Page:The Fraternity and the College (1915).pdf/89



Whatever was once the custom, in these days, at least, fraternity men are expected to pay their debts and to do so promptly. The young man with the buoyancy and optimism of Mr. Skimpole, in Bleak House, who held that "the sordid word money should never be mentioned in the relations of friendship" is having little vogue at the present time. The enthusiastic life insurance agent, if you will admit his logic, can prove to you that if you will pay your premiums long enough they will cost you nothing, but every sensible man knows that the thing that is worth anything costs something, and the fraternity is no exception.

Fraternity men in the past have too frequently taken their obligations lightly, and so in a financial way have brought fraternities into disrepute. Fraternity officers have begun strongly to emphasize the importance of financial matters in the fraternity and are insisting upon the introduction of accounting systems into all chapters which will make it possible for fraternity accounts to be kept accurately and which will impress upon the fraternity man from the outset his obligation to meet his bills when they are due.

When a boy goes into a fraternity, neither he nor his father should be deceived as to the actual cost of membership, nor allowed to believe that