1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THE SCROLL. 337The author gives details about early political clubs, militar^'^organizations, musical societies, scientific clubs and religioussocieties in American colleges. The first college branches ofthe Y. M. C. A. were organized in 1858 at the University ofMichigan and the University of Virginia. Concerning therise of college journalism the author says:The earliest student papers were either the product of a few private individualsworking usually in secret, or were published in the interests of adebating society. One of the regular numbersof the old debating soniety programmeconsisted of the reading of a journalistic production, largely humorousand partly critical in character; a custom still continued in many high schools.When the first of these written papers was published it is impossible to say,although we have definite record of such publication in the first decade ofthe present century. The Literary Tablet of Dartmouth appeared in 1803,the Literary Cabinet of Vale in 1806; neither of these journals nor their successorsfor more than twenty years' lasted beyond their first few numbers.In a majority of cases both financial support and permanent organizationwere lacking. At Yale there were seven unsuccessful experiments beforethe foundation of the first permanent venture, the Yale Literary J\/agazine,in 1837.The following paragraphs, quoted from various chapters inthe book, show how debating societies were supplanted by(rreek-letter fraternities:The earliest society the record of which has been preserved was the CrotonianSociety of Yale, which had a brief existence, and made way for Linonia,the oldest permanent society, and the Brothers in Unity (1868). Contemporaneouswith Crotonia and Linonia at Yale were the Plain-Dealing andNVell-Meaning Clubs at Princeton. A fierce rivalry, involving the interchangeof scurrilous pamphlets, led to their suppression by the faculty. Ayear after this action, were founded the'American Whig and Cliosophic Societies,the most venerable and powerful of college debating clubs in America,and- the only organizations of this early period which still survive in theiroriginal capacity. During the middle decades of the eighteenth century, theHarvard faculty took particular pains to improve the public speaking of thestudents, a move which led to the formation of speaking clubs. The CalabogusClub was organized as early as 1758, the Whilefield Club in 1759-We are left to conjecture the programmes of these early societies. The Instituteof 1770, the most famous of the debating clubs of Harvard, wasfounded by John Phillips, John Warren and other members of the class of1771It was the wave of political interest produced by the Revolution whichmade the debating society for fifty years the strongest force in Americanstudent lifeWhile secrecy of meetings was a recognized principlewith all the early literary societies, this feature was a distinctly minorone. The same may be said of initiation ceremonies; they were merely incidentaland without special significance. Many of the societies adoptedbadges, colors and mottoes. . . . . Another form of society activitywas the society libraries, which were frequently valuable supplements to theregular college library, which was likely to be weighed down with theologicaland Latin tonesAnother important element was the rivalry between the two societies whichdivided stxident interest. They competed in the selection of members, in the