Dressing the Round Table in New Clothes

One of the oldest college newspapers, the Round Table looks and functions the way it does today in large part because editors—more than 75 years ago—fought for it to be more progressive.

Early editors of the Round Table.

The story of how the Round Table evolved from a news magazine to the newspaper format it has now is a tale of persistence and fervor, intrigue and subterfuge, involving determined editors and a secret society pitted against an outmoded governing body and more than 60 years of tradition. Looking back over 150 years of uninterrupted publishing (the first Round Table was published in November of 1853 as the Beloit College Monthly), it is a pivotal period in the student newspaper’s history. Every Round Table reader since then has witnessed the tangible results of what student activism accomplished more than 75 years ago.

Editors first voiced dissatisfaction with the form and publication schedule of the weekly Round Table in 1915, more than 60 years after the paper’s founding. The content had clearly evolved over the years, assuming more of a newspaper style, but it continued to look like a journal, and the weekly schedule was considered archaic.

“The weekly newspaper is a thing of the past,” wrote Raymond Barron’15, the editor at the time. “As it is now conducted, the Round Table is not a newspaper ... It is a hybrid journal which attempts to fill two or three functions ... We maintain that a modern paper of a modern college must have a modern form—unquestionably that of a news sheet.”

The Beloit College Monthly was an early precursor to the present Round Table.

Calls for change were backed up by action. Within two weeks, the student council considered the proposed changes and, with no dissension, formally recommended that the Archaean Union, the governing body overseeing publications and debating, consider the proposition.

Meanwhile, editors of the Round Table continued their campaign for change. Articles ranged from minor grousing— “Among life’s little irritations for the editor of a weekly Round Table are news stories that break on Wednesday or Thursday and must remain in type for a week,” to full-blown editorials.

However, these arguments did not sway the Archaean Union. By a vote of seven to one, the board passed a resolution against the Round Table changing its publication schedule and format. The editors were furious: “By this action, Beloit is compelled to remain for another semester one of the four conservative colleges in the Middle West which still publish weekly magazines.”

In late April of that year, a journalism class started publishing the Beloit Record newspaper three times a week as part of its class work.

The Round Table welcomed the competition. “By means of the Record, the student body will have an opportunity to try out the idea of a ‘newspaper’ form for the Round Table, and perhaps be able to settle a much-discussed question.” Fourteen issues of the Beloit Record gave students ample occasion.

For the rest of the semester, the Round Table continued to harp on the issue of magazine versus news sheet.

“Last week we printed no less than three articles, each worthy of first-page prominence,” Barron wrote. “In our form of publication, we could grant this position to but one story. Let it be understood that there is no competition between the Beloit Record and the Round Table. Far be it from us to squabble with a mere news sheet—we, the dignified sheet of 62 years of hoary tradition. So, turn news items over to the Record—and we will reprint them, in authentic style, five days later.”

Round Table writers rarely indulged in such outright sarcasm, but it appears the editors were fed up with Beloit’s adherence to hidebound tradition and its slow pace of change.

The “Yellow Sheet”

That May, members of the Turtle Mound Society, a sub-rosa organization composed of senior men, suggested bypassing the Archaean Union and appealing to the student body directly through the student council.

Interestingly, during the period of 1915- 1916, Turtle Mound members included all those who served as Round Table editors-in-chief.

Always concerned about College issues, the Turtle Mound Society determined to work for change behind the scenes. Once hatched, their plans fostered greater student unrest than ever before.

Walter C. Candy’16 became editor-in-chief of the Round Table the following fall. It did not take him long to take up the call for a news sheet. He pointed out that none of Beloit’s peer colleges printed a student newspaper in the form of a magazine. “The Scarlet and Black, Grinnell’s paper, was out at seven o’clock Saturday evening with a full account of the game [against Beloit]. A news sheet delivers the goods.”

This underground newspaper made the case for dramatic changes to the Round Table among other things. Its authors were unknown until recently.

In December, the Turtle Mound Society met at a chop suey restaurant to complete work for what they called the “T.M. paper,” an underground publication. They chose Claude Habberstardt’16 to serve as editor and chief of the first issue. Assigned authors included former Round Table editor Raymond Barron and future editor Wallace Dougherty’16 to story assignments with headlines like “Spirit of Unrest” and “Suppression of Student Opinion.”

In February, the minutes report that the new paper had a name: The Beloit Student.

While Turtle Mounder Alfred Burtt’16 oversaw printing The Beloit Student, Wallace Dougherty took over editorship of the Round Table in February 1916. He wasted no time in printing another pro-news sheet article. “Twenty Advocate a News Sheet,” the headline read.

“Last Thursday evening those interested in journalism... met in round table discussion...Twenty men from all classes and every club in school were there. Professors Clancy and Hedges, the journalists of most notable reputation among the faculty, guided the discussion.”

Suggestions about form and content were discussed, as was the financial feasibility of the news sheet. Unfavorable comparisons were made between the present Round Table and other student newspapers.

In mid February, the Round Table published two articles under the heading “Dress Round Table In New Clothes.” The first, written by Candy, presented the “financial angle” of the proposed change from magazine to news sheet. At that time, the Round Table printed 600 copies per week at $21 per issue. He estimated that two news sheet issues per week, with double the word count, would cost $24.70. Although he foresaw a drop in annual profits, he believed the benefits well worth it

“Students of Beloit, read over this article and talk over the proposition to your friends ...,” he wrote. “Leave out the matter of sentiment and consider the change from the business standpoint for a minute. Think of it as a boost for journalism at Beloit, a boost for Beloit itself.”

Professor Marion H. Hedges, a very popular professor of English, contributed the companion article. He believed the proposed change in newspaper form might serve Beloit as it did for DePauw when he was a student there. “Change of form meant a change in thinking,” he wrote. “It meant a chance to rebuild the college paper into a true representative of judicious student opinion. It gave a chance to include young women in an important activity. It advertised our worth.” The Round Table could overcome indifference and opposition and prosper, Hedges concluded.

On Wednesday morning, Feb. 16, students filed into chapel and discovered copies of The Beloit Student in their song books.

The paper both fascinated and infuriated and was hotly discussed. It spoke directly to them. “YOU HAVE THE POWER,” blared one headline. Articles asked scores of inflammatory inflammatory questions: “Don’t you feel that Beloit’s administration is antiquated and worn out? Why is it that Beloit fails to keep some of its best instructors? Don’t you feel that Beloit needs more educators on her board of trustees instead of so many business men?”

Naturally, considering its authors, the paper plugged the news sheet idea. “Don’t you feel that Beloit should put out a news sheet instead of an old-fashioned magazine form of a college weekly?”

At midnight, the Turtle Mound Society met in a nearby graveyard to discuss the day’s events. “Decided to keep as still as possible and await development,” said the minutes of the meeting. “We did not dare meet in very conspicuous places.”

An Investigation

At a February meeting, the faculty voted to form a committee to investigate the matter of the “Yellow Sheet.” According to the Round Table, within a couple of weeks the committee had investigated nearly every person or group who possibly could have been linked to its publication.

The committee acquitted Professor Hedges, among others. Habberstad, when called before the committee, refused to make any statement other than denying that he published the paper. Within a month, the faculty dropped the investigation and the perpetrators of the scandalous Beloit Student went undiscovered until the Turtle Mound ledger came to light several years ago.

Wallace Dougherty manipulated the uproar over The Beloit Student to further promote the news sheet idea. “The best argument we have had for a news sheet to replace the Round Table thus far is the appearance of The Beloit Student. Whether or not we can agree with its contents is beside the question. The fact remains, and cannot be put aside, that the students enjoyed reading it ...We are confident that a real news sheet published twice a week will be an efficient medium for expressing the sentiments of students and faculty on such problems as this secret paper has opened up.”

His hopes resulted in further discussion by a large group at the Phi Psi house late in February. This group drew up a statement supporting proposed changes to the Round Table, which made the rounds of the student body before passing on to the Archaean Union.

The Round Table editor was clearly excited by this meeting. “Surely a new day is dawning for Beloit,” he wrote. “The old-time indifference is losing ground, being replaced with a student body which knows its power and which will demand its rights in no uncertain terms.”

After they were presented with a petition signed by more than half the student body, the Archaean Union formed a committee composed of two students (including former editor Wallace Dougherty) and Professor Lloyd Ballard to investigate the financial feasibility of a semiweekly news sheet. Their findings that the paper would be entirely possible from a financial standpoint helped convince the Archaean Board to at last recommend the change.

“Aye” to a New Round Table

Students voted on the news sheet issue at a mass meeting after chapel in March. “Three hundred students rose for the aye vote,” the Round Table reported. “A dozen or so did not vote at all, evidently undecided or uninterested, and only three voted negatively.”

Editor Dougherty, in his final issue for the paper, May 31, still felt ebullient about the victory. “The possibilities in a semi-weekly newspaper are without end,” he wrote. “It will demand the active interest of every student in school; it will be the center of every student thought; it will be the biggest and best thing in Beloit College.”

Yet he also held a melancholy awareness of his place in Round Table history. “With this issue the present staff disbands,” he noted. “Some distinction accompanies its departure for it is the last to edit the Round Table in its present form ... We congratulate ourselves that this change has been consummated during our term in office, but we more than congratulate the new staff upon its opportunities—we envy every member of it.”

Sept. 19, 1916, brought to Beloit College its first “news sheet” issue of the Round Table, a form it has retained ever since.

Fred Burwell'86 edited the Round Table and Avatar as a student. He later founded Acorn Whistle Press, which has published the literary magazine Acorn Whistle and two books of poetry. He is the College archivist.

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Fred Burwell'86 - College Archivist

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