[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 24, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1869-E1870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   COMMENDING THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES ON ITS 110TH ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 23, 2008

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, 110 years ago, the Fraternal Order of 
Eagles, F.O.E., was founded in Seattle, in what is now the seventh 
Congressional District that I am privileged to represent. Since its 
founding, the F.O.E. has expanded to become an international 
organization with nearly 1 million members that raises and contributes 
more than $100 million annually to charities benefitting children, 
health research, and the elderly. I rise today to commend the Eagles on 
their 110th anniversary, to highlight some of their many 
accomplishments, and to thank the Eagles for their good work over the 
last 110 years.
  The Eagles have a long and proud history of living up to their motto, 
``people helping people.'' The Eagles were the first public advocates 
for establishing the Mother's Day holiday, were a driving force behind 
establishment of the Social Security System, and work to provide 
assistance to individuals in need in local communities across the 
United States and Canada. Just this year, the Eagles have partnered 
with the University of Iowa and committed to raise $25 million to 
establish the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center that 
will break new ground in efforts to both treat and prevent the spread 
of this terrible disease.
  The Fraternal Order of Eagles was created in 1898 when six competing 
theater owners held a secret meeting at Moran's shipyard in Seattle to 
talk about a musicians' strike. By mid-1898, a constitution and by laws 
for the new organization had been adopted and the Grand Aerie 
established. Local F.O.E. chapters and the places that they meet are 
known as ``Aeries.''
  Many of the early members of the Eagles were actors, playwrights, and 
stage hands who spread the word about the new fraternal organization as 
they toured from town to town across the U.S. and Canada. The 
incredible spread of the Eagles in the early years is largely 
attributable to these people. Eagle Aerie #1--the Mother Aerie--was 
established in Seattle in 1898, but some of the earliest Eagle aeries 
are located in: #8 San Jose, California, 1899; #11 Butte, Montana, 
1899; #25 Skagway, Alaska, 1899; #33 St. Paul, Minnesota, 1899; #48 
Galveston, Texas, 1900; and #42 Rochester, New York, 1900. By the end 
of 1903 just 5 years after the creation of the Eagles, there were 
nearly 600 Aeries operating in all corners of the U.S. and numerous 
locations in Canada. Today, Eagle membership totals about one million 
in about 1,500 individual local Aeries throughout the U.S. and Canada.
  In addition to camaraderie the fraternity was established to serve a 
very important function. In the days before death benefits, workmen's 
comp, or health insurance, the Eagles offered a death benefit to the 
families of Eagles killed in the line of work to ensure proper burial, 
no Eagle has ever been buried in a potter's field, and Aeries had 
physicians who provided health care to members.
  The Fraternal Order of Eagles Grand Auxiliary was adopted at the 1951 
international convention in Rochester, NY. However, Auxiliaries date 
back to March 24, 1927 in Pittsburgh, KS. By March of 1951, 965 local 
Auxiliaries were in existence and by the end of that year 22 state and 
provincial Auxiliaries were operating.
  The local state/provincial, regional and grand Auxiliaries have 
continued to grow and provide their importance to the Fraternal Order 
of Eagles by consistently serving as the strongest fundraising arm in 
the Organization. The Auxiliary, traditionally consisting of women, is 
a fully operating arm of the Fraternal Order of Eagles with equal 
positions of leadership.
  In 1944, the Eagles Memorial Foundation was created. The Memorial 
Foundation supports children of members who die while serving their 
country, or at work. All Eagle members and their families are 
automatically protected by this member benefit. With the Memorial 
Foundation, children of deceased members who die while serving their 
country or at work are able to attend college or vocational school with 
grants up to $30,000. They can also receive medical assistance 
including payments to physicians, dentists, orthodontists and 
hospitals. The cost of eyeglasses, prescriptions, as well as medical 
and dental devices is also included.
  Over the years, the Eagles have also actively advocated at the 
national level for laws that help their fellow Americans. In the 1930s, 
the Eagles very actively organized to push for creation of the Social 
Security system. When the Social Security Act was signed in 1935, 
President Franklin Roosevelt (himself a lifelong Eagle), presented a 
pen with which he

[[Page E1870]]

signed the Act and wrote to then-Eagle Grand Worthy President John M. 
Morin:

       I am very glad to give you as the representative of the 
     Fraternal Order of Eagles a pen with which I signed the 
     Social Security Securities Act . . . I have long observed 
     with satisfaction the sponsorship by the F.O.E. of social 
     justice legislation both in the states and in the nation. The 
     records for more than a quarter of a century bear witness to 
     the campaigns of education conducted, the literature 
     distributed, and the addresses delivered by your socially-
     minded Order. These efforts have borne, and are bearing 
     gratifying results. Our countrymen owe the Eagles good will 
     for their unselfish services.
       The pen I am presenting to the Order is a symbol of my 
     approval of the Fraternity 's vision and courage. May its 
     possession inspire your 600,000 members to re-dedicate their 
     own efforts and those of the Fraternity to the insuring of 
     such economic and political conditions as will bring a 
     greater degree of happiness to our people.

  The Eagles also supported old age pension laws in the 1920s: ``You 
Eagles have planted this seed . . . If the Eagles of the United States 
never do anything else, they have more than justified their existence 
in their advocacy of this great humanitarian movement.''--Gov. Joseph 
M. Dixon, Governor of Montana, signing into law America's first old age 
pension law (1923).
  Jobs After 40: ``The Eagles started this whole idea. That is why I 
invited the Eagles to be at this private bill signing, and the reason I 
am presenting this pen to the Fraternal Order of Eagles.''--President 
Lyndon B. Johnson, signing the Federal ``Jobs After 40'' bill, 
outlawing upper age limits in hiring.

  And enactment of Medicare legislation: ``For your energetic and 
dedicated espousal of social justices, and for the generous support you 
have given to all measures designed to further economic opportunity and 
the compassionate treatment of the sick and disabled.''--President 
Lyndon B. Johnson, in a message to the Eagles on the signing of the 
Medicare amendment to the Social Security Act.
  Today, the Eagles advocate for equally important causes. The Eagles 
support congressional and administration action to ensure the long-term 
stability of the Social Security system while protecting the 
fundamental principles on which it was founded and to provide health 
care coverage to every American child.
  The Eagles are also actively advocating for enactment of the 
Children's Access to Reconstructive Evaluation and Surgeries, CARES 
Act, H.R. 1655. Evidence suggests that insurance companies are 
increasingly denying access to the approximately 40,000 American 
children born annually with birth defects and needing reconstructive 
surgery. The CARES Act would require all group and individual health 
insurance coverage and all group health plans to provide coverage for 
surgery and other outpatient and inpatient medical treatments related 
to a minor child's congenital or developmental deformity. As a medical 
doctor and Member of Congress, I am especially proud to be a cosponsor 
of the CARES Act.
  In addition, the Eagles are tremendously generous in providing 
assistance to a wide variety of very worthy charitable causes. Every 
year, Eagles across the U.S. and Canada generate more than $100 million 
for charities supported by the F.O.E. The Eagles provide 100 percent of 
those funds directly to charities in the form of grants, paying 
administrative costs from their membership dues.
  These charities include: the Max Baer Heart Fund; the Robert W. 
Hansen Diabetes Fund; D.D. Dunlap Kidney Fund; the Jimmy Durante 
Children's Fund; support for Children's AIDS Awareness and Medical 
Research; the Lew Reed Spinal Cord Injury Fund; the Golden Eagle, 
Golden Age Grants, support for community-oriented programs primarily 
serving the aged, Alzheimer and Parkinson Funds; and the Disaster 
Relief Fund, first response program for national disaster situations in 
Canada and the United States, and the new Fraternal Order of Eagles 
Diabetes Research Center at the University of Iowa.
  In addition, the Eagles also provide educational benefits to 
graduates of Home on the Range in Sentinel Butte, North Dakota; High 
Sky Girls Ranch in Midland, Texas; and Bob Hope High School in Port 
Arthur, Texas. The Eagles also operate Eagle Village, located in 
Bradenton, Florida, a 26-acre senior community open to any member who 
has at least 15 years of continuous membership in the Fraternal Order 
of Eagles.
  In addition to large national charitable initiatives, Eagles work at 
the local level to make their communities better places to live and 
work. Many activities focus on children and improving their quality of 
life. Eagles Aeries and Auxiliaries conduct toy drives, send young 
victims of domestic violence to camp, hold baby showers for needy 
families, provide Christmas and Thanksgiving baskets, provide backpacks 
and school supplies, make quilts for nursing homes, and more.
  On September 16, 2008, the Fraternal Order of Eagles signed an 
agreement with the University of lowa to partner in a 5-year 
fundraising project that will culminate with the Fraternal Order of 
Eagles Diabetes Research Center at the University of Iowa. The 
Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center will be a dedicated 
center for diabetes research within the Institute for Biomedical 
Discovery Building at the University of Iowa. The Eagles are committing 
to raise no less than $25 million over the next 5 years to fund this 
center. Money fundraised by the Fraternal Order of Eagles will go 
directly to medical research. Currently, an estimated 23.6 million 
adults and children in the USA--8 percent of the population--have 
diabetes.
  The Eagles' membership is a broad cross-section of America, ranging 
from blue-collar workers to teachers to doctors and everyone in 
between. Seven United States Presidents have been Eagles: Theodore R. 
Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, 
John F. Kennedy, James Earl ``Jimmy'' Carter, Ronald W. Reagan. In 
addition, many famous Americans have been active Eagles, including: 
Arnold Palmer; Bob Hope; Jimmy Durante; Max Baer, boxing heavyweight 
champion; Tony Stewart, NASCAR driver; Billy Ray Cyrus, musical 
performer and entertainer; and baseball Hall of Famers Stan Musial and 
Roger Maris.
  One hundred and ten years ago, the Eagles organized with a simple 
objective, to ``make human life more desirable by lessening its ills 
and promoting peace, prosperity, gladness, and hope.'' You have 
succeeded.
  Over the last 110 years, the Eagles have been an integral part of the 
fabric of our country--providing civic leadership, raising funds for 
children, the elderly and medical research, and improving the country 
in ways great and small. The Eagles have made the United States an 
immeasurably better place to live, work, and raise families.
  Thank you for all you have done for our communities and our country. 
Congratulations to the members and leadership of the Fraternal Order of 
Eagles. Best wishes for the next 110 years and beyond.

                          ____________________