1930–31 Volume 55 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

TombstonesBy RUSSELL H. FITZGIBBONHanover, '24(EDITORIAL NOTE.—This survey of 4* A 9'sdormant chapters has been made in thebelief that some account of our "tombstones"may be interesting to those ofa younger Phi generation who are largelyunfamiliar with them. The writer claimsno credit whatever for original researchon the subject: the large part of thematerial is to be found, passim, in thatexcellent History of Phi Delta Theta byWalter B, Palmer.)W ERE we but gifted with a presciencewhich none but the prophets had, ^ A 0might now have no dead chapters—andthere would be no "orphan members,"those brothers who, like James E.Davidson, have the Fraternity as awhole to revere and work for, buthave no active chapters of their own.Lacking that foresight which wouldhave guided our destinies in an infalliblebut impossibly perfect way, wemight have relied upon the experienceof other organizations of our kind,might have gotten statistics and graphsfrom the U. S. Bureau of Education,might have organized a mature surveycommission, and gone at the job in adeliberate and systematic way. LambdaChi Alpha and some other of theyounger fraternities have done it, andhave no tombstones, in spite of theirlarge chapter rolls.But back at Miami in the days ofthe Gold Rush and the Mexican Cessionand such things they probablydidn't know much about scientific anddeliberate fraternity expansion, inspite of the maturity of the Morrisonsand the Wilsons and the Harrisons ofthat day. Consequently, * A © andeach of her sister fraternities of anyhoary age at all has its quota of deadchapters, inactive chapters, tombstones,call them what you will.[365]In a few cases, as a survey ofBaird's Manual shows, the number ofinactive chapters is actually almost asgreat as or even greater than the numberof active ones. There is a surprisingsimilarity in the figures for thegroup which compares in age and sizewith * A 0. Some eight or ten fraternitiesin such a group would probablyshow an average percentage ofinactive chapters of about twenty.We, with slightly over seventeen percent of all our chapters inactive, aresomewhat more fortunate in that respectthan a number of other large fraternities.Whether this correspondencein percentages, and even in thelocation of dormant chapters, is morethan a matter of coincidence would bea question for further investigation.It was perhaps to have been expectedthat back in the stripling days therewould have been errors in judgmentin chartering; cases where the enthusiasmof a youthful parent chaptermight run away with reflective decisionor triumph with assurance overlack of knowledge of a college underconsideration. The Civil War camealong to devastate the fraternity worldand make imperative the hasty revivalof our fortunes even though that mightnecessitate later amputations.There were varying kinds of Fraternitygovernment: the parent chapter,the National Grand, the StateGrands, the convention, and finally theGeneral Council. That all made forconfusion. Those were the days whenan energetic and enthusiastic membercould almost literally take along a supplyof blank charters and go a-prospectingfor likely colleges and universities.Walter Palmer could have testifiedand George Banta, Sr., can still