Notable American Economists Who Studied under the Theorists of the GHSE

In the 19th century, classical economics disseminated its ideas and spread its influence throughout the US almost exclusively by having the publications of its theorists read and studied in the classrooms of American universities.

After graduating from Columbia College in 1876, Ely went to Germany in order to further his education in 1877 and remained there for three years. He began by learning the German language in Kiel before moving on to the University of Halle, where he studied philosophy, psychology, history, and political economy. During his time in Halle, Ely met Simon Nelson Patten (1852—1922), who had come to Germany to join his friends Edmund Janes James (1855—1925) and Joseph French Johnson (1853—1925), who were already studying there. It was through Patten that Ely met professor Conrad, who was teaching at the University of Halle (Ely 1938, 39, St. Marc 1892, 63). After Halle, Ely moved on to Heidelberg, where he completed his PhD in political economy in 1880 under the guidance of Knies.

Ely (1938, 37, 40) confessed that he was motivated to go abroad to Ger­many in order ‘to find the absolute truth.’ For him, studying there felt like entering ‘into a new heritage of freedom, and a certain joyous expansion was one of the most pronounced feelings’ that he had ever experienced (ibid.). He believed that ‘in the atmosphere of the German universities there was room for growth and encouragement of the development of individuality, which was something new’ to him and the other American students (Ely 1910, 69).

After returning to the US, Ely worked at the Political Economy depart­ment of Johns Hopkins University from 1881 to 1892, where he taught the History of Political Economy. Then, in 1892, Ely was appointed professor at the University of Wisconsin, where he also served as director of the School of Economics, Political Science, and History until 1925. During his time at Wisconsin, he was able to introduce his students to the spirit of teaching and studying that he experienced as a student in German universities. While Ely wrote many articles and books on a number of different topics, including socialism, labor movements, social reforms, and monopolies, his most well- known publications were: French and German Socialism in Modern Times, 1883; Monopolies and Trusts, 1883; Labour Movement in America, 1883; Taxation in American States and Cities, 1888; and Socialism and Social Reform, 1894 (Ingram 1915, 173). Ely’s publications ‘purposefully enabled him to reach millions of people who could not attend his classes in the university’ (Taylor 1944, 134). Ultimately, Ely managed to significantly shape American economic thought, the economics profession, and the way it is taught, as well as economic pol­icies, not only through his books, but also on account of the fact that he taught many generations of economists at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin.

There is no doubt that Ely played a major role in transferring the economic thinking of the GHSE from Germany to the US.

American Political Economists and the Influence of the GHSE 91 improve the conditions of the American labor classes. Furthermore, many of his former students went on to become important ‘journalists, leaders in many branches of social reform, experts in taxation, the control of monopo­lies, credit institutions, appraisals, home ownership, rural land tenure, agri­cultural economics, and many other fields’ (Taylor 1944, 134). They included future president Woodrow Wilson, the ‘prominent sociologist Edward A. Ross,’ reformers Frederic C. Howe and Albert Shaw ([Theodore] Roosevelt’s advisors), ‘the historian Frederick Jackson Turner, John Finley, who became editor of the New York Times, David Kinley, who became president of the University of Illinois, and Dr. Henry Taylor, who became chief of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics’ (Fine 1957, 240). Ely also influenced key progres­sive figures, including Robert La Follette and Theodore Roosevelt, though the former never studied in his classes (ibid.). In addition to ‘the Progressive movement,’ the New Deal also attested ‘to Ely’s significance as a precursor of twentieth-century reform’ (ibid.).

John Bates Clark (1874—1938), who was accepted by ‘many authorities as the most distinguished American economist,’ graduated from Amherst College in 1872. Then, from 1872 to 1875, he studied under Wilhelm Roscher in Leip­zig and under Johannes Conrad and Karl Knies at University of Heidelberg (Neff 1950, 390, 503). Consequently, he was highly influenced by the views and methods of the GHSE.

James received his doctorate in political economy from the University of Halle in 1877 under the supervision of Conrad. Then, in 1883, he was ap­pointed professor of public finance and administration in the Wharton School of Finance and Economy at the University of Pennsylvania. The following year, he was elected as a member of the National Council of Education. Subsequently, from 1891 to 1895, he served as ‘President of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, an association organized to promote the introduction and development of University Extension meth­ods of instruction throughout’ the US (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 1896, 79). During his presidency, in the US, ‘the number of lecture courses rose from 42 in 1890—91 to 126 in 1894—95; while the number in attendance increased from 7400 to 20,000’ (ibid.).

In 1896, James left the University of Pennsylvania for the University of Chicago. Then, in 1902, he became president of Northwestern University,

where he strongly promoted scholarly achievements. In particular, he sought to:

raise the University to international attention by hosting world-class scholars and researchers.

In 1904, he left Northwestern and ‘became president of the University of Il­linois,’ where he established the University of Illinois Press (Kinley 1949, 48). James was regarded as ‘the greatest American university president of his day’ (ibid.). In fact, President Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856—1943) of Harvard University described him as ‘the man under whose inspiring touch the Uni­versity of Illinois has risen to the front rank among American universities’ (ibid.).

Among his other notable achievements, James was a member of the Amer­ican Philosophical Society. He was also one of the founding members of the AEA in 1885 and, in addition to contributing to its publications, served as its first vice president in 1885 before becoming its president during 1910— 1911 (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 1896, 79). Furthermore, James was one of the founding members of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, as well as its inaugural president from 1889 to 1901. He was also editor of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and a known contributor to the Cyclopaedia of Politi­cal Science, Political Economy and United States History (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 1896, 79). Over the course of his career, James published many articles in English and German on a variety of issues such as the public education system, immigration and emigration, factory laws, machinery, finance, labor rights, labor unions, insurance, the history of political economy, the federal regulation of railways, the forestry industry, and transportation system in the US. Moreover, some of his publica­tions aimed at improving the American system of higher education discussed topics like the requirements and features of PhD programs in Germany, and the teaching of political economy in German universities.

Another important German-trained figure in the discipline of economics was Simon Nelson Patten, who obtained his PhD in political economy at the University of Halle in 1877 under Conrad. In fact, he later dedicated his book The Premises of Political Economy: Being a Re-examination of Certain Fundamental Principles of Economic Science (1885) to ‘his teacher and friend, Dr.Johannes Conrad...to whose kind encouragement and inspiring example his many stu­dents owe so much.’ During his time studying in Germany, Patten (1916, 4) observed that adherents of the GHSE were ‘the most ardent of the new groups of moderns’ in the university lectures and seminars that he attended. He also considered himself to be ‘more ardent’ than most other students ‘for

American Political Economists and the Influence of the GHSE 93 the new culture’ he was experiencing in Germany (ibid.). After returning home, Patten was appointed professor at the Wharton School of Economics in the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked from 1888 up until his retirement in 1917. During that period, Patten ended up enjoying close rela­tionships with Ely and James after they had initially become acquainted while studying together under the theorists of the GHSE at the University of Halle. In 1884, Patten and James were inspired to organize an association similar to Verein fur Sozialpolitik, but ultimately failed (Ely 1938, 132—135). Later, with the same inspiration, Patten, James, and Ely founded the AEA in 1885. Sub­sequently, Patten was its president in 1908—1909.

Frank William Taussig (1859—1940) graduated from Harvard in 1879, be­fore going on to study Roman law and political economy for one semester at the University of Berlin. He then went back to Harvard University, where he studied law from 1883 to 1886. Taussig began teaching political economy at Harvard in 1886 and remained there until 1935, when his chair was suc­ceeded by Joseph Schumpeter (1883—1950). His teaching was very influential ‘on the course of American economic thought and action. Practically every Harvard student of economics studied under him’ (Dorfman 1966V3, 270). Taussig’s views, approaches, and teaching were highly inf luenced by Wagner and Schmoller. In fact, his most renowned graduate course was dedicated to ‘a critic of classical and neo-classical writers’ (ibid.). Taussig admitted to writ­ing ‘a most encouraging letter’ to Ely after reading a scathing review of his book The Labor Movement in America (1886) in The Nation, which was writ­ten by astronomer, mathematician, and teacher of political economy Simon Newcomb (1835—1909), who defended abstract mathematical economics, the laissez-faire approach, and the invisible hand theory. Newcomb went so far as to accuse Ely of being a socialist and describe the book as ‘the ravings of an anarchist or the dream of a socialist’ (Dorfman 1966V3, 163, Ely 1936, 146). In response, Taussig immediately sent ‘his application’ for membership in the AEA (Ely 1936, 146).

Taussig established the foundations of modern trade theory in the US, largely on account of his original work ‘on the history of tariff legislation’ (Adams 1884, 89). He was also the editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics from 1889 to 1890 (ibid.). Furthermore, he played a major role in influencing American public policy, as he became an unofficial adviser on economic and commercial policy to President Woodrow Wilson and was appointed ‘the first chairman of the United States Tariff Commission’ from 1917 to 1919 (Carlson 1968, 104). In fact, Taussig accompanied President Wilson to the Versailles Peace Conference at the end of WWI, serving as his economic advisor in drafting some of the economic requirements that were included in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Taussig also served as president of AEA during 1904-1905 (Ely 1936, 146).

Richmond Mayo-Smith (1854-1901) was an American statistician and so­ciologist, who studied in Berlin during 1875-1877 and then in Heidelberg in 1878. In 1877, he was offered the Chair in Economics and Statistics in

the Faculty of Political Science at Columbia college, which was about to be established, on the condition that he completed his graduate studies in Ger­many (Dorfman 1955, 18). This could be interpreted as a ‘formal acceptance’ of the great reputation that the GHSE had within the American academic community (ibid.). Shortly thereafter, Mayo-Smith completed his studies in Germany and assumed his position as professor of Political Economy and Social Science at Columbia College in 1878.

Over the course of his academic career, Mayo-Smith played a major role in the development of how statistics was taught in the US, as well as its appli­cation to the social sciences. In fact, he taught the first course on statistics at an American university in 1880, and continued to do so until 1901. In 1889, Mayo-Smith became the vice president of the AEA, a position that he held until his death. The following year, he became:

a member of the National Academy of Sciences, which prior to this had usually selected only scholars in the pure and natural sciences. He was also an active member of the International Statistical Institute and was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.²

Herbert Baxter Adams (1850—1901) obtained his PhD in political science at Heidelberg University in 1876. He actually met Clark while studying at Heidelberg. Once Adams returned to the US, he was offered a post at Johns Hopkins University. Based on his experiences as a student, he came to regard the German graduate education program as a model that should be emulated at American universities. In fact, he was credited with being one of the first American scholars to introduce the types of seminars that were prevalent in Germany at American universities. Adams also played an instrumental role in ‘organizing the American Historical Association’ and was ‘probably never happier than when bringing an institution into existence’ (Ely 1910, 56).

Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman (1861—1939) graduated from Columbia College in 1879 and went on to study at universities in Berlin, Paris, and Heidelberg until 1882. He actually studied under Knies during his time at the University of Heidelberg. Subsequently, he went back to Columbia to obtain his PhD. He then became a professor of political economy at Columbia Uni­versity, where he worked from 1891 until 1931. In fact, both Seligman and Clark played major roles in the development of the economics department at Columbia University. Seligman’s views were highly inf luenced by the theo­rists of the GHSE, as well as H.B. Adams and Ely. During his career, Selig­man was accepted as a founding father of American Institutionalism. He also played an important role in establishing the AEA and served as its president during 1902—1903. Seligman was also a significant player in the creation of the American Association of University Professors. Additionally, he was the editor of the Political Science Quarterly Journal. He also worked for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and in 1916 became a fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA).

Henry Carter Adams (1851—1921) obtained his PhD at Johns Hopkins Uni­versity in 1878. He then completed a postdoc in Berlin and Heidelberg from 1878 to 1879, which involved studying with Wagner, Held, and Engel. While in Germany, Adams was able to publish his thesis, which was entitled ‘Zur Geschichte der Besteuerung in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika in der Periode von 1789—1816 in the Zeitschrift fur die gesammte Staatswissenschaft’ In fact, he received high praise for this publication from Wagner, who hap­pened to be the editor of that particular journal. At that time, publishing in a German journal was a very important step in the career of an academic, as doing so brought international respect and recognition for their work. Once he returned home, Adams worked at Cornell University from 1880 to 1887. During that period, he also occasionally lectured on political science at the University of Michigan. Then, from 1887 up until his death, he worked as a professor of political economy and finance at the University of Michigan. He also served as president of the AEA in 1896—1897, and became chief statistician for the new Interstate Commerce Commission, where his work focused on railroad accounting and regulation, as well as the protection of labor rights.

Henry Walcott Farnam (1853—1933) graduated from Yale University in 1874. He returned to Yale in 1876 to study Roman law and economics. Sub­sequently, he went abroad to further his education at universities in Berlin, Strassburg, and Gottingen. During his time at Berlin University, his doc­toral thesis was evaluated by Schmoller in 1878. Shortly thereafter, in 1880, Farnam began his career as a professor of political economy at Yale Univer­sity, where he remained until 1918. His classes mainly focused on public finance, labor organization, and protective labor laws. Much like theorists of the GHSE, Farnam (1913) supported historical ethical economics. Aside from the GHSE, he was also influenced by Clark’s political economy. Over the course of his career, Farnam established The Yale Review in 1892 and was president of the AEA in 1911-1912.

In 1890, economic historian Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) graduated from the University of Michigan, where he studied history and philosophy. He then went off to Germany and studied under the theorists of the GHSE in Berlin and Leipzig for 12 years. In 1902, he obtained his PhD from the University of Berlin, having written his dissertation under the supervision of Schmoller. Gay adopted Schmoller’s view that a political economist does not only focus on ‘the relationships between man and material goods,’ but also on the relationships among men (Balabkins 1988, 100). Ultimately, Gay’s dissertation received the ‘highest honors from the University of Berlin,’ and Schmoller wanted to have it published (ibid.: 101). However, this did not happen, because Gay did not complete all of the necessary steps to prepare ‘the dissertation for publication’ (Mason and Lamont 1982, 406). In 1902, Gay returned to the US, where he taught at Harvard until 1917 and then again from 1924 to 1936. During his first stint, Gay was a principal advisor to Harvard President Charles William Eliot (1834-1926) in his efforts to launch the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, which occurred in 1908.4 He was also appointed the first Dean of the Harvard Business School (Carlson 1968, 106).

Gay also had a number of other notable accomplishments, foremost among them being that he was credited with establishing the Master of Business Administration (MBA) as an academic degree at Harvard in 1908. He was also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and directed the US gov­ernment’s Central Bureau of Planning and Statistics, which was established in 1918. Additionally, Gay was among the cofounders of the National Bureau of Economic Research in 1919 and served as its first president. He was also president of the AEA in 1929—1930, and then became the first president of the Economic History Association in 1940. Gay was clearly a very influ­ential political economist and ‘he radiated his German scholarship all over the country. He was particularly successful in stressing the significance of the “contiguous fields” surrounding the core of economics’ (Balabkins 1988, 101). During his career, Gay supported ethical and historical economics and argued against the abstract individualistic approach of classical economics, all of which were consistent with the views of his former professors in Germany.

Charles Franklin Dunbar (1830—1900) graduated from Harvard College in 1851. In 1869, he went to study in Germany and England for two years, before being given the first chair in political economy at Harvard College in 1871 (Taussig 1901). He was uniquely qualified for ‘his new duties,’ as, at that time, there was ‘a rare chance to find a man better equipped’ than him due to the lack of ‘systematic training in economics’ at American institutions (Taussig 1904, X). In 1876, Dunbar was elected Dean of Harvard College and remained in that post until 1882. Then, in 1886, Harvard University established the Quarterly Journal of Economics and Dunbar was appointed as ‘its editor, and remaining in charge from 1886 to 1896’ (Taussig 1901, 573). Subsequently, ‘in 1890,’ after ‘the enlarged and remodelled Faculty of Arts and Sciences was organized’ at Harvard University, he became its first Dean and remained in that post until 1895 (Taussig 1904, XI). Dunbar also served as president of the AEA in 1893—1894. During the ‘later period’ of his career, it was often the case that ‘he turned’ to the theorists of the GHSE (ibid.: X).

Arthur Twining Hadley (1856—1930) was a student of political science at Yale under William Graham Sumner (1840—1910) before going on to the University of Berlin, where he studied history and political science under Wagner from 1877 to 1879. When he returned to the US in 1879, Hadley joined the faculty of Yale University, where he became a professor of political science (1886—1891), a professor of political economy (1891—1899), and first Dean of the Graduate School (1892—1895).⁵ He was ‘inaugurated as first lay President of Yale University in 1899,’ and retained that position until 1921.⁶ Over the course of his career, Hadley also became president of the AEA in 1898—1899, as well as a member to the American Philosophical Society. Fur­thermore, he also became editor of the Department of Foreign Railroads for The Railroad Gazette in 1887 and remained as such until 1899. He actually

American Political Economists and the Influence of the GHSE 97 published a number of articles on railways and welfare states, with the most well known among them being ‘Railway Transportation: Its History and its Laws’ and ‘Economics: An Account of the Relation between Private Prop­erty and Public Welfare.’ Like his German professors, Hadley highly praised historical studies and ethical economics. However, he did not trust the power of the state, as was the case with his former professor Sumner.

Henry Rogers Seager (1870—1930) graduated from the University of Michigan in 1890. He then studied under H.B. Adams and Ely at Johns Hopkins University before going overseas to further his education in Halle, Berlin, and Vienna for a year. During his brief time in Europe, he was par­ticularly impressed with Wagner’s lessons about public finance and socialism and Schmoller’s historical and statistical classes. Subsequently, he returned to the US and completed his PhD under Patten at the University of Penn­sylvania in 1894. That same year, he started to teach political economy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1902, Seager left Pennsylvania after accepting a post in the political economy department at Columbia University, where he taught Labor Problems and ‘Corporation and Trust Problems’ (Dorfman 1966V4, 166). He was also president of the AEA in 1922—1923, in addition to becoming president of the American Associa­tion for Labor Legislation. Seager (1893, 236) was heavily influenced by the GHSE, as evidenced by his opinion that, since the publication of Roscher’s Grundriss in 1843, ‘Germany has been the scene of an almost uninterrupted struggle for supremacy between conflicting opinions concerning the most fundamental questions in political economy.’

Jeremiah Whipple Jenks (1856—1929) graduated from the University of Michigan in 1878 and then obtained his PhD from the University of Halle under Conrad in 1885. Jenks held professorships at both Cornell University and New York University. Like the GHSE, he supported historical ethical economics. Outside of the academic setting, he was appointed as an expert on Asia for the US Treasury during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. He also prepared many reports on currency, worker compensation, child labor, and immigration policies for the government. Jenks was also president of the AEA in 1906-1907.

Elisha Benjamin Andrews (1847-1917) studied under professors of the GHSE in Berlin and Munich between 1882 and 1883 (Barber 1993, 88). In fact, ‘he immersed himself thoroughly in the doctrines’ of the GHSE, and this was evident in his teaching and in the textbook he wrote entitled Institute of Economics (1889) (ibid.). In his lectures at Brown and Cornell, he focused on the views and methods of Roscher, Knies, Schaeffe, and Wagner (ibid.). He believed that the GHSE displayed great merit in refuting the laissez-faire doctrine and ‘the old notions of human nature and social institutions as fixed creations’ (ibid.). Andrews was also ‘among the charter members’ of the AEA (ibid.: 90). During his career, he strongly supported state regulations against monopoly power and the improvement of working conditions for the labor class.

Ernest Ludlow Bogart (1870—1958) obtained his PhD at the University of Halle and then went on to ‘the University of Illinois from Princeton in the fall of 1909 as Associate Professor of Economics’ at the recommendation of Kinley.⁷ He also became president of the AEA in 1930-1931. His book, The Economic History of the United States (1907), was:

adopted by Dr. Kinley prior to his joining the faculty at the university: it was the second text in American Economic History ever to be written, and would bring Dr. Bogart the immediate distinction of being one of the top Economic Historians in the country.⁸

Edward David Jones (1870—1944), who was accepted as the first professor of marketing in the US, was a student of Ely at the University of Wisconsin before going off to Germany to study under Engel, Knies, and Conrad in 1894-1895 (Bartels 1951). When he returned to the US, he gave lectures on political economy and statistics at the University of Wisconsin from 1895 to 1901. Afterwards, he accepted a post at the University of Michigan in 1901 at the invitation of Henry Carter Adams (Dickinson 1951, 535). While there, Jones started to teach the first-ever marketing classes in the US, which were mainly inf luenced by the views of theorists of the GHSE.

Thomas Nixon Carver (1865-1961) attended Johns Hopkins for two years and took economics courses under David Kinley and ‘a course in Roman history under Dr. Herbert B. Adams’ (Carver 1949, 95). During his first year at Johns Hopkins, he followed ‘Ely in his espousal of the historical method’ and did ‘a lot of reading’ on the subject (ibid.: 97). However, he did not complete his PhD at Johns Hopkins; instead, he did so at Cornell in 1894. Subsequently, Carver went to study in Berlin (ibid.: 137). While there, he was particularly impressed with seminars on taxation by Wagner and eco­nomic history by Schmoller, noting that their classes were very crowded (ibid.: 138). Carver started to work at Harvard in 1900 and remained there for 32 years. During this time, he served ‘two periods as chairman of the Department of Economics (1901-1903 and another period of three years in the twenties)’ (ibid.: 212). He also ‘acted as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics from 1901-1904 and again from 1918-1922’ and served ‘as chairman of the Division of History, Government, and Economics for two terms, 1903-1906 and 1929-1932’ (ibid.). Additionally, Carver was presi­dent of the AEA in 1916-1917 and worked as its secretary-treasurer for five years. Over the course of his career, Carver was recognized for making contributions to the development of marginal utility theory. In fact, he admitted being influenced by Clark ’s principle of marginal utility theory of value (ibid.: 97). He also contributed to agricultural and rural econom­ics, monetary policy, the distribution of wealth, religion, taxation, social justice, the role of the state, etc. Furthermore, he supported statistical eco­nomics while pointing out that he used ‘facts and figures only to bolster his argument’ (Carlson 1968, 109).

There were also a number of American political economists who studied under the theorists of the GHSE, but then followed a different direction after they returned home to the US. An example was Frank Albert Fetter (1863—1949), a leading economist in the first decade of the 20th century who obtained his PhD from the University of Halle in 1894. After he returned to the US, he worked at the universities of Cornell, Stanford, and Princeton. During his time at Princeton, he was chairman of the Interdisciplinary De­partment that included courses on history, politics, and economics. He was also president of the AEA in 1912—1913. Despite having studied in Germany, Fetter’s views were more closely aligned with those held by economists of the Austrian School.

Vladimir G. Simkhovitch (1874—1959) studied at Halle, where he attended the lectures of Wagner. During that time, ‘the students of economics had a club of their own, and in this “Staatswissenschaftlicher Verein”’ was organ­ized by Simkhovitch (1938, 52). Subsequently, he moved to the US in 1898 after obtaining his PhD. Then, in 1904, he started to teach economic history at Columbia University. Simkhovitch was highly influenced by Wagner’s socialist ideas and became known as a socialist economist.

Bernard Moses (1846—1931) obtained his BA from the University of Mich­igan in 1870, and then studied in Berlin, Leipzig, and Heidelberg. He com­pleted his PhD at Heidelberg in 1873, thereby becoming ‘the first American economist to obtain a Ph.D. in Germany’ (Cookingham 1993, 274). Then, from 1876 to 1890, he taught two courses in political economy at the Uni­versity of California, Berkeley. In 1880, he founded the Berkeley Quarterly: A Journal of Social Science, which only survived for two years (ibid.: 275). Moses was a supporter of historical ethical economics. However, he believed that the historical approach was ‘necessary but not sufficient in understanding problems of political economy’ (ibid.: 274). Contrary to many other political economists trained under the theorists of the GHSE, Moses was not involved in the foundation or activities of the AEA.

There were also a number of American political economists that studied under the theorists of the GHSE, whose contributions to the development of the discipline of economics are not particularly well known. For example, John Christopher Schwab (1865—1916) went to Germany to study under the theorists of the GHSE at the universities of Berlin (1887—1888) and Gottin­gen, obtaining his PhD from the latter in 1889. After returning to the US, he became a professor of political economy at Yale, where he began editing The Yale Review in 1892.⁹ In 1901, he published The Finances of the Confederate States of America (1861—1865), which was accepted as ‘a valuable addition in the field of economic history.’¹⁰ Meanwhile, Abram Piatt Andrew (1873—1936) obtained his master’s degree and doctorate from Harvard before setting off to Europe to study at universities in Halle, Berlin, and Paris. After returning to the US, he played an important role in reforming the American banking system. Subsequently, he went back to Europe and studied at the central banks of Germany, Britain, and France. Additionally, Roland Post Falkner (1866—1940) graduated from the Wharton School of Finance and Economy at the University of Pennsylvania before studying political economy in Ber­lin, Leipzig, and Halle. When he returned home, he taught accounting and statistics at the University of Pennsylvania, and eventually played a major role in the development of statistics in the US. John Henry Gray (1859—1946) was another American economist who obtained his PhD in Germany, doing so under Conrad at the University of Halle. Afterwards, he worked was a pro­fessor of economics at Northwestern University, Carleton College, and the University of Minnesota. He also became president of the AEA in 1914—1915. Then there was Carl Copping Plehn (1867—1945), who completed his under­grad at Brown and then obtained his PhD from the University of Gottingen in 1891. He embraced the historical inductive approach and ethical econom­ics (Cookingham 1993, 274). Subsequently, he worked as a professor of public finance at the University of California from 1893 to 1937, during which time he taught a variety of subjects, including European history, the history of economics, finance, and taxation. It should be noted that the University of California established its Economics Department in 1902. Plehn was also president of the AEA in 1923—1924. It has been claimed that ‘for more than thirty years he exerted a significant influence on tax practice in California.’¹¹ Plehn also played a major role in ‘shaping the system of contributory retiring allowance which protects members of the faculty at the present time.’¹² As it turned out, ‘he was one of the last of that generation of scholars in economics to include study at German universities as a significant part of their educa­tion.’¹³ Furthermore, Winthrop More Daniels (1867—1944) graduated from Princeton in 1888, and then studied at Leipzig University from 1899 to 1890. When he returned to the US, he worked as an instructor of Economics and Social Science at Wesleyan University from 1891 to 1892 before becoming a professor of Political Economy at Princeton, where he remained until 1911. Finally, Carleton Hubbell Parker (1878—1918) was a German-trained political economist at Berkeley, who previously obtained his PhD at Heidelberg in 1912. While in Germany, he developed an interest in the relationship be­tween labor and employers. Consequently, he was ‘involved as a mediator’ in many labor disputes in the US (Cookingham 1993, 279). Unfortunately, he died very young and his work has been largely forgotten.

A number of American economists who were trained at universities in the US were also familiar with the legacy of the GHSE, because they were ex­posed to its principles and ideas through professors that studied in Germany. In particular, many of Ely’s students at Johns Hopkins and the University of Wisconsin played a major role in the successful development and improve­ment of the discipline of economics based on the ideas, goals, methods, and approaches of the GHSE. Some of the notable individuals who were inf lu- enced by Ely at Johns Hopkins University included Albert Shaw, Edward Webster Bemis, Edward Alsworth Ross, Amos G. Warner, C. H. Haskins, William A. Scott, David Kinley, T. K. Worthington, Charles H. Lever- more, and Charles F. A. Carrier, just to name a few. The extent to which Ely

American Political Economists and the Influence of the GHSE 101 instilled some of the fundamental ideas of the GHSE into his former students eventually became evident in their teaching styles and publications (Adelstein 1993, 313, Ely 1938, 159). Another noteworthy student of Ely at Johns Hop­kins University was Albion Small (1854—1926), who completed his PhD in 1889. He previously studied political economy and history in the universities of Leipzig and Berlin from 1879 to 1881 (Balabkins 1988, 102). While Small did not make a mark in the field of economics after completing his studies, he did play a fundamental role in the development of sociology in the US. In 1892, he was invited to ‘set up a new department of social science at the University of Chicago’ (ibid.). In fact, it was ‘the first department of its kind in the US’ (ibid.). Later, he founded the American Journal of Sociology, which he edited and frequently contributed to over the period spanning 1895—1926.

Henry Brayton Gardner (1863—1939) was a former student of Ely at Johns Hopkins, where he obtained his PhD in 1890. He was highly inf luenced by the views of ‘Walker, Ely, Taussig, Jevons and Marshall’ (Barber 1993, 91). After graduating, Gardner taught at Brown University from 1890 to 1928, and served as president of the AEA in 1919—1920. Additionally, David Kinley (1861—1944), who was known as one of the key contributors to American institutionalist economics, served as president of the AEA in 1913—1914. In fact, Kinley was significantly inf luenced by Ely’s lectures and views at both Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin. Initially, he was a graduate student of Ely at Johns Hopkins University. Ely made ‘it possible for Kinley to study for two years at this institution, and he carried Kinley with him for another year of study when he transferred to Wisconsin,’ where he obtained his PhD in 1893 (Haig 1949, 8). While at Wisconsin, Kinley be­came ‘both a fellow in economics and an extension lecturer’ (ibid.). Looking back, Kinley (1949, 24) stated that Ely not only invited him to accompany him to the university of Wisconsin, he also did everything possible to make his ‘way easy and successful.’ He further stated that ‘no teacher could have done more’ for him than Ely (ibid.). Subsequently, he went to Germany in 1900—1901 and visited ‘Berlin Munich, Halle, Leipzig, and Gottingen’ (Kin­ley 1949, 44). Although Kinley (1949, 42) had ‘the pleasure of hearing Dr. Adolph Wagner lecture’ in Berlin, it is important to point out that he did not study or obtain a degree at any German university, as the objective of his visit was to collect information about the ‘educational aims and methods’ of German political economy departments.

When Ely was accused of teaching socialism and promoting socialist ide­als in a letter prepared by ‘the State Superintendent of Education in Wiscon­sin,’ which was published in the New York edition of the Nation in 1894, Kinley defended him (ibid.: 30). He pointed out that the attack on Ely was weak and based on ‘prejudices rather than on accurate information’ (ibid.: 30). In fact, he was certain that this attack was ‘untrue’ from the outset, be­cause he heard ‘most of Ely’s lectures’ at Johns Hopkins and the University of Wisconsin (ibid.). Kinley viewed his defense as ‘discharging a debt of gratitude and affection, and defending’ their profession; at ‘Ely’s request,’ he

employed the ‘Hon. Burr Jones, one of Madison’s ablest lawyers’ (ibid.: 31). In the end, ‘the trial broke down, and not only was Dr. Ely fully exonerated but the regents adopted a resolution in favor of freedom of discussion in teaching’ (ibid.).

John Rogers Commons (1862—1945) was one of Ely’s most important for­mer students from Johns Hopkins University who completely embraced the approaches, ideas, and methods of the GHSE. Commons would go on to be known as an American institutional economist and serve as president of the AEA in 1917—1918. He admitted to choosing ‘Johns Hopkins University largely because of his admiration’ for Ely (Lafayette 1962, 17). In fact, Com­mons (1963, 40) confessed that he initially decided to study at Johns Hopkins University after reading ‘an editorial attack on Professor Ely, in The Nation, for his so-called socialism,’ which was written by Newcomb. He believed that ‘Newcomb’s charges against Ely’s labor sympathies’ were baseless (Lafay­ette 1962, 18). In 1904, Commons joined Ely at the University of Wisconsin. He considered working with Ely at the University of Wisconsin to be his ‘new birth’ and acknowledged that many of his own ideas and writings were inspired by Ely’s ‘new economics’ (Commons 1963, 44, 97). Ely’s intellectual influence contributed to Commons having a high appreciation for the work of the theorists of the GHSE. Actually, ‘he naturally explored their works before formulating any theory of his own’ (Lafayette 1962, 177). Even though Commons (1963) did not study in Germany, he was fluent in German, which enabled him to extensively read the works of German economists.

Among all of Ely’s former students, Commons may have played the most significant role in conveying the methods and ideas of the GHSE to his own students (Yefimov 2009, 38). Much like the theorists of the GHSE, he provided many arguments against classical liberalism in his writings and teaching while also underlining the importance of historical ethical econom­ics. During his time at Wisconsin, Commons ended up supervising or co­supervising the ‘completion forty-six PhD’ degrees (ibid.: 40). Some of his former students went on to become professors in the economics department of the University of Wisconsin. Among them, Sumner H. Slichter and Selig Perlman played major roles in the development of Wisconsin Institutionalism along with Commons (ibid.: 39).

Davis Rich Dewey (1858—1942), brother of philosopher John Dewey (1859—1952), studied at Johns Hopkins University under Ely and Henry Bax­ter Adams and obtained his PhD in 1886 (Adelstein 1993, 311). He was highly influenced by the GHSE, and remained so right up until his death (ibid.: 312). In 1887, he was appointed as an instructor of history and political science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Then, Dewey was named head of the department of economics and statistics at MIT in 1907, and worked in that capacity until 1933. Dewey was also secretary of the ASA from 1886 to 1906 and the editor of the American Economic Review from its founding in 1911 until 1940. In fact, he was present at the preparation of ‘the original statement of principles of the AEA,’ along with Ely and its other founding fathers, and

American Political Economists and the Influence of the GHSE 103 remained strongly attached to the organization for the rest of his life (ibid.). He also served as president of the AEA in 1909—1910.

Allyn Abbott Young (1876-1929) completed his PhD at the University of Wisconsin under Ely in 1902. During that time, he was also influenced by William A. Scott and Charles H. Haskins, who were previously students of Ely at Johns Hopkins University. After completing his studies, Young worked as a professor at the economics departments of the universities of Wisconsin, Harvard, Cornell, and Washington. Additionally, he was head of the eco­nomics department at Stanford University between 1906 and 1910 (Carlson 1968, 106). It should be noted that ‘Young was the most highly respected economics professor at Harvard. Under him a considerable number of the outstanding students wished to write their doctors’ theses. His reputation as a scholar and as a teacher was well deserved’ (ibid.). Some of Young’s for­mer students who later rose to prominence included Bertil Ohlin, Frank H. Knight, Nicholas Kaldor, and Lauchlin Currie. Later in his life, Young be­came president of the ASA in 1917 and the AEA in 1925-1926. Furthermore, in 1919, he went to the Versailles Peace Conference with President Wilson as ‘chief of the Division of Economics and Statistics of the American Commis­sion to Negotiate Peace’ (Dorfman 1966V4, 222).

In 1893, Charles Jesse Bullock (1869-1941) went to the University of Wis­consin to obtain his PhD under Ely. After graduating, he taught at Cornell, before joining Harvard in 1903. During his time at the latter, Bullock be­came ‘chairman of the Harvard University Committee of Economic Re­search’ (Carlson 1968, 108). He mainly published about public finance and was recognized as an authority on the subject.

Henry Ludwell Moore (1869-1958) obtained his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1896. During his graduate studies, he was significantly influ­enced by Clark, having taken his classes on the economic theory of distribu­tion (Stigler 1968). He also attended classes taught by Henry Baxter Adams covering German history, Prussian history, and railway problems. Later, he went on to study under Carl Menger in Vienna. After completing his studies, he worked as a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University. Moore was considered an early pioneer of econo­metrics, as he influenced Henry Schultz (1893-1938) who was credited with introducing the subject to the University of Chicago.

Francis Amasa Walker (1840-1897) was drawn to German-trained Ameri­can academics on account of disagreements he had with adherents of classical orthodoxy. Although he did not study under the theorists of the GHSE, Walker held many of the views espoused by their American disciples, as he defended ethical economics, methodological collectivism, and the historical approach, while also valuing social justice and advocating for the rights of the working class, which included calling for limits on working hours, im­provements in working conditions, and higher earnings. Over the course of his career, Walker was a professor of political economy at Yale Univer­sity, a statistician, and a journalist, while also attaining ‘the rank of brigadier 104 American Political Economists and the Influence of the GHSE general during the Civil War’ (Barber 1993, 143). In fact, he served as Chief of the Bureau of Statistics from 1869 to 1870. Subsequently, Walker, who was ‘the first statistician’ from the US, was invited ‘in 1872 to join the faculty of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale College with the title of “Professor of Political Economy”’ (Barber 1993, 143, Dorfman 1966V3, 102). He was also credited with teaching one of America’s first courses in statistics at the Yale Graduate School (Adelstein 1993, 301). While working at Yale, Walker wrote a letter to Ely in which he claimed that he was ‘treated at times even contemptuously by the Old Guard and felt keenly the injustices that had been done him’ (Ely 1936, 147). He specifically identified Sumner as being hostile to him during that time. Eventually, the hostility he encountered at Yale College motivated him to leave the school.

In 1877, Walker taught a series of lectures on monetary policies at Johns Hopkins University, which led him to develop close relationships with American disciples of the GHSE (Adelstein 1993, 304). Then, in 1881, he played a major role in the establishment of a political economy department at MIT (ibid.: 305). That same year, Walker became president of MIT, a post that he retained until his death. In 1882, he became president of the ASA, before being elected as the first president of the AEA in 1885. Members of the AEA accepted Walker as ‘a leader,’ who was ‘far more than any other man, prepared the way for the development of future thought in economics in the United States’ (Ely 1910, 88). This is likely why he ended up serving as its president for the first seven years of its existence. Also of note, in 1891, he was elected ‘Vice-President of the National Academy of Sciences; in 1893, he was President-adjunct of the International Statistical Institute at its session in Chicago’ (Dunbar 1897, 436). It was widely believed that ‘General Walker’s contributions to economic theory’ would have ‘lasting value’ (ibid.: 445). There is no doubt that he was able to change the scene of the discipline of economics by breaking ‘the crust of the old economics’ (Dunbar 1897, 444, Ely 1936, 147).

During the early development of the discipline of economics in the US, leading theorists such as Henry Carter Adams, Clark, James, Patten, Ely, Seligman, Seager, Mayo-Smith, and Walker represented the most striking characteristics of American economics. Although American economists were no longer particularly interested in studying in Germany in the early decades of 20th century, they continued to be influenced by the American scholars that were trained in Germany in prior decades. For instance, institutionalist Thorstein Bunde Veblen (1857—1929) was influenced by Ely, Henry Baxter Adams, Clark, and Dewey (Adelstein 1993, 311). Similar to adherents of the GHSE, Veblen was opposed to the simplistic view of economic men advo­cated by classical economics, believing instead that the individual was formed historically through social interactions with others, habits, culture, and insti­tutional restrictions on behavior. Wesley Clair Mitchell (1874—1948), another institutionalist who was one of the founders of the National Bureau of Eco­nomic Research in 1920 and president of the AEA in 1924—1925, was also

exposed to the views, ideas, goals, and methods of the GHSE, largely through the influences of Veblen and Dewey. In addition to Veblen and Mitchell, other well-known institutional economists included Schumpeter, Wassily Leontief, Gottfried Haberler, Sumner H. Slichter, Alvin H. Hansen, John M. Clark, Rexford G. Tugwell, Gardiner C. Means, and Clarence E. Ayres. All of them were inf luenced at some level, directly or indirectly, by works, ideas, and methods of the GHSE. While it is extremely difficult to uncover all the details about the extent to which the GHSE affected economists who never studied in the classes of its theorists, it is evident that the GHSE had a major influence on the intellectual formation of many American economists.