Month: August 2020

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Cambridge Chicago Economists LGBTQ Northwestern

Chicago. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, “gay godfather” and mentor. Roger Weiss, 1955

Milton Friedman wrote a recommendation for two University of Chicago economics graduate students to receive fellowships from the Earhart Foundation in 1953. Friedman’s letter was transcribed for the previous post that focussed on Gary Becker, who was the unambiguous first choice in Friedman’s eyes. In addition to adding to our stock of economics Ph.D. alumna/us stories, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror introduces the LGBTQ label here with Friedman’s second candidate for an Earhart Foundation fellowship, Roger William Weiss (Chicago, Ph.D., 1955). 

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Roger William Weiss. (1930-1991) Dissertation “Exchange Control in Britain, 1939-1952”, Ph.D. awarded Winter Quarter 1955.

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AEA Profile from 1969

WEISS, Roger William, academic; b. Bronxville, N.Y., 1930 stud., Northwestern U., 1946-48; M.A., U. Chicago, 1951, Ph.D. 1955; stud., Cambridge U., Eng., 1951-52. COC.DIS. “The British Exchange Controls, 1939-52,” 1954. PUB. “Economic Nationalism in Britain in the Nineteenth Century” (H.G. Johnson, Ed.), Econ. Nationalism in Old and New States, 1967; The Economic System, 1969; “The Case for Federal Meat Inspection Examined,” Jour. Of Law and Econs., Oct. 1964. RES. American Colonial Monetary System. Asst. prof., Vanderbilt U., 1953-57; pres., N. Weiss & Co., Inc., 1957-63; asso. Prof., U. Chicago since 1966. ADDRESS 1415 E. 54th St., Chicago, IL 60615.

Source: The American Economic Review, Vol. 59, No. 6, 1969 Handbook of the American Economic Association (Jan., 1970), p. 467.

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U. of Chicago obit for Roger W. Weiss

Roger Weiss, AM’51, PhD’55, professor in the social sciences since 1963, died March 7. His specialty was the role of economics in the arts and the international trade of art works. His books included The Economic System and The Weissburgs: A Social History, a history of his own family. He was also a member of the governing board of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Survivors include his mother, Irene, and a brother, John.

Source: University of Chicago Magazine, Vol. 83, No. 5, June 1991, p. 44.

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Roger Weiss and his partner, Howard Brown, in the University of Chicago gay community

Roger Weiss AM 1951, PhD 1955. Professor in the College and division of social sciences. Partner Howard Mayer Brown (1930-1993), Ferdinand Schevill distinguished service professor of music.

Professors Howard Brown and Roger Weiss were “out” by many standards. The University agreed to a “spousal hire” for the couple in the 1960s, and the two hosted parties for gay students and faculty in their home until Roger’s death in 1991, and Howard’s death in 1993. Bob Devendorf (AB 1985, AM 2004) remembered Howard and Roger as “gay godfathers” and mentors, while John DelPeschio (AB 1972) treasured the intergenerational community they fostered: “I felt as if I were entering a more adult world.”

However, Brown and Weiss’ refusal to participate in political actions and “come out” in the broader public sphere sometimes frustrated younger gay men like Wayne Scott (AB 1986, AM 1989), as he describes in this article. Jim McDaniel (AB 1968) remembers Howard saying “I don’t really care what anybody knows, I just care what I have to admit.”

Source: Closeted/OUT in the Quadrangles. A History of LGBTQ Life at the University of Chicago

 

Image Source: Senior year picture of Roger W. Weiss from the 1946 Hyde Park High School Yearbook, The Aitchpe.

 

Categories
Chicago Economists

Chicago. Friedman recommends Becker and Weiss for Earhart Fellowships, 1953

 

The following letter of recommendation by Milton Friedman provides us a glimpse of the young Gary Becker. It is also interesting to observe the language used to describe potential superstardom as opposed to more conventional stardom in economics. The next post will provide career information for the “other candidate”, Roger Weiss.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Chicago 37, Illinois
Department of Economics

January 27, 1953

Mr. James A. Kennedy
Earhart Foundation
First National Bank Building
Ann Arbor, Michigan

IN RE: BECKER, Gary S.

Dear Mr. Kennedy:

I am writing at the suggestion of Professors William Paton [University of Michigan] and John Van Sickle [Wabash College] to propose two young men for Earhart fellowships in economics: Gary Becker and Roger Weiss.

Gary Becker is a young man who received his A.B. from Princeton. He was recommended to us by his Princeton teachers for a departmental fellowship in terms that we found hard to take really seriously—the best person that we have had in the last ten years; the best student that I have ever had, and the like. After observing him closely for the past year and a half, I am inclined to use similar superlatives: there is no other student that I have known in my six years at Chicago who seems to me as good as Becker or as likely to become an important and outstanding economist. Though only twenty two years old now, Becker has already published one paper in the American Economic Review[*] and has collaborated with one of his teachers at Princeton in a paper published in Economica.[**] Both are first rate papers. Becker needs to do one more full year of graduate work to fulfill his requirements for his Ph.D. Our department has granted him a fellowship in the past and will again; in addition I believe he is applying for a Social Science Research Fellowship. I have asked him to summarize briefly his plans for next year, and enclose his brief statement. [not in this Hoover file]

Becker has a brilliant, analytical mind; great originality; knowledge of the history of economic thought and respect for its importance; a real feeling for the interrelationships between economic and political issues; and a profound understanding of both the operation of a price system and its importance as a protection of individual liberty. This is one of those cases in which there is just no question at all about Becker’s being preeminently qualified for one of your fellowships. I wish I could look forward to being able to find a candidate this good every year, but that is asking for too much.

Roger Weiss, the other candidate I would like to propose, is also an extremely able young man—he is not in Becker’s class, but that is a measure of Becker’s extraordinary qualities, not a reflection of Weiss. He is of the quality of the very top group of our graduate students.—the best half-dozen or so each year out of our 125 to 175 graduate students. He did some of his undergraduate work here; spent last year at Cambridge, England on a fellowship, and returned here this year for further graduate work. Another year should see him with his Ph.D. He has just turned twenty three.

Weiss has been working on a topic that he got interested in in England, namely, the operation of British Exchange controls in the post-war period. He came to the conclusion that their effectiveness was greatly overrated and their adverse effects on the efficiency of British industry greatly underrated. He is trying to see how far a more detailed study will support these judgments and permit them to be spelled out.

Weiss has an excellent mind and a thorough knowledge of price theory and monetary theory. His major interest is in problems connected with money and international trade. He is hardworking, conscientious, and productive. Perhaps his strongest quality is his ability to organize material well and to present it both in writing and speech lucidly and with some distinction. I expect Weiss to become a productive scholar and to have a most desirable influence through his writings on public policy. I have asked him, too, to prepare a brief statement of his plans, which I enclose. [not in this Hoover file]

I may say that I have checked these recommendations with my colleagues H. Gregg Lewis and Frank H. Knight, who concur in them.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Milton Friedman

MF-FF

[Handwritten:] P.S. This letter was written just prior to receiving yours of the 23rd. Both men do of course plan to go into University teaching.

[* “…taken from a larger essay originally submitted as a senior thesis in the department of economics and social institutions of Princeton University.” A Note on Multi-Country Trade. The American Economic Review, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Sep., 1952), pp. 558-568.]

[** The Classical Monetary Theory: The Outcome of the Discussion (with William J. Baumol). Economica, New Series, Vol. 19, No. 76 (Nov., 1952), pp. 355-376.]

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 194, Folder “Earhart Foundation…”.

Image Source:  Becker-Friedman Institute for Economics at the University of Chicago. Webpage “About Our Legacy”.

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Circumstances surrounding William Z. Ripley’s nervous breakdowns, 1927 and 1932

 

Harvard economics professor William Zebina Ripley suffered at least two serious “nervous breakdowns” during his career that are documented by contemporary acounts. To those accounts I have added the 1964 obituary of his companion in the 1927 taxicab accident that led to Ripley’s hospitalization. Grace Sharp Harper appears to have been a very well-known mover-and-shaker in the greater social philanthropic communities of her time. I remain agnostic about whether a romantic liaison was involved and I simply find her biography (as that of Ripley for that matter) quite remarkable and worth keeping in this post. Perhaps someone familiar with journalists’ code-words from the Roaring ‘Twenties can let us know whether there is more to the ill-fated taxicab ride than a pair of VIPs sharing a taxi to an event to network with yet other VIPs.

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Ripley’s First Nervous Breakdown
(1927)

Professor William Z. Ripley of Harvard injured in New York automobile accident. Cuts around the face, slight concussion. His taxicab with Miss Grace Harper of N.Y., “Professor Ripley’s companion”. [see obituary below for Grace Harper]

Source:  The Boston Globe, January 20, 1927, p. 1.

 

“Thrown from a taxicab struck by another automobile, William Z. Ripley, 60, professor of economics at Harvard university, late last night suffered a fractured skull. His companion, Miss Grace Harper, 50, of 109 Waverly pl., suffered from shock. Both were taken to New York hospital. The collision occurred at 5th ave. and 24th st.”

Source:  Daily News (New York City), January 20, 1927, p. 3.

 

“Prof. William Z. Ripley of the Harvard School of Business Administration, is in New York Hospital today with lacerations of the skull sustained in an automobile accident last night. The injuries were not so severe as was at first believed, and his condition was not considered serious, it was said at the hospital. The Harvard professor…was riding in a taxi down Fifth avenue when a rented automobile coming from the opposite direction struck the taxi. Prof. Ripley was thrown against one of the cab’s folding seats with great force. Miss Grace Harper, who was in the taxi with the professor, was cut and bruised, but refused to go to the hospital.”

Source:  The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York) January 20, 1927, p. 2.

 

“Miss Grace Harper, of 109 Waverly pl., Manhattan, who was accompanying him to a social function at the Waldorf-Astoria, Manhattan, was treated for shock.”

Source:  Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), January 20, 1927, p. 33.

 

“Professor Ripley, accompanied by Miss Grace Harper, secretary to the State Commission for the Blind, was on his way to Hotel Waldorf to attend a social function…”

Source:  Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY) January 20, 1927, p. 7.

 

“Professor William Z. Ripley will be unable to resume active teaching of economics at Harvard until next year, it is learned from members of his family. He was injured in an automobile accident more than a year ago and suffered a nervous breakdown. He has been recuperating at a sanitarium in Connecticut. It is expected that Professor Ripley will leave the sanitarium within two months, and will probably take an extended trip through the South and West.”

Source:  New York Times. September 25, 1927, p. 76.

 

“Three years ago he spoke plain words about Wall Street. An automobile crash and a nervous breakdown followed…Now Professor Ripley is preparing to return to his Harvard classes next February.”

Source:  S.T. Williamson, “William Z. Ripley — And Some Others” New York Times (December 29, 1929), p. 134.

 

“The New England Joint Board for Sanitary Control, when it meets today will have as chairman George W. Coleman, who was named for this position after the retirement of Prof William Z. Ripley, who it is said, was forced to give up the position because of illness.”

Source:  The Boston Globe, May 3, 1928, p. 17.

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Ripley’s Second Nervous Breakdown
(1932)

PROF W. Z. RIPLEY OF HARVARD ILL
Noted Expert on Railroads, Now In Holland, Believed Victim of Overwork—Wife Sails

William Z. Ripley, Nathaniel Ropes professor of political economy at Harvard and famous throughout the country as an outstanding authority on railroads and railway problems, is seriously Ill In Holland. Latest information at Harvard is to the effect that he is confined to his bed, on physician’s orders, for an indefinite period. His wife left Boston only a week or so ago to join her husband in Holland.

The fact that Prof Ripley was ill has been guarded carefully by Harvard authorities, the first hint being contained in an announcement from the lecture platform at the first meeting of the course known as Economics 4, that he would be unable to give any lectures in the course.

Others to Give Course

This course, given for many years as a half course by Prof Ripley, is on the subject of corporations, a field in which he has done much of his work. This year the course has been united with a half course on railroads to form a full course under the title „Monopolistic Industries and Their Control.“ When the course was mapped out at the end of last year, it had been planned for Prof Ripley to devote considerable time to lecturing, but now the work will be performed entirely by Profs Edward S. Mason and Edward H. Chamberlin.

Prof Ripley went abroad at the end of the academic year last Summer. He was to have returned this Fall, but during his travels, he became gravely ill. Some years ago, he suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of an accident in a New York taxicab. His present condition is attributed largely to overwork.

During the last half of the academic year, 1931-32, Prof Ripley left Cambridge almost every week and sometimes twice a week to make trips to New York, Washington, and Chicago to confer with business leaders and Governmental authorities. Much of his attention was devoted to pending plans for trunk line consolidations. He acted special examiner on proposed railroad consolidations for the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1921.

Work Hailed by Coolidge

Always a practical economist, and conspicuous among the faculty in economics at Harvard for his disdain of economic theorizing. Prof Ripley’s most celebrated work of recent years was “Main Street and Wall Street,” published in 1929, during the height if the speculative boom. This work, exposing the methods of corporations, created a sensation throughout the country. Before the work was published in book form, parts of it appeared in magazines, and at that time Calvin Coolidge urged every American to read them.

One of the most interesting comments on Prof Ripley’s career is the fact that he began his studies as an anthropologist. His degrees include those of SB, PhD, LittD and LLD. As an undergraduate he was a student of science, and later published a book, “The Races and Cultures of Europe,” which is still recognized as a leading textbook in anthropology. Later he became interested in railroads and turned his efforts from anthropology to economics. He is one the “old guard” in the Harvard Department of Economics, ranking with the men who made Harvard famous for economic studies, such as Prof F. W. Taussig, Thomas N. Carver and Edwin F. Gay.

Prof Ripley’s home is in Newton.

Source: The Boston Globe, October 4, 1932, pp. 1,3.

 

PROF RIPLEY RESIGNS CHAIR AT HARVARD
Noted Authority on Finance, Railroads

William Zebina Ripley, Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy at Harvard, known as well for his scourging of Wall Street stock jobbers as for his work as a Government expert in labor and railroads, has resigned his professorship at Harvard to become professor emeritus. The resignation of Prof Ripley, who has been seriously ill in Holland since last Summer, will take effect on March 1, 1933. He is beyond the retiring age at Harvard, being more than 65 years old.

Prof Ripley’s best-known book is “Main Street and Wall Street,” an expose of corporation finance as practiced in the United States, published in 1927. While various chapters of the book were appearing in current magazines the then President Coolidge advised every American to read them. Other volumes by Prof Ripley include “The Financial History of Virginia,” 1890; “The Races of Europe,” 1900 [Supplement: A Selected Bibliography of the Anthropology and Ethnology of Europe, 1899]; “Trusts, Pools and Corporations,” 1905; “Railway Problems,” 1907; “Railroads—Rates and Regulation,” 1912; “Railroads—Finance and Organization,” 1914. The book, “Races of Europe,” is still a standard text in anthropology, a field in which Prof Ripley spent his early study before turning to economics.

Expert in Many Fields

Prof Ripley is known as an expert in many fields, ranging from anthropology to transportation. Besides his books in these fields he has served on several national boards and commissions. In 1918 he was administrator of labor standards for the War Department, and the following two years he was chairman of the National Adjustment Commission Of the United States Shipping Board. In 1916 he was the expert appointed to President Wilson’s Eight-Hour Commission, spending months under actual working conditions gathering material for his report.

From 1920 to 1923 he served with the Interstate Commerce Commission, acting in 1921 as special examiner on the consolidation of railroads in the United States. In 1917 he became a director of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad and served on that board for a number of years.

His illness was caused by an accident in a taxicab in New York some three years ago, after which he suffered a nervous breakdown. He became ill again this Summer and has been recuperating in Holland since. A tall man, with white hair and a distinguished white beard, he was a well-known figure in the Harvard Yard during his teaching days there.

At Harvard Since 1901

Prof Ripley was born in Medford in 1890 he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He obtained his master’s degree at Columbia University in 1892, and his doctor’s degree at the same institution in the following year. In 1895, he returned to M.I.T., serving as professor of economics of six years and, during the same period, he was also lecturer on sociology at Columbia. Since 1901, he has been a member of the teaching staff at Harvard University. In 1902 he was appointed professor political economy. Since 1911, he has been Nathaniel Ropes professor political economy. In 1898, and again in 1900 and 1901, Prof Ripley served as vice president of the American Economics Association and in December of 1932 he was elected president of the association.

Source: The Boston Globe, February 10, 1933, p. 5.

Image Source: William Z. Ripley, Harvard Class Album, 1934.

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Grace Sharp Harper, 82, Dead: Led State Commission for Blind
NY Times obituary, September 27, 1964

Miss Grace Sharp Harper of 220 East 73d Street, who retired in 1951 as director of the Commission for the Blind of the State Department of Social Work, died yesterday at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Her age was 82.

Since her retirement Miss Harper had continued with the commission as a member of its medical advisory committee. A much-decorated heroine of World War I, in which she served in France with the American Red Cross, she also held several civilian awards for her work for the blind.

Miss Harper began her career as a staff assistant of the Boston Children’s Aid Society. Later she was executive secretary of the Massachusetts Infant Asylum and of the Kings Chapel Committee for the Handicapped of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Appointed director of the hospital’s medical special service department, she lectured on case work education at Harvard University and then came to this city to conduct a course in social case work at Teachers College, Columbia University.

She volunteered for overseas duty in the war, and was named chief of American Red Cross rehabilitation for French, Belgian and other disable soldiers. Later Miss Harper was chief of the Red Cross bureau for the re-education of mutilated soldiers. She returned home as a member of the Inter-Allied Commission on War Cripples, wearing three gold stars awarded to her by various foreign governments.

Miss Harper became executive secretary of the Commission for the Blind in 1919, and was made an assistant commissioner of the division during the 1930’s. She was named director not long thereafter.

Miss Harper held the Migel Award of the American Foundation for the Bind and the Leslie Dana Award of the St. Louis Society for the Blind.

Source: New York Times, Feb. 27, 1964, p. 31.

 

From Grace Sharp Harper’s Passport Application
July 5, 1918

From Grace Sharp Harper’s Passport Application
November 16, 1922

Born at Chicago, Illinois on May 12, 1881.

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Labor economics courses taught by Charles E. Persons, 1928-1929

In the previous post we met the Harvard Ph.D. alum (1913) Charles E. Persons whose career transitioned from the life of an academic economist to that of a labor policy activist/government official right after he covered labor economics courses for William Z. Ripley who was on leave due to health reasons (more to report on Ripley, but later). This post puts together the materials (enrollment statistics, reading period assignments and two course exams) I could find for the courses taught by Persons during his three semesters teaching at Harvard during the spring term 1928 and the full academic year 1928-29.

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Courses taught by Charles E. Persons at Harvard

Enrollment, Economics 6a2
Spring Term, 1928

[Economics] 6a 2hf. Professor Charles E. Persons (Boston University), assisted by Mr. Joslyn.—Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.

Total 31: 15 Seniors, 14 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1927-1928, p. 74.

 

Course Assignment for Reading Period
Economics 6a2
Spring 1928

Economics 6b [sic, should be is “6a”] [Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.]

Select one of the following groups.

  1. Historical
    1. Webb, S. & B.: History of Trade Unionism, Chs. I, II, III, IV and VII.
    2. Perlman, S.: History of Trade Unionism in the United States.
  2. Trade Union Function.
    1. Webb, S. & B.: Industrial Democracy, Pt. II, pp. 145-599.
  3. Employer’s Programs.
    1. Hoxie, R. F.: Scientific Management and Labor, pp. 1-140.
    2. Burritt, A. W., et al.: Profit Sharing; the Principles and Practice. New Edition, 1926).
  4. Government Control.
    1. Selekman, B.: Postponing Strikes.
    2. Wolf, H. D.: The Railroad Labor Board.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1927-1928”.

 

1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 6a2
[Final Examination, Spring 1928]

Group I
Answer one. Forty minutes to one hour.

  1. When and under what circumstances were the first unions formed? Sketch the development of labor organizations before 1850. What special conditions did they meet in the United States?
  2. What, according to the Webbs, are the methods used by trade unions in actual operation? Discuss the Standard Rate and more briefly other trade union policies, stating your own conclusions.
  3. What are the special methods of scientific management in dealing with labor? How are wages determined? Are Trade Unionism and Scientific Management necessarily incompatible?
    State the general features of Profit-sharing plans as applied in the United States. Contrast this plan with that applied in Scientific Management plants.
  4. Contrast the methods of strike control applied by the United States Railroad Labor Board and The Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act. Were these plans successful in operation? What features of either act do you think worthy of adoption in the United States?

Group II
Answer ALL questions; follow the order given.

  1. Describe the organization of the present union groups in the United States.
  2. A western state enacts a law providing:
    1. Children under 18 years of age shall not work more than seven hours a day, nor forty hours a week. These hours must be included between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
    2. Females over 18 years of age shall not be employed more than eight hours a day and forty hours a week. These hours must be included between 7 a.m. and 5 p. m.
    3. Males over 18 years of age shall not be employed over eight hours a day nor forty-four hours a week.

The act is attacked as unconstitutional. State the probably line of attack and defense. What do you think the present supreme court would decide on each of the three articles?

  1. To what extent can unemployment be prevented? Which of the methods proposed for the prevention of unemployment seem to you most practical and effective? Outline and justify a program for dealing with such unemployment as is not preventable.
  2. In 1923 the receiver of a certain railroad petitioned the Railroad Labor Board for authority to reduce wages below those paid by the railroads generally under rulings by the Board. It was shown that the railroad was not earning enough to cover operating expenses, that the stock and bond holders had received no return for several years, “that the necessity of a discontinuance of operations had been greatly threatened for some time,” and that “such shutdown of the carrier would be disastrous for the 31 counties of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas through which its lines ran.” The workers decline to accept any reduction in pay and show that their incomes do not suffice to cover the cost of a living wage on a health and comfort standard. As a member of the railroad board render decision on this issue.
  3. (a) Suppose all workers were persuaded to join unions giving us a complete system of closed shops. What would be the effect on wages and social conditions generally?
    (b) Suppose the Open Shop drive should be completely successful and trade unionism reduced to local and partial organization. What results would follow?
  4. In what respects does a shop committee afford less adequate protection to the workers than does a trade union? What, if any, useful functions may a shop committee perform which are not now performed by trade unions?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers Finals 1928 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 70). Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, Church History, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, June, 1928.

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Enrollment, Economics 6a1
Fall Term, 1928

[Economics] 6a 1hf. Dr. C. E. Persons.—Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.

Total 50: 1 Graduate, 22 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1928-1929, p. 72.

 

Course Assignment for Reading Period
Economics 6a1
Fall Term, 1928

Economics 6a [Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.]

Select one of the following groups.

  1. Webb, S. & B.: History of Trade Unionism, Chs. I-IV incl., Chs. VII, VIII.
  2. Commons, John R. and Associates: History of Labour in the United States, Vol. II, pp. 3-194, 301-430, 521-541.
  3. Webb, S. & B.: Industrial Democracy, Pt. II, pp. 152-221, 279-353, 393-558.
  4. Hoxie, R. F.: Scientific Management and Labor, pp. 1-140.
    Burritt, A. W., et al.: Profit Sharing, Chs. I-VII incl. XI, XII, XIII, XVII. (1926 edition).
  5. Selekman, B.: Postponing Strikes. (Canadian Industrial Disputes Act.)
  6. Wolf, H. D.: The Railroad Labor Board, Pts. II, III.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1928-1929”.

1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 6a1
[Final Examination, Fall 1928-29]

Group I
Answer one. Forty minutes to one hour.

  1. Write brief essays on two of the following subjects:
    1. The origin of trade unionism in Great Britain.
    2. Trade Unionism under the Combination Laws.
    3. The “New Model” and its importance in trade union history.
  2. Write a summary history of the development of national trade unions in the United States. This should include the formation and development of the American Federation of Labor.
  3. Discuss the method of Collective Bargaining as practiced by the trade unions of Great Britain. Follow the exposition of the Webbs but do not fail to state your own conclusions.
    On what grounds have trade unions based their claims of a “right to a trade”? Discuss the attempts of the unions to settle demarcation disputes and the solution offered by the Webbs for dealing with this problem.
  4. (a) State definitely how scientific management proposes to handle questions which concern wage earners. Are these proposals necessarily incompatible with trade unions? What is to be said by way of critical comment of the following quotation: “(Scientific management) substitutes exact knowledge for guess work and seeks to establish a code of natural laws equally binding upon employer and workman.”
    (b) What are the essential features of profit sharing plans? What is, and what should be, the attitude of trade unions toward such proposals? How large is the promise of such plans regarded as aids in solving the labor problem?
  5. State, with some precision, the provisions of the Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act. In what respect has the administration of the act departed from the intent of the authors? What is to be said of its success or failure? Its constitutionality? And its standing in the opinions of the wage earners, employers and the general public?
  6. State the important features of the law establishing the Railroad Labor Board, and of the act of 1926 which superseded it.
    Briefly summarize the work of the Railroad Labor Board, pointing out its successes and failure. What conclusions do you draw from this experience with governmental control of labor conditions.

Group II
Answer all questions: follow the order given

  1. Contrast the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. Include in your answer a clear statement of: plans of organization; program for the attainment of results; governing philosophy; and effectiveness as agencies to advance the interest of wage earners.
  2. A strike was declared against the Mills restaurants in Arizona by the Amalgamated Cooks and Waiters Unions. The strikers maintained pickets who appealed to cooks and waiters not to accept employment or to leave it if employed, and to customers not to patronize the restaurants. The pickets allege that the proprietors are “unfair to organized labor,” that hours are excessive and wages below the living standard. They picket in groups of six and employ vigorous, but generally peaceful, persuasion. There are minor cases of coercion and intimidation. The state has enacted laws declaring picketing legitimate and denying to the state courts the power to issue writs of injunction in labor disputes. The employers enter suits for damages against the union and attack the constitutionality of the law in both state and federal courts.
    Discuss these issues from the standpoint of legality, governmental policy and the legitimate exercise of trade union functions.
  3. Discuss the use of writs of injunction in labor disputes. Why has the employment of such writs become increasingly common and why have the trade unions vigorously opposed their use? What issues were involved in the Buck’s Stove case? The Bedford Stone decision?
  4. Does the introduction of machinery, e.g., the linotype machine or the automatic glass bottle machine benefit or injure: the wage earner, the capitalist and the consuming public? Answer both as to the immediate and the “long run” effect, and analyze the long run process of adjustment.
  5. A certain national building trade’s union established the following rules:
    1. Apprenticeship shall not begin before the age of 16 years and shall be four years long. The ratio of apprentices shall be: “one to each shop irrespective of the number of journeymen employed, and one to every five members thereafter.”
    2. A generally understood standard for a day’s work is in effect, which union members are expected not to exceed. This is based upon the average output of the union members when working without restriction.
    3. The introduction of new machines and processes is not opposed. However, the union insists that its members be given preference on the new machines, and that full union wages be paid. The industry pays to journeymen a straight time wage of 85 cents per hour; runs open shop though the great majority of the workers are union men and has been largely reorganized because of the invention and introduction of labor saving machinery.
      * *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * * *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
      Discuss these union practices from the standpoint of industrial efficiency and social welfare. If in your opinion some of them are unsound or unreasonable, what steps would you recommend with a view of having them modified?
  6. Discuss the general subject of compulsory arbitration. Has it been successful in operation? Does it eliminate strikes? Strengthen or weaken trade unionism? Mean an increase or decrease in governmental control of industry? To what extent would you think it desirable that such a policy be adopted by our federal and state governments?
  7. What conclusion do you draw from your study of trade unionism? Is the movement worthy of support on its past record? Would you suggest modification of its plans or purposes? Do alternative plans such as company unionism seem to you of greater promise?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943 (HUC 7000.55). Box 11: Examination Papers Mid-Years 1929. Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, New Testament, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, January-February, 1929.

________________________

Enrollment, Economics 6a2
Spring Term, 1929

[Economics] 6a 2hf. Dr. C. E. Persons.—Labor Legislation and Social Insurance.

Total 13: 4 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1928-1929, p. 72.

 

Course Assignment for Reading Period
Economics 6b2
Spring Term, 1929

Economics 6b [Labor Legislation and Social Insurance.]

Select one of the following groups.

  1. Minimum Wage.

A. F. Lucas, The Legal Minimum Wage in Massachusetts. [The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1927, Supplement]
—and either—
D. Self, The British Trade Board System.
—or—
M.B. Hammond, Wage Boards in Australia, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 29: pp. 98, 326, 563.

  1. Health Insurance.

Illinois Health Insurance Commission Report, pp. 1-168.
I.M. Rubinow, Standards of Health Insurance.

  1. Unemployment.

J. L. Cohen, Insurance Against Unemployment, pp. 159-332, 430, 494.
—and either—
W.H. Beveridge Unemployment a Problem of Industry, Chs. V, VIII, IX, XI.
—or—
H. Feldman, Regulation of Industry, Chs. V, VI, VIII, XIII, XIV, XVI.

  1. Old Age Provision.

1925 Report of the Massachusetts Commission on Pensions.
L. Conant, A Critical Analysis of Industrial Pension Plans, Chs. I, II, VII, VIII, IX, X.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1928-1929”.

________________________

Enrollment, Economics 342
Spring Term, 1929

[Economics] 34 2hf. Dr. C. E. Persons.—Problems of Labor.

Total 5: 1 Graduate, 3 Seniors, 1 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1928-1929, p. 72.

 

Course Assignment for Reading Period
Economics 342
Spring Term, 1929

Economics 34. [Problems of Labor.]

Individual reading assignments.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1928-1929”.

 

Image Source:  Sever Hall, Harvard University, ca. 1904. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Categories
Economists Harvard Northwestern Socialism Sociology Wellesley

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, later NLRB judge. Charles E. Persons, 1913

 

The 1913 Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus we meet today managed to cross at least one Dean and later one of his bosses in a government job (see below). Indeed his argumentative nature gets noted in Richard J. Linton’s History of the NLRB Judges Division with Special Emphasis on the Early Years (August 1, 2004), p. 10:

As Chief Judge Bokat describes in his March 1969 oral history interview … some of the judges did not sit silently at such conferences. He reports that Judge Charles Persons was one who would argue vociferously with, particularly, Member Leiserson. …Judge Bokat tells us that there would be Judge Persons, who was not a lawyer (and neither was Member Leiserson), debating legal issues with Leiserson in the presence of several who were lawyers.

 

In case you are wondering: Charles Edward Persons does not appear to be closely related (if at all) to his contemporary, Warren Persons, an economics professor at Harvard at the time.

______________________

Charles Edward Persons
Vital Records

Born: July 17, 1878 in Brandon, Iowa.

Spouse: Margaret Murday (1888-1956)

Son: William Burnett Persons (1918-1992)

Daughter: Jean Murday Persons (1922-1994)

Died: April 1, 1962

Buried: Arlington National Cemetery

______________________

Academic and Public/Government Career Timeline

1903. A.B. Cornell College, Iowa.

1905. A.M. Harvard University.

1907-08. Wellesley. Instructor in Economics.

Industrial History of the United States. (One division, three hours a week; one year) 9 students enrolled: 4 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

1908-09. Wellesley. Instructor in Economics.

Industrial History of the United States. (One division, three hours a week; one year) 5 students enrolled: 3 Seniors, 2 Juniors.
Industrial History of England. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 18 students enrolled: 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 6 Sophomore.
Socialism. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 14 students enrolled: 5 Seniors, 9 Juniors.
Labor Movement in the Nineteenth Century. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 16 students enrolled: 7 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 6 Sophomores.
Selected Industries. (One division, one hour a week; one year) 52 students enrolled: 2 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 38 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen.
Municipal Socialism. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 7 students enrolled: 2 Seniors, 5 Juniors.

1909-10. Princeton. Preceptor in History, Politics and Economics.

1910-11. Northwestern. Instructor of Economics.

1913. Ph.D. (Economics). Harvard University.

Thesis title: Factory legislation in Massachusetts: from 1825 to the passage of the ten-hour law in 1874. Pub. in “Labor laws and their enforcement,” New York, Longmans, 1911, pp. 1-129.

1913-16. Washington University, St. Louis. Assistant/Associate Professor of Sociology.

Principles of Economics, Elements of Sociology, Labor and Labor Problems, Population Problems, Social Reform, Sociology Seminar.

1917-20. U.S. Army.

Persons, Charles Edward, A.M. ’05; Ph.D. ’13. Entered Officers’ Training Camp, Fort Riley, Kans., May 1917; commissioned 1st lieutenant Infantry August 15; assigned to 164th Depot Brigade, Camp Funston, Kans.; transferred to Company K, 805th Pioneer Infantry, August 1918; sailed for France September 2; returned to United States June 27, 1919; ill in hospital; discharged January 31, 1920. Engagement: Meuse-Argonne offensive.   Source: Harvard’s Military Record in the World War, p. 751.

1920-26. Professor and Head of Economics, College of Business Administration, Boston University. Boston, Mass.

Persons refused to support a student volunteer (Beanpot) candy sale project in 1922 pushed by the Dean to fund a Business College War Memorial. Persons believed “that the quality of the candy to be sold had been misrepresented, and also … that a disproportionate share of the profits would go to one or more persons teaching in the College of Business Administration and actively concerned in the management of the sale.”

Sabbatical year 1927-28.  (June 16, 1927) informed by Dean it would be inadvisable for him to return after his sabbatical year. He fought the Dean and the Dean won…

Source: Academic Freedom and Tenure, Committee A. Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, Vol. 15, No. 4 (April 1929), pp. 270-276.

 

1927-28. Harvard. Lecturer.

Economics 6a 2hf. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.

1928-29. Harvard. Lecturer.

Economics 6a 1hf. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.
Economics 6b 2hf. Labor Legislation and Social Insurance.
Economics 34 2hf. Problems of Labor.

ECONOMICS PROFESSOR IS GIVEN FEDERAL POSITION
C.E. Persons Appointed Expert on Economics of Unemployment

Professor Charles E. Persons, for the past year lecturer in the Department of Economics here has been appointed Expert on the Economics of Unemployment in the Federal Bureau of the Census. He will take up his new duties immediately.

At Harvard Professor Persons gave courses in Trade Unionism and Labor Legislation. In his previous career, aside from service in the United States Army during the war, he has been a member of the faculties of Wellesley College and of Princeton, Northwestern and Washington Universities. At the Bureau of the Census Professor Persons will have general supervision of the census of unemployment and of special studies subsidiary thereto.

Source: The Harvard Crimson, November 15, 1929

 

Row Over Census Of Jobless In U. S. Bureau Is Revealed
Dispute Led Up To Resignation Of Professor Persons, Expert Economist—June 26 Statement Believed Not To Give True Insight Into Situation

The Baltimore Sun, July 9, 1930, p. 2.

Washington, July 8. The census of unemployment, started in the belief it would throw light on a distressing public problem, threatens to involve the Hoover Administration in another controversy.

The question is being asked in many quarters as to whether the unemployment census is to be a real statistical investigation designed to bring out every possible fact or merely a routine enumeration, the result of which are to be used a far as possible to bolster up business confidence.

Two developments have brought this issue to the front. One is the disclosure that an expert economist employed last November to direct the unemployment census has resigned after prolonged disagreement with officials of the Census Bureau. The other is the preliminary unemployment count released through the Department of Commerce on June 26. Careful analysis of this statement has convinced more than one observer that it tells only a part of what it purports to tell.

Expert Economist Resigned

The resignation of the expert economist, Prof. Charles E. Persons, formerly of Boston University and more recently of Harvard University, occurred in May, but the controversy which led up to the resignation is only now coming to light.

The details of the row remain to be disclosed. The Census Bureau declines to say anything about the matter, except that Professor Persons resigned and that his resignation was not requested. Professor Persons likewise refuses to discuss the incident.

It is known, however, that prolonged friction preceded the decision of Professor Persons to quit and the impression grows that the economist was not allowed a free hand to pursue such statistical inquiries as he believed to be necessary.

Covered Only One Phase

Although the census statement on unemployment of June 26 was issued more than a month after Professor Persons left the service, an analysis of that statement throw an interesting light on the uses to which the results of the enumeration of jobless are being put.

The unemployment census includes two schedules, one in which persons capable of work but having no jobs are listed, and another which include persons having jobs but laid off as a result of business depression or for other causes.

The statement of June 26 covers only the first schedule. It finds there were 574,647 jobless persons among 20,264,480 persons enumerated. But it takes no account of the large number of persons actually idle, though technically in possession of jobs, for the reason the statement does not, in the opinion of not a few who have studied the subject, give an accurate picture of the unemployment situation.

Information Only Partial

Its finding that only two per cent of the enumerated population are unemployed is regarded as affording no true insight into the actual extent to which men and women are out of work, and there is a disposition in some quarters to criticize the issuance of such partial information. This disposition is underlined by the fact that the figures, as disclosed, fit in with the general policy of optimism on which the Administration has embarked.

The Census Bureau, in its statement, alluded to the partiality of its figures. It says that no records from the second schedule are yet available but there is no mention of this fact in Secretary Lamont’s rosy statement that the preliminary figures “applied to the whole population show much less unemployment than was generally estimated.”

Would Not Justify Optimism

Outside the Census Bureau it is believed that had the enumeration included both schedules in the unemployment census the result would have been much different and much less useful in supporting the optimism with which the Administration approaches this subject.

There is also a disposition in unofficial quarters to question the Census Bureau’s decision to base the percentage of unemployment on population.

It is pointed out that only about one in five of the total population is actually employed as a wage earner, and that a true percentage of unemployment would be based on the number of persons capable of work and not on the total population. On the basis of working population, the percentage of unemployment as found by the Census Bureau’s own figures would be ten percent, instead of two.

 

After Persons’ Census Resignation

HAVERHILL—Charles E. Persons, former director of federal census on unemployment at Washington, was appointed district manager of Haverhill Shoeworkers’ Protective Union.

Source: The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), December 6, 1930, p. 20.

 

HAVERHILL, Aug 9—Charles E. Persons, N.R.A. labor advisor, visited this city yesterday in a two days’ survey of shoe centers of Massachusetts preparatory to hearings which will be held shortly in Washington on the proposed code for the shoe industry…

Source: The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), August 9, 1933, p. 15.

 

Charles E. Persons was identified as assistant to F. E. Berquist, chairman of the research and planning division of the national NRA headquarters.

Source:  The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana), September 18, 1934, p. 3.

 

Last-stage.

1937-1949. (Date entered on duty: June 1, 1937) National Labor Relations Board Judge (trial-examiner).

Likely final case as trial examiner found in September 29, 1949 Olin Industries, Inc. (Winchester Repeating Arms Co Division). [Commerce Clearing House, Chicago. National Labor Relations Board—Decisions].

Source: See, Richard J. Linton, Administrative Law Judge (Retired), National Labor Relations Board. A History of the NLRB Judges Division with Special Emphasis on the Early Years (August 1, 2004).

______________________

Chronological List of Publications
[with affiliations at the time of publication]

Chapter 1 “The Early History of Factory Legislation in Massachusetts” in Persons, C. E., Parton, Mabel, and Moses, Mabelle. Labor Laws and Their Enforcement with Special Reference to Massachusetts. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1911.

[Charles E. Persons, formerly Henry Bromfield Rogers Memorial Fellow, Harvard University, Instructor in Economics, Northwestern University.]

 

Marginal Utility and Marginal Disutility as Ultimate Standards of Value, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 27, No. 4 (August 1913), pp. 547-578.

[by Charles E. Persons, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]

 

Women’s Work and Wages in the United States, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 29, No. 2 (February 1915), pp. 201-234.

[by C. E. Persons, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]

 

Estimates of a Living Wage for Female Workers, Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 14, No. 110 (June 1915), pp. 567-577.

[by Charles E. Persons, Associate Director of the School for Social Economy, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]

 

Teaching the Introductory Course in Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 31, No. 1 (November 1916), pp. 86-107.

[by Charles E. Persons, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]

 

Review of Outlines of Economics by Richard T. Ely et. al. The American Economic Review, Vol. 7, No. 1 (March 1917), pp. 98-103.

[by Charles E. Persons, Washington University.]

 

A Balanced Industrial System—Discussion [of Professor Carver], The American Economic Review, Vol. 10, No. 1, Supplement, Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (March 1920), pp. 86-88.

[by Charles E. Persons, Columbus, Ohio.]

 

Recent Textbooks, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 34, No. 4 (August 1920), pp. 737-756.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]

 

Review of Elementary Economics by Thomas Nixon Carver. The American Economic Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 1921), pp. 274-277

 

Review of Principles of Economics by F.M. Taylor. The American Economic Review, Vol. 12, No. 1 (March 1922), pp. 109-111.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]

 

Review of Principles of Economics by Frank W. Taussig, Vol. II (3rd ed. revised). The American Economic Review, Vol. 12, No. 3 (September 1922), pp. 474-475

[by C. E. Persons, Boston University.]

 

“The Course in Elementary Economics”: Comment, The American Economic Review, Vol. 13, No. 2 (June 1923), pp. 249-251.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]

 

Review of Practical Economics by Henry P. Shearman, The American Economic Review, Vol. 13, No. 3 (September 1923), pp. 471-472.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]

 

Labor Problems as Treated by American Economists, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 41, No. 3 (May 1927), pp. 487-519.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University.]

 

Unemployment as a Census Problem, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 25, No. 169, [Supplement: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association] (March 1930), pp. 117-120.

[by Charles E. Persons]

 

Credit Expansion, 1920 to 1929, and its Lessons, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 45, No. 1 (November 1930), pp. 94-130.

[by Charles E. Persons, Washington, D.C.]

 

Census Reports on Unemployment in April, 1930, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 154, The Insecurity of Industry (March 1931), pp. 12-16.

[by Charles E. Persons, Ph.D. District Manager, Show Workers’ Protective Union, Haverhill, Massachusetts]

 

Review of Labor and Other Essays by Henry R. Seager. Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 41, No. 1 (February 1933), pp. 121-123.

[by Charles E. Persons, Economic Research Bureau, Wellesley, Mass.]

 

Calculation of Relief Expenditures, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 28, No. 181, Supplement: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association (March 1933), pp. 68-74.

[by Charles E. Persons, Bureau of Economic Research, Haverhill, Mass.]

Image Source: Application for U.S. Passport 17 May 1915 to go to England for “scientific study”

Categories
AEA Berkeley Chicago Cornell Economist Market Economists Johns Hopkins M.I.T. Princeton Stanford Yale

M.I.T. Memo regarding potential hires to interview at AEA Dec meeting, 1965

 

This artifact provides us a glimpse into the demand side of the market for assistant professors of economics in the United States as seen from one of the mid-1960’s peak departments. The chairperson of the M.I.T. economics department at the time, E. Cary Brown, apparently conducted a quick survey of fellow department heads and packed his results into a memo for his colleagues who in one capacity or the other would be attending the annual meeting of the American Economic Association held in New York City in the days following the Christmas holidays of December 1965. The absence of Harvard names in the memo probably only indicates that Brown presumed his colleagues were well aware of any potential candidates coming from farther up the Charles River.

From Brown’s memo, Duncan Foley (Yale) and Miguel Sidrauski (Chicago) ended up on the M.I.T. faculty as assistant professors for the 1966-67 academic year. John Williamson was a visiting assistant professor that year too.

_____________________________

Dating the Memo

The folder label in the M.I.T. archives incorrectly gives the date Dec. 28-30, 1969, where the 1969 has been added in pencil.

Two keys for dating the memo.  Brown’s comment to John Williamson (York): “Wants a semester here, Jan.-June 1967″.  “Solow is hearing paper at meetings” (Conlisk of Stanford) who presented in the invited doctoral dissertation session “The Analysis and Testing of the Asymptotic Behavior of Aggregate Growth Models” (affiliation given as Rice University (Ph.D., Stanford University) where Solow was listed as a discussant. AEA’s 78th Annual Meeting was held in New York City at the end of December 1965.

_____________________________

Memo from E. Cary Brown to M.I.T. faculty going to Dec. 1965 AEA meeting

[Pencil note: “Put in beginning of 1966-7”]

Memorandum Regarding Personnel Interviews in New York

To: Department Members Attending AEA Convention
From: E. C. Brown

University of Chicago

Sidrauski, Miguel (26). International Trade, Monetary Theory, Economic Growth, Mathematical Economics

Thesis—“Studies in the Theory of Growth and Inflation” under Uzawa
References: Harberger, Johnson, Lewis

[He came here a year ago to ask about a short-term appointment before he returned to Argentina. Griliches believes him to be tops. Had him in class myself and he was first rate. Called him on phone last week and he still wants to be had.]

 

Thornber, Edgar H. (24). [H. = Hodson] Econometrics, Mathematical Methods, Computers

Thesis—“A Distributed Lag Model: Bayes vs. Sampling Theory Analyses” under Telser
References: Griliches, Zellner

[Supposed to be equal of Sidrauski. Heavily computer oriented. Doesn’t sound interesting for us, but we should talk to him.]

 

Treadway, Arthur. Mathematical Economist

Thesis on the investment function

[A younger man who, according to Svi [sic], regards himself as the equal of the above. Stronger in mathematics, and very high grades. Wasn’t on market because thesis didn’t appear as completable. Now it seems that it will be and he wants consideration.]

 

Evenson, Robert E. (31). Agricultural Economics and Economic Growth, Public Finance

Thesis—“Contribution of Agricultural Experiment Station Research to Agricultural Production” under Schultz
References: Gale Johnson, Berg

[He is just slightly below the others. Mature and very solid and combines agriculture and economic growth where we need strength.]

 

Gould, John (26).

(Ph.D. in Business School)

[Bud Fackler mentioned him as their best. Uzawa and Griliches are trying to get the Econ. Dept. to hire him. Franco knows him and is after him.]

 

Princeton

Klevorick, Alvin (22). Mathematical Economics, Econometrics, Economic Theory

Thesis: “Mathematical Programming and the Problem of Capital Budgeting under Uncertainty” (Quandt)
References: Baumol, Kuhn

[Apparently the best they have had for some time. Young and very brash.]

 

Monsma, George N. (24). Labor Economics, Economics of Medical Care, Public Finance

Thesis: Supply and Demand for Medical Personnel” (Harbison)
References: Patterson, Machlup

[Dick Lester was high on him. While not a traditional labor economist, he works that field.]

Silber, William L. (23). Monetary Economics, Public Finance, Econometrics

Thesis: “Structure of Interest Rates” (Chandler)
References: Goldfeld, Musgrave, Quandt

[One of their best four. Not sure he sounds like what we want in fields, however.]

 

Grabowski, Henry G. (25). Research and Development, Econometrics, Mathematical Economics

Thesis: “Determinants and Profitability of Industrial Research and Development” (Quandt)
References: Morgenstern, Baumol

[Lester says he is good all around man. His field makes him especially interesting.]

 

Stanford

Conlisk [John]— Economic growth and development

[Arrow has written about him, recommending him highly. His field should be interesting. Solow is hearing paper at meetings.]

 

Bradford [David Frantz]— Public finance

[Has been interviewed up here, but more should see him who wish to.]

 

Yale

Foley [Duncan Karl] (Probably not at meetings. Best Tobin’s had.]

Bryant [Ralph Clement] (Now at Federal Reserve Board. Number 2 for Tobin]

 

York

Williamson, John

[Wants a semester here, Jan.-June 1967. Alan Peacock at meetings.]

 

Johns Hopkins

[Ask Bill Oakland]

 

University of California, Berkeley

[Ask Aaron Gordon or Tibor Scitovsky.]

 

Cornell

Bridge [John L.] — Econometrics, Foreign Trade

Lindert [Peter]— International Economics

[Their two best as indicated in their letter to Department Chairman.]

 

Buffalo

Mathis, E.J. [Ask Mitch Horwitz if it’s worth pursuing.]

 

Columbia U.

[Ask Bill Vickrey]

 

Pittsburgh

Miller, Norman C. (26). International Economics; Money, Macro, Micro and Math Economics

Thesis: “Capital Flows and International Trade Theory” (Whitman)
References: Marina Whitman, Jacob Cohen, Peter Kenen, Graeme Dorrance

[Letter to Evsey Domar from Mark Perlman (Chm.) recommending him to us for further training.]

 

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute Archives and Special Collections. MIT Department of Economics records, Box 1, Folder “AEA Chairmen MEETING—Dec. 28-30, 1969 (sic)”.

Image Sources:  Duncan Foley (left) from his home page. Miguel Sidrauski (right) from the History of Economic Thought website.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Syllabus and Examination for International Trade. Haberler, 1949

 

The following course outline with readings and final examination for Gottfried Haberler’s 1949 (spring term) course in international trade can be compared to the following material transcribed earlier for the pair of semester courses he taught subsequently covering international trade, finance and policy.

__________________________

Course Announcement

Economics 243a (formerly Economics 143a). International Trade

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

[Economics 243 b (formerly] Economics 143b). International Trade]

Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 10. Professors Haberler and Harris.

Omitted in 1948-49; to be given in 1949-50.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Courses of Instruction, Box 6, Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1948-49, p. 79.

__________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 243 a (formerly Economics 143a). International Trade (Sp). Professor Haberler.

Total: 25: 15 Graduates, 1 Senior, 4 Public Administration, 1 M.I.T., 4 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1948-1949, p. 78.

__________________________

Spring 1949
Economics 243a
Professor Haberler

Outline

First Four Weeks

  1. The Importance of International Trade for the Economy of Various Countries. Measures of Importance
  2. International Accounts and National Accounts.
    International Transactions in National Economic Budgets
  3. Balance of Payments and Foreign Exchange
    Demand and Supply for Exports and Imports
    Demand and Supply of Foreign Currency
  4. Balance of Payments Mechanism
    The Transfer Problem

Second Four Weeks

  1. International Division of Labor
    The Theory of Comparative Cost
  2. Ohlin’s Theory of “Interregional and International Trade”
  3. Various Criticisms and Objections to Classical and Neoclassical Theories
  4. Location Theory

Last Four Weeks

  1. The last four weeks will be devoted to a discussion of problems of trade policy. Evolution of trade policies; Modern methods of trade regulation; The Havana Charter for an International Trade Organization (I.T.O.).

 

Reading Assignments and Suggestions
General

The literature in the subject is so rich that students can acquire the knowledge necessary for the course in many different ways. Students are invited to make their own detailed choice from the suggestions below. Two extensive bibliographies have been prepared in former terms for other courses. One may be obtained from Ms. Buller, Littauer 322; the other from Professor Williams’ secretary, Littauer 231. Each student is expected to have read one or the other of the following general monographs or texts:

Ellsworth: International Economics
Haberler: Theory of International Trade
Whale: International Trade
Enke and Salera: International Economics
Meade and Hitch: Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy (Part III)
Harrod: International Economics (3rd edition, 1939)
Tinbergen: International Economic Cooperation (1945)
An excellent discussion of recent developments will be found in: Metzler: “The Theory of International Trade,” Chapter. 6, Survey of Contemporary Economics (1948)
It is hoped that the volume, Readings in the Theory of International Trade will appear in March or April.

Assignments and Suggestions to Subjects Listed Above in Addition to Relevant Chapters in General Texts

  1. There is hardly any specific reading on this subject. See, however, The Post-War Foreign Economic Policy of the United States. 6th Report of the House Special Committee on Post-War Economic Policy and Planning. House Report No. 541. Washington, 1945. (This report was written by Lloyd Metzler.)
    The United States in the World Economy, U. S. Department of Commerce, 1943.
    Buchanan, N.S., and Lutz, E.A.: Rebuilding the World Economy, 1947)
  2. Hicks: The Social Framework of the American Economy, Ch. XII, “Foreign and National Income.”
    The United States in the World Economy (U.S. Department. of Commerce, 1943).
    The Survey of Current Business (Monthly publication of Department of Commerce) has frequent articles on trade and balance of payments statistics.
  3. R. Nurkse: International Currency Experience (League of Nations, 1944).
    J. Robinson: “Foreign Exchanges,” Essays on the Theory of Employment (1st ed., 1938; 2nd ed., 1947), Part III.
    Machlup: “The Theory of Foreign Exchanges,” Economica, 1939 (two articles).
    Pigou: “The Foreign Exchanges,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1922, Reprinted in Essays in Applied Economics, 1927.
    Metzler: op. cit.
  4. Williams: Post-War Monetary Plans and Other Essays, 3rd edition, 1947.
    The New Economics (ed. S. E. Harris), Part V, especially the essays by Bloomfield and Nurkse.
    Machlup: International Trade and the National Income Multiplier (1943).
    Keynes and Ohlin on German Reparations in Economic Journal, 1929 (to be reprinted in Readings in the Theory of International Trade).
  5. In addition to general texts, see: Ricardo: Principles; J. S. Mill, Principles
    Marshall: Money, Credit and Commerce
    Taussig: International Trade
    J. Viner: Studies in the Theory of International Trade
    Leontief: “The Use of Indifference Curves in the Analysis of Foreign Trade,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1933 (to be reprinted in Readings).
  6. Ohlin: op. cit. Parts I, II, and possibly III.
    Ellsworth: “A Comparison of International Trade Theories,” American Economic Review, June, 1940.
  7. J. Viner: Studies (last two chapters).
    F. D. Graham: Theory of International Values (Princeton 1948).
    Williams: Postwar Monetary Plans, 3rd ed., 1937, Ch. 12.
  8. E. Hoover: Location of Economic Activity (Economic Handbook, ed., S.E. Harris, 1948).
    Relevant chapters in Ohlin, op. cit.
  9. Buchanan and Lutz: op. cit.
    Foreign Economic Policy for the United States (ed., S.E. Harris, 1948).
    M. Gordon: Barriers to World Trade (description of trading methods).
    Clair Wilcox: A Charter for World Trade, 1949.
    Text of I.T.O. Charter

Further assignments for 9 to be made later.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 5, Folder “Economics 1949-1950, 3 of 3”.

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1948-49
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 243a
[Final Examination]

Answer 4 questions

(Please write legibly!)

  1. Analyze the probably effect of a currency depreciation of a particular country upon (a) the balance of payments and (b) the terms of trade. List the main factors on which the outcome depends and give attention to income as well as to price effects.
  2. List and discuss the main theoretically tenable arguments for protection. Indicate their order of importance (a) from the scientific point of view and (b) from the point of view of practical politics.
  3. Describe Ohlin’s theory of International Trade and compare it with the classical and neo-classical theory.
  4. “The existence of a large home market in the U.S. protected by taste, connections, and a high tariff, which enables the development of mass-production methods, secures advantages which cannot be challenged except by countries having complete state monopoly of their foreign trade. This makes it impossible for Western Europe to adopt a policy of nondiscriminatory trade using no protective devices except tariffs.” (Th. Balogh) Discuss and analyze.
  5. Discuss the probable influence of international trade upon the distribution of income, say, between labor and non-labor income. Pay attention to the theories of Heckscher-Ohlin, Stolper-Samuelson and L. Metzler.
  6. After World War I, Germany had to pay reparations and the Western allies had to pay debts to the United States. After World War II, the corresponding problem for Europe is to get along without American aid.
    Analyze the possible mechanisms of adjustment, indicating the similarities and differences of the two cases.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final examinations, 1853-2001. Box 16, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science, June, 1949.

Image Source: Gottfried Haberler in Harvard Class Album, 1950.

 

 

Categories
Economists Race

Boston University. Mistaken racial identity. Economics Ph.D. alumnus Waight Gibbs Henry, 1918.

 

Colleagues in the history of economics community can imagine my delight in coming across a work by Harry W. Greene that claims to have identified African Americans who had earned Ph.D.’s from 1876 through 1943. As I worked through his sub-list of economics Ph.D.’s, looking for further information about the lives and careers of those named by Greene, I found (thus far) a most peculiar error, namely a Boston University economics Ph.D. recipient, Waight Gibbs Henry, whose race I found clearly identified in U.S. Census returns and his WWI selective service registration as “White”. I have included several sentences from the preface to his doctoral dissertation that make it obviously clear that his ancestors, including his father, even owned slaves themselves.

What to do about a bum observation in a sample? I figure that a post like this might make help someone working with Greene’s list, at least should they perform the minimal diligence of conducting a Google search on the name “Waight Gibbs Henry” to land here.

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From Harry W. Greene’s list of “Holders of Doctorates among American Negroes” (1946)

HENRY, W.G.

A.B., Southern University
Ph.D., ’18, Boston University
MAJOR FIELD: Economics
TITLE OF DISSERTATION: “The Negro as an Economic Factor in Alabama.”

Source: Harry Washington Greene. Holders of Doctorates among American Negroes: An Educational and Social Study of Negroes who have Earned Doctoral Degrees in Course, 1876-1943. Boston: Meador Publishing Company, 1946. Page 62.

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From the Preface
to Henry’s “The Negro as an Economic Factor in Alabama.”

p. 9: “My ancestors were all slave owners. From them I inherited the customary attitude which the slave owner assumes toward the slave. I was reared in direct contact in personal association with many of the old slaves—ex-slaves. Though freed, the majority of them voluntarily remained on my father’s farm. So great was his kindness to them and so immeasurable was their affection for “Old Master” that they refused to leave when dowered with freedom…The negro’s superstitions, folklore, religious proclivities, and social customs are well known to me.”

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HENRY, WAIGHTS GIBBS, 1879-1960

Methodist clergyman, professor. Born– January 13, 1879, at Palm in Pickens Co. Parents– Robert Fillmore and Rebecca Catherine (Morris) Henry. Married– Mary Elizabeth Davis, June 18, 1903. Children– Five. Education– Southern University, A.B., 1900; Vanderbilt University, B.D., 1902; University of Alabama, A.M., 1912 [sic]; Boston University, Ph.D., 1915 [sic]; further graduate work at University of Chicago, Millsaps College, and Harvard University. Ordained to Methodist ministry, 1903; pastorates in Trinity, Pratt City, Tuscaloosa, Brookhaven, Huntsville, and Birmingham; professor of religious education, Emory University, 1924-1929; professor of Bible, Athens College, after 1951. Member of many councils and conferences of the Methodist Church; District Superintendent, Anniston district. Died August 25, 1960.

Source: Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Vol. 3; Marquis who’s who online

Publication(s):

Needful Knowledge for Worthful Living. Birmingham, Ala.; W.G. Henry, 1930.

The Negro as an Economic Factor in Alabama.  Nashville:  M.E. Church South Publishing House, 1918.

The Organization of Personality. Birmingham, Ala.; Birmingham Printing Co., 1922.

Source: Website Alabama Authors.

 

 

Categories
Economics Programs Race Sociology Undergraduate

Fisk University. Economics, Sociology & Social Work Courses. Haynes, 1911-13

In the previous post we met the first African American awarded a Columbia University Ph.D. (Dissertation: “The Negro at Work in New York City”, 1912), George Edmund Haynes (1880-1960). His first academic appointment was at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee where he was Professor of Social Science, a department of one. This post provides an excerpt from the catalogue to this private historically black university that gives us courses with descriptions and text-books (linked here!) for economics, sociology and social work à la Haynes.

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SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL WORK
[Fisk University, 1911-13]

In the study of Sociology and Economics and the scientific approach to social problems Fisk is making every effort to keep abreast of the leading developments. Especially is there need for thorough training in scientific methods for study of social problems and the development of the spirit of social service among Negro college youth.

The growing urban concentration of Negroes demands special study and the development of methods of social betterment to meet the problems attendant upon the increasing complexity of their life and conditions in cities, North and South. This urban situation can best be met by college Negroes who have had training in the social sciences and in practical methods of social work. The greatest need of the urban situation is a number of well-trained social and religious workers. It is the chief aim of this department to develop courses, theoretical and practical, in Economics, Sociology and Social Problems that will give a thorough foundation as a preparatory training for social and religious workers.

Also, the increasing concentration of Negroes in urban centers demands that teachers, ministers, doctors, and those entering other professions, should have a thorough equipment to enable them to understand and to meet successfully the problems with which they will have to deal.

The students who desire to make their life calling that of social workers and who show promise of efficiency and success in such work will be given, through fellowships after graduation, opportunities for practical experience and further study in social betterment efforts in New York and other cities under the auspices of the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, which has been organized by a number of public-spirited citizens with the purpose of studying conditions among Negroes in cities, of developing agencies to meet social needs and for the purpose of securing and training Negro social workers. The University is affiliated with the League in developing this work.

Besides, the time has come for the Negro college to become closely articulated with the community in which it is located. The further aim is to bring the University into closer relation with the conditions among colored people in Nashville and to seek the cooperation of the other Negro colleges in developing this much needed phase of education. The following courses are now given:

  1. ELEMENTARY ECONOMICS: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION. Junior Year. First and second semesters, 3 hours per week. The aim of this course is to acquaint the student, through a study of concrete facts, with the underlying principles of the economic organization and activity of society, with special reference to American conditions, and with the fundamental economic doctrines as an introductory knowledge of the principles of production, consumption and distribution. The course is conducted by means of readings, class discussions and lectures. Text-books: Coman, “Industrial History of the United States;” collateral reading, and Ely, “Outlines of Economics”.

 

  1. ADVANCED ECONOMICS; ECONOMICS AND LABOR PROBLEMS. Senior Year. First and second semesters. 2 hours per week. The work of this course is based upon Course 1. It is conducted partly in the form of a seminar.

In the second half of the course such questions as taxation, labor legislation, child labor, strikes and lockouts, etc., are studied by means of discussions, lectures, readings and assigned investigations. The aim is to develop the student in independent thinking about current economic and labor problems. Text-books: Seager, “Introduction to Economics”[replaced by Nearing and Watson, “Economics” in 1912-13]; Adams and Sumner, “Labor Problems”; collateral reading.

 

  1. SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS. Senior Year. First and second semesters, 3 hours per week in class-room work. During 12 weeks of the second semester ten hours per week additional field work is required. The first half of this course gives the student an acquaintance with some of the fundamental sociological principles and laws, with some of the chief authorities in sociology, and leads him to a point of view for his thinking about modern social problems. The class-room work is conducted by means of lectures, assigned readings and discussions.

The second half of the course begins with a study of elementary statistics and methods of social investigation. Each student is required to take part in an investigation of some problem like the housing problem, occupations, etc., as they are found among Negroes in Nashville. In addition, he is required to acquaint himself with the literature bearing on the topics of the investigation. In the last part of the course a series of lectures on problems and methods of bettering conditions among Negroes in cities is given by social experts from various cities. The past year the following lectures were given:

Two lectures on “Conservation of Childhood”;
Six lectures on the “Religious Problem among Negroes in Cities”;
Ten lectures on “Principles of Relief and Charity Organization”;
Three lectures on “Special Problems among Negro Women in Cities”;
Five lectures on “Delinquency and Probation”.

[Topics added 1912-13: “Health Problems Among Negroes”; “Educational Problems Among Negroes”; “The State and City in Relation to Social Conditions”; “Rural Conditions Among Negroes”.]

Text-books: Blackmar, “Elements of Sociology” [replaced by Metcalf, “Organic Evolution” in 1912-13]; Carver, “Sociology and Social Progress”; Ward, “Applied Sociology”; collateral reading.

 

  1. HISTORY OF THE NEGRO IN AMERICA. Junior Year. First and second semesters. 1 hour per week. A rapid survey is made of the early period of the importation of slaves and of the social and economic conditions which gave rise to slavery, as well as the suppression of the slave trade. A more intensive study is made of the two periods, 1820-1860, and 1860 to the present day. The study thus gives historical perspective for the understanding of present conditions, an appreciation of the honored names of the Negroes of the past, and an estimate of the genuine contributions the Negro people has made in the way of labor force, military strength, musical culture, etc., to American civilization.

There is no suitable text-book to be used for such a historical course, so that in addition to lectures assigned readings are selected from standard histories [added in 1912-13: Brawley, “Short History of the American Negro”], from Du Bois’ “Suppression of the Slave Trade”, Williams’ “History of the Negro in America”[Williams not listed as text-book in 1912-13], Washington’s “Story of the Negro” [Volume I; Volume II], and Hart’s “Slavery and Abolition”. In addition, each student is required to use original sources and report upon some assigned topic, such as biographies of slaves, sale of slaves, underground railroad, etc.

 

  1. THE NEGRO PROBLEM. Senior Year. First and second semesters, 1 hour per week. It is the aim of this course to use all available data to acquaint the student with the part the Negro has in the developing life of America and with the economic, political, intellectual, religious and social forces that enter into the condition and relations of the Negro in America. Particular attention is given to urban conditions. Reviews of current books and articles on the Negro Problem are made. The student is thus developed in the power of independent thinking upon the subject. Text-books: Weatherford, “Negro Life in the South”; Du Bois, “Philadelphia Negro”; Haynes, “The Negro at Work in New York City”; collateral reading.

Source: Catalogue Number 1911-1912 (2nd ed.), Fisk University News, Vol. III, No. 3 (May, 1912), pp. 47-50.

Image Source: Tennessee Vacation Website. Road trip to Nashville.

 

Categories
Columbia Economists Race Social Work Yale

Columbia’s first African American Ph.D. Social Economics Ph.D. alumnus, George Edmund Haynes, 1912

 

Early in the twentieth century disciplinary borders in the social sciences were considerably more porous than by mid-century. Sociology, while already a distinct department at Chicago on a par with the department of political economy, either shared a broader social scientific condominium with economics and other disciplines as in the Faculty of Political Science at Columbia  or it was a subordinate field within an economics department, e.g. at Harvard. This is the main reason for residual ambiguity in the attribution of a disciplinary identity to some of the scholars who earned their doctorates back in that day. 

Today’s addition to the series “Meet an economics Ph.D. alumnus/a” is precisely such a case. The African American George Edmund Haynes (Columbia Ph.D., 1912) was the first African American to be awarded a doctorate by Columbia University and like the first African American to be awarded a Ph.D. at Harvard, W.E.B. Du Bois (1895), taught both economics and sociology during his early academic career. Where Du Bois brought an historian’s lens to his work, Haynes brought that of a social worker to his, having studied at the New York School of Philanthropy following his M.A. from Yale.

In the current discussion of structural racism in U.S. society in general and in academic economics in particular, the careers of Du Bois and Haynes suggest that “The Negro Problem” had been outsourced from academic economics in a way that “The Labor Problem” never was. African American men and women interested in the economics of race found homes in schools of social work and separate departments of sociology (or in traditional Black colleges). Analogously those women interested in the economics of families and consumption more often were expected to enter departments of home economics. 

This post provides three brief internet biographies about George Edmund Haynes in which I have linked wherever possible to his writings available on the internet. Details of Haynes’ academic whereabouts were confirmed from official publications of Fisk University and Columbia University and appended to the post.

The next post provides the social science curriculum developed by Haynes at Fisk University shortly after he was awarded his doctorate from Columbia.

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Fun Fact: Jared Bernstein received his Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the Columbia University School of Social Work, the ultimate successor to the New York School of Philanthropy (that in 1917 had morphed into the New York School of Social Work). Jared Bernstein served as Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden so perhaps we find ourselves on the cusp of an inclusionary revolution in economics.

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Research Tip

“Memoirs” ca. 1950 unpublished autobiography “in the possession of his widow” cited p. 482 in Guichard Parris and Lester Brooks Blacks in the City: A History of the National Urban League. Little, Brown, 1971.
Where are the memoirs now?

Tip of the hat to: Francille Rusan Wilson for her book, The Segregated Scholars: Black Social Scientists and the Creation of Black Labor Studies, 1890-1950 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006), pp. 61-66 on George Edmund Haynes’ early academic years.

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From the Preface to Haynes’ dissertation:

“This study was begun as one of the several researches of the Bureau of Social Research of the New York School of Philanthropy, largely at the suggestion of Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay, the director, to whose interest, advice and sympathy its completion is largely due…
…The material was gathered between January, 1909, and January, 1910, except about four weeks in August, 1909, during the time that I was pursuing studies at the School of Philanthropy and at Columbia University…
…I wish to acknowledge especially the help of Dr. William L. Bulkley in making possible many of the interviews with wage-earners, or Dr. Roswell C. McCrea for criticism and encouragement in preparation of the monograph, and of Dr. E.E. Pratt, sometime fellow of the Bureau of Social Research; Miss Dora Sandowsky for her careful and painstaking tabulation of most of the figures.”

Source: The Negro at Work in New York City—A Study in Economic Progress published in the series Studies in History, Economic and Public Law, Vol. 29, No. 3 (1912),p. 7.

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Dr. George Edmund Haynes  (1880 – January 8, 1960)
Social Worker, Reformer, Educator and Co-Founder of the National Urban League.

NOTE: …  Much of the entry was excerpted from the booklet “The National Urban League: 100 years of Empowering Communities” authored by Anne Nixon and produced by The Human Spirit Initiative, an organization with a mission to inspire people to desire to make a difference and then act on it….

Introduction: The National Urban League was established in 1910 through the efforts of George Edmund Haynes and Ruth Standish Baldwin, the Urban League is the nation’s oldest and largest community- based movement devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream. Today, the National Urban League, headquartered in New York City, spearheads the non-partisan efforts of its local affiliates. There are over 100 local affiliates of the National Urban League located in 35 states and the District of Columbia providing direct services to more than 2 million people nationwide through programs, advocacy and research. The mission of the Urban League movement is to enable African Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights. (Source: www.nul.org, July 2006)

Background: The National Urban League was founded in 1910. The Civil War between North and South had ended forty-five years before, but the country was still deeply divided, and most former slaves remained locked in a system of political powerlessness and economic inequality. The new organization set two major goals – remove barriers to racial equality and achieve economic empowerment for the country’s Negro citizens.

Slavery had been abolished in 1865 by the 13th amendment to the United States Constitution. The 14th and 15th amendments went further and guaranteed equal treatment to Negroes and gave Negro men the right to vote. Despite these Constitutional protections, the civil war continued to rage in the hearts and minds of white Southerners. They were resigned to the abolition of slavery but were not willing to accept either social change or political domination by former slaves.

[…]

The alternatives for former slaves were limited. They could work for white farmers as tenants or sharecroppers, barely a step above slavery, or they could leave the South. Many opted to migrate and moved north to find a better life. Two people stepped forward at this time to provide leadership and help build an organization dedicated to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream – one Negro, one white; one man, one woman – and together, they founded the National Urban League.

Their names were George Edmund Haynes and Ruth Standish Baldwin.  Mrs. Baldwin came from a family of early New England colonists with a history of social activism. Her father was the editor of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican. A graduate of Smith College, she was the wife of William Henry Baldwin, Jr., president of the Long Island Railroad. She was active in the National League for the Protection of Colored Women (NLPCW) – an organization formed to help protect Negro women new to Northern cities.

George Edmund Haynes, unlike Ruth Standish Baldwin, did not come from a background of privilege. His father was a laborer, and his mother was a domestic servant with great ambitions for her son. When George Haynes completed his elementary education, the family moved from his birthplace in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to the more cosmopolitan community of Hot Springs. At a point in history when educational opportunities for Negroes ranged from limited to nonexistent, George Haynes’ achievements were astonishing. In Hot Springs, he completed the limited educational opportunities available and went on to take high school level courses and college preparatory studies at the Agricultural and Mechanical University in Huntsville, Alabama. He received his bachelor’s degree from Nashville, Tennessee’s Fisk University and then a master’s degree from Yale. Because he was an outstanding student, Yale awarded him an academic scholarship, and he waited tables and stoked furnaces for his room and board.

His varied and distinguished career began immediately after the Yale years. His first job was with the Colored Men’s Department of the International YMCA, where his visits to Negro colleges and universities broadened his horizons. But his academic studies continued, and he added to his reputation as a brilliant scholar. While studying at the University of Chicago during the summers of 1906 and 1907, Dr. Haynes became interested in social problems affecting black migrants from the South. This interest led him to the New York School of Philanthropy, from which he graduated in 1910. Two years later he received a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Columbia University Press published his doctoral dissertation, The Negro at Work in New York City [— A Study in Economic Progress]. He had the distinction of being the first Negro to receive a Ph.D. degree from Columbia University.

Within this period, he also involved himself in the activities of the American Association for the Protection of Colored Women, the Committee for Improving the Industrial Conditions of Negroes in New York, and the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes. Dr. Haynes was a man of many talents with an extraordinary number of professional commitments. In addition to being a co-founder of the National Urban League, he also founded and directed the Department of Social Sciences at Fisk University. At Fisk, his students trained at the Bethlehem Training Center that he had established as part of the Social Science Department. As part of their training, they did field work in existing agencies, and many were assigned to local affiliates of the National Urban League (i.e., Philadelphia, St. Louis, Nashville, Baltimore, Memphis, and Louisville). This model program was repeated at the University of Pittsburgh, Columbia University, and New York University.

Dr. Haynes served as executive director of the National Urban League from 1910 to 1918. He also established the Association of Negro Colleges and Secondary Schools, and served that organization as secretary from 1910 to 1918. He helped the New York School of Philanthropy and NLUCAN in collaborative planning that led to the establishment of the first social work training center for black graduate students at Fisk, and he directed that center from 1910-1918.

From 1918 to 1921, he served as Director of Negro Economics in the United States Department of Labor. As a special assistant to the Secretary of Labor, he was involved in matters of racial conflict in employment, housing, and recreation. He continued his earlier studies of exclusion of black workers from certain trade unions, interracial conditions in the workplace, and child labor. These studies resulted in numerous scholarly works. One of the most significant of these was The Negro at Work During the World War and During Reconstruction. The work’s widespread and profound impact resulted in his appointment as a member of the President’s Unemployment Conference in 1921.

In 1930 Dr. Haynes conducted a survey of the work of the YMCA in South Africa, and in 1947 he managed a similar study of the organization’s activities in other African nations. These efforts resulted in his being chosen as consultant on Africa by the World Committee of YMCAs. His book, Trend of the Races (1922), reflected his belief in the union of all people.

For the last nine years of his life, Dr. Haynes taught at the City College of New York and served as an officer of the American Committee on Africa. Dr. Haynes died in New York City in 1960.

Dr. George Edmund Haynes and Ruth Standish Baldwin have been memorialized with a plaque in the The Extra Mile — Points of Light Volunteer Pathway located on the sidewalks of downtown Washington, D.C. The Extra Mile Pathway is a program of Points of Light Institute, dedicated to inspire, mobilize and equip individuals to volunteer and serve. The Extra Mile was approved by Congress and the District of Columbia. It is funded entirely by private sources.

In 1917, Dr. Haynes made a presentation at the National Conference on Social Welfare on the migration of Negroes to northern cities. It can be viewed on the ERAS section under Civil Rights or linked directly: The Migration Of Negroes Into Northern Cities: By George E. Haynes, Ph. D., Executive Secretary of the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes

For further reading:

Carlton-La Ney, Iris (1983) “Notes on a Forgotten Black Social Worker and Sociologist: George Edmund Haynes,” The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 10 : Iss. 3 , Article 14.

Interracial Conference of Church Women, Eagles Mere, Pa., September 21-22, 1926, Social Welfare History Portal.

Source: Nixon, A. (n.d.). Julia Clifford Lathrop (1858-1932): Dr. George Edmund Haynes (1880 – January 8, 1960) – Social worker, reformer, educator and co-founder of the National Urban League. Social Welfare History Project. Retrieved July 31, 2020 from http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/social-work/haynes-george-edmund/

Archived copy at the Internet Archive WaybackMachine.

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George Edmund Haynes
by Reavis L. Mitchell, Jr.

Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, George E. Haynes was the only child of Louis and Mattie Sloan Haynes. At a young age he moved with his parents to New York, where he spent his youth. In 1903 he received his B.A. from Fisk University, he earned his M.A. from Yale University in 1904, and in 1912 he became the first African American awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Columbia University.

In 1910 George Haynes married Elizabeth Ross of Montgomery, Alabama; they became the parents of one child, George Edmund Haynes Jr. After their marriage, the couple resided in New York, where Haynes studied social science and economics. He developed an acute awareness of the impact of socioeconomic readjustment upon African Americans who migrated northward from the South. Shortly after his marriage in 1910, he joined with Frances Kellor and Ruth Baldwin to establish the National Urban League for assisting those making the transition from agrarian to urban living.

Haynes accepted a faculty position at Fisk University in 1912. His intense interest in America’s changing social fabric prompted his leadership in establishing Fisk’s department of social sciences and an academic program to train professional social workers. By 1914 he had developed the first college-level course on the history of African Americans. His research on the African American adjustment to a predominately white society earned Haynes acclaim as a leader in the study of racial affairs.

Haynes emerged as a leader in efforts to bring Nashville’s white and African American communities together. Bethlehem House, a settlement house first proposed in 1907 by Fisk graduate Sallie Hill Sawyer and enlarged in 1913 by the addition of a kindergarten and clinic, became the “hands-on” training center for Professor Haynes’s social science students. The settlement house concept, patterned after the British movement of the 1880s, began to gather momentum in America in the early 1900s. By 1915 the Bethlehem Settlement House was the product of very advanced social theory put into action–especially in the turn-of-the-century South. Fisk University’s involvement with Bethlehem House supported the reality of whites and African Americans working together to provide social services.

In 1916, when a fire devastated East Nashville, the African American community suffered extensively. In the charred aftermath of this horrendous fire, Haynes’s Fisk University students offered assistance to the fire victims as they struggled to cope with their losses.

Two years later, Haynes left Tennessee for Washington, where he was appointed special assistant to the U.S. secretary of labor, serving until 1921, when he became cofounder and first executive secretary of the Department of Race Relations of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. For the next twenty-six years, he remained with the council in New York City and became a visionary leader of the city’s African American community. In the late 1940s, for example, Haynes organized the Interracial Clinic, which promoted interracial understanding and easing of racial tensions. In 1955 he was appointed to the New York University Board of Trustees, becoming the first African American appointed to a major American university’s board. After his wife’s death in 1953, Haynes remarried in 1955 to Olyve Jeter of Mount Vernon, New York, where the couple made their home. Haynes died in 1960 at Mount Vernon.

Suggested Reading

Reavis L. Mitchell Jr., Fisk University Since 1866: The Loyal Children Make Their Way (1995).

Source: The Tennessee Historical Society, Tennessee Encyclopedia website. “George Edmund Haynes” by Reavis L. Mitchell, Jr.

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George Edmund Haynes (1880-1960)
by Jessica Salo

Author, educator and organizer George Edmund Haynes was a social scientist, religious leader and pioneer in social work education for African Americans. Born in 1880 to Louis and Mattie Haynes in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, George Haynes was the oldest of two children of a domestic worker mother and day laborer father. He was educated in the segregated and unequal school system of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.  Eventually his family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas to pursue greater educational opportunities for the Haynes children.

In 1893 at the age of thirteen, Haynes attended the Chicago World’s Fair where for the first time he witnessed discussions about the problems affecting African Americans. It was here he first heard about the “Negro Problem” and a variety of possible solutions including emigration to Africa.

Haynes’s experience at the World’s Fair motivated him to pursue higher education.  With the support of his mother he enrolled at the Agriculture and Mechanical College for Negroes at Normal, Alabama. After a year he transferred to Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he eventually earned his B.A. degree in 1903. Haynes was admitted to Yale Graduate School where he earned his M.A. in 1904.

Haynes in 1905 began his career at the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) working with African American youth in the Association’s Colored Men’s Department. In 1905 and 1906, with the support of the YMCA, he toured the South and visited almost all of the African American colleges to assess black higher education. During this time Haynes met and married Elizabeth Ross who was engaged in similar work with African American women.

While working at the YMCA, he enrolled at the University of Chicago during the summers of 1906 and 1907. He then moved to New York and attended the New York School of Philanthropy (later called the New York School of Social Work of Columbia University) and was its first African American graduate in 1910. Two years later he became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia.

George Haynes, upon graduation found himself in New York at the beginning of the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the urban North, and in particular, New York City.  The migration became an important issue for social scientists.  Haynes, the activist, became involved with various organizations that hoped to ease the transition of the Southern newcomers to the city.  The organizations included the Association for the Protection of Colored Women, the Committee for Improving the Industrial Conditions of the Negroes of New York, and the Committee on Urban Conditions among Negroes.  In 1910 Haynes and white reformer, Ruth Standish Baldwin, brought these three organizations together into the National League on Urban Conditions or the National Urban League (NUL).  Haynes became the first Executive Secretary of the NUL, a post he held between 1910 and 1917.

Haynes, used his work with black migrants as the basis for his 1912 Columbia University dissertation, “The Negro at Work in New York” which was later published by Columbia University Press under the same title.

After completing his dissertation Haynes was hired by Fisk University.  Between 1913 and 1917, he split his time between New York and Nashville, working directly on black community issues related to the Great Migration while teaching the next generation of social scientists who would succeed him.

In 1918, Haynes went to Washington, D.C. where he became a special assistant (with the title Director of Negro Economics) to the Secretary of Labor, a post he held until 1921.  While at the Department of Labor, Haynes conducted surveys and provided analysis and recommendations to the U.S. government on the most effective way to utilize the new Northern black industrial workers.  Much of his federally-sponsored research was published in 1921 as The Negro at Work During the World War and During Reconstruction.  Haynes and Emmett Scott who worked in a similar capacity in the War Department during this period, were the highest ranking black federal employees and the first to have influence at the Cabinet level.

In 1921 Haynes became the first Executive Secretary of the Department of Race Relations for the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Here he applied his study and analysis to the question of race and religion in Ameican society for the Council until his retirement in 1947.  In 1930 Haynes conducted surveys for the YMCA of South Africa and in the 1940s did much the same for other African nations.  His Africa work brought international prominence to his research.

Even after retirement in 1947, Haynes remained involved in race relations work while teaching courses at the City College of the City University of New York including one of the first courses on African American history presented in a predominately white institution. In 1948 Haynes was appointed to the first Board of Trustees of the new State University of New York (SUNY) system.  He also published one book, Africa, the Continent of the Future in 1950.

George Edmund Haynes died in New York City in 1960.  Many of his manuscript and papers are preserved in the George Edmund Haynes Collection at Yale University and at the Erastus Milo Cravath Library at Fisk University.

Source:  Jessica Salo, “George Edmund Haynes (1880-1960)” article at the Website: BlackPast.

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Other publications
by George Edmund Haynes

“Co-operation with Colleges in Securing and Training Negro Social Workers for Urban Conditions,” Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections 38: 384-387.

Negro New-Comers in Detroit, Michigan: A Challenge to Christian Statesmanship, A Preliminary Survey. New York: Home Missions Council, 1918.

“Negro Migration—its Effects on Family and Community Life in the North,” Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work 51: 62-75.

Cotton Growing Communities (with Benson Y. Landis), 1934.

Africa, Continent of the Future. New York (The Association Press) and Geneva (World’s Committee of Young Men’s Christian Associations), 1951.

“The Birth and Childhood of the National Urban League,” The National Urban League 50th Anniversary Year Book (1960), 1-12.

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Ph.D. Columbia University, 1912

George Edmund Haynes

A.B. Fisk 1903, A.M. Yale 1904
Dissertation: The negro at work in New York City

Source: Columbia University, One Hundred and Fifty-eighth Annual Commencement (June 5, 1912), p. 40.

 

George Edmund Haynes,

Ph.D., 12; A.B., 03, Fisk Univ.; A.M., 04, Yale; Prof. Social Science Fisk Univ.; Ex-Sec. Natl. League on Urban Conditions among Negroes; mem. Am. Acad. Pol. And Social Sci.; Am. Economics Assn.; Am. Social and Natl. Geographic Socs. Fisk University and 1611 Harding St., Nashville, Tenn.

Source: Catalogue of Officers and Graduates of Columbia University (XVI edition). New York, 1916, p. 1065.

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From Fisk University Catalogues

College Alumni
Class 1903

George Edmund Haynes, B.A.; A.M., Student. Graduate School, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Source: Catalogue of the Officers, Students and Alumni of Fisk University, 1904-1905, p. 79.

College Alumni
Class 1903

George Edmund Haynes, B.A.; A.M., Assistant Secretary, College Y.M.C.A., Atlanta, Ga.

Source: Catalogue of the Officers, Students and Alumni of Fisk University, 1905-1906, p. 79.

Alumni
Class 1903

George Edmund Haynes, B.A.; A.M., Yale University, 1904; Secretary International Committee, College Y.M.C.A., Atlanta, Ga.

Source: Catalogue of the Officers, Students and Alumni of Fisk University, 1906-1907, p.85.

Alumni
Class 1903

George Edmund Haynes, B.A.; A.M., Yale University, 1904; Secretary International Committee, College Y.M.C.A., Atlanta, Ga.

Source: Catalogue of the Officers, Students and Alumni of Fisk University, 1907-1908, p. 86.

College Alumni
Class 1903

George Edmund Haynes, B.A.; A.M., Yale University, 1904; Junior Fellow, Bureau of Social Research, The New York School of Philanthropy; Graduate Student Columbia University; 219 West 134th Street, New York City.

Source: Catalogue of the Officers, Students and Alumni of Fisk University, 1908-1909, p.95.

College Alumni
Class 1903

George Edmund Haynes, B.A.; A.M., Yale University, 1904; Junior Fellow, Bureau of Social Research, The New York School of Philanthropy; Graduate Student Columbia University; 219 West One-Hundred and Thirty-fourth Street, New York City.

Source: Catalogue of the Officers, Students and Alumni of Fisk University, 1909-1910, p. 71.

Faculty and Officers

George Edmund Haynes, M.A.
Associate Professor of Social Science

Source: Catalogue Number 1910-1911, Fisk University News, Vol. II, No. 2 (March, 1911), p. 5.

Events on the Campus

October 28.—Lecture on “What Sociology is About,” by Prof. G. E. Haynes.

Source: Catalogue Number 1910-1911, Fisk University News, Vol. II, No. 2 (March, 1911), p. 15.

Class Alumni
Class 1903

George Edmund Haynes, B.A.; M.A., Yale University, 1904; Graduate, The New York School of Philanthropy, 1910; Associate Professor Sociology [sic], Fisk University, 1033 Twelfth Avenue, N., Nashville.

Source: Catalogue Number 1910-1911,Fisk University News, Vol. II, No. 2 (March, 1911), p. 89.

Faculty and Officers

George Edmund Haynes, M.A.
Professor of Social Science

Source: Catalogue Number 1911-1912 (2nd ed.), Fisk University News, Vol. III, No. 3 (May, 1912), p. 5.

College Alumni
Class 1903

George Edmund Haynes, B.A.; M.A., Yale University, 1904; Graduate, The New York School of Philanthropy, 1910; Professor Social Science, Fisk University; Director, National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, 1033 Twelfth Avenue, N., Nashville.

Source: Catalogue Number 1911-1912 (2nd ed.), Fisk University News, Vol. III, No. 3 (May, 1912), p. 96.

Faculty and Officers

George Edmund Haynes, M.A.
Professor of Social Science

Source: Catalogue Number 1912-1913, Fisk University News, Vol. IV, No. 3 (May, 1912), p. 5.

 

Image Source:  U. S. National Archives. Rediscovering Black History website. Post by Gabrielle Hutchins “Dr. George Edmund Haynes: Social Crusader in Black Economics” (July 8, 2020).