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Exam Questions Harvard Socialism Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Economics of Socialism. Outline, Readings, Final Exam. Schumpeter, 1949

 

This post provides the course outline, reading assignments and final exam for Joseph Schumpeter’s Economics of Socialism from the last time he taught the course (he died January 8, 1950).

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Transcriptions of socialism course materials à la Harvard

Socialism. (Ec 111) taught by O.H. Taylor in 1954-55.

Economics of Socialism (Ec 111) taught by Taylor in 1952-53

Economics of Socialism (Ec 111) taught by Schumpeter, Taylor with lectures by Gerschenkron and Galenson in 1949-50.

Economics of Socialism (Ec 11b) taught by Schumpeter in 1945-46

Economics of Socialism (Ec 11b) taught by Schumpeter in 1943-44

Economics of Socialism (Ec11b) taught by Sweezy in 1939-40

Economics of Socialism (Ec11b) taught by Mason and Sweezy in 1937-38

Programs of Social Reconstruction  (Ec 7c) taught by Mason  in 1933

Economics of Socialism, Anarchism and the Single Tax  (Ec 7b) taught by Carver  in 1920

Socialism and Communism (Ec 14) taught by Carver and Bushnee in 1901-02

Socialism and Communism (Ec 14) taught by Edward Cummings. Exams from 1893-1900.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 111b (formerly Economics 11b). Economics of Socialism (Sp). Professor Schumpeter.

Total 72: 16 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, 8 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1948-49, p. 76.

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Economics 111b
Spring 1949
Outline and Assignments

After an introduction that is to cover briefly the development of pre-Marxist socialist thought (one week), Marxist and neo-Marxist sociology and economics will be discussed (five weeks). Then the modern theory of centralist socialism will be developed (four weeks). Finally, the problems of imperialism, revolution, and transition and the actual situation and prospect of socialist groups will be touched upon (two weeks).

  1. Pre-Marxist Socialist Thought

Assignment: H. W. Laidler, Social-Economic Movements, Parts I and II.

  1. Marxist Sociology and Economics

M. M. Bober, Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History, 2nd edition 1948, Part I, Chapter 6; Part IV.
Karl Marx, Capital (Modern Library Edition), Volume I, Chs. 1, 4, 5, and 6.
P. M. Sweezy, The Theory of Capitalist Development, Chs. II-XII.
M. Dobb, Political Economy and Capitalism, Chs. I and IV.

  1. The Modern Theory of Centralist Socialism.

A. P. Lerner, Economics of Control, 1944, Chs. V-XIV.
Meade and Fleming, “Price and Output Policy of State Enterprise,” Economic Journal, 1944.
Abram Bergson, Structure of Soviet Wages, Ch. II:
M. Dobb (as above) Ch. VIII (with Appendix).

  1. Imperialism; the State and the Revolution; Problems of Transition.

M. Dobb (as above) Ch. VII.
Lenin, State and Revolution, 1926.

Suggestions:
Lenin, What is to be Done?
P. M. Sweezy, (as above) Chs. XIII-XIX.

Reading Period: Evolutionary Socialism, 1909.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 4, Folder “Economics 1948-49 (1 of 2)”

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1948 –49
Harvard University
Economics 111b
[Final Examination]

Answer five out of seven questions. At least two must be chosen from group I.

I

  1. Discuss Marx’s theory of cycles, organizing your answer around the following foci:
    1. falling tendency of the rate of profit
    2. the reserve army of unemployed
    3. capital accumulation and replacement cycles.
  2. What was Bernstein’s point of view about the breakdown of capitalism? What was the significance of the controversy for Marxist economics?
  3. Discuss the economic aspects of the proportions in which factors are combined in a centrally directed economy with reference to marginal substitution, indivisibilities, and pricing.

II

  1. What was the tactical significance of three of the following issues that arose within the 2nd International:
    1. Millerandism
    2. Revisionism
    3. participation in the World War
    4. timing and leadership of revolution (Lenin)
  2. Discuss the dependence, if any, of Marxian economics on Marxian sociology.
  3. Describe the role of the rate of interest in the allocation of resources between present consumption and investment for future production in a socialist economy.
  4. Discuss the rule that prices should equal marginal cost with special reference to intervals of increasing and decreasing costs.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001. Box 16. Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1949.

Image Source: Harvard Classbook 1947.

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Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Undergraduate Public Finance, reading list and semester exams. Burbank and Musgrave, 1938-1939

 

Richard Abel-Musgrave received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1937. The following year he co-taught the undergraduate public finance course with Harold Burbank. The course reading list for the first term was incomplete in the Harvard University archives, but since the material corresponded very closely to that found in the 1937-38 folder, I have inserted the material as noted below.

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Course Enrollment

[Economics] 51. Professor Burbank and Dr. Abel-Musgrave.—Public Finance.

Total 58: 36 Seniors, 16 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 2 Others.

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

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Assignments for Economics 51
First Half-Year 38/39

Attention is directed particularly to the following books:

*Lutz, H.L. Public Finance (3d ed.)
Bastable, C.F. Public Finance (3d ed.)
Bullock, C.J. Selected Readings in Public Finance (3d. ed.)
Dalton, H. Principles of Public Finance (9th ed.)
Dewey, D.R. Financial History of the United States (11th ed.)
Fagan [E.D.] and Macy [C.W.] Public Finance
Hibbard, B.H. A History of the Public Land Policies
Lutz, H.L. The State Tax Commission
Mills [M.C.] and Star [G.W.] Readings in Public Finance and Taxation
Seligman, E.R.A. Essays in Taxation (10th ed.)
Seligman, E.R.A. The Income Tax
Seligman, E.R.A. Studies in Public Finance
Stamp, Sir Josiah Fundamental Principles of Taxation (2nd ed.)
Great Britain Report of the Committee on National Debt and Taxation
(The Colwyn Report, 1927)
Great Britain Report of the Committee on National Expenditure
(The May Report, 1931)
National Tax Association Proceedings
National Tax Association Bulletin
Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury

 

Sept. 28  – Oct. 7; Pre-depression expenditures.

REQUIRED:
Introduction Lutz,  Ch. 1,2,3.
The increase of expenditure Lutz, Ch. 4,5.
War Finance Mills & Starr, Ch. 22, Sels. 52, 53.
Lutz, pp. 764-774

SUGGESTED:

Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. I, ch. 1-8.

Bullock, Readings, Ch. 2, 3.

Fagan & Macy, Public Finance, Ch. 1-4.

Haig, Public Finances of Post War France, Ch. 20.

Mallet, British Budgets, 1887-1913, 1913-1921, 1921-1933.

National Industrial Conference Board, Federal Finances, 1923-32.

National Industrial Conference Board, Cost of Government in the United States, 1925-26, 1926-27, 1929-30.

Report on Recent Social Trends, Vol. II, Ch. 25-26.

Smith, Deficits and Depressions, Ch. III.

Willoughby, W.F., Financial Condition and Operations of the National Government, 1921-30.

 

October 10  – 28; Depression expenditures and Finance.

REQUIRED:
Public Works Clark, The Economics of Public Works, Ch. 4-8, 11, 16.
Fagan & Macy, Ch. 3, Section 2.
The Debt Lutz, Chs. 29,31,33.
Bullock, Ch. 22,23.
Social Security Finance Anonymous (Wilcox), The Old Age Reserve Account, Q.J.E., May 37.
1937 Proceedings, National Tax Association, pp. 57-81.

SUGGESTED:

Current Economic Policies, Slichter on Public Works.

Dalton, Unbalanced Budgets: A study of the financial crisis in fifteen countries.

Gayer, Public Works in Prosperity and Depression.

Great Britain, Report of the Committee on National Expenditures, 31.

Hansen, A., Full Recovery or Stagnation, Part IV.

Hubbard, J., The Banks, the Budget, and Business.

Mallet, British Budgets, 21-33.

National Resources Committee, Public Works Planning.

Smith, Deficits and Depressions, Ch. 4-7.

Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. V.

Burgess, W.R., Reserve Banks and the Money Market, Ch. 6.

Fagan & Macy, Public Finance, Ch. 22-27.

Beckhart, B., New York Money Market, Vol. IV, Part II.

Hargreaves, The National Debt.

Hendricks, The Federal Debt, 1919-30.

Love, R.A., Federal Financing, esp. Ch. 8-14.

Pigou, Public Finance, Part III.

Matsushita, Economic Effects of Public Debts.

Seligman, Essays in Taxation, Ch. 23-24.

Studensky, P., Public Borrowing.

Burns, E.M., Social Security.

Douglas, Social Security in the United States.

Pribram, Reserves in Old Age Benefit Plans, Q.J.E., August 38.

Social Security Board, Social Security in America.

 

October 31  – Nov. 4; Proper limits to public spending.

REQUIRED:
Classical views Bullock, ch. 2.
Effects of Public Spending Dalton, ch. 2,3,18-20.
Lutz, ch. 8.

SUGGESTED:

De Marco, First Principles of Public Finance, ch.1.

Pigou, Public Finance, Part I.

Pigou, Economics of Welfare, Part IV, ch. 7-12.

Sidgwick, H., The Principles of Political Economy, 301, col., Book III.

 

[Pages missing, following three topics taken from the 1937-38 syllabus]

The Possibilities of Expenditure Control.

Required: Lutz, Ch. 6
Mills & Starr, Ch. 4, Section 8
Hillhouse & Welsh, Tax Limits Appraised.
Lutz, Ch. 35, 36.
Reorganization of the Executive Departments.
Suggested: Buck, A.E., The Budget in Governments of Today.
Buck, A.E., Public Budgeting.
Mallet, British Budgets, 1887-1913.
Mallet & George, British Budgets, 1913-1921, 1921-1932.

Revenues other than Taxes

Required: Lutz, Ch. 9, 19
Lutz, Ch. 11,12,13.
Mills & Starr, Ch. 7.
Mason, Power Aspects of the T.V.A., Q.J.E., Vol. 50, pp. 377-414.
Railroads and Government Annals, pp. 106-125, 133-141, 146-150.
Suggested: Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. II, Ch. 1-5.
Fagan & Macy, Public Finance, Ch. 5-7.
Knoop, D., Principles and Methods of Public Trading.
Public Administration Service, A Housing Program for the United States.
Current Developments in Housing, Annals, March 1937, pp. 83-95, 151-161.
Report of the United States Post Office.
Robson, W.A., Public Enterprise.
Seligman, Essays in Taxation, Ch. 14-15.
Splawn, Government Ownership and Operation of Railroads.
Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933-1937.

The Public Domain and Public Borrowing.

Required: Lutz, Ch. 10
Lutz, Part 4.
Bullock, Ch. 22, 23.
Suggested: Hibbard, Public Land Policies of the United States.
National Resources Board, Report of, Part II.
Nowell & Jessness, Land Use in Northern Minnesota.
Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. V.
Brown, H.G., Economics of Taxation, Ch. 1-2.
Burgess, W.R., Reserve Banks and the Money Market, Ch. 6.
Fagan & Macy, Public Finance, Ch. 22-27.
Hargreaves, The National Debt.
Hendricks, The Federal Debt, 1919-30.
Love, R.A., Federal Financing, esp. Ch. 8-14.
Pigou, Public Finance, Part III.
Seligman, Essays in Taxation, Ch. 23-24.
Studensky, P., Public Borrowing.
Beckhart, B., New York Money Market, Vol. IV, Part II.

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Economics 51
Assignments for the Second Half-Year
1938-39

(For general references see outline for first term.)

February 6 – 17. The Nature of Taxation and Criteria for a Sound Tax System.

Required: Introduction Lutz, Ch. 15, 16, 17.
Justice in Taxation Bullock, Ch. 8, 9.
Carver, Essays in Social Justice, Ch. 17.
Suggested: Bastable, Public Finance, Bk. III, Ch. 3,5.
Dalton, Public Finance, Ch. 4-9 (9th ed.)
Seligman, Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice.
Stamp, Fundamental Principles of Taxation. (3d.ed).

February 20 – 27. Incidence and Effects of Taxation.

Required: Shifting of taxes Fagan and Macy, Ch. 9, sec. 2.
Lutz, pp. 378-386.
Shifting and effects Colwyn Report (Majority), Part I, Sec. 4.
Dalton, Public Finance, Ch. 10, 11, 12.
Suggested: Brown, H.G. Economics of Taxation.
Silverman, Taxation, Its Incidence and Effects.
Taussig, Some Aspects of the Tariff Question, (3rd ed.), Ch. 1.
Buehler, “Public Expenditures and Taxes”, in American Economic Review, Dec. 1938.

March 1 – 6. Property Taxation and its Reform

Required: Lutz, Ch. 22, 23
Fagan and Macy, Ch. 12, 14.
Silverhertz, Assessment of Real Property in the U.S.
Suggested: Blakey, Taxation in Minnesota, Ch. 5, 6.
Bullock, Readings, Selections 45, 46.
Fagan & Macy, Public Finance, Ch. 10, 11, 13.
Henry George, Progress and Poverty.
Fairchild, Forest Taxation in the U.S.
Jensen, Property Taxation in the United States.

March 8 – 24. Income Taxation: Personal and Business

Required: Federal Income Tax Personal:  Lutz, Ch. 20,21.
Corporate: Lutz, pp. 602-615.
Capital Gains: Fagan & Macy, Ch. 16, Pt. I.
State and Local Lutz, pp. 615-621.
Model Plan of State and Local Taxation.
Mills and Starr, Sel.42.
Suggested: Blakey, The State Income Tax.
Fagan & Macy, Ch. 15,16,17.
National Industrial Conference Board, State Income Taxes.
Seligman, The Income Tax.

 

March 27 – 31. Other Business Taxation

Required: Capital Stock and Excess Profits-Tax Lutz, pp. 587-602, 621-623.
Undistributed Profits Tax How Shall Business Be Taxed, Ch. 8,9,10.
Taxation of Banks Lutz, pp. 623-31.
Taxation of Public Utilities Mills & Starr, Sel. 43.
Summary How Shall Business Be Taxed, Ch. 4.
Suggested: Buehler, Undistributed Profits Tax.
Fagan & Macy, Public Finance, Ch. 19.
Haig, The Taxation of Excess Profits in Great Britain.
National Industrial Conference Board, State and Local Taxation of Business Corporations.

April 3 – 10. Vacation.

April 10 – 14. Death Duties

Required: Lutz, Ch. 27
Fagan and Macy, Ch. 18.
Rigano, Social Significance of the Inheritance Tax
Suggested: Schultz, The Inheritance Tax.

April 17 – 19. Commodity Taxation.

Required: Lutz, Ch. 24,26
Fagan and Macy, Ch. 20, Sect. 1,2.
Suggested: Buehler, General Sales Taxation.
Jacoby, N.H., Retail Sales Taxation.
National Industrial Conference Board, General Sales or Turnover Taxation.
Ibid., Sales Taxes, General, Selective, or Retail.

April 21 – May 6. Current Problems.

Required: Coordination of Tax System Lutz, Ch. 7.
Haig, “Co-ordination of Federal and State Tax Systems”,
Proceedings of National Tax Association, 1932.
Bitterman, Grants In Aid, Ch. 20[?].
Taxation and the Cycle Hicks, Finance of British Government, Ch. 18.
Budget, Debt and Tax Sources President’s Budget Message, Jan. 5, 193[?].

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 2. Folders “Economics, 1938-39” and “Econommics, 1937-38”.

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1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 51
[Mid-Year Examination]

Choose ONE question for an hour essay, and FOUR questions for half-hour answers. Wherever (a) and (b) are indicated take ONE PART ONLY; both cannot be taken.

  1. (a) What do you consider the most important factors underlying the post war expansion in Federal spending in the United States?
    (b) “The increase in spending the world over shows that the rise in the spending of the United States government is not to be explained in terms of party politics or New Deal theories. The underlying causes are more basic and general.” Discuss.
  2. (a) “Deficit spending in the depression is inevitable to finance necessary relief expenditures. But it is also desirable since it results in a rise in employment which in turn reduces the need for relief. There is no reason to expect a continuous deficit policy.” Discuss.
    (b) “The fear of a growing public debt is an unfortunate superstition. A ‘bigger and better’ public debt is, in fact, the only salvation for capitalism.” Discuss.
  3. Do you think that extravagance in public spending may be reduced by (1) centralization of fiscal control, and/or (2) governmental reorganization of existing spending units? Which measure do you favor?
  4. (a) “A determination of the relative efficiency of public and private enterprise meets with insurmountable obstacles. The ‘yard-stick’ criterion is a dangerous illusion.” Discuss.
    (b) “Government enterprises are perfect monopolies. The experience with private monopoly should make us realize what to expect from public ownership.” Discuss.
  5. Would you amend the Old Age Annuity Provision of the Social Security Act of 1935? If so, why and how?
  6. (a) Do you consider the German and English experience with the coordination of State and Local finances applicable to the United States? What lessons in particular may be learned?
    (b) Do you consider the allocation of ‘Block Grants’ under the British Local Government Act of 1929 a satisfactory solution of the grant problem? Could it be applied to Federal grants in the United States? With what possible amendments?
  7. “If it is realized that political democracy depends upon parliamentary control over public finances, it must similarly be realized that the Budget System is the key factor in the execution of such control. The United States Budget System is fully satisfactory from this point of view.” Do you agree?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-Year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 13. Bound Volume: Mid-Year Examinations, 1939. Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1939.

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1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 51
[Year-end Examination]

I

Write an hour essay on one question, and half-hour answers on three questions. Indicate essay question.

  1. “‘Justice in taxation’ is indeed a dangerous concept. It lacks precision, is readily abused and beclouds the real issue of the tax problem.” Discuss with detailed and accurate illustrations.
  2. “From the interdependence of prices it follows that the burden of a tax, no matter where the point of impact may be, will spread throughout the economic system and finally will come to rest upon the consumers at large.” Discuss.
  3. Take either (a) or (b). Both cannot be taken.
    1. “The taxation of business has been the most criticized part of the federal tax system; and for this there is good reason.” Discuss.
    2. To what extent would you attribute the failure or success of the New Deal to its tax policy? Present your point of view with reference to specific
  4. “The rivalry between Federal State and Local governments for tax sources is unfortunate. To obtain a well balanced tax system, a sharp division of revenue sources between the different levels of government is necessary.” Discuss.
  5. Give a critical account of the ‘Model Plan of State and Local Taxation.’

II

Write for one half-hour on one of the following:

  1. “The experience of the world war has shown that tax-finance of wars is neither possible nor desirable.” Discuss.
  2. Discuss the main factors to be considered in determining the ‘taxable capacity’ of a country. Illustrate with reference to the United States.
  3. Discuss some of the major characteristics of post-war British tax policy. In what respects does it set an example for future American policy?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Final Examinations, 1853-2001. Box 4, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1939.

Images Sources: Richard A. Musgrave (right). University of Michigan Faculty History Project.

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Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Year-end exam on Henry George and H. C. Carey. Dunbar, 1884

 

The 1883-84 academic year at Harvard marked a notable expansion in economics course offerings. From this point on I’ll almost only post materials for a single course at a time, though sometimes I’ll transcribe a few years’ worth of course materials. For the second course in political economy taught at Harvard in 1883-84 it appears that the first semester was devoted to the history of economic theory with the primary text being Cairnes’ Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (1878). Unfortunately I haven’t yet found the mid-year final examination. However I have found a copy of the end-of-year final exam that covered Henry George’s Progress and Poverty (1881) and most likely the abridged version of H.C. Carey’s Principles of Social Science by Kate McKean (1865).

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Course Enrollment:

Political Economy 2. Prof. Dunbar. History of Economic Theory and an Examination of Recent Doctrines. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles. — George’s Progress and Poverty. — Carey’s Social Science.  3 hours per week in 1st half-year, 2 in 2d

Total 23: 2 Graduates, 18 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1883-1884, p. 71

 

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
[Year-end Examination. June 1884]

[Of 1, 2, and 3 one may be omitted.]

  1. “But the fundamental truth, that in all economic reasoning must be firmly grasped and never let go, is that society in its most highly developed form is but an elaboration of society in its modest beginnings, and that principles obvious in the simpler relations of men are merely disguised and not abrogated or reversed by the more intricate relations that result from the division of labor and the use of complex tools and methods.” [Henry George, Progress and Poverty, 5th edition, 1883, p. 23]
    What limits, if any, should you set to the validity of arguments thus drawn from the case of primaeval society?
  2. How far does the proposition that “the power of any population to produce the necessaries of life is not to be measured by the necessaries of life actually produced, but by the expenditure of power in all modes,” or that “the power of producing wealth in any form is the power of producing subsistence,” serve as an answer to the Malthusian theory? [Henry George, Progress and Poverty, 5th edition, 1883, p. 127]
  3. Compare (1) George’s views as to the increase of general productive power when population is advancing, with (2) Carey’s theory that in the progress of society it becomes possible to devote a larger proportion of a constantly increasing force to the development of natural resources, and with (3) the ordinary reasoning as to increasing difficulty of subsistence.
  4. “If it be true that wages depend upon the ratio between the amount of labor seeking employment and capital devoted to its employment, then high wages must be accompanied by low interest, and reversely. This is not the fact, but the contrary” [as g. in new countries]. [Henry George, Progress and Poverty, 5th edition, 1883, p. 17]
  5. “Both Smith and Ricardo use the term ‘natural wages’ to express the minimum upon which laborers can live; whereas, unless injustice is natural, all that the laborer produces should rather be held as his natural wages.” [Henry George, Progress and Poverty, 5th edition, 1883, p. 146]
    Point out the ambiguity.
  6. “Without any increase in population, the progress of invention constantly tends to give a larger and larger proportion of the produce to the owners of land, and a smaller and smaller one to labor and capital. And, as we can assign no limits to the progress of invention, neither can we assign any limit to the increase of rent, short of the whole produce.” [Henry George, Progress and Poverty, 5th edition, 1883, p. 227]
    Consider the reasoning by which these propositions are sustained.
  7. What answer is there to Mr. George’s theory that rent, resting upon a monopoly, is able to, and does, intercept any gains which might otherwise accrue to labor?
  8. Suppose all rents to be confiscated by means of taxation, what would be the effect upon the condition of the laboring class?
  9. Carey says:—
    “It may be asked, why should a very rare copy of an ancient work sell for many times its original price? Value is limited to the cost of reproduction; and when an object cannot be reproduced, its value has no limit but the fancy of those who desire to possess it.” [Kate McKean’s Manual of Social Science, being a Condensation of Principles of Social Science by H.C. Carey (1879), p. 88]
    Can the class of cases, thus admitted to exist, of objects which “cannot be reproduced,” be made to include land?
  10. Increasing ease of reproduction of money and of improved land is given as the reason for a decline of both interest and rent as society advances. Why then should not land fall in value as well as money?
  11. Upon Mr. Carey’s reasoning, excluding the law of diminishing returns, how is the rise in value of agricultural produce as society advances to be reconciled with the cheapening effects of agricultural improvement?
  12. What logical necessity has compelled Mr. Carey to assume the existence of a law of diminishing fecundity in the human race? [Kate McKean’s Manual of Social Science, being a Condensation of Principles of Social Science by H.C. Carey (1879), p. 436] Compare this with the reasoning which leads to the Malthusian conclusion as to the ultimate necessity for checks upon increase, either positive or preventive.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 2, Bound volume, Examination Papers 1883-86: Papers set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy,… in Harvard College (June, 1884), pp. 8-9.

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Exam Questions Gender Harvard

Harvard. Political Economy Examination for Women, 1878

 

The motivation behind the examinations offered by Harvard University to women (beginning in 1874) was “to afford persons desirous of becoming teachers in schools such a diploma of competency for their task as would be received on all hands with respect, and, further, to promote a higher standard of attainments in the private schools attended by the wealthier classes, by thus securing them thoroughly qualified teachers.” However, it was understood that “the preparation for these examinations [was not] equivalent to a course in Harvard, or other first-class colleges, and that they did not place the same value on a Harvard diploma and a Harvard certificate.”

The Harvard 1874 Advanced Examination in Political Economy for Women was previously posted.

The examination was based on Henry Fawcett’s “Manual of Political Economy” [1874] and Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui’s “Histoire de l’Économie Politique en Europe.” [4e èd. Rev. et annot. (1860). Tome Premier; Tome Second]

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POLITICAL ECONOMY.
FAWCETT.

  1. Distinguish productive labor and productive consumption from unproductive. Are “useful” and “productive” convertible terms in political economy?
  2. What is capital? How does the popular use of the term differ from its scientific use? When Macleod contends that “credit is capital,” what is the real point of difference between him and other writers
  3. What causes determine the prices of manufactured commodities, temporarily and in the long run? How do the causes which determine the prices of agricultural commodities differ from the above?
  4. 1What determines the value of money? 2How far does it receive value from being coined and made a legal tender? 3What determines the value of inconvertible paper? 4Does it receive value from being made a legal tender? 5When a legal tender, is its value affected by the greater or less chance of its being paid off?
  5. Explain carefully Ricardo’s theory of rent, showing under what conditions rent can be an element of price, and explaining the application of the theory to a country like the United States, where the cultivators, as a rule, own the land.
  6. What causes the observed tendency of profits to fall as a country advances in age, wealth, and population?
  7. State the general principles which determine the exchange of commodities between two countries. How and why does this international trade differ from domestic trade?
  8. Why do the exports of India regularly exceed her imports, and the exports of the British Islands fall short of their imports? How are these facts to be reconciled with the general principle that the exports of a country must balance its imports?
  9. The United States being a gold-producing country, would exchange on Europe, when commerce is in its normal condition, be “in our favor,” against us, or at par? Why? Would this state of things be for our disadvantage or not?
  10. When a building, e. g., a store, is built on valuable ground and a tax is laid as usual on the total value, what will be the incidence of the tax? Will it have this incidence at once, or in the long run? Suppose the premises are held under a lease for a term of years?
  11. If a tax were laid at a uniform rate on all property of every description, would it meet the requirements of Adam Smith’s first rule?
  12. If a government has a large expenditure to make (1) in some productive enterprise, or (2) for some unproductive purpose, is it better that the amount should be raised at once by taxation, or by loan?

 

BLANQUI.

  1. Contrast the system on which the Bank of Amsterdam and the Bank of England were respectively established.
  2. What was the English act of navigation? When and why was it passed? What position do Adam Smith and J. S. Mill take as to its expediency?
  3. When did the “French Economists” flourish, and what were the distinctive characteristics of that school?
  4. Give what account you can of Turgot and his reforms.
  5. What was “the continental blockade,” and what were its economic effects, both before and after the declaration of peace?
  6. Under what circumstances was Malthus led to write his Essay on Population?
  7. What contribution did J. B. Say make, or what service did he render, to economic science?
  8. Give what account you can of the socialist system of St. Simon.
  9. What share had Ricardo, Mill, and Cairnes, respectively, in the development of the system of political economy, and in what relations do they stand to each other as writers developing the same subject?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25), Box 2. Bound volume: Examination Papers 1878-79. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Used at the Examinations for Women held at Cambridge, New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, May 29 to June 6, 1878. Cambridge, Mass., 1878, pp. 42-44.

 

Image Sources:

Henry Fawcett (left) The University of Glasgow Story website; Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui (right): Austrian National Library. Website Bildarchiv Austria.

 

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Labor Problems. Course outline, cases for discussion, exams. Slichter, 1938-1939

Sumner H. Slichter was in his day a really big gun in economics at Harvard. As an early “dean of labor economics”, he definitely deserves a post of his own, but one I’ll postpone for later. 

Fun Facts: One of the teaching assistants for the course, Spencer Drummond Pollard, was a Rhodes scholar, went on to teach at UC Berkeley and Los Angeles, Whittier College and has two filmwriting credits listed in the internet movie data base. He married the screenwriter Helen Deutsch in 1946, but that marriage lasted less than one year. Not incidentally he was James Tobin’s undergraduate economics tutor who suggested that they devote their sessions to “this new book from England,” The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.

________________________

Teaching Assistants

Spencer Drummond Pollard (1910-1989)
Harvard Economics Ph.D. (1939)

Spencer Drummond Pollard, A.B. (Harvard) 1932.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Labor Problems. Thesis, “Some Problems of Democracy in the Government of Labor Unions, with special reference to the United Mine Workers of America and the United Automobile Workers of America.” Director, Educational Film Institute, New York University, and Supervisor, New York University Film Library.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1938-39, p. 197.

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

Lloyd George Reynolds (1910-2005)
Harvard Economics Ph.D. (1936)

Lloyd George Reynolds, B.A. (Univ. of Alberta) 1931, M.A. (McGill Univ.) 1933.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Labor Problems. Thesis, “The British Immigrant: his Social and Economic Adjustment in Canada.” Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics.

Source: Harvard University.  Report of the President of Harvard College, 1935-36, p. 161.

________________________

Course Enrollment, 1938-39

[Economics] 81a. Professor Slichter, Mr. Pollard and Dr. Reynolds.—Labor Problems.

Total 63: 1 Graduate, 30 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 3 Others.

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

________________________

Course Outline, 1938-39

ECONOMICS 81
LABOR PROBLEMS

Outline and Readings for the First Term
[Pencil: “38-39”]

Introduction

  1. The Subject Matter of the Course—the Operation of the Institution of Wages under Private Capitalism

Part One
Wages and Labor Conditions Under Competition

  1. The Labor Force and the Labor Market

Required:

Goodrich, Carter, Migration and Economic Opportunity, Appendix A.
Lynd, R.L., Middletown in Transition, Chap. 2.
Woytinsky, W.S., Labor in the United States, pp. 16-24, 30-42.

Suggested for Reference:

Douglas, P.H., Real Wages in the United States, Chaps. 1 and 32.
Florence, P.S., Theory and Fatigue and Unrest, Chaps. 2,3.
Fortune, “Labor and Steel”, May, 1936.
Hammond, J.L., The Town Labourer
Lescohier, D., The Labor Market, Chaps. 1,6.
MacDonald, Labor Problems and the American Scene, Part 2.
Recent Social Trends, v. I, Chap. 6.

  1. The General Factors determining Wage Rates and the Income of Wage Earners
    1. The trend of real wages since 1890
    2. The marginal productivity theory of wages
    3. Factors influencing the supply of labor
    4. Factors influencing the demand for labor
    5. Technical progress, wages, and employment
    6. Cyclical fluctuations of wages

Required:

Douglas, P.H., Theory of Wages, pp. 34-49, 68-96
Hansen, A. Economic Stabilization in an Unbalanced World, Chap. X.
Meade, J.E., Economic Analysis and Policy, Part 1, Chap. 7.
Recent Social Trends, v. I, Chaps. 1, 2.
Slichter, S.H., Towards Stability, pp. 114-24, 133-42.

Suggested for Reference:

Florence, P.S., Economics of Fatigue and Unrest, Chaps. 6-11
Hicks, J.R., Theory of Wages, Chap. 1
Jerome, H., Mechanization of Industry, Chaps. 3, 6, and pp. 326-403
Recent Economic Changes, v. I. pp. 96-146
Slichter, S.H., Modern Economic Society, Chap. 24

  1. Wage Differences
    1. Bargaining advantages of employers
    2. Bargaining strength of workers, strategic position of some workers, reductions in supply
    3. Differences among industries—growing, declining industries, differences in labor cost, etc.
    4. Selling competition and wage rates
    5. Wage differences between occupations
    6. Wage differences between regions

Required:

Dobb, M., Wages, Chaps. 5, 6
Mathewson, Restriction of Output among Unorganized Labor
Taussig, F.W., Principles of Economics, v. II, Chap. 47

Suggested for Reference:

Dollard, Caste and Class in a Southern Town
Edwards, A.M., “Social-Economic Grouping of the Gainful Workers of the United States”, Journal of the American Statistical Association, December, 1933, pp. 377-397.
Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Article on the Company Town
Feldman, H., Racial factors in American Industry
Frain, H., Machine-tool Occupations in Philadelphia
Mathewson, Restriction of Output among Unorganized Labor
Pigou, A.C., Economics of Welfare, Part III, Chaps. 9 and 14

  1. Hours and Working Conditions

Required:

Millis, H.A. and Montgomery, R.E., Labor’s Progress and Problems, v. I, pp. 488-516.
Slichter, S.H., Modern Economic Society, Chap. 25

 

Part Two
Problems of Trade Unionism and Collective Bargaining

  1. The Development of Labor Unions in the United States
    1. Origin and form of the earliest unions
    2. Fluctuation of membership with business activity 1800-1885
    3. The three business upswings accounting for most of the present membership of labor unions
      1896-1903
      1914-1918
      1933-1938
    4. Comparison of three major union groups
      Knights of Labor
      F. of L.
      C.I.O.

Required:

Perlman, S., History of Trade Unionism in the United States, Chaps. 12, 13 and 14
Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, 15 pages selected from the following articles: American Federation of Labor (7 pages), Knights of Labor (3), Labor Parties (12), Labor Movement (14), Trade Unions (52).

Suggested for Reference:

Gompers, Samuel, The American Labor Movement—its Makeup, Achievements, and Aspirations
Gompers, Samuel, Seventy Years of Life and Labor

  1. The Contemporary Scene in American Unionism
    1. The principal industries organized
    2. The focal areas of organization
    3. Kinds of inter-union organizations—federations, city centrals, regional groups, etc.
    4. Major areas of struggle in the present situation
    5. Changes in the pressure-alignments of community life in the unionized areas

Suggested for Reference:

Brooks, R.R., When Labor Organizes, Chap. 6
Walsh, R., The C.I.O.

  1. Comparison with Labor Movements in Other Countries
    1. The major periods of the English Labor Movement
    2. Major events and trends in the English Movement 1920-1938
    3. Characteristics of French, German, and Scandinavian Unionism
    4. The spread of unionism to industrially outlying regions
    5. Special factors molding the course of unionism in the United States
    6. The future of the relation between Labor and Politics in this country

Required:

Norgren, P.H., “Sweden, Where Employers Compromise”, Harvard Business Review, Summer Issue, 1938.
Report of the President’s Commission on Industrial Relations in Great Britain

Suggested for Reference:

Clapham, J.H., Economic History of Modern Britain, Machines and National Rivalries, Chap. 8 and Epilogue
Perlman, S., A Theory of the Labor Movement, Chaps. 1, 3, and 4
Richardson, J.H., Industrial Relations in Great Britain
Saposs, D.J., The Labor Movement in Post-War France

  1. Trade Union Structure and Government
    1. The parts of a trade union—locals, districts, nationals
    2. How local unions function
    3. How national unions function
    4. Trends in trade union government
      1. Centralization of finances
      2. Centralization of control over strikes
    5. The leaders and the rank and file—democracy in trade unions

Required:

Hoxie, R.F., Trade Unionism in the United States, Chap. 7

Suggested for Reference:

Brooks, R.R., When Labor Organizes, Chap. 9
Furniss, E.S., Labor Problems, pp. 280-303
Hoxie, R.F., Trade Unionism in the United States, Chap. 5
Mitchell, John, Organized Labor, Chap. 10

  1. Collective Bargaining—the Regulation of Working Conditions
    1. Trade agreements
      1. What are the problems with which trade agreements attempt to deal
      2. Local, regional, and national agreements
      3. Procedure agreements v. regulating agreements
      4. Handling cases under trade agreements
    2. The regulation of the opportunity to work
      1. Control of hiring
      2. The control of layoffs
      3. The conflict between the worker’s interest in opportunity and his interest in security
      4. Problems of seniority and equal-division-of-work
      5. Efforts of unions to protect the older worker
    3. The efforts of unions to deal with technological change
      1. Opposition
      2. Competition
      3. Control of new processes and machines
      4. Compensation
      5. Make work
    4. The attitude of unions toward “scientific management”
    5. Union-management-cooperation

Required:

Block, Louis, Labor Agreements in Coal Mines, Chaps. 2, 3, 5, and 6, and pp. 217-247.
Slichter, S.H., “The Contents of Collective Agreements”, Journal of the Society for the Advancement of Management, January, 1938

Suggested for Reference:

Barnett, G.E., Chapters on Machinery and Labor
Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, Articles on Coal Industry (18), Collective Bargaining (4), Construction Industry (17), Garment Industries (12), Glass and Pottery Industries (7), Iron and Steel Industry (7), Labor-Capital Cooperation (5), Railroads (7), Textiles (6), Trade Agreements(3)
McCabe, D.A., Industrial Relations in the Pottery Industry
Monthly Labor Review, September, 1936, “Collective Bargaining in the Hosiery Industry”
Nyman, R.C., Union-Management Cooperation in the Stretch-Out
Perlman, S., A Theory of the Labor Movement, Chaps. 6 and 7
Whitehead, T.N., Leadership in a Free Society
Wood, L.A., Union-Management Cooperation on the Railroads, Chaps. 7, 8, 9, and 14

  1. Collective Bargaining—Fixing the Price of Labor
    1. The movement of bargained wages and “free” wages
    2. The effect of bargained wage rates upon employment and unemployment
    3. The effect of bargained wage rates upon saving
    4. The effect of bargained wage rates upon the credit of employers and upon investment opportunities
    5. Some problems of price fixing under collective bargaining
      1. Problems presented by non-union competition
      2. Problems presented by market shifts and inter-industry competition
      3. Problems presented by the business cycle

Required:

Feldman, H., Problems in Labor Relations, Problems 5 and 65
Palmer, Gladys, Union Tactics and Economic Change, Chaps. 3, 4, & 6
Slichter, S.H., “The Adjustment to Instability”, Proceedings of the American Economic Association, March, 1936

Suggested for Reference:

Blum, S., Labor Economics, Chap. 18
Robertson D.H., “Wage Grumbles” in Economic Fragments
Slichter, S.H., “Notes on Collective Bargaining” in Explorations in Economics

  1. Collective Bargaining—the Administration of Trade Agreements

Required:

Metcalf, H.C., and Others, Collective Bargaining for Today and Tomorrow, Chaps. 4, 5, and 6
Gilbertson, H.S., “Management and Collective Bargaining”, Harvard Business Review, Summer Issue, 1938
Leiserson, W.M., Right and Wrong in Labor Relations
Slichter, S.H., “Collective Bargaining at Work,” Atlantic Monthly, January, 1938
Steel Workers Organizing Committee, How to Handle Grievances
Taylor, Don H., “Problems in Collective Bargaining”, in Collective Bargaining and Cooperation
Taylor, George W., “Experiences in Collective Bargaining” in Collective Bargaining and Cooperation

 

Part Three
Public Policy and Collective Bargaining

  1. Protection of the Right to Organize
    1. The principle of non-interference by employers
    2. The adjustment of disputes over representation
    3. The obligation to bargain
    4. Should the worker’s freedom of choice be protected against interference from other workers

Required:

Brooks, R.R., When Labor Organizes, Chaps. 3 and 5
Douglas, P.H., “American Labor Relations Boards”, American Economic Review, December, 1937
Feldman, H., Problems in Industrial Relations, Problems 56 and 57
Slichter, S.H., “The Government and Collective Bargaining”, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, March 1935, v. 178, pp. 107-122.

Suggested for Reference:

Frankfurter, F., Mr. Justice Holmes and the Supreme Court
National Labor Relations Board, Annual Report, 1937
National Labor Relations Board, Governmental Protection of Labor’s Right to Organize

  1. The Adjustment of Industrial Disputes
    1. Mediation
      1. Why can mediation sometimes help
      2. The machinery and methods of mediation
    2. Arbitration
      1. The uses of arbitration
      2. Should mediators arbitrate or arbitrators mediate
      3. Some problems of arbitration—does it tend to interfere with the process of negotiation
    3. Emergency boards

Required:

Either Witte, E.E., The Government in Labor Disputes, Chap. 11 and Appendix A or
Twentieth Century Fund, Labor and the Government, pp. 114-122, and Chap. 8

Suggested for Reference:

Barnett, G.E., and McCabe, D.A., Mediation, Investigation, and Arbitration in Industrial Disputes
Maclaurin, W.R., “Compulsory Arbitration in Australia”, American Economic Review, March, 1938, v. XXVIII, pp. 65-82
Selekman, B., Law and Labor Relations—a Study of the Industrial Disputes Investigations Act of Canada

  1. The Control of Industrial Warfare
    1. The legality of strikes and lockouts
    2. The legality of boycotts
    3. The legality of strike activities
    4. Remedies—injunctions, damage suits

Required:

Baldwin and Randall, Civil Liberties and Industrial Conflict
Feldman, H., Problems in Labor Relations, Problem 58
Witte, E.E., The Government in Labor Disputes, Chaps. 2, 3, and 4

  1. The Enforcement of Trade Agreements
    1. The legal status of trade agreements
    2. Scattered experience in the United States
    3. The experience of the National Boards of Adjustment on the Railroads
    4. Foreign experience

Suggested for Reference:

Rice, W.G., Jr., “Collective Agreements”, Harvard Law Review, v. 14, pp. 572-608
Witte, E.E., The Government in Labor Disputes, pp. 14-17

  1. The Regulation of Trade Unions
    1. Incorporation; Suability
    2. Registration
    3. Publication of accounts
    4. Safeguarding the democratic process within trade unions
    5. Civil rights within trade unions
    6. Government control versus self-regulation

Required:

City Club of New York, The Responsibility of Trade Unions
Witte, E.E., The Government in Labor Disputes, pp. 149-150

Suggested for Reference:

Black, F.R., “Should Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations Be Made Legally Responsible”, Special Report of the National Industrial Conference Board
Brandeis, L.D., Greenbag, v. 15, pp. 11-14
Landis, J.M., The Administrative Process
Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics, Annual Report, 1906, pp. 125-144
Swabey, Marie, Theory of the Democratic State

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics, 1938-39”.

________________________

Reading Period, First Term

Economics 81: Read the following:

Pigou, A.C., Economics of Welfare, Part III, Chap. IX, XIV, XVI;
and 200 pages from one of the following:

      1. Barnett, G.E., Chapters on Machinery and Labor.
      2. McCabe, D.A., The Standard Rate in American Trade Unionism.
      3. Ward, L.A., Union-Management Cooperation in the Railroads.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics, 1938-39”.

________________________

ECONOMICS 81
LABOR PROBLEMS

Outline and Readings for the Second Term
[Pencil: “38-39”]

Part Four

  1. The Public Regulation of Wages and Hours
    1. Minimum wages as a substitute for collective bargaining
    2. Minimum wages as a basis for collective bargaining
    3. The economic principles involved in the setting of minimum rates
    4. The pressure politics of minimum rate setting
    5. The economic consequences of specific rates for other wage rates, for employment and for non-wage groups
    6. Special problems in minimum wage setting
      1. Problems of applying a minimum in piece working plants
      2. The competition of home work
      3. The problem of geographical differentials
      4. The problem of allowances for learners and handicapped workers
    7. Some problems of law in the Federal regulation of wages
    8. Some problems of administration under the Wages and Hours Act of 1938
    9. Net experience with minimum wage regulation in other countries

Required:

Millis, H.A., and Montgomery, R.E., Labor’s Progress and Some Basic Labor Problems, pp. 278-375

Suggested for Reference:

Burns, E.M., Wages and the State
Commons, J.R., and Andrews, J.A., Principles of Labor Legislation
Foenander, O. deR., Toward Industrial Peace in Australia (1937 edition)
Pound, Roscoe, ed., The Supreme Court and Minimum Wage Legislation
Riches, E.J., “Conflicts of Principle in Wage Regulation in New Zealand”, Economica, August, 1938
Women’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, “Special Studies of Wages Paid to Women and Minors in Ohio Industries Prior and Subsequent to the Ohio Minimum Wage Law”, Bulletin 145

Part Five
The Problem of Unemployment

  1. The Kinds of Unemployment
    1. Seasonal unemployment
    2. Technological unemployment
    3. Frictional unemployment
    4. Cyclical unemployment
    5. Stranded areas
    6. Who are the unemployed
    7. Why unemployment is difficult to measure

Required:

Millis, H.A., and Montgomery, R.E., Labor’s Risks and Social Insurance, Chap. 1

Suggested for Reference:

Douglas, P.H., and Director, A., The Problem of Unemployment, Chaps. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11
Gilboy, E., “Unemployed: Income and Expenditure,” American Economic Review, 1937
Lubin, I., The Absorption of the Unemployed by American Industry
Myers, R.J., “Occupational Readjustment of Displaced Skilled Workers”, Journal of Political Economy, August, 1929, v. XXXVIII, pp. 473-489

  1. Unemployment Policies
    1. Policies designed to reduce unemployment
      1. Public employment exchanges
      2. Transference and training
      3. Planning of public works
    2. Policies designed to support the unemployed
      1. Work spreading
      2. Flexible working week
      3. Direct relief
      4. Work relief
      5. Unemployment compensation

Required:

Davison, R.C., British Unemployment Policy, Chap. 6
Millis, H.A., and Montgomery, R.E., Labor’s Risks and Social Insurance, Chaps. 2 and 3, or Hill, A. C. C., and Lubin, I., The British Attack on Unemployment, Chaps. 4, 5, 6

Suggested for Reference:

Atkinson, R. C., Adencrantz, L.C., and Deming, B., Public Employment Service in the United States, Chaps. 1 and 3
Beveridge, W.H., Unemployment
Chegwidden, T.S., and Myrddin-Evans, G., The Employment Exchange Service of Great Britain
Davison, R.C., British Unemployment Policy
Douglas, P.H., and Director, A., The Problem of Unemployment, Chaps. 6-11, 18-21
Gilson, M.B., Unemployment Insurance in Great Britain
Kiehel, C.A., Unemployment Insurance in Belgium
Spates, T.G., and Rabinovitch, G.S., Unemployment Insurance in Switzerland
Stewart, B.M., Unemployment Compensation in the United States, Chaps. 19 and 22

  1. Some Problems of Unemployment Compensation
    1. Coverage
    2. Contributions
      1. Should employees contribute
      2. Should the state contribute
      3. The incidence of unemployment contributions
    3. Pooled versus plant reserve funds
    4. Merit rating
    5. Benefits
      1. Amount
      2. The waiting period
      3. Duration
      4. Partial unemployment
      5. Flat rate v. credits for dependents
      6. Eligibility for benefits
      7. Testing the willingness to work
      8. Problems presented by seasonal industries
    6. Interstate workers
    7. Federal-state relations
    8. Coordination of employment service and unemployment compensation service
    9. Protecting the solvency of the reserve fund

Required:

Haber, W. Some Current Problems in Social Security
Hill, A.A.C., Jr., and Lubin, I., The British Attack on Unemployment, Chaps. 11, 12, 13, 15, and 16
Lewisohn, Sam A., “Some Major Issues in Unemployment Insurance”, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June, 1935, pp. 339-345
Stewart, Bryce M., “Federal and State Unemployment Insurance”, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June, 1935, pp. 346-364

Suggested for Reference:

Davison, R.C., British Unemployment Policy
Kulp, C.A., Social Insurance Coordination
Kulp, C.A., “European and American Social Security Parallels”, American Labor Legislation Review, March, 1938
Matcheck, Walter and Atkinson, R.C., The Administration of Unemployment Compensation Benefits in Wisconsin
Neuberger, Otto, The Administration of Short-Time Benefits in Germany
Simpson, Smith, “Should Unemployment Compensation be Based on Earnings or Need”, American Labor Legislation Review, September, 1938, pp. 136-140
Stewart, B.M., Planning and Administration of Unemployment Compensation in the United States
Weiss, H., “Unemployment Prevented Through Unemployment Compensation”, Political Science Quarterly, March, 1938, pp. 14-35
Wunderlich, Frieda, “What Next in Unemployment Compensation”, Social Research, February, 1938, pp. 37-54

  1. Relations between Unemployment Compensation and Relief

Required:

Hill, A.C.C., and Lubin, I., The British Attack on Unemployment, Chaps. 11 and 12
Somers, H.M., “Job Finding Joins Relief”, Survey, August, 1938, pp. 263-264

Suggested for Reference:

Burns, E.M., and Malisoff, H., “Administration Integration of Unemployment Insurance and Relief in Great Britain”, Social Service Review, September, 1938
Davison, R.C., British Unemployment Policy, Chaps. 2 and 4

  1. Problems of Relief and Relief Administration

Required:

Eckler, A. Ross, and Fairley, L., “Relief and Reemployment”, Harvard Business Review, Winter, 1938
Haber, William and Somers, H.M., “The Administration of Public Assistance in Massachusetts”, Social Service Review, v. XII, September, 1938
Hill, A.C.C., and Lubin, I., The British Attack on Unemployment, Chap. 15

Suggested for Reference:

Fortune Magazine, “Relief”, February, 1936
MacNeil, D.H., Seven Years of Unemployment Relief in New Jersey

 

Part Six
The Problem of Industrial Accidents and Occupational Disease

  1. The Magnitude of the Problem
  2. Employers’ Liability
  3. Workmen’s Compensation
    1. Rights
    2. Standards
    3. Administrative problems
    4. Medical care
  4. Accident Prevention
  5. Rehabilitation of Injured Workers

Suggested for Reference:

Dodd, W.F., Administration of Workmen’s Compensation
Downey, E.H., Workmen’s Compensation
Millis, H.A., and Montgomery, R.E., Labor’s Risks and Social Insurance, Chap. 4
Vernon, H.M., Accidents and their Prevention

 

Part Seven
The Problem of Sickness Among Wage Earners

  1. The Amount and Incidence of Sickness
  2. Insurance Against Loss of Time
  3. Medical Care and Benefits
  4. Compulsory Health Insurance Abroad
  5. Problem of Health Insurance

Required:

Millis, H.A., and Montgomery, R.E., Labor’s Risks and Social insurance, Chaps. 5, 6, and 7
Syendstricker, E., “Health Insurance and the Public Health,” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June, 1935, pp. 284-292

Suggested for Reference:

Committee on the Costs of Medical Care, Final Report, Chaps. 1-6
Williams, P., The Purchase of Medical Care, Chap. 1

 

Part Eight
Security for Old Age

  1. The Problem of the Older Worker in Modern Industry

Required:

Brown, D., “Proposals for Federal and State Cooperation for Old Age Security”, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June, 1935, pp. 276-281
Twentieth Century Fund, More Security for Old Age, Chap. 1

  1. Private Pension Plans

Required:

Twentieth Century Fund, More Security for Old Age, pp. 69-73

  1. State Old Age Assistance Plans

Required:

Twentieth Century Fund, More Security for Old Age, pp. 69-73

  1. The Federal Old Age Pension Plan
    1. An outline of the plan
    2. Why a federal plan
    3. Why a contributory plan
    4. Problems of the Reserve Fund
    5. Some proposed modifications of the law

Required:

Advisory Council on Social Security, Final Report
Brown, J. Douglas, “The Development of the Old Age Insurance Provisions of the Social Security Act”, Law and Contemporary Problems, April, 1936
Brown, J. Douglas, “Old Age Security, a Problem of Industry and Government”, American Management Association, Economic Security, Pensions and Health Insurance, Personnel Series 20, pp. 3-9
Haber, W., Some Current Problems in Social Security
Linton, M.A., “The Quest for Security in Old Age”, Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, June, 1935, pp. 373-389
Twentieth Century Fund, More Security for Old Age, pp. 73-158, and 31-68

Suggested for Reference:

Aldrich, W.W., “An Appraisal of the Federal Social Security Act”
Witte, E.E., “Old Age Security in the Social Security Act”, Journal of Political Economy, February, 1937, pp. 1-44

 

Part Nine
Personnel Administration

  1. Should Business Enterprises Formulate Definite Labor Policies
  2. The Matters with which a Labor Policy should Deal
  3. The Determination of Personnel Policies
  4. The Execution of Personnel Policies—the Relation between the Personnel Department and Operating Officials
  5. Some Problems of Personnel Administration
    1. Selection of employees
    2. Training of employees
    3. Handling discharge cases
    4. Problems in making layoffs
  6. The Role of Personnel Administration under Collective Bargaining with Trade Unions
  7. The Contribution of Personnel Administration to the Improvement of the Conditions of Labor

Required:

Bergen, H.B., “Basic Factors in Present-Day Industrial Relations”, Personnel, November, 1937
Bergen, H.B., Fundamentals of a Personnel and Industrial Relations Program
Tead, Ordway and Metcalf, H.C., Principles of Personnel Administration, Chaps. 4, 12 and 25

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics, 1938-39”.

________________________

Reading Period, Second Term

Economics 81: No additional assignment.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics, 1938-39”.

________________________

Twelve Case Studies

Economics 81
1.

A labor manager of a large plant recently expressed the opinion that he would rather have a national union among his employees than so-called “independent” association.

Recently the C.I.O. attempted to organize the plant by typical organizing methods. It had loud speakers outside the plant at the noon hour and it passed out literature containing strong and none-too-accurate attacks on the company and its management. The personnel manager of the plant had made it his business to become acquainted with the international president of the union. He got the president on long distance and said: “If I didn’t know any better how to organize the plant than you do, I would go out of business. Let me know when you will be in town at the Statler Hotel. I will see that twenty-six of our men come down to see you. If you can’t organize them into a union, you are no good.”

Discuss from the point of view of management, the advantages and drawbacks of national and “independent” unions. What do you think of the personnel manager’s technique in handling the organization problem?

 

Economics 81
2.

During the summer of 1937 negotiations in the railroad industry were carried on first with the non-transportation employees and later with the transportation employees. Suppose there are several unions of varying strength in the same plant. Discuss from the point of view of (1) the unions, and (2) the employer the desirability of (1) negotiating with each union separately, or (2) negotiating with them all simultaneously. It is quite usual in the building trades, for example, for the contractors to negotiate changes in wages and hours with all or most of the crafts simultaneously. The six unions in the railroad shops have pursued the policy of negotiating as a unit. On the other hand, in the printing industry, the photo-engraving union has pursued the policy of negotiating independently of the other unions. Can you suggest an explanation for these differences?

 

Economics 81
3.

In the railroad industry it is customary to make trade agreements of indefinite duration—that is, the agreement remains in effect until one side or the other gives notice of desiring a change. The agreements require notice of not less than a certain number of days or weeks.

What advantages to each side do you see in this type of agreement? Do you think that agreements of indefinite duration, such as cancelation on given notice, would be advisable in the building trades, in the shoe industry, in the street railway industry, in department stores?

 

Economics 81
4.

A large airplane line has three shops. In one of them virtually all of the employees belong to the machinists’ union. In each of the other two, the men have organized an independent union. The management wishes to negotiate agreements with its employees. In your judgment, does it make any difference where the management begins?

 

Economics 81
5.

The manager of a company complains that the employees take their grievances to the business agent rather than settling them through the shop steward. This suggests that something is wrong somewhere. What would you look for?

 

Economics 81
6.

For years the manager of a leather plant has taken some pains to avoid the risk of a strike because a large amount of product might be spoiled by the workers going out. The plant manager was not sure whether the president of the company would back him in case a strike occurred or whether the president might hold him responsible for the large losses and, in consequence, remove him from his job. The union gradually discovered that by taking a strong stand it could bulldoze the manager on many matters. It has succeeded in preventing the management from introducing machines into the finishing department. It has also succeeded in preventing the management from revising its piece rates in certain departments. As a result, the piece rates are far above what they should be in view of changes that have been made in methods and working conditions.

Assume that you are the president of the company and that you have just discovered this situation. What possible lines of action might you pursue?

 

Economics 81
7.

Some unions attempt to restrict the employers’ freedom to make layoffs by enforcing equal-division-of-work; others by enforcing layoff in accordance with seniority (sometimes modified by recognition of ability), and some by a combination of equal-division-of-work and seniority. In the women’s garment industry there are two principal busy seasons in the course of the year. The peak demand in each season lasts from four to six weeks. Between the busy seasons, the volume of employment becomes very low. Goods are produced in the main by small plants; a considerable proportion of the plants go out of business each year—in fact, in the New York market during the twenties the annual business mortality rate was over 30 per cent.

Do you think that the union in this industry would be well advised to attempt to regulate layoffs by seniority rule? If not, what kind of rule would you suggest to the union?

 

Economics 81
8.

Among the questions which arise in administering seniority rules is whether seniority shall be on a plant basis, a department basis, an occupational basis, or, in the case of multiple plant companies, on a plant basis. Discuss from the standpoint of both labor and employer the advantages and disadvantages of the different bases. Some employers have said that any seniority rule which suits the union will suit them provided it permits the employer to take some account of ability. Subject to this qualification, some employers have offered to let the union write its own seniority rule. What do you think of this position?

Suppose that the general rule is that seniority in a company will be based upon length of service in a department. How would you handle the case of a man transferred from one department to another at (1) his own request; (2) at the company’s request. Would your answer depend upon whether the transfer is temporary or permanent?

 

Economics 81
9.

A small furniture manufacturer writes: “We are negotiating for the renewal of our contract with the union and are not making the progress which we should. Heretofore the union has always stipulated and insisted that foremen are not eligible and should not become members of the union. This year they have reversed their position and insist that all foremen become members.”

The company has a closed shop contract with the union. Competition in the industry is intense. Would you advise the employer to concede the demand? If not, what line of action would you suggest that he pursue?

 

Economics 81
10.

A union in a factory making a food product limits itself to 180 batches in eight hours. The men are working under the Bedaux system which means that for output above a given amount they receive a bonus. The production of 180 batches enables the men to earn a small bonus. Improved machinery introduced since the Bedaux standards were set makes it possible for the men to turn out considerably more than 180 batches.

What should the employer do about this situation?

 

Economics 81
11.

At the 1934 Convention of the Glass Bottle Blowers Association, the Committee on Feed and Flow Automatic Machines recommended that “No firm with whom we have contractual relations shall be given any special privileges either by our National President or by any member of the Executive Board.” This would have prevented the union officers from signing agreements which gave some employers lower wages than other employers were paying.

Vice President Campbell, speaking on this question, said:

“This is an important question and I ask the privilege of speaking. I came in contact with it many places in the trade last year, and statements made here seem to refer to it. Some delegates are in favor and others are opposed, so it is a debatable question—this separate agreement; but if we go back in our history, we always had a separate agreement. We used to meet the Owens Company from year to year in a separate conference, which was necessary at that time; and the manufacturers used it in our conferences. President Maloney yesterday told you that it was pointed out to us that the ‘Big Boys’ were not in the conference; ‘Bring them in,’ they said. Before we organized the Owen-Illinois the Independent Manufacturers pointed out to us that this particular company was not paying the same wages they and other plants were. In some instances that was true. A few years ago the wage scale in some of their plants was not equal to our minimum rate. There was not so much complaint, because their wage scale in the Flow and Feed Department was on a par with ours. But in recent years, after the organization of the Owens-Illinois plants, we were able to secure better wages and the time came when they were paying better wages than our independent manufacturers. Then we began to hear complaints, and naturally so. But I think the separate agreement will work to our advantage, especially now, more so than in years gone by.”*

*Minutes of Proceedings of Fifty-Second Convention, Glass Bottle Blowers Association, July 9-16, 1934, p. 241.

Discuss the issues raised by this question.

 

Economics 81
12.

“When the number of employees in a department is increased or decreased the employer agrees to give consideration to the relative merit and ability of all employees in such department, and where, in the opinion of the employer, merit and ability are equal, then the factor of length of service in such department shall be recognized. In the case of a transfer from one department to another, an employee shall not lose any of the recognition herein referred to.”

Employee X is employed in a factory for six years having worked four years in Department A, and was thereafter transferred to Department B where he worked for the ensuing two years. Because of slowness of business in Department B, it becomes necessary to reduce the personnel of that department and the person with the least seniority (merit and ability being equal) is laid off.

Under the seniority rule quoted, how many years seniority does Employee X have. Assuming that Employee X is laid off in Department B, would he be permitted (merit and ability being equal) to “bump” an employee in Department A with (1) five years’ seniority, or (2) three years’ seniority?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2. Folder “Economics, 1938-39”.

________________________

Final Examinations

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 81a
[Mid-Year Examination, January or February 1939]

(Answer five out of six, including Question IV)

I

In 1936, the index of real wages was approximately 250 for the United States, 100 for Great Britain, 40 for Roumania and Poland. What factors would you take into account in explaining these differences?

II

“The introduction of new machinery appears to reduce the number of jobs. Its true effect, however, is to widen the opportunities for employment and to raise real wages.” Do you agree? Explain.

III

Analyze the conditions which determine the ability of a labor organization to practice successfully the policy of controlling new machines. What do you mean by a policy of control?

IV

Through years of experience in the negotiation and administration of trade agreements, certain practices, procedures, and organization arrangements have been developed which have contributed substantially to the smoother operation of collective bargaining. Indicate some of the more important of these, explaining their significance, and, where their application is limited, explaining what these limitations are.

V

Union-management cooperation involves certain problems which, unless properly handled, lead to strained industrial relations. Point out some of the more important of these problems and indicate what an employer might do about them.

VI

What are the relations between collective bargaining and unemployment?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001. Box 4, Bound volume: Mid-Year Examinations—1939. Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1939.

 

1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 81a
[Final Examination, June 1939]

I

Discuss the issues which arise in attempting to write a satisfactory seniority rule for a collective agreement.

II

“Collective bargaining is both a necessary and a dangerous institution.” Discuss.

or

“Industrial democracy is essential to make political democracy effective, but industrial democracy poorly operated can bring about the downfall of political democracy.” Discuss.

III

(a) Discuss the incidence of the old age pension contributions.

(b) State and comment briefly on the arguments for the large pension reserve.

IV

(a) Discuss the desirability of replacing the present schemes of unemployment insurance benefit with flat rate payments.

(b) What are the merits of merit rating?

V

Discuss some of the problems of policy created by the interrelation of unemployment compensation and relief.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Final examinations 1853-2001. Box 4, Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June, 1939.

Image Sources:

Sumner H. Slichter (left) Harvard Class Album 1947-48.

Spencer D. Pollard (middle) from the Harvard Class Album 1932.

Lloyd G. Reynolds (right). Photo from the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Library Photography Collection (April, 1940).

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for the three courses in political economy. Laughlin and Taussig, 1882-1883

 

 

After Professor Charles Dunbar stepped down from his Harvard Deanship, he took sabbatical leave to go to Europe in 1882-83. Frank William Taussig was appointed instructor to help J. Laurence Laughlin cover the three course offerings for political economy that year. In Taussig’s course scrapbook in the Harvard archive, we find that he listed grades for 71 students in Political Economy 1 (1882-83), i.e., about half of the reported enrollment for that course. Thus we may presume that Laughlin and Taussig taught separate sections of the course with a common final examination.

______________________________

Course Announcements

Political Economy.

1.  Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures on Banking and the Financial Legislation of the United States. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Mr. Taussig and Dr. Laughlin .

2.  Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — History of Political Economy. – McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. — Lectures. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2. Dr. Laughlin.

As a preparation for Course 2, it is necessary to have passed satisfactorily in Course 1.

3.  Economic Effects of Land Tenures in England, Ireland, France, Germany, and Russia. Once a week, counting as a half-course. Dr. Laughlin.

Source:  The Harvard University Catalogue, 1882-83, pp. 89-90.

______________________________

Course Enrollments

1.  Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Lectures. Dr. Laughlin and Mr. Taussig.

Total 155: 1 Graduate, 22 Seniors, 113 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 6 Others. 3 hours/week.

2.  Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. — History of Political Economy. — McKean’s Condensation of Carey’s Social Science. — Lectures. Dr. Laughlin. 3 hours/week.

Total 35: 2 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Other.

3.  Studies in Land Tenures of England, Ireland, and France. — Theses. Dr. Laughlin. 1 hour/week.

Total 7: 1 Graduate, 6 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1882-1883, p. 66.

______________________________

Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-year 1882-83

I.
(Answer briefly all of the following.)

  1. What distinction does Mill draw between productive and unproductive labor? Discuss the value of this distinction. Distinguish between productive and unproductive consumption.
  2. What is the distinction between fixed and circulating capital? Is money part of the fixed or of the circulating capital of a country? Why?
  3. What are the classes among whom the produce is divided? Are these classes necessarily or usually represented in as many different sets of persons? How could you classify the peasant proprietor?
  4. Of what commodities are the values governed by the law of cost of production? Explain the process by which that law operates.
  5. “Rent does not enter into the cost of production of agricultural produce.” Explain.
  6. What regulates the value of an inconvertible paper currency? What cause it to depreciate? Discuss briefly the results of depreciation.
  7. Arrange the following items on the proper sides of the account:—

Circulation

315.0
Due to Bans

259.9
Legal Tender Notes

63.2
Loans

1,243.2
Bond for circulation

357.6
Due from Banks

198.9
Deposits

1,134.9
Specie

102.9

Compute just how much circulation is permitted by our laws; and give in figures both the (1) reserve required at 25%, and the (2) difference between the actual and required reserve, on the basis of the above account.

  1. Compare the plans of our National Bank system with those of the Bank of England and the Imperial Bank of Germany in regard to the security of note-issues.

II.
(Answer more fully three of the following.)

  1. What are the constituent elements of what Mill calls “profits”? Explain what is meant in common language by the word “profits,” and discuss the nature of profits in this sense.
  2. “The laws of the production of wealth partake of the nature of physical truths…It is not so with the distribution of wealth. That is a matter of human institution solely.” Explain the distinction, and show its connection with the subjects of communism and socialism.
  3. Mention the methods by which it is attempted to keep gold and silver concurrently in circulation. Explain why “a double standard is alternately a single standard.” Does this tend to be the case now in the United States?
  4. Distinguish between real and proportional wages, and illustrate the distinction. In what sense is the word wages used when it is said that the profits depend on wages, rising as wages fall, and falling as wages rise?
  5. It is not a difference in the absolute cost of production which determines the international cost of exchange, but a difference in the comparative” Explain this proposition, and apply it to the trade between the United States and European countries. Is the trade between tropical and temperate countries based, in the main, on a difference of absolute or of comparative cost?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Papers Set for Mid-Year Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (February, 1883), pp. 8-10.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end 1882-1883

I.
(Take all of this group.)

  1. Explain what is meant by a bill of exchange. What causes bills on a foreign country to be at a premium or discount? Show in what way the premium (or discount) is prevented from going beyond a certain point.
  2. Is there any connection between the rate of interest and the abundance or scarcity of money? Explain and illustrate the following: “The rate of interest determines the price of land and of securities.”
  3. Describe the three different kinds of cooperation, and say something of the success attained by each. What are the two classes of distributive cooperation, and wherein do they differ?
  4. Show under what circumstances the increase of capital brings about the tendency of profits to fall. What influences counteract this tendency?
  5. Explain what is meant by the rapidity of circulation of money. What is the effect of great rapidity of circulation on prices and on the value of money? What is the effect of the use of credit? Mention the more important methods in which credit is used as a substitute for money.

II.
(Omit one of this group.)

  1. Discuss the effect of the introduction of a new article of export from a given country on the course of the foreign exchanges in that country, on the flow of specie, and on the terms of international trade (i.e. on international values).
  2. What are the causes which enable one country to undersell another? Do low wages, or a low cost of labor, form one of those causes?
  3. Discuss the immediate and the ultimate effects on rents of the introduction of agricultural improvements. Do those ultimate effects which Mill describes necessarily take place?
  4. What is the immediate and what the ultimate incidence of a tax on houses? Show in what manner the incidence of a tax on building-ground differs, according as the tax is specific (so much on the unit of surface), or rated (so much on the value).

III.
(Omit one of this group.)

  1. Describe the situation which caused the banks in the United States to suspend specie payments in 1861.
  2. What is the difference between bonds and Treasury notes? Name and explain the different kinds of bonds issued during the war.
  3. Explain the causes which made possible the great sales of five-twenty bonds in 1863.
  4. What arguments were advanced for the continuance of the National Bank System in 1882?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1883), pp. 7-8.

 

______________________________

Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-year 1882-83

  1. Give a careful statement of Mr. Cairnes’s theory of market and normal value.
  2. How far is it right to suppose that the competition of (1) capital and (2) of labor is effective?
  3. Explain and discuss the statement that “the wages-fund expands as the supply of labor contracts, and contracts as the supply expands.”
  4. Agricultural products in England are as dear as one hundred years ago; in the meantime there has been extraordinary industrial progress. What conclusion is to be drawn as to the increase of wages and profits from the first fact, and who has ultimately gained by the second?
  5. Mill thinks that, although “the great efficiency of English labor is the chief cause why the precious metals are obtained at less cost by England,” the “somewhat higher range of general prices in England” is accounted for by the foreign demand, and the unbulky character of her commodities.
    What different explanation is offered by Mr. Cairnes?
  6. Examine the following:—
    “It seems to me that protection is absolutely essential to the encouragement of capital, and equally necessary for the protection of the American laborer….He must have good food, enough of it, good clothing, school-houses for his children, comforts for his home, and a fair chance to improve his condition. To this end I would protect him against competition with the half-paid laborers of European countries.”— Cong. Globe.
  7. If there should be a considerable falling off in the foreign demand for the products of one group of industries, such as our bread-stuffs, how would that affect wages in this country?
  8. What is the argument against the theory that the Bank of England brought about resumption of specie payments in England in 1821 by a contraction of its note-issues?
  9. In what period in the history of economic doctrines would you place the writer of the following passage?
    “The strength of a community declines with increase in the rate of interest. That increase results from efflux of the precious metals.” Explain.
  10. Comment on the main doctrines held by Cantillon and Storch.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Papers Set for Mid-Year Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (February, 1883), pp. 10-11.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end 1882-1883

[Do not change the order of the questions.]

  1. Examine the following doctrine:—
    “If invention and improvement still go on, the efficiency of labor will be further increased, and the amount of labor and capital necessary to produce a further increased, and the amount of labor and capital necessary to produce a given result further diminished. The same causes will lead to the utilization of this new gain in productive power for the production of more wealth; the margin of cultivation will be again extended, and rent will increase, both in proportion and amount, without any increase in wages and interest. And so,…will…rent constantly increase, though population should remain stationary.”—Henry George, Progress and Poverty (p. 226).
  2. What is meant by the “comparative costs of production,” on which international values are said to depend, and how is that dependence to be reconciled with the fact that any given sale of goods is found to be an independent transaction, determined by the price of the commodity?
  3. How does the doctrine of reciprocal demand between different industries apply to the argument in favor of a diversity of employments in a new country, as laid down by Hamilton in his Report on Manufactures?
  4. Of the economic doctrines generally accepted to-day which would you consider as having originated with Adam Smith?
  5. Discuss the following words of Mr. Carey:—
    “From 1810 to 1815 mills and furnaces were built, but with the return of peace, their owners…were everywhere ruined…From 1828 to 1834, such establishments were again erected, and the metallic treasures of the earth were being everywhere developed; but, as before, the protective system was again abandoned, with ruin to the manufacturers.” (Vol. II, p. 224.)
  6. Explain the relation, in Mr. Carey’s system, between “wealth,” “utility,” “value,” and “capital.” State clearly the “harmony of interests” between labor and capital, and the connection of this with the wages question.
  7. Point out Mr. Carey’s objections to the doctrine of Malthus. How far does his position on this question affect his acceptance of Ricardo’s law of rent?
  8. Discuss the following statement:—
    “If such [a] league be formed on a permanent basis between a considerable number of important commercial countries, even though it does not embrace all countries, the relative value of gold and silver will be kept close to the mint ratio so established.”—A.Walker, Political Economy (p. 408).
  9. Examine this position:—
    “The rent of mines is not governed wholly by the economic law of rent which, as stated, has reference to the native and indestructible powers of the soil….By the very nature of such deposits [i.e. in mines], the enjoyment of mining privileges diminishes the sum of the mineral in existence. The mine may be ‘worked out’ in ten years or in twenty….The rent must be increased sufficiently to compensate for the ultimate exhaustion of the deposits: the destruction of the value of the estate.”
  10. Describe the form in which Germany actually received the payment of the indemnity from France.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1883), pp. 8-9.

______________________________

Course Examinations

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year 1882-83

  1. What is the usual legal conception of property in the increased value of land? How far is this justified?
  2. In the claims of tenants for compensation for unexhausted improvements what weight do you give to the argument of landlords that legislation on this subject would be an interference with freedom of contract?
  3. What was the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1875? What were its results?
  4. Discuss the present length of leases in England, and compare with that of a century ago. Are there any political causes affecting the question?
  5. What is the aim of the Registration of Titles Act of 1875? What is the system of transferring property in England now actually in use?
  6. State some of the effects of the practice of entails on the application of capital to land. Point out how this question has been discussed in its relation to wages.
  7. What change has been going on in the character of English agriculture within the last thirty years? What influences do you attribute to American competition in this matter?
  8. In the depression of English agricultural interests, which class connected with the land seems to have suffered most?
  9. What has been the relation of the agricultural laborer to the land, and how far has it been possible for him to improve his position?
  10. It is said that farmers can use their capital more profitably in farming hired land than in sinking it in the purchase of the soil. What do you think on the advantages to the cultivators of owning the land in England?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Papers Set for Mid-Year Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (February, 1883), pp. 11-12.

 

POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Year-end 1882-1883

  1. State what you believe to be the most important effects of the Repeal of the Corn Laws upon agriculture and the present system of land-holding in England.
  2. It has been asserted that “a peasant population, raising their own wages from the soil, and consuming them in kind, are universally acted upon very feebly by internal checks, or by motives disposing them to restraint. The consequence is, that unless some external cause, quite independent of their will, forces such peasant cultivators to slacken their rate of increase, they will, in a limited territory, very rapidly approach a state of want and penury, and will be stopped at last only by the physical impossibility of procuring subsistence.” What testimony on this question is offered by the experience of France and Germany?
  3. How does absenteeism (1) affect the production of agricultural wealth? (2) Does it modify the laws of distribution?
  4. Give an explanation of the fact that in Ireland custom forces the tenant, not the landlord, to carry out the improvements on the soil. How far does this affect the question of compensation for unexhausted improvements.
  5. To what do you ascribe the “land-hunger” and rack-rents in Ireland? Why have manufactures not aided the agricultural classes, as they have in the north of England?
  6. What were the “Bright clauses” of the Irish Land Act of 1870, and their results? Describe briefly the provisions of the Irish Land Act of 1881.
  7. In view of new legislation in favor of English tenants, it is stated by the journals that to-day the Irish stands on a better legal footing than the English tenant. If this is true, point out the different advantages by the former.
  8. Under the old régime in France it is clear not only that there were many peasant proprietors, but also that agriculture was not flourishing. What other economic forces were at work, and what causes would you assign as the ones unfavorable to agriculture?
  9. What were the facts as to the increase of population (1) under the old régime, and (2) after the extension of small holdings? What light does this throw on the Irish land question?
  10. Discuss the evils supposed to arise from the French law of equal partition of property among the heirs at the death of the owner.
  11. Describe briefly the reforms of Stein and Hardenberg in the land legislation of Germany. What parallel is drawn between this plan and the course followed by France?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 2. Bound volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Papers Set for Final Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1883), pp. 9-10.

Image Source:  Harvard Library, Hollis Images. James Laurence Laughlin (left) and Frank W. Taussig (right).

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Examinations for both political economy courses. Dunbar and Laughlin, 1881-1882

 

Course offerings in economics at Harvard were pretty meager at the start of the 1880s. Two instructors covered two courses in 1881-82. Professor Charles Dunbar was serving his last year as Dean which probably explains why a young Ph.D., J. L. Laughlin (Harvard PhD, 1876), was even needed to share the burden of teaching the large introductory course.

Note: the mid-year examinations appeared to have been missed during my last visit to the Harvard archives, so  I’ll need to try to fill that gap during a future visit.

______________________

Course Announcement

POLITICAL ECONOMY.
ELECTIVE COURSES.

1. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Financial Legislation of the United States.—Lectures. Three times a week. Professor Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin.

Course 1 may be taken twice a week, if notice to that effect is given in advаnсе.

2. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy.—Giffen’s Essays in Finance.—Lectures. Three times a week. Professor Dunbar.

As a preparation for Course 2, it is necessary to have passed satisfactorily in Course 1 (three hours).

Source: Harvard University Catalogue, 1881-82, p. 84.

______________________

Course Enrollments

Political Econ. 1. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.— Lectures on Banking and the Financial Legislation of the United States (3 hours, 2 sections). Prof. Dunbar and Dr. Laughlin.

Total 147: 23 Seniors, 97 Juniors, 17 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 8 Others.

Political Econ. 2. Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy.— Giffen’s Essays in Finance.— Lectures and Theses. (3 hours, 1 section). Prof. Dunbar.

Total 32: 2 Graduates, 21 Seniors 9 Juniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1881-82, p. 5.

______________________

Course Examination

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end 1881-1882

(Omit one question from each group.)

I.

  1. What conclusion is reached by Mr. Mill respecting the objections to the use of labor-saving machinery?
  2. Are railway shares, stocks of wine, wheat, munitions of war, and land considered capital, or not?
  3. Explain fully why it is that capitalists cannot compensate themselves for a general high cost of labor through any action on values and prices.
  4. What determines the rate of interest on loanable funds? Is the “current [or ordinary] rate of interest the measure of the relative abundance or scarcity of capital”?

II.

  1. How is it that some agricultural capital pays rent, even if resort is not had to different grades of land?
  2. What connection exists between the rate of wages in any country and the productiveness of its soil?
  3. Explain what is meant by the tendency of profits to a minimum, and by the stationary state.
  4. In what cases would duties on imported commodities fall on the producers?

III.

  1. What are the reasons for the change in the normal values of manufactured and of agricultural commodities, respectively, during the progress of society?
  2. In trying to explain high prices (as at the present time), point out what other factor than quantity of money is to be taken into account. As a matter of fact, how does the importation of specie enter the channels of trade and affect prices?
  3. Why is it necessary to make any different statements of the laws of value for foreign than for domestic products? What is the law of international value?
  4. In what way are gold and silver distributed among the different trading countries? Between different parts of the same country?

IV.

  1. How did depreciation of the currency facilitate the sale of five-twenty bonds in 1863-64?
  2. What advantage did the government obtain by giving the five-twenty form to so many of its bonds?
  3. What provision was made in the original National Bank Act as to reserves to protect circulation and deposits, and what reserves are now required by law
  4. In what cases can payments be legally made in greenbacks and in national bank-notes respectively?

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1914, Box 2, Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Annual Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1882), pp. 7-8.

______________________

Course Examination

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end 1881-1882

In answering the questions do not change their order.

  1. What is the reason for Adam Smith’s proposition that “the price of corn, in the progress of society, reaches a maximum, beyond which it cannot advance”? Can you work out the same result by a different course of reasoning from that given by Cairnes?
  2. Explain the statement that “the high scale of industrial remuneration in America, instead of being evidence of a high cost of production in that country, is distinctly evidence of a low cost of production.”
  3. If the common saying that “the value of gold is the same all the world over” has no foundation, how does a supply of new gold distribute itself over all countries and over all commodities in each country?
  4. Malthus, Ricardo, Mill, Cairnes:—State their relation to each other in the development of economic science.
  5. How did the payment of the French indemnity to Germany affect the economic condition of Austria and of the United States?
  6. In a speech made in April, 1876, Senator Sherman says that, after the introduction of the gold standard by Germany in 1873 and the limitation of the coinage of silver by the Latin Union,—
    “A struggle for the possession of gold at once arose between all the great nations, because everybody could see that if $3,200,000,000 of silver coin were demonetized, and $3,500,000,000 of gold coin made the sole standard, it would enormously add to the value of gold, and the Bank of France, the Bank of England and the Imperial Bank of Germany at once commenced grasping for gold in whatever form. Therefore, what we have observed recently is not so much a fall of silver as it is a rise of gold, the inevitable effect of a fear of the demonetization of silver.”
    In what form would the process of “grasping for gold” manifest itself, and how do the facts bear out the above statement?
  7. To what extent is it, in the long run, a misfortune for England that her agriculture should be in part superceded by supplies of cheap food poured in from America?
  8. State your views as to the economic significance and probable permanence of the present excess of exports from the United States.
  9. How is the supposed accumulation of capital by England in the period from 1875 to 1881 to be reconciled.
    (1), with the great depression of business for most of the time;
    (2), with the remarkable excess of imports?
  10. Examine the reasoning of the following extract:—
    “About $11,000,000 is now spent in the United States annually for new ships, wooden and iron, and about $2,000,000 more for the repair of old ones….Under a policy of government encouragement, expenditures for iron and wooden ships would be increased at least to $40,000,000 a year….[and] the expenditures for American labor and supplies, in operating the ships, would be increased by $10,000,000 or $15,000,000, perhaps considerably more. That is to say, there would then be expended in the United States an immense sum of money not now expended, which might be as large as $40,000,000, which would diffuse itself throughout the community, and bless and quicken every department of human industry. Best of all, the money, thus spent, would be principally obtained from the foreigner. It would come from the earnings of the ships, which, in the export trade at least, are paid by consumers in foreign lands. In the import trade the money is paid by consumers here and is carried away from the country. The larger part of the money, therefore, would be a pure gain to the United States…These lines would save to the country at least one half of the $50,000,000 of freight money now paid on imported goods, and they would earn at least one half of the large sum paid by foreign nations on the goods exported from this country. Then, they would give encouragement to tens thousands more of American citizens on land and sea.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1914, Box 2, Bound Volume Examination Papers, 1881-83. Annual Examinations in Rhetoric, Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1882), pp. 8-9.

Image Source:  Harvard Library, Hollis Images. Charles F. Dunbar (left) and James Laurence Laughlin (right).

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. Circumstances surrounding William Z. Ripley’s nervous breakdowns, 1927 and 1932

 

Harvard economics professor William Zebina Ripley suffered at least two serious “nervous breakdowns” during his career that are documented by contemporary acounts. To those accounts I have added the 1964 obituary of his companion in the 1927 taxicab accident that led to Ripley’s hospitalization. Grace Sharp Harper appears to have been a very well-known mover-and-shaker in the greater social philanthropic communities of her time. I remain agnostic about whether a romantic liaison was involved and I simply find her biography (as that of Ripley for that matter) quite remarkable and worth keeping in this post. Perhaps someone familiar with journalists’ code-words from the Roaring ‘Twenties can let us know whether there is more to the ill-fated taxicab ride than a pair of VIPs sharing a taxi to an event to network with yet other VIPs.

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Ripley’s First Nervous Breakdown
(1927)

Professor William Z. Ripley of Harvard injured in New York automobile accident. Cuts around the face, slight concussion. His taxicab with Miss Grace Harper of N.Y., “Professor Ripley’s companion”. [see obituary below for Grace Harper]

Source:  The Boston Globe, January 20, 1927, p. 1.

 

“Thrown from a taxicab struck by another automobile, William Z. Ripley, 60, professor of economics at Harvard university, late last night suffered a fractured skull. His companion, Miss Grace Harper, 50, of 109 Waverly pl., suffered from shock. Both were taken to New York hospital. The collision occurred at 5th ave. and 24th st.”

Source:  Daily News (New York City), January 20, 1927, p. 3.

 

“Prof. William Z. Ripley of the Harvard School of Business Administration, is in New York Hospital today with lacerations of the skull sustained in an automobile accident last night. The injuries were not so severe as was at first believed, and his condition was not considered serious, it was said at the hospital. The Harvard professor…was riding in a taxi down Fifth avenue when a rented automobile coming from the opposite direction struck the taxi. Prof. Ripley was thrown against one of the cab’s folding seats with great force. Miss Grace Harper, who was in the taxi with the professor, was cut and bruised, but refused to go to the hospital.”

Source:  The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York) January 20, 1927, p. 2.

 

“Miss Grace Harper, of 109 Waverly pl., Manhattan, who was accompanying him to a social function at the Waldorf-Astoria, Manhattan, was treated for shock.”

Source:  Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), January 20, 1927, p. 33.

 

“Professor Ripley, accompanied by Miss Grace Harper, secretary to the State Commission for the Blind, was on his way to Hotel Waldorf to attend a social function…”

Source:  Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY) January 20, 1927, p. 7.

 

“Professor William Z. Ripley will be unable to resume active teaching of economics at Harvard until next year, it is learned from members of his family. He was injured in an automobile accident more than a year ago and suffered a nervous breakdown. He has been recuperating at a sanitarium in Connecticut. It is expected that Professor Ripley will leave the sanitarium within two months, and will probably take an extended trip through the South and West.”

Source:  New York Times. September 25, 1927, p. 76.

 

“Three years ago he spoke plain words about Wall Street. An automobile crash and a nervous breakdown followed…Now Professor Ripley is preparing to return to his Harvard classes next February.”

Source:  S.T. Williamson, “William Z. Ripley — And Some Others” New York Times (December 29, 1929), p. 134.

 

“The New England Joint Board for Sanitary Control, when it meets today will have as chairman George W. Coleman, who was named for this position after the retirement of Prof William Z. Ripley, who it is said, was forced to give up the position because of illness.”

Source:  The Boston Globe, May 3, 1928, p. 17.

_______________________

Ripley’s Second Nervous Breakdown
(1932)

PROF W. Z. RIPLEY OF HARVARD ILL
Noted Expert on Railroads, Now In Holland, Believed Victim of Overwork—Wife Sails

William Z. Ripley, Nathaniel Ropes professor of political economy at Harvard and famous throughout the country as an outstanding authority on railroads and railway problems, is seriously Ill In Holland. Latest information at Harvard is to the effect that he is confined to his bed, on physician’s orders, for an indefinite period. His wife left Boston only a week or so ago to join her husband in Holland.

The fact that Prof Ripley was ill has been guarded carefully by Harvard authorities, the first hint being contained in an announcement from the lecture platform at the first meeting of the course known as Economics 4, that he would be unable to give any lectures in the course.

Others to Give Course

This course, given for many years as a half course by Prof Ripley, is on the subject of corporations, a field in which he has done much of his work. This year the course has been united with a half course on railroads to form a full course under the title „Monopolistic Industries and Their Control.“ When the course was mapped out at the end of last year, it had been planned for Prof Ripley to devote considerable time to lecturing, but now the work will be performed entirely by Profs Edward S. Mason and Edward H. Chamberlin.

Prof Ripley went abroad at the end of the academic year last Summer. He was to have returned this Fall, but during his travels, he became gravely ill. Some years ago, he suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of an accident in a New York taxicab. His present condition is attributed largely to overwork.

During the last half of the academic year, 1931-32, Prof Ripley left Cambridge almost every week and sometimes twice a week to make trips to New York, Washington, and Chicago to confer with business leaders and Governmental authorities. Much of his attention was devoted to pending plans for trunk line consolidations. He acted special examiner on proposed railroad consolidations for the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1921.

Work Hailed by Coolidge

Always a practical economist, and conspicuous among the faculty in economics at Harvard for his disdain of economic theorizing. Prof Ripley’s most celebrated work of recent years was “Main Street and Wall Street,” published in 1929, during the height if the speculative boom. This work, exposing the methods of corporations, created a sensation throughout the country. Before the work was published in book form, parts of it appeared in magazines, and at that time Calvin Coolidge urged every American to read them.

One of the most interesting comments on Prof Ripley’s career is the fact that he began his studies as an anthropologist. His degrees include those of SB, PhD, LittD and LLD. As an undergraduate he was a student of science, and later published a book, “The Races and Cultures of Europe,” which is still recognized as a leading textbook in anthropology. Later he became interested in railroads and turned his efforts from anthropology to economics. He is one the “old guard” in the Harvard Department of Economics, ranking with the men who made Harvard famous for economic studies, such as Prof F. W. Taussig, Thomas N. Carver and Edwin F. Gay.

Prof Ripley’s home is in Newton.

Source: The Boston Globe, October 4, 1932, pp. 1,3.

 

PROF RIPLEY RESIGNS CHAIR AT HARVARD
Noted Authority on Finance, Railroads

William Zebina Ripley, Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy at Harvard, known as well for his scourging of Wall Street stock jobbers as for his work as a Government expert in labor and railroads, has resigned his professorship at Harvard to become professor emeritus. The resignation of Prof Ripley, who has been seriously ill in Holland since last Summer, will take effect on March 1, 1933. He is beyond the retiring age at Harvard, being more than 65 years old.

Prof Ripley’s best-known book is “Main Street and Wall Street,” an expose of corporation finance as practiced in the United States, published in 1927. While various chapters of the book were appearing in current magazines the then President Coolidge advised every American to read them. Other volumes by Prof Ripley include “The Financial History of Virginia,” 1890; “The Races of Europe,” 1900 [Supplement: A Selected Bibliography of the Anthropology and Ethnology of Europe, 1899]; “Trusts, Pools and Corporations,” 1905; “Railway Problems,” 1907; “Railroads—Rates and Regulation,” 1912; “Railroads—Finance and Organization,” 1914. The book, “Races of Europe,” is still a standard text in anthropology, a field in which Prof Ripley spent his early study before turning to economics.

Expert in Many Fields

Prof Ripley is known as an expert in many fields, ranging from anthropology to transportation. Besides his books in these fields he has served on several national boards and commissions. In 1918 he was administrator of labor standards for the War Department, and the following two years he was chairman of the National Adjustment Commission Of the United States Shipping Board. In 1916 he was the expert appointed to President Wilson’s Eight-Hour Commission, spending months under actual working conditions gathering material for his report.

From 1920 to 1923 he served with the Interstate Commerce Commission, acting in 1921 as special examiner on the consolidation of railroads in the United States. In 1917 he became a director of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad and served on that board for a number of years.

His illness was caused by an accident in a taxicab in New York some three years ago, after which he suffered a nervous breakdown. He became ill again this Summer and has been recuperating in Holland since. A tall man, with white hair and a distinguished white beard, he was a well-known figure in the Harvard Yard during his teaching days there.

At Harvard Since 1901

Prof Ripley was born in Medford in 1890 he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He obtained his master’s degree at Columbia University in 1892, and his doctor’s degree at the same institution in the following year. In 1895, he returned to M.I.T., serving as professor of economics of six years and, during the same period, he was also lecturer on sociology at Columbia. Since 1901, he has been a member of the teaching staff at Harvard University. In 1902 he was appointed professor political economy. Since 1911, he has been Nathaniel Ropes professor political economy. In 1898, and again in 1900 and 1901, Prof Ripley served as vice president of the American Economics Association and in December of 1932 he was elected president of the association.

Source: The Boston Globe, February 10, 1933, p. 5.

Image Source: William Z. Ripley, Harvard Class Album, 1934.

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Grace Sharp Harper, 82, Dead: Led State Commission for Blind
NY Times obituary, September 27, 1964

Miss Grace Sharp Harper of 220 East 73d Street, who retired in 1951 as director of the Commission for the Blind of the State Department of Social Work, died yesterday at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Her age was 82.

Since her retirement Miss Harper had continued with the commission as a member of its medical advisory committee. A much-decorated heroine of World War I, in which she served in France with the American Red Cross, she also held several civilian awards for her work for the blind.

Miss Harper began her career as a staff assistant of the Boston Children’s Aid Society. Later she was executive secretary of the Massachusetts Infant Asylum and of the Kings Chapel Committee for the Handicapped of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Appointed director of the hospital’s medical special service department, she lectured on case work education at Harvard University and then came to this city to conduct a course in social case work at Teachers College, Columbia University.

She volunteered for overseas duty in the war, and was named chief of American Red Cross rehabilitation for French, Belgian and other disable soldiers. Later Miss Harper was chief of the Red Cross bureau for the re-education of mutilated soldiers. She returned home as a member of the Inter-Allied Commission on War Cripples, wearing three gold stars awarded to her by various foreign governments.

Miss Harper became executive secretary of the Commission for the Blind in 1919, and was made an assistant commissioner of the division during the 1930’s. She was named director not long thereafter.

Miss Harper held the Migel Award of the American Foundation for the Bind and the Leslie Dana Award of the St. Louis Society for the Blind.

Source: New York Times, Feb. 27, 1964, p. 31.

 

From Grace Sharp Harper’s Passport Application
July 5, 1918

From Grace Sharp Harper’s Passport Application
November 16, 1922

Born at Chicago, Illinois on May 12, 1881.

 

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Labor economics courses taught by Charles E. Persons, 1928-1929

In the previous post we met the Harvard Ph.D. alum (1913) Charles E. Persons whose career transitioned from the life of an academic economist to that of a labor policy activist/government official right after he covered labor economics courses for William Z. Ripley who was on leave due to health reasons (more to report on Ripley, but later). This post puts together the materials (enrollment statistics, reading period assignments and two course exams) I could find for the courses taught by Persons during his three semesters teaching at Harvard during the spring term 1928 and the full academic year 1928-29.

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Courses taught by Charles E. Persons at Harvard

Enrollment, Economics 6a2
Spring Term, 1928

[Economics] 6a 2hf. Professor Charles E. Persons (Boston University), assisted by Mr. Joslyn.—Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.

Total 31: 15 Seniors, 14 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1927-1928, p. 74.

 

Course Assignment for Reading Period
Economics 6a2
Spring 1928

Economics 6b [sic, should be is “6a”] [Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.]

Select one of the following groups.

  1. Historical
    1. Webb, S. & B.: History of Trade Unionism, Chs. I, II, III, IV and VII.
    2. Perlman, S.: History of Trade Unionism in the United States.
  2. Trade Union Function.
    1. Webb, S. & B.: Industrial Democracy, Pt. II, pp. 145-599.
  3. Employer’s Programs.
    1. Hoxie, R. F.: Scientific Management and Labor, pp. 1-140.
    2. Burritt, A. W., et al.: Profit Sharing; the Principles and Practice. New Edition, 1926).
  4. Government Control.
    1. Selekman, B.: Postponing Strikes.
    2. Wolf, H. D.: The Railroad Labor Board.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1927-1928”.

 

1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 6a2
[Final Examination, Spring 1928]

Group I
Answer one. Forty minutes to one hour.

  1. When and under what circumstances were the first unions formed? Sketch the development of labor organizations before 1850. What special conditions did they meet in the United States?
  2. What, according to the Webbs, are the methods used by trade unions in actual operation? Discuss the Standard Rate and more briefly other trade union policies, stating your own conclusions.
  3. What are the special methods of scientific management in dealing with labor? How are wages determined? Are Trade Unionism and Scientific Management necessarily incompatible?
    State the general features of Profit-sharing plans as applied in the United States. Contrast this plan with that applied in Scientific Management plants.
  4. Contrast the methods of strike control applied by the United States Railroad Labor Board and The Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act. Were these plans successful in operation? What features of either act do you think worthy of adoption in the United States?

Group II
Answer ALL questions; follow the order given.

  1. Describe the organization of the present union groups in the United States.
  2. A western state enacts a law providing:
    1. Children under 18 years of age shall not work more than seven hours a day, nor forty hours a week. These hours must be included between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
    2. Females over 18 years of age shall not be employed more than eight hours a day and forty hours a week. These hours must be included between 7 a.m. and 5 p. m.
    3. Males over 18 years of age shall not be employed over eight hours a day nor forty-four hours a week.

The act is attacked as unconstitutional. State the probably line of attack and defense. What do you think the present supreme court would decide on each of the three articles?

  1. To what extent can unemployment be prevented? Which of the methods proposed for the prevention of unemployment seem to you most practical and effective? Outline and justify a program for dealing with such unemployment as is not preventable.
  2. In 1923 the receiver of a certain railroad petitioned the Railroad Labor Board for authority to reduce wages below those paid by the railroads generally under rulings by the Board. It was shown that the railroad was not earning enough to cover operating expenses, that the stock and bond holders had received no return for several years, “that the necessity of a discontinuance of operations had been greatly threatened for some time,” and that “such shutdown of the carrier would be disastrous for the 31 counties of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas through which its lines ran.” The workers decline to accept any reduction in pay and show that their incomes do not suffice to cover the cost of a living wage on a health and comfort standard. As a member of the railroad board render decision on this issue.
  3. (a) Suppose all workers were persuaded to join unions giving us a complete system of closed shops. What would be the effect on wages and social conditions generally?
    (b) Suppose the Open Shop drive should be completely successful and trade unionism reduced to local and partial organization. What results would follow?
  4. In what respects does a shop committee afford less adequate protection to the workers than does a trade union? What, if any, useful functions may a shop committee perform which are not now performed by trade unions?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers Finals 1928 (HUC 7000.28, Vol. 70). Papers Printed for Final Examinations [in] History, Church History, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, June, 1928.

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Enrollment, Economics 6a1
Fall Term, 1928

[Economics] 6a 1hf. Dr. C. E. Persons.—Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.

Total 50: 1 Graduate, 22 Seniors, 21 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 3 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1928-1929, p. 72.

 

Course Assignment for Reading Period
Economics 6a1
Fall Term, 1928

Economics 6a [Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.]

Select one of the following groups.

  1. Webb, S. & B.: History of Trade Unionism, Chs. I-IV incl., Chs. VII, VIII.
  2. Commons, John R. and Associates: History of Labour in the United States, Vol. II, pp. 3-194, 301-430, 521-541.
  3. Webb, S. & B.: Industrial Democracy, Pt. II, pp. 152-221, 279-353, 393-558.
  4. Hoxie, R. F.: Scientific Management and Labor, pp. 1-140.
    Burritt, A. W., et al.: Profit Sharing, Chs. I-VII incl. XI, XII, XIII, XVII. (1926 edition).
  5. Selekman, B.: Postponing Strikes. (Canadian Industrial Disputes Act.)
  6. Wolf, H. D.: The Railroad Labor Board, Pts. II, III.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1928-1929”.

1928-29
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 6a1
[Final Examination, Fall 1928-29]

Group I
Answer one. Forty minutes to one hour.

  1. Write brief essays on two of the following subjects:
    1. The origin of trade unionism in Great Britain.
    2. Trade Unionism under the Combination Laws.
    3. The “New Model” and its importance in trade union history.
  2. Write a summary history of the development of national trade unions in the United States. This should include the formation and development of the American Federation of Labor.
  3. Discuss the method of Collective Bargaining as practiced by the trade unions of Great Britain. Follow the exposition of the Webbs but do not fail to state your own conclusions.
    On what grounds have trade unions based their claims of a “right to a trade”? Discuss the attempts of the unions to settle demarcation disputes and the solution offered by the Webbs for dealing with this problem.
  4. (a) State definitely how scientific management proposes to handle questions which concern wage earners. Are these proposals necessarily incompatible with trade unions? What is to be said by way of critical comment of the following quotation: “(Scientific management) substitutes exact knowledge for guess work and seeks to establish a code of natural laws equally binding upon employer and workman.”
    (b) What are the essential features of profit sharing plans? What is, and what should be, the attitude of trade unions toward such proposals? How large is the promise of such plans regarded as aids in solving the labor problem?
  5. State, with some precision, the provisions of the Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act. In what respect has the administration of the act departed from the intent of the authors? What is to be said of its success or failure? Its constitutionality? And its standing in the opinions of the wage earners, employers and the general public?
  6. State the important features of the law establishing the Railroad Labor Board, and of the act of 1926 which superseded it.
    Briefly summarize the work of the Railroad Labor Board, pointing out its successes and failure. What conclusions do you draw from this experience with governmental control of labor conditions.

Group II
Answer all questions: follow the order given

  1. Contrast the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor. Include in your answer a clear statement of: plans of organization; program for the attainment of results; governing philosophy; and effectiveness as agencies to advance the interest of wage earners.
  2. A strike was declared against the Mills restaurants in Arizona by the Amalgamated Cooks and Waiters Unions. The strikers maintained pickets who appealed to cooks and waiters not to accept employment or to leave it if employed, and to customers not to patronize the restaurants. The pickets allege that the proprietors are “unfair to organized labor,” that hours are excessive and wages below the living standard. They picket in groups of six and employ vigorous, but generally peaceful, persuasion. There are minor cases of coercion and intimidation. The state has enacted laws declaring picketing legitimate and denying to the state courts the power to issue writs of injunction in labor disputes. The employers enter suits for damages against the union and attack the constitutionality of the law in both state and federal courts.
    Discuss these issues from the standpoint of legality, governmental policy and the legitimate exercise of trade union functions.
  3. Discuss the use of writs of injunction in labor disputes. Why has the employment of such writs become increasingly common and why have the trade unions vigorously opposed their use? What issues were involved in the Buck’s Stove case? The Bedford Stone decision?
  4. Does the introduction of machinery, e.g., the linotype machine or the automatic glass bottle machine benefit or injure: the wage earner, the capitalist and the consuming public? Answer both as to the immediate and the “long run” effect, and analyze the long run process of adjustment.
  5. A certain national building trade’s union established the following rules:
    1. Apprenticeship shall not begin before the age of 16 years and shall be four years long. The ratio of apprentices shall be: “one to each shop irrespective of the number of journeymen employed, and one to every five members thereafter.”
    2. A generally understood standard for a day’s work is in effect, which union members are expected not to exceed. This is based upon the average output of the union members when working without restriction.
    3. The introduction of new machines and processes is not opposed. However, the union insists that its members be given preference on the new machines, and that full union wages be paid. The industry pays to journeymen a straight time wage of 85 cents per hour; runs open shop though the great majority of the workers are union men and has been largely reorganized because of the invention and introduction of labor saving machinery.
      * *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * * *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
      Discuss these union practices from the standpoint of industrial efficiency and social welfare. If in your opinion some of them are unsound or unreasonable, what steps would you recommend with a view of having them modified?
  6. Discuss the general subject of compulsory arbitration. Has it been successful in operation? Does it eliminate strikes? Strengthen or weaken trade unionism? Mean an increase or decrease in governmental control of industry? To what extent would you think it desirable that such a policy be adopted by our federal and state governments?
  7. What conclusion do you draw from your study of trade unionism? Is the movement worthy of support on its past record? Would you suggest modification of its plans or purposes? Do alternative plans such as company unionism seem to you of greater promise?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943 (HUC 7000.55). Box 11: Examination Papers Mid-Years 1929. Papers Printed for Mid-Year Examinations [in] History, New Testament, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, January-February, 1929.

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Enrollment, Economics 6a2
Spring Term, 1929

[Economics] 6a 2hf. Dr. C. E. Persons.—Labor Legislation and Social Insurance.

Total 13: 4 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1928-1929, p. 72.

 

Course Assignment for Reading Period
Economics 6b2
Spring Term, 1929

Economics 6b [Labor Legislation and Social Insurance.]

Select one of the following groups.

  1. Minimum Wage.

A. F. Lucas, The Legal Minimum Wage in Massachusetts. [The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1927, Supplement]
—and either—
D. Self, The British Trade Board System.
—or—
M.B. Hammond, Wage Boards in Australia, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 29: pp. 98, 326, 563.

  1. Health Insurance.

Illinois Health Insurance Commission Report, pp. 1-168.
I.M. Rubinow, Standards of Health Insurance.

  1. Unemployment.

J. L. Cohen, Insurance Against Unemployment, pp. 159-332, 430, 494.
—and either—
W.H. Beveridge Unemployment a Problem of Industry, Chs. V, VIII, IX, XI.
—or—
H. Feldman, Regulation of Industry, Chs. V, VI, VIII, XIII, XIV, XVI.

  1. Old Age Provision.

1925 Report of the Massachusetts Commission on Pensions.
L. Conant, A Critical Analysis of Industrial Pension Plans, Chs. I, II, VII, VIII, IX, X.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1928-1929”.

________________________

Enrollment, Economics 342
Spring Term, 1929

[Economics] 34 2hf. Dr. C. E. Persons.—Problems of Labor.

Total 5: 1 Graduate, 3 Seniors, 1 Radcliffe.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1928-1929, p. 72.

 

Course Assignment for Reading Period
Economics 342
Spring Term, 1929

Economics 34. [Problems of Labor.]

Individual reading assignments.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1928-1929”.

 

Image Source:  Sever Hall, Harvard University, ca. 1904. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Categories
Economists Harvard Northwestern Socialism Sociology Wellesley

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, later NLRB judge. Charles E. Persons, 1913

 

The 1913 Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus we meet today managed to cross at least one Dean and later one of his bosses in a government job (see below). Indeed his argumentative nature gets noted in Richard J. Linton’s History of the NLRB Judges Division with Special Emphasis on the Early Years (August 1, 2004), p. 10:

As Chief Judge Bokat describes in his March 1969 oral history interview … some of the judges did not sit silently at such conferences. He reports that Judge Charles Persons was one who would argue vociferously with, particularly, Member Leiserson. …Judge Bokat tells us that there would be Judge Persons, who was not a lawyer (and neither was Member Leiserson), debating legal issues with Leiserson in the presence of several who were lawyers.

 

In case you are wondering: Charles Edward Persons does not appear to be closely related (if at all) to his contemporary, Warren Persons, an economics professor at Harvard at the time.

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Charles Edward Persons
Vital Records

Born: July 17, 1878 in Brandon, Iowa.

Spouse: Margaret Murday (1888-1956)

Son: William Burnett Persons (1918-1992)

Daughter: Jean Murday Persons (1922-1994)

Died: April 1, 1962

Buried: Arlington National Cemetery

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Academic and Public/Government Career Timeline

1903. A.B. Cornell College, Iowa.

1905. A.M. Harvard University.

1907-08. Wellesley. Instructor in Economics.

Industrial History of the United States. (One division, three hours a week; one year) 9 students enrolled: 4 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

1908-09. Wellesley. Instructor in Economics.

Industrial History of the United States. (One division, three hours a week; one year) 5 students enrolled: 3 Seniors, 2 Juniors.
Industrial History of England. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 18 students enrolled: 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 6 Sophomore.
Socialism. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 14 students enrolled: 5 Seniors, 9 Juniors.
Labor Movement in the Nineteenth Century. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 16 students enrolled: 7 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 6 Sophomores.
Selected Industries. (One division, one hour a week; one year) 52 students enrolled: 2 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 38 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen.
Municipal Socialism. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 7 students enrolled: 2 Seniors, 5 Juniors.

1909-10. Princeton. Preceptor in History, Politics and Economics.

1910-11. Northwestern. Instructor of Economics.

1913. Ph.D. (Economics). Harvard University.

Thesis title: Factory legislation in Massachusetts: from 1825 to the passage of the ten-hour law in 1874. Pub. in “Labor laws and their enforcement,” New York, Longmans, 1911, pp. 1-129.

1913-16. Washington University, St. Louis. Assistant/Associate Professor of Sociology.

Principles of Economics, Elements of Sociology, Labor and Labor Problems, Population Problems, Social Reform, Sociology Seminar.

1917-20. U.S. Army.

Persons, Charles Edward, A.M. ’05; Ph.D. ’13. Entered Officers’ Training Camp, Fort Riley, Kans., May 1917; commissioned 1st lieutenant Infantry August 15; assigned to 164th Depot Brigade, Camp Funston, Kans.; transferred to Company K, 805th Pioneer Infantry, August 1918; sailed for France September 2; returned to United States June 27, 1919; ill in hospital; discharged January 31, 1920. Engagement: Meuse-Argonne offensive.   Source: Harvard’s Military Record in the World War, p. 751.

1920-26. Professor and Head of Economics, College of Business Administration, Boston University. Boston, Mass.

Persons refused to support a student volunteer (Beanpot) candy sale project in 1922 pushed by the Dean to fund a Business College War Memorial. Persons believed “that the quality of the candy to be sold had been misrepresented, and also … that a disproportionate share of the profits would go to one or more persons teaching in the College of Business Administration and actively concerned in the management of the sale.”

Sabbatical year 1927-28.  (June 16, 1927) informed by Dean it would be inadvisable for him to return after his sabbatical year. He fought the Dean and the Dean won…

Source: Academic Freedom and Tenure, Committee A. Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, Vol. 15, No. 4 (April 1929), pp. 270-276.

 

1927-28. Harvard. Lecturer.

Economics 6a 2hf. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.

1928-29. Harvard. Lecturer.

Economics 6a 1hf. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.
Economics 6b 2hf. Labor Legislation and Social Insurance.
Economics 34 2hf. Problems of Labor.

ECONOMICS PROFESSOR IS GIVEN FEDERAL POSITION
C.E. Persons Appointed Expert on Economics of Unemployment

Professor Charles E. Persons, for the past year lecturer in the Department of Economics here has been appointed Expert on the Economics of Unemployment in the Federal Bureau of the Census. He will take up his new duties immediately.

At Harvard Professor Persons gave courses in Trade Unionism and Labor Legislation. In his previous career, aside from service in the United States Army during the war, he has been a member of the faculties of Wellesley College and of Princeton, Northwestern and Washington Universities. At the Bureau of the Census Professor Persons will have general supervision of the census of unemployment and of special studies subsidiary thereto.

Source: The Harvard Crimson, November 15, 1929

 

Row Over Census Of Jobless In U. S. Bureau Is Revealed
Dispute Led Up To Resignation Of Professor Persons, Expert Economist—June 26 Statement Believed Not To Give True Insight Into Situation

The Baltimore Sun, July 9, 1930, p. 2.

Washington, July 8. The census of unemployment, started in the belief it would throw light on a distressing public problem, threatens to involve the Hoover Administration in another controversy.

The question is being asked in many quarters as to whether the unemployment census is to be a real statistical investigation designed to bring out every possible fact or merely a routine enumeration, the result of which are to be used a far as possible to bolster up business confidence.

Two developments have brought this issue to the front. One is the disclosure that an expert economist employed last November to direct the unemployment census has resigned after prolonged disagreement with officials of the Census Bureau. The other is the preliminary unemployment count released through the Department of Commerce on June 26. Careful analysis of this statement has convinced more than one observer that it tells only a part of what it purports to tell.

Expert Economist Resigned

The resignation of the expert economist, Prof. Charles E. Persons, formerly of Boston University and more recently of Harvard University, occurred in May, but the controversy which led up to the resignation is only now coming to light.

The details of the row remain to be disclosed. The Census Bureau declines to say anything about the matter, except that Professor Persons resigned and that his resignation was not requested. Professor Persons likewise refuses to discuss the incident.

It is known, however, that prolonged friction preceded the decision of Professor Persons to quit and the impression grows that the economist was not allowed a free hand to pursue such statistical inquiries as he believed to be necessary.

Covered Only One Phase

Although the census statement on unemployment of June 26 was issued more than a month after Professor Persons left the service, an analysis of that statement throw an interesting light on the uses to which the results of the enumeration of jobless are being put.

The unemployment census includes two schedules, one in which persons capable of work but having no jobs are listed, and another which include persons having jobs but laid off as a result of business depression or for other causes.

The statement of June 26 covers only the first schedule. It finds there were 574,647 jobless persons among 20,264,480 persons enumerated. But it takes no account of the large number of persons actually idle, though technically in possession of jobs, for the reason the statement does not, in the opinion of not a few who have studied the subject, give an accurate picture of the unemployment situation.

Information Only Partial

Its finding that only two per cent of the enumerated population are unemployed is regarded as affording no true insight into the actual extent to which men and women are out of work, and there is a disposition in some quarters to criticize the issuance of such partial information. This disposition is underlined by the fact that the figures, as disclosed, fit in with the general policy of optimism on which the Administration has embarked.

The Census Bureau, in its statement, alluded to the partiality of its figures. It says that no records from the second schedule are yet available but there is no mention of this fact in Secretary Lamont’s rosy statement that the preliminary figures “applied to the whole population show much less unemployment than was generally estimated.”

Would Not Justify Optimism

Outside the Census Bureau it is believed that had the enumeration included both schedules in the unemployment census the result would have been much different and much less useful in supporting the optimism with which the Administration approaches this subject.

There is also a disposition in unofficial quarters to question the Census Bureau’s decision to base the percentage of unemployment on population.

It is pointed out that only about one in five of the total population is actually employed as a wage earner, and that a true percentage of unemployment would be based on the number of persons capable of work and not on the total population. On the basis of working population, the percentage of unemployment as found by the Census Bureau’s own figures would be ten percent, instead of two.

 

After Persons’ Census Resignation

HAVERHILL—Charles E. Persons, former director of federal census on unemployment at Washington, was appointed district manager of Haverhill Shoeworkers’ Protective Union.

Source: The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), December 6, 1930, p. 20.

 

HAVERHILL, Aug 9—Charles E. Persons, N.R.A. labor advisor, visited this city yesterday in a two days’ survey of shoe centers of Massachusetts preparatory to hearings which will be held shortly in Washington on the proposed code for the shoe industry…

Source: The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), August 9, 1933, p. 15.

 

Charles E. Persons was identified as assistant to F. E. Berquist, chairman of the research and planning division of the national NRA headquarters.

Source:  The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana), September 18, 1934, p. 3.

 

Last-stage.

1937-1949. (Date entered on duty: June 1, 1937) National Labor Relations Board Judge (trial-examiner).

Likely final case as trial examiner found in September 29, 1949 Olin Industries, Inc. (Winchester Repeating Arms Co Division). [Commerce Clearing House, Chicago. National Labor Relations Board—Decisions].

Source: See, Richard J. Linton, Administrative Law Judge (Retired), National Labor Relations Board. A History of the NLRB Judges Division with Special Emphasis on the Early Years (August 1, 2004).

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Chronological List of Publications
[with affiliations at the time of publication]

Chapter 1 “The Early History of Factory Legislation in Massachusetts” in Persons, C. E., Parton, Mabel, and Moses, Mabelle. Labor Laws and Their Enforcement with Special Reference to Massachusetts. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1911.

[Charles E. Persons, formerly Henry Bromfield Rogers Memorial Fellow, Harvard University, Instructor in Economics, Northwestern University.]

 

Marginal Utility and Marginal Disutility as Ultimate Standards of Value, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 27, No. 4 (August 1913), pp. 547-578.

[by Charles E. Persons, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]

 

Women’s Work and Wages in the United States, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 29, No. 2 (February 1915), pp. 201-234.

[by C. E. Persons, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]

 

Estimates of a Living Wage for Female Workers, Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 14, No. 110 (June 1915), pp. 567-577.

[by Charles E. Persons, Associate Director of the School for Social Economy, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]

 

Teaching the Introductory Course in Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 31, No. 1 (November 1916), pp. 86-107.

[by Charles E. Persons, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]

 

Review of Outlines of Economics by Richard T. Ely et. al. The American Economic Review, Vol. 7, No. 1 (March 1917), pp. 98-103.

[by Charles E. Persons, Washington University.]

 

A Balanced Industrial System—Discussion [of Professor Carver], The American Economic Review, Vol. 10, No. 1, Supplement, Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (March 1920), pp. 86-88.

[by Charles E. Persons, Columbus, Ohio.]

 

Recent Textbooks, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 34, No. 4 (August 1920), pp. 737-756.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]

 

Review of Elementary Economics by Thomas Nixon Carver. The American Economic Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 1921), pp. 274-277

 

Review of Principles of Economics by F.M. Taylor. The American Economic Review, Vol. 12, No. 1 (March 1922), pp. 109-111.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]

 

Review of Principles of Economics by Frank W. Taussig, Vol. II (3rd ed. revised). The American Economic Review, Vol. 12, No. 3 (September 1922), pp. 474-475

[by C. E. Persons, Boston University.]

 

“The Course in Elementary Economics”: Comment, The American Economic Review, Vol. 13, No. 2 (June 1923), pp. 249-251.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]

 

Review of Practical Economics by Henry P. Shearman, The American Economic Review, Vol. 13, No. 3 (September 1923), pp. 471-472.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]

 

Labor Problems as Treated by American Economists, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 41, No. 3 (May 1927), pp. 487-519.

[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University.]

 

Unemployment as a Census Problem, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 25, No. 169, [Supplement: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association] (March 1930), pp. 117-120.

[by Charles E. Persons]

 

Credit Expansion, 1920 to 1929, and its Lessons, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 45, No. 1 (November 1930), pp. 94-130.

[by Charles E. Persons, Washington, D.C.]

 

Census Reports on Unemployment in April, 1930, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 154, The Insecurity of Industry (March 1931), pp. 12-16.

[by Charles E. Persons, Ph.D. District Manager, Show Workers’ Protective Union, Haverhill, Massachusetts]

 

Review of Labor and Other Essays by Henry R. Seager. Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 41, No. 1 (February 1933), pp. 121-123.

[by Charles E. Persons, Economic Research Bureau, Wellesley, Mass.]

 

Calculation of Relief Expenditures, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 28, No. 181, Supplement: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association (March 1933), pp. 68-74.

[by Charles E. Persons, Bureau of Economic Research, Haverhill, Mass.]

Image Source: Application for U.S. Passport 17 May 1915 to go to England for “scientific study”