Subscriptions to the Harvard Fund for the past week show nearly 150 per cent, increase over the total for the previous seven days. The figures are, for the week of May 9, $4,005; last week, $10,003.50 from 429 men. The smallest subscription last week was $1; the largest, $1,000. Last Monday the first mail to the Harvard Fund Council brought $2,314.50 from 86 men. The officers of the Council feel that more and more alumni are beginning to realize that the importance of being a subscriber during this first year of the Fund far outweighs the importance of the size of ones check.
"I beg to Enclose--"
The following letter accompanied an entirely unsolicited subscription from a man who lives in Chicago:
"Upon a recent visit to a very dear friend of mine in New York City (a Harvard graduate), I read your little booklet, 'The Harvard Fund.'
"I have always been a great admirer of Harvard, and have watched its progress, and have always regretted not having been able to attend there, as I received my education in Europe.
"I notice in the booklet that you are soliciting unrestricted funds, and beg to enclose my check for $50 towards the good cause.
"Trusting you will accept this small sum in the spirit it is given, and wishing you continued success, I remain, etc."
Use Individual Letters
Many Harvard clubs throughout the country are supplementing the literature already sent out by the Harvard Fund Council with letters of their own, addressed to club members. The officers of the Council believe that this is an excellent plan to further the cause of the Fund and hope that other clubs will follow the example.
L. A. Morgan '17, chairman of the Committee on the Harvard Fund for the Harvard Club of Michigan, has in his letter the following paragraph:
"We wish to emphasize the fact that the Harvard Fund is being started with the hope that a large percentage of Harvard men will be glad to send a check annually, whether it be for $1, $5, $50, or $5,000. The undersigned committee would like to see a response from every man here. May we ask you to take prompt action?"
Baker Uses Novel Form
H. F. Baker '01, of Pittsburgh, has put it to the Harvard men of Western Pennsylvania in part as follows:
"Please remember, the request is
"1. For a moderate sum.
"2. From each Harvard graduate.
"3. To provide unrestricted funds.
"4. For the University's pressing needs.
"5. Beginning 1926."
The following statement was issued last week by the Committee on Relations with the Alumni, whose members are W. C. Bragdon '86, E. C. Felton '79, T. W. Lamont '92, President A. Lawrence Lowell '77, L. P. Marvin '98, T. W. Slocum '90, and William Thomas '73:
"The Committee on Relations with the Alumni a standing committee of the Board of Overseers, concerned with all matters having to do with the relations betweeen the University and the alumni, is vitally interested in the Harvard Fund. One of the strongest possible bonds between the alumni and the University would be these yearly contributions, with the implied acknowledgment of obligation to, and responsibility for, the University, and with the quickened interest in the welfare of the institution for whose benefit and increased service the contributions are made. A graduate who gives to Harvard every year a part of his income, however small, cannot but feel that he has an active and intimate part in her work and success.
"It is vastly more important that every graduate should give something than that the Fund should be a much larger one given by a few men of wealth. The really intrinsic importance of the Fund is the solidarity and team-play of the whole living Harvard force.
"This committee, whose sole function is to strengthen the liaison between Harvard and her alumni, therefore urges every man who has been to Harvard to send at once something--whatever he can well afford, whether it be one dollar or five thousand dollars--to the Harvard Fund, and to see in the future that this gift is repeated annually. His gift will be gratefully received, and he will have ample satisfaction in the feeling that he is an active factor in the service which the University is so efficiently rendering to mankind."
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