The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-15
High School Fraternities Are
 Viewed from Skepfical Eyes

| pense, and this does not apply so di- l rectly to the girl as it does to the boys The majority of our pupils earn
 nothing, and the majority of our ppar-
 ents can III afford any extra expenses,
 the ordinary school expenses being
 heavy enough. It Is true that no
 matter what the pleasures and benefits you may get in this world. may be, there will always be some expendi-
 ture. At the same time the expenses
 in some of our boys boys 1s traterhities hn are
 One of the reasons for this expense
 brings to me the greatest danger in
 our boys fraternities club rooms
 separate from the home. l am well
 aware that fraternity members all
 cism and I don't blame them. l repeat that I won't blame them, but for
 the reason I don't is that l know full well that they will not, can not. un-
 derstand the criticism.
 Our fraternities today, as l realize, represent some of our strongest,
 most capable boys; yet 1t Is not always
 wise to leave boys at this rg age entirely
 old saying, one rotten apple will ruin
 6. barrel" That danger is always i'm
 minent under the present conditions. It was just because of lack of con-
 sideration of this danger that fra | ternity scandals" originated n other
 cities Though the danger does not
 threaten us at present. there is always Children won't admit this. You can't expect them to. especially. when 1 they know there Is no harm in the present situation.
 But it Is for the padent to exercise some foresight and guard against the danger.
 One of the most splendid systems | ever devised for the moral training of the youth was as we all know that of the Spartans. The keynote of the strength of this system was that the Spartans never left the youth to his own devices. but
 so planned the course of training
 that the children were constantly in the company of older persons. Under our present system of edu- cation such a plan as that is not feasible, nor would be inclined to advocate 1t strongly under present conditions. It Is well to have our boys and girls free to some extent so
 as to develop thei self-confidence | same time when, by fortunate experi- Ience in other cities, this freedom has Been found to be too great would 1t
 ndt be we'll to safeguard against the danger here?
 We who are, vitally concerned with
 
 want the matter to be dealt with fair
 ly and squarely. We do not take our stand because we are not interested in the happiness of the girls and boys under our care. On the contrary, the majority of us are deeply interested, but 1t Is just because we want to guard against dangers which our pupils do otn and we fear, cannot appreciate. We have had enough unfortunate sit- uations rise in our school system How gladly would we prevent any more. no matter what the cause. The pupils themselves would be the first ones to object to any new troubles yet I cannot emphaize too stronly the fact that they don't realize the sltu- tion and we should not expect 1t of them.
 This safeguarding cannot be done most successfully by the teachers be- cause pupils will not always consult them. knowing as they do that they cannot always be sure of the sympa thy and interest of those who instruct them.
 In the home, however, it is different
 Here they gain confidence through the love and sympathy offered them by the family and it should be simple enough matter for the parents to so ad- just fraternity conditions that all dan gers would be eliminated.
 Leave the children free to certain extent. Let tnetr narInleSS secrets, | constitution. ritual of imitation, a fnottosand a grip be their own, but at the same time do not leave them too largely to their own devices It is solely for their own benefit that we argue this.
 Before I leave the subject let me mention one more fault of the fra tehnitie-ane Is that coudf be easily remedied. Many fraternieies have their meetings on school nights. when les sons should be studied, instead of on Friday or Saturday night when there are no lessons to be prepared for the next day. Although I know that we number some of the best students among the, fraternities, at the same time I realize that the school evening should be the time for the study in stead of for pleasure. If the fraterni- ty member enjoys the benefits of his club he should be willing to give up the other amusements which come on Fri day or Saturday. The fraternities then has its dan gers but its advantages sudely out weigh them. More over. 1t would be . easy though to safeguard tgtinst the
 dangers if parents were but willing