Page 6 been reclaimed. Most encouraging of all has been the sustained interest of the Chapters throughout these war years. In my visits to them generally without expense to either the General Organization or the Chapters, I have been most favorably impressed by the percentage of attendance and the enthusiasm manifest during the meetings. During the past . I have met with Brothers from the following Chapters: Theta. Iota. Kappa. Mu. Xi, Sigma, Chi, Psi. Alpha Alpha, Alpha Delta. Alpha Epsilon, Alpha Rho, Alpha Phi, Alpha Chi, Beta Gamma, Eta Lambda. Mu Lambda, Nu Lambda. Xi Lambda. Sigma Lambda. Tau Lambda, Phi Lambda, Chi Lambda, Alpha Kappa Lambda, Alpha Xi Lambda. Alpha Upsilon Lambda, Beta Omicron Lambda. Beta Psi Lambda. During the past five years I have met with Brothers from sixty-two Chapters. I wish to express hearty thanks for the cordial welcome extended. The reports of the General Secretary and of the General Treasurer will indicate that, despite five years of war, Alpha faces the future with her numerical and financial foundations strong and health} Although there have been occasional complaints about brutalities in connection with initiations, the gradual dwindling in the number of such complaints are encouraging. We hope that the sufferings of the victims of the despicable Nazis and their allies and of our Brothers in the armed forces will have suggested to those in civilian life how utterly contemptible is the inflicting of torture upon any helpless individual. Some complaints continue to be voiced about the quality of our pins and the delays in delivery. The attempt has been made to determine whether these complaints were founded upon the exigencies of the war. Where they have, we expect that these complaints will disappear in the near future. We lament the passing of our former General President, the late Brother Lucius L. McGee. We sent a telegram of condolences on behalf of the officers and members. The Fraternity was ably represented at the funeral by our Mid-Western Vice-President, Brother William N. Lovelace. We extend our thanks to him and to the Chapters in the Oklahoma area for ihp dignified representation of the Fraity in paying final respects to a iier and ex-General Officer who had red well for the General Organization, the Chapters with which he had been associated and for the communities in which he had lived. We also submit with deep sorrow to the inscrutable will that has carried to the ageless bourne from which no man returneth our other deceased Brothers. At this Thirty-first Convention we shall have to decide upon some of the most fundamental changes proposed in our hisIt is not appropriate for the General President to express in his annual report his opinion concerning any of them. He docs, however, voice his appreciation for intensive work of the Committee on Constitutional Revision and on an ExecuSecretary. Above all, we urge the Convention to conduct its sessions in such an efficient manner that adequate time will be reserved for discussion of these important proposals.
THESPHINX
February, 1946
OUTLINES ALPHA'S OBJECTIVES
DR. CHARLES H. WESLEY . . . Alpha Phi Alpha's objectives since the Fraternity's inception were outlined by Brother Dr. Charles H. Wesley, president of Wilberforce University, and Past General President of the Fraternity, as he presented Brother Norman Manley to the audience as the guest speaker during the public meeting at Corpus Christi Auditorium, Chicago, Sunday, December 30th. Promotion of higher, rather than vocational education among Negroes, with an ultimate blending of the two, Brother Wesley asserted, and listed as other aims: (2) encouragement of high school and college attendance; (3) education for citizenship; and (4) emphasis on the inter-relationship of the Negro fight for freedom the world over. It was in this last category that Brother Wesley declared that Alpha had now moved, and the presentation of a noted leader of a struggling people in the West Indies was expression of the Fraternity's aim to show the relationship of the Negro's fight for freedom in this country to darker races in other parts of the world. We designated the Atlantic City Convention as A Victory and Memorial Convention which was highlighted by a painting in honor of our Brothers in the armed forces and a song, "Symbol of Souls." We have designated this Convention as a Peace and Reconversion Convention. In so doing we had in mind not only the problems that confront the nation and the world but also those that the
Fraternity must face. We have already completed the setting aside of a loan fund of $1500 that will be available when necessary. Under the direction of our Director of Educational Activities, Brother H. Council Trenholm, we have already considered some of the problems of the returning veterans. I earnestly recommend the appointment of a Committee on Veterans Affairs, to work under the office