Page 59 - 1909 November - To Dragma

54 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

I f , at the start, a group of petitioners is certainly in earnest; i f ,
at the start, they are worthy men; if, at the start, they are financial-
ly sound; i f , at the start, they are recognized by the rest of the
college, why wait? I n most cases they are better at the start than
they are later, because as time goes on a sentiment against the lo-
cal organization is created by the national fraternities. As members
of a local organization they are sure to lose the fight for new men,
and since we desire to enter the institution such loss is directly our
loss.—Delta of Sigma Nu, quoted by Anchora.

College Honors! What do those two words mean? Fraternity
men are in the habit of proudly enumerating the college offices held
by the members of their chapter and when the list is made up they
entitle it "College Honors." I f these offices have come as the spon-
taneous recognition of merit of fitness for the office, then they are
indeed "honors." I f , however, they are the result of scheming and
unfair combinations in which a better man has been defeated, the
word "honors" is a misnomer and we prefer to label them with the
more correct term, "dishonors."—Scroll of $ A 0, quoted by the
Key.

The strong fraternity of the future will be the one that is
shrewd enough to discern which are the coming great institutions,
and then to grant charters to "first groups" applying for them. To
refuse a charter to the first in the field results very often in sub-
sequent handicaps; for while the group, nothing daunted, is deter-
minedly waiting for eventual success, other fraternities may enter
the institution and the race becomes an unequal one between lo-
cal and national organizations. Is it good fraternity economics to
place a local chapter at a serious disadvantage through the refus-
al of a charter, and then some time later, after granting it, to stand
at a safe distance and watch a struggle back to the coveted early
first place?—Kappa Alpha Theta.

We often wonder just why a "lost bid" is always such a skele-
ton in the fraternity closet. You offer the privilege of membership
only to those you consider worthy of the honor, and i f for various
and sundry reasons the prospective member finds another society
more congenial, have you lowered your standards any because you
desired a worthy person?

I t would be absurd to proclaim defeat from the housetops yet
this wrong conception may work harm within any fraternity. Too
often this aspect is made the dominant force in the final decision.
The chapter that never "lost a bid" probably does not exist and such
a stagnant condition could not work well in the long run—whole-