As social scientific life evolved, economics and sociology were still swimming in the same tidal pool at the end of the 19th century, and they weren’t even the only marine life there. History and political science were an integral part of the ecosystem too. Edward Cummings of Harvard is not only interesting as a pioneer of U.S. academic sociology when it was regarded a sub-field of political economy/economics, he and his wife, Rebecca Haswell Clarke, spawned the poet Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962), a.k.a. “E.E. Cummings“.
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Cambridge Tribune, August 25, 1900
Prof. Cummings Called
Is Asked to Take the Associate Pastorship
of South Congregational Church—He Will
Accept, It is Said
At a special meeting of the South Congregational society of Boston in Channing hall, Unitarian building, last Monday afternoon, it was unanimously decided to extend a call to Professor Edward Cummings of the economics department of the university, to the associate pastorship of the South Congregational church. Dr. Edward Everett Hale will remain pastor emeritus of the church and society. It is certain that Professor Cummings will accept the charge and the members of the society regard his coming as a considerable victory for the church as against sociological work, to which Professor Cummings has been so devoted.
Professor Cummings has never been ordained in any church, and his change from the Harvard professorship to the pulpit of Dr. Hale’s church is an interesting one. It is expected that he will be ordained at the South-Congregational church about October 1.
The following interview with Professor Cummings, who is at Madison, N. H., for the summer, was printed in a Boston paper Wednesday morning:
“I shall accept the call; in fact, provided the corporation took favorable action, this was practically an understood thing long ago. It will be, in a sense, a sacrifice for me, as it comes in; my sabbatical year, and I had intended to publish a volume, perhaps two volumes, during this year. My sabbatical year came last year, and I had several offers of churches, but then came a postponement for a year. I had planned to go abroad and to work with a friend, an Oxford man. Now I see no leisure in prospect sufficient to admit of doing this work.”
Professor Cummings graduated at Harvard in the class of 1883. As an undergraduate he was an enthusiastic student of philosophy, history and economics, and already keenly interested in the practical as well as the theoretical aspects of those social, industrial and philanthropic problems which were destined within the next few years to gain academic standing with marvellous and unexpected rapidity under the comprehensive title of sociology.
Convinced then, as now, that the liberal ministry offered the most hopeful and inspiring opportunity for social service, he entered the divinity school of Harvard University in 1883. He was a member of the divinity school for two years. In 1885 he received from the university the degree of A.M.
Two years of divinity school training persuaded him of the absolute necessity of giving greater attention to the study of sociological problems as a preparation for the actual work of the liberal ministry. He therefore withdrew from the divinity school in 1885, and continued his preparation in the graduate department of the university, giving a portion of his time as instructor in the department of English to teaching rhetoric and argumentative composition.
A significant step in advancing the academic status of sociological study; was the foundation at Harvard in 1887 of the Robert Treat Paine Fellowship in Social Science. Mr. Cummings was the first incumbent of this foundation. As Paine Fellow In Social Science, he continued his sociological studies in Europe for three years, travelling extensively in England. Scotland. France, Italy and Germany. He made a comparative study of the social and economic condition of wage earners in different countries; examined the methods, and effectiveness of diverse philanthropic agencies; investigated with special care such self-help movements as trade unionism, co-operation, and friendly societies, no less than the meliorative institutions created by employers and by the state.
In the winter of 1888-89 he was an active resident of Toynbee hall, Whitechapel, London. At the Paris exposition of 1889 he was delegate to several international congresses.
The sudden and almost world-wide interest in both the theoretical and the practical aspects of sociology a decade ago, and the equally sudden efforts of the universities to meet the popular demand for instruction in this newly recognized department of science, brought with it an embarrassment of opportunities for those who had any claim to be regarded as specialists in this direction, and eventually divested Mr. Cummings from his original plan of practical work. He continued his investigations, however, in France. Italy and Germany till the spring of 1891 —including studies at the Sorbonne, the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, and the University of Berlin.
In 1891, having declined a tempting invitation to take charge of a sociological experiment in London, he accepted an appointment as instructor in sociology at Harvard University. Two years later an assistant professorship of sociology was established, and Mr. Cummings has since filled this chair, taking some part in the introductory teaching in economics, but devoting himself especially to courses dealing with theoretical sociology, labor questions and socialism.
Professor Cummings had been granted the customary Sabbatical leave of absence on half pay for the year 1900-01. It was his original intention—if the present unexpected and exceptional opportunity for carrying out a cherished plan of practical work had not presented itself —to devote the coming year to the elaboration of a couple of volumes, embodying some of the results of his sociological work.
During his professorship at Harvard he has been one of the editors of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and many of his contributions to the literature of trade unionism, co-operation, arbitration, university settlements and socialism have appeared in that periodical, and some have been reprinted for the use of university students.
Outside the university, Professor Cummings is known both as a lecturer and as a practical worker. He has served on the board of directors of the Boston Associated Charities for several years: is secretary of the mayor’s advisory committee on the penal aspects of drunkenness, which by means of printed reports, public discussions and legislative hearings has recently convinced the public and the Massachusetts legislature of the necessity of extending the probation system and making other reforms in the penal system. During the past winter and spring he gave a course of lectures on the Adin Ballou foundation at the Meadville Theological Seminary, and a series of five lectures in the South course, on the industrial revolution of the 19th century, not to mention addresses delivered before the Free Religious Congress, and numerous other bodies.
With all his interest in non-academic affairs, Professor Cummings is an enthusiastic teacher, who feels the work of teacher and preacher closely allied, and he has eagerly welcomed his opportunities to influence the student parish of young men and women who have come under his instruction in Harvard University and Radcliffe College. He has given much attention to the deeper and much neglected problems of life and education which beset a great and loosely organized student community: and not a little of his interest and energy has, from the first, avowedly been given to the cultivation of those personal, friendly relationships which extend beyond the formal intercourse of the classroom to the hospitality of the home.
He turns again to the work of the ministry after these years of academic experience, more than ever convinced of the inspiring opportunities which it presents for social service, and confident that the teachings of science, whether of political economy, biology or sociology, serve only to reinforce the fundamental teachings of ethics and religion.
Professor Cummings has for many years been an affectionate and enthusiastic admirer of Dr. Edward Everett Hale, and the present arrangement by which he takes up his work as Dr. Hale’s associate is a source of great personal satisfaction.
Source: Cambridge Tribune, Volume XXIII, Number 25, 25 August 1900, p. 2.