Richard Theodore Ely (April 13, 1854 – October 4, 1943) was an American economist, author, and leader of the Progressive movement who called for more government intervention to reform what they perceived as the injustices of capitalism, especially regarding factory conditions, compulsory education, child labor, and labor unions.

[1][2] He grew up on his family's 90-acre farm near Fredonia, New York, carrying wood, milking cows, churning butter, and picking rock in the fields.

[2] However, Richard's father was not a successful farmer, relying too much on questionable ideas from popular farm magazines rather than local experience.

[3] Richard's father was a devout Presbyterian who avoided tobacco, allowed no work or play on Sunday, and refused to grow hops because they would have been used to make beer.

[7] Ely was a professor and head of the Department of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland from 1881 to 1892.

This effort failed, with the Wisconsin state Board of Regents issuing a ringing proclamation in favor of academic freedom, acknowledging the necessity for freely "sifting and winnowing" among competing claims of truth.

"[17] Ely was a product of the German historical school with an emphasis on evolution to new forms, and never accepted the marginalist revolution that was transforming economic theory in Britain and the U.S.

Also on social Darwinism, Spencer believed that the state should not get involved in supporting one ethnic group over another — whereas Ely believed that the state should support white "Nordic" people against people of other races (in line with the opinions of his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, Edward Alsworth Ross and Charles R. Van Hise).

[21] Ely's political activities during World War I included his campaign against Senator Robert M. La Follette.

[22] Richard Ely died in Old Lyme, Connecticut on October 4, 1943, and was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison.

A large portion of his library was purchased by Louisiana State University and is now a part of LSU's Special Collections division.

[24] The television series Profiles in Courage did an episode in 1964 titled "Richard T. Ely" about the "sifting and winnowing" incident.