The Overmastering Need

With the exigencies of war it goes without saying that the Alumni Fund will come hard—but come it must, in response to the overmastering need of the College. Your taxes will be higher than ever before. Your costs of living will be greatly increased in spite of well-meant efforts to put ceilings over them. Demands of every kind will have to be met. You can't fight the greatest war in human history without making sacrifices greater than human history has ever seen before. We might as well get that firmly in mind now, and number among the sacrifices we have to make that one which bears on the preservation of the College that we love. Dartmouth must and shall survive—and we, the alumni, will see to it that it does.

We have given generously in the past, but few of us have really known what it means to "give till it hurts." It looks as if now would be our chance to find out. It is also our chance to show that the hurt won't make any difference. This thing is not only worth the doing. It is a thing that must be done, to the end that Dartmouth College may come through this storm of war intact and ready to sail on triumphantly when the storm is over. The prestige and usefulness of Dartmouth is our common heritage and it is ours to conserve, that others who come after us may enjoy what we have enjoyed.

The College has cut its budget to the bone and can go no farther in its effort to trim its academic sails to the gale of war. It is for us, the alumni, to see that the fabric of our ship shall outride the stormunder bare poles, it may be, but riding safely, all taut and trim above and all dry below. Dartmouth, like Nelson at Trafalgar, expects every man to do his duty. And, like Nelson at Trafalgar, Dartmouth will not be disappointed.