Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/78

 to take all the time he wants in making up his mind."

A freshman ought not to join a fraternity or any other organization just because he is asked, any more than he should be willing to marry every girl who seems pleased with him. Men say that if they do not join when they are asked, they may never be asked again. What of it? It is infinitely better not to live an organization life at all than to be forced to live one that is not pleasing. If the men with whom you associate yourself are not congenial, if their intellectual and moral ideals are not the same as your own, it is better not to join at all than to form such an affiliation. "I really should like to be a good student," a freshman said to me while we were discussing a group of men which had invited him to become a member. "Do you think I could be and join this organization?" "Pretty small chance," I had to reply. Three months later he came to me and thanked me for my frankness. He had waited and got in with the right crowd, and was happy.

I have never known a fraternity that did not put itself at the head of the list in the college in which I it is established. When the various organizations are metaphorically put upon the witness stand to explain their failures and weaknesses and possible low standing, they do it with the utmost facility.