Ely, Richard Theodore (ē'lē) [key], 1854–1943, American economist, b. Ripley, N.Y., grad. Columbia, 1876, Ph.D. Heidelberg, 1879. He taught at Johns Hopkins Univ. (1881–92), the Univ. of Wisconsin (1892–1925), and Northwestern Univ. (1925–33). One of the most influential teachers of his time, he was instrumental in popularizing the study of economics, and his Outlines of Economics (with R. H. Hess, 1889; 6th ed. 1937) was a standard text. He was a founder of the American Economic Association. An early leader of Christian socialism in America, he advocated public control of resources, prohibition of child labor, and the development of labor unions. His many books include Monopolies and Trusts (1900), Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society (1905), and Land Economics (with G. S. Wehrwein, 1940).
See his autobiography, Ground under Our Feet (1938); J. R. Everett, Religion in Economics (1946); B. G. Rader, The Academic Mind and Reform (1966).
