James Laurence Laughlin (1850-1933) was the founding head of the Department of Political Economy at the University of Chicago. One earlier post provided a mid-career biographical sketch of Laughlin and another his proposal at Cornell to expand the economics course offerings. Also of interest is his list of suggested titles for a personal library of economics as of 1887.
When compared to the notes submitted to the respective Harvard Class Secretaries, Frank W. Taussig (Class of 1879) or Robert Franz Foerster (Class of 1909), Laughlin appears to have had a less intense filial attachment to his alma mater.
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1879
JAMES LAWRENCE [sic] LAUGHLIN.
Secretary has heard nothing from him. At last accounts he was teaching school in Boston
Source: The Second Triennial Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1873 of Harvard College. Boston, Geo. H. Ellis Press, Commencement 1879. Page 18.
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1883
JAMES LAWRENCE [sic] LAUGHLIN.
Received degree of Ph. D. from Harvard in 1876 and was appointed instructor in Political Economy in 1878. Has been made Assistant Professor in the same department the current year. Has been a contributor to the “Atlantic,” “International,” etc. Was married September 9, 1875, to Alice McGuffey of Cincinnati. A daughter, Agatha, was born January 3, 1880, and his wife died January 11, 1880.
Source: The Third Triennial Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1873 of Harvard College. Newport, Davis & Pitman, Commencement 1883. Page 17.
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1885
JAMES LAWRENCE [sic] LAUGHLIN.
Assistant professor of political economy at Cambridge. Has published ” Laughlin’s Mill’s Political Economy,” and written a few magazine articles. Was married to Miss H. M. Pitman, Sept. 4, 1883.
Source: The Fourth Triennial Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1873 of Harvard College. Boston, Rand, Avery, & Co., Commencement 1885. Page 14.
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1888
JAMES LAURENCE LAUGHLIN.
626 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. “I have written a new book : ‘The Elements of Political Economy; with some applications to Questions of the Day,’ in 1887, and it has gone into a second edition. ‘Gold and Prices since 1873;’ a study on the so-called appreciation of gold, etc., etc. My ‘History of Bimetalism,’ has gone into its second edition; and my edition of ‘Mill,’ into its fourth or fifth. I have resigned my position in Cambridge, and
have come to Philadelphia to take the management of an Insurance Co., the ‘Philadelphia Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Co.;’ but shall continue my economic writing.”
Source: The Fifth Triennial Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1873 of Harvard College. Boston, S. J. Parkhill & Co., Commencement 1888. Page 21.
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1891
JAMES LAWRENCE [sic] LAUGHLIN.
“I am Professor of Political Economy and Finance at Cornell University and see Jack White every day. These are my two distinctions since last writing.”[…]
HORATIO STEVENS WHITE.
“I have just finished my third year as Dean of the Faculty. This spring I was called to the chair of Germanic languages in the new Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. The trustees here meanwhile appointed me as head of the German department with an increase in salary. The California offer however remains open, and I shall visit the Pacific coast next winter and study the situation on the spot before coming to a final decision. Our Faculty baseball nine, which has been organized for several years, continues to win a majority of its games with various student clubs. The chair of Political Economy left vacant by the resignation of Professor E. B. Andrews, who was elected President of the Brown University, has been filled by the appointment of our classmate Laughlin, who has occupied the position this year with general acceptance. As a result of his efforts the trustees have decided to appoint an associate professor in the department, to establish two special fellowships in Political Economy, and to place at his disposal a generous publication fund. The University is to be congratulated upon this able contribution which ’73 has thus made to our Faculty.”
Source: The Sixth Triennial Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1873 of Harvard College. Boston, S. J. Parkhill & Co., Commencement 1891. Pp. 19, 39.
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1898
JAMES LAWRENCE [sic] LAUGHLIN.
5747 Lexington Ave., Chicago, I11. Taught school in Boston, and took degree of Ph.D. at Cambridge in 1876. Was appointed instructor in Political Economy at Harvard in 1878 and Assistant Professor in 1883. In 1888 he was in Philadelphia, where he had the management of the Philadelphia Manufacturers’ Mutual Fire Insurance Co. Subsequently he was Professor of Political Economy and Finance at Cornell, and is now at Chicago University in a similar capacity. He has devoted much time to writing on political economy and finance, and has published some important books on those subjects.
Source: The Seventh Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1873 of Harvard College Issued upon the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Graduation. Boston, S. J. Parkhill & Co., Commencement 1898. Page 23.
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1905
JAMES LAWRENCE [sic] LAUGHLIN.
Since 1892 he has been Head Professor of the department of Political Economy in the University of Chicago. For some years he has been editor of the “Journal of Political Economy.” He served on the Monetary Commission appointed by the Indianapolis Convention of Boards of Trade, in 1898, and was entrusted with the preparation of the report which appeared in a volume of six hundred and eight pages. In 1894 he was invited to prepare a currency law for Santo Domingo. The visit to the island on a special steamer, the negotiations with the government, the enactment of the law and its provisions, were subsequently published in the “Journal of Political Economy.” In 1902 he published the first volume of a magnum opus on money. This volume, “The Principles of Money,” will be followed by five succeeding volumes “when time is granted to finish them.” In addition to this work he has written many books and articles treating of the various phases of his specialty in this and other countries.
Source: The Eight Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1873 Harvard. Boston, Rockwell and Churchill Press, Commencement 1905. Pp. 23-4.
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1913
JAMES LAURENCE LAUGHLIN.
Is at the head of the Department of Political Economy at Chicago, and an authority on finance whose reputation is world-wide. At the Three Hundredth Jubilee of the University of Giessen, Germany, in 1907, he was given an Honorary Doctorate. He writes:
“Any modest member of the Class of 1873 does not feel that he has done anything worth reporting. In 1906 I was appointed by the German Kultus Ministerium an exchange professor from the University of Chicago to Berlin. I lectured in German before the Vereinigung für Staatswissenschaftliche Fortbildung, and also in Cologne, as well as at the University of Berlin. In the winter of 1908-09, I was one of two delegates (the other being Professor A. A. Michaelson, the recipient of a Nobel Prize) to the Scientific Congress of all American Republics in Santiago, Chile. I crossed the Andes, visiting Argentina, and came home by the east coast. In June, 1911, I was given leave of absence from the University in order to take charge of the nation-wide campaign to obtain a reconstruction of our currency and banking system. In this work I was chairman of the Executive Committee of the National Citizens’ League for the promotion of a sound banking system. The results of this campaign are now apparent. Not only is there an insistent and intelligent public opinion demanding reform, but the new administration is ready to put a satisfactory measure through Congress. It now looks as if the purpose of this campaign was certainly attained. Of course I have been guilty off and on of publishing some books and articles, but they are not as good as I should like to have them, and when I get to the next world I am going to revise them and make them just what they ought to be for an audience that I hope will not yet be made up very largely of the Class of 1873. For I hope that the surviving members of the class will long be here after I have departed.”
Source: The Ninth Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1873 Harvard. Boston, Rockwell and Churchill Press, Commencement 1913. Pp. 25-6.
Image Source: Clipped from printed speech given at the 78th meeting of The Sunset Club at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, December 6, 1894 found in Laughlin, James Laurence. Papers, [Box 1, Folder 17], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.