Brief von Gerhard E.O. Meyer an Ernest Manheim in Kansas City, Mo. Chicago, Ill., am 24. August 1942
Transliteration und Kommentar von Reinhard Müller [1]
The University of Chicago
Department of Economics
August 24, 1942
please accept my sincere thanks for having suggested my name to the President of U[niversity] of K[ansas] C[ity] [2] for a position in the Department of Economics. At any other time, I would have considered very seriously any offer (formal or informal) to join an economic department after having spent five years in general social science courses. How[e]ver, at the present time, I feel I have to stay here in Chicago. Our course on "freedom and control" seems to [Edward Albert] Shils [3] and me a pretty important one and we feel that we have made good progress in the last years. Since Shils is probably staying on in Washington for at least part of the coming year, it is rather imperative that at least I should stay here. Furthermore, I have received this summer both an increase in salary and a promotion and it would be difficult to leave just when one has got a lot of recognition. Finally, I expect to be drafted somewhen next year and then it would be much better for Julia [Meyer] [4] to be here in Chicago where she has been graduate student in physiology, than anywhere else. Thus, I hope you will not mind my answering you quickly in the negative instead of exploring the possibilities here at greater length before answering you. (I would have answered you immediately, if I hadn't been out of town over the weekend.)
Perhaps, I can help you by suggesting another candidate. Dr. Emile Gruenberg, [5] at present living at 5479 University Avenue, Chicago. G[ruenberg] is a son of Carl Gruenberg, [6] formerly Vienna and Frankfurt on Main. He is an authority on the economics (and sociology) of the older middle classes, artisans, small-scale industry etc. Perhaps, you remember his book on Mittelstand. [7] He has overcome his somewhat narrow Marxian bias, is a very able empirical research worker and has improved his theoretical knowledge very considerably by studying here under [Frank Hyneman] Knight, [Jacob] Viner, [Oskar] Lange, [Paul Howard] Douglas and [John Ulric] Nef. [8] From 1933 to 1940, he was in Geneva as interpreter around the International Labor Office etc. He speaks French and English very fluently. (His wife has a master's degree in French from Geneva.) Age about 33-35. He has done some teaching, though not very much. I think he would be quite successful as a teacher. His nationality is Austrian; correspondingly he is very polite. Inspite [!] of difficult financial conditions here, he has with great perseverance kept on to prepare himself for a teaching and / or research job here in America. But you know the difficulties to find something - especially during the last two years. At least, he was able to publish a good article about 70 pages in The Journal of Business of the University of Chicago (Oct[ober] 1941 and Jan[uary] 1942) on "The Mobilization of Capacity and Resources of Small-scale Enterprises in Germany". The article received much favorable comment here. (I understand that G[ruenberg] has also worked on similar problems for other countries, including the United States.) - Perhaps, this will be enough to interest you a bit in G[ruenberg]. He is certainly not as brilliant as Abba Lerner, [9] but he has also his advantages and would probably fit better into the Department than L[erner]. I shall try to get hold of G[ruenberg] today and tell him to send you a curriculum vitae, references and a copy of his last paper. At any rate, that couldn't to any harm to anybody.
With my, or rather our, best regards to you and your family, I am yours
Gerhard Meyer
[1] 
The orginal copy of this letter is held by the Archiv für die Geschichte der Soziologie in Österreich, Graz, Nachlass Ernest Manheim, Signatur 31/1.
Gerhard Emil Otto Meyer (*Altenbruch bei Cuxhaven 1903, †Chicago, Ill. 1973), American economist of German origin; emigrated in 1933 to France, in 1935 to Great Britain and in 1937 to the USA; 1937-1942 Instructor of Economics, 1942-1946 Assistant Professor, 1946-1965 Associate Professor and since 1965 Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Ill. Annot. R. M.
[2]
i.e. Clarence Raymond Decker (*Sioux City, Iowa 1904, †New York City, N.Y. 1969), American literary theorist; 1934-1938 Chairman of the English Department and 1938-1953 President of the Kansas City University in Kansas City, Mo. Annot. R. M.
[3]
Edward Albert Shils (*1910, †Chicago, Ill. 1995), American sociologist and translator; Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Ill. Annot. R. M.
[4]
Julia Meyer, born Feinberg (*Bern 1908), since 1933 married to Gerhard E.O. Meyer; emigrated with him to France in 1933, in 1935 to Great Britain and in 1937 to the USA, where she worked as a Research Professor. Annot. R. M.
[5]
Emile Gruenberg (later Emile Grunberg; i.e. Emil Grünberg; *Wien 1905, †Akron, Ohio 1988), American economist of Austrian origin; emigrated in 193? to the USA; 1942-1943 Instructor at the University of Kansas in Kansas City, Mo., 1943-1946 Research Associate at the New School for Social Research in New York, N.Y., 1946-1948 Assistant Professor, 1948-1956 Associate Professor and 1956-1970 Professor of Economics at the University of Akron, Ohio. Annot. R. M.
[6]
Carl Grünberg (i.e. Saul Karl Grünberg; *Focsani 1861, †Frankfurt am Main 1940), Austrian-German economic historian and sociologist of Romanian origin. Annot. R. M.
[7]
cf. Emil Grünberg: Der Mittelstand in der kapitalistischen Gesellschaft. Eine ökonomische and soziologische Untersuchung. Leipzig: C.L. Hirschfeld 1932. Annot. R. M.
[8]
cf. the economists at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Ill.: Frank Hyneman Knight (*White Oak Township, Ill. 1885, †Chicago, Ill. 1972), 1927-1946 Professor of Economics; Jacob Viner (*Montreal, Kanada 1892, †Princeton, N.J. 1970), 1919-1922 Assistant, 1923-1925 Associate and 1925-1946 Professor of Economics; Oskar Richard Lange (*Tomaszów, Polen 1904, †New York City, N.Y. 1965), 1934-1936 Rockefeller Fellow at the London School of Economics, since 1937 in the USA, 1939 Assistant Professor, 1939-1943 Associate Professor and since 1943 Professor of Economics (1945-1946 Polish ambassador to the USA); Paul Howard Douglas (*Salem, Mass. 1892, †Washington, D.C. 1976), American economist; John Ulric Nef (*Chicago 1899, †Washington, D.C. 1988), 1929-1931 Assistant Professor and 1931-1935 Associate Professor of Economics, 1935-1936 Associate Professor and 1936-1950 Professor of Economic History. Annot. R. M.
[9]
Abba Ptachya Lerner (*Bessarabien 1903, †Tallahassee, Fla. 1982), American economist of Russian origin; studied at the London School of Economics (Ph.D. 1932); 1940-1942 Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas City in Kansas City, Mo.; 1942-1947 Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research in New York, N.Y. Annot. R. M.
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