Month: June 2020

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Columbia

Columbia. Economics Seminar participants. J.B. Clark, 1901-1902

 

The original version of this post only provided a transcription of hand-written notes by John Bates Clark that appears to be an incomplete draft of part of an “teaching activities report” for the annual Dean’s report. The two semester course Economics 14,  Seminar in Political Economy and Finance, alternated every other week between Clark and E.R.A. Seligman. The next post will provide information about Seligman’s seminar schedule.

This post is another exercise in establishing the identities of students who attended advanced economics courses. I feel confident that I have identified eight of the seventeen paper-presenters. That information follows the schedule.

The participants of the Harvard Economics Seminary for 1897-98 have been tracked down for an earlier post, as have the Radcliffe women who signed a letter requesting permission to attend the Harvard Economics Seminary in 1926.

_____________________

Seminar in Political Economy and Finance
Professor Clark. 2 hours fortnightly. 16 members.

The following papers were presented:

Municipal Activities. Ray McClintock

Municipal Activities in England. Frank F. Nalder

Municipal Activities in the United States. Ray W. Thompson

Socialism. James A. McQueen

Socialism in the Southwest. Wallace E. Miller

The Theory of Monopolies. Henry R. Mussey

Governmental Monopolies. Yoshimasa Ishikawa

Laws Concerning Monopolies. George B. Keeler

Theories of Protection. Arthur J. Boynton

Modern Aspects of the Tariff. Harry B. Bennett

Theories of Wages. Isaac R. Henderson

The Bargain Theory of Wages. John S. Hershey

Von Böhm-Bawerk’s Theory of Interest. Robert B. Olsen

Over-Production. Samuel Peskin

European Trusts. Everett B. Stackpole

The Value of Money. Joseph C. Freehoff

Child Labor in the United States. Anna M. Cordley

Source: Columbia University. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer to the Trustees for the Year Ending June 30, 1902, p. 155.

_____________________

Handwritten note of John Bates Clark
[no date]

1—The seminar in Political Economy and Finance has held 14 meetings under my direction and the same number under the direction of Professor Seligman. The following papers have been presented:—

by Mr. F. F. Nalder, on Municipal activities in England;

by Mr. J. C. Frihoff [sic], on The Value of Money;

by Mr. Ray McClintock on Municipal Activities.

by Mr. H. Thompson on Municipal Activities in the United States;

by Miss. A. M. Cordley on Anarchism Child [Labor] in U.S.

by Mr. A. J. Boynton on Theories of Protection:—

by Mr. J. S. Hershey on The Bargain Theory of Wages:—

by Mr. I.R. Henderson on Theories of Wages:—

by Mr. H. B. Bennett on Modern Aspects of the Tariff:—

by Mr. Y. Ishikawa on Governmental Monopolies:—

by Mr. H.A. Keeler on Present Laws Concerning Monopolies:—

Source: Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. John Bates Clark Papers (MS #1419). Box 9, Folder 1. Series II.4.

_____________________________

Frank Fielding Nalder

Frank Fielding Nalder was born on November 5, 1876 in Penhurst, Providence of Victoria, Australia, and brought to the United States in 1884. He received his B. A. from the State College of Washington in 1901, his M.A. from Columbia in 1902, and his Ph. D. from the University of California in 1916. He was Registrar and instructor in history at the State College of Washington from 1903-1908, superintendent of schools in Tekoa, Washington from 1908-1909, with the department of state public instruction in Washington from 1909-1911, director of education for the Washington State Reformatory from 1912-1913, with the extension division of the University of California 1914-1919, and professor of social science and director of the college extension at the State College of Washington from 1919. He died on January 17, 1937.

Source:  Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State Libraries. Guide to the Frank Fielding Nalder Photographs 1913-1914. 

Note: According to the Columbia University alumni register, Nadler was awarded an A.M. in 1904.

Source: Columbia University alumni register, 1754-1931, compiled by the Committee on General Catalogue. New York: Columbia University Press, 1932, p. 635.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Joseph C. Freehoff

Cornell College.-Mr. Joseph C. Freehoff has been appointed Professor of Economics in Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa. He was born on December 25, 1869, near La Crosse, Wis., attended the public schools of this region and the State Normal School at River Falls. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin with the degree of B.S. in 1897 [sic], where he also pursued graduate work in Sociology and Political Economy. In 1898 he became Acting Professor of Political Economy at Cornell College. In 1899 he declined an election as Fellow at the University of Chicago, to accept a similar election at the University of Wisconsin, but resigned this fellowship upon receiving the permanent appointment at Cornell College.

Source: Personal Notes. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 14, Issue 3, 1899. p. 349.

(INSP.) Ph.D., 04; B.S., 91, Univ. Wis.
b. La Crosse, Wis.; River Falls (Wis.) Normal Schedule., 89; Univ. Wis., 89-91; N.Y.U. Grad. Sch., 02-4; fellow of sociol. and pol. econ., Univ. Chicago, 96-98; actg. prof. pol. econ., Cornell Coll., Ia., 98-01; sanitary inspector, N.Y.C.; publ.: Value of Money.

Source: New York University. General Alumni Catalogue, v. 2 (1905), p. 176.

Joseph C. Freehoff, formerly of New York University, was recently appointed statistician for the Public Service Commission of New York, first district.

Source: The Economic Bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Dec. 1908), p. 285.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Holland McTyeire Thompson

Thompson, Holland A.M. 1900, PhD 1906, College of City of NY, NYC, coll prof.

Source: Columbia University alumni register, 1754-1931, compiled by the Committee on General Catalogue. New York: Columbia University Press, 1932, p. 876.

See: Biographical entry “Holland Thompson, 1873-1940” in Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.

Published dissertation:  From the Cotton Field to the Cotton Mill: A Study of the Industrial Transition in North Carolina. New York: Macmillan, 1906.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Annie Minto Cordley

Born September 26, 1863 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Cordley, Annie Minto. Glen Ridge, N.J.
Lawrence; 82 [non-graduate of Mount Holyoke]; B.S. Wellesely Coll. 87, M.A. Columbia Univ. 03; teacher New York N.Y. 87-05, Briarcliff Manor N.Y. 05-10.

Source: General Catalogue of Officers and Students of Mount Holyoke College 1837-1911., p. 167.

Annie Minto Cordley. AM 1903, d. Jan 1, 1915.

Source: Columbia University alumni register, 1754-1931, compiled by the Committee on General Catalogue. New York: Columbia University Press, 1932, p. 180.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Arthur Jerome Boynton

Arthur Jerome Boynton–Emerald Grove, Wis.
Ph.B., Beloit College, 1896;
A.B., Harvard University, 1901
Major subject: Political economy and finance
Minor subjects: Sociology and Statistics; International Law
Essay: The philosophy of the single tax.

Source: Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science, 1902, p. 93.

Arthur Jerome Boynton, A.B., 1901, (Harvard); A.M., 1902, (Columbia). Associate Professor of Economics, 1910; 1903 [first appointment at the University of Kansas]

Source:  Annual Catalogue of the University of Kansas, 1912-1913, p. 13.

Professor Arthur Jerome Boynton. Lawrence Kan., March 18 (AP). Arthur Jerome Boynton, Professor of Economics at the University of Kansas, died here today.

Source: The New York Times, March 19, 1928 (p. 16).

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

J. S. Hershey

J. S. Hershey, School of Law [graduate], 1904.

Source: Columbia University alumni register, 1754-1931, compiled by the Committee on General Catalogue. New York: Columbia University Press, 1932, p. 1102.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Yoshimasa Ishikawa

Ishikawa, Yoshimasa. A.M. 1903, 584 Omori Iriarai-Machi Tokyo Japan, coll prof.

Source: Columbia University alumni register, 1754-1931, compiled by the Committee on General Catalogue. New York: Columbia University Press, 1932, p. 434.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Howard Allan Keeler

Columbia College class of 1903.  Intercollegiate chess player for Columbia

Source: Columbia Spectator (January 23, 1903).

Worked as an advertising manager, living in New York City according to the 1920 U.S. Census.
… at an advertising agency, living in Great Neck Estates in New York according to the 1930 U.S. Census.
….as an agent for casulty insurance in Great Neck Estates in New York according to the 1940 U.S. Census

Born January 23, 1883 in Manhattan, died November 1963.

 

Image Source: John Bates Clark portrait from the webpage “Famous Carleton Economists“.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final Exam for International Trade and Tariff Policies. Taussig, 1921-22

 

Normally I double check the instructor listed in the course announcements (ex ante) with the instructor named in the Harvard presidential report for the year (ex post). For some reason this information for instruction during the academic year 1921-22 was not published in the annual presidential report. Fortunately Frank Taussig kept a scrap-book of all his course examinations, where we find a copy of the 1922 mid-year exam for Economics 9b. Thus we can be sure International Trade and Tariff Policy was actually taught by the grand old man of the Harvard economics department that year as well.

__________________________

Course Announcement
First Half-Year

9b 1hf. International Trade and Tariff Policies

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30.  Professor Taussig.

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1921-22, 3rd edition, p. 110.

__________________________

1921-22
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 9b1
[Mid-Year Examination]

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions.

I

One page at most for each of the following; one hour at most for the entire group.

  1. How did the reciprocity treaty with Hawaii affect the price of sugar to the consumer in the United States? the reciprocity treaty with Cuba?
  2. What is meant by the “compensating system” for woolens? Was it applied in 1909? In 1913?
  3. What might the development of the copper industry be supposed to show concerning the effects of the tariff? What does it show in fact?
  4. What do you conceive to be meant by a tariff for revenue with incidental protection? One for protection with incidental revenue?
  5. Explain:
    —comparative advantage,
    —superior advantage,
    —inferior disadvantage.
    Are the effects of the conditions described by these terms, on international trade, essentially similar or essentially different?

II

To be answered more fully.

  1. If there were universal free trade between nations, would there be a tendency toward
    1. Equalization of money wages?;
    2. equalization of “real” wages?;
    3. equalization of the price of commodities?
  2. Is the theory of international trade and international payments verified or not verified by (a) the course of events in Canada 1900-10? (b) the course of imports and exports in the United States 1900-10?
  3. “The real reason why Americans are more likely to hold their own where machinery is much used and where hand labor plays a comparatively small part in the expenses of production is”—what? Answer and explain.
  4. “Would it be a reasonable law to prohibit the importation of all foreign wines merely to encourage the making of claret and burgundy in Scotland? But if there would be a manifest absurdity in turning towards any employment thirty times more of the capital and industry of the country than would be necessary to purchase from foreign countries an equal quantity of the commodities wanted, there must be an absurdity, though not altogether so glaring, yet exactly of the same kind, in turning towards any such employment a thirtieth, or even a three-hundredth part more of either. Whether the advantages which one country has over another be natural or acquired is in this respect of no consequence. As long as the one country has those advantages, and the other wants them, it will always be more advantageous for the latter rather to buy of the former than to make. It is an acquired advantage only, which one artificer has over his neighbor, who exercises another trade; and yet they both find it more advantageous to buy of one another than to make what does not belong to their particular trades.”
    Who wrote this passage? [A. The quote is from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.] Is there a manifest absurdity? Is it of “exactly the same kind” in the second case stated [a thirtieth or three-hundredth part]? Is it of no consequence whether the advantages of a given country be natural or acquired?
  5. In what way, if at all, does the existence of “non-competing groups” within a country operate to make the country’s international trade different from what it would be if there were no such groups?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 10, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1920-22.

Image Source: Frank Taussig, March 22, 1917. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Fields Harvard Sociology

Harvard. History/Government/Economics Division A.B. Examinations, 1917-18

 

Not all possible specific examination fields were selected in 1918. In particular it is worth noting that Economic Theory and Application and Agricultural Economics were apparently not chosen for examination.

_______________________

Previous Division A.B. Exams from Harvard

Division Exams 1916

Division Exams, January 1917

Division Exams 1931

Specific Exam for Money and Government Finance, 1939

Specific Exam Economic History Since 1750, 1939

Specific Exam for Economic Theory, 1939

Specific Exam for Labor and Social Reform, 1939

_______________________

DIVISION EXAMINATION

Beginning with the Class of 1917, students concentrating in the Division of History, Government, and Economics will, at the close of their college course and as a prerequisite to the degree of A.B. and S.B., be required to pass an examination upon the field of their concentration. This examination ·will cover the general attainments of each candidate in the field covered by this Division and also his attainments in a specific field of study. The examination will consist of three parts:—

(a) A general examination, designed to ascertain the comprehensive attainment of the candidate in the subjects of this Division. The paper will be the same for all students, but there will be a large number of alternative questions to allow for differences in preparation.

(b) A special examination, which will test the student’s grasp of his chosen specific field (see list of fields below). The candidate will be expected to show a thorough understanding of the subject of this field; knowledge of the content of courses only will not suffice. The examination will be upon a subject, not upon a group of courses.

(c) An oral examination, supplementary to either or both of the written examinations, but ordinarily bearing primarily upon the candidate’s specific field. The specific field should ordinarily be chosen from the following list, which indicates also the courses bearing most directly upon each field. In special cases other fields or combinations of fields may be accepted by the Division. This field should be selected by the end of the Sophomore year.

Specific field of concentration:

History

  1. Ancient History
  2. Mediaeval History
  3. Modern History to 1789
  4. Modern History since 1789
  5. American History
  6. History of England
  7. History of France
  8. History of Germany
  9. History of Eastern Europe
  10. History of Spain and Latin America
  11. Economic History
  12. Constitutional and Legal History
  13. History of Religions

Government

  1. Modern Government—American
  2. Modern Government—European
  3. Municipal Government
  4. Political Theory
  5. Constitutional Law
  6. International Law and Diplomacy

Economics

  1. Economic Theory and its Application
  2. Economic History
  3. Economics and Sociology

Applied Economics

  1. Money and Banking
  2. Corporate Organization, including Railroads
  3. Public Finance
  4. Labor Problems
  5. Economics of Agriculture

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1917-18. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIV, No. 25 (May 18, 1917), pp. 78-81.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION GENERAL EXAMINATION
April 23, 1918

PART I

The treatment of one of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-third of the examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on one question only.

  1. Write on three of the following: (a) Cavour, (b) Clay, (c) Cortez, (d) Diaz, (e) Fox, (f) Grotius, (g) Humboldt, (h) Marcus Aurelius, (i) Marshall, (j) Oxenstiern, (k) Turgot, (l) Wyclif.
  2. Does history show that Socialism and Democracy are compatible?
  3. What is meant by (a) “disarmament,” (b) “making the world safe for democracy,” (c) “freedom of the seas”?
  4. What were the effects of mechanical improvements upon national development between 1800 and 1850?
  5. What have been the implications and consequences of Puritanism?
  6. What have been the political and social by-products of the search for gold?
  7. Compare the nature and purposes of conservation in war and in peace.
  8. Trace the development of health service in its national and international aspects. On what grounds should it be supported?
  9. In how far may the rivalry between ancient Rome and Carthage be likened to that of Germany and England at the present day?

PART II

The treatment of one part of the following question will be regarded as equivalent to one-sixth of the examination and should therefore occupy one half-hour.

  1. (a) Mark on the map the territories which compose the British Empire today, and state very briefly in your blue book how and when they were acquired.
    or (b) Indicate clearly upon the map the location of any two of the following five groups:

    1. The chief wheat raising districts of North America in 1850, 1870, 1890, 1910.
    2. The primary sources of the world’s supply of copper, iron, wool, cotton, gold.
    3. The Federal Reserve districts and the location of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks.
    4. The extent of the railway net of the United States in 1850, 1870, and 1890; and the railroad groups as fixed by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
    5. The places or regions with which the following are to be primarily associated: (a) the Homestead strike; (b) the Black Death; (c) the Chartist movement; (d) the Bisbee deportations; (e) the Mooney case; (f) the Populist party.

or (c) Show the progress of Democracy by indicating by consecutive numbers upon the map of the world the chronological order of its spread. Explain why the progress has been as indicated.

PART III

Four questions only from the following groups, A, B, and C, are to be answered, of which two and not more than two questions must be from one group. The remaining questions must be taken, one from each of the other groups, or both from one of the other groups.

A

  1. Trace the history of the relations of the United States to England and France during the presidencies of Washington and of John Adams.
  2. Discuss the following: “The striking and peculiar characteristic of American society is that it is not so much a democracy as a huge commercial company for the discovery, cultivation, and capitalization of its enormous territory.”
  3. Why did the Greeks defeat the Persians, and the Romans the Greeks?
  4. What issues were at stake in the struggle between the mediaeval Emperors and Popes?
  5. Give a brief account of the enfranchisement of the lower classes of the rural population in the principal countries of Western Europe.
  6. What do you understand by the phrase “The enlightened despotism of the eighteenth century”? What names do you connect with it?

B

  1. Give a brief history of the public domain of the Federal Government.
  2. Describe the tariff controversy in Germany before the War. Has the War thrown any light upon any of the arguments employed?
  3. Write a brief analysis of the economic policies of the Federalists.
  4. Discuss: “The nineteenth century was the golden age of the capitalist.”
  5. Sketch the economic and political background of two of the following: (a) the defeat in 1911 of reciprocity with Canada; (b) the creation of the Zollverein; (c) the refusal of a renewal of charter to the First Bank of the United States; (d) the passage of the Clay Compromise Tariff; (e) the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
  6. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of “direct” and legislative action in effecting economic reforms.

C

  1. What political and economic theories have been particularly tested by events since July 1914, and with what results?
  2. Is there any reason why a presidential form of government should be preferable in the United States and a parliamentary or cabinet form in Great Britain?
  3. Give a brief sketch of three of the following, with name of author and date: (1) De Monarchia; (2) On Liberty; (3) The Republic; (4) Looking Backward; (5) De Civitate Dei; (6) Oceana; (7) The City of the Sun; (8) De Jure Belli ac Pacis; (9) Leviathan; (10) Vindiciae contra Tyrannos; (11) The Wealth of Nations.
  4. Compare the public services of two of the following: (a) Louis Blanc; (b) Burke; (c) Cobden; (d) Hamilton; (e) Jackson; (f) Metternich.
  5. Show in what respect and for what reasons any state has become a colonial power.
  6. What should be the method of obtaining peace at the end of the present war according to the principles or theories of one of the following: (a) Aristotle; (b) Cicero; (c) Franklin; (d) Gustavus Adolphus; (e) Lincoln; (f) Machiavelli; (h) Thomas Aquinas.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Modern European History
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions in all, taking at least one from each of the three groups into which the paper is divided.

I

  1. What were the causes of the making and rupture of the Peace of Amiens? Is a similar temporary peace conceivable in the present war?
  2. What were the chief characteristics of the fifteen years immediately succeeding the Peace of Vienna? Can it be fairly argued that the fifteen years following the close of the present war will resemble them?
  3. Note the chief stages in the actual formation of a United Italy. How far did Napoleon III deliberately foster the growth of Italian unity?
  4. Compare the course of events during the three weeks previous to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 with those of the month of July 1914. What do you believe to have been the real object of German diplomacy in each case?
  5. Trace the careers of any two of the following: Blaine, Déak, Gambetta, Mazzini, Palmerston, Pinckney, Sherman, Stein.

II

  1. Who were the most prominent leaders in the States General of 1789, and what were their platforms and policies?
  2. Estimate the attitudes of the chief European powers and of the United States towards the question of Latin American independence.
  3. Give a brief account of the principal events in the history of England’s dealings with Ireland since the time of the French Revolution.
  4. What light is thrown by the history of the revolutionary movements of 1848 upon the relations of the fundamental principles of liberalism and nationality?
  5. What political principles worked at issue in the Carlist Wars?

III

  1. Trace the conflict between Napoleon and Pius VII.
  2. Estimate the influence of the universities upon the development of Germany since the period of the French Revolution.
  3. What light is thrown by the history of England and of the United States on the (a) possibility, (b) desirability of taking the tariff out of politics.
  4. Compare the nature, extent, and causes of social stratification in England, Germany, in the United States.
  5. In how far does the past history of Russia furnish an explanation of her condition today?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
American History
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions in all, taking at least one from each of the three groups into which the paper is divided.

I

  1. Characterize the following colonies at the dates given: Rhode Island, 1640; Delaware, 1650; Louisiana, 1801; Florida, 1815.
  2. What connection may be traced between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution?
  3. Contrast the careers of Bolivar and San Martin.
  4. Describe the military and naval struggles for the control of the Mississippi during the Civil War.
  5. Give a brief account of the relations of Germany and United States from 1860 to 1914.

II

  1. Compare the policies of England, France, and Spain relative to the treatment of the American Indians.
  2. What precedents have there been for a federation of states of Latin America? What are the prospects of such a federation today?
  3. Have the South a constitutional right to secede? How is the answer to this question to be determined?
  4. Does the Monroe doctrine applied to Asiatic as well as to European powers today? Give reasons for your answer.
  5. Comment on, discuss, or explain, as the case may require, four of the following: Dred Scott Decision, Ku-Klux Klan, Gerrymandering, New England Confederation, Tordesillas Line.

III

  1. “American independence was won in the dockyards of Ferrol and Toulon, and not on the battlefields of America.” Explain.
  2. Does the history of the United States show that is (a) desirable or (b) possible to take the tariff out of politics?
  3. Discuss the statement, “The West is preeminently a region of ideals.”
  4. Describe the platforms of the presidential candidates in the election of 1896.
  5. Are the initiative and referendum in accord with the American theory of representative government?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Economic History
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions.

A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Employing historical illustrations, consider the advantages and disadvantages of the principal forms of agricultural land tenure.
  2. Describe and account for the major movements of the price level during the nineteenth century.
  3. Discuss the future of our meat supply.
  4. Draft a set of rules for the graphic presentation of historical series.

B
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. Briefly compare the Industrial Revolution in England and Continental Europe.
  2. What was the effect of the Napoleonic Wars upon American economic development?
  3. Outline the history of the American Silver Dollar.
  4. Write a brief history of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
  5. Trace the course of the relations between organized labor and the railways of the United States.
  6. Sketch the history of one of the following industries in United States (a) tin-plate; (b) fur-seal; (c) beet-sugar; (d) ship-building.
  7. Give a brief account of the economic relations of the United States and South America.

C
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. In what particulars and for what reasons has labor legislation been backward in the United States?
  2. In what respects, if at all, is the present railway situation in the United States a natural development from conditions prevailing before the War?
  3. What conclusions are to be drawn from Germany’s experience with social insurance?
  4. What have been the chief problems of British government finance during the past generation? Wherein will the problems after the War different?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Economics and Sociology
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions.

A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. “The economic forces have no tendency whatever to direct my effort to the most widely important end or the supply of the most urgent individual need.” Discuss.
  2. “Free competition between labor and capital will result in just wages to labor.” Do you agree? What are “just wages”?
  3. Compare past and present theories of the justification of interest.
  4. Analyze the concept of “productivity” in economics.

B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. What statistical studies have been made of standards of living in the United States? What conclusions may be drawn from these studies?
  2. What are the chief causes of infant mortality? What are the most effective preventatives of infant deaths?
  3. Outline the history of poor relief in England. What light does English experience throw up on the relative advantages of “outdoor” and “indoor” relief?
  4. Give a critical account of recent developments in prison reform.

C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. In a few words indicate the most important contributions to sociology by three of the following: (a) Comte; (b) Darwin; (c) Galton; Space (d) Giddings; (e) Kidd; (f) Nietzsche; (g) Spencer; (h) Tarde; (i) Ward.
  2. What is social progress?
  3. Contrast North and Latin American views on the subject of race intermixture.
  4. What influence has the institution of private property upon prevailing tastes and social ideals?
  5. “A nation need not be bound by the scruples that most restrain an individual.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
  6. What are the principal forms of conflict? Upon what grounds are some forms to be preferred to others?
  7. “A strong revival of the more devout forms of religion has followed every great war.” Discuss

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Labor Problems
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions.

A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. “Free competition between labor and capital will result in just wages to labor.” Do you agree? What are “Just wages”?
  2. Who ultimately bears the burden of a system of industrial insurance?
  3. What are the principal difficulties encountered in the collection of wage statistics?
  4. What are the chief sources of unemployment statistics in the United States?

B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Outline the evolution of the English agricultural laborer.
  2. Trace the history of minimum-wage legislation.
  3. Compare the experiences of the laboring classes in England and Germany during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
  4. Write a brief history of the Industrial Workers of the World.

C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. Discuss “non-competing groups” with reference to (a) sorts of work done; (b) age maximum earnings; (c) approximate scale of earnings in dollars per annum; (d) age of marriage; (e) birth-rates; (f) possibility of transition from group to group.
  2. What are the functions of the employment manager?
  3. What are the characteristics, evils and best treatment of the sweating system?
  4. Discuss the use of the injunction in labor disputes.
  5. Explain and criticize the work of the British labor exchanges. Are there similar organizations in the United States?
  6. Give a critical analysis of the Adamson Law.
  7. Describe the present influence of organized labor in English political and economic life.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Public Finance
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions.

A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Under what conditions is a tax on rented buildings borne by (a) the tenant, (b) the owner, (c) neither?
  2. What accounting problems are involved in budgets for our state governments?
  3. Describe the scope, and estimate the importance, of the work of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research.
  4. What are the chief sources of taxation statistics in the United States?

B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Sketch the history of the United States Post Office.
  2. Outline the history of state income taxes in the United States.
  3. Give a brief account of the use of fiscal monopolies by European governments.
  4. Compare the development of English and German increment taxes.

C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. If you were devising a balanced system of taxation for this country, what taxes would you assign to (a) the federal government, (b) the state governments, (c) the local governments? Give your reasons.
  2. To what extent would national prohibition necessitate changes in existing arrangements for government revenue? What changes would appear to be most desirable?
  3. What special problems are involved in the taxation of forest lands?
  4. Critically compare the taxation of “excess profits” by England, France, and the United States.
  5. “The practice of exempting government bonds from taxation is a pernicious American custom.” Discuss.
  6. What is the case for and against the “service-at-cost” plan of public utility regulation?
  7. From the point of view of public finance, what are the advantages and disadvantages of centralization of administrative powers?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Corporate Organization, including Railroads
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions.

A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. What are the social gains and losses of speculation on the stock exchanges?
  2. Discuss comparatively the public regulation of railway accounts in England, France, and the United States.
  3. The following data have been given for the freight service of a group of American railroads during December the past two years:
1916 1917
Tons per loaded car mile 26.5 29.2
Miles per car day 25.4 21.3
Per cent loaded car miles 69.8 70.9

How did the freight car performance of December, 1917, compare with that of December, 1916? What proportion of the changes is to be assigned to each factor?

  1. What difficulties are involved in a satisfactory definition of the following objects of statistical inquiry (a) manufacturers; (b) establishment; (c) capital; (d) employee; (e) wages?

B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Give an account of an important corporate reorganization.
  2. Describe the evolution of the German kartell.
  3. Outline a history of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
  4. Briefly characterize the business careers of two of the following: (a) Andrew Carnegie; (b) E. H. Harriman; (c) James J. Hill; (d) Robert Owen; (e) Werner Siemens; (f) James Watt.

C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. What problems are involved in public regulation of security issues?
  2. Discuss the opening price association with reference to (a) its nature; (b) the reasons for its appearance; (c) its legal status; (d) its probable future.
  3. Discuss the consequences of the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company.
  4. Describe this criticize the Federal corporation tax.
  5. Analyze critically the present railroad situation in the United States.
  6. Consider the case for and against the “service-at-cost” plan for regulating local transit systems.
  7. What light is German experience throw up on the advantages and disadvantages of the government ownership of railways?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Money and Banking
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions.

A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. What is the relation of (a) investment banking, (b) commercial banking, to capitalistic production?
  2. Draft an income or profit and loss statement suitable for a large commercial bank.
  3. Discuss the equation of exchange with respect to (a) its formulation; (b) the possibility of its statistical verification; (c) its bearing upon the theory of prices.
  4. Describe a business barometer for banks with reference to (a) the purposes it may serve; (b) the method of construction; (c) the best available statistical method.

B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. At what times, and in what forms, has the “money question” been a political issue in the United States? Why is it no longer an issue?
  2. What factors contributed to the adoption by Germany of the single gold standard?
  3. Contrast, in outline, the history of banking in Canada and the United States.
  4. Give an account of the panic of 1890.

C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. “The maintenance of a monetary standard is a banking and not a government function.” Discuss.
  2. What was the trade dollar? What monetary principles were illustrated by experience with this coin?
  3. “The idle hoard of silver dollars at Washington is a serious defect in our monetary system.” Discuss. What obstacles stand in the way of any change in this feature of the system?
  4. Give a critical analysis of the working of the Federal Reserve System.
  5. Compare the conduct of banking in England and Germany since the beginning of the War.
  6. Discuss the financial problems involved in the floatation of an immense government war loan.
  7. Briefly describe and explain the foreign exchanges since July, 1914, in two of the following countries: (a) England; (b) Germany; (c) Italy; (d) Russia; (e) Switzerland; (f) United States.

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
American Government
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions of which three questions must be from one group, two must be from another group, and one must be from the remaining group.

A

  1. What constitutional principles of the United States have exercised the most potent influence in the development of Latin America?
  2. Has the strain upon the Government of the United States since 1914 shown the need of amendment of the Constitution?
  3. “The great and radical vice in the construction of the existing Confederation (the United States of America, 1781) is in the principle of Legislation for States or Governments, in their corporate or collective capacities, and as contradistinguished from the Individuals of which they consist.” Discuss this statement with reference to its general validity and its applicability to problems of international reconstruction.
  4. Give three examples of “political questions.” What is the attitude of the courts toward such questions which have been brought before the courts?
  5. Compare the theories of the American constitutional system held by two of the following: Calhoun, Webster, Marshall, the Supreme Court in 1868.
  6. What has been the character of recent constitution making and has it brought about the desired results?

B

  1. Are the initiative and referendum in accord with the American theory of representative government?
  2. “Foreign politics demand scarcely any of those qualities which a democracy possesses; and they require, on the contrary, the perfect use of almost all those faculties in which it is deficient.” Discuss the above.
  3. Why has the United States acquired non-contiguous territory and what has been the effect of this acquisition upon subsequent national policy?
  4. Show the effects of the ideals of two Americans upon the development of the United States.
  5. Should the Government in a democratic country be prohibited by the Constitution from concluding treaties which would require it to go to war in certain contingencies?
  6. What is the responsible government? To what extent does it exist in Germany, the United States, France?

C

  1. What organ has the authority to interpret and to alter the Constitution in the following countries: the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France?
  2. Describe three methods by which state constitutions in the United States have been amended. In case a state constitution contains no provision for its own amendment and a majority of the citizens desire a change, what should be done?
  3. How far should the Government of the United States engage in manufacturing in time of war?
  4. What is the best method of selecting judges? Discuss with illustrations from the practice of the United States.
  5. How should the relations among the states of the American hemisphere be made more satisfactory?
  6. Congress (1) appropriates $500,000 for a national laboratory of chemical research, (2) passes a law regulating the hours of railway employees, (3) provides for the punishment of crimes committed on United States vessels at sea. What, if any, constitutional authority is there for these acts?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
International Law
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions.

A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Discuss and illustrate the statement of Grotius: “To pretend to have a right to injure another, merely out of a possibility that he injure us, is repugnant to all the justice in the world.”
  2. Explain the origin and development of exterritoriality.
  3. Is there anything in the literature and experience of ancient Greece of practical value for the statement who will take part in settling the present world crisis? Why?
  4. Write upon three of the following: (a) Bynkershoek, (b) Gentilis, (c) Pufendorf, (d) Selden, (e) Vattel, (f) Wicquefort.
  5. What periods are significant for the development of international relations, and explain the most important factors in each period.

B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.

  1. Would it be possible to treat the foreign policies declared by Washington, Monroe, Polk, and Wilson as the development of permanent principles?
  2. In a protest to Sweden of August 30, 1916, the British government said: “The decree of the 14th July, 1916, reserving the route arranged through the mine-field established in the Kogrund passage to Swedish merchant vessels only, does not seem to be compatible with the provisions of Article 9 of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation of the 18th March, 1826, which secure to British merchant vessels in Swedish waters the treatment accorded to the most favored nation, in this case Italy, whose merchant vessels are permitted, in virtue of Article 3 of the Treaty of the 14th June, 1862, to participate in navigation of the coasts and to trade between Swedish ports on the same footing as Swedish vessels.”
    What defense for Sweden?
  3. To what extent and why should the integrity of small states be maintained?
  4. Granting that all Hague Conventions are in force, would a case such as that of the Alabama be similarly decided at the present time?
  5. What is the importance of the blockade as a method of warfare?

C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.

  1. How far does territorial propinquity justify one state in assuming authority over another? Illustrate by examples.
  2. “If a belligerent cannot retaliate against an enemy without injuring the lives of neutrals, as well as their property, humanity, as well as justice and a due regard for the dignity of neutral powers should dictate that the practice be discontinued.” Should this statement be qualified?
  3. Give a sketch of the questions involving international law arising from the relations of the United States and Mexico, 1912 to 1916.
  4. A was born in New York City of German parentage in 1875. He visited Germany in 1885 and returned in 1886. In 1897, on board an English steamer bound from New York to Russia, he entered the port of Hamburg but did not leave the steamer. The German police came on board and declined to allow the steamer to leave port until Mr. A should surrender, claiming Mr. A had evaded military service.
    Mr. A appeals to the ambassador of the United States. The master of the British vessel appeals to the British ambassador.
  5. What regulations should be made for the conduct of submarine warfare?
  6. States X and Y are at war. Neutral state M issues neutrality regulations forbidding all belligerent armed merchant vessels from entering its ports.
    When the war has progressed for two years.

    1. State X, being unable to import munitions of war, since its commerce has been driven from the seas, protests to state M that observance of neutrality requires that M forbid all export of munitions of war to belligerents.
    2. State Y, finding it expedient to arm its merchant vessels for defense against unwarded attacks by enemy submarines, protests that armed merchant vessels should not be excluded from the ports of M.
      What answer should M make to these protests?
  7. The case of the Three Friends.
  8. The treaty of 1871 between the United States and Italy guarantees to the citizens of either nation in the territory of the other “the most constant protection and security for their persons and property.” Property of Italian citizens is destroyed in a riot in New Orleans due to negligence on the part of the local policy authorities. What remedies may the sufferers pursue?

_______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Municipal Government
April 26, 1918

Answer six questions of which three questions must be from one group, two must be from another group, and one must be from the remaining group.

A

  1. How far have American cities adopted the budget plan and has it proven satisfactory?
  2. Describe the general characteristics of the cities of the twelfth centuries.
  3. Compare city government in France and Prussia as to (a) organization, (b) autonomy, (c) administrative efficiency, (d) popular control.
  4. Compare the principles underlying the different systems of municipal suffrage.
  5. Explain the following terms (a) borough, (b) prefect, (c) rates, (d) syndikus, (e) Local Government Board, (f) Bürgermeister.
  6. In what countries and to what extent may city officers be appointed or selected from non-residents?

B

  1. Where, how far, and with what success has the principle of the owner’s personal liability for fires been tried?
  2. To what extent should the following be controlled by the city: (a) education, (b) poor relief, (c) liquor licenses?
  3. Should a municipality own or control the railway terminals within its limits?
  4. (a) What is the most satisfactory system of municipal taxation and why?
    (b) Should a city levy an income tax?
  5. Should the system of initiative and referendum prevail in cities under commission form of government?
  6. Should the police force in cities of over 100,000 population be under the control of the city, state, or national government?

C

  1. Discuss the following propositions:
    1. To establish a municipal piggery for disposing of the city garbage.
    2. To establish a free ferry between parts of a municipality on opposite sides of a bay.
  2. Illustrate by reference to municipalities the methods of control and regulation of lighting.
  3. How and why should sanitation and health regulations differ in rural and urban communities?
  4. What has been the attitude of the courts in regard to protection of the claims of private individuals under municipal zoning ordinances?
  5. What are the most satisfactory building regulations, and in what cities are they in effect?
  6. What is the case for and against the “service-at-cost” plan for public utilities?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Divisional and general examinations, 1915-1975.  Box 6. Bound volume [from the private library of Arthur H. Cole]: Divisional Examinations, 1916-1927. Division of History, Government and Economics for the Degree of A.B. Division Examinations, 1917-18.

Image Source: Widener Library, 1915. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Digital ID:  cph 3c14486

 

 

Categories
Chicago Economists Sociology Statistics

Chicago (1907-08). Economist turned Epidemiologist, Edgar Sydenstricker

The last name “Sydenstricker” is certainly not all-too-common which is probably a reason that it lodged in my memory after I transcribed the 25th anniversary of the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Economy. Elgar Sydenstricker was included there in the list of “Fellows of Political Economy”. Nonetheless, I had no record of him ever completing a Ph.D. there (he never did).

With the coming of the Covid-19 pandemic, I thought it might be worth a look to see which economists (if any), were involved in the scientific analysis of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. The name “Edgar Sydenstricker” was everywhere. And yes, it was the University of Chicago ABD, Edgar Sydenstricker.

I realized there was a significant gap in my rather exclusive focus on Ph.D. academic economists. Someone like Edgar Sydenstricker had an academic economist’s training, but he was not part of the self-perpetuating caste of economics professors.

With the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, Edgar Sydenstricker became a leading statistician in the efforts to advance epidemiology.  Today’s post gives information about his career and publications.

Fun fact: his younger sister was Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1938 Nobel Prize in literature).

______________________

Best single source about Edgar Sydenstricker
(includes a bibliography)

Kasius R.V., ed. The challenge of facts. Selected public health papers of Edgar Sydenstricker. New York: Prodist, for the Milbank Memorial Fund, 1974.

Wiehl, D.G. Edgar Sydenstricker: a memoir. pp. 1-17.

______________________

Edgar Sydenstricker’s Time-line.
(b. July 15, 1881 in Shanghai; d. Mar 19, 1936 in New York City).

Parents were missionaries from West Virginia, Rev. Dr. Absalom and Caroline Stulting Sydenstricker.

1896. Edgar Sydenstricker came to United States

1900. A.B., Fredericksburg College (Virginia).

1902. M.A. (honors) in sociology and economics at Washington and Lee.

1902-1905. High school principal in Onancock, Virginia

1905.  Editor of the Daily Advance in Lynchburg, Virginia

1907-08. Graduate study at University of Chicago [fellow in political economy]

1908-1915. United States Immigration Commission and Commission on Industrial Relations. Extensive surveys of wages, working conditions, and scales of living of industrial workers, especially in industries with large numbers of foreign born.

1915. Joins United States Public Health Service as first statistician ever. He was hired to assist Dr. B. S. Warren [studied health and economic status of garment workers in New York City, sickness insurance in Europe].

1916-20. Sydenstricker and Joseph Goldberger studied causes of pellagra in the American South.

1917. Elected member of the American Statistical Association.

1918. With Wade Hampton Frost research on statistics of influenza [papers by Sydenstricker, Wade Hampton Frost, Selwyn D. Collins, Rolo H. Britten and others at the Public Health Service giving “a most comprehensive history of influenza from 1910 to 1930”].

1920. Appointed head of Office of Statistical Investigations.

1921. Begins Hagerstown Morbidity Survey [which later became the U.S. National Health ].

1922. Becomes fellow of the American Statistical Association

1923. League of Nations invited him to establish the Epidemiological Service of the Health Organization.

1925. Consultant to Milbank Memorial Fund

1928. Director of research of Milbank Memorial Fund.

1931-34. Represented ASA at Social Science Research Council.

1935. Scientific director of Milbank Memorial Fund

1936, March 19. Died of cerebral hemorrhage.

______________________

The important influenza studies of the Public Health Reports, U.S.

United States Treasury Department and the Public Health Service. Influenza Morbidity and Mortality Studies, 1910-1935. Reprints from the Public Health Reports. Washington: USGPO, 1938.

Influenza-pneumonia mortality in a group of about 95 cities in the United States, 1920-29. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1355, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 45, No. 8 (February 21, 1930), pp. 361-406.

Influenza and pneumonia mortality in a group of about 95 cities in the United States during four minor epidemics, 1930-35, with a summary for 1920-35. By Selwyn D. Collins and Mary Gover. Reprint 1720, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 50, No. 48 (November 29, 1935), pp. 1668-1689.

Mortality from influenza and pneumonia in 50 large cities of the United States, 1910-29. By Selwyn D. Collins, W. H. Frost, Mary Gover, and Edgar Sydenstricker. Reprint 1415, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 45, No. 39 (September 26, 1930), pp. 2277-2328.

Excess mortality from causes other than influenza and pneumonia during influenza epidemics. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1553, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 47, No. 46 (November 11, 1932), pp. 2159-2179.

The incidence of influenza among persons of different economic status during the epidemic of 1918. By Edgar Sydenstricker. Reprint 1444, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 46, No. 4 (January 23, 1931), pp. 154-170.

Age and sex incidence of influenza and pneumonia morbidity and mortality in the epidemic of 1928-29 with comparative data for the epidemic of 1918-19. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1500, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 46, No. 33 (August 14, 1931), pp. 1909-1937.

The influenza epidemic of 1928-29 in 14 surveyed localities in the United States. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1606, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 49, No. 1 (January 5, 1934), pp. 1-42.

______________________

Other Sydenstricker articles on public health

Edgar Sydenstricker. Existing Agencies for Health Insurance in the United States,” in U.S. Department of Labor, Proceedings of the Conference on Social Insurance, 1916 (Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1917), pp. 430-75.

Edgar Sydenstricker. Preliminary Statistics of the Influenza Epidemic, in Epidemic Influenza. Prevalence in the United States. Public Health Reports. Vol. 33, No. 52 ( December 27, 1918), pp. 2305-2321.

Sydenstricker, E., King W.I.A. A method for classifying families according to incomes in studies of disease prevalence. Public Health Reports 1920; 35: 2828-2846.

Sydenstricker, E. Health and Environment. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1933.

Sydenstricker, E. Health and the Depression. Milbank Memorial Fund Q 1934; 12:273-280.

Sydenstricker, E. The incidence of illness in a general population group: General results of a morbidity study from December 1, 1921 through March 31, 1924 in Hagerstown, Md. Public Health Reports. 1925; 40: 279-291.

Milbank Memorial Fund. Program of the Division of Research 1928-1940. (1941)

 

Image Source:  Portrait of Edgar Sydenstricker in Washington and Lee University Yearbook The Calyx, 1902.

Categories
Australia Economics Programs Suggested Reading

Melbourne. History, Constitutional Law, Political Economy, Philosophy Examination Fields. Elkington, 1899

 

Serendipity led me to the University of Melbourne archives where there turns out to be a considerable amount of digitised material from the University’s history. I figured I’d take a quick look at turn of the century (as in 1899) economics offerings in the land down under. I’ve transcribed the lists of readings for examinations there in economics and related fields. I have even added links to all the items for our collective convenience.

The professor of history and political economy at the time was John Simon Elkington who had succeeded  William Edward Hearn, LL.D. Hearn resigned the chair of History and Political Economy in 1873 and died in 1888.

Elkington was not really an economist, even at a time when “economist” was much more inclusive a term than today. Judging from the brief biographical entry for him in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, he appears to have been less a gentleman and a scholar than a dirty old drunkard of the chair whose spectre might haunt some Victorian faculty club to this day. 

_________________________

A Colorful Professor

John Simeon Elkington (b. Nov. 22, 1841 at Rye, Sussex, England; d. June 6, 1922 in Canterbury, Melbourne, Australia)

Elkington was appointed professor of history and political economy at the University of Melbourne 1879 and he retired “by agreement” March 1, 1913. His main field was constitutional history, though his teaching portfolio did include political economy.

“…he was an intense political partisan and a ‘Freetrader of Freetraders’. A gifted raconteur, he ‘interspersed the dry facts of historical research and economic argument with anecdotes and stories’ whose Rabelaisian quality had to be censored when women students entered the university… Gregarious by nature, he attracted interesting people: ‘he has known everybody and is full of anecdotes and incidents about the leading men in Victorian life’. Bankruptcies in 1892 and 1895 after speculating in land and mining, as well as his inordinate thirst, created problems for the university.”

Source: Norman Harper, ‘Elkington, John Simeon (1841–1922)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/elkington-john-simeon-6100/text10451, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 4 June 2020.

_________________________

From the University of Melbourne Calendar 1899

ARTS AND SCIENCE.

DETAILS OF SUBJECTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS TO BE HELD IN THE EXAMINATION TERM, 1899

POLITICAL ECONOMY—

Books recommended in addition to the various references to other works given in the Lectures: —

Hearn—Plutology.
Walker—Political Economy.

So far as treated in the Lectures:

Marshall—Principles of Economics.
Adam Smith—Wealth of Nations.

Additional for Honours.

Bagehot—Economic Studies.
Mill—Political Economy, Books I. and V.
Mill—Logic, Book VI.
Spencer—Principles of Sociology, Part II.
Spencer—Study of Sociology.

[p. 228]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

DEDUCTIVE LOGIC—

The Course will include the following subjects: —The scope and definition of Deductive (or Formal) Logic; the Primary Logical Laws; the formation and characteristics of general notions; Terms, Propositions, and Reasonings, in connection with the questions and exercises in the text-books; recent criticisms and proposed extensions of the traditional logic; Symbolic Logic; and Fallacies.

Pass.

Books recommended: —

Jevons—Elementary Lessons in Logic.
Keynes—Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic, Parts I. II., and III.
Whately—Logic, Book III.

The Examination will include Exercises to test the Candidate’s skill in applying the logical rules.

Additional for Honours.

Veitch—Institutes of Logic, Part I.
Keynes—Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic, Part IV.

INDUCTIVE LOGIC—

Mill’s Logic, critically treated with reference to the views of other logicians, will be used as the principal text-book. In considering Books I. and II., prominence will be given to the Psychology of Judgment and of Reasoning; and Book III. Will be made the basis of a full treatment of the Logic of Induction.

This subject does not presuppose a previous knowledge of Deductive Logic.

Books recommended: —

Mill—Logic. [Part I, Books I-III; Part II, Books IV-VI]
Jevons—Principles of Science [Volume I; Volume II], so far as referred to in Lectures.
(Fowler’s Inductive Logic may be read with advantage prior to the study of Mill’s Logic.)

Additional for Honours.

Venn—Empirical Logic.

[pp. 234-235]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

MORAL PHILOSOPHY—

Candidates will be expected to show—

(i.) A general knowledge of the History of Moral Philosophy.

(ii.) A critical acquaintance with the following works: —

Butler—Dissertation on Virtue and Sermons on Human Nature.
Kant—Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals.
J.S. Mill—Utilitarianism; with references to Bentham.
Herbert Spencer—Data of Ethics.

[p. 236]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

SUBJECTS OF EXAMINATIONS FOR FINAL HONOURS AND SCHOLARSHIPS TO BE HELD IN THE FIRST TERM, 1900.

(2.) — SCHOOL OF HISTORY, INCLUDING CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY AND LAW, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Ancient History.
The History of the British Empire.
The Character and Method of the Social Sciences.
The Principles of Political Economy.
Constitutional and Legal History.

Books recommended: —

The books and references mentioned under Ancient History, History of the British Empire, Parts I. and II., Political Economy and Constitutional and Legal History.

Mommsen—History of Rome, Book I.; Book II., ch. 1, 2, 3, 8, 9.
Spencer—Principles of Sociology, Part V. and Part VIII.
Seebohm—The English Village Community.
Stubbs—Constitutional History [Volume I; Volume II; Volume III].
Lord Playfair—Subjects of Social Welfare, Part II., articles 1-7.
Edmund Burke—Thoughts on the cause of the present discontents, and the two speeches on America.
Cunningham—Growth of English Industry and Commerce (2nd edition). [Volume I (1890); Volume II (1892)]
Lecky—History of England in the Eighteenth Century. [Volume I; Volume II; Volume III; Volume IV; Volume V; Volume VI; Volume VII; Volume VIII]
Spencer—First Principles, Part II., ch. 12-17 (3rd edition).
The article Political Economy in the current edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (published separately). [Vol. 19 of the 9th edition, article written by J.K.I. (John Kells Ingram)]

(3.) —SCHOOL OF LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY.

Papers will be set in the following subjects: —

  1. FORMAL LOGIC—

Veitch—Institutes of Logic, Part I.
Keynes—Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic.
Venn—Symbolic Logic.

The Examination will include exercises in Formal and Symbolic Logic.

  1. INDUCTIVE LOGIC—

Mill—Logic. [Part I, Books I-III; Part II, Books IV-VI]
Venn—Empirical Logic.

  1. PSYCHOLOGY—

Psychology of the senses and Intellect.
Lotze—Metaphysics, Book III. (Psychology).

  1. METAPHYSICS—

Kant—Critique of Pure Reason.
E. Caird—Metaphysic (Article, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Republished in Essays on Literature and Philosophy [Vol. II]).

  1. MORAL PHILOSOPHY—

Aristotle—Nicomachean Ethics.
Spencer—Data of Ethics.
Green—Prolegomena to Ethics.

  1. HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY—

The History of Modern Philosophy, from Descartes to Kant inclusive.

[pp. 252-253]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS TO BE HELD IN THE FIRST TERM, 1900.

A. — SCHOOL OF HISTORY, INCLUDING CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY AND LAW, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.

The History of the Middle Ages.

The Practical Applications (as stated by the principal Economic Writers) of the Principles of Political Economy.

Constitutional History and Law.

Books recommended: —

Bryce—Holy Roman Empire.
Gibbon—Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Dr. Smith’s edition), ch. 49-71 [Volume VI; Volume VII; Vol. VIII].
Hallam—Middle Ages, except ch. 8 [Volume I; Volume II; Volume III].
Mill—Political Economy, Books III., IV., V.
Cliffe Leslie—Essays in Political and Moral Philosophy.
Herbert Spencer—Principles of Ethics, Part IV., and The Man versus The State.
Giffen—Essays in Finance.
Walker—Wages Question.

Bachelors of Arts who graduated before 1st April, 1896, may substitute this work for Constitutional History and Law.

Sir H.S. Maine—Dissertations on Early Law and Custom.
The following Articles in the current edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica: —Equity, Fictions, International Law, Law, Treaties.

B. —SCHOOL OF LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY.

Any four of the Papers set for the Final Honour Examination in the same Term.

[pp. 257-258]

Source:  University of Melbourne. Library, Digitised-Collections. University of Melbourne Calendar 1899.

Image Source: Professor John Simeon Elkington. Copy in the University of Melbourne Archives from Photo N. 4. Alma Mater, Supplement (April 1, 1896).

 

Categories
Chicago Economists Gender Iowa

Iowa State. Economics PhD alumna, Alison Comish Thorne, 1939

 

This post is the result of some rummaging in the Iowa State University economics department website, hoping to find material on Albert Gailord Hart for the previous post. While it appears that Hart came and went with hardly a footprint in the Iowa State (web-)sand, I did discover a very nice historical timeline for the Iowa State economics department. Moseying down that timeline, I made the acquaintance of the first economics Ph.D. at Iowa State College, Alison Comish Thorne. Obviously she has meet the membership requirement to be included in our series “Meet an economics Ph.D. alumna”, so I left the Iowa State economics website to search for more about Alison Comish Thorne’s life and career.

Of particular interest for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is the account of her graduate student experience, especially pp. 24-42 of her autobiography (jstor access required) Leave the Dishes in the Sink (2002). A copy of Alison Comish Thorne’s c.v. is available at a special Utah State University library webpage memorializing her contributions.

_____________________

Selected Early and Late Publications

Thorne, Alison Comish. Capacity to Consume, American Economic Review vol. 26, no. 2 (June, 1936), pp. 292-5.

__________________. Evaluations of Consumption in Modern Thought. Economics Ph.D. thesis, Iowa State College, 1938.

__________________. Evaluations of Consumption in Scale-of-Living Studies, Social Forces vol. 19, no. 4 (May, 1941), 510-518.

__________________. Women mentoring women in economics in the 1930s, in Mary Ann Dimand, Robert W. Dimand, and Evelyn L. Forget, eds. Women of Value: Feminist Essays in the History of Women in Economics (Brookfield: Edward Elgar, 1995), pp. 60-70.

__________________. Leave the Dishes in the Sink—Adventures of an Activist in Conservative Utah. (University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press, 2002).

_____________________

From the Economics Department Timeline, Iowa State University

Alison Comish Thorne received first PhD

The Doctor of Philosophy in general economics was first offered in 1937; the first PhD was granted to Alison Comish Thorne in 1939. She was the first woman student in the Iowa State economics department to attempt a PhD.

Thorne’s dissertation entitled “Evaluations of Consumption in Modern Thought” was written under Elizabeth Hoyt and Margaret Reid. In the process of working on her PhD, Thorne had an interim year at the University of Chicago, where she studied under Hazel Kyrk.

Thorne’s father, himself an economics PhD, authored a pioneer book in consumer economics and had been a doctoral candidate with Theodore Schultz at the University of Wisconsin.

Alison Comish had married Wynne Thorne in 1937. After earning her PhD at Iowa State, her academic career was delayed not only by the arrival of their five children, but also by anti-nepotism rules at Utah State University, where her husband had become head of agronomy and then director of the ag experiment station and vice president for university research. In addition to being a full-time wife and mother of five, she held state and local elected and appointed positions, served on the Governor’s Committee on the Status of Women, and wrote on employment of women and on poverty. These contributions have been recognized by distinguished service awards from several of these boards and councils and from Utah State University, the American Association of University Women, Business and Professional Women, and Soroptomists. She also received the Governor’s Award for Community Service.

Because administrators’ spouses were not allowed on the faculty, she did not join the USU faculty until 1965, aided in part by the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. She began teaching after an invitation from a professor in the College of Family Life.

After playing a key role in organizing the newly created federal war on poverty programs in Utah, Thorne was invited to teach classes in the USU Sociology Department, as well. Thus, she became a lecturer in sociology, home economics, and consumer education at Utah State University at age 51, 28 years after earning her PhD. She was ineligible for tenure because she insisted on keeping her teaching just under half time in order to give time to her family and to community work.

After joining the staff of USU, she helped initiate the Status of Women Committee and the introductory course in women’s studies, which she taught for more than ten years. She organized and became the first coordinator of Women in International Development (WID).

She continued teaching and doing community work and in 1985, after a university-wide blue-ribbon committee reviewed her credentials, she was promoted to full professor. Because of her age she became “professor emeritus.” With a twinkle in her eye she remarked that she is the only person in the history of Utah State University to leap from lecturer to full professor in one fell swoop.

Of her five children, none became economists, although three became professors. Two of these professors are mothers with husbands in academia, something that would have been impossible in the 1930s.

Source:  Iowa State University, Department of Economics. Compiled by D. Gruca from official university publications and departmental files as well as

I. W. Arthur, “Development of the Field of Economics at Iowa State.”
Nancy Wolff and Jim Hayward, “The Historical Development of the Department of Economics at Iowa State, 1929 to 1985.”
G. Shepherd,“History of Economics at ISU.”

[Also Note: Jim Hayward and Nancy Wolff. The Historical Development of the Department at Iowa State University, 1869-1928.]

_____________________

Women of Caliber, Women of Cache Valley: Alison Comish Thorne

A Woman of Quality

Alison Comish Thorne challenged established perceptions of “womanhood” in order to instigate social change, and admonished other women of her generation to do the same. In a speech she gave in 1949, Alison encouraged women to “let the dishes wait.” She did not want women to lose their sense of personal identity as they fulfilled their roles as wives and mothers. She argued that women should not judge themselves or other women based on the tidiness of their homes. Alison demonstrated for women of Cache Valley that achieving an education and pursuing a career while being a wife and mother could be a reality. She balanced her professional responsibilities with her family duties and received personal fulfilment from both.

Alison was a trailblazer in the world of female higher education. Her pursuit for higher education began at a young age. In 1930, at sixteen years old, Alison attended Brigham Young University. In 1934, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Education. Then, in 1935, she earned a Master’s degree in Consumption Economics from Iowa State University. In 1938, Alison became the first woman to receive a Ph. D. in Consumption Economics from Iowa State University.

Second Wave Feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment

Ahead of her time, Alison brought second wave feminism to Cache Valley. Along with many other women during the mid-twentieth century, Alison took upon herself the legacy of Alice Paul, an early-twentieth century suffragette and author of the original Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). When first introduced in 1923, the original ERA championed for both men’s and women’s rights, but took into consideration “women’s distinct needs.” The amendment’s objective was to establish men and women as equal under the law and focused on the right of women to compete equally with men in “all aspects of social and economic life.” Alice Paul opposed “protective legislation”—gender based laws written with the intention of “protecting” women from exploitation that, in reality, prevented women from pursuing work in particular professions, limited the number of hours they were allowed to work, and restricted pay rates. Despite Alice Paul’s valiant effort, the amendment did not pass.[1]

“Equality does not mean sameness.”

The ERA Alison promoted offered an updated version of Paul’s original amendment. Alison’s version of the ERA raised the issues of access to higher education, participation in the draft, and sexual discrimination within the Social Security program. In a draft for a pamphlet designed to promote the ERA in Utah to ratify, Alison explained, “The Amendment supports the constitutional equality for women and the extension of legal rights, privileges, and responsibilities regardless of sex.”

Similar to the movement in the Progressive Era, the ERA movement of the 1970s faced fierce competition from conservative groups such as “Humanitarians Opposed to Degrading Our Girls” (HOTDOG), “International Women’s Year” (IWY), and “Women for Maintaining the Difference between the Sexes and Against the Equal Rights Amendment.” In a pamphlet for the 1977 IWY Convention, the association announced that it opposed the ERA because the amendment “would provide undefined limits of governmental power over the lives of its citizens.” The IWY supported the idea that a government should have limited power over its citizens. The LDS church also aggressively campaigned against the ERA, a stance that divided LDS women. By opposing the ERA, many LDS women “outwardly revealed to each other their internal acceptance of the church’s teaching about proper gender roles.” Those who supported the ERA seemingly questioned church doctrine and ignored the counsel of church leadership.[2] Alison tried diligently to reassure members of the church that their religious rights would not be impinged. Equality did not mean that men and women became “the same.” From Alison’s point of view, the ERA provided women equality under the law, protected “traditional” roles of women, and simultaneously offered women more way to navigate life as established definitions of “womanhood” were being challenged.

[1] Amy E. Butler, Two Paths to Equality: Alice Paul and Ethel M. Smith in the ERA Debate, 1921-1929 (New York: University of New York Press, 2002), 1-2.

[2] Neil J. Young, “’The ERA Is a Moral Issue’: The Mormon Church, LDS Women, and the Defeat of the Equal Rights Movement,” American Quarterly 59, 3 (September 2007): 625; O. Kendall White, Jr., “Mormonism and the Equal Rights Amendment,” Journal of Church and State 31.2 J (1989): 249-268.

Source: Utah State University, University Libraries. Digital Exhibit, Women of Caliber, Women of Cache Valley: Alison Comish Thorne.

_____________________

Biographical Note from Archives

Alison Comish Thorne was born May 9, 1914 in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Newel H. and Louise Larson Comish. Her scholarly pursuits began at the age of sixteen when she entered Brigham Young University where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Education in 1934. Thorne received a Master’s degree in Consumption Economics at Iowa State University in 1935. She then pursued doctoral studies at the University of Chicago during 1935-36, before receiving her Ph.D. in 1938 from Iowa State University in the field of Consumption Economics. Her mentors, Elizabeth Ellis Hoyt and Margaret G. Reid, worked with Thorne to help her become the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in this field from ISU. Thorne married D. Wynne Thorne on August 3, 1937 in Salt Lake City.

After the completion of her graduate work, Thorne filled various instructor positions at Colorado State University, Iowa State University, and finally Utah State University. At USU she was given the title of lecturer from 1964 through the 1980s by both USU’s Department of Sociology and the Department of Home Economics and Consumer Education. Due to anti-nepotism laws, Thorne was not allowed to secure a faculty position since her husband was already a faculty member. (Wynne Thorne served as USU’s Head of Agronomy, Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, and the Vice President of University Research.) This setback did not keep Thorne from establishing a solid reputation as a scholar. Thorne played a key role in the founding of the Women’s Studies Program at USU and served as a chair in the Women’s Studies Committee from 1977-1989. In addition, Thorne’s devotion to increasing the opportunity for women can be seen in her involvement in the Women’s Center, the Committee on the Status of Women, as well as the Women and International Development committee.

Moreover, Thorne gave many early feminist speeches, including “Let the Dishes Wait” (1949) and “Leave the Dishes in the Sink” (1973). These speeches encouraged women to focus more on personal hobbies, interests, education, and family rather than maintaining a “perfect” home. As result of her influential work, Thorne has been the recipient of many awards, such as Utah State University’s Distinguished Service Award (1982), Woman of the Year for the Utah Chapter of the American Association of University Women (1967), and Utah Governor’s Award for Volunteer Service (1980). She was also the author of numerous articles and books, including Women in the History of Utah’s Land-grant College (1985), Visible and Invisible Women in Land-grant Colleges (1986), Vision and Rhetoric in Shakespeare: Looking Through Language (2000), Leave the Dishes in the Sink: Adventures of an Activist in Conservative Utah (2002), and Shakespeare’s Romances (2003).

Thorne was active in many organizations during her retirement, such as the Utah State Historical Society, the Utah State Women’s History Association, and the National Women’s Studies Association. Thorne died in 2005 in Logan, Utah.

Source: See Archives West: Utah State University, Papers of Alison Comish Thorne, 1925-2003.

Image Source: Detail from the cover of Alison Comish Thorne’s Leave the Dishes in the Sink (2002).

Categories
Columbia Economist Market Economists Iowa Salaries

Columbia. Hiring Albert Gailord Hart as visiting professor. Bureaucracy light, 1946

 

Up through the academic year 1945-46, Arthur F. Burns offered the first core economic theory course, Economic Analysis (Economics 153-154), in the Columbia graduate program. The following year, 1946-47, the course was taught by the visiting professor of economics (who would be offered and accepted a regular appointment that same year), Albert G. Hart.

Materials from Hart’s core economic courses in his first year at Columbia have been posted earlier.

This post provides a few brief items regarding Albert G. Hart’s initial Columbia appointment. What I was most struck with is the relative brevity of the documentation expected (demanded) by university administrators for a visiting professor appointment.

________________________

From the budget proposals for 1946-47,
Columbia’s salary structure for economics professors

Actual professorial salary appropriations at Columbia for 1945-46
and proposed for 1946-47

Professors:

Robert M. Haig, Leo Wolman, John Maurice Clark, Harold Hotelling:  $9,000

James Waterhouse Angell, Carter Goodrich, Horace Taylor, Arthur F. Burns, Abraham Wald: $7,500

Associate Professors ranged from $4,500 to $7,500.

Assistant Professors ranged from $3, 500 to $4,000

A vacant professorship: for Hart ($7,500) and a slot proposed for a visiting professor of international economics, also budgeted at $7,500.

________________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York

[New York 27, N.Y.]

FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

March 25, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, Acting President,
Columbia University,
213 Low Memorial Library.

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing to advise you that Dr. Albert Gailord Hart, formerly of Iowa State College, has accepted the invitation of the Department of Economics to serve as Visiting Professor of Economics during the academic year 1946-47. Dr. Hart’s salary for the period will be $7,500, chargeable to the vacant professorship in Economics carried in our budget for the year 1946-47.

I am requesting Professor Evans, chairman of the Committee on Instruction of the faculty of Political Science, to take what steps may be necessary in order that Dr. Hart may have a seat on the Faculty of Political Science during the period of his residence.

A brief statement on Dr. Hart’s education and scholarly background is enclosed.

Sincerely,
[signed] Frederick C. Mills

________________________

ALBERT GAILORD HART

Born in 1909.

A.B., Harvard, 1930; Ph.D., Chicago, 1936.

Sheldon Traveling Fellow, 1930-31.

Spent 1934-35 in London.

Title of Doctoral dissertation: Anticipations, business planning, and the cycle.

Full professor, Iowa State College, Department of Economics, 1944-45.

At present on research staff, Committee on Economic Development.

Major interests: Economic theory, public finance, consumption, business fluctuations.

Publications:

Debts and recovery (Twentieth Century Fund, 1938)
Paying for defense (with E. D. Allen and others). 1941.
The social framework of the American economy. (with J. R. Hicks). 1945.

Lectured in California, 1936, and served at one time as Economic Analyst with the United States Department of the Treasury.

Source:  Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Archives. Central Files 1890-. Box 396, Folder “Mills, Frederick Cecil”.

Image Source:  Columbia University Record, vol. 23, no. 5 (Oct. 3, 1997).