Soon I’ll get back to the necessary work of transcribing exams to match remaining courses already entered into Economics in the Rear-View Mirror. While my core three departments (Harvard, Columbia and Chicago) constitute the source of the vast majority of the artifacts gathered thus far, regular visitors will have also noticed an occasional foray into other departments as have struck my fancy.
The next few postings are the result of my recent visit to the Library of Congress where I looked into the papers of the economic statistician Walter F. Willcox of Cornell. Following up, I checked out the digital repository of Cornell, eCommons that I can most highly recommend both to researchers (for historical material) as well as to university archivists (for its structure and user-friendliness).
Among other things I found (and immediately transcribed) the following “snap-shot” of Cornell’s department of political science in 1900 that was made up of three professors who were working on economic theory, policy and statistics. Modern eyes see there an economics department with an interdisciplinary social-scientific scope, not unsimilar to the early School of Political Science at Columbia.
Research Tip: The Cornell Register is an official Cornell University publication containing a record of the personnel and organization for the academic year. PDF copies for 1882-1883 through 1931-32 at the digital repository of Cornell. Page views going back to 1869 from the hathitrust.org collection.
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DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
The Development of the Work—
What is being Accomplished Today.
Political Science has always been considered important at Cornell. President White, in his inaugural address, laid down the principle that “There are two permeating ideas which must enter into the work of the University in all its parts. The first is the need of labor and sacrifice in developing the individual man in all his nature and in all his powers as a being intellectual, moral, and religious. The second of these permeating ideas is that of bringing the powers thus developed to bear upon society. We should provide ample instruction in history, in political and social science and in the modern literature….We would give ample opportunity for those classes of study which give breadth to the mind, and which directly fit the student for dealing with state problems and world problems. In this view, historical studies and studies in political and social science will hold an honored place; but these studies will not be pursued in the interest of any party. On points where honest and earnest men differ, I trust we may have courses of lectures presenting both sides.”
Instruction in this line consisted at first of a course of lectures in Political Economy given during one term of each year by Dr. William D. Wilson, professor of moral and intellectual philosophy. A few years later, Theodore Dwight began a series of lectures on constitutional law, and in 1875 this course was superseded by a series of lectures on the constitution of the United States and American jurisprudence.
The department was formally organized in 1881, when a four years’ course in History and Political Science was established. Graduates from this course received the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in History and Political Science. Courses in systematic politics, public finance, and practical economic questions were added to the curriculum year by year, and in 1887 the departments of History were organized into the President White School of History and Political Science, and a fellowship in political and social science was established. While Professor Laughlin was in charge of the work in economics, in 1890, two fellowships in that field were founded.
In 1891, Professor Jeremiah W, Jenks was called to a chair of municipal, political, and social institutions. The next year, the departments of economics and finance and of political and social institutions were brought under one head. Professors Walter F. Willcox and Charles H. Hull were appointed, with Professor Jenks, to take charge of the work, which is being carried on as a unit, in so far as this is practicable.
Each professor, with his assistants, has charge of some special branch of the work. Professor Jenks gives his time chiefly to the work in politics, political science, and economic legislation; Professor Willcox to social science and statistics; and Professor Hull to political economy and finance. The assistants, Mr. Brooks and Mr. Weston, divide their time between advanced work in economic history and municipal government and the text-book work with the classes beginning the study of economics. In all branches the aim is to make the work of direct, practical value, while not neglecting economic and political theories. Andrew D. White’s idea of presenting both sides of questions is carried out as far as possible. The political questions of the day are treated fully, and students are taught to think impartially and independently. For the last two years the department has invited the most eminent men in business and politics to give lectures before the University. John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of State, has lectured on “Diplomacy;” Charlton T. Lewis, counsel for the Mutual Life Insurance Company, on “Insurance;” W. H. Baldwin, Jr., president of the Long Island Railroad, on “Railroad Management;” and Edward Rosewater, editor of the Omaha Bee, on “Journalism.” A course of lectures on the work of the State departments by prominent State officials has been provided for this year. The object of these lectures is to give the students more accurately the point of the business man and the politician.
The work the professors are doing outside of the department shows that the practical nature of their work is widely recognized. Professor Jenks is now the expert agent of the United States Industrial Commission in their investigation of trusts and monopolies undertaken with the view of recommending legislation on the subject to Congress and the several states. He has had special charge of selecting and examining the witnesses for and against the trusts and of editing the testimony. In this connection, he has collected in one volume the laws of the United States and the different states which concert trusts, with a digest of all the decisions under these statues and leading common law decisions concerning trusts. A second volume will contain the testimony and the economic results of the study. He has, further, been assigned by the Commission the task of investigating the trusts of Europe during the coming summer. This investigation has also led Governor Roosevelt to call him into consultation several times this winter to aid in the preparation of his message and in proposing measures for state legislation concerning trusts and corporations.
The administration wished the national census department to come closely into touch with the universities of the country, and therefore appointed Professor Willcox one of the Chief Statisticians of the census. He is investigating “methods and results” and is planning the methods of taking the census and interpreting the results—the work which, more than any other, calls for breadth of statistical knowledge and soundness of judgment. To him has also been given the task, together with one of his colleagues on the Census, Mr. Gannett, of interpreting and writing up the results of our first Colonial Census, the one lately taken in Porto Rico and Cuba. His interest and experience in practical social questions is shown by his acting for years as a member of the local Board of Health, and by Governor Roosevelt’s appointing him a year ago a member of the State Board of Health. While Professor Willcox is in Washington, his work is ably carried on by Professor Powers, formerly of Leland Stanford University.
Professor Hull has just published one of the most scholarly books produced in this field for a long time. This book, a collection of the works of Sir William Petty, with an introduction and critical annotations, has been very favorably reviewed in all the principle countries of Europe. Beside his accurate scholarship and his remarkable critical acumen, Professor Hull is well known also for his sound judgment and business sense. These qualities have been long recognized by his colleagues in the faculty, of which he is Secretary. Upon earnest solicitation he has acted as President of the Cornell Coöperative Society from the beginning and is perhaps chiefly responsible for its success. For some years he has been Treasurer of the American Economic Association, and at its last meeting that body insisted on making him its Secretary also, thus putting practically all of its business—publishing included—into his hands. The joint committee of the Legislature on taxation submitted to him lately for criticism its new plan of taxation.
The department has been greatly aided in its work by having at its disposal excellent laboratory and library facilities. It has perhaps the best material in reports, apparatus, etc., for work in statistics possessed by any university in the country. It is unusually well equipped in periodical literature and rare books on the history of economics. The library of foreign statues is also large and growing rapidly.
The Seminary, for graduate students only, is carried on jointly by the three professors in the department. Each professor takes special charge of the work of those men whose theses are in his special field, and of the Seminary on days when reports on these theses are in order. Besides the regular thesis work, the Seminary usually has on hand some special subject. This year Colonial governments have been studied, the relations of our government to its dependencies is being considered, in the light of our own history, legal and political, and in that of the leading colonial powers.
The most prominent characteristic of the department throughout is that it has always tried to keep closely in touch with practical work in politics, in government, and in business, in order to prepare its students especially for practical work in life. This does not involve neglect of theory or neglect study of principles; but it does involve the effort to apply these principles to the solution of practical problems; while the experience of teachers in aiding our public men to solve non-partisan questions enables them to judge more soundly regarding what is really practical.
Source: Cornell Alumni News, Vol. II, No. 22 (March 7, 1900), pp. 143-144.
Image: (left to right) Jeremiah W. Jenks, Walter F. Willcox and Charles H. Hull taken from ibid.