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P: The student politics were pretty hectic back in the
1920s, weren't they?
L: Yes, they were. Well, when my fraternity met to decide what to
do about it, I pleaded wilththem not to take any stand at all;
let everybody vote as they pleased. I sa "I'm not
asking you to vote for our ticket. I'm asking you not to in-
struct anybody as to how they should vote." When the chapter
voted, I lost by two or three votes. I walked out of the
fraternity house, went back to my room, and resigned from
the fraternity. The national fraternity wouldn't accept
the resignation. I went to see the district grandmaster to
tell him why I resigned and I told him thatI meant it and I
wanted him to accept my resignation. They never did accept
it.
The last week of school there were about four or five students
who were expelled from the university. One was E. Beverly
Mann, who would have made Phi BetaKappa, because his average
was a little higher than mine, and I was Phi Kappa Phi, but
my average was long about ninety and nobody ever proposed me
for Phi Beta Kappa after the chapter came there. You see,
that came in afterwards. Well, during the course of the
debate, and before the election, Beverly caught me in the fraternity
house one day. He backed me up in a corner and took his knife
out and stuck the knife in my stomach and said, "I hear you're
accusing me of stealing money from the student body." I said
"Beverly, that's beyond me now. I don't know whether you stole
the money from the Seminole or not." He was editor-in-chief
of the Seminole. But even in the chapter everybody was laughing
about him; everybody had been curious about the money. He
bought a brand new sportscar. I said, "That's out of my hands
right now." Henson Markham had been elected president of the
student body, and I got reports from him regularly. Dr. Murphree
of course, became interested, and he ordered an investigation.
As a result, there were about five men who were expelled from
the university, Beverly being one of them, the last week of
school. He had finished all his courses and had a high average, but
was expelled. There was one boy who was a pledge of the
fraternity. Another boy was a sophomore in the fraternity and
had already been taken in. They were first expelled by the
university, then the chapter and the national fraternity expelled
those two boys. Then there were several boys of other fraternities
who were expelled. Then they checked the books of the publication.
A couple of sidelights from that, if you want me to tell you