Memorial Committee Urges Plaque

A $60,000 plaque in Memorial Church has received the final nod from the Saltonstall Committee charged with recommending a memorial for the University's World War II dead.

The group tossed out its seven-months-old plans for and auditorium and an activities center annexed to Memorial Hall. In a report released last night by Henry C. Clark '11, secretary of the Committee, the project was called too costly and without permanent value. Including endowment, the center would have cost around $1,500,000.

Directors of the Alumni Association, joint founders of the Committee with the executive board of the Associated Harvard Clubs, will receive the report October 16.

If these two groups approve the report at a subsequent balloting, the names of the deceased will be inscribed on the wall of the dead of World War I. The cost in set between $60,000 and $75,000.

Axt Abstains

The Committee's decision was unanimous, except for the abstention of Richard G. Axt, Jr. '46, who has been the Student Council's representative on the group since its founding.

Some 20 months of deliberation came to an end with the Committee's verdict Saturday. During that time over 30 proposals for utilitarian and non-utilitarian memorials were offered.

Three major proposals were originally sifted out of this group. One year ago the Committee tentatively approved a plan for $500,000 plaque. Yesterday, the group said it had thrown out the scholarships because "the income today from $500,000 would be inadequate to be dignified by the term 'War Memorial.'"

Center Once Approved

Another proposals that got Committee approval last February was a student activities center tied in with Memorial Hall. Original plane called for a separate auditorium and center costing near $3,000,000. The compromise Memorial Hall plan pulled the figure down to $1,500,000, including endowment.

Saturday's report scrapped the activities center project, in addition to plane for a medical center. "It was apparent," the report said, "that, with the amounts it was known the University needed for many purpose, a large-scale drive for a War Memorial would be unwise... The failure of such a drive would be disastrous."

"While the Committee was much impressed with the sincerity of the Alumni Committee for a University Memorial Activities Center, and the need for a student center," the report read, "the Committee felt that a Student Center, while possible as a form of war memorial, was not a proper one for it to recommend because (of) its costs... Further more such a Memorial might become outmoded for the purpose for which it would be dedicated."

An earlier draft of the report said, "The Committee still felt a Student Center, basically was not a proper form of War Memorial..." Axt effected passage of the amendment partially recognizing the value of a center.

Its final recommendation read:

"The Committee has, therefore, unanimously, with one member abstaining from voting, recommended that the names of the men lost in World War II be inscribed on one wall of Memorial Church... a project which the Committee believes could be carried out with great dignity, simplicity, and beauty."

In further explanation of its action, the Committee stated, "It is bound as a practical matter to recommend something which, in its opinion, would be likely to be accepted by the University, the Alumni Association, and the Associated Harvard Clubs, and for which the funds could be raised without strain.

Agreement Doubted

No War Memorial suggested could possibly satisfy all alumni or families of these lost, and unwilling giving to a large fund of this nature seemed highly undesirable.

"The Committee was included to discard any project, however worthy, which did not give promise of performanence or which might be diverted from the original purpose for which it was intended. The Committee had in mind Memorial Hall and the Union.