Vervon Orval Watts (1898-1993) was a Thomas Nixon Carver inspired libertarian economist from pre-Keynesian Harvard times. Before going on to become the first head economist for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce (1939-46) and later an economic adviser to the Foundation for Economic Education starting in 1946, Watts taught economics at Antioch College (1930-36) and Carleton College (1936-39). His full biographical timeline can be found at the link above. For this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has transcribed the syllabus with the assigned and optional readings for the principles course Watts taught at Antioch College in 1935-36.
In the mid-1960s Watts was the Dean of the short-lived Freedom School Phrontistery in Colorado, the brainchild of Robert LeFevre that was to become a libertarian version of a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics program of study.
_____________________________
Harvard Ph.D. awarded in 1932
Vervon Orval Watts, A.B. (Univ. of Manitoba) 1918, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1923.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Sociology. Thesis, “The Development of the Technological Concept of Production in Anglo-American Thought.”
Associate Professor of Economics, Antioch College.
Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1931-1932, p.124.
_____________________________
A Syllabus of Instruction
for
Economics 101-102
A Survey of Modern
Economic Life
V. O. Watts
Antioch College
1935-1936
PURPOSES OF THE COURSE
- To obtain information concerning American economic institutions.
- To develop the habit in the ordinary experiences of daily life of observing, analyzing and appraising the economic results of the conduct of individuals and of groups of individuals as wage-earners, employers, farmers, manufacturers, merchants, financiers, and legislators.
- To develop skill in tracing out and explaining the ramifications of the economic effects of an event.
CONDUCT OF THE COURSE
Required Readings
Study of the required readings, those starred and underlined in the list of references in this syllabus, constitutes the larger part of the work of this course. The following methods of study are therefore suggested:
- Note the relation of each chapter or section in the text or syllabus to the sections preceding and following it.
- Read or scan quickly the material in one or two chapters at a time before underlining or taking notes, so that you may gain perspective and distinguish the more significant principles from the accompanying illustrations and qualifications.
- Think out answers to the questions and problems given at the end of each section or chapter in the text or question book, referring back to the appropriate section of the text, when necessary, to clarify your understanding of the principles involved.
- Re-read the text, making written note of essential points in definitions of technical terns, statements of important principles, list of arguments pro and con on controversial issues, advantages and disadvantages of proposed policies, and qualifications of principles.
This note-taking should provide opportunity for practice in expressing yourself in economics, therefore do not copy the author’s words, but put his ideas into your own words. It should also provide an aid to quick and effective review and help you to organize your thinking in this field, therefore keep your notes brief, well-organized, and neatly arranged. - Before class discussions and examinations review those notes, practicing recall, illustrating the points noted, questioning and criticizing the author’s ideas, and formulating your own conclusions.
Periodicals
Each student in this course is expected to keep posted on current economic and political events and opinions through the regular reading of a newspaper or news weekly.
Some acquaintance with a number of leading journals in the fields of business and political economy is also required. To that end some of the journals listed below should be consulted with the following questions in mind concerning each: (1) How often is it published? (2) Who are the publishers or editors? (3) What is the professional status or occupation of its contributors? (4) What is the general character or point of view of most of its articles? (5) What special place does it fill in the field and to what type of reader is it likely to have most appeal?
Examine the table of contents for several recent issues of some of these magazines to see if there may be articles which especially interest you. In some journals you may find few or none, but in others you should find many such articles. Try to read at least one article during the semester in each of several of the journals listed.
Recommended Readings
The optional, or recommended, readings listed below present additional information or develop points of view differing more or less from that dominant in the required text. In some cases they may present clearer explanations of the points covered in the required readings.
Class Meetings
There are customarily three class meetings per week.
Conferences
Each student should meet the instructor for a conference at least once in each five-week period. To these conferences the student should bring his economics notebook and recent test papers.
Tests and Examinations
Approximately once a week there will be a ten-minute written test on the subject matter of the required readings. At the end of the first and third divisions there will be a one-hour examination on the readings and lectures. At the end of each semester there will be a three-hour examination covering the entire work of the course to date.
Answers to examination questions should be well planned and neatly written. Each distinct point or argument should be treated in a separate paragraph, and points correlative in meaning and importance should be numbered. All papers should be written in ink.
Oral Report
In the second division of the second semester each student will be expected to present to the class in a ten or fifteen minute report the results of his study outside the required readings of a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. The time allotted for preparation of this report should be approximately one-tenth of the time devoted to the entire course. The report itself should not take the form of reading an essay, but should be a short talk from a brief outline.
Textbooks
L. A. Rufener, Principles of Economics
R. M. Rutledge, Everyday Economics
SCHEDULE OF READINGS, LECTURES, AND EXAMINATIONS
* * * * * * * * * *
FIRST SEMESTER
First Week
*Rufener, ch.1. Wants, Goods, and Welfare
*Rutledge, ch. 1.
Stuart Chase, Your Money’s Worth
C. E. Carpenter, Dollars and Sense
Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, Elementary Economics, chs. 1, 7.
S. H. Slichter, Modern Economic Society, ch. 22.
Lecture: The Significance of Scarcity.
Second Week
*Rufener:
ch. 2. Improving Methods of Production
ch. 3. Exchange, Value, and Price
ch. 4. Business Organization and Profits
*Rutledge, ch. 4.
V. O. Watts, The Myth of the Industrial Revolution
Third Week
*Rufener:
ch. 5. Demand and Supply and Market Price
ch. 6. Demand and Supply and Market Price (continued)
ch. 7. Demand Schedules for Producers’ Goods
*Rutledge, ch. 6
W. H. Hamilton, Current Economic Problems, selections 63-66
Slichter, chs. 12, 13, 14
Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 11-15.
Fourth Week
*Rufener:
ch. 8. Costs of Production, Market Price, and Profit
ch. 9. Cost and Price in Agriculture: Wheat-Growing
ch. 10. The Rent and Price of Agricultural Land
*Rutledge, ch. 10.
J. B. Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 180-207
Slichter, chs. 17, 19. “Public Authority as a Determinant of Price”.
Fifth Week
*Rufener:
ch. 11. Indirect Costs in Agriculture
ch. 12. Economic Rent and the Unearned Increment
ch. 13. Cost of Production in Manufacturing: Decreasing Cost
*Rutledge ch. 12.
Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 31, 32.
Hour Examination
Sixth Week
*Rufener:
ch. 14. Decreasing Costs, Indirect Costs, and Price
ch. 15. Monopoly and Monopoly Price
ch. 16. Industrial Monopolies and Government Control
*Rutledge:
ch. 15.
ch. 16.
F. A. Fetter, The Masquerade of Monopoly
M. W. Watkins, Industrial Combinations and Public Policy
Lecture:
The Economies and Limitations of Large-Scale Methods
Seventh Week
*Rufener:
ch. 17. Public Utilities and Government Control
ch. 18. Railroads and Government Control
ch. 19. Demand Schedules for Labor
Slichter, ch. 18.
Eighth Week
*Rufener:
ch. 20. Differences in Wages
ch. 21. Labor Organization
*Rutledge:
ch. 20
ch. 21
Paul Douglas, Real Wages in the United States
Slichter, ch. 24. “The Labor Bargain—The Determination of Wages”
Fairchild, Furniss and Buck ch. 35. “The General Law of Wages.”
Rufener, ch. 22. “Labor Legislation”
Lectures:
Principles of Justice in Distribution
Wage Theories
The Malthusian Principle of Population
Ninth Week
*Rufener:
ch. 23. The Price of Loans.
ch. 24. Producers’ Loans and the Rate of Interest.
*Rutledge, ch. 23.
*R. Epstein, Supplementary Readings in Economics, ch. 18. “The Nature of Capital and Interest”
Lecture:
The Nature and Importance of Saving and Investment.
Tenth Week
Semester Examination
* * * * * * * * * *
SECOND SEMESTER
First Week
*Rufener:
ch. 25. The Qualities and Quantity of Money
ch. 27. Government Paper Money
*Rutledge:
ch. 25
ch. 27
*Rufener, ch. 28. Bank Deposits and Bank Notes
D. H. Robertson, Money
Rufener, ch. 26
Second Week
*Rufener:
ch. 29. Bank Credit and Business Cycles.
ch. 30. Government Regulation of Banking in the U.S.
*Rutledge, ch. 29.
Slichter, ch. 11, ch. 20 (pp. 471-491).
L. Robbins, The Great Depression.
H. Clay, J. Stamp, J. M. Keynes, The World’s Economic Crisis and the Way of Escape.
L. Ayres, The Economics of Recovery.
W. C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, ch. 1, sections 3, 4.
Lecture:
The Causes of the 1930-1935 Depression.
Third Week
*Rufener:
ch. 31. Risk, Insurance and Speculation.
ch. 32. Clearings, Collections, and Exchange.
*Rutledge, ch. 31.
Slichter, ch. 30. “International Economic Policies—Monetary and Financial Problems.”
H. G. Moulton:
Germany’s Capacity to Pay.
The World War Debt Settlements.
Rufener, ch. 33.
Fourth Week
*Rufener:
ch. 34. International Trade
ch. 35. Protection and Free Trade.
*F. W. Taussig, Free Trade, the Tariff, and Reciprocity, pp. 44-57 and chs. 3,4,7, and pp. 168-179.
S. Crowther, America Self-Contained.
W. Redfield, Dependent America.
J. M. Jones, Tariff Retaliation.
F. Bastiat, Economic Sophisms.
H. F. Fraser, Foreign Trade and World Politics.
Rutledge, ch. 35.
Fifth Week
*Rufener:
ch. 37. Theories of Taxation.
ch. 38. The Tax System of the United States.
Hour Examination
Sixth to Ninth Weeks
*Rufener:
ch.39. Problems of Agriculture.
ch.36. The Functions of Government
ch.40. Evils of the Price and Profit System, and Remedies Proposed.
*Rutledge ch. 40.
*Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 3-21.
Stuart Chase:
The Tragedy of Waste.
The Economy of Abundance.
T. N. Carver:
Essays in Social Justice, chs. 4-7, 9-16.
The Economy of Human Energy, chs. 2, 3, 6—9.
P. Sorokin, Social Mobility.
A. T. Hadley, Standards of Public Morality, chs. 1-3.
H. M. Robinson, Relativity in Business Morals.
See also the following references to current periodicals.
Lectures:
Economic Inequality
The Social Nature of Property
The Economy of Abundance
Planned Production
A Program of Economic Reorganization.
Tenth Week
Final Examination.
* * * * * * * * * *
PERIODICALS
The following publications are devoted partly or wholly to economic and business subjects.
Academy of Political Science, Proceedings
*American Economic Review
*American Labor Legislation Review
American Statistical Association Journal
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
*Annalist
*Business Week
Chase Economic Bulletin
*Commercial and Financial Chronicle
Commonweal
Congressional Digest
*Economic Forum
Economic Geography
*Economic Journal
Factory Management and Maintenance
Foreign Affairs
Fortune
Harvard Business Review
International Labor Review
*Journal of Political Economy
*Magazine of Wall Street
Monthly Labor Review
Nation (New York)
National City Bank of New York Bulletin
Nation’s Business
New Republic
Personnel Journal
*Political Science Quarterly
*Printer’s Ink
*Quarterly Journal of Economics
Review of Economic Statistics
Yale Review
*Current issues in the Economics Reading Room, Main Bldg., Room 37.
The following articles in issues of the past year are especially recommended:
First Semester
“The Coal Resources of China,” W. Belden, M. Salter, Economic Geography, July 1935.
“The Public Utility Issue,” L. Olds, The Yale Review, Summer, 1935.
“Economic Effects of Wages and Hour Provisions in Codes,” T. O. Yntema, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.
“The American Labor Movement Since the War,” D. J. Saposs, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 1935.
“Economic and Political Radicalism,” M. C. Kruger, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(The effect of the depression on the economic and political policies of organized labor.)
“Workers’ Education in the United States,” A. S. Cheyney, International Labor Review, July, 1935.
“The Negro in Industry,” G.S.Mitchell, The American Scholar, Summer 1935.
(The problem of race prejudice in trade unions)
“Incidence upon the Negroes,” C.S. Johnson, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(Incidence of the burdens of the depression upon negroes)
“Compensation of Corporation Executives, 1928-1932 Record,” J.C.Baker and W. L. Crum, Harvard Business Review, Sumner 1935.
“Old Age Security,” E. E. Witte, National Municipal Review, July 1935.
“Paying for Economic and Social Security,” J. P. Harris, National Municipal Review, August 1935.
“Problems of Social Security Legislation in the United States,” several articles in the Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June 1935.
Second Semester
“The Royal Road to Inflation,” A. Wolff, Economic Forum, Spring 1935.
(Shows how continued federal budget deficits may lead to currency inflation.)
“Trade Treaty Need,” Cordell Hull, “American Trade Policy and World Recovery,” P. Molyneaux, International Conciliation, June 1935.
“Death Duties, Enterprise, and the Growth of National Capital,” B. M. Anderson, Chase Economic Bulletin, August 6, 1935.
“The Outlook for American Cotton,” J. D. Black, Review of Economic Statistics, March 1935.
(Is America losing her foreign cotton markets?)
“The New Deal and Economic Liberty,” A. A. Berle, and other articles on government control of business, Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, March 1935.
“A Planned Economy for Wall Street,” C. H. Meyer, The American Scholar Summer 1935.
(The economic consequences of the Securities Acts of 1933, 1934)
“Government Control of Investments and Speculation,” R. S. Tucker, American Economic Review, Supplement, March 1935.
“The Paths of Economic Change,” Calvin B. Hoover, American Economic Review, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.
(Fascism, Communism, and Capitalism compared.)
“The Corporate State and NRA,” G. Bottai, Foreign Affairs, July 1935.
“The Permanent New Deal,” W. Lippmann, The Yale Review, Summer 1935.
(A comparison of the policies of Herbert Hoover with those of Franklin D. Roosevelt.)
“Borrowing Machines,” H. A. Davis, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(Are the now “authorities” a blessing or menace?)
“Gyp Vendor & Co.,” G. B. Seybold, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(New York’s attempt to secure economy in municipal expenditures discloses numerous rackets and forms of graft.)
Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of V. Orval Watts, Box 1, Folder “Misc. writings, etc. 1930s + 1940s”.
Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1932.