It took about three years (1891-92 to 1893-94) for the Leland Stanford Junior University to put together full course offerings in economics and social science. In today’s posting I have included the first three years of official announcements along with c.v. information of the faculty involved. Note that the listing for the academic year 1892-93 is merely a declaration of intention, I have yet to find what was actually offered. I would presume it looks much more like what we see for the announcement for 1893-94 than the extremely meager pickings for 1891-92.
Starting its second year (1892-93), the Leland Stanford Junior University had a total enrollment of 692 students (480 undergraduates, 51 graduates, 161 specials). 29 were recorded having economics as their major subject. [From List of Officers and Students of Leland Stanford Junior University (October 5, 1892), p. 15.]
In the third year (1893-94) enrollments were: 500 undergraduates, 66 graduates, and 198 special students, of which 28 undergraduates, 4 graduates, and 5 specials were economics majors. [Leland Stanford Junior University, Second Annual Register, 1892-93. Palo Alto, California (April, 1893), p. 139.]
Making an entrance in 1893 is Edward Alsworth Ross who was later to become a poster-child for the cause of academic freedom in 1900.
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Early Economics Faculty at Stanford
1891 Appointments
FREDERICK CONVERSE CLARK, Ph. D., Instructor in Political Science .
A. B., University of Michigan, 1888; Ph. D., 1891. Teacher of History and Economics, Ann Harbor High School, 1889-92. [p. 15, Stanford Register,1891-92]
[promotion to Assistant Professor of Economics, 1892-93]
ORRIN LESLIE ELLIOTT, Ph. D., President’s Secretary and Acting Instructor in Economics
Ph. B., Cornell University, 1885: Ph. D., 1890. Fellow in History and Political Science, Cornell University, 1885-86; Instructor in English, Cornell University, 1886-91, and Assistant Registrar and President’s Secretary, 1890-91. [p. 12, Stanford Register,1891-92]
Appointment beginning September 1892
AMOS GRISWOLD WARNER, Ph. D., Professor of Economics.
B. L., University of Nebraska, 1885; Ph. D., Johns Hopkins University, 1888. General Agent, Charity Organization Society, Baltimore, 1887-89; Professor of Political Economy, University of Nebraska, 1889-91; Superintendent of Charities, Washington, D. C, 1891-92. [p. 11, Stanford Register, 1891-92]
Appointment beginning September, 1893.
EDWARD ALSWORTH ROSS, Ph. D., Professor of Finance and Administration.
A. B., Coe College, 1886; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1891. Professor of Economics and Social Science, Indiana University, 1891-92; Associate Professor of Political Economy and Finance, Cornell University, 1892-93. [p. 11, Stanford Register,1892-93]
Note: Ross was dismissed in 1900 which turned him into a major figure in the struggle for academic freedom. A fascinating case that is much more complex when viewed from today’s perspective. No plot-spoiler from me here, just a teaser with this link to a Stanford alumni webpage story from January/February 2015.
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ECONOMICS.
[1891-92]
Dr. Elliott.
- The Principles of Political Economy. Lectures and recitations. Three hours a week, first semester.
- Economic History, and investigation of current economic questions. Lectures, recitations, and reports by students on topics assigned. Three hours a week, second semester.
Open to those who have completed course I, or its equivalent. - The Tariff Controversy in the United States. Lectures. One hour a week, through the year. Open to all students.
Source: Leland Stanford Junior University. Circulars No. 4, p. 13, and No. 6, p. 36. Announcement of the Faculty of the University and an Outline of the Courses of Instruction offered for the Academic Year 1891-92. Palo Alto, California, 1891.
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ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE.
[1892-93]
Professor Warner, and Instructor F. C. Clark.
(In 1891-92 courses in elementary political economy, economic history, current economic questions, and the tariff controversy in the United States, were given by Dr. Elliott. The following outline will indicate the scope of the department In 1892-93 courses will be offered selected from this list. Details will be announced in a later circular.)
- Principles of Political Economy. Elementary Course.
- Advanced Economic Theory: Bimetalism, Railway Transportation, etc.
- A History of Tariff Legislation in the United States.
- Taxation and Finance.
- Statistics: History, Theory, and Technique.
- Social Science: with special reference to Public Charities and the Management of Penal Institutions.
- A Study of Industrial Corporations.
- A History of Agriculture and Prices.
- Commercial Relations of the United States.
- History of Economic Theories.
- Civil Service Reform in England and the United States.
- Sociology.
- Land and Land Tenure. The Australian System of Registration.
- Method in Domestic Consumption.
- Communism and Socialism.
- Co-operation: its History and its Influence.
- A History of Industry, including Trades Unions, Guilds, Factory Systems, Strikes, Arbitration, Labor Organizations, etc.
- Municipal Administration: the Natural Monopolies, Police, Taxation, etc.
- Railroad Management. [A course offered in co-operation with the engineering departments.]
- City and State Politics.
- A History of Estates and Land Tenure in California.
- Recent Social Reform.
Source: Leland Stanford Junior University, First Annual Register for 1891-92. Palo Alto, California (June, 1892), pp. 59-60.
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ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
[1893-94]
Professors Warner and Ross, and Assistant Professors F. C. Clark and Elliott.
I. POLITICAL ECONOMY, STATISTICS, AND FINANCE.
- Elements of Political Economy. Walker, or some other text is systematically studied the first semester. The second semester there are frequent lectures by the instructor, reports on assigned topics by the members of the class, and collateral reading, especially in Mill and Marshall. Three hours a week, through the year. Assistant Professor F. C. Clark.
Students who take as their major any branch of the work in this department should begin with course 1. Only in exceptional cases will a student be allowed to take other work in this department until he has completed at least the first half of course 1.
- Economic Reforms of To-day. Lectures. A study of the signs and causes of existing discontent; of the nature, benefits, and evils of the industrial revolution; of the complaints of the farmer, the workingman, and the consumer; and of the various reforms demanded on their behalf. Three hours a week, first semester. Professor Ross.
- History of the Development of Industrial Society. Lectures and recitations. Two hours a week, second semester. Assistant Professor F. C. Clark.
Course 3 presupposes a knowledge of English History.
- Corporate Industry. A comparative and historical review of corporation law in its economic, aspects. The work of the first semester will be complete in itself, but is designed as a preparation for the study of Railroad Problems, or the work of the second semester, which will be conducted by seminary methods, special reports involving original research being required of the students. Lectures, three hours first semester, two hours second semester. Professor Warner.
- Seminary. Pure Economics. Investigation and theses. Comparative and historical study of doctrines, recent theories, especially those of Menger, Böhm-Bawerk, Clark, and Patten. Reports and discussions on current economic literature. Once a week, through the year (two hour session). Professor Ross.
- Public Finance. Lectures and recitations. This course includes taxation, financial administration, and public debts. Bastable, Ely, and Adams will be used in class, and frequent reference will be made to the treatises of Wagner, Cohn, and Leroy-Beaulieu. Three hours a week, second semester. Professor Ross.
Course 6 should be preceded by course 1.
- Tariff History of the United States. Lectures, reports, and discussions. Three hours a week, second semester. Dr. Elliott.
Open to students who have taken or are taking course 1, or who have completed at least one course in history.
- Socialism. Ely’s French and German Socialism, with collateral readings. Two hours a week, first semester. Assistant Professor Clark. Course 8 must be preceded by courses 1 and 2.
- Railroad Problems. Lectures. Extensive use will be made of the Hopkins Library of railroad literature. Two hours a week, first semester. Assistant Professor Clark.
- Theory and Technique of Statistics. Lectures. Smith and Meitzen. One hour a week, through the year. Assistant Professor F. C. Clark.
Course 10 must be preceded by course 1. It may accompany courses 7 and 9.
II. SOCIOLOGY.
- Anthropology and Ethnology. Text, collateral reading, and lectures. One hour a week, through the year. Assistant Professor F. C. Clark.
[The work of the second semester will be devoted mainly to studies and investigations in American prehistoric sociology.]
- Statical Sociology. Lectures. Based on Spencer, Schäffle, and others. Study of the growth and meaning of institutions. Analysis of contemporary society. Two hours a week, first semester. Professor Ross.
- Dynamic Sociology. Lectures. Based on Comte, Ward, and Gumplowicz. Study of the social forces and their direction. The nature of social progress and the forces that sustain and oppose it will be investigated with a view to ascertaining its laws. Two hours a week, second semester. Professor Ross.
- Social Pathology. Lectures and assigned reading. A study of abnormal conditions and the social causes and effects of vice, crime, and pauperism. Two hours a week, first semester. Professor Warner.
- Charities and Correction. Supplementary to course 14, being a study of social therapeutics. So far as practicable visits will be made by the class to the charitable and penal institutions of the State. Two hours a week, second semester. Professor Warner.
III. POLITICAL SCIENCE.
- The State. The origin and historical development of the State. Comparison of contemporary constitutions. The structure and functions of the modern State. Two hours a week, through the year. Professor Ross.
- Methods of Legislating. A comparative view of the rules and practice of modern legislative assemblies, with special reference to the machinery of congressional and legislative action in the United States. Three hours a week, first semester. Professor Warner.
- Administration in American Cities, Counties, and States. A comparative view of the local governments of the present time, with special reference to American practice in the administrative branches. Three hours a week, second semester. Professor Warner.
- Department Seminary. The instructors in the Department of Economics and Social Science will meet graduates and other advanced students doing original work once a week during a session of two hours. Reports of special investigations will be made by students and others, and discussed by the seminary.
Source: Leland Stanford Junior University, Second Annual Register, 1892-93. Palo Alto, California (April, 1893), pp. 69-71.
Image Source: Western entrance to inner quadrangle, Leland Stanford Junior University. From U.S. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.