Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/22

 undergraduate men leads me to the conclusion that the undergraduate student is on the whole a fair-minded, reasonable being, who is not beyond control, who wants generally to do right, and who whether in fraternities or out of them, is pretty likely to respect a reasonable college law. If colleges have had difficulties, I believe the trouble lies mainly with the faculty, who have not kept awake to student conditions or exercised control or who have been too weak or too indifferent or ignorant to discipline flagrant offenders. The same reason exists too frequently now as existed in the institution in which I was an undergraduate; those members of the faculty who knew of the devilment which was going on did not care, and those members who cared did not know, and so the difficulties increased and insubordination ran riot.

I have not intended this paper primarily as a defense of fraternities, though I think such a defense could without difficulty be made. I have meant it to show that Greek-letter fraternities are not in themselves more artificial than are the ordinary conditions of living in college; they are the outcome of a tendency of young people and old in all conditions and walks of life to form into groups for mutual pleasure and advancement in one line of endeavor or another. If fraternities have not been a source of strength and help in college, it is not the fault of the fraternities but the fault of