Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/122



There are some institutions, I know, which will not stand for the fraternity house party. Sometimes there is a rule against it; sometimes it is an unwritten unexpressed law; but whether the prohibition is down in the book of undergraduate rules or not, there is no getting by with this particular form of social function. The argument is that the house party overemphasizes social life, that there is moral danger in it, that it takes most of the undergraduate's time for an indefinite period prior to the function in making preparation for it, that it takes all of his time and more than all of his money during its progress, and that it leaves him an intellectual and financial wreck at its close. I could bring illustrations to prove that all of these alleged evils have more than a mere foundation of truth. I know one organization that had a house party some years ago, that was written up in all the city papers and that is still the talk of the simple country community in which our institution is situated; the chapter enjoyed the advertising that it got from this function, but it is still struggling to pay the bills, that were incurred in giving it.

Besides all this, there are delicate problems of