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Frank W. Taussig '79, well-known economist who held the Henry Lee Chair in Economics here until his retirement in 1935, died yesterday afternoon from a paralytic stroke in the Cambridge home of a relative, Mrs. Gerald Henderson. Close to 81 years old, Professor Taussig sank into a coma a week ago from which he never recovered.
A member of the Faculty since 1882, Professor Taussig wrote many books on ciples of Economics" was the most comeconomic subjects, of which his "Prinprehensive. He became an authority on tariffs and world trade and served from 1917 to 1919 as chairman of the U. S. Tariff Commission.
Lowell Pralses "Best Teacher"
In an article for the Boston Herald about Professor Taussig, A. Lawrence Lowell '77, President-exeritus, said last night, "A great teacher has passed away in the ripeness of years, but his works remain as his true memorial... More, perhaps, than any other teacher, he may be called the parent of modern American economic thought.
"His fertile mind played about the subject of economics and was attracted by its fringes... At fourscore he had lived his life, his work was done, the friends of his own age were fast dropping away. But his influence is actively at work in thousands of minds that are thinking more clearly because through voice or pen they came into contact with him. What more could a scholar want?"
Commenting about Professor Taussig's prominent position in the Economics Department here, Harold H. Burbank, David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy, said, "He very clearly was regarded by most of us here and by the world at large as the outstanding economist of his time.
"A powerful liberal of his day, he was one of the most effective teachers that Harvard has ever had. To a Harvard man he will always stand out, not only as an unusual teacher, but as a man who lived his life for the University."
Two years after going through both the Graduate and Law Schools, Professor Taussig published his "Tariff History of the United States," which still is a standard work on the subject. Later came his "Silver Situation in the U. S.," "Wages and Capital," and a series of more specialized works.
According to President Lowell, Professor Tausing was one of the first economists to rebel against the English school of Ricardo and his fellows and to base his works upon painstaking study of the economic conditions in this country.
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