in the morning after a brief staff meeting at which problems of the previous day are presented. The building is open until nine at night except at mess time. The busiest time is in the evening, from six to eight-thirty. Every chair is taken, and lines of men wait to get the books or information they need. There are about 18,000 books in the library; 42,000 men in camp. Each man on the library staff works to dig out the information asked for by the men. Resources are limited; reference books are lacking; a city library, with all its ramifications of catalogs, indexes, reference books and experts in all branches of the service, is rich in comparison with a camp library. However, every effort is made to give a man what he needs. If the material is not in the library, a letter or telegram is sent to Washington, or a messenger to Atlanta bookstores, and the request is filled as quickly as possible. For many books in the library there is always a waiting list. The men treat the books with care, unconsciously carrying their feeling of military discipline into the library. The library's problem is to keep in line with the nationalizing going on in camps. Privates and officers are ambitious, trying to get to the top, each in his own line. They have to take examinations for which they are expected to study evenings. The material must be supplied by the library. Not only are officials military manuals in great demand, but also books in every line of ingenuity that touches the war. No man in service has any chance unless he is equipped with the latest information about the problems he is tackling,-engineering, bacteriology, camp sewerage, or whatever they may be. The question is not that of “doing for the poor soldier" as so many think, but of actually making him. The only conduct sign in the library is one that gives true satisfaction to the men, "Smoking Allowed." They get out their pipes, gather round the big stoves to read, and are comfortable. The men who frequent the library are gentlemen; they are the better men in camp, that is, they are the ambitious ones. Though talking is allowed, the place is quiet, and a refuge from the constant music, songs, movies and other distractions at many of the welfare agencies. The big thing about library service in camps is that men are being educated as to why we are at war. The American soldier must be intelligent. He cannot be a good soldier unless he knows the reasons and the causes for which he is fighting. Many of the English and French books have opened men's eyes to facts in the history of civilization. England's statements are conservative and we do not realize all her sacrifice in the war. A start has been made through the library at Camp Gordon to place some of these books and facts before secretaries of the Y. M. C. A. and other organizations so that they in turn will inform their men. The American soldier must be so well educated in the fundamental issues of the war, that no Germans can put over any falsities. Possession of the facts and realization that we are fighting our own battles, for our own ideals, make for backbone in every soldier. He must know that we stand for the ideals of the Anglo-Saxon race; that we will take no dictation from Germany as to the kind of life we shall live; that we believe in co-operation, not domination. The war must last until we have proved the justice of toleration and freedom; and, till then, we'll stick ! In short, camp library service is the work of helping make soldiers and is part of the serious business of winning the war. I'M GOING ACROSS FOR YOU,MOTHER C. C. PINCKNEY Tennessee Omega [The following poem was read as a part of the exercises of the 319th Infantry at Camp Lee, Virginia, in celebrating Mother's Day, April 12.] I'm going across for you, mother, You never thought when I was a kid, And drew my little tin saber out That I would ever a soldier be But I'm going across for you mother, I'm going across for you, mother, Whenever I think of you; You gave me life; you gave me heart, I'm going across for you, mother, To you the Hun shall never come I think of Belgium; I think of France; Of submarine, Zeppelin, too; Of the women and children who went to death With the Lusitania's crew. So, I'm going across for you, mother, I'm going across for you. I'm going across for you, mother, And day and night I'll dream of home And in my heart 'neath the midday sun, I'm coming back to you, mother, And wont we laugh at my little tin sword, And your baby! just think, a veteran (With maybe a medal or two). And the Prince of Peace, yes, Christ Himself, And I'm coming back to you, mother, CONCLAVE FOR PROVINCE X At the Conclave for Province X, held in New Orleans, May fourth, two questions of more than passing interest were dis cussed. One was the high school fraternities. At the Nashville Congress we legislated against them in a broad sense. Louisiana Beta Epsilon has had a habit, now almost a custom, of initiating New Orleans boys who are, as a rule, members of high school fraternities. Beta Epsilon would have to depart from its traditions to follow the letter of the law. High school fraternities as they exist in New Orleans are locals in fact, having no other associated chapters in other schools. The high school fraternity has an organization composed of boys who attend the Boys' High School, Manual Training School and perhaps three leading private schools for boys. A chapter is composed of boys from one or all these schools. At the Boys' High School the principal stated that he knew nothing of the existence of high school fraternities. The men were thoroughly democratic and there was no way to pick out a fraternity man. Discipline was observed by all and apparently no organized opposition existed. At the Manual Training School more definite information was obtained. The chairman of the Committee of Instructors is an Ohio non-fraternity man who is in close touch with the high school fraternities. He states that the boys are of the best families and best scholastic standing and that he is consulted often by fraternity men as to the qualification of prospective pledges. A college fraternity man conducts one of the private schools and is bitterly opposed to high school fraternities in general. He states that the fraternity as it existed in New Orleans was not a factor at all; it was tolerated because it had done nothing for good or evil to attract attention. He is a good friend of Alpha Tau Omega and frankly stated our fraternity would hardly be justified in enforcing the law at New Orleans. These fraternities hold their meetings in the home of one of the members and are to be classed as social organizations. The Alabama chapters draw high school fraternity men from Mobile and Birmingham where it is said the high school fraternities are not in bad repute. The chapters in Province X are unanimously in favor of exceptions in certain localities and want the law amended to cover conditions as they exist and not legislate against everything in sight called a high school fraternity. Alabama Beta Beta is having an experience that perhaps no other chapter in Alpha Tau Omega ever had. The Southern University at Greensboro ceases to exist in name and perhaps in fact at the end of this college year. It has been absorbed or taken over by Birmingham College at Birmingham and the question arises, What becomes of Beta Beta? Birmingham College will open in the fall with an attendance of perhaps 175 men and a faculty of nine instructors. It is understood that one national fraternity at Southern University will transplant its chapter in Birmingham. The Alumni at Birmingham are enthusiastic over the proposition of moving Beta Beta to Birmingham while the Alpha Taus who live in Birmingham and are now in the Alabama universities think the move is undesirable and base their objection on the grounds that the best material in Birmingham will not attend Birmingham College but |