This posting was prepared at the INET Festival for New Economic Thinking in Edinburgh (October 19-20, 2017). It turned out to be a nice case-study of preparing an artifact for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. Edward Dana Durand was a Cornell Ph.D. in economics and statistics who was to go on to be a director of the U.S. Census. He taught at Harvard in 1902, between jobs. For this course I was only able to find the instructions for preparing a report on taxation with suggested reading. Course description, enrollment figures as well as two short biographical pieces are included below.
A memorial piece by K. Pribram was published as “Edward Dana Durand (1871-1960)” in Revue de l’Institut International de Statistique / Review of the International Statistical Institute Vol. 28, No. 1/2 (1960), pp. 118-120.
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EDWARD D. DURAND
THE NEW CENSUS DIRECTOR
The Outing Magazine, August 1909
WHEN your chief says it will take a “corking” good man to fill your place, it means he is paying you the best compliment possible. This is what Commissioner of Corporations Herbert Knox Smith said of his deputy, Edward Dana Durand, when the commissioner was told that President Taft had decided to place Mr. Durand at the head of the Census Bureau. In his office on the floor above Mr. Durand received the news with the pleasure of feeling that a part of his ambitions were about to be realized. He felt that he had at last been chosen to fill the most exacting office that could be assigned to a statistician.
Naturally Mr. Durand will encounter many difficulties in his new position, but it is expected that his confidence in himself will be of as great aid as it has been in the past. Different from Mr. North, his work is academic, Mr. Durand being possibly the best-trained statistician ever appointed to the position of Director of the Census Bureau.
While he has held various positions as a teacher, Mr. Durand has not gained the distinction in academic work that he has outside. Nevertheless his success in government service has been speedy and gratifying. His most significant work in the public eye has been his book on the finances of New York City, his work with the Industrial Commission, and with the Bureau of Corporations. While serving as secretary of the Industrial Commission he edited a very creditable report of nineteen volumes. This proved that while Mr. Durand is not a good writer he is a good organizer. As Deputy Commissioner of Corporations he gained experience with the report on the Beef Trust, for which report he was chiefly responsible. He set his standard as a statistician, however, in his report on the Standard Oil Trust, which was issued from the same bureau.
Mr. Durand was born in Romeo, Michigan, October 18, 1871, his father being Cyrus Y. Durand, a druggist. He is one of five children, all now living.
He lived for about eleven years at Romeo, when the family moved to Huron, South Dakota, then a very new town, and “took up a claim” of land near there. Mr. Durand finished his high-school education at Huron, and then went for one year to Yankton College. From there he went to Oberlin College, Ohio, and graduated there in 1893. During the summer of 1893 Mr. Durand was stenographer to the Secretary of the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. He then went to Cornell University and took a post-graduate course in political science, economics, and statistics. During this time he was assistant to Prof. J. W. Jenks, Secretary of the American Economic Association. He received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from Cornell, in 1896.
After leaving Cornell Mr. Durand was employed for nearly two years in the New York State Library, at Albany, his special duty being to prepare material for the assistance of members of the Legislature, including the publication of indices and digests of the laws passed annually by the various states of the country.
At the beginning of 1898 Mr. Durand was appointed Assistant Professor of Political Economy and Finance at Stanford University, California, where he remained for a year and a half. When the Industrial Commission, of which he was secretary, was disbanded, he lectured on corporation and labor questions for a year at Harvard University. In 1903 he was appointed an expert on street railways in the Census Bureau, where he held the position of special examiner for about four months before being called to the Bureau of Corporations.
He was married in 1903 to Mary Elizabeth Bennett, who had been a classmate of his at Oberlin College. They have two children, both boys.
When he finishes his work with the Census he may have his other ambition gratified of being called back to academic work, possibly as president of some college.
Mr. Durand becomes Director of the Census Bureau upon the eve of taking the Thirteenth Census of the United States. This is the government’s largest statistical job, and since our census is more elaborate and detailed than that of any foreign country, it can be recognized what the new officer has to encounter. Some idea of the immensity of the work can be gained by a study of the act of Congress authorizing the taking of the census.
While Mr. Durand is very affable in his manners there is nothing effusive about him. Of medium height and build, his forehead so high as to give the impression of being slightly bald, and wearing a small moustache, he is withal of striking appearance. During the last few days that he was Deputy Commissioner of Corporations he could be found busily engaged in putting the office in order for his successor. The days were warm and he worked without his coat, wearing most of the time a white shirt and a double-ply collar with a small black bow-tie.
Source: The Outing Magazine, Vol. 54, August 1909, pp. 563-564.
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U. S. Census Bureau: History/Directors
Edward Dana Durand (1909-1913): Durand was born, in 1871, in Romeo, Michigan. When he was still a child, however, his parents moved to a homestead in South Dakota. Durand attended Yankton College for one year before transferring to Oberlin College. He received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1896. After receiving his doctorate, Durand moved between several government and academic positions until 1909, when he became deputy commissioner of corporations. Later that year, President Taft appointed him the new director of the census. He replaced Samuel North, who had left after repeated clashes with the secretary of commerce and labor, and took over the Census Bureau well into the planning process for the 1910 census.
Durand concentrated much of his energy on improving the preparation of census reports. He pioneered several lasting innovations in the presentation of data at the Census Bureau. For example, Durand introduced the publication of state-level reports and the early release in press releases of statistics for which there was the greatest demand (such as the total population of individual cities, states, and the United States population). These releases were be followed by bulletins, abstracts, and final reports with greater detail.
After leaving the Census Bureau in 1913, Durand eventually took a place on the U.S. Tariff Commission, where he served from 1935 until his retirement in 1952. He died in 1960.
Source: From webpage of the U.S. Census Bureau. History, Directors 1909-21 .
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Course Description
[7b2 hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course (second half-year).]
Omitted in 1902-03. [sic]
In this course both the theory and practice of taxation will be studied. Attention will be given at the outset to the tax systems of England, France, and Germany; and the so-called direct taxes employed in those countries will receive special consideration. After this, the principles of taxation will be examined. This will lead to a study of the position of taxation in the system of economic science, and of such subjects as the classification, the just distribution, and the incidence of taxes. Finally, the existing methods of taxation in the United States will be studied, each tax being treated with reference to its proper place in a rational system of federal, state, and local revenues.
Written work will be required of all students, as well as a systematic course of prescribed reading. Candidates for Honors in Political Science and for the higher degrees will be given the opportunity of preparing theses in substitution for the required written work.
Course 7b is open to students who have taken Economics 1.
Source: Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1902-03 (University Publications, New Series, no. 55, June 13, 1902), pp. 49-50.
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Course Announcement
7b1 hf. The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation in the United States. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 12. Dr. Durand.
Source: Harvard University, University Publications, new Series, No. 8 Extra Ed., Announcement of the Courses of Instruction provided by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year, 1902-03 (1902), p. 44.
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Course Enrollment
7b 1hf. Dr. Durand.—The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special reference to local taxation, in the United States.
Total: 21. 3 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Other.
Source: Harvard University, Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1902-03, p. 68.
http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/427018754?n=70&oldpds
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ECONOMICS 7b
REPORTS AND THESES, 1902
Each student is expected to prepare a brief, informal report on the system of State and local taxation in some particular State. The report should describe chiefly present methods, with considerable fullness, but need not enter into extensive criticism of the working of the system. The amount received by the State treasury from various sources should be stated wherever practicable. Reliance should be placed mainly on original documents. Among the States whose finances are most interesting and can be most easily and satisfactorily treated are: Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Maryland, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, Georgia. Students will do well to write to the State comptroller or auditor for copies of tax laws and financial reports.
A more extensive and formal thesis will also be presented by each student. it should be primarily descriptive, but should involve some account of historical development, and careful criticism of the working of the system or method covered. Exact references, by title, volume, and page, or by chapter and section, must be given for all facts cited, whether in reports or theses, and a bibliography of works consulted must be appended. Large diagrams should be prepared where statistics suitable for graphic presentation are found.
The following topics for theses are suggested, but others may be chosen if desired: —
SUGGESTED THESIS SUBJECTS
- The United States Internal Revenue System.
- History of the Tariff up to the Civil War.
- The Tariff during and since the War.
- Special War Taxes in the United States.
- The Federal Income Tax.
- Constitutionality of the Income Tax of 1894.
- The Tax System of Great Britain.
- The Tax System of Prussia.
- Taxation in the Australasian Colonies.
- Taxation in Massachusetts.
- Taxation in New York.
- Taxation in Pennsylvania—or some other selected State.
- Progressive Taxation in Practice.
- Excise Taxes in the United States and Europe.
- Stamp and Transaction Taxes.
- The Income Tax in the United States and Foreign Countries.
- Personal Property under the General Property Tax.
- Double Taxation under the General Property Tax.
- Theoretical Comparison of Property and Income Taxes.
- The Inheritance Tax.
- Taxation of Land Values.
- Business License Taxes.
- General Corporation Taxes.
- Taxation of Railroads.
- Taxation of Banks and insurance Companies.
- Legal Aspects of Corporation Taxes.
- Relation of State and Local Taxation.
- Special Assessments.
- Exemptions from Taxation in the United States.
CHIEF SOURCES FOR REPORTS ON STATE TAXATION
Poor, B. P.: Constitutions.
Clapperton, Geo.: Taxation in Various States and Canada. In Reports of the Industrial Commission. Vol. XI.
New York State Library: State Finance Statistics, 1890, 1895.
Census of 1890: Valuation and Taxation.
Ely, R. T.: Taxation in American States and Cities.
Seligman, E. R. A.: State Finance Statistics. In Publications of American Statistical Association, 1889.
Hollander, J. H., Ed.: Studies in State Taxation.
Chapman, J. W.: State Tax Commissions in the United States. In Johns Hopkins University Studies, 1897.
Reports of special State commissions and committees on taxation. The most important are the following, which are mostly in the library: Massachusetts, 1875, 1897; New York, 1871-72, 1894, 1900; Pennsylvania, 1889; Connecticut, 1887; Ohio, 1893; Maine, 1889; New Jersey, 1897; Illinois, 1885; Wisconsin, 1899-1901; Oregon, 1886.
Reports of State Bureaus of Labor Statistics in Illinois, 1894 and 1896; Missouri, 1896; Connecticut, 1896.
Compilations of tax laws of individual states, published separately, or in general compilations, known as Revised Statutes, General Laws, etc. Accessible in Law School.
Reports of State comptrollers or auditors, State treasurers, and State boards of assessment, equalization, etc. Few are in the Harvard Library, but many may be found in the Massachusetts State Library and the Boston Public Library, and others may be obtained by correspondence.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL WORKS
Many of the above references will be useful in preparing theses.
Wells, D. A.: Theory and Practice of Taxation.
Cossa, L.: Taxation, its Principles and Methods.
Cohn, G.: The Science of Finance (translation).
Leroy-Beaulieu, P.: Traité de la Science des Finances.
Wagner, A.: Finanzwissenschaft.
Palgrave, R. H. I.: Dictionary of Political Economy.
Conrad, J.: Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften.
Say, L.: Dictionnaire des Finances.
Statesman’s Yearbook.
United Kingdom: Statistical Abstracts for Foreign Countries.
United States Treasury Reports.
Industrial Commission: Vol. XIX, Taxation: Vol. IX, Taxation of Transportation Companies; Vol. XI, Clapperton’s report.
Reports of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue, 1866-69.
Cooley, T. M.: Law of Taxation.
Howe, F. C.: Taxation under the Internal Revenue System.
Columbia College Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law; Various monographs on State systems and on special methods of taxation.
Seligman, E. R. A.: Essays in Taxation, Shifting and Incidence of Taxation, Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, Course Outlines and Reading Lists in Economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1902-03”.