a nearby headquarters), the Fraternity spanned the continent. The Ridge Road Club of the University of California, Berkeley became Omega chapter—fittingly utilizing the last letter of the Greek alphabet and preparing the way for the first of the Deuteron or second-series units. This national aspect did not escape the notice of the mid-continent; within six months, petitions were received from Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa State. In all, fourteen new chapters were established in the first decade of the new century. Some who were there tell that the induction ceremonies at the early Deuteron units often included a reminder in the form of Founder Hague's benediction on the night of March 15, 1873, words that still ring of idealism and true worth: Let us ... keep on growing till our beloved fraternity shall become full grown ..., having the strength to help and protect its members, wisdom to guide them to helpful and good things as to college life, and love so warm that its members shall feel its kindly glow, that brotherly love may indeed be a reality and not an idea. Phi Sigma Kappa became a founding member of the North American Interfraternity Conference, or NIC, in 1910. To honor the Founders, on , members unveiled "The Shrine" on the wall of Old North College, the site of the first meetings of the Fraternity. This memorial was moved to the entrance of Machmer Hall in when Old North was razed. In the 1920s the fraternity continued to grow, especially into the land grant institutions, with establishment of chapters at Oregon State, Stanford, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio State, Kentucky, Washington, Oregon, South Carolina and others, twenty-five in all. The Crash of 1929 Phi Sig did not escape the Great Depression; no fraternal order did. But like many of them, she came out of it wiser and stronger for the experience, filled with the knowledge that brotherhood based on a heritage of helpfulness and value cannot be submerged by a flood of economic hardship. Nationally, chapters of all fraternities existing at the start of the new century were wooed into increasingly expansive building projects in the boom years leading up to the Great Depression. The economic downturn became the great leveler; chapters who had extended themselves beyond their means were felled by sharply reduced revenues and growing debt. Within Phi Sig, closely tied as it was to its graduates, alumni were called