^la 
 
aK. 
 
 / 
 
 "SFraternalism, 
 
 
 ^qA^ ^/g 
 
 9 \918 
 
 MARCUS W. DAVIS 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. TEXAS 
 
Hsy^ 
 
 .15 
 
 33 
 
 O^e jFlag, JF^raternalism, 
 an6 t^eTf^ulure 
 
 — BY — 
 
 MARCUS W. DAVIS 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. TEXAS 
 
 OLD GLORY is now unfurled to the 
 war breezes of an infuriated militarism, 
 backed by an unconscionable despotism. The 
 titanic war effort of the champions of world 
 safety has called to the leadership of our 
 nation's flag our best man-power and the coordi- 
 nation and active operation of all of our human 
 institutions. The fraternal society, so to speak, 
 which goes over the top, in this world crisis, will 
 live after the silence of guns and during the 
 reign of world peace. Such fraternal orders will 
 survive after Prussian greed and brutality have 
 been banished from the face of the earth, but 
 that fraternal order which fails to follow the 
 leadership of our imperial and immortal flag in 
 this world contest for the supremacy of right 
 will wither and die. 
 
 The call of our nation, in this perilous hour, 
 is not confined alone to the soldier boy, but to 
 every civic, religious, and fraternal institution 
 
of the land. The day of heroic effort and abso^ 
 lute sacrifice has dawned with the war clouds 
 of terror hovering over our nation's destiny, 
 and all organized fraternalism must willingly 
 and generously respond to the nation's needs 
 with the same eagnerness and willingness with 
 which our brave boys have gone to battle against 
 the war lords of degenerated Prussia. After the 
 roar of destructive cannon fire is silenced upon 
 the bloody battlefields of Europe, after the shrill 
 and shriek of death dealing war engines are 
 hushed and the peace loving nations of the 
 world have sung the last sad mournful requiem 
 over the lonely graves of their departed dead, 
 and after our brave soldiers return to their 
 homes to take up life's battle anew, then v/e will 
 have new ideals, new hopes, new patiotism, new 
 civic, industrial, political and social conditions, 
 and this fraternal order must take a new place 
 in the lives and affairs of men. Then it will be 
 that every patriot will fully realize that every 
 thread, every star and every bar of Old Glory 
 symbolizes sovereignty, power, and universal 
 safety for the liberty loving peoples of this and 
 other nations. Patriotic devotion to our flag 
 means more today and will mean more in the 
 years to come than ever before in the history of 
 
this country, and we, as an indissoluble brother- 
 hood of patriotic fraternalists, should arise and 
 put on our full armor of strength to the end 
 that we may show to the world that we are and 
 will be an important factor in making the world 
 a safe place in which to live. 
 
 We sometimes hear the skulking slacker and 
 the over-zealous pacifist utter unpatriotic words 
 of criticism, but I say to you in a spirit of char- 
 ity that this is no time nor place for adverse 
 criticism of our naton's leaders, though they 
 may have made mistakes. The ringing words 
 of the immortal poet should be rewritten with 
 patrotic fervor upon the hearts of every fra- 
 teranalist. 
 
 "Stand thou by thy country's quarrel. 
 Be that quarrel what it may; 
 He shall wear the greenest laurels, 
 Who shall greatest zeal display." 
 
 The double standard of loyalty is an insult to 
 Old Glory and a menace to our high ideals. One 
 God, one flag, and eternal truth, one and in- 
 separable, should be the program of every 
 American patriot. 
 
 To us every thread of our flag is pure gold 
 and every star upon it a diamond. The destiny 
 of our nation and the universal safety of right 
 
living peoples of other nations is wrapped with- 
 in the imperishable folds of our beloved flag. 
 My brothers, follow its leadership at home and 
 abroad, worship at its shrine, let the symbolic 
 meaning of the stars and stripes stir your fra- 
 ternal patriotism as never before, to the end 
 that this fraternal brotherhood may, in this su- 
 preme test hour, awake to the awful responsi- 
 bility that now rests upon fraternalism as a 
 living, vitalizing, and active force in the allied 
 purpose to crush militarism and secure the per- 
 manent safety of the righteous peoples of the 
 earth. 
 
 At the conclusion of every destructive war 
 comes the readjustment and rebuilding of deso- 
 lated and ruined human institutions, and as 
 a consequence calls out, in bold relief, the 
 strength or weakness of all fraternal orders. 
 As the symbolisms of this order are the sym- 
 bolisms of our nation, this fraternity, in this 
 crisis, should deliver to the world the full fru- 
 ition of the hopes of its founders. By reason 
 of the great struggle between the Huns and the 
 Allies, fraternalism has been brought closer to 
 our government and its people than ever before 
 in the history of the world, and they have now 
 come to fully realize the importance of organ- 
 
ized fraternalism as a factor in the defense of 
 liberty and in the establishment and perpetua- 
 tion of world peace. This is our war for uni- 
 versal democracy, the survival of right living 
 and the safety of all peoples, and if this order is 
 but a camp follower, and Prussianism, which is 
 synonimous with hell on earth, shall dominate 
 the world, your charity-hands will fall, para- 
 lyzed, beside your bodies, and your organiza- 
 tion for the material and social uplift of your 
 brotherhood will be compelled to yield up its 
 power to the war lords of a nation devoid of 
 principle, and the one who has shown that it has 
 forgotten God. Unless we as a brotherhood 
 follow the leadership of our flag, our master 
 will be a nation whose god is deception, and 
 whose hope is to cast us into the caldron of 
 withering Hun oppression. 
 
 Our governmental structure not only rests 
 upon the individual lives of our people, but also 
 upon the religious, industrial, social, political 
 and fraternal institutions of our country, and 
 a material part of the weight of the war burden 
 falls directly upon this order. My brothers, in 
 the name of hum.anity and for the sake of our 
 personal and national safety, let us, as an organ- 
 ized band of liberty loving patriots, stand 
 
against the invasion of our inalienable and Gocf 
 given rights. At this time while every man is' 
 being subjected to the crucial and supreme test 
 as ta his loyalty to the nation's banner let us 
 stand as firm as the granite mountain and 
 truly carry our load of responsibility as our 
 brave boys are carrying it in the face of death- 
 dealing missies upon the blood bathed battle 
 fields of benighted Europe. 
 
 The American Eagle, the flag and national 
 patriotic expressions run throughout our rit- 
 ualistic work and in times of peace as well as in 
 war we are truly the great patriotic fraternal 
 order. When the reign of terror shall cease, 
 and when the world, so to speak, shall be recast, 
 by our loyalty to Old Glory in this world strug- 
 gle, we will take our place as one of the essen- 
 tial and enduring istitutions of a new world. 
 
 In my feeble way, I have, so to speak, turned 
 back the veil hanging between the present and 
 the future, and with a feint prophetic vision I 
 have given you what I see. More wonderful 
 are the beautiful words of our nation's poet: 
 
"And I dip't into the future, far as human eye 
 could see, 
 
 Saw a vision of the world and all the wonder 
 
 that would be, 
 Heard the heavens fill with shouting, as there 
 
 rained a ghastly dew, 
 From the nation's airy navies, grappling in the 
 
 central blue." 
 
 I have said that after this world clash, we 
 will have a new world, and that all mankind, 
 including fraternal orders, must adapt them- 
 selves to new conditions, I know no better way 
 to express my belief in the statement just made 
 than to again quote the words of the poet: 
 
 "Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the 
 
 battle-flags were furl'd 
 In the Parliament of men, the Federation of 
 
 the world. 
 There the common sense of most shall hold a 
 
 fretful realm in awe. 
 And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in 
 
 universal law." 
 
 In conclusion, my brothers, let us rededicate 
 ourselves to the wonderful sentiment expressed 
 by one who sleeps beneath English sod: 
 
 "Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy coun- 
 try's. 
 
 Thy God's and Truth's; then, if thou fall'st, 
 O Cromwell, 
 
 Thou fall'st a blessed martyr." 
 
 k 
 
Press or 
 LoDovic Printing Co. 
 
 117/4-119-121 W. Commerce St. 
 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 018 465 813 6 ^ 
 
l^xo 
 
III liliilllllllllllllll i 
 
 018 465 813 6 #|