MASON'S FLAG
In the charge to an Entered Apprentice each of us has been told: "In the
state, you are to be a quiet and peaceful subject, true to your government, and
just to your country; you are not to countenance disloyalty or rebellion, but
patiently submit to the legal authority, and conform with cheerfulness to the
government of the country in which you live."
The second, third and fourth charges, to which all Masters must assent before
being permitted to assume the Oriental Chair, are as follows:
"You agree to be a peaceable citizen, and cheerfully to conform to the laws
of the country in which you reside."
"You promise not to be concerned in plots and conspiracies against
government, but patiently to submit to the law and constituted authorities."
"You agree to pay a proper respect to the civil magistrates; to work
diligently, live creditably, and act honorably toward all men." In the ninth
charge an elected Master agrees: "To promote the general good of society, to
cultivate the social virtues and propagate the knowledge of the Mystic Arts."
None who hear these charges need to be reminded of the assurances given them
prior to their first obligation, regarding the allegiance all owe to their
country.
These matters are here rehearsed that all may recall that Masonry is,
actively and ritualistically, a supporter of established government; those who
wish further assurances may read all the Old Charges of a Freemason for
themselves, particularly the first; "Concerning God and Religion" and second,
"Of the Civil Magistrate, Supreme and Subordinate."
A good citizen is not necessarily a Mason, but no indifferent citizen can
possibly be a good Mason. The unpatriotic Mason is an impossibility, as much so
as "Dry Water, or "Black Sunlight." One hundred and fifty years ago this month
our forefathers declared that inasmuch as all men are created free and equal,
they and their descendants shall always be free and independent. they set up
their own government, these men who brought a new idea of government into the
world, and they fashioned that new idea of the very stuff from which Masonry is
made; aye, they cut the cloth of the flag from the garments of Freemasonry and
with every stitch which put a star in its field of blue, they sewed in a Masonic
principle of "Right, Toleration and Freedom of Conscience." They declared
against tyranny and oppression, and they pledged their all - wealth, comfort,
position, happiness and life itself - to maintain and support this revolutionary
declaration that men are free and have a right to govern themselves.
This is neither the time nor the place to read again the inspiring story of
the Revolutionary War, of the privations and problems of those early days, of
the power which was Washington and the fire which was Jefferson. But, in this,
the anniversary month of the birth of this nation, all Masons may well pause for
a moment in their busy lives to think of what Masonry teaches of citizenship and
patriotism.
Ours is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." All
have an equal share in it; one man's vote is as big and as powerful as the vote
of another. But we do not always remember that there is no right in all the
world, whether having its origin in God or in man, which does not bring with it
a corresponding duty. We have, so we proclaim, the right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness; therefore, we cannot escape the duty of seeing to it
that our fellowmen have the same right. In 1776 we declared that we were free
and equal of right; we thereby assumed the duty of maintaining that contention
before all the world; the duty of fighting for what we claimed, no matter whom
the opponent might be.
All battles are not fought with shot and shell, and not all opponents of our
idea of liberty wear the robes of George the Third. We have a never-ending
conflict with the forces of indifference, of selfishness and of ignorance;
forces which are just as powerful and just as able to destroy this nation and
this government as the armed force of men and guns which any nation or group of
nations could bring against us. It is against these that the good citizen must
always be in arms, these which the true Mason is always willing to fight and to
conquer, even if it be himself he must first meet in conflict.
Any American citizen will resent with all the force of his being any attempt
at disenfranchisement. His vote is own; his inalienable right, guaranteed to him
under the constitution, the very heart and soul of his Americanism. But the vote
is not only a guaranteed and inalienable right, it is a solemn duty. If all have
this right, and none use it, there can be no government (of the people). If all
have the right and only a minority use it, we have a government by the minority
of the majority. Then what becomes of our boast that this government is "By The
People?" The Mason who does not go to the polls and register his voice, no
matter how small a part of the world it may be, not only gives up voluntarily
the right for which hundreds of thousands of patriots fought, bled and died for,
but dodges his solemn duty to the State in failing to live up to that Charge
which admonishes him to be "True To His Government and Just To His Country."
Injustice was the underlying reason, the foundation stone on which all the
other reasons rested, which caused men to rebel against the English King, and
declare themselves independent. Taxation without representation; the feeling
that they were being exploited; that the millions of subjects of the King, loyal
and true to the ideals of the Mother-Country as they knew themselves to be, were
but pawns in a game in which George the Third played with human destinies for
purely selfish reason; these were the bitter dregs of the cup held to the lips
of the colonists, which they could not swallow.
Injustice, inhumanity, the exploitation of the weak by the strong, the
oppression of the helpless by authority, the enslavement of men's bodies or
their souls by force - these are anathema to Americans. And so our legal
structure, our courts and out ideals of justice are all so arranged and used
that every possible protection is thrown about a man who must stand before his
fellows, accused of wrong- doing, lest injustice be done.
At the very root of our system of justice is the jury system. But what a
mockery a "Jury of his Peers" often becomes! When it is a mockery, it is because
we, who would fight to the death under a waving Flag of Stars and Stripes rather
than let an enemy have one inch of our sacred soil, often turn away from the
call to jury duty and allow selfish pleasure, indifference and personal
convenience to keep us from doing our share in the administration of that
justice, to promote that for which this nation was born.
A jury-serving citizen may not be a Mason, but no real Mason who obeys the
teachings of our great Fraternity will not let anything less potent and
important than his duty to his family cause him to "Beg Off" from jury service,
or try to dodge his share in the administration of that justice which we
proclaim is "For All." It is a proud Masonic boast that politics is not
discussed in lodge rooms, and that Masonry is not a power politically. But the
boast is and should be true only when the word "Politics" and "Politically" are
used in the narrow, partisan sense. Masons cannot be, in their lodge rooms,
"Republicans" or "Democrats." But Masons can and should take a most earnest
interest in the political activities of the nation as a whole and cast their
votes and raise their voices for those moments which are for the benefit of all.
Particularly is this true of the public school system.
The "Little Red School House," which so well served the forefathers of this
nation, is rapidly passing; the consolidated school, the better city and town
schools with new and better methods of transportation are taking its place. But
only the form of the building and the quality of the teaching have changed; the
underlying idea is the same. And for that idea Masons have always stood firm,
and must always stand four-square.
Though our Declaration of Independence asserts that men (people) are created
free and equal, we know that no power of government can keep them equal.
Different people, different minds; different people, different characters. All
government can do and all it should do towards preservation of equality is to
assure equality of opportunity. And that is what the public school system does,
provides an equality of opportunity by which the high and the low, the rich and
the poor, the clever and the stupid, may have equal chances to drink from the
fountain of knowledge, equal chances to become well informed men and women,
equal opportunity to rise to the top!
With some of our greatest leaders coming from log cabins, no one in all the
world can say this nation does not practice what it preaches. The highest gift
in the hands of the nation can be and has been given to a son of plain people,
and will again. That equality of opportunity today has its beginnings in our
public school systems. The Mason who is not interested in those schools, whether
or not his children attend them, the Mason who is not alert to prevent
encroachments upon the system, which some organizations continually attempt; the
Mason who is not a self-constituted watch-dog of juvenile freedom and the
child's right to the best education that State can provide, has little right to
wear the Square and Compasses, and none to answer "Well!" when in some far-off
day a Great Judge shall ask him, "How Did Ye With Your Obligation as a
Freemason?" Over your head, and mine, waves the most beautiful Flag in all the
world. Its red is the red of the blood shed by selfless men, for the
establishment and the preservation of the Union. Its blue is the blue of the
sky, a symbol of limitless opportunity; the blue of Blue Lodge Masonry, which
first raised the flag aloft and whose hands have held it high for one hundred
and fifty years. Its White Stars and Stripes symbolize purity; the purity of
aim, purity of ideals, purity of intentions and purity of purpose to sacrifice
for the common good.
Let us keep the red unspotted; let us maintain the blue as loyally as we
maintain the sacred institution under whose letter "G" we meet together; and let
us, one and all, from the Worshipful Master in the East, to the youngest entered
Apprentice in the Northeast Corner of the Lodge, keep the white unspotted, that
the government "Of The People, By The People and For The People Shall Not Perish
From The Earth!"
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