The San Francisco call., 1909-12-12
Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity House
Syracuse N Y.

missed and coached him through successfully The
boy saved from disgrace despair and hardship.
made bv the opponents of the frat is that Tom and
Arthur equally entitled to such assistance; that
in college, where everything should be arranged to
help young and young women to face hfe, there
should be no artificial advantages for individual
another that the accident of frat" membership
should not impose handicap on nonmem6ers-
SOME EVIL RESULTS
Still, supposing Tau Sigma Tau to be reasonably
earnest and decent group it will further exercise
pervision over Johns personal eonduct II ne comes
he shows disposition to be vicious he will md
strong restraining hand. Frequently frat has
Strengthened out young men whose heads were little
turned by their sudden removal from home influence.
Against this the opponents Of the fraternity set
equal chance OF dangers, chapter IS changing
character of its members The strong men of chap
ter may all graduate this year and very different
can not be kept at constant level of excellence The
hurry of rushing and choosing is against
Judgment The result is sometimes bad There have
been ugly scandals in fraternity houses. In many
cases that have never come prominently 70 view
freshman has been subjected TO evil influence by
being thrown with hashy crowd whose true value
he could not would not gauge and whose bid he
had accepted
But the opposition to fraternities does not rest so
much upon alleged i'll effects the members upon
alleged i'll effects upon nonmembers. Besides the
men and enjoy there is very real and prac-
teal education be gained in the internal manage
ment of these remarkable organizations Discussions
chapter affairs, the the house and the
table debates bver policy, the lessons be gained
from cohesion and the manipulation of the group
unt-these part of the lives of the fraternities
John may have these things, but Tom and Arthur
may not have them.
And why? John has done nothing to show his
sentia superiority the others, intellectual
physical He has done nothing to this secondary
college course, which by is held to be
valuable than what he gets in the classrooms-
word look way of wearing his Clothes air of
being at ease, the known fact that he comes from
good family" any Of these, things has swung the
pendulum his way He may be superior to the Others
but in that they need the help and the privileges
than he does.
High school fraternities 6nd very few supporters
outside of their immediate members and are never
seriously defended The advantages that come from
college secret society apply in but slight degree to
the high school body, and there is beyond
imitation for its presence The college fraterntes
do not favor the high school societies, have con-
nection with them and IN schools will take
their members But it has remained for high school
principal to suggest solution that has been taken
up and urged the only way of the whole prob
lem He admits certain points in favor of the frater-
mites and would like to keep them But
Remove the false distinctions" he says. "Have il
that every freshman is expected join some fra
ternity and leave the choice to him to her. Then
all may share the good and will be deprived or
shamed. AS the situation stands the fraternity
does more harm than good"
Thus the gravest charge brought against the fra
ternity as an institution that it is un-American
undemocratic- 1t is declared that the stigma of
unworthiness brought by the artificial barb" and
frat distinctions against young men and young
women has blghted many promising ambition. STU
step alone have found themselves apparently wanting
in something because they were not included among
the desirable 1t has been said that the resulting dis
couragenlent has ruined thousands of careers that
thousands of others have gained all thew were en-
titled to from college course and that the continu-
ance OF the power the fraternes constitutes dis
tnct threat to the nation through the caste system
and the snobbery it inculcates.