HONOR SYSTEM IN AMERICAN COLLEGES 185 



done in polite society. But to make the rule universal, because the 

 honor system is in force in a college, secures the most convenient cloak 

 possible for the perpetration of fraud by the unprincipled student who 

 knows that his denial of guilt will be promptly accepted. If a lie is 

 convenient why not utilize it when no obstacle to self-interest is 

 interposed by conscience? The acceptance of his word should be 

 subject to modification by other kinds of evidence just as it is in every 

 court of justice. Xo rule can be laid down regarding the discrimina- 

 tion between students who are reliable and those who are unfit to be 

 trusted. The trickster should be distrusted until he is eliminated, 

 but tact and discretion are needed in dealing with him. He is found 

 in every community, and he should not receive the protection im- 

 plied in treating all students as men of honor. 



Let the honor system be maintained and applied to all who prove 

 themselves fit to receive its benefits. College interests will sometimes 

 clash, and college crimes will occasionally be committed, proving that 

 some students are not gentlemen. If changes in the present adminis- 

 tration of the honor system become developed they should be chiefly 

 in regard to the rules of legal procedure. Let the college court be 

 maintained and trusted so long as students manifest the disposition 

 to make it really efficient. An honor system conducted in accordance 

 with the rules of legal evidence will not secure perfection; but college 

 ethics a century hence will be at least as good as to-day, and better 

 adapted to changed conditions than if manufactured according to the 

 prescription of the wisest of contemporary prophets. 



