Members of the University faculty have had little or nothing to do with investment decisions, although current treasurer Cabot does occasionally speak with Dean David and other Business School professors "on a highly informal basis." Except for one occasion when he asked the Medical School to check on a new "miracle drug," Cabot has relied almost entirely on the advice of his regular 30-man staff.

University treasurers have never been constrained by any standard Harvard investment policy but rather have been given freedom to follow their own whim and wisdom. Naturally under the Statutes, the treasurer "is required to submit his accounts, and all evidences of the property under his charge, to the committees of inspection appointed by the Corporation and Overseers severally, and to make annually to the Overseers a statement of the receipts and expenditures of the University."

The records prove, however, that the Treasurer is on his own, for there is a marked change in the Harvard portfolio with each new regime. Some of the switches, of course, were just signs of national trends to which all investors reacted similarly.

In the early 19th century, notes and mortgages predominated (60 percent of the total investment in 1831), but from 1850 on, they were rapidly replaced by bonds. Bonds, which were not even mentioned in the 1831 report, steadily climbed until they reached a peak of 73 percent of the portfolio in 1905.

From then on, their percentage began to drop slightly, but the only major change was in their composition. Public utilities and industrials which once dominated the bond total were slowly replaced by U.S. Governments in 1942. Today, bonds--half of which are U.S. Government--comprise about 44 percent of the University's investment total.

Declining along with notes and mortgages although at a much more gradual pace was real estate. Desiring to hedge against inflation, Treasurer Edward W. Hooper brought the investment fraction tier up in real estate to a high of two-fifths in 1881--the year he acquired the land now occupied by the downtown Jordan Marsh for $475,000.

Real Estate Falls Behind

But after Hooper's 22-year reign, real estate was rarely acquired, and today it makes up but one percent of the portfolio. One of the disadvantages of this type of holding is the difficulty of disposal. For over 50 years, the school has owned Bumpkin Island in Boston Harbor, and the best Cabot has been able to do is to lease it for 999 years for a total of $1.

Since real estate, note, and mortgage proportions declined while over-all investment totals were growing by leaps and bonds, the leaps were provided by acquisition of stocks in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Stocks, which accounted for only three percent of the total investment in 1831, today comprise about 55 percent. Preferreds, which at one time provided one-fourth of the value of the stocks, have been reduced by Cabot to about one-tenth.

While stocks as a whole were increasing in relative importance, the type purchased was also changing. In the 1830's, two-thirds of them were bank stocks--the rest in bridges and canals. Then two decades later, textile and railroad stocks began to outnumber and out-value the bank securities, and the bridges and canals were becoming obsolete.

Currently, railroads make up only five percent of the common stock total--one-fourth of which is in public utilities, one-fifth in oil, and one-tenth in insurance. Railroads are in fourth place behind these three leaders, and then come chemical, bank, retail trade, paper, electrical equipment, food and beverage, rubber, mining and smelting, farm equipment, and automobile stocks, in that order.

Public utility holdings have doubled under Cabot's stewardship mostly at the expense of chemical, retail trade, and bank stocks. In general, however, the percentages of these various categories of stock have remained relatively stable for several decades.

As of June 30, 1953--the date of the last report to the Overseers, the University's largest common stock holding at market value was $7,037,000 in Standard Oil Co. (N. J.). At that time, the school owned between two and four million dollars worth of Seaboard Airline Railroad, B. F. Goodrich, Christian Securities, General Electric, North American Co., International Paper, Hartford Fire Insurance, and General Motors.

Looking further down on the list, one realizes that when the Band played "Brush Your Teeth With Colgate" last fall, it was not only ridiculing the opposition but also advertising a company in which the University owned shares worth $1,377,000. And these in the stands who were simultaneously swigging from bottles of Hiram Walker were patronizing a firm in which Harvard's holdings equalled $1,663,000.