Page:The Fraternity and the Undergraduate (1923).pdf/92

 the thing is up to the man anyway, and the average man would be happy and find it possible to adjust himself to the living conditions in any one of a score of organizations. It is about as foolish for a man to think that his fraternity is the only one in the world suited to a particular freshman as it is to believe that he is the only man in the world who could make a definite girl happy.

There is the point of view of the fraternity, also, that because of their relationships and because of the localities from which they come certain men are in a way the property of one fraternity more than of another if that fraternity chooses to claim its rights. "We have always taken the men from Rockford," or "His cousin was a member of our fraternity at Wisconsin," are sometimes considered quite good and sufficient reasons for any sort of procedure in the acquiring of pledges.

The character of the men who will allow themselves to be lifted in my experience is seldom such as to make them of any real worth to an organization. As I look back over my relationship with such men I can think of but one man who was worth the price of admission to the organization which lifted him. They have been, with this exception, selfish or vacillating, or easily led,—men without judgment who did not know their own minds, who had no power of leadership. They were not