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Chicago Economists

Chicago. J. Laurence Laughlin thoughts on “Problems of the Young Scholar”. 1916

A quarter of a century is a long-time in dog-years but does not even span a healthy scholar’s productive lifetime. Nonetheless, the University of Chicago (founded in 1890 with classes beginning October 1892) celebrated its Quarter-Centennial with much pomp and proportionate circumstance. The address to the Chicago Ph.D.’s attending the celebration was given by the founding and long-serving head of the Department of Political Economy, J. Laurence Laughlin. He was among the earliest domestically trained American Ph.D.’s. These reflections on the life of a young scholar cover the first forty years of economics Ph.D.’s, Made-in-USA. The address provides unique insight into the formative years of organized graduate education in North American economics and academic career paths.

_______________________________

THE ASSOCIATION OF DOCTORS OF PHILOSOPHY

The Association of Doctors of Philosophy met in the Quadrangle Club at 12:30 P.M. Tuesday, June 6 [1916]. Two hundred and forty-eight doctors were present, and many more sent congratulatory messages. In the absence of President Judson, Dean James Rowland Angell welcomed the guests at luncheon, and expressed the great satisfaction of the University in the large body of doctors who so ably represent it in all parts of the world. In response to an invitation from the Association, Professor J. Laurence Laughlin delivered an address.

 

PROBLEMS OF THE YOUNG SCHOLAR

By J. Laurence Laughlin Professor and Head of the Department of Political Economy

I

Perhaps it will be allowed me to discuss with you for a few minutes some problems of the young scholar in the United States; for the problems of the doctor are practically those of the scholar. In the widest sense they raise the old questions of idealism versus materialism. To vow one’s self to scholarship means renouncing “the world, the flesh, and the devil,” a dedication unto the hopeful, but often disappointing, search for the unknown. On the shining brow of the young scientist there should be the same glow as that which transfigured the face of Sir Galahad when he set out, uplifted in heart and purpose, to search for the Holy Grail.

Whatever the elevation of purpose, however, we must face the matter of preparation. In scholarship, as in war, he who is prepared is favored by the gods. How are scholars made? The only factories are our universities. This inevitably brings us face to face with opinions as to what the university should be. In these days the mobilization of educational resources in any great university involves such questions of administration that executive ability of a high quality is as essential in a faculty as in the departments of a great business house. Men must, therefore, be found in our membership who are not distinguished as scholars; and such men may not even be good teachers. Again, in this country, it goes without saying that the teaching function of the college cannot be wholly separated from the higher activities of the university. Men never can be fitted for research, the highest function of the university, without first passing through the systematic accumulation of knowledge and getting a seasoning of intellectual fiber to be obtained only under good teaching in the secondary school and the college. Teaching is in the main imparting to students the learning of others; but the successful teacher, while engaged in imparting the results of past thinking, may also create a thirst for knowledge and an eventual desire to discover new truth. I doubt if the teaching function ever can be much reduced in the university. It is the condition precedent to final achievement in research; for the inspiration to the possible student investigator usually comes through the medium of highly successful teaching. This opinion of mine may not be in accord with that which decries teaching because it hinders investigation. And yet I fully believe research to be not only the most important, but indeed the highest, function of the university — the brightest jewel in its crown.

It is a question as to what we mean by teaching. In the development of investigators some men, who are not themselves effective producers, are very successful in sending out men who are producers. If by teaching we mean guidance to the nascent investigator, then teaching is directly necessary to research. In the usual lament, that the drudgery of teaching stifles research, reference is undoubtedly had to the heavy work of introductory teaching and the time-consuming reading of students’ papers and reports. Here is one of the serious problems of the young scholar. The fabric of the educational system that leads up to the heights of research and discovery necessarily requires much teaching of a fundamental character. There must be preparation of the student for the final achievements of scholarship. To many a trustee a university should be created for the students, and success is measured by the numbers of students; to many a professor a university should be created for the professors, and success is often measured by the leisure allowed them for study. To others, a university is a place consciously organized so that by constant tests, gradation, and selection a few chosen persons may be evolved competent to carry on the highest tasks of research and discovery. In short, the recipe for stimulating investigation is, first catch your carp; first find the man capable of investigation. To one kind of man a splendid laboratory seems to give him a sense of importance; but the real man of research gives the laboratory importance. Big thinking may go on in a very small room.

II

Perhaps my only qualification for speaking to you today are that I am old enough — or young enough — to bridge with my memory the whole doctoral history in this country. It seems to be well established that I was part and parcel of the first seminar work in our universities, and among the first Ph.D.’s. Before Johns Hopkins University was established in 1876, three of us — of whom one was the present Senator Lodge of Massachusetts — had been engaged in research under Henry Adams, the historian, and we were made doctors at Harvard in 1876. The light literature which resulted from our investigations was contained in a volume of “Anglo-Saxon Law.”

With you have I trod the typical path of all doctors, who had to begin with a salary less than a policeman’s. I wonder how many of us feel like describing that wearisome path from five hundred dollars a year to an assistant professorship, in these words of Milton :

Long is the way

And hard, that out of hell leads up to light.

A president who was able to raise the salaries of learned young doctors was a very Jehovah on a golden throne, whose locks glowed like a thousand searchlights — before whom we stood, wistful acolytes of learning, with the dust of libraries on our brows.

Certainly one thing came prominently forth from my doctoral training. Never afterward could I balk at work because it was hard. The lesson of persistence in getting materials at no matter what cost of time or labor was learned, never to be forgotten. In a study of the origins of English law and institutions I was never supposed to whimper at re-reading the whole body of Anglo-Saxon laws six times in search for procedural methods from feud to jury, or to pore over twenty-five thousand pages of capitularies in mediaeval Latin. Never since has any task seemed impossible.

We young doctors must have been interesting to onlookers. We supposed that the whole world was watching us. We were distinguished in most cases by a big pipe in our mouths, a large sense of condescension to the non-doctoral universe, and by the air of great candor, which obliged us, solely in the interests of truth, to indicate that we were in the line of direct descent from Minerva. We might well have been admonished to “Tarry at Jericho until our beards are grown.”

There was the sort fresh from German kneipen, greatly respected,

For he by geometric scale
Could take the size of pots of ale.

But how many of us, having gone forth with the morning dew on our shining armor, have come back after long days with the cup? What a lot of rusty, dinted old harness is scattered along the doctoral highway!

If many of us have fallen short of our early promise, it is probably due to a loss of our inspiring vision. There are two possible reasons for such failures: First, in our egotism we thought we were investigators, when really we were not. For the advance of research there is nothing so deadly as conceit, and nothing so productive as humility. Learning is an essential to a teacher whose function it is to impart knowledge; but, as we all agree, education is not information. To collect the learning of others may impress the ignorant; but it is not research. To succeed in research one must have extended the boundaries of human knowledge, discovered a new principle, conquered the unknown. Sometimes the investigator comes with awe into the presence of a new truth. One day a young man came out of his laboratory, a new and strange expression on his face, and said, “Today I have just seen something that no man has ever seen before.” Columbus on the deck of his ship, when the dim coast line of America rose over the sea, could not have had a nobler thrill of discovery. Indeed, the uncharted seas of science today offer as many prizes of discovery as ever before in history.

It is a well-recognized fact that many persons seek and often obtain the doctorate merely for the purpose of increasing their revenue as teachers. These never had the vision, and never will be discoverers of truth. Our real interest is in the picked few. It remains true in research, as in the church, that “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

III

Failures, however, are more often ascribable, in the second place, to what may be called economic reasons. Before he has fairly mounted, on his journey the young doctor has added unto himself the burdens of a family. If never before, he must now exert himself to the utmost to be a bread-winner. Then comes the situation which has become so familiar to us all — and, I suppose, to every university president. The would-be scholar finds himself of necessity taking on routine teaching as a means of income; while the less gifted soon give up the hope of research, and the gifted few chafe against the bars of repressive drudgery, constantly hoping to find out a way of research while still earning a living. In short, even with the flower of young scholars the problem is to earn a living and yet to cling to the ideals of research. It must be frankly admitted that, if he has had obligations thrust upon him, it is his first duty to earn a living. That duty every man must face. But not infrequently a young idealist, full of his vision, feels that the world owes him a living, in spite of the burdens he himself has voluntarily assumed, in order that he may be free to hunt in the unknown fields of knowledge. Bitterly— but quite naturally— he is inclined to assail his university as unappreciative of the investigator; and his heart grows heavy.

It will not, I hope, be regarded as brutal to say plainly that if the will to produce is in us no power in heaven or earth can keep it down. No drudgery of teaching kept Moody from expressing himself; nor Ricketts from penetrating to the secrets of disease. And as to Shorey, no drudgery of teaching could prevent him, on receipt of a telegram, from packing his valise and in twenty-four hours beginning a course of twelve lectures in Boston on the “Efflorescence of the Diastole in the Poems of Pausanias.” If the divine fire burns within us, it must come forth somewhere, somehow. When a young scholar says life is too distracting, too noisy, for the serious work of production, he is publishing his own inadequacy. Was it not Chesterton who said, in reference to this matter when men complained of an unsympathetic environment, that Bacon and Shakespeare turned out their products as naturally and easily as we perspire? If a young scholar feels the inner surge to produce, let him somehow give a sample product by which he may be rated. It has been said of Jacques Loeb that if he were cast away on a coral reef with only a shoestring and a collar button he would probably soon be producing sea urchins, or frogs, by parthenogenesis.

IV

There is, to be sure, another and economic side to this matter. The price of a scholar is not difficult to explain. If scholars of the productive type are scarce, they “come high”; they occupy a monopoly position as truly as the successful captain of industry. Moreover, the statement of a new truth is often the heresy of today. The scholar who penetrates into the unknown must be content to be lonely; not infrequently he is obliged to go without a publisher. To be unappreciated, if not to be unpopular, is the part of the scholar who finds himself in antagonism to some illogical, but accepted, opinion of the day. Hence it may be said that

Learning hath gained most by those books by which the printers have lost.

Not only are men of research scarce, but their value to the university is infinite. The productive scholar is the one every university is seeking. At the time when President Jordan was gathering his faculty at Stanford, he wrote me on hearing of my coming to Chicago: “If a few more universities are established the position of a professor will soon become respectable, even in the eyes of the richest trustees.” But, if scholars are in such demand, why is there any complaint as to their economic conditions?

The truth is that a would-be teacher — like a horse — is not always what he seems. To invest in a professor is as much a gamble as to buy a horse. After being permanently corralled he is apt to lose speed, and to develop unexpected peculiarities. A university should be as experienced as a Kentucky breeder in picking promising colts. When a scholar has arrived, it is easy enough for an institution to know that he is a desirable man to have. We come to see, then, that a young scholar cannot expect to be discovered until he has somehow indicated his quality; but that, on the other hand, a very great responsibility rests upon the university to be keen in recognizing the productive quality early in life, to nourish and feed it, and be proud to give it that environment which will encourage production and thereby greatly honor the university. For, after all, the institution that is putting forth new growth of research at the top is the only institution that is really alive. If it is content to teach merely the accumulated learning and results of others, and itself to put out no new growth, it is really moribund.

Therefore, if productive scholars are not easy to find, and yet are absolutely essential to a live university, I may be permitted to suggest some practical means for mending the ills we now endure. Many men of promise have been crushed by untoward conditions of poverty. There are some trees that rise splendidly to heaven because they are planted in good soil and are favored by sun and rain; others of the same species are stunted and gnarled by an evil environment. So it is with scholars — most sensitive of all plants to kindly influence. What can be done by the university to find the stock true to species and give it its full growth?

Without doubt endowment funds should be set aside for the purpose of freeing men capable of research from the drudgery of elementary teaching. But — keeping in mind the frailties of human nature — these funds should be transferred from one man to another, and not given permanently to one. If a promising investigator were disclosed, such a man could be encouraged; if the promise failed of fulfilment, the man was not the one to be encouraged. Thus could be devised a practical means of discovering which of the many aspirants for research were fit for further trial. By some such method as this, without doubt, the university could gradually build up a corps of effective producers. Then, certainly, if the producer is found, the duty — and the ambition — of the university is clear. An investment in productive men is the highest possible use of the university’s funds. The creation of a permanent fund to be devoted to the encouragement of research, gradually accumulated or enlarged by gift, is the one clear sign by which an enlightened and progressive university may be known. To such an institution will come the pick of ambitious graduate students from everywhere. Doubly rich in investigators and in students of ability who are worthy of attention, then indeed will science grow from more to more in that place of learning.

V

In these past twenty-five years much has been done; more remains to be done. In many directions encouragement has been given to research; but while emphasis has been put upon good teaching — and teaching should aim to develop, not only the mind, but also character and good form — would we not make even more progress in the future if greater emphasis were placed on the methods of trying out promising producers and making possible to the gifted few the highest university distinctions?

We are turning out increasing numbers of mediocre doctors. They are too often given a degree for the careful collection of the learning of others. Very soon the degree of Ph.D. will have — as it may already have — gained the connotation of the routine A.M. degree. Some means should be found for separating collectors of learning from the productive investigators.

To some of us who have nearly reached the end of an academic career there is much of inspiration and cheer on an occasion like this. About to leave the stage and turn our faces to the sunset, we pause here a moment to look back to the sunrise; and out of the morning is seen the long line of young scholars sweeping on to the present hour, aflame to take up the tasks of scholarship we are leaving, and to carry forward the work of research far beyond our own expectation. Iturus salutat.

 

Source: The Quarter-Centennial Celebration of the University of Chicago, June 2 to 6. A record by David Allan Robertson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1918, pp. 161-168.

Image Source: Cap and Gown, 1906.

Categories
Courses Economists Harvard Uncategorized

Harvard. Economics Dept. votes down course on Russian Revolution, 1919

An undergraduate student approached Frank W. Taussig to gain the latter’s support for a semester course in the second term of 1919-20 on “various phases” of the Russian Revolution before the latter left for the U. S. Tariff Commission in Washington, D.C. It appears that Taussig’s initial response was at least mildly encouraging and much activity to organize the course followed as reported in the undergraduate’s letter. The undergraduate went on to have a distinguished career as an economic historian and established the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago in 1941 that today bears his name, the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought.

In Taussig’s absence the Harvard economics department voted not to participate in such a course.

_________________________________

 

[Taussig to Day forwarding Nef letter]

United States Tariff Commission
Washington

December 6, 1919.

Dear Ezra:

The enclosed letter in the main explains itself. I’m willing to assume the responsibility provided that the department approves of the general scheme and of my participation in it. Bring this before the members individually or at a meeting; and I suggest that then you communicate direct with Neff [sic].

My first impression is that we secure for the lectures: (1) Foerster [Robert Franz, Ph.D. 1909] or Meriam [Richard Stockton, Ph.D. 1921], (2) Ohsol [Johann Gottfried, Ph.D. 1914]. I suggest that one of the first two give introductory lectures on Marx, Marxism, the International and post Marxian socialist developments. Then let Ohsol take up the development of thought in Russia and say something about the doctrinal position and the communistic scheme. I believe Ohsol would do the thing with full information and in a temperate spirit. By way of ascertaining possibilities, I shall find out whether Ohsol is still with the Federal Trade Commission and whether he is likely to remain in reach through next spring.

As between Foerster and Meriam, I am inclined, on the whole, to let Meriam have a try. Foerster has plenty of other work to do and Meriam’s recent residence abroad has probably put him in touch with the Continental situation.

[…]

Always sincerely yours,

[signed] F. W. T Taussig

Prof. E. E. Day,
Department of Economics,
Cambridge, Mass

_________________________________

[Nef’s Letter to Taussig: requests course on Russian Revolution]

19 Holworthy Hall,
Cambridge, Mass.
December 4, 1919.

Prof. F. W. Taussig,
c/o U. S. Tariff Commission,
Washington, D. C.

My dear Professor Taussig:

The Friday before you left for Washington, you will remember I consulted you as to the possibilities of offering a course on various phases of the Russian Revolution, during the second semester of the present academic year. Since that time considerable progress has been made. Prof. A. C. Coolidge is enthusiastic over the plan which he believes will work in well with the collection of all available documents and data on the Revolution for the Library. For this part of the work, he proposes, provided the funds can be raised and the demands warrant it, to employ a secretary who will have full charge of collecting the materials. He further plans to set aside a room in Widener Library, which will contain the most important books and documents to be consulted by students taking the course.

Professor Lord has expressed his willingness to take charge of the first part of the course, which would deal with the background of the problem and the narrative history up to the beginning of the Bolshevik regime. The second and third part would deal with the economic and political theories involved, and with the actual workings of the Soviet form of government so far as they can be ascertained. Fifield Workum and I went today to see Professor Ferguson, who thought the scheme feasible and proposes to bring it up before the history department for approval at a meeting on Friday, December 12th. First, however, he wishes to know whether you will be willing to take charge of the second part of the course. This would not mean that you would actually deliver the lectures, although we all hope very much you will be able to give some of them, but simply, as I understand it, that you will see that this part of the course is given.

The third part, Professor Coolidge proposes to arrange with Professor Ferguson. After hearing from you, Professor Ferguson will bring the plan before the history department.

We feel that undergraduate interest in the course justifies its being offered. Professor Ferguson thought it might be given at 2.30 o’clock on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the second term. This would enable a number of men who are now taking History A to take it. All the undergraduates to whom I have mentioned the possibility have immediately expressed a desire to enroll. Professors Ferguson and Coolidge feel that it will make the course both possible and successful if you could stand behind the second part of it.

Very sincerely yours,

[John U. Nef]

_________________________________

[Day’s Reply to Taussig: Time not yet ripe]

December 12, 1919

Dear Mr. Taussig:

At a meeting of the Department yesterday afternoon I brought up for discussion your letter presenting the proposal of J. U. Nef and other undergraduates for a course the second half-year on various phases of the Russian Revolution. The matter was discussed at length, with the result that a number of different grounds for opposing the plan were brought up. I need not go over these at length, as you can readily imagine most of them. Professor Ripley’s objection lay altogether against the method in which the course was to be administered; Bullock’s against the proposed subject matter of the course. The outcome was a unanimous vote that in the opinion of the members of the Department it is inexpedient for the Department to participate in the offering of the proposed course. If you wish further details regarding the opinions expressed, I shall be glad to send them to you. I may add that I should have voted with the other members had I been called upon to do so, as it does not seem to me that the time is yet ripe for academic instruction on the subject of the revolution.

[…]

Sincerely yours,

[Day]

Prof. F. W. Taussig

_________________________________

[Taussig’s Reply to Department Decision: Should have met students half way]

United States Tariff Commission
Washington

December 15, 1919.

Dear Ezra:

I have yours of December 12th. I confess it is a matter of surprise that the Department should have voted as it did. My own strong inclination was to meet the under graduates half way, and to have joined in giving a course, not “on the Revolution,” but upon Russian history and Russian conditions, as leading up to the Revolution. I am sorry not to have been on hand.

[…]

  Very sincerely yours,

  (signed) F. W. Taussig

Professor E. E. Day,
Department of Economics,
Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

_________________________________

Source: Harvard University Archives. UAV.349.10 Department of Economics, Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950, Box 23.   Folder: “Course Offerings 1913-1925”.

Image SourceHarvard Album, 1920.

Categories
Economists Harvard Transcript

Harvard. Graduate Course Record. Thomas Schelling, 1946-49

Included in the materials from the 1949-50 hiring search for someone to teach in Columbia College was a mimeographed fact-sheet/transcript for 28 year old Thomas Schelling together with a departmental statement provided by the Chairman of the Harvard Department of Economics, Harold Burbank. I think we can be pretty sure that both items were attached to a letter Burbank sent to Angell dated December 14, 1949 in which Tobin and Schelling were discussed with supporting data (cf. Appendix C in the Hiring Committee’s Report of January 9, 1950 that clearly provides information on Tobin from the same letter).

Interesting to note perhaps is (i) the future Nobel laureate did not get short-listed by the search committee and (ii) “his interest is mainly in the national income, fiscal policy approach” might have been a contemporary euphemism or dog-whistle for “Keynesian economist”.

In any event, I am delighted whenever I find the complete graduate course records of Ph.D.’s. I have filled in the names of the instructors for the respective courses based on the Harvard President’s Reports.

____________________

Thomas Crombie Schelling

Address: Program Division, ECA-OSR [Economic Cooperation Administration, Office of the Special Representative (Administration of the Marshall Plan)], 2 Rue Saint Florentin, Paris, France

Born: April 14, 1921, U.S.

Married: Yes

Degrees:

A.B., 1944, University of California (Highest honors)

A.M., 1948, Harvard University

Experience:

1941-43         American Embassy, Santiago, Chile

1945-46         U. S. Bureau of Budget, Fiscal Division

1946-48         Teaching Fellow, Harvard

1948               Elected to Society of Fellows, resigned September, 1949

1948-              ECA, Copenhagen Paris

 

Courses:

Summer 1946

Ec. 201 (Reading)                 Satis.

Fall 1946-47

Ec. 103a (Adv. theory [Schumpeter])         A+

Ec. 104b (Math. Ec. [Leontief])                    A+

Ec. 148a (Int. Tr. Sem. [sic, 148a was Fiscal Policy Seminar with Williams and Hansen])        A-

Spring 1946-47

Ec. 103b (Adv. Theory [Schumpeter]))      A+

Ec. 121b (Statistics [Frickey]))                     A-

Ec 148b (Int. Tr. Sem. [sic, 148a was Fiscal Policy Seminar with Williams and Hansen]))       A-

Summer 1947

Ec. 201 (Reading)     Satis.

Fall 1947-48

Ec. 102a (Adv. Theory [Leontief])   A+

Ec. 133a (History [Usher])               A-

Ec. 161a (Ind. Org. [Alexander and Crum])           A+

Spring 1947-48

Ec. 102b (Adv. Theory [Leontief])   Exc.

Ec. 133b (Ec. History[Usher])          A

Ec. 162b (Ind. Org. [Mason])           Exc.

Fields of study: Economic Theory, Industrial Organization, Money and Banking, Statistics, write-off, Economic History; special field, Business Cycles

Generals: Passed April 7, 1948 with a grade of Excellent Minus

____________________

[Supporting Statement
by Chairman of the Harvard Economics Department,
14 Dec. 1949(?)]

Schelling came to us immediately after the war with a quite extraordinary record in his undergraduate work at Berkeley and an outstanding war accomplishment in the Bureau of the Budget. His intellectual work with us was of the highest order, so high indeed that he was recommended for the Society of Fellows and accepted by them. However, Schelling saw fit to accept a position with the E.C.A. and at the end of the first year elected to stay with that organization even at the expense of resigning his fellowship. I have not heard from him directly but I understand that he intends to take his degree this spring and will be available.

The members of the staff most familiar with Schelling’s work—Hansen, Harris, and Smithies—regard him as one of the very top students we have had at least in the last ten years. I believe those mentioned will recommend him without qualification. It is true that his interest is mainly in the national income, fiscal policy approach, which I believe is one of the areas in which you are least interested, but he certainly is capable of working in theory and perhaps in other areas as well.

Very sincerely,

[signed]

H. H. Burbank

 

Professor James W. Angell
Columbia University
New York 27, New York

____________________

Source: Department of Economics Collection, Columbia University Archive. Box 6, Folder: “Columbia College”.

Image Source: Harvard Kennedy School Magazine, Summer 2012.

Categories
Economists Pennsylvania

Philadelphia. Summer Meeting of Economists. University Extension, 1894

We have here I think the first major extracurricular Summer Workshop in Economics for university graduates, post-docs and teachers of social studies and college instructors. Perhaps a dream-team of 1894 American economists (note the absence of Ely of Wisconsin, Taussig of Harvard and Laughlin of Chicago, though I don’t know if they might have been approached). The overview of Economic Science in America is really very interesting, both for ringing the exceptionalism bell and the light it casts on German graduate training in economics. The (approximate) ages of the lecturers in the Summer Meeting of Economists: Andrews (50), Clark (47), Giddings (39), Hadley (38), Jenks (38), Mayo-Smith (40), Patten(42), and Seligman (33).

Here the Announcement of the Summer Meeting of Economists by section:

Corps of Lecturers
Economic Science in America
To Graduates of Colleges
A Word to Students and Teachers of History
Statement of Courses
Program of Lectures
Preparatory Reading
More about University Extension

 

_________________________

Summer Meeting of Economists

IN CONNECTION WITH
The Second Session of the University Extension Summer Meeting,
JULY 2-28, 1894.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA.

 

CORPS OF LECTURERS:

E. B. ANDREWS, Brown University; J. B. CLARK, Amherst College; F. H. GIDDINGS, Bryn Mawr College; A. T. HADLEY, Yale University; J. W. JENKS, Cornell University; R. MAYO-SMITH, Columbia College; S. N. PATTEN, University of Pennsylvania; E. R. A. SELIGMAN, Columbia College.

The Summer Meeting of Economists is held for the purpose of giving expression to present American Economic thought. The instructors are all identified with the recent remarkable expansion of Economic science and they have made important additions to its literature. The lectures which they will deliver in the Summer Meeting are intended primarily for students and teachers of economics, rather than for the diffusion of elementary knowledge.

The lectures will occupy about three hours daily for the four weeks. After each lecture an opportunity will be given for general discussion of the subject presented in the lecture. Besides the lectures and discussions, arrangement has been made for informal talks from several of the regular lecturers of the corps on methods of teaching. The program will be of interest to teachers of History, Political Science and similar subjects and to University students looking forward to any profession in which will be found useful a knowledge of economic science, and of the relations between economics and sociology on the one hand and economics and politics on the other.

Statement of the courses offered in the Economics Department of the Summer Meeting, program of lectures, and other information relating to the meeting, are contained in this number of the Bulletin. We present our readers also with a supplement with portraits of the lecturers in the Economics Department. An early number of the Bulletin, containing full announcement of other Summer Meeting Departments, will be sent on application.

Inaugural Lecture of Summer Meeting, Saturday evening, June 30, by Richard Watson Gilder, editor of the Century Magazine. Admission free by ticket.

Registration for Department of Economics, Ten Dollars.

Inclusive Ticket admitting to all Departments of Summer Meeting, Fifteen Dollars.

Instruction in other departments in Literature, Science, Architecture, Music, History, Mathematics, and Pedagogy.

For information concerning the Department of Economics or other Departments, address:
EDWARD T. DEVINE, Director, Fifteenth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia.

Back to top

_________________________

 

Economic Science in America.

The eight economists who constitute the corps of instructors in the Summer Meeting are representative of various phases of the new economics which, since the seventies, has swept like a wave over Europe and America. Until the appearance of General Walker’s “The Wages Question,” in 1876, there had been in the economic thought of the United States, two distinct and antagonistic schools. The orthodox English system had its chief interpretation in a translation of the Political Economy of J. B. Say, though there were American editions of the “Wealth of Nations” in its author’s lifetime, and the works of Ricardo, Malthus and McCulloch were familiar to students. After 1848, Mill’s Political Economy to some extent supplanted that of Say as the standard textbook. The native American economics dates not from Rae, who is properly of the English school, though he was a protectionist, and though by accident his book was published in Boston instead of in Scotland, nor from List, whose National System although contained in brief outline in a series of letters written in 1827 at Reading, Pa., had little or no influence on any American writers until it came through the medium of a French translation from the German work, but from Henry C. Carey, the Philadelphia economist, whose first book appeared in 1835.

The orthodox Political Economy, strongest in the New England colleges and in the South, stood for hard money and free trade. The Economics of Carey stood for protection and expansion of the currency. The former was in harmony with the naturally conservative temper of the English race, embodied, perhaps, more fully in Americans than in the English themselves, the latter was an expression of the spirit of enterprise which was called forth in the American people, or better, perhaps, forced upon them by their economic conditions. This first school of American thinkers was fortunate in thus being identified with what came to be known as the characteristic American spirit; it was unfortunate in its lack of conservatism on the question of money, and the resumption of specie payments in 1879, must be looked upon as a final victory for its opponents on the subject in which, if there is to be prosperity and progress, conservatism is essential.

Both these tendencies, that toward conservatism and that toward industrial enterprise, were characteristically American, but the one found its most natural expression in the English economics, the other in Carey’s system. Both schools influenced political thought. Daniel Webster in the Senate, would not have delivered his phillipic against “Political Economy” if that which he attacked had not had an active influence. Carey would not have found his German, French and Italian disciples if his system had been without scientific basis, and had been calculated like the essays of Mathew Carey, merely to exercise a temporary political influence. No doubt Carey cared much more about converting voters to his own views than he did about accomplishing a revolution in the science, yet he professed and, perhaps, came nearer than his critics have cared to admit in realizing both aims.

Such was the general condition of economic science in America when, in 1876, General Walker published his “Wages Question.” This book and the “Political Economy” of 1883, mark a new epoch. General Walker would doubtless prefer to be classed, if a classification is necessary, with the orthodox school of economists. He does not break with its earlier representatives on what they would have regarded as fundamental questions. His book naturally displaced Mill as the ordinary text at Oxford and Cambridge. Even in the discussion of distribution where Walker proposes his most radical departures, he starts with the Ricardian doctrine of rent, and declares, explicitly, that on this question he is a “Ricardian of Ricardians.” Nevertheless the appearance of these books in America mark the close of a long and, with the exceptions that have been noted, an almost barren epoch. Several textbooks, a few of them excellent for their purpose, had been prepared by American writers, but whatever originality they contained appeared chiefly in the omission, from the reproduction of the orthodox system, of particular dogmas which were felt to be inconsistent with the industrial conditions with which the writers were familiar.* Unlike his predecessors General Walker did not merely omit, he examined and analyzed those conditions, and when he was compelled to form new conclusions he neither attacked the old system entire, because of its errors, nor made the mistake of regarding his discoveries as slight modifications of detail. It has become clear that the changes were important though they were not revolutionary.

[footnote: *One exception to this statement must be made in favor of the clear and vigorous writings of Professor A. L. Perry, who did much to keep alive an interest in Political Economy in its languishing days and whose text-books have perhaps had more readers than those of any other American writer.]

In view of the introduction of a marked German influence almost immediately after Walker’s views became known, it is fair to regard the Political Economy of 1883 as the culmination of the influence of the “English economics” as it was also the most important contribution to economic science by the writers of that school since the appearance of the Political Economy of John Stuart Mill. If Walker belongs to the English school it must not be forgotten that his system is that of the English school remoulded by a man who understood and felt the full significance of American industrial conditions, and who was entirely free from any notion that Political Economy is a science comprising only a few ready-made principles and laws which are capable of statement in formal propositions.

Soon after the close of the Civil War, there was noticed a new interest in the scientific study of monetary and industrial, financial and economic problems. The pen of David A. Wells is to be credited in very large part with the creation of this new interest and with the diversion of public attention from the purely political to the economic aspects of the issues then in the public mind. His treatment of the probable issue of the war itself is typical of the character of his discussions. Far in advance of general public opinion, Mr. Wells discerned that the North would win because of its greater economic resources. This insistence on a controlling economic element in questions of public policy is always needed, but never more than in this period when political passions had dominated the country so completely and when a depreciated currency, a large national debt, and when a devastated South called for careful attention to sound policy in recuperative measures and in the new industrial activity which peace was to inaugurate. The reputation of the author of “Recent Economic Changes,” does not rest entirely upon the pamphlets which he issued at this time; but if we are to estimate rightly the causes of the intense interest in economics during the past twenty years we must not ignore their influence both on public opinion in general and particularly upon the young men who were interested in the great problems of the day, but were dissatisfied with the conventional political arguments.

And now began a new influence in American economics. The universities were unable to meet the demand for competent guidance in these studies and students began to seek such instruction abroad. The greater hospitality of the German universities, the unrivaled reputation of the founders of the German historical school of economics, and a feeling that more would be gained by foreign residence in a country whose institutions differ radically from our own were among the causes that combined to attract the American students almost exclusively to the German universities. Within a few years the American colleges began to give evidence of the new movement in the expansion of the curricula, the founding of new chairs, and the increase of students.

The English influence had been communicated by the importation and the republication of books. The German influence came through personal channels. This difference in the method of communication accounts in part for the astonishing differences in results. In the case of the English economics there were at hand standards of orthodoxy, a “system” in crystallized form. In the college classes there was produced a ready conviction of the correctness of certain principles and dogmas. In the case of the German influence such standards were lacking. Each new doctor of philosophy brought back the ideas of his instructors and associates in the foreign universities not in a formulated exact system, but in the form in which they had been impressed upon himself. He brought not so much a system of economics as an enthusiasm for independent research. The result is that no “system” has been transplanted by the newer economics, but only tendencies and a quickening impulse to activity in every branch of economic investigation, and already the impulse is seen to be of more importance than the particular tendencies.

When the American Economic Association was formed in 1885, as a tangible evidence of the new birth, a platform was adopted committing the association though not the individual members to favor increased industrial activity in the State, increased emphasis on the ethical element in economics, and increased attention to the historical method as distinguished from the deductive method which some of the leaders of the new organization believed to have been responsible for the decay of interest in economic science. But this platform was found to be too narrow, and in a few years it was discarded for a simple statement that any one might be chosen a member who is interested in the study of economics. General Walker was elected the first president of the association and continued in that office until 1892. Dr. Richard T. Ely, who served as secretary until the same year, labored indefatigablv in the interests of the association, building up its membership and also for a time editing its publications. In 1893 Professor Charles F. Dunbar, of Harvard, became president, and Professor Edward A. Ross, then of Cornell, secretary, and for the present year Professor John B. Clark, of Amherst, is president, and Professor J. W. Jenks, of CornelI, the secretary of the association. Professor F. H. Giddings succeeded Dr. Ely as chairman of the publication committee, a position which is held at present by Professor H. H. Powers, of Smith College.

The seven annual meetings of the American Economic Association have served as milestones of a rapid development of the science. Its position in the universities as a regular discipline of the university curriculum has become every year more secure. Thirty or forty professors and assistants are engaged in teaching its principles. Schools of finance and economy, departments of political and social science, lectureships on special economic topics abound. Every college has either an independent chair of Political Economy or a combined chair of economics and history, or some other subject. The larger universities have now organized, and in some instances liberally endowed these departments until they rival the best equipped corresponding departments of German, French and Italian universities. The movement which began in the seventies by sending dozens of students across the Atlantic, already bears fruit in courses of study sufficiently attractive to hold at home scores of students quite as ambitious and as discriminating.

There must be noticed finally, a new movement coming in part from the Austrian economists, in part from the English economist, Jevons, and in part originating with native-American writers, a movement which has been pronounced by some critics reactionary, but by its friends the most promising of all the various phases of our economic thought, the movement in the direction of deductive theory. Professor Patten’s “Premises of Political Economy” and Professor Clark’s “Philosophy of Wealth,” published respectively in 1885 and 1886, were its first fruits; and abundant evidences of its subsequent fruitfulness are to be found in the monographs of the Economic Association, in articles published in the economic journals and in the later literature generally. The translation of Böhm-Bawerk’s works by Professor William Smart, and the appearance of Professor Marshall’s “Principles of Economics,” both of which have had great influence in America, are landmarks in the progress of this movement. The “newer economics” has much to say of the relation between value and utility, the economic basis of prosperity and progress, the effects of dynamic forces. It seeks a new correlation of the social sciences, and in its scheme of human progress does not omit to take account of costs, and to distinguish sharply individual costs or “expenses” from social costs, which latter item it measures subjectively and ventures to compare directly with utilities or “satisfactions” as a means of determining the, social surplus.

One group of writers belonging with the newer movement, but devoting its energies directly to sociological studies, gives promise of rescuing that much misconceived branch of study from the hands of its injudicious representatives and putting it upon a high scientific plane. Professor F. H. Giddings who will become Professor of Sociology in Columbia College on July 1 of the present year, is the foremost scholar of this group, and the first man in any American university to occupy a chair with this designation. The future of economic science in American universities is bright with promise of scholarly and useful work. The attitude of the university world and of the public toward what is after all a new science, is all that could be desired. One indication of the present healthy and vigorous condition of this branch of science in American universities, is the quality and quantity of its scientific literature. The “younger economists” are already mature in years and in scholarship, and the publications of the American Economic Association, of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, of the separate universities in their series of Political Economy, Public Law, of studies in Historical and Political Science, etc., add to the stock of valuable economic literature no less than the regular issues of such quarterly journals as the Yale Review, the Journal of Political Economy the Political Science Quarterly and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, or the bi-monthly journal, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

The Summer Meeting of economists, of which announcement is made in full in this number of the Bulletin, may well become a great landmark, an emphatic sign of the golden opportunities awaiting students who turn their attention seriously to these problems.

Edward T. Devine.
The American Society for the Extension of University Teaching

 

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To Graduates of Colleges.

The increasing tendency toward specialization in the upper college classes makes it difficult for the college student to secure an acquaintance with as many different subjects properly falling within the college curriculum as every cultured man or woman considers desirable. College students who have specialized on economics and finance, may have left serious gaps in their knowledge of the physical sciences and vice versa, while both may have neglected the humanities, belles lettres and philosophy. University Extension courses in the local centres have already been eagerly utilized by many college graduates to supply such deficiencies and even if the purpose of the movement be chiefly, as some contend, to carry university privileges to those that have them not, it is attaining that purpose in meeting just such demands. The University Extension Summer Meeting offers similar opportunities. It takes place in a vacation month. It calls to the lecture room eminent specialists in many departments of university study. The student who is proficient in literature may hear brief courses in science or philosophy. The teacher who is thoroughly familiar with his special subject may make a careful study of a pedagogical system, or may refresh his intellectual powers by attacking vigorously a new line of study. It is true that every teacher should at some time or other have “specialized” to such an extent as to understand and to share somewhat the modern university spirit, but it is also true that modern culture demands of persons trained in a special subject a sufficient knowledge of other and entirely distinct fields of knowledge to awaken an intelligent interesting the achievements of the specialists of those fields.

In two ways therefore the Summer Meeting may be of use to college graduates. It will give to the student of a particular subject a favorable opportunity to supplement his specialized knowledge by a general—not necessarily a superficial—knowledge of other subjects. It will enable the student who wishes to broaden his knowledge of his own subject to do so by acquainting himself at first hand with a knowledge of the systems held and the methods employed by teachers of that subject in other institutions. It will be of great advantage for instance for the young man who has studied Political Economy in the University of Pennsylvania, or Johns Hopkins, or Cornell, to hear lecturers from Yale and Columbia discuss the same subject; and to become acquainted with the men who have studied that subject in those institutions, and vice versa. No student of history in an Eastern institution could fail to profit by the course of lectures on the Place of the West in our history by the professor of History in the University of Wisconsin. Graduates of normal schools, or of departments of pedagogy will derive more benefit than any others from the course on the Herbartian pedagogy by one who vigorously champions the system and has studied it at its fountain head in the University of Jena, and from the lectures on child study and its pedagogical value by the specialist who has been prosecuting an investigation of that subject in the State Normal School of Massachusetts, and under the direction of Dr. G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University.

This is the great advantage of the Summer Meeting over a summer session of corresponding length in any single university. We plan not a summer school, but a meeting, a mingling of students and lecturers, a gathering with all the definiteness of aim and of program which characterizes a school or the summer term of a university, but with the added advantages of a University Extension spirit as an esprit de corps and a union of progressive elements from many universities in an elective system of lectures and classes.

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A Word to Students and Teachers of History.

The now famous report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies contains the following resolutions from the “Conference on History, Civil Government and Political Economy:”

Resolved: That formal instruction in Political Economy be omitted from the school program; but that economic subjects be treated in connection with other pertinent subjects. (Resolution 9.)

Resolved: That no formal instruction in Political Economy be given in the secondary schools, but that in connection particularly with United States History, Civil Government and Commercial Geography, instruction be given in those economic topics, a knowledge of which is essential to the understanding of our economic life and development. (Resolution 30.)

Accompanying the resolutions is a memorandum in which it is stated that “in making these recommendations the Conference does not intend to suggest that less time than is customary be given to Political Economy or that less emphasis be given to its importance as a study in the high schools;” and the report of the Conference elsewhere contains the following significant statements: “The methods of teaching the economic principles thus indicated must be left to the discretion of the teacher. It is a subject in which textbook work is particularly inefficient, and no teacher ought to undertake the work who has not had some training in economic reasoning.”

The unavoidable inference from these resolutions and recommendations is that every teacher of history, civil government, or commercial geography in the schools of secondary grade should have some opportunity for training in economic reasoning. Since, in the opinion of the committee, there are no “proper text-books for high school use” it becomes of importance that teachers should become familiar at first hand with the vital principles as taught by the best economic authorities. A few years ago it was thought necessary to visit the German or other foreign universities for such contact with leaders of economic thought. At present the men who are teaching these subjects in Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Cornell and Pennsylvania, are scholars of international reputation and are original contributors to economic science.

The program of the Department of Economics in the Summer Meeting is framed with the express end of giving a rapid view of such principles as are by the economists deemed essential, and illustrating the methods of instruction in vogue in the leading universities. Those who expect to teach Political Economy in university, college or secondary school, those who are expecting to give instruction in history, civil government or commercial geography, and those who are regularly engaged in teaching these branches are cordially invited to examine carefully the courses announced for the Summer Meeting of Economists, and to avail themselves of the opportunities offered by the meeting.

The president, first vice-president and secretary of the American Economic Association are included in the corps of instructors. Among higher institutions Amherst, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania and Yale are represented. One of the instructors is a university president, the others are university or college professors. All have written important books or monographs on economic subjects. All have national and even international scientific reputation. All are associated with the recent notable development of economic science, and the corresponding expansion of economic departments in the higher educational institutions. They do not however, all represent the same or similar tendencies. The corps includes the two or three economists who have done most among American writers to emphasize the importance of deductive work, and the necessity of reforming economic theory, but it also contains the two or three men who would be first thought of in connection with such practical topics as public finance, railways and trusts.

It is difficult to imagine a more profitable method of spending a vacation month for a person who has a professional interest in acquainting himself with the methods used and the conclusions held by the men whose scientific reputation and academic standing entitle them to speak with a certain degree of authority. If the Committee of Ten and the Conference on History, Civil Government and Political Economy are correct in their view, this includes not merely the teacher of Political Economy and Political Science, but also teaches of such allied subjects as commercial geography, civil government and history.

The above considerations are strengthened by the fact that parallel with these economic course there will be instruction in European and American history by such distinguished and competent lecturers as Professor John Bach McMaster and Mr. W. H. Munro, of the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Frederick J. Turner, of the University of Wisconsin, Professor W. H. Mace, of Syracuse University and Dr. Edward Everett Hale, of Boston. A fuller announcement of these courses will be sent on application. Round-Table Conferences on the teaching of history in secondary schools will be conducted by Professor Ray Greene Huling, of Boston, and Professor Edward G. Bourne, of Adelbert College, both of whom were members of the conference from whose report extracts have been made.

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Statement of Courses in the
Summer Meeting of Economists,

July 2-28, 1894.

 

Course I—Money. By E. Benjamin Andrews, LL. D., President of Brown University.

Five Lectures—July 16-20. (1) Money and the Times; (2) England’s Monetary Experiment in India; (3) “Counter” and Quality in Monetary Theory; (4) What Fixes Prices; (5) Labor as a Standard of Value.

Course II—Distribution. By J. B. Clark, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy in Amherst College, and Lecturer in Johns Hopkins University.

Ten Lectures—July 2-18. (1) Normal Distribution equivalent to Proportionate Production; (2) The Relation of the Law of Value to the Law of Wages and Interest; (3) The Social Law of Value; (4) Groups and Sub-groups in Industrial Society; (5) The Nature of Capital and the Source of Wages and Interest; (6) The Static Law of Distribution ; (7) Dynamic Forces and their Effects; (8) The Origin and the Distribution of Normal Profits; (9) Trusts and Public Policy; (10) Labor Unions and Public Policy.

Course III—Scientific Subdivision of Political Economy. By F. H. Giddings, M. A., Professor of Political Science in Bryn Mawr College and Professor elect of Sociology in Columbia College.

Five Lecture»—July 2-7. (1) The Conception and Definition of Political Economy; (2) The Concepts of Utility, Cost and Value; (3) The Theory of Consumption; (4) The Theory of Production; (5) The Theory of Relative Values.

Course IV—Theories of Population. By Arthur T. Hadley, M. A., Professor of Political Economy in Yale University.

Two Lectures—July 5, 6.

Course V—Relations of Economics and Politics. By J. W. Jenks, Ph. D, Professor of Political Economy and Civil and Social Institutions in Cornell University.

Five Lectures—July 16-20. (1) The Nature and Scope of Economics and of Politics Compared; (2) Influence of Economic Conditions upon Political Constitutions; (3) The Influence of Economic Conditions and Theories upon Certain Social and Legal Institutions not Primarily Political; (4) The Influence of Present Economic Conditions and Beliefs upon Present Political Methods and Doctrine; (5) The Political Reforms that would be of most Economic Advantage.

Course VI—Ethnical Basis for Social Progress in the United States. By Richmond Mayo-Smith, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy and Social Science in Columbia College.

Three Lectures— July 24-26. (1) Theories of Mixture of Races and Nationalities and Application to the United States; (2) Assimilating Influence of Climate and Intermarriages; (3) Assimilating Influence of Social Environment.

Course VII—Introduction to the Ricardian Economics. By Simon N. Patten, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy in the University of Pennsylvania.

Five Lectures—July 9-13.

Course VIII—Premises of Political Economy. By Simon N. Patten, Ph. D.

Five Lectures—July 16-20.

Course IX—Theory of Dynamic Economics. By Simon X. Patten, Ph. D.

Five Lectures—July 23-27.

Course X—Public Finance. By Edwin R. A. Seligman, Ph. D., Professor of Political Economy and Finance in Columbia College.

Five Lectures—July 23-27. (1) The Development of Taxation; (2) The Effects of Taxation; (3) The Basis of Taxation; (4) The Principles of Taxation; (5) The Single Tax.

Course XI—Various Phases of the Money Question. By Professor Clark, Professor Giddings, Professor Patten and Professor Seligman.

Address “The Monetary Conference of 1 892.” By President Andrews. July 19.

Address on Methods of Teaching Political Economy. By members of the corps of lecturers.

Discussion of the subjects presented in each of the various courses by those in attendance. The lecture will usually last for sixty minutes, and the discussion for thirty minutes. An hour and a half is allowed for each exercise.

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Program of Lectures.
Summer Meeting of Economists.

[For program of other departments apply to the Director.]

July 2.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Conception and Definition of Political Economy.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Normal Distribution Equivalent to Proportionate Production.

July 3.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Concepts of Utilitv, Cost and Value.

10 A. M— Professor Clark.

The Relation of the Law of Value to the Law of Wages and Interest.

July 4.

10 A. M.—Address by Edward Everett Hale, D. D., in the University Library.

July 5.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Theory of Consumption.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

The Social Law of Value.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Hadley.

Theories of Population.

July 6.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Theory of Production.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Groups and Sub-Groups in Industrial Society.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Hadley.

Theories of Population.

5 P. M.—Professor Clark.

An Ideal Standard of Value.

July 7.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Giddings.

The Theory of Relative Values.

10 A. M—Professor Clark.

The Nature of Capital and the Sources of Wages and Interest.

July 9.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Ricardian System of Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

The Static Law of Distribution.

5 P. M.—Address on Methods.

July 10

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Ricardo’s Theory of Distribution.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Dynamic Forces and their Effects.

5 P. M.—Address on Methods.

July 11.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Ricardo’s Theory of Money.

10 A. M— Professor Clark.

The Origin and Distribution of Normal Profits.

5 P. M.—Address on Methods.

July 12.

8.30 A. M— Professor Patten.

The Confusion of Industrial and Monetary Problems.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Trusts and Public Policy.

July 13.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Ricardian System of Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Clark.

Labor Unions and Public Policy.

July 16.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Premises of Political Economy.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

Money and the Times.

July 17.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Premises of Political Economy.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

England’s Monetary Experiment in India.

July 18.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

The Stability of Prices.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

“Counter” and Quality in Monetary Theory.

July 19.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

The Law of Diminishing Returns.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

What Fixes Prices?

8 P. M.—President Andrews.

Monetary Conference.

July 20.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

The Consumption of Wealth.

10 A. M.—President Andrews.

Labor as a Standard of Value.

July 23.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

5 P. M.—Professor Seligman.

Development of Taxation.

8 P. M.—Professor Jenks.

Nature and Scope of Economics and Politics Compared.

July 24.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Seligman.

The Effects of Taxation.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Mayo-Smith.

Theories of Mixture of Races, and Nationalities.

8 P. M.—Professor Jenks. Influence of Economic Conditions upon Political Constitutions.

July 25.

8.30 A. M — Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Seligman.

Basis of Taxation.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Mayo-Smith.

Assimilating Influences of Climate and Intermarriages.

8 P. M.—Professor Jenks.

Influence of Economic Conditions and Theories upon Certain Social and Legal Institutions not Primarily Political.

July 26.

8.30 A. M.—Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Seligman.

The Principles of Taxation.

11.30 A. M.— Professor Mayo-Smith.

Assimilating Influences of Social Environment.

8 P. M.—Professor Jenks.

Influence of Present Economic Conditions and Beliefs upon Present Political Methods and Doctrine.

July 27.

8.30 A. M — Professor Patten.

Theory of Dynamic Economics.

10 A. M.—Professor Seligman.

The Single Tax.

11.30 A. M.—Professor Jenks.

The Political Reforms that would be of Most Economic Advantage.

 

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Preparatory Reading.

Those who expect to attend the sessions of the Summer Meeting of Economists will find it of advantage to possess a knowledge of the elements of the science such as may be obtained by the study of Walker’s Political Economy, Marshall’s Principles of Economics or Mill’s Political Economy.

In special preparation for the meeting, Giddings’ The Theory of Sociology (in press) will be found useful. In special preparation for Course I, students may read Andrews’ An Honest Dollar, and Nicholson’s Money and Monetary Problems; for Courses II and III, Clark’s Philosophy of Wealth, and Modern Distributive Process, by Clark and Giddings; for Course VII, Patten’s The Interpretation of Ricardo in Quarterly Journal of Economics for April, 1893; for Course VIII, Patten’s Premises of Political Economy; for Course IX, The Theory of Dynamic Economics.

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Source: American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. The University Extension Bulletin. Vol. I, No. 8. Philadelphia: May 10, 1894.

Image Source: American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. Supplement to the The University Extension Bulletin. Vol. I, No. 8. Philadelphia: May 10, 1894. Copy found in Box 2 of Franklin Henry Giddings Papers, Columbia Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Folder “Photographs”.

 

More on what University Extension was all about.

 

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Categories
Economists Funny Business M.I.T.

From the 200th Anniversary of Wealth of Nations Roast of Adam Smith at MIT. 1976

The Graduate Economics Association of MIT held a celebration in honor of Adam Smith and the 200th anniversary of the publication of The Wealth of Nations.  The event took place April 12, 1976 at the Sheraton Commander Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I chaired the organizing committee for the event that was run like a Friar’s Club Roast. It featured a star-studded cast that included Alan Blinder (Princeton), William Parker (Yale), Paul Samuelson (MIT), Robert Solow (MIT), and James Tobin (Yale) and special surprise guest-of-honor to receive the Invisible Hand Award, Adam Smith a.k.a. Jerry Goodman. Before Mr. Goodman entered dressed in Adam Smith attire, the MIT economics children’s choir (i.e. a sample of graduate students who could carry a tune, sort-of) sang the following hymn set to the tune of “Rock of Ages” with a new text written by my old professor of American economic history at Yale, William Parker.

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WEALTH OF NATIONS!

Text by William N. Parker

Wealth of Nations! Writ for me!
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Not the Profits, nor the Rent,
But the Labour Time that’s spent,
Be of Value the true source.
Make me better; no one worse.

Every man looks to his need,
Counting on the butcher’s greed.
Public goods are little prized,
Model that is dynamized.
Half the world is cold and bare,
Still we cling to Laissez-faire.

Hand invisible whose love
We believe that we can prove!
With thy panapoly of saints,
Mill, Ricardo, Marshall, Keynes,
Save us all from Marxist sins.
Keep us gaily making pins!

When our earthly race is run,
Will we soar to Samuelson?
Will we sink to realms below,
There to meet with our So-low?
Was it neo-classic myth?
Tell us, tell us, Adam Smith!
Wealth of Nations, write for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee!

Source: From the back of the program to the celebration.

Below, my autographed copy of the program:

Jerry Goodman’s journalistic attempt at making sense of the economists at play when he was observer-participant.

Image Sources: Portrait of William Parker from the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 151, No. 2, June 2007; Adam Smith program, personal copy; Jerry Goodman’s account from New York (May 3, 1976).

Categories
Economists Suggested Reading

Suggested reading: European emigrés and American Economics. Hagemann. 2011

Harald Hagemann (2011): European émigrés and the ‘Americanization’ of economics, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 18:5, 643-671

Abstract

The development of economics since 1945 was marked by an increasing internationalization that was simultaneously in large part a process of Americanization. This article focuses on the role refugee economists from Continental Europe played in the rise of American economics. It focuses on the emigration of German-speaking economists after 1933; and then deals with the special case of Jacob Marschak who emigrated twice, first from the Soviet Union in 1919 and then from Nazi Germany, and exerted a greater influence in Britain and in the USA. Finally important contributions by émigré economists to game theory, public finance and development economics are reflected.

Categories
Chicago Courses Economists

Chicago. Undergraduate Macro. Stanley Fischer, 1973

While organizing my material from George Stigler’s papers, I ran across this reading list for an undergraduate macro course taught in 1973 at the University of Chicago by the then thirty year-old future professor of the so-called MIT gang that included Ben Bernanke, Mario Draghi, Olivier Blanchard, Maurice Obstfeld, and Paul Krugman (yes, there were others… worth another post). Learn this stuff (and I mean really learn this stuff) and you too might become chief economist of the World Bank, or first managing director of the IMF, or vice chairman of Citigroup, or governor of the Bank of Israel, or Vice Chairman of the Fed. Excuse me, I mean “and/or”.

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Winter 1973

Stanley Fischer

ECONOMICS 202
Reading List

Texts:

Branson: Macroeconomic Theory and Policy, Harper and Row, 1972.

Friedman: An Economist’s Protest, Thomas Horton, 1972.

 

I. Introductory

Friedman, M. “A Theoretical Framework for Monetary Analysis,” JPE, March/April, 1970, 193-238.

Johnson, H. G. “The Keynesian Revolution and the Monetarist Counter-Revolution,” AER Papers and Proceedings, May, 1971, 1-14.

Leijonhufvud, A. “Keynes and the Classics: Two Lectures on Keynes’ Contribution to Economic Theory,” London, Institute of Economic Affairs, 1969. Occasional Paper 30.

Tobin, J. Manuscript on Monetary Theory, Chapter 1. (This is on reserve in the library.)

 

II. Quantity Equation

Fisher, I. The Purchasing Power of Money, Macmillan, 1913, Chaps. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8.

Keynes, J. M., Tract on Monetary Reform, Macmillan, 1924, Chaps. 2, 3.

Patinkin, D. “The Chicago Tradition, the Quantity Theory, and Friedman,” JMCB, Feb., 1969, 46-70.

Pigou, A. C. “The Value of Money,” originally in Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1917, reprinted in Lutz and Mints.

 

III. The Demand for Money

Baumol, W. J. “The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach,” QJE, Nov., 1952, reprinted in Thorn.

Cagan, P. “The Monetary Dynamics of Hyperinflation” in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money, M. Friedman (ed.), University of Chicago Press, 1956.

Friedman, M. “The Quantity Theory of Money: A Restatement,” in OQM (also in Thorn and in Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money).

Keynes, J. M. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Macmillan, 1935, Chaps. 13, 15, 17.

Laidler, D. E. W. “Some Evidence on the Demand for Money,” JPE, Feb., 1966, 55-68.

Latané, H. A. “Cash Balances and the Interest Rate—A Pragmatic Approach,” RE and Sta., Nov., 1954, 456-60.

Tobin, J. “Liquidity Preference as Behavior Toward Risk,” RES, Feb., 1958, 65-86, reprinted in Thorn.

 

IV. The Supply of Money

Cagan, P. Determinants and Effects of Changes in the Money Stock, 1875-1960, Columbia University Press, 1965.

 

V. Inflation

Friedman, M. “The Role of Monetary Policy, “ AER, March 1968, 1-17, reprinted in OQM.

Phillips, A. W. “The Relation between Unemployment and the Rate of Change of Money Wages in the U.K., 1862-1957,” Economica, Nov., 1958, 283-99.

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[References completed]

Lutz and Mints.   Lutz, Friedrich A. and Mints, Lloyd W. Readings in Monetary Economics.Volume 5 of The series of republished articles on economics. R.D. Irwin, 1951.

Thorn. [probably] Money and banking: theory, analysis, and policy; a textbook of readings. Edited with introd. by S. Mittra. [Consulting editor: Richard S. Thorn]. New York, Random House [1970]

OQM. Friedman, Milton. Optimum Quantity of Money and Other Essays. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1969.

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Source: Source: Stigler, George. Papers, Box 3, Folder “U of C Other, Miscellaneous, Corresp. w. Pres., etc”, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

 

Image Source: MIT Museum.

 

Categories
Economists Funny Business

Old David Hume, New iMac

 

 

Teaching the History of Economics frequently involves dressing dead economists in 21st century attire. Here my attempt at adding a new twist to the sport at David Hume’s expense. I truly hope he isn’t spinning in his Mausoleum because of me. For Hume fans the original drawing by Louis Carrogis can be viewed here.

 

iMacHume

Categories
Economic History Economists

John Hicks Arguing for More Economic History Research, 1947

The Duke Economists’ Papers Project has a grab-bag of papers from the distinguished economic historian Earl J. Hamilton. A soul braver than myself might some day try to create order out of that chaos, but I was able to stumble upon the following early “remarks” by future Nobel-prize economist John R. Hicks, though lacking all context save the date. Perhaps a Hicks expert or an historian of economic history can identify where these remarks were given (or perhaps eventually published?). These remarks sound much like Schumpeter’s recipe for a good economist writ large to economic research. I can only say, “Hear, hear!”

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RESEARCH IN ECONOMIC HISTORY

John R. Hicks
January 11, 1947

The following remarks about the desirability of encouraging research in economic history are written from the standpoint of the general economist, who is not primarily a historian. He is not interested in economic history as history, but he is interested in furthering the development of economic science in general. He is looking for the general principles governing economic behaviour, and his particular interest is the application of those principles to the modern world.

As compared with the situation in the natural sciences, the economist’s object of study is essentially a historical process, spread out in time. In practice his main preoccupation is with the advancing edge of that process (the present), and it is right and proper that this should be so, since the present is more likely than the past to have a bearing on the future, control over which is the ultimate practical object. But this preoccupation can easily go too far. The past, no less than the present, is part of the material available for study and out of which generalisations can be built up. Generalisations based upon the present alone, or the present and recent past alone, are necessarily insecure; no doubt all economic generalisations are insecure, but these are more insecure than they need be.

The relevance of economic history to economic science has greatly increased of late, in view of the recent tendencies to bring economic theory to earth and achieve a more effective marriage between theory and statistics. Econometric work based upon very short time series is statistically unsatisfactory, and cannot be used as a basis for prediction with any high degree or probability. There is thus a tendency on the part of economic statisticians to push further back into the past as a means of increasing the amount of analysable material. But such additional material cannot be securely used unless its reliability is evaluated by people who are accustomed to use historical evidence—collaboration between the trained statistician and the trained historian (a very awkward collaboration with our present academic background) is going to be urgently needed at the next stage of development of economics. Further, it is not only the material which needs checking—the use which is made of it needs checking too. As we push backwards into history, institutions change; the whole background, economic, semi-economic and non-economic, changes. One of the commonest sources of error in economic reasoning is a failure to recognise that an institutional change has made a profound difference to the working of some particular “mechanism” or standardised response pattern. We notice this most often in a failure to “keep up to date”—the “out of date” economist is he who has failed to realize that a change in institution had modified or even completely destroyed some of the reaction patterns which may have been valid enough when he was young. The opposite error has hitherto been of less importance, but there are indications that it is now becoming serious; although it will never have the practical importance of that just described, it may be a serious impediment to scientific progress. To read the events of the past against an institutional background which is not theirs, is just as wrong as to read the accounts of the present against a background which is not theirs. Unless the background is in good shape, historical statistical data cannot be used; they can only be misused.

The above is not only an argument, as might appear at first sight, for better training of economists and statisticians in economic history; it is also an argument for research in economic history. For the sorts of questions which economists and statisticians are beginning to ask of the historical material are different from the questions which the historians have been asking. The historical background which is needed is not there, to be had for the asking, in the textbooks—or the classics—of economic history; to a large extent, it is yet to be discovered by new work.

I have here one example mainly in mind, though I am sure it is not the only example—not by a long way. The “Keynesian revolution” has thrown a powerful new light on contemporary economics; just how far the light extends is an arguable matter, but that it extends some distance can hardly be questioned. Now it would be of great help in our evaluation of the current uses of the Keynesian hypotheses if we could tell how far back in history they go on being useful. If it can be shown that they are useful in the interpretation of the economic history of the nineteenth or even eighteenth centuries, it would strengthen their position as a “General Theory”; if on the other hand, it becomes apparent that we have to force the historical material to get it into a Keynesian mould, we should get an indication of the dependence of the theory on a particular institutional (and perhaps psychological) set-up, and this would hardly fail to affect our attitude towards the theory and even our use of it vis a vis the problems of to-day.

I pass on to a much wider consideration. The ascertainment of economic principles or generalisations is only a step towards the understanding of events; one may say that the object of all economic inquiry—the penultimate object, perhaps, short of the ultimate object of increasing our control over the future—is to give an intelligible and analytical account of economic and economico-social processes, both the completed processes of the past and the uncompleted processes of the present. Now in some important ways the processes of the present are more difficult to study; they are more difficult because the sheer mass of material drives us to excessive specialisation, and also because their lack of completion deprives us in another way of the advantage of seeing the processes as a whole. In historical work it is at least in principle easier to take a synoptic view; and one cannot help feeling that if a rather larger proportion of economic research was devoted to historical problems it would help to maintain better standards of “all-roundness” in the sector—undoubtedly the more important sector from a practical point of view—which is concerned with the problems of the contemporary world.

This, in my view, is the case for encouraging research in economic history But I am well aware of the main difficulty which stands in the way of such research, if it is to be the kind of research which really meets the ends which I have set down. The number of people who have the equipment. to do the work—equipment in history and economics and probably statistics as well—is at present extremely limited. Work of this sort needs a bigger equipment than more specialised work, and therefore involves a longer preparation. At present there is little incentive to undergo this long preparation, and even for those people who have strong personal inclinations for it, there are strong incentives to turn aside on the way. In all the universities of the British Isles (I speak of what I know) there are at present only five chairs of economic history—two in London, one each at Oxford, Cambridge and Manchester. Apart from these, the subject offers very few openings indeed. Thus if greater encouragement were offered, one could not expect that supply would adjust itself to demand at once; it would take time before the number of suitable people could be much increased. If however one looks round at the people who have been diverted into teaching or research in “straight” economics or “straight” history, one can not doubt that the potential supply of first-rate economic historians is quite considerable; it would take time to show itself, but it would show itself in time.

 

Source: Duke University. Rubenstein Library. Earl J. Hamilton papers. Box 2, Folder “Correspondence—Misc. 1930’s-1950’s and n.d.”

Categories
Chicago Computing Economists Salaries

Chicago. Purchasing order for a calculator for Henry Schultz. 1928.

Here is an item to file away under the cost of computing. Henry Schultz, the young hot-shot professor for mathematical economics and statistics wanted a fully-automatic Monroe calculator with an electric motor drive (pictured above). With discounts, the calculator and stand cost $631.  To get a relative price (in a hurry), I note that the nine month salary for Henry C. Simons at the rank of Lecturer was $2790, i.e. $310 per month. Thus figure that calculator-with-stand ran roughly two months of (approximately) instructor rank pay today.

Recommendation to appoint Henry C. Simons May 20, 1927: University of Chicago Archives. Office of the President, Mason Administration. Box 24, Folder 2.

Cf. a request to purchase two calculators for the use of the Columbia University economics faculty in 1948.

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[carbon copy]

January 8, 1928

 

Mr. J. C. Dinsmore [Purchasing Agent]
Faculty Exchange

My dear Mr. Dinsmore:

I am enclosing a requisition against the instruction fund of the Department of Economics for $652.13 [sic] which is to cover the purchase of the following material:

1 Monroe Machine – KAA 203…$825.00

less 15% and 10%…….$631.13

1 Fowler Manson Sherman Stand (low)… 21.00

Total                                       $651.13

 

Professor Henry Schultz is anxious to have these articles delivered as promptly as possible. Will you please telephone me when they arrive so that I can tell you to what room they should be delivered.

So that there will be no delay in the attached requisition being approved promptly, I quote a paragraph taken from a letter of September 24 from Mr. Woodward to me:

“I have arranged with Mr. Plimpton for you to draw on the instruction budget of the Department of Economics for the sum of $2600 in order to provide Mr. Schultz with equipment, supplies, and clerical assistance. It should be clearly understood that this arrangement is for the present year only.”

Yours very sincerely,

L. C. Marshall [chairman of the department]

LCM: GS

Source: University of Chicago Archives. Economics Department. Records & Addenda. Box 6, Folder 2.

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About the KAA model:

“Model KA from 1922 was the first Monroe calculator with an electric motor drive. The machine has an AC induction motor of about 5″ diameter mounted externally on a cast-iron bracket at the left-hand rear. The motor occupies the dead area under the extended carriage, and so requires no additional desk space. The motor rotates in one direction only at 1500RPM. The mechanism is driven through a planetary gearset, with two dog clutches operated by the Add and Subtract bars to select forward or reverse rotation. The case has been widened by an inch and a half to accommodate the control mechanisms on the left-hand side. The winding handle has been replaced with a knurled brass knob, but the crank can easily be re-fitted to operate the machine by hand.

The carriage has glass windows above the numerals, but carriage shift and register clearing are still manual. The item count knob is at the lower left of the keyboard, with an additional control lever at the upper left to silence the overflow bell.

…[The] Monroe’s head office, which was in New York City until the mid-1920s.

A fully-automatic variant (the Model KAA) was built during the mid to late 1920s. The KAA is wider again than the KA, and has a single column of “on-the-fly” multiplier keys to the left of the main keyboard.”

Source:  John Wolff’s Web Museum. The Monroe Calculating Machine Company

Image Source: KAA-203 photo attributed to contribution by Helmut Siebel. See the link above.

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For a history of the company.

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An image of a representative typewriter stand made by a Chicago company (note: a bicycle manufacturer) from the antique dealer Urban Remains of Chicago.

FowlerMansonShermanTubularStand