Brown and White Vol. 49 no. 11

              dining service change asked nler-doriii council asks for commons system to take vote chi psi housed army in ' 17-'18 the rain-soaked ruins of the chi psi fraternity house cooled today as 32 members salvaged mere fragments of clothing and other ruined belongings in frantic efforts to adjust themselves to their uncomfort able predicament the structure and furnishings according to george h rupp 123456 the fire which yesterday afternoon swept from the cellar to the roof of the campus fraternity caused approximately 38,000 damage to both the structure and furnishings according to george h rupp a lien town attorney and the chap ter's alumni association chairman who destimated the damage last night the building and its furnish ings are covered by insurance to the extent of 46,000 the combin ed appraised value of structure and furnishings he said was 80 000 losses due to the fire were far from limited to actual property of was turned into barracks during world war i was lately altered to rebuild at once the hook and ladder crew swings into action on water downward on the blazing roof which whi op of things the firemen directed their stream of this photograph was taken had already caved in chi psi's freed to choose 8 men in debate tryouts whipple appoints 9 to committees fire refugees excused from classes today junior banquet and ball officials to meet soon competition will be held for team positions the topic for this year's series of intramural debates will be sel ected at a meeting of those men interested in competing for the william prizes at 7:30 p m thursday in room 258 packard laboratory announced cole s bembreck director of intramural debating the first of three preliminary meetings designed to instruct the debaters in the fundamentals of debating the meeting will consist of a discussion of debating tech nique and ways of presenting an argument in addition to the sel ection of the topic the topic chosen will be used throughout the series including the final debate which decides the winning team to be considered eligible for the williams prizes in debating men interested must attend at least two of the three meetings these meet ings will be conducted similar to last thursday's organization meet ing which was addressed by neil carothers dean of the college of business administration intramural debating is the first step to membership on the inter collegiate debating team which consists of about 8 men who are elected in the fall of each year on the basis of tryout debates mem bers of the intercollegiate debating team are eligible for election to delta omicron theta the national honorary debating society the williams prizes offered in debating are 120 to the winning team and 80 for the runners-up twenty-nine men registered as being interested in debating at the smoker held thursday all pi belt points due tonight at 9 members of chi psi predict ed last night that reconstruc tion of their campus home would be completed by next february in the meantime the 32 men who lived in the damaged structure will stay at the hotel bethlehem until a suitable house can be rented in the city sixteen rooms have been engaged at the ho tel george h rupp chi psi alumni chairman stated that the building and loan associa tion in charge of the house would discuss the situation at a meeting this saturday he hopes that reconstruction work will begin within ten days homeless chi psi's last night scattered to eight other fraternities to find food and sleeping quarters they will stay at these locations only one or two days more until final arrangements are made at the hotel chi psi's will not be required to attend classes until wednesday be cause of the unsettled condtions according to a statement issued by dean congdon yesterday most of the men involved in the fire lost not only the roof over their heads and a place to eat but also much of their clothing and personal be longings when questioned about being able to replace books lost in the fire john w maxwell 26 man ager of the supply bureau said that he did not expect any difficul ty he has almost all the books required for any courses in stock and the rest can be secured in a few days the disagreement between miss elsie troeger in charge of the lamberton hall dining service and the interdormitory council on the question of the type of service to be rendered remains unsettled to date the cafeteria style of meal ser vice is in use at present but many of the dormitory men prefer the commons system of service ac cording to mcmichael the commons system would make possible waiter service and prepared menus at a slightly great er cost miss troeger objects to use of the commons system on the grounds that it would raise the cost of meals and students would be required to wait longer for their food she also contends that there is not enough student help to war rant the change robert mcmichael met e 42 council president holds that in stallment of the commons system would be an asset to dormitory men and other patrons of the uni versity dining service in the near future questionnaires to determine how many students prefer the commons system will be distributed to dorm men mcmi chael said hook collapses in class from muscular spasms the lehigh chapter of chi psi was founded in 1894 by nine stu dents the first chapter was found ed in 1841 at union college until the present house was built in 1915 in sayre park the first chapter house at lehigh was located on seneca street the fraternity members moved into the house in 1916 but only for a short stay within a year the men moved out of the house and offered it to the u s army which turned the lodge into a barracks after the world war the members again occupied the house the cost of the lodge was esti mated at 50,000 by one of the present fraternity members there were two dormitories and several study rooms on the third floor study rooms on the second floor and a living room dining room sun-parlor and pantry on the first floor the kitchen was in the base ment in the summer of 1940 four study looms and a bathroom were re modeled at a cost of 6,000 thirty two men were living in the house this year two are living off cam pus o odk to initiate 4 robert p whipple ch e 43 president of the junior class re cently annouced the committees for spring houseparty's junior ball and the junior banquet the students named to the jun ior ball committee are charles m rogers bus chairman william r taylor arts franklin l mor gal bus robert r shively ch e those on the junior banquet committee are frank h bower e e chairman william d hayes i e arnold o putnam i e glenn w boyer m e bernard w deehan bus the committees will meet in the near future and make plans for both affairs dean asks observance of state traffic signs met e.'s to hold ball in november cost of date dance put at 45 cents a ticket senior honorary to meet tomorrow night pi delta epsilon points must be handed in no later than 9 o'clock tonight it has been announced by william j meikle arts 42 presi dent of the society the point lists required for election into the national honorary journalism society must be given to meikle at taylor house b or to james a gordon bus 42 at delta tau delta the group will hold a business meeting at 7:30 p m thursday in the arcadia room in drown hall plans for the year's activities for the november meeting and elec tion of new members will be acted upon at this session intercollegiate debating tryouts will be held at 7:15 p m tomor row in room 312 christmas-sau con hall about 8 men will be sel ected each man who is trying out for the team has been assigned for in vestigation a segment of the prop osition resolved that the fed eral government should regulate by law all labor unions and is expected to give a speech from 5 to 10 minutes in support of it the outlines to be followed by the men trying out for the team were handed in yesterday the following have submitted their names with the intention of trying out william f boore jr met e 42 ludwig e godycki jr ch e 43 roy b cowin jr arts 43 frank felt bus 44 philip j prang jr chem 43 hugh boyd m e 44 arnold o putnam i e 43 robert p whipple ch e 43 lynn c bartlett arts 43 david p scoblionko arts 44 howard v donohue arts 41 james j donahue jr bus 43 sumner w reid m e 42 foster s hook ch e 45 col lapsed this morning while attend ing a class in moral and religious philosophy he was removed to the dispens ary on a stretcher and there re ceived preliminary treatment at noon he was taken to st luke's hospital for further observation according to dr carl o keck on duty at the dispensary hook was suffering from muscular spasms produced by over-worry the e w brown astronomical society will hold a meeting at 7:30 p m friday in room 208 pack ard laboratory the meeting will adjourn early to the observatory providing the weather is favorable they helped put out the fire the initiation of four men who were tapped last week by omi cron delta kappa national senior activities society will take place at 6 p m wednesday in drown hall immediately following the ini tiation members of the society will be the dinner guests of dean wray h congdon in lamberton hall a meeting will be held after the ban quet at which time the coming year's program will be arranged the four seniors tapped by the society are john h milbank bus edwin h klein arts forrest v schumacher arts and albert l thalhamer phys r w blake society hears aiken's talk on research north jersey lehigh club to sponsor fall smoker the fall smoker of the northern new jersey lehigh club will be held nov 10 at the rock spring country club west orange n j members present will hear bill sheridan coach of wrestling eb caraway assistant coach of foot ball and robert f herrick 34 secretary of the alumni associa tion there will be a special showing of matmen produced by pathe news the price of admission will be 75 arrangements for the date dance to be given by the metal lurgical society on saturday nov 8 in drown hall are progressing rapidly social chairman charles m norlin met e 43 announced this week dates are being arrang ed with local girls tickets cost 45 cents plus tax j'.nd can be obtained from mrs kyle in the metallurgical depart ment room 209 williams hall or from any member of the metallur gical society chaperones for the dance are professor and mrs allen j barth old and professor and mrs james l clifford refreshments will be sold by john h norwood met e 42 the committee in charge of the dance consists of norlin john h corson met e 43 ticket manager william f boore jr met e 42 and robert c mcmichael met e 42 students wanting cedar crest dates are asked to call boore or norlin at sigma chi sportsmen to hold dance with rod and gun through the english countryside a talk on his travels and research as a advanced history student at cambridge was presented by william a aiken assistant professor of history at b meeting of the r w blake hon orary philosophical society last friday evening the meeting was held at the home of professor percy hughes dura h stewardson professor of philosophy in belvidere n j about 25 members were present valentine's day nears valentines will be issued to students late this saturday night parents will be notified sometime next week continued on page four the fraternity itself however a hasty survey made last night indi cates that at least 10,000 of the men's personal belongings were damaged by smoke and water these losses include clothing books radios typewriters other equipment and cash few save property approximately 10 men were tble to save small portions of their stock of clothes and books the remainder have only the clothes they were wearing before the fire broke out the fire-gutted chi psi lodge now stands with no roof and third story and badly burned wreckage for the second floor walls doors stairs and ceilings from the base ment on up are charred and weak ened and were roughly damaged by both the blaze and water origin of the fire has been trac ed by members of the fraternity to the boiler room in the cellar it was difficult at first for anyone to state a definite cause for the sud den outbreak of flames but rupp last night gave as a reason defec tive wiring according to the men who were in the building at the outbreak the fire spread quickly apparently inside the walls be neath the floors and to the upper stories along a back stairway which starts on the first floor although three pieces of beth lehem's fire-fighting apparatus answered the two calls which no tified the department of tne trouble student manpower pro vided by members of the house nearby fraternities and dormitory men was the main source of en ergy which battled the conflagra tion for more than four hours the fire engines did not leave the scene until about 7 o'clock students aid in fight university men drenched by hose water and rain which fell throughout the entire period man ned three of the four streams state highway department stop signs appear at the junc tion of the road coming down onto the campus from drinker and richards house and the newly opened road leading from behind grace hall these are state highway depart ment markers and failure to obey the injunction to stop at this intersection is an offense against the laws of the com monwealth of pennsylvania such an offense is of course punishable by law however it is more import ant to recognize that this is v dangerous intersection and that every car arriving at this junction for its own protection and the protection of the life and property of others should come to a complete stop this is a notice that enforcement of this regulation must and will for the protection of the lives and the property of our stu dents and other people driving on these roads be rigorously enforced campus policemen are authorized to take any student or other person fail ing to obey these stop sings to the local alderman for a hear ing i am sure students and others using these roads will recognize the wisdom of the provision and will cooperate in their own protection and the protection of others on the campus by always being care ful to come to a complete stop at this intersection wray h congdon dean of undergraduates lehigh students became firemen for an afternoon yesterday as they assisted city fire fighters to extinguish the chi psi blaze manning three of the four water hoses the amateur firemen were mainly responsible for finally bringing the fire under control the sportsman's club will hold a ten dance at flickingers barn hellertown saturday at 9 p m for all members every one attend ing is requested to appear in rural costumes chaperones for the affair will be mr and mrs f c bartlett and lieutenant and mrs samuel pierce any one desiring transportation or having cars will kindly get in touch with william p varner at 7-2801 lehigh university brown and white bethlehem pa tuesday october 28 1941 these firemen fought at the top chi psi's had not met fire regulations vol xlix — no 11 38,000 blaze destroys chi psi price — five cents will choose debate topic on thursday estimate 10,000 | personal damages interested men will meet to pick year's subject first of 3 meetings 120 prize is goal first and second stories of house remain standing as third floor and roof gradually cave in many students man hose and fight fire takes fire fighting equipment too log to arrive chi psi was one of 13 lehigh fraternity houses who have not yet complied with the fire safety regulations established in 1939 by the state government at harrisburg and by the univer sity the ill-fated fraternity how ever had taken steps to obey the rules for fire escapes were ordered recently defense priorities have held up delivery of necessary mater ials for nearly a month only means for outside escape from upper stories in case of fire was by ropes six of the fraternities which have not yet complied with the fire rules own their present homes the remaining groups rent their quarters coming up . . - today 4:00 p m — hockey club meet ing 258 packard 8:00 p m — engineers club of the lehigh valley packard auditorium wednesday 7:30 p m — glee club drown hall 8:00 p m — dancing lessons by miss una huston upper gym nasium thursday 11:00 a m — golf classes upper gymnasium 7:30 p m — intramural debating society meeting 208 packard friday 2:30 p m — varsity soccer hav erford away member intercollegiate newspaper association z us all the lehigh news first