Imperial Valley press., 1913-12-03
M. Threshing
Out Rate Increase
(By United Press Associations)

Rock Island, ILL.,, Dec. 3.-The final
desperate battle between the head
camp officers and the ranking men,
bers of the Modern Woodmen of
America over the question of an in
crease in the rates of insurance in
the order, which during the past two
years has been marked as the bitter
est struggle in the history of frater
nal orders in America, will be fought
out in the seventeenth triennial meet
ing of the order at Toledo, Ohio, June
| 16, 1914, according to announcement
| Of the executive council from the
head camp officers here today. The
council, having set the date, is max
| ing preparations for the biggest meet
ing in the history of the order Fully
$4,000 members will attend, drawn by
the struggle which they claim involves
the very life of the organization.
The rate question was first raised
in its present form at the triennial
meeting at Buffalo in 1911. Action
was postponed until the winter, when
special meeting of the head camp
was held in Chicago and a readjust-
ment of rates voted. All the rates
are higher than those hitherto pre-
vailing, and those for the older men,
bers are three to nine times higher.
Throughout the country, and especial
ly in the states of Illinois, Iowa, Kan
sas and Missouri, the rates were
strongly resisted. Several test cases
were brought into circuit courts, re-
sulting in injunctions against enforce
ment of the new rates on the ground
that they were not imperative to the
financial safety of the order, that since
the benefits of the organization are
mutual and reciprocal the rates can
not be enforced without the consent
of the majority of the membership.
The head camp in the summer of
1913 proposed a referendum. submit
ting seven different rate plans for
the selection of the membership. But
the impression gained currency that
| the referendum was a ruse, and the
result was vote of less than / per
cent of the members. The executive
council had been expected to take
| some action on the question at its
meeting here, but deferred it to the
triennial convention. Opponents of
the plan declare the whole proposal
was move to transform the insur-
ance plan of the order from fraternal
to "old line" They contend that the
question will never be settled until
this movement has been downed, and
that this can be done only by remov-
ing the present head camp officers and
"electing others who represent the
views of the membership" This they
will attempt to do at the Toledo meet
ing.
Though the city of Toledo will be
| filled with the Woodmen, the voting
delegation will not be large. Five
hundred and fifty members of the head
camps, 500 members of the local camp
clerks association, and delegates from
the foresters make up the convention
proper. Second in Importance to the
executive sessions of the delegates
will be the foresters' drills, which
head camp officials here estimate will
include 5000 uniformed men. These,
composed of drill squads of sixteen
to twenty men from each camp, will
live in tented city and maintain mil
itary discipline. Before Toledo was
awarded the meeting she was required
to enter into obligations to furnish a
large parking place for the camp.
Six thousand dollars is to be given
as prizes to the winning teams in the
drill. United States army officers are
to judge the competition. The execu-
tive council, which with the Toledo au-
thorities will have charge of the i'm
mense assembly, consists of R. w.
Parsons of Ashland, Wis; John c..
Nagle of Detroit, Martin Cogwin of
Minneapolis and A. L. Armstrong of
! NJ