The Builder Magazine

July 1920 - Volume VI - Number 7

 

MEMORIALS TO GREAT MEN WHO WERE MASONS

VOLTAIRE

BY BRO. GEO. W. BAIRD, P.G.M., DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

IN A LITTLE TOWN called Fernay, a very few miles from Geneva, is a chapel, built for his neighbors by Brother Voltaire, a member of that famous lodge "Les Neuf Souers" (The Nine Sisters), in Paris.

 

Had anyone offered the writer, when a very young man, a volume of Voltaire, I would have declined to read it, because I then believed Voltaire to be an atheist. But when I looked on the inscription over the arch in front of this little chapel, and lead "Deo Erexit Voltaire. MDCCLXI" (Erected to God by Voltaire, 1761), I was sure he could never have been an atheist. The guide book tells of Voltaire being asked why he placed this inscription on the memorial, and he replied "In London they erect their Temple to St. Paul, and in Paris they erect their Temple to St. Geneveve, but I erect mine to God."

 

One of his biographers says "among his last words were these: 'I die worshipping God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, but detesting superstition.' "

 

Voltaire was an author, a playwright, a philosopher and a satirical writer. He was a man who dared to do what he thought was right; and though he did not court favor from any one, he was conscious of the danger he was running, which is evidenced by the location of his home, at Ferney, near the border line between France and Switzerland, that he might readily escape from one country to the other.

 

His enemies were the holy fathers. They called him an atheist; proclaimed it from their holy places until it came to be generally accepted as the truth. Voltaire was a protector of Protestants, and spent his money freely in that cause: this alone was enough to incite the hatred of the holy fathers. They raised objection to his burial in the parish where he died, and his remains were conveyed to the Abbey of Scellieres, belonging to one of his nephews, where they were interred. On the stone his friends were permitted to place the words "Ci-git Voltaire" (Here lies Voltaire). The holy fathers even interrupted the Masonic services, being held in private (if not secret), described in that splendid work "Une loge Masonique d'avant 1789."

 

Voltaire, whose real name was Jean Francis Marie Arouet, was born at Paris in 1694 and died there in 1778. He began to write verses before he was twelve years of age, his verses landing ready sales. His Jesuit teachers quickly discovered his talent (in the college of Louis le Grand) and one of them predicted that he would become the “corpheus of deism." His satirical and witty pamphlets caused his arrest and subsequent confinement in the Bastile, just after the death of Louis XIV, though he was barely twenty years of age at the time. He was in prison a year, during which time he wrote his epic on the Henriade, and completed a tragedy he had in hand, when the regent, pleased with these performances, released him.

 

Voltaire was almost as prolific a writer as Charles Dickens, but his satire was more keen. His verses on Louis XIV and Madame Pompadour were among the most daring. Among his principal works were "Histoire de Charles," "Roi de Suede," "he Temple du Gout," "Seven Discours sur l'homme," "Les Dictionaires Philosophique," "Histoire du Parlement" and "Histoire de l'establissement du Christianismea."

 

Forty-ight of his works have been translated into English. Not an atheistic word can be found in one of them, but it is plain that Brother Voltaire was a Deist. The accusation of atheism originated with the priests, is boomed by the priests and others who have not taken the trouble to inform themselves. When a man goes out into the highway and cries "Mad dog!" he jeopardizes the life of every dog in sight, and he will soon have a crowd repeating his cry. So it has been with Voltaire.

 

 

MASONIC SERVICE

BY BRO. GEO. SCHOONOVER, P.G.M., IOWA

 

An Address delivered at the Maundy Thursday Feast, Scottish Rite Temple, Duluth, Minnesota, April 1, 1920.

 

Wise Master and My Brethren of the Rose Croix:

 

I EL very happy to have the privilege of coming among you this evening, to partake of the communion of this holy occasion. It is a relief, too, to feel that for once I do not have to say anything for anyone else, or be in any sense the mouthpiece for others. Your Wise Master says I am a "free lance," and that gives me the privilege of interpreting the word "Service" as I understand it.

 

I speak to you tonight, therefore, in no other cpacity than as one of you called hither by the solemnty of this occasion to consider, if we may, something i the kind of service which Freemasonry in this day ad age might and should perform.

 

THE SYMPTOMS OF UNREST

 

It seems almost superfluous to speak to you of such a thing as unrest; everyone is thinking of it. Yor Inspector General, in his pastoral letter, has dwelt upon it; it has come to you from Brother Denfeld an a most striking and forceful way. Perhaps it would seem that there is little to be said upon the subject - and yet I very much fear that there is a great deal to ne said upon that subject, particularly as it applies to Freemasonry in this hour.

 

We have so many symptoms of what is called unrest that it is unnecessary to rehearse any except the tnost potent. I would not be considered an iconoclast, and yet, no sober-thinking man has any right in this day to sit still, hold his mind in a state of vacuity and say "There is nothing left for me to do." On the contrary, if problems are to be solved, they must first be acknowledged as problems, then analyzed, and finally, if found wrong, they must be met and overcome by the fearless application of a principles or set of principles, Which is right.

 

Our first duty, as Masons, is to be honest with ourselves, face conditions as they are, not as we would like to have them, and do our duty as we see it. We must do the things that are incumbent upon us now, in the way and manner which our position in civilization makes possible. What the forefathers did should be a guide to us. We should accept and revere the principle which guided them - but we must make the application of the principle for ourselves, just as they did in their day. In no other way, as I conceive our position, can we be true to them, and justify their faith in us.

 

What, then, are these symptoms of unrest which we must consider?

 

Democracies, today, are asking whether it is worth while to have fought a war - even for the high purposes which commanded us - because of the conditions which they see following that war. There has never been so tremendous and appalling an apathy as exists today in organized religion; there has never been a time in the history of the world when the whole world was in such a state of financial unrest. In Europe there has never been a time when that financial unrest was so complicated by the social unrest which exhibits itself as a problem over there. We find a similar social unrest exhibiting itself among us, for we are not satisfied with our work; we are not satisfied with our play; we are uneasy, all of us.

 

THE: CAUSES OF UNREST

 

Of course, the prime cause of it all is the reaction from the war. We have been keyed to the highest pitch of giving. We have given ourselves no less than our dollars, and we joined hands from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Canadian border to the Gulf, in a unified response to the needs of the world as we saw them.

 

It is natural that after so strenuous a performance we should relax. It is perhaps also natural that we should now be in a state of disaffection. But in all seriousness, is it natural that we should turn from hating the enemy only to hate one another? And, yet, that is exactly what we are doing! We are calling every other man except ourselves a profiteer; we are finding in every other man except ourselves a lack of sincerity. Somehow our organization has fallen to pieces - has become disrupted, and we wonder why.

 

Those of you brethren who know something of physiology know that when a man is mad he is subject to all kinds of disease. The very psychology of anger distorts the normal coursing of the blood; poisons are created within the system and poisons from withou gain admittance much more easily than at any othe time. That is the trouble with democracies today. I is more than mere indigestion - though some of ou orators would have us believe that an undigested mass of aliens among us is our only real difficulty.

 

There are those who tell us we are going to get over all this, that we will cool off and calm down. I believe that we will, eventually, and after much of trouble and discord, but there is just now a need that we cool down quickly. America as a whole has duties to perform, and there are those within her boundaries, many of them unfortunately citizens of this great republic, who would like to undermine that which we ought to do by causing us to be dissatisfied with the heritage which has been handed down to us from the days of the American Revolution. There are many of these groups, but they have one thing in common. Though their acts may take different forms, all of them are striking at the constitution of the United States of America. I am not going to deliver you any oration concerning that document; I am only going to recommend that you sit down for a couple of evenings this coming week and read it for yourselves. There is written into that document - by the hands of Masons, too, as we know - a statement of the fundamental principles upon which America rests. Often during the war we have said that Masonry is a bulwark of America. If it be so, then we ought to know something about the documents which have made America possible. For it was the conception of the Fathers of this Republic that this was to be a government of laws, and not of men.

 

THE ASSAILANTS OF OUR CONSTITUTION

 

This becomes important when we turn to consider who the assailants of the constitution are, and what are their motives. Many of them, no doubt, are doing what they are doing innocently; they know not what they do; many of them, no doubt, will deny that they are guilty of being assailants of the constitution. But if you will analyze the question closely enough - if you will bring honest thought to bear upon it, I believe that you will see that each and every one of them is in reality an enemy of our constitution. As an instance of this, consider a conversation overheard between two gentlemen across the aisle in the sleeper this morning. I do not know who they were; neither of them wore a Masonic pin, and I was glad to see that; but one was calling attention to a certain condition in the labor field, and the other, who was rather a pessimistic looking individual, not only agreed with him but went further. In one most venomous sentence he assailed a certain judge of the United States Court, in terms of personal hatred, because that judge had upheld a decision that was in accordance with law. The interpretation which he placed upon the judge's decision was, "Oh, that d-n old cuss, he wanted to show that he was going to run this thing."

 

That young man has not been educated in Americanism. He does not truly know what the word means. There are many like him. But if you were to ask him, whether by making that statement, he intended to undermine our Government, and the guaranties of law which we have, he would say, "No, we just want this thing to come out right," and through it all you could see that he meant that if it were to develop rightly it would come out his way. He could see the rights of his side of the question - he had not been taught to consider the rights of others.

 

Who are these people who are trying, with or without malice, to undermine this Government?

 

First are those who insist that mankind is born in strata, that the natural organization of society is it classes; that there is one class here and one built upor that, and one class there and another built upon thal and still another one built upon that, and so on, from coolie or peasant or proletariat up to the aristocrat ant the autocrat. My brethren, they have that classifies society in the Old World, and it is the cause of most of their troubles. And this first class of enemies or our Government would like to see the people of this country divided into classes; they want a labor class a capitalistic class, a farmer's class - and if they get these they will have a clerical class, too, whether the want it or not - and they want other kinds of classes I do not know just how they are going to find out who belongs to what class. If they organize that labo class, I am going to apply to be a member of it; I ar a poor cripple in one hand, and I do not work with m hands. But I put in at least two shifts of eight hour each day, just the same. And if they deny me th right to belong to that labor class because I do no have the grime of the engine on my hands or the dus from the saw on my clothes, then they are going t make of me a social outcast, because I have no desir to belong to any other class than the labor class.

 

But these people are now going one step further. They say that we are going to have a government by class; that we are going to have the rule of the minority take the place of the rule of the majority which is defined by our good old constitution. They go further still and they say "We have a right to carry on a private war, for the benefit of our class." A private war! No matter whom it may damage! Whether it keeps milk from the suffering babe, or coal from those who shiver, or keeps other necessities from those who need to eat and drink! Not content with asserting this "right" to carry on a private war for benefits of which their "class" shall have a monopoly, they are backing up their words by their actions. Strikes, authorized or unauthorized by the great labor organizations, show how divided those organizations are, internally as well as in their relations with one another. Everywhere is the same - the cry is for self.

 

Finally there are those open enemies of our Government who say that the only way to right the wrongs of the world is to overturn what we have and bring about a new industrial and civil order in all these fields. In the main these are the immigrants. They have come from an old world which was a world of autocracy. It gave us the example of a nation which denied itself a national conscience, and which claimed the right to impose the might of a "superior Kultur" on the world. Because these people found in America swollen fortunes, crooked politicians, and vice and corruption in our cities, they say to us, "These are the symptoms of autocracy; they are what we left behind in Europe; wherefore your democracy is as autocratic as that from which we have exiled ourselves; the slavery from which we fled we find duplicated here." This has been and is their plea. And because there have been injustices in our economic system; because democracy in its struggle for efficiency and intelligence has not yet been able to remove all its cesspools, those who were unfortunate and ignorant have listened to these exiles who brought their hate to America.

 

GERMAN AUTOCRACY AND GERMAN SOCIALISM

 

German autocracy spawned another German idea. It was the protest, the internal protest, of the German people, trying to negative tyranny. It was Marxian Socialism. Confronted by a type of civilization which dwarfed and strangled and poisoned initiative, Karl Marx developed his protest within the German nation. Born of hate, this protest held hate within itself. It would out-tyrannize the tyrant.

 

America must beware! Beware lest this child of hate, transplanted to our soil, shall continue to dwell within itself; shall refuse to see in our great bills of human rights and constitutional guaranties anything different from the autocracy of the past, simply because all the ills of humanity are not cured in a generation. Doctors make mistakes in diagnosis, and the victims die. Let us not permit foreign doctors who do not know our history, who have no respect for our institutions, to tell us that malignant symptoms today damn democracy eternally. Let us instead study our diseases, and by constitutional methods eradicate them, to the end that the civilization which our fathers founded in brotherhood and good will may not be converted into a charnel house of hate. It is for Americans to rally to the cause of humanity, that the friends of humanity may save us from diseases worse than any symptoms we can see.

 

OUR INDIFFERENCE TO OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM

 

Where must this awakening begin ? With ourselves, my Brethren ! The one great factor in our civilization which helps along this process of disruption, which these people would like to bring about, is our popular indifference to our political system. We do not vote when we have an opportunity; we forget what the right to vote has cost and seem to hold it valueless. A good fellow, one who has a hearty handshake, a jovial voice and a big broad grin too often gets our vote as against real brains. And when we suffer as a consequence, we simply go back and vote for the good fellow over again. And then another thing that we do in this country is to stick to our parties. Oh, my, how we do stick to them; how proud we are to be one or the other - I dare not mention either first. I am not making a political speech, and I am not saying anything about partisanship. But if you will go to your Morals and Dogma and read the Legenda of the Thirtieth degree, and then come and tell me that you are still a good Scottish Rite Mason, I will know that you are not going to bother very much with parties, after that. The great and essential difficulty with us todav is that we are failing to demand real statesmanship, and failing to realize that statesmanship is needed in the school district and the town and the county, as well as in the halls of Congress.

 

We have been unfortunate - to put it mildly - in trying to find a system by which to select our nominees for office. One system has seemed to make it easy for a boss to rule; the other has made it so expensive for a man to run for office that it almost puts a money value on the office itself because only men with an independent income can afford to enter the lists. But we are going to find a way of choosing the capable and honest, but modest, man who now sits back and says, "Not for me ;" we are going to find some way to draft him into the service of his country, just as we drafted men for overseas service, three years ago.

 

It is not by abandoning our parties that this result will be brought about, either. On the contrary it is by rallying to them, and making their pronouncements our expressions of opinion; making their nominees our nominees, that we are going to accomplish the muchneeded reform. Not the system, but ourselves, need fixing.

 

MASONRY'S PART

 

Brethren, I have tried in a very brief way to present you a background for what I really want to talk about. How about Freemasonry? Under the conditions which now prevail, what has it to say? What can it do?

 

Masonry does not concern itself with partisanship, or with public personalities, and I would be the first to raise my voice in protest, should it attempt to do so. We have no Masonic candidates for office and we write no Masonic platforms for political parties. But if you will find me a degree in Masonry which does not point each and every one of us to civic duty and to civic righteousness, I will petition to be released from the obligation of that degree. There is none.

 

We are all well enough educated in Freemasonry to know that its two fundamental doctrines are the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. They are really one doctrine, for the second flows out of the first just as a river flows out of the springs which feed it. Cannot these two fundamentals of Masonry be interpreted in terms of the present day need - are they only language, simply beautiful theories spun about a system of un-human allegory, and connected up into links forming 32 degrees? Is that your conception? Have these doctrines no practical value to you and to me? Are they incapable of being woven into your life and mine our lives as citizens, as well as individuals? If so, then I would like to resign my entire Masonic membership, for I do not believe that Masonry will live or has a right to live, unless it recognizes that it has a duty to perform and intends to perform it.

 

The monitorial explanations which we give in all our bodies apply principally to personal conduct, and I believe, and believe fervently, that we as individuals strive to take those lessons home and apply them in our lives; I do not think you Brethren who have just completed the thirty-second degree will ever be the same kind of fathers, sons or brothers that you were before this week. If you are, God help you - no one else can. We are taught in the Blue Lodge that the lodge is symbolical of the world, and that the teachings of the degrees apply to us, symbolize that which we should do in the world. Can it be possible that what we do in the world means only our personal and family relationships ? No, no. Those lessons must apply to us as citizens of the world, too, and if they do, then a wider field has been brought in for us to think about than we have heretofore considered.

 

We claim to be builders. If we are builders, we are practical; if we are builders we believe in helping one another and counseling with one another; we believe in the virtues of the builder - they are many, and perhaps a consideration of them would lead us into some strange channels of thought; in our lectures we discuss justice toward our Government; we counsel each and every candidate to be the kind of citizen which that implies. If we study our Masonic system we shall find that from the first degree to the thirty-second the fundamentals of what we now call democracy are written there in characters strong and bold.

 

We claim to be a "progressive science" and a "speculative system." To be progressive means that we give a service which is needful at the time it is needed; science must mean that we exchange ideas with one another in an effort to increase the fund of common knowledge. If we are "speculative," then we must offer a philosophy, something that is worth while to you and to me and something which teaches us, not only what our duties are, but how we ought to carry them out.

 

Our opportunities for this kind of teaching have been much restricted in these latter years. We have had such an inrush of men who desired to be made Masons, and such tremendous influx into our Scottish Rite, that it has taxed the capacity of all our bodies to take care of the degree work. Unfortunately our "work" has suffered, for it has taken but one form, the conferring of degrees. I call the process, as it is now handled, a degree mill. It has any steam roller that was ever started in this country, Masonically or otherwise, beaten by miles. It is going full tilt; you can hear it farther than you can a Ford. And while we are conferring degrees upon all of these candidates, rendering the ritual in a more or less haphazard manner, giving the charges just as fast as the human tongue can spin them out, we are neglecting to tell these initiates anything at all about what Masonry means, or what it stands for in the world. And what is the result ? Your young Mason does not realize that he belongs to anything more than a club ! The only thing about the whole rigmarole that appeals to his imagination and gives him some pride in his membership is the cost of it on the one hand, and the quality of the membership on the other! The quality of the membership is the one element which is really good ! For the rest, he sees so little in it that he comes to lodge for a meeting or two, or maybe ten, and he finds that the lodge, or the chapter, or the consistory is so large that there is no chance for him to take a part in the work, and very soon he begins to go to the movies, instead of coming to lodge.

 

Have we any right to blame him? We who are here are responsible for the acts of this fraternity of ours! Can we honestly say that the fault lies in the initiate? No, the fault lies in our leadership! It is they - and when I say "they" I mean all of us - who had better be doing some serious thinking to find out why it is that an organization conceived in the spirit of Masonry, intended to be the factor in human civilization that Masonry was intended to be, has degenerated until it is pretty nearly fair and honest to call it a "degree mill." It is time to call a halt and find some remedies for our own diseases - elephantiasis in particular.

 

The particular point in all this is that somehow we must find the time to add to the present work of our lodges and other bodies an element which belongs there, which was originally put there by those who conceived the mission of this fraternity, but which we have come to neglect. It is the all important factor which Brother Denfeld has explained to you so lucidly, education.

 

MASONIC EDUCATION MUST BE A FACTOR

 

Education we must have, or the world falls. Education Masons must have, too, for if democracy shall fail in the United States of America, it will fail because Masons are not doing their full duty. Masons were the godfathers of this republic; they were present and took a part in every important step that was taken when the United States of America was an infant among the nations.

 

You cannot tell me that a lodge of Masons would close, that the members would put on the regalia of an Indian tribe, go out into a harbor and dump tea into the ocean unless something had been said in the lodge beforehand about tea! And if tea was discussed in that little old lodgeroom, then another subject, which was just then equally popular, was talked about, and that was taxes! If our forefathers could discuss tea and taxes in a Masonic lodge, and then take the knowledge which they had received there out into the world and apply it as they applied it, then I for one, am willing to learn a lesson from them, even if I have to wear an Indian's uniform to do it. Because I can read in the Masonic ritual, or in the Masonic system, no two words which mean more than those two little words, "civic duty." They are full of dynamite, those words; we ought to be using them. Useless to claim that two million Masons imbued with those words could not work a revolution in the hearts of men! Cowardly, my Brethren, to say that they ought not to use the Masonic conception of justice and brotherhood for the cleansing of our political life.

 

In making this suggestion I do not mean to say that Masons are going to unite to vote for one individual party, or against another party, or talk for one and against another. I mean something entirely different. If every Mason were to let it be known tomorrow morning that he did not intend to vote for any platform that was not one hundred per-cent. American (I use "American" now in its most modern sense), that he was not going to vote for men who were not willing to let it be known that they intended to stand on such a platform; further, men who would let it be known that they would not kow-tow to clericalism in any form - do you think such practices would prevail ? If the two million Masons in America will stand for the principles of Freemasonry and let it be known to every man and woman in their respective neighborhoods that they stand for these principles, then every political platform will be cleansed. Every candidate will be a "He-American." If that is political interference, in an unMasonic sense, make the most of it, and prefer charges against me!

 

"Why ought Masonry to take a stand?" you ask. When saying this I mean that in every Masonic lodge or other Masonic body in America there should be told what Masonry is, and what it stands for in terms of civic duty. It can be so interpreted. And if it is done effectively, every Mason in the country will go out from those meetings an evangel of civic duty, and America will be purified. The manhood of our fraternity is a great moral force; mobilized in behalf of those principles which are common to democracy and Masonry, that force would be irresistible. And that is the kind of an army that we can raise over night, because we have it now.

 

WHAT MASONRY'S CONTRIBUTION COULD AND SHOULD BE

 

The contribution which Masonry can make, because of the unique position which it occupies, and ought to make, in keeping with its historic principles, is not a partisan contribution. It will not deal with legislation calculated to carry its practical philosophy into effect. It ought not and will not espouse the cause of men or parties. What it can and in my humble judgment ought to do is to bring to its own membership a keen, thoughtful appreciation of the underlying principles which are common to representative democracy, as typified in the American Republic, and to this fraternity of ours. Then, by impressing upon our friends and neighbors the real spirit of brotherhood, as exemplified in Freemasonry, we Masons can become the power which we ought to be. This is not departing from our landmarks; it is simply living those landmarks as citizens.

 

Consider what Masonry is, as now organized in the United States. I am not going to use the word "classes" because I hate the word worse than any other in the dictionary. But I will say this: that Masonry today in the United States is a cross-section cut right through our body politic. Our membership represents every phase of religious belief; it represents all shades of political belief; it represents all kinds of men, with all gradations of mental equipment. It represents everybody in America - the best manhood that America can offer.

 

Other agencies have tried and are trying to bring to the American people a more complete realization of what they ought to be doing in the performance of their civic obligations. Unfortunately, whether on account of unwise leadership in these agencies or otherwise, men have lost faith and do not listen to them. The church is among these, I am sorry to say, but statistics prove it to be true. It is but a few short months since a bill was introduced into Congress, the purpose of which was to provide for the Americanization of matured men and women, by means of schools of political economy, etc. That bill had hardly been read by the reading clerk, when someone on one side of the legislative hall gave it a kick, and a member of another party on the other side kicked it back, and it was a political foot-ball in less than two minutes. It is bound to be thus and it cannot be otherwise, when "Americanism," from a legislative viewpoint, must be defined by a political party in the accustomed language of partisanship.

 

Tell me, if you can, what agency there is in this country which has within its organization more than two million men who have had implanted in their minds the basic principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. Name one which has something to say in its philosophy about these problems which face us now. I have faced more than ten thousand men with that question and I have never yet had a response. The fact is that Masonry alone can rightfully claim to have cradled the philosophy of our Republic. In fact there is a very real sense in which Masonry is the parent of the republican idea. While feudalism was still building its castles and the arrogant ecclesiasticism of the middle ages was building its magnificent cathedrals, we find operative Masons caricaturing the autocrats on the back side of angels' heads. The obverse of the benign countenances of the statues in those cathedrals bear the impress of workmen in whose hearts true freedom had been conceived. With such an historic precedent it can be truly said that no other agency in America has a prior right to raise the American flag, with all that it symbolizes, and say, "Under God, this shall not fall." There is not another agency which has its forces drawn together by ties of obligation on a platform which will permit it to do that, and keep the act in perfect harmony with its oldest tradition.

 

Why is this true? It is because of this fact, my brethren: Freemasonry is a living example of the truth that men can "live on the level." It is up to us to prove to America that this is a living fact of existence. That we can do, only by education.

 

HOW MASONRY'S EFFORTS MAY PRODUCE PRACTICAL RESULTS

 

The great question is, "How should that education aim to help the Master Mason of today, and of tomorrow ?" To my mind that education should put into the mouth of every member of our fraternity an answer to the demagog or alien who advocates the over throw of government "of, by and for the people" as we have it in America. The bolshevik who wants to substitute the soviet for what we have, and the socialist who wants to substitute his theory for Americanism can be answered by Masons. For the Mason can poin to his altar and say "In reverence I have pledged my self to be a true man, just to my brother and just to my government. Because I have pledged myself to be just and equitable and fair-minded, and because two million other Masons have pledged themselves in like manner, a great organization of men exists throughout the world, where men meet upon a common level, act by the plumb and part upon the square. A place where discords are silenced, where differences are composed, where problems are settled by the will of the majority, the majority carrying out those policies hand in hand with the minority, on a basis of true brotherhood." And to the world he can say, "If two million in America can do this, then we can educate the rest of our people so that it will be possible for them, too!"

 

The Master Mason of tomorrow can show the democracy of our system. He can point to the Worshipful Master in the East, the greatest autocrat on the face of the earth, theoretically, but in practice one who is on the level with his peers. To the man who advocates that the rule of the minority shall govern the rule of the majority, the Master Mason of tomorrow can point out what happens in a Masonic lodge when a little clique tries to run it. Political methods are quickly invoked in the lodge to overthrow the autocrat. That is the kind of democrats we are, in Masonry !

 

Then how about those who say that a minority may conduct a private war in this country, to the detriment of the majority? Some say that this is a very delicate question; others advise that those who would organize a labor party should be allowed to go on; that they will only prove their own weakness, because only a small proportion of those who labor, either with head or brain, will be represented in such a party; that if you "give them rope enough and they will hang themselves." But this is not enough, my brethren! For even if the reaction proves the truth of the position thus taken, Brotherhood, the Spirit of Brotherhood, cannot accept such a philosophy! There are rights which are just and true involved in these struggles! There are rights which should be obtained by those who have them not, and others which should be retained by those who have them. There are wrongs which must be overcome, too. And if Masonic standards are to prevail, there will be a way by which those rights can be sanely and justly adjudicated.

 

MASONRY AND THE "EIGHT HOUR DAY"

 

We can go further than this in Masonry, and still keep our discussion within the reasonable bounds of Masonic propriety. Organized labor has been and is asking for the establishment of the principle of the eight hour day. Not every laboring man can ask this, because some of our greatest industries, such as the production of foodstuffs, cannot be organized on that basis during the growing season. Its brevity prevents. More than one Mason who has toiled with his hands has pointed to our division of the twenty-four hour day, as supporting his contention. He has that right, my brethren! The philosophy of Masonry does endorse the eight-hour day for work !

 

But if he comes to us for our endorsement, there is another side to it. For our admonition does not end with the mere statement of "eight hours for our usual vocations." We divide the other sixteen hours of the day into two other divisions of eight hours each, and only one of these periods is for his personal and creature comforts - "eight hours for refreshment and sleep." The other eight hours, which Masonry mentions first (mark you that!) belong "to the service of God and a distressed worthy brother! The obligation to this period of effort (if not "labor") is exactly equal to the other two ! And if organized labor will not stop with insisting only that eight hours of labor is enough, but will go one step further and accept the whole of the Masonic admonition and say "not only shall we labor eight hours, but we will devote eight hours to the service of God and a distressed worthy brother," the labor problem will be solved.

 

Apply the same sort of reasoning to the "capitalist" and bring to bear the philosophy of brotherhood to his station in life; insist that he be square and fair, and accept the trusteeship for humanity involved in his position, and we can bring about a kindred result. It is in a forum of brotherhood that our problems are to be solved, if they are solved rightly. And if they are not solved rightly and justly, they are not solved at all. That is what the world must learn, and learn quickly.

 

ANARCHY, SOCIALISM AND THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC

 

When we come to consider the philosophy of government, we find that there are two extremes. On the one hand is anarchy; on the other, socialism. Quite frequently we confuse the two, but we ought not to do so, because they represent the extremes of political philosophy. With anarchy, the right of the individual, his wish and whim are supreme. He is a Sinn Feiner (that means "for himself alone") and he raises his own banner; so long as he is strong enough to uphold that banner, he is right. Then there is the socialist; he raises a banner, too. What is written upon that banner? The State - that indefinable, impersonal thing - is supreme. You are born a part of the State; your life belongs to the State; everything that you have belongs to the State; your efforts must all be directed for the good of the State.

 

To neither the anarchist nor the socialist is a belief in God essential. A conception of God as a Father, loving His children and asking only that we obey His laws as a condition of prosperity and happiness, is superfluous. With the anarchist "Law" means merely the fulfilment of his own desire or whim - the law of the jungle, of the beast, who stakes his all on might. For the socialist the "Law of the State" is supreme. The State, to him, is humanity. If the mob is for a thing, then it is the right of the State, representing the mob, to enforce that thing. That is law. That is right. That is, and must be, supreme.

 

Our forefathers called the form of government which they set up in this country a Republic. "Democracy" does not mean the same as "Republic," but "Representative Democracy" comes very nearly meaning the same as the fathers intended "Republic" to mean. What is a "Republic," Brethren - or a "Representative Democracy," if you please? Study it in the light of the debates which they held in the constitutional convention and you will see that it is the middle path, blazed through the forest primeval, half way between anarchy and socialism - the road along which mankind can march toward a decent, orderly, and lawabiding life. Neither anarchy nor socialism squares with Masonry. But democracy in our American sense does, because your rights leave off where mine begin, and mine end where yours commence.

 

But, more than anarchy, more than socialism, our democracy says that in addition to these selfish rights, we have rights and privileges and duties which are common to us all. These rights and privileges are guaranteed in our Constitution and if history is going to count our Republic a success, then we also have to recognize those responsibilities which we have in common. Law to the anarchist is his supreme will, biased whim; Law to the socialist is the whim of the mob. Law in our republic tempers both these selfish claims, brings the successfully applied principles of the past to bear upon present-day problems, and declares that "as ye use the light which ye have, ye shall progress." Thus a balance is established between the individual and the State. Do not let the State run away with you; do not be so hidebound that law becomes a tyranny and blocks the path of progress. But bring all of these considerations together, and weigh the rights of each; bring all the knowledge and shades of thought to bear upon your problems, and by and by you will find yourselves travelling in that straight and narrow path which our forefathers declared to be the destiny of the American Republic.

 

This was the truth which was so clearly seen and its development visualized by the framers of our Constitution. This conforms to Masonry's "doctrine of the balance." Those passionate patriots, after months of toil, presented a Constitution based on the fundamental doctrine that all men are created free and equal - free in a more liberal sense of the word than had been won from feudal lords, and equal before the law and entitled to equality of opportunity. In clarion tones they proclaimed that by virtue of this Constitution man should henceforth exercise those rights peculiarly concerned with his private home life, unmolested by other men, so long as he lived up to the responsibilities incurred in that relationship. Likewise he was granted the right to worship as he believed was right, and none should say him nay.

 

But over and beyond this freedom of individual life and conduct, was interpreted for every citizen of this Republic, those great rights, those great duties, which should be ours in common. Everywhere was it impressed upon us that the hard-won privileges guaranteed by that Constitution could only be enjoyed, and their enj oyment made permanent, if every citizen watched over them jealously, maintaining them against all comers. We have not appreciated the fact that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." That is no catch phrase. It expounds an awful truth. The eternal struggle of right against wrong, of poverty against riches, of the weak against the strong, of right against privilege is written there. Feudalism fell before the awakened masses of humanity; autocracy has succumbed before the more enlightened masses of humanity; democracy must and will succeed by and through the power of the educated masses of humanity - humanity educated to reverence God, trust His children and work for the redemption of man from his hatreds.

 

The crux of the whole problem is, "what is this Republic?" That is what we must come to know so well that we can interpret it to our neighbors and among our fellow citizens; we must come to know it so well, and appreciate it so keenly that we may, each and every one of us, be a missionary in behalf of it. We must tell our fellow-voters, for example, the difference between what our democracy says about home life and what the anarchist or the socialist says. We must call their attention to the fact that neither the anarchist nor the socialist has a God at all; he is his own God. We have to bring the public opinion of this country to a realization of the fact that these rights which are given to us all are common rights. Somehow we must make Masons realize what that little phrase "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" means, and that if they fail in their public trust, they must pay the price.

 

Socialism might work, if we were all angels. Anarchy would be a success, if we were all devils. MASONRY will work, better and better, as we emerge from the selfish toward brotherhood. What we have to do is to make Masonry work, as it will, if we but say so.

 

THE DOCTRINE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY

 

Need Masons fear to consider the pivotal question, the one around which all the rest revolve? Can Masonry, dare Masonry defend the system of private property? Everywhere we hear men assailing it. I have heard good men and brainy men say that it is a hard thing to defend. Those men have not been thinking; or at least they have not been thinking in Masonic terms. Today it is in Masonic terms that Masons should be thinking. For in my judgment the day has come when Freemasonry's real contribution to civilization is about to be made. Out of the dim past this heritage of ours has been brought down to us, a heritage of principles which have a bearing upon the distorted and tangled thought of the day.

 

If we are not going to defend the system of the private ownership of property, then we will have to abandon our building symbolism, because that building symbolism goes back in the history of man, to that time when he first built a fireside and said "This is mine; this woman is mine; these children are mine; I am going to nourish them, and I hold in my hand an instrument of death, with which anyone who assails them is going to be struck." And at the same time that he built that fireside, he built an altar, and he said "This, too, will I protect and defend at the peril of my life." And, brethren, remember that, whether a man goes to church or not, is no indication as to what kind of an altar he has erected in his heart. Every right thinking man has an altar, and every right thinking man is going to defend it. From that day until now, Masons have been builders, and if we are going to surrender the system of private property, then we must abandon our whole building symbolism, for we admonish our newly initiated builder to work with "skill, industry and zeal." We bring him to appreciate the meaning of thrift, of foresight, of permanency and durability. In other words, we show him that Freemasonry recognizes the existence of great moral virtues, and that those moral virtues are the foundation of the system of private property. And we press it home to him, if more is necessary to convince him, by offering him wages for work well done.

 

Nor do you need to stop here. Study your ritual and your charges. You will find that Masonry brings you something in its discussion of the building of Solomon's Temple; something which does not mean slavery in any form, but does mean that men work together, on a basis of Brotherhood, for the common end; a system which provides for the Master of the Work, the Overseer, the Fellow Craft and the Apprentice; a system which recognizes gradations on the basis of capacity and knowledge; which consistently endeavors by teaching to raise all to the level of the highest; and which upholds as its ideal definition of the true man and the true Mason, he who best conforms to the phrase "who best can work and best agree."

 

The other thing which we will have to abandon if we are going to throw private property into the discard and say that it belongs to all is the belief in the God whom we worship at our fireside and at our altar. The world knows that we adhere to this belief. Each and every one of us knows it, for we declare it in unequivocal terms when we enter a Masonic lodge. No godless political philosophy for us! No overthrowing of men's altars for the Mason ! You cannot believe in the Brotherhood which Masonry proclaims, unless you believe in the Fatherhood upon which it is based. Without God there is no such thing as a true Brotherhood. Without God there are no moral virtues. The Mason is not afraid to meet the issue squarely, for if he understands his Masonry truly, he does believe in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. He knows too, what that doctrine has meant through the centuries, and his whole Masonic system is an evidence of what has been won for mankind through the gradual dissemination of that doctrine.

 

MASONRY WILL NEVER ABANDON ITS LANDMARKS

 

Those who are offering their fanciful panaceas in exchange for the rights and privileges which the Constitution of the United States guarantees to us are trying to have us abandon the progress of the centuries for some theoretical thing which leaves out God and these moral virtues. They have a great responsibility upon their shoulders, and that responsibility is not so much to us as to the God who put them here. If they offer it ignorantly, the more need for us to promote education; if they do it through selfishness and hate, then so much the harder must we advocate our Law of Love, of Brotherhood.

 

For as Masons we will have to accept a large part of the responsibility for the settlement of these problems. The knowledge imparted by our system forges for us a chain of duty to civilization. What we need is to be inspired again with that enthusiasm and love of humanity which inspired the fathers of this country when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. What we need to do now is to show the world that Masonry upholds the principles which were written into the fundamental documents of this Republic, and does not stand for hurling man back into the abyss whence he emerged in the dawn of history. Builders we must be, builders of a Temple; not only "the temple, the house not made with hands," the character of the individual Mason, but builders we must be of a combined character for our Nation. That we have not yet accomplished. Mistakes we have made. We have not yet reached the ideal. But we Masons are awake now. Masons of the past were the makers of America. We of the present, challenged to meet the needs of a new world crisis, are going to be the upholders of the America which they founded. Join hands North, South, East and West, to proclaim anew that human brotherhood, our ideal for centuries past, shall yet pervade America, shall yet acknowledge the Fatherhood of God, and no matter who tries to tear down that ideal now, we, Masons, Patriots, believers in the destiny of our country, will fight to uphold that which has been won, and make right and truth and justice prevail for all men - our Brothers.

 

------o-----

 

DUTY

 

BY BRO. N.W.J. HAYDON, ONTARIO

 

Behold now Duty. How austere thou art.

To those who keep thy light shining within their souls

Thy gifts are sorrows deep, and joys so keen

They seem to pierce the heart.

 

Thy flowing robe's ensanguined with spent lives

Of martyrs, patriots, toilers, young and old.

Thy hood, of heaven's own blue - thy native place -

Is all bestrewed with flashing gems,

The tears of agony endured at thy behest.

 

Oh Duty; how hardly may we win to thy serenity,

Thy storm-encircled peace, how barred from man;

Pain at the heart and trembling at the knee,

Tears that burn to flow and lips white with resolve,

And cries unuttered, heard of God alone,

Then, above all, a soul that smiles and will not

Let its woes be known.

 

Surely thou art that World's Desire of old,

And we, like Ulysses, will meet the hidden swords

And risk the all-restraining grip of death

That we may gaze, unhindered, on thy face.

 

-----o-------

 

PARTNERS HERE

 

If you have made the fortune of the soul

Your heart will smile as life collects its toll,

And as you hand it out to bless and cheer

'Twill say to you, well done, we're partners here!

 

- L.B.M.

 

-----o-----

 

We do not count a man's years, until he has nothing else to count

- Emerson.

 

AMERICANIZATION WORK IN CINCINNATI

 

BY BRO. JOHN LEWIN, MCLEISH, OHIO

 

 

A FEW YEARS ago there stood over in the Mohawk District of Cincinnati, Ohio, a large tenement house of four stories built like a flatiron, overcrowded with foreigners sleeping eight and ten in a room, on the ground floor a saloon known as "Rosen's Cafe." The neighborhood was a tough one and it was hardly safe for a stranger to venture at night into the purlieus of the old Mohawk lest perchance he fall foul of the Mohawk Gang, a band of young American Apaches possessed of slight sympathy even for the curious investigator.

 

Presently came the war time and our attention was more earnestly directed to the needs and conditions of the foreign-born within our midst. The vanquishment of John Barleycorn compelled many a dispenser of wet goods to retire from business and whoever "Rosen" was, he too, followed the large army of ex-bonifaces, and the flatiron building, bereft of its liquid and gambling attractions, soon emptied itself and stood a silent monument of the days when the working man gambled and drank his week's wages away on the one Saturday night which represented his heaven.

 

Downtown in the big skyscrapers a little band of men representing all the civic organizations of Cincinnati had formed themselves into an Americanization Executive Committee with the objective of developing a semblance of Americanism among the large foreign population of the city. The problem confronting them was a formidable one. Of "enemy-aliens" - Germans, Austrians and Hungarians - there was a plentitude in Cincinnati. Of Roumanians, Czecho-Slovaks, Syrians, Serbians, Italians and Russians, veritable armies were scattered in different parts of the city, many of them hitherto utterly neglected, living in overcrowded habitations, unable to speak any language but their own, victims of consequent exploitation and injustice, shunted from pillar to post with little outlook for the future but a reversion to even more trying conditions.

 

The first task of the Americanization Executive Committee was the accomplishment of a thorough survey of Cincinnati's foreign-born by volunteer workers under the supervision of Dr. Randall J. Condon, Superintendent of Public Schools and Chairman of the Committee. This very thorough combing process definitely located the various foreign groups, - the Roumanians, Serbians and Hungarians in the heart of the Mohawk, the Russians, over a thousand and mostly of Jewish persuasion farther downtown about Clinton, Richmond, Barr, Ninth and other west-end streets; the Syrians in the neighborhood of the river front, and Pearl and Third Sts.; the Italians along Sixth Street and up into Kenton and Boone Sts., and so on, until one could glance at the card index compiled by the Committee and pick out his foreign group and individual at will.

 

Money was not wanting. The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and other Civic organizations practically poured their contributions into the War Chest of the Council of Social Agencies, providing funds for seventy different eleemosynary institutions and making liberal allotment therefrom to the work of the Americanization Executive Committee. With Dr. Condon's cooperation, night classes were formed in the public schools teaching English, Civics, American History, Federal, State and Municipal Governmental Principles, and above all, Americanism. The foreign born had been discovered in Cincinnati.

 

The classes were crowded. Some of the finest public schools in the city were at night buzzing beehives, for the foreign born. Splendidly competent teachers gave of their very best, imbued with enthusiasm at the task before them.

 

Still the Americanization Executive Committee was far from satisfied. Closer inspection of our guests from overseas had demonstrated that the foreigner is not such a bad fellow after all when you know him and break beneath the crust of his reserve. Once win his confidence and he will meet you half way. Convince him that there is something better ahead than the endless drudgery and exploitation of which he has been more than once a victim, and perhaps before you anticipate, he will have abandoned his dream of home-going and conclude that America after all is the best place in the world to live in, has more to offer for the individual, and by becoming a near-American his future assures an independence, and well-being quite impossible of attainment overseas. You have discovered a prospective American citizen.

 

It was the very worth-whileness of work among the foreign born that led the Americanization Executive Committee to the conclusion that these folks ought to have a club-house of their own, a hospitality house as it were, where group might meet group, old-world racial antipathies be quite forgotten, and Hungarian and Serb, Italian and Austrian, German and American, Roumanian and Russian, foregather under one roof and enjoy in common some of the things America has to offer from her plentitude. And so behold what was once Rosen's Cafe, dispenser of forgetfulness and instructor in craps, now a remodelled and up-to-date community center, on the ground floor an auditorium, a bathing plant, a men's lounging room and kitchen, above stairs a poolroom, ladies' rest room, music room, library, and director's offices. Some transformation this from the halcyon days of Rosen.

 

The first year's expense of The American House was approximately $13,900, a mere bagatelle when you consider just how many of Cincinnati's foreign born became acquainted, not alone with themselves, but also some very representative Americans. Friendships were cemented in the little tea-room when the leaders of the different groups came as guests to meet the Americanization Executive Committee who had made this big clubhouse a reality. Some of the finest ladies of the Queen City of the West came from the suburbs to meet these new found friends and their wives, established a calling acquaintance in the homes of the foreign born, sat beside them in the big auditorium, appeared with their husbands in the big Federal Court Room on naturalization days, and after the Judge had given them the glad hand of fellowship and citizenship, pinned upon the lapels of their coats the little American flags which showed them to all the world to be "one of us."

 

Much was accomplished in the first year of existence of The American House. Much remains to be done. We have but touched the crust.

 

An idea of our activities may be gleaned from a recent report. In February we had ten entertainments all by high class volunteer talent, each followed by substantial refreshments, practically donated. There were two especial celebrations of Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays with very excellent addresses by prominent local officials, followed by movies. A class in Citizenship and History is in session each Sunday afternoon from three to five o'clock, for those who cannot attend night school and yet would learn, taught by a young University man. Two sessions in English are given on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 7:30 to 9:30 o'clock. A mother's Sewing Class, Crochet Class, an American House Men's Club, international in membership, an American House Orchestra of seventeen pieces, all made up of kiddies splendidly trained, a Betsy Ross Club of neighborhood women - these are only a few of our activities. In the daytime we handle the individual cases. A Russian daddy wants to bring his three children from that dismal land of unrest. He has not seen them for fifteen years. We are trying our best to help him get them across. A German has paid $1,400.00 for a mythical piece of land for which the man who collected in weekly installments has refused to surrender the deed. A volunteer lawyer is handling the case. Numerous individuals want to go back home. We make their preparation as easy as possible. Others we instruct in how to get their first papers, how to complete the process.

 

A young Roumanian Lieutenant, with an A. B. and E. E. is stranded in Cincinnati. We find him a job in a high class industrial plant here, twenty minutes after his appearance, also find him a place to eat and sleep in a private home. Quick action this. Our daytime is devoted to the individual and it is through this personal contact and the making of a friend that we are able to impress upon him the importance of studying English, the first requisite for the future American in later studying Civics and good government, and then qualifying fully for that greatest thing in the world, American citizenship.

 

Ours is a hard job. Sometimes we fell pretty pessimistic, for it is a constant grind from nine A. M. to nine P. M., but then when your foreign born American friends drift into the auditorium and evince their profound approbation of the program you have been at pains to procure, when the women with their shawls come crowding into the evening classes and want to stay until ten or later, it is a downright satisfaction to feel that your clientele are interested.

 

Yes, the foreigner has been discovered in Cincinnati.

 

THE ROYAL ORDER OF SCOTLAND

 

BY BRO. CHARLES S. LOBINGIER, CHINA

 

 The Royal Order of Scotland occupies, in Scotch Masonry, a place corresponding to the Order of the Temple (Knights Templar) in the so-called York Rite of American Masonry.  Each is the culminating order of its respective rite and each is open to those only who have received the degrees of symbolic lodge and chapter.  Moreover, while their legends and symbolism differ widely, each is largely a Christian order.

 

Indeed the legend of the first degree (Heredom of Kilwinning) of the Royal Order, carries it back to the Culdees who introduced Christianity into Scotland; while the legend of its other degree (Rosy Cross) connects it with Robert Bruce and the gory field of Bannockburn where Masonic soldiers, who fought under that famous king, are alleged to have earned from him the reward of Knighthood in the form of this Order which they were privileged in their Grand Lodge to pass on to their successors.

 

The battle of Bannockburn was fought on June 24 (Summer St. John's Day), 1314, just a year after the widespread persecutions of the Templars had culminated in the tragic death, at the stake, of their last Grand Master, Jacques de Molai, "on a little island of the Seine" in Paris.  There are other legends which connect these two events and which tell of Templars who fled from those persecutions to Scotland, joined the army of Robert Bruce and helped him to win his great victory.

 

Passing, however, to quote "our Masonic Thucy-dides" (1)  . . . from fable to fact (and the Royal Order (2) has probably no more than its share, among the high grade orders, of fable) the tradition which connects it with the Masonry of France appears to have a basis of fact.  For Gould traces the Royal Order to an English Provincial Grand Chapter existing before 1750 of which he says that "there can be little if any doubt that it was an echo of French Scots Masonry"; (3) while another learned authority (4) has expressed the opinion that the parent English Grand Chapter "was an offshoot of the Emperors' Rite of Perfection or Heredom."

 

CONNECTION WITH THE SCOTTISH RITE

 

As both of these phases of eighteenth-century French Masonry were forerunners (5) of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, it will be seen how close is the connection in origin between the latter and the Royal Order of Scotland.  This is further illustrated by resemblances in the rituals, especially the phraseology, and it was doubtless that historic connection which attracted the great Masonic student, Albert Pike, and led him to establish the Royal Order of Scotland in the United States and to become its first Provincial Grand Master there.  For the same reason the Scottish Rite student of today will find more of interest in these quaint and curious degrees (6) of the Royal Order, and is better equipped to understand and appreciate them, than the devotees of any other Rite.  In the United States the Provincial Grand Masters following Albert Pike, have continued to be Scottish Rite dignitaries (7) and candidates are rarely if ever received into the Royal Order there who are not 32 degree Masons.  The Provincial Grand Lodge of the United States assembles annually; in the odd years at the same time and place as the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, and in the even years with that of the Northern Jurisdiction, thus keeping in close touch with the leaders of the Rite throughout the country.  The degrees of the Royal Order are conferred only while a Supreme Council is in session, and the participants in the work, as well as the candidates, are active and usually prominent Scottish Rite Masons. But by the transplantation of the Royal Order to the Philippines the Scottish Rite Masons here who are eligible will have the opportunity of receiving its degrees at home - a privilege not enjoyed by their brethren of the United States.

 

EXPANSION

 

According to Gould (8) the Royal Order took root in Scotland after the middle of the eighteenth century. In legend and symbolry it is still Scotch and appeals no less strongly for that reason to thousands of American and other Masons whose ancestry harks back to the "bonnie braes" of Caledonia. (9) The King of Scotland is acclaimed as hereditary Grand Master (in succession to Robert Bruce) and at every Royal Order meeting a chair is kept vacant in the east for him. Traditionally, too, the Order was composed at first entirely of Scotchmen and limited to sixty-three, (10) evidently as the product of the sacred numbers 9 and 7. But this, if anything more than tradition, did not long continue, for as early as 1786 a Provincial Grand Lodge was erected in France (11) which, within a quarter of a century, came to comprise twenty-six subordinate lodges and chapters, including two in the French colonies, two in Italy and one in Belgium. (12)

 

Other Provincial Grand Lodges have since been erected as follows:

 

Glasgow and West of Scotland                        1859

New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince

Edward Island                        1863

The Open Ports of China and the Colony

of Hong Kong                        1865

Western India                        1870

London and the Metropolitan Counties                        1872

Lancashire and Cheshire                        1874

Ontario and Quebec                        1875

United States of America                        1877

Aberdeenshire                        1883

Natal                        1885

Yorkshire                        1886

Northumberland, Durham, and Cumberland                        1893

Cape Colony                        1893

Canton of Geneva                        1893

 

In addition to the foregoing there are Provincial Grand Lodges of Hongkong and South China and of the Straits Settlements while a Provincial Grand Lodge of the Philippines has just been constituted.  Thus the Royal Order has spread to nearly every continent, encircling the globe and, from a national organization in a small country, has become more cosmopolitan, probably, than any other branch of Masonry except the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.  Like the premier Grand Lodge of England that of the Royal Order has its branches in many lands, but unlike the former the latter retains its direct connection and control as regards all the bodies which have emanated from it.  As the Provincial Grand Master of the United States observed in his address at the dinner above referred to, the Grand Lodge of the Royal Order is the only grand body of Great Britain which now exercises authority over a Masonic body in the United States.  And this unique position enables it to establish and preserve a connection between Scotch Masonry and that of other countries.  Nay more, in the Far East it is thus afforded a special opportunity, as the connecting link between the Scotch and American crafts, to use its good offices toward removing the unfortunate misunderstanding which has temporarily - let us hope no more- estranged the governing bodies of Capitular Masonry in the two countries.

 

That would be an achievement worth while and that alone would justify the extension of the Royal Order to the Philippines.  But it is hoped also thereby to render available here those rewards for Masonic service which Bro. Fensch, in the article already quoted, mentions as being offered in certain other provinces. "Indeed," he says, "at the present time members of the Royal Order of Scotland in the British colonies of China and South Africa, and possibly some of the other Provincial Grand Lodges, are given the prestige and honours usually accorded to Masons of the 33 degree and highest degree of the Scottish Rite." But these provinces, he further says, it must be remembered, "restrict the membership to . . . those who have become distinguished in Masonic work in the Orient."

 

PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE OF THE PHILIPPINES

 

The charter for a Provincial Grand Lodge of the Philippines was issued some time since but no action was taken thereunder until the writer had visited the United States and ascertained from Provincial Grand Master, George M. Moulton, of the Provincial Grand Lodge of the United States, that such a course would be agreeable to him.  Both he and the other officers of that Grand Lodge manifested a broad and truly Masonic attitude in the matter, recognizing that it was entirely within the discretion of the Grand Lodge at Edinburgh and that, while the Philippines are American territory, their distance renders it more convenient and conducive to the welfare of the order to establish a Provincial Grand Lodge there.

 

Such a generous attitude having removed all obstacles the event was auspiciously consummated on the evening of March 15, 1920, at the new Masonic Temple in Manila.  The two degrees of Heredom of Kilwinning and Rosy Cross were conferred in full, and in the interval between them the company repaired to one of Manila's famous restaurants, near by, where a substantial repast, marked by much good fellowship, was partaken of.

 

The charter was then read and the newly obligated members requested to express their choice for officers by formal ballot.  The charter left their selection to the Provincial Grand Master but it was deemed better for the new body, and more calculated to start it with enthusiasm, to invite a formal expression from the members.  The balloting was accompanied by much good feeling, and the officers chosen include some of the most active and prominent members of the Craft in the Philippines.  Thus the Deputy Grand Master is a 33 degree Mason and is now Junior Grand Warden of the symbolic Grand Lodge of the Philippines of which body also the new Provincial Senior Grand Warden of the Royal Order is a Past Grand Master and at present, Grand Secretary.  The roster of officers below Provincial Grand Master is as follows:

 

Frederic H. Stevens, Provincial Dep.  Grand Master. Newton C. Comfort, Provincial Grand Sen. Warden. J. Frank Brown, Provincial Grand Junior Warden. Warren W. Weston, Provincial Grand Secretary. Aziz T. Hashin, Provincial Grand Treasurer Eugene A. Perkins, Provincial Grand Chaplain. Victor Hall, Provincial Grand Sword Bearer. Amos D. Haskell, Provincial Grand Banner Bearer. John J. Riehl, Provincial Grand Steward Frank Towle, Provincial Grand Steward. Elmer Jeen, Provincial Grand Guarder.

 

After the ballots had been taken the principal officers were, installed and formal proclamation was made that the Provincial Grand Lodge of the Philippines had now been constituted. Some business was then transacted, not the least important of which was the unanimous adoption of a resolution of thanks to M.'. W.'. James H. Osborne, Past Provincial Grand Master for the open ports of China, whose friendly and fraternal interest in the new Philippine body was one of the strong factors in securing its charter.

 

Profoundly appreciated also, was the Resolution recommended by Provincial Grand Master Moulton and adopted by the Provincial Grand Lodge of the United States as follows:

 

"Resolved, that the Provincial Grand Lodge of the Royal Order of Scotland for the United States of America heartily approves of the action of the Grand Lodge at Edinburgh for the formation of a Provincial Grand Lodge of the R.O.S. to be located at Manila in the Philippine Islands, and the appointment of Bro. Charles Sumner Lobingier to be the first Provincial Grand Master thereof.

 

"We hail the addition of this new offspring to our parent body with great joy, and extend to it a most cordial welcome into fraternal relations, expressing for its membership, now and hereafter, our earnest wishes for the perpetuity and prosperity of their undertaking, and the fervent hope that its good works may be in evidence until the end of time."

 

The "Ides of March" will long be remembered as red letter day in the annals of the old Royal Order in new field.

 

(1) Gould History of Freemasonry, III, 75.  See THE BUILDER I, 125.

 

(2) Woodford (Cyclopedia of Freemasonry, 586), (1878), was "quite prepared to concede it a considerable antiquity as a high grade."

 

(3) History of Freemasonry, III, 76.  On page 92 of the same volume he says: "It cannot be too strongly insisted upon, that all so-called Scottish Masonry has nothing whatever to do with the Grand Lodge of Scotland, nor, with one possible exception - that of the Royal Order of Scotland - did it ever originate in that country.  If we add to this rite that of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of 33 degree, we may even maintain that none of the Scots degrees were at any time practised in Scotland.  As a slight mark of distinction I shall therefore, whenever possible, allude to these degrees as Scots and not Scottish." (4) Allgemaines Handbuch der Freimaurerei, (Leipsic, 1863- 79) s.v. Heredom. (5) Gould, History of Freemasonry, III, 92, 93, 129. (6) One of the attractive features is that the Ritual is partly in rhyme. (7) The present Provincial Grand Master in the United States is Bro. George M. Moulton, 33 degree, who is also an Honourary Member of the Supreme Council of the Northern Jurisdiction as well as prominent in all other branches of Masonry. (8) History of Freemasonry, III, 76. (9) At the annual dinner of the Royal Order which it was the writer's privilege to attend in Washington, Oct. 16, 1917, Scotch dishes were served, Scotch airs played, (partly with a bagpipe), the program cover design included a thistle, and one of the speakers was a Scratch General, lately from Flanders fields. (10) Bro. Albert Fensch, formerly of the Philippines, and who received the degrees of the Royal Order in Hongkong, wrote an article on the subject for the Texas Freemason (reprinted in the American Tyler-Keystone for September, 1915) in which he said: "The Provincial Grand Lodges of Hongkong, South China and Straits settlements still restrict the membership to sixty-three and they of those who have become distinguished in Masonic work in the Orient." (11) Gould, History of Freemasonry, III, 76, 161. (12) Thory, Annales Originis, 173.

 

THE MISSION OF VOLTAIRE

 

BY BRO. GILBERT PATTEN BROWN, NEW JERSEY

 

 The American and French Revolutions were the hopes of nineteen hundred years.  There was born at Chatinay, France, on February 20, 1694, a sickly and very small child - one of the most unique souls since the birth of Jesus, the Redeemer of men. No Gabriel heralded his birth, nor did "wise men" from far off countries come to his mother's bedside with costly offerings of significant homage, yet great was his mission among the "children of men." Francois Marie Arout De Voltaire, whose "Brutus" was played in the Colosseum at Rome, lived at a time when the world needed a reformer such as it had not seen since Paul preached at Athens, or Luther was in his spiritual gradient.

 

Voltaire was the forerunner of the Declaration of Independence. Such great philosophers, patriots, and seers as Paine, Jefferson, Franklin, Rush, Sherman, and Thornton were students of that lover of Shakespeare, Voltaire.  Paine was on the staff of Major General (Brother) Nathaniel Greene, of the Revolutionary Army.  He studied Voltaire and wrote essays of liberty by torch light on the drum-heads of the Continental host.  The seed-thoughts of the Declaration of Independence came from this student of Voltaire and were sent by Col. Richard Henry Lee on horseback to Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia in 1776, - just previous to July the 4th. In those days all the world was a stage as it is today, and the greatest of actors was this son of France.  So we will now view him as a playwright upon the great stage of life.

 

When wicked France awoke to the splendid genius of Shakespeare, Voltaire was in a rage.  He said that this Shakespeare, so savage, and so low, had some naturalness and sublimity, but that he had ruined the English theatre.  To a large extent this was true.

 

Voltaire's comedies and tragedies were among his most important works.  After Shakespeare's plays had received high honours in Paris, Voltaire in a letter to the Academy urged the claims of the French stage.  These claims were so strong that they awakened the most enthusiastic feeling, and as a result Voltaire's classic, "Irene," was given by the actors of the Comedie Francaise to illustrate the power of the French stage.

 

It was a memorable performance.  The great men of letters were present, Voltaire was carried on the shoulders of some of the audience and taken to his box amid cries of admiration for their "dear idol." During the wild scenes of enthusiasm as the evening advanced the author was crowned with laurel. Voltaire had now reached the age of 84 years, and this homage was grateful to him.  He only lived three months after this.

 

One of his tragedies was "Brutus," that was never played many times in France.  But when the French occupied Rome it was decided to give this work where there would be plenty of local colour.

 

The tragedy was given in the Colosseum. In order to make the stage setting perfect in detail the statue of Pompey at the feet of which "great Caesar fell," was transported to that historic spot and the Caesar of Voltaire fell where the great Caesar had fallen.  This statue of Pompey is in the Spada palace, not far from the Farnese.  It was found in front of the Basiliea, and the spot corresponds exactly with what one of the earliest historians says in regard to its removal by Augustus from the Curia.

 

The head of the statue was under a house, and the body was under another near by.  As neither of the house owners would give up his portion, Pope Julius III stepped in and bought both sections.  It was Cardinal Capodiferro who was active in bringing the matter of the quarrel to the Pope, and after its purchase Julius III presented it to the Cardinal, who owned the Spada palace.  At the time it was taken to the Colosseum to assist in Voltaire's "Brutus," the right arm was broken. It was, however, restored.  The figure is about nine feet in height and the face handsome, yet stern.

 

On the day of the old tragedy Caesar had been warned that there was a plot against him, and his wife implored him not to go to the senate.  But Brutus laughed at him for his prudence, and his litter took him there.  When he reached the hall of the senate the conspirators crowded around him as he moved to his seat. One of them came very near him and presented a petition for the pardon of his brother. Some of the others crowded nearer and grasped his hands and tried to put their arms around his neck, as if in supplication for this pardon. At first Caesar pushed them lightly back; then as they still pressed forward he used all his strength - for he saw the danger that threatened him.

 

Then the Roman who had asked for the pardon of his brother caught Caesar's toga and threw it around both his arms to make him helpless. And from  behind one of the conspirators stabbed at his shoulder. Caesar boldly caught at the handle of the dagger and still fought, as they thrust at him with their weapons; he even wounded one of them in his desperate effort to protect himself. But suddenly he saw Brutus pressing forward with the others, a sharp blade in his upraised hand.

 

"What! thou, too, Brutus!" he cried, and struggled no longer. He drew his robe over his face and they stabbed him till their daggers ran with blood. He reeled a little but was kept from falling for a few moments by the blows of the weapons. Then he fell at the feet of Pompey's statue, which was splashed with the blood of great Caesar.

 

The world needed a playwright - and Voltaire was heaven sent. Plays have their parts in the great subtotal of things. In his plays we seem to see Paul writing to Timothy that future generations might profit thereby - and at death Voltaire could have said as Paul did, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." - (II Tim.  IV, 7.)

 

I fully know the value of plays to the human heart. I have written them and have been an actor myself, so I fancy I see Voltaire anew in this light. Voltaire could have written even better ones than he did write had he been initiated into the mysteries of Masonry thirty years before he was given light in the world's greatest Democratic and Republican institution.

 

At the breaking out of the war of the American Revolution the record book of Masonic lodges in both Europe and America were full of the names of the leading men of civilization.  In America there were many lodges of note in Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and New York whose memberships consisted of the foremost men of the day.  But it was in Paris, France, that existed the world's most cosmopolitan lodge of the universal brotherhood, that of the Nine Sisters (named in honour of nine nuns, whose religious lives were worthy of emulation by all rational thinkers).

 

It was while our American Army lay in the snowbound huts of Valley Forge that Voltaire became closely associated with the chief diplomat and philosopher of the American Revolution - Benjamin Franklin, Senior Warden of the celebrated French Lodge.  On April 7, 1778, while all France applauded the cause of the American Colonies and that great Mason and patriot, General Steuben, was drilling and preparing the Army to whip the British in the next great battle, on the arm of Franklin slowly marched the great playwright Voltaire into the lodge room of the Nine Sisters, there to be made a Master Mason in "due, ancient and ample form." There had assembled upon that sublime occasion many of the great men of all walks and professions of life of Paris and vicinity.  It was truly a "gathering of the gods." Here the priest and the peasant sat side by side - the Deist and sectarian "met upon the level and parted upon the square."

 

Voltaire was the Shakespeare of the day.  Upon the foyer of membership were the names of fourteen clergymen, nine of whom were priests of the Society of the Jesuits. They were thinking men and longed for the good things of life.  Voltaire smiled upon his entrance. The ritual of Masonry found a warm welcome in the heart of the greatest soul of many centuries. At the close of the work Franklin and the rest admitted that they had learned more from Voltaire than they had imparted to him.  At a later period such of his admirers as Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Thomas Paine, Robert R. Livingston, John Paul Jones and Robert Fulton visited the world's most unique lodge of Craft Masonry.

 

Voltaire was once headed for the Bastile by the powers of Stall, which was nothing short of the glove-covered hand of the French Jesuit as backed up by the "Holy Father" on the Tiber in Rome. Many Masons and freethinkers met their deaths at the hands of those creedmongers and political experts of France as the Revolution was about to burst upon the people.  Voltaire had to leave his native land or die in the Bastile. He took refuge in the land of Cromwell where he remained three years and was the lion of all literary societies in that country.

 

Voltaire broke the fetters of superstition for all time to come.  He was the greatest Deist in world history.  He died in Paris, May 30th, 1778, loved and lamented by the greatest minds of his generation.  Those of today whose intellects are large enough in all climes and countries to fully appreciate the great branches of the tree of universal liberty should bow in sacred reverence to the immortal name of Voltaire.

 

The Jesuits stole his remains from their earthly resting place.  Like the bones of his admirer, Thomas Paine, "no man knoweth" where they are.

 

Every great soul has a mission on this mortal plane - that of Voltaire was to teach the world the difference between religion and sectarianism.  His philosophy was congenial with the teachings of the ritual of Freemasonry.  While the tides of the seven seas ebb and flow twice in each twenty-four hours, and the minds of the children of men remain sane, as only a few of them do in these fleeting, morbid and aggressive times, Voltaire will be considered the greatest mind of a score of centuries.

 

NOTES ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF MASONIC RANKS

 

BY BRO. SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK, ENGLAND

 

IV. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY PRACTlCE

 

WHAT can we infer from our documents as to the actual usage of the later Middle Ages? I submit, with all due reserve and subject to correction or new information, that it was something like this. Any qualified fellow of the craft may take a contract if he can find an employer to intrust him with the work and companions to work under him. So long as the building is in progress, be the time longer or shorter, he is "governor of the work" and called master, but strictly master only of the lodge he has formed for that special undertaking (there is no election of a master by the lodge in the purely operative period, except possibly, one may guess, if the master dies or is disabled before the work is finished). (42) In order to obtain the permanent rank of Master he must be approved and certified in a general assembly. We have seen that the proceedings were public, and that public officers were present who were not members of the craft. It is therefore most improbable that any new secrets were then and there imparted to the approved master; indeed it is hard to see what more he can have had to learn.

 

Now let us turn again to the statement in the Cooke MS. about the examination of masters. It is not a common form; the author whose work our scribe copied must have made it with a purpose. It looks as if he thought the practice of examination had been unduly relaxed, and wished to reinforce it by the mythical authority of King Athelstan, or it may be that he objected to the methods of new unionism (to use a modern phrase) whereby the congregations fell foul of Parliament, and intended to give his companions a hint that it was better to stick to their ancient office of keeping up the technical standard. Again he may have had some personal interest in the fees paid by masters on appro