Page 41 - To Dragma October 1933
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QCTOBEK, 1933 a 39
The Greek Letter Joneses Armed with a good-looking house and an
important membership, a chapter may next set
By H E L E N C . ROWER, K K T out either to be, or to keep up with, the cam-
pus Joneses by going out for activities. In-
BEFORE T H E "crash" of 1929 there was an trinsically there should be no harm in this.
expression current in American slang, But the danger is insidious. Over a period of
'•keeping up with the Joneses" years the material ideal tends to dominate,
It meant that in every neighborhood, in until the contest becomes solely one of getting
, c r \ class, there was a hypothetical Jones the greatest number of Big Women on campus
family which bought a new car, or took a within one fraternity group.
long trip, or wore fine clothes. Their be-
havior made their neighbors assume the ob- If the fraternity system is to be a valuable
ligation to prove their own affluence by pur- educational adjunct, if it is to "prove itself
chasing better automobiles, travelling some worthy or cease to exist," its individual mem-
hundreds of miles further, or buying more bers must think back to their beginnings, and
elegant clothes. When the Joneses began to think seriously. Why are fraternities organ-
speculate in the stock market, the neighbors ized?
had to try it, too.
Their histories show that they were the out-
\~ide from its financial phases, the prac- growth of a natural instinct for kindred
tice of keeping up witli the Joneses worked spirits to join in company. They were in-
great harm to the ideals of all those involved. spired by ideals of true brotherhood. The
Life had a purely material basis. The dollar pioneers were founded in an age when every
was indeed almighty, and a man's worth was college student had a classical education which
measured solely by the number of his dollars turned his thoughts toward the Greek philoso-
and the use he could make of them. phies and directed the choice of Greek letters
for a name. Greek divinities became the
But since 1929 the American people have patron gods and goddesses. The members met
been forced to readjust their sense of values. in their homes or in college class rooms. They
The Toneses and all their imitators have been were concerned with the cultural improve-
brought face to face with reality. Paper for- ment of one another and with social inter-
tunes have vanished; the economic world is course intensified by their common bond.
upside-down.
The growth and advancement of the fra-
And what has this to do with the fraternity ternity system, the increased number of Greek
world? letter societies among college men and women,
is proof that the ideals of the early founders
In varying degrees present conditions have were sound. As fraternities exist today they
affected fraternities financially. Some groups are truly "the outward and visible sign of an
have found it necessary to postpone their inward and spiritual grace."
conventions. Some arc having difficulty in
maintaining their chapter houses. But it should be their business now to dwell
more upon the inward and spiritual grace than
We are wondering whether the fraternities upon its outward and visible signs. In the
in general have not suffered otherwise from face of all that is happening in the world be-
the common desire to keep up with the yond the colleges, it behooves fraternities to
Joneses. take stock of their own values.
Those who have intimate knowledge of Are they following the wise guidance of
great national fraternities know that each one
has taken on the proportions of a large-scale Ruth Bryan Owen, Delta Gamma, re-
enterprise. Every group has its central office, cently appointed Minister to Denmark,
its countless business details, and its magazine is the first U. S. woman to occupy a
to interpret that fraternity to the Greek letter
world. This is as it must be. major diplomatic post.
Yet out of the growth of individual fra-
ternities has developed a natural competition.
This has been expressed in the building of
handsome, exi>ensive chapter houses. It has
resulted in a not-infrequent tendency to rush
"material" because a girl has a background
of wealth and influence. It has made rushing
difficult for fraternities which are not as mag-
nificently housed as others on a given campus.
It has "meant that often groups must rush
against a house until it is a question whether
or not they are choosing members with an eye
to advantages in the material sense, as dis-
tinct from the spiritual or idealistic, rather
than selecting them as material from which
a group of personalities may be built.
