Our C at/10/ic Heritage in T e~:as
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capita basis, each Council to be responsible for an amount proportional to its membership, the quota payable in installments O\'er a period of three years. The loan did in no way restrict the students in the choice of the college or universities they wished to attend, a most liberal attitude as regards higher education. Two years later, five thousand dollars had been collected for the Student Loan Fund, but no loans had as yet been made. At this time the original unrestricted choice of the prospective borrowers was limited by the State Convention held in Victoria by stipulating that in the event the courses desired by the applicant be not offered by a Catholic college or university within the State, such loans could be made to enable the applicant to attend any State controlled institution offering such courses until such time as they were available in a Catholic institution within the bounds of Texas. Although the total fund originally stipulated had not been collected, such money as was then held on hand for loans was made available in 1926. Three applicants were helped that year. Each succeeding year more students received valuable aid from the fund. By 1931, loans had been made to thirty-one, in the amount of $II ,462 from money contributed by fifty councils on a non-compulsory basis, although the total goal had not been reached. The report of the Student Loan Fund Committee made at the Taylor Convention in 1935 was far from flattering. It had become evident, it declared, that some of the beneficiaries apparently considered the loans more in the nature of outright scholarship grants. This deprived many other student applicants from obtaining aid. "The very purpose for which the Student Loan Fund was created," it was declared is being defeated. The Committee had been forced, therefore, to adopt the policy temporarily of "no more loans" until the Loan Fund was replenished. The periodical payment of the principal and interest on the various loans already granted would have enabled worthy students seeking help from the fund to receive the desired aid. Belatedly, Texas was feeling the effects of the great depression of 1929, which did not seriously affect the State until 1933 and the years following. There were many who had assumed obligations with the best of intentions but who were now unable to meet them. Conditions improved and the Loan Fund was sufficiently replenished by 1937 to resume making loans again. New regulations to safeguard the permanence of the rotating fund and its benefits to succeeding generations of students were now adopted. The
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