Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1911-06-02
B.P. Q. I. PROPOSES
 NATIONAL HOME Plan Each Member Shall Be Taxed 30 Cents For Building To be Erected At Atlantic City
ESTIMATED COST S25O.
 900
Selection of Another Site Than Bed ford City, Ya., Another Impor
 tant Matter to Be Considered

Atlantic City, June That every members of the great American Or der of Elks shall be taxed the muni ficent sum of 50 cents in two per capita assessments of quarter each for the purpose of erecting new National Home that will be in keep ing with the prestige of the frater nity, is but one of the big proposi- tions to be submitted at the forty seventh annual convention of the grand lodge in this city in July.
 With the unqualified endorsement Of Grand Exalted Ruler August Hermann, the board of grand trus- tees, of which Thomas F. McNulty, of Baltimore, is chairman, has ac- cepted and will refer to the grand lodge for adoption plans for mag nificent new National Home. for l4ged land infirm m,anlbers of tho order to cost, it is estimated, S250,- 900.
 Adoption of the plans and the grand trustees recommendation to the Atlantic City meeting will he the outcome of action taken at Detroit year ago when the trustee were authorized to expend S7,500 for re- pairs to make the presen Nati9nai Home at Bedford City, Va, serve the purpose for which it is designed. The board found that it was inn practical 70 effect the repairs and changes needed without a much greater outlay land there-upon de cided to recommend instead a new institution in keeping with the growth and present prestige of the order.
 The question of selecting another site than that at Bedford City for the new National Home will hinge upon the acceptance of the grand trustees recommendations in all probability. While many members of the order are opposed, for sentiment al reasons, to leaving Bedford, City, the proposition that new location be selected more accessible and in close proximity to a large center of population, Is said to have many followers. There is every probabili- ty that the latter question will be only secondary in interest to the matter of building a new home.
 How the funds shall be provided, if the grand trustees recommenda- tion Is accepted by the grand lodge, is another subject that may furnish material for debate, if stricklers up- on constitutional questions in the big convention rise to insist that the proviso that the grand lodge can levy but one per capita assessment of a5 cents in any grand lodge year shall be interpreted exactly as ii appears. Two per capita assess ments of the amount stated will pro duce a total of $250,000 and the bal ance may be taken from grand lodge funds now on hand which may be made available for the purpose.
 A more liberal construction of thu assessment proviso is that the. gran' 6dge may levy any number of as Wsesments of not to exceed 25 cent each, but the grand trustees repor will recommend, it is said, that th' funds be raised by assessments Il two successive years.
 Advocates of change of locatio! maintain tat if the grand '"cg votes to abandon Bedford City n less than four cantrally locate cities will tender a s.es free for in magnificent building contemplated.
 It is already evident that Atlanti City will offer a suupassingly beau liAul background for the activities ( reunion week. Always gay in mid the big seashore metropoll " will be literally a mass of ripplln sunting by day and 'aslitter with ir randescent brilliancy after nightfal ,s Among the other prizes provide Nor by the reunion executive con
 mittee of Atlantic City Lodge al cash awards for the best decorate
 and the best illuminated building
 and it is expected that the rlval'
 ensuing will make the resort surpa
 the record established last Septan
 Der during the national encampme
 of .ha Grand Army
 Rolling chair parades on |
 boardwark and deep sea sailil
 trips are but two Of the features U \