Category: Curriculum

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Courses Curriculum Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Three Economics Courses. Texts and Exams, 1874-77.

In the mid-1870’s there were three courses in political economy offered at Harvard every year. The first was a one-term prescribed course in political economy required of all undergraduates in their sophomore year.  The other two courses in political economy were electives of which one was recommended for students of history while the other presumably put greater emphasis on economic theory. In the Harvard University Catalogues for the academic years 1874-5 through 1876-7, there is exactly one examination for each of these three courses. Using the annual Reports of the President of Harvard College, I was able to use enrollment data to determine the dates of the examinations.

The textbooks for the courses are identified and we see the first graduate students recorded in the class-enrollments for 1876-77.  I have grouped the courses below by academic year.

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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….

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1874-75

PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Prof. Dunbar. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners. — Constitution of the United States (Alden’s Science of Government, omitting the first four and the last three chapters).
Two hours a week. Half-year. 208 students, 4 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 8 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 45.

 

[Note: Courses 7 and 8 are parallel Courses, Course 7 being preferable for students of History.]

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 7.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — Fawcett’s Manual of Political Economy. — Blanqui’s Histoire de l’Èconomie Politique en Europe.— Bagehot’s Lombard Street.
Three hours a week. 19 Seniors, 14 Juniors.
1 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49. Also, Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 56.

 

[EXAMINATION FOR 1874-75(?) FROM 1875-76 CATALOGUE]
PHILOSOPHY 7.

[In answering the questions do not change their order.]

  1. State the general principles which determine the exchange of commodities between two countries, and show the analogy between this case and that of exchange between individuals under the familiar law of demand and supply.
  1. If the United States were to levy an export duty on cotton, on whom would it fall? What objection is there to the proposition?
  1. It is known that the people of the United States are debtors to Europe to a large amount; should our annual returns show a balance of imports or of exports? Why? If, in fact, the balance appears to be the wrong way, what conclusion is to be drawn?
  1. With commerce in its normal condition, would exchange on Europe be in our favor, against us, or at par? Why? Would this state of things be for our disadvantage or not?
  1. What causes the tendency of profits to fall as a nation advances?
  1. If a tax were laid, at a uniform rate, on all property of every description, would it meet the requirements of Adam Smith’s first rule? Give the reason.
  1. Why should not large incomes be taxed at a higher rate than moderate ones; as, e.g., incomes of $10,000 and upwards higher than those between $5,000 and $10,000?
  1. How much control has the Bank of England over the rate of interest in the money market?
  1. Under the national bank act, how does the action of our banks, when the reserves are suddenly reduced, differ from that of the Bank of England in like case?
  1. What difference would there be likely to be in the operation of these two methods, at a time when the condition of monetary affairs is critical?
  1. State the following leading facts relating to the issue of legal tender notes: —

(1) When they were first authorized;
(2) The maximum prescribed by the act of June, 1864;
(3) The point to which they were reduced by Mr. McCulloch;
(4) The amount of expansion under Mr. Richardson
(5) The provision contained in the act of June, 1874;
(6) The provisions for withdrawal in the act of January, 1875.

  1. How do the deposit of bonds required of the national banks and the reserve required for their circulation differ in purpose?
  1. Give the date and circumstances of the first issue of fractional currency.
  1. Why did the government issue 5-20 bonds rather than 20-year bonds bearing the same rate of interest? Which is more valuable? Why?
  2. If all business were done for cash, what difference would it make as to the ease of resuming specie payments? Why?

Source: The Harvard University Catalogue, 1875-76. Cambridge, p. 238.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 8.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. Legislation of the United States on Currency and Finance.

Three hours a week. — 65 Seniors, 33 Juniors.
2 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1874-75, p. 48. Also, Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 56.

 

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1875-76

PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Mr. Macvane. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners. — Constitution of the United States (Alden’s Science of Government, omitting the first four and the last three chapters).
Two hours a week. Second half-year. 182 students, 4 sections, 2 exercises per week for students, 8 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 44.

 

[Examination of 1875-76(?), from 1876-77 Catalogue]
PRESCRIBED POLITICAL ECONOMY.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

[Those who take the examination in the Constitution may omit the questions marked with a star (*).]

  1. Explain the service which Capital renders to production. Should you call a coal mine capital? a steam engine? a mill stream? Why?
  2. Define Value. Show whether a general rise of values is possible. Distinguish between natural value and market value. Do they ever coincide?
  3. What do you understand to be “the value of money “? On what does it depend? How does a rise in the value of money show itself?
  4. Mention the three classes into which commodities are divided in relation to their value. In which class should you place gold and silver?
  5. (*) Show how far the action of demand and supply controls the value of commodities in each class.
  6. Explain the relations between rent of land, price of food, and growth of population.
  7. What is meant by cost of labor? Show that a man’s wages may be low and yet the cost of his labor be high. Point out the connection between cost of labor and profit of capital.
  8. (*) Wherein do productive and unproductive consumption differ? “A knowledge of one of the first principles of political economy is sufficient to show that society is no gainer by the reckless expenditure of the spendthrift:” State the principle referred to, and illustrate the truth of the assertion.
  9. (*) Show that foreign trade is advantageous to both countries only when the relative cost of the commodities exchanged is different in the two countries. When exports and imports fail to balance each other in any country, how is the equilibrium restored?
  10. Give the four “canons of taxation,” and show the application of any two of them. How may the burden of taxation be distributed according to the first canon, in a country where the revenue is raised by duties on tea, sugar, wines, etc.
  11. (*) Distinguish direct from indirect taxes. To which class does the income tax belong? Ought permanent and temporary incomes to be taxed equally?
  12. (*) Show whether high wages make high prices. Suppose that laborers, by combinations and strikes, should succeed in raising wages so much as to bring profits down to a very low figure, would they be benefited thereby? Why?

 

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

[Those who take the examination in Political Economy will answer questions 1-7 only.]

  1. Explain the terms exclusive and concurrent as applied to legislative power. Mention two subjects in reference to which Congress has exclusive, and two in which it has concurrent, power of legislation.
  2. Through what stages must bills go in their passage through each house? Mention the ways in which a bill may become a law. In what case does a bill fail to become a law though passed by both houses and not vetoed by the President?
  3. State the qualifications required for Vice-President; for senators. Describe the mode of electing senators. How, and under what authority, has this mode been established?
  4. Show how the amendments relating to slavery (XIII.-XV.) affected the apportionment of representatives. How far has the right of each State to make its own franchise law been abridged by these amendments?
  5. When a president is to be elected, how many electors are appointed by each State? How are the electors chosen? What control has Congress over the election?
  6. What officers are subject to impeachment? For what offences? What is the effect of resigning? How may persons convicted on impeachment be punished?
  7. Give the provisions of the Constitution in reference to trial by jury. Describe the function of grand juries. Explain fully “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.”
  8. Define treason. What courts have jurisdiction in cases of treason? What evidence is necessary in order to convict? What is provided in the Constitution as the punishment of treason 1
  9. How are direct taxes apportioned? What taxes are direct in the meaning of the Constitution? Compare this sense of the word with its use in Political Economy.
  10. Give the provisions in the original Constitution relating directly or indirectly to the subject of slavery. What difficulties, arising from the existence of slavery, were encountered in framing the Constitution?
  11. Taxes on exports. Taxes on immigrants.
  12. The treaty-making power in the United States and in England.
  13. Copyright and patent rights.
  14. Naturalization of aliens. Expatriation.
  15. Bills of credit. Legal-tender notes.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1876-77, p. 229.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 5.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. –Lectures on the Financial Legislation of the United States.
Three hours a week. Second half-year. 36 Seniors, 80 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.
2 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 6 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49.

 

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 6.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Advanced Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. Lectures.
Three hours a week. 24 Seniors.
1 Sections, 3 exercises per week for students, 3 exercises per week for Instructor.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1875-76, p. 49.

 

[EXAMINATION OF 1875-76(?) FROM 1876-77 CATALOGUE]
PHILOSOPHY 6.

  1. Give Mr. Cairnes’s statement of the wages-fund doctrine. (p. 167.)
  2. Criticise the following extracts from Walker’s “Wages Question,”
  3. 128-130: —

“A popular theory of wages is based upon the assumption that wages are paid out of capital, the saved results of the industry of the past. Hence, it is argued, capital must furnish the measure of wages. On the contrary, I hold that wages are, in a philosophical view of the subject, paid out of the product of present industry, and hence that production furnishes the true measure of wages. … So long as additional profits are to be made by the employment of additional labor, so long a sufficient reason for production exists; when profit is no longer expected, the reason for production ceases. At this point the mere fact that the employer has capital at his command no more constitutes a reason why he should use it in production when he can get no profits, than the fact that the laborer has legs and arms constitutes a reason why he should work when he can get no wages.

“The employer purchases labor with a view to the product of the labor; and the kind and amount of this product determine what wages he can afford to pay. … If the product is to be greater, he can afford to pay more; if it is to be smaller, he must, for his own interest, pay less. It is, then, for the sake of future production that the laborers are employed, not at all because the employer has possession of a fund which he must disburse; and it is the value of the product, such as it is likely to prove, which determines the amount of the wages that can be paid, not at all the amount of wealth which the employer has in possession or can command. Thus it is production, not capital, which furnishes the motive for employment, and the measure of wages.”

  1. What is the reasoning which leads Mr. Cairnes to predict an ultimate fall of prices in the United States as compared with prices elsewhere? How will a protective tariff affect the movement? (p. 304.)
  2. A recent writer says: —

“We will be able to resume specie payments when we cease to rank among the debtor nations, when our national debt is owed to our own people, and when our industry is adequate to the supply of the nation’s need of manufactured goods.” (Thompson’s “Social Science,” p. 206.)

How essential are these three conditions, severally, for the resumption of specie payments?

  1. Criticise the argument contained in the following proposition :—

“With every increase in the facility of reproduction, there is a decline in the value of all existing things of a similar kind, attended by a diminution in the price paid for their use. The charge for the use of the existing money tends, therefore, to decline as man acquires control over the great forces provided by the Creator for his service; as is shown by the gradual diminution of the rate of interest in every advancing country.”

  1. Compare the generally received principle that paper currency tends to expel coin, with the following: —

“All commodities tend to move towards those places at which they are most utilized. . . . The note and the check increase the utility of the precious metals; and therefore is it, that money tends to flow towards those places at which notes and checks are most in use, — passing, in America, from the Southern and Western States towards the Northern and Eastern ones, and from America towards England.”

  1. What is Mr. Carey’s doctrine as to the value of land in an advancing society? Compare it with his general doctrine as to the determination of value hy cost of reproduction.
  2. What is Mr. Carey’s general law of distribution between labor and capital? Give the general course of reasoning leading to this law.
  3. Discuss Mr. Carey’s objection to the Malthusian theory, that increase of numbers is in the inverse ratio of development, man multiplying slowly while the lower forms of animal and vegetable life multiply rapidly.
  4. What logical necessity has compelled Mr. Carey to assume the existence of a law of diminishing fecundity in the human race? Compare this with the process of reasoning which leads to the Malthusian conclusion as to the necessary operation of ” checks,” positive and preventive.

Source:  Harvard University Catalogue, 1876-77, p. 233-4.

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1876-77 

NO LONGER PRESCRIBED: POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Sophomore year

Political Economy is no longer listed among the sophomore prescribed courses according the Annual reports of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, pp. 44-45.   The only prescribed course from the department of philosophy was a junior year course of Logic and Psychology, each for one semester.  Cf. Catalogue of Harvard University, 1876-77, p. 55.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 5.
Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Financial Legislation of the United States. Three hours a week. 1 Graduate, 30 Seniors, 64 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 2 Unmatriculated.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, p. 49.

ELECTIVE: PHILOSOPHY 6.
Advanced Political Economy

Prof. Dunbar. Advanced Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science.
Three hours a week.  2 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 3 Juniors.

Source: Annual report of the President of Harvard University for 1876-77, p. 49.

 

Categories
Chicago Curriculum Economists Exam Questions

Chicago. Paul Samuelson and Jacob Mosak. A.B. Comprehensive Exam Grades. 1935

November 2003. Samuelson and I after Bergson Commemoration.

Welcome to my blog, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled for you to sample or click on the search icon in the upper right to explore by name, university, or category. You can subscribe to my blog below.  There is also an opportunity to comment following each posting….

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Paul Samuelson and Jacob Mosak were undergraduate classmates at the University of Chicago. The two of them along with 27 other students were required to take a battery of comprehensive examinations in economics for the Bachelor’s degree.   I found the distribution of grades for the comprehensive exams over the period 1934-1938 in the economic department records, as well as the distribution of grades for the separate courses taken by the 29 students.

Plot-spoiler: Paul Samuelson was the top undergraduate student at Chicago in the Spring Quarter of 1935 (or perhaps ever) and the first runner up, who lived to the grand old age of 99,  also went on to have a full and distinguished career as an economics professional. Mosak’s greatest research hit in economics was his Cowles Foundation Monograph, General Equilibrium Theory in International Trade (1944).

I have appended to this posting descriptive material about the comprehensive exams and the descriptions of the individual courses along with instructor names according to the 1934-1935 Announcements.

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REPORT ON PAST COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATIONS FOR THE BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

 

Quarter

 A B C D E F

Total

Spring, 1934

 1 1

Winter, 1935

 1 3 3* 7

Spring, 1935

 3 11 12     3

29
Summer, 1935 1 2 1

4
Autumn, 1935 2 1 3

6

Winter, 1936

 1 1 3 2 7

Spring, 1936

 3 8 5 3 0 3 22

Summer, 1936

 1 4 3 8
Autumn, 1936 1 2 1

4
Winter, 1937 1 2 1

4
Spring, 1937 3 8 4 4 3

22

Summer, 1937

 1 5   2   2 10
15 35 35 14 0 25

124
*Includes one unfinished examination. [name omitted]
[Handwritten additions:]

Winter, 1938

   1 3     1 5

Spring, 1938

 3 4 10 3   2 22
18 40 48 17   28

151
% 11.92 26.49 31.79 11.25   18.54

 

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[Number of students awarded a particular grade by economics course numbers for the Spring Quarter 1935 comprehensive examinations]

209 210* 211 212 220 221-2 230 240 260 270** [Comp. Avg. ]

A+

 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

A

 1 0 2 0 1 0 1 2 4 0 1

A-

 5 1 1 0 2 0 1 1 1 0 1

B+

 7 1 1 0 2 0 1 4 1 0 1

B

 6 4 2 0 1 0 3 5 3 4 9

B-

 4 1 1 0 2 0 5 3 1 2 1

C+

 0 2 6 0 0 0 4 3 3 7

4
C 1 6 5 0 4 9 3 1 0 1

8
C- 2 4 3 0 1 0 2 0 1 2

0
D+ 0 3 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0

0
D 0 2 3 0 1 3 2 0 0 2

0
D- 0 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 0

0
E/F 2 3 4 0 0 1 1 0 2 3

3

Samuelson

 A A- A A A A A A+
Mosak A+ B+ A A+ C- B- A

A

*Numerical grades reported for this course, converted to letter grade using the following scale:

A+ (95-100); A (93-94); A- (90-92);
B+ (87-89); B (83-86);       B- (80-82);
C+ (77-79); C (73-76); C- (70-72);
D+ (67-69); D (63-66); D- (60-62);
F (0-59).

**For four cases of exact border-line grades in Economics 270, e.g. B+/A-, I have assigned the higher grade.

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[Role of the Comprehensive Examinations]

THE BACHELOR’S DEGREE

On admission to the Division, the students specializing in the Department arranges with the Departmental Counselor a suitable program of study in economics. He is expected to include in his departmental program the materials of 7 courses beyond Social science I and II. His comprehensive examination in economics will cover economic theory, accounting, statistics, economic history, and money and banking, as developed in Economics 209, 210, 211, 220 or 221, and 230. The comprehensive examination will also cover two elective fields, preferably labor, government finance, or international economic relations, as developed in Economics 240, 260, and 270. The scope and content of the several courses mentioned are indicated in the course announcements printed below.

[…]

THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

[…]

The specific requirements for the Master’s degree are:

  1. A minimum of 8 courses, or their equivalent (of which at least 6 must be in Grades II and III above). At some previous time the candidate should have covered the substantial equivalent of the requirements for the Bachelor’s degree in Economics. This equivalence may be shown by courses taken or by examination. The candidate must also have the preparation in the other social sciences required for the Bachelor’s degree at the University….

[…]

[Economics Course Descriptions 1934-35]

 

  1. Intermediate Economic Theory. – A course designed for undergraduates majoring in economics who have completed the other departmental requirements for the degree, and for graduate students with limited training in systematic theory. It deals with forces controlling, through the price system, the organization of economic activity. Prerequisite: Senior standing and Economics 210, 211, 230 or their equivalents. Summer, 10:00; Autumn, 11:00; Winter, 11:00, [Paul Howard] Douglas.
  1. Introduction to Accounting. – (1) The principles of double-entry accounting. (2) The principles of valuation and of income determination; the mathematical problems arising from accumulating and discounting future sums and annuities. (3) A survey of the uses and limitations of accounting information and compares the concepts of cost used by accountants and by economists. Prerequisite: Social Science I and II or their equivalent. Summer, 11:00, [Wilfrid Merrill] Helms; Autumn, 9:00, Shields; Spring, 11:00, [Theodore Otte] Yntema.
  1. Introduction to Statistics. – The elementary principles of statistics. Main topics: frequency distributions, correlations, time series, index numbers. Prerequisite: Mathematics 104 or its equivalent. Summer, 10:00, [John Higson] Cover; Autumn, 11:00, [Henry] Schultz; Winter, 9:00,—.
  2. Intermediate Statistics. [not offered 1934-35, description from 1933-34 follows] This course extends the scope of Economics 211 to include a brief introduction to partial and multiple correlation, but its main objective is to make the elementary statistical methods part of the working equipment of the student. Prerequisite: Economics 211 and introductory courses in economics, accounting, finance, and marketing. Spring 9:00, [Aaron] Director.
  1. Economic History of the United States. – A general survey from the colonial settlements down to the present emphasizing the period since 1860. Prerequisite: Social Science I and II or their equivalent. Summer, 8:00, [Albert Gailord] Hart; Winter 1:30, [Chester Whitney] Wright.
  1. Economic History of Classical and Western European Civilization. –A survey of industrial conditions in their relation to economic, social, political, and cultural history at selected periods and in selected countries, undertaken with a view to understanding the nature and significance of modern industrialism. Prerequisite: Social Science I and 2 courses in European history, or equivalent. Autumn, 1:30; Spring, 1:30, [John Ulric] Nef.
  1. Introduction to Money and Banking. – A study of the factors which determine the value of money in the short and in the long run; the problem of index numbers of price levels; and the operation of the commercial banking system and its relation to the price level and general business activity. Prerequisite: Social Science I and II or equivalent. Summer, 9:00, [Albert Gailord] Hart; Autumn, 1:30, [Lloyd Wynn] Mints; Spring, 9:00, [Albert Gailord] Hart.
  1. Labor Problems. – General survey of problems of labor arising in a system of free enterprise. Poverty, inequality, conditions of work, and unemployment are some of the topics considered. Trade-unionism and collective bargaining contrasted with state legislation as devices for dealing with these problems. Prerequisite: Social Science I and II or equivalent. Spring, 10:00, [Paul Howard] Douglas.
  1. Introduction to Government Finance. – A course dealing with fiscal problems of government, mainly in their economic aspect. Practices in regard to expenditure, taxation, and borrowing studied in problems of policy critically examined. Prerequisite: Social Science I and II or equivalent. Spring, 11:00, [Henry Calvert] Simons.
  1. International Economic Relations. – A survey of international economic relations with special emphasis on the theory of international trade and the economic foreign-policy of the United States. Are Prerequisite: Social Science I and II or equivalent. Winter, 11:00, [Harry David] Gideonse.

 

Source: University of Chicago Announcements. The College and the Divisions for the Sessions of 1934-1935. pp. 281-285.

Image Source:  Photo taken of Paul Samuelson and me at the Harvard Faculty Club following the memorial service for Abram Bergson in November 2003.

 

Categories
Cornell Courses Curriculum

Cornell. Economics Courses and Faculty, 1914-15

Welcome to my blog, Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled for you to sample or click on the search icon in the upper right to explore by name, university, or category. You can subscribe to my blog below.  There is also an opportunity to comment following each posting….

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In 1914 Frank H. Knight switched from graduate work in Philosophy to Economics at Cornell where he studied under (among others) Alvin S. Johnson and Allyn A. Young. His handwritten notes (on index cards) for his courses then can be found in his papers at the University of Chicago archives. These note-cards provide a fairly complete record of the economics training available provided at Cornell at that time. We will have occasion in future postings to refer to those notes, so that I thought it would be useful to post here (i) a transcription of the Cornell economics program as of 1914/1915 (embedded within “Political Science”) along with (ii) a list of the courses offered and (iii) nano-c.v.’s for the faculty.

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POLITICAL SCIENCE
[Cornell 1914-15]

Professors: W.F. WILLCOX, Economics and Statistics; A. S. JOHNSON, Economics and Distribution; A. A. YOUNG, Economics and Finance; S. P. ORTH, Economics and Politics; G. N. LAUMAN, Rural Economy; JOHN BAUER, Economics; J. R. TURNER, Economics; R. S. SABY, Political Science; R. G. BLAKEY, Economics; A. P. USHER, Economics.

Instructors: F. H. GILMAN, Economics; H. E. SMITH, Economics.

 

A graduate student in economics should have studied at least the equivalent of elementary courses in economics, economic history, politics, and social science. If he has not done this, he should take such elementary courses as early as possible; he will not ordinarily be allowed to present any of them as partial fulfillment of the requirement for a major or minor in any branch of political science. He should also have sufficient knowledge of French and German to be able to read necessary works in either language.

The work in political science in the President White School of History and Political Science falls into five divisions: economics, politics, statistics and social science, finance and distribution. These divisions aim to bring their work into close relationship with social, political, and business life. The members of the Faculty seek to keep in touch with the practical as well as the with purely scientific aspects of the problems treated, and have among their interests the preparation of students for positions in business and in public service. In statistics and social science, work is offered mainly in statistics, but to some degree also in the less definite field of social science. The statistical method has been found of especial service both in developing a scientific and judicial attitude and in bringing out many facts about social life not discoverable in any other way. After the introductory course in social science, an advanced course is open which deals with the dependent or semi-dependent classes and the care for them exercised by society, in part through governmental agencies and in part through private philanthropy.

In economics and distribution, a graduate course is offered in the theory of value and distribution, which is designed to familiarize the student with the main currents of contemporary economic thought. For undergraduates are offered courses covering the history of economics, the more general economic aspects of the labor problem, the history and theory of socialism, and the organization and methods of socialistic parties.

In economics and finance, a research course is offered to graduate students which is designed to afford training in the appropriate methods of investigation and to give familiarity with the fundamental sources of information. Other courses in this field open to graduates cover the more important economic aspects of both public and private finance.

This group uses two laboratories and several class rooms in proximity to each other and to the four division offices and one general office, an arrangement which has greatly facilitated intercourse between teachers and graduate students as well as among graduate students themselves. In the political science seminary room at the University Library and in the various offices and laboratories occupied by these departments, numerous publications in politics and in economics, such as market letters of leading brokers and technical business journals, are accessible to advanced students. The laboratories for classes in statistics and finance are supplied with standard and current books dealing with these subjects and with various mechanical devices for simple statistical processes and for securing a graphic and effective presentation of results. In the closely related subject of rural economy or agricultural economics, courses are offered dealing with the general economic and social problems of the open country arising from the growing complexity and intensity of agriculture and its relation with commerce, manufacturing, and transportation.

One teaching assistantship yielding $500 and tuition; three fellowships, two yielding $500 and one yielding $600; and two assistantships, each yielding $150 are filled each spring.

 

Source: Cornell University, Announcement of the Graduate School 1914-15, Official Publications of Cornell University Vol. V, No. 3 (January 15, 1914), pp. 34-36.

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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
POLITICAL SCIENCE
[Courses offered 1914-15]

51. Elementary Economics. Throughout the year, credit three hours a term. One lecture and two recitations each week. Lectures, Barnes Auditorium, M, 9; repeated M, 11; Assistant Professor BAUER. Recitations T Th, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; W F, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Assistant Professors BLAKEY, and USHER, Dr. SMITH, and Mr. GILMAN.

An introduction to economics including a survey of business organization and corporation finance; principles of value, money, banking, and prices; international trade; free trade and protection; wages and labor conditions; the control of railroads and trusts; socialism; principles and problems of taxation. Section assignments made at the first lecture.

52. Elements of Economics. Throughout the year, credit two hours a term. Assistant Professor TURNER. Lectures M, 9, repeated T, 9, Goldwin Smith A. Recitations to be arranged.

A special course for seniors in mechanical engineering. Not open to students in other colleges. Production and distribution of wealth, emphasizing particularly the financial or practical view instead of the theoretical. Lectures, textbooks, readings, and class discussions.

 53a. American Government. First term, credit three hours. Assistant Professor SABY. M W, 10, Goldwin Smith 142. Recitation hour to be arranged.

A general introduction to the study of political science with special reference to American government and politics. Lectures, textbook, class discussions.

53b. Comparative Politics. Second term, credit three hours. Assistant Professor SABY. M W, 10, Goldwin Smith 142. Recitation hour to be arranged.

A study of the political institutions of the leading European countries with special reference to their relations to present political problems in the United States. Lectures, textbook, class discussions.

54a. Municipal Administration. First term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 53a. Assistant Professor SABY. M W F, 11, Goldwin Smith 264.

A study of the functions and problems of city government; the administration of public health and safety; charities and corrections; public works and finance; commission form of government. Lectures, textbook, and reports.

54b. State Administration. Second term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 53a. Professor ORTH. M W F, 12, Goldwin Smith 256.

A study of the government of the American State; its relation to local government; the powers and functions of administrative boards and commissions; judicial control.
Lectures, readings, and reports. Each student will be required to make a somewhat detailed study of some particular state.

55a. Elementary Social Science. First term, credit three hours. Course 51 should precede or be taken with this course. Professor WILLCOX. M W F, 9, Goldwin Smith 256.

An introductory course upon social science or sociology, its field and methods, with special reference to the human family as a social unit, to be studied by the comparative, the historical, and the statistical methods.

55b. Elementary Social Science. Second term, credit three hours. Course 51 should precede or be taken with this course. Professor WILLCOX. M W F, 9, Goldwin Smith 256.

A continuation of the preceding course but with especial reference to the dependent, defective, and delinquent classes. Open to all who have taken 55a and by special permission to others.

56a. Elements of Business Law. First term, credit two hours. Professor ORTH. T Th, 11, Goldwin Smith B. Lectures, textbook, quizzes.

A brief survey of that portion of private law which deals especially with contracts, negotiable instruments, agency, and sales.
Courses 56a and 56b are designed primarily to meet the needs of students who contemplate entering business and not the profession of law, and credit will not be given to law students for these courses.

56b. Government Control of Industry. Second term, credit two hours. Prerequisite course 56a. Professor ORTH. T Th, 11, Goldwin Smith B. Lectures, reports, quizzes.

A scrutiny of the policy of governmental control of industry from the legal and political point of view, emphasis being laid on the development of the police power and its application to the regulation of private enterprise.

57a. Lectures on Citizenship. Second term, credit two hours. M W, 12 Goldwin Smith B.

A lecture each Wednesday by a non-resident lecturer and each Monday by a member of the department. The course has been arranged by a committee of Alumni who are actively engaged in civic and social work and who are cooperating in this way with the department. It will follow the same general plan as last year, but the speakers and most of the subjects treated will be changed. Among the subjects presented in 1914-15 will be the Citizen and the Immigrant in America, the Citizen and his Neighborhood, the Citizen and Commercial Organizations, the Citizen and the City Plan.
The course will be under the general charge of Professor WILLCOX. Readings, reports, and essays will be required.

58. Accounting. Throughout the year, credit four hours first term, three hours second term. Courses 51 and 56a must precede or accompany this course. Assistant Professor BAUER. T Th S, 8, Goldwin Smith 264.

59. Financial History of the United States. Second term, credit two hours. Prerequisite course 51. Assistant Professor BLAKEY. T Th, 11, Goldwin Smith 269.

A study of public and quasi-public finance from colonial times to the present. Special attention will be paid to money, currency, banking, tariffs, taxes, expenditures, panics, and war financiering.

60. The American Party System. First term, credit two hours. Prerequisite 53a. Professor ORTH. T Th, 12, Goldwin Smith 256.

A study of the evolution of the American political party; its relations to the machinery of government; election laws; the development of state control over the machinery of party. Lectures, readings, and reports.

[61. Jurisprudence. Second term, credit three hours. Prerequisite 53a, excepting for law students, to whom the course is open. Professor ORTH. Lectures, textbook, and reports.

A study of the classification and development of the principles of law, dwelling especially upon the growth of English and American legal institutions.
This course alternates with 78b.] Not given in 1914-15.

62. Business Management. Repeated in second term, credit one hour. Prerequisite courses 51 and 58; or 58 may be taken at the same time. Professor KIMBALL. T Th, 12, Sibley 4.

Seniors and graduates; others by permission. See S, 20, Sibley College.

63. Corporations and Trusts. First term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51. Professor YOUNG. T Th S, 11, Goldwin Smith 256.

Deals primarily with the business corporation, with special reference to its economic significance and effects and to the problems of its legal control, concluding with a discussion of industrial combinations.

64. Money and Banking. Throughout the year, credit three hours a term. Prerequisite course 51. Professor YOUNG. T Th S, 10, Goldwin Smith 142.

A discussion of the more important phases of the theory of money and credit is followed by a consideration of selected practical problems, including the revision of the American banking system. Practical work is required in the analysis of the controlling conditions of the money market, of organized speculations in securities, and of foreign exchange.

65a. The Industrial Revolution in England, 1700 to 1850. First term credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51, previously or concurrently, or work in European history. Assistant Professor USHER. M W F, 12, Goldwin Smith 264.

The topography and resources of England, the Industrial Revolution, commercial expansion in the 18th century, the history of the Bank of England, the rise of London as a world metropolis.

65b. Social and Economic Problems of the 19th Century in England. Second term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51, previously or concurrently. Assistant Professor USHER. M W F, 12, Goldwin Smith 264.

The course can be followed most profitably by students who have taken course 65a, but it may be elected independently. The history of English agriculture, 1700 to 1907; the poor laws, 1834 and 1909; the coming of free trade, 1776 to 1846; railroads and rate-making; Germany and the industrial supremacy of England.

66a. The Labor Problem. First term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51. Professor JOHNSON. T Th S, 11, Goldwin Smith 264.

This course will present a systematic view of the progress and present condition of the working class in the United States and in other industrial countries; sketch the history and analyze the aims and methods of labor organizations; study the evolution of institutions designed to improve the condition of the working class; and compare the labor legislation of the United States with that of European countries.

66b. Socialism. Second term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51. Professor JOHNSON. T Th S, 11, Goldwin Smith 264.

Due attention will be given in this course to the various forms of socialistic theory. Its main object, however, is to describe the evolution of the socialist movement and the organization of socialistic parties, to measure the present strength of the movement, and to examine in the concrete its methods and aims.

67. Problems in Market Distribution. Throughout the year, credit two hours a term. W F, 11, Goldwin Smith 245. Assistant Professor TURNER.

First term: lectures, discussions and assigned readings on the origin, growth and change of middlemen and other intermediaries between the producer and the consumer.
Second term: merchandising, selling, and advertising.

68. Railway Transportation. Second term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51. Professor YOUNG. T Th S, 11, Goldwin Smith 256.

The present American railway system, railway finance, theory of rates, methods of public control in Europe, Australia, and America. Some attention is given to the related problem of the control of public service companies.

70. Public Finance. Throughout the year, credit two hours a term. Prerequisite course 51. Assistant Professor BLAKEY. T Th, 12, Goldwin Smith 264.

A study of the principles of government revenue, expenditure and debt, with particular reference to problems of American taxation.

71. Investments. Throughout the year, credit two hours a term. Prerequisite course 51; course 58 should precede or may accompany this course. Dr. SMITH. T Th, 9, Goldwin Smith 245.

[73. Insurance. Second term, credit three hours. Prerequisite courses 51 and 58; or 58 may be taken at the same time. Assistant Professor BAUER.] Not given in 1914-15.

76a. Elementary Statistics. First term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51. Professor WILLCOX. T Th S, 9, Goldwin Smith 256. Laboratory, W, 2-4, Goldwin Smith 259.

An introduction to census statistics with especial reference to the federal census of 1910, and to registration statistics with especial reference to those of New York State and its cities. The course gives an introduction to the methods and results of statistics in these, its best developed branches.

76b. Economic Statistics. Second term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51. Professor WILLCOX. T Th S, 9, Goldwin Smith 256. Laboratory, W, 2-4, Goldwin Smith 259.

A continuation of course 76a, dealing mainly with the agricultural and industrial statistics of the United States. Mature students that have not already had course 76a or its equivalent may be admitted by special permission. The course is an introduction to statistics in its application to more difficult fields, such as production, wages, prices, and index numbers.

78a. International Law and Diplomacy. First term, credit three hours. President SCHURMAN and Assistant Professor SABY. M W F, 11, Goldwin Smith 256. Lectures, textbook, and reports. Open to juniors and seniors in Arts and Sciences, to students in Law, and to approved upperclassmen in other colleges.

While this course aims to present a systematic view of the rights and obligations of nations in times of peace and war, it particularly emphasizes our contemporary international problems and the participation of the United States in the development of international law.

78b. Constitutional Government. Second term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 53a. Professor ORTH. M W F, 11, Goldwin Smith 256. Lectures, textbook, and reports.

A study of the development of the American constitutional system.

[79a. History of Political Thought. First term, credit two hours. Assistant Professor SABY.

A study in the development of political thought from the Greeks to modern times in its relation to the history and development of political institutions. Lectures, textbook, and assigned readings.] Not given in 1914-15.

79b. Modern Political Thought. Second term, credit three hours. Assistant Professor SABY. T Th S, 10, Goldwin Smith 256.

A general survey of the more important modern political movements. Ideas and ideals underlying the present political unrest. The different political ideas that have at different times striven for supremacy in American political life. Lectures, textbook, and assigned readings.

[80. The History of Protection and of Free Trade in Europe since 1660. First term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51; or open by special permission to those who have had courses in European history. Assistant Professor USHER.] Not given in 1914-15.

[81. The History of Price Making and the Growth of Produce Exchanges. Second term, credit three hours. Prerequisite course 51; open by special permission to those who have had courses in European history. Assistant Professor USHER.] Not given in 1914-15.

82. Public Utilities: Problems of Accounting, Valuation and Control. Second term, credit three hours. Assistant Professor BAUER. F, 2.30, Goldwin Smith 269.

This course will center about the accounting problems connected with the regulation of public service corporations, considering especially, with critical analysis, the systems of uniform accounting prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission and the New York and other state Public Service Commissions, and the principles of valuation adopted for rate making purposes. Open to graduates and by permission to especially qualified seniors.

 

87. The History of Economic Theory. Throughout the year, credit three hours a term. Professor JOHNSON. T Th S, 9, Goldwin Smith 264.

The main currents of economic theory from the mercantilistic writers to the present day. Chief emphasis will be laid upon the development of the individualistic economic doctrines in 18th century France and England; the conditions, economic and social, upon which they were based; the consolidation of the doctrines in classical economics, and the modifications they have undergone.

88. Value and Distribution. Throughout the year credit, two hours a term. Professor JOHNSON. Th, 2.30, Political Science Seminary Room.

A study of the chief problems of current economic theory. The works of the chief contemporary authorities will be critically studied with a view to disclosing the basis of existing divergences in point of view.
It is desirable that students registering for this course should have a reading knowledge of German and French.

90. Research in Statistics. Throughout the year, credit to be arranged. Professor WILLCOX.

92. Research in Finance. Throughout the year, credit two or three hours a term. Professor YOUNG. T, 2.30, Political Science Seminary.

Individual or cooperative investigations of selected problems in money, banking, and corporation finance, in connection with lectures upon the bibliography of the sources and upon the use of the statistical method in such investigations.

93. Research in Accounting. Throughout the year, credit two to three hours a term. Prerequisite course 58. Assistant Professor BAUER. Hours to be arranged.

For especially qualified students interested in particular accounting problems.

94. Research in Politics. Throughout the year, credit one to three hours a term. Professor ORTH. Hours and room to be arranged.

A research course for advanced students in public law and political science.

95. Seminary in Political Science and Public Law. Throughout the year, credit two hours a term. Professor ORTH. W, 2.30, Political Science Seminary.

An advanced course for the study of some special topic to be announced. Open to especially qualified students by permission of the professor in charge.

99. General Seminary. Throughout the year, credit two hours a term. Conducted by members of the department. M, 2.30-4.30, Goldwin Smith 269.

For research in the field of political sciences. Open only to graduate students.

 

Source: Official Publications of Cornell University, Vol. V, No. 10: Announcement of the College of Arts and Sciences, 1915-15, pp. 29-34.

_________________________

[Cornell Faculty offering courses in Political Science 1914-15]

 

Bauer, John, A. B., Yale, 1906; Ph.D.,1908; Leave of Absence, 1914-15.

Instructor, 1908; Assistant Professor of Economics, 1910.

Blakey, Roy Gillespie, A.B., Drake, 1905; A.M., Colorado, 1910; Ph.D., Columbia, 1912.

Assistant Professor of Economics, 1912.

English, Donald, B.S., University of California; M.B.A., Harvard, 1914.

Acting Assistant Professor of Economics, 1914.

Gilman, Frederick Hubert, A.B., Wesleyan, 1909; A.M., Cornell, 1910.

Instructor of Economics.

Johnson, Alvin Saunders, A.B., Nebraska; A.M., 1898; Ph.D., Columbia, 1902.

Professor of Economics, 1912.

Kimball, Dexter Simpson, A.B., Leland Stanford, 1896; M.E., Leland Stanford.

Assistant Professor, 1898-1901; Acting Director of Sibley College, second term, 1911-12; Professor of Machine Design and Construction, 1904.

Lauman, George Nieman, B.S.A., Cornell, 1897.

Assistant in Horticulture, 1897; Instructor, 1899; Instructor in Rural Economy, 1903; Assistant Professor, 1905; Professor of Rural Economy, 1909.

Orth, Samuel Peter, A.B., Oberlin, 1896; Ph.D., Columbia, 1902.

Acting Professor, 1912, Professor of Political Science, 1913.

Saby, Rasmus S., A.B. Minnesota, 1907; A.M. 1907; Ph.D., Pennsylvania, 1910.

Assistant, 1909; Instructor in Economics. 1910, Assistant Professor of Political Science, 1912.

Schurman, Jacob Gould, A.B., University of London, 1877; A.M., 1878; D.Sc., University of Edinburgh, 1878; LL.D., Columbia, 1892; Yale, 1901; Edinburgh, 1902; Williams, 1908; Dartmouth, 1909; Harvard, 1909.

Professor of Philosophy, 1886. President of the University, 1892.

Smith, Harry Edwin, A.B., De Pauw, 1906; A.M., 1906; Ph.D., Cornell, 1912.

Instructor of Economics.

Turner, John Roscoe, M.S., Ohio Northern, 1903; Ph.D., Princeton, 1913.

Assistant, 1908; Instructor, 1909; Lecturer, 1911, Assistant Professor of Economics, 1913.

Usher, Abbott Payson, A.B., Harvard, 1904; A.M., 1905; Ph.D., Ph.D., 1910.

Instructor, 1910. Assistant Professor of Economics, 1914.

Willcox, Walter Francis, A.B., Amherst, 1884; LL.B., A.M., Amherst, 1888; LL.D., Amherst, 1906; Ph.D., Columbia, 1907.

Instructor in Logic, 1891; Assistant Professor of Social Science and Statistics and Political Economy, 1892; Assistant Professor of Social Science and Statistics, 1893; Associate Professor, 1894; Professor, 1898; Professor of Political Economy and Statistics, 1901; Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. 1901-07; Professor of Economics and Statistics, 1910.

Young, Allyn Abbott, Ph.B., Hiram College, 1894; Ph.D., Wisconsin, 1902.

Professor of Economics and Finance, 1913.

 

Sources: Official Publications of Cornell University, Vol. V, No. 10: Announcement of the College of Arts and Sciences, 1914-15, pp. 29-34. Supplementary information from The Cornellian, The Year Book of Cornell University. Vol. XLVII.

Image Source: Goldwin Smith Hall, illustration between pages 36 and 37. Guide to the Campus: Cornell University (1920).

 

Categories
Courses Curriculum Stanford

Stanford. Early Economics Courses and Faculty, 1890s

It took about three years (1891-92 to 1893-94) for the Leland Stanford Junior University to put together full course offerings in economics and social science. In today’s posting I have included the first three years of official announcements along with c.v. information of the faculty involved. Note that the listing for the academic year 1892-93 is merely a declaration of intention, I have yet to find what was actually offered. I would presume it looks much more like what we see for the announcement for 1893-94 than the extremely meager pickings for 1891-92.

Continue reading “Stanford. Early Economics Courses and Faculty, 1890s”
Categories
Chicago Curriculum

Chicago. Faculty and Course Offerings in the beginning, 1893/94.

 

 

The University of Chicago’s first academic year was 1892/93. The first annual publication of the University Register announced the course offering for 1893/94. This is close enough to the big bang of the department of political economy founded by J. Laurence Laughlin for most purposes. I have added some biographical data on the faculty taken from the following year’s Register. That biographical information is placed within brackets. Otherwise, as in most other transcriptions, I have attempted to give the “look and feel” of the original formatting.

_______________________

The following abbreviations are used in the list of Courses of Instruction:

M=Minor. DM=Double Minor. MM=Major. DMM=Double Major.

Courses marked with a star (*) are intended exclusively or primarily for Graduate Students. Courses the numbers of which are enclosed in brackets [ ] are not given in 1893-4.

_______________________

 

II. THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.

OFFICERS OF INSTRUCTION.

J. LAURENCE LAUGHLIN, PH.D., Head Professor of Political Economy.

[A. B., Harvard University, 1873; A. M. and Ph. D., HarvardUniversity,1876. Master in Private Classical School, 1873-8; Instructor in Political Economy, Harvard University,1878-83; Assistant Professor in Political Economy, Harvard University, 1883-8. Secretary and President of the Philadelphia Manufacturers’ Mutual Fire Insurance Co.,1888-90; Professor of Political Economy and Finance, Cornell University, 1890-2; Editor of the Journal of Political Economy.]

EDWARD W. BEMIS, PH.D. University Extension Associate Professor of Political Economy.

[A. B., Amherst College, 1880, and A. M., 1884; Ph. D., Johns Hopkins University, 1885; Lecturer, Amherst College, 1886; Vassar and Carleton Colleges and Ohio University, 1887; Vanderbilt University, 1888-9; Northwestern University, 1892; Adjunct Professor of History and Economics, Vanderbilt University, 1889-92; Secretary of the Training Department, University of Chicago, 1892-4.]

ADOLPH C. MILLER, A.M., Professor of Finance.

[A. B., University of California, 1887; A. M., Harvard University, 1888; Instructor in Political Economy. Harvard University, 1889-90; Lecturer on Political Economy, University of California, 1890-1, and Assistant Professor-elect of History and Political Science in same, 1891; Associate Professor of Political Economy and Finance, Cornell University, 1891-2; Associate Professor of Political Economy. University of Chicago, 1892-3.]

WILLIAM CALDWELL, A.M., D.S., Instructor in Political Economy.

[A. M., pass degree. 1884. A. M., Honors of the First Class, 1886, University of Edinburgh; First place on the Honors List, with Bruce of Grangehill Fellowship, 1886; Student at Jena, Paris, Cambridge, Berlin, Freiburg; Ferguson Scholarship (open to honorsmen of all Scottish Universities), 1887; Assistant Professor of Logic. Edinburgh University, 1888-90; Locumtenens Professor of the Moral Sciences, Cardiff for Winter term of 1888; Sir William Hamilton Fellow, Edinburgh, 1888 for three years; Shaw Fellow, 1890, for five years; Lecturer of University Association for Education of Women, Edinburgh, 1889: Government Examiner for Degrees in the Moral Sciences, St. Andrews University, 1890, for three years; Lecturer on Logic and Methodology, Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University, 1891-2; Tutor in Political Economy, the University of Chicago, 1892-3; Shaw Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, 1898; Doctor in Mental Science, ibidem, 1893.]

WILLIAM HILL. A.M., Instructor in Political Economy.

[A. B., University of Kansas, 1890; A. B. ,Harvard University, 1891; A.M., ibid., 1892; Lee Memorial Fellow in Harvard University, 1891-3; Instructor in Political Economy, ibid., 1893; Tutor in Political Economy, University of Chicago, 1893-4.]

THORSTEIN B. VEBLEN, PH.D., Tutor in Political Economy.

[A.B., Carleton College, 1880; Graduate student, Johns Hopkins University; Ph.D., Yale University, 1884; Fellow in Economics and Finance, Cornell University, 1891-2; Fellow in the University of Chicago, 1892-3; Reader in Political Economy, ibid., 1893-4.]

ISAAC A. HOURWICH, PH.D., Docent in Statistics.

[Graduate, Classical Gymnasium, Minsk, Russia, 1877; Candidate of Jurisprudence (Master of Law), Demidoff Juridical Lyceum, Yaroslavl, 1887; Member of the Bar, Court of Appeals of Wilno, Russia, 1887-90; Seligman Fellow, Columbia College, 1891-2; Ph.D., ibid., 1893.]

 

INTRODUCTORY.

The work of the department is intended to provide, by symmetrically arranged courses of instruction, a complete training in the various branches of economics, beginning with elementary work and passing by degrees to the higher work of investigation. A chief aim of the instruction will be to teach methods of work, to foster a judicial spirit, and to cultivate an attitude of scholarly independence. (1) The student may pass, in the various courses of instruction, over the whole field of economics. (2) When fitted, he will be urged to pursue some special investigation. (3) For the encouragement of research and the training of properly qualified teachers of economics, Fellowships in Political Economy have been founded. (4) To provide a means of communication between investigators and the public, a review, entitled THE JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, has been established, to be edited by the officers of instruction in the department; while (5) larger single productions will appear in a series of bound volumes to be known as Economic Studies of the University of Chicago.

COURSES.
[1893-94]

1. Principles of Political Economy. —Exposition of the laws of Political Economy in its present state. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, (Laughlin’s edition). Dunbar, Banking.

DM.  Autumn and Summer Quarters.
PROFESSOR MILLER AND MR. HILL.

Open only to students who elect either 1a or 1b in the Winter Quarter.

1a. Advanced Political Economy.—Cairnes, Leading Principles of Political Economy. Marshall, Principles of Economics (vol. I).

DM. Winter Quarter.
PROFESSOR MILLER.

1b. Descriptive Political Economy. —Lectures and Reading on Money, Banking, Coöperation, Socialism, Taxation, and Finance. Hadley, Railroad Transportation. Laughlin, Bimetallism.

DM. Winter Quarter.
MR. CALDWELL.

2. Industrial and Economic History. —Leading Events in the Economic History of Europe and America since the middle of the Eighteenth Century. Lectures and Reading.

2 DM. Winter and Spring Quarters.
MR. HILL.

3. Scope and Method of Political Economy. —Origin and Development of the Historical School. Lectures and Reports.

DM. Winter Quarter.
MR. CALDWELL.

4. Unsettled Problems of Economic Theory. —Questions of Exchange and Distribution. Critical examination of selections from leading writers.

DM. Spring Quarter.
PROFESSOR LAUGHLIN.

5. History of Political Economy. —History of the Development of Economic Thought, embracing the Mercantilists and the Physiocrats, followed by a critical study of Adam Smith and his English and Continental Successors. Lectures and Reading Reports.

DM. Winter and Spring Quarters.
MR. CALDWELL.

6. Economic Factors in Civilization. —Study of the origin of some phases of our present Industrial Conditions. Lectures and Reports.

Summer Quarter.
MR. CALDWELL.

7. Socialism. —History of Socialistic Theories. Recent Socialistic Developments. Critical Review of Theoretical Writers, Programs and Criticisms. Lectures and Reports.

2 DM Winter and Spring Quarters.
DR. VEBLEN.

8. Social Economics. —Social Questions examined from the Economic standpoint:

A.  Poor Laws, and kindred topics to be announced later.

DM. Spring Quarter.
MR. CUMMINGS.

B. Social Reforms—Future of the Working-classes. Immigration. State Interference. Insurance—Legislation. Arbeitercolonien.

DM. Summer Quarter.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR BEMIS.

C. Coöperation. Profit-Sharing. Building Associations. Postal Savings. Trade Unions.

DM. Spring Quarter.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR BEMIS.

9. Money and Practical Economics. —Training in the Theoretical and Historical Investigation of Important Questions of the Day. Lectures and Theses.

DM. Autumn and Winter Quarters.
PROFESSOR LAUGHLIN.

10. Statistics. —Methods and Practical Training. Organization of Bureaus. Tabulation and Presentation of Results.

DM. Autumn Quarter.
DR. HOURWICH.

11. Advanced Statistics. —Statistics of Prices and Markets.

DM. Winter Quarter.
DR. HOURWICH.

12. Railway Transportation. —History and Development of Railways. Theories of Rates. Combination. Investments. State Ownership or Control. Lectures, Reports, Discussions, and Reading.

2 DM. Autumn and Winter Quarters.
MR. HILL.

13. Tariff History of the United States. —Legislation since 1780. Economic Effects. Political Causes. Lectures and Reports with Discussions. Reading.

Spring Quarter.
MR. HILL.

14. Financial History of the United States.—Rapid Survey of the Financial Experiences of the Colonies and the Confederation. Detailed Study of the Course of American Legislation on Currency, Debts. and Banking since 1789. Lectures and Reports.

DM. Spring Quarter.
PROFESSOR MILLER.

15. Finance. —Public Expenditures. Theories and Methods of Taxation. Public Debts. Financial Administration.

DM. Autumn Quarter.
PROFESSOR MILLER.

16. American Agriculture.—Movements of Prices. Foreign Competition. Changing Conditions of Agriculture. Land Tenure. Lectures, Reading, and Reports.

DM. Autumn Quarter.
DR. VEBLEN.

[17.] Banking. —Comparison of Modern Systems. Study of Principles. Lectures and Theses.

DM.
MR. HILL.

*18. Seminar in Finance.

2 DM. Winter and Spring Quarters.
PROFESSOR MILLER.

*19. Economic Seminar.

3 DM.  Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters.
PROFESSOR LAUGHLIN.

 

SOURCES:

University of Chicago, Annual Register. July, 1892—July, 1893 with Announcements for 1893-4, pp. 38, 40-41.

University of Chicago, Annual Register. July, 1893—July, 1894 with Announcements for 1894-5, pp. 11-18, 46-47.

 

 

 

Categories
Chicago Curriculum Economists Transcript

Chicago. Don Patinkin’s undergraduate and graduate coursework 1940s

A few years before there was an Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) to provide a research grant that allowed me to begin my archival project, I happened to visit my sister’s family living in Cary, North Carolina. I had somehow stumbled across a reference to the Patinkin papers archived at the Economists’ Papers Project at Duke University and figured it would might be worth a “look-see” and so I took a day trip to Duke with no specific plan. I probably saw Patinkin’s personally annotated undergraduate and graduate transcripts and then (mistakenly) presumed that many archives would have such a complete documentation of the actual coursework taken by individual economists. What I did not appreciate was that the university records with respect to student transcripts except for early in the 20th century and before are not easily accessible for research because of privacy concerns. This means the historian needs to stumble upon copies of transcripts in random collections as was the case here. Thank you serendipity.

From Patinkin’s annotated transcripts at the University of Chicago (he added the names of course instructors as well as identified other courses that he presumably audited), we can see just how many different economists were involved in the economics education of one Don Patinkin. His student notes for most of these economics courses are also to be found in his papers and deserve to be transcribed.

On a minor note: As a pupil, I never thought twice about why a “Report Card” happened to be called a “Report Card”. From this University of Chicago transcript we can see that report is used as short-hand for “reported grade”. The instructor is clearly seen to report to the university registrar’s office.

_____________________________________________

The University of Chicago
Office of the Registrar
UNDERGRADUATE RECORD
Social Sciences

[Copy of transcript dated Jan 25, 1979]

 

Name: Don Patinkin
Home Address: 1426 S. Hamlin Ave., Chicago
Matriculation No.: 202316
Date of Birth: 1-8-22
Place: Chicago

 Entered: October 7, 1941
Attendance at other institutions: Central Y.M.C.A. Coll., Chicago, 1939-41

_____________________________________________

Entrance Units: From Marshall H.S., Chicago, 1939

English 3 ½
Latin
French 4
German
Spanish
History 2
Economics
Sociology
Civics ½
Drawing ½
Journalism 1½
Algebra 1½
Pl. Geom. 1
Sol. Geom. ½
Trigonometry
Gen. Biol. 1
Physics
Chemistry
Botany
Zoölogy
Gen Science 1½
Physiol. ½
TOTAL 18

_____________________________________________

REQUIRED WORK

Econ. (L.W.M. & J.D.R.) 10.28.41
ECON. 209, 210, 2[illegible], 220 or 222, 230, 2 from 240, 260

DIVISIONAL FIELD FIVE 201 COURSES TO BE CHOSEN FROM
ANTH, ECON, EDUC., GEOG., HIST., POL.SCI., PSYCH., SOC.

Elect
1½ C’s by adv. stg. + 4½ at Divis’l Level
Econ. 311, 301, 360, Stat. 330, Bus. 323

_____________________________________________

Advanced Standing Oct. 30 1941
Central Y.M.C.A. College

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Zool. 101
Biol. Sci. Surv. (1)

HUMANITIES

Eng. 101, 103, Adv. Writing (1/2)
Philos.- Introd. (1), 203,
Hist of Philos. (1)
Hist of Europ. Civil. (1)
Apprec. Art & Music (1)

PHYSICAL SCIENCES

Math. 101, 102, 103, 218, 219, 220
Phy. Sci. Surv. (1).

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Econ.-Elem. (1 ½)
Soc. Sci. Surv. (1)

OTHER FIELDS

Bus.-Bus. Law (1/2)

Total: 19 ½ courses

_____________________________________________

[University of Chicago] Course Report
AUTUMN QR. 1941
ECON. 211 INTROD. TO STATISTICS inc.
A
P.SCI.   201 INTR. TO POLITICAL SCI. inc.
B
PSYCH. 201 INTROD. PSYCHOLOGY
Exam by Home Study 1-12-42		 [illegible]
A
WINTER QR. 1942
ECON.   209-INTERMED.ECON.THEORY
[Simons]		 B
ECON. 240. LABOR PROBLEMS
[Douglas]		 A
ECON. 311-STATISTICS/CORRELATION
[Lewis]		 B
SPRING QR. 1942
BUS. 323-PROB’Y,SAMPL’G & CURVE-FITTING
[illegible, “Yntema” according to course catalogue for 1942]		 A
ECON. 210-INTROD.TO ACCOUNTING
[Rovetta]		 A
ECON. 260-ELEM.OF GOV’T FINANCE
[Simons]		 B

EXAMINATION FOR THE BACHLOR’S DEGREE.

DIVISIONAL FIELD 8-24&25-42
ANTH. 201, EDUC. 201, POL.SCI.201, PSYCH. 201, SOC. 201

 B

Honor Scholar in the Division
(Economics)
Autumn Qr. 1942
ECON. 301-PRICE & DISTRIBUTION THEORY
[Knight]		 B
ECON. 360-GOVERNMENT FINANCE
[Leland]		 A
STAT. 330-THEORY OF PROBABILITY
[Bartky]		 C
PHYS.EDUC. (non-credit) ½ c. B

WINTER QR. 1943
Full Quarter’s Residence
ECON 230-INTR. TO MONEY & BANKING
[Mints]		 R
ECON 331-BANKING TH. & MONETARY POL.
[Mints]		 R
ECON. 220-ECON.HIST. OF U.S.
[Wright]

Pro-Forma

 R
EXAMINATION FOR THE BACHELOR’S DEGREE.
DEPARTMENTAL FIELD 3-4,5-43
Economics		 A
Elected to Phi Beta Kappa
Degree of A. B. Conferred MAR 26 1943
TRANSF. TO DIVISION (GRADUATE) JAN 3 1944

_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

The University of Chicago
Office of the Registrar
Social Sciences
Graduate

[Copy of transcript dated Jan 25, 1979]

Name: Don Patinkin
Home Address: 1426 S. Hamlin Ave., Chicago
Matriculation No.: 202316
Date of Birth: 1-8-22
Place: Chicago

Entered: Undergraduate 10-7-41
Trans. to Divis. Grad. 1-3-44

 

A.B. (U. of Chicago) 3-26-43
A.M. (U. of Chicago) DEC 21 1945
Ph.D. (U. of Chicago) AUG 29 1947

CANDIDATE FOR DEGREE OF A.M. IN Economics

REC. BY S.E. Leland DATE 10-5-45
APPROVED BY THE FACULTY  10.5.45

CANDIDACY FOR DEGREE OF Ph.D. IN Economics

REC. BY T.W. Schultz DATE 5-24-46
APPROVED BY THE FACULTY 5-24-46

 

[University of Chicago] Course Report
WINTER QR. 1944
ECON.     370-INTERN’L TRADE & FIN.
[Viner]		 B
MATH.   231-SOLID ANALYTIC GEOM.
[Albert]		 A
MATH.   248-INFIN.SER.&DEF.INTEGRALS A
O.L.-O.T. 352-TARGUM OF THE PROPHETS A
SPRING QR. 1944
ECON. 222-INTRO. EUROP.EC.HIST., 1540-1940
[Nef]

B
inc
ECON. 367-PUBLIC DEBTS
[Leland]		 B
ECON. 371-INTERN’L ECON. POLICIES
[Viner]* Allowed an extension of time, until end of Aut. Q. 1944, in which to complete Econ. 371. (Dean Russell) 7-8-44

A
inc*
SUMMER QR. 1944
ECON.   307-IMPERFECT COMPETITION
[Lange]		 A
ECON.   330-MONEY
[Mints]		 A
MATH.   228-INTR. TO ALGEBRAIC THEORIES
[Albert]		 A
MATH. 247-DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS A
MATH.   306-MODERN HIGHER ALGEBRA
[Albert]		 A
AUTUMN QR. 1944
ECON.   402-MATH’L ECONOMICS
[Lange]		 A
MATH.   310-FUNCT. OF COMPLEX VARIABLE B
POL.SCI.   340-PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
[Leonard White]		 A
WINTER QR. 1945
ECON.   302-HIST. OF ECON.THOUGHT
[Knight]		 A
ECON.   314-APP’NS OF STATISTICS TO ECON.
[Marschak]		 A
ECON. 316-PROBS. IN MATH’L ECON.
[Marschak]		 A
MATH.   311-TH.OF FUN(‘NS OF REAL VARIABLES B
SPRING QR. 1945
[311 Lange]
[312 Hurwicz]
ECON.   303-MOD.TENDENCIES IN ECON.
[Lange]		 A
ECON. ½ c. 315-ECONOMETRICS OF BUS.FLUCT’NS
[Marschak]		 A
ECON. ½ c.317-MATH’L COLLOQUIUM FOR ECON’TS A
ECON.   361-ECON. OF FISCAL POLICY
[Simons]

inc
A
[305 Economics & Social Institutions Knight & Perry]
SUMMER QR. 1945
ECON.   309-SPEC.PROBS.IN ECON.THEORY
[Lange]		 inc
ECON.   332-BUSINESS CYCLE THEORY
[Lange]

inc
A
ECON.   357-AGRIC. IN THE POLIT.ECONOMY inc. no ex.
French Examination Passed NOV 5 1945
PASSED ON BASIS OF 1943 STANDARD
AUTUMN QR. 1945
GER.   101-ELEMENTARY GERMAN A
MATH.   373-TOPOLOGY
[Hestenes]		 B
POL.SCI.   361-INTERNATIONAL LAW
[Morgenthau]		 A
Final Examination Passed for A.M. in Economics—Summer & Autumn 1945 (Simeon E. Leland)
Degree of A.M. conferred DEC 21 1945
Without Thesis
[WINTER QR. 1946]
[Econ. 255 Introd. to Agricultural Economics
Johnson]
[Pol. Sci 327 Social and Political Philosophy
Perry & Knight]
[Econ 358   Agricultural Markets and Prices
Nicholls]
SPRING QR. 1946
ECON.   304-ECON.TH’Y & SOC.POLICY
[Knight-Perry]		 R
ECON.   351-MONOP’Y ELEM., PRICES, PUB.POL’Y
[Nicholls]		 R
ECON. 355-AGRIC’L PROD’N & DEMAND
[Schultz]		 R
[Soc. 324 Hist. of Soc. Theory
Wirth]

Final Examination Passed
For Ph.D. in Economics—July 29, 1947
(J. Marschak)
Degree of Ph.D. Conferred
Aug 29 1947
Thesis: On the Consistency of Economic Models:
A Theory of Involuntary Unemployment

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubinstein Library. Don Patinkin Papers. University of Chicago School of Economics Raw Materials. Box 1. Folder “Essays on & in Chicago Tradition from binder of same name, folder 1 of 2”.

Image Source:  Marshall High School Yearbook, 1939 (Chicago).

 

 

Categories
Columbia Courses Curriculum

Columbia. Report of the Dean of the School of Political Science, 1901

I reproduce here the report of the Dean of the School of Political Science at Columbia University for the academic year 1900-01 in its entirety so we have a fairly complete accounting of the graduate education activities of the entire administrative unit within which the Columbia economics department was embedded at the start of the twentieth century. The document provides enormous detail from course registration totals through seminar participants by name and presentations through the work of those on fellowships and finally to the job placements of its graduates. The structure of the report can be seen below from the links to its individual sections:

Course Registration Data
Seminar in European History
Seminar in American Colonial History
Seminar in American History
Seminar in Modern European History
Seminar in Political Philosophy
Seminar in Constitutional Law
Seminar in Diplomacy and International Law
Seminar in Political Economy
Seminar in Political Economy and Finance
Seminar in Economic Theory
Statistical Laboratory and Seminar
Seminar in Sociology
Work of Fellows
Publications under the Supervision of the Faculty
Educational Appointments
Governmental Appointments
Other Appointments

_______________________________________

[p. 114]

 

SCHOOL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

REPORT OF THE DEAN
FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1901

To the President of Columbia University in the City of New York:

SIR:

I have the honor to submit the following report of the work of the Faculty of Political Science for the scholastic year 1900-1901. During the year 268 students have taken courses of instruction under the Faculty of Political Science, of whom 18 were women. Of these 68 students were also registered in the Law School, and 13 in the Schools of Philosophy, Pure Science, and Applied Science.

In the Report of the Registrar will be found tabular statements of the courses of study offered in the School, together with the attendance upon each, as follows:

Group I—History and Political Philosophy [page 270,  page 271]

A. European History. pages 270-271
B. American History, pages 270-271
C. Political Philosophy, pages 270-271

1900_01_HistPolPhilRegistrations1

1900_01_HistPolPhilRegistrations2

Group II—Public Law and Comparative Jurisprudence [page 291]

A. Constitutional Law, page 291
B. International Law, page 291
C. Administrative Law, page 291
D. Roman Law and Comparative Jurisprudence, page 291

1900_01_PublicLawRegistrations

Group III—Economics and Social Science [page 264]

A. Political Economy and Finance, page 264
B. Sociology and Statistics, page 264

1900_01_EconomicsRegistrations

[p. 115]

WORK IN THE SEMINARS

Seminar in European History

Professor Robinson. 2 hours fortnightly. 6 members.

The topic treated was the Development of the Papal Primacy to Gregory VII. Each student gave two or more reports on the various phases of the subject, dealing chiefly with the sources.

 

Seminar in American Colonial History

Professor Osgood. 2 hours a week. 27 members.

This course has been conducted as a lecture course and seminar combined. A paper was presented by each of the students and was discussed in the seminar. Among the subjects treated in these papers were:

Royal Charters and Governors’ Commissions;
Royal Instructions to Governors;
Salaries of Governors;
Agrarian Riots in New Jersey from 1745 to 1790;
Pirates and Piracy;
Paper Money in the Colonies;
Career of Robert Livingston;
Relations between the Executive in New York and the English Government;
Policy of the British Government toward the Charter Colonies subsequent to 1690.

A number of papers, also, were presented on subjects connected with Colonial defence.

 

Seminar in American History

Professor Osgood. 1 hour a week. 6 members.

In connection with the work of this Seminar the following Master’s theses have been prepared, read, and discussed:

System of Defence in Early Colonial Massachusetts, Sidney D. Brummer.
The Administration of George Clark in New York, 1736 to 1743, Walter H. Nichols.
The Relation of the Iroquois to the Struggle between the French and English in North America, Walter D. Gerken.

[p. 116]

Relations between France and England in North America from 1690 to 1713, Samuel E. Moffett.
France and England in America from 1713 to 1748, Henry R. Spencer.
Conflict between the French and English in North America, Walter L. Fleming.

 

Seminar in Modern European History

Professor Sloane. 6 members.

The following are the subjects which were discussed and upon which papers have been presented:

The Treaty of Basel, Guy S. Ford.
Hanover in the Revolutionary Epoch, Guy S. Ford.
The 18th Brumaire, Charles W. Spencer.
Beginnings of Administration under the Consulate, Charles W. Spencer.
Origins of the Continental System, Ulrich B. Phillips.
Development of the Continental System, Ulrich B. Phillips.
Napoleon and the Caulaincourt Correspondence, Ellen S. Davison.
Caulaincourt in Russia, Ellen S. Davison.
Custine in Metz, Walter P. Bordwell.
Hardenberg and Haugwitz, Paul Abelson.

 

Seminar in Political Philosophy

Professor Dunning. 1 hour a week. 1 member.

William O. Easton presented an elaborate paper on the Political Theories of Spinoza with Reference to the Theory of Hobbes.

 

Seminar in Constitutional Law

Professor Burgess. 1 hour a week. 27 members.

The work in this Seminar during the present year has been the study of the cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving private rights and immunities under the protection of the Constitution of the United States. Each member of the Seminar has prepared an essay upon the cases relating to a given point under this

[p. 117]

general subject, and has read the same before the Seminar, where it has been subjected to general comment and criticism.

 

Seminar in Diplomacy and International Law

Professor Moore. 2 hours a week. 12 members.

Papers were read as follows:

Decisions of the Courts in the United States on Questions Growing out of the Annexation of Territory, William H. Adams.
The Southwestern Boundary of the United States, James F. Barnett.
The Development of the Laws of War Walter P. Bordwell.
Treaties: Their Making, Construction, and Enforcement, Samuel D. Crandall.
The Diplomacy of the Second Empire, Stephen P. Duggan.
Blockades, Sydney H. Herman.
Diplomatic Officers, William C. B. Kemp.

 

Seminar in Political Economy

Professor Mayo-Smith. 1 hour a week. 9 members.

In addition to reading and discussing Marshall’s Principles of Economics, in which all the members of the Seminar participated, papers were read upon the following subjects:

Trusts in the United States Hajime Hoshi.
Trusts and Prices, Robert B. Olsen.
The Industrial Employment of Women, Charles M. Niezer.

 

Seminar in Political Economy and Finance

Professor Seligman. 2 hours fortnightly. 20 members.

The subject of work in this Seminar during the first term was “The Foundations of Economic Philosophy.” During the second term a variety of subjects was discussed. Each member of the Seminar also made a report at each meeting on current periodical literature in economics, including the literature of the following countries: United States, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan. The papers read were as follows:

[p. 118]

Natural Law and Economics, Robert P. Shepherd.
The Economic Motive, Holland Thompson.
The Law of Competition, Walter E. Clark.
The Theory of Individualism, Enoch M. Banks.
Social Element in the Theory of Value, John W. Dickman.
Theory of Insurance, Allan H. Willett.
Theory of Monopolies, Alvin S. Johnson.
Economic Doctrine of Senior, Albert C. Whitaker.
Bounties and Shipping Subsidies, Royal Meeker.
Legal Decisions on the Labor Question, Ernest A. Cardozo.
Commercial Policy of Japan, Yetaro Kinosita.
Early American Economic Theory, Albert Britt.
The Movement toward Consolidation, Robert B. Oken.

 

Seminar in Economic Theory

Professor Clark. 2 hours fortnightly. 12 members.

Papers were presented on the following subjects:

Labor as a Measure of Value, Albert C. Whitaker.
Value Theories of Say and Ricardo, Robert P. Shepherd.
Rent and Value, Alvin S. Johnson.
Monetary Theories, John W. Dickman.
The Influence of Insurance on Distribution, Allan H. Willett.
Early Socialism, Enoch M. Banks.
Louis Blanc, Royal Meeker.
Fabian Socialism, Albert Britt.
Commercial Crises, Ernest A. Cardozo.
Speculation, Yetaro Kinosita.
Labor Unions in North Carolina, Holland Thompson.
Welfare Institutions, Walter E. Clark.

 

Statistical Laboratory and Seminar

Professor Mayo-Smith. 2 hours fortnightly. 5 members.

The work of the year was devoted to developing the mathematical theory of statistics with practical exercises.

 

Seminar in Sociology

Professor Giddings. 2 hours fortnightly. 12 members.

The following papers were read and discussed.

Types of Mind and Character in Colonial Massachusetts, Edward W. Capen.

[p. 119]

Types of Mind and Character in Colonial Connecticut, William F. Clark.
Types of Mind and Character in Colonial New York, George M. Fowles.
Types of Mind and Character in Colonial Pennsylvania, Andrew L. Horst.
Types of Mind and Character in Colonial Virginia, Robert L. Irving.
Types of Mind and Character in the Early Days of North Carolina,Thomas J. Jones.
Types of Mind and Character in the Early Days of Kentucky, Edwin A. McAlpinJr.
Types of Mind and Character in the Early Days of Indiana, Daniel L. Peacock.
Types of Mind and Character in the Early Days of Wisconsin, Albert G. Mohr.
An Analysis of the Mental Characteristics of the Population of an East-Side New York City Block, Thomas J. Jones.
A Statistical Study of the Response to Lincoln’s First Call for Volunteers, Andrew L. Horst.
The Charities of Five Presbyterian Churches in Harlem, Robert L. Irving.
The Poor Laws of Connecticut, Edward W. Capen.
Parochial Settlement in England, Bertha H. Putnam.
A Critical and Statistical Study of Male and Female Birth Rate,s Daniel L. Peacock.

 

WORK OF FELLOWS

During the year the following persons have held Fellowships in subjects falling under the jurisdiction of this Faculty:

1. William Maitland Abell, Political Science.

Yale University, A.B., 1887; A.M., 1898.,New York University, LL.M., 1894. Columbia University, graduate student, 1898-1901; Fellow in Political Science, 1899-1900.

Mr. Abell, Honorary Fellow, continued his work in the Seminar in Constitutional Law, and made excellent progress in the preparation of his Doctor’s dissertation.

[p. 120]

2. Walter Percy Bordwell, International Law.

University of California, B.L., 1898. Columbia University, graduate student, 1898-1901.

Mr. Bordwell, the holder of the Schiff Fellowship, worked under the direction of Professor Moore upon his Doctor’s dissertation: “The Development of the Laws of War since the Time of Grotius.” He also took part in the Seminars of Professors Moore and Sloane, presenting a paper in each of these Seminars. He passed, in May, his oral examinations for the Doctor’s degree.

3. James Wilford Garner, Political Science.

Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, B.S., 1892. University of Chicago, graduate student, 1896-99; Instructor in Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, Ill., 1899-1900. Columbia University, graduate student, 1900-01.

Mr. Garner worked under the direction of Professor Dunning in American Political Philosophy. Professor Dunning reports that his “Study of the Tendencies Manifested in the Amendments of State Constitutions from 1830-1860” is a noteworthy contribution to science. He also attended the Seminar in Constitutional Law and worked there upon the cases decided by the Supreme Court in the interpretation of private rights under the Constitution of the United States.

4. Alvin Saunders Johnson, Economics.

University of Nebraska, A.B., 1897; A.M., 1898. Columbia University, graduate student, 1899-1901; Scholar in Political Economy, 1899-1900.

Mr. Johnson read a paper in Professor Seligman’s Seminar on “The Theory of Monopolies.” He worked also in Professor Clark’s Seminar, and, in consultation with Professor Clark, upon the preparation of his Doctor’s dissertation, “The Classical Theory of Rent.” He passed, in May, his oral examinations for the Doctor’s degree.

5. Thomas Jesse Jones, Sociology.

Marietta College, A.B., 1897. Student at Union Theological Seminary, 1897-1900. Columbia University, A.M., 1899; graduate student, 1897-1901.

Mr. Jones worked under the direction of Professor Giddings upon his Doctor’s dissertation, “A Sociological Study of the Population of a New York City Block.” Professor Giddings reports that this dissertation promises to be one of the most minute investigations of modern city life yet undertaken. Mr. Jones also made the annual revision of the list and description of social settlements in New York City which is regularly expected of a Fellow in Sociology. He passed, in May, his oral examinations for the Doctor’s degree.

[p. 121]

6. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, History.

University of Georgia, A.B., 1897; A.M., 1898. Tutor in History, 1899-1900. Columbia University, graduate student, 1900-01.

Mr. Phillips worked under the direction of Professor Dunning upon a “Study of the Political History of Georgia,” in connection with which he planned to make researches during the summer in the historical collections at Savannah, Atlanta, and other points in the State. Mr. Phillips also presented several papers on various phases of American Political Philosophy in connection with the course on that subject. He also worked in the Seminars of Professors Sloane and Robinson and presented reports in each.

 

7. Jesse Eliphalet Pope, Economics.

University of Minnesota, B.S., 1895; M.S., 1897. Columbia University, graduate student, 1897-1901: Fellow in Economics, 1898-1900.

Mr. Pope, Honorary Fellow, worked in Seminar with Professor Seligman, but took a less active part than he desired, owing to his having obtained a professorship in Economics at New York University. He had, however, passed his oral examinations for the Doctor’s degree in May, 1900, and was busy through the winter in preparing his Doctor’s dissertation.

 

8. Charles Worthen Spencer, American History.

Colby University, A.B., 1890. Chicago University, Fellow in Political Science, 1892-94. Columbia University, graduate student, 1894-95, 1900-01. Colgate University, Professor of History, 1895-1900.

Mr. Spencer worked under the direction of Professor Osgood upon the preparation of his Doctor’s dissertation, the subject of which is “New York as a Royal Province, 1690-1730.” He also read two papers in Professor Sloane’s Seminar, and participated generally in the work of this Seminar. He passed, in May, his oral examinations for the Doctor’s degree.

9. Earl Evelyn Sperry, European History.

Syracuse University, Ph.B., 1898; Ph.M., 1899. Columbia University, Scholar in History, 1899-1900; graduate student, 1899-1901.

Mr. Sperry worked under the direction of Professor Robinson, and besides preparing several reports for the Seminar in European History, completed the first draft of his Doctor’s dissertation upon ” The Celibacy of the Clergy in the Mediaeval Church.” He also passed, in May, the oral examinations for the Doctor’s degree.

[p. 122]

11. Albert Concer Whitaker, Economics.

Stanford University, A.B., 1899. Columbia University, Scholar in Economics, 1899-1900; graduate student, 1890-1901.

Mr. Whitaker worked in Seminar with Professor Seligman and also with Professor Clark. He made considerable progress in the preparation of his Doctor’s dissertation upon “The Entrepreneur,” and passed, in June, his oral examinations for the Doctor’s degree.

 

PUBLICATIONS UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE FACULTY

Of the Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, under the editorial management of Professor Seligman, there have appeared during the year six numbers.

Vol. XIII.

No. 1. The Legal Property Relations of Married Parties. By Professor Isidor Loeb.
No. 2. Political Nativism in New York State. By Louis Dow Scisco.
No. 3. Reconstruction of Georgia. By Edwin C. Woolley.

Vol. XIV.

No. 1. Loyalism in New York during the American Revolution. By Prof. Alexander C. Flick.
No. 2. Economic Theory of Risk and Insurance. By Allan H. Willett.

Vol. XV.

No. 1. Civilization and Crime. By Arthur Cleveland Hall.

The sale of these monographs and volumes has increased considerably during the past few years and some of the early volumes are now out of print. The foreign demand has also developed to such an extent that arrangements have now been made with agents, both in London and Paris, for placing them upon the European market.

The Political Science Quarterly has continued to prosper. With the close of the year 1900 it completed its fifteenth annual volume. In order to make available for students the great mass of scientific matter contained in these fifteen volumes, a general index has been prepared, to be published in a separate volume. This index will appear during the summer.

[p. 123]

Two very successful public meetings of the Academy were held during the winter. The first was addressed by Professor Goodnow, who had served as a member of the Commission to Revise the Charter of New York City. Professor Goodnow presented a careful analysis of the report and recommendations of the Commission. The second meeting was devoted to a discussion of Trusts by Professor J. W. Jenks, who gave the chief results of the investigations made by him on behalf of the Industrial Commission.

The History Club has about thirty members, and, with invited guests, an average attendance of about fifty persons. During the year it has held eight meetings, of which three were conducted solely by the students. At the other meetings papers were read by James Ford Rhodes, Frederic Harrison, Professor Robinson, and Professor George B. Adams.

I reported in 1899 that a number of former students of the School of Political Science had obtained positions either as teachers or in the administrative service of New York State. I have the pleasure now to report that during the past two years a much larger number have obtained first appointments, or have been advanced to better positions, not only as teachers and as state officers, but also in the Federal Civil Service. The lists appended are probably incomplete, but they will serve to show the widening influence of the School. The dates immediately following each name indicate the period of residence in the School.

 

I.—EDUCATIONAL APPOINTMENTS

Carl L. Becker, 1898-99, Univ. Fellow, 1898-99,
Instructor in Political Science and History, Pennsylvania State College.

Ernest L. Bogart, 1897-98,
Associate Professor of Economics and Sociology, Oberlin College, Ohio.

Lester G. Bugbee, 1893-95, Univ. Fellow, 1893-95,
Adjunct Professor of History, University of Texas.

William M. Burke, 1897-99, Univ. Fellow, 1897-99; Ph.D., 1899,
Professor of History and Economics, Albion College, Michigan.

[p. 124]

Charles E. Chadsey, 1893-94, Univ. Fellow, 1893-94; Ph. D., 1897,
Lecturer on History, University of Colorado.

Walter E. Clark, 1899-1901,
Tutor in Political Economy, College of the City of New York.

Walter W. Cook, 1898-1900, A.M., 1899,
Instructor in Constitutional and Administrative Law in the University of Nebraska.

Harry A. Cushing, 1893-95, Univ. Fellow, 1894-95; Ph.D., 1896,
Lecturer on History and Constitutional Law, Columbia University.

Ellen S. Davison, 1899-1901, Cand. Ph.D.,
Lecturer on History, Barnard College.

Alfred L. P. Dennis, 1896-99, Ph.D., 1901,
Assistant in History, 1900-01, Harvard University; Instructor in History, Bowdoin College.

Stephen P. H. Duggan, 1896-1900, A.M., 1899; Cand. Ph.D.,
Instructor in Political Science, College of the City of New York.

Charles F. Emerick, 1896-97, University Fellow, 1896-97; Ph.D., 1897,
Professor of Political Economy, Smith College, Mass.

Henry C. Emery, 1893-94, University Fellow, 1893-94; Ph.D., 1896,
Professor of Political Economy, Yale University.

John A. Fairlie, 1897-98, University Fellow, 1897-98; Ph.D., 1898,
Assistant Professor of Administrative Law, University of Michigan.

Guy S. Ford, 1900-01, Cand. Ph.D.,
Instructor of History, Yale University.

Delmer E. Hawkins, 1899-1900,
Instructor in Political Economy, Syracuse University.

Allen Johnson, 1897-98, University Fellow, 1897-98; Ph.D., 1899,
Professor of History, Iowa College, Grinnell ; also Lecturer on European History in the University of Wisconsin, Summer Session, 1901.

Alvin S. Johnson, 1898-1901, University Fellow, 1900-01; Cand. Ph.D.,
Assistant in Economics, Bryn Mawr College.

Lindley M. Keasby, 1888-90, Ph.D., 1890,
Professor of Economics and Social Science, Bryn Mawr College.

James A. McLean, 1892-94, University Fellow, 1892-94; Ph.D., 1894,
Professor of History and Political Science, University of Idaho.

Milo R. Maltbie, 1895-97, University Fellow, 1895-96; Ph.D., 1897,
Lecturer on Municipal Government, Columbia University.

Charles E. Merriam, Jr., 1896-98, Fellow, 1897-98; Ph.D., 1900,
Docent in Political Science, University of Chicago.

Walter H. Nichols, 1899-1901, Cand. Ph.D.,
Professor of History, University of Colorado.

Comadore E. Prevey, 1898-1900, University Fellow, 1898-1900; A.M., 1899; Cand. Ph.D.,
Lecturer on Sociology, University of Nebraska.

Jesse E. Pope, 1897-1900, University Fellow, 1898-1900; Cand. Ph.D.,
Adjunct Professor of Political Economy, 1900-01, New York University; Professor of Political Economy, University of Missouri.

[p. 125]

Charles L. Raper, 1898-1900, University Fellow, 1899-1900; Cand. Ph.D..
Lecturer on History, Barnard College, 1900-01; Assistant Professor of Economics and History, University of North Carolina.

William A. Rawles, 1898-99, Cand. Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of Economics and Sociology, University of Indiana.

William A. Schaper, 1896-98, University Fellow, 1897-98; Ph.D., 1901,
Professor of Administration, University of Minnesota.

Louis D. Scisco, 1899-1900, Ph.D., 1901,
Teacher of History, High School, Stillwater, Minnesota.

William R. Shepherd, 1893-95, University Fellow, 1893-95; Ph.D.. 1896,
Tutor in History, Columbia University.

James T. Shotwell, 1898-1900, University Fellow, 1899-1900; Cand. Ph.D.,
Assistant in History, Columbia University.

William R. Smith, 1898-1900, University Fellow, 1898-1900; Cand. Ph.D.,
Instructor in History, University of Colorado.

Edwin P. Tanner, 1897-1900, A.M., 1898; University Fellow, 1899-1900; Cand. Ph.D.,
Teacher of History, High School, Stillwater, Minnesota.

Holland Thompson, 1899-1901, University Fellow, 1899-1900; A.M., 1900,
Tutor in History, College of the City of New York.

Francis Walker, 1892-94, University Fellow, 1892-94; Ph.D., 1895,
Associate Professor of Political Economy, Adelbert College, Western Reserve University.

Ulysses G. Weatherby, 1899-1900,
Professor of Economics and Social Science, University of Indiana.

 

2.—GOVERNMENTAL APPOINTMENTS

Frank G. Bates, 1896-97, Ph.D., 1899,
State Librarian, Providence, R. I.

John F. Crowell, 1894-95, University Fellow, 1894-95; Ph.D.. 1897,
Expert Agent on Agricultural Products, Industrial Commission.

John H. Dynes, 1896-98, A.M., 1897; University Fellow, 1897-98,
Student Clerk, Division of Methods and Results, Twelfth Census.

Charles E. Edgerton, 1898-99,
Special Agent, Industrial Commission.

Frederick S. Hall, 1896-97, Ph.D., 1898,
Clerk, Division of Manufactures, Twelfth Census.

Leonard W. Hatch, 1894-95,
Statistician, Bureau of Labor, Albany, New York.

Isaac A. Hourwich, 1891-92, Ph.D., 1893,
Translator, Bureau of the Mint, Washington, D. C.

Maurice L. Jacobson, 1892-95,
Librarian, Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department, Washington, D. C.

William Z. Ripley, 1891-93, University Fellow, 1891-93; Ph.D., 1893,
Expert on Transportation, Industrial Commission.

Frederick W. Sanders, 1895-96,
Director, Agricultural Experiment Station, New Mexico.

Nahum I. Stone, 1897-99,
Expert on Speculation and Prices, Industrial Commission, Washington, D. C.

[p. 126]

Adna F. Weber, 1896-97, University Fellow, 1896-97; Ph.D., 1899,
Chief Statistician, Bureau of Labor, Albany. N. Y.

Walter F. Willcox, 1886-88, Ph.D., 1891,
Chief Statistician, Census Office, Washington, D. C.

 

Dr. Max West, 1891-93; University Fellow, 1892-93; Ph.D., 1893, should figure in both of the preceding lists; for he has been appointed Chief Clerk in the Division of Statistics, Department of Agriculture, and has also become Associate Professor of Economics in the Columbian University, Washington, D. C.

The direction of organized charity is a field of labor for which our students in Sociology receive an excellent training; and I am glad to report that Mr. Prevey, whose appointment as lecturer in the University of Nebraska is noted above, has also been made General Secretary of the local Charity Organization Society. I have also to report that Mr. Thomas J. Jones, a student in the School during the past four years and Fellow in Sociology, 1900-01, has been appointed Assistant Head Worker in the University Settlement, New York City.

“To give an adequate economic and legal training to those who intend to make journalism their profession” has always been announced as one of the objects of the School of Political Science; and a considerable number of our graduates have become editors. It is more difficult, however, to keep track of journalists than of teachers and governmental officers, and the only recent appointment in this field of which I have been informed is that of Dr. Roeliff M. Breckenridge, Ph.D., 1894, as financial editor of the New York Journal of Commerce.

 

Respectfully submitted,

John W. Burgess,

Dean.

June 10, 1901.

 

Source: Twelfth Annual Report of President Low to the Trustees. October 7, 1901.

 

 

Categories
Chicago Curriculum Fields

Chicago. Advanced General Survey Courses in Economics. Memo, 1926

The memo of this posting was written by the head of the Chicago department of economics, Leon Carroll Marshall. I have chosen this to begin a category “Fields”. The groups named below were tasked with preparing bibliographies, not for use in the survey courses, but to make explicit the level of preparation expected of students in those courses. Cox and Mints by the following summer apparently established “Money and banking” as a field distinct from business finance (a memo in the same folder dated August 9, 1927).  It is also interesting to note that Marshall seems to have thought it important to pair economics and business in as many fields as he could.

______________________

November 30, 1926

Memorandum from L. C. Marshall to All Persons Mentioned Herein:

The problem attacked in this memorandum is that of carrying through effectively our arrangements with respect to our advanced general survey courses—courses that in the past we have sometimes referred to as “Introduction to the Graduate Study of X,” although we are not now following this terminology.

The following background facts will need to be kept in mind:

  1. We are to have introductory point of view courses designed to give an organic view of the Economic Order. These courses are numbered 102, 103, 104.
  2. Our next range of courses is designed primarily to deal with method. This range includes: 1. Economic History; 2. Statistics; 3. Accounting; 4. Intermediate Theory.
  3. The foregoing seven courses are the only courses for which we assume responsibility as far as the ordinary [Arts and Literature] undergraduate is concerned. It may well be that from time to time some member of the staff will be interested in giving for undergraduates a course on some live problem of the day, but this is an exceptional matter and not a matter of our standard arrangement.
  4. Our best undergraduates may move on to the type of courses referred to above in the first paragraph, such as courses 330, 340, 335, 345, etc. In general the prerequisites for admission to these courses (as far a undergraduates are concerned) would be a certain number of majors in our work plus 27 majors with an average of B. Under the regulations which the Graduate Faculty has laid down, students who have less than 27 majors could not be admitted to these courses except with the consent of the group and Dean Laing.

 

It is highly essential that our work in these advanced survey courses such as 330, 340, 335, 345, etc. shall:

  1. Really assume the method courses mentioned above: really be conducted at a level which assumes that the student possesses certain techniques.
  2. Really assume an adequate background of subject-matter content.

 

Will the person whose name is underscored in each group undertake (as promptly as reasonably may be) the responsibility of conducting conferences designed

  1. To lead to explicit definite arrangements looking toward the actual utilization of the earlier method courses in these advance survey courses
  2. To prepare a bibliography that can be mimeographed and placed in each student’s hands who enters one of these advanced survey courses. This bibliography is not to be a bibliography of the course (that is a separate matter) but a bibliography of what is assumed by way of preparation for the course. Whether a somewhat different bibliography should be made for the Economics course and the Business course in a given field is left for each group to discuss. Personally I hope that it will be a single bibliography for the two. Mr. Palyi suggests the desirability of a bibliographical article (worthy of publication) for each field. This seems to me an admirable suggestion—one difficult to resist.

 

Will each leader of the group referred to below please put the outcome of your discussion in writing and send to the undersigned? It is to be hoped that you will find other matters to report upon in addition to the foregoing.

GROUPS

  1. The Financial System and Financial Administration

Meech, Mints, Cox, Palyi

  1. Labor and Personnel Administration

Douglas, Millis, Stone, Kornhauser

  1. The Market and the Administration of Marketing

Palmer, Duddy, Barnes, Dinsmore

  1. Risk and Its Administration

Nerlove, Cox, Millis, Mints

  1. Transportation, Communication and Traffic Administration

Sorrell, Wright, Duddy, Douglas

  1. Government Finance

Viner, Millis, Douglas, Stone

  1. Population and the Standard of Living

Kyrk, Douglas, Viner

  1. Resources, Technology and the Administration of Production

Mitchell, Daines, McKinsey

 

The following fields are not included in this memorandum either because of specific course prerequisites or because of obvious difficulties in the case:

  1. Economic Theory and Principles of Administration
  2. Statistics and Accounting
  3. Economic History and Historical Method
  4. Social Direction and Control of Economic Activity.

 

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics, Records. Box 22, Folder 6.

Image Source: Leon Carroll Marshall. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-04114, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Columbia Curriculum

Columbia. Curricular Suggestions and Comments. 1945

In my examination of departmental records at Columbia, Chicago, Harvard and M.I.T. I have found relatively few written reflections on the rules/regulation/courses of the graduate programs. Today’s posting provides a memo of miscellaneous ruminations by Arthur F. Burns, Carter Goodrich and Carl Shoup who served as members of the Columbia Economic Department’s Curriculum Committee in 1945. Having a major field of comparative economic systems myself, I found Arthur Burns’ rather dismissive remarks about whether the graduate program should add a course in that field noteworthy.

_____________________________

April 30, 1945

To the Members of the Department of Economics:

During the year the Curriculum Committee has given thought to problems growing out of the Department discussions of last spring. Although the Committee is not prepared to place definite recommendations before the Department, I think it desirable that the members of the Department review certain suggestions and other changes that have been considered by the Committee. These suggestions, with comments of Committee members, are enclosed. There should be opportunity to discuss these at our meeting on me second. May 2.

Frederick C. Mills

_____________________________

SUGGESTIONS FOR CURRICULAR AND OTHER CHANGES
with comments by Committee Members

 

  1. We should formulate a more definite statement of requirements to be met by applicants for admission to the graduate department of economics.
    (Can we agree on basic requirements? Should we include mathematics, accounting, statistics, history, economic principles, English composition, psychology, one laboratory science?)

 

A. F. Burns

I doubt if much progress in this direction can be made this year or next. For one thing, there is likely to be slight unanimity among the staff. For another, each of us will have difficulty in convincing the others unless judgment be implemented by a canvas of experience. What do other graduate departments do? Would there be any advantage in drawing up a sample list of former graduate students in the department and analyzing the undergraduate training of those who proved especially “successful” and those who “got nowhere”?

 

Carter Goodrich

This is the point on which I am most doubtful of the general tendency. I do not believe we can agree on “basic requirements”. Even on recommendations I think we should be most cautious. We may be justified in making a strong recommendation for things we consider specific prerequisites, – perhaps economic principles, mathematics, accounting or statistics. I should see no justification for such specifications as “one laboratory science”. If we are to make a recommendation regarding preliminary training in economics, I feel strongly that it should be accompanied by a recommendation against over-specialization in economics at the undergraduate level. An excellent statement of this general point of view is contained in the Princeton catalog in a passage referring to pre-professional training.

 

Carl S. Shoup

As I see it, the Department faces two general alternatives. First, it can continue to admit graduate students who have had little or no economic training during their undergraduate days and who must therefore be given some general courses on a fairly elementary level. Owing to the number of students involved, these courses would presumably be of the traditional lecture type. Students who have already had substantial training in economics might be excused from these courses to take instead either special seminars designed for first-year students, or the usual advanced seminars. This alternative is inviting in many ways, but I fear that, inevitably, two undesirable consequences would follow: (1). Since our resources are not unlimited, even though they may be expanded from the present level, the use of some resources to give the rather elementary lecture courses would, necessarily, decrease the time and effort that the faculty members could otherwise give to the students entering with a good background in economics; (2) The fact that the graduate department would be supplying a pretty complete series of lectures in the various subjects on this level would tend to discourage the better undergraduate schools from maintaining high standards in their economics teaching. This would particularly be the case if students coming here with good undergraduate training in economics were required or allowed to attend these general lecture courses, and I think that experience indicates that this is what would happen: Word would get back to the undergraduate colleges that there is no particular point in working too hard on students who hope to go on for graduate economics work since they will have to, or will be induced to, or will allow themselves to spend a good deal of time in the graduate school going over, at much the same pace and with much the same intensity, the same material they covered in their undergraduate courses. To a certain extent, I believe this hypothetical situation I outlined has already developed in fact it will simply be intensified if we do not set up some sort of professional standards for admission.

The other alternative is to require that a student show a certain degree of proficiency in the elementary subjects of economics before he is admitted to the graduate school. This might be done simply on showing of courses taken and grades given, but I should prefer to work toward a system of entrance examinations without any requirements at all concerning specific undergraduate courses. We would be more sure that we were getting people with the kind of background desired and we would also thereby allow individuals to qualify, if they were able enough to do so, on the basis of study without taking courses. Assuming that the department had the same total resources and manpower is under the first alternative, these resources could then be thrown wholly into the training of graduate students in small groups through individual conferences, on research projects, etc. The resulting rise in the standard of our graduate teaching and in the quality of our product, as embodied in the successful Ph.D. Candidates — and also indeed, in those who get the Master’s degree — would, in my opinion, be marked. Moreover, since all of the graduate students would have shown proficiency in the elementary branches of economics, the could and should be encouraged to branch out in allied fields of graduate work: philosophy, psychology, etc. This alternative, however, has the disadvantage of borrowing from the graduate school able students who have taken little or no economics in their undergraduate days. I look upon this I look upon this as a necessary cost that must be paid if we are really to step up, in any marked degree, the quality and intensity of our graduate training. I wish it did not have to be paid, but I think that we shall be unrealistic if we think that we can change the present situation greatly without incurring that cost. It would, of course, still be possible for an able student, who had decided that he wanted to switch to economics, to get enough economics to pass the entrance examinations by six months or so of intensive study by himself. Only the very able ones could do this, but I doubt whether we should make much effort to get the merely average student who has had no economics at all in his undergraduate days.

 

 

  1. Standards of admission to graduate study in economics should be reviewed with the Office of Admissions. Tightening up may be possible, but fairly liberal principles of admission should prevail for the present.

 

Arthur F. Burns

I Agree.

 

Carl Goodrich

Yes

 

Carl S. Shoup

If we follow the first alternative outlined in number 1 above, I should agree that the general standards of admission should be tightened up somewhat. If the second alternative is followed, the nature of the qualifying examinations would pretty much settled this question.

 

  1. A nuclear program of first-year courses is to be planned. Provision should be made for some flexibility, but most students would be expected to take three or four basic first-year courses (including theory, statistics, money and banking, and economic history). Requirements in these courses would be fairly rigorous, and all students would take examinations and receive letter grades. A special reading course might be taken in view of a basic course by the student already reasonably well-prepared in that subject.

 

Arthur F. Burns

I agree with some interpretations and qualifications. (a) The essential thing is that in his first year a student attend to certain basic courses (a list to be discussed). (b) If a student has had satisfactory training at college in any one or all of these courses (the latter, of course, is rather unlikely), he should not be required to take them again. (c) Whether letter grades are to be given in these courses should be decided on the basis of the general policy in regard to letter grades. Note also that there are bound to be second-and third-year students in the basic courses. (d) Special reading courses are a very doubtful educational expedient, unless the faculty is willing to give real time to the work.

 

Carter Goodrich

On the whole, yes, as long there is 5 to provide flexibility and provided that at some stage we really encourage a considerable number of our students to take relevant work outside the Department.

 

Carl S. Shoup

The program of first-year courses is necessary only under the first alternative in number 1. A student who is already reasonably well prepared in a subject should not, I think, be required to take even a special reading course. He should, instead, be admitted at once to the advanced seminars.

 

 

  1. M.A. candidates should be required to have letter grades of B or better in courses carrying 21 points of credit. Department members should be requested to test first-year students systematically and grade rigorously.

 

A.F. Burns

I am inclined to agree, but I do not expect very much from this proposal. It may merely mean that we will now say B where we formerly said P.

 

Carter Goodrich

Like Walton Hamilton on monogamy, “I suppose I’d vote for it but I’ll be damned if I’d electioneer for it.”

 

Carl S. Shoup

I suggest that we give only a “P” grade with the understanding that the passing level is “B” rather than “C”. Under the first alternative in number 1, I would be willing to go so far as to require passing grades in all of the thirty points, both for candidates for M:A. and for those who are not taking the M.A. but want to go on to the Ph.D. If we are to assume real responsibility for the product that we turn out, I do not see how we can afford to give a degree to anybody who is not good enough to pass all of the courses that he takes. (Do the medical schools give degrees to people who are unable to pass all of the courses?)

 

  1. We should provide seminar courses for first-year students of outstanding ability and satisfactory preparation. Admission would be by consent of the instructor. Admission would be restricted to men of clear promise. Such a man might have a first-year program consisting of three basic courses and two seminars.

 

A. F. Burns

I think it is desirable to admit qualified first-year students to seminars. But it would be unwise and impractical to run one special seminar for first-year students and another for second-year students. It is an artificial distinction. (However, it might be well to organize a seminar for M.A. students who are writing their theses, one requirement (among others) for admission being that a student have a definite topic that he already has done a little work on and that he expects to complete within the year. This suggestion raises serious questions as to administration, teaching load, etc.)

 

Carter Goodrich

Yes. These seminars would not in all case have to be for first-year students only.

 

Carl S. Shoup

This problem is covered in the discussion under number 1 above. I should add that even under the second alternative, I should visualize fairly frequent and rigorous examinations of some kind or other to be sure that the graduate student was not losing his grasp of his tools of analysis and his basic information, and was, indeed, improving them as he went along.

 

  1. There should be a rigorous weeding out of graduate students at the end of the first graduate year. At the end of the spring term a committee of the department should review the records of all candidates for degrees. Only those of clear merit should be permitted to carry forward studies for the doctorate. We should have a restricted group of second and third-year graduate students of high ability.

 

A. F. Burns

I agree heartily.

 

Carter Goodrich

Yes, decidedly.

 

Carl S. Shoup

I agree with this proposal, whether under the first or second alternatives in number 1 above.

 

  1. We should consider introducing comprehensive written matriculation examinations, to come before more than 45 residence credits have been acquired.

 

A. F. Burns

I feel handicapped because I don’t know precisely what matriculation means or involves. Would the comprehensive examination come six months after a student has been encouraged to try for the doctorate? If so, is the interval too short?

 

Carter Goodrich

Not with this timing. It would be too late for the privileges of matriculation and I think too early for a comprehensive test. Possibly such examinations might supplement the oral on subjects and replace certification.

 

Carl S. Shoup

I agree that it is desirable to have comprehensive written examinations from time to time through the graduate work (see comments under numbers 4 and 5 above).

 

 

  1. Doctoral candidates should be required to pass a third year in residence or in an approved research position. This year should be given to rigorous research training, under the supervision of the department.

 

Arthur F. Burns

I agree if “Rigorous research training” means the writing of a dissertation on the premises, or at least working on it for a year under the supervision of the department. But there is a good deal to think through before making a definite proposal. For example, would the orals have to be taken before this research year?

 

Carter Goodrich

Yes, as an ideal to press for as rapidly as possible. In my judgment, this is the direction that promises the most significant improvement.

 

Carl S. Shoup

This is an excellent idea; if doctoral candidates would pass a third year in residence or in an approved research position, many of our difficulties at the thesis level would disappear.

 

 

  1. A sum equivalent to approximately 10 per cent of the departmental budget for salaries should be allocated to research. This would be available to members of the department for employment of research assistants on research activities approved by a departmental committee on research, and for meeting other research costs. It is to be expected that some portion of this research fund could be used for the employment of doctoral candidates during their period of internship.

 

Arthur F. Burns

Clearly, financial provision for research work is important. I am not sufficiently familiar with the needs of the department (even its boundaries: is the college included?) to have any judgment as to a specific figure. The whole problem should be surveyed before definite recommendations are made.

 

Carter Goodrich

I am not sure of the ten per cent, but I like the general idea. Something of this sort must be done to make 8 possible.

 

Carl S. Shoup

I do not think there would be a marked increase in the research work under this proposal (to allocate, say, 10 per cent of the departmental budget to research) since it does not touch what seems to me the real problem; namely, the desire of many faculty members — especially in the younger group — to supplement their University salaries by research fees and salaries. It is possible that the solution may be found in some form of split salary schedule whereby the faculty member is paid a certain basic amount, viewed as compensation chiefly for teaching services, and, upon application, might be granted an additional amount as compensation for devoting his time to unpaid research, thus foregoing outside paid activities. The tendency to grant the supplementary amount almost automatically to anybody who happened not to be doing outside work would be a real difficulty, but it might be met by having the supplementary amounts granted only upon approval by some outside board, specially constituted for this purpose.

 

 

  1. The department should consider adding the following courses to its curriculum:

1. First-year graduate course in money and banking
2. A course in accounting, designed to meet the needs of economists
3. A course in comparative economic systems (to be given in cooperation with the School of Business)
4. An additional course in international economics (subject matter to be adapted to that of the present course on international trade).

 

Arthur F. Burns

10a. Definitely yes

10b. Probably yes. But the man must precede the course.

10c. Probably, no. Who is an expert on such questions? I can’t think of any. I doubt if the department ought to try to develop one, and I doubt if it would succeed if it tried (the man, if he is any good, would soon specialize). If there is a gap here, we might perhaps try a lecture course to be given by several specialists and coordinated by some instructor. This has at least the negative advantage that the department’s hands will not be tied.

10d. Probably, yes. I would want to know the scope of the course before expressing a more definite opinion.

 

Carter Goodrich

Certainly d, probably the others.

 

Carl S. Shoup

I should like to discuss these prospective courses further before venturing an opinion, especially with respect to the first-year course in money and banking. I believe there is no unnecessary duplication in this field already than in almost other part of our curriculum.

 

 

Source: Columbia University Archives.Columbiana. Department of Economics Collection. Box 1. Folder: “Committee on Instruction”.

Categories
Chicago Curriculum

Chicago. Memo on survey of views of recent Ph.D.’s. 1930

From the 81 Chicago economics Ph.D.’s as of Summer Quarter 1930 there were 40 responses to a survey conducted by the Committee on Graduate Study and Graduate Degrees. The chairman of the department Harry A. Millis wrote a memo summarizing (perhaps “spinning”) the results for his colleagues that he dutifully forwarded to the President of the University of Chicago. He chose to ignore responses of those who received their Ph.D.’s before 1920. Perhaps those responses were indeed irrelevant for the task at hand, but this historian of economics would have appreciated hearing what the earlier Ph.D.’s had to say too. 

____________________________________

The University of Chicago
Department of Economics

December 11, 1930

 

President R. M. Hutchins
Faculty Exchange

Dear Mr. Hutchins:

 

Possibly you will be enough interested to read the enclosed memorandum I have sent to the members of the staff in Economics. In it I tried to bring together the significant things obtained from the questionnaires turned in by the forty persons who had taken the doctorate in Economics.

Sincerely yours,

[signed]

H. A. Millis

HAM-W
Encl.

____________________________________

December 1, 1930

Memorandum to:     Staff in Economics
From:                         H. A. Millis

The Committee on Graduate Study and Graduate Degrees has transmitted to the Chairman of the several departments questionnaires filled out and returned by persons who have taken the doctorate in their respective fields. As you know, the object of the questionnaire was to secure reactions to and opinions on a number of matters involved in the existing program of graduate work and training. Each chairman has been requested to study his bundle of questionnaires and to present to his department such matters as seem to call for consideration.

Of the 81 persons taking the doctorate in Economics previous to last summer quarter, 40 returned questionnaires partially or completely filled out. Fifteen of the forty had taken the doctorate before Professor Laughlin retired so that for the most part they were writing of program and procedures passed into history. The remaining twenty-five had taken the doctorate within the last ten years (in 1920 or a subsequent year). Special attention has been given to the questionnaires returned by these twenty-five; on most point the other questionnaires have no value. Indeed, the questionnaires returned raise few questions and, taken as a whole, they do not contain a great deal that is valuable.

The Department is to be congratulated on the fact that all of the returns from those taking the doctorate in 1920 or more recently were more or less complimentary and appreciative of the training received. Not one could be said to be adversely critical in general. Yet, if special attention is given to questionnaires carefully filled out (a large number were not filled out at the points here involved), there are several suggestions worthy of consideration, most of them involving implicit criticism.

As would be expected, the absence of mature, full-arrived men in certain lines was regretted ([Clifford A. Curtis (1926), Garfield V. Cox (1929)]). The questionnaires make it quite clear that most of the gain, as seen by our doctors, is derived from contact with and instruction from outstanding men. While the value of carefully worked out, logically developed formal courses is commented on by a number as having been of value to them ([Emily Clark Brown (1927), Mercer G. Evans (1929)], Howard Barton Myers (1929), among others), it becomes clear that there is considerable feeling that there should be more emphasis on seminars and discussion groups ([Emily Clark Brown (1927), Herman J. Stratton (1929), Mercer G. Evans (1929), George R. Taylor (1929), John Bennet Canning (1929), Lysle Winston Cooper (1925)]). More opportunity is wanted to talk things over and out. A number congratulated themselves because they had obtained broad training in economic and allied fields, but a larger number now feel that their training was too narrow (Emily Clark Brown (1927), Colston E. Warne (1925)], Harold A. Logan (1925), Lysle Winston Cooper (1925), among others). Nor is this feeling that the training was too narrow due entirely or even generally to the variety of subjects now to be taught; a number are of the opinion that a broader foundation is needed for research and teaching in a specialized field. A few criticize our requirements and feel that it would be better to permit the students to follow their own bents ([James R. Jackson (1927), Harold A. Innis (1920), Harold A. Logan (1925)] — in the days of seven or eight written examinations). A number feel that they should have received more attention and supervision in their research ([George R. Taylor (1929), Shirley Coon (1926), Garfield V. Cox (1929), Leverett Samuel Lyon (1921)]). One ([Morris Copeland (1921)]) says that he should have been required to engage in factual research (don’t say anything about leading the horse to the trough!). It is evident that a number would like to have had a much greater opportunity to visit and discuss matters with the members of the staff.

Questions:

Should we not do more than we have done to get a considerable amount of the other social sciences into the programs of our students?

Would some change in our system of examinations be helpful in that connection?

Would it be wise to require a minor outside the department, this to be built up of work closely tying in with the student’s concentration and research?

(No doubt just such questions will be considered in the Division of the Social Sciences. Mr. Woodward will call a meeting of the Division in the near future.)

The Committee has been interested in the experience and training our doctors have had which would fit them for teaching. One group of questions submitted related to teaching experience, another to formal training in education.

Taking the twenty-five who took the doctorate in 1920 or subsequently and who filled out questionnaires, only seven had not taught in high school or college before entering upon graduate work here. Four of sixteen for whom the record is entirely clear, had taught 1 year, 6 had taught 2 years, 4 had taught 4 years, the other 2, 5 and 15 years respectively. Eleven taught while at the University. In so far as can be ascertained, all but two had taught in high school or college before they were placed by us in teaching positions. Only one of the twenty-five ([Alvah E. Staley (1928)] who has not entered the teaching profession) had had no teaching experience at the time he took the doctorate. The experience of two had been limited to 1 year, of three to 2 years, of two to 3 years, while the experience of the others had extended over from 4 to 15 years.

The questionnaire contained two questions as to formal courses in education. These were answered by thirty-four of the forty, but not answered by the other six. Twenty-one of the thirty-four had had no formal courses in education either as undergraduate or as graduate students. These divided themselves about evenly between the younger group, taking the doctorate in 1920 or subsequently, and the older. The remaining thirteen, all but one of whom had taken the doctorate in 1920 or subsequently, had had one or more formal courses in education. Inasmuch as no statement of reaction to such courses was called for, only six who had had two or more formal courses went out of their way to say anything concerning the value of us training. It may be significant that all six made disparaging remarks.

Miss K. [presumably Hazel Kyrk (1920)] had two courses at Chicago. One of these was in educational psychology which “was a snap course and an utter waste of time.” Special methods of teaching in High School “was much better.” She added that “education courses as a rule I believe are like the first.” Miss B. [presumably Emily Clark Brown (1927)]had three courses as an undergraduate, but none as a graduate student, “fortunately”, she added. She writes, “I would consider it a great waste of time. In my field, mastery of the subject, plus ability to work with people, is necessary for either teaching or research. I do not think that training in education would help enough to justify taking time from the study of the subject. Since experience in research and in teaching each contributes to success in the other, I would consider it unfortunate for a student to prepare specifically for the one or the other, and for that purpose to reduce the time available for securing the broadest possible mastery of the main and the allied fields.” Dr. K. had one course in educational psychology “but learned nothing.” Dr. T. writes, “I was graduated from the three-year course at he ____State Normal School at ______ before entering the University of Chicago. So far as I can now see the large amount of educational psychology, practice teaching, etc., which I had there was a total loss.” Dr. S. had a few courses while an undergraduate and one while a graduate student. He writes, “of no particular value to me except for some subject matter and a little theory of curriculum.” Dr. C. had taken a few courses as an undergraduate, but none as a graduate student. He writes, “As far as I can gather, such courses are a waste of time- if in no other way than in the circumstance that there are so many subjects in the individual’s own field or fields that he ought to be learning about.”

Only two of the twenty-one who had had no formal training in education, said anything about its value. In reply to one question, Dr. E. entered, “None, and I am glad of it”—an opinion based upon hearsay and common prejudice. Dr. Staley, on the other hand, writing about the program of work taken by him, states, “Often as a graduate student I felt that since I expect to spend a considerable part of my time teaching economics it might be well to devote some thought to problems of teaching as well as to the subject matter. I mentioned this notion a few times to members of my department, but they (some—not all) tended to discourage me in it. The feeling seems to be that the School of Education has nothing worth while to offer in this line, that teaching is something you have to learn by absorption or by experience anyway, and that ‘a science’ of education is rather to be smiled at, at least in connection with university teaching. I still feel, though, that even a university teacher has to teach students and not simply to teach subject matter in the abstract, and that therefore graduate students preparing for college positions should spend perhaps a little less energy on subtleties of their subject matter and a little more on considering what parts of it should be present to undergraduates and how. The best training for research and the best training for teaching are probably not identical.”

Question:

Prospective teachers need to know the pedagogy of their subject and the place of their subject and of themselves in the college. Of course all know something of these matters for they have been college students and have taken college courses in economics. This, however, may not be adequate. Some of our people have secured experience, if not a bit of training, by teaching while here, but the number of such persons is being reduced and will become negligible with the fuller development of policies already adopted. Some courses in the technique and problems of teaching elementary economics and business are being given by Mr. Shields. what more, if anything, should we do to prepare more adequately our graduate students before they are placed in teaching positions? This is the principal question the Committee on Graduate Study and Graduate Degrees wishes to have answered in a constructive way.

An examination of the replies to the question, “In view of your experience, do you regard it as important that a student shall take a Master’s degree on the way to the doctorate,” shows that except where there had been experience in graduate teaching here or elsewhere, the replies were decidedly influenced by personal experience in the graduate course, those (19) who had taken the Master’s generally answering “Yes,” those (21) who had not, answering “No.” In detail (the counts being for those who did and those who did not take the A.M.), (a) two and one did not answer the question; (b) four and four answered “no,” unless the graduate course is interrupted and the master’s is needed to get a job; (c) two and twelve answered in an unqualified “no”; (d) ten and three answered “yes,” for one or more reasons; (e) one and one stated that it all depends upon a variety of factors entering into concrete cases.

Those who gave reasons for a “no” answer, said a “mere vexation” ([John Bennet Canning (1929)]), “unnecessary evil,” of no value, may cause people not to continue to the doctorate ([William J. Donald (1914)]), infers with education ([Harold A. Innis (1920)]), gives the faculty too much trouble. Those who gave reasons for a “yes” answer, said that it starts the student in research early, that it tests him out and shows whether he should be encouraged to continue, that it causes the student to consolidate what he has already done, that the experience and research training are valuable.

QUERY:

What is our policy with reference to the Master’s degree and what should our policy be?

 

____________________________________

[Carbon copy of Hutchin’s response]

December 13, 1930

My dear Mr. Millis:

Thank you for your letter of December 11 and the copy of the memorandum which you have sent to the members of the staff in Economics.

I am very much interested.

 

Very truly yours,

R. M. Hutchins

Mr. H.A. Millis,
Department of Economics
Faculty Exchange.

____________________________________

 

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President, Hutchins Administration. Records, Box 72. Folder: “Economics Dept, 1929-1931”.

Image Source: Undated picture of Harry A. Millis.  University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-00875, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.