THE MAIL

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

Dear Sir:--

In the Harvard Alumni Bulletin of March 17th, it is urged that the War Memorial Committee should not take Harvard undergraduate opposition to the proposed Memorial Church too seriously--opposition which, in fact, has been expressed by graduates and officers as well as by undergraduates. As a reason, it is stated that at the time of the war these memorial-church opposers were but ten or twelve years old, and therefore cannot judge the desirability of the memorial. Were it not a fair answer to show that after all the alumni, who were mature at the time of the war, and who would now contribute toward the memorial, are not intending to commemorate the heroism of the dead so much for those who personally knew them, as for the many generations through which the memorial will stand? We believe ourselves to be in closer touch with these generations than are the alumni. Furthermore, they are building a church where not they, but we, and the future students and officers, are to worship; and they are building it in the Yard, where they may visit once a year, or even less frequently, but which is the scene of our daily tasks. In recent years the authorities of the University have shown increasing interest in discovering undergraduate thought on important University policies. And still the alumni editors of the Bulletin insist that our opinion should not be taken too seriously.

We then read that because a large number of alumni agreed upon the plan of a Memorial Church in place of Appleton Chapel, we should all either support them or be silent. It would perhaps not not be irrelevant to ask what Harvard is; the alumni, who love to chat over their old college days, and who occasionally reach deep into their pockets for the University, or the undergraduates, the graduate students, and the officers, who live its daily life. We do not wish to be petty and nagging, by calling undue attention to what cannot be remedied; but we confess that we are not yet sceptical enought to believe that the sentiment of a group whose interest is so very demonstrable should be quite ignored. Yours truly,   Edward Renouf,   President, Harvard Liberal Club.