The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Sterne, Simon

STERNE, Simon, American lawyer and economist: b. Philadelphia, 23 July 1839; d. New York, 22 Sept. 1901. He studied at the University of Heidelberg, was graduated from the law department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1859, and was admitted to the bar of New York in 1860. He represented many corporate interests, and paid special attention to real estate and constitutional law. He found time to lake part in social and civic reform, lectured on political science at Cooper Institute (1861-63), and was secretary of the committee of 70 for the overthrow of the Tweed Ring. (1870). He was appointed in 1875 on a commission to devise plans for the government of cities, and in 1895 on a commission to recommend changes in methods of administration; and by President Cleveland in 1896 to report as to the relations of western European governments to railways. Besides a large number of articles on historical and political economic subjects, he published ‘Representative Government’ (1871); ‘Suffrage in Cities’ (1878); ‘Hindrances to Prosperity’ (1879); ‘Constitutional History and Political Development of the United States’ (1882); ‘Railways in the United States’ (1912). Consult Foord, ‘Life and Public Services of Simon Sterne’ (1903).