STRENGTH OF THE ORDER. 145 



&quot;While, for the inception of this work, full credit should 

 be accorded the originators, Messrs. Saunders and Kelley, 

 and their worthy co-laborers, the rank and file the working 

 members must not be forgotten. The Deputies especially 

 have had an onerous task. They have had to battle with 

 opposition, submit to reproach, disarm suspicion, and guard 

 the Order at all points against the attacks of wily and in 

 sidious enemies. They have borne the emblems of the fra 

 ternity among foes difficult to overcome ; they have had to 

 steady the irresolute, and support the timid. With unbend 

 ing purpose, and a firm reliance in the integrity of their 

 cause, they have planted the banner of co-operative effort 

 in every State of the Union. They have gathered a harvest 

 of members men whose strong arms have hewed out homes 

 from the forest, or reared habitations on the prairie or the 

 mountain slope, the plain or the hillside all over the land. 

 So far, this great army of the bone and sinew of the land have 

 used their power in the most careful and considerate man 

 ner. The wonderful success of the organization might 

 naturally have turned the heads of men who have long 

 struggled hopelessly for their natural rights. That it has 

 not thus far done so may certainly be accepted as evidence 

 that the Order, in the future as in the past, will be actuated 

 only by motives of honor, and a strict regard to justice and 

 the inherent rights of man. 

 7 



