Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/49

 wished ever so much to do so; and on the other hand there are in my mind the names of a large number of fellows with scarcely moderate means who were rushed off their feet by a half dozen organizations eager to pledge them. There is little or no difference between them so far as financial standing is concerned. I have in mind two boys, friends from childhood, who came to college two years ago. The parents of one were wealthy, and the parents of the other could with the greatest sacrifice send him to college. They joined the same fraternity, have enjoyed the same privileges, and have attained about the same distinction and popularity.

I realize that there are many people who do not agree with me in these statements which I have been making. On the one hand there are those who look upon fraternity men as made of somewhat more refined and better glazed clay than are other men. These men, if pushed, would be willing to grant that the fraternity man, perhaps, is no grind, that he is more likely to make the loafer's club than Phi Beta Kappa, but when it comes to social prominence and finesse, they are sure that he has it on every other fellow in college. I have heard the occasional fraternity man talks as if he were making a great concession when he associated with an independent, but fortunately such men