STUDIES IN PROGRESS
1. Life of Mazzini
By Stringfellow Barr, Professor of History.
A biographical study of the nineteenth century nationalist, of whom no satisfactory
biography has been written in any language to date.
2. The Cotton Cooperative in the South
By Wilson Gee, Professor of Rural Economics and Rural Sociology and
Edward A. Terry, Research Associate in Rural Social Economics.
No part of the United States has been more severely affected by the postwar
agricultural depression than have the Southern States. Some experiments
are being made in the adjustment of national policies to provide farm relief; but
the success of them is considered quite dubious. In any plan of agricultural rehabilitation,
the farmer's own efforts must play a large part. The volume of
farm production must be greatly increased in efficiency. The most practical
approach to these matters is through cooperative associations. The best form
of cooperative marketing is that organized upon the commodity basis. Hence
the problem of what has been achieved along these lines and the hope for future
progress are matters of first importance in the economy of the South.
3. Labor and Labor Conditions in Virginia
By George T. Starnes, Associate Professor of Commerce and Business Administration
and John E. Hamm, Research Assistant in Commerce.
The purpose of such a study is to make a careful investigation of labor conditions
in the more important industrial centers of the State. Such problems as
labor supply, wages, living conditions, living costs, labor legislation, and the
development of labor unions in the State are being investigated.
4. Retirement of Public Employees in Virginia
By Rowland A. Egger, Director, Bureau of Public Administration, and Associate
Professor of Political Science.
This study is divided into three parts: The legal section, which takes up in
general the law of public pensions. This is of interest not only because of its
possible value in setting up a system of retirement in conformity with the particularly
stringent legal restrictions in this State, but is also of academic moment
inasmuch as the law of public pensions has not been brought up to date since Professor
Green's memorable study for the Illinois Pension Committee in 1918, and
in the intervening fourteen years many alterations have occurred in the principles
of the law governing public pensions. The second section of the report deals
with wages and conditions of labor of municipal employees and the third part,
with the pension characteristics of Virginia municipal employees, data on some
5,000 of whom have been secured, and the recommendation of measures to be
incorporated in pension systems to be established by individual cities.
5. Currency, Credit and Crises in Virginia Since 1860
By E. A. Kincaid, Professor of Finance, and Taylor Musser, Research
Associate in Finance.
A study of the financial reconstruction in the State designed to reveal the
evolution of the State banking system, the effect of the various monetary policies
of the Federal government, including the resumption of specie payments, the
issuance of silver certificates, and the return to the gold standard; an analysis of
the several industrial crises; and the effect of all of these on the economic recovery
of the State from the devastation of the Civil War.
6. Land Jobbing and the Revolution
By Thomas P. Abernethy, Associate Professor of History.
The value and extent of the public lands rendered this one of the most important
questions dealt with by the legislatures of the Revolutionary and Early
Republican periods. The statutes passed in this connection throw unimpeachable
light upon the struggle between democracy and privilege which went on in the
new States. Speculations, sponsored by individuals or chartered land companies,
often give an insight into important political situations and the motives of public
officials. It is with the hope of discovering some of the secret springs of Virginian
politics during this important period that the study of the land question is undertaken.
7. Experimental Study of Human Instincts
By Wayne Dennis, Assistant Professor of Psychology.
In spite of an enormous literature concerning human instincts, practically the
only experimental investigations of instinctive human responses are those of Watson.
These studies were limited to infants so young that many instinctive responses
may have been as yet undeveloped. The present project will utilize older
subjects. The difficulty of making certain that the responses to be observed, such
as responses to strangers, to animals, to the sea, etc., have not been influenced by
training will be met by a careful selection of subjects from among hospitalized
children, institutionalized children, and children from isolated communities. When
techniques are developed and a general knowledge of instinctive responses acquired,
the problem can be widened to include a comparison of racial and social groups.
8. Scientific Interests in the Old South
By T. Cary Johnson, Jr., Associate Professor of History.
In working up this project an attempt will be made to answer, among others,
such questions as the following: What was the effect of the agricultural philosophies
of Jefferson's day, with their all-embracing interests, in stimulating a genuine
enthusiasm for science? Did the achievements in some special field by Southerners,
as for instance in geology by LeConte, or in hydrography by Maury, or in
ornithology by Audubon, or in anesthetics by Long, develop from this earlier
scientific curiosity by any discernible process of differentiation? How widespread
was this curiosity in regard to natural phenomena? What effect did it have on
schools and colleges? And what effect on ante-bellum religious beliefs? What
were its contributions to material well-being in the form of useful inventions?
What part did Southerners play in preparing for the Industrial Era and in bringing
about the Machine Age? These are some of the questions to be answered in
a volume of moderate size.
9. The Executive Power in Virginia
By G. W. Spicer, Associate Professor of Political Science.
In this study the development of the office of Governor of Virginia will be
traced through its various stages, and a critical estimate given of the desirability
of the changes which it has undergone. Finally, special emphasis will be given to
the present status of this office in its relation to the legislative function, the
judicial function, the administrative function, political leadership, etc. In short,
the object of this study will be to tell in a critical manner, the story of the
government of Virginia as it revolves about the office of the Governor.
10. Guide to Manuscript Sources and Collections in Virginia
By Lester J. Cappon, Archivist and Research Associate in History.
The need of a guide to manuscripts in Virginia, to bring to light for the
research student materials hitherto unknown in libraries, government offices, and
in private hands, led to the inception of this project to make a State-wide inventory
of all original records available or which can be made accessible. This
survey includes detailed lists of records in the State, county, and city archives,
in college and university libraries, and in historical societies; also the original
record books and papers of business houses, churches and lodges, schools, banks,
public utilities, and other organizations. The survey also includes a list of Virginia
newspaper files throughout the State. A card index by county is kept so
that the information can be re-organized later for publication. In addition to the
survey, the archivist is collecting manuscripts for the Library of the University
where they are cataloged and filed for research work.
11. The Institutions of Roanoke, Virginia
By Floyd N. House, Professor of Sociology, Frank W. Hoffer, Associate
Professor of Sociology, and Dorohy Havens Wheeler, Research Assistant
in Sociology.
This study is a unit of a comprehensive and thorough social study of the
community of Roanoke and environs, which the authors are planning to make,
and which will present a concrete and realistic picture of the social and cultural
life of the people of Roanoke, and of the various social classes and smaller groups
of which the community as a whole is composed. It is planned to focus the comprehensive
study around three major topics: (1) the ecology of the community—
the spatial distribution of population and institutions, and trends of change in that
distribution—suburban expansion, development of outlying sub-centers, and the
like; (2) the history and functioning of institutions—schools, churches, welfare
agencies, governmental institutions, business institutions, and the many other institutionalized
forms of social life which develop in a community the size of
Roanoke; (3) the nature and trend of cultural life.
11. Economic Theory in the Crucible
By Abraham Berglund, Professor of Commerce and Business Administration
and William H. Wandel, Research Associate in Economic Theory.
The study of Economic Theory in the Crucible is proceeding along the line
of making a close analytical and comparative inquiry into the doctrines of leading
economists, both academic and lay, of the last quarter century. The analysis includes
a consideration of the scope of the scientific field adopted or assumed by
these economists, their approaches and methods, their assumptions and postulates
with some notes as to the validity of these, and their conceptions of value and
distribution. The comparisons are drawn to discover whatever unity may exist
either in doctrines, in emphasis, or in divergence from the more conventional theory,
conventional theory being taken to signify not the use of a standard but merely
the recognition of the existence of certain fairly well defined schools: the Classical
and the Austrian.
