Singer, Isidor

Austrian economist; born in Budapest Jan. 16, 1857; removed to Vienna with his parents in 1861. He studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Vienna; and after taking a course in jurisprudence at Gratz returned to the Vienna University, where he took up the study of national economy, being graduated as LL.D. on March 14, 1881. He was admitted to the Vienna bar, but soon decided to devote his entire time to the study of political economy, and from 1882 to 1884 he traveled extensively in order to study the social position of the working classes in northeastern Bohemia. The results of his investigations he published in Leipsic in 1885 under the title "Untersuchungen über die Socialen Verhältnisse des Nord-Oestlichen Böhmen: Ein Beitrag zur Methode Social-Statistischer Untersuchungen." In the same year he was appointed privat-docent in statistics by the University of Vienna, and six years later (1891) he received the title of professor. During this period (1885-91) Singer published in Vienna a brochure on the social conditions in eastern Asia, and a book on migration. The trend of his thoughts on these subjects under-went a change after a three years' visit to the United States (1893-96). The impressions collected there and in England, especially regarding the great powers of the public press, caused him, upon his return, to establish, together with Heinrich Kanner, "Die Zeit," an independent, politico-economic, and literary weekly. The growing popularity of this periodical among all classes caused him to change it into a daily (1902), and to enlarge its scope.

S. E. J.