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

THE SCROLL. 135the passage of a law banishing fraternities from the state university,forbidding fraternity men to hold faculty positions,and fraternity students from receiving any university honor,this second redundant provision intending to cover fraternitymen initiated before their chapters were dispersed and whocame from other colleges. Yet the fraternities continue toexist; some of them even own chapter houses. The facultyelects to consider that the honors forbidden the fraternity menshall mean office above first lieutenant in the university battalion!The attorney general has pronounced the law unconstitutional,but it remains on the statute book, which suits theanti-fraternity element, and is ignored, which suits the fraternityelement. In Mississippi, the work of the league resultedin a law banishiiig fraternities, but this was rescinded by thes&me session which passed it, leaving the fraternities operatingunder onerous restrictions, but still alive.It is customary, in repelling criticisms of the fraternitysystem, to recount, as I have done, somewhat of the oppositionthe system has encountered and the way it has triumphed,presumably proving that opposition to it was founded uponignorance and vanished when the real character and aims ofthe system became thoroughly realized. Oberlin and Princetonare now the only important colleges that forbid fraternities,and, save in the non-essential matter of a Greek name,Princeton's clubs are indistinguishable from fraternities.Today the majority of the fraternity chapters occupyhouses, and if they do not in all instances own the house, it issafe to say they are accumulating funds to purchase or build.The chapter-house feature is made much of by the educatorswho commend fraternities. Managing the house gives themembers both a sense of responsibility and business experience.The discipline acquired in adjusting your temper tothat of the other members of the common household is valuable,the necessity of managing some of your mates teachestact. In the matter of "rushing," as the campaign for newmembers is called, you learn to make up your mind aboutmet! quickly, to judge quickly. Again, you exercise tact inmaking a favorable impression upon the man you rush, andif you have a personal interest in him, in seeing that he makesa favorable impression upon the society. To be sure, tacthere is likely to degenerate into finesse.In some institutions the fraternity will give you a good dealof political training, though in general fraternities are far lessin politics than is popularly imagined. In some institutions