A REAL MEMORIAL?

At their recent meeting, the Associated Harvard Clubs authorized the raising of $325,000 to be used in erecting, in Cambridge, a Roosevelt memorial building. "Roosevelt House" shall contain, according to the plans announced, a room for Roosevelt books and memorabilia, and also a working floor for some of the departments of the University. The funds have not yet been raised, and since the program is scarcely begun, it may not be out of place to consider the merits of the plan.

Frankly, we do not like the idea of the projected "Roosevelt House." We are, of course, heartily in favor of a Roosevelt Memorial, but we doubt if this particular plan is entirely appropriate to the greatness of the man. There is a good deal of danger that the "working floor" part of the house will dominate the reading room, particularly for the student of a quarter-century or so ahead, whose chief occasions for going to Roosevelt House will be on the unpleasant and materialistic errands of University life. This does not seem the position that a Roosevelt memorial ought to have.

The choice of a suitable memorial is always a difficult thing; at present there are plans on foot not only for a Roosevelt memorial, but for a memorial to the Harvard men who gave their lives in the Great War. A combination of the two might bring a happy solution for both problems. It is generally admitted that the most fitting form for the War Memorial is that of a gymnasium; why should not the Roosevelt memorial be a part of that gymnasium? A Roosevelt swimming pool, for instance, would, to our mind, be a much more fitting memorial to this greatest of Harvard graduates, than the projected Roosevelt House. Granted, the University needs office space; that can be obtained some other way. Granted, there should be a room for Roosevelt books and books about Roosevelt; space can surely be found in Widener Library for such a purpose. Roosevelt's name will be forever connected with the European War through his work for preparedness and his unshakable courage during the last years of his life. This fact would receive, appropriate recognition in the combination of the War and Roosevelt memorials. At least the monument would be more real to the undergraduate mind than that projected in the present plan.