Category: Curriculum

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Curriculum Harvard

Harvard. Stricter division between undergraduate and graduate courses. Ca. 1910-11

A copy of this report written by economics professors Charles J. Bullock and Thomas N. Carver is found in the papers of Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell. The report itself is undated but a comparison with the course catalogues for the period 1909-1914 shows almost a perfect fit for the course staffing in the academic year 1910-11.

Harvard-wide courses were divided into three groups:

Courses primarily for Undergraduates (lower group);
Courses for Undergraduates and Graduates (middle group);
Courses primarily for Graduates (upper group).

In the 1912-13 Announcements of the Courses of Instruction, the recommendations of the committee were implemented to limit undergraduate access to the upper group of courses: only after a “special vote of the Department” or for undergraduate senior “candidates for the degree with distinction” would undergraduate students be admitted to courses designated “primarily for Graduates”. The new course numbering beginning with 1912-13 does not match the ordering of courses given in the report.

Handwritten names added to the Report have been placed within square brackets “[…]”.

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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE UPON COURSES OF INSTRUCTION

The Committee appointed at the last meeting of the Department to consider the courses of instruction in the Department of Economics, submits the following preliminary report as a basis for discussion at the next meeting of the Department:

The Committee recommends in the first place that there shall be hereafter a complete separation of the graduate and undergraduate courses. it seems to us that this can be done by adopting the principle that in undergraduate courses the work of the students is to be carefully supervised, and that in the graduate courses the students are to be thrown wholly upon their own resources and be tested only by the final examinations. This plan will enable the Department to concentrate its elementary instruction upon a smaller number of courses specially adapted to the needs of undergraduates, and will free the members from work of supervision in the courses offered for graduates.

It will not be inconsistent with this plan of separating graduate from undergraduate work to admit to the graduate courses undergraduates who are candidates for honors; and your Committee recommends that if the separation be effected this privilege be offered to undergraduates. The Department can safely assume that a candidate for honors in Economics can be trusted to pursue an advanced course without supervision, and can be treated precisely like a graduate student. Such an arrangement will prevent the proposed plan from reducing the opportunities offered to men of exceptional capacity and interest in economic study.

Nor will it be inconsistent with the plan to admit to the undergraduate courses graduate students whose previous training in economics has been deficient, provided such students be placed upon a somewhat different footing from undergraduates. Graduate students in the courses designed for undergraduates should not be subject to supervision, and should not be required to attend the weekly conferences or to take the weekly or fortnightly examinations. On the other hand they should be required to do somewhat more work than is expected from undergraduates; and this requirement might well take the form of a provision that such graduate students be required to do additional reading upon which one or two special questions will be set in the final examination. it would be possible also in the larger courses, where the instructor meets the class but twice a week, for him to have a fortnightly conference for the graduate students. This conference may be devoted to the discussion of the assigned reading. (Professor Carver suggests that this requirement might be made for candidates for the A. M. degree and not for candidates for the Ph. D. degree.)

If the separation of courses is effected, the Committee believes it desirable that hereafter the undergraduate courses should be considered a Department matter rather than a matter wholly under the control of the individual instructors. It seems to us that the Department should, in a general way, determine the scope and methods of the instruction offered, as well as the kind of examinations to be given in these courses. We also believe that there should be regular inspection of the work done in these courses. Inspection of the examination books is already provided for, but not carried out. In addition to this, we believe it is worth while for the Department to consider the desirability of securing inspection of the undergraduate courses by some competent person outside the Department.

There are two other matters which the Committee may later bring to the attention of the Department, but which need not be considered in connection with the proposed plan.

The first is the proposal to have instructors adopt hereafter a uniform system of lecture notes by which, if the Department ever cares to do so, it will be possible to make available to present and future members of the Department the notes used by instructors in giving the several courses. In this way the embers of the Department will gradually pool their experience; and whenever changes occur in the instructors conducting courses new men will have the benefit of the experience of their predecessors. Such a system would require not only uniform methods of keeping lecture notes, but uniform filing cards and filing cases.

The other matter is the question of whether the members of the Department can do more than is done at present in the direction of bringing students into direct contact with original sources of information. Something has already been done by books like Professor Dunbar’s Laws relating to Currency and Finance, and by Professor Ripley’s series of Selections and Documents. The Committee may desire later to raise the question whether, at least in our undergraduate courses, more systematic effort may not be made in this direction,

The Committee has examined our present list of courses with a view to determining which were best suited to the needs of undergraduates, and recommends that the following courses be hereafter offered in the undergraduate group:

  1. Economics I, as at present [Prof. Taussig.]
  2. The Economic History of England and the United States (the present Courses 6a and 6b) [Prof. Gay.]
  3. Money, Banking and Crises (the present Course 8) [Drs. Day & Huse]
  4. Public Finance (the present Courses 7a and 7b) [Prof. Bullock.]
  5. The Labor Problem and Socialism (the present Courses 9a and 14b) [Profs. Ripley & Carver.]
  6. Corporations and Railway Transportation (the present Courses 9b and 5) [Prof. Ripley.]
  7. Sociology (the present Course 3) [Prof Carver.]
  8. Accounting (the present Course 18) [Prof. Cole.]
  9. A course in Economic Theory (One suggestion is that this be a course in Classical English Economics. Professor Carver suggests a course in the Distribution of Wealth. The Committee confines itself to recommending one advanced course in Economic Theory for undergraduates. (the present Course 2) [Prof. Taussig.]

(Professor Carver would prefer to add to this list Economics 28, but the Committee merely raises this question, and makes no recommendation upon the point.)

With these courses placed in the undergraduate group, there would remain in our present offering a substantial amount of graduate instruction. The Committee suggests, but without making a definite recommendation, the following:

  1. Theories of Value and Distribution: with consideration of methods of economic investigation. Carver. (A consolidation of Courses 13 and 14a)
  2. Ripley.
  3. History of Economic Theory. Bullock. (In place of the one course, there could be offered two courses given in alternate years: the first covering the history of economics up to 1776; the other covering the period from 1776 to 1848, or even some later date.)
  4. French and German Economics. Gay. (The present Economics 22)
  5. Mediaeval Economic History. Gray. (The present Economics 10)
  6. Modern Economic History. Gay. (The present Economics 11)
  7. Economic History of Antiquity. Ferguson. (The present Economics 26) The committee recommends, however, that unless this course can be given next year, it shall be dropped from the Catalog.
  8. Economics of Agriculture. Carver. (The present economics 23, unless this be included in the list of courses offered undergraduates)
  9. Financial Aspects of Combinations. Dewing. (The present Economics 30)
  10. Bullock. (The present economics 16)
  11. Research Courses (20a, b, c, d, e ,f, g, h)

In addition to these courses, it may be possible to provide two or three new courses by members of our present staff, if additional assistants can be secured in the group of courses offered to undergraduates. Professor Taussig has expressed a desire sometime to undertake a course in International Trade. Then if the undergraduate courses in the Labor Problem and Socialism could be given by a new instructor, Professor Ripley would be free to offer another advanced course. But this matter, however, like some others, is obviously one that cannot be settled at the present time; and the Committee mentions it merely to point out the possibilities of its proposed plan.

Signed,

Charles J. Bullock
T. N. Carver

Source: Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers, 1909-1914, Box 15, Folder 410.

Image Source:  Harvard Class Album 1915.

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Columbia Curriculum

Burgess on Political Sciences at Columbia College. 1882

A brief statement that well describes the System of instruction and research in the political sciences at Columbia by the founder of its School of Political Science at the dawn of formal graduate education in economics (as well as history and public law) in the United States. College through the Junior Year was regarded as equivalent to the Gymnasium training, i.e. pre-University, in the German system. The Senior year of undergraduate education marked the transition to University study. Cf.  the informational brochure for the academic year 1882-83.

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THE STUDY OF THE POLITICAL SCIENCES IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE.

[1882]
John W. Burgess

During the last half decade an awakening of interest in the study of the political sciences has manifested itself throughout the public at large, such as no previous generation since the beginning of our national existence has experienced. The conviction is now already deep and general that, unless a sounder political wisdom and a better political practice be attained, the republican system may become but a form, and republican institutions but a deception. It is then hardly a question any more as to whether we need a higher political education. The common consciousness of the nation is already beyond that point, and is now occupied with the invention of the means and methods of its realization. Of course, chief among these means should stand our institutions of superior learning — our colleges and universities. The nation has a right to expect of and demand from these that the youth whom they undertake to train and develop shall be furnished at least with the elements of the political sciences with their literature and with the methods of a sound political logic. Many of them have long endeavored to accomplish something of this, with varying success, while some of them have recently put forth more than ordinary efforts to meet and fulfill in a higher degree this great public duty. In response to a most kindly and appreciative request from the editor of the “International,” we have undertaken to describe briefly the system of investigation and instruction in this sphere which New York’s oldest institution of learning — Columbia College — has established and is now essaying to perfect.

This system consists of four distinct and well-defined parts, viz.: The Undergraduate Department of History and Political Science, The School of Political Science, The Academy of the Political Sciences, and The Library of the Political Sciences.

 

I. The Undergraduate Department.

The key-note of our whole system is its historical groundwork and its historical method. It is in and through history that the State has taken its origin and passed through the different phases of its development down to its present form and relations. Therefore it is in and through a sound and comprehensive study of history alone that the foundations can be laid for a true and valuable public law and political science. Theory and speculation in politics must be regulated by historic fact — must be generalized most largely from historic fact; otherwise, they are always in danger of degenerating into the “will-o’-the-wisps” of individual fancy. We begin, therefore, with the study of history, and devote the two years assigned to the department in the undergraduate course to laying the historical groundwork. Here we employ the gymnastic method and seek the accomplishment of the gymnastic purpose, viz., the daily drill by recitation, question and answer from text-books of German, French and English history and of elementary political economy, with the purpose of fixing and classifying in the memory of the student the elements of political geography, the chronology and outward frame of historic events, the biographies of historic characters, and definitions of political and economic terms. The completion of the junior year in the undergraduate curriculum marks the close of gymnastic study and preparation. The senior year in all our colleges of the first rank has become a real university year, both in the character and method of the instruction there given and employed. We therefore draw the line in our system between the Gymnasium and the University at the termination of the junior year, making the senior year of the College in these studies to correspond with the first year in the School of Political Science, and admitting to this School as candidates for its degrees all persons who have completed successfully the work of the first three years in any collegiate institution of the first rank in the United States, or an equivalent course in any foreign college, lyceum or gymnasium, or who can pass successfully examination upon all the studies of the undergraduate curriculum of this institution to the end of the junior year.

 

II. The School of Political Science.

This is the collective name which we give to the graduate or university courses in history, philosophy, economy, public law, jurisprudence, diplomacy and sociology. The time prescribed for the accomplishment of the work here assigned is three years, and the courses are so distributed over this period as to occupy the first year with the history of the development of the political institutions of continental Europe, the special constitutional history of England and of the United States, the history of the philosophic theories of the State, and the history of economic systems and theories; the second with the comparative constitutional law of the principal States of Europe and the United States and of the Commonwealths of the United States, and with the Roman law and the comparative jurisprudence of the modern codes derived therefrom; and the third with the comparative administrative law of the principal States of Europe and the United States and of the Commonwealths of the United States, the history of diplomacy, public international law, private international law, and economic, statistical and social science.

It will thus be seen that we begin again with the historical groundwork in the School of Political Science; but this time it is the history of institutions, the origin and development of the State through its several phases of political organization down to the modern constitutional form; that we then advance through history to the existing actual and legal relations of the State, and that we seek finally through comprehensive comparison to generalize the ultimate principles of our political philosophy, aiming thus to escape the dangers of a barren empiricism on the one side, and of a baseless speculation on the other. With the change from the Gymnasium to the University, the method of instruction changes as well as the subjects. The text-book, with its assigned lessons and daily drill upon the same, is discarded, as both cramping to the student and narrowing to the professor. We must get here nearer to sources and original material. We must go back of the treatises to the earliest documents, and learn to form from these our opinions, and to make from these our own hand-books. The professor must no longer act merely the part of the drill-master upon a given text, but of the investigator gathering and classifying original evidence upon his subjects, and generalizing therefrom his view and system; and the student must no longer be the mere gymnast, carrying his library under his arm, but he must begin to learn and apply the processes of original study, and to compare authorities upon the points treated or suggested. In a word, the university professor must instruct for the most part by lecture, imparting the results of his own labor and experience, and developing his own view and system, and the university student must verify the statements and fill up the outline by constant and comprehensive reading in a great library which shall contain the principal sources of information upon all the subjects of the different courses of study to which his attention is directed. Individuality of view, independence of judgment, and comprehensive, all-sided knowledge are the ends here sought both for instructor and instructed. Lastly, the degree conferred upon the successful completion of the work assigned in this School is the university degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examinations leading to the attainment of the same are two-fold. The first, at the close of the first year, does not differ in character from the usual college examination for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. If successfully passed, the candidate is made a Bachelor of Philosophy. The second, at the close of the third year, is, on the other hand, a matter of far more serious import. It consists of three parts: First, a direct oral examination of each candidate upon any or all the courses pursued in the presence of the entire Faculty and by each member of the same; second, two collateral examinations, one upon the Latin language and the other upon either the German or French languages, as the candidate may elect; and, third, the examination of an original dissertation prepared by the candidate upon a subject either assigned to him by the Faculty of the School or selected by himself under their approval at least six months before the date of the examination. The candidate must furnish each member of the Faculty with a copy of his dissertation at least one month before the date of the examination, and, at the time fixed, must appear before the assembled Faculty of the School and defend his facts, his reasoning and his conclusions against the criticisms of each member of the same. If he be fairly successful through all of these ordeals, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy will be conferred upon him. If he attain a high grade of excellence in all, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy cum laude, and, if the highest be reached, then the degree of Doctor of Philosophy magna cum laude, the highest university distinction, will be accorded him.

 

III. The Academy of the Political Sciences.

This is a voluntary association composed of the President of the University, the Faculties of Law and Political Science, graduates of the School of Political Science and graduates of the School of Law, who have taken at least two years of the instruction in the School of Political Science or an equivalent course in some foreign university. It recruits itself annually from these same sources. Its purpose is the cultivation and development, in finest and most minute detail, of the different branches and topics of the political sciences. This organization is the central point of our whole system. Upon it depends for the most part the perpetuation and increasing usefulness of our work. Not being a transient body of students, who reach only a certain given point before they vanish from our control, but a permanent body of continually growing scholars, this association forms the productive, ever-advancing element in our system. Whatever we may be able to add to the existing stock of political knowledge will proceed from it. Each of its members assumes the obligation to produce at least one original work each year, and read the same before the association at its regular meetings, which production then becomes the property of the Academy, and may be published by it for the benefit of the public, provided a majority of the members deem it worthy of the same. From its labors the Library of the Political Sciences will receive its scientific classification by subjects, a journal of political science will be edited, and, above all, it will be the source of a true educational service, from which the Faculty of the Historical and Political Sciences may be recruited, thus providing for the continuity of our work in an ever-increasing degree of excellence, enabling us to perpetuate our own methods and traditions, to expand without limit our courses, and to diversify indefinitely our instruction without endangering its organic unity — in a word, to found a School of Political Thought in the truest and highest sense. This is the significance of the Academy — this is its office in our system.

 

IV. The Library of the Political Sciences.

A great library, scientifically classified and adequately served, is an indispensable part of a university. As well expect the architect merely with rule and pencil to rear a great structure as to demand of the scholar the production of literary monuments without this magazine of material. Neither will a collection merely of hand-books, textbooks, treatises and current literature suffice. These are necessary, indeed, as demonstrating how and how far authors have worked up original matter into logical form; the collection which stops there, however, may be a popular library indeed, or even a college library, but it is no university library. The prime purpose of the university library is, on the other hand, the assemblage and classification of original material in all branches of knowledge — such, for instance, in the domain of the political sciences, as the texts of constitutions, the statute books and ordinances of governments, the debates of legislative assemblies, the decisions of judicial bodies upon questions of public law, the papers of diplomatic intercourse, the texts of treaties, the reports of governmental commissions, statistical bureaus, chambers of commerce, boards of industry and agriculture and of the public health, the journals of international congresses, political conventions and academies and associations of political science, contemporary chronicles of historic facts, files of official gazettes, leading newspapers and magazines, etc., etc. It was this consideration which moved the trustees of this institution some four years since to authorize a special effort and a special appropriation of funds for the advancement of our Library of the Political Sciences. By their authority and with their aid exhaustive lists of original material in all the different branches of the political sciences were gathered from the leading publicists of the United States, England, France, Germany, Austria and Italy. A large portion of these works have already been placed within our Library, and we are steadily adding to the collection. It is with this material that we teach our students in the School of Political Science to acquaint themselves, and it is upon this material that the members of the Academy expend their labors, reducing it to scientific order and classification, and making it the basis of original work in the production of papers, monographs and treatises.

This, then, is the system of study in the political sciences at Columbia College which six years of reflection and experience have thus far matured; and, in giving this brief sketch of its main features to publication, those who have been most nearly concerned in its conception and development gladly avail themselves of the opportunity to make their most grateful acknowledgment for the support which they have felt from the sympathy of a generous and appreciative public.

 

Source: The International Review, Vol. XII, April 1882, pp. 346-351

Image Source: From the Columbia University, Department of History webpage: A Short History of the Department of History.

 

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Columbia Courses Curriculum

Columbia. Economics Curriculum 1898-99

In the December 1898 issue of the Columbia University Quarterly an overview of the curriculum for economics and social science (i.e. sociology with a bit of anthropology without political science that was split between the subjects  of history and public law) offered by the Faculty of Political Science was sketched by Professor Richmond Mayo-Smith. I have appended the Economics and Sociology course offerings for 1898-99 (which can be compared to an earlier posting for 1905-07). In the early years of graduate education there was considerable overlap between undergraduate and graduate course offerings so that an understanding of the graduate training in economics at least in these early years requires us to keep an eye on undergraduate curriculum as well.

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Department of Economics and Social Science.—The courses in this department have been so systematized as to meet the needs of both undergraduate and graduate students, while offering to other members of the University and of allied institutions the opportunity to broaden their studies by some knowledge of social theory and social problems.

The undergraduate begins with the Economic History of England and America (Economics 1), which gives him that understanding of the evolution of economic institutions, such as the systems of land tenure, the factory system, the institutions of commerce and trade, which is necessary for any approach to economic discussion. That is followed by the Elements of Political Economy (Economics A), where the fundamental principles of the science are laid down and illustrated by contemporary events. These courses are usually taken during the Junior year, but may be taken a year earlier by students desiring to specialize in this direction. The lettered course is required of every student, and is in the nature of logical discipline for clear reasoning and a preparation for good citizenship. The College is held thereby to have discharged its duty to itself, in fulfilling the minimum required for the degree of A.B., and to the community, in inculcating sound principles in its graduates.

For the majority of undergraduates these courses are but the preliminary sketch, the details of which are to be filled out by the more intensive study of Senior year. For this abundant opportunity is offered in the course on modern industrial problems, money, and labor (Economics 3), in the treatment of finance and taxation (Economics 4) and in the critical consideration of theories of socialism (Economics 11) and projects of social reform (Economics 12). At the same time the elements of sociology (Sociology 15) furnish a broader foundation for generalization in regard to the fundamental principles of social life, and afford the student on the eve of graduation an opportunity to coordinate his knowledge of history, economics, philosophy, and ethics into a theory of society.

These courses of Senior year constitute the fundamental university courses, and are frequented by graduates of other colleges and by many students from the law school, the theological seminaries, and Teachers College, who find them valuable as auxiliary to their main lines of study. For the specialist and special student these courses in their turn are preliminary. They form the introduction to the university courses proper.

Here the specialist finds opportunity for development in economic theory (Economics 8, [Economics] 9, and [Economics] 10) and for further practical work (Economics 5 and [Economics] 7), for sociological theory (Sociology 20, [Sociology] 21, and 25 [sic, perhaps “Sociology 24” intended, no record found here or in earlier/later years for a course “Sociology 25”], for the treatment of problems of crime and pauperism (Sociology 22 and [Sociology] 23), and for the theory and practice of statistics as an instrument of investigation in all the social sciences (Sociology 17, [Sociology] 18, and [Sociology] 19). Crowning the whole are the seminars in political economy and sociology, and the statistical laboratory, where the student is trained for original work.

Columbia University has attempted thus to formulate in the Department of Economics and Social Science a programme that shall be systematic, in the sense of orderly development and logical sequence (the course covers four or five years), and at the same time flexible, for the purpose of meeting the just demands of a great variety of students—the undergraduate, the specialist, and the special student.

R. M.-S. [Richmond Mayo-Smith]

 

Source: Columbia University Quarterly, Vol. 1, December, 1898, pp. 76-77.

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COURSES OF STUDY AND RESEARCH
Group III — Economics and Social Science

It is presumed that students before entering the school have studied the general principles of political economy as laid down in the ordinary manuals, and possess some knowledge of the facts of economic history. Students who are not thus prepared are recommended to take the following courses in Columbia College: [The lettered course is required of all candidates for A.B. in Columbia College.]

Economics 1 — Economic History of England and America. — This course studies primarily the economic history of England, as affording the clearest picture of the evolution of economic life from primitive society to the complicated mechanism of modern industrial life. Incidentally a comparison is made with the contemporary movements in other European countries. Beginning with the seventeenth century, attention is directed to facts of American economic development, and the last part of the course is devoted exclusively to the study of the economic and social conditions underlying the history of the United States.-Three hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman and Mr. [Arthur M.] Day.

Economics A — Outlines of Economics. — Bullock’s introduction to the study of economics, and lectures on the evolution of the modern economic organization, the principle of economic freedom and the institution of private property.— Three hours a week, second half-year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith and Mr. [Arthur M.] Day.

The university courses fall under two subjects: A. Political Economy and Finance. B. Sociology and Statistics.

Courses 3, 4, 11, 12, 15 and 16 are open to Seniors in Columbia College, and count towards the degree of A. B. If taken for the higher degrees, such additional work must be done in connection with them as may be prescribed by the instructor.

Subject A — Political Economy and Finance

Economics 3 — Practical Political Economy. — This course is divided into four sections as follows:

(a) Problems of Modern Industry . — This part of the course is devoted to a special study of the modern industrial organization and of the application of economic principles to social life. The principal topics are: The scope, method and function of political economy; the physical environment; law of population; economic freedom and private property; theory and problems of consumption; theory and problems of production, land-tenure, labor and machinery, the growth of capital; forms of productive enterprise, the concentration of industry; monopolies and trusts; governmental enterprise; effects of modern methods of production on producer and consumer. Three hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]

(b) The Problems of Exchange. — (Money and Trade.) This course is devoted to a study of the mechanism of exchange with special reference to modern currency and commercial questions. The principal topics are: Value and prices, speculation, law of monopoly prices, commercial crises; money, bimetallism, the silver question in the United States; credit, banking, paper money; international exchange; transportation and commerce. Three hours a week, second half-year (1899-1900) [For students desiring to take (a), (b) and (c) in one year a short résumé of the omitted course (b) or (c) will be given.]: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]

(c) The Problems of Distribution. — (Labor and Capital.) This course is devoted largely to the labor question. The principal topics are: The theory of distribution, history and present condition of the laboring class, wages, trades unions and strikes, arbitration and conciliation, co-operation and profit-sharing; factory laws, employer’s liability; interest, profit and rent; social distribution; distributive justice. Three hours a week, second half-year (1898—’99), alternates with above. [For students desiring to take (a), (b) and (c) in one year a short résumé of the omitted course (b) or (c) will be given.]: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]

(d) Readings in Marshall’s Principles of Economics. — This course constitutes a fourth hour in connection with the lectures under (a), (b) and (c). It is open to candidates for A.B. by special permission, but the hour cannot be counted towards that degree. It, or its equivalent, is required of all candidates for the degrees of A.M. and Ph.D., taking Economics III. as a major or minor. One hour a week: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]

Economics 4 — Science of Finance. — This course is historical as well as comparative and critical. After giving a general introduction and tracing the history of the science, it treats of the various rules of public expenditures and the methods of meeting the same among different civilized nations. It describes the different kinds of public revenue, including the public domain and public property, public works and industrial undertakings, special assessments, fees and taxes It is in great part a course on the history, theories and methods of taxation in all civilized countries. It considers also public debt, methods of borrowing, redemption, refunding, repudiation, etc. Finally, it describes the fiscal organization of the state by which the revenue is collected and expended, and discusses the budget, national, state and local. Although the course is comparative, the point of view is American. Students are furnished with the current public documents of the United States Treasury, and the chief financial reports of the leading commonwealths, and are expected to understand all the facts in regard to public debt, revenue and expenditure therein contained. — Two hours a week: Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]

Economics 5 — Fiscal and Industrial History of the United States. — This course endeavors to present a survey of national legislation on currency, finance and taxation, including the tariff together with its relations to the state of industry and commerce. Attention is called to the fiscal and industrial conditions of the colonies; to the financial methods of the revolution and the confederation; to the genesis of the protective idea; to the fiscal policies of the Federalists and of the Republicans; to the financial management of the war of 1812; to the industrial effects of the restriction war period; to the crises of 1819, 1825 and 1837; to the tariffs of 1816, 1824 and 1828; to the distribution of the surplus and the Bank war; to the compromise tariff and its effect on industry; to the currency problems before 1863; to the era of “free trade,” and the tariffs of 1846 and 1857; to the fiscal problems of the Civil War; to the methods of resumption, conversion and payment of the debt; to the disappearance of the war taxes; to the continuance of the war tariffs; to the money question and the acts of 1878 and 1890; to the loans of 1894-1896; to the tariffs of 1890, 1894 and 1897. The course closes with a discussion of the current problems of currency and coinage, and with a general consideration of the arguments for and against protection as illustrated by the practical operation of the various tariffs. Two hours a week, first half year (1899-1900): Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman.

Economics 7 — Railroad Problems; Economic, Social and Legal. — These lectures treat of railroads in the fourfold aspect of their relation to the investors, the employees, the public and the state respectively. A history of railways and railway policy in America and Europe forms the preliminary part of the course. The chief problems of railway management, so far as they are of economic importance, come up for discussion.

Among the subjects treated are: Financial methods, railway construction, speculation, profits, failures, accounts and reports, expenses, tariffs, principles of rates, classification and discrimination, competition and pooling, accidents, and employers’ liability. Especial attention is paid to the methods of regulation and legislation in the United States as compared with European methods, and the course closes with a general discussion of state versus private management. — Two hours a week, second half-year (1899-1900): Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman.

Economics 8 — History of Economics. — In this course the various systems of political economy are discussed in their historical development. The chief exponents of the different schools are taken up in their order, and especial attention is directed to the wider aspects of the connection between the theories and the organization of the existing industrial society. The chief writers discussed are:

I Antiquity: The oriental codes; Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Cato, Seneca, Cicero, the Agrarians, the Jurists.

II Middle Ages: The Church Fathers, Aquinas, the Glossators, the writers on money, trade, and usury.

III Mercantilists: Hales, Mun, Petty, Barbon, North, Locke; Bodin, Vauban, Boisguillebert, Forbonnais; Serra, Galiani; Justi, Sonnenfels.

IV Physiocrats: Quesnay, Gournay, Turgot, Mirabeau, etc.

V Adam Smith and precursors: Tucker, Hume, Cantillon, Steuart.

VI English school: Malthus, Ricardo, Senior, McCulloch, Chalmers, Jones, Mill.

VII The continent: Say, Sismondi, Cournot, Bastiat; Herrmann, List, and Thunen.

VIII German historical school: Roscher, Knies, Hildebrand.

IX Recent development: England: Rogers, Jevons, Cairnes, Bagehot, Leslie, Toynbee, Marshall; Germany: Wagner, Schmoller, Held, Brentano, Cohn, Schaffle; Austria: Menger, Sax, Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser; France: Leroy-Beaulieu, De Laveleye, Gide, Walras; Italy: Cossa, Loria, Pantaleoni; America: Carey, George, Walker, Clark, Patten, Adams.

—Two hours a week: Prof. [Edwin R. A.] Seligman.

Economics 9 — Economic Theory I. — This course discusses the static laws of distribution. If the processes of industry were not changing, wages and industry would tend to adjust themselves according to certain standards. A study of the mechanism of production would then show that one part of the product is specifically attributable to labor, and that another part is imputable to capital. It is the object of the course to show that the tendency of free competition, under such conditions, is to give to labor, in the form of wages, the amount that it specifically creates, and also to give to capital, in the form of interest, what it specifically produces. The theory undertakes to prove that the earnings of labor and of capital are governed by a principle of final productivity, and that this principle must be studied on a social scale, rather than in any one department of production. — Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [John Bates] Clark.

Economics 10 — Economic Theory II. — This course discusses the dynamic laws of distribution. The processes of industry are actually progressing. Mechanical invention, emigration, and other influences, cause capital and labor to be applied in new ways and with enlarging results. These influences do not repress the action of the static forces of distribution, but they bring a new set of forces into action. They create, first, employers’ profits, and, later, additions to wages and interest. It is the object of the course to show how industrial progress affects the several shares in distribution under a system of competition, and also to determine whether the consolidations of labor and capital, which are a distinctive feature cf modern industry, have the effect of repressing competition. — Two hours a week, second half-year: Prof. [John Bates] Clark.

Economics 11 — Communistic and Socialistic Theories. — This course studies the theories of St. Simon, Fourier, Proudhon, Rodbertus, Marx, Lassalle, and others. It aims to utilize recent discoveries in economic science in making a critical test of these theories themselves and of certain counter-arguments. It examines the socialistic ideals of distribution, and the effects that, by reason of natural laws, would follow an attempt to realize them through the action of the State. — Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [John Bates] Clark. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]

Economics 12 — Theories of Social Reform. — This course treats of certain plans for the partial reconstruction of industrial society that have been advocated in the United States, and endeavors to determine what reforms are in harmony with economic principles. It treats of the proposed single tax, of the measures advocated by the Farmers’ Alliance and of those proposed by labor organizations. It studies the general relation of the state to industry. — Two hours a week, second half-year: Prof. [John Bates] Clark. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]

Economics 14 — Seminar in Political Economy and Finance. — For advanced students. — Two hours, bi-weekly: Professors [Edwin R. A.] Seligman and [John Bates] Clark.

Subject B— Sociology and Statistics

Sociology 15 — Principles of Sociology. — This is a textbook course. — Two hours a week: Professor [Franklin H.] Giddings. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]

Sociology 16 — Applied Anthropology. — This course is composed of two distinct parts. In the first half-year under Dr. Farrand of the Faculty of Philosophy, primitive institutions, language, mythology and religions are considered primarily from the psychological point of view. This is important for sociological work. Anthropometry and the history of the science of anthropology are also treated. The second half-year work given by Dr. [William Z.] Ripley is primarily concerned with the anthropology and ethnology of the civilized peoples of Europe. This is intended to subserve two ends. It is an ethnological preparation for the historical courses, especially those concerning the classic peoples of antiquity; and it also provides a groundwork for the statistical and demographic study of the populations of Europe. In this sense it is distinctly sociological in its interests. — Two hours a week. [Open to Seniors in Columbia College]

Sociology 17 — Statistics and Sociology. — This course is given every year, and is intended to train students in the use of statistics as an instrument of investigation in social science. The topics covered are: Relation of statistics to sociology, criteria of statistics, population, population and land, sex, age and conjugal condition, births, marriages, deaths, sickness and mortality, race and nationality, migration, social position, infirmities, suicide, vice, crime, nature of statistical regularities. — Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.

Sociology 18 — Statistics and Economics. — This course covers those statistics of most use in political economy, but which have also a direct bearing on the problems of sociology. These include the statistics of land, production of food, condition of labor, wages, money, credit, prices, commerce, manufactures, trade, imports and exports, national wealth, public debt, and relative incomes. Two hours a week, second half-year, given in 1898-99 and each alternate year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.

Sociology 19 — Theory, Technique, and History of Statistical Science. — This course studies the theory of statistics, law of probabilities, averages, mean error, rules for collecting, tabulating and presenting statistics, graphical methods, the question of the freedom of the will, the value of the results obtained by the statistical method, the possibility of discovering social laws. Some account will also be given of the history and literature of statistics, and the organization of statistical bureaus. — Two hours a week, second half-year, given in 1899-1900, and each alternate year: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.

Sociology 20 — General Sociology . — A foundation for special work is laid in this fundamental course. It includes two parts, namely: (1) the analysis and classification of social facts, with special attention to the systems of Aristotle, Comte, Spencer, Schäffle, De Greef, Gumplowicz, Ward, Tarde and other theoretical writers; (2) an examination of sociological laws, in which the more important social phenomena of modern times and the principles of theoretical sociology are together brought under critical review in a study of social feeling, public opinion, and organized action. In this second part an attempt is made to analyze the causes of emotional epidemics, panics, outbreaks of mob violence, and revolutions; to explain by general principles the growth of public opinion on great questions; and to prove from history and from current events that public action is governed by definite laws of social choice. — Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Franklin H.] Giddings.

Sociology 21 — Progress and Democracy. — The phenomena of social progress are the general subject of this course, which includes two parts, namely: (1) a study of the historical evolution of society, with special attention to social origins; to the development of the family, of the clan and of the tribe; and to the beginnings of civilization; (2) the social as distinguished from the political organization of modern democracies. This part of the course may otherwise be described as a study of the modern “state behind the constitution.” The forms of voluntary organization are observed, and the question is raised, To what extent are the non-political associations of men in modern democracies themselves democratic? Do business corporations labor unions, churches, and associations for culture and pleasure, tend to become more or less democratic? The democratic social ideals of equality and fraternity are examined, and an attempt is made to show their relations to social order and to liberty. Modern philanthropic movements, including the work of university and other social settlements, and many social phases of municipal reform are touched upon in this course. —Two hours a week, second half-year: Prof. [Franklin H.] Giddings.

Sociology 22 — Pauperism, Poor Laws and Charities. — This course begins with a study of the English poor law, its history, practical working, and consequences. On this foundation is built a study of pauperism in general, but especially as it may now be observed in great cities. The laws of the different commonwealths in regard to paupers, out-relief, alms-houses, and dependent children, are compared. Finally the special modern methods of public and private philanthropy are considered, with particular attention to charity organization, the restriction of out-door alms, and the reclamation of children.— Two hours a week, first half-year: Prof. [Franklin H.] Giddings.

Sociology 23 — Crime and Penology — The topics taken up in this course are the nature and definitions of crime, the increase of crime and its modern forms, criminal anthropology, the social causes of crime, surroundings, parental neglect, education, the question of responsibility, historical methods of punishment, the history of efforts to reform prison methods, modern methods, the solitary system, the Elmira system, classification of criminals, classes of prisons, reformatories, and jails. — Two hours a week, second half year: Prof. [Franklin H.] Giddings.

Sociology 24 — The Civil Aspects of Ecclesiastical Organizations. — The purpose of this course is to define the present relations of the institutional church to the other institutions of American society; the state, the government, marriage, family, education and public wealth. An analysis is made of the guarantees of religious liberty contained in the federal and commonwealth constitutions, of the civil status of churches in terms of constitutional and statute law, of the methods of incorporation, of the functions of trustees, of legislative and judicial control, of denominational polity according to its type, of the functional activity of churches in their departments of legislation, administration, adjudication, discipline and mission, of the influence of churches on ethical standards, of the distribution of nationalities among the denominations, of the territorial distribution of denominational strength, of the relation of polity to density of population and of the current movements in and between various organizations tending toward changes of function and structure. One hour a week: Dr. [George James] Bayles.

Sociology 29 — Laboratory Work in Statistics. — The object of the laboratory is to train the student in methods of statistical analysis and computation. Each student will pursue a course of laboratory practice dealing with the general statistics of population, the relation of classes, the distribution of wealth, and the statistics of crime, vice and misfortune. He will be taught how to judge current statistics and to detect statistical fallacies; in short, to become an expert in judging of the value of sociological evidence. Each year some practical piece of work on an extensive scale is undertaken by the class. — In connection with courses 17, 18 and 19: Prof. [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.

Sociology 30 — Seminar in Sociology and Statistics. — Discussions and papers, theses and dissertations presented in the seminar may be upon any of the following topics:

I
POPULATION

1 The growth of population in the United States, inducing studies of birth rates and death rates.
2 Immigration into the United States.
3 The migration of population within the United States.

II
RACES AND NATIONALITIES

4 The social traits, habits and organization of any race (e. g. negro or Indian) in the United States.
5 The social traits, habits and organization of any nationality (e. g. Irish or German or Italian) in the United States.

Ill
THE FAMILY

6 Historical or statistical studies of marriage, of divorce, or of the parental care and education of children in the United States.
7 Studies of legislation affecting the family in the United States.

IV
COMMUNITIES

8 Descriptive or historical studies of peculiar, exceptional or otherwise noteworthy communities or sections.

V
THE SOCIAL LIFE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE SELF-SUPPORTING POOR

9 Dwellings and surroundings.
10 Expenditure and domestic economy.
11 Marriages, domestic festivals, funerals, family life and morals.
12 Education.
13 Religious ideas, habits, meetings, festivals and institutions.
14 Amusements, celebrations, social festivals and clubs.
15 Trade unions.
16 Political and legal ideas, affiliations and activities.

VI
PAUPERISM AND CHARITY

17 Historical studies of the origin, growth and forms of pauperism.
18 Statistical studies of the extent and causes of pauperism.
19 Historical and comparative studies of poor laws and public relief.
20 Historical and comparative studies of the methods of private charity.

VII
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

21 Historical studies of the origin, increase and forms of crime.
22 Statistical studies of the extent and causes of crime.
23 Critical studies of criminal anthropology or criminal sociology.
24 Historical and comparative studies of punishment and reformation.

Two hours bi-weekly: Profs. [Franklin H.] Giddings and [Richmond] Mayo-Smith.

Source: Columbia University, School of Political Science, Announcement, 1898-99, pp. 29-40.

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Columbia Economics’ Market Share in 1900

The School of Political Science at Columbia University was divided into three groups of subjects: History and Political Philosophy, Public Law and Comparative Jurisprudence, and Economics and Social Science.

Economics and Social Science comprised the two subject groups: Political Economy and Finance; Sociology and Statistics. 

Seligman figured that of the approximately 135 graduate students specializing in economics in 1899-1900 in the seven eastern departments (Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale), about 75 were at Columbia.

___________________

SCHOOL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Department of Economics.—Since the recent reorganization of the work in economics, there has been a marked increase in the number, as well as in the quality of the students. Numbers, indeed, constitute no adequate test of the real work done by the various departments within a university; for the subject which attracts the fewest students may possess the highest scientific value and may be presided over by the ablest professors. But, when an institution is compared with others of about the same grade and size, the relative number of students in any one department affords a fair indication of the importance to be assigned to it. Hence, the following table is of much interest:

 

1900_ColumbiaEconomics

*By graduate student is meant a student holding a first degree.
1 Attending for three terms.
2 Including Economics and Public Law.
3 Including Economics, Politics and History.

The number of graduate students in economics and social science at Columbia is much greater than the number in any other American institution. If we compare Columbia with six Eastern universities,—Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Pennsylvania and Princeton,—we find that Columbia has almost as many such students as all six, that is, 75 as against 89. And if it were possible to separate the students working primarily in economics at Johns Hopkins, Yale, and Cornell (where the figures include other students in political science as well), it is practically certain that Columbia would be found to possess more graduate students working primarily in economics and social science than the other six institutions together. Assuming that half of the students returned in Johns Hopkins, Yale and Cornell are working primarily in economics,—a very liberal assumption, —we should have a total of 60 in the six Eastern universities, as against 75 in Columbia. This is a remarkable showing.

In order that it may not be supposed that the basis of classification varies, it may be added that each of the students at Columbia is enrolled primarily under the Faculty of Political Science and is a candidate for the master’s or doctor’s degree, with the major subject in economics and social science. Every such student is required to attend a seminar. In addition to the seminar, 35 of the 75 students are taking 3 or more courses in economics or social science and 20 are taking 2 such courses. The remainder, who are taking one course in addition to the seminar, are chiefly students who have taken most of their lecture work in previous years.

The following figures, as to enrollment in economics and social science, will prove instructive:

Graduate students, primarily enrolled in political science, taking graduate courses (whether as a major or minor) 95
Graduate students (male) in the whole university taking graduate courses 123
Non-graduates (male), primarily registered in political science, doing chief work in economics 22
Students, graduates and non-graduates (male, but exclusive of seniors and other college students) in the whole university, taking graduate courses 149
Enrollment of students, as above (not deducting duplicates), in graduate courses in economics and social science 559
Enrollment of under-graduates in Columbia College 179
Enrollment of students of all kinds (male) pursuing these studies 738
Enrollment of Barnard students 140
Total enrollment in the University 878

The relative importance of the university work may also be seen by this comparison with Harvard:

Harvard Columbia
Total students primarily registered in non-professional (graduate) schools 341 331
Total graduates in non-professional (graduate) schools 323 292
Total graduates in political science 52 or 16% 114 or 39%
Total graduates primarily in economics and social science 8 or 2½% 17 or 26%

This showing is doubtless due in part to the system on which the work in economics and social science at Columbia is organized. The department has four full professors, one instructor and two lecturers. The work has been so apportioned that each professor devotes himself primarily to his own specialty—Professor Mayo-Smith to statistics and practical economics, Professor Clark to economic theory, Professor Giddings to social science, and Professor Seligman to economic history and finance. Another explanation of the large numbers is the facility afforded to students to combine with their studies in economics the courses in history, public law and general political science.

Among the recent graduates in economics of the School of Political Science, no less than 25 are now giving instruction in economics at other institutions, including Yale, Cornell, Amherst, Bryn Mawr, Smith, Syracuse, the Universities of Illinois, Indiana, and Colorado, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A number of graduates have become editors of important daily or weekly papers, in New York, Buffalo, Omaha and other cities, and a large number occupy administrative positions in the service of the national and state governments. Among the latter may be mentioned one of the chief statistician in the census office, a number of expert agents and chief clerks in the departments of the treasury and of agriculture in Washington; and the deputy commissioner of labor statistics and the sociology librarian in the State Library at Albany.

E. R. A. S. [Edwin R. A. Seligman]

___________________

Source: Columbia University Quarterly, Vol. 2, June, 1900, pp. 284-287.

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Harvard Courses in Political Economy, 1874-75

Excerpts from the Harvard Catalogue for 1874-75 with principal texts and examination questions for political economy together with some information about the A.B. distinction between “prescribed” and “elective” studies.

Incidentally, one finds that annual fees for a full course load at Harvard ran $120/year and a copy of John Stuart Mill’s Principles cost $2.50. Cf. today’s Amazon.com price for N. Gregory Mankiw’s Economics which is $284.16. If tuition relative to the price of textbooks had remained unchanged (and the quality change of the Mankiw textbook relative to Mill’s textbook(!) were equal to the quality change of the Harvard undergraduate education today compared to that of 1874-75(!!)), Harvard tuition would only be about $13,600/year today instead of $45,278. Just saying.

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HARVARD COURSES OF INSTRUCTION 1874-75

COURSE OF STUDY
FOR THE DEGREE OF A.B.

The course of study to be pursued by a candidate for the Bachelor’s degree is made up in part of studies which are prescribed, and pursued by all students alike, and in part of studies selected by the student himself out of the various courses of instruction which are given in the College.

PRESCRIBED STUDIES.

The prescribed studies occupy the whole of the Freshman year and about one-third of the Sophomore and Junior years. In the Senior year only certain written exercises are prescribed.

Anticipation of Prescribed Studies.

The prescribed studies of the Sophomore and Junior years being of an elementary character, students who wish to be relieved from attendance at College exercises in one or more of them will be excused from such attendance, if they pass a satisfactory examination in such study or studies at the beginning of the year in which they would regularly pursue the study or studies in College, or at the time of their examination for admission to College. Studies which are pursued only in the second half-year may also be anticipated in the same way in the middle of the year. No such examination will be deemed satisfactory unless the student shall succeed in obtaining at least one-half of the maximum mark. The mark obtained when the examination is successful will be credited to the student as his mark on the Annual Scale of the study which forms the subject of the examination. Preparation for these examinations can often be made while the student is preparing for College or in the long vacation, and time may be thus gained for higher courses of study. Students who intend to present themselves for such examination in any required study for 1875-76 must give notice to the Dean in writing before September 1, 1875.

Information concerning the requirements for passing the examination in any study can be obtained from the instructor in that study.

ELECTIVE STUDIES.

In addition to the prescribed studies, each Sophomore is required to pursue courses, chosen by himself from the elective studies, [ftnt: The prescribed Philosophy of the Junior year may be taken as an elective by Sophomores.] amounting to eight exercises a week for the year; each Junior, courses amounting to eleven exercises a week; and each Senior, courses amounting to twelve exercises a week. Students are at liberty to attend the instruction in as many other subjects as they may have time and taste for pursuing. In choosing his electives, the student must satisfy his instructors that he is qualified by his previous training to pursue those which he selects. With this limitation, all the courses given in the College are open to him in making his choice; but he is strongly recommended to make his choice with great care, under the best advice, and in such a manner that his elective courses from first to last may form a rationally connected whole.

Undergraduates who intend to study Engineering are recommended by the Scientific Faculty to take, as extras, the courses of Drawing and Surveying in the Scientific School; and those who intend to study Medicine are advised by the Medical Faculty to pay special attention to the study of Natural History, Chemistry, Physics, and the French and German languages, while in College.

It will be seen that students who prefer a course like the usual prescribed course of American colleges can perfectly secure it, under this system, by a corresponding choice of studies; while others, who have decided tastes, or think it wiser to concentrate their study on a few subjects, obtain every facility for doing so, and still secure in the briefer prescribed course an acquaintance with the elements of the leading branches of knowledge.

 

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, pp. 46-47

_________________________________

IV. PHILOSOPHY

PRESCRIBED STUDIES

[…]

Prescribed Political Economy.—Prof. [ Charles Franklin] Dunbar

Sophomore Year.

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.

 

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 54.

_________________________________

III. PHILOSOPHY

ELECTIVES
Senior Studies

[…]

Philosophy 7. — Prof. [ Charles Franklin] Dunbar.

Political Economy. — Fawcett’s Manual of Political Economy. — Blanqui’s Histoire de l’Économie Politique en Europe. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street.

Three hours a week. 19 Seniors, 14 Juniors.

 

Philosophy 8. — Prof. [ Charles Franklin] Dunbar.

Political Economy. — J. S. Mill’s Political Economy. — Bagehot’s Lombard Street. — Subjects in Currency and Taxation.

Three hours a week. 65 Seniors, 33 Juniors.

 

Courses 7 and 8 are parallel Courses, Course 7 being preferable for students of History.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 56.

_________________________________

III. PHILOSOPHY

PRESCRIBED STUDIES

[…]

Prescribed Political Economy.—Prof. [ Charles Franklin] Dunbar and Mr. Howland.

Elements of Political Economy.—Constitution of the United States.

Two hours a week. Second half-year. Sophomores and Juniors.*

*In 1873 the prescribed Study of Political Economy was transferred from the Junior to the Sophomore Year, and was pursued during the year 1873-74 by both classes.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 215.

_________________________________

PRESCRIBED POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Political Economy.

Those who are also to pass in the Constitution may omit questions marked *.

  1. Define (a)wealth; (b) value; (c)price; (d) capital; (e) money.
  2. What are the qualities which make gold and silver suitable materials for a currency? What are the objections to a double standard of value?
  3. Explain the action of demand and supply upon the prices (a) of raw materials; (b) of manufactured articles.
  4. Show how rents would be affected by suddenly doubling the productiveness of all lands under cultivation. Prove that rent does not enter into the price of agricultural produce.
  5. State and illustrate the causes which produce a difference in the rate of wages in different employments.
  6. Suppose the amount of the (gold) currency of a country to he suddenly doubled, what would be the effect upon (a) values; (b) prices; (c) exports and imports?
  7. Define direct and indirect taxation. What are the objections to an import duty on raw materials? What is the incidence of a tax levied on the rent of land and paid by the tenant?
  8. [*] Define productive and unproductive consumption. If the latter were to cease altogether, what would be the ultimate effect upon production?
  9. [*] Show how the cost of labor is affected, (a) if the efficiency of labor is increased; (b) if the margin of cultivation sinks.
  10. [*] What are the elements of which profits are composed? Why does the rate of profits vary (a) in different employments; (b) in different countries?
  11. [*] Explain the several ways in which credit promotes production. What are the disadvantages of an irredeemable paper currency?
  12. [*] Explain the use of bills of exchange. What is meant by an unfavorable balance of exchange?
  13. [*] Discuss the question, whether temporary and permanent incomes should be taxed alike.

 

Constitution of the United States.

Those who are also to pass in Political Economy may omit questions marked *.

  1. [*] When and by whom was the Constitution framed, and what were the principal steps leading to its formation and adoption?
  2. Define citizenship.
  3. What changes have the abolition of slavery and the consequent amendments of the Constitution made in the system of representation?
  4. State the method of electing the President, and the difference between the present method and that at first adopted.
  5. [*] By whom are questions settled which affect the validity of elections (a) of representatives, (b) of senators, (c) of President?
  6. [*] What provision does the Constitution make for the removal, death, resignation, or inability to serve of the President or Vice-President, or for a failure to elect either officer or both?
  7. [*] What powers over the militia are given to Congress or to the President?
  8. What are the provisions of the Constitution affecting the subject of currency
  9. What are the provisions relating to taxation, and what are direct taxes under the Constitution?
  10. [*] What are the provisions relating to impeachment?
  11. Under what provision did Congress claim and exercise the power of prohibiting slavery in the territories
  12. What is the extent of the judicial power of the United States, and where is it vested? What is the provision for amending the Constitution?

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 218-9.

_________________________________

ELECTIVES.

[…]

  1. Political Economy.—Prof. Dunbar.

J. S. Mill’s Political Economy.—Bagehot’s Lombard Street.—Sumner’s History of American Currency.

Three hours a week. 70 Seniors, 1 Junior.

 

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 220.

 

_________________________________

 

FEES AND BONDS.

The fees to be paid by Bachelors of Arts or Science who receive instruction as candidates for the Degree of Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy, or Doctor of Science, or who attend lectures or recitations without being members of either professional school, are as follows : —

For not more than three hours of instruction a week $50.00 a year.
For more than three, but not more than six hours of instruction a week $90.00 a year.

 
For more than six hours of instruction a week $120.00 a year.
For a year’s instruction in any of the laboratories or in

the Museum of Comparative Zoology

 $150.00
The fees to be paid for examination are as follows :—
For the examination for the Degree of Master of Arts $30.00
For the examination for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy $60.00
For the examination for the Degree of Doctor of Science $60.00

 

There is no additional charge for the right to use the Library. The fees for instruction, but not those for examination, will be remitted to meritorious students who need such help.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 137.

_________________________________

[Advertisement of Macmillan & Company’s Books]

Logic. Professor Stanley Jevons’s Elementary Lessons in Logic, Deductive and Inductive. 18mo, cloth $1.25.

Political Economy for Beginners. By Millicent Garrett Fawcett. 18mo. $1.00.

 

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 317.

_________________________________

[Advertisement of Lee and Shepard Books]

POLITICAL ECONOMY. Principles of Political Economy. By John Stuart Mill. New and revised edition. Lee and Shepard, Publishers. Boston. Complete in 1 vol. Crown 8vo.   $2.50

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1874-75, p. 336.

 

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Cornell. Laughlin’s Scheme to Expand Economics,1891

J. Laurence Laughlin was hired away from Cornell to build the Department of Political Economy at the University of Chicago that began operation in the academic year 1892-93. This proposal to expand Cornell’s own instructional and research work in political economy and finance is interesting as Laughlin’s vision of what it would take to go from second-rate to the leading department. It is also interesting for its table comparing Laughlin’s dream department with the state of affairs at six rival universities: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Michigan and Pennsylvania in 1890-91.

_______________

SCHEME FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL ECONOMY AND FINANCE IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY, PRESENTED TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

I.

In view of the arrangement of courses for the coming year, (1891—2,) careful consideration should be given to the opportunities afforded by this department. The subjects heated are essential parts of the civic education of every member of society. Apart from their disciplinary value, their practical character would alone make it natural that the curricula of such schools as those of Agriculture, and of Mechanic Arts, should be enriched by including in them economic courses. This policy has already been announced by the statement in the University Register that Political Economy shall be hereafter made a part of the course of Civil Engineering. When regard is had to the prevailing ignorance of economics and its effect on national legislation, the wisdom of this policy is undoubted. The question might even be raised whether it were not advisable to require Political Economy of all students in the various courses, quite as much as History, or Chemistry. I cannot think, however, it is of advantage to the influence of a study to make its pursuit obligatory; but there cannot, I suppose, be any difference of opinion as to the wisdom of providing the proper amount of instruction, when the study of it is voluntary, and when the numbers of students are too great, (as is now the case,) to be properly cared for by the single professor

II.

In extending the reputation and prestige of Cornell University, no possible investment of its funds would, in my judgment, produce larger or earlier fruit than those spent in enlarging the work of this department. Such a policy would, at once, lend aid in educating the country where it most needs education, and bring here greater numbers of bright students who want economic training. The real University is to be found in the men it trains, and in the influence they exert on the community.

The deplorable ignorance and prejudice regarding questions of great practical importance, (such as banking and currency topics.) in the very regions from which we now draw our students, and must hereafter draw them in increasing numbers, makes the duty, as well as the opportunity, of our University, one of transcendent importance. Can it rise to the occasion? It is entirely within the truth to say that no such opportunity is open to us in any other branch of study. Furthermore, no other institution in our country is, at present, so well situated as Cornell University for doing a great and striking work in economics. If we accomplish this work, we can secure a strong hold on the people, and an enviable repute for enthusiastic, enterprising scholarship on subjects touching the immediate welfare of every individual citizen.

The mere fact of having had this exceptional opportunity for twenty years, and not having used it, (excepting one year,)—although there may be good reasons for it—has created a widespread belief elsewhere in our lack of interest and purpose in aiding economic study. To take only a second-rate position, therefore, or to do only moderately well, will not be enough to place us in a proper attitude before the public. Nor will it do to act so slowly that the growth of the department, however real, may be imperceptible to the outside world. In short, to produce the desired effect we should, if possible, draw the attention of the country to us by a striking and important movement; and it will be easy to make it striking and effective, because it is started in a subject which is occupying general attention. To indicate what form this movement should take is, in my opinion, the proper purpose of this communication. It has consequently seemed best to present a scheme of work for the department in as nearly complete a form as possible; a scheme, which shall be more thorough, more comprehensive, more scholarly than that presented by any other university. If adopted, it may then be said that greater advantages for economic study are offered at Cornell University than at any other American university. That a distinct opportunity exists for us, any member of an economic department in other institutions would be the first to admit. Our apathy in this matter has, in the past, excited some comment and surprise.

The discussion regarding the neglect by this University of liberal studies in favor of the professional and technical schools, might suggest the present as a favorable opportunity to disabuse the public of that mistaken idea, by adopting this scheme for enlarging the department of economics; for, while appealing to those who believe in an intensely practical education, economics in truth belongs, because of its disciplinary power, to the culture studies. Should the Fayerweather bequest be received, may it not be the means, by concentrating its use on one field, of making a striking movement which would command public attention?

III

I present herewith a list of courses which, if provided, would place this department ahead of any other in America. This is then followed by a comparison of the proposed scheme with the courses offered at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. The courses run throughout the year, at the given number of hours per week :—

  1. Introductory course. Principles of Modern Economics. Elementary Banking. Descriptive economics: Money, coöperation, bimetallism, railway transportation, etc.
    3 hours a week. [At present, two sections, requiring of the instructor six hours a week.]
  1. Advanced course. History of Economic Theory. Examination of writers and systems. Critical Studies. Open only to those who have passed in course 1.
    3 hours a week.
  1. Investigation of Practical Economic Questions of the day: shipping, money, profit-sharing, social questions. Theses and Criticisms. Training for Seminary. Open only to those who have passed in course 1.
    2 hours a week.
  1. The Industrial and Economic History of Europe and the United States in the last 100 years. Lectures and selected reading. No previous economic study required.
    3 hours a week.
  1. Taxation. Public Finance. Banking. Comparative study of the Financial Methods of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, etc. Open only to those who have passed in course 1.
    3 hours a week.
  1. History of Financial Legislation in the United States since 1789. Lectures and reports. Open to all students.
    1 hour a week.
  1. History of Tariff Legislation in the United States since 1789; Tariff Legislation of France, Germany and Great Britain. Open to all students.
    2 hours a week.
  1. Railway Transportation and Legislation in the United States and Europe. Open to all students.
    2 hours a week.
  1. Statistics. Methods. Practical Training for Statistical Work. Presentation of Results. Open only to those who have passed in course 1.
    3 hours a week.
  1. Land Tenures. Land Systems of England, Ireland, France Belgium. Germany, and the United States. Open to all students. 1 hour a week.
  1. Socialistic Theories. Marx, Lasalle, Proudhon; and modern popular theories. Open only to those who have passed in course 1.
    1 hour a week.
  1. Seminary. Special Investigations. Open only to competent students.
    2 hours a week.

 

COMPARISON OF THE PROPOSED COURSES WITH THOSE NOW GIVEN AT VARIOUS UNIVERSITIES.

Courses. Proposed for Cornell. Now Given at
Cor-
nell.		 Har-
vard.		 Yale. Colum-
bia.		 Johns Hopkins. Penna. Michi-
gan.
1 3 3 3 7 ½ 1 5 4 ½ 2
2 3 }3 3 3 1 ½ 5 (?) 6 1
3 2 1 ½ 1 2 2 ½
4 3 3 2 1 2 1[*]
5 3 3 2 3 1 1 ½
6 1 1 ½ }2 2 2
7 2 1 1 ½ 1 1
8 2 1 ½ 1 1 ½
9 3 2 1 ½
10 1
11 1 1 2
12 2 2 2(?) 2 ½ 2 2 2 2
Total. 26 9 20 22 19 12 18 ½ 11 ½
Number of In-
structors.		 5 1 4 4 4 1 5 2

[* The actual entry in this cell appear to be:
LaughlinGraphic

This Table makes obvious, at a glance, how far Cornell is behind other universities in this department. When it is considered that man’s character is moulded by his material surroundings; that questions of livelihood and economic concern occupy his thoughts more hours in the day, possibly, than any other subject; that the great forming agencies of the world are religious and economic,—this shortcoming in our courses of instruction becomes painfully evident. Not only are we behind other institutions, but this department, with all its importance, is far behind almost every other of our departments, especially in comparison with the Historical group.

The present number of students in the department (about 160) is, moreover, too large to be properly cared for by one instructor. Nor should the present professor be expected to keep in view the larger questions of the scope and influence of the department, or the work of investigation, and yet continue the reading of routine, but necessary, exercises.

To give the courses in the proposed list above, in addition to the present professor, there would be needed at least one associate professor, at a probable salary of $2,000 (to whom it would be necessary, in order to obtain the right man, to offer some definite expectation of further promotion in the future); one assistant-professor, at the usual salary, and two capable instructors, paid probably $1,000 each. These estimates are, of course, provisional.

IV

Of equal, or even greater importance than the increased hours of instruction, for the purpose of touching the work of students at its most vital point, is the grant of a suitable Publication Fund. The professor in charge believes this to be essential to the success of the department; that this part of the scheme is of primary importance. It is proposed to publish investigations of students and instructors in a series of bound volumes, with a distinctive cover, marking them as productions of Cornell University, and entitled “Cornell University Studies in Economics.” For this purpose at least $1,000 per annum should be granted. It would be appropriate to name this the “Fayerweather Publication Fund,” and every volume issued would bear the name of this benefactor. With the material already in sight that sum would not be sufficient; but it would, so far as it goes, send the name of the University into every centre of scholarly work in this country and in Europe. Still better, it would do more than any other one thing to stimulate the work of our students, and to produce finished and accurate scholarship; while the practical bearing of these studies would bring the University to the notice of men in business and financial circles.

The subject has been carefully examined and studied in view of past experience in other institutions. The establishment of the Quarterly Journal of Economics by Harvard University was due to the creation of a Publication Fund, and it has won the respect and attracted the attention of scholars, as well as the public, the world over. Columbia College has wielded a large influence by the Political Science Quarterly, and stimulated its work in these lines: while, in addition, the publication of a series of monographs is now announced. The University of Pennsylvania has lately taken energetic steps to increase its publications, by which the work of the Wharton School has been suddenly brought to the attention of students everywhere. Not only a journal, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, but a series of monographs, and translations of important German works, are published by this school. The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science have been published for years, and, although not even in quality, have done more than anything else to attract attention to their facilities for investigation and study. Finally, the scheme of the new University of Chicago, following the trend of these successful movements, makes the “University Publication Work” one of the three general divisions of its work, and emphasizes the desire to publish papers, journals, and books by instructors, thereby hoping to furnish greater stimulus and incentive than now exist toward original investigation.

V

The fixing of a high standard of work by students; in the department; the encouragement of capable young men to carry on their studies beyond mere superficial work; a relief to poor, but able, men from subsidiary employments to earn a living while engaged in investigations; a means of drawing here from other institutions the brightest men who have distinguished themselves in economics; and, to provide for investigators, who will present their results to the public and enlarge the repute of the University for scholarly work both at home and abroad,—all these things can be effected only by the creation of fellowships and scholarships in this department. Five (5) fellowships, permitting the holders to reside either at the University, or abroad, with an annual income of $500 each; and four (4) scholarships, with an annual income of $250 each, are urgently needed.

VI

The library is deficient in important collections and series, which are absolutely essential to economic research; and which are possessed by other institutions. In other places these deficiencies are supplemented by access to neighboring libraries (e.g., at Columbia College, by the Lenox and Astor Libraries; at Harvard University, by the Boston Public Library and the Atheneum. Our absolute isolation requires that we should own these important collections outright. We have, for example, none of the British Government Publications (the “Blue-Books”), a complete set of which is very expensive; nor those of France, or Germany, whose statistical work is exceedingly valuable. Of the various European economic journals, by which we may keep abreast of current thinking, we have almost none. It is a hindrance: which would be regarded as intolerable in Physics, Chemistry, or Philology. In short, the department needs a special annual grant of $2,000 for at least five (5) years beyond the present and expected allowance of next year for this department) to bring it to a respectable basis, as compared with other departments. Detailed accounts of these wants can be given, if needed.

VII

SUMMARY.

The Board of Trustees is respectfully asked to grant an annual appropriation to this department of the following sums :—

Additional instruction,
One Associate Professor,

$ 2,000
One Assistant Professor,

   1,600
Two Instructors at $1000 each,

   2,000

$ 5,600
Five Fellowships at $500 each,

   2,500
Four Scholarships at $250 each,

   1,000
Publication fund,

   1,000
Books (for five years),

   2,000
Total,

$12,100

With this grant, it is quite certain we can produce results which are not now possible in any university in this country Our department of economics will then be the first in the United States.—one of which every friend of Cornell can speak with pride. Especially will it mark an epoch in the history of economic training in this country, and bring Cornell to the front in an important subject of universal, and yet practical, concern. The University is not rich enough to permit any other institution to seize the opportunity for which she herself has so evident an advantage, and for which she so evidently occupies a strategic position.

Very respectfully presented by

J. LAURENCE LAUGHLIN.

Professor of Political Economy and Finance.

March 2, 1891

_______________

 Source: Laughlin, James Laurence. Papers, [Box 1, Folder 17], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Image Source: Clipped from printed speech given at the 78th meeting of The Sunset Club at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, December 6, 1894 found in Laughlin, James Laurence. Papers, [Box 1, Folder 17], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Categories
Curriculum Economists Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Annual Report. 1881-82

Henry Carter Adams is now in Michigan with Richard T. Ely taking over for instruction in Political Economy at Johns Hopkins. Note the graduate student in Philosophy and Political Science from Minnesota, Thorstein B. Veblen.

____________________

HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE.
WORK OF THE PAST YEAR.
I881-82.

History and Political Science have been studied during the year by forty-one students of whom twenty-two followed advanced or graduate courses and nineteen pursued undergraduate courses.

The roll for the year has included:

H. B. ADAMS, Ph.D., Associate in History.
A. SCOTT, Ph. D., Associate in History.
R. T. ELY, Ph.D., Instructor in Political Economy.

J. BRYCE, D. C. L., Lecturer.
E. A. FREEMAN, D. C. L., Lecturer.
J. J. KNOX, A. M., Lecturer.
R. M. VENABLE, Lecturer.

J. F. Jameson, A. B., Fellow.
M. I. Swift, A. B., Fellow.

[Advanced/Graduate Students]

W. H. Adkins, A. B. O. A. Johnson, S. B.
E. W. Bemis, A. B. S. B. Linthicum, A. B.
H. J. Bowdoin, A. B. J. H. Lowe, A. B.
D. L. Brinton. D. M. Murray.
H. L. Ebeling, A. B. B. J. Ramage, A. B.
E. Goodman, A. B. A. Shaw, A. B.
E. R. L. Gould, A. B. H. E. Shepherd.
J. G. Hamner, A. B. B. Sollers.
E. Ingle, A. B. T. B. Veblen, A. B.
J. Johnson, A. B. L. W. Wilhelm, A. B.

[Undergraduate students]

T. A. Berry. J. Hinkley.
W. B. Canfield. R. F. Kimball.
G. G. Carey, Jr. J. D. Lord.
W. B. Crisp. J. MacClintock.
W. K. Cromwell. G. D. Penniman.
D. B. Dorsey. R. M. Reese.
H. Duffy. C. D. Stickney.
M. Fels. H. T. Tiffany.
B. B. Gordon. H. W. Williams.
M. Gregg.

I. Historical Seminary.

The advanced and graduate students have met weekly during the first half-year, and twice weekly during the second half year, under the guidance of Dr. Adams, as an Historical Seminary, for the discussion of original studies in American Institutional History.

The meetings of the Seminary were first held in the small lecture room of the Peabody Institute, and later in rooms specially provided by the university for Seminary use, and furnished with books, maps and other historical apparatus. The Statutes of England, Parliamentary Reports, Colonial Archives (in published form), the Statutory Law of the older States, and other collections have afforded opportunities for fresh investigations. Among the papers presented here or at the monthly meetings of the Historical and Political Science Association, have been the following: parallel between the economic beginnings of Maryland and Massachusetts; town and parish institutions in Maryland; free schools in Maryland and South Carolina; old English militia institutions; militia, patrol, and parish system of South Carolina; fairs, markets, and the Atlanta exposition; local government in Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey; Montauk and the common lands of Easthampton, Long Island.

 

II. Public Lectures.

Courses of public lectures have been given during the year by:

James Bryce, D. C. L., Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Oxford, five lectures in November upon Recent Political Discussions in England.

The special subjects considered were: the crown and the house of lords; the church and the universities; the suffrage and distribution of seats; the land and the poor; foreign and colonial policy; the relation of law to history was also considered in a special lecture before the Historical and Political Science Association.

Edward A. Freeman, D. C. L., six lectures in November upon Southeastern Europe.

The special topics discussed were: the Roman Power in the East; the Saracens and the Slavs; the final division of the East and West; the Turks, Franks, and Venetians; the Ottomans, and the beginning of deliverance.

Hon. John J. Knox, Comptroller of the Currency, U. S. Treasury Department, three lectures in November upon the Banking Systems of the United States.

Austin Scott, Ph. D., ten lectures in January upon the Development of the Constitution of the United States.

The special topics discussed were: nationalism and local self-government; the federative principle; acceptance of the same; self-assertion of the national idea; reaction; transition period; power of the masses; economic questions; socialism; revolution.

Professor R. M. Venable, of the Law Department of the University of Maryland, twelve lectures, beginning in January, upon the Constitutional Law of the United States.

This course embraced such topics as commerce, taxation, war powers, civil and political rights; election of president; presidential powers; federal court; theory of the partition of powers; ultimate sovereignty; comparison of the English constitution with that of the United States.

Herbert B. Adams, Ph. D., five public lectures upon the Historical Development of Internationalism.

The subjects treated were: intertribal and intermunicipal relations of the Orient; intermunicipal life of the Greeks; Rome, the civitas mundi; international position of the mediaeval church; origin and tendencies of modern international law ; Lieber and Bluntschli.

R. T. Ely, Ph.D., four lectures in April upon Civil Service Reform, with special consideration of the Civil Service of Prussia.

 

III. Advanced Courses.

Courses, of twelve lectures each, upon the Sources of Early European History, and upon Italian History, were given by Dr. Adams.

These classes, composed of seven graduate students, met in a lecture room of the Peabody Institute, by special permission of the Provost, so that the works mentioned in the lectures might be at once consulted by the students.

Courses of lectures on Political Economy have been given by Dr. R. T. Ely.

Two courses have been given, one of twenty lectures in the first half- year, addressed to a class of both graduates and under-graduates, and one of twenty-five lectures, in the second half-year, to graduate students only.

Papers upon investigations undertaken by the graduate students in connection with these courses, have been read before the Historical and Political Science Association upon: Mill’s theory of the taxation of land; the alleged indebtedness of Adam Smith to the French economists; what England owes to protection, etc.

 

IV. Undergraduate Courses.

The less advanced course was also conducted by Dr. H. B. Adams, and consisted of class exercises, (lectures, examinations, oral reports, essays, etc.,) five hours weekly through the year.

The first half-year was devoted to Mediaeval History, and the second half-year to Diplomatic History, with the principles of International Law, as embodied in Bluntschli’s Voelkerrecht, of which the German text was expounded by teacher and class. Oral reports were made by students upon topics of contemporary international politics and the status of leading countries; exercises which accustomed the class to the use of maps, consular reports, government documents, texts of treaties, diplomatic correspondence, etc.

 

The Historical and Political Science Association has met monthly, as heretofore, for the presentation and discussion of papers, the titles of most of which have been given above.

_______________

PROGRAMME FOR THE YEAR BEGINNING
SEPTEMBER 19, 1882.

I. Graduate and Advanced Courses:

DR. H. B. ADAMS.

  1. Sources of English Constitutional History.
    This class will meet in the small lecture-room at the Peabody Institute, by permission of the Provost, for facility of reference to the library collections. A knowledge of Latin and German is requisite for admission to this course.—Once weekly, first half-year.
  2. American Institutional History.
    This will be an advanced course for the report and discussion of original studies, special facilities for which are afforded by the collections of the Maryland Historical Society, the Maryland Episcopal Library of the late Bishop Whittingham, and by a newly instituted working collection in the Seminary of Historical and Political Science.—Two hours weekly.
  3. Comparative Constitutional History, with special reference to the existing Constitutions of European States. Once weekly, second half-year.

DR. R. T. ELY.

  1. This course will deal at length with such practical topics as banking, paper money, monometalism, bi-metalism, and taxation.—Thrice weekly, first half-year.
  2. Theory and Practice of Administration, with special reference to Civil Service Problems and Municipal Reform. Thrice weekly, second half-year.
  3. History of French and German Socialism. Six lectures.

NOTE.—In addition to the regular work offered by the university instructors, various brief courses of class lectures upon special topics in Historical and Political Science may be given by lecturers, hereafter to be announced. A short course of public lectures on the Local Institutions of the United States will also be given by Dr. H. B. Adams at the Peabody Institute during the winter. Historical readings in Anglo-Saxon, German, and French, will be in progress through the year.

Graduates and advanced students are expected to have sufficient command of French and German to enable them to read historical and political works in those languages; persons deficient in this regard are advised to begin the study of those languages at once.

Graduates who so desire may take any portion of the following minor courses, but undergraduates will not be admitted to any of the advanced courses, except [History of French and German Socialism].

 

II. Minor Courses :

DR. H. B. ADAMS, with assistance from DR. J. F. JAMESON,

  1. Introductory Historical Course.
    At matriculation, all students pass an examination in the general history of England and the United States. After this, (without taking up a full minor course), they may continue their historical studies by attending the following exercises:
    Oriental History, Dr. Adams. Weekly, first half-year.
    Classical History, Dr. Jameson. Twice weekly, first half-year.
    Early European History, Dr. Jameson. Twice weekly, second half yea

This work may be counted, if desired, as part of the composite minor course (elsewhere described); and it will be required of all who follow the minor course in History as candidates for the Bachelor’s degree.
Undergraduate students in classics, unless excused by the classical instructors, are expected to follow the exercises in Classical History above mentioned.

  1. Minor Course in History.
    (a) The Italian Renaissance and the German Reformation.
    Five hours weekly, first half-year.
    (b) Modern Absolutism and Revolution.
    Five hours weekly, second half-year.

DR. R. T. ELY.

  1. Minor Course in Political Economy.
    (a) Principles of Political Economy.
    Five hours weekly, first half-year.
    It is desirable that students who propose to follow this course should previously read one of the following manuals: Cossa’s Guide to the Study of Political Economy; Rogers’ Manual of Political Economy; or Mrs. Fawcett’s Political Economy for Beginners.
    (b) Historical Systems of Political Economy.
    Five hours weekly, second half-year.

NOTE.—A Minor course in Historical and Political Science may be formed by combining a half-year’s work in History with a half-year in Political Economy, together with the production of three essays, which shall be subject to the criticism and approval of the instructor in English. A Major course in Historical and Political Science comprises a full year in History and a full year in Political Economy, together with the production of six acceptable essays, and successful examination upon such courses of outside reading as may be prescribed in individual cases.

 

III. Historical and Political Science Association.

This will be a monthly meeting of advanced students of Historical and Political Science. Lawyers, resident graduates, and others who are interested in liberal studies, may become members of this Association. Papers of more general interest than those discussed at length in the seminary or class-room are here read, together with abstracts of the more important results of original investigation. Reviews are given of monographs, journals, and other recent literature of Historical and Political Science. Brief reports of the proceedings of the Association are printed in the University Circulars.

 

IV. Publication of Studies in Historical and Political Science.

With the opening of the next academic year will begin the publication of a series of University Studies in American Institutional History, with special reference to the Local Government and Economics of individual States of the Atlantic seaboard and of the Northwest. The publication will be at convenient intervals, in the form of separate reprints of studies contributed by members of the Association to the proceedings of learned societies in various parts of the country, together with such papers as may be printed from time to time by the University.

[…]

 

_______________

Source:  Johns Hopkins University. University Circulars. No.16, July, 1882.

Image Source: Richard Ely in  Review of Reviews and World’s Work, Vol. 5 (1890), p. 163.

Categories
Courses Curriculum Economists Johns Hopkins Regulations

Johns Hopkins Economics. Ph.D. Regulations, Courses 1880

Johns Hopkins University began instruction October 3, 1876. The class schedule for the entire university could be printed as a single page matrix of hours by days in 1879.

By the academic year 1880-81 Johns Hopkins University had awarded a single Ph.D. in political science, which is where political economy still was classified.

In this posting  we approach the beginning of the Big Bang of graduate education in economics in the U.S.

General Statements for 1880-81
Information for Graduate Students
Enumeration of Classes

 

________________________

[p. 54]

GENERAL STATEMENTS FOR 1880-81.

Instruction is provided for both Collegiate and University students….

Admission of Students.

Arrangements are made for the reception of the following classes of students:

I.
Graduates.

Young men who have already graduated in this or other institutions of acknowledged standing are received on the presentation of their diplomas, after satisfying the chief instructors in the departments of study which they propose to follow that they are qualified to pursue the courses here given. They may be enrolled as candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy or not, at their option. Those whose years and attainments correspond with those of graduates may also be received as special students.

II.
Matriculates.

Students who wish a collegiate training are expected, unless excused for some special reason, to offer themselves for matriculation at the time of their admission. If they can pass satisfactorily in a considerable part of the required studies, but not in all, they may be admitted as candidates for matriculation, but their names will not be printed as enrolled students until the examination is completed. They will not be considered as candidates for more than one academic year.

Students who present themselves with higher attainments than are requisite for matriculation may, upon examination, receive credit for the same, be admitted to advanced classes, and so graduate in less time than would otherwise be requisite.

III.
Non-Matriculates.

  1. Students in subjects preliminary to a medical course…
  2. Young men of collegiate age…sufficiently advanced in character and attainments to be allowed the privilege, and that there is some good reason why they should not offer themselves for matriculation…
  3. Attendants upon lectures. –The University has extended certain privileges to teachers…, to medical students…, and to other persons…[they] are not enumerated as enrolled students.

Fees for Tuition, Etc.

The charges are as follows, payable in advance, unless, for specific reasons satisfactory to the Treasurer, he permits the payment to be deferred:

For Tuition, $80 per annum.

[…]

Board and lodging in private houses near the University, including care of room, fuel and light, may be obtained at five dollars, an upwards, per week. Some students pay even less.

[p. 55]

 

INFORMATION FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS.

Graduate Courses.

Advanced and graduate students are received with or without reference to their being candidates for a degree, and they are permitted to attend such lectures and exercises as they may individually select…

…The University professors are not absorbed in the details of college routine, but are free to give personal counsel and instruction to those who seek it; books and instruments adapted to investigation and advanced work have been liberally provided; the system of Fellowships secures the presence of twenty special students, imbued with the University spirit, most of them looking forward to academic careers; seminaries limited to a few advanced students, under the guidance of a director, have been organized in Greek, Mathematics, Physics, and History; societies devoted to Philology, to Mathematical, Physical, and Natural Science, and to History and Political Science, afford opportunities for the presentation of memoirs and original communications….

The instruction is carried on by such methods (varying of course with individual scholars, and with the different departments of work) as will encourage the student to become an independent and original investigator, while he is growing more and more familiar with the work now in progress elsewhere, and with the results which have been obtained by other scholars in the same field, and while he is adding to his general intellectual culture…

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

The Degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy will be conferred in conformity with the following regulations:

Every candidate for the degree of A.M: and Ph.D. will be required:

  1. To have obtained the Baccalaureate degree of this University (or to present the diploma of some other college which the Faculty shall accept as equivalent), and to have subsequently devoted not less than two years to University study in the special department of learning which he may have chosen. The appointment to a Fellowship will be regarded by the faculty as equivalent to the attainment of a Bachelor’s Degree, so far as this is a necessary condition of obtaining a higher degree.
  2. To produce a thesis which shall be approved by the Faculty. This thesis must be the result of original investigation in the main subject for examination, and the subject of the thesis must be submitted for approval to the head of the department, or the chief examiner in it, not less than six months before the degree is conferred.
  3. To pass an examination in one main and one or more subsidiary subjects; the choice of which is to be referred by the candidate to the chief examiner, and through him to the Faculty for final approval. The method of examination will vary according to the subject, and will be written, oral, practical, or all three, as may be deemed best.
  4. To enroll himself as a candidate for the degree, at least one year in advance of the time when he proposes to apply for examination.

Degrees will be conferred by the Trustees on the recommendation of the Faculty, probably twice a year, in the middle of the winter and at the end of the academic term.

The Diploma will indicate the department of study to which the candidate has directed his attention.

Degrees Conferred.—The degree of Doctor of Philosophy has been conferred on the following named persons, who have passed the required examinations:

 

1878 [4 Ph.D. degrees awarded, one in economics  (no other in economics through 1880)]

Henry C. Adams, A.B., Iowa College, 1874; now Lecturer on Political Economy at Cornell University and at the Johns Hopkins University.

 

[…]

 

ENUMERATION OF CLASSES

Which have been instructed during the Academic Year 1879-80.

[pp. 61]

History and Political Science. (33 Students.)

Seminary of American History (15).

Once weekly, two months: Dr. [Austin] Scott.

Comparative Constitutional History (5).

Once weekly, four months: Dr. H. B. Adams.

History of the Renaissance and Reformation (17).

Daily, first half-year, also ten public lectures: Dr. H. B. Adams.

English Constitutional History, Stubbs’ Select Charters (15).

Once weekly, six months: Dr. H. B. Adams.

Political Economy (13).

Four times weekly, two months : Dr. H. B. Adams.

Money and Banking (12).

Four times weekly, two months: Dr. H. C. Adams.

National Debts.

Nine public lectures: Dr. H. C. Adams.

________________________

Source: Johns Hopkins University. University Circulars. No. 5, May, 1880, pp. 54-55, 61.

Categories
Columbia Courses Curriculum

Columbia Economics. Course Offerings. 1905-07

 

 

An improved version of the following artfact has been posted here.

 

Courses Offered by the
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
and the several undergraduate faculties

Announcement
1905-07

Fifth Series, No. 10               March 25, 1905

Columbia University
Bulletin of Information

History, Economics and Public Law

Hathitrust copy

________________________

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OFFICERS OF INSTRUCTION
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, Ph.D., LL.D., President

JOHN W. BURGESS, Ph.D., LL.D., Ruggles Professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law, and Dean

MUNROE SMITH, J.U.D., LL.D., Professor of Roman Law and Comparative Jurisprudence

FRANK J. GOODNOW, LL.D., Eaton Professor of Administrative Law and Municipal Science

EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN [Absent on leave in 1905-06], Ph.D., LL.D., McVickar Professor of Political Economy

HERBERT L. OSGOOD, Ph.D., Professor of History

WILLIAM A. DUNNING, Ph.D., LL.D., Lieber Professor of History and Political Philosophy

JOHN BASSETT MOORE, LL.D., Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy

FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Sociology

JOHN B. CLARK, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Economy

JAMES HARVEY ROBINSON, Ph.D., Professor of History

WILLIAM M. SLOANE, Ph.D., L. H.D., LL.D., Seth Low Professor of History

HENRY R. SEAGER, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy, and Secretary

HENRY L. MOORE, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Political Economy

WILLIAM R. SHEPHERD, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of History

JAMES T. SHOTWELL [Absent on leave in 1905-06.], Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of History

GEORGE W. BOTSFORD, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of History

VLADIMIR G. SIMKHOVITCH, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Economic History

EDWARD THOMAS DEVINE, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Social Economy

 

OTHER OFFICERS

RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL, Ph.D., Professor of the Semitic Languages

A. V. WILLIAMS JACKSON, L.H.D., Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages

EDWARD H. CASTLE, A.M., Professor of History in Teachers College

JOHN D. PRINCE, Ph.D., Professor of the Semitic Languages

FRIEDRICH HIRTH, Ph.D., Dean Lung Professor of Chinese

ARTHUR C. MCGIPFERT, Ph.D., D.D., Washburn Professor of Church History in Union Theological Seminary

FREDERICK JOSEPH KINSMAN, Professor of History in the General Theological Seminary

ALVIN S. JOHNSON, Ph.D., Instructor in Economics

GEORGE J. BAYLES, Ph.D., Lecturer in Ecclesiology

ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS, Ph.D., Lecturer in Sociology in Barnard College

LOUISE R. LOOMIS, A.M., Lecturer in History in Barnard College

CHARLES A. BEARD, Ph.D., Lecturer in History

PAUL L. HAWORTH, Ph.D., Tutor in History in Teachers College

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GENERAL STATEMENT

Students are received as candidates for the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy under the Faculty of Political Science; for the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science either in Columbia College or in Barnard College, and for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Teachers College. They are also permitted to pursue special or partial courses subject to the regulations of the Faculty in which they may register.

Certain courses which may be counted toward the several degrees are also offered in the Summer Session of the University.

Students enrolled in the General, the Union, the Drew, or the Jewish, Theological Seminary, or in the School of Philanthropy in the City of New York, who may have been designated for the privilege by the authorities of these institutions, and accepted by the President of Columbia University, are admitted to the courses offered by the Faculty of Political Science free of all charge for tuition. These institutions offer reciprocal privileges to the students of Columbia University.

Teachers College, founded in 1888, and Barnard College, founded in 1889, have now become parts of the educational system of Columbia University.

Admission

There are no examinations for admission to the graduate courses under the Faculty of Political Science. Students are admitted at any time during the year. They must, however, present themselves for registration at the opening of the first or second half-year in order to obtain full credit for residence. They may present themselves for examination for a degree whenever the requirements as to residence, and as to an essay or dissertation, have been complied with. For details see the announcement of the Faculties of Political Science, Philosophy, and Pure Science, which may be had on application to the Secretary of the University.

For conditions of admission to Columbia College, Barnard College, or Teachers College, see the circular upon entrance examinations, which may be had upon application to the Secretary of the University.

Those graduate courses which are open to undergraduates, are closed to women students unless given separately at Barnard College; but all purely graduate courses in History and Economics are open to women graduate students who have the first degree.

Students who register for graduate courses are supposed to be familiar with the outlines of European history, ancient and modern, as well as of American history. Students who are not thus prepared are strongly recommended to take the undergraduate courses.

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Courses numbered from 1 to 99 are intended primarily for under- graduates and may not be counted towards the advanced degrees. Courses numbered from 100 to 199 are intended for both graduates and undergraduates. Courses numbered 200 and above are intended primarily for graduates. Odd numbers prefixed to courses indicate that they are given in the first half-year; even numbers that they are given in the second half-year. Courses which run through the year are given a double number.

For information with regard to degrees, fees, fellowships, scholarships, and expense of living, see the appropriate announcement either of the Faculties of Political Science, Philosophy and Pure Science, or of Columbia, Barnard, or Teachers College.

ABRIDGED ACADEMIC CALENDAR

The Academic year begins thirty-seven weeks prior to Commencement, which occurs on the Wednesday nearest the 11th of June. For 1905-06 these dates will be, respectively, September 27, 1905, and June 13, 1906. It is divided into two half-years of fifteen weeks of instruction each. In 1905-06 the second half-year begins on February 5, 1906.

The exercises of the University are suspended on Election Day, Thanksgiving Day and the following two days, for two weeks at Christmas, from the Thursday before Good Friday through the following Monday, and on Memorial Day.

The complete Academic Calendar will be found in the University catalogue and so far as it refers to the students studying under any Faculty, in the announcement of that Faculty.

[…]

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GROUP III—ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE

GRADUATE COURSES

It is presumed that students who take economics, sociology or social economy as their major subject are familiar with the general principles of economics and sociology as set forth in the ordinary manuals. Students who are not thus prepared are recommended to take the courses in Columbia College or Barnard College designated as Economics I and 2 (or A and 4) and Sociology 151-152.

The graduate courses fall under three subjects: A—Political Economy and Finance ; B—Sociology and Statistics; C—Social Economy.

Courses numbered 100 to 199 are open to Seniors in Columbia College.

Courses numbered 200 and above are open to graduate women students upon the same terms as to men.

All the courses are open to male auditors. Women holding the first degree may register as auditors in Courses numbered 200 and above.

Subject A—Political Economy and Finance

ECONOMICS 101-102—Taxation and Finance. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 1.30. 422 L.

This course is historical, as well as comparative and critical. After giving a general introduction and tracing the history of the science of finance, it treats of the various rules of the public expenditures and the methods of meeting the same among civilized nations. It describes the different kinds of public revenues, including the public domain and public property, public works and industrial undertakings, special assessments, fees, and taxes. It is in great part a course on the history, theories, and methods of taxation in all civilized countries. It considers also public debt, methods of borrowing, redemption, refunding, repudiation, etc. Finally, it describes the fiscal organization of the state by which the revenue is collected and expended, and discusses the budget, national, state, and local. Although the course is comparative, the point of view is American. Students are furnished with the current public documents of the United States Treasury and the chief financial reports of the leading commonwealths, and are expected to understand all the facts in regard to public debt, revenue, and expenditure contained therein.

Given in 1906-07 and in each year thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 103—Money and Banking. Professor H. L. MOORE.
Tu. and Th. at 10.30, first half-year. 415 L.

The aim of this course is (i) to describe the mechanism of exchange and to trace the history of the metallic money, the paper money, and

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the banking system of the United States; to discuss such questions as bi-metallism, foreign exchanges, credit cycles, elasticity of the currency, present currency problems, and corresponding schemes of reform; (2) to illustrate the quantitative treatment of such questions as variations in the value of the money unit, and the effects of appreciation and depreciation.

 

ECONOMICS 104—Commerce and Commercial Policy. Dr. JOHNSON.
Tu. and Th. at 10.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course the economic bases of modern commerce, and the significance of commerce, domestic and foreign, in its relation to American industry, will be studied. An analysis will be made of the extent and character of the foreign trade of the United States, and the nature and effect of the commercial policies of the principal commercial nations will be examined.

 

ECONOMICS 105—The Labor Problem. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, first half-year. 415 L.

The topics considered in this course are: The rise of the factory system, factory legislation, the growth of trade unions and changes in the law in respect to them, the policies of trade unions, strikes, lockouts, arbitration and conciliation, proposed solutions of the labor problem, and the future of labor in the United States.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 106—The Trust Problem. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course special attention is given to the trust problem as it presents itself in the United States. Among the topics considered are the rise and progress of industrial combinations, the forms of organization and policies of typical combinations, the common law and the trusts, anti-trust acts and their results, and other proposed solutions of the problem.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

[ECONOMICS 107—Fiscal and Industrial History of the United States. Professor SELIGMAN
M. and W. at 3.30, first half-year. 415 L.

This course endeavors to present a survey of national legislation on currency, finance, and taxation, including the tariff, together with its relations to the state of industry and commerce. The chief topics discussed are: The fiscal and industrial conditions of the colonies; the financial methods of the Revolution and the Confederation; the genesis of the protective idea; the fiscal policies of the Federalists and of the Republicans; the financial management of the War of 1812; the industrial effects of the restrictive and war periods; the crises of 1819, 1825, and 1837; the tariffs of 1816, 1824, and 1828; the distribution of the surplus and the Bank war; the currency problems before 1863; the era of

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“free trade,” and the tariffs of 1846 and 1857; the fiscal problems of the Civil War; the methods of resumption, conversion and payment of the debt; the disappearance of the war taxes; the continuance of the war tariffs; the money question and the acts of 1878, 1890, and 1900; the loans of 1894-96; the tariffs of 1890, 1894, and 1897; the fiscal aspects of the Spanish War. The course closes with a discussion of the current problems of currency and trade, and with a general consideration of the arguments for and against protection as illustrated by the practical operations of the various tariffs. Not given in 1905-07.]

 

[ECONOMICS 108— Railroad Problems; Economic, Social, and Legal. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 3.30, second half-year. 415 L.

These lectures treat of railroads in the fourfold aspect of their relation to the investors, the employees, the public, and the state respectively. A history of railways and railway policy in America and Europe forms the preliminary part of the course. The chief problems of railway management, so far as they are of economic importance, come up for discussion.

Among the subjects treated are: Financial methods, railway constructions, speculation, profits, failures, accounts and reports, expenses, tariffs, principles of rates, classification and discrimination, competition and pooling, accidents, and employers’ liability. Especial attention is paid to the methods of regulation and legislation in the United States as compared with European methods, and the course closes with a general discussion of state versus private management.

Not given in 1905-07.]

 

ECONOMICS 109 — Communistic and Socialistic Theories. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 2.30, first half-year. 406 L.

This course studies the theories of St. Simon, Fourier, Proudhon, Rodbertus, Marx, Lassalle, and others. It aims to utilize recent discoveries in economic science in making a critical test of these theories themselves and of certain counter-arguments. It examines the socialistic ideals of distribution, and the effects that, by reason of natural laws, would follow an attempt to realize them through the action of the state.

 

ECONOMICS 110 — Theories of Social Reform. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 2.30, second half-year. 406 L.

This course treats of certain plans for the partial reconstruction of industrial society that have been advocated in the United States, and endeavors to determine what reforms are in harmony with economic principles. It treats of the proposed single tax, of the measures advocated by the Farmers’ Alliance, and of those proposed by labor organizations, and the general relation of the state to industry.

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ECONOMICS 201—Economic Readings I: Classical English Economists. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, first half-year. 415 L.

In this course the principal theories of the English economists from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill are studied by means of lectures, assigned readings and reports, and discussions. Special attention is given to the Wealth of Nations, Malthus’s Essay on Population, the bullion controversy of 1810, the corn law controversy of 1815, and the treatises on Political Economy of Ricardo, Senior, and John Stuart Mill.

Given in 1905-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 202—Economic Readings II: Contemporary Economists. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, second half-year. 415 L.

In this course the theories of contemporary economists are compared and studied by the same methods employed in Economics 201. Special attention is given to Böhm-Bawerk’s Positive Theory of Capital and Marshall’s Principles of Economics.

Given in 1905-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 203-204—History of Economics. Professor SELIGMAN.
M. and W. at 3.30. 415 L.

In this course the various systems of political economy are discussed in their historical development. The chief exponents of the different schools are taken up in their order, and especial attention is directed to the wider aspects of the connection between the theories and the organization of the existing industrial society. The chief writers discussed are:

I.     Antiquity: The Oriental Codes; Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Cato, Seneca, Cicero, the Agrarians, the Jurists.

II.   Middle Ages: The Church Fathers, Aquinas, the Glossators, the writers on money, trade, and usury.

III. Mercantilists: Hales, Mun, Petty, Barbon, North, Locke; Bodin, Vauban, Boisguillebert, Forbonnais; Serra, Galiani; Justi, Sonnenfels.

IV.  Physiocrats: Quesnay, Gournay, Turgot, Mirabeau.

V.   Adam Smith and precursors: Tucker, Hume, Cantillon, Stewart.

VI.  English school: Malthus, Ricardo, Senior, McCulloch, Chalmers, Jones, Mill.

VII. The Continent: Say, Sismondi, Cournot, Bastiat; Herrmann, List, von Thünen.

VIII. German historical school: Roscher, Knies, Hildebrandt.

IX.   Recent Development—England: Rogers, Jevons, Cairnes, Bagehot, Leslie, Toynbee, Marshall; Germany: Wagner, Schmoller, Held, Brentano, Cohn, Schäffle; Austria: Menger, Sax, Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser; France: Leroy Beaulieu, Laveleye, Gide, Walras; Italy: Cossa, Loria, Pantaleoni; America: Carey, George, Walker, Clark, Patten, Adams.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

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ECONOMICS 205—Economic Theory I. Professor CLARK.
M. and W. at 2.30, first half-year. 406 L.

This course discusses, first, the static laws of distribution. If the processes of industry were not changing, wages and industry would tend to adjust themselves according to certain standards. A study of the mechanism of production would then show that one part of the product is specifically attributable to labor, and that another part is imputable to capital. It is the object of the course to show that the tendency of free competition, under such conditions, is to give to labor, in the form of wages, the amount that it specifically creates, and also to give to capital, in the form of interest, what it specifically produces. The theory undertakes to prove that the earnings of labor and of capital are governed by a principle of final productivity, and that this principle must be studied on a social scale, rather than in any one department of production. The latter part of this course enters the field of Economic Dynamics, defines an economic society and describes the forces which so act upon it as to change its structure and its mode of producing and distributing wealth.

 

ECONOMICS 206—Economic Theory II. Professor CLARK.
M. and W. at 2.30, second half-year. 406 L.

This course continues the discussion of the dynamic laws of distribution. The processes of industry are actually progressing. Mechanical invention, emigration and other influences cause capital and labor to be applied in new ways and with enlarging results. These influences do not even repress the action of the static forces of distribution, but they bring a new set of forces into action. They create, first, employers’ profits, and, later, additions to wages and interest. It is the object of the course to show how industrial progress affects the several shares in distribution under a system of competition, and also to determine whether the consolidations of labor and capital, which are a distinctive feature of modern industry, have the effect of repressing competition.

It is a further purpose of the course to present the natural laws by which the increase of capital and that of labor are governed and to discuss the manner in which the earnings of these agents are affected by the action of the state, and to present at some length the character and the effects of those obstructions which pure economic law encounters in the practical world.

 

ECONOMICS 207—Theory of Statistics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, first half-year. 418 L.

The aim of this course is to present the elementary principles of statistics and to illustrate their application by concrete studies in the chief sources of statistical material. The theoretical part of the course

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includes the study of averages, index numbers, interpolation, principles of the graphic method, elements of demography, and statistical principles of insurance. The laboratory work consists of a graded series of problems designed to develop accuracy and facility in the application of principles. (Identical with Sociology 255.)

 

ECONOMICS 208—Quantitative Economics I: Advanced Statistics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
W. and F. at 11.30, second half-year. 418 L.

Quantitative Economics I and II (see Economics 210) investigate economics as an exact science. This course treats economics from the inductive, statistical side. It aims to show how the methods of quantitative biology and anthropology are utilized in economics and sociology. Special attention is given to recent contributions to statistical theory by Gallon, Edgeworth, and Pearson. Economics 207, or an equivalent, is a prerequisite.

Given in 1905-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 210—Quantitative Economics II: Mathematical Economics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
W. and F. at 11.30, second half-year. 418 L.

This course treats economics from the deductive side. It aims to show the utility of an analytical treatment of economic laws expressed in symbolic form. The work of Cournot is presented and used as a basis for the discussion of the contributions to the mathematical method by Walras, Marshall, and Pareto. Economics 207, or an equivalent, is a prerequisite.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

ECONOMICS 241—The Economic and Social Evolution of Russia since 1800. Professor SIMKHOVITCH.
M. and F. at 9.30, first half-year. 418 L.

This course describes the economic development of the country, the growth of slavophil, liberal and revolutionary doctrines and parties, and the disintegration of the autocratic regime. (Identical with History 281.)

 

ECONOMICS 242—Radicalism and Social Reform as Reflected in the Literature of the Nineteenth Century. Professor SIMKHOVITCH.
M. at 9.30 and 10.30, second half-year. 418 L.

An interpretation of the various types of modern radicalism, such as socialism, nihilism, and anarchism, and of the social and economic conditions on which they are based.

 

ECONOMICS 291-292—Seminar in Political Economy and Finance. Professors SELIGMAN and CLARK.
For advanced students. Tu., 8.15-10.15 P.M. 301 L.

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Subject B—Sociology and Statistics

SOCIOLOGY 151-152—Principles of Sociology. Professor GIDDINGS.
Tu. and Th. at 3.30. 415 L.

This is a fundamental course, intended to lay a foundation for advanced work. In the first half-year, in connection with a text-book study of theory, lectures are given on the social traits, organization, and welfare of the American people at various stages of their history and students are required to analyze and classify sociological material of live interest, obtained from newspapers, reviews, and official reports. In the second half-year lectures are given on the sociological systems of important writers, including Montesquieu, Comte, Spencer, Schäffle, De Greef, Gumplowicz, Ward, and Tarde. This course is the proper preparation for statistical sociology (Sociology 255 and 256) or for historical sociology (Sociology 251 and 252).

 

SOCIOLOGY 251—Social Evolution—Ethnic and Civil Origins. Professor GIDDINGS
F. at 2.30 and 3.30, first half-year. 415 L.

This course on historical sociology deals with such topics as (i) the distribution and ethnic composition of primitive populations ; (2) the types of mind and of character, the capacity for cooperation, the cultural beliefs, and the economic, legal, and political habits of early peoples ; (3) early forms of the family, the origins, structure, and functions of the clan, the organization of the tribe, the rise of the tribal federations, tribal feudalism, and the conversion of a gentile into a civil plan of social organization. Early literature, legal codes, and chronicles, descriptive of the Celtic and Teutonic groups which combined to form the English people before the Norman Conquest, are the chief sources made use of in this course.

 

SOCIOLOGY 252—Social Evolution—Civilization, Progress, and Democracy. Professor GIDDINGS.
F. at 2.30 and 3.30, second half-year. 415 L.

This course, which is a continuation of Sociology 251, comprises three parts, namely: (i) The nature of those secondary civilizations which are created by conquest, and of the policies by which they seek to maintain and to extend themselves; (2) an examination of the nature of progress and of its causes, including the rise of discussion and the growth of public opinion ; also a consideration of the policies by which continuing progress is ensured,—including measures for the expansion of intellectual freedom, for the control of arbitrary authority by legality, for the repression of collective violence, and for the control of collective impulse by deliberation ; (3) a study of the nature, the genesis, and the social organization of modern democracies, including an examination of the extent to which non-political associations for culture and pleasure, churches, business corporations, and labor unions, are more or less democratic; and of the democratic ideals of equality and fraternity in their relations

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to social order and to liberty. The documents of English history since the Norman Conquest are the chief sources made use of in this course.

 

SOCIOLOGY 255—Theory of Statistics. Professor H. L. MOORE.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, first half-year. 418 L.
This course is identical with Economics 207 (see pages 28-29).

 

SOCIOLOGY 256—Social Statistics. Professor GIDDINGS.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, second half-year. 418 L.

Actual statistical materials, descriptive and explanatory of contemporaneous societies, are the subject-matter of this course, which presupposes a knowledge of statistical operations (Sociology 255) and applies it to the analysis of concrete problems. The lectures cover such topics as (i) the statistics of population, including densities and migrations, composition by age, sex, and nationality, amalgamation by intermarriage; (2) statistics of mental traits and products, including languages, religious preferences, economic preferences (occupations), and political preferences; (3) statistics of social organization, including families, households, municipalities, churches, business corporations, labor unions, courts of law, army, navy, and civil service; (4) statistics of social welfare, including peace and war, prosperity, education or illiteracy, vitality, and morality, including pauperism and crime.

 

SOCIOLOGY 259—Ecclesiology. Dr. BAYLES.
Tu. and F. at 4.30, first half-year. 405 L.

The purpose of this course is to define the present relations of the ecclesiastical institutions to the other institutions of American society: the state, the government, marriage, family, education, and public wealth. An analysis is made of the guarantees of religious liberty contained in the federal and commonwealth constitutions; of the civil status of churches in terms of constitutional and statute law; of the methods of incorporation, of the functions of trustees, of legislative and judicial control ; of denominational polity according to its type ; of the functional activity of churches in their departments of legislation, administration, adjudication, discipline, and mission ; of the influence of churches on ethical standards ; of the distribution of nationalities among the denominations, of the territorial distribution of denominational strength, of the relation of polity to density of population, and of the current movements in and between various organizations tending toward changes of functions and structure.

 

SOCIOLOGY 279-280—Seminar in Sociology. Professor GIDDINGS.
W. at 3.30 and 4.30, bi-weekly. 301 L.

The Statistical Laboratory, conducted by Professors GIDDINGS and H. L. MOORE, is equipped with the Hollerith tabulating machines, comptometers, and other modern facilities.

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Subject C—Social Economy

SOCIAL ECONOMY 281—Poverty and Dependence. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, first half-year. 418 L.

The purpose of this course and of Social Economy 282, which follows, is to study dependence and measures of relief, and to analyze the more important movements which aim to improve social conditions. An at- tempt is made to measure the extent of dependence, both in its definite forms, as in charitable and penal institutions, and in its less recognized and definite forms, as when it results in the lowering of the standard of living or the placing of unreasonably heavy burdens upon children or widows. Among the special classes of social debtors which are studied, besides the paupers, the vagrants, the dissipated, and the criminals, who require discipline or segregation as well as relief, are: Orphans and other dependent children; the sick and disabled; the aged and infirm; the widow and the deserted family; the immigrant and the displaced laborer; the underfed and consequently short-lived worker.

Given in 1905—06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 282—Principles of Relief. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, second half-year. 418 L.

In this course the normal standard of living is considered concretely to secure a basis from which deficiencies may be estimated. A large number of individual typical relief problems are presented, and from these, by a “case system,” analogous to that of the modern law school, the principles of relief are deduced. Among the larger movements to be considered are: Charity organization; social settlements; housing re- form; the elimination of disease; the restriction of child labor; and the prevention of overcrowding, and especially the congestion of population in the tenement-house districts of the great cities.

Given in 1903-06 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 283—Pauperism and Poor Laws. Professor SEAGER.
M. at 3.30 and 4.30, first half-year. 418 L.

This is an historical and comparative course intended to supplement Social Economy 281 and 282. Lectures on the history of the English poor law are followed by discussions of farm colonies, the boarding-out system for children, old-age pensions, and other plans of relief currently advocated in England. On this basis the public relief problems of New York State and City and the institutions attempting their solution are studied by means of excursions, lectures, and discussions.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 285—The Standard of Living. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, first half-year. 418 L.

A concrete study of the standard of living in New York City in the classes which are above the line of actual dependence, but below or near the line of full nutrition and economic independence. While this course

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will not be given in the year 1905-06, assignments will be made in the School of Philanthropy for research in such portions of this field as suit- ably prepared students may elect to undertake.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 286—The Prevention and Diminution of Crime. Professor DEVINE.
Th. and F. at 4.30, second half-year. 418 L.

This course will deal with the social function of the penal and police systems. Special attention will be given to such subjects as juvenile courts; the probation system; indeterminate sentence; treatment of discharged prisoners; the system of local jails; segregation of incorrigibles, and prison labor.

Given in 1906-07 and in alternate years thereafter.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 290—Crime and Criminal Anthropology. Professor GlDDINGS.

Students desiring to make a special study of crime, criminal anthropology, and the theory of criminal responsibility may take the lectures of Sociology 256 or of Social Economy 286 and follow prescribed readings under the direction of Professor GIDDINGS.

 

SOCIAL ECONOMY 299-300—Seminar in Social Economy. Professor DEVINE.
Two hours a week. Hours to be arranged.

The work of the Seminar for 1905-07 will be a study of recent develop- ments in the social and philanthropic activities of New York City; e. g., the social settlements; parks and playgrounds ; outside activities of pub- lic schools; children’s institutions ; relief societies ; agencies for the aid of immigrants, and the preventive work of organized charities.

 

COURSES IN THE SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY

The School of Philanthropy, conducted by the Charity Organization Society, under the direction of Professor Devine, offers courses [These courses are given in the United Charities Building, corner Fourth Avenue and 22d Street] aggregating not less than ten hours a week throughout the academic year, and also a Summer School course of six weeks in June and July. These courses are open to regular students of Columbia University who satisfy the director that they are qualified to pursue them with profit, and are accepted as a minor for candidates for an advanced degree.

The program of studies for 1905-06 is as follows:

A—General survey (forty lectures) ; B—Dependent families (fifty lectures); C—Racial traits and social conditions (thirty-five lectures); D—Constructive social work (fifty lectures) ; £—Child-helping agencies (forty lectures); F—Treatment of the criminal (thirty lectures); G—Administration of charitable and educational institutions (thirty lectures); H—The State in its relation to charities and correction (forty lectures).

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COURSES IN COLUMBIA COLLEGE

ECONOMICS 1-2—Introduction to Economics—Practical Economic Problems. Professors SELIGMAN and SEAGER, and Dr. JOHNSON.
Section 1, M. and W. at 9.30, and F. at 11.30. Section 2, M., W., and F. at 11.30. M. and W. recitations in 415 L. F. lecture in 422 L.

 

COURSES IN BARNARD COLLEGE

ECONOMICS A—Outlines of Economics. Professor MOORE and Dr. JOHNSON.
Three hours, first half-year. Section 1, Tu., Th., and S. at 9.30. Section 2, Tu. and Th. at 11.30, and S. at 9.30.

 

ECONOMICS 4—Economic History of England and the United States. Professor MOORE and Dr. JOHNSON.
M., W., and F. at 10.30, second half-year.

 

ECONOMICS 105—The Labor Problem. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, first half-year. The topics treated in this course are the rise of the factory system, factory legislation, the growth of trade unions and changes in the law in respect to them, the policies of trade unions, strikes, lockouts, arbitration and conciliation, proposed solutions of the labor problem, and the future of labor in the United States.

 

ECONOMICS 120—Practical Economic Problems. Professor SEAGER.
Tu. and Th. at 1.30, second half-year.

The topics treated in this course are the defects in the monetary and banking systems of the United States, government expenditures and government revenues, protection vs. free trade, the relation of the government towards natural monopolies, and federal control of trusts.

 

ECONOMICS 121—English Social Reformers. Professor MOORE.
W. and F. at 1.30, first half-year.

A critical study of the social teachings of Carlyle, Ruskin, John Stuart Mill, Kingsley, and Thomas H. Green.
Open to students that have taken Course A or an equivalent.

 

ECONOMICS 122—Economic Theory. Professor MOORE.
W. and F. at 1.30, second half-year.

A critical study of Marshall’s Principles of Economics. The principal aim of this course is to present the methods and results of recent economic theory.
Open to students that have taken Course A or an equivalent.

[p. 35]

ECONOMICS 109—Communistic and Socialistic Theories. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, first half-year.

In this course a brief study is made of the works of St. Simon, Fourier, Proudhon, Owen, and Lassalle, and a more extended study is made of Marx’s treatise on capital. Recent economic changes, such as the formation of trusts and strong trade unions, are examined with a view to ascertaining what effect they have had on the modern socialistic movement.

 

ECONOMICS 110—Theories of Social Reform. Professor CLARK.
Tu. and Th. at 11.30, second half-year.

In this course a study is made of modern semi-socialistic movements and of such reforms as have for their object the improvement of the condition of the working class. Municipal activities, factory legislation, the single tax, recent agrarian movements and measures for the regulation of monopolies are studied.

 

SOCIOLOGY 151-152—Principles of Sociology. Professor GIDDINGS.
Tu. and Th. at 2.30.

This is a fundamental course, intended to lay a foundation for advanced work. In the first half-year, in connection with a text-book study of theory, lectures are given on the social traits, organization, and welfare of the American people at various stages of their history, and students are required to analyze and classify sociological material of live interest, obtained from newspapers, reviews, and official reports. In the second half-year, lectures are given on the sociological systems of important writers, including Montesquieu, Comte, Spencer, Schäffle, De Greef, Gumplowicz, Ward, and Tarde.

 

SOCIOLOGY 153-154 —Family Organization. Dr. ELSIE CLEWS PARSONS.
Tu. at 3.30, bi-weekly.

Field work in the study of family groups. Consultations.
Open to Seniors.

In connection with the lectures and field work of this course opportunities are given to students to become acquainted with the more important private institutions for social betterment in New York City, and to study the organization and activity of the various public agencies charged with the welfare of the community.

 

COURSES IN THE SUMMER SESSION

sA—Economic History of England and America. Lectures, recitations, and essays. Dr. JOHNSON.
Five hours a week at 1.30. 501 F. Credit I
(Equivalent, when supplemented by prescribed reading, to Economics 4.)

[p. 36]

 

sB—Principles of Economics. Lectures and class discussions. Dr. JOHNSON.
Five hours a week at 2.30. 501 F. Credit I.
(Equivalent, when supplemented by prescribed reading, to Economics I.)

 

sA1—Principles of Sociology. Descriptive and theoretical. Professor GIDDINGS.
Five hours a week at 10.30. 415 L. Credit I, II.
(Equivalent to Sociology 151)

 

sA2—Principles of Sociology. History of sociological theory. Professor GIDDINGS.
Five hours a week at 9.30. 415 L. Credit I, II.
(Equivalent to Sociology 152.)

[…]

Categories
Columbia Courses Curriculum Regulations

Columbia. School of Political Science. Information 1882-83.

Economics at Columbia University emerged from the School of Political Science that spanned the fields of history, public law and political economy. One entered the degree program in the senior year (the fourth) of undergraduate studies. One year of coursework led to the award of the Ph.B. and a Ph.D. required the full three year course program and a dissertation. Cf. the statement published in 1882 by the founder of the School of Political Science, John W. Burgess.

___________________________

GENERAL STATEMENT.

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of Columbia College, held June 7, 1880, the following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That there be established, to go into operation at the opening of the academic year next ensuing, a school designed to prepare young men for the duties of public life, to be entitled a School of Political Science, having a definitely prescribed curriculum of study extending over a period of three years, and embracing the History of Philosophy; the History of the Literature of the Political Sciences; the General Constitutional History of Europe; the Special Constitutional History of England and the United States; the Roman Law, and the jurisprudence of existing codes derived therefrom; the Comparative Constitutional Law of European States and of the United States; the Comparative Constitutional Law of the different States of the American Union; the History of Diplomacy; International Law; Systems of Administration, State and National, of the United States; Comparison of American and European Systems of Administration; Political Economy and Statistics.

Resolved, That the qualification required of the candidate for admission to this school shall be that he shall have successfully pursued a course of undergraduate study in this college, or in some other maintaining an equivalent curriculum, to the close of the Junior year.

Resolved, That students of the school who shall satisfactorily complete the studies of the first year shall be entitled, on examination and the recommendation of the Faculty, to receive the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy; and those who complete the entire course of three years shall, on similar examination and recommendation, be entitled to receive the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

In accordance with the foregoing resolutions the School of Political Science of Columbia College was opened on Monday, the fourth day of October, 1880.

The purpose of the school is to give a complete general view of all the subjects both of internal and external public polity, from the threefold standpoint of History, Law, and Philosophy. Its prime aim is, therefore, the development of all the branches of the political sciences. Its secondary aim is the preparation of young men for all the political branches of the public service.

To these ends the school offers a course of study of sufficient duration to enable the student not only to attend the lectures and recitations with the professors, but also to study the sources of these sciences in the most approved works of reference upon the same.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.

FIRST YEAR.

FIRST TERM.

Physical and Political Geography [4 hours per week]
Ethnography [4 hours per week]
History of the Literature of the Political Sciences [4 hours per week]
General Political and Constitutional History of Europe [4 hours per week]
Political and Constitutional History of England, to 1688 [2 hours per week]
Political Economy: History of Politico-Economic Institutions [2 hours per week]
History of Philosophy [3 hours per week]

SECOND TERM.

Political and Constitutional History of the United States [4 hours per week]
Political and Constitutional History of England, since 1688 [2 hours per week]
Political Economy: Taxation and Finance [2 hours per week]
History of Philosophy [3 hours per week]

SECOND YEAR.

FIRST TERM.

History of Roman Law, to the present day [6 hours per week]
Comparative Constitutional Law of the principal European States and of the United States [3 hours per week]

SECOND TERM.

Comparative Jurisprudence of the principal European Systems of Civil Law [6 hours per week]
Comparative Constitutional Law of the several Commonwealths of the American Union [3 hours per week]

THIRD YEAR.

FIRST TERM.

History of Diplomacy [2 hours per week]
Private International Law [2 hours per week]
Comparative Administrative Law of the principal States of Europe and of the United States [5 hours per week]
Social Science: Statistical Science, Methods, and Results [2 hours per week]

SECOND TERM.

Public International Law [2 hours per week]
Private International Law [2 hours per week]
Comparative Administrative Law of the several Commonwealths of the American Union [5 hours per week]
Social Science: Communistic and Socialistic Theories [2 hours per week]

OF ADMISSION.

For admission to the School of Political Science it will be required of the applicant that he shall have satisfactorily completed the regular course of undergraduate study in this college or in some other maintaining an equivalent curriculum of study, to the end of the Junior year. Students from other colleges must present certificates of proficiency, and of discharge in good standing.

TIME OF MATRICULATION.

Students proposing to enter the school are desired to present themselves for matriculation on the Friday next before the first Monday in October. The object of this regulation is to prevent matters of business, such as the payment of fees and the formation of class lists, from interfering with the punctual commencement of the lectures of the course on the first day of the term.

The names of students intending to become members of the school may be entered at the room of the President on the Monday immediately preceding Commencement day in June, or on the day appointed as above for matriculation.

OF TUITION FEES AND PAYMENTS.

The annual tuition fee of each student of the school is one hundred and fifty dollars, payable in two equal instalments of seventy-five dollars each, the first at matriculation, and the second on the first Monday of February in each year.

But any member of the School of Law, while he continues to be such, may attend any or all the courses of instruction in the School of Political Science, with the payment of a further fee of fifty dollars in addition to the fee of one hundred dollars due to the School of Law.

OF ADMISSION TO THE CLASSES OF THE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND THE SCHOOL OF LAW.

Any student of the School of Political Science may attend any or all of the courses of the School of Arts with the permission of the instructors concerned, and any or all of the courses of the School of Law, without the payment of any further fee than that due to the School of Political
Science.

OF ADMISSION TO THE GRADUATE CLASSES.

The Trustees have provided that, hereafter, courses of instruction shall be given in the college to graduates of this and other colleges, in a large variety of subjects. Students of the School of Political Science, who may be Bachelors of Arts, of Letters, or of Science at entrance, or who, after having completed their first year in the School of Political Science, shall have received their first degree, may be admitted to the graduate classes, in such subjects as they may desire to pursue, and which will not interfere with their regular studies in the school, without additional fee. A list of the subjects embraced in the scheme of graduate instruction for the ensuing year will be furnished on application to the Registrar of Columbia College, Madison avenue and 49th street, New York City.

OF SPECIAL STUDENTS.

Any person, not a candidate for a degree, may attend any or all of the courses of the School of Political Science by entering his name with the Registrar as a special student in the School of Political Science. The fee for such person, if he desire to attend all the courses of any single year, is one hundred and fifty dollars, payable at the same times as the fee of regular students in the school. For single courses the fee regulates itself according to the number of lectures per week: during the first year the annual fee for a two-hour course being thirty dollars; for a three-hour course, forty-five dollars; for a four-hour course, sixty dollars; and during the second and third years, the annual fee for a two-hour course being forty; for a three-hour course, sixty; for a six-hour course, one hundred and twenty dollars. In every case the fee covers the specified number of hours throughout the year— no student being received for a less period than one year. Such fees are payable in advance.

LIBRARIES.

The library of Political Science contains about three thousand volumes, recently selected by the Faculty of this school, and embracing the latest and most valuable European and American works in this department.

Students of the School of Political Science will also be allowed the use of the library of the School of Arts, the library of the School of Mines, and the library of the School of Law.

The Law library numbers about seven thousand volumes, and contains. a complete series of the reports and statutes of the United States and of the reports and statutes of the State of New York, with the most valuable of those of other States; a full series of the English reports from the Year Books to the present time, with several editions of the English statutes, and many treatises on English and American law.

The libraries of Law and of Political Science contain also a number of works upon Roman Law, ancient and modern, as well as historic and systematic treatises upon the principal European systems of Civil Law.

OF EXAMINATIONS AND COMMENCEMENT.

The annual examination of the students of the school will begin on Monday of the third week preceding Commencement, and will be continued from day to day until completed.

The Commencement exercises of the college take place annually on the second Wednesday of June.

DEGREES.

The degree of Bachelor of Philosophy will be conferred at the close of the first year upon all such students of the school as shall have successfully completed the studies of the year, and shall have been recommended to the Trustees for such degree by the Faculty of the school.

Upon all who shall have successfully completed the studies of the entire course of three years, and shall have been similarly recommended, will be conferred the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

To obtain recommendation for the latter degree, the candidate will be required:

1. To prepare an original dissertation upon a subject assigned him by the Faculty or chosen by him with the approval of the Faculty.

2. To defend such dissertation against the criticisms of the entire Faculty.

3. To pass an oral examination upon all the studies of the three years.

4. To pass collateral examinations (reading at sight) upon Latin and either French or German.

These degrees will be publicly conferred on Commencement day.

Source:
Columbia College. School of Political Science. Circular of Information for the Year 1882-83.