The morning journal-courier., 1908-10-21
H. s. FRATERNIllES
The Decade Old War on Them Is Renewed Every Sep
 tember,
INTERESTING CONCLUSIONS
Many Adults Stlll Think the Children Should Be Allowed to Do as
 They Please.

Though the American high school | may have failed to equip it's pupils for voyaging in unknown scas 1t can at least boast of having taught them the beaten ways of men. High school ath- letics, high school dances, high school social clubs bear witness If this; but most strllSingly the high school fra ternity. Its practices reproduce adult life so faithfully that school authori ties find conventional rules of pedagogy inapplcable to it's members The young gentlemen have their club rooms, their smokers, their theater parties, and, when threatened, their press agents and attorneys, says the New York Evening Post Judges must interrupt the calendar 10 listen; and once the United States supreme court was called upon to define the inalenable and allenable rights of boy.
 The decade-old war is renewed ev- cry September This fall the Chicago board of education opened the cam paign with an order that frats' must return to a state of boy nature In reply the persecuted, from Alpha b Omega, held high jlnks in their, pala- tial club houses, while fond parents paid the lawyers. Were 1t not for the perverslty among children, the blum. dering of educators, and the parental incompetence here brought to light the situation would be aawless com edy.
 With few brilliant exceptions high school teachers and their super tors have woefully mismanagcd their case Their conviction that the secret society Is inherently evil nas sound I basis in facts but not one broad enough to carry all their antagonism to the institution, True, the veneer of maturity has been glued to sap lings, For the college man, living away from home, a fraternity nas a certain usefulness wholy lacking in the case of his younger brother at the preparatory school If the imitation of l collegt manners went no farther than the founding of a club with mys- sterious title and rites. the high school child might be numored in this; but, so long as he is left to his own de
 vices his mmaturity leads him straight into apish eXtravagances in 1 furious to himself, his parents, and the school Strange paths, Drudlc cerc- monies, and gold pins suffice not; a i, ns, a rt t,,,, mt tat be leased, furnished. and made cozy with pictures. banners, and piano Then, of course, the frat must dem- onstrate its power and general su- periorlty hefore the world; It's mom- bers must secure school offices break school othletic records, set a new nigh water mark for lavish entertainment often been described at educational gatherings; "early sonhistlcation, snobbsnness, factlonal bitterness, dis sipaton neglect of studies, and break down of school discipline.
 k There is no more pedagogical austerity in the complaint teachers raise against all these monkey shines But it is foolish to attempt to end the nuisance by declaring open war upon the frat, with solemn manifesto, board meetings and elaborate police measures The whole procedure only goes to show that the miles and miles of theses and text books on child psychology and pedagogy, run athwart the road to knowledge anl nave set no sign-rosts for the teacher who would handle live boys and girls
 After all, be his trousers ever so well creased, the high school boy Is brother to the hoodlum whom a pur- suing policeman makes heroic and a ride in the patrol wagon a dcmi god. To forestal this dangerous notoriety of the street boy, we have establish cd chlldren's courts, Is not equal di- plomacy called for in the high school? Principals bewai their ina biity to crush the fraternities even by wholesale eXpulsions and rigid stand ards of scholarship As well com plain that a man cannot be starved, even by giving him food and drink. Boy life Is all the sWecter when at war with the state, ones ingenuity Is tlckled by midnight councils where ways and means of bafFling the authorities are devised. and the enW- ous glances of the classroom pay fat dividends on lost sleep Dcporn the crudity of American youth as you may; yon must still reckon with lt, while ii lasts If publicity and per secutlou" merely strengthen juvenile resistance. plainly different tactics are in order. Assistance from the homes should be more generally sought; for the responsibility of fathers and mothers for the eXcesses of their chil- dren is obvious. Without funds, the "frat" dwindlcs to an ordinary boys clique; without permission to stay out late of nights, and to waste study
 hours. the high school youth must
 console himself with more Innocent pleasures To bring about such TO- suits, shrewd principals are trying tr instruct parents in the wisdom of con. trolling their liberality anu their chil. dren with some regard for tne welfare of the latter and their schoolmateS Where this has been accomplished the
 frat has become not only harmless } but even a welcome substitute for tho
 gang" In a few schools it mas beer converted into sort of Phi Betf
 Kappa. with membership based upor - Character and scholarship,
 % That this happy outcome is still s' , rare is not the fault of teachers alone
 Americans are prejudiced in favor O B the let-alone method of home train } ing. False ideas about manliness ant { social distinction teeem in many {
 mothers brain The disposition i < still strong among adults to regart