THE BUILDER AUGUST 1919

PROGRESS OF THE MASONIC OVERSEAS MISSION
BY BRO. GEO. L. SCHOONOVER, P. G. M., IOWA

DECIDEDLY the most significant and far reaching occurrence of the
conference at Cedar Rapids was the report of the Overseas Mission
in which Judge Scudder, a Justice of the Supreme Court of New York,
and a most scholarly and forward looking brother, recited to those
present the details of the negotiations with the government looking
to the fraternity being recognized as one of the official agencies
engaged in welfare work among the men of the army and navy
overseas. The Masonry of the United States was so recognized by the
War Department, the activities in which it proposed to engage were
approved, and everything was apparently smooth in the pathway of
service along which we desired to travel, until some agency, not
disclosed by name in the report of the Overseas Mission, by some
subterranean methods blocked our way. No reasons were given which
would stand the test of fair and unbiased analysis. Certain
officials stated that "the Masonic fraternity had been the victim
of a series of circumstances." The Mission was refused passports to
go to France and engage in this work as an independent, recognized
agency.

After a series of long negotiations the Overseas Mission was
accepted by the Y. M. C. A. as a part of their welfare machine on
foreign soil. They, too, approved the desire and ambition expressed
by our Mission, and passports were applied for by them for our five
Overseas Commissioners to go as Y. M. C. A. secretaries, the basis
of their work when they reached France having been mutually agreed
upon.

The application for passports remained pigeonholed in Washington
for seven weeks without a reply. Then Judge Scudder, becoming
somewhat impatient at the delay went to Washington to ascertain the
cause. He found that the passports were to be denied. In making the
application for passports, nothing of the intended purpose of the
Overseas Mission to engage in Masonic activities had been covered
up everything was frank and aboveboard. Without doubt it was for
this reason that the applications were held up, and were about to
be refused. Judge Scudder had several copies of the Overseas
Mission's report with him, for by this time it had been distributed
to the several Grand Jurisdictions in printed form. He read
considerable portions of it, notably those which argued the case as
it appeared to the Mission, to certain governmental officials. The
results followed one another with miraculous rapidity. Within an
hour from the time Judge Scudder had finished reading this report,
the passports were forthcoming, and the Mission was able to sail.
In fact, so illuminating had been the arguments and reasons set
forth in support of our Masonic contentions for practically a year
and a half prior to that time, that the Mission was informed that
if it so desired it might sail as an independent agency, but
because the Mission had given its word to the Y. M. C. A., this
opportunity could not, of course, be availed of. To have done so
would have meant to break faith q with the "Y."

The Overseas Mission sailed the week of February 6, 1919, more than
a year and a half after their original intention, and part of them
returned to New York on May 5,1919. For the following summary of
their findings and activities I am indebted to Brother Scudder,
chairman of the Mission, who recently made an exhaustive report at
the Grand Lodge of New York. Unfortunately I cannot now give this
report in his own language, and must for the sake of space
summarize in a few paragraphs his most illuminating survey of the
conditions which they found and the steps which they took to have
Masonry play its part.

They knew the fraternity in America to be aggrieved because it had
not been allowed to participate as it had been promised that it
should do, because that permission had been in effect withdrawn.
They only guessed that our soldier brethren on the other side had
longed for them to come, been disappointed that they did not come,
and, finally, felt that they had been neglected by Masonry. They
had joined Masonry for its high aspirations and ideals; they felt
that these had not been lived up to, and so far as their knowledge
went in the premises, they could only feel that the neglect was due
to indifference. When, therefore, our Overseas Mission arrived in
France they found our boys in khaki cold. From their viewpoint it
seemed that, the Mission having sailed when the seas were safe, it
was adding insult to the injury, or else gave ground for an
indictment of cowardice. They were homesick, these boys. They had
had no Masonry to lean upon except that of their own construction,
and they were not in a mood to come home and feel that the Masonry
which they left behind was the same Masonry that they had conceived
it to be. The Mission found them filled with but one idea, that of
coming home, and they were coming sore at heart, disappointed, and
critical of the fraternity.

Despite the difficulties of travel, of delayed mails, of military
discipline, of some opposition in government circles, of convincing
the overseas supervisors of the Y. M. C. A. of the value of the
work which the Mission had in view, they were able, after five or
six weeks of what seemed inconsequential accomplishment, to begin
to make some headway. In time they were able to reach the hearts of
the boys and convince them that the reason for Masonry's absence
from the welfare activities on foreign soil was not one of choice.
They showed them how and why it had been deemed unwise by some
governmental officials to let us go, and that those officials
seemed to have the power to keep us at home. The overseas officials
of the Y. M. C. A., at first incredulous and skeptical, came after
awhile to see that the proposed work was worth while, and the
attendance upon Masonic meetings which they finally permitted in
the "Y" huts generally proved to them the desire on the part of
Masons for the Masonic fellowship which had been theretofore denied
them. The meetings became enthusiastic. The clubs formed, and there
were more than sixty of them, mounted to thousands in membership,
and the Masonic meetings taxed the capacity of the huts. Once the
Masons in khaki understood the story which the Mission had to tell,
they became once more the firm and enthusiastic and proud
supporters of the Masonic fraternity which they had been when at
home. Once the Y. M. C. A. realized fully how catering to the
desire of Masons to meet upon the level helped to revive its own
usefulness in a considerable degree, they lent their full influence
to these new and long-denied activities. The personnel of the
Mission was splendid. Their morale was high, their self-sacrifice
complete. Personal comforts they had none, but they carried the
great message of Masonry all over France and the occupied portion
of Germany. They went into Belgium and Flanders and Italy,
likewise, and their reception was a tribute indeed to the at last
partially consummated desire of the Masons of America.

In a private interview, Judge Scudder gave his conclusions as to
the value of the work, somewhat after the following manner:

"It was pitiful to see how little the boys needed to make them
happy. They organized their clubs and did business, as a rule, as
nearly in accordance with lodge practice as they could. The very
similarity of their meetings to those to which they were accustomed
in the lodges at home seemed to make them happy. Small
entertainments were sufficient. The opportunity for an unrestricted
-Masonic fellowship was what they craved. Gathered together from
all quarters of the United States, they found infinite joy in
merely talking together, under the club auspices, and spent the
next to the last minute of their leave together in this way. All
that was needed was a semblance of the Masonic intercourse which
they loved, and their hearts responded in an atmosphere of
fellowship which made the simplest kind of a meeting a unanimous
success.

"We had some opposition at times much of it. But after the
preliminary weeks of waiting were over, we found that we had made
some substantial progress toward the perfection of our plans. We
did not do what we had covenanted with the Y. M. C. A. to do  go
over and assume responsibility for certain huts at our own expense,
under their supervision. We did not do it because we were asked not
to do so. The "Y" found in our plan of club co-ordination a wiser
course, and were generous enough to accept it, in fact to adopt it,
and on their own motion, assume much of the expense of it, because
they found that it was a real addition to their own activities, and
was helping materially their own cause. They became convinced that
the Masonic fraternal tie was the strongest tie binding men of the
fraternity together the best tie there is. At first they witnessed
our efforts with misgiving, but they became convinced, and were
finally so far won over as to feel that the adoption of our designs
was a substantial drawing card for them.

"This entire work was conducted in behalf of the Masonry of the
United States. No state in particular was mentioned. Every brother
was welcomed, no matter where he hailed from. And the Masonic
soldiers are coming home, convinced that the fraternity had a real
desire to serve, that it was prevented from serving in the first
instance by opposition which was able to control the governmental
policy. They are coming home convinced of the good effects of the
fraternity. They appreciate our stand in persisting until we could
get to them, even though we were compelled to forego our desire to
do so as an independent agency. Our fraternity will not be on the
defensive before them as they come back. They will not be
bitter they will understand the obstacles which we had to overcome,
and by the manner of our overcoming them, which they now
appreciate, they are convinced that through it all our hearts were
with them. They are proud of their Masonry now. Contrast this with
the opinion they held of it when they believed that they had been
forgotten and there had been those who had not neglected to remind
them of it and you will have some appreciation of the value of the
mission. However its work may have succeeded in measuring up to our
own desires, we may be sure that our soldier brethren now know why
we did not get to France sooner, and they know why we had to come
as we did come, in the garb of another agency.

"The delivery of this message has cost the fraternity in the United
States not more than $15,000 expended overseas up to date; if the
work is continued for a year, it will cost us, under the very
advantageous circumstances under which we now work, not to exceed
a total of perhaps double that amount. Is it not worth it ?"

