Decembeb 23, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



911 



universal spread of popular education, the 

 only secure foundation upon which democ- 

 racy can rest. A great feature of this 

 movement has been the establishment of 

 the state universities, whose evolution has 

 been so rapid as to appear not gradual, but 

 per saltum; in some cases they seem to 

 have spning forth fully armed, like 

 Minerva from the head of Jove. 



In some of the provinces of my own 

 country we are paying you the sincere 

 compliment of imitation. We have there- 

 fore a direct interest in hoping that you 

 will place your institutions upon the broad- 

 est possible basis. By constantly turning 

 the searchlight of an educational higher 

 criticism upon the methods and subjects of 

 instruction, what is relatively useless will 

 gradually be eliminated, and what is use- 

 ful will be preserved and strengthened. 

 Signs are not wanting that the universities 

 are realizing that their functions have not 

 all been exercised, that the greater part of 

 their power for investigation has been a 

 talent uselessly hidden in the earth. 



The unexampled annals of the discov- 

 eries of truth of the nineteenth century are 

 written, and they chronicle largely the 

 magnificent achievements of the universi- 

 ties of Europe. The century upon which we 

 have entered, which has already witnessed 

 profound extensions of knowledge, will be 

 yet more remarkable, and in it shall not 

 the American universities play an equally 

 triumphant part? And when its record of 

 mental conquests shall be completed, among 

 those inscribed therein, I trust that this 

 university, whose semi-jubilee we celebrate, 

 and whose president is now being inaugu- 

 rated, will have its name written in that 

 hook of intellectual life. 



Fr.vxk Allen 



DEPARTilENT OF PHYSICS, 



University of Manitoba, 

 Winnipeg, Canada 



A COMPARISON BETWEEN FRATERNITY 



AND NON-FRATERNITY EXPENSES AT 



THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



Much has been said and written recently, 

 about the justification for the existence of the 

 fraternity in the college and university, and, 

 from all indications, the investigations are 

 merely begun. 



The purpose of this article is to set forth 

 the results of a personal investigation into and 

 comparison of the total expenses of about 

 three hundred fraternity men and a like num- 

 ber of non-fraternity men at the University 

 of Illinois. A member of each of the twenty- 

 three fraternities was asked to canvass his 

 respective fraternity and secure from each 

 eligible member the total amount of his 

 expenses during the nine months of the pre- 

 ceding school year or 1908-9. If the man had 

 no accurate account of his entire expenses he 

 was asked to make as close an estimate as 

 possible. The answers were obtained from the 

 non-fraternity men by a personal canvass by 

 three students among them either on the 

 campus or at their rooms. For sake of accu- 

 racy of figures, those men were avoided who 

 were working a considerable portion of their 

 way. The figures and a graphical picture of 

 the data are shown. 



Attention is called to the fact that the two 

 curves are very similar, and with the exception 

 of the extremely high values for the fraternity 

 expenses, the corresponding points of the two 

 curves differ on the average by $150, which 

 seems to show that the average fraternity man 

 at Illinois spends about $150 more than the 

 average non-fraternity man. 



The 284 fraternity men spent $166,725, or an 

 average of $587.06, while the non-fraternity 

 men spent $115,348.25, or an average of 

 $407.56. The modes of the curves show that 

 the largest single group of fraternity men 

 spent between $500 and $550, and that the 

 largest group of the non-fraternity men spent 

 between $400 and $450. Only three non-fra- 

 ternity men were found who spent $700 or 

 more. Sixty-nine fraternity men spent $700 or 

 more. Forty-four fraternity men spent $750 

 or more, while fourteen went to the $1,000 



