Page 7 - To Dragma May 1930

4 To DRAGMA

read in old records that there was some objection to i t , when it was first
proposed, on the ground that it was not sufficiently dignified! The
counter suggestion was made that "The Alpha" would be more practical.
You see, for the first ten years or more of the life of Alpha Omicron Pi,
the fraternity was known familiarly on campuses as "Alpha,"—not as
"Alpha O" or "A O n " as is now usual; and, I believe, the oldsters still
prefer to hear us called simply, "Alpha." I n the end, those of us with
more imagination prevailed, and our lovely, symbolic name, To DRAGMA,
was chosen by the Grand Council. We had a name for it long before we
had a magazine.

In those days, when the classics were "required" studies, no one ever
supposed that a time would come when college-bred women would have
to be instructed in the meaning and pronunciation of a simple Greek
title.

We had planned a magazine almost from the beginning. I can see
in memory now Helen St. Clair (Mullan) with a pile of men's fraternity
magazines that she and I had been examining, as she arranged them in
three groups and said, with that clear and definite judgment that has
always been an asset to us, "These are good. These are fair. These are
poor."

I t was in 1901 that the first Committee on Publications was ap-
pointed; and the Chairman of i t was Florence Lucas Sanville, author of
Once More United. I n a Grand Council report of the next year, in
December, we read, "Miss Sanville, Chairman of the Magazine Com-
mittee, announced the following Board of Editors: Ruth Earle (Alpha),
Olive R. Garland ( N u ) , and the Chairman herself." She stated that no
work had been done as yet; but a meeting of Editors was to take place
in the holidays.

This Board, however, could do little more than make plans, for lack

of the means of pursuing them.
I t was not until January of 1 9 0 5 — t w o more Chairmen of Publica-

tions, Margaret Clark Sumner of Alpha and May Sterling Parkerson of
Pi, having served meanwhile—that the magazine in its handsome

cardinal cover appeared to give a

glow to our hopes.

Helen Katherine Hoy (Gree-
ley) of N u chapter was the first

Editor of T o DRAGMA.

Though at that time the chap-

ter roll listed only Alpha, Pi, Nu,

Omicron, Kappa, Zeta, and the

New York Alumnae, that first num-

ber, in content and form, could

hold up its own without apology-

I t also served as a directory of

the membership,—of less than two

hundred names at that date,— and

Grecian women making a sacrifice to .% c . i i. .-..-ocpntinK
a statue of Dhnysius. was the first songbook, presents