My days were spent at forge and puddling furnace. The iron that I made
is civilization's tools. I ride by night in metal bedrooms. I hear the
bridges rumble underneath the wheels, and they are part of me. I see
tall cities looking down from out the sky and know that I have given a
rib to make those giants. I am a part of all I see, and life takes on an
epic grandeur. I have done the best I could to build America.

If God has given it to the great captains to do more than the privates
to make the plan and shout the order, shall I feel thankless for my
share of glory? Shall I be envious and turn traitor and want to crucify
the leaders that have blessed mankind?

I am content to occupy my secondary station, to do the things that I
can do, and never to feel embittered because other men have gifts far
surpassing mine.

CHAPTER XLIV. A CHANCE TO REALIZE A DREAM

On October 27, 1906, I joined the Loyal Order of Moose at
Crawfordsville, Indiana, and a new chapter in my life began. The purpose
of the Order was merely social, but its vast possibilities took my
imagination by storm. For I believed that man's instinct for fraternity
was a great reservoir of social energy which, if harnessed aright, could
lift our civilization nearer to perfection.

On the night of my election and initiation to membership, the Supreme
Lodge was in convention and they requested me to make a talk. I
suggested a scheme to save the wastage of child life resulting from the
death of parents and the scattering of their babies; and also to provide
for the widows and aged. This problem had haunted me from boyhood when,
as I have told, I was the bearer of death news to the widows and orphans
of the mill town. I felt that the Loyal Order of Moose could cope with
this problem. They elected me supreme organizer and put me in charge
of the organization work, and after several years I showed so much zeal
that the office of director general was created and I was put in full
charge.

The Order was then nineteen years old, having been founded in St. Louis
as chartered in 1888, in Louisville, Kentucky. It had thrived for a
while and then dwindled. At the time I joined there were only two lodges
surviving, with a total roll of some two hundred and forty-six members.
I set to work with great enthusiasm, hoping to enroll a half million
men. This would make the Order strong enough to insure a home and an
education for all children left destitute by the dea