THE BUILDER MAGAZINE
november 1922
volume 8 - number 11
The Trial of the American
Masonic Federation in the United States Court
BY BRO. CHARLES C. HUNT, DEPUTY GRAND SECRETARY. IOWA
In THE BUILDER for September Brother Hunt gave a general
statement of the American Masonic Federation Case: in the issue for October he
made a critical examination of the claims of that body to the higher degrees: he
now furnishes an account of the manner in which the affairs of that
organization, masquerading as Masonic, were brought to the attention of Federal
authorities, and of the action taken in consequence. A careful study of this
series of articles, the fourth and last of which will be published next month,
will give a reader a clear insight into some of the most important principles of
Masonic jurisprudence.
MATTHEW MCBLAIN THOMSON, head of the self-styled American
Masonic Federation, sent out paid organizers all over the country whose duty it
was to organize lodges and confer Masonic degrees. The charge for the Craft
degrees ranged from $35.00 up to $50.00 or more, the usual charge being about
$50.00. For the Scottish Rite degrees from the Fourth to the Thirty-Third the
charge was from $135.0 to $200.00. Sometimes the Shrine and Templar degrees
were given for this amount, sometimes not.
Occasionally, these organizers in different cities would be
arrested by the police on the charge of obtaining money under false pretences.
Sometimes convictions were had, but usually these convictions were hard to
obtain, for the reason that it was difficult to disprove statements made by
Thomson and his organizers. This difficulty existed because of a lack of
knowledge on the part of Masons called to testify in such trials.
In 1915 one of these organizers by the name of Ranson was
arrested in St. Louis. The Post Office Inspector in charge in St. Louis learned
of the case, and concluded that it was a matter for the United States Government
to take up since it involved a fraudulent use of the mails. He therefore
assigned one of his inspectors, Brother Monte G. Price, to investigate the
matter. Brother Price was not able to enter actively upon this work until 1919;
from that time until the trial last May he spent much of his time making an
investigation in various parts of this country, and even going to Scotland and
to France.
As a result of his investigations, an indictment was found
in the District Court of the United States against Matthew McBlain Thomson,
Thomas Perrot, Dominic Bergera and Robert Jamieson, and the case was brought to
trial in the United States District Court at Salt Lake City, Utah. As the
regular judge in this district is a Mason, Judge Wade of Iowa was assigned to
try the case and he impressed all who attended the trial with his absolute
fairness to both the prosecution and the defense.
The writer of this article attended this trial, and
procured a stenographic copy of the proceedings. Therefore, in what follows, he
is speaking from his own knowledge as well as from the official report.
The indictment charged the defendants, Matthew McBlain
Thomson, Thomas Perrot, Dominic Bergera and Robert Jamieson, with entering into
a conspiracy and using the mails in furthering and carrying out that conspiracy.
Said defendants were officers of the American Masonic Federation and the
Confederated Supreme Council, organizations claiming to control the Craft and
higher degrees of Masonry, respectively.
THE CONSPIRACY
The conspiracy charged was that of devising a scheme to
defraud, in that, as set forth in the indictment:
"Said defendants would make written and verbal, fraudulent
and deceptive representations regarding the authority, chain of title, power and
history of said two corporations; that said defendants would represent to the
public generally throughout the United States of America, and to the persons so
to be defrauded as aforesaid, for the purpose of inducing such persons to join
said corporations, among other things, the following: that Freemasonry was and
is an ancient, exclusive and honourable Fraternity of great merit and
respectability, that all true and regular Freemasonry in Europe and America
traces its antecedents, authority and power to the ancient lodges of England and
Scotland; and that said defendants would falsely and fraudulently represent,
pretend and claim that said American Masonic Federation and said The
Confederated Supreme Councils of the American Masonic Federation were and are
the only regular, legitimate and true Scottish Rite Freemason bodies in America,
and that they trace their history through regular and true charters to
legitimate Scottish Rite bodies in Scotland, which said Scottish Rite bodies
themselves were and are of unimpeachable authority, reputation and
responsibility and which reckoned their existence from time immemorial; that
said American Masonic Federation had full power and authority within itself to
confer what are commonly known as the three Craft or Blue Lodge degrees and to
create and charter Craft and Blue Lodges and Grand Lodges superimposed thereupon
throughout the United States of America, by virtue of the right and power
contained in a charter of authority from the Supreme Council A.&A.S.R. of
Freemasonry for the Sovereign and Independent State of Louisiana, a corporation
of said State of Louisiana (hereinafter in this indictment referred to simply as
the Supreme Council of Louisiana), to said Thomson and thereafter surrendered
and transferred to said American Masonic Federation; that said Supreme Council
of Louisiana itself traced its Masonic authority and power to Mother Lodge
Kilwinning No. 0 of Scotland, represented to be the oldest known source from
which Masonic power flowed; that said American Masonic Federation and said The
Confederated Supreme Councils of the American Masonic Federation had authority
to confer within the United States of America what are commonly called the
higher degrees in Masonry and to create and charter consistories, councils,
conclaves and tabernacles by virtue of a patent granted said Thomson by the
Grand Council of Rites of Scotland, under date of the twentieth day of April, in
the year eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, which said patent said Thomson had
surrendered and transferred to said The Confederated Supreme Councils of the
American Masonic Federation; itself a part of and within said American Masonic
Federation; that said Grand Council of Rites of Scotland had recognized said The
Confederated Supreme Councils of the American Masonic Federation; that said
Grand Council of Rites of Scotland was the oldest Masonic high degree body in
the world, was self-existing, the parent of many, the offspring of none,
embracing within its bosom all rites and systems which have, in the course of
time, been gathered around the parent stem of Scottish Masonry, and that it was
a regular, legitimate and true Masonic high degree body of good reputation and
unquestioned authority; that said patent given by the Grand Council of Rites of
Scotland to said Thomson was the first charter granted by regular Scottish
authority to work the Scottish Rite in America and that by virtue of said
alleged charter of authority from the Supreme Council of Louisiana and of said
patent from the Grand Council of Rites of Scotland, heretofore described, said
American Masonic Federation and said The Confederated Supreme Councils of the
American Masonic Federation, had the only legitimate and direct chain of title
and authority of any Scottish Rite Masons in America, that they alone in America
were in regular possession of the Scottish Rite degrees, and that, because of
their power and authority predicated upon the alleged charter and the patent
aforesaid, they alone in America could confer true, genuine and regular Scottish
Rite degrees from the First to the Thirty-Third inclusive; that said defendants,
by themselves and their agents and employee, the names of said agents and
employees being to the Grand Jurors unknown, therefore their names are omitted
from this indictment, in the name of and by pretended authority from, said
American Masonic Federation, would pretend to grant charters of supposedly
legitimate, regular and authoritative origin, and to create subdivisions,
branches, groups and organizations of supposedly regular Masonry, and would
pretend to confer legitimate Scottish Rite Masonic degrees upon all such persons
as might, by means of said false and fraudulent representations, pretensions and
claims, be induced to apply for and purchase the same and to transfer to said
defendants, their agents or employees sums of money therefor; and to aid and
assist in conferring said pretended and fraudulent degrees, and as a part of
said scheme and artifice to defraud, said defendants would make and print, and
cause to be made and printed charters, diplomas, certificates and commissions
purporting to give to the holders and bearers thereof true and genuine Masonic
degrees, rites, powers and authority; that further, as a part of said scheme and
artifice to defraud, and to aid in executing the same, and to convey and
communicate to persons so to be defrauded the representations herein alleged,
the said defendants would print and cause to be printed and distributed
throughout the United States, books, pamphlets and statements which would be
artfully and carefully prepared, containing pictures of alleged true charters of
authority and affiliation to said Thomson and said corporations so as to mislead
and deceive the persons who might read them and induce such persons to join said
American Masonic Federation or The Confederated Supreme Councils of the American
Masonic Federation, or any of their several branches, subdivisions, lodges or
chapters, in the belief and with the understanding that they were joining
institutions having the true, genuine and legitimate history, power and
authority, which, as hereinbefore alleged, said defendants would claim and
represent them to have; that further, as a part of said scheme and artifice to
defraud, said defendants would publish and print and cause to be published and
printed, at Salt Lake City aforesaid, in the name of said corporations a monthly
journal or magazine entitled, "The Universal Freemason," which said journal or
magazine should be published every month throughout said period of time at Salt
Lake City aforesaid and should be distributed by means of the postoffice
establishment of the United States throughout the United States of America and
should be sold to the persons to be defrauded as aforesaid; that said magazine
should contain cunningly and carefully prepared articles and statements in
support of the claims and pretensions of said defendants, as hereinbefore
stated, and should be made by said defendants with the hope and expectation that
credulous and uninformed persons, to whom said magazine or some of the copies
thereof might come, would be attracted by their alluring and misleading
statements and thereby induced to join said corporations, or their subdivisions,
lodges, chapters or branches, and to pay said defendant or said corporations,
the fees required as a privilege for so joining; and that all said printed
charters, diplomas, certificates, commissions, books, pamphlets, and magazines
are too numerous, voluminous and lengthy to be set out in this indictment in
full and are for that reason omitted by this Grand Jury. . . .
"That said defendants and each of them throughout the
period of time hereinbefore alleged, well knew of the falsity and fraudulent and
misleading character of said representations, claims and pretences and of the
falsity and fraudulent character and purpose of said artifice, scheme and
device; and that all and regular of the false and fraudulent statements,
representations and pretences hereinbefore set forth, would be and were intended
by said defendants to be made, done and practised for the fraudulent purpose on
the part of said defendants and each and all of them to deceive the said persons
so to be defrauded, and fraudulently to induce said persons, and each of them,
to pay sums of money to said defendants, their agents or employees, or to said
The American Masonic Federation and said The Confederated Supreme Councils of
the American Masonic Federation in return for membership or degrees in either or
both of said corporations, and to cheat and defraud said persons so to be
defrauded as aforesaid, with the intent then and there on the part of said
defendants fraudulently obtained, in whole or in part, to the use, gain and
benefit of said defendants and each of them, and of said other persons to the
Grand Jury unknown, with whom said defendants conspired, as aforesaid. That
said conspiracy of defendants was continuous in nature and in purpose and was
continuously in existence and in the process of execution by said defendants
throughout all the time from and after the said first day of May, in the year
nineteen hundred and eighteen, until and including the day of the finding and
presentation of this indictment, as aforesaid."
The first three named defendants only were on trial.
Robert Jamieson did his part of the work in Scotland and could not be reached by
the courts in this country. He had been a member of a regular Masonic lodge
under the Grand Lodge of Scotland. In 1914 he was expelled by that Grand Lodge
for his part in this scheme. However, he continued to sign diplomas and
certificates issued by this organization, thus giving the Impression that the
authority claimed from Scotland was genuine.
THE FIRST WITNESS
The first witness called by the Government was Brother
Monte G. Price, the Post Office Inspector residing at St. Louis, Mo. He
testified that he had been assigned to investigate this case by his superior
officer in 1915, but had not been able to do any work on it until four years
later. On August 6, 1919, he interviewed the defendants and obtained from them
a written statement of the source of their claimed authority, which was
substantially similar to that stated above. He found that the charter from the
Grand Council of Rites, which was quoted in the preceding article, was the only
authority Thomson had or claimed to have for conferring the higher degrees, from
the Fourth to the Thirty-Third inclusive. He also found that the only authority
he had or claimed to have for conferring the Craft degrees was the following
endorsement on the back of the Scotch patent:
"We, Jos. N. Cheri, M.P.S.G. C. of the Supreme Council of
the State of Louisiana, do heartily endorse the purposes on the reverse hereof.
J.N.Cherl,
M.P.S.G.C. of the S. C. of La,
Honourary Member of the G. C. of Rites of Scotland."
In May 1920 this patent was photographed by the Post Office
Department, in New York City, when the following additional endorsement appeared
on the back:
"George U. Maury,
Dec. 11th, 1918.
Most Powerful Sovereign Grand Commander of S. C. of La."
"Under this Patent by the Grand Council of Rites of
Scotland, extended to cover the Craft degrees by indorsation of the Sovereign
Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of Louisiana, as given above, the Grand
Lodge Inter-Montana was instituted on January 7th, 1907, and the Confederated
Supreme Council of the Early Grand National Scottish Rite for the United States
of America, on the 23rd of April, 1907."
It was proved by two witnesses and by Thomson's own
admission that Maury's signature was affixed for the sole purpose of
authenticating Cherils signature. Maury, who was the successor to Cheri as
Sovereign Grand Commander, testified that the date "Dec. 11th, 1918" and the
words beginning "Under this patent . . ." were not there at the time he, Maury,
signed it. Therefore, Thomson's claim that Cheri granted him a charter to confer
the Craft degrees had no foundation in fact whatever, even if the patent itself
had been valid, and even if Cheri had the power to grant a charter to confer
such degrees. It was shown that under the laws of the Supreme Council of
Louisiana no charter was valid unless signed by the first four officers and the
Secretary of that body.
George U. Maury, Sovereign Grand Commander, and Rene C.
Metayer, Secretary General, testified that the only authority given to Thomson
was to heal some clandestine lodges in and around Boston, Mass.
It is evident that Thomson realized that he did not have
the authority he claimed, for on October 31st, 1919, he wrote to Maury asking
him to sign and send to him the following certificate, so that he could have it
photographed to prove his authority:
"TO ALL WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN,
This is to certify that I, George U. Maury, have seen and
recognized the indorsement made by the late Illustrious Bro. Joseph M. Cheri,
Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of Louisiana on the Patent
granted by the Grand Council of Rites of Scotland to the Illustrious Bro.
Matthew McBlain Thomson confirming and extending the powers of said patent to
cover the Symbolic degrees and that the American Masonic Federation created
thereby is in fraternal relation with the Supreme Council of Louisiana.
"As witness my hand and seal of the Supreme Council of
Louisiana this....... day of November, 1919.
.....................................................................................
Most Powerful Sovereign Grand Commander."
Note that he asked for this certificate so that it could be
photographed. If his patent had given the authority he claimed, why could it
not have been photographed, as well as a certificate, is the question that
naturally arises and to which Thomson could give no satisfactory reply. As a
matter of fact, it was photographed later by the United States Post Office
authorities.
SEPARATES FROM THE SUPREME COUNCIL
Other schemes proposed were for the Supreme Council of
Louisiana to become a subordinate of the American Masonic Federation and to
revive Polar Star Lodge and remove it to Salt Lake City. The Supreme Council of
Louisiana did not accede to any of these Propositions, and after promises and
flattery failed to bring them to terms, Thomson began to threaten.
In a letter to Maury, Commander of that Supreme Council,
dated December 2, 1919, he intimates that complaints have come to him regarding
the regularity of the present Supreme Council of Louisiana. He then goes on to
recite the history of the connection between their two bodies, but his
recitation is somewhat different from the claims he had previously made. He
virtually admits that the only authority he received from Louisiana was a
personal endorsement of Mr. Cheri, that his connection with the Supreme Council
of Louisiana had given him nothing in the way of authority, and he threatens to
withdraw recognition from Maury's organization, unless he, Maury, can prove that
the said Supreme Council is regular. Maury asked him what proof he wanted, and
Thomson replied that the best proof he could offer would be to sign the
certificate above quoted.
He goes on to say that unless he receives a prompt reply
acknowledging that Cheri's endorsement on his Patent was for the purpose of
allowing him to organize lodges and that Cheri had power to grant such
authority, he would sever all connections with the Supreme Council of Louisiana.
Maury refused to write the letter demanded, and Thomson
then severed relations with the Supreme Council of Louisiana; thereupon
disregarding claims previously made on many occasions, he asserted that he had
never claimed authority from Louisiana to confer the Craft degrees, but that on
the contrary, he had received such authority from the Grand Council of Rites,
through the Rites of Mizraim and Memphis.
In October 1921 he published, under the title of "Is it
Ignorance or Malice?" a statement that some people, including certain of his own
members, were making "loose and unauthorized claims, which, being incapable of
historical support or proof, are maliciously seized upon by our enemies,
refuted, and claimed as disproving our whole claim to regularity of descent and
Masonic standing. Among these unauthorized claims is that the Supreme Lodge
works by authority of a charter granted to it by the Supreme Council of
Louisiana. A variation of this story claims that this charter was granted by
the Lodge Polar Star of New Orleans, La. Needless to say, both these stories
are erroneous, and whether the result of well-meant zeal on the part of
ill-informed brethren or malicious perversion on the part of our local enemies,
the effect is the same, equally hurtful. Following we give the official version
of our origin taken from a pamphlet circulated by the Supreme Lodge twelve years
ago, that should leave no room for misconception."
The official version he then gives goes on to say that his
authority to confer the Craft degrees came through the Scottish Grand Council of
Rites having control over various so-called Masonic rites, including those of
Memphis and Mizraim, but this was very different from his previous claims.
The pamphlet referred to as published "twelve years ago" is
"Who is Who in Masonry, and Why I am a Scottish Rite Mason," but it did not
contain the explanation quoted until republished in 1920, when this explanation
was interpolated without any intimation that it was something entirely new. On
the witness stand Thomson was asked to produce this, or any other pamphlet,
published "twelve years ago" which contained this explanation of his authority,
but he could not do it, nor could he produce a pamphlet in which he had said
substantially the same thing prior to the investigation by the United States
Government. On the contrary, he had repeatedly contended that his authority from
the Grand Council of Rites was for the higher degrees only, and that for the
Craft degrees he had been compelled to go to the Supreme Council of Louisiana.
It was not until the officers of that Supreme Council refused to confirm his
claim that he repudiated them as clandestine and asserted other claims to
authority over the Craft degrees. Witness after witness testified that it was
on the basis of claims made for authority over the Craft degrees from the
Supreme Council of Louisiana, behind which they believed to stand the authority
of Mother Kilwinning Lodge of Scotland, that they had been induced to join
Thomson's organization. In all these representations he never intimated the
fact that the Supreme Council of Louisiana was an organization composed of
coloured men, but gave them the impression that it was composed of Frenchmen.
Maury testified that there were only two or three white men in his entire
organization.
THOMSON TRIES TO EXPLAIN
On the witness stand Thomson attempted to explain the
statements made in his writings to the effect that he had a charter from
Louisiana by saying: "Charter is used in the general sense, as authority, a
permission, a sanction, or a word of similar nature, and in all my writings I
denied receiving a charter in the sense of a formal document. . . . I always
said it was an endorsement upon my Patent. That is the sense in which I used
the word. The general sense of an authority." On cross examination he was asked
to produce any writings prior to this investigation where he had made this
explanation, but he could not.
The following quotation from the cross examination is
interesting:
"Q. You explained that is not accurate language and that in
all your writings you have denied that you have a charter from the Supreme
Council of Louisiana. Will you please refer us to these writings?
"A. Would I be allowed to say that I always said that it
was an indorsation on my patent?
"Q. Will you show me any place where you had said "I deny
that we have a charter from the Supreme Council of Louisiana.' Show me any place
where you have ever written that until this late controversy?
"A. I don't know where I have written it.
"Q. You don't know where you have written it?
"A. I have written it, but I can't produce it. I have
always affirmed the other way.
"Q. The volumes of your magazine are on the desk there.
Can you turn to any volume where you said 'I deny that we have a charter from
the Supreme Council of Louisiana' until the time of this controversy?
"A. I don't know that I could."
Reference has been made to a pamphlet "Who is Who in
Masonry, and Why I am a Scottish Rite Mason." It was the great text-book of
Thomson's organization. Many witnesses testified that Thomson always referred
to it as the answer to every question that was asked him regarding his authority
and as the final argument in every controversy. The preface to this pamphlet is
signed by all three of the defendants, and is as follows:
"This booklet is intended for the exclusive use of members
in the obedience of the American Masonic Federation, Inc., of the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, so that each member may be in a position
to have on hand a brief historical chain of title of our system of Masonry as
descended to us by proper Masonic charters from the oldest lodge of Masons known
to the living world, viz., MOTHER KILWINNING, incidentally giving the origin of
the Grand Lodges of the State or Modern Masons from the cold facts of history,
thus placing our members in a position to refute false statements that may be
made to them by any person or persons, and enabling them to distinguish as to
'Who is Who' in Masonry.
"It is published by authority of the Supreme Lodge of the
American Masonic Federation.
(All rights reserved.)
M.McB. Thomson
President-General.
Thomas Perrot
Secretary-General.
D. Bergera
Treasurer-General."
On the witness stand Thomson was asked if he had read the
preface to the pamphlet before signing it. He replied: "I can't say that I
did."
"Q. You see your name there at the preface?
"A. Quite possible. It might have been written with a
stamp. That is not my writing. I don't see anything wrong with it.
"Q. Well, you put that out. You were publishing it as
being under your approval, weren't you?
"A. I am willing to accept that as stated therein. I am
willing to accept that, because there is nothing wrong in it. It is not very
lucid in its statement.
"Q. Had you read page 8 before this magazine was sent out
to the public?
"A. I don't remember reading, but I am willing to accept
the statements in it.
"Q. Did you read it after it was put out to the public?
"A. I read it, I think yesterday.
"Q. Have you ever read it before, Mr. Thomson?
"A. I don't believe I did before."
----o----
Ye sons of fair Science, impatient to learn,
What’s meant by a Mason you here may discern;
He strengthens the weak, he gives light to the blind,
And the naked he clothes - is a friend to mankind.
He walks on the level of honor and truth,
And spurns the trite passions of folly and youth;
The compass and square all his frailities reprove,
And his ultimate object is botherly love.
----o----
The measure of capacity is the measure of sphere to either
man or woman. - Elizabeth Oakes Smith
----o----
FREEMASONRY OF THE MIDDLE AGES AN INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY
BY BRO. CYRUS FIELD WILLARD, CALIFORNIA
THE ARTICLE "Travelling Craftsmen" written for THE BUILDER
by Bro. E. Ellison, the wise Master of Balder Lodge of San Francisco, contains
statements which show that there are some things in Freemasonry which have
escaped his notice. "Even Homer nods" was a proverb among the Greeks and Brother
Ellison's article shows that even he is unaware of recent developments in
Masonry. "Balder is dead" wailed the old Norse Saga, which lamentation
Longfellow repeated, but his spirit lives in the lodge of descendants of the
sturdy vikings at the Golden Gate who now plow the Pacific as their ancestors
roamed the stormy Atlantic, and of this lodge Brother Ellison is the helmsman.
In his article he says:
"We have been gravely assured by the writers . . . that
Freemasonry in medieval times was an international association of church
builders, incorporated under a charter issued by the Pope, granting to the
society a complete monopoly in the building of religious edifices. It was said
that the mysteries of Gothic architecture, both operative and speculative, were
the particular secrets of the corporation and whenever a new cathedral or other
religious house was contemplated, requisitions for plans and specifications must
he made to the headquarters of the body," etc.
Then comes this further statement which seems to be
contradicted by the fact:
"But, alas, the belief in the existence of an international
corporation of builders has been shattered and swept into the dust heap by
Robert F. Gould, the iconoclast, together with many other venerable cobwebs
which had gathered around the columns and arches of the Masonic edifice and thus
prevented us from viewing the structure in the light of true history.
"Gould demonstrates conclusively that 'International
Freemasonry' in the Middle Ages is a fiction. Careful search in the archives of
the Vatican has failed to bring to light the slightest evidence that the Masonic
Craft has ever received any special honours or favours from the pope; and the
only basis for the belief in papal patronage seems to be that at various times
popes' and prelates (?) issued bulls (?) promising indulgences to persons who
should make liberal donations of money, lands or labour, to churches in course
of construction. Nor has anyone been successful in locating the headquarters of
this 'international society'."
"True the German Steinmetzen (Freemasons) were along more
than local lines. In 1549 they formed," etc.
It is evident from the above statements that Brother
Ellison is not in touch with modern developments in Masonic research. There is
no question in the minds of those qualified to judge that "The Builders" by
Brother Joseph Fort Newton, the first editor of this Journal, is a book which
represents ripe scholarship and his summation of the most careful research up to
the present time. He locates the headquarters of this international society on
the island of Comacina of Lake Como, in Lombardy which lies in the northern part
of Italy on the borders of Switzerland. He calls attention to the great work,
"The Cathedral Builders," by Leader Scott, and "Further Notes on the Comacine
Masters," by Brother W. Ravenscroft.
The great fault with Robert Freke Gould is that he is
unwilling to accept anything except evidence that would be conclusive in a court
of law. In the very nature of things, in dealing with Masonic subjects, our
obligation prevents us from dealing openly and fully with such matters and the
prohibition against "cutting, carving, writing or printing any of the arts,
parts or points" was more strictly enforced in olden days than now. This
difficulty of supplying openly the evidence demanded by such natures as Gould's
occurred to my mind recently while listening to an address by Brother H. L.
Haywood before a meeting of members of our lodges in San Diego. I said to him
afterwards, jokingly, that if he had not been talking to an audience of Masons,
it was a question whether he would have been understood and the evidence which
he submitted then in elaboration of the many points in his remarkably fine
lecture would have been regarded as having no evidential value.
Before Brother Ellison makes this sweeping statement that
anything in Masonry is a fiction, let him remember that Troy was a myth until
Schliemann came.
It is surprising that he should bring in such negative
evidence as that because the desired evidence in favour was not found in the
"archives of the Vatican," hence the organization never had the powers
attributed. The fallacy of such argument can be shown by a question: "Supposing
such evidence had existed in the archives of the Vatican down to the time of the
issuance of the bull by Pope Clement in 1738, would, it have been allowed to
exist after that time?" Then again, there having been two and even three popes
at the same time and the records having been carted to Avignon and elsewhere and
burned by the many captors of Rome, would it not have been possible for such
powers to have been in existence at one time and spurlos verzenkt"?
POSITIVE EVIDENCE
But let me give some positive evidence. I find in Clavel
the following:
"These colleges (of Rome) enlisted up to the time of the
fall of the empire in all their vigour. The invasion of the barbarians reduced
them to a small number; and they continued to decline so much that it was these
ignorant and ferocious men who finally preserved the cult of their gods. But
when they were converted to Christianity, the collegia flourished anew. The
(Christian) priests who caused themselves to be admitted there as honourary
members and as patrons, impressed a useful impulse on them and employed them
actively in building churches and convents in Italy. They appeared at this time
under the name of 'free corporations' and 'fraternities.'
"The most celebrated were those of Como; and on in Muratori,
that they had acquired such a superiority that the title of 'magistri comacini',
'masters of Como,' had become a generic name for all the members of the
corporations of architects. Their primitive organization had been maintained up
to then. They had always their secret instruction and their mysteries, that
they called 'Kabala'; they had their jurisdictions and their private judges;
their immunities and their franchises.
"Very soon their number was multiplied tremendously, and
Lombardy, which they had covered with religious edifices, sufficed no more to
contain them all. Some among them were united and this constituted one sole
great association or fraternity with the purpose of going to exercise their
industry beyond the Alps in all the countries where Christianity, recently
established, still lacked churches and monasteries. The popes seconded this
design; it suited them to aid in the propagation of the faith by the majestic
spectacle of vast basilicas and by all the prestige of the arts, with which they
surrounded the new cult. They conferred then on the new corporation, and on
those which were formed afterwards with the same object, a monopoly which
embraced the whole of Christendom and which they supported with all the
guarantees and all the inviolability which their spiritual supremacy permitted
them to impress on it. The diplomas which they delivered to this effect to the
corporations accorded to them protection and exclusive privilege to construct
religious edifices; they conceded to them 'the right to erect (or build)
directly and uniquely from the popes,' and freed them 'from all the local laws
and statutes, royal edicts, and municipal regulations concerning either the
taxes or any other imposition obligatory on the inhabitants of the country.' The
members of the corporations had the privilege 'to fix, themselves, the amount of
their salaries (or wages) and to regulate exclusively in their general chapters,
all that which appertained to their interior government.' It was forbidden 'to
any artist who was not admitted into the society to establish any competition to
its prejudice, and to every sovereign, to sustain his subjects in such a
rebellion against the Church.' And it was expressly enjoined on all 'to respect
these letters of creation and to obey these orders, under penalty of
excommunication.' The pontiffs sanctioned such absolute proceedings, by 'the
example of Hiram, king of Tyre, when he sent the architects to King Solomon in
order to build the temple of Jerusalem.'"
I have given this quotation from Clavel so amply because it
shows he was better qualified as a historian in some respects than R. Freke
Gould, inasmuch as he recognized the possibilities of the Comacine Masters and
gave them their due emphasis at that period of architectural knowledge long
before modern scholars had appreciated their importance. Also, he gives in
quotation marks certain rights and privileges and other matters which he is
evidently quoting from the diploma he refers to, and it is evident he had
certain sources of information before him which he could not name publicly for
some reason now not known to us.
REBOLD CITED
Now let us refer to Rebold, another French historian, in
his work, "Histoire des Trois Grand Lodges de Francs-Macons en France," (History
of the Three Grand Lodges of Free Masons in France), Paris, 1864, page 28, from
which I translate the following:
"After the terrors of the year 1000, (it was a superstition
then that the world was coming to an end at the end of the year 1000) society
emerged from its long lethargy and suffered a veritable transformation. They
renewed nearly everywhere the religious edifices of the Christian world. A
great number were demolished in order to be rebuilt. It is then that the
corporations of Lombardy (Lake Como is in Lombardy) demanded from the pope the
renewal of their ancient privileges [Note: King Rotharius of Lombardy in 643,
issued a royal edict giving the Comacine Masters certain rights and privileges
as a corporate body. See "The Builders," J. F. Newton] which the Roman
corporations enjoyed and the pope accorded these to them with the exclusive
monopoly of erecting religious monuments in all Christendom; it is then also
that they expanded in all the Christian countries of the south.
"Although a part of the members of these corporations
belonged to a communion opposed to the popes, these monopolies, of which the
first was decreed to them by Boniface IV in 614, have nevertheless been
confirmed to them and preserved since Nicholas III (1277) up to Benedict XII
(1334)."
Rebold then quotes all the special wording given by Clavel
without mentioning the name of Clavel, showing he had been all over the same
ground and in addition gives the dates above cited. He is much quoted by Gould
as a reliable historian except where he takes sides with one of the Grand Lodges
of France of which he was a violent partisan.
In his chapter on the Stonemasons of Germany page 176, vol.
1, history of Freemasonry, Robert Freke Gould says:
"A remarkable tradition appears to have been prevalent from
the earliest times, viz, that the stonemasons had obtained extensive privileges
from the popes. Heideloff gives, amongst the confirmation of the Emperors
already cited, two papal bulls, viz., from Pope Alexander VI, Rome, 16th
September, 1502; Pope Leo X, pridie calendarium Januarii 1517.
He Heideloff, Die Bauhutte des Mottel-alters also says that
they received an indulgence from Pope Nicholas III, which was renewed by all his
successors up to Benedict XIII, covering the period from 1277 to 1334."
Gould then goes on to describe the various efforts of Moss
and Krause to find copies, and how Governor Pownall obtained permission to
search the archives of the Vatican. The latter was politely assisted by one of
the Vatican attendants.
Brother Ellison does not tell his readers that Governor
Pownall after his unsuccessful efforts in the Vatican still asserted his beliefs
that these bulls were issued and might still be in existence somewhere.
Now let us examine Gould's great iconoclastic efforts so
eloquently described by Brother Ellison. Personally I have not much use for
iconoclasts. They were the ones who destroyed the beautiful statues of Grecian
art and got their name from that pursuit of destroying images which apparently
(judging by present day art) can never be replaced.
This great iconoclastic effort is contained in the
following mild and innocuous statement in which the "great iconoclast" does, in
the words of Nick Bottom, the weaver, "roar as gently as any sucking dove" by
saying on page 177, vol. 1, History of Freemasonry:
"But whether or not the tradition rests on any solid
foundation it is certain that the Church, by holding out from time to time
special inducements, sought to attract both funds and labour for the erection of
its special cathedrals and some of these tempting offers were not quite
consistent with strict morality."
He was not even able to find a copy of the bull issued by
Pope Innocent IV on May 21, 1248.
Now there was reason for all this. Apparently, for some
reason, Gould did not want to acknowledge that these bulls were issued and thus
lay the foundation for the reason that the Freemasons, relying on the
prerogatives granted by the popes, had opposed the statutes of England which
tried to regulate their wages in opposition to the rights guaranteed them by the
popes to fix the amount of their own wages. This they did when England was
Roman Catholic and it may be that Gould, now that English Freemasonry is
Protestant and ruled by the royal family, did not want to show that the Masons
ever rebelled against the royal authority. What Gould thinks of such an action
is shown in his description of a French lodge which admitted "the notorious Paul
Jones" as he terms one who is regarded in America as a national hero.
What is his comment on the statement made by Heideloff,
whom he acknowledges a worthy and accurate historian, when Hiedeloff tells about
Herr Osterrieth, one of the last of the steinmetzen of Strassburg, being
initiated into a lodge of Freemasons in Germany where Heideloff assisted in the
initiatory ceremonies? Heideloff says that Osterrieth told him after he had been
initiated that the grip of the entered apprentice and that of the steinmetzen
was identical. Gould says in view of these facts (which if inquired into might
have shown that the steinmetzen originated from the freemasons who were brought
over from the York Cathedral in 782 by Alcuin after the cathedral had been
rebuilt) that such a thing was impossible and if it were true he had no right to
tell it.
GOULD NOT ACCURATE
In the very beginning; of his chapter on the steinmetzen,
Gould says:
"Fallou gives a long list of churches and convents erected
by the devout men from the British Isles and other holy men. Then came
Charlemagne and taught the German tribes to build cities and palaces (Aix-la
Chapelle, Ildesheim, etc.)."
This is just about as accurate as Gould is about many
things. He gathers a great heap of materials but makes no accurate deductions
from what he has gathered and misses many things of a revealing nature among the
great mass of citations he has heaped up with an evident purpose of impressing
his readers with his scholarship.
Now Charlemagne could not teach anyone. He was so ignorant
that Alcuin, the mason-monk from the Cathedral School of York, England, was
obliged to teach him to write his own name and there is an amusing word picture
in the life of Alcuin of Charlemagne twisting his features up while he tried to
make the stiff fingers which were used to handling the sword encompass the pen
and make it trace the regular pothooks and hangers.
It was Alcuin who was brought up for forty years or more
first as pupil and then master in the Cathedral School of York while the
Comacine Masters brought from Rome by Egbert were rebuilding the Cathedral which
had been destroyed by fire in 741 and who brought over to France the torch of
knowledge in 782 which then burned only in England and introduced civilization
anew into Europe among the Germanic tribes. He first started the palace school
at Aix-la-Chapelle and then was instrumental in spreading the "seven sciences"
which the Old Charges speak of through the monasteries at Tours, Fulda, and even
as far east as Salzburg. The workmen, and particularly the masons whom he
brought over from England, at that time spread all over Germany, building
monasteries, churches, convents, palaces, etc. Heideloff, who was an architect,
writing in 1844, said that "during the time of the Anglo-Saxons, [that is,
during Alcuin's time,] building operations continued and their monuments of
architecture are the finest example of the state of building during those ages.
They also introduced the science into Germany and understood building, erecting
convents everywhere."
In a footnote of Gould's History, page 318, vol. 1, is a
statement that in an old life of King Offa, which was written by Matthew Paris,
who was Alcuin's king and from whom he obtained permission to go over to France
and enter the service of Charlemagne, there is a miniature showing King Offa
giving orders to the master of the works where St. Alban's cathedral is being
erected and the Master holds the square and compass in his left hand while a
perpendicular arch is being tried by a plumb rule, while others are hewing the
rough ashlar and still others are raising stones by a windlass and setting them
in place.
Heideloff's words given above describe Alcuin's activities
under Charlemagne and it was he who was responsible for the edict which
Charlemagne signed which gave the Comacine masons liberty to travel everywhere
and erect churches and other buildings while the other workers were tied to the
soil under the laws of the feudal system. Alcuin was the intellectual prime
minister of Charlemagne, according to Guizot, and it is not an improbable
conception to attribute to him the introduction of York Masonry into Germany,
and thus the identity of the entered apprentice's grip of English Freemasonry
and the grip of the steinmetzen of Germany would be explained. Gould in his
attention to the dead letter "which killeth" missed this as he did the inner
meaning of Governor Pownall's words. The latter says, on page 258, "The pope
not only had formed them into a corporation," etc. He also is quoted on the
same page of Gould's history as saying after his search in the Vatican as
recorded in Pownall's "Archoelogia"; "I cannot however yet be persuaded but that
some record or copy of the diploma must be somewhere buried at Rome amidst some
forgotten and unknown bundles or rolls."
This is the authority on whom Gould depended and Gould is
the authority on whom Brother Ellison depends and it is easy to see that instead
of the "great iconoclast" destroying the belief in the existence of a bull or
diploma giving certain rights to the Freemasons of that time that the very
authority on whom Gould depended asserted his belief in the existence of same.
The facts in the case warrant the belief in the existence
of such grants of rights and privileges from the time of the Quatuor Coronate
down to the time of the completion of the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages.
The popes naturally would grant such privileges in order to
have such edifices erected. Tradition recorded testimony as to the existence of
diplomas or bulls granting such rights and privileges are so common and
universal that there must be a substratum of fact beneath it all.
We can understand how such diplomas or bulls would
disappear after the masons had been fulminated against by Pope Clement in 1738.
But the common knowledge of their existence previous to that time cannot be
destroyed by Gould or any one else while such cloud of testimony as to their
previous existence persists.
The rest of Brother Ellison's article in relation to the
journeyman carpenters or "Travelling Craftsmen" is interesting.
Years ago I was brought into relationship with the
journeymen hatters and then learned that they too had a system of recognition
which evidently came down from the old Compagnonnage of France. In going into a
strange hat shop, the traveller approached the nearest journeyman (who was one
who worked by the "journee," French for "day") and said "How's trade?" who then
nodded his head to or pointed toward the shop-steward to whom the traveller went
and repeated the same query The steward answered "Good" or "Bad" or "Fair" as
the case might be, and then asked; "Who wants to know?"
The traveller then repled: "A gentleman hatter on turn."
This expression came back to me all through the years at
times as I could not see the significance and the hatters could not explain it
as it was something that had come down to them in their association or union.
In looking over a history of the Compagnonnage, I saw the
expression used describing their travelling or trips after they had finished
their apprenticeship as being "en tournee de compagnonnage" which would be
pronounced "on turn-ay" etc. Leaving off the "ay" sound as would be dropped
down the years, it would be seen that the expression "on turn," which means
nothing in English, would be descriptive as meaning "on tour" if taken from the
French expression "en tournee."
THE KNIGHTS OF LABOUR
The Knights of Labour, an American organization which was
founded in 1869 by Uriah S. Stephens, who was a Mason, had its signs of
recognition and hailing signs, grips and passwords, with obligations and oaths
taken on the Bible with due solemnity.
When Terence V. Powderly, a Roman Catholic, became its
head, he submitted its ritual and secret work to the approval or disapproval of
the dignitaries of that church with the result that all such secret work was
eliminated. It was probably thought it was too dangerous to give the great mass
of the working people ideas and rituals so close in form to Freemasonry.
As a result the nativistic and Protestant American element
withdrew and set to work to upbuild the American Federation of Labour with such
success that the Knights of Labour is now practically extinct. Now that the
American Federation of Labour has grown so strong the clerical element in the
United States is seeking at all times to secure control of that body by the
election of a Roman Catholic as its president.
There was an occult strain about the ritual which was very
appealing to those who had never taken the Masonic degrees, especially in that
pertaining to opening and closing the general assembly, as the highest body was
called. This part of the ritual was drawn up by Stephens and modified by Victor
Drury and Charles Sotheran of New York, the latter of whom had taken all the
degrees in Masonry and was well known to the writer. He is quoted at great
length by Madame Blavatsky in "Isis Unveiled," in a long letter on Masonry.
Had it been allowed to continue as Stephens designed with
its system of recognition of travelling craftsmen and assistance provided for
them, it would undoubtedly have grown to a membership of five millions or more,
as it did reach a membership of over a million.
In that case, the half-baked and undigested economic
provisions that constituted its so-called principles would undoubtedly have been
put into practical operation to a greater extent than they were with even
greater damage to our constitutional polity.
Brother Ellison has opened up a very interesting subject
and there is no doubt but what there is much to be gleaned from members of old
trade unions which have brought down traditions and methods of recognition from
past centuries. There was a journeymen freestone cutters' union in Boston at
one time which might yield interesting material as it has been alleged that the
Free Masons took their name from "masonne de franche per," as Gould quotes it,
which meant "mason of free stone." The shipbuilders of East Boston and of Maine
had also interesting traditions and organizations which came down the centuries
from England and elsewhere.
----o----
THE LEWIS OR LOUVETEAU
The words Lewis and
Louveteau, which, in their original meaning, import two very different things,
have in Masonry an equivalent signification - the former being used in English,
the latter in French, to designate the son of a Mason.
The English word
Lewis" is a term belonging to operative Masonry, and signifies an iron cramp,
which is inserted in a cavity prepared for the purpose in a large stone, so as
to give attachment to a pulley and hook, whereby the stone may be conveniently
raised to any height, and deposited in its proper position. In this country the
lewis has not been adopted as a symbol in Freemasonry, but in the English ritual
it is found among the emblems placed upon the tracing board of the Entered
Apprentice, and is used in that degree as a symbol of strength, because, by its
assistance, the operative Mason is enabled to lift the heaviest stones with a
comparatively trifling exertion of physical power. Extending the symbolic
allusion still further, the son of a Mason is in England called a Lewis,"
because it is his duty to support the sinking powers and aid the failing
strength of his father, or, as Oliver has expressed it, "to bear the burden and
heat of the day, that his parents may rest in their old age, thus rendering the
evening of their lives peaceful and happy."
By the Constitutions
of England, a lewis or son of a Mason may be initiated at the age of eighteen,
while it is required of all other candidates that they shall have arrived at the
maturer age of twenty-one. The Book of Constitutions had prescribed that no
lodge should make "any man under the age of twentyone years, unless by a
dispensation from the Grand Master or his Deputy." The Grand Lodge of England,
in its modern regulations, has availed itself of the license allowed by this
dispensing power, to confer the right of an earlier initiation on the sons of
Masons.
The word "louveteau"
signifies in French a young wolf. The application of the term to the son of a
Mason is derived from a peculiarity in some of the initiations into the Ancient
Mysteries. In the mysteries of Isis, which were practiced in Egypt, the
candidate was made to wear the mask of a wolf's head. Hence, a wolf and a
candidate in these mysteries were often used as synonymous terms. Macrobius, in
his Saturnalia, says, in reference to this custom, that the ancients perceived a
relationship between the sun, the great symbol in these mysteries, and a wolf,
which the candidate represented at his initiation. For, he remarks, as the
flocks of sheep and cattle fly and disperse at the sight of the wolf, so the
flocks of stars disappear at the approach of the sun's light. The learned reader
will also recollect that in the Greek language "lukos" signifies both the sun
and a wolf.
Hence, as the
candidate in the Isiac Mysteries was called a wolf, the son of a Freemason in
the French lodges is called a young wolf, or a "louveteau."
The louveteau in
France, like the lewis in England,
is invested with peculiar
privileges. He is also permitted to unite himself with the Order at the early
age of eighteen years. The baptism of a louveteau is sometimes performed by the
lodge of which his father is a member, with impressive ceremonies. The infant,
soon after birth, is taken to the lodge room, where he receives a Masonic name,
differing from that which he bears in the world; he is formally adopted by the
lodge as one of its children; and should he become an orphan, requiring
assistance, he is supported and educated by the Fraternity, and finally
established in life.
In this country, these
rights of a lewis or a louveteau are not recognized, and the very names were,
until lately, scarcely known, except to a few Masonic scholars.
* * *
To the interesting
paragraphs printed above, which appeared in The American Freemasons' Magazine
for November 1860, it may be added that the custom of conferring special
benefits on the sons of Master Masons in France became in time a source of
trouble. The servants and uninitiated rough-laborer employed by Master Masons
organized themselves into bodies that became affiliated with the Compagnnonage.
As time went on these organized laborers, jealous of the privileges enjoyed by
Masters and their sons, often engaged in bloody combats over differences, and
finally were able, owing to their numerical preponderance, to gain control of
industry in general. It is probable that the custom of granting special
privileges to their sons was one method employed by Master Masons to retain
their privileges for their own families and in as small a circle as possible.
But it is now a time
long gone in which the “lewis" thus figured in organized Crafts; conditions have
so changed, and Masonry likewise, that the Fraternity might well revive the
“lewis" customs without in the least endangering the democrat of the Order. And
the custom would have this advantage, that it would make for a more compact
solidarity and continuity a Freemasonry. We should in all ways encourage young
men to follow in the footsteps of their Masonic fathers.
----o----
MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS - RICHARD W.
THOMPSON
BY BRO. GEORGE W. BAIRD, P. G. M.. DISTRICT OF COLUMBiA
RICHARD W. THOMPSON,
patriot, protestant, and Mason was one of those stalwart leaders of the Republic
whose memory we have too early let die. He was born in Culpepper County,
Virginia, June 9, 1809, of English ancestry; he died in 1900 at the great age of
ninety-one, known the country over as "Uncle Dick," and loved dearly by all his
friends, his whims and idiosyncrasies to the contrary notwithstanding. After
having received "an excellent education" he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where
for a time he clerked in a store, after which he moved to Indiana where he
studied law at odd times and with such success that he was soon admitted to the
bar at Bedford, Indiana. His habits, his industry, and his thrift were such that
soon he forged ahead, and was able, in the Yankee vernacular, "to take care of
himself," which qualities made a leader of him in those early communities.
From 1834 to 1838 he
was in the state legislature; and from 1841 to 1843 he was a United States
Representative, being a colleague of Lincoln. He again served in the United
States Congress from 1847 to 1849, but refused another nomination. He also
declined the Austrian Mission, tendered by President Taylor, likewise a position
as recorder in the Land Office, a place offered to him by President Fillmore.
While a delegate to a Republican National Convention he had the distinction of
nominating Oliver P. Morton for the presidency.
On March 12, 1877, he
became Secretary of the Navy under President Hayes which office he held until
1881 when he resigned to become chairman of the American Committee of the Panama
Canal Company. So thorough was Judge Thompson's knowledge of politics (he was
judge on the eighteenth circuit district of the state of Indiana in 1867-8-9)
that he was given the task of writing several party platforms. As Secretary of
the Navy he had few peers, even if the public did good-naturedly twit him about
his never having seen a ship before accepting the office; he proved that it is
executive capacity, not maritime knowledge, that fits a man for that position,
which is a civil office rather than military in its nature.
Judge Thompson wrote
several treatises on financial and political subjects. One of his productions,
"Personal Recollections of Sixteen Presidents," has of late years been
republished in de luxe form by Bobbs Merrill of Indianapolis; it is a richly
rewarding work in two volumes, and of value to the student of history in that
its author enjoyed the absolutely unique privilege of having known personally so
many Presidents. He said himself that he had seen with his own eyes every
President since Washington and Adams. From the days of the campaign of 1840,
when the slogan was "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too," until his death in 1900, he was
a picturesque and active figure in politics. His most distinctive work was "The
Papacy and the Civil Power, published in New York in 1876; it is still a live
and vivid book, and should be widely read. His "History of the Tariff,"
published in Chicago in 1888, may also be mentioned. These books, and this
political record, however, give one a meagre idea of the abounding vitality and
far-spreading influence of this remarkable man, who was, as well as being a
writer and scholar, a public speaker with a golden tongue, remembered to this
day for the telling stump speeches delivered during some of the famous old time
campaigns.
Brother Richard W.
Thomson was one of the founders of the Masonic Veterans Association in
Washington, and attended its meetings whenever possible, and delivered many
speeches before it. He was a close personal friend of the Sovereign Grand
Commander, Albert Pike. The records show him to have been a member of Terre
Haute Lodge No. 19 in the State of Indiana.
----o----
RICHARD TV. THOMPSON MEMORIAL
Who can rehearse the praise
In soft poetic lays,
Or solid prose, of Masons true,
Whose art transcends the common view ?
Their secrets, ne'er to strangers yet expos'd,
Preserved shall be
By Masons Free,
And only to the Ancient Lodge disclos'd.
----o----
THE NEW AMERICANIZATION
BY PROF. EMORY S. BOGARDUS, PH. D., HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT
OF SOCIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Emory Stephen Bogardus
was born near Beludere, Illinois, February 21, 1882. He took his A.M. Degree in
Northwestern University in 1909, and did his post-graduate work in the
University of Chicago in 1910-1911. In 1911-13 he was assistant professor of
sociology in the University of Southern California; since then he has been
professor and head of department. Aside from his work on various boards and his
membership in several learned societies, he is the author of “The Relation of
Fatigue to Industrial Accidents"; "Introduction to Sociology"; "Essentials of
Social Psychology"; “The Technique of Writing Social Science Papers";
"Essentials of Americanization"; "A History of Social Thought"; and also various
papers in sociological and other magazines. He is editor of The Journal of
Applied Sociology. His address is 3557 University Avenue, Los Angeles,
California.
Professor Bogardus has
established himself in the esteem of thinking people up and down the Pacific
Coast as an apostle of common sense in the storm-harried domain of Sociology.
His books and lectures prove that a man may be original and untrammeled while
dealing with sociological problems without selling himself out to extremists, or
lapsing into an unthinking jingoism; and that it is possible for a clear-headed
man to think out social problems in the terms of fact, instead of in the terms
of theory, as is so often the case.
THE PRESENT
Americanization movement began in 1914 when the European War was started.
Americanization Day had its beginning on July 4, 1914, in Cleveland, Ohio; it
was fathered by "the sane Fourth Committee" of that city. In 1915 at least 150
cities observed Americanzation Day; the idea was to lessen the emphasis on
"spread eagle oratory" and on trite boasting about the greatness of the United
States, as well as on noisy celebrations and the use of dangerous explosives.
The emphasis was laid on sane considerations of the nation's need, on making the
Fourth of July a day for national stock-taking, and particularly on making the
newly naturalized immigrants feel in new ways the deep significance of their
recently pledged national loyalty.
In 1915, also, the
National Americanization Committee was organized by citizens interested
unselfishly in the welfare of our nation. The purpose of this committee was to
further a nationalization movement that would unify the various peoples of the
United States in behalf of the principles of democracy. In 1918, the Federal
government undertook specific Americanization work through six different
governmental departments. These activities were coordinated in January, 1919,
and were centered upon the general problem "of the assimilation of the races and
the general education of the foreign born," and upon the problem of
naturalization.
During the eight years
since the Americanization movement began significant principles have been
established as a result of practical experience. These principles constitute the
basis of the new Americanization, which is by no means generally understood or
practiced. Certain of these essentials will be presented here.
1. Americanization
applies to the native born first. If native Americans do not express in their
lives the best American principles, the immigrants cannot be expected to do
better. If natives violate the speed laws jauntily and boast of their ability to
buy freedom from punishment in the courts, immigrants will feel no necessity of
respecting the laws of the land and the Constitution.
Every native must go
through the process of becoming Americanized. He is not born with his head full
of American patriotism. He has to acquire this patrotism through a long
educational process. Twenty-one years is the ordinary length of time required of
a native before he is considered fit to vote. Not all natives, after having been
born on American soil and living amidst American traditions, have become worthy
citizens. To the extent that many persons are bigots, men of narrow vision,
profiteers, labor shirkers, exploiters, and selfishly inclined they are not well
Americanized. Americanization therefore begins at home.
2. Americanization is
a process. It is not a big stick, nor a complacent, easy-going attitude that all
will turn out well. You cannot compel a person to love a country. You can force
obedience, but not love. The matter of creating loyalty is an exceedingly
delicate psychological process. It is easy to crush the tender sprouts of
incipient loyalty between the upper and nether millstones of force. No one ever
develops a loyalty for a nation suddenly.
3. Americanization
means understanding what American ideals really signify. If one were to ask
fifty native Americans today what Americanism is, he would be met with no
unanimity of opinion. If he mentioned "liberty," he would get a medley of
interpretations. If he suggested "democracy," he would receive contradictory
definitions, ranging from platitudinous phrases to a denial that the United
States is a democracy at all. If he were to say that America's ideal is
"brotherhood," he would be challenged even by many native Americans.
In other words,
Americanizaton involves the acceptance of a common interpretation of American
ideals. How can we Americanize when we are not agreed as to the object of
Americanism? The solution rests in patient, thoughtful, open forum, and
scientific educational programs.
4. The term,
Americanization, cannot be used directly, in dealing with the newcomers. The
average immigrant on arrival is not keen about being "Americanized." He has come
ordinarily to seek new economic opportunities. His attitude can be appreciated
if the reader will imagine himself arriving in Italy because of own anticipated
chance to make money, and being informed that an Italianization program is in
effect, and that he, the immigrant from America, is about to be Italianized.
What would the response be? Quick as a flash it would come, "I don't want to be
Italianized; I love America; I have come to Italy to make money."
5. The Americanization
of the immigrants must take place indirectly. It is not the programs that we
promulgate and expose or subject the immigrants to, that count, but rather the
attitude we manifest toward them. Too many Americans take a snobbish attitude
toward or "look down upon" the foreigners. We do not realize that these same
foreigners see our faults and look down upon us because of some of our
unattractive ways. This point is especially true of those immigrants who come
from civilization and cultures that are five, ten, or twenty centuries old. The
immigrant is often chagrined by American thoughtlessness. Everybody is going
about his own business, but very few persons seem to be really interested in an
ordinary, strange foreigner, except to cast side glances at him, and thus
unintentionally to make him feel miserable.
6. The indirect
influence of a constructive social environment cannot be overestimated. If we
protect the immigrant from exploitation and insist on better standards of
living, of sanitation, of recreation, of education, he will almost automatically
in due season become an American. The public must see the need of giving the
honest but unlearned immigrant a social handshake, sympathetic glances of the
eye, and full opportunities for a self-expression that is in harmony with the
best American principles. If we will give the immigrant a cordial welcome, a
practical fraternalism, and democratic opportunities in our work-day world, he
as a class will give his all to America. As a class, the immigrants are
teachable and patriotic. Often they appreciate better than we the meaning of
freedom. When they learn about Americanism at its best, they repudiate autocracy
and enlist in the cause of democracy.
7. Americanization is
denationalization for the immigrants. Before an immigrant can become an American
he must give up his loyalty to his native soil. One's love for his place of
birth remains with him persistently. Notice how the Iowans, the Buckeyes, and
the Hoosiers constitute to hold state picnics in Southern California long after
they have emigrated from their native states. The place where one was born and
has spent the years of his childhood tend to remain dear. They hold sacred
memories. They often represent loved ones whose voices have been silent for
years. The deepest loyalties of life cannot be entirely foresworn. Americans
need to remember how hard it would be for them to swear away their loyalty to
Illinois, New England, or Virginia, if they were in a foreign land.
Americanization thus means a transfer of loyalties for the immigrant. He must
renounce something dear, which is not always easy.
8. The immigrant must
assume responsibility. Too often he comes from a country with traditions and
cultural viewpoints so different from ours that he cannot readily understand
America. He seeks one kind of democracy, and we offer another. He may even come
as a propagandist, seeking to make over our country. This of course is an
erroneous attitude, although it is similar to that which missionaries and other
religious leaders, commonly manifest. The constructive results of American life
justify, however, that we require of immigrants an attitude, first of
willingness to learn as far as possible the meaning of American principles, and
second, an attitude of trying to contribute constructively to the development of
these principles.
9. Americanization
includes education, beginning with the teaching of the English language. Without
the language of the country the immigrant is isolated, subject to all forms of
exploitation and prejudices, and unable to become Americanized. As a condition
of entrance we may require of immigrants that they assent to learning the
English language within a reasonable length of time after entrance. Such a
requirement puts upon us the responsibility of making possible such a process.
Our night schools are
doing wonderfully well in teaching English to immigrants, but they cannot meet
the need. American adult laborers in a foreign country after working during the
day time would not as a class do well in mastering the foreign language in the
hours of the evening. Adult minds trying to master a difficult foreign tongue
cannot uniformly succeed when the mental processes are slowed up not only by
habit but by overfatigue.
Carrying the school to
the factories where the immigrants are employed is a plan that has met with a
surprising degree of success when given a fair trial. At its best it works as
follows. The employer gives the employee one-half hour on pay to attend a class
in English providing the laborer will give one-half hour without pay. The
classes meet from four-thirty to five-thirty or at some other convenient time.
The employer gives the use of a room in the factory and furnishes heating and
lighting; while the public school system furnishes the services of special
teachers. As a result the employees become better citizens; they are also of
greater economic value to the employer.
10. Americanization
includes the foreign-born mothers. It has been the custom in our country to
neglect immigrant women, especially the mothers who, although residing in the
United States, continue to think in European terms, read foreign language
newspapers, and have almost no contacts with American life. While the children
are being Americanized by the public schools and the men are coming in contact
with America in the factories and mines and mills, the immigrant mothers remain
closely at home and scarcely know America at all.
The visiting teachers
or home teachers of the public schools are doing a superb type of
Americanization work. They go into the immigrant homes, carrying modern ideas of
child caring, sanitation, and home making, but most important of all, they carry
the American spirit and the atmosphere of democracy into the habitations of the
foreign-born, and by their counsel arouse new ambitions. They also conduct
cottage classes in English, sewing, and cooking at places and hours convenient
for immigrant mothers.
11. Americanization is
not a process to be left in the hands of Americanization workers as a class, or
even in the hands of public educators. Employers, landlords, and their agents,
may render, if they will, tremendous and fundamental aid to the cause of
Americanization, or they may through the use of exploitation, injustice, and
hypocrisy offset the good that nearly all other persons can do in behalf of
immigrants.
Americanization is a
responsibility and an opportunity which comes to everyone who is a citizen of
the United States. The best principle of procedure is to, begin, not with the
weaknesses, but with the good will and intelligence of immigrants. The
immigrants also must bear a part of the responsibility and share in.the
opportunity of becoming true Americans - they must will to become good
Americans. The process of Americanization then depends upon good will, social
attitudes, and the spirit of co-operation, and patient and understanding effort
upon the part of all who live in the United States.
----o----
THE VISITANT
BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD
Every art to the
artist, poetry, which is the finest of all the fine arts, most of all! therefore
is it that we of the laity are ever shy about permitting others to read our
compositions. The writer of these pieces confesses to a more than usual
reticence, and that for obvious reasons. "The Visitant" was written to preserve
the memories of an experience of ineffable things - an experience as unsought as
it was mystical and mystifying: therefore the poems were not intended for other
eyes; but gradually, and through accident and often in secret, they made their
way about among a circle of friends, several of whom have since urged their
publication. In deference to them, and with many misgivings, the pieces are here
exhibited in print. To Freemasons they will not be without meaning or interest
it is hoped, seeing that thev express in simple wise. and after a fashion of
their own, that which the Fraternity teaches in its own Holy Places. H.
L. H.
The Visitant.
In the eventime which Thou lovest
There was no notice of Thy approach,
There was no knock upon the door or footfall upon the
stair;
I was not thinking of Thee, when suddenly Thou wert here!
Thou wert not visible yet I saw Thee
And the walls were turned to mist in Thy presence.
There was no sound made, yet Thy words passed through my
ears as never a voice has, and my heart felt Thy words;
They said that which never had any speech said.
Thou didst surround me as the air,
And I felt myself standing in the center of Thee,
Seeing and hearing all things through Thee,
Seeing and hearing them as they are.
Thou art the Answer to all my questions;
Thou art the Solution of all my problems;
In Thee I found that which is really myself,
And there has come that Great Peace
When the labors of hand and mind fall into the rhythms of
the soul.
Thou art here and now I know not if anything beside is
here;
The familiar things are strange and uncertain.
When Thou comest a second time bring back my human world to
me,
Lest when I go among my fellows they consider me mad.
What can a human being do without his human world?
Yes, let my human world be in Thee as Thou comest,
For not otherwise shall I possess it for ever!
The Great Love.
While I was wondering to what purpose I had been granted
this great gift of life:
While I was puzzled as to what it was I had been brought
here to do,
Suddenly Thou wert with me to ask for my love!
To love Thee I must gather into my nature all that is
beautiful and good in the world;
To love Thee I must make continual war on whatever is the
enemy of life;
To love Thee I must
have eyes to see Thy face shaping itself behind the million faces of my fellows;
I must learn to
recognize Thy words as they come to me over the tumults of creation:
Ah, my Lord, Thou must
give me all the keys that open Thy resources of power
If I am to carry on
this great work of loving Thee!
Thy Heaven.
At midnight I saw Thee
coming through the heavens:
All the stars were
jangled by Thy feet like ten thousand thousands of bells;
The breast of Space
rose and sank like the bosom of a girl in love;
Thy laughter went up
into the heavens as in the beginning of Creation;
And it was as if
perpetual sunrises broke from Thy smiles,
When lo! Thou wert
knocking quietly at my door.
"Hast Thou come to
this poor destination after such a journey," I whispered!
"I am coming into thy
soul," Thou saidst, "for breathing space and for room."
The Willow Tree.
The willow stands by
the dark water in the dusk stretching down its hands toward the shadow of
itself;
It bends low as if a
great weight were pressing on its soul;
It gathers the dark to
itself as if it were fain to hide a sorrow at its heart;
The winds come very
soft through its pendulous branches lest it wound the grieving spirit of the
willow.
I stand pensive beside
it thinking of many things!
Old memories of my
race hover about me and sad echoes trouble my heart like the shadows which lie
upon graves.
As I stand thus
brooding, Thy stars come up and gaze at me through the leaves of the willow:
In a time like this,
when so many sighs are going up from the lips of men,
It reassures me to see
Thy stars shining through the branches of the willow tree.
A Prayer for Blindness.
Open my eyes I prayed,
open my eyes,
Give me to see, O
Lord, as Thou dost see.
Thus as I prayed Thou
liftedst up a grain of dust and bade me look.
I saw world behind
world wheeling for ever,
World beyond world,
and each world moved with the swiftness of light,
So that I turned and
rested my eyes upon Thee.
I looked again and saw
skies behind skies and every sky full of planets and stars;
Far as I could look
into the infinitude of the dust I saw sky beyond sky;
And again I sought Thy
face, as a bird, wearied of flight, rests upon a branch.
I looked again and lo!
in the uttermost depths of the dust
Were angels, angels
and cherubim and seraphim, and God, raised above ten thousand thrones!
Sick with dizziness
and awe, I turned to Thee and cried,
"O Lord, restore my
blindness!"
Be Not Too Near.
While I was sitting
bewildered by the strangeness of things,
Overcome by the
complexity of all my problems,
While I could not
think my way in thought or learn what it was that I should do,
While I sat helpless,
like a child that has been lost in the wilderness,
I prayed earnestly
that Thou mightst drawn near to relieve me,
And behold, Thou wert
here so that I felt Thy presence as one may lay his hand on his flesh!
But ah, what could my
poor nature do while overborne by Thy all-powerful self ?
How could my poor mind
dare to think while Thy all-knowing mind lay opened before it?
How could my weak will
dare to act while Thy resistless will was there to press upon it ?
In the great light of
Thy presence all my own lights flickered and died:
The music which I had
been drawing from my spirit became as a noisome sound in the fullness of Thy
voice:
What were ail my
pictures and dreams with Thy face there before me, awing me into silence and
dumbness?
Then it was that I
prayed,
O Lord, become my
secret God again;
Surround me with Thy
hints and whispers, let me have glimpses of Thy comings and going,
But be Thou my hidden
God for ever!
“It Is I!"
I sat down by the
roadside to gaze at a ragweed;
It laid hold of a clod
and lifted itself toward the skies;
It drew forces from
the sun ninety-five million miles away
Nor had any fear of
that cauldron of heat;
The dumb virtues of
the soil it transformed into most marvelous miracles of life;
The orbit of the earth
and the circles of the stars were laid hold of by it and twisted into the
patterns of petal and leaf;
When I saw this tiny
creature overcoming the authority of Nothingness,
When I noticed how it
bent the universe to its will,
While I was almost
overborne with fear to witness such miraculous powers,
Thy voice came from
its roots saying,-
"Be not afraid, it is
I!"
Thy Happiness.
While I was wishing
that I was in places where I should like to be,
While I was desiring
many things which I should wish to possess,
In the midst of my
discontent and my unhappiness
There came from Thee a
great joy into my nature:
How, or for what
purpose, or for how long it comes this I cannot
know:
The small vessel of my
heart runs over into silent amazement and surprise:
Like drops falling
from fountains it breaks into little songs which I cannot express;
It runs away in
streams everywhere gladdening my small world:
It enriches the roots
of my thoughts so that each one becomes beautiful like a flower:
My emotions have wings
and fly back to Thee with a thousand bird-notes of delight.
Ah, my Lord, can it be
that Thy own happiness comes from thus witnessing my joy?
The Old Lady in the Kitchen.
While the twilights
thicken the old lady is working alone in her kitchen;
Wearied of toil her
husband sits on the porch steps, asleep over his pipe:
Already the children
are upstairs tucked away in bed, but she does not stop:
Thoughtful for them
she prepares for the school lunches of tomorrow;
She puts the dishes
away, seeing that every one is in its proper place;
The pans she makes to
shine brightly where they hang on the wall;
When she has finished,
the floor is spotless;
She works on and on in
the dusk but does not murmur a tune.
Ah, my Lord, canst
Thou not give her to see herself one hour as Thou dost see her?
If she could know that
the eyes of the angels are blinded by the shining of her pans,
Could she but learn
that each dawn the seraphim dance across her snow-clean floor,
If she could
understand that the shuffling of her steps is sweeter music to Thee than the
singing of any choir,
Would she not sing to
herself as she works alone in the night?
The Lady Beauty.
Asters, like purple
wraiths, bow and sigh by the roadside:
A field of corn,
ripened and husked, stretches up to the hill crests
Where a strip of
plowed ground lies darkly at the feet of a thin line of gray-green trees:
All this lifts itself
up to the sky in a continuous prayer,
And the sky is
blue-black and profound, with ghosts of cloud skirting its edges:
A smoke mist is over
it all,
So that my gaze
clutches it lest it fade to a shadowy dream.
The haze-yellow
stretch of the field and the blue-black depths of the sky,
And ah! how few are
the eyes that may see it!
What a waste of beauty
is this!
What are the words
Thou art saying, my Lord?
"And is it so strange
to thee that I also should love the Lady Beauty?"
The Field.
Goldenrod is shining
around the edges of the yellow corn;
The wind is leaving
glad footprints among the tassels and leaves;
Who has spilled all
that purple wine over the heads of the asters ?
All day they look down
into the stream where the clouds are hiding their faces:
All day the sunflowers
spurn their reflections to look up at the clouds themselves;
The sunflowers are too
intent on their visions to notice the birds that light among their broad leaves:
The field is enamored
of its own beauty and rises into a hill to gaze at itself;
Last night I saw Thee
standing on that hill to look at Thy garden:
The stars crowded
around to peer over Thy shoulder;
They had never seen
anywhere so lovely a poem.
Thy Dreaming.
Until this afternoon
when the leaves play like children along the ground,
When the trees are
uttering their visions at last,
Surprising us with all
the beautiful secrets they have hidden from springtime and summer,
I had not learned, my
Lord, how lovely, how lovely Thou art!
I did not know of Thy
music till the breezes drew Thy breath through these branches!
A few flowers remain
like afterthoughts of Thy heart.
The gossamers draw me
along:
Will they bind me fast
to Thy feet?
Are all Thy dreams as
lovely as this?
Dream on, my Lord, for
ever!
Perhaps Thou eanst
some day make me as beautiful as this leaf which runs everywhere seeking for
Thee.
Thy Quietness.
While I was praying,
suddenly Thou wast with me
And my words died
away, smitten byJthe great sound of Thy silence.
The sweet bells of Thy
speech go through the house, but nobody can hear them.
Hast Thou been abroad
in the great noisy places ?
What did the streets
have to say to Thy silence?
Would that all my
words in the future could say as much as that single look of Thine!
While the factories
are thundering what do men think of Thy wordlessness ?
Are they afraid to
listen for Thee under the great guns of the War ?
The world is upheld by
the secret might of Thy breath;
Thy silence speaks
beyond the power of our ears to listen;
Speak not aloud lest
the earth split to fragments;
Utter no words lest
the souls of men be paralyzed;
The silent indication
of Thy glance is almost more than we can bear:
How could we endure to
listen shouldst Thou speak the loud words of Thy power ?
The Atheist.
He sat upon the
doorstep talking to his cronies;
With angry
gesticulations he was saying blasphemous things:
Between the puffs of
his pipe he was exclaiming that there is no God.
Those who listened
laughed as if he were telling a pleasant jest.
I sat by, hardly
restraining myself, hurt by his talk, ready to engage him in argument,
When I saw Thee
standing above him with a patient and kindly smile
Giving him the breath
wherewith he was denying Thee!
Thy Transfiguring Presence.
Since Thou camest I
have gone about like one in a dream:
I feel my body with
reverent hands;
I gaze with tenderness
on the earth, remembering how Thy touch is on every grain of dust:
It amazes me to hear
Thy speech sounding through the ten thousand dialects:
Above the rain I hear
the ceaseless comings of Thy feet:
When it is night I
cannot see the darkness for the shining of Thy face;
I hate nothing except
veils which blind our eyes to Thy presence:
I dare not despise the
meanest thing lest I find myself despising Thee:
Whatever I approach
melts away into Thy form:
in all the countless
mirrors there is but one Face reflected:
Living and dying does
not perplex me anymore than my breathing perplexes me:
Everything comes and
goes with the pulsing of Thy breath.
I am no longer anxious
about heaven:
There can be no more
heaven than this.
The Shore Line.
The waters raise
themselves up before the wind
And fly to the shore
with many invocations:
The rocks do not open
their arms:
The rocks throw them
back with cries of derision.
What is the Wind, O my
Lord, which drives Thee ceaselessly against me ?
I am no rock to
withstand these endless assaultings.
Should I dissolve
myself into dust and be washed away into Thy Being
What were the gain to
Thee?
O leave me this my
self for ever!
The flowers that bloom
on the shore line will gladden us both:
Thy waves breaking on
me will become a thousand poems to fill my world with music.
What Was All That Beauty?
I stood by the river
while the sunset was staining each tree and shrub with wonderful dyes;
The water was like a
mirror in which a thousand angels might look at themselves;
After a little a
pearl-gray mist settled over the stream and long stretches of trees and the
far-off town:
Everything seemed to
float in the air like an apparition.
When the lights of the
city came out they were like timid stars,
And it seemed to me
that the stars themselves were as timid as the eyes of little children:
But I turned from all
this loveliness because thou, my Lord, wert with me.
Who could look at the
stars when he might be gazing upon Thy face ?
The river's murmur was
forgotten because Thy voice was in my ear:
The haunting scene
could no more hold me because Thy dear strong hands were about my heart:
What was all that
beauty while Thou wert there with me!
The Wee Brown House.
The wee brown house is
happy among the hollyhocks:
The old man, wearied
by toil, rests on the steps, reading his paper:
Grandmother is about,
slipping dead leaves from the rose stems;
Two children play with
a swing, and sweet is their unconscious laughter;
A quiet woman, with
soft yearnings in her eyes, prepares the table where soon they will enjoy the
communion of food:
The curtains are
spotless, the carpets are clean, and brightly shine the dishes along their
shelves.
O pleasant this home
of thine, my Lord,
This one of Thy
countless homes!
My Life.
Often when I sit in
passiveness to muse awhile,
Behold! thou comest
along my thought's frequented paths;
I cannot see Thy face
and yet I see Thee, or hear Thy voice and yet I hear Thee.
The hated distance
vanishes before this strange magic of Thine.
When Thou comest like
inward day to gladden all my world
All things precious
seem to be about Thee in living presences
As when birds cloud
about a tree in blossom.
If I look upon that
which is lovely, or hear melodious sounds, or find myself visited by beautiful
thoughts and dreams,
The heart within me
cries,
" 'Tis He, 'tis He!"
----o----
God loves from whole to parts, but human soul
Must rise from individual to the whole;
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake.
The center moved, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbor first it will embrace,
His country next, and next all human race.
----o----
NOTES ON THE DROMORE MEDALLION
BY BRO. R.J. MEEKREN,
QUEBEC
In spite of its
brevity the little article that appeared on page 107 of THE BUILDER for April of
this year has aroused more discussion than any other item for many moons, save
only one or two. Through an unfortunate inadvertency the title was made to read
"A Masonic Medallion of 1516," thus conveying the impression that ye editor
accepted that date, whereas the title should have read "A Masonic Medallion
Supposedly of 1516." Ye editor does not accept that date, neither is he sure
that the numbers 15 and 16 were intended to serve as a date, as is evidenced by
one question in the editorial note that prefaced the article. Of the many
letters received by way of discussion it has been possible to publish only a
very few: one appeared on page 260 of the August issue, and another on page 292
of the September number. Another appears in the Correspondence Department in
this issue.
IN THE April number of
THE BUILDER, page 107, the material of which this Masonic relic is made is said
to be petrified oak. Presumably by that is meant what is usually known as "bog
oak." This is found in the form of logs and trunks of trees of unknown age,
preserved in the peat bogs. It is not in any real sense petrified, though it has
lost to a very large extent the grain, or fibrous nature of wood, so that it
must be cut or carved more as jet or alabaster. It is very dark, almost in many
cases a true black, and the color is the same all through. This is an important
consideration, as a fresh cut on a piece of this material is practically
impossible to distinguish from an old one. It is used to a limited extent from
which to make curios of various kinds. The writer has in his possession a brooch
of the same shape as the medallion but somewhat smaller in size that is about
fifty years old. It has a relief view of Killarney castle and church surrounded
by a rather delicately carved border of foliage. Though this article is
evidently a stock design of no particular merit from an artistic point of view,
yet compared with it the workmanship of the medallion is rough, not to say
crude. Judging by the cuts in the latter there is no attempt at relief, and the
various emblems are merely delineated by incised outlines. Of the two sides the
one marked B in the cuts, is by far the most carefully done. One might almost
suppose that it was the most important in the mind of the maker, and should
therefore be called the obverse. Indeed one might almost suppose that the two
sides were done at different times, and even that they were done by a different
hand.
THE OBVERSE SIDE
At the top is a
crudely cut object that appears to be intended for an irradiated eye. The pupil
is lacking, and the rays rather ludicrously resemble an attempt to indicate the
lovrer eyelashes. The want of the pupil makes it possible to question whether it
is really intended for an eye. But other indications of incompleteness on this
side of the medallion might account for this.
Below this are the sun
and crescent moon. The sun's rays are very badly spaced. In all ten are shown.
The one pointing directly to the crescent is cut as one of a secondary series.
Two others at the right and left respectively of the one at the top, seem almost
as if they might have been also intended as secondary rays. It is possible
therefore to suppose that the designer intended to give the sun seven rays, with
seven more appearing from behind these, and in between their intervals; but gave
up the attempt because of the bad spacing of the primary seven.
On the left of the sun
is a cross-shaped object of the simplest character. It might be taken to
represent two chisels or "Points." In an old design, referring to the original
undigested, inchoate, Royal Arch, reproduced by Oliver in his "Historical
Landmarks," (it is also reproduced by Macoy in his Cyclopaedia under "Arch of
Enoch" apparently copying from Oliver). There is an emblem consisting of three
nails crossing each other, representing probably the three nails of the Cross of
our Lord. The form of the nails in this design is very similar in outline to the
two members of the cross-shaped object on the medallion. As these appear to be
very lightly cut it is perhaps possible the emblem was unfinished, and that a
third nail was to have crossed the other two. However this is pure conjecture.
To the right of the
moon is a very crudely marked object which however appears to be meant for a
sword with a triangular shaped guard. Or is it a badly executed circular one in
perspective? If it is not intended for sword or dagger or like warlike
instrument it would be difficult to say what it is.
The two pillars (of no
imaginable order of architecture!) have a difference in their capitals. Whether
this is intended or not would be hard to say in view of the nondescript design;
but in the old drawing referred to above are two pillars that are obviously and
intentionally different, and not only in style and proportions, but the shading
seems intended to represent different material. In this is probably intended a
reference to the two pillars of the children of Seth, upon which they engraved
the various discoveries they had made, and one of which was made of a many named
material that would not burn in fire and the other of another as uncertainly
distinguished substance that would not drown in water; as is related in the
Legend of the Craft.
Upon the bases of the
pillars in the medallion are some indistinct markings. The one on the right
seems to be meant for the square and compass. The other is so faint that it is
hardly worth while to guess about it. Something might be obtained possibly from
a close examination of the medallion itself.
Between the pillars
are the square and compass superposed upon a quadrilateral figure that may be
intended to represent an open book, or it may be it is meant for the symbol of
the lodge. Unless it be regarded as unfinished it is strange that the median
line representing the juncture of the pages was omitted, which the merest tyro
would hardly forget, while that it is intended for a book would seem to follow
from the little indentation visible in the middle of the bottom line just above
the square, and a slightly curved outline to the upper side. The supposition
that this side of the medallion was not fully finished would account for a good
many things.
Below the square are
the figures 15 and 16 which are supposed to be the date. Of these more will be
said later. Below these again is an object that may be intended for a
threebranched chandelier. If this is what it is meant for it is very unusual,
and if it is not so intended it is hard to conjecture what it might be. In all
the old Craft designs and diagrams known to the writer the three lesser lights
are always reprcsented by three separate candlesticks. In looking closely at the
left-hand branch there does appear a faint outline of a flame above a very short
candle-end. As this is in shading and not distinct lines it is hard to say
whether it really appears in the original. Above the central branch there is the
still fainter resemblance of a flame in the corresponding position. The one to
the right offers nothing distinguishable.
To the left of the
pillars is an object than can hardly be anything else than a folded two-foot
rule, rather faintly outlined and with the divisions very roughly indicated. At
first sight it almost appears from the alternation of short and long cross lines
that inches and half inches were intended. But this is not carried through
consistently, and counting the total number of divisions would make it seem as
if twelve were intended to be indicated on each half, which makes it correspond
with the twenty-four inch gauge.
On the right of the
pillars is a plumb rule, which does not call for any special remark. The lines
are more deeply cut than on the gauge, and the plumb bob is indicated.
The pillars stand at
the top of what undoubtedly represents a flight of steps. This arrangement
follows the oldest tracing boards very closely. Most of these old designs show
seven or eleven steps. Whether there are any examples with five the writer is
not sure, not having made any notes on this point. But he remembers to have seen
none with the three which are customary at the present time. A somewhat distant
view of the steps on the medallion gives the impression, in spite of the
roughness of the cutting, of an intentional alternation of broad and narrow
spaces. It could be taken as a crude attempt to represent three steps in
perspective, the two broad spaces being the treads and the three narrow ones the
risers. But in view of the character of the rest of the design this hardly seems
very likely, unless one should take it to be of comparitively recent origin.
The object at the foot
of the steps is probably meant for a coffin. This emblem of mortality appears at
the foot of the three steps in many of the "Master's Carpets" in use early in
the last century, and in some tracing boards of earlier date, though most of the
earliest show the coffin in the form now used in the British Isles, - what
French call the "Cercuil" or "Sepulchre."
THE REVERSE SIDE
The general design of
this side of the medallion is so much better conceived and so much more
carefully executed that it might almost give rise to the suspicion that it was
not by the same hand as the other. At least it is hard to suppose that it was
done at the same time and under the same conditions. Compare for instance the
crude capitals of the two pillars with the quite graceful if simple foliage
tracery below the triangle. The letters, too, with the exception of the G and S.
are all well proportioned and spaced and excellently cut. The curves of the
other two letters make them of course very much more difficult to cut, and their
defect is another indication that the work is not by a professional hand. The
whole appearance of this side however seems to indicate greater care if not
greater skill than the other, aside from the introduction of pure ornament, as
the tracery in the apex of the triangle, and above the letters H.M.D.D., and
that at the base of the triangle too, in all probability.
Leaving consideration
of the letters till the last, there is first the ladder to the left inside the
triangle. It is of three rounds, as has become customary in our modern designs.
So far as the writer is aware, the ladder when appearing in ancient Masonic and
quasi-Masonic designs invariably has six or seven or more rungs. This may have
some bearing on the question of date.
Below the ladder is an
unmistakable branch of some plant. Of what species the design does not show, of
course, but it is natural to suppose that it represents the Sprig of Acacia,
though very likely the designer thought of it as Cassia.
On the right is a
trowel, of a shape intermediate between the rhomboid form now universal among
ourselves, and the medieval form with an equilateral triangular blade, which is
still used in Germany and Belgium and parts, at least, of France.
Below the trowel is a
stirrup-shaped object that is probably meant for the head of a stone-cutter's or
carver's mallet, often, though not very accurately, called a gavel by
present-day Masons. Close examination will show below the curve a short but
clearly cut line in the right place to represent the end of the handle. And
there appears also the faintest trace of the outline of the handle itself. But
reference to the original would be necessary to determine whether this
appearance is intended. However if the object is not a mallet-head it is hard to
assign any meaning to it.
In the center of the
triangle is the compass extended upon an arc, with the letter G. Without the
initial this is now the jewel of a Grand Master. But there is some reason to
suppose that at the emergence of Masonry into its historical period, that is,
since 1717, some lines of tradition assigned this emblem to the Master of the
lodge. It is certain that in the older forms of Masonry, what is commonly known
as Operative, the compass distinguished the Master, and in his hands this
instrument is
usually put in all ancient drawings and sculptures representing Masons and their
work. To pass from the square to the compass in old Scotch phrase was equivalent
to our modern "raising," and alluded to a ceremony still in use in the English
type of work. In the earliest form extant of the so-called York work the square
is assigned to the Entered Apprentice as a working tool in addition to gavel and
gauge. On the other hand the present-day assignment of the three immovable
jewels to the three principal officers of the lodge appears to have also been in
vogue at the dawn of the historical period. In Hogarth's "Night" the
incapacitated Mason being helped home is wearing a collar from which the square
is suspended: but of course we do not know that Hogarth meant to represent the
Master of a lodge. In another old engraving a man clothed as a Mason and
undoubtedly intended for the Master, seems to have all the implements of Masonry
hanging to his collar.
Below the compass and
arc is the very crude delineation of a winged figure The wings are almost
heraldic in style and the face is represented in most primitive fashion. The
whole irresistibly reminds one of the cherubs so frequently represented upon
eighteenth century headstones, or even of the winged death's heads occasionally
seen. As this side of the medallion certainly refers mainly to the Royal Arch,
the former is the most likely interpretation of the two. The cherubim and the
angel of the burning bush played a great part apparently in the symbolism of the
early forms of this degree, of which traces are still left even in the American
type of work.
The foliage below the
base of the triangle seems more ornamental than significant. It could quite
naturally be referred to the sprig of Acacia, were it not that that emblem
already appears in a more important position.
The plumb and level
call for little comment, except to note that their form is the conventional one
so familiar today. Of this more will be said later in discussing the question of
date.
The three arches are
of course most naturally referable to the Royal Arch, though not probably to the
degree as we know it today. In the design reproduced by Oliver, mentioned above
there are nine arches in rows of three superposed upon each other. In the older
rituals three arches are mentioned, as one below the other. American and English
work has simplified these to one, while the corresponding degree in the A.
& A. S. R. has amplified them to
nine. But possibly nine was the original number in the inception of the Royal
Arch. It is not at all easy to decide in our present state of knowledge.
The square and compass
below the arches do not seem to require remark, unless it be to point out that
the device seems to be more carefully drawn than the corresponding emblem on the
other side of the medallion. The square has ornamental curved ends, the
compasses are more slender and the joint better proportioned, more like a real
instrument.
We now come to the
letters. The K. S. hardly requires explication, or the letter G in the centre of
the triangle. The J. H. and Z. which might be puzzling to Companions in the U.
S. A. are perfectly familiar to those exalted in the English form of work. They
are the initials of the three personages represented by the three principal
officers of the chapter - Jeshua the high priest, Haggai the prophet, and
Zerubbabel the prince of the people, of whom the latter is first in rank. The
monogram to the right is probably a simpler form of the "triple-tau," and
referable to Hiram Abif, though other recondite meanings are attached to it. The
W is puzzling: one thinks naturally of the W. S., but it seems very unlikely
that the S would have been dropped if that were intended.
To the letters above
the two sides of the triangle there seems at present no key, or even plausible
conjecture. It is difficult even to guess whether each group represents one
word, or whether they are a group of initials, or partly both. As, to take
familiar examples, O.B., K.S.T., and H.A.B. Nor do we know whether they
represent English or Latin words, or are of some other language. A good many
Latin phrases were in use by the Masons of the early eighteenth century: the
diagram already alluded to contains the phrase "we have found" in three
languages. The H.M.D.D. is reminiscent of H.R.D.M., but the resemblance is
doubtless adventitious. On the other side, the A.A.A. is evidently separated
from the W.P. If there are any extant remains of the Royal Arch ritual as worked
in Ireland in the eighteenth century some clue might be found therein, but
failing that or some similar help there seems to be nothing possible but
conjecture, which must always remain inconclusive.
DATE OF THE MEDALLION
It has been stated in
a previous publication of the medallion that the members of the Dublin Lodge of
Research were of the opinion that "it is undoubtedly one of the oldest emblems
in Ireland, genuine in every respect, even to the date 1516." If this be their
considered conclusion it must be given due weight as they have had the benefit
of examining the object itself. But it is necessary to remember that 1516 is a
long time ago. Martin Luther had not nailed his theses to the church door in
Wittenburg, and Henry VIII of England had not been so very long upon the throne.
There is of course nothing inherently impossible in the existence of a Masonic
device of this or greater age, eve have indeed examples of such, but much water
has run under all bridges since then. It must be remembered that Gothic
architecture was still a living tradition. Men were doubtless still alive who
had wrought on that masterpiece of the style in England, the Chapel of Henry VII
at Westminister; men were in all probability still alive who could design and
execute that culminating marvel of Gothic work, the so-called "fan vaulting!"
Operative Masonry was still fully alive, though on the verge of that decline
which was to bring it to decay and nearly to complete extinction, had it not
re-arisen phoenix-like in Speculative Masonry. It is necessary to grasp the
circumstances at the time of the putative date of this relic in order to
appreciate the indications we have as to its credibility.
First of all there is
the general appearance of the designs. This is an argument that could only be
made conclusive by comparison of similar designs at different periods, and even
then it would require some knowledge of such matters to appreciate it. The
writer's own feeling, whatever it may be worth, is that the medallion is of
eighteenth century work, or at the earliest of the end of the seventeenth
century, and that its style would have been utterly impossible in the beginning
of the sixteenth century.
To strengthen this
general impression there is the form of the working tools. The level and plumb
seem to the writer almost conclusive in themselves. In any really old
representation of mason's tools known to him, it always has the proportions of
the real working tool, which is still used in its primitive form by bricklayers
and stonemasons in England. It is about four feet long and three inches wide.
Not until the institution had become completely divorced from all operative
connection could the instrument tend towards the shortened conventional form, so
much more convenient as an emblem, though useless as a tool. The level is still
more striking. Its oldest form seems to have been an equilateral triangle, and
under this form it still appears sometimes in continental Masonic designs.
Sometimes a perpendicular member is introduced from the apex of the triangle to
the base. A form intermediate between this and our modern emblem has the upright
member supported by two braces, thus preserving the triangle though reduced in
size. Such a tool the writer as a boy has seen actually in use.
To this must be added
the indications afforded by the ladder, trowel, and folding rule. The first two
are not very conclusive by themselves, but they increase each other's
significance by all tending in the same direction. The writer has never seen in
any Masonic design, ancient or modern, except catalogs of Masonic furnishers,
the folding rule as equivalent to the twenty-four inch guage. It is in any case
probably a modern invention, though there is no available information on the
point.
What then do the
figures 15 and 16 represent? They certainly look as if intended for a date. On
the other hand though arabic numerals were known before the sixteenth century,
they were very little used. Account books were kept in Roman figures, and dates
were almost universally so written for long afterwards, indeed down to the
beginning of the nineteenth century. One cannot well advance the theory of
forgery after the careful investigation made by responsible members of the
Craft, unless one supposes the forger lived a hundred years ago or so, hid his
work and forgot all about it.
The number 15 has some
significance in our work even yet, and this was more strongly emphasized in the
work of the eighteenth century. The "Masons Confession" speaks of nineteen
Fellow Crafts and thirteen Entered Apprentices as apparently forming a lodge,
and the Sloan MS. 3329 speaks of six Masons being necessary, or if so many
cannot be found, "that five will serve." Whether the two numbers in question
could have had some such significance is hard to say. If one took the
quadrilateral figure above as a symbol of the lodge this might seem plausible.
On the other hand if it be taken as intended for a book it is an added
indication of the eighteenth century origin of the medallion, as in the earlier
arrangements of the lodge the Bible, or Book of the Gospels, was not closely
associated with the square and compass, and seems indeed to have been originally
introduced to give an added sanction to the O. B. of the entrants: the present
symbolic use of the Bible being filled by the book or roll of the Ancient
Constitutions. Perhaps the Trinity College MS., which is supposed to be of Irish
origin, might throw some light upon the matter, if it were ever published and so
made accessible to Masonic students.
----o----
WOULD YOUR COMMUNITY SELL OUT? - PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM FOR
SALE
"We are authorized to
offer for sale the Ardmore public school system, which has buildings and grounds
and equipment worth $750,000, 100 teachers, all-the-year-round schools, a
Department of Educational Research and Guidance which has attracted attention
all over the country because of its efficiency, a supervisor of music, a
supervisor of drawing, a supervisor of penmanship and a supervisor of grades;
that has Junior and Senior High Schools organized in such a way as to give every
child the kind of work for which he or she is particularly fitted; that has a
modern cafeteria; that has a sheet metal department; mechanical drawing,
benchwork, lathe work, machine work; domestic science, domestic arts, home
decoration, a complete commercial course, a fully equipped printing plant, a
coach of athletics and physical training who devotes all his time to the work
and a football team which is one of the best in the country.
"But this school
system is costing the taxpayers of Ardmore more than $200,000 a year. Possibly
it is better to leave this $11.00 in each individual's pocket in the city, and
dispose of the school system. Therefore, we are authorized to offer this school
system for sale to the highest and best bidder, so that Ardmore may have the
opportunity of ascertaining which way she would be better off, with or without a
public school system. There are 3,700 children being educated in these schools
every day." - Supt. C.W. Richards, Ardmore, Oklahoma - Journal of Education, p.
172, Febr. 16,1922. - M.S.A. Bulletin No. 8.
----o----
HEREIN IS LOVE
Herein is love: to strip the shoulders bare
If need be, that a frailer one may wear
A mantle to protect him from the storm;
To bear the frost king's breath so he be warm;
To crush the tears it would be sweet to shed,
And smile so others may have joy instead.
Herein is love: to daily sacrifice
The hope that to the bosom closest lies;
To mutely bear reproach and suffer wrong:
Nor lift the voice to show where these belong -
Nay, more, nor tell it even to God above;
Herein is love - indeed herein is love.
- Selected
----o----
THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY
The following paper is
one of a series of articles on "Philosophical Masonry," or "The Teachings of
Masonry," by Brother Haywood, to be used for reading and discussion in lodges
and study clubs. From the questions following each section of the paper the
study club leader should select such as he may desire to use in bringing out
particular points for discussion. To go into a lengthy discussion on each
individual question presented might possibly consume more time than the lodge or
study club may be able to devote to the study club meeting.
In conducting the
study club meetings the leader should endeavor to hold the discussions closely
to the text of the paper and not permit the members to speak too long at one
time or to stray onto another subject. Whenever it becomes evident that the
discussion is turning from the original subject the leader should request the
members to make notes of the particular points or phases of the matter they may
wish to discuss or inquire into and bring them up after the last section of the
paper is disposed of.
The meetings should be
closed with a "Question Box" period, when such questions as may have come up
during the meeting and laid over until this time should be entered into and
discussed. Should any questions arise that cannot be answered by the study club
leader or some other brother present, these questions may be submitted to us and
we will endeavor to answer them for you in time for your next meeting.
Supplemental
references on the subjects treated in this paper will be found at the end of the
article.
BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD
PART XV - THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD
MANY attempts have been made to expound Freemasonry's
teaching concerning God by recourse to the peculiar phraseology that is employed
in the ritual, but these attempts have always broken down because the
ritualistic language has been fashioned, not for the purposes of exact
theological thinking, but for symbolical and ritualistic purposes. God is not
in fact an architect; such a term is very misleading. It suggests a great
artificer who made the worlds out of nothing, or else out of crude material, and
who went about it as a carpenter might frame a house. Such a Being would
necessarily exist apart from the thing He has made, as a machinist is apart from
the mechanism he contrives. The modern mind will have nothing to do with such
ideas because men have learned that God cannot be conceived of as living and
working apart from the universe, but must somehow be involved in that universe.
The Masonic thinker can escape from these difficulties by remembering that in
the ritual God is described as T.S.G.A.O.T.U., not because such words describe
His nature as Masonry understands it, but because such an appellation is in
harmony with the architectural language of the ceremonies.
Freemasonry, nowhere offers a definition of the nature and
attributes of God, but leaves such matters to each individual to fashion as best
he can. It asks of a man only that he believe that God is. It does not even
try to prove the existence of God, after the fashion of the dogmatic
theologians, but assumes that its candidates already have that belief in their
hearts.
However, it appears that while Freemasonry does not define
its conception of God certain attributes are assumed by the Masonic system as a
whole, and taken for granted throughout it, so that while these attributes are
nowhere insisted upon explicitly, they are a necessary postulate of Masonic
teachings as a whole. I may be wrong in this; if I am, it will not greatly
matter, because this paper, like the others in this series, is designed to be
not exhaustive but suggestive, and prepared as a paper for discussion, rather
than as an official treatise.
What is the "peculiar phraseology" referred to? Have you
considered that such a name truly describes God? Did you gain any conception of
God while taking the work? What are the objections to the theory that God exists
apart from the universe? In what way can God be involved in the universe? What
is the nature of the theological language employed in the ritual? Does
Freemasonry anywhere define or describe the attributes of God? What is meant by
"attributes"? How would you prove the existence of God? What is an atheist? What
is meant by the phrase "necessary postulate"?
In its most fundamental sense - the only sense in which
Freemasonry teaches it - the Fatherhood of God means that when a human being
comes into existence there is somewhat in him (let us not try to define it) that
derives immediately from God's own being; and that through all his existence -
which we believe to be endless - this man's being remains rooted in God's own
being, so that if God Himself were to cease to be he would also, and at the same
instant, cease to be. In the language of metaphysics the relation between God
and man is ontological. It exists in the nature of things, so that neither God
nor man could cause it not to be; and it does not depend upon a man's religious
beliefs, or upon any other belief or opinion. All men, whatever be their faith
or fortune, from Plato down to the African dwarf, have this relation with God.
What God is to any one He is to every other one, and all that God can be to or
do for any man, He is to and does for all men equally, and everlastingly. This
eternal an universal Fatherhood in Him does not come into existence when we
begin to believe it; it is already a fact before we believe it, and remains a
fact whether we believe it or not.
The Fatherhood of God is more than a symbol it is a fact,
albeit of a very different nature from human fatherhood. By God's love is meant
that our being is rooted in Him, and that He is ever doing for us all that a God
can do. His relation to us is neither purchased nor given but holds in the very
structure of life itself. It does not rest on sentiment or emotion but in the
nature of things, so that it is a great blunder to suppose that because God is
our Father therefore He can, at will, reverse the processes of the universe or
set aside the everlasting laws of things. He remains our Father through all our
experiences, but not for that reason are we shielded from pain, from loss, and
from the extreme horrors into which our own or the world's ignorance, or the
vicissitudes of fortune may bring us. Nevertheless, whatever be our lot, it is
the great secret of our courage to know that the show and scheme of things is
not swirling about us in the wind of chance, but that our lives are rooted in
One who thoroughly understands us; and that, whatever betide the inner stuff of
our nature cannot dissolve away into dust, or our beings be brought to
extinction. Our belief in God's Fatherhood - so this is to say - does not
create the fact, but it makes the fact a power in our conscious thought, and
that is a mighty thing.
"The doctrine of Fatherhood in God is a doctrine of faith.
It is a belief about the interior mystery of the Infinite supported by much, and
opposed by much, in the experience of mankind. It is a belief about the
universe, in behalf of our human world, supported by all that is best in that
world; it is fitted to elevate, energize, gladden and console human beings; it
is the belief that generates and justifies all other high beliefs. If God is
the Absolute goodness and compassion, our human world is his concern, all
righteousness has his approval, all efforts at righteousness are followed by his
sympathy, all sin must reckon with his endless enmity, all penitence may count
upon his pity, all strivings at reform may be sure of his inspiration, all union
in the endeavour to cleanse the earth of moral evil may move in the tides of his
Spirit, all grief may find consolation in his infinite love, all loss may hope
to become, in the courses of the ages, eternal gain in Him. If Fatherhood in
God is the ultimate reality in the Infinite, as the Infinite is related to our
human world, that world is glorious with meaning and with hope."
What is your own conception of the Fatherhood of God? How
do we know that God exists? How do we know that He is a Father in the sense
described? How is his Fatherhood to be reconciled with the evil and the
suffering of the world? What does belief in God's Fatherhood do for a man? Is
such a belief required of a Mason? In what way does Freemasonry teach the
Fatherhood of God? What is taught concerning this subject in the Old and the New
Testaments?
The Fatherhood of God is not anywhere explicitly taught by
Freemasonry but it is everywhere implied, so that the great doctrines peculiar
to the Craft demand it for their guarantor, and make inevitably toward it The
Brotherhood of Man could never come to pass if the peoples of the world were by
their very nature different from each other; it would be as impossible to bridge
over such chasms as it is now impossible to bring our race into an equal
brotherhood with beasts or trees.
So also is it with Equality. It is impossible for us ever
to be, as I have already tried to show in this series, of the same fortune or
ability, because the conditions in which we necessarily live make for endless
variety, and that is of itself a kind of inequality: but there is a region
beneath all such differences in which we find ourselves at one. God is to the
most ignorant wretch all that a God can be, and does all things possible for
him, so that in such matters that wretch is the equal of prophets and kings.
Our hope of Democracy is linked up with the Fatherhood of
God. "Always, a new idea of man implies and involves a new conception of God.
It was natural for the men who bowed low when the glittering chariot of Caesar
swept along the streets of Rome to think of God as an omnipotent Emperor, ruling
the world with an arbitrary and irresponsible almightiness. For men who live in
this land of the free such a conception of God is a caricature. The citizens of
a republic do not believe that God is an infinite autocrat, nor do they bow down
to divine despotism; they worship in the presence of an Eternal Father, who is
always and everywhere accessible to the humblest man who lifts his heart in
prayer. Republican principles necessarily involve faith in the Fatherhood of
God. The logic of the American idea leads to faith in a Divine Love universal
and impartial, all encompassing and everlasting."
What is meant by saying that the doctrine of the Fatherhood
of God is everywhere implied in Freemasonry? In what way does the Brotherhood of
Man depend on the Fatherhood of God? What is taught in the V.S.L. concerning the
Brotherhood of Man? What is meant by Equality? In what way does God's Fatherhood
make all men equal? What does the Declaration of Independence teach concerning
Equality? What does the V.S.L. have to say about Equality? What is meant by
Democracy? How is the Doctrine of Democracy related to the Doctrine of the
Fatherhood of God? Could Democracy exist among a people who worship a despotic
God?
SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES
THE BUILDER:
Vol. II, 1916. - Toleration, p. 265; Non-Christian
Candidates, p. 302.
Vol. III, 1917. - The Chapter - What It Stands For, p. 85;
The Spirit of Masonry, p. 93; Masonic Jurisprudence, P. 211.
Vol. IV, 1918. - H.G. Wells' Conception of Deity, p. 63.
Vol. V, 1919. - California's Recognition of French Masonry,
p. 11; Words and Realities, p. 19; The Triangle, p. 45; Studies in Blue Lodge
Symbolism, P. 135.
Vol. VI, 1920. - The letter G, February C.C.B. p. 3; The
Lost Word, May C.C.B. p. 3.
Vol. VII, 1921. - The Fatherhood of God, p. 21;
T.G.A.O.T.U., p. 169; God in Prison, p. 192.
Mackey's Encyclopedia - (Revised Edition):
Atheist, p. 84; Deism, p. 204; Dispensations of Religion,
p. 217; Equality, p. 247; Ethics of Freemasonry, p. 252; God, p. 301; Great
Architect of the Universe, p. 310; I.T.N.O.T.G.A.O.T.U., p. 3; Lost Word, p.
453; Scriptures, Belief in the, p. 672; Theism, p. 782; Theurgy, p. 783;
T.G.A.O.T.U., pp. 3 and 782; Unity of God, p. 816; Word, p. 856.
----o----
OUR STUDY CLUB PLAN
Our Masonic Study Club
Course, of which the foregoing paper by Brother Haywood is a part, was begun in
THE BUILDER early in 1917. Previous to the beginning of the present series on
"Philosophical Masonry," or "The Teachings of Masonry," as we have titled it,
were published some forty-three papers covering in detail "Ceremonial Masonry"
and "Symbolical Masonry" under the following several divisions: "The Work of a
Lodge," "The Lodge and the Candidate," "First Steps," "Second Steps," and "Third
Steps." A complete set of these papers up to January 1st, 1922, are obtainable
in the bound volumes of THE BUILDER for 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1921.
Following is an
outline of the subjects covered by the current series of study club papers by
Brother Haywood:
THE TEACHINGS OF MASONRY
1. - General Introduction.
2. - The Masonic Conception of Human Nature.
3. - The Idea of Truth in Freemasonry.
4. - The Masonic Conception of Education.
5. - Ritualism and Symbolism.
6. - Initiation and Secrecy.
7. - Masonic Ethics.
8. - Equality.
9. - Liberty.
10. - Democracy.
11. - Masonry and
Industry.
12. - The Brotherhood
of Man.
13. - Freemasonry and
Religion.
14. - Universality
15. - The Fatherhood
of God.
16. - Endless Life.
17. - Brotherly Aid.
18. - Schools of
Masonic Philosophy.
This systematic course
of Masonic study has been taken up
and carried out in monthly and semi-monthly meetings of lodges and study clubs
all over the United States and Canada, and in several instances in lodges
overseas.
The course of study
has for its foundation two sources of Masonic information, THE BUILDER and
Mackey's Encyclopedia.
HOW TO ORGANIZE AND CONDUCT STUDY CLUB MEETINGS
Study clubs may be
organized separate from the lodge, or as a part of the work of the lodge. In the
latter case the lodge should select a committee, preferably of three "live"
members who shall have charge of the study club meetings. The study club
meetings should be held at least once a month (excepting during July and August,
when the study club papers are discontinued in THE BUILDER), either at a special
communication of the lodge called for the purpose, or at a regular communication
at which no business (except the lodge routine) should be transacted,all
possible time to be devoted to study club purposes.
After the lodge has
been opened and all routine business disposed of, the Master should turn the
lodge over to the chairman of the study club committee. The committee should be
fully prepared in advance on the subject to be discussed at the meeting. All
members to whom references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be
prepared with their material, and should also have a comprehensive grasp of
Brother Haywood's paper by a previous reading and study of it.
PROGRAM FOR STUDY CLUB MEETINGS
1. Reading of any
supplemental papers on the subject for the evening which may have been prepared
by brethren assigned such duties by the chairman of the study club committee.
2. Reading of the
first section of Brother Haywood's paper.
3. Discussion of this
section, using the questions following this section to bring out points for
discussion.
4. The subsequent
sections of the paper should then be taken up and disposed of in the same
manner.
5. Question Box.
Invite questions on any subject in Masonry, from any and all brethren present.
Let the brethren understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit
and enlightenment and get them into the habit of asking all the questions they
may be able to think of. If at the time these questions are propounded no one
can answer them, send them in to us and we will endeavor to supply answers to
them in time for your next study club meetmg.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The foregoing
information should enable study club committees to conduct their meetings
without difficulty. However, if we can be of assistance to such committees, or
any individual member of lodges and study clubs at any time such brethren are
invited to feel free
to communicate with us.
----o----
"WE ARE TWO BROTHERS"
BY BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, IOWA
Give me your hand:
You are rich; I am poor:
Your wealth is your power, and by it you tread
A wide open path: where for me is a door
That is locked: and before it are worry and dread.
We are sundered, are we,
As two men can be
But we are two brothers in Freemasonry
So give me your hand.
Give me your hand:
You are great: I'm unknown:
You travel abroad with a permanent fame;
I go on a way unlauded, alone,
With hardly a man to hear of my name:
We are sundered, are we,
As two men can be,
But we are two brothers in Freemasonry
So give me your hand.
Give me your hand:
You are old; I am young;
The years in your heart their wisdom have sown;
But knowledge speaks not by my faltering tongue
And small is the wisdom I claim as my own:
We are sundered, are we,
As two men can be,
But we are two brothers in Freemasonry
So give me your hand.
----o----
EDITORIAL
OUR GOVERNMENT NOT AN EXPERIMENT
IN THESE days when
every reformer, small and large, runs hither and yon with all manner of schemes
for changing our government: when the air is full of criticism of the work that
our forefathers did when they constructed the Constitution and started the
machinery to going; and when the Reds are driving against its very existence
with all their might, it is wise for us to recall the fact that the political
system of the United States did not come into existence as an experiment:
neither was it devised merely in order to prove the truth of some political
theory. Our nation grew up out of the sod like some natural thing, and its
mechanism was designed to perform very practical services. The kind of democracy
built into the Constitution was not a brand new thing on this continent: the
Colonists had had experience of it for more than a century, save in regard to
some political phases of it. Colonial economic conditions of the new country had
made that kind of democracy inevitable. And the kind of nation ours was, and was
designed to be, made it necessary to build just such a governmental system in
order to serve the useful functions of self defense, maintenance of order, and
the successful carrying on of interstate and international affairs. The fathers
were not a set of visionaries dreaming of some Utopia, though it is true that
they had a strain of Utopianism in them: they were men of affairs (Professor
Beard has shown that they were men of affairs in our present day sense of that
phrase) who had before them certain very practical conditions to meet, and who
met them with common sense and sagacity.
Your typical Red is a
man sworn to a theory. He has in some abstract manner thought out what he would
consider to be an ideal commonwealth, and he bes lieves that a government should
be in harmony with such an abstract scheme. He says to himself: "We profess to
be a democracy. In a real democracy there would be no classes; there would be no
poverty, there would be no clique of politicians running the national capital;
there would be no panics, no unemployment, no child labor, no exploitation of
the masses by the capitalists; and all men, women, and children would enjoy a
full measure of equality." "But in our land it is not so," he goes onto say; "we
have political, social and economic classes, just as they have in the old world;
a cabal of politicians runs Washington; the cities fester with slums; the south
is full of child labor; millions are unemployed, etc., etc. This is therefore
not a democracy, consequently the government is a failure, and therefore we
should destroy the government we have and put a new one in its place."
The fallacy that
vitiates the arguments of this amiable person is found in his premise. He says,
"a democracy should be so and so" and then he finds fault with the actual nation
for not harmonizing with that picture. Successful governments are not, never
have been, and never will be, built in such wise. A group of people live in a
certain land; this land has certain geographical peculiarities of its own; these
people are of such and such a race and have a certain bent of mind; they are in
such and such a relation with neighboring people: when these people come to
devise a government they must make it out of such materials as they have, and
shape it to such uses as they are in need of. The institution conforms to the
way things really are with that people and not to a picture imagined in the
brain of some Utopian.
This is not to connive
in political chicanery or to exculpate those who are guilty of social and
political corruption: far from it, and quite the contrary. It is merely a
statement about realities. And as for that, it seems self-evident that political
corruption will not be abated, child labor will not be extirpated, slums will
not be cleansed, and wars will not be made to cease by pulling everything up by
the roots, destroying the governmental machinery that we now have, and bringing
chaos upon us. The very persons for whose sake the reformer is most worried
would be the first to suffer from such a regime. The man who is a real friend of
the people will not bring down upon the head of that people their own government
in ruins.
If political and
social affairs in our land were universally corrupt, if our machinery were
generally inadequate, and if it were utterly hopeless to expect any relief from
a more thoroughgoing use of the present governmental system, then a revolution
might be necessary. But such is far from the case in this land. The government
provided for by our Constitution is infinitely susceptible to popular control,
and quite capable, if the citizenship will properly use it, of securing for us
all the fullest possible measure of democracy, equality, and social justice.
----o----
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP GROWS
Every day during the
last five years an average of 2,173 persons joined the various churches of
America, and three congregations were organized daily.
The total religious
constituency of the country is 95,868,096. The Protestants count 74,795,226;
Roman Catholics, 17,885,846; Jews, 1,120,000; Eastern Orthodox (Greek and
Russian), 411,054; Latter Day Saints (Mormons), 1,646,170.
The total active
membership is 45,997,199, an increase of 4,070,345 over the 1916 census figures.
The several religious bodies report 233,104 congregations manned by 200,090
ministers. For the first time in history the Baptists have passed the Methodists
in total membership. The Baptists, showing their greatest increase in the south,
now have 7,835,250 members, against a Methodist membership of 7,797,991. -
Capital News Service.
----o----
THE LIBRARY
AMERICANIZING AMERICANS
“Essentials of Americanization," by Professor Emory S.
Bogardus, Ph. D., Head of Department of Sociology, University of Southern
California. Published by the University of Southern California Press, Los
Angeles, California, Second Revised Edition, December 1920. Price $2.00.
AS LONG as the great
mass of immigration to this nation was composed largely of Europeans similar in
breeding, culture, and political faith to native-born Americans the immigration
problem was very largely a mere question of accommodation; the newcomers were
found places and given jobs. But after the cessation, or near cessation, of that
type of incomers, there began a new immigration composed of Southeastern
Europeans and Asiatics, as alien in breed and political ideals as they were in
language. How to Americanize the Bohemian, the Pole, the Hungarian, the Hindu
and the Jap, that is not the same problem as that which confronted our
grandfathers in the days when the majority of aliens were from Ireland, Germany
and Holland. It is a different problem, and more difficult.
The perfervid patriot
- may his tribe increase, too often leaps to the conclusion that all these
outlanders must at once be assimilated to us in every particular. They must read
and write English; they must not resort to colonies in order to maintain their
old world customs; they must steep themselves in our native social life; they
must not be permitted to maintain their own newspapers and churches. But the
efforts to jam the immigrant into this process usually end in worse than
failure, for your immigrant is as human as ourselves, and cannot any faster
change his own skin. The perfervid patriot might, if he were to consider the
matter more closely, come to believe it something of a gain for us to have these
exotic elements of culture in our midst; they help to enrich American life. He
would at least cease to demand the impossible of the immigrant, for we should
either not permit the immigrant to come at all, or we should cease demanding him
to do the unhuman and impossible thing of making over his own nature to fit a
new pattern.
Americanization does
not demand such an impossible thing. What it does demand, however, is that, once
here, the immigrant shall as soon as possible get himself geared up to the
economic and political machinery of the nation so that he can function as
smoothly in those connections as the native-born. The immigrant must be made to
obey the laws, give a day's work for a day's pay, keep the peace, and stand
ready to do his public duty like all other citizens. Merely because he is a
stranger he is not entitled to immunity from any of these duties. If he will not
learn how to make these simple and elementary adjustments he must be taught how;
if he cannot be taught how, he must be removed from the land. To preserve in our
midst great colonies of men and women for whom separate laws must be maintained,
and separate moral codes, that is intolerable.
But it has come to
pass in these last days that a still different task confronts the Americanizer,
and, it may be, an even more difficult task. There have grown up in our midst
groups of citizens who demand, not a mere modification or improvement of this or
that in the American system, but a complete destruction of that system in behalf
of something entirely different. These men and women have ceased either to
understand or to believe the ideals and principles of America. How to convert
them, or re-convert them, to the American program is a task for Americanization.
All such matters have
a peculiar interest for us Masons. From the beginning, yes even before the
American nation had as yet any beginning at all, it has been apparent to all
that the principles of the new nation and the principles of our ancient
Fraternty are almost identical, and that the governmental system, a democracy in
the form of a republic, adopted by the founders of the United States, is
essentially the same as that which has for centuries obtained in Freemasonry.
Masons are per se upholders of the American system. They helped to create it;
they continue to believe in it; and they always will. It would be in keeping
with the nature of things if lodges the country over were to fall into step with
the Americanization movement, as the Masonic Service Association is doing, and
other organized efforts besides, and devote something of their activity to
making Americans out of Americans. If they do so they will find waiting to their
hand an excellent text-book for their study, "Essentials of Americanization" by
Professor Emory Bogardus, of the University of Southern California.
Professor Bogardus
began with making the whole field of Sociology his own; gradually, and led by a
keen sense for the practical, he came to specialize in Americanization, which
naturally falls inside the scope of general sociology. As an authority on
Americanization Professor Bogardus has built up a solid reputation on the west
coast, and he is gradually winning a similar recognition among sociologists in
the east. He is the author of an "Introduction to Sociology" and to "Essentials
of Social Psychology" the latter of which is one of the pioneer works in its own
department. Of these three volumes it is possible that the "Essentials of
Americanization" is the most widely useful.
Professor Bogardus has
crowded a great mass of matter into 375 pages. In his Part I he has five
chapters on "Americanization and American Ideals"; in Part II, five chapters on
"The Native-Born and American Ideals"; in Part III, six chapters on "The
Foreign-Born and American Ideals," and in Part IV, five chapters on "Methods of
Americanization." In Appendix A - this would be most valuable to M.S.A.
speakers, are collected a number of interpretations of Americanism by
illustrious Americans from John Smith to Woodrow Wilson. Appendix B consists of
a most exhaustive bibliography - it would be next to impossible to make it more
complete - covering every imaginable phase of the subject as it has been treated
in magazines and books, all of which are accessible to the American student. An
index makes all the condensed matter of the volume instantly available.
Professor Bogardus, as one will discover upon reading his article that appears
elsewhere in this issue, has no hobbies to ride, or theories to propose; his
standpoint is that of common sense and knowledge, than which nothing can be
safer.
* * *
MASONRY AND THE FOUNDING OF AMERICA
"Masons as Makers of America," by Madison C. Peters. Fourth
revised edition, published by the Trowel Publications, Yonkers, New York, 1921.
Copies may be had through the N.M.R.S. at $1.00, postpaid.
When the late Rev.
Madison C. Peters first published his "Masons as Makers of America" in 1917 he
struck a popular chord that gave his little volume of some fifty pages an
instant success. Many copies were sold. Two more editions were called for before
the author's death and now, in 1921, a fourth edition is placed on the market by
the Trowel Publications. It has been edited by Louis H. Perocheau, of New York,
N. Y.
It is easy to
understand why this work has made its way everywhere. It gives in simple
understandable language a rapid account of the part played by Masonry during the
Revolutionary War, and in the organization of our Federal Government: it tells
who were Masons in those stirring days; and what part Masonry took in the great
drama. Chapter I sets forth an account of President Washington, his Masonic
connections and activities. Chapter II covers the part taken by Masons in the
Continental Congress. Chapter III furnishes a list of Washington's "Masonic
Major-Generals"; while chapter IV follows closely with a similar account of
"Washington's Brigadier Generals." In chapter V is given a list of "Masons as
Organizers of our Government"; and in an appendix is given "A Masonic Anecdote
of the Revolutionary War.''
The first editions of
this little book were met by many criticisms concerning matters of fact; it was
found that in certain of his statements the author was wide of the mark, and
many other statements were based on hearsay, and often very doubtful hearsay at
that: but such a thing was inevitable in the nature of things, because the early
records are pitiably incomplete, and in many cases, where exact records still
exist, it is next to impossible to get at them, as many Masonic writers know
only too well. Considering the conditions under which he did his work, and the
fact that he was carving out a new path, Brother Peters did not go any wider
from the mark than most others would have done under similar circumstances.
But in this last
edition, which has naturally profited much by the criticisms of the former
editions, and which has had the advantage of subsequent research, there are some
statements that must be received with caution. For example, page 16 contains the
statement that though it is now impossible to name the Masons among the signers
of the Declaration of Independence, "it is, however, safe to say that upwards of
fifty were Masons." If by "safe to say" the editor means that such a figure is
not a wild guess, he is in bounds; but if he means that there is tangible
evidence to support the statement, a reader may safely doubt. Nobody will ever
know how many of the signers were Masons. Also, we may read on page 26 that
Lafayette was made a Mason by Washington himself at Morristown, N.J. As a matter
of fact it is not yet known with certainty where Lafayette was made a Mason.
Brother George W. Baird, with whom it is dangerous to disagree in this field,
says that Lafayette was made a Mason at Valley Forge. In such a work as "Masons
as Makers of America" it would seem wise to give the various accounts, rather
than to leave the reader with the impression that the version furnished is to be
taken as it stands. On page 47 it is asserted that of the fifty-five members of
the Constitutional Convention "at least fifty were Masons." This is almost
certainly an exaggeration. Such cracks in the wall, however, do not seriously
endanger the building. The reader who bears in mind how difficult it is to get
at the facts in the premises, and who exercises reasonable caution, will not be
led astray. The publishers themselves are first to warn readers against these
dangers, as we may read in the Preface:
"This book in its
fourth revised edition is still incomplete. It is the publisher's desire to
carry on the work of the late Rev. Madison C. Peters. With that end in view
criticisms, corrections, suggestions and additional information are invited for
later editions. Particular care has been taken not to overstate the facts. All
statements are made in good faith, based upon the best information available by
wide reading, voluminous correspondence, and research among the oldest records
of Masonic labors in America."
To my own mind the
most curious oversight in this outlay of data is the total omission of the
prominent part played by Jewish Masons in the Revolution, and in the founding of
the nation. If the publishers wish for "additional information for later
editions" let them turn to "The Jews and Masonry in the U.S. Before 1810," by
Samuel Oppenheim, and published among the Publications of the Jewish Historical
Society as No. 19, for 1910. To ignore the Masonic financiers of the Revolution
is like leaving Hamlet out of the play.
Also - and may this be
printed in red - it is to be hoped that the next edition will be furnished with
an index. A book made up of bare facts, names, and dates is next to useless
without some guide wherewith to locate such a fact as one is in search of.
The value of such a
work as this for the careful Masonic student, especially if he be a beginner in
the trade, lies in the fact that it is a trestle board on which is already laid
out a fascinating field for research. The student does not need to begin at the
beginning; his paths are cut for him, and the list of names is furnished. He can
take his point of departure from each name supplied by these pages and carry his
own researches as far afield as he wishes. Some of these days, it may be hoped,
a competent Masonic scholar will furnish us with a complete and detailed history
of the Fraternity's role in the making of America. To such a work as that the
present little book would be as a table of contents to a thick volume, but even
so, and even as things now are, it is of value, and is to be "well recommended."
* * *
INFORMATION ABOUT THE STARS AND STRIPER
"Our Flag and Our Songs," compiled and illustrated by H.A.
Ogden. Published by Edward J. Clode, 156 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. Price sixty
cents.
“The Dramatic Story of Old Glory," by Samuel Abbott, with a
Foreword by James M. Beck. Published by Boni and Liveright, 105 West 40th St.,
New York, N. Y. Price $1.60.
Mr. Ogden's "Our Flag
and Our Songs" contains sixty-nine pages, pleases the eye with its clear print
and its excellent designs, and there are many things crowded into it. There is a
graphic chart of the stars showing all the states for which they stand and the
order and date of the admittance of these states to the Union; there is a brief
sketch of the history of the flag; a chapter on flag etiquette; cuts of all the
various insignia of the army and navy with explanations of each; and all the
familiar patriotic songs (without music) from Yankee Doodle to Dixie; along with
some interesting historical notes, and similar items of information.
"The Dramatic Story of
Old Glory" is, as its accurate title indicates, a richly-colored description of
the flag's own history, than which, if it be set against the background of our
national beginnings, nothing could be more romantic. "This book," as the author
himself described it, "is concerned wholly with the history of the Flag of the
United States from the days of its existence as the national ensign of an infant
state confined to a narrow fringe of sea-board backed by a rampart of hills, to
the hours of a mighty people whose gates are on two oceans and whose will for
liberty has been impressed upon the world.... It is curious that, while the
record of our Flag is one of the thrilling, dramatic episodes, no writer has
grasped the idea of a book that would give these episodes in their true light,
not exaggerated, and linked together in a running narrative.... The reader will
find matter in 'The Dramatic Story of Old Glory' that has not hitherto been
given in any history of the Flag. The explanation of Trumbull's errors in his
famous paintings; the complete account and the significance, of the raising of
Old Glory over Fort Stanwix; the proof of the Flag's being unfurled over the
camp of the Continental Army on the eve of the battle of the Brandvwine: the
interesting theory as to Benjamin Franklin's being the originator of the Stars
and Stripes; the grandly romantic drama of the Flag through the Civil War; and
the story of Old Glory at the front in France at the close of the late war; all
this is new and important material."
To a Mason one of the
most interesting chapters of the book sets forth the theory that Brother
Benjamin Franklin conceived of the first design of the Stars and Stripes. Many
pages are devoted to Brother Paul Jones to whom the flag was a religion; and
there is a critical study of the Betsy Ross tradition that leaves very little
standing of that story. Pages and pages are filled up with narratives of famous
flag episodes of the great wars, from 1777 to 1918. There is a good chapter on
"Patriotism and the Flag," and the book concludes with a chapter on the uses of
the Flag in the school house.
To the sophisticated
Mr. Abbott's style will seem overcolored and overwrought, after the fashion of a
perspiring Fourth of July oration, but even so there is much leniency to be
shown a man in these days who grows enthusiastic about our government. It has
become the habit to make sport of Washington, D.C., and to grow sarcastic about
the old hopes and ideals of our land; but it would appear to some who are not
without brains or discernment that this prevalent habit of constant heckling and
faultfinding has gone as far as is necessary. After all, the United States as a
nation is not an experiment but an accomplished fact, so that at present writing
we have actually accomplished the feat of becoming a teeming, prosperous,
intelligent people living at peace among our forty-eight states, and, all our
failings to the contrary notwithstanding, destined to a yet greater future, all
of the which is not a thing at which any mall this side of insanity can possibly
sneer.
----o----
PUBLICATIONS WANTED, FOR SALE, AND EXCHANGE
We are constantly
receiving inquiries from readers as to where they may obtain publications on
Freemasonry and kindred subjects not offered in our Monthly Book List. Most of
the books thus sought are out of print, but it may happen that other readers,
owning copies, may be willing to dispose of the same. Therefore this column is
set aside each month for such a service. And it is also hoped - and expected -
that readers possessing very old or rare Masonic works will communicate the fact
to THE BUILDER in behalf of general information.
Postoffice addresses
are here given in order that those buying and selling may communicate directly
with each other. Brethren are asked to cancel notices as soon as their wants are
supplied.
In no case does THE
BUILDER assume any responsibility whatsoever for publications thus bought, sold,
exchanged or borrowed.
WANTED
By Bro. D. D.
Berolzheimer, 1 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.: "Realities of Masonry," Blake,
1879; "Records of the Hole Craft and Fellowship of Masons," Condor, 1894;
"Masonic Bibliography," Carson, 1873; "Origin of Freemasonry," Paine, 1811.
By Bro. G. Alfred
Lawrence, 142 West 86th St., New York, N. Y.: Proceedings of the Scottish Rite
Body founded by Joseph Cerneau in New York City in 1808, of which De Witt
Clinton was the first Grand Commander, and which body became united, in 1867,
with the Supreme Council of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, A. & A. S. R.
Also Proceedings of the Supreme Council founded in New York by De La Motta, in
1813, by authority of the Southern Supreme Council, of which he was Grand
Treasurer-General, these Proceedings from 1813 to 1860.
By Bro. Frank R.
Johnson, 306 East 10th St., Kansas City, Mo.: "The Year Book," published by the
Masonic Constellations, containing the History of the Grand Council, R. & S. M.,
of Missouri.
By Brother Silas H.
Shepherd, Hartland, Wisconsin: "Catalogue of the Masonic Library of Samuel
Lawrence"; "Second Edition of Preston's Illustrations of Masonry"; "The Source
of Measures," by J. Ralston Skinner 1875, or second edition 1894; "Ars Quatuor
Coronatorum," volumes I to XI inclusive.
By Bro. Ernest E.
Ford, 305 South Wilson Avenue, Alhambra, California: "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum,"
volumes 3 and 7, with St. John's Cards, also St. John's Cards for volumes 4 and
5; "Masonic Review," volumes 1, 2, 7, 31, 32 and 43 to 50, inclusive; voice of
Masonry," volumes 2 to 12 inclusive, and volume 15; Transactions Supreme Council
Southern Jurisdiction for the years 1882 and 1886; Original Proceedings of The
General Grand Encampment Knights Templar for the years 1826 and 1835.
By Bro. George A.
Lanzarotti, Casilla 126, Rancagua, Chile: All kinds of Masonic literature in
Spanish. Write first quoting prices.
By Brother L. Rask, 14
Alvey St., Schenectady, N. Y.: "Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists," by E.
A. Hitchcock, Janesville, N. Y., about 1865; "The Secret Societies of all Ages
and Countries," by C. W. Heckethorn; "Lost Language of Symbolism," by Harold
Bayley, published by Lippincott; "Sacred Hermeneutics," by Davidson, Edinburgh,
1848; "Solar System of the Ancients Discovered," by J. Wilson, published by
Longmans Co., London, 1856; "The Alphabet," by Isaac Taylor, Kegan Paul, Trench
& Co., 1883, or the edition of 1899 published by Scribners, New York;
"Anacalypsis," by Godfrey Higgins, 1836 published by Longmans, Green & Co.,
London; "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum," any volume or volumes.
By Brother N. W. J.
Haydon, 664 Pape Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: "The Beautiful Necessity,"
and "Architecture and Democracy," by Claude Bragdon.
By the National
Masonic Research Society, Anamosa, Iowa: "Discourses upon Architecture," by
Dallaway, published in 1833; any or all volumes of "The American Freemasons'
Magazine," published by J. F. Brennan, about 1860.
FOR SALE
By Brother A. A.
Burnand, 690 South Bronson Ave., Los Angeles, California: Various Masonic
publications including such as a complete set of "Ars Quatuor Coronatorum";
"History of Freemasonry in Scotland," by D. Murray Lyon, (original edition);
Thomas Dunckerley, Laurence Dermott, etc.
By Brother Frank R.
Johnson, 306 East 10th St.,
Kansas City, Mo.: "History of Freemasonry," Mitchell, 2 volumes, sheep; "History
of Freemasonry," Robert Freke Gould, 4 volumes, cloth in good condition;
"History of Freemasonry," Albert G. Mackey, 7 volumes, linen cloth, new;
Addison's "Knights Templar," Macoy, 1 volume, cloth; "Museum of Antiquity,"
Yaggy, 1 volume, morocco; "History and Cyclopedia of Freemasonry," Macoy and
Oliver, new, full morocco. Also miscellaneous books.
----o----
THE QUESTION BOX
THE BUILDER is an open
forum for free and fraternal discussion. Each of its contributors writes under
his own name, and is responsible for his own opinions. Believing that a unity of
spirit is better than a uniformity of opinion, the Research Society, as such,
does not champion any one school of Masonic thought as over against another, but
offers to all alike a medium for fellowship and instruction, leaving each to
stand or fall by its own merits.
The Question Box and
Correspondence Column are open to all members of the Society at all times.
Questions of any nature on Masonic subjects are earnestly invited from our
members, particularly those connected with lodges or study clubs which are
following our Study Club course. When requested, questions will be answered
promptly by mail before publication in this department.
LIGHT ON THE BALDWYN ENCAMPMENT
Will Brother S.C.
Warner of Colorado give us some light on the Baldwyn Encampment?" E. C., Ohio.
We are somewhat in
doubt whether the brother really wishes "light" on the subject, or whether he
desires to provoke a discussion upon the statement made by us in our 1921
address to the Grand Commandery of Colorado, a portion of which was recently
published in THE BUILDER, that modern Templarism is not the lineal descendant of
the Ancient Order.
If the former, we
would answer that the Baldwyn Encampment was located at Bristol, England, and
claimed direct succession
from the Ancient Order, as having been established from "time immemorial." It is
included in our article among the encampments formed in England during the
middle part of the eighteenth century, and according to Hughan, the first
authentic records of its conferring the Order must have been after 1769. Its
claims to succession, antiquity, and exclusive authority were well set forth by
Brother David W. Nash, a prominent frater of the Encampment, just prior to 1860,
when it surrendered its independence and was recognized as a constituent by the
Grand Conclave of England and Wales. Its history, its claims, and its position
in the Order have been fully considered by nearly every prominent English
Masonic historian, and very many interesting articles regarding it appear in the
different volumes of "The Transactions of the Lodge Quatuor Coronati," to which
we would refer Brother Coblentz for further information on the subject.
If, on the other hand,
he wishes to enter into a discussion with us, we respectfully decline. We in our
address expressly repudiated any knowledge or personal research upon the
subject, and are quite willing to accept the conclusion of English authorities
that the claims of Baldwyn Encampment are so nebulous and inconclusive as not to
warrant their admission. Some of its apologists even go via France to Canada for
authority as to its genuineness and antiquity. There is ample warrant for the
statement that H.R.H. the Duke of Essex, who was elected its Grand Master in
1812, took no interest in the Encampment, and never communicated with it during
the twenty-four years he was its nominal head.
We do not know, but
are inclined in this as in many other of the extravagant assertions regarding
Masonry, to claim relationship with Missouri. The burden of proof is surely not
on us. S.C. Warner, Colorado.
* * *
The more important
articles on the Knights Templar in the Transactions of the Lodge Quatuor
Coronati to which Brother Warner refers in his reply will be found as follows:
On the Origin and
Progress of Chivalric Masonry in the British Isles, XIII, page 156.
The Reception of a
Templar, XV, page 163.
Origin of the Knights
Templar in the United Kingdom XVIII, page 91.
Knights Templar, XV1,
page 203.
The Early Grand
Encampment of Ireland, XXIV, page 68.
The "Charta
Transmissionis" of Larmenius, XXIV, page 186; XXV, page 69.
On the Templars and
Gnosticism, XXIV, page 216.
The Earliest Baldwyn
Knight Templar Certificate, XXIV, page 285.
Introduction of Enight
Templarism into the United States, XXVI, pages 57, 146, 221.
Order of the Temple,
XI, page 97.
The Templar Movement
in Masonry, XII, page 178.
Order of the Temple at
York, XIII, page 119.
The Chivalric Orders,
XIV, page 56.
The Very Ancient
Clermont Chapter, XVII, page 84.
Templaria Et
Hospitallaria, XVII, page 204; XIX, page 73; XX, page 156.
Knights of Jerusalem,
XIX, page 137.
The Charge of
Gnosticism Brought Against the Freemasons and Templars, XIX, page 209.
Proceedings Against
the Templars in France and England: part one XX, page 47; part two, page 112;
part three, page 269.
Templar Legends in
Freemasonry, XXVI, page 45.
* * *
PAVIOR-MASONS
I write to inquire what is a pavior-mason?
M.K.L., Georgia.
A pavior-mason is one
who lays floors and pavements. In medieval times he was an important member of
the Mason guild and, like his brethren in other branches of the Craft, had a
penchant for symbolism. Often he would work designs and emblems into the
borders, a favorite device being something to represent the great age of the
earth, of which the floor itself was deemed a symbol. Holbein, who was himself
no mean symbolist, caught this spirit in his famous painting of the
"Ambassadors" wherein the figures are made to stand on a Mosaic pavement in
which is an inscription to give computation of the world's existence -
"containing a discourse of the world's continuance," as one old interpreter
quaintly puts it. The whole subject is one that calls loudly for investigation,
especially by those students who are interested in the Masonic symbolism of the
Mosaic pavement and the tessellated border. For a beginning one may consult
chapter fifteen of "Westminster Abbey and Craftsmen" by W.R. Lethaby. See also
any good Cyclopedia of Architecture, a thing that should be in every Masonic
library. In histories of architecture, architectural encyclopaedias, etc., one
will frequently find mosaic work listed as "cosmati" work.
* * *
MASONIC RESEARCH SOCIETIES IN ENGLAND
A lodge literary
committee of which I am secretary has asked me to communicate with research
lodges and societies in England. Will you kindly furnish name of same, with
secretaries and addresses? D.L.M., Illinois.
For the list given in
response to your question we are indebted to Brother Herbert F. Whyman, whose
address is given in connection with his name as secretary of Mid Kent Masters.
Please notify THE BUILDER of any omissions or errors.
* * *
Lodge of Fortitude No.
64; meets at Queen's Hotel, Manchester; founded 1739; Secretary, C.D. Cheetham,
care R. Verney Clayton, Esq., 2, Cooper St., Manchester.
"Quatuor Coronati" No.
2076; meets at Freemasons Hall, London; founded 1884; Secretary, W.J. Songhurst,
Esq., 27, Great Queen St., London W.C. 2.
Leicester Lodge of
Research No. 2429; meets at Freemasons Hall, Leicester; founded 1892; Secretary,
H. J. Grace, Esq., Enderby, Nr. Leicester.
Humber Installed
Masters No. 2494; meets at Freemasons Hall, Hull; founded 1893; Secretary, J. G.
Wallis, Esq., 33, Albion St., Hull.
Foster Gough Lodge No.
2706; meets at Swan Hotel, Stafford; founded 1898; Secretary, J. Jackson, Esq.,
The "Hawthorns," Weston Road, Stafford.
Jubilee Masters No.
2712; meets at Hotel Cecil, London; founded 1898; Secretary, J. E. E. Studd,
Esq., O. B. E., 67, Harley St., London, W. 1.
Mid Kent Masters No.
3173; meets at Freemasons Hall, Chatham; founded 1906; Secretary, H. F. Whyman,
Esq., "Hill Crest," Maidstone Road, Chatham.
Salford Ionic Lodge
No. 3248; meets at Freemasons Hall, Salford; founded 1907; Secretary, A. W.
Sidebottom, Esq., 16, King St., W., Manchester.
Hendre Lodge No. 3260;
meets at Freemasons Hall Cardiff; founded 1907; Secretary, T. C. Francis, Esq.,
36 Clife Place, Penarth.
Essex Masters No.
3266; meets at Freemasons Hall, Colchester; founded 1907; Secretary, H. A.
Jager, Esq., 6, Upper East Smithfield, London, E. 1.
Buckinghamshire
Masters No. 3306; meets at Freemasons Hall, Aylesbury; founded 190S; Secretary,
Herbert E. Langridge, Esq., 8, Cecil Mansions, Balham, London, S. W. 17.
Cornish Masters No.
3324; meets at Freemasons Hall, Truro; founded 1908; Secretary, T. A. Webber,
Esq., Trewethem Gyllyngvase Falmouth.
Dorset Masters No.
3366; meets at Freemasons Hall, Dorchester; founded 1909; Secretary, F. G.
Hawes, Esq., Courthope Poole, Dorset.
Middlesex Masters No.
3420; meets at Freemasons Eall, London; founded 1909; Secretary, T. Howell
Evans, Esq., 26 Berkeley Square, London, W. 1.
Norths and Hunts
Masters No. 3422; meets at Freemasons Hall, Northampton; founded 1909;
Secretary, G. H. Nelson, Esq., "The Berries," Holly Road, Northampton.
Authors' Lodge No.
3456; meets at Cafe Monico, London; founded 1910; Secretary, Algernon Rose,
Esq., 2, Whitehall Court, London, S. W. 1.
Northumbrian Masters
No. 3477; meets at Freemasons Hall, Newcastle-on-Tyne; founded 1910; Secretary,
G. M. Clark, Esq., Oakwood Hexham, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Notts Installed
Masters No. 3696; meets at Freemasons Hall, Nottingham; founded 1912; Secretary,
P. H. Kettley, Esq., Rudloe Red Cliff Road, Nottingham.
Sussex Masters No.
3672; meets at Royal Pavilion, Brighton; founded 1913; Secretary, F. F. London,
Esq., 66, London Road, Brighton.
Berkshire Masters No.
3684; meets at Freemasons Hall, Reading; founded 1913; Secretary, E. O. Farrer,
Esq., "The Knowle," Tilehurst-on-Thames, Reading.
Lord Raglan Lodge No.
3685; meets at Freemasons Hall, Douglas, Isle of Man; founded 1913; Secretary,
A. J. Parkes, Esq., Tromode, Douglas, Isle of Man.
Dean Leigh Lodge No.
3687; meets at College Hall, Hereford; founded 1913; Secretary, Wm. Parlby,
Esq., Castle Cliffe, Hereford.
Somerset Masters No.
3746; meets at Freemasons Hall, Bath; founded 1915; Secretary, Geo. Norman,
Esq., 12, Brock Street, Bath.
East Lancashire P. G.
Officers Lodge No. 3747; meets at Midland Hotel, Manchester; founded 1915;
Secretary, E. B. Beesley, Esq., St. Ann's Passage, King Street, Manchester.
Fratres Calami Lodge
No. 3791; meets at Hotel Cecil, London; founded 1917; Secretary, Rev. C. E.
Roberts, M. A., The Chilterns, Halter, N. Aylesbury.
Norfolk Masters No.
3905; meets at Freemasons Hall, Norwich; founded 1919; Secretary, Dr. H. C.
Pattin, King Street House, Norwich.
Suffolk Masters No.
3913; meets at Freemasons Hall, Ipswich; founded 1919; Secretary, T. Hunt, Esq.,
Obe 102, Christchurch St., Ipswich.
East Kent Masters No.
S930; meets at Freemasons Hall, Canterbury; founded 1919; Secretary, J. G.
Sandiford, Esq., 2, Gordon Road. Canterbury.
Hartfordshire Masters
No. 4090; meets at Town Hall, St. Albans; founded 1920; Secretary, Dr. J. H.
Gilbritson, Esq., Hitchin.
It is worth while to
note that of the twenty-nine organizations here listed twenty-five have been in
existence for seven years or more, some of them for a quarter of a century, thus
showing that a research group, if it be well founded and properly managed, can
last as long as any other association of men. The reader who chances to own the
bound volume of THE BUILDER for 1918 should turn to page 24 and read Brother
Joseph Fort Newton's article about "Fratres Calasni," twenty-fifth in the above
list.
* * *
IS FREEMASONRY A RELIGION?
My study club was
recently engaged in a long discussion over the question, "Is Freemasonry a
religion?" some arguing it is and many it isn't, and I was asked to present the
question through THE BUILDER to see what members of the Society might think
about it. L.D.S., New York.
It is an interesting
question, certain aspects of which were pretty well ventilated in THE BUILDER
for September. Meanwhile here is a letter from The Masonic Record, a very
beautiful Masonic monthly published in London, which contains some good sense:
it appeared in the issue for June, 1922, page 698:
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear Sir and Brother:
There has been much in the "Masonic Record" on the question as to whether
Masonry is a religion. May I, as a Brother and a Clergyman, call attention to a
point that seems to have been overlooked? Surely religion is of such a nature
that it is impossible for any man to have two religions at the same time. If we
assert that Masonry is a religion, we are asserting that this is not impossible.
Every religion teaches morality, but morality is not religion. Would it not be
better to drop the claim that Masonry is a religion, and to recogruze that
Masonry and religion are mutually helpful? A man who is a worthy member of
whatever religion he professes will be a better Mason for it; and a good Mason
will also be an ornament to whatever religion he belongs to because he is a good
Mason.
Yours fraternally,
(Rev.) A. J. DEXTER, Secretary, Albert Edward Lodge. 1557.
* * *
ORVILLE WRIGHT AND JOHN H. PATTERSON
I write to ask if
Orville Wright and John H. Patterson, the two famous Dayton, Ohio, men were
Masons. Thank you.
M.K.T., Ohio.
Orville Wright who,
with his brother, built the first successful aeroplane, is not a Mason, and
neither was his brother Wilbur, now deceased. John H. Patterson, late President
of the National Cash Register Company, was a Mason. His funeral services were
partly in charge of the Scottish Rite bodies, of which he had been a very
enthusiastic member.
* * *
TRACES OF MASONRY AMONG INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
In a book I was
reading recently, I found what led me to believe that the American Indians
possessed Masonry. I read where places had been unearthed showing what had
apparently been lodge rooms. The east, west, and south had been occupied by
persons of rank, but the north was vacant. I also read of graves being found,
"dug due east and west" and crude implements found on the bodies. This has
aroused my curiosity.
Can you give me more
information of an authentic nature? If the American Indians did possess Masonry,
where did they obtain it? Kindly give me further light on this subject in the
Question Box of THE BUILDER. H.B.B., Massachusetts.
I believe that certain
of our North American Indian tribes had, and still do maintain, a society or
societies which are remarkably close to our own: and that these societies
undoubtedly originated before the commg of white colonists to America.
Among the Cree,
Ojibway, Potawatomi, Menomini, Sauk, Winnebago, Iowa, Oto, and the bands of
Sioux or Dakota Indians comprised under the name of Santee Sioux, who formerly
inhabited the state of Minnesota westward into South Dakota, there exists today
a society called in the language of the first five by some variant of the title
Midewiwh; and among the last four tribes by a name which means "Medicine Dance."
The society is found
in its purest form among the Menomini, Ojibway, and Potawatomi, and was formerly
well known to the Cree, Sauk, and perhaps to the Ottawa, Miami, Peoria, and
other Central Western tribes of the Algonkian stock. Among those speaking
dialects of the Siouan tongue, such as the Winnebago, Iowa, Oto, and Santee, it
is more divergent, and a scarcely recogmzable form is found among the Omaha and
Ponca.
The writer being most
familiar with the Menomini form of the ceremonies as practiced on the
reservation of that tribe in north central Wisconsin, where he has often been
present during the performance of the rites, and has obtained the ritual, etc.,
in full, will herewith give a brief account of the ceremony and its origin, as
related by his instructors in its mysteries.
The society, which is
called in Menomini the "Mitawin," is considered to antedate the origin of
mankind, having been secured as a gift of the gods to humanity through the
auspices of the mythical hero demigod Ma’nabus (The Great Dawn, son of the four
winds of heaven and grandson of our Grandmother the Earth), who forced the
various manitous subordinate to the Great Spirit to yield to him their secret
knowledge of the healing roots and herbs, and the means of attaining immortality
by successfully negotiating the passage from this world to the hereatter.
In order to obtain
this knowledge the Ancient Master had to submit himself to be slain, and was
then brought to life once more, in full possession of the mysteries which he
afterwards transferred to mankind in the same manner. These rites have been
carefully preserved and observed to this day.
The manner of
initiating the candidate is as follows: After a long course of preparatory
instruction, when the final day arrives, a lodge is erected, oblong in shape and
oriented east and west. The final preparation of the candidate is completed in a
room formed by curtaining off one end of the lodge. When all is in readiness, he
enters the lodge, and in imitation of the ancient Master, whom he as the
candidate now represents, he is placed in the western end of the lodge, facing
the east. While in this position, he is successively attacked by four men,
bearing bags formed of the skins of animals in their hands (usually otterskins
are used, because of certain mythical episodes in the story of the founding of
the lodge, in which the otter figures). These bags contain certain medicines and
charms, including a sacred shell, which is imbued with the essence of all. As
each approaches the candidate he raises the head of the otterskin, which he
holds in both hands, breast high, blows upon it, and utters the sacred cry of
"We ho ho ho ho," which is said to mean "It must be so!" At each of the first
three attacks the candidate staggers, but when the fourth attack is made, he
falls, and lies as though dead. Then follows certain evolutions ("floor work")
on the part of the four masters of ceremony, who eventually raise the dead man
to his feet, a full-fledged member, entitled to all the light there is.
Words and grips they
do not seem to have, but badges, symbols, and a lengthy ritual of song,
recitation, floor work, etc., which is passed on down the generations by word of
mouth, there certainly are. The society is graded, having four degrees - among
the Indians everywhere four is apt to be regarded as a sacred number, rather
than three. Four represents the points of the compass, and hence is often used
to symbolize the cosmos. Among all Indians women are freely admitted as members.
The differences as
well as the similarities of these rites with our Freemasonry are of course
marked, yet the similarities are fundamental, and the differences, among an
independent people of very different culture or civilization, are to be
expected. The question remains "Whence did they obtain these unquestionably
ancient rites?" The answer is, in my opinion, involved with the
question of their origin. It has been
proved by modem research that the ancestors of our Indians came from Asia, -
Northern Siberia, to be precise - via a once-existent land bridge across Behring
Strait. I will not enter further into this phase of the question, but an
interesting source of speculation is thereby opened to the student.
Brother Arthur C.
Parker of Albany, N. Y., tells me of a society which is found among the Seneca
Iroquois of New York State, wherein the candidate, representing the ancient
founder of the order, is not only slain but is brought to life by the grip of
the bear's paw.
Undoubtedly, in years
to come, we shall learn of further similarities among other tribes, but as yet
we are decidedly in the dark on the subject. Lodge rooms of stone with the
appropriate stations have been reported, and may no doubt exist, especially in
the southwestern United States, but the field is yet almost untouched by those
competent to conduct such research.
I have myself seen
very suggestive things in the jungles of Costa Rica, where I have personally
exhumed from the stonewalled tombs stone figures with their hands in three
reminiscent positions, and where I once found a long rectangular stone enclosure
of no apparent use save for ceremonies in the dense jungle. But these objects
were used by a prehistoric people, wiped out or driven away by the Spanish Roman
Catholic conquerors, and we can only guess as to their meaning.
In summing up, I
repeat that I believe that the American Indians do possess a primitive form of
Masonry, which is probably more nearly related to the ancient rites of our Craft
than to what we practice today, although some similarities even to modern
Freemasonry are sufficiently obvious. So far, these similarities would not
entitle them to admission to our lodges nor us to theirs, yet we cannot deny the
relationship.
Of course, there are
many Indians who are at this moment Master Masons in good standing in numerous
of our white lodges, and there have been such since the first history of Masonry
in America, but I know of no exclusively Indian lodge practicing our ceremonials
at present.
See my article
entitled "Little Wolf Joins the Mitawin" in the 1921 volume of THE BUILDER, page
281.
Alanson Skinner, Wisconsin.
* * *
WAS FRANCIS SCOTT KEY A MASON?
Will you please
inform me if Francis Scott Key, author of The Star Spangled Banner, was a Mason?
M.F.A., Maryland.
According to the
Grand Secretaries of Maryland and of the District of Columbia there are no
records extant to show that Francis Scott Key was a Mason.
----o----
CORRESPONDENCE
THE IRISH MASONIC MEDALLION
I have read, reread
and read again your article in the April number of THE BUILDER concerning "A
Masonic Medallion of 1516," and it may be that the following views as to some of
the questions asked may be of interest or shed a little light on the subject:
With reference to the
figure above the Sun in cut "A," I believe that it is supposed to represent the
"All-Seeing Eye," which is found in practically all rituals.
The number 15 may
allude to the "flight of winding stairs of King Solomon's Temple."
As to the number 16 -
if you have ever visited a "Blue Lodge" of the jurisdiction of Scotland, I think
that you will find that this is the total number of steps - of the three degrees
- used in approaching the East.
The five steps may
allude to a portion of the winding stairs mentioned above.
The object resembling
a coffin at the foot of the stair is believed to represent a coffin or a grave.
The "X" shaped figure
is believed to be crossed pencils, or a pencil and scriber or scratch awl, as
under the Scottish Constitution the pencil is one of the working tools.
The winged figure is
believed to typify the spirit winging its flight "To that spiritual mansion, the
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Now I may be
altogether wrong, but I have visited "Blue Lodges" in the Philippine Islands
that still use the old Scottish Rite "Blue Lodge" work, as they were originally
chartered under the Grand Orients of Spain and Portugal,and Spanish is spoken
almost entirely; for this reason the Grand Lodge of the Philippine Islands has
permitted them to continue using it, but they are gradually learning the York
Rite - and the "Blue Lodge" Perla del Oriente, No. 1034, under the Grand
Constitution of Scotland, and I have noticed that these emblems or symbols used
by them, except the winged figure. If you are familiar with the work mentioned
above, you know that the coffin and grave are significant symbols.
Is it possible that
these symbols have been retained in their work and handed down from "time
immemorial?" Is it probable that speculative Masonry was practiced at this early
period? Or was both speculative and operative Masonry practiced in conjunction
with each other?
Clyde Whitlatch, New York.
* * *
OLD TIME MASONS ORGANIZED SUNDAY SCHOOLS
Recently while making
a study of the rise and progress of Sunday Schools in this country I found an
item of peculiar interest for it appears from it that, at one time, the Masonic
Fraternity was active in introducing and sponsoring Sunday Schools in certain
parts of the country.
The item was a letter
written in 1815 by one Miss S. Whitehead of Philadelphia to a Mr. Davie Bethune
of New York. She says: "I had several extracts from Dr. Pole's works (on Sunday
Schools) inserted in the 'Religious Remembrance' a weekly paper of our city, and
the subject excited universal attention. The Freemasons have taken it up, and at
a general meeting it was proposed and carried unanimously, that several schools
should be established, and held in the Grand Lodge, Chestnut street. There is no
doubt that all the different lodges belonging to the fraternity will take up
this subject, and it will extend over the whole union; one of the officers gave
me this information."
The Masons did engage
in the cause, but not sufficiently to extend it over the whole union. F.C.
Turner. Illinois.
* * *
WHERE MORRIS CONCEIVED THE IDEA OF THE EASTERN STAR
I believe it would be
of interest to Masons everywhere to read the following account of a Masonic
celebration that was printed by a local paper:
"April 11,1922, will
go down in local Masonic history as the date of the greatest meeting ever held
under the auspices of local Masonic bodies. The occasion was a joint celebration
of Lexington Lodge, No. 24, F. & A. M., Lexington Commandery, No. 3, and
Lexington Chapter, No. 30, Order of Eastern Star. Lexington is one of the oldest
Masonic lodges in the state of Mississippi, having been chartered along the
early '20s as a Masonic lodge; and many years prior to 1857 it received a
charter from the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States of
America, having received a charter from the General Grand Encampment as the
third in the state of Mississippi. Not only has it been in the forefront in the
above but also in the Eastern Star, having received the thirtieth charter in
this order. Lexington and Holmes county, therefore, are not beginning to shine
upon the Masonic map during the year 1922, but have been leaders many years.
"In 1857 the Grand
Commandery of the state was organized in the city of Jackson, and Lexington was
one of the towns to send representatives to aid in this organization. With the
assistance of the Mississippi Commandery No. 1, and Magnolia Commandery No. 2,
of Vicksburg, the Grand Commandery was formed. Since this time there have been
five Grand Commanders from the Lexington Commandery No. 3, two of whom are now
living, and one present Grand Commander.
"Those who have served
as Grand Commander are James T. Meade, Fleet C. Mercer, J. K. Fulson, deceased,
and Robert A. Stigler, who is still active in the various Masonic bodies; and W.
Lonnie Jordan, who is to finish his tenure of office on April 18th.
"Not only has
Lexington been prominent in Templarism but also in the Order of the Eastern Star
and the Grand Lodge F. & A. M., of Mississippi. In the Grand Chapter of the
Eastern Star the humble Chapter of Lexington has had two of her members to be
honored with the highest gift within the bounds of the Grand Chapter. Mrs. Irene
S. Eggleston was chosen in 1810 to carry on the work of the Eastern Star in the
state, which was originated in the city of Lexington in 1850 by Robert Morris,
who received the Royal Arch Degree in Lexington Royal Arch Chapter No. 9, in
1849. It was while he attended these meetings that the idea came to him that
some connection should be found whereby the wives, mothers and daughters of
Masons should assist the Masonic fraternity in carrying on the practice of
fraternalism.
"After receiving the
Royal Arch Degree he moved to Kentucky where he finished his ritual and began
the organization of the Order of the Eastern Star. It can be truly said,
however, that the foundation of the Eastern Star was made in Lexington, Holmes
county, Mississippi. Having finished his work he gave to Mississippi the
opportunity to promulgate the teachings and principles of the Eastern Star which
was accepted and Lexington was among the first to take this in hand."
John Kyllingsted, Mississippi.
* * *
WILL BROTHER McGUIRE SPEAK UP?
During the summer of
1921 this community was visited by a Brother Gabriel McGuire, Pastor of Ruggles
Street Baptist Church of Boston. Brother McGuire spoke before a number of small
lodges located in towns visited by the Chautauqua Company with which he was
lecturing.
His talk was very
interesting and created quite a stir among the brethren who heard it. He told a
very vivid story of having been made a brother in one of the wild tribes of
Central Africa, and of having passed through ceremonies so nearly identical to
the initiation, passing and raising that when he finally (years afterward) was
admitted to the Craft he was able to tell the lodge what was coming.
Another phase of his
talk bore largely on the Pyramids of Egypt.
He was able to prove
to the less informed brethren (and some that should have been better informed)
that the present system of Freemasonry extended back into the savage tribes of
Africa, long before the building of the Pyramids, in fact before the
civilization of Egypt.
Does the Society know
this Brother McGuire?
H. H. Rezennitter. South Dakota.
* * *
QUAKERS AND FREEMASONRY
I do know that the
Friends are not as a class opposed to Masonry. There used to be a feeling among
them that nothing should be secret. "If a thing is good why not open the doors
to all that all may profit by the good?" This sentiment is not limited to
Friends as you know. I know there are radical Friends who are opposed to all
so-called secret societies and actually believe there is something radically
wrong with them all but this can be charged to ignorance and narrowness of mind
and certainly not to fundamental teaching in the church.
We still have here a
number of Friends who will not take an oath even on the witness stand but will
only "affirm." Personally I do not see that it makes any difference since you
merely agree to tell the truth and in either case one would be guilty of perjury
and could be dealt with accordingly should one misrepresent.
This question never
came up in connection with our degree work. I know that the best Friends would
make our most enthusiastic Masons if they fully understood us just as I know
that the Friends' creed holds nothing antagonistic to Masonry or Masonry holds
nothing that any Friend would object to. I believe I am in a fair position to
know since I am a pretty enthusiastic Mason having held all the chairs and have
for many years been a district lecturer and am also a member of the Friend
denomination in fairly good standing, I think.
I believe we make some
mistakes as Masons in our own belief that everything is secret. We do not expect
to explain anything and are charged not to argue: that is all right, but I truly
believe that if Masons knew more Masonry they would see there is not so much
secret after all and could explain some things to those who would be
conscientious in knowing. Only the best informed would know where to begin and
where to stop. There is ignorance in all organizations. I have heard Friends say
that Masonry undertook to read a brother into Heaven, that the lodge tried to
take the place of the church; and on the other hand I have heard Masons say "The
lodge is church enough for me." You and I know that both are founded on
ignorance. The first knows nothing about Masonry and the second does not
understand the meaning of what he thinks he knows. A knowledge of Masonry
comprises more than committing the ritual to
memory.
There is no antagonism
between the lodge and the church. One merely takes up the problems of life and
living and the great beyond where the other leaves off.
If ministers and
Masons would only talk of things they know how much better we would all
understand one another.
E. S. Day, Iowa.
----o----
YE EDITOR'S CORNER
Like Cinderella, ye editor now has a corner of his own.
* * *
Will lodges publishing
their own bulletins or magazines favor us with a copy?
* * *
"I like THE BUILDER
because it is intelligent without being high-brow." Thus writes a member. The
compliment is acceptable, and the distinction is nicely made.
* * *
Study the annual index
carefully. You will encounter items of interest to yourself that you have
overlooked during the year.
* * *
All brethren having
books, clippings, or other data relating to Freemasonry among American Indians
are asked to lend such to Brother Alanson Skinner, Department of Anthropology,
Public Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Associate Editor of THE BUILDER.
* * *
CORRlGENDA
On page 235,
September, 1919, Milman was misspelled.
Somewhere in one of my
Study Club papers I misspelled "Carnarvon."
On page 233 of
October, 1915, it is said that Franklin was the friend "of Louis XIV": this
should have been "Louis XVI." Transpositions will happen!
On page 59, March,
1920, it is said that Alexander Hamilton was raised in 1757. This is an error.
We are now trying to establish the correct date.
Corrections are always
cheerfully received.
----o----
A Mason's chief and only care,
Is how to live within the square.
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