THE BUILDER FEBRUARY 1927

The Outlook on Masonic Education

By BRO. F. H. LITTLEFIELD, Executive Secretary, Missouri

DEVELOPMENTS during the past year, and particularly since the
opening of the winter season in Masonic educational work in various
grand jurisdictions, forcibly emphasize the correctness of the
viewpoint of the National Masonic Research Society that such
educational work is primarily a problem for each grand jurisdiction
and that no educational movement can be really successful unless it
is developed through the effort of the individual Freemason and the
subordinate lodge, fostered and supported by a definite policy on
the part of the Grand Lodge.

The marked differences in Masonic usage, teaching, ritual, etc.,
among the 49 jurisdictions of this country have made it apparent to
thinking men of the Craft that little can be accomplished except
along the lines noted. In other words, there is no single panacea
for the present Masonic condition of lack of genuine Masonic
knowledge among the great majority of the members of the Order.

Insistent and heavily increasing demands in the past several months
made upon the National Masonic Research Society for educational
material and letters received telling of results accomplished,
unmistakably bear out the belief of the guiding spirits of the
Society that-effort within the grand jurisdictions under the
conditions already referred to produces the greatest return.

Strongly corroborative of these views are the results in the grand
jurisdictions of Iowa, California, Ohio, Oklahoma, New York,
Pennsylvania and others which could be named within which
educational work is being carried on along the lines indicated.

Particular proof is embraced in the splendid report made at the
last assembly of the Grand Lodge of Ohio by Bro. C. S. Plumb, of
the Ohio State University, chairman of the committee appointed to
make a survey of Masonic education in that grand jurisdiction. It
is a masterly review of what has been accomplished and what is in
prospect as well as a historic resume of educational effort in
Ohio.

It is made perfectly clear in this very able report at its very
beginning that in Ohio Masonic education is no after-thought, nor
is it a following after a fashion of the moment. Injunction upon
the subordinate lodges in behalf of educational work is embodied in
an article of the Constitution which emphasizes the necessity for
the subordinate lodges being supplied with useful books and enjoins
upon such subordinate lodges introduction into the meetings, as
often as is possible, of lectures and essays on Masonic polity and
the various arts and sciences connected therewith.

Especially strong, too, has been the effort in recent months in
California under the direction of Bro. Reynold E. Blight, to
stimulate the desire for further light within that jurisdiction and
similarly gratifying evidences are to be found not only in the
several jurisdictions already mentioned but still others as well.
Very elaborate indeed is the machinery provided for instructing the
Craft by Pennsylvania, New York, Oklahoma and other Grand bodies,
and there is no question but that the near future will bring to the
surface further indications of progress in many other grand
jurisdictions. In Michigan, in North Dakota, in South Carolina much
additional proof is to be found of what can be done in a
jurisdiction thoroughly alive to the possible accomplishments of
sincere effort.

It has indeed been most encouraging to those in charge of the
affairs of the National Masonic Research Society to receive from
practically all parts of the country tangible evidence of the
growing, the accelerating increase in interest in Masonic
education, not merely among individuals but among groups of Masons
as well, and also in the Councils of the governing bodies of the
Craft.

The history of the Study Club movement, for such we must continue
to call it until a better name is provided, will one day provide
interesting material for a series of articles or perhaps a book,
and while it would be very difficult to ascertain quite definitely
when the first group of Masons arranged to meet together at
intervals for the purpose of improving themselves in Masonry by
reading and discussing books on the subject, it is to the brethren
of Cincinnati, Ohio, we believe, that the real credit of initiating
the modern Study Club movement is to be assigned. An account of
this was given by Dr. T. M. Stewart in an early number of THE
BUILDER, while another Ohio Mason, Bro. Robert I. Clegg,
Vice-President of this Society and a member of the editorial board
of THE BUILDER, has been particularly prominent in the movement.
In Masonry, as in everything else, the fundamental law holds good,
that in the long run it is impossible to get something for nothing.
Either you pay for what you get, or else what you do get proves to
be worth nothing. Knowledge (and this includes Masonic knowledge
for there is no exception to the rule) is not a kind of liquid that
can be poured out of one vessel into another. The part of the
recipient is just as active as that of the instructor if he is to
profit by what is taught, otherwise it is like water poured on the
back of the proverbial duck. And here it is that we come up against
the rock bottom elements of the situation. The first and well-known
factor is the need for instruction, for more light, together with
the fact that more and more are the thoughtful and zealous members
of the Craft realizing it. If Masonry is more than a wonderful
system of gymnastics, veiled in signs and illustrated by steps,
grips and words, as a well-known formula has been wittily
paraphrased, it is time that the brethren were being shown. If
there is any meaning, anything behind the forms it is time that
Craftsmen set out to search for the secrets that have been lost.
But how is the search to be prosecuted? Several directions have
been explored and it will be worthwhile to consider the reports
that have been brought back. The simplest is that of meeting
together and propounding questions and trying to answer them. It is
obvious, however, that, if all are on the same dead level of
ignorance, little progress can be made beyond an acute realization
of the lack of knowledge. And if no other expedient is tried
discouragement soon sets in and the attempt comes to an untimely
end. The second way is that of lectures and addresses, but though
some progress may be made there are rocks ahead on which the
laudable enterprise may well suffer shipwreck. Whether the
lecturers are chosen from within the group or come from outside
they will usually fall into one of two classes. If they are more or
less eloquent and pleasing speakers they will rouse a certain
amount of interest and enthusiasm, but sooner or later it will be
felt that no real advance is being made, and like the good seed
that fell by the wayside, the interest that sprang up so easily
will soon wither and die. If on the other hand the lecturer knows
his subject and really has something to say it will probably be
above the heads of his hearers, for in order to understand and
benefit by it a groundwork of elementary knowledge at least is
necessary. For example, suppose the speakers at two conventions got
mixed, and that an audience of engineers were given a paper on the
proper methods of auditing municipal accounts, while the
accountants were being told about the results of the latest
experiments in testing different kinds of steel for structural
purposes. The absurdity of the situation is obvious. But the
average Mason it must be confessed, even if he has a real thirst
for information, when listening to one who has more to say than the
platitudes and generalities which form the stock-in-trade of so
many speakers is very much in the same position as a schoolboy
still in the first arithmetic listening to a professor of
mathematics lecture a class of post-graduate students.

It is for this reason that these two methods generally fail when
tried without any supplementary work or preparation. It is not
possible to jump to the top of the tree of knowledge at a single
bound, and it may seem quite unapproachable. Yet with a ladder, it
is not hard to take the first step, and having taken that to take
another, and another, till at last the summit is attained.

The elementary work therefore has to be done, and it is better done
systematically. Here it is that the courses of study that have been
prepared by the National Masonic Research Society have their place.
They form a veritable ladder by which the inquiring brother may
safely climb to gather the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

These courses are definitely adapted to the policy for which the
National Masonic Research Society has always contended. They are
available to the individual member of the Order, to study groups
voluntarily formed, to subordinate lodges and even for the use of
grand jurisdictions. They provide the basic qualifications upon
which study may be pursued, with references to thoroughly
established works of the Masonic field and the application is left
entirely to the conditions prevailing in any specified locality.
Such application is not made by the course as prepared by the
National Masonic Research Society but is left entirely to the known
principles, theories and fundamentals of each jurisdiction. Because
of this fact we believe that the movement inaugurated twelve years
ago by this Society is showing in most effective manner that the
methods then outlined are not merely correct from the theoretical
standpoint, but from the practical as well, and leave no
opportunity for differences of view which might come from a system
calculated to apply to all grand jurisdictions alike.


A good Mason could not forget God. No man could be a Mason unless
he promised to help the poor and necessitous. Schemes of
philanthropy were the very jewels of the Order. What other Order so
stressed personal morality? Members were pledged to that by most
solemn vows. Of course, they were not exempt from criticism and
just criticism. As in every other institution, even the Christian
Church, there were those who disgraced the Order to which they
belonged. They were not all Israel who were called Israel. The
Order was better than some of its members, and needed no defence,
but some of the members needed to be reminded of the great
principles for which the Order stood.

Freemasonry should never become common. Its perpetuity and its
value rests upon the intelligence and personal morality of its
membership and a daily exemplification in their lives of its
cardinal virtues. Let us heed well the points of fellowship and not
only put forth the hand to save a falling brother, but to assist
him to rise to higher planes of life and usefulness.

