Oswald Whitman Knauth

Background

Oswald Whitman Knauth was born on June 03, 1887 in New York City, New York, United States, the son of Percival Knauth, a banker, and of Mary Iles Whitman. His father was the American representative of the international banking house of Knauth, Nachod and Kuhne.

Education

Oswald Whitman Knauth received the private schooling. Thereafter he entered Harvard, graduating with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1909. For a single day he attended law school, and for one term was a theology student, but neither discipline challenged him. Then he entered Columbia University, where he earned a doctorate in 1913 under the direction of economist E. R. A. Seligman.

Career

Knauth experimented in several fields. He worked until 1910 for American Bank Note Company (which manufactured playing cards). In 1914, he published Policy of the United States Toward Industrial Monopoly. Next he served as an instructor and assistant professor of economics at Princeton (1913 - 1916) and ventured into journalism for two years, as an editorial writer for the New York Evening Post.

In World War I, Knauth served in France as a first lieutenant in the 106th Field Artillery. After the war he wrote on economics for periodicals such as the Dial and the Nation. He also was a founder of the National Bureau of Economic Research, of which he was a staff member (1919 - 1922) and, subsequently, director and president. During this period he collaborated on Income in the United States (1921), a pioneering analysis widely used by researchers. In 1923, Knauth published Distribution of Income by States.

The failure of his father's banking firm forced Knauth to search for more remunerative employment, and in 1922 he accepted a position as an economist with R. H. Macy and Company. For the next decade he distinguished himself less as an economist and more as a businessman. With a keen eye for merchandising, he reorganized several departments and recruited college graduates for training in retailing. After serving as executive vice-president, treasurer, director, and merchandising counsel, he retired from Macy's in early 1934.

He spent most of the next year on his schooner in the Caribbean. In April 1935, New York City's mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, appointed Knauth the city's director of emergency relief, a much-criticized program to which he applied his organizational skills. The position was short-lived because the federal government initiated work relief in the same year. From 1936 to 1943, Knauth was president of Associated Dry Goods Corporation, which controlled eight department stores.

During World War II he became a consultant to the quartermaster general (1942 - 1943) and Army Supply Forces (1942 - 1944), as well as an assistant director of the statistics division of the War Production Board (1942). Knauth returned to teaching in 1948, when he accepted a position at Columbia; he remained there until 1954. He also continued his more formal scholarship in economics. In 1948, he completed Managerial Enterprise: Its Growth and Methods of Operation. His last book, Business Practices, Trade Position, and Competition, appeared in 1956. These works, as well as his articles published in scholarly journals, were conspicuous for their nonacademic style and the insights of a practicing businessman. The publications received a mixed reception from academic reviewers.

Achievements

• Oswald Whitman Knauth was recognized for his contribution to the economic studies and establishment of the National Bureau of Economic Research. His work "Income in the United States" (1921) was a pioneering analysis and was widely used by researchers. For his service during World War I, he received the Distinguished Service Medal.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Policy of the United States Towards Industrial Monopoly (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Policy of the United States Towards Indu...)

  • Income in the United States, Its Amount and Distribution, 1909-1919; Volume 2

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Income in the United States, Its Amount and Distribution, 1909-1919; Volume 1

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Distribution of income by states in 1919, No.3

    (Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this clas...)

  • Business Practices, Trade Position, and Competition

Views

Knauth's basic message in his works was that the classical economics of Adam Smith and David Ricardo did not correspond to reality in twentieth-century America. Yet government policy, he maintained, was often geared to the classical model--for instance, in antitrust laws and suits. What was needed, therefore, was the development of a new theory that recognized the merits and shortcomings of large corporations, and the necessity to understand the dynamic quality of the production and marketing system that actually existed, especially in retail sales contexts. "Trade advantage, " Knauth wrote in Political Science Quarterly, "is coterminous with organized production and distribution; and large organizations could not exist without the permanence and stability which these trade advantages afford. . The power which trade advantage brings can be abused. It yields opportunity for anti-social prices and restrictions. On the other hand, it can be used beneficently, for lower price and increased quality. We are groping toward a scheme of things which will enhance the beneficence of great organization and minimize its abuse. This is neither socialism nor free enterprise; it is neither competition nor monopoly. . A new concept for social judgment must be found. "

Interests

• Knauth was fond of sailing.

Connections

On September 29, 1911, Knauth married Anna Dixwell Clements. They had three sons.

Father:

Percival Knauth

banker

Mother:

Mary Iles Whitman

Spouse:

Anna Dixwell Clements