F. W. Taussig
F. W. Taussig | |
|---|---|
 Taussig,c. 1915 | |
| Born | Frank William Taussig December 28, 1859 St. Louis,Missouri, US |
| Died | November 11, 1940(aged 80) |
| Spouses |
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| Academic background | |
| Education | Washington University in St. Louis Harvard University |
| Influences | Charles F. Dunbar |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Economics |
| Sub-discipline | International economics |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Doctoral students | |
| Signature | |
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Frank William Taussig(1859–1940) was an Americaneconomistwho is credited with creating the foundations of moderntrade theory.
Early life
[edit]
He was born on December 28, 1859, inSt. Louis,Missouri,the son ofWilliam Taussigand Adele Wuerpel. His parents encouraged his literary and musical interests, and he played the violin at an early age. He was educated in the St. Louis public schools and at Smith Academy in that same city. He then went toWashington University in St. Louisbut, after a year transferred toHarvardfrom where he graduated in 1879.[4]
He traveled in Europe for a year, taking some time to study economics at theUniversity of Berlin.He then did graduate work at Harvard in law and economics while he was secretary to PresidentCharles W. Eliotfor some years.
Teaching
[edit]He got a law degree in 1886 and was appointed assistant professor at Harvard.[5]He became professor of economics in 1892, and he remained at Harvard for the balance of his professional career except for several years spent in federal service and some time spent traveling in Europe recovering from a nervous disorder.[4]
Beliefs
[edit]Taussig was an open advocate offorced sterilizationof races and classes he considered inferior. In his 1911 textbookPrinciples of Economics,Taussing remarked:
Certain types of criminals and paupers breed only their kind, and society has a right and a duty to protect its members from the repeated burden of maintaining and guarding such parasites.... The human race could be immensely improved in quality, and its capacity for happy living immensely increased, if those of poor physical and mental endowment were prevented from multiplying.[6]
Paul Douglas(a future president of the American Economic Association and three-term Senator from Illinois) was a graduate student under Taussig at Harvard in the Fall of 1915 and recalled the experience. Douglas had studied two years in graduate school at Columbia University withEdwin Seligman,who was an ideological enemy of Taussig. Given the opportunity to criticize the Columbia school of economic thought by confronting Douglas, Taussig attempted to humiliate him to the delight of the Harvard pupils who filled the lecture hall to witness the "slaughter". Eventually, Douglas turned the tables and trapped Taussig in a logical economic debate. Douglas recalled, "The following day, Taussig cordially shook hands with me at the end of the hour.... We also became fast friends for the rest of his life. Trying as the experience was, it was the best thing to happen to me in my academic life. It forced me to master the reasoning of the great economic theorists and to stand my ground under verbal and logical bombardment."[7]
Beet sugar and tariff
[edit]In a 1912 article in TheQuarterly Journal of Economics,Taussig favored protecting thebeetsugar industrywith a tariff on sugar imports. A beet sugar industry gives intangible benefits by adding to the versatility and capabilities of American agriculture. Unskilled labor gains employment in the labor-intensive beet sugar sector of agriculture. Beet sugar grows best in cool climates of the irrigated regions of Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and California.[8]
Other positions held
[edit]He was the editor of theQuarterly Journal of Economicsfrom 1889 to 1890 and from 1896 to 1935, president of theAmerican Economic Associationin 1904 and 1905, and chair of theUnited States Tariff Commissionfrom 1917 to 1919.
He was elected a Member of both theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesand theAmerican Philosophical Society.[9][10]
In March 1919, he was called toParisto advise in the adjustment of commercial treaties, and in November, on invitation ofWoodrow Wilson,he attended the second industrial conference inWashington, DC,for promoting peace between capital and labour. He was a strong supporter of theLeague of Nations.
Death
[edit]He died on November 11, 1940, aged 80, inCambridge,Massachusetts.Taussig is buried inMount Auburn Cemeteryin Cambridge.
Legacy
[edit]The successor to his chair at Harvard wasJoseph Schumpeter.In 1888, he married Edith Thomas Guild. One of their four children wasHelen B. Taussig(1898–1986), a noted pediatrician and cardiologist. F. W. Taussig's first wife died in 1910, and he married Laura Fisher.[4][5]
Works
[edit]
Much of Taussigs work is available fromInternet Archive:
- 1883:Protection to Young Industries as Applied to the United States(second edition, 1886)
- 1885:History of the Present Tariff, 1860–83
- 1888:The Tariff History of the United Stateseighth edition, 1931,
- 1892:The Silver Situation in the United States(second edition, revised, 1896)
- 1896:Wages and Capital
- 1911, 1915, 1927Principles of Economics,volume 1,Volume 2
- 1918:Some Aspects of the Tariff Question
- 1915:Inventors and Money Makers,Brown Universitylectures
- 1920:Free Trade, the Tariff, and Reciprocity
- 1927:International Trade
- 1887–1935:Economic theory exam questions
References
[edit]- ^"Harvard. Ph.D. Examination Candidates in Economics, 1914".19 September 2017.
- ^Holmes, Gordon (2013).Staples, Political Economy and Trade Flows: A New Interpretation and Quantitative Evidence(PhD thesis). Hamilton, Ontario: McMaster University. p. 100.hdl:11375/15304.
- ^Moggridge, Donald E. (2014)."Review ofThe Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White and the Making of a New World Order,by Benn Steil ".Œconomia.4(4): 647–650.doi:10.4000/oeconomia.1043.ISSN2269-8450.
- ^abcEdward S. Mason (1958). "Taussig, Frank William".Dictionary of American Biography.Vol. Supplement Two. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- ^abAnn T. Keene (1999). "Taussig, Frank William".American National Biography(online ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1400620.(subscription required)
- ^F. W. Taussig (1915).Principles of Economics.pp.236–.
- ^Douglas, Paul H. (1971).In the Fullness of Time.Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. pp. 28–34.
- ^Taussig, F. W. (1912). "Beet Sugar and the Tariff".The Quarterly Journal of Economics.26(2): 189–214.doi:10.2307/1884763.JSTOR1884763.
- ^"Frank William Taussig".American Academy of Arts & Sciences.2023-02-10.Retrieved2023-07-21.
- ^"APS Member History".search.amphilsoc.org.Retrieved2023-07-21.
Sources
[edit]- Britannica Online
- Profile of Frank W. Taussigat theHistory of Economic Thought website.
- Department of Economics, University of VictoriaArchived2010-12-01 at theWayback Machine
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922)..Encyclopædia Britannica(12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
- Gilman, D. C.;Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905)..New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
External links
[edit]
Media related toFrank William Taussigat Wikimedia Commons
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1859 births
- 1940 deaths
- American economics writers
- American eugenicists
- American male non-fiction writers
- American political writers
- American social scientists
- Harvard University faculty
- Writers from St. Louis
- Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery
- International Trade Commission personnel
- Presidents of the American Economic Association
- Economists from Missouri
- Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
- Washington University in St. Louis alumni
- Harvard College alumni
- Members of the American Philosophical Society