Evening star., 1938-05-08

fraternities and sororities be
abolished? Are they character
- building or harmful?
Never dead issue, this matter rep
resents "a years of debate in Wash
ington, at one time resulting in a
mass meeting in which not only stu
dents and faculty and Board of Educa-
ton members, but Parent t-Teacher
and Citizens Associations were in
volved. That the fraternities have
been victors in all of these periodic
alterations is shown by the fact that
they flourish today in every high
school in the city. although they now
operate under the supervision of
teachers
With the last real battle in the
frat and anti-trat controversy fought
as long ago as 1925. this reporter re-
Gently investigated the fraternity sit
uation OF 1888 in an interview with
an active member, also reviewing with
her the history of Greek-letter So
cieties at the Nations Capital.
It was a very attractive young girl
who answered the buzz in a modest
but neat little home in local suburb.
Her name is Jeanne and she is
the president Of a high school sorority.
Her school marks average &C.; but
in art she always rates as an a." since
that is her greatest interest She
plans q career of dress designing. In
society she has been a great success,
gathering numerous friends and ad-
mirers about her. So far as the per-
sonnel of the fraternities and Sororities
is concerned, she could be justly titled
Miss Typical"
In the course of the conversation
with Jeanne our hostess was the pic
ture of grace and sociability. She
had been at a fraternity dance the
night before, the red stamp on the
back of her hand revealed. It read,
20. K. delivery" It's purpose is to
prevent "crashers" from entering the
dance.
And presently this reporter was
engrossed in a discourse about high
school fraternities and sororities. After
81 such conferences this reporter had
large collection of facts and impress
sions of the organizations.
The question of the frats here is
officially closed and has been for 13
years. That word question" repre-
sents some "a years of debate.
although naturally the argument
wasn't carried on all that time. Some
times few years would pass without
any mention of it. Then group Of
teachers. or a group of citizens at a
Citizens Association meeting, or a
group Of parents and teachers at a
Parent Teacher Association meeting,
or even the Board of Education in
session, would broach the subject,
always with the result that it was
tabled
One group finally met with success,
however, the Home and School Asso-
citation of Eastern High School. That
was in May, 1916. The association
committee delegated to investigate the
situation presented statistics which
were studied and then filed with the
Board of Education with the recon-
mendation that some action should be
taken to eliminate secret societies from
the schools.
On the very night this action was
announced in The Star the fraterni-
ties gathered together to fight the
possibility Of a showdown. This
wasn't the first display Of organized
defense on their part, for the II who
met together that night had one year
before become the Interfraternity
Council.
What was the objection to these
societies? They flourish in colleges
and universities and are considered q
legitimate part Of campuses-why not
in high school? That was one ques-
ton their opponents agreed upon.
They said, and some are still saying,
that high school students weren't
capable of running the societies to
their greater benefits, that in their
Juvenile desire to grow up they at
tempted to initiate their college big
brothers and sisters.
But the ''big brothers" and "big
sisters" disclaimed any relation to the
high school societies. Members of the
college fraternities and sororities
backed the opponents who recon-
mended the annihilatiou Of the
younger groups.