FRATERNITIES ON TRIAL
The ever-present feeling that fraternities are on trial has assumed added interest by the appointment of a committee of five, representing national fraternities, to investigate the fraternity system in general, with Dartmouth apparently used as a sort of experimental laboratory. The committee met with the Interfraternity Council to discuss the local set-up, and was thoroughly in favor of the Council's efforts to bring out the constructive side of the Greek letter societies.
The committee expressed satisfaction with the initiative taken by Zeta Psi in having Robert P. Tristram Coffin of Bowdoin College read selections from his own poetry at the house on Sunday afternoon. The Council will encourage the houses to enter the fraternity play contest next March, presenting original plays when possible. It is still working on the idea of fraternity glee clubs, trying to revive the spirit that once saw the Dekes, Phi Gams, and Theta Delts singing back and forth from their respective houses on West Wheelock street.
As winter approaches, and basketball games in the gym follow close after hockey games on the Davis Rink, the Ivy League controversy has died down, and only the appearance of Dartmouth names on AilAmerican lists enables football to hold its
own against more immediate interests. "Dartmouth in Portrait," a superb calendar of photographs, appeared for the second season, making an instant hit on campus. Numerous speakers have kept Hanover lecture-goers in a turmoil, and the Carpenter galleries have kept up a consistently fine series of exhibits.
At Dartmouth,. the year 1936 reached a spiritual climax the Sunday before vacation when 1,200 people filled Rollins Chapel for the traditional and beautiful Christmas carol service. Speaking reverently and quietly, President Hopkins offered the season's greetings to the College, and pleaded with the students to make a place in their hearts for "consequential guests" .... "for a belief in a power greater than that of man" .... "for the brotherhood of men .... and the peace which it brings." Suggesting that Christianity may prove to be Democracy's main bulwark, the President urged students to hold firm to the original founding principle of Dartmouth as a Christian college.
The organ, the voices of the Glee Club, a boy's choir, and the candelabras casting a soft light on the evergreen decorations, gave a note of reverence and quiet far removed from the nervous tension of college life. It was a beautiful service, which reached its highest point, perhaps, as the entire gathering sang the old carols .... "Silent Night" .... "We Three Kings." .... Twelve hundred people, singing together, sincerely, deeply, before stepping out into the still, frosty air of a Hanover night
