Howard, Earl Dean, 1876-

Earl Dean Howard, Professor of Sociology and Economics at Northwestern University from 1907 to 1941, was born in Fayette, Ohio in 1876. His research interests included industrial progress in contemporary Germany, banking and labor agreements. In addition to academics, Howard worked for Hart, Schaffner & Marx as a Labor Manager and Vice President, as well as serving as the City of Chicago's Labor Director and Mediator and the Deputy Administrator of the NRA under Roosevelt. Howard died in 1956.

Educated at local public schools, he attended the Fayette Normal University from 1891 to 1893. Howard came to Chicago with his family and was employed as a salesman at his father's lumber company, during which time he traveled throughout the Midwest selling lumber and writing occasional articles for the Chicago Tribune. Howard was admitted to the University of Chicago in the spring of 1897. Studying German, Finance and Economics, he earned a PhB in 1902, a PhM in 1903 and a PhD in 1905. In 1900, Howard founded the Daily Maroon, the first daily newspaper at the University of Chicago.

In 1904-1905, on a fellowship from the University of Chicago, Howard went to Germany where he attended the University of Berlin. It was there that he completed his thesis requirement for the PhD. His thesis, “The Cause and Extent of the Recent Industrial Progress of Germany,” later won the first Hart, Schaffner and Marx Prize ($600) for an essay in economics. Houghton, Mifflin published his thesis in 1907. Upon his return from Germany in 1905 Howard accepted an appointment as Instructor of Banking and Economics at the Wharton School of Finance of the University of Pennsylvania. He remained at Wharton until 1907. In 1907 he met Margaret Allen, who he married on June 19, 1907.

Returning to Chicago in 1907, Howard was appointed Assistant Professor of Economics at Northwestern University. In 1915 he was appointed Professor of Sociology and Economics, a position he held until his retirement in 1941.

While at Northwestern, Howard also held positions as Labor Manager and Vice President and Director of Hart, Schaffner & Marx –a large, prominent Chicago men's clothing firm. He held these positions from 1911 to 1932. Along with Sidney Hillman, President of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Howard was instrumental in negotiating a labor agreement between Hart, Schaffner and Marx and the ACWA during the ACWA strike in 1910 and 1911. He and Hillman became life-long friends. In 1922 Howard took an extended tour of Europe culminating with a visit to the Soviet Union with Hillman and other labor union members from the United States. While in Moscow and Petrograd they met with Soviet labor leaders and the Minister of Trade and visited clothing and textile factories.

In addition to his appointments at Northwestern and work at Hart, Schaffner & Marx, Howard held visiting lectureships at Harvard (1920-1922) and Stanford (1931). He also served as a Fuel Administrator for the State of Illinois during 1917-1918, and as Deputy Administrator of the NRA in the Roosevelt administration. Under Mayor Edward Kelly, Howard became Labor Director and Mediator for the City of Chicago (1941-1944) and served also as Chicago Area Rent Director during 1941-1942.

Howard returned to the Northwestern faculty after World War II and also served on the faculty of the John Marshall Law School before his retirement. Howard's publications include: The Cause and Extent of the Recent Industrial Progress of Germany (1907), Money and Banking:

A Discussion of the Principles of Money and Credit (in collaboration with Joseph French Johnson, ca. 1910), The Hart, Schaffner & Marx Labor Agreement: Industrial Law in the Clothing Industry (1920), Developing Intelligence by the Socratic Method (1923), and Society Tomorrow (with others, 1929).

From the guide to the Earl Dean Howard (1876-1956) Papers, 1887-1978, (Northwestern University Archives)