Page 100 - 1913 November - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 105

heart-sick and lonely f o r the want of human companionship. He usually
feels that he is just as good and often better than the f r a t e r n i t y men. H e
does not know and does not realize that oftentimes a chapter's ranks are filled
for i t by its alumni and friends who press upon its attention men who are
not only desirable i n themselves but who, other things being equal, are se-
lected f o r membership because of the ties by which they are connected to others.
A l l he realizes is that he is out and they are i n . I t is this bitterness of spirit
which is responsible f o r much of the growing anti-fraternity sentiment. Our
chapters should make some effort to help the non-fraternity men to social
opportunity. W h y not have an occasional bridge party or dance to which
they are invited? O r do some one of the dozens of things they can do?
But this must all be done without being patronizing or i t w i l l f a i l of its k i n d l y
purpose. Possibly, i f the college officials were consulted they would be glad
to suggest a proper field for such effort. A n d i f a chapter perceives among
a number of non-fraternity men a group whose members seem congenial, why
not assist them to f o r m a local society and to enter some good fraternity.—
Beta The/a Pi. (A K 2 Quarterly and 0 A X Shield).

One thing said by John Gordon Hughes, Grand Princeps of I I K A at

their Convention at Lexington, Ky., in May, in his address to the Convention,

is worthy of a broader circulation than is afforded by the session of a con-

vention. M r . Hughes spoke earnestly to his fraternity upon the necessity

for the members to avoid the appearance, as well as the act, of exclusiveness

in their relations with the student bodies of their colleges generally. One

count of the indictment against fraternities i n the legislatures last winter was

that the fraternity men deport themselves with an offensive air of exclusiveness

and the earnest words of M r . Hughes on this point are worthy o f a general

reading. He said,

There is nothing that aids a chapter more with the faculty of an institution

and the student body generally, outside of its own inherent worth, than proper

treatment of non-fraternity men. A m o n g these men are many real diamonds

in the rough, and in the future they make valuable friends and allies. No man

ever lost anything through courtesy, and the best way to disarm a potential

opponent is to treat h i m properly. As has been well said by a prominent

f r a t e r n i t y man w r i t i n g i n Banta's Greek Exchange: "God speed the day,

man and woman strive for the day, when snobbishness among fraternity men

and women may become unpopular, when extravagance may be looked upon as

beneath their standard of refinement, when exclusiveness may be kept f r o m

causing pain, when f r a t e r n i t y loyalty may be considered genuine only when

united w i t h a broad and generous friendliness toward thos# who are f r o m one

cause or another outside the charmed circle of intimate friendship, when coarse-

ness and b r u t a l i t y i n initiation may be eliminated utterly f r o m the induction

ceremonies of those brotherhoods and sisterhoods which proudly proclaim a su-

periority over all other societies, i n their standard of selection, in their aims

and activities and i n the manhood and womanhood which they develop." I

trust that this Convention w i l l pass suitable resolutions preventing hereafter

the use i n our publications of the words "barb", "barbarian", or any similar

term that may be construed as opprobrious i n reference to non-fraternity men.—

Banta's Greek Exchange.

" A n organization called the "Commons" has been organized at the Univer-
sity of Washington by the non-fraternity men. Its object is to provide some