Everything To Gain

Now that the first exasperated response to the Saltonstall Committee's conduct of war memorial deliberations has mellowed into a firm but more temperate attitude the real business of reaching a democratic choice can begin. To this end the current Alumni Bulletin's entire treatment of the question of commemorating the University's World War II dead has made a sizable contribution. The very magnifying of the issue before large numbers of Alumni represents a clearing of the air which can only serve to assist the Committee in arriving at a selection faithful to the sentiment of its constituency.

Make no mistake about it: the undergraduate critics of the Committee's actions have had no illusions that they themselves are a significant part of that constituency. The war memorial will be an alumni gift to the University; whatever it is the generosity and spirit which have prompted the proffering will find ready appreciation. The dissenters simply insist that the expressed position of the student bodies at the College and the major graduate schools against the plaque-scholarship combination should properly carry great weight as Alumni make up their minds. It is on this basis that the proponents of a Memorial Center wage their campaign.

In charging the Committee with its task, the Associated Harvard Clubs and the Alumni Association did not explicitly urge the soliciting of rank-and-file graduate opinion. In this light Senator Saltonstall is prone to dismiss the idea of polling the entire Alumni body with reminders of impracticality and expense. As an impartial voice the Alumni Bulletin deserves the Senator's attention. The Bulletin backs the poll, pointing out that the estimated $5000 cost of printing and mailing a ballot with explanatory covering matter to 100,000-odd Alumni seems small in terms of the certain import of the results.

Nor in the Bulletin's view can the selection of the memorial be made on the mere basis of the expense involved "and the consequent case or difficulty to be anticipated in raising sufficient funds." The auditorium and activities space in a Memorial Center, the expansion of hygiene facilities, and the additional scholarships would each satisfy a distinct shortcoming in the University. Although the Memorial Center is of course the more desirable choice, the lone fact that serious controversy exists renders a referendum appropriate. This step would surely put the issue on a level beyond petty bickering and the sort of ill-feeling that debased the Memorial Church episode following the last war.