PEACE, PEACE, AND THERE IS NO PEACE.

THE AMERICAN FREEMASON
APRIL 1914

I AM frequently amused, though more often disgusted at the showings made by Lodges and Grand Lodges over questions regarded as of first importance to themselves and the world of Craft.  For the most part as my experience goes, the relative correctness and value of "the" as against "an" in a ritualistic phrase is the most vital subject that can possibly come up for consideration before a Masonic body.  Yet the same men who will "tear a passion into tatters" over the crossing of a "t" or the dotting of an "i," are abundantly able to discourse reasonably, even logically, on topics of the time - elsewhere than in a Lodge or among Masons.  It would seem that some soporific influence pervades the places of Masonic meetings, so that coherent ideas can not therein reach to expression.  If by rare chance a Grand Master, in his annual address, touches upon matters of vital importance to the nation and to the generation, and frankly advises his brethren to inform themselves and to act as befits men and Masons, he is forthwith informed by the watchful Correspondents that he has trenched upon "religion" or "politics," and that such things are, by the supernal wisdom inherent to the whimsies or the opinions of our forefathers, barred forever from the field of Masonic discussion.  A long system of suppression and reproof has very effectually cut out from the Lodges of America anything and everything that is not of form or routine.  The treadmill was long ago invented, and has since been constantly improved.  By means of this ingenious apparatus the necessary exercise is provided, without fear that any ambitious brother will reach further or go higher than the leaders may prescribe or the mechanism allow.  And then will these same Masters of Craft deplore the fact, in season and out, that brothers will not attend the meetings of Lodges; will not help bear all the burdens of their affiliation.  But to be honest now, with yourself and your fellows, can you believe that men of information and intellect will be content to go to the usual Lodge meetings night after night, and feel other than starved upon the mental food there provided for them.  The fellows who enjoy hopping onto the treadmill, and turning over the machine the required number of times, can not understand, perhaps, that there are other men to whom such exercise would be monotonous and worse, because for all the travelling one gets nowhere, and despite the labour, they accomplish nothing.

Sometimes I am afraid it is a waste of time and energy to point out how Masons in other countries do find subjects for discussion that are worth while; how they save their Lodges from the reproach of sterility of thought, and how they manage to make every center of Masonry a propaganda for right thinking and advanced action in their communities.  But as example of what I am trying to set forth, let me call attention to the overshadowing subject of peace between the nations.  I am glad to say that this has been glanced at, even in American Grand Lodges, which would indicate that it is a topic of more than ordinary importance, and presses more closely than common upon the consciousness of the people.  What I want to accentuate is the difference of method, and the practicality of action, as between European and American Masons.  I have during the past year followed after the published lucubrations of Grand Masters, and others, who have voiced certain vague aspirations after universal peace.  The old rhetorical flourishes are used, of course; a new page turned in the dictionary of quotations, a few pious texts are interspersed, the prayer is breathed that somehow, sometime, somewhere, through the sovereign influence of Masonry, and because of a diffusion of its benign principles throughout the world, the nations will be induced to beat their spears into pruning hooks, etc.  And the whole effusion winds up with a quotation from "Locksley Hall," of the "federation of the world, the parliament of man." After all, these Grand Masters and other orators, whether consciously or not, are up to the psychology of the occasion. The most of us, having heard something of this sort, are apt to imagine we have done things ourselves, and take credit accordingly.  We ejaculate wishes that the dove of peace may build its nest in the mouth of a cannon, that dreadnoughts shall be turned into coal-scows or rust out at their anchorages, and that the armies may be turned back to the fields and factories.  And having nodded approval while some redundant speaker built up his sentences to description of the millennial period to follow upon the desired transformation, we believe that our full weight of influence has been cast upon the side of universal peace.  The next day we grumble at the high cost of living, or complain at the increases of indirect taxation, the while the United States is spending each year, on wars past, or to come, more than is Germany, whose military burden is pointed to as beyond the utmost endurance of the people.

Now how do our brethren abroad approach this question of increasing armaments, and how do they labour to create sentiment favouring peace among the nations? It is true that these matters are brought closer to them than to ourselves.  We pay the taxes, however unwillingly, and think no more of the causes for their increase, nor stop to inquire whether the burden is necessary.  To these others the soldier is the ever-present fact.  The young man gives up to the nation the best years of his life.  His motives are doubtless patriotic, in the main, but he has no voice to refuse the service.  Divergent political interests of peoples, separated by little more than imaginary lines; economic pressures of various sorts; the scheming of ambitious rulers and the interested campaigns of the arms' makers - any and all of these causes operate to keep the spectre of war very much in the European foreground.  The peasant or the artisan bears upon his shoulders an armed man - with perhaps a priest piled atop for make weight.  It is therefore not to be wondered at that these our brothers see the situation more threateningly than it appears to us, for whom militarism is put usually in terms of dollars and cents, while there the computations represent also flesh and blood, and where the very life of nations are supposed to depend on balancing of the accounts.

I have before me the current issue of the Quarterly Bulletin of the International Bureau for Masonic Affairs (Berne, Switzerland).  In this I find the first clear account of the manifestation of Continental Masons, as held at The Hague in August last.  In the French journals, and others, I had followed the discussions of the gathering.  But this presentation in English makes clear and coherent what before was rather piecemeal in its information.  At once the difference is sharply shown between our American method of discussing subjects, and that of European Masons.  And also there is revealed how much broader of scope is the range of matters coming within Masonic thought in the older continent.  I am forced to say, that for practicality the credit is with these others.  With these Masons, drawn from all the countries of Europe, there was no paltering with a situation admittedly dangerous and increasing in gravity.  There was no time wasted in lachrymose or pious platitudes.  There was no nice or metaphysical distinctions drawn between notions of prejudice and the promptings of a false patriotism.  The nuances in any picture of present-day conditions are but of small importance, except for the severe analyst or the expert sociological artist.  These Masons found and faced facts, not theories, and they were frankly stated.  There was recognition of racial predilections that have persisted, or have been carefully nursed from generation to generation, and have well served the interests of the classes, for whom the masses have been and still are but pawns.  The grim facts are at hand, known of all men, and requiring no involved commentary to demonstrate their entire hideousness.  Even the extreme militarists are alarmed at the Frankenstein they have themselves created, and the great nations of the earth are engaged in a mad race toward international bankruptcy.  The unrest that prevails is accentuated and comes nearer to the point of explosion; because governments, neglecting the higher duties of rule in providing for larger measure of justice and equality before the law, trade to this interest or that so the war coffers may be filled.  Because of this ever-enlarging waste of resources the world's capital is depleted, and both wealth and labour are alike at the point of revolt.  Such are the matters that have engaged the attention of our European brethren.  They have also recognized the opportunity and the mission of Masonry at such crisis. They are working for a return to national and international sanity, and are resolved, so far as in them lies, that the Institution shall fulfill its mission.  It is these men, having such ideals and working mightily for their realization, that some of our own petty authorities of Freemasonry would declare are not of the world-wide brotherhood.  Who are these, whatever their official titles, or however they may have been pitchforked into brief place, to tell real men as to the meaning and mission of real Masonry?

There was a note of optimism in this gathering at The Hague - a belief in the triumph of good, and a conviction that the earnest effort of those who seek amelioration of evil conditions and the minimizing of evil influences can not fail of effect.  "Time is ever working upon our side," said Brother Bernardin, of Nancy, who presided at the opening session, "and time is accomplishing the work of bringing about pacification between the nations.  Finally the day will arrive when even those who have suffered from the ravages of war will be able to look back upon the troubled past, with every thought of vengeance forgotten." This was indeed the keynote of the manifestation.  But further there was the splendid spectacle of this representative of the French Republic holding out the hand of brotherly love to those who came as Masons from the great German Empire.  He is indeed a poor student of history, or a dull observer of the daily tale of the world's doings, who fails to recognize in the jealousies that show back and forth over the Franco-German frontier the chief peril to world peace for a generation past.  Yet here was the spokesman for French Masonry saying to these from beyond the Rhine: "I assure you that you have from the French brethren not only their fraternal sympathy, but also their affection."
 
The Belgian senator, Brother H. Lafontaine, who had just presided at The Hague Peace Congress, made one of the principal addresses.  He put the bald figures first - that the states of Europe are at the present time spending 800,000,000 pounds ($4,000,000,000) each year in preparation for the slaughter of human beings.  Is it a wonder that he added: "Think, my brothers, what a tragic meaning these figures convey, when one reflects that these vast sums might be employed for the improvement of mankind." And then he asks: "What then have we to do?" In reply to his own question, he puts finger on the sore spot of Europe, pointing out the place where there is ever a smouldering fire, liable at fanning of some sudden gust of popular passion to start into general conflagration.  His words were addressed to the French and German brothers when he said:

For the last twenty years the great danger from war has been in the feeling of estrangement, I was going to say of hatred, which separates France from Germany.  As for us of the little peoples - Belgian, Luxembourgeois, Swiss, Dutch and Scandinavian - who belong to the two races, we cherish the great wish of seeing a Franco-German rapprochement.  A plebiscite of our peoples on this question would find us unanimously among the partisans of peace; for we who are neutral suffer from this condition of armed peace.  Because of you we are compelled to spend at the present time 20,000,000 pounds ($100,000,000) annually to insure the respecting of our neutrality in case of a conflict.  We, therefore, of the small peoples, say to you, 'Cease hating each other, as members of the Triple Alliance or the Triple Entents: with your alternations of calm and of terror.  Make way for a rapprochement of your two great peoples - a rapprochement on which depends the peace of the world.' 

Brother Bernadin voiced the opinion of the whole civilized world that these two great nations, because of what civilization has wrought for them, now that they stand in the very advanced line of thought and action, owe peace to the world; it is their debt to humanity.  And, too, he looked to England and the United States, having conviction that neither of these powers could escape, should the other nations be drawn into war.  Listen what he says in this connection, and then ask if our pharisaical attitude is altogether creditable or in line with what Masonry should mean and do:

The Anglo-Saxons number two and one-half millions of Masons, with whom we have no connection.  This must cease. . . . The English and American Lodges will soon celebrate the bi-centenary of the publication of the Constitutions of Anderson; we must ask to be invited.  We must tell them that in this question which pre-occupies our minds, they have the power, and can order France and Germany to be reconciled.


Nor were the German brethren behind in expressions of fraternal accord.  It was one of them who presented the resolutions which were adopted by the gathering, and which should be here included, as showing the ideals and the practical purposes of European Masonry.  They were as follows:

The Sixth International Masonic Manifestation, at The Hague in August, 1913, at which were present more than four hundred Freemasons of various countries, declares that it is one of the noblest and most imperative duties of Universal Freemasonry to study the great question of peace, to propagate the results of such studies, to combat with all its strength the Chauvinism which is based on interests exclusively material; to favour personal intercourse of a more intimate character among brethren of the different nationalities, and especially between the German and French brethren, with a view to decrease the number of dangerous misunderstandings.  It requires of the Masonic press that it be willing to support this task, and it invites the brethren to influence in this regard the Masonic authorities of their several countries.  Let us to the work, in behalf of Peace-the firm foundation of the happiness of humanity!

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