HONOR SYSTEM IN AMERICAN COLLEGES 183 



fought with fire. The honor s} r stem has no place in intercollegiate 

 athletics. Even some of the most ardent advocates of athletics admit 

 despairingly that honesty in athletics can no longer be expected. 

 Trickery and ruffianism are admitted to be necessary for victory. If 

 such is the practical athletic code, familiarity with its working must 

 inevitably affect the athlete's ideals in all cases where his interests are 

 to be affected. If dishonesty is right in the collective struggle for 

 victory it is but a short step to the conclusion that it is equally right 

 in the individual struggle for a pass in examination. The claim is 

 openly made in some colleges that the student is perfectly justified in 

 cheating to win a pass mark, but should not cheat in a contest for 

 honors. 



The influence of intercollegiate athletics, and other influences that 

 are obtrusive in politics and business, have already had a noticeable 

 effect on the honor system among southern students. Taking the south 

 as it exists to-day, the hold of the honor system in a few institutions 

 is yet strong; in others precarious; and in still others quite non- 

 existent. It would be easy, but not appropriate, to fortify this state- 

 ment by mentioning concrete cases and giving names. Where the col- 

 lege is old, and especially if it is situated in a village or small city, the 

 maintenance of tradition and of well-defined unwritten laws relating 

 to student life is comparatively easy. If it is situated in a large city 

 the relative importance of the college in comparison with other interests 

 in the community is dwarfed, and the commercial spirit of the age is 

 quite sure to become dominant. No well-defined code of college ethics 

 can become established where the majority of the students meet only 

 in class-room or laboratory, and where they are merged during the 

 hours of study and recreation amid tens of thousands of people who 

 never think of the college as a living organism with a recognized col- 

 lective character. Young men who become enrolled in city colleges 

 must be expected to exemplify the business ethics of the city. Among 

 them will be found many individuals of high moral tone, as worthy of 

 trust in the examination room as in the parlor. Fraternities and social 

 cliques may be formed, but usually no general code of college ethics 

 can become crystallized under the conditions of city life. 



The conditions that are favorable and those that are detrimental to 

 the maintenance of the honor system among students may be briefly 

 summarized as follows: 



1. The difficulty is least in small towns and greatest in large cities, 

 as just set forth. 



2. The difficulty is least with the most advanced students and great- 

 est with freshmen. The advanced student has a well-defined purpose 

 in view and appreciates the fact that his own interests are bound up 

 with the actual mastery of the subject in which he is working. The 

 young student is just from a preparatory school where probably he has 



