Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/104

 Sometimes I try the persuasive power of broken furnaces, scaling paint, unpaid taxes, and summer loan dues, not that the fact that we need the money obligates a debtor to any greater extent to pay his debts, but only that the debtor sometimes feels that it does. I have called to my aid often alumni more prominent than myself with the hope that through the influence of their position and personality the purse strings of the negligent alumni might loosen. I have tried to reach them through the regular chapter letter. I have tried to touch their pride, their loyalty, their honor; I have even threatened at times, or dropped into irony, with about the same result in each case. Each sort of appeal touches some one, though no appeal that I have yet devised seems to be generally effective. Only a few weeks ago I wrote a letter which was characterized by extreme courtesy. I received a reply from one of the brothers in which he commended me for my directness and complimented me on my tone. It was the best letter of its kind, he said, that I had written. I assured him that I did not agree with him, for it had brought me less money than any other that I had written.

Last fall, when at our regular home-coming some twenty of the old fellows returned to see the big football game of the year, I presented the case to them, and they all agreed that it was not credit-