Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
Columbia Economists

Columbia. Wholesale Price Indexes. Wesley Clair Mitchell, 1921.

I’m an index number junkie. But this blog is not about me, though it will from time to time reveal my preferences, the perogative of the blogmeister.

The kind folks at FRASER provide us really great material. Here the link to Index Numbers of Wholesale Prices in the United States and Foreign Countries : Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 284, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, October 1921. Chart 1 between pages 14 and 15 is to die for!

Aggregation is the game, and Mitchell was his name, Wesley Clair Mitchell.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Government Regulation of Industry. A.B. Correlation Examination, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “correlation examination” questions for government regulation of industry given at Harvard in May 1939.  

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates.

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

CORRELATION EXAMINATION
Government Regulation of Industry

(Three hours)

Answer either FOUR or FIVE questions, including TWO from each group. If you answer FOUR questions, write about an hour on ONE of them and mark your answer “Essay.” This question will be given double weight.

A
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part

  1. Discuss (a) the political and (b) the economic problems that must be met if cyclical fluctuations are to be moderated by a great public works program.
  2. “Despite popular misconceptions the courts have failed to nullify the antitrust laws.”
  3. “The trouble with the large corporation is not its size nor any lack of efficiency but rather its lack of social responsibility.” Is there any way short of out-right government ownership for meeting this problem?
  4. “The existence of cartels vastly facilitated the penetration of political power into the economic sphere in the Fascist countries.”
  5. “The foremost mandate to those who wish to avoid the expansion of public ownership and operation, is to bring about the adoption of a rational method for determining base values of public utilities for regulatory purposes.”
  6. “Although the mixed undertaking has points in common with the public corporation such as its corporate form and monopolistic position, the two organizations are strikingly different.”
  7. “At present the United States does not have a democratically administered radio. The present system is subject to the pressure of groups interested in economic advantage. Are the evils of a private-profit radio greater than those of a nationalistic radio?”
  8. “The fiscal system cannot serve as an engine of social control unless it is very materially redesigned and remodeled. It can become a means of social control only by becoming itself the object of control.”
  9. “The public utility problem, in whatever form it is found, is primarily a question of distributing controls. The locus of ownership is merely an incidental aspect of the whole problem.”

 

B
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part

  1. “Perhaps the most acute of our present problems is that of preserving the democratic control of an increasingly centralized government power over economic life, rather than the avoidance of further extension of centralized government control.”
  2. Compare briefly commission regulation and government competition (as alternative methods of controlling market results) with respect to their most important political, administrative, and economic aspects.
  3. “The experience of the last ten years in ‘solving’ the farm problem leads to one conclusion only—that it can never be solved by government.”
  4. “Experience since 1920 demonstrates that the only way we can get desirable consolidation of railroads, which would yield great economies, is to allow the carriers to consolidate as they wish free from legal restrictions.”
  5. Discuss the administrative tasks and methods of the National Labor Relations Board.
  6. “Many of the bad effects of monopoly could be eliminated simply by amending the antitrust laws to prohibit the practices of price leadership and sharing the market.”
  7. “If price fixing according to the criterion laid down in the National Bituminous Coal Act of 1937 were extended to a large number of major industries wages and profits would be higher all ‘round.”
  8. Discuss some of the economic and administrative problems presented by the Robinson-Patman Act.
  9. Explain why you would favor or oppose the establishment of a Bureau of Industrial Economics to collect and publish basic industrial statistics and engage in continuous study of the problems of industrial organization and business policies.

May 12, 1939.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers. Box 7. [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics. Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Public Administration and Finance, Correlation Exam, 1939

Today’s posting is a transcription of the “correlation examination” questions for public administration and finance given at Harvard in May 1939.

Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]

A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project. 

Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.

  • Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates.

Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.

______________________

If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….

 

 

______________________

DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

CORRELATION EXAMINATION
Public Administration and Finance

(Three hours)

Answer either FOUR or FIVE questions, including TWO from each group. If you answer FOUR questions, write about an hour on ONE of them and mark your answer “Essay.” This question will be given double weight.

 

A
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part

  1. “A marked tendency of modern legislation is to deal with regulatory problems by setting forth less frequently in the legislation itself the particular rules that shall control. More commonly the administrative agency is given power to prescribe governing regulations in certain spheres of activity.”
  2. “One factor that has received little attention is the need for administrative agencies to give adequate and effective publicity to their achievements. In the field of policy determination, effective publicizing of the policy and of the reasons that underlie it is essential.”
  3. “Although the U. S. Civil Service Commission has accomplished much in the way of reducing the patronage evil and in introducing competition as a means of recognizing merit, the full implications of the merit system have not been realized.”
  4. “The ultimate test of an administrative agency regulating business is the policy that it formulates; not the fairness as between the parties of the disposition of a controversy on a record of their own making.”
  5. “The development of American administrative law involves a potential conflict between the legislature and the judiciary. In humble realization by each of their respective functions lies in large measure the trembling hope for the maintenance of our democracy.”
  6. “A serious charge against the grant-in-aid from the point of view of concern for our dual system, is that it breaks down state initiative and devitalizes state policies. The exact contrary appears to be the case in actual practice.”
  7. “An old, established rule of statecraft is that ad hoc agencies should be kept at a minimum. Every agency that wants to be free from the integrated structure of the government and the control of central staff agencies must be able to make out a case for itself, showing that the advantages considerably outweigh the disadvantages.”
  8. “The concept of efficiency can be made the basis of a comprehensive and flexible framework for the evaluation and appraisal of government. It is a powerful tool for analyzing relationships of legislature and administrator.”
  9. “In the lack of cooperation between the President and Congress, is to be found the most serious weakness in the national fiscal system.” Discuss with reference to the Bureau of the Budget and the Treasury Department as agencies for financial planning, accounting and control.

 

B
Use a separate blue book for the questions in this part

  1. “You cannot run a war without inflation, so the government must finance it by borrowing or issuing paper money instead of by increasing taxation.”
  2. Explain the purposes and the principal activities of the Farm Credit Administration, or the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
  3. “People who talk about the ‘burden’ of the public debt fail to see that it is simply a matter of taxing Peter to pay Paul, or sometimes Peter.”
  4. Discuss the more important financial, administrative, and political problems which would be involved in a government program for extensive slum clearance.
  5. “Few people seem to realize that the Tennessee Valley Authority is socialism, and socialism of the worst sort characterized by fairyland economics, academic ideology, and absentee control.”
  6. “The chief result of the pernicious system of federal grants to states is that the people of those states with the smartest politicians get part of the bills for their own schools and highways paid by people in other states.”
  7. Discuss the possibilities of achieving a reduction in the costs of federal government or state government without diminishing the output of government services.
  8. “Our tax system needs to be revised in such ways as to discourage saving and encourage investment.”
  9. “The unplanned character of public spending by state and local governments must bear a considerable part of the blame for fluctuations in employment and the national income.”

 

May 12, 1939.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers. Box 7. [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics. Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.

 

Categories
Business School Chicago Economists

Chicago. Problem of Faculty Turnover, 1923

The Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago Library is putting scans of records from the respective administrations of Presidents Harper, Judson and Burton (1869-1925)  on-line (52 boxes of 91 boxes thus far!).  For today’s posting I have transcribed the introduction and conclusions of a summary “of the most imperative needs of the Graduate School of Arts and Literature” written in October 1923 as well as the section for the Department of Political Economy. Additionally I provide c.v. data for the economists named published in the Annual Register 1921-22 for the University of Chicago and additional biographical information (obituaries/memorials) to follow their post-Chicago careers.

 

____________________________________

The University of Chicago
The Graduate School of Arts and Literature

Office of the Dean

October 30, 1923.

Dean J. H. Tufts,
The University of Chicago.

Dear Dean Tufts:

I enclose a summary of the most imperative needs of the Graduate School of Arts and Literature. I have drawn it up only after a most careful examination of the condition of the Departments. I am convinced that it is only by making the new appointments which I have listed and providing the increases I have indicated that the School can hope to make any appreciable contribution to graduate studies in America or even to hold its own with the other Graduate Schools in the country. In the case of some departments the situation is almost inconceivably bad. It is so bad that it is only by making new appointments of strong men—major appointments that would command attention—and by increasing the salaries of many members of the teaching staff who are being tempted away that we can hope to regain our prestige. I hope that this will not sound like an exaggeration. It is not. It is a lamentable fact that some of the departments that ten or fifteen years ago were famous and attracted graduate students from all parts of the continent are now deplorably weak, while some of the others, though still doing efficient work, have recently suffered serious losses in their teaching staff and are threatened with still more. Let me speak of these in detail.

 

I. The Weak Departments:

  1. The Department of Psychology…
  2. The Department of the History of Art…
  3. The Department of German….
  4. The Department of Latin…
  5. Another notable example of weakness is found in Anthropology…
  6. The Department of General Literature…

 

[II.] The Other Departments:

  1. Romance Languages…
  2. History…
  3. Political Economy

The situation here is especially precarious. The instructional staff is an efficient one but extremely difficult to hold. Within recent years three men have gone: Moulton, Hardy and Lyon. Some of the men here now have received tempting offers of positions wither in government bureaus or in industries. The new appointment in Money and Banking is to fill the vacancy caused by Moulton’s going to Washington two years ago. Viner has had more than one call. Good men in Political Economy seem to be increasingly hard to get.

May I remind you also of the fine contribution that this Department, under Mr. Marshall’s inspiration, has made to that cooperative study of economic, social, and political conditions in Chicago that is being carried on by all the departments in the Social Science Group. This whole piece of work is, as you yourself know, a most interesting experiment, and in its detailed analysis of the characteristics of the Chicago community, will in all probability prove to be a model for the study of any large metropolitan area.

I hope you will pardon my writing at such length, but the situation seems to me to be critical. We cannot afford to delay remedial measures. The money that I am asking for is not simply for the University of Chicago, it is for Graduate Studies in the whole Middle West, which looks to Chicago for its teachers. Of all the new appointments that I have urged there is not one that would not influence higher education throughout the Mississippi Valley.

 

Yours very truly,

[signed]
Gordon J. Laing

 

Source: University of Chicago. Office of the President: Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations Records 1869-1925. Box 47, Folder 6 “Graduate schools, development, 1914-1924”.

 

____________________________________

 

Charles Oscar Hardy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Financial Organization in the School of Commerce and Administration. [Resigned]

A.B., Ottawa University, 1904; Professor of History and Economics, ibid., 1910-18; Dean of the College, ibid., 1916-18; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1916; Lecturer in the School of Commerce and Administration, ibid., 1918-19; Assistant Professor, ibid., 1919-22.

 

Harold Glenn Moulton, Ph.B., Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy. [Resigned]

Ph.B., University of Chicago, 1907; Assistant in Political Economy, ibid., 1910-11; Instructor, ibid., 1911-14; Ph.D., ibid., 1914; Assistant Professor, ibid., 1914-18; Associate Professor, ibid., 1918-1922; Professor, ibid., 1922.

 

Leverett Samuel Lyon, A.M., LL.B., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Commercial Organization in the School of Commerce and Administration.

Ph.B., University of Chicago, 1910; LL.B., Chicago Kent College of Law, 1915; Assistant in Commercial Organization in the School of Commerce and Administration, ibid., 1916-17; Instructor, ibid., 1917-19; A.M., ibid., 1918; Assistant Professor, ibid., 1919—; Ph.D., ibid., 1921.

 

Jacob Viner, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Economy.

B.A., McGill University, 1914; A.M., Harvard University, 1915; Instructor in Political Economy, University of Chicago, 1916-19; Assistant Professor, ibid., 1919—; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1922.

 

Leon Carroll Marshall, A.M., LL.D., Professor and Chairman of the Department of Political Economy; Dean of the School of Commerce and Administration and of the Graduate School of Social Service Administration.

A.B., Ohio Wesleyan University, 1900; A.B., Harvard University, 1901; A.M., ibid., 1902; Assistant, ibid., 1902-3; Professor of Economics, Ohio Wesleyan University, 1903-7; Assistant Professor of Political Economy, University of Chicago, 1907-8; Associate Professor, ibid., 1908-11; Dean of the School of Commerce and Administration, ibid., 1909—; Professor of Political Economy, ibid., 1911—; Dean of the Senior Colleges, ibid., 1911-20; LL.D., Ohio Wesleyan University, 1918; Dean of the Graduate School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, 1920—.

 

 

Source: University of Chicago, Annual Register, 1921-1922, pp. 38, 40, 54, 57.

 

____________________________________

 

Life after the University of Chicago

“In Memoriam: Charles Oscar Hardy, 1884-1948”. American Economic Review, Vol. 39, No. 3 (May, 1949), pp. 478-480.

“Harold Moulton, Economist, Dead. Ex-President of Brookings Institution in the Capital,” The New York Times, December 15, 1965, p. 48.

Engle, N. H., “Leverett Samuel Lyon”, Journal of Marketing, Vol 24, No. 1 (July, 1959), pp. 67-69.

“Dr. Jacob Viner, Economist, Dead: Princeton Professor was U.S. Adviser 4 Decades,” The New York Times, September 13, 1970.

Marshall, Leon Carroll, 1879-1966. Biographical notes. Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC). [Webpage].

 

Image Source: Leon C. Marshall. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-04113, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Chicago Fields

Chicago. Economics Ph.D. program, switch to field exams. 1919.

The brief memo transcribed for today’s posting indicates at least a desire and perhaps indeed first steps to moving graduate education in economics at the University of Chicago away from a course credit orientation (i.e. “majors”) to one based upon examination in aggregates of “fields or subjects”. The memo’s author, James Alfred Field, taught courses on population and vital statistics.

_________________________________

James Alfred Field (1880-1927).

A.B., Harvard (1903); graduate student, Harvard (1903-6); University of Berlin, 1905-06; Assistant/Teaching Fellow in Economics, Harvard (1903-5); Instructor in Economics Harvard/Radcliffe (1906-08).

Instructor 1908-10, Assistant Professor (1910-13), Associate Professor (1913-1918), Professor (1918-1927) at University of Chicago.

Source: University of Chicago. Annual Register, 1909-1910 .p. 45.

_________________________________

The University of Chicago
The School of Commerce and Administration

Memorandum to Graduate Committee from J. A. Field

December 8, 1919

The Committee on Graduate Students in the Department of Political Economy will meet on Thursday, December 11, at 4:00 o’clock, in Cobb 6 B, to begin the discussion of proposed reforms in the methods of graduate instruction and in the requirements and examinations for the doctor’s degree.

It is proposed, in general, that advanced students who have shown evidence of their qualification be exempted, as far as is practicable, from the routine demands of separate courses, and be assisted and encouraged to organize their studies in significant groups or special fields, with increased opportunities for independent reading and inquiry. Accordingly, it is suggested that the requirements for the doctor’s degree be formulated in terms not of majors, but of fields or subjects, and that the method of examination be correspondingly revised.

The discussion on December 11 will deal particularly with the practical problems of defining suitable fields or groups of studies, and of guiding and testing independent individual work in these fields.

 

J. A. Field

 

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics. Records. Box 22, Folder 7.

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-06081, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

Categories
Chicago Economists

Chicago. Sociology and Political Economy. Laughlin Letter, 1894

1895 Laughlin and Small

In a handwritten letter to President William R. Harper, the head of the Department of Political Economy, Professor J. Laurence Laughlin, responds to a request for harmonizing the course offerings between his department and those of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology headed by (Sociology) Professor Albion W. Small.

Laughlin signals his interest in establishing mutually recognized borders between the disciplines and he appears to hint that because Professor Small believes “Social Science” (by which the Department of Sociology/Anthropology is apparently meant) is “the dome built on the pillars” of ethics, political science, jurisprudence, history and political economy, Small’s department imperially claims curricular turf in the named disciplines.

Laughlin wants to reassure Harper that reports that had apparently filtered to the university administration of personal animosity between Small and Laughlin have no real foundation but he remains firm about the principle of rendering to the department of political economy what is due political economy.

_______________________

Newman, N. Y.,
July 17, 1894

My dear Pres. Harper,

I have your letter of the 10th inst. [instante mense] in which you say: “I hope that it will be possible for you and Mr. Small to arrange the work of the departments in such a manner as that (1) there shall be no duplication, and (2) the courses may fit into each other to the best possible advantage”.

I think you will find both Mr. Small [Albion Woodbury Small, Head Professor of Sociology] and myself quite ready to do anything we can to save the University from any criticism. Both of us, however, will probably be struck by the lack of point in what has been said. I do not quite see what is meant by “harmony of work between the two departments”, as opposed to what now exists. As I understand Mr. Small, Social Science takes its data from the existing sciences, of which Political Economy is only one, the others being Philosophy (or Ethics), Political Science, Jurisprudence, and History. Social Science is the dome built on the pillars of all these sciences. The relations of Political Economy to Social Science are not other than the relations of Political Science, or Philosophy, or History—and there is no reason for singling out Political Economy. I can see, of course, that students of Social Science should have their Political Economy before they enter Social Science—under the above relations, and I have noticed that few students in Social Science are also taking Political Economy. But this probably quite as true of Social Science and Political Science.

I am speaking, of course, not of the sub-divisions of Anthropology, or Sanitary Science. They are not in question. And as to the study of dependent classes (Dr. Henderson’s [Charles Richmond Henderson, Associate Professor of Sociology in the Divinity School and University Chaplain] work) much of it is independent of economic data. So I have spoken only of Mr. Small’s work.

If there has been any discourtesy as to personal work, I shall do my best to stop it. But if any discussion exists relating to scientific work, independent of persons, such as that of the relations of the sciences, I believe it to be healthy, and I should welcome it so far as it relates to Political Economy. The proper University spirit demands it. And it is also to be remembered that the University of Chicago is the only institution in the world—so far as my knowledge goes—in which a division is made into Political Economy, Political Science, History, Social Science, and Ethics; and there must naturally be some questions arise [sic] to boundaries.

So far as reduplication goes the only case I know of is a course by Mr. Cummings [John Cummings, Reader in Political Economy; A.B. (1891), A. M. (1892), Harvard; University of Chicago (1894), Ph.D.] on the Utopias (similar to one by Mr. Thomas [William I. Thomas, Instructor in Ethnic Psychology; A.B. (1884), A.M. (1885), Ph.D. (1886) University of Tennessee]). I was ignorant of Mr. Thomas’s course when it was agreed to allow Mr. Cummings to give his. Before leaving Chicago, it happens that I had advised Mr. Cummings to drop that course, & he assented. Hence, although it appears in our programme, it will not appear in the quarterly calendar. Even though he expected to give it an economic treatment, I felt that the could use his powers better elsewhere. As to all the other courses they have a purely economic raison d’être; and when first sent to Mr. Small he found no difficulty in seeing clearly the line of demarkation between his field and mine.

That the courses should “fit into each other” in the two departments more than they do now, it would be our wish to arrange; but I think it would be difficult to do it better.

May it not be possible that the remarks you have heard have come from people who really know very little of the actual work of the two departments? Certainly in connection with the examinations of Mr. Cummings and Mr. Learned [Learned, Henry Barrett: A. B. (1890) Harvard; A.M. (1894) University of Chicago], Mr. Small was eminently fair & candid. If there is anything more explicit than you have written me, I should be glad to hear of it.

Sincerely yours,

[signed]
J. Laurence Laughlin

 

Source: University of Chicago Library, Department of Special Collections. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records. Box 57, Folder “Laughlin, J. Laurence, 1892-1917”.

____________________________

 

Department of Political Economy

Social and Economic Ideals. Plato. Aristotle. Aquinas. Machiavelli. More. Hooker. Hobbes. Locke. Modern schemes of social reformation. Reading and Reports.

4 hrs. a week, [Double major]. Autumn Quarter.
Dr. Cummings

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

The Historical Sociologies.—Exposition of significant classical, mediaeval, and modern attempts to interpret social phenomena. Criticism of data, methods, and conclusions.

[Double major] Summer and Winter Quarters.
Dr. Thomas [Fellow in Sociology].

 

Lecture-Study Department (University Extension Division)

Utopias: (1) Plato, The Republic. (2) More, Utopia, (3) Hobbes, The Leviathan. (4) Swift, Gulliver’s Travels. (5) Socialistic Dreamers: St. Simon, Fourier, Robert Owen, Cabet. (6) Bellamy, Looking Backward.

Daniel Fulcomer, A.M., Lecturer in Sociology.

Source: University of Chicago. Annual Register, 1893-1894, pp. 47, 63, 246

Image Source: University of Chicago. Cap and Gown, 1895.

Categories
Business School Chicago Curriculum

Chicago. Laughlin on Establishing a Business School, 1895

Basic training in graduate education in economics has been distilled into a trinity of microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics. This tends to be taken for granted by most economics departments. However long before we ever got here, “political economy” or “economics” has coexisted with history, business, sociology and public affairs, perhaps each within a separate cubicle but all nevertheless sharing a common office space. We see in today’s posting for the University of Chicago that the branching off of business studies occurred fairly early in the development of U.S. graduate/professional education.

I think this sort of development is important to follow because once administrative walls have been built, interdisciplinarity gets reduced to Pyramus and Thisbe interactions. (Plot spoiler: it didn’t end well for that couple.)

The following interview with the head of the Chicago department of political economy, J. Laurence Laughlin, provides us with an ex ante view of business education.

________________________________________

 

NO SCHOOL IS LIKE IT
SCHEME OF INSTRUCTION WITHOUT
AN AMERICAN PARALLEL.

Chicago Daily Tribune, May 12, 1895

University of Chicago’s Department of Business Economics and Journalism to Cover Wide Range of Practical Every-Day Training—Forecast of the Leading Courses—Railways to Receive Special Attention—Number of Instructors Required in the School of Economics.

“Is the University of Chicago to have a department of business and economics and journalism similar to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania?” was asked Prof. J. Laurence Laughlin, head of the department of economics in the university yesterday afternoon.

“No, it is not,” he replied, “we are to have a school in business economics and journalism, but it will not be modeled after the Wharton school.”

“It seems strange,” Prof. Laughlin continued, “but the statement made by President Harper at the April convocation regarding the establishment in the university of courses in banking, transportation, insurance, consular and diplomatic service, and corporation management seems to have been entirely buried in the public mind. As a matter of fact, Dr. Harper gave utterance to a scheme the like of which has never been attempted in this country. People are familiar with schools of law, medicine, and dentistry, but the idea that a journalist, a banker, a railroad man, a diplomat, or a manager of a corporation should have special training in their particular line of employment is not readily conceived. The new work which the University of Chicago expects to undertake will, as I say, constitute a new departure in modern education. The Wharton school has an endowment of only about $100,000; the University of Chicago expects to organize its departments of business economics with no less than $1,000,000. True, these various departments of practical economic work will not deal with the arithmetic of banking or the technique of railroading or journalism. These things must be learned by practical contact with men and affairs. It is, however, necessary that a banker should be thoroughly acquainted with the principles and functions of money, that he should understand the industrial economics of his own and other countries, and that he should understand the character and extent of the changes in this own business which may be brought about by constantly arising changes in industrial economics, money legislations, etc.”

No Fear as to Results.

            “Are you not met with the objection that the training of young men to be bank Presidents, railway magnates, diplomats, etc., is in the face of present-day competition and business shifts, a rather dangerous undertaking? was asked.

“No, I do not think so. In 1880, for instance, one-fifth of those engaged in gainful pursuits in the Unite States were engaged in transportation. The business of a banker, a railroad manager, an actuary, or an expert accountant is becoming sufficiently extensive and of sufficient importance not only to warrant such training, but to make it necessary to the successful management of any one of these businesses. The fact should be emphasized that we shall not attempt the clerical part of an education in any of these lines of work. In the school of journalism we shall be satisfied if the student learns to think clearly and independently upon economic subjects and is fairly well grounded in the kind of history, law, and economics acquaintance with which every public teacher requires.”

Prof. Laughlin is Chairman of a committee, the other members of which he is not prepared to announce, which is at work upon the courses which will enter into the new curriculum. It is not known at just what time the scheme will be announced in detail, but there is no doubt that the plan will, in due time, be operated along the lines indicated. When asked whom the university would probably invite to captain the various departments of the new school Prof. Laughlin said he had nothing for publication.

The leading courses under the new scheme will undoubtedly be banking and railroading. Of the first course Prof. Laughlin will probably have charge. The course will probably deal with the comparative banking systems of the United States, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, and other countries, and special attention will be given to the manner in which each meets the problems of currency (coin, note, and deposit), reserves, discount, and exchange. The relations of the banks to the public, their influence on speculation, their management in financial crises, special dangers, and most efficient safeguards will be discussed; also relative advantages and different fields of action for national banks, State banks, deposit and trust companies, and savings banks.

Course in Railway Transportation.

            Prof. von Holst and Prof. Laughlin are thoroughly alive to the field which the railway is opening up to the student and business-man. Prof. von Holst says a competent history of the United States cannot be written until the growth and mechanism of the railway has been set forth. The course in railway transportation for the winter of 1896 suggests the character and extent of work which the new economic training will offer. The course will begin with a discussion of the economic, financial, and social influences arising from the growth of modern railway transportation, especially as concerns the United States. Then will follow an account of the means of transportation developed in Europe and America during the early part of this century, the experiments of the States in constructing and operating canals and railways; national, State, and municipal aid to private companies; the rapid and irregular extension of the Untied States railway system in recent years, with some attention to railway building in other countries.

A discussion of various theories of rates; competition, combination, discrimination, investments, speculation, abuse of fiduciary powers; State legislation and commissions and the inter-State commerce act, with decisions under it; also the various relations of the State, the public, investors, managers, and employés will form the most important part of the work. A comparison of the United States railway system with those of other countries will be made, with special attention to the problems of State ownership.

Prof. E. R. L. Gould, the statistician-elect from Johns Hopkins University, will likely be the statistician of the new school. Prof. Gould will assume his duties at the university next October. In his department Prof. Gould will trace the historical development of statistics and examine into the work of private statistical associations and of official agencies in all the leading countries. The student will be given the claims of statistics to scientific recognition, the principles of statistical judgments, and the problems of systematic statistics. Together with the necessity of uniformity of method and comparability of data, graphical methods, and cartography, attention will be drawn to the technique of statistics.

Thorough Analysis of Statistics.

            Demonstrations with actual statistical material being the most satisfactory method of statistical instruction, particular stress will be laid upon this feature of the course. Statistical returns of various sorts will be carefully analyzed and generalizations made when possible. International comparisons will also receive special attention and exposition and practical analysis will be applied in the following classes of statistics: Population, education, vital statistics, paupers, criminals and defectives, social statistics of cities, industry and labor, land and agriculture, transportation, trade and commerce, prices and public finance.

Prof. A.C. Miller will have charge of the department of finance. In this course it is intended to make a comprehensive survey of the whole field of public finance. Review will be made of the growth of and present state of the expenditures of leading modern nations, and the methods used for defraying them. Taxation, holding the place of first-importance among the resources of the modern state, will be the principal subject of the course. A critical estimate will be made of the theories of leading writers with a view to discovering a tenable basis for taxation. Special attention will be given to the comparative study of the tax systems of the principal modern states, and to the problems of State and local taxation in America. All questions will be discussed from the two-fold standpoint of justice and expediency.

The remaining pars of the course will treat of the organization and methods of financial administration, the formal control of public expenditures by means of the budget, the growth of public debts and their economic and social effect. The various problems involved in the management of public debts, such as methods of borrowing, conversion, and reduction, will be considered, and the methods practiced in our own and other countries described.

A course to be given by Dr. Thorstein B. Veblen in “Problems in American Agriculture” will be a feature of the economic work for 1895-’96. In this department special attention will be given to the extension and changes of the cultivated area of the United States; the methods of farming; the influence of railways and population and of cheapened transportation; the fall in values of Eastern farm lands; movements of prices of agricultural products; European markets; competition of other countries; intensive farming; diminishing returns; farm mortgages; and the comparison of American with European systems of culture. Systems of holdings in Great Britain, Belgium, France, and Germany will be touched upon, together with the discussion of forestry legislation.

Twenty-nine Instructors Required.

            This description of a few courses in economics announced for 1895-’96 will give some idea of the scope of work with which the new school of economics will deal. Seven instructors are registered in the department of political economy, four in political science, nine in history, and nine in sociology and anthropology—all related sciences, and each of which will probably be represented in the new school, or rather in the extension of the present school.

Besides courses in banking, railway transportation, insurance, and corporation management the new school will include courses in the consular and diplomatic service, trading and shipping, and municipal government. No attempt will be made to go into the details of these departments further than is essential to a comprehension of the mechanism and principles of the entire business.

The problem to which the University of Chicago addresses itself is the proper arrangement of the courses, the engagement of expert instructors, and the establishment of libraries and bureaus of information for the use of students.

Chicago being the greatest railway center of the United States and the home of several prominent railway managers, it is thought that certain Chicago men will be solicited for a portion of their time to be spent in university instructions, the aim being to united with a theoretical education a practical business training, unencumbered, however, with the clerical routine and forms.

“After all,” says Prof. Laughlin, “our graduated banker must begin at the bottom and work his way up like other individuals; but he will, nevertheless, have the indisputable advantage over his rival of seeing and conceiving different departments of the bank in connection with the whole. Details are, after all, easily learned. The new department will savor little of the ‘school,’ will be practical and up to date in its methods, and will give the would-be banker or railway manager or superintendent the same preparation as I now given the intending lawyer or physician in a law or medical school.”

Image Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03687, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Thirteen Ph.D. Examinees, 1915-16

For thirteen Harvard economics Ph.D. candidates this posting provides information about their respective academic backgrounds, the six subjects of their general examinations along with the names of the examiners, the subject of their special subject, thesis subject and advisor(s) (where available). Of particular note are the records for Harvard historian of early economic thought, Arthur Eli Monroe, and the soon to become distinguished Chicago (later Princeton) economist, Jacob Viner.

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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.
1915-16

Notice of hour and place will be sent out three days in advance of each examination.
The hour will ordinarily be 4 p.m.

 

Arthur Eli Monroe.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, October 13, 1915.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Gay, Day, and Holcombe.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1904-08; Harvard Graduate School, 1913-February, 1916. A.B., Harvard, 1908; A. M., ibid., 1914. Teacher of Latin and German, Kent School, Connecticut, 1909-13; Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1914-February, 1916; Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1915-February, 1916; Instructor I Economics, Williams College, February, 1916-.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Public Finance. 4. Statistical Method and its Application. 5. History of Political Theory. 6. Topic in the History of Economic Thought.
Special Subject: Some topic in the History of American Economic Thought.

 

Merton Kirk Cameron.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, November 17, 1915.
Committee: Professors Gay (chairman), Ripley, Taussig, Anderson, and Day.
Academic History: Princeton University, 1904-08; Harvard Graduate School, 1913-. A.B., Princeton, 1908; A. M., Harvard, 1914. Head of Department of History, Lanier High School, Montgomery, Alabama, 1911-13; Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1915-.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Money, Banking, and Crises. 4. Transportation. 5. Economics of Corporations. 6. American History.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The History of the Tobacco Growing Industry in the United States.” (With Professor E. F. Gay.)

 

Herbert Knight Dennis

General Examination in Economics, Tuesday, February 29, 1916.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Perry, Tozzer, Ford, Foerster, and Anderson.
Academic History: Allegheny College, 1907-08; Brown University, 1910-12; Princeton University, 1912-14; Harvard Graduate School, 1914-. Ph.B., Brown, 1912; A. M., Princeton, 1914; A.M. Harvard, 1915.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Ethical Theory and its History. 3. Poor Relief. 4. Social Reforms. 5. Sociology. 6. Anthropology.
Special Subject: Social Psychology.
Thesis Subject: “The French Canadians—A Study in Race Psychology.” (With Professor Foerster.)

 

James Washington Bell.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 3, 1916.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Ripley, Munro, Anderson, and Copeland.
Academic History: University of Colorado, 1908-14; Harvard Graduate School, 1914-. A.B., Colorado, 1912; A.M., ibid., 1913. Assistant in Economics, University of Colorado, 1912-14.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Public Finance. 4. Labor Problems. 5. Sociology. 6. Municipal Government.
Special Subject: Public Finance.
Thesis Subject: “Taxation of Railroads in New England.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

William Burke Belknap.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 4, 1916.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Gay, Ripley, Anderson, and Dr. Morison.
Academic History: Yale College, 1904-08; University of Chicago, 1913-14 (two terms); Haverad Graduate School, 1914-. A.B., Yale, 1908; A.M. Harvard, 1915.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Labor Problems. 4. Money and Banking. 5. American History since 1789. 6. Public Finance.
Special Subject: Public Finance.
Thesis Subject: “History of the State Finances of Kentucky.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

Henry Bass Hall.

General Examination in Economics, Friday, May 5, 1916.
Committee: Professors Gay (chairman), Taussig, Turner, Day, and Anderson.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1904-05; Amherst College, 1906-07; Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1911-12; Harvard Graduate School, 1912-. S.B., Massachusetts Agricultural College, 1912.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Money and Banking. 3. International Trade. 4. Economic History since 1750. 5. Agricultural Economics. 6. American History since 1789.
Special Subject: Agricultural Economics.
Thesis Subject: “Economic History of Massachusetts Agriculture.” (With Professors Carver and Gay.)

 

Charles Cloyd Creekpaum.

General Examination in Economics, Monday, May 8, 1916.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Day, Anderson, Copeland, and Holcombe.
Academic History: University of Nebraska, 1908-12; Harvard Graduate School, 1914-. A. B., Nebraska, 1912. Principal of High School, Alvo, Nebraska, 1912-13; Principal of High School, McCool Junction, Nebraska, 1913-14.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology. 4. Statistics. 5. History of Political Theory. 6. Public Finance.
Special Subject: Public Finance.
Thesis Subject: “The Financial Results of Public Ownership of Railways.” (With Professor Bullock.)

 

Mark Anson Smith.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 11, 1916.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Hart, Gay, Ripley, and Dr. Davis.
Academic History: Dartmouth College, 1906-10; University of Wisconsin, 1911-14; Harvard Graduate School, 1914-. A.B., Dartmouth, 1910; A.M., Wisconsin, 1913.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Money and Banking. 4. Economics of Corporations. 5. Public Finance. 6. American Government and Constitutional Law.
Special Subject: Public Finance.

 

John Emmett Kirshman.

General Examination in Economics, Friday, May 12, 1916.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Ripley, Gay, Munro, and Foerster.
Academic History: Central Wesleyan College, 1901-04; Syracuse University, 1907-08; University of Wisconsin, 1908-09; University of Illinois, 1914-15; Harvard Graduate School, 1915-. Ph.B., Central Wesleyan, 1904; Ph.M. Syracuse, 1908. Assistant Professor of History, North Dakota Agricultural College, 1909-14; Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Illinois, 1914-15.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Public Finance. 3. Economic History since 1750. 4. Comparative Modern Government. 5. Economics of Corporations. 6. Socialism and Social Reform.
Special Subject: Public Finance
Thesis Subject: “Taxation of Banking Institutions.” (With Professor Bullock)

 

Zenas Clark Dickinson.

General Examination in Economics, Monday, May 15, 1916.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Gay, Yerkes, Day, and Dr. Burbank
Academic History: University of Nebraska, 1910-14; Harvard Graduate School, 1914-. A.B., Nebraska, 1914.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Statistical Method and its Application. 4. Public Finance. 5. Psychology. 6. Suitable Field in Economic Theory and its History, with special reference to Psychology.
Special Subject: Suitable Field in Economic Theory.

 

Arthur Harrison Cole.

Special Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 18, 1916.
Committee:
General Examination passed January 7, 1915.
Academic History: Bowdoin College, 1907-11; Harvard Graduate School, 1911-. A.B., Bowdoin, 1911; A.M., Harvard, 1913. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1913
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. 4. Public Finance and Financial History. 5. International Trade and Tariff History. 6. Political and Constitutional History of the United States.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Committee: Professors Gay (chairman), Taussig, Turner, and Sprague.
Thesis Subject: “History of the Wool Manufacturing Industry in the United States, to the year 1830.” (With Professors Gay and Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Gay, Taussig, and Sprague.

 

Jacob Viner

General Examination in Economics, Friday, May 19, 1916.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Bullock, R. B. Perry, Anderson, and Gras.
Academic History: McGill University, Montreal, 1911-14; Harvard Graduate School, 1914-. A.B., McGill, 1914; A.M., Harvard, 1915.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. International Trade. 3. Public Finance. 4. Sociology. 5. Economic History since 1750. 6. Theory of Value (Philosophy).
Special Subject: International Trade.
Thesis Subject: “International Balance of Payments” (With Professor Taussig)

 

Percy Gamble Kammerer.

Special Examination in Economics, Monday, May 22, 1916.
General Examination passed May 14, 1914.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1904-06, 1910-12; Harvard Graduate School, 1912-. A. B., 1908 (1913).
General Subjects: : 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Ethical Theory. 3. Poor Relief. 4. Social Reforms. 5. Sociology. 6. The Labor Question.
Special Subject: The Family considered Historically and in its Relation to Social Institutions.
Committee: Professors Foerster (chairman), Ripley, Feguson, Tozzer, Ford, and Anderson.
Thesis Subject: “The Unmarried Mother: a Study of Case Histories.” (With Professor Foerster.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Foerster, Taussig, and Dearborn.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1915-1916”.

Image Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Digital ID:  cph 3c14486

Categories
Columbia Economists Harvard

Harvard. Invitations for guest lectures by Schumpeter and Rathgen, 1913

This exchange of letters between Frank Taussig and President Lowell of Harvard involves two pieces of business. The first is Taussig’s request for approval to use department lecture funds to invite Joseph Schumpeter and Karl Rathgen, who were both visiting Columbia University, to give lectures at Harvard. The second piece of business concerns a recommendation of two men to be considered for the presidency of the University of Washington, one of whom (L. C. Marshall who was the Dean of the University of Chicago Business School) the other, James Rowland Angell who would go on to become President of Yale and who also happened to be the father of the Columbia University economist James Waterhouse Angell.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
October 22, 1913.

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E.F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague
Q. E. Rappard
E. E. Day
B. M. Anderson, Jr.
H. L. Gray
Dear Lawrence:

Two Germans are in this country, both at the present moment lecturing at Columbia, to whom we might appropriately show a little attention. One is J. Schumpeter, an Austrian with whom I have had correspondence, and a very well-known and highly respected scholar; the other is K. Rathgen of Hamburg, also well-known in the profession. Our friends at Columbia write that these men would be glad to look at this institution, and we are more than willing to show them a little civility. Would you authorize us to ask each of them to give a lecture, possibly more than one, the fee to be charged to the fund for lectures on Political Economy? Schumpeter speaks excellent English, and could certainly give an acceptable lecture. Rathgen might possibly have to speak in German, in which case we should ask him simply to talk to our Seminary.

You remember our talk about the presidency of the University of Washington. I enclose a letter from L. C. Marshall of Chicago about young Angell, the psychologist, who deserves to be considered among the possibilities. I enclose also a memorandum of my own about Marshall himself, who seems to me at least the equal of Angell. Make such use of these papers as you can, either for this opening or for others that may appear in the future. When inquiring of Marshall about Angell, I gave no intimation of the reason for asking him.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

President A. Lawrence Lowell.

 

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October 23, 1913.

Dear Professor Taussig:—

We should certainly be very glad to have either Schumpeter or Rathgen, or both, speak to the students in economics, at the expense of the fund for lectures in political economy. I do not know whether you want an appointment by the Corporation for this purpose, or merely an invitation by the department.

Thank you for the suggestions of presidents of Washington University. I am transmitting them.

Very truly yours,
[stamped]
A. Lawrence Lowell

Professor F. W. Taussig
2 Scott Street,
Cambridge, Mass.

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Source: Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers, 1909-1914 (UAI.5.160), Box 15, Folder 413 “1909-14”.

Image Source: Karl Rathgen: Fotosammlung des Geographischen Institutes der Humboldt-Universität Berlin.    Schumpeter: Ulrich Hedtke, Joseph Alois Schumpeter. Archive.

 

 

Categories
Economists Oxford

Oxford. Travers Twiss, Lectures. 1847

While checking the titles of references in Henry Carter Adams’ Outline of Lectures upon Political Economy Prepared for the Use of Students at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD., and the University of Michigan (Baltimore, 1881), I came across “Travers Twiss, Lectures I, II, III, IV” in Adams’ Part I Historical/§1 Introduction: Thought before the 16th century/A. Rise of the System.

The exact reference should read:

Twiss, Travers. View of the Progress of Political Economy in Europe since the Sixteenth Century. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1847.

This I have just added to the collection at my “Rare Book Reading Room” page.

Having never heard of this particular Drummond professor of political economy at Oxford nor his lectures for that matter, I looked him up. Below you have the safe-for-work version of his biography from the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. I’ve linked to the blog entry in the “Victorian Calendar” that provides a few of the juicy details of the scandal that led to his early retirement.

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TWISS, SIR TRAVERS (1809-1897), English jurist, eldest son of the Rev. Robert Twiss, was born in London on the 19th of March 1809. At University College, Oxford, he obtained a first-class in mathematics and a second in classics in 1830, and was elected a fellow of his college, of which he was afterwards successively bursar, dean and tutor. During his connexion with Oxford he was, inter alia, a public examiner in classics and mathematics, Drummond professor of political economy (1842), and regius professor of civil law (1855). After he had forfeited his fellowship by marriage, he was elected to an honorary fellowship of University College. He published while at Oxford an epitome of Niebuhr’s History of Rome, an annotated edition of Livy and other works, but his studies mainly lay in the direction of political economy, law, chiefly international law, and international politics. In 1840 he was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn, and became an advocate at Doctors’ Commons. In the ecclesiastical courts he enjoyed a large practice, and filled many of the appointments incidental thereto, such as commissary-general of the city and diocese of Canterbury (1849), vicar-general to the archbishop (1852) and chancellor of the diocese of London (1858). He was professor of international law at King’s College, London (1852-1855). In 1858, when the Probate and Divorce Acts of 1857 came into force, and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Doctors’ Commons had passed away, Twiss, like many other leading advocates of Doctors’ Commons, became a Q.C., and in the same year he was also elected a bencher of his Inn. His successful career continued in the civil courts, and in addition to his large practice he was appointed in 1862 advocate-general to the admiralty, and in 1867 queen’s advocate-general. In 1867 he was also knighted. He served during his legal career upon a great number of royal commissions, such as the Maynooth commission in 1854, and others dealing with marriage law, neutrality, naturalization and allegiance. His reputation abroad led to his being invited by the king of the Belgians in 1884 to draw up the constitution of the Congo Free State. In 1871 Twiss became involved in an unpleasant scandal, occasioned by allegations against the ante-nuptial conduct of his wife, whom he had married in 1862; and he threw up all his appointments and lived in retirement in London until his death on the 14th of January 1897, devoting himself to the study of international law and kindred topics. Among his more notable publications of this period were The Law of Nations in Peace and The Law of Nations in War, two works by which his reputation as a jurist will chiefly endure.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed). Vol. 27, p.493.

Image Source: The Victorian Calendar (March 13, 1872).