The Washington bee., 1907-08-03

ton.
The suit of Mr.. ]. McHenry Jones and
other suits to follow will cause the order
to spend over two hundred thousand dol
lars.
The overwhelming defeat of Houston
and his satellites in the subcommittee
IS predicted at the next B. NJ. c.
It is claimed that the new Odd Eel
lows building is a fraud. It is disgust
ing to look at. The next B. NJ. c. will
order the sale of the new building, and
one will be erected in Washington city.
The South is aroused, and the follow
ing States have joined the anti-Houston-
Morris combination: Pennsylvania. New
Jersey, Maryland Virginia, Alabama,
Georgia, Mississippi Texas, South Caro-
lima, North Carolina, Illinois, New York,
Tennessee, Rhode Island and Massachu-
sets. These States have rebelled against
the tyrannical methods of the sub-com-
mittce Of management
One OF the head officials remarked to-
day that the removal of the printing
plant was objected 10, too; that the Of
fee force did not want to come in con-
tact with the dirty printing office labor
ers.
What it took sixty years to build up
in the Odd Fellows this wild goose sub
committee Of management has destroyed
in six months
1t is to be regretted that such bril-
liant order should so soon be destroyed
by bad leadership.
THE TROUBLE IN THE ODD Eel
LOWS.
The beginning of the present trouble
in the Grand United Order of Odd Eel
lows was at the Thirteenth B. NJ. C.,
held in Richmond. Va, last October. At
this meeting there were I,4OO delegates
enrolled. When it came to the election
of officers, after an aII-night and all-day
session, and the polling Of about six
hundred votes, it became apparent that
the full vote could not be polled at the
same rate before Monday morning Had
the roll call been regularly completed,
a number of delegates-approximately,
seven to eight hundred-from Far South
ern States, would have been compelled to
pay double transportation, for the rea-
son that their tickets expired at y noon
Tuesday
This state of affairs was responsible
for the bringing about of a compromise
in which those who were ahead in the
first six hundred votes polled were ac-
knowledge to be the legal officers. and
truce between all contending factions
was patched up.
At the first meeting of the new sub
committee of management, which was in
augurated the second Monday in jan
uary. 1907, It became apparent that those
in power were bent upon furnishing and
destroying the influence of the leaders
in the States which opposed them, and
10 that end, irregularly, illegally, and
contrary to all precedent in the order,
ordered the District Grand Master of the
District Grand Lodge of Alabama to call
his lodge together again after having
/ been adjourned for six months. The
! lodge was reconvened in extra session
and the Grand Master, w. L. Houston,
with about fifty out of four hundred del
egates present. A farce was gone through
with, and one c. F. Johnson and CO.
terie of his own, attempted, through
Grand Master Houston, to foist them
selves upon the loyal Odd Fellows of
Alabama. Two suits have been entered
| in the Courts of Alabama. and III each
case Grand Master Howe and the reg
ular organization have won. Both OF
these cases are now pending in the Court
of Appeals in the State of Alabama.
Notwithstanding this fact under the
leadership of Grand Master Houston, al
the present session of the subcommittee
of management, an attempt was made
to suspend Grand Master Howe for
five years., unless he assented to The IL
legal election of c. F. johnson and turn
the interests of the widows and orphans
who were interested in the Endowment
Department of Alabama over to I. r
johnson. who owns a small insurance
/ company and desires to get control OF
the Endowment Department of Alabama
In addition to these irregularities, the
subcommittee Of management at Its jan
uary meeting, unlawfully attempted tc
declare null and void the law providing
for national endowment, and the elec-
ton of J. McHenry Jones national Su'
perintendent of edowment; the appoint
ment of the Fraternal Society Commit
tee; the law providing for the increase
inn the initiation fee of the members Q.
| , 5,-. +t,a Ia,,- Dro,-iS Ssf3Vr for the IN.