THE BUILDER October, 1926

AN ENGLISH MASON AND AMERICAN LADIES

R. W. Bro. Sir Alfred Robbins, P. G. W., President of the Board of
General Purposes (England), was, with Lady Robbins, the guest of
the evening at the Ladies' Festival Banquet of the Authors' Lodge,
No. 3456, held in London on June 30. At the meeting of the lodge
immediately preceding, it was proposed by W. Bro. Professor H. C.
Plummer, F. R. S., W. M., seconded by Bro. E. R. Garnsey, S. W.,
and unanimously resolved that Bro. Sir Alfred Robbins should be
elected an honorary member, a distinction he now shares with Bro.
Rudyard Kipling. At the banquet following, Bro. Sir Alfred Robbins,
in submitting the toast of "The Ladies", said:

"As the youngest member of the Authors' Lodge, I have been given
the highly honorable, but extremely onerous, task of submitting the
toast of the evening, that of 'The Ladies'.

"It was a happy prelude to this gathering that today I received an
offer--a special offer, I am assured, at one-half the usual fee, to
be paid even by monthly installments if desired--to furnish me for
the trifling sum of one guinea with 'the real key to success in
public speaking.' I am tempted to be sorry that it did not reach me
sooner, so as to rid myself of that 'most distressing form of
nervousness when speaking in public', with which it is plainly
thought I am afflicted; but, as the main point of the suggested
teaching seems to be that I have to bring my ideas within an
illuminated circle, I will try to focus them within the brilliant
circle I am now addressing. I have a double claim to be here
tonight, as, while not until today a member of the Authors' Lodge,
I was thirty-four years ago a founding member of the Authors' Club,
with which that lodge is proud to be associated. Moreover, though
not the writer, I am the frequent reviser of one of England's 'best
sellers', for the Masonic 'Book of Constitutions', with which in
another place I have so much to do, has a steady and certain sale
every year of more than thirty thousand copies; and even a small
royalty would assure at least a modest competence. But there is a
further and more direct Masonic claim. The toast of 'The Ladies' is
one I have very seldom proposed, because of my manifest unfitness
to perform so gallant a task; but I always approach it with the awe
and reverence due from the lesser to the greater half.

"As a Freemason, therefore, I give the toast with all sincerity,
because from our earliest moments in the Craft we are taught to
reverence women. It partly arises from that reverence that we do
not invite ladies to join the laborious side of our Masonic life.
The original Freemasons were operative workers; and, as the whole
of our tradition is derived from the operative side, it has no more
been contemplated to have female masons than female stonecutters or
female bricklayers. But with one phase of our activities we are
always delighted to associate them, and that is on the side of
benevolence. A story goes that that vigorous example of womanhood,
Queen Elizabeth, being annoyed that she could not be made a Mason,
directed the Order to be suppressed, but was dissuaded on finding
that some of her most trusted advisers were Craftsmen devoted to
good work. Whatever the value of the story--and I do not vouch for
it--none of our Queens have interfered with our development, but
rather have greatly assisted in our benevolent endeavors.

"Frankly, I have always believed that the best work women can do
for Freemasonry is in the direction of benevolence; and, I was
confirmed in this belief when, with Lady Robbins, I visited the
United States on a Masonic mission two years ago. In America,
female Freemasonry, of both a direct and indirect kind, flourishes
amazingly, and its work has been on various lines. I greatly doubt
whether it would tempt many of our lady friends to be associated
with certain of their activities such as are proudly claimed in one
Jurisdiction--the ripping up of old carpets in lodge rooms, the
cleaning of windows and sweeping of floors, and the replacing of
oil lamps by electric light. But in other directions, and
particularly in the construction and maintenance of hospitals, they
have done most worthy work. I would take this opportunity, indeed,
of paying a high tribute to the cordiality and wonderful kindness
of many American ladies closely associated with Freemasons, and
most of them in some direct or indirect fashion with Freemasonry,
who welcomed Lady Robbins and myself in the ten American
Jurisdictions I was privileged to visit. They knew beforehand the
position taken up by the Grand Lodge of England in regard to mixed
organizations associated with Freemasonry, and not one of them from
beginning to end of a most wonderful tour said a word either to my
wife or to myself to endeavor to make us converts to their cause.
For their good works, I sincerely admire them; for their
friendliness I deeply thank them; and, though I stand where I did
concerning any possible association of women with the English
Craft, I shall never lose my feeling of admiration for these
American ladies."
