The Washington herald., 1914-10-06
JUSTIFY war ON
School "FRATS'
Authorities at G. W. u. Char
acterize 1t as Defensive
Measure.
SEND WARNING LETTER
Smaller Sororiies Held to Blame for
Legislation to Forbid Existence
of Organizations.
SEND WARNING LETTER

7 Steps taken by the three sororities OF
George Washington University to shat
ter the sororities Of the Washington
high schools and scatter the pieces to
the four winds were characterized as
purely defensive measures at the uni
versity yesterday.
Prof. McNemar, the member of the fac
ulty supervising the activities Of the
various societies, himself a fraternity
man. who attended a recent national
fraternity convention as delegate,
spoke on behalf of the fraternity men
at the university, and Miss Polly Hull
secretary of the National Pan-Hellenic
Association, which is leading the fight
against the high school organizations,
spoke for three university sororities, Chi
Omega Sigma Kappa and Pi Beta Phi,
which are cooperating with the Pan
Hellenic Association.
The arguments presented at the uni
versity are that there is a total dissim-
iIarity between high school "frats" and
sororities, and the college organizations,
the former being organized for purely
social purposes and among girls and
bows of an age when snobbishness is a
frequent result OF such organization.
This reputation OF the high school So
cieties has caused such general preju-
dice against all fraternities and sorori-
ties that many States are legislating or
have legislated with view toward COM
plete annihilation of all such organiza-
tions.
woeId Bar school Members.
Therefore, according to Miss Hull, 1t
has been found necessary TO take steps
toward the abolition of the unimportant
high school organizations for the sake
of the valuable nationwide organizations.
This is the reason given for the letters
sent to the principals Of the fve local
high schools, explaining that after Sep
tember l. 1915, no members or alumni
OF high school sororities will be admit
ted TO membership in any Of the Greek
letter college organizations unless they
forego all connection with the high school
sorority, giving up their pins and hav-
ing their names crossed from the soror-
ity lists
DR.. Emory Wilson principal Of Cen
trail High School, said last night in ref
erence to the letter sent out by the
sororities Of George Washington:
Abolish high school sororities? fail
to see how the measures proposed by the
college organizations will deal a death
blow to the societies OF the high schools.
The plan is simply an agreement among
the college societies not to admit girls
from the sororities of the high schools.
The majority Of the high school girls
do not go to college and therefore this
agreement would have little affect on the
smaller organizations. OF course, there
would be Individual cases Of girls who
would be prevented from forming soror-
ity associations in high school, but that
would not kill these associations.
More Useful Occupation.
Allan Davis, principal OF Business High
School, declares that 1t has always been
the plan at that institution to give the
pupils more useful occupations than the
forming OF purely social organizations:
I'VE have our bank" he says, "and our
school paper, our dramatic societies and
debating societies, and 1 have never
noticed a tendency toward sororities.
There are none at Business that 1 know
Of"
There are two unrecognized sororfties
at Eastern High School, but Willard s.
Small. the principal. declares that their
activities are entirely separate from the
school.
Ernest L Thurston, superintendent Of
declines to discuss the ques-
ton of local high chool sororities, be-
cause he has given little attention to the
subject. but he admits that such organi-
zaions are, in his belief. more OF a college
than a high school institution.