MOOSE НЕЛ RT МЛСЛZ INE
12
Mooseheart Student’s Graduation Address
Lack of Space Prevents the Printing of Addresses Made by all Mooseheart Graduates
number of Mooseheart students enlisted as a direct result of that training. It was the feeling of intolerance for autocracy making itself felt.
I preferred the navy. Experience gained in the Mooseheart band enabled me to get into a band directed by Lieutenant John Philip Sousa. We traveled over the country in the interest of the Liberty Loans. Twenty of us were selected one day to go to a submarine base, and two weeks later found us at Coco Solo, Panama, where we remained eighteen months.
I had plenty of time for reflection, and in looking over my past life, I noted how my Mooseheart training helped me in my present situation. Three things helped most: cleanliness, punctuality and the ability to look out for myself. Not only cleanliness of mind, but of body also. Rubbing elbow with others occasionally knocked the bark off me. The value of an education was brought home to me and I realized then what opportunities I had given up when I enlisted.
When the Armistice was signed I was fortunate to be able to return to Mooseheart, the best possible place in which to complete my education.
September, 1919, marked my second entry into Mooseheart life. Navy experience had given me a more mature judgment and I saw some things in a different light than when I went away. I took up my work again with a deeper appreciation of the opportunities, offered and a great desire to make good. In this desire I am aided by everyone connected with the institution, and if I do not make good, it will be through no lack of preparation. If I expect to work my way through an engineering school the training I have received here will make the way much easier.
Mooseheart has been my home for the past six years and I feel that I am a true Mooseheart product in so far as all my actions will be the result of training received here. As the success of any enterprise is judged by the result, the best way to show appreciation of what has been done for me is to put in practice just what I have been taught. My prospects for a future are unlimited. Now, if I had gone to work in the coal mines at the age of fourteen instead of coming to Mooseheart, what would be my present condition and outlook for the future ?
In appreciation of what the Loyal Order of Moose through Mooseheart has done in mothering and fathering me for six years and because of the love and gratitude I bear to Mooseheart, I have made the vow that I shall so live and act that I may always be considered a worthy, living product of this, my home—Mooseheart.
Schenectady, N. Y., Lodge No. 251 held its ninth annual field day and picnic. The affair this year far surpassed any previously held.
Aurora, 111., Lodge No. 400 journeyed to Naperville on June 11th to hold a big rally. A banquet was served in the Y. M. C. A. which was followed by a parade and a program in the high school auditorium. Several numbers were rendered by the Mooseheart Student Band.
an article written after her visit, she tells what she thinks has been the result of Mooseheart training on the boys here. She says that “The Mooseheart boy talks well, but little. The Seniors, who may be regarded a's the fine flowering of the school, are athletic. They are studious. Every one of them has a trade. Each of them can say what he has to say in a direct manner. He has been trained in the public speaking class. But he is no word waster. He is more thoughful than talkative. Knowing that all his speech is preceded by thought, he thinks first, speaks last. He may not become a soap box orator, but he will be a safe and sane citizen.
“The Mooseheart boy is no mollycoddle, no mamma’s boy. He is neither hard nor soft. He is the blend of the sturdy and the tender virtues that make a good man.
“He has been trained in the joy of work. He knows that it is a privi-
a certain type of young man. It makes him independent, but not arro-gant. He thinks for himself, forms his own opinions and defends them. His initiative and independence are apt to be mistaken by some for impertinence. He does not bow and scrape to his superiors, but he respects them. He is open and direct in all his actions and slyness and subtlety are not a part of his make up. Duty and service then comes to mean not slavery, but a just due where it is owed. He is instinctively antagonistic to everything that tends toward autocracy in any form. Results like these do not appeal to every one, especially those who are narrow enough to believe that young people should have no mind of their own.
The only danger in this form of government is that in many places it might be carried too far. With correct supervision such as we get at Mooseheart, that is impossible. It is
From a little village in Scotland there migrated to the state of New Mexico a father with his children. In this new land another home was established, the old one having been broken up by the death of the mother.
Dawson was a small mining town. Life in it offered little opportunities for the young people. It is true we went to school, but the usual custom was to stop at the fifth or sixth grade and go to work in the mines. A way to bigger things was opened to me by my coming to Mooseheart.
Early in the summer of 1914 I became a Mooseheart student. The first days were spent in contrasting the new life with the old one and the old suffered by comparison.
A spirit of optimism and good cheer was in the atmosphere. There were chances here not to be found in mining towns and opportunity was waiting at every corner. The school was only a year old, but a sturdy infant.
It was my privilege to watch Mooseheart grow and unconsciously grow with it. In school I continued my work and this year marks the completion of my high school course.
In the vocational classes I found to my surprise and-delight that it was possible to educate my hands as well as my head.
Music appealed to me and I have devoted most of my time to the band. Music and team work form the major part of the training in that organization, altho there is a liberal education gained by traveling with it.
Earning a place on the different athletic teams and living a vigorous outdoor life have developed me physically with results that would have been impossible had I not come here.
Regular church and Sunday school attendance furnished the religious element and being Dictator of the Junior Order of Moose, teaches me the duties and responsibilities of one in an executive position.
The Assembly as the instrument of government has developed a spirit of independence and an ability to stand on my own feet. A democratic type of government is a great thing. The Assembly was originated with that idea in mind. It is the instrument by which the students in many things govern themselves. Some people applaud the scheme, but when results are shown they sometimes condemn it for the very product it has produced.
This form of government produces
Mooseheart Graduates, June 21st, 1920
ISABEL PHILLIPS Bridgeport (Conn.) Lodge No. 28Э.
CLASS OF 1920
JOHN MEIKLE
Raton (N. Mex.) Lodge No. 323.
RUTH BEACH
San Francisco (Cal.) Lodge No. 26.
EARL SOLOMON	HENRY GARRETT	THOMAS JONES
Green Bay, (Wis.) Lodge No. 359 Des Moines, (Iowa) Lodge No. 849 Scranton, (Pa.) Lodge No. 42
leg׳e. He recognizes it as the instrument with which he will win success.
“He has right ideals. His vision is that a good citizen is one who seeks personal economic independence, but who works also for humanity. He looks out for himself, but he gives the other fellow a chance.
“While city slums and inadequate schools are rearing gunmen, Mooseheart is rearing the boy magnificent.”
Every Mooseheart boy does not measure up to that standard, but it is the ideal of those who don’t the goal toward which they are constantly striving.
When the great war came, a large
very much better than the autocratic form which tends to suppress individual effort and ability and makes boys backward and shy. They do not think for themselves: have no conception of what their rights are and believe they were made to be kicked and knocked about. They make no progress. Democracy develops initiative; autocracy crushes it.
Some months ago Miss Ada Patterson visited Mooseheart. She is con-cededly the best American interviewer. Her sound philosophy, psychological deductions and brilliant writing are reflected weekly in the best newspapers and magazines. In
JOHN CHALICE MEIKLE
Raton (N. M.) Lodge
No. 323