ADVOCATE FIRST PUBLICATION TO PASS HALF-CENTURY MARK

This month marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Harvard Advocate. Besides this, however, the month marked the first time a University undergraduate publication has put behind it a half-century of unbroken existence, a fact truly remarkable in consideration of the vicissitudes of college journalism. The paper has outlived a dozen college generations, and in its lifetime has had on its board many now eminent poets and prose writers.

The first five student publications in the University--from the Harvard Lyceum, in 1810, to the last issue of the Harvard Magazine in 1864--were literary magazines, each short-lived. With the appearance, on March 9, 1866, of the first number of the Collegian--a fortnightly "newspaper intended to represent the views and opinions of Harvard students"--began the present era of University journalism. The Collegian was outspoken and caustic in tone. It deplored the "little disposition manifested by the instructors to establish and confirm a friendship between the student and themselves"; it attacked with keen satire compulsory church attendance on Sunday and the system of compulsory chapel. After its third issue the Collegian was suppressed by the Faculty, and the editors were forbidden under pain of expulsion to publish any paper whatsoever.

Suppressed Paper Changes Name.

The revolutionary spirit which animated the Collegian was not suppressed. On May 11, 1866, the first number of the Advocate was issued. It was the Collegian under another name. The names of the editors did not appear, but the three Junior editors of the Collegian were summoned before the Faculty. There and in the pages of the Advocate the right of the students to publish a paper which should express undergraduate opinion, even when that opinion differed radically from the views of the Faculty, was strongly and successfully asserted. The counsel of the more liberal members of the Faculty prevailed; the edict of expulsion was not enforced; and the Advocate was not suppressed. The founding of the Advocate is a story worth repetition because the event it describes established the freedom of the press at the University.

The members of the first Advocate board were Edward W. Fox '67, Charles S. Gage '67, William G. Peckham '67, Joseph L. Sanborn '67, Frank P. Stearns '67, and Moses Williams '68. "While there was something of a purely literary spirit among the early Advocate editors," wrote one of them, "yet it was overshadowed by the combative zeal against the ancient Faculty and the ancient abuses, and by the enthusiastic desire to help bring about a better day for Harvard."

Later Years Entirely Peaceful.

The Subsequent history of the Advocate (which in March, 1869, became the Harvard Advocate) has been in pleasant contrast to its troubled beginning. The friendly relations between the editors and the Faculty is shown by the attendance of many of the distinguished members of that body as guests at the annual dinners of the paper. Financially the publication has led a varied life, but when there has been a sufficient balance in the treasury, gifts have been made to the College Library--$200 in 1869, $100 in 1870, $200 in 1873--and to the University boat club, as in 1875; literary prizes have been awarded from time to time; and in 1699 an Advocate scholarship was established.

The starting of other undergraduates publications--the Magneta (the name changed to CRIMSON after a successful campaign by the Advocate to restore crimson as the University color); the daily papers, the Echo, and the Herald (now the CRIMSON); the Monthly, and the Illustrated--led to keen competition. In 1882 a plan to consolidate the CRIMSON (then a fortnightly) and the Advocate was voted down in the Advocate board by one vote. Three or four years later, when both the Lampoon and Advocate were in financial straits, there was even some talk of combining these two publications.

Many Celebrities Among Editors.

Among the writers of prose who have been on the Advocate board have been many men who since graduation have become well known as novelists, writers of short stories, playwrights, essayists, historians, and journalists are the following: Ernest H. Abbott '93, George F. Babbitt '72, Earl Derr Biggers '07, William R. Castle, Jr., '00, John J. Chapman '84, Richard Washburn Child '03, Charles T. Copeland '82, John Corbin '92, Charles T. Dazey '81, Charles M. Flandrau '95, M. Morton Fullerton '86, H. H. Furness, Jr., '88, Robert Grant '73, George W. Gray '12, Albert Bushnell Hart '80, Robert Herrick '90, Rupert S. Holland '00, George Lyman Kittredge '82, Edward Knoblanch '96, John Macy '99, Edward S. Martin '77, Arthur W. Page '05, Arthur Stanwood Pier '95, Harold E. Porter ("Holworthy Hall") '09, Waldron K. Post '90, Harold T. Pulsifer '11, Theodore Roosevelt '80, Arthur Ruhl '99, Guy Scull '98, Joseph Hamblen Sears '89, Mark S. Severance '69, Edward Sheldon '08, Leavitt Stoddard '07, Charles Miner Thompson '86, Arthur Train '96, Charles Warren '89, and Thomas Ybarra '05.

The list of Advocate poets is long, but among them may be named Conrad P. Aiken '12, Harold Bell '07, John F. Brice '99, Witter Bynner '02, John Corbin '92, Lloyd McKim Garrison '88, Hermann Hagedorn '07, Edward Hale '79, Lawrence Stevens '01, and Langdon Warner '03.

On the present roll of Advocate editors are 481 names.

The idea of the present Advocate seal--Pegasus tethered to a dictionary--originated with Arthur Hale '80, and the design was drawn by Miss Ellen Day Hale. An earlier seal--the stork with the caducens--was designed by Lester W. Clark '75. The Advocate still retains the motto of the Collegian, "Dulce est periculum," as well as the original Advocate motto, "Veritas nihil veretur."