Tag: Ashley

Harvard. Final Examinations in Economics courses, 1892-1893

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-11-10

The economic historian William J. Ashley joined the Harvard economics department in 1892-93, joining Professors Charles F. Dunbar and Frank W. Taussig and the instructors Edward Cummings and William M. Cole. This post gives us a complete set of semester examinations for all the economics courses offered at Harvard and, as extra bonus, exams for the Social Ethics course taught in the philosophy department by Francis G. Peabody.

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1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5. ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

Enrollment

[Philosophy] 5. Professor F. G. PEABODY. — The Ethics of the Social Questions. — The questions of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Temperance, and the various phases of the Labor Question, as problems of practical Ethics. — Lectures, essays, and practical observations. 2 hours.

Total 131: 5 Graduates, 60 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 24 Divinity, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Mid-Year Examination]

Explain and illustrate the “correlation” of the Social Questions and the doctrine of Social Energy.
How does the history of ethical theory illustrate the philosophy of the Social Questions?
Compare the principles of the English Poor-Law with the principles of the Elberfeld System.
The plan, scope, and results of Mr. Charles Booth’s Study of East London.
The character of the migration to London and its effect on
1. social conditions in London (Charles Booth, I. 501, II. 444);
2. the problem of municipal charity.
How do the Germans deal with the problem of unemployed tramps?
One year of General Booth’s Social Scheme, — its achievements and its possible limitations.
Define the modern Labor Question and note its special characteristics.
What does Carlyle mean by:
Gospel of Mammonism? (Bk. III. ch. 2.)
Gospel of Dilettantism? (Bk. III. ch. 3.)
Captains of industry? (Bk. IV. ch. 4.)
Plugson of Undershot? (Bk. III. ch. 10.)

What is his lesson drawn from:
Gurth, the thrall of Cedric? (Bk. III. ch. 13; Bk. IV. ch. 5.)

Ruskin’s doctrine of wealth, of wages, and of exchange. How far, in your opinion, is Ruskin’s view of Political Economy justifiable?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-1893
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Year-End Final Examination]

State the Labor Question in terms of Ethics, arranging the various industrial propositions of the day in the order of their ethical sufficiency. Explain your arrangement.
Why does the Anarchist find encouragement in the philosophy of Herbert Spencer?
What is the philosophy of history which encourages the Socialist?
The practical advantages which the Socialist anticipates under his programme, his reasons therefor, and your own judgment of their probability.
The substitute for money proposed by Marx; with Schäffle’s criticism of the proposal. (Schäffle, pp. 77-90).
The German system of insurance against old age and invalidism, — its plan, scope and difficulties.
The Familistère at Guise and its lessons for socialism.
Why has Coöperation gained so large a place in English industry and had such meagre success in the United States?
The method of Profit-Sharing adopted in the Maison Leclaire, the secret of its success and the limits of its application in other cases. (Sedley Taylor, pp. 13-20).
The special characteristics of the latest liquor Legislation proposed in Germany, in England and in the United States.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, 1893-95, “Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College, June 1893”.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

Enrollment

[Economics] 1. Professors [Frank W.] TAUSSIG and [William J.] ASHLEY, and Messrs. [Edward] CUMMINGS and [William M.] COLE. —

First half-year:

Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

Second half-year:

Division A (Theoretical): Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. — Cairnes’s Leading Principles of Political Economy. 3 hours.

Division B (Descriptive): Labor and Capital, Coöperation. — Hadley’s Railroad Transportation. — Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. — Financial Legislation. 3 hours.

Total 322: 1 Graduate, 50 Seniors, 114 Juniors, 116 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 38 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Mid-Year Examination]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

“Production, and productive, are of course elliptical expressions, involving the idea of something produced; but this something, in common apprehension, I conceive to be, not utility, but wealth.” Why should not all labor which produces utility, be accounted productive?
“The distinction, then, between Capital and Non-Capital, does not lie in the kind of commodities, but in the mind of the capitalist.” Does pig-iron cease to be capital when the owner sells it and buys a country-house?
What is meant when it is said that rent is no burden on the consumer?
Why are the earnings of the professional classes higher than the wages of mechanics? Why are the wages of mechanics higher than those of day-laborers?
Explain the connection between:

The tendency of profits to a minimum.
The law of diminishing returns.
The effective desire of accumulation.

Is a general rise in prices advantageous to the community as a whole? to any part of it?
Specie, bank-notes, inconvertible paper, checks, —are they or are they not “money”?
“It is when the metals are completely superseded and driven from circulation that the difference between convertible and inconvertible paper begins to be operative.” Explain.
Does foreign trade tend to bring about the same level of (1) money wages, (2) prices, in the trading countries?
In what manner does a country gain when its exports increase?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 1.
[Year-End Final Examination]

Division A.
[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

What is meant when it is said that the rent paid for the use of a factory building enters into cost of production, while that paid for the use of the site does not?
What determines the limits within which the foreign exchanges may fluctuate?
According to Mill, “The universal elements of cost of production are the wages of labor and the profits of the capital.” Cairnes on the contrary says, “I repeat, therefore, that not only do wages not constitute the laborer’s share in the cost of production, but these can not be taken in any sense to represent that cost.”
Why not?
“It appears, therefore, that the fund available for those who live by labor tends, in the progress of society, while growing actually larger, to become a constantly smaller fraction of the entire national wealth.”
Why?
“The illusion which I am combatting, that Demand and Supply are independent economic forces, sometimes assumes another form in the notion that producers and consumers are distinct classes, and that production and consumption are acts which may go on irrespective of each other.”
Explain the illusion.
How is the price of wool in Australia likely to be affected by the shipment of frozen mutton to England?
“In the language of Mr. Mill, ‘the produce of a country exchanges for the produce of other countries at such values as are required in order that the whole of her exports may exactly pay for the whole of her imports.’ Now, as a matter of fact, it very rarely happens that the whole exports of a country, even if we take an average of many years, exactly pay for the whole of its imports; nor can it be truly said that there is any tendency in the dealings of nations toward this result.” Why not?
At what rate of interest did the United States borrow, when it exchanged 5-20 bonds for legal tender notes at par, in 1862-63?
What do you infer from the success of distributive coöperation in Great Britain, as to the future development of coöperation in general?
What are the grounds for saying that the general fall in prices in the United States in the period immediately after the civil war, had an effect on debtors different from that of the fall in prices since 1879?

Division B.
[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Does the benefit of international trade lie in the exports? in the imports?
Why?
Is a general fall in prices harmful to debtors? to creditors?
Will an increase in the quantity of money in the community affect the rate of interest?
How would you estimate the minimum reserve required by law to be anywhere held for deposits in country national banks of the United States?
How would you explain the close correspondence in the banks of the United States between the amount of loans and the amount of deposits?
Explain the decline in the volume of national bank notes in recent years.
Explain why the original limit of uncovered issue for the Bank of England was put at £14,000,000.
How would an act for the free coinage of silver in the United States at the present mint ratio, affect the price of silver bullion?
Compare the attitude of the Latin Union toward the use of both metals in 1866 with its attitude in 1878.
Compare carefully, as to the character and quantity of the issues of money provided for, the legislation of the United States in 1878 with that of 1890.
Point out wherein profit-sharing is similar to coöperative production, wherein different.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2. ECONOMIC THEORY

Enrollment

[Economics] 2. Professor TAUSSIG. — Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from leading writers. 3 hours.

Total 38: 11 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2.
[Mid-Year Examination]

State George’s doctrine as to the cause of interest, and give an opinion of its soundness.
“It may be said, we grant that wages are really paid out of the product of current industry, and that capital only affects wages as it first affects production, so that wages stand related to product in the first degree, and to capital in the second degree only; still, does not production bear a certain and necessary ratio to capital? and hence may not the measure of wages be derived from capital virtually, — though not, it is true, directly, — through its determination of product?” Consider whether so much would be granted by one holding to the wages-fund doctrine; and answer the questions.
“The employer [in the West and South] advances to the laborer such provisions and cash as are absolutely required from time to time: but the ‘settlement’ does not take place until the close of the season or the year, and the final payment is often deferred until the crop is not only harvested but sold.” Under such conditions is it true that wages are paid out of capital, or limited in amount by the quantity of previously accumulated capital?
What do you conceive President Walker’s opinion to be as to the effect on business profits of the possession of large means by the business man at the outset of his career?
Are there grounds for saying that in a socialist community the conception of capital would be different from that in communities as now organized?
Compare Adam Smith’s doctrine as to the relation of capital and wages with Ricardo’s.
Compare Adam Smith’s conclusions with Ricardo’s as to the propriety of import duties levied to countervail internal taxes on necessaries consumed by laborers.
“No extension of foreign trade will immediately increase the amount of value in a country, though it will very powerfully contribute to increase the mass of commodities, and therefore the sum of enjoyments.” What does Ricardo mean?
“There is only one case, and that will be temporary, in which the accumulation of capital with a low price of food may be attended with a fall in profits.” What is the case, and why did Ricardo think it would be temporary?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 2.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[One question in each of the three groups may be omitted.]

I.

What is the meaning and importance of the proposition that demand for commodities is not demand for labor?
How far is Ricardo’s doctrine as to the connection between labor and value similar to Marx’s doctrine that value consists of the labor incorporated in commodities?
What is meant when it is said that the connection between value and expenses of production depends on the mobility of capital, while the connection between value and cost of production depends on the mobility of labor and capital?
“The ideal of justice in distribution, applicable both to individual producers and to the different factors in production (land, labor, capital), may be stated thus: each should have a share in net income proportionate to the contribution which, by labor or by the use of material means of production, he has made to the product.”
What should you say as to the feasibility of carrying out such a principle?

II.

Explain briefly what is meant by total utility, marginal utility, and consumer’s rent.
“Subject to these corrections, then, we may regard the aggregate of the money measures of the total utility of wealth as a fair measure of that part of the happiness which is dependent on wealth.” Mention one or two corrections.
Give your opinion on the objection raised by Carey to the theory of rent, that the total rent paid for the use of land does not exceed interest at current rates on the total capital sunk in land.
How far is it an answer to the proposition that rent and business profits are analogous, when it is said that the losses of some business managers must be set off against the larger gains of others?
Explain Professor Marshall’s opinion as to the bearing on the relative wages of different laborers of
1. The “rent” of labor;
2. the standard of living among laborers;
3. the expenses of production of labor;

and point out the connection between his views on these subjects.

III.

Explain the distinctions (1) between private capital and social capital, (2) between historico-legal capital and national capital; and point out how far the two distinctions run on the same lines.
“In the present condition of industry, most sales are made by men who are producers and merchants by profession. . . . For them, the subjective use-values of their own wares is, for the most part, very nearly nil. . . . In sales by them, the limiting effect which, according to our theoretical formula, would be exerted by the valuation of the last seller, practically does not come into play.”
Explain what is meant, and consider the consequences as to the importance of the law that price is determined by the valuations of the marginal pairs.
“Our whole interest is centred in the question as to the position which the law (of cost of production), so well accredited by experience, takes in the systematic theory of price. Does it run counter to our law of marginal pairs or not? Our answer is that it does not. It is as little of a contradiction as we before found to exist between the proposition that the marginal utility determines the height of subjective value, and the other proposition that the costs determine it.”
In what way is the apparent contradiction removed in the two cases referred to by Böhm-Bawerk?
Explain the three grounds on which Böhm-Bawerk bases the superiority of present over future goods, and give your opinion as to their relative importance and significance.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 3. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

Enrollment

[Economics] 3. Mr. CUMMINGS. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. 3 hours.

Total 22: 5 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Mid-Year Examination]

Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit two.

“We have just seen that a one-sided application of the conception that society is of organic growth leads to difficulties, as well as the conception of artificial making. These we can only escape by recognizing a truth which includes them both.”
What are these difficulties, and what is this truth?
“If societies have evolved, and if that mutual dependence of parts which coöperation implies, has been gradually reached, then the implication is that however unlike their developed structures may become, there is a rudimentary structure with which they all set out.”
What evidence do you find of such a structure?
According to Aristotle, “Man is by nature a political” According to Thomas Aquinas, “homo est animal sociale et politicum.” How far is this insertion of “sociale” alongside of “politicum” significant of the different way in which the State presented itself to the mind of the Greek and to the mind of the medieval philosopher?
“The theory of the social contract belongs in an especial manner to the political philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But it did not originate with them. It had its roots in the popular consciousness of medieval society. As a philosophical theory, it had already been anticipated by the Greek Sophists.”
Indicate briefly some of the important changes which the doctrine underwent.
“In primitive societies the person does not exist, or exists only potentially, or, as we might say, in spe. The person is the product of the State.” Explain. What is the theoretical and historical justification of this doctrine, as against the contention that the individual loses what the State gains?
Discuss the relative preponderance of free and of un-free elements at different stages of social development.
It has been remarked by Spencer that those domestic relations which are ethically the highest, are also biologically and sociologically the highest. Discuss the historical evidence on this point. What is the test of this ethical superiority?
To what extent is there ground for saying that the influence of militant and of industrial organization is traceable in the status of women and the duration of marriage in the United States and in other countries?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit one.]

“The different forms of the State are specifically divided, as Aristotle recognized, by the different conceptions of the distinction between government and subjects, especially by the quality (not the quantity) of the ruler.” Explain. Indicate briefly the relation of the different forms of the State to one another.
“If there is any one principle which is clearly grasped in the present day, it is that political power is a public duty as well as a public right, that it belongs to the political existence and life of the whole nation, and that it can never be regarded as the property or personal right of an individual.” How far did this principle secure recognition in Greek, in Roman, and in medieval times?
“The past seems to prove that kings and aristocracies make States, and that left to themselves, the people unmake them.” State carefully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the political philosophy here involved.
“This is one of curious phases of the railway problem in Europe, which has a tendency to show how multiform and various are the influences at work to modify and change the conditions of the railway problem, and how little can be gathered from mere government documents and laws to shed light upon this most interesting and intricate of all modern industrial questions.” What light does Italian, French and Austrian experience with railroads throw on the general question of State control?
“Expediency and the results of experience must determine how far to go. They seem to justify public ownership of gas works, water works and electric lights. The same would doubtless be true of the telegraph and telephone.” Discuss the evidence.
“We will first concentrate our attention on the economic kernel of socialism, setting aside for the moment the transitory aspect it bears in the hands of agitators, its provisional passwords, and the phenomena and tendencies in religion by which it is accompanied.” State and criticise this “economic kernel.”
“The philanthropic and experimental forms of socialism, which played a conspicuous role before 1848, perished them[sic, “then”?] in the wreck of the Revolution, and have never risen to life again.” What were the characteristics of these earlier forms; and what was their relation to the movements which preceded them and followed them?
How are the socialistic teachings of Lasalle and Marx related to the economic doctrines of Smith and Ricardo?
What ground do you find for or against the contention that “socialism is the economic complement of democracy”?
“Not only material security, but the perfection of human and social life is what we aim at in that organized co-öperation of many men’s lives and works which is called the State. . . . But where does protection leave off and interference begin?”

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE AND AMERICA

Enrollment

[Economics] 4. Mr. COLE. — Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours.

Total 116: 41 Seniors, 59 Juniors, 45 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 18 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4.
[Mid-Year Examination]

I.
[Take all.]

State at least three parallels in the lives of Watt and George Stevenson.
From an economic point of view, and assuming that a revolution must have come sooner or later, was the occurrence of the disturbances in France between 1785 and 1815 opportune or inopportune for France?
Was there any necessary connection between the economic and the military reforms of Prussia between 1807 and 1812? If so, what?
Why was the United States helped more than any other country by the introduction of steam navigation?

II.
[Omit one.]

What was the origin and what were the main provisions of the English Corn Law of 1815?
What were the main provisions of the French railway law of 1842?
What were the main features of Gallatin’s plan for internal improvements in 1807?
What was the social status at the beginning of this century of poor immigrants into America?
What was the cause of the suspension of specie payments by the Bank of England in 1797?
What was the effect of the Continental wars of 1793-1815 upon the English laborers? How was it manifested?
What was the influence on French manufactures of Napoleon’s rise to power? Cite examples.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

What sort of wealth did France actually sacrifice in paying the German indemnity? What was the process?
Explain the influence of the Civil War upon our tariff legislation.
Explain whether or not England can obtain cheap coal from abroad after her own supplies become scarce.
What motives had Congress for granting lands to Western railroads, — other than the Union Pacific? What was the system of grants adopted?
It has been said that after 1850 England could not well maintain duties upon any class of imports, and hence free trade was inevitable. What do you think of the statement?
Was the Zollverein an experiment in free trade or in protection? Why do you think as you do?
How did the extraordinary demand for gold between 1871 and 1873 affect the rate of bank discount? How do you explain the effect?
Show at least three important benefits arising from improved means of transportation.
Explain carefully, but concisely, why the southern soils of the United States were rapidly exhausted before the war. Could resort have been made successfully to rotation of crops, to more careful cultivation, to the use of better tools?
Using only the materials which have been furnished by Economics IV, show what in your opinion, after careful thought, England would have gained or lost up to the present time if the American colonies had not won their independence.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5. RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 5. Professor TAUSSIG. — Railway Transportation. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 26: 7 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions].

“A more powerful force than the authority of the courts was working against the Granger system of regulation. The laws of trade could not be violated with impunity. The effects were most sharply felt in Wisconsin. . . . In the second year of its operation [that of the law reducing rates], no Wisconsin road paid a dividend; only four paid interest on their bonds. Railroad construction came to a standstill. . . . Foreign capital refused to invest in Wisconsin; the development of the State was sharply checked; the very men who most favored the law found themselves heavy losers. . . . The very men who passed the law in 1874 hurriedly repealed it after two years trial.” State the essential features of the legislation here alluded to, and give an opinion as to this explanation of its effects.
“The principle of tolls [rates based on cost of service] keeps rates up. If it is strictly applied, it makes it necessary that each item of business should pay its share of the fixed charges.” Why? or why not?
What is meant when it is said that railway rates are governed by value of service?
Compare :
1. The natural system of rates.
2. The German reform tariff.
3. The maximum rates of the Granger legislatures.
Is it true that the prohibition of pooling in the Interstate Commerce Act increases the severity of the long and short haul clause?
What were the causes of the depression of 1888-90?
Should you say that the approaching maturity of the Government debt gives a favorable opportunity for an experiment in public management, by the assumption of federal ownership of the Pacific roads?
Give an opinion on two among the suggestions made by Mr. Clark as to future legislation on railways by the states.
Sketch the history of railway policy in Italy.
What have been the financial results of public railway management in Prussia?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 6. HISTORY OF U.S. TARIFF LEGISLATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 6. Professor TAUSSIG. — History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 50: 7 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 17 Juniors, 3 Sophomores, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 6.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Answer all the questions, however briefly.]

Sketch the industrial history of the country, and its bearing on tariff legislation, from 1816 to 1824.
How far do protective duties account for the growth of the cotton manufacture from 1830 to 1840? Of the iron manufacture from 1840 to 1850? Of the silk manufacture from 1860 to 1880?
What do you believe the state of public opinion to have been on tariff legislation in 1800? In 1824? In 1850?
State the important provisions of the tariff act of 1857.
Are there grounds for saying that the duty on pig iron since 1870 has proved a successful application of protection to young industries? State carefully what you think the test of success in such a case.
What can be said for, what against, the change in the duties on sugar made in 1890?
Compare the general character of the tariff act of 1883 with that of the act of 1890.
Assume that, on the imposition of a duty on tin-plates, domestic production should so develop that tin-plates were made with less labor in the United States than in foreign countries. What would happen if thereafter the duty were removed?
Explain what is the object, what the effect of minimum duties; and give two instances of their application, one before 1860, the other after.
Explain briefly in what manner the connection between the tariff and wages was discussed by Webster in 1824, by Clay in 1824, and by Walker in 1845.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7¹. THEORY AND METHODS OF TAXATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 7¹. Professor DUNBAR. — The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special references to local taxation in the United States. 3 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 21: 7 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7^[1].
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in the order of the questions.]

What is Mr. Bastable’s theory (pp. 339-342) as to the incidence of a tax on a commodity, and what are the conditions on which he finds that any shifting of the tax will depend? How far does his doctrine in this particular differ from that of Ricardo?
Discuss the following extract from Leroy-Beaulieu (Science des Finances, II. 303):—
So the land tax, unless it is extraordinarily high or very badly assessed, has no influence on the price of agricultural products: it merely diminishes what in scientific language is called the rent of land, — that is the net income of the landowner after deducting the expenses of cultivation and the profits of the farmer. This proposition is generally true in all countries where the land is completely occupied: it does not apply, on the contrary, to new countries where a large part of the soil is not yet under cultivation, like the United States or Australia. In these countries the land tax acts as an increase of the general cost of working new lands, and consequently retards their reduction to cultivation.
In answer to the demand for taxes resting exclusively or chiefly on land and its great unearned increment of value, it is sometimes urged that gains are often offset by losses, and that individuals can hardly be called on to give up their surplus gains unless they are guaranteed against possible loss. How much weight is to be attached to this answer?
Discuss Bastable’s remark that,—
It may be urged that progressive taxation is not in fact likely to weaken the disposition to save. It will only affect those who possess a good deal already, and such persons save as much from habit as from conscious motive. There is, too, the further fact that the heavier taxation on the rich will leave the poor a larger disposable sum, part of which they may save, and to that extent increase the store of wealth.
What do you say to the proposition maintained by Mill (Book V., ch. ii. §4) and discussed by Bastable (p. 297), that the part of income which is saved should be exempt from taxation?
W. is credited with having laid down two propositions: First, that “any income tax which permits of any exemption whatever is a graduated income tax”; and, secondly, that “a graduated income tax to the extent of its discrimination is an act of confiscation.”
State the general plan on which the French Contribution des Patentes is levied, and then discuss the following:—
1. Bastable says (p. 411):—
  The Patente is very far from being a proportional tax on industrial gains. It rather resembles a charge on certain necessaries of the business, such as buildings, labor, or motive power.
2. Leroy-Beaulieu (Science des Finances, I. p. 396) says:—
  The manufacturer being taxed by the general tax on rents [personelle-mobilière] there is evident injustice in loading him with an additional tax on his habitation.
3. And in general he says (ibid., p. 380):—
  In countries like France where incomes in general are not subject to any special direct tax, it is indisputable that a tax on the profit of manufacturers, of merchants, and of the liberal professions, has no reason for existence and can only be explained by the brutal law of fiscal necessity.
Describe the changes which the Prussian income tax has gone through and the distinctive characteristics of the law of 1891.
Describe the plan on which the English “death duties” are now arranged.
What are the methods used in different countries for the taxation of tobacco, and how far does each appear applicable in the United States?
Which of the following taxes are best fitted for national use and which for local, and why?

Excise;
Income;
Real Estate;
Stamps on deeds, commercial paper and legal instruments;
Successions.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

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1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7². FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC DEBTS

Enrollment

[Economics] 7². Professor DUNBAR. — Financial Administration and Public Debts. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 23: 10 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 1 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 7^[2].
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Give one half of your time to a careful treatment of the questions under A.]

A.

Discuss the conditions necessary for maintaining a thoroughgoing budget system, and show what changes (if any) of constitution, law, or political practice would be required, in order to set such a system in operation in the United States.
When the United States issued the 5-20 bonds (principal and interest payable in gold), they had the choice between three courses, viz:
1. To sell the bonds for par in gold and make the rate of interest high enough to attract buyers;
2. to sell the bonds for gold at such discount as might be necessary, their interest being fixed at six per cent;
3. to sell the bonds for their nominal par in depreciated paper.
  Which of these courses now seems to you the best, and why?
Discuss the following:
“Viewed as a purely financial question, it is no occasion for congratulation that a debt is widely diffused. Not only is its management necessarily more expensive, but the facility offered to politicians to use the debt for party and personal ends often defeats the best purposes of the financier. . . .France, for example, continued to pay for a number of years a higher rate of interest than was necessary, because the government feared the voting power of the holders of rentes. Nor do industrial considerations necessarily lead to the approval of widely-diffused debt. The unfailing indication of healthy state of industries is found in the personal attention of all members of society to business affairs. and this can only come with personal interest in some particular form of product. In so far as the private income of individuals arises from payments of interest by the state, the public is deprived of the beneficial workings of that solicitous care which insures success in industrial ventures. —Adams, Public Debts, p. 43.

B.

State the manner in which the selling value of bonds is influenced, by, —
1. annual drawings by lot for payment;
2. reserved right to pay at pleasure;
3. agreement to pay at or after some distant date;
4. arrangement like that of the “Five-twenties.”
The distinction between a bond reimbursable from the date of issue and one which is secured against redemption for ten or twenty years, is said to be “one of the most fundamental that presents itself in the entire course of credit operations,” because,—
“A bond reimbursable from the date of its issue shows great carelessness on the part of the administration as to ultimate payment; on the other hand, a bond guaranteed against immediate payment is evidence of an intention to escape the evils of perpetual indebtedness.” — Adams, Public Debts, p. 161.
Give your reasons for agreeing or for disagreeing with this statement.
Under what conditions is the use of terminable annuities as a species of sinking fund advisable, and on what principle should the extent to which their use is carried be limited, if at all?
What do you say to the following dictum as to buying public debt:
“Payment by purchase (of bonds) upon the market at market prices is defensible when bonds are below par, but not when above par and so conditioned as to be payable, within a reasonable time, at their nominal value.”
Describe the operation by which the French government converted the Morgan Loan in 1875 and state any criticism to be made upon this conversion.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8. HISTORY OF U.S. FINANCIAL LEGISLATION

Enrollment

[Economics] 8. Professor DUNBAR. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 1st half-year.

Total 34: 3 Graduates, 19 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in numerical order.]

Hamilton has sometimes been charged with favoring the policy of a perpetual public debt. Discuss the grounds for this charge.
The act of 1790 for assuming the debts of the States did not wait for the settlement of accounts between the States and the Union. Did this failure to wait necessarily affect the result?
What is a “direct tax” of the United States and on whom and how is it laid? Give instances.
What were the provisions of law or the practices in use, regulating the kinds of currency received and paid by the Treasury, between 1789 and 1846?
What was the Specie Circular, and what were its effects?
What is Mr. Gallatin’s view of the part played by the United States Bank and of its influence, in the disastrous period 1837-1841?
Describe the Independent Treasury Act of 1846, and state any modifications that the system has undergone.
Give some account of the treasury notes issued 1837-46, and show how they resembled or differed from notes now issued by the United States.
What considerations are there which tend to create doubt as to the necessity of the first Legal Tender Act?
State the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Acts.
Sketch the legislation which has established the national banking system.
Describe the change which has taken place in the meaning attached to the word “resumption,” and the circumstances which have given us a legal tender currency of fixed amount.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF WORKINGMEN

An earlier post to this course with valuable links to the works quoted in the exams.

Enrollment

[Economics] 9. Mr. CUMMINGS. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen in the United States and in other countries. 3 hours.

Total 24: 3 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 68.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Mid-Year Examination]

[Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience of different countries. Omit two questions.]

“In a society adjusted to manual labor, it is absolutely impossible that a labor problem, as a class problem, should take its origin; but in a society adjusted to machinery, provided the English law of property be maintained, the development of class lines will surely make its appearance in industries.”
State fully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with these assertions.
“First, government must regulate the plane of competition, for without legal regulation the struggle between men for commercial supremacy will surely force society to the level of the most immoral man who can maintain himself.”
What evidence does the history of factory legislation furnish upon these points?
Comment upon the following passage: “The object held in view by workmen, when they organized themselves into unions, was to gain again that control over the conditions of labor which they lost when machinery took the place of tools.”
“The English public has had the courage and strength to leave workingmen’s associations full freedom of movement, at the risk even of temporary excesses and acts of violence, such as at one time stained the annals of trades-unions.” Explain.
How far is this true of France? Of the United States?
Describe briefly the origin, growth, and present tendencies of the English Friendly Society movement.
To what extent do trade organizations and friendly societies constitute an aristocracy of labor?
To what forms of remuneration can the evils of “sweating” be traced?
“The aim of Coöperation is at the same time the aim of Trade Unionism.” In what sense?
Sketch briefly the course of factory legislation during the present century either in England or in the United States.
Comment on the following passage: “The fact that the ignorant masses are enabled by the factory to engage in what it once took skilled labor to perform has given the widespread impression that factory labor has degraded the skilled, when in truth it has lifted the unskilled; and this is the inevitable result of the factory everywhere.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience different countries. Omit two questions.]

How is the burden of contribution distributed in each of the three departments of the German system of compulsory insurance? What theoretical or practical objections have you to the system?
“In England especially the State is not in a position to compete effectively with energetic Insurance Companies or with the Friendly Societies, pulsating with the vigour of social life; and still less can it so compete when hampered by restrictions which handicap its powers.” Discuss the evidence on this point furnished by English experience with government workingmen’s insurance. Are there any indications that German ideas are gaining ground in England?
“What, we will ask, is the relation of Profit-sharing to the ordinary wage system; and to what extent does Profit-sharing constitute an improvement upon the ordinary wage system?” Are there grounds for the assertion that Profit-sharing is “inferior in point of equity and expediency to the ordinary non-coöperative wage system“?
“Besides the militant trade unionist workmen, that very shrewd class of workingmen, the coöperators, regard Profit-sharing with marked disapprobation; so much so that, although Profit-sharing forms an essential part of the professed principles of Industrial Coöperation, yet by far the greater part of Industrial Coöperation is carried on upon the system of altogether excluding the employees from participation in profits.” What are the facts referred to, and how do you account for them?
“Here it is necessary to interpolate a protest against the assertion almost universally made by previous writers on this subject, that ‘Industrial Coöperation has succeeded in distribution, but has failed in production,’ — an assertion generally coupled with the explanation that ‘production’ is too difficult to be, as yet, undertaken by workingmen.” What are the facts?
“But the enthusiastic Coöperator will ask: why not develop the voluntary system of democratic Coöperation until it embraces the whole field of industry?” What do you conceive to be the economic limits to such extension by consumers’ associations?
“Having considered the social and economic position of workers in the coal, iron and steel industries in several countries, let us now by proper combination ascertain the average conditions prevailing in the two continents.” What are the probable conclusions to be drawn from these comparative statistics of family budgets in the United States and other countries?
“The Hungarians, Italians, Bohemians and Poles, who throng our gates give most concern. . . . Up to the present time there seems no ground to fear that such new comers have wielded a depressing influence. There seems rather reason for congratulation in the fact that instead of their having lowered the American standard of living, the American standard of life has been raising them.” Discuss the evidence. What light do recent changes in the character and volume of migration from different countries throw on this problem?
Indicate briefly the course of short-hour legislation in Massachusetts. How does it compare with the legislation in other states and other countries?
Indicate carefully how far there has been any approximation to compulsory arbitration in Massachusetts; in New York; in other countries. What are the objections to compulsory arbitration?
What do you conceive to be the significance of the Farmers’ Alliance and the Single Tax movements in the United States? And how are they related to each other?
Precisely what evidence is there for and against the contention that the employment of “private armed forces” has been largely responsible for violence and bloodshed during strikes? Give concrete examples.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10. U.S. AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIC HISTORY TO 1763

Enrollment

[Economics] 10. Professor ASHLEY. — The Economic History of Europe and America, to 1763. 3 hours.

Total 20: 6 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 3 Sophomores.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Mid-Year Examination]

N.B. — Not more than seven questions must be attempted.

Present the substance of recent suggestions as to the origin of the Celtic Sept, and compare them with earlier views.
Describe the Roman villa system, and compare it with mediaeval manorial agriculture and with modern American farming.
Discuss the value of the Domesday Survey for economic history.
Explain the importance of “Commutation.”
State and criticize Mr. Thorold Rogers’ view of the causes of the Peasant Revolt of 1381.
Describe the character of internal trade in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
To what extent was the mediaeval regulation of industry justified?
Trace the history, and comment on the significance, of Journeymen’s Societies.
“Capital is a historical category.” statement in the light of medieval history. Explain and criticize this statement in the light of mediaeval history.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 3, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Candidates are requested to attempt only six questions, — of which six one at least must be chosen from the first set.]

Compare the position of the Roman coloni with that of the peasants of the Middle Ages.
“The reign of Edward I appears to mark the turning-point in the history of the craft-gilds.” Explain and criticize this.
Estimate the importance of the work of M. Fustel de Coulanges in relation to Economic History.
________________________________
How did the Reformation affect the English craft companies?
Describe the “domestic system” of industry, and compare it with earlier and later systems.
Narrate the later fortunes of the Hanseatic merchants in England.
State and discuss the principles involved in the Poor Law of the sixteenth century.
Give some account of the various discussions concerning economic policy occasioned by the East India Company.
Compare a New England town with an English manor.

_________________________

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11. HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY BEFORE ADAM SMITH

Enrollment

[Economics] 11. Professor ASHLEY. — History of Economic Theory, down to Adam Smith. 2 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 8: 7 Graduates, 1 Senior.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1892-1893, p. 63.

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11.
[Year-End Final Examination]

[Candidates are requested to attempt only six questions.]

Explain Aristotle’s view of chrematistics.
What has been the economic influence of the Roman law?
Compare the fundamental ideas of the Canonists with those of the Socialists.
Explain the Canonist doctrine of Partnership.
What were the principles involved in the discussion concerning Montes Pietatis?
Consider the influence of the Reformation on Economic opinion.
Sketch briefly the various stages in the history of Mercantilism.
Explain briefly the significance for the history of economic thought of either Bodin, or Sir Josiah Child.

Tags Ashley, ColeWM, CummingsEdward, Peabody, Taussig

Exam Questions Harvard History of Economics

Harvard. Exams for History of Economics up through 18th Century. Ashley, 1900.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-06-27

The economic historian William James Ashley was also a historian of economics. As this Harvard course name and its semester exams transcribed for this post indicate, Ashley covered a huge chunk of waterfront–from Plato’s Republic through Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Students were clearly expected to bring a solid reading knowledge of German and French to the course (Latin was probably covered in the entrance exams of the time). Notes and links have been added between square brackets.

___________________

Course Enrollment

Primarily for Graduates:—

[Economics] 15. Professor Ashley. — The History and Literature of Economics to the close of the Eighteenth Century. Lectures (2 or 3 hours).

Total 11: 6 Graduates, 2 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College, 1899-1900, p. 69.

___________________

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 15
[Mid-year Examination]

Not more than eight questions should be attempted, of which the first must be one.

Explain the significance and context of the following passages:
1. “If you were making a city of pigs, this is the way you would feed them.”
  [Plato, The Republic, Book II]
2. “If a child be born in their class with an alloy of copper or iron, they are to have no manner of pity upon it.”
  [Plato, The Republic, Book III]
3. “Each of them is very many cities, – in any case there are two.”
  [Plato, The Republic, Book IV]
4. “A slave is an animate instrument.”
  [Aristotle. The Politics. Book I, Chapter IV.]
5. “Every article admits of two uses.”
  [Aristotle. The Politics. Book I, Chapter IX.]
6. “Mutuum date, nihil inde sperantes.”

[“Lend hoping nothing thereby.” Luke 6:35. Originally from the Vulgate, Latin version of the Bible prepared mainly by St. Jerome in the late 4^th century.
“35 verumtamen diligite inimicos vestros et benefacite et mutuum date nihil inde sperantes et erit merces vestra multa et eritis filii Altissimi quia ipse benignus est super ingratos et malos”
“35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”]
cf. Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. Second Division of the Second Part of Question LXXVIII. Of the Sin of Usury That is Committed in Loans.
Also, Théodore Reinach, Mutuum date nihil inde sperantes. Revue des Ètudes Grecques, 1849, pp. 52-48.]

Compare Plato’s conception of the division of labor with that of Adam Smith.
Explain and illustrate the attitude of Aristotle towards the working classes.
It has been remarked that after all Aristotle’s ideal polity is half communistic.
Criticize this opinion.
Describe the economic organization of the Spartan state. What do you gather from Plato and Aristotle as to the effects of the system?
In one sense, if at all, can the early Christian Church be called communistic? Set forth briefly the nature of the evidence.
Explain what you suppose to be the doctrine of Aquinas as to just price, and then consider whether the idea is in any way practically applicable under modern circumstances.
[From the Second Division of the Second Part of Summa Theologica. Question LXXVII. Of Fraudulent Dealing in Buying and Selling.]
Wherein did the medieval contract of partnership approach and wherein did it differ from usury?
Distinguish between the various senses attached to the word “Mercantilism”.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1899-1900.

___________________

[1899-1900]
ECONOMICS 15
[End-year Examination]

Not more than eight questions should be attempted.

Distinguish between the several lines of thought concerning the causes determining Value to be found in the various writings of John Locke.
The place in economic literature of either Sir Josiah Child or Sir William Petty.
Estimate the influence upon Adam Smith of the economic writings of Hume.
“Es lässt sich ja auch nicht leugnen, dass gerade das Beste an der physiocratischen Theorie: die Darstellung des Wirtschaftlichen Kreislaufs, die Lehre von der Reproduktion der Urstoffe, ihre Formung, Cirkulation und Verteilung, die Berechnung des Kapitalzinses, welchen die Pächter haben muss, und anderes auf einer Beobachtung des wirtschaftlichen Lebens beruhte; kurz sich als eine Beschreibung der französischen Wirtschaft des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts darstellte.”—Hasbach. Translate and comment.
[Wilhelm Hasbach. Die allgemeinen philosophischen grundlagen der von François Quesnay und Adam Smith begründeten politischen ökonomie, 1890, p. 138]
“La division du travail rend de si grands et si évidents services qu’on les a remarqués dès l’antiquité….Mais personne n’en a tiré parti au point de vue économique avant Adam Smith; aussi le considère-t-on en quelque sort comme l’inventeur de la division du travail.” — Block. Translate and comment.
[Maurice Block, Les Progrès de la Science Économique depuis Adam Smith. Tome Premier, Chapitre XVII, La Division du Travail, p. 433.]
A rapid sketch of the literary history of the doctrine of the Balance of Trade.
“The Component Parts of Price.” The significance of the phrase.
Compare Adam Smith’s doctrine of Wages with that of Ricardo.
State and criticise Adam Smith’s Canons of Taxation.
“Un autre progrès doctrinal réalisé depuis Ad. Smith…c’est la part faite aux entrepreneurs.” Translate and comment.
[Maurice Block, Les Progrès de la Science Économique depuis Adam Smith. Revue des Deux Mondes (1890, Vol. 97), p. 940.]
The Historical School: its merits and defects.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 5, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1900-01, p. 38.

Image Source: Portrait of W. J. Ashley incluced in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), p. 595.

Tags Ashley

Economists Harvard Seminar Speakers

Harvard. Members of the Economics Seminary, 1897-1898

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-05-28

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has posted the names and topics for presentations from 1891/92 through 1907/08 from Harvard’s Seminary in Economics. These lists were published in the Harvard Catalogues for the following academic years, providing us with the actual names and topics. I came across the following announcement for the academic year 1897/98 that provides a bit more information about the presenters but also shows us that there were a couple of deviations from the original, planned schedule. When I compared the members to the list of Harvard economics Ph.D.’s for the 1875-1926, I was somewhat surprised that the majority of presenters did not go on to complete Harvard Ph.D.’s. I decided to track down everyone listed as a member of the seminary in 1897-98, to see what I could find. Actually, I found quite a lot to include in this post.

_________________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
SEMINARY IN ECONOMICS.
[Announced]
1897-98.

INSTRUCTORS.

Professor C. F. Dunbar, 14 Highland St.
Professor W. J. Ashley, 6 Acacia St.
Professor Edward Cummings, Irving St.
Professor F. W. Taussig, 2 Scott St.

MEMBERS.

Morton A. Aldrich, A.B. (Harvard), Ph.D. (Halle). Henry Bromfield Rogers Memorial Fellow. 24 Thayer Hall.

Subject: The History of the American Federation of Labor.

Frederick A. Bushée, B.L. (Dartmouth). University Scholar. 7 Wendell St.

Subject: The Growth and Constitution of the Population of Boston.

Ralph W. Cone, A.B. (Kansas Univ.), A.B., A.M. (Harvard). University Scholar. 23 Hilton.

Subject: Railway Land Grants, with special reference to the Pacific railways.

Adolph O. Eliason, L.B. (University of Minnesota), A.B. (Harvard). 34 Divinity Hall.

Subject: The Distribution of National and State Banks [in] the United States, with special regard to the States of the Northwest.

John E. George, Ph.B. (North Western Univ.), A.M. (Harvard). Paine Fellow. 10 Oxford St.

Subject: The Condition and Organization of Coal Miners in the United States.

D. Frederick Grass, Ph.B. (Iowa Coll.). 14 Shepard St.

Subject: Antonio Serra, and the Beginning of Political Economy in Italy.

Charles S. Griffin, A.B. (Kansas), A.B., A.M. (Harvard). Assistant in Political Economy. 43 Grays Hall.

Subject: The Taxation of Sugar and the Sugar Industry in Europe and America.

W. L. Mackenzie King, A.M., LL.B. (Univ. of Toronto) Townsend Scholar. 14 Sumner St.C

Subject: The Clothing Trade and the Sweating System, in the United States, England, and Germany.

H.C. Marshall, A.B. (Ohio Wesleyan), A.B., A.M. (Harvard). Henry Lee Memorial Fellow. 29 Grays Hall.

Subject: History of Legal Tender Notes after the close of the Civil War.

Randolph Paine, Senior in Harvard College. 32 Mellen St.

Subject: The Growth of the Free Silver Movement since 1860.

C. E. Seaman, A.B., (Acadia), A.B., A.M. (Harvard). Assistant in Government. 31 Holyoke St.

Subject: The Intercolonial Railway of Canada.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1897-1898”.

_____________________________

Report of the actual meetings of the Seminary of Economics, 1897-98

At the joint meetings of the Seminary of American History and Institutions and the Seminary of Economics: —

Some results of an inquiry on taxation in Massachusetts. Professor F. W. Taussig.

The Making of a Tariff. Mr. S. N. D. North.

The currency reform plan of the Indianapolis convention. Professor Dunbar.

At the Seminary of Economics: —

Trade-unions in Australia. Dr. M. A. Aldrich.

The coal miners’ strike of 1897. Mr. J. E. George.

An analysis of the law of diminishing returns. Dr. C. W. Mixter.

The Secretary of the Treasury and the currency, 1865-1879. Mr. H. C. Marshall.

An inquiry on government contract work in Canada. Mr. W. L. M. King.

The sugar industry in Europe as affected by taxes and bounties. Mr. C. S. Griffin.

The security of bank notes based on general assets, as indicated by experience under the national bank system. Mr. A. O. Eliason.

The inter-colonial railway. Mr. C. E. Seaman.

Some results of the new method of assessing the income tax in Prussia. Dr. J. A. Hill.

Antonio Serra and the beginnings of political economy in Italy. Mr. D. F. Grass.

The American Federation of Labor. Dr. M. A. Aldrich.

The earlier stages of the silver movement in the United States. Mr. Randolph Paine.

The land grant to the Union Pacific Railroad. Mr. R. W. Cone.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1898-99, pp. 400-1.

_____________________________

Economic Seminar Members

Morton Arnold Aldrich.
(b. Jan. 6, 1874 in Boston; d. May 9, 1956 in New Orleans)

If you had to pick one individual most responsible for the founding of the A. B. Freeman School of Business [at Tulane University], that individual would be Morton A. Aldrich, the business school’s first and longest-serving dean. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard with a PhD from Germany’s University of Halle, Aldrich joined Tulane in 1901 as an assistant professor of economics and sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and he wasted little time making his intentions known. A 1902 article in the Times-Picayune describes a lecture in which Aldrich declared Tulane’s intention to establish a College of Commerce. “In New Orleans, it is unfortunate that so many businessmen come from the North and from abroad,” Aldrich is quoted as saying. “We are glad to have them, to be sure, but would it not be more satisfactory if we could educate Louisianians to become leaders to a greater extent?”

Aldrich was a man of contradictions. He was a worldly and erudite scholar yet at the same time an everyman who enjoyed swapping stories with trappers and fishermen at his camp on Lake Pontchartrain. Aldrich prided himself on his ability to get along with everyone, and it was that knack for bringing disparate groups together that ultimately helped him found Tulane’s College of Commerce and Business Administration.

In 1902, business education was still viewed by many as vocational training, a field not worthy of a university of Tulane’s stature. But even if there had been more widespread support for business education within the university, Aldrich still faced obstacles. Tulane President Edwin Alderman informed Aldrich in no uncertain terms that the cash-strapped university simply did not have the resources to establish a new college.

Undeterred, Aldrich turned his attention to the business community. In 1909, he founded the Tulane Society of Economics, which sponsored lectures that highlighted the intersection of economic theory and business practice. Many of the city’s most prominent businessmen became members of the society. In 1912, Aldrich drafted a tax reform proposal for the state of Louisiana that further established his reputation in the business community. A year later, he became a charter member of the New Orleans Association of Commerce, a new organization established to help promote the city’s economic interests. With the membership of the Association of Commerce in his corner, Aldrich realized he finally had the business support he had been cultivating for the previous 10 years.

In 1913, the Association of Commerce sent a letter to Tulane President Robert Sharp asking the university to establish a College of Commerce. Sensing the shift is public sentiment regarding business education, Sharp did not rule out the creation of a commerce college. Instead, he simply said that Tulane did not have the money. That response set in motion a whirlwind of activity at the Association of Commerce. By the fall of 1914, the association presented Tulane with a plan to underwrite the cost of establishing a business college. The Board of Tulane endorsed the proposal, and Sharp appointed Aldrich as the first dean of the newly formed Tulane University College of Commerce and Business Administration.

Aldrich went on to serve as dean of the college for 25 years. In that time, he built the college from a small, part-time program to a successful degree-granting institution with 871 students spread across day and evening programs. He also personally hired each of the college’s full-time professors—the so-called “Nine Old Men” of the business school—who would serve as the core of the faculty for the next 40 years.

In a very real sense, Aldrich helped to transform Tulane from a 19th century liberal arts college to a modern 20th century university with academic divisions spanning a variety of fields and disciplines.

Besides being a significant figure in business education at Tulane, Aldrich was also a pioneer in business education nationally. He helped to establish the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which today is the leading worldwide accrediting organization for business schools, and he served as the organization’s secretary for the first six years of its existence.

Aldrich stepped down as dean in 1939 when he reached the mandatory faculty retirement age of 65. Although he was honored by alumni on several occasions and remained friends with Tulane President Rufus Harris, he never returned to campus.

Aldrich died in New Orleans on May 9, 1956.

Each week during our Centennial Celebration, the Freeman School is highlighting some of the well-known and not-so-well-known people who helped to make the first 100 years of business education at Tulane University so special.

Source: From the Morton A. Aldrich webpage at the Freeman School of Business – Tulane University Centennial website (2013). Morton A. Aldrich from the 1915 edition of the Jambalaya student yearbook.

Dissertation (Halle-Wittenberg, 1897)

Morton Arnold Aldrich, Die Arbeiterbewegung in Australien und Neuseeland. (Published by Barras, 1897).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Frederick Alexander Bushée
(b. July 21, 1872 in Brookfield, VT; d. Apr. 4, 1960 in Bolder, CO)

Harvard 1902 doctoral dissertation: Ethnic factors in the population of Boston. New York, Macmillan (London, Sonnenschein), 1903, 8°, pp. viii, 171 (Publ. Amer. Econ. Assoc., ser. 3, 4: no. 2). Preliminary portion pub. as “The growth of the population of Boston,” in Publ. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 1899, n. s., 6: 239-274.

Image Source: University of Colorado yearbook Coloradoan 1922 (Vol. 24), p. 32.

Timeline from:
Reminiscence of the Bushees by Earl David Crockett, the son of Bushee’s successor at the University of Colorado

1872, July 21. Born in Brookfield, Vermont.
1894. Litt. B. Dartmouth College.
1894-95. Resident South End House, Boston.
1895-96. Hartford School of Sociology.
1896-97. Resident South End House, Boston.
1897-1900. Graduate student, Harvard University.
1898. Harvard University, A.M.
1900-01. Collège Libre des Sciences Sociales, Collège de France, Paris; University of Berlin.
1901-02. Assistant in Economics, Harvard University.
1902. Harvard University, Ph.D. in Political Science.
1902-03. Instructor in Economics and History in the Collegiate Department of Clark University.
1903-08. Assistant Professor in Economics, Clark University.
1907-08. Instructor in Economics and Sociology, Clark University.
1910-12. Professor of Economics and Sociology at Colorado College.
1912. Hired by University of Colorado. Boulder, Colo.
1916. Professor of Economics and Sociology, and Secretary of the College of Commerce, University of Colorado. Boulder, Colo.
1925-32. Professor of Economics and Sociology, and Acting Dean of the School of Business Administration, University of Colorado. Boulder, Colo.
1939. Retired.
1960, April 4. Died in Boulder, Colorado.

Robert Treat Paine Fellowship
1899-1900

Frederick Alexander Bushée. Litt.B. (Dartmouth Coll., N.H.) 1894, A.M. 1898.—Res. Gr. Stud., 1897-99.—University Scholar, 1897-98; Townsend Scholar, 1898-99. Student of Economics, at this University.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1898-1899, p. 149.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Ralph Waldo Cone
(b. April 21, 1870 in Seneca, KS; d. January 2, 1951 Kansas City, MO)

A.B. Univ. Kan. 1895; A.B. Harvard 1896.; A.M. Harvard 1897.

1899-1906. Assistant Professor of Sociology and Economics. University of Kansas.

1907-Associate Professor of Sociology and Economics.

1910 U.S. Census listed as professor, starting with the 1920/30/40 U.S. Census listed as farmer.

1910/11 University of Kansas Annual Catalogue (p. 194) lists Associate Professor Cone as “resigned”, probably as announcement for 1911/12.

Image Source: University of Kansas. The Jayhawker. Yearbook of the Senior Class, 1906. P. 20.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Adolph Oscar Eliason
(b. May 26, 1873 at Montevideo, Minn; d. April 27, 1944 at Ramsey, Minn.)

Image Source: Harvard College Class of 1897, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Report.
1896-97 Harvard. A.B.; A.M. 1898; Litt. B. (Univ. of Minn., 1896); Ph.D. (Univ. of Minn., 1901)

“After graduating from Harvard I received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Minnesota in 1901. I then entered the banking business, being connected with the Bank of Montevideo, Minn., was identified with other business activities, and served as president of the Montevideo Commercial Cub. I lectured on banking at the University of Minnesota, and wrote some monographs on this subject…”

Source: Harvard College Class of 1897. Twenty-fifth Anniversary Report [Number VI, 1922], pp. 173-174.

Ph.D. Thesis, University of Minnesota.

Adolph O. Eliason. The Rise of Commercial Banking Institutions in the United States. 1901.

Another Publication

Adolph O. Eliason. The Beginning of Banking in Minnesota, read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council of the Minnesota Historical Society, May 11, 1908.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

John Edward George
(b. May 12, 1865 near Braceville, IL; d. Jan. 18 1905)

Born 12 May 1865, near Braceville, Ill. Prepared in Grand Prairie Seminary, Onarga, Ill. Entered college on state scholarship. Ph.B. Hinman; Sigma Alpha Epsilon; Phi Beta Kappa. Member of United States Life-Saving Crew; Cushing prize in Economics. 1896-97, student at Harvard University on Chicago Harvard Club scholarship. 1897, A.M., ibid. 1897-98, Robert Treat Paine Fellow at Harvard University; reappointed in 1898, with leave to study abroad. 1899, Ph.D., University of Halle, Germany. Instructor in Economics and History, Grand Prairie Seminary, 1895-96; secretary and statistician of Improved Housing Association, Chicago, 1899-1900; Instructor in Roxbury Latin School, Boston, Mass., 1900; Instructor in Political Economy, Northwestern University, 1900-01; Assistant Professor, 1901–. Member of American Economic Association.

Source: Northwestern University. Alumni Record of the College of Liberal Arts, 1903, p. 257.

Ph.B. (Northwestern Univ., 1895). John Edward George. The Saloon Question in Chicago. American Economic Association, Economic Studies. Vol. II, No. 2 (April, 1897).

“Mr. George’s essay was awarded the Cushing prize, offered in Northwestern University, for the best essay on the subject.”

John E. George. The Settlement in the Coal-Mining Industry. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 12, No. 4 (1898), pp. 447-460.

Robert Treat Paine Fellowship
1897-98.

John Edward George. Ph.B. (Northwestern University) 1895, A.M., 1897.—Res. Gr. Stud., 1896-97.—Scholar of the Harvard Club of Chicago, 1896-97.—Student of the Ethical Problems of Society, at this University.
Now continuing his studies in Germany.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1897-1898, p. 142.

Robert Treat Paine Fellowship
1898-99.

John Edward George. Reappointed.
Ph.B. (Northwestern Univ., Ill.) 1895, A.M., 1897.—Res. Gr. Stud., 1896-98.—Non-Res. Stud., 1898-99.—Student of the Ethical Problems of Society, at this University (1897-98) and in Germany (1898-99).
Engaged in sociological investigation, in Chicago.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1898-1899, p. 149.

Passport application
(sworn Boston, June 29, 1898)

John Edward George for a passport for self and wife. Born near Braceville, Illinois on May 12, 1865. “I follow the occupation of student at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.” Intend to return to U.S. in a year. Stature 5 feet 7 ¾ inches.

Ph.D. dissertation, 1899

Die Verhältnisse des Kohlenbergbaues in den Vereinigten Staaten, mit besonderer Bezugnahme auf die Lage der Bergarbeiter seit dem Jahre 1885. Halle a.S. (Frommann in Jena), 1899.

1900 U.S. Census. Cambridge, Irving Street.

Listed as visitor (with his wife Adda G., born Sept. 1874 Illinois) of Harvard Professor Charles Eliot Norton.

Obituary

DR. JOHN EDWARD GEORGE DEAD.
Former Professor of Economics at Northwestern University Succumbs After Long Illness.
Chicago Tribune (Friday Jan 20, 1905), p. 5.

Dr. John Edward George, who was compelled to resign his position as assistant professor of economics at Northwestern university because of illness two years ago, died of heart trouble at the Wesley hospital Wednesday night.

He was graduated from Northwestern in 1895, and during the following two years studied at Harvard and then at the University of Halle, where he received the degree of doctor of philosophy. He became a member of the faculty of Northwestern in 1900.

Dr. George was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Phi Beta Kappa fraternities and of the American Economic association. It was in the publications of the last named organization that he won a name that has hardly been excelled by so young a student of economics. Ile left a widow and one daughter. The funeral will be held In the town of his birth, Braceville, Ill., Saturday afternoon.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Donald Frederick Grass
(b. May 5, 1873 in Council Bluffs, IA; d. Oct. 2, 1941 in Sacramento, CA)

Donald Frederick Grass, Ph.D. Professor of Business Administration. 923 Seventh
Ph.B., Grinnell; A.B., A.M., Harvard; Ph.D., Stanford. Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Grinnell, Second Semester, 1917; Associate Professor, 1918; Professor of Business Administration, 1919—.

Source: Grinnell College Bulletin, Vol. XX, No. 1 (May, 1922), p. 17.

The decade 1900-1909

From his 1902 Iowa marriage record one finds that he was working as a bank cashier in Macedonia, Iowa.

Entries for “Donald Frederick Grass” in the Stanford Alumni Directory (1920)

“Assistant Professor of Economics. At Stanford 1910-17.” (p. 31)

“Ph.D. Econ., May ’14; A.B. and A.M., Harvard, ’98 and ’99; PhB., Grinnell College, ’94. m. March 30, 1904, Minnie Jones. Professor of Business administration, Grinnell College. Residence, 923 Seventh Ave., Grinnell, Ia.” (p. 234)

Source: Stanford University. Alumni Directory and Ten-Year Book (Graduates and Non-Graduates) III. 1891-1920.

Listed as Instructor in the Department of Economics and Social Science at Stanford 1912/13
Source: Graduate Study 1912-13. Bulletin of Leland Stanford Junior University, No. 63 (April 1913), p. 28.

Listed as Assistant Professor 1916/17.
Source: Graduate Study 1916-17. Bulletin of Leland Stanford Junior University, No. 92 (June 16, 1913), p. 34.

Sept. 12, 1918 Draft Registration Card

Donald Frederick Grass. b. May 5, 1873
Present Occupation: Professor at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
Nearest relative: wife Minnie Grass (also residing at 1120 Broad St. Grinnell, Iowa).

Obituary
reported in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) October 3, 1941, Friday. Page 6.

“Donald F. Grass, professor emeritus of business administration at Grinnell college, died Thursday in Sacramento, California, according to word received here Friday morning.
Professor Grass retired from the Grinnell faculty in June. He and Mrs. Grass had been living with a daughter in Sacramento.
He came to Grinnell as an assistant professor of business in 1917. In 1919 he became a full professor and was made head of the department, a post he held until he retired.”

Image Source: Donald F. Grass in the Grinnell college yearbook The Cyclone 1931, p. 12.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Charles Sumner Griffin
(b. Oct. 15, 1872 in Lawrence, KS; d. Sept. 10, 1904 at Hakone, Japan.)

Charles Sumner Griffin, A.B. (Kansas, 1894), A.B. (Harvard, 1895), A.M. (Harvard). Assistant in Political Economy.

Passport application. June 1898

Charles Sumner Griffin, born at Lawrence, Kansas on 15 October 1872, occupation student.

Charles Sumner Griffin.
Lawrence Daily Journal
October 15, 1904, p. 1.

The receipt of letters giving the circumstances of his death make it possible to write a full and final account of the life of our late friend and former townsman, Professor Charles S. Griffin. The first twenty-two years of his life were spent In Lawrence where he was born, October 15th, 1872. He received his early education in the schools of this city, graduating from the high school in 1890. He entered the university of Kansas the next autumn and received his bachelor’s degree in 1894 and with it membership in the Phi Beta Kappa society. He entered Harvard university the following fall and received the Harvard A. B. in ’95, the A.M. in ’96. In 1897 he was appointed instructor in economics In Harvard and the next year received a traveling fellowship. After holding this for one year and while still abroad he was appointed, on the nomination of the Harvard authorities, professor of political economy and finance in the Imperial University of Tokio, where he had completed five years of service at the time of his death.

Although he had been in Lawrence but little since his graduation ten years ago, Professor Griffin was well known to all but the most recent comers, having assisted his father, Mr. A. J. Griffin, in his business. Personally he was serious yet at the same time genial and he had a circle of staunch friends among the best of his instructors and his classmates. While he did not learn easily his earnestness and persistence won for him in all the institutions he attended a reputation for solid and reliable scholarship.

His special study at Harvard was the sugar industry, and his two papers on this subject, published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, were regarded by Professor Taussig and other authorities as real contributions to knowledge. He had published also in Japan an edition of Rlcardo’s Essays on Currency and Finance, Tokio 1901. Notes on Commercial Policy and Modern Colonization, pp. 130, and Notes on Transportation and Communication, pp. 215, the latter two printed privately at Tokio, 1902. In March in this year the N. Y. Evening Post printed an article by Professor Griffin on the present situation in Japan. For several years he had been preparing to write a Financial History of Japan Previous to the Present Era. To this end he had diligently applied himself to the acquisition of the written and printed languages and was making rapid progress. During the summer just past he had with him on his vacation two Japanese students who were assisting him in the difficult task of learning the Japanese characters, of which there are some ten thousand, and indexing appropriate literature for him. It is not known whether his work on the history had progressed far enough to leave any portion of it in shape for publication, but It is feared not.

Mrs. A. J. Griffin and Miss Edith Griffin visited Mr. Griffin in 1900 and found him happily situated and enthusiastic over the country and his work. In July, 1901 he was married to Mary Avery Greene, daughter of Rev. Daniel C. Greene, the first missionary sent to Japan by the American Board, and to them had been born two children, Charles Carroll and Mary Avery. Professor Griffin spent his summer vacation on the shore of Lake Hakone, about sixty miles from Tokio. As the vacation was almost over, the family was to take a last picnic tea on the shore of the beautiful lake, half an hour from the village. Before tea Mr. Griffin went to the water’s edge for a plunge. He dived in and rose but once. Either he was seized with a cramp or was, stunned by a blow on the head. He was unable to grasp an oar thrown to him and sank before his wife’s eyes in thirty feet of water By the time the body was recovered life was extinct although military surgeons from the near by hospital worked over it for four hours. He was buried September 11, on the top of a hill near the village of Hakone, the coffin decked with Japanese and American flags and covered with flowers, among them a cross sent by Japanese veterans to whom he had endeared himself. The Episcopal service was read and two of Professor Griffin’s favorite hymns sung, one of them a portion of Whitter’s “The Eternal Goodness” containing the stanza,

“I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air,
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.”

Although there is no present palliative for the sense of loss both to his friends and to the world of learning, the memory of Charles Griffin will long remain a grateful inspiration to those who knew him well. His career, though brief, brings honor to his parents, his native city, his alma mater and his state. W.H.C.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Joseph Adna Hill
(b. May 5, 1860, Stewartstown, New Hampshire; d. December 12, 1938 in Washington, D.C.)

Passport application: September 1889. Permanent residence at Temple in New Hampshire, occupation: student. About to go abroad temporarily, to return within three years.

1892 Ph.D. Dissertation

Joseph Anna Hill. Das “Interstate Commerce”-Gesetz in den Vereinigten Staaten. Halle a.S : Frommannsche Buch dr. in Jena, 1892.

1894 translation of Cohn’s History of Political Economy

Gustav Cohn. A History of Political Economy, translated by Joseph Adna Hill. Published as a Supplement to the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1894. [Volume One, Book One, Chapter Three, pp. 91-181 of Cohn’s System der Nationalökonomie, 2 vols. pp. 649 and 796. Stuttgart, 1885.]

Taught Professor Dunbar’s course in 1896

[Economics] 8². Dr. J. A. Hill.—History of Financial Legislation in the United States. Hf. 2 hours, 2d half-year

Total 64: 5 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 18 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 4 Law, 9 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1895-1896, p. 64.

Dr. Joseph Adna Hill, Census Bureau Aide, Dies Here at 78
Held Post of Chief Statistician of Research Division Since 1933

Dr. Joseph Adna Hill, 78, chief statistician of the Division of Statistical Research, Census Bureau, died last night of a heart attack at his home 1826 Irving street N.W. Dr. Hill had been engaged in statistical work at the bureau since 1898. He was named chief statistician of a division there in 1909. In 1921 he was appointed assistant director of the 14th census, and in 1930 was made assistant director for the 15th census. He had been chief statistician of the Division of Statistical Research since 1933. He was chairman of the committee appointed by the Secretaries of State, Commerce and Labor to determine immigration quotas.

Dr. Hill was an uncle of Gen. John Philip Hill, former Representative from Maryland and former United States district attorney of that State, who lives here at the Army and Navy Club. Other survivors include a brother, the Rev. Dr. Bancroft Hill of Vassar College and two other nephews. Dr. Eben Clayton Hill, Baltimore physician, and Bancroft Hill, president of the Baltimore Transit Co. Dr. Hill was unmarried.

Secured Ph.D. in Germany.

Born in Stewartstown, N. H., Dr. Hill was a son of the late Rev. Dr. Joseph Bancroft Hill and the late Mrs. Harriet Brown Hill. He prepared for Harvard University at Exeter Academy. He was graduated with an A. B. from Harvard in 1885, received an M.A. degree there in 1887 and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Halle, Germany, in 1892. He lectured at the University of Pennsylvania in 1893 and was an instructor at Harvard University in 1895.

Last year Dr. Hill represented this country at a statistical conference in Athens. Greece. Prominently identified with many organizations, Dr. Hill was a member of the American Economic Association. the American Statistical Association, serving the latter as president in 1919, and the International Statistical Institute. He also belonged to the Cosmos Club here, the Harvard Club of New York and the Harvard Club of Boston.

Active as Harvard Alumnus.

Dr. Hill had continually maintained an active interest in Harvard University, where his father was graduated in 1821 and his grandfather, the Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Hill, was graduated there in 1786. Dr. Hill was a cousin of the historian and diplomat, George Bancroft, who served as Secretary of the Navy under President Polk.

Active as a writer, Dr. Hill was author of the “English Income Tax,” 1899; “Women in Gainful Occupations,” 1929, and had contributed to economic journals and prepared census reports on illiteracy, child labor, marriage and divorce, etc. Dr. Hill formerly lived at No. 8 Logan Circle, until moving, a short while ago, to his Irving street home.

Funeral arrangements were to be announced later.

Source: Evening Star, Washington, D.C. December 13, 1938, page 10.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Willian Lyon Mackenzie King
(b. Dec. 17, 1874 in Berlin, Ontario; d. July 22, 1950 at Kingsmere, Quebec )

A.B. University of Toronto, 1895; LL.B. University of Toronto, 1896; A.M. University of Toronto, 1897; A.M. Harvard University, 1898.

Harvard Ph.D. Thesis title (1909): Oriental immigration to Canada. Pub. in “Report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the methods by which Oriental labourers have been induced to come to Canada,” Ottawa, Government Printing Bureau, 1908, pp. 13-81.

1921–1926, 1926–1930 and 1935–1948. Prime Minister of Canada.

Industry and humanity: a study in the principles underlying industrial reconstruction (Toronto, 1918) was King’s report to the Rockefeller Foundation.

Image Source: “William Lyon Mackenzie King” in Wikipedia.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Herbert Camp Marshall
(b. March 8, 1871 at Zanesville, OH; d. May 22, 1953, Washington, DC)

A.B. Ohio Wesleyan University, 1891; A.B. Harvard University, 1894; A.M. Harvard University, 1895.

Harvard 1901 Ph.D. thesis title: The currency and the movement of prices in the United States from 1860 to 1880.

A Later Publication

Herbert C. Marshall, Specialist in Economic Research, Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Retail marketing of meats : agencies of distribution, methods of merchandising, and operating expenses and profits. U. S. Department of Agriculture. Department Bulletin No. 1317 (June, 1925).

Obituary
The Times Recorder (Zanesville, OH)
May 25, 1953

Dr. Marshall Succumbs Friday

Dr. Herbert C. Marshall, 83, retired economist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, died Friday at his home in Washington, D.C. He was a native of Muskingum county.

Dr. Marshall, a brother of Carrington T. Marshall of Columbus, a former chief justice of the Ohio Supreme court, and of Charles O. Marshall of Pleasant Valley, was born in Falls township and was a graduate of Zanesville high school.

He also was graduated from Ohio Wesleyan university and received several degrees from Harvard.

He spent his boyhood in Muskingum county but had not resided in the area since that time.

He practiced law in New York city until 1916, when he Joined the federal department of agriculture, a post he held until he retired in 1941.

He was a member of the New York Bar association, the American Economics society, Phi Beta Kappa, the Harvard club of Washington and the Cosmos club of Washington.

His wife, the former Mary Emma Griffith, died in 1925.

In addition to Carrington and Charles O. Marshall, he is survived by another brother, Leon C. Marshall, of Chevy Chase, Md., and a daughter, Miss Eleanor Marshall of Washington.

Funeral services will take place in Washington but burial will be in the Bethlehem cemetery between Pleasant Valley and the Newark road.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Charles Whitney Mixter
(b. Sept. 23, 1869 in Chelsea, MA; d. Oct. 21, 1936 in Washington, D.C.)

A.B. Johns Hopkins University (Md.), 1892; A.M. Harvard University, 1893.

1897 Harvard Ph.D.

Thesis title: Overproduction and overaccumulation: a study in the history of economic theory.

Edited Work

John Rae. The Sociological Theory of Capital, being a complete reprint of the New Principles of Political Economy, 1834. Edited with biographical sketch and notes by Charles Whitney Mixter, Ph.D., Professor of Political Economy in the University of Vermont. New York: Macmillan, 1905.

OBITUARY
The Burlington Free Press (Oct. 22, 1936), p. 14

Charles Whitney Mixter, for nine years a member of the University of Vermont faculty, died at a hospital in Washington, D. C., on Tuesday evening. [October 20]

Dr. Mixter was born in Chelsea, Mass., in 1867. He received his early education at Thayer Academy and Williston Seminary, and received his A.B. degree from John Hopkins University in 1892.

This was followed by graduate studies at Berlin, Goettingen and Harvard, from which he received his doctorate in 1897. Then followed a series of teaching positions: Assistant in economics at Harvard, 1897-98; Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., 1899-1900; instructor in economics, Harvard, 1901-1903; professor of economics, University of Vermont, 1903-1912.

Then Dr. Mixter served as efficiency expert for Towne and Yale at New Haven, Conn., and later for several manufacturing concerns in New Hampshire. For a year he was professor of economics at Clark University, and for a brief period he was an investigator in the service of the United States Chamber of Commerce.

For the last 13 years he had been connected with the tariff commission in Washington.

Professor Mixter had an unusually fertile mind, was an accomplished scholar in his special field, and widely read in related subjects. he became an enthusiastic student of scientific management introduced by the late Frederick W. Taylor and an active exponent of the system. He was a member of the leading economic organizations and a frequent contributor to economic journals.

He was a strong advocate of free trade. Interment was made in Plymouth, Mass.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Simon Newton Dexter North
(b. Nov. 29, 1848 in Clinton, NY; d. Aug. 3, 1924 in Wilton, CT)

S. N. D. North. Old Greek: An Old Time Professor in an Old Fashioned College. New York, 1905. The story of his father Edward North, Professor of Ancient Languages in Hamilton.

Obituary, Evening Star (Washington, D.C.)
August 4, 1924, p. 7.

SIMON D. NORTH, EX-OFFICIAL DIES
Former Director of Census Succumbs in Summer Home in Connecticut.

Word was received here last night of the death in Wilton, Conn., of S. N. D. North, former director of the United States Census Bureau and a resident of this city for more than 25 years. Mr. North was accustomed to going to Connecticut each summer, and, with his wife, Mrs. Lillian Comstock North, he was spending the summer there. He lived at 2852 Ontario road here.

Mr. North first came to this city as chief statistician of manufacturers for the twelfth census, and in 1903 he was made director of the census. He had been prominently connected with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, with headquarters here, since that organization’s foundation.

Born at Clinton, N. Y.

Simon Newton Dexter North was born in Clinton, N. Y., November 29. 1849. He was the son of Dr. Edward and Mrs. Mary F. Dexter North. He was graduated from Hamilton College in 1869 and received an LL.D. degree from Bowdoin in 1902 and later the same degree from the University of Illinois in 1904. He was married to Miss Lillian Sill Comstock of Rome. N. Y., July 8, 1875.

He was a prominent newspaper man and was well known in journalistic circles. He was editor of the Utica Morning Herald from 1869 to 1886 and the Albany (N. Y.) Express from 1886 to 1888. He also was prominently connected with business organizations, having been secretary of the National Association of Woolen Manufacturers at Boston and editor of that organization’s quarterly bulletin from 1888 to 1903. He also had served as a member of the United States Industrial Commission and as president of the New York State Associated Press.

Wrote Many Pamphlets.

Mr. North was a member of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Cosmos Club and the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity of New York. He also was editor of several historical magazines, of industrial publications and numerous memoirs and pamphlets. Outstanding among these were his works, “An American Textile Glossary” and “A History of American Wool Manufacture.” In addition to this, he wrote many pamphlets and delivered lectures on economics. He was for many years a member of the board of trustees of the National Geographic Society.

Besides his wife, he is survived by a son, Dexter North of the United States Tariff Commission, and two daughters, Mrs. Eloise C. Jenks of Philadelphia and Miss Gladys North. No definite arrangements have been made for the funeral, but interment will be in Clinton, N. Y.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Randolph Paine
(b. Nov 3 November 1873 in Denton, TX; d. June 13, 1937 in Dallas TX)

Harvard A.B. 1898; Harvard LL.B. 1901

1900 U.S. Census.

Randolph Paine: Born Nov 1873 in Texas. Residing in Cambridge, Mass

Harvard Law School.

Paine, Randolph, A.B. 1898, Denton, Tex. 32 Mellen St.

Source: Harvard University Catalogue 1898/1899, p. 130.

1910 U.S. Census.

Randolph Paine: 36 years old, born in Texas. Attorney. Living in Dallas, Texas. Wife Maude

Obituary
Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, TX) June 14, 1937, p. 5

Former Denton Man Dies in Dallas

Randolph Paine, 63, veteran Dallas attorney, who was born in Denton in 1873, died in a Dallas hospital Sunday after a brief illness. He had retired from active law practice four years ago…Surviving Paine are his widow and three sons, Dr. John R. Paine of Minneapolis; Henry C. Paine and Roswell Paine, both of Dallas.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Charles Edward Seaman
(b. Oct. 4, 1866 in Picton, Canada; d. Aug. 19, 1937 in Los Angeles)

A.B. 1892, Acadia. A.B. 1895 and A.M. 1896 Harvard.

University of Vermont

Officers of Instruction and Government, 1901. Professor of Political Economy and Constitutional Law. University of Vermont. p. 33.

Instructor: 1900-01 of Political Economy and Constitutional Law. University of Vermont., p. 21

Source: General Catalogue of the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College. 1791-1900.

Ariel vol. 17 (1904) University of Vermont yearbook

Charles Edward Seaman, A.M., 49 Williams St. Professor of Political Economy and Constitutional Law, 1901; and Dean of the Department of Commerce and Economics. Instructor of Political Economy and Constitutional Law, 1900-01.

Declaration of Intention for Naturalization.
Los Angeles County. 18 September 1908.

Charles Edward Seaman aged 41 years, occupation retired. Born in Picton, Canada on 4^th day of October 1866. Residing at 2151 Harvard Blvd, Los Angeles.

Married into a wealthy Indiana family

Charles Edward Seaman and Florence Leyden DePauw married 10 Sept 1902 in Marion, Indiana.

From obituary [ Los Angeles Express, Apr. 2, 1913] for wife’s mother (Frances Marion DePauw, widow of Washington Charles DePauw who endowed DePauw university at Greencastle, Ind.): “Mrs. DePauw is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Charles Edward Seaman, 2151 Harvard boulevard, whose husband formerly held the chair of economics in the University of Vermont.

1913 Harvard University Alumni directory

Charles Edward Seaman, 2151 Harvard Blvd. Los Angels, CA.

Obituary
August 19, 1937. The Los Angeles Times, p. 42

Seaman. August 19, Charles Edward Seaman, beloved husband of Florence De Pauw Seaman and loving father of Mrs. William D. Witherspoon and Mrs. James H. Meriwether. Services at the residence, 2151 South Harvard Boulevard, Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Tags AldrichMA, Ashley, Bushee, Cone, CummingsEdward, Dunbar, Eliason, GeorgeJE, GrassDF, GriffinCS, KingWL, MarshallHC, MixterCW, PaineR, SeamanCE, Taussig

AEA Bibliography

American Economic Association. Monographs: 1886-1896

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-04-15

Besides transcribing and curating archival content for Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, I occasionally put together collections of links to books and other items of interest on pages or posts that constitute my “personal” virtual economics reference library. In this post you will find links to early monographs/papers published by the American Economic Association.

Links to the contents of the four volumes of AEA Economic Studies, 1896-1899 have also been posted.

A few other useful collections:

The virtual rare-book reading room (classic works of economics up to 1900)

The Twentieth Century Economics Library

Laughlin’s recommended teacher’s library of economics (1887)

_____________________

PUBLICATIONS OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. MONOGRAPHS.
1886-1896

_____________________

General Contents and Index to Volumes I-XI.
Source: Publications of the American Economic Association, Vol XI (1896). Price 25 cents.

VOLUME I

No. 1 (Mar. 1886). Report of the Organization of the American Economic Association. By Richard T. Ely, Ph.D., Secretary. Price 50 cents.

Nos. 2 and 3 (May-Jul. 1886). The Relation of the Modern Municipality to the Gas Supply. By Edmund J. James, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

No. 4 (Sep. 1886). Co-öperation in a Western City. By Albert Shaw, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

No. 5 (Nov. 1886). Co-öperation in New England. By Edward W. Bemis, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

No. 6 (Jan. 1887). Relation of the State to Industrial Action. By Henry C. Adams, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

VOLUME II

No. 1 (Mar. 1887). Three Phases of Co-öperation in the West. By Amos G. Warner, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

No. 2 (May 1887). Historical Sketch of the Finances of Pennsylvania. By T. K. Worthington, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

No. 3 (Jul. 1887). The Railway Question. By Edmund J. James, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

No. 4 (Sep. 1887). The Early History of the English Woolen Industry. By William J. Ashley, M.A. Price 75 cents.

No. 5 (Nov. 1887). Two Chapters on the Mediaeval Guilds of England. By Edwin R. A. Seligman, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

No. 6 (Jan. 1888). The Relation of Modern Municipalities to Quasi-Public Works. By H. C. Adams, George W. Knight, Davis R. Dewey, Charles Moore, Frank J. Goodnow and Arthur Yager. Price 75 cents.

VOLUME III

No. 1 (Mar. 1888). Three Papers Read at Meeting in Boston: “The Study of Statistics in Colleges,” by Carroll D. Wright; “The Sociological Character of Political Economy,” by Franklyn H. Giddings; “Some Considerations on the Legal-Tender Decisions,” by Edmund J. James. Price 75 cents.

No. 2 (May 1888). Capital and its Earnings. By John B. Clark, A.M. Price 75 cents.

No. 3 (Jul. 1888) consists of three parts: “Efforts of the Manual Laboring Class to Better Their Condition,” by Francis A. Walker; “Mine Labor in the Hocking Valley,” by Edward W. Bemis, Ph.D.; “Report of the Second Annual Meeting,” by Richard T. Ely, Secretary. Price 75 cents.

Nos. 4 and 5 (Sep.-Nov. 1888). Statistics and Economics. By Richmond Mayo-Smith, A.M. Price $1.00.

No. 6 (Jan. 1889). The Stability of Prices. By Simon N. Patten, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

VOLUME IV

No. 1 (Mar. 1889). Contributions to the Wages Question: “The Theory of Wages,” by Stuart Wood, Ph.D.; “The Possibility of a Scientific Law of Wages,” by John B. Clark, A.M. Price 75 cents.

No. 2 (Apr. 1889). Socialism in England. By Sidney Webb, LL.B. Price 75 cents.

No. 3 (May. 1889). Road Legislation for the American State. By Jeremiah W. Jenks, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

No. 4 (Jul. 1889). Report of the Proceedings of Third Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, by Richard T. Ely, Secretary; with addresses by Dr. William Pepper and Francis A. Walker. Price 75 cents.

No. 5 (Sep. 1889). Three Papers Read at Third Annual Meeting: “Malthus and Ricardo,” by Simon N. Patten; “The Study of Statistics,” by Davis R. Dewey, and “Analysis in Political Economy,” by William W. Folwell. Price 75 cents.

No. 6 (Nov. 1889). An Honest Dollar. By E. Benjamin Andrews. Price 75 cents.

VOLUME V

No. 1 (Jan. 1890). The Industrial Transition in Japan. By Yeijiro Ono, Ph.D. Price $1.00.

No. 2 (Mar. 1890). Two Prize Essays on Child-Labor: I. “Child Labor,” by William F. Willoughby, Ph.D.; II. “Child Labor,” by Miss Clare de Graffenried. Price 75 cents.

Nos. 3 and 4 (May-Jul. 1890). Two Papers on the Canal Question. I. By Edmund J. James, Ph.D.; II. By Lewis M. Haupt, A.M., C.E. Price $1.00.

No. 5 (Sep. 1890). History of the New York Property Tax. By John Christopher Schwab, A.M. Ph.D. Price $1.00.

No. 6 (Nov. 1890). The Educational Value of Political Economy. By Simon N. Patten, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

VOLUME VI

No. 1 and 2 (Jan.-Mar. 1891). Report of the Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association. Price $1.00.

No. 3 (May 1891). I. “Government Forestry Abroad,” by Gifford Pinchot; II. “The Present Condition of the Forests on the Public Lands,” by Edward A. Bowers; III. “Practicability of an American Forest Administration,” by B. E. Fernow. Price 75 cents.

Nos. 4 and 5 (Jul.-Sep. 1891). Municipal Ownership of Gas in the United States. By Edward W. Bemis, Ph.D. with appendix by W. S. Outerbridge, Jr. Price $1.00.

No. 6 (Nov. 1891). State Railroad Commissions and How They May be Made Effective. By Frederick C. Clark, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

VOLUME VII

No. 1 (Jan. 1892). The Silver Situation in the United States. Ph.D. By Frank W. Taussig, LL.B., Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

Nos. 2 and 3 (Mar.-May 1892). On the Shifting and Incidence of Taxation. By Edwin R.A. Seligman, Ph.D. Price $1.00.

Nos. 4 and 5 (Jul.-Sep. 1892). Sinking Funds. By Edward A. Ross, Ph.D. Price $1.00.

No. 6 (Nov. 1892). The Reciprocity Treaty with Canada of 1854. By Frederick E. Haynes, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

VOLUME VIII

No. 1 (Jan. 1893). Report of the Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association. Price 75 cents.

Nos. 2 and 3 (Mar.-May 1893). The Housing of the Poor in American Cities. By Marcus T. Reynolds, Ph.B., M.A. Price $1.00.

Nos. 4 and 5 (Jul.-Sep. 1893). Public Assistance of the Poor in France. By Emily Greene Balch, A.B. Price $1.00.

No. 6 (Nov. 1893). The First Stages of the Tariff Policy of the United States. By William Hill, A.M. Price $1.00.

VOLUME IX

No. 1 (Supplement, Jan. 1894). Hand-Book and Report of the Sixth Annual Meeting. Price 50 cents.

Nos. 1 and 2 (Jan.-Mar. 1894). Progressive Taxation in Theory and Practice. By Edwin R.A. Seligman, Ph.D. Price $1.00, cloth $1.50.

No. 3 (May. 1894). The Theory of Transportation. By Charles H. Cooley Price 75 cents.

No. 4 (Aug. 1894). Sir William Petty. A Study in English Economic Literature. By Wilson Lloyd Bevan, M.A., Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

Nos. 5 and 6 (Oct.-Dec. 1894). Papers Read at the Seventh Annual Meeting: “The Modern Appeal to Legal Forces in Economic Life,” (President’s annual address) by John B. Clark, Ph.D.; “The Chicago Strike”, by Carroll D. Wright, LL.D.; “Irregularity of Employment,” by Davis R. Dewey, Ph.D.; “The Papal Encyclical Upon the Labor Question,” by John Graham Brooks; “Population and Capital,” by Arthur T. Hadley, M.A. Price $1.00.

VOLUME X

No. 3, Supplement, (Jan. 1895). Hand-Book and Report of the Seventh Annual Meeting. Price 50 cents.

Nos. 1,2 and 3 (Jan.-Mar.-May 1895). The Canadian Banking System, 1817-1890. By Roeliff Morton Breckenridge, Ph.D. Price $1.50; cloth $2.50.

No. 4 (Jul. 1895). Poor Laws of Massachusetts and New York. By John Cummings, Ph.D. Price 75 cents.

Nos. 5 and 6 (Sep.-Nov. 1895). Letters of Ricardo to McCulloch, 1816-1823. Edited, with introduction and annotations by Jacob H. Hollander, Ph.D. Price $1.25; cloth $2.00.

VOLUME XI

Nos. 1, 2 and 3 (Jan.-Mar.-May 1896). Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. By Frederick L. Hoffman, F.S.S., Price $1.25; cloth $2.00.

No. 4 (Jul. 1896). Appreciation and Interest. By Irving Fisher, Ph.D., Price 75 cents.

Image Source: As of 1909 the former Presidents of the American Economic Association (S. N. Patten in the center, then clockwise from upper left are R. T. Ely, J. B. Clark, J. W. Jenks, F. W. Taussig.) in Reuben G. Thwaites “A Notable Gathering of Scholars,” The Independent, Vol. 68, January 6, 1910, pp. 7-14.

Tags AdamsHenry, Andrews, Ashley, Balch, Bemis, Bevan, Bowers, BreckenridgeRM, BrooksJG, ClarkFC, ClarkJB, Cooley, Cummings, Dewey, Ely, Fernow, FisherFM, Folwell, Giddings, Goodnow, Graffenried, Hadley, Haupt, HaynesFE, Hinshaw, HoffmanFL, Hollander, JamesEJ, Jenks, KnightGW, Mayo-Smith, Moore, Ono, Outerbridge, Patten, Pepper, Pinchot, ReynoldsM, Ross, Seligman, Taussig, WalkerFA, WarnerAmos, WebbS, William Hill, Willoughby, Woods, Worthington, Wright, Yager

Exam Questions Harvard Undergraduate

Harvard. Examinations for introductory economics. Taussig, Ashley, both Cummings, 1895-96.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-08-28

This post follows up on the previous one that focused on the economic history module taught in Harvard’s introductory economics sequence by W. J. Ashley during the spring term of 1896. For the sake of convenience I have put together transcriptions of all the exams I was able to find for the jointly taught course “Outlines of Economics” (1895-96). The first exam below, the mid-year examination (final exam for the fall term of 1895), is most likely to be the work of Frank Taussig, with questions for the special topic modules covered in the second semester coming from Ashley, Edward Cummings and John Cummings (Chicago economics Ph.D., 1894).

_______________

Course Enrollment

[Economics] 1. Professors Taussig and Ashley, Asst. Professor Edward Cummings, and Dr. John Cummings. — Outlines of Economics. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.—Lectures on Economic Development, Distribution, Social Questions, and Financial Legislation.

Total 338: 3 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 91 Juniors, 161 Sophomores, 8 Freshmen, 40 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1895-96, p. 63.

_______________

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Mid-Year Examination]

Is all wealth produced by labor?
Compare the distinction between fixed and circulating capital with the distinction between auxiliary and remuneratory capital; and state why one or the other distinction is the more satisfactory.
Are differences in profits from employment to employment similar in kind to differences in wages from occupation to occupation?
In what way are differences of wages affected by the absence of effective competition between laborers? By its presence?
What are the grounds for saying that rent is a return differing in kind from interest?
Trace the effects of an issue of inconvertible paper money, less in quantity than the specie previously in use, on (1) the circulation of specie, (2) the foreign exchanges, (3) the relations of debtor to creditor.
State Mill’s reasoning as to the mode in which, under a double standard, one metal is driven from circulation; and explain how the actual process differs from that analyzed by Mill.
What are the grounds for saying that the gain of international trade does not come from the sale of surplus produce beyond the domestic demand?
In what manner is the price of landed property affected by an increased quantity of money? by a rise in the rate of interest?
Wherein does monopoly value present a case different from that of the usual operation of the laws of value?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943(HUC 7000.55). Box 3, Examination Papers Mid-years, 1895-96.

_______________

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 1.
[W.J.A., Hour Examination. March 13, 1896]

Please write on three questions only.

Mill remarks in his Autobiography that the distinction between the laws of the production and those of the distribution of wealth was the most important contribution he made to Political Economy. Explain this.
What does Jones mean by the division of Rents into Peasant and Farmer’s Rents?
Give a brief account of the stages of industrial development.
Draw a parallel between the town policy of the 15^thcentury and the national policy of the 18^th.
Was Frederick the Great justified in his attempt to introduce the silk manufacture into Prussia?

_______________

1895-96.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Final Examination]

[Answer ten questions. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Group I.
[At least one.]

Explain the meaning of two of the following terms, — margin of cultivation; wages of superintendence; rapidity of circulation (as to money).
Do profits constitute a return different from interest?
Explain what is meant by the law, or equation, of demand and supply; and in what manner it applies to commodities susceptible of indefinite multiplication without increase of cost.
In what manner does a country gain from the division of labor in its domestic trade? In what manner from international trade?

Group II.
[At least one.]

Does it fall within the province of the economist to discuss the institution of private property?
Show the connection between the industrial development of the present century, and the discussion among economists as to the functions of the entrepreneur.
Consider in what manner prices, or rents, [choose one] are differently determined according as they are under the influence of custom or of competition.
“The idea that economic life has ever been a progress mainly dependent on individual action is mistaken with regard to all stages of civilization, and in some respects it is more mistaken the farther we go back.” Explain and criticize.

Group III.
[At least one.]

If cooperation were universally adopted, what would be left of the wages system?
Is there anything in what you learned as to the laws governing wages, which the action of the English trade-unions in regard to wages has disregarded?
Has the course of events justified Mill’s expectations in regard to the development of profit-sharing and of cooperation? Explain why, or why not.
Describe the trade and benefit features of the English trade-unions.

Group IV.
[At least three.]

Is the present position of the Treasury of the United States in any respect essentially similar to that of the Issue Department of the Bank of England? In any respect essentially dissimilar?
What is the test of over-issue, as to inconvertible paper money? What light does the experience of the United States and of France throw on the probability of over-issue?
Arrange in their proper order the following items in a bank account:—

Capital	100,000	Bonds and Stocks	75,000
Specie	150,000	Surplus	50,000
Notes	100,000	Other Assets	50,000
Loans	400,000	Other Liabilities	60,000
Expenses	25,000	Undivided Profits	40,000
Deposits	350,000

Could this bank be a national bank of the United States? If such a bank, how would the account stand?

1. Compare the policy of the Bank of England in times of financial crisis with the policy of the Associated Banks of New York; and give an opinion as to which is the more effective in allaying panic.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935 [of] Prof F.W. Taussig (HUC 7882), p. 53.

Image Source: Gore Hall (Library). Souvenir Guide Book of Harvard College and its Historical Vicinity, Cambridge, Massachusetts: F. A. Olsson, 1895.

Tags Ashley, CummingsEdward, CummingsJohn, Taussig

Economic History Exam Questions Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus Undergraduate

Harvard. Syllabus for Economic History Module in Principles Course. Ashley, 1896.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-08-28

For several years at the end of the 19th century Harvard’s introductory course in economics consisted of a two semester sequence. The fall semester was dedicated to theoretical Principles of Economics à la John Stuart Mill followed by the spring semester that covered specific topics, e.g. economic history, social policy, monetary arrangements.

The economic history module was taught by Professor William J. Ashley and ran for five weeks. The material was tested once in a one-hour mid-term exam and then again in the course final examination (students were to answer at least one of four questions in Group II below).

I have only found a complete set of syllabus, reading assignments, and exam questions for Ashley’s module. In the next post, you will find all the course exams for 1895-96 that were pasted into Frank Taussig’s personal scrapbook of exams for all the courses he taught during his long Harvard career.

_________________

Course Enrollment

Total 338: 3 Graduates, 35 Seniors, 91 Juniors, 161 Sophomores, 8 Freshmen, 40 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1895-96, p. 63.

_________________

Economic History Module
William J. Ashley

ECONOMICS 1.
LECTURES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Weekly Syllabus 1.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 2-5. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapters 1 and 2, and Appendix pp. 169-182. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 1-13.

N.B. 1. The prescribed reading for the whole period covered by this set of lectures will deal with same general topics as will be considered in the lectures. But it will not be possible to make the reading of each week exactly parallel, in every case, with the lectures of that week.
2. There will be a question set every Friday, and 15 minutes allowed for answering it, on some subject suggested by the reading and lectures of that week.

The Historical Movement of the 19^th Century.
Its causes:
1. The “Romantic” Reaction against the 18^thcentury “Enlightenment.”
2. Evolutionary Philosophy—Hegel, Comte, Spencer.
3. Evolutionary Biology—Darwin.
4. Anthropology—Tylor.

Its intellectual effects:

1. Interest in the Middle Ages.
2. Sense of Continuity—“Uniformitarianism.”
3. Sense of Relativity.
4. Changed conception of the relation of the Present to the Past and the Future.

Influence of the Historical Movement on other studies:
1. On Law—Savigny, Maine.
2. On Theology—“The Higher Criticism.”
3. On Economics.
  The older and newer Historical Schools of Economists—Roscher, Schmoller.

Value of Economic History:
1. For its own sake.
2. For a right estimate of modern economic theory.
3. For insight into modern economic facts.

Provisional use of the conceptions of “Stages.”

Preliminary consideration of certain attempts to group all the phenonomena of economic history under a single formula:

1. Friedrich List. The Five Stages in the development of the peoples of the temperate zone.
2. Bruno Hildebrand. Naturalwirthschaft, Geldwirthschaft, Creditwirthschaft.

Weekly Syllabus 2.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 6-7. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapter 3, and Appendix pp. 183-190. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 13-43.

Preliminary consideration of current generalisations concerning the development of particular sides of economic life:

Agriculture—

Extensive:

1. Shifting Tillage (Wildfeldgraswirtschaft)

Intensive:

1. Open Field System (Three field system, Dreifelderwirthschaft).
2. Convertible Husbandry (Feldgraswirthschaft).
3. Rotation of Crops (Fruchtwechselwirtschaft).

Industry (Manufacture)—

1. The Family System (Familienindustrie, Hausfleiss).
2. The Gild System (Handwerk).
  1. Wage-work.
  2. Work for sale.
3. The Domestic System (Hausindustrie, Verlags-system.)
  1. Domestic system proper.
  2. Wage-work.
4. The Factory System
  With and without machinery.

Weekly Syllabus 3.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book II, Chapters 8-10. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapter 4, and Appendix pp. 190-207. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 43-57.

Preliminary consideration of current generalisations of the anthropologists concerning prehistoric development:

Property—

Tribal Ownership and Family Ownership.
Individual Ownership of Movables.
Individual Ownership of Land.

Theories of Early Agrarian Communism.—Recent Discussions.

Progress of the Arts of Subsistence(Morgan) —

Savagery —

Older period—Fruits and Roots.
Middle period—Fish and Fire.
Later period—Game and the Bow.

Barbarism —

Older period—Pottery.
Middle period—Pastoral Life.
Later period—Iron and Agriculture.

Civilisation —

Sketch of the Economic Development of the European Peoples since the Early Middle Ages.

Reasons for this limitation.

Period of Village or Manorial Economy.
1. Sketch of Manorial System:

Lord and Serfs.
Demesne and Land in Villenage.
Open Fields.
Week-work and Boon-Days.

Economic Characteristics:

“Natural-economy.”
Self-sufficiency.
Stability.

Relative absence of conditions usually assumed by modern economists.

Weekly Syllabus 4.

Prescribed Reading for the week: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Preliminary Remarks. R. Jones, Peasant Rents, Chapters 5 and 6. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, pp. 57-91.

Interacting phenomena: (1) Commutation of Services, (2) The Rise of Markets.
Appearance of town life in the midst of conditions still predominantly agricultural.

Period of Town Dominance.
1. The Town Economy:

The Town Market: The Gild Merchant.
The Town Industry: The Craft Gilds.
Subordination of the Country Districts.

1. The Beginnings of Modern Economic Conditions:

Wage-labor.
Capital.
Profit.

[Then followed in Germany a Period of Territorial Economy.
Its characteristics.
Question whether such a period is distinctly marked in France or England.]

Period of National Economy.

Strong central governments.
The spirit of Nationality.
Mercantilism, its Origin, Purpose and Methods.

A. National Economy and Domestic Industries

1. The new influence of Capital:

On Industry.
On Agriculture.

1. The action of the State:

Control of Commerce.
Encouragement of Manufactures.
Industrial Legislation.

Weekly Syllabus 5.

Prescribed Reading for the previous month, to be revised: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Preliminary Remarks and Bk. II, chs. 1-10. R. Jones, Peasant Rents. G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System.

Period of National Economy.

B. National Economy and the Factory System.

1. Necessary Characteristics of the Factory System.
2. The World-Market, and Fluctuations of Trade.
3. Break-up of the Old Industrial Organisation; due to (a) changed conditions, (b) the influence of ideas of natural liberty.
4. The Age of Individualism, and Industrial Freedom.

Question whether the beginnings may be discerned of a Period of International or World Economy.

Note: The various recent movements towards the reconstruction of a stable industrial organization, and the solution thereby of the “Labor Question,” will be the subjects of the lectures during the following weeks by Professor Cummings.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1). Box 1, Folder “1895-1896”.

_________________

1895-96.

ECONOMICS 1.
[W.J.A., Hour Examination. March 13, 1896]

Please write on three questions only.

Mill remarks in his Autobiographythat the distinction between the laws of the production and those of the distribution of wealth was the most important contribution he made to Political Economy. Explain this.
What does Jones mean by the division of Rents into Peasant and Farmer’s Rents?
Give a brief account of the stages of industrial
Draw a parallel between the town policy of the 15^thcentury and the national policy of the 18^th.
Was Frederick the Great justified in his attempt to introduce the silk manufacture into Prussia?
_________________

1895-96.

ECONOMICS 1.
[Final Examination]

[Answer ten questions. Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Group I.
[At least one.]

Explain the meaning of two of the following terms, — margin of cultivation; wages of superintendence; rapidity of circulation (as to money).
Do profits constitute a return different from interest?
Explain what is meant by the law, or equation, of demand and supply; and in what manner it applies to commodities susceptible of indefinite multiplication without increase of cost.
In what manner does a country gain from the division of labor in its domestic trade? In what manner from international trade?

Group II.
[At least one.]

Does it fall within the province of the economist to discuss the institution of private property?
Show the connection between the industrial development of the present century, and the discussion among economists as to the functions of the entrepreneur.
Consider in what manner prices, or rents, [choose one] are differently determined according as they are under the influence of custom or of competition.
“The idea that economic life has ever been a progress mainly dependent on individual action is mistaken with regard to all stages of civilization, and in some respects it is more mistaken the farther we go back.” Explain and criticize.

Group III.
[At least one.]

If cooperation were universally adopted, what would be left of the wages system?
Is there anything in what you learned as to the laws governing wages, which the action of the English trade-unions in regard to wages has disregarded?
Has the course of events justified Mill’s expectations in regard to the development of profit-sharing and of cooperation? Explain why, or why not.
Describe the trade and benefit features of the English trade-unions.

Group IV.
[At least three.]

Is the present position of the Treasury of the United States in any respect essentially similar to that of the Issue Department of the Bank of England? In any respect essentially dissimilar?
What is the test of over-issue, as to inconvertible paper money? What light does the experience of the United States and of France throw on the probability of over-issue?
Arrange in their proper order the following items in a bank account:—

Capital	100,000	Bonds and Stocks	75,000
Specie	150,000	Surplus	50,000
Notes	100,000	Other Assets	50,000
Loans	400,000	Other Liabilities	60,000
Expenses	25,000	Undivided Profits	40,000
Deposits	350,000

Could this bank be a national bank of the United States? If such a bank, how would the account stand?

Compare the policy of the Bank of England in times of financial crisis with the policy of the Associated Banks of New York; and give an opinion as to which is the more effective in allaying panic.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination papers in economics, 1882-1935 [of] Prof F.W. Taussig (HUC 7882), p. 53.

Image Source: Entry for William James Ashley in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), p. 595.

Tags Ashley, CummingsEdward, CummingsJohn, Taussig

Economists Germany Harvard

Harvard. Thomas Nixon Carver’s German Summer of 1902.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2019-04-17

Preparing the previous blog post which provides the syllabus with reading assignments for Thomas Nixon Carver’s 1902-03 Harvard course, Economics 14 “Methods of Social Reform, including Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.”, I came across the following brief description of his trip with his family to Germany during the summer of 1902. In his autobiography, Carver briefly recounted his contact with colleagues at economic seminars in Halle and Berlin.

For visitors who can read German, I strongly recommend the website “Die Geschichte der Wirtschaftswissenschafte an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin”. During the Winter Semester of 2012, Till Düppe harnessed raw student seminar power to assemble much interesting material about people, organizational structures and the developing curriculum in the Berlin University and its East Berlin successor, the Humboldt University.

________________

Thomas Nixon Carver’s European Summer Vacation (1902)

I had never been abroad and had always wanted to see something of Europe. At the end of the academic year 1901-1902 we decided to make the trip. I got permission from President Eliot to leave Cambridge as soon as examinations were over without waiting for commencement. Just a few days before sailing, I came down with the grippe, as it was then

called. It looked for a day or two as though we might have to cancel the trip, but with Dr. F. W. Taylor’s help I recovered sufficiently to undertake it. I had a Ph.D. examination to conduct during the afternoon of the evening we had to start. The rest of the family called at the University for me with a hack, on the way to the South Station, where we took the train for New York, from which we sailed for Antwerp.

… We went armed with a supply of Baedeckers, American Express Company checks, and several letters of introduction….

Our destination was Germany where we planned to spend a few weeks first at Eisenach and then to Berlin….At Eisenach we stayed at a pension which had been recommended by Professor Albert Bushnell Hart. …

After a week or two I … went on to Berlin, stopping for a few days at Halle, where I visited Professor [Johannes] Conrad and attended one meeting of his seminar. There I met George Thomas, who had been at Harvard but was about to take his Ph.D. at Halle and who has since become president of the University of Utah. One afternoon I went with him to call on Professor Conrad at his home. He offered us beer or cold tea, both in bottles. He had been in America, had a daughter living in Buffalo, New York, and knew that many Americans did not drink liquor. He himself drank no liquor except wine.

I also took time to visit the breeding farm attached to the University of Halle where they were experimenting with all sorts of crossbreeding of animals brought from the ends of the earth.

In Berlin I took rooms in a pension and found it pretty well filled with American students, with a few from Russia, Romania, and Hungary. Edwin F. Gay had been recommended for a position in economic history, to follow Professor Ashley, at Harvard. He was in Berlin finishing his work for the Ph.D. degree at the university. I looked him up almost at once, called on him, and we had several talks. He had made a distinguished record at the university and was soon to take his final examination, which he passed with flying colors. His appointment as instructor at Harvard was confirmed by the Governing Boards and he began his teaching the following autumn.

While in Berlin I attended seminars by Professors [Adolph] Wagner in taxation, Schmoller in economic history, Ausserordentlich Professor [Adolph von] Wenckstern on socialism, and Professor [Max] Zering on Agrarpolitik. Wenckstern, a young man, had been in the army and still held the rank of lieutenant. One night after one of our sessions he invited me with the seminar group to his country place. We left the university about 10 p.m., took a train and traveled nearly half an hour, got off at a country station, walked a mile or so through fields and came to a sizable country house. …

Professor Wagner was getting along in years but seemed fairly vigorous. He was reasonably courteous when he was convinced that I was really an assistant professor at Harvard. My visiting card had merely said “Mr. Thomas N. Carver,” after the American custom, whereas a German would have had all his titles and degrees embossed on his visiting card. Schmoller was genial but dignified. His classes were crowded and he was very busy conferring with his students.

After about four weeks Flora and the children joined me in Berlin. Soon after they arrived Professor and Mrs. Charles J. Bullock turned up in Berlin, also a Miss McDaniels of Oberlin, who had been one of my students. Together we visited Dresden, mainly for the purpose of seeing the famous Art Gallery….

Source: Thomas Nixon Carver, Recollections of an Unplanned Life (1949), pp. 135-139.

Image Source: The Friedrich Wilhelm University in the old Palace of Prince Heinrich (ca. 1820)

Tags Ashley, Bullock, Carver, ConradJ, Gay, HartAB, Schmoller, WagnerA, Wenckstern, Zering

Courses Curriculum Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Economics Course Offerings, 1900-1905

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-17

Pre-Radcliffe economics course offerings and the Radcliffe courses for 1893-94 and for 1894-1900 have been posted earlier.

____________________________________

1900-1901
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. SPRAGUE and Dr. ANDREW. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange. — Lectures on Social Questions, Banking and Monetary Legislation. 3 hours a week.

19 Undergraduates, 5 Special students. Total 24.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology. —Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 5 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 9.

10. Professor ASHLEY. — The Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. 2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 4 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 9.

9². Mr. WILLOUGHBY. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 8 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 11.

8¹. Dr. ANDREW. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate, 4 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 6.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1900-01, p.44.

____________________________________

1901-1902
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. ANDREW. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange. — Industrial Organization, Labor Questions, Banking and Monetary Legislation. 3 hours a week.

28 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 32.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Asst. Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology. —Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week.

6 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 8.

9². Mr. DURAND. — The Labor Question in Europe and the United States. — The Social and Economic Condition of Workingmen. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 6 Undergraduates. Total 7.

6. Dr. SPRAGUE. — The Economic History of the United States. 2 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 4 Undergraduates. Total 6.

Primarily for Graduates:—

20. Asst. Professor CARVER. — Seminary in Economics. Thesis-subject: Motives in Politics.

1 Special student. Total 1.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1901-02, pp. 37-38.

____________________________________

1902-1903
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Drs. ANDREW and MIXTER. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Industrial Organization, Foreign Trade, Banking, Socialism, and Labor Questions. 3 hours a week.

18 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 21.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3². Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology. —Theories of social progress. Half-course. 2 hours a week. 2d half-year.

10 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 11.

14. Professor CARVER. — Methods of Social Reform. — 2 hours a week.

4 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 6.

11². Dr. GAY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe and America. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 1 Undergraduate. Total 2.

5¹. Mr. MEYER. — Railways and Other Public Works under Corporate and Private Management. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate, 4 Undergraduates. Total 5.

8a¹. Dr. ANDREW. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate, 7 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 11.

8b². Dr. SPRAGUE. — Banking and the history of the leading Banking Systems. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

3 Undergraduates. Total 3.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1902-03, p. 43.

____________________________________

1903-1904
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Asst. Professor ANDREW. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Industrial Organization, Foreign Trade, Banking, Socialism, and Labor Questions. 3 hours a week.

36 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 38.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

2. Professor CARVER. — Economic Theory. 3 hours a week.

1 Graduate, 1 Undergraduate, 2 Special students. Total 4.

11. Asst. Professor GAY. — The Modern Economic History of Europe and America. 2 hours a week (and occasionally a third hour).

2 Undergraduates. Total 2.

6. Dr. SPRAGUE. — The Economic History of the United States. 2 hours a week.

7 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 9.

9a². Professor RIPLEY. — Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

2 Graduates, 5 Undergraduates. Total 7.

Primarily for Graduates:—

13¹. Professor CARVER. — Methods of Economic Investigation. Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1st half-year. [Graduate course in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty]

1 Graduate, 2 Undergraduates. Total 3.

20. Professors CARVER and RIPLEY. — Seminary in Economics. Thesis-subjects: “Labor Organizations among Women” and “The Defective Child in its own home.”

1 Graduate, 1 Special student. Total 2.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1903-04, pp. 50-51.

____________________________________

1904-1905
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Asst. Professors ANDREW and SPRAGUE. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Industrial Organization, Foreign Trade, Banking, Socialism, and Labor Questions. 3 hours a week.

14 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 18.

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER. — Principles of Sociology. — Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week, with a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

1 Graduate, 3 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 6.

6. Asst. Professor SPRAGUE. — The Economic History of the United States. 3 hours a week.

2 Graduates, 1 Undergraduate, 1 Special student. Total 4.

COURSE OF RESEARCH

20a. Asst. Professor GAY. — The Expansion of English Trade in the Mediterranean, and the Levant Company. 1 hour a week. [Graduate course in Harvard University, to which Radcliffe students were admitted by vote of the Harvard Faculty]

1 Graduate. Total 1.

Source: Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1904-05, p. 56.

Image Source: Gymnasium and Fay House, Radcliffe College ca. 1904. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540. REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-D4-10778 R (b&w glass neg.) Copy from Wikimedia Commons.

Tags Andrew, Ashley, Carver, Durand, Gay, MeyerHR, Mixter, Ripley, Sprague, Willoughby

Curriculum Economists Exam Questions Suggested Reading Toronto

Toronto. Five Annual Examinations in Economics. Ashley and McEvoy, 1891

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-07

Today’s post was just intended to be a quickie set of five economics exams I found for the University of Toronto from 1891. There turned out to be much more interesting information at the hathitrust.org digital library that I simply had to include: from the University of Toronto Calendar, I was able to obtain course announcements that provide course descriptions as well as list a few key readings. And as though this were not enough, it turns out that it was the practice, at least in Toronto at the end of the 19th century, when applying for a professorship to submit a printed application “cover letter” followed by short “testimonials”. As it so happens, the University of Alberta has copies of Professor William J. Ashley’s application for the vacant Drummond professorship in political economy at Oxford (1890) and of Mr. John Millar McEvoy’s application for Ashley’s vacant chair at Toronto, following Ashley’s move to Harvard in 1892.

Following the “cover letters” with these two abbreviated c.v.’s are the course descriptions for all four economics courses offered at the University of Toronto in 1890-91 and five sets of examination questions.

__________________

To the Electors to the Drummond Professorship.
[From William J. Ashley, November 20, 1890]

My Lord and Gentlemen:

I beg to offer myself as a candidate for the Professorship of Political Economy in the University of Oxford.

I entered Balliol College with a History Scholarship in 1878, took a First-Class in the Honour School of Modern Histor. in 1881, and received the Lothian Prize in 1882. In February, 1885, I was elected to a tutorial Fellowship at Lincoln College, and soon afterwards was also appointed Lecturer in History in Corpus Christi College. Resigning this position in order to be able to devote my time more exclusively to economic studies, I was appointed Professor of Political Economy and Constitutional History in the University of Toronto in 1888; and by the subsequent appointment of an assistant I have recently been enabled to give my whole attention to Economics.

I began the study of Political Economy under the late Arnold Toynbee, whose Lectures on the Industrial Revolution the 18th CenturyI afterwards assisted in preparing for publication. I began to lecture on Political Economy in 1884; and after my appointment at Lincoln I lectured upon it each year; in one course stating and criticizing Modern Economic Theory, and in another following Economic History and Theory in their relation to one another from mediaeval to modern times. I may add that from 1886 to 1888 I acted as Secretary to the Oxford Economic Society; and that in 1887 and 1888 I examined in the Pass School of Political Economy.

Since my arrival at Toronto I have had the task of organizing the new Department of Political Science, a Department which has grown rapidly, and now numbers more than 100 students; and I have lectured on (i) Elementary Political Economy, (2) The History of Economic Theory; (3) The History of Economic Development; (4) Modern Finance. In dealing with the last mentioned subject I have had an opportunity to acquaint myself with the main features of Canadian and American Taxation, Tariffs, Currency, Banking, and similar subjects.

I have also undertaken the editorship of the Toronto University Studies in Political Science, of which the first, on The Ontario Township, has already appeared. For a further account of my work here I beg to refer you to the subjoined letters from the Chancellor and President of the University, the Minister of Education, the Manager of the Bank of Commerce, and from one of my pupils.

My own researches have hitherto been mainly in the field of Economic History. In 1887 the American Economic Association published my Early History of the English Woollen Industry. In 1888 appeared the first volume of my Introduction to Economic Historyand Theory, which I now beg to lay before you, together with the letters concerning it from English and foreign authorities printed below.

There are two directions in which, as it appears to me, it is most desirable to promote economic study in Oxford. Of these one is Public Finance; it might not be impossible

to secure for men who are about to enter into public life, the civil service, or the higher branches of business, a training similar to that provided by some foreign Universities. The other is the history of Economic Phenomena, and of the parallel growth of Economic Theory. While recognizing the value of recent work in the further analysis of theory, there is, I think, reason to believe that the most fruitful field for economic work at the present time in Oxford is the historical. An effort in this direction would be in sympathy with one of the strongest intellectual forces in the University, and it might reasonably be expected to enlist the interest of students in the School of Modern History.

I have the honour to be,

My Lord and Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

W. J. ASHLEY.

The University of Toronto,
November 20, 1890.

[…]

Source: Testimonials in Favour of W.J. Ashley M.A., Professor of Political Economy in the University of Toronto: Late Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. A Candidate for the Drummond Professorship of Political Economy in the University of Oxford, pp. 1-2.

__________________

TO THE HONORABLE GEORGE WILLIAM ROSS, LL.D.
MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR ONTARIO.

[Application of ] JOHN MILLAR McEVOY.
Toronto, July 30^th, A.D. 1892.

Sir, — I beg leave to make application for the chair of Political Economy and Constitutional History, in the University of Toronto, lately rendered vacant by the resignation of Professor W. J. Ashley, M.A.

I am a graduate of the University of Toronto in the Honor Department of Political Science. Throughout my course in that department I was first in first-class honors in all economic subjects. Since being graduated in Arts I have taken the University Law Examinations, and have been awarded the LL.B. degree. I have attended two years’ lectures in Osgoode Hall Law School, and have taken the examination required at the end of each year.

I may be permitted to mention the following scientific and literary work : —

My “Essay on Canadian Currency and Banking,” which was awarded the Ramsay Scholarship. This essay, upon examination by some of the leading bankers of Canada, was thought to be so valuable that the various banking institutions of the Dominion in order to have it printed, have offered to take such a number of copies of it, at $1.50 per copy, as will provide for its publication and leave me a handsome margin.
My essay on “Karl Marx’s Theory of Value,” which was read before the Political Science Association of the University of Toronto. This essay was publicly declared by Professor W. J. Ashley, M.A., to be “the ablest exposition of the kernel of the abstract theory of value that it had been his good fortune to have heard or read on any occasion.”
At the invitation of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, which is controlled by the most distinguished Economists on the continent, I contributed a series of articles to their publication, the Annals, upon subjects of economic and historical importance to Canada. These may be seen in the November number of that journal for 1891.
My essay on “The Ontario Township,” which was printed by the Minister of Education, as the first in the series of University of Toronto studies in Political Science, It has received favorable notice from American, English and German Economic Reviews and Journals. It has also been very favorably received by men engaged in the practical working of our municipal institutions. Several American publishing houses have asked me to publish a second edition; and there is a growing demand for it in our own Province.

As Fellow I have had two years’ experience in the practical work of the Department of Political Science in the University of Toronto. In consequence of sickness in Professor Ashley’s family, I had for a time during last year, full charge of the department. During this time I did acceptably Professor Ashley’s work as well as my own. Throughout last year the Constitutional History, both English and Canadian, has been entirely under my charge.

I have had two years’ experience as Examiner in Political Science in the University, and I have been for one year Examiner in Political Economy in the Ontario Agricultural College. My work throughout has been completely satisfactory, which fact may be easily verified by inquiry. What my success as a practical teacher of the science has been, I will leave you to infer from my testimonials.

It is my desire, if appointed, to spend the long vacations of each of the first three or four years at some foreign university, in which a regular course of lectures in Political Science is delivered during the summer months; and in that event I shall be glad to have your government indicate the institution most suitable for the further prosecution of my studies.

[…]

Source: Application and Testimonials of J. M. McEvoy, B.A., LL.B., for the Chair of Political Economy and Constitutional History in the University of Toronto. 1892.

__________________

FACULTY OF LAW

§1.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Professor: W. J. ASHLEY, M.A.

FIRST YEAR. (SECOND YEAR IN FACULTY OF ARTS.)

The elements of Political Economy. Value, Price, Wages, Interest, Profits, Rent.

For Reference:

F.A. Walker, Political Economy.
Mill, Political Economy, ed. Laughlin.

SECOND YEAR. (THIRD YEAR IN FACULTY OF ARTS.)

The history and criticism of economic theories.

The Economic ideas of Plato and Aristotle; the influence of Roman law; the teaching of the mediaeval church; Aquinas; the genesis of modern conceptions; the mercantile system; the Physiocrats; Adam Smith, Malthus, and Ricardo; the historical school.

Students are requested to especially examine (i.) Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, chap. 10, part 2; Bk. IV, chaps. 1, 2, 3, part 2; chap. 7. (ii.) Malthus, Essay on Population, Bk. I, chaps. 1, 2. (iii.) List, National System of Political Economy(trans. Sampson Lloyd), chaps. 10, 11, 12. (iv.) Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy, chaps. 1-6.

For Reference:

Ingram, History of Political Economy.

THIRD YEAR. (FOURTH YEAR IN FACULTY OF ARTS.)

(1) The History of Economic Development, including such topics as the following: the Manor; Guilds; Domestic Industry; Trading Companies; Enclosures; Agricultural changes; the Mercantile System and Protection; the measures of Colbert; the beginnings of modern finance; the Factory System.

For Reference:

Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages.
Ashley, Economic History, vol. I.
Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Bks. IV and V.
Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolution of the 18^th Century in England.

(2) Modern Economic Questions, including such topics as the following: Socialism; taxation; public debt; currency (including banking); municipal finance; public domain; Government works.

Students are advised to consult such books as the following: Jevons, The State in Relation to Labour and Money; Giffen, Essays in Finance, vol. I, Essays ix, x, xiii, xiv; vol. II, Essay vi; Rae, ContemporarySocialism; Ely, The Labour Movement, and Taxation in American Cities and States; Adams,Public Debts; Seligman, Railway Tariffs, in Political Science Quarterly, vol. II; Adams, Relation of the State to IndustrialAction; and James, Modern Municipality and Gas Supply, in Publications of American Economic Association; Taussig, Tariff History of theU.S.; Felkin, The National Insurance Laws of Germany, in Contemporary Reviewfor August, 1888; Taussig, Workmen’s Insurance, in Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. II.

Source: University of Toronto Calendar, 1890-91, pp. 43-44.

__________________

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Candidates for B.A.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

What is Political Economy ?
Illustrate the use of inductionand deductionin Political Economy.
State and criticize the ‘Wage Fund Theory.’
“Landlords were able to pocket the whole advantage of the Corn Laws, and the people suffered that rents might be kept up.” Explain and criticize.
What are the functions of money ?
State arguments for and against the adoption of bimetalism.
Is a government justified in taxing the rich for the benefit of the poor? If so, to what degree?
Distinguish the various meanings attached to the term “socialism.”

* * * *

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Candidates for B.A.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.
HONORS.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

N.B.—Candidates are requested not to attempt more than eight questions.

Sketch the history of the Teutonic Hanse in England.
Describe the position of the mediaeval villein.
Explain the causes for the decay of the Craft Guilds.
Trace the development of the Poor Laws during Elizabeth’s reign.
Show the importance in English Economic History of the woollen industry.
Distinguish the various stages in the growth of English foreign trade.
Describe the origin of the Bank of England, and explain its connection with the financial measures of the government of William III.
Trace the progress of the East India Company, down to the beginning of the eighteenth century.
What were the social effect of the “Enclosures” of the eighteenth century?
Compare the Merchant Guild with the modern Joint Stock Company.
Illustrate historically the relative advantages and disadvantages of the Factory system of Industry.
Sketch the history of factory legislation in England.

* * * *

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Second Year.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.
HONORS.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

N.B.—Candidates are requested not to attempt more than eight questions.

Examine the assumption made by some Economists, that all persons will act in such a manner as will secure their own best interests.
What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of the division of labor?
Co-operation in production has not been so successful as co-operation in distribution. How would you account for this?
Define value. How is the value of commodities determined?
“The fundamental cause of rent is difference in fertility.” — Symes. Criticize.
What do you understand by “average rate of profit?”
State the theoretic arguments, if any, in favour of protection and the practical disadvantages, if any, in its application.
What are the objects of trades unions? How far are they suited to the attainment of these objects?
State the various circumstances which explain and justify the payment of interest.
What would be the result if the government were to issue bills to every farmer to the extent of $500 on the security of his real estate?
Illustrate the correct and incorrect use of the phrase “a violation of the laws of Political Economy.”

* * * *

University of Toronto.
Annual Examinations: 1891.
Third Year.

POLITICAL SCIENCE.
ECONOMIC THEORY.
HONORS.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

N.B.—Candidates are requested not to attempt more than eight questions.

Show how the mediaeval doctrine of Usury was undermined by the doctrine of Interest.
Describe the “Balance of Bargain” system.
Compare the attitude of Child and Hume towards the Balance of Trade theory.
Comment on the Maxims of Quesnay.
Distinguish the essentials and non-essentials in the teaching of Malthus.
In what case did Adam Smith consider “Protection” desirable.
“What Smith sought to establish was the free competition of equal industrial units; what in fact he was helping to establish was the free competition of unequal industrial units.” Explain and comment upon.
“Back to Adam Smith.” In what sense is this desirable.
State and criticize the “Iron Law of Wages.”
Examine the doctrine laid down by Ricardo that the relative values of commodities are governed by the relative quantities of labor bestowed on their production.
Wherein does List find the teaching of Smith and his school defective.

* * * *

University of Toronto.
Supplemental Examinations: 1891.
Fourth Year.

ARTS.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Examiners: J.M. McEvoy, B.A. and A.T. Thompson, B.A.

Does density of population tend to increase or to diminish the per capitaproductiveness of a nation? Apply your conclusions to determine the importance of the Malthusian doctrine of population.
If it were deemed desirable to encourage the manufacturing of steel in Canada would you do so by levying a duty on imported steel, or by giving a bonus per ton for all steel produced in Canada?
Examine the soundness of the two fundamental assumptions upon which the laissez fairedoctrine of the functions of Government proceeds.
“Value depends on supply and demand.”
What limitations and explanations does this statement require ?
“Rents tend to rise with industrial propers .” [sic, “when industry prosper”]
Examine this statement.
On what principles would you proceed to determine what was “fair wages” between master and workman in any given industry?
Describe some of the more important plans recently advanced for the uniting of labour and capital, and examine the expediency of each from an economic standpoint.

Source: University of Toronto. Examination Papers for 1891.

Image Source: William J. Ashley in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), p. 595.

Tags Ashley, McEvoy

Curriculum Germany Harvard

Harvard. The German language in higher education, 1894

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-04-04

Several earlier posts have considered foreign language requirements from the perspective of mid-20th century (e.g. Harvard, Columbia, Chicago). This post takes us back to the early years of graduate instruction at the end of the 19th century. The report by the “German Committee” submitted to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College in 1894 was forty-six pages long. I have included only the statements by three professors of economics (Taussig, Dunbar, and Ashley) between the report’s lede and its conclusions, but I can recommend a quick glance at the statements submitted by members of other departments at Harvard.

__________________

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GERMAN.
[October 4, 1894]

To The Board of Overseers : —

In order either to confirm or to correct the opinions held by the undersigned as to the position which instruction in the German language should occupy in the general scheme of the University, the following questions were addressed to teachers of every grade active in the various branches of the institution:

Is any of your work, or of the work of any student in the University under you, determined, or limited, or in any way affected by knowledge or ignorance of the German language on the part of such student, and, if so, how?
Is knowledge of German required of any student in the University for admission to, or for continuance in, any study under you, and, if so, how much knowledge, and how much is it used, and for what study or studies?
What proportion of the published work of yourself, or of any student, or students, in your department, is published in the German language, and, if any, in what books or papers?
What remedy or remedies can you suggest for any evil suffered by the University or any student or students thereof through ignorance of, or imperfect knowledge of German.

We beg leave to submit the answers received in the original; but, for the sake of convenience, we present also in this report, grouped according to the different branches of study, abstracts of opinions expressed, especially in response to question 1, to which we respectfully and urgently invite the attention of the Board of Overseers. It will be found that while a few of the professors, instructors or lecturers consider the knowledge of German as of little consequence to their students, an overwhelming majority of them, representing all conceivable varieties of study, agree, with singular concert of judgment, as to the desirability of that knowledge, differing only in the degree of their appreciation of it, some declaring the ability to read German merely helpful, while others pronounce it to be absolutely indispensable.

We shall now let them speak for themselves :

[…]

Professor F. W. Taussig, Professor of Political Economy.

In the work of all my advanced courses, and especially in the course on economic theory, I am hampered by the fact that the students, otherwise well equipped, cannot handle German.

Professor C. F. Dunbar, Professor of Political Economy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

In public finance and banking the work is so far affected that I feel it practically useless to require the reading of anything which cannot be paralleled in French or English; and although I make references to German sources, it is with the feeling that they will be used by only a part of the class. This often makes it necessary, in order to cover a German topic with certainty (as e. g. in Taxation), to give it a disproportionate amount of time in my lectures. I must add that the state of things appears to me to be improving.

Professor W. J. Ashley, Professor of Economic History.

In all the higher University work with which I am concerned, in the study of economic and social history, it would be a great advantage to the men to have a fair acquaintance with German.
In “The History of Economic Theory down to Adam Smith,” to read German is declared in the department pamphlet to be “desirable.” In a class last year of some eight seniors and graduate students, two, if I remember rightly, showed that they could use German with ease, and one of these did an excellent piece of work for me and the class which would have been impossible otherwise.

[…]

While these reports are calculated to create a favorable impression as far as they go, it is to be gathered from many of the opinions expressed that, although a certain advance is to be noticed, a greater and more general proficiency in German among the students is very desirable. As to the question how the deficiencies that may exist might be remedied, the answers received in response to our interogatories differ. They may be divided into the following classes: —

Those recommending that students be admonished by way of suggestion and advice, in the official reports and pamphlets as well as in personal conversation, to devote more attention to the study of the German language.
Those recommending that the requirements as to German in the examinations for admission to the University be increased.
Those recommending higher requirements as to German for admission to scientific schools, and for honors and degrees; and
Those recommending special courses for scientific German to be connected with the different scientific departments.

These different recommendations do not necessarily exclude one another, as, indeed, they appear grouped together in one or two of the answers we have received to our interrogatories. The admonition by suggestion or advice, as well as the establishment of higher requirements in German for certain honors or degrees, might prove desirable incentives under any circumstances. But a careful consideration of the whole subject has led us to the conclusion that the recommendation of an increase of the initial requirements deserves the most serious attention. The more Harvard rises to the station and dignity of a University in the higher,—that is, the true sense—the less the institution should have to do with that kind of work which naturally belongs to the office of the preparatory school. The student entering Harvard should be required sufficiently to possess what may be called the mechanical equipment necessary for the pursuit of his studies. This, applied to the German language, would mean that the Harvard student should be beyond the struggle with its structural difficulties, that he should be able to read it understandingly, without the painful drudgery of conscious translation word for word, and that in using it his labor should be reduced to a mere occasional enlargement of the vocabulary.

We admit that it may be very difficult, if not impossible, to reach this objective point all at once. But it may ultimately reached by gradual approaches. We venture respectfully to suggest as the first step a public announcement that the requirements as to German in the examination for admission, will henceforth be increased by degrees, and that elementary instruction in German at the University will be discontinued.

We further suggest that the time for the examination in German be extended to two hours and that it include, in addition to the translation of German prose, not of the simplest kind, but of ordinary difficulty, the translation of a few sentences of simple English prose into German, or a simple composition in German, and some ordinary tests in German grammar. The examination should certainly be severe enough not to permit the attainment of a satisfactory result by cramming.

We believe also that the recommendation made by several of the officers of instruction concerning the establishment of special courses in “scientific German” in connection with the respective scientific schools, deserves to be seriously considered. If, as sources of information, German works are to be read, it is most important that they should be read understandingly. The meaning of writers who are studied as authorities should not be merely guessed at. This is one of the cases in which “a little knowledge” is more dangerous than none at all. The particular study of scientific terminologies appears especially necessary with regard to German writers because, as is well known, not a few of them—whether writing on science, or philosophy, or even history, — take great liberties with their language in constructing composite words and in various other ways, thus creating, to some extent, technical terms, or forms of expression which, when applied to certain things, are to convey a special meaning — more or less peculiar to themselves. The courses suggested would, therefore, serve a useful purpose.

We would also respectfully recommend that in courses in which recitations form part of the system of instruction, the classes be divided into sections conveniently small, to contain not above 30 students, and that the number of instructors be correspondingly increased.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

C. SCHURZ,
J. ELLIOT CABOT,
CHARLES E. GRINNELL,

Committee on German.

4th October, 1894.

Source: Reports of the Visiting Committees of the Board of Overseers of Harvard College from February 6, 1890, to January 8, 1902 Inclusive. Cambridge, Massachusetts (1902), pp. 221, 241-242, 265-267.

Image Source: Dunbar, Ashley and Taussig from The Harvard Portfolio (Class of 1895), Vol. VI.

Tags Ashley, Dunbar, Taussig

1892-93. PHILOSOPHY 5. ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

Enrollment

1892-93. PHILOSOPHY 5. [Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893 PHILOSOPHY 5. [Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 1. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 1. [Mid-Year Examination]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 1. [Year-End Final Examination]

Division A. [Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Division B. [Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 2. ECONOMIC THEORY

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 2. [Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 2. [Year-End Final Examination]

[One question in each of the three groups may be omitted.]

I.

II.

III.

1892-93. ECONOMICS 3. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

Enrollment

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 3. [Mid-Year Examination]

Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit two.

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 3. [Year-End Final Examination]

[Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit one.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE AND AMERICA

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4. [Mid-Year Examination]

I. [Take all.]

II. [Omit one.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4. [Year-End Final Examination]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 5. RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 5. [Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions].

1892-93. ECONOMICS 6. HISTORY OF U.S. TARIFF LEGISLATION

Enrollment

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 6. [Year-End Final Examination]

[Answer all the questions, however briefly.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 71. THEORY AND METHODS OF TAXATION

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 7[1]. [Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in the order of the questions.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 72. FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC DEBTS

Enrollment

1892-1893 ECONOMICS 7[2]. [Year-End Final Examination]

[Give one half of your time to a careful treatment of the questions under A.]

A.

B.

1892-93. ECONOMICS 8. HISTORY OF U.S. FINANCIAL LEGISLATION

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 8. [Mid-Year Final Examination]

[Let your answers stand in numerical order.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 9. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF WORKINGMEN

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 9. [Mid-Year Examination]

[Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience of different countries. Omit two questions.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 9. [Year-End Final Examination]

[Arrange your answers in the order in which the questions stand. So far as possible illustrate your discussions by a comparison of the experience different countries. Omit two questions.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 10. U.S. AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIC HISTORY TO 1763

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 10. [Mid-Year Examination]

N.B. — Not more than seven questions must be attempted.

1892-93. ECONOMICS 10. [Year-End Final Examination]

[Candidates are requested to attempt only six questions, — of which six one at least must be chosen from the first set.]

1892-93. ECONOMICS 11. HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY BEFORE ADAM SMITH

Enrollment

1892-93. ECONOMICS 11. [Year-End Final Examination]

Course Enrollment

1899-1900 ECONOMICS 15 [Mid-year Examination]

[1899-1900] ECONOMICS 15 [End-year Examination]

HARVARD UNIVERSITY. SEMINARY IN ECONOMICS. [Announced] 1897-98.

INSTRUCTORS.

MEMBERS.

Report of the actual meetings of the Seminary of Economics, 1897-98

At the joint meetings of the Seminary of American History and Institutions and the Seminary of Economics: —

At the Seminary of Economics: —

Economic Seminar Members

Morton Arnold Aldrich. (b. Jan. 6, 1874 in Boston; d. May 9, 1956 in New Orleans)

1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5. ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.

1892-93.
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893
PHILOSOPHY 5.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 1.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 1.
[Year-End Final Examination]

Division A.
[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Division B.
[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2. ECONOMIC THEORY

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 2.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 2.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 3. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 3.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF EUROPE AND AMERICA

1892-93. ECONOMICS 4.
[Mid-Year Examination]

I.
[Take all.]

II.
[Omit one.]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 4.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5. RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 5.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 6. HISTORY OF U.S. TARIFF LEGISLATION

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 6.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7¹. THEORY AND METHODS OF TAXATION

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7^[1].
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 7². FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC DEBTS

1892-1893
ECONOMICS 7^[2].
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8. HISTORY OF U.S. FINANCIAL LEGISLATION

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 8.
[Mid-Year Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITION OF WORKINGMEN

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 9.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10. U.S. AND EUROPEAN ECONOMIC HISTORY TO 1763

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Mid-Year Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 10.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11. HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THEORY BEFORE ADAM SMITH

1892-93.
ECONOMICS 11.
[Year-End Final Examination]

1899-1900
ECONOMICS 15
[Mid-year Examination]

[1899-1900]
ECONOMICS 15
[End-year Examination]

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
SEMINARY IN ECONOMICS.
[Announced]
1897-98.

Morton Arnold Aldrich.
(b. Jan. 6, 1874 in Boston; d. May 9, 1956 in New Orleans)

Frederick Alexander Bushée
(b. July 21, 1872 in Brookfield, VT; d. Apr. 4, 1960 in Bolder, CO)

Timeline from:
Reminiscence of the Bushees by Earl David Crockett, the son of Bushee’s successor at the University of Colorado

Robert Treat Paine Fellowship
1899-1900

Ralph Waldo Cone
(b. April 21, 1870 in Seneca, KS; d. January 2, 1951 Kansas City, MO)

Adolph Oscar Eliason
(b. May 26, 1873 at Montevideo, Minn; d. April 27, 1944 at Ramsey, Minn.)

John Edward George
(b. May 12, 1865 near Braceville, IL; d. Jan. 18 1905)

Robert Treat Paine Fellowship
1897-98.

Robert Treat Paine Fellowship
1898-99.

Passport application
(sworn Boston, June 29, 1898)

Donald Frederick Grass
(b. May 5, 1873 in Council Bluffs, IA; d. Oct. 2, 1941 in Sacramento, CA)

Obituary
reported in The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) October 3, 1941, Friday. Page 6.

Charles Sumner Griffin
(b. Oct. 15, 1872 in Lawrence, KS; d. Sept. 10, 1904 at Hakone, Japan.)

Charles Sumner Griffin.
Lawrence Daily Journal
October 15, 1904, p. 1.

Joseph Adna Hill
(b. May 5, 1860, Stewartstown, New Hampshire; d. December 12, 1938 in Washington, D.C.)

Dr. Joseph Adna Hill, Census Bureau Aide, Dies Here at 78
Held Post of Chief Statistician of Research Division Since 1933

Willian Lyon Mackenzie King
(b. Dec. 17, 1874 in Berlin, Ontario; d. July 22, 1950 at Kingsmere, Quebec )

Herbert Camp Marshall
(b. March 8, 1871 at Zanesville, OH; d. May 22, 1953, Washington, DC)

Obituary
The Times Recorder (Zanesville, OH)
May 25, 1953

Charles Whitney Mixter
(b. Sept. 23, 1869 in Chelsea, MA; d. Oct. 21, 1936 in Washington, D.C.)

OBITUARY
The Burlington Free Press (Oct. 22, 1936), p. 14

Simon Newton Dexter North
(b. Nov. 29, 1848 in Clinton, NY; d. Aug. 3, 1924 in Wilton, CT)

Obituary, Evening Star (Washington, D.C.)
August 4, 1924, p. 7.

SIMON D. NORTH, EX-OFFICIAL DIES
Former Director of Census Succumbs in Summer Home in Connecticut.

Randolph Paine
(b. Nov 3 November 1873 in Denton, TX; d. June 13, 1937 in Dallas TX)

Obituary
Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, TX) June 14, 1937, p. 5

Charles Edward Seaman
(b. Oct. 4, 1866 in Picton, Canada; d. Aug. 19, 1937 in Los Angeles)

Declaration of Intention for Naturalization.
Los Angeles County. 18 September 1908.

Obituary
August 19, 1937. The Los Angeles Times, p. 42

PUBLICATIONS OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. MONOGRAPHS.
1886-1896

General Contents and Index to Volumes I-XI.
Source: Publications of the American Economic Association, Vol XI (1896). Price 25 cents.