The Builder Magazine 

April 1925 - Volume XI - Number 4 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Some Personal Views Concerning Membership in The Masonic International 
Association - BY BRO. TOWNSEND SCUDDER, Past Grand Master, New York 

AMERICAN COLLEGE FRATERNITIES - BY BRO. CARL A. FOSS 

Masonic Service Bureaus - By BRO. PHIL A. ROTH, Wisconsin 

My Masonic Experiences of 1924 - By BRO. CHARLES S. LOBINGIER, China 

An American Freemason in France - By Bro. ROBERT I. CLEGG, Associate Editor, 
Ohio 

BRO. CHARLES M. ROE 

Great Men Who Were Masons - Rufus Choate - BY BRO. GEORGE W. BAIRD, P. 
G. M., District of Columbia 

ABOVE THE BATTLE 

THE STUDY CLUB 

Studies of Masonry in the United States - By BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, Editor - 
PART VIII. HENRY PRICE 


EDITORIAL 
MT. MORIAH 

"POOR AND DISTRESSED MASTER MASONS" 



INEQUALITY OF RACES 


THE LIBRARY 

"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE A WOLF ON THE FOLD" 

BOYS' OWN ARITHMETIC 
THE GOSPEL OF FELLOWSHIP 

THE CRUSADES: THE STORY OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM 
EUREKA, OR WHAT A MASTER MASON OUGHT TO KNOW 

What to Read in Masonry - THE MAKING OF AMERICAN MASONRY 

THE QUESTION BOX 

LIST OF BOARDS OF RELIEF AND EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS 


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VOLUME XI - NUMBER 4 


APRIL 1925 


THREE DOLLARS THE YEAR 



TWENTY-FIVE CENTS THE COPY 


Official Journal of the National Masonic Research Society 
1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. 

Contents copyright 1926 by the National Masonic Research Society. 

Entered as second-class matter at the post office, St. Louis, Mo.; accepted for special 
rate of Postage provided for in §1 103, Act of Oct. 3, 1917: 

authorized Feb. 12, 1923, under the Act Of Aug. 24, 1912. 

OFFICERS AND STEWARDS 

ERNEST A. REED, New Jersey, President 

NEWTON R. PARVIN, Iowa, Vice-President 

CHARLES C. HUNT, Iowa, General Secretary 

F. H. LITTLEFIELD, Missouri, Executive Secretary and Treasurer 

LOUIS BLOCK, P.G.M., Iowa 
ROBERT I. CLEW, Grand Historian, Ohio 
CHARLES C. HUNT, Deputy Grand Secretary, Iowa. 

SAM H. GOODWIN, Grand Secretary, Utah 
MELVIN M. JOHNSON, P. G. M. Massachusetts 



BERT S. LEE, P. G. M., Missouri 
F. H. LITTLEFIELD, Missouri 
FRANIC S. MOSES, P. G. M., Iowa 

Joseph FORT Newton, Educational Director M. S. A., New York. 

ERNEST A. REED, P. G. M., New Jersey 

SILAS H. SHEPHERD, Chairman Masonic Research, Wisconsin 

OLIVER DAY STREET, Deputy Grand Master, Alabama 

JESSE M. WHITED,, Grand Marshal, Order of De Molay, California 


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Some Personal Views Concerning Membership in The Masonic International 
Association 


BY BRO. TOWNSEND SCUDDER, Past Grand Master, New York 


THE reader will find it greatly to his advantage to read in conjunction with Bro. 
Scudder's article below the article on "Why the Grand Lodge of New York Withdrew 
From The Masonic International Association," by Pro. William A. Rowan, Grand 
Master, New York, published in The Builder last month page 65. 


TO the writer, Freemasonry is not an accident, a thing which just happened, but an 
agency of Divine inspiration with a world field and mission. 



In no sense is Freemasonry a religion, but rather a light faith. 


In no sense is Freemasonry a substitute for the Church, but rather a tributary, which, 
when functioning in harmony with its ideals, gives strength to the Church in its place 
Freemasonry should not be regarded as a rival, but should be hailed as an aid, of the 
Church. 


In Freemasonry, it is revealed that God is universal, one God for all, the same God, 
however much conception of Him may vary in localities and among different peoples 
and races. 


In Freemasonry it is revealed that all men are brothers, notwithstanding the inequality 
of endowment that exists among individuals. 


The most uncivilized of mankind, some way or other, has risen to the conception of a 
God. 


Thus God has been revealed to man in the form or manner suited to the needs of each 
race in its peculiar circumstances and environment; and God has planted in the soul of 
man the seed of His love, His truth, and His justice. 


Inspired by these ideals, many years ago, a group of men, calling themselves Builders 
or Freemasons, resolved to share in peace and good will the world's blessings, and to 
labor to make of God's children one family in spirit, without regard to race, creed, 
station, or locality. 


In this family or brotherhood, Freemasonry has pledged that no contention should 
exist, save that noble contention, or emulation, of who best can work and best agree. 



Authority for all this is not lacking; to go no farther, it is leading to religious written 
in the first Masonic Constitution: 


"We are also of all Nations, Tongues, Kindreds and Languages * * 


It is also there written: 


"Masonry becomes the centre of Union, and the means of conciliating true Friendship 
among persons that must have remained at a perpetual distance." 


In that Constitution, the Freemason is exhorted to cultivate: 


"Brotherly-Love, the Foundation and Cape- Stone, the Cement and Glory of this 
ancient Fraternity." 


The Constitution further says: 


"And if any of them do you Injury, you must apply to your own or his lodge * * * as 
has been the ancient laudable conduct of our Forefathers in every Nation * * * saying 
or doing nothing which may hinder Brotherly Love. * * *" 


It is God's command, through Jesus, His Son, that men love one another. 



"Love thy neighbor as thyself." 


What higher conception of Freemasonry than a loving Brotherhood of all men - 
children of one loving Father! 


The stars of Freemasonry are its Landmarks; and one Landmark differeth not from 
another Landmark in glory, or in priority of observance. 


The ideal of Man's Brotherhood is an ancient Landmark, as fundamental to 
Speculative Freemasonry as is belief in the Supreme Being. The twain are one and 
inseparable, and ever will be, specious reasoning to the contrary notwithstanding. 


To him who bases his faith on these great truths, stimulating, awe-inspiring, and all- 
satisfying, Freemasonry is a serious thing, and but very incidentally, a plaything. 


That it has the attributes of a world force is proven by its vitality, which more than 
once, and even in these so-called enlightened times, has shown those who would 
destroy it, that it is unconquerable from without. 


The danger is from within. 


Here the tragedy, the crushing pity of the thing! 


We have grafted the trunk of Freemasonry with the cuttings of sectarianism, and the 
fruit is intolerance, bitterness and hate, instead of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. 



The great ideal in Freemasonry, Brotherhood, is being sacrificed through the 
sectarianism of good men and true, who honestly imagine they assist Freemasonry, 
perhaps save it, by destroying its crowning glory. 


They fail to see that our Order has grown because it has made its appeal to an 
inspiration, common to mankind, of a humanity, however separated into creeds and 
nationalities and races, united in Freemasonry under its Shibboleth of Man's Common 
Brotherhood, and, without condescension or presumption on the part of any, working 
to establish peace on earth and good will among men. 


The writer has been favorably placed; he has traveled extensively; has seen much of 
old-world civilization; much of the trials and tribulations of those less happily 
circumstanced than are we. 


He has seen man attain the heights; he has seen man below beasts; yet his admiration 
of man has grown with his contacts and experience. Left to himself, man suffereth 
long and is kind, which is natural, being made in His image. 


It is not for the writer to interpret the effect of all this on his own process of 
reasoning. The fact is noted for such help as it may give in weighing the merits of his 
contention that the Masonic Fraternity throughout the world must get together, if it 
would further its high mission, and that the alternative is fratricidal war without end, 
grotesque and debasing; the more absurd because waged between men honestly 
believing they are fighting each other to promote the ideal of man's Brotherhood, and 
peace on earth. 


What will make this war between Freemasons more unjustifiable will be the unhappy 
truth that it will be waged on undefined issues; without the principals getting together 
before hostilities, to find out whether there is anything to fight about, and whether the 
war honestly can be avoided. 



What is it which has brought the Fraternity to this crisis? Space will not permit more 
than a brief summary of the causes. 


SOMETHING OF THE PAST 


It seems to be generally accepted by Masonic students, that toward the end of the 
seventeenth century, the Society of Freemasons no longer had direct concern with the 
art of building. Its then aims seem to have been the preservation of the traditions, 
customs and ceremonies, as well as the moral teachings, of our Operative brethren. Its 
objects were social and philosophical. It does not appear that there existed at that time 
any recognized authority with power to constitute a lodge. Individual Masons seem to 
have initiated candidates, and to have formed them into lodges, receiving recognition 
from other lodges likewise, or otherwise, organized, as may have been. 


SOMETHING OF THE GRAND LODGE ERA 


In 1717, a movement was started to bring together Freemasons in London. It is not 
known what was behind the movement. It is a fact that it was controlled by persons of 
modest station. It seems that Freemasons in London were wont in those times, to have 
an annual feast, and at this feast in 1717, they elected to preside over them a Grand 
Master, a title probably, and an office certainly, until then unknown to the Craft in 
England. This first Grand Master appointed Grand Wardens. Thus was inaugurated 
the Mother Grand Lodge which in time constituted itself the supreme Masonic 
authority in England, but not without challenge. 


In 1725, the Grand Lodge of Ireland already hall been formed. 


In 1736, certain lodges in Scotland modelled a Scottish Grand Lodge after that in 
London. 



In 1753, there was organized in England, in opposition to Grand Lodge of 1717, a 
Grand Lodge of the Antients, an independent body, which dubbed the Mother Grand 
Lodge "The Modems." 


The world-wide Brotherhood Ideal was zealously fostered by each of these four 
original Grand Lodges; they spread out over the world through lodges spmng from 
one or another of them, lodges often being constituted by two or more of them side by 
side in the same country, carrying to all peoples the message of Brotherhood. To this 
circumstance, doubtless, is due the assertion, that no Lreemason ever lived, whose 
Masonic pedigree does not begin in Great Britain. 


In course of time these lodges in foreign lands organized their own Grand Lodges, 
sometimes two or more in the same country, which entered upon their separate 
sovereign and independent careers, as equals, in the family of Grand Lodges. 


We are not unmindful of later Grand Lodges of Scottish Rite origin, and of other 
genesis, which, through concessions and adjustments, in due time were admitted to 
the family circle. 


SOMETHING OL SOVEREIGNTY 


Thus Speculative Lreemasonry expanded over the earth, each Grand Lodge sovereign, 
going its own way, shapened, and shapening, to meet the conditions surrounding it, as 
it toiled onward in the promotion of Lreemasonry's Ideal of Brotherhood. 


The Mother Grand Lodges entertained no pretentions of dominion, or of sovereignty 
over their offshoots in other lands. They recognized their independence, and wisely 
left them free to solve the problems and to overcome the difficulties which they might 



encounter in furthering their common cause, as the genius of each might suggest, and 
the necessities of each locality required. 


Cruel persecutions were not expected in those days. 


It was in this way that the Ideal of Man's Brotherhood was carried to the four corners 
of the earth, interpreted to each race and people, within their limitations to 
understand, by the leaders of thought of their own environment. 


Was not this in keeping with the principle underlying God's multifarious revelation of 
Himself to the different groups of His children ? 


SOMETHING OF THE CRAFT’S BOAST 


It is its boast that for upwards of two centuries now, our Speculative Freemasonry has 
sought to foster the Ideal of Brotherhood, and has sacrificed mightily to replace 
destructive hate by fraternal love; to break down the intransigence of sectarianism as 
it is intolerant, and to substitute peace and good will among men. 


Taking stock today, what do we find? 


The Masonic Fraternity, divided against itself; engaged in charges and recriminations, 
spiritually contracting, not expanding. We find an ever increasing narrow- 
mindedness, and the growth within us of the petty dogmatic spirit which we are 
pledged to supersede with truth and justice. 



In our dealings with brethren of the Craft seeing differently from the way we see, we 
act in violent opposition to the considerate, broad-minded, brotherly attitude 
inculcated in our Masonic principles and teachings. 


We sit in judgment of our brethren, less favored than are we in the enjoyment of the 
blessings of liberty of thought, of action, and of speech. We bear false witness against 
them. We pronounce sentence upon them without giving them a hearing. We are 
fertile in invention, when denouncing what we lightly accept as their viewpoint, while 
smugly boasting of our own superiority. 


Has the time come to call a halt? Or is the thing to go on? The rank and file must 
decide. But let not our brethren on the benches be led astray through lack of 
understanding of the issues, or of what it is, which is at stake. 


SOMETHING FOR OUR BEST THOUGHT 


The conflict is not over God and the Holy Bible; it is not between good and evil. 


The first, or Anderson Constitution, says of a Mason that, "if he rightly understands 
the Art, he will never lie a stupid Atheist." 


Of needs be, the converse must be the effect which the inspiration of Freemasonry's 
teachings will have upon the soul of a man who, in his heart, truly was made a 
Freemason. 


Do we ever winnow our store of grain after the harvest ? 



Do we ever check up on our own membership ? Is it again a case of the beam in our 
own eye? Generally speaking, the trouble is here: The Anglo-Saxon Freemason 
insists that a candidate for Freemasonry shall profess his belief in God, before 
initiation. 


The Latin Freemason affirms his loyalty to the first Constitution of the Mother Grand 
Lodge (1717), which goes no farther than to say, under the caption: 


"Concerning God and Religion: 


"A Mason * * * if he rightly understand the art * * * will never be a stupid atheist * * 
* and yet 'tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion in 
which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves; that is to be 
good men and true, and men of honor and honesty, by whatever denominations or 
persuasions they may be distinguished." 


The Latin Freemason has interpreted the quoted language to mean liberty of 
conscience. 


To him the light which Freemasonry diffuses will guide man to truth, will transform 
the rough into the perfect ashlar. 


The Anglo-Saxon prefers to begin with material professing already to have obtained 
that which the Latin aspires to attain at the end, rather than at the beginning of the 
Masonic journey. 


Have we perchance lost sight of our Ideal in our craving to be heroic? 



Posing as the defenders of His Book, which is not attacked by any Grand Lodge, do 
we work ourselves up to so great a fervor, that we forget to practice the precepts 
therein laid down? The differences dividing us are largely temperamental. Bad blood 
has confused the issues; cold deliberation might prove helpful. 


SOMETHING CONCERNING THE RITUAL 


Prior to the Grand Lodge era, there was but one ceremony covering initiation, which 
consisted of the imparting of a few signs, words and tokens. The Master, in his own 
language, may also have explained some of the Craft's traditions, and something of 
the Old Charges. This we do not know, but surmise. 


Since the Grand Lodge era, the earlier single ceremony of initiation has been 
developed and elaborated into the three ceremonies of Initiating, Passing, and 
Raising, with little, if any, resemblance to the original ceremony. Our ceremony of 
initiation is not a Landmark, but a modern development of the past two hundred 
years. 


Being free and independent, each Grand Lodge, as a sovereign jurisdiction, was free 
to, and did, develop its Ritual to meet its own requirements and taste, without claim 
of right to interfere on the part of sister Grand Lodges. 


It was not until about 1760 that the Bible was made the Great Light in the Mother 
Grand Lodges, and a higher philosophical, or religious conception, was given to the 
Ritual. The highly dramatic features found today are of a still later development; are 
far from universal; and in England, are not permitted. 


SOMETHING OP TRENCH PREEMASONRY 



Freemasonry was introduced into France about 1724. The Grand Orient, the name 
given its Grand Lodge, dates back, as a sovereign body, to 1736, according to its 
tradition which is not seriously challenged. 


From its beginning down to 1849, no declaration of a belief in Deity was in its 
constitution; notwithstanding during all these years, it was in full fraternal 
relationship with the Masonic world. 


In 1 849, of its own motion, and following England by nearly one hundred years, it 
introduced the religious conception. 


In 1877, it substituted tolerance and liberty of conscience. 


Between these dates many things had happened. Among other things, Garibaldi, the 
Freemason, and great Italian patriot, had captured Rome and deprived the Pope of his 
temporal power. Reprisals came swiftly. The Roman Catholic Church charged 
Freemasonry with founding upon the Bible a spurious religion. To meet this charge, a 
Protestant Minister of the Gospel, in the hope of foiling these attacks which were 
sadly depleting the membership as was natural in a Catholic country, moved the 
change for which we now ostracize France. He stated at the time that it was not to be 
regarded as a negation in any sense of a belief in Deity. This has been, and this is, the 
attitude of the Grand Orient of France. We did not however break with the Grand 
Orient over a Spiritual question, but over a Temporal question, territory and material. 


The circumstances in which Latin Freemasonry was placed, by conditions which it 
could not control, deserve that sympathetic and patient study and consideration which 
a brother in the Craft has a right to expect of his brother, before condemnation. 



A painstaking study of Freemasonry's persecution, will invite commendation of the 
zeal and fortitude of our Latin brethren, in holding high the banners of the Craft 
against fierce and unrelenting assault. 


With us also there are forces hostile to Freemasonry and its Ideals, but, happily for us, 
these forces do not directly, or indirectly, dominate the State. 


What would be our situation if they did? 


After study of what our Latin brethren have suffered, let us contrast their carrying on 
with what we did in the Morgan period. Then we shrunk up and al] but blew away. 


The intolerant spirit which dominated during the Morgan crisis, and all but wiped us 
out, ruthless and unrelenting, has raged against Freemasons in Latin countries almost 
for two hundred years; yet our Latin brethren have kept the fire of their faith brightly 
burning; they have not surrendered to suffering and sacrifice, but have grown in 
numbers and in influence; slowly, but they have grown. 


It was in 1738 that Clement XII issued the first Bull against Freemasonry. The 
grounds of its condemnation were that Masons admitted members of all religious 
sects, and bound themselves by an oath of secrecy. 


In Latin Catholic countries, the term atheist is colloquially applied by the Church to 
non-Catholics. Coming from this high authority, the appellation has been accepted as 
a correct characterization of nonCatholics, without regard to the real meaning of the 
word. Subtle propaganda has put over this idea, and the term is now quite generally 
accepted by Catholics, as properly applying to all Freemasons; and by us, as properly 
applying to French Freemasons. 



Our opponents are more clever than are we. 


The fact that Freemasons bound themselves by a secret oath, was held by the 
authorities of the Catholic Church to be an admission of perfidy. No further proof was 
needed. 


From the date of this Bull, it was followed by others, a conflict, bitter in its intensity, 
and more bitter, where the Church politically was all powerful, has been waged 
between the Catholic Church and the Masonic Fraternity. 


Attack was followed by counter-attack. Great bitterness was engendered, and a war of 
extermination has raged, its intensity limited only by the power of the Church over 
Government. 


It is difficult for Freemasons who are free to meet, free to act, free to live their own 
lives and advance their ideals, and to pursue their happiness, to understand the trials 
of their brethren, pursued, persecuted, destroyed, because of their faith. 


The situation in Italy today tells something of the story, and in Hungary the chapter is 
not closed. 


It is not surprising that after the Bull of 1738, the development of Speculative 
Freemasonry in Protestant countries was under happier auspices than in Catholic 
countries. In Protestant lands it was often patronized by men of influence and high 
standing, and fortune smiled upon it. On the other hand, in these countries where the 
enemies of Freemasonry were in power, it had to struggle for its existence, suffer for 
its faith, and keep its fires burning only at great peril to its members. 



Under such widely varying conditions, it was to be expected that Speculative 
Freemasonry would have a development possessed of striking contrasts. 


SOMETHING OF OPERATIVE FREEMASONRY 


A divergence in its development, somewhat similar, but under conditions in no wise 
comparable, had taken place in Operative Masonry, when the various lodges of our 
Operative forefathers developed their art of Gothic architecture along differing lines, 
according to the genius, culture and taste of the people for whom they worked, and to 
the talent of their Master. 


The organization of Operative lodges, and the machinery devised for efficient service, 
likewise differed materially in the several countries where the Craft found work. 


In none of this was there seen heresy in the olden days. It was just growth, shaped by 
local conditions. This condition has been repeated in the development of Speculative 
Freemasonry, which likewise, has been shaped by local conditions. The duty today is 
to harmonize it. 


In Operative days, the building was of stone and mortar, and a perfect structure was 
the aspiration of the Craft. 


The development of Gothic architecture is the crowning glory of our Operative 
forefathers. As this style grew, architecture became more and more a highly technical 
science, and the secrets of the art became the possession of the Craft. 


It organized wherever cathedrals, churches and abbeys were being constructed, and 
spread over western Europe, blending into its environments, and developing the 



Gothic along lines reflecting the culture and aspirations of its own genius and that of 
those it served, until the Gothic had diverged into many styles, each reflecting The 
contribution which each band of Craftsmen had to make to the Ideal. 


SOMETHING OF SPECULATIVE FREEMASONRY 


In Speculative days, the development of the Ideal of the Temple of the Brotherhood 
of Man, has been the aspiration; an-d its realization will be the crowning glory of our 
Fraternity. As the possibilities of the Ideal were better appreciated, the aspiration 
grew, and its triumph was realized to depend more and more upon service and 
sacrifice. The secret of its success became the possession of our Craft. It was to purge 
man of intolerant sectarianisms, of racial and unworthy prejudices. 


So Speculative Freemasonry organized wherever man sought a higher life. It spread 
over the face of the earth. In each country it developed the Ideal along lines within the 
grasp and abilities of its people to see the Light. It broadened out to include within its 
appeal the contribution of every race and nationality to a higher and better order of 
things here below. 


Our Forefathers of the ancient Operative lodges did not excoriate and excommunicate 
each other, because, in the perfection of Gothic architecture, some diversified its 
details to harmonize with the culture and taste of the countries where they were at 
work. They possessed the intelligence to see in these differences, the contribution 
which each had to make to the perfecting of their art. 


Nor did they excommunicate each other for differences in the method of organizing 
and operating their respective lodges. There was more serious and worthwhile work 
to do. 



As an instance of our progress, let it be noted that in the days of primitive Speculative 
Freemasonry, the Jew had no part in the Order; but since the eighteenth century, the 
Jew has been a growing constructive factor and influence for good, in the Craft. 


Originally Freemasonry did not include others than Christians. This is still true in 
some Grand Lodges, which Grand Lodge of New York holds high. Here we have 
another extreme, out of tune with modern best thought. Nevertheless the Craft is 
slowly progressing toward the inclusion of all monotheists, in "that Religion in which 
all men agree." 


SOMETHING OF THE TWO GREAT SCHOOLS 


Reverting to the two distinct schools of thought in Speculative Freemasonry, let us 
briefly consider some of their distinguishing characteristics. 


As said, they are the Anglo-Saxon School and the Latin School. 


In numbers, the Anglo-Saxon is the stronger; the numerical ratio between the two 
may be six to one. Grand Lodges, of Anglo-Saxon derivation, exercise jurisdiction 
over a larger area of the world than do Latin Grand Lodges; but this fact does not 
lessen the importance of those areas where the Latin School is established and 
dominant. 


The Latin race is widely dispersed over the earth, its contributions to civilization are 
beyond estimate; to the ideals of liberty, instance the help of France to our American 
"independence"; to the arts and sciences, witness its institutions of learning, its 
museums and galleries, which Americans visit by thousands. Its influence is far 
reaching, its vitality without bounds. It has been the progressive force in many lands. 
The numbers it has contributed to Freemasonry are few compared to what the Anglo- 
Saxon has given, but the quality is choice, both in culture and zeal. 



SOMETHING OF MASONIC INTERNATIONAL LAW 


Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry, in its progress, particularly in North America, under the 
influence of our doctrine of State rights, has developed a system of Masonic 
International Law, having for purpose the harmonizing and regulating of the 
relationship one to the other, of American Grand Lodges in the matters of 
sovereignty, jurisdiction over territory, over Freemasons, and over candidates for 
Freemasonry. The number and the proximity of our States and of Canadian Provinces, 
our common language, and similar aspirations and genius, have favored the advance 
which we have made. On this continent, no one of our Grand Lodges would invade 
the boundaries of a sister jurisdiction, or accept its material. 


An equal development of Masonic law governing the conduct, or limiting the powers, 
of Grand Lodges has not occurred on the continent of Europe. Over there, Grand 
Lodges for the benefit of their nationals, have established or recognized, as a matter 
of course, lodges and even Grand Lodges, within the conches of other countries 
already covered by Grand Lodges. The Mother Grand Lodge of England did this in 
France, only a few years ago. European Grand Lodges have extended this practice to 
the Americas, justifying it on the ground that, since the Grand Lodges of the world 
have never gotten together to discuss rules of conduct, and to agree upon laws 
qualifying the sovereignty of Grand Lodges, each Grand Lodge still remains a free 
agent, and a law unto itself. Each still is sovereign and supreme, and particularly each 
is free of all obligations to those Grand Lodges which brand it as Clandestine, and 
refuse even to talk over with it unhappy differences of opinion. 


These Grand Lodges, offenders as we are wont to call them, do not question the 
desirability and the advantages of comity, of dignity, and of the spirit of fraternity, in 
the relationship of Grand Lodges. On the contrary they urge it, asking no favors. They 
do, however, insist that the laws which are to govern their relations with other Grand 
Lodges, shall be laws in the making of which they shall have a part. 



As sovereign and independent jurisdictions, they refuse to obey laws attempted to be 
imposed upon them by Grand Lodges which scorn them, and in the making of which 
laws they have had no part. 


These jurisdictions express approval, in principle, of Masonic law covering the 
question of territoriality, as it has developed in America, and they stand ready to 
agree upon a system of laws covering the relations of Grand Lodges, when made in a 
congress or convention of Masonic Grand Lodges duly assembled, where all meet 
upon the level, act by the plumb, and part upon the square. 


Our Latin brothers have called many such conventions; they have invited our 
attendance. We have discourteously ignored the invitations, or declined them with 
scant courtesy, but with profuse protestations of self-righteousness, and assertions of 
our own superiority. 


Strange it would have been if under such provocation, resentment had not been 
engendered, and, in anger or in sorrow, mistakes made, or steps taken, which it is now 
difficult to retrace! 


Where there is no law there is anarchy. We are drifting towards Masonic anarchy. 
Nothing could be more incongruous or grotesque. 


Is it not good Masonic doctrine to be constructive in criticism, slow to condemn, kind 
in all things? 


SOMETHING OF RESPONSIBILITY 



We Anglo-Saxon Masons are not without responsibility for present conditions of 
chaos and anarchy within the Craft. 


In the beginning it was wise to give independence to new Grand Lodges and to call 
them sister jurisdictions. It was unwise to neglect them thereafter. 


When the path which our Latin brethren believed themselves compelled to follow, 
diverged from our path, we sought to impose upon them conditions for our favor, and 
arbitrarily broke off all relations when they refused to comply with our ultimatum. 
Thus we closed the door on all possibility of negotiation and persuasion, on all 
possibility of helping them in their sorely distracting situation. 


If we Anglo-Saxon Masons had for purpose, in this treatment of our Latin brethren, to 
compel them to return to our ideas of the orthodox path, we signally have failed. No 
self-respecting body of men will permit itself to be thus coerced. 


Threats and ultimatums do not comport with Masonic teachings. 


Our policy was at fault. Instead of standing by our Latin brethren, to support them in 
the crushing difficulties confronting them in their persecution, we left them to the 
mercy of their enemies. We might have helped and influenced them to greater 
moderation had we stood by. Our assumed superiority seems to have blinded us. 


Let us not forget that we, Anglo-Saxons, gave Speculative Freemasonry to the world. 
We spread it far and wide among the peoples and races of the earth; and then we 
neglected it, our own child! We permitted it to drift, driven by the hate and vengeance 
of its and of our implacable foe. When assailed by forces stronger than it, we gave it 
no support; and when in dire straits it blundered, as we think, we cast it out from our 
fellowship without laboring with it. 



SOMETHING OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS 


Neither man nor institution can ignore responsibility and remain honorable and 
respected. We Freemasons have a duty which we must perform or suffer discredit. 
That duty is to make every honorable effort to get together, and patiently to work out 
a proper solution of our internal problems, so that, once more a united Brotherhood, 
in concert, shoulder to shoulder, we may bear forward and higher Freemasonry's Ideal 
of Man's Brotherhood, of which a suffering humanity stands in such sore need. 


But it will be said we cannot hold communion with those who do not profess a belief 
in God, and who do not maintain the Holy Bible upon the lodge altar. 


Is this true? And is it worthy of Freemasonry? Does it comport with the teachings and 
practices of Him who ate and drank with publicans and sinners? 


Conferences ever are being held between individuals holding the most divergent 
opinions without either party, by meeting his opponent, being held to have forfeited 
standing or prejudiced principles. 


Long since, enlightened Governments abandoned the practice of breaking off friendly 
relations with other States because of laws for their citizens of. which these 
Governments did not approve. It is different when one Government does some wrong 
to another Government or to its nationals. This may justify the breaking of diplomatic 
relations, but not so when what a State does concerns only its own internal affairs. 


Remembering that every Masonic Grand Lodge is sovereign and independent, and 
that we tolerate no interference by foreign Grand Lodges in our internal affairs, by 
what logic can we justify our refusal to discuss, face to face, our differences or 



misunderstanding with legitimate sister Grand Lodges based on the conduct of their 
internal affairs? 


Let us not ignore the truth that these Latin Grand Lodges, which we scorn, have made 
no attack on our sovereignty, have in no way injured our members, nor violated any 
Masonic law to which they have given sanction. They have not declared that they 
would not recognize Freemasons who do believe in God. They hold that they have no 
right to concern themselves with man's religious beliefs. They were driven to this by 
the propaganda of the Catholic Church, but they have gone no farther than to say that 
they do not make belief an essential to initiation, and they point out that no such test 
is called for in the Anderson, or First Constitution, of the Mother Grand Lodge. 


It is regrettable that this is the fact. We are right in our stand that the development of 
Freemasonry in harmony with the religious principles taught and exemplified by 
Jesus, makes for far greater happiness in the human family, than possibly can abstract 
philosophical truth. Let it be remembered however that nothing in Latin Freemasonry 
opposes religion, opposes belief in God, or the inspiration of Holy Bible. Let it be 
remembered that no Latin Grand Lodge preaches atheism, or ungodliness, but that all 
of them stand for the highest conception of morality as the rule of conduct, and insist 
that real service to man and brotherhood shall precede advancement to each higher 
degree. 


SOMETHING OF THE BIGNESS OF NEW YORK’S PAST GRAND MASTERS 


Bro. Rowan has shown fine spirit in quoting liberally from the pronouncements of his 
predecessors, as Grand Masters of New York, on the duty and opportunity of the 
Craft throughout the world, in these troublous times. What Past Grand Masters 
Farmer, Robinson and Tompkins have said and done for the unification of 
Freemasonry the world over in co-operative effort to promote its Ideal of 
Brotherhood, have made their names immortal in the annals of the Craft. They 
pointed the way and laid the foundation. All honor to them. 



"Build, for the world is sick of tearing down.... 

For building, not for wrecking, swing your blade." 


It is to be hoped that all that these great brothers have said upon this great subject will 
be read and considered; the time will be well spent. 


Nothing any one of them has said or done justified the conclusion that he expected 
the millennium to be attained in a single year. 


One year only, measures the membership of the Grand Lodge of New York in the 
Masonic International Association. It voted to consummate its membership in May, 
1923. It was received in full membership in September, 1923. It was withdrawn as a 
member by Grand Master Rowan in August, 1924. As a member it attended no 
regular meeting of the Association; the one meeting it was privileged to attend was a 
special meeting, the business of which was limited to the matters in its call. 


So much for the opportunities it has had to do constructive work. 


The spirit of the first gathering at Geneva in 1 92 1 when, so hopefully, a little band 
laid the foundation for the Masonic International Association and for a better order of 
things in our Fraternity, has been well described by Past Grand Master Arthur S. 
Tompkins. That spirit has grown! 


The opportunity for service in and through the Masonic International Association, has 
been fervently presented by Past Grand Master Robert H. Robinson. It is greater 
today! 



The honor and credit of the inspiration, and of having the courage to respond to the 
call to duty in the broad spirit of Masonic Love, is with Past Grand Master William S. 
Farmer. All hail to him, and to his co-workers of vision! They have entered the Hall 
of Fame and will thi nk twice before they recant. 


SOMETHING OF A NARROWER VIEWPOINT 


Grand Master Rowan is right when he points out that the Constitution of the Masonic 
International Association does not give it power: 


(A) To protest the massacre of women and children 


(B) The slaughter of Boy Scouts, and 


(C) Fratricidal struggles unworthy of our civilization 


(D) To express interest in the fate of suffering people like the Armenians, persecuted 
unto death for their religious faith; the Jews when the victims of murderous pogroms; 


(E) To express regret that events of a political nature have kept our Hungarian 
brethren from their labors. 


(F) To express the hope that a more complete understanding by the Hungarian 
Government of the true character of Hungarian Freemasonry may result in its soon 
serving anew openly, the cause of humanity; 



(G) To express the hope that conflicts between peoples may be decided by a Court of 
International Jurisdiction, and the calamity of war ended; 


(H) To express the belief that Freemasonry, however represented, has, for an object, 
the creation of a spirit of fraternity between peoples, and to war on war. 


It is a fact that no Grand Lodge was bound by anything the delegates to the Masonic 
International Association did in reference to these matters, and every Grand Lodge is 
free to disavow the action taken, or dissent from the Masonic aspiration expressed. 


The Masonic International Association has suggestive functions only. But these sad 
things happening while a group of Freemasons are nearing or are in session, what 
should they do ? Forget the Landmarks, the great Ideal, and supinely remain silent, or 
proclaim anew Man's Brotherhood, and the duty which man owes to man? 


SOMETHING OF POLITICS 


Freemasonry, if its professions are more than sham pretensions, will not permit 
certain questions to be dubbed "political," to place them outside the pale of its 
protection, or to escape its wrath; massacres, for instance! 


Suppose a political movement were to be started with us, to turn over the control of 
our public school system to some church, is it not probable that the Fraternity would 
be heard from in no uncertain terms, Bro. Rowan and his political scruples to the 
contrary notwithstanding ? 


Circumstances alter cases. Witness the "Boston Tea Party." 



What is "politics" in any great crisis, of needs be must be left to the high conscience 
of the Grand Lodge affected; and other Grand Lodges should be slow to condemn. 


SOMETHING OF SHADOWS WHICH AFFRIGHT 


Grand Master Rowan is disturbed: 


(1) Because a telegram of felicitations was ordered sent to a brother who had won a 
prize of one hundred thousand francs for an article on Peace. 


Does not the world want peace? 


(2) Because sundry appeals for justice and the right to live, addressed to the Masonic 
International Association, were passed on to the Feague of Nations, of which he 
points out, the United States has refused to become a member. 


What better disposition could have been made of them ? 


Are Freemasons not told, somewhere, of their duty to Brother Man in like destitute 
circumstances? 


(3) Because someone suggested it might be useful to study theoretically, 
"academically," what labor is. 



Why not? Is not knowledge of the truth helpful? 


(4) Because a delegate, attached to the International Bureau of Labor of the League of 
Nations, invited the delegates to the Masonic International Association to visit that 
Bureau. 


Should a Freemason resent a hospitable invitation to him and his brethren in a foreign 
land to visit institutions of educational interest which may be there ? 


Grand Master Rowan seems alarmed because someone or another of the delegates of 
the twenty-two Grand Jurisdictions advanced sundry proposals, to his way of thinking 
dangerous, and which the Congress did not adopt, evidently sharing his view; and he 
indicates the peril in this. 


I agree with him, there is danger here. I confess that I know but one way to minimi z e 
that danger, and finally to eliminate it, and that is by doing our part as Brothers in our 
Universal Brotherhood; by attending its International Congresses, and through 
persuasion, not by idle, futile threats, and long range denunciations, but by brotherly 
contact and logic, prove our views the wiser, and the better suited for the service of 
humanity. 


How superficial, how silly it would be, to pronounce the Government of the United 
States ineffective and useless, because of the foolish things which individual 
members of Congress say, and have said or done, in our Legislative Halls ! 


Was there not some of this sort of thing going on in the early days of our Republic? 
There still is. Great oaks from little acoms grow. 



You cannot build by tearing down, advance by going backward! 


Is it not our duty to make the most of what is, and to try to improve it, rather than to 
destroy it, without providing something better? 


SOMETHING OF HONEST TOIL 


Just a word with reference to the question of work which Grand Master Rowan seems 
to confuse with some organized labor question or difficulty, the nature of which he 
does not disclose. 


When the Masonic International Association was given birth, the world's recovery 
from the effects of the Great War was retarded by the inability of people to settle 
down to steady work. Nerves were at too high a tension. 


The Masonic International Association inserted in its principles the declaration: 


"Freemasonry, deeming work to be one of the essential duties of men, honors equally 
those who toil with their hands and those given intellectual pursuits." 


The purpose of this was to help bridge the gap between classes, and lessen jealousy 
and discontent, by proclaiming anew the Landmark of the dignity of honest toil. 


Surely no one challenges the axiomatic truth that happiness and the world's welfare 
are dependent upon work! True, these are days when workmen combine for the 
maintenance of their rights, which is proper. Labor Unions are here. They have a 



useful service to perform. They cannot be gotten rid of excepting by a class war, 
which would be suicidal. Is it not better for us all to study and seek to understand the 
capital and labor question, so that with understanding, as individuals, we may aid 
enlightened public opinion to promote fair play between these two great and essential 
forces? 


SOMETHING OF WHAT MIGHT BE 


Our ranks today are composed of a wonderful aggregation of sterling men, attracted 
to Freemasonry by its Ideal, the Brotherhood of Man; by its field, the world; by its 
opportunity, the promotion of peace on earth. 


Of all organized groupments of men, Freemasonry alone makes equal appeal to men 
of every race, nationality and religion. 


According to no one dominance, it urges all men to co-operate, each in his own 
sphere of usefulness, for the common welfare and happiness. 


The Ideal cannot triumph, excepting Freemasons get together on terms of brotherly 
equality, and in the spirit of charity for all and malice towards none. If this be their 
will, we shall be doing God's work; if it be not their will, what is there to prevent 
Freemasonry from drifting into and becoming a vainglorious mutual admiration 
society, kept alive by the sale of valueless titles and sham honors to cheap men who 
can shine nowhere else, and who, following false gods, will be wasting time and 
spending money which they cannot afford, to the injury of their family and 
themselves ? 


Due to a trend, the Freemason is often misled; and misled, he too often loses his sense 
of proportion. 



SOMETHING OMITTED 


Space does not permit consideration, item by item, of all the points which Bro. 
Rowan makes. The writer has sought to group some of the more important of them. 


He rejoices that this great subject is now open to discussion, and, in course of time, to 
a verdict which will reflect the present day policy of the Craft in humanity's greatest 
crisis. 


He believes the big, the broad, the generous purpose of the Fathers, in due time, will 
triumph; that their vision will be vindicated. As we have boasted, so it will be 
adjudged, and the boast made true, that in our times as in theirs, Freemasonry's 
mission is to unite men of every race, nationality and religion, without regard to 
worldly wealth or station, "provided they be good men and true, men of honor and 
honesty." 


The writer passes over without comment the withdrawal by Grand Master Rowan of 
the Grand Lodge of New York from the Masonic International Association. 


That is a matter of local politics. Greater the pity! 


Grand Master Rowan acted, of course, according to his lights, both when he withdrew 
the Grand Lodge of New York from the Masonic International Association, and when 
he withdrew it from the Masonic Service Association of the United States. 


If isolation be magnificent, New York is magnificent! 



IN CONCLUSION 


And now for a brief summary of a subject here most inadequately presented, in fact 
only opened, but upon which, let us have all the light there is to shed. 


We cannot close our eyes to the fact that there exist two great schools of thought 
within the Masonic Fraternity. That due to lack of contacts, association and 
understanding, these two schools are drifting farther and farther apart and nearer and 
nearer to open wart7are. Surely we know the bitterness and the relentlessness with 
which family feuds are waged. 


In a general way, one of these two schools represents the Anglo-Saxon race and the 
other the Latin race. The influence of these two races leads civilization, and has it in 
its keeping. 


Shall Freemasons within these two great divisions of men strive, in their Masonic 
way, to bring them together in co-operative brotherly effort for the promotion of 
peace and the progress of civilization, or shall they permit them to drift further apart, 
and to the inevitable clash, if differences be not reconciled and wounds healed ? 


To ignore the threatened crisis is cowardly. Let us not cry peace when there is no 
peace. Men of great soul throughout the world see the danger, and for the sake of the 
peace of the world are striving for friendly co-operation between the two great races. 


Such high endeavor was Freemasonry's task in the inspired plan of our Forefathers. 
This was its great ideal. This was Freemasonry's mission! Its excuse for being! Its 
vindication! We cannot repudiate the past without betrayal. We must go forward, 
expanding, or die, and rot! 



The Masonic International Association is an existing thing; it is far from perfect but it 
is a beginning, giving expression to a great aspiration. It is a present functioning 
agency confronting Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry either as a means to make a great 
contribution to peace within and without the Craft, or as a force to be reckoned with. 
The Association embraces within its membership nearly all the Latin Grand Lodges 
of the world, also some of those on the border line between the two schools, and 
Holland and New York, of the Anglo-Saxon School. It promises to live. Its 
foundation is safe. It affords contacts without recognition. Its meetings are not 
"Masonic Intercourse." Its founders sought to respect sensitive susceptibilities. 


The disciples of these two schools in Freemasonry working together in and through 
the Association, can make for one Freemasonry the world over. Whether Anglo- 
Saxon Freemasonry is big and broad enough, and its conception of Freemasonry is 
godly enough, to see the light and play the great role, time will tell. If it fails to rise to 
this inspiring task, there will be two systems of Freemasonry in the world, locked in 
deadly warfare, each excoriating and excommunicating the other, and dividing races, 
nationalities and religions, instead of uniting men and destroying divisions. 


Which shall it be ? One system of Freemasonry, and peace, or two systems of 
Freemasonry and war? The momentous decision rests with the Craft, not with any 
Grand Master or Past Grand Master. 


— o — 


AMERICAN COLLEGE FRATERNITIES 


BY BRO. CARL A. FOSS 



NATIONAL SECRETARY OF THE INTERCOLLEGIATE MASONIC 
FRATERNITY OF SQUARE AND COMPASS, NEW YORK 


Concluded from March 


IN 1 825 the Kappa Alpha Society was founded at Union College and, in many 
respects, was a copy of the Phi Beta Kappa that had been established at Union eight 
years before. Within two years, two other fraternities, Sigma Phi on March 4, 1827, 
and Delta Phi on Nov. 18, 1827, were established. There were a number of other 
college fraternities founded at other colleges about this time, but we shall speak only 
of those through whose example and influence have arisen the large number of 
college fraternities to-day. Calling itself the Alpha of New York in 1831, Sigma Phi 
established a Beta chapter at Hamilton College (Clinton, N. Y.). This resulted in 
Alpha Delta Phi being established at Hamilton one year later and, in November, 1833, 
Psi Upsilon was founded at Union. Also in 1833 Kappa Alpha placed a chapter at 
Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.) and this was followed one year later by a 
third chapter of Sigma Phi being established at Williams. In 1837 the Mystical Seven 
fraternity was founded at Wesleyan College (Middletown, Conn.). In 1835 Alpha 
Delta Phi established its second chapter at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) and, in 
1839, Beta Theta Pi, the first western fraternity to be founded, was established at 
Miami to compete with the earlier Alpha Delta Phi. In 1841, the Mystical Seven 
fraternity (without a Greek name but similar to its predecessors in the college world) 
established a chapter at Emory College (then at Oxford, Ga., and since removed to 
Atlanta) and, in 1844, another chapter was established at Franklin College, now the 
University of Georgia, at Athens. The extension of the Mystical Seven fraternity to 
the south led to the founding of W. W. W., or Rainbow Society. Neither the Mystical 
Seven nor W. W. W. exist to-day as separate societies. From these beginnings have 
come the present college fraternity system. In almost every case, the foundation of a 
new fraternity has been the result of the establishment of a new chapter of an existing 
fraternity and there has been considerable similarity in the character of the 
organizations. 



All college fraternities, even including Delta Upsilon which was founded as an anti- 
secret society at Williams in 1834, are more or less secret. We say "less" for during 
the course of many years of college rivalry, chapters have stolen the rituals of other 
fraternities and the secrecy is more theoretical than actual, although, of course, 
attendance at meetings is limited to members and business transacted at such 
meetings is not known to others. Most of the social fraternities have grown to such 
limits, in membership and wealth, that secretaries, office and travelling, 
stenographers, inspectors and editors are employed, a far cry from the time when the 
work was done by the students themselves. 


STATISTICS FOR THE LEADING TEN ARE GIVEN 


To give some idea of the standing of these college fraternities a list is given below of 
the ten largest fraternities to-day in point of membership. (The figures are for 1923 
and are taken from Baird’s Manual.) 


Name of Fraternity - Founded at 

Year 

Membership 

nasa 

Beta Theta Pi, Miami University 

1839 

28,897 

$2,173,000 

Phil Delta Theta, Miami 

University 

1848 

28,883 

2,216,000 

Sigma Alpha Epsilon, U. of 
Alabama 

1856 

27,638 

1,3000,000 

Kappa Sigma, U. of Virginia 

1869 

22,565 

1,165,000 

Sigma Chi, Miami University 

1855 


1,587,000 

Phi Gamma Delta, Jefferson 

College 

1848 


1,254,000 

Delta Kappa Epsilon, Yale 

College 

1844 

21,885 

1,250,000 

Delta Tau Delta, Bethany College 

1859 

19,275 

1,275,000 

Sigma Nu, Virginia Mil. Inst. 

1869 

18,342 

825,000 

Alpha Tau Omega, Virginia Mil. 
Inst. 

1865 

17,950 

1,300,000 






































(It should be remembered that the above membership figures do not refer to living 
members, but to the actual number initiated from the establishment of the fraternity.) 


It will be observed that none of the earliest fraternities are included in the above list 
and the reason is found in the intense conservatism of the societies founded in the 
east. Delta Kappa Epsilon is the only one that had a vision of the America to come 
outside of the section in which it was born. 


In 1869 there was founded at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) the first so- 
called professional fraternity. This was Phi Delta Phi, which was limited in 
membership to those studying the profession of law. Since then fraternities have been 
founded for almost every profession under the sun. There are fraternities for 
chemistry students, journalists, women medical students, male medical students, 
commercial, dental, veterinary, architectural, homeopathic medical, women 
educational, pharmaceutical, women musical, textile, women osteopathic, art, women 
normal, scientific, public speaking and actors, music and oratorical, women legal, 
physical education, home economics, geology, mining and metallurgy, dramatic, and 
engineering students. Many of the professional students have a large number of 
professional fraternities, notably legal and medical, to which they are eligible for 
membership. The principal characteristic of difference between the social and the 
professional fraternity is that one can only belong to one social fraternity, but he can 
belong to as many professional fraternities (not of the same profession) as may care to 
invite him, and he can also belong to a social fraternity as well as the professional 
fraternity. The membership of the latter is confined, principally, to the upper 
classmen. 


In very few cases do the members of a professional fraternity live together in a 
chapter house. Nearly all of the chapters of social fraternities maintain homes in 
which the members live, and because of this fact and that many of the members of the 
professional societies are also members of the social fraternities, the former could 
hardly maintain chapter houses with the small number not already living in fraternity 
homes. 



Then there are the honorary fraternities, and of these there are a couple of dozen. 
Among them must be included Phi Beta Kappa, of the highest rank; Sigma Xi, an 
equally fine honor society for scientific students, and others of less and, in some 
cases, of doubtful merit. We have just learned of a college organization founded to 
honor Masonic college students, by membership, who live up to the principles of 
Freemasonry while in college. We have always thought that Freemasonry honored its 
own, either by election to office or, in the case of the Scottish Rite, election to the 
governing body of the Rite; or else one was honored by the esteem in which he was 
held by his brother members; but, seemingly, to some it may appear to be an even 
greater honor to be elected to membership in another organization. 


PROS AND CONS ARE DISCUSSED 


In the course of years through which the college fraternity system has existed there 
have been praise and condemnation, loyalty of the highest quality from its members 
and bitter opposition from its enemies. With no exceptions that we know of, the 
enemies of the Greek-letter fraternities have been those who have not belonged to any 
fraternity. Against the college fraternities has been raised the cry of undemocracy and 
in some cases the charge has been well founded. However, on the whole, the Greek- 
letter system is worthy of existence and is controlled by serious minded men of high 
character and citizenship. Attacks have, however, led to the banishing of college 
fraternities at the state institutions in South Carolina and Mississippi and, at the 
University of Arkansas, members of college fraternities are not eligible for college 
honors. 


The contest is whether fraternities, intercollegiate in character, shall exist, or clubs 
having no connection with any organization at another institution. The evidence 
seems to bear with the fraternities. These are controlled, almost entirely, by alumni 
who, being more mature than undergraduates, are not likely to permit things to go on 
that would be permitted in a club, the only control of which is exercised by the 
members in college. Many of the fraternities exercise a control that would be 
impossible for a local club to' assert. The Greek-letter fraternity to which the writer 
belongs has, for many years, enforced an edict, under penalty of expulsion, that no 
member shall gamble in a chapter house or shall bring liquor into that house or 
introduce a woman therein for immoral purposes. For some years prior to the 



adoption of the 18th Amendment to the Federal Constitution, Delta Tau Delta made a 
determined fight against drinking among college men. Other fraternities have made 
determined efforts to increase the scholarship of their members. 


In answer to the condemnation of being undemocratic it must be conceded there is 
considerable truth in the assertion. The system of "bidding" is, in the first place, the 
principal cause and considerable undemocracy will continue so long as "bidding" 
controls the manner of election to membership. This is especially true when the 
"bidding" is practiced on boys who have just landed at college, their true 
characteristics being almost unknown to the members of the various fraternities. 
Another evil is occasioned by the social fraternities laying too great a stress upon the 
social qualities of the candidates. Social heroes are not always desirable fraternity 
brothers in other characteristics. However, it is noticeable that where there are so 
many fraternities in an institution that considerable rivalry results and a large 
percentage of the student body belongs to the fraternities, there is little cause for 
charging the societies with lack of democracy. At Washington and Lee University 
(Lexington, Va.), with over twenty social fraternities for a student body of about 600, 
students are invited to join fraternities even when they have only a year remaining in 
college. The charge of undemocracy can only be made rightfully where college 
fraternities do all of their "bidding" in the first week of the freshman year and later 
refuse to take in students, no matter how worthy they may be, after they have made a 
name for themselves in college. 


ACACIA WAS FOUNDED IN 1904 


Organizations limited to Masons have existed in American colleges for years but, 
until 1904, these were entirely local Masonic clubs; no intercollegiate organization 
existed until the founding of The Acacia Fraternity at the University of Michigan in 
1904. At the present time, Acacia has 27 active chapters, a membership of 6,130, and 
property valued at $830,000. At some time prior to 1917, Acacia adopted the 
provision that college Masons who were members of Greek-letter social fraternities 
would no longer be eligible to membership. Acacia practices "bidding" and is 
considered a rival of the Greek-letter social fraternities, being a member of the 
Interfraternity Conference, which accepts as members only those college societies 
that are rivals. Its chapters are approximately of the same size as those of the Greek- 



letter fraternities and, consequently, only a limited number of the Masonic students in 
an institution can become Acacians. 


The second intercollegiate Masonic fraternity to be founded was Square and 
Compass. Its establishment was due directly to Acacia's prohibition against having as 
members any Masons who were already members of social Greek-letter fraternities. 

In 1916-17, the Masonic Club at Washington and Lee University, wishing to 
strengthen itself and increase the interest of its members, set out to petition Acacia for 
a charter, but found itself unable to do so with success on account of the large 
proportion of Greek-letter fraternity members in the club. (It should be remembered 
that whereas the average age of college freshmen is perhaps eighteen or nineteen, he 
is not eligible to become a Mason until he is twenty-one. It is, therefore, natural that 
he should become a Greek-letter fraternity member if he has the opportunity.) 
Consequently, the club determined to organize another intercollegiate Masonic 
society, which it did. The organization laid dormant during the War and the second 
chapter (called a square) was not founded until 1920. since then the fraternity has 
grown rapidly until it has entered 47 institutions all over the country, publishes a 
magazine, has a paid secretary, and property of a value of about $75,000. Square and 
Compass has been extraordinarily successful because the local Masonic clubs have 
quickly seen the advantage of the intercollegiate form of government offered by 
Square and Compass. This fraternity does not practice "bidding" but any Master 
Mason who is eligible to membership on account of his connection with the 
institution where Square and Compass is established may apply for membership, and 
his application can only be rejected by a majority vote based on un-Masonic conduct. 


There was, formerly, an organization known as The Trowel Fraternity, membership in 
which was limited to Masonic students in dental schools. Its scope was confined to 
the Pacific coast, and whether it is still in existence is not known. Another college 
Masonic organization has recently been founded that has two chapters. It practices 
"bidding." There are in addition to these perhaps a hundred or more local college 
Masonic clubs. Many of them are in good condition, have homes and the loyalty of 
their members. However, most of them do not have a strong, continued existence. 


We know of no chapters of the Order of Builders or of the De Molay being 
established at an educational institution with membership limited to the students, but 



when a chapter is established in a college town, a large proportion of the membership 
is necessarily made up of college students. At Central College (Fayette, Mo.) no 
fraternities are permitted and so the local chapter of the Order of De Molay has taken 
on very much of the character of a college fraternity. 


In closing we wish to assert that, with the exception of Freemasonry, no organization 
commands such undiluted loyalty from its members as the American college 
fraternity. Regardless of what is said about it, the college fraternity must have features 
of value in order to make men, grown old and engrossed in the affairs of the business 
world, willing to take of their time to devote it to an organization they joined years 
ago. And many of them have gone even further; they have given of their wealth to 
erect costly fraternity houses that provide a home for the youngsters of today and 
tomorrow. For college men and for those who have not been privileged to go to 
college, the American college fraternity is a subject of increasing attraction, the more 
one reads. For many, the college fraternity has started the interest that has led to 
membership and active interest in the Freemasonry of the years to follow after leaving 
college. 


NOTE— The writer wishes to express his thanks for the assistance obtained from 
Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities for the preparation of this article. 
For one interested in the subject, no better or more trustworthy book on the American 
college fraternity system can be obtained. The book is published by James T. Brown, 
363 West 20th St., New York city. Another publication of value to those interested is 
Banta's Greek Exchange, a quarterly, published at Menasha, Wisconsin . 


— o — 

JUSTICE 

A keen blade makes an open wound 
And crimson stains are bright, 

And laws are made for blade and blood, 



To keep man's conduct right 
But what of those who stab and slay 
A human heart— and go away? 

An open wound is red and raw 
And everyone may see 
And those who use a knife, the law 
Will punish lawfully; 

But those who only stab the heart 
May strike in safety and depart. 

A keen blade makes an open wound 
A cruel wound and red 
And every man will cry that law 
Upon its course be sped; 

But souls are murdered everywhere 
And men but smile and call it fair. 
—Grace E. Hall. 

— o — 


Masonic Service Bureaus 



By BRO. PHIL A. ROTH, Wisconsin 


IT was upon our urgent request that Bro. Roth stole time from his pressing work as 
Manager of the Masonic Service Bureau Milwaukee, Wis., to prepare this paper on a 
subject so dear to his own heart and so close to the conscience of the American Craft. 
Brethren desiring further light on the rapid development of organized Masonic relief 
may address Bro. Roth at Scottish Rite Cathedral 470 Van Buren St., Milwaukee. 


The word service is a great, if not the greatest, word in our vocabulary. Conscientious 
service is ennobling and helps to build a stronger manhood. 


Selfishness is one of the meanest of words. Selfishness in mankind breeds unrest in 
the mind, and stimulates ignorable thoughts, in which is nourished evil and vice. 


Selfishness, as you may observe from the diagrams below, narrows down to misery 
and death. It is that prevailing thought which brings forth and nourishes 
aggrandizement— self-admiration— power-domination and harshness, and which 
develops into vanity-speculation— immorality and conceit. Out of these grow 
jealousy-degradation, and crime. The results of these habits are punishment and 
suffering ending inevitably in misery and finally in death. Thus we can plainly realize 
and understand how dreadful and full of woe are the lives of those unhappy mortals 
who allow that ugly word selfishness to creep into their existence and to become a 
part of their thoughts and actions. 


Now let us study the word "Service." It is a most commendable virtue to be devoted 
to God, to our glorious country, and to practice and exemplify kindness on every 
occasion. In doing that we learn a deep reverence for God in all His works, to be 
obedient and loyal to the laws of our Government, to esteem our friends, to love our 
neighbor, and to respect ourselves. 



By loving our neighbor we may live in peacefulness; by our reverence to God we 
cleanse our minds and bodies of the "vices and superfluities of life," and we enlighten 
our way to the path of righteousness and happiness. Obedience and loyalty to our 
Constitution and flag brings tranquility and selfrespect and builds character. 
Possessing these splendid attributes, we find the peace-loving neighbor ready and 
willing to favor and serve us, to find employment for us when we need it, and to aid 
and assist in every form. A clean conscience is ever ready to protect and provide 
relief, which invariably develops honesty of purpose, happiness and cheer. Thus we 
find that in the practice of these virtues we have built a pure character, God's highest 
and most beautiful gift to man. 


Service, therefore, embodies everything that is good and clean and that makes life 
worth living. It is the key to the road that leads to the establishment of the 
Brotherhood of Man and the recognition of the Fatherhood of God. Service is the 
keynote throughout the Holy Bible; we can find no clearer and better definition for 
the word than is contained in the Golden Rule. In Service we find all that is beautiful 
in the eyes of God and Man; all that makes man happy and content, the straight path 
to that haven of eternal peace, "that house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." 


So, in our time-honored Institution, we discover much use for service. By service we 
train our hearts and consciences to observe, and to alleviate the troubles, the sorrow 
and misery of those less fortunate than we; by it we discern the exemplary teachings 
of real Masonry, applied in a practical way. What then are all our splendid Ritual 
teachings, beautiful phraseology, the high ideals, and many wise inculcations 
contained therein unless they are brought into practical wholesome effect? To do this 
successfully to the honor and glory of our Fraternity, we must go outside of the four 
walls of the Temple. It is well indeed to receive our instructions there, but it is much 
better and more beneficent by far, to mix and mingle with the multitude in order to 
feel the pulse of our brother away from the environments of the lodge room, and by 
reminding him of his errors. 


FREEMASONRY MUST BE APPLIED 



Theory and practice in Freemasonry are what theory and existing practice are in 
business. Our Ritual is our theory, and that theory must be put to practical test before 
it becomes a useful factor. In these days of progress and advancement, of keen 
competition and unscrupulous men it is essential that we come forth from our 
chrysalis, bear our burden, and make our usefulness felt, if not seen. This does not 
mean to alter our ancient landmarks or our laws, to engage in religious disputes, or 
enter into political strife: but in the performance of service to mankind to inculcate by 
example a correct and moral code of living to elevate the unfortunate ones to a better 
plane of life, and to inspire them with the loftiest ideals of man. 


In order to radiate the effects of these constructive attributes among the masses in the 
most effectual way, we are obliged to follow the rule of modern progress— that is, 
organization. The average man or woman is too busy in these strenuous times to 
spread individually the lessons they have learned. Even if this were not true, it is a 
fact that a great portion possess neither tact nor influence to bring about the desired 
results. For this reason organization into bureaus or associations to concentrate the 
forces, and the appointment as managers such men as are capable of carrying out this 
work has been found the most expedient, practical, effectual and economical manner 
of dispensing Masonic Service to the members of the Craft and others of the human 
family. Hence the creation of Relief Boards, Employment and Service Bureaus. 


Relief Boards have long existed. They were pioneers, and for generations gave 
needed relief to the unfortunate and deserving needy. But in the march of progress 
and time, there was found a need for another highly important Service— that of 
Employment. This new branch of Service is very necessary, and should be adjudged 
as highly as Relief. You may ask why? Because if a man, especially a brother Mason, 
can be spared the humiliation of accepting relief or charity, he can better maintain the 
dignity of his manhood, keep himself aloof from financial difficulties, and hold the 
respect of his family and friends. Then why not "Help a Brother to help Himself?" 
and accord him the highest quality of Masonic Service within our power. 


Picture in your mind the peace and contentment of him whom you have aided to help 
himself, thereby enabling him to retain his self-respect, independence and manhood. 



It impresses him with the importance of self-sacrifice, rather than accepting donations 
given out meagerly! Think of the joy and happiness that will come to those that are 
near and dear to him, those that are dependent upon his efforts for the maintenance of 
the home ! How much better to stimulate the mind of a brother to greater efforts to 
help himself than to make him dependent on charity ! 


RELIEF SHOULD AVOID HUMILIATION 


Thousands and thousands of our brethren, their widows, daughters and minor sons are 
placed in employment annually by our Masonic Employment or Service Bureaus. 
What does this signify? That thousands have been spared humiliation and hardship, 
maintained their rightful places as head of families, have been able to provide the 
necessaries of life and thereby bring happiness into the homes, where before there 
were dreary firesides and despair. Not only that, but thousands of dollars have been 
saved lodge treasuries and the work of Relief Boards has been reduced accordingly. 


Is it not constructive work that helps a brother to his feet, that starts him out again on 
the highway of life with quickened aspirations and better equipped to meet the stern 
realities of life? These Bureaus create, in this new era of progressive ideas, better 
conditions for the Craft. They are helpful in aiding to rebuild manhood and 
womanhood and to re-establish broken homes. In congested cities and districts, where 
the Masonic population is naturally larger, where misfortune and distress are always 
more prevalent, it has been deemed necessary and judicious to consolidate Relief and 
Employment Boards under the name of Service Bureaus. First, because they can be 
operated on a more economical basis, and second, the bureau that combines the work 
of both boards can carry on the work more efficiently, and expedite the work of 
putting a brother back on his feet, since both wants of a brother in such unfortunate 
circumstances can be administered to by the same agency. 


Where relief is extended, employment is usually necessary to overcome the 
conditions. Relief is beautiful indeed yet it is only temporary aid, while employment 
furnishes a service that is usually lasting. Nor does the service of such a bureau end 
here. The Masonic Service Bureau of Wisconsin, with main offices in the Scottish 



Rite Cathedral in Milwaukee, furnished us an example. There the needy sojourner 
finds medical advice, given gratuitously by a staff of physicians and surgeons, who 
generously tender their services for the benefit of those who are unable to pay. 
Likewise there is a staff of lawyers, who handle the legal end of the Service Bureau 
free of charge; as well as a staff of dentists who aid and assist along their lines. 
Arrangements are made with four hotels where food and shelter for hungry, destitute, 
and homeless wanderers is furnished until communication with their respective 
lodges can be had. Masonic physicians and Masonic hospital employees report sick 
sojourners, so that flowers and visits can be arranged for, which help to cheer the sick 
and disabled. These Service Bureaus are actually Masonic advisory stations, places to 
which men and women, husbands and wives, widows and children, sons and 
daughters may bring their business and employment problems, their private, fraternal 
and domestic troubles. The Bureau provides legal and material aid for the protection 
of women and children who are brought into the courts. 


In so doing, Masonic Bureaus have reached the widows and orphans of deceased 
brethren, reached the needy who through pride, misfortune or disability did not seek 
the companionship of their brethren, reached the aged, the weak and the wanderer, the 
employer who does not attend his lodge, and creates a renewed interest in the 
Fraternity in the hearts of many Masons, whose membership meant only the payment 
of annual dues. 


BRO. HARMON IS QUOTED 


In all their purposes, these Service Bureaus aim to be of service to the Masonic 
brotherhood and their dependents. Their work, as such, is practical as well as 
beneficent. To the slacker who fails to back these Bureaus and give them his hearty 
support, I would direct attention to the remarks of Bro. Harmon, President of the 
Cleveland Employment Bureau, in his 1919 report as follows: 


"To a small degree some of our bodies look upon the work of the Bureau from the 
standpoint of benefit alone to their individual members, overlooking the one great 



principle of Masonry, that of universal helpfulness to all Masons and their 
dependents. 


"In the past, men have looked too frequently upon such institutions as this from 
varied standpoints of indifferent interest, which becomes so confusing in effect as to 
hamper or retard its very existence; but if one will seek out its aims and purposes, and 
look upon its ideals, rather than the commercial element of its operation, and, beyond 
any ambitions which it serves, and away from the clouds of poverty and need which it 
uplifts, they will see shining the Light of Eternal Truth, that Truth guided by the 
Almighty Hand, which inspires and reaches into our hearts, directing through 
brotherly love and relief the means to make others happy." 


With these Bureaus in active service throughout Freemasonry there is no good reason 
why any brother or his family should ever be a stranger in a strange land, or lack 
food, shelter or friends, wherever they may roam. Of course much depends upon the 
brother in charge of such a Service Bureau. He should of necessity be a mature man, 
sympathetic, and keen of judgment, proficient in the study of human nature to enable 
him to distinguish the impostor from the worthy man, and have ability to serve the 
right person, at the proper time and in the proper way. Andrew Carnegie is quoted as 
saying, "The most difficult thing to do is to spend money properly." 


With the Masters of lodges changing annually, does it not follow that the managers of 
such Bureaus become, better educated by their continued experience, perform more 
efficient service, better detect the worthy from the unworthy and give advice, 
kindness and sympathy whenever and wherever it is needed than the Worshipful 
Master who is brought face to face with these problems only occasionally ? Even 
granting that a Master is at all able to handle such cases, has he the time, the patience, 
the necessary methods and connections properly to care for the unfortunate sojourner, 
his widow, or his children? I dare say he has not. Then who is there to do it? Only the 
Service Bureau. 


We must remember that there are many forms of Service daily rendered by these 
Bureaus almost too numerous to mention, such as writing letters for those who have a 



claim on us, rendering information to lodges and sojourners residing in other 
jurisdictions, locating missing men, wives, sons and daughters, caring for, and leading 
back to the paths of rectitude, those who are traveling the road of destruction. Such a 
case came to the writer recently when a weeping, distracted and heartbroken widow 
and mother in Milwaukee appeared at the Service Bureau begging its assistance to 
save her minor son, who had fallen into the clutches of the California law. A message 
and letter directed to the worthy manager of the Stockton Bureau brought him on the 
job. He took charge of the case, saved the boy from a possible prison sentence, gave 
him his protection and fatherly advice and put him to work. The boy is now doing 
well. You may well imagine, dear reader, how this poor mother's suffering heart was 
changed to extreme joy and happiness. Could we have done anything more beautiful, 
more satisfactory, or more gratifying to our mind, than that of saving this boy to that 
loving, sacrificing mother and widow? Put yourself in her place, and then judge. This 
is one of many similar cases on the records of the various Service Bureaus. 


ORDERS FOR BOYS ARE COMMENDED 


Give the Service Bureau in Chicago, under the management of our good Bro. Arthur 
M. Millard, and that in Kansas City, under the able management of our friend and 
Bro. Frank S. Land, every credit due them for leading our youths into the paths of 
morality and righteousness by organizing the Order of Builders and the Order of De 
Molays respectively. What a wonderful work ! this trying to make real men out of the 
boys, taking them in hand in that tender age when they are easy prey and most 
susceptible to all the vices of life, to instruct them carefully in the proper code of 
morals, and teach them to honor father and mother; especially the mother, the dearest, 
sweetest and best friend man ever had ! This work is a service not only to the Craft, 
but to the country. 


That the necessity of the Service Bureau is becoming more apparent is evidenced by 
their ever increasing numbers. As previously stated, Relief Boards have been in 
existence for many years and there are now known to be 143 in the United States, 
scattered over 38 states. Prior to 1905 Employment Bureaus were practically 
unknown. About that time the Chicago, Cleveland and Cincinnati Bureaus sprang into 
existence. Since then the number has increased to thirty. Of these New York and New 
Jersey have state organizations divided into districts, under one head. This plan has 



been followed in Wisconsin where several districts have already been started; and we 
understand that the State of Washington is contemplating doing the same. This is 
really the best mode of conducting Masonic Service. No one city can properly reach 
every part of the state; even if that were possible the manager even with additional 
help could scarcely devote enough time to any one district, except the home office, to 
conduct its work properly and efficiently. Therefore, the New York and New Jersey 
plans, where each district has its own manager, subject to the orders of the home 
office will, in all probability, become the popular one to follow. 


But whatever the plan may be, the members of our Brotherhood should give these 
Bureaus their unified support. No lay member, however versed he may be in Masonic 
affairs, will ever know how much splendid, efficient and beneficent work is being 
accomplished. By the operation of these Bureaus we are enabled, as a body, to 
practice what we preach in our Ritual. We are in a position to aid, support, assist and 
serve according to our teaching in a friendly, brotherly way. We can better protect 
and support our members, their widows and orphans, and throw a broader mantle of 
charity over those in dire need. 


The All-Seeing Eye of God is surely upon us in this beneficent work; in supporting 
these Bureaus in the performance of these duties of Brotherly love and affection, you 
merit the thanks and appreciation of the greatest and best Fraternity ever created by 
man, our good old F. & A. M. 


I wish to note the following twelve Bureaus which in 1918 placed 7,886 applicants in 
employment: 


New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago Pittsburgh, Jersey 
city, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Columbus and Milwaukee. 


In 1922, only four years later, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago Cincinnati, Kansas city, 
Fos Angeles, Jersey city, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Portland, Seattle, and 
Milwaukee, twelve Bureaus, placed 16,578 in employment. 



In 1918 there were seventeen Employment Bureaus among the Craft. 


In 1 924 there were thirty such Bureaus in operation. 


I know definitely that the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts is contemplating the 
formation of such a Bureau at the time of writing this. 


These figures show a healthy condition of Employment Bureaus, and demonstrate 
their value to Masonic brethren and their families. I predict that within a few short 
years every state will boast of several like organizations within their Jurisdiction, and 
thus promote the practical application of Freemasonry. 


— o — 


My Masonic Experiences of 1924 


By BRO. CHARLES S. LOBINGIER, China 


AS Inspector General Honorary, Deputy and Legate of the Supreme Council in 
China, Bro. Lobingier's is a name well known in the Craft, especially among Scottish 
Rite brethren. He has a number of contributions to The Builder to his credit, among 
them being a memorable article in the first volume, December, 1915, on "Masonry in 
'The Temple of Heaven.'" Bro. Lobingier is a life member of the National Masonic 
Research Society. 



AFTER one has lived a score of years in the Far East, a long furlough in the 
homeland affords an interesting change. While life on the other side of the globe has 
many attractions, there are also certain disadvantages, not the least of which is the 
inability to attend regularly our great national gatherings, notably those of the 
Masonic Order. There, for example, is the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch 
Masons of the United States, representing, probably, the largest single Masonic unit 
in the world. It meets triennially and unless the furlough of a Far-eastemer happens to 
fall in that particular year, he is "out of luck". On several previous occasions I had 
planned to attend this great gathering but something had always interfered. So in 
planning my furlough this time, the 1924 Convocation was among my objectives. 


It happened that, just before sailing for home, I received a letter from my good friend 
Bro. Graff M. Acklin, 33d, asking Mrs. Lobingier and me to join him and his good 
wife in an automobile tour to Portland, Maine, where the Convocation was to be held, 
and through New England. When the time came to start I was in New York and left 
there on Sept. 3 to join the Acklins and Mrs. Lobingier, who had been visiting in the 
West, at Lake George. A daylight voyage up the Hudson, with its varied scenic 
beauties, brought me to Albany, where I spent the night, taking the trolley the next 
morning for Lake George via Schenectady and Saratoga, for the trolley affords a 
better opportunity than the train to view a rural region like that. Lake George is a 
picturesque hamlet situated at the foot of the lake of that name, with a rather famous 
hotel, the Fort William Henry, where we spent the night. Leaving early the next 
morning the region so full of historic scenes of the French and Indian War, we 
proceeded by automobile across Vermont and the Connecticut River and then as far 
north as Woods ville, N. H. 


A GLIMPSE OF DARTMOUTH 


About the middle of the afternoon we reached Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth 
College, the campus of which we halted to view. We were surprised at the number 
and size of the buildings, which would do credit to a university, although Dartmouth 
has never assumed that rank. 



The institution, which is still the principal one of higher learning in New Hampshire 
(though the newer State University at Durham promises to become a successful 
competitor), has a rather unique history. It was the outgrowth of "an Indian charity 
school" founded about 1754 by Dr. Eleazar Wheelock, who, some fifteen years later, 
with the assistance of the Earl of Dartmouth, obtained a charter from King George III 
"for Dartmouth College, for the education and instruction of youth of the Indian tribes 
* * * and also of English youth and any others." ( Note 1. ) The Indian youth long 
since vanished and the English youth never attended. But these indefinite "others", in 
successive and expanding generations of American boys, have taken full advantage of 
the privileges thus offered. We were told that the limit of accommodations had long 
since been reached and that great numbers of applicants had to be turned away every 
year. A recent gift of $100,000 to the college may help to relieve the congestion. 


This charter, granted on the eve of the Revolution was held, a generation later, not 
only to have been unaffected by that cataclysm but to be protected from any 
legislative alteration by the clause of the Federal Constitution (Note 2) forbidding a 
state to "pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts". This case (No. 3) was 
the subject of one of Chief Justice Marshall's most famous decisions; viz., that a 
charter was a contract— and the institution was represented by its most distinguished 
alumnus, Daniel Webster— who, in the course of his argument, observed of his Alma 
Mater, "It is a small college but there are those who love it." 


SCENIC NEW HAMPSHIRE 


The next day our route lay through that portion of the granite state which contains its 
most celebrated scenery. We visited successively Franconia Notch and the "Old Man 
of the Mountain", a stone figure resembling the human face and projecting from the 
summit of a mountain which has since been taken over as a state park. We also 
visited "The Flume," a narrow passage about a half mile long between high walls of 
rock, through which flows a mountain torrent. In the West this would be called a 
"canon" (e. g., Clear Creek, near Denver), and though it attracts many visitors it is not 
to be compared with the Pagsanjan Gorge in the Philippines nor with the Royal Gorge 
of Colorado. 



In the afternoon we found ourselves in sight of the "Presidential" mountain range. 
Though there are others like Mt. Adams and Mt. Jefferson, its most famous peak is 
Mt. Washington, already then covered with snow, to whose base we approached and 
watched the train descend on the cog railway and discharge its passengers, but we did 
not ascend. Turning then toward the seacoast we passed through Bretton Woods and 
Crawford Notch. 


In New England the term "notch" appears to be used in much the same sense as the 
western "canon," and there are many "notches." I know one in Sandgate, vt., which, 
the neighbors are fond of telling, was once visited by General Sheridan. 


PORTLAND CAME NEXT 


The city chosen for the last triennial of the General Grand Chapter was the metropolis 
of Maine and the birthplace of the poet, Longfellow, who sings in his poem on "My 
Lost Youth": 


"Often I thi nk of the beautiful town 
That is seated by the sea; 

Often in thought go up and down 
The pleasant streets of the dear old town 
And my youth comes back to me." 

The seaside house, built in 1784, where the poet was born, is in good repair and has 
been taken over by a memorial association. 



We reached the city late Saturday evening and the next day it was my privilege to 
attend services in Longfellow's church— the first church of Portland, now Unitarian. 
Two nieces of the poet occupied the family pew on that day. It was the first service 
after the summer vacation and the pastor, Rev. Joel H. Metcalf, preached on the 
timely topic "Coming Back." As is customary in sermons he spiritualized his theme 
It was a stimulating sermon and I was not surprised to learn afterward that he was 
among the foremost of Maine's clergy. Incidentally, the Grand High Priest of that 
state is a Congregationalist minister. 


The General Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters met on Monday, Sept. 8, and 
on Tuesday, the General Grand Chapter. The sudden death of General Grand High 
Priest, Bro. Wm. F. Kuhn, just as he was about to start for the Convocation, cast a 
gloom over the entire gathering. Fortunately his address had been prepared, was 
already in print, and was read by General Grand Secretary, Companion Charles A. 
Conover, after which the routine business was proceeded with. The Committee on 
Charters and Dispensations, upon which I had the honor to serve, had the pleasant 
duty of recommending charters for several chapters abroad, including two in Mexico. 
Incidentally, I was able there to render some service to the Fareastem chapters and 
Companion Acklin presented a very interesting report on Luzon Chapter, Manila. 


AN INTERNATIONAL MASONIC TREATY 


One of the happiest results of the Convocation was the settlement, in a manner 
honorable and satisfactory to both General Bodies, of the decade long controversy 
between the General Grand Chapter and the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland, 
over the latter's institution of Keystone Chapter at Manila. That unfortunate episode, 
which had interrupted the fraternal relations between these Grand Chapters for some 
time and embarrassed the adherents of Capitular Masonry not only in the Philippines 
but throughout the Far East, was permanently adjusted by ratifying the following 
treaty entered into between their respective presiding officers: 


"First That the jurisdiction of the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of 
the United states of America over Royal Arch Masonry in the Territory known as the 



Philippine Islands is supreme, and that said General Grand Chapter has this right and 
authority for the reason that, since the year 1826 the General Grand Chapter has 
exercised the right and power to grant dispensations and charters for Royal Arch 
Chapters in the United states, its territories, dependencies and protectorates, and also 
in unoccupied territory of districts where no chapter exists. 


"Second. That said Keystone Chapter, No. 354, shall be permitted to retain its charter 
from the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Scotland, and that its members shall 
be recognized as regularly made Royal Arch Masons under the further agreement that 
no more chapters shall be chartered by the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland in the 
said territory of the Philippine Islands or any other territory or protectorate of the 
United states. 


"Third. That said Keystone Chapter shall accept no petitions for membership or 
exaltation, except from members of the Scottish Lodge of Manila, known as Lodge 
Perla del Oriente No. 1034. 


"Fourth. That Luzon Chapter, No. 1, shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all 
petitioners for the chapter degrees or for affiliation, resident or sojourning, within the 
Philippine Islands, except members of Perla del Oriente Lodge, No. 1034." (Note 4.) 


THE SOCIAL FEATURES WERE ENJOYABLE 


During each day of the convention some time was set apart for social enjoyment, into 
which the visiting bodies especially entered with great zest. There was an excursion 
to Old Orchard Beach and a real Maine clam bake on one of the islands of Casco Bay. 
There in a huge tent the entire assemblage of visitors was treated to a feast of sea food 
such as only the coast affords. On the evening of Sept. 10, the Maine Grand Chapter 
and Council gave a brilliant banquet to the visitors at the Congress Square Hotel. The 
committee did me the honor to place me on the list of speakers and I took as my 
theme "Capitular Masonry in the Far East," to which I found my audience more 



responsive than I expected. I shall never forget the pleasant experiences of my first 
General Grand Chapter Convocation. 


NORTHERN SUPREME COUNCIL SESSION NEXT ATTENDED 


From Portland we motored to Boston to attend the 1 12th annual meeting of the 
Supreme Council, Scottish Rite, of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. It was 
preceded by a session of the Provincial Grand Lodge, Royal Order of Scotland, which 
conferred its degrees on Monday, Sept. 15, and held its annual banquet that evening. 
Invited by Provincial Grand Master Corson to speak at the banquet I dwelt on the 
work of the Royal Order in the Far East, particularly at Shanghai. The substance of 
my address appeared later in the Christian Science Monitor. 


It was interesting to witness the conferring of the 33d upon the large class gathered 
from the populous northeastern states. Another enjoyable feature, especially to the 
visiting ladies, was a concert given under the Supreme Council's auspices on the 
evening of Sept. 1 8, by fifty members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. I had 
heard nothing like it since my visit the preceding season to Harbin where a large 
orchestra plays nightly. 


On Wednesday morning, just before the Supreme Council retired for its executive 
session, Grand Commander Abbott called me to the East and asked me to conduct a 
symposium on Fareastem and other topics for the benefit of the honorary members 
who remained I was quite unprepared for such an invitation but proceeded to speak 
for a time on Masonry in the Far East and then gave opportunity for anyone to 
propound questions. I was agreeably surprised at the i response and found an 
especially keen interest in Buddhism, so that I devoted the balance of my talk mainly 
to that subject, pointing out some analogies between Buddhism and Christianity. The 
result was that this informal conference, instead of lasting for an hour or less as I had 
expected, continued nearly three hours and until time for adjournment for one of the 
ample lunches which the Supreme Council provided at the Copley-Plaza each day 
except the last on which it was served at the Masonic Temple. There I bade farewell 
to the many friends, old and new, whom I had met at the session, and we resumed our 



motor journey across the full length of the old Bay state. We stopped to see the 
Eastern states Fair at Springfield, and also to revisit the historic scenes in and around 
Bennington, Vt., meanwhile enjoying, between the two places, the almost unrivaled 
beauty of the Berkshire hills. On the afternoon of Sept. 20, we reached Troy, where I 
left the party and took the night boat for New York. 


ST. JOHN'S DAY AT ERIE, PA. 


A pleasant aftermath of the Boston meeting was an invitation from the Erie, Pa., 
brethren, who were present there, to repeat my address on Masonry in the Far East 
before their annual observance of St. John's (the Evangelist's) Day by the five lodges 
at Erie. I accepted the invitation and on Dec. 27 journeyed from New York to Erie 
and gave the address. I was agreeably surprised at the numbers present when 111. Bro. 
Turner W. Shacklett, 33d, rose to introduce me— about 900, including the resident 
member of the state Supreme Court and the local Congressman, who had visited the 
Far East. But I was especially impressed with the interest displayed and the rapt 
attention shown. It is always an inspiration to address an audience like that and St. 
John's Day at Erie will long linger in my memory. Thus my Masonic year, 1924, 
which began at Shanghai, in connection with the numerous affairs attending the 
holidays, shifted in April to Japan, where I conferred the 33d and took part in the 
Maundy Thursday observance— shifted again in September to New England with 
many novel experiences— and ended in Pennsylvania, my ancestral home, where my 
family has lived for two centuries and where many of my kinsmen still reside. It has 
been an unusual year and its Masonic memories are among the brightest of my Craft 
career. 


— o — 


An American Freemason in France 


By Bro. ROBERT I. CLEGG, Associate Editor, Ohio 



FROM victoria Station in London to Paris is but a few hours' journey. Many of the 
things that have been told to us regarding this trip are not altogether in accordance 
with the facts. We have been informed that the system of checking baggage so 
common and so much appreciated in the United states is unknown in Europe but you 
can check your baggage, or "luggage" as it is commonly termed over there, from 
victoria Station at London to the railway station at Paris in France. It is not called 
"checking"— it is termed "registering" the baggage— but it amounts to the same thing. 
Your baggage is weighed, you pay something for it, get a receipt, and then you forget 
it until you hunt it up at the depot in Paris. 


The trip across is but a few hours. You can leave London soon after breakfast and be 
in Paris for dinner. I took by no means the shortest route, which is first to Dover by 
rail and then to Calais by sea and then again by railroad on to Paris. I went to New 
Haven and then by way of Dieppe. Thus, instead of spending about an hour on the 
water as would have been the case between Dover and Calais, I spent several hours 
over what has seldom, if ever, been known to be a smooth stretch of water. Almost 
everybody offered from sea-sickness and a couple of young women near me whose 
baggage bore the letters of the District of Columbia said in my hearing that they 
suffered more on the trip from England to France than they had in crossing the 
Atlantic. 


However, that was not the only surprise because in talking with one of the sailors— or 
perhaps I ought to say, in attempting to talk with one of the sailors-I discovered that, 
while he had been traveling daily back and forth to England for many years, he knew 
nothing of the English language. I was later on astonished to meet some professors of 
the University of France who spoke no English and this seemed at first very 
surprising but, after all, it is a common thing to find people on the other side of the 
Atlantic on the English Channel who frequently visit France and yet make no attempt 
to learn the language that is spoken there. 


We arrived in Paris in due season but unfortunately about the time that my train 
arrived there were also several hundred passengers delivered there who had come in 
from one of the Transatlantic boats. I should imagine that two inspectors only at the 



Customs House were assigned to take care of probably 300 people. Nothing was done 
by the examiners until all the baggage had been laid out on the counters ready for 
inspection. They made a fairly rapid trip around the room looking at the baggage and 
paying no attention whatever to many of the passengers who are unusually anxious to 
get away before the rest of us. I dare say many of them wanted to catch trains going to 
other parts of Europe as it is singular when you come to think of it how general the 
tendency is to see Europe from the window of a railroad car. Few people stay at ally 
spot very long and never think of going back again to the same place on a trip if they 
can possibly avoid it. Almost everyone is possessed with the idea that the more towns 
you visit the better the trip. I did not happen to be in that class and so could afford to 
take things leisurely at the Customs House and listen to the prayers and pleading and 
curses in apparently all languages which were indulged in by the people around me. I 
was a little surprised as 1 listened attentively to the customs inspector (I had to listen 
carefully as my knowledge of the language was not only imperfect but I was sadly out 
of practice and, on the other hand, he was somewhat rapid in utterance and it seemed 
to me his words came like a torrent) to find that he wanted to know whether I had 
brought any matches or cigar lighters and I discovered later that both are controlled in 
some way by the government. However, I got free of the Customs House in due 
season and secured a taxi and was glad to get away from the Gare de St. Lazare. 


BEWARE THE TAXI ! 


The weather had been cloudy all day and the rain now began to fall and the interior of 
the taxi was very comfortable--especially after I had made it clear to the driver where 
I wanted to go. He set off at a remarkable speed and I do not wonder now that during 
the war moving soldiers in taxicabs was done at the Battle of the Marne because the 
way they handle passengers is certainly expeditious. I was told by an American 
engineer in Paris that when anyone is knocked down by a taxi in the street he is liable 
to fine and perhaps imprisonment unless he can show quite clearly that it was not his 
fault. I had no means of checking up this assertion but I have heard the story more 
than once and one may easily see what an undertaking it is and how much 
responsibility you carry in crossing the streets in Paris. 


I anticipated during my taxi trip that immediately upon arriving and getting some of 
the dust of the trip off me I would order up an appetizing meal but my hotel did not 



possess a dining room. The love of restaurants in Paris is carried to even a greater 
extent than in the United States of America. 1 discovered that even a very satisfactory 
hotel in all other respects might not possess a dining room but I found that only a few 
doors away there was a restaurant where the man in charge spoke English and I soon 
made my way to his place. His English was not very good from a linguistic point of 
view but at the close of what had been a far from perfect day his words were 
eminently satisfactory and I was soon seated over in a comer on a seat which ran 
along two sides of the room. The bill of fare had been written originally in a faint ink 
and by a person whose handwriting was, to say the least, of an inferior grade. It had 
been reproduced in some fashion and the ink had mn on the copy that was given to 
me and it was almost impossible to spell out the words and after I had discovered the 
spelling I was more than once entirely at a loss to grasp the meaning. I studied over 
that bill of fare for some little time. 


Suddenly at my right a young fellow leaned my way and held out his left hand, which 
bore a ring showing the compasses and square. He said, "Brother, it is a long time 
since I saw that button," and he looked at the little emblem of the Shrine which I wore 
in my coat. I whispered to him, "Where do you hail from?" as I held out my hand for 
the grip. He said, "Atlanta," to which I replied, "By any manner of means, do you 
know a good brother down there called Forrest Adair ?" He answered, "You mean the 
old real estate man, don't you?" I nodded and he said, "I sure do !" 


CORN, WINE, AND OIL AT LAST ! 


He took the bill of fare away from me, marked several items as being especially good 
in that particular restaurant, briefly gave me some idea as to things I could call for 
with advantage and I soon had ordered my dinner and was engaged in chatting with 
him and another good brother who happened to sit at my left. To use his phrase, they 
were "leftovers" from the American Army who had, in a spirit of adventure, decided 
to stay in France and try their luck for a few years. They were most interesting 
companions and that first evening of mine was spent very happily and I came back to 
the hotel through the rain, which bothered me no longer. The rain might fall and the 
snow and wind might keep it company in that wintry season at Paris but I had found 
the brotherhood of the Craft and I was well content. After a good night's rest, I spent 
the morning leisurely about the streets and early in the afternoon made a search for 



Oswald Wirth, the scholarly editor of Symbolisme. I found his apartment and 
discovered him exceedingly glad at my call. He is somewhat frail of physique and it 
would almost seem that the fire of his research had burned out much of the stamina 
that was formerly his. We talked of Freemasonry generally and I found that he still 
presides as Master of his lodge. He was preparing an address on "The Alchemy of 
Freemasonry" and, as he has alluded to this subject in several of his books, I was 
more than usually interested in what he had to say. 1 begged him for a copy of his 
manuscript but this request he could not concede because he had planned to speak 
from memory and therefore had no intention at the time of writing out his address. 


AN IMPORTANT LETTER FROM OSWALD WIRTH 


I may say that later on I persuaded him to jot down in a letter the gist of what he said 
and this he very kindly consented to do and the translation of his letter is as follows: 


"When I received your most fraternal letter of the 20th of this month I sent you the 
two last numbers of Symbolisme but you would not find there my discussion given at 
the beginning of January on Masonic alchemy or the art of transmuting profane lead 
into initiated gold. I had nothing in writing prepared and I spoke fully on a subject 
which has been for a long time familiar to me. 


"I insisted on the fact that the true initiation does not express itself by symbolic acts 
like those prescribed by our rituals. Those are only images of what ought to be 
passing in the mind in order that the recipient may be really transformed into an 
Initiate. Nothing is more quickly done than to take off the metals (emblems) that one 
wears; but it is a long and difficult task to perform in reality what the rite signifies. 
(To put away all prejudices, to forget all mistakes, to make for oneself a virgin mind, 
capable of conceiving the truth without distortion.) What Mason can flatter himself 
that he has put off his metals in spirit and in truth after being made to do so 
symbolically? 



"Then, reviewing the other proofs, I explained that there is no magic virtue in the 
formalities of the reception, for instance, and that it is not enough to undergo them 
symbolically to be initiated in reality. Ritual is the image of what asks to be lived. It 
traces the allegorical course of the transformation which ought to be taking place in 
our inmost being if we are to see the light clearly. The fact of remaking one's will 
does not prove that one is indeed dead to all the profane frailties, and the three 
journeys only purify by allusion. They tell us what we ought to do to be properly 
initiated; but when we understand nothing of Masonic allegory, we are contenting 
ourselves with the bare outline of initiation, with the letter, not the spirit, so that we 
do not become real Masons because we content ourselves with the symbol of what we 
ought to be in reality. 


"I finished by begging the brethren not to hold to appearance and forms. If they wish 
to be Initiates, they must go deep down. They ought to retire within themselves by 
concentration until they forget the outside world. This movement of the mind is 
symbolized among the ancients by a descent into hell. We must know how to leave 
the level of objectivity in order to understand how to think, and above all to know the 
abstraction made of the wrappings of our personality. You have all passed by le 
cabinet de reflexions but you have only stayed there a few minutes, and have never 
thought since or burying yourself there and being absorbed in the profundity of your 
own thoughts. How, then, can you imagine you have become thinkers superior to the 
multitude of the profane? 


"Having never descended to the centre of the earth, you have never been able to rise 
to the skies. You cannot judge of sublime things without giddiness. So you remain 
shackled to school, to business, and you have not attained your liberty. The flow of 
opinion carries you along with it, you have not arrived at the simple vision which 
absorbs our sages. However, you are not insensible to the proof of fire. The heat of 
the purifying flames has warmed your hearts and your wishes are frank and loyal. 
You long ardently for the general good. You are full of generosity, full of eager 
aspirations for truth, the just and the beautiful. You are real initiates by sentiments. 
This is fundamentally the essential thing and I congratulate you on it. 


BECOME INITIATES IN REALITY ! 



"But make yourselves become Initiates in a complete sense, conscious of what you 
feel, understanding clearly what you try to portray. Work hard, struggle to 
understand, and make your initiation again, not symbolically but in spirit and in truth. 
Initiates are necessary to us, they alone can save the world from chaos, they alone can 
apply the motto Ordo ab Chao. Therefore, my brethren, take Masonic instruction, 
become thinkers who work, Masons who construct the grand temple of humanity. 


"The Master finished by recommending to all the careful study of the Books of 
Apprentice, of the Companion, and of the Master, not forgetting close application to 
Symbolisme, that learned review, etc. You see all passed off very well. 


"If you meet brethren who read French, I beg of you not to forget Symbolisme, which 
they can buy for an absured price, benefiting by the exchange. 


"Hoping to see you soon, believe me, your very cordial and devoted-Oswald Wirth." 


I may say that Brother Wirth is a member of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite 
and translated some of the degrees that are used over there and did this from the work 
of the Southern Masonic Jurisdiction as prepared by General Albert Pike. He has 
some delightful views about Freemasonry internationally and it is most edifying to 
converse with him. I shall never forget a brief statement of his, covering, in his 
judgment, what was the purpose of the first three degrees. The Entered Apprentice 
Degree deals with what a Freemason should be, the Fellowcraft Degree with what he 
should know, and the Master Mason's Degree with what he should do. 


During the course of our conversation he told me that, of course, I had made the trip 
to Paris at that particular time to attend the annual festival of the Ancient and 
Accepted Scottish Rite. I assured him that I had not even heard of it and that I should 
be delighted to attend because that was about the only body in France which was 
recognized by Masonic organizations of which I was a member. The question then 



came up as to how I could get to the place and whether there were any difficulties 
about my attendance. I secured the address, No. 8 Rue Puteaux, and, after a little 
examination of the map, came to the conclusion that I could easily get into the 
neighborhood without delay. Brother Wirth inquired if I had any regalia and when I 
said I had only the jewel and diploma with me he shook his head in dismay and 
admitted that the problem would need further study, but he concluded that it would be 
all right if I had a letter of introduction. 


I was grateful for this offer though his suggestion seemed to me an extraordinary one. 
Gaining an entrance into the meeting of a Masonic Order by means of a letter of 
introduction was to me a truly remarkable course, indeed. He loaned me the necessary 
regalia and I may say that this was resplendent. The apron particularly was adorned 
with much embroidery and a profusion of spangles. The brilliance of the colors and 
the glitter of the rest of it made me certainly a very conspicuous person later on. 


HE IS MET BY A SWORD 


I thanked him for his kindness and hurried off to the underground railway and in a 
short time found myself on the narrow street which is not only the headquarters of the 
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for France but also houses the Grand Lodge. I 
was eligible to visit one of these but not the other. At the door I met a good lady in 
charge of the entrance and after some little difficulty with the French language I 
managed to make clear what I wanted. She directed me to continue on my way along 
the corridor and go down the steps. This I did and found myself in a rather small 
room facing a sentinel armed with a very long sword. This weapon was used to salute 
me later on and was not at all fitted to the size of the chamber. I was a little afraid that 
in the swinging of this two-handled sword one or the other of us might come to grief, 
but I told the sword-bearer who I was and presented my letter of introduction. He read 
it and then bowed quite impressively, inquired if I had any regalia and, on being 
assured that I had, he told me to put it on while he announced my arrival. 


Some little time later I was, ushered into a room which probably contained forty or 
fifty brethren attired in all sorts of regalia, much of which seemed novel to me. At one 



end of the room were seated the officers of the Supreme Council and the meeting was 
presided over by the Sovereign Grand Commander, Raymond. I was familiar with 
Raymond from his pictures as an elderly bearded brother, but this presiding officer 
was a much younger man than I expected to find. I discovered later on that the man I 
was thinking of was Jean Raymond, while the man I met bore the name of Rene 
Raymond. 


This festival of the Scottish Rite, or annual meeting, is open, apparently, to members 
of Freemasonry of all grades. They attend, wearing the emblems of their respective 
bodies, and the plan seems to be an excellent one as it is carried on for keeping the 
members of the fraternity clearly informed of what is going on in Scottish Rite circles 
in France and elsewhere. 


I listened to the reports which were read and the reading of documents does have a 
tendency to speed and I am sorry to say that I got very little of what was presented by 
the respective officers. I had missed the allocution of Brother Raymond owing to the 
lateness of my arrival but I heard something of the activities of the Scottish Rite. 
Toward the close of the meeting a sturdy Frenchman rose to his feet to deliver a very 
earnest address. He wore a red apron and collar, which was suggestive to me of the 
Royal Arch but which, it occurred to me as I thought more of the circumstance, was 
not likely to represent that body in France where it is by no means as popular as we 
have found it to be in the United states of America. The brother was near enough to 
me that I could carefully examine the jewel he wore. At the end of the collar were the 
compasses resting upon the arc of a circle and I wondered as he went along if he was 
not a member of some Grand Lodge. 


HE MEETS GRAND MASTER MONIER 


It was soon apparent to me that I had guessed right because this was Bro. Maurice 
Monier, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France, and it was, curiously enough, 
the only place in France where I could meet him as a brother Mason because my 
Grand Lodge does not recognize his. He spoke with great deliberation and selected 
his words with care. He was so deliberate that it was no great difficulty to follow 



what he had to say and I heard with the utmost pleasure the expression of his regard 
for the United states and he did not confine himself to our Freemasonry, at that. He 
impressed upon me his hope that when I returned I would assure my brethren from 
him that he wanted them to believe that France was not a militaristic nation. He not 
only wished to send his good wishes to our brethren but he did hope for the 
maintenance of the best possible feeling between our two nations. I assured him later 
that I would be glad to carry that message whenever I had the opportunity to express 
it over here. 


I had an opportunity to meet Brother Raymond later on. He had taken up the work of 
his father and I could see how deeply impressed he was with its responsibility. 
Perhaps the burden has been too great for him and may have impaired his health, 
since I have returned I notice that he has resigned but I am quite sure that I quote a 
recent letter from him correctly when I say that he is as much interested in 
Freemasonry as ever and will not lose any opportunity to advance its interest. 


Let me say further, in talking of Masonry in countries dominated by the Roman 
Catholic Church, that Freemasonry there has a tremendous struggle to live. I am 
making no argument whatever for any change in our policy in regard to France. I 
believe that most of our Grand Lodges have felt that certain things are essential in 
order to recognize any body as being Masonic and I do not propose to argue here for 
any change in the policy followed by the majority of our Grand Lodges, but I cannot 
but feel keenly sympathetic towards the brethren of any obedience who must struggle 
for existence in Roman Catholic countries. I know something of the harsh conditions 
they must meet and that men do under these circumstances preserve their identity as 
Freemasons and their organizations as lodges is a strong testimony, I am sure, to the 
earnestness and faith of their belief. Nearly every French Freemason, and I met some 
of those who belong to bodies recognized by the Grand Lodge of England, can tell 
some convincing facts as to what Freemasonry means when it must meet the 
opposition of those instructed from the banks of the Tiber. 


— o — 



BRO. CHARLES M. ROE 


BRO. CHARLES M. ROE died at Jackson, Miss., Feb. 6, last, while on a business 
trip through the Middle West. Exigencies of publication, very much regretted, made 
impossible an announcement of his death in these pages last month. He had of late 
been so active, and apparently in such robust health that his sudden passing brought a 
shock as well as genuine grief to his friends, of which he had a very large number. 


Bro. Roe, a descendant of Bishop Francis Asbury, and of Rear Admiral Francis 
Asbury Roe, a famous member of Union Lodge, No. 95, Elmira, N. Y., was not 
known in the official councils of our Craft - as far as the present writer knows he was 
never a lodge officer - nevertheless, in his own quiet way, he had an influence in 
Masonry far above many whose names are prominent in our annals, and that for a 
reason immediately to be explained. 


While manager of one of the departments of the George H. Doran Company he 
became interested in Masonic literature and saw, as no publisher ever before had 
seen, how badly the American Craft needed books equal in value and appearance to 
those published in other fields. The result was the National Masonic Library, issued 
under the auspices of the Masonic Service Association, and a number of other 
volumes of similar character, now in preparation, and to be published in due course of 
time. These issues from a great publishing house will stand in the future as a 
monument to his inspiring enthusiasm and wise management. May he therefore be 
remembered "in the long hereafter of our speech and song!" 


— o — 


"ONE STONE THE MORE" 


"One stone the more swings to her place 



In that dread Temple of Thy Worth - 
It is enough that through Thy grace, 

I saw nought common on Thy earth. 

"Take not that vision from my ken; 

Oh, whatsoever may spoil or speed, 

Help me to need no aid from men 
That I may help such men as need." 

- Rudyard Mainline. 

— o — 

Great Men Who Were Masons 

Rufus Choate 

BY BRO. GEORGE W. BAIRD, P. G. M., District of Columbia 

A COMPLETE account of the Masonic history of Bro. Rufus Choate is given in the 
Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, 1908, page 241. 



This famous lawyer and orator was bom in Essex, Mass., Oct. 1, 1799. He was so 
precocious as a child that when only six years of age he could repeat long portions of 
Pilgrim's Progress. In 1819 he graduated from Dartmouth, and from the Cambridge 
Law School two years afterwards. For a time he was assistant to the Attorney 
General, William Wirt, with whom fame has bracketed his name, and then practiced 
law at Danvers, Mass., for some five years. He was elected to the State Legislature 
from Salem in 1828, where he distinguished himself by a speech on the tariff. In 1834 
and again in 1836 he was re-elected. 


In the course of time Choate became the acknowledged leader of the Massachusetts 
Bar, and was greatly admired by the younger lawyers. In 1814 he became a member 
of the United States Senate to fill out the unexpired term of Daniel Webster, his beaux 
ideal as lawyer and orator. In the Senate he distinguished himself by speeches on the 
Oregon Boundary, the Tariff Bill, the United States Bank Bill, and the Smithsonian 
Institute; he opposed the annexation of Texas, strongly advocated Daniel Webster for 
President, and later on was a supporter of Bro. James Buchanan. 


Choate possessed genius in the best sense of the word. His knowledge of the law was 
profound. He was a man of striking personality, handsome even in his old age, and 
marked out in any company by his attractive and brilliant manners. When to those 
qualities were added his great ability in forensic addresses, his unsullied honesty of 
heart and purpose, it is easily understood why he became so famous in his own 
generation. 


In 1858 his health became so impaired that he was obliged to retire from public life. 
He died at Halifax, N. S., on his way home from a trip abroad, and his body was 
interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery, where the beautiful memorial shown herewith 
was erected. 


A memoir of him will be found in E. P. Whipple's Recollections of Eminent Men. His 
writings, sketches, and correspondence were edited by S. G. Brown of Boston, in 
1862, in two volumes. 



ABOVE THE BATTLE 


RELIGIONS are many, religion is one," wrote an old scribe. By the same token, 
governments are many, government is one; moralities are many, morality is one; 
philosophies are many, philosophy is one. Deep down in man, rooted there eternally 
like the tree Ygdrasil, are needs and powers which take all the forms of Proteus, 
which pass through as many incarnations as Buddha, embodying themselves in 
countless institutions. And while the forms and institutions, the creeds, theories, and 
dogmas come and go, like the "solid hills" in Tennyson's poem, that out of which they 
arose and to which they ministered goes on forever, just as hunger and appetite 
remain through all the changes of diet or cuisine. 


It is one of the open secrets of Freemasonry, explaining alike the breadth and 
narrowness of it, that it is based on the enduring principles rather than on temporary 
forms. It builds on religion, but not on any one theology; it is a "science of morality," 
but adheres to none of the thousand codes; it teaches charity, but is not partisan to any 
institutional method; it stands for democracy, the right of every man to a voice and a 
vote, but not for any one political scheme; it is a teacher of truth, but of no particular 
philosophy; it demands equality, but not in this or that form; liberty, but not any one 
man's scheme for it; education, but not any patented curriculum; patriotism, but not 
any one governmental regime; brotherhood, but no one form of it; immortality, but no 
particular theory of it. 


It has this position, not because it is uncertain of itself or ambiguous in its teachings, 
but because its genius is to search out and to build on that which lies in human nature 
underneath the sects that shatter, the creeds that divide. They who, out of ignorance of 
its character and purpose, seek to harness it to some favorite propaganda or pet theory 
know not what spirit they are of. Could they succeed - which they never can - the 
great Craft would vanish with the next shift in the winds of doctrine. 



O 


THE STUDY CLUB 


Studies of Masonry in the United States 


By BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, Editor 


PART VIII. HENRY PRICE 


THE most important event in the history of Masonry in New England, and one of the 
most important in the history of the whole of the American Craft, was the issuance of 
a Deputation to Henry Price by the Grand Master of England, Lord viscount 
Montague, in which Price was authorized to be "Provincial Grand Master of New 
England and Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging." 


There has been much debate over the date of this instrument. The Beteihle 
Manuscript (see Study Club article last month), written between July 27 and Aug. 
23,1737, gave the date as April 13, 1733; this same date was given in the petition for 
charter of the First Lodge in Boston, July 30, 1733; in the Duke of Beaufort's 
Deputation to John Rowe in 1768; and in a communication from Grand Secretary 
French of the Grand Lodge of England. Bro. Melvin M. Johnson believes April 13 to 
have been correct. But the earliest records of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, 
written by Pelham, gave it as April 30; so did Ebenezer Swan in the earliest records 
of the First Lodge of Boston. A number of later writers, such as Drummond, 
MacCalla, Stillson and Hughan have followed Swan and Pelham; but a careful 
analysis of the facts preponderate in favor of the date as April 13. This point is of 
little intrinsic importance, nevertheless it has been made the basis for attacks on the 
validity of Price's Deputation, of which more anon. 



Henry Price received his Deputation in person, while visiting the Grand Lodge of 
England, and paid for it a fee of three guineas. It was signed by Thomas Batson, 
Deputy Grand Master, and by the Grand Wardens, and is supposed to have carried the 
seal of Grand Master Montague. No record of the issuance of the Deputation was 
entered in the minutes of the Grand Lodge of England, but the same thing holds true 
of other Deputations known to have been issued, as described in this department last 
month. A Deputation for a Provincial Grand Mastership was issued privately by the 
Grand Master, as one of the prerogatives of his office, and was held to be the personal 
property of the recipient; for these reasons it frequently happened that no minutes of 
such a transaction were entered in Grand Lodge records. Price's Deputation has been 
printed in full in Johnson's Beginnings of Freemasonry in America, and in the 
Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, 1871, taken from the Beteihle 
Manuscript of 1737. Price brought his Deputation with him upon his return to Boston 
in the spring of 1733 and almost immediately laid it before a number of the brethren. 


Price was bom in London in 1697. The Minutes of the Grand Lodge of England show 
that in 1730 he was a member of Lodge No. 75, meeting at the Rainbow Coffee 
House, in London, and as such was doubtlessly well and favorably known to the 
brethren of Grand Lodge. He was in Boston in 1723, but later returned to London 
where, as noted above, he was present at Grand Lodge in 1733. Between April 18 and 
July 30 of that same year he returned to Boston, where he remained during the whole 
of a long life. 


Records of a suit filed by him in Boston in 1733-4 have him described as "Henry 
Price of Boston," a tailor by profession, in which calling he could not have stood very 
high in the social hierarchy of the city; but in 1733 Governor Jonathan Belcher 
appointed him cornet, or standard-bearer, in the Governor's troop of cavalry, with the 
rank of major, by which title he was always known thereafter; this office, according 
to the usages of the time, bestowed upon him a certain amount of social distinction. 
Price formed a business partnership with Francis Beteihle in 1736, to operate a 
general store and tailor shop, with Price in charge of the latter. But in three or four 
years Price severed the connection, purchased a lot of land for 100 pounds, erected on 
it a brick building in which he kept a clothing and dry goods store, and very evidently 
prospered greatly, for he retired in 1750 in possession of a great amount of real estate. 
By religion he was an Episcopalian, against which there was a great deal of prejudice 



in Boston in those times; but later in life, though without any change in his creed, he 
also purchased pews in three meeting houses not of his faith, a fact that evidences a 
life-long and sincere interest in religion without the taint of sectarianism. 


In 1737 he was married to Mary Townsend. A year after her death in 1751 he married 
Mary Tilden of Boston. His second wife died in 1759 or 60, and a short time 
thereafter their daughter, a double bereavement that left Price saddened all his days. 

In 1771 he married Lydia Randall, from which union two children were born. During 
all those years Price prospered in business, bought many properties in Boston and 
suburbs, and for several years had a country home in Cambridge. His home at 
Menotomy was so large that it was generally described as the "great house." His death 
occurred in 1780 from an accident while splitting rails, when his axe glanced against 
his abdomen. From this severe wound he died on the 20th of May at the age of 
eighty-three, leaving behind him a large estate. All extant evidence go to prove that 
Henry Price was a man of firm character and fine intelligence, who by his own 
diligence built up a fortune considerable in that period, and who was accepted 
socially and commercially among the leading citizens of the Province. 


During the past forty years several attempts have been made, notably by a notorious 
and violently prejudiced American Masonic writer whose name need not be 
mentioned, to call into question Price's good faith and even to accuse him of having 
forged his Deputation; such canards fall utterly to pieces against the undeniable 
record of his consistent character and his reputation. Had he been such a man as his 
traducers have undertaken to paint him, it would have been impossible for him to 
make for himself such a place in Massachusetts during the forty-seven years in which 
he was so active in and about Boston. 


Neither could such a man have so long remained the actual or virtual head of 
Freemasonry in New England— virtual, that is, in the sense that he was looked up to as 
a father in the Masonic Israel. He was appointed to be the first Provincial Grand 
Master of New England in 1733, and as such was universally accepted; he served 
continuously as Grand Master from his appointment until 1737; again from July, 

1740, to March 6, 1743-4; again from July 12, 1754, to Oct. 1, 1755; and yet again 
from Oct. 20, 1767, to Nov. 23, 1768. He was charter Worshipful Master of the 
Masters' Lodge of Boston; charter Worshipful Master of the Second Lodge; and one 



of the Worshipful Masters of the First Lodge. Even so late as 1773, when he was 
seventy-six years of age, he was asked to preside over Grand Lodge in the absence of 
Grand Master John Rowe. All his Masonic activities were public, known in every 
detail to the brethren on both sides of the water, and were by all accepted as regular 
and official; had his Deputation been a forged document, had he assumed leadership 
unlawfully, the fact would have been discovered very early and made impossible his 
long and honorable Masonic career. 


Henry Price was buried in Townsend, a small Massachusetts town incorporated in 
1732, forty-six miles distant from Boston, on the border line of New Hampshire. The 
original stone placed at the head of his grave, a photograph of which is given 
herewith, carries an inscription, here copied just as it stands: 


"In Memory of Henry Price, Efq. Was bom in London about the Year of our Lord 
1697 he Remov'd to Bofton about the Year 1723 Rec. a Deputation Appointing him 
Grand Mafter of Mafons in New England & in the Year 1733 was Appointed a Comet 
in the Governors Troop of Guards With the Rank of Major by his Diligence & 
induftry in Bufinefs he Acquired the means of a Comfortable Living with which he 
remov'd to Townfen in the latter Part of his life. He quitted Mortality the 20th of May 
A. D. 1780 Leaving a Widow and two Young Daughters With a Numerous Company 
of Friends and Acquaintance to Mourn his Departure Who have that Ground of hope 
Concerning his Prefent Lot Which Refultfi from his undifsembled Regard to his 
Maker & extenfive Benevolence to his Fellow Creatures Manifefted in Life by a 
behaviour Confiftent With his Character as a Mafon and his Nature as a Man. An 
honeft Man the Nobleft Work of God." 


Those who have called in question the genuineness of Price's original Deputation and 
who have sought otherwise to discredit him and his Masonic career before the bar of 
history have made much capital out of three facts: first, that no record was made of 
the Deputation in the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of England; second, that in a letter 
to the Grand Lodge of England under date of Jan. 27, 1768, and while referring to his 
own Deputations (Price received a second Deputation, as will be later explained, in 
which his powers were extended) he spelled Montague as "Montacute"; and third, he 
mentioned in a letter to the Grand Secretary of England in 1768 his second 
Deputation as having been of the year 1735, whereas it should have been 1734. 



Reasons for the absence of any Grand Lodge record of his Deputation have already 
been given. As to his misspelling of the name of the Grand Master who issued his 
first Deputation that is easily explained by the fact that the name was spelled 
"Montacute" in Entick's edition of the Constitutions, widely used by American 
Masons as an official book. The error in the date is really of no consequence at all. 
Thirty-four years had elapsed since 1734, so that when he wrote the letter Price was 
seventy-one years of age and forty-six miles away from his books, papers, and 
documents. Any other man under the same circumstances might have made a similar 
slip. Also it is worthy of note that a petition which accompanied Price's letter spells 
the name of Lord Montague correctly and accurately gives the date of Price's second 
Deputation as 1734. The latter facts would indicate that the errors in Price's own 
letters were mere oversights. 


One will find all these facts, and many others equally germane, set forth at great 
length and in a manner very interesting to read, by William Sewall Gardner in an 
address delivered before the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, of which he was then 
Grand Master, Dec. 27, 1871, printed in full in the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of 
Massachusetts, 1871, page 284. Bro. Gardner's estimate of the man, along with a 
summary of his arguments for the authenticity of Price's first Deputation is embodied 
in the last pages of his address, in three paragraphs worthy to be quoted: 


"It would seem, however, from the evidence now produced that no one could 
reasonably doubt that the officers and members of the Grand Lodge at London were 
fully informed of the proceedings of Henry Price, in Boston, who publicly claimed to 
be the authorized delegate and representative of that Grand Body here; that from 
1733, down to the war of the Revolution they were as familiar with his doings as with 
those of their Provincial Grand Masters in the several districts of England. It cannot 
even be argued with any degree of plausibility, that they, or the Craft in general, 
could be ignorant of his pretensions, acts and doings. If they had knowledge of his 
claim to a Deputation from England, as Provincial Grand Master, or if it is apparent 
that they ought reasonably to have known it, the conclusion is irresistible that Price 
held the Commission and office, which he publicly professed to have, under which he 
openly acted, and which were notoriously throughout America ascribed to him. From 
all the Grand Officers at London, as well as from all the Members of the Fraternity, 
from 1733 to 1780, there was universal, undoubted belief in Henry Price, as the 
legitimate founder, under lawful authority, of Masonry in America. Not a doubt, 
suspicion, or insinuation were breathed against him. He was entirely, unconditionally, 



absolutely confided in, upon both sides of the Atlantic. During all the years of his 
Masonic life he enjoyed the fullest confidence of the Grand Lodge at London. It 
would seem to be too late now to originate doubt and suspicion against a man of pure 
character, unsullied name and spotless reputation, after the lapse of one hundred and 
thirty-eight years [written in 1871], unless the clearest evidence and undeniable 
proofs of the charges made are adduced. Suspicion and suspicious circumstances are 
not sufficient to weigh down his more than eighty years of life, characterized by 
honesty, integrity and Christian virtue. 


"In reviewing the life of Henry Price, we cannot escape the impression that the 
Ancient Society of Free and Accepted Masons, through his persistent labor, emerged 
from a position of comparative insignificance to one of prominence and great 
respectability in the Province. When he opened the Provincial Grand Lodge at Boston 
in July, 1733, the brethren whom he called around him, with the exception of Andrew 
Belcher, occupied humble places in life, and were not calculated to extend the 
influence of the Society, nor to make proselytes from among the best men of Boston. 
But Henry Price set his standard high. He was ambitious that the institution should be 
known by the good character of its members, and that it should be represented by able 
and respectable officers. He retained the office of Provincial Grand Master only so 
long as it was necessary to carry out his cherished scheme. All of his successors were 
gentlemen of the highest respectability and character, while those who had become 
members of the lodges gave to the Society a position which commanded the respect 
of all classes of men. The reverend clergy gave to it their sanction, and aided by the 
sacred rites of their office, in their churches, the public demonstrations which from 
time to time occurred. The press spoke in terms of respect of 'that ancient Society, 
whose benevolent constitutions do honor to mankind,' and of the distinction conferred 
upon those called to preside as Grand Master over its proceedings. Thus the 
institution won its way to favor in public estimation. When Price installed his 
successors, each one with more ceremony and pomp than that of the preceding one, 
he saw that the honor which he claimed, of being the 'Father of Masonry in America', 
was not an empty honor, but one which in his day was worthy of pride, and which he 
well hoped might be ascribed to him in history. 


"He had been successful beyond his fondest anticipations. Wealth, political and social 
distinction, the high authorities in the Province, the teachers of Christian virtue and 
the leaders in the two great parties of loyalty and liberty, had bowed before the altar 



of Freemasonry erected by him. Thus he had accomplished all that he dared to dream 
of in the early days of his labor." 


NOTES AND REFERENCES 


On Price's Deputation see The History of Freemasonry, Robert Freke Gould; 
Philadelphia, 1889, Vol. IV, page 330. Beginnings of Freemasonry in America, 
Johnson, New York, 1924, pages 74, 115. History of the Most Ancient and Honorable 
Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons in New York from the Earliest Date, Charles 
T. McClenachan; New York, 1888, Vol. 1, page 77. History of the Ancient and 
Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, and Concordant Orders. Stillson 
and Hughan; Boston and New York, 1891, pages 219, 239. 


The most complete lay-out extant of data concerning Price will be found in the 
Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts; for 1871, published in Boston in 
1872, page 284 ff. In that volume will be found Price's will, page 345, his Deputation, 
page 347; Tomlinson's Deputation, page 349; Franklin's letters to Price, page 356; 
Grand Secretary French's letter to Price, page 366; Price's reply thereto, page 368; 
Price's address at the installation of John Rowe, page 322; etc. 


On Price's personal and Masonic career in general consult the following: The 
Freemason's Monthly Magazine, Charles W. Moore; Boston, Vol. XV, page 163; Vol. 
XVI, page 129; XVII, page 1 1, XX, page 266, XXV, page 343; XXVIII, page 301; 
XXX, pages 95, 148; XXXI, page 125; XXXII, page 33. History of Freemasonry in 
Canada, John Ross Robertson; Toronto, 1900, Vol. I, page 147. History of 
Freemasonry in Rhode Island, Henry W. Rugg; Providence, 1895, page 27. 
Beginnings of Freemasonry in America, Johnson; New York 1924, page 92, etc. 
History of Freemasonry in the State of New York, Ossian Lang; New York. 1922, 
pages 10, 13. The Evolution of Freemasonry, Delmar D. Darrah, Illinois, 1920, page 
230. History of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, 
and Concordant Orders, Stillson and Hughan; Boston and New York, 1891 page 242. 
History of Freemasonry, Robert Freke Gould; Phiiadelphia, 1889, Vol. IV, page 241. 
Freemasonry in Michigan, Jefferson S. Conover; Michigan, 1897, Vol. I, page 8. 



Washington and His Masonic Compeers, Sidney Hayden; New York 1866, page 233. 
Masonic Review, Thomas J. Melish; Ohio, Vol. XXVIII, page 83; Vol. LXIX, page 
311. 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


Why was the issuance of the Price Deputation so important an event? What American 
Mason preceded Price as a Provincial Grand Master? Who issued Price's Deputation? 
What was its date? Where and how did Price receive it? Why, do you suppose, did he 
pay a fee for it? By whom was it signed? 


Where was Price bom? Where was he made a Mason? When did he return to Boston? 


What was his profession? What is the importance of his appointment by Belcher? 
Who was his business partner? What was his religion? 


To what extent did he prosper? How did he build up his fortune? How often was he 
Grand Master? Worshipful Master? 


Where was he buried? What does his epitaph indicate? 


Why has his Masonic record been questioned? Name the grounds taken by his critics. 
Why was no record of his Deputation made in Grand Lodge minutes of England? 
How did Masonry prosper in Massachusetts under his leadership? 


— o — 



EDITORIAL 


BOARD OF EDITORS 
Editor-in-Chief - H.L. HAYWOOD 


ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

LOUIS BLOCK, Iowa 
ROBERT L. CLEGG, Ohio 
GILBERT W. DAYNES, England 
RAY V. DENSLOW, Missouri 
GEORGE H. DERN, Utah 
N.W.J. HAYDON, Canada 
C. C. HUNT, Iowa 
CHARLES F. IRWIN. Ohio 
A.L. KRESS, Pennsylvania 
R. J. MEEKREN, Canada 
JOSEPH E. MORCOMBE, California 
JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, New York 
ARTHUR C. PARKER, New York 
JESSE M. WHITED, California 



DAVID E. W. WILLIAMSON, Nevada 


MT. MORIAH 


WHAT is the secret of the mountains? We may see them from afar with indifference, 
while they hang like cloud shapes in the sky, but once we have ascended to their own 
places among their peaks and elevated Valleys, they take possession of us in a 
manner all their own. The sight of granite lifted into the air disturbs us with a shock 
of astonishment; we are accustomed to think of granite as hidden in the earth. We 
have been believing that soil and rock should lie under our feet; here they hang over 
our heads. In the streets of our cities and on our farms we have been living amid 
human beings, immersed in the buzz of their movements; here we come into a strange 
solitude, as if to the "one spot of earth devoted to eternity," and it gives us the feeling 
that, in contrast to this calmness, our ordinary activities are fretful and vain, like the 
stuff of dreams. Our houses, fields and forests change with the seasons or through the 
influence of our work; these crags appear to be indifferent to all such permutations, as 
if that changelessness which men attribute to eternity were here made evident. The 
beauty of the mountains, the unexpected shapes of slope and cliff, the metallic foliage 
of the pines, " the stationary blast of waterfalls," the transformations of light, and 
shade, and color has a startling originality in it, like that of an apparition. And the 
elemental forces, usually hidden from us by verdure or pavement, here lay aside their 
familiar disguises, with their 


"Characters of the great Apocalypse, 

The types and symbols of Eternity 

Of first, and last, and midst, and without end." 


There is nothing private in these impressions. Men everywhere and always have been 
moved by them to feel in their beings something that corresponds to the great peaks, 
so that they have at times tried to make artificial mountains for themselves, like Babel 



or the Pyramids. This has given sanctity to high places, and hills, and has set a range 
of peaks across the Great Divides of religion - Ararat, Nebo, Carmel, Zion, Olivet, 
Olympus; it has given mountains a place in literature and art, like the Mountains of 
the Moon, the Old Man of the Mountains, and Dante's Mount of Paradise, with its 
concentric aspiring circles, leading toward the unfoldment of some ultimate mystery. 
Mountains have a place in man's traditions, because there is something mountain-like 
in man himself. He lifts his eves unto the hills: he cries out to God. "Thy 
righteousness is like the great mountains!” 


In the center of our Masonic mysteries stands such a peak, Mt. Moriah, commanding 
the scene like some Fujiyama. It is the symbolical High Place on which Solomon 
erected his Temple, which is itself symbolical focus. And it is there in our rituals, this 
temple and its mountain, because that which it typifies is in a Mason's life, if he is 
really a Mason. 


How many there are who live in the Lowest Vales! Unhappy, troubled by many fears, 
confused, perplexed, apprehensive, they are like men that have lost their way, worried 
by their own ignorance but helpless, so they believe, to escape from it, or to find the 
Word of Life that they have lost. Such lives are covered with rubbish; such men 
almost literally walk in darkness. 


The salvation for these lost souls is to erect a Temple in the midst of the rubbish, on 
some stable hill. Such architecture requires no occult powers, no superhuman skill; it 
is what any man can do, for the nature of things does not compel one to go unhappy 
all his days, because each of us possesses in his own self from birth the capacities for 
such building. If he does not know this secret his Masonry is there to teach him, for it 
is this ability to transform a log cabin existence into a temple that Masonry teaches; it 
is this which is its "science of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by 
symbols." 


The foundations on which such a new life may be erected are already in a man's 
nature if only he will learn to use them. He can develop a sincere desire for better 
things; he can cultivate a tenacity of purpose; he can learn how to become steadfast of 



aim; he can summon strength of will; he can discover for himself what is meant by 
fearlessness of mind and confidence in life. On such a Mt. Moriah of his own - and 
these are the true qualifications of a Mason - he can build his own King Solomon's 
Temple, which, once it is finished, is a new kind of life for him, wherein are Wisdom, 
Strength and Beauty. 


* * * 


"POOR AND DISTRESSED MASTER MASONS" 


IN the article on page 104 by Bro. Phil Roth - in whom moral enthusiasm is so 
perfectly blended with practical sense - is found a story of Applied Masonry that is as 
significant of the new mood of American Masonry as anything could be. Once was 
when Employment Bureaus were looked upon with suspicion because they were not 
mentioned among the Landmarks or required by Masonic Jurisprudence. As if for that 
reason our Craft should be forbidden to carry its own teachings into practice! When 
almost every lodge was a village lodge, when every member knew every other 
member personally there may have been no need of Employment Bureaus; but in this 
day, when more than half of the Masonic population is to be found in cities, when 
hundreds of lodges approach or surpass the "one thousand members" mark, it is 
impossible to carry out our old tenet of Brotherly Relief by individual efforts. 
Employment and Relief Bureaus have become a necessity; and not because the 
individual member is under any the less obligation to practice Relief and Charity 
inside the length of his own Cable Tow. 


It is sometimes objected to Masonic charity that it is for Masons only. In one sense 
this is true and necessary. Our lodges make no levy for charitable purposes; our 
Fraternity is not a charitable or insurance society. The Masonic principle is that 
Freemasons assist each other by way of relief, as when a member meets with an 
accident or some similar misfortune. The Craft has no monies for charity in general; 
and as far as that is concerned other fraternities, and churches, clubs, and societies do 
the same; each takes care of its own. 



But even so, and in another real sense, Masonic charity is just charity, charity itself, 
pure and simple, with no label attached. Though Masons as Masons do not have the 
use of large funds for relief, as men in every walk of the world they are expected, 
because of their Masonic vows, to be charitable to all men; and the relief dispensed 
by lodges and Grand Lodges is only incidental to that Masonic charity which a real 
Mason carries everywhere in his heart. 


— o — 


INEQUALITY OF RACES 


NOBODY has ever given satisfactory proof of an inherent inequality of races. The 
current unfavorable opinion of the Negro is based largely on complete ignorance of 
African native conditions, and of Negro achievements in the industries and arts and in 
political organization. The glorification of our own race is founded exclusively on a 
consideration of the cultural opportunities given to the few and on the complete 
neglect of the cultural primitiveness of the great mass of individuals. This 
primitiveness shows itself intellectually in the uncritical acceptance of second-hand 
ideas and emotionally in the ease with which most persons succumb to the power of 
fashionable passions. - Franz Boas. 


— o — 


THE LIBRARY 


"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE A WOLF ON THE FOLD" 



THE ANNALS OF SENNACHERIB. By Daniel David Luckenbill, Professor of the 
Semitic Languages and Literatures in The University of Chicago. This is Vol. II of 
The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Series. University of Chicago Press. 
May be ordered through the National Masonic Research Society Book Department, 
1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. Boards, 9x12 inches, illustrated, 196 pages 
with index. Price, postpaid, $4.20. 


MOST of us know nothing about "Sennacherib, the great king, the mighty king, king 
of the universe, king of Assyria" (his own description) save Byron's poem that tells 
how he "came down like a wolf on the fold" and the few pages in the Book of Kings 
II, chapter 18, etc. It is our loss. He was a great personage, a fact abundantly set forth 
in his own clay records, an illustration of which will be found on page - . 


The account of how he took Jerusalem in 701 B. C. is told in II Kings 18:13 If. with 
admirable brevity: 


"Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come 
up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah 
sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me; that 
which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto 
Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold." 


Compare with that Sennacherib's own version: 


"As for Hezekiah, the Jew, who did not submit to my yoke, 46 of his strong cities, as 
well as the small cities in their neighborhood, which were without number - by 
levelling with battering-rams (?) and by bringing up siege-engines (?), I besieged and 
took (those cities). 200,150 people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, 
asses, camels, cattle and sheep, without number, I brought away from them and 
counted as spoil. Himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city. 
Earthworks I threw up against him - the one coming out of the city-gate, I turned back 
to his misery. 



"The cities of his which I had despoiled I cut off from his land and to Mitini, king of 
Ashdod, Padi, king of Ekron, and Silli-Bel, king of Gaza, I gave. And (thus) I 
diminished his land. 


"I added to the former tribute, and laid upon him the giving (up) of their land (as well 
as) imposts - gifts for my majesty. 


"As for Hezekiah, the terrifying splendor of my majesty overcame him, and the Urbi 
(Arabs) and his mercenary (?) troops which he had brought in to strengthen 
Jerusalem, his royal city, deserted him (lit. took leave). 


"In addition to the 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver (there were), gems, 
cosmetics (?), jewels (?), large sandustones, couches of ivory, house chairs of ivory, 
elephant hide, ivory (lit. elephant's teeth), ushu-wood, all kinds of valuable (heavy) 
treasures, as well as his daughters, his harem, his male and female musicians, (which) 
he had (them) being after me to Nineveh, my royal city. To pay tribute and to accept 
(lit. do) servitude, he dispatched his messenger(s)." 


Sennacherib's Annals, all written in the Royal first person singular, are rich as 
alabaster, golden as leaves from a book of dreams, redolent of ancient poetries and 
forgotten mysteries, especially when they relate the rebuilding of Nineveh, and of 
Sennacherib's "Palace Without a Rival." Hear how he speaks of Nineveh! 


"At that time, Nineveh the noble metropolis, the city beloved of Ishtar, wherein are all 
the meeting-places of gods and goddesses; the everlasting substructure, the eternal 
foundation; whose plan had been designed from of old, and whose structure had been 
made beautiful along with the firmament of heaven, the beautiful (artistic) place, the 
abode of divine law (decision rule), into which had been brought all kinds of artistic 
workmanship, every secret and pleasant (?) plan (or command, of god); where from 
of old, other kings, who went before, my fathers, had exercised the lordship over 



Assyria before me, and had ruled the subjects of Enlil, and yearly without 
interruption, had received therein an unceasing income, the tribute of the princes of 
the four quarters (of the world)." 


And see what manner of temple-palace he erected, with its great pillars! 


"Thereon (lit. therein) I had them build a palace of ivory, ebony (?), boxwood (?), 
musukannu-wood, cedar, cypress and spruce, the 'Palace without a Rival,' for my 
royal abode. Beams of cedar, the product of Mt. Amanus, which they dragged with 
difficulty out of (those) distant mountains, I stretched across their ceilings (?). Great 
door-leaves of cypress, whose odor is pleasant as they are opened and closed, I bound 
with a band of shining copper and set up in their doors. A portico, patterned after a 
Hittite palace, which they call in the Amorite tongue a bit-hilani, I constructed out of 
the 1 1,400 talents of shining bronze, the workmanship of the god Nin-a-gal, and 
exceedingly glorious, together with 2 colossal pillars whose copper work came to 
6,000 talents, and two great cedar pillars, (which) I placed upon the lions (colossi), I 
set up as posts to support their doors." 


* * * 


AN EXCITING BOOK OF RITHMETIC: REVIEWED 
BY CASSIUS J. KEYSER 


BOYS' OWN ARITHMETIC. By Raymond Weeks. Illustrations by Usabal. New 
York: E. P. Dutton & Co. For sale by National Masonic Research Society Book 
Department, 1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. Red (very red) cloth, index, 188 
pages. Price, postpaid, $2.10. 



HERE is a book that will gladden the hearts and brighten the eyes of millions of boys 
if they get a chance to read it. And they will get the chance if their fathers and 
mothers and their other teachers discover the book and leam what it really is. 


It is not a book of arithmetic as commonly understood. It is not one of those dead and 
deadening things known as textbooks. It is a living bit of literature based on 
arithmetic for the amusement and incidentally for the edification of real boys, of 
funloving boys, of girls, too, and, I dare say, even of grown-ups, for the book, like all 
genuine literature, is universal in its appeal. 


The author makes no claim to being a mathematician though it is evident that he 
could have been one had he so elected. Neither is he a professional teacher of 
arithmetic. He is an eminent professor of romance languages and literature in a great 
university. But he was a boy once, is now a father of boys, and, though mellowed 
with the wisdom of experience and years, he is still a boy at heart, in his recollections, 
in his sympathies and understanding and love. It is that together with a certain rare 
and amiable genius that enabled Mr. Weeks to write this book of charming stories for 
the amusement and education of children, causing them to learn while laughing, and 
to laugh while learning. 


He has thus employed a most important principle of human education. For laughter is 
not sub-human like eating and sleeping, for example. Laughter is a human thing. 


"O Laughter, divine river of joy, thou art the blessed boundary line between the beasts 
and men." 


Nay, laughter is even divine. Did not high Olympus often ring with the laughter of the 
gods! Recently it has been contended by eminent theologians that even the God of 
good Christians possesses a sense of humor. They must be right for how could He fail 
to be amused by the claims solemnly made on His behalf by the fundamentalists? 



I have said that the book is literature; it is literature based on arithmetic, and the 
manner fits the matter as neatly as the bark fits the tree. There are more than a 
hundred short stories. The list of their titles is itself a poem - far more galvanic than 
the Iliad’s famous list of ships. Here are a few samples chosen at random: Race 
between ten boys and a cinnamon bear; Opossum eating persimmons; Red mule 
Absolum; Smile of a crocodile; Dog scratching off fleas; Cats in Catalonia; Moving 
power of a hornet; The boy, the bulldog and the ice-cream; Standing a fraction on its 
head; and so on with the range and diversity of a live boy's manifold world. 


I regret that there is here no room to quote a few specimens of these stories, for their 
is no other way to give a right sense of their fidelity, their quaintness, their charm, 
their pure fun, their fine union of sense and sane nonsense, now reminding one of 
Tom Sawyer and now of the immortal creations of Lewis Carroll. 


In each story there lurks an arithmetical problem; it leaps forth to challenge the boy 
just as he finishes the reading. What grappling and battling will result, especially if 
two boys are playing the game together! 


Fortunately not all the numbers mentioned in a given story are essential to its 
problem, for else the boy would not have the delight of discriminating what is 
essential from what is not. Fortunately the stories are not so arranged that the 
problems are presented in the order of increasing difficulty, for else the book would 
not be true to life. Neither would it be true to life if it did not set some problems 
whose answers are cumberous and some that seem to be genuine but are not. 


The book is profusely illustrated by Usabal, who has caught its spirit of humor and 
fun. The illustrations are alone worth more than the price of the book. 


Cassius J. Keyser, Columbia University. 



RELIGION SOCIALIZED AND APPLIED 


THE GOSPEL OF FELLOWSHIP. By Charles D. Williams D. D., Late Bishop of 
Michigan. Published by Fleming H. Revell. May be purchased through the Book 
Department of National Masonic Research Society, 1950 Railway Exchange, St. 
Louis, Mo. Cloth, 218 pages. Price, postpaid, $1.60. 


BISHOP WILLIAMS established a national reputation for himself in church circles 
by his early and courageous advocacy of a socialized Christianity. He was one of the 
first religious leaders to see that religion exists for the community as much as for the 
individual, and that a Gospel for the individual alone is only a half Gospel. True to 
the convictions of a lifetime, he made his last book a plea for this insight, and a noble 
book it is, albeit the author might have given it more literary finish had he lived to see 
it through the press. 


To him the central reality in a socialized religion is fellowship; accordingly he seeks 
to apply "The Gospel of Fellowship" to every and all social, political, and economic 
problems, which, as the whole of modern literature attests, are too numerous for 
comfort. 


These problems have grown up out of the nature of things. Out of the break up of 
feudalism developed the political state as we now know it, with independent nations 
lying alongside each other; with the discovery of steam in 1789 came industrialism, 
with its new alignment of social classes; with the development of transportation 
systems came a shrinking up of the world, with its clash of cultures; and with the rise 
of democracy came a new social consciousness, with new demands on church, 
school, and state. The need of readjusting human life to these changed conditions 
constitutes "the social problem". 



Bishop Williams' solution of this problem is the application to it of the spirit and 
principle of fellowship. Such an effort is both Masonic and Christian in the larger 
senses of those words, and reflects nothing but credit upon our author. But there is in 
it a difficulty, a difficulty that stands out above the book: it is that "fellowship" is not 
defined. We are told that fellowship can solve our economic, political, racial, and 
religious problems but we are not told what this fellowship is. The indistinct 
generalized idea of it given by Bishop Williams will not serve; when spread over so 
wide a territory his idea becomes so thin that at times it becomes almost invisible. 


We Masons have the same difficulty in managing some of our own key words; 
brotherhood, truth, toleration, relief, landmarks. Perhaps it is because we have not yet 
thought them out. Almost the final achievement of the mind is the definition of a 
word (not in the dictionary sense of "definition") when it stands for some fundamental 
idea. Inspirational books help us to make up our minds to travel toward the goal, but 
they seldomly open any of the gates that stand locked across the path. 


* * * 


A HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES AND OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR 


THE CRUSADES: THE STORY OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM. 
By T. A. Archer and Charles L. Kingsford. Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons: New 
York. May be purchased through the National Masonic Research Society Book 
Department, 1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis, Mo. Cloth, illustrated, index, 467 
pages. Price, postpaid, 2.65. 


WHEN Mohammed passed away the Caliphs immediately W set to planning the 
conquest of the world in the name of Islam. They conquered the Near East, North 
Africa, and, at last, Spain. Unsuccessful in breaking through into France and Italy 
from the west, they reduced the powers to the east and arranged for the overthrow of 
Constantinople. Hemmed in by this dreaded Infidel power on the east, south and west 
the Christian nations of Europe found themselves in terrible straits. If Rome were to 



fall, what would become of Paris? what would become of England? of Christendom 
itself? This possible doom hung over Europe like a pall. 


Europe met this danger with the Crusades. Inspired by a common fear the kings and 
princes and bishops let off warring among themselves, pooled their men and money, 
and set off to attack Islam in its own stronghold. 


A stranger thing never happened in all history, or a bloodier, or more romantic. There 
were no nations in Europe, only dynasties; there was no lasting unity, not even in the 
church; there was no knowledge of the world outside of Europe; there was no 
patriotism, only personal loyalty to a leader, and allegiance to a common Faith. 
Consequently the Crusades became a seethe of cross-currents, of feuds, and of 
internecine war; kings, princes, counts, dukes, like multitudes of the common folk, 
perished like snowflakes in the sea. 


The moving tale of it all, of how Europe found itself in its defeat, of how Jerusalem 
was taken and lost again, of how the Knights Templar were created and destroyed, 
how chivalry waxed into a wondrous bloom, then faded, and how the long troubled 
era of two hundred years flared finally in the burning of De Molay is told in Archer 
and Kingsford's The Crusades with clarity and simplicity. No better account has ever 
been written in one volume. 


* * * 


A MONITOR FOR GENERAL USE 


EUREKA, OR WHAT A MASTER MASON OUGHT TO KNOW. Published by 
The Peerless Co., Kenmore, Ohio. May be purchased through the National Masonic 
Research Society Book Department, 1950 Railway Exchange, St. Louis Mo. Paper, 
117 pages. Special price in quantities. Single copy, price, postpaid, sixty-five cents. 



THIS is a collection of lectures, charges, and addresses compiled by a brother whose 
modesty has led him to hide himself behind the screen of anonymity. "While we do 
not claim," he writes, "that these lectures are the best there are, we do say that the 
ones submitted have been accepted by many as some of the best ever printed and are 
suitable for use in any Blue Lodge. The order of arrangement being natural and in 
rotation, they can be used as a whole or separated and any part desired used as the 
occasion presents." Brethren who have grown weary of repeating the same lectures on 
the Apron, the Winding Stairs, and other familiar portions of the exoteric work of the 
Blue Lodge, will find in this little brown volume a variety of forms from which to 
draw fresh material. 


* * * 


Freemasonry is the subjugation of the human that is in man by the divine, the 
conquest of the appetites and passions by the moral sense and the reason; a continual 
effort, struggle and warfare of the spiritual against the material and sensual. That 
victory - when it has been achieved and secured, and the conqueror may rest upon his 
shield and wear the well earned laurels - is the Holy Empire. - Albert Pike 


— o — 


What to Read in Masonry 


THE MAKING OF AMERICAN MASONRY 


IT appears that we American Masons have been more interested to learn how 
Masonry helped to make America than how America helped to make Masonry. At 
any rate, there has this long time existed a sad lack of adequate literature on the 



history of Freemasonry in this broad land; why, it would be difficult to say, unless it 
be that we are so obsessed by the present as to think - as many undoubtedly do - that 
what happens today is the peak and culmination of time, and what happened day 
before yesterday is dead and done with, and not worth caring about. 


Unless it be accounted for by this prejudice against the past the paucity of readable, 
comprehensive and reliable histories of American Masonry is a mystery. One thing is 
certain! If our scribes have left the subject alone it has not been for lack of 
opportunity, or the failure of an audience, or for any dearth of materials. As for 
materials they stand about everyone of us mountain high, ready to be worked into 
precious metals for the enrichment of the Craft; as for an audience, it is a large one, of 
three million brethren good and true; and as for opportunity, it is endless, and calls 
loudly to men of knowledge and skill. 


This is not to fling a dornick at the works already extant. Quite the contrary! Many of 
them are good work, true to the plumb and to the square, and fit ashlars for any 
library, as will be instantly patent to the discerning brother who scans the list below. 


Meanwhile, the student's attention is especially called to the files of our American 
Masonic periodicals, the names of which, in past and present, are almost legion. The 
Freemason's Magazine, The Masonic Record, The Tyler-Key stone, The American 
Mason, The Evergreen, The Voice-Review, The New Age, The BUILDER, The 
Quarterly Review of Masonry, etc.; in the back files of these, and in a score of others, 
equally valuable, are to be found thousands of articles on every imaginable phase of 
American Masonic history. In addition to whatever intrinsic value they possess, many 
of them carry references to now forgotten books or to other sources, often obscure or 
unknown; only the careful student can appreciate the full value of such references. 


It cannot be expected that many brethren could carry complete files of periodicals in 
their library, as much for the difficulty of securing them as for their cost; but in most 
cases a studious brother can manage to consult them in some Masonic library. There 
are such libraries in many cities, a partial list of which is as follows: 



Boston, Massachusetts. Fargo, North Dakota. New York City (2). Sioux Falls, South 
Dakota. Topeka, Kansas. San Francisco, California. Montgomery, Alabama. 
Washington, D C. South Portland, Maine. Waynesville, North Carolina. Chicago, 
Illinois (2). Evanston, Illinois. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Spokane, Washington. Hot 
Spring, Arkansas. Delta, Colorado. Portland, Maine. Baltimore, Maryland. 
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Duluth, Minnesota. Salem, Oregon. Altoona, Pennsylvania. 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nashville, Tennessee. Fredericksburg, Virginia. Tacoma, 
Washington (2). Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin. South Pines, North 
Carolina. Los Angeles, California (2). Winnipeg, Man., Canada. Portland, Oregon. 
Oakland, California. Muscatine, Iowa. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania. 


Beginnings of Freemasonry in America, Melvin M. Johnson. 

Benjamin Franklin as a Freemason, Julius F. Sachse. 

Centennial Memorial of Aurora Lodge, A. F. & A. M., A. D., 1801-1901, Frederick 
A. Currier. 

Dedication Memorial of the New Masonic Temple, Philadelphia, Sept. 26, 29, 
80,1878, Compiled by the Library Committee of the R.W. Grand Lodge of 
Pennsylvania 

Franklin Bi-Centenary Celebration, Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. 

Freemasonry in America Prior to 1750, Melvin M. Johnson. 

Freemasonry in Canada, Osborne Sheppard. 

Freemasonry in Michigan (2 vole.), Jefferson S. Conover. 

Freemasonry in Pennsylvania, 1727-1907, as Shown by the Records of Lodge, No. 2, 
F. & A. M., of Philadelphia, From the Year A. L. 5757, A. D. 1757, Compiled by N. 
S. Barratt and Julius F. Sachse. 

Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, edited by Charles W. Moore. 

History of Brother General Lafayette's Fraternal Connections With the R. W. Grand 
Lodge, F. & A. M., of Pennsylvania, published by the G. L. of Pennsylvania. 



History of Brother Stephen Girard's Fraternal Connections With the R. W. Grand 
Lodge, F. & A. M., of Pennsylvania, published by the G. L. of Pennsylvania. 

History of Freemasonry (American Edition), R. F. Gould 

History of Freemasonry in Canada, J. Ross Robertson. 

History of Freemasonry in Maryland, Edwart T. Schultz. 

History of Freemasonry in Ohio From 1791, W. M. Cunningham. 

History of Freemasonry in Rhode Island, Henry W. Rugg. 

History of Freemasonry in South Carolina, Albert G. Mackey. 

History of Freemasonry in the State of New York, Ossian Lang. 

History of Lodge No. 61, F. & A. M., Wilkesbarre, Pa., Oscar Jewell Harvey. 

History of St. Andrew's Lodge, No. 16, A. F. & A. M. Henry T. Smith. ' 

History of the Grand Lodge and of Freemasonry in the District of Columbia, Kenton 
N. Harper. 

History of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, Morcombe and Cleveland. 

History of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons 
in New York From the Earliest Date Charles T. McClenachan. 

Indian Masonry, Robert C. Wright. 

Jews and Masonry in the United States Before 1810, Samuel Oppenheim. 

LeTellier's Lodge at Honolulu: A Masonic History, Ed. Towse. 

Life Story of Albert Pike, Fred Allsopp. 

Little Masonic Library, Masonic Service Association. 

Mackey's Revised History of Freemasonry, Robert I. Clegg. 

Masonic Light on the Abduction and Murder of Wm. Morgan, P. C. Huntington. 



Masons as Makers of America, Madison C. Peters. 


Memoir of Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., Ella Waite Cobb. 

Military Lodges, R. F. Gould. 

Military Lodges, Alfred Lawrence. 

Minutes of the Right Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honourable 
Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania and Masonic Jurisdiction 
Thereunto Belonging, published by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. 

Mormonism and Masonry: A Utah Point of View, S. H. Goodwin. 

Old Masonic Lodges of Pennsylvania, "Modern and Ancients." 1730-1801, Which 
Have Surrendered Their Warrants or Affiliated With Other Grand Lodges, Vols. I and 
II, published by G. L. of Pennsylvania. 

Pioneering in Masonry, Lucien V. Rule. 

Proceedings of the R. W. Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. 

Report of the Masonic Overseas Mission on Efforts to Secure Governmental 
Permission to Engage in Independent War Relief Work Abroad. 

Reprint of the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of 
Pennsylvania (six volumes), compiled by Joshua L. Lyte. 

Sacred Mysteries of the Mayas and the Quiches, Auguste Le Plongeon. 

Scarlet Book of Freemasonry, M. W. Redding. 

Souvenir Album, Showing the Various Places of Meeting of the R. W. Grand Lodge, 
F. & A. M., of Pennsylvania, for the Past century and a Half, Together With Interior 
Views in the New Temple, prepared under the direction of the Committee on Library. 

Story of Mount Vernon Lodge, No. 4, Free and Accepted Masons, Providence, Rhode 
Island, 1799-1924, William Evans Handy. 

Story of "Old Glory". John W. Barry. 

Study in American Freemasonry, Arthur Preuss. 



Thomson Masonic Fraud, Isaac Blair Evans. 

Washington and His Masonic Compeers, Sidney Hayden. 
Washington, the Great American Mason, John J. Lanier. 
Washington, the Man and the Mason, Charles H. Callahan 
Washington’s Masonic Correspondence, Julius F. Sachse. 

— o — 


THE QUESTION BOX 


LIST OF BOARDS OF RELIEF AND EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS 


Where can I find a list of Boards of Masonic Relief and of Employment Bureaus? We 
are thinking of organizing some thing of the kind in our own city and would like to 
correspond with a few Secretaries before doing so. 


M. J. W„ Ohio. 


You can find a list right here, brought up to date for us by Bro. Andrew J. O'Reilly, 
Secretary of Masonic Relief Association of the United States and Canada, and many 
thanks to him for his kindness: 


Akron, Ohio. Masonic Relief Association, R. A. Walkup, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 
Albany, N. Y. Board of Relief, Lewis J. Barhydt, Secretary Masonic Temple. 



Alexandria, Va. Board of Relief, Edgar Warfield, Secretary 300 Prince St. 

Atchison, Kansas. Board of Relief, Guy W. Sharp, Secretary, 308 Commercial St. 

Atlanta, Ga. Masonic Board of Relief, Walter C. Taylor, Secretary, City Hall. 

Bakersfield, Calif. Masonic Board of Relief, A. D. Whittemore, Secretary. 

Baltimore, Md. Masonic Board of Relief, B. Friedman, Secretary, 109 W. Lombard 
St. 

Barrie, Ont., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, Alfred Wilkes, Secretary. 

Baton Rouge, La. J. S. Busse, Secretary-Treasurer, P. O. Box 617 

Beaver Falls; Pa. Board of Relief, J. L. B. Dawson, Secretary. 

Billings, Mont. Masonic Board of Relief, C. S. Bell, Secretary, 406 Stapleton Block. 

Binghamton, N. Y. Board of Relief, A. P. Kelsey, Secretary Masonic Temple. 

Bloomington, 111. Masonic Board of Relief, Bloomington, 111. 

Boston, Mass. Board of Relief, John A. Blake, Secretary, 207 Masonic Temple. 

Brockville, Ont., Can. Board of Relief, W. H. Kyle. Secretary. 

Brooklyn, N. Y. Williamsburgh Masonic Board of Relief, John Milford, Secretary, 
827 Bedford Ave. 

Buffalo, N. Y. Masonic Relief Board, M. O. Denny, Secretary 2 Masonic Temple. 

Buffalo, N. Y. Masonic Service Bureau, E. Earle Axtell, Secretary, Room 6, Masonic 
Temple. 

Butte, Mont. Masonic Board of Relief, George T. Wade, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 
Calgary, Alberta, Can. Masonic Board of Relief, Masonic Temple. 

Camden, N. J. Joseph B. Davis, Secretary, 817 Hadden St. 

Charleston, S. C. Masonic Board of Relief. J. Berkman, Secretary, 4 Carolina St. 



Charlotte, N. C. Masonic Board of Relief, H. A. Franklin. Secretary-Treasurer, 1704 
Cleveland Ave. 

Chattanooga, Tenn. Masonic Board of Relief. 

Chillicothe, Mo. Masonic Board of Relief. 

Chicago, 111. Board of Relief, Nicholas E. Murray, Secretary 5812 West End Ave. 

Chicago, 111. Board of Relief, W. O. Robinson, Agent, 77 W. Washington. 

Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati Relief Association. Rolland L. Kraw, Secretary, 602 
Southern Ohio Bank Bldg 

Cleveland. Ohio. Board of Relief, Isaac Morris, Secretary, 3515 Euclid Ave. 

Cleveland, Ohio. Masonic Employment Bureau, R. S. Rovers Sec'y and Supt., 316 
Claxton Bldg. 

Clinton, Iowa. Board of Relief, Dr. E. F. Martindale, Secretary. 

Colorado Springs, Colo. Masonic Board of Relief, Oliver E. Collins. Secretary, 
Masonic Temple. 

Columbia, Mo. Masonic Board of Relief. 

Columbus, Ohio. Columbus Employment Bureau, W. S. Andrews. Secretary, 
Masonic Temple. 

Concord, N. H. Board of Relief, John H. Wasson, Secretary. 

Cortland. N. Y. Board of Relief, Charles H. Jones, Secretary. 

Council Bluffs, Iowa. Masonic Relief Board, W. E. McConnell, Secretary, 414 
Broadway. 

Cumberland, Md. Masonic Relief Committee. 

Dallas, Tex. Masonic Board of Relief, W. C. Lemon, Chairman, 300 Austin St. 
Davenport, Iowa. Davenport Relief Board, C.E. Harrison. Agent, 1201 Bridge Ave. 
Dayton, Ohio. Board of Masonic Relief, W. A. Marietta, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 



Decatur, 111. Masonic Relief Board, Elmer O. Brintlinger, Secretary, 543 N. Maine St. 

Denver, Colo. Board of Relief, Dr. M. H. Dean, Secretary, 219 Masonic Temple. 

Des Moines, Iowa. B. F. Stretson, Charity Agent, 4th floor, Masonic Temple. 

Detroit, Mich. Masonic Board of Relief, Fred J. Fawrence Secretary, Masonic 
Temple. 

Dubuque, Iowa. Board of Relief, C. W. Walton, Secretary 1072 Main St. 

Duluth, Minn. Masonic Board of Relief, H. VanBrunt, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 
East St. Fouis, 111. Masonic Board of Relief. 

Edmonton, Alberta, Can. Masonic Board of Relief, Forne Muir, Secretary, P. O. Box 
517. 

El Paso, Tex. Masonic Board of Relief, Forest E. Baker, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 

Evansville, Ind. Masonic Relief Association, Fred H. Ruff Secretary Masonic Temple 
Association, Third and Chestnut St. 

Fort Wayne, Ind. Fort Wayne Relief Board, J. M. Stouder Chairman, 122 E. 

Columbia St. 

Fort Worth, Texas. Masonic Relief Association, E. F. Green Secretary-Treasurer, 215 
1/2 Main St. 

Fresno, Calif. Board of Relief, S. B. Teas, Secretary. 

Galveston, Texas. Masonic Board of Relief, Walter F. Norwood, Chairman 
Grand Rapids, Mich Masonic Board of Relief, David Farbs 225 Ottawa Ave. 

Great Falls, Mont. Great Falls Relief Board, O. B. Kotz, Secretary, P. O. Box 112. 
Guelph, Ont., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, A. Jeffray, Secretary, 54 Perston St. 
Hamilton, Ont., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, H. R. Clark, Secretary, 24 Poulette St. 
Hannibal, Mo. Masonic Relief Board, W. H. Blackshaw, Secretary, 1241 Paris Ave. 



Hartford, Conn. Hartford Masonic Board of Relief, George A. Kies, Secretary- 
Treasurer, Masonic Temple. 

Helena, Mont. Masonic Board of Relief, Wm. T. Hull, Secretary, care Nat'l Bank of 
Mont. 

Honolulu, T. H. Masonic Board of Relief. Wm. Bell, Secretary. 

Houston, Tex. Houston Board of Relief, J. E. Chestnutt, Chairman, 302 Main St. 

Independence, Mo. Masonic Board of Relief, F. Walker, Secretary. 

Indianapolis. Ind. Masonic Board of Relief, Rev. Willis D. Engle. Secretary, Masonic 
Temple. 

Jacksonville, Fla. Jacksonville Relief Committee, W. S. Ware Secretary, 210 Masonic 
Temple. 

Jeffersonville, Ind. Masonic Board of Relief, Wm. G. Young. Secretary. 

Joliet. 111. Masonic Board of Relief, E. W. Willard, Secretary, 407 Union St. 

Joplin, Mo. Joplin Relief Board. M. Wyler, Secretary. 

Kansas City, Kansas. Masonic Board of Relief, J. R. McFarland. Secretary. Court 
House. 

Kansas City, Mo. Masonic Board of Relief, W.S. Lane, Secretary, Masonic Temple, 
9th and Harrison Sts. 

Kingston, Ont.. Can. Masonic Board of Relief, W. A. Bearance Secretary-Treasurer, 
493 Princess St. 

Kirksville, Mo. Masonic Board of Relief. 

Knoxville, Tenn. Knoxville Relief Board, Dr. J. D. Henderson Secretary, Box 475. 
Leavenworth. Kansas. Leavenworth Relief Board, Geo. W. Leek, Secretary. 


Lethbridge, Alberta, Can. Masonic Board of Relief, John A Livingstone, Secretary, P. 
O. Box 94. 



Lexington. Ky. Masonic Board of Relief, John W. Lancaster Secretary, 129 
Cheapside. 

Lima. Mont. Board of Relief, S. W. Vance, Secretary 

Lima. Ohio. Masonic Relief Board, Fred Barrington, Secretary, 901 Albert St. 

Lincoln. Neb. Masonic Board of Relief, Fred W. Tyler, Secretary, 1204 A. St. 

London. Ont..- Can. London Benevolent Association, Inc., Rt. Wor. J.W. Metherall. 
Pres. -Chairman, 633 Queens Ave. W. Bro. H. J. Childs. Secretarv-Treasnrer, 293 
Dundas St. 

London, Ont., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, A. Ellis, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 

Los Angeles, Calif. Masonic Board of Relief, Dr. J.M. Dunsmoor, Secretary, 435 
Stimson Bldg. 

Louisville, Ky. Louisville Relief Board, Charles H. Boden Secretary, 961 S. Second 
St. 

Lowell, Mass. Masonic Board of Relief, Lucius A. Derby, Secretary. 

Manila, P. I. Masonic Board of Relief, R. E. Clarke, Secretary, 105 Escolta. 

Maryville, Mo. Masonic Board of Relief, Dr. L. C. Dean, Secretary. 

Meadville, Pa. Masonic Board of Relief, Edwin M. Hoffman Secretary, 545 Terrace 
St. 

Memphis, Tenn. Memphis Relief Board, Chas. E. Lodge, Secretary, 4th and Court 
Ave. 

Mexico City, Mexico. Masonic Board of Relief, C. T. Craig, Secretary, Aparto 858. 

Milwaukee, Wis. Masonic Service Bureau, P. A. Roth, Field Secretary, 2nd floor, 470 
Van Buren St 

Minneapolis, Minn. Masonic Board of Relief, R. A. Saunderson, Secretary, 420 
Masonic Temple. 


Missoula, Mont. Masonic Relief Board, Levi Whithee, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 



Montreal, Que., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, Alexander Strachan, Secretary, 271 
Prince Arthur St., West. 

Muskogee, Okla. Masonic Relief Committee, F. L. Walton, Secretary. 

Nashville, Tenn. Masonic Relief Board, Aaron Bergado, Secretary, 610 Church St. 

New Albany, Ind. New Albany Relief Committee, Hugh J. Needham, Secretary, 
Room 207, Post Office Bldg. 

New Haven, Conn. Masonic Board of Relief, S. A. Moyle P. O. Box 872. 

New Orleans, La. Louisiana Relief Lodge No. 1, John A. Davilla, Secretary, 301 
Masonic Temple. 

Newport News, Va. Masonic Board of Relief, A. L. Evans Secretary, 228 29th St. 

New York City, N. Y. Masonic Board of Relief, Robert S. Wardle, Secretary, 71 
West 23rd St. 

New York City, N. Y. Italian Board of Relief, F. W. Chillemi Secretary, 156 Franklin 
St., Astoria, L. I 

New Westminster, B. C., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, A. Minn, Secretary, Custom 
House. 

Oakland, Calif. Masonic Board of Relief, R. G. Evans, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 
Omaha, Neb. Masonic Board of Relief, Chas. Bradley, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 
Ottawa, Ont., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, D. A. Esdale, Secretary. 

Pasadena, Calif. Masonic Board of Relief, Luciene A. Parmalee, Secretary. 

Pekin, 111. Masonic Board of Relief, F. W. Soady, Secretary. 

Peoria, 111. Masonic Board of Relief, Chas. H. Toddhunter, Secretary. 

Peterborough, Ont., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, Henry Rush, Secretary. 

Pocatello, Idaho. Masonic Board of Relief, E. G. Houde, Secretary 



Portland, Maine. Masonic Relief Board, Almon L. Johnson, Secretary, Masonic 
Temple. 

Portland, Oregon. Masonic Service and Employment Bureau, N. H. Atchison, 
Manager, Multnomah Hotel. 

Portland, Oregon. Masonic Board of Relief, P. P. Kilbourne, Secretary, Multnomah 
Hotel. 

Pueblo, Colo. Masonic Board of Relief, Wm. Peach, 40 Masonic Temple. 

Quincy, 111. Masonic Board of Relief, Paul G. Duncan, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 

Rahway, N. J. Masonic Bureau of New Jersey, R. A. Vertseeg, Secretary. 

Raleigh, N. C. Masonic Board of Relief, Wm. P. Little, Secretary, care Wake Co. 
Savings Bank. 

Regina, Sask., Can. The Masonic Council of Regina, J. G. Lowrie, Secretary, 3273 
Retallock St. 

Richmond, Ind. Masonic Relief Board, Clarence W. Foreman, Secretary. 

Richmond, Va. Masonic Board of Relief, B. C. Lewis, Jr., President, 1015 E. Maine 
St. 

Rochester, N. Y. Masonic Service Bureau, H. G. Oliver, Manager, 61-63 Clinton 
Ave., North. 

Sacramento, Calif. Masonic Board of Relief, A. V. Henning, Secretary, 302 Capitol 
Nat' 1 Bank Bldg. 

Saginaw, Mich. Saginaw Board of Relief, C. J. Phelps, Secretary, 410 Bearinger 
Bldg. 

Salina, Kansas. Masonic Board of Relief, W. G. Dewees, Secretary. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. Masonic Board of Relief, F. J. Keller, Secretary, Masonic 
Temple. 

San Antonio, Texas. Masonic Employment and Relief Bureau Leland S. Wood, 
Secretary, Masonic Temple. 



San Diego, Calif. Masonic Board of Relief, R.W. Belding, Secretary, Masonic 
Temple 


San Francisco, Calif Masonic Board of Relief, Leo Brack Secretary, Masonic 
Temple 

San Jose, Calif San Jose Relief Committee, W. J. Anthes, Jr., Secretary, Sciof s Club. 

Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, E. I. Scott, Secretary 

Savannah, Ga. Masonic Relief Association, A. L. Maxwell, Chairman, Court House. 

Scranton, Pa. Masonic Relief Association, Ernest I. Paine, Chairman, 731 Connell 
Bldg. 

Seattle, Wash. Masonic Relief and Employment Bureau, Harry M. Welliver, 
Secretary 5193 Arcade Bldg 

Sedalia, Mo. Masonic Board of Relief, J. Rautenstrauch, Secretary, 703 W. 7th. 

Sioux City, Iowa. Masonic Board of Relief, Charles L. Guiney Secretary, 302 Motor 
Mart Bldg. 

South Bend, Ind. South Bend Relief Board, F. M. Boone, Secretary, Tribune Printing 
Co. 

Southern Pines, N. C. Masonic Board of Relief, R. H. Chandler, Secretary. 

Springfield, 111. Masonic Board of Control, J. R. Orr, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 

Springfield, Mass. Springfield Emergency Fund, Howard L. Kinsman, Secretary, 43 
Maplewood Terrace 

Springfield, Mo. Masonic Relief Board, M. F. Smith, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 

St. Johns, New Brunswick. Masonic Board of Relief, Alexander R. Campbell, 
Secretary, 26 Germains St. 

St. Joseph, Mo. St. Joseph Board of Relief, Orestes Mitchell, Secretary, 304 Corby- 
Forsee Bldg. 



St. Paul, Minn. Masonic Board of Relief, Andrew B. Swansstrom, Agent, Masonic 
Temple. 

St. Louis, Mo. Masonic Board of Relief, Chas. H. Schureman, Secretary, 2207 S. 
Grand Ave. 

St. Louis, Mo. Masonic Employment Bureau, Wm. C. Heim Secretary, 2159 Railway 
Exchange Bldg. 

St. Louis County, Mo. Board of Relief, Homer N. Lloyd, Secretary, 517 Meramec St., 
Clayton. 

St. Thomas, Ont., Can. St. Thomas Relief Board, Fred W. Judd, Secretary, 379 Talbot 
St. 

Stockton, Calif. Masonic Board of Relief, E. H. McGowen, Secretary. 

Syracuse, N. Y. Masonic Board of Relief, S. D. Solomon Secretary, 712 S. A. &c K. 
Bldg. 

Tampa, Fla. Masonic Board of Relief, D. C. Hill, Secretary 1323 Franklin St. 

Terre Haute, Ind. Terre Haute Relief Board, Charles H. Traquair, Secretary, 320 N. 
Seventh St. 

Toledo, Ohio. Masonic Executives' Association, Joseph J. Devlin, Secretary, Masonic 
Temple. 

Toronto, Ont., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, J. B. Nixon, Secretary-Treasurer, 154 
Bay St. 

Troy, N. Y. Masonic Relief Board, F. E. Bowen, Secretary National State Bank. 

Tulsa, Okla. Masonic Relief Board, Frank S. Davison, Secretary, 316 E. 3rd St. 

Utics, N. Y. Masonic Board of Relief, Arthur D. Evans, Secretary. 

Vancouver, B. C. Masonic Board of Relief, Lewis E. Frith, Secretary, Masonic 
Temple. 

Vancouver, Wash. Masonic Board of Relief, C. A. Parrish, Secretary, 807 Main St. 



Vicksburg, Miss. Board of Relief, Dan G. Flohr, Chairman, 1322 Washington St 

Victoria, B. C. Masonic Board of Relief, Stewart M. Manuel, Secretary, Masonic 
Temple. 

Washington, D. C. Masonic Board of Relief, Wm. Mehn, Secretary, Masonic Temple. 

Waterbury, Conn. Masonic Board of Relief, O. A. Ziglatzki, Chairman. 

Wheeling, W. Va. Masonic Relief Association, Thos. T. Meek Secretary, Scottish 
Rite Cathedral. 

Wilmington, Del. Masonic Board of Relief, Walter I,. Morgan, Secretary, 3rd and 
Franklin Sts. 

Wilmington, N. C. Masonic Board of Relief, H. E. Walton Secretary, 19 S. 9th St. 

Windsor, Ont., Can. Windsor Relief Board, John Fry, Secretary. 

Winnipeg, Man., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, John McCrea, Secretary, 63 Albert 
St. 

Woodstock, Ont., Can. Masonic Board of Relief, John Morrison, Secretary. 
Worcester, Mass. Masonic Board of Relief, Arthur H. Burton, Secretary, City Hall. 
Ypsilanti, Mich. Masonic Relief Committee, J. R. Dell, Chairman. 


— o — 

Keep within compass 
And then you'll be sure 
To avoid many troubles 


That others endure.