El Paso Herald

EL PASO UNITES TO HONOR DAVIS

Head of Moose Lodge Is Told of City's Advantages For $500,000 Sanitarium.

Men of all creeds, rivals for political honors, but all of one faith in the conviction that El Paso offers every advantage for the proposed $500,000 Moose sanitarium, met in the home of El Paso lodge No. 526, Loyal Order of Moose, Monday night to honor James J. Davis, director general of the order.

The hall was well filled with Moose, their wives and friends, who were entertained for over two hours with addresses by Mr. Davis, Mayor C. E. Kelly, Tom Lea, candidates for mayor; Zach Lamar Cobb, collector of customs, and several others.

The affair was the closing feature of the local Moose in the entertainment of their supreme officer, who reached the city Monday morning and spent the entire day looking into the advantages of El Paso for the proposed sanitarium, which Moosedom is to build at some place in the west. Mr. Davis made it plain that he is not even a member of the committee which is to select the site for the institution, but nevertheless every effort was made to make him acquainted with local conditions, in the belief that his advice will be sought when the work of selecting the site is undertaken by the committee. Efforts will be made also to induce the committee to revisit El Paso in order that additional information may be given and new sites shown.

Mayor Kelly Speaks.

Oscar L. Bowen, dictator of the local lodge, presided at the meeting. He introduced Mayor Kelly. Mayor Kelly spoke briefly of the many advantages of El Paso and of its accomplishments.

"El Paso is the biggest little city in the country," he declared. "It has more paved streets than any city of its size in the country. It can boast of more electric lights than any three cities in the state. El Paso has the lowest fire rate and the lowest tax rate of any city in Texas. And it has always had more good people and less bad ones than any city in the state.

"I came to El Paso 31 years ago, almost on a stretcher. The doctor said I had tuberculosis. I am still alive and expect to live 30 years more. We have the grandest climate of any spot on God's green earth."

Mr. Davis Praises Lodge.

Mr. Davis was the principal speaker. He devoted considerable time to setting forth the noble work of the order in caring for its membership in sick benefits, in its great home for aged Moose and children of Moose and its vocational school, where the children are trained for life's work, and finally of the proposed sanitarium, where sufferers of tuberculosis within its membership will be cared for.

"I am not a member of the committee that will select the site for the sanitarium, but I know it is their wish that the institution shall be built where it will do the most good for the order's unfortunate members."

Insures Against Ignorance.

Speaking of the great good the order is doing, he said: "The Loyal Order of Moose says to you, 'We guarantee your children against ignorance' and now we are going further and will guarantee your brothers against consumption. We are doing this with a tax of only $1 per member per year. Is there any other order or corporation in the country that is doing the same thing for so small an amount? We have over 500,000 members now and we will have 1,000,000 members. You see what great things can be done with our small assessment on individual members."

El Paso Lodge Too Generous.

Mr. Davis complimented the local lodge by declaring that it was too generous in its benefits to members, that its sick benefits are larger than those of any other Moose lodge in the country. He attributed it to the generous spirit that pervades the city.

Speaking of Mooseheart, the Moose home and vocational school near Chicago, he stated that there are now over 150 children in the home, but that the institution has been built to care for a community of 5000. He told of the great herds of stock valued at $250,000, of the modern buildings, of the large lake stocked with 10,000 fish, and declared that every inmate of the institution had a home equal to that of any citizen in El Paso. The plans of the order, he stated, contemplate the establishment of branch homes and vocational schools in the south, the east and west.

Mr. Davis made the prediction that in 10 years the city would have 150,000 people.

Dr. Miller Shows Altitudes.

Dr. F. P. Miller, former dictator of El Paso lodge, spoke briefly. As a member of the committee that escorted the director general over the city, he told of showing sanitariums in altitudes around El Paso ranging from 7140 feet down to 3900 feet. He stated that an effort would be made to have the sanitarium committee revisit the city.

Dr. H. B. Homan was introduced as an expert in the treatment of tuberculosis. Dr. Homan declared that tuberculosis can be most successfully treated within a sanitarium. He set forth the advantages of El Paso as a site for the proposed institution, calling attention to the numerous railroad systems entering the city, the fact that it is a base of supplies, and the most important fact that its climate and that of the country surrounding is acknowledged to be the best in the United States for the cure of tuberculosis.

Tom Lea, Not Moose, but Proud of Lodge.

Tom Lea stated that he was not a Moose, but was glad he had come to the meeting. "I will be a better citizen from having heard brother Davis," he said. "Brother Davis is a dreamer, and his dream is a wonderful dream, that has for its motive a benefit to humanity.

"I can see that the local lodge has a great future before it, and if the sanitarium is built here it will be a monument, not only to their efforts, but to the great order that brought it into being."

Zach Lamar Cobb, customs collector, predicted that some time the United States government would cease sending so much money out of the country and would build sanitariums throughout the arid west for the benefit of its unfortunate citizens. "It is a sin to waste so much money in foreign lands when it is needed here," he declared. He spoke of the wonderful curative properties of the climate of this section of the country, quoting Dr. Evans, the Chicago health officer, who recommends El Paso and the country within a radius of this city as the best climate for the treatment of pulmonary troubles.