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

®I|^ SrrflU flf f Ijt irlta ®I|?taVOL. XXXVIl.IMPRESSIONS OF COLORADO COLLEGE AND AMESNo action of a fraternity is so jealously watched as is the grantingof charters. No single thing is so misunderstood, a part ofthe undergraduates and alumni believing that the other membersof the Phi Delta Theta are desirous of establishing chapters inevery wayside academy and high school, while, conversely, thosewho seek to grant new chapters think all those who do not vote fortheir chartering are hidebound conservatives. Actually the Fraternityis practically of one mind in the matter if prejudice andpassion may be eliminated and reason and calm judgment invokedin each case. Fortunately calm and deliberate judgment held swayat the national convention at Chicago and the Fraternity was strengthenedimmeasurably by the granting of three charters in this sectionof the Middle West.It may not be unwise to state here something of the location ofthe three chapters. All are granted to one province, Zeta, and atfirst blush it would appear that the Fraternity was unduly addingchapters in a restricted section. To the Phis who live in thissection no explanation is needed, but to those whom we have neverhad the pleasure of having with us it may not be inappropriateto go into details, and to specify the great distance between thesenew chapters and, by comparison, to see that even with thesethree new charters that Phi Delta Theta is widely scattered. Ilive in about the middle of the south half of this province. Itwas my privilege to install two of the three chapters. To reachColorado College I left my home at two o'clock in the afternoon andtraveled twenty-two hours on a fast through continental train. Toreach Ames, in the next state, I was twelve hours en route, and tohave reached North Dakota would have taken more than forty hours.It is eighteen hours from Kansas Beta, the nearest chapter on theeast, to Colorado Beta, and five hours from Colorado Alpha, thenearest chapter on the west to the new chapter at Colorado College.Ames is nearer to neighbors but North Dakota is a day's run fromany other Phi Delta Theta chapter. In the granting of thesethree charters Phi Delta Theta occupied the strategic points inthis great province.In a new chapter we seek an institution of approved standing,with an assured future, with adequate equipment and endowment,with a faculty of reputation and ability, with buildings and campusand material things that appeal to the passing stranger—andfinally we want the petitioners to own a house and to occupy a