An invitation, several hundred words long and filled with seductive details, occupies first place in this issue. There is not the St. Louis, slightest doubt that the Sigs in St. Louis are making sure that their guests next June will receive a welcome that will linger long in the memory. We are in June, 1917 a position to know how hard they are working; our file contains twice as much material as that which appears herein, and they are crowding the mail-boxes of the other general officers as well. We believe that the large body of young alumni only a few years out of college fails to appreciate what an enjoyable and economical vacation a Grand Chapter makes. We have attended every one since our initiation-not so many, perhaps; surely not as many as Judge Ferris, who has missed one since his initiation (in 1871)— each has been distinctive, and each enjoyable. We are disposed to believe that the comparatively small group of alumni who attend merely for the fun of it are invariably men who recollect with pleasure Grand Chapters of their undergraduate days which they attended as active chapter delegates. We hope that this Grand Chapter may secure the attendance of more undergraduates and alumni who are not obliged through election to be there. Το these who have never attended a Grand Chapter, then, our message is particularly urgent: Boys, don't miss a good thing! We ask attention to an editorial on scholarship reproduced among the exchange material. It is from the Garnet and White of A Penny for Your Alpha Chi Rho, for whose editor, Mr. Henry Capen Staunton, of Binghamton, N.Y., we entertain profound respect. Perhaps if we did not so respect him we should not reprint the editorial, for otherwise we might Thoughts consider it beneath notice. Certain it is that we seriously disagree with his opinion, and so satisfied are we that he is fundamentally wrong that we are not going to write any answer to him ourself, but are offering a prize of $5.00 for the best refutation written by an undergraduate Sigma Chi. Here is a real opportunity to express some of our ideals. Who will do it? The more the merrier! Alumni need not be bashful, but we have no fives for them. The editorial will be found on page 295. After a pledge of Apha Nu Chapter at the University of Texas had spent about all the time the chapter thought was proper fussing one girl, they sent his trunk up to him at her sorority house. It arrived on open-house night. If we enjoyed the resources of Mr. Condé Nast we should by a simple expedient make certain that every subscriber to the Quarterly reads one article in this issue which may otherwise "The Presidents' be overlooked. We refer to Executive Secretary Letters" Stokes's account of "The Presidents' Letters." Mr. Nast, in case it should become advisable to introduce such material into the rarefied pages of Vogue or Vanity Fair, would merely call in Messrs. Underwood and Underwood and the Brown Brothers, and when the issue reached the news-stands the story would be embellished with delectable photographs entitled "President Judson in a Chinese Joss House," "President Vincent Riding to Hounds," "President Hughes and a Fair Co-Ed," and so forth. Make your own titles. Lack of acquaintance with the Underwood and Brown boys and distance from Grand Praetor Smith's town make this procedure in our case impossible. But for the information of whom it may concern we add our opinion to that of Secretary Stokes to the effect that the sheaf of correspondence between our General Office and the various university presidents, recently undertaken at the behest of Chairman Heath, represents the most valuable movement Sigma Chi has launched in years. These gentlemen realize that whether the fraternity as it now exists is a factor for good is not nearly as important as the admitted fact that it can be made one. Let us all join, then, in the movement to make it so. With each fraternity doing its utmost and accepting the willing help of the national Conference and of the authorities of all of the colleges it should be possible before long to go the full distance. One sentence in one letter contains important possibilities: I believe that it will raise the standing of fraternities in the estimation of the faculty and authorities if the fraternities will take the initiative in getting rid of the bad students instead of leaving the matter to the college. You wag your head. But why not? Only the other day a man was expelled from Sigma Chi for failure to pay his chapter bills. What chapter-what fraternity-would have taken such a step a generation ago? And yet, fundamentally, scholarship, morals, right living, are more important in their deep effect on the group than the activities of an occasional dead-beat. To be the power for good which we can be we must be in every sense every brother's keeper. We must strive to make each man of greatest value to himself, to his college, and therefore, automatically, to us. The day is close at hand when we shall say to the man who does not heed, "Get out! There is another man waiting who will listen and profit." Then indeed will the fraternity have found the place of service. In the new Sig palace at Columbia they can put on two reels of the battle of Gettysburg on request. The grandsons of General Pickett, of "Pickett's charge," and Brainerd, an opposing officer, are living in the house. Gone We trust that we may be pardoned for continually introducing changes into the Quarterly! With each change, however, comes correspondence more commendatory than otherwise, and only the other day we had the pleasure of receiving a long and gratifying letter from Ralph W. Wilson, Chi 1908, commenting favorably on the Quarterly make-up, the cover, and the record of chapter letters received. This was particularly pleasing in view of the fact that it was he who protested most loudly when, in 1912, the exclusive-appearing rough paper format was abandoned for the make-up in use today. In this issue there are no chapter letters. We have long wanted to omit them from two numbers of the four, but in all probability |