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Exam Questions Harvard Statistics

Harvard. Undergraduate Introduction to Economic Statistics. Final Exam, 1939

 

The exam questions seen below, even making an allowance for coming from an undergraduate course (nonetheless 13 of the 87 students were graduate students), indicate that the statistical training of economists at Harvard was a fairly low-grade affair even by the late 1930s, only a mechanical manipulation of different measures of central tendency and dispersion with a dash of trend-fitting and seasonal adjustment for good taste.

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Course Listing

Economics 21a 1hf. Introduction to Economic Statistics

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Associate Professor Frickey.

 

Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1938-39. (Second edition). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXV, No. 42 (September 23, 1938), p. 147.

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Course Enrollment

 

Economics 21a 1hf. Associate Professor Frickey.—Introduction to Economic Statistics

Total 87: 13 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen, 3 Others.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of the Departments, 1938-39, p. 98.

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1938-39
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 21a1

Part I

(One hour and thirty minutes.)
Answer any THREE questions.

    1. You are faced with the problem of computing an index of physical production of agricultural products for the years 1910 through 1935.
      1. What significant differences would you expect to find between the results of indexes computed as the weighted geometric mean of relatives and as the weighted arithmetic mean of relatives? Which average would you choose, and why?
      2. What difference would you expect to find among indexes computed respectively on the bases 1910, 1926, and 1935? Would you choose one of these three base periods, or some other base period?
      3. What sort of system of weights would you employ? Why?
    2. During a given interval in 1936, the wages paid to individual laborers in two New England cloth mills were recorded. A frequency table of wages paid was drawn up for each mill, and from the frequency tables, the following characteristics were computed.
Mean Wage Median Wage Standard Deviation of Individual Wages
Company A $25 $25 8.367
Company B $25 $16 23.875
    1. Inferring from the above data, describe the general nature of the frequency distribution of wages for each firm, and compare the wage conditions in the two firms.
    2. What “typical average” would you choose for the distribution of Company A? For that of Company B?
  1. The monthly ordinates of trend found by fitting a linear or curvilinear trend line to a time series of price data would be held by some to represent “long-run normal prices”—that is, the values which the price data would have assumed in the absence of short run cyclical disturbances. Others would maintain that these same trend ordinates are merely the outcome of the particular trend—fitting procedures applied by the statisticians, and therefore reflect only his arbitrary definition of what constitutes “trend” and what constitutes “cycle” in the price series. Evaluate the relative merits of these two points of view toward statistical trend lines, and state your own viewpoint.
  2. In an investigation conducted to ascertain the correlation existing between the value of the assets of firms and the amount of their annual net earnings, the following results were among those obtained. For the specialty store field, the line of regression of annual earnings on asset values gave a “standard error of estimate” of $1000. For the service station field, a similar line of regression of annual earnings on asset values showed a “standard error of estimate” of $500.
    Can we conclude from this that the correlation between earnings and assets is twice as great for service stations as for specialty stores? Why or why not? What additional data would you require in order to ascertain the actual correlation in each case and thereby clinch your argument?

 

PART II

(One hour and thirty minutes.)
Answer question 1, and either 2 or 3.

    1. (Approximately one hour.) The following is a segment of a time series for which certain statistical values have already been computed.
1st quarter 2nd quarter 3rd quarter 4th quarter
1924 21 27 34 40
1925 32 36 28 30
1926 35 37 31 35
1927 36 41 35 39

The central ordinate of trend (a), and the annual increment of trend (b), based on annual averages of quarterly data for a longer period, have been found to be as follows: a = 35; b = 4. The center of the trend period for which these quantities were computed falls at the middle of the year 1924.
The median link relatives, showing typical quarter to quarter change for a longer period, have been found to be:

1st q ÷ 4th q = 110
2nd q ÷ 1st q = 105
3rd q ÷ 2nd q = 85
4th q ÷ 3rd q = 112

Given the preceding data, compute for the period 1924 through 1927 the following:

    1. The quarterly ordinates of trend
    2. The relatives of actual items to the trend.
    3. The seasonally adjusted relatives to trend, to the base 100. (This last step will require also the computation of a seasonal index by the Persons method.)
  1. For the following frequency series, compute the quartile deviation, the coefficient of variation, and determine a good empirical mode. (Show your computations, but do not compute any square roots.)
Wages (dollars per week) No. of Men
0—5 22
5—10 29
10—15 18
15—20 12
20—25 9
25—30 5
30—35 3
35—40 2

 

  1. (a) From the data below compute a price index for 1933 on 1932 as a base, using the Fisher formula.
Commodity Unit Price per unit Physical quantity
1932 1933 1932 1933
A bu. $0.50 $0.60 60 50
B lb. $3.00 $3.30 22 20
C bu. $0.30 $0.24 240 200

(b) If the Fisher formula price index for 1934 on 1933 as a base is 110, and for 1935 on 1934 as a base is 90, construct from the index which you have computed and from the results just given an index for the four years 1932-1935 by which each year is related to a common base.

 

Mid-Year. 1939.

 

Source: Duke University, David M. Rubenstein Library. Lloyd Appleton Metzler Papers, Box 9, Folder “Dust Proof File”.

Image Source: Harvard Album 1947.

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Columbia Economists Harvard

Harvard and Columbia. The Role of University Presidents in the US. Economist, 1909.

 

 

Today’s post provides a glimpse of the major American universities as seen by the eyes of an Englishman (presumably F. W. H. was both English and a man). While the article highlights the role played by the university presidents, there are other differences noted, e.g. “all-pervading atmosphere of work” observed in the Harvard Law School and the “much greater popularity of politics and political economy”.

For fun I have appended the short-story referred to in the Economist article: “What the College Incubator Did for One Modest Lambkin.” It provides some nice examples of early 20th century American vernacular. Does anyone out there know what the “Harvard walk” looks like?

 

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AMERICAN IMPRESSIONS.—THE UNIVERSITIES AND THEIR PRESIDENTS.

            Although my primary object in visiting America was to get some insight into the commercial and financial system, and to inform myself about the prevalent notions of commercial policy and monetary reform, it was desirable and even indispensable for the objects I had in view to see as much as possible of University men. If the average American university is less powerful than either Oxford or Cambridge as a medium for colouring society, it is perhaps for that reason a stronger element in the national life. The rather exclusive caste with its innumerable degrees that files out of Oxford and Cambridge is but faintly reproduced in the American system by Harvard and Yale, whose mannerisms are sometimes imitated by the youthful universities of the West, and often caricatured by the American humorist. No one who has read it could easily forget George Ade’s description of the grey-haired agriculturist of the Middle West who took his son to a cheap provincial university in the hope that he would “soak up all the knowledge in the market,” and qualify for an inspectorship of schools [George Ade, Breaking into Society (New York: Harper & Brothers,1904), pp. 21-30.]. When the first vacation came, the old man discovered with horror that his young scholar had only acquired the Harvard walk, a passion for athletics, and the habit of large expenditure upon dress. As a matter of fact, universities like Harvard, Yale, Colombia [sic], Cornell, the John Hopkins at Baltimore, and Jefferson’s University of Virginia, have a very high average standard of work. Diligence, as Mr Bryce puts it, is the tradition of the American colleges, partly because “in all but a few universities the vast majority of the students come from simple homes, possess scanty means, and have their way in life to make.” Even at Harvard, with all its rich endowments, its old traditions, and its association with Boston as the home of American men of letters, there is far less of the dilettantism and indifference to the practical business of life than is to be found in the extravagant sets at our fashionable colleges. But this may be partly due to the absence of the college system—a system which has its advantages as well as its defects.

When Professor Lawrence Lowell, who has just been unanimously elected president of Harvard, took me over the law school, I was immensely impressed by the all-pervading atmosphere of work. The ample libraries were filled not only with books, but with students, all engrossed in study, and each apparently convinced that he had not a moment to lose in the race after knowledge. But then, the Harvard law school is justly famous as the largest and best in the English-speaking world. The connection of law with business and of the universities with law is much more close and more real in the states than at home; the chief reason, I think, being the diversity of State legislation upon which all the corporations depend, and the consequent impossibility of carrying on the business of large concerns without constant advice from lawyers. The reliance of business men upon lawyers brings legal firms into far more intimate relations with business conditions than is the case in our own country. Moreover, as there is no distinction between barrister and solicitor, the eminent pleaders and jurists of the United States are not secluded and screened by an intermediate profession from real contact with their real client.

Another evidence of what may be called the actuality of academic life in America is the much greater popularity of politics and political economy. At Harvard, for example, Professor Lowell’s lectures on politics and Professor Taussig’s lectures on economics are regularly attended by three or four hundred students. The large universities have quite a number of economic lecturers, who often specialize on live subjects, such as railways, banking, or industrial corporations. Thus the students are constantly reminded of the various lines of business into which they can enter in order to earn a living after they have taken their degrees.

Lastly, the American university, while it resembles the Scottish or the German more than the English in many respects, differs from all European institutions in the singular importance that it attaches to the office of president. In the words of Mr Bryce, the position is one of honour and influence: “No university dignitaries in Great Britain are so well known to the public, or have their opinions quoted with so much respect, as the heads of the seven or eight leading universities in the United States.” President Eliot, of Harvard, for example, who has just resigned after a long and brilliant career, and Professor Butler, of Colombia[sic], who is still in the prime of life, are two of the most popular orators in the best sense of the word—one should perhaps say popular instructors—in the United States. Most of the presidents of universities are excellent business men, skilled in the arts of advertising their institution, and of attracting students and endowments. When they happen also to be gifted and erudite, their moral and intellectual influence over public opinion is naturally enormous. I was only when I began to realize all this that I could quite understand why the people one met in Boston and New York were often more excited about the presidential election for Harvard than about the Presidential election for the United States. It is probably not generally known that the president-elect, Professor Lowell, whose recently published work on our Constitution is already a classic, has been a successful director of large cotton mills, and is the sole manager of the Lowell Trust. A scholar and a business man with an aptitude for public speaking and liberal views of education should prove an ideal president for Harvard.

F. W. H.

Source: The Economist, January 16, 1909, pp. 105-6.

Image Source:  Abbott Lawrence Lowell, photographic portrait (1904) in Harvard University Archives Photograph Collection: Portraits; The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, the new President of Columbia University, New York.

 

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What the College Incubator Did for One Modest Lambkin.

from George Ade, Breaking into Society (New York: Harper & Brothers,1904), pp. 21-30.

ONE Autumn Afternoon a gray-haired Agriculturist took his youngest Olive Branch by the Hand and led him away to a Varsity. Wilbur was 18 and an Onion. He had outgrown his last year’s Tunic, and his Smalls were hardly on speaking terms with his Uppers. He had large, warty Hands, which floated idly at his sides, and his Wrists resembled extra Sets of Knuckles. When he walked, his Legs gave way at the Hinge and he Interfered. On his Head was a little Wideawake with a Buckle at the Side. Mother had bobbed his Hair and rubbed in a little Goose-Grease to make it shine. The Collar that he wore was size 13, and called the Rollo Shape. It rose to a Height of a half-inch above his Neck-Band. For a Cravat he had a Piece of watered Silk Ribbon with Butterflies on it.

Wilbur had his Money tied up in a Handkerchief, and he carried a Paper Telescope loaded down with one Complete Change and a Catalogue of the Institution showing that the Necessary Expenses were not more than $3.40 per Week.

As the Train pulled away from Pewee Junction Wilbur began to Leak. The Salt Tears trickled down through the Archipelago of Freckles. He wanted to Crawfish, but Paw bought him a Box of Crackerjack and told him that if he got an Education and improved his Opportunities some day he might be County Superintendent of Schools and get his $900 a Year just like finding it. So Wilbur spunked up and said he would try to stick it out. He got out the Catalogue and read all of the copper-riveted Rules for the Moral Guidance of Students.

The Curriculum had him scared. He saw that in the next four Years he would have to soak up practically all the Knowledge on the Market. But he was cheered to think that if he persevered and got through he would be entitled to wear an Alpaca Coat and a Lawn Tie and teach in the High-School, so he took Courage and began to notice the Scenery.

Wilbur was planted in a Boarding-House guaranteed to provide Wholesome Food and a Home Influence. Father went back after making a final Discourse on the importance of learning most everything in all of the Books.

Nine Months later they were down at the Depot to meet Wilbur. He had written several times, saying that he could not find time to come Home, as he was in pursuit of Knowledge every Minute of the Day, and if he left the Track, Knowledge might gain several Laps on him. It looked reasonable, too, for the future Superintendent of Schools had spent $400 for Books, $200 for Scientific Apparatus, and something like $60 for Chemicals to be used in the Laboratory.

When the Train suddenly checked itself, to avoid running past the Town, there came out of the Parlor Car something that looked like Fitz, on account of the Padding in the Shoulders. Just above one Ear he wore a dinky Cap about the size of a Postage Stamp. The Coat reached almost to the Hips and was buttoned below. The Trousers had enough material for a suit. They were reefed to show feverish Socks of a zigzag Pattern. The Shoes were very Bull-Doggy, and each had a wide Terrace running around it. Father held on to a Truck for Support. Never before had he seen a genuine Case of the inflammatory Rah-Rahs.

Wilbur was smoking a dizzy little Pipe from which the Smoke curled upward, losing itself in a copious Forelock that moved gently in the Breeze. Instead of a Collar, Wilbur was wearing a Turkish Towel. He had the Harvard Walk down pat. With both Hands in his Pockets, the one who had been pursuing Knowledge teetered towards the Author of his Being and said, ” How are you, Governor?”

Father was always a Lightning Calculator, and as he stood there trying to grasp and comprehend and mentally close in, as it were, on the Burlap Suit and the Coon Shirt and the sassy Pipe, something told him that Wilbur would have to Switch if he expected to be County Superintendent of Schools,

“Here are my Checks,” said Wilbur, handing over the Brasses.” Have my Trunks, my Golf Clubs, my portable Punching-Bag, the Suit-Case and Hat-Boxes sent up to the House right away. Then drive me Home by the Outside Road, because I don’t want to meet all these Yaps. They annoy me.”

“You’d better git out of that Rig mighty quick if you don’t want to be Joshed,” said his Parent. “Folks around here won’t stand for any such fool Regalia, and if you walk like a frozen-toed Hen you’ll get some Hot Shots or I miss my Calkilations.”

“Say, Popsy, I’ve been eating Raw Meat and drinking Blood at the Training-Table, and I’m on Edge,” said Wilbur, expanding his Chest until it bulged out like a Thornton Squash.” If any of these local Georgie Glues try to shoot their Pink Conversation at me I’ll toss them up into the Trees and let them hang there. I’m the Gazabe that Puts the Shot. Any one who can trim a Policeman and chuck a Hackman right back into his own Hack and drive off with him doesn’t ask for any sweeter Tapioca than one of these Gaffer Greens. The Ploughboy who is muscle- bound and full of Pastry will have a Proud Chance any time that he struts across my Pathway. In my Trunks I have eight suits a little warmer than this one and 47 pairs of passionate Hose. I’m out here to give the Cornfields a Touch of High Life. It’s about time that your Chaws had a Glimpse of the Great Outside World. Any one who gets Fussy about the Color-Combinations that I spring from Day to Day will be chopped up and served for Lunch. To begin with, I’m going to teach you and Mother to play Golf. If these Mutts come and lean over the Fence and start to get off their Colored- Weekly Jokes we’ll fan the Hill-side with them.”

“What do they teach up at your School — besides Murder?” inquired Father. ” I thought you wanted to be County Superintendent of Schools.”

“I’ve outgrown all those two-by-four Ambitions,” was the Reply. “I’m going to be on the Eleven next Fall. What more could you ask?”

That very week Wilbur organized a Ball Team that walloped Hickory Crick, Sand Ridge, and Sozzinsville. He had the whole Township with him. Every Cub at Pewee Junction began to wear a Turkish Towel for a Collar and practise the Harvard Walk.

MORAL : A Boy never blossoms into his full Possibilities until he strikes an Atmosphere of Culture.

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Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Five Economics Ph.D. examinees, 1907-08

 

This posting lists the five graduate students in economics who took their subject examinations for the Ph.D. at Harvard from March 12 through May 21, 1908. The examination committee members, academic history, general and specific subjects are provided along with the doctoral thesis subject, when declared. Lists for 1903-04, 1904-05, 1905-06, 1915-16, and 1926-27 were posted previously. In the same archival box one finds lists for the academic years 1902-03 through 1904-05, 1906-07 through 1913-14, 1915-16, 1917-18 through 1918-19, and finally 1926-27. I only include graduate students of economics (i.e. not included are the Ph.D. candidates in history and government).

Titles and dates of Harvard economic dissertations for the period 1875-1926 can be found here.

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DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF PH.D.

1907-08

Walter Wallace McLaren.

Special Examination in Economics, Thursday, March 12, 1908.
General Examination passed April 10, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), McLean (University of Toronto), Gay, Bullock and Munro.
Academic History: Queen’s University (Canada), 1894-99; Queen’s University Theological College, 1899-1902; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-08; A.M. (Queen’s Univ.) 1899; B:D. (ibid) 1902.
Special Subject: Canadian Economic History.
Thesis Subject: “History of the Canadian Tariff.” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Gay, Munro. 

Edmund Thornton Miller.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 6, 1908.
Committee: Professors Bullock (chairman), Taussig, Hart, Ripley, Gay, and Andrew.
Academic History: University of Texas, 1897-1901; Harvard Graduate School, 1902-03, 1907-08; A.B. (University of Texas) 1900; A.M. (ibid) 1901; A.M. (Harvard) 1903.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History to 1750. 3. Economic History since 1750. 4. Money, Banking and Transportation. 5. Public Finance and Financial History. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Public Finance and the Financial History of the United States since 1789.
Thesis Subject: “The Financial History of Texas.” (With Professor Bullock.)

Melvin Thomas Copeland.

General Examination in Economics, Wednesday, May 13, 1908.
Committee: Professors Gay (chairman), Taussig, Carver, Hart, Ripley, and Andrew.
Academic History: Bowdoin College, 1902-06; Harvard Graduate School, 1906-08; A.B. (Bowdoin) 1906; A.M. (Harvard) 1907.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Statistics. 5. Transportation and Foreign Commerce. 6. History of American Institutions.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “Cotton Manufacturing in the United States since 1860.” (With Professor Taussig.)

Frank Richardson Mason.

Special Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 14, 1908.
General Examination passed May 8, 1907.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Carver, Gay, Bullock and Andrew.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1901-05; Harvard Graduate School, 1905-07; A.B. (Harvard) 1905; A.M. (ibid) 1906.
Special Subject: Economic History of the United States.
Thesis Subject: “The Silk Industry in America..” (With Professor Taussig.)
Committee on Thesis: Professors Taussig, Carver, and Gay.

Robert Franz Foerster.

General Examination in Economics, Thursday, May 21, 1908.
Committee: Professors Taussig (chairman), Royce, Carver, Ripley, Gay, and Bullock.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1902-05; University of Berlin, 1905-06; A.B. (Harvard) 1906.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Sociology and Social Reform. 4. Statistics. 5. Labor Problems and Industrial Organization. 6. Philosophy.
Special Subject: Labor Problems.
Thesis Subject: “Emigration from Italy, with special reference to the United States.” (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1907-1908”.

Image Source: Memorial Hall, ca. 1900. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.

 

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Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Junior Year Theory of Production and Distribution of National Income. Haberler and Leontief, 1942.

 

 

The last time Economics 1 was offered as a year course (1939-40), it was taught by Professor Chamberlin, Associate Professor Leontief and Instructor O.H. Taylor. Starting in the academic year 1940-41, Economics 1 was split into the two semester courses Economics 1a (Chamberlin: Economic Theory) and 1b (O.H.Taylor: Intellectual Background of Economic Thought). Two years later, 1941-42, the second semester course 1b was taught by Professor Haberler and Associate Professor Leontief under the title “Theory of Production and Distribution of the National Income”. In 1942-43, Economics 1b as “Theory of Production and Distribution of the National Income” was taught a last time by Professor Leontief and Dr. Monroe.

Here is a recently added link to the final examination questions for the 1941-42 course taught by Haberler and Leontief.

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Course enrollment

*1b 2hf. Professor Haberler and Associate Professor Leontief.–Theory of Production and Distribution of National Income.

Total 27: 2 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 3 Sophomores.

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1941-42, p. 62.

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Economics 1b
1941-42

 

  1. Theory of Wages
  2. Theory of Capital and Interest
    1. Capital goods as factors of production. Stock vs. flow concepts. Durable and non-durable goods. Money capital and the rate of interest. Demand for capital by an individual firm.
    2. Time preference. Propensity to save.
    3. Interrelation of production and consumption goods industries. General equilibrium. national Income, Saving, and Investment.
  1. Theory of Profits
  1. Introduction to Welfare Economics

Modern theory of utility. Individual vs. social utility. Distribution of national income. Private vs. social marginal product.

 

Readings in: (Specific chapter and page of assignments will be given later.)

Paul Douglas, The Theory of Wages.
Meade and Hitch, An Introduction to Economic Analysis.
Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital.
J. B. Clark, The Distribution of Wealth.
Irving Fisher, The Theory of Interest (1930).
J. M. Keynes. General Theory of Interest and Unemployment.
K. Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy. [Volume I; Volume II]
Pigou, Economics of Welfare.
Triffin, Monopolistic Competition and General Equilibrium Theory.

Articles by Frank Knight in the Journal of Political Economy and by A. Lerner in the Economic Journal.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 3, Folder “Economics, 1941-1942”.

Image Source:  Harvard Class Album 1942.

 

Categories
Courses Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Junior Year Economic Theory, Chamberlin. 1940

 

 

The last time the undergraduate course Economics 1 (Economic Theory) was offered as a full year course (1939-40), it was taught as an honors course by Professor Edward Chamberlin, Associate Professor Wassily Leontief and Instructor O.H. Taylor. Starting in the academic year 1940-41, Harvard’s Economics 1 was split into back-to-back semester courses Economics 1a (Chamberlin: Economic Theory) and 1b (Taylor: The Intellectual Background of Economic Thought). Two years later the second semester course 1b was taught by Professor Haberler and Associate Professor Leontief under the title “Theory of Production and Distribution of the National Income” (1941-42).

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Course Enrollment

*1a 1hf. Professor Chamberlin.—Economic Theory.

Total 63: 1 Senior, 56 Juniors, 6 Sophomores.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1940-1941, p. 58.

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ECONOMICS 1a
1940-41
Revised Outline

  1. The Law of Supply and Demand. Meaning and Generality. Relation to the Law of Cost. Cost curves and supply curves. Relation to monopoly and to competition. Pure and perfect competition. Market problem illustrating deviations from “equilibrium” as defined by perfect competition. Equilibrium vs. the equation of supply and demand.

Mill—Principles, Book III, chapters 2, 3, 5.
Chamberlin—Monopolistic Competition, chapters 1, 2.
Henderson—Supply and Demand, chapters 1,2.
Marshall—Principles, pp. 348-350; p. 806 note.

  1. Competitive theory, illustrated by Marshall.

Marshall—Principles, Book V, chapters 1-5; book IV, chapter 13; Book V, chapters 8, 9, 10, 12.

  1. The effect of small numbers in the market.

Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 3.

  1. Product differentiation. Co-existence and blending of monopoly and competition. Output (sales) as a function of price, “product” and selling outlays. Price-quantity relationships examined in some detail, selling costs and products as variables more briefly.

Monopolistic Competition, chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 (pp. 130-149), Appendices C, D, E.
Alsberg, C. L.—“Economic Aspects of Adulteration and Imitation,” Q.J.E., Vol. 46, p. 1 (1931).

  1. Production and Distribution. Diminishing returns. Diminishing marginal productivitiy. The laws of cost. General effect of monopoly elements on the analysis.

Garver & Hansen—Principles, chapter 5.
Viner, J.—“Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, 1931.
Monopolistic Competition, Appendix B.

  1. Theory of Wages.

Hicks, J. R.—Theory of Wages, chapters 6, 7.

  1. Profits.

Henderson, Supply and Demand, Ch. 7.

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ECONOMICS 1a
1940-41

  1. The Law of Supply and Demand. Meaning and Generality. Relation to the Law of Cost. Cost curves and supply curves. Relation to monopoly and to competition. Pure and perfect competition. Market problem illustrating deviations from “equilibrium” as defined by perfect competition. Equilibrium vs. the equation of supply and demand.

Mill—Principles, Book III, chapters 2, 3, 5.
Chamberlin—Monopolistic Competition, chapters 1, 2.
Henderson—Supply and Demand, chapters 1,2.
Marshall—Principles, pp. 348-350; p. 806 note.

  1. Competitive theory, illustrated by Marshall.

Marshall—Principles, Book V, chapters 1-5; book IV, chapter 13; Book V, chapters 8, 9, 10, 12.

  1. The effect of small numbers in the market.

Monopolistic Competition, Chapter 3.

  1. Product differentiation. Co-existence and blending of monopoly and competition. Output (sales) as a function of price, “product” and selling outlays. Price-quantity relationships examined in some detail, selling costs and products as variables more briefly.

Monopolistic Competition, chapters 4, 5, 6, 7 (pp. 130-149), Appendices C, D, E.
Alsberg, C. L.—“Economic Aspects of Adulteration and Imitation,” Q.J.E., Vol. 46, p. 1 (1931).

  1. Production and Distribution. Diminishing returns. Diminishing marginal productivitiy. The laws of cost. General effect of monopoly elements on the analysis.

Garver & Hansen—Principles, chapter 5.
Viner, J.—“Cost Curves and Supply Curves,” Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, 1931.
Monopolistic Competition, Appendix B.

  1. Theory of Wages.

Hicks, J. R.—Theory of Wages, chapters 6, 7.

  1. Theory of Capital and Interest.

Clark, J. B., The Distribution of Wealth, Chapters 9 and 10.
Böhm-Bawerk, The Positive Theory of Capital, Book II, Chs. 2 and 5, Book V.

  1. Profits.

Marshall, Book VI, Ch. 5, section 7; Chs. 7, 8.
Taussig, Principles, Vol. II, Ch. 50, section 1.
Henderson, Supply and Demand, Ch. 7.
Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation, Book IV.
Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, Ch. 5, section 6; Ch. 7, section 6; Appendices D, E; Ch. 8.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1940-1941”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1946.

Categories
Bibliography Harvard Suggested Reading

Harvard. Theories of Rent Readings Lists. Taussig, Schumpeter, Alan Sweezy. 1934

 

 

One page containing the course bibliographies for the topics “Urban Rent” and “Broader Aspects of Rent” from Economics 7b, Theories of Value and Distribution, jointly offered by Frank W. Taussig, Joseph A. Schumpeter and Alan R. Sweezy was found in the collection of course syllabi and reading lists in the Harvard Archives. One would have expected that there would have been separate bibliographies prepared for “Wages”, “Profits” and possibly “Interest” for this course on distribution. I find it less likely that the course was a single “topics” course that happened to be focused on “Rent” for the semester. This was confirmed after looking at the final examination questions for the course. 

Note: Alan’s brother Paul did not receive his Ph.D. until 1937 and Alan was given a three-year appointment at the rank of “faculty instructor” beginning in the Fall of 1934 following his previous year as “graduate instructor”. Hence “Dr. Sweezy” clearly refers to Alan. I have appended a 1955 article from the Harvard Crimson about the famous Sweezy-Walsh case for those who might not be familiar with that episode in the history of tenure review procedures.

 

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*Economics 7b 1hf. Theories of Value and Distribution
[from Course Announcement]

Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 2, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructors. Professors Taussig and Schumpeter, and Dr. Sweezy.

 

Source: Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences during 1934-35 (2nd ed). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXI, No. 38 (September 20, 1934), p. 126

__________________________

Course Enrollment

*7b 1hf. Professors Taussig and Schumpeter, and Dr. Sweezy.—Theories of Value and Distribution.

Total 23: 14 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 5 Others.

 

Source: Report of the President of Harvard College and Reports of Departments for 1934-1935, p. 81.

__________________________

 

Economics 7b

1934-35 [pencil note]

Urban Rent

E.H. Chamberlin, Monopolistic Competition, appen. D, pp. 200-203
W. C. Clark & J. L. Kingston, The Skyscraper: A Study of the Economic Heighth of Modern Office Buildings, esp. ch. 2, 3, and conclusion.
H. B. Dorau & A. G. Hinman, Urban Land Economics, pp. 158-223. Characteristics of Urban Land. Part V Urban Land Income and Value. (Note: The whole of the book is relevant, but much of it can be skipped over superficially for the problem in hand.)
H. J. Davenport, Economics of Enterprise, ch. 13.
R. M. Haig, “Toward and Understanding of the Metropolis”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, February and May 1926
R. M. Hurd, Principle of City Land Values, especially ch. 6.
F. W. Taussig, Principles, vol. 2, ch. 43.
R. T. Ely, Outlines of Economics, 5th ed., ch. 22.

 

Broader Aspects of Rent

J. B. Clark, either Distribution of Wealth, ch. 13, or “Distribution as Determined by a Law of Rent”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 5, 1890-91
F. A. Fetter, “The Passing of the Old Concept of Rent”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 15, 1900-01.
A. S. Johnson, “Rent in Modern Economic Theory”, American Economic Association Publications, 3rd. series, vol. 3(1902).
A. E. Monroe, Value and Income, pp. 65-67, 188-194.
Joan Robinson, Economics of Imperfect Competition, Bk. III, ch. 8, pp. 102-116

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1934-1935”.

Image Sources:  Harvard Class Album.  Taussig (1934), Schumpeter (1939), Alan Sweezy (1929).

 

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The Sweezy-Walsh Case

Harvard Crimson
January 12, 1955

In a letter elsewhere on the page, Dean Bender rightly points out that the CRIMSON has inadvertently perpetuated an untruth we have long tried to bury. Alan R. Sweezy ’29, it is true, was given a “terminating appointment,” and it was no secret that his views were to the left of most political centers. By working solely from these two facts, some liberals on the Faculty and elsewhere came to a conclusion which was long to prove embarrassing to President Conant. More important, the dropping of Sweezy and the other instructor in the case, J. Raymond Walsh, forced a reform in the University’s appointment system in one of the few instances that the Harvard Faculty has rebelled against its Administration.

Both Sweezy and Walsh were popular and able teachers in the Economics department. Both men held three-year appointments as instructors and when this period was up, In 1937, the Department strongly recommended that both men be retained. When they were not rehired, and when the Administration released a statement that its decision was reached solely on the grounds of “teaching capacity and scholarly ability,” charges accusing the University of various infringements were raised from coast to coast.

The CRIMSON immediately editorialized that, though the University’s statement was “ill-timed and impolitic,” the political views of the two men had nothing to do with the case. By that time, however, alarmists and those Communists who capitalize on such misunderstandings were off and running, joined by friends of the two men who were genuinely confused by the Administration’s actions.

Within a few weeks, the cry about their hue forced Conant to make a special report to the Overseers. The President, who at that time did not enjoy the complete confidence of the Faculty he was later accorded, held fast, arguing that the University cannot appoint a man just because his views are unorthodox. “If academic decisions are to be influenced by the fear of their being misinterpreted as interference with academic freedom,” Conant said, “then academic freedom itself, to my mind disappears.” The New York Herald-Tribune hailed Conant and his stand, describing his as a man “tolerant of everything except intolerance.”

Since even the two principals were now convinced that their politics were not the issue, the outburst began to quiet. But the Faculty, while willing to forgive, could not forget. One hundred and thirty-one of the nonpermanent teaching staff requested an entire investigation of the tenure system. Even if the financial pressures of the depression made it impossible for Conant to keep men like Sweezy, these teachers did not feel that the current methods of selecting permanent appointees were as accurate and well-defined as they might be.

It was significant, and extraordinary, that the appeal for a re-evaluation was not made to Conant but to a committee of eight respected professors including Ralph Barton Perry, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Samuel E. Morison, and Felix Frankfurter. These men wrote to Conant, suggesting what they wanted to study and making it pointedly clear that if they were not authorized to investigate, they would do so anyway.

Two separate reports were issued by this committee, one on Walsh and Sweezy, the second on the entire tenure question. The first recommendation–that the two instructors be re-appointed–was vetoed by the Corporation. The Faculty accepted this action without much comment; by that time, the second report was the chief interest among professors. Published in March, 1939, the report recommended a mathematical evaluation of departments, their concentrators and staffs, with more rigid rules about how often permanent additions could be made to the Faculty.

Conant substantially accepted this report and it was forwarded to the full Faculty and the Corporation which also agreed to its principles. The many complications were referred to the new Assistant Deans of the Faculty, W. C. Graustein and Paul H. Buck. Before his tragic death in an accident, Graustein had worked carefully on the plan and it came to bear his name. Dean of the Faculty Ferguson, who had agreed to hold an Administrative post only during this stormy interim period, soon resigned his position. With the promotion of Paul Buck to the job, the Walsh-Sweezy affair became history and Conant found that he had made his most successful appointment to the Deanship.

 

Categories
Courses Economists Fields Harvard

Harvard. Edward Chamberlin Lobbies to Teach a Graduate Theory Course. 1935

 

 

With the retirements of Charles J. Bullock and Frank W. Taussig in 1935 Edward H. Chamberlin saw his opportunity to start to break out of his designated field box “government and industry” and into “theory”. We have here a letter that Chamberlin wrote to the head of the economics department, Harold H. Burbank. The letter is of the putting-this-conversation-into-the-written-record variety. His deference to Burbank and recognition of the established claims of other colleagues to the theory field are complemented with a dash of false-modesty—“Perhaps I may, however,…put in my own ‘claim’ (if such it may be called) for whatever consideration it deserves.”

In any event, from the subsequent shuffle in instructional assignments for the 1935-36 academic year, we see that Chamberlin succeeded in joining Schumpeter and Leontief at the Harvard theory table.

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Letter from Associate Professor Chamberlin to Chairman Burbank
Requesting to teach a graduate course in theory

 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

14 Ash Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 26, 1935

Professor H. H. Burbank, Chairman
Department of Economics,
Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass.

 

Dear Burby:

This is to confirm our conversation of the other day. I should like to ask if arrangements could possibly be made at this late date for me to give a graduate half course next year on “Contemporary Value Theory.”

I have been asked by several people recently why it was that, although the theoretical problems which Mrs. Robinson and myself have raised are the subject of lively controversies in numerous other universities, one finds them very much in the background at Harvard. There does seem to be a general interest in the subject, and, since I have a strong continuing interest in it myself, the occasion seems to present itself of offering to graduate students at Harvard a better opportunity than they now have to study and discuss this set of problems and others related to it.

I realize that others than myself have claims to theory courses and that the problems of fitting the members of the Department to courses are not easy. Perhaps I may, however, even for this very reason, put in my own “claim” (if such it may be called) for whatever consideration it deserves. My work in Public Utilities and Industrial Organization could be reduced without difficulty. Donald Wallace could take my part in Economics 49 with Professors Crum and Mason, and, I am sure, would do an excellent job of it. This arrangement, together with a slight reduction in my tutorial load, would give me the time for another half course and I should continue in the undergraduate 4a and 4c. I should have, even then, only one-fifth of my time in theory, the other four fifths in the practical field of government and industry.

You have recently intimated in conversation that I might soon be given a share of the work in theory. I hope it may be next year, and also that a way can be found to arrange for it without interfering with the work which others are now doing or plan to do in the field.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Edward H. Chamberlin

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Copy of letter from Chairman Burbank to Dean Murdock
with changes to 1935-36 course announcements

April 17, 1935

Dear Dean Murdock,

Owing to the retirement of Professor Taussig, several changes in the Course Announcement for the coming year will have to be made. The Department recommends the following:

*Economics 7b1. Theories of Value and Distribution. [listed as “Modern Economic Thought” in Report of the President of Harvard College 1935-36, p. 82; ]

Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Associate Professor Chamberlin.
[Replacing Taussig, Schumpeter and Sweezy who taught in 1934-35]

Economics 8a2. Introduction to the Mathematical Treatment of Economics.

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., 4-5. Asst. Professor Leontief.
[Replacing Schumpeter who taught in 1934-35]

Economics 11. Economic Theory.

Mon., Wed., Fri., at 2. Professor Schumpeter.
[Replacing Taussig and Schumpeter who taught in 1934-35]

Economics 14b2. History of Economic Thought since 1776.

Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 11. Dr. Monroe.
[Replacing “History and Literature of Economics from the Physiocrats through Ricardo” taught by Professor Bullock in 1934-35. Bullock retired from Harvard September 1, 1935.]

Sincerely yours,

H. H. Burbank

Dean Kenneth B. Murdock
20 University Hall

 

 

Source: Harvard University Archives, Department of Economics, Correspondence & Papers 1902-1950. Box 23, Folder “Course offerings 1926-1937”.

Image Source: Harvard Class Album, 1939.

Categories
Economists Harvard Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Sweezy and Stolper’s Outline for a “good Text”. 1940

 

 

Three handwritten pages of notes taken by Wolfgang Stolper sometime late in 1940 from what appears to have been a brain-storming session with his buddy Paul Sweezy were important enough to Stolper to have been saved by him in a folder filled with economics honors exams and course syllabi from his early years at Swarthmore.

Anyone who has taught an introductory economics course has probably drawn up a rough outline of one’s own ideal course. Stolper actually attached a handwritten title page that was stapled to the three pages “Outline for a good Ec A course or good Text”. I think there is a note of irony in this description, but maybe not, there really was not an abundance of good modern texts of economics at the time. Paul Samuelson’s own text Economics was only published in 1948.

The significance of the outline is to have a glimpse at what other young Harvard economists around Samuelson were thinking at that critical juncture in modern economics.

Note.  I have highlighted my conjectures for the very few illegibilities/ambiguities in the text.

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Outline for a good Ec A course or good Text.
by Paul M. Sweezy and W. F. Stolper
about Nov. or Dec. 1940

  1. Nat[tional] Income
    1. explanation of what it is
    2. how received
    3. how spent
      poverty even of U.S.
    4. difference betw[een] inc[ome] prod[uced] & paid out.
  2. Conditions of Equil[ibrium]
    1. Full employment
    2. Savings & investment
      period analysis
  3. Secular Trends in investment
    1. Industr[ial] Revol[ution] today
    2. Kondratieff waves
    3. cycle
  4. Capital Formation
    Rel[ation] betw[een] investment & Nat[ional] income
    Hoarding & dishoarding
    Variation in effective Dem[and]
    Credit creation
    Fed[eral] Reserve System
    “Say’s Law”
  5. Full employment & Fiscal Policy
    thorough awareness of (8a)
  6. Assuming Full Employment
    how should factors of prod[uction] be allocated most effectively
    perf[ect] compet[ition] & rel[ative] optimum
    MP conditions
  7. Modifications of compet[ition]
  8. Corpor[ations] & unions, how effect terms of the foregoing analysis
    1. level of ec[onomic] activity
    2. the effectiveness of ec[onomic] activity
  9. The interrelationship of markets
    Interrel[ationship] betw[een] nat[ional] inc[ome] & for[eign] trade
    allocation of resources betw[een] agr[iculture] & ind[ustry]
    bal[ance] of payments, & rel[ationship] of monetary systems for trade multipliers
    cap[ital] movementsState activity designed to modify & improve working of the system

    1. Fiscal Policy & distrib[ution] of income
    2. Publ[ic] utilities, R[ail]R[oad] rates
    3. antitrust & monop[oly] regul[ation] Gov[ernment] Corp[orations,] TVA etc.
  10. [Welfare economics]
    Criteria for overall planning

    1. to increase level of activity
    2. to increase welfare
      1. meanings of welfare
      2. Taxation problems:
        shifting of taxes
        stimulating taxes
  11. Alternat[ive] Ec[onomic] Systems—Overall Planning
    State Cap[italism]—Socialism—Fascism
    Feudalism

 

 

Source: Duke University, Rubenstein Library. Papers of Wolfgang F. Stolper, 1892-2001, Box 22, Folder 1.

Image Sources: Paul Sweezy (left) from Harvard Class Album 1942; Wolfgang F. Stolper (right) from  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (Fellow, 1947).

 

 

Categories
Curriculum Economists Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Undergraduate Economics and WWII, 1942

Harvard Commencement, 1943. Military copy work from the Harvard ArchivesHarvard University. . Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

 

 

In an earlier post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror provided the syllabus and readings for the Harvard course Economics 18b “Economic Aspects of War” offered in the Spring term of 1940. Today’s post provides information about course changes and faculty leaves that were early parts of “broad plans to orient its [i.e., the Department of Economics] program to the nation’s wartime needs” two years later.

Marking the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Harvard Gazette (Nov 10, 2011) posted a bullet point list “to recount Harvard’s role in World War II“.

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Harvard Crimson
March 18, 1942

Training for War Work Offered by Economics
By J. ROBERT MOSKIN

This is the sixth in a series of articles to appear during the coming weeks discussing the effects of the present war on the departments of concentration, their courses, enrollment, and Faculties.

Pointing directly at the preparation of undergraduates for war work in Washington and in the quartermaster corps of the armed services, the Economics Department has developed broad plans to orient its program to the nation’s wartime needs. Although in the blueprint stage now, concrete advancements will be made this summer and next fall.

Economics, of all the non-scientific fields, has organized most fully to adapt its students to the emergency. Upon receiving their bachelor degree, students will be ready to take Civil Service examinations for such positions as junior economist, which pays $2,000 annually, or to complete further graduate work and then enter the supply division of the armed services. There is a large demand for college trained men in both these fields.

Prepared for Peace

Students in the war preparation course for government jobs, the department insists, will not be unfit for peacetime work. They will receive the usual foundation in economics but on a more concentrated and demanding scale with added emphasis on techniques. All students studying for government work, for example, will probably be required to take Math A and courses in Statistics and Accounting. At the present time, these courses are entirely voluntary.

Under the proposed plan, concentrators who wish to prepare along pre-war lines will find the field little altered and a full opportunity to study as in the past. The demands of the current crisis, however, have thrown business as usual into the background and opened the way for the development of an objective service branch in Economics.

Students in this latter portion of the field will also be required to take more economics courses. Now they must have History I, Government I, and four Economics courses including Ec A. While retention of the History and Government requisites is being debated, this minimum will surely be raised.

Two New Courses Planned

Two new courses, bearing directly on war problems, are already scheduled for next fall under the direction of Professor Abbott P. Usher. Bracketing Economic History 1750-1914, 36, Professor Usher will offer two half courses in successive semesters: Location of Economic Activity, General Principles and Current Problems, 65a, and Economic Imperialism and Allied Problems, 44b. Moreover, the contents of current courses will be supplemented to answer questions arising from the war.

The 12-week summer program presents the department with a more complicated situation. Under serious consideration both here and in Washington is a plan to extend instruction in Economics to government workers during the summer term. Courses for these men will be open to undergraduates and in fact will be very often the usual department subjects. The program will probably feature such courses as Money and Banking, Economics of War, and a new course in Commodity Consumption, Distribution and Prices.

Changes Few So Far

But all the planning is still “on order.” While the Economics Department has developed a more revolutionary and extensive war program than many others, its adjustments already in effect are much less extensive.

In the past three years there has been a violent reduction in the number of concentrators in Economics with the 372 of November 1939 down to 267 last November. The department attributes the drop, in the main, to the parallel decline of long terms for younger staff members. This rapid turnover has made for a less experienced Faculty and a slackening of student interest.

This year the department has suffered the loss of two important professors to the war effort. Professor William L. Crum is now working for the Navy and the Treasury and Professor Edward S. Mason is in the Office of the Coordinator of Information in Washington. To replace Mason, who has been absent the entire year, Corwin D. Edwards of the Department of Justice and now visiting lecturer on Economics is giving graduate Instruction in Industrial Organization and Price Policies.

Neither graduate nor undergraduate Instruction has as yet been radically affected by the war, but drastic reductions in graduate enrollment are predicted by the department. Among undergraduate courses, Economics of Agriculture, 71, has been dropped from the roster because Visiting Instructor Albert A. Thornbrough was called to Washington last September. Instructor Lloyd A. Metzler is replacing Professor Mason in Industrial Organization and Control, 62b, while Economic Aspects of War and Defense, 18b, offered in the first half year, has been extended to this semester as 18c and made available to men whether or not they have completed the previous half year’s work.

Image Source.“Harvard goes to war, University’s key role in World War II helped the Allies to triumph” Harvard University Archives, Harvard’s 1943 Commencement. Included in: Corydon Ireland,  Harvard Gazette, November 10, 2011.

Categories
Economists Harvard

Harvard. A. Piatt Andrew appointed Director of Mint, Loses Manuscript(s), 1909

 

 

The Harvard assistant professor of economics Abram Piatt Andrew played an enormous role in the preparation of the reports of the National Monetary Commission 1908-11, but today’s post is limited to a newspaper report announcing his appointment as Director of the Mint, a short biographical note from his memorial service from 1938, and a letter (August 14, 1909) from his former teacher and colleague Frank W. Taussig responding to the news of a lost book draft or materials for a manuscript.

It is interesting to read of the data back-up problem a century ago and Taussig’s personal solution (safe deposit boxes in banks!).

Syllabus and links to the readings from his money and banking course at Harvard offered in the Fall semester of 1901.

Note: The American Field Service has a page full of anecdotes from the life of A. Piatt Andrew.

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Biography

ABRAM PIATT ANDREW, Jr., was born in La Porte, La Porte County, Ind., February 12, 1873; attended the public schools and the Lawrenceville (N. J.) School; was graduated from Princeton College in 1893; member of the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1893-98; pursued postgraduate studies in the Universities of Halle, Berlin, and Paris; moved to Gloucester, Mass,, and was instructor and assistant professor of economics in Harvard University 1900-1909; expert assistant and editor of publications of the National Monetary Commission 1908-11; Director of the Mint 1909 and 1910; Assistant Secretary of the Treasury 1910-12; served in France continuously for 4-1/2 years, during the World War, first with the French and later with the United States Army; commissioned major, United States National Army, in September 1917 and promoted to lieutenant colonel September 1918; awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor medal by the Republic of France in 1917 and the distinguished service medal by the United States Government in 1918; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-seventh Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Willfred W. Lufkin; reelected to the Sixty-eighth and to the six succeeding Congresses, and served from September 27, 1921, until his death; delegate to the Republican National Conventions at Cleveland in 1924 and at Kansas City in 1928; member of the board of trustees of Princeton University 1932-36; died in Gloucester, Mass., June 3, 1936; remains were cremated and the ashes scattered from an airplane flying over his estate at Eastern Point, Gloucester, Mass.

 

Source: Memorial Service Held in the House of Representatives of the United States, Together with Remarks Presented in Eulogy of Abram Piatt Andrew, Late a Representative from Massachusetts. Seventy-fifth Congress, First Session. Washington, D.C. GPO, 1938. Archived transcription at the American Field Service website.

______________________________

DIRECTOR OF MINT
Professor Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr., Appointed by President Taft—Will Resign from Harvard

Cambridge Tribune, August 7, 1909

On Thursday, President Taft sent to the senate the nomination of Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr., of Massachusetts, to be director of the mint.

Professor Andrew was born in La Porte, Ind., on February 12, 1873. His early education was received at the Lawrenceville School, a private institution at Lawrenceville, N. J. In 1894 he was graduated from Princeton University and then studied at Harvard one year, later spending two years more study at Berlin and Paris. In 1900 the degree of Ph.D. was conferred upon him by Harvard, and that same year he was called to that university as an instructor in the department of economics. Since 1903 he has been assistant professor of economics at Harvard, having for several years conducted the general course in economics for a class of more than five hundred students, and also courses on money, the theory and history of money, theory and history of banking and commercial crises.

In 1906 the Minister of Public Instruction in France conferred upon Professor Andrew the title of “Officer d’Academie,” a high honor given by the French people to men of scholarly attainments and notable achievements at home and abroad. It was conferred in this instance for the professor’s work at Harvard and his writings on economics, particularly financial matters.

For a year Professor Andrew has been expert adviser to the National Monetary Commission, the chairman of which is Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island, and in order to perform this work he had been given a two years leave of absence from his duties at the college. Professor Andrew went abroad last summer with some of the members of the commission, visiting London, Berlin, Paris and other important financial centres of Europe for the purpose of studying their methods of conducting business and to get information regarding the national and other laws governing banks and stock transactions. Since his return to this country Professor Andrew has been in Washington, where he has been in charge of the editing of the commission’s forthcoming report. This report, which will occupy about twenty volumes, will soon begin to issue from the printer’s hands, and it is believed that it will be the most comprehensive and valuable publication dealing with the world’s banking and financial interests ever published. Professor Andrew’s duties at Washington have included arranging for the contribution of special articles by men of the highest standing in their particular lines.

Numerous articles, many of which have since been republished as pamphlets, have been contributed by Professor Andrew to leading publications. Among those which have attracted wide attention was his “Study of Secretary Shaw’s Policies,” issued at the time of the retirement of the former secretary of the treasury. He has published several articles on currency questions as they concern Oriental countries, notably one on the adoption of the gold standard in India. He also wrote a history of the Mexican dollar. One interesting contribution to American financial literature was a pamphlet dealing with the crisis of 1907, in which the author described the different substitutes then used for money, mentioning more than two hundred varieties.

Professor Andrew arrived at his cottage at Eastern Point, Gloucester, where he has spent his summers for eight years on Wednesday, coming on from the capital especially to attend the pageant. He will remain there only a few days before returning to Washington, where he will spend a month or six weeks in completing some of his work with the Monetary Commission before assuming his new duties as director of the mint. He will continue as adviser to the commission. Although only one year of his leave from Harvard has expired, it is probable that Professor Andrew will soon resign as assistant professor of economics, in order that the college may fill his place permanently.

Source: Cambridge Tribune, Vol. XXXII, No. 23, 7 August, 1909, p. 1.

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Letter from Taussig to Andrew (14 Aug 1909)

Harvard University
Department of Economics
Cambridge, Massachusetts

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
A. P. Andrew
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

August 14, 1909

Cotuit, Massachusetts

Dear Andrew:

I have your letter of August 13th, and am truly sorry to hear of the tragedy with your papers. It is nothing less than a tragedy, for however completely one may have the subject at command, the labor of arrangement, compilation, and actual writing must all be done over again. I have been uneasy about my own manuscript, and this summer put it in safe deposit vaults for fear lest possibly my house should burn up. Your mishap almost is like burning your bridges behind you; it is as if you were completely cut loose from your past career.

I note what you say about the memorandum on the work of the Monetary Commission and shall be glad to have it at an early date.

The probabilities are that I shall not spend the coming winter in Cambridge, for Mrs. Taussig’s condition is such that she is ordered away. She spent last winter—as you may remember—in the South and is not so much recovered that a winter in Cambridge can be risked. Although the Departmental situation is by no means such as to make it easy, I am arranging to take a year’s leave of absence. I hope during that time to finish my book and get some other literary chores out of the way. I send you a separate letter on the subject of the Tariff Commission, written in such form that you can show it to Secretary McVeagh and to others to whom you may care to show it.

Very sincerely yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

Enclosure
A. P. Andrew, Esq.

Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of A. Piatt Andrew. Box 15, Folder 15.13 “Correspondence. Taussig, F. W.”

Image Source: A. Piatt Andrew at Red Roof, his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1910.  Hoover Institution Archives. Papers of A. Piatt Andrew.(Box 47, folder 9).