Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-05-28
THEY BELONGHERE
The Head Offices of the Mod
ern woodmen.
THE FORMER ACTION so ORDERING

of the Proceeding Growing Out
of the Omaha Meeting-How the Will
of the Great Organization Was Thwarted
What Is Now to be Done.
The history of the movement on
the, part of the NJ. W. A. order to
move its head Off ces to Rock Island
and what it has had to contend with
in so doing, will be read with inter-
est.
The last session of the head camp
instructed the board to remove the
head office of the order from Fulton
to Rock Island, where arrangements
had been made to provide the order
with temporary Offices and furnish it
with a site upon which this board
was instructed to erect a suitable
building for the permanent head
offices of the order. During
a meeting of the board of
organization. held at Fulton i'm
mcdiately after the adjournment Of
the head camp, each member of the
board, as well as the head consul and
head clerk was served with process s
in a proceeding which had been COM
menced in the circuit court of White
side county, ILL.,. lin which, county
the city Of Fulton is iocated). by GER
tain members of the order, and other
residents of Fulton, to enjoin the
order from carrying out the instruc-
tons of the head camp with respect
to said removal, and each of the OFF,
GERS was served with copy
of a temporary restraining order
which had been issued in this
suit by the judge of the court in
which it had been commenced. An
investigation showed that the Fulton
citizens who had commenced this
suit based their objection to the re-
moval upon the grounds that the
head camp held at Omaha was an il
legal body, having been held outside
the state in which the order was in
corporated, hence any action of it,
ordering removal, was null and
void. Further, that the vote taken
on the removal question had been
participated in by the head officers
and members of committees, while,
under the peculiar wording of one
clause, only the delegates should
have been allowed to vote on this
question, and that the proposition to
remove to Rock Island did not re-
ceive a two-thirds vote of the dele
gates present at the head camp.
Other questions were raised, but
these two were the principal ones,
and the ones relied upon.
The board. considering all OF the
grounds set out in the bill of COM
plant. except possibly the first
above stately insufficient. interposed
a demurrer, and, for the purpose of
strengthening the orders position as
to the first of these objections as well
as to settle this question for the
future, had introduced and passed by
the Illinois legislature an amend.
ment to the act under which this
order is Incorporated, expressly pro.
viding that any society organized OF
doing business under that act
May transact any business out.
side of the state of Illinois that i,
can or may do in the state of Illinois
and any business heretofore tran
sacted outside of this state by any
such organization, which would be
legal if done within the state, i.
hereby legalized and made valid.
After securing this legislation, the
questions involved in the case were
argued before Judge Crabtree, of the
Whiteside circuit, on the pending
demurrer. The holding of the cour
was against the order and based OF
the second ground set out above, the
court holding that the resolution il
favor of removal was in effect,
change in our laws, and under tn
peculiar phraseology of the section
above alluded to, only delegate:
could vote, and not officers nor mem
bers of standing committees. Tn
directors, contention On this pOin
was that the relocation of the heaC
Office was not an amendment of thu
bylaws, but the charter, and hence
the section of our laws above indi
Gated. had no application.
Upon the court intimating, in it
action on the demurrer, its view O
the case. it was considered useless t
press the matter further, as tn
record of the head camp would no
show a two-thirds vote of the dele
gates present there, in favcr of tn
Rock Island resolution, if officer
and members Of standing committee
were to be excluded. So the direc
tors say:
| Directors OpiRion.
This action on the part of tn
Fulton citizens who commenced
has been very unfortunate for tn
order. The necessity for safer an
more convenient quarters for tn
head Office were, two years ago, YER
apparent. The records of such a
order as ours comprehend the YER
life of the institution. and, il de
stroyed. could never be replaced, no
could new organization b
effected except in the mids
of unspeakable confusion an,
at an expense of at least $4,000. Tw,
years ago it was pointed out to tn