Page 23 - To Dragma October 1933

':0CTOBKK. 1933 21

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This w o r k is all to the g o o d ; i f , as Bess to solve the problems of human suffering and
tt'vman says, we can prevent the unnecessary human freedom? Are the normal, wholesome
buffering of one child, the unnecessary failure people represented in the fraternities to have
of one man, this is well w o r t h real sacrifice. no part in the great enterprise?

Yet, is charity, in the old sense o f the w o r d , There are seven thousand active and asso-
alile to dn away w i t h this needless suffering? ciate members in AOII alone, a tremendous
Would thousands of Christmas trees and food force for progress or for inertia.
Baskets '.vcr put an end to the unnecessary
tragedies of crime, of war, or of unemploy- Cannot our own fraternity take the lead
ment? The beautiful w o r d which we trans- upon the campus in thinking out social prob-
lated as c h a r i t y means also love, that pas- lems, without partisanship or bitterness, and
sionate love which identifies itself w i t h the un- may not o u r alumna! chapters find an occa-
fortunate and oppressed and makes itself per- sional vigorous discussion better than bridge
sonalis responsible f o r them wherever they to galvanize into activity some of our busy
may he. women of affairs? A n d the more controversial
a topic may be, the greater need of bringing
This personal responsibility cannot be con- to bear upon it the spirit of AOII.
tent to stand aloof f r o m the social problems
confronting our country and the world. Not least among the pleasures of the Con-
vention were the stimulating conversations that
Mrs. Breckinridge has shown us how the sprang up at table upon subjects connected
difficulties of our own social service project with social ideals. It was with the hope of ex-
i'jare bound up inextricably w i t h the ebb and tending and making f r u i t f u l this social ideal-
flow of industry, the greed for profits, the low ism that I brought forward the following rec-
Phages and the strikes w h i c h first l u r e d the ommendation :
mountaineers into the factory towns and then
Kspewed them back helpless upon the starved That each active and alumna.' chapter o f
soil of their birthplace. She has told us, too. AOII add to its standing committees a commit-
'.of the hope that lies in government action, the tee on Citizenship and Social Problems. I t s
creation of a forest reserve in that region of duty shall be to foster among members the
Kentucky. More pressing ever than the prob- enlightened discussion of public questions un-
lems of our social service are the ever present der the guidance o f these three principles:
fact? of the depression, which the fraternity
has been compelled to face, and w h i c h were 1. N o problem to be avoided because o f its
lying in w a i t f o r probably fifty per cent o f us, controversial character.
E n be grappled w i t h as soon as we reached
them. 2. B o t h sides o f every question to be c o n -
sidered.
Then there is the sinister international situa-
Ntion, menacing now as perhaps never b e l o r e 3. A l l discussions to be conducted in har-
•since 1914. A s I stood i n the L i n c o l n M e m o r i a l mony with the spirit of AOII.
and read once more the words of the Second

Inaugural, the realization came to me that
"(freedom, is Lincoln and Washington conceived
Eg. is steadily disappearing f r o m the world,
snuffed out in Italy, savagely crushed in Ger-
fMany. and assuming in Russia a form which
We o f A m e r i c a find h a r d to recognize.

On every campus there are little groups of
students working intensely along these lines,
thinking out the pros and cons of Socialism.
Communism, labor legislation, w a r and peace.

Problem

Son-fraternity students most of these are—
nut-" yon call them, perhaps rightly. But are
the "nuts," y o u n g and old, to be left alone

Jessie Wallace Hughan delivered this splendid
challenge at the last session of convention.