THE CHIEF MARSHAL

In selecting Franklin D. Roosevelt as Commencement Marshal for 1929 the Alumni Association has made an eminently fitting choice. Prominent in undergraduate affairs and at one time President of the CRIMSON, Mr. Roosevelt has continued to take an active interest in Harvard since his graduation. From 1918 to 1924, years of special importance in the development of Harvard policy, he served as an Overseer of Harvard College.

Into American political life Franklin Roosevelt has brought something of which his countrymen may be proud. In the beginning of his career he fought machine politics and laid the foundation for the reorganization of his party, winning for it the confidence of the people of the State. Later he was called to Washington as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, where he had his share in the handling of peculiarly difficult war-time problems. Then came an attack of illness, after which he cut short his convalescence in order to take up the fight for his party in the campaign of 1928. His own victory in a year of overwhelming Democratic defeat cannot be interpreted otherwise than as a remarkable personal tribute.

Few men in their first twenty-five years out of college attain the position which Mr. Roosevelt holds in the affection of his fellow-citizens. The Class of 1904 is peculiarly fortunate in being able to offer as Chief Marshal a man of his calibre.