The Kevin courier. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1922, 1922-07-19

of the evils of the college fraternity without any
of it's advantages. l have seen a good deal of the
high school fraternity and the product which 1t
turns out, and ! am free to say that if l had a son
/ should not want him to join such an organiza-
zion.
The college fraternity first came into existence
almost one hundred years ago when college at
tendance and the conditions surrounding college
life were very different from what they now are.
In those days colleges were small, and the under
graduates were housed in college dormitories or
scattered about the town and fed at boarding
houses. There was perhaps no thought in the
minds of the men who founded the first Greek let
ter fraternities of developing a home and home
life for their members. The main purpose was to
strengthen character, to develop good scholarship,
and to emphasize and encourage certain qualities
of friendship. Often there was a literary purpose.
The men who founded the first fraternities were
mostly very religious men who believed sincerely
in the principles of life and conduct as expounded
by the founder of the Christian church.
Fraternity rituals today still emphasize these
principles and hold up to fraternity members the
highest standards Of daily life. The teachings Of
fraternities are distinctly religious in their infu-
ence, and the secret work to which some of the
enemies of fraternities object has nothing sinister
or vicious in it, but is really of the most harmless
and innocent character.
1t was not until within very recent years, when
the attendance upon colleges began to increase
and the conditions of undergraduate living began
to change materially, that fraternities began to
expand and to emphasize as they had never done
before the function of the fraternity in developing
for the undergraduate in college a normal and a
healthy home life.
In fact, fraternities are not only increasing their
own membership but they are doing everything
they can to encourage the organization of new fra
ternitieS, so that every man who wants to join
may have a chance to do so. Colleges, also, whose
doors have hitherto been closed to the admission
of fraternities are relaxing their regulations and
are giving permission 10 fraternities to come in
and all this because those who know most about
fraternities think their influence a good one.
At the present time national Greek letter fra
ternities. of which there are perhaps fifty, are the
organized force in college activities. They take
the place that was once occupied by the college
literary society which taught men to speak, which
interested them in the politics of college, and
went on in undergraduate affairs outside of the
classroom But the fraternity does still more than
this. There are very few fraternities now which
do not have their own houses on every campus.
These houses form centers of home life which
do much to take the place of the life which the
boy has known with his own family before going
away to college.
1t often costs more to live in a fraternity house
than it does outside. The food at the fraternity
table is ordinarily better than that the student
gets at a boarding house, and the general living
conditions are more comfortable and convenient
one has to pay for these. The social life of fra
ternity men is more active and so requires the ex-
penditure of more money for clothing and social
pleasures. Sometimes the living conditions have
been made too luxurious for the doing of good
work, and at times the social life is excessive and
the expenditure of money extravagant; but these
conditions do not frequently or generally exist. l