Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/528

 462 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO In 1907 the alumni felt that they were strong enough to under- take the publication of a journal. In March of that year, accord- ingly, the first number of the Chicago Alumni Magazine appeared. It developed during 1908 into the University of Chicago Magazine, which, after some initial difficulties, as the alumni multiplied, increased in interest, circulation, and influence. In 1914-15 the alumni began a movement for the raising of a student scholarship fund which had in it great possibilities for future generations of students. The alumni early realized that they sustained a peculiar relation to the University. The statement of President Judson in the first number of the Alumni Magazine that "the real strength of a Uni- versity depends in the long run on its body of alumni," echoed their own sentiment. The institution was still very young, and the alumni were very young also, when they began to feel that they should be represented on the managing Board. It was true that three alumni of the first University were Trustees, two of them, Judge Frederick A. Smith, '66, and Eli B. Felsenthal, '78, con- tinuing through the entire period covered by this history. But this, gratifying though it was, did not wholly satisfy them. They wished to see someone graduated in their time from the new University made a Trustee. This attitude of the alumni did not displease, but gratified, the Board of Trustees. They felt that it indicated a living interest among the alumni in the University, of which they formed a great and rapidly increasing part. In 1914, therefore, Harold H. Swift, of the class of 1907, was elected a mem- ber of the Board of Trustees, the first of the new alumni out of the many the future will bring forth to guide the destinies of their Alma Mater. The loyalty of the alumni was born while they were students. The classes, as they approached graduation, began, very early in the history of the University, to make class gifts. This gave great satisfaction to President Harper. In the Decennial Report he expressed his satisfaction as follows: One of the most pleasing things in the history of the student life has been the custom, now firmly established, for the retiring class to present to the University a memorial gift. These gifts have been accepted by the institution