University of Wisconsin Madison - Badger Yearbook (Madison, WI)

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4n IS not ' ' ' -er ♦ n. ,1 and women that go from ' of the earth. Her , il amd fearless j.n be ' y a; . .... .,: .. .,.,. »,.,.,. ,,er re . iici read in the deeds of her di of the new; now dominant iii c- iie of her central u;:u. 11 J !.cil, it cannot ye hid. B ' ' ■ ! Ideas ' n. T . .. w.. w... . ......, . was Th ,,;..,,i.:h 0 ' j; the subject of the Nev. aics is The Wants of Men. That Idea has come to influence and will come to d -he lii ' e of the nation and the world as the Idea! ha uwuu Hated thc Ufc of the University. In endorsement of the Idea and in grateiul apr «i of the Man behind it, we are happy — in th ' ■ year of his life and of his ser ' ices at U the thirty ' second — to dedicate this the Thirty ' Ninth volume of The Badger to RICHARD THEODORE ELY, Ph.D., LL. D. Professor of Economics at Johns Hop)[ms University 1881-1892 Professor of Economics RICHARD THEODOR ' •■ — » ' ' -- The portrait here reproduced was painted during the summer of 191J in honor of Professor Ely ' s life and work, and was unveiled on the occasion of bis seventieth birthday, April 13, 1914. It hangs in the central room of the Department of Economics at the University of Wisconsin. The portrait is the work of Mr. John C. Jobansen. t '

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RICHARD THEODORE ELY. PH. D l. £ hundred years after Adam Smith had brought order and system into the views pertdi7iitig to economic hfe, the subject, particularly in America, was still distinctly academic. About that time, a small but distinguished grouf) of economists turned the study from its limited setting into a broader field. Professor Ely as a member of that group made Johns Hopkins, the first real university of America, famous as a center of economic study and research. Coming to Wisconsin thirty-two years ago. Professor Ely at once attracted a group of graduate students. Until that time the univasity had been in reality a college, imparting information mainly such as had long been accepted. Since then Wisconsin has become a university in the larger sense. During these years many departynents have attained distinction, but none greater than that of economics. This development centering around the genius of one man is m itself an attainment of distinction. Professor Ely has been a tireless and fearless wor er. Few Economists have received wider recognition: few indeed hdfe had ynore disciples. His followers are in every uni- versity, m every legislature. Statesmen and jurists are his students. Through such men as Professor Ely unii ' ersit life jnaintams its virility; public life approaches its ideal. B. H. HiBBARD, l nit ' ersitv of Wisconsin. You first introduced me to radicalism in eco- nomics and then made me sane in my radicalism. Theodore Roosevelt. Forty years ago, when Ely began to teach, the mam issue that exercised the political economists was free trade versus protection. When Ely said, ' Look and See, he discovered hundreds of issues and set thousands of people at work mak- ing practical applications of political economy everywhere, from the home, the neighborhood, the state, the nation, to the whole world, and converted economics from a ' dismal science into a constructive force. John R. Commons, University of Wisconsin. Professor Ely was a pioneer in humanizing the study of economics in the United States. He has been instrumental in developing more new lines of research than any other economist in the country. B. H. Meyer, Chairman, interstate Commerce Commission. Dr. Richard T. Ely is one of the greatest teachers of his time. He did his work by stim- ulating enquiry, by provoking both assent and dissent, but always inciting the student or reader to approach the subject from a new angle and to seek for facts regardless of prepossessions of class, period, or region. He kindled a produc- tive interest in economic history and economic actuality, and he emphasiied his subject as a preparation for a public career, rather than as a purely academic discipline. Frederick J. Turner, Harvard Umversity. No other man has done as much as Dr. Ely to make economic study contribute to the welfare and progress of the American people. Albert Shaw, Editor, Review of Reviews. Professor Ely is a student with an ever youth- ful and open mind and a teacher who gives in- spiration which lasts. Henry C. Taylor. United States Department of Agriculture In inspiring widespread study and promoting research in the field of political economy Dr. Ely is America ' s first economist. T. S. Adams, Tale University. I regard Dr. Ely as the greatest inspiration in the study of economics that this country has had in a generation. His writings have probably been more widely read and exerted a wider in- fluence than those of any other American economist. David Kinlby, President, University of Illinois. I made the acquaintance of Professor R. T. Ely, the first American, so far as I know, to treat economics as a human study; the first one to re- gard the industrial problem as one, not of labor and capital, but of laborers and capitalists; the first one to become personally acquainted with working men, to attend their meetings, to con- sider them not as machines supposedly governed solely by self-interest, but as men with wives and children, homes and inspirations, and like other men governed by a great variety of conflicting motives. Lyman Abbott, Late Editor. The Outloo);. .rO