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A SALUTARY INFLUENCE equal to the annual salary of the English Bible professor, once it became clear that the principal sum which James Strong had promised for that purpose would not be fqrthcoming. The women also presented small annual gifts to the library and occasional grants to assist certain campus activities, such as debating and oratory. Their total support at this time averaged about $1,200 each year. From the very beginning of the league's existence, both the president of the College and his wife were actively involved in its affairs, especially during the annual conventions held each November. During these sessions the Y. M. C. A secretary gave detailed reports of his work. Students provided musical and other entertainment for the campus guests and featured the league in each year's Spectrum. Although Mrs. Stuckenberg maintained her interest in the organization, she relinquished the presidency in 1912.403 It is a tribute to the vitality of the organization of which she was chief founder that then and later there were many other qualified women who provided it with inspired leadership. The first three presidents succeeding her were from Philadelphia, Washington, and Altoona. A new period in the life of the Woman's League began in 1915, when its officers asked President Granville to recommend one pressing College need which all of its subleagues, working together, could attempt to satisfy. He was quick to suggest that they raise money to pay for a Y.M.C.A. building on the campus. At its next annual convention, the league accepted this challenge. A month later the College trustees added their blessing. Before the building was finally ready for dedication and use in the summer of 1922, both the women and the College experienced one disappointment after another: the original building estimate of $30,000 proved to be much too low; the promise of a $25,000 gift from the national Y. M. C. A. (in honor of Robert Weidensall) yielded only 20 percent of that amount; World War I, the shortage of building materials in the immediate postwar era, and major inflation made construction either impossible or unwise until the spring of 1921; and the amount for which the Woman's League ultimately assumed responsibility was about $80,000. Thanks to the energy and devotion of league members, they had to borrow only about $35,000 in order to pay the last of the construction bills. In an effort to attract contributors, as early as 1916 they had begun projecting a series of ways in which to recognize donors of amounts ranging from $1 to $1,000: placing names in the cornerstone (there were eventually some 2,200), entering them into special books, and preserving them on special plaques to be erected in 403She spent most of her long widowhood in Wooster, Ohio, returning to Gettysburg from time to time and occasionally attending league conventions. 70