The notes of date, place, speaker, topic, seminary participants and occasional visitors of the Johns Hopkins’ economic seminary in 1904-05 were recorded as seminary minutes by James M. Motley. From these handwritten notes we learn that on a roughly alternating basis the seminary would meet at the home of Professor Hollander (2011 Eutaw Place, Baltimore) and Room 21 McCoy Hall on campus. These minutes have been compared to printed report of the seminar published in the University Circular.
A visitor noted in the October 26, 1904 minutes of the Seminary was Professor Weber from Heidelberg. As can be seen from the letter appended to this post, this was indeed Max Weber who was travelling through the United States at the time.
Source: The Johns Hopkins University, Eisenhower Library, The Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives. Department of Political Economy, Series 1, Minutes of the Economic Seminary, 1892-1951. Box 1, 2ndvolume of minutes, Folder “Minutes of the Economic Seminar, 1897-1908”, pp. 148-156.
The printed reports of seminary participants and the schedule of speakers and their topics have been transcribed for this post.
The economic seminary schedule for the following years have also been posted:
1903-1904
1904-1905
1922-1923
1923-1924
1924-1925
1925-1926
1926-1927
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POLITICAL ECONOMY
Classes meet in McCoy Hall
Economic Seminary: Professor Hollander and Dr. Barnett. Alternately, Wednesday, 8 p. m., Tuesday, 11 a.m. (12)
| Bagge, G. A. | Glocker, T. W. | Kirk, W. | Sakolski, A. M. |
| Blum, S. | Hilbert, F. W. | Motley, J. M. | Taliaferro, T. H. |
| Buckler, W. H. | Kennedy, J. B. | Rosebro, F. B. | Willis, L. M. R. |
Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular. New Series, 1905, No. 3 (March, 1905), p. 20.
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THE ECONOMIC SEMINARY, 1904-1905,
EDITED BY
PROFESSOR J. H. HOLLANDER and DR. G. E. BARNETT.
The Economic Seminary has continued its investigation into the history, activities and influence of labor organizations in the United States during the current academic year. Its membership has been narrowly limited to advanced students preparing for a scientific career in economic study, and its primary design has been the development of sound method in economic research. The regular fortnightly evening sessions have been supplemented by briefer morning sessions in alternate weeks. The material resources necessary for the inquiry have been supplied by the continued generosity of the citizen of Baltimore, whose original gift made its inception possible.
Appreciable progress has also been made by individual members of the Seminary in the study of specific aspects of the several questions assigned for investigation. During the summer, field work was carried on in various carefully selected localities, and the data thus collected have since been supplemented and corrected by documentary study and personal interview. Certain preliminary studies were completed and published in dignified form, and two senior members of the Seminary submitted monographic studies of the particular subjects on which they have been engaged, in part fulfillment of the requirements for the doctor of philosophy degree. These will appear in the twenty-third series of the Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science. Early in the next academic year a cooperative volume of ”Essays in American Trade Unionism” will also be issued by the Seminary, embodying the preliminary results of the various investigations now in progress and ultimately designed for monographic publication.
The record of the proceedings of the Seminary, and abstracts of certain papers there presented, are appended:
| October 5. | Report of the summer’s field work, by Professor Hollander, Dr. Barnett, Messrs. Kirk, Motley, Hilbert, Glocker, Kennedy, and Blum. |
| October 11. | “Trade Union Agreements in the Iron Holders’ Union,” by F. W. Hilbert. |
| October 17. | Report on the summer’s field work, by W. H. Buckler. |
| October 26. | “Functions of the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor,” by Wm. Kirk. |
| November 2. | “Finances of the Iron Molders’ Union,” by A. M. Sakolski. |
| November 8. | “Collective Bargaining in the International Typographical Union,” by Dr. George E. Barnett. |
| November 16. | “The Apprentice in the Building Trades,” by J. M. Motley. |
| November 22. | “Shop Rules in the Building Trades,” by S. Blum. |
| November 29. | “School Taxation in the Indian Territory,” by Professor Hollander. |
| December 7. | “Shop Rules in the Building Trades,” by S. Blum. |
| December 13. | “Recent Court Decisions Affecting Labor Unions,” by L. M. R. Willis. |
| December 21. | “The Open Shop,” by Dr. George E. Barnett. |
| January 11. | “The Structure of the Iron Holders’ Union,” by T. W. Glocker. |
| January 17. | “The Maryland Workmen’s Compensation Act,” by Dr. George E. Barnett. |
| January 25. | “The Meeting of the Economic Association at Chicago,” by Professor Hollander. “The Beneficiary Features of the Railway Unions,” by J. B. Kennedy. |
| January 31. | “Reform Movements in Baltimore,” by S. Blum. |
| February 8. | “The Functions of the Allied Trades Council,” by Wm. Kirk. |
| February 14. | “A Sketch of David Ricardo,” by Professor Hollander.
[Dr. Barnett also gave a notice of Adams and Sumner’s “Labor Problems”] |
| February 24. | “The Development of Apprentice Laws in American Labor Unions,” by J. M. Motley. |
| February 28. | “The Origin of the Constitution of the International Typographical Union,” by Dr. George E. Barnett. |
| March 8. | “The Standard Wage in the Machinists’ Union,” by W. H. Buckler. |
| March 22. | “Beneficiary Expenditures of American Trade Unions,” by A. M. Sakolskl |
| March 29. | “Statistical Methods,” by Hon. Charles P. Neill, U. S. Commissioner of Labor. |
| April 4. | “The Government of General Federations of Labor,” by Wm. Kirk. |
| April 11. | “The Union Stamp of the Boot and Shoe Workers’ Union,” by G. A. Bagge. “Cunnynghame’s Geometrical Political Economy,” by Dr. T. H. Taliaferro. |
| April 18. | “The Administration of Trade Union Finances,” by A. M. Sakolski. |
| May 2 | “The Rise of the National Union,” by T. W. Glocker. “The Baltimore Municipal Loans,” by S. Blum. “The Recent Nine Hour Decision of the Supreme Court,” by F. W. Hilbert. |
| May 9. | “The Trade Union Agreements in the Building Trades,” by F. W. Hilbert. |
| May 16. | “Trade Union Rules for Maintaining the Standard Rate,” by S. Blum. |
| May 23. | “Beneficiary Features of the Iron Holders’ Union,” by J. B. Kennedy. |
Source: The Johns Hopkins University Circular. New Series, 1905, No. 6 (June, 1905), pp. 1-3.
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Excerpt from letter to Jacob Hollander from Max Weber
November 3, 1904
Dear Professor Hollander—
Allow me to express, again, how much I enjoyed my visit in your seminary, the acquaintance I made of your students and of your assistant fellow-teacher. I was deeply impressed by the intensity of the work done in your department and, before all, learned with pleasure, that—at least in your university—the ambition to get the largest numberof students, so dangerous even now to almost all our German universities—is not allowed to lower the high standard of scientific investigation. In Germany we suffer much more than you are able to imagine from that illness resulting out of our system of paying the teacher by taxes paid by the students for each lecture.—When I come again after some years—as I hope to do—[I] think my English will be improved so that I will be more able to express myself. —
…
Do you think I should be able to get some recent reports of the Johns Hopkins University and, if possible, the rules for taking the Ph.D. degree, by simply applying to the Secretary of the President? or are the[y] sold by the bookseller? I should be much obliged for any information about that and am sorry having forgotten to ask you in Baltimore.Yours very respectfully Max Weber (Young’s Hotel, Boston or: Holland House, New York) …
Source: Max Weber to Jacob Hollander 3 November 1904 Young’s Hotel, Boston handwritten Hollander Papers, series I, box 11; Eisenhower Library, the Johns Hopkins University transcribed in Lawrence A. Scaff, Max Weber in America (Princeton, 2011). pp. 260-261.