The University of Chicago is acquiring fast a high position among the colleges of this country and all the more so because of the broad and liberal stand which the administrative boards have taken in regard to its government. They have been conservative only so far as is necessary with a new institution which cannot rely on traditions or history to enforce its position in the country and they have shown no inclination to restrict or to interfere arbitrarily with undergraduate affairs. The university has, moreover, taken a commendable stand in regard to the secrecy of the college fraternities which will, in time, become established there. In a recent address to the undergraduates President Harper stated that the faculty, after due consideration, are strongly opposed to secret fraternities and recommend that none be organized in the university. This is not a ruling of the faculty, they do not prohibit such fraternities, but they leave it to the good sense of the undergraduates to decide the question for themselves.

We who have passed through the stage of secrecy in societies, and, with one exception, have given up that characteristic to them, can realize more fully that it is an absurd and nonsensical characteristic, fitted rather for the school boy than for the college man. It is observable, moreover, that where there are secret fraternities in colleges, the undergraduates are generally young and immature and lack broad and sober view of college life which bring among other things, an antipathy for secret societies. Until this maturity becomes more common among all our colleges secret societies, with the absurdities which they generally bring +++ continue in some of them. The University of Chicago will undoubtedly draw its numbers more and more strongly from the West, and, from the character of its curriculum, its students may tend to be more mature and older than in mo+++t colleges. It is interesting, at least, to perceive that the suggestion of the faculty has met the approval of the university and that the sentiment there seems to be strongly against secret fraternities.