THE BUILDER JUNE 1925

CONCERNING A "REAL MENACE"

In the December number of THE BUILDER, page 355, Bro. Dr. Parkes
Cadman contributes an article entitled "A Real Menace" and you ask
our support in your efforts to obtain for the purifying influence
of his writings the wider and more enduring power which they not
only so well merit, but which our so-called civilization so greatly
needs. May I, for one, accede to your request, writing as from
England, because I believe we here quite as much as you in America
need to bestir ourselves in view of this menace. At its root, and
contributing largely to its growth I submit, is that insidious
thing which being universal may be so innocent and may be so
guilty--the making of money.

To take an illustration from the sphere of the publie press. A few
weeks ago an optimistic lecturer said he regarded as a most hopeful
sign the fact that a leading newspaper should find place once a
week for so novel a departure as to give a whole column to an
article on some religious or moral subject which should appeal to
the spiritual side of man's nature. His optimism was not due to a
perception that those responsible for this were prompted to it by
a sense of obligation, as people of considerable influence, to
helping in uplifting, but rather arose from the conclusion that
there must be an increasing number of thoughtful newspaper readers
who could wclcome the appearance of such articles and hence they
were produced because it paid to do so.

A few weeks since in a village newspaper shop I noticed the
advertisement boards by which our leading English papers inform the
public day by day of their chief contents. There were four of these
in the little shop and of them, although matters of public welfare
were transpiring at the time, three gave as the all important item
the proceedings of a trial for blackmailing an Indian Prince whose
conduct with an English woman was a disgrace to both nations.

One of these papers which of late has given column after column to
the disgusting details of murder, impurity, divorce, and other
putrid things which would appeal to the lower passions, and has
been frequently "sold out," on Christmas Eve published a Christmas
article of the sweetest and most elevating type. For what purpose?
Need the question be asked, seeing there can be but one answer--the
making of money! And when the enormous influence of the press--
greater than that of the pulpit--is remembered, this becomes a
matter which should compel the thought and such action as is within
the power of every good Mason.

Now there are doubtless many excellent Masons engaged in newspaper
production, good men, whose nature if it could be brought to
realize the awful responsibility of stewardship involved in their
influence, would revolt against the demoralization which their
inertia allows, if not produces. Cannot their position be brought
home to them? Their loyalty to Masonic obligation and principle is
seriously in peril through their indifference or want of
realization of their responsibility in this matter.

There are not wanting indications here in England, and with you
also, that a feeling of protest against the existing state of
things in connection with newspaper influence is growing. Religious
newspapers, magazine articles, and by no means the least; our
Masonic press, all illustrate this; but as long as the production
of our great daily newspapers has money making at the foundation,
protest, as directed against the results, will avail but little.

The tragedy of it all is that good and evil call it God and Devil
if you like--are simply, to them, means to an end. If God pays He
shall have the service; if the Devil, no matter the consequences to
humanity, it shall be his; and still further, if both can be made
to pay, both shall be served.

It behooves every Mason to face this tragedy and to deal with it,
each in the way he finds himself most capable of doing, and to let
it be seen that Masonry does stand for something more than ritual,
degrees, jewels and good fellowship. And we need to be brave not
only in the matter of newspapers but also in the realm of all such
literature as novels, movies, plays, etc., which seek to sell
humanity for gold.

Surely, too, it would be a great step if candidates for admission
to our Order were seriously impressed with the fact that their
admission involves a life-long obligation to build in the widest
sense in which the word can be used; to build unceasingly, sword
at, and trowel in, hand, in face of difficulty it may be, and in
spite of discouragement, the Holy Temple of consecrated Humanity;
and never for a moment being found to side with those who, for
their own mercenary ends, would damage or destroy its steady growth
and beauty.

W. Ravenscroft, England.
