Its 50th reunion today will be the "war class" of 1917's most complete gathering. For it never had a complete Commencement, nor a real twenty-fifth reunion. In 1917 and again in 1942 many members of the class were preoccupied with war, and could not take time to genially reminisce about carefree college years.

President A. Lawrence Lowell was changing undergraduate life radically while the class went through Harvard. It is symptomatic that the class of '17 was the first to admit more public high school than private school boys. They came from all over the country, as Lowell tried deliberately to break the monopoly of Eastern and Northeastern prep schools on Harvard.

And he was changing the university itself, ending the era of the "gentleman's college" and initiating new ideals of public and social service into students. The Class of '17 was perhaps the first to feel the effects of this change; they certainly felt it more dramatically than any other.

Physical Changes

The most immediate changes were physical. The new freshman dormitories were under construction and 1917 was the last class to enter directly into Harvard's individualistic living arrangements, designed half a century before for young gentlemen. All-college dining facilities in Memorial Hall and the Freshman Union were opened in order to foster a greater sense of community. In 1915, Harvard departmental libraries were united when Widener Memorial Library was opened to the entire University.

Like current battles over extension of parietals, the issue of lengthening Christmas recess recurred every year between 1913 and 1915. Students were allowed December 23 to January 3. They did not argue for extension because they wanted more leisure time; they wanted to be able to get home and back. As more students came from the mid-west and south, they needed extra travelling time. Lowell extended the Christmas recess in 1915.

War Possibility

As the class entered its junior and senior years, however, the possibility of war replaced Christmas recess as the major focus of attention. The Collegiate Anti-Militarism League debated hotly with the National Security League of Harvard in 1915 over whether the country should increase its military forces. In the fall of that year, the CRIMSON took a definite editorial stand favoring military preparedness, but the paper still printed protest letters from pacifists and neutralists.

The increasing possibility of war sent students into a new activity, volunteer military training. Captain Cordelier, of the French Mission, started a volunteer University regiment in 1916. During that year, 1400, or onefourth of the University, volunteered for it. An Aero Corps of 52 students was started the same year, and CRIMSON editorials favored the idea of universal military service. By January of 1917, a poll showed 72 per cent of Harvard students in favor of conscription. There were rumors that the Harvard campus might be used in the summer as a training camp, and that Harvard might even close down, and offer all its facilities to the government in case of war. Student attention and opinion, though sharply divided, was becoming preoccupied with the idea of war.

1917 saw the intensification of the issue on campus. Four Harvard men died aboard the Lusitania. The History Club voted to support severing relations with Germany. One major issue was whether or not special exams should be given to students leaving school to go into training. The Hasty Pudding Club cancelled its annual show for the first time since 1864 because of the international situation. The CRIMSON declared: "When the time for quick action comes Harvard will be ready and the undergraduates duty will be an immediate and unflinching response to the call." Meanwhile, one professor in the German Department published a letter in the CRIMSON, claiming that the German people were at war because the "great aggressive coalition" of England and France had committed "outrageous acts" against her.

'Duty is Patience'

In March, the Harvard Athletic Association considered breaking off all athletic activities, in the event of a declaration of war. Several days later, both Yale and Cornell were considering similar steps. The Faculty voted by a substantial majority to give early exams to students who were enlisting. President Lowell wrote to the CRIMSON that "a soldier's first duty is patience," and asked students to wait until they were definitely urged by Washington before dashing into service.

Pacifists Disappear

By the beginning of April, 1917, the pacifist element on campus was practically non-existent. "Hereafter, the CRIMSON will print no more communications of a pacifist nature," the editors declared. "If there are any members of the University so blind or cowardly in spirit as to clamor for neutrality when all hope of neutrality is dead, they should commune with themselves in private and find reflection in the definition of traitors as those '...adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort!'"

On Friday, April 6, the U.S. declaration of war on Germany came as the fitting climax to the past months of debate. President Lowell offered the government the use of any University resources. Athletics were temporarily suspended. The class of 1917, about to graduate, began to enlist at an unprecedented rate.