The Hoover Drive

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I should like to call the attention, through the CRIMSON, of Harvard undergraduates to the "Hoover Drive," which has been organized in Cambridge. I do not know whether the students themselves have thought of forming a committee of their own, but the time is so short, and the need so urgent, that no appeal can be superfluous.

Mr. Hoover has stated the situation with his usual directness and brevity. In the desolated parts of Europe today, the parts which cannot provide even the scantiest food to keep all their population alive, there are three million and a half children, being fed by supplies from this country. If these supplies should fail for a fortnight, those three million and a half innocent little boys and girls would perish. We must see to feeding them through the winter until next year's crops become available, about the middle of July.

To provide the necessary food, Mr. Hoover estimates that thirty million dollars will be required, and already in every city and town of the United States, a committee is working to collect the funds. This is an object which Harvard men cannot pass by. One dollar given will keep a child alive for a month; ten dollars will keep a child until the next harvest. Even ten cents will be gratefully received and will help nourish one of the starving. No matter, therefore, how restricted a student may be himself, he can contribute his mite to those who need it most. When well-off fellows reflect that the price of a theatre ticket will feed a little boy or girl in Vienna or Warsaw for a month, he can hardly doubt how to spend it.

This is a direct appeal to our sense of humanity on a scale that has never been known before. No one can be deaf to it, least of all Harvard men, who have never been slack when such a call has come. Nearly ten thousand of them heard the voice of Duty and Patriotism and served in the Great War. The undergraduates and other students now may be counted upon to do their utmost. Harvard men do not allow little children to die of hunger, and whenever there has been a great cause, whether of Patriotism or of Humanity, Harvard men have always responded. Noblesse oblige.

Checks of any amount should be sent to Walter F. Earle, Treasurer, Harvard Trust Company, Central square, Cambridge, Mass.

Remember that, thanks to Mr. Hoover's wonderful organization, ten dollars will keep a child alive until next summer. As the drive will end on January 1, we must all act without delay. WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER '81.   December 16, 1920.