“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.”
-Mark Twain
Being “misinformed” has been a by-product of news reporting since the invention of the printing press. The search to obtain a totally objective news source is no easy task. In today’s political circles, we have come to know it as “fake news.”
The founding of Lions Clubs International, formerly known as the ‘International Association of Lions Clubs’ is credited to Dr. William Perry Woods of Evansville, Indiana on October 25, 1916 when he filed articles of incorporation to that effect with the Indiana Secretary of State. It’s a matter of record and was also reported in the ‘Evansville Courier and Press’ (October 27, 1916).
Leading up to and during the first Lions Convention in Dallas, Texas on October 8-10, 1917, the ‘Dallas Morning News’ informed its readers in bold headlines: INTERNATIONAL HEAD OF LIONS IN DALLAS, referring to Dr. Woods’ arrival in the city to help plan the meeting in which he was to preside. On October 7th, the newspaper printed an in-depth accounting of the numerous planned events to take place, along with a photo of Dr. Woods. On the first day of the convention, October 8, the ‘Dallas Morning News’ reported the arrival of various delegates, and Melvin Jones was recognized as representing the Chicago Lions Club.
But it was the October 10th edition of the ‘Dallas Morning News’ that set the record straight: Reaffirming that the Lions organization was to retain its name—International Association of Lions Clubs; the election of Dr. Woods as the first President of the Association; and informing the reader that “Dr. Woods has been at the head of the movement to form an international organization of Lions Clubs.”
What a difference two years can make. Soon after the 2nd convention in St. Louis, Missouri and by the 1919 3rd Lions Convention held in Chicago, Illinois, the name of Dr. Woods had all but disappeared. It was about this time that Melvin Jones, still the elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Association, embarked on his self-serving enterprise to declare himself as the true founder of the Association. He wasted no time in 1919 to file for a new charter for the Association in the State of Illinois, to cancel out the Woods charter of 1916 in Indiana. Dr. Woods was heavily engaged in dealing with his growing medical practice at this time, and with his silence, coupled with Melvin Jones’ ongoing boasting as founder, people soon became convinced that just maybe Melvin Jones was the founder. A number of Dr. Woods’ friends were obviously disturbed about this, for they knew that Dr. Woods and not Melvin Jones was the founder. But Dr. Woods sealed his fate by letting them know that he was too busy with his medical practice and told them that Melvin Jones was “looking for honor and glory and if that is what he is looking for, let him have it.”
With the passing of only a few years and the Dallas Convention being still fresh in the minds of the delegates, it would seem that the legacy of Dr. Woods would be firmly established. But it wasn’t to be. Melvin Jones never let up on his claim as founder, but the newspapers around the country in the 1920’s only identified him as Secretary-Treasurer. But beginning in the early 1930’s, national newspapers suddenly had him as the “founder,” and that label became permanent along with his new title of “Secretary General.”
The San Diego Union (1-22-1932) headlined Jones as the ‘DADDY’ OF LIONS and reported that he founded the organization in Chicago in 1914. Melvin Jones was quoted in the ‘Illinois State Journal-Register (Springfield) that the International association was actually chartered as an Illinois corporation on August 25, 1919. The Louisiana ‘Times-Picayune’ (7-22-1941) lists the presidents of the association up to the present time, and L.H. Lewis is shown as the first when he was actually the second behind Dr. Woods, who is absent from the list. The ‘Dallas Morning News’ (11-9-1937) reporting on the death of L. H. Lewis, identified him numerous times in the column as the ‘First International Lions Club President.’ The Dallas paper on February 2, 1940 reported that Melvin Jones was returning to Dallas where “he started the organization twenty years ago,” was to arrive at the Hotel Adolphus “where he started it.” Melvin was also given credit for organizing the Business Circle of Chicago, the club he joined in 1913 that was actually organized in 1908, and that he “first conceived the Lions International in 1913, but it was not until 1917 he actually organized it.” The Morning News on April 2, 1965 wrote, “The beginning of Lions as an association of service clubs was the brainchild of Dr. W.P. Woods of Evansville, Ind., who later relinquished claim to the movement…” Enough is enough, but the examples of journalistic misinformation tied to the founding of LCI are far too numerous to list here. It is simply shocking that the ‘Dallas Morning News’ did a complete reversal after 1917 and transferred credit of the founding of the association from Dr. Woods to Melvin Jones.