Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/40

 fraternity organizations have arisen to bring the fraternities closer together, and to unify fraternity interests, no matter how many Helmets and Klu Kluxes and Yoxans have been organized to draw their material for membership from the fraternities in general, when the fraternity men have come to the polls the party lines have been closely drawn, and the split has come in about the same place that it did twenty years ago. I am sure that this condition of affairs has worked profit to the fraternities, and kept them far more in general favor than they might have been had they all regularly lined up upon the same side of an issue, for the fraternities to win have had to make friends with the independents, and if an independent wished to win, he must get the support of at least one faction of the fraternities. This state of affairs has made it necessary for anyone running for office, and our fraternity men are regularly office seekers, to make friends pretty generally, if he expected election, both among fraternity men and men independent of such organizations. There is little snobbishness, therefore, and little inclination to draw social and organization lines closely. A good illustration of this condition was seen last semester in the politics of our senior class. The president of the class, a well-known and well-liked fraternity man, was elected without opposition.