THE HARVARD FUND

The figures released by the Harvard Fund in opening its eighth annual drive for contributions from the graduating class reveal, despite adverse economic conditions, a remarkably sturdy growth and service record. This organization was set up in 1926 for the important purpose of securing "each year from Harvard Alumni voluntary contributions to be given to the University as unrestricted money." More specifically it is conceived as an aid to every class in securing annually from each member a donation toward the twenty-fifth anniversary gift.

To call attention to the statistics in this morning's news article is sufficient if torso recognition of the Harvard Fund's value to the University. There are, however, two parallel developments which merit special attention. The first is the increasing importance attached to the office of Fund Agent in each new Senior class. In the forty-three years experience of the Yale Fund, the Class Agent has come to share equal significance with the Class Secretary as middleman between the alumnus and his college. There are plentiful indications that such an evolution is taking place at Harvard.

The second development is the complete replacement of the "Insurance" and old "Class Fund" methods of accumulating the anniversary donation. The former necessitated the payment of specified premiums through all manner of times, good or bad. The latter was apt to degenerate, all too often, into a last minute scramble for funds among the wealthy members of the class. Prominent in the Harvard Fund's annual approach to every alumnus and in the voluntary nature of the gifts is the purpose, of course, to correct the disproportion under both of the older systems. The success which has attended the Harvard Fund's efforts merits wholehearted support from this year's graduating class.