"You, a man with a Harvard education, had to look into Mr. Chambers' mouth before you were able to identify him."

Alger Hiss got an idea what it means to be a Harvard graduate in his trials for perjury when proceptor Thomas F. Murphy made remarks like the above to emphasize the "implausibility" of parts of Hiss' story. Murphy kept referring to Hiss as "this Harvard Law Review man" and never stressed the point that Hiss had attended Johns Hopkins College and only had been at Harvard Law School.

Most University alumni will not find their studying at Harvard used against them in a courtroom, but they will discover that their days at Cambridge will mean something to them the rest of their lives. No matter where they live, they will probably find some other alumnus in the community.

In keeping Harvard a part of its alumni's lives, the University does not rely on chance but instead has an alumni relations program that is the envy of almost every other university in the country.

There are five major ways which the University uses to keep its alumni interested in their alma mater. Graduates are asked to attend their class reunions in June, give to the Fund Council, subscribe to the Alumni Bulletin, join the local Harvard Club, and finally to vote for the Overseers.

College men are the ones who keep in closest touch with the University, although the alumni of the larger graduate schools, Law and Business, are also quite active.

Few Missing Members

Few, indeed, are the College alumni who do not identify themselves with their school. Each class has a few lost members whom the secretary cannot locate, but there are usually only ten or so men on the list. But even these missing members have not really given up on the College.

Proof of this best came in 1934 when Franklin D. Roosevelt '04 asked his classmates to a reception at the White House. Members of the class who had been "lost" turned up out of nowhere to claim their invitation.

The most important part of the alumni relations program is the class reunion. College reunions really do not recapture the spirit of the undergraduate days, but, for most alumni, they are an exciting period in their somewhat average lives.

John P. Marquand '15 even built one of his novels around a man returning to his Harvard class' 25th reunion. Last year the success of the University as a host to its graduates was demonstrated when Yale and Princeton sent observers to learn the secret of a successful reunion.

Two things probably combine to make Harvard reunions a success, a well-organized program and alcohol--with the first being far more important. Outsiders frequently connent on the large consumption of liquor at the 25th reunion, but they fail to see the months of planning that went into deciding where the alumni and their families would live at College and what they would do.

The 25th reunion, which last year cost $80,000 for four days, traditionally includes a Boston Pops concert in the Yard, a day's outing at a near-by beach, and a symposium conducted by leading members of the class. All this is outlined in a lengthy booklet given each person as he arrives.

At the big reunions, class spirit appears as it never has while the members were undergraduates. Almost all the men wear class ties--something they would never have considered when they were first here in Cambridge.

The largest reunions are the 25th and the 50th, but each year a man will find some of his classmates back at the College on Commencement Day with a Yard room as their headquarters. In scheduled years for reunions, special effort is made to get class members back from some distance away. These scheduled reunions start three years after a class is graduated and are held in the sixth and tenth years out and every five years thereafter.