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Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. American Economic and Financial History. Gay, 1907-08.

Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. Painted by N.C. Wyeth

The materials for this post come from the second time Edwin Francis Gay solo-taught the course on U.S. economic and financial history at Harvard. Other than having its bibliographic furniture rearranged, the course content is virtually identical to that of the 1906-07 version of the course.

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Previously…

Assistant Professor Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague taught the Harvard course “Economic History of the United States”/ “Economic and Financial History of the United States” in 1901-02 (with James Horace Patten), 1902-03, 1903-04, and 1904-05. The course was taken over in 1905-06 by Frank William Taussig and Edwin Francis Gay after Sprague left for a full professorship at the Imperial University of Japan. The Taussig/Gay reading list and final exam for 1905-06. Gay taught this course alone in 1906-07.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 6b 2hf. Professor Gay. — Economic and Financial History of the United States.

Total 143: 14 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 33 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 12 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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[Except for a minor rearrangement in the sequence of topics, the course reading list for 1907-08 is, with only one exception, identical to that for 1906-07.]

Course Reading List
Economic and Financial History
of the United States

ECONOMICS 6b (1908)

Required Reading is indicated by an asterisk (*)

1. Colonial Period.

*Ashley, Commercial Legislation of England and the American Colonies, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 1-29; printed also in Ashley’s Surveys, pp. 309-335.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 36-51.

McMaster, History of the People of the United States, Vol. I, pp. 1-102.

Eggleston, Transit of Civilization, pp. 273-307.

Beer, Commercial Policy of England, pp. 5-158.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 3-91.

Lord, Industrial Experiments in the British Colonies of North America, pp. 56-86, 124-139.

1776-1860.
2. Commerce, Manufactures, and Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History of the United States, pp. 68-154.

*Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, in Taussig’s State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, pp. 1-79, 103-107, (79-103).

Bolles, Industrial History of the United States, Book II, pp. 403-426.

Bishop, History of American Manufactures, Vol. II, pp. 256-505.

Pitkin, Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States (ed. 1835), pp. 368-412.

Gallatin, Free Trade Memorial, in Taussig’s State Papers, pp. 108-213.

Rabbeno, American Commercial Policy, pp. 146-183.

Hill, First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States, Amer. Econ. Assoc. Pub., Vol. VIII, pp. 107-132.

3. Internal Improvements.

*Callender, Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises, Q.J.E., Vol. XVII, pp. 111-162; printed also separately, pp. 3-54.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. IV, Thos. C. Purdy’s Reports on History of Steam Navigation in the United States, pp. 1-62, and History of Operating Canals in the United States, pp. 1-32.

Chevalier, Society, Manners and Polities in the United States, pp. 80-87, 209-276.

Ringwalt, Development of Transportation Systems in the United States, pp. 41-54, 64-166.

Gallatin, Plan of Internal Improvements, Amer. State Papers, Misc., Vol. I, pp. 724-921 (see especially maps, pp. 744, 762, 764, 820, 830).

Pitkin, Statistical View (1835), pp. 531-581.

Chittenden, Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River, Vol. II, pp. 417-424.

4. Agriculture and Land Policy. – Westward Movement.

*Hart, Practical Essays on American Government, pp. 233-257 printed also in Q.J.E., Vol. I, pp. 169-183, 251-254.

*Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 67-119.

*Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 52-74.

Turner, Significance of the Frontier in American History, in Report of Amer. Hist. Assoc., 1893, pp. 199-227.

Donaldson, Public Domain, pp. 1-29, 196-239, 332-356.

Hibbard, History of Agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin, pp. 86-90, 105-133.
[Replaces “Sato, History of the Land Question in the United States, Johns Hopkins University Studies, IV. Nos. 7-9, pp. 127-181” from the 1906-07 reading list.]

Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways, Bulletin of Univ. of Wisconsin Econ., Pol. Sci. and Hist. Series, Vol. II, No. 3, pp. 269-354.

Hart, History as Told by Contemporaries, Vol. III, pp. 459-478.

5. The South and Slavery.

*Cairnes, The Slave Power (2d ed.), pp. 32-103, 140-178.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 34-66.

Russell, North America, its Agriculture and Climate, pp. 133-167.

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (ed. 1838), pp. 336-361, or eds. 1841 and 1848, Vol. I, pp. 386-412.

Helper, Compendium of the Impending Crisis of the South, pp. 7-61.

6. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Dewey, Financial History of the United States, pp. 34-59, 76-117, 224-246, 252-262.

*Catterall, The Second Bank of the United States, pp. 1-24, 68-119, 376 map, 402-403, 464-477.

Bullock, Essays on the Monetary History of the United States, pp. 60-93.

Hamilton, Reports on Public Credit, Amer. State Papers, Finance, Vol. I, pp. 15-37, 64-76.

Kinley, History of the Independent Treasury, pp. 16-39.

Sumner, Andrew Jackson (ed. 1886), pp. 224-249, 257-276, 291-342.

Ross, Sinking Funds, pp. 21-85.

Scott, Repudiation of State Debts, pp. 33-196.

Bourne, History of the Surplus Revenue of 1837, pp. 1-43, 125-135.

Conant, History of Modern Banks of Issue, pp. 310-347.

1860-1900.
7. Finance, Banking and Currency.

*Mitchell, History of the Greenbacks, pp. 3-43, 403-420.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 1-72, 234-254, (73-233).

Taussig, Silver Situation in the United States, pp. 1-157.

Dunbar, National Banking System, Q.J.E., Vol. XII, pp. 1-26; printed also in Dunbar’s Economic Essays, pp. 227-247.

Howe, Taxation and Taxes in the United States under the Internal Revenue System, pp. 136-262.

Tenth United States Census (1880), Vol. VII; Bayley, History of the National Loans, pp. 369-392, 444-486.

8. Transportation.

*Hadley, Railroad Transportation, pp. 1-23, 125-145.

*Johnson, American Railway Transportation, pp. 24-68, 307-321, 367-385.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 466-481.

Adams, Chapters of Erie, pp. 1-99, 333-429.

Davis, The Union Pacific Railway, Annals of the Amer. Acad., Vol. VIII, pp. 259-303.

Villard, Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 284-312.

Dixon, Interstate Commerce Act as Amended, Q.J.E., Vol. XXI, pp. 22-51.

9. Agriculture and Opening of the West.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 43-123, 134-167.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 167-187.

Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. V, pp. xvi-xlii.

Hammond, Cotton Industry, pp. 120-226.

Quaintance, Influence of Farm Machinery, pp. 1-103.

Adams, The Granger Movement, North American Review, Vol. CXX, pp. 394-424.

Bemis, Discontent of the Farmer, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. I, pp. 193-213.

10. Industrial Expansion.

*Twelfth United States Census (1900), Vol. VII, pp. clxx-clxxviii.

*Noyes, Thirty Years of American Finance, pp. 113-126.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 485-519, 544-569.

Twelfth Census, Vol. IX, pp. 1-16; Vol. X, pp. 725-748.

Wells, Recent Economic Changes, pp. 70-113.

11. The Tariff.

*Taussig, Tariff History, pp. 155-229.

Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies, Vol. II, pp. 243-394.

Taussig, Iron Industry, Q.J.E., Vol. XIV, pp. 143-170, 475-508.

Taussig, Wool and Woolens, Q.J.E., Vol. VIII, pp. 1-39.

Wright, Wool-growing and the Tariff since 1890, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, p. 610-647.

Robinson, History of Two Reciprocity Treaties, pp. 9-17, 40-77, 141-156.

Laughlin and Willis, Reciprocity, pp. 311-487.

12. Commerce and Shipping.

*Meeker, History of Shipping Subsidies, pp. 150-171.
[This reading has been switched to required status in 1907-08.]

Meeker, Shipping Subsidies, Pol. Sci. Quart., Vol. XX, pp. 594-611.

Soley, Maritime Industries of the United States, in Shaler’s United States, Vol. I, pp. 518-618.

McVey, Shipping Subsidies, J. Pol. Ec., Vol. IX, pp. 24-46.

Wells, Our Merchant Marine, pp. 1-94.

13. Industrial Concentration.

*Willoughby, Integration of Industry in the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XVI, pp. 94-115.

*Noyes, Recent Economic History of the United States, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 188-209.

Twelfth Census, Vol. VII, pp. cxc-ccxiv.

Industrial Commission, Vol. XIII, pp. v-xviii.

Bullock, Trust Literature, Q.J.E., Vol. XV, pp. 167-217.

14. The Labor Problem.

*United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, No. 18 (Sept., 1898), pp. 665-670; No. 30 (Sept., 1900), pp. 913-915; No. 53 (July, 1904), pp. 703-728.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 3-16, 502-547.

Levasseur, American Workman, pp. 436-509.

Mitchell, Organized Labor, pp. 391-411.

Twelfth Census, Special Report on Employees and Wages, p. xcix.

National Civic Federation, Industrial Conciliation, pp. 40-48, 141-154, 238-243, 254-266.

15. Population, Immigration and the Race Question.

* United States Census Bulletin, No. 4 (1903), pp. 5-38.

*Industrial Commission, Vol. XV, pp. xix-lxiv.

Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 68-112.

Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 33-78.

Walker, Discussions in Economies and Statistics, Vol. II, pp. 417-451.

Hoffmann, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, pp. 250-309.

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, pp. 102-228.

Twelfth Census Bulletin, No. 8.

United States Bureau of Labor Bulletins, Nos. 14, 22, 32, 35, 37, 38, 48.

Washington, Future of the American Negro, pp. 3-244.

Stone, A Plantation Experiment, Q.J.E., Vol. XIX, pp. 270-287.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1907-1908”.

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ECONOMICS 6b
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Briefly:—
    1. The Bland-Allison and Sherman Acts.
    2. The National Banking Act.
    3. The Homestead Law.
    4. Reciprocity since 1890.
  2. Compare the condition of manufactures in the United States in 1791 (Hamilton’s report) with that in 1900.
  3. Why has the cotton industry developed more satisfactorily than the woolen industry?
  4. Compare in its chief features the state of Southern agriculture before and after the Civil War.
  5. [Farm indebtedness and tenancy]
    1. Farm indebtedness in the United States 1885-1900; its relation to agricultural prices and the demand for monetary reform.
    2. Farm tenancy in the United States.
  6. Is railroad “pooling” permitted in the United States? Should it be permitted? What do you think of Anti-Trust Legislation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: Website of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Webpage: History. Lincoln and the Founding of the National Banking System.

“Lincoln and Chase working on the national banking legislation. N.C. Wyeth painted this mural in the lobby of what was then the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The former bank building is today the Langham Hotel.”

Categories
Harvard Libertarianism Principles Suggested Reading Syllabus

Antioch College. Syllabus for principles of economics. Watts, 1935-1936

Vervon Orval Watts (1898-1993)  was a Thomas Nixon Carver  inspired libertarian economist from pre-Keynesian Harvard times. Before going on to become the first head economist for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce (1939-46) and later an economic adviser to the Foundation for Economic Education starting in 1946, Watts taught economics at Antioch College (1930-36) and Carleton College (1936-39). His full biographical timeline can be found at the link above. For this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has transcribed the syllabus with the assigned and optional readings for the principles course Watts taught at Antioch College in 1935-36.

In the mid-1960s Watts was the Dean of the short-lived Freedom School Phrontistery in Colorado, the brainchild of Robert LeFevre that was to become a libertarian version of a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics program of study.

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Harvard Ph.D. awarded in 1932

Vervon Orval Watts, A.B. (Univ. of Manitoba) 1918, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1923.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Sociology. Thesis, “The Development of the Technological Concept of Production in Anglo-American Thought.”
Associate Professor of Economics, Antioch College.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College, 1931-1932, p.124.

_____________________________

A Syllabus of Instruction
for
Economics 101-102

A Survey of Modern
Economic Life

V. O. Watts
Antioch College
1935-1936

PURPOSES OF THE COURSE

  1. To obtain information concerning American economic institutions.
  2. To develop the habit in the ordinary experiences of daily life of observing, analyzing and appraising the economic results of the conduct of individuals and of groups of individuals as wage-earners, employers, farmers, manufacturers, merchants, financiers, and legislators.
  3. To develop skill in tracing out and explaining the ramifications of the economic effects of an event.

CONDUCT OF THE COURSE

Required Readings

Study of the required readings, those starred and underlined in the list of references in this syllabus, constitutes the larger part of the work of this course. The following methods of study are therefore suggested:

  1. Note the relation of each chapter or section in the text or syllabus to the sections preceding and following it.
  2. Read or scan quickly the material in one or two chapters at a time before underlining or taking notes, so that you may gain perspective and distinguish the more significant principles from the accompanying illustrations and qualifications.
  3. Think out answers to the questions and problems given at the end of each section or chapter in the text or question book, referring back to the appropriate section of the text, when necessary, to clarify your understanding of the principles involved.
  4. Re-read the text, making written note of essential points in definitions of technical terns, statements of important principles, list of arguments pro and con on controversial issues, advantages and disadvantages of proposed policies, and qualifications of principles.
    This note-taking should provide opportunity for practice in expressing yourself in economics, therefore do not copy the author’s words, but put his ideas into your own words. It should also provide an aid to quick and effective review and help you to organize your thinking in this field, therefore keep your notes brief, well-organized, and neatly arranged.
  5. Before class discussions and examinations review those notes, practicing recall, illustrating the points noted, questioning and criticizing the author’s ideas, and formulating your own conclusions.

Periodicals

Each student in this course is expected to keep posted on current economic and political events and opinions through the regular reading of a newspaper or news weekly.

                  Some acquaintance with a number of leading journals in the fields of business and political economy is also required. To that end some of the journals listed below should be consulted with the following questions in mind concerning each: (1) How often is it published? (2) Who are the publishers or editors? (3) What is the professional status or occupation of its contributors? (4) What is the general character or point of view of most of its articles? (5) What special place does it fill in the field and to what type of reader is it likely to have most appeal?

Examine the table of contents for several recent issues of some of these magazines to see if there may be articles which especially interest you. In some journals you may find few or none, but in others you should find many such articles. Try to read at least one article during the semester in each of several of the journals listed.

Recommended Readings

The optional, or recommended, readings listed below present additional information or develop points of view differing more or less from that dominant in the required text. In some cases they may present clearer explanations of the points covered in the required readings.

Class Meetings

There are customarily three class meetings per week.

Conferences

Each student should meet the instructor for a conference at least once in each five-week period. To these conferences the student should bring his economics notebook and recent test papers.

Tests and Examinations

Approximately once a week there will be a ten-minute written test on the subject matter of the required readings. At the end of the first and third divisions there will be a one-hour examination on the readings and lectures. At the end of each semester there will be a three-hour examination covering the entire work of the course to date.

Answers to examination questions should be well planned and neatly written. Each distinct point or argument should be treated in a separate paragraph, and points correlative in meaning and importance should be numbered. All papers should be written in ink.

Oral Report

In the second division of the second semester each student will be expected to present to the class in a ten or fifteen minute report the results of his study outside the required readings of a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. The time allotted for preparation of this report should be approximately one-tenth of the time devoted to the entire course. The report itself should not take the form of reading an essay, but should be a short talk from a brief outline.

Textbooks

L. A. Rufener, Principles of Economics

R. M. Rutledge, Everyday Economics

SCHEDULE OF READINGS, LECTURES, AND EXAMINATIONS

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

FIRST SEMESTER

First Week

*Rufener, ch.1. Wants, Goods, and Welfare

*Rutledge, ch. 1.

Stuart Chase, Your Money’s Worth

C. E. Carpenter, Dollars and Sense

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, Elementary Economics, chs. 1, 7.

S. H. Slichter, Modern Economic Society, ch. 22.

Lecture: The Significance of Scarcity.

Second Week

*Rufener:

ch. 2. Improving Methods of Production
ch. 3. Exchange, Value, and Price
ch. 4. Business Organization and Profits

*Rutledge, ch. 4.

V. O. Watts, The Myth of the Industrial Revolution

Third Week

*Rufener:

ch. 5. Demand and Supply and Market Price
ch. 6. Demand and Supply and Market Price (continued)
ch. 7. Demand Schedules for Producers’ Goods

*Rutledge, ch. 6

W. H. Hamilton, Current Economic Problems, selections 63-66

Slichter, chs. 12, 13, 14

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 11-15.

Fourth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 8. Costs of Production, Market Price, and Profit
ch. 9. Cost and Price in Agriculture: Wheat-Growing
ch. 10. The Rent and Price of Agricultural Land

*Rutledge, ch. 10.

J. B. Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 180-207

Slichter, chs. 17, 19. “Public Authority as a Determinant of Price”.

Fifth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 11. Indirect Costs in Agriculture
ch. 12. Economic Rent and the Unearned Increment
ch. 13. Cost of Production in Manufacturing: Decreasing Cost

*Rutledge ch. 12.

Fairchild, Furniss, and Buck, chs. 31, 32.

Hour Examination

Sixth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 14. Decreasing Costs, Indirect Costs, and Price
ch. 15. Monopoly and Monopoly Price
ch. 16. Industrial Monopolies and Government Control

*Rutledge:

ch. 15.
ch. 16.

F. A. Fetter, The Masquerade of Monopoly

M. W. Watkins, Industrial Combinations and Public Policy

Lecture:
The Economies and Limitations of Large-Scale Methods

Seventh Week

*Rufener:

ch. 17. Public Utilities and Government Control
ch. 18. Railroads and Government Control
ch. 19. Demand Schedules for Labor

Slichter, ch. 18.

Eighth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 20. Differences in Wages
ch. 21. Labor Organization

*Rutledge:

ch. 20
ch. 21

Paul Douglas, Real Wages in the United States

Slichter, ch. 24. “The Labor Bargain—The Determination of Wages”

Fairchild, Furniss and Buck ch. 35. “The General Law of Wages.”

Rufener, ch. 22. “Labor Legislation”

Lectures:

Principles of Justice in Distribution
Wage Theories
The Malthusian Principle of Population

Ninth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 23. The Price of Loans.
ch. 24. Producers’ Loans and the Rate of Interest.

*Rutledge, ch. 23.

*R. Epstein, Supplementary Readings in Economics, ch. 18. “The Nature of Capital and Interest”

Lecture:
The Nature and Importance of Saving and Investment.

Tenth Week

Semester Examination

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

SECOND SEMESTER

First Week

*Rufener:

ch. 25. The Qualities and Quantity of Money
ch. 27. Government Paper Money

*Rutledge:

ch. 25
ch. 27

*Rufener, ch. 28. Bank Deposits and Bank Notes

D. H. Robertson, Money

Rufener, ch. 26

Second Week

*Rufener:

ch. 29. Bank Credit and Business Cycles.
ch. 30. Government Regulation of Banking in the U.S.

*Rutledge, ch. 29.

Slichter, ch. 11, ch. 20 (pp. 471-491).

L. Robbins, The Great Depression.

H. Clay, J. Stamp, J. M. Keynes, The World’s Economic Crisis and the Way of Escape.

L. Ayres, The Economics of Recovery.

W. C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, ch. 1, sections 3, 4.

Lecture:
The Causes of the 1930-1935 Depression.

Third Week

*Rufener:

ch. 31. Risk, Insurance and Speculation.
ch. 32. Clearings, Collections, and Exchange.

*Rutledge, ch. 31.

Slichter, ch. 30. “International Economic Policies—Monetary and Financial Problems.”

H. G. Moulton:

Germany’s Capacity to Pay.
The World War Debt Settlements.

Rufener, ch. 33.

Fourth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 34. International Trade
ch. 35. Protection and Free Trade.

*F. W. Taussig, Free Trade, the Tariff, and Reciprocity, pp. 44-57 and chs. 3,4,7, and pp. 168-179.

S. Crowther, America Self-Contained.

W. Redfield, Dependent America.

J. M. Jones, Tariff Retaliation.

F. Bastiat, Economic Sophisms.

H. F. Fraser, Foreign Trade and World Politics.

Rutledge, ch. 35.

Fifth Week

*Rufener:

ch. 37. Theories of Taxation.
ch. 38. The Tax System of the United States.

Hour Examination

Sixth to Ninth Weeks

*Rufener:

ch.39. Problems of Agriculture.
ch.36. The Functions of Government
ch.40. Evils of the Price and Profit System, and Remedies Proposed.

*Rutledge ch. 40.

*Hubbard, Current Economic Policies, pp. 3-21.

Stuart Chase:

The Tragedy of Waste.
The Economy of Abundance.

T. N. Carver:

Essays in Social Justice, chs. 4-7, 9-16.
The Economy of Human Energy, chs. 2, 3, 6—9.

P. Sorokin, Social Mobility.

A. T. Hadley, Standards of Public Morality, chs. 1-3.

H. M. Robinson, Relativity in Business Morals.

See also the following references to current periodicals.

Lectures:

Economic Inequality
The Social Nature of Property
The Economy of Abundance
Planned Production
A Program of Economic Reorganization.

Tenth Week

Final Examination.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

PERIODICALS

                  The following publications are devoted partly or wholly to economic and business subjects.

Academy of Political Science, Proceedings

*American Economic Review

*American Labor Legislation Review

American Statistical Association Journal

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

*Annalist

*Business Week

Chase Economic Bulletin

*Commercial and Financial Chronicle

Commonweal

Congressional Digest

*Economic Forum

Economic Geography

*Economic Journal

Factory Management and Maintenance

Foreign Affairs

Fortune

Harvard Business Review

International Labor Review

*Journal of Political Economy

*Magazine of Wall Street

Monthly Labor Review

Nation (New York)

National City Bank of New York Bulletin

Nation’s Business

New Republic

Personnel Journal

*Political Science Quarterly

*Printer’s Ink

*Quarterly Journal of Economics

Review of Economic Statistics

Yale Review

*Current issues in the Economics Reading Room, Main Bldg., Room 37.

The following articles in issues of the past year are especially recommended:

First Semester

“The Coal Resources of China,” W. Belden, M. Salter, Economic Geography, July 1935.

“The Public Utility Issue,” L. Olds, The Yale Review, Summer, 1935.

“Economic Effects of Wages and Hour Provisions in Codes,” T. O. Yntema, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.

“The American Labor Movement Since the War,” D. J. Saposs, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb., 1935.

“Economic and Political Radicalism,” M. C. Kruger, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(The effect of the depression on the economic and political policies of organized labor.)

“Workers’ Education in the United States,” A. S. Cheyney, International Labor Review, July, 1935.

“The Negro in Industry,” G.S.Mitchell, The American Scholar, Summer 1935.
(The problem of race prejudice in trade unions)

“Incidence upon the Negroes,” C.S. Johnson, American Journal of Sociology, May, 1935.
(Incidence of the burdens of the depression upon negroes)

“Compensation of Corporation Executives, 1928-1932 Record,” J.C.Baker and W. L. Crum, Harvard Business Review, Sumner 1935.

“Old Age Security,” E. E. Witte, National Municipal Review, July 1935.

“Paying for Economic and Social Security,” J. P. Harris, National Municipal Review, August 1935.

“Problems of Social Security Legislation in the United States,” several articles in the Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June 1935.

Second Semester

“The Royal Road to Inflation,” A. Wolff, Economic Forum, Spring 1935.
(Shows how continued federal budget deficits may lead to currency inflation.)

“Trade Treaty Need,” Cordell Hull, “American Trade Policy and World Recovery,” P. Molyneaux, International Conciliation, June 1935.

“Death Duties, Enterprise, and the Growth of National Capital,” B. M. Anderson, Chase Economic Bulletin, August 6, 1935.

“The Outlook for American Cotton,” J. D. Black, Review of Economic Statistics, March 1935.
(Is America losing her foreign cotton markets?)

“The New Deal and Economic Liberty,” A. A. Berle, and other articles on government control of business, Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, March 1935.

“A Planned Economy for Wall Street,” C. H. Meyer, The American Scholar Summer 1935.
(The economic consequences of the Securities Acts of 1933, 1934)

“Government Control of Investments and Speculation,” R. S. Tucker, American Economic Review, Supplement, March 1935.

“The Paths of Economic Change,” Calvin B. Hoover, American Economic Review, Supplement (Papers and Proceedings) March 1935.
(Fascism, Communism, and Capitalism compared.)

“The Corporate State and NRA,” G. Bottai, Foreign Affairs, July 1935.

“The Permanent New Deal,” W. Lippmann, The Yale Review, Summer 1935.
(A comparison of the policies of Herbert Hoover with those of Franklin D. Roosevelt.)

“Borrowing Machines,” H. A. Davis, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(Are the now “authorities” a blessing or menace?)

“Gyp Vendor & Co.,” G. B. Seybold, National Municipal Review, June 1935.
(New York’s attempt to secure economy in municipal expenditures discloses numerous rackets and forms of graft.)

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of V. Orval Watts, Box 1, Folder “Misc. writings, etc. 1930s + 1940s”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1932.

Categories
Economic History Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exam for 19th century European Industry and Commerce. Gay, 1907-1908

Edwin F. Gay was promoted to the rank of professor in 1906 and served as the acting chairman of the Harvard economics department during Thomas Nixon Carver’s leave of absence. He then became the chair of the department in 1907. In the following year he was appointed the first dean of the newly established Graduate School of Business Administration which is likely the reason that European economic history was reduced to a single semester course.

___________________________

Earlier, related posts

A brief course description for Economics 11 plus the exams from 1902-03.

Exams for 1903-04.

Exams for 1904-05.

Exams for 1905-06.

Exams for 1906-07.

A short bibliography for “serious students” of economic history assembled by Gay and published in 1910 has also been posted.

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 6a 1hf. Professor Gay. — European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century.

Total 90: 16 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 34 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

__________________________

ECONOMICS 6a
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. What was the “Movement of Liberation” in the economic history of the nineteenth century? Do you consider this movement completed?
  2. Gladstone wrote in 1846: “Mr. Cobden has throughout argued the corn question on the principle of holding up the landlords of England to the people as plunderers and knaves for maintaining the corn law to save their rents, and as fools because it was not necessary for that purpose.”
    1. Do you regard this as a fair characterization of Cobden’s Anti-Corn Law agitation? Give reasons for your opinion.
    2. What converted Peel to Free Trade?
  3. [Tariffs]
    1. What was the Cobden treaty and in what lay its chief importance?
    2. Describe the protectionist reaction in France and state its causes.
  4. [France and Germany]
    1. Compare the railway policy of France with that of Germany, giving briefly history and results.
    2. Make a similar comparison of the policies of France and Germany in regard to shipping subsidies.
    3. May any conclusions of value for other countries be drawn from the experience of France and Germany? State the grounds for your view.
  5. Comment on the following (from a speech by Mr. Chamberlain, 1903): “In thirty years the total imports of manufactures which could just as well be made in this country have increased £86,000,000, and the total exports have decreased £6,000,000. £92,000,000 of trade that we might have done here has gone to the foreigner, and what has been the result for our own people? The Board of Trade tells you that you may take one-half of the export as representing wages. We therefore have lost £46,000,000 a year in wages during the thirty years. That would give employment to nearly 600,000 men at 30s. per week of continuous employment. That would give a fair subsistence for these men and their families, amounting to 3,000,000 persons.”
  6. What has been the attitude of European governments toward the so-called Trust Problem?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

Image Source: “The Corn Laws Part 2–Real”at the website “British Food: A History”.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Transportation

Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for economics of transportation. Ripley and Daggett, 1907-1908

Judging from the final examination questions, it would appear that this “the economics of transportation” was dedicated to “railway economics”. But what’s in a name?

__________________________

Earlier exams etc. for Economics 5

1900-01 (Hugo Richard Meyer alone)
1901-02 (Ripley with Hugo Richard Meyer)
1903-04 (Ripley alone)
1904-05 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett)
1905-06 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett)
1906-07 (Ripley with Stuart Daggett and Walter Wallace McLaren)

___________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 5 1hf. Professor [William Zebina] Ripley and Dr. [Stuart] Daggett. — Economics of Transportation.

Total 126: 15 Graduates, 21 Seniors, 67 Juniors, 18 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 5
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Define: Financial Reorganization; Floating Debt; Collateral Trust Bond; Debenture; Commodity Rate.
  2. On two roads, the figures for certain operating statistics were:
    3,855,000 ton miles per mile, and 428,000 ton miles per mile respectively. What is this called? What is its full financial significance?
  3. In comparing the operating results of two roads, in what way, if any, may the balance sheets be used? How did you analyze them in your report?
  4. What has been the course of developments concerning the attitude of the United States Supreme Court toward the legislative branches of the government in respect of rate regulation?
  5. What states have attempted specific valuations of railway property: and what has been the leading motive in each case?
  6. Name three peculiar features of German States railway practice, as contrasted with American conditions.
  7. How far has actual railroad consolidation progressed in the Southern States, and why?
  8. Discuss the proposition that railroad capitalization and the rates for service charged are entirely independent of one another.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

Image Source: Built in 1907, the Union Pacific 618 at Heber Valley Historic Railroad. Photo by Evan Jennings, Oct, 2004. Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Development Economist Market Economists Harvard Toronto

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus William Edmund Clark, 1974

Ed Clark once a 'Trudeaucrat' and then a Financial Master of the Universe

 

During the 1973-74 academic year Dale Jorgenson served as the placement officer for 34 Harvard economics Ph.D.s (in hand or anticipated) planning to go on the market. A fifth year student offering  the field of economic development with a thesis on government investment planning in Tanzania hoped to spend his first post-doc year at Harvard. Jorgensen apparently offered him a discouraging word, leading William Edmund Clark to approach John Kenneth Galbraith for help. Galbraith’s note to the department chair, James Duesenberry, is transcribed below. Galbraith could not pass up the opportunity to lend a helping hand simultaneously with a discrete back-of-the-hand at Jorgenson. 

Archival artifacts from the feud involving Jorgenson and Galbraith, inter alios, in the Harvard economics department at this time were the subject of an earlier post.

Curatorial due diligence demanded that I track down whatever happened to the Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus William Edmund Clark. It turns out that he went back to his native Canada where he entered government service. He became much more than another faceless government economist. He rose rapidly through the bureaucratic ranks and within a decade “enjoyed” sufficient notoriety to become a Trudeaucratic target of Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney’s new government in the mid-1980s to be purged from the ranks of the civil service. From there Clark went on to an enormously successful career as a financial mover-and-shaker over the following three decades. “Red Ed” Clark also went on to make his mark in philanthropy.

The details of Clark’s truly remarkable life after his Harvard Ph.D. can be found in his Wikipedia article. John Kenneth Galbraith must have seen something that Dale Jorgenson either failed to see or didn’t want to encourage.

__________________________

Galbraith Tries an End-Run
around Jorgenson

December 20, 1973

Professor James Duesenberry
Littauer M-8
Harvard University

Dear Jim:

W. E. Clark, vitae attached, was in to see me the other day. He would like to stay on at Harvard; he has been told by Jorgenson that, in effect, there isn’t much interest in him. I find it difficult to plead we lack interest in anybody with this kind of record. I continue to suspect Mr. Jorgenson of an influence on our enterprise that is both inimical and evangelical. Couldn’t there be some corrective action without some fuss.

Yours faithfully,
John Kenneth Galbraith

JKG: efd

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

William Edmund Clark
Curriculum Vitae
  1. Born: October 10, 1947
  2. Marriage Status: Married
  3. Children: One Son
  4. Education:

Honors B.A., University of Toronto 1969. Economics
A.M. Harvard University 1971. Economics
Ph.D. Expected Harvard University. 1974 (Summer) Economics

  1. Awards, Grades:
    1. Stood first in class last three years at University of Toronto
    2. Received Excellent Minus on written Theory for Ph.D.
    3. Received Excellent on Orals for Ph.D.
      Topics: Economic Development; Theories of Social Change
    4. Woodrow Wilson Scholar
  2. Thesis. Pattern of Government Controlled Investment in Tanzania
    Thesis Advisors: A. O. Hirschman; A. MacEwan
  3. Teaching Experience:

Summer Course, Acadia University, Nova Scotia 1970
Teaching Fellow, Harvard University 1971/72.

  1. Other Work Experience:

Researcher, Center of Criminology, University of Toronto, 1966 (summer)
Researcher, Ford Foundation Project on Higher Education, University of Toronto, 1968 (summer)
Head, Research Project on Student Aid, Financed by Ontario Government and Ford Foundation, 1969 (summer)
Member, University of Toronto Tanzania Project, 1971-73
Team head, University of Toronto Tanzania Project, 1972-73

  1. Publications:

“Access to Higher Education in Ontario” joint article with D. Cook and G. Fallis

  1. Address: 11 Peabody Terrace Apt. 702 Cambridge, Mass. 02138
    Telephone: 617-492-0416
  2. References:

A.O. Hirschman, Harvard University
A. MacEwan, Harvard University
D. Nowlan, Dept. of Economics, University of Toronto
D.F. Forster, Provost, University of Toronto
A. Sinclair, Chairman, Dept. of Economics, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia 

Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526. Folder “Harvard Economics Dept. of Economics: General correspondence, 1967-74 (1 of 3)”.

Image Source: “Turbulence follows former ‘Trudeaucrat”,  National Post (Toronto), Aug 9, 1999.

Categories
Economist Market Economists Harvard Michigan

Harvard. Department recommends promotion of James Duesenberry to associate professor with tenure, 1952

Thanks to Milton Friedman’s filing habits, we are able to catch a glimpse into the tenure and promotion process at Harvard for the case of James S. Duesenberry in 1952. Friedman was invited to serve on the ad hoc committee to review the case for promoting Duesenberry from assistant professor to associate professor of economics with tenure in Harvard’s economics department. A typed copy of the department’s two-page recommendation submitted by the chairman Arthur Smithies, a one page c.v. for Duesenberry, and additional letters of support by Wassily Leontief and Gottfried Haberler from Milton Friedman’s file are transcribed below .

What strikes me most is just how short this written record appears when compared to the paper steeplechase of university hiring and promotion procedures of the present day.

_____________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
CAMBRIDGE 38, MASSACHUSETTS

Office of the Provost

April 4, 1952

Confidential

Professor Milton Friedman
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

Dear Professor Friedman:

I am happy to learn from President Conant that you have kindly consented to serve on the ad hoc committee to consider an appointment in our Department of Economics. The committee will hold its meeting on Friday, April 18, at ten o’clock in the Perkins Room in Massachusetts Hall.

The position to be filled is that of Associate Professor of Economics. This rank carries permanency of tenure, and an assured progress toward a full professorship provided the man appointed lives up to expectations. For this reason we are seeking as good a young man as we can find in the age bracket under approximately forty years.

The Department of Economics has recommended Dr. James B. Duesenberry. I enclose for your scrutiny a copy of the Department’s recommendation, which, like all the material presented to the ad hoc committee, is strictly confidential. The next step in procedure is for the specially appointed ad hoc committee to advise the President and the Provost. In this connection not merely should the qualifications of Dr. Duesenberry be assessed, but he should also be compared with other men of his age group in the same field.

If there are any questions I can answer before the meeting of the committee, please do not hesitate to let me know. I am also enclosing a special travel voucher for your convenience in reporting your travel expenses in connection with the meeting of the ad hoc committee.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Paul H. Buck
Paul H. Buck
Provost

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

COPY

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Office of the Chairman

M-8 Littauer Center
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

February 18, 1952

Provost Paul H. Buck
5 University Hall

Dear Provost Buck:

At its meeting of February 12th, the Department of Economics unanimously decided to recommend Assistant Professor James S. Duesenberry for promotion to an Associate Professorship beginning in the academic year 1952-1953.

The meeting was attended by Professors Black, Chamberlin, Dunlop, Galbraith, Hansen, Harris, Leontief, Mason, Slichter, and Smithies, all of whom voted in favor of the promotion. Professors Gerschenkron, Haberler, and Williams and Dr. Taylor who were unavoidably absent from the meeting have all indicated their approval.

I am attaching a brief curriculum vitae of Duesenberry and a list of his publications and papers.

We make this recommendation after a careful survey of all the economists in the country whom we felt might be qualified or available for an Associate Professorship. Altogether we considered about twenty young economists, both in the United States and abroad. It is our judgment that none of them could serve this faculty better than Duesenberry and very few if any of them are on a par with Duesenberry.

He is undoubtedly one of the very few outstanding young economists in the country. I know that if he were to indicate his availability he would be flooded with offers from many leading universities. To illustrate, the University of California has just lost Fellner to Yale and they have told me that they would gladly take Duesenberry as one of their two leading economists in Economic Theory.

When we had narrowed our list down, it included Baumol at Princeton, Dorfman at California, Tobin at Yale, Goodwin who is now in Cambridge, England, and Robert Rosa of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Rosa appealed to many of us particularly. He has had a brilliant career in the Bank which has merely been an extension of the brilliance he has shown throughout his professional career. I knew him as an undergraduate at Michigan, and he has fulfilled all the promise he showed at that time. Unfortunately, he finally decided that he was not available. Otherwise, we might have recommended Rosa’s appointment in conjunction to that of Duesenberry since we have two vacancies that we can fill.

Where Rosa would have been largely complementary to Duesenberry in view of his specific banking experience, the others on the list are more competitive with him. We were particularly impressed with Baumol who some of us know and Tobin who all of us have known for some years. Both these men are undoubtedly first class intellectually, and it would be difficult to rate them below Duesenberry. However, Duesenberry has shown a breadth of interest and a willingness to relate economics to other disciplines that the others have not yet demonstrated to the same extent. Goodwin and Dorfman are also of first-class intellectual ability, but we felt that they too were more specialized in their interests than Duesenberry.

In the last few years, Duesenberry has shown a remarkable capacity to bring together the fruits of theoretical and empirical research. His interests are now leading him in the direction of an historical study of the problem of economic development, and he has been cooperating on an experimental course on economic motivation with a member of the Social Relations Department. I believe that economies has suffered seriously in recent years from over-specialization. In particular, the theorists and the statisticians have tended to feel that the truth has been revealed only to them. History until recently has attracted far too little interest. I am confident that Duesenberry will be an important influence in reversing these tendencies.

Duesenberry made a name for himself nationally and internationally with his first book, Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior. His new hypothesis of “ratchet effects” has helped to avoid many of the mistakes that had previously been made in attempting to predict consumer behavior and has wide general implications for economic analysis. In this and his other work, he has already helped to rescue economies from the straight-jacket of static analysis, and I am sure he will do much more.

In view of the present needs of the Department, I wish we could have found a man who combined all Duesenberry’s other qualities with striking performance on the lecture platform. Unfortunately, that has not been possible. However, while not a striking lecturer, Duesenberry has been and will continue to be a very effective part of our undergraduate teaching. He has been a tutor in Dunster House for some years and as such has been a conspicuous success. He has also proved to be the member of the Department best equipped to teach the senior course in economic analysis for honors students. In these respects he will prove to be an important addition to the permanent staff from the point of view of undergraduate teaching.

On personal grounds, the Department looks forward very much to having Duesenberry as a permanent member. He will combine a thoroughly independent point of view with an understanding attitude towards differences of opinion with his colleagues. In general, it is the unanimous view of the Department that we could hardly make a recommendation in which we had greater confidence.

Yours Sincerely,
/s/ Arthur Smithies
Chairman

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

JAMES STEMBLE DUESENBERRY

Born July 18, 1918

B.A., University of Michigan, 1939
M.A., ibid., 1941
Ph.D., ibid., 1948
Teaching Fellow, University of Michigan, 1939-1941
U.S.A.A.F., 1942-1946.
Instructor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1946.
Teaching Fellow, Harvard University, 1946-1948.
Assistant Professor, Harvard University, 1948 to present

Publications

Books:

Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, Harvard University Press, 1949.

Business Cycles and Economic Development, to be published in the fall of 1952 by McGraw-Hill Company.

Articles:

“Income Consumption Relations”, Income, Employment and Public Policy, Norton, 1948.

“The Mechanics of Inflation”, Review of Economics and Statistics, May, 1950.

“Mr. Hicks and the Trade Cycle”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, September, 1950.

“The Role of Demand in the Economic Structure”, Studies in the Structure of the American Economy, in press.

“Some Aspects or the Theory of Economic Development”, Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, December 1950.

“The Leontief Input-Output System”, (ditto); to be published in a volume on Linear Programming by Paul Samuelson.

Papers Read but not Published:

“Some New Income-Consumption Relationships and Their Implications”, Econometric Society, January, 1947.

“Induction Evidence of the Propensity to Consume”, American Economic Association and the Econometric Society, December, 1947.

The Present Status of the Consumption Function” Conference on Income and Wealth, June, 1950.

“Theory of Economic Development”, Econometric Society, December, 1951.

“Needed Revisions in the Theory of Consumer Expenditures”, Econometric Society, September, 1950.

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Gottfried Haberler
Professor of Economics

325 Littauer Center
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts
March 20, 1952

Provost Paul H. Buck
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

Dear Mr. Buck:

If you permit, I should like to add my personal views on the proposed appointment of James Duesenberry as Associate Professor. May I say that I know Duesenberry intimately and that I have been increasingly impressed by his work. The little book, INCOME, SAVING AND THE THEORY OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, which he published with the Harvard University Press, is generally regarded as one of the most important and original contributions to the widely discussed and extremely important subject of the relations of national income, saving and consumption. It has been much and favorably commented upon. Duesenberry displays the rare talent of combining theoretical analysis, statistical analysis and sociological insight in a most illuminating and successful manner. He is also a very inspiring teacher.

In recent years he has turned his attention to the also much discussed problems of economic development. The parts of his forthcoming book which I have seen display a mastery of combining different approaches in a most fruitful way. His eminence in this particular field, which in a very welcome way rounds out the field covered by members of our department, is widely recognized in the economic profession at large. He was asked to address the convention of the American Economic Association last December, and Professor Innis of Toronto, the new president of the American Economic Association, has asked him to speak again on the problem of economic development at the next annual meeting of the Association.

To sum up, in my opinion the appointment of Duesenberry will greatly strengthen the Economics Department, enhance its reputation and help attract first rate students.

Very sincerely yours,
/s/ G. Haberler
G. Haberler

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Cambridge 38, Massachusetts
March 24, 1952

Provost Paul Buck
University Hall
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Provost Buck:

In anticipation of my appearance before the ad hoc committee, I would like to state my reasons for having vote [sic] in support of the departmental recommendation for appointment of Assistant Professor Duesenberry as associate professor. I have followed Jim’s development from the time he became, on my recommendation, an economics instructor and assistant in my undergraduate course on economic theory.

Duesenberry is one of the few outstanding young economists who established their reputation in the post war years. Baumol, Arrow, Goodwin and not more than one or two others, could be named as belonging to the same group. Among these, Duesenberry distinguished himself through his notable breadth of interest and what is in a sense more important, his remarkably productive scientific imagination. His well known contributions to the theory of consumption and the not yet published equally original work in the field of economic development, reveal a singular combination of intuitive insight, practical sense and theoretical “know-how”.

Duesenberry has already taken an important part in the work of the Harvard Economic Research Project, and I have no doubt that he will play a leading role in the development of economic and general social science research at Harvard.

Although not typically a smooth lecturer, Duesenberry is very effective in a classroom. His enthusiasm and real interest in students makes him an excellent tutor and undergraduate advisor.

If in its subsequent recommendations for permanent appointments we succeed in keeping our sights as high as in the present choice the future prospects of the Economics Department would be very bright indeed.

With best regards.

Sincerely yours,
/s/ Wassily Leontief
Wassily Leontief

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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
CAMBRIDGE 38, MASSACHUSETTS

Office of the President

April 19, 1952

Dear Professor Friedman:

I am returning herewith material which I believe you left in the Perkins Room at the time of the ad hoc committee meeting yesterday.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Virginia Proctor
Virginia Proctor
Secretary to the President

Professor Milton Friedman
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
Chicago 37, Illinois

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of Milton Friedman, Box 24, Folder “25.29 Correspondence. Duesenberry, James S.”

Image Source: Harvard College. Classbook 1957.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Mid-year exam for Statistics. Ripley, 1907-1908

William Zebina Ripley

William Zebina Ripley taught at Harvard from 1901/02 through 1932/33. He was a statistician in the time of pre-mathematical statistics but he truly made his mark as an expert on the institutions of organized labor, industrial organization, and transportation. 

A meager harvest of a course artifact for Ripley’s 1907-08 round of statistics is transcribed below. But big or little, such remains the archival stuff needed for the foundation of grand historical narrative of the future (probably above my pay-grade). 

________________________

Statistics (Econ 4), previous years

1901-02.
1902-03.
1903-04.
1904-05.
1905-06 [omitted]
1906-07. [offered but no printed exam found]

________________________

Course Enrollment
1907-08 

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

Total 14: 4 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 4
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. Criticise the following table as indicating the relative fecundity of mixed marriages:—

Fathers.

 Mothers. No. Mar. No. Births Children per Marriage.
1896. 1896. 1896. 1895.

1894.

United States

 United States 11,551 19,892 1.7 1.8 1.8
dto. Canada 848 1,743 2.1 2.0

1.9

dto.

 Ireland 41 117 2.9 2.5 2.6
dto. Germany 323 637 2.0 2.4

2.3

dto.

 All 13,388 23,142 1.7 1.8

1.8
  1. Why is the arithmetical rate best adapted to forecasting movements of population in America? Is it theoretically sound?
  2. Why is the average length of life not an index of mortality?
  3. Suppose the age and sex composition of the white and colored populations of the United States to be entirely different. Describe how their mortality rates could be reduced to a strictly comparable basis by standardization.
  4. What has been the most significant feature of the movement of birth rates during the last thirty years? How has it been accounted for? Give relative figures.
  5. Why should the death rate enter into the calculation of the value of an annuity? Of a tontine policy?
  6. Why should the Supplementary Analysis of the Census rely entirely upon the “proportion of children to adults” as an index of fecundity, and omit all reference to birth rates?
  7. What do the statistics of suicide show? State the main conclusions as set forth by Mayo-Smith.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

Note: No printed end-of-year examination for 1907-08 was found in the Harvard University archive collection of final examinations.

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

Categories
Berkeley Brown Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon Chicago Columbia Cornell Duke Economics Programs Harvard Illinois Indiana Iowa Johns Hopkins Kansas M.I.T. Michigan Michigan State Minnesota North Carolina Northwestern NYU Ohio State Pennsylvania Princeton Purdue Rochester Stanford Texas UCLA UWash Vanderbilt Virginia Virginia Tech Washington University Wisconsin Yale

U.S. Economics Graduate Programs Ranked, 1957, 1964 and 1969

Recalling my active days in the rat race of academia, a cold shiver runs down my spine at the thought of departmental rankings in the hands of a Dean contemplating budgeting and merit raise pools or second-guessing departmental hiring decisions. 

But let a half-century go by and now, reborn as a historian of economics, I appreciate having the aggregated opinions of yore to constrain our interpretive structures of what mattered when to whomever. 

Research tip: sign up for a free account at archive.org to be able to borrow items still subject to copyright protection for an hour at a time. Sort of like being in the old reserve book room of your brick-and-mortar college library. This is needed if you wish to use the links for the Keniston, Carter, and Roose/Andersen publications linked in this post.

___________________________

1925 Rankings

R. M. Hughes. A Study of the Graduate Schools of America (Presented before the Association of American Colleges, January, 1925). Published by Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. (See earlier post that provides the economics ranking from the Hughes’ study)

1957 Rankings

Hayward Keniston. Graduate Study and Research in the Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania (January 1959), pp. 115-119,129.

Tables from Keniston transcribed here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror:
https://www.irwincollier.com/economics-departments-and-university-rankings-by-chairmen-hughes-1925-and-keniston-1957/

1964 Rankings

Allan M. Cartter, An Assessment of Quality in Graduate Education Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1966.

1969 Rankings

Kenneth D. Roose and Charles J. Andersen, A Rating of Graduate Programs. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1970.

Tables transcribed below.

___________________________

Graduate Programs in Economics
(1957, 1964, 1969)

Percentage of Raters Who Indicate:
Rankings “Quality of Graduate Faculty” Is:
1957 1964 1969 Institution Distiguish-
ed and strong		 Good and adequate All other Insufficient Information
Nineteen institutions with scores in the 3.0 to 5.0 range, in rank order
1 1* 1* Harvard 97 – – 3
not ranked 1* 1* M.I.T. 91 – – 9
2 3* 3 Chicago 95 – – 5
3 3* 4 Yale 90 3 – 7
5* 5 5 Berkeley 86 9 – 5
7 7 6 Princeton 82 9 – 10
9 8* 7* Michigan 66 22 – 11
10 11 7* Minnesota 65 19 – 15
14 14* 7* Pennsylvania 62 22 – 15
5* 6 7* Stanford 64 25 – 11
13 8* 11 Wisconsin 63 26 – 11
4 8* 12* Columbia 50 37 – 13
11 12* 12* Northwestern 52 32 – 16
16 16 14* UCLA 41 38 – 21
not ranked 12* 14* Carnegie-Mellon Carnegie-Tech (1964) 39 35 – 26
not ranked not ranked 16 Rochester** 31 39 1 29
8 14* 17 Johns Hopkins 31 56 – 13
not ranked not ranked 18* Brown** 20 52 1 27
15 17 18* Cornell** 21 56 2 21
*Score and rank are shared with another institution.
**Institution’s 1969 score is in a higher range than ist 1964 score.

 

Ten institutions with scores in the 2.5 to 2.9 range, in alphabetical order
(1969)
Duke
Illinois
Iowa State (Ames)
Michigan State
North Carolina
Purdue
Vanderbilt
Virginia
Washington (St. Louis)
Washington (Seattle)

 

Sixteen institutions with scores in the 2.0 to 2.4 range, in alphabetical order
(1969)
Buffalo*
Claremont
Indiana
Iowa (Iowa City)
Kansas
Maryland
N.Y.U.
North Carolina State*
Ohio State
Oregon
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rice*
Texas
Texas A&M
Virginia Polytech.*
* Not included in the 1964 survey of economics

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Philosophy Socialism

Harvard. Final examination for Ethics of the Social Questions. Peabody, 1905-1906

 

 

In 1905-06 Francis Greenwood Peabody’s popular course on the ethics of the social questions was listed for the first time as one of the course offerings in a new sub-departmental unit “Social Ethics” within the Philosophy Department. In previous years the course was listed as “Philosophy 5”. It was a relatively popular field chosen for economics Ph.D. general examinations.

More about Professor Peabody can be found in the earlier post for 1902-03 together with the final examination questions from that year. Here the course description and exam from 1904-05. Readings and final exam for social ethics in 1906-07.

A fully linked transcription of Peabody’s own short bibliography of social ethics published in 1910 is also of interest.

Note: the items cited in the exam are found in the original printed exam. Links to the corresponding passages have been added.

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A Peek into Likely Course Content 

Cf. Francis Greenwood Peabody’s The Approach to the Social Question (New York: Macmillan, 1912). “The substance of this volume was given as the Earle Lectures at the Pacific Theological Seminary in 1907.”

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

Social Ethics 1 2hf. Professor Peabody and Dr. Rogers. — Ethics of the Social Questions. The problems of Poor-Relief, the Family, Temperance, and various phases of the Labor Question, in the light of ethical theory. Lectures, special researches, and prescribed reading. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., Sat., at 10.

Total 165: 5 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 50 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 11 Divinity, 14 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 75.

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SOCIAL ETHICS 12
Year-end Exam, 1905-06

This paper should be considered as a whole. The time should not be exhausted in answering a few questions, but such limits should be given to each answer as will permit the answering of all the questions in the time assigned.

  1. The place in the ethics of industry of :—
    The Civic Federation.
    Mundella.
    Conseils de Prud’hommes.
    Employers’ Associations. (Adams and Sumner, page 279.)
  2. The Social-Democratic Party in Germany; its history and principles.
  3. Economic and ethical criticisms on the programme of Revolutionary Socialism.
  4. “The labor movement in America already exhibits a manifest tendency in the same direction [towards organized socialism] in which it moves in older countries.” (Sombart, Sozialismus und sozialistische Bewegung, s. 249.) How far is this judgment justified by the history of Collectivism, and by the present attitude of Tradesunionism [sic], in the United States?
  5. Industrial education, in its relation to child-labor and to economic efficiency. (Lecture of R. A. Woods.)
  6. The methods and policies of labor-organization in the United States. (Adams and Sumner, pages 245 ff.)
  7. “Have the conditions of employment and the material comfort of the working classes really improved since the introduction of the factory system?” (Adams and Sumner, page 502.) The answer of these authors to their own question, and some of the evidence which they cite.
  8. Compare, in their importance for the ethics of industry, the system of profit-sharing and the system of industrial partnership.
  9. “Trade-agreements,” considered in their relations to the rights of the people.
  10. The relation of the drink-habit in the United States to poverty and crime; and the economic forces now operating for temperance, (“The Liquor Problem,” Chapter IV, pages 108-134.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 59.

Categories
Bibliography Harvard Principles

Harvard. Linked References to 1st ed of Principles of Economics. Taussig, 1911

The first edition of Frank W. Taussig’s Principles of Economics was published in 1911. The two volumes were divided into eight books with well over one hundred items listed in the references. All but two of those items have been found in internet archives and links have been provided to them in the transcription below. I have also included first names for all but one of the authors.

Outstanding Challenge: Find on-line copies of

Ludwig Pohle. Deutschland am Scheidewege (1902);
Karl Theodor von Eheberg. Finanzwissenschaft (1909 edition).

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Volume I

BOOK I
THE ORGANIZATION OF PRODUCTION
References

                  On productive and unproductive labor, see the often-cited passages in Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book II, Chapter III; and those in John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book I, Chapter III. Wilhelm Roscher, Political Economy, Book I, Chapter III, gives an excellent historical and critical account. Among modern discussions, none is more deserving of attention than the paper by Professor Thorstein Veblen, on “industrial” and “pecuniary” employments, in Proceedings of the American Economic Association, 1901, No. 1. A recent discussion, with not a little of clouded thought, is in the Verhandlungen des Vereins für Sozialpolitik, 1909; especially a paper by Professor Eugen von Philippovich and the discussion thereon.

                  On the division of labor, Charles Babbage, On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures (1837), is still to be consulted. On modern developments, the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor (U. S.) on Hand and Machine Labor (1899) [Volume I; Volume II] contains a multitude of illustrations. A keen analysis of the division of labor in its historical forms is in Karl Bücher, Die Entstehung der Volkswirthschaft (7th ed., 1910) [3rd ed. 1901; 10th ed. 1917]; translated into English from the 3d German edition under the title Industrial Evolution (1901). On the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century, see the well-ordered narrative in Paul Mantoux, La révolution industrielle au xviiie siècle (1906), and the less systematic but more philosophical account in Arnold Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution (10th ed., 1894).

                  On capital, see the references given below, at the close of Book V. Much as has been written of late on corporate doings and corporate organization, I know of no helpful references on the topics considered in Chapter 6.

BOOK II
VALUE AND EXCHANGE
References

                  Easily the first and most valuable book to be consulted on the theory of value is Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics (6th ed., 1910) [4th ed., 1898; 7th ed., 1916], especially Books III, IV, V. An admirable introductory sketch is in Thomas Nixon Carver, Distribution of Wealth, Chapter I. On the play of utility, see Philip Henry Wicksteed, The Common Sense of Political Economy (1910); Chapter II of Book I and Chapter III of Book II are valuable supplements to Marshall’s discussion of consumer’s surplus. Compare, also, Maffeo Pantaleoni, Pure Economics (English translation, 1898), Part II.

On speculation, consult Henry Crosby Emery, Speculation in the Stock and Produce Exchanges of the United States (1896).

                  The so-called Austrian theory of value, in which stress is laid on utility as dominating value, is set forth most fully in Friedrich von Wieser, Natural Value (English translation, 1893). A more compact statement is in Eugen von Böhm Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital (English translation, 1891), Books III and IV.

BOOK III
MONEY AND THE MECHANISM OF EXCHANGE
References

                  On money, Karl Helfferich, Das Geld (2d ed., 1910) 3rd ed., unchanged with a statistical addition to the 2nd ed, 1916, is an excellent descriptive and analytical book. On the theory of money and prices, Irving Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money (1911), also an excellent book, was published just as the present volume was going to press; I am glad to find its conclusions in essential accord with my own. An entirely different mode of reasoning, and different conclusions, which I find myself unable to accept, are in James Laurence Laughlin, The Principles of Money (1903). Joseph French Johnson, Money and Currency, has convenient accounts of the monetary history of various countries, but is of no value on questions of theory.

                  On banking, Charles Franklin Dunbar, Chapters on the Theory and History of Banking (ed. by Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague, 1901), is a little classic, and contains also abundant references.Hartley Withers, The Meaning of Money, gives a lucid and interesting account of banking conditions in Great Britain. Charles Arthur Conant, A History of Modern Banks of Issue, is useful for its descriptive matter. A vast mass of information on the banking problems and experiences of recent years is in the Publications of the National Monetary Commission (1909-1911); ably reviewed by Wesley Clair Mitchell] in Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 1911.

                  On the questions of principle underlying bimetallism, see Leonard Darwin, Bimetallism (1898). The same questions are considered in Karl Helfferich, Das Geld (1910) [3rd ed., unchanged with a statistical addition to the 2nd ed, 1916], already referred to. Consult, also, James Laurence Laughlin, History of Bimetallism in the United States; Henry Parker Willis, A History of the Latin Monetary Union (1901); Piatt Andrew, “The End of the Mexican Dollar,” in Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XVIII, p. 321 (May, 1904).

                  On index numbers and methods of measuring prices, William Stanley Jevons, Investigations in Currency and Finance  (1884), though of older date, is still to be read, as among the most interesting and stimulating on this topic. See also Professor Francis Ysidro Edgeworth’s] brilliant memorandum, in Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1887, pp. 247-301; and Correa Moylan Walsh, The Measurement of General Exchange Value (1901).

                  On rising and falling prices in relation to the rate of interest, see Irving Fisher, Appreciation and Interest, Public. Am. Econ. Assoc., First Series, Vol. XI (1896), and the same writers The Rate of Interest (1907), Chapters V and XIV. See also two papers by John Bates Clark, in the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. X, p. 389 [“The Gold Standard of Currency in the Light of Recent Theory”], and Vol. XI, p. 259 [“Free Coinage and Prosperity”](1895, 1896), and criticism of these by Correa Moylan Walsh, “The Steadily Appreciating Standard,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XI, p. 280 (1897).

                  Notwithstanding the abundant literature on crises, there is no good book on the underlying questions of principle. Good historical books are: Clément Juglar, Des crises commerciales et de leur retour périodique en France, en Angleterre, et aux États-Unis (2d ed., 1889), and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague, A History of Crises under the National Banking System (1910; published by the National Monetary Commission).

BOOK IV
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
References

                  On the foreign exchanges, see Viscount George Joachim Goschen, The Theory of the Foreign Exchanges (last ed., 1901), and George Clare, The A B C of the Foreign Exchanges [Frank Taussig’s copy!] (1895). On international trade, the chapters in John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (last ed., 1871), Book III, Chapters 17 seq., though in some parts unduly elaborated, are still unsurpassed. A good modern statement, almost too compact, is in Charles Francis Bastable, The Theory of International Trade (4th ed., 1903). A mathematical treatment is in three papers by Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, “The Theory of International Values,” in the Economic Journal, Vol. IV [March, September, December] (1894). I venture to refer also to my own paper on “Wages and Prices, in Relation to International Trade,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XX, August, 1906.

                  Notwithstanding the mass of literature on free trade and protection, no book covers the controversy satisfactorily. Henry Fawcett, Free Trade and Protection (1885), states the simpler reasoning in favor of free trade and refutes the cruder protectionist fallacies. Arthur Cecil Pigou, Protective and Preferential Import Duties (1906), is able and discriminating, but written with reference chiefly to the contemporary controversy (1895-1905) in Great Britain. On this, see also William James Ashley, The Tariff Problem (2nd ed. 1904). On the German debates, see, among others, Ludwig Pohle, Deutschland am Scheidewege (1902), and Adolph Wagner, Agrar- und Industriestaat (1902), both in favor of protection for agriculture; and on the other side, Lujo Brentano, Die Schrecken des [überwiegenden] Industriestaats (1901), and Heinrich Dietzel, Weltwirthschaft und Volkswirthschaft (1900). On the tariff history of the United States, Edward Stanwood, American Tariff Controversies in the Nineteenth Century (1903) [Volume I(1903); Volume II (1904), a narrative account of legislation and discussion by a protectionist; and Frank William Taussig, The Tariff History of the United States (ed. of 1909) [5th ed. 1910].

Volume 2

BOOK V
THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH
References

                  On the theory of distribution in general, as on that of value, the first book to be mentioned is Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, Books IV, V, VI (6th ed., 1910) [5th ed., 1908]. A compact and able theoretic analysis is in Thomas Nixon Carver, The Distribution of Wealth (1904). Entirely different in method, with a wealth of historical and statistical analysis, and large-minded treatment of the underlying social problems, is Gustav von Schmoller, Grundriss der Volkswirtschaftslehre, Books III, IV (1900–1904; French translation, 1905–1908).

                  Among the many modern books on capital and interest, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital (English translation, 1891, has most profoundly influenced recent economic thought. A revised edition of the German is in process of publication, the first part having appeared in 1909) [Note —German 4th edition (1921): Kapital und Kapitalzins: Part I, Geschichte und Kritik der Kapitalzins-Theorien; Part II, Positive Theorie des Kapitales, Vol. I; Part II, Positive Theorie des Kapitales, Vol. II (Exkurse)]. Not inferior to this in intellectual incisiveness, but marked, like it, by some excess of refinement and subtlety, are Irving Fisher’s two volumes, The Nature of Capital and Income (1906), and The Rate of Interest (1907). John Bates Clark, The Distribution of Wealth (1899), sets forth a theory of wages and interest as the specific products of labor and capital; I find myself unable to accept the reasoning, but to some economists it seems conclusive. The view that there is no essential difference between interest and rent (see Chapter 46) is maintained not only by I. Fisher and J. B. Clark, but by Frank Albert Fetter, Principles of Economics (1904). An able book by a French thinker is Adolphe Landry, L’intérêt du capital (1904).

                  On urban site rent, interesting descriptive matter is in Richard Melancthon, Principles of City Land Values (1903).

                  James Bonar, Malthus (1885), gives an excellent account of Malthus’s writings and of the earlier controversy about his doctrines. Arsène Dumont, Dépopulation et civilisation (1890), not a book of the first rank, states the modern French view, laying stress on “social capillarity”, as explaining the decline in the birth rate, and enlarging on the desirability of an increasing population. Émile Levasseur, La Population française (1892), Vol. III, Part I, gives a good summary statement on the base of population compared with the growth of wealth. Georg von Mayr, Statistik und Gesellschaftslehre [Vol. I, Theoretische Statistik(1895)]: Vol. II, Bevölkerungsstatistik (1897), Vol. III, Part I, Moralstatistik (1910), gives a model summary of statistical data and a judicial statement on questions of principle.

                  Notwithstanding the enormous mass of literature on social stratification, there is no one book that treats this topic in a manner thoroughly satisfactory. Cyrille van Overbergh, La classe sociale (1905), may be consulted.

BOOK VI
PROBLEMS OF LABOR
References

                  A compact discussion of the topics in this Book is in Thomas Sewall Adams and Helen L. Sumner, Labor Problems (1905). On trade-unions, the elaborate book by Sidney and Beatrice Potter Webb, Industrial Democracy (1902), is of high quality; written with special regard to English experience, and stating too strongly the case in favor of the trade-union. On the American situation there is no good systematic book; but excellent studies on some phases are in Jacob Harry Hollander and George Ernest Barnett, Studies in American Trade-Unionism (1905). On Australasian experience, see Victor Selden Clark, The Labour Movement in Australasia (1906); and on the history of labor legislation in England, B. L. Hutchins and Amy Harrison, A History of Factory Legislation (1903). John Rae, Eight Hours for Work(1894), is a good inquiry on experience to the date of its publication. On workingmen’s insurance and allied topics, see Henry Rogers Seager, Social Insurance: A Program of Social Reform (1910), brief and excellent. More detailed and more informational is Lee Kaufer Frankel and Miles Menander Dawson, Workingmen’s Insurance in Europe (1910); still more elaborate is the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor (U. S.), Workingmen’s Insurance and Compensation Systems in Europe (2 vols., 1910). William Henry Beveridge, Unemployment (1910), is an able book, at once sympathetic and discriminating. A good general account of the co-öperative movement is Charles Ryle Fay, Co-öperation at Home and Abroad (1908).

                  For more detailed bibliographical memoranda, see the Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, published by Harvard University (1910).

BOOK VII
PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION
References

                  On railways, Arthur Twinning Hadley, Railroad Transportation (1885), though of older date, has not been completely superseded. More recent are William Mitchell Acworth, The Elements of Railway Economics (1905), and Emory Richard Johnson, American Railway Transportation (new ed., 1910); the latter written primarily as a textbook for American colleges. An able monograph is Matthew Brown Hammond, Railway Rate Theories of the Interstate Commerce Commission (1911); compare John Maurice Clark, Standards of Reasonableness in Local Freight Discriminations (1910). Among foreign books, Clément Colson, Transports et tarifs (1890), though technical and detailed, is of high value. On combinations and trusts, Robert Liefmann, Kartelle und Trusts (1909) [French translation, 1914], gives an excellent compact account of the German situation; and Henry William Macrosty, The Trust Movement in British Industry (1907), a detailed survey of that in Great Britain. Three usable books on American conditions are Richard Theodore Ely, Monopolies and Trusts (1900), Jeremiah Whipple Jenks, The Trust Problem(1900), Edward Sherwood Meade, Trust Finance (1903).

                  On public ownership, Leonard Darwin, Municipal Trade (1903), is an acute critical book, by an opponent; a briefer statement of the same reasoning is in this author’s Municipal Ownership (1907). A mass of information and discussion on both sides is in the Report on the Municipal and Private Operation of Public Utilities, published by the National Civic Federation (3 vols., 1907) [Vol. I; Vol. II; Vol. III]. A detailed treatment of the relation of municipalities to “public utilities” is in Delos Franklin Wilcox, Municipal Franchises (2 vols., 1910-1911) [Vol. I; Vol. II].

                  The books on socialism deal largely with controversies which do not proceed to the heart of the matter. This seems to me to hold of Karl Marx, Das Kapital (English translation, 1891), the most famous and influential of socialist books. Among the innumerable discussions and refutations of the Marxian doctrines may be mentioned Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Zum Abschluss des Marxchen Systems, Marx and the Close of his System (English translation, 1891), and James Edward Le Rossignol, Orthodox Socialism: a Criticism (1907). A concise and vigorous statement, based mainly on Marx, is in Karl Kautsky, The Class Struggle and The Social Revolution (English translations, 1910 [and 1902, respectively]). John Spargo, Socialism (1906), is a popular statement of socialist tenets and proposals. Among recent socialist books, James MacKaye, The Economy of Happiness (1906), advocates socialism in a train of rigorous utilitarian reasoning.

                  Among expository and critical books, Albert Schäffle, The Impossibility of Social Democracy, and The Quintessence of Socialism (English translations, 1892 and 1902), are excellent, especially the last-named. The most stimulating and discriminating advocacy and discussion of socialism is often by writers who do not pretend to be “scientific.” Such are Herb Goldsworthy Lowes Dikinson, Justice and Liberty(1908).

                  On this Book, as on Book VI, see the bibliographical memoranda in the Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, published by Harvard University (1910).

BOOK VIII
TAXATION
References

                  Charles Francis Bastable, Public Finance (2d ed., 1895), covers the whole field, and is able and well-judged, though not attractively written. Among foreign books, Karl Theodor von Eheberg, Finanzwissenschaft (new ed., 1909), is a good book of the German type; and Paul Leroy Beaulieu, Science des Finances (new ed., 1906. Vol. I; Vol. II), is an able French book, full of good sense and information, but not strong on some questions of principle. On progression, the view presented in Chapter 66 is similar to that of Adolph Wagner, Finanzwissenschaft, Vol. II, § 396 seq. (ed. of 1880), and is different from that in Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman’s Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice (new ed., 1908). The last-named writer’s Income Tax (1911) is an excellent survey of legislation and experience; and in his Essays on Taxation (new ed., 1911 [1913 edition linked here]), there is a valuable discussion of the American property tax system.

Image Source: Maggs Bros. Ltd. advertisement for a copy of the first edition of Frank W. Taussig’s Principles of Economics (1911). List price (as of July 27, 2024): US$ 765.35.