Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
Chicago Funny Business

Chicago. Skit Party’s “Ode to an Economist”, undated

In a filed labeled “Miscellaneous” in the Milton Friedman papers at the Hoover Institution Archives, along with such skit party classics as The Cowles Commission Song and a parody from HMS Pinafore about Milton Friedman, we have the following “Ode to an Economist”. I was able to track down the exact issue of Punch from which the ode was admittedly “stolen”. There is no indication of the identity of the “thief” who purloined the parody.

The original parody appears to have been inspired by a remark attributed to George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen—at least he is quoted before the poem “The Passionate Statistician to His Love”.

The actual poem parodied was written by Christopher Marlowe and first published after his death in 1599.

In this posting you can read (1) the undated, abridged University of Chicago “Ode to an Economist”, (2) the actual parody published in Punch in 1885 and (3) the original love poem “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love.”

_____________________________

ODE TO AN ECONOMIST
[U. of Chicago Economics, undated]

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That facts and figures can supply
Unto the statistician’s ravished eye

And we will sit ‘midst faction’s shocks
And calculate the price of stocks,
The music of whose rise and fall
Beats most melodious madrigal.

Percentages shall stir our blood
Analyses as clear as mud.
Oh, if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The marriage rate, the price of meat,
Shall yield us raptures calm and sweet ;
And analytic Tables be
Prepared each day to give us glee.

Economists our praise shall sing,
The statesman’s eloquence we’ll wing
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

–stolen from an old Punch

Source: Undated. Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 79, Folder 6 “University of Chicago Miscellaneous”.

_____________________________

 

The Passionate Statistician to His Love.
[From Punch. March 21, 1885, p. 137]

” For my part, I am a passionate Statistician . . . Go with me into the study of statistics,
and I will make you all enthusiasts in statistics.”

Mr. Goschen at Whitechapel

 

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That facts and figures can supply
Unto the Statist’s ravished eye.

And we will sit ‘midst faction’s shocks
And calculate the price of Stocks,
The music of whose rise and fall
Beats most melodious madrigal.

We’ll learn how the last Census closes
And the art of counting noses;
And taste the pleasures, sweetly solemn
Of abstract brief, and lengthy column.

We’ll tot the figures fair and full
Relating to the price of wool,
The annual range of heat and cold,
The death-rate, and the price of gold.

Per-centages shall stir our blood
Analyses as clear as mud.
Oh, if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

The marriage rate, the price of meat,
Shall yield us raptures calm and sweet ;
And analytic “Tables” be
Prepared each day to give us glee.

Economists our praise shall sing,
The Statesman’s eloquence we’ll wing
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.

Source: Parodies of the Works of English and American Authors, Vol. IV. London: Reeves & Turner, 1887, p. 38.

Note:   George Joachim Goschen (1831-1907) was President of the Royal Statistical Society (1886-88).

___________________________________________

 

 

THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE.
Christopher Marlowe.
[published posthumously, 1599]

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That valleys, groves, and hills and fields,
The woods or steepy mountains yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls,
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies;
A cap of flowers and a kirtle,
Embroidered o’er with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat,*
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing,
For thy delight, each May morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

*These three verses are often omitted.

Source: Parodies of the Works of English and American Authors, Vol. IV. London: Reeves & Turner, 1887, pp. 36-37.

 

 

Image: Christopher Marlowe from Wikipedia; right, George Joachim Goschen by Alexander Bassano (ca. 1883), National Portrait Gallery. London.

Categories
Columbia Economists

Columbia. History of Economics Department. Luncheon Talk by Arthur R. Burns, 1954

The main entry of this posting is a transcription of the historical overview of economics at Columbia provided by Professor Arthur R. Burns at a reunion luncheon for Columbia economics Ph.D. graduates [Note: Arthur Robert Burns was the “other” Arthur Burns of the Columbia University economics department, as opposed to Arthur F. Burns, who was the mentor/friend of Milton Friedman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Fed, etc.]. He acknowledges his reliance on the definitive research of his colleague, Joseph Dorfman, that was published in the following year:

Joseph Dorfman, “The Department of Economics”, Chapt IX in R. Gordon Hoxie et al., A History of the Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University. New York: Columbia University Press, 1955.

The cost of the luncheon was $2.15 per person. 36 members of the economics faculty attended, who paid for themselves, and some 144 attending guests (includes about one hundred Columbia economics Ph.D.’s) had their lunches paid for by the university.

_____________________________

[LUNCHEON INVITATION LETTER]

Columbia University
in the City of New York
[New York 27, N.Y.]
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

March 25, 1954

 

Dear Doctor _________________

On behalf of the Department of Economics, I am writing to invite you to attend a Homecoming Luncheon of Columbia Ph.D.’s in Economics. This will be held on Saturday, May 29, at 12:30 sharp, in the Men’s Faculty Club, Morningside Drive and West 117th Street.

This Luncheon is planned as a part of Columbia University’s Bicentennial Celebration, of which, as you know, the theme is “Man’s Right to Knowledge and the free Use Thereof”. The date of May 29 is chosen in relation to the Bicentennial Conference on “National Policy for Economic Welfare at Home and Abroad” in which distinguished scholars and men of affairs from the United States and other countries will take part. The final session of this Conference, to be held at three p.m. on May 29 in McMillin Academic Theater, will have as its principal speaker our own Professor John Maurice Clark. The guests at the Luncheon are cordially invited to attend the afternoon meeting.

The Luncheon itself and brief after-luncheon speeches will be devoted to reunion, reminiscence and reacquaintance with the continuing work of the Department. At the close President Grayson Kirk will present medals on behalf of the University to the principal participants in the Bicentennial Conference.

We shall be happy to welcome to the Luncheon as guests of the University all of our Ph.D.’s, wherever their homes may be, who can arrange to be in New York on May 29. We very much hope you can be with us on that day. Please reply on the form below.

Cordially yours,

[signed]
Carter Goodrich
Chairman of the Committee

*   *   *   *   *   *

Professor Carter Goodrich
Box #22, Fayerweather Hall
Columbia University
New York 27, New York

I shall be glad…
I shall be unable… to attend the Homecoming Luncheon on May 29.

(signed) ___________

Note: Please reply promptly, not later than April 20 in the case of Ph.D.’s residing in the United States, and not later than May 5 in the case of others.

_____________________________

[INVITATION TO SESSION FOLLOWING LUNCHEON]

Columbia University
in the City of New York
[New York 27, N.Y.]
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

May 6, 1954

 

TO:                 Departments of History, Math. Stat., Public and Sociology
FROM:            Helen Harwell, secretary, Graduate Department of Economics

 

Will you please bring the following notice to the attention of the students in your Department:

            A feature of Columbia’s Bicentennial celebration will be a Conference on National Policy for Economic Welfare at Home and Abroad, to be held May 27, 28 and 29.

            The final session of the Conference will take place in McMillin Theatre at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 29. The session topic is “Economic Welfare in a Free Society”. The program is:

Session paper.

John M. Clark, John Bates Clark Professor. Emeritus of Economics, Columbia University.

Discussants:

Frank H. Knight, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago
David E. Lilienthal, Industrial Consultant and Executive
Wilhelm Roepke, Professor of International Economics, Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva

 

Students in the Faculty of Political Science are cordially invited to attend this session and to bring their wives or husbands and friends who may be interested.

Tickets can be secured from Miss Helen Harwell, 505 Fayer.

_____________________________

[REMARKS BY PROFESSOR ARTHUR ROBERT BURNS]

Department of Economics Bicentennial Luncheon
May 29th, 1954

President Kirk, Ladies and Gentlemen: On behalf of the Department of Economics I welcome you all to celebrate Columbia’s completion of its first two hundred years as one of the great universities. We are gratified that so many distinguished guests have come, some from afar, to participate in the Conference on National Policy for Economic Welfare at Home and Abroad. We accept their presence as testimony of their esteem for the place of Columbia in the world of scholarship. Also, we welcome among us again many of the intellectual offspring of the department. We like to believe that the department is among their warmer memories. We also greet most pleasurably some past members of the department, namely Professors Vladimir G. Simkhovitch, Eugene Agger, Eveline M. Burns and Rexford Tugwell. Finally, but not least, we are pleased to have with us the administrative staff of the department who are ceaselessly ground between the oddity and irascibility of the faculty and the personal and academic tribulations of the students. Gertrude D. Stewart who is here is evidence that this burden can be graciously carried for thirty-five years without loss of charm or cheer.

We are today concerned with the place of economics within the larger scope of Columbia University. When the bell tolls the passing of so long a period of intellectual endeavor one casts an appraising eye over the past, and I am impelled to say a few retrospective words about the faculty and the students. I have been greatly assisted in this direction by the researches of our colleague, Professor Dorfman, who has been probing into our past.

On the side of the faculty, there have been many changes, but there are also many continuities. First let me note some of the changes. As in Europe, economics made its way into the university through moral philosophy, and our College students were reading the works of Frances Hutcheson in 1763. But at the end of the 18th century, there seems to have been an atmosphere of unhurried certainty and comprehensiveness of view that has now passed away. For instance, it is difficult to imagine a colleague of today launching a work entitled “Natural Principles of Rectitude for the Conduct of Man in All States and Situations in Life Demonstrated and Explained in a Systematic Treatise on Moral Philosophy”. But one of early predecessors, Professor Gross, published such a work in 1795.

The field of professorial vision has also change. The professor Gross whom I have just mentioned occupied no narrow chair but what might better be called a sofa—that of “Moral Philosophy, German Language and Geography”. Professor McVickar, early in the nineteenth century, reclined on the even more generous sofa of “Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Rhetoric, Belles Lettres and Political Economy”. By now, however, political economy at least existed officially and, in 1821, the College gave its undergraduates a parting touch of materialist sophistication in some twenty lectures on political economy during the last two months of their senior year.

But by the middle of the century, integration was giving way to specialization. McVickar’s sofa was cut into three parts, one of which was a still spacious chair of “History and Political Science”, into which Francis Lieber sank for a brief uneasy period. His successor, John W. Burgess, pushed specialization further. He asked for an assistant to take over the work in political economy. Moreover, his request was granted and Richmond Mayo Smith, then appointed, later became Professor of Political Economy, which, however, included Economics, Anthropology and Sociology. The staff of the department was doubled in 1885 by the appointment of E. R. A. Seligman to a three-year lectureship, and by 1891 he had become a professor of Political Economy and Finance. Subsequent fission has separated Sociology and Anthropology and now we are professors of economics, and the days when political economy was covered in twenty lectures seem long ago.

Other changes stand out in our history. The speed of promotion of the faculty has markedly slowed down. Richmond Mayo Smith started as an instructor in 1877 but was a professor after seven years of teaching at the age of 27. E. R. A. Seligman even speeded matters a little and became a professor after six years of teaching. But the University has since turned from this headlong progression to a more stately gait. One last change I mention for the benefit of President Kirk, although without expectation of warm appreciation from him. President Low paid J. B. Clark’s salary out of his own pocket for the first three years of the appointment.

I turn now to some of the continuities in the history of the department. Professor McVickar displayed a concern for public affairs that has continued since his time early in the nineteenth century. He was interested in the tariff and banking but, notably, also in what he called “economic convulsions”, a term aptly suggesting an economy afflicted with the “falling sickness”. Somewhat less than a century later the subject had been rechristened “business cycles” to remove some of the nastiness of the earlier name, and professor Wesley Mitchell was focusing attention on this same subject.

The Columbia department has also shown a persistent interest in economic measurement. Professor Lieber campaigned for a government statistical bureau in the middle of the 19th century and Richmond Mayo Smith continued this interest in statistics and in the Census. Henry L. Moore, who came to the department in 1902, promoted with great devotion Mathematical Economics and Statistics with particular reference to the statistical verification of theory. This interest in quantification remains vigorous among us.

There is also a long continuity in the department’s interest in the historical and institutional setting of economic problems and in their public policy aspect. E. R. A. Seligman did not introduce, but he emphasized this approach. He began teaching the History of Theory and proceeded to Railroad Problems and the Financial and Tariff History of the United States, and of course, Public Finance. John Bates Clark, who joined the department in 1895 to provide advanced training in economics to women who were excluded from the faculty of Political Science, became keenly interested in government policy towards monopolies and in the problem of war. Henry R. Seager, in 1902, brought his warm and genial personality to add to the empirical work in the department in labor and trust problems. Vladimir G. Simkhovitch began to teach economic history in 1905 at the same time pursuing many and varied other interests, and we greet him here today. And our lately deceased colleague, Robert Murray Haig, continued the work in Public Finance both as teacher and advisor to governments.

Lastly, among these continuities is an interest in theory. E. R. A. Seligman focused attention on the history of theory. John Bates Clark was an outstanding figure in the field too well known to all of us for it to be necessary to particularize as to his work. Wesley C. Mitchell developed his course on “Current Types of Economic Theory” after 1913 and continued to give it almost continuously until 1945. The Clark dynasty was continued when John Maurice Clark joined the department as research professor in 1926. He became emeritus in 1952, but fortunately he still teaches, and neither students nor faculty are denied the stimulation of his gentle inquiring mind. He was the first appointee to the John Bates Clark professorship in 1952 and succeeded Wesley Mitchell as the second recipient of the Francis A. Walker medal of the American Economic Association in the same year.

Much of this development of the department was guided by that gracious patriarch E. R. A. Seligman who was Executive Officer of the Department for about 30 years from 1901. With benign affection and pride he smiled upon his growing academic family creating a high standard of leadership for his successors. But the period of his tenure set too high a standard and executive Officers now come and go like fireflies emitting as many gleams of light as they can in but three years of service. Seligman and J. B. Clark actively participated in the formation of the American Economic Association in which J. B. Clark hoped to include “younger men who do not believe implicitly in laisser faire doctrines nor the use of the deductive method exclusively”.

Among other members of the department I must mention Eugene Agger, Edward Van Dyke Robinson, William E. Weld, and Rexford Tugwell, who were active in College teaching, and Alvin Johnson, Benjamin Anderson and Joseph Schumpeter, who were with the department for short periods. Discretion dictates that I list none of my contemporaries, but I leave them for such mention as subsequent speakers may care to make.

When one turns to the students who are responsible for so much of the history of the department, one is faced by an embarrassment of riches. Alexander Hamilton is one of the most distinguished political economists among the alumni of the College. Richard T. Ely was the first to achieve academic reputation. In the 1880’s, he was giving economics a more humane and historical flavor. Walter F. Wilcox, a student of Mayo Smith, obtained his Ph.D. in 1891 and contributed notably to statistical measurement after he became Chief Statistician of the Census in 1891, and we extend a special welcome to him here today. Herman Hollerith (Ph.D. 1890) contributed in another way to statistics by his development of tabulating machinery. Alvin Johnson was a student as well as teacher. It is recorded that he opened his paper on rent at J. B. Clark’s seminar with the characteristically wry comment that all the things worth saying about rent had been said by J. B. Clark and his own paper was concerned with “some of the other things”. Among other past students are W. Z. Ripley, B. M. Anderson, Willard Thorp, John Maurice Clark, Senator Paul Douglas, Henry Schultz and Simon Kuznets. The last of these we greet as the present President of the American Economic Association. But the list grows too long. It should include many more of those here present as well as many who are absent, but I am going to invite two past students and one present student to fill some of the gaps in my story of the department.

I have heard that a notorious American educator some years ago told the students at Commencement that he hoped he would never see them again. They were going out into the world with the clear minds and lofty ideals which were the gift of university life. Thenceforward they would be distorted by economic interest, political pressure, and family concerns and would never again be the same pellucid and beautiful beings as at that time. I confess that the thought is troubling. But in inviting our students back we have overcome our doubts and we now confidently call upon a few of them. The first of these is George W. Stocking who, after successfully defending a dissertation on “The Oil Industry and the Competitive System” in 1925, has continued to pursue his interest in competition and monopoly as you all know. He is now at Vanderbilt University.

The second of our offspring whom I will call upon is Paul Strayer. He is one of the best pre-war vintages—full bodied, if I may borrow from the jargon of the vintner without offense to our speaker. Or I might say fruity, but again not without danger of misunderstanding. Perhaps I had better leave him to speak for himself. Paul Strayer, now of Princeton University, graduated in 1939, having completed a dissertation on the painful topic of “The Taxation of Small Incomes”.

The third speaker is Rodney H. Mills, a contemporary student and past president of the Graduate Economics Students Association. He has not yet decided on his future presidencies, but we shall watch his career with warm interest. He has a past, not a pluperfect, but certainly a future. Just now, however, no distance lends enchantment to his view of the department. And I now call upon him to share his view with us.

So far we have been egocentric and appropriately so. But many other centres of economic learning are represented here, and among them the London School of Economics of which I am proud as my own Alma Mater. I now call upon Professor Lionel Robbins of Polecon (as it used sometimes to be known) to respond briefly on behalf of our guests at the Conference. His nature and significance are or shall I say, is, too well known to you to need elaboration.

[in pencil]
A.R. Burns

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections, Columbiana. Department of Economics Collection, Box 9, Folder “Bicentennial Celebration”.

_____________________________

[BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION FOR ARTHUR ROBERT BURNS]

 

BURNS, Arthur Robert, Columbia Univ., New York 27, N.Y. (1938) Columbia Univ., prof. of econ., teach., res.; b. 1895; B.Sc. (Econ.), 1920, Ph.D. (Econ.), 1926, London Sch. of Econ. Fields 5a, 3bc, 12b. Doc. dis. Money and monetary policy in early times (Kegan Paul Trench Trubner & Co., London, 1926). Pub. Decline of competition (McGraw-Hill 1936); Comparative economic organization (Prentice-Hall, 1955); Electric power and government policy (dir. of res.) (Twentieth Century Fund, 1948) . Res. General studies in economic development. Dir. Amer. Men of Sci., III, Dir. of Amer. Schol.

Source: Handbook of the American Economic Association, American Economic Review, Vol. 47, No. 4 (July, 1957), p. 40.

 

Obituary: “Arthur Robert Burns dies at 85; economics teacher at Columbia“, New York Times, January 22, 1981.

Image: Arthur Robert Burns.  Detail from a departmental photo dated “early 1930’s” in Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections, Columbiana. Department of Economics Collection, Box 9, Folder “Photos”.

Categories
Columbia Curriculum

Columbia. Mathematics Satisfies Second Foreign Language Reqt for Economics PhDs, 1950

In the spirit of the J. Willard Gibbs quote, known by generations of economists from the title page of Paul A. Samuelson’s Foundations of Economic Analysis, i.e., “Mathematics is a Language”, the economics department at Columbia University changed its foreign language requirement in the Spring of 1950 to allow the substitution of mathematics “at a prescribed level” for one of two foreign languages it required of Ph.D. candidates. The Executive Officer of the Department at the time was James W. Angell.

_____________________________

Faculty of Political Science

April 21, 1950

[…]

            Professor [James W.]Angell presented a proposal of the Dept. of Economics to modify the language requirement for the Ph.D. degree so that Mathematics at a prescribed level may be substituted for one of the two required foreign languages. He moved the adoption of the following resolution:

The paragraph entitled “Languages” in the Announcement of the Faculty of Political Science be amended by adding the following sentence:

Prospective candidates in the Department of Economics may under certain circumstances and with the permission of the Executive Officer of that Department offer Mathematics and one foreign language instead of two foreign languages.

The motion was seconded and passed.

[…]

 

Source: Columbia University Archives, Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science, 1950-1962. pp. 1026-1027.

_____________________________

 

ANGELL, James Waterhouse, Columbia Univ., New York 27, N.Y. (1924) Columbia Univ., prof. of econ., teach., res.; b. 1898; A.B., 1918, M.A., 1921, Ph.D., 1924, Harvard; 1919-20, Chicago. Fields 6 [Business Fluctuations], 10 [International Economics], 7 [Money and Banking; Short-term Credit; Consumer Finance]. Doc. dis. Theory of international prices (Harvard Univ. Press, 1926). Pub. Recovery of Germany (Yale Univ. Press, 1929; 2nd ed., 1932; German trans., 1930); Behavior of money (1936), Investment and business cycles (1941) (McGraw-Hill). Dir. W.W. in Amer.

Source: The 1948 Directory of the American Economic Association, American Economic Review, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Jan., 1949), p. 6.

_____________________________

New York Times’ obituary: “James Angell, 87; Leading Economist Taught At Columbia,” April 1, 1986.

 

Image Source: James Waterhouse Angell. Harvard Class of 1918, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report. Cambridge: 1943.

 

 

Categories
Courses Harvard

Harvard. Course with a “snapper” problem, 1910

We have below a random letter from the President of Harvard, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, to Professor Frank Taussig of the Economics Department that struck my fancy because 1) the President of the University appears to be aware of the grade distribution of a particular faculty member (he was not amused at the low frequency of bad grades) and 2) his choice of words “However good a course may be, that kind of marking is certain to drift into it many snappers.” In my day, it was the course that received the opprobrious label of being a “gut”, though here in Germany we do refer to students attracted to the “gut” courses as “Tiefflieger” (low-flying aircraft). 

Economics 21 is apparently the course referred to by President Lowell. The title of the course appears to change without the course description changing over time. The content of the course, taught by the law professor, Bruce Wyman, appears to have focused on “competition; combination; association; consolidation”.

___________________________

[Copy of letter from Harvard President Lowell to Professor Frank Taussig]

December 21, 1910.

Dear Frank:-

I was told, the other day, that the Visiting Committee in Economics had promised the Department quite a sum of money for additional assistants. Is that available this year? If so, I should much rather have you use a part of that, than ask the Corporation for more money. I suspect that one great reason for the large size of Wyman’s course is its softness. I notice that he gave last year only 1% of E’s and 4% of D’s. However good a course may be, that kind of marking is certain to drift into it many snappers. By the way, I should like to have a talk with you about him sometime.

Very truly yours,

A. L. Lowell

 

Professor F. W. Taussig.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers, 1909-1914. Nos. 405-436. Box 15, Folder 413 “1909-1914”.

___________________________

 

[Course Enrollment, Economics 21]

Courses Preparing for a Business Career

[…]

[Economics] 21 1hf. Professor Wyman, assisted by Messrs. Brannan and Lyeth.—Principles of Law governing Industrial Relations.

Total, 183:
3 Graduates, 2 Business School, 113 Seniors, 56 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 4 Others.

 

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1909-1910, p. 45.

___________________________

 

[Course Description, Economics 21]

 

[Economics] *211hf. The Law of Competition and Combination. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Professor Wyman, assisted by Mr. —— . (V)

Course 21 is not open to students before their last year of undergraduate work, and is only open to those who have passed in Economics 1.

The course considers certain rules of the law governing the course of modern trade and the organization of modern industry. As the course deals with adjudication and legislation on questions of first importance in the economic development of modern times, it is of advantage to all those who wish to equip themselves for the intelligent discussion of issues having both legal and economic aspects. In 1911-12 four principal topics will be discussed: competition; combination; association; consolidation, — some very briefly, some with more detail. The conduct of the course will be by the reading and discussion of cases from the law reports, which are contained in an edited series of case books.

 

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 68.

___________________________

[CV data for Law Professor Bruce Wyman]

Bruce Wyman, A.B. summa cum laude, 1896; A. M. 1897; LL.B. 1900; Lectr. (Law S.) 1900-1903; Asst. Prof. of Law 1903-1908; Prof. of Law 1908-1914.

Source: Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University, 1636-1915 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1915), pp. 111 and 355.

___________________________

[Scandal: a case of regulatory capture]

Bruce Wyman resigned his professorship of law in December 1913 when it came out that he was drawing $833 per month from the New Haven and the Boston & Maine (railroads) “for delivering lectures favorable to the roads without the fact being known that he was a paid employe. He admitted that, while employed as their consulting counsel he helped Gov. Foss to frame the Public Utilities bill, which was designed to give the State better control of the railroad situation.”

 

Source: New York Times, December 21, 1913, p. 30.

Image Source: Frank Taussig from the Harvard Album 1915.

Categories
Chicago Economic History M.I.T.

MIT. Search for an Economic Historian. 1942

In this 1942 letter from the head of the Industrial Relations Section of the M.I.T. Department of Economics and Social Science, W. Rupert Maclaurin, to the economic historian Earl J. Hamilton of Duke University, we see that hiring a young economic historian was part of the plan “to build one of the leading departments in the country”. Professor Davis Rich Dewey retired in 1940. Courses in economic history were taught in the late 1940s by Karl Deutsch and then by Walt Rostow beginning in 1950. (See Peter Temin, The Rise and Fall of Economic History at MIT, History of Political Economy, Volume 46, Number suppl. 1: 337-350. Earlier and downloadable at MIT Economics Working Paper 13-11, June 5, 2013.)

____________________________

 

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SECTION

Department of Economics and Social Science
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

APRIL 8, 1942

W. Rupert Maclaurin
Douglas McGregor
Barbara Klingen Hagen
Beatrice A. Rogers

Douglass V. Brown
Dwight L. Palmer
Charles A. Myers
Paul Pigors

Professor Earl J. Hamilton
Department of Economics
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina

Dear Professor Hamilton:

            At the suggestion of Dr. Arthur Cole I am writing to ask if you know a really promising young man in the field of economic history who might be eligible for an opening that we have here at M. I. T.

            Various members of our Department of Economics are initiating a series of studies which are designed to be of assistance in post-war reconstruction in the United States. These studies are being undertaken with the cooperation of industry and the government, as part of a larger program designed to analyze some of the basic, longer-range problems facing this country. Our group at M. I. T. will be concerned particularly with analyses of the opportunities for industrial development in the post-war world and some of the hindrances and restrictions which have been inhibiting development in the past.

            As part of this general research program, and also of our plans for developing this Department, we would like very much to bring in a promising young economic historian who would be interested in making some historical studies in the general field of industrial development. We should like someone who would co-operate with the “Committee on Research in Economic History” of which Dr. Cole is chairman.

            The administration at M. I. T. is anxious to build up the Departments of Economics and History. These two departments now come under Dr. Robert Caldwell, professor of history and dean of humanities. Whoever we brought in would divide his time to some extent between the Department of History and the Department of Economics.

            Our Economics Department is undergoing substantial change and expansion at the present time, and we are attempting to build one of the leading departments in the country. There should therefore be significant opportunities for professional advancement for promising young men. We started last year a graduate program leading to a Ph.D. degree in industrial economics, and by next year we shall have a group of about twenty graduate students in this Department, primarily on a fellowship basis, from all over the country.

            I know this is a hard time to find talent. We should only be interested in some young man who has an attractive personality, energy, and creative imagination. For this particular position here there is no point in our considering anybody who is not A. We are thinking of a young man under thirty-five who would come to us as an instructor or an assistant professor. The teaching load would be light, and we could arrange for travelling expenses and other research facilities.

            The whole problem of selective service is a very difficult one to deal with under present conditions. As an engineering school with a research program in economics that is closely associated with a number of the leading government agencies in Washington, there is at least a good [chance that the local*] draft boards would grant deferment to a promising instructor in economic history here.

            If you have any suggestions to make, I should greatly appreciate hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

[signed]
W. Rupert Maclaurin

[*A fold in the letter here covers all but the very top (sometimes bottoms) of the first four words so that I have suggested an interpolation consistent with what I see.]

 

Source: Duke University, Rubenstein Library, Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Correspondence—Misc, 1930’s-1960s and n.d.”.

Image Source: (left) W. Rupert Maclaurin, from MIT Technique, 1944.; (right) Earl J. Hamilton (1937) from John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation website.

Categories
Columbia

Columbia. Preparation for Graduate Economics, 1941

Up through the 1941-1942 Course Announcements of the Columbia University Faculty of Political Science did not provide prospective graduate students of economics any guidance with respect to their undergraduate preparation. Late in the Fall of 1941 the Executive Officer of the Department of Economics, i.e. chairman, Robert Murray Haig received suggestions and comments that were discussed at the December 2, 1941 faculty meeting that resulted in the insertion of two paragraphs into the Course Announcements that address undergraduate preparation in general and mathematical preparation in particular. Horace Taylor’s suggestion for the general preparation was taken over with only minor revisions. However we can see that the suggestion for mathematical preparation by Harold Hotelling and Frederick Mills was significantly toned down.

_________________________________

12 copies send around
Nov.

Dear Colleague:

Will you kindly examine the attached exhibits relating to material to be inserted in the announcements of the Faculty of Political Science and of Columbia College and be prepared to pass judgment at the meeting on December 2nd?

 

(A) The Proposed Statement on Mathematical Preparation to be Inserted in the “Announcement of Courses” of the Faculty of Political Science.
Hotelling, Mills. October 13, 1941

Mathematical Preparation. The use of mathematics, including higher mathematics, has become important in several branches of economics and advanced statistics. Calculus, probability, the algebra of matrices and quadratic forms and the calculus of variations, for example, have important applications in economic study. Since the acquisition of an adequate mathematical training requires several years, students planning work that entails the use of advanced mathematics should include in their undergraduate studies courses providing the mathematical foundation essential to these advanced studies.

 

(B) Suggestion from Horace Taylor for Paragraph to be Inserted in the Columbia College Announcement and Comment on Hotelling and Mills’ Statement

October 20, 1941

 

Professor Robert M. Haig,
Fayerweather Hall.

Dear Professor Haig:

I enclose* two copies of a tentative paragraph intended to give effect in the Announcement to the recommendation made at our last departmental dinner. I would be glad to amend or amplify this in any way that seems desirable.

I have one or two misgivings as to the statement on mathematical preparation that has been prepared for the Announcement. In the first place it almost never happens that an undergraduate student decides to study economics in the graduate school earlier than the end of his junior year. Very often it happens at the end of his senior year. This lateness makes it impossible for such students to get the amount of mathematical training that is presented as desirable in this statement. In the second place, even those students who do decide to go in for graduate study at some point fairly early in their college careers are not likely to refer to our Announcement until a very short time before their actual application for admission as graduate students. Consequently the message presented in this statement would not reach them until too late. In the third place, I believe that the indefiniteness of the statement as it now stands might serve to frighten well qualified people away from graduate study of economics – at least in our department. Perhaps this difficulty would be relieved by making it more explicit as to just the fields of work in which such intensive mathematical preparation is a desirable prerequisite.

I doubt if we can accomplish very much in this regard by our own individual effort. I wonder if a broader attack in which it would be attempted to get the understanding and support of collegiate departments of economics would not be more successful. If, for example, the economics departments at Columbia, Chicago, Harvard, and perhaps two or three other principal graduate schools would agree on a general statement of what is desirable in the way of mathematical training and would publicize this through one or another of the Journals or by some other means, I think that better results would ensue. As I understand it, this question may come up for consideration at one of our later dinner meetings.

Sincerely,

HORACE TAYLOR

* “Undergraduate preparation. Since graduate study in economics necessarily entails a high degree of concentration in this field, students planning to enter graduate work are advised not to specialize narrowly in economics during their undergraduate study. Basic training in economics and a knowledge of its general literature and methods is desirable, but for the purposes of the more advanced work in graduate school, there is greater advantage in the study of history, philosophy, modern languages and mathematics than in narrowly specialized courses in economics taken as undergraduates.”

 

(C) Memorandum to Professor Haig from Professor Wolman: November 11, 1941

Professor Wolman agrees to the last paragraph typed on the page containing the memorandum from Professor Taylor. Doesn’t care how much Mathematics they are getting, no time to scare students away.

 

(D) Comment of Dean Calkins

 

Columbia University
in the City of New York

School of Business
Local

November 11, 1941

Professor R. M. Haig
Fayerweather

Dear Professor Haig

Your request for my comments on the proposed recommendation of undergraduate preparation for graduate study in economics and on Professor Taylor’s observations with respect to it prompts the following response:

  1. I am impressed by the three points raised by Professor Taylor. They represent my own views after experience at California and Stanford. No satisfactory system now exists for detecting undergraduates who will later pursue graduate work in economics, and hence advice can rarely be given in time to be effective. It is my impression that most students who undertake graduate work in economics are as undergraduates either unacquainted with the opportunities in the field, unaware of their own interest in it, uncertain of their academic abilities to pursue graduate work, without prospects of financing graduate study, or forced by financial circumstances to utilize their four years of undergraduate study for instruction which might lead to employment upon graduation. Moreover many of these conditions also apply to first year graduate students and candidates for the master’s degree.

            That there is no easy way to overcome the foregoing conditions is evident. Ordinarily a student needs to proceed some distance in the subject as an undergraduate to convince himself that he wishes to go on for graduate study, that he has the ability to go on, and that his opportunities in the field are sufficiently promising to justify the effort. I am impressed, too, with the number of cases in which graduate students receive their first impulse to go on for advanced study from an interest in a specialized course.

  1. No statement in the Columbia College catalog alone can produce more than a small effect on the preparation of your graduate students, who are recruited so largely from other institutions. It is too vague to mean very much to the average undergraduate and will be interpreted by advisers according to their own predilections.
  2. While I agree that more graduate students ought to have more of the sort of preparation recommended, we cannot be certain that this prescription is the only, best, or preferred preparation for either the students who may wish to undertake the graduate study of economics or who should be encouraged to do so.

            In guiding the preparation of students who will be able to excel in economics we seek to produce graduates who can maintain high standards of competence, not standardized products.

  1. I have no serious objection to the statement as a guide for one type of preparation, but this is clearly not the only desirable type of preparation. Its value probably lies in the prospect that a few will heed it, and that may be desirable, and the great majority will ignore it and that may also be desirable.

I shall be glad to discuss this with you if you desire an amplification of these opinions.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Robert D. Calkins
Dean

 

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Columbiana, Department of Economics Collection, Faculty. Box 2, Folder “Department of Economics—Faculty Beginning Jan 1, 1944”.

_________________________________

Recommended preparations printed in the 1942-43 Course Announcements

General Undergraduate Preparation. Since graduate study in economics necessarily entails a high degree of concentration in this field, students planning to enter graduate work are advised not to specialize narrowly in economics during their undergraduate study. Basic training in economics and a knowledge of its general literature and methods is desirable, but for the purposes of the more advanced work on the graduate level, there is greater advantage in the study of history, philosophy, modern languages and mathematics than in narrowly specialized courses in economics taken as undergraduates.

Mathematical Preparation. The use of mathematics, including higher mathematics, has become important in several branches of economics and statistics. Much of the recent important literature of general economics is written in a language not easily understood without some knowledge of the differential and integral calculus. Students planning to work for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in economics will therefore find it advantageous to acquire familiarity with the calculus and with higher algebra before beginning their graduate studies in economics.

 

Source: History, Economics, Public Law, and Sociology. Courses Offered by the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions 1942-1943. Columbia University, Bulletin of Information, Forty-second Series, No. 24, May 23, 1942, p. 18.

_________________________________

 

The 1948 Directory of the American Economic Association. American Economic Review, Vol. 39, No. 1 (January 1949).

HAIG, Robert Murray, Columbia Univ., Fayerweather Hall, New York 27, N.Y. (1911) Columbia Univ., McVikar Prof. of Polit. Econ., teach., res.; b. 1887; A.B., 1908, LL.D., 1925, Ohio Wesleyan; M.A., 1909, Illinois; Ph.D., 1914, Columbia; LL.D., 1944, Rollins. Field 9 [Public Finance]. Doc.dis. History of general property tax in Illinois ([Flanigan-Pearson Company, Printers] Univ. of Illinois, 1914). Pub. “Taxation of excess profits in Great Britain,” A.E.R., 1920; Economic factors in metropolitan growth and arrangement (Russell Sage Found., 1927); Sales tax in American states (with Shoup) (Columbia Univ. Press, 1929). Res. Concept of taxable income; federal state financial relations. Dir. W.W. in Amer., Dir. of Schol., Lead. in Educa. Int. W.W. [p. 77]

MILLS, Frederick Cecil, Columbia Univ., New York 27, N.Y. (1920) Columbia Univ., prof of econ. and statis.; Nat. Bur. of Econ. Res., memb. res. staff; teach., res., govt. serv.; b. 1892; B.L., 1914, M.A., 1916, LL.D., 1947, California; Ph.D., 1917, Columbia; 1919, London School of Econ. Fields 3 [Statistics and Econometrics], 6 [Business Fluctuations], 5 [National Income and Social Accounting]. Doc dis. Contemporary theories of unemployment (Columbia Univ. Press, 1917). Pub. Behavior of prices (1927), Economic tendencies in U.S. (1932) (Nat. Bur. of Econ. Res.); Statistical Methods (Holt, 1924, 1938). Res. Prices in business cycles; industrial productivity. Dir. W.W. in Amer., Dir. of Schol. [p. 129]

WOLMAN, Leo, 993 Park Ave., New York 28, NY. (1915) Columbia Univ., prof. of econ.; Nat. Bur. of Econ. Res., res. staff; b. 1890; A.B., 1911, Ph.D., 1914, LL.D., 1948, Johns Hopkins. Fields 16 [Labor], 6 [Business Fluctuations], 3c [Economic Measurements]. Doc. dis. Boycott in American trade unions (Johns Hopkins Press, 1916). Pub. Growth of American trade unions, 1880-1923 (1924), Planning and control of public works (1930), Ebb and flow in trade unionism (1936) (Nat. Bur. of Econ. Res.). Res. Wages in U. S. since 1860; changes in union membership. Dir. W.W. in Amer., Dir. of Schol. Lead in Educa. [p. 204]

 

CALKINS, Robert D., 445 Riverside Dr., New York 27, N.Y. (1930) Gen. Educa. Bd., dir.; B.S., 1925, LL.B., 1942, William and Mary; M.A., 1929, Ph.D., 1933, Stanford. Fields 11a [Business Organization, Administration, Methods, and Management], 12a [Industrial Organization and Market Controls; Policies Concerning Competition and Monopoly], 14a [Industry Studies: Manufacturing]. Doc. dis. Price leadership among major wheat futures markets (Wheat Studies, Nov., 1933). Dir. W.W. in Amer. [p. 30]

_________________________________

 

The 1942 Directory of the American Economic Association. American Economic Review, Vol. 33, No. 1, Part 2, Supplement (March 1943).

TAYLOR, Horace, Columbia Univ., New York City. (1924) A [Institution, rank, nature of activity]Columbia Univ., prof. of econ., TRA [teaching, research, administration]. B [Degrees] A.B., 1922, Oklahoma; A.M., 1924, Ph.D., 1929, Columbia. C [doctoral dissertation]Making goods and making money (Macmillan, 1929). D [Fields] 1 [Economic theory; general works], 10 [Public control of business; public administration; national defense and war], 3 [Economic systems; national economics]. E [Research projects underway] Systematic economic theory. F [Most significant publications]Main currents in modern economic life (Harcourt, Brace, 1941). G [Directories cross referenced] SE [Biographical Directory of American Scholars, Leaders in Education].  [p. 11]

 

_________________________________

 

Harold Hotelling. Professor of Economics

A.B. Washington, 1919; M.S., 1921; Ph.D., Princeton, 1924.

Source: History, Economics, Public Law, and Sociology. Courses Offered by the Faculty of Political Science for the Winter and Spring Sessions 1942-1943. Columbia University, Bulletin of Information, Forty-second Series, No. 24, May 23, 1942, p. 4.

_________________________________

Image Source: Columbia Spectator Archive. Left: Horace Taylor (14 April 1959). Right: Frederick C. Mills (11 February 1964)

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economy of Russia. Leontief, 1947-48

We are used to seeing professors restricting their teaching to their research comfort zones. We see here that Wassily Leontief also taught courses from his broad interests. Here the syllabus and final exam for a course on the “Russian” [“Soviet” would have a better word choice] economy.

During the following Fall term Alexander Gerschenkron taught a graduate seminar (Economics 212b) on the subject which was attended by only three graduate students, but the reading list was much more extensive. Leontief offered this undergraduate course (Economics 112b) in the Spring of 1949.

________________________________________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 12b. Professor Leontief. — The Economy of Russia (F).

Total 35: 16 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 4 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1947-48, p. 89.

________________________________________

Economics 12b
The Economy of Russia
Fall Term, 1947-48

 

I.        From the Emancipation to the Revolution

1.       Agricultural development and reforms
2.         First stages of industrialization

Reading assignments:

Bowden, Karpovich, and Usher, An Economic History of Europe since 1750, Ch. 29, pp. 598-615.
Hubbard, L. E., The Economics of Soviet Agriculture, Chs. 1-8, pp. 1-63.
Maynard, J., The Russian Peasant, Chs. 1, 2, pp. 13-62.

II.      War and Revolution

1.         War economy up to the October Revolution
2.         Agrarian revolution and the nationalization of industries

Reading assignments:

Maynard, Ch. 6, pp. 63-81.
Baykov, A., The Development of the Soviet Economic System, Chs. 1, 2, 3, pp. 1-48.

III.     War Communism

1.          Industrial collapse
2.         Agricultural contraction

Reading assignments:

Dobb, M. Russian Economic Development since the Revolution, Chs. 3, 4, pp. 66-128.

IV.     The New Economic Policy

1.          Private enterprise and the socialized sector
2.         Agricultural recovery
3.         Industrial reconstruction

Reading assignments:

Maynard, Ch. 10, pp. 148-182.
Baykov, Chs. 4-9, pp. 49-152.

V.       The Economics of High Pressure Industrialization

1.         Capital accumulation
2.         Structural change

Reading assignments:

Yugow, A., Russia’s Economic Front for War and Peace, Ch. 2, pp. 30-42, and Ch. 9, pp. 198-219.
Baykov, A., Ch. 10, pp. 153-158.
Dobb, M., Ch. 8, pp. 177-208.

VI.     Socialist Agriculture

1.         The process of socialization (collectivization)
2.         The Kolkhoz
3.         The Sovkhoz and machine-tractor station
4.         Development of agricultural output and its allocation

Reading assignments:

Baykov, Ch. 13, pp. 189-311; Ch. 17, pp. 309-334.
Yugow, Ch. 3, pp. 43-81.
Maynard, Ch. 15, pp. 279-309.
Bienstock, Schwarz, and Yugow, Management in Russian Industry and Agriculture, Chs. 10-17, pp. 127-179.

VII.    Industrial Expansion

1.         The three Five-Year Plans
2.         Industrial organization
3.         Labor and unions

Reading assignments:

Yugow, Ch. 2, pp. 13-30; Chs. 7 and 8, pp. 149-197.
Bienstock…, Chs. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 9.
Baykov, Ch. 11, pp. 159-187; Ch. 13, pp. 212-233; Ch. 16, pp. 277-308; and Ch. 18, pp. 335-363.
Bergson, A., The Structure of Soviet Wages, Chs. 1, 2, pp. 3-25; Chs. 11, 12, 13, and 14, pp. 159-210.
Report of the C.I.O. Delegation to the Soviet Union, 1947.
Dobb, M., Ch. 16, pp. 407-453.

 

VIII.   Functional Structure of the Economic System

1.         Prices, wages, taxes, and profits
2.         The governmental budget as an instrument of economic policy
3.         Methods of planning
4.         Principles of planning

Reading assignments:

Baykov, Ch. 15, pp. 251-276; Ch. 20, pp. 423-479.
Yugow, Ch. 4, pp. 82-95; Ch. 10, 11, pp. 219-243.
Bienstock…, Ch. 4, pp. 47-57; Ch. 6, pp. 66-90; Introduction, pp. xiii-xxxii.
Lange, Oscar, The Working Principles of Soviet Economy, American-Russian Institute.
Dobb, M., Chs. 13 and 14, pp. 313-348.

 

IX.     War and Post-War

1.          Soviet war economy
2.         The new Five-Year Plan
3.         Soviet econmy and world economy

Reading assignments:

Schwartz, Harry, Russia’s Postwar Economy
Gerschenkron, A., Economic Relations with the U.S.S.R.
Yugow, Ch. 5, pp. 96-122.
Dobb, M., Ch. 12, pp. 290-312.

General reading:

Gregory, J., and Shave, D. W., The U.S.S.R., A Geographical Survey, Part I, pp. 1-250.
Scott, John, Behind the Urals.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives , Wassily Leontief Papers (HUG 4517.45), Course Material Box 2, Folder “The Economy of Russia—1949”.
also: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics 1947-48 (1 of 2)”

 

Reading Period
January 5-15, 1948

Undergraduate students:

E. Varga: Two Systems: Socialist Economy and Capitalist Economy, 1939
or
Manya Gordon: Workers before and after Lenin.

Graduate Students

Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume Eight, Part 8: Methods of Estimating Naitonal Income in Soviet Russia, Paul Studenski, from Conference on Research in Income and Wealth, National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, 1946. or
Review of Economic Statistics, November, 1947 – Articles on Russia’s National Income.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics 1947-48 (1 of 2)”

________________________________________

1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 12b

Answer any FIVE of the following SIX questions:

  1. Describe and appraise the general economic significance of the methods of income payments and income allocation in Soviet agriculture.
  2. Describe the methods which the Soviet Government used (a) to secure and (b) to allocate funds for capital investment.
  3. Compare the role of the trade unions in the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A.
  4. Characterize the successive Five-Year Plans by their principal distinguishing features.
  5. Indicate the reasons and analyze the implications of the recent Soviet monetary reform.
  6. Describe the organization and discuss some of the principal problems of Soviet economic planning.

Final, January, 1948.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives, Wassily Leontief Papers (HUG 4517.45), Course Material Box 2, Folder “Economics 12b”.

________________________________________

March 30, 1948
W.W. Leontief

Make-Up Examination for Economics 12b—Final Exam

Answer FIVE Questions Including Questions 1 and 2

  1. Describe the nature and the function of the turnover tax.
  2. Describe and interpret the organization and the role of foreign trade in the Soviet Economy.
  3. Describe and appraise the general economic significance of the methods of income payments and income allocation in Soviet agriculture.
  4. Describe the methods which the Soviet Government used (a) to secure and (b) to allocate funds for capital investment.
  5. Compare the role of the trade unions in the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A.
  6. Characterize the successive Five-Year Plans by their principal distinguishing features.

Source: Harvard University Archives, Wassily Leontief Papers (HUG 4517.45), Course Material Box 2, Folder “Economics 12b”.

 

Image Source: Harvard Album 1949.

 

Categories
Courses Harvard Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Intermediate Economic Theory and Policy. Monroe, 1947-48

Before heading off to the pastures of retirement, Harvard’s Arthur Eli Monroe taught a year-long undergraduate intermediate economics course, Economic Theory and Policy. His syllabi for 1947-48 show a serious attempt to weave contemporary textbook material with readings from major contemporary works and links to the history of economics.

A less than serious attempt was made, it appears to me, in writing the questions for the final examination for the two terms. They appear to be of the give-the-student-enough-rope-to-hang-himself variety.

More biographical information for Monroe can be found in the earlier posting:

Harvard. Undergraduate Economic Theory (Shorter Course). Monroe, 1937-8

 

_________________________________

Monroe’s 1948 AEA Listing

Monroe, Arthur Eli, 5 Concord Ave., Cambridge 38, Mass. (1915) Retired, teach., edit.; b. 1885; A.B., 1908, A.M., 1914, Ph.D., 1918, Harvard. Fields 1ab, 7, 9. Doc. dis. Monetary theory before Adam Smith(Harvard Univ. Press, 1923). Pub. Early economic thought (1924), Value and income (1931) (Harvard Univ. Press); “Demand for labor,” Q.J.E., 1933. Dir. W.W. in Amer.

 

Source: American Economic Association, Alphabetical List of Members (as of June 15, 1948). The American Economic Review, Vol. 39, No. 1 (January 1929), p. 131.

_________________________________

 

Course Staffing and Enrollments: Economics 1a and 1b, 1947-48

[Economics] 1a. Dr. Monroe.—Economic Theory and Policy (F)

Total 74: 1 Graduate, 45 Seniors, 19 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 6 Radcliffe, 1 Other.

 

[Economics] 1b. Dr. Monroe.—Economic Theory and Policy (Sp)

Total 46: 2 Graduates, 38 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 3 Radcliffe.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of the Departments for 1947-48, p. 89.

_________________________________

Harvard University
Economics 1a
Fall Term — 1947-48

J. F. Due: Intermediate Economic Analysis*, Chs. I – IV, incl.
G. J. Stigler: Theory of Price, Chs. 5, 6.
N. Kaldor: Economic Journal, March, 1934. [The equilibrium of the Firm, Vol. 44, No. 173, pp. 60-76.]
A. E. Monroe: Value and Income, Ch. XV.

HOUR EXAMINATION—October 30.

Due: Intermediate Economic Analysis, Chs. V, VI.
K. E. Boulding: Economic Analysis, Chs. 24, 25.
E. H. Chamberlin: Monopolistic Competition, Chs. III, V.
Joan Robinson: Economics of Imperfect Competition, Chs. 17, 18, 19.

HOUR EXAMINATION—December 4.

Chamberlin: Monopolistic Competition, Chs. VI, VII.
R. Triffin: Monopolistic Competition…pp. 78-108.

READING PERIOD—One of the following:

A. Gray: Development of Economic Doctrine, Chs. III – X, incl.
P. T. Homan: Contemporary Economic Thought, Essays on Veblen, Marshall, Mitchell
A. G. B. Fisher: Class of Progress and Security, Chs. I – VIII, incl.

Conference periods: Saturdays, 9:30 – 12:30, Littauer M-14.

*Authorized for Veterans’ purchase.

_________________________________

 

Economics 1b
Spring Term — 1948

 

J. F. Due: Intermediate Economic Analysis*, Chs. 8, 11.
J. B. Clark: Distribution of Wealth, Chs. 11, 12.
J. R. Hicks: Theory of Wages, Chs. 1, 4, 6.
A. E. Monroe: Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1933. [The Demand for Labor, Vol. 47, No. 4, pp. 627-646.]
E. H. Chamberlin: Theory of Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 8

HOUR EXAMINATION—March 4.

J. F. Due: Intermediate Economic Analysis, Chs. 9, 10.
E. v. Böhm-Bawerk: Positive Theory of Capital, Book V.
A. E. Monroe: Value and Income, Ch. 8.
J. M. Keynes: General Theory of Employment…, Chs. 13, 15.
C. R. Bye: Developments…in the Theory of Rent, Chs. 1, 2, 3.

HOUR EXAMINATION—April 15.

J. F. Due: Intermediate Economic Analysis, Ch. 12.
F. H. Knight: Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, Chs. 8, 9.

*READING PERIOD—One of the following:

A. G. Gruchy: Modern Economic Thought, Chs. 5, 7, 8.
Theodore Morgan: Income and Employment, Chs. 1 – 15, incl.
Henri Sée: Modern Capitalism

CONFERENCE PERIODS: Saturdays, 9:30 – 12:30, Littauer M-14.

 

*Authorized for Veterans’ purchase.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1947-48 (1 of 2)”.

Image Source:  Harvard Album, 1942.

Categories
Chicago Funny Business

Chicago. The Cowles Commission Song. Ca. 1950.

Again Economics in the Rear-View Mirror is happy to provide its readers with an undated Chicago economics department parody found in the files of Milton Friedman. While I can say with complete confidence that the Chicago lyrics were written sometime between 1942 and 1955 (when the Cowles Commission moved on to New Haven), I figure this patriotic war-time tune might have declined in popularity and familiarity starting in the late 1940’s. Thus, for the sake of argument, I’ll just say the “Cowles Commission Song” was written ca. 1950.

Thank goodness for both YouTube and Archive.org and of course our old friend Google, I was able to find the original lyrics to the song “We Must Be Vigilant” and links to a movie rendition as well as this recording of the “We Must Be Vigilant” performed by Ziggy Lane and the the Chico Marx Orchestra. That’s right, Groucho’s older brother.

Perhaps someone will rise to the challenge of producing a Karaoke version of this Cowles Commission Song.  Do we historians of economics know how to party or what?

 

 

COWLES COMMISSION SONG
(to the tune of The American Patrol)

WE MUST BE VIGILANT
Adapted from F.W. Meacham’s “American Patrol”. Music adapted by Joseph A. Burke. Words by Edgar Leslie. (1942)
We must be rigorous,
We must be rigorous,
We must fulfill our role;
If we hesitate
Or equivocate,
We won’t achieve our goal.
We must investigate
Our system, complicate
To make our models whole;
Econometrics
brings about
Statistical control.

Our esoteric seminars
bring statisticians by the score.
But try to find economists
Who don’t think algebra a bore.
O, we must urge them all emphatically
To become inclined mathematically
So that all that we’ve developed, may
Someday be applied.

 We Must be Vigilant!
We Must Be Vigilant!
American Patrol!
With arms for the army,
Ships for the navy,
Let this be our goal.
We must be diligent!
We must be diligent!
American Patrol.
Protect our shoreline
To the door line
Of ev’ry native soul.

We need this solidarity
Or else divided we will fall;
It means the popularity
Of peace and happiness for all.
Behind this cause we must keep rallying,
Let there be no dilly dallying;
Keep us free from shill-shallying
Hark to freedom’s call.

(repeat first 11 lines)

Image Source: Mikael Uhlin’s Marxology at marx-brothers.org.

 

Categories
Chicago Economists Harvard

Harvard Alumnus. A.W. Marget. Too Jewish for Chicago? 1927.

Harvard economics Ph.D. (1927), Arthur William Marget (1899-1962), went on to teach at the University of Minnesota (ca 1927-1941) after which he began his second career as an economist at the Fed in Washington, D.C. Of particular interest in this posting is the reference letter sent by Allyn Young to the University of Chicago that is both glowing and explicit about his assistant’s handicap—“one of the chosen people”, i.e. a Jew.

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From the AEA 1957 Handbook of Members

Marget, Arthur William, Bd. of Gov. Fed. Res. System, Washington 25, D.C. (1926 [began membership in AEA]) Bd. of Gov. of Fed. Res. System, dir., Div. of Int. Fin.; b. 1899; A.B., 1920, A.M., 1921, Ph.D., 1927, Harvard; 1920, Univ. of Cambridge; 1921, Univ. of London; 1921, Univ. of Berlin. Fields 7a [Money, Credit, and Banking: Monetary Theory and Policy], 9b [International Economics: Foreign Exchange, International Finance], 2c [History of Economic Thought]. Doc. dis. Loan fund: pecuniary approach to problem of determination of rate of interest. Pub. Theory of prices (Prentice-Hall, 1938, 1942); “Leon Walras and ‘Cash balance approach’ to problem of value of money,” J. P. E., 1931; “Monetary aspects of Schumpeterian system,” Rev. of Econ. and Statis., 1951. Dir. W. W. in Amer., Dir. of Amer. Schol.

 

Source: American Economic Review, Vol. 47, No. 4. Handbook of the American Economic Association (July, 1957), p. 189.

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[ALLYN ABBOTT] YOUNG’S COMMENTS ON A. W. MARGET

[undated, Either 1926 or 1927. A typed copy of an excerpt from a letter by Young]

“The man who has been my assistant for the past three years is taking his degree this year. He has written a very brilliant thesis on “The Loan Fund: A Pecuniary Theory of Interest.” In erudition and cleverness he is as good as any man I have ever had, although I do not think he strikes as deeply in his thinking as the best of them. He graduated at the head of his class at Harvard, and was Phi Beta Kappa Marshal. Harvard sent him abroad on a traveling fellowship for a year, and he has been here for five subsequent years. He writes well and teaches well. All in all he is easily the best product we are turning out this year, and with the exception of James Angell he is as good as we have turned out in years. Now you will ask, ‘What’s wrong?’ His name is A. W. Marget and he is one of the chosen people. More than that he looks it. He is brilliant, loyal, and so good a teacher that he is quite popular among the Harvard undergraduates. The only thing that stands between him and success is his race. If you don’t fill your place next year, you might do worse than to take him on for a year’s trial.”

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics, Records. Box 38, Folder 1.

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PRICE GREENLEAF AWARDS MADE
Fifty-Four Freshmen Received Benefits From Endowment Fund.

Fifty-four members of the Freshman Class have been awarded Price Greenleaf aid assignments for 1916-17. These awards represent part of an annual appropriation of $16,000 given to the University by the bequest of Ezekiel Price Greenleaf, of Quincy, who is also the founder of ten Price Greenleaf scholarships.

The income of the Price Greenleaf fund is distributed in sums from $100 to $250 a year, to undergraduates in the first year of their residence and to deserving students who have not succeeded in the competition for scholarships.

A subsequent award will be made in February to some other first year students of high standing. Following are those who have received the awards:

…Arthur William Marget…

 

Source: The Harvard Crimson, November 1, 1916.

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ADMISSION EXAMINATION HONOR LIST ANNOUNCED
Boston Latin School Leads Number With Exeter Second and St. Paul’s and Newton Third.

The Committee on Admission has issued a list of the Freshmen whose entire entrance examination records have attained an average grade of work worthy of honorable mention. This is published in accordance with a vote of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, June 2, 1914, authorizing the Committee on Admission to publish each year after the September examinations, a list of those candidates for admission who passed this examination with high grades. This list also gives the names of the students’ schools and the titles of any scholarships they may have received. Boston Latin School leads this year with nine representatives on the list. Exeter is second with seven, and St. Paul’s School, of Concord, N. H., and Newton High School come next with four apiece….

… Arthur William Marget, Boston Latin, (Price Greenleaf Aid)…

 

Source: The Harvard Crimson, November 25, 1916.

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Marget Elected Marshal of Scholars

Arthur William Marget 1G, of Roxbury, has been elected First Marshal of the Phi Beta Kappa Society at the University, an office which each year goes to the student ranking highest in his studies. Marget completed the College course in three years, graduated with the class of 1919, and is now attending the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Source: The Harvard Crimson, November 12, 1919.

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Image Source: Arthur William Marget in Harvard Album 1928.