less than $4000. This increase is to come into effect in the autumn of 1919.

Under all the circumstances and with the funds available from the present income of the University the committee recommends the following:

PROPOSED NEW SCALE.

            In the Faculties of Arts, Literature and Sciences.

Professor, Minimum, $4000; Maximum, $7000.
Associate Professor, Minimum, $3000; Maximum, $3600.
Assistant Professor, Minimum, $2100; Maximum, $2700.
Instructors, for three years, $1500, $1600, $1700. On reappointment to a maximum of $2000.
Associates, for two years, $1200, $1300.

            In the Faculty of the Divinity School.

Professor, Minimum, $4000; Maximum, $5000.
Other ranks as in Arts, Literature and Science.

            In the Faculty of the Law School.

Professor, Minimum of $6000, increased by $500 at the end of each three years of satisfactory service to a maximum of $8500. For Assistant and Associate Professors no change. These last appointments in the Law School are usually temporary and a considerable flexibility is desirable. It is recommended that for the Faculty of the Law School the new scale take effect fro the fiscal year 1920-1921. It will involve an addition of $5250 to the budget of that year over the present budget of 1919-1920.

Respectfully Submitted
[Signed] M. A. Ryerson
H. G. Grey
H. P. Judson

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records. Box 76. Folder: 4, “Salaries, 1916-1920”.

 

Image Source: 1894 University of Chicago Convocation. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf3-00416, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economy of the U.S. Course outline, readings, exam. Leontief, 1945-46

 

 

Not much to say here about the material I have found for the first iteration of Wassily Leontief’s course on the economy of the United States other than I was surprised that his own book, Structure of the American Economy, 1919-1929, was not mentioned among the readings.

_______________

Course Announcement

Economics 12a. The Economy of the United States.

Half-course (fall term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.  Associate Professor Leontief.

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1945-46. Published in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 42, No. 8 (March 31, 1945), p. 36.

_______________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12a (fall term) Associate Professor Leontief.—The Economy of the United States.

Total 30: 2 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 5 Juniors 5 Sophomores, 10 Radcliffe.

Source:Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1945-46, in Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 45, No. 12 (May 20, 1948), p. 58.

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ECONOMICS 12a
The Economy of the United States
Winter Semester, 1945-46

  1. General Interrelation of Industries and Households:
    1. Commodity flow and allocations of commodities and services.
    2. Cost structure of industries and Direct and Indirect demand.
    3. Capital stock and the Balance of Saving and Investment.
    4. Basic determinants of the Economic Structure of the United States: National Resources and Population, State of technical arts, consumers’ behavior, Public Policies
  2. Structural Characteristics of Selected Branches of the National Economy:
    1. Manufacturing
    2. Mining
    3. Agriculture
    4. Transportation
    5. Foreign Trade
    6. Domestic Trade
    7. Service Industries
  3. Structure of Consumers’ Demand:
    1. Sources of income
    2. Income distribution
    3. Spending and Saving pattern
  4. Price Structure:
    1. Price structure and the industrial structure
    2. Prices and incomes
  5. Economic Structure and Economic Policies

In this course, lectures are supplemented by simple research problems assigned as home work.

Readings:

J. R. Hicks and A. G. Hart, The Social Framework of the American Economy

and selected readings from publications of

National Resources Planning Board
National Bureau of Economic Research
Brookings Institution

[Handwritten additions:
Williamson, Growth of American Economy
Kuznets, Secular Movements of Production]

            Since Economics 12a is being given for the first time, the above outline probably will be modified in the course of instruction.

*  * *  *  *  *

Handwritten list following course outline

Econ 12A

Desk. Hicks JR & Hart—Social Framework

Desk. Leontief W—Economic statistics & postwar policies.
Reprint Harris Post-war Economic Problems.

Desk. National Resources Committee—Structure of the American Economy

Desk. National Resources Planning Board. Industrial Location & Nat. Resources

Desk. Kuznets, S.S.—Secular Movements in Production & Prices

Desk. Bell, S.—Productivity, wages and national income. Chs. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9. Appendix A: II & III

Desk. Glover, J.G.—Development of American Industries. Chs. 17, 31

Desk. Williamson, Growth of the American Economy. Chs 20, 21, 22.

Desk. U.S. Nat. Resources Comm., Consumer Spends his Income

Desk. Bd. Governors Federal Res. System [Postwar Economic Studies No. 1]. Jobs, production & living standards, 1945.
Goldenweiser)

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1945-1946 (1 of 2)”.

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1945-46
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 12a

The Economy of the United States
Final. January. 1946.

Answer FOUR questions including question six. If you choose to answer question one, spend approximately one hour on it; in the final score it will be given double weight.

  1. Present a short discussion of your special research topic.
  2. How would you go about estimating the probable effect of a changed distribution of national income on the output and employment in the metal fabricating industry?
  3. Discuss the principal factors which have determined the changes in agricultural employment from the end of the last century up to the beginning of the second World War.
  4. Analyze the position of foreign trade in the structure of American economy.
  5. Describe the mutual dependence of wages, profits, and prices from the point of view of interindustrial relationships.
  6. Review critically of the papers included in the Postwar Economic Studies assigned for the Reading Period.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 11, “Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Papers Printed for Final Examinations. History, History of Religions, …, Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science. January, 1946”.

Image Source:  Wassily Leontief in Harvard Class Album 1947.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of socialism. Outline, readings, final exam. Schumpeter, 1943-44

 

Earlier Economics in the Rear-view Mirror posted the course outline and final examination for Joseph Schumpeter’s course on the economics of socialism that was given in the second semester of 1945-46. None of the final examination questions were shared between these two years, so together the exams provide a better idea of what was actually covered than either alone.

______________________

Course Announcement

Economics 11b. Economics of Socialism

Half-course (winter term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at  10. Professor Schumpeter.

 

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1943-44. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 40, No. 21 (September 29, 1943), p. 33.

______________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 11b (winter term) Professor Schumpeter. –Economics of Socialism.

Total 26:  3 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 13 Navy.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1943-44, p. 56.

______________________

ECONOMICS 11b
1943-44
OUTLINE AND ASSIGNMENTS

  1. FIRST TWO WEEKS: The Socialist Issue.

Socialist ideas and socialist parties. Socialism and the labor movement. Laborite and intellectualist socialism. The Definition of Socialism.

H. W. Laidler*, History of Socialist Thought, 1927.
T.M. Sogge, “Industrial Classes in the U. S.  in 1930,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, vol. 28 (1933), pp. 199-203.
Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, article on Socialist and Labor Parties.

  1. THIRD TO FIFTH WEEK: The Theory of Centralist Socialism.

O. Lange and F. M. Taylor*, The Economic Theory of Socialism.
H. D. Dickinson, Economics of Socialism, 1939.

  1. SIXTH TO NINTH WEEK: The Economic Interpretation of History. The Class Struggle, and the Marxist Theory of Capitalism.

Karl Marx, Capital, Volume I, chs. I, IV, V, VI.
Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Paul M. Sweezy*, The Theory of Capitalist Development, 1942, chs. I-VI (pp. 1-108).

  1. TENTH TO TWELFTH WEEK: The Socialist Theory of the State and of the Proletarian Revolution, Imperialism, National Socialism.

V.I. Lenin, State and Revolution.
V. I. Lenin, Imperialism.
M. Dobb, Political Economy and Capitalism, ch. VII.
Paul M. Sweezy*, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chs. XIII-XIX.

READING PERIOD ASSIGNMENT

Read E. Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism, especially pp. 18-95, and survey again the items in the reading list marked *.

 

Source:Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 3, Folder “Economics, 1943-1944 (2 of 2)”.

______________________

1943-44
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 11b
[Final. February, 1944]

One question may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. Describe briefly the emergence of either the English Independent Labour Party or the German Social Democratic Party.
  2. In the Second International, opinion was divided on the question whether socialists should or should not participate in bourgeois governments. What were the arguments that were adduced for and against? Which groups expressed the one and which the other view? Which view prevailed eventually within the Second International?
  3. What are the rules of rational allocation of productive resources in a socialist society, and how do they differ from the corresponding rules in a capitalist society (a) under conditions of perfect competition and (b) under conditions of monopolistic competition?
  4. State and criticize the Marxian proposition known as the Theory of Increasing Misery (“immiseration”).
  5. Most socialist writers recognize that the transition from the capitalist to the socialist form of life will raise a number of problems that are distinct from the problem of how to run a socialist society when established. What are those “transitional problems” and what methods have been suggested for dealing with them?
  6. What is meant by Reformism? By Revisionism? By Laborism?

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 8, Folder “Final examinations, Winter term, 1943-44”.

Image Source:  Harvard Class Album 1942.

Categories
Economists Harvard Tufts

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Richard Vincent Gilbert, 1930

 

Richard Vincent Gilbert was encountered in an earlier post as one of two Jewish job market candidates being recommended for academic appointments by Harvard’s economics department in 1929. This post provides futher biographical and career information for R. V. Gilbert, a 1930 Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus. His parents were Meyer Goldberg and Feigel (Fanny) Gaylburd. I presume he chose to change his name to Gilbert from Goldberg to blend in better with his U.S. academic environs. [Cf., The Harvard economist Abram Bergson was born to Isaac and Sophie Burkowsky whose last name morphed to Burk and only after the publication of his famous welfare economics article in the QJE, did Abram Burk become Abram Bergson.]

Richard Vincent Gilbert and his wife, Emma Cohen Gilbert, were the parents of one of the three winners of the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1980, Walter Myron Gilbert.

__________________

PhD Exams of Richard Vincent Gilbert, 1927

General Examination: in Economics, Wednesday, February 9, 1927.

Committee: Professors Young (chairman), Crum, Monroe, Usher, and Woods.

Academic History: University of Pennsylvania, 1919-20; Harvard College, 1920-23; Harvard Graduate School, 1923-. B.S., Harvard, 1923; M.A., Harvard, 1925. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1923-.

General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Money and Banking. 3. Statistics. 4. Economic History since 1776. 5. History of Ancient Philosophy. 6. Theory of International Trade.

Special Subject: Theory of International Trade.

Thesis Subject: Theory of International Trade. (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Source:Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1926-1927”.

__________________

PhD Dissertation of Richard Vincent Gilbert

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.

Thesis title: Theory of International Payments.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1929-1930, p. 119.

__________________

Obituary for R.V. Gilbert
F.D.R. Economics Adviser (d. 6 Oct 1985)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Richard V. Gilbert, an economics adviser in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Administration, has died at home at age 83.

He had been ill with cancer and suffered a heart attack 10 days before his death last Sunday.

Gilbert served as a speechwriter for Roosevelt on economic issues during World War II. Economist Walter Salant of the Brookings Institution in Washington once called Gilbert “the outstanding, unsung hero of American wartime economic policy.”

He is credited, along with economist Robert Nathan, with persuading Roosevelt to boost aircraft and tank production and to accelerate merchant shipping.

Gilbert left teaching posts at Harvard University, Radcliffe and the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University to become economic adviser in 1939 to Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins. He went on to become economic adviser to the price administrator and director of research in the Office of Price Administration.

Source: Associated Press, from the Los Angeles Times (October 13, 1985).

__________________

Biographical Note for the Richard V. Gilbert Papers at the FDR Presidential Library

Richard Vincent Gilbert was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 6, 1902 and educated at Harvard University where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1931 [sic, 1930].

As a member of the Harvard faculty from 1924 to 1939, Gilbert taught courses in economic history and money and banking and participated in the Fiscal Policy Seminar at Littauer School of Public Administration, 1937- 39. He also taught courses in money and banking at Radcliffe College and international trade and finance at the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy from 1934 to 1939.

In 1939 and 1940, Gilbert was the Director of the Division of Industrial Economics and Economic Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce. He then became Director of the Defense Economics Section of the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply (formerly the Price Stabilization Division of the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense), Economic Advisor to the Administration, and, from 1941 to 1946, Director of Research for the Office of Price Administration. He was a consulting economist from 1946 to 1949 and then joined Schenley Industries, Inc. as an Assistant to the Chairman of the Board. He later became a Vice President of the company.

Dr. Gilbert is the author of numerous articles and, with others [George H. Hildebrand Jr., Arthur W. Stuart, Maxine Yaple Sweezy, Paul M. Sweezy, Lorie Tarshis, and John D. Wilson], wrote a book entitled An Economic Program for American Democracy, which was published in 1938.

The papers of Richard V. Gilbert cover the period 1939 to 1948, during most of which he was a Federal Government employee. With few exceptions, the papers consist of official correspondence, memoranda, speech drafts, reports, and printed matter. Since Gilbert and his associates collaborated on the numerous reports and speech drafts written for the use of their agency and others, the authorship of certain items is unclear. For this reason, reports and speech drafts are generally filed with the records of the agency for which Gilbert was working at the time. The papers have been arranged in a single alphabetical series.

Died 6 October 1985 in Cambridge, Mass.

Source:  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum. Richard V. Gilbert Papers, 1939-1948. Collection Historical Note

Image Source: Gilbert’s senior year picture in the Harvard Class Album, 1923.

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Economics PhD alumnus, Mandell Morton Bober, 1925

 

In the previous post we learned that the Harvard David A. Wells Prize winner for 1925-26, Mandell Morton Bober, was Jewish and this fact was considered relevant information in the Harvard economics department’s placement of graduates in university positions. This post provides some more biographical and career detail about Professor Bober who had a long and distinguished career as an economics professor at Lawrence University, Wisconsin.

Fun Facts: Bober taught undergraduate economics to Shinto Tsuru (who was to go on to Harvard graduate economics) and he was for a brief time a colleague of Harry Dexter White. 

Bober’s papers are kept at the Lawrence University archives.

________________

Bober: Life and career highlights

Born: November 15, 1891 in Kovel, Volhynia then Russia (now Ukraine).
Immigration: September 22, 1911 in New York.
B.S. (Mathematics): 1918 from the University of Montana.
A.M. (Economics): 1920 from Harvard University.
Teaching Assistant: 1923-24 in European Industry and Commerce since 1750 and Economic History of the United States (both taught by Assistant Professor Usher), Harvard University.
Teaching Assistant: 1923-27 in Economics A, Harvard University.
Ph.D.: 1925 in Economics from Harvard University.
Thesis: “Karl Marx’s interpretation of history.” Awarded the David A. Wells Prize for 1925-26. Published in 1927 by Harvard University Press (370 pages). Major revision published in 1948 (445 pages), reviewed by Paul M. Sweezy in Journal of Political Economy (June 1949), pp. 255-56.
Instructor (Economics): 1925, Boston University.
Longest University Appointment: 1927-1961 professorship of economics at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Visiting professorship: Second semester of 1938-39 at the University of Buffalo for position left by Fritz Machlup (see AER March 1939, Notes, p. 224).
Government work: 1942 at the Office of Price Administration in Washington, D.C.
Textbook: 1955. Intermediate Price and Income Theory. (New York: W. W. Norton).
Honorary LL.D.: 1956 from Grinnell College.
Died: November 1966.

Sources:  From a variety of items found in a search at the geneological site ancestry.com; Annual reports of the President of Harvard College.

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Lawrence College Yearbook (The Ariel) mentions

1943 Yearbook: “M.M. Bober returned this summer to America’s dairyland after a year and a half in Washington, D.C. with the O.P.A…was awarded the David A. Wells prize several years ago for his book on Karl Marx…is chiefly interested in “teaching, teaching and teaching.” p. 15.

1944 Yearbook: M.M. Bober–“in eight years the new deal has graduated from the w.p.a. to the w.p.b.”

________________

Bober remembered as undergraduate professor of Shigeto Tsuru

When released from prison in the spring of 1931, I found myself expelled from the Higher School; and thus I followed my father’s suggestion to study abroad. My choice was to go to Germany inasmuch as my first foreign language was German. It happened, however, that in 1931 the Marxism-orientated Social Democratic Party was quite strong in Germany, and my father agreed to finance my study abroad only on the condition that I go to the United States. I agreed to this and chose for matriculation a small college in the State of Wisconsin – Lawrence College in Appleton – with a clandestine intention of crossing the Atlantic in due course.

Lawrence College then had another attraction to me, that is the two Harvard-trained economists in residence: Harry Dexter White, who later was instrumental in drafting an alternative plan to that of Keynes in Bretton Woods, and M.M. Bober, a rare specimen of a scholar on Marx in America at the time.

“Shigeto Tsuru” in A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists (2nded.), Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer (eds.) (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2000). p. 680.

________________

Bober remembered as reported on the Lawrence Economics Blog
Dec 7, 2012

Professor Galambos points us to The Chaney Tapes — a chronicle of legendary Professor William A. Chaney’s life and times here at Lawrence.  Of particular interest to this blog is the very high profile of Lawrence economists.  Here’s a taste of Professor M.M. Bober:

Some of Professor Chaney’s fondest memories are of his faculty colleagues in the 1950s and 1960s. M. M. Bober, professor of economics, is a particular favorite. His witticisms provide Chaney, himself the master of anecdotal enlightenment, with endless tales.

When discussing an art history professor’s latest attempts at painting, Professor Bober is reported to have said, “Hanging is too good for them”…

Bober’s sharp commentaries even warranted national attention when Time magazine published some of his more notable lines in a review of the retirement of several of academia’s greats in 1957: “If God were half as good to us as we are to Him, we’d be living in paradise,” “Businessmen have as much competition as they cannot get rid of,” and “When you leave this room I want you to feel that you have learned something. Don’t go out and just develop a personality.”

Source:  Economics blog of Lawrence University.

Image Source:  Lawrence College, “Ariel, 1934” (1934), p. 23. Lawrence Yearbooks. 4.

Categories
Economist Market Economists Harvard Pennsylvania Williams

Harvard. Job placements of economics PhDs. Jewish candidates, 1928-29

 

In this post I provide transcriptions of four letters concerning Harvard Ph.D.s on the job market. Two of candidates (Mandell Morton Bober and Richard Vincent Gilbert) were Jewish and this was considered an important characteristic to signal to prospective employers. Nothing from the Harvard side indicates anything other than a willingness to provide information that would be revealed in the process of recruitment anyway. In an earlier post we could read a similar letter by Allyn Young’s on behalf of his protégé Arthur William Marget for a position at the University of Chicago in 1927. In the cases below we again see anti-Jewish prejudice on the demand side of the market for academic economists.

Before getting to the letters (that are also interesting for providing a glimpse into job placement at the time), I provide a bit of information about each of the Harvard alumni discussed.

______________

Harvard Ph.Ds discussed

Beach, Walter Edwards

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1929.
Thesis title: International gold movements in relation to business cycles.
A.B. Stanford University, 1922; A.M. Harvard University.
1929. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Bober, Mandell Morton

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1925.
Thesis title: Karl Marx’s interpretation of history.
S.B. University of Montana, 1918; A.M. Harvard University, 1920.
1925. Instructor in Economics, Boston University.
1926. Instructor in Economics. and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass.

Gilbert, Richard Vincent

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.
Thesis title: Theory of International Payments.
S.B. Harvard University, 1923; A.M. Harvard University, 1925.

Hohman, Elmo Paul

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1925.
Thesis title: The American whaleman: a study of the conditions of labor in the whaling industry, 1785-1885.
A.B. University of Illinois, 1916; A.M. University of Illinois, 1917; A.M. Harvard University, 1920.
1925. Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University.
1926. Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University. Evanston, Ill.

Patton, Harald Smith

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1926.
Thesis Title: Grain growers’ cooperation in Western Canada.
A.B. University of Toronto, 1912; A.M. Harvard University, 1921.
1926. Associate Professor of Economics, University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, O.

Remer, Charles Frederick

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1923.
Thesis title: The foreign trade of China.
A.B. University of Minnesota, 1908; A.M. Harvard University, 1917.
1923. Instructor in Economics, and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.
1926. Orrin Sage Professor of Economics, Williams College. Williamstown, Mass.

Roberts, Christopher

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1927.
Thesis title: The History of the Middlesex Canal.
S.B. Haverford College, 1921; A.M. Harvard University 1922.
1927. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Smith, Walter Buckingham

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1928.
Thesis title: Money and prices in the United States from 1802 to 1820.
A.B. Oberlin College, 1917; A. M. Harvard University, 1924.
1928. Assistant Professor Economics, Wellesley College.

Taylor, Overton Hume

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1928.
Thesis title: The idea of a Natural Order in Early Modern Economic Thought.
A.B. University of Colorado 1921.
1928. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

 

Source: Harvard University. Doctors of Philosophy and Doctors of Science Who have received their Degree in Course from Harvard University, 1873-1926, with the Titles of their Theses. Cambridge: 1926. Also Annual Reports of the President of Harvard College.

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Possible candidates for Charles Frederick Remer successor at Williams College

June 19, 1928.

Dear Professor Taussig:

Professor Burbank has asked me to write to you in answer to your letter of the 13th regarding possibilities for Remer’s position at Williams.

He believes that Bober can be recommended in the highest terms, but that the matter of his race should be mentioned. Gilbert, now at Rochester, is very able and in spite of the fact that he still has to complete his work for the Ph.D., might well be considered. He does not think so very highly of Patton; Hohman at Northwestern is fully as good.

He wonders what you would say regarding Walter Smith. He has some personal qualities that might cause trouble at Williamstown, but he is fully as capable as Remer.

If Professor Bullock has not left for Europe he suggests that he should be consulted since he knows the Williamstown situation very well.

Sincerely yours,

[unsigned, departmental secretary?]

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Possible candidates for position at St. Lawrence University

January 28, 1929.

My dear Mr. Cram:

I have your note regarding the position at St. Lawrence University.

Beach probably will not go out next year. He wishes to stay here another year, and if we can make adequate provision for him we will do so.

If St. Lawrence is insistent upon the Ph.D you might recommend in very strong terms Christopher Roberts. If they will take a Jew you can recommend in superlative terms Professor M. M. Bober, now at Lawrence College; and also you might recommend under the above conditions, but perhaps less strongly R. V. Gilbert whom we expect to take the Ph.D this June.

However, before making any recommendations you should have the salary terms, the amount of teaching required, and the subjects to be taught.

Very sincerely,

H.H. Burbank.

HHB:BR

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Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Wharton School of Finance and Commerce

May 16, 1929.

Professor H. H. Burbank
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Professor Burbank:

Thanks for your letter of May 8, informing me that Mr. Gilbert is of Jewish extraction. Professor Taussig had already told me that such was the case.

However, this will make no difference to us so long as his personality and bearing are attractive.

I am giving serious consideration to Mr. Gilbert, along with two other men who have been suggested to me from other sources. If Gilbert receives his Ph.D. this year, we may make him an offer, but we cannot consider him if he has not completed his work for the doctorate.

Sincerely yours,

[signed|
Raymond T. Bye
Acting Chairman
Department of Economics

RTB:T

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Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (cont.)

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Wharton School of Finance and Commerce

June 17, 1929.

Professor H. H. Burbank
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Professor Burbank:

I hope that I did not cause you and your colleagues any inconvenience in pressing you and Dr. [O. H.] Taylor for an immediate decision on our offer to him. Things had dragged along here so long that I felt something must be done quickly and I know that I had prepared both Dr. Taylor and you for the possibility of our making him an offer, so that I felt it would not be difficult for you to make arrangements on short notice.

When I met you in Boston I was so well impressed with what you and Professor Vanderblue told me about Dr. Bober that I arranged for him to come here to meet us. We were all favorably impressed and I made every effort to secure his appointment to the position, but the Provost of the University was not willing to recommend a person of the Jewish race, so I had to give him up. It was then that I made the offer to Taylor. I think Dr. Taylor will fit into our problem for next year very nicely, for we need someone primarily to teach graduate courses. I question, however, whether we shall want to keep him permanently because, as I understand it, he is less effective as an undergraduate teacher. That is why I asked you to let him go on a year’s leave of absence. However, it is possible that the men here may like him so much that they will want to keep him permanently if he will stay. That will be for Professor E. M. Patterson to decide. He will be back as chairman of the department next year.

I want to thank you most cordially for your very material assistance in helping me to find a man to fill the vacancy here.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Raymond T. Bye
Acting Chairman
Department of Economics

RTB:T

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Econoics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950.Box 14, Folder “Positions for 1929-30”.

Image Source: Left, Senior year picture of R.V. Gilbert and, right, tutor picture of M.M. Bober (1926) in Harvard Class Album, 1923 and 1926, respectively.