Kemmerer, Edwin Walter (1875-1945)

Edwin W. Kemmerer (1875-1945), internationally known as "The Money Doctor," was an economist and government advisor with expertise in finance and currency. Kemmerer served as a financial advisor to many governments, mostly in Latin America, and spent the majority of his academic career at Princeton University. He advocated for the gold standard throughout his career.

Edwin Walter Kemmerer was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on June 29, 1875, the eldest of six children of Lorenzo Dow and Martha H. (Courtright) Kemmerer. He attended Keystone Academy preparatory school, where he first became interested in becoming a professor of economics. Kemmerer then attended Wesleyan University, studying under Professor Willard Clarke Fisher. Kemmerer graduated in 1899 with an A.B. with special distinction in economics and then attended Cornell University to pursue his doctorate in economics, studying with Professor Jeremiah W. Jenks. He was a fellow in economics and finance at Cornell University from 1899 to 1901, and then an instructor in economics and history at Purdue University from 1901 to 1903. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1903. Kemmerer married Rachel Dickele on December 24, 1901. They had a son, Donald Lorenzo Kemmerer, and a daughter, Ruth K. (Dorf).

Kemmerer's dissertation, Money and Credit Instruments in Their Relation to General Prices, established him as a rising authority in the field of money and led to his appointment as Financial Advisor to the United States Philippine Commission in 1903 by then Governor of the Philippines William Howard Taft. From 1904 to 1906, Kemmerer served as chief of the division of the currency. While in the Philippines, Kemmerer developed the plan that placed their monetary system on the gold standard and drafted laws to organize a postal savings system and the Agricultural Bank of the Islands. On his return trip to the United States in 1906, Kemmerer studied and wrote a report on the currency situation in the Straits Settlements and conducted a study of the Agricultural Bank of Egypt.

Kemmerer returned to the United States in 1906 and accepted the position of assistant professor at Cornell University, teaching on money and banking, elementary economics, and the financial history of the United States. Kemmerer became a full professor of Economics and Finance in 1909. In 1912, Kemmerer left Cornell University to become professor of economics and finance at Princeton University, where he remained for the duration of his academic career. Kemmerer became the Walker Chair in International Finance and the director of the newly established International Finance Section of Princeton University in 1928, positions he held until he retired professor emeritus in 1943.

During his career at Princeton University, Kemmerer took frequent leaves of absence to serve as a financial advisor to the governments of other countries, earning him the appellation of "The Money Doctor." Kemmerer served as an advisor to the government of Mexico in 1917 and to the government of Guatemala in 1919. After that time, Kemmerer generally worked as the head of a commission of experts, rather than working individually, to ensure the advisors could address the range of issues associated with currency reforms, including public budgets and debt, systems of banking, taxes, and trade. The commission would analyze the situation in the country and advise the government on solutions, including providing a draft of the legislation needed to implement their recommendations. It was then left to the government to determine what to implement and how they would do so. Kemmerer was the chair of commissions of financial advisers to Colombia (1923 and 1930), Chile (1925), Poland (1926), Ecuador (1926-1927), Bolivia (1927), China (1929), and Peru (1931). In 1934, Kemmerer was co-chairman of the Hines-Kemmerer Commission established to conduct an economic survey of Turkey.

In addition to his advisory work with commissions, Kemmerer continued to serve on occasion as an individual expert. In 1922, Kemmerer served as the United States Trade Commissioner in South America. Kemmerer also traveled to Europe with the Dawes Committee from 1924 to 1925, serving as the expert on currency and banking to the Committee. In this capacity, he drafted substantial portions of the plans for the reorganization of the German Reichsbank and for the stabilization of German currency. And, also from 1924 to 1925, Kemmerer worked with Dr. Gerard Vissering to advise the government of South Africa on the feasibility of returning to the gold standard independent of the currency policy in Great Britain.

Kemmerer was also a prolific author throughout his career, writing articles and pamphlets in support of the gold standard, opposing the Bretton Woods Plan and the New Deal, and publishing reports produced as part of his advisory work. Kemmerer was also the author of fourteen books, including The ABC of the Federal Reserve System (1918), Kemmerer on Money (1934), Money: The Principles of Money and Their Exemplification in Outstanding Chapters of Monetary History (1935), The ABC of Inflation (1942), and Gold and the Gold Standard (1944). He was best known for his writings in defense of the gold standard system; even after retirement, Kemmerer continued to be active as an advocate for the gold standard.

Kemmerer became a member of the American Economic Association in 1903. He served as Managing Editor of the Economic Bulletin (the predecessor of the American Economic Review) from 1907 to 1910, on the Board of Editors of the American Economic Review from 1911 to 1913, and was president of the Association in 1926. From 1936 to 1945, Kemmerer was president of the Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy, an organization founded to advocate for the United States to return to the gold standard. Kemmerer was a fellow, and vice president, of the American Statistical Association, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Council on Foreign Relations. Kemmerer also served as a trustee of Wesleyan University, Scranton-Keyston Junior College, and Robert College, in Turkey, and was director of several corporations.

Kemmerer received honorary degrees from Oglethorpe University (1933), Rutgers University (1933), Wesleyan University (1926), Occidental College (1928), Columbia University (1935), the Central University of Ecuador (1927), and all the universities of Bolivia acting together (1927). Kemmerer was only the second individual to receive an honorary Doctor degree from the Central University of Ecuador. He also received honors from several governments for his advisory work, including Colombia (1923), Poland (1926), Ecuador (1927), and Belgium (1937). Kemmerer passed away on December 16, 1945, at the age of 70.

Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy (U.S.)

The Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy, active from November 1933 to 1970, was composed of economists and other financial experts who sought to educate the public and United States government on sound monetary policy. The Committee advocated for a return to the gold standard and sought to combat what they saw as dangerous inflationist sentiment and aggressive monetary policies of the time through public addresses, publishing articles and pamphlets, and testifying before Congress.

The Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy (hereafter "the Committee") was organized on November 17, 1933 by a group of monetary economists as an educational organization. Faced with what they perceived as the spread of inflationist sentiment and many aggressive political banking movements in the early 1930s, the Committee members dedicated themselves to educating the American public and government on what constituted sound monetary policy. The Committee also established itself as a watchdog of the currency system, opposing currency depreciation in all forms and seeking to return the United States to the gold standard. The organizers of the Committee recruited the nation's leading monetary and banking economists for the Committee's membership, drawn for the most part from college and university faculties, with the intention of establishing the Committee as a source of unbiased, scientific information on money and banking. The Committee was composed of eighty to ninety-five individuals and included many of the monetary economists of the United States who had experience in setting up or supervising currency systems, such as Edwin W. Kemmerer, Oliver M. W. Sprague, H. Parker Willis, Ernest L. Bogart, William W. Cumberland, and John Parke Young. The driving force behind the Committee was Walter E. Spahr of Columbia University. Spahr served as Secretary-Treasurer from 1933 to 1945 and as Executive Vice President and Treasurer from 1946 to 1970. Additionally, he was editor of the monthly publication Monetary Notes and its predecessor "Intra-Committee Communications," wrote numerous articles and addresses, and maintained correspondence with a large number of like-minded economists in the United States and abroad.

The Committee issued public statements on money and banking bills being considered by Congress, on Administration policies in those fields, and on monetary programs which had inspired considerable interest in the general public. All official pronouncements of the Committee included the names of the members who endorsed it, maintaining the independence of each member by not allowing anyone to speak for another. The Committee also published pamphlets and articles written by members that discussed the current issues and basic monetary principles in a way that was useful for the general public. Beginning in 1941, the Committee published a monthly "Intra-Committee Communication," first just for members and later for a wider audience, which was renamed Monetary Notes in 1944 and published until February 1970. The publication, which was written by Walter E. Spahr, discussed monetary and fiscal matters and analyzed important trends toward or away from sound monetary policies.

One of the chief goals of the Committee was to make their publications available as widely as possible, free of charge. Publications were sent to all members of Congress, important government officials, newspapers and magazines, radio commentators, Washington correspondents, libraries, contributors to the Committee's work, members of the Committee, a mailing list open to the public, and then to wider lists of educators, leaders, and students as their funds permitted. The Committee also sent publications to several other countries. In addition to their publication efforts, the Committee influenced monetary policies through the work of individual members. Members testified before House and Senate committees and provided information and advice to Congressmen and other government officials, and would provide public support for Congressmen who were advocating unpopular policies that the Committee judged to be sound. Members also gave radio addresses and spoke before banking, business, and civic groups.

Because so many of the Committee's efforts focused on influencing legislation, it was difficult for them to determine the exact effect of their labors. While they were active, it became more difficult for bills that the Committee opposed to be passed and several were defeated. The abilities of the President to devalue the gold dollar and to issue "greenbacks" were removed, and through their publications they exposed questionable practices of the Treasury and Federal Reserve that were subsequently stopped by Congress. However, the United States never returned to the gold standard that the Committee advocated as the sound currency system.

The Committee was supported through donations from the public, typically solicited through mailings or the efforts of individual members, which funded the maintenance of the Committee's office, the publication and distribution of the Committee's literature, and the expenses of members who traveled to Washington to testify before Congress or to attend meetings held by the Executive Committee. Because of their reliance on donations, the Committee often faced financial difficulties. In order to balance the budget, members donated significant amounts of money and Walter E. Spahr frequently worked while collecting less than half of his salary. The Committee also found it difficult to obtain donations from foundations because, due to their work to influence legislation, they were sometimes perceived as a special-interest lobbying group rather than the educational organization they sought to be. This difficulty increased when the Internal Revenue Service revoked the Committee's tax-exempt status as an educational organization in 1962, ruling that because their primary focus was to influence legislation, the Committee was an "action organization" and contributions to the Committee could no longer be used as tax deductions.

The Executive Committee met for a special session on January 31, 1970 to determine the fate of the Committee following the death of Walter E. Spahr a few days earlier, since Spahr had been the driving force behind the Committee for many years. With a 6 to 2 vote, the Executive Committee resolved to liquidate the Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy by May 31, 1970 and immediately establish a successor committee with similar aims and a comparable membership. While the dissenting two felt that maintaining the name was important for the group's image, the majority felt that the financial difficulties of the Committee were better solved with a new organization which would have a tax-exempt status and a clean slate. They formed the Committee for Monetary Research and Education, with Donald L. Kemmerer as the first president, in 1971. As of 2007, the organization was still active.

There were six presidents of the Committee:

Ray B. Westerfield (1933-1935)

Edwin W. Kemmerer (1936-1945)

Leonard P. Ayres (1946)

Benjamin M. Anderson (1947-1949)

James Washington Bell (acting President 1949-1953, President 1953-1967)

Donald L. Kemmerer (1967-1970)

Princeton University

The College of New Jersey was initially chartered in 1746. The first classes were held in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in the parsonage of the president, the Reverend Jonathan Dickinson. Upon his death, the College moved to Newark, New Jersey, and was headed by the Reverend Aaron Burr, Sr. Since 1756, the College has been located in Princeton, New Jersey. For the first fifty years, nearly all College operations took place within Nassau Hall. Fires, fundraising difficulties, low student enrollment, and the Civil War challenged the vitality of the College in the early and middle nineteenth century, but the College grew vigorously under the leadership of President James McCosh, and it was renamed Princeton University in 1896. The Graduate School was established in 1900, although a limited graduate program had existed since the 1870s. Princeton enthusiastically supported the country (living up to its informal motto, "Princeton in the Nation's Service") during the First and Second World Wars, offering the expertise of faculty and campus space for training, as well as facilitating the early graduation of students so they could enlist. The post-World War II years brought dramatic changes to Princeton. The size and strength of the University's facilities and academic programs—especially for the applied sciences and public policy—were increased dramatically. Under President Robert Goheen, Princeton began to admit minority students in greater numbers in the 1960s and admitted women undergraduates in 1969. Today, Princeton is widely regarded as one of the top universities in the world.

Kemmerer, Edwin Walter (1875-1945)

Edwin W. Kemmerer (1875-1945), internationally known as "The Money Doctor," was an economist and government advisor with expertise in finance and currency. Kemmerer served as a financial advisor to many governments, mostly in Latin America, and spent the majority of his academic career at Princeton University. He advocated for the gold standard throughout his career.

Edwin Walter Kemmerer was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on June 29, 1875, the eldest of six children of Lorenzo Dow and Martha H. (Courtright) Kemmerer. He attended Keystone Academy preparatory school, where he first became interested in becoming a professor of economics. Kemmerer then attended Wesleyan University, studying under Professor Willard Clarke Fisher. Kemmerer graduated in 1899 with an A.B. with special distinction in economics and then attended Cornell University to pursue his doctorate in economics, studying with Professor Jeremiah W. Jenks. He was a fellow in economics and finance at Cornell University from 1899 to 1901, and then an instructor in economics and history at Purdue University from 1901 to 1903. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1903. Kemmerer married Rachel Dickele on December 24, 1901. They had a son, Donald Lorenzo Kemmerer, and a daughter, Ruth K. (Dorf).

Kemmerer's dissertation, Money and Credit Instruments in Their Relation to General Prices, established him as a rising authority in the field of money and led to his appointment as Financial Advisor to the United States Philippine Commission in 1903 by then Governor of the Philippines William Howard Taft. From 1904 to 1906, Kemmerer served as chief of the division of the currency. While in the Philippines, Kemmerer developed the plan that placed their monetary system on the gold standard and drafted laws to organize a postal savings system and the Agricultural Bank of the Islands. On his return trip to the United States in 1906, Kemmerer studied and wrote a report on the currency situation in the Straits Settlements and conducted a study of the Agricultural Bank of Egypt.

Kemmerer returned to the United States in 1906 and accepted the position of assistant professor at Cornell University, teaching on money and banking, elementary economics, and the financial history of the United States. Kemmerer became a full professor of Economics and Finance in 1909. In 1912, Kemmerer left Cornell University to become professor of economics and finance at Princeton University, where he remained for the duration of his academic career. Kemmerer became the Walker Chair in International Finance and the director of the newly established International Finance Section of Princeton University in 1928, positions he held until he retired professor emeritus in 1943.

During his career at Princeton University, Kemmerer took frequent leaves of absence to serve as a financial advisor to the governments of other countries, earning him the appellation of "The Money Doctor." Kemmerer served as an advisor to the government of Mexico in 1917 and to the government of Guatemala in 1919. After that time, Kemmerer generally worked as the head of a commission of experts, rather than working individually, to ensure the advisors could address the range of issues associated with currency reforms, including public budgets and debt, systems of banking, taxes, and trade. The commission would analyze the situation in the country and advise the government on solutions, including providing a draft of the legislation needed to implement their recommendations. It was then left to the government to determine what to implement and how they would do so. Kemmerer was the chair of commissions of financial advisers to Colombia (1923 and 1930), Chile (1925), Poland (1926), Ecuador (1926-1927), Bolivia (1927), China (1929), and Peru (1931). In 1934, Kemmerer was co-chairman of the Hines-Kemmerer Commission established to conduct an economic survey of Turkey.

In addition to his advisory work with commissions, Kemmerer continued to serve on occasion as an individual expert. In 1922, Kemmerer served as the United States Trade Commissioner in South America. Kemmerer also traveled to Europe with the Dawes Committee from 1924 to 1925, serving as the expert on currency and banking to the Committee. In this capacity, he drafted substantial portions of the plans for the reorganization of the German Reichsbank and for the stabilization of German currency. And, also from 1924 to 1925, Kemmerer worked with Dr. Gerard Vissering to advise the government of South Africa on the feasibility of returning to the gold standard independent of the currency policy in Great Britain.

Kemmerer was also a prolific author throughout his career, writing articles and pamphlets in support of the gold standard, opposing the Bretton Woods Plan and the New Deal, and publishing reports produced as part of his advisory work. Kemmerer was also the author of fourteen books, including The ABC of the Federal Reserve System (1918), Kemmerer on Money (1934), Money: The Principles of Money and Their Exemplification in Outstanding Chapters of Monetary History (1935), The ABC of Inflation (1942), and Gold and the Gold Standard (1944). He was best known for his writings in defense of the gold standard system; even after retirement, Kemmerer continued to be active as an advocate for the gold standard.

Kemmerer became a member of the American Economic Association in 1903. He served as Managing Editor of the Economic Bulletin (the predecessor of the American Economic Review) from 1907 to 1910, on the Board of Editors of the American Economic Review from 1911 to 1913, and was president of the Association in 1926. From 1936 to 1945, Kemmerer was president of the Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy, an organization founded to advocate for the United States to return to the gold standard. Kemmerer was a fellow, and vice president, of the American Statistical Association, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Council on Foreign Relations. Kemmerer also served as a trustee of Wesleyan University, Scranton-Keyston Junior College, and Robert College, in Turkey, and was director of several corporations.

Kemmerer received honorary degrees from Oglethorpe University (1933), Rutgers University (1933), Wesleyan University (1926), Occidental College (1928), Columbia University (1935), the Central University of Ecuador (1927), and all the universities of Bolivia acting together (1927). Kemmerer was only the second individual to receive an honorary Doctor degree from the Central University of Ecuador. He also received honors from several governments for his advisory work, including Colombia (1923), Poland (1926), Ecuador (1927), and Belgium (1937). Kemmerer passed away on December 16, 1945, at the age of 70.