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.