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Cornell Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance Williams Wisconsin

Harvard. Public Finance Exams. Charles Jesse Bullock visiting from Williams College, 1901-02

Courses in public finance were not offered in the academic year 1900-01 at Harvard. Those courses had last been taught by Charles F. Dunbar and Frank W. Taussig in 1899-1900. Following Dunbar’s death (January, 29 1900) and Taussig’s leave to recover from a nervous breakdown (1901-03), it was necessary to bring in an outsider to cover the public finance offerings. Charles Jesse Bullock was first appointed as an instructor in economics for the 1901-1902 academic year to fill that gap. He was later to return at the rank of assistant professor beginning with the 1903-04 academic year.

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From the Williams College Yearbook

CHARLES JESSE BULLOCK, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of Political Science.

Graduated from Boston University, 1889, with Commencement appointment, and received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, in 1895. He taught in high schools from 1889 to 1893 and was traveling fellow in Boston University in 1891. In 1895 he was fellow and assistant at the University of Wisconsin and from 1895 to 1899 was instructor in Economics at Cornell University. Dr. Bullock has written: “The Finance of the United States, 1775-1789,” (1895), “Introduction to the Study of Economics,” (1897), and “Essays on the Monetary History of the United States” (in press [1900]). He also edited William Douglass’s “Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British Plantations in America,” and has contributed various articles to the economic and statistical magazines. He is a member of the American Economic Association and of the American Statistical Association, an associate member of the National Institute of Art, Science and Letters, and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Dr. Bullock is a member of the ΦΔΧ Fraternity.

Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian MCMI, Vol 44 (Williamstown, MA: 1900), p. 23.

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Course Announcements

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

[open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1. Outlines of Economics]

7a1 hf. Financial Administration and Public Debts. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 9. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

7b1 hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat. at 10. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year, 1901-02 (Second ed., 25 June 1901), p.44.

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Course Enrollments

7a 1hf. Professor Bullock (Williams College). — Financial Administration and Public Debts.

Total 26: 2 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

7b 1hf. Professor Bullock (Williams College). — The Theory and Methods of Taxation with special reference to local taxation, in the United States.

Total 26: 2 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.

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Course Descriptions

7a1 hf. Financial Administration. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 9. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

This course will deal with the methods by which governments have attempted to adjust expenditures to revenue, and will study the problems arising from the effort to secure popular control over this process. The budget systems of England, France, and Germany will first receive attention; and study will then be concentrated upon the budgetary methods of our federal government. So far as practicable, also, some consideration will be given to State and local budgets in the United States. The history and present form of our federal budget will offer a large field for investigation, and supply subjects for written reports. Students will be encouraged, furthermore, to gather information concerning the methods followed by State and local governments with which they may happen to be familiar. Candidates for Honors in Political Science or for the higher degrees may advantageously use reports thus prepared by them as material for theses.

Course 7a is open to students who have taken Economics 1

7b1 hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat. at 10. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

In this course both the theory and practice of taxation will be studied. Attention will be given at the outset to the tax systems of England, France, and Germany; and the so-called direct taxes employed in those countries will receive special consideration. After this, the principles of taxation will be examined. This will lead to a study of the position of taxation in the system of economic science, and of such subjects as the classification, the just distribution, and the incidence of taxes. Finally, the existing methods of taxation in the United States will be studied, each tax being treated with reference to its proper place in a rational system of federal, state, and local revenues.

Written work will be required of all students, as well as a systematic course of prescribed reading. Candidates for Honors in Political Science and for the higher degrees will be given the opportunity of preparing theses in substitution for the required written work.

Course 7b is open to students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), pp. 43-44.

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Final Examinations

ECONOMICS 7a
FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION

  1. How is budgetary legislation prepared in France, in England and in the United States? In which country are the best results attained?
  2. At what time of the year is the budget prepared and enacted in France, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Prussia, and the United States? Why is the time of preparation and adoption an important consideration?
  3. Compare methods of budgetary legislation in England with those prevailing in France.
  4. Describe and criticize federal budgetary procedure in the United States?
  5. What part do supplementary, or deficiency, appropriations play in France, in England, and in the United States?
  6. Compare the English and French methods of accounting. What method is followed in the United States?
  7. What are the methods of collecting and issuing public money in England?
  8. What methods of collection and issue are followed in the United States?
  9. Compare the auditing methods of England, France, and the United States?
  10. Why are unity and universality important elements in any good budget system?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-years 1901-1902.
Also included in: Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume Examination Papers, 1902-03.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy,… in Harvard College(June, 1902), pp. 26-27.

ECONOMICS 7b
TAXATION

  1. Describe the land taxes of France, Prussia, and Great Britain.
  2. Compare the French and the Prussian business taxes.
  3. Discuss the British income tax, giving special consideration to methods of administration and to financial results.
  4. In a similar manner discuss the Prussian income tax.
  5. Discuss briefly the customs taxes of Great Britain, France, and Germany.
  6. Describe the excise taxes of the same countries.
  7. What reasons are there for thinking that a tax on rent can not be shifted? Discuss the incidence of an excise tax on each unit of the product of an industry.
  8. What arguments are advanced for and against progressive taxation?
  9. Discuss the shortcomings of the property tax in the United States: (a) with reference to the taxation of realty; (b) with reference to the taxation of personalty.
  10. Describe the corporation taxes of Massachusetts.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-years 1901-1902.
Also included in: Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume Examination Papers, 1902-03.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy,… in Harvard College(June, 1902), pp. 26-27.

Image Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian 1902, Vol. 45, p. 26. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. US Economic History. Readings and Exams. Sprague and Patten, 1901-1902

In addition to a course announcement with description, enrollment figures, and the mid-term and/or year-end examination questions, we have a reading list for “reports”, presumably to be written or presented by students, for a course in U.S. economic history jointly taught by O.M.W. Sprague and James Horace Patten (see below) at Harvard during the 1901-1902 academic year.

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JAMES HORACE PATTEN

Born at Spring Hill, Kan., Dec. 23, 1877. Son of Henry Harrison and Gertrude (Pratt) Patten.

School: Paola and Olathe High School; Wentworth Military Academy.

Year in College: 1896-97. A.B.; AM. 1899; LL.B. 1905; A.B. 1896 (Kansas State University).

Married: Olive Young Latimer, Oct. 12, 1909, Belton, S.C.

Occupation: Lawyer.

Address: (business) 204 Second Street, S.E., Washington, D.C.; (home) 1918 S. Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Was Instructor of Economics, Harvard College, 1900-02; Austin Teaching Fellow, Harvard, 1902-03; appointed Professor of Political Science, University of New Brunswick, in May, 1902; resigned in August, 1902, to enter Harvard Law School; admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in June, 1905; South Carolina Bar in 1909; District of Columbia in 1906; resided in Washington, D.C., since 1905, office 204 Second Street, S.E.; residence 1918 S Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. I was general counsel, Farmers’ educational Co-operative Socitey, 1909-16; assistant secretary, Farmers’ National Congress, 1914-18; and secretary, 1918-20; secretary, Immigration Restriction League since 1912; member, Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Theta Pi, Mason, University Club, Washington, D.C.; national vice-president, Patriotic Order Sons of America.

Source: Harvard Class of 1897. Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report 1897-1922, pp. 421-422.

James Horace Patten. “The Immigration Problem and the South” from The American (Raleigh, N.C.: April 1, 1906).

His death

[Died Apr. 25, 1940 (AP) Washington, April 26: “James H. Patten, 62, attorney and publicist, died yesterday from effects of illunitating gas a short time after his wife found him in the kitchen of their home”. 

A certificate of suicide was issued. “Mrs. Patten told police her husband had been in ill health and suffering from a nervous disorder for some time.” The Greenville News, S.C. April 27, 1940, p. 10]

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Course Announcement,
1901-1902.
Economics 6

For Undergraduates and Graduates

  1. The Economic History of the United States. Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague and Mr. [Austin Teaching Fellow, James Horace] Patten.

Course 6 gives a general survey of the economic history of the United States from the close of the eighteenth century to the present time, and aims to show on the one hand the mode in which economic principles are illustrated by American experience and, on the other, the extent to which economic conditions have influenced social and political development. The following are among the subjects considered: aspects of the Revolution and commercial relations during the Confederation and the European wars; the history of the protective tariff policy and the growth of manufacturing industries; the settlement of the West and the history of transportation, including the early canal and turnpike enterprises of the states, the various phases of railway building and the establishment of public regulation of railways; the development of corporations and the formation of industrial combinations; various aspects of agrarian history, such as the public land policy, the growth of foreign demand for American produce and the subsequent competition of other sources of supply, certain social topics, such as slavery and its economic basis, emancipation and the present condition of the Negro, the effects of immigration. Finally, the more important features of our currency and financial history are reviewed. Comparisons will be made from time to time with the contemporary economic history of Europe.

The course is taken advantageously with or after History 13. It is open to students who take Economies 1, and also to Juniors and Seniors who are taking that course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. p. 42.

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Course Enrollment, 1901-02
Economics 6.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 6. Dr. Sprague and Mr. Patten. — The Economic History of the United States.

Total 125: 7 Graduates, 33 Seniors, 53 Juniors, 19 Sophomores, 13 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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REPORTS IN ECONOMICS 6.

[In pencil: “1901-02 ?”]

COLONIAL TOPICS.

  1. ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. — WAS IT BENEFICIAL TO THE COLONIES OR THE MOTHER COUNTRY?

Beer: Commercial Policy of England toward her Colonies, chs. iv-viii.

Rogers: Economical Interpretation of History, 318-340.

Rabbeno: American Commercial Policy, 48-91.

Smith: Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV, ch. vii.

Ricardo: Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, ch. xxv.

Bernard: Select Letters on the Trade Government of America.

  1. SPANISH COLONIES AND COLONIAL POLICY.

Burke: European Settlements in America, Part III, chs. iii-v, viii, ix, xi, xvi.

Robertson: History of America, Bk. VIII.

Lewis: Government of Dependencies, 134-165, 351-9.

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies, I, 1-44.

Moses: The Casa de Contratacion of Seville. — Annual Report of the American Historical Assn., 1894, pp. 93-123.

Winterbotham: History of America, IV, 176-202.

Reynal: History of the Indies, III, 336-426, IV, 275-345.

Humbolt: Political Essays on the Kingdom of New Spain, I, 230-257, III, 231-251, 283-294, 324-3336, 394-418, 490, IV, 27, 55, 92-127.

  1. THE COLONIAL LABOR PROBLEM. — DIFFICULTY OF SECURING A SUPPLY OF LABOR AND THE MEANS USED TO OVERCOME IT.

(a) Transportation of Criminals, and Indentured Servants.

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies, Part III, Lecture ix, xii, xiii.

Brownlow: Slavery and Serfdom in Europe, Lecture v.

Fisk: Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, II, 174-189.

Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, chs. ix, x.

Weeden: Economic and Social History of New England, 83-87, 520-522.

American Husbandry, I, 169-70. (Lib. No. 47.42.)

Lucas: Historical Geography of the British Colonies, II, 47.

(b) The African Slave Trade.

Weston: Progress of Slavery, 153-163, (ch. xi).

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies, Lecture ix-xi.

Lucas: Historical Geography of the British Colonies, III, chs. ii, iii.

DuBois: Suppression of the African Slave Trade, 1-6.

Cobb: Historical Sketch of Slavery, ch. IX.
Bandinel: Some Account of the Trade in Slaves, etc., Part I.
Edwards: History of the West Indies, Bk. IV, chs. ii-v.

Dean: Connection of Massachusetts with Slavery.

Weeden: Economic and Social History of New England, ch. xii.

Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, ch. xi.

  1. COLONIAL CURRENCY. — SCARCITY OF SPECIE CURRENCY AND SOME OF THE SUBSTITUTES FOR IT.

White: Money and Banking, 120-134, 248-258.

Weeden: Economic and Social History of New England, pp. 32-45, 314-336, 473-491, 674-678.

Macfarlane: Pennsylvania Paper Currency. — Publications of American Academy of Pol. and Soc. Science, Vol. VIII, 50.

Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, ch. xix.

Ripley: Financial History of Virginia, ch. xix.

Davis: Currency Discussions in Mass. in the 18th Century. — Quarterly Journal of Economics, XI, 70, 136.

Douglass: A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British Plantations in America. — Economic Studies, II, No. 5.

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY.

  1. COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH GREAT BRITAIN 1783-1830. — NAVIGATION ACTS AND THE WEST INDIA TRADE.

Lyman: The Diplomacy of United States, II, chs. ii, iii, xii.

Edwards: History of the West Indies, Bk. VI, ch. iv.

Lindsay: History of Merchant Shipping, II, 250-256, 345-407, III, 53-65.

Jay: Life and Writings of John Jay, I, 330-334.

Sumner: Life of Jackson, 164-170.

Rand: Economic History since 1763. (2d Ed.), 515-517.

Adams: Works, VIII, 241, 241 (sic), 310, 327, 350, (273-466).

Madison: Writings, II, 158, 170, 173, 197, 233. 480-483.

  1. SOME REPRESENTATIVE VIEWS OF TARIFF POLICY.

(a) Webster and the Position of New England.

Webster: Works, III, 94 (1824), 224 (1828), V, 161 (1846).

Taussig: State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, 317-385.

For the votes of each state on each Tariff Act, see Sen. Rept. No. 2130, 2d Sess. 51st Congress, pp. 118-120.

(b) Calhoun and McDuffie. — Opposition of the South. — . Had South Carolina just cause for complaint?

Houston: A [Critical] Study of Nullification in South Carolina, chs. iii, iv.

Calhoun: Works, II, 163-173, VI, 2-34.

McDuffie: In Annals of Congress, 18th Cong., I, 1552, 1677, II, 2402-2425; in Congressional Debates, III, 1003, 1006, 2400-2404, VI, 843-847, VIII, Part III, 3142.

(c) Hamilton and Gallatin.

Gallatin: Report on Manufactures, 26-29 (Lib. No. 7372, 25).

Taussig: State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, 1-62, 109-213.

Rabbeno: American Commercial Policy, 287-324.

(d) List and Carey.

Rabbeno: American Commercial Policy, 325-383.

List: National System of Political Economy, 189-352.

Carey: Principles of Social Science: I, chs. iv, §§1-3, viii, x, xiv, xv, xix, xx. xxvi-xxix.

  1. THE TARIFF POLICY AND THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRY 1846-1860. — HOW DID THE LOW DUTIES AFFECT MANUFACTORIES AND WAGES?

Webster: Works, V, 225-235.

Winthrop: Cong. Globe, 1845-46. Appendix, 972-973.

Taussig: Tariff’ History of the U.S., 109-154.

Bolles; Financial History of the U. S., 449-466

Grosvenor: Does Protection Protect, chs. ix, xi, xvi, xix-xxii, xxiv.

Bishop: History of American Manufactures, II, 505 (483-505).

Wright: Comparative Wages, 23-38, 191-199.

Aldrich: Report on Wholesale Prices, Wages, and Transportation, Part I, 11-16. (Sen. Report, No. 1394, 52d Cong. 2d Sess.)

Compendium of the 7th Census, 178-184.

Compendium of 8th Census, 59-75.

  1. GROWTH AND DECAY OF AMERICAN SHIPPING.

Shaler: The United States of American, I, 518-624.

Kelley: The Question of Ships, ch. i-v, xi.

Bates: American Marine, chs. ii, viii-xii, xxii.

Wells: Decay of Our Ocean Mercantile Marine. (Lib. No. v. 6034).

Lindsay: History of Merchant Shipping, IV, chs. iii, iv.

Lynch: Causes of the Reduction of American Tonnage.

SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST.

  1. SPREAD OF COTTON CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT ON SLAVERY. — HAD SLAVERY A PERMANENT ECONOMIC BASIS IN THE SOUTH?

Hammond: The Cotton Industry, chs. ii, iii.

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies. I, 295-302.

Wakefield: The Public Lands a Mine of Wealth, 44-46.

_________: England and America, ii, 1-17.

Sterling: Letters from the Slave States, 302-322.

Hildreth: Despotism in American, ch. iii.

Weston: Progress of Slavery, chs. i-iv, xii, xiv-xvi.

Cairnes: The Slave Power, chs. ii-v, especially 83-92.

Olmsted: The Cotton Kingdom, I, ch. 1; II, 361-398; or

_________: A Journey in the Back Country, ch. viii.

_________: Seaboard Slave States, chs. iii. iv, viii.

Russell: North America, its Agriculture and Climate, chs. viii-x, (xv-xvi).

  1. IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION, AND GROWTH OF INTERNAL COMMERCE AS INDICATED BY LAKE, RIVER, AND CANAL TRAFFIC, 1813-1860.

McMaster: History of United States, III, 459-496, 1V, 381-424.

Million: State Aid to Railways in Missouri, 7-29, 196-229.

Adams: Public Debt, 317-342.

Flagg: Internal Improvements in New York. — Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine, XXIII-XXV. (See also, VI, 439, XVIII, 488.)

Poor: Manual of the Railroads of the U. S., 1868-9, pp. 9-19.

Kettell: In Eighty Years’ Progress, 165-167, 178-190.

U.S. Treas. Dept.: Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 178-233.

Andrews: Report on Colonial and Lake Trade.

De Bow: Industrial Resources of the South and West, I, 444-453.

  1. SALE AND SETTLEMENT OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. — PUBLIC LAND POLICY

McMaster: History of U.S., II, 476-482, III, 89-146.

Hart: Practical Essays on American Government, 233-258.

Donaldson: The Public Domain, chs. vii, viii, x, xiii, xx, xxvii.

Gallatin: Writings, III, 209-229.

Colton: Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay. I. ch. xx, VI. 56-85.

American Annual Register, 1829-30, p. 67.

Sato: History of the Land Question in the U.S. — Johns Hopkins University Studies in Hist. and Pol. Sci., IV, Nos. vii-ix.

CURRENCY AND FINANCE

  1. THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED BY HAMILTON AND GALLATIN.

Hildreth: History of U.S., IV, 152-176; 206-220; 252-256; 536-538.

Dunbar: Some Precedents followed by Hamilton, Q.J.E., III, 32-59.

Hamilton: Reports on Public Credit; Works, III, 1-45, 457-529. (Lodge Ed., ii, 97-108; 475-529.)

Adams: Life of Gallatin, 267-274; 292-297

______: History of U.S., I, ch. x.

Howe: Taxation in the U.S. under the Internal Revenue System. chs. i, ii.

  1. BANK NOTES AS DEPRECIATED CURRENCY AND THE HISTORY OF THE SECOND UNITED STATES BANK, 1814-1846.

Hildreth: History of U.S., IV, 256-262.

Bancroft: A Plea for the Constitution, etc., Part iii.

White: Money and Banking, 271-313.

Gallatin: Considerations on the Currency and Banking System of the U.S., 5-6, 19-84. (See also Writings, 235-6; 253-336.)

Sumner: History of American Currency, 59-169; or

______: Life of Jackson, 236-276; 291-342.

McMaster: With the Fathers, 237-252.

  1. THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY AND EFFORTS TO SECURE A SPECIE CURRENCY, 1836-1860.

Bolles: Financial History of the U.S., II, 351-358.

Hildreth: Banks and Banking, 109-113; 170-177.

Gouge: A Short History of Paper Money and Banking in the U.S., 103-106: 111-116.

Van Buren: Special Message of 1837, Statesman’s Manual, 1051.

Webster: Works, IV, 312, 324.

Benton: Thirty Years’ View, II, 124, 164.

Kinley: The Independent Treasury of U.S., chs, i-iii, vii.

Sumner: History of American Currency, 161-189.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003.Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902”.

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Mid-Year Examination 1901-02
ECONOMICS 6

  1. Define or explain:
    1. Enumerated Commodities.
    2. The Molasses Act.
    3. Specie Circular.
    4. Independent Treasury.
    5. The “National Pike.”
    6. Pre-emption.
    7. The tariff of abominations.
  2. The iron industry in the United States to 1860 and the influence of the tariff upon its development.
  3. Why was protection favorably regarded in the West and South after the War of 1812?
  4. The relation of the public lands to the tariff after 1825.
  5. What economic reasons were advanced against the renewal of the charter of the second bank of the United States? Were they well-founded?
  6. The history of internal improvements in Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, distinguishing carefully important differences.
  7. The connection of the settlement of the Mississippi valley, improvements in transportation facilities, and changes in the nature and relative importance of occupations in different sections of the country. What statistics show the connection?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1901-02.

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Year-End Examination 1901-02
ECONOMICS 6

  1. Trace with specific illustrations the steps taken for the elimination of railroad competition between 1868 and 1878.
  2. Conditions leading to the greater diversification of agriculture in the United States. What peculiar obstacles present themselves in the South?
  3. Why are duties on raw materials less defensible than those on manufactures? Give specific illustrations.
  4. Why have the silk duties been more successful than the linen duties?
  5. The value of the inductive method in studying the effects of protective duties.
  6. What kinds of money might have increased in quantity under U.S. laws in 1874, in 1885 and in 1901?
  7. Why is the United States acquiring a larger proportion of the current production of gold now than ten or fifteen years ago?
  8. Defects in the fiscal system of the United States. Illustrate from experience during the war of 1812 and the Civil War

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 25.

Image Source: Wikimedia. Muse Clio from the illustrations to Ovid by Virgil Solis (1562).

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Exam Questions Harvard Public Utilities Transportation

Harvard. Railroads and regulation. Exams and enrollment. Ripley and Meyer, 1901-1902

American Railroad Scene

 

The first course dedicated to the economics of railroads at Harvard was offered during the first semester of the 1887-1888 academic year and taught by James Laurence Laughlin. After that the field was handed off to a several different instructors. By 1901-02 the course had been split into one semester dedicated to the management of railroads and one semester to the regulation of railroads and other public works.

51 hf. Railway Economics, with particular reference to the United States. Taught by William Z. Ripley in 1901-1902.

52 hf. Railways and other Public Works (advanced course). Taught by Hugo Richard Meyer in 1901-1902.

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Previous year’s exams
1900-01

Hugo Richard Meyer taught both semesters.

Harvard. Final Exams for Railways and Other Public Works. Meyer, 1901

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Original Course Announcement
Economics 51 hf.

For Undergraduates and Graduates

5 1hf. Railways and other Public Works, under Public and Corporate management. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer.

In this course it is proposed to review the history and working of different modes of dealing with railway transportation, and to deal summarily with the questions of street railways, water, gas, and electric light supply. Consideration will be given to the economic characteristics of these industries, the theory and history of railway rates, the effects of railway service and railway changes on other industries, the causes and consequences of monopoly conditions. The history of legislation, in the more important European countries and in Australia will be followed, as well as the different modes in which the countries in question have undertaken the regulation and control of private corporations, or have assumed direct ownership, with or without management and operation. As to the United States, there will be a consideration of the modes of regulation, through legislation and through commissions, at the hands of the several states; and of the course of legislation by the federal government, concluding with a study of the working of the Interstate Commerce Act.

Written work, in the preparation of papers on assigned topics, will be required of all students in the course. Course 5 is open to students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. pp. 41-42.

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Revised Statement Concerning Course 51 hf.

51 hf. Railway Economics, with particular reference to the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley (Mass. Inst. Technology).

A brief outline of the historical development of rail and water transportation in the United States will be followed by a description of the condition of the railroad system at the present time; with a view of familiarizing the student with the principal sources of information. The four main subdivisions of Rates and Rate-Making, Finance, Traffic Operation, and Legislation, will be considered in turn. The first subdivision deals with the relation of the railroad to the shipper. It will comprehend an analysis of the theory and practice of rate-making, including, for example, freight classification, the nature of railroad competition, the long and short haul principle, pooling, etc. Under the second heading, having reference to the interests of owners and investors, an outline will be given of the nature of railroad securities, such as stocks, bonds, etc., the principles of capitalization, the interpretation of railroad accounts and annual reports, receiverships and reorganizations, etc. Railroad Operation, the third subdivision, will deal with the practical problems of the traffic department, such as the collection and interpretation of statistics of operation, pro-rating, the apportionment of cost, depreciation and maintenance, etc. In the fourth subdivision, Legislation, the course of state and federal regulation and control will be traced. Discussion will follow concerning the work of the Interstate Commerce Commission, judicial interpretation of the law, the relation of the Commission to the Courts, etc.

Written work in the preparation of papers on assigned topics will be required of all students in the course. Course 5 is open to all students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902.”

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Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 5 1hf. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley. — Railway Economics with particular reference to the United States.

Total 81: 6 Graduates, 40 Seniors, 19 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Mid-Year Examination, 1902
ECONOMICS 5.

  1. State three points of difference between capital stock and bonds, indicating the resultant effect upon American railway management.
  2. Outline the course of state legislation and of judicial decisions, leading to the enactment of the Act to Regulate Commerce, etc. of 1887.
  3. Describe the present condition of affairs as respects the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to prescribe freight rates; with the nature of the principal suggestions for amendment of the law in this regard.
  4. What principles were involved in the following cases:

(a) Social Circle; (b) Cincinnati and Chicago Freight Bureaus; and (c) Louisville and Nashville.

  1. In what two independent ways has the Long and Short Haul clause been rendered ineffective as originally interpreted. Illustrate by examples.
  2. What is the principal difference between rail and water competition in the case of canals, small rivers, and the Great Lakes?
  3. Discuss the various bases proposed for railroad capitalization, defining that term exactly. What is the policy in Massachusetts in this respect?
  4. Combine and arrange the following items so as to give the best information about the operation and condition of the road.

(Do not rewrite the names but use the corresponding numbers where possible.)

1. Passenger train miles 2,000,000
2. Freight train miles 3,400,000
3. Passenger train earnings $2,400,000
4. Freight train earnings $5,500,000
5. Income from investments $100,000
6. Dividends $500,000
7. Franchises and property $90,400,000
8. Operating expenses $4,700,000
9. Tons freight carried 2,800,000
10. Av. load per car (loaded and empty), tons 8.2
11. Av. no. loaded cars per train 12.3
12. Av. no. empty cars per train 6.7
13. Interest charge for year $2,200,000
14. Due other roads $100,000
15. Stocks and bonds owned $4,900,000
16. Surplus for the year $300,000
17. Profit and loss account $1,000,000
18. Taxes accrued but not due $100,000
19. Capital stock $50,000,000
20. Supplies on hand $500,000
21. Taxes for the year $300,000
22. Accounts receivable $500,000
23. Cash $1,000,000
24. Bonds of the company in its treasury $800,000
25. Accounts payable $1,000,000
26. Interest due $700,000
27. Funded debt $45,000,000
28. Due from other roads $100,000
29. Interest accrued not due $300,000
  1. Describe three methods of treating depreciation and illustrate each in a case for which it is especially serviceable.
  2. Determine whether to charge the following expenditure to capital account or to revenue account. State your reasons fully. If you should charge to operating expenses, state to which general group.
    • A new forty-ton car to replace a thirty-ton car.
    • An expensive new anion station substituted for two small inexpensive stations.
    • Premium paid on purchase of stock in a connecting line.
    • Wages on a train hauling company’s coal for company’s use.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1901-02.

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Original Course Announcement
Economics 52 hf.

52 hf. Railways and other Public Works (advanced course). Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat, at 1.30. Mr. Meyer.

This course is a continuation of the preceding one. It makes a detailed study of certain of the more important questions discussed in the first half-year. Among those questions are: the accounts and finances of railroads and street railways, as illustrated in the reports and statements of important systems; the development of transportation methods in certain important railroad systems; some State Commissions and their action in specific cases; the decisions rendered by the Interstate Commerce Commission; and some further aspects of public ownership, especially in Germany.

Subjects will be assigned for special examination, and the third hour may be used for the presentation and discussion of the reports upon the subjects examined.

Course 52 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 51.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. p. 42.

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Revised Statement Concerning
Course 52 hf.

51 hf. The problems of public ownership of railways; and the question of the public or the private ownership of street railways, gas, and electric lighting plants. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat, at 1.30. Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer.

The problems of the public ownership of railways will be discussed under three headings: the problem of making a railway budget fit into the state budget; the problem of devising a scheme of railway rates that shall meet the demands of ideal justice, and shall at the same time be sufficiently elastic to meet the needs of commerce and industry; and the problem of a large body of civil servants in a self-governing community. The discussion of these questions will be based mainly on the experience of Germany and the Australian Colonies, though some notice will be taken of the experience of France and Italy.

The question of the public or the private ownership of street railways, gas, and electric light plants will be studied by means of a comparison of the working of the so-called American practice of little or no control with the working of the British practice of control by Parliament, supplemented by the policy of municipal ownership.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902.”

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Course Enrollment
Economics 52 hf.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 5 2hf. Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer. — The Problems of Public Ownership of Railways; and the Question of the Public or the Private Ownership of Street Railways, Gas, and Electric Lighting Plants.

Total 49: 5 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Final Examination, 1902
ECONOMICS 52

  1. Railway rates and the utilization of the agricultural resources: in Germany, in Russia, and in the United States. A study of the railway problem as the problem of conflicting local interests.
  2. Is the State, when put in charge of the railways, likely to be in a better position than are corporations to pursue an enlightened policy as to the extension of the railroad net and the reduction of railway charges; is it likely to be more considerate of the interests and the rights of the public than are corporations?
    Base your argument upon the experience of the countries studied in this course.
  3. Has the management of the railways by the State in Germany put the small shipper on a footing of equality with the large shipper?
  4. What is the evidence as to the profitableness of electric street railways in the United States?
  5. In the long run, would it be to the interest of the public, to adopt the policy of securing to the public the profit made by public service corporations in excess of the return obtained from good mortgages on real estate?
  6. The evidence as to the comparative economy of management of private gas plants in England and municipal gas plants; as to the comparative cost of gas to the consumer served by private plants and the consumer served by public plants.
  7. State carefully the body of administrative law to be found in the decisions of the Massachusetts Gas and Electric Light Commissioners upon petitions for reduction in the price of gas and of electric light.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), pp. 24-25.

Image Source: American Railroad Scene: Lightning Express Trains Leaving the Junction. Currier & Ives (1874). Published in: Viewpoints; a selection from the pictorial collections of the Library of Congress …. Washington : Library of Congress …, 1975, no. 39.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Economics Honors Exams, 2002-2016

 

Departmental websites are valuable to visitors for providing up-to-date information but the future needs of historians of economics are of no consequence for the informational calculus of working webmeisters. We all hate it when we encounter dead links in our internet searches. Fortunately, the internet archive WaybackMachine often provides us a time tunnel needed to take on our mission to resuscitate expired web pages for the “old” content we seek. 

Today’s post is a simple listing of archived links to Harvard’s undergraduate honors examinations in economics from the period 2002-2016. The only gap is for the year 2015. Maybe a copy of the 2015 exams has survived as hard-copy in someone’s literal files? Peeps, don’t fail me now!

To see how the honors examinations fit into the economics concentration requirements at Harvard in the early 21st century, I have provided a copy of the 2003/2004 requirements, followed by a link to the requirements 2015/2016.

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Concentration requirements rev. Sept. 2003

COURSES REQUIRED OF ALL ECONOMICS CONCENTRATORS

• Math 1a or equivalent knowledge
• Social Analysis 10
• Econ 970 (Sophomore Tutorial)
• Stat 100 or Stat 104; or both Stat 110 and 111; or both Stat 110 and econometrics
• Econ 1010a or 1011a
• Econ 1010b or 1011b
(except for Math, none of the above may be taken pass/fail)
• 3 related field courses
• (1 econometrics course – Econ 1123 or 1126 – for students entering Harvard in fall 2003 or thereafter)

NON-HONORS REQUIREMENTS

• 4 additional half courses (3, for students entering Harvard in fall 2003 or thereafter) that include:

1 course with a writing requirement
1 course with intermediate theory as prerequisite

HONORS REQUIREMENTS

A. With Thesis: The following are required for Summa or Magna degrees:

• 1 econometrics course (Econ 1123 or 1126)
• 3 additional half courses that include:

1 course with a writing requirement
1 course with intermediate theory as prerequisite

• Econ 985 (Senior Thesis Seminar)
• Successful completion of senior thesis
• Honors general examination

B. Advanced Course Track: Department honors without thesis – cum degree only

• 1 econometrics course (Econ 1123 or 1126)
• 5 additional half courses that include:

2 courses with a writing requirement
2 courses with intermediate theory as prerequisite

• Honors general examination

C. Joint Concentration

• Same as Honors requirements with thesis with one exception:

4 courses in joint field instead of the 3 related field courses

ECONOMICS AS THE ALLIED FIELD

• Social Analysis 10
• 4 additional half courses in economics, including at least one intermediate theory course (1010a, 1011a, 1010b, 1011b – these may not be taken pass/fail)
• Thesis required combining both areas of study
• Honors general examination – answer either the micro, macro, or econometrics question

Note: Courses may count for more than one requirement – one course could satisfy a writing and prerequisite requirement. However, you still must take the required overall number of economics courses.

Source: Oct 9, 2003 capture by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

Cf. the economics concentration requirements at Harvard as of October 2015.

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2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

-unavailable-

2016

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Statistics. Course description and semester exams. Ripley, 1901-1902

William Zebina Ripley first came on board the Harvard economics department as a visiting professor from M.I.T. for the academic year 1901-02. There was a screaming need for someone to cover the statistics course that had been taught by John Cummings through 1899-1900 but had been bracketed (i.e. not offered) for 1900-01. From the June announcement of course offerings for 1901-02 we see that the department’s economic historian, William J. Ashley, was originally planned for teaching the statistics course. That plan needed to be scrapped once Ashley announced his resignation to go the University of Birmingham. Down the Charles River at M.I.T. William Z. Ripley, assistant professor of Sociology and Economics, turned out to be a good fit for the department’s instructional program. 

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Related post in the Economics in the Rear-view Mirror archive:

Harvard. Short Bibliography on Social Statistics for “Serious-minded Students”, Ripley, 1910

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Original Course Announcement
(June 1901)

For Undergraduates and Graduates

4 hf. Statistics. — Theory, methods, and practice. Half-course. Fri., at 11. Professor [William J.] Ashley.

After a brief history of statistics, this course will proceed to an exposition of the statistical methods most commonly employed, and a statement of the theoretical considerations most deserving of attention in practical investigation. An account, with running comment, will then be given of the work of government offices; and the latter part of the year will be employed in the disentangling and comparison of the main results of the recent industrial censuses of Germany and France. Two reports on assigned topics will be required during the year, from every student in the course.

Course 4 is open to students who have taken Economics 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economies 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. p. 41.

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Revised Statement
Concerning Course 4 hf.

4 hf. Statistics. — Theory, methods, and practice. Half-course. Tu., at 11. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley (Mass. Inst. Technology).

This course is intended to serve rather as an analysis of methods of research and sources of information than as a description of mere results. A brief history of statistics will be followed by an account of modes of collecting and tabulating census and other statistical material in the United States and abroad; the scientific use and interpretation of results by the mean, the average, seriation, the theory of probability, etc. The main divisions of vital statistics, relating to birth, marriage, morbidity, and mortality, life tables, etc.; the statistics of trade and commerce, such as price indexes, etc.; industrial statistics relating to labor and employment; statistics of agriculture and manufacture; of transportation by means of ton, car, train-mileage, and revenue; will be then considered in order. The principal methods of graphic representation will be comprehended, and laboratory practice in the preparation of charts, maps, and diagrams from original material will be required.

Course 4 is open to students who have taken Economics 1; and it is also open to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Economies 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902.”

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Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 4 hf. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice.

Total 5:  2 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Mid-Year Exam, 1902
ECONOMICS 4

  1. Outline the different tests to be applied to determine in any given population,
    1. the existence of migration,—
    2. its amount and character.
  2. How do still-born and illegitimate births compare with normal and legal ones, in character and frequency?
  3. Compare urban and rural populations from the point of view of births and marriages; giving suitable explanations.
  4. What are the principal errors to be guarded against or corrected in a census enumeration.
  5. Describe three methods of estimating population at intercensal periods, critically comparing their merits.
  6. How might the vital statistics of two American states differ, on account of a wide difference in the proportions of male and female adults?
  7. What is
    1. the expectation of life?
    2. the refined birth rate?
  8. What does a mortality table show. Construct an hypothetical one.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1901-02.

Year-end Examination, 1902
ECONOMICS 4

  1. Explain the construction of a life table and show its uses.
  2. What are the main errors to be avoided in comparison of mortality rates of different countries or groups of population?
  3. Why are index numbers of prices apt to be misleading? Show by an example.
  4. Criticize the Senate Finance Committee Report on Prices and Wages, as to its methods.
  5. In what way may movements of wages be most accurately measured?
  6. To what classes of phenomena may the modulus be best applied, and what is its advantage over the use of averages?
  7. What are the principal defects in statistics as to the movement of imports and exports?
  8. What is the best method of “smoothing curves” in a graphic diagram? Give an example.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 22.

Image Source: M.I.T. yearbook, Technique 1901, p. 26.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Sociology Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Principles of Sociology. Enrollment, Readings, Exam Questions. Carver, 1901-1902

 

Thomas Nixon Carver was the second person to teach sociology at Harvard back in the days when sociology was a sub-field of economics. Carver turned out to be sort of a utility-infielder, originally hired as an economic theorist but later tasked with covering sociology, social reform (as in “thou-shalt not interfere…” except for prohibition!), and agricultural economics.

Fun fact: One of Carver’s protégés, Vervon Orval Watts, later worked for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Carver’s wing-nut spawn was responsible for considerably less political damage than the much more recent Harvard economics Ph.D. (1986), Peter Navarro. But I digress…

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Sociology à la Carver,
Other Years

Economics 3. Thomas Nixon Carver and William Z. Ripley, 1902
Economics 8. Thomas Nixon Carver, 1917-18.
Economics 8. Thomas Nixon Carver and Carl Smith Joslyn, 1927-28.

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From Carver’s Autobiography

There was no Department of Sociology at Harvard, but Edward Cummings had given a course on principles of sociology in the Department of Economics. Since I had been giving a course in that subject at Oberlin it was suggested that I continue it at Harvard…

   …The course on the principles of sociology developed into a study of the Darwinian theory as applied to social groups. Variation among the forms of social organization and of moral systems, and the selection or survival of those systems and forms that make for group strength, were considered to constitute the method of social evolution.
The Harvard Illustrated, a student publication, at that time [probably some time after 1911 ] conducted a poll of the senior class, asking the students to name the best courses they had taken. For a number of years Professor Palmer’s course in ethics ranked highest. My course on principles of sociology began to climb until it finally achieved first place. Then the poll was discontinued.

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver, Recollections on an Unplanned Life (Los Angeles, 1949), pp. 132, 172.

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Course Announcement

For Undergraduates and Graduates
  1. Principles of Sociology. – Theories of Social Progress. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Asst. Professor [Thomas Nixon] CARVER.

Course 3 begins with a study of the structure and development of society as outlined in the writings of Comte and Spencer. This is followed by an analysis of the factors and forces which have produced modifications of the social structure and secured a greater degree of adaptation between man and his physical and social surroundings. The relation of property, the family, the competitive system, religion, and legal control to social well-being and progress are studied with reference to the problem of social improvement. Spencer’s Principles of Sociology, Bagehot’s Physics and Politics, Ward’s Dynamical Sociology, Giddings’ Principles of Sociology, Patten’s Theory of Social Forces, and Kidd’s Social Evolution are each read in part. Lectures are given at intervals and students are expected to take part in the discussion of the authors read and the lectures delivered.

Course 3 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. p. 37.

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Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 3. Asst. Professor Carver. — The Principles of Sociology. Theories of Social Progress.

Total 53: 5 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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ECONOMICS 3
Topics and references. Starred references are prescribed.

I. SCOPE AND METHOD OF SOCIOLOGY

  1. August Comte. Positive Philosophy. Book VI. Chs. 2-4.
  2. Herbert Spencer. Classification of the Sciences, in Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative. Vol. II.
  3. *Herbert Spencer. The Study of Sociology. Chs. 1-3.
  4. *Herbert Spencer. Principles of Sociology. Pt. I. Ch. 27. Pt. II.
  5. J. S. Mill. System of Logic. Book VI.
  6. W. S. Jevons. Principles of Science. Ch. 31. Sec. 11.
  7. Lester F. Ward. Outlines of Sociology. Pt. I.
  8. *F. H. Giddings. Principles of Sociology. Book I.
  9. J. W. H. Stuckenberg. Introduction to the Study of Sociology. Chs. 2 and 3.
  10. Émile Durkheim. Les Regles de la Méthode Sociologique.
  11. Guillaume de Greef. Les Lois Sociologiques.
  12. Arthur Fairbanks. Introduction to Sociology. Introduction. 

II. THE FACTORS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS

A. Physical and Biological Factors
  1. Herbert Spencer. The Factors of Organic Evolution, in Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative. Vol. I.
  2. *Herbert Spencer. Principles of Sociology.  Pt. I. Chs. 1-5.
  3. Herbert Spencer. Progress, its Law and Cause, in Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative. Vol. I.
  4. Auguste Comte. Positive Philosophy. Book VI. Ch. 6.
  5. Lester F. Ward. Dynamical Sociology. Ch. 7.
  6. *Simon N. Patten. The Theory of Social Forces. Ch. 1.
  7. *Walter Bagehot. Physics and Politics. Chs. 1 and 2.
  8. Geddes and Thompson. The Evolution of Sex. Chs. 1, 2, 19, 21.
  9. *Benjamin Kidd. Social Evolution.
  10. Robert Mackintosh. From Comte to Benjamin Kidd.
  11. G. de LaPouge. Les Sélections Sociales. Chs. 1-6.
  12. August Weismann. The Germ Plasm: a Theory of Heredity.
  13. George John Romanes. An Examination of Weismannism.
  14. Alfred Russell Wallace. Studies: Scientific and Social.
  15. R. L. Dugdale. The Jukes.
  16. Oscar C. McCulloh. The Tribe of Ishmael.
  17. Francis Galton. Hereditary Genius.
  18. *F. H. Giddings. Principles of Sociology. Book II. Ch. I. Book III. Ch. 1.
  19. Arthur Fairbanks. Introduction to Sociology. Pt. III. 
B. Psychic
  1. Auguste Comte. Positive Philosophy. Book VI. Ch. 5.
  2. *Jeremy Bentham. Principles of Morals and Legislation. Chs. 1 and 2.
  3. Lester F. Ward. The Psychic Factors of Civilization.
  4. G. Tarde. Social Laws.
  5. _______. Les Lois de l’Imitation.
  6. _______. La Logique Sociale.
  7. Gustav Le Bon. The Crowd.
  8. _______. The Psychology of Peoples.
  9. J. Mark Baldwin. Social and Ethical Interpretations.
  10. _______. Mental Development in the Child and the Race.
  11. John Fisk. The Destiny of Man.
  12. Henry Drummond. The Ascent of Man.
  13. *Herbert Spencer. Principles of Sociology. Pt. I. Chs. 6-26.
  14. *Simon N. Patten. The Theory of Social Forces. Chs. 2-5.
  15. *F. H. Giddings. Principles of Sociology. Book II. Ch. 2. 
C. Social and Economic
  1. *Herbert Spencer. Principles of Sociology. Pts. III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII.
  2. Lester F. Ward. Outlines of Sociology. Pt. II.
  3. *_______. Dynamical Sociology. Ch. 10.
  4. *Walter Bagehot. Physics and Politics. Chs. 3-6.
  5. Brooks Adams. The Law of Civilization and Decay.
  6. D. G. Ritchie. Darwinism and Politics.
  7. *A. G. Warner. American Charities. Pt. I. Ch. 5.
  8. G. de LaPouge. Les Sélections Sociales. Chs. 7-15.
  9. T. R. Malthus. Principle of Population.
  10. H. Bosanquet. The Standard of Life.
  11. F.W. Saunders. The Standard of Living in its Relation to Economic Theory.
  12. W. H. Mallock. Aristocracy and Evolution.
  13. T. V. Veblen. The Theory of the Leisure Class.
  14. W. S. Jevons. Methods of Social Reform.
  15. Jane Addams and Others. Philanthropy and Social Progress.
  16. E. Demolins. Anglo-Saxon Superiority.
  17. *F. H. Giddings. Principles of Sociology. Book II. Chs. 3-4. Book III. Chs. 2-4. Book IV.
  18. Thomas H. Huxley. Evolution and Ethics.
  19. Georg Simmel. Ueber Sociale Differencierung.
  20. Émile Durkheim. De la Division du Travail Social.
  21. J. H. W. Stuckenberg. Introduction to the Study of Sociology. Ch. 6.
  22. Achille Loria. The Economic Foundations of Society.
  23. _______. Problems Sociaux Contemporains. Ch. 6.
  24. E. A. Ross. Social Control.
D. Political and Legal
  1. Jeremy Bentham. Principles of Morals and Legislation. Chs. 12-17.
  2. F. M. Taylor. The Right of the State to Be.
  3. *W. W. Willoughby. Social Justice. Chs. 5-9.
  4. D. G. Ritchie. Principles of State Interference.
  5. W. S. Jevons. The State in Relation to Labor.
  6. Henry C. Adams. The Relation of the State to Industrial Action, in Publications Am. Econ. Assoc. Vol. I. No. 6.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003.Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902”.

Cf. The course material for the following academic year.

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Mid-year Examination, 1902
ECONOMICS 3

Write out the following topics
  1. Is society an organism?
  2. The relationship among the principal classes of institutions, according to Spencer.
  3. Adaptation as a test of progress.
  4. Antagonism of interests as a basis for social development.
  5. Vice as a factor in human selection.
  6. The function of pleasure and pain.
  7. The influence of density of population upon social development.
  8. The traits of the militant type of society.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1901-02.

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Final Examination, 1902
ECONOMICS 3

Discuss the following topics
  1. Active and passive adaptation.
  2. Charity as a factor in human selection.
  3. The sanctions for conduct.
  4. Social stratification.
  5. Kidd’s theory of the function of religion in human evolution.
  6. Gidding’s theory of “consciousness of kind,” and its relation to sympathy and imitation.
  7. The storing of social energy.
  8. Tarde’s and Durkheim’s ideas of sociology.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 22.

Image Source: “Thomas Nixon Carver, 1865-1961” link at the History of Economic Thought Website. “Portrait of Carver (as a young man)“.

Detail in the Oberlin College Yearbook 1901 Hi-o-hi (no. 16)

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Theory

Harvard. Economic Theory. Enrollment, Readings, Exams. Carver, 1901-1902.

 

Professor Frank W. Taussig began what was to turn into a two year leave of absence starting with the academic year 1901-02. The previous year, assistant professor Thomas Nixon Carver apparently took over Taussig’s “advanced” theory course sometime late in the academic year and continued to teach it in the latter’s absence.

This post continues our series of Harvard’s economic courses for 1901-02, providing a linked reading list for Carver’s economic theory course along with the semester exams for the year-long course.

Carver’s 1949 autobiography is available at the hathitrust.org web archive. He writes there (p. 132):

At the end of the year, 1900-1901, Professor Taussig’s health failed, probably as the result of some very hard and discouraging work he had done on the State Tax Commission. He therefore took a year’s leave of absence which was lengthened to two years. This necessitated a change in my program.

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Course Announcement

For Undergraduates and Graduates
  1. Economic Theory. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2.30. Asst. Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver.

Course 2 is intended to acquaint the student with some of the later developments of economic thought, and at the same time to train him in the critical consideration of economic principles and the analysis of economic conditions. The exercises are accordingly conducted mainly by the discussion of selected passages from the important writers; and in this discussion the students are expected to take an active part. Lectures are given at intervals outlining the present condition of economic theory and some of the problems which call for theoretical solution. Theories of value, diminishing returns, rent, wages, interest, profits, the incidence of taxation, the value of money, international trade, and monopoly price, will be discussed. Marshall’s Principles of Economics, Böhm-Bawerk’s Positive Theory of Capital, Taussig’s Wages and Capital, and Clark’s Distribution of Wealth will be read and criticised.

Course 2 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. pp. 36-37.

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Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 2. Asst. Professor Carver. — Economic Theory.

Total 32: 5 Graduates, 6 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Course Readings

ECONOMICS 2.
1901-1902

General Reading. Prescribed.

Marshall. Principles of Economics.
Taussig. Wages and Capital.
Böhm-Bawerk. Positive Theory of Capital.
Clark. The Distribution of Wealth.

References for Collateral Reading. Starred references are prescribed.

I. VALUE.

  1. Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Chs. 5, 6, and 7.
  2. Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Chs. 1 and 4.
  3. Mill.    “        “     Book III. Chs. 1-6.
  4. Cairnes.     “        “     Part I.
  5. *Jevons. Theory of Pol. Econ. Chs. 2-4.
  6. Sidgwick. Pol. Econ. Book II. Ch. 2.
  7. Wieser. Natural Value.
  8. *Clark. Philosophy of Wealth. Ch. 5

II. DIMINISHING RETURNS.

  1. Senior. Pol. Econ. Pp. 81-86.
  2. *Commons. The Distribution of Wealth. Ch. 3. 

III. RENT.

  1. Adam Smith. Wealth of Nation. Book I. Ch. 2. Pts. 1-3.
  2. *Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Chs. 2 and 3.
  3. Sidgwick. “   “       Book II. Ch. 7.
  4. Walker. “     “       Pt. IV. Ch. 2.
  5. Walker. Land and its Rent.
  6. Hyde. The Concept of Price Determining Rent. Jour. Pol. Econ. V.6. p. 368.
  7. Fetter. The Passing of the Old Rent Concept. Q.J.E. Vol. XV. P. 416.

IV. CAPITAL

  1. Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book II.
  2. Senior. Pol. Econ. P. 58-81.
  3. Mill.      “       “       Book I. Ch. 4-6.
  4. Roscher. “      “       Book I. Ch. 1. Secs. 42-45.
  5. Cannan. Production and Distribution. Ch. 4.
  6. Jevons. Theory of Political Economy Ch. 7.
  7. Fisher. What is Capital? Economic Journal. Vol. VI. P. 509.
  8. Fetter. Recent Discussion of the Capital Concept. Q.J.E. Vol. XV. P. 1.
  9. *Carver. Clark’s Distribution of Wealth. Q.J.E., Aug. 1901. 

V. INTEREST.

  1. Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Ch. 9.
  2. Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Ch. 6.
  3. Sidgwick. “     “        Book II. Ch. 6.
  4. *Carver. Abstinence and the Theory of Interest. Q.J.E, Vol. VIII. P. 40.
  5. Mixter. Theory of Saver’s Rent. Q.J.E. Vol. XIII. P. 345.

VI. WAGES.

  1. Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations. Book I. Ch. 8.
  2. *Ricardo. Pol. Econ. Ch. 5.
  3. Senior.   “       “      Pp. 141-180 and 200-216.
  4. Senior. Lectures. Pp. 1-62.
  5. Mill. Pol. Econ. Book II. Chs. 11, 12, 13, and 14.
  6. Cairnes. Pol. Econ. Part II. Chs. 1 and 2.
  7. Sidgwick. “       “      Book II. Ch. 8.
  8. Walker. “       “      Part IV. Ch. 5.
  9. Hadley. Economics. Ch. 10.
  10. *Carver. Wages and the Theory of Value. Q.J.E. Vol. VIII, P. 377.

VII. PROFITS.

  1. Walker. Pol. Econ. Part IV. Ch. 4.
  2. Hobson. The Law of the Three Rents. Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. V. P. 263.
  3. Clark. Insurance and Business Profits. Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. VII. P. 40.
  4. *Hawley, F. B. in Quar. Jour. Econ. Vol. VII. P. 459; Vol. XV. Pp. 75 and 603.
  5. MacVane, in in Quar. Jour. Econ.,  Vol. II. P. 1.
  6. Haynes, in               “     “       “     Vol. IX, P. 409.

Source: Harvard University Archives. HUC 8522.2.1, Box 1 of 10 (Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003). Folder: 1901-1902.

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Mid-year examination, 1902
ECONOMICS 2

Discuss the following topics.

  1. The relation of utility to value.
  2. The price of commodities and the price of services.
  3. Various uses of the term “diminishing returns.”
  4. The law of diminishing returns as applied to each of the factors of production.
  5. Prime and supplementary cost: illustrate.
  6. Joint and composite demand and join and composite supply.
  7. Quasi rent.
  8. Real and nominal rent.
  9. Consumer’s rent.
  10. The equilibrium of demand and supply

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1901-02.

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Final examination, June 1902
ECONOMICS 2

  1. State some of the different meanings which have been given to the law of diminishing returns, and define the law as you think it ought to be.
  2. Can you apply the law of joint demand to the wages fund questions?
  3. What is meant by an elastic demand and how does it affect monopoly price.
  4. Discuss Clark’s distinction between capital and capital goods.
  5. Under what conditions would there be no rent, and how would these conditions affect the value of products?
  6. Explain Clark’s theory of Economic Causation.
  7. What is the source of interest?
  8. What is the relation of the standard of living to wages?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 21.

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Collection of Carver’s economic theory readings and exams,
1900/01 through 1902/03

Harvard. Core economic theory. Readings and Exams. Carver, 1900/01-1902/03

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Principles of Economics. Description, Enrollment, Exam Questions. Andrew, Mixter, and Sprague. 1901-1902

 

With the expansion of economics course offerings at Harvard going into the 20th century, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror will continue its collection of semester examinations but limiting each post in the series to a single course per year. This post brings together material from four different sources (announcement, enrollment, mid-year exam and final-year exam) for the first course in economics “Outlines of Economics” that was taught in sections by five instructors in 1901-1902. Frank W. Taussig was on leave in Europe that year which is the reason the course was entrusted to the experienced junior hands of Abram Piatt Andrew and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague.

The complete battery of 1900-01 course exams can be found in a previous post.

The course material for the 1902-03 academic year has been posted too.

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Course Announcement

…Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second or third year of their college career. Students who plan to take it in their first year are strongly advised to consult the instructor in advance. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics 1…

Primarily for Undergraduates

  1. Outlines of Economics. — Lectures on Social Questions and Monetary Legislation. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9.Drs. [Instructor in Political Economy, Abram Piatt] Andrew [Jr.] and [Instructor in Political Economy, Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and Messrs. [Instructor in Political Economy, Charles] Beardsley and [Austin Teaching Fellow, James Horace] Patten.

Course 1 gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, and international trade. Social questions and the relations of labor and capital, and the recent currency legislation of the United States, will be treated in outline.

Course 1 will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. Large parts of Mill’s Principles of Political Economy, of Walker’s Political Economy (advanced course), and of Dunbar’s Theory and History of Banking will be read; and these books must be procured by all members of the Course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. pp. 35-36.

______________________________ 

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

[Economics] 1. Drs. [Instructor in Economics, Abram Piatt] Andrew [Jr.], [Assistant in Economics, Charles Whitney] Mixter, and [Instructor in Economics, Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and Messrs. [Austin Teaching Fellow, James Horace] Patten and [Assistant in Economics, Gilbert Holland] Montagne. — Outlines of economics.

Total 432: 19 Seniors, 79 Juniors, 239 Sophomores, 37 Freshmen, 58 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Mid-year Examination 1902
ECONOMICS 1

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. A man increases his capital by saving which involves diminution of his consumption, but his capital can be used only by being consumed. Explain.
  2. What is over-population? What is under-population? Some years ago British India had 200 inhabitants to the square mile; Belgium 469; Rhode Island 254. Which came nearer to over-population and which to under-population?
  3. Why are the wages of servants higher in the United States than in England for the same grade of service?
  4. How does Hadley’s justification of rent resemble that of profits? Does Mill differ from Hadley in regard to the “unearned increment”?
  5. To what other conceptions than that of return from land has the notion of “rent” been applied?
    Explain the analogy between these various sorts of “rent.”
  6. Which of Mill’s laws of value is applicable to
    1. iron ore
    2. shoes
    3. typewriters
    4. street railway fares
    5. postage stamps.

State the law of value governing each case.

  1. A member of Congress maintained that there was not money enough in the country, using the following argument: “Our currency must keep pace with our growth as a nation … France has a circulation per capita of thirty dollars: England, of twenty-five: and we with our extent of territory and improvements, certainly require more than either.” State your opinion of this argument.
  2. When it is asserted that the value of gold rose 40% or 50% between 1873 and 1896, what are the various methods by which such a measurement of the amount of appreciation is affected? Point out the limitations of these methods.
  3. Consider the monetary history of the United States since 1860 with reference to the quantity theory?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1901-02.

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Year-end Examination 1902
ECONOMICS 1

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

I.
Answer two.
  1. Are the private ownership of capital, and the payment of interest on capital justified when it is said that interest is the reward of abstinence? If so, in what manner? If not, why not?
  2. Explain what Hadley means when he says that “economic rent and net profit are differential gains.”Does Mill differ from Hadley in regard to these subjects?
  3. What groups of persons are favored by rising prices? by falling prices?
II.
Answer two.
  1. Suppose that labor became twice as productive as it is in all of our industries, what would be the probable effect upon the prices and values of the articles we import? Distinguish between the immediate and the ultimate effects.
  2. It is frequently urged that the high rate of wages prevailing in the United States disables this country from competing with “the pauper labor” of Europe. Examine the grounds of this statement, and consider how far it forms a justification for protection to American industry.
  3. Suppose the discovery of important gold fields in France. What would be the effect upon her foreign trade?
III.
Answer two.
  1. What is the difference between a commercial bank and a savings bank?
  2. “As the exchange of checks through the Clearing House has had results far beyond the mere gain in convenience and safety to which the practice owes its origin, so the redemption of notes by some corresponding mode has important bearings of much greater scope than the convenience of banks in maintaining their issues, and quite independent of any question as to the security of the currency. (Dunbar, p. 74). Explain the system suggested, and the particular advantage referred to.
  3. “The notion is often entertained that the national banks have some peculiar opportunity for making a double profit, by receiving both interest earned by their bonds, and interest earned by the loan of the notes issued upon the bonds” (Dunbar, p. 180).
    Comment upon this.
IV.
Answer three.
  1. Do prices fluctuate because men speculate, or do men speculate because prices fluctuate?
  2. Would the country gain or lose from the abolition (1) of the “produce exchanges”? (2) of the “stock exchanges”? Give reasons in each case.
  3. Assuming that a combination has secured a monopoly, what influences would tend to check an indefinite increase in prices? Illustrate the varying operation of these influences in the case of diamonds, petroleum, and iron and steel.
  4. Discuss the economic effects of the immigration of unskilled labor to the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics… in Harvard College (June 1902) included in the bound volume: Examination Papers 1902-03.

Image Sources: Abram Piatt Andrew (1920) from Wikimedia Commons. O.M.W. Sprague from Harvard Class Album 1920, p. 25.

Categories
Economists Germany Harvard

Harvard. Political Economy tutor, Henry Howland (Heidelberg PhD). 1873-1874

In Charles F. Dunbar’s third academic year of his professorship in political economy at Harvard [course offerings from the first half of the 1870s], a reshuffling of the required (i.e., non-elective) one semester course in political economy to the sophomore year meant that the course would have to be offered twice in 1873-74, once for juniors  and once for sophomores. To handle the increased teaching load, Henry Howland (A.B. Harvard 1869) was appointed tutor in History and Political Economy in 1873-74, having worked as a tutor for German language courses. He had returned to Harvard in the fall term of 1872, after spending a year in France and two years in Germany, where he completed a doctorate in political economy at Heidelberg. Howland went on to Harvard Law School, receiving a law degree in 1878. There he was an instructor on tort law for the years 1879-1883.

Some further research into the life and career of Henry Howland revealed significant episodes of depression (and perhaps other mental illness) that required him to be placed temporarily under the guardianship of his brother. 

I have not yet been able to confirm Howland’s Heidelberg advanced degree in political economy mentioned in the memoir of his classmate that was written shortly after his death following “acute melancholia”.

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From  Harvard’s
Report of the President 1873-74

“The courses in Political Economy and the Constitution of the United States are found in both years [Sophomore and Junior classes], as these courses were, last year [1873-74], transferred from the Junior to the Sophomore course of study.”

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard University 1873-74, p. 52.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Required studies.
Sophomores.

Instructor: Mr. Howland
Subject: Political Economy
Text-Books: Elements of Political Economy. — Constitution of the United States.
Number of students: 170
Number of sections: 5
Exercises per week for students: 2
Exercises per week for Instructor: 10 (for a half-year)

Instructor: Mr. Howland
Subject: History
Text-Books: Outlines of General History.
Number of students: 170
Number of sections: 5
Exercises per week for students: 2
Exercises per week for Instructor: 10 (for a half-year)

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard University 1873-74, p. 42.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Required studies.
Juniors.

Instructor: Prof. Dunbar
Subject: Political Economy
Text-Books: Elements of Political Economy.— Constitution of the United States.
Number of students: 153
Number of sections: 3
Exercises per week for students: 2
Exercises per week for Instructor: 6 (for a half-year)

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard University 1873-74, p. 44.

Elective studies.

Instructor: Prof. Dunbar
Subject: Philosophy 6
Text-Books: Political Economy. J. S. Mill’s Political Economy.— Bagehot’s Lombard Street. — Sumner’s History of American Currency.
Number of students: 1 Junior, 70 Seniors
Number of sections: 2
Exercises per week for students: 3
Exercises per week for Instructor: 6

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard University 1873-74, p. 46.

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Obituary from
Boston Evening Transcript
(July 13, 1887)

            Mr. Henry Howland, for a number of years a member of the Boston Bar, died in Somerville, Monday. He was born in Boston, Dec. 23, 1846, and was graduated at Harvard in the class of 1869, and at the Harvard Law School in 1878. From 1872 to 1874 he was a tutor at Harvard, taking charge of history and political economy classes. Mr. Howland also continued his studies abroad, obtaining at Heidelberg the degree of Ph.D. He practiced law in Boston until his health gave out, holding just before retirement a position in the United States district attorney’s office under Judge Sanger.

[Cf. the Death Registry of the City of Somerville gives “Acute Melancholia” as the “Disease, or Cause of Death”.]

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Henry Howland (see A.B. 1869), Tutor 1872-1874; Instr. in History and Political Economy 1872-1874; Instr. in Torts 1879-1883.

Source: Harvard University, Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates 1636-1930 (Cambridge, MA: 1930), p. 94.

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1888 Memoir of a Harvard Classmate

HENRY HOWLAND

Born in Boston, December 23, 1846. Son of David and Rebecca (Crocker) Howland.
Died July 11, 1887.

The following Memoir, prepared by Henry W. [Ware] Putnam, was read at the Commencement Meeting of the Class, June, 1888:

Henry Howland, son of David and Rebecca Howland, born December 23, 1846, died July 11, 1887. We had hardly separated after our last Commencement reunion when we were startled with the announcement of another gap made in our ranks by the death of Henry Howland. We could hardly have been more unprepared for the death of any one of our number. It had not occurred to his most intimate friends that the disorder which had hung like a cloud over the last years of his life was likely to have any serious physical consequences, much less a fatal termination, and all had cherished the hope that after a while his fine mental powers would reassert themselves undimmed, and that a career which we had at graduation looked forward to as one of the most brilliant that the Class promised, would yet be achieved. But it was not to be, and on July 11, 1887, he died, at the age of forty, after a sudden illness of only a few days’ duration.

After graduating from College, Howland went abroad for purposes of study, intending to make teaching his profession, and spent one year in France and two in Germany. During this period he became a thorough French and German scholar, studied history and political economy at the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg, taking the degree of Ph.D. at the latter university in political economy. One of the present professors at Harvard who made his acquaintance there, and who remained his devoted and intimate friend till his death, writes as follows of him at that time: “Henry was the first Harvard graduate whom I had ever known well, and from my first meeting with him in Berlin he filled me with admiration by reason of his zeal and enthusiasm in his studies. History was his subject at that time, and he attended the lectures of the university regularly, and had two ‘Docenten’ in addition who went to his room and lectured to him there. He was tireless in finding expedients for increasing his knowledge of German, and accomplished more, I think, in his eighteen months in Germany, than any man of my acquaintance… It was characteristic of Henry,” he continues, “that when he received in Berlin the offer of an appointment in German at Harvard, he came to me and said that he didn’t care for it and would try to get it for me. I knew that he did want it very much, and of course declined to consider the subject of an appointment at all until he had received his. He was appointed in History and German, and it was entirely through his efforts that I was appointed tutor in German. Henry was changed less by his stay in Europe than any American I knew. He absorbed all that was advantageous in his surroundings, and seemed to be affected not at all by that which was worthless or ignoble. Especially in his political and social views he remained a true and steadfast Democrat and high-minded American.”

Returning home in the fall of 1872, he taught for two years at Harvard with success, — the first year as a tutor in German, the second as instructor in History and Political Economy. One of our number who was intimately associated with him during these years, being an instructor in the University at the same time, writes as follows: “He was a close and conscientious student, and possessed a great fund of general information outside of his specialties; but he was always very deferential in making any statement either of fact or opinion even to those who, as he must have known, had but a tithe of his knowledge of the subject in question. He had a happy faculty of making a friend feel at ease while he was imparting to him good information, the faculty of not making an ignorant man feel his ignorance, a faculty which was possessed, as you will remember, in such a marked degree by Professor Gurney. In argument he was always calm and never loud, but very persistent and utterly imperturbable; he never allowed himself to be switched off, and moreover, he never allowed his opponent to jump the track and take to side issues, but held him to the main line of thought until one or the other got somewhere, generally Henry.” His reputation as a teacher at the University was steadily growing, and his outlook for a successful academic career was regarded as very promising by his associates and elders at Cambridge, when he was visited by an attack of mental derangement brought on by overwork in his regular classes and with private pupils, and by the late hours and irregular habits as to sleep and meals, which are apt to accompany excessive application to study. After recovering from this attack he gave up teaching, decided to study law, and entered the Law School in 1876, taking his degree in 1878.

It is not difficult for the rest of us to see now that it was a momentous, probably a mistaken, step to enter so late and so heavily handicapped upon a profession in which one can ill afford to lose any time or have any unnecessary odds against him; but we can also easily see that it was a very natural one under the unsettling and discouraging circumstances of the moment. His natural abilities for the law were indeed fine, lying especially in the direction of a studious and safe adviser in chambers rather than an advocate in court; and with an earlier start and an unobstructed course he would have succeeded in the race; but as it was, the chances were overwhelmingly against him, and the courage with which he entered upon the profession, the patient and unflagging determination with which he clung to it, were at once heroic and pathetic. After being admitted to practice, he gave courses of instruction in torts at the Law School, in addition to his office-work, for three years with great acceptance, and made some scholarly researches in the early literature of the law for one of the professors in the school. During the last of these years he held also the position of Assistant United States District Attorney. The exacting labors of this position, which were not especially adapted to his abilities, nor congenial to his natural tastes, added to his other work, proved too much for him, and in June, 1882, he succumbed to a second attack like the first, but returned to business in December of the same year. Still another slight one occurred in August, 1883, lasting till October of the same year. He then enjoyed entire immunity for three years, and although urged by his closest friends to give up all attempt to practise law and seek some occupation where he would have plenty of outdoor life and leisure for light literary work, he was unwilling to give up his chosen ambition. During this period he did some excellent professional work, chiefly in conveyancing, and in the preparation of briefs and summaries of the law on points placed in his hands by other counsel for his examination, and it seemed as if he might yet get established in the profession; but his father’s illness and death again broke him down in the summer of 1886, and, without again returning to work, and with only a brief interval of even measurably complete restoration to reason in the spring of 1887, he died from a sudden and very brief attack of physical exhaustion.

This long and losing twelve years’ struggle between the finest intellectual gifts and inexorable mental disease is too sad and too pathetic for us, who loved him, and confidently expected so much of him, to be able to dwell upon. As a Class, we can simply put upon our record an expression of our disappointment and grief at this untimely calamity, and then try to put it out of our mind forever. But his character and qualities we shall hold in affectionate and enduring remembrance as long as any of us survive to hold Class meetings. He was the most modest of men — modest to the extent of unjust depreciation of himself. His manners and personal bearing — at all times and in all company — were those of a perfect gentleman; marked as they were, not merely by the friendly good-will and sympathy of the good fellow who is everybody’s friend, but by a certain reserve and formality, not amounting to stiffness, but showing that he made a certain pronounced, though not obtrusive, courtesy of the old school one of the duties of his life never to be forgotten or neglected, even in the society of intimates; and his outward bearing thus never failed to express the real dignity of his character, even when his wit was keenest and his raillery most pungent. His unselfishness, his absolute self-effacement when there was a friend to serve or help in any way, was a part of his very nature, — deep-seated, spontaneous, sincere. Of that fine virtue which the ancients, whose best writings he seems to have absorbed into his very being, placed above all others and called piety, filial devotion, the love of parents, he was the most striking exemplar I have ever known, subordinating every interest of his own — pleasure, social recreation, professional ambition, health — to the unceasing care through long years of an invalid mother and of an aged father. When his love of society is considered, this self-denial — especially when the circumstances did not render it in any sense a necessity — becomes the more striking and admirable. His sense of duty in all the relations of life was so extreme as to be almost morbid, and had in it a touch of Puritanic rigor. His public spirit was strong and his sympathies in this direction broad, and he was active — though not radical or extreme — in all the duties of a citizen and in the movements of social and political reform in his neighborhood. His abilities were peculiarly of a literary kind. His literary taste was of the finest; he was a constant and appreciative reader of the best imaginative literature, a lover of music and the drama. If he could, or would, but have seen it, so rare a spirit was wasted in the study of the law, and would have been so, in a sense, even with health and professional success. The higher fields of literary and historic criticism and, perhaps, composition — of philosophic generalization on literary and particularly on historic subjects — were his true field, and it was only after his first illness had discouraged him somewhat, and perhaps impaired the soundness of his judgment, that he abandoned that career for another. In his death we all mourn a fine, scholarly, high-minded character and loyal classmate; many of us a sympathetic, affectionate, and deeply loved friend.

Source: Eleventh Report of the Class of 1869 of Harvard College. Fiftieth Anniversary (June 1919), pp. 149-154.

Image Source: Title page of the Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1876-1877.