Page 70 - 1916 February - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 149

Now, even if the chapter is willing, from a mistaken idea of kindness, to

allow its work to suffer by electing the misfit girl to office, is it right to put

upon the national officers the additional task of transacting business with the

chapter through such an inefficient assistant?

* **

"We've elected Mary, chapter editor, for next year," so wrote a retiring

chapter president to our editor, " I know she isn't very well adapted to the

position but she is such a dear, we couldn't leave, seeing her the only Senior

without an office. I wanted you to know what a fine girl Mary is, so if her

copy isn't always up to the mark, you'll remember it is the work of the dearest

girl in chapter."

One morning as I watched the editor trying to bring a semblance of clear-

ness and meaning into the ten pages of rambling words this Mary submitted

as a chapter letter, I wondered with how many strokes of the blue pencil the

editor thought of those pages as "the work of the dearest girl in chap-

ter." My patience and the editor's aren't of the same length ! And what of

the impression of chapter those letters would give the rest of the fra-

ternity, who do not know they are "the work of the dearest girl in

chapter"? But the long-suffering editor! She is trusted to stand between the

fraternity getting a false impression of chapter from anything printed in

the Journal.

Efficiency isn't a matter of mere forms and methods—true efficiency is based

upon higher mental qualities. For fraternity efficiency we need to be friendly-

minded. Let us cultivate faith, optimism, tact, patience, tolerance, courtesy,

courage, enthusiasm, will power, and clear convictions as the foundation of our

efficiency superstructure.