Page 22 - 1911 November - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 19

THE CHAPTER HOUSE AS A MOULDER OF MEN

Copied by permission from the Caduceus of Kappa Sigma.

BY CLYDE M. HADLEY (BETA-ZETA, ' 0 6 )

The chapter house, as a topic, lends itself to three viewpoints:
what it has done, what it is doing, and what it may and might do.

By far the greatest factor in the college fraternity system, it has
wrought big changes in methods, aims and attitude of the whole
Greek-letter world.

Like every other movement worthy of permanent status, the Amer-
ican college fraternity has developed through evolution, and, let us
trust, will continue to do so t i l l it fully meets all the opportunities
for good that are open to it. The system is here to stay, and must be
dealt with as a fact, not a theory. There is a reason why it has so
fastened itself on the college community, and the biggest feature of
that reason is the chapter house. Let us see why. The chapter house
has been a means to an end—to many ends. I t is looked upon these
days so much a matter of course, especially in the West, where even
a local cannot hope to survive without an attractive home, that we
fail to appreciate what an important and revolutionary item it has
been. I f the chapter house idea develops—and why may it not—in
future as it has in the comparatively few years that it has been with
us to any great extent, who can say what a power it shall become?
Develop, it certainly w i l l ; competition will see to that.

What were formerly social clubs, engaged, for the most part, i n
proselyting and advertising, have become families, the members of
which are bound together by innumerable ties of intimacy. The
chapter house is the direct and sole cause of this change. True,
the chapter families are like many families of the blood, some con-
genial, and some not; but the fact remains that the members learn
to know each other, favorably and otherwise, to an extent impossible
through any other relation. I f you would know a man through and
through, his strong points, his weak points, and his commonplace
points, just live with him three of four years as a chapter mate.

The chapter house has added an element of practicality to groups
formerly associated on a basis of sentiment and fellowship only.
The problems of a household may keep men down to earth and make
them think concretely, without detracting necessarily from the sen-
timental side, unless the individual be of such temperament that he
cannot mix the two. I n that event, the chapter will doubtless see
that others like him are not taken in. Living with a man makes one
see him as he is—not, perhaps, as one would to picture him, in some
cases. Result: members are chosen on a different basis from what