TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF AMERICAN MASONIC FEDERATION LEADERS

THE BUILDER DECEMBER 1922

BY BRO. CHARLES C. HUNT, DEPUTY GRAND SECRETARY, IOWA

The present article concludes Brother Hunt's account of the false claims, the indictment, trial and conviction of The American Masonic Federation, with headquarters at Salt Lake City, of which Mathew McBlain Thomson was president. Brother Hunt's four articles, the first of which appeared in THE BUILDER for September, comprise a complete record of all the important points in the case.


I HAVE already described the false claims made by the American Masonic Federation to Scottish Rite and other Masonic prerogatives in preceding accounts of the trial and conviction of Mathew McBlain Thomson, president of that organization of spurious "Masonry." The reader is requested to consult THE BUILDER for September, October, and November.  In the present instance I shall give an account of the trial held at Salt Lake City, Utah, early in May of this year.

Three distinguished Scotch Masons agreed to accept a subpoena and testify for the Government: they were Brothers David Reid, Joseph Inglis, and John A. Forrest.  David Reid is Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.  Joseph Inglis is Provincial Grand Master of Kincardineshire; also Past Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge; Past Master of both the Rose Croix Chapter and Consistory; and Past Grand Prior of the Knights Templar, and a Thirty-Second degree Mason.  John A. Forrest is Grand Secretary of the Royal Order of Scotland; Past "Provincial Grand Master of Midlothian; Past Master of his Rose Croix Chapter and Consistory, and a Thirty-Second degree Mason.

These brothers testified that Mother Kilwinning Lodge never granted a charter to work any except the Craft degrees, and that none of the so-called higher degrees originated in Scotland.  David Reid testified that he was a member of Mother Kilwinning Lodge, and that she had never granted to any of her daughter lodges power to charter other lodges, and in fact Kilwinning was the only Scotch lodge that ever had chartering power.  Brothers Inglis and Reid both testified that Mother Kilwinning Lodge kept a copy of every charter issued by her and that she had never granted one to a lodge in France, as Thomson claimed she had done.

Thomson was asked to show "a history, any place" which supplies the link of granting a charter from Mother Kilwinning Lodge to the Mother Lodge of St. John, of Marseilles, France, but he could not do so.

Brothers Reid and Inglis also testified that the Grand Council of Rites was a very small body with no reputation, Masonically, in Scotland.  Brother Inglis first heard of it in 1880 and Brother Reid in 1911.  In 1912 it was practically declared clandestine by the Grand lodge of Scotland, and her members forbidden to affiliate with it.  Thereupon, Peter Spence, who had signed Thomson's Patent, withdrew from it.

In 1914 Thomson and Robert Jamieson were expelled from Masonry by the Grand Lodge of Scotland on the charge of conferring clandestine Masonic degrees.

On cross-examination Thomson was asked to name a Scotch history that anywhere mentioned the Grand Council of Rites, and he could not do so.  He was also compelled to acknowledge that the leading Scotch historian, D. Murray Lyon, did not mention this so-called Grand Council.

Thomson claimed to have been made a Mason in a lodge which had been chartered by Melrese St. Johns Lodge, but David Reid testified that this lodge never chartered daughter lodges, and that the lodge from which Thomson claimed a charter, if it ever existed, was clandestine; that Thomson did not become a Mason until after he was healed in 1889, in St. James Lodge No. 125.

In this connection the following extracts from the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Scotland are interesting:

From Proceedings of meeting of April 29, 1880:

"Memorial anent the clandestine introduction of Mathew Thomson into Lodge operative, Ayr, No. 138, and the issuing of a diploma in his favour.

"The Committee having considered the whole case, Find that Mathew Thomson is not a Freemason, and that he could not therefore be affiliated to the Lodge Operative, Ayr: Find that certain of the Office-Bearers of that lodge knew that Mr. Thomson was not a member of the Order when they pretended to affiliate him: Find that the return made by the lodge to Grand Lodge under date June 12, 1876, certifying that Mr. Thomson was Entered, Passed and Raised in that lodge, was false and fraudulent: Find that lodge has produced no regular books, and that such as have been produced are in many places written in pencil and grossly irregular, and contain no evidence of Mr. Thomson's pretended affiliation: Therefore recommend Grand Lodge to instruct the name of the said Mathew Thomson to be deleted from the Register of Intrants, and ordain him to deliver up the Diploma of Membership issued on 12th June 1876; and further recommend that Grand Lodge suspend the Lodge Operative, Ayr, No. 138, and debar it from meeting for Masonic purposes until it is the pleasure of the Grand Lodge to withdraw its suspension.  Further, instruct the Grand Secretary to call for delivery of the charter and minute and other books of the lodge, if any such exist, and retain the same in his possession."


From Proceedings of Meeting of June 24, 1880:

"Grand Secretary produced the diploma which had been issued to Mr. Mathew Thomson, under a false return in name of the Lodge Operative, Ayr, No. 138, in June 1876, and tabled a letter from the Lodge St. James, Ayr, No. 125, anent the admission of the said Mathew Thomson by affiliation or otherwise, as Grand Committee may direct.  Remitted to the Petitions and Complaints Committee to consider and report."

From Proceedings of Meeting of July 29, 1880:

"On the recommendation of the Sub-Committee on Petitions and Complaints, Grand Secretary was instructed to direct the Lodge St. James, Newton-on-Ayr, No. 125, as to the admission of Mr. Mathew Thomson referred to in the minute of Grand Committee of date 24th June last, - and on being satisfied that the conditions on which the applicant's admission is authorized have been complied with, to issue a new diploma to the said Mathew Thomson."

Thus it is seen that this is not the first time that Thomson has been concerned with clandestine Masonry.

In March 1911 Thomson published the following account of a visit paid by him to David Reid, Grand Secretary of Scotland:

"From London we went to Edinburgh, where, we visited the Grand Secretary in the temporary offices of the Grand Lodge in Charlotte Square, the Grand Lodge Hall being closed for repairs and enlargement.  We sent in our card as President of the A.M.F. and were received as such and had a long and pleasant talk with him, in the course of which we informed him of conditions here, conditions which made necessary the formation of the A.M.F., explained to him the source from which we derived our authority, showed him our charters and explained to him our aims and objects; showed him from our publications that we made no claim whatever to have authority from or connection with the Grand Lodge of Scotland; that we did claim Scottish ancestry, but from a source more ancient than the Grand Lodge, namely from the Mother Lodge Kilwinning, through her son, the Chevalier Ramsay, through whom the degrees went to the Scottish Mother Lodge of Marseilles, from thence through the Lodge Polar Star, established in New Orleans in 1794, to the Supreme Council of Louisiana; from it to the Grand Lodge Inter-Montana, which is the foundation of the A.M.F.

"Brother Reid informed us (as we had been informed before) that the only object that the Grand Lodge of Scotland had in the matter was representation made to her that an officer of Grand Lodge (Brother Peter Spence) was granting Blue Lodge charters to parties in America; and that the A.M.F. claimed to work by authority from the Grand Lodge of Scotland; the first charge had been disproved by Brother Spence, and what I said now had disposed of the latter."

SCORED AS A FALSEHOOD

Brother Reid testified that the only true part of this account was the fact of the call.  The interview was very short, about two minutes only.  He had remained standing throughout.  The only other person present was Brother Joseph Inglis.  Thomson had not shown any charters or made any explanation of his aims or objects, neither had he shown any publications or made any explanations of his claims.  Brother Inglis testified that the conversation was very formal; that Mr. Reid never sat down and practically bowed him out.  He was asked if the meeting was a courteous or discourteous one.  He replied: "lt was cold, but courteous."

On cross-examination Thomson was asked in regard to this interview, and admitted that the conversation lasted about ten minutes, that he had shown no charters, but had shown his authority, by handing Mr. Reid a copy of his magazine, which explained his authority, but he could not tell which copy it was or what article he referred to as giving the authority.  On being recalled, Brothers Reid and Inglis testified that Thomson had left no magazine or documents of any kind whatever.

Bergers, one of the defendants, testified that in 1913 he went to Europe to investigate for himself to find out what he could about the organization, and how it was regarded there.  He visited the Grand Council of Rites, the meeting of which was postponed one month so that he could be there.  At this meeting there were twenty-eight persons present, and the meeting lasted about three or four hours in the afternoon.

He went to Ayr and visited St. James Lodge there.  The members of the lodge had not been informed of his coming but the Master called a meeting after his arrival. In answer to the question: "How did he call the members together?" Bergera replied:

"They were called by telephone, where I saw several other brothers, and they gave me an introduction.  They told me it was the Master of St. James 125, and they said - I said, I desire to visit the lodge, and they said 'very well' they were going to have their regular meeting that night and also they were working the Craft degrees on one of the candidates." 

However, the meeting was held in the afternoon, instead of at night, to accommodate some visitors who wished to return home that night.

Bergera was in Scotland ten days and visited two lodges. The second lodge was the lodge in Kilmarnock, which met in a building with the name "Kilmarnock Lodge" over the door. Brothers Reid and Inglis testified that there were four lodges in Kilmarnock, but none of them with that name; that there was no building there with the name  "Kilmarnock Lodge" above the door, and that the building in which the lodges met had simply the inscription "Masonic Hall."

Bergera testified that he had not visited, nor attempted to visit, the Grand Lodge of Scotland. He spent five days in London, and visited one lodge there, but he did not visit nor attempt to visit the Grand Lodge of England. He spent nine or ten days in Paris and visited one lodge, but had not visited nor attempted to visit the Grand Orient or Grand Lodge of France. Thus, although he testified that his sole purpose in going to Europe was to investigate the standing of his organization, and he spent several days in each place, he visited only two lodges in Scotland, one in London and one in Paris, and did not attempt to go anywhere where authoritative information could be had.

Thomson gave considerable space in his magazine to the Proceedings of the National Masonic Congress, in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1920, supposed to be composed of the representatives of the Masonic powers of the world, and of which he was elected President. On cross-examination he could name but eight people who were present at that Congress, and Joseph Inglis testified that none of the powers there represented was considered regular by the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

THOMSON MADE A FORTUNE

Mention has been made that considerable money was collected by this organization, and that Thomson could not, or would not, tell what had become of it. According to the testimony, the following fees were charged:

Grand Lodge Charter
 Election ----------------- $50.00
 Confirmation -------------  25.00
Lodge Charter -------------  25.00
Master Mason's Diploma ----   5.00
Mark Master's Diploma -----   4.00
Affiliation Diploma -------   2.50
Duplicate Diploma ---------   2.00
Past Master's Diploma -----   2.50
Dispensations -------------   5.00
Catechisms, each degree ---    .15

Minimum fee for Craft Degrees, $35.00; of which the lodge received $5.00.
Minimum fee for higher degrees, Fourth to Thirty-Third, $135.00, of which $25.00 was for paraphernalia.

The thirty-three degrees were sometimes given in an hour's time; frequently all of them were conferred in one evening.

There were many other facts brought out in the trial but I have here mentioned only the leading ones.  From this it will be seen that the Government clearly proved that Thomson obtained his members by misrepresenting the facts, both as to his authority and regularity, also as to the recognition that his members would receive from Masons abroad, and that in the promotion of his scheme the United States mails were used.

The jury brought in a verdict of guilty against each of the defendants on every count charged in the indictment.  In this connection it is well to remember that neither the Judge nor any member of the jury were members of the Masonic fraternity. The regular Judge of the Utah District of the United States District Court is a Mason; to avoid any charge of prejudice an outside judge, Judge Wade of Iowa, was assigned to try the case.  In giving his instructions to the jury, among other things, he said:

"Therefore, gentlemen, as I said in the beginning, this involves no case here before this jury as to which of the branches of the Masonic order is legitimate, except in so far as that question inheres in the simple questions in this case, which is not a question of determining which of these great branches, or minor branches, is right or wrong, but the question here is, did these men on trial conspire to commit a fraud on their neighbours or on their fellow men? That I will go into more fully.  Keep that in mind.

"It is a historic matter of common knowledge that there is an organization known as Free Masons or Free and Accepted Masons, or Masons, known for many generations. Whether that organization is right or wrong, whether it had conducted its business in the right way, whether its spirit is right or wrong, speaking generally, we have nothing to do with it. . . ."

"Sometime back, the people of this country, acting through their agents, enacted a statute through Congress which said that a man who should conceive and organize a conspiracy with others to defraud somebody, and then use the mails to carry out that scheme, that man should be punished.  Now that is all the Grand Jury in this Court did when last year it brought in this indictment.  And bear in mind, gentlemen, as I tried to impress upon you before, that the action of the Grand Jury must not in any manner enter into your consideration in determining the question of guilt. . . ."

"So this indictment was brought in charging these three defendants with having done three specific things; combined, organized or maintained a conspiracy, with the intent to defraud, and used the mails for carrying out that fraud.  That is all.  The Grand Jury didn't indict anybody here for competing with some other organization of Masonry, had nothing to do with those organizations, whatsoever, neither do we.

"They charged that they conceived a plan to defraud and used the mails to carry it out, and that they did that by conspiring together, making an arrangement to carry it out."

A CASE OF FRAUD

He then quoted from the indictment, and said:

"You will observe now from this recital, or these recitals, that this is not a mere case of a dispute of title. That is involved in it, but that is not all that is involved in it. It is not a mere case of the question as to whether or not they got power under this endorsement on this charter from Louisiana Council.  Nor is it solely the question as to the standing or authority of the Council of Rites of Scotland.  These questions are involved, but there are many other questions involved.

"Of course now, any change in this indictment, which is not proven by the evidence must not be considered.  I am reading it to try to get to your minds what we are trying to settle in this matter.  The Government charges in this indictment that these things were in the minds and hearts of these people; that they were false, all of them were false, though of course it is not essential for the Government to prove that all of them were false in order to convict; it is only necessary that they shall prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the fraud which they claim they had in mind consisted of some one or more of the things which they had conceived, sufficient to constitute a fraud.

"To illustrate, if somebody sold you a piece of land - or to make it more practical, if someone sold you a certain horse, representing to you that he was an expert in the genealogy of this horse and that his breeding was of a certain strain on back two or three generations, which made it a valuable horse, and he also represented to you that the horse had a record upon a lawful track of 2:05 as a trotter, and the man who was buying him relied upon these statements, and had no opportunity of testing them out to see whether they were true, and later he found that he did have this family tree which was valuable, but he also found out that he never made that record at all, that was a lie, that would be a fraud by which he induced him to part with his money, although only the question of his record was involved in the fraud, the other representation being true.

"So that, even if it were established in a given case where the question of the family tree, so to speak, of some society, the Odd Fellows, Masons, Knights of Columbus, Elks, whatever it might be, was a certain thing, if that was the only thing alleged, and it was not proven that was false, of course there would be no fraud, but if in connection with that representation were made other representations with relation to the quality of the organization, or character of the organization, the benefits of the organization, the thing the man was getting for his money, aside from the question of the family tree; if false representations were made which induced him to part with his money, that is to say, representations which were wilfully false, then of course there would be fraud and the plan to represent these things which were wilfully and intentionally false, would constitute the ground for a conviction, if they were within the things charged in the indictment . . . . "

"A false representation may be by word of mouth, it may be by acts, it may be silence; it may be by all combined.  We consider what effect the particular thing, the particular act would naturally have on the mind of the other fellow.  To determine what the natural effect would be upon the mind of the other fellow we have got to sort of look at it from the other fellow's standpoint, and consider the question with relation, for instance, to membership in this organization.  What did the other fellow want the membership for? What did he think he was getting? What did he in fact get? Did he get what he bought? If not, was his failure to get what he bought and paid for the result of misrepresentations either by word or conduct or act, in writing or orally, by the defendants or any of them or any of their authorized agents, authorized to do the things that they did? That is this case.

"As I recall there was evidence here of representation made to parties, witnesses upon the stand here, that membership in these organizations opened the doors of the lodge rooms of Europe, and all countries, generally speaking, or words to that effect, to the member that was sought to join.  I am not stating words exactly, and I am only using this as illustrating the principles involved. You are the final judges of what the acts are.  But if a man were induced to enter an organization of any kind upon a representation that membership in that organization would grant him affiliation and brotherhood relations with some great established, organized, permanent organization in South America or Canada or any other country, if that were not true, and the man that made the representation knew it was not true, and he made the representation with the intention of getting his money, that would be a fraud, even though the organization had the right genealogical tree.

"So, gentlemen, we have an organization here now, composed of a number of individuals with organizers employed and sent out, and memberships taken and memberships paid for.  In any big organization you will find some organizer or some agent who at times will not do the right thing.  But a wrongful act upon the part of an agent or organizer, except insofar as the same was induced or authorized or approved by the defendants in this particular case - if it was outside of his regular and authorized work, of course it would not be binding upon these defendants, - but insofar as you can find from the evidence the scope and power given by these defendants knowingly and intentionally to organizers, of course the acts of such organizers would be the same as the acts of the defendants.

"So, gentlemen, you see it is a question as to whether or not the Government has proven - they have got to prove that these things were false, the defendants do not have to prove that they are true, the burden is on the Government all the way through.  Has the Government proven any of these charges of intended misrepresentation or fraud which they set out in this indictment? If so, was that of such a nature or character that it would have carried out - constituted a fraud on the person who was induced to join as a member? Now, what the evidence is and what these specific things are, you are to determine.

"I have repeatedly said that a fraud is not a mistake.  The law is practical common sense.  No man was ever convicted of a fraud when he was acting in good faith.  A man might sue to recover money or land on the ground of mutual mistake but as to a criminal offense, a man to be convicted of a fraud must have knowledge, must have the wrongful intent and purpose."

Thomson and his partners in crime were found guilty.  In passing sentence Judge Wade scored them after the following manner:

"Nobody can hear this evidence in this case without being convinced, absolutely convinced, that this thing has been a fraudulent scheme from the beginning.  I can see where an ignorant person might find some possible excuse for the methods employed in this case.  For intelligent people and experienced people to try to convince the Court that this organization and this plan and this work that had been going on is on the square - it can't be done.

"Of course now we are living in a time when some of the brightest minds in the country are devoting themselves to securing money by short cuts, by taking advantage of the gullible for their enterprises. In fact that is one of the dominant crimes of the present time. I know of one state in which in the last two years, within two, there has been sold over twenty-nine million dollars worth of stock in packing houses which were never built, and practically every dollar of the money lost, just by shrewd practices, by trying to get the other fellow's money in some way without working for it.

AMERICAN MASONIC FEDERATION A FRAUD

"Now, of course, after all that was stated in this case from the beginning and all through I confess that I was astounded when I heard Mr. Thomson testify that there was no pretence, that there was no record anywhere of a charter to Marseilles Lodge, on the existence of which lay the right and practically the foundation of all claims of legitimacy on that branch of the case and to have him admit that such a lodge existed only in tradition (I realize that some things can be proven by tradition, but tradition cannot exist with one man, tradition must have, before it has any force as proof - such general recognition among men in that particular occupation or relation that it forces itself upon the mind as a truth the record of which has been lost) and it was conceded on the witness stand that so far as this particular thing was concerned there was no record anywhere and no one who was skilled in the history of Masonry had ever met any such a tradition so far as the record in this case is concerned, in any history or book or pamphlet or anything else outside of this organization.

"So was I surprised when I found that the Council of Rites of Scotland which had been one of the chief points urged by these gentlemen, had no record behind it but a few years and it was represented - entirely aside from the question of the origin and history of this organization and those that preceded it - it was represented time and time again without dispute to these poor devils that were led largely by these attractions to an ancient organization and to the rites and rituals of the organization, it was represented to them specifically and it has not been denied that by virtue of their association with this organization the doors of Masonry the world over were open to them outside of the United States, which is of course an absurd claim under the evidence in this case.

"Then the trip that Bergera made to Europe on the investigation, in view of what transpired according to his own testimony, has all the appearance of being a scheme or plan that he might come back here and state to those whose membership was sought his capacity to enter the lodges of Europe to support their claim, that the members immediately on getting across the water would have the doors wide
open to them.

"And then after making a trip and going to one or two lodges or three under peculiar circumstances, in fact never going to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and that was included in the representation made, that is to say, all Europe was included, never going to the Grand Lodge of Scotland, the Grand Lodge of England and never going to the Grand Lodge of France, whatever it is called, and coming back here no doubt to back up the representation that membership in this organization was opening the doors of all Masonic Orders, all of the regular Masonic Orders in Europe - it was a pretence, gentlemen, you can't come to any other conclusion. If Bergera went over there for the purpose of confirming what these organizers were representing and which is not denied here, he certainly would have gone to the Grand Lodge of Scotland or England or France or Germany or somewhere to find out whether the doors would be open to these fellows that were joining their ranks.

"But it is not necessary to recite the details.  One cannot listen to this evidence without being forced to the conclusion that so far as the representation as to the standing and the brotherhood and the association of people with which they would become immediately affiliated was concerned, that aside entirely from the genealogy of the lodge, nobody can claim that there was any truth in what was said except insofar as they had access to certain lodges with which Mr. Thomson through his relation had some affiliation.

"The spectacle of Mr. Thomson going to Switzerland to this great conference, and parading afterwards through the journal a conference where eight men from the entire world were present - that in itself is sufficient to condemn the whole thing and the manner in which this business had been done is sufficient in itself.  No pretence here on the part of the defendants that this money was kept in any businesslike way for the benefit of this organization.  What became of it I don't know but there was more than a million dollars taken in here, of that there can be no question in view of the prices charged for little printed sheets of paper in the form of diplomas and certificates and things of that kind, entirely aside from the membership fee.  What became of that money is not indicated here.  The head of this organization testified before the Court that he didn't know and in fact had some difficulty in recalling whether there was ever an account of the organization in a bank anywhere in the world.

"As far as the Secretary is concerned, there is no suggestion of a report indicating that this business was conducted as an honest organization, not a word.

"So that, gentlemen, there is only one thing for the Court to do. If it were not for the age of Mr. Thomson at this time there would be a long prison sentence, because I think he is the chief actor. I think he is more responsible than anyone else.  As far as Bergera is concerned, of course, I cannot understand at all how a man would presume to parade himself as the Treasurer-General of the organization of ten thousand members which had received from them in the neighbourhood of a million or more dollars and never handle a cent of the money.  I cannot understand it at all, that is all, that any honest man would allow his name to be used in that connection under such condition and the concealment of the methods of doing business and where this money went even up to the present time.  I cannot comprehend the whole thing.

"There is only one thing that saves these men a long prison term. I don't feel justified in sending any of these men to prison any longer than I do Mr. Thomson.  As I say, when it comes to this point in a trial of the case, the charity of the law asserts itself.  Old age and sickness, of course, have a strong appeal to the Court, when it comes to the question of a prison term and I think that the District Attorney has been very generous in his suggestion.  This Court hasn't really any power to impose a penalty here which would be adequate punishment for this thing that has been going on when we stop to think of the honest fellows who parted with their fifty or seventy-five or a hundred and fifty dollars for membership in this organization.  So far as the evidence in this case is concerned, not one dollar of it was ever used for any of the business of the society except to carry on this work of getting members.  Not a word of charity or charitable fund or anything of that kind before this Court.

"I am very much inclined to be lenient in all things.  I am inclined to look in a charitable way upon the mistakes of men, but this thing has in it that deliberateness and continuous conduct which sort of overcomes my tendency.

"Stand up, gentlemen.

"The judgment of this Court is that each one of you serve a period of two years in Fort Leavenworth Prison and each one of you pay a fine of five thousand dollars and costs."

THE POINT OF THE TRIAL

Before this case went to trial it was not known just what matters the Court would require the Government to prove.  Thomson's claim as to the regularity of the established Masonic institutions before mentioned in the first part of this paper, the Government was prepared to disprove, had the Court so ruled.  However, the ruling of the Court was that the regularity of the established Masonic lodges did not enter into this case, and the following named witnesses who had been summoned by the Government were not called upon to testify, although they were instructed to be on hand in case they were needed, and especially to listen to the testimony offered by the defendants' witnesses: Frederick W. Hamilton, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts; William L. Boyden, Librarian of the Supreme Council, Washington, D.C.; Charles A. Conover, General Grand Secretary, General Grand Chapter, R.A.M. of the United States; Robert A. Shirrefs, Grand Secretary General, Northern Supreme Council; Ossian Lang, Historian, Grand Lodge of New York, and Charles C. Hunt, Deputy Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Iowa.

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