efforts to assist the Grand Army of the Republic. To inculcate loyalty to country, respect for the flag, and to keep alive the glory of the deeds of their fathers are some of the purposes of their organizations.

The Grand Army of the Republic will cease to exist when the last survivor of that great fratricidal conflict for the preservation of the Union answers to the last roll call. It can have no successor. Who can more successfully carry on the patriotic work that the Grand Army of the Republic is performing than the sons and daughters of those who imperiled their lives for their country's salvation?

I earnestly recommend that departments and posts encourage and foster the organization of the Sons and Daughters of Veterans, so that when the Grand Army of the Republic is but a memory our children will keep alive the memories of their fathers, the heroic deeds performed by them, and the sacrifices made for country and its flag for the perpetuity of the Union.

They will keep each star unblemished,
And its stripes without a stain;
They will take the veterans' places
And repeat their roll of fame;
They will keep our country's honor,

And the flag above the wrong;
We will trust them with the story
When the "boys in blue are gone.
Respectfully submitted in F., C. and L.,

OSCAR A. JANES,

Junior Vice Commander in Chief.

REPORT OF SURGEON GENERAL.

BROOKLYN, N. Y., August 1, 1915.

Des Moines, Iowa.

GEORGE A. NEWMAN,
Adjutant General, Grand Army of the Republic,

MY DEAR COMRADE: I submit herewith the report required from me as surgeon general of the Grand Army of the Republic. No Να official duties have been required from me during the year. Occa sionally opportunity has presented itself to give advice to a comrade individually. To do this has always been esteemed by me as a priv ilege and a pleasure.

Perhaps the best service that I can render to my comrades of the Grand Army in return for the honor which they did me in electing me as their surgeon general for this year is to offer some sugges tions as to the particular conditions affecting the health of men who have passed the age of three score and ten. Beyond doubt the men who fought under the flag of the Union from 1861 to 1865, and who still survive, after the passage of 50 years or more, fall under the heading of "select lives." It is by reason of exceptional strength that it has been possible for so many to escape the toll of disease and death which the passing years have continually exacted. They are examples of the "survival of the fittest."

In my own personal relations with my comrades it has been a source of continual pleasure to me to see the activity and vigor which they display as a class. The marks of physical vigor which are so uniformly presented by these men are so distinct as to naturally suggest the idea that in the survivors of the Grand Army at the present time are to be found the most splendid specimens of American manhood. The weak and the dissipated have long ago fallen out, and no one can look over such an assembly as any department encampment, and, above all, a national encampment, without experiencing a thrill of admiration at the high average of manhood which is presented by the men there assembled.

It is inevitable, however, that a certain percentage of our number should pass away every year. According to the report of the Commissioner of Pensions during the six years from 1909 to 1914, inclusive, the percentage of loss among Civil War pensioners gradually increased from 5.2 per cent in 1909 to 7.3 per cent in 1914. The percentage of deaths among the comrades of my own post-U. S. Grant, No. 327, of Brooklyn, N. Y., with a membership of about 250, during the years 1913-14 was 5.2 per cent.

While it is undeniable that the percentage of loss must increase with the advancing age of the veterans, and that the host of the