Thomas Walker Page was an American economist and public official.
Background
Thomas Walker Page was born on December 4, 1866 at Old Keswick, his father's plantation, in Cobham, Virginia, United States. He was the second son and third of five children of Thomas Walker and Nancy Watson (Morris) Page. Thomas was a member of an old Virginia family, a cousin of the author Thomas Nelson Page and a younger brother of James Morris Page, who was for many years dean of the University of Virginia.
Education
Page attended Randolph-Macon College (1884 - 1886) and the University of Virginia (1889). Later he studied at the University of Leipzig, from which he received the Ph. D. degree, summa cum laude, in 1896. He also spent a year in graduate work and research at Oxford and the University of Paris.
Career
From 1898 to 1900 Thomas Walker Page was professor of economics and in 1900 - 1902 dean of the college of commerce at the University of California. In 1903 - 1904 he headed the department of economics at the University of Texas but returned to California as professor of economics and history, 1904 - 1906. In 1906 he became James Wilson Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia, holding this chair until 1923. During much of this period, however, he was granted leave of absence to serve in important public posts. Thomas Walker Page was a member of the United States ("Taft") Tariff Board (1911-1912). He was also a member of the Committee on Tax Reform for Virginia (1914 - 1915).
In 1918 Thomas Walker Page was appointed by President Wilson to the federal Tariff Commission, as vice-chairman under Chairman Frank W. Taussig and subsequently (1920 - 1922) as chairman. In 1922 he resigned from the Tariff Commission to join the Institute of Economics, later the Brookings Institution, as chairman of its council. In 1930 he returned to the Tariff Commission as vice-chairman and continued there until his death.
He was the first chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee for Reciprocity Information, established by executive order to receive testimony to be used in negotiating reciprocal trade agreements under the Trade Agreements Act of 1934. Page was the author of many works, chiefly in the form of monographs, articles, and public documents, but including also his well-known book Making the Tariff in the United States (1924). Among the subjects he dealt with in articles were the labor movement and immigration, lynching and race relations in the South, taxation, and various aspects of the tariff. He was president of the National Tax Association in 1924 - 1925.
As a teacher he lectured ably, maintained rigorous standards of scholarship, and encouraged independent thinking and investigation on the part of his students. As an economist his sympathies, in the words of a long-time associate, Professor Tipton R. Snavely, "lay principally with the Classicists, properly qualified and interpreted in the light of modern developments. Although recognizing the merits of the marginal analysis, he never adopted the doctrines of the Austrian school with the same finality accorded them by many American writers a generation or more ago. On the other hand, he was keenly alive to the need for reform and never failed to stress this need in his lectures. "
The same qualities which Page exhibited as a professor stood him in good stead as a public official. As tariff commissioner he encouraged the most analytical inquiry into all of the relevant facts and insisted that the results of such research be set forth clearly and without bias as to policy. He possessed a remarkably detailed knowledge of American industries, large and small. Low-tariff in his sympathies, he was nevertheless disposed to examine each case objectively on its individual merits. He demonstrated a particular aptitude, aided by understanding and good humor, for training and guiding younger men in doing effective practical research.
He died of heart failure in the University Hospital at Charlottesville, Virginia on January 13, 1937.
Thomas Waler Page had a highly retentive memory and a hard, common-sense approach to the tasks which fell to him. He always insisted on the most careful interpretation of facts and on exactness in the expression of ideas.
Connections
On August 8, 1900, Thomas Walker Page married Celeste Alspaugh of Winston, Noth Carolina. They had three children: Thomas Walker, Celeste Walker, and Rose Walker.