PLEDGE DRIVE TO OPEN TODAY

Pledges from 100 per cent of the student body for War Bonds and Stamps is the object of the intensive one-week drive opening today, the first all-out effort to bring the College into step with the rest of the country in financing the war. Sponsored by the War Service Committee, the drive will reach every undergraduate and resident instructor in the seven Houses and Dudley.

According to Richard N. Swift '44, in charge of sales of War Bonds and Stamps, pledges for weekly contributions during the students' stay at Harvard will be distributed in the House dining halls at lunch and dinner today. The object of the drive is to obtain complete and consistent participation regardless of the size of the purchase.

During this week a door to door canvass will be conducted in every House to reach those students who did not sign pledges in the dining halls. Also during this week stamps will be on sale every evening at dinner, and on regular sales day tables will be open at lunch also. Next week sales will be held two days in the week.

The results of this week's sales will be checked against the pledges in order to determine to what extent they are being fulfilled, but after the initial campaign, payment will be left up to the individual and no further canvassing will be done.

$1000 Minimum Weekly Goal

Weekly average minimum hoped for by the War Service Committee is $1000, a goal which has long since been reached and passed by Yale. Average so far for the College has been $300, and last week the sales fell well below this with only $288.50 dollars' worth sold. Purchases in bonds, made available for the first time last week, reached a total of $275, but indicated the effort of only a very few people.

During a similar drive already under way at Yale, it was reported last night that $5,596 has been pledged in a month and $4,308 worth of stamps and bonds have been sold. During the last two weeks alone a weekly average of $1090 has been reached.

Princeton Cash Ready

At Princeton a total of three drives has already been held and a fourth is scheduled to begin on Thursday. The first brought in $4312. A second drive, utilizing tables in the dining halls, grossed $750 in one day, and still a third drive brought in pledges and payments for $3580 worth of bonds and $1194 in stamps.

Experience at both Yale and Princeton indicates that a personal pledge system is the only way to obtain 100% coverage, and that buying on a purely voluntary and unsystematic basis has been unsuccessful.