Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 29, number 1, September 1945

              john rogers commons 1862—1945 by selig perlman john rogers commons was born in hollandsburg darke county ohio on october 13 1862 and died at raleigh north carolina on may 11 1945 at the age of eighty-two he studied at oberlin college and johns hopkins university and taught at wesleyan university oberlin college the university of indiana syracuse university and the university of wisconsin an enumeration of the fields in economics in which he did original work reads like the table of contents of a comprehensive textbook value and distribution history of economic thought public utilities immigration housing labor legislation social insurance trade unionism and industrial government labor his tory monopoly price index numbers business cycles and stabili zation and tariff to these one should add the following from political science civil service and administration municipal government and proportional representation commons was the creator of american labor history although in this he had been preceded by his teacher and original inspirer this magazine does not ordinarily carry obituary notices of prominent wisconsin people but professor commons has been so important to wisconsin and to america and professor perlman's insight into his work is so incisive that we make an exception in this case the notice appears in the american economic review for september 1945 and is reprinted here by permission professor perlman who was born in russian poland came to the united states in 1908 and began studying with commons at the university of wisconsin in the following year today he is professor of economics at wisconsin a list of commons books and more important articles is found in his institutional economics new york 1934 9-12 nine large volumes in the john r commons labor research library at the uni versity of wisconsin contain a complete collection of his shorter works the john r commons collection on labor and socialism belongs to the manuscript division of the wisconsin historical society 25