Drive for Democracy

Today PBH begins a week-long campaign for used clothes and outgrown textbooks. Solicitors will visit every room in the College with the goal of getting contribution from every undergraduate. The donations will be sent to students and universities abroad, where they are particularly needed. After five years of reconstruction, wholesale distribution of relief may have lost some of its importance, but severe cases of need still exist. This year's drive has been personalized so that the proceeds will reach students and institutions of special concern to the Harvard community.

All the clothing will be sent to the Salzburg Seminar, the Student Council-sponsored school of American studies in Austria. There, it will be given to students and their families whose need is particularly urgent. Distribution in this way guarantees your contribution's reaching another student who deserves your help. In many cases, gifts will double a wardrobe or release limited budgets for books, food, or shelter.

Books in the social sciences donated to the drive go to the American Institute of the University of Munich, another recently established center of American studies. Both the Seminar and the American Institute are promising signs in European education, for they recognize the importance of understanding American society and its institutions. You can contribute to their success in this drive.

Scientific books will go to the University of Rangoon, whose library was seriously depleted by the Japanese. The College will do well to take advantage of this opportunity to rebuild one of the leading institutions in Asia.

The goals of this drive are intelligent ones. They assure use of things you don't want by foreign students who will value them. It is a cheap investment in good will and merits support.