The Builder Magazine
May 1926 - Volume XII - Number 5
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What Shall We Say?
The Hiramic Legend and the Mediaeval Stage - A Discussion in Three Parts - BY BRO. ERNEST E. THIEMEYER, Missouri - PART II--THE LIVING LEGEND (Concluded from April)
Masonry's National Campaign Against Tuberculosis - By BRO. HERBERT B. HOLT, Grand Master of New Mexico
The Craft in the 18th Century The "Moderns," 1717, and the " Antients," 1751 - BY BRO. ARTHUR HEIRON, England
The Quaker General - By BRO. WILLIAM M. STUART
The Roberts Constitutions of 1722 - By BRO. J. HUGO TATSCH, Associate Editor, Iowa
Great Men Who Were Masons - Nathaniel Prentiss Banks - By BRO. GEORGE W. BAIRD, P.G. M., District of Columbia
The Comacines and Masonry - By BROS. A. L. KRESS AND R. J. MEEKREN
SELECTION OF OFFICERS
EDITORIAL
THE COST ACCOUNT
ROSE CROIX
The Form of the Lodge - By BROS. A. L. KRESS AND R. J. MEEKREN
THE LIBRARY
WHO WAS HIRAM ABIFF?
ARS QUATUOR CORONATORUM Vol. XXXVI Part 3
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOMERSET MASTERS LODGE, No. 3746
TRANSACTIONS OF THE HUMBER INSTALLED MASTERS LODGE, No. 2494
SYMBOLISM OF FREEMASONRY, OR MYSTIC MASONRY AND THE GREATER MYSTERIES OF ANTIQUITY
THE QUESTION BOX and CORRESPONDENCE
THE CONSTITUTIONS OF FREDERICK THE GREAT
SOME DIFFICULT QUESTIONS
THE DIMENSIONS OF THE TEMPLE
THE LAST RITES
THE DATE OF KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE
A VOICE FROM THE GRAVE
BOOKS WANTED
YE EDITOR'S CORNER
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What Shall We Say?
WE, the sick Masons of Ft. Bayard Hospital, together with the personnel who are members of the Sojourners' Club, herewith tender to the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association our personal and voluntary contributions, totaling $133.50, for the purpose of helping our brethren who are also afflicted with tuberculosis.
"Although we are unfortunate in that we are sick with the great white plague we count ourselves more fortunate than other victims of this disease, because we are in a hospital receiving the care and treatment necessary to give us a chance for life. Because we can realize more than any healthy Mason can understand that hospital care means hope of cure for us and restoration to our loved ones, we want to help our sick brethren who are trying to get well with little or no help from our Fraternity.
"Our contribution may seem small, but it is an average of $1.30 per capita, and if all American Freemasons would contribute an equal amount, it would mean a speedy beginning to what we, because of our affliction and suffering, realize is the greatest opportunity for Masonic service today.
"Some of us must die, but many of us will recover and resume our family and other responsibilities because we have been cared for in this hospital. We ask our brethren who are enjoying the blessings of health and some measure of material success to join with its in the effort to give Masonic aid and comfort to our fellow-victims of tuberculosis. We raise our hands and make the sign of distress, not for ourselves, but for our brethren in Masonry who are also on)- brethren in sickness and suffering. Who will answer the call for aid?"
The sick Masons of Fort Bayard.
A HANDFUL of men in a hospital have contributed towards the work of assisting their brethren, sufferers like themselves from the “white plague," but less fortunate in that, ill or dying, they have no place to go where they might have a chance to recover, or at least to spend their last days in something like peace and comfort. It rather gives the rest of us something to think about.
The sum total was only a trifle. Thousands, probably tens of thousands of Masons could throw away the amount and never miss it at the end of the year. But these men are not "well fixed." They are not able to support themselves; had they means of their own, or were their friends able to support them, they would not be where they are. Yet out of their slender resources they have given what they could.
New Mexico, one of the smallest and weakest of our Masonic Jurisdictions - numerically and financially - has raised $10,000 for this work; an average individual contribution of a dollar and a half. If every Mason in good standing in the United States were to give as much, or even only a dollar, the reproach of our past neglect could be removed. With three million dollars and more the necessary hospitals and sanatoria could be built and equipped.
The great majority of Masons in this country are so fortunately situated that one dollar, or two, or five would make no difference whatever to the number of meals they eat, or even the cigars and cigarettes they smoke. For the price of a meal (and not a specially elaborate one as restaurant charges go) the Craft in America could do what is required. The price of a meal! Are there any Masons who would refuse to go without just one to aid a brother in distress?
But the general experience of humanity shows that there are very few individuals who will not give a helping hand where help is obviously and certainly needed. However pressing their business most men would stop to pick up the victim of an automobile accident, or throw a rope to one who was drowning. Masons are at least on as high a level as mankind at large. If in this particular need action has been so slow it is due not to lack of heart or to disregard of their obligations but to two accidental causes, failure to realize the facts and lack of organization. It is hard to realize the conditions in which our sick brethren are dragging out their existence, it is hard to believe. They are a long way off, and it not only needs putting one's hand into one's pocket, but some time and trouble and thought as well.
But now the machinery has been organized. It waits only the accession of the other Grand Lodges. Only the awakening of Masonic public opinion is required, in the constituent lodges, and by their representatives in the Grand Lodges, and the thing will be done. Will readers of THE BUILDER do their part? Will they show that Masonic study has prepared them to take the lead in the application of Masonic principles? What shall we say?
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The Hiramic Legend and the Mediaeval Stage
A Discussion in Three Parts
BY BRO. ERNEST E. THIEMEYER, Missouri
PART II--THE LIVING LEGEND (Concluded from April)
OUR Legend having suffered in its treatment from the same errors that other legends have undergone is now ready for scientific treatment. It can be considered for its manner rather than for its matter and mainly valued for its evidence of the thoughts of former times. It is not to be wondered that such treatment has not been given it before, because "this turning of mythology to account as a means of tracing the history of the laws of the mind, is a branch of science scarcely discovered before the nineteenth century." (8) If an understanding of these laws of mind and their development can be attained a point from which our classification of the Legend as ritual myth can be developed is reached.
It would be desirable from the point of view of this article to trace the development of myth from its simplest stages to the present time. Such a procedure would entail the production of a mass of evidence which would prolong the length of the discussion beyond the limits of an article and it would easily assume the length of a fair sized book. A brief outline with some elaboration of the principal points is all that can be attempted. For most of the ideas expressed the author is indebted to Tylor's Primitive Culture, Frazer's Golden Bough and to the Editor of THE BUILDER. There will be no effort made to attribute a definite idea to any one of these authorities and no other credit than the above will be given except in the case of direct quotations.
The original sources from which the required material comes are numerous. Tylor says that there is "evidence of races both ancient and modern, who so faithfully represent the state of thought to which myth development belongs, as still to keep up both the consciousness of meaning in their old myths, and the unstrained unaffected habit of creating new ones." (9) It is from savage races that a clear idea of the early stages of myth-making can be shown in relation to the products of later civilization. That the technical foundation for our Legend is to be found in these ancient myths is comparatively plain to see. Even a casual reading of Tylor's great work will convince one of that. Herein lies an important question for Masonic discussion. Is our myth a survival or a revival of this ancient culture? Independent of all other considerations, it is undoubtedly true that a satisfactory answer to this question will do much to solve the riddle which attaches itself to the antiquity of Masonry. It may in some way account for the evidences of Masonry which some students believe they see in the Aztecs, Incas, and North American Indian tribes. A discussion of that phase of the question cannot be attempted here, but must of necessity be left for some other development.
By comparing the myths found to exist among savage tribes in various parts of the world it is an easy matter to analyze the mental processes which promote them. It requires no evidence to prove that there can be found even today tribes which are far behind the culture of the recognized ancient civilizations such as Greece, Egypt, Babylon, and Rome. To trace the reasoning of these primitive tribes through transitional stages until they reach the cultural level of the classic, civilizations is a difficult and lengthy process. The connection has been found by long and troublesome research, suffering many setbacks and traveling the path of error that is common to all such investigations. The line of descent is fairly well marked and a sketchy tracing of it will enable us to understand something of the growth of mythical fiction. With this link established we have arrived at a starting point in our disscussion, in fact we have gone farther. Myth is developed from its primitive beginnings to its most complex structure and we can apply these steps in evolution to our own Legend.
MYTH AND FOLK OBSERVANCES
Even in primitive peoples we find myths taking on certain characteristics; these apply to the fabrications of one tribe as well as to another and might well be called the indices for classifying a legendary story as myth. In its primary stage myth is comparatively simple. It is connected with nature; it offers the explanation of a natural phenomenon; and expresses the ideas of a social group rather than of an individual. The main root of myth being found in the animation of nature, it follows that the sun and stars, trees and rivers, winds and clouds, become personal animate creatures, leading lives conformed to human or animal analogies, and performing their special functions in the universe with the aid of limbs like beasts or artifical instruments like men. These creatures are not poetic creations, but occupy a place in a broad philosophy of nature, early and crude indeed, but thoughtful, consistent, and quite really and seriously meant. The type of myth arising from such a philosophy is to be found even within recent years among the tribes of New Zealand who believe that the divine Mauri fished up the island with his enchanted hook from the bottom of the sea, and applying the comparative method, the same primitive stage of culture exists with the Indian Vishnu, diving to the depth of the sea in his avatar of the Boar, to bring up the submerged earth on his monstrous tusks. There is, in these illustrations, a fulfillment of the characteristics of primitive myth so plainly marked that there is no need of pointing out their specific application. But evolution is a queer process and in looking a little farther afield another in mythical development appears and those things ch were endued with life become endowed with spiritual essences or souls. In other words, the doctrine of Animism arises. Man who is alive by nature has a little man in him who controls his thoughts, words, and actions. Trees have spirits; animals, plants, the earth, heaven, the stars become merely the physical and material representatives of guiding influences. All sorts of magical systems and ceremonies grow out of such a doctrine. Tribes are found who will not cut trees because they fear injuring the tree spirit. Others will not kill certain plants and animals for a like reason. As time passes the people want a reason for such things and another type of myth springs up--stories of how the spirits became locked up in their respective abodes. The process is not yet complete and growing out of such doctrines comes the natural development of a class of spirit beings controlling the forces of nature:
"To the theory of Animism belong those endless tales which all nations tell of the presiding genii of nature, the spirits of cliffs, wells, waterfalls, volcanoes, the elves and wood-nymphs seen at times by human eyes when wandering by moonlight or assembled at their fairy festivals." (10)
Following closely upon the spiritual animation of the elements of nature comes the personification of these spiritually endowed plants, etc., and the guardian spirits of waterfalls rush through the lodge as a raging current. "Or they may be guiding and power-giving spirits of nature, like the spirit Fugamu, whose work is the cataract of the Nguyai, and who still wanders night and day around it, though the negroes who tell of him can no longer see his bodily form." (11) Then comes a further elaboration of the idea of personification, and spiritual beings controlling the forces of nature and natural phenomena are developed. The gods of rain and drought, of day and night, take their places in this category. Night is personified; Day becomes her son and each in a heavenly chariot drives across the sky. Thus the age of classical mythology is more nearly reached. By similar stages of mental development the age of pantheism and the many gods comes to have its place in myth development. The actions of these deities require explanation in much the same way that the presence of the world required some reason in the more primitive minds. Those marvelous fabrics of the ancients come into being, and we have the myths depicting the lives of the gods.
MYTH RELATED TO RITUAL
There is sufficient evidence in the above to warrant classifying our Legend as MYTH. It has grown, it is the expression of the ideas of a social group; and while it is almost certain that it belongs to this general group, the classification can be carried a step farther. The ceremonies depicting the lives of the gods, which developed along with their biographical myths, gave rise to another type of fable, and such myths as the one connected with the celebrations of the Thesmophoria arise. At the time that Persephone was carried off by Pluto, the story runs, a swineherd, Eubuleus, chanced to be herding swine near the spot, and his herd was engulfed in the chasm down which Pluto vanished with Persephone. This myth grew out of the traditional driving of pigs into caverns during the celebration of the rites of Demeter and Persephone, and forms an illustration of Ritual Myth. Nature myth is in the background, scarcely traceable if worked backward, but perfectly logical when its descent is shown from the other side. It arose to explain a custom or usage which had become traditional in the practice of religious rites, but whose original meaning had been lost in the haze of time. Myth arises out of or rather together with ritual and not the ritual out of the myth. (12) And so the conclusion is reached, indicated earlier in this article, that the Hiramic Legend is an outgrowth of ritual necessity, in other words, a ritual myth.
This is equally true whether our fable is considered as 18th century invention or a fabrication of earlier times. It fulfills all the necessary characteristics of primitive ritual myth. It arose evidently because it gave reason to something that needed explanation. The one respect in which it may not resemble ancient myth is that it is not, on the surface, a nature myth, though very possibly its foundation is to be found in primitive interpretations of the phenomena of annual death and resurrection of plant life. It has suffered all the faults and mistakes of early students in the same manner in which erroneous lines of thought were applied to older myths. From the above it would follow that ritual preceded, or was contemporary with, the development of this myth. Taking the most impossible view of the matter and classing it as 18th century innovation this would be true unless the myth was invented to support another innovation. That such is the case is beyond belief; it may as well be said at once that the whole fabric of Masonry is the invention of Anderson or Desaguliers.
It has been shown, in brief outline, that ritual is the immediate ancestor of myth, at least in the later stages of development. It would appear from this that the evolutionary process is a contemporaneous development, or that ritual preceded myth, and that they grew from the simplest beginnings. If we are to search for the origin of our MYTH it will be necessary to reduce it to its lowest factors before beginning the hunt. It must be born in mind that both custom and myth are extremely tenacious of life. The action persists through almost countless ages, but the meaning and details are completely changed in many instances. In other words, the incident itself persists, but the motive is entirely changed. There are found eventually celebrations of the same character practiced in many and diverse localities, but the reasons assigned for so doing are different in almost every instance. The Ancient Mysteries provide the most prominent examples of this phenomenon of ritual myth. Under the names of Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, and Attis the peoples of Egypt, Western Asia, and the Mediterranean countries represented the yearly decay and revival of life, especially of vegetable life, which they personified as a god who annually died and rose again from the dead. In name and detail these rites varied from place to place; in substance they were the same. Adonis, for example, is usually said to have been killed by a wild boar; Attis was in one account similarly slain, in another he unmanned himself and bled to death; Osiris met his death as the result of a conspiracy and was shut in a coffin and thrown into the Nile. It cannot be definitely said that these gods were one and the same character, but they all represent the god of vegetation and their death and resurrection was in every case annually celebrated as the representation of the annual death and revival of plant life. Here is discovered the value of the comparative method in analyzing the ritualistic background of ancient myths. By cancelling the differences in the various versions the conclusion is reached that the original for all these forms showed no more than that the god died and was reborn in annual recurrence. That there was an original version is one conclusion we are permitted to accept. If there was an early form from which the others developed there is no means of knowing what it was, or where it was originally practiced. It may have been some more primitive myth, but it is not possible to point to a given version and state that it was a source from which the ancient religious mysteries developed. The same retention of detail with widely divergent explanation is found in myths of a later period which can definitely be traced to a common root in one or another of the pagan rituals. What would, in all probability, be a more satisfactory theory is that the same process of mental progress was at work in various parts of the world and the laws of mind which lead to such developments were at practically the same point of development in all of the Mediterranean countries at approximately the same period in the world's history.
FURTHER ANALYSIS SUGGESTED
The application of the comparative method to the Hiram Myth will bring out much that will enable us to ascertain its original form. It is here that the cancellation process earlier referred to comes into prominence. It would be interesting to see a compilation of all the versions in use today with the points of difference eliminated, thus giving the modern basic plot of the myth. To carry such a method back through the ages eliminating the divergences would bring us to a form of the story probably representative of a period much earlier than any known to us. To restate the idea, if all known versions of the myth are compiled; their points of difference cancelled; the result of this factoring process will present the simplest possible form of the plot. All of the evolutionary innovations will have been eliminated, and the remaining plot will be at least as old as the oldest known point of difference which has been cancelled. It would be only fair in treating with material of a traditional nature, in which dates could not be set for all the divergences to presume that some of the expurgated portions would be earlier than any of known date and the final result would represent a version older, and probably much older, than any cancelled factor.
Before arriving at any conclusions concerning the earliest form of the myth it might be well to point out a few of the more salient differences. It would appear, for example, that the original story knew nothing of the pursuit or punishment of criminals. The motive of the crime is widely different in various versions. Jealousy on the part of K. S. over Baltis, Queen of Sheba, appears in one wild account. In others professional jealousy is the cause. These variations might be carried to untold length before reaching the final result. What is eventually left, however, has been often mentioned; it is an indefinite, simple, but highly significant story: "Someone was killed by someone else, who was assisted by two others; fifteen people had something to do with it; the body was hidden and a green branch was connected with its discovery." (13) The connection between this myth and such stories as the Apprentice Pillar at Rosslyn, the Apprentice Window at Lincoln, and the stories of Continental Europe such as the death of Maitre Jacques at the hands of the disciples of Maitre Soubise is apparent. Vibert says in this connection:
"Now with regard to the Masters we do seem to find quit early hints of some story of a murder. The French journeymen have a definite narrative of a Founder who came from Palestine, and he was murdered in France. There is in the cycle of stories that centres in Charlemagne and his knights, a story of Renaud who went to Cologne and helped to build the Cathedral, working as a common labourer. But because he did four men's work, owing to his enormous strength, and then refused any wages beyond what was necessary for bare subsistence, the other workmen conspired and killed him with a mason's hammer as he was sleeping at mid-day. This story was well-known in England by the thirteenth century and was one of the first things printed by Caxton, and that was in 1489." (14)
THE LEGEND WAS ALWAYS A SECRET
The similarity between our Myth and these mythical narratives of the early journeymen is clear; the myths of "mystery" rituals the world over also come in for their share of resemblance. It is well to bear in mind the fact that such plots are not first public and then, through some lapse of memory enveloped in a veil of secrecy, but that the process works in the opposite direction and such stories as are now public property can generally be shown to have been once secret (except, of course, in the case of deliberate invention such as the "high degrees"). There are several methods by which these secret rites become public and the Legend has been afflicted with one of them at least, I refer to illicit publications. There is no method known by which the opposite takes place. Such a process would be too much like the doctrine of revival in culture to which scientists object. Although it may later be proven, it cannot be felt that culture was once at a very high level and then dropped to nothing, to be built up again by a revival of the type of mind which originally developed it. The evolutionary processes are evidence to the contrary and nowhere in geologic or paleontologic evidence is a single example of plant or animal life having died out to be revived at a later period found. Evidence to prove set-backs which have weakened development temporarily abounds, but never is total elimination followed by a general revival of type. That is definitely what it would be necessary to believe if our Myth is a revival in a secret rite of what was once public. Even better evidence than this, how ever, is the fact that there is nothing, so far as is known, in the public property of this class of material which remotely approaches the content of our Myth. (I speak here, of course, of material that was originally public.) If the induction of the Myth into the Masonic ritual was influenced by the Medieval Miracle and Mystery plays, it would necessarily follow that a plot once existing as public afterwards became private. This in turn suggests other points: If the Legend was once public, when did it become private? Where? When? Why? How? Under what circumstances did it become an integral part of our ritual? What traces of it exist today? In view of the evidence presented, these questions may be answered in short form. The Myth never was public, but always private; it came into our ritual because of some pressing demand; and any traces of it that can be found will of necessity appear in ancient Masonic manuscripts which were probably of a secret character, or in illicit publications. Probably the conditions imposed by lack of knowledge tend to make such a subject as the growth of the Hiramic Legend entrancing, but the same conditions make it exceedingly difficult to arrive at any conclusion as to its development that will be beyond question.
Adopting the view that the Legend of Hiram in its present form is alive and changing, in other words, an object still undergoing the ceaseless change entailed by evolution, a number of important conclusions are reached. Because it is ceaselessly varying, it is the product of group thinking--it is not the child of one man's fancy, but it is the result of the collected thinking of many individuals. As such it is the natural outgrowth of some ritualistic requirement; what particular ceremony gave rise to it is of no importance to our argument. Growing out of these is another, more important than either, namely, the same type of mind evolved our Myth as developed the more primitive stories. Whether in survival or revival is nonessential as the only bearing that phase of the subject would have on this discussion is one of chronology and it is not proposed to enter into any argument concerning antiquity of the Order. The question arises-What bearing has all this on the relation of our Legend to Drama? To answer that question satisfactorily will require more space than can be commanded at this time. A suggestion of an answer will be attempted in the final section of this discussion.
NOTES
(1) "The Story of the Craft," by Lionel Vibert in the Transactions of the Merseyside Association for Masonic Research, 1923-24, p. 47.
(2) Ib., p. 53.
(3) From Funk and Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary. Compare also Webster's Dictionary, which goes more into detail.
(4) Primitive Culture, Tylor. Vol. 1, p. 273.
(5) Ib. Vol. 1, p. 275.
(6) Vibert, op. cit., p. 43.
(7) Tylor, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 447.
(8) Ib., Vol. 1, p. 275.
(9) Ib., Vol. 1, p. 283.
(10) Ib., Vol. 1, p. 294
(11) DuChaillu, "Ashango-land," p. 106. I am indebted for the reference to Tylor. (12) Themis, J. E. Harrison, p. 13.
(13) THE BUILDER, Vol. IX, p. 178.
(14) Vibert, op. cit., p. 52.
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Masonry's National Campaign Against Tuberculosis
By BRO. HERBERT B. HOLT, Grand Master of New Mexico
President, National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association
AT the Annual Communication of the M. W. Grand Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of New Mexico, I was honored by advancement to the high office of Grand Master, since which time there has devolved upon me the duties of President of the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association, which is actively working for the advancement of the movement for hospitalization of consumptive American Freemasons, the Association having been incorporated last fall under authority of our Grand Lodge.
The Presidency of the Association was accepted in deference to the wishes of my predecessor, R.W. P.G.M. Jaffa Miller, and other associates in the Grand Lodge and Sanatoria Association, with the understanding that diligent search should be prosecuted, north, south, east and west, until we found our "Grand Master" for this greatest of all Masonic enterprises. The leadership of this national movement for relief and hospitalization of our consumptive brethren demands the best talent that American Freemasonry has within its ranks today, and I am confident that the Supreme Architect of the Universe will raise up the Man, competent, qualified and willing to supervise the work upon our Temple of Hope and Healing. The magnitude of the task demands executive ability of the highest order and the selection of a permanent leader possessed of such qualifications.
The charter of the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association contains the following provision covering its organization on a national scale:
"The business and operations of this corporation, and of the institutions which it may establish and control, shall at all times and for all purposes, in each and every branch, be under the jurisdiction and control of a Board of Governors to be composed of members, one for each state, one from the District of Columbia and from each of the territories of the United States, who may be appointed by the Grand Master of each Grand Jurisdiction elected by the Grand. Lodge of each Grand Jurisdiction, or selected by the Board of Governors, or its Executive Committee; also of members-at-large who may be appointed respectively by the supreme heads of the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of the United States of America; the General Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of the United States of America; the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States of America; the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third and Last Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America; the Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General of the Thirty-third and Last Degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America; the Imperial Council of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for North America; and the General Grand Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, or elected by the governing bodies of such organizations, or such members-at-large may be selected by the Board of Governors, or its Executive Committee."
The urgent invitation extended by my predecessor to all Grand Masters for service upon the Board of Governors of the Association has been reiterated. We require, and earnestly desire, the benefit of the experience, advice and counsel of our brethren from every part of America in planning and developing this institution for service. I hope that we may soon number all of the Grand Masters of the United States among the members of this Board, or have representatives appointed by them to sit with us in council. The maximum success, so devoutly to be wished, can only be attained through nationalization of the movement, which can be achieved only by cooperation and concert of action by all Grand Jurisdictions. Realization of the fact that this effort is primarily for the benefit of sick men who because of tuberculosis, seek the milder climate of Colorado, New Mexico, Western Texas, Arizona and Southern California, or who go to North Carolina or Florida should impel all Masons of every state, promptly to grasp this opportunity for rendering that real, actual service which is so imperatively demanded by these afflicted brethren and their families. The Southwestern states, and doubtless the Southeastern states mentioned, can easily take care of their own, but cannot begin adequately to care for the sick from other Grand Jurisdictions who leave their home states seeking more favorable climatic conditions.
COOPERATION OBTAINED
The Masonic Service Association is cooperating with us, and has printed some thousands of pieces of literature for distribution among Masonic bodies and Masons. Sample copies of these have been sent to officers of Masonic bodies, with the request to use same as enclosures in correspondence, and for distribution among their membership. These "Short Messages" should interest and enlist the support of the rank and file.
The National Masonic Research Society has done more than cooperate; it has inspired us to action. For several years past it has kept this project before the Fraternity through the columns of THE BUILDER. With the assurance of its continued support, which support we believed would also be given us by every other Masonic publication if we launched this enterprise, New Mexico took definite action and created the agency needed in which all of American Freemasonry could unite. It gave me great pleasure to read the following in the March editorial columns of THE BUILDER:
"The executives of the National Masonic Research Society have definitely taken up the cause of the Masons suffering from tuberculosis. It is perhaps not properly or specifically a matter for such an organization to deal with, but it needs no apology. The Society is first of all Masonic, and its members are Masons, and their interest in the Order naturally leads to a higher conception of its functions and the obligations it imposes. The membership of the Society averages a high degree of influence in the Craft, THE BUILDER is distributed widely and evenly over the whole United States. We do not pretend that it is our campaign and we do not care whose the credit. We would be delighted to have every Masonic journal in the country take the matter up, but our part is to bring home the need to the members of our own Society."
We have also succeeded in securing the cooperation of the great National Tuberculosis Association, which has directed the campaign against Tuberculosis in the United States during the last twenty years, and has aided in the organization of similar work in other countries. That Association has branch organizations in every state, and in the larger cities and towns of the country, and through its cooperation with us, some hundreds of competent speakers, both physicians and laymen, will be available to address open meetings of Masonic bodies in every state, to throw into thousands of American Masonic homes "more light" upon the subject of the prevention of tuberculosis and the relief and hospitalization of our sick brethren. In pursuance of this effort to organize and carry through a great national campaign of education among American Freemasons, the following letter has been addressed to all Grand Masters in this country:
"This Association has succeeded in securing the cooperation of the National Tuberculosis Association in a plan to carry out a part of the work for which we were chartered by the Grand Lodge of New Mexico, viz:
"'To disseminate among the Freemasons of America, and their families and others, scientific knowledge and useful information as to the causes and methods of treatment for the prevention, relief and cure of tuberculosis;'
"The National Tuberculosis Association has for more than twenty years led the organized effort against tuberculosis in the United States and has aided in the organization of similar work in other countries. As a direct result of its work of popular education, of securing public health legislation, and its national campaign for hospitalization of consumptives, the death-rate from tuberculosis in the United States has been reduced more than one-half, representing the saving of more than 100,000 lives, annually. The work of the Association has been financed by the sale of Christmas Seals.
"The National Tuberculosis Association has affiliated state and local societies in every state, and through them can furnish speakers, physicians and laymen, thoroughly competent to present the subject of tuberculosis, its prevention and cure, to popular audiences in an instructive and entertaining manner.
In many states and cities these lectures may be illustrated with stereopticon and motion pictures. In many instances, Masonic physicians, who are active members of tuberculosis societies, will be available as speakers. Printed matter of various kinds, oft the subject may also be distributed to audiences at the conclusion of meetings.
"We ask your cooperation, and the cooperation of your Grand Lodge and constituent lodges, in which we expect will develop into a great national educational campaign among American Freemasons and their families. By bringing 'more light' on the subject of tuberculosis and its prevention into Masonic homes we may be able to save some from contracting this dread disease and we may be able to guide those now afflicted into ways that may lead to recovery. We may also enlist many new recruits in the organized fight against tuberculosis and in turn secure the help of tuberculosis societies and workers for our afflicted brethren.
"We respectfully ask that you communicate with all constituent lodges in your Grand Jurisdiction, requesting them to hold an open meeting for members, families and friends, and to arrange with their state or local tuberculosis society to send a speaker to discuss 'Masonry's Campaign Against Tuberculosis.'
"The National Tuberculosis Association is asking its affiliated state and local Associations to get in touch with you and your constituent lodges. If, for any reason, you should wish to communicate directly with the National Tuberculosis Association, they may be addressed at 370 Seventh Avenue, New York City, New York. They can furnish you with lists of their local Associations in your jurisdiction."
THE COST OF TUBERCULOSIS
At our request the National Tuberculosis Association has prepared a new estimate of the mortality and morbidity among the 3,250,000 Masons, and the 1,250,000 women members of the Order of the Eastern Star.
Tuberculosis is an enemy of the American home. It is no respecter of persons. Accurate estimates are not available as to the number of members of Masonic families lost to us every year from this one cause. The figures quoted below furnish some idea of the aggregate of this great annual toll of death and suffering,. and for that reason should be of interest to all who realize the gravity of the situation and the importance of prompt relief measures.
The National Tuberculosis Association prepared an estimate on Tuberculosis Mortality and Morbidity among Freemasons and female members of the Eastern Star in 1921 and again in 1924. At your request, we now submit an estimate for the year 1925, based on a Masonic population of 3,250,000 and upon a membership of 1,250,000 women in the Order of the Eastern Star.
The Death Registration Area (exclusive of the Territory of Hawaii) in 1924 comprised 39 states, the District of Columbia and 18 cities in non-registration states, with a total estimated population on July 1, 1924, of 99,034,494, or 88.4 per cent of the estimated total population of the United States.
The Tuberculosis death rate (all forms) in the Registration Area for 1924 was 90.6. The death rate for males over twenty years of age in 1924 would approximate 132.6 per 100,000 living. Therefore the number of deaths from Tuberculosis among 3,250,000 Freemasons, or any similar number of men would approximate 4,309 during the year 1925.
The Tuberculosis death rate (all forms) in the Registration Area for 1924 was 90.6. The death rate for females over twenty years of age in 1924 would approximate 115.0 per 100,000 living women. Therefore the number of deaths from Tuberculosis among 1,250,000 women members of the Order of the Easter Star, or any similar number of women, would approximate 1437 during the year 1925.
The Framingham Demonstration showed a probability of 9 active living cases to every death. This means that if 4309 Freemasons and 1437 Eastern Stars died during the year 1925 there are approximately 51,714 living active cases, needing treatment in Masonic families in the United States. As there is no way of determining the entire number of members of Masons’ families in the country there is no way of estimating the total number of deaths and cases of Tuberculosis among American Freemasons and the members of their families.
While these estimates may appear startling to anyone who has not studied this subject, by comparison with the death rate of twenty years ago and succeeding years they are moderate. In 1904 the death rate for the general population was 200 per 100,000 living, over twice the present death rate. The reduction in the death rate means a saving of 120,000 lives every year, and is the best possible proof that Tuberculosis is a preventable disease.
Hospitalization of consumptive fathers and mothers may save their children from infection which often results in Tuberculosis of the bones, causing "hunch-back" and shortened limbs.
Tuberculosis cuts off two and a half years of life from the complete expectation of every individual under present mortality conditions. If such individual were to add only $100 to the community wealth every year, Tuberculosis would cost the community $250 per person. Among the 3,250,000 Freemasons and the 1,250,000 Eastern Stars in the United States this loss is $1,125,000,000.
It has been estimated that a tuberculous person is under care for an average of two and one-third years. Probably for at least one year he is unable to earn. Considering all occupations, we can place the average annual earnings of a person at $1,000. Among the 51,714 Masonic tuberculous cases, $51,714,000 were thus lost through sickness.
BALANCE OF COST OF CARE AGAINST LOSS
The usual length of stay in a sanatorium is about six months. The cost of such sanatorium care is about $500. While it is not possible, nor perhaps necessary, to give each patient six months' sanatorium treatment, the cost of caring for tubercuIous patients must be met, whether in a sanatorium or not. If all of the 51,714 Masonic cases could receive either sanatorium care or other adequate treatment, which would cost at least as much, about $25,857,000 would be the estimated cost of caring for these Masonic tuberculous.
These estimates of the cost of Tuberculosis to the American Masonic Fraternity, namely, $1,125,000,000 due to loss of life from Tuberculosis, $51,714,000 lost in wages, and $25,857,000 for the expense of caring for Masonic sick, total approximately $1,202,571,000.
The saving of lives through sanatorium care is worth yearly many millions of dollars to the country. Dr. Louis I. Dublin has shown that mortality from Tuberculosis is lessened by at least 8,000 deaths annually because 6f cures effected in sanatoria throughout the country. Since the cost of keeping a patient in a sanatorium for six months is estimated at $500, the cost of saving 6,000 lives yearly amounts to $3,000,000.
If, as Irving Fisher says, the economic value of a life cut off by Tuberculosis, including its future capitalized earning power, is $8,000, the country is enriched yearly to the extent of $48,000,000 by this saving of life. This is more than a hundred per cent return on the $45,000,000 spent yearly in the maintenance of sanatoria in the United States. The saving of 4309 Masonic lives each year would be worth $45,968,000 in dollars and cents and no one can estimate the value to America of Masonic fathers, mothers and homes that may be saved by united action for relief and hospitalization of tuberculous Freemasons.
Fraternally,
National Tuberculosis Association.
The National Tuberculosis Association has also prepared an "Outline of an Address to American Freemasons, Their Families and Friends," for use in this educational campaign, which will be used and elaborated upon by the speakers of that Association in meetings addressed by them, and in many places the lectures will be illustrated by stereopticon and moving pictures.
To bring home to our brethren the reason why Masons and Masonry should be interested, the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association has prepared the following statement, which will be presented to these open meetings at the conclusion of the address or lecture by the National Tuberculosis Association's speaker:
WHY MASONS ARE INTERESTED IN THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS
Masonry's interest in the great national campaign against Tuberculosis lies in the fact that, according to estimates prepared by the National Tuberculosis Association early in 1926, there were approximately 4,309 deaths of Masons from tuberculosis in the United States during the year 1925 and about 1,437 deaths of women members of the Order of the Eastern Star during the same year from the same cause. How many other wives, mothers, sisters and children of Masons also died last year from tuberculosis it is impossible to estimate.
According to estimates prepared by the same authority, the National Tuberculosis Association, there are about nine living cases to every annual death from tuberculosis, in any community or any group of people. Applying this estimate to the Fraternity in the United States, this would mean that there are now living approximately 38,781 American Freemasons suffering from tuberculosis and about 12,933 women members of the Eastern Star afflicted with this dread disease. How many other members of Masonic families are also victims of the Great White Plague it is impossible to estimate.
MASONRY'S ECONOMIC LOSS
The National Tuberculosis Association also estimates that the cost of caring for these sick Masons and Eastern Stars, who died last year of tuberculosis, totaled $25,857,000, and that the loss in wages due to sickness and death was not less than $51,714,000. No one can figure the great total loss to Masonic families due to the untimely death of fathers and mothers from tuberculosis. The cost of raising and educating the children must be borne by some one. The difference in the love and care given children by their parents and that given by relatives, friends or institutions can never be figured in dollars and cents.
The foregoing figures will give some idea of the magnitude of the problem confronting American Freemasonry today, in the treatment and care of the men and women who have a claim upon the Fraternity in their misfortune. And greater than this is the necessity for work to prevent this disaster falling upon additional members of the Fraternity and their families.
A COMMON CAUSE AGAINST A COMMON FOE
Blue Lodge Masonry, so-called, is organized by states into Grand Lodges. There is no national Masonic body to govern the Craft. There are 49 Grand Jurisdictions, one for each state and one for the District of Columbia. Therefore it has been difficult in the past to secure unity of action in a common cause for a common friend or against a common foe. If American Freemasonry ever unites upon a national program it will be for some great work of charity and benevolence such as this national Masonic Campaign for the relief and hospitalization of Masonic consumptives and the prevention of tuberculosis in American Masonic homes.
There are some few Grand Jurisdictions in this country, large in numbers and financially strong, which have a high death rate and a large number of living cases of tuberculosis, who might be justified in establishing their own state Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatorium. But with most Grand Jurisdictions the burden would be too heavy for them to bear. In this work the great and wealthy families of Masonry should join with the smaller state groups for the greater good of Freemasonry as a national entity.
WHY SOUTHWESTERN MASONRY HAS INITIATED THIS CAMPAIGN
The poison of tuberculosis permeates the whole of our national body, just as in time it affects the whole of the physical body. There is no state or city free from the ravages of the dread destroyer. But as poison, or pus, comes to a head in the physical body making a "sore spot" so is there a "sore spot" in the Southwestern United States where the national problem of tuberculosis comes to a "head" because of the migration to that part of the country of many thousands of consumptives who go there seeking climatic cure or arrest of their disease.
This climatic health belt covers a great triangle, a familiar symbol in Masonry. If you will draw a line on the map from San Antonio, Texas, to Denver, Colorado, 815 miles, thence to Los Angeles, California, 850 miles and back to San Antonio, 1220 miles, you will enclose within this triangle 350,000 square miles of mountains and desert, with some fertile, irrigated and cultivated valleys, small in area as compared with the whole triangle. Within this territory lived 3,000,000 people when the 1920 Census was taken and some ten or more years ago the National Tuberculosis Association estimated that 10 per cent of the population of the Southwest was tuberculous. The United States Public Health Service later declared this estimate to be conservative.
PUBLICITY HAS NOT DECREASED MIGRATION
In 1920 and again in 1925 the National Tuberculosis Association made an investigation of the problem resulting from large numbers of sick and indigent migrating to the Southwest and concluded that this migration was increasing in spite of their national campaign of publicity warning the sick against leaving home without adequate funds. Publicity was given to the fact that there were no free hospitals and few charity agencies, and that light work was difficult to find and that the consumptive was far better off in his home town where he had friends or at least a legitimate claim upon public charity.
In six cities alone the National Tuberculosis Association found 7,319 indigent sick who had asked for help and who were accompanied by 9,315 other members of their families of whom 5.437 or 57 per cent were children under 16. These children living in squalid quarters, under-nourished, and in close contact with consumptive parents were all in grave danger of infection. This unhappy group, totaling 16,634 individuals, strangers in a strange land, were in deep distress, as is evidenced by the fact that 16 per cent applied for help within one week after arrival; 33 per cent within one month; and 50 per cent within three months and 90 per cent within a year.
How many additional thousands of men, women and children there are, in the same tragic condition, no one can estimate. The total number of sick for the whole of the United States is probably one million with possibly another million of dependents.
That there are many Masons among these sick is shown by the experience of Masonic Relief Bureaus and Masonic Lodges of Southwestern cities and towns. Records of many pitiful cases have been found. Southwestern Lodges are unable to give adequate financial help to them and few home lodges or even Grand Lodges can spend the thousand or two dollars necessary to carry the sick brother for the year or two of hospital care required to secure arrest of the disease. Consequently many die for lack of that small amount of money and in some cases the Craft spends more for care and education of their orphaned children than it would have cost to save the father.
NEW MEXICO GRAND LODGE CREATES RELIEF AGENCY
The Grand Lodges of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico and the Masonic Service Association investigated this problem and the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite and other Masonic bodies gave it consideration. Reports were made and the urgent need for action was pointed out but nothing done until on Nov. 9, 1925, the M. W. Grand Lodge of New Mexico organized and secured a charter from the state for the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association, with the following purposes:
"To act as an agency, or trustee, to receive and administer funds contributed, or acquired for the relief of Freemasons, and members of their families, suffering from tuberculosis; to secure hospitalization for the sick; to render service of any kind according to the need and the ability of the corporation; to acquire, erect, establish, maintain and operate Sanatoria, Hospitals and other institutions; to do and perform such other and further acts as may be calculated to aid in the prevention, treatment or cure of tuberculosis among Masons or their families."
The plan of organization provides for one member of the governing Board from each Grand Jurisdiction and for membership on the Board of Representatives of the National Scottish Rite and York Rite bodies and for the Mystic Shrine and Eastern Star. Thus the Association is national in scope and not sectional or local.
MASONIC SERVICE ASSOCIATION ENDORSES
The Masonic Service Association at its 1925 meeting in Chicago, endorsed the Sanatoria Association and its purposes and pledged active aid and financial support. Similar pledges have been made by other Masonic bodies.
MASONIC PRESS SUPPORTS MOVEMENT
The National Masonic Research Society has rendered splendid service during the past few years in giving publicity and editorial support to this movement through the columns of THE BUILDER, the official publication of the Society. The Masonic press throughout the country are supporting this movement and placing the facts as to the need and the effort to meet it before the rank and file of Freemasonry.
$1.00 A YEAR WILL PROVIDE RELIEF
The Grand Lodge of New Mexico has levied an annual per capita tax of $1.00 upon New Mexico Freemasonry, and it is hoped that this example will be followed by all American Grand Jurisdictions. This would in the course of time provide a fund sufficient to build one or more hospitals and maintain them. While these institutions will be primarily for Masons, no doubt provision will also have to be made for the wives and children, when sufficient funds are available for this additional relief work.
HOSPITALS LOCATED WHERE NEEDED
The location of the hospital, or hospitals, will be determined by the National Board of Governors of the Masonic Sanatoria Association, and these institutions will undoubtedly be placed where the need is greatest and where they can render the greatest service to the brethren of the country as a whole. In time, perhaps, there may be a chain of such institutions, similar to the Shrine Hospitals for Crippled Children, so located as to be easily available from any and all parts of the country.
COMBINATION OF INSURANCE AND PHILANTHROPY
An average contribution of $1 a year will, in a sense, insure a Freemason and his family against tuberculosis and provide hospital care for them if they are so unfortunate as to contract this disease. If they never need such help it will be a great source of pride and gratification to them as members of the great Masonic family to know that they are helping to care for Masonic brethren who through no fault of their own are "down and out." They will have a part in restoring these brethren to wives and children and will also help to save the Fraternity the cost of providing for the families of the sick, who have in the past often remained a charge upon Masonic charity for years.
HOSPITALIZATION OF FATHERS SAVES THE CHILDREN
And finally, brethren, by placing Consumptive fathers and mothers in hospitals, you will save the children from infection with tuberculosis. In children this disease often attacks the bones, causing the awful deformity, commonly known as "hunchback", or it shortens the leg, making the sufferer a cripple for life. The pain and suffering extends over a period of years and in many cases is only ended when these little ones die of tuberculosis of the lungs. We can save them by caring for their parents and also reduce the number of consumptives who will die in the next generation. Tuberculosis claims an endless chain of victims and when you hospitalize one you save an indefinite number of people from infection.
RESPONSIBILITY RESTS UPON YOU
Will Freemasonry heed this call for service to God, to country and to humanity? You can answer for yourself and for your lodge. If you and your lodge will do its part the rest of the Masonic family can be trusted to share their part of the burden. Every lodge if it so desires can vote an annual per capita tax of $1 or more upon its membership and the total sum for the whole country will mean life and hope for thousands of sick brethren who are now holding up their hands in a last despairing appeal to you for aid.
If only the members of the Masonic Order, so strong .in point of numbers, so potentially wealthy, can be made to realize what these facts really mean there will 'be no question as to the result. The machinery is ready, the emergency urgent, shall we ask in vain?
NOTE
Further information about the work and purposes of the National Masonic Tuberculosis Sanatoria Association may be secured by addressing Francis E. Lester, P. G. M., Executive Secretary, Las Cruces, New Mexico. Contributions for the work of the Association may be sent to Alpheus A. Keen (Grand Secretary of the M. W. Grand Lodge of New Mexico), Secretary of the Sanatoria Association, Masonic Temple, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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The Craft in the 18th Century The "Moderns," 1717, and the " Antients," 1751
BY BRO. ARTHUR HEIRON, England
AS most readers of The Builder are aware, Bro. Heiron is the author of Ancient Freemasonry and the Old Dundee Lodge, No. 18 [1722-1920], a most interesting account of lodge life two hundred years ago. They will also recall his articles in The Builder for 1923 under the title "Was Dr. Johnson a Mason?"
The present paper was read before the Manchester Association for Masonic Research in May, 1924, and in view of the very valuable information collected therein The Builder has obtained Bro. Heiron's permission to reproduce it for the benefit of American students.
IT is common knowledge that prior to 1813 the Craft had for many years been divided into two great sections--the Moderns and the Antients--and for the benefit of those brethren who have had no opportunity to study the matter on their own account, the following rough epitome by way of general information is given.
In 1716 four old Lodges in London--the author of Multa Paucis (an anonymous work of about 1764) gives the number as six--"finding themselves neglected by Sir Christopher Wren"--with the assistance "of some old Brothers"--met together at the Apple-Tree Tavern in Charles Street, Covent Garden, and "constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro Tempore in Due Form"; and on "St. John Baptist's Day, A.D. 1717, the Assembly and Feast of the Free and Accepted Masons was held at the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house in St. Paul's Church-Yard."
In this humble fashion--without show or pretense-in a room at a Tavern about 22 feet long by 16 feet wide --the First Grand Lodge of the world was--according to the account given by Dr. Anderson in his "New Book of Constitutions" [1738]--thus formally "Constituted." Whilst it is now recognized that Dr. Anderson's 'Story of the Craft'--based on mythical tales and legendary traditions--is quite untrustworthy, yet his version of the actual origin of Grand Lodge deserves some credence, for--after all--it is the only one available for our consideration.
Anderson was a Doctor of Divinity, a Presbyterian minister, a "dissenting teacher," a man of good standing and character. In 1738 he assures us that having-in 1721--been ordered [by Grand Lodge] to digest the old Gothic Constitutions in a new and better method, . . . "Montagu, Grand Master, at the desire of the Lodge, appointed fourteen learned Brothers to examine Brother Anderson's Manuscript and to make report," . . . which "said Committee of 14" . . . reported [in 1722] that they had perused same "and after some Amendments had approv'd of it: Upon which the Lodge desir'd the Grand Master to order it to be printed." The above refers to his First Book of Constitutions of 1723.--The following extracts from the actual minutes of Grand Lodge relate to his 1738 edition.
1735, Feb. 24. Dr. Anderson reported to Grand Lodge "that he had spent some Thoughts upon some Alterations and Additions" to his First Edition of 1723--then "all sold off"--and G. L. "appointed a Committee to revise and compare the same &c."
1738, Jan. 25. "Bro. Anderson informed the [Grand] Lodge that he had sometime since Prepared a New Edition of the Book of Constitutions with several Additions and Amendmts which having been perused & (after some alterations made therein) Approved off by several Grand Officers was now ready for the Press and he therefore desired the Grand Master's Commands & the approbation of this Lodge for printing the same, which request was granted him."
His work having been thus checked and revised by his colleagues and contemporaries and approved by Grand Lodge, each student must now therefore form his own conclusions as to the credibility or otherwise that should be given to Dr. Anderson's statements relating to the above mentioned meetings of "the four old Lodges" in 1716 and 1717.
The members of this Grand Lodge of 1717 before long--for reasons hereinafter mentioned--became known as the 'Moderns,' whilst their subsequent rivals --who described themselves as the 'Antients' did not constitute their Grand Lodge before 1753 (although they first assembled as a Grand Committee in 1751); thus in point of time the 'Moderns' were as a body, thirty-four years older than the 'Antients,' it is therefore quite clear that both these titles are-colloquially speaking--misnomers. It is not very easy to explain in detail the exact reasons for the founding of this opposition Grand Lodge but some of the contributory causes appear to be as follows:
'OPERATIVE MASONS'
Prior to the formation of Grand Lodge in 1717, most of the Lodges were of humble rank, having as members many men of the working classes--including of course real 'Operative' Masons, although there were also some 'Speculatives' in their midst--for in those early days a Lodge almost invariably met at a Tavern or Inn, and was very much like a benefit society, members who were ill or in distress coming 'On the Box' for small payments in cash--pecuniary 'Relief' to brethren in need being then a constant feature. It was also quite usual for members not only to attend at the funeral of a deceased brother, but also to pay for the cost of interment when need required. This presence of the 'Operatives' in Lodges is made manifest from the fact that Grand Lodge in 1722 selected as their Grand Wardens, two working men, viz.:--'Mr. Joshua Timson,' a Blacksmith, and 'Mr. William Hawkins,' a 'Mason,' whilst the following mechanics were also appointed Grand Wardens, viz.:-'Jacob Lamball,' a 'Carpenter' in 1717; 'John Cordwell,' a 'City Carpenter' and 'Thomas Morrice," a 'Stone Cutter' in 1718; and 'Thomas Hobby,' also a 'Stone Cutter' in 1720.
The first Grand Master who was installed in 1717-one Anthony Sayer--was also apparently a man of limited means, for later in life he became Tyler to at least four lodges, and on two occasions applied to Grand Lodge for relief, in 1730 when 15 pounds were voted to him also 2.2.0 in 1741 from the 'General Charity,' whilst he also received assistance from various private Lodges. Bro. J. Walter Hobbs, L.R., in an exhaustive and valued paper read in 1924 before the Quatuor Coronati Lodge (entitled "Mr. Anthony Sayer") attempts to prove that Sayer was not only a "Gentleman" but also a person of some social standing--who might later on have lost his fortune in the "South Sea Bubble"; he however frankly admits that the evidence is not conclusive.
"NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN" [1723]
Before long however a higher status was ruling amongst the so-called 'Moderns,' for Dr. Anderson in his Constitutions of the Freemasons [1723] tells us that "several Noblemen and Gentlemen of the best Rank with Clergymen and learned Scholars of most Professions and Denominations . . . frankly joined and submitted to take the Charges, and to wear the Badges of a Free and Accepted Mason, under our present worthy Grand Master, the most noble Prince, John, Duke of Montagu."
In 1738 Anderson expatiates further by stating "Now Masonry flourished in Harmony, Reputation, and Numbers, many Noblemen and Gentlemen of the first Rank desir'd to be admitted to the Fraternity, besides other Learned Men, Merchants, Clergymen and Tradesmen who found a Lodge to be a safe and pleasant Relaxation from Intense Study or the Hurry of Business, without Politicks or Party."
"UNATTACHED LODGES"
Human nature in 1724 was very like what we find it today and it is not only possible but quite probable that many of the "Operatives" and humbler members of a Lodge felt rather jealous of these richer men and their influence and desire for new methods of working. So glowing out of harmony with this changed condition of affairs they gradually left their Mother Lodges to form others more congenial to themselves. Some would also join Unattached or Independent Lodges which went by the name of St. John's Masons--St. John being the Patron Saint of the Craft--for we find that many visitors to the old Lodges often signed the attendance book or were entered by the Secretary as St. John's Men--they paying generally an extra visiting fee.
"IRISH MASONS"
Now from (a) these groups of poor Masons--discontented with the advent into the Craft of these so called "Noblemen and Gentlemen," also (b) from those brethren who objected to any alteration being made in their ancient Ritual, but more especially (c) from a band of Irish Freemasons who had settled in London -mostly in poor circumstances--came into being a new organization that in 1751 first worked by means of a Grand Committee, and in 1753 blossomed out into a new Grand Lodge whose members soon described themselves as Antient Masons holding out that they alone deserved that title because they practiced Masonry according to the 'Old Constitutions.' The late Bro. Henry Sadler, Librarian to Grand Lodge in his Masonic Facts and Fictions [1887] confirms the statement that the early members of the Lodges of the 'Antients' consisted mostly of Irish Masons, who were chiefly of the working class type. It is therefore obvious that speaking generally--the personnel of the Modern Lodges, was on a higher grade than that of the Antients. Quite apart, however, from the different social status of these brethren there were other important reasons which helped to cause a division of the Craft into two bodies.
ANDERSON'S FIRST CHARGE [1723]
The Old Charges make it clear that prior to 1717 the Craft had definitely accepted the Christian Faith as its first and abiding Land Mark; the constant and repeated 'Invocations to the Trinity' prove this to a certainty.--Perhaps in order to make 'Masonry Universal,' thereby allowing Jews to enter the Order-Anderson's 'First Charge' in his Constitutions of 1723 stated that a Mason, was "now" only required to be of that religion "in which all men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves; that is to be good Men and true, etc." [This subject has been most ably elucidated and explained by Bro. J. E. Shum Tuckett in a paper read before this Society in 1922.] This serious alteration in our creed [as Bro. Vibert tells us in his excellent Story of the Craft] virtually deChristianized the tenets of Freemasonry, thereby making the Craft eligible to a professor of any faith-provided always that the candidate recognized the existence of a Supreme Being. It is clear that this startling innovation became a serious stumbling block to many of the old fashioned Operatives who had been accustomed to hear read in open Lodge the 'Old Charges,' constantly reminding them that the first and chief duty of a Mason was to be a True Man to God and the Holy Church. These men had also lived in the days when a regular and punctual attendance at their parish church was not only a duty, but an absentee--without valid excuse-became liable to fines or other penalties. In 1552 it was enacted by 5 & 6 Edward 6, c. 1., that if anyone without lawful or reasonable excuse absented himself from public worship ( i.e., at the Parish Church) he became liable "on pain of punishment by the censures of the Church." This Act--though now obsolete -is still on the Statute Book, but was repealed --about 1846--as regards 'Dissenters.'
PRICHARD'S 'MASONRY DISSECTED' [1730]
It is also obvious that the authority of the Grand Lodge of 1717 was not recognized universally. Certain old Lodges retained a position of independence and refused to accept what they considered was a new Constitution--keeping to certain ancient customs peculiar to themselves--and certain societies also arose professing to be Masons, but often merely using the name of the Craft as a cloak for political or even less worthy purposes. Enemies were also at work, various exposures of the Ritual being printed, purporting to tell the outside world the real secrets of the Craft--the most important being Masonry Dissected, written by one Samuel Prichard, described as "late member of a Constituted Lodge," which first appeared in 1730.
At length in the same year [viz., 1730], in order to meet these various difficulties and with a laudable desire to prevent 'cowans' and 'impostors' being 'Made Masons,' the Grand Lodge of 1717 allowed--or perhaps even advised--the Lodges under its jurisdiction to make certain variations in the Ritual. The following extracts from the Grand Lodge minutes of 1730 and 1739 refer to this matter:--
1730, Aug. 28. Dr. Desaguliers "recommended several things to the consideration of the Grand Lodge" . . . "for preventing any false Brethren being admitted into regular Lodges and such as call themselves Honorary Masons." "The D.G.M. Nathaniel Blakerby proposed several Rules to the Grand Lodge to be observed in their respective Lodges for their Security against all open and Secret Enemies to the Craft."
1730, Dec. 15. In order "to prevent the Lodges being imposed upon by false Brethren or Impostors," a member had to vouch for a visiting Brother "and the Member's name had to be entered against the Visitor's name in the Lodge Book."
1739, June 30. "The Complaint referred to by the last Committee of Charity concerning the irregular making of Masons was taken into Consideration."
1739, Dec. 12. "Ordered that the Laws be strictly put in Execution against all such Brethren as shall for the future countenance, connive or assist at any such irregular Makings."
It is generally believed that the principal changes effected by the Moderns were that they:--
1 Transposed the Word s in the first and second Degrees.
2 Gave up the use of Deacons, or at any rate did not appoint them.
3 Omitted the Ceremony of Installation; (and later on)
4 Did not officially perform or even recognise the rite of Holy Royal Arch--said to be the completion or perfection of the third Degree.
5 Possibly also changed the steps, and generally curtailed the Ceremonies, relying chiefly on teaching the tenets of the Craft by means of Masonic Lectures, at least in certain old Modern Lodges the latter were always the chief and most essential feature of the work.
Unfortunately hostility soon arose between the Moderns and the Antients and increased as time went on, and for about seventy years they opposed each other bitterly. The dissenting and dissatisfied Lodges-which according to Sadler gradually became known as Irish. Lodges--insisted on retaining the established Ritual in all its details and soon began openly to state that those who had thus varied the ancient forms and ceremonies were scarcely worthy to be regarded as Masons. and so they dubbed them Modern Masons and claimed for themselves the title of Antient Masons, meaning thereby that they--and they alone--practiced Masonry according to the proper rites.
MODERNS AND ANTIENTS RE-MADE
To such an extent did this spirit prevail that if a Modern desired to visit an Antient Lodge, he had first to be Re-Made so as to become an Antient; similarly the Moderns were quite as strict on their part and would not allow an Antient to visit their Lodge unless he were first Re-Made so as to become a Modern.
Now, although the motive of the Moderns in thus varying the Ritual was perfectly honest and sincere-their desire merely being to prevent irregular Masons being made--yet in time they saw the error of their ways and practically admitted that their rivals--the Antients--had acted more wisely in retaining the Ritual in its fuller and original form.
REVERSION TO THE ANCIENT LAND MARKS [1809]
This is made clear from the fact that in 1809 the Grand Lodge of the Moderns officially passed the following resolution, viz.:--
"That the Grand Lodge do agree in opinion with the Committee of Charity that it is not necessary any longer to continue in force those Measures which were resorted to in or about the year 1739 respecting Irregular Masons, and therefore enjoin the Several Lodges to Revert to the Ancient Land Marks of the Society." (1)
This clear and important admission on the part of the Moderns that they had omitted to practice certain of the 'Land Marks' was the first serious step taken towards reconciliation. The next naturally was to try and discover what the true 'Land Marks' were and for this purpose a Lodge was formed for the express purpose of "Ascertaining and Promulgating the Ancient Land Marks of the Society," which became known a "The Lodge of Promulgation" [1809-11]. The result of their labors proving quite satisfactory, the Lodge of Reconciliation was then formed in 1813 which definitely agreed in 1816 upon a Ritual satisfactory to both sides.
THE "UNITED GRAND LODGE" [ 1813]
All difficulties being now removed, after much discussion and certain mutual concessions--of which it is only fair to state that the most important were mad by the Moderns--a "Glorious Union" of these two sections of the Craft was effected, and on the 27th December, 1813, both Moderns and Antients ceased to exit and there arose instead The United Grand Lodge of Antient Freemasons of England, the Duke of Sussex being elected and enthroned as the first Grand Master. (2)
After this somewhat rambling--and admitted quite incomplete-version of the origin of the Modern and Antients, let us turn our attention to the real purpose of this paper, viz.:--to discuss and inquire into the reasons why the Antients so persistently and continuously--from 1764 to say 1809-vilified an ridiculed the ceremonies and ritual of the Craft a practised by their opponents.
THE MODERNS
In the 2nd Edition (published in 1764) of Ahiman Rezon--which was the official text book of the Antient for half a century,--Bro. Laurence Dermott, the Grand Secretary of that section of the Craft, indulged in some rather severe criticisms when discussing certain items of the Ritual as practiced by the Moderns, and by way of an awful example (to prove some of his stories) actually singled out and especially referred to--though not by name--my own Mother Lodge, the Dunde Lodge, No. 9, at Wapping, London, E., now known as the Old Dundee Lodge, No. 18. It perhaps, therefor is not very unreasonable that the present writer--who has for over thirty years been a member of that Lodge, and is now its second oldest Past Master--should endeavor in a very humble way to investigate such allegations and put in some sort of defense to Dermott's charges, although as these were made 160 years ago, he fully realizes that the case is quite statute barred and the matter now but ancient history. This article is, however, written in the hope that other members of the Craft may derive some useful information on these interesting subjects that were evidently often discussed in the Society of the Antients. We shall commence by first making a few enquiries as to the author of these stories.
LAURENCE DERMOTT [1720--1791]
Dermott was an Irishman, born in 1720; he was made a Mason in Ireland in 1740 and working his way through the various offices was installed as W. M. of Lodge No. 26, in Dublin on 24th June, 1746. Leaving Ireland he came to London about 1747 and for some time was a comparatively poor man, for he told his own Grand Lodge on the 13th July, 1753, that "he was obliged to work 12 hours in the day for the Master Painter who employed him," and that therefore he would have no leisure time for the future in which to deliver the Summonses which up to that date had been his practice. His occupation of a Journeyman Painter betokens a very moderate income, but later on we learn that he improved in social status and carried on the business of a Wine Merchant at King Street, Tower Hill, London, E. He was a man of fairly good education, and his firm and distinctive signature reveals to some extent the bold and determined character which he undoubtedly possessed. He informs us that originally he joined a Modern Lodge in London [in 1748 -unfortunately up to now its identity is unknown,-but he soon threw in his lot (heart and soul) with the Antients and became their chief protagonist and sponsor for over thirty years. In 1752 he was appointed Grand Secretary of that body and retained that exalted position until his resignation in 1770,--in the next year [1771] he was elevated to the rank of Deputy Grand Master, acting in that capacity until 1787 when increasing ill health caused his retirement; a few years later, viz., in June, 1791, he passed to the Grand Lodge above, having devoted forty-seven years of a very active life to the services of the Craft for which he always had a great affection and regard.
His life in London was almost entirely spent in the Eastern portion of the great metropolis, for he reside for some years in King Street, Tower Hill, E., and his will dated 5th June, 1770, commences thus "In the name of God, Amen. I, Laurence Dermott of the Parish of Saint Botolph, Aldgate in the County of Middlesex, Wine Merchant, etc., etc."; he later on removed to Mile End with his wife where he remained until his death in 1791. (3)
HIS ACQUAINTANCE WITH WAPPING
Dermott's residence in the East End of London would make him very familiar with the locality of Wapping--then the busy and active Port of London--where the Dundee Lodge had met from 1739.
This Lodge--one of the oldest Modern Lodges in the world, having been Constituted 1722-23--was allotted in 1753, the Number 9 on the Register of the Grand Lodge of England, which number it held right up to the Union in 1813, when in compliance with the compromise then arrived at with the Antients it had to surrender its old number and from 1814 became No. 18 which distinction it still holds in 1924.
( To be continued )
NOTES
(1) The Committee of Charity fulfilled in those days the duties of the present Board of General Purposes of the United Grand Lodge of England.
(2) This present article is written from the point of view of the Moderns, but it is only right to at once make the fullest admission as to the great debt the Moderns owe to the Antients for preserving intact--against great opposition--much of the old (and perhaps original) working of the Masonic degree which otherwise might have been entirely lost.
(3) This information has been chiefly derived from an excellent pamphlet entitled Notes on Laurence Dermott, G.S., and His Work, written in 1884 by the late Bro. W. M. Bywater, who with Bro. Henry Sadler are the chief exponents of Bro. Dermott's Masonic career.
----o----
Do you ask what building this
That can show both pain and bliss,
That can be both dark and fair?
Lo, its name is character.
----o----
The Quaker General
By BRO. WILLIAM M. STUART
THE most noted of Washington's "Masonic Generals" was Nathaniel Greene, rated by Lord Cornwallis as dangerous as His Excellency. As the historian, C. T. Brady, observes:
"Indeed, we have come down to the Civil War to find his equal and even then the search must be made with some care. General Scott, for instance, who gained a much greater reputation in the war of 1812 and in the Mexican War, is not to be mentioned in the same breath with the Rhode Island blacksmith, either for ability or achievement; he does not compare with the plain man who so highly educated himself by his own unaided efforts, that, for relaxation in the midst of desperate campaigns, he read the Latin poets in the original by the light of the campfire, and annotated, for the use of the army, Vattel's famous treatise called Droit des Gens'!"
Here, surely, is a mark for the poor but ambitious youth to shoot at.
Washington and Greene were the only general officers who served continuously throughout the war from the siege of Boston to the end.
Although it is an undisputed fact that Greene was a Freemason, it has not been determined just when and where he was raised. Says R.W.Bro. S. Penrose Williams, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, in a letter dated Oct. 21, 1925:
In answer to your letter of the 19th instant, I beg to state that there is no record in the archives of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island, so far as I have been able to learn, to show that General Nathaniel Greene was a member of any Lodge in Rhode Island.
"We have cards showing the membership of all our Lodges from 1749 to the present time, but General Greene's name is not among them. He was undoubtedly a Mason somewhere.
"The Grand Lodge of Rhode Island has a medal which it is claimed was the property of General Greene, given him by General Lafayette."
It is extremely probable that General Greene was made a Mason in one of the ten military lodges of the Continental Army. In fact, some Masonic writers have definitely claimed this. That he was a Mason there can be little doubt.
Nathaniel Greene was born of Quaker parents at Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1746, and was trained to follow the vocation of his father, a blacksmith. His schooling was very limited, but, possessing a thirst for knowledge, he started to collect a library, and while yet a mere child learned the Latin language. After all, education is more a frame of mind than anything else. The youthful Greene had the will to acquire knowledge and nothing could keep him from it. Military history was his forte; he studied the campaigns of all great captains, from Alexander to Frederick, the Prussian genius.
Shortly after becoming of age he was elected to the Legislature of his native colony. When the news of Lexington came he promptly resolved to take up arms. Shortly he was appointed to the command of a Rhode Island brigade. His scandalized church promptly kicked him out. However, at the instance of Washington, who had quickly perceived his worth, he was promoted by Congress to the command of a division in the Continental Army.
When Howe's force threatened New York Greene was placed in charge of the American
