Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/131

 nity that is going to give a house party ought to be prepared to meet expenditures twice as great as the committee planning the party say will be necessary, and it is not a bad thing to have the money in the till before the party is given. Otherwise it is like paying a security debt or a bill for something that has been long ago worn out.

It is usually an extravagant form of entertainment. The man who argues that it is cheap and can be done for little more than the ordinary formal party is either ignorant or an intentional deceiver. It is a form of social entertainment that has got more fraternities hopelessly into debt than any other that I know. Any organization which goes into it should not do so without seriously counting the cost, and the cost is frequently more than young fellows of modest means can afford. One's social standing is not dependent upon such a function. In point of fact most of the young women invited to house parties come from out of town and their entertainment adds little or nothing to the social prestige of the fraternity. Local people get in very slightly on these things; the social reputation which the fraternity develops is usually one of extravagance. The cost of the party, high as it sometimes is, is exaggerated by the neighbors, deplored by the faculty, and protested against by the home folks many of whom are