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

THE SCROLL. 445Dr. H. C. Tolman, professor of Greek in Vanderbilt University recentlyreceived a high compliment in being made a member of the Beta Theta Pi,by the Yale chapter of the fraternity. This is one of the most conservativefraternal societies in America, and each year out of the hundreds of studentsat Vale only about fifteen are admitted to membership, and the conferringof an honorary membership is an honor rarely bestowed. Dr. Tolman is agraduate of Yale, class of '88, and during his student days Beta Theta Piwas not in existence there. The men of the Vanderbilt chapter were so delightedat the signal honor bestowed upon Dr. Tolman that a celebrationwas recently held which was a fitting compliment to Dr. Tolman, and theypresented him with a handsome fraternity pin set with a diamond and pearls.The foregoing is clipped from a recent Nashville paper.We had thought that the time when reputable and self-respectingfraternities would elect honorary members had longsince passed. The Betas have been very weak at Vanderbiltfor many years, but the election of professors to membershipis a very poor way of strengthening their chapter.BARBARIANS DEFEATED IN MISSISSIPPI.Certain barbarians at the University of Mississippi havebeen seeking to have fraternities abolished there. Theyattempted to induce the faculty to begin a war upon theGreeks, but it is now well known that the faculty unanimouslyfavor the existence of fraternities. Then they appealedto the trustees, on the ground that the faculty were biased infavor of the Greeks. They brought the matter up for threesuccessive years. In the spring of 1903 the trustees investigatedthe charges against fraternities, and decided (unanimously,it is understood) that they were unfounded.The barbarians made their last stand with the legislaturethis spring, and were finally defeated. .-V bill was introducedin the house, intended to prohibit fraternities at the Universityof Mississippi and other educational institutions supportedby the state. The barbarians secured the publicationof many articles in state papers, the object being to prejudicethe public, especially the legislators, against fraternities.The charges of various kinds presented in these articles wereanswered in a pamphlet of forty-eight pages, entitled "ShallFraternities Live?" issued in February by the fraternities atthe University of Mississippi. The house committee on universitiesand colleges (of which Percy Bell, A ^, was chairman)after visiting Oxford and investigating the charges,reported the bill adversely, which ended the fight. The legislaturewill not meet again for four years.