GRAND RAPIDS PAPER FAVORS HARVARD CHAPEL--BURR WANTS APPEAL TO GRADUATES ON NEXT ARMISTICE DAY

Opinions both favorable and adverse have greeted the announcement of a now Harvard chapel as a War Memorial. The Alumni Bulletin this week prints two of the more favorable opinions, one from a Michigan newspaper and one from the chairman of the Harvard Memorial Committee. The Grand Rapids Press regrets that State universities cannot have such an opportunity, while Allston Burr '89 proposes a nationwide Harvard rally on Armistice Day this year, with the purpose of stimulating interest in the Memorial. The statements follow.

Press Praises Idea

Says the Grand Rapids Press:

"In honor of three hundred seventy-three Harvard men who gave their lives in the World War that university proposes a beautiful memorial of a type somewhat rare, and yet worthier perhaps than the stadiums, halls, fountains, campaniles and statues which have been the more popular means of commemorating the hero dead in our institutions of learning.

"Harvard, instead of any of these testimonials, plans a church.

"The church is to be a fine Georgian edifice in which daily services may be held and in which Sunday congregations largely composed of undergraduates may be accommodated. The present Harvard chapel is no longer capable of roating the crowds desiring to worship.

"This proposal has come spontaneously from Harvard alumni. In itself it is evidence of the character of education at this oldest of all American universities. Evidently the spiritual has its place there and a true appreciation of the meaning of heroic sacrifice. Harvard raises no bars against non-Christian attendance; its chapel attaches to no particular creed; but it knows the value of religious influence encouraged by the university itself, on the campus and having some place in students daily life. It is regrettable that our state universities have been deprived of the opportunity Harvard seeks (to grasp more richly and completely through its new memorial."

Burr's Plan Ratified

Plans for a nation-wide Harvard meeting of every Harvard Club in its own city on Armistice Day, 1926, were suggested by Allston Burr '89, chairman of the Harvard War Memorial Committee, to the Chicago meeting of the Associated Harvard Clubs. The Chicago club, through its president. John S. Miller, immediately approved the suggestion, and other clubs are following suit. At this nation-wide meeting reports will be made of the contribution of the membership of each club toward the Memorial Church fund, and it is anticipated that the money may be raised in time to make a full and successful national report to the several clubs by return wire before the conclusion of the meeting. Of the plan, Mr. Burr has this to say in his address in Chicago:

Asking Wealthy Graduates First

"What of the future? Your committee wishes every Harvard alumnus to do his bit towards the memorial to those 376 men, each of whom, God knows, did his bit. But the simple, unescapable laws of arithmetic intrude when one talks about $1,000,000 and, if our goal is to be reached, those who can be must be very generous. Your committee felt that if it circularized our 44,000 graduates without a preliminary sounding out for large subscriptions, the result would fall so far short that Harvard indifference would be a bitter jest when applied to a subject of such sacred sentiment as a memorial to its dead. Therefore so far we have approached only those who, in our judgment, were able, if they would, to give $5,000 or more, and as yet but few of those. It is our hope to make such progress through special regional committees and generous service of individuals in presenting the matter to those who can give the more substantial amounts, that we may have the final general appeal on next Armistice Day the eighth anniversary of Peace.

"What say you, Gentlemen, shall it be so? Will each of the presidents of the Harvard Clubs here present organize now to set aside Armistice Day for this supreme purpose? Do this, Gentlemen, and Harvard will dedicate her War Memorial on the Armistice Day of 1927.