The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1916-05-31

whirlwind campaign of the grand
lodge officers than to any other cause.
It brought home to the individual
membership as nothing else has ever
done the responsibilities and the op-
portunities of knighthood. The broad
vision of the grand chancellor and
grand keeper of records and seal, the
high ideal of knighthood, was accept
ed readily because the membership
was prepared for it. and their teach
ings fell like seed in good soil, and
we are rcaping the fruit" says the
report.
"There are lodges which have re-
ports of somber hue, where the depu-
ty tells US that the lodge is dead, that
banquets and every other form of en-
tertainment and enticement have
been tried without effect; where we
are told that the young men of the
community prefer other orders to this
and we feel sure that everything has
been tried except the right thing,
which is for the Pythian lodge to un-
dertake to do Pythian work in the
community. When the lodge teaches
it's members to carry. into their life
and business the principles of the
order, when it's committees and men,
bership busy themselves in benevo-
lence, when the knight puts on his
armor to war as knight against the
evils in his community that deprave
citizenship, then banquets and entice-
ments will not be needed to draw men
to the castle hall. That has been true
in other communities; it is not a
theory, it is statement of fact.
"Several of the reports that we have
received say that the visit of the
grand lodge officers would not do any
good" continues the report. (Which
statement convinces us that visit is
necessary to learn whether that lodge
is teaching Pythianism or heresy. The
visits of the grand lodge officers have
been productive of the greatest good,
and the grand lodge is to be congrat-
ulated that there has been constant
growth of the spirit and ideal of ser
vice especially among the grand lodge
officers in recent years, that more and
more they have seen and embraced
the ideal service.
Unnecessary Expense.
"The committee has again and
again called the attention of the
grand lodge to what we have regard
ed as unnecessary expenses in the
maintenance of the organization, and
we are delighted to see the growing
sentiment in favor of curtailment of
these expenses which necessitate the
taxation on the lodges and prevent
the grand lodge doing much that
would result in benefits to the order.
We again recommend and insist that
the payroll of the grand lodge be re-
duced to a minimum and that as far
as possible appropriations be made
for Pythian publicity, and for benevo-
lent work in the domain.
"We find that some of the lodges
have taken up in their conventions all
matters of public interest in their
communities, as part of their Pythian
duty, and while there is danger in
such a conception, that the lodge may
be drawn at any time into the vortex
of politics, we believe that there is
strength in Pythianism to risk the
danger for the good that it would
produce in the community. We be-
lieve that questions of public interest
can be discussed on a broader, a more
liberal and a sounder basis in the
Pythian lodge room than anywhere
else, and if there be good or evil in
it, it may be discovered.
''In conclusion, we congratulate the
grand lodge again on the situation in
the State. We believe the day of ere
action" is over and that we have en-
tered into a new era, and one OF
broader usefulness"