1937–38 Volume 62 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

358 The SCROLL of Phi Delta Theta for June, 1938
Let the Bond be read always and
everywhere in the spirit of humility which
was intended by Father Morrison. His
intention was that it should be read as
reverently as one would read the Sermon
on the Mount. ... I spent parts of three
days at Fulton, Mo., with Father Morrison,
some of it alone with him, getting
his ideas of the real meaning of the purposes
of our Fraternity. He went over
the original secret work with me, some
of which had been handed down with
minor errors. I shall never forget his explanation
of our secret motto which I
found to be slightly different in wording
from that which I have often heard in
chapter meetings. His wording, as given
to me and as explained by him, put the
motto on a much higher plane than did
the way I had been taught it. The highlights
of his talks had to do with a type
of reverence to be instilled in the minds
of young college men, through the impressions
which could be made by a careful
study, understanding, and following
of the Bond
The past twenty years have been years
which have tried the souls of men. Many
men have broken under those trials.
Many have lost their all. Many have become
perverted in their thinking. America
has slipped tremendously in many
ways. . . . How may such conditions be
remedied? By education along right
lines. . . .
We who had our training in the horseand-buggy
days have much to be thankful
for, though sometimes we have trouble
in understanding modern youth, especially
college youth. These young people
are facing a changed and changing world,
with an entirely different viewpoint from
the one under which we older men were
trained. In some ways they are right and
we old fellows are wrong, but there are
certain fundamentals which do not
change, and those fundamentals must be
the foundations on which each college
man of today should build the super­
structure of his future life if he would
be a leader and not a blind follower.
This is something to which each college
fraternity in America must give careful
thought and planning in their efforts to
mould new initiates into the types of
men who will be real leaders.
Those of us who are now of the alumni
and who were enrolled years ago in * A 0,
have a tremendous responsibility on our
shoulders in seeing that we bequeath a
Fraternity to the youth now within our
chapters even better than it was when
given over to us by those leaders who
have gone before. How many of our members,
who may be rated among the leaders
of today, may truthfully feel that they
have so handled the Fraternity heritage
given to them that they may pass it on
to their successors in better form for the
work they have done for it, than it was
when they took it over?
This is a big unsolved problem. It can
only be judged by the character of today's
active members which the chapters are
turning out at graduation and launching
into a distracted and disturbed world,
which today needs real leaders perhaps
more than ever before in its history. Can
we truthfully say that *A0 is all that
it should be, as a training ground for
future leadership in America?
Let the Bond be read. Our members,
in their coUege days, must be given firm
and strong foundations on which they
may build their own superstructures with
a strength that will withstand any storms
that may come. A clear understanding
of the Bond and the practicing of its
precepts will help. . . .
Our Fratemity was founded by good
men for the development of the good side
of life. It is bounden duty of all signers
of the Bond to strive to avoid life's evil
side in all their endeavors. . . .
God help America if the right sort of
leadership for the future is not developed
from some source and without delay.—
Let the Bond be read.