JOHN HARVARD'S BIRTHDAY

This morning, to commemorate the 309th anniversary of his birth, the Memorial Society will hold its annual exercises in the delta in honor of John Harvard, founder of the University. As Dr. Fitch said on Sunday, to judge from the attendance one would hardly realize that this was a University function. But it ought to be one of the first duties of every community to honor its founder in an appropriate way.

Very few of us ever stop to think how much we owe to that courageous young minister, who, in 1638, left his library and half his estate to the struggling college at Newtowne. In gratitude the General Court changed the town's name to Cambridge, the university which John Harvard left in order to come to this country. Without his aid it would never have attained its early reputation--it might even have been abandoned. And, in partial recognition of our enormous debt to him, the least that we can do is to attend the exercises this morning.