The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-10-14

all the money he has paid in will go
into the Woodman treasury. Where
II will go from there it is not difficult
to guess. The sovereign camp offic-
ials knew what was bound to happen,
and when they framed the assessment
that would force these old men out
they broke the obligation they made
before God and man.
One thing they have not count
ed on, tho they should have. That is
that the younger members, seeing
what a raw deal has been handed their
older brethren, won't stay IN the
order. Why should they? Other raises
may be ahead, and if young mali
with a wife and child goes in when he
is twenty-five years old, unless he has
the good luck to die before he is sixty
he will pay for his insurance more
than his benefciaries will receive.
What makes matters look worse
than anything else is the following
statement from the Sovereign Visitor,
the official organ of the order, mag
azine printed in Omaha under the
direct supervision of the sovereign
camp officers. and Of which every
member of the order receives a copy.
1t published on a dozen different
pages of its September issue the fol-
lowing statement:
"Not a single delegate at the SOW
Iereign camp voted against the adop-
ton of our new laws, which will go
into effect January l, 1920"
M A-A oil hnp a
untruth. Some fifty members, includ-
ing those from Florida. voted against
the new laws. The statement was
evidently published with intent to de-
ceive. A large number of the Wood
men, probably the great majority,
have no way of knowing what the Of
icers of even their state camps, let
alone the sovereign camp, are doing
except what is printed in the Visitor.
The Visitor is a very unreliable organ,
right under the thumb Of the SOW
ereign commander, with much adver-
Using and comparatively little read
ing in it, badly printed and evidently
a big graft. Scores of Woodmen have
told us they never read the publica-
ton and on the day it comes in the
wastebasket at the postoffice is filled
with it.
Another suspicious circumstance is
that the official account of the SOW
ereign camp meeting in the Visitor
was censored to the bone. 1t told of
none of the camp business. 1t gave
not fifth of the space to the meeting
of the sovereign camp that the Star
| gave to the meeting of the Florida
camp in Ocala last March.
i AS soon as the Woodmen of the
country found out what had been
done, a storm of protest went up al
over the United States. Other states
than Florida have called their camps
IN special session, in an effort to have
the rate readjusted or the sovereign
camp called in extra session.
The writer has been member OF
the Woodmen for twenty years. Ht
has always been proud of the order
for certainly none can excel it in en-
thusiasm and brotherly kindness. HI
hates to write this, but most of tht
statements in it are public property
All the old line insurance agents
1 KNOW IuGUu anu are TGhpII& q T1CI
harvest. They will give man 55 t.
60 years old much lower rate thar
the Woodmen intend to infiict OF
their members of the same age, VIII,
have been in the order twenty year
or more.
: We intend to continue to pay on
assessments and hold our policy AM
we advise all other members to do tn
same. It's our opinion that the buncl
at Omaha wants to force the old me-
\ out and take their money, and we ar
1 tolerably certain if they do the orde
2 will get no benefit from the sun
which thus accrues to it. There vii
' be another meeting of the sovereigI
! camp year after next. and when tina
camp meets there will be a revision
of the rates and an election Of ne1
q officers. That is we think there viii
4 Ii not, there will not much longer b
n an order of the Woodmen of tn
I World, for no fraternal order can liv
long under such system.