Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/15

 ance that I have a chance to dispel is really remarkable. Boys confused and embarrassed by the strangeness of the new life and the new problems of living see me daily at the opening of each new college year, and I have many a chance to put them right as to college customs, college traditions, and college organizations. I should like in this paper to give college sons and college fathers some intelligent idea of what a Greek-letter fraternity is, and what it does or may do for the boy who goes into it.

I have not yet got quite to the point of advising freshmen to join a fraternity any more than I feel like advising my next door neighbor to buy an electric for his wife or to install a pneumatic cleaner in his house, but I feel sure that there are advantages and benefits likely to accrue to the one who joins, and I am frank in saying to the freshman as he enters college that if I were in his position and were beginning my college course, knowing all that I now know about college fraternities, their weaknesses and their strong points, I think I should want to join one, just as, if one is religious, I think he is foolish not to join a church, and if he is interested in politics, not to ally himself with some political organization. If I had a son in college, I should offer no objection to his joining.

The Greek-letter fraternity in college is of com-