Scavenging in digitized archives is certainly no less important an activity than risking the dust in conventional archival folders found in boxes to seek paper receipts of history. Last night I stumbled into the wonderful digitized archives of the University of Michigan’s daily newspaper (see link below). Like a kid in the proverbial candy store, I was riding a sugar high for most of the evening. This morning after a couple of cups of coffee, I put together the following material: biographical/career information about Professor Henry Carter Adams and a report of an interdisciplinary summer school he helped to establish in applied ethics (in 1891!).
I was well aware of Adams’ reputation as an expert in public finance, but I hadn’t noticed that he had been fired from Cornell for a lecture he gave on the Great Southwest railroad strike of 1886. “This man must go, he is sapping the foundations of our society.” We shouldn’t ever take our academic freedom for granted!
Other posts at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror dealing with the economist Henry Carter Adams:
Research Tips:
- The online searchable archives of the University of Michigan newspaper, The U. of M. Daily.
- The University of Michigan Faculty History Project
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HENRY CARTER ADAMS
(31st December, 1851—11th August, 1921)
The following memorial to the late Professor Henry C. Adams was present ed to the University Senate at a recent meeting. It was prepared by a commit tee of which R. M. Wenley; Professor of Philosophy was the chairman. The other members were S. Lawrence Bigelow, Professor of Chemistry and I. Leo Sharfman, Professor of Economics.
An obvious drawback of academic life is that titles tend to obscure persons: and when, as with our colleague Henry Carter Adams, the man dwarfs the title, liability to misjudge or overlook becomes serious. Not till too late, death prompting inquiry or reflection, do we grow aware of the true reasons for the magnitude of our gain and loss. Even so, when we attempt a fit Memorial, the Odyssey of the spirit is all too apt to evade our tardy heed. The career of Professor Adams furn ishes a typical case in point.
Henry Carter Adams was born at Daven port, Iowa, December 31, 1851. He came of old New England stock; his forebears had made the great adventure oversea in 1623. His mother, Elizabeth Douglass, and his father, Ephraim Adams, were a like-minded pair, representative of the soundest traditions of New England character and nurture. Ephraim Adams, one of a small band of missionaries from Andover Theological Seminary who for sook everything for Christ’s sake, arrived on the open prairies of Iowa in 1842—the goal of three weeks’ hard journey from Albany, New York. Their mission it was to kindle and tend the torch, not merely of religion, but also of education, among the far-flung pioneers. Consequently, it is impossible to understand why Henry Adams was what he was, became what he became, unless one can evoke sympa thetic appreciation of the temper, which de termined his upbringing. For example, it may well astonish us to learn that his nineteenth birthday was but a few months off ere he received his first formal instruction. The reasons thereof may astonish us even more. The child had been sickly always, physicians informing the parents that he could not survive the age of fourteen. The “open prairies” proved his physical salvation. Given a cause and a gun, the boy roamed free, passing from missionary home to missionary home, some- times bearing parental messages to the scat tered preachers. In this way he outgrew debility and, better still, acquired a love for nature, and an intimacy with our average citizenry, never lost. Meanwhile, the elder Adams taught him Greek, Latin, and He brew as occasion permitted. At length, in 1869, he entered Denmark Academy whence, after a single year, he was able to proceed to Iowa College, Grinnell, where he graduated in 1874. During these five years, the man whom we knew started to shape himself.
In the home and the wider circle of friends, the impressionable days of childhood had been moulded by Puritanism. God’s providence, the responsibility of man, the absolute distinc tion between right and wrong, with all result- ant duties and prohibitions, set the perspective. Fortunately, the characteristic Yankee interest in education—in intelligence rather than learn ing—contributed a vital element. An active mind enlarged the atmosphere of the soul. De- spite its straight limitations as some reckon them; here was a real culture, giving men in ner harmony with self-secure from disturbance by the baser passions. As we are aware now, disturbance came otherwise. To quote Adams’ own words, he was “plagued by doc trines” from the time he went to the Academy. The spiritual impress of the New England home never left him; it had been etched upon his very being. But, thus early, Calvinistic dogma aroused misgivings, because its sheer profundity bred high doubt. As a matter of course, Ephraim Adams expected his son to follow the Christian ministry, and Henry him self foresaw no other calling meantime. Hence, when scepticism assailed him, he was destined to a terrible, heart-searching experience, the worse that domestic affection drew him one way, mental integrity another. His first years at Grinnell were bootless; the prescribed stud ies held no attraction and, likely enough, sick ness had left certain lethargy. But, when he came to history, philosophy, and social questions, he felt a new appeal. His Junior and Senior years, eager interest stimulating, profited him much. Still dubious, he taught for a year after graduation at Nashua, Iowa. Then, bowing to paternal prayer and maternal hope, he entered Andover Theological Semi-nary, not to prepare for the ministry, however, but “to try himself out”—to discover whether preaching were possible for him. In the Spring of 1876, he had decided irrevocably that it was not. Adams’ “first” education—education by the natal group—ended here. It had guaran teed him the grace which is the issue of moral habit, had wedded him to the convic tion that justice is truth in action. For, al- though he abandoned certain theological for mulae, the footfall of spiritual things ever echoed through hrs character. The union of winsome gentleness with stern devotion to humanitarian ideals, so distinctive of Professor Adams, rooted in the persistent influ ence of the New England conscience.
The Second Education
Turning to the “second” education, destined to enroll our colleague among economic lead ers, it is necessary to recall once again conditions almost forgotten now. When, forty-five years ago, an academy and college-bred lad, destined for the ministry, found it necessary to desist, he was indeed “all at sea.” For facilities, offered on every hand today by the Graduate Schools of the great universities, did not exist. The youth might drift—into journalism, teaching, or what not. But drift ing was not on Adams’ programme. He wrote to his parents who, tragically enough, could not understand him, “I must obtain another cultural training.” His mind had dwelt already upon social, political, and economic prob lems: therefore, the “second” education must be non-theological. Whither could he look? At this crisis his course was set by one of those small accidents, which, strange to tell, play a decisive part in many lives. By mere chance, he came upon a catalogue of Johns Hopkins University, so late in the day, more- over, that his application for a fellowship, with an essay enclosed as evidence of fitness, arrived just within time limits. Adams was chosen one of ten Fellows from a list of more than three hundred candidates, and to Balti more he went in the fall of 1876. His letters attest that the new, ampler opportunities at tracted him strongly. He availed himself of concerts, for music always moved him. Here he heard the classics for the first time. Hither- to he had known only sacred music. Sometimes he played in church and, as records show, he sang in our Choral Union while a young pro fessor. We find, too, that he served as assistant in the Johns Hopkins library, not for the extravagant salary, as he remarks humor ously, but on account of access to books—”I am reading myself full.” His summers were spent in his native State, working in the fields. In 1878 he received the doctorate, the first conferred by the young and unique university.
Study in Europe
The day after graduation President Oilman sent for him, and told him, “You must go to Europe.” The reply was typical—”I can’t, I haven’t a cent.” Oilman continued, ”I shall see what can be done,” with the result that the benefactor to whom Adams dedicated his first book found the requisite funds. Brief stays at Oxford and Paris, lengthier at Berlin and Heidelberg, filled the next fourteen months. The journalistic bee still buzzing in his head, Adams had visited Godkin before leaving for Europe, to discuss the constructive political journalism he had in mind. Godkin received him kindly, but as Adams dryly re- marks, had a long way to travel ere he could understand. In the summer of 1878, President Andrew D. White, of Cornell, traveling in Germany, summoned Adams, to discuss a vacancy in this university. To Adams’ huge diappointment, as the interview developed, it became apparent that White, with a nonchalance some of us remember well, had mistaken H. C. Adams, the budding economist, for H. B. Adams, the budding historian. The vacancy was in history, not in political science or economics. Expectation vanished in thin air. But Adams was not done with. Return ing to his pension, he sat up all night to draft the outline of a course of lectures which, as he bluntly put it, “Cornell needed.” Next day he sought President White again who, being half persuaded by Adams’ verbal exposition, kept the document, saying he would communicate with Cornell, requesting that a place be made for the course if possible. Writing from Saratoga, in September 1879, Adams tells his mother that all is off at Cornell, that he must abandon his career and buckle down to earn ing a livelihood. A lapse of ten days trans formed the scene. The Cornell appointment had been arranged, and he went to Ithaca forthwith. So meagre were the facilities then offered in the general field of the social sci ences that Adams gave one semester, at Cornell and Johns Hopkins respectively, to these subjects in the year 1879-80. The same ar rangement continued till 1886, Michigan be ing substituted for Johns Hopkins in 1881. As older men recall, Dr. Angell taught economics, in addition to international law, till the time of his transfer to Pekin as Minister to China. At this juncture, Adams joined us, forming a life-long association. He himself says that he “gave up three careers, —preaching, journalism, and reform—to devote himself to teaching” where he believed his mission lay.
Dismissal from Cornell
There is no better index to the enormous change that has overtaken the usual approach to social questions than the circumstances , which caused Adams’ expulsion from Cornell University. The Scientific American Supple ment (p. 8861) of date August 21st, 1886, con tains the substance of an address, “The Labor Problem.” We quote Adams’ comments, inscribed beside the clipping in his personal scrapbook.
“This is the article that caused my dismissal from Cornell. This article was given on the spur of the moment. Professor Thurston had invited a man from New York to address the engineering students, but the lecturer failed to come. I was asked to come in and say a few words on the Gould Strike. It was said to me that other members of the Faculty would speak, and that I might present my views as an advocate.
“The room was crowded for, besides the engineering society, my own students, getting word of it, came over to the Physical Laboratory room where the addresses of the society were given. A more inspiring audience no man could have, and I spoke with ease, with pleasure and, from the way my words were received, with effect. The New York papers reported what I said and, three days after, Mr. Henry Sage, than whom I know no more honest hypocrite or unchristian a Christian, came into the President’s office and, taking the clipping from The New York Times out of his pocket said, “This man must go, he is sapping the foundations of our society.” It was not until then that I thought of putting what I said into print, but I then did it, fol lowing as nearly as possible what I said and the way I said it.
“The effect of this episode upon myself was to learn that what I said might possibly be of some importance.
“Of course, there is a good deal of secret history connected with the matter, but I am not likely to forget that.”
This echo of old, far-off, unhappy things is most suggestive, because more than any other man, perhaps, Adams mediated the vast, silent change marking these last thirty-five years. As has been aptly said, “he had a most roman tic intellectual career.”
Appointment at Michigan
In 1887, he was appointed to the Michigan chair, which he greatly graced till death. At this time, too, on the urgent request of his close friend, Judge Thomas M. Cooley, then Chairman, he joined the Interstate Commerce Commission, much against his own inclination. When he founded the Statistical Department, he had the assistance of a single clerk; when he resigned, in 1911, the personnel numbered two hundred and fifty. Mutatis mutandis, a parallel expansion overtook our Department of Economics under his leadership.
It must suffice merely to mention his services with the Eleventh Census, the Michigan Tax Commission, and the Chinese Republic, pointing out that such positions come only to men of high distinction and proven authority. More than a quarter of a century has elapsed since his election to the Presidency of the American Economic Association, which he helped to found; nearly as long since he was presiding officer of the American Statistical Association. In short, he ranked among the most important and influential leaders in his chosen field. His Alma Mater honored her- self in honoring him with the degree of LL.D twenty-three years ago; Wisconsin followed suit in 1903; Johns Hopkins in 1915. Needless to say, he had many offers, some most tempt ing, to leave Michigan. But, entertaining pro found confidence in the State University, be lieving that it was destined to be instrumental in the diffusion of those opportunities in high er education indispensable to a free democracy, he refused to move. In attachment to this University, like not a few men whom she has imported, he outdid many alumni.
His Original Work
Naturally, Adams produced a mass of orig inal work. Upon two fields of economic investigation, particularly—public finance and public control—he imposed a durable imprint. His interest in public finance dated from his doctoral dissertation, Taxation in the United States, 1789-1816. In Public Debts, an Essay in the Science of Finance, later translated into Japanese, and in The Science of Finance, an Investigation of Public Expenditures and Pub lic Revenues, he not only manifested wide economic grasp and remarkable power of an alysis, but exhibited the principles of public finance as a scientific unity, in their manifold relations to social, political, and economic progress. His memorable essay, The Relation of the State to Industrial Action, marked his initial, and most significant, contribution in the field of public control. He subjected the preva lent doctrine of laissez-faire to searching analysis, and, with profound appreciation of the demands of a dynamic world, formulated basic principles for the guidance of industrial leg islation. His emphasis on the function of the State in moulding the plans of competitive ac tion, in realizing for society the benefits of monopolistic control, and in restoring condi tions of social harmony to the economic order, foreshadowed much of the theoretical dis cussion and practical reorganization of a later day. His subsequent achievements in the de velopment of public control, especially over railroad transportation, are incorporated in the accounts and classifications which he slowly evolved as statistician of the Interstate Com merce Commission. The universal acceptance today of statuted accounting and statistical practice as an indispensable instrument for the effective regulation of railroads and public utilities remains a lasting monument to the intelligence and validity of his pioneering ef forts. It is a distinct loss to economic scholarship and to historical tradition that his Ameri can Railway Accounting published seven years after his resignation from the Interstate Com merce Commission, was but a commentary on these accounts and classifications rather than that graphic picture of their origin and de velopment such as he alone was competent to produce.
The Social Philosopher
Throughout life, Adams’ intellectual ap proach was that of a social philosopher rather than of a technical economist. This is plain throughout his published work. Intuitive yearn ing for social justice, prompted by a Puritan conscience, stimulated by an analytical intel lect, colored all his writings. Human rela tions uniformly served as his point of depar ture, and humane amelioration was ever the horizon toward which he moved. Such was the spirit of his Relation of the State to In dustrial Action, and of his fundamental stud ies in public finance. His papers on the social movements of our time, and on the social ministry of wealth, contributed to The Inter national Journal of Ethics; his discussions, in the economic journals, of economics and jur isprudence, publicity and corporate abuses, and of many of the more technical aspects of rail- road taxation; of the developments of the Trust movement, budget reform, and foreign investments as a crucial element in international maladjustments, were moulded by a similar insight into primary human relations, and by a like desire to contribute to the realization of human betterment.
Accordingly, it was the more remarkable that Professor Adams proved himself so ef fective a public servant in the formulation of practical and concrete machinery for the regulation of transportation agencies, in this country and in China. The reason for this success is to be found in his consistent adher ence to the conception of accounts and sta tistics as mere instruments of social control rather than as fields of inquiry for their own sake. From first to last, then, he remained the social philosopher. His plans for the future promised a return to the synthetic intellectual activity of his early career. Death overtook him with his labors unfinished, but the direc tion of his interests was clear and unmistak able.
In sum, then, remarkable as was the career, formative as were its results, the personality overtopped all else, mainly because Adams’ austere judgment of self, his nigh innocent attitude toward his great attainments, won upon others. Indeed, no one would have been more surprised than he at the words we have addressed to you this evening, —partly on ac- count of his innate modesty, partly thanks to his very reticence, which prevented us from making known to him how we esteemed his deep, pervasive glow.
S. LAWRENCE BIGELOW
I. LEO SHARFMAN
R. M. WENLEY, Chairman
Source: The Michigan Alumnus 520-524. Transcribed at the Henry Carter Adams page at the University of Michigan Faculty History Project.
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School of Applied Ethics, 1891.
First Dean, Henry C. Adams of the University of Michigan
In this article we give a brief sketch of the school of Applied Ethics and Prof. Henry C. Adams’ work in connection with it.
The following, taken from the secretary’s report, describes the origin and purposes of the institution:
“The School of Applied Ethics held its first session at Plymouth, Mass., from July 1 to August 12, 1891. This was an experimental undertaking, and the first step towards the carrying out of a large and important educational project, the founding of a fully-equipped School of Applied Ethics in connection with some large university. It is proposed, not to found another school similar to and is as a rival of any schools already existing, but to meet a real educational need by furnishing systematic instruction in a field of investigation not especially provided for in established institutions.
The experiment of last summer proved so successful that it has been decided to hold a similar session another year at the same time and place, and the managers hope that not only the summer school, but also the permanent school referred to will be successfully established, and occupy in time an important place among educational institutions.
The proposition to establish a School of Applied Ethics, either independently or in connection with some large university, has been under discussion for several years. Attention was first called to the need of such a school, in a public address in Boston, by Prof. Felix Adler, during the May anniversary week of 1879. The project was afterwards discussed in the Index and other papers; but the plans were still too indefinite and public interest was not sufficiently awakened to the importance of the undertaking.
The subject was next brought to public notice, and in a more definite shape at the third convention of the Ethical Societies, held in Philadelphia, January, 1889. It was the topic of a special public meeting, and addresses were made by Prof. Adler, Mr. Thomas Davidson, Professor Royce, Rev. Wm. J. Potter, and others. Numerous letters endorsing the proposed school were received from distinguished representatives of different professions in various parts of the country. At the next convention of the Ethical Societies, held in New York, December, 1890, the project was again brought forward and endorsed at a public meeting by President E. Benj. Andrews, Rev. Lyman Abbott, Professor Daniel G. Brinton, Rev. R. Heber Newton, Dr. A. S. Isaacs, and Professor Adler. Definite action towards the realization of the project was taken in the following resolution, passed by the convention:
Resolved, That the Executive Committee be empowered to raise $4000 to establish a Summer School of Ethics for one year, and to hand over its management to a committee of nine, three of whom shall be lecturers of the Ethical Societies.
In consequence of this resolution a committee was appointed, which met in New York, March 2, 1891. There were present Professor H. C. Adams, of the University of Michigan, Professor C. H. Toy, of Harvard University, Professor Felix Adler, of New York, President E. Benjamin Andrews, of Brown University, Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr.,of the University of Pennsylvania, and Mr. S. Burns Weston, of Philadelphia. The trust implied by the above resolution was accepted by the committee, and plans were presented and adopted for a summer session of six weeks with the three departments of Economics, History of Religions, and Ethics. Professor Henry C. Adams was made director of the department of Economics, Professor C.H. Toy, of History of Religions, and Professor Felix Adler, of Ethics proper. It was decided that the office of Dean should be filled in rotation by the heads of the departments in the order given, and Prof. Adams became Dean of the school for the first year.
The first session opened July 1, at Lyceum Hall, Plymouth, Mass., with public addresses by Professors Adams, Toy, and Adler on the work to be done in their respective branches. The regular daily lectures began Thursday, July 2, with a good attendance.
In the department of economics the main course consisted of a series of sixteen lectures by Professor Adams, on the History of Industrial Society and Economic Doctrine in England and America, in which special attention was given to the gradual rise of those practical problems in the labor world, which cause so much anxiety and discussion today. The subjects of the lectures in this course were as follows:
The Modern Social Movement, and the True Method of Study. The Manor considered as the Unit of Agricultural Industry in Feudal Times. The Town considered as the Unit of Manufacturing Industry in Feudal Times. The Black Death and Tyler’s Rebellion considered in their Industrial Consequences. The Times of Henry VIII and Elizabeth considered as foreshadowing Modern Ideas of Capital. The Spirit of Nationalism as expressed in Industrial Legislation of the 17th and 18th’s Centuries. Liberal Writers of the Eighteenth Century, considered with Especial Reference to the Industrial Liberalism of Adam Smith. Industrial and Social Results of the Development of Textile Machinery. Critical Analysis of the Effect of Machinery on Wages. Industrial and Social Results of the Development of Steam Navigation. Mill’s Political Economy, considered as the most Perfect Expression of the Industrial Ideas of the Middle Classes. Changes in Economic Ideas since Mill; (a) Fundamental Economic Conceptions, (b) Relation of Government to Industries. Trades-Unions considered as the Workingman’s Solution of the Labor Question. Public Commissions considered as a Conservative Solution of the Monopoly Question. An Interpretation of the Social Movement of Our Time.”
The following, clipped from the article by Rev. W. H. Johnson in the Christian Register, shows that Prof. Adams sustained his well-merited reputation as a political economist of the first rank:
“The chief interest of the school seems to have centered in the Department of Economics, testifying to the growing appreciation of the profoundly vital manner in which the great social topics of the times touch us all. Here were numbers of people gathered together who had become tired of the cure-alls offered by narrow-minded enthusiasts, not less than heartsick of the social wrongs and miseries which bring this class into existence, and intensely anxious for some teaching which would point out clear landmarks. Only the existence of this feeling of earnest longing for some measure of authoritative exposition can account for the enthusiasm which has attended the economic course. In Prof. Adams, this department has had for its director and chief expositor a mastermind. Apart from the interest of the subject, it would be impossible to listen without keen satisfaction to his rigid analysis and lucid explanations of a subject which is, for the most of us, wrapped in “chaos and perpetual night.” Prof. Adams’ final lecture, summing up the economic teaching of the school during the six weeks’ course, was one of rare merit. He was at once overwhelmed with requests for its publication, to which he has consented.”
Source: The U. of M. Daily.Vol. II, No. 51 (December 3, 1891), p. 1.
Image Source: From the Henry Carter Adams page at the University of Michigan Faculty History Project.
