The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-22

ly there was an article written by
 William Almon Wolff on the war ac-
 tivities of the Benevolent Protective
 Order of Elks and the part they played in backing up the boys who were fighting for world freedom. The article is too lengthy to republish in full, but the following extract might,
 as the editor of Golfers Weekly sug-
 gests, prove of interest to those un- familiar with the part the Elks have
 played in this work.
 PATRIOTIC ORGANIZATIONS
 The article in part follows; When America entered into the war against Germany, practically every pa triotic organization in the United States came to the fore with more or less helpful attempts to "do their bit | in the titanic struggle. Much good was wrought by these various organ izations, some of it wisely directed some of it was not. This is brief and unadorned tale of one collective effort that got results. namely, the activities of that distinctively Ameri- can order the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
 If you happen to be an Elk you will know much of this story, if you are not you may be surprised to learn what l the Elks have done, for the war work I of the order was done quietly but not | the less effectively?
 ] To begin with, to be an Elk. one tmust be an American; they eliminated i the hyphen long before the war, They are not exclusive. They care not whether he be Jew or Gentle, Catho- {, lie or Protestant, but he must be an l American citizen.
 The word "American" has double meaning to them, for the Ell<s are not only an American order, but are also l Americans to the very core.
 1 If you are not a full-blooded Ameri- | can, you are automatically debat:ed 1 from becoming a member of the or | ganization, and this was one, reason 1 for the peculiar efficiency of the Elks 1 in their war work. They were abso- l lutely undisturbed by fear of pro German sentiment springing up III l their midst, and therefore went about their work with confidence and unity ELKS IN SERVICE
 1 At the close of the war 50,0o0 of 1 the half million Elks in the country | were in some branch of the service and more were enlisting every day. This 1 is a very high percentage, when the average age of the members is vel 1 beyond the limit for military duty. 1 One of the first war works under ! taken by the E1ks was the Elks war | relief commission, established in June ] 1917. This commission was under the able leadership of John K. Tener, eX- ! governor of Pennsylvania and former | ef Mo a | The first step of the commission | was to confer with the war depart ment from whom they learned that l the prime necessity was the estab- l lshment and equipment of base hos pitals. The Elks immediately got busy
 and voted a million dollars to tnli cause There were no strings tied t. I the offer and they declared that wher l the first million gave out they stoee l ready to replace it with second. | Early in the war the universities o1 1 Virginia and Oregon both organized 1 base hospital units and, since F'red 1 Harper, past grand exalted ruler, is 1 a University of Virginia man, he nat urally suggested the Elks to donate 1 the tidy sum of $6O.0OO to the uni l versity for equipment and the san,f l was later done for the Oregon unit l Both hospitals have done splendio i work in France.
 :! LOOKED TO THE FUTURE
 l But the Elks also looked to the fu- 1 ture--to the time when many of oU! | boys would come back from the fight Ii ing in such condition as to render 2 Il resumption of their regular occuEa- i tions impossible. They determined | that, so far as their power went. none ] of these returning boys should be op- | jects of charity.
 II To this end they furnished com | pletely equipped the Elks U. s. A. re
 construction hospital, the first of its T kind in America. It is capable of ac.