1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

374 THE SCROLL.fraternity is because of personal inclination. He is, therefore,to be treated as on a social and civil equality with thefraternity brother, and not spoken of or pointed at in derision.It is simply upon lines of close companionship thatyour bearing toward your fraternity brother is to be differentfrorn your attitude to the mass of your fellow-students. Theclosest personal friendships will doubtless be formed withinthe chapter hall, but genuine intimacies with non-fraternitymen, if they are the proper sort of fellows, are not to bedespised. These non-fraternity men ought to be made tofeel that they have the respect of the fraternities. In athleticsand in the class-room they should be accorded proper consideration.In those places merit alone must predominate.Further, a fraternity chapter should avoid combinationsand cliques. Pan-Hellenic leagues are worthy when tendingonly to promote true inter-fraternity comity; when usedsimply "to dominate class and college politics they are curses.Honors, to be honors indeed, must be fairly earned; tTiosegained by log-rolling" are mere shams. Every fraternitychapter must remember that it owes a duty to its college aswell as to itself. -An insistent avoidance of these collegecombinations will appeal to the innate sense of righteousnesswhich lies within the breast of non-fraternity man and fraternityman alike.With every fraternity member and every fraternity chapteradhering to these tenets, the non-fraternity element in a collegewill have respect for the fraternity system, and will notby a single word attack it. A carping few, indeed, may ' 'wailand gnash their teeth," but their own individuality will causetheir e,fforts to die of their inherent weakness. Perhaps in avery few very small colleges where the fraternity system hasbecome congested we will still hear of unseemly struggles,and find that faculties are fighting the battles of non-fraternitymen. The only and proper solution of such caseswill be the prompt withdrawal of the fraternities from theinstitutions. And that such a course would be a welcome oneto many fraternities no one will deny. Chapters in theseweak institutions, established, as they were, in the days offraternity infancy, have in most instances become sources ofweakness, and any struggle to hold them certainly will not beentered into. The game is not worth the candle.—Caduceusof Kappa Sigma.