The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-03-11

The United Commercial Travellers
have issued a booklet telling about the
order A copy of the brochure reached
Salt Lake yesterday. It says:
Story of the Order.
In the light of its present splendid
development and assured success, the
story of the early STRUGGLES ard vicis
STUDIES of the Order of United Com
mercial Travellers of American adds an
interesting chapter TO Tie history of
commercial travellers organizations in
America.
The conception and birth of this or
der was brought about through a meet
ing Of the east and west. Levi c.
Pease, who was responsible for the
ground plan of organization, is a ma
tive of Connecticut John c. FenimOre,
TO whom was assigned the defining of
the duties of the officers and the draft
ing of the ritual was born in Indiana
and had lived in various parts of the
west and south. At one time he was
engaged in bookkeeping in Louisiana.
Upon organization Charles Benton
Flagg became the supreme secretary Of
the order, and lent valuable assistance
in working out the clerical details at
this period of embryo. Indeed the de-
velopment of the order in its early days
work of the first supreme secretary.
For over two years the germs of the
idea lay fallow in the minds of the
cOnceivers. The plan of a secret So
ciety among commercial travellers
without benefits had been tried with
indifferent success. Exclusively bene-
fetal organizations for commercial
travellers had, some of them, grown up,
f1ourished and decayed- Successors TO
these, profiting by the sad experience
of those gone before, appeared to be
occupying the field to the exclusion of
all new corners of whatever kind of
character. The prospect was not par
ticularly fattering-
U. c. 7. on Middle Ground.
The L. c. T. idea was something
along the middle ground between the
strictly frateTnal orders and the strict
~ beneficial assOciat lions. The scheme
was not quickly grasped by those to
whom it was unfolded, because it
seemed TO possess no new features
and yet il was entirely new; so new
that it was necessary to blaze a trail
all the way.
1T was here that the combined ele-
ments of character possessed by the
pioneers in the movement came in for
rare trial of conclusions with the hard
conditions presented.
Fortunately the founders and first
supreme secretTy possessed in compO-
site the qualities of intelligent persist
ence, brilliant leadership, singleness Of
purpose. tact, executive ability. earn
estness, sincerity. optimism, far-sight-
edness, confidence, resource, tirelesS
energy, good-fellOwship and supreme
patience; all of these, in about the de-
gree necessary to the accomplishment
of the giant task to which they had set
themselves. A weakness at any of the
above points would have meant fall
ure.
Consciously or unconsciously. the
plan evolved by them was destined for
a large development; it was wide and
nationalized movement from the start;
il was not TO be confined to any single
section or grand division of the cOun-
try; il was purpoSed that eastern thrift
and southern chivalry should joint with
northern steadfastness and western
energy in a concert of sympathetic CO.
operation.
"Of the eight men associated as in
corporators. 1. c. Pease, J. c. Feni-
more, c. B. Flagg, F. \. Sells, John
Dickey, S. H. Strayer, W E. Carpenter
and c. S Ammel, no two represented
the same line of trade, and all of them
were recognized leaders in their par
ficular field of craftsmanship And what
is more to the point, all founders and
incorporators who are still living are
TODAY active and vitality interested in
all that pertains to the orders welfare,
thus showing the unseif1sh zeal that
has prompted them from the begin
ming.
"Au this is set forth for the purpose
of showing that the order of United
Commercial Travellers of America was
not a thing of accidental or freakish
Frrrv, r7raAT
was laid broad and deep and the super
structure has been reared with grace
and symmetry and has grown in pres
tige and solidity with the passing
years
Plan of Organization.
The plan of organization in the Or
der of United Commercial Travellers of.
America conforms closely to the usages
of the standard secret and fraternal
bodies. The basis of the plan is the
subordinate council, which may now be
found in all the principal commercial
centers of the leading states of the
Union. with several f1ourishing bodies
across the border in Canada.
1T is in the subordinate councils
that the degree of the order is exem-
plified; no further degrees being re-
auired for advancement into the two
ing in the subordinate council, how
ever, is made a condition to a voice
and vote in the higher bodies.
THE order was fortunate in having
as one of its founders a ritualist of
marked ability. The result of John
Cooper FenimoTe's labors was a ritual
which is a pleasing surprise to the no
vitiate. without any of the oft-expect-
ed burlesque features and entirely free
from vulgar or Objectionable elements.
Building about the orders tents of
unity, charity and temperance, the rit-
ualist has evolved an initiatory cere-
mony that is capable of a beautiful and
an impressive exemplification, strongly
imbued with elevating lessons and
thoroughly in keeping with the orders
character, aims and purposes.
The grand councils, TO which all sub
ordinate councils are attached. with
the exception of those in detached and
scattered territory, are twenty-one in
number Meetings Of these bodies are
held once a year, between Fthe 1st of
of MAY and 18th Of June The grand
council is made up of representatives