Sigma Kappa Triangle VOL. VII FEBRUARY, 1913 No.2 "' , • 'Ev K7JP p.ta OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF SIGMA KAPPA SORORITY GEORGE BANTA, Official Printer and Publisher, 450 to 454 Ahnaip St., Menasha. W isconsin. TRIANGLE DIRECTORY ' Editor-in-Chief. HELEN F. GILMORE. 473 Waltham St., West Newton, Mass. Exchange Editor. HELEN ROWELL. Central College, Lexington, Missouri. Committee on Finance. Ellen P eterson, 1 Mt. Pleasant Terrace, Roxbury, Mass., Chairman. Elsie Gulley, Cherry Creek, N. Y. Blanche Crapo, 54 Warren Ave., Whitman, Mass. Sigma Kappa TRIANGLE is issued in November, February, May and August. MANUSCRIPT must be sent to Helen F. Gilmore, 473 Waltham St., West Newton, Mass. (Boston P. 0.) on the First of the preceding months. Price $1.25 per annum. Single copies 35 cents. Ente1·ed as second- class matter Octob er 15, 1910, at the Post Office at Menasha, Wis., under the act of March 3, 1879. · SIGMA· KAPPA SORORITY Founded at Colby College in 1874 FOUNDERS MRS. L. D. CARVER, nee Mary Caffrey Lowe, 99 Sewall St., Augusta, Maine. ELIZABETH GORHAM HOAG, (deceased). MRS. J. B. PIERCE, nee Ida M. Fuller, Kam!!as City, Mo. LOUISE HELEN COBURN, Skowhegan, Maine. MRS. G. W. HALL, nee Frances E. -Mann; 221 E St., N. W., Washington, D. C. A A A GRAND COUNCIL President MISS HILA HELEN SMALL, · 232 Highland Ave., Somerville, Mass. Vice-President MRS. EULA GROVE LINGER, 109 14th St., Buffalo, N. Y. Secretary . MRS. ETHEij HAYWARD WESTON, Hale, Michigan. Trea&urer MISS MARY LOUISE GAY, 1217 Park Ave., Indianapolis, Ind. A A A GRAND REGISTRAR JOSIE B. HOUCHENS, Urbana, Ill. Custodian of the Badge AGNES M. GILMORE, . 122 Summer Ave., Reading, Mass. Central :M:xtension Committee EVALINE SALSMAN . Wollaston, Mass. GRACE ADA SMALL HOULDER, . Arlington, Mass. MRS. ADELAIDE TRUE ELLERY Schenectady, N. Y. Delegate to Pan-Hellenic GRACE ADA SMALL HOULDER. Chairman of National Pan-Hellenic Congress LILLIAN W. THOMPSON, 224 W. 61st Place, Chicago, Ill. ROLL OF CHAPTERS ACTIVE I ALPHA, 1874. Colby College, Waterville, Maine. BETA AND G.AMMA. Consolidated with Alpha. DELTA, 1904. · Boston University, Boston, Mass. EPSILON, 1905. Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y. ZETA, 1906. George Washington University, Washing­ ton, D. C. ETA, 1906. Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Ill. THETA, 1906. University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois. IoTA, 1908. University of Denver, Denv~r, Colorado. KAPPA, 1908. Brown University, Providence, R.I. LAMBDA, 1910. University of California, Berkeley, Cal. Mu, 1910. University of Washington, Seattle; Wash. Nu, 1911. Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt. ALUMNAE Waterville Alumnae Waterville, Maine. Portland Alumnae . Portland, Me. Boston Alumnae Boston, Mass. New York Alumnae New York City. Rhode Island Alumnae Providence, R. I. Washington Alumnae Washington, D. C. Bloomington Alumnae Bloomington, Ill. Colorado Alumnae . Denver, Colo. California Alumnae Berkeley, Cal. Centra,l N. Y. Alumnae . Syracuse, N. Y. Puget Sound Alumnae Seattle, Wash. CONTENTS A Convention Text . 93 Are Fraternities Justifiable ~ . 94 Mab.el C. Stone A Colby Symphony . 99 Emily Lowell Hanson, Alpha '14 Officers of Convention Committee . 100 Reminiscences of a Musical Childhood . .... .. .. .. 101 Elsie Fellows White, Alpha "Among The Lochs and Hills of Bonny Scotland" . 110 Helen Riddell, Epsilon '15 Corne Up A Mile and Smile Awhile . ..... .. .. 112 A Beautiful Influence . .... .... .. .... 114 Emma Drum Syracuse Social Settlement ... .. .. : . .. ·. 115 Eva McCabe, Epsilon '15 Convention Cogitations . ........ ........ .. .... .. 116 Convention Song .... ...... ..... .. .. ..... .. 117 Nellie Bakeman Donovan, Alpha '92 Traditions In Their Making . ... ................ ... 118 Denver Do-Dos . 121 Pan-Hellenic Notes . 123 ,Report of Eleventh National Pan-Hellenic Congress . 130 Lillian W. Thompson, Gamma Phi B eta In Memoriam . 140 Editorials .. ... .. ... ... ........ .. ....... ... 141 Chapter Letters . .. .. .. ... .. ...... ... ...... .. 142 Personals ......... .. .. ............. .. ... .... 157 College Current Events and Exchanges . 164 Statement ....... ..... .. ........... .. .. .... .. 185 Advertisements . 186 ' A CONVENTION TEXT "That Christ may dwell in your hearts; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height; that ye might be filled. ' ' THE CONVENTION OF 19l 3 We want above all else, to recreate the spirit of early Alpha, to see her traditions made luminous, to realize that Sigma's beautiful simplicity is the result of profound experience, .that our love for her is not only sentiment but involved prin-. ciples, and we want to experience to a greater degree than ever before the appreciation that our ritual is the foundation fabric of a nation-wide organization, working with one heart­ one way, towards the fruition of her ideals and the manifes­ tation of all that is noble and excellent in womanhood. Will you come, then, daughters of Sigma, from the east and the west of this broad lan~ of ours- come to our Queen City next summer, each prepared to give her best, and without prejudice, to accept and profit by the best that others have to give? CoNVENTION CoMMITTEE, Colorado Alumnae of Sigma Kappa. ARE FRATERNITIES JUSTIFIABLE? The writer of the following article was a member of a national fra­ ternity, in one of the leading women's colleges of the country, from which she withdrew for the reasons given below. Many articles have appeared in our leading magazines dis­ cussing the value of fraternities in our colleges and univer­ sities. Some of the articles have argued that fraternities do good, some have argued that fraternities do harm, and most of these articles have seemed to justify fraternities or con­ demn them according to whether the writer considered that their good features outweighed their bad features or not. _ It is strange that the college mind of the day does not go deeper into this question, and, instead of discussing, year after year, the comparative benefits and faults of fraternities, discuss the fundamental principles that are at stake, and upon which alone the justification of fr!lternities can rest_ Of course fraternities do harm-every institution in the country has its faults; and it is equally certain that fraternities ac­ complish good, because, they would not have survived and been supported by many of the leading men and women' of our country had they accomplished nothing worth while_ The fol­ lowing discussion of the fraternity question is based upon a knowledge of college women's societies rather than the men's organizations, and the general statements made may or may not apply to the latter. In order to condemn the fraternity system as a whole it must be shown that the ~est societies, as well as the poorest ones, are doing permanent injury in our student world by fostering wrong ideas and principles, and that the good they accomplish (no matter how great when looked at from an in­ dividual viewpoint) becomes a positive evil by blinding the eyes of those in authority to their real character, so that the institution is allowed not only to continue, but to grow and become more firmly planted in the life of our nation_ Are fraternities justifiable? No, they are not. To t~ose who do not believe in democracy, or Christianity the reasons ARE FRATERNITIES J US'l'IFIABLE 1 95 given will have no weight. However, since America stands be­ fore the world both as a democratic and Christian nation, even those who do not accept these two national ideals can understand that, if the fraternity system is essentially un­ democratic or unchristian it has no place as an American in­ stitution. Let Germany who approves of her nobility and does not strive to be democratic, as America, have her fraternities; and let India with her caste system which has illustrated to the Nth degree the capacity of the human race to set up ar­ tificial barriers between man and man and which does not pretend to be Christian, take the fraternity system-but let America foster institutions appropriate to her national ideals. True democracy tends to an equality of rights and privi­ leges. ''Tends'' is the important· word in the preceding sen­ tence because it represents the spirit of democracy. Do fra­ ternities "tend" to an equality of rights and privileges 1 Have all students the opportunity of gaining membership in them 1 In a literary society literary ability makes a student eligible for membership. In societies such as the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity (which is not a society of the kind that this article discusses because membership rests upon a different standard) every student has the same right to aspire to mem­ bership, the qualifications required being based upon scholastic attainments. With fraternities, and especially with sororities, we find this is not the case. The "all-round" wom:m is the standard here? No, it is not. A girl may be "all-round", ·and go through her four years of college, desirous of frater­ nity life, ·and never be able to enjoy it. Havi~g all the re­ quired qualities, she is kept out because of the whim of one girl who does not like her. Such is not an exceptional case. There are in nearly every college many students, the best kind of fraternity material, who never have the opportunity of joining a fraternity. You say it is best that it is so for two reasons. First of all, it would be hard for the non-fra­ ternity element if it utterly lacked the fraternity qualifica­ tions, as the distinction between the two classes would be more marked. It is fortunate for the spirit of democracy in 96 SIGMA KAPPA TRIANGLE the college that some of the leading and best girls are not sorority girls. That is true. Secondly, a unanimous vote is nec­ essary· for membership in order to preserve the congeniality that makes a sorority helpful to a girl. That also is true. But in justifying sororities in refusing membership to eligible students we have proved that there is no one standard for membership, that the privilege is not extended to all on the same basis, and therefore, that in the very first business of the sorority, that of gaining its members and perpetuating itself, it is undemocratic.