Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/46

 a gentle reminder to use the door mat before entering, or to turn off the light when leaving my bedroom or the basement, or to have my laundry ready every Monday morning when the wagon comes. There are a score of practices upon which there should be agreement and uniform proceedure. In the fraternity home life where the members of the family are so numerous, and the head of the family is so frequently changed, it is much safer if the regulations are down in black and white. I presume that most fraternities have some where on the secretary's books a set of definitely devised and specifically phrased house rules just as every benedict has had at some time a marriage certificate, but where these documents are, both the fraternity president and the married man are often in blissful ignorance. Just last fall the president of a prominent fraternity said to me, "Do you have a copy of our house rules? One of our old men said you were given a copy a few years ago, and I don't believe we've ever had them around the house since." I fished them out for him, but they are probably lost again before this time. Unless the rules are definite, and regularly reiterated, and unless they are constantly and seriously enforced they will count for little.

Too many fraternity men are of the opinion that house rules are for underclassmen only, and that if an upperclassman should occasionally