UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #577
FARBER, WILLIAM O.

FARBER, William O. (1910-2007)
Graduate student, political science
At UW: 1933-1935

Interviewed: 1984	
Interviewer: Mailed questionnaire
Length: 54 minutes

Education; Decision to earn a Ph.D. in political science at UW; Classes; Professors; Frederick Ogg as departmental chairman; Living conditions in graduate residence; Social life; Later career.

Interview Session (July 1, 1984): Tape 1

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:03	William Farber (WF) introduces himself as a 1935 Ph.D. in political science.  He describes the circumstances of the self-interview.

00:00:56	WF states that his years at UW were among the most delightful in his life.  He is a practicing political scientist, which he attributes to his experience at UW.  It was the need for policy change in the 1930s that first attracted him to the discipline.  His career highlights can be found in the fortieth edition of Who’s Who in America.  

00:03:39	WF was born and raised in Geneseo, Illinois.  He received a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in political science from Northwestern University.  While growing up, WF worked in the family grocery business, an experience to which he attributes many of his people skills.  

00:05:47	Political science interested WF from the beginning of his time at Northwestern University.  He excelled academically and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  WF attempted to secure a teaching position after receiving his Master’s degree.  Unable to find a position due to the poor economic climate, WF accepted a fellowship from UW to pursue a Ph.D.  

00:08:01	The graduate program at UW was flexible, explains WF.  He decided to split his minor between constitutional history and economics.  Professor William Hesseltine encouraged him to prepare an outline for an independent study in constitutional history.  He subsequently used the material he gathered for this independent study when he prepared to teach a course in constitutional history himself.

00:09:47	WF talks about Harold Groves.

00:10:58	He was assigned to Llewellyn Pfankuchen, who had minimal experience guiding graduate students.  For his research, WF studied judicial self-limitation in the United States Supreme Court.  Because he knew more about the topic than did Pfankuchen, Pfankuchen allowed him to work independently.

00:12:17	WF was required to undergo written examinations in four out of five fields.  He talks about several professors with whom he worked to prepare for these exams, including John Gaus, Llewellyn Pfankuchen, Frederick Ogg, and Walter Sharp.

00:16:13	Thanks to his extensive background and the terms of his fellowship, WF was able to spend nearly all his second year working on his dissertation.    

00:17:18	WF’s fellowship provided him with $600 per year and a tuition waiver.  He describes the living conditions in the graduate residence center, Adams Hall.  After paying rent, he had $26 every month on which to live.

00:18:20	Although his fellowship did not require it, WF worked as a graduate teaching assistant for Grayson Kirk for one semester in order to gain teaching experience.  Kirk was a very popular lecturer despite his stutter.

00:19:31	WF mentions several other noteworthy political science professors.  He recalls discussing Latin America with Chester Lloyd Jones.  John Salter was a long-haired professor who was a favorite with women.   He was considered a gadfly, and some professors felt his research was not sufficiently strong. E.E. Witte spent most of his time helping to draft the Social Security Act.  

00:21:15	Frederick Ogg ruled the department.  WF found him to be very fair and an effective administrator.  He molded the character of the department.  WF credits Ogg as the role model for his own tenure as chairman of the department of political science at the University of South Dakota for thirty-eight years.

00:23:06	Philip La Follette was a guest speaker at a faculty/student meeting on one occasion.  WF says he was impressed by La Follette’s ideas.  

00:24:28	Although there was not a lot of socializing within the department, WF interacted with other graduate students while living in Adams Hall.  He talks about students he knew, and recalls playing word and card games with a group of other graduate students at meal times.  Living with science students broadened his intellectual perspective.

00:27:35	There were few graduate students in political science.  WF describes some of his colleagues.

00:28:54	WF talks about the classroom facilities and the library.  The department was a small one, which WF appreciated. 

00:30:42	WF recalls attending sporting events on campus, especially boxing.  He heard lectures from notable figures, such as a lecture by E.A. Ross in which he advocated pre-marital cohabitation.  WF attended the Congregational Church on Sundays to hear sermons about the social gospel.

00:33:29	WF comments briefly on Glenn Frank, with whom he never had any direct contact.  

00:34:13	WF discusses the library and praises its collections.  He found absurd the division of materials between the Historical Society and the main UW library.

00:35:06	WF says there were very few women at the university, and certainly no Ph.D. degrees were issued to women.  He recalls only one woman graduate student in political science.  The situation was similar for other minority groups.  

00:36:34	In 1947, WF was invited back to the UW as a summer lecturer.  He taught two classes, one in American government and the other in constitutional law.  WF mentions several professors he met during this summer.

00:38:24 	While at the UW, WF became committed to improving government in a practical way.  He spent time observing the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the legislature in action.

00:38:57	He later became the first director of the Legislative Research Council in South Dakota.  He lists several other positions he held, and explains how his experience at UW prepared him for these positions.

00:40:29 	Beginning in 1972, WF worked with the Brookings Institute and Princeton University on impact studies of various federal programs on state and local government.  He served as the South Dakota representative.

00:41:05	WF summarizes what his education at UW meant to him.  When he retired from the University of South Dakota, he established a foundation to enable graduate students to work as interns and to travel.  Several outstanding students from South Dakota have continued their education at UW.

00:44:51	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:44:56	WF adds a short comment to his earlier statement.  When he was a graduate student, two foreign languages were required.  WF passed his French test with little trouble, but found German more difficult.  He describes how he managed to pass the German test.  Statistics was also a required course.

00:47:50	He notes the debt he owes to Frederick Ogg for helping him find a position in the spring of 1935.  The president of the University of South Dakota had contacted Ogg about a position, and Ogg recommended WF.  WF later came to believe that Ogg was not sufficiently recognized for his contributions to the department.

00:52:22	In the fall of 1934, WF attended a meeting of the Political Science Association at which participants debated the fate of the New Deal legislation in the Supreme Court.  John R. Commons predicted that the legislation would be ruled unconstitutional.

00:54:13	End of side.  End of tape.

END