THE BUILDER OCTOBER 1916

CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN -- No. 1
Edited by Bro. Robert I. Clegg, Caxton Building, Cleveland, Ohio

NOTE. Of the forty responses to Brother Clegg's "Get Together" Open Letter in
the September issue (inside back cover) received up to September 12th, he has
selected the following as covering the representative problems presented. The
emphasis which he places upon the ability of ONE LIVE MEMBER of the Society to
inspire a complete Study Club in his vicinity is well deserved. But let not
the individual Brother who desires to be counted "present" in this movement be
discouraged, even though others do not join him at once. He will find much of
value (and to his liking) in this Department, as time goes on, and the
recapitulation of the ways in which problems of organization are being solved,
will help him.

The CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN will for the present be published and
distributed with the regular issues of The Builder. This is the most
economical method: and, as we believe, will deserve the widest publicity that
we can give it. EVERY MEMBER will at once appreciate the increased value of
the Society to the Craft, and we hope to show EVERY MEMBER that his interest
in Masonry will be best served by allying him self with other interested
Brethren for the furtherance of the Society's aims.

THE METHODS WHEREBY STUDIOUS MASONS MAY MINGLE FOR BETTERMENT

THAT article on the inside back cover of the September issue of The Builder
must have been timely and truthful. It tapped a fount, yea, a flood of
correspondence the end of which is not yet. That the opportunity was ripe
there is no question. That there is great good to be accomplished is evident.
That we should at once proceed to enter the promised land is beyond dispute.
That the work is of the highest importance is unquestioned.

Urgent as is the need of action, it is supremely important that we all be as
patient as possible remembering that the undertaking may develop difficulties
unforeseen by the wisest. These we will all do our best to iron out as we go
along.

Some of the letters telling of real difficulties are most interesting and I
hope to give them space in full for general discussion. But as it may not be
practical to do this at present I will make extracts from several of them and
add such comments as seem most helpful from my point of view. It will be easy
to come back to me for additional information if the suggestions I offer are
not fully satisfactory, and the printing of the pointers in The Builder will
enable others to profit wherever the data is seen to be of benefit, and every
reader is also invited to give me and everybody else the advantage of such
criticism as may occur to him in the study of this department.

WHEN LOCAL MEMBERS MAY BE FEW

Dear Brother: In re Masonic studies noted on last page last Builder, please
furnish me list of local members. Providing there are not sufficient here how
may I procure the information ? C.W. Tedrowe, Elk City, Okla

Numbers will make no difference as regards the willingness of the Society to
help you. Whether there be two or two hundred members of The National Masonic
Research Society that you can reach locally, will not make any difference in
that respect. In fact it will be an excellent plan to invite to your meetings
Masons who are not already members of the Society. If you get them interested
they are very likely to want membership, and as you are not going to invite
those you would not care to have join hands with you in this work you thereby
enlarge the influence of the Society and make useful additions to your numbers
and ours. Tell us what success you have in assembling the brethren. Let us
know what subjects seem of the greatest degree of interest to most of you, or
what has come up for consideration at your meetings and we will suggest
sources of information and lines of investigation that you may take up to
profitably employ your time and energies.

LISTS WANTED--SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION, MASONIC BOOKS FOR PUBLIC LIBRARY

Dear Brother: Having just read Brother Clegg's letter on the inside cover of
the September Builder, I hope to be among the first to respond, as his idea is
certainly well worth attention. Our lodge is becoming interested in the
history side of Masonry and is planning not only a series of lectures for the
coming winter, but a study club of members. While I would appreciate a list of
members of the N.M.R.S. in this section, yet am I more interested in a list of
subjects for discussion. If I could trouble you for a list of subjects upon
which you think a foundation might be built, or which would serve as a nucleus
for later original efforts on our part, I would be very appreciative. A list
of a few books which our local library has kindly offered to purchase would
likewise be appreciated. H. C. Wolf, 408 N. Main St., Edwardsville, Ill.

Let me take the last of your requests first. Your Public Library should have
the first volume of The Builder and should subscribe to the subsequent issues.
There should also be on file the book on the Philosophy of Masonry by Dean
Pound and published by The National Masonic Research Society. The best
Encyclopedia is none too good and for this purpose get Mackey's latest
edition. Mackey and Singleton's "History of Freemasonry," and R. F. Gould's
"Concise History" are also most valuable. We will send you a pamphlet list of
Masonic works and shall promptly inform you of the relative merits of any of
the items upon which you may desire further light.

A list of subjects for consideration by your brethren and yourself is no easy
task to prepare, and then be fully acceptable to you and to me. I am somewhat
in the dark as to topics that would appeal to you. For instance I know of a
group of Masons that found a very lively interest in digging up all the data
obtainable upon such subjects as the Essenes. To me that would have been
rather dry but they found it full of zest and charm. Lately I and a few other
brothers spent an evening discussing some points in Masonic law and the time
slipped away very rapidly but I can imagine there are brethren who would not
find that topic at all attractive.

There is to my mind only one way to cut the Gordian knot and that is to do
your best to select in the first instance subjects of the greatest general
interest and then specialize later when you have the more accurately gauged
the tendencies of your own taste and those of your associates.

Suppose we take any one or more of the following points:
What is the purpose of Masonry?
What is taught by the Entered Apprentice degree ?
What is taught by the Fellowcraft degree?
What is taught by the Master Mason's degree ?
How should a visiting Mason be examined?
What ought a member to know of Masonry ?
What has been the history of Masonry--tracing the progress of your local
lodges, your Grand Lodge and the bodies from whence you drew your authority?

Any one of the above will keep you busy for some time if handled judiciously
and thoroughly. Should you like other references please do not fail to write
me.

It may also be that you will seek light on some angle of the above that is not
clear, and here too every resource we possess is at your service. But start in
courageously and keep going.

ANYTHING OF RITUALISTIC OR MONITORIAL MERIT VERY WELCOME

Dear Sir: I note your notices about study clubs, and I would like to do what I
can to help you form a club. I am greatly interested in the study of
Freemasonry. Could you use an article on the Symbolism of the Third Degree ?
Rasmus Bartleson, 452 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, Minn.

The Editor of The Builder is always pleased to receive essays from the
brethren. Furthermore it is just such papers as the one you mention that will
probably be found highly useful in our study clubs. Already we have had
discussions upon Symbolism circulated among lodges when reprinted from The
Builder and they were very enjoyable and thought-provoking. Our research into
Masonry need not get too far away from what is suggested by the ritual. The
"work" is known to all no matter how rusty they may be and the topics based
upon it are all the more attractive on that account because all can take part.
Right here is the very essence of the scheme; sociable contact in study of the
successful sort for classes, the same being based upon the intimate and
general appeal of the topics chosen for the attention of the brethren.

VOICES A NEW CRUSADE

Dear Sir and Brother: I read with great interest your very suggestive open
letter to members of our Society and am fully in accord with your idea of
Masonic study. I think now is the time for all Masons to not only study but
also practice in our every day life the duties we owe to the great Institution
and to ourselves.

Would it not be a grand uplift to Masonry if every member of every lodge
belonged to the Society and then set an evening for study and debate ? There
are so many of our members who fail to see the concealed yet revealed beauty
of Masonry. C. T. Laschinger, Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

You have indeed hit the nail on the head. May we not also say that the
responsibility is ours of increasing the attractiveness of Masonic study?
Shall we not all take hold of the situation in our respective localities and
endeavor to make others see Masonry as you see it ? How shall we do this ?

I feel confident that we shall later on get from you some serviceable working
ideas based on your progress with the brethren. What you say so definitely and
well cannot but be followed by action and creditable results. Go forward along
the path you have blazed so well, and then let the rest of us have the benefit
of your plans and progressiveness.

PLANS VARY WITH PLACES

My dear Brother: In the late issue of The Builder, on the inside back page is
a message which I felt was both proper and timely, in all respects.

I desire to be one who asks for the list of brethren in this locality, for the
express purpose as mentioned in the article. There are four Blue Lodges in
Davis county--at Bloomfield Drakeville, Pulaski, and one which meets at call,
at Stiles. The first three are situated in corporate communities, and could
well support their individual clubs, although if it is deemed best to start
with interested brothers from these places, the best cooperation will be
afforded.

If someone from here has already applied, I will gladly cooperate with him in
the effort, otherwise I shall use my best endeavors in behalf of the movement,
I assure you. John W. Teed, Bloomfield, Iowa.

P. S.--Any suggestion, information, or plans will be gratefully received and
appreciated.

Whether you should try for several study clubs or have one is only to be
determined by careful examination of the situation from firsthand
opportunities. Large classes are unwieldy, small ones don't give the varied
points of contact in debate that are afforded by large classes. Small classes
are easily called and handled but the absence of one or two members makes a
serious hole in the attendance, a large class is the opposite.

My plan would be to get all you can assemble together for a preliminary
meeting. Have some well-equipped brother present some subject for
consideration. Several others should have prepared themselves to take up the
same topic and maintain the interest of the debate. Make the evening lively
and useful, entertaining as well as instructive. Let everybody go away with a
heart warmed to each of his neighbors in the class. Avoid contention and you
will have no corroding resentment.

The simplest parliamentary organization is all that is necessary. You may even
change your Chairman every meeting by election from the floor. But you require
a good Secretary, some one brother who will make a cherished hobby of the
thing.

Where you have several lodges there may be a possibility of having a meeting
in each of the locations consecutively. This will depend upon local
circumstances, but ought to have a tendency to promote study activities in
each place visited. Any way, make a start and the rest will take care of
itself as you go along.

Be sure to keep us posted on your progress. Every one of these organizations
for study will have problems that in their solution will benefit other like
bodies. Therefore let all hands make a practice of telling us of the details
of their progress, what obstacles are met and how they are overcome, what has
tended to harmony and what has not, what has been most edifying and what
hasn't. Don't keep your troubles and your triumphs to yourself. Remember the
time when successful and unsuccessful reports wound up in a triumphal
procession for everybody. So tell us of all your doings.

THE FELLOWCRAFT DEGREE

Dear Sir and Brother: I have just read your open letter to members in the last
number of The Builder.

The Fifth Saturday Research Work of City of the Straits Lodge No. 452 will
take up the study of the Fellowcraft Degree at its next meeting and I would
like very much to have not only a list of your Detroit members but the use of
any articles and papers you may have dealing particularly with that branch of
Masonry.

Our Research meetings are made compulsory by Lodge Bylaws and are meeting with
much success, interest and contributions by members being general and
attendance excellent.

We are indebted to The Builder for much advice and assistance.--F. A. Hilton,
Chairman of Committee, Detroit, Mich.

A copy of the "Symbolism of the Fellowcraft Degree" has been sent to you and I
daresay you found it of much interest and usefulness. I expect you also read
in this connection the chapter on Preston in Dean Pound's "Philosophy of
Masonry." The latter gives you a key to the meaning of Fellowcraft Masonry as
it looks to me. But if I start in here to expound what in my humble judgment
are the fundamentals of Masonic teaching I fear I shall take up too much space
and I may get tedious at that !

Your report shows several exceedingly noteworthy points. First of all your
Lodge in its wisdom has set an admirable example. Would that all Lodges were
equally alert, and informed.

Please let us know the titles of the papers read by your members. Kindly
advise us of the relative interest of the several subjects. How were the
papers discussed and to what extent? As you will see from these answering
notes of mine in this department there is a constant desire of my
correspondents to know what to study. There is so much that can be studied
that I must not overtax the efforts of the brethren by any long lists of
topics. Now if I can from the experience of others add to my own conclusions I
am not only the more nearly right but I shall feel much better satisfied that
everybody w ill derive good and wholesome instruction.

ALREADY AT WORK

Dear Sir and Brother: Some of us have been trying to conduct something of a
study club in our lodge here in the past year. Any information that will be of
he]p to us as suggested by Bro. Robert I. Clegg in his letter to members on
the last page of the last issue of The Builder will be greatly appreciated. L.
F. Knowles, Mantorville, Minn.


Dear Sir: I have read with much interest the open letter to members by Brother
Robert I. Clegg and as the suggestion is directly in line with some ideas that
I have already tried to start among the brothers, I would be pleased to
receive a list of the members of the Society in Chicago and will do whatever I
can to further the work. W. F. Reinbold, 212 W. Washington St., Chicago. P.
S.--Any suggestions as to subjects, programs, etc., will, of course, be
gratefully received.

Dear Brother: Just received the September Builder. I have for some time been
dreaming of the plan suggested for study clubs by Brother Clegg. The only
reason I haven't tried it has been the lack of time to work out programs. Your
suggestions solve the difficulty. Count me in for starting one here. If anyone
else has preceded me, let me know so I can help him out. Yours fraternally,
Ralph B. Smith, Keokuk, Iowa.

Each of you has already thought over your local prospects and your problems
are similar. I can therefore group what I have to say.

It is particularly gratifying to me that I happened to voice what has proved
to be in the minds of so many of the brethren. They have doubtless cogitated
over angles of the problem that have eluded me. As time goes on I expect to
get in touch with some of this individual research and to profit by it. Let
not any of us withhold whatever it is that will help the cause forward.


Another very pleasing aspect of our progress so far in this work is the
readiness of brethren not only to start something but if they have happened
not to be pioneers in the race they are equally willing and ready to play
second fiddle and to support their leader heartily and vigorously. That is the
feeling that wins. That is the true spirit of Masonry.

But of you three brethren and ail the others of your calibre wherever they may
be dispersed, to use the time-honored phrase, I beg of you to read carefully
what is here said in The Builder of this date relative to organization and of
matters for study and investigation.

How far my suggestions fit your problems it is of course impossible for me to
say. If they fail to meet your wants, (and tentative as they are it is almost
certain that they will come short and be found wanting in some respect for
your purpose), I can only welcome your confidence and pledge you my best
cooperation wherever and whenever what is known to me may serve you.

The main thing is to make a start. Get a few brethren together. See that they
are congenial. Stage a discussion in which they can all take an active part.
Make each member present a missionary. Increase your numbers slowly. Encourage
your brethren to submit questions. A Question Box is a good thing, especially
if you have some one to follow it up. Invite questions to be presented at the
meetings and also sent to the Secretary between meetings. Assign these
questions to well informed brethren. Taboo all half-baked replies. Make the
answer stand on its feet firmly. Distinguish between speculation and
knowledge. Set asunder fiction and fact. Ask for evidence. These and similar
expedients conducted courteously and with fervor should hold combined interest
and enlarge and make fruitful your gatherings. Try them out.

OFFICIAL ACTION ON MASONIC STUDY: WHAT SHALL BE DONE, AND HOW?

What could be done by our Grand Lodge to promote the study side of Masonry?
Your opinion and suggestions are invited upon our making the right start. Your
article on "How to Study Masonry," in The Builder, impressed me so favorably
that I venture to intrude upon your time and patience. Anything we do will
probably be on a small scale to start, but I believe if we are able to make
the start right we will eventually accomplish results. S. H. S.

You as Chairman of your Grand Lodge Committee honor me by what you ask.
Nothing would please me more than to say something capable of being adopted by
your Grand Lodge.

My thought in what I wrote for The Builder was to suggest some easy plan
whereby a start could be made without of necessity requiring any Grand Lodge
authority or encouragement. Your suggestion therefore carries my plan much
further afield than was at the time contemplated by me. Please have patience
with me if on that account I may offer an idea or two that seem amateurish or
immature.

1. Have your Grand Lodge appoint a Committee on Masonic Education. Have this
Committee submit a comprehensive report every year to the Grand Lodge on (a)
The general progress of Masonic Research; (b) Masonic study in your state; (c)
a summary of what has been done by individual lodges toward the Masonic
improvement of their members, and what has been done by any individual members
to promote Masonic Research. (d) submit a list of Masonic lecturers and
lectures presented during the year to your lodges, and also maintain a list of
available addresses of value that may be obtained by your lodges. You can
readily extend this list of things that such a Committee ought to do.

2. Whenever you hold a School of Instruction let the above Committee present
someone to give an able address. Not a weak mushy frothy flow of verbiage but
a paper of scholarly brand. Don't let the speaker extemporize. Make him dig.
Edit the paper carefully in advance. You have the men who can do this and do
it right. Draw on them. Make the paper the climax of your work of instruction
and do not permit it to be shelved or curtailed when you have decided what it
shall be.

3. Have your Grand Lodge join with the Grand Lodge of Iowa in what is known as
the Clipping Service. Write to the Grand Secretary, Brother N. R. Parvin, at
Cedar Rapids, for his descriptive circular. Maybe you won't care to join with
them notwithstanding the economy. Your independence pleases me. Go it alone.

Furthermore, have your Committee prepare two or three good addresses. Print
them on plain, unglazed paper in large type, ten point or even larger for easy
reading. Advise your Lodges of the papers you have on hand. Urge them to try
these on the brethren. Have them read at a time when they will get proper
attention. Get the Worshipful Master to inform the Committee over his
signature and that of the Secretary of the Lodge what was done in every case
to insure a good attendance, whether there was any discussion, and how long it
lasted, and what was the effect of the paper, etc.

Of course I could easily write a lot of these things and at that I might
easily miss the very things on which you particularly require my views. The
only remedy is to ask me again. Two cents will reach me. Don't hesitate to
call on me for anything I can tell you.

Don't forget that the National Masonic Research Society has a store of
pamphlets and circulars of most interesting Masonic material.

But why wait for Grand Lodge action ? Try out this scheme of The Builder in
your own Lodge. Read once more what you have already gone through on the East
end of the September issue. Find out what suits your Lodge. Ten to one that
will give you a fair lead on all the other Lodges. Then go into your Grand
Lodge prayerfully. Get a Committee appointed that has an interest in the study
side of Masonry. Pick men of influence to give your Committee weight, men of
brains to make its views respected, active men to accomplish results, men
potent, apt and tactful. But don't expect too much of anybody except yourself.
May all good luck attend you.

R. I. CLEGG.

OUR ORGANIZATION--FUNCTIONAL AND ORGANIC

A batch of letters had been answered to the best of my ability. I was catching
up with the aftermath of that article of mine on the cover of the September
Builder when lo there arrived, hot from the wire, a telegram from far-off
Texas asking for a course of study to be outlined. Already the subject has
been touched upon in a discussion scheduled for appearance in the October
Builder. For the present that may serve. Meantime the matter will get careful
consideration in such time as I can divert from the prosaic but necessary
labors of business. Let not any of Our readers imagine for a moment that their
inquiries and suggestions do not in every case receive prompt attention. But
many of them are not adapted to offhand decision. Time and plenty of it is
usually wanted and employed before these matters may receive their just due.

This brings me naturally to weighing our facilities for handling the
correspondence that is coming our way. This flood of ideas, these requests for
guidance, this presentation of cases in more or less detail for diagnosis,
impress upon the mind of the receiver a sense of keen responsibility. In some
way or another we must bring to bear upon these problems all the critical and
constructive energies of theoretical and practical Masonry, certainly a much
greater resource than any one Mason or group of Masons has at command.

Publication of letters from our members will constitute a valuable forum for
the general discussion of aims and ends, methods and means. Already this
promises to be an enlivening and most instructive department. To this section
there will be freely added editorial comments based upon our constantly
increasing sources of information at home and abroad.

But we must get beyond the forum stage. While it is an excellent thing in
itself, and by all processes and in every particular to be vigorously
encouraged, yet the Society ought not to halt content with that degree of
progress. We need methodical plans, unified and finished. Speaking as an
engineer I may say the whole proposition just aches for a layout and a
blueprint of it prepared for every Mason.

Unfortunately a complete design precedes the working layout and the
blueprints. We shall get the design into useful and generally acceptable shape
when we have first compiled and digested all the attendant conditions. Having
determined all the angles of the problem we can with the greater confidence
seek a satisfactory solution.

Here at this point is the keynote of our project. Much of the preliminary work
with study classes must be experimental. Let us be informed by our readers as
to what is everywhere done and how it worked. Nothing is more important. Now,
in the formative period, we need just that sort of information. We cannot have
too much of it nor in too detailed a form.

This matter of method applies not only to the manner of conducting meetings,
the assembling of members, the generation of enthusiasm, the setting of the
brethren to work individually and collectively, but it must treat of
textbooks, their respective merits and the most efficient methods of using
them. The latter is a slow task. A start has been made but much remains to do.

To set the Craft to work and give them wholesome instruction is the purpose of
the National Masonic Research Society. That instruction will be the more
effective when based upon the largest possible experience of the Craft.
Therefore put the study plan to the test. Report the results. From these facts
may lay a foundation for the future greatly improving our work of the past.
Let us all take hold and at least lift our share of the burden wherever we may
be.

A COURSE IN THE STUDY OF MASONRY

(A few emergency hints to meet an urgent demand)

Masonry may be divided into five departments for study-- Ritual, History,
Philosophy, Symbolism, Law.

1. Ritual may be discussed in its relations to the Old Charges, folklore,
mystery plays of the middle ages, survivals of tribal ceremonials, building
customs, monitorial divergences and development, etc.

2. History may be examined as of any Lodge (where for instance all members of
a study class belong to one lodge); and Grand Lodge, and their original source
of authority. Local and State historical records are valuable sources of
information with Mackey's History, Gould's Concise History, etc.

3. Philosophy may be studied with the aid of Dean Pound's book, an N.M.R.S.
publication.

4. Symbolism. The symbols of Masonry are all treated freely in Mackey's
Encyclopedia.

5. Law. The Masonic Code of one's own State has leading place of course. Then
there is the indispensable Encyclopedia, and Mackey also has a book on Masonic
Jurisprudence.

Get your local library to furnish a list of references to Masonic topics it
possesses. Many are often obtained in that way. Assign the several foregoing
subdivisions to as many brethren and give to each the references bearing upon
his chosen alloted topic.

Every one should have his own library of Masonic works. Few as the books may
be, they are at hand for convenient and frequent reference. A good, compact,
general textbook, limited but of fine quality, is "The Builders" by Bro.
Newton and obtainable through the N. M. R. S.
R. I. CLEGG.

THE SOCIETY'S PUBLICATIONS

(Owing to the increased cost of printing and binding, it has become necessary
for us to make a slight advance in the price of bound volumes, as stated
below. The Society some time ago put out a catalog of various books, and the
unsold copies in that catalog remain unchanged in price.)

Books.

THE BUILDERS, A Story and Study of Masonry
Price. ....$1.50
By Joseph Fort Newton.

THE BUILDER, Volume 1, (Goldenrod Buckram),
8 vo. ...3.00

THE BUILDER, Volume 1, (3/4 Morocco) ..........4.00

THE BUILDER, Volume 2, (Out in December),
(Buckram)...3.00

THE BUILDER, Volume 2, (3/4, Morocco) ....4.00

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MASONRY, (Blue Cloth, 16mo)...1.00
By Roscoe Pound, Harvard University.


Pamphlets.

DEEPER ASPECTS OF MASONIC SYMBOLISM,
(Paper covers)...By A. E. Waite, England. $ .15

THE FIRST DEGREE........  .15
By A. W. Gage, Illinois.

THE THIRD DEGREE........   .15
By J. Otis Ball, Illinois.

QUESTIONS ON "THE BUILDERS" (By Joseph Fort Newton) ... .25
Compiled by the Cincinnati Masonic Study School. 

THE STORY OF OLD GLORY, THE OLDEST FLAG ..  .50

(With Flag Color Plate.) By John W. Barry, Iowa.

(All above prices include postage)
SPECIAL PRICES ON PAMPHLETS IN LOTS OF 100
OR MORE.
