Page 35 - To Dragma May 1930

To DRAGMA^

"The magazine had been published in the east, the editors having
been eastern girls, but in 1909 Mr. George Banta, Menasha, Wis., who
published several fraternity magazines, came to Lincoln to see about
publishing To DRAGMA. Ever since I had known anything about fra-
ternities I had known of Banta's Greek Exchange, and I stood in great
awe of its editor. Imagine how I felt when I answered the telephone
one Sunday afternoon, and Mr. Banta himself asked to come to see me!
Mr. Banta proved to be a most entertaining man, a true gentleman. He
secured the contract to be our official printer and he proved to be a
true friend of Alpha Omicron Pi, once when our funds were so low we
thought we must forego one issue, he printed that issue at cost, for he
said, 'It was a poor policy for a magazine to disappoint its subscribers.'
It must have been gratifying to Mr. Banta when he published our
magazine again in later years to see the growth of our fraternity as ex-1
pressed by the improvement in To DRAGMA.

"Comparing the issues of 1908-1911 with those of 1929-1930, I see
a vast difference. Ours had only a few pictures of members of new
chapters and of buildings of the universities where these chapters were
located. We had no money for illustrations nor for pictures of our
pretty, popular, and prosperous sisters, not even for those of our officers.
I wish the idea of life subscriptions might have been carried out long
before it was, for my constant prayer was for subscribers.

"In an editorial of February of 1909 you will find my woes expressed^
—'Your editor has the blues, so has your business manager. The way
the chapters have of securing advertisements is discouraging, and the
scramble among the alumna? to be on the subscription list is appalling.
More than likely the non-subscribing alumnae will not see this article,
but the active chapters could do good missionary work by informing
their graduate sisters that To DRAGMA is their magazine and needs sub-
scriptions. It is too bad to present anything as gloomy as the above
to the whole fraternity, but we judge that everyone would have to know
that the magazine office has its tribulations, before any relief could be
expected. Loyalty is a grand and glorious thing.'

"One tribulation was getting out the directory. Imagine one who
had no experience with magazine work publishing a directory with the
first number of the magazine, but this we did. I made so many errors
on my 'Smith' that I finally persuaded a friend who said he could type
to help me. Hour after hour we toiled, and when the magazine ap-
peared, names were omitted, and addresses were incorrect.

"And now one word to all alumna? who are annual subscribers, 'Take
a life subscription and secure another.'

"Roberta Williams Divine said in the March, 1930, To DRAGMA, 'the
magazine's improvement moves me to transports of joy,' and that e**|
presses my feelings exactly."

Fraternally,

HELEN PIPER HAGENBUCH