Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/173

 to which he had belonged. It is this sort of error which old fraternity men may very easily correct.

My own college experience has been gathered very largleylargely [sic] at the University of Illinois and my illustrations will, therefore, be chosen in most part from that experience. I think it is safe to assume, however, that the majority of the larger institutions of the country, especially the great state universities, are similar as to fraternity conditions and that my own experience is in the main not different from that which I should find were I located in some other institution. At the University of Illinois, then, I find that our alumni have exerted both a helpful and a harmful influence. Many of them use every opportunity to aid the fraternity to develop in the best way, and others have been the most objectionable influence with which we have had to contend both in their effect upon the conduct of local chapters and in the general influence which they exert among men who have little first hand knowledge of fraternities.

In the giving of financial aid our alumni have always been active. It is true that a few are willing to ride without paying their fare, or to enjoy the prestige and the privileges of a good house without helping to build it. Some still owe their board bills, though they find ample opportunity to criticize the present management of their organization when they visit it, and some have