Toward a Memorial

Cutting sharply through varied and numerous lines of attack to the memorial question, the official Alumni Committee yesterday dealt a vigorous and progressive blow toward an early solution of the problem. That its proposal was unexpected makes it no less valuable; that it is inherently the work of sincere, disinterested persons makes it apparent that it should be judged on its merits and without prejudice.

As a three-fold plan, the combined Memorial Church tablet, Memorial Hall renovation with room for extra-curricular activities, and auditorium additions to Mem Hall certainly make a more functional and more appropriate memorial than the plaque-scholarship idea originally favored by the Committee. While many students will feel that a Student Activities Center in a building of its own would have been more effective than the diverse facts of the new plans, all will recognize the progress towards a useful and integrated memorial.

The tablet as outlined in the new suggestion, is first of all, nearer financial reason at $60,000 than the former $200,000 figure. A list of the war dead will in any case be a part of any memorial, and the location in the Memorial Church has seemed wise to many alumni.

Inclusion of facilities for extra-curricular activities in the plan adopted yesterday is another sign of progressive thought on the Committee's part. The Memorial Hall basement, while not possessing the glamor of a new Activities Center, does have good potentialities. The sole problem in this area will be what to do with the psychological laboratories now occupying the lower level of Mem Hall-laboratories whose work demands that facilities as good as those they have now be found for them.

The recommendation for an "auditorium" to be added to Memorial Hall is perhaps the touches part of yesterday's announcement. The location is fine for a theater, and the proximity to Sanders may be valuable for rehearsal arrangements. The big question is whether an adequate new theater can be built, along with the other two parts of the plan, within the $750,000 limit fixed by the Committee. To skimp the theater would be inexcusable. It should be a theater, not an auditorium--a theater with at least 1500 seats, adequate dressing rooms, a modern stage, and a projection booth and other technical facilities. Without those qualities its usefulness would plummet downwards, negating the effects of economy.

Economy is one of the new proposal's strongest aspects. By building around Memorial Hall, the Committee evidently intends to combine various services and therefore to save money, and its cost figure would seem to indicate success. If the entire plan--looked at best as a "package"--can really be done for $750,000 the Committee will indeed have produced a much-desired miracle.

In any case, Senator Saltonstall and his colleagues have demonstrated a growing concept of a memorial. It is not easy for men in the public eye to change their minds on controversial issues, and the members of this committee are to be congratulated for so doing.