Category: Harvard

Categories
Economists Harvard LGBTQ Money and Banking Policy

Harvard. A. Piatt Andrew at his home “Red Roof”. Gloucester, MA. 1910

Abram Piatt Andrew taught monetary economics at Harvard before becoming a key player in the National Monetary Commission, Director  of the U.S. Mint, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, founder of the American Field Service, and a Republican member of the United States Congress from 1921-36. Much more has been posted about him here at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

This post deals with his home and private life.

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This photograph features A. Piatt Andrew at his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, before World War I began. Prior to founding the American Field Service during the war, Andrew served as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard, director of the U.S. Mint, and assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. “Red Roof,” as his home was called, was designed and built under Andrew’s direction in 1902. Red Roof contained secret rooms, one of which necessitated dismantling a sofa to access and contained a Prohibition-era wet bar and a player piano. Guests in the living room could therefore hear the music but didn’t know its source. Another secret room contained a dugout that was later filled with AFS artifacts from the war, including posters, AFS recruitment slides, shell fuses (a favorite souvenir of AFS Drivers), and trench art.

Andrew created elaborate entertainment for guests at Red Roof by organizing themed dinner parties, musical performances, and skits in full costume. Guests to Red Roof included interior decorator and longtime AFS supporter Henry Sleeper, the portrait painter John Singer Sargent, art collector and philanthropist Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt [May 2-4, 1903].

Source: Nicole Milano, “A. Piatt Andrew and Red Roof, 1910.” American Field Service Website.

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But wait, there’s more

A blog dealing exclusively (no kidding) with “A. Piatt Andrew and Red Roof“.

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Research tips:

At the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now called “Historic New England“) one can find “A. Piatt Andrew Guest Books, 1902-1930” among other items. These guest book pages have, in addition to the signatures, close to 700 photographs.  You can page through the pictures online (1902-1912) and (1913-1930).

At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum you will find online 249 items (photographs, correspondence from A. Piatt Andrew).

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Henry Davis Sleeper and
A. Piatt Andrew Jr.

Plot spoiler: They were more than friendly neighbours.

Source: A. Piatt Andrew’s The Red Roof Guestbook, 1914-1930. Available at the Historic New England Website.

 Sleeper’s frail constitution prevented him from participating in the rough-and-tumble games and amusements favored by Andrew and his young male friends, mostly Harvard undergraduates. [p. 90]

Mrs. Jack

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) was a legend in her own time. Starting with the untimely death of her husband, John Lowell Gardner, in 1898, his widow, called Mrs. Jack, embarked on an ambitious program of art acquisition which culminated in the transformation of her fabulous Venetian-style palazzo, Fenway Court, into a beloved cultural institution. She accomplished this feat largely by relying on the skills, expertise and companionship of the coterie of attractive and talented homosexual men-mostly artists, collectors, and curators-that she gathered around her…. [p. 90]

Society Painter

By 1908 Mrs. Jack’s circle included the society painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Born in Italy to American parents, Sargent had first come to Boston in 1887. After a solo exhibition in 1888 at the St. Botolph Club, he was commissioned in 1890 to design murals for the new Boston Public Library in Copley Square. Along with other commissions-for the Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard’s Widener Library-Sargent was almost fully occupied in Boston for the next twenty-five years. While circumspect about his private life, an album of male nudes that Sargent, a bachelor, kept for his own enjoyment offers insight into his predilections. [p. 91]

Seaside shenanigans

In the years preceding World War I, Isabella Stewart Gardner, John Singer Sargent, and others in their circle were drawn into the wealthy summer enclave at Eastern Point, Gloucester, where Harvard professor (later U.S. congressman) A. Piatt Andrew Jr. (1873-1936) and his neighbor, interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper (1878-1934), had homes. The letters from Sleeper to Andrew provide evidence of the intensity of his feelings.

Social life on Eastern Point revolved around ceaseless entertaining. One of Gardner’s biographers hints at the goings-on at Andrew’s home, Red Roof: “Gossip had it that often all the guests were men, their pastimes peculiar. Yet all the ladies on Eastern Point were fascinated by Piatt.” Portrait painter Cecilia Beaux (1863-1942) spent summers at her Gloucester home, Green Alley, where she enjoyed hosting evening gatherings of her neighbors. She never married. “Faithful in attendance were Harry Sleeper and Piatt Andrew, whose brilliancy of repartee has never been excelled” according to an observer. Concealment and ambiguity characterized the lives of many of the women and men who moved through this exclusive world of polite manners and material luxury. [p. 92]

Source: The History Project. Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and gay history from the Puritans to Playland. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. [Note: you need to register at archive.org to access (borrow) the book for an hour at a time]

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October 6, 1910. A. Piatt Andrew and Isabella Stewart Gardner at “Red Roof”. Photo by Thomas E. Marr from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Cleaned and cropped by Economics in the Rear View Mirror

From Isabella Stewart Gardner’s biography

A. Piatt Andrew lived next door to Miss Davidge under his “Red Roof” – nearer the mainland than Miss Davidge and Miss Beaux, and with one more maiden lady beyond him….

Harry Sleeper, whom Mrs. Gardner already knew fairly well, lived just beyond. … Harry was sweet, gentle, affectionate. He was devoted to his mother, who protected him from the ladies when he feared they had designs on his celibacy. Still more was he the devoted slave to Piatt….

…A. Piatt Andrew had an organ installed in the passage between the living room and a recently added study. Here, Isabella sat on the couch (with a bearskin and two leopard skins on it) to listen to his music. She was probably unaware of a hidden space above the books – too low to stand up in but equipped with mattress and covers where some of Andrew’s guests could listen in still greater comfort. She had seen the Brittany bed in the living room but that there was a small hole over it, perhaps no one had told her. The sound of organ music could be heard the better through the hole – and was it just a coincidence that a person in the hidden alcove above could look down through it? Gossip had it that often all the guests were men, their pastimes peculiar. Yet all the ladies on Eastern Point were fascinated by Piatt and one especially keen observer thought that Miss Beaux was “sweet on him”.

When the fog lifted and the sun came out, the whole atmosphere at Red Roof changed. Gloucester harbor sparkled bright and blue. Isabella’s spirits lifted, macabre impressions vanished, and Isabella went out on a stone seat to be photographed with Piatt – or “A,” as she liked to call him, referring to herself as “Y,” amused to find herself at the opposite end of the alphabet.

Isabella wore a linen suit with leg o’mutton sleeves, long coat and wide gored skirt. She had on a toque with a black dotted veil over her face. Beside her, A. Piatt sat – head turned toward her, his handsome profile toward the camera.

A. Piatt Andrew had been chosen by President Eliot to work in Senator Aldrich’s monetary commission and he planned to go to Europe during the summer of 1908 to make preliminary studies. Mrs. Gardner told him to be sure to get in touch with Matthew Stewart Prichard – late of the Boston Art Museum. This Andrew did, Prichard showing him beautiful Greek and Roman coins which gave him ideas for new designs for American currency.

Source: Louise Hall Tharp, Mrs. Jack: A Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Little, Brown and Company, 1965, pp. 276-278.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Semester exams for money and banking. Andrew and Sprague, 1903-1904

 

Abram Piatt Andrew (b. 1873, Princeton A.B. 1893; Harvard  Ph.D. 1900) and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (b. 1873, Harvard A.B. 1894; A.M. 1895; Ph.D. 1897) were rising stars in the department of economics at Harvard in the 1903-04 academic year. Together they covered the bases of money, banking, and international payments. 

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Related, previous posts

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Course Enrollment
Economics 8a and 8b
1903-04

Economics 8a 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. [note: taught second semester]

Total 91: 8 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 39 Juniors, 24 Sophomores, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Economics 8b 1hf. Dr. Sprague. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems. [note: taught first semester]

Total 77: 6 Graduates, 30 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 9 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Year-End Examination
1903-04

Arrange answers in the order of the questions.
Omit one question.

  1. Explain the character, merits, and defects of
    1. the arithmetical mean;
    2. the geometrical mean;
    3. the median;
    4. the mode;
    5. weighted averages.
      Discuss Pierson’s criticism of index numbers.
  2. When a government issues inconvertible notes, is the premium on gold apt to measure the depreciation of the notes
    1. at the beginning of the issue?
    2. in the course of a war?
    3. at the restoration of peace?
    4. if the crops fail?
    5. “in the long run”?
      Give reasons, and where possible, illustrations.
  3. What justification is there for the respective claims that the United States adopted the gold standard
    1. by the act of 1834?
    2. by the act of 1853?
    3. by the act of 1873?
    4. by the act of 1874?
    5. by the act of 1900?
  4. To what extent was England’s adoption of the gold standard the result of a policy deliberately adopted and intentionally pursued? To what extent was it the result of unforeseen conditions?
  5. Suppose that owing to the increasing gold supply the ratio between gold and silver were to fall again below 32 to 1 how would foreign trade and the price level be affected
    1. in Mexico?
    2. in the Philippines?
  6. Would an ideal monetary standard always measure the same exchange value?
    1. according to Darwin?
    2. according to Walker?
    3. in your own opinion?
      Answer both from the points of view of production and of distribution.
  7. Is there any significance for “the quantity theory” in the currency history
    1. of India between 1893 and 1898?
    2. of Austria between 1878 and 1892?
    3. of Russia between 1878 and 1896?
    4. of Holland between 1873 and 1875?
      Where possible give variant opinions.
  8. Trace the general changes in the value of money in the United States from 1830 to the present time, analyzing the reasons for these changes.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, pp. 30-31.

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ECONOMICS 8b
Mid-Year Examination.
1903-04

  1. Sight exchange, $4.86; sixty-day bills, $4.83; commercial bills, $4.82. What would be the probable effect of an advance of one per cent of the market rate of discount in London? Consider each quotation separately.
  2. The government of the Bank of England.
  3. Why does the existing system of note issue in the United States tend to check the expansion of credit in the form of deposits?
  4. Discuss briefly:—
    1. The payment of interest upon deposits by commercial banks.
    2. The significance of statistics relative to clearing-house transactions.
    3. The publication of weekly reports by the trust companies of New York.
    4. The use of certified checks in Stock Exchange dealings.
    5. The taxation of national banks.
  5. Contrast the value for purposes of reserve of call loans in New York made by the Canadian banks with those made by the banks of the city.
  6. The Suffolk Bank system.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

Image Sources: Portrait of Abram Piatt Andrew from the Hoover Institution archives posted at the Federal Reserve History website. Portrait of Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague from the Harvard Classbook 1912. Images colorized and edited by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance

Harvard. Exam questions for theory and methods of taxation. Taussig, 1903-1904

 

Before Charles Jesse Bullock took over the field of public finance in the Harvard economics department as a permanent faculty member in 1904-05, Frank Taussig taught the taxation course three times. The previously posted reading list from 1897-1898 has been updated for this post with the addition of links to all the assigned references [link provided below].

Taussig’s exam questions from the 1903-04 academic year have been transcribed and are included here.

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Reading list and exam questions
from the previous time Frank Taussig taught Economics 7b (1897-1898)

Harvard. Taxation Theory and Methods. Taussig, 1897-98

Harvard. Final Exam Questions for Taxation Course. Taussig, 1898

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ECONOMICS 7b
Enrollment, 1903-04

Economics 7b 2hf. Professor Taussig. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation, in the United States.

Total 13: 3 Graduates, 3 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 7b
Year-End Examination, 1903-04

  1. Discuss the proposition that income is the normal source of taxation.
  2. Discuss the justice and practicability of progressive taxation.
  3. Discuss the incidence of taxes—
    1. on the rent of land,
    2. on buildings,
    3. on monopolies.
  4. Describe in outline the development of excise taxation in the United States since 1862.
  5. Compare the French and English systems of excise taxation.
  6. What French taxes might be regarded as the equivalent of the English income tax? In point of justice and efficiency would you prefer the French or the English taxes?
  7. Compare the French and the Prussian business taxes.
  8. To what extent and in what manner do the States of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania tax the holders of (1) shares of corporation stock, (2) bonds issued by corporations?
  9. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of taxing corporations on the basis of (1) net earnings, and (2) market value of outstanding securities. Should corporations carrying on interstate business be taxed by the federal government or by the individual States?
  10. Compare English local rates with the local taxes employed in the United States, with reference to (1) the mode of levying, (2) incidence, (3) general advantageousness.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, pp. 29-30.

Image Source:  Frank W. Taussig (Original black and white image from of Frank William Taussig from a cabinet card photograph, 1895, at the Harvard University Archives HUP.

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Class of 1894 reports of Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague, 1895, 1897, 1902, 1904, 1909, 1914, 1919

Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is always (well, almost always) on the lookout for artifacts providing autobiographical detail on the economists whose course materials have been transcribed and posted here. While trawling the hathitrust.org archive yet another time for material on the Harvard economics/business professor O. M. W. Sprague, I found seven reports of the secretaries of the Harvard Class of 1894, of which Sprague was a distinguished graduate. Sprague’s personal reports are sometimes repetitive, but it is still handy to put them together in one post.

Bonus Material: Sprague’s brief faculty bio found in the 1924-25 Harvard Business School yearbook.

A recent earlier post provides Sprague’s lifetime c.v.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, First Report (1895)
Misc. facts

A.B. Harvard College, June 1894 [p. 4]

Second Year Honors (1892-93) in History. [p. 25]

A.B. Final Honors in Political Science (Highest Honors) [p. 26]

A.B. Honorable Mention in History and Economics [p. 30]

Oration at Commencement (12 graduating students held orations) [p. 37]

Memberships:

Christian Association [p. 62]
Historical Club [p. 67]
International Law Club [p. 68]
Phi Beta Kappa [p. 69]

Graduate School. University Scholarship. Appointed in 1894. [p. 36]

Resident of the Graduate School 1894-95. Address: 40 Kirkland St., Cambridge [p. 139]

A.M. June 1895 [p. 31]

Source: Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. I. (1895).

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Second Report (1897)

“Have been studying economics, especially economic history, at Harvard Graduate School. Received degree of A.M. in ’95, [and Ph.D. in ’97. Subject of doctor’s thesis, ‘The English Woolen Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.’]”

Source: Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. II. (1897), pp. 96-97.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Third Report (1902)

“During the college year (’97-’98) was in England, holding a Rogers Fellowship. Since that time I have been teaching Economics at Harvard, aside from two months last winter on leave of absence to give a course on foreign travel at the University of Michigan. I have edited a new edition of the late Professor Dunbar’s little book on banking regularly used in Economics 1. I am now preparing essays for publication in book form.” [p. 106]

One publication listed [p. 191]:

Sprague, O.M.W. — “The German Coinage Act of 1900,” Quarterly Journal of Economics”.

Source: Harvard University Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. III. (1902).

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Fourth Report (1904)

Sprague, Oliver Mitchell Wentworth, Professor, 21 Stoughton Hall, Cambridge.

Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Source: Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. IV. (1904), p. 37.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Fifth Report (1909)

Both my father, William Wallace Sprague, and my mother, Miriam Wentworth Sprague, were discended [sic] from early New England settlers. I was born at Somerville, Massachusetts, and prepared for college at St. Johnsbury (Vermont) Academy.

In college I loafed egregiously the first two years, and then specialized in Political Science, in which, largely through habits acquired from an almost Scotch turn for disputation, I received at graduation, Highest Honors and therewith a summa cum. Beguiled by this rather unexpected success, I turned aside from the law — my first love — and entered the Graduate School where in due course I received the A.M. degree in 1895, and the degree of Ph.D. in 189.

The following year, I studied in England, holding a travelling fellowship. In the autumn of 1898, I returned to Harvard as Assistant in Economics, in which capacity I had the satisfaction of being of some slight use to Professor Dunbar, in his last years. From this, its lowest rung, I began the toilsome ascent of the academic ladder. From 1899 to 1901, I served as an annual Instructor, then came three years as a Faculty Instructor; and in 1904 I was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Economics. In 1905, I resigned this position, to accept a professor ship in the Tokio Imperial University. After three years in the Orient — a delightful episode — I accepted a cabled invitation to return to Harvard as an Assistant Professor, on second appointment, in Banking and Finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration. I have published a few articles on banking subjects and expect to publish many more. Am now engaged in preparing a report for the National Monetary Commission on the experience of the national banks during crises since the establishment of the system; and also a report upon banking in Japan.

Married Fanny Knight Ide, June 21, 1905, and have one child, Katherine Ide Sprague, born at Tokio, Japan, May 1, 1906. Address: 18 Sumner Road, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Source: Fifteenth Anniversary of the Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. V (1909), pp. 227-228.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Sixth Report (1914)
Born Somerville, Mass., April 22, 1873.
Parents William Wallace, Miriam (Wentworth) Sprague.
School St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Years in College 1890-1894.
Degrees A.B., 1894; A.M., 1896; Ph.D., 1897.
Married Fanny Knights Ide, St. Johnsbury, Vt., June 21, 1905.
Children Katharine Ide, May 1, 1906; Theodore Wentworth, Sept. 1, 1911.
Business University Professor.
Address 18 Sumner Road, Cambridge, Mass.

In 1898, I studied in England, holding a traveling fellowship. In the autumn of 1898, I returned to Harvard as assistant in Economics, in which capacity I had the satisfaction of being of some slight use to Professor Dunbar, in his last years. From this, its lowest rung, I began the toilsome ascent of the academic ladder. From 1899 to 1901, I served as an annual instructor, then came three years as a faculty instructor; and in 1904, I was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Economics. In 1905, I resigned this position, to accept a professorship in the Tokio Imperial University. After three years in the Orient – a delightful episode I accepted an invitation to return to Harvard as an Assistant Professor, on second appointment, in Banking and Finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration, and in March, 1913, I was appointed Edward Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance. I have written two books, a “History of Crises Under the National Banking System,” and “Banking Reform in the United States.” Member: Boston Harvard Club, American Economic Association.

Source: Twentieth Anniversary of the Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. VI (1914), pp. 207-208.

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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Seventh Report (1919)

Born at Somerville, Mass., April 22, 1873. Son of William Wallace and Miriam (Wentworth) Sprague. Prepared at St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

In College, 1890-94; Graduate School, 1894-98. Degrees: A.B. 1894; A.M. 1895; Ph.D. 1897.

Married to Fanny Knights Ide at St. Johnsbury Vt., June 21, 1905. Children: Katharine Ide, born May 1, 1906; Theodore Wentworth, born Sept. 1, 1911.

Occupation: Teaching.

Address: (home) 32 Bates St., Cambridge, Mass.; (business) Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

After obtaining the degree of Ph.D. in 1897, I received a travelling fellowship and spent the following year studying in England. In the autumn of 1898, I returned to Harvard as Assistant in Economics, in which capacity I had the satisfaction of being of some slight use to Professor Dunbar, in his last years.

From this, its lowest rung, I began the toilsome ascent of the academic ladder. From 1899 to 1901, I served as an annual instructor, then came three years as a faculty instructor; and in 1904, I was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Economics. In 1905 I resigned this position, to accept a professorship in the Tokio Imperial University. After three years in the Orient — a delightful episode — I accepted an invitation to return to Harvard as Assistant Professor of Banking and Finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration, and in March, 1913, I was appointed Edward Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance. I have written two books, a “History of Crises under the National Banking System,” and “Banking Reform in the United States,” and have revised and enlarged Dunbar’s “Theory and History of Banking.” During the war, I advocated in articles and in other ways the advisability of financing the contest mainly by taxation. I am convinced that such a policy was feasible and that it would have proved far less burdensome and much more equitable than the borrowing policy with its attendant inflation. Between July and December, 1918, I was in Washington engaged in work on reconstruction problems for the Council of National Defense. [pp. 411-12]

War Record
O. M. W. SPRAGUE

U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Member of the War Finance Committee and the Foreign Exchange Committee, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Reconstruction research worker, Council of National Defense, July-Dec., 1918.  [p. 550]

Publications
O. M. W. SPRAGUE

The English woolen industry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Doct. diss., 1897.

Ed. Chapter on theory and history of banking. By Charles Franklin Dunbar. 2d ed., enlarged. New York, Putnam’s, 1901, 1907, etc., pp. viii, 252, 3d ed. under title The theory and history of banking, 1917, pp. viii, 297.

Ed. Economic essays. By Charles Franklin Dunbar. New York, Macmillan, 1904, pp. xvii, 372.

History of crises under the national banking system. Washington, Gov’t Print. Off., 1910, 1911, pp. v, 484.

Banking reform in the United States. Reprints from Quart. Journ. Econ., 1910, pp. 176. Harv. Univ., 1911.

Loans and investments. (With others.) Amer. Inst. of Banking, N. Y., 1916, pp. 304.

Recent articles:

Proposals for strengthening the national banking system. Quart. Journ. Econ., xxiv (1910), pp. 44. [I. (February); II. (August); III. (November)]

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Quart. Journ. Econ., Feb., 1914.

The Federal Reserve system in operation. Ibid., Aug., 1916.

Loans and taxes in war finance. Amer. Econ. Ass’n Publ., Mar., 1917. [Discussion]

The crisis of 1914 in the United States. Amer. Econ. Rev., v (1915), pp. 35.

Financing “the armed nation.” Military Historian and Economist, Jan., 1916.

The relation between loan and taxes in war finance. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. and Soc. Sciences, Jan., 1918.

Labor and capital on reconstruction. Amer. Econ. Rev., Dec., 1918.

Source: Twentieth-fifth Anniversary of the Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. VII (1919), pp. 411-12.

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OLIVER M. SPRAGUE
Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance

Degrees: A.B., A.M., Ph.D. at Harvard.

History in brief: Unofficial activities for banking reform, preceding passage of the Federal Reserve Act. Unofficial activities designed to secure imposition of adequate, i.e., heavy, taxation during the Great War. Council of National Defense and War Trade Board, July to December, 1918. Assistant Professor, 1908–1913. Professor since 1913.

Source: Harvard Business School Year-Book, 1924-1925, p. 13.

Image Source: O.M.W. Sprague in the Harvard Class Album, 1915, colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Transportation

Harvard. Report assignment and exams for economics of transportation. Ripley, 1903-1904

William Zebina Ripley

 

William Zebina Ripley had recently published his chapter on transportation for the Industrial Commission’s Final report in 1902 so that a course on (mostly or almost exclusively) railroads would have been easy for him to teach. 

Bonus material: Here is a link to Appleton Prentiss Clark Griffin [I wonder what his friends called him], Chief Bibliographer of the U.S. Library of Commerce, A list of Books with Reference to Periodicals Relating to Railroads in their Relation to the Government and the Public [Second Issue]. Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1907.

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ECONOMICS 5
Enrollment, 1903-04

Economics 5 1hf. Professor Ripley. — Economics of Transportation.

Total 125: 9 Graduates, 50 Seniors, 45 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 5
ASSIGNMENT OF REPORTS

⇒  Exact references by title, volume, and page must be given in footnotes for all facts cited. This condition is absolutely imperative. Failure to comply with it will vitiate the entire report.

GROUP A

Students will report upon the organization and present character of one railway company in the United States. This will be indicated by a number, placed against each student’s name on the enrolment slip, which number refers to the railroad similarly numbered on this sheet. See Directions on last page.

The information to be procured is as follows, and should be numbered in correspondence with this list. Note all changes during the year; and compare the results with those for the railway group in which the company lies, as given in U. S. Statistics of Railways. (1) Miles of line. (2) Passengers transported. (3) Tons of freight carried: gross and per mile of line. (4) Tons carried one mile, with revenue per ton mile. (5) Revenue per train mile. (6) Gross earnings from operation. (7) Operating expenses: gross and per mile of line. (8) Net income from operation. (9) Stock and bonds. (10) Stock and bonds per mile of line. (11) Dividends paid. (12) Surplus. (13) Present prices and movements of prices of the various securities listed.

With this data as a basis prepare as full a general description of the property as possible.

GROUP B

Students will compare the volume of business (1) in gross and (2) by ton and (3) passenger mileage; and the (4) gross income, (5) operating expenses. (6) net income per mile of line, and (7) market prices of securities; for two different railways. These are indicated by numbers posted against the student’s name on the enrolment slip. The aim should be not only to discover differences, but, as far as possible, to explain them. Mere description of conditions is not desired; actual comparison is demanded. The use of parallel columns is suggested. See Directions on last page

With this data as a basis prepare as full a general description of the property as possible.

GROUP C

Students will compare the volume of business (1) in gross and (2) by ton and (3) passenger miles; together with the (4) gross income, (3) operating expenses, (5) net income per mile of line, and (7) prices of securities; for a given railway through a series of years, since 1890, if possible. Note carefully, however, all changes or additions to the line from year to year. The railway assigned is indicated by a number placed against the student’s name on the printed class lists. The analysis of annual reports in financial journals must be carefully followed year by year. Results may be plotted on cross section paper where possible. See Directions on last page.

With this data as a basis prepare as full a general description of the property as possible.

⇒  The letters preceding the assignment number against the student’s name refer to the group in which the report is to be made. Thus, for example: “26 A” on the enrolment slip indicates that the student is to report upon the New York Central R.R.; “16 & 37 B,” that a comparison of the Erie and the Wabash Railroads is expected, etc.

RAILWAY COMPANIES IN THE UNITED STATES

  1. Atchison, Topeka, and Sante Fé.
  2. Baltimore and Ohio.
  3. Canada Southern.
  4. Central of New Jersey.
  5. Chesapeake and Ohio.
  6. Chicago and Alton.
  7. Chicago Great Western.
  8. Chicago, Indiana, and Louisville.
  9. Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul.
  10. Chicago and Northwestern.
  11. Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific.
  12. Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, and St. Louis. (Big Four.)
  13. Delaware and Hudson.
  14. Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western.
  15. Denver and Rio Grande.
  16. Erie.
  17. Great Northern. (See Northern Securities Co., since 1900.)
  18. Hocking Valley.
  19. Illinois Central.
  20. Iowa Central.
  21. Lake Erie and Western.
  22. Louisville and Nashville.
  23. Mexican Central.
  24. Missouri, Kanas, and Texas.
  25. Missouri Pacific.
  26. New York Central.
  27. New York, Ontario, and Western.
  28. Norfolk and Western.
  29. Pennsylvania.
  30. Philadelphia and Reading.
  31. Louis and San Francisco.
  32. Louis Southwestern.
  33. Southern Pacific.
  34. Southern Railway.
  35. Texas and Pacific.
  36. Union Pacific.
  37. Wabash.
  38. Wheeling and Lake Erie.
  39. Wisconsin Central.
  40. Ann Arbor.
  41. Atlantic Coast Line.
  42. Boston and Maine.
  43. Boston and Albany. (See New York Central.)
  44. Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh.
  45. Central Vermont.
  46. Central Railroad of New Jersey.
  47. Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton.
  48. Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha. (See Chicago and Northwestern.)
  49. Chicago and Eastern Illinois.
  50. Pittsburgh, Evansville, and Terre Haute.
  51. Lehigh Valley.
  52. Long Island.
  53. New York, New Haven, and Hartford.
  54. New York, Chicago, and St. Louis.
  55. Lake Shore and Michigan Southern. (See New York Central.)
  56. Maine Central.
  57. Pittsburgh, Bessemer, and Lake Erie.
  58. Western Maryland.
  59. Rio Grande Western.
  60. Paul and Duluth.
  61. Northern Pacific. (See Northern Securities Co.)
  62. Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Northern.
  63. Joseph and Grand Island.
  64. Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Memphis.
  65. International and Great Northern.
  66. Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis.
  67. Mobile and Ohio.
  68. Yazoo and Mississippi Valley. (See Illinois Central.)
  69. Plant System.
  70. Georgia Railroad and Banking Company.
  71. Central of Georgia.
  72. Pere Marquette.
  73. Columbus, Sandusky, and Hocking.
  74. Cleveland, Lorain, and Wheeling.
  75. Mexican Central.
  76. Grand Trunk.
  77. Canadian Pacific.
  78. Chicago, Burlington, and Quiney. (See Northern Securities Co.)
  79. Choctaw, Oklahoma, and Gulf.
  80. Rutland.
  81. Seaboard Air Line.
  82. Northern Securities Co.

DIRECTIONS

First — Secure if possible by correspondence, enclosing ten cents postage, the last or recent annual reports of the company. P.O. addresses are given in Poor’s Manual of Railways; the Official Guide of Railways in the United States; the Investors’ Supplement, N. Y. Commercial and Financial Chronicle [e.g.: 31 Jan 1903; 25 Apr 1903; 25 Jul 1903]; or bankers’ and stock exchange Handbooks, Manuals of Statistics, etc.

Second. — Before compiling any returns for ton or passenger mileage, revenue per train mile, etc., read carefully Ripley, Transportation, pp. 274-280 and 293-95;  [James Shirley] Eaton, Railway Operations [1900], pp. 190-201; or [Thomas Francis] Woodlock, Anatomy of a Railroad Report [1895], pp. 101-111.

Third. — Work back carefully through the file of the Investors’ Supplement, N. Y. Commercial and Financial Chronicle. These Supplements, prior to 1902, are bound in with the regular issues of the Chronicle, one number in each volume. Since 1901 they are separately bound for each year. The Investors’Supplement will be recognized by its gray paper cover, and must be carefully distinguished from the other supplements of the Chronicle. Market prices of securities are given in a distinct Bank and Quotation Supplement, also bound up with the Chronicle. Having found the company in the Investors’ Supplement, follow up all references to articles in the Commercial and Financial Chronicle as given by volume and page. Also use the general index of the latter, separately, for each year since the company was organized.

The files of Bradstreets should also be used, noting carefully that the index in each volume is in three separate divisions, “Editorials” being the most important. The course of prices is summarized at the end of each year in January Bradstreets, and also in the Reports of the U.S. Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII.

The files of Poor’s Manual, the Railway Age, the Railway World, the Wall Street Journal, and other technical papers may of course also be consulted.

Fourth. — Analyze carefully by means of its indexes the returns in the official Statistics of Railways in the United States, published by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Note the statistical division into groups shown on the map at the head of each volume. Note also that for each railway lying in two or more groups, a Summary for the road as a whole is given as a Supplement to each table.

The Annual Statistical Abstract of the United States contains convenient general tables for certain purposes

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder: “Economics 1903-04”.

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ECONOMICS 5
[Half course, first semester]
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

  1. State five of the most important provisions of the Act to Regulate Commerce; and very briefly state, in each case, the present condition as regards its enforcement.
  2. Outline the legal reasoning by which the original meaning of the Long and Short Haul clause has been modified in the Act of 1887.
  3. What is,—
    1. A collateral trust bond?
    2. A debenture?
    3. A receiver’s certificate?
  4. What are two ways adopted for insuring the continued control of a railway through a series of years?
  5. Outline the course of a typical reorganization.
  6. What are the main provisions of the Elkins Amendments to the Interstate Commerce Law?
  7. What is the present condition of railway control by the government in the United Kingdom?
  8. Of what does trade on the Great Lakes mainly consist? Outline its development.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

Image Source: Harvard University Archives.  William Zebina Ripley [photographic portrait, ca. 1910], J. E. Purdy & Co., J. E. P. & C. (1910). Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Midyear examination in statistics. Ripley, 1903-1904

Young William Zebina Ripley

 

For some unknown reason the June collection of spring semester exams in 1903-04 for the economics courses in the Harvard economics department does not include the year-end examination for Professor William Z. Ripley’s statistics course. It is for this reason that today’s post is limited to the fall semester final examination questions only. Fortunately the exams for both semesters from 1901-02 and 1902-03 have been posted earlier together with the published course description.

Ripley’s short bibliography for social statistics (1910) with links to all its  items listed has been posted as well, so we have a fairly good idea of the course content for statistics à la Ripley in the first decade of the 20th century.

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ECONOMICS 4
Enrollment, 1903-04

Economics 4. Professor Ripley. — Statistics — Theory, method, and practice.

Total 10: 8 Graduates, 2 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 4
Mid-Year Examination, 1903-04

  1. “After the age of five the ‘expectation’ decreases with advancing years, but even at a very advanced age, the chance of surviving the following year is greater than the probability of dying during the year.” — Mayo Smith, p. 170. What does this mean including definition of “expectation of life”?
  2. In what respects is the census of 1900 a distinct improvement over its predecessor?
  3. What is the relative value of three possible bases for estimation of population in advance of an actual count?
  4. The death rate for urban districts of the U. S. in 1900 was 17.8; while that for rural registration areas was 15.4. What are the main reasons for the difference?
  5. What is a life table; and what does it show?
  6. What is Kuczynski’s main conclusion respecting the fecundity of the Massachusetts population? Wherein lies the remedy?
  7. How may the marriage rate most properly be defined?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

Image Source: MIT Museum website. William Zebina Ripley. Image colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Sociology

Harvard. Examinations for Principles of Sociology. Carver, 1903-1904

Thomas Nixon Carver

 

A book of course readings for Thomas Nixon Carver’s principles of sociology was published about one year later: Sociology and Social Progress: A Handbook for Students of Sociology. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1905.

A linked reading list for the course taught jointly by Carver and Ripley from 1902-03 has been posted earlier along with a course description and semester examination questions.

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ECONOMICS 3
Enrollment, 1903-04

Economics 3. Professor Carver. — Principles of Sociology — Theories of Social Progress.

Total 61: 8 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 20 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 3
Mid-Year Examination, 1903-04

  1. What does Spencer mean by Super-organic Evolution?
  2. Explain the distinction between active and passive adaptation.
  3. What are the reasons for and against regarding society as an organism?
  4. In what sense are human interests antagonistic, and in what sense are they harmonious?
  5. How is the increase of population limited, and how does the density of population affect social development?
  6. What are the reasons for and against adopting the conception of the social mind?
  7. Contrast Spencer’s militant and industrial types of society; also Patten’s pain and pleasure economy.
  8. What is meant by the “power of idealization,” and how does it affect the process of adaptation?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

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ECONOMICS 3
Year-End Examination, 1903-04

  1. Explain Spencer’s distinction between the militant and the industrial types of society.
  2. How would you define progress? Defend your definition.
  3. How does the density of population affect the organization of society?
  4. How does Gidding’s ultimate social fact compare with Adam Smith’s theory of sympathy as the basis of the moral sentiments?
  5. What, according to Bagehot, are the principal uses of conflict?
  6. Explain Kidd’s view as to the place of religion in social progress. What do you think of his position?
  7. What are the leading theories as to the basis on which wealth ought to be distributed, and what are the claims of each?
  8. What is meant by the storing of social energy, and what are the principal means by which it can be accomplished?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, June 1904, pp. 27-28.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Examination Questions in Economic Theory. Taussig and Carver, 1903-1904

 

Frank Taussig resumed teaching at Harvard in the fall semester of 1903 following his leave of absence for health reasons. Economic theory was his most important course and it was split between him (first semester) and Thomas Nixon Carver (second term) during 1903-04. It is striking to see how different their examination styles were. Carver appears to have taught a catechism of doctrine in contrast to Taussig’s attempt to teach some economic reasoning. Thereafter Taussig taught his course right up to his retirement.  Joseph Schumpeter then picked up the economic theory mantle in the spring semester of 1935.

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Course Enrollment
Economics 2, 1903-04

Economics 2. Professors Taussig and Carver. — Economic Theory.

Total 23: 9 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 2
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
One question may be omitted.

  1. Do you conceive wages to be determined in amount by capital, or to be paid from capital, in these cases:—
    1. a railway which collects its receipts before pay-day comes around;
    2. a farmer who pays his laborers after the crop has been harvested and sold;
    3. a workingmen’s society for coöperative production which makes advances to members from week to week, and adds a final payment when the season’s or year’s operations have been concluded?
  2. State carefully how you conceive Walker to define the “no-profits” line; how he distinguishes between business profits and wages; and whether there is a vicious circle in his reasoning as to the residual element in distribution.
  3. Suppose a tax to be levied on a commodity subject to the law of diminishing returns, and the proceeds to be used for a bounty on a commodity produced under conditions of increasing return, — how would the welfare of the community presumably be affected?
    Assume now that the first commodity is an article of comfort, the second an article of luxury, — would your conclusion be different?
    Reverse the assumption, and suppose the first commodity to be one of luxury, the second one of comfort, — would your conclusion be still different?
  4. “We might as reasonably dispute whether it is the upper blade of a pair of scissors or the lower that cuts a piece of paper, as whether value is governed by utility or cost of production. It is true that when one blade is held still, and the cutting is effected by moving the other, we may say with careless brevity that the cutting is done by the second; but the statement is not strictly accurate, and is to be excused only so long as it claims to be merely a popular and not a strictly scientific account of what actually happens.”
    Explain, with reference to commodities produced under the conditions of

monopoly;
constant returns;
increasing returns.

  1. Explain prime cost, total cost, supplementary cost; and consider their relation to quasi-rent.
  2. Would Marshall say that there was true rent in the case of, —

a very profitable silver mine;
a valuable site in a town like Pullman;
a successful business man.

Why or why not in each case?

  1. Suppose it were provided by law that the rent of premises used for wholesale or retail trading should not exceed interest on the cost of the buildings (with due allowance for depreciation and the like), what would be the effects on landlords and tenants, and on the prices of the articles sold?
  2. “A rich man abstains from the consumption of his superfluous wealth, and is scarcely conscious, perhaps quite unconscious, of having suffered any deprivation whatever. On the other hand, the same or a much smaller amount of wealth reserved from personal consumption by an artisan or a small tradesman will frequently demand the most rigorous self-denial….And it is similar with labor. The laborious effort fitted to produce a given result does not represent the same sacrifice for different people: it is one thing for the strong, another for the weak; one for the trained workman, another for the raw beginner. This being so, the questions arises — How are such differences to be dealt with in computing cost of production? The answer must be that the sacrifices to be taken account of, and which govern exchange value, are not those undergone by A, B, or C, but the average sacrifices undergone by the class of laborers or capitalists to which the producers of the commodity belong.”— Cairnes. Would you accede to this conclusion as to capitalists? as to laborers?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

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ECONOMICS 2
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

  1. Compare Clark’s theory of business profits with Walker’s.
  2. Compare Clark’s concept of the static state with Marshall’s concept of the equilibrium of demand and supply.
  3. Compare Clark’s theory of the rent of land with the classical theory.
  4. Compare Clark’s definition of capital with Taussig’s.
  5. Compare the doctrine of the wage fund, as stated by J. S. Mill. with Marshall’s theory of “joint demand.”
  6. What are the chief factors which give elasticity to the wage fund?
  7. How does Böhm-Bawerk connect the discounting of the future with the interest of capital?
  8. How does Clark make out that rent and interest are only different aspects of the same income?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, June 1904, p. 27.

Image Source:  Frank W. Taussig (left) and Thomas Nixon Carver (right) from Harvard Class Album 1906. Images colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles Undergraduate

Harvard. Exam questions for Principles of Economics. Taussig and Andrew, 1903-1904

Frank W. Taussig & A. Piatt Andrew

After the longest break from posting since I began this blog almost eight years ago, I now return to regular posting for most of the rest of this month (May 2023).

We resume our slow march through the economics exams at Harvard in the first decade of the 20th century with the semester examinations for the undergraduate introductory course in economics for the academic year 1903-04. The division of labor between A. P. Andrew and Frank Taussig appears to have been Taussig being responsible for the first semester with his junior partner Andrew taking over for the second semester. This would be consistent with the fact  that the year-end examination was not included in Taussig’s personal scrapbook of course examinations [Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935  (Scrapbook)]. 

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Course Enrollment, 1903-04

Economics 1. Professor Taussig, Asst. Professor Andrew, and five assistants. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 529: 1 Graduate, 15 Seniors, 108 Juniors, 279 Sophomores, 72 Freshmen, 54 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1903-1904, p. 66.

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Economics 1
Mid-Year Examination. 1903-04

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer nine questions, and give your reasons for all answers.

  1. Is it advantageous to laborers, temporarily or permanently, that there should be (1) large government expenditures for military purposes; (2) large government expenditures for improvements in transportation; (3) luxurious expenditure by the rich; (4) savings by the rich? (You are free to discuss these separately, or as one general question.)
  2. Which of the following are productive laborers (1) according to Mill’s distinction, (2) in your own opinion:—

an actor;
a grain merchant;
one who engages in “commercial speculation”,
one who engages in “industrial speculation”;
one who engages in stock speculation.

  1. Will the population of a country be able to increase more rapidly when there is immigration than when there is not? Will it probably increase more rapidly?
  2. Suppose the variations in the fertility of land to be offset precisely by disadvantage in situation — the more distant land being the more fertile, the nearer land the less fertile — would there be rent? Would your answer be the same or different, according as you assume the whole of the land to be under cultivation, or some parts of it to be not yet in use?
  3. The significance of the principle of demand and supply, as regards (1) perishable commodities, (2) durable commodities, (3) monopolized commodities, — wherein different, wherein the same?
  4. How far is the proposition that the value of commodities conforms to their cost of production affected by (1) the varying rent of land; (2) the use of fixed capital (plant) on a great scale; (3) the growth of combinations?
  5. Is there a tendency to equality in the return to capital? in net profits (“business profits”)? in gross profits?
  6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the regulation of combinations and monopolies by (1) limitations of profits, (2) fixing of prices charged to the public, (3) enforcement of farsighted management?
  7. Suppose all education and training to be gratuitous, and all obstacles to the free choice of occupations removed: would there be differences of wages? If so, of what sort? If not, why not?
  8. How do you conceive the remuneration for labor to be determined in a socialistic community? Wherein is the underlying principle different from that in existing society? What do you believe to be the essential merit or defect, or both, of the socialist principle?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1903-04.

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Economics 1
Year-End Examination. 1903-04

Write answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Omit one question from each group.

I
  1. Differences of wages are sometimes due to the presence of competition, sometimes to its absence. Give examples of each.
  2. What factors tend to prevent the rate of interest from an excessive rise? from an excessive fall?
  3. What would be the effect upon the wealth of a community
    1. if landlords gave up all claims to rent?
    2. if all production took place upon the margin of cultivation?
    3. if the price of all agricultural produce were legally fixed at the average cost of production?
  4. What influences govern the value on the New York market of
    1. coffee?
    2. structural steel?
    3. hides?
II
  1. Under normal conditions in the United States the par of exchange on London is $4.866, and the value of 23.2 grains of gold is $1.00. Suppose that the market price of gold was quoted at 5 cents per grain, and exchange on London was quoted at $5.65. What would this indicate
    1. as to the balance of trade?
    2. as to the character of the currency?
  2. President Lincoln is reported to have said: “When we buy a ton of steel rails abroad, we get the rails and the foreigner gets the money; but when we buy a ton of steel rails produced at home, we get both the rails and the money.”
    Give your opinion of this statement as an argument for protection.
  3. “The fact that the greenbacks have circulated at par for more than a quarter of a century is a strong guarantee that their retention in limited amount, always promptly redeemable, has not proved a mistake.”
    State briefly the history of the greenbacks, and give your opinion of this statement with reasons.
  4. “They also urge — and this is in some respects their strongest argument — that a slowly depreciating currency is better than a slowly appreciating one.” — Hadley.
    Explain and criticise, stating the effect of a depreciating standard upon each of the four great shares in distribution.

III

  1. Given

Capital, $100.000;
Loans, $250.000;
Deposits, $240.000.

Complete and balance the account to show the condition of a National bank in New York city with a reasonable circulation giving in detail the items concerning the issue and securing of notes. How would the items probably differ, if the bank was located it Yonkers?

  1. Does an increase in bank notes add (1) to the amount, and (2) to the elasticity of the total currency in
    1. the United States?
    2. England?
    3. France?
    4. Germany?
  2. In the present industrial combinations how far have the economies of large scale and centralized production resulted in benefit to consumers? Give reasons.
  3. What four changes in industrial conditions resultant from the introduction of the factory system have influenced the character of modern trade-unionism?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, … in Harvard College, June 1904, pp. 25-27.

Image Sources:  Frank W. Taussig (Original black and white image from of Frank William Taussig from a cabinet card photograph, 1895, at the Harvard University Archives HUP); Abram Piatt Andrews (Picture from ca. 1909 used in a magazine article about Andrew’s appointment to the directorship of the U. S. Mint. Hoover Institution Archives. A. Piatt Andrew Papers, Box 51). Images colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Law and Economics

Harvard. Principles of Law for Economics. Course description, enrollment, final exams. Wyman, 1902-1903

 

In addition to a course in accounting that was introduced into the undergraduate curriculum at Harvard for students expecting to go on into business, the following course taught by a young Law School lecturer, Bruce Wyman (b. 15 June 1875; d. 21 June 1926) was offered to provide future businessmen an overview of commercial and trade law. In the announcement for the previous academic year students expecting to go to study law had been explicitly not encouraged to take the course.

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Earlier posts concerning
Prof Bruce Wyman

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-law-and-economics-syllabus-and-exams-wyman-1901-1902/

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-course-with-a-snapper-problem-1910/

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Obituary of Bruce Wyman (1876-1926)

PROF BRUCE WYMAN DIES AT WABAN HOME
Well Known as Authority on Railroad Rates
Taught at Harvard Law and Wrote Many Text Books

NEWTON. June 21—Prof Bruce Wyman, internationally-known authority on public service corporations, railroad rates and restraint of trade, died of heart disease today at his home, 15 Winnetaska road, Waban. He recently had celebrated his 50th birthday anniversary.

Born in Hyde Park, June 15, 1876, the son of Ferdinand A. and Harriet Ann (Bruce) Wyman, he prepared for Harvard at the Chauncy Hall School, Boston, being graduated with the highest possible honors. He was equally distinguished at Harvard, from which he was graduated in 1896. He continued his studies, receiving his master of arts from Harvard the next year and was graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1900.

Prof Wyman made an enviable record during the eight years at Harvard and was once made a member of the faculty of the Law School, making a specialty of public carriers and the laws pertaining to them. He held his position at Harvard until 1914, when he voluntarily resigned following testimony before the Public Service Commission at a railroad hearing that he was retained by the New Haven Railroad.

Wrote Many Books

He did not stop his scholastic work, however, but became a lecturer In the Chicago Law School and Blackstone Institute, and later became affiliated with the Portia Law School of Boston, teaching there for nine years and also serving as its secretary.

His scholarly labors also included the writing of a great mass of papers on his field and he published many books, some of them becoming text books at various schools and universities. Among his books are: “Restraint of Trade,” “Mortgage Securities,” “Administrative Law,” “Railroad Rate Regulation,” “Public Utilities,” “Control of the Market,” “Public Service Corporations.”

Prof Wyman also carried on a considerable practice in Boston and Washington. His office in Boston was at 291 Washington st. From 1900 to 1908, he was engaged in general work, but from then on he entered more and more into a consultive practice. He was retained by the New Haven Railroad for years, having charge of all claims filed before the Interstate Commerce Commission in reference to the road. The New York Central and many other railroads also retained him. He was also counsel for the National Civic Association and an investigator for the Directors of the Port of Boston. As an outstanding authority in his field, Gov Eugene Foss called him into consultation and game him an active part in the framing of the Public Service Commission Act.

Funeral Tomorrow

Prof Wyman was married June 30, 1902, to Ethel Andrews of Cambridge. Before moving to his late home in Waban he lived at 16 Quincy st, Cambridge. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and the Theta Delta Chi Fraternities, was a Republican in politics and an Episcopalian in religion. He was also a member of many social organizations of Boston, Newton, Cambridge, New York and Washington.

He is survived by his wife; a son, Andrews Wyman, who will be graduated from Harvard this week; a daughter, Rosemary Wyman, a student at Wellesley; a sister, Miss Martha A. Wyman of Somerville, and a brother, Walter F. Wyman of Arlington.

Funeral services will be held at the old Wyman home town of Littleton on Wednesday. Services will be conducted at the Littleton Unitarian Church and at Westlawn Cemetery.

Source: The Boston Globe (June 22, 1926), p. 23.

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Course Description
Economics 21
1902-03

  1. *The Principles of Law in their Application to Industrial Problems. — Competition and Combination. , Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri. at 11. Mr. Wyman.

This course considers certain rules of the law governing the course of modern trade and the organization of modern industry. The commercial law is thus taken up at large in its application to the conduct of modern business. The aim of the course is to give to students who mean to enter business life some contact with the law and some understanding of the legal point of view. At the same time the problems brought forward are actual and the rules of law discussed are specific, so that the instruction may prove of service in a business career. As the course deals with adjudication and legislation on questions of first importance in the economic development of modern times, it may also be of advantage to those who wish to equip themselves for the intelligent discussion of issues having both legal and economic aspects.

In 1902-03 five principal topics will be discussed: Competition — Combination — Incorporation — Consolidation — State Control. In Competition the first issue is the extent to which competition is allowed: in some cases competition is free, in other cases it is unfree. Competition is legal unless there is franchise. The second issue is the methods by which competition is permitted: in some cases competition is fair, in other cases it is unfair. Fraud, Disparagement, and Coercion are not legal. In Combination in Restraint of Trade, the division is between a suppression of competition and a regulation of competition. For example, the railroad pool is illegal, the factors agreement is legal. Thus it is seen that a combination which involves unreasonable restraint and unfair competition is illegal, while if it involves reasonable restraint and fair competition it is legal. Here are examined the corner and the strike. In the Corporation only the main principles involved are taken up: the organization of the corporation and the administration of the corporation. In the treatment of the Consolidation all the previous discussion is summoned up. The public problems presented by the reorganization of the industrial system, now going on so fast, is one question; what regulation of combination there should be, is the other. The most stress is laid upon the last topic — State Control. The proper regulation of the public callings — the railroads and the like — is discussed at much length; so also is the proper police of the private callings — the factories and the like.

The conduct of this course will be by the reading and discussion of cases from the law reports. The cases selected cover the whole field of the industries and the whole course of the trades, so that both fact and law involved are informing. Course 21 is designed for Seniors and graduate students who intend to enter business. If any others wish to take the course they must obtain written consent of the instructor.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science  [Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics], 1902-03. Published in The University Publications, New Series, no. 55. June 14, 1902.

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Course Enrollment
Economics 21
1902-03

Economics 21. Mr. Wyman. — Principles of Law in their application to Industrial Problems.

Total 58: 4 Gr., 33 Se., 13 Ju., 2 So., 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.

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Course Examinations
Economics 21
1902-03

ECONOMICS 21
Mid-Year Examination
1902-03

Answer eight questions. Give reasons with care.

  1. The Bradford Gas Company was chartered to supply gas in Bradford; the Pudsey Gas Company in a similar way was engaged in the supply of gas in Pudsey. It appeared in evidence that the Bradford Company was about to furnish gas to a large mill inside the city limits of Pudsey. May the Pudsey Company have an injunction?
  2. The makers of Vance’s Infant Food advertise that “Vance’s Food is far more nutritious and healthful than Mellen’s Food; experience shows that babies grow fatter on Vance’s Food than on any other; the analysis by our expert Dr. Muspratt shows that Vance’s Food has 98 per cent. nutritive elements to 78 per cent. such elements in Mellin’s Food.” The proprietors of Mellen’s Food sue the proprietors of Vance’s Food, and in their statement offer to prove the superiority of Mellen’s Food to Vance’s Food in all respects. How will the case probably be decided?
  3. A travelling agent of the Globe Stove Works goes through the Southwest getting small dealers to sign contracts for stoves. The travelling agent of the World Stove Works crosses his track often. In several instances the agent of the World Company, acting under orders from headquarters, makes a special price to dealers that have bought from the Globe Works, and induces them to cancel their orders for Globe stoves and buy the World stoves. Has the Globe Company any remedy against the World Company?
  4. A biscuit company begins the sale of a product which they call the “Uneeda biscuit.” Another company later begins the sale of “Iwanta biscuit.” The makers of the “Uneeda biscuit” bring a bill against the makers of “Iwanta biscuit” for an injunction. They next institute a process to get registration of “Uneeda” as their trademark. What is the probable fate of each proceeding? Can they succeed in both?
  5. The National Harrow Company send broadcast the following circular: “We believe that we have the patents, and we have determined henceforth to sue any dealer handling these infringing harrows wherever they are found.” The infringing harrows referred to were those of the Davison Company. During the year following these circulars the business of the Davison Company fell off 50 per cent. In the year after that the Supreme Court decided in one of the suits which the National Company had prosecuted in good faith that their principal patents were invalid. The Davison Company now sue the National Company for damages done their business by the circulars quoted above. What decision?
  6. There are two ice manufacturing companies in a Southern city. The second makes a lease of all its plant to the first for ten years for a high rental; then the first leases this same plant to third parities to be used only as a storehouse; thereupon the first ice company increases its rate 50 per cent. according to the previous understanding with the second company. This situation lasts for a year, when a new third company constructs a new plant with modern machinery and puts its rates at 50 per cent. below the first company. The first company reduces its rates, and thereupon refuses to pay the full rental to the second company according to the terms of the lease. What rights has the second company against the first company?
  7. The Steel Workers Union declares a strike at the steel mills to get an increase of wages. A picket of six men is placed by the Union, two at each end of the block and two at the mill gate, to persuade new workmen that this is a just strike, and that therefore they should not seek employment. Can the employers have an injunction against their employees?
  8. A retail lumber association agrees not to buy lumber of any wholesale lumber dealer who sells direct to customers. A certain wholesale dealer begins to sell to customers direct in car load lots only. Thereupon the executive committee of the lumber association sends notices to all members, warning them not to buy any lumber of this wholesale dealer upon penalty of a fine to be paid in accordance with the by-laws. May the wholesale dealer sue the members of the association for damages caused thereby to his business?
  9. The makers of the Cow Brand of saleratus make an arrangement with jobbers that if the jobbers will not sell any saleratus below five cents per pound, the makers of the Cow Brand will grant those jobbers a special discount upon settlement of bills. The makers of the Bull Brand, an inferior quality, are thereby damaged, since the jobbers can make no sales of the Bull Brand under those circumstances. May the makers of the Bull Brand sue the makers of the Cow Brand?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations 1852-1943. Box 6. Papers (in the bound volume Examination Papers Mid-years 1902-1903).

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ECONOMICS 21
Year-end Examination
1902-03

Answer nine questions.

  1. A, B, and C, who comprise all the stockholders in the Central Mfg. Co., execute a deed to X, in their names, describing themselves as sole owners of all the shares in the Central Mfg. Co., which deed purports to convey to X the mill owned by the corporation. The next day A, B, and C hold a corporation meeting, and vote to sell the same mill to Y; the proper officers of the corporation accordingly execute a deed in the name of the corporation to Y. Who gets the mill, X or Y? Both pay full value and neither has notice of the other.
  2. A general incorporation act provides that seven persons may, by subscribing their names to a memorandum of association, form a corporation. A and six clerks of A sign the memorandum. The capital stock is fixed at $200,000. At the subscription A agrees to take 994 shares and the others one each. The corporation agrees to take the factory of A at a valuation of $150,000, which is not unreasonable. The corporation, in pursuance of the bargain, issues to A $99,400 in paid up shares and $56,000 in first mortgage bonds. The business of the corporation is begun and one B subscribes to $100,000 of the shares, for which he pays $50,000. Later the business incurs debts to the amount of $90,000, which it cannot meet. Finally it fails, with $50,000 assets left. What shall be done?
  3. Bill in equity by a minority stockholder in a cotton manufacturing company, alleging (1) that the majority are about to expend half the capital in purchasing cotton at such a high price that it will be impossible to manufacture it at a profit; (2) that the majority are about to purchase a steamboat to run in opposition to the existing line of freight boats. Will the stockholders get an injunction in either (1) or (2)?
  4. A gets a mining corporation formed to buy of him a certain gold mine which he has bought for $10,000, — that is all he believes it to be worth; but he unloads it upon his dummy corporation for $100,000. The stock in this corporation is sold to the public upon a glowing prospectus. Strangely enough, the gold mine upon working proves to be worth $500,000. Has the corporation any right to sue A now?
  5. The directors in a bank do no more than examine the quarterly summaries of the general manager and compare them with the report of the chief auditor. It turns out that the manager and the auditor have been in collusion all the time for five years to cover up embezzlements and divide the plunder. When the bank fails in consequence the directors are sued by the depositors. What decision?
  6. A partnership pool is formed between four oil corporations that have control of 80% of the product of their district. By the terms of it all expenses and all receipts are to be pooled and the net earnings paid over at the end of every year in proportion to capitalization. At the end of the second year three of the corporations divide up the profits and refuse to give the fourth anything. The fourth brings suit. What will it recover?
  7. A securities corporation is formed under the laws of a State which permits a corporation to hold stock in another corporation. This corporation purchases by exchanges of its stock 90% of the stock of the X railroad and 90% of the stock of the Y railroad. The X railroad and the Y railroad lie in distant States, the laws of which forbid consolidation of competing railroads such as the X and Y railroads are throughout. Is this attempted merger legal?
  8. A railroad corporation refuses to pay its engineers $3.75, an increase of 10% over previous per diem wages. Accordingly the engineers quit work; but, although they watch the situation closely, they offer no show of force. The railroad posts a notice that no more freight will be received until further notice. Have they a legal right to do this?
  9. A gas company publishes a rule that customers who wish gas must deposit $25. However, gas is furnished to a man who lives on X Street for a month on credit. When he moves to Y Street he refuses to pay for gas consumed at X Street, and the company refuses to supply him with gas at Y Street until he does. The man thereupon tenders the company $25 deposit and demands gas in Y Street; he is refused again and now brings suit. What decision?
  10. A telephone company also furnishes a messenger service as a separate part of its business. A company which only furnishes messenger service applies for a telephone. The telephone come refuses on the ground that their messenger business will be injured thereby. Is this refusal justifiable?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 6. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, History of Religions, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College, June 1903 (in the bound volume Examination Papers 1902-1903).