July 1947
Contents
UNIVERSALITY FREEMASONRY IN FOREIGN LANDS
BOOK REVIEWS THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF FREEMASONS
How Big Is a Man? WHAT DID YOU COME HERE TO DO?
THE PHILALETHES SOCIETY NEWS BALANCE
THE FUTURE RULES US NOW Dream River
THIS MONTH our thoughts turn to that love of native land that is one of our deepest instincts. While it does not occupy relatively as large a place in our national life as it once did, yet it is still a living and powerful force.
Why We Should Love Our Country
If we did not love family and home and native land in a special degree, these social institutions and fundamental means of life would not hold together. If family ties meant no more to us than a passing acquaintance they would as quickly dissolve as a chance meeting on the street. They are bred into our bone and blood, and so they endure all storm and stress and knit our social order and national life into unity and strength. Our country is the soil out of which we have sprung and its atoms are in our blood, its institutions spring out of our needs and ideals, its history is crystallized in our souls, and it all lives in us and we live in it. It is the atmosphere in which we live and move and have our being, without which we would be homesick unto death.
All peoples love their native land, but some of them have far fewer and less vital reasons for this affection than others. Other lands may have points in which they surpass ours; they have a longer history and may be richer in national heroism or in learning or in works of art. But no other land has such an overwhelming heap of treasures for which to be thankful and in which to take pride. The material expanse and resources of our country are unmatched and we are developing them into wealth and splendor that are the wonder of the world. These riches are spread over all our people in common comforts and luxuries that are nowhere else equalled. Eighty per cent of the motor vehicles in the world are in America, and this striking standard may also be taken as measuring other material means of life.
This material standard, however, may easily become a menace and be a means of ruin. We are much given to boasting of our material splendor, which may blind us to finer goods and higher values. Our common school is a foundation stone and is one of the glories of our country. Democracy more than any other social institution calls for intelligence and we are keeping the fountains of intelligence open and running freely. We are also a moral and a Christian people, and the things of the spirit count for more with us than the things of the flesh. The church embraces in its membership more than half our population and is relatively growing faster. Much as has been said about our decadence, yet the country is sound at the core. It holds to the ideas and ideals of its founders amidst all the changes and movements of our modern day. It is still the best place for us and our children to live, and few are they that would exchange it for any other land. We would do well to dwell upon and exploit its history and achievements, thereby deepening our love for it
How To Love Our Country
Patriotism, like religion, while it must use words, may yet find in words its soporific palliative and worst enemy. Perhaps more than religion patriotism is in danger of running into words and expending its vitality and evaporating its meaning in empty forms and speech. It talks loud and boasts great swelling pomposities that mean little and do less. It becomes a cheap virtue that may hide hypocrisy and bad citizenship. It may even become "the last refuge of scoundrels". It is almost a synonym for politics and the cheap and meaningless talk of politicians.
Patriotism must incarnate itself in solid character and deeds. There are specific sways of expressing our patriotism in all the duties of good citizenship. The comparatively small number of citizens that attend the polls is a serious symptom in our civic life. Enforcement of laws often falls back upon private citizens, especially in our large cities, and few are they that will take the time and trouble and public annoyance if not unpopularity of joining in this form of public service. Interest in all public matters, schools and charities, prisons and sanitation, public morals as affected by amusements and popular literature and all manner of social evils, the whole civic life of the community enters into our patriotism and determines its real service and worth. In vain do we talk and boast of our patriotism if it never gets down into these elements and fibers of our body politic. It is not a mere sentiment that pertains to one day in the year and can manifest itself in a splendid shower of fireworks and a big noise, any more than religion can express its true meaning and work in a church service, but it must incorporate itself in a life that lasts through the year and makes our country and all our civic life better in the character and conduct of every day. Only in this way can we truly love our country and make it truly worth loving.
Relation to Other Countries
Love for our country inevitably involves itself with our relation to other countries. Some shallow minds even appear to think that the way to love our country is to hate other countries. Of course, this is blindness and bigotry of, the worst kind, and it is a sign of a lack of education as well as of Christian breadth and brotherhood. It is true that we rightly and even necessarily have a peculiar affection for out own country , just as we do for our own family and home. But all homes are woven into a common web, and the safety and welfare and happiness of each depend upon the welfare of all. All countries are now increasingly woven into a world web, and the prosperity of no country can grow out of the adversity of other lands, but all must go up or down together. Anyway, God hath made of one blood all nations to dwell upon the earth, and we are children of one great family, and should respect and love all our human kind.
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Brother Arthur C. Parker, F.P.S., in an interesting letter dated Naples, N.Y., January 31, 1947, states that illness has compelled him to retire from his income-producing occupation but that he is trying to finish his "America's Prehistory" for delivery to his publisher in New York by February 15th. He is president of the New York State Historical Association and is still very active in Masonry as a collector of rare Masonic documents and historical items. Bro. Parker is well known in Masonic literary circles as the author of twelve Masonic plays all of which have been enacted, and of some dozen or so of Masonic books and over 300 Masonic articles. He was also an associate editor of "The Builder," a Masonic journal the disappearance of which is universally regretted. Bro. Parker has been a 33rd degree Mason since 1924. His latest honor came to him recently when the Academic Council, in behalf of the City of Rochester, N.Y., awarded to him the Civic Medal of 1946 in recognition of his meritorious work as Director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences. His grandfather, and his fathers before him, were noted chiefs of the Iroquois nation. Bro. Parker is prominently mentioned in Bro. Cyrus Field Willard's article on "Indian Freemasonry" published in the March 1947 number of "The Philalethes."
Brother Albert Knight, M.P.S., in a letter dated East Barrington, R. I., January 27, 1947, also reports serious illness that has compelled him to give up much Masonic work. Of interest is the following postscript: "This item may be of interest to you; it came in the news over the radio this morning about the death of the Crown Prince of Sweden. In 1936 it was my privilege as Grand Master of Masons in Rhode Island to be included among the twelve American Craftsmen who journeyed to visit the Grand Lodges of Sweden and Norway as the guests of King Gustaf of the former country and then proceed to Scotland to witness the installation of the Grand Master Mason who was the now present King of the British Empire, King George VI. It was while in Stockholm at the Masonic Temple to witness the 8th degree of the Scandinavian Rite when the first three officers were: His Majesty King Gustaf and a former Prime Minister of Sweden, Hon. Sendman, and Crown Prince Adolf. That was witnessing the exemplification of the Craft Degrees under very unusual ceremonies! Every officer was attired in full evening dress and each was wearing a tall hat, white gloves and apron."
Dr. Falter W. Granberg, M.P.S., of Helsingfors, Finland, under February 8, 1947, has the following to say of the present condition of our Bro. Jean Sibelius, M.P.S.: "Bro. Sibelius is now an old man and lives in his country house some 100 kilometers from Helsingfors with his aged wife, the daughters being married. He cannot have many visitors, because of his age, and we Brethren here cannot send him many comforts because nothing much can be obtained here in a legal way and the black market cannot supply anything, either. His music and his accomplishments are not forgotten; but an old man has to be remembered occasionally to make his last day more pleasant. He cannot go out and cannot read because his hands are shaky. Be he still enjoys sweet fruits and tidbits. He says he still has many melodies in his head but is us able to put them on paper. Sometimes he is composing and is able to write things; for instance, he has composed two new songs for us Brethren which we can send you later. I must also mention that the ritualistic music he wrote in the past has now been orchestrated, not by himself alone but he has made the necessary corrections. We can send you that later, for Lodge use." We might add that the famous Finnish composer is over 81 years old and that life in Finland under post-war conditions is extremely difficult and trying.
Our best wishes go out to our Brethren who are ill!
Masonry in China. Dr. Hua-Chuen Mei, Past District Grand Master of the Philippine Grand Lodge in China and for many years our close friend, has written us from Brooklyn, N.Y., under date of April 9th, last, an interesting letter describing the calvary of Masonry in China and its revival since the liberation of that country from Japanese tyranny and oppression. Born and educated in the United States and a brilliant scholar, Dr. Mei took up his residence in Shanghai where he became one of the most successful attorneys.
During the decade from 1930 to 1940, the Grand Lodge of F. & A. M. of the Philippine Islands, at the urgent request of regular Masons residing in China, chartered six Lodges, as follows:
Amity Lodge No. 106, at Shanghai;
Nanking Lodge No. 108, at Nanking;
Pearl River Lodge No. 109, at Canton
Szechuan Lodge No. 112, Chengtu;
West Lake Lodge No. 113, at Hangchow, and
Sun Lodge No. 114, at Shanghai.
According to statistics compiled in 1935, the membership of these Lodges was composed of Chinese and non-Chinese, in about equal numbers as to nationality; as to race, there were 164 Chinese and 97 non-Chinese. Of the 261 Lodge members 211 were college graduates, which is convincing evidence of the unusually high educational standard maintained.
In 1937, the Philippine Grand Lodge, following the example of the Grand Lodges of England and Massachusetts, organized the District Grand Lodge for China, at Shanghai, with Dr. Hua-Chuen Mei as District Grand Master. In August, 1937, China was invaded by the Japanese, and soon all the cities where the Lodges mentioned were located, except Chengtu, were in Japanese hands. District Grand Secretary Franklin J. Rawlins was killed and several Brethren were wounded during the frequent bombings of Shanghai, and hundreds of the Lodge members lost all they had. Most of the Lodges were compelled to transfer their meeting places to cities not occupied by the Japanese.
As soon as the Japanese had been driven out of China, the Philippine Lodges in that country began to re-organize. Past District Grand Master Mei, who was overtaken by the American-Japanese war in the Philippines, was taken a prisoner by the Japanese; but fortunately for him he was not identified by them. Upon the liberation of the Islands, Acting Grand Master Michael Goldenberg, in November 1945, sent Dr. Mei to Shanghai as his special representative, to reopen the Philippine Lodges and District Grand Lodge and deliver all the edicts and other official pronouncements issued by the Grand Master. A session of the District Grand Lodge was called, and soon after, Amity and Sun Lodges resumed their labors. West Lake Lodge was reconstituted in July, 1946, and Nanking Lodge reopened in Nanking and Pearl River Lodge in Canton. Szechuan Lodge in Chengtu carried on throughout the war, but had deteriorated somewhat until some of the Canadian Brethren returned to liven things up.
As regards regular Lodges under other obediences in China, Dr. Mei has this to say: "The British Lodges have slowly re-opened in Shanghai and Tientsin; Massachusetts in Peking (International) and Tientsin (Hykes Memorial), and the three in Shanghai; but they are numerically very weak, likewise in personnel, ritual, finance, and organization.... The Irish still have their one Lodge but have lately opened Lodge Shamrock in Hongkong. . . . The Scottish Lodges are sadly diminished in number of members. but are bravely carrying on."
Dr. Mei is much concerned over the agitation in China for the organization of a Freemasons' political party and says that this is the work of alleged Chinese "Freemasons", and that the Masons under the Philippine Grand Lodge and other regular Grand Jurisdictions are not in any way connected with such propaganda.
Two important events seem to be in the offing: the organization of a new Philippine Lodge in Hongkong and the creation of an independent Grand Lodge of China. However, various difficulties will have to be overcome first, and the present District Grand Master, M.W. Bro. David Wai-Kok Au, is a very busy man and is active in many organizations besides Masonry.
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UNIVERSALITY - VIEWS OF A BELGIAN BROTHER
IN its issue for December, 1946, "The Philalethes" published an article by Brother Philip H. Coad, M.P.S., entitled "Universality." La Chaine D'Union, of Paris, France, in its number for February, 1947, published a French translation of that article, and, in its number for April, 1947, the comment of a Belgian Brother on the game article of which the following is a translation. - Leo Fischer, F.P.S.
Ghent, Belgium, March 5, 1947.
Dear Brother Coad:
I have read with great interest your article on "Universality" in No. 6 of La Chaine D' Union. As you desire to know the views of foreign Masons, I take pleasure in sending my comment, with the ardent wish that an approach of ideas may finally bring about the solution to which we all aspire: the universality of Masonry based on certain eternal principles.
I consider that we must each make an honest effort to lessen and overcome the misunderstandings that still exist between the Anglo-Saxon, American, Nordic, and Latin Freemasonries.
It is necessary that Freemasonry, which is universal in its essence, should be cosmopolitan in its manifestation, and group together all men of good will. I am, therefore, in accord with you when you proclaim that it unites men of every country, sect and opinion, whatever may be their creed or race. I am also in accord with you when you affirm that Freemasonry teaches faith in truth, justice, liberty, enlightenment, fraternity, and philanthropy.
But our views differ when you state that Freemasonry recognizes that all men are God's children; that Freemasonry teaches the worship of God.
First of all it is necessary to agree upon the exact definition of the word God. In Europe this term is given an anthropomorphic interpretation which incontestably connects it with a revealed religion. Now, liberty of thought and free examination permit us to reject any dogma, and an atheist may be a perfectly honest man practicing the virtues of Kindness, Beauty, Truth, Liberty, Justice, Philanthropy, and Fraternity.
The philosophical and moral concepts of a Mason may have their source and root in the teachings of Jesus, Confucius or Buddha, and the atheist - he who does not believe in God - can invoke the forces of Nature, or Energy, or Reason, or Law, as guide or inspiration of his metaphysical conduct.
The great divergences between the Masonries of the various Jurisdictions of the world appear to me as a mere war of words because, in fact, in invoking God man invokes the Unknowable, Inconceivable, or Inaccessible.
Is it not sufficient to say that all metaphysics, all philosophies, all religions contain an infinite portion of light and truth and that the Strength of Freemasonry and its Universality lie essentially in the ensemble of all the speculations of the human mind, those of the past, those of the present, and those of the future, in the search for the cause and nature of things, each member having the most absolute liberty of interpretation. according to the tendency of his mind, provided that tendency is sincere and pondered ?
It seems to me that a man is a Mason if he loves and respects life, is able to suffer worthily, seeks peace in work, finds Serenity in the love of the good and the affection of his Brethren, and practices charity: When he applies these principles with constancy and perseverance he works for the perfection of humanity, for his own happiness, for universal peace.
This mission is, to my mind, lofty enough to rally all Freemasons and bring about the Universality of Freemasonry.
I am sending you this message, dear Brother Coad, in a most cordial spirit, accompanied by my fraternal greetings across the sea, in the confidence that in the love of our fellow men we shall find the strength and will to attain what we both desire.
(Signed) E. TROCH
W.M. of La Liberte Lodge at Ghent.
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THE PHILALETHES, June-July, 1947; Volume 2, Number 3. Board of Editors: Walter A. Quincke, F.P.S.; Leo Fischer, F.P.S., and Lee Edwin Wells, M.P.S. - Publication schedule: during January; February; March; Slay (April-May); July (June-July); September (August-September); November (October-November), and December. Annual subscription, $3.00, payable in advance to the Philalethes Society, 274 South Burlington Ave., Los Angeles 4, California. - It is the purpose of the Philalethes Society to raise Freemasonry to a higher plane of service, and Editor-Members of Masonic Magazines, here and abroad, are privileged to reprint, either in part or in full, any articles first published in "The Philalethes," provided due credit is given as to their source. "Marked" copies of such reprints will be welcomed.
The year 1783 is the earliest period in American history in which a regular organized body of Knights Templar existed and the evidence upon which this claim is made is an old diploma, written on parchment with two seals in wax attached, one in red of the Royal Arch and the other in black of the Knights Templar, now in the archives of the Grand Encampment.
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I have never had a policy. I have simply tried to do what seemed best each day - as each day came. - Lincoln.
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By Leo Fischer, F.P.S., Alhambra, Calif.
England. The "Daily Telegraph" reports, under March 6, 1947: "At a great gathering of the Grand Lodge of English Freemasons in London last night the Earl of Harewood was reselected Grand Master. It was the seventh consecutive occasion he had been elected and great applause greeted the announcement and the proclamation. At the outset an address was moved by the chairman, Brig. - Gen. W. H. V. Darell, Assistant Grand Master, expressing to Lord Harewood and the Princess Royal congratulations on the 25th anniversary of their marriage. A sum of 500 guineas was subsequently voted towards a suitable memento.... Notification was received of warrants for a further 66 Lodges, bringing the total under the English Grand Lodge to 1,738, of which 1,376 are in London, 3,576 in the provinces, and the remainder in various places abroad. Mr. Thomas Aubertin, a former mayor and alderman of Holborn, was elected Grand Treasurer."
Germany. In a letter dated February 25, 1947, Bro. Gottlieb Imhof, M.P.S., of Basel, Switzerland, writes us: "Today I am able to write you something regarding Germany, that is, the neighboring country of Baden, (French zone of occupation): Last Friday a Brother visited our Lodge who has been our friend for many years and has suffered exceedingly under Nazidom. Since the liberation of his country he has been very active in the cause of the revival of Freemasonry in Baden. The orient nearest to us in Basel is the city of Freiburg in Breisgau where prior to the Hitler period there were four Lodges which, of course, were closed by the Nazis. Sixty of the 200 surviving members of those former Lodges have joined in the organization of a new Lodge in the orient of Freiburg im Br., called "Humanitas zur freien Burg," which we have recognized. Conditions in Germany being still far from settled, especially as far as Masonic jurisdiction is concerned, the new Lodge of Masons has not joined any Grand Lodge; but it is in friendly relations with the Swiss Grand Lodge ALPINA. I am very anxious to see the Philalethes Society spread to as many countries as possible, so I have had a talk with our Brother from Freiburg who, being highly esteemed in our circles, would surely make an active member of our Society." The Brother mentioned, Dr. Fritz Pitsch, is director of the section of hygiene of the ministry of the interior at Freiburg.
Palestine. (From a letter written by a Mason in Palestine, in December 1946) . . . "The political situation out here has begun to create a schism between Jewish and Arab Brethren which is a great pity since our relations have hitherto been very friendly and co-operative, indeed.... A lot of good will could be set in motion if the district superintendent made an effort to have co-operation between the Lodges, the members of which are representatives of all the religions in Palestine. And we know that a lot of good will is needed if the Palestine question is to be solved with any measure of satisfaction to the interested parties."
Philippines. In his farewell speech as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of F. & A. M. of the Philippine Islands, M.W. Bro. Michael Goldenberg thanked his Brethren in the Islands for the wonderful co-operation which he had received from them during the two years that he had occupied the Grand East. Without that co-operation and without the timely aid extended to the Philippine Masons by their true friends and Brethren in America, nothing could have been accomplished. As it was, they not only placed Masonry back on its pre-war footing but had gone far beyond it, so that the ninety established Lodges and the Grand Lodge are now functioning in a creditable manner. The new Grand Master, M.W. Bro. Emilio P. Virata, has an impressive Masonic record dating back to the days when the Grande Oriente Espanol still exercised jurisdiction over some of the Philippine Lodges. He held important positions in the Philippine government and was a colonel in the guerrilla forces during the war with Japan.
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"Those Responsible for the Second World War." Under this title, the Agora Publishing Company, 120 Liberty Street, New York 6, N. Y., has put on the market an English translation of the "Official, Communication to the Freemasons of Europe and America" originally written in French by our Bro. D. Tomitch, M.P.S., former delegate of the Grand Lodge of Yugoslavia on the Executive Committee of the International Masonic Association in Geneva. The translation is the work of L. H. Lehmann, a former catholic priest who is now director of Christ's Mission in New York City and editor-in-chief of "The Converted Catholic Magazine." The booklet sells at 25 cents a copy. We quote the last paragraph of the "Translator's Preface":
"Nothing in this booklet of Mr. Tomitch is intended to cause bitterness or antagonism toward the Roman Catholic people. Indeed, it is to their benefit and to the benefit of true religion, that the facts he reveals of the Vatican's political intrigues be widely known, so that they may be halted in the future."
We reviewed Bro. Tomitch brochure quite extensively in the September, 1946, issue of "The Philalethes," under the title of "A Yugoslav Mason on War Guilt." We are very glad that through Mr. Lehmann's excellent translation the full text of this interesting work is now made available to the Masonic readers of the English-speaking world, to most of whom it will be a revelation.
"Behind The Dictators." By L. H Lehmann. Same publishers. In connection with the translation of the Tomitch pamphlet, we wish to mention a 108-page booklet of which the translator of the Tomitch brochure is the author and which can be obtained from the same publisher at $1.00 per copy. It discusses at length the role of the Vatican and the Jesuits in World War II and in the events that led up to it, and makes interesting reading.... L.F.
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THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF FREEMASONS
By Dr. J. S. Van Solkema, M.P.S., The Hague, Holland
(Translated from the Dutch by Leo Fischer, F.P.S.)
In Europe an association has been in existence for many years under the name "International League of Freemasons." To my great disappointment it has so far not been possible to awaken in the United States that interest which this society deserves because its purpose is to m a k e our symbolic Universal Chain of Union a reality. I, therefore, beg leave to publish some information concerning the International League of Freemasons (abbreviated I.L.F.) in our organ, "The Philalethes."
In 1905, on the occasion of a great international congress of Esperantists in Boulogne, France, the Masonic Brethren attending that congress decided to organize a society of Esperantists who were also Freemasons, and thus the Esperanto Framazsona was founded, on August 8, 1905. The first president was Col. Pollen, an Englishman who had been a governor in India. Other members of the governing body were a French Mason, Bro. Puleines, of Nancy; a German Bro. Barthel, of Frankfurt; Prof. Massinon, of Vesoul, and Prof. Bonjour, of Neuchatel. In 1906, the new society met in Ghent; in 1907, in Cambridge; in 1908, in Antwerp. It then consisted of several hundred members; but little activity was shown, except that from time to time a small pamphlet would be published.
Thus several years passed until, in 1913, Dr. Fritz Uhlmann, a Brother born in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, but at that time residing in Germany, drew up new statutes for the society and the latter, at a convention held that year at Bern, decided to amend its goal, which was no longer to be confined to the spreading of Esperanto but was to promote a closer union between all the Masons of the several countries and rites, which endeavor was to be facilitated by the use of Esperanto. The name was then changed to Universala Framasona Ligo. Membership in the society was henceforth not limited to Esperantists but was made extensive to all Freemasons sympathizing with the aim of the League, that of promoting closer union between Masons and the creation of fraternal bonds between the Brethren dispersed over the face of the earth.
The president chosen was Dr. Magelaes Lima, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Portugal, the secretary being Dr. Uhlmann. On August 13, 1931, an impressive ritualistic ceremony was held in Bern, the ritual used being that of the Swiss Grand Lodge ALPINA which had been translated into Esperanto by Bro. Uhlmanm. The latter presided, while Bro. Pollen, above mentioned, acted as Senior Warden and a French Brother from Lyon as Junior Warden. Hundreds of new Brethren now joined the League. A cooperation agreement was signed with Bro. Quartier-La-Tente's then existing bureau known as "Freimaurerische Weltgeschaeftsstelle." The bulletin of that bureau was made the official organ of the League.
Eligibility to membership in the League has since that reorganization been limited to individual Masons belonging to Lodges holden under a regular Masonic Grand Jurisdiction, and the League absolutely refrains from encroaching upon the jurisdiction of any Masonic Grand Power. Its purpose is, and remains, the establishment of bonds of friendship and brotherhood with Masons of other countries so that we may fully live up to the duties laid upon us by the "Old Charges," to make Masonry the means of conciliating true friendship among persons that must have remained at a perpetual distance.
Great opposition was already then encountered from Germany where even in the ancient Grand Lodges all approach in the international field was condemned. Any one who thought and worked along international lines was condemned in advance by the race-pure Germans. We are sure that our Brethren in the United States now fully understand this mentality of which the world has had ample proof.
When the first World War broke out in 1914, the work of the League was not only completely paralyzed but totally annihilated. By 1918, many of its members had been gathered to the Celestial Grand Lodge while others, dispersed throughout the world, had been lost. Again it was the Esperantist Brethren who saved the day. At an Esperanto congress held at The Hague, steps were taken to revive the League, which held its first convention since the war in 1921, at Prague, and the second in 1923, at Nuremberg. At the latter, Bro. Uhlmann was elected as president and Bro. Barthel as secretary.
But the war had created great difficulties. The great misery and intense suffering caused by it had engendered a narrow nationalism which rendered it difficult to bridge the chasm that separated the peoples. The same as at present, insane notions prevailed, nationalistic ideologies completely at war with every humane idea were in vogue, and the economic obstacles created by the peoples in spite of themselves were growing tremendously.
This notwithstanding, the few remaining Brethren, being convinced idealists and optimists, persevered and met in conventions of the League in 1924, in Vienna, and 1925, in Geneva.
In 1926, Bro. Uhlmann, who was still president which office he held until his death, was asked by Bros. Lennhoff and Hammerschlag, of Vienna, to come to that city and help organize the League in order to make it a powerful agent for good. As a result of this meeting, a big bureau of the League was organized, with Bro. Lennhoff as director. It was decided that the League should publish a paper of its own, the "Heroldo," which actually appeared for several years. It was further decided to liberalize the membership requirements by making all Masons eligible from Entered Apprentices upward, and it was again expressly stipulated that the League was to abstain from any encroachment upon the jurisdiction of any Grand Power, and that it was an association of individual Brethren who were members of a regular Grand Lodge. There was to be an official congress each year which all members were entitled to attend and which was to give them an opportunity to make personal acquaintances and establish friendships.
In those years much opposition to the work of the League was encountered in Germany. Various prohibitions were issued concerning membership in the League and its activity in the international field. The Grand Lodge "Zu den drei Weltkugeln" made the following official statement: "The internationalists and pacifists of the countries which were our enemies during the war are static and strive to have the status quo continue. They are opposed to war and armaments because they desire to have the central powers who were overthrown in the war continue permanently in their present situation. The internationalists and pacifists in Germany, on the contrary, are dynamic and strive for movement; they expect from a reconciliation and understanding at least a cessation of the most unbearable consequences of the world war that was forced upon Germany. Then we have another static element in the unimportant neutrals for whom, owing to special circumstances, the World War has passed without their suffering any harm; but who dread any war between the great nations like the pest because they fear they might emerge much less unscathed, and rightly so, and who are naturally quite indifferent as regards Germany's future. Reflecting on all this, we see quite clearly that international Masonic assemblies will for the present result in nothing but friendly and fraternal platitudes and that there is sure to be a clash between the static and the dynamic elements as soon as essential questions come up. It must, therefore, be emphatically affirmed that it is completely useless for German Masons to attend any such internationalistic and pacifist assemblies, and that they would do far better to devote their entire strength and attention to reconciliation in Germany itself, of the various elements of the German people who are now warring with each other and do not understand each other...."
Fortunately we can quote, in contrast to those bragging utterances, these words said by our Brother, former imperial chancellor Gustav Streseman of Germany, who died altogether too soon. "It is a fatal misconception to represent the national and the international as opposites and connect with the concept of international the reproach of non-national."
In 1927, the year when I joined the League, a congress was held in Basel. It was attended by members from 15 countries, belonging to 16 Grand Lodges. Resolutions were passed to publish monographs regarding the Grand Lodges of the several countries and to compile a handbook for Freemasons giving in alphabetical order, in French, English, German, and Spanish, miscellaneous data and expressions for the use of the Brethren in visiting Lodges abroad. Resolutions were also passed providing for an exchange of speakers between the several countries. It was, and still is, absolutely prohibited to discuss any political or religious subject.
In 1928 the members of the League assembled in Vienna. There were 700 participants, belonging to 30 Grand Lodges. Grand Masters and other officers of Grand Lodges and Grand Orients of various countries were present.
In 1929 the congress was held in Amsterdam. Again over 700 members attended. The Lodge ceremonial was held in the big concert building which had been converted into a beautiful Masonic hall. Under the direction of our Bro. Junod, a ritual in four languages was exemplified. The solemn impression was enhanced by splendid music, and the moments I spent there were among the most wonderful in my Masonic career. And, what is to me of the greatest importance, I established at these congresses lasting friendships with a large number of Brethren from the whole of Europe as a result of which I still keep up an extensive correspondence which affords me the greatest of pleasure. All these relations have revealed to me much that would otherwise have remained unknown to me and have added to my knowledge along many lines.
In 1930 we met in Geneva. Here, too, the attendance was great. But we already felt then that a new peril was threatening the world or, at least, Europe. In Germany the distant thunder was steadily becoming more audible to anyone who had ears to hear and eyes to see. It has always puzzled me that the number of persons who actually understood what was going on and what was brewing, was so small; but people in general refuse to be disturbed in their peace of mind and prefer assuming an ostrich-like attitude to courageously facing the situation and drawing their own conclusions.
In 1931 the League met in Paris where the Brethren spent many precious hours together. Both the Masonic Grand Powers of France gave evidence of their interest in and sympathy with the work of the League, and the attendance was very satisfactory.
By 1932 the difficulties had already increased and our number was smaller when we met in Basel.
In 1933 the congress was held at The Hague, Holland. Few members were Present. At this gathering I spoke for the last time with our unforgettable Bro. Dr. Leo Muffelmann of Berlin. Upon his return home from The Hague he was arrested by the Gestapo and confined in the Oranienburg concentration camp. When he was finally released, after many months of imprisonment, he was so ill as a result of the tortures which he had undergone that he soon passed to the Celestial Grand Lodge.
In 1934 we met in Brussels, in 1935 in Luzern, in 1936 in Prague, and in 1937 again in Paris. Of course, these gatherings were held under the shadow of the events which were taking place in Europe during that time and which were in flagrant contradiction to what Freemasonry teaches us as a way and aim of life.
However, worse was yet to come. In 1938, when we assembled at Thun, in Switzerland, we already met some Jewish Brethren who had fled from Vienna in order to escape the perils of Naziism. The obstacles continued to increase and mutual contacts became less frequent because the enemy was constantly on the alert. Germany showed great energy in its propaganda against Jews and Freemasons who were branded there as criminals against humanity because their aim was said to be that of ruling the world in order to oppress, enslave and exploit the human race!
And yet, when the League met in Amsterdam, in August, 1939, there still were a few members present who had come from Belgium, France, and Switzerland. Some of these experienced much trouble in getting home when, at the beginning of September, the storm broke loose in the form of the war between Germany and Poland and other allied nations.
Again the work of the League was destroyed, the same as in 1914; but this time the destruction was more complete than it had been after World War I. I shall not enlarge upon what we went through in the years from 1940 to 1945; I will only say that it again became evident that you cannot kill the spirit with the body.
In the summer of 1945 we Masons of the Netherlands were confronted by the necessity of rebuilding our Lodges and our Grand Lodge. We have been successful in our work, to the extent that all our Lodges are now working regularly. A large number of new members have been initiated and we are happy to state that an era of florescence has begun for Freemasonry in the Netherlands. But, we are also anxious to reestablish contact and cooperation with our Brethren in other countries. We feel, we know, that we are united with them in the spirit. We know that the world has become small and we also know that there is power in union. The League was kept alive during the war by our Swiss Brethren. In 1939 the seat of its government had been transferred to the Netherlands. Our Bro. Junod then became general president and Bro. De Cries secretary. Both have in the meantime passed to the Celestial Grand Lodge: the former died after an operation and the latter was taken to Germany as a Jew and gassed. Honor to their memory !
In October 1945 I received from Switzerland the first tidings of a re-activation of the League. In the Netherlands, the work has now progressed to such an extent that we form one of the numerous state groups.
In October 1946 I was in Switzerland where I was able to attend a meeting of the provisional governing body of the League. It was then decided to organize a congress of the International League of Freemasons to be held on August 22, 23 and 24, 1947, in Basel, and we are at the present writing busy with the preparatory work. I have no doubt that everybody coming to hospitable Switzerland for that convention will greatly enjoy the companionship and association with Brother Masons from many different Grand Jurisdictions united in the endeavor to promote everything that will unite men and eliminate everything separating them.
I sincerely hope that what I have said here will find an echo in the hearts of many of my American Brethren and that, after informing themselves concerning everything they will make themselves known. Any of them can advise me that he desires to join the League. The annual dues are only one dollar. May the League receive from America such substantial support as to bring universal brotherhood closer!
----o----
A man's no bigger than the way
He treats his fellow man!
This standard has its measure been
Since time itself began!
He's measured not by tithes or creed,
High-sounded though they be;
Nor by the gold that's put aside;
Nor by his sanctity!
He's measured not by social rank,
When character's the test;
Nor by his earthly pomp or show,
Displaying wealth possessed!
He's measured by his justice, right,
His fairness at his play.
His squareness in all dealings made,
His honest upright way.
These are his measures, ever near
To serve him when they can;
For man's no bigger than the way
He treats his fellow man.
----o----
By Frank E. Stromberg, M.P.S.
Woodharen, N.Y.
FREEMASONRY does not limit the growth, development, and mastership of its members in any way, but it does insist that all members must pass through the preliminary degrees of instruction in order that certain necessary things may be accomplished and established. Remember, Freemasonry cannot give you truth or teach the great truths of life, but it can sow the seeds in your consciousness so that truth will grow from these seeds and you will then possess the truth. Down through the ages has come the cry for light and more light. Man goes on his way and crosses the borderline into the unknown and seems to end his existence in the twinkling of an eye. Still, there was always the quest for knowledge and the desire for answers to problems unsolved. It cannot be disputed that the founders of the present form of Freemasonry never formulated a real practical and working program that would be common to all its members. Yet, we must be able to find one or more points in the E.A. Degree that would serve the purpose of a plan and assist the candidate in bringing to his mind or consciousness an understanding of "light" or rather more "Light," masonically speaking.
Most brethren have taken it for granted that the teaching of our Great Fraternity is based upon the golden rule or the Brotherhood of Man. An altruistic movement of some sort that would teach men how to live together peacefully. To be tolerant of one another and assist each other to advance intellectually through the seven liberal arts and sciences. why, of course, this is true and our Order does encourage this absolutely; but it is only incidental to the real work involved. Most organizations teach morality, brotherhood and the golden rule. Even the churches, regardless of denomination, teach all these things. But, what are we looking for ? More Light, of course! More light on the 'way of life.' We want to know the truth, too. Does Freemasonry have the truth? Yes, I think it has, and rightly understood, this truth will assist mankind to advance civilization to greater heights and will also develop the new candidate, making him proficient in each step he undergoes. There are many barriers that have been set up in ordinary everyday life that the spirit of Freemasonry will help to remove. The life of one man affects the life of another, just as surely as you and I are associated with the great Masonic Fraternity.
What did you come here to do?
As an E.A., did you come here to do something? Have you work to do?
If you will review the work of the First Degree, you will be surprised to find that an objective has been worked out for you. Our First Degree plan of action is the subduing of our passions or emotions and improving ourselves in Masonry. This is our job . . . definitely! Call it dogma if you will, but this work is absolutely a part of the secret work of Freemasonry.
It has been said that man is a creature of emotions . . . meaning that he is more or less a slave to his passions or emotions. Our emotions create desires; our desires then move us, and we believe that it is our thinking and reasoning that have moved us to our action. Even our thinking and reasoning are influenced by our emotions. Hence, our emotions may interfere with our truly logical reasoning and lead us to have a preference, a strong desire, to which we yield with such vim and such fervor that we seem to be exercising will power. You are not to understand that there is no such thing as the will to do. Rather should we understand that the will is the result of our own thinking and is not as powerful a principle as the passions or emotions.
As an E.A. it will be our job to subdue the passions or emotions. We cannot subdue by will-power alone. To become a M.M. or in other words a "master," we will have learned to overcome these forces by absolute direction and not by control. To control a force is negative . . . to direct a force is positive. In directing this force we become constructive and this is why the Freemason is called a "builder." He builds a personality, a personality that he can call his very own, yet, is still a part of the great Fraternity which is an aggregation of all personalities, creating an over-soul personality of Freemasonry.'
Now we can say that Freemasonry is a system of morals, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. Would you now say that Freemasonry is speculative?
What did you come here to do?
----o----
New Members
George Lambrechts; 7, rue Claire-Droneau; Lorient (Morbihan); France.
Godfried H. Lohrli; 2332-21st Street; Santa Monica, California.
James P. Long; Naples, New York.
Clyde Marshall McKay; P. O. Box 792; Bend, Oregon.
Lawton Early Meyer; 506 Olive Street; St. Louis 1, Missouri.
Maurice Paillard; 217, London Road; Twickenham, Middlesex, England.
Albert Walter Schappert; Rt. 1; Aloha, Oregon.
George Harold Steinmetz; 151 Hernandez Ave.; San Francisco 16, California.
Fernand Varache; 8, rue Puteaux; Paris, 17c, France.
* * *
Change of Addresses
Francis Robert Hobson; 50 S. Algoma Street; Port Arthur (Ontario), Canada.
Victor E. Vieira; P.O. Box 647; Lewiston, Idaho.
Lee Edwin Wells; P.O. Box 110; Canoga Park, California.
----o----
Minds are like parachutes . . . they do not function unless open.
----o----
Recent visitors at the home of President Walter A. Quincke, F.P.S., included: Earl S. Brickell, M.P.S., of Tacoma, Wash., and Allister J. McKowen, F.P.S., of Los Angles.
When in Los Angeles, run out and get acquainted. This is a standing invitation, Brethren!
----o----
The test of a man in an emergency is whether he thinks first . . .
"HOW DOES IT EFFECT ME?"
or
"HOW CAN I EFFECT IT?"
----o----
By James K. Remick, M.P.S.
San Diego. Calif.
MEN of inquiring minds are never satisfied ill until they have had a little look behind the material expression of symbols and things, and the reward for such curiosity and urge for Light is of course commensurate with the depth of the desire involved.
Freemasonry affords an opportunity for all good men and true to have a mosaic set up for them that exhibits a beautiful unfoldment of earthly living from the dawn of individual consciousness to the sublime demonstration of immortality, and the consequent conviction, certainly to some beholding souls, that there must be many states and stages of the Life experience, this phase of the present being but one of them in the eternal journey from the clod to God.
Light, of course, is the primary essential with which the wayfarer is endowed. As he progresses along his journey of unfoldment he learns that all Nature is replete with the positive and negative exhibit. He beholds it at times as light and dark; the no and the yes; masculine and feminine; sour and sweet; ebb and flow; sun and moon; the plus and the minus, the polarity ad infinitum.
No Freemason, no Child of Light would be complete within himself without his journey between the pillars. For it is the harmonious place between strength and beauty that is secure. The Temple is never occupied by those who are over-balanced toward one pole or the other.
It seems to me we have support of this philosophy in no less an example than our Bible. To be sure the translations leave much to be desired, and some authorities suggest many interpolations not pertinent to the text. Be that as it may, it is the Rule and Guide, the Old Testament with its negative exhibition, Thou shalt not and the New Testament, the positive pole with its compassionate, Blessed are they; the Old with the negative, eye for au eye; the New with the positive, Do unto your brother as you would have him do unto you. In both pillars together and in balance we have a design for living that has maintained throughout the millenia.
They who truly pass between the pillars are of but one creed and brotherhood. There is no class superiority, but hand clasped in hand they strive for humanity that the pure flame of Life may be fanned to a brilliance to light the journey up the ladder of Jacob.
And so with poise and freedom we continue our journey from day to day, building our Temple of the human soul with pillars of enduring and beautiful pattern, adapting the architecture that may be most suited for the completeness of the structure.
----o----
We shall never be truly happy until we learn to give, first ourselves, then our time, talents, energy, money, goods and whatever else we possess.
----o----
By Arthur C. Parker, F.P.S., Naples, New York
FOR hundreds of centuries mankind has been held in a state of arrested moral development, and to a large extent a restrained intellectual development, by the precedents of the past. It is true that history has its lessons and that races and nations that do not heed its warnings are doomed to repeat the mistakes that make a large part of recorded history a story of tragedy, but it is equally true that the errors in the thinking of men who did not have the answers should not be conserved as sacred.
Up to now we have been told to heed the wisdom of the past, but little effort has been made to separate wisdom from established precedent. It is better, as a new age dawns, to know what historic wisdom is and be warned by it, without being ruled by the errors in thinking that grew up about it as an accretion. It is that which is dangerous.
Today, whether we accept it or not, whether we like it or not, it is the future that rules us, and not the past.
Mankind's whole destiny is wrapped up in what is around the corner of tomorrow. Every scientist knows that, and so do many worried statesmen, groping almost in the dark for a way to lead their nations to that realization.
Only a few weeks ago at the invitation of a great electrical organization I stood before a betatron, capable of utilizing 300-million volts. It is the precursor of one that will generate many times that amount in the quest of atomic energy. I saw other things that not only astonished me but gave me much food for thought, for I saw that a different world, and a very small one is in the offing.
It was not what I saw, however, so much as what I realized that troubled me. I beheld the promise of a world implemented as never before, and the atomic bomb held out like the apple in the Garden of Eden, the fruit of good or evil. My realization was that the tasting, or even the testing of the fruit of man's external reaching toward the gods, "to become as one of them," had been done without sufficient internal moral preparation, and that he, man, is holding in his physical hand what is far too weighty for his moral grasp. That is a staggering finish to the great quest of Progress that now presents us with a new age.
Every agency for the dissemination of knowledge and morals now should be employed to shock mankind to the awareness that we stand at the transcendant dawn, or in the radiant glow of an eternal sunset. Man's moral fiber now is being tested.
Institutions like Freemasonry might well diagram this ominous fact, for surely it is the emerging pattern that glows upon the trestleboard to challenge the race to build the new temple. But can man build anew ? There has been an ending and a beginning. Can man begin ? The answer is that if this race: called homo sapiens, that has risen from the eolith to the fissions of atoms, cannot see that a new earth has come to meet the new heaven. it is doomed to insecurity, chaos and extinction. The inverted pyramid called culture can no longer be balanced upon the tip of moral weakness and selfishness.
The solution emerges from a most ancient tenant of our Craft, the law of Brotherhood. Out of this sprang the Golden Rule. Either mankind shall live together in the harmony brought about by a recognition of a common Creator, or it will war like beasts with tooth and fang to the bitter end. In the direction of the ominous choice Masonry must take a leading part.
Masonry, too, is at the crossroads. The choice is either a rebuilding of a New Temple, or a return to dust,
----o----
Wind-silvered willows hedge the stream
And all within is hushed and cool.
The water, in an endless dream,
Goes sliding down from pool to pool.
And every pool a sapphire is,
From shadowy deep to sunlit edge,
Ribboned around with irises
And cleft with emerald spears of sedge.
O, every morn the winds are stilled,
The sunlight falls in amber bars,
O, every night the pools are filled
With silver brede of shaken stars.
O, every morn the sparrow flings
His elfin trills athwart the hush,
And here unseen at eve there sings
One silver-throated hermit thrush.
----o----
IN THESE days almost every one you meet seems to have a problem. Some of these are intellectual, indicating the wrestle of human minds with truth. Some problems are social and have to do with the adjustments which individuals must make in our rapidly-changing society. Some are practical and are concerned with the material or financial affairs of daily life. Not a few are definitely religious problems, indicating the struggle of souls not completely in harmony with the universe and God. The new conceptions of our day and the ever-enlarging experiences in widening realms of life, together with that inborn restlessness for God which characterizes every individual soul, account for many of these problems.
There is always hope for the person who is seeking light. But deeper than these problems of life, are the purposes of the individual who must solve these problems.
Everything about us has a purpose. The tools we use, the instruments we employ, the books we read, the buildings we erect, the vehicles in which we are transported - all these have specific purposes. More definitely, as human skill increases and as science advances our knowledge of nature's laws, are these materials adjusted to the purposes which they are intended to serve.
Every life is a plan of God. He has work for each individual which that individual alone can best accomplish. He would have us each fit into the purpose of his divine economy. He would have us live and labor in the light of those purposes. It is clearly the first duty of every individual to find that station, which is peculiarly his own, and strive to his utmost to fill it.
It is in the light of this major purpose of each individual that most of our problems, however they arise, must be solved. We may seek counsel from others. We may check up our own thinking with the experience and the wisdom of others. We do well to ask advise of those who have gone over life's way before us. Indeed, we are not even confined to living persons who come within the immediate circles of our acquaintance in the matter of this counsel.
We have the poets, the prophets and the historians and the saints of old beside whom we may stand and through them God may speak to us and we may learn his will. God wonderfully helps us in these times of decision and of opportunity through his manly voices and through his faithful servants of our own and of other days.
When most of our problems are measured up to and fitted into the high purposes of our life they disappear either positively, being taken up into the main currents of our life, or negatively, being turned aside, and they thus become an opportunity for service and sacrifice and for the development of the powers entrusted to our cares