1905-06 Volume 30 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

134 THE SCROLL.many of the subjective advantages. It is at the minority of theeastern colleges that the system becomes aristocratic throughenrolling percentages of from but forty to sixty. Inthe south,the percentage in rare instances exceeds or reaches fifty, andin the west is seldom so high as forty, is more often twentythan forty, and often still lower. Where the percentageof fraternity men is small the purely social idea prevails, theman's tailor is a prominent factor in his eligibility, real personalworth tends to be disregarded, the literary and educationalside of the chapter is not strongly developed. We understand,then, why the fraternities are so generally lauded inthe east, while in the west and south they have been so oftenforbidden by faculties and even by state law. This brings upthe question of their legal right to live, perhaps not entirelypertinent to a discussion of their moral right, yet of interestin itself and beyond that as regards the possibility of abolishingthem by other than suasion, should abolishment be founddesirable.The supreme courts of California and Indiana have decidedthat they cannot be forbidden in state universities,that a college regulation to such effect discriminates againsta "class of citizens" and is unconstitutional. This in responseto suits brought by students at the University of Californiaand Purdue University, the state scientific institution ofIndiana, the legislature having forbidden fraternities at theUniversity of California, the trustees at Purdue. The decisionsstated that the fact of fraternity membership shouldbe no more recognized by the faculty than Masonic membershipis recognized by civil authorities. Yet after this decisionthe state universities of Illinois and Missouri bannedfraternities for periods of ten and twenty years, and evennow various state universities deal with them as bodies insteadof individuals, overlooking the fact, often deeply resentedby non-fraternitj' students, that to recognize them evento punish them is recognition and becomes the basis of demandsfor privileges. It is of course apparent that privatecolleges can deal with them as they please, that state law canneither prohibit nor protect them in private colleges any morethan it can interfere with conditions of membership imposedby churches.Some four or five years ago, an anti-fraternity movementwas started in the University of Arkansas and a league formedthat extended to many southern colleges, state and denominational.In Arkansas, the league succeeded in securing