The Biographical Dictionary of America/Atkinson, Edward

ATKINSON, Edward, economist, was born in Brookline, Mass., Feb. 10, 1827. His studies were carried on wholly at private schools, and from early youth he was especially interested in the subject of economics, both practical and theoretical. He attained a position as one of the bestand most thoroughly earnest writers on economic topics. He invented the Aladdin oven, and became president of the Boston manufacturers' Mutual Fire Insurance company, being considered an authority on that subject. In 1899 he was deprived of the use of the U.S. mails on the charge of sending seditious matter by mail to the soldiers in the Philippines. He then turned editor, and published The Anti-Imperialist, a weekly, in which he set forth his views on the McKinley administration. He received the degree LL.D. from the University of South Carolina and Ph. D. from Dartmouth college; and wrote and lectured upon economic matters, the topics including such subjects as "Banking"; "Insufficiency of Economic Legislation"; "What Makes the Rate of Wages"; "Application of Science to the Production and Consumption of Food"; and "Prevention of Loss by Fire." Among his pamphlets and books are "Our National Domain"; "The railroads of the United States"; "Argument for the Conditional Reform of the Legal Tender Act"; "The Railway and the Farmer"; "The Distribution of Products"; "The Margin of Profits"; "Slow Burning Construction"; "Labor and Capital — "Allies, not Enemies"; "What is a Bank"?; " The Industrial Progress of the Nation"; "Consumption Limited; Production Unlimited"; "Influence of Boston Capital upon Manufacturers"; "Cheap Cotton by Free Labor,"; "The Collection of Revenue", and "The Science of Nutrition."