⚫ we can certainly do something, and I therefore recommend and urge an appropriation of $500.00 in behalf and for the relief of Dr. Lees, and further recommend that if appropriated the amount shall be immediately transmitted to him.

WORK AMONG THE CHILDREN.

No field of labor offers so abundant a harvest as this. To reform those in whom bad habits have become a second nature is a difficult and almost a hopeless task, but the work of training and educating the young in those principles which will be a safeguard against temptation, and render them good and true men and women, is both pleasant and profitable. To-day the minds of the children may be easily moulded, to-morrow they will stand in our places, and in their turn wield an influence upon the age. And the education which we give them will determine their future lives. In no way can we strike such an effective blow against the liquor traffic as by educating the young to be, not only total abstainers, but intelligent temperance workers. It is a fact that the majority of men countenance drinking. It is our privilege to counteract this majority, and create a healthy public sentiment upon this most important subject by training up a generation who shall see this great question in the light of truth and science. And how shall this be done?

The day for striving to teach people, either young or old, to do right only because of the punishmeut which follows wrong doing, has gone by. The awful example of the boy who begins by drinking wine, and ends in a drunkard's grave, is not without its value as a warning, but is not sufficient by itself to deter, for the fact remains that every young man who begins drinking wine "knows that he is safe (?)" Whatever may be the danger to others, "he is sure he will never overstep the bounds of moderate drinking." The effects of alcohol upon the body, as demonstrated by the researches of eminent scientists during the last twenty years, combined (if you choose) with the distressing end of those who have fallen, will have far greater weight than will the drunkard's fate unaccompanied by scientific instruction.

Horace Greeley once said: "Let us teach our children that alcohol is a fire, and if they would escape its flames, they must avoid it as they would any other fire." To modify this, let us teach our children that alcohol is a poison, and that certain results must follow its use. Let us give them an education on this subject superior to that which their fathers and mothers received. Thus shall we not only fortify them against temptation, but teach them to hate the liquor traffic, aud work for its overthrow. When we have thus educated the rising generation, and they come to the front fully armed and equipped to battle King Alcohol, the victory is ours.

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

I have pleasure in reporting that since our last session a large number of Naval and Military Lodges, formerly operating under the so-called "Right Worthy Grand Lodge of the World," severed their connection therewith, returned in a body to our Order, became loyal members, and on the 22d day of August last formed themselves into, and were instituted as the "I O. G. T. United Service Grand Lodge of the British Isles."

Without attempting to enter into any extended discussion thereon, it occurs to me that this R. W. G. L. has, in a measure at least, neglected to give that degree of attention and consideration, of which it seems deserving, to the subject of spreading the beneficent work of our Order among the enlisted men in the armies and navies of Great Britain and America.

My own experience and knowledge of the work in military Lodges has been pleasant and satisfactory. Trained to a systematic performance of all duties, these habits are brought into the Lodge relation and work of the

Order, with the result usually of a well-disciplined and efficiently organized Lodge, wherever one is found to exist among the sons of Mars.

A field is open here for greater usefulness, and steps should be taken, and I so cordially recommend to establish Subordinate, District, and Grand Lodges among the enlisted men. By special and separate organization the brethren would become more enthusiastic and zealous in the cause of total abstinence, and the work of advancing the principles of our Order, both in and out of the regular service.

These Lodges might, with propriety, be organized and limited to companies, and eight or more companies of the same regiment to constitute and be organized into a Regimental Grand Lodge. All Subordinate Lodges should, meanwhile, be attached to the R. W. G. L. An organizer and lecturer should be appointed, charged with the special duty of propagating the work of our Order among the army and navy. I commend this subject to your serious consideration as being worthy your careful attention and favorable legislation.

APPEALS.

The organic law of the R. W. G. L. is silent, containing no provision whatever concerning the matter of appeals to this body. At present appeals are entertained, considered, and passed upon, by virtue of certain decisions to be found only in Chase's Digest. How or why this defect has so long been permitted to exist I know not. The omission should be supplied at once, in my opinion, and a code governing the manner and form of taking an appeal to the R. W. G. T. or R. W. G. L. enacted at the earliest opportunity.

FORM FOR RE-ADMISSION.

The R. W. G. L. having wisely decided that it is not necessary to require a member, who seeks re-admission to the Order after having severed his connection therewith, to be re-initiated, and that re-obligation and signing the Constitution is all that is required in such cases, it seems necessary to the harmony and uniformity of the work of the Order that a simple ceremony of re-admission be prepared and promulgated by this body. I recommend, therefore, the reference of the matter to a special committee with instructions to report a form or ceremony for the re-admission of persons previously members of the Order.

THE TERRITORY OF ALASKA.

I am informed that there is a prospect of planting the standard of our Order in Alaska's frigid clime. As the most direct means of communication with that region is by way of San Francisco, from which latter port there is regular communication, I recommend that the territory of Alaska, for the purpose of establishing the Order therein, be placed under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of California.

FRATERNITY.

We are told to "be kindly affectioned to one another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another," and it may not be entirely out of place to here call your attention to the need of a more general co-operation between all organizations laboring in one general direction.

It is a singular freak of our common fallible human nature that people, ardently and unselfishly pursuing the same benevolent ends, but by perhaps slightly different modes of organization, should indulge in petty jealousies and controversies, altogether unworthy of the advocates and disciples of such a noble interest as that for which we labor.

If, perchance, we differ as to the most effective methods of arriving at success in the great warfare against the common enemy, or, if we cannot agree

as to the details and incidentals of the attack upon the foe, the most unwise course to pursue is to oppose and waste our powers and energies upon each other, or upon organizations or individuals seeking the same end. Have we not heard of thoughtless flings made by professed and accepted " temperance workers" against the I. O. G. T., the W. C. T. U., or the S. of T., the authors not fully realizing, perhaps, that every sting inflicted upon any deserving society or any worthy member of the great temperance army; every discouragement cast in the way, every disparagement of their methods, every belittling remark even regarding them, is an aid and comfort to our common enemy, and a manifest weakening of our own ranks, which, though it may not be accurately measurable, it is sure to have a place in the forces hostile to us all.

Many there are who received their first temperance training under the banner of the noble Sons of Temperance Order, and not a few here present, doubtless, continue their affiliation with that Order as well as our own. If we have numerically outstripped that, our parent organization, we should not forget the grand record it made, and its continuous, persevering labors in tbe vineyard of temperance.

If, as members of two Orders, we have differences of opinion, we should never on either side forget that the other champions its favorite method because of its conviction that it is the best to produce the end we equally desire. And this leads me to the thought that if ever there existed two societies which should entertain a mutual sentiment of kindest confidence and sympathy-of the truest type of fraternity, and maintain relations of frank, open friendships and co-operation, it is the I. O. G. T. and the W. C. T. U.-the two leading temperance organizations of the world! If there were no other reason for our co-operation, it must be our manifest interest to ally ourselves closely with and render all possible aid to a union of the best and noblest women of America in a holy cause.

The cause, and our country, and the world stand indebted to them for a vast impetus given of recent years to the progress of temperance, which resulted from their patient, vigilant, constant energy, sustained by an unvarying faith in the Divine inspiration of their sacred mission. If, with their powerful aid in our favor, we find the foe in such a defiant attitude at this day, let us think of what might have been but for their aid, and accord them all the credit which is their due, and leave no duty of ours undone, which may encourage and stimulate them to still greater success in the future.

It would be an important service rendered to every branch of the temperance army throughout the world, if every one of its members could be persuaded to regard "the good of the cause as a little above "the good of the Order" or Society, "the good of the Order" a little above the good of the Lodge, and the good of humanity above the interest of self.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

To Brother F. G. Keens, R. W. G. Secretary, my acknowledgments are especially due. My relations with the brother have necessarily been close and confidential. He has faithfully and honestly discharged every duty devolving upon him as an officer of this body, and has proved himself capable and efficient to a degree. I have ever found him responsive to my call, and his prompt assistance and wise counsel have combined to materially aid me in the discharge of official duties. In short and truth, he has been "my guide, philosopher, and friend.”

A sense of personal obligation impels me to mention the name of the chairman of the Committee on Appeals, the Hon. Samuel D. Hastings, P. R. W. G. T., to whom I am indebted for kind assistance and valuable advice promptly, generously, and freely given, when his riper experience and maturer judgment has been invoked in my behalf.

With the members of the Executive Committee, one and all, my relations have been of the most cordial and pleasant nature, no untoward incident occurring to in the least mar the harmony of our association.

PERSONAL.

More than twenty-one years ago, when in the spring-time of life, I assumed the obligations of a Good Templar, little thinking then of the earnest duties assumed, the grand opportunities afforded for real work, and the distinguished honors possible within the scope of our organization. In my labors I have been made to realize that every enterprise of life, from the simplest to the most complex, has its necessary drudgery, and that on the faithful performance of this is founded all true success. While reward and honors will come to him who toils up the weary road, none can hope or have a right to expect them otherwise. Only those who are willing to bear the burden with courage, energy, and perseverance have any right to expect prosperity.

For three successive years I have been called upon to preside over your Supreme Councils and the destinies of our beloved Order. Language will fail to express or convey the gratitude I feel to one and all for this marked expression of your confidence and esteem.

My duties and responsibilities elsewhere now require that I lay down permanently the cares of the position with which I have been thrice honored, and permit the burden and honor to be placed upon another. I shall surrender the trust with perhaps a pardonable pride in the consciousness that no single act of mine has in any way sullied the bright escutcheon of our grand Order, and that no duty has been neglected or, so far as possible, remains unperformed. I draw consolation also in the fact that my successor will assume the management of the affairs of the Order under more favorable conditions, the Order being more harmonious, stronger numerically and financially than when the present administration assumed control, and at this time free from debt, a fact which it has not been the province of the officers of this body to report at any time during at least the past eight years. This will more fully appear when the facts and figures of the R. W. G. Secretary's report are laid before you.

While the duties, cares, and responsibilities placed upon me have been great, I feel to have been amply rewarded by being accorded the highest honors the Order can bestow. However undeserved, these are mine now and forever. Mingled as my labors have been with frequent manifestations of sympathy, confidence, and esteem at the hands of the Order universal, I feel constrained to assure you that these have not been unobserved, but they have cheered me ever in the performance of duty, and have

Deposited on the silent shore

Of memory, images and precious thoughts
That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed."

IN CONCLUSION.

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS: The past is recorded and has become history. We must fix our gaze upon the future determined to go steadily forward. With the recollections of past victories to inspire us to greater endeavors in this, the National Capital, shall we not plan for National Success! Ignoring all party distinctions and sectional difference as unworthy those whose eyes are fixed upon the crown, let us continue to take such advance ground, and so fortify our heroic purposes by intelligent plans, that the year before us shall witness greater triumphs than have been known in the whole past thirty years of our existence.

I believe the Independent Order of Good Templars to be the most effective organization in the world for the promotion of the total abstinence cause,

and never was its mission greater, its opportunities grander, or its mode of work more needed than at the present time. Then

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears,

Are all with thee-are all with thee.

Fraternally submitted in Faith, Hope, and Charity,

On motion, by consent the R. W. G. Lodge then took a recess until 4 o'clock P.M.

FIRST DAY. AFTERNOON SITTING.

TUESDAY, May 27, 1884.

The R. W. G. Lodge was called to order at 4 o'clock P.M., R. W. G. Templar Katzenstein in the chair.

Prayer was offered by the R. W. G. Chaplain.
Roll of officers called. All present.

Minutes of morning session read and approved.

The R. W. G. Templar announced the following Press Committee for this session: Bro. Chas. S. Carter, of District of Columbia, and Rep. Edward F. Stevens, of Massachusetts.

The R. W. G. Templar appointed Rep. W. H. Lambley, of Quebec R. W. G. Messenger.

The Committee on Credentials reported that the Grand Lodge of Kentucky had discharged its indebtedness to this R. W. G. Lodge, and its delegates were entitled to seats as representatives to this body. Report adopted and representatives admitted. Rep. Hastings offered the following:

Resolved, That the R. W. G. Templar appoint the following committees, viz.: on Distribution, Appeals, Finance, Constitution, State of the Order, Mileage, Juvenile Templars, and Petitions.

Adopted.

Rep. Webb, of California, offered the following preamble and resolution :