This post provides material from William Zebina Ripley’s fifth iteration of his labor economics course at Harvard. A quick search using the usual internet sources that have proven handy for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror picked up a few facts about the teaching assistant for the course who would have been a law student at the time.
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Meet the course teaching assistant
Edwin DeTurck Bechtel.
b. 19 Aug 1880 in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania
d. 4. Jul 1957 in Bedford Four Corners, New York
Home: Calcium, Pennsylvania. High School in Reading, Pennsylvania. Recipient of the Price Greenleaf Scholarship.
Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President, 1901-02, p. 116.
A.B. (Harvard) 1903, A.M. (Harvard) 1904. ― Resident Graduate Student, 1903-04. ― Student of Social Science at Harvard. Continuing his studies in social science in Europe, as Robert Treat Paine Fellow (1903-04).
Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President, 1903-04, p. 157.
Student, Harvard Law School
Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President, 1904-05, p. 161.
Worked for theWall Street law firm Carter, Ledyard & Milburn at least as early as December 1916. Represented American Express in London and Paris for some urgent matter in early 1917. (Passport Application from December 21, 1916: includes a signed statement by his sister that the family settled in Pennsylvania prior to 1750). According to his World War II draft registration form (25 Apr 1942), he was still working at the same Wall Street law firm. He died in Bedford Four Corners, New York on July 4, 1957. He became a noted expert on roses.
Source: Items at the genealogical website ancestry.com.
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Other Labor Related Posts
for William Z. Ripley
Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization, 1902-1903.
Short Bibliography of Trade Unionism, 1910.
Short Bibliography of Strikes and Boycotts, 1910.
Trade Unionism and Allied Problems, 1914-1915.
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Course Enrollment
Economics 9a 1hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. E. DeT. Bechtel. — Problems of Labor.
Total 100: 8 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 33 Juniors, 18 Sophomores, 6 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 71.
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ECONOMICS 9a
Mid-Year Examination, 1906-07
- What is the difference between an “Allied Trades Council” and a “Federal Union”? Where are they to be found respectively, and what are their functions?
- Is there any difference in principle between the British Workmen’s Compensation Act and the German Compulsory Insurance Acts? If so, what is it?
- What are some of the legislative remedies proposed for the abuse of the injunction as applied to labor disputes? Criticise them.
- In what respects are American Industrial conditions different from those of the Australian colonies? Do these explain the differences in labor legislation in part? If so, how?
- What are the two most tangible results of the Australian labor legislation? Explain how they have come about.
- In the Higgling of the Market to determine rates of income, what are some of the advantages, or “bulwarks” as Webb styles them, which are enjoyed by the employer? What offsets has the workman?
- In what different ways may the non-union man be dealt with in Collective Bargains? Instance concrete examples.
- State briefly, but without discussion, three points in favor of, and three arguments against the German Compulsory Insurance Acts.
- What is the attitude of Trade Unionists in general toward incorporation? What substitute for incorporation, which will accomplish the same purpose, can you suggest?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07.