The New York herald., 1922-10-10

on this subject.
The high school fraternity boy, with
his pin and coat Of arms. his grip and
password, his sacred Greek letters and
burden Of unutterable secrets. is going
to be outlawed Also the high school
sorority girl
For eleven years the Board Of Edu-
cation of New York city has tried to
suppress these secret orders by means
of its own rules and penalties. 1t has
not been wholly successful, as a great
number of fraterrities, flourishing
moro or less clandestinely, attests. Now
1t purposes to try the effect Of pro-
hibition by the State.
The Board has asked the State Com
missioner Of Education to have a law
passed at the coming session of the
Legislature providing that mo secret
fraternity or sorority shall be formed
or maintained in any public high
school in this State" and empowering
the district school boards-such as the
New York city board-to adopt dis
ciplinary rules to enforce it. 1t is ex-
pected that the Commissioner of Edu.
cation. Frank P. Graves, will present
such a bill to the Legislature.
Claims OF Both Sides.
The secret societies viii fight. Up
ward Of twenty other States and many
cities already have legislated against
them. They will not permit New York
to be added to the list without a
struggle There will be hearings and
loud debate Parents OF pupils who be-
lieve in fraternites-there are some
will be summoned to confutc the ma
jority, including the entire city Board
of Education and most OF the high
school principals, who hold them to be
pernicious.
Meanwhile in this series Of articles
THE NEW York HERALD will try to tell
what the controversy Is about and to
give both sides. The recorded ob1ec-
tione to fraternities may be summarized
as follows: They are undemocrauc'
emphasizing money and social standing
instead of ability and merit. and pro-
duce selfish cliques; they divert a pupil
from his studies and thus encourage
poor scholarship; they try. often sue
cessfully, to control school elections and
athletics; in initiating college fraterni-
ties they run to the bad features rather
than the good; they are expensive: they
arc subject TO the divided authority OF
the school and the fraternity council;
thew cannot be supervised by the school
because the control Is outside: In the
extreme cases they encourage drinking,
gambling and worse.
FraternIties Enter Denial.
For the fraternities. denial both gem
erai and specific is entered The fra
ternities say they meet real need OF
boy and girl life; that boys or girls,
like their elders, are bound 10 rlocK
tooetber that In the secret societies they
find not only congenial pals. but a
wholesome spirit: that the chief aim OF
the societies Is comradeship and mutual
helpfulness: that whatever bad name
they have acquired Is due to the acts
of minority; that the fraternities
would like TO cooperate with the school
au,borities and would like to encourage
scbolorship In cases where they do not
already do so; that the fraternity. In
stead Of being evil Is good thing for
tho individual and the school; that the
leading fraternities are working to re-
move all grounds of criticism. and that
,epreseive legislation is violation of
Individual liberty and Is unworkable.
what was in the mind Of Harry b.
chambers. vice-president OF the New
work. Board Of Education, who. as
chairman Of its law committee. pre-
sented to the board the report which Il
edopted on September 27 urging that
fraternitles be curbed by state law?
what he said In the committee report
was
"It was the consensus Of opinion of
the principals OF the high schools that
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