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

THE SCROLL. 597can be given, a baseball or football game arranged—sportsof all kinds are great levellers of formality—members of eachchapter can make a point of "just dropping in" on theirnearest neighbor for the evening or the night, and you maybe sure they will find a hearty welcome. One cannot overestimatethe help and inspiration one chapter can be toanother. Chapters should be friends; and their friendship,if real, will broaden and cheer and encourage the fraternitylife of all; and the strength of this friendship depends morethan we realize upon the heartiness and sincerity of the courtesiesexchanged.A natural result of this will be to extend the same courtesyto members of all fraternities. We believe that in collegeswhere such a system is in vogue will be found the healthiestand highest fraternity life. It is so easy to antagonize. Andthere are times in the college year when the struggle is close,and feelings are deep; when we suspect much, and possiblyare suspected of more, and then it is that courtesy meanssomething. True, when we stand alone, with that feelingthat someone has been unjust, has done us an ill turn, we arestronger; but we are strongest when, ignoring the slight, werise above it with the same good word and open handshakefor all that we had before.Chapters of Greek letter fraternities live too close together,have too nearly the same ideals, have too much work in common,to live in anything but harmony. It is not soft" tocongratulate a rival chapter upon getting a man whom wehave lost; it is not weak to have good friends in other fraternities; it Is not bad form to include sometimes in our invitationsto spreads and smokers gentlemen who wear colors otherthan the gold and blue. And by all this we are the gainersfor we are practicing simple gentlemanliness.Our own lives are stronger and broader for the ties thatbind them to other chapters and to other fraternities. Ofcourse we are happy together and loyal to each other, but toisolate a chapter is to take from it its breadth, to take awayits usefulness. There are other strong fraternities. We maylearn much from them. But to gain from them we must giveto them. Try it—give a smoker and invite a ' fraternitycrowd," and after it give a yell for them all, and see if yourcollege isn't dearer to you, and your own fraternity nearer toyou than before.—EDSON S. HARRIS in A Y Quarterly.