THE BUILDER AUGUST 1925


THE POLITICAL IDEAL IN FREEMASONRY

HOWEVER much we may be interested in Freemasonry's historic past,
certainly we are all more deeply concerned with its present and
future. Masonry is a conservative institution like all others which
have their roots in far-distant times. We are living in a day when
all things are rapidly changing. Old customs, old practices, old
ideas are going by the board. Human progress--at least we call-it
that--advances at a rapid pace. Yet never was there greater
need to prove all things and hold fast to that which is good in the
old. One must be blind indeed to believe Masonry immune to the
forces which make for change. Parrot-like repetition of the phrase
"remove not the ancient landmarks" will hardly protect us. The
changing ideals in Masonry simply must be guided into right
channels.

"Saving the nation" has become a great American indoor sport. We
are literally being "organized" to death by well-meaning persons to
promote well-meaning causes. A regular technique has been worked
out which is supposed to marshall public opinion behind such
causes. Masons ought to realize what a tremendous temptation our
Order offers to the professional uplifters, the faddists and the
self-appointed saviours of the nation. We are a well-organized body
of men, numbering several millions, with so far a good reputation
for uprightness and sincerity of purpose. Little wonder they would
do anything to align us behind their movements. There never was a
time when Freemasonry should exercise greater vigilance than now in
its commitments on public and political affairs. We have too many
members within the Order who will not be happy until they have
driven us to embrace permanently what can only be termed the
Political Ideal in Freemasonry. These same members are loudest in
their condemnation of European Masons who are said to have done
just that same thing.

For some years there has been pending in Congress bill to create a
Federal Department of Education. Basically, the plan consists of
nothing more than offering the individual states a bribe or subsidy
to do what each state has within its power to do, if, and when it
chooses. Now no one questions the desirability of education. That
is the difficulty. The intent is so excellent in these cases that
we overlook fundamentals. Almost 5 per cent of the national income
is being disbursed at present on similar subsidy plans. States like
New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois in effect are taxed to aid less
prosperous and populous states. Nevada, for example, is said to
have received back, during the last fiscal year, $1.16 for every
dollar paid to the federal treasury. This in itself may not be
serious. The real danger, in the words of John Bassett Moore, is
that "In a country so vast as ours the transfer to the sphere of
national regulation and administration of matters which the
Constitution left to the several states necessarily means the
growth of a bureaucratic type of government. Such a type of
government possesses certain inherent defects . . . want of
intelligence and sympathy in dealing with local conditions . . .
tendency towards disrespect for and disregard of the fundamental
principles of individual liberty for the conservation of which the
Constitution was ordained."

Some of our Grand Lodges have endorsed the bill to create a Federal
Department of Education. When they did that, whether they realize
it or not, they embraced the Political Ideal in Freemasonry. When
they did that, they endorsed a principle which, if allowed to
continue unchecked, must change the character of our government and
the political conceptions of our people. I quite agree that Masonry
must stand for something definite. In deciding what these definite
things shall be, we do not need to be guided entirely by our
traditions of two hundred years. Still, we surely should not be
swayed by opportunism or an "emotional jag" in deciding them. Let
us go forward wisely, sanely, calmly, with all the facts before us,
but never sentimentally. Let those who pretend to speak for Masonry
look to their mandate. Let us not sell our birthright, the heritage
of two hundred years, for a mess of political pottage. Otherwise,
though we may still be Masons we shall no longer be Free Masons.
A. L. Kress, Pennsylvania.

GEMS FROM "MORALS AND DOGMA"

Selected by Charles Henry Smart, 32nd degree, Sec. of the Scottish
Rite bodies, Nashville, Tenn.

Commercial greed values the lives of men no more than it values the
lives of ants
He that does me a favor hath bound me to make him a return of
thankfulness.
Civil and religious freedom must go hand in hand, and persecution
matures them both.
Offices, it is true, are showered, like the rains of heaven, upon
the just and the unjust.
It is not beyond the tomb, but in life itself, that we are to seek
for the mysteries of death.
The faithless and the false in public life and in political life
will be faithless and false in private.
What is truth to the philosopher would not be truth, nor have the
effect of truth, to the peasant,
Knowledge is the most genuine and real of human treasures, for it
is Light, as ignorance is darkness.
The citizen who cannot accomplish well the smaller purposes of
public life cannot compass the larger.
Though Masonry neither usurps the place nor apes religion, prayer
is an essential part of our ceremonies.
The true problem of humanity is wrought out in the humblest abodes.
No more than this is done in the highest.

