The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1916-06-03
THE LESSON OF A BANQUET

there was an impressive lesson in the banquet that was
staged at the Goldfield hotel last night. 1t told conv1nc-
rngly of the growth, or the evolution, or whatever we
NAV call it, that is inevitable where liberty of thought and
action are given rein, when truth i permitted to work
It's course.
The banquet in question was under the auspices OF a
fraternal order, known as the Knights of Columbus,
which has probably been the object OF more frequent and
venomous attacks during recent years than any other
To the Younger members of the present generation
honestly seeking the truth this has seemed lneNp1cable'
but there are thousands still living who long ago became
ca11oused to these ISLANDERS and treat item Vita the silent
contempt or indifference which they deserFe.
1t has frequently been recited and printed and pub
lisled broadcast that the knights OF Columbus have thor
Cuoh1v drilled. and secretly armed, and IN a thorough
state of preparedness 100000 men, a force that IS 1ncreas-
ing by many thousands every year, and the ultimate OBJ
iect of which is control OF this republic III the interest OF
4 certain church. A form OF secret oath, alleged TO nave
been taken by every member of the organization has been
printed and was even incorporated into the pages OF the
Congressional Record.
This form of oath might have been possible among
a group of men in the dark ages, or in the DAYS OF the
crusades and the wars between the Moslem and Christian,
bu4 they have never been possible, or even thinkable IN
Europe or America since the day when the navigator
whose name this modern order bears gave to civilization
this unexplored continent.
There was a long period within the memory of thou
sands still living in which Masonry was the victim OF
prejudice and bigotry even more pronounced and venom
o1s than the Knights of Columbus have found 1t necessary
to combat. And this Notwithstanding the tact that the
father Of the republic and other distinguished patriots
and statesmen who had helped to make this nation posi-
bic. were known as members OF the order. lhere was
no calumnv too foul, no accusation of crime or treason too
vicious to be circulated or published against the members
of this order. Demagogues tried, sometimes success
July. to ride into public office on this wave of prejudice.
They even formed a party and nominated a candidate tor
president. The order was under a general ban OF the
church. Catholic and protestant, and the writer can recall
even forty years afterward. more than one discourse from
he pulpits of evangelical churches that were as full OF
blaotrv and falsehood and defamation as it was possible
to conceive.
4 X *:
But the truth was at work. The people saw the sons
Of honorable and upright and conscientious and Christian
fathers follow these fathers into the ranks of the order,
i,st as we are now seeing son following father, father
following son and brother following brother into the
ranks of the Knights of Columbus. And the man to
whom this carries no conclusive refutation OF the accusa-
IL rs he has been asked to believe is hardly worth con
Ncrtino.
In the case of masonry truth has done its work, and
thousands Of those who most vigorously and viciousy
c ndemned, later applied for admission and were received
INTO the order whose mission and character they had SO
previously mlSludged. And so IN this later instance, truth
will work its course, and much more rapidly. In tact 1t
has already done its work. We saw last night CATHOLIC
and Protestant. Free Mason and Knight of Columbus and
members of other fraternal orders at the same festai
board. We saw an example of tolerance, religious liberty
and freedom of speech and opinion that would have been
as impossible even twenty wears ago as the b1Sotry and
the intolerance OF even the 18th century would be TO-DAY.
The brotherhood of man is more than a dream; it
is & glorious and growing reality, and what human agency
has contributed more to this beneficent end than the fra
tcrna1 orders in whose councils men have come to a better
understanding of each other?
Carranza is reported to have put 10000 troops on the
trails of Mexican bandits. Should the report prove well
rnded it will mark the turning point from inflated dig
nifty to plain horse sense.
The chances are a million to one that the pork bari
plank of the Baltimore platform will follow the one-ternl
plank in the kndlng pile. Repetition would prove a
party Indictment.
49, :, O.-.1 WI. L.. 1:.11. o..o.4oJ a. o:u.