The following typed notes were based on a conversation that took place on February 21, 1936 regarding possible future hires for the Harvard economics department. President James B. Conant (or someone on his behalf) met with Columbia university professors Wesley C. Mitchell and his NBER sidekick, Frederick C. Mills. This artifact comes from President Conant’s administrative records in the Harvard Archives.
In the memo we find a few frank impressions of members of the Harvard economics departments together with head-hunting tips for established and up-and-coming economists of the day.
An observation that jumps from the paper is the identification pinned to the name Arthur F. Burns, namely, “(Jew)”. Interestingly enough this was not added to Arthur William Marget (see the earlier post Harvard Alumnus. A.W. Marget. Too Jewish for Chicago? 1927.) nor to Seymour Harris.
General impression is that the Department of Economics at Harvard is in a better state today than these gentlemen would have thought possible a few years ago. The group from 35-50 which now faces the future is about as good as any in the country. [Edward Hastings] Chamberlin, [John Henry] Williams,[Gottfried] Haberlerand Schlichter [sic, [Sumner Slichter] are certainly quite outstanding. Very little known about [Edward Sagendorph] Mason; he seems to have made a favorable impression but no writings. [Seymour Edwin] Harris slightly known, favorable but not exciting.
[John Ulric] Neff admitted to be the best man in economic history if we could get him. Names of other people in this country mentioned included:
[Robert Alexander] Brady — University of California, now working on Carnegie grant on bureaucracy; under 40.
Arthur [F.] Burns at Rutgers (Jew) now working with the Bureau of Economic Research and not available for 3 or 4 years. Said by them to be excellent.
[Arthur William] Marget of Minnesota, Harvard Ph.D., I believe; well known, perhaps better than Chamberlin. Flashy and perhaps unsound. (Mitchell and Mills disagree to some extent on their estimate of his permanent value but agree on his present high visibility).
Winfield Riffler [sic,Winfield William Riefler], recently called to the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, probably one of the most if not the most outstanding of the younger men.
Giddons [sic, Harry David Gideonse?] of Chicago, very highly thought of by Chicago people but has not written a great deal; supposed to be an excellent organizer.
C. E. [Clarence Edwin] Ayres, University of Texas, about 40; in N.R.A. at Washington. Mitchell thinks very highly of him.
England
[Theodore Emmanuel Gugenheim] Gregory, at London School of Economics, about 50, same field as Williams but not so good. Mills more favorable than Mitchell.
The economics department at Harvard at the start of the 20th century offered a course taught by the Law School assistant professor, Bruce Wyman (b. 15 June 1875; d. 21 June 1926), to provide future businessmen an overview of commercial and industrial relations law. Students expecting to go to study law were explicitly not encouraged to take the course.
Bruce Wyman pops up in an even earlier post. Harvard President Lowell complained to Professor Frank Taussig about Wyman’s course in the economics department having too soft a grade distribution (making it a “snap” course). Also we learn there the somewhat scandalous circumstances that led to Wyman’s forced resignation from his Harvard Law professorship in December 1913.
[Economics] 21. Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations. — Commercial Law. — Competition and Combination. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Asst. Professor Wyman.
Course 21 is open to those students who will complete their undergraduate work in 1904-05.
This course considers certain rules of the law modern trade and the governing the course of organization of modern industry. The commercial law is thus taken up at large in its application to the conduct of modern business. The aim of the course is to give to students who mean to enter business life some contact with the law and some understanding of the legal point of view; at the same time the problems brought forward are actual and the rules of law discussed are specific, so that the instruction may prove of service in a business career. The course forms a natural introduction to the study of law, as it involves most of the elementary principles in one way or another. As the course deals with adjudication and legislation on questions of first importance in the economic development of modern times, it may also be of advantage to all those who wish to equip themselves for the intelligent discussion of issues having both legal and economic aspects.
In 1904-05 five principal topics will be discussed: Competition — Combination — Association — Consolidation — Regulation. The conduct of this course will be by the reading and discussion of cases from the law report. The cases selected cover the whole course of the industrial organization, so that both fact and law involved are informing.
Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 48-49.
__________________________
ECONOMICS 21
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05
Answer all questions.
In the case of each question give a specific answer about one line in length, then proceed in subsequent paragraphs to discuss the matter involved both upon principle and upon authority.
A is the manufacturer of the X infants’ food; B is the manufacturer of the Z infants’ food. B inserts an advertisement in various magazines, which contains the following clause: — “The Z food is twice as nutritious as the X food.” A sues B for the publication of this statement; in this suit he offers to prove by expert testimony that the X food is in fact more nutritious than the Z food. The court is asked by B to dismiss the action of A. What result?
A is a workman employed in the works of B. B carries an indemnity policy covering accidents, written by C. A gets his hand crushed in one of the machines, which is improperly guarded. C attempts to make a settlement with A at $500, which A refuses; thereupon C threatens to get A discharged by B, but A still refuses to compromise. Next, C goes to B and demands that A be discharged. B is at first unwilling, but when C threatens to take advantage of the clause in the policy permitting cancellation of the policy upon five days’ notice, B reluctantly undertakes to discharge A at the end of the week for which he is employed, protesting that A is a good workman and he had intended to give him regular employment. After A is thus discharged he brings suit against C for damages for loss of his employment. What result?
A is a manufacturer of tomato catsup. He puts his product on the market in a tapering bottle with a screw cap of tin; this bottle he packs in a round pastboard carton covered with manila paper; on the wrapper is a picture of a bottle filled with red catsup, around which in black type are the brand and address. B another manufacturer of tomato catsup puts his product on the market in much the same way — in a tapering bottle with a screw cap of tin, wrapped in a round carton of pastboard with a label showing a bottle of red catsup, but with the name of his brand in plain black letters, as also his own name and address. A seeks an injunction against B. What result?
The North American Soap Company is organized under the laws of New Jersey. It buys from A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, who are the principal manufacturers of soap in the United States, all of their soap factories. The North American Company in the case of each purchase from A, B, C, D, E, F, and G takes an agreement from each not to engage in the soap business for ten years in the United States. The scheme of the promoters is to get control of the market by this process. B starts a large soap factory in New York two years later. Can he be stopped by injunction?
A is a dealer in coal in San Francisco. An agreement is made between B, C, D, E, F, and G, who are the principal dealers in coal in that city that they will sell for one year at prices to be fixed by the majority. The combination then votes to cut prices 20% for the next 4 months. At the end of 3 months, A’s capital is exhausted by this cut throat competition, and he retires from business a ruined man. A now brings suit against B for his losses. What result?
In a certain factory operated by X, A is employed by the week with 300 others, among whom are B, C, D, E, F, and G. B, C and D propose the organization of a trades union which every employee joins, except A who refuses. The trades union, at an early meeting, votes unanimously that theirs must be a union shop. The committee accordingly waits on X and informs him that unless A is discharged a strike will be called at the end of the week. X reluctantly discharges A at the end of the week. A now sues G for damages. What result?
The X hotel corporation is duly organized by A, B, and C. It builds a hotel the next year. Three years later A buys from B and C all of their stock. The next week A executes a mortgage upon the hotel property to the Y bank to secure a loan himself of $10,000; this is signed: — “X company, by A.” The week following, A transfers one share to M and another to N. A meeting of the shareholders in the X corporation is then called, A, M, and N attending; at this meeting it is unanimously voted to borrow $10,000 from the Z bank and to execute a mortgage upon the corporate property to secure the loan, which A is authorized to execute in the name of the company. This mortgage upon the hotel property is accordingly executed to the Z bank, being signed: — “X company, by A.” Which of these mortgages, the Y bank or the Z bank, will come out ahead, if the hotel property is only worth $15,000, not enough to pay both?
The X corporation is organized with a capitalization of $100,000; its shares are subscribed on the basis of 50% paid down, and all are issued. A year later it issues $50,000 in first mortgage bonds, and the next year $20,000 in second mortgage bonds. In the third year it goes into insolvency owing $60,000 to general creditors for goods. The sale of its properties realizes $50,000. In the final winding up how do the following parties come out: the first bonds? the second bonds? the general creditors? and the stockholders?
Answer all questions. Give full reasons. Cite some authorities.
Can the following be stopped as unfair competition:—
(1) One steamship company gives a rebate of 25% to those shippers who agree to give all their business and not to deal with a rival steamship company; (2) A tobacco manufacturer gives jobbers 5% discount extra if they will agree not to handle any goods of rival companies which sell for less than its own brands; (3) A manufacturer of shoe machinery who sells his machines only upon an agreement by the purchaser to buy the staples fed into it of the manufacturer finds that a rival manufacturer is offering staples at 25% off; (4) An oil corporation controlling 80% of its market reduces prices 50% in districts where competitors appear while raising prices 50% in districts where competition has been crushed out; (5) A gas company decides not to deal with any applicant who has had electricity put in by a rival company.
Eight corporations, constituting eighty per cent. of the soap manufacturers of the United States form a partnership to handle sale. Each corporation pays in $10,000 as working capital. It is provided that every manufacturer in the partnership shall have the right to run his own works in his own way, producing as much as he pleases, selling at what price he pleases. But it is further provided that every manufacturer shall pay to the treasurer of the partnership 2½ cents per lb. upon all soap made and sold by him. By another clause any member of the association has the right to withdraw at the end of any quarter. At the end of each quarter, it is stipulated, the treasurer shall pay over to each member of the partnership a share of the fund thus accumulated pro rata according to the capacity of his plant. At the end of the first quarter the X corporation, a member, withdraws; it has paid into the partnership $322; the pro rata share due is $5800. The X corporation now asks counsel what its rights are (1) To the $322; (2) To the $5800; (3) As to the $10,000; (4) Suppose the partnership were insolvent, what would be the respective rights of the X corporation and the general creditors of the partnership? (5) If the X corporation is content to remain in the arrangement, can its dissenting majority stockholders who believe the policy unsafe force it to withdraw?
A and B are co-partners engaged in cotton spinning. One C comes to A and B, whom he finds together in the office of the firm, and offers them 10,000 bales of cotton at 11c. per lb. This is a very large purchase for this firm to make, and the price is rather high as the price is falling. The proposition appeals to A, who says to B, “shall we take the cotton?” B says, “No.” Then A turns to C, who has heard all, and says “we need that cotton, despite what B says, and we will sign a contract with you;” thereupon, against the continued protests of B, A and C executed a contract for the cotton. A signs it, “A & B by A,” B forbidding him to do so to the last. The partnership later refuses to carry out the contract; C sues B for the damages caused by the breach. (1) What result in case as stated? (2) Suppose the partnership was buying a large amount of cotton in order to corner the market, which fact was unknown to C; (3) Would your answer be different if A and C had contracted for the cotton in B’s absence, A secretly intending to sell the cotton and run away with the proceeds? (4) Suppose while A and C were contracting, but before they had struck the bargain, B died without either knowing it; (5) Suppose the purchase price of the cotton was higher than the market, it being understood that in consideration of this C should cancel a debt of $4000 which A owed him.
A buys a mining claim for $8000; he sells it to B and eight others for $12,000, who agree that if they are successful in unloading it upon a corporation which they are planning to form for that purpose he shall have the same share of profits that the rest get. After trying to sell it to various other people for $12,000 and failing to do so (the best offer they can get is $4000) they all form the X corporation with their office boys as stockholders and directors, who vote to buy the mining claim of them for $62,000. The mine when developed by the people who buy into the X company turns out to be worth $500,000 at the least calculation. (1) What are the rights of the X company against A? (2) Suppose it had turned out to be worth only $1000? (3) Suppose the X corporation had already been formed by other parties before this syndicate was made up and that the directors for the time being had foolishly bought the property from the syndicate for $62,000 when most people would say that it was only worth $8000, what could the stockholders of the X company do about it? (4) Suppose B happened to be one of this board of directors, what would be the rights of the stockholders of the X company? (5) Suppose B happened to be a stockholder in this X corporation that bought the mining claim under the circumstances described in (3), could minority stockholders in the X corporation which had voted by a small majority (which included B’s vote) prevent the purchase from being carried through?
Three gas companies, — the A Co., the B Co., and the C Co., are engaged in supplying gas in a certain city. The principal stockholders are friendly, and they desire to consolidate. The following schemes are proposed; how many of these may be put through in any way (a) if every stockholder in the A Co., the B Co., and the C Co. is willing? (b) if minority stockholders dissent? (1) The first scheme proposed is to have the shares in the constituent companies conveyed to a board of three trustees who shall issue trust certificates retaining the voting powers; (2) the second scheme proposed is to have the shares sold to a holding corporation organized to buy them, the shareholders in the a holding constituent companies being offered either the market price of the shares in cash or in shares in the holding corporation; (3) the third scheme proposed is for the constituent companies to vote to sell all their property and franchises for cash to a new corporation organized to buy the properties, the cash to be distributed to the stockholders in the old companies pro rata; (4) the fourth scheme proposed is for the shareholders in the constituent companies to agree to elect identical boards of directors in accordance with a vote among themselves; (5) a fifth scheme is for the A Co. and the B Co. to execute leases of all of their properties to the C Co.
Are the following laws constitutional or do they deprive of life, liberty, and property without due process of law?: (1) prohibiting any manufacturing corporation from stipulating in any employment contract that one half of the employee’s pay shall be in orders for supplies from the employer’s general store; (2) forbidding the manufacture of clothing in any room in any tenement house; (3) forbidding the running of a department store, which is defined as an establishment where two of the following businesses are carried on: the sale of foods, the sale of dry goods, the sale of furniture, the sale of hardware; (4) prohibiting the sale of oleomargarine colored yellow, and requiring any one who sells it to put a sign out which shall say in letters one foot high “Oleomargarine sold here”; (5) making eight hours the limit of time for which any one may be employed to work in any factory.
Are the following refusals to enter into business relations legal? (1) By a telephone company which will install an instrument in the office of only one telegraph company; (2) by a railroad which will only allow one telephone company to establish a pay station in a union station; (3) by an electric company which refuses to furnish electricity for power; (4) by a sleeping car company which after assigning a traveller to “lower 5” reassigns him half an hour later to “upper 8” without making any explanation; (5) by a railroad which refuses to furnish facilities for doing the express business itself upon the ground that it has entered into an exclusive arrangement with one express company.
Do the following constitute illegal discriminations in commercial dealings? (1) By a steamship company which gives 20 per cent. rebate to all shippers who ship 1000 tons per year; (2) by a railroad which charges ten cents excess fare to passengers who have no tickets, even if they have found the ticket office closed; (3) by a hotel keeper who refuses to take in late at night a man and his wife who find themselves unable to get into their own house nearby because they have lost their key; (4) by a gas company which refuses (although offered prepayment) to sell gas to a rival company; (5) by a gas company which finds itself unexpectedly unable to supply its customers; (6) by an electric company which makes it a rule to supply the transformer free to such applicants only who have the wiring of their houses done by it.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 38-42.
“Principles of Accounting” was one of three courses offered by the department of economics that were specifically targeted to advanced students who intended to start business careers after graduation. William Morse Cole, A.M. was the instructor. An earlier post provides an overview of his career.
[Economics] 18 1hf. The Principles of Accounting. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 3.30. Mr. W. M. Cole.
This course is designed primarily for students who expect to enter a business career, and wish to understand the processes by which the earnings and values of industrial properties are computed. It is not intended to afford practice in book-keeping, but to give students a grasp of principles which shall enable them to comprehend the significance of accounts.
In order that students may become familiar with book-keeping terms and methods, a few exercises will be devoted to a brief study of the common systems of recording simple mercantile transactions. The chief work of the course, however, will be a study of the methods of determining profit, loss, and valuation. This will include an analysis of receipts, disbursements, assets, and liabilities, in various kinds of industry, and consideration of cost of manufacture, cost of service, depreciation and appreciation of stock and of equipment, interest, sinking funds, dividends, and the like. Published accounts of corporations will be studied, and practice in interpretation will be afforded. Attention will also be given to the functions and methods of auditors.
The instruction will be given by lectures, discussions, reading, and written work.
Course 18 is open to Seniors and Graduates who have taken Economics 1.
Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 47-48.
__________________________
ECONOMICS 18
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05
Construct an imaginary trial balance of at least eight items, of which not over three shall represent persons or corporations.
In a proprietor’s absence the books of a business are opened and kept by a bookkeeper who keeps accurate record of transactions reported to him but cannot be trusted to figure valuations or profits. At the end of a year, the records show, before the books are closed and simply as the result of regular transactions, the following figures:
Proprietor’s investment, $100,000; Bills Payable, $17,000; Bills Receivable, $26,000; Real Estate, $20,000; Accounts Payable, $15,000; Accounts Receivable, $20,000; Cash, $5,000; Merchandise on hand, valued at cost, $75,000; Merchandise Dr. on ledger, $49,500; Expense, $12,000; Interest balance received, $500.
Now the proprietor returns and wishes to close his books for the year. If he needs any information not given above, what questions will he ask in obtaining it? Assume any fairly reasonable answers to such questions, if any, and then show what is the proprietor’s present investment in the business.
The annual report of a corporation shows the following figures: Profit and Loss credit balance at the beginning of the year, $20,000; Merchandise profit, $140,000; Expense, $100,000; appreciation of Real Estate, $10,000; permanent Surplus set aside at the end of the year, $15,000; Dividends, $50,000. Present in rough ledger form i.,e. debit and credit items, the Profit and Loss account for the year, showing the balance at the end of the year.
Explain the significance of each of the following accounts appearing, with a balance on the side indicated, on (1) a balance sheet for the beginning of a new fiscal year, and (2) a trial balance taken in the ordinary course of business during the year: Wages, Cr.; Interest, Dr.; Merchandise, Dr.; Profit and Loss, Dr.; Reserve Fund, Cr.; Supplies, Dr.
An annual report of a corporation shows, either on the income sheet or on the balance sheet, an item of which the title means little or nothing to you, e.g., “Pro rata share of bonds of H.R.L. Co.” Assuming the accounts to be kept properly, explain to what extent the position and the treatment of the item throw light upon its character.
A corporation shows the following statements:—
1903.
1904.
Plant
$450,000
$440,000
Supplies
59,000
27,000
Real Estate
100,000
95,000
Cash
15,000
15,000
Bills Receivable
50,000
60,000
Accounts Receivable
20,000
15,000
Merchandise
83,000
108,000
Capital Stock
500,000
500,000
Bills Payable
150,000
150,000
Accounts Payable
100,000
90,000
Wages
7,000
10,000
Profit and Loss
20,000
10,000
Proceeds from sales
600,000
Direct cost of production
500,000
General expenses, fixed charges, etc.
70,000
Tell all you can about the history of the corporation for the year 1903-04.
If bonds on hand were bought at a premium, should that fact show upon the income sheet or in any way affect it?
The books of three concerns are open to your inspection. Outline briefly a scheme for consolidating the three concerns into a corporation.
[Do not allow yourself to get involved in the fascinating details of such a scheme at the expense of time needed for other things. This may well be left for surplus time and energy. Bookkeeping entries are not required. Show how the accounts of the three concerns can be interpreted for such a purpose.]
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 37-38.
Image Source: Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 16, p. 308. Portrait of William Morse Cole colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.
Future generations of economics graduate students and junior faculty, having been raised in a world of TikTok and able to bring the tools of sound and image processing to their media productions, will probably find the following sixty-some year old Chicago economics skit dull reading. Even the curator of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, a veteran of this art-form from M.I.T. in the mid-1970s [cf. Analysis in Wonderland, Wizard of E-52-383c, Casablank], finds this Chicago artifact in need of a major revise-and-resubmit. But we transcribe our artifacts as we find them, with minor editorial revisions to improve formatting, corrections for obvious misspellings, and annotations that have become necessary due to the passage of time. Material in square brackets (in italics) have been added to the transcription.
1929. Born 20 November in New York City.
1951. B.A. Queens College, City University of New York. Phi Beta Kappa.
1955. M.A. University of Chicago.
1957-59. Statistical analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
1959-71. Research Economist, University of Chicago (research assistant to George Stigler).
1933. Born 13 March in Bend Oregon.
1954. A.B. Harvard University.
1955. M.A. University of Chicago.
1962. Ph.D. University of Chicago. Thesis: The Demand for Alcoholic Beverages.
1957-61. Defense policy analyst at RAND.
1962-64. Director of special studies in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
1964-70. Director of Program Analysis Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses.
1970-1972. Assistant director for evaluation of the Office of Management and Budget.
1972-75. Professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
1975-80. Chief economist of Ford Motor Company.
1980-81. Professor in the Graduate School of Management, UCLA
1981-85. Member of the Council of Economic Advisers.
1985-2008. Chairman of the board of directors, Cato Institute.
2008-11. Chairman emeritus, Cato Institute.
2011. Died October 26 in Washington, D.C.
See: William A. Niskanen, A Life Well Lived (Cato Institute, 2012). Above screen-shot is from that memorial presentation.
1929. Born July 1 in Los Angeles, CA.
1952. B.S. UCLA.
1954. M.A. UCLA.
1958-62. Research Economist, Northwestern University.
1961. Ph.D. University of Chicago. Thesis: Labor as a Quasi-Fixed Factor of Production.
1962-67. University of Washington
1967-. Professor, Graduate School of Management, University of Rochester.
1993. Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
1995. Named Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association.
2000. Received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.
2013. Died December 24 in Brighton, N.Y.
Image Source: University of California Los Angeles. Yearbook Southern Campus, 1952, p. 176.
true false or uncertain
[Note: a good chunk of the canonical prelim exam at Chicago featured questions having this format: example ]
Ficticious characters are in this scene
They bear no resemblance to Human bein’s.
Let the liquor flow
get on with the show,
Don’t let the faculty get out the door
They want to go home
to their little babes
To see if they’ve finished
with the prelim. grades.
_____________________
BRAVE OLD WORLD
A Tragic Comedy in Three Acts by the Adam Smithsonian Players.
by Clare [sic] E. Friedland, William A. Niskanen,
& Walter Y. Oi
Cast of Characters:
Julius Freemarket [Milton Friedman]: Popular leader of Marshallia and Head of the Ministry of Money.
Capt. Marc Caganthony [Phillip Cagan]: Freemarket’s first lieutenant and pilot of the plane.
Llaius Mysticus: [The initials happen to match Lloyd Metzler. The double “Ll” is the give-away.] A soothsayer, and prophet of things to come.
Gregaryous Wrecker [Gary Becker]: A dope peddler.
A. Sovereign Consumer [Representative Graduate Student]: Exerciser of the right of free choice and beneficiary of the fruits of capitalism.
Carlos Cassius [Perhaps a reference to Carl F. Christ?]: Proprietor of the “Do it Yourself, Ph.D. Components” shop. A leading citizen of the community.
H. Greggo Brutus [H. Gregg Lewis]: Seller of Ph.D.’s New and Used, also a leading member of the business community.
G. Dale Jolly [D. Gale Johnson]: The Key Resource Person of the Ministry of Money.
Sancho Humbugger: Former brainchild of the Chicagocrats. [probably played by Marto A. Ballesteros, Chicago Ph.D. 1957].
Act I: Bliss
Narrator: The scene takes place in the brave old world of 1894 — or some permutation thereof.
If this scene seems utopian, a slight word of explanation may be in order.
In an attempt to conform to the justice and impartiality of the marketplace, a new electoral system has been inaugurated, according to which one dollar equals one vote. Thus, the Chicagocrats (with the aid of John D. [Rockefeller] & sundry other foundations) have become the majority party and a new regime has been established based upon the principle of free enterprise, in which Julius Freemarket has become the popular leader of the entire stationary state of Marshallia. All artificial market restrictions and evidences of paternalism, such as child labor laws, pure food and drug acts and compulsory sewage disposal, have been abolished; and in response to price incentives of the purest kind, we find many new industries flourishing in the marketplace.
The scene opens as we find Julius Freemarket, together with his trusted lieutenant Marc Caganthony, taking their morning constitutional — as all important people must — observing the well oiled functioning of the competitive mechanism.
_______________
Enter Freemarket and Caganthony
_______________
Free: Isn’t it wonderful that all is in static equilibrium?
Cagant: Yes, it certainly is.
Free: Except, of course, those things which are in moving equilibrium.
Cagant: Yes, of course.
_______________
Enter soothsayer, Llaius Mysticus
_______________
Llaius: Julius! Julius!
Free: Ha! Who calls? I hear a tongue shriller than all music calling “Julius!”. Speak, Freemarket is turned to hear.
_______________
Llaius comes up to Freemarket and tugs at sleeve.
_______________
Llaius: Beware the Ides of March.
_______________
Freemarket, turning to Caganthony
_______________
Free: What man is that?
Cagant: A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.
Free: It is only Llaius Mysticus. He is a dreamer, a dreary prophet of gloom and doom. He has no empirical basis for his prophesies. Let us leave him and visit with Gregaryous Wrecker.
_______________
Enter Gregaryous Wrecker, singing “I’m an Old Dope Peddler”
[Tom Lehrer song (1953), Lyrics, Performance] Upon completion of song, enter A. Sovereign Consumer (coded “Cons.”)
_______________
Cons.: (in hushed tone) Psst,…psst…hey buddy.
Free: Don’t be bashful young man. Just step right up there and tell the gentleman what you want. There’s nothing to be afraid of now. The dollar’s almighty.
Wreck: Current price is one dollar,… but March futures are fifty cents.
Cons.: Yeah? So high?
Wreck: Well, you see, the idea is this. We’ve got the phenonmener [sic] that the stuff has become a teenage fad, ever since the kids found out Alvis Regs-ley [Elvis Presley] is a user.
[Almost the same word “phenomener” appears in the Tom Lehrer song “Don’t Major in Physics”. Lyrics, Backstory.
…More often a king weds a commoner Than a physicist makes a housewife, For they only are versed in phenomener That have nothing to do with real life.
….
I like physics and my girl does not. I tried showing her my apparatus, But a blank smile was all that I got. She asked me why I was in Physics, And advised me to transfer to Ec, And whenever I tried to talk Physics, All she wanted to do was to neck! ]
Cons.: You got anything cheaper?
Wreck: Well, advertised brands, like Tiajuana Marijuana sell for a few cents more than cheaper substitutes, but they’re worth it for the prestige.
Cons.: Prestige hell! I’ll have plenty of that when I get my Ph.D. Give me the cheap one.
_______________
Exit, Gregaryous Wrecker, as A. Sovereign Consumer moves from that booth to the booth of Carlos Cassius who is found on the telephone.
_______________
Cass.: “Do it Yourself, Ph.D. Components”, … Carlos Cassius speaking. Well, I’ve got simple and multiple regressions, higher r-squares are a bit more expensive. I’ve got a sale on permanent and transitory variables (in an aside to audience) I stole these out of Speedy Read’s [“speed reading” is implicit, one may suppose. The gendered pronoun makes it clear that Margaret Reid was being referred to] wastebasket when she wasn’t looking——— Oh! You’re at Haskell High. [Perhaps a reference to “Haskell Hall”?] Well then, I’ve got some spurious correlations here, ——— very cheap———I lose money on every one of these, but I make it up in the volume. … No, we can’t guaranty that you’ll pass your thesis seminar with these. (pause) Alright, thank you very much for calling. (turns to consumer). What can I do for you?
Cons.: Wow! I see you got a new jomping [sic] point. I’ll take it.
Cass.: Well, that ought to just about complete your set.
_______________
A. Sovereign Consumer moves away from Cassius’s desk to that of H. Greggo Brutus, who is found on the telephone.
_______________
Brutus: This is Greggo Brutus speaking … “Labor Exchange, Ph.D.’s new and used”.
Well, I’ve got a Ph.D. in physics for $2,000, and one in economics from Cambridge for $3,000. (pause) What? … you’ve got only $350? Well, the best I can do for you then, is a Masters degree in planning. (pause) Very fine, I’ll have Mrs. Jones send it out to you first thing in the morning.
(in an aside to audience) Great Jupiter! Here comes another one of those Israelis. Every time I sell one of them a degree, I begin to worry about my job. [Possibly a reference to Zvi Griliches (Ph.D., 1957)?]
(to consumer) Good morning.
Cons.: I want to buy a Chicago Ph.D.
Brutus: I have one here that I’m selling for a customer named Frank Fright, [Frank Knight] who’s decided to give it up and go into Hindu Philosophy. It’s a little old, but I can throw in his endowed chair, and 400 of his reprints, at a price that’s a bargain for the set.
Cons.: A tie in sale? You’re nothing but a reactionary. … a throwback to the old regime. (As he walks off) Heretic! Subversive! Thief!
Brutus: (reflectively) Could it be possible, that I, H. Greggo Brutus have been throwing sand into the wheels of the competitive machine? Perhaps, I have erred ——— yes he is right. Oh those Israelis, they see through everything.
From George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, film version (1956)
Nar: So…, life in Marshallia goes merrily on its way.
Guided by the velvet glove of the invisible iron hand and watched by Freemarket’s careful eye, consumers happily go around computing their marginal utilities, and entrepreneurs are rocking happily in the cradle of competitive equilibrium.
Freemarket has preserved only one authority from the government of the decadent Past — the Ministry of Money. This Ministry is really quite harmless, as its activities are entirely financed out of the secular rate of growth of the money supply. As the only equipment of the Authority consists of a printing press and an airplane [by the end of the 1960s Friedman’s metaphor had morphed into one using helicopters], the costs are in any case quite meagre.
We now visit the Headquarters (and sole office) of the Ministry in a tower at Halfway Airport [“Midway” was the actual name of Chicago’s airport], to see Freemarket’s weekly meeting with his Key Resource Person, G. Dale Jolly, Time: Morning, March 1.
Free: Everything in equilibrium today as usual, Jolly?
Jolly: (Laughs) I have a catastrophe to report, sir.
Free: Catastrophe? Impossible! We’ve purged all the reactionary elements, smoothed all the frictions, removed all the controls, dissolved the rigidities, exiled all the labor organizers, and turned Harvard Yard [Note:the “competition” in Cambridge Mass was still Harvard and not M.I.T.] into a parking lot.
Jolly: It’s the price index, Freemarket; remember, you told me never to take my eyes off the price index.
Free: Of course; this is the variable we chose to stabilize as a guide to our monetary policy. (aside) See my JPE article of 1951, reprinted in my Essays in Negative Economics [reference to Friedman’s “Essays in Positive Economics” (1953)], only $5.75, at the bookstore.
Jolly: See for yourself: The Multivac [a fictional supercomputer that was to appear in over a dozen Isaac Asimov science fiction stories] shows that wholesale prices have dropped 20 points in the last week.
Free: A random-transitory-stochastic type shock, no doubt. Nothing to worry about. What is the money supply, Jolly?
Jolly: (Laughing) I think I lost the series, sir. It was either lost or stolen; in this section of Chicago you can’t be sure which.
Free: You lost the whole series?
Jolly: Not all of it. Some of the data is…
Free: (Quickly) You mean “data are”
Jolly: Data is, are, (we didn’t use such fancy language down on the farm), not all missing.
Free: This poses a serious problem. Capt. Caganthony, what do the rules state for this situation?
Cagant: (typically thumbing through phone book) Rule 412, Section A2 states that 80,000 assorted $10, $20, and $50 bills be dropped in a Latin Square design [see the Wikipedia article, probably application in statistics] over each city of over one million population.
Jolly: (Leaving) I won’t rest until I find the lost money data, sir. (Exit)
Free: Marc, the loss of that money series is quite serious, but I trust Jolly.
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep of nights,
Blond Cassius, for example, has a lean and hungry look.
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
Cagant: Fear Cassius not, Freemarket, he’s not dangerous.
Free: Would he were fatter.
Such men as he be never at hear’ts [sic] ease
While they behold models better than their own.
Cagant: But the rules, the rules!
Free: Oh yes, the rules. Your watch should read 0800, Capt. Caganthony. Release the money over Chicago at exactly 0900 hours and over the other specified cities at subsequent 3-hour intervals.
Cagant: Roger, and off. (Exits, runs askew, whirring like a plane.)
_______________
Sound effects: Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries.
_______________
Act II — Scene 2
Props: Table, chair, candle lit on table.
Nar: Let your eyes now adjust to the darkness of a cellar at the home of H. Greggo Brutus. The time, the evening of March 14.
_______________
On stage, Brutus.Enter Cassius.
_______________
Brut: How now Cassius. How goes the night?
Cass: (Shaking money from his coat) Did I go thru a tempest dropping money? This disturbed sky is not to walk in. But worst of all, paper has risen so high in price, due to this mad money-printing that I am forced to run my correlations on the backs of twenty dollar bills.
Brut: This glut of currency is slowing the chariots on the streets. Jolly reports it is smothering the crops. Who knows what adverse expectations it may cause in the marketplace.
Cass: All was prosperous until the ministry of money was moved to action. And now prices fall all the more as each new planeload of manna falls. It is as though the fundamental equation might contain some fundamental flaw.
Brut: Speak not such heresy in my house Cassius. Freemarket is a true and noble Marshallian. Did he not refuse the title of Supreme Bureaucrat when it was offered him by Cagananthony? I am certain he will be swayed from this policy when Jolly finds the lost money series and he sees the extreme to which he has gone.
Cass: Why must he sit in his airport tower and wait upon the money series? Is the error of his ways not obvious to every Marshallian who but looks about him? Brutus, think not that Freemarket is above the weaknesses of ordinary men. Did I not swim with him in the Tiber the other day and see him nearly carried away by the foam? So it is with this new power with which he seems drunk. Has not our noble sage, Frank Fright [Knight], warned us that “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, absolutely”? [Knight clearly was quoting Lord Acton (1889)]
Brut: There is truth in what you say. Freemarket promised us an economy free of all government interference. (Did he not condemn Adam Smith for suggesting that a state might build roads and schools and provide for the common defense?) Yet he insisted on this one ministry which would harmlessly follow a set of prescribed rules. And now he blindly follows his model and his rules, we know not where. Perhaps he has started us on the dreaded Road to Serfdom. [Homage à Hayek (1944)]
Cass: Then you are with us Brutus. I have moved already some of the noblest-minded Marshallians to undergo with me a plan. But there is none among us who is schooled in planning anymore.
Brut: Wait? …approach Sancho Humbugger, the brain-child of the Chicagocrats before Freemarket’s victory! He was suspected of deviationist tendencies and exiled to some southern outpost.
_______________
Enter Sancho, to Latin tune, wearing a huge sombrero and serape.
_______________
Sanche: Ole! (with wide sweep of hand)
Cass: Sancho! You’ve been away too long. Was it hot down there?
San: No, Chile.
Brut: Time enough later for such nonsense. Sancho, how do you happen to be in Marshallia?
San: Well, I was on this luxury airliner, see, when I starts up a conversation with this dame sitting next to me see. It seems she’s a white sox fan like me, see. (She wuz wit some slob who just made a killing selling cheap paper to the Marshallian Ministry of Money.) And she tells me how going from Professor to Bureaucrat was too much for Freemarket, and so he’s dropping this dough like mad. So I thought I’d take a hop to Marshallia and see if I could do something to help maybe.
Cass: Sancho, you must construct a plan for us to restore the price index to its former level, by any devious means, even (ugh?) Public Works, so as to stop the exercise of Freemarket’s excessive power with (Stage whisper) countervailing power.
[Clear reference to Galbraith’s American Capitalism: The Theory of Countervailing power (1952)]
Our whole way of life rests on your shoulders, Sancho.
San: You need a plan eh? I get the picture. Let’s see now.
(Paces nervously, mumbling, grabs for pencil & paper, scribbles furiously.)
I’ve got it! This is our action! We’re home!
_______________
All join in huddle.
_______________
Brut: (emerging) Do so; and let no man abide this deed but we the doers.
Act II — Scene III
Props: telephone, table, chair, sign (askew)
Nar: More men than these are disturbed on this troubled eve.
Free: (Alone, tired, slowly walking the room.)
Nor heaven, nor earth have been at peace tonight. That phone has screamed at each hour of the clock. (phone rings)
Jolly? What? The second derivative of prices is now falling? Oh, well, I’ll merely follow rule 205 next. Go bid the Multivac do present calculate and bring me its clanking opinion of success.
(picks up phone again.)
Capto Caganthony? He’s asleep? (With amazement and anger.) Give him this urgent message: “Another plane.” No, that’s all. He’ll know what to do.
Act III — Scene I
Props: Desk, chair, sign, blackboard.
Nar: The ides of March are come…but not gone. And, as we shall see, the events of the early day are false portent of the fate which for Freemarket lay.
_______________
Freemarket sits at desk, chin in hands, brooding.
Capt. Caganthony is at stage left and rear. Enter Jolly, whistling “Whistle as you work”. [From the Disney Film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)]
_______________
Jolly: Tra, la, la, la, la, la, la (Whistles again.)
Free: Jolly, this is no time for glee; look, now my hair has started to fall out. [merelygratuitous bald-shaming of Friedman]
Jolly: (Laughing) But I’ve found it! Under my tractor seat cushion!
Free: My hair?
Jolly: No, that’s been gone too long. I found the lost money data.
Free: Thank Jupiter. Oh, Jolly, I could kiss you. Now all our troubles are over. Did you hear that, Marc, he’s found it. I knew I could trust you, Jolly.
Cagant: Now all our troubles are over. (In a monotone)
Free: (To Jolly) Tell me, did you put the data through the Multivac?
Jolly: Yes I did. But there are some strange results. (Laughing) Prices are still falling in all the cities on which money was dropped. But there has been a phenomenal reflation in the backward river valleys of the South and West.
Free: Are you certain?
Jolly: Yes, if my assumptions are true.
Free: That’s irrelevant. Just the facts, Jolly, just the facts. [Probably an indirect homage à Sgt. Joe Friday from the then popular radio/TV series Dragnet]
Jolly: (Laughing) Of course, Freemarket, Just the facts. There are disturbing signs that the permanent component of the income of farm laborers has increased substantially.
Free: Impossible, my book is not published yet. Those cotton pickers will be buying Ph.D.’s next. (To Cagant) Marc, are you sure you dropped the money only in large metropolitan areas?
Cagant: (Monotone) Your instructions were carried out explicitly, so help me Mints. [Friedman’s old Chicago teacher in money matters, Lloyd Mints]
Free: (To himself, disturbed) The money must have been dropped in the wrong place. Marc, when was your last eye check?
Cagant: Why, when I worked for the National Bureau.
Free: That explains it, they hire anybody. Come, Marc, sit here.
_______________
Cagant is blindfolded, turned away from blackboard toward audience.
_______________
Free: Now, as I write these symbols on the board, read them back to me. [as if reading a chart in an eye examination]
Cagant: Why? [punning on “Y” and “Why” sounding alike] I don’t know. I saw Z as in Z. I said, Zed. [perhaps just a silly rhyme “said”/“Zed”]
Free: (Calmly) Don’t repeat yourself, Marc. Let’s go over this last line again.
Cagant: M= KPZ
Free: Now, Marc, you don’t really want to go back to the National Bureau, do you? You know what these symbols are.
Cagant: You look at Y, I look at Z. Utility preferences differ, you know.
Free: (In a rage) This is a matter of doctrine, not of consumer choice!
Cagant: (Angrily) Under the new free-market system, this is a matter to be settled in the market place, not by a government decree.
_______________
Cagan [sic] stalks out agrily.
_______________
Free: (Upset) Jolly, the fundamental Truth of the Fundamental Equation has been questioned Call the Chamber of Chaos into session — I need reassurance.
Jolly: Stand firm, Freemarket these men are fallible; (in a shocked tone) they could even utter a non-sequitur! (Exit)
_______________
Enter Cassius, Brutus, and Humbugger
_______________
All except Free: Hail, Freemarket, Hail. You called for us?
Free: Yes, come in, Cassius, come in, noble Brutus. Ah, worthy Humbugger is with you. Good. Let me put our problem in my own terms.
Sancho: (Aside to Cassius and Brutus) Our cause is dead if he does.
Cass: (Quickly) No, glorious Freemarket, we know the problem and we know its cause. Pray hear friend Sancho speak for us.
San: Witness, noble Freemarket, how, with these quick strokes, if
(Writing on blackboard, allowing audience to see)
I = I*
G = G*
C = a + bY
and
Y = C+ I + G
then we’re home!
Free: Great Jupiter, is this the Keynes’ mutiny [punning Herman Wouk’s novel The Caine Mutiny (1952)]? This is heresy!
San: Heresy or no,
We have this to show,
Prices still fall in Chicago.
But in the West and South, on my advice,
Migrant workers have picked up quite a slice
Of permanent income; the rest don’t rhyme so nice.
Free: (Sharply) Doesn’t rhyme as nicely. Your grammar is abominable, Sancho.
San: By organizing unions to boost their wages,
By building dams to water their crops,
Income increased first by stages,
And then by leaps, and bounds, and hops.
Free: (in fury) Damn! Damn! Damn!
San: Yes Freemarket.
It is Dams we built this day.
And thru these public works disaster did allay.
Free: I must warn thee, Sancho.
These symbols and your reasoning
Might fire the blood of ordinary men,
And turn pre-ordinance and first decree
into the law of children.
(Sternly)
Thy model, and thyself, by decree, are banished.
Know all, Freemarket doth not wrong, nor
without cause will he be satisfied.
Cass: I, Cassius, do beg enfranchisement of Sancho’s model.
Free:
I could be well moved if I were as you.
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me.
But I am as constant as velocity
(Becoming emotional)
Of whose true fixed and resting quality
There is no variable in the literature.
Cassius, stand you with Humbugger?
_______________
Cassius walks in front of Freemarket to stand beside Sancho, and remains silent.
_______________
Free: (Disturbed)
Good Brutus, when all is said and done
Stand you with models with equations four,
Or with the Fundamental One?
_______________
Brutus silently joins Cassius and Sancho.
_______________
Et tu, Brute! Then die, Freemarket, die!
_______________
Freemarket clutches at sign, pulls it down, and collapses on table. The whole cast gathers around the table on which Freemarket lies, as an audience for the following speech:
_______________
Cagant:
Friends, Marshallians, Chicagocrats, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Freemarket, not to praise him.
The models that men build live after them,
Their meaning oft interred in their books.
So let it be with Freemarket.
All (including MAB): [almost certainly, Marto A. Ballesteros]
How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted o’er
In states unborn and accents yet unknown.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches, Box 129, Folder “Faculty skits, ca. 1960s.
Note on Marto A. Ballesteros identification for “MAB”
Fellow 1957—Asst Prof. 1960 at the University of Chicago according to the 1969 AEA Directory of Members.
Publications
Argentine Agriculture, 1908-1954: A Study in Growth and Decline By Marto A. Ballesteros (University of Chicago, 1958). (PhD thesis)
Ballesteros, Marto A. Desarrollo agrícola chileno, 1910-1955. Santiago: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales,1965. p. 7-40.
Newspaper Accounts
The Peninsula Times Tribune (13 Sep 1957). Marriage to Jill Sidnell Geer of Los Altos. Off to Chile to live for one year. His parents are from Madrid, his undergraduate studies were at the University of Madrid, MA and PhD at the University of Chicago. Just received his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago, Junior fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences for a year 1956-57.
The Galion Inquirer (23 Sep 1957) that “[Balesteros] will be doing research and teaching in economics at the Universidad Catolica de Chile, Centro De Investigaciones Economicas, Santiago, Chile, under sponsorship of the University of Chicago and the International Cooperation Administration of the U.S. Government”.
Miami Herald (8 Apr 1965), “Dr. Marto Ballesteros, chief of the Pan American Union’s public finance unit”.
Abram Bergson was forty-years old and well on the way to becoming the “Dean of Soviet Economics” in the United States when he taught the following course on the structure of the Soviet Economy at Columbia University.
Bergson, along with my Yale professors Mike Montiasand Ray Powell together with my M.I.T. dissertation supervisor Evsey Domar, got me hooked on the economic theory of index numbers. For my fellow index number nerds I link to a draft of my homage à Bergson “The ‘Welfare Standard’ and Soviet Consumers” that I presented at the Abram Bergson memorial conference (published in Comparative Economic Studies, 2005, vol. 47, issue 2, pp. 333-345).
The reading list for Bergson’s Economics of Socialism (Harvard, 1977) has been posted earlier at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.
________________________
Course Announcement
Economics 145 (Russian Institute)—Structure of the Soviet Economy. 2 pts. Professor Bergson
Tu. Th. 11. 403 Schermerhorn.
Analytical and statistical survey of the growth, operating principles, and organization of the economy of the Soviet Union under the Five-Year Plans, with attention to resources, population and labor, agriculture, industry, and domestic and foreign trade.
THE RATE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH UNDER THE FIVE YEAR PLANS: ALTERNATIVE MEASURES.
Assigned Reading
Clark, C.; Gerschenkron, A.: “Russian Income and Production Statistics,” Review of Economic Statistics, Nov. 1947.
Dobb, M., “A Comment on Soviet Economic Statistics,” Soviet Studies, June 1949.
Gerschenkron, A., A Dollar Index of Soviet Machinery Output, The RAND Corporation 1951, Chs. 1-4.
Jasny, N., The Soviet Economy during the Plan Era, Stanford 1951.
Kaplan, N.M., “Arithmancy, Theomancy and the Soviet Economy,” Journal of Political Economy, April 1953.
Bergson, A., “Reliability and Usability of Soviet Statistics: Summary Appraisal,” American Statistician, June-July 1953.
Chapman, J. “Real Wages in the Soviet Union, 1928-52, Review of Economics and Statistics, May 1954.
Other References:
Baykov, A., “Postwar Economic Development….”, Univ. of Birmingham Bulletins, May 1953.
Bergson, A., “Soviet National Income: and Product in 1937,” New York 1953.
Clark, C., “The Valuation of Real Income in the Soviet Union,” Review of Economic Progress, Feb. and Mar. 1949.
Dobb, M., “A Comment on Soviet Statistics,” Review of Economic Statistics, Feb. 1948.
Harris, S.E.; Gerschenkron, A.; Bergson, A.; Baran, P.; and Yugow, A.: “Appraisals of Russian Economic Statistics,” Nov. 1947.
Hodgman, D., “Industrial Production,”;and Galenson, W., “Industrial Labor Productivity,” in Bergson, A., ed., Soviet Economic Growth, Evanston, Ill., 1953.
Kasdan, S., “Relationship between Machinery and Steel Production in Russia and the United States,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Feb. 1952.
Rice, S.; Schwartz, H.; Lorimer, F.; Gerschenkron, A.; Volin, L., “Reliability and Usability of Soviet Statistics,” American Statistician, April-May, June-July 1953.
Wyler, J., “The National Income of the Soviet Union,” Social Research Dec. 1946.
SOVIET ECONOMIC GROWTH: SURVEY OF CONDITIONS AND PERSPECTIVES.
Assigned Reading
Grossman, G., “National Income”; Kaplan, N.M., “Capital Formation and Allocation”;
“Industrial Resources”; and Comments on foregoing in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.
“Directives on the Fifth Five Year Plan,” pp. 21-28, Malenkov Report, pp. 106-115, in L. Gruliow, ed., Current Soviet Policies, New York, 1953.
Dobb, M., “Rates of Growth under the Five Year Plans,” Soviet Studies, April 1953.
Other References
Balzak et al., Economic Geography of the USSR, New York 1949.
Blackman, J.A., „Transportation,” and comments on this essay in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.
Hoeffding, O., Soviet National Income and Product in 1928, New York 1954.
Bergson, A. and Heymann, H., “Soviet National Income and Product 1940-48.”
Schwartz, H., Russia’s Soviet Economy, 2nd ed. New York 1954, Ch. XV.
Shimkin, D., Minerals—A Key to Soviet Power, Cambridge, 1953.
Wiles, Peter, “Soviet Russia Outpaces the West,” Foreign Affairs, July 1953.
AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: THE DECISION ON COLLECTIVIZATION.
Assigned Reading
Dobb, M., Soviet Economic Development since 1917, New York 1948, Chs. VIII-IX.
Erlich, A., “Preobrajenski and the Economics of Soviet Industrialization, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb. 1950.
Stalin, J.V., Selected Writings. “On the Grain Front,” “Right Danger,” “Right Deviation,” “Problems of Agrarian Policy,” “The Policy of Eliminating the Kulaks as a Class,” “Dizzy with Success.”
Other References
Baykov, A., Development of the Soviet Economic System, New York, 1946, Ch. XII.
Dobb, M. Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. X.
Maynard, J., Russia in Flux, New York 1948, Chs. XVI, XIX.
AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: TRENDS UNDER THE FIVE YEAR PLANS: PERSPECTIVES.
Assigned Reading
Schwartz, H. Russia’s Soviet Economy, Chs. VIII, IX.
Jasny, N., The Socialized Agriculture of the USSR, Stanford 1949, pp. 1-99.
Timoshenko, V.P., “Agricultural Resources”; Kershaw, J., “Agricultural Output and Employment”; and comments on these essays in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.
Volin, L., “The Malenkov-Khrushchev New Economic Policy”, Journal of Political Economy, June 1954.
Other References
Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Ch. XVII.
Baykov., A., “Agricultural Development in the USSR,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, December 1951, May 1953.
in, G.; Schwarz, S.; and Yugow, A., Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, New York 1944. Ch. X – XVII.
Finegood, I.M., “A Critical Analysis of Some Concepts Concerning Soviet Agriculture,”
Soviet Studies, July 1952.
Hubbard, L.E., Economics of Soviet Agriculture, London 1939.
Maynard, Russia in Flux, Ch. XX.
Schlesinger, R.A.J., “Some Problems of Present Kolkhoz Organization, Soviet Studies, April 1951. See also the further discussion by Jasny, Nove and Schlesinger in Soviet Studies, Oct. 1951, Jan. 1952.
Volin, L., “Turn of the Screw in Soviet Agriculture,” Foreign Affairs, Jan. 1952.
LABOR RECRUITMENT AND WAGE POLICY; INEQUALITY
Assigned Reading
Bergson, A., Structure of Soviet Wages, Cambridge, Mass., 1944 Chs. IV, X – XIV, Conclusion and Appendix F.
Inkeles, A., “Social Stratification and Mobility in the Soviet Union: 1940-1950,” American Sociological Review, August 1950.
Deutscher, I., Soviet Trade Unions, New York 1950.
Barker, G.R., “Soviet Labor,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, June 1951.
Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. XIII, XVIII.
Bergson, “On Inequality of Incomes in the USSR,” American Slavic and East European Review”, April 1951.
Bienstock, Schwarz and Vugow, Management in Soviet Industry and Agriculture, Ch. VIII.
Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. XVI.
Eason, W.W., “Population and Labor Force,” and comments in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.
Gordon, M. Workers before and after Lenin, New York 1941.
Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Labor and Industry, London 1942.
Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy. Ch. XIII.
Schwarz, Solomon, Labor in the Soviet Union, New York 1952.
FISCAL POLICY AND THE PRICE LEVEL
Assigned Reading
Berliner, J. S., “Monetary Planning in the USSR,” American Slavic and East European Review, Dec. 1950.
Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917. Ch. XIV.
Holzman, F.D, “Commodity and Income Taxation in the Soviet Union,” Journal of Political Economy, Oct. 1950.
Holzman, F.D, “The Soviet Budget, 1928-1952,” National Tax Journal, Sept. 1953.
Other References
Arnold, A.Z., Banks, Credit and Money in Soviet Russia. New York 1937.
Baran, P.A., “Currency Reform in the USSR,” Harvard Business Review, March 1948.
Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System. Ch. XIX.
Baykov, A. and Barker G.R. “Financial Developments in the USSR,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, August 1950.
Bergson, A., Soviet National Income and Product in 1937. New York 1953.
Holzman, F.D., “The Burden of Soviet Taxation,” American Economic Review, Sept. 1953.
Bogolepov, M.I., The Soviet Financial System. (Pamphlet) London 1945.
Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Money and Finance, London 1936.
Reddaway, W.B., The Russian Financial System, London 1935.
Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy. Ch. XII.
Davies, R.W., “Finance,” Univ. of Birmingham, Bulletins on Soviet Economic Development, December 1952.
THEORY OF SOCIALIST ECONOMICS
Assigned Reading
Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. I.
Lange, O., “On the Economic Theory of Socialism,” In B. Lippincott, ed., O. Lange, F. Taylor, On the Economic Theory of Socialism, Minneapolis 1938.
Other References
Bergson, A., “Socialist Economics,” in H. Ellis, ed. A Survey of Contemporary Economics, Philadelphia 1948.
Dickinson, H.D., Economics of Socialism, Oxford 1939.
Dobb, M., Political Economy and Capitalism, New York 1940.
Hayek, F.A., ed., Collectivist Economic Planning, London 1935.
Lenin, V.I. State and Revolution.
Marx, K., Critique of the Gotha Programme, Political Economy in the Soviet Union (Pamphlet) New York, International Publishers, 1944.
Stalin, J., Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, Moscow, 1952.
ECONOMICS OF THE FIRM
Assigned Reading
Bienstock, Schwarz and Yugow: Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, Chs. I — VI, IX.
Granick, D., “Initiative and Independence of Soviet Plant Management,” Plant Management, American Slavic and East European Review, Oct. 1951.
Berliner, J., “The Informal Organization of the Soviet Firm,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1952.
Other References
Arakelian, A., Industrial Management in the USSR, Washington, D.C. 1950.
Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. XI, XVI.
Granick, D., Management of the Industrial Firm in the USSR, New York 1954.
Hubbard, L.E., Soviet Labor and Industry.
GENERAL PLANNING
Assigned Reading
Baykov, Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. XIV, XV, XX.
Dobb, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, Ch. I, XIII.
Hunter, H., “Planning of Investments in the Soviet Union,” Review of Economic Statistics, February 1949.
Grossman, G., “Scarce Capital and Soviet Doctrine,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug. 1953.
Jasny, N., The Soviet Price System, Stanford 1951, Chs. I-IV.
Other References
Bettleheim, C., “On the Problem of Choice between Alternative Investment Projects,” Soviet Studies, July 1950.
Brutzkus, B., Economic Planning in Soviet Russia, London 1935.
Dobb, M., “The Problem of Choice between Alternative Investment Projects,” Soviet Studies, January 1951.
Eason, W., “On Strumilin’s Model,” Soviet Studies, April 1950.
Jasny, N., Soviet Prices of Producers’ Goods, Stanford 1952.
Kaplan, N., “Investment Alternatives…,” Jour. of Polit. Econ., April 1952.
Kursky, A., The Planning of the National Economy of the USSR, Moscow 1949.
Lange, O., The Working Principles of the Soviet Economy, New York 1943. (Pamphlet)
Miller, J., “Some Recent Developments in Soviet Economic Thought,” Soviet Studies, September 1949.
Miller J., ed., “Three Articles on the Effectiveness of Investments,” Soviet Studies, April 1950.
“Problems of Planning Capital Investment,” The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. II, No. 1, Feb. 18, 1950. “Planning Capital Investment II,” The Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. II, No. 3, March 4, 1950.
Schwartz, Russia’s Soviet Economy, Ch. V.
Zauberman, “Economic Thought in the Soviet Union,” Review of Economic Studies, 1949-1950, Nos. 39-40.
Zauberman, A., “Prospects for Soviet Investigations into Capital Efficiency,” Soviet Studies, April, 1950.
FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS
Assigned Reading
Gerschenkron, A., Economic Relations with the USSR (The Committee on International Economic Policy in Cooperation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), New York 1943.
Hoeffding, O., “Soviet Economic Relations with the Orbit”; Schwartz, H., “East-West Trade”; and comments on these essays in Bergson, Soviet Economic Growth.
Other References
Baykov, A., Soviet Foreign Trade, Princeton 1946, Chs. II – VI.
Step by step, inch by inch, course by course we transcribe and file away course materials from academic years gone by. Again we encounter Harvard assistant professor of economics, Charles Jesse Bullock, this time wearing his public finance hat. Note that at the turn of the twentieth century monetary and fiscal issues were taught as two sides of a single financial history.
[Economics] 16 1hf. The Financial History of the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and(at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Asst. Professor Bullock.
This course will deal mainly with the history of the finances of the federal government; but will include some study of the financial experience of the colonies, and will treat of the development of the finances of the states from 1775 to 1850.
Each student will be required to prepare a thesis upon some special topic.
Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 46.
__________________________
ECONOMICS 161
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05
FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
Describe the development of colonial tax systems.
State the main facts concerning the Continental paper money.
Describe Hamilton’s funding system.
Describe and criticise the sinking-fund act of 1795.
What are the main facts in the history of the Second Bank of the United States?
Describe the tariffs of 1828, 1838, and 1846.
What are the main facts in the history of the greenbacks?
Discuss the suspension of specie payments in December, 1861.
Describe the refunding of the national debt after the Civil War
What were the chief provisions of the resumption act? How was resumption actually accomplished?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 36.
Meanwhile, back in the early 20th century we find Charles Jesse Bullock teaching the history of economics from the ancient Greeks to Adam Smith, judging from his exam questions. Nominally, the course was to cover economic thought through 1848. He, like Frank Taussig, examined economics Ph.D. candidates ability to read French and German. He taught Latin and Greek at the high-school level before going on to study economics so it is not surprising that he would have been expected to cover the ancient Greek and Latin literatures of economics as well.
[Economics] 15. The History and Literature of Economies to the year 1848. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri, at 12. Asst. Professor Bullock.
The purpose of this course is to trace the development of economic thought from classical antiquity to the middle of the nineteenth century. Emphasis is placed upon the relation of economics to philosophical and political theories, as well as to political and industrial conditions.
A considerable amount of reading of prominent writers will be assigned and opportunity given for the preparation of theses. Much of the instruction is necessarily given by means of lectures.
Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), pp. 49-50.
__________________________
ECONOMICS 15 Mid-Year Examination, 1904-05
With what literature upon the history of economics are you familiar?
What place does Plato occupy in the development of economic thought?
What criticism did Aristotle make against Plato’s Republic?
What economic topics are discussed by Xenophon?
Describe the economic doctrines of Thomas Aquinas.
What do you think of the scholastic doctrine concerning usury?
What were the doctrines of Molinaeus and Salmasius?
Compare the Utopia with Plato’s Republic.
What do you think of Ingram’s treatment of economic thought in the Middle Ages?
Upon what subject do you consider the economic doctrine of the Schoolmen most satisfactory?
What influence did the schoolmen have upon the economic thought of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
Compare the contributions to economic thought made by English writers in the seventeenth century with those made by contemporaneous writers in France and Italy.
Give some account of the economic doctrines of Bodin.
Trace in outline the development of theories of money in Europe from 1550 to 1760.
Compare the communistic theories of Plato with those of More.
Describe the work done in the eighteenth century toward systematizing economic doctrines.
Describe the economic doctrines of two German and two Italian writers of the eighteenth century.
Give a general account of the life and writings of Adam Smith.
What different influences can be observed in the Wealth of Nations? To which do you attribute most importance?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 35-36.
We step outside the bounds of conventional economics education in this post to enter the intensive boot-camp for libertarians established in 1957 by Robert LeFevre in Colorado Springs. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror’s latest artefact is the 1962 Prospectus for the Freedom School transcribed below.
Like many prophets of new religions, Lefevre brought definite charismatic talent along with a checkered past to his job as entrepreneurial educator.
“LeFevre worked as an actor, radio broadcaster, door-to-door salesman, real estate speculator and manager, TV newsman, and assistant to a pair of charismatic American cult leaders in a religious movement known as the Mighty “I AM.”
A definitely non-libertarian journalist expands on “assistant to a pair of charismatic American cult leaders” as follows:
In 1940, LeFevre published his first book, I AM: America’s Destiny, claiming that he had once driven his car for twenty minutes with his eyes shut while his soul cavorted with Saint Germain somewhere over California’s Lake Shasta. “Now, as I watched, and listened, Saint Germain talked to me. He was real! The world I lived in was unreal. He was the true reality.”
LeFevre quickly discovered how popular he became by claiming this power. Women made themselves available; crowds would gather in apartments to hear his “dictations” from the spirit of Saint Germain. One married woman he lusted after invited LeFevre to live with her and her husband in their San Francisco penthouse, causing her husband to drink himself almost to death.
It’s hard to tell if LeFevre genuinely anguished over his con job; in his memoirs, his language suggests that more than anything, he feared being found out:
“…What if I suddenly announced to all these good people that the whole thing was a sham? I was tempted to do it.”
“Was I guilty of fraud? Had I (subliminally) perhaps been engaged in some monstrous pretense?”
LeFevre’s stint as cult leader was short-lived. In late 1940, the FBI indicted him and 23 other top “I AM” figures with felony mail fraud. LeFevre immediately turned states’ witness, and charges against him were dropped, while Edna Ballard [note: she was the Tammy Faye Bakker of the I AM cult] and her son were sentenced to prison.
In a future post we will examine Charles Koch’s personal link to LeFevre’s Freedom School as well as some of the economist friends of the Freedom School.
________________________________
1962 Prospectus The Freedom School
A Call to Introspection
and Thoughtful Appraisal
Today a whole series of concepts alien to the American ideal of 1776 has become acceptable to a great number of American people.
American business finds its back to the wall, confronted by outrageously high taxes, by regulations which impair its ability to operate and, additionally, by union organizers who not only force wages to rise in a manner disassociated with production but who are now usurping the functions of management in the field of hiring and firing. Without deep and thoughtful study of the economic and moral principles underlying a free market, today’s executive is ill-equipped to withstand union and government interventions.
American workers, caught in a vise between mounting taxes and soaring prices, and conditioned by various public media of education and communications, find themselves individually confronted with what appear to be only two possible alternatives: submit to unionism, or face unemployment and economic strangulation.
American students seeking to acquire an education are confronted with compulsion, illogic and ineptitude. Those who express a love and devotion to the ideas and ideals of the American founders are scorned, and admonished to forget “old-fashioned notions” about the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. They are advised that capitalism is outmoded, that private ownership of the means of production and distribution is out-dated and improper, and that a brave new world awaits them if they will conform to governmental intrusion in their lives, submit to authority at every level and try always to keep in mind that Society has become responsible for everything and everybody.
In a climate sired by big government, enormous taxes, legal intrusions, union violence, the threat of war, inflation and educational paucity. the individual must equip himself with the proper means of combatting false ideas and of standing firm in a sea of confusion. Only YOU can decide where you will stand in the ideological warfare of freedom vs. slavery.
This is a call to all Americans who are in rebellion against the foregoing evils and who wish to discover practical ways and means of meeting the challenge to their businesses and industries. to their families, their jobs and their property, and to their own intellectual integrity.
In poetic harmony with the setting of tall Douglas firs, the buildings comprising the Freedom School reflect in craftsmanship and rough-hewn simplicity the philosophy of individualism. The American tradition is articulated by the log facades on the buildings.
In such an harmonious setting away from jangle and tension, without the pressures caused by appointments, and undistracted by ordinary routine affairs, rigorous study can be pursued. Reflection and intellectual exploration in the field of human action can best be achieved in a tranquil atmosphere.
The student is encouraged to enter classroom discussions to probe human action philosophically, historically, economically, politically, ethically and morally.
He will sweep back through history examining the bright stars of freedom illuminating the course of human progress. The student will awaken to what governments can and cannot do; to the full impact of the merit of private ownership of property and its relationship to liberty.
The student will discover that there is no conflict between the highest moral beliefs and sound economic understanding.
The student is encouraged to seek self-improvement and his own excellence is pointed out as more important than the needs of societal groups.
He will find that all of these ideas, and more, are encompassed in a modern, intelligent philosophy of individualism, which rests its case on the natural, functional, rights of man.
Classwork convenes daily at 1:00 p.m. and continues until 5:00 p.m. when the student has a free hour before dinner, after which he returns to evening class. Evening class starts at 7:00 p.m, and concludes at 9:00 p.m. The student will discover that the pure mountain air, the brisk atmosphere, the rigorous use of his mental faculties encourage an early retiring.
Breakfast is served at 7:30 a.m. after which the student is free to go horseback riding, hiking, or to relax on one of the verandas and enjoy the vista of nature spread before him. There is available a fine libertarian library in which the student may sit in comfortable chairs and enter into lively discussion with his classmates. Superior reference material is close at hand. Each student’s quarters is equipped with a comfortable and well lighted study table. Books may be removed from the library for the student’s personal use.
Weather permitting, luncheon is held out-of-doors. The famous Sunday morning barbecue breakfast is held outdoors in a wooded glen.
Meals are served informally in the western tradition of hearty food. Most students have proclaimed the cuisine to be among the finest. Mrs. Loy LeFevre, who manages the school’s kitchen, has been urged by students to publish a cookbook comprised of the many savory recipes served at the Freedom School
Many days of sunshine each year provide excellent lighting for camera fans. Some of the pictures which appear in the Freedom School publications were taken by students.
At the Freedom School you will sleep better, eat better, think better, and feel better as you examine each facet of individualism.
One of the most telling statements pointing out a problem present in our country was volunteered by a Freedom School student: “I graduated from an American high school, I’m attending an American university, and I must ask the question: Why is it that I must travel 1100 miles to learn the facts that I have found at the Freedom School?”
Other graduates of the School described their experiences thusly:
* * *
“Before going to the Freedom School I considered myself a staunch supporter of liberty, but after experiencing the exchange of ideas that transpires there I discovered untenable taints of socialism remaining in me. These I have now discarded.”
Engineer, Northwest
* * *
“Your teachings opened up hitherto neglected directions in my thinking. I had been unknowingly utilizing methods of combating the activities of those who would destroy freedom which methods in themselves aided rather than opposed these activities.”
Former state legislator,
Southeast
* * *
“In our class without exception it was agreed that none of us had ever taken a course so thorough and dynamic, so enlightening as this one. We received inspiration and knowledge in the two weeks that would normally not be found in a quarter century. The professor from Milwaukee stated that it was more than a semester of college work so far as study goes.”
Businesswoman, Southwest
* * *
“It has provided me with the strongest philosophical underpinning that I have ever experienced. Since returning. I have had much more confidence in my politico-economic discussions and arguments.”
Graduate student, East
* * *
“The greatest intellectual challenge I ever encountered.”
Business executive — attorney,
Midwest
Comprehensive Course
This is an intensive, hard-hitting course of general instruction which is useful to any American of mature outlook who wishes to explore and discuss some of the basic questions of our time. The banalities of socialism are exposed. Our heritage of individual liberty and the philosophy of freedom and free enterprise are openly discussed. This course is particularly useful for instructors, ministers, editors, commentators, columnists — concerned with the dissemination of ideas. It is also well adapted for the businessman or for serious-minded students generally.
The Comprehensive Course is open to men and women, regardless of present academic rating, who are willing to work and apply themselves in a pursuit of philosophic and economic truths.
The 1961 Annual available upon request (limited supply).
Explorations in Human Action (for Executives)
This is a special and definitive course of instruction reserved for executives only.
Executives may bring their wives if they choose; however, wives are excluded from class discussion, tho they may sit in as observers.
The instruction in this two-week period will place special emphasis upon economic problems to be found in today’s business and industrial operations.
Write for illustrated booklet. Do it today. Space is limited and only a few carefully selected executives are chosen each year.
This course is more intensive than the Comprehensive Course and is particularly adapted to the executive who is somewhat familiar with management and labor relations problems.
Explorations in Human Action brochure available upon request.
Workshop
One session is scheduled during 1962 for the accommodation of graduates, instructors in the libertarian philosophy, economists, philosophers, and others, so that they can meet in the atmosphere of the school for the purpose of discussion, sharing ideas in depth and the presentation of papers on a selected topic.
This four-day session will feature a number of the nation’s outstanding leaders in libertarian thought. They will be on hand to confer with students or guests, and to lecture on various phases of the understanding of liberty and economics. Their names will be announced later.
The topic will be: “Are Labor Unions Necessary?”
Graduates wishing to enroll in the Workshop are urged to prepare a formal paper on any phase of the labor union topic and may take any position they wish. A prize in the sum of $100 will be awarded for the best paper, plus a refund of tuition.
Graduates wishing to enroll without making a formal presentation may do so, altho they will not be eligible for the competition. Only graduates of the Comprehensive Course may compete.
Scholarships
Scholarships are available for the Comprehensive Course under three plans.
Full scholarships are available on the basis of a competitive examination. These examinations will be mailed from the Freedom School upon request beginning January 15. All competitive examinations will be judged the week of April 1, 1962, and awards announced thereafter. Winners will receive full tuition for any Comprehensive Course they select, tuition covering all room and board, books, instruction, recreation, and so on.
Full scholarships may also be obtained AFTER April 15, 1962, by application to the Board of Directors of the Freedom School. These scholarships will be awarded on the basis of sincerity and personal worth of application when financial need is demonstrated. In a limited number of cases, outright awards will be made. In other cases, a student loan fund can be utilized with the student agreeing to return funds borrowed without interest.
Partial scholarships may sometimes be obtained by any student who is willing to pay a part of his tuition himself.
Full-tuition scholarships will be presented to 1962 winners of the Freedom School competitive examinations from
The Arthur M. Hyde Foundation
The Rose Wilder Lane Scholarship Fund
The Campaign for the 48 States
The Spruille Braden Scholarship Fund
The Freedom School Alumni Scholarship Fund
and from other interested groups and individuals.
Local committees, such as the Sacramento (Calif.) Freedom School Scholarship Committee, will select candidates and present full-tuition scholarships to their winners.
NOTE: The school does not provide scholarships for either the Workshop or the Explorations in Human Action courses.
1962 Schedule
All courses of instruction at the Freedom School take two weeks. A minimum of six hours per day is spent in classroom work. Customarily, mornings are devoted to study, recreation and free time. Classroom sessions occur in the afternoon and evening.
Here is the schedule of all classes for the 1962 season:
May 20 – June 2 incl.
Explorations in Human Action
(for Executives)
June 3 – 16 incl.
Comprehensive
June 17 – 30 incl.
Comprehensive
July 1 – 14 incl.
Comprehensive
July 15 – 28 incl.
Comprehensive
July 31 – August 3 incl.
Workshop*
August 5 – 18 incl.
Comprehensive
August 19 – Sept. 1 incl.
Comprehensive
Sept. 2 – 15 incl.
Comprehensive
Sept. 16 – 29 incl.
Comprehensive
Sept. 30 – Oct. 13 incl.
Explorations in Human Action
(for Executives)
(Graduates and top-flight teachers and students only)
Pre-season or post-season courses can be arranged for special groups who wish to obtain exclusive use of the school for a stated period with instruction tailored to any particular business or industrial problem. Write for information.
Instructors Associate instructors who have served at Freedom School:
R. W. Holmes
Design engineer, Boeing Aircraft, Seattle, Washington
Salvatore Saladino, Ph.D.
Professor of history, Queens College, Flushing, New York
Wm. J. Grede
President and chairman of the board, J. I. Case Co., Racine, Wis.; past president, National Association of Manufacturers; chairman of the board, Grede Foundries
Wm. A. Paton, Ph.D.
Economist, professor of accounting, School of Business Administration, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Chas. E. Stenicka, III
Labor relations consultant, Midwest Employers Council, Lincoln, Nebraska
Transportation
Make your travel arrangements to come to Colorado Springs. It is serviced by leading airlines, bus and train companies. The school management will not guarantee to pick up students at any other destination.
You will be expected to be waiting at the Antlers Hotel in downtown Colorado Springs by 5 p.m. on the Sunday before your course begins. The school station wagon will pick you up from the lobby. You’ll be returned to the lobby of the Antlers Hotel on the Saturday following the conclusion of the course.
On your drive to the school (about 27 miles) you’ll glimpse the colorful rugged Colorado countryside, with Pikes Peak towering off to your left.
After registering, a delicious dinner with your fellow students will introduce you to life at the school, with your first night’s sleep in the pine-scented foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Meals
All meals are served buffet style. With the exception of the Sunday morning picnic, breakfast and dinner are eaten in the school dining room. Weather permitting, luncheon is eaten out-of-door at the tables adjacent to the kitchen.
Top-right: Following one week of intensive study, weather permitting, a barbecue breakfast is held Sunday at 8:30 a.m. in a wooded glen.
Lower-left: In the foreground is Thunderbird residence cabin, which is duplicated by Falcon cabin (not shown). The building in the upper right portion of the photograph is the dining room. Adjacent to the dining room is the school’s library.
Clothes
There will be no formal functions requiring “dressing up.” On nights when “open house” is held, ordinary street wear is appropriate. Otherwise, comfortable western clothes are preferable. Students who like horseback riding are encouraged to bring at least one pair of jeans. Sturdy shoes which give support to ankles are necessary if you are interested in either riding or hiking.
Resort wear is in keeping for recreational activities. For class, sport shirts and cotton dresses are suitable, with slacks and sweaters for cooler evenings. Clothes should be warm and serviceable. The elevation of the school is at 7,000 feet in the foothills of the Rockies. Days are warm but evenings are always cool.
Accommodations
The Freedom School is placed in a remote setting of woodland beauty. Accommodations are delightful and fully modern. Buildings are finished in natural logs to provide an atmosphere of early American simplicity. Most rooms accommodate from two to four students. There are ample porches, desks and chairs for study or relaxation.
Recreation
The school owns a small string of fine saddle horses which the students may ride during the morning hours. On the property are many fine hiking trails. There is a badminton court, a volleyball court and an archery range. All equipment is furnished by the school.
Library
In the school library is a fine collection of books on libertarian philosophy.
Included is a wide selection of titles on political science, history. biography, economics, philosophy and kindred subjects.
Philosophy
The Freedom School provides an intellectual avenue toward economic truths. From the primary and basic definitions of truth and freedom, the student moves rapidly through the philosophy of socialism, communism, and interventionism to individualism.
The course of instruction is intensive and demanding. It isn’t a “snap” affair. Ideas presented are far-reaching and challenging. To complete the course successfully, it is not necessary to agree with points of view offered. But individual effort is necessary even though conformity is neither required nor sought.
Accreditation
The school is not interested in issuing credits or diplomas.
Certificates of proficiency are presented to those who successfully complete any of the school’s courses. No certificates are awarded during Workshop attendance.
How Do I Enroll?
Make use of the appropriate enclosed enrollment form.
Await confirmation of your enrollment. We will be as prompt as possible.
Enrollment agreements are made for the FULL TWO-WEEK SESSIONS. No reduction or refund is made where a student withdraws during the session or is absent for part of the session, unless upon certification of a physician.
The school reserves the right to ask the withdrawal of a student whose health, in the judgment of the school’s medical advisor, is such as to endanger the student himself or the other students; or of a student who, in the judgment of the school administration, is not in sympathy with the standards, objectives and ideals of the school. A student who is asked to withdraw by the school will receive a pro-rata reduction in charges.
Who Can Attend?
The school is particularly designed for the enrollment of businessmen, executives, branch managers, department heads and others who carry the burden of free enterprise. Special courses limited to executives have been provided. However, executives may also enroll in any of the other courses offered.
The school is also eager to attract young men and women who are at least 16 years of age and who have a mature outlook.
Any American is eligible, man or woman, who is concerned with the conflicting philosophies apparent in our society and who wishes to study the economic truths respecting these philosophies. Prior scholastic achievement is not necessary.
The directors will make every effort to place applicants in courses with enrollees of similar backgrounds and interests. The right to approve or reject applications for enrollment is unconditionally reserved by the Board of Directors.
Tuition
Explorations in Human Action
(for Executives)
$350.00
Wives who wish to accompany husbands
$175.00
Comprehensive Courses
$275.00
(Scholarships are available for some of the Comprehensive sessions)
Workshop
$ 60.00
NOTE: No scholarships are available for any sessions at Freedom School
except the Comprehensive sessions.
What Tuition Covers
Whether the student elects to pay his own tuition or obtains a full or partial scholarship, all tuitions listed are full-expense tuitions. There are NO extras required.
Tuition includes transportation to the school from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and return to Colorado Springs. It includes all meals and lodging while at the school. It includes all required books and study materials. Certain books will be presented to the student for his permanent use. It includes all costs of instruction and recreation, including horseback riding.
Students wishing to provide notebooks for themselves, to buy extra books, tape recordings of meetings, or photographs of the scenery, do so at their own expense,
How is School Supported?
To begin with, the school is NOT supported by tax money or by government handouts.
Its primary income comes from tuitions paid by students.
In addition, it receives grants, contributions and benefactions from individual Americans.
It has several scholarship funds which assist in providing tuition for students.
It receives assistance from certain business and professional groups, and has been remembered in several last wills and testaments.
All contributions to the Freedom School are exempt from the federal income tax.
“Flight to Russia” (pamphlet) … $0.25
Frank Chodorov (Pine Tree publication)
“Liberty Defined” (pamphlet) … $0.25
F. A. Harper (Pine Tree publication).
“Anarchy” (pamphlet) … $0.15
Robert Lefevre (Pine Tree publication)
Quantity purchases are available for discount in some cases. Write for information.
Pine Tree
The Pine Tree is the Freedom School’s tabloid newspaper published every two weeks, with the exception of the period from December 15 through January 15. Subscription rates are $10.00 per year, two years for $17.50, single copies free on request.
It acts as a forum answering questions sent in by its subscribers. Regular columnists include: George Boardman, Ph.D., Chloride, Arizona; Roger Lea McBride, Esq., New York, N.Y.
Robert LeFevre, editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. Libertarians and economists of note will contribute guest columns.
Board of Directors
Ruth Dazey
William J. Froh
Lois Lefevre
Robert Lefevre
Marjorie Llewellin
Edith Shank
Robert B. Rapp
Board of Trustees
Robert W. Baird, Jr.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
James L. Doenges, M. D.
Anderson, Indiana
Wm. J. Grede
Racine, Wisconsin
Harry H. Hoiles
Colorado Springs, Colorado
R. W. Holmes
Bellevue, Washington
Ned W. Kimball
Waterville, Washington
Board of Graduate Fellows
Mrs. Mabelle Acorn
Colville, Washington
Mr. Ira T. Langlois, Sr.
Madison, Wisconsin
Mr. C. W. Anderson
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Mr. J. Dohn Lewis
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Mr. Harold Angier
San Francisco, California
Prof. Elgie C. Marcks
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Dr. Lyman W. Applegate
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Mr. John H. Marsh
New York, New York
Mrs. Hermona C. Beardslee
Woodstock, Illinois
Rev. Warren L. Norton
Greeley, Colorado
Mr. Robert E. Borchardt
Rockford, Illinois
Mr. Rodney H. Peck
Seattle, Washington
Mr. George A. Brightwell, Jr.
Houston, Texas
Mr. Fred C. Petersen
Mexico City. Mexico
Mr. Thomas C. Buckley
Los Angeles, California
Mr. Sartell Prentice, Jr.
Pasadena, California
Mr. John J. Callahan, Jr.
Reading, Massachusetts
Mr. Bryson Reinhardt
Cloverdale, Oregon
Mr. William J. Colson
Palm Springs, California
Mr. George Resch
Burlingame, California
Prof. Oscar W. Cooley
Ada, Ohio
Mr. O. R. Riddle
Eagle Pass, Texas
Mr. Jim Dean
Houston, Texas
Mr. Pat O. Riley
Lima, Ohio
Mr. W. Dewey DeFlon
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Mr. Richard D. Schwerman
Hales Corners, Wisconsin
Mr. Dan Foley
Fairmont, West Virginia
Mr. Roland R. Selin
Salt Lake City, Utah
Mr. R. N. Gatewood
Samnorwood, Texas
Mr. Elwood P. Smith
Chicago, Illinois
Mr. Robert M. Gaylord, Jr.
Rockford, Illinois
Mr. R. J. Smith
Menlo Park, California
Mr. Frederick C. Gosewisch
Elm Grove, Wisconsin
Mr. Charles E. Stenicka III
Lincoln, Nebraska
Mr. G. F. Grant
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Mr. R. J. Sumners
Muskegon, Michigan
Mr. J. W. Greene
Spartanburg, South Carolina
Mr. Leonard A. Talbot
Santa Rosa, California
Mr. Gene Hausske
Palmer Lake, Colorado
Mr. John E. Tate
Omaha, Nebraska
Mrs. Evis S. Mays
Pueblo, Colorado
Mr. Herman A. Tessmann
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Mr. James D. Heiple
Pekin, Illinois
Mr. Walter B. Thompson
Fort Worth, Texas
Mr. Roland H. Hennarichs
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Mr. Ross Thoresen
Salt Lake City, Utah
Mr. Frederick M. Hoagland
Chicago, Ilinois
Mrs. Louise Young
Pasadena, Texas
Mr. James Kolb
Edmond, Oklahoma
These graduates are among those who serve as a point of reference for the school. Their own experience enables them to vouch for the work being done at Freedom School.
Source: Images and text from the 1962 Prospectus of the Freedom School found in the Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of V. Orval Watts, Box 4.
Records of individual Harvard economics graduate students are strewn across the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Division of History, Government, and Economics (formerly Division of History and Political Science), and the Department of Economics at Harvard as well as in the archival papers of their professors or themselves. Seek and sometimes ye shall find.
In this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror presents transcriptions of the items found in the file for Jacob Viner in the papers of the Division of History, Government, and Economics. We see from the application form (then referred to as a “blank”) that the administrative unit responsible for monitoring the satisfaction of the Ph.D. requirements by degree candidates was the Division. Course records and transcripts were issued by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
An interesting anecdote found in the correspondence included below is that Viner committed the indiscretion of announcing in print the completion of his Ph.D. before he had been properly awarded the degree by Harvard. One wonders if his examination committee let him know that they knew and were, like the Dean of the Division, not amused by his presumption.
_______________________
HARVARD UNIVERSITY DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.
[Note: Boldface used to indicate printed text of the application; italics used to indicate the handwritten entries]
I. Full Name, with date and place of birth.
Jacob Viner, Montreal, Canada, May 3rd, 1892.
II. Academic Career: (Mention, with dates inclusive, colleges or other higher institutions of learning attended; and teaching positions held.)
McGill University, Faculty of Arts. Sept. 1911 to May 1914.
III. Degrees already attained. (Mention institutions and dates.)
B.A. McGill University, May 1914.
A.M. Harvard, June 1915.
IV. General Preparation. (Indicate briefly the range and character of your undergraduate studies in History, Economics, Government, and in such other fields as Ancient and Modern Languages, Philosophy, etc.)
History. (1) General Course, (2) History of England, (3) Recent Developments
Government. (1) General Course, (2) Govt of Canada, (3) Social Reform.
Latin. Two college years. — Horace, Tibullus, Caesar, Livy, Cicero.
French. Two college years advanced work.
Philosophy. (1) Logic, (2) History of Ethics, (3) Theory of Ethics.
Economics. (1) Economic History of England, (Canadian Industrial Problems. (3) Money & Banking, and courses listed [below].
V. Department of Study. (Do you propose to offer yourself for the Ph.D., “History,” in “Economics,” or in “Political Science”?)
Economics
VI. Choice of Subjects for the General Examination. (State briefly the nature of your preparation in each subject, as by Harvard courses, courses taken elsewhere, private reading, teaching the subject, etc., etc.)
Economic Theory.
Elementary & Advanced Courses at McGill.
11, Ec. 12a (1914-15), Ec. 17, Ec. 7a, Ec 14, at Harvard.
International Trade.
33 (full course.) Harvard.
Public Finance.
Course at McGill.
31, Harvard.
Course at McGill.
Ec. 8, Ec. 18, Harvard.
Economic History since 1770.
2a, Ec. 2b, Harvard.
Theory of Value. (Philosophy.).
Phil 25a
VII. Special Subject for the special examination.
International Trade
VIII. Thesis Subject. (State the subject and mention the instructor who knows most about your work upon it.)
International Balance of Payments
Prof. Taussig
IX. (Indicate any preferences as to the time of the general and special examinations.)
Spring, 1916 (General).
X. Remarks
[Left blank]
Signature of a member of the Division certifying approval of the above outline of subjects.
[signed] F. W. Taussig
* * * [Last page of application] * * *
[Not to be filled out by the applicant]
Name:Jacob Viner
Approved: Jan 21, 1916
Ability to use Frenchcertified by C. J. Bullock 7 April 1916 D.H.
Ability to use Germancertified by C. J. Bullock 7 April 1916 D.H.
Date of general examinationMay 19, 1916 Passed
Thesis receivedFebruary, 1921
Read byProfessors Taussig, Persons, and Young
ApprovedOctober 29, 1921
Date of special examinationFriday, March 18, 1921
Recommended for the DoctorateJanuary, 1922
Degree conferredFebruary, 1922
Remarks.[Left blank]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Record of JACOB VINER in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University
1914-15
Economics 11.
[Economic Theory, Prof. Taussig]
A
Economics 121 [Scope and Methods of Economic Investigation, Prof. Carver]
A-
Economics 17
[Economic Theory: Value and Related Problems, Asst. Prof. Anderson]
A
Economics 33 (full co. [full course])
[International Trade, with special reference to Tariff Problems in the United States, Prof. Taussig]
A
Economics 34
[Problems of Labor, Prof. Ripley]
B-
German A
[Elementary Course]
B+
University Scholar
A.M. at Commencement.
1915-16
Economics 2a1 [European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century, Prof. Gay]
A-
Economics 2b2 [Economic and Financial History of the United States, Prof. Gay]
abs.
Economics 7a1 [Economic Theory, Prof. Taussig] [Note: this course not included in GSAS record for Viner]
abs.
Economics 81 [Principles of Sociology, Prof. Carver]
A
Economics 14
[History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848, Prof. Bullock]
(A)…mid-year grade, excused from final
Economics 18a2 [Analytical Sociology, Asst. Prof. Anderson]]
credit for residence
Economics 31
[Public Finance, Prof. Bullock]
(A-)…mid-year grade, excused from final
Philosophy 182 [Present Philosophical Tendencies. Materialism, Pragmatism, Idealism, and Realism. Prof. R. B. Perry]
abs.
Philosophy 25a1 [Theory of Value, Prof. R. B. Perry]
A-
Henry Lee Memorial Fellow.
Note: Original record found in Harvard University Archives. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Record Cards of Students, 1895-1930, Sun—Walls(UAV 161.2722.5). File I, Box 14, Record Card of Jacob Viner.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague
E. E. Day
B. M. Anderson, Jr.
H. L. Gray
Cambridge, Massachusetts
April 7, 1916.
This is to certify that I have examined Mr. J. Viner, and find that he has a good reading knowledge of French and German.
[signed] Charles J. Bullock
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
7 April 1916
Dear Perry:
Could you serve as one of the committee for the General Examination of Jacob Viner on Friday, May 19, at 4 p.m.?
Sincerely yours,
[copy unsigned]
Professor R. B. Perry.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Cambridge April 8-‘16
I shall be glad to help out with Viner’s General Exam on May 19.
[signed] R B Perry
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague
E. E. Day
B. M. Anderson, Jr.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 20, 1916.
Dear Haskins:
I beg to certify that Jacob Viner passed satisfactorily his general examination for the degree of Ph. D. in Economics. I enclose his application for your files.
Very truly yours,
[signed] F. W. Taussig
Dean C. H. Haskins.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
7 February 1921
Dear Mr. Viner,
Your letter of 22 January gives this office its first information that you plan to be a candidate for the Doctor’s degree this year. Will you kindly fill out and return at once the enclosed blank, which was due 15 January?
If you plan to have your Special Examination arranged in the middle of March, you will have to give a wider margin for an examination of your thesis than you indicate in your letter.
At least a month will be necessary between the receipt of the thesis and the time provisionally set for the examination. In arranging the examinations of non-resident students we try to consider their convenience; but there must be due notice in advance, and due opportunity for reading the thesis in its final form with deliberation.
You raise the question of the subject on which you are to be examined. Does that mean that you desire to change the special field, which on your plan is indicated an International Trade?
If your thesis does not reach us until the first of March, we could doubtless arrange to examine you some Saturday after 1 April; or possibly early in June, at the conclusion of your instruction for the spring quarter.
Yours very truly,
[unsigned copy]
Mr. Jacob Viner.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
17 February 1921
My dear Professor Persons:
Dean Haskins would be glad if you would serve on the committee to read the thesis of Mr. Jacob Viner, entitled “The Canadian Balance of International Indebtedness, 1900-13.” The thesis will reach you within a few days.
Very truly yours,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary of the Division.
Professor W. M. Persons.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
17 February 1921
My dear Professor Young:
Dean Haskins would be glad if you would serve on the committee to read the thesis of Mr. Jacob Viner, entitled “The Canadian Balance of International Indebtedness, 1900-13.” The thesis will reach you within a few days.
Very truly yours,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary of the Division.
Professor A. A. Young
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
17 February 1921
My dear Professor Taussig:
Dean Haskins will be very glad if you will read Mr. Jacob Viner’s Ph.D. thesis, which is now in your hands, and he has included Professor Persons among the members of the Committee, as you suggested. Professor Day would appreciate it, however, if he could be relieved from serving on the Committee on account of pressure of work, and Mr. Haskins has appointed Professor Young to read the thesis in his place, provided that the change meets with your approval. I enclose an acceptance slip to be included with the thesis.
Very truly yours,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary of the Division.
Professor F. W. Taussig
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
A. A. Young
W. M. Persons
E. E. Day
J. S. Davis
H. H. Burbank
A. S. Dewing
E. E. Lincoln
A. E. Monroe
A. H. Cole
Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 20, 1921.
Dear Haskins:
Viner is sending me his thesis by instalments.
A previous instalment of considerable size, sent in some time ago, has already been read by Bullock and Day, as well as by myself. Probably we should avoid some waste of energy if these two were put on the thesis committee with myself. Needless to say, this suggestion is to be considered in the light of your apportionment of the general work of thesis reading.
Yesterday over the telephone I suggested on the spur of the moment that Persons might be on the committee. He is thoroly [sic] conversant with the subject, and would be a good member; certainly if Bullock should find it inconvenient to serve.
Sincerely yours,
[signed] F. W. Taussig
Dean C. H. Haskins
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
10 March 1921
My dear Dr. Dewing:
Dean Haskins is arranging the Special Examination of Mr. Jacob Viner for the Ph.D. in Economics for March 18 (Friday) at 4 P.M. Mr. Viner’s field is International Trade.
Would you be able to serve on his Examining Committee? The other members consist of Professors Taussig, (chairman), Young, and Persons.
Since the time before the examination is very short, are to the fact that Mr. Viner’s thesis was in the hands of the Committee until very recently, and had not been approved, we should be glad If you would either return the enclosed card with your signature, or let us know by telephone whether you can serve.
I shall notify you later of the place.
Yours very truly,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary of the Division.
Professor A. S. Dewing.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I can serve on the Committee for the Special Examination of Mr. Viner on Friday, March 18, at 4 P. M.
[Signed] Arthur S. Dewing
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
11 March 1921
My dear Professor Taussig:
I am sending formal notice to the members of Mr. Viner’s examination committee that the examination will be held on Friday, 18 March, as you suggested. Professor Dewing will serve as the fourth member of the committee, the other three being the members of the thesis committee — yourself, Professor Young, and Professor Persons. I am assuming that the hour will be 4 P.M. as usual.
Very truly yours,
[unsigned]
Secretary of the Division.
Professor F. W. Taussig.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
11 March 1921
My dear Professor Persons:
I am writing you in order to confirm the arrangements for Mr. Viner’s Special Examination, about which I believe Professor Taussig has already spoken to you. Dean Haskins has set the date as Friday, March 18, and the time will be 4 P. M. Mr. Viner’s special field is International Trade. The Committee consists of Professors Taussig (chairman), Young, Persons, and yourself.
Yours very truly,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary of the Division.
Professor W. M, Persons.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
11 March 1921
My dear Professor Young:
I am writing you in order to confirm the arrangements for Mr, Viner’s Special Examination, of which I believe Professor Taussig has already told you. Dean Haskins has set the date as March 18 (Friday), and the time will be 4 P. M. His special field is International Trade.
The Committee consists of Professors Taussig (chairman), Young, Persons, and Dewing.
Yours very truly,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary of the Division.
Professor A. A. Young.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
15 March 1921
Dear Taussig:
I am enclosing Jacob Viner’s papers for your use at his examination on Friday, 18 March. Viner seems to be very optimistic about his success in his examination, as I notice in the last circular of the University of Chicago he was already listed as a Ph.D. I trust that his attention may be called to the impropriety of his using the degree not only until he has passed the examination but until it is actually conferred.
Sincerely yours,
[unsigned copy]
Professor F. W. Taussig
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
A. A. Young
W. M. Persons
E. E. Day
J. S. Davis
H. H. Burbank
A. S. Dewing
E. E. Lincoln
A. E. Monroe
A. H. Cole
Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 22, 1921.
Dear Haskins:
I find there is no chance of Viner’s fixing up the thesis before April 1. His commitments for the coming week are many, and moreover his time will be absorbed by teaching upon his return. He will not present himself as a candidate again this year. What may be the status of the examination which he took, and on which the report would be favorable, remains to be seen. I take it this question need not be considered until it is presented.
Very sincerely yours,
[signed] F. W. Taussig
Dean C. H. Haskins
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
A. A. Young
W. M. Persons
E. E. Day
H. H. Burbank
A. S. Dewing
J. H. Williams
A. E. Monroe
A. H. Cole
R. S. Tucker
R. S. Meriam
Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 29, 1921.
Dear Haskins:
Viner’s thesis has been approved, and the only question that remains is about the acceptance of his Special Examination last June. Young will present the matter for the consideration of the Administrative Board at its next meeting. Will you kindly see that it is on the docket for the meeting?
Sincerely yours,
[signed] F. W. Taussig
Dean C. H. Haskins
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics. Ph.D. Examinations 1921-22 to 1922-23. Box 4. Folder “Jacob Viner”.
For three Harvard political science Ph.D. candidates in 1901-02 [Note: economics fell under “political science” in the administrative division at the time] this posting provides information about their respective academic backgrounds, the six subjects of their general examinations along with the names of the examiners, their special subject, thesis title and advisor(s) (where available). King and Bushée would have been easily classified under “economics” later. Seaman’s teaching assistantships were in history and constitutional law, so he would have been more likely classified under “government” later.
DIVISION OF HISTORY
AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF Ph.D.
1901-02
Eight candidates will take either the first or second examination: two more candidates … will take both. All examinations will be held on Thursday (except Tuesday, May 27, and Wednesday, June 11) at 3.30 p.m. in the Faculty Room.
Special Examination in Political Science, Thursday, May 22, 1902.
Committee of Examination: Professors Carver, Macvane, Beale, Ripley, Drs. Durand, Andrew, Sprague, Mr. Meyer.
Academic History: University of Toronto, 1891-96 (A. B. 1895, LL.B. 1896, A.M. 1897); University of Chicago, 1896-97; Harvard Graduate School, 1897-99 (A.M. 1898); Henry Lee Memorial Fellow, 1898-1900; Department of Labour, Canada, 1900-02.
(A) General Subjects. (Examination passed April 14, 1899.)
1. Constitutional Law and Government in England; and Constitutional History of Canada. 2. International Law. 3. Theory of the State. 4. Economic Theory and its History. 5. Applied Economics. 6. Economic History — outline of Europe and the United States. 7. Sociology.
(B) Thesis Subject: “The Sweating System and The Fair Wages Movement.” (With Professor Taussig.)
(C) Special Subject: Labor: History of Labor Organization; History of Labor Legislation.
Special Examination in Political Science, Tuesday, May 27, 1902.
Committee of Examination: Professors Carver, Macvane, Gross, Ripley, Drs. Durand, Andrew, Sprague, Mr. Cole, Mr. Meyer.
Academic History: Dartmouth College, 1890-94 (Litt.B.); Hartford School of Sociology, 1895-96; Harvard Graduate School, 1897-1901 (A.M. 1898); Paine Fellow, 1899-1900; Assistant in Economies, 1901-02.
(A) General Subjects. (Examination passed April 11, 1900.)
1. Political Institutions in Continental Europe since 1500. 2. Theory of the State. 3. Modern Government and Comparative Constitutional Law. 4. Economic Theory and its History. 5. International Trade; and Financial Legislation of the United States since 1861. 6. Sociology. 7. Socialism and Communism.
(B) Thesis Subject: “The Population of Boston.” (With Professor Taussig.)
(C) Special Subject: The Theories of Sociology since Auguste Comte.
(A) General Subjects. (Examination passed December 22, 1898.)
1. England to Henry VII. 2. England since Henry VII. 3. Modern Government and Comparative Constitutional Law. 4. Economic Theory and its History. 5. Applied Economics. 6. Economic History. 7. Sociology.
(B) Thesis Subject: “The Intercolonial Railway of Canada.”
(C) Special Subject: Railway Experience and Legislation.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics. Ph.D. Material through 1917, Box 1. Folder “Ph.D. applications pending.”
