The committee which arranged today's celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky (Bohemian-Slavonic Benevolent Societies) assigned to me the task of presenting to you the statistics of that organization since the time of its foundation.

Sixty years is a long time, and not many are granted a life of so long a duration. No other fraternal benevolent organization in America has been in existence so long.

Certain secret organizations such as the Free Masons claim to have been founded in the era of the building of the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, and others in 2the time of the building of the tower of Babylon. It is historically accurate that Masonic lodges existed in Bohemia at the time of King Vaclav IV, (Wenceslaus), hence before the Hussite wars. The houses where they used to meet were marked with a red globe. But this just in passing.

In presenting the statistics of the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky I cannot omit the historical development of our beloved organization. For this reason I have had to scan many voluminous books containing the minutes of meetings and other records. And I believe that these records provide the most interesting reading matter ever written in the Bohemian language, notwithstanding the fact that organization records are usually considered very dry. But these books are most beautiful, even if they can not be considered a part of the United States literature, because they are books of "golden deeds", true gold books, as we used to call in my childhood days, the books of the prize-winners in our public schools. These books contain the records of good deeds done by the Cesko-Slovanske 3Spolky during its sixty years of existence.

The year 1854 marks the beginning of the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spokly. At that time a small number of our countrymen met to form an organization which besides providing benefits in case of sickness and death, would also be a means of spiritual contact between individuals who would consider themselves as members of a well ordered family and subscribe to the motto: "All for one, and one for all!"

The dues first agreed upon were the following: Initial dues were $1.25, monthly dues $.50. During the first year of illness the sick received $2.00 each week, and during the second year, $2.50. For a brother's funeral expenses $20.00 was alloted, and for the widow, $10.00. The wife of a brother, although not a member of the lodge, was likewise entitled to certain benefits. This shows that even then a family spirit prevailed in the organization and this spirit is still found in the organization today, despite the changes and reversals which have 4taken place throughout the years.

In the year 1857 there was $645.00 in the treasury, and at this time a flag was procured, and on it was inscribed: "Cesko-Slovanska Podporujici Spolecnost, (the first name of the organization) founded March 4, 1854."

An important step was taken in the year 1862 when the first Velka Loze Cesko-Slovanskych Podporujicich Spolku (Grand Lodge of the Bohemian-Slavonic Benevolent Societies) was organized; this led to the organization of the present Velkorady (Grand Lodges) which united to form the Narodni Hlavni Rad (National Grand Lodge).

But soon after the founding of this Grand Lodge, there followed a critical time of great distress.

The civil war raged then in the United States, and the majority of the members 5joined the other brave fighters in the struggle for the emancipation of slaves and the preservation of our union.

During the time when Lodge No. 1 was nearing its end, a new organization, Missouri Lodge No. 2, shaped along more modern principles, was formed. This society later received the name Rad (Lodge) Missouri, No. 2, and the Velkoloze (Grand Lodge) changed to Velkorad (Grand Lodge) Missouri.

In the year 1870 the Rad (Lodge) Svornost No. 3, was founded in Cleveland, Ohio; Rad (Lodge) Svatobor No. 4 in Collinsville, Illinois; and Rad (Lodge) Cechie No. 5, in Alleghany, Pennsylvania.

The first convention of associated lodges of the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky was held in St. Louis, Missouri, May 15, 1871.

The second convention was held in 1872 at Cleveland. This congress decided to 6pay each member's widow $250 upon her husband's death. Until this time a widow was paid $5 a month until she remarried.

The third convention was held in 1873 at Alleghany and created three degrees for the lodges.

The fourth convention was held the following year and raised the death benefit to $300.

To the fifth convention held at St. Louis in 1876, ten lodges had sent their delegations.

The period from 1854 to 1876 is considered as years of gradual growth. In 1876 the organization came into a period of rapid expansion and in 1878 it comprised twenty-eight lodges which all were represented at the sixth convention held in Cleveland that year. Here the death benefit was increased to $600, and the 7lodges had cash assets of $25,482. In 1879 the organization had fifty-four lodges.

The seventh convention was held in 1880 at Chicago. It raised the death benefits to $750 and introduced the payment of a benefit to a member upon the death of his wife. This convention gave a new impetus to the life of the organization. While it had only 2,751 members in January, 1880, the membership had increased to 5,540 in December, 1883. Hence in the course of three years the organization had succeeded in doubling its membership. This circumstance proves conclusively that the organization enjoyed unusual confidence among our countrymen in all parts of the United States. You could almost see new lodges springing up. Their charitable principles, their purely national character, evident on all occasions, and the firm foundation on which this monument of mutual helpfulness and co-operation was built, appealed immensely to the membership and showed most beneficial results.

Thus, Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky, in addition to its function as a 8benevolent organization, assumed a patriotic character, and became a center of Bohemian national consciousness for all spheres of Bohemian endeavor in America.

The eighth convention was held in 1883 in Milwaukee, and assembled delegates of ninety lodges.

The ninth convention was held in 1885 in New York. At this convention the death benefit was raised to $1,000 from which $250 was subtracted in cases where this amount had been loaned to the member upon the death of his wife.

In 1891 the number of lodges increased to 174, with 9,305 members.

During the five preceding years, $433,728.75 was paid out in death benefits to the widows of brothers, and $66,995.15 upon the death of sisters, altogether $500,418.80. What a huge sum! More than half a million dollars paid during 9five short years in death benefits, and in addition to this, $118,049.36 was paid in sick benefits, $2,827 to widows and orphans, $7,772 in special extra-statutory benefits to members, $2,926 for other than organization purposes, $1,709 in donations to various purposes in the old country, and $4,995 in donations to schools. All this makes a grand total of $638,648, a figure which speaks for itself. It says all there is to say about the growth and work of the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky.

If the Jednota showed a fine progress in 1865, still more gratifying figures were reported to the tenth congress held in 1891 at Cedar Rapids. Here 175 lodges were represented, many of which had made an unusual success.

An enactment was passed at this convention to publish a fraternity newspaper to be called Organ Bratrstva (Fraternity Organ).

At the close of the year 1893 the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky had 14 10Grand Lodges, and 200 Lodges with a membership of 11,205. The combined assets wealth of the lodges amounted to $259,562. In the last three years of this period the sum of $552,975.61 was disbursed. This is a little less than was paid out in the preceding five years.

The next two years before the eleventh convention at St. Paul may be considered as a time of preparation for decisive combat, which may be called the battle of the East against the West, or the fight against the selfish profiteering of the individual. A split followed, which could have been avoided had both sides shown a little sense of compromise, but this now does not matter.

Before the split the organization had 10,915 members; after the split in 1898, there were only 9,846. Four years after the introduction of improvements--payments of dues in accordance with age and the introduction of two kinds of death benefits, one of $1,000, and the other of $500.

In 1904 the organization was composed of 14,065 brothers and 6,793 wives, a 11total of 23,932 (sic) members. At present, the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky has a membership of 25,541 brothers and sisters!

These improvements were introduced at the twelfth convention held in Detroit. At this convention the enactment to start a reserve fund was also passed.

The thirteenth convention held in St. Louis in 1904 increased the death benefit to $250,$500, and $1,000, and introduced five classes with different dues.

The fourteenth and last convention held in Milwaukee in 1909 passed an enactment allowing wives and single ladies to become official members of the organization.

From this historic outline of the development of death benefits closely attached to the history of the whole organization and particularly its statistic, every one in this audience would find that this development has come about gradually, 12that changes were duly considered and carefully executed.

The fact that they were given serious thought has strengthened the confidence in the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky.

I remarked that after the split in 1898 there remained only 9,846 members in the organization; but after the introduction of those important improvements--classification of death benefits and payment of dues according to age.

The organization was accepting into its ranks, young men whose average age was only twenty-seven years. This is proof that after the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici has regained its youth. That it is retaining its youth, is apparent from the decreasing number of paid death benefits.

In the year of 1911, 254 death benefits were paid; in 1912, 226; and in the year 1913, the number of paid death benefits amounted to 220.

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As we see the number of deaths is decreasing! This is very gratifying. And he who would contradict this would probably say: "But the ends!"--as if the members were all very old--he either maliciously or unconsciously cheats.

On February 12, 1905, the entire amount of the reserve fund, according to the official report of brother Jaroslav Krulis, a member of the board of supervisors, was $73,041.43; it now amounts to about $286,000.

This figure seems to be enormous, but it would merely cover approximately 286 deaths and the organization's obligations to settle future accounts with the beneficiaries of the deceased to the amount of $17,655,250.

We have a great number of brothers working in the mines. In a possible mine catastrophe a number of our members could be killed; or an epidemic might result in the deaths of numbers of our members, which would obligate the organization 14for a large number of death benefits, and soon the reserve fund would be depleted. Therefore I maintain that our reserve fund, compared with our obligation to pay the survivors almost 18 million dollars, is insufficent.

The state insurance laws compel us to continually increase that fund, and thereby to strengthen the organization and insure the claims of those who are left behind.

From official lists, and from the yearly reports to the state insurance commissioners, I have calculated that the Cesko-Slovanske Podporujici Spolky has paid death benefits amounting to from $250 to $1,000, and in its earliest years in smaller amounts, the enormous sum of $5,637,442, in round figures nearly six million dollars! These figures are taken from the so-called "Gold Book".

And do we realize what this enormous sum means? Have you ever seen the picture 15of a woman with a prematurely old face and nervously clasped hands, sobbing and lamenting at the deathbed of her beloved husband? It is the picture of the desolate mother of a number of small children--a widow who does not know how she will be able to arrange for the burial of her deceased because she does not know where to apply to turn away hunger and cold, those two horrible she-wolves, from the hearth of her unprotected, sorrowful abode? The deathly agony, the gnawing anxiety, the despair which threatens to crush her soul--all this is banished as with a magic wand by the death benefits of our organization. "An old fable!" many will think, but this fable speaks to you with the not-to-be-denied language of truth.

About one and one-quarter million dollars was paid to our members in sick benefits. How much was accomplished by financial support during sickness, we can hardly estimate!

It was our duty to meet these obligations, and to pay as we had promised in our 16bylaws, for our members had contributed to those purposes.

But our organization also paid out money in other ways. A large number of lodges gave their members extra-statutory benefits!

Our lodges paid still another tax, partly as an example to other kindred organizations: joyously and liberally they supported our most humble, but nevertheless precious Bohemian schools.

Love for parents, and sincere, loyal regard for national origin do not harm anyone. On the contrary, such leanings tend to honor everyone regardless of nationality.

A child of Bohemian parentage born on American soil can prosper splendidly in the traditional spirit of America, even though he may be imbued with a greater love of his Bohemian origin than the child who from his infancy is taught to 17deny or conceal his origin. He who denies his origin, will disown his parents, and he who disowns his parents can never be a real man.

In 1888 one death certificate was paid to the benefit of Ustredni Matice Skolska (Bohemian Scholastic Association) in Bohemia.

The last convention in Milwaukee ordered that youth clubs be formed. We have seven of them in different cities, and to cover the expenses of these clubs the convention allocated $1,000.

These are but a few links of the golden chain fashioned by the organization's sixty years of activity.

It has fashioned them of genuine sympathy through love of mankind, sincere national feeling, and honest free thinking, for its own adornment, and the adornment of the Bohemian nation. Truely no imperator, no prince of the church, and no mayor ever has carried or ever will carry on a more precious chain than that.