Louis H. Bean Papers, 1896-1944 | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
Collection Overview
Title: Louis H. Bean Papers, 1896-1944
Primary Creator: Bean, Louis H. (1896-1994)
Extent: 17.6 Cubic Feet
Arrangement:
Alphabetically by subject
1. Subject File, 1923-1955
2. Office of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1932-1952
3. Board of Economic Warfare, 1942-1943
4. Economic Stabilization and Critical Areas Commodity Reports, 1949-1951
5. Reading File, 1942-1953
6. Speeches and Writings, 1927-1952, 1960
7. Newspaper and Magazine Clippings, 1927-1957.
Abstract
Scope and Contents of the Materials
Collection Historical Note
Louis Hyman Bean was born in Russia (Courland), April 15, 1896. His father came to the United States in 1905 eventually settling in Laconia, New Hampshire, Mrs. Bean followed with Louis and their other children in 1906. After attending elementary and high schools in Laconia, Louis Bean entered the University of Rochester in 1915. He enlisted in the Army in 1918, received a commission as a lieutenant and served in the infantry without going overseas until his discharge in 1919. He received his A.B. from Rochester the same year. Bean's work as an Assistant Labor Manager induced him to enter the Harvard Business School from which he received his M.B.A. in 1922.
In 1923 Bean joined the research staff of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the U.S. Department of Agriculture where he worked on estimates of farm income, price indices, commodity price analysis, served as secretary of the committee preparing the department's monthly price reports and began his career long study of interrelationships between agriculture and industry. Charts prepared by Bean were first used in Congress while the McNary Haugen Act was under discussion. In 1933 Secretary Wallace, whom Bean had met during the course of his work in the 1920's, appointed Bean Economic Adviser to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. Bean also became head of the Office of Agricultural and Industrial Relations in the Office of the Secretary in 1934. Bean has described himself as being a member of a group to whom Wallace could turn for objective information uninfluenced by politics. Bean's work for Wallace included supplying information needed for press conferences, public discussions, speeches, cabinet meetings and congressional hearings. Bean also worked on several of Wallace's books. He continued to furnish information to Wallace until Wallace's departure from government in 1946. In addition to his work for the Department of Agriculture where, he has said, he was all owed to work on anything that interested him. Bean was also connected with the National Resources Planning Board and testified at hearings on the NRA. Bean also began his work on election trends and forecasts during the 1930's. His first book on this subject, Ballot Behavior first appeared in 1936 and was revised in 1940. Bean was Counselor, Office of Agricultural Economics from 1939 to 1941.
In 1942 Bean became an Assistant Director of the short lived Board of Economic Warfare where he was involved with postwar planning and the BEW British Empire Division. In 1943 he became Chief Fiscal Analyst, Fiscal Division, Bureau of the Budget where he worked on postwar economic problems, including full employment, the absorptive capacity of Palestine and other matters. Bean's statistical study prepared for Senator James Murray's committee drew him into the controversy over steel capacity and its effect on t he economy. Bean began supplying information to the Council of Economic Advisers in 1946. In 1947 Bean rejoined the staff of the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture as Economic Adviser. With the advent of the Eisenhower administration Bean returned briefly to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics until his retirement from government, June 30, 1953.
Bean's books include Graphic Method of Curvilinear Correlation (1929), Ballot Behavior (1936, 1940), How to Predict Elections (1948), and The Art of Forecasting (1970).
Louis Bean died July 5, 1994.
Administrative Information
Repository: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
Acquisition Source: Louis H. Bean
Acquisition Method: The papers were presented to the Library by Louis Bean. Mr . Bean reserved his literary property rights through his death; following that they were donated to the United States Government.
Related Materials: Columbia University Oral History Project and Papers of Mordecai Ezekiel
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Series:
[Series 1: Subject Files, 1923-1953],
[Series 2: Office of Secretary of Agriculture, 1932-1954],
[Series 3: Board of Economic Warfare, 1942-1942],
[Series 4: Economic Stabilization and Critical Areas Commodity Reports, 1949-1951],
[Series 5: Reading File, 1942-1953],
[Series 6: Speeches and Writings, 1927-1952, 1960],
[Series 7: Newspaper and Magazine Clippings, 1927-1957],
[All]
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Series 1: Subject Files, 1923-1953 - Correspondence, memoranda, reports, speeches, papers reviews, statistics, graphs, charts and indices relating to Bean’s work with the Department of Agriculture, Board of Economic Warfare and Bureau of the Budget and Bean’s more or less extracurricular interest in political trends and forecasting. The greater part of this material relates to agriculture and the interrelationship between agriculture and industry. (Boxes 1 -31)
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Box 1 -
Agricultural Capacity -
Agricultural Policy -
Agricultural Price Cycles and Business Cycles -
Automobile Industry, General Motors Case -
Automobile Statistics #1 -
Automobile Statistics #2 -
Baker, John A., "The Place and Functions of Economic Research in a Democracy" -
Banfield, Edward C., "The Administration of Planning in the U.S. Departments of Agriculture" -
Bank Debits -
Barnett, Harold J., "Energy Uses and Supplies, 1939, 1947, 1965"
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Box 2 -
Box 3 -
Box 4 -
Box 5 -
Consumer Expenditures -
Consumer Finances (Federal Reserve) -
Consumption -
Consumption, Saving Function -
Corn -
Corn Yields, Iowa -
Corn Yields, Kansas -
Corn Yields, U.S., by Regions, 1866 -
Corporation Income and Profits, #1 -
Corporation Income and Profits, #2 -
Corporation's Operations, Swift and Co, (50-Year Record) -
Correspondence and Memoranda -
Cost of Production
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Box 6 -
Box 7 -
Cotton, Cottonseed Production, Acreage, Yields -
Cotton, Crop Condition -
Cotton, Research and Marketing Act Program, 1947-1948 -
Cotton, Supply Price Analysis (Research and Marketing Act) -
Cotton Stabilization and Loans -
Council of Economic Advisors -
Crop Estimating, Corn, Wheat -
Currie, Launchlin, "Causes of the Recession" -
Cycle Analysis (Foundation for Study of Cycles), 1950-1951 -
Cycle Analysis (Foundation for Study of Cycles), January-June 1952 -
Cycle Analysis (Foundation for Study of Cycles), September 1952-1953
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Box 8 -
Defense -
Defense Policy, Agricultural Phases -
Depression Plans, 1937-1938 -
Devaluation (Pound), Agricultural Meaning -
Drought Situation, 1941 -
Durable Goods Expenditures -
Economic Questionnaires -
Effect of Prices in Annual Marketings (Statistics) -
Eggs (Statistics) -
Electric Energy -
Employment, 1919-1946 -
Employment Estimates and Trends (Postwar) -
Employment, Miscellaneous Information
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Box 9 -
Exports -
Exports-Imports -
Ezekiel, Mordecai -
Fairless, Benjamin F. (U.S. Steel) "Target for Termites" -
Farm Debt -
Farm Income, Distribution of -
Farm Income, Special Tables and Information -
Farm Labor Demand (Statistics) -
Farm Labor Supply (Statistics) -
Farm Labor Supply Expresses as Percentage of Farm Labor Demand (Statistics) -
Farm Machinery Statistics -
Farm Organizations' Views -
Federal Expenditures to Prevent Another Depression
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Box 10 -
Box 11 -
Box 12 -
Freight Rates #2 -
Fruit and Vegetable Yield, Production, etc. -
Fryer, Lee (Farmer Educational and Cooperative Union of America) "The Economic Act of 1950" -
Full Employment Act of 1950 -
Full Employment, Basic Facts -
Full Employment Bill -
Full Employment Bill (Amendments) -
Full Employment Bill (Hearings) -
Full Employment Bill (Notes for Senator Murray) -
Full Employment Bill (Printed Legislation) -
Full Employment (Correspondence) -
Full Employment (Memoranda-Gross) -
Full Employment (National Planning Association)
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Box 13 -
Full Employment (Speeches, Articles, Excerpts, etc.) -
Full Employment (Testimony) -
Futures Trading Statistics -
Graham, Ben (Articles) -
Great Britain, Statistics -
Great Plains Problem -
Harvard University -
Hirsch, Werner Z. (Calif. U.) "Business Decisions under Uncertainty", "Marketing Agreements and Cooperative Marketing"
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Box 14 -
Box 15 -
Industrial by Products of Agricultural Commodities -
Industrialization -
Inflation Control -
International Full Employment -
International Industrialization -
Inventories -
Investment, Return on (Family Farm) -
Keynes, John Maynard -
Keynes Proposal for and International Clearing Union -
Labor and Wages, Farm -
Land Grant Colleges and Universities Association -
Land Reform -
Land Value Studies, 1937 and 1938
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Box 16 -
Box 17 -
Box 18 -
Box 19 -
Box 20 -
Parity -
Parity Prices -
Parity Ratios and Farm Prices -
Pasture Conditions -
Patents (Statistics) -
Peach Statistics -
Periods of Business Depression -
Planning Group -
Plant Disease Reporter, April 15, 1951 -
Population -
Population and Manufacturing Trends -
Population Data -
Population, Farm -
Postal Receipts in Selected Cities -
Potatoes, Price Analysis -
Potatoes, Production, Disposition -
Potatoes, Yields (California, Maine, Idaho) -
Potatoes, Basic Statistics -
Potato Statistics, #1
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Box 22 -
Box 23 -
Price Cycles (General) -
Prices, Consumer, 1939-1948 -
Prices, Fair Trade Practices -
Prices, Forecasts -
Prices, General Materials -
Prices, Index of 420 Industrials (Standard and Poor's) -
Prices, Cash Receipts from Farming (Total and by Regions) -
Prices, Paid by Farmers (Indices) -
Prices, Paid by Farmers (Statistics) -
Processing Taxes Impounded (Statistics) -
Radioactive Materials -
Rankine, Paul Scott, "The Economic X-Ray" -
Resources, Krug Committee Reports, Agricultural Products -
Resources, Krug Committee Reports, Steel -
Resources, Productive Capacity, Raw Materials & Basic Commodities
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Box 24 -
Rice -
Reifler, Winfield -
Roosevelt, Franklin D. -
Rose, Henry -
Ross, Goldie Bean -
Rossby, C. G. -
Rubber -
Rural America: Countries of the U.S. by Rural-Urban Character, 1940 -
Rural Human Welfare Committee -
Sachs, Alexander -
Sarle, C. F. -
School Lunch Program -
Segal, Sol A. -
Shepherd, Appropriate Regression Equations -
Silk Statistics
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Box 25 -
Box 26 -
State Department (Full Committee) -
State Department (Sub-Committee on Economic Policy) -
State Department (Sub-Committee on Economic Reconstruction) -
Statistical and Historical Research Division (Bean Material) -
Statistical Council Minutes -
Statistical Methods, Analysis -
Statistics on Steel and Other Statistical Graphs
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Box 27 -
Box 28 -
Steel Industry Reports and Officials' Statements, #1 -
Steel Industry Reports and Officials' Statements, #2 -
Steel Industry Reports and Officials' Statements, #3 -
Trend in Per Capita Steel Production of U.S. Steel Corporation -
Trend in Per Capita Steel Production, U.S. (Exclusive of U.S. Steel Corp.) -
U.S. Production of Steel, Percent of Capacity and Percent Earned on Investment by Eleven Principal Companies -
U.S. Steel Corp., Production as Percent of Capacity and Percent Earned on Investment -
Steel, Committee Prints -
Steel Production, Three Estimates (Bean, Sykes, Smith) -
Steel Statements, Mailings -
Correspondence re Bean Steel Statements
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Box 29 -
Stine, O.C. -
Sugar -
Sulphur -
Supply and Demand -
Supply Curves for Wheat -
The Tariff and Agriculture -
Taxes -
Taylor, Myron (Committee on Economic Foreign Policy) -
Tchijevsky, A. L., "Physical Factors of the Historical Process" -
Temporary National Economic Committee -
Tin Mill Products in the U.S. -
Tobacco, Acreage, Yield, Production
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Box 30 -
Tolley, H. R. -
Truman, Harry S. -
Tyler, Gus (ILGWU) Interpretation on 1950 Congressional Elections -
UNRRA -
U.S.-U.K. Z one Statistics (Paris Conference Report) -
Wages and Buying Power (Agriculture and Industry) -
Wallace, Henry A., Correspondence & 60 Million Job File -
Warburton, Clark -
War Production Board -
War Refugee Board -
Water, Supply and Outlook -
Wheat Economics, General -
Wheat, Outlook -
Wheat Production in War and Peace -
Wheat, CCC Purchases, Price, Volume -
Wheat, World (Acreage, Production, Yield)
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Box 31
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Browse by Series:
[Series 1: Subject Files, 1923-1953],
[Series 2: Office of Secretary of Agriculture, 1932-1954],
[Series 3: Board of Economic Warfare, 1942-1942],
[Series 4: Economic Stabilization and Critical Areas Commodity Reports, 1949-1951],
[Series 5: Reading File, 1942-1953],
[Series 6: Speeches and Writings, 1927-1952, 1960],
[Series 7: Newspaper and Magazine Clippings, 1927-1957],
[All]