Page 11 - MFM Aug Sept 2019

In 1934, Brother Leavitt returned working for the that the preservation of the ideals of a nation such as ours
Forest Service again in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he in turn will preserve that nation, and that without the
retired from the Forest Service as Assistant Regional preservationof the ideals of our nation, the nation itself
Forestor for Information and Education on June 30, will cease to be what its founders intended it to be, and
1942. will become something entirely diff erent.
He also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the The ideals of nation are as important to it as are the
United Spanish War Veterans from 1936 to 1937. ideals of the individual citizen. “As a man thinketh in his
heart, so is he.” As a nation thinketh in its heart, so it is, as
He retired from the Forest Service in 1941 and well. If I might call your attention to the necessity and the
moved to Newberg, Oregon, where he died on October value of proper ideals on the part of the nation, through
19, 1966. He was interred in Willamette National the words of President Calvin Coolidge - The great place
Cemetery near Portland, Oregon. Scott Leavitt Park in that America has come to take among the nations of the
Newberg, Oegon is named for the Congressman and earth in the advancement of the idea that war sahll no
Forest Ranger. be the policy of nations any longer, as they deal with the
other.

Idealism, of course must go hand in hand with practical
things, and no one believes that the end of war has
necessarily come throught the agreement on the part
of the various countries of the earth, in the treaty that
has been proposed, simply to renounce war as a national
policy as one nation deals with another, but I believe you
will agree with me that it is true that if that idea that is
advanced in treaties being made under the leardership of
the United States with the various nations of the world,
that if that idea had been in the minds of people of the
world the World War would not have taken place, -if the
world had come to a point where it had renounced war
Scott Leavitt is second from left, top row shown with other Forest as a national policy. Preparation of course still remain
Rangers of the Fremont National Forest in 1907. Photo from the
collection of Beth Olin, daughter of Nelson J. Billings, Supervisor necessary because of the fact that all the world has not yet
of Wallowa National Forest, courtesty of the National Museum of come to agree with us as to the place that war should have
Forest Service History. in the aff airs of the diff erent peoples. There is the power
of an idea which has been growing and which has come
to be accepted as the right idea on the part of the peoples
During the 64th Annual Communication of the Grand of the earth.
Lodge of Montana in 1928 the Keynote address was given
by Brother Scott Leavitt. Now Masonry has been - if I might go back briefl y
into the history of this State, as has been touch upon so
Masonic Education eloquently on two or three occasions in the Grand Lodge -
Address by Brother Scott Leavitt Masonry has been a potent factor in the the development
of Montana, not only in its resources, which in themselves
I have been intensely interested for many years in would made it a great State, but also in those ideas and
what I consider to be perhaps the most important and ideals of government which must be the foundation of
most valuable feature of Masonic work, and this is the a commonwealth such as ours. I was greatly impressed
educational work. By that I mean edcational work along yesterday, and I think we all were impressed, when Moses
the lines of Masonry, to make plain to the members of the Morris the Senior Grand Master of this Jurisdiction was
Masonic Fraternity, particularly those who arebecoming introduced to the Grand Lodge and the statement was
members of it, the purpose of Masonry, and in connection made that he had been raised as a Mason by Cornelius
with the purposes of Masonry, the great opportunity that Hedges, on of the Past Grand Masters of this Jurisdiction,
Masonry has as a force for good among the citizenship and for many years the Grand Secretary of the Jurisdiction,
of this nation. And when I use the expression “a force for because I recall as that took place what had happend in
good among the citizenship of this nation,” I mean a force the State of Montana since the raising of our Senior Grand
in whose hands there is placed almost the preservation, Master, whom we honored, and in doing so, honored
if not in fact the preservation, of this nation of ours. I ourselves yesterday.
believe you will all agree with me in one thing, and that is
Montana Freemason Page 11 Aug/Sept 2019 Volume 95 No .6