The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-01-01
OF JUDGE SPALDING
- ON The FRATERNAL SPIRIT

so full of the best fraternal spirit and
contains so much Of the practical phil
Of life that The Forum is glad
find space for 1t, believing the read
ers of this paper will thoroughly ap-
preciate the sentiments:
Judge Spalding said it had been a
long time since he addressed a Dick
audience and that while the du-
ties of his office precluded the careful
preparation he would have been glad
make, he welcomed the opportunity
to raise his voice as every royal Elk
should to voice high ideals and the OPP
p~ortunity also came In touch with the
heart-beats of an audience, his work
tending to withdraw him more and
more from intercourse with his fell
lows. He felt he would set a hundred
times more from the inspiration of the
audience than they from him. Judge
Spalding said:
Exalted Ruler, Brethren, Ladies and
Gentlemen
Some scientist has said that the first
man was a disconnected ape, and that
had he been a conservative, like his
father, he would still be clinging by
his tail to the branch Of a tree.
If this be true our fraternity owes its
origin to the dissatisfaction of this ape
with his surroundings. Whether true
or false as history, the principle is self
evident when applied to human nature
and experience.
After a brief existence without orr
ganization, when possession was the
only law of ownership, and power to
acquire and retain, the only criterion
of right; when might solved all prob
lens of right and wrong; when the
strong only survived because their
code Of ethics knew no law Of charity
or brotherly love; the primitive state
of individualism was succeeded by a
long period of paternalism.
In its early form it may have been
limited to the family, greater or less
in numbers, of which the male was the
head, and all rendered obedience to
him. From that of the family relation
developed other and more extended
forms of paternalism, extending down
through the ages into the. tribe, the
clan. and various forms of monopoly,
until at length the comparatively mod
ern kingdom resulted.
Out of the tribal relations which so
long existed in Europe was builded the
vast structure called European monar-
chy. 1t was welded together during
the crusades, and since their time mon
archy has been the dominant feature
of the old world. The annals Of their
states became the annals of their
kings. European monarchy was little
less than an enlarged. edition Of feudal
craftsmanship. 1t consisted in the peo-
pie, destitute of political rights and
dependent for life and liberty upon the
pleasure of the king. the property of
whose subjects might be appropriated
at will, and their lives were constantly
sacrificed in wars for booty.
The king was such by divine right.
He consequently assumed the attitude
of the head Of the vast family, the
property rights of whose members, and
even their lives, depended solely upon
the pleasure of the sovereign. The sys-
tenn was maintained by a vast order
of nobility, extending from dukes down
to esquires, the purity of whose royal
blood was maintained by the applica-
tion Of the doctrine Of primogeniture.
The king was unhampered by con-
stitutional limitations. Other officers
of state were simply instruments to
carry out the sovereign's will. Leg
islative assemblies only met to carry
out the whims of the king.
This system prevailed for centuries,
not, however, without occasional pro-
test and revolt. Magma Charta wrest-
ed from King John was but an express
sion of the growing dissatisfaction and
the desire for recognition Of individual
rights. This desire and the demand
for the exercise Of such rights increas-
ed until the latter part of the eigh-
teenth century, when the revolutions
OF those a resulted in the estab-
lishment of governments founded upon
individualism. The theory of such
governments is that each individual is
entitled TO the greatest degree of lib
erty CONSTANT with the equal rights
of others; that every man is entitled
to the fruits of the labors of his own
hands and brain. and that each one
possesses the right to freedom Of con-
science and of person, and to worship
any god or no god in such as
best BELTS his humor, his temperament,
or as appeals to his reason.
You know the result of these efforts
and of this doctrine. A desire has been
so manifest and the determination SO
firm that the liberty of no individual
should be interfered with u-nnecessari-
~, that it has enabled the strong
to take advantage of the weak, and
the different interests to combine and
confederate until ind~ividualism is
thought by many to be only another
form of monarchy; it is true. not ruled
by a personal monarch, but in many
cases maintained quite as despotically
by what has been termed regant in
terests.
1t is unnecessary to discuss what this
means or its effect on the individual
and on society; where it lies or who
is responsible. 1t is sufficient to say
that in many newspapers and periods
Gals, from the halls Of legislation, and
from the rostrum. it Is proclaimed that
some remedy must be found.
P~aradoxical as it may seem. coinci-
dent with the growth and spread of in
dividualism have developed a great
number OF secret organizations and
f~raternities, whose purpose and prin-
ciples, if maintained and lived up to,
would furnish the remedy for the
faults Of individualisn. / do not mean
to be understood as intimating that the
system of individualism is in itself VIC
ious, but the freedom of individual ac-
ton has been so conspicuous that the
vicious, which everywhere exist, have
some times overborne and suppressed
the individual.
Wherever results are to be accom-
pIished some definite system must be
adopted. The spirit Of f~raternalism
abroad differanf nrpanizafinnr have