Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/253

 however, it seems to me it must change in certain ways, it must adjust itself to certain new conditions, it must strengthen certain principles. Its future depends upon these things.

The fraternity is going, more and more, to give attention to scholarship. Colleges were founded and exist for the purpose of training men intellectually, and the fraternity must show that it is one of the agencies which is helping toward that end. For a long time it was thought to be no disgrace if fraternity men were found far below the average scholastically, it was even by some considered almost a matter of self-congratulation if there were no grinds or high grade students in the chapter; but that day is past. It is everywhere a matter of unpleasant comment, as it should be, if the Greek-letter organizations do not keep the scholarship of their members on a par with the scholarship of other men. But this is not enough. If it cannot be shown in the future that the fraternity is helping men on toward better scholastic ideals, that a man's scholarship not only does not suffer on account of his joining a fraternity, but that on the contrary it is improved, the fraternity will not have taken the step forward that I feel sure that it is going to take. There is not a general gathering of fraternity men anywhere in the country in these days at which the sub-