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

THE SCROLL. 579been founded in 1824. Evidently, however, K 2 takes thestory seriously. This is shown by the following paragraphfrom the speech of an alumnus at the recent conclave of thefirst district at Boston, quoted from the April Caduceus;There is so^iething about that old brick city in northern Italy, surroundedby its brick wall with Tts twelve gates, that makes its history precious to ourmen—that city, famous throughout the world for its churches and its university;a university, once the most celebrated in Italy; with its library of 140,-000 volumes, its 9,000 MSS.; with its galleries of paintings, its botanicalgardens and observatory. Here, just as the world was emerging from thegloom of the dark ages, was born our honored fraternity. Bologna, youknow, was, a few centuries before, an imperial city, later it became an independentrepublic, and during the days of Kirjaith Sepher it was ruled byfamilies, first by one powerful family and then by another; family feudswithin, and the pressure of barbarians from without threatened to extinguishthis lamp of knowledge. A fugitive Greek organized that society, and, inobedience to its traditions, faithful and loyal Kappa Sigmas have, for nearlyfour decades, battled for knowledge, as noble knights.THE INFLUENCE OF FRATERNITIES,The influence of a fraternity depends upon the caliber of its members. Ifthe men are weak, the fraternity will be their ruin, for they will developtheir tendencies to dissipate and loaf. But if the men have the qualities ofgood fellowship and true manhood in them, the fraternity influence will domore for them than anything else of their college life.This, in brief, is the gist of the result of an investigationinto fraternity matters conducted by University of Californiadaily paper. The investigation was the most minute andsearching ever conducted. The answers to inquiries showedthat most fraternities regard their organizations as instrumentsfor fostering social and brotherly spirit rather than gainingpre-eminence in college politics or activities. Some of thespecific advantages named by others were: the fraternities asunits of college life; their fostering of a spirit of loyalty; andan aid to the university in preserving order among underclassmen,by fostering senior control and freshman subordination.One man, however, believed this last point to berather theoretical. Other benefits to the university whichwere named were: keeping alumni interested in the universitythrough interest in their fraternity chapter; attracting goodmen who would otherwise go to another college, or not at all;promoting clean athletics; acting as the conservative balancewheel of student opinion; affording a channel of fellowshipwith faculty men.—Chicago Daily Maroon.