The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-21
LOYAL LEGION'S DINNER
EVENINGS ENTERTAINMENT GIVEN
BY THE YOUNGER MEMBERS.
George ID. McCutcheon, Author of
sGraustark," Taken Into the Fold
Tive Interesting Addresses.

COHliilllltc Ou dtAduSCulchAS diu AO0SSA~N
ter. arose last night at the December meet
ing Of the Loyal Legion in the German
House to open the programme he faced
more than one hundred members of that or
der, which, as is often said, is cemented by
a spirit as binding as that of Masonry. The
dinner was under the supervision of the in
heritance members of the Loyal Legion
the sons of officers in the civil war. 1t was
attended by members of the society from
this city and from the State at large. At
the postmaster table were Governor Win
field T. Durbin. Admiral Brown. Capt. John
l.. Ketcham, James w. Fesler, w. F.
Pfrimmer and others. Lieutenant Gov
ernor Newton w. Gilbert was expected to
be present and to deliver an address, but
he was obliged to send regrets.
Preceding the dinner the Loyal Legion
met and elected TO membership William
Thomas Blythe, for the first class original;
Alexander Munro Graham, of Madison, for
the first class by inheritance from a de-
ceased companion; George Barr McCutch-
con. of Lafayette, for the first class by in
heritance from a deceased officer, and Geo.
c. Harvey, of Danville, for the first class
by inheritance from a deceased officer. Mr..
Blythe is the director Of the local United
States Weather Bureau, and George Barr
McCutcheOn, another OF the memDerS-elect,
is an author who recently became known
by his novel, "GrauStark." He Is the eldest
son of Capt. John b. McCutcheon, of the
Fifteenth Indiana Infantry. George Har-
vey, also elected, is a son of Captain Har-
vey, of the Thirty-irst Indiana Infantry.
The dinner was served in the auditorium
of the German House. The members of the
order We're grouped around a score or small
tables effectively decorated. After the in
vocation, by the Rev. III. c. Meserve, of
Plymouth Church, W.. H. Morrison sang
"A var song and rQCnOn6pn TO an encore nv
the rendition of Dolly Gray" He was fol-
lowed by James w. Fesler, whose stirring
address on Lest We Forget" was the ora
torical feature of the evening. In part Mr..
Fesler said:
1T has seemed to me a more appropriate
sentiment could not be suggested for this
occasion than that to which Kipling has
given expression in the grateful, vigorous
stirring lines of the RecesslOnaI. There is
in the earnest, prayerful words of this
beautiful hymn not only the suggestion of
the accomplishment of great things, but
also the injunction to a grateful people
for hitting and continued recoSnluon or
obligation to a great and heroic past. Tn
great events of English history which in
spired this beautiful prayer and the grow
ing tendencies which it sought TO check in
the life Of the English people have, TO
some extent, their counterparts in our
own history.
1--WE are not. as a people. thoughtful
enough of the past. We have not been and
are not duly considerable of our inheri-
lance. We have accepted and appropri-
ated, without proper expression, legacies
which should have our continuing and
grateful acknowledgment. An irresistible
desire to glorify the present, prompted
by self-interest, is, to a great extent, re-
Sponsible for this condition. Though we
are to-day but thirty-siX years from APP
pomattox, the great series of events which
there eliminated have not only passed
into history, but have been largely for
gotten. True, an occasional commonplace
expression of sympathy, or some formal
resolution, serves TO remind the soldiers
Of fhn -nfEfl ~n- That %A.w~ Ia--
tirely passed out of memory. But the
fact remains that many of you gentlemen
have been made to feel that the procession
of which you were a part in active af-
fairs has gone by, and that the events of
the greatest years of your lives shall be
treated as a closed incident. Overdrawn
the situation? l think not. Scarcely a day
passes that the newspapers do not cOrrObo-
rate this view. Why, there seems even to
be some doubt as to the purpose for which
yonder magnificent monument vas builded.
Notwithstanding the fact that it was con-
ceived, builded and completed in the de-
sire to perpetuate the memory of every In
diana soldier and sailor in the Union army
and navy and the cause for which they
fought, there are those who would divert
its holy purpose and so rob 1t of its chiefest
glory.
Companions of the second class. lest
we forget! L beg to assert what l have
not time to prove, that that beautiful and
majestic shaft, the gran0est memorial of
its kind on earth, stands there tonight i'm
all its surprising beauty. and will, until
1T shall crumble away, as the formal eX-
preston of a grateful people for the serv-
ices which you, Governor Durbin, and you.
Admiral Brown, and you, Captain Lemcke,
and your comrades rendered this govern
ment in the hour of it's greatest need.
A this sentiment, say you? Granted
But 1T Is just such sentiment as makes life
worth while. 1t is such a sentiment that
has given to us that flag i'm all it's glory:
such a sentiment that has made the empty
sleeve a badge of honor; such sentiment
for which you, gentlemen, freely offered
IRE itself: Ana, tonight, 1t is the senti-
ment that binds you together closer even
than the family tie"
REGARDING THE PHILIPPINES.
Capt. John L. Ketcham. late from active
service in the Philippines, talked to the
members Of the Loyal Legion and their
guests on the general subject, Regarding
the Philippines" and his talk proved one
of the most absorbing parts of the evenings
programme. He refrained from a discus
sion of the future Of the islands, holding
that it is more the part of a soldier, if he
talks at all, to tell of the things in which
he was actively engaged than to discuss
matters where a knowledge of commerce
mining and agriculture is necessary. In
part, Captain Ketcham said:
lit would perhaps not be Improbable for
ne to call attention to what has been done
in the islands since the beginning of the
American occupation, especially since this
was IlOIt III Liz llllt " n0 QulN. lie DTOD-
lem which confronted General Otis after the
battle of Manila was possibly second in
perplexity to few which have confronted
any army In modern times.
aside from the military problem, 1T is
hard to appreciate the difficulty of finding
any common ground upon which to come TO
terms with these people, TO begin TO pacify
them and induce them 10 establish some
form of government.
1.-The Malay race, TO which these people
belong, is one of the most distant and
isolated. little studied and of obscure his
tory. Little was ever known Of them be-
lished, and the Spaniards have never con-
sidered 1T to be to their interest to pro-
mote extensive research into anything con-
nected with the Philippines since. Add to
this unknown Malay nature the medieval
Spanish training of their monastic rulers
and teachers. and il must result in a char
acter peculiarly inscrutable to a Yankee.
The fact that law and order have been es-
ablished seems to me a remarkable illus
tration of the capacity TO govern without
peanut politics having developed.
"The Filipinos, although scarcely inferior
to the Japanese in intelligence, are but lit
tie endowed with their ideas of progress
and civilization. Intellectual pursuits, such
as scientific and literary, attract them but
little. Excitement, luxury, political power
are the things which appeal to them. They
are a nation of gamblers. Every SUNDAY
and every feast day sees the whole parish
at the municipal cockpit. 10 stake their
weekly earnings on the merits of their
pets. Faro and pony races arouse the in
terest of the wealthy classes the same
way"
In explaining why so much difficulty is
mot with in hrfn zinc the NVnr ia III Dhsfsn