Labor economics was already an established applied field in the Harvard economics department at the dawn of the twentieth century. William Zebina Ripley covered big labor and big business in separate courses.
The photo above shows my grandfather (left), seen here working on the railroad.
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Problems of Labor:
previous semesters
1902-03
1903-04
1904-05
1905-06
1906-07
1907-08
(Some information about Lauren Carroll,
Ripley’s teaching assistant for this course)
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Course Description
1908-09
9a 1hf. Problems of Labor. Half-course (first half-year). Tu.,
Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Professor Ripley.
This course will deal mainly with the economic and social relations of employer and employed, with especial reference to legislation. Among the topics included will be, —collective bargaining; labor organizations; factory legislation in the United States and Europe; strikes, strike legislation and legal decisions; conciliation and arbitration; employers’ liability and compulsory compensation; compulsory insurance with particular reference to European experience; the problem of the unemployed; apprenticeship, and trade and technical education.
Each student will make at least one report upon a labor union, from the original documents. Two lectures a week, with one recitation, will be the usual practice.
Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. V, No. 19
(1 June 1908). History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1908-09,
p. 54-55.
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Course Enrollment
1908-09
Economics 9a 1hf. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Carroll. — Problems of Labor.
Total 80: 4 Graduates, 24 Seniors, 30 Juniors, 13 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 8 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1908-1909, p. 68.
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ECONOMICS 9a1
Mid-Year Examination, 1908-09
- If A does only two-thirds of a full day’s work for a day’s pay, is not a corresponding amount of work left over for B? What is the economic fallacy involved?
- What are the main arguments against the principle of the Workmen’s Compensation Acts? State these in the form of propositions, with the counter argument in each case.
- What was the justification in the then-existing conditions for the adoption by the courts of the “fellow servant” doctrine? Wherein does it fail to harmonize with present-day conditions?
- State the main characteristics of the legislation which has resulted from the Taff Vale decision.
- How far does the non-union man resemble the independent voter in politics in status? What, if any, is the defect in the parallel?
- State in brief sentences, the differences between the New Zealand and the Victorian types of labor legislation.
- Describe the main features of American trade union finance, contrasting it with British conditions.
- In the unions concerning which you have most information, what seem to you the most serious evils or abuses? What remedy do you suggest?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1909), pp. 41-42.
Image Source: An old family photo colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. My maternal grandpa is the man on the left.