This posting offers the special examination questions for labor economics and social reform. Socialist themes can be seen to have played a much greater role in 1939 than later in the 20th century.
Concentrators in Economics will have to pass in the spring their Junior year a general examination on the department of Economics, and in the spring of their Senior year an examination correlating Economics with either History or Government (this correlating exam may be abolished by 1942), and a third one on the student’s special field, which is chosen from a list of eleven, including economic theory, economic history, money and banking, industry, public utilities, public finance, labor problems, international economics, policies and agriculture.
Courses in allied fields, including Philosophy, Mathematics, History, Government, and Sociology, are suggested by the department for each of the special fields. In addition, Geography 1 is recommended in connection with international policies or agriculture.
[Source: Harvard Crimson, May 31, 1938]
A printed copy of questions for twelve A.B. examinations in economics at Harvard for the academic year 1938-39 can be found in the Lloyd A. Metzler papers at Duke’s Economists’ Papers Project.
- One Departmental Examination from the Department of Economics.
- Five Division Special Examinations.
Economic Theory,
Economic History Since 1750,
Money and Finance,
Market Organization and Control,
Labor Economics and Social Reform.
- One of the Six Correlation Examinations given to Honors Candidates. (May 12, 1939; 3 hours)
Economic History of Western Europe since 1750,
American Economic History,
History of Political and Economic Thought,
Public Administration and Finance,
Government Regulation of Industry,
Mathematical Economic Theory.
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Labor Economics and Social Reform
(Three hours)
PART I
(About one hour)
- Write an essay on one of the following topics:
(a) wage theory and collective bargaining,
(b) the functions and ideal qualifications of labor-leaders in present-day America, and your appraisals of several of the men now prominent in this capacity,
(c) the rights and duties of labor and employers,
(d) mobility of labor and the national income and its distribution,
(e) the essentials of an adequate, sound, and feasible program for social security,
(f) the possibilities, methods, and probable results of several types of governmental action to lessen inequalities in the distribution of income,
(g) could a socialist society be a liberal and democratic society?
(h) is there any socialism in German National Socialism?
(i) class-struggle in the United States,
(j) the effects of differences of nationality, race, and religion among American workers on the American labor movement,
(k) the effects of capitalism, and the possible effects of socialism, on population growth,
(l) the role of Marxism in the labor movement, in Europe and in America.
Part II
(About one hour)
Answer two questions. Candidates for honors must answer one starred question.
- (*) “The industrial system of the ‘machine age’ can give the working population reasonably full employment and high wages only in the periods during which a high rate of technical and economic progress is maintained.”
- (*) Discuss the effects upon each other of phases of the business cycle and trade union policies, and the possibilities of the latter as a means of mitigating the cycle.
- Discuss legal limitation of hours of work by individual state with respect to (a) questions of constitutionality and (b) possible economic consequences.
- Discuss the merits of the proposal for a government-guaranteed “annual wage” in the building trades.
- (*) Explain and discuss the main economic problems created in a society by the effects of the declining birth-rate on the distribution of the population among different age-groups.
- (*) “The confident belief of reformers bent on equalizing incomes, that inequalities of economic success are the fault of society and not the result of differences of innate ability, cannot be justified in the face of the relevant evidence and results of common-sense reasoning.”
- Describe the principal features of the development of workmen’s compensation in the United States or in one European country.
- Discuss the achievements and effects of the P. W. A. or of the W. P. A.
- (*) “The organization and mechanism of the socialist economy is almost identical with that of monopolistic corporate capitalism. It is the results which would differ.”
- (*) If a socialist society gave all its members either equal incomes, or incomes proportioned to their needs or to their sacrifices rather than to their productive contributions, do you think that its policy in this respect would interfere with attainment of the most efficient allocation and use of all labor resources? Explain.
- “It is evident that mankind can neither stand pat with the aging Herbert Spencer, nor move on, except to its ruin, with the young men in colored shirts; it’s only hope lies in the creation of a liberal capitalism.”
- Explain and support your opinion of the view that in this country the Communists and all “agitators” on the far-left are unlikely to obtain any ends of their own and are likely, instead, to goad or frighten the business men into setting up a regime of American fascism.
Part III
(About one hour)
Answer two questions.
- “The trade union seems to be the only institution which can prepare us for, or aid us in, social change.”
- “The labor movement owes the support of the rank-and-file of the workers who join it, much less to intelligent pursuit of their own economic interests by the latter as individuals, than to their emotional capacities for blind devotion to an ideology and fighting cause which is to them a class religion.”
- Compare the functions of trade unions under capitalism with the functions they might have in a socialist society.
- In what order of importance do you rank the following objectives of social reform for the benefit of labor: higher real wages; full and steady employment and general security; “industrial democracy” or participation by the workers in the “control” of industry? – Do you think all three objectives are mutually consistent? Explain.
- “The goal of intelligent social reform is neither ‘freedom’ of the businessmen to do as they please, nor of government ‘control’ of them reflecting merely the opposing interests and moral sentiments of other people; but is the co-operation of all citizens under expert guidance based on scientific knowledge of economic geography, of our industrial technology and its possibilities, and of the needs and abilities of all sectors of the population.”
- What is to be learned from the experience of N. R. A. in the United States and of the Front Populaire in France about the possibility of increasing real wages by raising money wages?
- “The increasing organization of interest groups and the resurgent resurgence of mercantilist state regulation of international and domestic markets promise an end of the elaborate economic organization and division of labor and an end of political freedom as well.”
- “The traditional view has been that it is consumers who suffer the chief losses from monopoly, but the fact is that the principle losses fall on labor.”
- What should be the attitude of consistent Communists in this country at the present time toward such popular economic and monetary theories as those of the advocates of the Townsend Plan? Explain.
May 10, 1939.
Source: David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Lloyd A. Metzler Papers, Box 7; [Harvard University], Division of History, Government and Economics, Division Examinations for the Degree of A.B., 1938-39.