GRADUS AD PARNASSUM
THE ALUMNI FUND CAMPAIGN FOR 1943 NOW SWINGS INTO THE HOME STRETCH. At the moment of writing the score looks pretty good when compared with that of a year ago, date for date. The tabulation (in round numbers) shows a current total for May 10 of $112,000 from 5300 contributors. Last year the same amount was not reached until a month later, and then it came from 6000 givers. However it has to be remembered that campaigning started earlier this time; nevertheless, with all the obvious handicaps due to the war situation, the Fund is manifestly going strong and there is nothing to be desired so far as the general spirit goes. Alumni and friends of the College alike appear to be fully alive to the needs which times like these impose, and laudably determined to see that those needs be met.
If you have been following the news commentators on the war—as who has not?—you will have noted their anxiety not to permit elation over sporadic successes to have a relaxing effect on the war effort. It is not easy to stress' this without risking some irritation on the part of the public, born of the feeling that somehow there always has to be a disquieting "but" thrust in after the announcement of a success in the field. It is well to remember, however, that too early assumption that it's all over but the cheering might have a disastrous effect; and this goes for our Fund campaign as well as for the campaigns in North Africa and elsewhere, so it is salutary to bear this in mind and press onward to the goal with unabated zeal.
The firm foundation of every such fund as this is the number, the loyalty, the persistence of the rank and file of our alumni army, who are necessarily the givers of the smaller sums, but whose enthusiastic concurrence in support forms the basis for the larger contributions without which the fund would fail. The man who gives $10 may easily be hurting himself more than the wealthier man who gives $500. Just now the imperative thing is that we all give to the point where we all feel the pinch, whatever the size of the gift. After all, the pay-off is the total amount that we raise, and the quintessential thing is that this sum be as large as it is possible to make it, in dollars and cents. We've got to come as close to a total of $200,000 as we can; and that means that everybody has to extend himself to the limit of his power to help, from the man who contributes one dollar to the man who is able to give $10,000. It is all for the common cause, and as always it is the total that counts. It is already clear that the foundation is amply secure. What remains is to insure that the superstructure, which the larger gifts must invariably provide, shall be equally creditable.
Never forget that Dartmouth College now has 5500 of its alumni in the country's service; that these men are more widely scattered than last year and consequently are harder to reach; and that this means the resulting discrepancy must be made up by the rest of us who are in closer touch. Now 5500 men in the services form more than a quarter of the whole alumni body. Hundreds of them, no matter how far the girdled earth they roam, have responded already and more unquestionably will respond—in many cases increasing their contributions to the Fund. But their absence from home does create a great, if temporary, breach in the familiar ranks, which somehow or other must be made good.
Nor is it a matter of this year alone. In fact the greatest pinch is likely to come when the war is over and when the College settles down to the great job of readjustment which infallibly must follow. First of all we have to ride out the storm, with all snug alow and aloft; but when the gale of war has blown itself out we've also the necessity of making sail again and putting the ship once more on its course. Dartmouth must not only come through this crisis; it must be prepared to go on being Dartmouth when the crisis ends. From the record to date it is clear that the alumni of the College are fully aware of the magnitude of their task, and fully determined to fulfill whatever duties the emergency may require, both now and hereafter. We can't afford to relax and take things easily, assuming that somehow or other the Lord will provide. We've all got to help with the providing—and there's still a month to go, with some $90,000 to raise beyond what's now in hand.
