Necessity for Economy.

Most of these gifts are restricted to special objects, and in spite of generosity we are in want. By rigid economy, severely felt in some cases, the deficit for the University, College and Library was reduced from $50,100.88 to $28,532.84. Economy must be practiced until our resources increase, although several departments are undermanned and should be enlarged if we are to do the work the public properly expects. In many directions we need funds for buildings or endowment.

Freshman Dormitories.

For the Freshman Dormitories over eleven hundred thousand dollars, including the Smith bequest, has been subscribed, and seven hundred thousand more is required for the buildings and furniture.

Need for New Library Building.

The Library is in a deplorable physical condition. We have a magnificent collection of books. It is the greatest treasure of the University. Much has been done to make it more useful. The classification has been carried forward. The catalogue has been improved, arrears in cataloguing are being made up and cards of standard size are being introduced. But this precious collection is housed in an old building which is not fireproof. For want of space some seventy thousand volumes are stored in the basements of other buildings; more are constantly moved out to make room for accessions; there are no proper places for professors and students to work; and, in brief, if we are not shortly to lose much of the usefulness of this great scholars' library, we must have a large addition to the structure. An excellent plan for a new building has been made by a number of architects employed by the Committee of the Overseers. To build it will cost over two million dollars, and to maintain it the income of a million more. If this sum cannot be raised, at least enough must be secured to begin at once a substantial portion of the work.

Research Laboratory for Physical Chemistry.

The foundations of the research laboratory for physical chemistry have been laid, and it is a pleasure to think that this productive branch of investigation is placed on a satisfactory basis. But it does not relieve the general condition of chemical instruction, for which Boylston Hall is wholly inadequate. The importance of chemistry to natural science, to health and to industry, has increased rapidly, and its development in the future is measureless; yet we are almost entirely limited to a single building constructed more than half a century ago. If Harvard is not to fall hopelessly behind the times in this branch of science, we need laboratories, which, with the fund for maintenance, will cost a million dollars.

The School of Business Administration.

The School of Business Administration was projected with contributions of twenty-five thousand dollars a year for five years; and, since that period comes to an end in 1913, adequate provision must be made for an endowment of the School. It has proved its value and deserves to be put on a permanent foundation.

Condition of Dental School.

In order to enable the Medical School to call eminent clinical professors from other parts of the country--which it must do in order to maintain itself as a national institution of the first rank--it needs funds to pay them adequate salaries. More pressing still is the condition of the Dental School. The new building is admirable, and the number of students has increased largely. The operating rooms provide a dental hospital in which great numbers of patients are treated, and the importance of this work to public health is being more and more recognized. The building has been erected by the efforts of the staff and in order to place the School where it stands, the clinical instructors have for years foregone their salaries altogether; but it is neither just nor possible that this should continue longer, and to resume the payment of salaries an endowment of at least five hundred thousand dollars is required.

Increasing Expense of Effective Instruction.

These are only the most obvious and pressing needs of the University. There are others only less urgent. If they appear large, it is because the usefulness of the University in its existing fields of work is great. With improvements in equipment, the expense of all effective instruction has increased, and this is multiplied by the growing cost of everything. It is no mere spirit of rivalry with others, but a desire to serve the country in the best way that compels a statement of our lack of resources.