Collection to be Immediate.

(We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest, but assume no responsibility for sentiments expressed under this head.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The statement in the news columns of the CRIMSON of March 7 in regard to the Harvard Endowment Fund is slightly misleading. You say that "the committee has not attempted to give a great deal of publicity to their movement and raise the money in a short time, but they plan to go slowly and to give years to the collection of the fund." Quite the contrary, the committee has given the $10,-000,000 Fund considerable publicity both in the newspapers and otherwise. This publicity has had the effect of prompting several very substanial gifts wholly unsolicited and many expressions of enthusiasm on the part of Harvard's friends. These facts lead to the belief that when actual soliciting is begun, as it will be very shortly, the response will be immediate and generous.

As regards giving "years to the collection of the fund," the time to be devoted to the gathering of the $10,000,000 will be determined largely by the measure in which graduates and friends respond to the appeal. The sum at which the committee is aiming was determined by a careful consideration of Harvard's needs. It will be collected just as soon as possible, because Harvard has immediate need for the income which that amount will yield.

No doubt your statement in regard to the time to be spent on this undertaking was based on the fact that the activities of the Harvard Endowment Fund will not cease when the $10,000,000 is in hand. In that sense the Fund will extend over many years and, it is hoped, will ultimately become as permanent a part of the University as one of the departments of instruction. But although the committee realizes that it is beginning a work which will go on for generations, its first object is to raise $10,000,000, and that as speedily as possible.

With some 40,000 living Harvard men to reach, in addition to innumerable "outside" friends of the University, it would be impossible, and for many reasons, impracticable, to conduct a short quick campaign. If a substantial part of the desired sum is in hand by next Commencement, the committee will feel that a satisfactory start on the great task has been made. ROBERT F. DUNCAN '12,   Secretary, Endowment Fund Committee.