Month: April 2025

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Exam Questions Harvard Labor

Harvard. Labor economics. Enrollment, Course Description, Final Exam. Ripley, 1908-1909

Labor economics was already an established applied field in the Harvard economics department at the dawn of the twentieth century. William Zebina Ripley covered big labor and big business in separate courses. 

The photo above shows my grandfather (left), seen here working on the railroad.

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Problems of Labor:
previous semesters

1902-03
1903-04
1904-05
1905-06
1906-07
1907-08
(Some information about Lauren Carroll,
Ripley’s teaching assistant for this course)

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Course Description
1908-09

9a  1hf. Problems of Labor. Half-course (first half-year). Tu.,
Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Professor Ripley.

This course will deal mainly with the economic and social relations of employer and employed, with especial reference to legislation. Among the topics included will be, —collective bargaining; labor organizations; factory legislation in the United States and Europe; strikes, strike legislation and legal decisions; conciliation and arbitration; employers’ liability and compulsory compensation; compulsory insurance with particular reference to European experience; the problem of the unemployed; apprenticeship, and trade and technical education.

Each student will make at least one report upon a labor union, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09,
p. 54-55.

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Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 9a 1hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Carroll. — Problems of Labor.

Total 80: 4 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.

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ECONOMICS 9a1
Mid-Year Examination, 1908-09

  1. If A does only two-thirds of a full day’s work for a day’s pay, is not a corresponding amount of work left over for B? What is the economic fallacy involved?
  2. What are the main arguments against the principle of the Workmen’s Compensation Acts? State these in the form of propositions, with the counter argument in each case.
  3. What was the justification in the then-existing conditions for the adoption by the courts of the “fellow servant” doctrine? Wherein does it fail to harmonize with present-day conditions?
  4. State the main characteristics of the legislation which has resulted from the Taff Vale decision.
  5. How far does the non-union man resemble the independent voter in politics in status? What, if any, is the defect in the parallel?
  6. State in brief sentences, the differences between the New Zealand and the Victorian types of labor legislation.
  7. Describe the main features of American trade union finance, contrasting it with British conditions.
  8. In the unions concerning which you have most information, what seem to you the most serious evils or abuses? What remedy do you suggest?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 41-42.

Image Source: An old family photo colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. My maternal grandpa is the man on the left.

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Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Undergraduate public finance exam. Bullock, 1908-1909

Another project and some travel have kept me busy since the last post. At last I have some time to get back to producing a flow of new content for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. I’ll pick up where I left off posting exam questions for courses at Harvard in the academic year 1908-09.

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Charles J. Bullock’s earlier public finance exams at Harvard

1901-02. Economics 7a and 7b. Financial administration; taxation [undergraduate]

1903-04. Economics 16.  Financial history of the United States

1904-05. Economics 7a. Introduction to public finance [undergraduate]

1904-05. Economics 7b. Theory and methods of taxation [undergraduate]

1904-05. Economics 16. Financial history of the United States.

1905-06 Economics 7.  Public finance [undergraduate]

1905-06 Economics 16. Public finance [advanced]

1906-07 Economics 16. Public finance and taxation

1907-08  Economics 16. Public finance and taxation

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

From 1906: Selected Readings in Public Finance edited by Charles Jesse Bullock (Boston: Inn & Company).

From 1910: Short bibliography on public finance “for serious minded students” by Bullock

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Course Enrollment
1908-09

Economics 7 2hf. Professor Bullock, assisted by Mr. Harrison. — Public Finance considered with special reference to the Theory and Methods of Taxation.

Total 110: 22 Seniors, 38 Juniors, 41 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 67.

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Course Description
1908-09

7 2hf. Public Finance, considered with special reference to the Theory and Methods of Taxation. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Professor Bullock.

This course is for undergraduates exclusively, and cannot be elected by graduates. As stated in the title, much attention is given to the subject of taxation, which will occupy about one half of the time of the course and will be studied with special reference to federal, state, and local taxation in the United States. The remainder of the time will be given to such topics as governmental expenditures, governmental industries (including some study of the relation of the state to railways and other public-service industries), public debts, and financial administration.

The course may, with the consent of the instructor, be elected by students who are taking Economics 1 in the same year.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09,
p. 48.

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ECONOMICS 7
Year-end Examination, 1908-09

  1. What causes are tending to increase municipal expenditures in the United States?
  2. What can be said for and against the proposition that increasing public expenditures are a sign of advancing civilization?
  3. In what actual cases has public ownership and operation of industries tended to reduce the burden of taxation? What do you consider the probable financial result of public ownership and operation?
  4. Describe the experience of the United States with income taxes.
  5. Write a brief history of the federal tax on spirits in the United States.
  6. By what criteria would you determine the justice of a proposed tax law?
  7. Why should a national debt be paid?
  8. Give a detailed account of the present method of taxing personal property in Massachusetts.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), p. 39.