CAMPAIGN FOR ENDOWMENT FUND STARTS OCTOBER 1

Freshmen entering the University next Monday will be in sharp contrast to the "special" class, which less than two months ago, was housed in the Freshman dormitories in a three day extraordinary course from July 28 to July 30. The "specials" were former graduates attending the "Old Grads' Summer School" and, who now, as district chairmen, will direct the raising of the $15,000,000 endowment fund sought by the University. For months the "Old Grads" have been planning their work and an October 1 will begin the actual task of canvassing Harvard men for contributions to the Endowment Fund.

Every section of the United States and Canada has its chairmen and committees, and there are other divisional workers and directors for foreign lands. The general committee is composed of Harvard men all over the world, with Thomas W. Lamont '92, and Eliot Wadsworth '98, as joint and alternate chairmen, respectively; Edgar H. Wells '97, vice-chairman; John Price Jones '02, general manager, and Robert F. Duncan '12, secretary.

The needs of Harvard are proportionate to its size and prominence among the educational institutions of America. Never, authorities agree, were the demands for highly trained minds greater, and never were the costs of this important production higher. Changed conditions--industrial financial and commercial--of the last five years create this demand. The changes have increased the cost in every department of university administration, as they have in all other phases of American life.

Necessarily there is the cry for funds that the running expenses which are met with difficulty now, may be paid; that new equipment may be provided, new facilities established and an enlargement of the plants undertaken.

President Lowell sounded the keynote of the campaign in a recent open letter to all Harvard men, which reads:

"The paramount importance to Harvard University of the success of the Endowment Fund Campaign can hardly be exaggerated.

That the University has not shown dangerous deficits in past pears is due primarily to the fact that we are not paying a fair living wage to our teaching staff. Salaries have not increased since 1906. The present scale in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences being for Instructors $1,200-$1,500; Assistant Professors $2,500-$3,000; Full Professors $4,000 to a maximum of $5,500 a year. A fifty per cent, increase, which would absorb the entire income from twelve million dollars, is no more than our teachers should receive.

Other needs are scarcely less pressing. To retain our position and our usefulness twenty millions would be none too much. The University can spend only in accordance with its resources. Without additional income we must curtail expenditure and change our policies.

This is a crisis in which we turn with confidence to those who cherish the ideals of Harvard and have benefitted by her teachings."