Category: Harvard

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Economists Harvard

Harvard. Copy of Schumpeter’s letter to Crum regarding Samuelson’s course performance, 1936

Following the last post that provided a transcription of Joseph Schumpeter’s letter of recommendation for Marion Crawford, this post gives us a glimpse of the 20 year old “youngster” who would marry Marion Crawford a few years later.

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Schumpeter asking for instructor feedback for Samuelson’s SSRC fellowship

February 12, 1936

Prof. Leonard Crum
Holyoke 46

Dear Leonard:

You know, perhaps you don’t, that the Social Science Research Council has now adopted a policy for their pre-doctoral fellowships to ask a man to act as what they call a sponsor to the fellow. I am acting in this capacity for Samuelson and it is part of my duties to collect opinions from his other teachers to send to them so that they know how their lambs are shaping up, and notably whether they should get an extension for another year.

Samuelson seems to have done very well in your course. In any case, I would be very grateful if you would be good enough to send me or to sent [sic] the Social Science Research Council (Committee on Social Research Personnel, R. H. Shryock, 230 Park Avenue, New York City) your opinion about that youngster.

I really feel that I need not apologize for intruding upon you during your well earned rest because I believe that this little bit of official business will make you feel sweet liberty from the rest all the more intensely.

With best wishes,

J. A. Schumpeter

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers, 1930-1961. Box 21, Folder “Joseph A. Schumpeter 1933-1942”.

Image Source: Original black-and-white photo of Samuelson from the slideshow at the M.I.T. Memorial Service (April 10, 2010).  Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Economists Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Schumpeter Letter Supporting Marion Crawford, 1937

Paul Samuelson’s first wife (they were married in Cambridge in 1938) and mother of their six children, Marion Estelle Crawford (b. 1915, d. 1978) graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Radcliffe in 1937, with an A.B. summa cum laude in economics. For graduate study she was awarded a Harvard Annex Fellowship in 1937-38.   In 1938-39 she received an Augustus Anson Whitney and Benjamin White Whitney Fellowship. She was awarded an A.M. in economics in 1940. Her sole publication was “The Australian Case for Protection Reexamined” (Quarterly Journal of Economics, November 1939). Her New York Times obituary closed with the sentence “She retired when her first child was born in 1946.”  It was still a time when motherhood was an absorbing state.

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High-School Honours

Source: Berlin High School (Wisconsin) 1933 Yearbook Mascoutin, pp. 16-17.

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Senior Yearbook Picture
Radcliffe, 1937

Source; The Radcliffe 30 and 7, p. 48.

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Copy of Joseph Schumpeter’s letter supporting Marion Crawford’s application for a fellowship

February 11, 1937

Dr. Bernice Cronkhite, Dean
Radcliffe College
Cambridge, Massachusetts

This is to support Miss Marion Crawford’s application for a fellowship for the next academic year. There cannot be any doubt but that she is one of our best students and that every effort should be made to make her further study financially possible. She proves her ability by the fact that, being a senior, she takes graduate courses with the utmost ease, and in fact much better than most of the graduates, whether male or female. Her equipment should prove particularly useful in the present state of economics, and I feel confident that her work will do credit to her and to Radcliffe.

Very sincerely yours,

J. A. Schumpeter

Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers, 1930-1961. Box 21, Folder “Joseph A. Schumpeter 1933-1942”.

Image Source: Detail from a black-and-white photo of Marion Crawford and Paul Samuelson from the slideshow at the M.I.T. Memorial Service for Paul Samuelson (April 10, 2010).  Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate courses taken by John F. Kennedy, Class of 1940

 

In an earlier post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror presented James Laurence Laughlin’s recollection of Theodore Roosevelt’s economics education at Harvard.

This post moves us forward to the graduate of the Class of 1940, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who it took the standard two term principles of economics followed by three semester courses in economics at Harvard. The future president was a concentrator in the government department which accounted for much more of his studies.

We begin with a complete list of the courses taken by Kennedy that is probably not untypical for your average government major except for maybe the junior semester abroad to England where his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., happened to be serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

As it turns out, material for three of the courses taken by Kennedy have already been transcribed and posted.

Economics A. Principles of Economics (1936-37).
Economics 11b. Economics of Socialism (2nd term, 1940).
Economics 62b. Industrial Organization and Control (2nd term, 1940).

To help complete the picture this post adds the final examination for Kennedy’s junior year course Economics 61a, The Corporation and its Regulation. The reading list for this course used in the following year (Kennedy’s senior year, 1939-40) has been transcribed and posted earlier.

Fun fact: Nobel prize economist and economic adviser to JFK, Professor James Tobin of Yale was a fellow student in the Principles of Economics course taken by Kennedy. Plot spoiler: Tobin got an A in Economics A.

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Undergraduate Courses Taken by John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Class of 1940

Note: Second term senior year courses are listed without a final grade because final examination were waived for the history, government, and economics division honors examination

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY
S.B. cum laude June 20, 1940
Field of Concentration Government

Freshman year (1936-37)

English A. Rhetoric and English Composition, Oral and Written. (Not Required)

English 1. History and Development of English Literature in Outline. Professor Munn. (C)

Economics A. Principles of Economics. Professor Burbank. (B)

History 1. European History from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the Present Time. Professor Merriman. (C)

French F. Introduction to France. Professor Morize. (C)

Sophomore year (1937-38)

English F1. Public Speaking. Asst. Professor Packard. (C)

Fine Arts 1e. Interpretation of Selected Works of Art: an Introduction to Art History. Professor Koehler. (C)

Government 1. Modern Government. Professors Holcombe and Elliott. (C)

History 32a1. Continental Europe; 1815-1871. Professor Langer. (D)

History 32b2. Continental Europe; 1871-1914. Professor Langer. (C)

Government 302. New Factors in International Relations: Asia. Asst. Professor Hopper. (B)

Junior year (1938-39)

Economics 61a1. The Corporation and its Regulation. Professor Mason. (C)

English A-11. English Composition. Messrs. Davis, Gordan, Bailey and McCreary. (B)

Government 7a1. The National Government of the United States: Politics. Professor Holcombe. (B)

Government 9a1. State Government in the United States. Professor Hanford. (B)

Government 181. New Factors in International Relations: Europe. Associate Professor Hopper. (B)

History 551. History of Russia. Asst. Professor Karpovich. (B)

Second Term Leave of absence (England)

Senior year (1939-40)

Economics 11b2. Economics of Socialism. Dr. P. M. Sweezy.

Economics 62b2. Industrial Organization and Control. Professor Mason.

Government 3a1. Principles of Politics. Professor Elliott. (B)

Government 4. Elements of International Law. Associate Professor P. S. Wild. (B)

Government 22. Theses for Honors. Members of the Department. (B)

Government 8a1. Comparative Politics: Bureaucracy, Constitutional Government and Dictatorship. Professor Friedrich. (B)

Government 10a2. Government of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Professor Elliott.

Government 281. Modern Imperialism. Associate Professor Emerson. (B)

Source: John F. Kennedy Academic Record at Harvard.  John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, 1917-1963, Harvard University Files, 1917-1963/Academic Records 1939-1940; John F. Kennedy Harvard Course Transcript. John F. Kennedy Personal Papers, 1917-1963, Harvard University Files, 1917-1963/Course listing.

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The Corporation and its Regulation
First Semester 1938-39

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 61a 1hf. Professor Mason and Dr. P. M. Sweezy. — The Corporation and its Regulation.

Total 209: 2 Graduates, 57 Seniors, 110 Juniors, 29 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1938-39, p. 98.

Reading Period Assignment
January 5-18, 1939

Economics 61a: Read one of the following

  1. Larcom, R. C., The Delaware Corporation.
  2. Flynn, Security Speculation.
  3. Lowenthal, The Investor Pays.
  4. Gordon, Lincoln, The Public Corporation in Great Britain, omit pp. 156-244.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics,1938-1939”, Reading Period, p.3.

Final Examination (Mid-Year)

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 61a1

PART I

Write a critical review of your reading period work (about one hour).

PART II
Answer two questions.

  1. Discuss the influence of depreciation policies in the determination of net income.
  2. In corporate reorganizations what considerations determine the priority of claims on the assets of the reorganized company?
  3. “The large corporation is a bureaucracy of much the same type as a government agency. As such it faces all the management problems faced by bureaucracy.” Discuss.

PART III
Answer two questions.

  1. “The only people who gain from the stock market are brokers and speculators. Corporations, investors and underwriters would be better off if there were no stock market.” Analyse this statement with respect to each class of person or institution named.
  2. Discuss the direction and significance of present trends in the ownership of securities in the United States.
  3. Write on either the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Describe the main problems with which the act in question is intended to deal, any previous efforts to solve these problems, and how the act proposes to solve them.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-Year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13. Bound volume “Mid-Year Examinations 1939”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1940.

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Economists Harvard

Harvard. On Francis Bowen’s Professorial Settee. Eliot, 1898

The picture above is merely one example of an early 19th century American settee (a.k.a. a “love seat”, i.e., a chair for more than one person) that I have posted for visitors who, like the curator of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, might have had no image in mind of what a settee actually looks like.

Harvard President Charles William Eliot was amused by this felicitous metaphor used by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. to describe the breadth of his own professorial chair that covered the subjects of histology and pathology.

Eliot became president of Harvard in 1869 and saw the inherent problem in tasking a single professor with instruction in disparate disciplines. Alford Professor Francis Bowen, whose courses covered logic, metaphysics, ethics, and political economy, was Eliot’s poster-child for the lack of specialization resulting from spanning academic disciplines. Eliot appears to have been quite proud in the development of the department of Economics at Harvard that began with its first full-time professor of political economy, Charles Franklin Dunbar in 1871.

To be fair to Bowen, I thought it only right to first post a list of his book/pamphlet length publications to show that Eliot’s problem with Bowen was not so much one of Bowen being an unproductive scholar (in the bean-counting sense) but that economics apparently only accounted for a small share of Bowen’s scholarly attention. But in any event, Dunbar was definitely a big step up for Political Economy at Harvard.

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Books and articles
by Francis Bowen

1842. Critical Essays on a few Subjects connected with the History and Present Condition of Speculative Philosophy.

1849. Lowell Lectures on the Application of Metaphysical and Ethical Science to the Evidences of Religion.

1850. The War of Races in Hungary [The first of two controversial articles regarding Hungary led to Harvard’s Board of Overseers not approving appointment of Bowen to the McLean professor of history. From The North American Review (January, pp. 78-136; April, pp. 473-520.]

1851. The Rebellion of the Slavonic, Wallachian, and German Hungarians against the Magyars [The second of Bowen’s articles on Hungary to displease the Harvard Board of Overseers. From The North American Review (January, pp. 205-249).]

1854. Documents of the Constitution of England and America from Magna Charta to the Federal Constitution of 1789. Compiled and edited, with notes by Francis Bowen.

1855. The Principles of Metaphysical and Ethical Science: Applied to the Evidences of Religion.

1856. The Principles of Political Economy Applied to the Condition, the Resources, and the Institutions of the American People.

1864. A Treatise on Logic or, The Laws of Pure Thought; Comprising both the Aristotelic and Hamiltonian Analyses of Logical Forms and Some Chapters of Applied Logic.

1865. The Metaphysics of Sir William Hamilton, Collected, Arranged, and Abridged for the Use of Colleges and Private Students.

1870. American Political Economy: Including Strictures on the Management of the Currency and the Finances since 1861.

1877. Modern Philosophy from Descartes to Schopenhauer and Hartmann.

1880. Gleanings From a Literary Life.

1885. A Layman’s Study of the English Bible considered in its Literary and Secular Aspect.

Links to many other articles written by Francis Bowen at Gonçalo L. Fonseca’s History of Economic Thought website.

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From President Eliot’s remarks at the 11th annual dinner of the Harvard Club of Fall River, Massachusetts

…I know most of you keep the warmest spot in your hearts for the college. Let me point out what has happened there. When I went back, I found one man, Professor Bowen, occupying the chair of political economy, philosophy and civil polity, and, as Dr. Holmes said, that “chair” should have been called a “settee.” Now there are four full professors of political economy, four in philosophy, with five or six instructors and as many assistants in each subject. That’s the change. Professor Bowen was not productive except of one book, naively called “American Political Economy”. All the professors of political economy are now productive. They belong to the advanced lines. Two have recently rendered important services to country and State, in the matters of currency and taxation….

Source: Fall River Evening News (Massachusetts), February 24, 1898.

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Oh, that Dr. Holmes

…Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was professor of anatomy and physiology in Harvard University down to 1871; and he really taught, in addition to these two immense subjects, portions of histology and pathology. He described himself as occupying, not a chair, but a settee. The professorship in Harvard University which was successively occupied by George Ticknor, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell is the Smith professorship of the French and Spanish languages and literatures. In many American colleges we find to-day the same professor teaching logic, metaphysics, ethics, and political economy. Indeed, this was the case in Harvard College down to 1871, except that moral philosophy and Christian ethics were detached from the Alford professorship from and after 1860. The specialization of instruction is by no means completed in American colleges….

Source: Charles William Eliot’s “The Unity of Educational Reform” before the American Institute of Instruction at Bethlehem, New Hampshire, July 11, 1894 in his Educational Reform: Essays and Addresses (1898). pp. 330-1.

Image Source: Settee from Salem, Massachusetts, ca. 1820. From the (sold) inventory at the Thistlethwaite Americana website.

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Economics Programs Harvard

Harvard. Fin de siècle look at the economics department. 1896

The department of political economy at Harvard University was not even two decades old when a Boston newspaper printed the following report about the expansion in economics course offerings that took place between the single prescribed course taught seniors by Francis (a.k.a. Fanny) Bowen in 1849-50 to the twenty or so courses taught in 1896.

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1896 Newspaper Report

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

Development of the Department of Economies and the Large Increase in the Number of Students Electing the Study.

The interests aroused during the progress of the recent campaign undoubtedly account to some extent for the unusually large number of men here electing work this year in the department of economics. This increase has been already noted. Courses in finance which have never before numbered above twenty or thirty men have more than doubled, while the course known as economics 1, which last year opened with 370 men, now has 510. [In the President’s Report for 1896-1897 the final number enrolled in Economics 1 was reported as 464] The number of men electing economics 1 has increased from year to year, and now practically every undergraduate takes the course at some time or other during his college career. If he intends to specialise in economics he takes the course usually in his sophomore year; if he does not so intend, he may take it in his junior or senior year.

Within the department of economics are grouped together, with courses purely economic in character, others more properly sociological, political and financial. Those in social ethics are included in the department of philosophy, while those which deal with the forms of government and with the development of social institutions are given in the department of history and government. Within these several departments are minor groups of courses devoted to pretty well-defined lines of social inquiry, and so special and interdependent as to suggest the formation of new departments. The double title of the department of history and government indicates the extent to which the process of bifurcation has gone here, and the lines of separation are unmistakably forming within the department of economics.

A glance at some of the earlier catalogues reveals curious groupings of courses. Professor Francis Bowen, McLean professor of ancient and modern history and instructor in political economy, conducted as early as the year 1849-50 a course in political science, which was prescribed for seniors. In it Professor Bowen used as reference books John Stuart Mill’s “Political Economy,” [1848 ed., Volume I, Volume II] a book which is still used as a basis for the lectures given in the introductory course in economics; and Story’s “Commentaries on the Constitution.” After Professor Bowen was created Alford professor of natural religion, moral philosophy and civil polity he continued to give the only instruction in economics which the university offered at that time, and his course in philosophy came eventually to embrace a much wider range of topics than those indicated above, and was extended through the entire year. He lectured upon political economy and upon the English and American constitutions, and upon such a wide range of other topics, moral, ethical and metaphysical, that the ground covered by this single course is now apportioned among four departments.

With some modifications from year to year Professor Bowen continued his instruction along these lines, down through the period of the civil war, to the year 1871, when a professor of political economy was appointed. [It is interesting that the name of Charles F. Dunbar is not mentioned here, perhaps he wrote this article? Possibly Taussig?] In the year following two courses were offered under the heading “Political Science,” Mill’s “Political Economy” [1871, seventh edition. Volume I, Volume II] being reintroduced and used along with Bowen’s “Political Economy” and Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations,” [e.g., 1869, Rogers’ edition. Volume I,Volume II] as a basis for discussion and criticism.

These courses were soon after absorbed in the department of philosophy, where they continued to be offered until the year 1879-80, when the department of political economy was established. Development since, that date has been characterised by a gradual increase in the number of courses, from three in 1880 to the nineteen or twenty courses and half-courses that are now given. The department in the year 1886 began the publication of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which was the first journal devoted exclusively to the advancement of economic theory that was ever printed in English.

Among the more advanced courses are two devoted to the study of economic history[,] two to the history of economic theory, one to the scope and method of economics, three to subjects distinctly sociological — the principles of sociology, socialism and communism, and the labor question in Europe and America — another to the theory and methods of statistics, and a number of half courses devoted to special subjects in taxation, finance, international payments, tariff legislation, railway transportation and the like.

Another significant step was taken in 1891-92 in the organisation of the Economic Seminary, the importance of which can hardly be overestimated. Prior to the establishment of the seminary there had been no systematic provision made for the conduct of graduate work. Graduate students in the department who were working up their doctor’s theses did so under the guidance of the several instructors, but without any very satisfactory or clearly defined official status. All this has been changed and every provision is now made for graduate work. An advanced student may study entirely in connection with the seminary, and so he is freed from the necessity of registering in a certain number of courses where the work outlined is adapted to students less advanced. The Economic Seminary numbers at the present time some twenty-five men, each of whom is engaged in original work. The seminary meets once a week, and at each meeting some member reports upon the results of his investigations, receiving at the same time the criticism of his fellow students and of the instructors in the department.

Source: Boston Evening Transcript, December 16, 1896, p. 10.

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Cornell Exam Questions Harvard Industrial Organization Labor

Harvard. Exams for labor economics and industrial organization. Durand, 1902

This post adds to the growing collection of transcribed course examinations from the Harvard economics department. The “labor question” and “problems of industrial organization” courses were taught during the second semester of 1901-1902 by a visiting instructor hired by the department, E. Dana Durand. In the Harvard Archive’s collection of course syllabi and reading lists I found a four page printed leaflet, “Systems of Agreements and Arbitration”, from Durand’s labor course. It is added to this post.

Archival Tip: 5 manuscript boxes for Edward Dana Durand (1885-1959) are found at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa.

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Backstory

Following the resignation of Edward Cummings in the summer of 1900, William Franklin Willoughby was hired for the year (1900-1901). The exams for Willoughby’s Economics 9 courses for 1900-01 have been transcribed earlier. 

William Franklin Willoughby, Instructor in Economics, resigned, effective September 1, 1901.

Source. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1900-1901, p. 290.

Temporarily taking the Cummings/Willoughby courses next was Edward Dana Durand who was appointed Instructor in Economics, December 2, 1901.

Source. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 319.

Durand was also appointed for the first term of 1902-1903.

Source. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 321.

Along with material for his first semester course taught 1902-03 on taxation, you will find some additional information about Durand’s life and career in this earlier post. 

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Short Biography
from U.S. Census Bureau

Edward Dana Durand (Director, 1909-1913): Durand was born, in 1871, in Romeo, Michigan. When he was still a child, however, his parents moved to a homestead in South Dakota. Durand attended Yankton College for one year before transferring to Oberlin College. He received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1896. After receiving his doctorate, Durand moved between several government and academic positions until 1909, when he became deputy commissioner of corporations. Later that year, President Taft appointed him the new director of the census. He replaced Samuel North, who had left after repeated clashes with the secretary of commerce and labor, and took over the Census Bureau well into the planning process for the 1910 census.

Durand concentrated much of his energy on improving the preparation of census reports. He pioneered several lasting innovations in the presentation of data at the Census Bureau. For example, Durand introduced the publication of state-level reports and the early release in press releases of statistics for which there was the greatest demand (such as the total population of individual cities, states, and the United States population). These releases were be followed by bulletins, abstracts, and final reports with greater detail.

After leaving the Census Bureau in 1913, Durand eventually took a place on the U.S. Tariff Commission, where he served from 1935 until his retirement in 1952. He died in 1960.

Source: United States Census Bureau website. Webpage Directors 1909-1921.

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Course Enrollment
for Economics 9

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 9 2hf. Dr. Durand. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States.

Total 116: 5 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 46 Juniors, 32 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Course Description
Economics 9

[Economics] 92 hf. The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10. Mr. [William Franklin] Willoughby.

Course 9 is chiefly concerned with problems growing out of the relations of labor and capital in the United States and European countries. There is careful study of the methods of industrial remuneration — the wages system, profit sharing, sliding scales and collective bargaining; of the various forms of coöperation; of labor organizations; of factory legislation and the legal status of laborers and labor organizations; of state and private efforts for the prevention and adjustment of industrial disputes; of employer’s liability and compulsory compensation acts; of the insurance of workingmen against accidents, sickness, old age, and invalidity; of provident institutions, such as savings banks, friendly societies and fraternal benefit orders; of the problem of the unemployed.

While the treatment will necessarily be descriptive to a considerable extent, the emphasis will be laid on the interpretation of the movements considered with a view to determining their causes and consequences, and the merits, defects, and possibilities of existing reform movements.

A systematic course of reading will be required, and topics will be assigned for special investigation.

The course is open not only to students who have taken Course 1, but to Juniors and Seniors who are taking Course 1

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), p. 40.

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ECONOMICS 9
SYSTEMS OF AGREEMENTS AND ARBITRATION.

Agreements at present existing between the Stove Founders’ National Defense Association and the Iron Moulders’ Union of North America.

Conference, 1891. — Whereas there has heretofore existed a sentiment that the members of the Stove Founders’ National Defense Association and the members of the Iron Moulders’ Union of North America were necessary enemies, and in consequence a mutual dislike and distrust of each other and of their respective organizations has arisen, provoking and stimulating strife and ill-will, resulting in severe pecuniary loss to both parties; now this conference is held for the purpose of cultivating a more intimate knowledge of each other’s persons, methods, aims, and objects, believing that thereby friendly regard and respect may be engendered, and such agreements reached as will dispel all inimical sentiments, prevent further strife, and promote the material and moral interests of all parties concerned.

Clause 1, conference 1891. — Resolved, That this meeting adopt the principle of arbitration in the settlement of any dispute between the members of the I. M. U. of N. A. and the members of the S. F. N. D. A.

Clause 2, conference 1891. — That a conference committee be formed, consisting of six members, three of whom shall be stove moulders appointed by the Iron Moulders’ Union of North America and three persons appointed by the S. F. N. D. A., all to hold their offices from May 1 to April 30 of each year.

Clause 3, conference 1891. — Whenever there is a dispute between a member of the S. F. N. D. A. and the moulders in his employ (when a majority of the latter are members of the I. M. U.), and it can not be settled amicably between them, it shall be referred to the presidents of the two associations before named, who shall themselves or by delegates give it due consideration. If they can not decide it satisfactorily to themselves, they may, by mutual agreement, summon the conference committee, to whom the dispute shall be referred, and whose decision by a majority vote shall be final and binding upon each party for the term of twelve months.

Pending adjudication by the presidents and conference committee, neither party to the dispute shall discontinue operations, but shall proceed with business in the ordinary manner. In case of a vacancy in the committee of conference it shall be filled by the association originally nominating. No vote shall be taken except by a full committee or by an even number of each party.

Clause 4, conference 1892. — Apprentices should be given every opportunity to learn all the details in the trade thoroughly, and should be required to serve four years. Any apprentice leaving his employer before the termination of his apprenticeship should not be permitted to work in any foundry under the jurisdiction of the I. M. U. of N. A., but should be required to return to his employer. An apprentice should not be admitted to membership in the I. M. U. of N. A until he has served his apprenticeship and is competent to command the average wages. Each apprentice in the last year of his apprenticeship should be given a floor between two journeymen moulders, and they, with the foreman, should pay special attention to his mechanical education in all classes of work.

Clause 5, conference 1892. — The general rate of moulders’ wages should be established for each year without change.

Clause 6, conference 1892. — When the members of the Defense Association shall desire a general reduction in the rate of wages or the Iron Moulders’ Union an advance, they shall each give the other notice at least thirty days before the end of each year, which shall commence on the first day of April. If no such notice be given, the rate of wages current during the year shall be the rate in force for the succeeding year.

Clause 7, conference 1892. — The present established price of work in any shop should be the basis for the determination of the price of new work of similar character and grade.

Clause 8, conference 1892. — Any existing inequality in present prices of molding in a foundry or between two or more foundries should be adjusted as soon as practicable upon the basis set forth in the foregoing paragraphs, by mutual agreement or by the decision of the adjustment committee provided by the conference of March, 1891.

Clause 9, conference 1896. — Firms composing the membership of the S. F. N. D. A. should furnish in their respective foundries a book containing the piece prices for moulding, the same to be placed in the hands of a responsible person.

Clause 10, conference 1896. — New work should always be priced within a reasonable time, and under ordinary circumstances two weeks is considered a reasonable time, and such prices, when decided upon, should be paid from the date the work was put in the sand.

Clause 11, conference 1896. — The members of the S. F. N. D. A. shall furnish to their molders: Shovels, riddles, rammers, brushes, facing bags, and strike-off; provided, however, that they charge actual cost of tools so furnished, and collect for the same, adopting some method of identification; and when a moulder abandons the shop, or requires a new tool in place of one so furnished, he shall, upon the return of the old tools, be allowed the full price charged, without deducting for ordinary wear; any damage beyond ordinary wear to be deducted from amount to be refunded.

Clause 12, conference 1896. — When there is a bad heat, causing dull iron, the foreman’s attention shall be called to it, and payment shall be made for work that is lost from this cause only when poured by foreman’s order, or person next in authority.

If sufficient iron is not furnished the moulder to pour off his work, and such work has to remain over, he shall be paid for such work remaining over at one half the regular price.

These rules shall apply excepting in case of break down of machinery or other unavoidable accident, when no allowance shall be made.

Clause 13, conference 1898. — Whenever a difficulty arises between a member of the S. F. N. D. A. (whose foundry does not come under the provisions of clause 3, 1891 conference) and the moulders employed by him, and said difficulty can not be amicably settled between the member and his employees, it shall be submitted for adjudication to the presidents of the two organizations, or their representatives, without prejudice to the employees presenting said grievance.

Clause 14, conference 1898. — In pricing moulding on new stoves, when there are no comparative stoves made in the shop, the prices shall be based upon competitive stores made in the district, thorough comparison and proper consideration being given to the merits of the work according to labor involved.

Form of agreement adopted and recommended by the National Association of Builders to secure the establishment of arbitration committees, with plan of organization of the same, for the use of associations of employers and associations of workmen in all branches of the building trade.

Agreement.

For the purpose of establishing a method of peacefully settling all questions of mutual concern [name of organization of employers] and [name of organization of employees] severally and jointly agree that no such question shall be conclusively acted upon by either body independently, but shall be referred for settlement to a joint committee, which committee shall consist of an equal number of representatives from each association; and also agree that all such questions shall be settled by our own trade, without intervention of any other trade whatsoever.

The parties hereto agree to abide by the findings of this committee on all matters of mutual concern referred to it by either party. It is understood and agreed by both parties that in no event shall strikes and lockouts be permitted, but all differences shall be submitted to the joint committee, and work shall proceed without stoppage or embarrassment.

The parties hereto also agree that they will incorporate with their respective constitutions and by-laws such clauses as will make recognition of this joint agreement a part of the organic law of their respective associations. The joint committee above referred to is hereby created and established, and the following rules adopted for its guidance:—

Organization or joint and rules for its government.

  1. This committee shall consist of not less than six members, equally divided between the associations represented, and an umpire, to be chosen by the committee at their annual meeting, and as the first item of their business after organization. This umpire must be neither a journeyman craftsman nor an employer of journey-men. He shall preside at meetings of the committee when necessary.
  2. The members of this committee shall be elected annually by their respective associations at their regular meetings for the election of officers.
  3. The duty of this committee shall be to consider such matters of mutual interest and concern to the employers and the workmen as may be regularly referred to it by either of the parties to this agreement, transmitting its conclusions thereon to each association for its government.
  4. A regular annual meeting of the committee shall be held during the month of January, at which meeting the special business shall be the establishment of “working rules” for the ensuing year; these rules to guide and govern employers and workmen, and to comprehend such particulars as rate or wages per hour, number of hours to he worked, payment for overtime, payment for Sunday work, government of apprentices, and similar questions of joint concern.
  5. Special meetings shall be held when either of the parties hereto desire to submit any question to the committee for settlement.
  6. For the proper conduct of business, a chairman shall be chosen at each meeting, but he shall preside only for the meeting at which he is so chosen. The duty of the chairman shall be that usually incumbent on a presiding officer.
  7. A clerk shall be chosen at the annual meeting to serve during the year. His duty shall be to call all regular meetings, and to call special meetings when officially requested so to do by either body party hereto. He shall keep true and accurate record of the meetings, transmit all findings to the association interested, and attend to the usual duties of the office.
  8. A majority vote shall decide all questions. In case of the absence of any member, the president of the association by which he was appointed shall have the right to vote for him. The umpire shall have casting vote in case of tie.

Clauses to be incorporated with by-laws of parties to joint agreement.

A. All members of this association do by virtue of their membership recognize and assent to the establishment of a joint committee of arbitration (under a regular form of agreement and governing rules), by and between this body and the ______, for the peaceful settlement of all matters of mutual concern to the two bodies and the members thereof.

B. This organization shall elect at its annual meeting ______ delegates to the said joint committee, of which the president of this association shall be one, officially notifying within three days thereafter the said ______ of the said action and of the names of the delegates elected.

C. The duty of the delegates thus elected shall be to attend all meetings the said joint committee, and they must be governed in this action by the rules jointly adopted by this association and the said ______.

D. No amendments shall be made to these special claims, A, B, C, and D, of these by-laws, except by concurrent vote of this association with the said ______, and only atter six months’ notice of proposal to so amend.

Rules for the Year 1900

Boston, February 8, 1900.

The Mason Builders’ Association of Boston and vicinity has, through the joint committee on arbitration, made the following agreement with Bricklayers’ Unions Nos. 3 and 27 of Boston and vicinity, as follows:—

  1. Hours of labor. — During the year not more than eight (8) hours’ labor shall be required in the limits of the day, except it be as overtime, with payment of same as provided for.
  2. Working hours. — The working hours shall be from 8 A.M. to 12 M. (one hour for dinner during February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October). During November, December, and January it shall be optional with the men on jobs whether they work half hour at noon and quit at 4.30 p.m.
  3. Night gangs. — Eight hours shall constitute a night’s labor. When two gangs are employed, working hours to be from 8 p.m. to 12 m. and from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Where regular night gangs are employed, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday morning, the minimum rate shall be paid.
  4. Overtime. — Except in cases of emergency no work shall be done between the hours of 5 and 8 a.m. and 5 and 6 p.m. Overtime to be paid for as time and one half, except the hour between 5 and 6 p.m. which shall be paid for as double time, but this section as to double time is not to be taken advantage of to secure a practical operation of a 9-hour day.
  5. Holiday time. — Sundays, Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Christmas Day are to be considered as holidays, and work done on either of these days is to be paid for as double time.
  6. Wages. — The minimum rate of wages shall be forty-five (45) cents per hour.
  7. That the bricklayers shall be paid their wages on or before 5 p.m. on the regular pay day.
  8. If an employee is laid off on account of a lack of material, or for other causes, or is discharged, and if said employee demands his wages, intending to seek other employment, he shall receive his money.
  9. The business agent of the Bricklayers’ Union shall be allowed to visit all jobs during working hours to interview the steward of the job.
  10. In the opinion of the joint committee the best interests of the employing masons demand that all journeymen bricklayers shall belong to the Bricklayers’ Union. Therefore preference of employment shall be given to union bricklayers by the members of the Mason Builders’ Association.

Issued by order of the joint committee on arbitration.

John T. Healy, Secretary of Committee.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1. Folder “Economics, 1901-1902”.

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ECONOMICS 9
Final Examination
(1902)

  1. Discuss the charge that labor organizations, by fixing a standard rate of wages, injure both the most efficient and the least efficient workmen.
  2. How far do labor organizations enforce restrictions upon the number of apprentices? Give fully one reason for and one against the justice of this policy of restriction.
  3. Describe fully but in general terms the more systematic process of collective bargaining, as practiced, for example, by the coal miners or the glass workers.
  4. Distinguish the two chief classes of boycotts. What do you think of their justice and legality, and why?
  5. What in a broad war has been the movement of nominal and real wages in the United States since 1870, and since 1890? Name three leading sources of information as to wage statistics.
  6. State briefly four causes which contribute to the evils of the “sweating system.” Discuss one thoroughly.
  7. Give briefly three arguments in favor of the eight hour day, and criticise one fully.
  8. Describe the existing legislation regarding child labor, in the United States and England.
  9. Has the employment of women in gainful occupations increased in the United States, or not, and why? Give three reasons why the wages of women average less than those of men.
  10. What is the doctrine of the common law in the United States regarding the liability of employers for injuries to employees by their fellow servants? What do you think of this doctrine, and why?
  11. Distinguish three main forms of coöperation. What degree of success has each attained in the United States, and England (statistics unnecessary)?
  12. State the leading arguments in favor of further restriction of immigration.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), pp. 28-29.

__________________________________

Course Enrollment
for Economics 9a

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 9a 2hf. Dr. Durand. — Problems of Industrial Organization

Total 45: 5 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

__________________________________

Course Description
Economics 9a

9a2 hf. Problems of Industrial Organization. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Mr. [William Franklin] Willoughby.

This course will give a critical study of modern industry with special reference to the efficiency of production and the relations existing between employers and employees. The actual organization of industrial enterprises will first be considered. Under this head will be treated such subjects as corporations, the factory system, the concentration and integration of industry, and the trust problem in all its phases. Following this, or in connection with it, will be studied the effect of the modern organization of industry, and changes now taking place, upon efficiency of production, stability of employment, and industrial depressions. Careful attention will be given to the relations existing between employers and employees, and the functions of organizations of both classes. Finally will be considered the position of the individual under the present system, – his preparation for a trade through apprenticeship, technical education, or otherwise; his opportunities for advancement: his economic independence. Conditions in Europe as well as in the United States will be shown.

Topics will be assigned for special investigation, and the results of such inquiries will be considered in class.

This course is open to students who have taken Course 1, and it is desirable that they shall have taken Course 9 as well.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), pp. 40-41.

__________________________________

ECONOMICS 9a
Final Examination
(1902)

  1. Discuss methods by which corporation stockholders may be defrauded by officers, directors, and other stockholders.
  2. What form and degree of publicity would you think desirable to require from great corporations, and why?
  3. Describe a typical case of the methods of promoting, capitalizing, and floating the securities of a modern industrial combination.
  4. Describe the trust form of combination and contrast it with two leading forms of combination in single corporations.
  5. Discuss the relation of the principle of increasing returns to monopoly, distinguishing between possible meanings of the phrase.
  6. Discuss economies from the integration of plants performing different processes into a single corporation. How far do such economies tend toward monopoly?
  7. Define four unfair advantages or unfair methods of competition which may strengthen a combination, and discuss one fully.
  8. What do you think of reduction of the tariff as a remedy for abuses by industrial combinations, and why?
  9. and 10. Discuss fully the character and scope of such Federal legislation regarding corporations and combinations as seems to you desirable.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 29.

Image Source: E. Dana Durand. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Washington, D.C. 20540.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Money, Banking, and International Payments. Exams. Andrew, Sprague, Meyer 1901-1902

 

 

The reading list for the first semester (4 pages) of the money, banking, and international payments course taught at Harvard in 1901-02 along with some biographical information for one of the instructors, Abram Piatt Andrew, has been posted earlier.

While I have not found a reading list for the second semester of the course, it is safe to assume that the enlarged second edition of  Dunbar’s Chapters on the Theory and History of Banking, edited by O.M.W. Sprague (1901) was assigned as the primary text. 

______________________________

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 8. Drs. [Abram Piatt] Andrew [Jr.] and [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague, and Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer. — Money, Banking and International Payments.

Total 78: 5 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.

______________________________

Course Description

  1. Money, Banking, and International Payments. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Drs. Andrew and Sprague, and Mr. Meyer.

The first part of the year will be devoted to a general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory. The course will begin with a history of the precious metals, which will be connected, in so far as possible, with the history of prices, and with the historical development of theories as to the causes underlying the value of money. The course of monetary legislation in the principal countries will be followed, with especial attention to its relation to the bimetallic controversy; but the experiences of various countries with paper money will also be reviewed, and the influence of such issues upon wages, prices, and trade examined. Some attention, moreover, will be given in this connection to the non-monetary means of payment and to the large questions of monetary theory arising from their use.

The second part of the course will begin with an historical account of the development of banking. Existing legislation and practice in various countries will be analyzed and compared. The course of the money markets of New York, London, Paris, and Berlin will be followed during a series of months, and the various factors, such as stock exchange operations and foreign exchange payments, which bring about fluctuations in the demand for loans and the rate of discount upon them, will be considered. The relations of banks to commercial crises will also be analyzed, the crises of 1857 and 1893 being taken for detailed study.

The course will conclude with a discussion of the movement of goods, securities, and money, in the exchanges between nations and in the settlement of international demands. After a preliminary study of the general doctrine of international trade, it is proposed to make a close examination of some cases of payments on a great scale, and to trace the adjustments of imports and exports under temporary or abnormal financial conditions. Such examples as the payment of the indemnity by France to Germany after the war of 1870-71, the distribution of gold by the mining countries, and the movements of the foreign trade of the United States since 1879, will be used for the illustration of the general principles regulating exchanges and the distribution of money between nations.

Course 8 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1. With the consent of the instructors, it may be taken by Seniors and Graduates as a half-course in either half-year.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), pp. 42-43.

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Mid-year Examination, 1901-02
ECONOMICS 8

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

  1. Describe and illustrate with two examples (giving approximate dates): (a) the double standard, (b) the limping standard, (c) the parallel standard, (d) the single standard.
  2. Explain some of the different motives which in earlier centuries led to the debasement of the coins, and show the measure of their justification.
  3. Show how the levying of a seignorage will affect the value of money (a) if the owner of bullion is given back the same number of coins but of lighter weight, (b) if he receives fewer coins but of the same weight.
  4. During the entire century which preceded England’s adoption of gold as her single standard, less than one million pounds sterling of silver were issued from her mints, while in a period of less than a hundred years since then the silver coinage has amounted to fifty millions.
    How do you explain (a) the small amount of silver coined before its “demonetization”? (b) the larger amount coined subsequently?
  5. Before 1873 the United States had coined only about eight million silver dollars ($8,031,238) but since that year, which is often assumed to mark the beginning of demonetization, we have coined over five hundred millions ($522,795,065).
    Explain these two facts.
  6. “No experiment of bimetallism has ever been inaugurated under circumstances more favorable for its success… No fairer field for its trial could have been found.” Describe the conditions under which bimetallism was tried in the United States, and give your opinion of the passage quoted as a characterization of American monetary history.
  7. “Inasmuch as gold [before 1848] was more valuable in the market than at the French mint, relatively to silver, it was impossible that gold should circulate in France.”
    Is this a necessary conclusion?
  8. What does Darwin mean by the labor standard? By the commodity standard? Explain the merits claimed for each, and show the exemplification of the two standards in the history of the precious metals between 1873 and 1896.
  9. What were the reasons which induced Europe to abandon the free coinage of silver during the seventies (a) according to Laughlin? (b) according to Walker? (c) in your own opinion?
  10. State the factors that increased India’s power to purchase in the international markets in the period from 1850 to 1870, and explain what use India made of that increased power, together with the reasons for the use made.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-years 1901-1902.

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Year-end Examination, 1901-02
ECONOMICS 8

  1. The strength or weakness of the United States in the so-called struggle for the world’s stock of gold.
  2. Applying Mill’s reasoning upon international trade to the situation in the United States, state what you would expect to be the course of prices of imports and exports in the years immediately following.
  3. Why is long exchange quoted at lower rates than sight exchange? If sight is $4.84 and long $4.80, what will be the effect (1) of a reduction of 1% in English rates for money? (2) of the increase of the price of eagles at the Bank of England?
  4. New York Bank Statement, May 31, 1902:—
Loans

$855.60

Increase

15.1
Deposits

$948.30

Increase

16.6
Reserve

$249.00

Increase

1.8

Complete the statement and explain the probable reasons for the increase of deposits and reserve.

  1. Comment on the following: —
    1. 3 per Mills against us.
    2. Bank statement based on falling averages.
    3. U.S. Bond account.
    4. National gold banks.
    5. Recepisse.
  2. Discuss the following:—
    1. The limitation of note issue to capital.
    2. The retirement of the legal tender notes as an essential part of any plan for an asset currency.
  3. Compare the safety fund and the free banking systems of New York.
  4. Regulations of the national banking system other than those of note issue.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 28.

Image Sources:
Left to right: Andrew (Harvard Classbook 1906, p. 6), Sprague (Harvard Classbook 1912), Meyer, The Minneapolis Messenger, October 12, 1905, Page 4, from Wikipedia.

Categories
Cornell Exam Questions Harvard Public Finance Williams Wisconsin

Harvard. Public Finance Exams. Charles Jesse Bullock visiting from Williams College, 1901-02

Courses in public finance were not offered in the academic year 1900-01 at Harvard. Those courses had last been taught by Charles F. Dunbar and Frank W. Taussig in 1899-1900. Following Dunbar’s death (January, 29 1900) and Taussig’s leave to recover from a nervous breakdown (1901-03), it was necessary to bring in an outsider to cover the public finance offerings. Charles Jesse Bullock was first appointed as an instructor in economics for the 1901-1902 academic year to fill that gap. He was later to return at the rank of assistant professor beginning with the 1903-04 academic year.

_____________________

From the Williams College Yearbook

CHARLES JESSE BULLOCK, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of Political Science.

Graduated from Boston University, 1889, with Commencement appointment, and received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, in 1895. He taught in high schools from 1889 to 1893 and was traveling fellow in Boston University in 1891. In 1895 he was fellow and assistant at the University of Wisconsin and from 1895 to 1899 was instructor in Economics at Cornell University. Dr. Bullock has written: “The Finance of the United States, 1775-1789,” (1895), “Introduction to the Study of Economics,” (1897), and “Essays on the Monetary History of the United States” (in press [1900]). He also edited William Douglass’s “Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British Plantations in America,” and has contributed various articles to the economic and statistical magazines. He is a member of the American Economic Association and of the American Statistical Association, an associate member of the National Institute of Art, Science and Letters, and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Dr. Bullock is a member of the ΦΔΧ Fraternity.

Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian MCMI, Vol 44 (Williamstown, MA: 1900), p. 23.

_____________________

Course Announcements

For Undergraduates and Graduates.

[open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 1. Outlines of Economics]

7a1 hf. Financial Administration and Public Debts. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 9. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

7b1 hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat. at 10. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year, 1901-02 (Second ed., 25 June 1901), p.44.

_____________________

Course Enrollments

7a 1hf. Professor Bullock (Williams College). — Financial Administration and Public Debts.

Total 26: 2 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

7b 1hf. Professor Bullock (Williams College). — The Theory and Methods of Taxation with special reference to local taxation, in the United States.

Total 26: 2 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 9 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 78.

_____________________

Course Descriptions

7a1 hf. Financial Administration. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri. at 9. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

This course will deal with the methods by which governments have attempted to adjust expenditures to revenue, and will study the problems arising from the effort to secure popular control over this process. The budget systems of England, France, and Germany will first receive attention; and study will then be concentrated upon the budgetary methods of our federal government. So far as practicable, also, some consideration will be given to State and local budgets in the United States. The history and present form of our federal budget will offer a large field for investigation, and supply subjects for written reports. Students will be encouraged, furthermore, to gather information concerning the methods followed by State and local governments with which they may happen to be familiar. Candidates for Honors in Political Science or for the higher degrees may advantageously use reports thus prepared by them as material for theses.

Course 7a is open to students who have taken Economics 1

7b1 hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., Sat. at 10. Professor Bullock (Williams College).

In this course both the theory and practice of taxation will be studied. Attention will be given at the outset to the tax systems of England, France, and Germany; and the so-called direct taxes employed in those countries will receive special consideration. After this, the principles of taxation will be examined. This will lead to a study of the position of taxation in the system of economic science, and of such subjects as the classification, the just distribution, and the incidence of taxes. Finally, the existing methods of taxation in the United States will be studied, each tax being treated with reference to its proper place in a rational system of federal, state, and local revenues.

Written work will be required of all students, as well as a systematic course of prescribed reading. Candidates for Honors in Political Science and for the higher degrees will be given the opportunity of preparing theses in substitution for the required written work.

Course 7b is open to students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902, Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901), pp. 43-44.

_____________________

Final Examinations

ECONOMICS 7a
FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION

  1. How is budgetary legislation prepared in France, in England and in the United States? In which country are the best results attained?
  2. At what time of the year is the budget prepared and enacted in France, England, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Prussia, and the United States? Why is the time of preparation and adoption an important consideration?
  3. Compare methods of budgetary legislation in England with those prevailing in France.
  4. Describe and criticize federal budgetary procedure in the United States?
  5. What part do supplementary, or deficiency, appropriations play in France, in England, and in the United States?
  6. Compare the English and French methods of accounting. What method is followed in the United States?
  7. What are the methods of collecting and issuing public money in England?
  8. What methods of collection and issue are followed in the United States?
  9. Compare the auditing methods of England, France, and the United States?
  10. Why are unity and universality important elements in any good budget system?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-years 1901-1902.
Also included in: Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume Examination Papers, 1902-03.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy,… in Harvard College(June, 1902), pp. 26-27.

ECONOMICS 7b
TAXATION

  1. Describe the land taxes of France, Prussia, and Great Britain.
  2. Compare the French and the Prussian business taxes.
  3. Discuss the British income tax, giving special consideration to methods of administration and to financial results.
  4. In a similar manner discuss the Prussian income tax.
  5. Discuss briefly the customs taxes of Great Britain, France, and Germany.
  6. Describe the excise taxes of the same countries.
  7. What reasons are there for thinking that a tax on rent can not be shifted? Discuss the incidence of an excise tax on each unit of the product of an industry.
  8. What arguments are advanced for and against progressive taxation?
  9. Discuss the shortcomings of the property tax in the United States: (a) with reference to the taxation of realty; (b) with reference to the taxation of personalty.
  10. Describe the corporation taxes of Massachusetts.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6. Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-years 1901-1902.
Also included in: Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume Examination Papers, 1902-03.  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy,… in Harvard College(June, 1902), pp. 26-27.

Image Source: Williams College, The Gulielmensian 1902, Vol. 45, p. 26. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. US Economic History. Readings and Exams. Sprague and Patten, 1901-1902

In addition to a course announcement with description, enrollment figures, and the mid-term and/or year-end examination questions, we have a reading list for “reports”, presumably to be written or presented by students, for a course in U.S. economic history jointly taught by O.M.W. Sprague and James Horace Patten (see below) at Harvard during the 1901-1902 academic year.

______________________________

JAMES HORACE PATTEN

Born at Spring Hill, Kan., Dec. 23, 1877. Son of Henry Harrison and Gertrude (Pratt) Patten.

School: Paola and Olathe High School; Wentworth Military Academy.

Year in College: 1896-97. A.B.; AM. 1899; LL.B. 1905; A.B. 1896 (Kansas State University).

Married: Olive Young Latimer, Oct. 12, 1909, Belton, S.C.

Occupation: Lawyer.

Address: (business) 204 Second Street, S.E., Washington, D.C.; (home) 1918 S. Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

Was Instructor of Economics, Harvard College, 1900-02; Austin Teaching Fellow, Harvard, 1902-03; appointed Professor of Political Science, University of New Brunswick, in May, 1902; resigned in August, 1902, to enter Harvard Law School; admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in June, 1905; South Carolina Bar in 1909; District of Columbia in 1906; resided in Washington, D.C., since 1905, office 204 Second Street, S.E.; residence 1918 S Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. I was general counsel, Farmers’ educational Co-operative Socitey, 1909-16; assistant secretary, Farmers’ National Congress, 1914-18; and secretary, 1918-20; secretary, Immigration Restriction League since 1912; member, Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Theta Pi, Mason, University Club, Washington, D.C.; national vice-president, Patriotic Order Sons of America.

Source: Harvard Class of 1897. Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report 1897-1922, pp. 421-422.

James Horace Patten. “The Immigration Problem and the South” from The American (Raleigh, N.C.: April 1, 1906).

His death

[Died Apr. 25, 1940 (AP) Washington, April 26: “James H. Patten, 62, attorney and publicist, died yesterday from effects of illunitating gas a short time after his wife found him in the kitchen of their home”. 

A certificate of suicide was issued. “Mrs. Patten told police her husband had been in ill health and suffering from a nervous disorder for some time.” The Greenville News, S.C. April 27, 1940, p. 10]

______________________________

Course Announcement,
1901-1902.
Economics 6

For Undergraduates and Graduates

  1. The Economic History of the United States. Tu., Th., at 2.30. Dr. [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] Sprague and Mr. [Austin Teaching Fellow, James Horace] Patten.

Course 6 gives a general survey of the economic history of the United States from the close of the eighteenth century to the present time, and aims to show on the one hand the mode in which economic principles are illustrated by American experience and, on the other, the extent to which economic conditions have influenced social and political development. The following are among the subjects considered: aspects of the Revolution and commercial relations during the Confederation and the European wars; the history of the protective tariff policy and the growth of manufacturing industries; the settlement of the West and the history of transportation, including the early canal and turnpike enterprises of the states, the various phases of railway building and the establishment of public regulation of railways; the development of corporations and the formation of industrial combinations; various aspects of agrarian history, such as the public land policy, the growth of foreign demand for American produce and the subsequent competition of other sources of supply, certain social topics, such as slavery and its economic basis, emancipation and the present condition of the Negro, the effects of immigration. Finally, the more important features of our currency and financial history are reviewed. Comparisons will be made from time to time with the contemporary economic history of Europe.

The course is taken advantageously with or after History 13. It is open to students who take Economies 1, and also to Juniors and Seniors who are taking that course.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. p. 42.

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Course Enrollment, 1901-02
Economics 6.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 6. Dr. Sprague and Mr. Patten. — The Economic History of the United States.

Total 125: 7 Graduates, 33 Seniors, 53 Juniors, 19 Sophomores, 13 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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REPORTS IN ECONOMICS 6.

[In pencil: “1901-02 ?”]

COLONIAL TOPICS.

  1. ENGLISH COLONIAL POLICY. — WAS IT BENEFICIAL TO THE COLONIES OR THE MOTHER COUNTRY?

Beer: Commercial Policy of England toward her Colonies, chs. iv-viii.

Rogers: Economical Interpretation of History, 318-340.

Rabbeno: American Commercial Policy, 48-91.

Smith: Wealth of Nations, Bk. IV, ch. vii.

Ricardo: Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, ch. xxv.

Bernard: Select Letters on the Trade Government of America.

  1. SPANISH COLONIES AND COLONIAL POLICY.

Burke: European Settlements in America, Part III, chs. iii-v, viii, ix, xi, xvi.

Robertson: History of America, Bk. VIII.

Lewis: Government of Dependencies, 134-165, 351-9.

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies, I, 1-44.

Moses: The Casa de Contratacion of Seville. — Annual Report of the American Historical Assn., 1894, pp. 93-123.

Winterbotham: History of America, IV, 176-202.

Reynal: History of the Indies, III, 336-426, IV, 275-345.

Humbolt: Political Essays on the Kingdom of New Spain, I, 230-257, III, 231-251, 283-294, 324-3336, 394-418, 490, IV, 27, 55, 92-127.

  1. THE COLONIAL LABOR PROBLEM. — DIFFICULTY OF SECURING A SUPPLY OF LABOR AND THE MEANS USED TO OVERCOME IT.

(a) Transportation of Criminals, and Indentured Servants.

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies, Part III, Lecture ix, xii, xiii.

Brownlow: Slavery and Serfdom in Europe, Lecture v.

Fisk: Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, II, 174-189.

Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, chs. ix, x.

Weeden: Economic and Social History of New England, 83-87, 520-522.

American Husbandry, I, 169-70. (Lib. No. 47.42.)

Lucas: Historical Geography of the British Colonies, II, 47.

(b) The African Slave Trade.

Weston: Progress of Slavery, 153-163, (ch. xi).

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies, Lecture ix-xi.

Lucas: Historical Geography of the British Colonies, III, chs. ii, iii.

DuBois: Suppression of the African Slave Trade, 1-6.

Cobb: Historical Sketch of Slavery, ch. IX.
Bandinel: Some Account of the Trade in Slaves, etc., Part I.
Edwards: History of the West Indies, Bk. IV, chs. ii-v.

Dean: Connection of Massachusetts with Slavery.

Weeden: Economic and Social History of New England, ch. xii.

Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, ch. xi.

  1. COLONIAL CURRENCY. — SCARCITY OF SPECIE CURRENCY AND SOME OF THE SUBSTITUTES FOR IT.

White: Money and Banking, 120-134, 248-258.

Weeden: Economic and Social History of New England, pp. 32-45, 314-336, 473-491, 674-678.

Macfarlane: Pennsylvania Paper Currency. — Publications of American Academy of Pol. and Soc. Science, Vol. VIII, 50.

Bruce: Economic History of Virginia, ch. xix.

Ripley: Financial History of Virginia, ch. xix.

Davis: Currency Discussions in Mass. in the 18th Century. — Quarterly Journal of Economics, XI, 70, 136.

Douglass: A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British Plantations in America. — Economic Studies, II, No. 5.

COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY.

  1. COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH GREAT BRITAIN 1783-1830. — NAVIGATION ACTS AND THE WEST INDIA TRADE.

Lyman: The Diplomacy of United States, II, chs. ii, iii, xii.

Edwards: History of the West Indies, Bk. VI, ch. iv.

Lindsay: History of Merchant Shipping, II, 250-256, 345-407, III, 53-65.

Jay: Life and Writings of John Jay, I, 330-334.

Sumner: Life of Jackson, 164-170.

Rand: Economic History since 1763. (2d Ed.), 515-517.

Adams: Works, VIII, 241, 241 (sic), 310, 327, 350, (273-466).

Madison: Writings, II, 158, 170, 173, 197, 233. 480-483.

  1. SOME REPRESENTATIVE VIEWS OF TARIFF POLICY.

(a) Webster and the Position of New England.

Webster: Works, III, 94 (1824), 224 (1828), V, 161 (1846).

Taussig: State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, 317-385.

For the votes of each state on each Tariff Act, see Sen. Rept. No. 2130, 2d Sess. 51st Congress, pp. 118-120.

(b) Calhoun and McDuffie. — Opposition of the South. — . Had South Carolina just cause for complaint?

Houston: A [Critical] Study of Nullification in South Carolina, chs. iii, iv.

Calhoun: Works, II, 163-173, VI, 2-34.

McDuffie: In Annals of Congress, 18th Cong., I, 1552, 1677, II, 2402-2425; in Congressional Debates, III, 1003, 1006, 2400-2404, VI, 843-847, VIII, Part III, 3142.

(c) Hamilton and Gallatin.

Gallatin: Report on Manufactures, 26-29 (Lib. No. 7372, 25).

Taussig: State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, 1-62, 109-213.

Rabbeno: American Commercial Policy, 287-324.

(d) List and Carey.

Rabbeno: American Commercial Policy, 325-383.

List: National System of Political Economy, 189-352.

Carey: Principles of Social Science: I, chs. iv, §§1-3, viii, x, xiv, xv, xix, xx. xxvi-xxix.

  1. THE TARIFF POLICY AND THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRY 1846-1860. — HOW DID THE LOW DUTIES AFFECT MANUFACTORIES AND WAGES?

Webster: Works, V, 225-235.

Winthrop: Cong. Globe, 1845-46. Appendix, 972-973.

Taussig: Tariff’ History of the U.S., 109-154.

Bolles; Financial History of the U. S., 449-466

Grosvenor: Does Protection Protect, chs. ix, xi, xvi, xix-xxii, xxiv.

Bishop: History of American Manufactures, II, 505 (483-505).

Wright: Comparative Wages, 23-38, 191-199.

Aldrich: Report on Wholesale Prices, Wages, and Transportation, Part I, 11-16. (Sen. Report, No. 1394, 52d Cong. 2d Sess.)

Compendium of the 7th Census, 178-184.

Compendium of 8th Census, 59-75.

  1. GROWTH AND DECAY OF AMERICAN SHIPPING.

Shaler: The United States of American, I, 518-624.

Kelley: The Question of Ships, ch. i-v, xi.

Bates: American Marine, chs. ii, viii-xii, xxii.

Wells: Decay of Our Ocean Mercantile Marine. (Lib. No. v. 6034).

Lindsay: History of Merchant Shipping, IV, chs. iii, iv.

Lynch: Causes of the Reduction of American Tonnage.

SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST.

  1. SPREAD OF COTTON CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT ON SLAVERY. — HAD SLAVERY A PERMANENT ECONOMIC BASIS IN THE SOUTH?

Hammond: The Cotton Industry, chs. ii, iii.

Merivale: Colonization and Colonies. I, 295-302.

Wakefield: The Public Lands a Mine of Wealth, 44-46.

_________: England and America, ii, 1-17.

Sterling: Letters from the Slave States, 302-322.

Hildreth: Despotism in American, ch. iii.

Weston: Progress of Slavery, chs. i-iv, xii, xiv-xvi.

Cairnes: The Slave Power, chs. ii-v, especially 83-92.

Olmsted: The Cotton Kingdom, I, ch. 1; II, 361-398; or

_________: A Journey in the Back Country, ch. viii.

_________: Seaboard Slave States, chs. iii. iv, viii.

Russell: North America, its Agriculture and Climate, chs. viii-x, (xv-xvi).

  1. IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION, AND GROWTH OF INTERNAL COMMERCE AS INDICATED BY LAKE, RIVER, AND CANAL TRAFFIC, 1813-1860.

McMaster: History of United States, III, 459-496, 1V, 381-424.

Million: State Aid to Railways in Missouri, 7-29, 196-229.

Adams: Public Debt, 317-342.

Flagg: Internal Improvements in New York. — Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine, XXIII-XXV. (See also, VI, 439, XVIII, 488.)

Poor: Manual of the Railroads of the U. S., 1868-9, pp. 9-19.

Kettell: In Eighty Years’ Progress, 165-167, 178-190.

U.S. Treas. Dept.: Report on the Internal Commerce of the United States, 178-233.

Andrews: Report on Colonial and Lake Trade.

De Bow: Industrial Resources of the South and West, I, 444-453.

  1. SALE AND SETTLEMENT OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. — PUBLIC LAND POLICY

McMaster: History of U.S., II, 476-482, III, 89-146.

Hart: Practical Essays on American Government, 233-258.

Donaldson: The Public Domain, chs. vii, viii, x, xiii, xx, xxvii.

Gallatin: Writings, III, 209-229.

Colton: Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay. I. ch. xx, VI. 56-85.

American Annual Register, 1829-30, p. 67.

Sato: History of the Land Question in the U.S. — Johns Hopkins University Studies in Hist. and Pol. Sci., IV, Nos. vii-ix.

CURRENCY AND FINANCE

  1. THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED BY HAMILTON AND GALLATIN.

Hildreth: History of U.S., IV, 152-176; 206-220; 252-256; 536-538.

Dunbar: Some Precedents followed by Hamilton, Q.J.E., III, 32-59.

Hamilton: Reports on Public Credit; Works, III, 1-45, 457-529. (Lodge Ed., ii, 97-108; 475-529.)

Adams: Life of Gallatin, 267-274; 292-297

______: History of U.S., I, ch. x.

Howe: Taxation in the U.S. under the Internal Revenue System. chs. i, ii.

  1. BANK NOTES AS DEPRECIATED CURRENCY AND THE HISTORY OF THE SECOND UNITED STATES BANK, 1814-1846.

Hildreth: History of U.S., IV, 256-262.

Bancroft: A Plea for the Constitution, etc., Part iii.

White: Money and Banking, 271-313.

Gallatin: Considerations on the Currency and Banking System of the U.S., 5-6, 19-84. (See also Writings, 235-6; 253-336.)

Sumner: History of American Currency, 59-169; or

______: Life of Jackson, 236-276; 291-342.

McMaster: With the Fathers, 237-252.

  1. THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY AND EFFORTS TO SECURE A SPECIE CURRENCY, 1836-1860.

Bolles: Financial History of the U.S., II, 351-358.

Hildreth: Banks and Banking, 109-113; 170-177.

Gouge: A Short History of Paper Money and Banking in the U.S., 103-106: 111-116.

Van Buren: Special Message of 1837, Statesman’s Manual, 1051.

Webster: Works, IV, 312, 324.

Benton: Thirty Years’ View, II, 124, 164.

Kinley: The Independent Treasury of U.S., chs, i-iii, vii.

Sumner: History of American Currency, 161-189.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003.Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902”.

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Mid-Year Examination 1901-02
ECONOMICS 6

  1. Define or explain:
    1. Enumerated Commodities.
    2. The Molasses Act.
    3. Specie Circular.
    4. Independent Treasury.
    5. The “National Pike.”
    6. Pre-emption.
    7. The tariff of abominations.
  2. The iron industry in the United States to 1860 and the influence of the tariff upon its development.
  3. Why was protection favorably regarded in the West and South after the War of 1812?
  4. The relation of the public lands to the tariff after 1825.
  5. What economic reasons were advanced against the renewal of the charter of the second bank of the United States? Were they well-founded?
  6. The history of internal improvements in Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, distinguishing carefully important differences.
  7. The connection of the settlement of the Mississippi valley, improvements in transportation facilities, and changes in the nature and relative importance of occupations in different sections of the country. What statistics show the connection?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1901-02.

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Year-End Examination 1901-02
ECONOMICS 6

  1. Trace with specific illustrations the steps taken for the elimination of railroad competition between 1868 and 1878.
  2. Conditions leading to the greater diversification of agriculture in the United States. What peculiar obstacles present themselves in the South?
  3. Why are duties on raw materials less defensible than those on manufactures? Give specific illustrations.
  4. Why have the silk duties been more successful than the linen duties?
  5. The value of the inductive method in studying the effects of protective duties.
  6. What kinds of money might have increased in quantity under U.S. laws in 1874, in 1885 and in 1901?
  7. Why is the United States acquiring a larger proportion of the current production of gold now than ten or fifteen years ago?
  8. Defects in the fiscal system of the United States. Illustrate from experience during the war of 1812 and the Civil War

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), p. 25.

Image Source: Wikimedia. Muse Clio from the illustrations to Ovid by Virgil Solis (1562).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Public Utilities Transportation

Harvard. Railroads and regulation. Exams and enrollment. Ripley and Meyer, 1901-1902

American Railroad Scene

 

The first course dedicated to the economics of railroads at Harvard was offered during the first semester of the 1887-1888 academic year and taught by James Laurence Laughlin. After that the field was handed off to a several different instructors. By 1901-02 the course had been split into one semester dedicated to the management of railroads and one semester to the regulation of railroads and other public works.

51 hf. Railway Economics, with particular reference to the United States. Taught by William Z. Ripley in 1901-1902.

52 hf. Railways and other Public Works (advanced course). Taught by Hugo Richard Meyer in 1901-1902.

_________________________

Previous year’s exams
1900-01

Hugo Richard Meyer taught both semesters.

Harvard. Final Exams for Railways and Other Public Works. Meyer, 1901

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Original Course Announcement
Economics 51 hf.

For Undergraduates and Graduates

5 1hf. Railways and other Public Works, under Public and Corporate management. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer.

In this course it is proposed to review the history and working of different modes of dealing with railway transportation, and to deal summarily with the questions of street railways, water, gas, and electric light supply. Consideration will be given to the economic characteristics of these industries, the theory and history of railway rates, the effects of railway service and railway changes on other industries, the causes and consequences of monopoly conditions. The history of legislation, in the more important European countries and in Australia will be followed, as well as the different modes in which the countries in question have undertaken the regulation and control of private corporations, or have assumed direct ownership, with or without management and operation. As to the United States, there will be a consideration of the modes of regulation, through legislation and through commissions, at the hands of the several states; and of the course of legislation by the federal government, concluding with a study of the working of the Interstate Commerce Act.

Written work, in the preparation of papers on assigned topics, will be required of all students in the course. Course 5 is open to students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. pp. 41-42.

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Revised Statement Concerning Course 51 hf.

51 hf. Railway Economics, with particular reference to the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley (Mass. Inst. Technology).

A brief outline of the historical development of rail and water transportation in the United States will be followed by a description of the condition of the railroad system at the present time; with a view of familiarizing the student with the principal sources of information. The four main subdivisions of Rates and Rate-Making, Finance, Traffic Operation, and Legislation, will be considered in turn. The first subdivision deals with the relation of the railroad to the shipper. It will comprehend an analysis of the theory and practice of rate-making, including, for example, freight classification, the nature of railroad competition, the long and short haul principle, pooling, etc. Under the second heading, having reference to the interests of owners and investors, an outline will be given of the nature of railroad securities, such as stocks, bonds, etc., the principles of capitalization, the interpretation of railroad accounts and annual reports, receiverships and reorganizations, etc. Railroad Operation, the third subdivision, will deal with the practical problems of the traffic department, such as the collection and interpretation of statistics of operation, pro-rating, the apportionment of cost, depreciation and maintenance, etc. In the fourth subdivision, Legislation, the course of state and federal regulation and control will be traced. Discussion will follow concerning the work of the Interstate Commerce Commission, judicial interpretation of the law, the relation of the Commission to the Courts, etc.

Written work in the preparation of papers on assigned topics will be required of all students in the course. Course 5 is open to all students who have taken Economics 1.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902.”

_________________________

Course Enrollment

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 5 1hf. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley. — Railway Economics with particular reference to the United States.

Total 81: 6 Graduates, 40 Seniors, 19 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Mid-Year Examination, 1902
ECONOMICS 5.

  1. State three points of difference between capital stock and bonds, indicating the resultant effect upon American railway management.
  2. Outline the course of state legislation and of judicial decisions, leading to the enactment of the Act to Regulate Commerce, etc. of 1887.
  3. Describe the present condition of affairs as respects the power of the Interstate Commerce Commission to prescribe freight rates; with the nature of the principal suggestions for amendment of the law in this regard.
  4. What principles were involved in the following cases:

(a) Social Circle; (b) Cincinnati and Chicago Freight Bureaus; and (c) Louisville and Nashville.

  1. In what two independent ways has the Long and Short Haul clause been rendered ineffective as originally interpreted. Illustrate by examples.
  2. What is the principal difference between rail and water competition in the case of canals, small rivers, and the Great Lakes?
  3. Discuss the various bases proposed for railroad capitalization, defining that term exactly. What is the policy in Massachusetts in this respect?
  4. Combine and arrange the following items so as to give the best information about the operation and condition of the road.

(Do not rewrite the names but use the corresponding numbers where possible.)

1. Passenger train miles 2,000,000
2. Freight train miles 3,400,000
3. Passenger train earnings $2,400,000
4. Freight train earnings $5,500,000
5. Income from investments $100,000
6. Dividends $500,000
7. Franchises and property $90,400,000
8. Operating expenses $4,700,000
9. Tons freight carried 2,800,000
10. Av. load per car (loaded and empty), tons 8.2
11. Av. no. loaded cars per train 12.3
12. Av. no. empty cars per train 6.7
13. Interest charge for year $2,200,000
14. Due other roads $100,000
15. Stocks and bonds owned $4,900,000
16. Surplus for the year $300,000
17. Profit and loss account $1,000,000
18. Taxes accrued but not due $100,000
19. Capital stock $50,000,000
20. Supplies on hand $500,000
21. Taxes for the year $300,000
22. Accounts receivable $500,000
23. Cash $1,000,000
24. Bonds of the company in its treasury $800,000
25. Accounts payable $1,000,000
26. Interest due $700,000
27. Funded debt $45,000,000
28. Due from other roads $100,000
29. Interest accrued not due $300,000
  1. Describe three methods of treating depreciation and illustrate each in a case for which it is especially serviceable.
  2. Determine whether to charge the following expenditure to capital account or to revenue account. State your reasons fully. If you should charge to operating expenses, state to which general group.
    • A new forty-ton car to replace a thirty-ton car.
    • An expensive new anion station substituted for two small inexpensive stations.
    • Premium paid on purchase of stock in a connecting line.
    • Wages on a train hauling company’s coal for company’s use.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1901-02.

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Original Course Announcement
Economics 52 hf.

52 hf. Railways and other Public Works (advanced course). Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat, at 1.30. Mr. Meyer.

This course is a continuation of the preceding one. It makes a detailed study of certain of the more important questions discussed in the first half-year. Among those questions are: the accounts and finances of railroads and street railways, as illustrated in the reports and statements of important systems; the development of transportation methods in certain important railroad systems; some State Commissions and their action in specific cases; the decisions rendered by the Interstate Commerce Commission; and some further aspects of public ownership, especially in Germany.

Subjects will be assigned for special examination, and the third hour may be used for the presentation and discussion of the reports upon the subjects examined.

Course 52 is open to students who have passed satisfactorily in Course 51.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics (June 21, 1901).  Official Register of Harvard University 1901-1902. Box 1. Bound volume: Univ. Pub. N.S. 16. History, etc. p. 42.

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Revised Statement Concerning
Course 52 hf.

51 hf. The problems of public ownership of railways; and the question of the public or the private ownership of street railways, gas, and electric lighting plants. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat, at 1.30. Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer.

The problems of the public ownership of railways will be discussed under three headings: the problem of making a railway budget fit into the state budget; the problem of devising a scheme of railway rates that shall meet the demands of ideal justice, and shall at the same time be sufficiently elastic to meet the needs of commerce and industry; and the problem of a large body of civil servants in a self-governing community. The discussion of these questions will be based mainly on the experience of Germany and the Australian Colonies, though some notice will be taken of the experience of France and Italy.

The question of the public or the private ownership of street railways, gas, and electric light plants will be studied by means of a comparison of the working of the so-called American practice of little or no control with the working of the British practice of control by Parliament, supplemented by the policy of municipal ownership.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1901-1902.”

_________________________

Course Enrollment
Economics 52 hf.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

[Economics] 5 2hf. Mr. [Hugo Richard] Meyer. — The Problems of Public Ownership of Railways; and the Question of the Public or the Private Ownership of Street Railways, Gas, and Electric Lighting Plants.

Total 49: 5 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1901-1902, p. 77.

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Final Examination, 1902
ECONOMICS 52

  1. Railway rates and the utilization of the agricultural resources: in Germany, in Russia, and in the United States. A study of the railway problem as the problem of conflicting local interests.
  2. Is the State, when put in charge of the railways, likely to be in a better position than are corporations to pursue an enlightened policy as to the extension of the railroad net and the reduction of railway charges; is it likely to be more considerate of the interests and the rights of the public than are corporations?
    Base your argument upon the experience of the countries studied in this course.
  3. Has the management of the railways by the State in Germany put the small shipper on a footing of equality with the large shipper?
  4. What is the evidence as to the profitableness of electric street railways in the United States?
  5. In the long run, would it be to the interest of the public, to adopt the policy of securing to the public the profit made by public service corporations in excess of the return obtained from good mortgages on real estate?
  6. The evidence as to the comparative economy of management of private gas plants in England and municipal gas plants; as to the comparative cost of gas to the consumer served by private plants and the consumer served by public plants.
  7. State carefully the body of administrative law to be found in the decisions of the Massachusetts Gas and Electric Light Commissioners upon petitions for reduction in the price of gas and of electric light.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 6, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1902-03. Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, Philosophy, Education, Fine Arts, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College (June, 1902), pp. 24-25.

Image Source: American Railroad Scene: Lightning Express Trains Leaving the Junction. Currier & Ives (1874). Published in: Viewpoints; a selection from the pictorial collections of the Library of Congress …. Washington : Library of Congress …, 1975, no. 39.