THE BUILDER MAY 1918

WOMEN AND FREEMASONRY
BY BRO. HAL RIVIERE, GEORGIA

To a certain extent, a Masonic lodge is a school in that it
endeavors to teach men how to build upright characters. This
teaching is done through the medium of symbols and allegories,
employing in a symbolic sense the working tools of Operative Masons
and the customs and practices of the builders' art, in order to
impress important lessons vividly upon the minds of the brethren.
We have good authority for so teaching because we read in the Holy
Scriptures that Jesus taught by parables and allegories. Indeed, it
is said that without a parable spoke he not unto them. That is the
reason why so few understood his meaning and why he had to explain
his sayings even to his disciples. Just as so many failed to
understand him, so many men who have been made Masons do not
understand its lessons and failing to understand, do not live up to
its teachings. Such men sometimes bring discredit to our Order.
Whenever anything deserving of censure is found in the conduct of
Masons, lay it to human frailty, and not to the fault of this great
institution.

Upon a few occasions I have heard of women who were prejudiced
against Masonry on account of the inconsistent actions of some
member, saying that if that man were a Mason they had a poor
opinion of the Order. I know a young lady who will not attend
church saying she does not believe in religion because there are
hypocrites in the church and persons in active church work who are
not so good as she is. That young lady is a stenographer but I have
not heard of her giving up her position although she knows that
some stenographers are improper in conduct. We do not judge all
stenographers by the standard of the worst, neither should we judge
the church or Masonry by the low standards set by some of their
members.

Some women have expressed an objection to Masonry on account of its
secrecy. Perhaps that prejudice comes from the fact that they have
been told that women are not admitted as Masons because they cannot
keep a secret. That assertion is absolutely untrue. Whether or not
women can keep a secret has nothing to do with their exclusion from
our lodges. Membership is limited to men because it was the ancient
practice. Present day Speculative Masonry is founded upon the
customs of the ancient stone masons and we faithfully carry out
their practices. They were the men who built the famous edifices of
olden times, including the magnificent cathedrals that the invading
armies of Germany have damaged so greatly. The labors of a stone
mason were very arduous and exacting and it took a man in
possession of all his strength and members to do such work. These
men traveled about from place to place as need required and were
forced to undergo many hardships; so of necessity, only men were so
employed. Even men with fingers, hands or feet missing were not
accepted as apprentices to learn the business; hence the exclusion
of women at that time and also today, because we follow the ancient
customs.

One intelligent women said to me, "I don't believe Masons have any
secrets. It's all a bluff. Besides if those secrets are so valuable
in helping men to be better, why don't you tell them to everybody
so all people may be helped?" Christ said, "Cast not your pearls
before swine," meaning that we should not set valuable truths
before people unable to understand or unwilling to make the proper
use of them. Ability to understand a truth is a matter of education
and training and it is only to those who come seeking that these
lessons are taught step by step. Scatter our secrets broadcast and
they would become commonplace and carry no weight even with those
capable of understanding them.

Masonry keeps secret no knowledge not possessed by the outside
world but the methods of teaching that knowledge and presenting it
in graphic, impressive form are secret as are also the various
signs, grips and pass-words. Possession of these secrets is a tie
that binds the brethren together and the beautiful ceremonies of
the lodge keep before them the principles which the Order
inculcates.

The prejudice which some women have had is giving way as the
beneficial effects of the Fraternity are seen. That some prejudice
exists, I must admit; but that the various reasons given for such
prejudice are true, I must deny. There is more to this business
than pique because someone says a woman cannot keep a secret;
neither can one charge it entirely to "sour grapes" because women
are not made Masons. The real reason is deeper; it is ingrained in
the female nature and is the result of thousands of years of
training, custom and practice. I discovered it myself and after I
have revealed it to you I believe you will say that I am right. In
order that you may be able to judge intelligently I shall present
the evidence in detail and then announce my conclusion. In doing so
I must make a hasty review of the progress of the human race from
savagery to civilization.

Did you ever see children playing on the floor with building
blocks? Have you noticed their delight when some figure is made?
There is no mother who has not run at the excited, delighted call
of her babe as he balanced one piece upon another and made various
figures in his play. His delight was on account of his having
accomplished something that he did not know was possible. That
little scene typifies the beginning of architecture in the very
dawn of civilization.

Architecture has probably had a greater influence in directing the
progress of the race than any one thing. We are so used to seeing
buildings of every shape and size that we probably think they
always existed just so; but the art has grown slowly and each new
process has been worked out with toil and difficulty. Imagine the
delight of the primitive man as he produced his simple
architectural figures! Can't you picture the first man who ever
made a square hut? See him in his delight calling to a friend and
showing him that each side of his house is exactly as long as every
other side. No doubt this friend breathlessly listened and learned
as he was taught how the thing was done. Later other men were taken
into their confidence and bound to secrecy, thus forming the first
secret society and possibly the first labor union.

As knowledge increased, primitive men, being unable to write, gave
permanence to their thoughts and poetic and artistic tendencies
through the medium of architecture, building pyramids, temples,
obelisks and cathedrals that are veritable poems in stone. Can you
doubt that the tools with which they fashioned those works of art
came to have a high value in their eyes and that they early
attached symbolic meaning to them ? The square, level, plumb,
compasses, rule, line, etc., seem very simple and ordinary to
modern people but who can realize the time and study spent in
perfecting them?

Although the origin of these tools is lost in remote antiquity the
discovery of the square was certainly as important as the discovery
of wireless telegraphy. The men who first intelligently employed
the plumb and level, could we but know their names, deserve mention
along with the inventors of the telephone and telegraph. Though we
know nothing of those individuals we do know that early, secret
societies were formed, guarding the knowledge possessed by
primitive peoples. Each tribe and nation had its secret society
among its men who came together in the Men's House to discuss all
their tribal affairs and to teach their traditions and practices to
the boys as they came to the proper age. The initiation ceremonies
were the most important event in the life of every boy, who from
the time the ceremonies began, forsook the company of his mother,
sisters and-other women of the tribe and thenceforth associated
only with the men.

It is a peculiar fact that almost every nation, both ancient and
modern, contains more women than men, and all have had to face the
problem of dealing-with the surplus women. We call women the weaker
sex but few of us believe that weaker sex business; though it took
a modern Kipling to express the feeling in words man has always
known, that "The female of the species is more deadly than the
male." In dealing with the problem of surplus women various methods
have been employed. In his day and time King Solomon tried to solve
the problem by marrying all of them.

In ancient times, as among primitive peoples today, the men met the
suffragette question by strategy. They conspired in the Men's House
against the women, inventing plans to play upon their superstition
and to keep them within due bounds. The time of the tribal
initiations was a favorite time for such practices and when the
boys came to the proper age, solemn warning was given the women to
keep within doors while the ceremonies took place. Processions were
headed by the priests and medicine men, and the women were
terrified by various apparitions, mysterious noises and ghostly
stories. They were required to prepare and set out food as an
offering to the spirits which the men took and served later at
their lodges. These ceremonies sometimes lasted several days and as
the women during all that time, like Tam O'Shanter's wife, were
"Nursing their wrath to keep it warm," is it any wonder that they
came to be violently antagonistic toward secret societies? In
addition to those practices, among some nations the men spent
practically all of their time at the Men's House, sleeping and
eating there; it was only a disgraced man who would sleep at home
and eat with the women.

So you now understand why some women are antagonistic to Masonry.
Present day civilization has not succeeded in stamping out the old
antagonism engendered in them by thousands of years of
superstitious awe fostered by the men to maintain control of the
women. But in our enlightened day such feelings should cease. It is
an atavism, a reversion to type that is not complimentary to the
one who feels it. So, if there be one among our women readers who
has opposed lodge attendance, when lodge night comes again and
friend husband begins to move uneasily and look furtively toward
the door and his hat, let her take the said hat and say sweetly,
"Now dear, (or Tom or Daddy, or whatever may be his official title)
this is lodge night; go on down there and learn to attend to your
Masonic duties like a true Mason." And if he wants to attend a
called communication occasionally and stay out until midnight, let
her comfort herself by thinking of the Fiji Island women whose
husbands stay out at the Men's House all night, every night.

Yes, you can send your men to the lodge in full confidence that
they will return none the worse. No institution has ever done more
for the moral and mental improvement of men than Masonic lodges,
and if you will encourage your men to cultivate an interest in
their lodge, enter actively upon its work, study its history and
philosophy, the practice of the virtues which it inculcates, will
impress those virtues upon their characters, and being better
Masons, they will become better husbands, fathers and brothers. If
women could realize to what an extent Masonry has made for their
safety and the betterment of their lives they would encourage the
men in lodge attendance and work. Working in secret and without
desire for publicity, the Order has thrown a protection about the
women of this nation that has done much for their safety. Little as
they may think of it, many a woman owes the fact that she is living
in a happy home surrounded by loved ones, to the delicate ministry
of this great Order which, when a man becomes a Mason, throws the
whole protecting force of a great membership about the female
members of his home.

For your own protection, encourage your men to become good, active
Masons. It will help them to be better men by holding before them
the highest of ideals. If a man be studiously and philosophically
inclined it will open up for him a new world and lend an; added
interest to the study of history, science and religions. Our Order
invites no man but welcomes every worthy man who comes earnestly
seeking to help and be helped. But remember that Freemasonry is no
reformatory, nor house of correction. Brethren, pay particular
attention to the quality of the material that petitions for
membership. Investigate thoroughly. Be sure of the character of him
whom you elect to receive the degrees in your lodge. In doubtful
cases give the lodge the benefit for it is better that an
occasional worthy man should suffer exclusion than that unworthy
men should creep in to hinder our work and render of no account
that which we have so carefully builded.
