UNITED MASONIC RELIEF
To relieve the distressed is a duty taught the Freemason as one of the first
lessons of the Ancient Craft. Nothing in Freemasonry is more touching, more
solemn or more beautiful than the Rite of Destitution; just how closely it
nestles in the hearts of all who experience it, is demonstrated by the
reputation which the Masonic Fraternity has for assisting the needy and being
charitable toward all mankind, more especially a brother Mason.
Masonic relief is practiced by the brother toward the needy, by the Lodge
toward those of its members who have fallen upon evil days, and often toward the
profane as well. Masonic relief by a group of Lodges to a sister Lodge is
commonplace in American Masonic history. But Masonic relief recently has come to
have a new and broader meaning, and to be administered with a national vision.
The Great War taught American Freemasonry that, no matter how ideal was its
group of forty-nine Grand Lodges, each sovereign in its own jurisdiction, was
the right to make its own rules and laws, decide for itself what the ancient
Landmarks are, and rule its Masonic principality as it thought wise, it was not
a system designed for united Masonic effort on a National scale. The United
States Government could not treat with forty-nine Grand Lodges, which might have
forty-nine different ideas as to how Masonry might function overseas for the
relief and benefit of the men in khaki. The result was that, except for a few
sporadic and divided efforts, organized Freemasonry in America played but a very
small part in the great struggle beyond the ocean. The spirit was willing,
anxious; brotherhood was frustrated, not by its lack of heart, but by its lack
of the machinery - or, perhaps it is better said, by its having too much
machinery for such an undertaking.
Out of this trouble - and it was a very real trouble to many earnest American
Freemasons - grew The Masonic Service Association, formed of a majority of the
Grand Lodges of the United States. In this organization the several Grand Lodges
created a servant which could work for them all, which could do what no one of
them could do for itself. One of the two main objects of the Association is the
collection, distribution and administration of United Masonic Relief; when fire
or flood, or other national disaster makes such relief imperative, so that
Masons can show nationally, as well as individually, that they have fully
learned the lesson of the Rite of Destitution.
This is a great country. It has not only wonderful natural resources, but
wonderful potentialities for trouble. We are subject to disastrous fires. We
have tornadoes in the Middle West which do more damage in less time than wind
storms in any other part of the earth. We have the courage to set up Lares and
Penates where nature - and, until we learn, we set them up not always strong
enough - result, a Galveston or a Johnstown Flood. And we have the Father of the
Waters, and the disastrous floods which afflict the lower Mississippi region.
During the immediate past, Freemasonry has had a chance to test the
instrumentality which the Grand Lodges set up. First came the terrible storm in
Florida, which did such enormous damage, then the terrific flood in the lower
Mississippi Valley, which, even if less destructive of life than the Florida
Hurricane, was definitely greater in the destruction of property. Ten counties
have been flooded in the State of Mississippi, with a total of seven hundred and
thirty-five thousand acres. Thirty-five counties have suffered a similar fate in
Arkansas, and nearly one-half of Louisiana has been under water. The total flood
damage throughout the entire flood area is estimated by those familiar with
conditions, to be at least one- half billion dollars.
More than twenty thousand members of the Masonic Fraternity affiliated with
more than two hundred Lodges in the Jurisdictions of Arkansas, Louisiana and
Mississippi are materially affected by the floods. Many of these members of the
Craft have lost everything they had in the world, while others are able to hold
on until a gracious Providence, a beneficent government, or the Masonic
Fraternity shall render aid.
In both disasters The Masonic Service Association was immediately upon the
scene, to offer its help and cooperation to the Masonic Authorities in the
afflicted area, and to make its appeal, not only to its constituent members, but
to all Masonic Jurisdictions, for contributions to the relief of worthy poor and
distressed Master Masons, their widows, orphans and dependents.
Let it be roundly stated here and now, lest some critic think the Association
desires credit where no credit is due. Some Masonic relief would have come to
Florida and to the Mississippi Flood sufferers had their been no Masonic Service
Association. The great heart of Freemasonry does not need an Association to be
touched by want and suffering. But the relief could not have been either so
great, so prompt, or so effectively administered had their been no central
agency to correlate the many appeals, and assist in the allocation of funds. A
movement with no leader, or with too many leaders, will not progress near as
fast as that which has a competent general at the head. It was in activities of
this kind that the association was of such great value in these two distressing
calamities.
We are a cautious race; we naturally discount a man's own story of his
trouble, until we have investigated. This is sound Masonic practice. Let an
appeal for assistance come to the Lodge, and a committee is commonly appointed
to investigate and report the actual facts to the Lodge. This, not that the
Lodge distrusts the good faith of the appealing brother, but to get a
dispassionate and impersonal survey of the conditions. In these national
disasters, The Masonic Service Association was able to act as a "Committee" and
to ascertain and report to all the Grand Lodges the actual conditions and the
need.
Non-Masons not infrequently ask? "But isn't the Red Cross for just such
purposes, and do you not duplicate the work of that organization when you, too,
attempt national relief?" The answers are many. Consider the War. Was the red
Cross sufficient overseas? Had the Y.M.C.A. no function? The Salvation Army? The
Red Cross does, indeed, get promptly on the job in national disasters, but it
cannot do it all. And among the "All" which it cannot do is the individual
rehabilitation work which Masonry is so peculiarly fitted to accomplish, because
of that Mystic tie which binds brother unto brother, and brother unto the lodge;
and, which neither the Red Cross, nor any other sectarian organization can
duplicate or understand.
The outpouring of relief from the various Masonic bodies over the United
States for both disasters was astonishing only to Non-Masons; to the brethren,
it was the expected thing. But never before have funds, from Masonry united to
relieve the distress been so quickly administered by one group of Masons; and it
was this centralization of relief authority and means which placed the money
contributed where it did the most good with the absolute minimum of expense. In
Florida, it was less than one cent per dollar - more than 99 cents of every
dollar contributed went to relieve distress; the partial penny remaining paying
for office, postage, printing, advertising, travel, etc. The figures are not yet
in for Mississippi Flood Relief, since that task is still in the process of
doing as these words are being written. It will be as low in proportion,
although the greater area affected, the destruction of so many of the existing
means of transportation and the consequent difficulties might well raise it to a
higher level, and it will still be low indeed.
The amount of relief in Florida was $114,236.97 from all sources, of which
almost one hundred thousand dollars ($96,649.16) came from Grand Lodges and
other Masonic bodies outside of the State of Florida. In the Mississippi relief
campaign, more than $500,000 has been contributed at the present writing, and
the money is still coming in. It is of special interest to note that in addition
to Lodges and Grand Lodges, nearly every Supreme Body of Masonry in North
America contributed to the Mississippi relief funds; they did not stop to ask
whether those to whom the relief would go were Companions or Sir Knights or
Nobles or Brothers, or Sisters of the Eastern Star. Masons and their families
were in distress, and practically all joined with Grand Lodges and individual
Lodges everywhere to contribute to the one relief fund asked for by the three
Grand Lodges, through the Masonic Service Association, for the relief of Masons,
regardless of Rite or Degree. And it is to be noted that the greatest
contribution, except for those from Lodges and Grand Lodges, came from women of
the Eastern Star, who opened their purses as wide as their hearts.
Both in Florida and the flooded area, the procedure has been of the same
general character; immediately upon receipt of the news of the disaster the
Executive Secretary of The Masonic Service Association went immediately to the
scene, there to meet the Grand Masters whose jurisdictions were suffering,
advise with him or them, assist in sending forth the appeal, and in creating the
machinery necessary for the proper use of the funds received. It is necessary,
in such sudden disasters, first to create an organization for the use of the
funds; next, to make a survey of the situation and find out just what is needed
most, and where; and finally to see that Masons in distress know where to come
and how to reach the aid which is to be had for the asking.
In Florida the situation was complicated by the fact that there were so many
sojourning Masons, not members of Florida Lodges. Relatives and friends all over
the United States appealed to the Grand Lodge of Florida for information
concerning their loved ones. It is to be noted that no questions were raised in
giving out of Masonic relief as to where a brother belonged; as a matter of
fact, of the 527 families relieved by Masons in Florida, 228 had men in Florida
Lodges; the remaining 297 possessed affiliates of other Grand Jurisdictions. In
the Mississippi flood area the problem is made difficulty not only by the fact
that three States are effected, but that the vastness of the devastation, and
the utter need of many for enough help to get started again.
The machinery put in operation was run by the Grand Lodge of Florida, in
Florida; and in the flooded regions by a Board of Control of Grand Officers from
Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas who elected Grand Master Johnson of
Mississippi as Chairman. All the funds received have gone into a common relief
fund; there has been no segregation of money for this body, or that Rite. The
great bulk of the relief has been a spontaneous outpouring from Masons
everywhere, to Masons, - to be disbursed by kindly, loving brethren of the
Mystic Tie.
For the benefit of those who may be interested in figures, a table is
appended to this Bulletin, showing the amount contributed to the Mississippi
Flood Fund by various bodies and States, up to and including July 15, 1927.
Figures for Florida are not given, as that relief campaign is closed, the Grand
Master furnishing a C.P.A. audit of the work of his committee at the Annual
Communication of the Grand Lodge in April, a copy of which has been sent to all
entitled to receive it.
Mississippi Flood Relief is not yet finished, and cannot be for some time.
But any Mason can well be proud of the relief offered by Masonry to Masons; and
the vast majority of brethren of the United States can look with pride upon the
table published herewith, and exult that the Rite of Destitution meant something
real, something vital to their Lodges and Grand Lodges, and the allied Supreme
Bodies of other Rites.
It is pleasant to publish the following Resolution, adopted in the Grand
Lodge of Florida at the Annual Communication assembled in Jacksonville, last
April:
RESOLUTION OF THANKS
"Resolved by the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Florida, that we acknowledge
with grateful hearts the liberal and substantial aid and assistance rendered by
the Masons of the United States to the Sojourning and Resident Masons of Florida
who were injured and damaged by the storm that visited a portion of our State
during the month of September, 1926.
"That our especial thanks are due, and hereby ex-pressed, to The Masonic
Service Association of the United States, to its very efficient Executive
Secretary, Brother Andrew L. Randell, P.G.M., and its other executive officers,
and to the Masonic Bodies named below, for valuable aid and financial assistance
rendered in the emergency which confronted us.
(Here was inserted a list of all contributors)
"Resolved Further: That we express the hope and belief that this
manifestation of humanity and brotherly love may further cement the bond of
Fraternal regard which should exist between real Masons through the length and
breadth of our common country. "That the Grand Secretary, F. & A.M. of Florida,
is hereby directed to transmit a certified copy of this resolution, under his
hand and the Seal of the Grand Lodge, to each of the bodies and the individuals
mentioned above."
"SO MOTE IT BE"
back to top |
