SCHOOL SPIRIT: GRADE A

The devotion of Nathan Pereles, Jr. '04, to Harvard University is a strange phenomenon. When his election to the dual office of President of the Associated Harvard Clubs and Director of the Harvard Alumni Association was recently announced, people glanced at his record and said it was a "good thing," "the right man," of made some other automatic comment. Yet the study of that record brings every college man to a consideration of what his alma mater is worth.

There are many kinds of school spirit. Some people wear huge W's on their watch fobs" some go to all the football games, and even contribute a fullback or two; many more content themselves with getting drunk when the occasion demands. Mr. Pereles did none of these things.

Mr. Pereles graduated from the Law School in 1907. He became Secretary of the Harvard Club of Milwaukee in 1908. He became President of that Club in 1913. He became Secretary of the Associated Harvard Clubs in 1923. Today he is said to know more Harvard graduates than any other living man. For thirty years he had devoted his energies to serving the University, organizing Harvard Clubs, securing speakers, encouraging gifts, "assisting promising youths to enter the College," keeping graduates active in the work of Harvard and the world alive to that work.

But why Mr. Pereles? There was no necessity for his doing this work, and there will be no necessity for any one undergraduate carrying it on when he leaves College. Yet without this work, the University's power and influence will be halved. It is not too soon for undergraduates to ask themselves how much Harvard gives to them and to society, and how much they are prepared to give to Harvard and indirectly to society. This is school spirit.