COLLEGE SECRET SOCIETIES.
By J. H. W.
“Some few weeks since, we published an article upon the subject of secret societies. A new illustration of their great evils has just been given us. The circumstances are so tragic that the public mind has been irresistibly drawn to it, and is prepared to receive the lesson which it teaches. We have heard it said that no argument against these societies can be found in the fact that in the initiation of young Leggett, at Cornell, he lost his life. Perhaps not. No evil intent was in the hearts of those college mates who led the blindfolded boy along the brink of the precipice and fell with him to its rocky bottom. The Kappa Alpha might be a very useful institution notwithstanding so appalling an affair. A floor of a church building may settle and break and let down to death a score of persons, and yet we would not do away with Christianity and religious worship on that account. The death of this college boy was purely accidental. In itself, it casts no evil shadow over this or any other like secret society. And yet one cannot but put alongside of this bright, promising life, brought to so untimely an end, the supreme folly of these initiatory rites. The utter childishness of these performances, the purpose of which is to whelm with mystery and terror, never struck in upon us with such force before. The long, blind walk, the words of feigned horror, the gropings toward the yawning gulf, the coffin, the skeleton, the sepulchral forms, the chill of death—all the paraphernalia of terror—it seems like the grim play of children or the grotesque antics of some barbaric rite. One would think the Christian civilization and manly culture of the schools had grown far away from such unmitigated nonsense as this. But this is not the argument against secret societies which this tragedy furnishes. There is something else, something that strikes with a more crushing blow. “The dead boy and his bleeding, senseless companions, with the breaking of the morning, were borne back to town in sad procession. The parents were gathered to the place by telegraph. A coroner’s jury began its investigation. The faculty of the college and the broken-hearted friends attended to listen to the awful story. But the members of this society were bound to secrecy. Friends were in agony to learn about their dead and wounded, but nothing for a long time could be elicited from their comrades. Professors were there, anxious to clear up a mystery which threatened to cover their college with infamy, but the oath which had been sworn sealed the lips of these witnesses. Prof. Wilder says in his masterly paper communicated to the New York Tribune, ‘Some of the witnesses could not have been more reluctant to give information if they had been under charge of murder.’ Not until the two men who fell with Leggett were so far recovered as to be able to give their testimony, was the awful affair cleared up. Prof. Wilder applauds their moral courage in daring to tell what others felt bound through a sense of honor to withhold. Here is one of the great evils to be found in these secret conclaves. It establishes a code of honor to which its members sacrifice all true honor. For the sake of the society, to shield it or its membership from anything injurious, the oath-taker hesitates at nothing unmanly or untruthful. Other claims are held in subserviency to the one supreme claim which the society has upon the members. “We have before spoken of the low prejudices and antipathies which this secret fellowship engenders toward those who are outside, and of the unworthy and vicious friendships of those who are within. Prof. Wilder adds another terrible count to the indictment which we bring against these societies. He shows that their direct effect is to take from their members personal freedom, and that liberty of judgment and action which is necessary to the best growth of the individual and the happiness of society. “How are these evils to be abated? We doubt the wisdom and efficacy of law in the case, whether State or collegiate. Secret societies will go down when a better moral sentiment springs up among students. There is hope of this. Hazing, against which college faculties have fulminated in vain, is already coming into disfavor under the more manly feelings which have come to the students in one or more of our colleges. We are sure that under the current already started, hazing will soon be swept out of every American college. Students are aspiring toward a larger and fuller manliness. In time, this wretched secrecy, with its ignoble friendships, its narrowing tendencies, its slaving judgments, will disappear as something unworthy of our American manhood.” —Watchman and Reflector. These are good words, and worthy of being carefully considered. And every one that has paid any attention to the subject knows that the charge lies at the door of every secret society in the land. They all equally engender “the low prejudices and antipathy toward those who are outside,” and “their direct influence is to take from their members personal freedom, and that liberty of judgment and action which is necessary to the best growth of the individual and happiness of society.” But we see little or no chance to hope for the abatement of the evil. The writer well says that “secret societies will go down when a better moral sentiment springs up among students.” But how is that “better moral sentiment” to be created, and under what influence is it to be fostered? Just now, after the death of the unfortunate student at Cornell College, there is a feeling which works against such societies. And so there was a tremendous feeling against the Masons after the murder of Morgan. But what do we see to-day? What “moral sentiment” against the evils of secret societies is inculcated by the highest powers of the nation? The corner-stone of the State Capitol of Michigan was recently laid by a secret society, by invitation of the Governor, and the citizens of the whole State were invited to come to behold the honor thus conferred upon that society, and upon the cause of secrecy.
No important public building is erected in these days without laying the foundation in this spirit of servility to Masonry. How, then, can we expect a “better moral sentiment” to spring up in the minds of the youth, who are led to admire the gaudy trappings of some “R. W. G. M.” to whom the officials of the States and the nation pay such respect and give such honor? These things are a shame to our manhood, and to the enlightenment of the age, and a caricature of religion; for surely a system that professes to be sufficient to carry a person safely “to the Grand Lodge above,” and that has no merit above outward show, is a sad caricature of religion.
The young, not only in our colleges, but all through the land, should be faithfully warned against these things. And parents should avoid bringing their children in contact with the evil, and not send them to public schools where secret societies are tolerated. When there, a pressure is brought to bear upon them which, to a sensitive youth, is irresistible, to cause them to unite. The only safety is to avoid such schools, and thus avoid the responsibility and the danger. J. H. W.