The Builder Magazine
April 1920 - Volume VI - Number 4
MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS
DAVID G. FARRAGUT
BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
ADMIRAL FARRAGUT was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, July 5th, 1801. He died August 14th, 1870, at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he was buried with Masonic honors. Later his body was removed to Woodlawn Cemetery in Brooklyn.
David Farragut entered the navy at nine. He became a midshipman at twelve and pursued his studies under Chaplain Charles Folsom on board the Washington while serving in the Mediterranean. Returning to the States in 1820 he passed his Naval examination and served in the Mosquito Fleet against the pirates in the Caribbean Sea. In 1825 he was promoted to Lieutenant; in September, 1841, to Commander, and in September, 1855, to Captain. In 1858 he took command of the Brooklyn and at the outbreak of the Civil War was awaiting orders at Norfolk.
He was the greatest genius of the War. He was not a fearless man, but a man who knew a good risk and had the courage of his convictions. Other officers thought it would be impossible to run a fleet up the Mississippi River past the forts, but Farragut heeded not. His tactics were new. Instead of heading up the middle line of the river he ran his ships so close to Fort Jackson that the yard-arms touched the parapets, and while this fort fired over the ships the one on the opposite fired short. His general attacks were successful rushes.
The statue of Admiral Farragut stands in Farragut Square in the City of Washington, D.C. It is of bronze, of heroic size, and was modeled by the wife of General Hoxie (nee Vinnie Ream). The metal from which the statue and the Cohorn mortars surrounding it were cast, was from the original propeller of the Hartford, the Admiral's flagship, and the castings were made in the foundry of the steam engineering plant of the Washington Navy Yard.
This splendid memorial was unveiled in the presence of an immense gathering, on April 25th, 1881. The flag used in the unveiling ceremonies has a history worth recording.
When Farragut's fleet had laid New Orleans under its guns, Congress in its wisdom and gratitude created the rank of Commodore for Farragut. Knowles, the old signal quartermaster on the Hartford, took a blue flag, a "number" from the signal chest, stitched a star in it, and it was flown, the first Commodore's flag in our navy. When Farragut was promoted to Rear Admiral, a grade created for him, Knowles stitched in a second star; and when Farragut was made Vice-Admiral, and later Admiral, Knowles added the necessary stars to the same old flag.
After the unveiling of the statue, Bartholemew Diggins, a member of Brightwood Lodge No. 24 in the District of Columbia, who had been in Farragut's gig crew all during the war, asked for that old flag and offered a new one for it. The Secretary of the Navy granted his request. Many years afterward, when Dewey returned from the Philippines, Diggins asked the writer, who was about to go to New York to malie arrangements for Admiral Dewey's reception, to present the flag to Dewey. The flag was duly presented, and it was the only Admiral's pennant ever flown by Farragut or by Dewey.
While Farragut's Masonic connection is beyond doubt, the writer has been unable to identify his lodge. Naval Lodge No. 87 was instituted at Vallejo, opposite the Navy Yard at Mare Island, and there are members of that lodge still living who greeted the Admiral when he visited there. Surgeon General John Mills Browne of the Navy, who was Grand Master in California, as well as Master of Naval Lodge, and also an active 33rd, was intimate with the Admiral in California, and remembered him as a Mason and a promoter of Masonry. He did not, however, remember the name of his lodge. This is but one more object lesson which teaches us the need of better records. The lodge which conducted the funeral at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has no record of the Admiral's affiliation. His son, Loyall, writes that some orders were conferred upon his father while he was a midshipman, at Malta, but he is not positive what those orders were.
David Farragut was one of those rare characters who could separate his duties, pleasures, cares and worries, not letting one encroach upon the other. He was industrious to a fault, and expected others to keep pace. He was an excellent seaman, which in his day was regarded as imperative. He was reserved and dignified, yet approachable, never letting a meritorious act of a subordinate pass without a word of approval, but was as careful to reprove one committing an error.
SOME PERTINENT FACTS ABOUT IRELAND
BY THE BELFAST PROTESTANT DELEGATION
FOREWORD
We, the accredited delegates of the Protestant churches of Ireland, representing one million and one quarter people, beg to submit to the Protestant people of America the following statement:
We come here in the interests of truth and fair play, our views on the subject of the separation of Ireland from Great Britain having been grossly misrepresented by those engaged in the Sinn Fein propaganda. We have not come here to raise either political or religious strife, still less to entangle America in the domestic affairs of Great Britain. But we have come believing it is due to the churches and the cause which we represent to state the real truth about Ireland. The following article constitutes a simple statement of facts, the accuracy of which can be tested by any one who desires to do so.
Signed by:
(Mr.) Wm. Coote,
Member of Parliament for South Tyrone,
Chairman of Delegation
(Rev.) C. Wesley Maguire,
Donegal Square Methodist Church, Belfast.
Secretary of Delegation.
(Rev.) Louis Crooks,
Retar Knockbreda Episcopal Church, Belfast.
(Rev.) A. Wylie Blue,
May Street Presbyterian Church, Belfast.
(Rev.) Wm. Corkey,
Townsend Street Presbyterian Church, Belfast.
(Rev.) Frederick E. Harte,
Donegal Square Methodist Church, Belfast.
(Rev.) Edward Hazelton,
Falls Road Methodist Church, Belfast.
THE PLEA OF OVERTAXATION
IT IS STATED by Sinn Fein agitators that Ireland is overtaxed by Great Britain. Let us see how the matter stands. According to the official returns for 1918 - 1919 the fatal revenue contributed by England was $3,455,310,000. From this there was paid out of the British Exchequer for local expenditure in England $719,237,500, leaving a balance available for Imperial needs such as army and navy, consular and other services, of $2,736,072,500. Scotland during the same period contributed to the British Exchequer a total revenue of $486,605,000. She received back for local uses $97,637,500, leaving a balance for Imperial purposes of $388,970,000. Ireland with practically the same population as Scotland, contributed only $186,375,000, receiving back for local uses $110,807,500, and contributing toward Imperial expenditure a sum of only $75,567,500. It will be seen that while Ireland's contribution to the British Exchequer is much less than that of England or Scotland, she receives back a much larger proportion for her own internal uses. The enemies of Great Britain claim that Ireland's contribution for Imperial purposes represents a loss to her of $75,567,500. Surely, however, it will be conceded that as a part of the British Isles she ought to contribute something toward the protection of her coasts, policing of the seas and trade routes, payment of the huge war debt, and upkeep of National affairs generally. But apart from the question of obligation, is this sum a loss to her? Last year she received back $60,000,000 in war pensions, separation allowances, and gratuities to ex-soldiers, sailors and their dependents living in Ireland. Further, she received $21,500,000 as a bread subsidy, whereby the cost of every loaf of bread consumed in Ireland was reduced in price by six cents. Ireland also received last year more than $5,000,000 as out-of-work donation. These figures will illustrate some of the ways - and there are many others - in which she indirectly receives back much more than she contributed for Imperial purposes. The plea of overtaxation is therefore groundless, and the day on which Ireland should cut adrift from Great Britain would be to her a day of disaster and financial ruin.
THE PLEA OF OPPRESSION
Sinn Fein also declares that Ireland is denied any real voice in her own affairs. If Parliamentary representation be a test, how does she stand ? Ireland, with a population let it be remembered roughly equal to that of Scotland, sends 105 representatives to the British Legislature, while Scotland sends only 75. Ireland's representatives are elected on a basis of one to every forty thousand of the people, whereas the representatives from England or Scotland are elected on a basis of one to every seventy-three thousand of the people. Thus the vote of one Irishman is almost equal to the votes of two Englishmen or Scotsmen, and the Irish vote has often been the controlling influence in the British Legislature.
In addition, the 32 counties of Ireland possess their own local Councils and again these counties are subdivided into districts, and by the same franchise, district councillors are elected. All such are Irishmen, chosen by the people to carry on local government in each county, and to strike their own rates of taxation within their own borders. No outside power can interfere with the local rates of the county. In twenty-seven of these counties all the county councils and most of the district councils are composed of Roman Catholics. To every office in their gift, these men invariably appoint only people of their own creed. Yet they are the first to charge the Protestant people of Ulster with bigotry. Thus incidentally the charge of Protestant ascendancy in Ireland is completely disproved. Ireland has indeed the fullest voice in her own affairs.
It is also stated by certain self-constituted envoys from America, who paid a flying visit to Ireland, that men and women are being brutally treated in Irish prisons. We wish to point out that in passing sentence on persons convicted of seditious offenses of a minor character, the various law courts in Ireland desired only to bind over such persons to be of good behavior for to say, twelve months, and to refrain from treasonable practices. On agreement, the prisoners were at once discharged. On the other hand, if they refused to give such an undertaking the alternative was a short term of imprisonment. Sinn Fein agitators, in order to pose as martyrs before the Irish people and their friends in America, refused to enter into recognizances and therefore elected to go to prison. When in prison they refused to eat good wholesome food, and proceeded to abuse the jailors and to damage the buildings. In Belfast they destroyed a whole wing of the prison, property valued at $10,000. On the complaint of the Sinn Feiners and the "American envoys" a government commission presided over by a distinguished judge, was set up to investigate the charges of alleged brutality to prisoners. The complainants refused to appear and make good their case, and the commission found the charges to be entirely groundless.
On the other hand, can any government abrogate its functions to the extent of tolerating the following state of affairs, now alas ! rampant throughout the south and west of Ireland? Sinn Feiners with blackened faces approach the dwelling houses of peaceable, law-abiding people, Catholic and Protestant alike. On the door being opened a revolver is pointed at the hapless occupier. The marauders shout "Hands up!" and the house is thoroughly searched for arms. Policemen and military officials and civilians have been brutally murdered in the discharge of their duty, and the criminals have gone unpunished, as no one will come forward to give evidence against them. For other offenses against the law it is practically impossible to obtain a conviction, the boards of Magistrates in the disaffected districts being notoriously Sinn Fein in their sympathies. Even if the magistrates desired, they dare not convict through terror of reprisal. Because of this, the government has been obliged in certain disaffected areas, to set up special courts over which preside two paid magistrates who possess no local interest and who can, therefore, discharge the duties of the law without fear. In the higher courts where trial by jury obtains, jurors have been afraid or unwilling to convict in the face of the clearest evidence and therefore in such areas, trial by jury has been temporarily suspended. The following illustrates the state of matters in the south and west:
A few months ago sixteen young Methodist soldiers were peacefully entering the Methodist church in Fermoy, County Cork, for purposes of worship. They carried their rifles, lest in their absence from barracks they should be stolen, but they carried no ammunition whatever. Suddenly they were attacked by a party of armed Sinn Feiners who foully murdered one of them in the doorway and wounded others. The ruffians made their escape in automobiles standing ready, and from that day to this, not one of them has been arrested.
THE PLEA OF DEPOPULATION
A favorite topic with Sinn Fein is that of the depopulation of Ireland, which they ascribe to the conduct of Great Britain. They conveniently ignore the fact that at the time of the Act of Union in 1800 the population of Ireland was 4,000,000, and that in less than forty years, under the Act of Union, the population increased to 8,000,000. The Union, therefore, cannot be the cause of depopulation. The factors causing depopulation were:
First - The desolating famine of 1846. The potato was the staple food of the people, and exhaustion of the soil through lack of fertilizers destroyed the crop for two disastrous years. In the overcrowded agricultural districts of the west this caused widespread havoc, and no government could avert the consequences of old and defective land economics and violated laws of nature. Even today it is the work of the congested district board by proper apportionment of the people to the soil and the soil to the people, and, by the general development of agriculture, fishing and railways, to make impossible any repetition of that tragedy.
Second - The inability of Ireland to compete with the vast volume of agricultural imports which, with open markets, began to pour in from overseas, caused many to seek brighter prospects across the ocean.
Third - The wide opportunities offered by the opening up of new lands in America and elsewhere drew multitudes of Irish people from their country. Those causes, so far as they belong to defective land laws, economic conditions and the social framework, it has long been the aim of legislation to remove.
WHAT THE BRITISH PARLlAMENT HAS DONE FOR IRELAND
In order to redress the grievances from which Irish tenants suffered, owing to defective systems of land tenure, the British government has advanced $700,000,000 at 3 1/4 per cent interest in order that the farmers might purchase their holdings. This low rate of interest wipes out both principal and interest in seventy years, so that after that time there is nothing further to pay. Three-fourths of the whole country is now so purchased and belongs to the peasant occupiers. There is no land system in Europe to compare with this. Scotland and England would gladly possess it.
The British government has loaned, through the district councils of Ireland for the building of laborer's cottages, the sum of $25,000,000 at 2.08 per cent interest. Between 50,000 and 80,000 of these cottages are now built. They are neat, four-roomed dwellings, built of stone, with slated roofs and with from half an acre to an acre of land attached. They are let to the laborer at the nominal rent of from 30 to 36 cents weekly. These weekly payments will at the end of fifty years clear off the entire liability to the British government. The cottages will then become the property of the district councils, to be held in trust by them for the laborers. The money derivable from the rents will then go to the relief of the rates in the districts in which they are set up. Is there any country today which can furnish evidence of greater beneficence to the workers on its soil? Neither England nor Scotland possesses a boon like this.
It is charged by Sinn Fein that Great Britain has prevented or retarded the development of Ireland. The preceding facts are part of the reply to this. In addition, the British government annually spends $1,250,000 for the development of what are known as the congested districts of the west of Ireland. This money is distributed by the congested districts board, consisting of official representatives of the government, local representatives, together with two Roman Catholic bishops and several Roman Catholic priests. Harbours have been built free of cost and curing stations erected for the furtherance of the fishing industry. Motor launches have been sold to the fishermen on the instalment system, payment being made as profits are earned, while experts have been brought from Scotland to teach the Irish how to fish profitably their own seas. Light railways have been built to carry the produce of land and sea to the proper markets, and fresh fish from the west coast of Ireland can now reach the London markets in twenty-four hours.
Ireland is no poverty-stricken land. Before the war the Irish people had on deposit in the Irish banks a sum of $380,000,000. Today after five years this sum. Has increased to the amazing amount of $760,000,000. A large proportion of this presumably belongs to the Sinn Feiners of Ireland. There is, therefore, no necessity to go outside of the country for money if the Sinn Feiners are really desirous of promoting industries. If further testimony is needed as to the prosperity of Ireland the words of the late Mr. John Redmond, spoken July 1, 1915, will suffice:
"Today the people, broadly speaking, own the soil. Today the laborers live in decent habitations, today there is absolute freedom in local government and local taxation of the country. Today we have the widest parliamentary and municipal franchise. The congested districts, the scene of some of the most awful horrors of the old famine days, are being transformed. The farms have been enlarged, decent dwellings have been provided, and a new spirit of hope and independence is today among the people. In town, legislation has been passed facilitating the housing of the working classes - a piece of legislation far in advance of anything obtained for the town dwellers of England. We have a system of old age pensions in Ireland whereby every old man and women over 70 is saved from the workhouse and free to spend their last days in comparative comfort."
THE PLEA OF SELF-DETERMINATION
It is claimed by Sinn Fein that Ireland is a nation, and as a nation possesses the right to secede from Great Britain and set up an independent government. We emphatically deny this claim and all Irish History is against it. Father McDonald, Professor of Theology, of Maynooth, the great training college for the priesthood in Ireland, deals with the claim. The words of Dr. McDonald may surely be expected to have weight with Sinn Fein.
In his recent book, "Some Ethical Questions of Peace and War," he denies that Ireland has the rights of a separate nation, and he plainly declares what all history makes evident, that she never was a nation, "if unity of rule and independence are requisites of nationhood." Ireland in ancient times was but a congeries of warring tribes that never combined for any common purpose.
In the year 1172 Henry II went to Ireland with the authority of a Bull issued by Pope Adrian IV, confirmed by another Bull promulgated by his successor, Pope Alexander III. He invaded Ireland for the purpose of restoring order, and the Irish chiefs submitted to him. This was the first occasion on which Ireland knew anything of real unity, and it was created for her by Henry II. Two centuries later, in 1395, in the reign of Richard II, the chiefs reaffirmed their submission, but in the reign of Henry VIII the allegiance of Ireland to England was emphatically confirmed by a Parliament which met in Dublin on June 12th, 1541, and which formally recognized Henry as King of Ireland.
Coming to the reign of Charles I, a Catholic Confederation met in Kilkenny on October 24, 1642. This was an assembly representing Roman Catholic Ireland, and one of its: decrees was to the effect that "All the inhabitants of Ireland and each of them shall be most faithful to our sovereign the King and his heirs and lawful successors." Fifty years after in the reign of James II the Patriot Parliament convened in Dublin in 1689, and presided over by the King in person, recognized him not only as King of England but as sovereign of Ireland.
Will Sinn Fein still assert that Ireland was a nation, and will it still be maintained that Great Britain has not fund never had any right to rule in Ireland?
Still it is asserted in the face of these facts that she possesses the right to what is called self-determination. There is much confusion of thought regarding this phrase, as if it implies that any community forming part of a larger whole, by its own will may break away and set up an independent government. Dr. McDonald has a good deal to say regarding this. He points out that self-determination of a portion of a country cannot be admitted unless no injury is to be done to the country as a whole.
Ireland is and has been for many centuries a part of the United Kingdom and her secession would disastrously affect the group of which she forms a part. When a large portion of the United States of America, including many of the Southern states, claimed the right of secession and self-determination, Abraham Lincoln denied the claim and the North carried on the great war to prevent secession, Lincoln held, and most people now admit rightly held, that the forming of an independent government in the South would spell disaster to the United States. The same applies to Britain today in relation to Ireland.
Assuming, however, that Ireland possesses the right to secede, this right equally belongs to that part of Ireland in which Unionists and Protestants predominate. There are two peoples in Ireland, differing in race, mentality and religion. If Ireland may secede from Great Britain, Ulster may secede from the rest of Ireland, choosing how she shall be governed. Lincoln, in American politics, faced the same kind of problem which faces Great Britain and Ireland, and he enunciated this principle:
"A minority of a large community who make certain claims for self-government cannot in logic or in substance refuse the same claims to a much larger proportionate minority among themselves."
Lincoln applied this in 1860. The majority in the state of Virginia decided to join with the South. In the western portion of the state was a large compact minority who refused to secede from the North. Lincoln recognized their right and created for them the state of West Virginia. On this analogy if Sinn Fein Ireland possesses the right to secede from Britain, then Protestant Ulster may claim the right to decide her own form of Government.
But the claim of Sinn Fein to part company from the United Kingdom cannot for a moment be allowed. Great Britain could not afford to let Ireland go. The war has made vivid the fact that if the Sinn Fein rebellion had succeeded and the German landing had taken place in Ireland, it would have been a deadly blow to Britain. An Ireland of Sinn Fein dreams would be a menace not only to the peace of Britain, but that of Europe and the world. With her limited resources and peculiar strategic position, Ireland would inevitably give rise to complex international situations. For Ireland's sake she must remain an integral portion of the United Kingdom. Left to herself, she would lapse into a state of internecine strife. Ninety-five per cent of Ireland's trade is done with Britain, and with the fiscal barriers which as an independent country she would immediately set up, her trade with Britain would perish. No other country needs the fruit of her agricultural industry, and Great Britain could draw supplies from European and other regions overseas. For Ireland's sake, as much as for Britain's interest, the union must forever abide.
SINN FEIN AND THE WAR
It is fair at this point to apply the test of the Great War to the record of Sinn Fein in Ireland. When the Allies in their fight for the higher freedom of the world were sorely pressed, Sinn Fein stabbed them in the back by raising rebellion in Ireland. Clear proof exists that this movement was carried out in concert with Germany. A shipload of German arms carried by a German crew and intended for the rebels, was intercepted off the Irish coast. Sir Roger Casement, who came straight from Germany in a submarine with assurances of help, was captured on the coast of Kerry. The rebellion, though in its main purpose frustrated, involved frightful destruction of life and property. It also realized Germany's wish to compel the retention of British troops at home. The words of Admiral Sims in "World's Work" of November, 1919, describe the subsequent activities of Sinn Fein:
"It was no secret the Sinn Feiners sending information to Germany and constantly laying plots to interfere with the British-American navies."
At the outset of the war, young Catholic Ireland responded hopefully to the call of duty. Who has not heard of the gallant Munster, Leinster and Connaught regiments, predominantly Catholic as they were? Sinn Fein, however with its bitter anti-British propaganda, killed voluntary recruiting, and following upon this came the crowning reproach. A fighting race was prevented from sending its full quota of men to join their hard-pressed countrymen in the Irish regiments. Against this dark background stands out the example of Ulster. In Ulster out of a population of 1,581,686, 75,000 men volunteered, while from the rest of Ireland with a population of 2,808,523, 70,000 enlisted. From the city of Belfast with a population of 400,000, 46,000 joined the colors. When it is remembered that in Ulster are the great industries which furnished so much of the war material, and that large numbers of men were needed to operate these, the contribution of the northeast is all the more striking. Ulster shipyards did 10 per cent of all the government work in the United Kingdom. Ulster made 95 per cent of all the aeroplane cloth used by the Allies. The Ulster Unionist members of Parliament pressed the government to apply conscription to Ireland, and there is no more thoroughly progressive body of men at Westminster than the Unionists of Ulster. In the matter of social reform they are alongside the best minds of the United Kingdom. Out of 22 members 18 of them are pledged to further for Ireland such a local option temperance measure as Scotland will possess next year.
Such facts will indicate something of the mentality and ideals of Protestant Ulster. It is not bigotry that desires to preserve in fact and form the integrity of the United Kingdom. It is not bigotry that fears the usurpation by ecclesiastical power of the inherent functions of the State.
WHAT IS WRONG IN IRELAND
It is freely admitted that in olden times Ireland suffered disabilities and wrongs at the hands of England. Let it be remembered, however, that it is only within comparatively recent years that humanitarian principles have begun truly to come to their own among peoples. In the olden days among all nations the strong hand was an argument freely employed. Whatever the wrongs Ireland endured, and often she was herself greatly to blame, for many years past the story of Britain's dealing with her has been one of a generous endeavor to enfranchise, to benefit, and to bless.
Let it also be remembered that Protestants in Ireland suffered from oppressive legislation and that Presbyterians united with Roman Catholics to oppose harassing evils. But the living fact today is that the descendants of those Presbyterians are among the staunchest defenders of the Union which Sinn Fein seeks to dismember.
The Highlands of Scotland in the olden times suffered from harassments comparable to those which vexed Ireland, yet today there are no more loyal regions in all the realms of Britain than the Scottish Highlands. The whole land of Scotland, paying four times the amount of annual contribution which Ireland pays, is unalterable in her adhesion to the integrity of the United Kingdom.
When we come to seek for the explanation of Ireland's troubles, we are brought face to face with obtrusive facts. In those regions in which the Roman Catholic church is dominant, the extraordinary authority of the priesthood over their people is often used in ways frustrating or retarding legitimate trade and industry. This takes effect in the southern provinces when Protestants, who throughout Ireland are the pioneers of industry, come under their ban. The following case will illustrate many others which could be given:
Some time ago there lived in a small town on the borders of Cavan and Longford a young merchant engaged in the grocery and provision trade. Wishing to develop his business he added a bakery branch and soon was known as the vendor of the best bread in the district. Eve was a Presbyterian, but the district was about eight-tenths Roman Catholic. He was not at that time a politician or a party man of any kind whatever. He only desired to live quietly and in a friendly fashion, developing his business. He was boycotted. One day a respected Roman Catholic lady customer called and requested to know the amount of her indebtedness to his store. He was surprised and sought an explanation, the time for payment not being due. She broke into tears, said she had no fault to find with him or the goods sold. She had done business with him and his predecessor for years. Her parish priest, she said, had ordered her to pay her account and never again to enter the store. She went on to say that after a private mass celebrated at her house, she was entertaining the priest and other guests to breakfast. The priest, looking at a loaf of bread upon the table, asked who had made it. On being told that it had been brought at the store of this Protestant merchant, he lifted the loaf and threw it on the floor saying that he would not eat in her house until she procured a "decent Roman Catholic loaf." He proceeded to forbid her purchasing further in this merchant's store. In the same manner this merchant lost dozens of his Roman Catholic customers and realizing that there was no hope of liberty to develop his business, he removed north. He is now, as the result of his energy, at the head of a large manufacturing business, giving employment to many people.
A story such as this with all its serio-comic revelation of the priestly mind, goes far to explain the lack of initiative and progress in southern and western Ireland.
There are in Ireland two claimants to civil power. There is, on the one hand, the State and on the other the Hierarchy of the Roman Church. Acting sometimes in accordance with the will of the State and at other times opposing that will, the Hierarchy evidences its consistent claim to be the dominating factor in civil as well as religious affairs in Ireland. Where power is, there lies the seat of government, and no state can toll erate the continued passing of its power into the keeping of any other authority. Let us illustrate briefly how the power of the Bishops rules in Ireland.
Michael Davitt, himself a Roman Catholic and a leader in Irish political life, was roused to an amazing protest against the Bishops' "eternal hungering after political influence and temporal power," and their "assumption of authority to dictate to laymen what they should think and do in the affairs of the nation."
The government in 1916, while the war was raging, and in order to achieve a settlement in Ireland, proposed to put the 1914 Home Rule Act into force, with the exclusion of six Ulster counties. This proposition was accepted by Mr. John Redmond and Sir Edward Carson, but was vetoed by the Hierarchy and the matter dropped.
In 1917 on the suggestion of the Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George, a convention of representative Irishmen was set up in Dublin to draw up a scheme of settlement of the Irish Question. This was a gathering of all creeds. The Sinn Feiners alone refused to attend, but in spite of their absence, it is admitted that this was an assembly representative of Irish life. After many months of meeting and at a point when fiscal policy was under discussion, a significant thing happened. When John Redmond was accepting certain moderate propositions, the Roman Catholic Bishops were insisting on drastic terms. Redmond arose and after referring to an amendment in his own name, proceeded:
"But when I came to the Convention this morning I found that I was opposed by three of the highest dignitaries of my own church, some of my political friends also disagreed with me, and though I believe I could carry a majority of the convention with me, it would split my party and I cannot see that any useful purpose would be served thereby. I would therefore ask leave to withdraw my amendment as I feel I can be of no further use in the matter."
Thus the only statesman southern and western Ireland possessed, against his own judgment, bowed before a will more powerful than his own. John Redmond walked out from the Convention and in a few short weeks his life drew to a close. The Convention came to an end. With such forces as Redmond and the Hierarchy divided against themselves, what hope was there of a settlement being reached ?
In 1917 conscription had drawn to the colors even the middle-aged men of England, Scotland and Wales, and when these lands were being bled white it was proposed to apply conscription to Ireland. The Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church met and denounced the proposal. Archbishop Walsh called it an oppressive and inhuman outrage. The proposal came to nothing.
It may not be generally known that in Ireland the cost of Primary Education is altogether paid by the government, while for the most part control is in the hands of the clergy. On the part of Protestants, especially in Ulster, there is a strong desire to have the control of primary education placed in the hands of duly elected public bodies, such authorities having power to strike a local education rate. Reform of this kind is bitterly opposed by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, who resent any interference with their control of education. Owing to the extraordinary growth during recent years of the city of Belfast, and to the fact that during the war building operations had entirely ceased, it was found that the school accommodation was inadequate. On account of this, several thousands of children were left unfurnished with educational facilities. The city council formulated a scheme which was embodied in a Bill introduced into the House of Commons by a Belfast Unionist Labor Member, supported by all the Unionist Members from Ulster. The local Roman Catholic bishop, through his Parliamentary friends, opposed the bill so strenuously that being a private measure, it could not pass. Thus even the great predominantly Protestant city of Belfast is frustrated in its educational ideals by the representatives of Rome.
In face of the above facts, it will be evident that the problem of Ireland is one of deep and wide issues. It is not merely a question of Home Rule. From the statements in this article it will be evident that Ireland possesses the essentials of wide and generous liberty. She is not a Poland striving for freedom. It will also be noted how she dealt with the Home Rule scheme presented to her, and how it fared with a convention of Irishmen assembled to prepare a scheme of government for their land.
But Home Rule is not the vital question. It is a question of separation and this will never be conceded.
Sinn Fein in pressing its propaganda upon America, seeks to appeal to the sympathy of a freedomloving people. To this freedom-loving people we present our case.
In calling for America's aid for its cause, Sinn Fein reminds the people of the United States of the part Irishmen played in the War of Independence. Irishmen played a great part in achieving the victory of America's cause, but they were not the forefathers of Sinn Fein Ireland. Up to the forties of last century there was little more than a trickle of Roman Catholic emigration from Ireland to America. The Irishmen who stood with Washington were almost entirely Ulster men and their descendants, Protestants of Ireland, and they formed 38 per cent of his victorious forces.
We place our case with confidence before the jury of the American people. We ask that they do not allow themselves to be deflected from the path of impartial consideration of the subject. Believing, as we do, that the welfare of the future largely lies in their keeping, we desire the fullest and most intimate understanding between the peoples of America and Great Britain.
In this spirit we submit to the people of the great American Republic these few facts relating to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
THE COMMON GOOD
BY BRO. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, NEW YORK
ONE OF THE supreme needs of our time, as its deepest thinkers agree, is a conception of the Common Good worthy of our human enterprise; the perception that the good of humanity as a whole actually exists - not as a dream, but as a reality - and that the good of any race, nation or class can only be realized in the community of interest and obligation. For that reason the ancient word is as true today as it was ages ago, and as true of a nation as of an individual: "Who seeks his own loses the things in common."
In one of his poems William Morris speaks of the problems of our day as a "tangled wood," until they are seen in the light of life's meaning as a whole, and
"looking up, at last we see The glimmer of the open light, From o'er the place where we would be: Then grow the very brambles bright."
Many great seers and thinkers have looked up seeking the meaning of life, the goal of its uprising passion and desire, the purpose of its organization in the home, in the state, in industry, in moral fellowship and spiritual faith; and thus have tried to point the way out of the "tangled wood" in which we wander.
Plato dreamed of an ideal Republic but his vision no longer satisfies us, because of its stratification of society into castes. There is the Augustinian vision of the City of God, written when the Eternal City was reeling to its fall - not to name our modern Utopias of many and various kinds - in which we see the human mind trying to form a worthy conception of the goal of human development. But all these dawns are dwarfed by the ideal that shone in the mind of the man of Galilee, to whom we owe a vision equal, alike in its nobility and grandeur, to our human undertaking. In nothing did the gentle Teacher more assuredly reveal His greatness than in His amazing faith in the communal redemption of humanity; His vision of mankind living by the law of love in a Beloved Community here, now, upon earth. He called it the Kingdom of Heaven, and He exhausted the resources of His incomparable speech - fresh as the dew and bright with colour - to make it real and vivid to men.
If the same ideal be set forth in the symbolism of Freemasonry, it is a vision of a living Temple - noble, stately, sheltering all the holy things of humanity - slowly rising in the midst of the ages; a Temple building and built upon, each workman not only a builder, but himself a living stone, foursquare and finely wrought, to be built into the whole; each generation of builders adding an arch, a pillar, or a spire - as the grey old cathedrals were uplifted, strong and piteous, matching the masonry of the mountains in their grandeur, each race of Masons building upon the foundations laid by their vanished comrades. In height, in depth, in breadth and beauty it is the noblest vision that has come within sight of our groping human mind, in that it flashes before even the dullest mind a vision of something immortal - a sequence of aim and obligation, of cooperative fellowship, which annuls the ephemeral and reveals the eternal in time.
Such must be our insight and faith, if our fraternal sentiment is not to evaporate in misty eloquence, or else be only a rope of sand; the faith that we are fellow-workers with the eternal Creative Goodwill, and therefore made to be not only Builders but Brothers, made to share the large innocence of nature and the unfailing love of God who cares more for a brother than for all possessions; and that if we do not live after the law of our highest nature, a veil falls over the beauty of the world, leaving us to wander alone or to struggle together in confusion and strife. For, if we are to have a philosophy, much less an ethic, of fraternity we must learn "that goodness is not merely some form of similar activity of self and neighbour, but is really an attitude of each to the other; the realization, indeed, of spiritual kinship and unity," * - in short, that goodness is community, fellowship, mutuality, and that it takes two men and God to make a brother.
More specifically, as the world now stands, we are faced by four great and urgent issues, if our civilization is to endure, much less fulfil its beneficent mission. Each of these issues demands a commanding vision of the Common Good, each is a challenge to the practical brotherliness of humanity, and if we are to meet them we must not lose "the glimmer of the open light." First, and chiefly, we must organize the goodwill of the world and make an end of war, otherwise war will leave the Temple of Man a charred and smoking ruin, as it has well nigh done today. Second, we must meet the threat of a corrosive anarchy with a profounder sense of communal fellowship and obligation, in which each counts for one and nobody for more than one, joined with a sense of the sanctity of the common will expressed in law, order, and the fair humanities of society.
* Self and Neighbour, by W.T.Hirst
Third, so long as distances were great, and races lived far apart, friction was not keenly felt, but today the world has shrunk to the size of a neighbourhood and many races mingle. Inter-racial relations will be an acute and vital matter in the days that lie ahead of us, doubly so in our Republic where one feels always the presence of racial suspicion. As a welter of rancors, as a wrangle of irritations it is hopeless; only brotherliness can solve it. Fourth, the tangle of industrial unrest is hopeless if its issues are left to be fought over by extremists, and the struggle may shatter a society already cracked by the shock of world-war, here, again, there is no hope save in a gradual deepening of communal interest and responsibility, until, at last, private interest and vested interest are subordinate to the Common Good. Inevitably, in the long last, the common good will replace selfish interest as the ruling motive, even in the market-place, as necessity dictated during the war.
Henceforth we must measure and interpret all human activities and institutions as they stand in the service of the Common Good; as they are related to the Temple whose builders we are. Not alone the Lodge, but the Church, the State, the Home, the organization of life in art, in science, in industry, in moral endeavour and immortal hope, have here their sanction and consecration. Not otherwise may we know the worth and meaning of our individual lives - so brief, so broken, so beshadowed - save as we see them in the fellowship of the large purpose of the Master Builder. So, and only so, are we redeemed from insignificance and futility, and our fleeting days endowed with epic power and prophecy. It is when we enlist as the fellow-workers of the Eternal that life reveals its own eternal quality, and we learn the final answer to all pessimisms, all cynicisms, and all scepticisms whatsoever.
The New Age stands as yet
Half built against the sky,
Open to every threat
Of storms that clamour by.
Scaffolding veils the walls
And dim dust floats and falls
As moving to and fro, their tasks
The Masons ply.
AT ONE WITH ALL THAT'S HEART BY BRO. L.B. MITCHELL, MICHIGAN
To be at one with all that is that's heart
Would seem to be the mastery of the art
Of knowing well the mistress of the earth
That mothers us and holds for us its worth.
The nature realm is all at her command,
The beautiful is lavish at her hand;
We're quite at home within her mystic spell
Because she knows the needs of heart so well.
The span of life reveals her thought and care
And she so oft anticipates the prayer.
The while we live we motherly are blest
And find in her, repose at last, at rest.
O, it is grand to live the conscious part
Of this old world, at one with all that's heart!
FOR THE MONTHLY LODGE MEETING
CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN NO. 37
Edited by Bro. H. L. Haywood
THE BULLETIN COURSE OF MASONIC STUDY FOR MONTHLY LODGE MEETINGS AND STUDY CLUBS
FOUNDATION OF THE COURSE
THE Course of Study has for its foundation two sources of Masonic information: THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. In another paragraph is explained how the references to former issues of THE BUILDER and to Mackey's Encyclopedia may be worked up as supplemental papers to exactly fit into each installment of the Course with the papers by Brother Haywood.
MAIN OUTLINE:
The Course is divided into five principal divisions which are in turn subdivided, as is shown below:
Division I. Ceremonial Masonry.
A. The Work of the Lodge.
B. The Lodge and the Candidate.
C. First Steps.
D. Second Steps.
E. Third Steps.
Division II. Symbolical Masonry.
A. Clothing.
B. Working Tools.
C. Furniture.
D. Architecture.
E. Geometry.
F. Signs.
G. Words.
H. Grips.
Division III. Philosophical Masonry.
A. Foundations.
B. Virtues.
C. Ethics.
D. Religious Aspect.
E. The Quest.
F. Mysticism.
G. The Secret Doctrine.
Division IV. Legislative Masonry.
A. The Grand Lodge.
1. Ancient Constitutions.
2. Codes of Law.
3. Grand Lodge Practices.
4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges.
5. Official Duties and Prerogatives.
B. The Constituent Lodge.
1. Organization.
2. Qualifications of Candidates.
3. Initiation, Passing and Raising.
4. Visitation.
5. Change of Membership.
Division V. Historical Masonry.
A. The Mysteries--Earliest Masonic Light.
B. Studies of Rites--Masonry in the Making.
C. Contributions to Lodge Characteristics.
D. National Masonry.
E. Parallel Peculiarities in Lodge Study.
F. Feminine Masonry.
G. Masonic Alphabets.
H. Historical Manuscripts of the Craft.
I. Biographical Masonry.
J. Philological Masonry--Study of Significant Words.
THE MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS
Each month we are presenting a paper written by Brother Haywood, who is following the foregoing outline. We are now in "First Steps" of Ceremonial Masonry. There will be twelve monthly papers under this particular subdivision. On page two, preceding each installment, will be given a list of questions to be used by the chairman of the Committee during the study period which will bring out every point touched upon in the paper.
Whenever possible we shall reprint in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin articles from other sources which have a direct bearing upon the particular subject covered by Brother Haywood in his monthly paper. These articles should be used as supplemental papers in addition to those prepared by the members from the monthly list of references. Much valuable material that would otherwise possibly never come to the attention of many of our members will thus be presented.
The monthly installments of the Course appearing in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin should be used one month later than their appearance. If this is done the Committee will have opportunity to arrange their programs several weeks in advance of the meetings and the brethren who are members of the National Masonic Research Society will be better enabled to enter into the discussions after they have read over and studied the installment in THE BUILDER.
REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS
Immediately preceding each of Brother Haywood's monthly papers in the Correspondence Circle Bulletin will be found a list of references to THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. These references are pertinent to the paper and will either enlarge upon many of the points touched upon or bring out new points for reading and discussion. They should be assigned by the Committee to different brethren who may compile papers of their own from the material thus to be found, or in many instances the articles themselves or extracts therefrom may be read directly from the originals. The latter method may be followed when the members may not feel able to compile original papers, or when the original may be deemed appropriate without any alterations or additions.
HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR AND CONDUCT THE STUDY MEETINGS
The lodge should select a "Research Committee" preferably of three "live" members. The study meetings should be held once a month, either at a special meeting of the lodge called for the purpose, or at a regular meeting at which no business (except the lodge routine) should be transacted--all possible time to be given to the study period.
After the lodge has been opened and all routine business disposed of, the Master should turn the lodge over to the Chairman of the Research Committee. This Committee should be fully prepared in advance on the subject for the evening. All members to whom references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be prepared with their papers and should also have a comprehensive grasp of Brother Haywood's paper.
PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS
1. Reading of the first section of Brother Haywood's paper and the supplemental papers thereto.
(Suggestion: While these papers are being read the members of the lodge should make notes of any points they may wish to discuss or inquire into when the discussion is opened. Tabs or slips of paper similar to those used in elections should be distributed among the members for this purpose at the opening of the study period.)
2. Discussion of the above.
3. The subsequent sections of Brother Haywood's paper and the supplemental papers should then be taken up, one at a time, and disposed of in the same manner. 4. Question Box.
MAKE THE "QUESTION BOX" THE FEATURE OF YOUR MEETINGS
Invite questions from any and all brethren present. Let them understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit and get them into the habit of asking all the questions they may think of. Every one of the papers read will suggest questions as to facts and meanings which may not perhaps be actually covered at all in the paper. If at the time these questions are propounded no one can answer them, SEND THEM IN TO US. All the reference material we have will be gone through in an endeavor to supply a satisfactory answer. In fact we are prepared to make special research when called upon, and will usually be able to give answers within a day or two. Please remember, too, that the great Library of the Grand Lodge of Iowa is only a few miles away, and, by order of the Trustees of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Secretary places it at our disposal on any query raised by any member of the Society.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The foregoing information should enable local Committees to conduct their lodge study meetings with success. However, we shall welcome all inquiries and communications from interested brethren concerning any phase of the plan that is not entirely clear to them, and the Services of our Study Club Department are at the command of our members, lodge and study club committees at all times.
QUESTIONS ON "THE VITAL, PARTS OF THE BREAST" AND "THE GOLDEN BOWL AND THE SILVER CORD"
At the time you received your Third degree what particular impression did the method of reception make upon you? Did you look upon this particular part of the ceremony as simply a matter of routine, or did you endeavour to think out for yourself the true meanings of the words "friendship, morality and brotherly love"?
Can a man who lives a secluded life apart from his fellows be said to know the true meaning of happiness? Has the friendship of fellow-members of your own lodge and those of other lodges with whom you have come into close contact been a help to you since you became a member of the Fraternity? Has this friendship caused you to change your opinion of any of the fellow-members of your own lodge with whom you had but a speaking acquaintance prior to your becoming a Mason? Has your own mind been broadened by such friendships?
What is your conception of the word "morality" ? Has this word been misused? Is a system of morality necessary to the advancement of the human race? Why?
What is the derivation of the word "morality"? What was probably the sense in which it was first used? What has it become to mean in Christian times? What is "righteousness"? Give a few concrete examples of which you may have knowledge. What is "right"?
"How can brotherhood be possible among us men?" asks Brother Haywood. What is his solution? What is our idea as to how it may be accomplished?
What was the evident purpose of the men who introduced this reading at this particular place in our ritual? What were your own feelings when the words fell upon your ears for the first time during our ceremonies? Did they portend at the time of anything that followed in the ceremonies?
What is the usually accepted interpretation of this passage of Scripture?
What is Brother Haywood's interpretation?
Have you ever heard an interpretation other than the two here given? If so, what is it?
SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES
THE BUILDER:
Vol. I "When the Almond Tree Blossoms," p. 138.
Mackey's Encyclopedia:
Brotherly Love, p. 121; Friendship, p. 286; Points of Fellowship, p. 572-
THIRD STEPS BY BRO. H. L. HAYWOOD, IOWA
PART II - RECEPTION - THE GOLDEN BOWL AND THE SILVER CORD
THE VITAL PARTS OF THE BREAST
Upon our entrance we were received in a manner peculiarly impressive; we were told that as the vital parts of the body are in the breast so are the vital things of the human world to be found in Friendship, Morality, and Brotherly Love. How vague are these words! We have rolled them around in our mouths so much that they have become smooth as billiard bags; they have been used so often for merely oratorical purposes that they have grown nebulous and abstract; and because they have become smooth and vague we are prone to let them slip through our minds without depositing their meaning behind them, a thing fatal to an understanding of Masonry, the essence of which lies in these three wonderful words.
Man is by nature a social being. It has been proved that he can not exist as a sane creature except he live among his fellows, for his very personality itself is a social product; the language on his lips implies another to hear and to understand; his emotions and affections seek another in whom to find satisfaction. Not until the individual has found other human individuals who can feel with him, think with him, and act with him can he know the meaning of happiness. But it is a part of the tragedy of our lives that we are so clumsy in uncovering our own souls, and others are so inexpert in understanding our secret feelings, that our fellowship is never complete, so that the music of companionship is continually being disturbed by jangling dissonances of misunderstanding. With a friend, however, it is different; he is one with whom we can live in harmony, as if the two lives could mingle like two streams, his thoughts and our thoughts merging and the two spirits living as one. Such a union is one of the sweetest experiences in all the world and he who has found his friend may well congratulate himself as one who has discovered the pearl of great price. Little wonder that our prophets and seers have so often broken into rhapsody on this theme! that our literature may count as its richest treasures such utterances as those of Emerson, Black, Trumbull, Montaigne, Bacon and Cicero on this theme!
Morality has been stretched to cover so many meanings, it has been forced into the support of so many conflicting meanings, and been made fellow to so many crimes against reason, that we can hardly blame many for refusing to discuss it or even to think of it. But the word is necessary because the idea of which it is the sign is a real and necessary idea. If men misuse it there is all the more reason for our learning how to rightly use it.
What is morality? It is derived from a Latin word meaning "custom," and it is probable that the Romans fast used it in the sense of living according to the custom. In Christian times a richer meaning was poured into it so that it has come to mean "the life of righteousness." But what is righteousness? It is living the right way, doing the light things, thinking the right thoughts, a very Masonic behaviour. But what is right? We might answer that question in two ways; we might say that the right is that which gives us the fullest, completest life, for it is the purpose of morality to give us life and give it more abundantly; or, we might say that right is conformity to the law of our being. As the scientist seeks to learn the laws of nature and to conform to them, so does a righteous man seek to discover the laws of his own nature in order to conform to them; he obeys the laws of the body by living clean and simply, he obeys the laws of the intellect by thinking facts without prejudice or haste, and he obeys the laws of the heart by loving only that which he finds to be good and true.
Of Brotherly Love much more might be said, though space may not permit, especially that Brotherly Love which Masonry inculcates. How can brotherhood be possible among us men? We are all so unbrotherly, we are so selfish, we are so quick to take or give offense. The solution of this troublesome problem lies in the fact that the one cure for unbrotherliness is brotherliness. We love our enemies that they may cease being enemies. We make friends in order to have friends. Brotherliness is a creative force. Brotherhood is not a thing already made, it is a condition we must create, so that the very presence of unbrotherliness is a challenge to brotherhood to do its best. When our fellows in lodge act thoughtlessly toward us, and bruise and hurt us, it is not for us to retaliate; insofar as we are true Masons we shall love them even though they are not lovable; simply because the only way in which we can make men lovable is by loving them. Brotherly Love, therefore, is a task, a kingly task, quite the greatest, the most important, inside the whole compass of life. Indeed, we may say that one of the chief purposes of Masonry is to mobilize all men of good will in order that they may help to brother the world into a world-wide brotherliness.
THE GOLDEN BOWL AND THE SILVER CORD
The sacred sentences which fall on the ears of the candidate as he makes his mystic round are so heavy with poignant beauty that one hesitates to intrude the harsh language of prose upon such strains of poetry, solemn sweet. We may well believe that the men who introduced the reading here had no other thought than that the words might the better create an atmosphere in which the coming drama of hate and doom might all the more impressively come home to the heart of the participants. If such was their purpose neither Shakespeare nor Dante could have found words or sentiments more appropriate to the hour. There is a music and majesty in the twelfth Chapter of Ecclesiastes which leaves us dumb with awe and wonder and our hearts open to the impressions of a tragedy along-side which the doom of Lear seems insignificant and vain.
For generations the commentators of Holy Writ have seen in the allegory of this chapter a reference to the decay of the body and the coming of death; to them the golden bowl was the skull, the silver cord was the spinal nerve, "the keepers of the house" were the hands, the "strong men" the limbs; the whole picture is made to symbolize the body's falling into ruin and the approach of death. One hesitates to differ from an interpretation so true in its application and so dignified by its associations. But it must be doubted whether the sad and disillusioned man who penned the lines possessed either the knowledge of human anatomy implied by the old interpretation or the intention to make his poem into a medical description of senility. A more thorough scholarship has come to see in the allegory a picture of the honour of death set forth by metaphors drawn from an Oriental thunderstorm.
It had been a day of wind and cloud and rain; but the clouds did not, as was usual, dispense after the shower. They returned again and covered the heavens with their blackness. Thunderstorms were so uncommon in Palestine that they always inspired fear and dread, as many a paragraph in the Scriptures will testify. As the storm broke the strong men guarding the gates of rich men's houses began to tremble; the hum of the little mills wherewith the women were always grinding at eventime suddenly ceased because the grinders were frightened from their toil; the women, imprisoned in the harems, who had been gazing out of the lattice to watch the activities of the streets, drew back into their dark rooms; even the revelers, who had been sitting about their tables through the afternoon, eating dainties and sipping wine, lost their appetites, and many were made so nervous that the sudden twitting of a bird would cause them to start with anxious surprise. As the terror of the storm, the poet goes on to say, so is the coming of death, when man "goes to his home of everlasting and mourners go about the streets." Whatever men may have been, good or bad, death brings equal terror to all. A man may have been rich, like the golden lamp hung on a silver chain in the palace of a king; he may have been as poor as the earthen pitcher in which maidens carried water from the public well, or even as crude as the heavy wooden wheel wherewith they drew the water; what his state was matters not, death is as dread a calamity to the one as to the other. When that dark adventure comes the fine possessions in which men had sought security will be vain to stay the awful passing into night. "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity." The one bulwark against the common calamity, the Preacher urges, is to remember the Creator, yea, to remember Him from youth to old age; to believe that one goes to stand before Him is the one and only solace in an hour when everything falls to ruin and the very desire to live has been quenched by the ravages of age and the coming of death.
THE FRATERNAL FORUM
EDITED BY BRO. GEO. E. FRAZER, PRESIDENT. BROARD OF STEWARDS
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Geo. W. Baird, District of Columbia. Joseph Barnett, California. Wm. F. Bowe, Georgia. H. P. Burke, Colorado. Joe L. Carson, Virginia. R. M. C. Condon, Michigan. C. E. Creager, Oklahoma. John A. Danlla, Louisiana. Jos. W. Eggleston, Virginia. Henry R. Evans, District of Columbia. H. D. Funk, Minnesota. Asahel W. Gage, Florida. Joseph C. Greenfield, Georgia. Frederick W. Hamilton, Massachusetts. H. L. Haywood, Iowa. T. W. Hugo, Minnesota. M. M. Johnson, Massachusetts. P. E. Kellett, Manitoba. John G. Keplinger, Illinois. Harold A. Kingsbury, Connecticut. Dr. Wm. F. Kuhn, Missouri. Dr. G. Alfred Lawrence, New York. John F. Massey, Pennsylvania. Julius H. McCollum, Connecticut. Dr. John Lewin McLeish, Ohio. Joseph W. Norwood, Kentucky. Frank E. Noyes, Wisconsin. John Pickard, Missouri. A. G. Pitts, Michigan. C. M. Schenck, Colorado. Francis W. Shepardson, Illinois. Silas H. Shepherd, Wisconsin. Oliver D. Street, Alabama. Denman S. Wagstaff, California. S. W. Williams, Tennessee.
Contributions to this Department of Personal Opinion are invited from each writer who has contributed one or more articles to THE BUILDER. Subjects for discussion are selected as being alive in the administration of Masonry today. Discussions of politics, religious creeds or personal prejudices are avoided, the purpose of the Department being to afford a vehicle for comparing the personal opinions of leading Masonic students. The contributing editors assume responsibility only for what each writes over his own signature. Comment from our Members on the subjects discussed here will be welcomed in the Question Box Department.
QUESTION NO. 15-
What place ought the Masonic Lodge to fill in the Civic Life of the Community?
A Humanitarian Issue.
What place can the lodge fill in the civic life of the community?
The civil life of most communities is made up principally of religious and political activities, in neither of which is it our desire to become a party directly or indirectly, outside of these fields of activity there is little opening for the lodge in the smaller communities.
Were it otherwise we could wage eternal war on the encroachments of Rome, for example, or support any candidate for office who would use his every effort to keep separate the Church and State, and the "Little Red School House" safe for the Flag.
As it stands, practically every Mason directly, or indirectly through his family connections, is connected with some religious, social, or political organization working for the benefit of humanity.
There is a field in which the Masonic organization might become a power in the land; viz.: The organizing of America - of the world - in a fight to the finish against the "White Plague" - Tuberculosis.
Each brother might become a volunteer in the great war against this scourge of humanity. Each lodge a centre for the collection and classification of those affected. Each Grand Lodge or Jurisdiction a member of a National Masonic Anti-Tubercular League, whose funds would be spent, not for the benefit of Freemasons or their families alone, but for the benefit of the nation at large.
Over 67,000 young men were eliminated from our draft and over 22,000 from our camps on account of the "White Plague"; this 90,000 represent a large percentage of our national manhood, to say nothing of possibly a like number of our womanhood. What has been done for these youths? NOTHING - They were turned back into civil life, a horrible thought to contemplate.
Here was an opportunity for the Freemasons of America, the opportunity still exists to take every case and assume responsibility for its correction, alleviation, or cure. We could establish camps like our military training camps, well located, and of great capacity, or take over those already in existence before they are relegated to the dump pile, or scrap heap, and in these establish our National Masonic Tubercular Camps, where these suspects and those already affected could be systematically and scientifically handled, free of all expense to the individual, the community, or the nation, but carried on by the voluntary subscriptions of the Craft at large, or by assessments systematically collected from the brotherhood by all the Grand Jurisdictions through their dependent lodges.
We are continually being asked what we as Masons are doing for the benefit of humanity at large and the good of our various communities in particular? and I ask you what? With what pride we would point to such a scheme, or any such effort for the amelioration of the condition of our suffering fellow creatures, and give the world a concrete example of what we Freemasons mean when we speak of the "Brotherhood of Man."
- J. L. Carson, Virginia.
* * *
The "Disinterested Mind," A Problem.
The place of the Masonic Lodge in the civic life of the community is that of a community fountain from which flows Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice.
The public mind is seriously agitated. Labor strikes; doubtful condition of industrial investments; ever ascending scale of prices; active, pernicious efforts of the demagogue; economic and political uncertainties; these seem to be hastening the average community into a frenzy.
We must "sober up." Permanent solution can be the result of only sincere and dispassionate thought. We cannot depend upon the decision of a "disinterested" mind for we are all directly interested in the serious problems which confront us. We must bring our minds to a condition fit for discernment and decision.
The Masonic lodge affords a place for all good men to learn to subdue their passions. There contending minds may meet on the level; there the searching rays of the Great Light may expose the selfishness, the prejudice, the avarice, the vices which now threaten the security of our established institutions; there those discordant passions now within us may be dissolved; there both wisdom and courage are inspired by the Grand Master.
The lodge is useless to the community unless those fortunate citizens who enjoy its privileges will by counsel and example extend its beneficent influences beyond the tiled precincts of the lodge room. With his own passions subdued, his mind free from prejudice, his ambitions stripped of personal interest, the Mason is in position to counsel, to influence and to lead, not only in normal conditions but in times like the present. Whenever those Masonic cardinal principles have found a permanent place in the life of the community, the lodge will indeed have performed its function as a pure and beneficent fountain and a solution for our present threatened crisis will have been afforded.
C. E. Creager, Oklahoma.
* * *
Individualism.
You ask, "What place ought the lodge to fill in the civic life of the community?" My view is none, as a lodge, save to so impress the lessons of Masonry on its votaries that they will be better citizens in all respects. We are an unique organization. Our basic principles include all good in religions, politics, (in its highest sense) and personal life, but in no particular should they ever be specific. Each mind views each question from a different angle and each Mason should be permitted to be active in all civic affairs according to his personal views. The lodge should be his resting place, free from all mention of religious or political (civic if you prefer the term) questions.
This is the Virginian conception of Masonry's mission and has been for more than 150 years. Agitation for what is termed "a progressive science," west of the Mississippi is the great reason we are to a man determined to be led into no entangling alliances. I know this view will not please those we deem misguided Masons, who want General Grand Bodies and progressive movements in Masonry like the Masonic Service Association, and I doubt if this article will appear in the discussion at the triennial or be published in THE BUILDER, but you asked for my views and I give them frankly, and assure you that they are the views of Virginia to a man, so far as I am informed. We hold that the mission is to teach Masons to "walk uprightly in our several stations in life before God and Man." We do not interfere as to how he does it in either case.
Jos. W. Eggleston, P. G. M., Virginia.
Education in Civic Duties.
The Masonic lodge in any community should fill its natural place as a source of all that is law abiding and elevating and be practically an institution that would evolve the highest type of citizenship. Men who would be able to draw the fine distinction between honor and honesty, men who would be able to discern the fact that the probity and morality of a community and a nation is only a reflex of that of each individual, men who will fearlessly stand for the right and who will not hesitate to express their opinions by speech and ballot.
A Mason, in his community, ought to stand for everything that will promote good government, administered in the interest of all the people and primarily as means to that end he should be an advocate of ample facilities for free public education, unrestricted and unhampered by the powers or doctrines of any church or creed.
Our lodges are prone to regard the conferring of degrees as the main reason for their being. In fact in this day of popular Freemasonry, they would appear to be degree mills pure and simple, when as a matter of fact part of the time should be devoted to the direct education of the membership upon lines indicative both of their civic and Masonic duties.
John A. Davilla, Grand Secretary, Louisiana.
* * * * * * * * *
Inspire Men.
The Masonic Lodge, in my opinion, should fill its ancient place in the civic life of the community.
We may well strive to make our Fraternity do its work as well as did our elder brethren. They had a wonderfully broad experience and vision, even if a less specialized training than we have. Care must be taken, lest in trying to improve Masonry, we ruin it.
Franklin and Washington were often sorely tried, yet they did not drag Masonry into politics nor endeavor to make it a fraternal insurance association.
By training and inspiring men, Masonry has made the Revolutionary War and the United States Government a success.
Masonry is a progressive moral science. It is a course of ancient hieroglyphic moral instruction. That is its work and place in society.
Masonic principles, pure as crystal, were taught by the Great Teacher of men in the little Roman province of Judea. He pleaded with us, not that we work upon others but that we rebuild ourselves. He pleaded, not for organization, not for laws, not for a plan of governing others, but for the strength to govern ourselves. He taught and exemplified love and helpfulness. He taught us to forgive the sinner, the wrong doer, the persecutor. He admonished us to love one another and our enemies as ourselves.
Masonry advocates no particular religious creed but it teaches the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. It teaches the nobility of work and the justice, inevitability and mutual benefits of proper wages.
The Masonic lodge should teach all these things as principles and inevitable truths to be understood, absorbed and worked into the lives - of its members, not as a propaganda to be enforced by its organization.
Asahel W. Gage, Florida.
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Get Facts Before Members.
Inasmuch as membership in every Masonic lodge includes the men of the community who are selected for their high moral qualifications, it goes without saying that they, both as individuals and collectively, should take a commanding place in all activities tending towards civic righteousness.
Never in the history of the world is this more important than at the present time when Bolshevism, class hatred, social unrest and a total disregard for law and order dominate the activities of a no inconsiderable element of the populations of most of the so-called civilized nations of the world.
The entire membership of every Masonic lodge should be actively identified with and take a commanding part in all movements, not only in the community but also in the State, Nation and the world at large, that tend towards the maintenance of public order, respect for the law, good living conditions for all, universal and compelling education (especially in the United States of not only all children but of all alien adults), of universal military training as a prerequisite for adequate preparedness, and finally of all movements of a constructive nature tending towards the higher moral, intellectual and social uplift of the community.
If such agencies are already in operation every Mason to the extent of his time and ability should identify himself with as many of the same as possible and render actual constructive service.
If such agencies are not in operation it should be the duty of Masons as individuals or as a lodge to organize such in their respective communities. By this I do not mean to indicate that these a
