Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/21

 circumstances existing at present, have every attractive, middle-aged woman as a mother-in-law. Well, there are limitations in college, and the man who thinks there should be none must have rather a thin coating of gray on his brain.

The fellow who goes into a fraternity takes the group for better or for worse, just as when one gets into a family he finds that the fortunes and the reputation of the family are his. I know a lot of fellows who have gone ahead with the idea that when they say "I will" to the minister's questions, it applies only to the girl at their side, but they soon wake up to find that it took in the whole family even to the most remote and most disreputable second cousin. It is just like that in a fraternity; the group you elect is yours, good or bad; and having chosen, you must make the best of it.

There are those who feel that this fraternity relationship should be easily broken just as they might feel that our divorce laws are too stringent. They argue that if a member of a fraternity proves himself undesirable, it ought to be a simple matter to get rid of him. I cannot feel so. It seems to me that the relationship is such a close and binding one that only under the most critical circumstances should it be severed. The home relations in the fraternity should be considered sacred relations.