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Address of Captain L. A. Foot realize it until they form their battle lines on foreign soil.
During the Public Opening ey will go laughing and singing into the ght until they
Annual Communication of August 22, 1917 receive their baptism of re or poison gas. en they will
realize they will become in a moment men. eir bodies
Had a member of this Grand Lodge stood before you ve will be as iron; their nerves as steel and when the moment
years ago and made the statement that the Communication comes, they, these happy care-free laughing boys whom we
of 1917 would nd vacancies in our ranks cause by war, see today will prove themselves as their fathers did before,
you would have thought him a dreamer. Yet today, we and when
meet here with the cloud of the bloodiest war of history “Then out upon the air there fell a dozen liquid tones,
shrouding us in gloom. We can look over the faces in this Like prophecies of glory mingling with the ghosts of
room and miss some who have attended for years, who groans,
today are preparing for their part in the great war that has The sound the soldier hears and cheers, although its
been forced upon us. mellow breath
May send him where the cannons belch their black
I am glad that I could be here today and glad of the and bitter death.
opportunity to speak to you before the Montana Regiment The sound which cries ‘Destroy, destroy! and let the
leaves the state on its way to the battle elds of Europe. list be large’!
Once again, the great call has gone out through the length The ringing of the bugle when it blows the battle
and breadth of our country for America’s loyal sons to rally charge.”
to the support of the ag and help make democracy safe
for the generations yet to come. A pestilence is spreading He will go forward in the wild whirlwind of the charge
over the world, a plague whose name is Prussianism has to victory or death and count the cost, not at all.
fastened upon the inhabitants of this globe, and the only
cure is the blood of the bravest and best of all nations. They are going, - your son and your brother. Going
Within the last few months, the black plague has spread to war, that the nation founded by your fathers may
to our shores, and our men are even now upon the bloody not be overwhelmed by the great black plague-Prussian
elds of France. militarism. Going “to make the world safe for democracy.”
e bugles are sounding their silver throated calls, And Masonry is doing its part to make this possible
the ware drums are throbbing out the summons, and and the outcome certain. One of the things most
America’s sons are gathering to the colors. Within another carefully impressed upon the young Mason is loyalty to
month, the armies of the United States will be a million his country and obedience to the laws of his government.
and a quarter strong, and we have only started as yet. ey The first thing required of the soldier is an oath by which
will come as they have always come-ten million if need be. he binds himself to support and defend the Constitution
of the United States. It is impressed upon him in the most
“Though the sword of song and story hangs neglected solemn manner that this oath is no mere collection of
on the wall, words representing some of the army “Red tape,” but is a
And the musket’s clumsy hammer never more shall binding obligation and contract between the soldier and
rise and fall, the United States of America that he is legally and morally
We have men, who now as always, in a righteous cause bound to perform, even though its fulfillment cost him
and high, his life. The recruiting or mustering officer profusely lays
When their country goes to battle, for their country all the stress in his power upon the administering of this
dare to die - oath, that the recruit may be deeply impressed by it; so
Men of vigor, men of valor, men of mighty, deeply that, through all the dangers and hardship of war,
unmatchless will; he may not for one moment forget his duty as a man and
For the Stars and Stripes are floating o’er a land of a soldier, to his country and his flag. If the recruit has,
heros still!” prior to his enlistment, knelt at the altar of Masonry and
taken upon himself the obligations of our Order; if he
And these men are mostly boys in their early twenties. has stood before the East and listened to the wonderful
Boys with the future all before them. Boys with everything truths of this ancient brotherhood; if he has practiced
to live for. When I look over the ranks of keen young faces the teachings of Masonry as they have been interpreted
of these boys who have volunteered to give up their lives to him, then the obligation to his country and the oath
if necessary, I believe I can feel something of what the of allegiance to his flag have a meaning to him that is
immortal Lincoln felt when he uttered his now-famous imperceptible to his less well-informed comrades. He
sentence, “Fondly we hope, fervently we pray that this is, and will always be a better, more reliable, and braver
mighty scourge of war may soon pass away.” soldier by reason of the truths he has learned within the
walls of the lodge.
We have not yet realized that we are at war, and we will
not realize it until the casualty lists of our own boys begin I have always connected with the military establishment
to appear in our daily papers. Our soldiers themselves do of these United States for over eleven years, and I say to
not realize the task they have undertaken, nor will they you, my brothers, that I have yet to see my first Masonic
Montana Freemason Page 17 April/May 2020 Volume 96 No.3