Departmental meetings with cocktails! What could possibly go wrong? Paul Sweezy wrote the following memo that outlined his scheme to collect revenue to balance the budget of the Harvard economic department’s “Cocktail Committee”. While the average outlay of $3 per meeting seems rather modest when deflated by the bar price for martinis at the time, it is interesting to note that the whiskey and sherry expenditure for drinks following Ludwig von Mises’ talk (only sherry?) amounted to more than double the average cost. Quality vs. quantity vs. price?
Incidentally, I love Sweezy’s distinction between meeting “attendance” and “participation”.
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Martini: Bar Price in 1940
We again find the quarter [i.e. $0.25] martini a couple years later, in Chicago of 1940, at Gimbel’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge, on a block of West Randolph Street not far from the Cook County Court House and Grant Park.
Source: Brent Cox, “How Much More Do Martinis Cost Today?” Posted at The Awl (June 5, 2012).
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSSACHUSETTS
April 17, 1941
Report of the Cocktail Committee
There have been seven regular department meetings for which cocktails have been provided at a total cost of $21.65, or slightly over $3 per meeting.
In addition, at one meeting whiskey was provided and sherry was served at the Mises meeting, making a further cost of $6.57.
There will be two more regular meetings. Budgeting each of these for $3 brings the total outlay of the cocktail committee for the year to $34.22.
It is difficult to know how to apportion this expense most rationally. I suggest that the members of the department who have benefitted from the facilities provided divide themselves into three categories as follows:
(1) Those who have attended regularly and participated freely. $3 each.
(2) Those who have attended regularly and participated moderately, or attended irregularly and participated freely. $2 each.
(3) Those who have derived only occasional benefit. $1 each.
It this scheme seems reasonable, I shall collect money at the April 22 meeting, or members may leave their contributions with Miss Tatnall. I shall then be in a position to make a final report to the May meeting on the yield of this particular tax system and to make any further recommendations which may be necessary.
Paul M. Sweezy
Source: Harvard University Archives, Department of Economics, Correspondence and Papers (UAV 349.11), Box 10, Folder “Department Meeting Agenda”.
Image Source: Paul Sweezy from the Harvard Class Album 1942.