Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/154

 ceptional cases the men who pull down the scholastic average. The real facts are that they help to raise the average; it is the loafer and the fusser who pulls it down. There is one college activity at least which can not be said to be helpful to a man's scholarship, and that is the sentimentally social one. The freshman who takes on a steady girl might almost as well begin looking for a job. He at least has little chance of helping to raise the fraternity average. The fellow who spends his evenings at the sorority houses polishing the furniture, or who early in his college course develops a "case" is almost invariably an unsuccessful student. The "merry, merry ring time," is for him usually not far from the time when he gets out of college either by request or through a waning of interest in his studies.

The successful man in any profession or line of work must have a knowledge of human nature, he must be able to adjust himself to all sorts and conditions of men. His success will depend quite as much often upon his knowledge of men as upon his knowledge of his profession. The young fellow who enters sanely into college activities develops resourcefulness, widens his acquaintance, and cultivates self-reliance. A friend of mine, a successful attorney and a prominent politician, said to me at one time that he got more real training while conducting his campaign at the Univer-