Page:BairdsmanualofAmericancollegefrate8.pdf/898

4 nity membership. Or it happens that a class society, which is freely joined by fraternity and non-fraternity men as such a class society, changes its character and becomes itself a general fraternity, whereupon the new organization feels much aggrieved if the author makes any reference to its prior character.

In the eighth edition, to which this is a supplement, mention of all rented chapter houses was purposely omitted. As stated on page 40, practically every fraternity chapter now lives in a house where this is permitted by the college authorities. The values of the houses given are intended to be fairly accurate, and in every case have been checked up from more than one source. The fraternity chapters were each asked to report the value of houses owned by them, but as more than seventy per cent. of values reported were grossly inaccurate and usually exaggerated, a general scaling down was imperative, and it may be that some values have been understated in an effort to be more accurate. Full information in any particular instance will be gratefully received. A net infrequent source of complaint concerning the statement of value depends upon what the author regards as an erroneous point of view. For instance, in a town where there is now located a large university, there was a house built by a local person of wealth thirty years ago, which cost, say $60,000. He occupied it a few years and died. It was unsuitable for a residence by most of the people who dwelt in the town and remained unoccupied and idle for twenty years. It was offered by his estate at various prices, and was finally sold to a fraternity chapter for $18,000. They spent $5,000