Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/123

 Nu Epsilon and similar organizations is based largely upon the fact that the meeting place and membership of the organization is kept secret for a part or all of the period that the undergraduate is in college. The fact that things may be done under the cover of secrecy leads many a young fellow into indiscretions and foolish escapades which he would otherwise escape. It makes it impossible for authorities to place responsibility where it belongs and tends to encourage license. It is for this reason that most institutions have come to the point of forbidding organizations whose membership is not revealed, and the action of fraternities against such organizations is based very largely upon the same considerations.

The initiation ceremonies of these organizations under consideration are often one of their most objectionable features. Having few traditions and in many cases a ritual hardly worthy of the name, they depend upon impromptu suggestions, and the initiation often degenerates into horse play and a sort of "slap stick" vaudeville. The public or semi-public exhibitions through which they put their initiates tend to bring all fraternities into disrepute in the minds of the general public, who do not discriminate in any way between the methods employed by the various organizations which have the name of fraternity, whether it is the Red-headed man's Club or one of the "Big