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MOOSEHEART MAGAZINE
While I am conscious of the weakness of the Organization Department, I also know its strength. Had we not had an Organization Department we would not now have the more than 1,600 Lodges, or the splendid membership of more than half a million. The wonderful record of the past year under the most adverse conditions in the fraternal world would have been impossible except for the Organization Department.
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For some time I have been considering the plan of establishing a school here at Mooseheart for training organizers. I trust the time will not be long before such a school is in operation, and then no one will be permitted to go into the field who has not finished at least a thirty days’ course at this school. I wish it were practical to secure the services of our leading men as organizers.
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To get men of business ability and standing in the business world we must pay them well. The most successful Lodge Officer or organizer is one who can put his whole heart and soul into the work. Education is always an essential element in choosing men, but in the fraternal field give me the man with heart and soul fully attuned to his work rather than the man of brilliant education whose heart is somewhere else.
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The only way that we can ever hope to build strong, successful and enduring Lodges in these thinly settled districts is for some representative of the Supreme Lodge to visit them at least once in six months. It is not necessary that the Supreme Dictator visit these Lodges, nor yet some brilliant orator, who is a member of the Order. What they need most is someone capable of doing the work of an auditor who can meet with the officers and committees and show them how to conduct the business of the Lodge and who at the same time can help them in properly interpreting the Ritual and fully developing the fraternal features.
It is a source of much gratification to me to have these Conventions held here at Mooseheart so that the records of the Supreme Secretary and the Mooseheart Governors are available when wild statements are made by well-meaning, honest, but uninformed representatives. Our records in the Supreme Office have the required information as to every Lodge.
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Several of the larger Lodges have adopted the plan of running their financial affairs with the same close scrutiny that an ordinary business corporation runs business, and invariably these methods have brought suc-
Some of the very best Lodges in this Order are in small cities. It is just a matter of getting good men as
splendid one for the Loyal Order of Moose. We have instituted 106 new Lodges, and there has been a substantial increase in the total membership. The combined assets of the Order have increased during the year $1,845, 877.51, making the aggregate assets now $8,723,952.15.
It is my best judgment that the time has now arrived for increasing the initiation fees for admission to our Lodges. The minimum during an open charter should be Ten ($10.00) Dollars, and when a Lodge is operating under closed charter it should be at least $20.00. There are of course exceptional locations, Lodges and circumstances, but provision can be made for dispensations covering these exceptional cases.
For a number of years those in charge of the affairs of the Order have felt that the same laws, rules and regulations for the government of Lodges are not readily applied when a Lodge has gone above a membership of five thousand. I believe provision should be made for granting special charters to the larger Lodges and have special laws for their operation.
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You will be glad to learn that the Lodges on Manhattan Island, New York City, have consolidated into one. I confidently expect to see this Lodge soon the largest in the Order.
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Many Lodges have consulted me during the year with reference to the erection of Club buildings and homes. As a rule I have discouraged them because of the general conditions of unrest and reorganization going on in the world. My advice to all Lodges is not to build before they have a reasonable amount of cash in hand for that purpose. It is a great mistake for Lodges to build clubs or homes on borrowed money for almost the total amount. Debt is a great handicap to progress in any endeavor. Many of, the brothers have been dissatisfied with my advice. They are usually anxious to start building at once. It is far better that a Lodge be able to promptly pay the promised benefits and meet all of its current bills than to live in the most handsome building in the world and be unable to meet its fraternal obligations and be worried about how to meet operating expenses, interest, cost of management, taxes and other fixed overhead charges.
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In the years during which I have had charge of the Organization Department of this Order, I have seen the dissolution of a large number of Lodges. Many of these have been reorganized. The death of most of these defunct Lodges is directly attributable to neglect. Nearly all of these Lodges could not only have been saved but made highly successful had we given them the same close supervision that we are now giving the Lodges.
“Already the youth of this great institution of ours, in common with the youth of the world, is realizing that democracy so distinctive _ of our country and of our Order, if it is worth anything is worth defending, and fighting for when its sacred precincts are invaded by those who are strangers to its fullest and broadest meaning. (Applause). And, hence, they realize the necessity of preparedness in civil training, so that if the test is ever applied again, America, Canada and our great Order may answer as nobly then and as efficiently as it did but yesterday on Flanders field and the Western front.
“Mr. Chairman, and the representatives of the seven mayors of the municipalities scattered throughout the Fox River Valley, on behalf of the Supreme Lodge of the World, Loyal Order of Moose, I desire to thank you for your co-operation, for the spirit of hospitality which you have evidenced during the short period that we have been with you and for the pledge that you have not only impliedly, but expressly given that henceforth and forever the Fox River Valley will be alert to impress and further Moose principles and interests and our expression of the Moose principles and the Moose doctrine, (applause), expressed in the words of the humble Nazarene, “Suffer the little children to còme unto me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
The opening exercises included the singing of the national anthem, “Mooseheart, the Happiest” and “My Country ’Tis of Thee” by the 700 Mooseheart students who occupied the stage and the side boxes. The Student Band played a number of selections. Rounds of applause greeted the singing and the band music. Before the closing of the public meeting, each delegate and visitor had imbibed the Mooseheart spirit. The Supreme Dictator having requested all who were not members of the Supreme Lodge to retire, the business session of the Convention was opened in the usual form.
The Supreme Dictator having announced the Convention Committees, Brother John W. Brophy as Chairman of the Credentials Committee, made a preliminary report which showed a quorum of Representatives and Past Dictators present. This was followed by the report of the Committee on Rules and Order of Business which was adopted.
The presentation of reports was the next order of business.
The first Report presented was that of Director General Davis and the reading of it was frequently interupt-ed by applause. The Reports were printed in pamphlet form and will be included in full in the printed Minutes of the Convention. We give here a synopsis of the Report of the Director General.
My Brothers:
The year just passed has been a
and his petty concerns are the only concerns, is the most despicable representative of the human family.
“The time has come when we must realize in truth as well as in words that man's greatest good is actually found in service to his fellow men. Our great nation has exemplified that, in the sacrifices that it has made upon the field of battle and upon the high seas, in the devotion it has given to the world, in treasure, blood and service, to the end that democracy may be exalted above autocracy, and that men everywhere may live under that banner that is the symbol of a square deal. Realizing, then, the problems that confront civilization, in what better manner could we, as members of this great movement, this peerless fraternity, be engaged, than in training the boys and girls of today, who will be the men and women of tomorrow, in lessons of citizenship and efficiency, in aiding them to find their proper places, their proper vocations in life! That is the work that you and I, as representatives of our Order, are doing.
“This great institution of ours is endowed, not with the wealth of a Carnegie, nor with the largess of John D. Rockefeller—and we yield to those men the tribute that should be theirs—but our institution is endowed with the heart, soul and brain of men who are ready to sacrifice themselves, that the future generations may be stronger and more representative of the ideals of democracy than have been the generations of the past.
“If there is one thing above another that characterizes the people of the great state of Illinois and of America and Canada, it is a spirit of lavish hospitallity. How well that spirit has been exemplified in the address of Chairman Harley, I leave to you to infer. We have heard of the great commonwealth of which he is so striking an example and our minds go back to those other men, indigenous to the soil of Illinois, whose memories are enshrined in the hearts of the civilized world today, those two men who are representative of the spirit of the age, both in peace and in war and representative of the great lessons which we are teaching to the youth of the world here at Mooseheart. I refer to the great Commoner, to that sweet, gentle spirit, the very essence of which was service, to the golden hearted patriot, symbolic of peace, Abraham Lincoln. (Applause). And on the other hand to that man, who in this day and generation challenged the attention of men everywhere by his patriotic devotion and his wonderful military genius, General Grant. (Applause).
“And he, too, was representative of the spirit of civilization today. Yesterday we witnessed at the Arboretum the conferring of honors upon certain officers distinguished from the rank and file because of service rendered in the military department of Mooseheart.