LOUVAIN LIBRARY CAMPAIGN HAS SYMBOLIC OBJECT

The campaign which starts today to fill the University's quota in the Louvain Library fund is part of a national drive being conducted in more than 700 universities colleges, and schools throughout the country.

It is estimated that $1,000,000 will have to be raised to complete the proposed memorial. Princeton completed a campaign last week as did Columbia. Similar drives are to be held at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois, and various schools and colleges this week.

The object of the campaign in the American colleges is not so much for the purpose of obtaining the funds necessary for the construction of the new building as to justify the symbolism involved. In order that the gift shall be truly representative, the national committee is endeavoring to have the number of subscribers very large and the individual subscriptions small. The executive committee of the University's drive has consequently adopted the motto: "Everybody--One Dollar and No More".

Cardinal Mercier in accepting the plans of the memorial expressed the spirit of the undertaking most effectively when he said: "But even still finer and more touching than the gift of the Library to Louvain is the gesture of the nation which claimed the privilege of rebuilding it".

The movement has the support of the leading educational leaders of this country as well as President Harding's official endorsement. President John Grier Hibben made the following statement when the drive was being conducted at Princeton last week: "I have been in hearty sympathy with the movement to restore the Library of Louvain University from its earliest inception. It is fine and fitting that Princeton's contribution should come as the voluntary effort of her undergraduates, joined with the efferts of all our country's students; and 1 earnestly hope that our gifit may include a subscription from every Princeton man".

Although President Lowell, in accord with his custom in regard to drives in the University, made no statement, he gave his unqualified approval of the movement and appointed Professor J. L. Lowes and Dean G. H. Edgell to represent the Faculty on the Executive Committee of the University's drive.

Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University and Chairman of the American Louvain Library Committee, expressed himself as follows at the laying of the cornerstone of the new memorial last summer: "The building which is now to rise from out of the ruins will bear witness to the bonds uniting our nation to Belgium, to France, to England, and to our allies".

Mr. Brand Whitlock, United States Ambassador to Belgium, delivered at the same ceremony the following message in the name of President Harding: "On the happy occasion of the laying of the cornerstone of the new library of the University of Louvain, I am glad to join in the congratulations of numberless friends of the University in all lands. The burning of this ancient and distinguished library was, like the burning of the library of Alexandria, an irreparable loss to scholarship; but it is my firm belief that in so far as the monuments of learning and the literary and artistic treasures can be replaced, they will be replaced through the generosity of those friends of scholarship who suffer with you in your loss, and who today rejoice with you in this first step toward restoration. It makes me particularly happy that my own countrymen have had the privilege of sharing in this noble undertaking, and it is my hope that the friendship between the University of Louvain and the universities of America will prove to be one of the strong ties which hold the two nations together".

Besides the seven hundred institutions which are already taking an active interest in the work, the Friends of Belgium, a society specially interested is the furtherance of the Louvain Library idea, are now circularizing two thousand other schools of this country. Enthusiastic pledges of the utmost cooperation have been received from such institutions as Columbia, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, University of Illinois, Hunter College, Trinity College, Bryn Mawr, Catholic University of Washington, Tufts, Boston College, Boston University, McCormick Theological Seminary of Chicago, McKendree College of Lebanon, Illinois, and the Negro Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina.

Preparatory schools which have pledged their support include Phillips Exeter Academy, the Penn Charter School, Lawrenceville, St. Paul's Mercersburg, and others.

The columns in the facade of the new library will be dedicated singly to every American college and university siding in the reconstruction. The roll call of America's educational centers will encircle Louvain's literary treasures. The seals, shields, and coats of arms of every institution making a gift as a unit will he emblazoned on the Library's pillars. Nor will the actual personnel of the working forces be forgotten. In an illuminated, gold-cased volume, to repose in an especially designated niche in Louvain's halls, will be inscribed the names of all who helped to make the American undergraduates' gift to Belgium a reality, Everyone connected with the gift will be included in these lists, which will be guarded with the University archives.