1912–13 Volume 37 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

546 THE SCROLLaction taken in certain states, the charges are more true in some localities than inothers. And a surprising situation shows the battlefield in the state universities insteadof the privately endowed colleges. Formerly the state universities werecounted the strongholds of fraternity sentiment. Now, in most of the denominationaland privately endowed colleges, the fraternity is recognized and utilized as avaluable institution, while in the state universities the annual or biennial attack inthe legislatures is as regular as the appeal for a generous appropriation for newbuildings and equipment. •The progressive fraternity man declares that the college fraternity, properly administered,is a great democratic agency and that its theories, rightly developed, arecertain to produce better citizens and more useful Americans. For the fraternity is aninstitution which seeks through co-operation and common helpfulness to strengthencharacter.Many fraternity chapters actually accomplish this result. If one state universitychapter is know for intemperance, that is the fault of the chapter in particular, andnot of the fraternity system in general. If one chapter adopts the standard of the"hot sport" as its ideal, that is an illustration of the willingness of some men to takesolemn obligations and then break them without shame. To abolish the fraternitysystem in general for the misconduct of one chapter or of several chapters is unjust.The same principle applied to the institution of marriage would abolish the home, thefoundation of the state, for the misdemeanors of the minority as shown in the divorcecases on our court dockets. And what church denomination can show every localchurch with an entirely irreproachable membership?The college fraternity is not the "rah, rah," debauching influence that so manypeople conceive it to be. The founders of the system were serious-minded men withhigh and helpful ideals. Their places today are filled by men as noble and as ambitiousto serve. Today the overwhelming majority of active fraternity men areearnest and- determined to exalt the ideals of the founders and to live up to theobligations required of each one who wears a fraternity pin. The majority calls uponthe minority to see that today is not a favorable time in American life for snobbishness,aristocracy, intemperance, poor scholarship or any other of the evils which havemade some people feel strongly that the fraternities are undemocratic, un-Americanarid in every way undesirable.VALE'S SOCIETY SYSTEM UNDER FIRE"Stover at Yale", a novel by Owen Johnson, published several years ago,raised a storm there because of its criticism of the secret society system at thatinstitution. Now the university is in an uproar about a four-act play in bookform, "The Ice Lens", written by one of the instructors, Mr. Gundelfinger.The societies especially criticised are the senior societies. Skull and Bones, Scrolland Keys and Wolf's Head.At a recent meeting of the sophomore class, over half of the class in attendance,they adopted resolutions which suggested that in these societies "secrecy bereduced to a reasonable privacy", and that "tap day as it now exists be abolished."Tap day is a day in May when, according to custom, the juniorschosen to membership, a small proportion of the class, are tapped on theirshoulders before a large assembly on the campus, to signify their election. Beforethe sophomores acted. Dean Jones had announced that thereafter all visitorswould be excluded from tap day exercises, making the occasion less public.The objection to tap day is that it makes a sensational display and overemphasizesthe distinction between those who are chosen and those who are not.The sophomore meeting declared that the basic trouble with the senior societieswas that the members were unwisely chosen, often on account of "family influenceor personal interests," and further declared that, unless the seniorsocieties should recognize true •worth and ability in their elections this year,the sophomores would refuse to join such societies next year.The junior societies at Yale, A A *, "* T, A K E, iZ St' and B 0 II, nowadmit students in the fall of their sophomore year, and many of the members ofthese chapters of Greek-letter fraternities are elected to the senior societies. 0 S,A '^, A $, X 4», A X P, A S ^ and two local societies are established in theSheffield Scientific School of Yale, ^ A $ In the law school, and A K K, N 2 N,$ P 2 and a local in the medical school. The only "university societies" orfraternities, ^ F A, ^ S K and Acacia, Initiate men from all departments, includingthe professional schools.Commenting on the stir caused by "Stover at Yale"' and "The Ice Lens",