Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-26

Continued from First Page.)
and control will he be therein? What
have done to insure that he will not
make shipwreck in one OF those depart
ments, no matter how well he does in
the curriculum"
1T was the college itself that aban-
don its home field and abdicated its home
functions he continued This policy
was we'll developed and defined before the
fraternities stepped into the breach and
supplied houses and homes to meet the
needs of the students. The fraternities
did not intrude upon the field of the col
lege. They merely occupied a portion of
the field which 1T had already abandoned.
I'm early college home and college home
life were paramount and the instruction
incidental. Character and future power,
not the diploma. were the chief things.
More than anything else, the college was
boarding school home. The resident
masters and bachelors and the upper and
lower class men lived and ate together in
the dormitOries, under a quad system
closely modelled upon the colleges of OK
ford and Cambridge
''At least 30 per cent Of the earlier laws
were devoted to the regulation of the col
lege life as distinguished from the college
portion is reversed. State universities first
adopted the policy of building no dormi-
tories. The abandonment Of the dormi-
tory system and of some control over and
responsibility TOT the cOlteSe nome was
forced upon the older colleges by financial
changes.
Change Noted in the College.
'AlI was fastened and intensified by
the fundamental change in the college it
self when 1t ceased to be at the head of
a private school system and became the
capstone of the compulsory public school
system.
THE American college was founded to
strengthen and develop moral character
as much mental growth, and. as long
as it maintains its own ideals and does
not assume a pseudo form of the Ger
man university the college home and col
lege community departments will cOnsti-
tute a large part Of It's educational eff
fectiveness
when the fraternities took up the
home work they certainly improved upon
the physical type and comforts of the
dormitory home.
1.-THE use of the word fraternity is un-
fortunate, for 1t carries q wrong impress
sion to outsiders and does not truly SYM
boIize the home characteristics. rather
than the secret features, which are now the
important things in the minds Of the un-
dergraduates. The home element pre-
dominates in the thought of the under
graduates: the secret society and club in
the thought of the outsider.
Many Of the best features of the COL
lege home of earlier days survive only
in the fraternity homes and have dis
appeared elsewhere in the colleges. 1t
is admitted that good fraternity home
makes better men and better classroom
records.
I'VE need not expect improvement in
the next educational results upon fndf-
viduals until the college again recog
nizes the educational value of the col
lege home and the college community
and encourages and rewards good work
therein"
1.-The college has provided no substitute
to perform the functions upon which it
formerly spent IS per cent of it's time.
thought and money. Strangest of ALL it
has thwarted and found fault with rather
than fostered or used officially that
which has been attempted. often in
blind way-the regulation and employ
ment of. the so per cent of the students
time which he spends outside of the class
room. The fraternity has done well. 1t
deserves praise"
Swarthmore's President Gives Views
President Joseph Swain of Swarthmore
College also read a paper on the subject
of college fraternities
"In the discussion Of this question: he
said. 1.-The point that takes precedence of
all others is. What shall be ones attitude
toward fraternities in general? Shall we
accept them as a constituent part of col
| lege life. or are We TO question their very
existence and, because their presence in
wolves certain dangers, either ignore them
! or attempt to abolish them? To my mind
| the attempts at elimination have not
been sufficiently successful to encourage
that course. I recall a case in a western
| state university where the action on the
| part OF the institution placing a ban on
! the existence of fraternities was met by
| the next legislature with a rider on the
| appropriation bill to that university to
! the effect that the ban on fraternities
must be removed or there would be no
| appropriation. The method was drastic
| but effective.
"a fraternity is good or bad influence.
| depending on the type of students who
| represent its leadership: and an organiza-
| ton within an organization will do good
or harm in proportion to its efforts to
| advance or defeat the principles or
which the mother organization stands.
Origin Of Harmful Influences.
Many instances of the harmful in
| nuences of fraternities might be traced
| to the fact that in some way the indi-
viduaI chapter has lost sight of the pur-
poses of the institution of which it is
| part. 1t is out of line. out of sympathetic
| touch with the aims and ambitions of the
greater fraternity, the college or univer-
| sity itself.
"The evil tendencies found in frater
mites are those of young men in and out
| of college. These evils are fdleness. over
4 QGVOllOn 10 dIluSoIll6ItS SUCH DIS dlIllcllCS,
musical organizations and social func-
TONS temptations to convviality and
sometimes dissipation in the form of as
ISOLATION with low characters. While the
very close friendship of members of the
| fraternities have often accentuated these
| evils, when they are once recognized
these very friendships may be used by
| older people to eradicate them.
| After the meeting adjourned at l o'clock
luncheon was served, in a room adjoining
the hall The Valuation of Higher Edu
cation by Means of the Unit System"
was the subject discussed at the session
this afternoon. After the address of
President MofYat this evening the delegates
will attend reception at the Corcoran
Gallery of Art. The convention will be
in session until tomorrow afternoon.
Former Representative Dies.
LONDON, Ohio, November 26.-F'ormer
Representative George Wilson died at his