Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-11-06
The College Fraternity.

Just what part the Greek letter So
cieties take in the education Of the
college student is something that has
never yet been explained.-Philadel-
phia Ledger.
squib was written by an editor who
was never fortunate enough to belong
to college fraternity. He simply
doesn't know what he is talking
about. To those who know anything
about colleges and college fraternities,
no explanation of the important part
Other persons need hardly be consid-
cred in this connection. Some few
colleges, years ago, with conser-
vatism verging on bigotry, refused to
allow the introduction of Greek-letter
fraternities. Such. a regulation could
never be passed, today, and we have
educator of note in the country recOg-
niZes the worth and importance of
measure the important part they play
in the development and training of the
college man. Their literary, social
and fraternal sides supplement the
work of the classroom and laboratory
with helpful influence that is ex-
tremely potent. Their ideals are the
nd he too
remembered much longer than Latin
| verbs or chemical formulate. Their Sc
cret features are as necessary as to
the Masonic and other great orders,
and are no more used to cover abuses
or questionable practices.
Since the early years of the century
a more and more important factor in
American college life. Their growth
has been phenomenal, and they have
met the requirements of our under
graduates as nothing else could do.
To the small college they mean more
than to the large university, but at no
! institution except Harvard have they
been a failure. There are now scores
of these fraternities, and their total
membership reaches scores of thou
! sands. Some are larger and stronger
| and more famous than others; and
| some are doubtless better than others,
but none are bad, and all are founded
upon firm foundations. In no secret
organizations that exist are the bonds
of brotherhood so close and so lasting
as in these fraternities, and the loyalty
of their alumni is the best proof of the
| good that they do for their members.
Most of them are governed in the
main by their alumni, through gradu-
ate councils, annual conventions, etc.
At their meetings, their limitations and
their banquets their alumni brothers
are always welcome, and their chapter
houses and halls are the headquarters
of their alumni when they revisit the
old college. The fraternities help and
strengthen the colleges. The inter-
| collegiate feature of the fraternities
does much to give the undergraduates
a broader view of the educational
world. and to soften the rivalries that
inevitably exist between neighboring
colleges that compete in athletic con-
tests.
Many thousand college graduates
| will assure you that above all else in
their undergraduate life they cherish
| the memory of the associations and
influence and training of their fra
ternity. Unhappy the college which
does not possess such organizations,
and unfortunate the student who is
not elected to membership in one of
them. Ask President Hyde of Bow
dom. or Tucker of Dartmouth, or Had
ley of Yale. or Butler of Colby, or
Schurman of Cornell. or Low of
Columbia, or Harper of Chicago, or
Harris of Amherst or any of a hun
dred other college presidents, what the
Greek-letter fraternities in their in
StltutlonS mean 10 undergraduates
and alumni. and what part they play
in the training of young men. Some
of them are fraternity men and some
are not, but their testimony would be
a unit in harmony with the ideas we
have here expressed, and they would
laugh to scOrn the dyspeptic croaker
who penned the paragraph quoted
from the Philadelphia Ledger.
The owner of that New York ap-
| partrpapt bouca in ,vbioh Nv CpaoLor