Advertisement

TEMPERANCE CONFERENCE ACHIEVES SOME SUCCESS

College Students Meeting in Washington Decide to Strike Drink Through Alumni and Fraternities

The National Student Conference, held under the auspices of the Citizen's Committee of One Thousand for Law Observance came to an end Sunday evening in Washington with more accomplished in theory than in fact. The result of two days labor embodying six sessions of discussion was a somewhat lenghy document, which however contained several suggestions applicable to the situation in colleges with regard to prohibition. In fact it developed early in the opening session that violation of the eighteenth amendment was to be the chief subject of the various delegates. Among the suggestions to combat drinking in colleges formally ratified by the conference were propositions to approach the alumni in an effort to curtail drinking at class reunions and football games; to line up the fraternities and other undergraduate organizations on the side of strict enforcement: and a recommendation that the efforts of local agents be made to show greater results.

The outstanding fact in the reports of the various delegations representing some 86 colleges from 28 states was that most of the institutions punished violations of the law by dismissal--either through faculty or student council action. When on the afternoon of the second day the Committee on Findings presented its formal report and the Chairman called its adoption, strenuous objection was made by some to its moral and ethical tone, its length and generalities and to the obscurity with which some of the more practical measures were phrased. Among the objectors were the entire Princeton delegation, E. G. Lowry Jr. '25 of Harvard and the members of two colleges in Georgia and Alabama. The discussion became heated, a southern delegate suggested that many of those speaking in favor of the findings were not students at all but older men. This as it happened was true. The report, however, was finally adopted by a good majority.

Advertisement
Advertisement