HARVARD FUND EXECUTED BY HAMLEN AND CORNING REPORTS AN INCREASE OF DONORS

Recent progress of the Harvard Fund is recorded in an article in a current number of the Alumni Bulletin. The account, of the past week shows an increase in the number of contributors, which is one of the fundamental aims of the Fund, although a falling off in the amount collected has been observed.

During the past week $4,005 was subscribed to the Harvard Fund. Individual subscriptions varied in amount from $1 to $500. This total was slightly less than the total subscriptions for the previous week, although the number of men who contributed was considerably greater.

Attention is again called to Jerome Greene's recent statement on the Fund: "A subscription to the Harvard Fund is essentially an expression on the part of a Harvard man of his desire to be counted each year as doing something for his alma mater. The first and essential thing is to be thus counted. . . . The amount of the annual gift to the Harvard Fund is of secondary importance as compared with giving something, however small. Of two men having the same income, one might be justified in giving $100 a year and another only $5."

Hamlen and Corning in Charge

Since its organization last October, the Harvard Fund has been under the personal supervision of J. R. Hamlen '04, chairman of the executive committee of the Harvard Fund Council, and Howard Corning '90, executive secretary. Mr. Hamlen is now living in Boston, and Mr. Corning in Cambridge. The headquarters of the Fund are on the top floor of Lehman Hall, Harvard's new administration building, where the Council occupies four rooms.

Joseph Rochemont Hamlen '04 is a native of Portland, Me., where he returned, after leaving College, to enter the lumber business. In 1911 he went to Little Rock, Ark., to take charge of the manufacturing operations of his company in the South. He is chairman of the Arkansas Forestry Commission. In 1917, he went to Washington, D. C., to become assistant to the acting chairman of the executive committee of the American Red Cross with Eliot Wadsworth '98; and later assumed Mr. Wadsworth's duties while he the latter was in Europe. Hamlen returned to the South in 1919. He began his present duties as chairman of the executive committee of the Harvard Fund Council last September. He has always taken an active interest in Harvard affairs. He was the founder, and for 15 years president, of the Harvard Club of Arkansas; and was vice-president of the Southwestern Division of the Associated Harvard Clubs from 1923 to 1925.

Corning Also from Maine

Howard Corning '90 also was born in Portland, Me., and since his graduation from College has lived most of the time in that State. From 1909 to 1925, he was treasurer of the Bangor Railway & Electric Co. and its associated companies, with headquarters in Bangor. He has been president of the Harvard Club of Bangor; and was president of the New England Federation of Harvard Clubs in 1922 and 1923. During the same years he was vice-president of the New England Division of Associated Harvard Clubs and for two years was a member of the committee appointed by the Board of Overseers to visit the Division of Geology. He is a director of the Harvard Alumni Association. He was appointed executive secretary of the Harvard Fund Council last September.

Fund Endorsed by Letters

A large number of letters have also been received from graduates urging general and whole-hearted support of the Fund. A few of these are printed below:

"I realize that some people think that Vermont is small and way up in the North. Nevertheless, the Harvard graduates in her boundaries are loyal and most anxious to do their part to help the University.

"I consider this Harvard Fund plan a way in which the rich man and the man of moderate means can do his share and thus not only raise more money for the University, but also keep more Harvard men in touch with their Alma Mater." Franklin S. Billings, '85.   Governor of Vermont

Encouragement From Texas

"Harvard men who have drifted so far away from Cambridge, as Texas are, perhaps, much more interested in the progress of Harvard University than are those who maintain a residence in New England, strange as this may seem. We, therefore, have followed with interest the development that has crystalized into the Harvard Fund, which is now established and is being promoted; for this is one of the ways, and perhaps the best way, in which the company of Harvard men can be of service to Harvard. It is very important that in this work each Harvard man have a share, and I urge very strongly that this should be his pleasure and his duty."   E. N. Willis '03.

Dalas Tex.

Founded on Perfect Logic

"It seems to me that every man who has enjoyed Harvard's advantages and has profited thereby should now gladly attune his ear to the University's appeal for needed financial assistance. That a need exists is proven by the very fact that the appeal has gone forth; our University asks for money not in order to have it, but to use it, to keep abreast of the times, and to maintain her primacy in education. To whom shall our kindly mother turn in her need, if not to her sons? Shall we be outdone in loyalty to Harvard, and in giving to Harvard; by those on whom she has less claim, those whom she has not fostered? Hardly so. The idea of the Harvard Fund is founded upon the strong rock of perfect logic, and it will make its own appeal to all loyal Harvard men."   William W. Fisher, '04.   Vice-President, Southwestern Division,   Associated Harvard Clubs Dallas, Tex.

"The establishment of the Harvard Fund fills a long felt need of the alumni body, in that it enables all to contribute something towards a debt which most of us feel we owe the University. Heretofore, many who would have liked to contribute have been deterred by embarrassment, on account of the smallness of the amount they could afford to give.

One of the principal advantages of the Fund is that small gifts are as welcome as large ones. The number of contributors is most important."

Fund Makes Special Appeal

"The Harvard Fund has met with immediate and general approval among the Harvard men of the Northwest, and the wonder seems to be that the plan did not suggest itself long ago. It is making a special appeal to many men of smaller means who have not felt themselves in a position to make any substantial contribution to the University, but who welcome the opportunity to give an annual amount which in their minds will be the equivalent of the annual interest on the larger sum which they would like to feel themselves in a position to contribute some day. It has been a matter of genuine surprise to us to note the wide-spread interest on the part of the Harvard men of this section."   Bergmann Richards '09.   Vice-President, Western Division.   Associated Harvard Clubs. Minneapolis