Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/221

 and the time of anyone who will consort with them.

As I said at the outset, the problem of the transfer is not solved even if the man is not affiliated. If he is a good man, the chapter gets the benefit even if he has not been taken in; if he is a bad one, the fraternity must bear the disgrace without being in more than an advisory position with reference to his conduct. I have in mind now one of our fraternities whose transfers, even though they have not been affiliated, have been of service to the chapter both for the advice and help they have given regarding the conduct of affairs at the house, as well as in themselves raising the scholastic average; I recall an instance in another chapter where the transfer damaged the chapter irreparably by his bad conduct, and even after he was dismissed from college came back at intervals to commit improprieties which reflected immeasurably upon the good name of the chapter. The active men held, of course, that he had not been affiliated, that they were not responsible for his actions, and that they had no control of his habits; but these statements did not get them anywhere. The general public knew that he was a fraternity man, and the local chapter received the credit for whatever he did.

In view of all these facts I believe that it