Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/184

 maining three thousand five hundred dollars we borrowed from the contractor and from four of our alumni. When the house was done in the fall we had money enough to meet all of our outstanding obligations.

Even now when these scattered obligations have all been met I am convinced that we spent too much on the house. The paying of the extra three thousand five hundred dollars strained every nerve of the three or four fellows responsible for its collection. I don't know now how we ever secured it. We got some of it from the house notes, we saved a little from the rent; we insulted some of our well-to-do alumni until they gave it to us to get rid of us, but ultimately we paid it—in fact we paid it exactly when we agreed to do so. Our house was so large that it required a big chapter roll in order that it might be full and the rent be easily paid, and I have yet to be convinced that a chapter roll larger than twenty-five is likely to be the most efficiently managed. I think that most fraternities lack the courage to build a house well within their means and best suited to their needs. They are all afraid that if they do not build a house larger than their neighbors, people will think them poor; just as some men are afraid to buy a Ford for fear that some one will imagine they cannot get by with a Cadillac.