Tag: ColeWM

Harvard. Final examinations in Political Economy courses, 1891-1892

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-09-09

HARVARD. ECONOMICS EXAMINATIONS, 1891-1892

With the start of the 2021-22 academic year Economics in the Rear-view Mirror resumes the careful transcription of documents for the digital record of the development of economics education.

The Harvard archives are full of exam materials across time and fields so I pick up with where I left off in that series. Edward Cummings joined the teaching staff that in 1891-92 only consisted of two professors (Dunbar and Taussig) and a pair of instructors (Edward Cummings and William M. Cole).

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Note to self: Still Missing for 1891-92.

Political Economy 3. Edward Cummings. Mid-year examination, 1892
Political Economy 4. William M. Cole. Mid-year examination, 1892
Political Economy 7. Charles F. Dunbar. Mid-year examination, 1892

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Course Description and Enrollment.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 1. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig, Mr. [William M.] Cole, and Mr. [Edward] Cummings.

— 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): Lectures on Finance, Labor and Capital, Coöperation. — Hadley’s Railroad Transportation.—Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. 3 hours.

Total 288: 1 Graduate, 47 Seniors, 102 Juniors, 91 Sophomores, 7 Freshmen, 40 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Divide your time equally between the two parts of the paper.]

I.
[Omit one.]

Mill says that “the laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. . . . Whatever mankind produces must be produced in the modes, and under the conditions, imposed by the constitution of external things, and by the inherent properties of their own bodily and mental structure.” Is this true of the laws and conditions of production from land? of the laws and conditions of the accumulation of capital?
Of things limited in quantity, it is said that “their value depends on the demand and the supply. . . . But the quantity demanded is not a ﬁxed quantity, even at the same time and place; it varies according to the value; if the thing is cheap, there is usually a demand for more of it than when it is dear. The demand therefore partly depends on the supply. But it was before laid down that the value depends on the demand. From this contradiction, how shall we extricate ourselves? How solve the paradox, of two things, each depending on the other?”
“Every fall in proﬁts lowers in some degree the value of things made with much or durable machinery, and raises that of things made by hand; and every rise in proﬁts does the reverse.” Explain.
Is there any inconsistency between the propositions that the value of money depends,
(1) on its cost of production at the mines;
(2) on its quantity;
(3) on the expansion and contraction of credit;
(4) on the terms on which a country gets its imported commodities.
Explain Mill’s reasoning (1) as to the manner in which an issue of inconvertible paper money drives specie out of circulation; (2) as to the manner in which, under a double standard, one metal [which one?] disappears from circulation. Are the results, in fact, brought about in the manner described by Mill?
Explain carefully how a decrease in the foreign demand for a country’s exports causes loss to those who consume its imports.

II.
[Answer all, briefly.]

Does nature give more aid to man in one kind of industry than in another?
Are there grounds for saying that the necessity of restraining population is conﬁned to a state of inequality of property?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a currency composed of specie, as compared with one of equal amount composed of inconvertible paper money?
What are the laws of value applicable to (1) silver bullion; (2) iron nails; (3) wool; (4) eighteenth century furniture?
Does the beneﬁt of foreign trade consist in its affording an outlet for the surplus produce of a country?
Mill says the superiority of reward in certain occupations may be the consequence of competition, and may be due to the absence of competition. Explain which explanation holds good of the high wages (1) of laborers in whom much conﬁdence is reposed; (2) of laborers in disagreeable employments; (3) of laborers whose education has been expensive.
What is the nature of the remuneration received by (1) a manufacturer on a large scale; (2) an independent artisan; (3) a farmer tilling land which he has leased at a ﬁxed rent; (4) the owner, of a building who receives rent from those using the building.

Source: J. L. Laughlin, Economics 1: A Synopsis of John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy (Cambridge, MA: W.H. Wheeler, 1892), pp. 101-103.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division A.
Final Examination, 1892.

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

I.
[Omit one.]

“It will be remembered that in a former portion of this work I criticized at some length the received doctrine of Cost of Production, which, as expounded by Mr. Mill and others, is represented as consisting in, and varying with, the wages and profits of producers. I stated then that this conception of cost was not reconcilable with the doctrine of international values upheld by the same authorities, which refers these phenomena, not to cost of production, but to the reciprocal demand of exchanging nations.” Why not reconcilable?
[John Elliott Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), p. 343. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t85h88k6k?urlappend=%3Bseq=351]
“The actual price, therefore, of any given commodity will, it is evident, be the composite result of the combined action of these several agencies”—namely, reciprocal international demand, reciprocal domestic demand, and cost of production. Explain.
[John Elliott Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), p. 94. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t85h88k6k?urlappend=%3Bseq=102]
“Assuming a certain field for investment, and the prospect of profit in this such as to attract a certain aggregate of capital, and assuming the national industries to be of a certain kind, the proportion of this aggregate capital which shall be invested in wages is not a matter within the discretion of capitalists, always supposing they desire to obtain the largest practical return upon their outlay.” Why?
[John Elliott Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), p. 186. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t85h88k6k?urlappend=%3Bseq=194]
“We see, then, within what very narrow limits the possibilities of the laborer’s lot are confined, so long as he depends for his well-being upon the produce of his day’s work. Against these barriers Trades-unions must dash themselves in vain.” What, according to Cairnes, are the barriers?
[John Elliott Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy Newly Expounded (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874), p. 283. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t85h88k6k?urlappend=%3Bseq=291]
“Saving (for productive investment), and spending, coincide very closely in the first stage of their operations.” Explain Mill’s meaning.

II.
[Answer all.]

Why is there a tendency of profits to a minimum?
What is the effect of a rise in the value of money on debtors and on creditors?
“Though laborers in certain departments of industry are practically cut off from competition with laborers in other departments, the competition of capitalists, as I have already pointed out, is effective over the whole ﬁeld.” How is this consistent with the existence of large amounts of Fixed Capital?
“And here this remark may at once be made: that as the course of price in the ﬁeld of raw products is, on the whole, upward, so in that of manufactured goods the course is, not less strikingly, in the opposite direction. The reasons of this are exceedingly plain.” (Cairnes.) What are they?
What would be the effect on wages and proﬁts of the universal adoption of coöperative production? of proﬁt-sharing ?
How far did the premium on gold during the civil war measure the real depreciation of the paper?
Compare Mill’s attitude on coöperation with Cairnes’s.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Papers Set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1892) in the bound volume: Examination Papers 1890-92.

Also J. L. Laughlin, Economics 1: A Synopsis of John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy (Cambridge, MA: W.H. Wheeler, 1892), pp. 106-108.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division B.
Final Examination, 1892.

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

What is the fundamental objection to the issue of inconvertible paper money? What light is thrown on it by the experience of the United States during the civil war?
Is a rise in the value of money advantageous to debtors or to creditors, or to neither? Why?
What is the cause of the tendency of the rate of interest to fall?
What would be the effect upon the price of food, and upon rent, of a tax of a fixed sum per acre upon agricultural land?
Taking the two following accounts as representing the condition of a bank at different dates, state (1) what operations are most likely to have given rise to the changed condition, and (2) whether the bank is American or foreign, city or country, with your reasons for thinking so:—

I.
Capital	100,000	Government securities	5,000
Surplus	10,000	Other securities	50,000
Profits	3,000	Loans	255,000
Notes	20,000	Expenses	2,000
Deposits	250,000	Cash	71,000
	383,000		383,000

II.
Capital	100,000	Government securities	5,000
Surplus	12,000	Other securities	50,000
Profits	2,000	Loans	260,000
Notes	20,000	Expenses	1,000
Deposits	270,000	Cash	88,000
	404,000		404,000

What is the sliding scale of discount? Name two countries in which it is used.
Point out wherein there are differences, wherein similarities, in the legal provisions of the United States, England, and France, for the security, immediate and ultimate, of bank notes.
Give a brief history of the small change (under one dollar) in the United States since 1850.
What would be the effect upon the price of silver bullion of an act for free coinage of silver?
What was the nature and purpose of the original restriction upon the amount of national bank notes in the United States? When and why was it repealed?
Compare the main features of the silver acts of 1878 and 1890.
How are profits divided in schemes for distributive coöperation? For credit coöperation? What is the important difference?

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Course Description and Enrollment

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 2. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from leading writers. 3 hours.

Total 38: 9 Graduates, 17 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 1 Freshman, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

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

Are laborers paid out of the product of their own labor in cases where the employer sells the product before pay-day and pays the laborers out of the proceeds?
“Whether wages are advanced out of capital in whole, or in part, or not at all, it still remains true that it is the product to which the employer looks to ascertain the amount which he can afford to pay: the value of the product furnishes the measure of wages. . . .
It is the prospect of a profit in production which determines the employer to hire laborers; it is the anticipated value of the product which determines how much he can pay them.”
Is this consistent with the wages-fund theory?
Consider the following: —

“Given machinery, raw materials, and a year’s subsistence, does it make no difference with the annual product whether the laborers are Englishmen or East-Indians? Certainly if one quarter part of what has been adduced under the head of the efficiency of labor be valid, the difference in the product of industry arising out of differences in the industrial quality of distinct communities of laborers are so great as to prohibit us from making use of capital to determine the amount that can be expended in any year or series of years in the purchase of labor.”

How does President Walker prove the existence of a no-profits class of business men?
Wherein does President Walker’s theory of distribution differ from Professor Sidgwick’s?
What grounds are there for saying that Political Economy is distinctly a modern science?
“Let us suppose, for example, that in the greater part of employments the productive powers of labour had been improved to ten-fold, or that a day’s labour could produce ten times the quantity of work which it had done originally; but that in a particular employment they had been improved only to double, or that a day’s labour could produce only twice the quantity of work it had done before. In exchanging the produce of a day’s labour in the greater part of employments for that of a day’s labour in this particular one, ten times the original quantity of work in them would purchase only twice the original quantity in it. Any particular quantity in it, therefore, a pound weight, for example, would appear to be five times dearer than before. In reality, however, it would be twice as cheap.” — Wealth of Nations, Book I. ch. viii.
Explain what Adam Smith meant; and what Ricardo would have said as to this passage.
Explain Adam Smith’s conclusions as to the effect on wages, profits, and rent, of the progress of society; noting briefly the reasoning which lead to the conclusion in each case.
Examine the following criticisms on Malthus: —
1. that there is no such difference of law between the increase of man and of the organic beings which form his food, as is implied in the proposition that man increases in a geometrical, food in arithmetical ratio;
2. that the adaptation of numbers to the means available for their support is effected by the felt or anticipated pressure of circumstances and the fear of social degradation, within a tolerable degree of approximation to what is desirable.
Explain carefully Ricardo’s doctrine as to the effect of profits on value.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Frank Taussig’s Scrapbook of his examinations. Posted earlier in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Final Examination, 1892.

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

Does the example of a laborer hired by a farmer, and paid by him at the close of the season, after the crop has been harvested and disposed of, present a case of labor paid, not out of capital, but out of the product of current industry?
What do you conceive the relation of political economy to laissez faire to have been with Adam Smith? with Ricardo and his contemporaries? How would you state the relation yourself?
“Ricardo never fairly appreciated that his notion of the laborer’s ‘necessaries’ stood for something subject to wide variation in different stages of civilization. It is true that in one passage he says with emphasis that the necessaries, which determine the natural rate of wages, depend on habits which vary with time and place; but elsewhere he sets up a distinction between gross and net income, which is tenable only if we put the laborer’s necessaries side by side with other elements of cost of production. The distinction loses its practical harshness, when he admits that the laborer may at times receive, over and above natural wages, some part of the community’s net income; but its theoretic shortcomings then become the more obvious.” (Cohn, National-oekonomie.)
Explain Ricardo’s conception of natural wages and net income, here referred to; and examine the justice of this criticism.
“The average rate of profits is the real barometer, the true and infallible criterion of national prosperity. A high rate of profit is the effect of industry having become more productive, and it shows that the power of society to amass capital, and to add to its wealth and population, has been increased.” (M’Culloch’s Political Economy.) What led to the adoption of this test by M’Culloch? Should you accept it?
What were Ricardo’s views as to the effect of foreign trade on profits?
“In the actual period of production, on a wages system, the existing supplies for laborers are distributed to laborers in wages, while they, with the help of fixed capital, till the ground and work up the raw materials, transforming the old capital into a new product. . . . The product is divided at the end of the period of production into the replacement of capital (support of laborers, raw material, and wear of fixed capital), profits, and rent. . . . Hence it is clear that wages and profits are not parts of the same whole. Wages were in capital at the beginning of the period of production; profits are in product at its close.” (W. G. Sumner.)“We may suppose that share of the National Dividend which goes as rent to be set on one side; and then there remains what would be produced by labour and capital if they were all applied under conditions no more favourable than those under which they were applied at the margin of profitable employment; and a proposal was made by the present writer, in the Economics of Industry, that this should be called the Wages-and-Profits Fund, or the Earnings-and-Interest Fund. These terms were suggested in order to emphasize the opinion that the so-called Wages-Fund theory, however it might be purified from the vulgar errors which had grown around it, still erred in suggesting that earnings and interest, or wages and profits, do not stand in the same relation to the National Dividend.” (Marshall.)
Which of these seems to you the sounder view?
Explain what is meant by Consumer’s Rent; and examine the effect on Consumer’s Rent and on the aggregate satisfaction of the community, of a tax on a community subject to the law of Diminishing Returns.
Explain the grounds which lead Professor Marshall to believe that the forces by which the wages of different grades of laborers are determined, work by a process similar to that by which the expenses of production determine the value of commodities.
Examine carefully Professor Marshall’s view of the part played by rent of natural ability in determining manager’s earnings.
Wherein is there similarity, wherein difference, in the positions of Carey and Bastiat in the history of economic theory?

Also found in Frank Taussig’s Scrapbook of his examinations. Posted earlier in Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Course Description and Enrollment

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 3. Mr. [Edward] Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. 3 hours.

Total 25: 8 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

[Not yet found]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Final Examination, 1892.

[Arrange your answers in the order of the questions. Omit one.]

“The liberty of the subject is only a means towards an end; hence, when it fails to produce the desired end, it may be set aside, and other means employed.”
What do you conceive to be this “desired end”? On what is the prerogative in question founded?
“When everything has been done to deter from crime or reform the criminal there will still remain a certain class whom it is hopeless to influence, and who must be dealt with in course of law, not for much result on themselves, but to carry out the principle of justice, and mainly to deter others.”
Discuss the theoretical and practical validity of the principles of penal legislation here affirmed.
“There are still two more weaknesses, which are peculiar to all states, not only to the modern elective State. From the strictly professional point of view, in the technical works which they direct; public functionaries have neither the stimulus nor the restraint of personal interest.”
“Nearly every present acknowledged function of government has once been intrusted to private enterprise….Now, of all the enterprises which the state has thus appropriated to itself, there is not one which is not managed better and more wisely than it had been managed before by private parties. Most of them are such that the world has entirely forgotten that they were ever private enterprises.”
What light is thrown on this controversy by the experience of continental governments in the management of railroads? Do the same arguments apply to railroads as to the telegraph, and the post? Why?
State an criticize the theory of “surplus value.”
“Let us suppose the whole field of industry covered by syndicates….Competition complained of by the Socialists would be largely gone, being merged within the syndicate; useless middlemen displaced; the employing capitalist with his too high wages replaced by a manager: all steps towards the Socialist goal. What is wanting chiefly?”
Give a general outline of the Collectivist scheme, from the point of view of production, distribution and value.
“But the bare labor-cost value, as it has been formulated up to now, invests the whole economy of socialism for the present with the character of a Utopia….It is remarkable, and even comforting, that all which is required to make socialism so much a matter of practical discussion, urges it to preserve, and even to intensify, the brighter elements of the liberal economic system.”
“Moreover it is not difficult to deduce the necessity of State interference from Mr. Spencer’s own fundamental principles….The inspector is himself in fact, as Prof. Jevons says, a necessary product of social evolution and the division of labor.”
Does expansion of public and municipal industry necessarily indicate the “gradual triumph of socialism”?
Compare briefly the political and economic tendencies in Glasgow, London, and New York.
What ground do you find for De Laveleye’s assertion that Socialism is pessimistic, while Political Economy is optimistic?
State the arguments for and against municipal manufacture of gas in the United States.
The systems of state education in the United States have been devised by the several states of the Union, and are exceedingly heterogeneous and defective. In certain States scarcely anything worthy of the name of education exists, while in others the systems have attained a high degree of perfection.”
How in this respect does the United States compare with European countries.

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Course Description and Enrollment

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 4. Mr. [William M.] Cole. — Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours.

Total 132: 35 Seniors, 40 Juniors, 40 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 16 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

[Not yet found]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Final Examination, 1892.

[Answer both the questions in Roman numerals, and eight of the nine in Arabic numerals.]

Compare the facilities for transportation by land as they existed in 1700 with those of 1830 and those of 1890.
Do the same, for the same periods, for water transportation, for cotton manufacturing, and for banking.
Compare the growth in the numbers of population in the United States since 1790 with the growth in the density of population per square mile. If you find any discrepancies, explain them.

How far has England’s policy regarding free trade been affected by the policy of other nations?
What, in your opinion, would have been the status in the United States of slavery, as a system of producing wealth, if emancipation had not taken place? State your reasons.
Explain the change in the position of the American merchant marine at about the time of the Civil War.
What influence has the extensive investment of capital in foreign countries upon the need, for the world’s commerce, of specie?
By what process, and in what way, did the payment of the German indemnity by France affect the Crisis of 1873?
How was the United States able to accumulate enough gold for Resumption in 1879?
Was the indemnity demanded of France by Germany in 1871 just? Give your reasons.
By what sort of processes has the United States reduced the annual burden of its debt faster than the principal?
Why has England become the natural clearing-house for the world?

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5.
Course Description and Enrollment

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 5. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — Railway Transportation. — Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 2d half-year.

Total 42: 3 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5.
Final Examination, 1892.

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

Compare the modes in which New York and Pennsylvania tried to secure communications with the West in 1825-1840.
Sketch the salient events in the history of the New York Central Railway to the present time.
Sketch the important provisions of the Thurman Act of 1878 in regard to the Pacific railroads, and the results which have ensued.
Why was the railway mileage constructed in the United States in 1887 the largest yet reached?
Why has the railway beaten the canal?
Does the practice of charging what the traffic will bear result from the fact that railways present a case of industrial monopoly? Would it cease if competition were fully effective in railway operations?
Discuss separately or together,
(a) Whether the prohibition of railway pools is wise;
(b) Whether there are grounds for permitting or prohibiting such combinations, which do not apply to attempts to bring about combination and monopoly in other industries.
Point out wherein the schedules of maximum rates fixed by the State of Iowa resemble the German Reform Tariff, and wherein they differ from it.
Explain what is the state of legislation as to long and short haul rates in the United States, England, France, and Germany; and state your opinion as to the desirability of preventing lower charges on the longer haul.
Sketch the history of railway policy in Belgium.
Why are railway pools and traffic agreements more stable in England than in the United States?
Point out wherein the Railway Commission under the English Act of 1888 differs from the Interstate Commerce Commission.

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Course Description and Enrollment

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 6. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. 3 hours. 1^st half-year.

Total 64: 7 Graduates, 32 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 10 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Be concise. Answer all questions.]

Criticize the arguments by which Hamilton endeavored to show (1) that agriculture was not more productive than manufactures; (2) that the greater division of labor and use of machinery in manufactures made the introduction of manufacturing industries peculiarly advantageous to a country.
How do you explain the change, between 1820 and 1840, in the arguments as to the bearing of high wages on the protective system?
Sketch the growth of the international trade of the United States from 1820 to 1860.
Are there good grounds for saying that the tariff act of 1846 led to a period of general prosperity?
In what way have the duties on fine woolens been higher in recent years than those on cheap woollens? Does the difference explain the fact that the domestic production is confined mainly to the cheaper goods? Give your reasons carefully.
Explain the difference (1) in character, (2) in probable effects, between the Continental sugar bounties and the present United States bounty.
Wherein would there probably be differences between the effects of reciprocity treaties (1) with Great Britain, admitting iron free; (2) with Great Britain, admitting wool from Australia free; (3) with Germany, admitting refined sugar free?
How far is it true that the high level of wages in the United States is an effective obstacle to the successful prosecution of manufacturing industries?
What were the duties on coffee, cotton goods, pig-iron, and wool, in 1799, 1819, 1839, 1859, 1879? (Use tabular form, if you wish.)
How far did the South secure what it aimed at from the tariff act of 1833?
Sketch the tariff legislation of 1872.
Is it true that the adoption of a policy of free trade in England dates from the abolition of the corn-laws?

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Course Description and Enrollment.

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 7. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar.

— First half-year:—

The Theory and Methods of Taxation, with special references to local taxation in the United States. 3 hours.

Total 30: 2 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 8 Juniors.

— Second half-year —

Banking, and the History of the leading Banking Systems. 3 hours.

Total 38: 2 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 10 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Mid-year examination (first half-year), 1892.

[not yet found]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Final examination (second half-year), 1892.

A.
Of these five questions one may be omitted.

Which of the three great banks, the Bank of England, the Bank of France, and the Reichsbank, appears to you to present the best model for a great national bank, — and why?
What peculiarities in the Scotch banking system account for the high credit and extended usefulness of the Scotch banks, and make their issue of £1 notes both necessary and safe?
The value of a currency is said to depend on (a) its quantity, rapidity of circulation, and the amount of transactions to be effected, and (b) on the cost of the precious metals. How is this reasoning to be made applicable to deposits, considered as a part of the currency?
A recent pamphlet contains the following:—
“The ‘Currency Principle’ was advocated by Lord Overstone and others, and held that, under a system of free banking, over-issue [of convertible notes] is possible and likely to occur, inflating the currency. In England, the principle of limiting the issues was adopted in the Bank Act of 1844. A different application of the same principle obtains in this country under the National Bank system.”
Discuss the closing statement in the above extract.
As saving banks and banks of deposit and discount are alike bound to pay their depositors on demand, on what ground can investments be treated as safe or suitable for one of these classes of banks and not for the other? This may be illustrated by reference to investments in mortgages, in bank stock, and in commercial paper.

B.
Of these five questions one may be omitted.

Describe Mr. Goschen’s proposals for increasing the stock of gold in the Bank of England and issuing £1 notes, and state the objects to be gained by the plan and the objections to it.
Discuss the propositions, laid down by Mr. Buckner, in his speech of April, 1882, in opposition to the Bank Charters Extension Bill,—
1. That the currency ought to be issued by the government;
2. That an elastic currency is mischievous, as introducing an element of uncertainty, and that the government should therefore issue a fixed amount of convertible notes.
It is urged that the characteristics which insure the high credit and universal currency of the national bank circulation,—
“are qualities which help to make its movements unnatural, artificial, and impart to it a roaming character, helping to force it away from the issuer, away from the country districts where it is needed, and consequently to induce its accumulation when out of active commercial employment in the great financial centres, and while there to foster and become more or less fixed in speculative ventures—that is, unresponsive to commercial influences when needed for commercial work.”
Discuss the question whether issues having only local credit would remedy the difficulties suggested above?
Discuss the following proposition for the issue of bank-notes under State authority:—
1. Take off the present 10 per cent. tax from the notes of any bank complying with the following regulations:—
2. Permit any State to tax circulation, in order to accumulate a fund to redeem notes of such of its own banks a may fail.
3. Forbid any bank to issue notes in excess of two-thirds of its capital.
4. Make notes a first lien on all assets of the issuing bank.
5. Require coin redemption by the banks and a coin reserve of 25 per cent. of outstanding notes.
6. Leave any State free to forbid or permit the issue of notes under the above regulations by banks within its jurisdiction.
  [Commercial and Financial Chronicle, May 14.]
Discuss the following propositions for completely free banking, made by Courcelle-Seneuil (Traité des Opérations de Banque, Book IV., ch. ix., §3):—
“Il vaudrait mieux donner au premier venu le droit d’émettre des billets à vue et au porteur sous certaines conditions définies par la loi….On doit supposer que le banquier sait mieux son métier que le législateur; celui-ci ne doit point réglementer ce qui est du métier; il doit se borner à prévenir la fraude, et il ne peut mieux y parvenir qu’en imposant au banquier un fort cautionnement envers le public, c’est-à-dire un fort capital….Les vérifications officielles de portefeuille ne peuvent présenter au public aucune garantie.”

_______________________

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Course Description and Enrollment.

For Graduates and Undergraduates:—

[Political Economy] 8. Professor [Charles F.] Dunbar. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 3 hours. 2d half-year

Total 50: 7 Graduates, 22 Seniors, 11 Juniors, 2 Sophomores, 8 Others.

Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1891-92, p. 54.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Final Examination, 1892.

Two questions may be omitted.

What were the terms on which the different portions of the revolutionary debt were made redeemable by the act of August 4, 1790, and when and how was their redemption actually undertaken?
What are the leading cases of suspension of specie payments in the United States since 1789, and what were the general causes in each case?
What was the method by which specie payments were resumed in 1817?
Von Holst says (II., p. 32), “Jackson did not come to Washington resolved to wipe out the bank.” What is probably the truth as to Jackson’s attitude towards the bank when he was inaugurated, and as to the breaking out of the bank war?
What were the “branch drafts” issued by the branches of the second United States Bank, the reasons for their issue, and the objections thereto?
What is the history of the following item in the general account of the Treasurer of the United States:—
“Unavailable amount on deposit with the States, $28, 101,645.”
What were Mr. Chase’s reasons for urging the establishment of the national banking system?
How does the legal tender decision in Juillard vs. Greenman differ in principle from that in the earlier case of Knox vs. Lee?
What were Mr. McCulloch’s reasons for wishing to establish the policy of contracting the currency without delay in 1865?
What influences led Congress to restrict, and finally annul, Secretary McCulloch’s authority for retiring United States notes? Give approximate dates of the Acts.
President Grant wrote, in 1874:—
“I would like to see a provision that…the currency issued by the United States should be redeemed in coin…and that all currency so redeemed should be cancelled and never be re-issued.” [ To Jones.]
How does this compare with the redemption actually practiced under the Resumption Act, and how came the present practice to be adopted?
Sherman, speaking of the first Legal Tender Act, said:—
“We agreed in that act that we would apply one per cent. of the principal of the debt to the payment of the debt. The debt is now $2,5000,000,000. One per cent. is $25,000,000, and that must not only be applied every year, but it must be applied in the nature of a sinking fund.” [Speeches p. 264.]
How far has the government followed this interpretation of the act?

Tags ColeWM, CummingsEdward, Dunbar, Taussig

Economists Harvard

Harvard. Life of accounting professor William Morse Cole, A.M. 1896

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-06-25

In preparing the previous post, “Harvard final exams in political economy and ethics of social reform, 1889-1890“, I saw that the Harvard Business School accounting professor, William Morse Cole, got his professional start in the department of political economy as Frank Taussig’s side-kick for Political Economy 1, the principles course of its time. Answering the call of due diligence, I decided to put together a biographical post on the man. To be honest, I did not feel at all inspired about the prospect of checking out the career of this early Harvard Business School professor. While I confess to loving national income and product accounts (and especially deflating them with theoretically appropriate price indexes), I’ve never warmed to the nuts-and-bolts of actual economic accounting. Literally, go figure. Still, I overcame my nasty prejudice enough to track down Professor Cole and so we “Meet a Harvard A.M. alumnus…”

Cole wrote a battery of accounting textbooks that one could logically expect from a professor of accounting. These are listed below with links. Three other books by Cole were definitely composed outside his accounting lane. Cole’s first book was a romance written under a pseudonym, his mid-life tome “An American Hope” offered his readers a series of meaning-of-life reflections, and towards the end of his career he even published a high-school elementary economics textbook (encouraged by no less a mover-shaker in the economics profession than Richard Ely).

_________________________

Harvard University, in memoriam

WILLIAM MORSE COLE, Professor of Accounting, Emeritus, died December 15, 1960, in his ninety-fifth year. A graduate of Harvard College in 1890, Mr. Cole first offered a non-credit course in accounting in the Department of Economics in 1900-01 as a vocational aid for seniors. Five years later the course achieved credit status, and when the Business School was founded in 1908, Mr. Cole became an Assistant Professor there and teacher of one of the first required courses. He was made a full Professor in 1916 and continued to teach accounting until his retirement in 1933. A highly respected teacher known for his strict intellectual discipline, he was the originator of one of the major types of accounting statements, the “source and application of funds statement,” used extensively by professional accountants, and his books on accounting were highly regarded. A gracious and thoughtful person, he continued alert and interested in Harvard affairs until his death.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1959-1960, p. 26.

_________________________

Life of William Morse Cole in Dates

1866. Born February 10 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Family moved to Portland, Maine. High school and Portland Business College.

1890. A.B. Harvard College

1890-93. Instructor in political economy, Harvard College.

1894-95. Secretary, Massachusetts Commission on Unemployed.

1896. A.M. Harvard.

1896-98. American University Extension Society, Lecturer.

1898-1901. High school teacher of English literature and composition in Fall River, Massachusetts.

1900-08. Harvard Instructor in Principles of Accounting.

1901-08. High School teacher of English literature and composition at South High School, Worcester, Massachusetts.

1908-13. Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School.

1913-16. Associate Professor, Harvard Business School.

1917-1919. Served twenty months as captain in the Quartermaster Corps.

1916-1933. Professor of Accounting, Harvard Business School.

1931. Visiting Instructor at University of California, Berkeley Summer Session.

1933. Professor Emeritus of Accounting, Harvard.

1960. Died December 15 at age 94 in New Britain, Connecticut.

Sources:

“William Morse Cole” in John J. Kahle, American Accountants and Their Contributions to Accounting Thought, (Reprinted Routledge).
University of California. Intersession and Summer Session 1931 at Berkeley (1931), p. 4.
Harvard Business School Yearbook 1924-25, p. 13.
Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1959-1960, p. 26.

_________________________

Life of William Morse Cole in Books

1895. An Old Man’s Romance, a Tale. (Pseudonym “Christopher Craigie”). Boston: Copeland and Day.

1908. Accounts. Their Construction and Interpretation for Business Men and Students of Affairs. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

“The first issue of this book was brought out at a time when no general, non -technical, non-professional treatise on accounting had been published . The author had then been giving for eight years a course of instruction to seniors in Harvard College on the principles of accounting, and believed that many business men and students of affairs would be interested to see briefly but comprehensively how accounts are constructed and interpreted.”

Revised and enlarged edition, 1915.

1910. Accounting and Auditing. Minneapolis: Cree Publishing Company.

1910. The American Hope. New York: D. Appleton.

“The academic point of view is apt to be out of joint with real life and may be said to be a disease to be gotten rid of at all hazards, but once in a while from academic circles comes forth a book filled with a knowledge of both the real and the ideal. The study of the use of the possessive by Shakspeare or the dative by Virgil has been supplanted by study of life understood and depicted so well by both Shakspeare and Virgil and the result is a book of real worth, as in this book on the American Hope by a Harvard teacher.

‘The fundamental ground of American hope,’ says Mr. Cole, ‘is the prevailing idealism of the American character.’ Not money or things in themselves, but power, life, and the ideal are behind our material development. Business on a large scale is the child of the ideal. The chapter on the power of choice is a pretty exposition of the responsibility of the irresponsible, and, like all essays concerning the freedom of the will, finds an escape from both heredity and surroundings by the pursuit of truth and life. The marriage tie is a great spring of progress and the ideal is brought out quite strongly. ‘It is doubtless true that if the only marriages contracted were those classed in this chapter as perfect, the marriage rate would decline rapidly. This might not be a calamity. Few parts of the world are today suffering from lack of population. What the world needs is not at all more people, but more people begotten and trained In ideal conditions.’

The Training of Powers, The Fraternal Bond, The Still, Small Voice, The Will of the Community and the Attitude Toward Life are the titles of various chapters and a reflection of the character of the book. Economic Freedom is discussed in a separate chapter and the root of progress is clearly brought out. The pressure of population on subsistence, thrift, sobriety, and industry are discussed. Civilisation in every one of its aspects is a struggle against the animal instincts.’ The book is a thoroughly readable one from beginning to end and it is not too high praise to say that it is a rare one.” Boston Evening Transcript, 22 June 1910, p. 22.

1913. Cost Accounting for Institutions. New York: Ronald Press Company.

1914. Bookkeeping, Accounting and Auditing. Racine: National Institute of Business.

1915. Problems in the Principles of Accounting. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

“These problems have been designed for use with the author’s Accounts: Their Construction and Interpretation, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, of Boston.”

1921. The Fundamentals of Accounting. With the collaboration of Anne Elizabeth Geddes, A.B. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

1926. Economic Success. New York: Macmillan.

“This book is an attempt to present fundamental economic principles in form and content comprehensible by young people of the age of the highest grades in elementary and intermediate schools.” Thanks Richard T. Ely “for the original suggestion that this book be written, and for helpful criticism both of its proposed content and of the form which the manuscript took.” (p. xii).

Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1916.

Tags ColeWM

Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for Political Economy Courses and Ethics of Social Questions, 1890-1891

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2021-06-24

With the academic year 1890-91, a new instructor joined the Harvard political economy team, William Morse Cole who co-taught Political Economy 1 with Frank Taussig and Political Economy 8, History of Financial Legislation in the United States. Cole went on to have a successful career as professor of accounting at Harvard Business School.

The previous year’s exams have been transcribed and posted earlier:

Harvard. Final exams in political economy and ethics of social reform, 1889-1890

_________________________

1890-1891. Philosophy 14.

Enrollment

[Philosophy] 11. Professor F. G. Peabody. — The Ethics of Social Questions. — The questions of Charity, Divorce, the Indians, Temperance, and the various phases of the Labor Question (Socialism, Communism, Arbitration, Cooperation, etc.), as questions of practical Ethics. — Lectures, essays, and practical observations. 3 hours.

Total 103: 4 Graduates, 53 Senior, 28 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 3 Freshmen, 11 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 57.

PHILOSOPHY 14.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Mid-year examination (1890-91)

[Omit one question.]

The attitude of political economy toward the questions of social reform.
Consider the possible relations in which your own life may stand to the life of society, and their ethical significance.
Examine a special case of moral heroism and state what, in your opinion, was its motive.
What, according to Professor Sumner, are the duties toward others of “a free man in a free democracy”? Why? And with what result, in your opinion, to society?
Enumerate and illustrate some of the practical rules of good charity which issue from the philosophy of charity.
The relation of the labor question in France and England to the political history of those countries.
Compare the conditions of wealth and the possibilities of revolution in England and in this country.
Consider Carlyle’s doctrine of the “Captain of Industry” as a solution of the modern labor question.
What does Ruskin mean by: Roots of honor; veins of purple; non-competitive just exchange; ad valorem?
What is there in religion which encourages the Socialist and what is there which repels him, and what relation between socialism and religion is, in your judgment, likely to be the result?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

PHILOSOPHY 14.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

[Omit one question.]

“All wealth is due to labor; therefore to labor all wealth is due.” What, in your opinion, is the economic importance, and the justice, of this proposition?
Compare the views of the Socialist, the Individualist and the “Opportunist” as to the tendency toward State interference. What is your own view of the merits of this kind of legislation?
“Well may Prince Bismarck display leanings toward State Socialism.” Why does Mr. Spencer make this remark, and with what justice?
On what principle would a Professor be paid, under the Socialist programme?
Consider the commercial advantages and hindrances of an establishment like the Hebden Bridge Fustian Mill.
Compare the principle of profit-sharing formerly used in the American Fisheries with that represented by the firm of Billon et Isaac.
Describe the general features and the main intention of the Dawes Indian Bill; and the supplementary legislation now proposed.
What is meant by the “Philosophy of the Family,” and what is its relation to the modern Divorce Question?
If you should enter the retail liquor business in Boston, what legal restrictions would you find hampering the freedom of your trade?
Apply the doctrine of the “Social Organism” to the question of Temperance.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3. Papers Set for Final examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891) in bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1890-91.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 1. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig and Mr. [William Morse] 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): Lectures on Finance, Labor and Capital, Coöperation. — Hadley’s Railroad Transportation. — Laughlin’s Bimetallism. 3 hours.

Total 201:

A: 10 Seniors, 53 Juniors, 50 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 19 Others.
B: 12 Seniors, 31 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

Student notes available at the Harvard Archives

Kennedy, Frank Lowell, Notes on lectures by Frank W. Taussig and William M. Cole on Political Economy 1, 1890-1891. Harvard University Archives HUC 8890.371.1

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-year examination.

[Divide your time equally between the two parts of the paper.]

I.
[Omit two.]

“Whether men like it or not, the unproductive expenditure of individuals will pro tanto tend to impoverish the community, and only their productive expenditure will enrich it.”
“It would be a great error to regret the large proportion of the annual produce which in an opulent country goes to supply unproductive consumption.”
Can you reconcile these two statements of Mill’s?
“Hardly any two dealers in the same trade, even if their commodities are equally good and equally cheap, carry on their business at the same expense, or turn over their capital in the same time. That equal capitals give equal profits, as a general maxim of trade, would be as false as that equal age or size give equal bodily strength, or that equal reading or experience give equal knowledge.” Can you reconcile this statement of Mill’s with the doctrine of the tendency of profits to an equality?
How far is it true that a general rise or fall in wages would not affect values?
Suppose a country having a metallic currency to issue inconvertible paper to one-half the amount of the coin, and trace the effects on prices and on the circulating medium (1) in an isolated country, having no international trade; (2) in a country having international trade.
On the same supposition, trace the effects, in the country having international trade, on the foreign exchanges, on the course of international trade, and on the terms of international exchange.
“If consumers were to save and covert into capital more than a limited portion of their income, and were not to devote to unproductive consumption an amount of means bearing a certain ratio to the capital of the country, the extra accumulation would be merely so much waste, since there would be no market for the commodities which the capital so created would produce.” Is this true?

II.
[Answer all.]

“Capital is not the result of saving; it is not an accumulation. Its nature is that it should be consumed almost as fast as it is produced. … Saving or accumulation would necessarily defeat the end of its existence. How can materials or tools be saved?” Answer the question.
Explain why rent is not an element in the cost of production of the commodity which yields it.
Connect the law of the increase of labor with the law of production from land.
What is the effect of gratuitous education for a profession on the wages of those engaged in it?
Why does the durability of the precious metals give stability to their value?
What are the laws of value applicable to (1) iron ore, (2) watch-springs, (3) wool and mutton, (4) patented bicycles?
How does the rate of interest bear on the price of land and of securities?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end examination (June 1891)
Division A.

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

Wherein is the effect of a change in the demand for commodities on the wages-fund different (1) if competition among laborers is effective? (2) if it is not effective?
On what grounds does Cairnes reach the same conclusions, as to the possible effects of Trades Unions on general wages, for England and for the United States?
Examine Cairnes’s reasoning as to the possibility of maintaining the accumulation of capital in a socialist community.
Why are the wages of women, according to Mill, lower than the wages of men? Accepting Mill’s explanation, what would Cairnes say as to the laws of value applicable to the exchange of the products of women’s labor with the products of men’s labor?
What is the error in saying that high wages make high prices?
“Gold may be cheap, and prices at the same time be low.” Explain.
Is it true that the benefit of foreign trade lies in its affording an outlet for the surplus produce of the community?
Suppose the people of the United States to borrow annually large sums from Europe; and suppose them also to have large interest payments to make on loans contracted in previous years; would you expect our foreign trade to show an excess of imports or of exports?
Mill says that an emission of inconvertible paper money, equal in amount to the specie previously circulating, will drive out the whole of the metallic money; “that is, if paper be issued of as low a denomination as the lowest coin; if not, as much will remain as convenience requires for the smaller payments.” What light is thrown on this statement by the experience of the United States in 1862?
Why did the circumstance that an exceptionally large part of the country’s business was done for cash in the period immediately after the civil war make the time favorable for a speedy contraction of the currency?
Is payment for capital sunk in the soil, rent, or profit?

Division B.

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]
[One question may be omitted.]

Why have pools and traffic agreements been more stable in England than in the United States?
Why does a railroad charge more per ton per mile on cotton goods than on coal?
“A government enterprise may be managed on any one of four principles: 1. as a tax; 2. for business profits; 3. to pay expenses; 4. for public service, without much regard to the question of expenses.” Explain, giving an example under each head.
Wherein is there a resemblance between the legislation of France as to railways and as to banking?
Arrange in proper order the following items of a bank account: Capital, 300; Loans, 1150; Bonds and Stocks, 50; Surplus, 85; Undivided Profits, 10; Cash, 110; Cash items, 90; Notes, 90; Real Estate, 25; Other Assets, 20; Deposits, 960.
Do you see any reason for believing this bank to be or not to be a national bank of the United States? To be a city or a country bank?
Suppose the national banks of the United States ceased to issue notes, their other operations remaining as now; how great would be the effect of the change on the circulating medium of the community? Compare the effect with that which would ensue in Germany if the note issue of the German banks were to cease.
Under the national bank act, how does the action of our banks, when their reserves are suddenly lowered, differ from that of the Bank of England in like case?
Wherein is the mode of dividing profits among members of the coöperative stores in England different from that of the coöperative building associations of the United States?
Wherein does bimetallism as now practiced in France differ from bimetallism as it was in France in 1850? Wherein does it differ from bimetallism as it is in the United States now?
Compare the legislation of Germany on coinage in 1873 with that of the United States in 1853.
Mill divides commodities into three classes, according to the laws of value applicable to them. In which class would you put silver bullion?
Describe carefully the act for the resumption of specie payments, stating when it was passed, when it went into effect, and how far it was successful in accomplishing the desired object.
Will a general rise in wages affect values? prices? profits?

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 2. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig and Mr. [John Graham] Brooks. — History of Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from Leading Writers. — Socialism. 3 hours.

Total 23: 4 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

Previously Posted

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-history-of-economic-theory-final-exam-questions-taussig-1891-94/

Fun fact: W.E.B. Dubois was enrolled in Economics 2 in 1890/91 as a graduate student and was awarded a grade of A (one of six awarded to the twenty-two who received grades, as recorded in Taussig’s scrapbook).

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-year examination.

[Divide your time equally between the two parts of the paper.]
[Omit one question.]

It has been suggested that the real source from which wages are paid is not the product of the laborer, nor the capital of the employer, but the income of the consumer. What should you say?
To which of the following cases, if to any, is the reasoning of the wages fund theory applicable? (1) The farmer tilling his own land with his own capital; (2) the fisherman working for a share of the catch; (3) the independent artisan working on his own account with borrowed capital; (4) the employer who habitually sells his product before pay-day, and pays his laborers with the proceeds.
Wherein does President Walker’s view of the source from which wages are paid differ from George’s?
“The extra gains which any producer or dealer obtains through superior talent in business, or superior business arrangements, are very much of a similar kind [to rent.] If all his competitors had the same advantages, and used them, the benefit would be transferred to the consumers, through the diminished value of the article; he only retains it for himself because he is able to bring his commodity to market at a lower cost, while its value is determined by a higher…. Wages and profits represent the universal elements in production, while rent may be taken to represent the differential and peculiar; any difference in favor of certain producers, or in favor of production in certain circumstances, being the source of a gain, which, though not called rent, unless paid periodically by one person to another, is governed by laws entirely the same with it.”—Mill, Political Economy, book iii., ch. v., §4.
What has President Walker added to this in his discussion of business profits?
“It is true that money does not beget money; but capital does manifestly beget capital. If a man borrows a thousand ducats and ties them up in a bag, he will not find any little ducats in the bag at the end of the year; but if he purchases with the ducats a flock of sheep, he will, with proper attention, have lambs enough at the end of the year to make a handsome interest on the loan, and make a handsome profit for himself. If the turns the ducats into corn, he will find it bringing forth, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred fold…Very seldom does a man borrow money to use it, as money, through the term of his loan. When he does so, as brokers for example sometimes do, he may to Antonio’s question, ‘Is your gold and silver rams and ewes?’ return Shylock’s answer, ‘I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast.’”
Discuss this explanation of interest. Whom do you suppose to be the writer of the extract?
“The natural history of the notion on which it [the wages-fund doctrine] rests, is not obscure. It grew out of the conditions which existed in England during and immediately subsequent to the Napoleonic wars. Two things were then noted. First, capital had become accumulated in the island to such an extent that employers found no (financial) difficulty in paying their laborers by the month, week, or day, instead of requiring them to await the fruition of their labor in the harvested or marketed product. Second, the wages were, in fact, generally so low that they furnished no more than a bare subsistence, while the employment offered was so restricted that an increase in the number of laborers had the effect to throw some out of employment or to reduce the wages for all. Out of these things the wages-fund theory was put together.”
Examine this account of the rise of the wages-fund doctrine.
Discuss the method of reasoning followed by Adam Smith, and illustrate by his treatment of two of the following topics: (1) the causes which bring about high wages; (2) the effects on domestic industry of restraints on importation; (3) the origin and effects of the division of labor.
Explain how Ricardo’s conception of wages bears on his conclusions as to the effects of taxes on wages, and as to the net income of society.
What can be said in justification of the views of the writers of the mercantile school?

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

Second semester taught by John Graham Brooks.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

From Rousseau to the Fabians, what have been the chief historic changes in the Philosophy of Socialism?
In detail, state the differences between the Marx type of Socialism and that of the Fabians.
With reference to the “three rents” what are the most important objections to Socialism?
What reasons can you give to show that Socialism is likely to have much further development in our society?

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 3. Mr. [John Graham] Brooks. Investigation and Discussion of Practical Economic Questions. — Social Questions. — Short theses. 1^st half-year. 3 hours.

Total 10: 1 Graduate, 7 Seniors, 1 Junior, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year examination

State the general objects of the German State Insurance, with reasons why it is likely, or not likely, to reach its objects.
State in detail the strong points and the weak points of Trades Unions.
What is the effect of Trades Unions upon their own wages, as distinguished from wages in general?
What advantages has Profit Sharing over the present forms of the wages system?
Are there reasons to believe that Profit Sharing will have much larger influence in the future?
With special reference to the work of the half year, what “social remedies” appear to you most promising?

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 4. Professor [Charles Franklin] Dunbar. — Economic History of Europe and America since the Seven Years’ War. —Lectures and written work. 3 hours.

Total 103: 29 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 25 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 17 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

Other course material available at the Harvard Archives

Topics and references in political economy IV [1891?]. Student’s copy belonging to C. King Morrison, ’91. with manuscript notes. Harvard University Archives HUC 8890.371

Larrabee, Ralph Clinton (A.B. 1893). Notes in Political Economy 4: lectures by Prof. Dunbar, 1890-1891. Harvard University Archives HUC 8890.371.4.48

Principle text for Political Economy 4

From the prefatory note to Benjamin Rand’s (ed.) Selections illustrating economic history since the Seven Years’ War (Cambridge, MA: Waterman and Amee, 1889):

These selections have been made for use as a text-book of required reading to accompany a course of lectures on economic history given at Harvard College.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Mid-year examination

Lay out your time carefully, reserving 15 minutes for review and correction.

A.
Give half of your time (say 80 minutes) to A, omitting one question.

Make a careful statement of the leading provisions of the English navigation and colonial system.
Adam Smith’s reasons for saying that the policy of Great Britain towards her colonies had, upon the whole, been less illiberal and oppressive than that of other countries towards theirs. [Rand, pp. 12-26.]
Contrast the effects of the French revolutionary period upon the holding and distribution of land, in France and Germany respectively.
Describe the current of opinion and the industrial conditions which made free trade inevitably the policy for England.
State the reasons for the logical and political importance of the corn laws in the English free trade movement.
The essential differences between the French and the Anglo-American methods of managing railway construction and ownership, and the effect and advantages of each.

B.
Give 80 minutes to B, omitting two questions.

The trade between the United States and the British West Indies, before our revolution, and after.
The inventions or improvements which made the development of the cotton States possible.
The condition of commerce and manufactures in the United States in the two periods, 1794-1808, and 1808-1815.
The successive enterprises for opening communication with the territory north of the Ohio, and their importance.
The English legislation respecting cotton goods in the last century and the reasons for it.
What was the effect of the Napoleonic wars upon the introduction of manufactures on the continent of Europe?
The comparative state of preparation of England, France, Germany, and the United States for undertaking the modern industries when the peace of 1815 came.
Give what account you can of the career and opinions of Turgot, with dates.
The contributions of Stein and Hardenberg respectively to the reform in the Prussian system of land-holding.
On what plan was the Zollverein organized?
What are the differences in industrial characteristics which make it natural for England and France to adopt different policies as to protection and free trade?

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

Lay out your time carefully, reserving 15 minutes for review and correction

A.
Give half of your time to A. omitting one question.

The establishment of the Zollverein is spoken of [Rand, page 138] as “the first step towards what is called the Germanization of the people” and to have “prepared the way for a political nationality.” Show how it had this effect.
Cairnes, in his discussion of the new gold, [Rand, page 197] shows that “a given addition to the metallic stock of Great Britain and the United States … will cause a greater expansion of the total circulation, and therefore will support a greater advance in general prices, that the same addition to the currency of … France … and that again, the effect in countries like France will be greater than in countries like India or China.” Why is this, and how much effect did this difference in sensitiveness produce in the years after 1850?
Cairnes lays down [Rand, page 209] that “every country is interested in raising as rapidly as possible the prices of its productions,–in other words, in the most rapid possible depreciation in the local value of its gold.” What are the grounds for this proposition?
The writer in Blackwood’s, [Rand, page 228] says that the most important point in the payment of the French indemnity is “How came it that £170,000,000 [4,250,000,000 francs] of bills could be got at all”? What is the explanation of this fact?
What are the reasons for looking upon Italy as a possible serious competitor in ocean navigation, and what are her great drawbacks in such competition?

What are the marked differences between the great change in the production and value of the precious metals in the sixteenth century, and that in the nineteenth?
Why was an additional supply of gold especially important to the world in the years 1850-60?
How does the mere saving of time in transportation, or in the transmission of intelligence, produce an effect upon commerce?
How far was the civil war the cause of the decline of American shipping after 1860?
What reasons made the breaking out of a financial crisis in the United States in 1873 easier than usual?
Why did the payment of the French indemnity disturb the financial quiet of other countries than France and Germany?
What are the great cases of resumption of specie payment in the years 1875-85, and how were they brought about respectively?
Why is the trade between countries so often “triangular,” and why is England so generally one of the parties concerned?
How does the modern theory of the utility of colonies differ from that of a century or two ago?

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 6. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — History of Tariff Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 2d half-year

Total 43: 1 Graduate, 28 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

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

Explain wherein France and the United States were in similar positions, as regards customs policy, in 1814-15; and state briefly the legislation to which these situations led in the two countries.
What was the argument, discussed in Hamilton’s Report on Manufactures, which rested on the supposed exceptions productiveness of agriculture? What was Hamilton’s answer? What is the sound view?
How did Gallatin propose in 1831 to fix customs duties without regard to their protective effect? Walker in 1845?
Was there any ground in 1832 for saying that the duties on imports were equivalent to duties on exports? Is there now?
How did the general fall in prices after 1819 affect the growth of manufactures in the United States?
“The climate, soil, and conditions generally in the Northwest, are very favorable to the cultivation of flax fibre as well as of the seed. After a short experience as to the primary manipulation and handling of the flax fibre, our farmers would produce flax which would compare favorably with the best varieties of the fibre. It seems strange that a practical people like ourselves should for years have been satisfied to cultivate seed for flax at a value of about $15 per acre, and at the same time allow 600 pounds of flax fibre per acre to rot on the ground, this fibre having a value, after being manipulated, of $186 per ton.”
Can you explain the anomaly?
Describe the process by which the duties on woollen cloths, as they stand in the act of 1890, were arrived at.
What ground is there for saying that the protective movement in the United States is part of a general reaction towards protection which has appeared in most civilized countries in recent years?
It has been said that the tariff act of 1789 began the protective policy of the United States; that the act of 1816 was the first giving serious protection; that the act of 1824 was the first strictly protective act. Which statement, if any, do you think true?
Which of the important tariff acts between 1835 and 1859 were passed quite without regard to financial considerations?
What does the continued importation of clothing wool indicate as to the effect of the duty on the domestic price? of pig iron? of silks?

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 7. Professor [Charles Franklin] Dunbar. — Public Finance and Taxation. — Cohn’s Finanzwissenschaft. 3 hours.

Total 7: 2 Graduates, 4 Seniors, 1 Junior.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

It is recommended that at least a third of the time be given to B.

Accepting the usual reasoning that a tax under some circumstances, by diminishing the income from property, diminishes its selling value, and so ceases to be felt by subsequent purchasers, should you say,—
1. That the French impôt foncier is a tax on present landholders?
2. That the English income-tax under Schedule A. is a tax on present landholders?
  The reason for the difference, if any exists.
What is your final conclusion as to the sale of bonds or annuities at a discount, — is it defensible or not, and on what grounds?
Explain the English method of using terminable annuities for the reduction of the public debt, as in 1867 and 1883, and discuss its advantages and drawbacks.
“The administrator of local finances is permitted to found a sinking-fund at the time of issuing bonds, a permission, it will be remembered, contrary to sound rules of national financiering.”
Does the distinction here made between local and national finances give solid ground for difference of treatment? Are the propositions as to the propriety of establishing sinking-funds in the two cases respectively tenable?
Say remarks that the French government, in providing for the indemnity, bought any kind of foreign bills of exchange, “prenant tous les changes qu’elle pouvait acquérir sur quelque pay que ce fût.” How did this purchase of a bill, say upon Russia, facilitate the payment of the indemnity any more than the purchase of a bill upon Marseilles would have done, seeing that in either case the government had to collect the proceeds in order to use them?

In 1872 Herr Bamberger, in his pamphlet die Fünf Milliarden, regretted that Germany had not been allowed more time to absorb the indemnity, so as to avoid the risk of over-stimulated enterprise, rise of prices, and speculation.
Discuss the probably effects, in Germany or elsewhere, (1) of longer time allowed to France; (2) of more cautious introduction of the wealth into Germany, effected
1. By longer deposit (say) in London,
2. By payment in securities, to be sold by Germany by degrees.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 8. Mr. [William Morse] Cole. — History of Financial Legislation in the United States. 2 hours. 1^st half-year.

Total 46: 1 Graduate, 29 Seniors, 13 Juniors, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Mid-year examination

“That the public credit was much better during the Civil War than during the War of 1812 is proved by the fact that during the former war the bulk of the loans were sold at par, whereas during the latter the larger part were sold below par.”
Comment on this statement.
Under what authority does the Secretary of the Treasury purchase bonds in the market? Why does he not redeem them at par?
Explain: “Five-twenties”; “Seven-thirties”; and tell why they were made seven-thirties; “Deferred sixes,” “5% redemption fund.”
When were the first legal tenders under the present constitution authorized?
What have been the express legal exemptions of government obligations from taxation since the outbrake of the Civil War?
In what different capacities was each of the following men connected with the finances of the nation: Hugh McCulloch, Levi Woodbury, William Pitt Fessenden, John Tyler?

II.
(Omit two.)

1, 2. [Counts as two questions.] Compare the causes of the suspensions of 1814, 1837, and 1861.

3, 4. [Counts as two.] Mention the different systems which have been in vogue since 1789 for caring for public funds, and tell why each change was made.

1. It was said that the bill which finally became the act for resumption in 1875 really provided for nothing in particular, and therefore ought not to be put upon the statute book. Did the provisions of the bill warrant the remark? Did subsequent history justify the remark?
2. In what way were the French Spoliation Claims connected with the Second-Bank Struggle?
3. Hamilton wished to have a system of internal taxation in working order as a resource in case of emergency. Does history throw any light upon the wisdom or folly of such a policy?
4. What were the causes of Gallatin’s retirement from the Treasury?
5. What history would you cite as an argument upon a proposition to replace bonds exempt from all taxation by bonds taxed to a moderate extent, and to distribute the receipts from the tax among the States according to the federal ratio?
6. In a speech on the refunding bill it was said that the government made no threat, but merely promised certain privileges to those who presented bonds to be refunded at a lower rate. “No one proposes…the alternative adopted by our own Government under Hamilton’s plan of reducing the interest.”
  Is this implication regarding Hamilton’s funding justified by the facts?

11, 12. [Counts as two.] Mention as many as possible of the kinds of obligations which have been contracted by the government; i.e. character of obligation (bond or what), length of time to run, and rate of interest. Give one example under each kind,—giving period of issue, but not necessarily the exact date.

Source: Harvard University Archives. In Harvard University, Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 2. From bound volume Examination Papers, 1890-91.

_____________________________

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.

Enrollment.

[Political Economy] 9. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig. — Railway Transportation. —Lectures and written work. 3 hours. 2d half-year

Total 20: 14 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Annual Report of the President of Harvard College 1890-1891, p. 58.

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

[Answer all the questions, and arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.]

Can it be fairly said that the early experience of the States of the Union supplies strong arguments against State ownership of railways? Can it be fairly said of the experience of France since 1878?
State the salient events in the history of the federal land grants to railways.
How do you explain the rapidity with which the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads were completed?
Wherein did the so-called Granger legislation on railway rates resemble the “natural” system advocated in Germany after 1871? Wherein did it differ from it?
Sketch the history and machinery of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association.
Explain the difference in the working of the Trunk Line Association before and after the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act.
What ground is there for saying that the prohibition of pooling in the Interstate Commerce Act is inconsistent with its prohibition of discrimination between individuals?
Suppose a railway to be built and used exclusively for coal traffic; would its rates be arranged on a plan essentially different from that in use with ordinary railways, having a varied traffic?
It has been said that the principle of tolls, or rates based on cost of service, makes it necessary that each item of business should pay its share of the fixed charges. Why, or why not?
Sketch the history of government management of railways in Italy.
“Property has reached an ideal perfection. It is felt and treated as the national lifeblood. The rights of property nothing but felony and treason can override. The house is a castle which the King cannot enter. The Bank is a strong box to which the King has no key. Whatever surly sweetness possession can give is tasted in England to the dregs. Vested rights are awful things, and absolute possession gives the smallest freeholder identity of interest with the duke.”—Emerson, English Traits.
Wherein does the trait here described make the railroad situation in England different from that in the United States?

Tags BrooksJG, ColeWM, Dunbar, Peabody, Taussig

Harvard Teaching Undergraduate

Harvard. Memos on teaching assistants and grading in economics courses, 1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2018-11-09

Six memos primarily concerned with the supervision of teaching assistants in economics courses, but also other interesting incidental detail is revealed. Of the six professors listed on economics department letterhead, Taussig was able to get a memorandum from everyone except for O. M. W. Sprague.

I have provided additional information from the published course announcements, annual Presidential Reports, along with some additional information on the subsequent careers of some of the teaching assistants named.

__________________

Taussig’s Cover Letter

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 22, 1911.

Dear Mr. Blake:

You remember that you made some inquiries on the President’s behalf concerning the extent to which the work of assistants was supervised in the various courses. I enclose a batch of memoranda concerning the courses in our Department, and think they tell the whole story. If further information is desired, we shall be glad to supply it.

Very truly yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

Mr. J. A. L. Blake

__________________

Frank W. Taussig and Edmund Ezra Day’s Courses

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 1. Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Taussig, assisted by Drs. [Charles Phillips] Huse [Harvard Ph.D., 1907], [Edmund Ezra] Day [Harvard Ph.D., 1909], and [Robert Franz] Foerster [Harvard Ph.D., 1909], and Messrs. Sharfman [not included in ex-post staffing report in President’s Report] and [Alfred Burpee] Balcom [Harvard A.M. (1909), S.B. Acadia (1907), Nova Scotia].

[Economics] 18b ²hf. Banking and Foreign Exchange. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day [Harvard Ph.D., 1909].

[Economics] 12 ¹hf. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day [Harvard Ph.D., 1909].

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Memorandum regarding Economics 1

The professor in charge lectures twice a week. For the third hour the men are divided into sections, conducted on the familiar plan. Every Thursday afternoon, throughout the year, I meet the section instructors and discuss the work of the week with them. Questions to be asked at the section meetings are proposed by the instructors, are approved, vetoed, or modified, by myself. Usually we come to an understanding as to the topics to be discussed in the sections after the papers have been written. Not infrequently we arrange for diagrams or figures to be used, identically in all the sections; these touching points which it is desired to make clear. Immediately after the mid-year and final examinations I always meet the instructors and we read a batch of blue books together; we compare our grades, questions by questions, and try to make sure that the same standard is applied in all cases. My experience is that there is substantial uniformity in the grading.

Some of my instructors, who have charge of large numbers in their own courses, have readers to assist them in the examination of the weekly papers. Dr. Day reports as follows concerning the weekly papers in his sections: “I always instruct the “reader” as to exactly what is expected in answer to the question assigned. Students are encouraged to refer to me any cases of grading where injustice seems to have been done and, where such cases disclose any error or inaccuracy in the grading, the matter is carefully reviewed with the reader.” I may add that Dr. Day reports that he personally grades all the papers both in Economics 12 and 8b.

__________________

Courses of Thomas Nixon Carver

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 3. Principles of Sociology.—Theories of Social Progress. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 1.30. Professor Carver and an assistant [Lucius Moody Bristol listed in President’s Report 1910-11 as the course teaching assistant].

[Economics] 14a ¹hf. The Distribution of Wealth. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Thu., at 1.30.Professor Carver.

[Economics] 14b ²hf. Methods of Social Reform.—Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Thu., at 1.30. Professor Carver.
Open only to those who have passed satisfactorily in Economics 14a.

Information about the teaching assistant actually named by Carver

Harvard A.M. (1911), but no Harvard Ph.D.

Philip Benjamin Kennedy received his A.M. from Harvard in 1911; A.B. Beloit (Wis.) 1905; Litt.B. Occidental (Cal.) 1906.

Source: Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University 1636-1915.p. 574.

Additional biographical information.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dear Taussig:

In Economics 3 the class is divided into two sections for Friday conferences. Mr. Kennedy, the assistant, takes one section and I take the other, but we alternate. Each section has a fifteen-minute paper on the day when Mr. Kennedy has it. There is no paper in the section meeting when I conduct it.

As to blue book reading, etc., I do not read any of the Friday papers. I read hour and final examination papers only in those cases where Mr. Kennedy gives and A or an E, where he is doubtful, and where the student is dissatisfied with his mark. Then, too, I always read the paper for any student who asks me to. Mr. Kennedy and I go over all the grades together and make up the final return.

In Economics 14a and 14b, there are no section meetings. The blue books are marked and the term averages made out in the same way as in Economics 3.

Sincerely yours,
[signed]
T. N. Carver
[initials: O.H.]

Professor Taussig.

__________________

William Morse Cole’s Accounting Course

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 18. Principles of Accounting. Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Asst. Professor Cole and an assistant [Messrs. Johnson and Platt].
Course 18 is not open to students before their last year of undergraduate work. For men completing their work at the end of the first half-year, it may be counted, with the consent of the instructor, as a half-course.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 23, 1911

Dear Professor Taussig

With regard to the supervision of assistants’ work in Economics 18, I have to report as follows:

There are no section meetings in charge of assistants, though if competent assistants were available I might have such work done. The work of my chief assistant is reading short papers written in the classroom and reading outside written work and blue-books. I have attempted to keep a uniform standard where several men have been reading for me at once by having a bunch of papers read by all the readers and then by me in their presence for comparison and comment. Even then there has been some variation and I have sometimes myself reread all questions where variation seemed most likely to occur. For that reason, I have this year had all reading of short papers and blue-books done by one man, who has shown himself of unusually sound judgment. I have been over all short papers with him, and read after him a bunch of mid-year books—-after I had been through several books with him. In all cases where a few points would affect a man’s grade I have personally examined the blue-book in confirmation of my assistant’s judgment. This is his third year of work for me, and I have very great confidence in him, for after innumerable checks on his work I have never found it erring more than human frailty is bound to err.

His other work has been of two parts: assisting me occasionally in the voluntary conferences which I offer weekly for assistance to men who cannot keep the pace that I set for the class work as a whole (on the principle that the quick men should not be required to attend three meetings a week if the third is necessary only for those who do not take naturally to this sort of thing); and holding required conferences with thesis writers, and reading theses. I have not had much check on the conference work and the reading of theses, for two reasons: the theses are on reports of corporations, and since no man can be familiar with the annual reports of many score of such corporations, he can not determine omissions of facts (since there is no uniformity), but only the application of certain fundamental principles, which I know that my assistants are familiar with; the theses are written merely to give the men practice in reading between the lines of actual reports, and the result of that practice shows not only in the theses themselves but in all a man’s work, especially in the final examination, so that the reading of the thesis is done rather to determine whether a man has used the opportunity afforded him for practice, than to determine how much good he has got out of it—-for the amount of good is reflected in many ways, and to pass judgment on the correctness of the conclusions drawn in each particular thesis would require that the judge should have devoted long study to the reports with which the thesis is concerned.

The reading of theses, and the conference work in connection with them, is done by four or five assistants.

With the additional funds allowed by the contribution of the visiting committee, I shall have more short papers done in the third-hour meetings and shall make attendance required for men whose work shows that they need it.

Sincerely yours
[signed]
William Morse Cole

__________________

Economic history courses of Edwin F. Gay

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

Economics 6a. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Fall term, 1910-11 taught by Professor Edwin Francis Gay, assisted by Julius Klein.

Economics 6b. Economic and Financial History of the United States. Spring term, 1910-11 taught by Professor Edwin Francis Gay, assisted by Julius Klein.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Office of the Dean

Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 4, 1911

Dear Taussig:

I have assistance, as you know, in only one course, 6a and 6b. In this course as I have run it this year a half-hour test on reading is given every fortnight and a thesis is written. The reading of the papers for the half-hour test is left almost entirely in the hands of the Assistant. When I am breaking in a new man I usually look over some of the papers at the beginning to see that he gets the proper idea in regard to grading. He holds a series of conferences with the students in regard to their theses, referring them in cases of difficulty to me. The Assistant reads the theses but I myself make it a point to read them all in addition, since it is very difficult to grade these properly. The Assistant reads the final blue books in the course but I myself sample the final blue books and in all doubtful cases read the final blue book in addition to the thesis.

I think this answer the points raised by your question.

Very truly yours,
[signed]
Edwin F. Gay.

Professor F. W. Taussig

__________________

Public Finance Course of Charles Bullock

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 7 ²hf. Public Finance, considered with special reference to the Theory and Methods of Taxation. Half-course (second half-year) Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Professor Bullock and an assistant.

[Note: in the ex post staffing report in the President’s Report the instructor is listed as Dr. [Charles Phillips] Huse [Harvard Ph.D., 1907], assisted by Wilfred Eldred (Harvard Ph.D. 1919) and Roscoe Russell Hess (Harvard A.B. (1911) magna cum laude)]

Possible Harvard Undergraduate as a teaching assistant

Roscoe Russell Hess [I am guessing this was the teaching assistant in the public finance course]

Source: Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University 1636-1915.p. 449.

Bowdoin Prizes for dissertations in English for undergraduates: first prize of $250, Roscoe Russell Hess ’11, of Seattle, Wash., on “The Paper Industry and Its Relation to the Conservation and the Tariff”

Source: Harvard Crimson, May 17, 1911.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 7, 1911

My dear Taussig:

My arrangements with the assistants in Economics 7 are substantially as follows:

I meet with them on Wednesday at 3.30 and go over with them fully the work for the conferences on Friday and Saturday. We first select questions for the paper that we set the men at the sections, aiming of course to make the questions given the different sections a nearly as possible of equal difficulty. I also go over the subjects treated in the assigned reading for the week and indicate the points which I think the assistants would better emphasize in the oral discussion in the sections.

During the early part of the half-year I also meet the assistants each week to confer with them about the marking of the weekly papers. The method that we follow is to read together several papers in each of the divisions, discussing the proper marks to be assigned to the papers until we find that we have come to substantial agreement.

I think in general you can say that the method followed in 7 is substantially like the method followed in Economics 1.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
C. J. Bullock
[initials: O. H.]

Professor Taussig

__________________

Labor and Transportation Courses taught by W. Z. Ripley

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

[Economics] 5 ¹hf. Economics of Transportation. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Thu., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 10. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Whitnack.

[Economics] 9a ¹hf. Problems of Labor. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Thu., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 1.30. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Whitnack.

Teaching assistant Whitnack probably never awarded Ph.D. from Harvard

According to the Quinquennial catalogue, Ralph C. Whitnack did receive an A.M. from Harvard in 1911. Ralph Cahoon Whitnack, formerly Ralph Cahoon Whitenack; A.B. Brown 1906; Prof. Pol. Eco., Keio Univ. (Japan) 1914-.

Source: Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates of Harvard University 1636-1915.p. 574.

Whitnack’s dissertation listed being “in progress” in 1915

Doctoral dissertation “Social stratification” in progress listed in the AER list of doctoral dissertations in progress American Economic Review, Vol. 5, No. 2 (June 1915), p. 477.

Whitnack’s death in 1919

Professor Ralph Cahoon Whitnack, formerly professor of economics at Keio University, Tokio, died April 14, 1919. At the time of his death Professor Whitnack was serving as joint revenue commissioner for the native state of Baroda, India. He had direct jurisdiction over the departments of excise and customs, agriculture and cooperative credit. During 1918 and until his death he was price controller and director of civil supplies.

Source: Notes in American Economic Review, Vol. 9, No. 4 (December 1919), p. 946.

* * * * * * *

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
E. F. Gay
W. M. Cole
O. M. W. Sprague

Cambridge, Massachusetts
24 February 1911.

Dear Professor Taussig,–

I have pleasure, in accordance with your note of even date, and in the absence of Professor Ripley, in submitting the following memorandum concerning the relations between instructor, assistant and students in Economics 5 and 9a.

The weekly section meetings are held under the direction of the assistant, after conference in each case between the assistant and instructor as to the issues to be discussed and general methods pursued.

Conferences concerning theses are held concurrently by the instructor and assistant at advertised hours. Each student is required to confer at least once with either instructor or assistant before handing in thesis.

The instructor has three hours per week, and the assistant one or more as required, for general conference with students who seek it.

The correction of weekly papers is done by the assistant.

The correction and grading of hour examinations, theses and blue books is done by the assistant under the supervision and in conference with the instructor. In particular all grades of E, A and D are scrutinized by the instructor, who goes over the blue-books and theses and assigns finalgrades in consultation with the assistant.

Very sincerely yours,
R. C. Whitnack
Austin J. Fellow: Ec. 5 and 9a.

__________________

Source for the memoranda:

Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers, 1909-1914. Box 15, Folder 413 “1909-14”.

Source for course listings information:

Harvard University. Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the Academic Year 1910-11.

Source for ex post staffing of courses:

Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, pp. 48ff.

Source for Harvard economics Ph.D.’s:

Economics in the Rear-view Mirror’s page “Harvard. Doctoral Dissertations in Economics, 1875-1926”.

Image Source: Harvard University #2, Cambridge, Mass, c1910. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Tags Balcom, Bristol, Bullock, Carver, ColeWM, Day, Eldred, Foerster, Gay, Huse, KennedyPB, KleinJulius, Ripley, Sharfman, Taussig, Whitnack

Courses Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Harvard. Pre-Radcliffe economics instruction for women, 1879-1893

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2017-12-03

Before there was a Radcliffe College, there was “A Society for the Private Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and other Instructors of Harvard College”. Below are excerpts mostly relating to political economy and economics courses from the fourteen reports that preceeded the official establishment of Radcliffe College in 1893/94. I have highlighted the economics references but definitely recommend reading the other text as well. For several years early on enrollments in economics were actually zero. By 1892 seventeen women were enrolled in the introductory economics course. The course descriptions get more detailed in the last half-dozen or so reports.

________________________

REPORT OF THE WORK OF THE FIRST YEAR.
[1879-80]

The Managers of the plan for the Private Collegiate Instruction for Women by Professors and other Instructors of Harvard College take pleasure in making the following Report to the supporters of the undertaking. Funds amounting to more than sixteen thousand dollars were subscribed, by a small number of persons payable at various times within four years from the beginning of the work, according to the needs of the Managers. The Report of the Treasurer, given below, shows the sums paid in, and the mode of their expenditure during the year. The movement was first brought to public notice by a circular issued February 22, 1879. The requisites for admission to the courses of instruction were published in a second circular, issued April 19, and the first examination was held at Cambridge, September 24-27, after which the classes began to receive instruction immediately. Twenty-seven ladies began the year, one of whom soon after left to study abroad, and another withdrew on account of the difficulty of coming to Cambridge regularly while living in another town. The remaining twenty-five continued through the year. At the examination four ladies were examined on a preparatory course the same as that required for admission to college, one on a course akin to that of the Women’s Examination and the remainder in one or more branches. Three began a regular course, the studies taken being the same as those of a first year’s course in college. Another began a four years’ course of advanced studies. The others were special students, of whom thirteen took one study, four took two, and four took four.

Of the different departments of study,

Greek was taken by 6;
Latin by 9;
Sanskrit by 1;
English by 5;
German by 5;
French by 6;
Philosophy by 4;
Political Economy by 6;
History by 4;
Music by 1;
Mathematics by 7;
Physics by 3;
Botany by 5.

In Greek, three read Lysias, Plato, and Homer with Mr. L. B. R. Briggs.

One studied Greek Composition and Written Translation with Mr. White.

Two read the Agamemnon and Eumenides of Aeschylus, and Thucydides with Mr Goodwin.

In Latin, five read Livy and the Odes of Horace with Mr. Hale.

Three studied Latin Composition and Translation at Sight with Mr. Gould.

Two read Pliny’s Letters and Tacitus with Mr. Lane.

In Sanskrit, one studied with Mr. Greenough.

In English, four studied Composition with Mr. Hill.

In German, four took the elementary course with Mr. Bartlett.

One studied German Composition and Oral Exercises, and German Literature from Luther to Lessing, with Mr. Sheldon.

Two studied Goethe and German Literature of the XIX. Century with Mr. Bartlett.

In French, three took Mr. Bôcher’s course in La Fontaine, Racine, Taine, and Alfred de Musset.

Two studied the Literature of the XIX. Century with Mr. Jacquinot.

In Philosophy, three studied Metaphysics and Logic with Mr. Palmer.

In Political Economy, six studied with Mr. [James Laurence] Laughlin.

In History, one studied the period of the Revival of Learning and the Reformation with Mr. Emerton.

Two studied the period of the French Revolution with Mr. Bendelari.

In Music, one studied Harmony and Counterpoint with Mr. Paine.

In Mathematics, two studied Solid Geometry, Plane Trigonometry, and Advanced Algebra with Mr. G. R. Briggs.

Three studied Analytical Geometry with Mr. Byerly.

Two studied the Differential and Integral Calculus with Mr. J. M. Peirce.

One received instruction from Mr. Benjamin Peirce in Quaternions.

In Physics, three studied Descriptive Physics, — Mechanics, Light, and Heat with Mr. Willson.

In Natural History, three received Laboratory Instruction in the Microscopic Anatomy, Physiology, and Development of Plants with Mr. Goodale.

Regular examinations were held in the middle and at the end of the year, which were passed by the students with credit.

Recitation rooms were rented in two private houses on Appian Way, and there was also provided a separate apartment for the convenience of students who need a place where they can spend the intervals between recitations. Here some of the instructors have left books of reference from time to time. The students have been encouraged to make free use of this room. Blackboards, tables, etc., have been provided for there citation rooms

During the year the Secretary has kept a list of the names of those private families in which students could find board and lodging. On this list only such names were recorded as were approved by the Managers.

There has been no difficulty in finding comfortable and suitable homes for those students who were not provided for by their friends.

There are now forty-two ladies in the following classes:—

In Greek,	4 classes, and	18 students.
In Latin,	4 classes, and	15 students.
In English,	2 classes, and	10 students.
In German,	3 classes, and	10 students.
In French,	1 class, and	2 students.
In Italian,	1 class, and	2 students.
In Philosophy,	2 classes, and	8 students.
In Pol. Econ’y,	1 class, and	1 student.
In History,	3 classes, and	8 students.
In Mathematics,	4 classes, and	10 students.
In Physics,	1 class, and	4 students.
In Botany,	1 class, and	2 students.
In Astronomy,	2 classes, and	3 students.

The twenty-nine classes are taught by seven Professors, four Assistant Professors and twelve Instructors.

Ten ladies are pursuing the regular course of four years. Of the remainder, twenty-one take one course, seven take two curses, and four take four courses.

ARTHUR GILMAN,
Secretary.

Cambridge, Nov. 10, 1880

Source: Private Collegiate Instruction for Women in Cambridge, Mass. Courses of Study for 1880-81, with Requisitions for Admission and Report of the First Year. Cambridge, Mass.: William H. Wheeler, 1880. Pages 12-15.

________________________

Courses of Study for the Year 1880-1881

Two hours of instruction a week will be given in all courses not otherwise designated.

VIII. POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Principles of Political Economy. Financial Legislation of the United States. Mr. Laughlin
Advanced Course. Cairnes’ Leading Principles of Political Economy. Blanqui’s History of Political Economy. Mr. Laughlin

________________________

WORK OF THE SECOND YEAR
[1880-81]

During the second year of the operation of the plan for the Private Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and other Instructors of Harvard College, forty-seven ladies were connected with the classes.

Numbers in the Classes.

The following table exhibits the numbers in the different classes: —

In Greek,	4 classes, and	21 students.
In Latin,	4 classes, and	17 students.
In English,	2 classes, and	9 students.
In German,	3 classes, and	11 students.
In French,	1 class, and	2 students.
In Italian,	1 class, and	2 students.
In Philosophy,	2 classes, and	9 students.
In Pol. Econ’y,	1 class, and	1 student.
In History,	3 classes, and	12 students.
In Mathematics,	4 classes, and	11 students.
In Physics,	1 class, and	5 students.
In Botany,	1 class, and	2 students.
In Astronomy,	2 classes, and	4 students.

The twenty-nine classes were taught by eight Professors, three Assistant-Professors and twelve Instructors of Harvard College, and the instruction given is a repetition of that of the College in the different departments.

Work in the Class Room.

There were four classes in Greek. Three ladies read in Aeschylus, Pindar and Aristotle with Mr. Goodwin.

Three studied Greek Composition and Written Translation at Sight with Mr. White.

Four read from Plato (Phaedo), Sophocles (Ajax) and Euripides (Medea) with Mr. Wheeler.

Ten read Plato’s Apology and Crito, and Homer’s Odyssey with Mr. Briggs.

The Latin classes were the following: – Mr. Lane had three in Pliny’s Letters, Horace, Plautus and Cicero.

Mr. J.H. Wheeler had three in Composition and Translation at Sight.

Mr. Greenough had three in Cicero’s Epistles, Terence and the Epistles of Horace.

Mr. Gould had nine in the Odes and Epodes of Horace, Cicero de Amicitia and Composition.

In English, Mr. Hill had four in Composition and five in Literature.

In German, Mr. Bartlett had three in Parzival and other mediaeval poems, and five in Elementary German.

Mr. Sheldon had three in the Romantic School, Lyric Poetry and the practice of writing German.

In French Mr. Jacquinot had two in the study of French Prose.

In Italian, two took the elementary course under Mr. Bendelari.

In Philosophy, Mr. Palmer had six in Metaphysics and Logic and three in the study of Locke, Berkeley and Hume.

In Political Economy, Mr. [James Laurence] Laughlin gave the advance course to one student who had begun the study the previous year.

In History, Mr. Emerton had three in the European History of the Middle Ages.

Mr. MacVane had one in the Mediaeval and Modern History of France and England, who had begun the previous year.

Mr. Young had eight in an Introduction to the Study of History. This was a course of lectures begun by Mr. Emerton, but resigned to Mr. Young on account of an unexpected pressure of other work.

In Mathematics, Mr. Peirce had one student in Quaternions.

Mr. Byerly had two in the Differential Calculus.

Mr. H.N. Wheeler had two in Analytic Geometry.

Mr. Briggs had six in Solid Geometry, Plan Trigonometry and Algebra.

In Physics, Mr. Willson had five in Descriptive Physics, — Mechanics, Light and Heat.

In Botany, Mr. Goodale had four in Laboratory Instruction in the Microscopic Anatomy, Physiology and Development of Plants.

In Astronomy, Mr. Waldo had two students in Descriptive and Practical Astronomy.

Readings and Lectures.

The Calendar of the University has been regularly posted upon our bulletin-board, and the students thus notified of the Lectures by the Professors, and the Readings from classical authors, to which they were privileged to go. A number of them have been present at the readings by Professor Child from Chaucer, at the lectures of Professor Lanman on the Veda, and at the Greek readings of Professors Goodwin, White, and Palmer, and of Mr. Dyer and Mr. Briggs. The performance of the Oedipus Tyrannus in Sanders Theatre was an extraordinary opportunity for becoming acquainted with a phase of Greek literature and life which was of as great advantage to the young ladies as to the students of the University.

Courses Offered but not Called For.

A comparison of the studies actually pursued by the young ladies and the electives offered in the circular at the beginning of the year shows that thirty-one courses of instruction, offered by twenty-three instructors, were not called for by actual students. Though some of the present students will take some of these courses at other stages of their progress, the comparison seems to indicate on the part of women seeking the higher education a tendency towards the traditional classical curriculum and not towards science, and that the preparatory schools offer advantages for obtaining a knowledge of French and Italian sufficient for most women. All the courses in Greek were taken.

The following list shows the courses not called for:—

LATIN. Latin Poetical Literature, Lectures on the Latin Poets. MR. SMITH. – Cicero, Lucretius and Seneca. MR. GOULD.

SANSKRIT and Comparative Philology. MR GREENOUGH.

ENGLISH. Milton. Lectures on English Literature. MR. PERRY. – Elocution. MR. TICKNOR.

GERMAN. Niebelungenlied or Gudrun. Selections from Goethe or Schiller. MR. LUTZ. — German Literature (Goethe, Schiller and Jean Paul). DR. HEDGE.

FRENCH. Elementary Course. French Prose. MR. JACQUINOT. – Romance Philology. MR. SHELDON and MR. BENDELARI.

ITALIAN. Elementary Course. MR. BENDELARI. — Dante. MR. NORTON.

SPANISH. Course by MR. BENDELARI.

PHILOSOPHY. Psychology. DR. JAMES. – German Philosophy (Critical Study of Kant, Hegel or Schopenhauer). DR. EVERETT. – Ethics. DR. PEABODY. – Advanced Logic. DR. PEABODY.

POLITICAL ECONOMY. Principles. Financial Legislation of the United States. MR. [James Laurence] LAUGHLIN.

HISTORY. The French Revolution. MR. BENDELARI. – The First Ten Christian Centuries or Catholic Civilization of the Middle Ages. Mr. ALLEN.

MUSIC. Harmony and Counterpoint. History of Music. The Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and their successors. (Three distinct courses.) MR. PAINE.

MATHEMATICS. Cosmical Physics. Prof. BENJAMIN PEIRCE.

PHYSICS. Experimental Physics. (Mayer’s Treatise on Light and Sound.) MR. TROWBRIDGE.

MINERALOGY. Crystallography. Mineralogy. MR. MELVILLE.

NATURAL HISTORY. Physical Geography, Structural Geology and Meteorology. MR. DAVIS. – Elementary Botany. Under direction of MR. GOODALE. – Zoology. Lectures by MR. MARK. – Laboratory Work in the Anatomy and Histology of Animals. MR. MARK

[…]

The Future.

The Managers do not make prognostications regarding the future. Their simple purpose from the beginning has been to try the experiment of offering to women advantages that had previously been given to men only. They have in no way endeavored to attract students, but have merely proposed to supply the demands made upon them by duplicating the courses of instruction given in the College. Their success has been beyond their expectations. They have proved that there exists in the community a class of women capable of taking this grade of instruction, and requiring it. The co-operation of the Instructors of the College has been so cheerfully rendered and their work so carefully done that nothing is left to be desired in that direction.

The students have conducted themselves in a manner so exemplary and in all respects satisfactory, notwithstanding the almost entire freedom to which they have been left, that they have rendered the work of both Managers and Instructors pleasant, and have prepared the public to support the movement with heartiness.

The preparatory schools find that there is an increase in the number of young women taking the classical course, and they will soon become more effectual feeders to our classes. The prospect seems to be that the number of students entering for the course of four years will regularly increase, but a rapid augmentation of numbers can hardly be expected.

The Managers raised funds at the beginning of their work, sufficient, in their opinion, to carry it forward four years. Two of those have passed and the funds have not been drawn upon to so great an extent as was anticipated. It may be that the work can be continued for six years, but at the end of that time the Managers will consider that their work has been accomplished.

If, at that time, it appears that it is desirable to make the work permanent, the responsibility will be laid upon the public. Large funds will be required, and the Managers doubt not that they will be contributed.

The endowment at Cambridge of an Institution for Women of the high grade that the Managers have in view would be an honor to women, and women will be found ready to make it sure.

ARTHUR GILMAN.
Secretary

Cambridge, Mass.
December 10, 1881.

Source: Private Collegiate Instruction for Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Second Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary. Cambridge, Mass.: William H. Wheeler, 1881. Pages 3-6, 10.

________________________

THE SOCIETY FOR THE COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION OF WOMEN.
THIRD YEAR.
[1881-82]

The year that has just closed marks an era in the history of the instruction of women by the Professors and other Instructors of Harvard College, for during it the. Managers have obtained a Charter under the seal of the State of Massachusetts, and a legal name, “The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women.”

The Charter states the objects of the organization to be to promote the education of women with the assistance of the Instructors in, Harvard University, “and for this purpose it empowers the Society to “employ teachers, furnish instruction, give aid to deserving students, procure and hold books, suitable apparatus ,and lands and buildings for the accommodation of officers, teachers and students,” to “perform all acts appropriate to the main purpose of the Association.” and to transfer “the whole or any part of its funds or property to the President and Fellows of Harvard College,” whenever the same can be so done as to advance the purpose for which the Society is chartered, in a manner satisfactory to the Association.

The Charter is ample for the present needs of the Society, and places it in a position to receive funds and to hold and administer them legally for the purposes of the collegiate instruction of women. It makes it practicable for the Society to raise a proper endowment to establish the work upon a permanent basis, and it seems that the moment has arrived when the contribution of an adequate fund will found an institution that will give women advantages in Cambridge equal to those enjoyed from time immemorial by their more favored brothers. The students are here in considerable numbers, and they are properly prepared for the instruction that is offered for them. Others are now passing through preparatory courses with the intention of coming here, and there is a prospect that the classes will be kept up year by year by a succession of earnest women who will go out to raise the average of intelligence throughout various portions of the land.

It may be said with some confidence that a fund of one-tenth the size of that represented by the property and endowments of Harvard University, contributed to this Society now, will give women greater privileges than are within their reach in America, and will make them permanent.

The Society not Creating, but Satisfying a Demand.

It is not the purpose of the Society to stimulate a demand for the education that it offers. Its directors have never held the doctrine that it is the duty of every young woman to pass through a regular course of study such as is represented by the four years’ course of the candidates for the Bachelor’s degree in College. It is their wish simply to offer to women advantages for this highest instruction, and to admit to the privileges of the Society any who may actually need them.

The teachers of America are to a large degree women, and it is desirable that all women who select this profession should be as well prepared to perform its duties as the men are who are engaged in similar work. But it is not teachers only who wish the highest cultivation of the mental powers. Many women study with us for the sake of the general addition to their knowledge. It is not demanded that every man who takes a collegiate course shall become a teacher, and more must not be expected of women.

Numbers of Students in the Different Classes.

Department	No. of Classes.	No. of Students.
Greek	4	23
Latin	4	16
English	4	25
German	4	14
French	2	4
Italian	1	1
Fine Arts	1	1
History	2	11
Mathematics	4	12
Physics	1	3
Botany	1	5

[…]

Courses Offered but not Taken

Latin. One course offered was not called for.
Sanskrit. Two courses.
English. One course.
French. Two courses.
Italian. One course.
Spanish. One course.
Philosophy. One course.
Political Economy. Two courses.
History. Three courses.
Fine Arts. One course.
Music. Three courses.
Astronomy. Two courses.
Mineralogy. Two courses.
Physical Geography. One course.
Meteorology. One course.
Botany. One course.
Zoology. Two courses. (One of Lectures and one of Laboratory Work.)

It appears that twenty-eight courses were given during the year, and twenty-seven that were offered were not given. This shows that the courses offered are for the present beyond the immediate demand for any one year, but, as the demand varies from year to year, with the progress of the different classes and the differing tastes and needs, of the students, the list of electives cannot be curtailed to advantage.

It will be seen that the managers have endeavored to use a liberal discretion in the application of the privilege reserved to them, of withholding any course not applied for by three properly prepared candidates. They have waived the rule in the case of any student whose stage of progress made any special course a necessity for her during the year. It must at times happen that the highest courses will be applied for by small numbers, and in such cases the rule must be occasionally waived, or the most advanced students discouraged.

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Third Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary. Cambridge, Mass.: William H. Wheeler, 1882. Pages 3-5 ,7-8.

________________________

From Fifth Year [1883-84] Annual Report

Department	No. of Classes.		No. of Students
	1882-83.	1883-84.	1882-83.	1883-84.
Sanskrit	0	1	0	1
Greek	5	6	23	43
Latin	4	4	22	27
English	3	4	15	38
German	3	3	14	18
French	1	1	4	5
Philosophy	1	2	5	11
Music	0	1	0	3
History	3	2	9	12
Mathematics	2	2	11	10
Physics	1	1	8	5
Astronomy	2	0	4	0
Botany	2	1	5	9
Totals	27	28	120	182

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Fifth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1884. p. 9.

________________________

From Sixth Year [1884-85] Annual Report

Department	No. of Classes. 1884-85.	No. of Students. 1884-85.
Greek	4	25
Latin	5	31
English	4	59
German	3	16
French	2	12
Philosophy	3	16
Political Economy	1	9
History	4	20
Mathematics	3	16
Physics	1	6
Zoology	1	4
Totals	31	214

[…]

Political Economy.

Nine heard lectures from Professor [James Laurence] Laughlin on Banking and on Finance, and studied under him Mill’s Principles of Political Economy.

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Sixth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1885, p. 9, 11

_______________________

From Seventh Year [1885-86] Annual Report
November 16, 1886

[…]

Political Economy.

Professor [James Laurence] Laughlin. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. Lectures on Banking and the Financial Legislation of the United States.—6 [students].

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Seventh Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1886, p. 12

________________________

From Eighth Year [1886-87] Annual Report
October 25, 1887

[…]

Political Economy.

Professor [James Laurence] Laughlin. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. Lectures.—7 [students].

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Eighth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1887, p. 11.

________________________

From Ninth Year [1887-88] Annual Report
November 5, 1888

[…]

Political Economy.

Professor [James Laurence] Laughlin and Mr. Coggeshall. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy. Dunbar’s Chapters on Banking. Lectures on Money, Finance, Labor and Capital, Coöperation, Socialism and Taxation.—5 [students].

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Ninth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1888, p. 18.

________________________

From Tenth Year [1888-89] Annual Report
October 29, 1889

[…]

Political Economy.

Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Mr. [Francis Cleaveland] Huntington. 1^st half year. “Principles of Political Economy.” J. S. Mill (Laughlin’s Edition) Books I, II, III, and IV. Lectures on Co-operation (Mr. Taussig). 2^nd half year, “Some Leading Principles of Political Economy.” J. E. Cairnes. The whole book except Chapters 4 and 5 of Part I. “History of Bimetallism in the United States.” J. L. Laughlin.—7 students.

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Tenth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1889, p. 16.

________________________

From Eleventh Year [1889-90] Annual Report
October 28, 1890

[…]

Political Economy.

Mr. [Edward Campbell] Mason. First half year. Principles of Political Economy. J. S. Mill. Books I, II (omitting Chapters V-X), III (Chapters I-XVI). Second half-year. The working Principles of Political Economy, by S. M. Macvane. Chapters XXV XXVI. Principles of Political Economy. J. S. Mill. Books III (Chapters XVII, XVIII), V (Chapters I-VII). Some Leading Principles of Political Economy, by J. E. Cairnes. The whole book except Chapter 5, Part I.—5 students.

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Eleventh Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1890, p. 25.

________________________

From Twelfth Year [1890-91] Annual Report
October 27, 1891

[…]

Political Economy.

Mr. [Edward Campbell] Mason and Mr. [William Morse] Cole — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy: Book I; Book II, Chap. XI et seq; Book III, to chap. XXIV; Book IV, to chap. VII. Cairnes’s Some Leading Principles of Political Economy. Lectures: Socialism; Banking; Recent Financial History in U. S. During the first half year attention was given to the main principles of Political Economy. In the second half-year the object was to illustrate the application of principles dealt with in the first half-year, and to give general information on certain economic questions of practical importance. The work was mainly descriptive and historical and was carried on partly by lectures and partly by the discussion of the books mentioned above.—8 students.

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Twelfth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1891, p. 23.

________________________

From Thirteenth Year [1891-92] Annual Report
October 25, 1892

[…]

Political Economy.

(Primarily for Undergraduates.)

Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Mr. [William Morse] Cole. — Mill’s Principles of Political Economy: Production; Wages, Profits, Rent; Value; Money and Credit; International Trade; Progress of Society; Taxation. Cairnes’s Some Leading Principles of Political Economy. Lectures; Social Questions, Banking, Recent Financial History in the United States. During three-quarters of the year attention was given to the main principles of Political Economy. During the remainder of the year the work consisted of the application of principles and the description of some leading economic features of society. — 17 students.

(For Graduates and Undergraduates.)

Mr. [Edward] Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions.

An introductory course in sociology, intended to give a comprehensive view of the structure and development of society in relation to some of the more characteristic ethical and industrial tendencies of the present day.

The course began with a hypothetical consideration of the relation of the individual to society and to the State-with a view to pointing out some theoretical misconceptions and practical errors traceable to an illegitimate use of the fundamental analogies and metaphysical formulas found in Comte, Spencer, P. Leroy Beaulieu, Schaeffle, and other publicists.

The second part followed more in detail the ethical and economic growth of society. Beginning with the development of social instincts manifested in voluntary organization, it considered the genesis and theory of natural rights, the function of legislation, the sociological significance of the status of women and of the family and other institutions — with a view to tracing the evolution of certain types of society based upon a more or less complete recognition of the social ideals already considered.

The last part dealt with certain tendencies of the modern state, discussing especially the province and limits of state activity, with some comparison of the Anglo-Saxon and the continental theory and practice in regard to private initiative and state intervention in relation to public works, industrial development, philanthropy, education, labor organization, and the like.

Each student selected for special investigation some question closely related to the theoretical or practical aspects of the course; and a certain amount of systematic reading was expected. — 6 students.

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Thirteenth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1892, pp. 25-26.

________________________

From Fourteenth Year [1892-93] Annual Report
October 31, 1893

[…]

History

(Primarily for Graduates.)

Professors [William J.] Ashley and [Abert Bushnell] Hart.— Seminary in Economic and American History. The purpose of this research course was to train students in the use of sources, in the collection of material, and in reaching independent results on important questions. Each student had frequent conferences with one or other of the instructors; the general exercises were lectures on methods by the instructors, and papers prepared by the students as reports of their work. The subjects studied were Manumission in America; the early phases of the Anti-slavery movement; the Freedman’s Bureau; Serfdom in England; the Black Death; and the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. The students had the use of the Harvard College Library and of the various Boston libraries. — 6 students (1 graduate).

[…]

Economic [sic].

(Primarily for Undergraduates.)

Professor [William J.] Ashley and Mr. [William Morse] Cole. — The first half-year was devoted to a consideration of the main conceptions of Political Economy, and the work took the form of recitations based upon Mill’s Principles.
The class read the chapters on the functions of labor, capital and land and the laws governing their increase; on the distribution of produce among laborers, capitalists and landholders; on the exchange value, both domestic and international, of commodities; on the functions of money and the laws governing its value; on the influence of progress upon the production and distribution of wealth. The class-room work consisted of general informal discussion suggested by the chapters read, with the intent that the students should acquire facility in independent thinking upon economic subjects.
The second half-year was chiefly occupied by lectures on Socialism, Methods of Industrial Remuneration, Taxation, Protection, Banking and Currency. Students were required to read certain portions of Rae, Contemporary Socialism, Schloss, Methods of Industrial Remuneration, Dunbar, Banking, Taussig, Silver Situation, and other works. — 8 students.

Professor [William J.] Ashley. — The Economic History of Europe and America, down to the Eighteenth Century. This course of lectures and exercises dealt with the following topics, among others; the scope and purpose of economic history; the agricultural and industrial organization of the Roman Empire, — the villae and collegia; the tribal system of the Celts, Teutons, and Slavs; the problem of the origin of the manor; the manor in its complete form, and its subsequent transformation; the rise of commerce and industry, and the history of merchant gilds and craft gilds in relation thereto; the organization of international trade in the Middle Ages; the agricultural changes of the Sixteenth Century in England and elsewhere; the great trading companies; the woollen trade of England, and the domestic system of industry; the transition from English to American agrarian conditions. — 8 students.

(For Graduates and Undergraduates.)

Mr. [Edward] Cummings. — The Principles of Sociology. — Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. An introductory course in sociology, intended to give a comprehensive view of the structure and development of society in relation to some of the more characteristic ethical and industrial tendencies of the present day.
The course began with a hypothetical consideration of the relation of the individual to society and to the State — with a view to pointing out some theoretical misconceptions and practical errors traceable to an illegitimate use of the fundamental analogies and metaphysical formulas found in Comte, Spencer, P. Leroy Beaulieu, Schaeffle, and other publicists.
The second part followed more in detail the ethical and economic growth of society. Beginning with the development of social instincts manifested in voluntary organization, it considered the genesis and theory of natural rights, the function of legislation, the sociological significance of the status of women and of the family and other institutions — with a view to tracing the evolution of certain types of society based upon a more or less complete recognition of the social ideals already considered.
The last part dealt with certain tendencies of the modern state, discussing especially the province and limits of state activity, with some comparison of the Anglo-Saxon and the continental theory and practice in regard to private initiative and state intervention in relation to public works, industrial development, philanthropy, education, labor organization, and the like.
Each student selected for special investigation some question closely related to the theoretical or practical aspect of the course; and a certain amount of systematic reading was expected. — 3 students.

Source: The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women by Professors and Other Instructors of Harvard College. Fourteenth Year Reports of the Treasurer and Secretary, 1893, pp. 34-38.

Image Source: Fay House, Radcliffe College Archives W359459_1.

Tags Ashley, Coggeshall, ColeWM, CummingsEdward, Huntington, Laughlin, MasonEC, Taussig

Economists Harvard

Harvard. Graduates’ Magazine reports on Economics Dept. 1892-1904.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2016-01-19

The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine. Vol. 1, October, 1892, pp. 116-117.

ECONOMICS.

Ten years ago, the Department of Political Economy had one professor and one instructor, neither giving all of his time to the subject. At present, the Department of Economics has three professors and two instructors. The change in name, from Political Economy to Economics, indicates of itself an enlargement of the range of subjects. The number of courses offered has grown from two to a dozen, with a corresponding development in the variety of topics treated. The increase in the number of students is indicated by the fact that the first course, introductory to the rest, which was taken ten years ago by perhaps fifty students, now has over three hundred. This striking development is significant of the rapid increase in the attention given to economic problems by the public and by our institutions of learning. The staff now consists of Professors Dunbar, Taussig, and Ashley, and Messrs. Cummings and Cole. Professor Ashley enters upon his duties for the first time this autumn, his chair being a newly created one of Economic History. Professor Dunbar continues to edit the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which was established by the University in 1886 with the aid of a fund contributed by John Eliot Thayer, ’85, and which has an established position among the important periodicals on economic subjects. The Department has recently done service to economic students by a reprint, under Professor Dunbar’s care, of Cantillon’s Essai sur le Commerce, a rare volume of importance in the history of economic theory; and it has now in press a volume of State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff, meant to aid students of the tariff history of the United States. For its growth in the past the Department has depended wholly on the expenditure by the Corporation of unpledged resources. No doubt the increasing sense of the importance of economic study will in time change the situation in this regard, and will make this department as attractive for benefactors as those which are older and more familiar.

F. W. Taussig, 79.

_____________________________

ECONOMICS.

Prof. Taussig’s continued absence has occasioned some readjustment of work within the Department during the present year. Dr. A. P. Andrew has full charge of Course I, Dr. O. M. W. Sprague of Course 6, and Prof. T. N. Carver of Course 2, while Prof. Taussig’s course on Adam Smith and Ricardo has been combined with Dr. C. W. Mixter’s course on Selected Topics in the History of Economic Thought since Adam Smith. Prof. W. Z. Ripley, formerly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has accepted a professorship in our Department, and is giving Course 9 on Problems of Labor and Industrial Organization, the first half of Course 3, on the Principles of Sociology, the second half of Course 17, on the Economic Organization and Resources of European Countries, and Course 4, on the Theory and Method of Statistics. Dr. E. F. Gay, who has spent several years in Europe investigating in the field of economic history, has accepted an instructorship here, and is giving Courses 10 and 11, on the Economic History of Mediaeval and Modern Europe.

The interest in the work of the Department continues to grow. Economics I has 542 students, as compared with about 480 at this time last year. Mr. Wyman’s course (21), on The Principles of Law in their Application to Economic Problems, now contains over 60 students, as compared with 38 last year. Other courses show no great variation one way or the other, except Prof. Ripley’s course in Statistics. The interest which is being revived in this too much neglected field promises well for the future of economic studies in Harvard.

The change in the hour of Economics I from Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 9, to Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, at 11, was necessary in order to find a suitable room. This makes it possible for a larger number of Freshmen to elect the course, since it no longer conflicts with History I. Whether this is going to prove advantageous or not remains to be seen. At present the policy is to discourage Freshmen from electing this course. If there should be a considerable increase in the number of men who complete the college course in three years, it may be advisable to allow some of the more mature members of the Freshman Class to take Economics I. In that case it will be necessary to increase the number of courses which are somewhat general in their scope. Thus the course on Economic Theory (2) might be made somewhat less special than it now is, and a new course covering the general field of Practical Economics might be started. In this way the evils of too early specialization might be avoided. However, no definite policy has as yet been decided upon.

The Department has secured the use of Room 24, University Hall, as headquarters. In this room the mail of the Department and of the Quarterly Journal of Economics will be received, and the exchanges will be available for immediate inspection. This room has also been fitted up with drawing tables and other apparatus necessary for practical work in statistics. It is the purpose to make it a statistical laboratory.

The accounts of the Quarterly Journal of Economics are satisfactory, and the subscription list is making slow but substantial gains.

T. N. Carver.

_____________________________

The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine. Vol. 11, June, 1903, pp. 560-562.

ECONOMICS.

An interesting comparison between the allied departments of History and Economics is shown below on the basis of the number of students electing such courses. Some of the novel problems entailed by the rapid growth of the very large courses are now being considered by both departments. This rapid growth in large courses, coupled with the increase in the number of highly specialized courses, is bound to make necessary a constant increase in the instructing staff, if full justice to the work is to be done. Among the new courses offered for next year are the following: Economics of Agriculture, by Prof. Carver; Corporation Finance, by Prof. Ripley; Outlines of Agrarian History, by Prof. Gay; and American Competition in Europe since 1873 and The Indirect Activities of the State in Australasia and in Europe, by Mr. Meyer. A general revision of the methods of the Seminary is also under consideration, although plans in that direction are not as yet completed,

1902-3. STUDENTS IN ECONOMICS.

ECONOMICS.				HISTORY.
1^st half year				1^st half year
Econ.	5	60		Hist.	12a	93
“	7b	21		“	16a	151	244
“	8a	100		2^d half year
“	12a	10		Hist.	12b	79
“	10	16		“	16b	148
“	18	45	252	“	29	86	313
2^d half year				½ course thro yr.
Econ.	8b	152		Hist.	17	4	4
“	11b	19		Whole courses.
“	12b	43		Hist.	1	506
“	16	29	243	“	3	6
½ course thro yr.				“	4	7
Econ.	4	15	15	“	6	19
Whole courses.				“	8	8
Econ.	1	519		“	9	36
“	2	26		“	10	188
“	3	45		“	11	67
“	6	122		“	13	214
“	9	111		“	15	13
“	14	15		“	20d	3
“	17	9		“	20e	12
“	20	11		“	21	1
“	20a	5		“	25	3
“	21	60		“	26	11
“	22	6(?)		Hist. of Relig.	2	50	1144
				Deduct 50 given by another Faculty			1705
							1655
________________________________________
Whole courses			11	Whole courses			16
Half-courses		11	5 ½	Half-courses		6	3
			16 ½				19
Including 5 courses of over 100 students, of which 2 are half courses.				Including 5 courses of over 100 students, of which 2 are half courses.

A prompt response to suggestions made to the committee on instruction in economics of the Board of Overseers, as to the needs of the Department, has been made by Mr. Arthur T. Lyman in the shape of a gift of $500, to be expended in the preparation of charts, maps, and other illustrative material. The courses in general descriptive economics, it was felt, can be very greatly improved by the use of such material. Chart cases had already been installed in the new department headquarters, but this will enable the services of an expert draftsman for commencing the preparation of a suitable collection.

Among the other needs of the Department expressed at this meeting was that of an adding and computing machine for use in connection with the courses in Finance and Statistics. It was felt that the so-called “Burroughs Adder,” so generally in use in banking houses and statistical offices, could be utilized to great advantage in the prosecution of original work. The cost of such a machine is approximately $350. It is also to be hoped in the course of time that a collection of illustrative material other than maps may be commenced. This would include, for example, samples of the leading raw materials whose classification enters into tariff discussions and debates, photographs of social and industrial establishments, and other material of this sort. Such a collection, within moderate limits, along the lines of the Philadelphia Commercial Museums, has already been begun at Dartmouth, Ann Arbor, and other places. It should be kept in mind as a possible department at Cambridge.

_____________________________

The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine. Vol. 12, December, 1903, p. 246.

ECONOMICS.

Prof. Taussig has returned after an absence of two years, entirely restored in health. His resumption of work completes the working corps in the department, enabling it to offer its full list of announced courses. The number of graduate students is considerably increased over the preceding years, and there is every prospect of a successful resumption of the regular work in all lines.

The November number of The World’s Work contains the first of a noteworthy series of articles by Prof. Carver upon agricultural conditions in the West. Prof. Carver made a tour of some hundreds of miles on horseback during the summer, principally in the corn belt. It is his intention to supplement this tour by similar observations in other parts of the country in the coming years. This issue of The World’s Work forms distinctively a Harvard number, containing also an article on The Progress of Labor Organizations, by Prof. Ripley.

Among the new courses announced for this year are several by Prof. Bullock, one upon “The History and Literature of Economics,” with an additional research course entitled “Studies in American Finance.” Prof. Gay’s course upon ” The German Economists” last year met with so cordial a response that it has been expanded to a full course, covering the French as well as the German authorities. Mr. H. R. Meyer, having re- signed as an instructor, will continue as a lecturer, giving two courses upon “American Competition in Europe since 1873” and “The Industrial Activities of the State in Australasia and in Europe.”

W. Z. Ripley.

_____________________________

The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine. Vol. 13, December, 1904, p. 278.

ECONOMICS.

Economics 1 opens with an enrolment of 491 students, and is again the largest elective course in College. Government 1 is a close second, with 481 students; History 1 has 436. The numbers in Economics 1 are distinctly less than last year, which doubtless reflects the decline in attendance in the College at large. More than half of the total are Sophomores (255) ; the Juniors number 102, and the Freshmen 73. The resort to these three courses shows how strong is the trend to ward instruction in subjects connected with political life, and how great is the need for careful teaching and careful organization. Economics 1 continues to be conducted on the system which has been in use for some years past, and has been followed also in Government 1 and History 1. Two hours of lectures are given each week; for the third hour the course is divided into sections, in which there is a weekly examination, coupled with oral discussion of the subjects taken up during the week. Five assistant instructors conduct these sections, and the system seems to solve the problem of large courses satisfactorily.

In line with the policy adopted last year in the Department of paralleling the various undergraduate courses with advanced courses for graduate students, involving more or less research in each special field, Prof. Andrew is this year giving an advanced course upon the theories of crises, as a continuation of his larger course upon crises and cycles of trade.

An experiment intended to deal with the increasing difficulty of giving required reading to constantly enlarging classes will be tried in Economics 9b, through the publication of a casebook in economics similar to those in use in the Law School. The plan is to reprint official documents and detailed descriptions of particular phases of corporate economics, leaving to the lectures the task of supplying the connecting links and of tracing the development of the subject as an organic whole.

A valuable collection of charts of railway mortgages has recently been acquired through the generosity of graduates. These charts, prepared for the different railway systems, illustrate the exact character and situs of the securities. The collection of other charts and diagrams, made possible through the generosity of Mr. Arthur T. Lyman, is also making progress.

Source: See the listings for the Harvard Graduates’ Magazine at Hathitrust. These are some of the items found using the index for the first twenty volumes.

Tags AndrewAP, Ashley, Bullock, Carver, Cole, ColeWM, CummingsEdward, CummingsJohn, Cunningham, Dunbar, Gay, Hill, Macvane, MeyerHR, Mixter, Peabody, Ripley, Sprague, Taussig, Wambaugh, Willoughby, Wyman

HARVARD. ECONOMICS EXAMINATIONS, 1891-1892

Note to self: Still Missing for 1891-92.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Course Description and Enrollment.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

I. [Omit one.]

II. [Answer all, briefly.]

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Division A. Final Examination, 1892.

I. [Omit one.]

II. [Answer all.]

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Division B. Final Examination, 1892.

II.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. Mid-year Examination, 1892.

[Not yet found]

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 4. Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 4. Mid-year Examination, 1892.

[Not yet found]

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 4. Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 5. Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 5. Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 6. Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 6. Mid-year Examination, 1892.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 7. Course Description and Enrollment.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 7. Mid-year examination (first half-year), 1892.

[not yet found]

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 7. Final examination (second half-year), 1892.

A. Of these five questions one may be omitted.

B. Of these five questions one may be omitted.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 8. Course Description and Enrollment.

1891-92 POLITICAL ECONOMY 8. Final Examination, 1892.

Harvard University, in memoriam

Life of William Morse Cole in Dates

Life of William Morse Cole in Books

1890-1891. Philosophy 14.

Enrollment

PHILOSOPHY 14. THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS. Mid-year examination (1890-91)

PHILOSOPHY 14. THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS. Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.

Enrollment.

Student notes available at the Harvard Archives

1890-91. POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Mid-year examination.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1. Year-end examination (June 1891) Division A.

Division B.

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.

Enrollment.

Previously Posted

1890-91. POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Mid-year examination.

Second semester taught by John Graham Brooks.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2. Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.

Enrollment.

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 3. Mid-year examination

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.

Enrollment.

Other course material available at the Harvard Archives

Principle text for Political Economy 4

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 4. Mid-year examination

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 4. Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.

Enrollment.

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 6. Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.

Enrollment.

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 7. Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.

Enrollment.

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 8. Mid-year examination

1890-91 POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.

Enrollment.

1890-91. POLITICAL ECONOMY 9. Year-end examination (June 1891)

Taussig’s Cover Letter

HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Frank W. Taussig and Edmund Ezra Day’s Courses

From the Course Announcements, 1910-11

HARVARD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Courses of Thomas Nixon Carver

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Course Description and Enrollment.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

I.
[Omit one.]

II.
[Answer all, briefly.]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division A.
Final Examination, 1892.

I.
[Omit one.]

II.
[Answer all.]

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Division B.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-Year Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 5.
Final Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Course Description and Enrollment

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Mid-year Examination, 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Course Description and Enrollment.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Mid-year examination (first half-year), 1892.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Final examination (second half-year), 1892.

A.
Of these five questions one may be omitted.

B.
Of these five questions one may be omitted.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Course Description and Enrollment.

1891-92
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Final Examination, 1892.

PHILOSOPHY 14.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Mid-year examination (1890-91)

PHILOSOPHY 14.
THE ETHICS OF THE SOCIAL QUESTIONS.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Mid-year examination.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 1.
Year-end examination (June 1891)
Division A.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Mid-year examination.

POLITICAL ECONOMY 2.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 3.
Mid-year examination

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Mid-year examination

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 4.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 6.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 7.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 8.
Mid-year examination

1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.

1890-91.
POLITICAL ECONOMY 9.
Year-end examination (June 1891)

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

REPORT OF THE WORK OF THE FIRST YEAR.
[1879-80]

WORK OF THE SECOND YEAR
[1880-81]

THE SOCIETY FOR THE COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION OF WOMEN.
THIRD YEAR.
[1881-82]

From Seventh Year [1885-86] Annual Report
November 16, 1886

From Eighth Year [1886-87] Annual Report
October 25, 1887

From Ninth Year [1887-88] Annual Report
November 5, 1888

From Tenth Year [1888-89] Annual Report
October 29, 1889

From Eleventh Year [1889-90] Annual Report
October 28, 1890

From Twelfth Year [1890-91] Annual Report
October 27, 1891

From Thirteenth Year [1891-92] Annual Report
October 25, 1892

From Fourteenth Year [1892-93] Annual Report
October 31, 1893