Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/137



There are many influences in and about college which in one way or another affect undergraduate life and undergraduate morals and scholarship. Training, environment, tradition, example, extra-curriculum activities, all play a part, but in these modern times I believe that at least so far as the colleges which are situated in small cities or country towns are concerned, there are few influences which have done more to discourage and vitiate scholarship and to soften character than cheap photo plays and vaudeville. The effect is a subtle one. The habit of patronizing these performances grows on one imperceptibly but surely.

I do not wish to minimize the good effects of these two classes of amusements. I have only recently heard much commendation of them from people who ought to know what they are talking about. I have no doubt but that moving pictures have their place in education and that they will come to have a wider and a more general use. One can, without doubt, gain admirable effects by the use of pictures which could be obtained in no other way. These points have been discussed and are being discussed by people whose education and whose experience fit them far better than I am