Category: Tufts

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Carnegie Institute of Technology Columbia Economists Tufts

Columbia. Economics PhD alumnus, Leonard Stott Blakey, 1912

In today’s edition of Meet an Economics Ph.D. alumnus we encounter a 1912 Columbia economics Ph.D. who had fallen through the cracks of my list of Columbia University economics graduates. Leonard Stott Blakey actually did manage to obtain an economics professorship at the Carnegie Institute of Technology for a couple of years. His Columbia thesis adviser was the sociologist Franklin Giddings at a time when the gap between academic economics and sociology was relatively small.

Blakey died at age 38 after a car ran into him in Chicago where he had found a job as economic advisor to the Benjamin Electric Company. So there is not much of a shadow cast into future economic research, but his story still possesses value as a one mosaic tile in the greater sweep of the history of economics. 

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Leonard Stott Blakey
(1881-1919)

1881. Born April 15 in Racine County, Wisconsin. Son of Charles and Ella Apple Blakey.

1883. Family moved to a farm near Spirit Lake, Iowa.

Family later moved to Estherville, Iowa where Leonard attended grade and high school.

1900. Graduated from high school.

1904. B.S. from Beloit College.

Taught in high school at Savanna, Illinois and Memorial University, Mason City, Iowa.

1907-08. University scholarship, Columbia University. Columbia Spectator (June 1, 1907), p. 1.

1908-09. Schiff Fellow, Columbia University.

1910. The Boston Globe (September 18, 1910), p. 56. Tufts hired Leonard Stott Blakey, a graduate of Beloit, as instructor in economics.

Courses taught by Blakey  at Tufts:  From the catalogues 1910-1912

1. Elements of Economics. Ely’s Outlines of Economics will be used as a guide
2. Modern Industrial History of Europe
22. Economic and Industrial History of the United States. Bogart’s Economic History of the United States is used as a guide.
4. Principles of Public Finance. The Elements of Public Finance, by Daniels, is used as a guide.
5. Money, Credit, and Banking. Dewey’s Financial History of the United States is used as a guide.
14. Theory of Statistics.
15. Social Statistics.

1911-12. Annual Report of the President of Tufts College 1911-12.  “The following gentlemen have severed their connection with the ‘College on the Hill,’ either through resignation or the expiration of their terms of office,…Leonard Stott Blakey, B.S., Instructor in Economics and Statistics” p. 4

1912. Ph.D. Thesis: The Sale of Liquor in the South: the History of the Development of Normal Social Restraint in Southern Commonwealths” by Leonard Stott Blakey, A.M., Sometime Schiff Fellow in Columbia University, Associate Professor of Economics and Sociology in Dickinson College
“This work owes its origin to a suggestion which came to the writer from his instructor, Professor Franklin H. Giddings of Columbia University, while pursuing graduate courses of study in that institution.”

1912-13. Assistant Professor of Economics and Sociology
Catalogue of Dickinson College 1912-1913. Carlisle, PA.

1913-14. Professor of Economics and Sociology
Catalogue of Dickinson College 1913-1914. Carlisle, PA

Dickinson College
ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY
Professor Blakey

In its course of instruction, the chief aim of the department of Economics and Sociology is to give a general view of the most important subject matter in the economic and sociological sciences, beginning with the elements of the science and passing by degrees to courses of an investigative order. In addition to this broad general outline the courses and the methods of study are arranged to give some specialized preparation to students looking forward to business careers.

A. ELEMENTS OF ECONOMICS.

This course will give the student a general survey of the fields of theoretical and practical economics. The first part deals with the principles of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of wealth; the second part, with the present organization of industry and the economic and social problems arising from the relations of employers and employees. Among the problems considered are the labor problem, including the history and policies of trade unions, injunctions, arbitration, co-operation, profit-sharing, child labor, factory legislation, workingmen’s insurance, and socialism. Taussig’s Principles of Economics will be used as a text.

Required of all Sophomores. Three hours per week.

B. MODERN INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF EUROPE.

After a brief survey of the economic conditions in the European countries at the close of the Middle Ages, the course deals with the commercial and industrial development of the chief European countries since the middle of the eighteenth century, with special attention to Great Britain.

Lectures, supplemented by prescribed topical readings. Open to Juniors and Seniors. Three hours per week. First half-year.

C. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

A brief survey of the economic life of the colonists will be followed by a study of the factory system, public land policy, transportation facilities, and shipping before the Civil War; export trade, scientific agriculture, and railway extension after the War; recent development of large scale production, industrial combinations, and labor problems.

Lectures, supplemented by prescribed topical readings.

Open to Juniors and Seniors. Three hours per week, second half-year.

D. COURSES B AND C COMBINED.

E. INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT.

This course will include an examination of the human and physical factors in the organization and processes of industry; the internal economies of organization due to the division of labor, etc.; external economies of organization due to the concentration and integration of businesses; and the influences of the modern means of intercommunication on businesses. Special emphasis will be given to the growing size and complexity of modern business structure and to the managerial, financial, and political questions arising from business concentration, and the programs proposed for their solution will be analyzed.

Attention is given to the general nature and the different types of business management, and to the functions of the entrepreneur. The various problems involved in the philosophy, demands, and applicability of scientific management will be examined. The course closes with an analysis of the growing spirit of co-operation in business management, the growing interest in the problems of vocational guidance, and the tendency to interpret industry in terms of human worth.

Lectures, assigned readings, and discussions. Open to Seniors. Three hours per week.

F. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY.

Beginning with a study of the biological and psychological bases of human society, this course traces its evolution under the operation of the various forces — physical environment, growth and migration of populations, social institutions, etc. and analyzes social phenomena with the view of arriving at certain laws of social progress and noting their bearing upon present social problems.

Chapin’s Introduction to the Study of Social Evolution will be used as a text. Open to Juniors and Seniors. Three hours per week.

G. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.

The work of this course will consist largely of practical investigations, by individual members of the class, of some selected problem in economics or sociology, to be assigned by the instructor and pursued under his direction. A paper will be prepared on the assigned topic, the results presented before the class for criticism and discussion. The course will open with an introduction to the principles, theory, and practice in the statistical method. Open to Seniors completing Economics E or Sociology F. Three hours per week.

Source:  Catalogue of Dickinson College, 1913-1914, pp. 31-33.

1914-15.  Professor of Economics and Sociology at Dickinson College (Absent on leave)

1914. Review of H.R. Seager’s Principles of Economics: Being a Revision of Introduction to Economics. In Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (September 1914, pp. 294-296). Identified as “Leonard Stott Blakey, Dickinson College).

1914-16[?]. Worked at the air nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama

1916. Assistant Professor of Economics and Business Administration, School of Applied Science, Carnegie Institute of Technology. Pittsburgh.

1918. The Pittsburgh Post (February 21, 1918), p. 14.
Assistant Professor of economics and business administration of the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

End of the WWI, associated with the Bing and Bing Construction Co. of New York.

1919. He had accepted a position as Economics Advisor to the Benjamin Electric Company of Chicago.

1919. “Prof. Leonard Blakey of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, died yesterday in the county hospital. He was struck by an automobile Friday night.” Blakey “had come to Chicago to make arrangements with a. W. Shaw & Co. for the publication of his book, which deals with the high cost of living.” Brother A.R. Blakey lives in Chicago. Chicago Tribune (October 5, 1919), p. 1.

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Other Newspaper Accounts
of Leonard Blakey’s death

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Oct. 6, 1919), p. 20.

“[Leonard Blakey] was not connected with the Carnegie Institute of Technology at the time of his death, according to officials of the institution.
Prof. Blakey, two years ago, was assistant professor of commercial engineering at the Pittsburgh school, but left here to go to Washington, where he entered government service.”

Evening Times-Republican, Marshalltown, Iowa (December 15, 1919), p. 2.

At time of his death in Chicago, Leonard Blakey just completing a book called “Wage Scales and the Living Costs”, a comprehensive survey of the wage question and cost of living put down in a concise and readable form. The book, which is just now making its appearance, following his death, is creating a great amount of interest throughout the country, as it deals with present day conditions. The New York Sun introduced the book, noting Blakey was born in Racine, Wisconsin, educated there and in Iowa, graduated from Beloit College, taking post-graduate course at Columbia University. Instructor in economics in Tufts College and at Dickinson, and Carnegie Institute of Technology. “During the war he was the labor expert at the Mussels Shoals air nitrate enterprise. In January 1919 he began his study. He went to Chicago (as opposed to New York City to get speedy publication”. “He met his death as he was on his way to have his final revision of the last chapter retyped for the printers.

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Obituaries for Leonard Stott Blakey transcribed at the Find-A-Grave Website

Leonard Blakey Hit By Auto
Was In Chicago Attending to Business Matters – Struck By Speeding Car
Just Completed Gov. Book
Was Brought Here for Burial, Was a Son of Chas. Blakey, a Former Resident Here

Estherville Enterprise, Estherville, IA, October 8, 1919.

Friends of Leonard Blakey of the Chas. Blakey family, were greatly shocked on Sunday last to learn of the sudden death by accident of Leonard Blakey in Chicago. He had been connected with a New York firm and was making a change to Chicago. He came there and took rooms with his father, sister and brother Roy, who is in the Rush Medical school. He had been down to the city during the day consulting his new employer and that evening went to the Y.M.C.A. building to get some stenographic work done. It was about 9 o’clock in the evening and it is supposed he was returning from the Y.M.C.A. building when an auto struck him. He was so badly injured he never regained consciousness. He had no Chicago address and the police rushed him to the hospital. On his clothing was his Pittsburg address and they at once endeavored to get in touch with someone there. In the hospital was an Intern who remembered there was a medical student in Rush by that name and after twenty-four hours after the accident they got in touch with Roy Blakey. The Blakey family in the meantime had made an endeavor through the police to locate him.
The remains were brought to this city for burial.

The following is the obituary used by Rev. Voorhies who officiated at the funeral services:

Leonard Stott Blakey was born in Racine County, Wis., April 15, 1881, the son of Charles and Ella Apple Blakey. He attended school near Spirit Lake, Iowa, the family having moved to a farm near there when he was two years old. Later the family moved to Estherville where Leonard attended the grade and high school, graduating in 1900. In the Fall of the same year he entered Beloit College where he graduated in 1904. Following this he taught in the high school at Savanna, Illinois, and Memorial University, Mason City, Iowa. Then he attended Columbia University, New York, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1911 (sic). He again took up teaching, going first to Tufts College, Boston, and later to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. The following year he went to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to take up employment work with the Air Nitrates plant. At the close of the war he became associated with the Bing and Bing Construction Co., of New York. During the latter period he has been writing a book on the subject: Has Labor Carried Its War Burden,” which is now in the hands of the publishers. He had just accepted a position as Economics Advisor to the Benjamin Electric Company of Chicago. Surviving members of the family are: His father, Charles Blakey, his brother Roy Blakey, and sister Dorothy Blakey, all being residents of Chicago.

Book of A Local Boy is Popular
Leonard Blakey’s Work Now Running in New York Sun Was Recently Killed
Work Has to Do With the Wage Scale and High Cost of Living – Is Authority

Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, IA, December 10, 1919

At the time Leonard Blakey met with his death in Chicago last fall he was just completing a book called “Wage Scales and the Living Costs.” It is a comprehensive survey of the wage question and the cost of living put down in a concise and readable form. The book which is just now making its appearance following his death, is creating a large amount of interest throughout the country as it deals with present day conditions.
Leonard Blakey was an Estherville boy. He was known to the great majority of our people and his career followed with a great deal of interests by local people. His untimely death last fall was deeply mourned by all his former friends. Had he been permitted to live he would have accomplished great things in this world. As it is, he leaves behind this scientific analysis which is being used throughout the country in settling important questions of the day. The Vindicator and Republican has on file a copy of the New York Sun containing the first installment of the book and we will be glad to loan it any former friends who may wish to read it. Following is the tribute paid to the memory of Leonard by that paper at the beginning of the article:
Leonard Blakey, economist and professor, from whose last work the following analysis of Wage Increases and Living Costs was taken, was killed accidentally by an automobile in Chicago recently just as he was to reap the fruits of years of study. He was born thirty-eight years ago in Racine, Wisconsin, was educated in the public schools there and in Iowa, and graduated from Beloit College, taking a post graduate study course at Columbia University in this city.
He was an instructor in economics in Tufts College and at Dickson, and then was attached to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. During the war he was the labor expert at the Mussels Shoals air nitrate enterprise. Last January Mr. Blakey began his study of wage increases and living costs with the idea that the findings might be of value to the nation in its reconstruction problems. When the report was partly completed he was urged to publish it in book form for use as a text book at Columbia and at Carnegie Tech. He also planned to send copies for use of the Industrial conference in session in Washington.
Owing to conditions in the book trade in New York Mr. Blakey went to Chicago to get speedy publication. The A. W. Shaw Company took up the work. He met his death as he was on his way to have his final revision of the last chapter retyped for printers.

Source: Wayback machine archived copy of the Find-A-Grave entry for Leonard Stott Blakey (1881-1919).

Image Source: Carnegie Institute of Technology yearbook, The 1918 Thistle, p. 80. Portrait of Professor Stott Blakey.

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U.S. Bureau of Education. Contributions to American Educational History, Herbert B. Adams (ed.), 1887-1903

 

I stumbled across this series while I was preparing the previous post on the political economy questions for the Harvard Examination for Women (1874). I figured it would be handy for me to keep a list of links to the monographs on the history of higher education in 35 of the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. Maybe this collection will help you too.

Contributions to American Educational History, edited by Herbert B. Adams

  1. The College of William and Mary. Herbert B. Adams (1887)
  2. Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. Herbert B. Adams (1888)
  3. History of Education in North Carolina. Charles L. Smith (1888)
  4. History of Higher Education in South Carolina. C. Meriwether (1889)
  5. Education in Georgia. Charles Edgeworth Jones (1889)
  6. Education in Florida. George Gary Bush (1889)
  7. Higher Education in Wisconsin. William F. Allen and David E. Spencer (1889)
  8. History of Education in Alabama. Willis G. Clark (1890).
  9. History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education. Frank W. Blackmar (1890)
  10. Higher Education in Indiana. James Albert Woodburn (1891).
  11. Higher Education in Michigan. Andrew C. McLaughlin. (1891)
  12. History of Higher Education in Ohio. George W. Knight and John R. Commons (1891)
  13. History of Higher Education in Massachusetts. George Gary Bush (1891)
  14. The History of Education in Connecticut. Bernard C. Steiner (1893)
  15. The History of Education in Delaware. Lyman P. Powell (1893)
  16. Higher Education in Tennessee. Lucius Salisbury Merriam (1893)
  17. Higher Education in Iowa. Leonard F. Parker (1893)
  18. History of Higher Education in Rhode Island. William Howe Tolman (1894)
  19. History of Education in Maryland. Bernard C. Steiner (1894).
  20. History of Education in Lousiana. Edwin Whitfield Fay (1898).
  21. Higher Education in Missouri. Marshall S. Snow (1898)
  22. History of Education in New Hampshire. George Gary Bush (1898)
  23. History of Education in New Jersey. David Murray (1899).
  24. History of Education in Mississippi. Edward Mayes (1899)
  25. History of Higher Education in Kentucky. Alvin Fayette Lewis (1899)
  26. History of Education in Arkansas. Josiah H. Shinn (1900)
  27. Higher Education in Kansas. Frank W. Blackmar (1900)
  28. The University of the State of New York. History of Higher Education in the State of New York. Sidney Sherwood (1900)
  29. History of Education in Vermont. George Gary Bush (1900)
  30. History of Education in West Virginia. A. R. Whitehill (1902)
  31. The History of Education in Minnesota. John N. Greer (1902)
  32. Education in Nebraska. Howard W. Caldwell (1902)
  33. A History of Higher Education in Pennsylvania. Charles H. Haskins and William I. Hull (1902)
  34. History of Higher Education in Colorado. James Edward Le Rossignol (1903)
  35. History of Higher Education in Texas. J. J. Lane (1903)
  36. History of Higher Education in Maine. Edward W. Hall (1903)

Image Source: Cropped from portrait of Herbert Baxter Adams ca. 1890s. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

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Bryn Mawr Economists Gender Harvard Stanford Tufts

Radcliffe/Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumna. Maxine Yaple Sweezy, 1940.

 

In our continuing series of Get-to-Know-an-Economics-Ph.D., we meet a Radcliffe Ph.D. from 1940, Maxine Yaple Sweezy. Her dissertation was on the Nazi economy and incidentally she was the first wife of the American Marxian economist, Paul Sweezy. This post adds a few details about her life (she was a debater at Stanford) and career (minimum wage work). I take particular pride in finding youthful pictures of this economist of yore.

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Greatest Hit

In his historical retrospective of the concept of “privatization”,  Germà Bel identifies Maxine Yaple Sweezy’s published Radcliffe dissertation, The Structure of the Nazi Economy (1941), as having introduced “reprivatization” into the vocabulary of economic policy.

Source: Bel, Germà. The Coining of “Privatization” and Germany’s National Socialist Party. Journal of Economic Perspectives. Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer, 2006), p 189.

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Encyclopedia entry

Pack, Spencer J. “Maxine Bernard Yaple Sweezy Woolston” in A Biographical Dictionary of Women Economists, Robert W. Dimand, Mary Ann Dimand and Evelyn L. Forget (eds.). Cheltenham UK and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar, 2000. pp. 472-475

Pack lists the following schools where Maxine Y. Woolston taught: Sarah Lawrence, Tufts, Vassar, Simmons, Haverford, Swarthmore, Wellesley, University of Pennsylvania, University of New Haven, with Bryn Mawr as the longest position.

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Basic life data

Born. 16 September 1912 [in Missouri].

Source: Social Security Claims Index, 1936-2007.

First marriage: Paul M. Sweezy and Maxine Yaple were married 21 March 1936 in Manhattan, New York.

Source: New York City Department of Records/Municipal Archives. Index to New York City Marriages, 1866-1937.

Second marriage:  to William Jenks Woolston, lawyer (b. 30 Jan. 1908, d. 25 Dec. 1964) [date of marriage: 11 Mar 1944]

Source: Family Tree “Morris, Wells and collateral lines” at ancestry.com, though date of marriage is unsourced there and could not be verified.

Death. 29 April 2004. Last residence: New Haven, Ct.

Source: Social Security Claims Index, 1936-2007.

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American Economic Association Membership Listing, 1957

Woolston, Maxine Yaple, (Mrs. W. J.), R. 2 Harts Lane, Conshohocken, Pa. (1953) Bryn Mawr Col., lecturer, teach.; b. 1912; A.B., 1934, M.A., 1935, Stanford; Ph.D., 1939, Radcliffe Col. Fields 14bd, 12ab, 2. Doc. Dis. Nazi economic policies. Pub. Economic program for American economy (Vanguard Press, 1938); Structure of Nazi economy (Harvard Univ. Press, 1941); La Economia Nacional Socialista (translation) (Stackpole, 1954). Res. Wages at the turning points. Dir. Amer. Men of Sci. III.

Source:  The American Economic Review, Vol. 47, No. 4, Handbook of the American Economic Association (Jul., 1957), p. 329

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Women’s Debate Team at Stanford

From the 1932 Stanford yearbook page on the Women’s debate team: sometime around the end of February, 1932 Maxine Yaple and Lucile Smith debated with a team from the College of the Pacific the resolution “The United States should enact legislation provided socialized medical service”.

In 1933 a debating section of (male) athletes was assembled and in their second debate (“Resolved, That a separate college for women should be stablished at Stanford”) with Helen Ray and Maxine Yaple constituting the Women’s Team was called a draw.

For the source of the pictures used for this post, see the Image Source below.

Research Tip:  The Stanford Daily student newspaper archive.  Search on her last name “Yaple“.

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“Maiden” publication in the AER

Yaple, Maxine. The Burden of Direct Taxes as Paid by Income Classes. American Economic Review, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Dec., 1936), pp. 691-710.

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Rebecca A. Greene Fellowship at Radcliffe

Maxine Yaple Sweezy, A.B. (Stanford Univ.) 1933, A.M. (ibid.) 1934. Subject, Economics.

Source: Report of the President of Radcliffe College, 1936-37, p. 17.

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Political Book:  An Economic Program for American Democracy

Contributors: Richard V. Gilbert; George H. Hildebrand Jr. ; Arthur W. Stuart; Maxine Yaple Sweezy ; Paul M. Sweezy; Lorie Tarshis and John D. Wilson. New York: Vanguard Press, 2nd printing, 1938

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Teaching appointment at Tufts

Mrs. Paul Sweezy (Maxine Yaple) has been appointed instructor in the department of economics at Tufts College for the year 1938-1939.

Source: Notes. American Economic Review, Vol. 28, No. 2 (June, 1938), p. 438.

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Economics at Radcliffe, 1939
(from the yearbook)

“Don’t you think he’s a little radical?”, a girl asked her tutor about one of his colleagues in the Ec. Department. The tutor roared with laughter and gave her The Coming Struggle for Power [by John Strachey, London, 1932] to read.

Ec. Professors like to refer to their colleagues and then tear into their arguments. They should have a contest sometime to see whose masterpiece could withstand concentrated criticism. We enjoyed Mason’s reference to his “friend”. We’ve entered with glee on Chamberlin’s campaign to exterminate the word “imperfect” competition and we almost had hysterics over William’s blasting of all economists from Keynes to Hajek [sic].

The life of the Ec. Professors is constantly being interrupted by the press. The Crimson demanded a profound statement on the effect of import duties on German goods before they would let Galbraith go back to sleep in the middle of the night. Since a group collaborated on a book called An Economic Program for American Democracy, “seven men and a blonde” is the favorite characterization of the Ec. Department by the press. The blonde is Mrs. Paul Sweezy.

Source: Radcliffe College. Upon a Typical Year… Thirty and Nine. Cambridge, MA (1939).

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First article carved from dissertation research

Maxine Yaple Sweezy. Distribution of Wealth and Income under the Nazis. Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Nov., 1939), pp. 178-184.

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Radcliffe A.M. conferred in June, 1939.

Source: Report of the President of Radcliffe College, 1938-39, p. 20.

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Ph.D. conferred in February, 1940

Maxine Yaple Sweezy, A.M.

Subject, Economics. Special Field, Industrial Organization and Control. Dissertation, “Nazi Economic Policies.”

 

Source: Report of the President of Radcliffe College, 1939-40, p. 22.

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Second article carved from dissertation research

Maxine Yaple Sweezy. German Corporate Profits: 1926-1938. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 54, No. 3 (May, 1940), pp. 384-398.

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Published Dissertation

Maxine Yaple Sweezy. The Structure of the Nazi Economy. Harvard studies in monopoly and competition, no. 4. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941.

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Vassar and then OPA

Maxine Y. Sweezy, assistant professor of economics at Vassar College, is on leave for the year 1942-43 to serve as senior economist for the Office of Price Administration in Washington.

Source: Notes. The American Economic Review, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Dec., 1942), p. 964.

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Bryn Mawr and Philadelphia City Planning Commission

“The Social Economy Department also has one new member, Miss Maxine Woolston Ph.D. Radcliffe and member of the City Planning Commission, Philadelphia, has entered the department as Lecturer.”

Source: The College News, Ardmore and Bryn Mawr, PA., Wednesday, October 9, 1946, p. 2.

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Return [?] to Bryn Mawr

Maxine Y. Woolston has been appointed lecturer in political economy at Bryn Mawr College for the current year.

Source: Notes. The American Economic Review, Vol. 40, No. 1 (March, 1950), p. 266.

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Publications in 1950

Economic Base Study of Philadelphia, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, 1950.

World Economic Development and Peace, American Association of University Women. Washington, D.C.: 1950. [30 pages]

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Course at Haverford

Maxine Woolston to Give Course “Urban Planning”

Sociology 38, a study of the modern urban community, will be taught this semester by Dr. Maxine (William Jenks) Woolston. Mrs. Woolston comes to Haverford from Bryn Mawr College with experience both as an educator and as a public administrator.

Planning Commissioner

She is currently a consultant for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, and was a member of that commission from 1945 to 1948. During the five years previous Dr. Woolston served in turn with the OPA, the Foreign economic Administration, and the American Association of University Women.

Dr. Woolston received her A.B. and M.A. degrees in History at Stanford University in 1934. The following two years she attended the London School of Economics. In 1940 [sic] she went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and earned degrees of M.A. and Ph.D. in economics at Radcliffe-Harvard.

Source: Haverford News. Tuesday, February 13, 1951, p. 1.

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Textbook

Maxine Y. Woolston. Basic Information on the American Economy. Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1953. [186 pages]

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Minimum Wage Commission for Restaurant, Hotel, and Motel industries

“The state Labor and Industry Department has named a new nine-member board to recommend minimum wage rates for women and minors employed in the restaurant hotel and motel industries”. Dr. Maxine Woolston, of Bryn Mawr College and Mrs. Sadie T. M. Alexander, Philadelphia attorney were public representatives.

Source: The Daily Courier, Connellsville, PA, 16 July 1958, p. 1.

 

Image Sources: Maxine Yaple, portrait from Stanford University Quad Yearbook, 1932. Page. 160. Standing picture from the 1933 yearbook, p. 152.

 

 

Categories
Economists Harvard Tufts

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Richard Vincent Gilbert, 1930

 

Richard Vincent Gilbert was encountered in an earlier post as one of two Jewish job market candidates being recommended for academic appointments by Harvard’s economics department in 1929. This post provides futher biographical and career information for R. V. Gilbert, a 1930 Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus. His parents were Meyer Goldberg and Feigel (Fanny) Gaylburd. I presume he chose to change his name to Gilbert from Goldberg to blend in better with his U.S. academic environs. [Cf., The Harvard economist Abram Bergson was born to Isaac and Sophie Burkowsky whose last name morphed to Burk and only after the publication of his famous welfare economics article in the QJE, did Abram Burk become Abram Bergson.]

Richard Vincent Gilbert and his wife, Emma Cohen Gilbert, were the parents of one of the three winners of the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1980, Walter Myron Gilbert.

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PhD Exams of Richard Vincent Gilbert, 1927

General Examination: in Economics, Wednesday, February 9, 1927.

Committee: Professors Young (chairman), Crum, Monroe, Usher, and Woods.

Academic History: University of Pennsylvania, 1919-20; Harvard College, 1920-23; Harvard Graduate School, 1923-. B.S., Harvard, 1923; M.A., Harvard, 1925. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1923-.

General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Money and Banking. 3. Statistics. 4. Economic History since 1776. 5. History of Ancient Philosophy. 6. Theory of International Trade.

Special Subject: Theory of International Trade.

Thesis Subject: Theory of International Trade. (With Professor Taussig.)

 

Source:Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1926-1927”.

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PhD Dissertation of Richard Vincent Gilbert

Harvard, Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.

Thesis title: Theory of International Payments.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1929-1930, p. 119.

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Obituary for R.V. Gilbert
F.D.R. Economics Adviser (d. 6 Oct 1985)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Richard V. Gilbert, an economics adviser in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Administration, has died at home at age 83.

He had been ill with cancer and suffered a heart attack 10 days before his death last Sunday.

Gilbert served as a speechwriter for Roosevelt on economic issues during World War II. Economist Walter Salant of the Brookings Institution in Washington once called Gilbert “the outstanding, unsung hero of American wartime economic policy.”

He is credited, along with economist Robert Nathan, with persuading Roosevelt to boost aircraft and tank production and to accelerate merchant shipping.

Gilbert left teaching posts at Harvard University, Radcliffe and the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University to become economic adviser in 1939 to Secretary of Commerce Harry Hopkins. He went on to become economic adviser to the price administrator and director of research in the Office of Price Administration.

Source: Associated Press, from the Los Angeles Times (October 13, 1985).

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Biographical Note for the Richard V. Gilbert Papers at the FDR Presidential Library

Richard Vincent Gilbert was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 6, 1902 and educated at Harvard University where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1931 [sic, 1930].

As a member of the Harvard faculty from 1924 to 1939, Gilbert taught courses in economic history and money and banking and participated in the Fiscal Policy Seminar at Littauer School of Public Administration, 1937- 39. He also taught courses in money and banking at Radcliffe College and international trade and finance at the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy from 1934 to 1939.

In 1939 and 1940, Gilbert was the Director of the Division of Industrial Economics and Economic Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce. He then became Director of the Defense Economics Section of the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply (formerly the Price Stabilization Division of the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense), Economic Advisor to the Administration, and, from 1941 to 1946, Director of Research for the Office of Price Administration. He was a consulting economist from 1946 to 1949 and then joined Schenley Industries, Inc. as an Assistant to the Chairman of the Board. He later became a Vice President of the company.

Dr. Gilbert is the author of numerous articles and, with others [George H. Hildebrand Jr., Arthur W. Stuart, Maxine Yaple Sweezy, Paul M. Sweezy, Lorie Tarshis, and John D. Wilson], wrote a book entitled An Economic Program for American Democracy, which was published in 1938.

The papers of Richard V. Gilbert cover the period 1939 to 1948, during most of which he was a Federal Government employee. With few exceptions, the papers consist of official correspondence, memoranda, speech drafts, reports, and printed matter. Since Gilbert and his associates collaborated on the numerous reports and speech drafts written for the use of their agency and others, the authorship of certain items is unclear. For this reason, reports and speech drafts are generally filed with the records of the agency for which Gilbert was working at the time. The papers have been arranged in a single alphabetical series.

Died 6 October 1985 in Cambridge, Mass.

Source:  Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum. Richard V. Gilbert Papers, 1939-1948. Collection Historical Note

Image Source: Gilbert’s senior year picture in the Harvard Class Album, 1923.

Categories
Exam Questions Suggested Reading Syllabus Tufts

Tufts/Fletcher. International Economics, Readings and Final Exam. Samuelson, 1944

 

 

During the mid-1940s Paul Samuelson regularly taught courses at Tufts University in international economics and policy. Transcribed below are two reading lists and a final exam from the second term of the 1943-44 academic year. All the material comes from a single folder but at least the sections of the reading lists match well the exam questions for international economics so we can be reasonably sure that they belong together for Samuelson’s course at the Fletcher School. Unlike international economics courses today that typically start with real trade theory and commercial policy and then move on to international monetary/macroeconomics, the sequence in this course was clearly reversed. Also interesting to note that the first reading list here is nearly identical to that from M.I.T. from February 1943.

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READING LIST
January, 1944
P. A. Samuelson

Asterisks indicate required reading, other items suggested reading.

  1. NATIONAL INCOME, EMPLOYMENT & PRODUCTION

M. Gilbert, “War Expenditures & National Production,” Survey of Current Business, March, 1942.
S. S. Kuznets, National Income & Its Composition, 1919-1938, Vol. I.
W. L. Crum, J. F. Fennelly, L. J. Seltzer, Fiscal Planning for Total War.
S. Fabricant, Productivity of American Manufacturing Industries.
Federal Reserve Board Bulletin, August & September, 1940.
R. A. Nixon & P. A. Samuelson, “Estimates of Unemployment in the U. S.,” Review of Economic Statistics, August, 1940.

  1. NATURE OF BUSINESS CYCLE

(*) A. H. Hansen, Fiscal Policy & Business Cycles, Ch. 1-4.
(*) Wesley C. Mitchell, Business Cycles, 1941 Reprint of 1913 Edition, Ch. V, Part I.
(*) J. P. Wernette, The Control of Business Cycles, pp. 3-23 and Conclusion.
(*) J. R. Meade & H. Hitch, Economic Analysis & Policy, Ch. I.
(*) G. Haberler, Prosperity & Depression, Ch. IX, I & II.
(*) S. H. Slichter, Towards Stability, Ch. I.
A. H. Hansen, Business Cycle Theory, Chs. I, II, IV, & VI.
S. H. Slichter, Towards Stability, Chs. II & IV.
G. Haberler, Prosperity & Depression, any part, especially Ch. 8.
S. Harris, Postwar Economic Problems, Chs. by Hansen, Samuelson, Bissell and Kindleberger.

  1. SAVING AND INVESMENT

(*) Joan Robinson, Introduction to the Theory of Employment.
(*) T.N.E.C. testimony of Hansen and Currie.
(*) A. H. Hansen, Fiscal Policy, Chs. 11, 12, 15 & 24.
(*) L. V. Chandler, Introduction to Monetary Theory, Chs. VI & VII.
O. Altman, T.N.E.C. Monograph #37, Saving & Investment.

  1. THE PROPENSITY TO IMPORT & THE FOREIGN TRADE MULTIPLIER

(*) R. F. Harrod, International Economics, (Rev. Ed.) Ch. 6, 7, (8 & 9 optional).
(*) W. A. Salant, “Foreign Trade Policy in the Business Cycle,” in Public Policy II (editor E. S. Mason).
(*) J. M. Keynes, General Theory, Preface, Chs. 23 & 24.
(*) F. Machlup, International Trade & the National Income Multiplier, Chs. I-IV, IX.
I. DeVegh, Review of Economic Statistics, 1940.
C. Clark & J. Crawford, National Income of Australia.
L. Metzler, Journal of Political Economy, 1942.

  1. INTERNATIONAL PROPAGATION OF BUSINESS CYCLES

(*) G. Haberler, Prosperity & Depression, Ch. XII, pp. 455-473.
(*) J. Viner, Studies, pp. 432-436.
(*) League of Nations, Annual Survey, 1939-40.
(*) Sir A. Salter, Recovery, pp. 27-66, (101-195 optional).
R. Bennett, National Bureau, manuscript.
P. Einzig, Bankers, Statesmen & Economists.
League of Nations, B. Ohlin, Course & Phases of the World Economic Depression, especially pp. 116-215.
O. Morgenstern, Journal of Political Economy, August, 1943, “On the International Spread of Business Cycles.”

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[Handwritten note: “Fletcher”]

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
Reading List
March, 1944

  1. Mercantilism

Viner, Studies, Chs. I and II.
E. F. Heckscher, Mercantilism, Vol. I, Introduction, Vol. II, Chs. I and II of Part II.
A. Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chs. I and II, Introduction, and glance through Ch. VIII.

  1. Tariffs and Import Quotas

G. Haberler, Theory of International Trade, pp. 169-174, and Chs. XV, XVI, XVII, XX, XXI.
F.W. Taussig, Some Aspects of the Tariff Question, Part I and one other part of your own choosing.
Sir W. Beveridge and others, Tariffs: The Case Examined, Chs. II-XI.
H. Heuser, Control of International Trade, Chs. I, II, V, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII, and pp. 150-151, 155-156, 158-159, 161-162.

  1. Exchange Control and Trade Agreements

P. Einzig, Exchange Control, Chs. I, II, VII, X, XI, XII, XIII, XVIII.
P. Einzig, Economic Warfare, Chs. VI, IX, X, XI.
H. S. Ellis, Exchange Control in Central Europe, Chs. I, IV, V.
Hearings before the Ways and Means Committee on Extension of Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, 76th Congress, 3rd Session, H.J. Res. 407 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1940), Vol. I. Go through testimony of Hull (4-15, 31-33), Wallace (116-122, 125, 142-143), Noble (169-171), Fox (491-503), Grady (713-750, 899-910) and anything else that interests you.

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ECONOMICS 1
Final Examination
May 18, 1944
Professor Samuelson

3 hours
Answer 3 out of 4 questions

  1. To what extent has the business cycle been international? Discuss the mechanisms whereby the cycle may be transmitted between countries.
  2. Analyze the pros and cons of one of the advantages claimed for the tariff, with specific reference to some American industry.
  3. Describe the successive steps by which a country extends exchange control. What problems is each designed to meet?
  4. Bring to bear the tools of analysis developed in this course upon some anticipated postwar problem of international economic relations.

 

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Paul Samuelson Papers, 1930s-2009, Box 33, Folder “Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1944-1947”.

Image Source:  Paul Samuelson faculty photo in MIT Technique 1950.