Evening star., 1924-05-04
BY WILL r. KENNEDY.

@ HE Phi Beta Kappa Society,
which is now represented in
all OF the great universities
and colleges of the country.
was organized by fifty students Of old
William and Mary College, Williams
burg, Va. on December ). 1875. The
| original minutes are still preserved
at the college and the roll contains
many famous names.
William and Mary College is second
only to Harvard among the oldest in
stitutions for higher learning in this
country. Her alumni gave America
the Declaration OF Independence and
the Monroe doctrine. Her roll of
fame includes three Presidents
Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and
John Tyler-and two signers OF the
Declaration of Independence-Geo
Wythe and Carter Braxton. Seven of
her alumni were in the Continental
Congress and one OF them was Presi-
dent
In antecedents the history of the
college goes back to the proposed COL
lege at Henrico, and the first General
Assembly of America, that met at
jamestown in 1919 and passed a res
olution urging the London Company
to begin at once the construction of
the building on the site already Sc
lected. The idea, checked for a time
by the Indian massacre of 1922, never
died away, and from it came. in 1898,
William and Mary. 1t is:
The first American college to re-
ceive charter from the crown. un-
der seal OF the privy council, 1898;
The first and only college to be
granted coat of arms from the
Herald's College Of England, 1894;
The first American college to have
full faculty of president, six pro-
fessors, writing master and usher.
At William and Mary was inaugu-
rated the first elective system Of
studies: the first honor system; the
first schools of modern languages and
of municipal law, which were estab-
ished in 1879, under the influence of
! jefferson. 1t is also the first college
to teach political economy, 1884, and
the first to found a school of history,
1906.
Although George Washington had
no college education, he received from
William and Mary the commission as
, surveyor which gave him his first op-
! portunity of distinction, and from
1855 till his death he was it's chan
cellor. Thus in youth and old age
his connection with the college was
| close and should be memorialized.
William and Mary is the American
Louvain. In fact, her fate was worse,
for her destruction in 1852 was in
! civil war, and there was no commu-
nity of nations to extend sympathy
and help.
William and Mary's influence on
| technical education is among her
greatest achievements. The first reg
| ular courses on physical science ever
given in the United States were in
her halls. Among the noted scien-
| lists who were instructed at William
| and Mary was William Barton Rog-
ers, who founded, in 1861, Massachu-
setts Institute Of Technology.
/ Among the fifty founders Of the
! Phi Beta Kappa fraternity were two
ancestors of William Tyler Page, now
clerk of the national House of Rep
resenta tives-John Page, aftcrward
Governor of Virginia, and George
Braxton, son of Carter Braxton, sign
| er of the Declaration of Independ-
| ence. az
Others in the list of Phi Beta
! Kappa founders were Spencer Roane
| of the court of appeals of Virginia,
who would have become Chief Justice
OF the Supreme Court of the United
| States if the appointment had been
left to President Jefferson. instead
of having been made by President
| Adams John Marshall. the great
Chief Justice who was captain
in the revolutionary army; Bushrod
Washington, soldier in the reyo-
luton, who became an associate
| justice Of the Supreme Court;
John ]. Berkeley, first clerk of the
House of Representatives and first
| librarian of Cs.&Ssss; John Cabell,