Page 4 - To Dragma January 1934

Man Cannot Live by Bread Alone

Founders' Day Song mn
J.
By MILDRED E. WILLIAMS, i(r i

Alpha Pi > >- 0

r i : • i
i-.-i.
0 i i l!

:

At altar burns the white and wax- •J
ened flame,

The rose holds thousand petalled
leaves,
By STELLA G. S. PERRY, Alpha

And do we o f f e r here with singing [This greeting from the Founders was delivered at the Founders' Day
Luncheon in New York, preceding the speech of the day by Jessie
Wallace Hughan ( A ) on economic political problems.]

New grain, new wheat in close -f. N E W Y O R K A L U M N A , New Jersey Alumnae, just now and desolate. Barren wastes sur-
bound sheaves. round us.
Westchester Alumnae, N u Chapter, Alpha
As in beginning, go we still together, and all those scattered chapters personally I t does not take urging to make men wish
represented here, and all chapters of Alpha to plant grain in this desert, to feed them-
For aye behind and yet before our Omicron Pi here, though not visible! Your selves with bread. I t takes only a good agri-
face • Founders appreciate your honoring them today cultural expert, like our Jessie here, to show
and are proud and happy to be with you. them how to till, to plant, to harvest, and espe-
The four hands clasped upon be- cially how to share the harvest with equity, so
lieving, Bess, Helen, Jess, "what a thing friendship that there may be bread f o r all. We are all
is, world without end." willing to learn that—must learn it or we
The first flamed candle in the first perish. We are slow only because we are be-
lit place On Founders' Day, we are humbly over- wildered by the conflicting plans of so many
come by the knowledge that we have received authorities. Jess will speak of that.
rather than achieved the honors that -AOII
extends to us. We know that though we But let this, too, be your Founders' message
started the fraternity, we did not really make today: Man cannot live by bread alone. Not
it. We know that another Founder, the true "he should not," he C A N not. I f that be a
Founder, built this house of many mansions. mere sentiment and not practical, at least it
And, though He built it inevitably, because is highly authorized and I am not reluctant to
we had chosen our love each to each f o r cor- take it literally.
nerstone, still even that love was a g i f t rather
than an accomplishment. I will not be transcendental, yet I believe
that it is precisely because our generation has
No one could receive, as we have done to- tried to live by bread alone that the world
day, messages of affection f r o m Maine to today lacks bread.
Southern California, f r o m Vancouver to Tal-
lahassee, f r o m Canada to the Gulf, and not be The hungry world will find its p h y s i c a l
put upon her knees. Through the hard years, bread, and praise to those of every honest con-
many people became "hard boiled," cynical viction who would help i t to do so.
ias to the worth of pure feeling, as to its en-
durance, as to its portion and potency in the I must be brief, so I will leave only this
life of man. To such, i f such there be, I rec- with you concerning a bread as essential. Love
ommend a reading of our mail of this past and friendship are among those words of God
week. Indeed, I recommend a reading of my by which, too, men must live. Saints and sages
mail of any week. have even said they were qualities, synonyms,
of the very Logos, other names f o r H i m ,
And when I read the youngest letters, f u l l bread potent to sustain. I n gatherings like
°f enthusiasm, idealism, ardor, warm affection this everywhere in our country and in Canada,
*o generously expressed, I remember that all in intimate groups and single memories all
°* us in our youth were as ardent and so over the world, we have proof that in Alpha
* know that Youth is a rose, which though Omicron Pi we have plenty of love, plenty of
, t s Petals fall, holds in its heart the seeds of friendship. And for these the world is starv-
many gardens. ing!

My sisters—my children—the world is bleak