Charles LeRoy Lewis - Special Collections - University of Baltimore

LEWIS; 099 11: 2 :70
3 mean, and you find in many countries the same way. YOU
take if we went to a foreign country; when we yo wouldn't
we want to be around a bunch of Americans kalking English,
know what we're talking about? And that's all,
Harvey: Would you tell us a little bit more about the
Junior Order of Hechanies . . . you were in the Golden Rule
br aneh?
Lewis: Golden Rule Council, that's right.
Harvey; It got so big that they started another one, *he
Monumental?
Lewis: Monumental, that's right, Those days if you were
sick, they paid sick benefits, four dollars a week and then
you got three hundred dollars at death. You didn't, your
widow did. Sort of an insurance, and then they had a home
out there in Ohio you was eligible to go to. And of course,
if you was sick, come out and see you and if things
were going bad you needed a house and food or something like
that, that was all taken care of. In other words, that was
the way it was. That's why you didn't have all this welfare
and all this administration.
Harvey : How did it start; the Junior Order of ~echanics?
Lewis: 1 couldn't tell you; it was an old oxganization
started way back - I don" know how far, actually never said
in the history of it, But 1 do know it started back in the
early 1800's.
Harvey: You weren't involved in the beginning of the local
branch?