Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-07
"FFaATS" IN HIGH SCHOOLS
SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM
RESTS WITH PARENTS.
Views of an Educator-Should Take
Warning From Experience
of other Cities.

Discussion OF the sube ct of high school
fraternities is still in evidence in educa-
tional circles. One experienced educator
writes to The Star that the responsibility
for the correct solution OF the problem
rests with the parents. and adds:
IF the parents Of Washington but knew
the history OF the frats in the high schools
throughout the country they would ask
the board OF education to take every
measure to uproot them in Washington
while they are as yet comparatively young
and innocent. There have not been as
yet the social evils resulting from frats
that exist in other communities, but shall
we stand by calmly and wait for them to
appear? Inasmuch as the evil Is a social
menace the parents are the ones who
should be the most helpful in the reform.
The evils in the other cities game d
Roadway before the school authorities
realized the bad effects of the institution.
as it IS a comparatively new fungus upon
the educational system. there being prac-
tically no high school frats previous to
1880 Shall W not take warning from the
experience of other cities?
Said to Foster Caste.
'Frats have been found elsewhere to
foster caste in the high schools, and many
out resulting in some cases in suicide
The expense of the dues is prohibitive to
many. which. together with the addition
al expensr of foot ball, base ball, the
school paper. school lunches, class pins
class day, graduation tax and the gradua-
ton dress is rapidly making the high
school the school for the rich only.
These frats often control the athletics,
naming the officers of the organization
and the players in the gam s, and often
elect the class officers. In Chicago Supt.
Cooley in his investigation found that in
one of the high schools out of twenty-five
elective positions twenty were frat men,
although the frat men We're only one
tenth of the whole membership. This
monopoly of class officers creates a spe
cies of ward politics, which is not exactly
the best training for American citizenship.
The national frat organization con-
trolls the local. so that these pupils are
bound not only by the secret vows Of
the local frat, but by those of the ma
tional as we'll 1t was established dur
Ing the investigation at Seattle, where the
state supreme court sustained the school
authorities, that the national frat in
luenced the local branch not to aim for
too high scholarship, but to be satisfied
with simply passing with as little effort
as possible. 1t was also shown In this
case that the local frat was assisted with
funds from other traits to help fight the
school authorities IN the courts
Cause Governments to Totter.
'In some Of the cities the wealthy frats
have had fraternity houses downtown,
fitted up, where smoking and
gambling were the least Of the vices in
Judged In.
when and where secret societies -four
ish governments totter, as in the cases
OF Rome and Russia. This creation of
caste and indulgence in secrecy are strik-
ing at the foundations of the republic.
At the National Educational Association
at Asbury Park in 1905 the department OF
secondary education declared unanimously
against secret societies In the high schools,
and Principal Morrison said: Let this
country become aware that the high
schools are breeders of caste or harborers
of 1t and the taxpayers will cease to pro-
vide for their support
THE worst of these evils, so far as Is
known, have not as yet appeared In the
Washington high schools. In Minnesota
the frat problem has even descended to
the graded schools. The wise parent will
cooperate with the school authorities and
dig up this evil root and branch before 1t
Is too late"