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Chicago. Memos discussing guests to teach during summer quarter, 1927

 

 

Apparently the 1926 summer quarter course planning at the Chicago department of political economy in 1926 was so wild that the head of the department, Leon C. Marshall, decided to start the discussion for 1927 on the second day of Summer, 1926. Four of the seven colleagues responded with quite a few suggestions.

This post provides the first+middle names where needed in square brackets. Also links to webpages with further information about the suggested guests have been added.

______________________

Copy of memo from
Leon Carroll Marshall

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Department of Economics

Memorandum from L. C. Marshall. June 22, 1926

To: C. W. Wright, J. A. Field, H. A. Millis, J. Viner, L. W. Mints, P. H. Douglas, W. H. Spencer

We really must break through the morass we are in with respect to our summer quarter. Partly because of delayed action and partly because of an interminable debating society in such matters we finally get a patched up program which is not as attractive as it should be.

I shall proceed on the basis of the homely philosophy that the way to do something is to do something. I shall try to secure from every member of the group a statement of his best judgment concerning the appropriate course of action for the summer of 1927 and then move at once toward rounding out a program.

Won’t you be good enough to turn in to E57 within the next few days your suggestions and comments with respect to the following issues.

  1. Do you yourself expect to be in residence the summer quarter of 1927?
  2. If you do, what courses do you prefer to teach? Please list more than two courses placing all of the courses in your order of preference. In answering this question, please keep in mind the problem of guiding research. Should you offer a research course?
  3. What are your preferences with respect to hours? Please state them rather fully and give some alternatives so that a schedule may be pieced together.
  4. What courses or subject matter should we be certain to include in the summer of 1927?
  5. What men from outside do you recommend for these courses which we should be certain to include? Please rank them in the order of your preference.
  6. Quite aside from the subject matter which you have recommended above, what persons from the outside ought we try to make contact with if our funds permit? This gives an opportunity to aid in making up the personnel of the summer quarter in all fields.
  7. Please give any other comments or suggestions which occur to you.

Yours very sincerely,

LCM:G

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Response from
Jacob Viner

The University of Chicago
Department of Political Economy

July 1, 1926

Dear Mr. Marshall

I will want to offer 301 (Neo-class Ec.) & 353 (Int Ec. Pol) as usual next summer, though if we have a good outside theorist to give 301, I would like to give a course on Theory of Int Trade in addition to 353. I think we need someone especially in Banking, next in theory. Beyond these we should offer work in some of the following, if we can get first rankers: statistics, private finance, transportation, economic history of Europe & ec. Hist. of U.S.

I suggest the following from which selections could be made:

Banking

 Theory Statistics Transportation

Ec. Hist.
[Eugene E.]
Agger

 

[Benjamin Haggott] Beckhart

 

[Allyn Abbott]
A.A. Young

 

[Chester Arthur]
C. A. Phillips

 

[Oliver Mitchell Wentworth]
Sprague

 

[James Harvey] Rogers

 

[Ernest Minor] E.M. Patterson

 [Allyn Abbott]
Young

 

[Jacob Harry]
Hollander[Frank Hyneman] Knight

 

[Albert Benedict] Wolfe

 

[Herbert Joseph] Davenport

 [Henry Roscoe] Trumbower

 

[Homer Bews] Vanderblue

 [Melvin Moses] M.M. Knight

 

[Abbott Payson] A.P. Usher

As other possibilities I suggest [George Ernest] Barnett, [James Cummings] Bonbright, [Edward Dana] Durand, [Edwin Griswold] Nourse, [Sumner Huber] Slichter, John D. [Donald] Black, Holbrook Working, [Alvin Harvey] Hansen.

[signed]
J Viner

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Response from
Paul Howard Douglas

The University of Chicago
The School of Commerce and Administration

June 29, 1926

Professor L. C. Marshall
Faculty Exchange

Dear Mr. Marshall:

You have hit the nail on the head in your proposal to get under way for next summer, and I am very much pleased at your action. Answering your questions specifically may I say—

  1. That I do not expect to be in residence for the summer quarter of 1927.
  2. &3. Since I shall not be in residence no answers to these questions are, I take it, necessary.

 

  1. We should, I think, be certain to include adequate work in the following fields (a) Economic theory, (b) Monetary and banking theory, (c) Labor problems, (d) Statistics and quantitative economics, (e) Taxation and Public finance, (f) Economic history.
  2. As regards men from outside, I would recommend the following in each field: (a) Economic theory—[Herbert Joseph] H. J. Davenport, [John Rogers] J. R. Commons, [Frank Hyneman] F. H. Knight; (b) Monetary and banking theory—[Allyn Abbott] A. A. Young, [Oliver Mitchell Wentworth] O.M.W. Sprague, [James Waterhouse] James W. Angell; (c) Labor problems—Selig Perlman, Alvin [Harvey] H. Hansen; (d) Statistics and quantitative economics—[Frederick Cecil] F. C. Mills, [Robert Emmet] R. E. Chaddock, [William Leonard] W. L. Crum; (e) Taxation and public finance—[Harley Leist] H. L. Lutz, [William John] William J. Shultz; (f) Economic history—[Norbert Scott Brien] N. S. B. Gras.
  3. As people from outside to try for, might it not be possible to secure some one from England, such as [John Atkinson] John A. Hobson, Henry Clay, or [Dennis Holme] D. H. Robertson? Might it not also be possible to get Charles Rist from France or [Werner] Sombart from Germany?

Faithfully yours,
[signed]
Paul H. Douglas

P.S. The news that [Henry] Schultz and [Melchior] Palyi are to be with us next year is certainly welcome. Should we not let everyone know that they are coming, and should not a news note to this effect be sent on to the American Economic Review? [Handwritten note here: “Mr. Wright doing this”]

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Response from
Lloyd Wynn Mints

The University of Chicago
The School of Commerce and Administration

July 16, 1926

Memorandum to L. C. Marshall from L. W. Mints, concerning the work of the summer quarter, 1927.

  1. It is my present intention not to be in residence during the summer quarter, 1927, although I will be in the city, I suppose.
  2. It appears to me that we should attempt to get men from the outside who would represent some of the newer points of view rather than the orthodox fields. I should suppose that it would be desirable to have a man in statistics and, if he could be found, somebody to do something with quantitative economics. For the statistics I would suggest [William Leonard] Crum, [Frederick Cecil] Mills, [Frederick Robertson] Macaulay, [Willford Isbell] King, [Bruce D.] Mudgett, [Robert] Riegel. I am ignorant of the particular bents of some of the statistical men, but I should suppose that in quantitative economics [Holbrook] Working, [Alvin Harvey] Hansen, or [William Leonard] Crum might do something. Perhaps [Edmund Ezra] Day should be added to the men in Statistics.
    In economic history, as I remember it, we have had no outside help for a long time. I should like to see either [Noman Scott Brien] Gras or Max [Sylvius] Handman give some work here in the summer.
    Particular men who represent somewhat new points of view, and who might be had for the summer, I would suggest as follows: [Lionel Danforth] Edie, [Oswald Fred] Boucke, [Morris Albert] Copeland, [Sumner Huber] Slichter.
    In addition I should like very much to see either [Edwin Robert Anderson] Seligman or [John Rogers] Commons here for a summer.

[signed]
L.W.M.

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Response from
Harry Alvin Millis

Answers to questions re Summer Teaching, 1927

  1. Yes, I feel that I must teach next summer unless that plan you have been interested in goes through.
  2. 342 [The State in Relation to Labor] and 440 [Research].
  3. 342 at 8; 440 hour to be arranged.
  4. 5. 6.: Should get a better rounded program than we have had. Should have an outstanding man in economic theory and another in Finance. For the former I would mention [John] Maurice Clark, [John Rogers] Commons, and [Frank Hyneman] Knight—in order named. For the latter I would mention [Allyn Abbott] Young, [James Harvey] Rogers. If we can get the money I should like to see [George Ernest] Barnett brought on for statistics and a trade union course.

 

  1. Would it be possible to have a seminar which would bring together the outside men and some of the inside men and our mature graduate students—these hand-picked? It might be made very stimulating.

[Signed]
H. A. Millis

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

Response from
Chester Whitney Wright

The University of Chicago
The Department of Political Economy

Memorandum to Marshall from Wright

Summer 1927
First term some aspects of economic history
1:30 or 2:30
May have to teach the whole summer but hope I can confine it to first term.
Can teach any phases of subjects in any fields suitable for term.

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Response from
James Alfred Field

[No written answer in the folder: however L. C. Marshall noted that Field would not be teaching in the summer term of 1927]

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

Response from
William Homer Spencer

The University of Chicago
The School of Commerce and Administration
Office of the Dean

July 12, 1926

Mr. L. C. Marshall
The Department of Political Economy

My dear Mr. Marshall:

As Mr. [Garfield Vestal] Cox does not wish to teach during the Summer Quarter of 1927, I wish the Department of Political Economy would try to get Mr. [Edmund Ezra] Day of Wisconsin [sic, Michigan is correct] who could give both a course in statistics and a course in forecasting. Forecasting is not given this summer and unless we get someone from the outside to give it, I presume it will not be given next summer.

Why does not the Department of Political Economy for the coming summer get someone like Mr. [Leverett Samuel] Lyon to give an advanced course in economics of the market for graduate students? The Department of Political Economy could handle half of his time and I perhaps could handle the other half for market management

Now that it appears that the Department of Political Economy cannot get any promising young men in the Field of Finance, why do you not try for [Chester Arthur] Phillips of Iowa? He will give good courses and will draw a great many students from the middle west to the University.

So far as my own program is concerned, I have not made much progress. I tried to get [Roy Bernard] Kester of Columbia, but he turned me down. I am placing a similar proposition before [William Andrew] Paton of Michigan. In the Field of Marketing, I am trying for [Frederic Arthur] Russell of the University of Illinois to give a course in salesmanship primarily for teachers in secondary schools. Otherwise I have made no progress in getting outside men for next summer.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
W. H. Spencer

WHS:DD

Source:  University of Chicago Archives. Department of Economics. Records. Box 22, Folder 7.

Categories
Australia Economics Programs Suggested Reading

Melbourne. History, Constitutional Law, Political Economy, Philosophy Examination Fields. Elkington, 1899

 

Serendipity led me to the University of Melbourne archives where there turns out to be a considerable amount of digitised material from the University’s history. I figured I’d take a quick look at turn of the century (as in 1899) economics offerings in the land down under. I’ve transcribed the lists of readings for examinations there in economics and related fields. I have even added links to all the items for our collective convenience.

The professor of history and political economy at the time was John Simon Elkington who had succeeded  William Edward Hearn, LL.D. Hearn resigned the chair of History and Political Economy in 1873 and died in 1888.

Elkington was not really an economist, even at a time when “economist” was much more inclusive a term than today. Judging from the brief biographical entry for him in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, he appears to have been less a gentleman and a scholar than a dirty old drunkard of the chair whose spectre might haunt some Victorian faculty club to this day. 

_________________________

A Colorful Professor

John Simeon Elkington (b. Nov. 22, 1841 at Rye, Sussex, England; d. June 6, 1922 in Canterbury, Melbourne, Australia)

Elkington was appointed professor of history and political economy at the University of Melbourne 1879 and he retired “by agreement” March 1, 1913. His main field was constitutional history, though his teaching portfolio did include political economy.

“…he was an intense political partisan and a ‘Freetrader of Freetraders’. A gifted raconteur, he ‘interspersed the dry facts of historical research and economic argument with anecdotes and stories’ whose Rabelaisian quality had to be censored when women students entered the university… Gregarious by nature, he attracted interesting people: ‘he has known everybody and is full of anecdotes and incidents about the leading men in Victorian life’. Bankruptcies in 1892 and 1895 after speculating in land and mining, as well as his inordinate thirst, created problems for the university.”

Source: Norman Harper, ‘Elkington, John Simeon (1841–1922)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/elkington-john-simeon-6100/text10451, published first in hardcopy 1981, accessed online 4 June 2020.

_________________________

From the University of Melbourne Calendar 1899

ARTS AND SCIENCE.

DETAILS OF SUBJECTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE ANNUAL EXAMINATIONS TO BE HELD IN THE EXAMINATION TERM, 1899

POLITICAL ECONOMY—

Books recommended in addition to the various references to other works given in the Lectures: —

Hearn—Plutology.
Walker—Political Economy.

So far as treated in the Lectures:

Marshall—Principles of Economics.
Adam Smith—Wealth of Nations.

Additional for Honours.

Bagehot—Economic Studies.
Mill—Political Economy, Books I. and V.
Mill—Logic, Book VI.
Spencer—Principles of Sociology, Part II.
Spencer—Study of Sociology.

[p. 228]

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

DEDUCTIVE LOGIC—

The Course will include the following subjects: —The scope and definition of Deductive (or Formal) Logic; the Primary Logical Laws; the formation and characteristics of general notions; Terms, Propositions, and Reasonings, in connection with the questions and exercises in the text-books; recent criticisms and proposed extensions of the traditional logic; Symbolic Logic; and Fallacies.

Pass.

Books recommended: —

Jevons—Elementary Lessons in Logic.
Keynes—Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic, Parts I. II., and III.
Whately—Logic, Book III.

The Examination will include Exercises to test the Candidate’s skill in applying the logical rules.

Additional for Honours.

Veitch—Institutes of Logic, Part I.
Keynes—Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic, Part IV.

INDUCTIVE LOGIC—

Mill’s Logic, critically treated with reference to the views of other logicians, will be used as the principal text-book. In considering Books I. and II., prominence will be given to the Psychology of Judgment and of Reasoning; and Book III. Will be made the basis of a full treatment of the Logic of Induction.

This subject does not presuppose a previous knowledge of Deductive Logic.

Books recommended: —

Mill—Logic. [Part I, Books I-III; Part II, Books IV-VI]
Jevons—Principles of Science [Volume I; Volume II], so far as referred to in Lectures.
(Fowler’s Inductive Logic may be read with advantage prior to the study of Mill’s Logic.)

Additional for Honours.

Venn—Empirical Logic.

[pp. 234-235]

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MORAL PHILOSOPHY—

Candidates will be expected to show—

(i.) A general knowledge of the History of Moral Philosophy.

(ii.) A critical acquaintance with the following works: —

Butler—Dissertation on Virtue and Sermons on Human Nature.
Kant—Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals.
J.S. Mill—Utilitarianism; with references to Bentham.
Herbert Spencer—Data of Ethics.

[p. 236]

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SUBJECTS OF EXAMINATIONS FOR FINAL HONOURS AND SCHOLARSHIPS TO BE HELD IN THE FIRST TERM, 1900.

(2.) — SCHOOL OF HISTORY, INCLUDING CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY AND LAW, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Ancient History.
The History of the British Empire.
The Character and Method of the Social Sciences.
The Principles of Political Economy.
Constitutional and Legal History.

Books recommended: —

The books and references mentioned under Ancient History, History of the British Empire, Parts I. and II., Political Economy and Constitutional and Legal History.

Mommsen—History of Rome, Book I.; Book II., ch. 1, 2, 3, 8, 9.
Spencer—Principles of Sociology, Part V. and Part VIII.
Seebohm—The English Village Community.
Stubbs—Constitutional History [Volume I; Volume II; Volume III].
Lord Playfair—Subjects of Social Welfare, Part II., articles 1-7.
Edmund Burke—Thoughts on the cause of the present discontents, and the two speeches on America.
Cunningham—Growth of English Industry and Commerce (2nd edition). [Volume I (1890); Volume II (1892)]
Lecky—History of England in the Eighteenth Century. [Volume I; Volume II; Volume III; Volume IV; Volume V; Volume VI; Volume VII; Volume VIII]
Spencer—First Principles, Part II., ch. 12-17 (3rd edition).
The article Political Economy in the current edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (published separately). [Vol. 19 of the 9th edition, article written by J.K.I. (John Kells Ingram)]

(3.) —SCHOOL OF LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY.

Papers will be set in the following subjects: —

  1. FORMAL LOGIC—

Veitch—Institutes of Logic, Part I.
Keynes—Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic.
Venn—Symbolic Logic.

The Examination will include exercises in Formal and Symbolic Logic.

  1. INDUCTIVE LOGIC—

Mill—Logic. [Part I, Books I-III; Part II, Books IV-VI]
Venn—Empirical Logic.

  1. PSYCHOLOGY—

Psychology of the senses and Intellect.
Lotze—Metaphysics, Book III. (Psychology).

  1. METAPHYSICS—

Kant—Critique of Pure Reason.
E. Caird—Metaphysic (Article, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Republished in Essays on Literature and Philosophy [Vol. II]).

  1. MORAL PHILOSOPHY—

Aristotle—Nicomachean Ethics.
Spencer—Data of Ethics.
Green—Prolegomena to Ethics.

  1. HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY—

The History of Modern Philosophy, from Descartes to Kant inclusive.

[pp. 252-253]

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EXAMINATIONS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS TO BE HELD IN THE FIRST TERM, 1900.

A. — SCHOOL OF HISTORY, INCLUDING CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY AND LAW, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY.

The History of the Middle Ages.

The Practical Applications (as stated by the principal Economic Writers) of the Principles of Political Economy.

Constitutional History and Law.

Books recommended: —

Bryce—Holy Roman Empire.
Gibbon—Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Dr. Smith’s edition), ch. 49-71 [Volume VI; Volume VII; Vol. VIII].
Hallam—Middle Ages, except ch. 8 [Volume I; Volume II; Volume III].
Mill—Political Economy, Books III., IV., V.
Cliffe Leslie—Essays in Political and Moral Philosophy.
Herbert Spencer—Principles of Ethics, Part IV., and The Man versus The State.
Giffen—Essays in Finance.
Walker—Wages Question.

Bachelors of Arts who graduated before 1st April, 1896, may substitute this work for Constitutional History and Law.

Sir H.S. Maine—Dissertations on Early Law and Custom.
The following Articles in the current edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica: —Equity, Fictions, International Law, Law, Treaties.

B. —SCHOOL OF LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY.

Any four of the Papers set for the Final Honour Examination in the same Term.

[pp. 257-258]

Source:  University of Melbourne. Library, Digitised-Collections. University of Melbourne Calendar 1899.

Image Source: Professor John Simeon Elkington. Copy in the University of Melbourne Archives from Photo N. 4. Alma Mater, Supplement (April 1, 1896).