Charles LeRoy Lewis - Special Collections - University of Baltimore
Charles LeRoy Lewis - Special Collections - University of Baltimore
Charles LeRoy Lewis - Special Collections - University of Baltimore
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LEWfS;099 I1:2:63<br />
Guard. And ever since I was a little fellow they always<br />
marched up to graveyard with the Grand Anny Men right up<br />
to the cemetery because this cemetery got lots <strong>of</strong> Grand<br />
Army men up there; in fact, I'd say I guess there's five<br />
or six hundred <strong>of</strong> them up there. In them days people . .<br />
Harvey: Did lodges tend ta line up with one party or<br />
another?<br />
<strong>Lewis</strong>: Well, they . . . not necessarily. As n rule they<br />
stuck together up here mostly they backed Republican cand-<br />
idates. As I tell you, it was a Republican stronghold.<br />
But there was Democrats in the organizations that didn't<br />
say nothing, and a lot <strong>of</strong> times in those days people would<br />
be petty. Keep you out <strong>of</strong> organizations.<br />
Harvey: Do you think that the lodges sort <strong>of</strong> went downhill<br />
in the twenties?<br />
<strong>Lewis</strong>: The lodges was destroyed by the foreign element,<br />
because the lodges were against immigration. After immigration<br />
gow broke down tha-t: they can bring anybody in here they want<br />
regardless whether we got people working or not, it lost<br />
its principle and their activities, and young men don't qa<br />
for it.<br />
Hawes: When was that , . , when did that happen?<br />
~ewis: Back in the t wenties, after World War X - they<br />
brought lodges and they did everything they<br />
could to keep them out. And then, <strong>of</strong> course, when RooseveLt<br />
went in there in the thirties, why the barrier was down on<br />
immigration. And just brought them in here. Just like now,
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