Page 25 - 1911 November - To Dragma

22 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

your brother because the ritual prescribes it does not make him so,
however deep and impressive the vows may be. No, that which makes
brotherhood—true, not artificial brotherhood—is community of in-
terest, common aims, common plans, common hopes, common impul-
ses, common likes and dislikes, common worries, common prob-
lems of life, a common name, a thorough, intimate understanding of
each other. When one has these with his closest companion, carefully
selected as such, then does he have what is as near akin to brotherhood
as can be possible outside of a blood relation. A l l these practical ties
of intimacy, so far from disillusioning sentiment, make it many fold
stronger, because, then, it is based on a solid foundation, a founda-
tion of fact, not theory; of reality, not ideality; of tangibility and
reliability, not mandate. The term brother is hollow and mean-
ingless i f it rests simply on the spoken or written admonition to love
one another. The affection part will take care of itself under right
circumstances, and does not need to be expressed to be felt.

The chapter house makes the fraternity a brotherhood, not an
honor society; it makes a home, not alone in memory, but for future
visits, where the "glad hand" always welcomes one, and brothers,
though new to him, take him in hand and make him realize that he is
still one of and with them. The unfortunate who has no chapter
house home to visit looks into his old room at the dormitory, per-
chance ; finds strangers therein, not interested in h i m ; wanders about
a while, recalling old memories, and goes away saddened. Sentiment?
Chapters without homes do not know what that term means.

I n the West the chapter house has become universal. The growth
of the chapter house idea has been coordinate with that of the West-
ern universities; it has developed with them and, from the first,
been deeply rooted in their traditions. That is* why Westerners take
their fraternity more seriously, perhaps, than many from the East
or the South; it has meant everything to them.

The faculties are beginning to use the fraternity chapters to instill
their ideas and plans into the minds of the student body. I t is a
most convenient way to reach the individual students. President
conferences with representatives of all the chapters have been in-
augurated and accomplish much good. This shows how the secret
fraternity, unique as it is, has come to be an inherent part of our col-
lege system. I t has justified its existence, and as time goes on it will
increasingly justify it. There are still rough corners to be rounded
off, still imperfections—some of them glaring—to be corrected, but
all this will be done in the fulness of time. I n the meantime, all
Greek-letter men may justly have pride in what the system has come
to mean, and shall mean, to the college world, as an influence, how-
ever, which makes these things possible, first place must be given to
the chapter house.