Introduction to Alvin H. Hansen: The Contribution of Professor John R. Commons to American Economics

The address reproduced below was given by Alvin Hansen on November 18, 1932, on the occasion of John R. Commons’s 70th birthday celebration held in Madison, Wisconsin. This occasion had been in planning since late in 1930, the chief organizers being John B. Andrews, Meredith Givens, and Donald Montgomery (Chasse, 2017, p. 211). A committee was set up to solicit funds for a gift, the committee consisting of a large number of Commons’s colleagues and students: Meredith Givens, Donald Montgomery, J. B. Andrews, W. Ellison Chalmers, B. M. Squires, Holbrook Working, Ewan Clague, E. E. Witte, Sumner Slichter, Harold Groves, E. W. Morehouse, Harry Jerome, Arthur Altmeyer, Selig Perlman, Don Lescohier, H. O. Eaton, and Martin Glaeser. The funds collected were given to Commons with a suggestion he use the money for a trip to Europe. In addition, the John R. Commons Economic Library was established in the room adjoining his office, where it was planned to place a collection of his books and those of his students “under the portrait of Professor Commons that already hangs there.”¹ According to a report on the birthday celebration, some 235 former students attended as well as dignitaries such as State Governor Phillip La Follette, former University of Wisconsin president E. A. Birge, and a number of labor leaders. Several speeches were given, but the principal address concerning Commons’s work was that given by Alvin Hansen (Chasse, 2017, pp. 211–212).