WHEN WAS MARSHALL PLAN EXPOSED?

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I was reminded again by a recent issue of TIME of that oft-repeared "canard", if that is the word, that the idea of the Marshall Plan was born, or at least first exposed to the public, in a Commencement Address by George Marshall in June, 1947.

Being the saving and collecting type, I still have, and it is presently in front of me, the Harvard Crimson of June 5, 1947, which reports that Marshal did indeed receive an honorary degree, but says nothing of any such speech. I also still have the program, or "Order of Exercises" which lists only the following speakers (allowing that I might have been daydreaming during the historic address that supposedly graced my own graduation exercises):

Latin Disquisition--James Bishop Peabody

English Disquisition--A Challenge to Free Men

Silas Douglas Cater

English Disquisition--Education and Our Democracy

Robert Vail Hansberger

(I vaguely recall something about his having actually addressed an Alumni Dinner. Was it only, if such was the place, after the Commencement, or was it the night before and deemed too lacking in interest to be reported?) Edgar H. Looni '45-'47

(Gen. Marshall announced his Plan at an Alumni meeting in the afternoon of Commencement Day--Ed.)