Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-06-07
HARDING s ADDRESS
BEFORE SHR|NERS IS
BRILLIANT TRIBUTE

WASHINGTON, June 5.-Justice
alone entities a fraternal organiza-
ton to survive, and "secret fra
ternity is one thing, secret con-
spiracy is another" President Har-
ding declared today in an address
at the imperial council session of
the Mystic Shrine.
II like the highly-purposed fra
ternity, because it is our assurance
against menacing organization" the
president said. ''In the very natural
ness of association men band to-
gether for mischief, to exert mis-
guided zeal, to vent unreasoning
malice, to undermine our institu-
tons.
This isn't fraternity, this is con-
spiracy. This isn't associated up
lift, it is organized destruction. This
isn't brotherhood, it is the discord
of disloyalty and a danger to the
republic.
But so long as twenty millions
of Americans are teaching loyalty
to the flag, the cherishment of our
inherited Institutions and due re-
gard for constitutional authority and
the love of liberty under the law, we
may be assured the future is Sc
cure"
Talks as a Snriner
Mr.. Harding addressed the coun-
Gil as a brother Shriner after he had
reviewed the annual Shrine parade
from a stand in front of the White
| House.
His address follows in full:
ut is a great pleasure to partici,
pate in this opening session of the
council. 1t need not be said that ]
cordially join in the words of wei
come and hearty greetings already
uttered.
ST like the atmosphere of fra
ternity. L rejoice in the knowledge
that I am addressing a body where
every heartbeat is Loyalty American
where every impulse is American
where every commitment and con
secration are to the republic and its
free institutions.
Sometimes there are false i'm
4 pressions about fraternal organjza
lions. No man ever took the oaths
and subscribed to the obligations
with greater watchfulness and care
than exercised in receiving the
various rites of Masonry, and I say
it with due elaboration and without
fear Of breaking faith. have never
encountered a lesson, never witness
ed an example, never heard an obi
cation uttered which could not be
openly proclaimed to the world
More, if the lessons taught were
Needed, the obligations read were
assumed, if the relationships urged
were adopted, men would be in
finitely better in their human rela
tionships.
"Fraternities must be just, if they
are to survive. And they must be
just to appeal to men in their fell
! low-relationships Secret fraternity
is one thing, secret conspiracy is
quite another. This meeting today
is in ennobled fraternity.
Scores Fraternity Abuse
Zone must recognize that frater.
nifty has it's abuses. Abused frater.
nifty is no more avoidable than the
hypocrisy which teaches how beau
tifully worthwhile is honest re
ligion. But fraternity deals with
realities and cures it's own abuses.
"a president would not be ethical
if he related fraternal appeals to
which he must turn a deaf ear. ]
will have said enough if L suggest
that men lose their right of fraternal
hearing when they transgress the
law of the land.
THE abuse 1 had in mind is the
imposition upon fraternal relation.
ship to promote selfish ends. Per.
haps a recital of a home town ex
! perience will illustrate my point
There came to our town two broth
ers to engage in a mercantile enter.
prise. One joined the Methodist
church, and the other the Presby-
terrain. Still business failed to move
with a whirl. Then one joined the
Masons, and the other the knights
Of Pythias. They picked out the
churches with the larger congrega
tons, and the fraternities with the
larger membership. Some local OBJ
server wondered at these divergent
| inclinations in two brothers, and
there was comment about it. Here
was fraternity being played for self
ish ends.
I'VE had another fraternity. rare
in kind and transitory in existence,