1953–54 Volume 78 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THE SCROLI.—Palladium Supplement—January, 1954 267
ing a unanimous vote of appreciation for the conscientious
efforts of Brother Flickinger during his
brief tenure of office.
11. Upon the recommendation of Secretary Beam,
who had previously entered into telephonic conversation
with Brother Albert P. Diehl, Iowa '32,
Brother Diehl received the unanimous approval of
the General Council for the appointment as President
of Psi Province upon motion of Wright which
was seconded by Gardner, subject to the approval
of three-fourths of the chapters located in Psi
Province in accordance with Section 84 under
Title IV of the General Statutes.
12. The General Council received a telegram
from George A. Swinebroad, Centre '23, announcing
his resignation as President of Eta Province for
business reasons. The resignation was regretfully
accepted along with a vote of thanks for Brother
Swinebroad's continued interest in 4> A 9.
13. For information purposes, the year-end Summary
Reports of the Province Presidents were presented
to the General Council for inspection.
At this point in the proceedings the meeting was
recessed at 12:30 P.M. for luncheon.
The meeting re-convened at 1:55 P.M. with all
persons previously reported in attendance.
14. A recapitulation of the Province Presidents'*
expenses for the fiscal year 1952-53 was presented
indicating that the Province Presidents did not
entirely exhaust the budget appropriation which
had been set aside for their use. The General Council
was unanimous in its opinion that, at the General
Officers Conference which was immediately to
follow the General Council meeting, the Province
Presidents be informed that they should take full
advantage of the funds which have been set aside
for their use by visiting their chapters with all
possible frequency and by otherwise discharging
their duties as set forth in Section 86 under Title
IV of the General Statutes.
It was moved by Wright, duly seconded, and
passed unanimously that the Province Presidents be
directed to procure from the Alumni Clubs in their
respective provinces up-to-date information with
respect to the clubs and transmit such information
to the Editor and the Executive Secretary for
prompt publication in THE SCROLL.
15. P. G. C. Ward reported on his experiences at
a meeting on August 14, 15, 1953, of the Presidents
of. the member fraternities of the- National Interfraternity
Conference. As a member of the Executive
Committee of the N.l.C, Brother 'Ward was
one of the Hosts for the meeting. His report was
well received and upon motion of Herrick, which
was duly seconded, the General Council extended
a vote of thanks to the President of the General
Council for his excellent report..
i6. The General Council heard with great interest,
the written proposals of Brothers Randolph
R. Connors, Wisconsin '25 and Donald G. Hawke,
Cincinnati '35 dealing with the autonomy of fraternities
in general, and *A 9 in particular, in respect
to membership selection. The General Council
went on record in unanimously expressing its appreciation
to the above brothers for their deep interest
in this important matter.
17. Correspondence between the Executive Secretary
and Peter Connolly, President of Massachusetts
Alpha and with Cutler Umbach, Connolly's successor,
was read by Beam and discussed thoroughly.
The General Council saw no reason to reconsider
the action taken in the case of Massachusetts
Alpha since no evidence whatever was available to
support any doubt of the propriety of such action.
Accordingly, the chapter will remain in a state of
suspension until the 1954 General Convention.
18. By unanimous vote, the General Council voted
to accede to the request of Massachusetts Alpha in
the letter of February 22. and to present a petition
to the 50th General Convention asking for the revocation
of the charter of Massachusetts Alpha, in
accordance with the provisions of Section 22. Article
VI, of the Constitution. It was further voted that
this petition be prepared forthwith and filed with
the Executive Secretary.
19. Following the consideration of the case of
Massachusetts Alpha and its decision with respect
thereto, the General Council gave consideration to
the case of Massachusetts Beta, which raises the
identical question. «
It was voted unanimously that a petition by the
General Council to the 50th General Convention be
prepared forthwith, requesting the revocation of the
charter of Massachusetts Beta, and filed with the
Executive Secretary, as required in Article VI, Section
22 of the Constitution.
20. After careful consultation with Brothers O. J.
Tallman and George E. Housser, Q.C., Past Presidents
of the General Council, the General Council
considered and unanimously adopted an agenda
setting forth the order of procedure at the next
General Convention dealing with:
a. Consideration of the revision of Section 26
under Article VII of the Constitution.
b. The petitions for the revocation of the charters
of Massachusetts Alpha and Massachusetts Beta.
21 In view of the widespread misapprehension
and misunderstanding in many quarters concerning
the suspension of the privileges of Massachusetts
Alpha and Massachusetts Beta, and so that it might
be abundantly clear to the entire membership of
A 9 that these suspensions were made by the
General Council for the sole reason that these two
chapters violated the laws of the Fraternity, it was
unanimously agreed by the General Council that a
factual report of these two cases from their beginning
to the present time and a statement concerning
the proposed future treatment of these problems
should be made in a special edition of The Palladium
to be mailed with all possible speed, by the
first week of October, 1953, if possible. It was further
ordered that the Secretariat of the General Head-
•quarters, and the Alumni Secretary, in their chapter
visitations and visitations with Alumni Clubs, should
make certain that the active chapters and alumni be
thoroughly acquainted with all of the facts in connection
with these two cases so as to make certain
that as many members of the Fraternity as possible
would understand that these suspensions occurred
because these chapters chose to ignore the laws of the
Fraternity or to make their own laws. In concluding
this agendum, the above officers were carefully in-