Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-06-06
A. o. U. W..

~ W NAC
Visitor, official organ of the A.O.u.I
w. of the Dakotas, contains an ar
ticle supposed to hereafter do away
with all criticisms of its editor and
his associates Of the past. 1t may
be presumptuous to question the
actions or motives of this great per-
son who brings his vast experience
as a banker, an editor of a daily
newspaper and attorney-at-law and
who found the grand order of United
Workmen without an official organ,
without charity Ito HIM, without
protection, except to its treasury,
and who, out of the wonderful char
ity concealed in his makeup, sup
piled all these DEFICIENCIES Perhaps
he is right as to the statement that
we should be taught charity; to draw
the veil of charity owe the past four
wears and allow the action Of the
grand lodge and some of it's officers
to sink in oblivion. But this we can
not do, but propose to show by the
official records Of the order the quail
ity of charity exhibited by H. c.
Sessions toward the A. O. u. w. OF
the Dakotas.
The report of the grand recorder
for 1S94-5 shows that warrants wers
drawn in favor of FL. G. Sessions
amounting to almost $4,000. Quite
a snug salary for charity! Besides
this, there is the advertising patron
age of the Visitor which also furnish
es railway transportation for its edi-
tor-at least it did during the year
1894.
In regard to the donation by the
grand lodge of the 1870 to the De.
gree af Honor, the Visitor says:
Even Webster Lodge is indebted to the DE
gree of Honor for charitable work in its midst
for while Webster Lodge was spending money
TO prevent the expenditure of So 600 in charity
a wife of one Of the members of that lodge ap
piled to a distant Degree OF Honor Lodge fol
assistance stating that her family was almost
daufsfn2o 80 ,l,,bfnr o,J thn ,,nansg,+in. ~ t.F,
Her wants were supplied. Yet this editor Of
the REPORTER AND FARMER says the rank auc
file of the A. O. u, w. are not Interested in tn,
Degree Of Honor. To whom did this mother
heart turn in her hour of distress7 Who wa
is that brought comfort and LIpe to her home
the A.o.U.W. or the Degree Of HonorF'
We believe this statement is false
We know of no member of the ordeI
belonging to Webster Lodge apply.
ing for assistance, but we do know
that Webster Lodge is one of the
most liberal with its funds and thai
it is the best Judge of the ways anc
means of relieving the destitute with,
in its Jurisdiction, and we know tina
the indiscriminate giving of food ant
raiment is not charity in any sense o.
the word. 1t is foolishness and only
INDUCED in by the feeble minded
unable to Withstand importantly.
But there is another phase to this
donation business. The real obiec.
of the order is life insurance, nothing
more, nothing less, and the next OBJ
ject is to provide this insurance a
the lowest possible cost. This latte
proposition is not personal to thu
editor of the Visitor. And when tn,
grand lodge donates money for othe.
purposes than the legitimate expenses
of the order, it is committing a blum
der. 1t is well to remember in Thu
connection that the times are hard
that assessments are plentiful anc
that Individual members of our orde.
can i'll afford the prodigality of til,
grand lodge.
The editor of the Visitor does no
attempt to deny that the grand lodge
gave him 5000 by awarding him thu
contract for the Visitor, but say.
charity. "Why, have been doing
it for nothing and no one else SHOULD
be permitted to do SOP
Yes, we believe the editor of tn,
Visitor loves us-for our money.
Levi p. Morton would make