1912–13 Volume 37 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THE SCROLL 347drawn. Provisions were made for appeals from the decisions of chapters, for asystem of membership reports, fo be made annually by the chapters, andfor amending the Articles of Union.The Founders, before they had added to their number, before the Societywas one week old, had formulated and adopted these far-reaching plans. Theythought of everything important; they did their work well. For a Societyjust launched on its career, the Articles of Union were wonderfully complete;they contained all essential features. In fact, they were so complete thatthey were not amended for nearly a quarter of a century. The faith of theFounders in the fundamental principles on which Phi Delta Theta was basedwas justified by the wonderful growth and prosperity of the Fraternity in succeedingyears, and the machinery of organization which they devised provedto be strongly and skillfully constructed.The work of the Founders is potent in these days. They understoodthe science of government and their enactments stand the testof time. One's sense of proportion is not shocked by the comparisonof the evolution of the organic laws of the United States and the*evolution of the organic laws of Phi Delta Theta in these words:There is a parallel between the organic laws of the United States and thoseof Phi Delta Theta.In the Declaration of Independence our revolutionary forefathers set forththe reasons which impelled them to establish their separate political existence.In the Bond of the Phi Delta Theta the Founders declared the principles uponwhich the Fraternity is based-The Fathers of the Republic adopted Articles of Confederation and PerpetualUnion to govern, in their federal relations, the States which had beencolonies. The Founders of the Phi Delta Theta adopted Articles of Union togovern the relations between the colleges, as chapters were then called.The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union having been found togive the Federal Government insufficient powers, a Constitution for the UnitedStates was adopted, and each State adopted its own Constitution. So in PhiDelta Theta, the Articles of Union were supplanted by fhe Constitution of theOrder and the Constitution of Chapters, each chapter having its own By-laws.If the analogy were carried further, it could be shown that, as the UnitedStates Government became more centralized, and the powers of the States morerestricted, by amendments to the Constitution, so the Phi Delta Theta Fraternitywas changed, by combining the Constitution of the Order and the Constitutionof Chapters into one Constitution, which provided for a more centralizedgovernment than that which had before existed.That the Fraternity's growth has been substantial is evidenced bythe development in material things. "The Olympian" contains halftone full page illustration of the 48 chapter houses owned in theclosing days of 1912 by the chapters or chapter house associations. Inrecent years the growth of this feature of Phi Delta Theta fraternitylife has been so rapid that a monthly bulletin would be required tokeep an up-to-date record of the new houses. Thus early in 1913the report made at the recent convention must be amended. Otherillustrations show portraits of the founders and other Phis who haveleft their imprint on the affairs of life, fac-similies of mterestingrecords, insignia and autographs. A total of 154 illustrationsembellish the book.A liberal section of the manual is given over to topics which donot bear directly on Phi Delta Theta activities. The chapter dealing