Harris Urges Government Support To Bolster Private College Funds

"Private-colleges cannot survive long on gifts alone," Seymour E. Harris '20, professor of Economics, told the CRIMSON last night. He was elaborating the position favoring government aid to education which he took Monday at a Wellesley conference on private college finances.

Harris said that while the colleges are getting approximately the same amount of gifts as in pre-war years, those donations do only one-eighth as much work. He attributed this depreciation to increased national income and price levels, and to the fact that these gifts must support "about four times as many students as before the war."

Harris also claimed that, faced with this loss in endowment earning power, "the colleges must turn tote government for aid if they hope to maintain their standards.

He does not consider government aid to be a threat to academic freedom. "Washington may set minimum standards in such matters as equality of opportunity, but British experience suggests that aid without control of college educational policies is possible."