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Columbia. Instructors for Economics in Columbia College. Considering Okun et al., 1951

 

This following 1951 memo by the head of the economics department at Columbia, Jamew W. Angell, to his colleagues about the relatively mundane matter of identifying potential candidates for an instructor vacancy in the undergraduate economics program in Columbia College, caught my attention with a paragraph describing the up-and-coming graduate student Arthur Okun. Five current instructors were identified by name together with three ranked potential candidates. I figured this would be as good a time as any, to see what sort of career information I’d be able to gather on the other seven names that I did not recognize. 

I was least successful with Mr. George F. Dimmler whose Google traces would indicate that he had gone on to teach briefly at Wharton and then worked as an economist at  the Commercial Investment Trust (CIT) Financial Corporation. But for the other six economists (as well as Okun) it was relatively easy to find obituaries!

While Arthur Okun was clearly the leading candidate considered for the position, the instructorship instead went to the Fellner student from Berkeley, Jacob Weissman. As of this post I do not know whether this means that Okun was not offered the job, or had been offered the instructorship but had a better opportunity.

___________________

MEMO REGARDING POTENTIAL INSTRUCTORS FOR UNDERGRADUATE ECONOMICS AT COLUMBIA COLLEGE

CONFIDENTIAL

May 8, 1951

To Professors Bergson, Bonbright, A. F. Burns, A. R. Burns, Clark, Dorfman, Goodrich, Haig, Hart, Mills, Nurkse, Shoup, Stigler, Wolman

From James W. Angell

Because of the prospective shrinkage of the enrollment and the greater exercise of professional option by students of Columbia College, it will probably be necessary to reduce the number of appointments as Instructor of Economics in College from the present five to two for next year. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the College is adopting a general policy of not renewing appointments to instructor ships beyond a total term of five years. None of the present instructors will be dismissed, but all of them are being encouraged and helped to find new positions. Two of them, [George F.] Dimmler and [Daniel M.] Holland,  [see below]  have already made other arrangements for next year; and the other three, [Lawrence] Abbott [from Prabook], [Frank W.] Schiff [see below] and [Nian-Tzu] Wang [see below, have definite possibilities for other employment. It is improbable that we will lose all five of these men, but there is a definite possibility that one new instructor will be needed, and a rather remote possibility that we will need two.

Since definite action may not be required until the summer, when most of us will be away, I am now calling the situation to your attention. Horace Taylor, as Chairman of the Departmental Committee in the College, has proposed for consideration three men whom he regards as the most promising candidates known to him for appointment as Instructor, should a vacancy develop. I give below summaries of the records of these men, based largely or wholly on material which Taylor provided (entirely so in the case of Weissman). They are listed in Taylor’s order.

OKUN, Arthur. [Brookings Memorial] A. B. From Columbia College, 1949, with honors and special distinction in Economics; first in his class of over five hundred in the College; Green Memorial Prize; Phi Beta Kappa. Entered our Graduate Department in 1949, University Scholar, 1949-50, and University Fellow, 1950-51. Has A’s in all courses he took in the Graduate School. Passed the Qualifying Examination with A on the Essay, two A’s and 3 B’s on the Specific questions. Has passed language examinations in German and in Mathematics; certified in Statistics and in General Economic History. Will take the orals this spring, offering Economic Theory, Monetary Economics, Public Utility and Public Finance. Taylor writes: “He is regarded by everyone in the College staff as one of the most gifted students we ever have had, and I believe he is well known to members of the graduate faculty. My recollection is that he made the highest score ever made on the graduate record examination. Some of his teachers in graduate school have spoken of him as the ablest of the current group of students there. He has no teaching experience, but it is going to conduct some discussion sections of Robert Carey’s course in elementary economics next Summer Session. Okun was No. 1 man in his class of over 500 in Columbia College.”

WEISSMAN, Jacob. [see below] Taylor writes: “A more mature man than Okun. Has had business and industrial experience, in the sense that he was General Manager of a steel company in which his family is interested. He resigned this $20,000 job to take up graduate study of economics at the University of California. Messrs. Davisson, Fellner, and Gordon of of U. of C. have written letters recommending him in the highest terms. One or two of them even said that Weissman is the ablest graduate student of economics at the U. of C. in some years. He is now at Cambridge, Massachusetts, to be in touch with Mr. Fellner, who is directing Weissman’s dissertation. I had Weissman to lunch when he passed through New York last summer, and was greatly impressed with his good mind, excellent training, and modesty. He is eager for a job here.”

AHEARN, Daniel. [see below]  A.B. from Columbia College, 1949; Phi Beta Kappa; graduate fellowship from Columbia College for 1949-50. Entered our Graduate Department in 1949; Kazanjian Scholar, 1950-51; Master’s thesis on the business cycle fluctuation in 1932-34, now in process with Professor Hart. Passed Qualifying Examination in 1950, with a B average. Seven A’s and one B in graduate courses. Has passed the German examination and has certified in Statistics and American Economic History. Will take orals this spring, offering Economic Theory, Monetary Economics, Business Cycles and Industrial Organization. Taylor writes: “Now in graduate school, and probably well-known to most staff members. He was a classmate of Okun, and ranked third in the class in which Okun was first. A man of unusual ability, excellent personal qualities, is highly regarded by the College staff.”

There are doubtless also other men whom you would like to suggest for consideration. I shall greatly appreciate receiving such suggestions promptly, together with as much information about them as you can provide; and also your own judgment and comparative rating of the men discussed above.

Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Robert M. Haig Papers, Box 107, Folder: Haig Correspondence A, 1949-1952”.

___________________

Jacob Weissman’s initial appointment, 1951-52.

He replaced Daniel M. Holland. Appointed July 1, 1951 for one year, annual salary $3600.

Source:  Columbia University Libraries Manuscript Collections. Columbiana. Department of Economics Collection, Box 4, Budget, 1945/1946-1954/1955, Folder “Budget 1951-52”.

___________________

Weissman appointment extended to a fifth year

Jacob Weissman will have served four years as instructor, but we seek his reappointment for a fifth year at his present salary [$3,800], and that permission for this be sought from the President of the University under section 60 of the Statutes. The ground for this request are that Weissman expects to submit his dissertation on “The Law of Oligopoly: A Study of the Relationship between Legal and Economic Theory” at the University of California in the Spring of 1955, when we expect to be in a better position to assess his worth. Also, Weissman has done and is doing much for the College, and it seems fair to him to let him get his degree before seeking a position elsewhere, if we have eventually to let him go.”

Source: Report of College Committee on Economics to the Executive Officer, Department of Economics (November 15, 1954) by Harold Barger, Chairman of the College Committee, Department of Economics”

___________________

Jacob I. Weissman
Obituary
(July 13, 2006)

Jacob I. Weissman, a lawyer, inveterate storyteller and Phi Beta Kappa scholar who chaired the economics department at Hofstra University before retiring to Martha’s Vineyard, died peacefully July 11 at Henrietta Brewer House surrounded by family and friends. He was 92.

Professor Weissman would often tell friends that he disagreed with the general description of economics as a dismal science and that had coined his own term: the trivial science.

He explained: “Economists don’t deal sufficiently with aspirations, and ambitions of people or other variables.”

According to his wife, Nikki Langer Weissman, this quote summarized his world view. “Despite his considerable academic achievements,” she said, “Jacob was a man who never lost sight of the fact that human beings come before statistics and that human behavior defies predictive models.” Professor Weissman was born and raised in Detroit. In 1935, he graduated from the University of Michigan Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in economics.

After graduation, he enrolled in the University of Michigan Law School, completing his J.D. degree and graduating first in class and was also editor of the Michigan Law Review. Following law school, he spent a year traveling to Japan, China, southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Prior to graduation from law school, he had been invited to work as clerk to the chief justice of the supreme court of Michigan. However, due to his father’s illness, he felt obliged to decline, as he was needed to run the family business, where he remained as president for 12 years.

After this detour, Professor Weissman decided to return to the world he loved – academia. In 1947, he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley for a Ph.D. in economics. While completing his dissertation, he taught at Columbia University in New York until 1956, when he received his doctorate in economics. He was hired by the University of Chicago as a research associate in law and economics at the law school and later associate professor of law and economics at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.

He often attributed his love of academics to his teaching experience at Columbia “because the university used many of its faculty to teach not only in their own disciplines, but in a wonderful general education program.”

“I became very enriched by that teaching and my vision of an ideal academic life was fulfilled,” he once told a reporter. “An element of chance was involved in this path I chose, but it suited me well.”

In 1963, he was invited to join the faculty at Hofstra University in New York as professor of economics and chairman of the economics department. He also served as speaker of faculty, a post he held for two years. In 1982, he was appointed interim dean of Hofstra University’s School of Business.

At Hofstra, he met and married Shirley (Nikki) Langer, who was associate professor of psychology. They remained at Hofstra University until his retirement in 1983.

In 1969, impressed by the vitality and community spirit on the Vineyard, they became homeowners in Chilmark.Professor Weissman gave generously of his time and talents on the Vineyard.

He served on the board of directors of the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and as chairman of its ethics committee. He was a board member and treasurer of Howes House (West Tisbury Council on Aging). He and his wife gave lessons at the various senior centers on creativity, aging and other topics.

His publications on law and economics were included in The American Economic Review, The Journal of Political Economy and The University of Chicago’s Journal of Business.

In addition to his wife, Nikki Langer Weissman of Chilmark; his son, Stephen Weissman of London; his sister, Helen Rosenman of San Francisco; his stepson, Kenneth Langer of Takoma Park, Md.; his stepdaughter, Elizabeth Langer of Washington, D.C.; six grandchildren, Max Weissman and Maisie Weissman, Ben Langer Chused, Sam Langer, Nora Langer and Amelia Langer; and two great-grandchildren, Kate and Toby Weissman.

Source: Vineyard Gazette, July 13, 2006.

___________________

Daniel S. Ahearn
Obituary
(April 6, 2016)

AHEARN, Daniel S., Ph.D. 90, of Winchester, March 30, 2016. Beloved husband of Louise (Freeman) Ahearn. Loving father of Barbara Ahearn of Arlington and the late Kathleen and JoAnne Ahearn. Born in New York City, Daniel was the son of the late Daniel and Margaret (Walter) Ahearn. A World War II veteran, he served in the 399th Infantry 100th Division from 1943 to 1946 in France and Germany. He received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia College in 1949 and his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 1961. His book “Federal Reserve Policy Reappraised 1951-1959” was based on his Ph.D. thesis. Daniel spent his roughly 65-year working life in positions involving economics, investments and monetary and fiscal policy. From 1961 to 1995, he was at Wellington Management Company with positions including senior vice president, partner and chairman of the investment policy group. In 1963 he left Wellington to serve as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Debt Management until 1965. He also advised the Treasury Dept. for about 25 years as a member of the Government and Federal Agencies Securities Committee of the Public Securities Assoc. After leaving Wellington, Daniel formed Capital Markets Strategies where he continued advisory work. In Winchester, where he was a resident for 47 years, Daniel was an Investment Trustee of Winchester Hospital from 1974-2012. He is widely remembered for his reports on investments to the annual meeting of the Winchester Hospital board.

Source: Boston Globe obituary from Legacy.com.

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Frank W. Schiff
Obituary
(August 28, 2006)

Frank W. Schiff, 85, who served as vice president and chief economist of the Committee for Economic Development from 1969 to 1986, died Aug. 17 at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital of complications from a back injury.

At the Committee for Economic Development, an independent organization of business executives and university administrators, Mr. Schiff coordinated statements and monographs on a wide range of national and international economic policy issues. His efforts involved tax reform, budget deficits, the federal budget process, energy independence, job training, public-private partnerships and the international monetary system.

He played a key role in the creation of local Private Industry Councils under the federal Job Training Partnership Act. He had a special interest in flexible work arrangements, such as greater use of “flexiplace” and work sharing as an alternative to layoffs or women leaving the workforce.

He said in 1983 that in situations where flexiplace — working at home or other places other than the office — had been tried, productivity improved in most cases 10 to 20 percent and sometimes substantially more.

Mr. Schiff was born in Greisswald, Germany, and fled the Nazis in 1936. He was 15 when he and his family arrived in New York, where he finished high school in New Rochelle and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University. He also did graduate work in economics at Columbia.

From 1943 to 1945, he served in the Army in the 35th Infantry Division in France. After the war, he was an economics instructor at Columbia.

Beginning in 1951, Mr. Schiff held several positions with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Among them was head of the Latin American unit and assistant vice president of research.

He went to Vietnam in the early 1960s to advise the government on creation of a central bank.

As senior staff economist with the Council of Economic Advisers from 1964 to 1968, Mr. Schiff had responsibility for international finance, coordination of international economic policies and domestic monetary policy. He regularly represented the council at international monetary policy meetings in Paris.

He served as deputy undersecretary of the Treasury for monetary affairs from 1968 to 1969 and was involved in domestic economic policy and international monetary policy formulation and negotiations, debt management and relations with the Federal Reserve.

Mr. Schiff lived in Washington from 1964 to 1983, when he moved to Alexandria. He retired in 1986.

He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Conference of Business Economists and served as president and chairman of the National Economists Club.

In 1990, Mr. Schiff returned to his childhood home in Germany on a trip with Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.). Vivid memories flooded his mind as he stood in the 1915 art deco apartment building where he grew up in what became a West Berlin residential area. “It was very pleasant here before the Hitler period,” he said.

Survivors include his wife, Erika Deussen Schiff, whom he married in 1974, of Alexandria; and a brother.

Source: Washington Post.August 28, 2006.

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Daniel M. Holland
Obituary
(January 8, 1992)

Daniel M. Holland, professor emeritus of finance at the Sloan School of Management and a widely known expert on taxation and public finance, died December 15 at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, while under treatment for a heart condition. Professor Holland, a Lexington resident, was 71.

A memorial service is being planned for some time in February at the MIT Chapel.

Professor Holland was an MIT faculty member from 1958 until his retirement in 1986, when he became an emeritus professor and senior lecturer. He also served as an assistant to the provost from 1986 to 1990.

He was a consultant over the years to government agencies, including the US Treasury, foreign governments and private companies.

He was editor of the National Tax Journal for more than 20 years, served as president of the National Tax Association in 1988-89, and was the author of several books on taxation and numerous articles both in professional journals and other publications. His books included Dividends Under the Income Tax and Private Pension Funds: Projected Growth, for which he received the Elizur Wright Award of the American Risk and Insurance Association.

Professor Abraham J. Siegel, former dean of the Sloan School, said, “Dan was a great colleague and friend, broadly gauged in his knowledge and interests. Those of us who have known him for over 30 years, as well as his younger colleagues, will miss him enormously.”

Professor Holland, who was born in New York City, received AB and PhD degrees from Columbia University, in 1941 and 1951, respectively.

He served three years in the Navy during World War II, mostly aboard a destroyer escort in the Pacific theater.

He was a member of the research staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research before becoming an associate professor of economics at New York University in 1957, the year before he came to MIT, also as an associate professor. He was promoted to full professor at MIT in 1962.

His professional groups included the American Economic Association, American Finance Association, Royal Economic Society, International Institute of Public Finance and the International Fiscal Association.

He leaves his wife, Jeanne A. (Ormont) Holland; two children, Andy of New York City, a scenic artist, and Laura Roeper of Amherst, Mass., a writer; two grandchildren and four nephews.

Source:  MIT News, January 8, 1992.

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Nian-Tzu Wang
Obituary
The New York Times (Aug. 29 to Aug. 30, 2004)

WANG-Nian-Tzu, N.T., of Larchmont, NY, died of cancer, on August 26, 2004. Loving husband of Mabel U, devoted father of June, Kay (Leighton Chen), Cynthia (Daniel Sedlis), Geraldine, and Newton, and proud grandfather of Christine, Stephanie and Lucy. In his autobiography, “My Nine Lives”, NT wrote of his lives as number one son, traditional scholar, foreign student, public servant, instructor, international servant, advisor, academician, and immigrant. NT was born in Shanghai on July 25, 1917. Initially trained to be a Confucian scholar, he received a classical education at home, where he was tutored in Chinese poetry, painting, the Classics and other literati skills. Math, science, and languages were introduced later by his father, Pai Yuan (PY) Wang, a sophisticated banker when he decided to school his four sons in Western ways when they were teenagers. In 1937, NT went abroad to study at the London School of Economics and Germany. He transferred to Columbia where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors in economics in 1941, and went on to receive an M.A. and PhD in economics from Harvard. NT will be remembered throughout the international community for his dedicated efforts in advising businesses and governments around the world on ecomonic development. He made many contributions to his homeland of China, the U.S., his home since 1939, and to countless countries which he helped through his work at the U.N. Economic and Social Council. After retiring from a 28 year career at the United Nations, as the Director of the Centre on Transnational Corporations, he returned to Columbia Univ. to teach at the School of Business and the School of International and Public Affairs. He thoroughly enjoyed his time with his students, organizing seminars, creating training programs for Chinese academic and business leaders, and working tirelessly as the Director of the China-International Business Project. In his final days, he was polishing his keynote speech as part of Columbia University’s 250th anniversary celebration. He was an honorary professor of ten universities, a fellow of the International Academy of Management, and a recipient of many awards, including the New York Governor’s Award for Outstanding Asian American. In addition to his many professional achievements, his passions included dancing with his life partner of 62 years, Mabel, and playing tennis. NT exhausted his daughter Kay playing two and a half hours of tennis after celebrating his 87th birthday just one month ago. Throughout his life, he took time to compose classical Chinese poems, which his family will compile as the tenth chapter in his life, ‘The Poet’. A memorial service will be announced later. Contributions may be made to Community Funds Inc. for the N.T. and Mabel Wang Charitable Fund, which will continue the mission of the China-International Business Project he established at Columbia University, c/o Community Funds Inc., 2 Park Avenue, NY, NY 10016.

Source: Legacy.com obituaries.

Image Source: Arthur Okun. Yale Memorial Webpage.

Categories
Chicago Economist Market Economists Harvard Radical

Harvard/Chicago. Gottfried Haberler and Milton Friedman on Samuel Bowles, 1970

 

The following exchange between Gottfried Haberler and Milton Friedman is really quite remarkable. It is the second observation by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror of Gottfried Haberler trashing a liberal/radical economist on the q.t. The first instance involved John Kenneth Galbraith in 1948 (though I cannot say that I would personally fault Haberler for his having ranked Paul Samuelson above John Kenneth Galbraith as an economist). It will come as a surprise to some people that Milton Friedman defended the scholarly honor of one of the leading, if not the leading, radical economists in 1970. As we see below Friedman in no uncertain terms let Haberler know that he still considered his earlier support of Samuel Bowles for an untenured appointment at the University of Chicago to have been based solely on the analytical merits displayed by Bowles. 

You do not want to miss the Harvard anecdote relayed by Roy Weintraub that is posted below as a comment!

__________________

PERSONAL

May 14, 1970

Professor Milton Friedman
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois 60637

Dear Milton:

I was told that Chicago has made an offer to Sam Bowles and that you supported it warmly. Frankly, I am somewhat surprised. He has certainly some analytic abilities but in general he is very radical, almost as wild as Arthur MacEwan, and thoroughly demagogic in his interventions in faculty meetings and talks to students. I would really like to know whether it is true that Chicago offered him a job.

Sincerely yours,

Gottfried Haberler

H:w

__________________

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
1126 EAST 59THSTREET
CHICAGO—ILLINOIS 60637

May 19, 1970

Professor Gottfried Haberler
Department of Economics
Harvard University
326 Littauer Center
Cambridge, Masachusetts 02138

Dear Gottfried:

Some years back I had occasion to read some of the work which Bowles had done in connection with our consideration of him at that time. I was very favorably impressed indeed by the intellectual quality of the work and the command that it displayed of analytical economics. At that time I was very much in accord with our decision to make him an offer of a position. He turned us down to stay at Harvard.

I have very vague recollections about what has happened this year. I do not know for certain whether or not we did make an offer to him this year. We may have done so; and if so, I would not have objected since the only consideration I would have considered relevant would have been his intellectual qualities.

I will try to find out more definitely and let you know.

Sincerely yours,
[signed, “Milton”]
Milton Friedman

ah

[Handwritten addition: P.S. I have checked. No offer was made to him this year. We made an offer some years ago at the Ass’t Prof level when he first went to Harvard. We made a later offer a couple of years ago again on a term basis. There is no offer outstanding now.]

Source:  Hoover Institution Archives. Gottfried Haberler Papers. Box 12, Folder “GH—Milton Friedman”.

Image Source: University of Massachusetts Amherst . Police Department, “Board of Trustees fee increase demonstration: Economics professor Samuel Bowles speaking to protesters, April 15, 1976“, University Photograph Collection (RG 110-176). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Categories
Economist Market Gender Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Placement suggestions Philip G. Wright or Anne C. Bezanson for Bryn Mawr, 1916

 

The archival artifact that begins this post is a straight-forward response to a letter requesting possible leads for a junior faculty appointment in statistics at Bryn Mawr. It was written by Harvard assistant professor of economics Edmund Ezra Day (who would later go on to be the president of Cornell University–see link below) to a historian colleague at Bryn Mawr who had likewise done his graduate work at Harvard.

Two persons were identified by Day as eligible candidates, the Radcliffe graduate Anne C. Bezanson (about whom more can be found in an earlier post dedicated to her remarkable career) and a 54 (!) year-old economics graduate student Philip Green Wright. It turns out that Wright (with some collaboration with his son, the statistical geneticist Sewall Wright) is the rightly celebrated discoverer of instrumental-variables estimation. Relevant links to the story of Philip Green Wright and instrumental variables, including those to presentation materials as well as videos from a Tufts University Celebration of the 150th anniversary of Philip Green Wright’s birth,  will be found below after Day’s letter.

There appears no expression of irony when Day writes “…if you are ready to appoint a woman, it will repay you to consider Miss Bezanson carefully”.  Bryn Mawr was after all one of the so-called “Seven Sisters” (the Ivy League of women’s colleges).

________________________

Copy of Reference Letter from E. E. Day (Harvard) to H. L. Gray (Bryn Mawr)
re: Philip Wright and Anne C. Bezanson

March 21, 1916

Dear Howard,

Your recent letter was most welcome despite its obviously professional intent and largely professional content! I am glad to learn that you find life bearable in Bryn Mawr. That will serve as a preliminary report; in time I expected more exciting and promising announcement!

Regarding candidates for the new position in prospect in your department, I find it difficult to write anything at all definite. [John Valentine] Van Sickle is hardly available yet; he is still a couple of years from his degree and will probably not go out until he can take his Ph.D. with him. Furthermore, there is every prospect that, when he is fully prepared, he will command substantially more than the $1200 you mention.

The two students who would seem to be eligible for the position you describe are Philip G. Wright, rather an instructor than a student, and (if you would consider a woman), Miss Annie C. Bezanson. Neither holds the doctor’s degree, but both are very thoroughly capable students. Both are entirely capable of giving the instruction in statistics. Wright is a man well along in years, who for twenty-odd years taught mathematics and economics at Lombard College, Illinois, and, despite that fact, retains his intellectual vitality remarkably. He is perhaps a bit lacking in aggressiveness in classrooms, but is none-the-less an effective instructor. (You would probably have to pay $2000 to get him)

Miss Bezanson is a Radcliffe student whom I have had in both the elementary theory and graduate statistics courses. In the latter, last year, she did “A” work. She comes this year for her “generals “and any recommendation would be conditional upon her passing the examination credibly; but the staff expects her to pass with a large margin. It seems to me that, if you are ready to appoint a woman, it will repay you to consider Miss Bezanson carefully. Prof. [Frank] Taussig will write further details regarding both Wright and Miss Bezanson if you are interested. [Edwin Francis] Gay, too, has seen a good deal of Miss Bezanson’s work.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance to you, Howard. Mrs. Day joins me in warm regards.

Cordially yours,

[copy unsigned, Edmund Ezra Day]

Professor Howard L. Gray

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers 1930-1961 and some earlier. Boxt 26, Williams–Young. Folder “Wright, Philip Green”.

 

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Biographical sketch of Philip Green Wright

“At Lombard, Philip taught economics, mathematics (including calculus), astronomy, fiscal history, writing, literature and physical education; he also ran the college printing press. Philip had a passion for poetry and used the press to publish the first books of poems by a particularly promising student of his, Carl Sandburg….

“…In 1912, Philip and Sewall [Philip’s son, a statistical geneticist] moved to Massachusetts. Philip took a visiting position teaching at Williams College, and Sewall entered graduate school at Harvard. In 1913, Philip took a position at Harvard, first as an assistant to his former advisor, Professor Frank W. Taussig, then as an instructor. Taussig was subsequently appointed head of the U.S. Tariff Commission in Washington, D.C. In 1917, Philip left Harvard for a position at the Commission, then in 1922 took a research job at the Institute of Economics, part of what would shortly become the Brookings Institution….

“…While at Harvard, in addition to his 1915 review of Moore’s book, he wrote a number of articles in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and while at Brookings, he wrote several books and published articles and reviews in the Journal of the American Statistical Association, the Journal of Political Economy and the American Economic Review. Some of his writings used algebra and calculus, typically following graphical expositions. Although Philip wrote on a wide range of topics, the identification problem was a recurrent theme in his work (P. G. Wright, 1915, 1929, 1930). In his later years, Philip was particularly concerned about tariffs, and he wrote passionately about the damage being done by recent tariff increases to international relations (P. G. Wright, 1933).

“…In our view, this evidence points toward Philip as being both the author of Appendix B and the man who first solved the identification problem, first showed the role of “extra factors” in that solution and first derived an explicit formula for the instrumental variable estimator. Yet, as historians of econometrics like Christ (1985) and Morgan (1990) point out, a greater mystery remains: Why was the breakthrough in Appendix B ignored by the econometricians of the day, only to be reinvented two decades later?”

Source: James H. Stock and Francesco Trebbi. “Who Invented Instrumental Variable Regression?” Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol. 17, No. 3 (Summer, 2003), pp. 177-194.

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Three Worthwhile Links

Philip G. Wright, The Tariff on Animal and Vegetable Oils, 1928.

Philip Green Wright’s c.v.

James Stock’s webpage: “The History of IV Regression”.

______________________

Philip Green Wright, Double Jumbo and Inventor of IV Regression
Sesquicentennial of the birth of Philip G. Wright
Tufts University Economics Department, October 3, 2011

Presentations

James Stock’s slides “Philip Green Wright, the Identification Problem in Econometrics, and its Solution“.

Joshua D. Angrist’s slides “Instrumental Variables in Action“.

Kerry Clark’s slides “Philip and Sewall Wright: The Invention of Instrumental Variables Regression“.

“Remembrances” by Philip Green Wright’s Grandchildren.

Video of the event
(Warning: poor audio)

Part 1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INbip-UFluo

Opening remarks by Chairman of the Tufts economics department: Professor Enrico Spolaore
Welcome by the President of Tufts University. Anthony Monaco
James Stock begins at 8:20

Part2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvcfNk7rBn0

James Stock continues up to 9:20
Kerry Clark (AB Economics, Harvard 2012) begins at 10:30 [Ms. Clark’s other Harvard activities: Women’s Varsity Lacrosse, Center for History and Economics, Quincy Grille Manager, and Harvard University Women in Business. According to Linked In, she works at Citi)

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NWWCRaj4_Q

Kerry Clark continues to 5:20
Joshua Angrist begins at 7:30

Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp7g-L69MNU

Joshua Angrist continues for entire part 4

Part 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3BPifHzex4

Brief Q&A
Grandchildren remember from 7:45 to 22.30

Image: Portrait of Philip G. Wright from James Stock presentation

 

Categories
Chicago Economics Programs Economist Market

Chicago. Draft memo of a program to rebuild the department of economics by T.W. Schultz, 1956

 

The following draft memo by T. W. Schultz outlines the serious faculty replacement needs of the University of Chicago department of economics in the mid-1950s. Particularly noteworthy, aside from the impressive list of lost faculty, is the appended table listing the sponsored research/3rd party funders of the economics department at that time. One also sees that the department had been authorized to make offers to Kenneth Arrow, Robert Solow and Arthur F. Burns. So much for the best-laid plans of mice and men. A better historian of economics than I might spin a counterfactual tale of a post-Cowles Chicago with Arrow and Solow on the faculty.

Regarding the ICA Chile Enterprise: Economic Research Center, Schultz wrote “The Chilean enterprise will give us a fine ‘laboratory’ in which to test ourselves in the area of economic development– a major new field in economics.” This reminds me of the old Cold-War Eastern European joke about whether Marx and Engels were scientists (“No, real scientists would have tried their experiments on rats first”). What a “fine ‘laboratory'” for testing oneself!

_________________________

A Program of Rebuilding the Department of Economics
(first draft, private and confidential – T. W. Schultz, May 22, 1956)

Your Department of Economics has been passing through a crisis. Whether it would survive as a first rate department has been seriously in doubt, with one adversity following another as was the case up until last year. It is now clear, however, that we have achieved a turning point in that we can rebuild and attain the objective which is worth striving for – an outstanding faculty in economics.

The crisis came upon us as a consequence of a combination of things: (1) the department, along with others in the University, had been denied access to undergraduate students of the University who might want to become economists; (2) Viner left for Princeton, Lange for Poland, Yntema for Ford and Douglas for the Senate; (3) the Industrial Relations Center drained off some of our talent and when it jammed, Harbison left for Princeton; (4) Mr. Cowles’ arbitrary decision to shift “his” Commission to Yale was a major blow; (5) Nef been transferring his talents to the Committee on Social Thought, and (6) add to all these the retirement of Knight.

Meanwhile, there were several external developments which did not reduce our difficulties: (1) a number of strong (new) economic centers were being established – at Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Vanderbilt, M.I.T. and with public funds at Michigan and Minnesota; (2) our salaries were falling behind seriously relative to some of the other places, and (3) recruiting of established, highly competent economists became all but impossible given the crisis that was upon us and the (then) low repute of the University neighborhood.

The ever present danger of the past few years has been that we would be in the judgment of competent colleagues elsewhere, in the beliefs of oncoming graduate students and in the eyes of the major foundations – not recover our high standing but instead sing to a second or even a third-rate department and in the process lose the (internal) capacity to recruit and rebuild.

We now have achieved a turning point distinctly in our favor.

The major efforts which have contributed most have been as follows:

  1. We have taken full advantage of our unique organization in combining real research with graduate instruction. Our research and instruction workshops are the result. The Rockefeller Foundation gave us three grants along the way – agricultural economics, money and public finance – to test this approach and advanced graduate work. The Ford Foundation has now financed our workshops with $200,000 (eight 5-year grant) (our proposal of January 1956 to The Ford Foundation states the theory and argues the case for this approach on the basis of the experiences we have already accumulated).
  2. We set out aggressively to recruit outstanding younger economists. The workshops were a big aid to us in doing this; so was the financial support of the University. We had the ability to “spot them”. We now have the best group of talented young economists, age 30 and less, to be found anywhere. This achievement is rapidly becoming known to others in keen “competition” is already upon us as a consequence.
  3. We need urgently to run up a lightning rod, a (rotating) professorship with a salary second to none, to attract talent and make it clear we were in business and would pay for the best. The Ford Foundation took favorably to the idea. (Thought so well of it that they will do the same for 3 other privately supported Universities – Columbia, Harvard and Yale!)
    The $500,000 endowment grant from them for a rotating research professorship is our reward.
  4. The foundations have given us a strong vote of confidence: grants and funds received by the Department of Economics during 1955-56 now total $1,220,000. (A statement listing these is attached).
  5. The marked turn for the better in the number and the quality of students applying for scholarships and fellowships is, also, an affirmative indication.
  6. The Economics Research Center is filling a large gap in providing computing, publishing and related research facilities which was formally a function of the Cowles Commission.
  7. The Chilean enterprise will give us a fine “laboratory” in which to test ourselves in the area of economic development – a major new field in economics.

There remains, however, much to be done. We must, above all, not lose the upward momentum which is now working in our favor.

Faculty and University Financial Support

To have and to hold a first rate faculty in economics now requires between $225,000 and $250,000 of University funds a year.

To have a major faculty means offering instruction and doing research in 8 to 10 fields. Up until two years ago we came close to satisfying the standard in our graduate instruction. We then had 11 (and just prior to that, 12) professors on indefinite tenure.

Then, Koopmans and Marschak were off to Yale, Harbison to Princeton and Knight did reach 70. And, then there were 7. On top of these “woes” came the serious illness of Metzler which greatly curtailed his role; and, Nef having virtually left economics. Thus, only 5 were really active in economics with Wallis carrying many other professional burdens. Meanwhile we added only one – Harberger was given tenured this year.

Accordingly at the indefinite tenure level we are down to about one-half of what is required to have a major faculty. Fortunately, several younger men have entered and have been doing work of very high quality.

It should be said that the Deans and the Chancellor have stood by, prepared to help us rebuild.

Major appointments were authorized – Arrow, Stigler, Solow and others. We still are hoping that Arthur F. Burns will come.

The resignations and the retirement, however, did necessarily reduce sharply the amount of financial support from the University.

In rebuilding, at least five additional tenure positions will be required:

  1. Labor economics (from within)
  2. Trade cycle (we hope it will be Arthur F. Burns, already authorized).
  3. Money
  4. Econometrics and mathematical economics.
  5. Business organization
  6. Consumption economics (when Miss Reid retires; next 3 years we shall have the extra strength of Dr. D. Brady with finances from The Rockefeller Foundation)
  7. International trade (pending Metzler’s recovery)
  8. Economic development.

The faculty and the University financial support recommended is as follows:

Tenured positions (for individuals fully committed to economics).

    1. Now in the harness

6: Friedman, Johnson, Harberger, Hamilton (Metzler), Wallis (Nef), Schultz

    1. To be added

5: Burns pending, (labor), (money), and two other fields, most likely econometrics and business organization

 

Budget:

11 [tenured positions]

  

$165,000
Metzler and Nef $15,000
$180,000
III. Supplementary non-tenure faculty $45,000
Altogether $225,000

 

Outside Financial Support for the Department of Economics

Grants

 Amount of grant Available 1956-57

A. Received during 1955-56.
1.     Sears Roebuck Fellowships

$4,000

$4,000
2.     National Science Foundation (2 years)

$13,000

$6,500
3.     Conservation Foundation (2 years)

$33,000

$16,500
4.     Rockefeller Foundation: consumption economics (3 years)

$45,000

$15,000
5.     American Enterprise (2 years)

$17,250

$8,625
6.     Ford Foundation: research and instructional workshops (5 years)

$200,000

$30,000
7.     Earhart Fellowships.

$6,000

$6,000
8.     S.S.R.C. Student Grants

$5,000

$5,000
9.     Ford Foundation: 3 pre-doctoral grants

$10,200

$10,200
10.  Ford Foundation: faculty research grant (Hamilton)

$12,500

$8,000
11.  ICA Chile Enterprise: Economic Research Center Fellowships, research support (3 yrs)

$375,000

$125,000
12.  Ford Foundation: endowment for rotating research professor

$500,000

$25,000
13.  Rockefeller Foundation: Latin America (Ballesteros)

$5,000

$5,000

Sub-totals

$1,225,950

$264,825

B. Received prior to 1955-56 where funds are available for 1956-57.
1.     Rockefeller Foundation: workshop in money (3 years with one year to go)

$50,000

$20,000
2.     Rockefeller Foundation: workshop in public finance (3 years with one year to go)

$50,000

$20,000
3.     Resources for the Future (3 years with one year to go)

$67,000

$27,000
4.     Russian Agriculture (2 years with one to go)

$47,000

$22,000

B sub-totals

 $214,000 $89,000

A and B totals

$1,439,950

$353,825

 

Source:  University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics Records. Box 42, Folder 8.

Image Source: 1944 photo of T.W. Schultz from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-07479, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Cf. Wikimedia Commons, same portrait (dated 1944) from Library of Congress.

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Columbia Economist Market Salaries Teaching

Columbia. Due to exploding graduate economics enrollments, Stigler hired as visiting professor, 1946

 

 

The graduate economics courses at Columbia University were swamped by registrations one year after the end of the Second World War. Over 160 students were registered for the two graduate economic theory courses offered by A.G. Hart and William S. Vickrey. The executive officer of the economics department, Carter Goodrich, requested the central university allow the department to hire a visitor to ease the burden on Hart and Vickrey. That victory won with the visiting appointment for George Stigler (then a professor at Brown), Goodrich next pushed for an increase in the general budget for teaching assistants as well as for hiring Dorothy Fox assist him in his U.S. economic history class.

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

September 30, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal
Acting President, Columbia University
Low Memorial Library

Dear Mr. President:

The extremely heavy enrollment for the graduate work in economics raises serious questions for the future staffing of the Economics Department. I should very much appreciate the opportunity to discuss these with you when the final figures are in, and when we can assess the situation more fully.

Meanwhile, however, there is one question on which emergency action at once seems essential. We advise the great majority of our students to take a general, systematic course in economic theory or economic analysis. We offer this year two such courses: Economics 153-4, given by Prof. A.G. Hart; and Economics 159-60, given by Mr. William S. Vickrey. Prof. Hart and Mr. Vickrey have between them over one hundred and sixty students registered. The work in these courses cannot be given on a mass lecture basis in a way that would meet the standards of any first-rate institution. It would not serve the purpose for which the Department intends it if there were not at least some degree of individual instruction.

I wish, therefore, to request an additional man to take one section of this basic course. I should like authority to approach Prof. Arthur Smithies, who taught Economic Theory at the University of Michigan, but who is at present in the Bureau of the Budget, at Washington. The proposal would be that the class should meet for two hours one day a week. I suggest $2500 for the year as the appropriate compensation. If preferred, $500 of this might properly be described as traveling expenses.

The money is available in the present budget, partly from the salary allotted for the professor of international economics on which only a half-time appointment was made for the present year, and from the money available for the unfilled position on economic history. Both these salaries, I should add, will be needed next year.

I should be most grateful if you would give me a decision on this at once, since the step must be taken immediately if it is to bring effective relief.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich

CG:jg

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

October 14, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal
213 Low Memorial Library.

Dear Mr. President:

This time the report is not wholly negative. Following our conversation of Thursday afternoon, I invited Prof. George J. Stigler, of Brown University, to come to help us in the emergency situation in Economic Theory. Prof. Stigler has agreed to come for the first semester, but is not as yet prepared to commit himself for the entire year. I am therefore enclosing a form for his appointment for the Winter Session on the terms agreed. The salary for the first semester is available from the unused portion of the salary of Professor A.F. Burns.

I hope that we may be able to persuade Prof. Stigler to continue the work throughout the year. If not, there is a possibility that Prof. Smithies may be able to come for the second semester.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich

______________________

[Carbon Copy]

October 18, 1946

Professor Carter Goodrich
Fayerweather

Dear Professor Goodrich

I have your letter of October 14 in regard to the appointment of Stigler as Visiting Professor and will see that the appointment goes through the next meeting of the Trustees.

Maybe I had better point out that there is no money available in Prof. Burns’ position. In addition to his own half pay, the salaries of Vickrey ($2000) and Alexander ($1700) have already charged against that. However, we will make the appointment against the balance remaining in the vacant professorship.

Very truly yours

Frank D. Fackenthal
Acting President

VS

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

October 22, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, Acting President,
213 Low Memorial Library.

Dear Mr. President:

I very much appreciate your action on the Stigler appointment.

The second paragraph of your letter of October 18 puzzled me, since I had never heard of Alexander. We have tracked the matter down and it appears to be an appointment in Contemporary Civilization, chargeable to a budget of Dean Carman’s. It should not be a charge on the Department of Economics.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich
Executive Officer, Department of Economics.

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

October 24, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, Acting President,
213 Low Memorial Library,
Columbia University

Dear Mr. President:

In my letter of September 30th I spoke of the problems raised for the Economics Department by the extremely heavy enrollment in the graduate school. Now that the final enrollment is in, I wish to recommend two further measures, in addition to the emergency adjustment in Theory which you have been good enough to authorize. The total registration in the graduate courses borne on the budget of the Department of Economics for this session is double that for the Spring Session of 1946, which in turn was very much larger than that for the Winter Session of 1945. In 22 courses last spring there were 788 registrations; in 24 courses this session there are 1578. 7 of these courses have enrollments of more than 100 students (Angell, 112; A. R. Burns, 127, 153; Bergson, 142; Goodrich, 141; Nurkse, 130; Wolman, 140.)

To meet this situation I request, first, that the appropriation for Assistance be raised from $1,000-$1,500. Prof. Taylor estimates the needs of the College department, which has in the past used the greater part of the Assistance fund, as $500. Professors Angell, Bergson, A.R. Burns, Nurkse, and Wolman have all asked this year for reading assistance and will certainly need it in these courses.

Second, I request the appointment of Mrs. Dorothy G. Fox as an assistant in Economics to aid in my own course Economic history of the United States, so that a part of the time may be given to discussion in sections of a reasonable size. Mrs. Fox is at present an instructor in Economic principles in University Extension. I propose a salary of $700 for the academic year.

Money for these adjustments may be taken, if necessary, from what remains in the salary allotted to the vacant professorship. I should add, however, that these adjustments are made necessary solely by the extraordinary enrollment and that making them would not in any way diminish the long-run needs of the Department.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich
Executive Officer of the Department of Economics.

______________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York
(New York 27, N.Y.)

Faculty of Political Science

January 15, 1947

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, Acting President,
Columbia University

Dear Mr. President:

I beg to request the appointment of Dr. Moses Abramovitz as Visiting Lecturer in Economics for the Spring Session, at a compensation of $1,000. This is a further adjustment to meet the emergency situation in economic theory. As indicated in my letter of October 14th, 1946, Professor Stigler, of Brown University, agreed to come for the first semester, but was not prepared to commit himself for the entire year. He has informed us, much to our regret, that he cannot continue and I am therefore proposing a substitute. Dr. Abramovitz is one of the very best of the recent Ph.D.’s in this Department and holds a responsible research position with the National Bureau of Economic Research. He taught the same course in this Department during 1940-1941 and 1941-1942.

The total compensation for Professor Stigler, as you recall, was $1,250, of which $250 was counted as traveling expenses. The $1,000 requested for Dr. Abramovitz is available, $500 from the unused portion of the salary of Professor Arthur F. Burns and $500 from the funds for the vacant professorship.

I am enclosing the form for Dr. Abramovitz’ appointment and I very much hope you will be able to make it.

Respectfully yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich
Executive Officer, Department of Economics.

 

Source:  Columbia University Archives. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Central Files 1890-. Box 406, Folder “Goodrich, Carter. 1/1”.

Image Source: Low Memorial Library, Columbia University from the Tichnor Brothers Collection, New York Postcards, at the Boston Public Library, Print Department.

Categories
Berkeley Carnegie Institute of Technology Columbia Economist Market Modigliani Ohio State Salaries

Columbia. Economist salaries below market. Examples of Modigliani and James W. Ford, 1956

 

The following letter provides interesting testimony to Franco Modigliani‘s market value in 1956 as well as how A. G. Hart hoped to offer Modigliani’s other offers together with an offer extended to James William Ford (Harvard economics Ph.D., 1954) by Ohio State University as evidential ammunition in the economics department plea for a significant increase in Columbia University salaries to remain competitive.

_________________

COPY

[Stamp: Office of the Vice President, July 13, 1956, Columbia University]

July 8, 1956

Prof. Carl S. Shoup
Executive Officer
Department of Economics
503 Fayerweather

Dear Professor Shoup:

This is to give further background on the scrap of evidence about the adequacy of Columbia University salary scales that is offered by Franco Modigliani’s comment on our offer of a visiting professorship for next year. As your note points out, the interpretation hinges largely on his professional status.

Against our offer of $10,000 for a one-year visit, as I read Modigliani’s letter with its gentlemanly absence of specific figures, he was offered $12,000 for a year as visiting professor at Harvard and at least $12,500 as permanent professor at Berkeley, and settled for (I take it) $12,000 to stay at Carnegie Tech. His age is 37 or 38, I believe, and he has been professor for two or three years at Carnegie Tech.

Modigliani’s reputation is established, but not very wide. He has published several distinguished articles, and has important work in progress; but his only book publication to date has been a collaboration with Neisser. Furthermore, he has lacked the backing of the major graduate schools (being an immigrant with a doctorate from the New School), and has thus tended to be undervalued by the market. Besides, he suffered a setback because he had the misfortune to be in the thick of the fracas at the University of Illinois. When working conditions there became intolerable, he felt such an unconditional urge to leave that he sacrificed the bargaining power of his tenure there as associate professor. At the time he went to Carnegie Tech, he could not command a tenure appointment but went on a term arrangement which however it took them only a few months to convert to an appointment with tenure.

In short, here is the kind of man we will want when next we have an appointment to make—and undervalued rather than overvalued on the national economics market—and our salary scale is at least $2500 below what he can command at good centers with about our teaching load, and with a lower cost of living. Another interesting comparison has come in meanwhile. James Ford, whom we let go from a Columbia instructorship to be assistant professor at Vanderbilt, writes that he has refused a post at Ohio State as associate professor at $8100. This is for a man of about the caliber and stage of development we think suitable for an assistant professorship at Columbia. We must be a good $1500 below the market at that level, if this is evidence.

Very truly yours,
/s/ Albert Gailord Hart
Professor of Economics

Source:  Columbia University Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Central Files, 1890-, Box 400. Folder “Shoup, Carl Sumner (2/2); 1/1956—6/1948”.

Image Source: Franco Modigliani, from MIT Museum website.

Categories
Columbia Economist Market Economists Harvard

Columbia. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, Clement Lowell Harriss, 1940.

 

In this post we have a nice pair of bookends for the career of Columbia economics Ph.D. (1940) and later Columbia professor, C. Lowell Harriss:  a letter from 1946 recommending his appointment to an assistant professorship and a memorial webpage from the Columbia economics department.

________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York

Faculty of Political Science

November 26, 1946

Dr. Frank D. Fackenthal, Acting President,
213 Low Memorial Library

Dear Mr. President:

On recommendation of the College Committee appointed in accordance with your letter of October 3d and with the approval of the Committee on Instruction of Columbia College, the Department of Economics requests the promotion of C. Lowell Harriss from instructor to assistant professor, effective January 1, 1947.

The Department considers that this promotion would be a well earned recognition of ability and service. The reasons set forth in the enclosed letter from Professor Horace Taylor, chairman of the College Committee, in our judgment amply justify our request that this action be taken at an exceptional time.

Dr. Harriss’ salary as instructor is $3,300 for the year. We recommend that his salary as assistant professor should be at the rate of $3,600. Funds for the additional $2150 required on the 1946-47 budget are available in the unexpended salary of Carl T. Schmidt.

Respectfully yours,
[signed]
Carter Goodrich
Executive officer, Department of Economics

*  *  *  *  *  *

________________

Columbia University
in the City of New York

Faculty of Political Science

November 26, 1946

Professor Carter Goodrich
Fayerweather Hall
Columbia University

Dear Professor Goodrich:

The newly constituted Committee on Economics Instruction in Columbia College held its first meeting on October 28. I have reported separately the formal action taken at this meeting with regard to the nomination of a Departmental Representative.

Its most urgent matter of regular business in the view of the Committee is its unanimous recommendation that Dr. C. Lowell Harriss, instructor in Economics, be promoted to Assistant Professor of Economics. It is the opinion of the Committee that Dr. Harriss has reached a maturity and a competency in this field that cause him to be considerably underranked in his present position. The Committee not only recommends promotion for Dr. Harriss, but strongly urges that the promotion be made immediately and to take effect January 1, 1947. This recommendation is made both because it would provide immediate recognition to a man who, in the Committee’s judgment, thoroughly deserves it, and also because we believe that action of this kind would have distinct morale value, both for Dr. Harriss, and for other members of the College staff who feel as we do about Dr. Harriss as a teacher, a scholar, and a person.

Dr. Harriss is thirty-four years old. He joined this Department as an instructor in economics in 1938. He is a man of such broad intellectual background and training that he has been extraordinarily well qualified for work in the course in Contemporary Civilization, and has made substantial contributions to the planning and teaching of this difficult course. He also has contributed materially to the Departmental work in the College, and one of our plans for the next academic year is that Dr. Harriss will offer an undergraduate course in his speciality [sic], which is Public Finance. During the current year, he is giving a course in this field designed for University Undergraduates. If Dr. Harriss receives the promotion that is recommended, it is planned that he will be a member of the Faculty of Columbia College and also of the Faculty of the new School for General Studies. One of the reasons that we strongly believe that we should, in the interests of the University, increase the number of young men of professorial rank is that the College Faculty will be expected to provide members to the Faculty of the School for General Studies.

Dr. Harriss’s intellectual attainments are extraordinarily high. He received the B.S. degree at Harvard Summa Cum Laudein 1934, having majored in history. My impression is that the degree with highest distinction is awarded to a major student in a particular department only once in several years at Harvard or, at least, it averages out about this way. On graduating from Harvard, Dr. Harriss was awarded the highest scholarship (one for travel in Europe) that is given to a graduate of Harvard College. He then became a Council for Research in the Social Sciences Fellow in economics and pursued graduate studies at both Chicago and Columbia. He was awarded our Ph.D. in 1940. As a graduate student, he won the high opinion of his professors. His dissertation on “Gift Taxation in the United States” was written under the direction of Dr. Haig. This dissertation was of such excellence that it immediately established Dr. Harriss as an authority on this subject. This was pointedly demonstrated when he was made head of the Gift Tax Section in the Division of Research of the United States Treasury Department. He held this post from November 1941, until April, 1943. He then entered the Army and rather rapidly rose to the rank of Captain. His distinction as a student was continued in the fact that he was the first ranking man in his class in Officers Candidate School. During his service in the Army, he was in charge of important work connected with procurement for the Army Air Forces, and was stationed at Air Force Headquarters, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. For his work there, he received the Army Commendation Award. He returned to his work with us at the beginning of the Spring Term.

Last summer Dr. Harriss received a firm offer of an Associate Professorship at Syracuse University at a salary of $4,000. He also received inquiries which appear to anticipate firm offers from both Rice Institute and the University of Indiana. Both of these institutions talked with him in terms of an Associate Professorship at a salary of about $4,000. Dr. Harriss declined to consider the inquiries and turned down the offer made by Syracuse. I believe that I am not exaggerating when I say that there is not a young man in this country of greater competence or promise in the field of public finance than Dr. Harriss, and I believe that Professors Haig and Shoup rate him at about the same level.

During his time with us and the period that he was in the Army, Dr. Harriss has outgrown his academic rank. Our Committee believes that his appointment in the fashion we have recommended will be in the long-run interest of education and scholarship in Columbia College and in the University at large.

Sincerely yours,

[signed]
Horace Taylor

HT:mdl

Source:Columbia University Archives. Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Central Files 1890-, Box 406, Folder “Goodrich, Carter 1/4”.

________________

C. Lowell Harriss (1912-2009)
In Memoriam

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY EDUCATOR, ECONOMIST AND ADVOCATE OF LAND TAX REFORM DIES

C. Lowell Harriss, an economist whose groundbreaking theories on land tax reform led to a widening of public spaces and improved quality of life in domestic and international urban and rural areas, died on December 14, 2009 at his home in Bronxville, N.Y. He was 97.

He died from natural causes.

An author of 16 books on economics and hundreds of articles, Professor Harriss was one of the last living economists to experience the Depression. He was known for his seminal work on taxation of land, property tax, finance reform, land values and planning land use.

He was a professor emeritus of economics at Columbia University, where he taught for 43 years, from 1938 to 1981. He also taught at Stanford University, UC-Berkeley, Yale, Princeton, The Wharton School, the New School for Social Research and Pace University. He earned Fulbright professorships from the Netherlands School of Economics (now Erasmus University), Cambridge University, and the University of Strasbourg, France.

His professional interests beyond education were extensive, including: Executive Director of The Academy of Political Science; President, National Tax Association-Tax Institute of America; Vice President, International Institute of Public Finance; Chairman, Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, Inc.; Trustee, American Institute for Economic Research; Advisory Member, American Enterprise Institute; Academic Advisor, Center for the Study of the Presidency; and Advisor, Thomas Jefferson Research Center. He was a fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and a board member of the American Institute of Economic Research in Cambridge, both institutions that serve as leading resources for policy makers and practitioners including the use, regulation and taxation of land.

He advised state, federal and foreign governments on tax policy including the U.S. Department of Treasury; the City of New York; New York State; the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; the Federal District of Venezuela; the Ministry of Finance, Republic of China; the United Nations; and the Agency of International Development of the U.S. Department of State.

In addition to his academic and professional pursuits and achievements, Professor Harriss was well known for his great respect of the role that humor has in making daily life enjoyable and more civilized. He often said that “a smile costs nothing.” He was known for his frequent compilations of cartoons, which he distributed in his mailings to colleagues and friends. As he said, “they get people’s attention”.

Clement Lowell Harriss was born Aug. 2, 1912, in Fairbury, Nebraska. He attended Harvard College and graduated summa cum laude in 1934. Upon graduation, he received a Sheldon Fellowship which enabled him to travel for 13 months throughout Europe, the Balkans, Turkey and Northern Africa, before arriving in Berlin the day Hitler assumed the presidency. This experience was the beginning of a lifetime of travel that would take him around the world nine times and stimulate his academic and personal curiosity and inquiry.

Professor Harriss met and married Agnes Bennett Murphy in 1936. While pursuing graduate studies at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, he began his teaching career in 1938 at and received his Ph.D. in 1940 from Columbia University.

Professor Harriss served as an officer in the Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1946, working on aircraft and manpower procurement, later on the economic problems of the shift of fighting to the Pacific, and finally, on the problems of economic demobilization and the postwar aircraft industry.

He is the namesake of the C. Lowell Harriss Scholarship at Columbia College, the C. Lowell Harriss Chair of Economics at Columbia University, and the Professor C. Lowell Harriss Scholarship at the School of General Studies at Columbia University. In 1996 he accepted the Nobel Prize in Economics on behalf of long-time Columbia colleague William Vickrey, who had died shortly before the ceremony.

He is survived by his sister, Marion Engelhart, of Gross Pointe, Michigan, his four children, L. Gordon Harriss, of Bronxville, New York; Patricia Harriss, of Bronxville, New York, Martha Harriss, of New York, and Brian Harriss, of Greenwich, Connecticut, five grandchildren, and by his two daughters in law, Elizabeth Harriss, Bronxville, New York, and Lucinda Harriss, Greenwich, Connecticut. His wife died in 1992.

Source:  Columbia University. Department of Economics. Webpage: In Memoriam; C. Lowell Harriss (1912-2009).

 

________________

In Memoriam: from Columbia College Today

C. Lowell Harriss ’40 GSAS, professor emeritus of economics, died on December 14, 2009, at his home in Bronxville, N.Y. He was 97.

Born in Fairbury, Neb., on August 2, 1912, Harriss graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1934. Upon graduation, he received a Sheldon Fellowship, which enabled him to travel for 13 months throughout Europe, including Berlin and the Balkans, as well as Turkey and Northern Africa. This trip was the beginning of a lifetime of travel that would take him around the world nine times.

Harriss served as an officer in the Army Air Corps from 1943–46, working on aircraft and manpower procurement, on the economic problems of the shift of fighting to the Pacific, and finally on the problems of economic demobilization and the postwar aircraft industry. He began teaching at Columbia in 1938 while pursuing a Ph.D. in economics at GSAS and remained at Columbia until retiring from teaching in 1981.

University Trustee Mark E. Kingdon endowed, in 1998, the C. Lowell Harriss Professorship of Economics in honor of “my teacher, mentor and friend.”

“I took Professor Harriss’ public finance course in the late 1960s, when it was not cool to be a conservative, especially at Columbia,” said Kingdon. “I remember Professor Harriss warning us about the extraordinary power of the government: ‘Nothing can be as cruel as the government.’

“During the 1970 student strike, I learned later, a classmate was picketing a building that the professor wanted to enter. ‘You can’t go in,’ my friend declared. ‘Why not?’ Professor Harriss asked. ‘Because then you would be a scab.’ In response, Professor Harriss brushed by and entered the building while declaring, ‘A scab is part of the natural healing process.’

“Teachers in the department on both the left and right loved the man. He was soft-spoken, tolerant, smart, non-dogmatic but firm in his beliefs. His classroom style was brusque, informative and clear. He committed many random acts of kindness, such as writing a complimentary note about me to my father, and helped students with letters of recommendation to his many friends that led to jobs or entry into grad school.

“I watched him age gracefully almost to the very end, vigorous in mind, body and spirit, an inspiration to us all. I miss him very much.”

Harriss also taught at Stanford, UC Berkeley, Yale, Princeton, The Wharton School, the New School for Social Research and Pace. He earned Fulbright professorships from the Netherlands School of Economics (now Erasmus University), Cambridge and the University of Strasbourg, France.

One of the last living economists to have experienced the Depression, Harriss authored 16 books on economics and hundreds of articles. He was known for his seminal work on taxation of land, property tax, finance reform, land values and planning land use.

Harriss also had advised state, federal and foreign governments on tax policy including the Depart- ment of Treasury; the City of New York; New York State; the Common- wealth of Puerto Rico; the Federal District of Venezuela; the Ministry of Finance, Republic of China; the United Nations; and the Agency of International Development of the U.S. Department of State.

Harriss met and married Agnes Bennett Murphy in 1936. She predeceased him in 1992. Harriss is survived by his children, L. Gordon ’68, Patricia, Martha and Brian; five grandchildren; and sister, Marion Engelhart.

Source: In Memoriam. Columbia College Today, March/April 2010.

Image Source:  In Memoriam. Columbia College Today, March/April 2010.

 

 

Categories
Chicago Columbia Economist Market Harvard Michigan Pennsylvania Salaries

Chicago. Instructional Staff Salaries by Rank, 1919

 

The following transcription of a draft copy of a report on the University of Chicago salary scale for instructional staff from ca. 1919 is interesting because it begins with a brief chronology of the salary scale from the founding of the University of Chicago to the time of the report. Since pay raises were being recommended, figures are given for other universities for comparison. The ratio between a Head professor to a beginning assistant professor was 3.5 to 1 during the early years of the University of Chicago. The compression was relatively minor by 1919, with the committee recommending a ratio of 3.33 to 1. For nearly  the first thirty years the top salary for a professor at the University of Chicago was $7000.

Handwritten additions to the draft are indicated by the use of italics in the transcription that follows.

________________

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON SALARY SCALE

The Board of Trustees,
The University of Chicago,

Gentlemen:

The Committee appointed at the May meeting of the Board herewith submits the following report on the scale of salaries in the teaching staff of the University with recommendations for the modifications of the same.

At the time of the organization of the University in the autumn of 1891, the following scale of salaries was informally determined:

Head Professor, $4000, to $5000.
Professor, $3000.
Associate Professor, $2500.
Assistant Professor, for a four year term, $2000.
Instructor, for a three year term, $1200, $1400, $1600.
Associate, for a two year term, $1000, $1100.

            In the minutes of the Board there is no record of this definite scale, which the various actions recorded implied. At the November meeting, 1891, the salary of the Head Professors was fixed at $6000. At the December meeting, 1891, it was increased to $7000. This change in the salary of a Head Professor, was due to obvious circumstances connected with securing suitable men for the new institution. No change was made in the rest of the scale.

In 1894 and thereafter new Head Professors were appointed, but on the original scale of $4000 to $5000. It thus appears, although not specifically recorded in the minutes of the Board, that the $7000 salaries were merely adapted at the organization of the University as a temporary expedient.

In 1907 the salary question was again taken into consideration by the Board. It was plain that the salary of a Professor, $3000, was too low, and that a general reorganization was desirable. At the meeting of the Board in December, 1907, it was tentatively agreed, 1st: that for members of the permanent staff in each of the three grades a maximum and a minimum salary shall be fixed, and that for any individual within those grades the exact salary paid shall depend, not on the time of service, but on the discretion of the Board, and, 2nd: that for members of the Faculty appointed for a term of years, a maximum and a minimum salary shall be fixed, with advances depending on term of service.

At the meeting of the Board in January, 1908, the following salary scale was enacted:

Heads of Departments, maximum [sic] $4000, minimum [sic], $6000.
Professors not Heads of Departments, Minimum, $3000; Maximum, $4500.
Associate Professor, Minimum, $2500; Maximum, $3000.
Assistant Professor, four years, $2000; On reappointment, $2500.
Instructors, three years, $1200, $1400, $1600; On reappointment, $1800.
Associates, two years, $1000 to $1200.

*  * *  *  *  *

            At the meeting of the Board in January, 1911, it was voted that thereafter the administration of Departments should ordinarily be conducted by a chairman, to be appointed by the President, to serve three years, at the end of which term a new Chairman shall be appointed or the same one reappointed.

At the meeting in February, 1908, action was taken ratifying the action of the Trustees of the Baptist Theological Union, of the previous day. Scale of salaries in the Divinity School was enacted as follows:

Heads of Departments, Minimum, $3500; Maximum, $4500.
Professors not Heads of Departments, Minimum, $3000; Maximum, $4000.

            The remaining scale as in the Faculties of Arts, Literature, and Science.

It was also voted that salaries paid or ranks given to members of a Department shall be determined without reference to the method of departmental administration, and that whenever the interest of the University seems to make it desirable, more than one person in the same Department may be given the maximum rank and salary.

Considering conditions relative to the cost of living, it becomes desirable now in all institutions of learning so far as practicable to provide larger salaries. This matter is receiving similar consideration throughout the country. In the University of Michigan the State Legislature made an additional appropriation of $300,000.00 at its last session for the purpose of increasing salaries. The scale was altered for Professors from the former rate of minimum $2500 and maximum $4000, to a minimum of $3200 and a maximum usually of $5000. Several have been advanced to $5500, and a small number to $6000. The increase in the salaries of Professors has reached an average of approximately 25%. Associate Professors have been advanced from a scale of $2100 to $2400, to a scale of $2800 to $3100, the advance in individual cases being about twenty five percent.

Assistant Professors are advanced from a scale of $1500 to $2000, to a scale of $2200 to $2700, the increase being about 30%.

Instructors are advanced from a scale of $900 to $1600, to a scale of $1300 to $2100, an increase of about 30%.

In Yale University the salary of an Associate Professor isadvanced to $3500, being about 30% increase. The salary of Assistant Professors isadvanced to $2500 for three years and $3000 for two additional years, or about 20%. Instructors for four years have salaries ranging from $1250 to $2000, at an increase of 25%. In the Law School the maximum for Professors isadvanced from $7000 to $7500. The present scale for Professors is at a minimum of $4000 and a maximum of $6000. It is intended to increase that in the autumn at a probable rate of about 25% in individual cases. The new maximum is therefore not yet enacted.

In Harvard the present scale of Professors salaries has a minimum of $4000 and a maximum of $5500; Associate Professors at $3500—after five years service—$4000; Assistant Professors, for the first five years, $2500, for the second five years, $3000; Instructors ranging from $1000 to $1500. Harvard is engaged in a plan for raising an $11,000,000 endowment, the greater part of which is to be used for salaries.

Columbia University has not an exact scale. Professors’ salaries range from $4000 to $15,000. There are twenty receiving a salary of $6000, eight a salary of $6500 to $7000. Those whose salaries are above $7000 are mostly in professional schools. There are thirty with a salary of $5000. No immediate change in the salary scale is contemplated.

In the University of Pennsylvania the maximum for a full time professorship is $8000. As a matter of fact there are very few whose salaries are $6000, or more. It is intended to make an increase of 20% for all receiving $4000 or $6000, 10% for all receiving over $6000, and 20% for all receiving less than $4000. This increase is to come into effect in the autumn of 1919.

Under all the circumstances and with the funds available from the present income of the University the committee recommends the following:

PROPOSED NEW SCALE.

            In the Faculties of Arts, Literature and Sciences.

Professor, Minimum, $4000; Maximum, $7000.
Associate Professor, Minimum, $3000; Maximum, $3600.
Assistant Professor, Minimum, $2100; Maximum, $2700.
Instructors, for three years, $1500, $1600, $1700. On reappointment to a maximum of $2000.
Associates, for two years, $1200, $1300.

            In the Faculty of the Divinity School.

Professor, Minimum, $4000; Maximum, $5000.
Other ranks as in Arts, Literature and Science.

            In the Faculty of the Law School.

Professor, Minimum of $6000, increased by $500 at the end of each three years of satisfactory service to a maximum of $8500. For Assistant and Associate Professors no change. These last appointments in the Law School are usually temporary and a considerable flexibility is desirable. It is recommended that for the Faculty of the Law School the new scale take effect fro the fiscal year 1920-1921. It will involve an addition of $5250 to the budget of that year over the present budget of 1919-1920.

Respectfully Submitted
[Signed] M. A. Ryerson
H. G. Grey
H. P. Judson

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President. Harper, Judson and Burton Administrations. Records. Box 76. Folder: 4, “Salaries, 1916-1920”.

 

Image Source: 1894 University of Chicago Convocation. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf3-00416, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

Categories
Economist Market Economists Harvard Pennsylvania Williams

Harvard. Job placements of economics PhDs. Jewish candidates, 1928-29

 

In this post I provide transcriptions of four letters concerning Harvard Ph.D.s on the job market. Two of candidates (Mandell Morton Bober and Richard Vincent Gilbert) were Jewish and this was considered an important characteristic to signal to prospective employers. Nothing from the Harvard side indicates anything other than a willingness to provide information that would be revealed in the process of recruitment anyway. In an earlier post we could read a similar letter by Allyn Young’s on behalf of his protégé Arthur William Marget for a position at the University of Chicago in 1927. In the cases below we again see anti-Jewish prejudice on the demand side of the market for academic economists.

Before getting to the letters (that are also interesting for providing a glimpse into job placement at the time), I provide a bit of information about each of the Harvard alumni discussed.

______________

Harvard Ph.Ds discussed

Beach, Walter Edwards

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1929.
Thesis title: International gold movements in relation to business cycles.
A.B. Stanford University, 1922; A.M. Harvard University.
1929. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Bober, Mandell Morton

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1925.
Thesis title: Karl Marx’s interpretation of history.
S.B. University of Montana, 1918; A.M. Harvard University, 1920.
1925. Instructor in Economics, Boston University.
1926. Instructor in Economics. and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University. Cambridge, Mass.

Gilbert, Richard Vincent

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.
Thesis title: Theory of International Payments.
S.B. Harvard University, 1923; A.M. Harvard University, 1925.

Hohman, Elmo Paul

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1925.
Thesis title: The American whaleman: a study of the conditions of labor in the whaling industry, 1785-1885.
A.B. University of Illinois, 1916; A.M. University of Illinois, 1917; A.M. Harvard University, 1920.
1925. Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University.
1926. Assistant Professor of Economics, Northwestern University. Evanston, Ill.

Patton, Harald Smith

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1926.
Thesis Title: Grain growers’ cooperation in Western Canada.
A.B. University of Toronto, 1912; A.M. Harvard University, 1921.
1926. Associate Professor of Economics, University of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, O.

Remer, Charles Frederick

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1923.
Thesis title: The foreign trade of China.
A.B. University of Minnesota, 1908; A.M. Harvard University, 1917.
1923. Instructor in Economics, and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.
1926. Orrin Sage Professor of Economics, Williams College. Williamstown, Mass.

Roberts, Christopher

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1927.
Thesis title: The History of the Middlesex Canal.
S.B. Haverford College, 1921; A.M. Harvard University 1922.
1927. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Smith, Walter Buckingham

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1928.
Thesis title: Money and prices in the United States from 1802 to 1820.
A.B. Oberlin College, 1917; A. M. Harvard University, 1924.
1928. Assistant Professor Economics, Wellesley College.

Taylor, Overton Hume

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1928.
Thesis title: The idea of a Natural Order in Early Modern Economic Thought.
A.B. University of Colorado 1921.
1928. Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

 

Source: Harvard University. Doctors of Philosophy and Doctors of Science Who have received their Degree in Course from Harvard University, 1873-1926, with the Titles of their Theses. Cambridge: 1926. Also Annual Reports of the President of Harvard College.

______________

Carbon copy
Possible candidates for Charles Frederick Remer successor at Williams College

June 19, 1928.

Dear Professor Taussig:

Professor Burbank has asked me to write to you in answer to your letter of the 13th regarding possibilities for Remer’s position at Williams.

He believes that Bober can be recommended in the highest terms, but that the matter of his race should be mentioned. Gilbert, now at Rochester, is very able and in spite of the fact that he still has to complete his work for the Ph.D., might well be considered. He does not think so very highly of Patton; Hohman at Northwestern is fully as good.

He wonders what you would say regarding Walter Smith. He has some personal qualities that might cause trouble at Williamstown, but he is fully as capable as Remer.

If Professor Bullock has not left for Europe he suggests that he should be consulted since he knows the Williamstown situation very well.

Sincerely yours,

[unsigned, departmental secretary?]

______________

 

Carbon copy
Possible candidates for position at St. Lawrence University

January 28, 1929.

My dear Mr. Cram:

I have your note regarding the position at St. Lawrence University.

Beach probably will not go out next year. He wishes to stay here another year, and if we can make adequate provision for him we will do so.

If St. Lawrence is insistent upon the Ph.D you might recommend in very strong terms Christopher Roberts. If they will take a Jew you can recommend in superlative terms Professor M. M. Bober, now at Lawrence College; and also you might recommend under the above conditions, but perhaps less strongly R. V. Gilbert whom we expect to take the Ph.D this June.

However, before making any recommendations you should have the salary terms, the amount of teaching required, and the subjects to be taught.

Very sincerely,

H.H. Burbank.

HHB:BR

______________

Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Wharton School of Finance and Commerce

May 16, 1929.

Professor H. H. Burbank
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Professor Burbank:

Thanks for your letter of May 8, informing me that Mr. Gilbert is of Jewish extraction. Professor Taussig had already told me that such was the case.

However, this will make no difference to us so long as his personality and bearing are attractive.

I am giving serious consideration to Mr. Gilbert, along with two other men who have been suggested to me from other sources. If Gilbert receives his Ph.D. this year, we may make him an offer, but we cannot consider him if he has not completed his work for the doctorate.

Sincerely yours,

[signed|
Raymond T. Bye
Acting Chairman
Department of Economics

RTB:T

______________

Possible candidate for position at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (cont.)

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia

Wharton School of Finance and Commerce

June 17, 1929.

Professor H. H. Burbank
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Professor Burbank:

I hope that I did not cause you and your colleagues any inconvenience in pressing you and Dr. [O. H.] Taylor for an immediate decision on our offer to him. Things had dragged along here so long that I felt something must be done quickly and I know that I had prepared both Dr. Taylor and you for the possibility of our making him an offer, so that I felt it would not be difficult for you to make arrangements on short notice.

When I met you in Boston I was so well impressed with what you and Professor Vanderblue told me about Dr. Bober that I arranged for him to come here to meet us. We were all favorably impressed and I made every effort to secure his appointment to the position, but the Provost of the University was not willing to recommend a person of the Jewish race, so I had to give him up. It was then that I made the offer to Taylor. I think Dr. Taylor will fit into our problem for next year very nicely, for we need someone primarily to teach graduate courses. I question, however, whether we shall want to keep him permanently because, as I understand it, he is less effective as an undergraduate teacher. That is why I asked you to let him go on a year’s leave of absence. However, it is possible that the men here may like him so much that they will want to keep him permanently if he will stay. That will be for Professor E. M. Patterson to decide. He will be back as chairman of the department next year.

I want to thank you most cordially for your very material assistance in helping me to find a man to fill the vacancy here.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Raymond T. Bye
Acting Chairman
Department of Economics

RTB:T

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Department of Econoics. Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950.Box 14, Folder “Positions for 1929-30”.

Image Source: Left, Senior year picture of R.V. Gilbert and, right, tutor picture of M.M. Bober (1926) in Harvard Class Album, 1923 and 1926, respectively.

Categories
Economist Market Johns Hopkins Statistics

Johns Hopkins. H.B. Adams invites Walter Willcox to enroll as PhD student, 1890

 

The Cornell statistician Walter Willcox received his Ph.D. from Columbia University for his dissertation on the statistics of divorce. What I find interesting in the following two letters from Professor Herbert B. Adams at Johns Hopkins University were the modest formal requirements to be awarded a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins in 1890.

Willcox’s advanced coursework elsewhere would have been given full transfer credit (in today’s terms) so that a single year residence, dissertation, and presumably a final doctoral examination would have been necessary for him to receive the degree.

Also interesting is to read that all the Hopkins’ Ph.D.’s from the Department of History and Politics (included political economy) graduated in June had “good positions before the summer was over”.

______________

Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, Md., December 4, 1890.

My dear Mr. Willcox,

I have your letter of December 2 regarding your possible residence in Baltimore during the remainder of this year. Would it not be a good plan for you to secure our degree of Doctor of Philosophy? You have studied so long and under such good conditions that I should think you might easily obtain our degree by one year’s residence. You would then be in a much better position to obtain a good academic chair. Hopkins men are in constant request, at least in my Department of History and Politics. All of our eight doctors graduated last June obtained good positions before the summer was over. One of our former students who went to Heidelberg and took his degree has now returned to Baltimore and is waiting for a job. Only day before yesterday I was able to put two wandering trustees into communication with this young candidate and I hope the interview will result in his appointment to a professorship of history in a Western college.

You ought to make a combination of history, philosophy, and political science. Our requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy embrace three years of strictly university work. The last of the three must be spent in residence. Perhaps you have already taken a doctor’s degree and I am talking into the air. In any case I think residence here for a few months would very much help your academic prospects.

Very sincerely yours,
[signed]
H. B. Adams

______________

Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, Md., December 13, 1890.

Walter F. Willcox, Esq.,
Walden, Mass.

My dear Mr. Willcox:

I have your letter of December 10, and note what you say regarding your thesis. Probably the best place for original investigation in this line of study is in the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. I presume Col. Wright, the Commissioner of Labor would willingly afford you facilities for your work. I do not know that our library is especially rich in materials on the divorce question. You must apply to the head centre of information on that subject, Mr. Samuel Dike, Secretary of the Divorce Reform League. I presume you know him already.

Our second term begins in February. The cost of living here is about $35 a month. If you are going to take your doctor’s degree at Columbia it would hardly be expedient to enter as a regular student in our department. You had better come as a free lance and spend a good deal of your time in Washington. Enclosed please find a programme of the next meeting of the American Historical Association in the Federal City.

We have a recess at the Hopkins from the 24thof December to the 5thof January. It would be a very good thing for you to come to Washington, if you can afford it and attend the meetings of the Economic Association as well as the Historical and settle down in this part of the country for the rest of the year. I enclose a programme of the Economic Association.

Very cordially yours,
[unsigned]

Source:  U.S. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. The Papers of Walter Willcox, Box 3, Folder: General Correspondence A-C

Image Source:Walter F. Willcox, ca. 1900-1910  . Cornell University Library. Digital Collections.