Harvard’s hiring of Alvin Hansen, the future “American Keynes”, met with disapproval from high up in the U. S. Department of State. The reservations were easily overcome as can be seen in Harvard President Conant’s polite yet firm response to the telegram sent him urging him to block Hansen’s appointment to a tenured professorship.
William Richards Castle Jr. (1878-1963) graduated from Harvard in 1900, was an instructor of English and later Freshman Dean from 1904 to 1913. These Harvard connections helped him later to climb to the top of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. Politically he was fiercely anti-New Deal. From 1935 to 1941 he served as a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers which is why he must have felt it to be both his right and his duty to shoot this late torpedo at Dean John William’s candidate.
The quoted source with a negative opinion of Alvin Hansen’s qualifications was Herbert Feis (1893-1972), who likewise was a Harvard man, A.B. (1916) and Ph.D. (1921). Feis was serving as adviser on economic affairs to the Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson. Herbert Feis is an interesting enough economics Ph.D. alumnus to warrant a dedicated post here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. An unanswered question is what might have accounted for Feis’ low professional esteem regarding Hansen.
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WESTERN UNION
1937 MAY 12 PM 12:34
WASHINGTON DC
PRESIDENT CONANT
HARVARD COLLEGE CA
FEIS KNOWS HANSON WELL SAYS HE IS A THOROUGH WORKER WHO TRIES TO BE INDEPENDENT GOOD IN HIS SPECIAL FIELD BUT BY NO MEANS GREAT HE CHOOSES SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS BUT TREATS THEM SOMEWHAT NARROWLY AS HE HAS LITTLE BACKGROUND IN HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT POLICIES HE GIVES SENSE OF INTELLECTUAL DOGMATISM HAS ABRUPT UNPREPOSSESSING MANNER ANTAGONIZING MANY FEIS THINKS HIM GOOD BET FOR TEMPORARY APPOINTMENT BUT WOULD GREATLY REGRET PERMANENT APPOINTMENT
W R CASTLE.
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Copy of Conant’s Reply to Castle
June 9, 1937
Mr. W. R. Castle
2200 S Street, N.W.
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Castle:
After receiving your information about Professor Hansen, I proceeded to investigate the whole question very thoroughly, as I was, of course, very much disturbed by what Dr. Feiss [sic] stated to you in confidence. After making this investigation, I was convinced, in spite of Dr. Feiss’ [sic] negative conclusions, that the appointment was one we should make. In this decision Dean Williams and other members of the Department of Economics agree (of course, no one except Dean Williams knows of your inquiry). I have heard excellent reports on Professor Hansen from other people in the State Department and from economists in other institutions. On the basis of all this evidence, therefore, we have proceeded with the appointment.
I am asking Dean Williams to drop in on you in Washington and discuss certain matters connected with the School and, incidentally, tell you a little more about the matter of Professor Hansen, as I am sure you would be interested in the reasons which led us both to go contrary to the advice which we received through your kindness.
I am deeply appreciative of your having taken the trouble to look into this matter and I am sure you will understand that in all such matters it is a question of weighing the pros and cons which one receives fron different sources.
Very sincerely yours,
[stamp] JAMES B. CONANT
Source: Harvard University Archives. Records of President James B. Conant, Box 81, Folder “Economics 1936-37”.
Image Source: Alvin Hansen from the Harvard Class Album 1945. Book in the foreground is The Seven Myths of Housing by Nathan Straus that was published in January 1944. The bits of newspaper one can read /…Tribune…/…by big R.A.F…./…-Day Breathing…/…Novgorod…” so my guess is that the newspaper is from late January 1944. A large-scale R.A.F. attack on Magdeburg and the Soviets recapture of Novgorod both occurred on January 21, 1922.