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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 27, 1922)
RED CLOUD, NEBRASKA, CHIEF f Had Your Iron Today? &ncxs. i W : i l .jz'XmrM3&' -. W!l , K V . M 8 i OLLEGE fraternities- societies" are much those days of Increased public In terest In the hlpher Institutions of learning. The public Is discussing the colleges nnd universities freely their place In the Atnurlcnn scheme of life and their measure of success In fulfilling their nilsolon. Consequently the college fraterni ties are criticized and defended, since they nre n feature of student life of large Importance. Are the fraternities nn Inlluence for good? Are they n detriment rather than a benefit to the student? What are they? What Is their purpose? Should n boy Join or keep out? These are the questions asked by fathers and mothers and guardians. The titles of nearly all of these, societies are Greek letters, which usually fefer to a motto ex pressive of the purpose of the organization. They arc secret societies, with grips, badges, rituals and Inltlntory ceremonies. Probably the fraternities should be put In four .olnssps: General, local, professional and women's. In the first group there are about fifty fraternities of established reputation. Their chapters vary greatly us to numbers; the range Is probnbly from seven to eighty. Corresponding to these are the sororities for women, perhaps twenty In number. I'll I lieta Kappa was the first society with a Greek-letter name. It was founded In 1770 nt tho college of William and Mary, and was originally n secret society. Other chapters were established. Owing to nn early prejudice against secret socie ties, Its secrets wore exposed In 1S31. The letters stand for Greek words translated "Philosophy Is (the Guide of Life." Since 1S31 Phi IJetn Kappa lins boon an honorary society In most of the largo colleges and scholarship rank determines the mem bership. Women hnvo been admitted since 1875. In 1S2. at Union college a group of congenial students began tho organization of a secret Greok lotterfrntoniIty. They divided over the ritual. Some of them founded Kappa Alpha. Tho rest founded Sigma Phi In 1827. This wns tho begin ning of the college frnternltles of today. Membership In tho Greek-letter fraternities Is probably over .'100,000. Alumni usually retain active Interest. There nre executive committees )nr councils composed of alumni, which are cor porations and hold legal title to the property of the fraternities which Is worth millions. Most fraternities own their chapter houses. Conven tions are held with supreme legislative power. Tho Inter-Fraternity Conference has met annually since 15)00 to net on questions of common Interest. Thomas Arkle Clark, dean of men at the Uni versity of Illinois, has an Interesting article with the title, "Shall I Join a fraternity?" In the Amor Jean Hoy. Mr. Clark wns not n fraternity man In college; therefore he Is able to speak from tho viewpoint of the outsider. On tho other hand, ho did Join a college fraternity five years after grad uation, has visited fraternities all over tho coun try and has made a study of them. Moreover, as a college dean of men for more than twenty years lie lias had Intlmnte relationships with thousnnds ""of undergraduates, Including the active members of ninny fraternities. Ir. Clark, In short, Is con sidered a competent authority on college frater nities. In general ,lio approves them. Moreover, his article before publication was read to several college presidents, and professors and high school superintendents, some fraternity men and somo not, nnd approved by them. Hero are some of tho points lie makes, pro and con; The young man entering college Is confronted with a good many problems which his father be lore lilm did not have to solve, and one of thesjo !s the fraternity question; for though tho collego fraternity wns In existence thirty years ago, It lld not, to anything like the extent It does today, dominate college life and control the direct under graduate activities. Its Inlluence was then con fined pretty largely to a limited number of smnll colleges In n restricted territory; Its membership was not largo, and Its members not closely asso ciated. , In speaking of the collego fraternity I do not iwlsh to have It confused with tho fraternity ln tho high school. Excepting, perhaps, In ncad emles and boarding schools where tho hoys nro inway. from homo and need tho training and tho jiiRsnclutiKiis which come from an organized homo 'life nnd tho responsibilities which arlso from bringing theso things about, tho high school fra iternlty hns been pretty generally n detriment both to the character and to the scholarship of Its mem bers. It hns often tuken them i away from tho restraints of home when these were most needed. It ha? developed snobbishness, extravagance and social excesses which have been hurtful to tho (general morale of the schools. It has had many "r.nwi;.iottor AtanA - "' fi-j-M'aiTwriMirir"jriT"-iirMtnfnfi -"i . i discusRud m ass&ar IIPHCTHifliufflwM;; 1 IBMIBI?! -iJf Jflfr iBi ill I ill ffl.ffl 1 fPi)!1 i fife tt (IH) of the ovlls of the collego fraternity without any of Its ndvnntnges. I have seen a good deal of tho high school fraternity nnd tho product which It turns out, and I urn free to say that If I had a son I should not want; hlm to Join such an organiza tion. The collego fraternity first came Into existence nlmost one hundred years ngo when collego at tendance and the conditions surrounding collego life were very different from whnt they now are. In those days colleges were small, nnd the under graduates were housed In collego dormitories or scnttered about the town and fed nt bonrdlng houses. There was perhaps no thought In tho minds of the men who founded tho first Greek let ter fraternities of developing n homo and homo life for their members. Tho main purpose was to strengthen chnracter, to develop good scholarship, nnd to emphnslze and encourage certain qualities of friendship. Often there wns a literary purpose. Tho men who founded tho first fraternities were mostly very religious men who believed sincerely In the principles of life and conduct ns expounded by the founder of the Christian church. Fraternity rituals today still emplmslzo theso principles nndhold up to fraternity members tho ' highest standards of dally life. The teaching of fraternities nro distinctly religious In their Inllu ence, nnd the secret work to which somo of tho enemies of fraternities object has nothing sinister or vicious In It, but Is really of tho most harmless and Innocent chnrneffr. It; was not until within very recent years, when the attendance upon colleges begnn to Incrense nnd tho conditions of undergradunto living began to chnngo materially, that fraternities began to expand and to emphasize as they had never dono before the function of the fraternity In developing for tho undergraduate In collego a normal and a healthy homo life. In fact, fraternities nre not only Increasing their own membership but they are doing everything they can to encourage tho organization of now fra ternities, so thnt every man who wants to Join mny Jiavo a chance to do so. Colleges, also, whoso doors have hitherto been closed to the admission of fraternities are relaxing their regulations and are giving permission to fraternities to come In and all this becauso those who know most about fraternities think their Influence a good one. At the present time national Greek letter fra ternities, of which there nro perhaps fifty, are tho organized force In collego activities. They take the place that was once occupied by the college literary society which taught men fo speak, which Interested them In tho politics of collego, and which In general controlled and directed whnt went on In undergraduate affairs outsldo of tho classroom. IJut tho fraternity does still more than this. There nro very few fraternities now which do not hnvo their own houses on every enmpus. Theso houses form centers of homo life wblcli do much to take tho place of the Ufo which tho boy has known with his own family beforo going awny to college. It often costs more to live In a fraternity house than It does outside. The food at the fraternity tablo Is ordinarily better than that tho student gets nt a boarding house, nndMlie general living conditions arc more comfortable and convenient; ono has to pay for these. The social life of fra ternity men Is moro active nnd so requires the ex pendlttiro of moro money for clothing nnd socliil pleasures. Sometimes tho living conditions hnvo been made too luxurious for tho doing of good work, and at times the social Ufo Is excessive and tho expenditure of money extravagant ; but those conditions do not frequently 'or generally exist. I do not know any chapter of nny fraternity nnd I know hundreds of them which docs not contain men, respected by everyone In the chnptcr and in the college, who nro earning their living In collego through their own efforts; but In general, unless tho man concerned hns somo special talent, this Is not so easy to do unaided when In a fraternity ns when out of it. The man who Joins a fraternity loses something of his Independence. Uelng n part of an organ ized group of men, he Is not so free to do ns ho pleases itfs he would be If he did not hnvo this relationship. lie must submit to regulations, ho must learn to ndnpt himself to the conditions of home life, and to the Idiosyncrasies of a scoro or moro of people. He will often have to yield his desires and his rights, perhaps, to tho will of the organization, for those who go Into an organiza tion ninst bo willing to, do what will bring the greatest good to tho greatest number. IIo must learn to get on with people, to give up, to be un selfish, to do that which will be most helpful and advantageous to his brothers. Many fellows do not like to do this, and sometimes parents do not wish them to learn, so that such men would mnko poor fraternity men, nnd they would bo unhappy and mnko their friends unhappy In the making. There Is a tendency when a man Joins a frater nity for hlm to be satisfied with tho friends ho meets within Its membership, and so to narrow his Interests, to restrict his acquaintances, and to un dervalue the broader training which comes from n moro general contact with men. It Is only tho weak nnd narrow-minded man, however, who will J fall into tins snonnisiiness and wno win restrict his acquaintances nnd his friends to the men whom ho meets within his fraternity. The num ber of such men Is fortunately not large. IJut there are advantages In fraternity life nnd these I believe outweigh these possible evils or disadvantages which I have mentioned. The boy who Joins a fraternity establishes himself in n homo with many of tho same dalles and comforts of the homo life to which ho has been accustomed beforo going to coll6ge, and the fraternity houso remains to hlm a homo even after ho gets out of college. lie gathers around him Immediately a group of friends who hnvo his best Interests at heart. It has been said by those who oppose the fraternity system, that his choice of friends Is made too quickly to bo satisfactory; that It Is a very mechanical choice seldom based upon the principles which underllo true friendships, nnd that the friendship thus formed Is an evanescent, one. Hut the fact that fraternity brothers In every chapter In every collego where fraternities exist nro not only close friends while they nro In collego, but remain so throughout life, tends to disprove such a statement. A fraternity man- Is seldom dissatisfied with the friends he has choson. The Ideals of Ufo formally set beforo tho fra ternity man, nnd theso as I have said, are prac tically always based upon Christian principles, nro tho highest possible. Tho chnracter of the men who were responsible for tho founding of theso organizations and the character of tho national otllcers who are now In charge of fraternity affairs In each organization will substantiate this fact. The Interfraternity conference, which for tho last dozen years has done moro to bring fraternities nnd fraternity men together than any other agency, nnd which Is constantly huggestlng methods In tho frntornlty of developing good scholarship, of strengthening moral principles, and of encourag ing loyaltj to the collego and co-operation with its oillcers, Is composed of a most representative group of business and professional men lawyers, doctors, ministers and tho best In the country. 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