:!lW:' 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
EEMAEES 
 
 OF 
 
 Son. ]0%fi S. :|l^l{f{Y, 
 
 T.'.P,;. G,'. M.'. of Jersey Oity Lodge of PerfeotioD, 14", -'" 
 
 > CTdl 
 
 t ^t$tii$ of ||ftmber$li[ip in Jfta^ontg 
 
 Fln^uelally cou«lder^d« 
 
 ,'Lfelivered' in tlje Conaistery Rodms, N^jvember 4th, 1X78 
 
 .drtides numbered II.. III., ly., V., coretaining the balaihce. 
 of his remark^' then, made, published in part in. the Jersey 
 iClty'Evefvifhg Jfiiirrud, and the whole .s&ries published in, the. 
 M Y. pigpatch for J^ovember 17th, peoember 1st, S.th;:,S9th, 
 187 8-, find January liBth, 187 9 , npw published in pamphlet, 
 rtt the request of majip distinguished craftsm,en. - 
 
 <W-i. 
 
 ')j),i:n^^t-m-0fi-'M , 
 
 dOHMB. PERRl Counsellor at im. 
 
 ,' 234 BruaduMijf, IftwtXurh. 
 
 •-.;-j;tlB;||oiit, 1879. , ;, 
 
 Press of Dc Witt C. 'Gardner, 5 i)cy Street. 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030280105 
 
OF 
 
 Hon. JOHN B. PERRY, T. P. G. M. 
 
 OF JERSEY CITY LODGE OF PERFECTION 14°. 
 
 The Status of Membership in Masonry, in the State 
 of New Jersey financially considered, deliv- 
 ered in the Consistory Rooms, 
 November Uh, 1878. 
 Bkethren : 
 
 The attendaiace at lodge meetings here is un satisfactory y 
 the cifcumstances are exceptionally unfortunate. It is fre- 
 ■quently said " if one-half of those able to attend, did so, we 
 should all be pleased," the remark is based upon a beliefj 
 more or less common, that one-half of those who can attend^ 
 do not. If this belief is based on fact, it is a reflection which 
 demands investigation. I have taken the pains to ascertain 
 how far, if at all, this belief is well founded. 
 
 The name and membership of each Master's lodge is as 
 follows : Hiram, 233 ; Varick, 108 ; Hoboken, 1 21 ; Bergen, 
 155; Enterprise, 129; Eagle, 85; Hudson, 54; Teutonia 
 •^2; Jersey City, 14:4; Highland, 73; Palisade, 48; Doricy 
 69; Bayonne, 77; Amity, 92; Eising Star, 99; Lodge of the 
 Temple, 44 ; Mystic Tie, 34; Zeradatha, 63 ; Alleinania, 126 ; 
 Euclid, 55 ; Bay Yiew, 26 ; Gopestone, 30. In all, 22 lodges,, 
 with a total membership of 1,940. Bayonne is at Bergen 
 
Point, Bay View at Greenville, and Copestone at Harrisou t^ 
 Doric is in West Hoboken, Palisade and Mystic Tie are in 
 the Town of Union; Hoboken, Hudson and Euclid are in 
 Hoboken. The remaining thirteen lodges are in Jersey City. 
 
 Leaving ont Harrison, Greenville and Bergen Pointy 
 there are nineteen Master's lodges in and abont Jersey City, 
 meeting within nbont tliirty minutes of each otlier, in a circle, 
 the diameter of which is about three miles, with a total 
 membership of 1,81'2. Nine of these lodges meet every week ; 
 ten meet every fortnight. This mnkes two and one-tiiird 
 lodges in session every night, with an average membej'ship of 
 95. A careful exarhination will shuw that one-half are 
 temporarily sick, iniirm with age, necessarily absent, non- 
 resident, «fec. ; so that the aetuaT average attendarice cannot 
 exceed 4Y^ ; even if those who can, attended twice a week. 
 
 Beside these Master's lodges, there are four bodies in the 
 Tork Kite (actually eight) and four in the Scuttisii Kite; one- 
 half the members in each rite belong to both; both together 
 occupy two nights in the week, and to this extent take from 
 the average attendance in the Master's lodge one-eighth 
 Thus there are twenty-seven Masonic br.dies here, with a 
 total membership of 1,812, so ranged in respect to stated 
 meetings, that two and two thirds bodies are in session every 
 night, and so arranged that the highest actual average atten. 
 dance cannot exceed forty one. If then, these attend once 
 a week, the average attendance cannot exceed twenty. A 
 large attendatice is due to the energy of one lodge put forth 
 at the expense of others, hut such an attendance is only 
 occasional, and is a mere incident to the aveiage. A large 
 number of Masons are suspended by the Master's lodges for 
 non-payment of dues. Most of these sus-pensions might b© 
 avoided if the Grand Lodge would grant authority to two or 
 three of the oldest and healthiest lodges to establish a life 
 membership. A large number of Masons are resideit among 
 us who belong to bodies elsewhere, men whom we meet every 
 day, but fad to remember that they do not belong with us; 
 these and like considerations tend really to enlarge onr ideas, 
 as to the strength of the fraternity here, and to make us for- 
 get its actuaJ condition. Take tlie geographyof these places; 
 the current changes of the people in respect to residence ■. 
 
their local railway's and constant intercourse; the practical 
 denial of co-ordinate jurisdiction ; the uniiecessnry dispersion 
 of the metnhership into small and helpless iodjjes; the larj;© 
 number of resident Masons belonging to large and prosperous 
 lodges over the river; the unjust and unnecessary suspension 
 of hundreds of Masons for non-payment of dues ; and the 
 rise and progress in our midst of the higher bodies in the 
 York and Scottish Rites, and we have a situation which 
 strips the fraternity here of at least one-half its proper 
 strength. « 
 
 I am assured that it may be asked why and by whafc 
 authoi'ity are these matters brought before you. 1st. Because,, 
 as Master Masons in good standing, you have the right to- 
 know them. 2d. Because yon all ouglit to know them, that, 
 any erroneous belief may be exploded. 
 
 Between the Grand Lodge, the Grand Commanderv and 
 the Supreme Council there is entire amity, and no possi- 
 bility of a want of it. The condition of the frnternity is not a 
 Becrel ; its condition, and all facts which tend to show its 
 standing in the community, are made public annually upon 
 the authority of these three sovereign bodies; the initiate 
 and profane alike find these annual reports, filling volume 
 upon volume, in book stores and in public libraries; there 
 are outside the order as many as well versed in its standing 
 in the community as there are inside ; it is error to believe 
 otherwise. We should underestimate ourselves and the order 
 to believe that its influence, is so little felt that the world 
 outside has not interest enough in it to inquire about it. 
 
 Upon the subject which I have thus brought before you, 
 our present able and accomplished Grand Master, 111. Mar- 
 shall B. Smith, 33'', in his address to the Grand Lodge this 
 year, spoke as follows : " The Grand Instructor's report will 
 show that there has not been as full an attendance as might 
 have been expected." In the report of foreign correspon- 
 dence, John Mills Brown, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge 
 of California, speaking of the causes which impair the use- 
 fullness of lodges, says : "One has hetn of general preva- • 
 lence, I have reference to the lack of attendance at lodge 
 meetings." But if we find a Grand Master speaking on the 
 euhject, we find him usually giving exact and eloquent facts, 
 
"showing probable motives as well as circumstances as to 
 every possible cause for lack of attendance, except one ; there 
 is a studied avoidance both in their annual addresses and in 
 the annual foreign correspondence, of any allusion to the 
 rise and progress of the higher bodies in the York and Scot- 
 tish Rites ; though their growth affects the attendance and 
 work in the Master's lodge, as plainly as an epidemic, or hard 
 times. 1 recommend that you examine this subject in refer- 
 ence to the condition of the craft in Jei'sey City, each one 
 for himself. This Lodge is able to examine it, and to do 
 something to better the situation. Strength and dignity, 
 social, religious, charitable and financial, from turret to foun- 
 dation, lie in the framework of the Scottish Eite and though 
 the membership of this lodge rise to be one thousand, there 
 will never be another in the Rite in this county ; its jurisdic- 
 tion extends from the Hudson to the DelaM'are, and dis- 
 content and unsatisfied ambition, however gieat and formid- 
 ■able, cannot tear it to pieces, nor impoverish it by a sickly 
 progeny. 
 
 II. 
 
 Lack of attendance is an admitted fact, and I will en- 
 deavor to pursue the subject in a way which will interest the 
 craft, and enable it to see what ought to be done to remedy the 
 evil. The press is a most potent teacher and easily moves the 
 multitude. There are 12,054 members in this State, and if 
 that which is published is continuously to the point it will in 
 one way or another reach most of them. The Master Mason's 
 lodge is, in Masonic parlance, the Blue Lodge. Whether the 
 presiding officer in a blue lodge is efficient or not, it is a 
 thing like a dozen other things of its type — it affects the 
 subject as much as the style of a man's" hat affects his 
 business success, and no more ; it is an incident or an acci-i 
 dent, temporary in its effect, and not affecting the craft at 
 large; it is a result, not a cause; are there too many 
 lodges 1 perhaps, are there too many in the order that ought" 
 never to have been there ? there maybe; these are results 
 not causes, we must accept human nature as it is. 
 
 Lack of attendance is caused by financial error; 300,000 
 masons in this country are on dimit, or suspended foi- non* 
 
pajuieiit of dues, belonging to no lodge at all, at an annual 
 loss to the craft of $1,000,000; the Blue Lodges keep on in 
 this line of poliej, as if it might be pursued with impunity, 
 while those who stand at the helm in each State, watch and 
 pray that some occasion may arise which will enable them to 
 turn the current. 
 
 Error No. 1.— The Grand Lodge 'taxes the Blue Lodges 
 25 cents eaeh member each year. In the Scottisli Eite, the 
 Supreme Council taxes its subordinate bodies $5 each body, 
 and $12 each initiate. Th^ dues to the Supreme Council 
 thus come from initiations ; for this reason it can afford to 
 trust its own members a few days, or a few years; the dues 
 come in time of they are let alone, for they go to build up 
 the Lodge of Perfection, etc., and not the Supreme Council ; 
 but let it go forth that they must pay or be suspended, and 
 two-thirds will bid defiance to the presiding officer and the 
 whole institution. The result of this basis of taxation is that 
 there has never been a suspension, or an attempt to suspend 
 here in that Kite. A tax of $10 on each blue lodge and $5 
 for each initiate would put more money in the treasury of 
 the Grand Lodge than a tax of 25 cents on each member now 
 does ; test the efficiency of the officers of a lodge, and do away 
 with the whole business of dimits, and suspension for non- 
 payment of dues; providing the blue lodges individually 
 would make provision by which members might gain exemp- 
 tion from dues. 
 
 Error No. 2. — Suspension for non-payment of dues as a 
 penalty for non-payment or as a process to collect them. In 
 no past age were men hung for not paying their debts, yet if 
 the suspension of members for not paying dnes be a penalty,, 
 the principle and result, financially, is the same as if the- 
 lodge hang them. In former ages, arrest and imprisonment,, 
 were used as process to collect debts, and as a rule failed ; so 
 to suspend members for non-payment of dues as a process to. 
 collect them, as a rule fails ; the number of those who refuse- 
 to be driven, and who, because of it, are suspended, becomes 
 so great that the thing itself ceases to be a stain, except upon 
 the character of the lodge. The reason for suspension for non. 
 payment of dnes is, that the Blue Lodge has to pay a per 
 capita tax to the Grand Lodge, and therefore ought not to^ 
 
6 
 
 and will not, pay tribute for members who refuse to pay 
 tribute to it ; both sides are firm, and the only way to recon- 
 ciliation is as suggested, to shift this tribute upon the initiate, 
 the tribute thus ceasing when the initiate has received his 
 third degree. Tlie Blue Lodge dues go to build up the 
 Grand Lodge, while the Blue Lodge itself relies not on its 
 membership, but on initiates taken from the outsside world, 
 for its financial prosperity. The Grand Lodge exacts a tri- 
 bute from every mason for life, and puts the per capita tax 
 up and down as the average initiations in the Blue Lodge 
 vary ; it lives on the Blue Lodges. The Supreme Council 
 leaves the dues to the Lodge of Perfection, &a. ; they go 
 to build up the subordinate bodies; it says to all of them, if 
 public opinion does not sustain you, stand tree. Tiiis is the 
 dividing line between the financial policies of the York and 
 Scottish Rites. 
 
 The American mind revolts at paying tribute; the mason 
 will do it for five, or ten, or twenty years, most of the time 
 not knowing it ; if his eyes are opened he frets, and the time 
 comes when nearly all say, " millions for defense, not a cent 
 for tribute." Last year 453 initiates were made in this State ; 
 326 were suspended for non-payment of dues ; the average 
 initiations in each lodge was three ; for every five profanes 
 who entered three went out, refusing to pay tribute, not for a 
 day, but for life. 
 
 Error No. 3. — The granting of dimits because members 
 ask for them. When a profane seeks initiation the lodge 
 names a committee, which examines him, and makes inqui- 
 ries of him and his friends as to his motives, character, &e. ; 
 but if, after initiation, the same person asks for a dirait, it is 
 granted without a question, and where the treasury is weak, 
 or there is discontent, the Blue Lodge grants' these dimits, and 
 then puts them away in the safe belonging to the lodge, in 
 order to escape the per capita tax to the Grand Lodge; 201 
 dimits were granted last year, and 192 formerly diraitted, 
 turned up as aifilities in other lodges. This in addition to 
 two-fifths being discontented in respect to suspension, two- 
 fifths more are discontented in respect to other things, one of 
 which is the absence of any provision to escape dues, not foir 
 a year or ten years, but for life. Last year there were 154 
 
,7 
 
 •deaths, and 262 lii'e men went under suspension and dimit 
 never to return. Two things are sure, death apd taxes, and 
 an improperly laid tax, and the absence of any provision to 
 escape another tax, not for a year or ten years, but for life, 
 takes the palm even away from the old man with the scythe. 
 The Grand Lodge reported the increase of the order in 
 this State last year at 26, and the total niembersliip at 12,051 ; 
 •the same page shows that 527 not included in the 12.051 went 
 out under diniit and suspension ; the world knows that this 
 State has 18,000 masons, instead of 12,051. What is true 
 here is true, more or less, as to the other States. No man is 
 BO poor but that he has a friend, and no njason ought to be ; 
 each member suspended for non-payment of dues has one 
 friend at least who fails thereafter to attend. I go to my 
 Blue Lodge once a year to perform three duties ; L To pay 
 my dues. 2. To vote, against suspending my brethren who 
 fail to pay. 3, To vote for the presiding officer for the ensu- 
 ing year. The first I do reluctantly, the second cheerfully, 
 the third with intent to put an officer there who will lean 
 toward some correction of these errors, I have given some 
 leisure time in an attempt to establish provisions by which 
 members of the Scottish Rite in this State might escape dues, 
 —not for a year or ten years, but for life, and have been suc- 
 cessful ; result : dues long in arrear come in like a shot, and 
 those not able or ready to pay enough to gain exemption, 
 pay in any one or more of eight several ways satisfactory to 
 themselves. 
 
 T wish now to move the Blue Lodges here in this matter 
 and I ask a question and demand an answer. 1 have been 
 paying dues into the Blue Lodge twenty years, have paid 
 about $105 there, and am firmly of the opinion that that sum 
 is enough. Question : " Are the 200,000 masons out of the 
 Blue Lodge on suspension for non-payment of dues, in good 
 standing < If not, who says so? If not, the stroke of the 
 pen can make them so, and to each Blue Lodge will you give 
 that stroke? Do you wish to know the remedy for thin at- 
 tendance ? Not one out of five of you, as a rule, know any- 
 thing of the^e things ; yon never had the time nor the means 
 to enable you to inquire into theni. Thin attendance has its 
 advocates, and that is one of tjie most peculiar features of the 
 
instifution, and one intimately connected with the subject: 
 It is time the stern opponents to any lodge being strong bu- 
 merically, or financially, were met with weapons of their own 
 make. 
 
 111. 
 
 Those who wish to understand me at all points must bear 
 in mind each article. It is not my aim to debate further 
 than necessary to direct the opinion of the craft to, and keep 
 it within right channels of thought. The masonic news- 
 papers of this country treat of the want of attendance at lodge 
 irieetings ; but the secular and mainly the daily press must 
 come to their aid in order to present to the brethren at large 
 the causes and the remedies. All those who speak in print 
 make no complaint, because of publicity. There are facts 
 it is necessary to make public in order to get at the cir- 
 cumstances which the fraternity require, to form an opin- 
 ion, not only as to what the causes are, but as to what are 
 appropriate remedies. 
 
 I said that $10 a lodge and $5 an initiation would give the 
 Grand Lodge a stronger treasury than a twenty-five cent per 
 capita tax. A tax of twenty-five cents each on 12,051 mem- 
 bers yielded the Grand Lodge last year $3,012. There Were 
 147 lodges and 453 initiates, and a tax of $7 on each initiate 
 would have yielded $3,121. The total receipts were 
 $5,042 1 3, and the balance in the treasury at the end of the 
 year was $4,740 89, so that the Grand Lodge is in a condi- 
 tion to try the experiment of a change if it sees fit. ' Whether 
 this per capita tax leads to the spirit of defiance, and tends 
 to increase the number of dimits and suspensions, as I charge, 
 is what masons would like to know. If the charge is false, 
 its falsity can be ascertained by a comparison of the statistics 
 of those States where the blue lodges have, more or less^ 
 made provision for life members, or some provision to enable 
 the members to gain exemption from dues, with the statistics 
 of those States where the blue lodges have never made an at- 
 tempt of the kind, and we shall not have to go far for this. 
 
 The Blue Lodges of New fork do occasionally make 
 these provisions ; there the best and strongest lodges, as a 
 rule, are those having provisions of this kind, and the aver-- 
 
age initiations in that State last year were four, much liigheP- 
 than it is in this State, where the Bhie Lodges have never 
 put forth any attempt to make any provisions of the kind 
 named. We need not go West or fiirtlier occupy our time 
 in doing a duty that beh)ngs to the Grand Lodge, and which 
 the Grand Lodge of this State perpetually fails to perform. 
 The per capita tax is a tax which has always been levied by 
 the Grand Lodge in this country. It would be impossible to 
 get the Grand Lodge to abandon it, except upon statistical 
 reasons ; but it can be moved to give us tbe statistics hereaf- 
 ter, so that the question may be carefully examined in the 
 light of history by a comparison with them of similar statis- 
 tics in other States, and with these of the Grand Chapter, 
 Grand Oommandery and the Supreme Council. The Grand 
 Lodge now gives three pages to a statement of the dues paid 
 by the Blue Lodges, then enlightens them with a list of Past 
 Masters, officers, etc., for 97 pages. The craft and ihe Grand 
 Lodge itself is oblivious in respect to finances and everything 
 else in the Blue Lodges worth knowing, that is not absolutely 
 secret. As to dimits and suspensions and everything else 
 hot secret, the institution in this State is run wholly on the 
 financial principle, without any one being able to tell any- 
 thing about what makes money and initiates scarce, unless he 
 delves by the midnight lamp through the reccird of his own 
 individual lodge. 
 
 - Two friends go to the lodge and pay their dues for one 
 year ; if they dislike the management, and will ask for a 
 dimit, it will be given , if they believe the management will 
 be more successful the next year, and wish to attend only 
 when it is successful, they lay down their purses, each with 
 $100 in it, and say : " Let as come when we please." The 
 answer is : "To stay here in this lodge you must pay each 
 year, as long as you live." So one takes hia dimit, and the 
 other goes away without paying anything ; seven of every 
 ten dimits are thus issued to men more or less discontented 
 for financial reasons alone, and seven of every ten suspended 
 have genuine moral courage ; about three of every ten sus- 
 pended, some time or another, change their mind and are 
 Voted back ; and seven out of every ten go forever ; not one 
 of the dimits ever gets back to the same 'lodge ; seven of 
 
10 
 
 every ten of them tiixn up some time in gome ptber lodge> 
 andthree out of ten go forever. Result — The average perioci 
 masons pay dues is ten years. 
 
 A Blue Lodge in a neighboring State ascertained that, tea 
 years was the average masonic life, and resolved that any 
 member paying his dues for ten years should be exempt 
 from all dues except the per capita tax to the Grand Lodge ; 
 the ten years passed, and all members paying promptly for 
 that time then began to pay only the per capita tax ; the 
 the lack of initiations so decreased the lodge that the resolu- 
 tion was repealed, so as to iuelude in the repeal the members 
 w^ho had gained exemption ; an appeal was taken, and is yet 
 pending, and which it is believed will be successful. 
 
 If the entire tax to the Grand Lodge was put on initiations, 
 it would not long carry dead lodges for the sake of getting 
 S5 a year on encli one, and then, if the conduct of the lodge 
 in five years did not come within the form or spirit of organ- 
 ized masonry, it should die. There were nine lodges, none 
 of which last year had a candidate ; two of these lodges belong 
 here. The nineteen lodges in and about Jersey City, before 
 mentioned, last year lost 30 by death, 7 by dimits over affili- 
 ations, and 77 by suspension for non-payment of dues over 
 restorations; a total of 114. Altogether 69 were raised. 
 Thus Jersey City and suburbs, in 1877, walked backward 45, 
 or at the rate of three per cent. 
 
 Many men who have been paying dues ranging in all the 
 grades to $30 a year, twenty to forty years, begin to hestiate, 
 Bome on their own account, others on account of tlie extraor- 
 dinary folly of insisting on taking only $10 from thousands 
 of those who love the institution, and insist on paying $100 
 instead of $10 ; it brings disgust to the mind of everyone 
 sufficiently impartial to measure it by its statistical re- 
 sults; one-half the fraternity to-day regard a lodge meeting 
 as an exhibition ; the other half are about equally divided iu 
 opinion in respect to the aim of the institution, and not more 
 tiian one-half of this half regard a dimlt in the light of a 
 letter of ciredit from one church to another where a removal 
 is conteniplated. If removal alone is contemplated, political 
 and other clubs regain, such members by placing them on the 
 non-resident list, under .half, or less dues,, if ,they are within 
 hailing distance. 
 
IJ 
 
 Men with patience can stand fraud, but they tire of mean- 
 ness aud stupidity, Tlie dead wood is inside the lodge, and 
 is made np of those who worship signs and grips, &c„ as the 
 Chinese worship their little Josh gods; inefficient men who 
 scramble for office, or thrive by slander, and if the Worshipful 
 Master happens to be efficisnt, tell the initiate he does not 
 follow the ritual, and who, if they hear one talk of " faith, 
 hope and charity, health, strength, order, toleration, power," 
 remind the lodge that tJie Grand Master has rendered a de- 
 cision ; men who cling to a^ji-otten linaneial policy as a land 
 mark, and who understand better than any others the stra- 
 tegic points. They know that a Master Mason with a dimit 
 from the Bine Lodge in his hands, walks strai^Tht up through 
 the upper bodies to the highest points, and that the Supreme 
 Council iirst put an end to Master Masons, suspended in the 
 Blue Lodge for non-payment of dues, receiving the Scottish 
 Grades, September, 1877. l^fotwithstanding all the warnings 
 that have been given, tiie Blue Lodge and Grand Lodge do 
 hot inquire whether a Knight Templar or a Prince of the 
 Koyal Secret cares a farthing whether he be suspended for 
 uon-payment of dues in the Blue Lodge. 
 
 Error No. 4. — The Blue Lodge deceives the candidate. 
 It fails to tell him, if heciosaes thethreshold of masonry, that 
 he must pay tribute to it for life. The highwayman meets 
 one on the street at night and demands his purse or his life ; 
 be is given the purse; it contains $100, and a lile is saved, 
 The candidate is told the institution is a beneficial one, based 
 on the principles of charity and toleration ;. he enters, sees 
 ■one-quarter of those in more or less constant attendance drift- 
 ing towards fetich ideas, and is then told that it is impossible 
 for him to gain exemption, but that he must dimit or pay tri- 
 bute to the day of his death. The Blue Lodge first deceives 
 him, and then refuses to deal fairly with him. and in the end 
 looses him. In this way, by deceit at the start, then by 
 'threat, then by dimit and suspension, it is losing its initiates 
 nearly as tkst as it makes them, and in Je,rsey City faster. 
 
 lY. , ■ 
 
 * ■ My remarks - have been more widely read, and have ex- 
 cited more cordial sympathy than I anticipated, at so early a. 
 
12: 
 
 tlate. Imriiediatfely after publication -,of. the first article, others 
 took, up the question of the direction in which the fault and 
 the remedy lay; their remarks published in the daily press^ 
 though flattering to me, inclined in discussing the question to 
 deal in arguments, which many brethren distinguished for 
 zeal and fidelity might regard as personal ; I sought to solve 
 the question as one of principle, and in view of the inclination 
 not to examine it in tlie light of principle, my second and 
 third articles went incisively, in plain words, into the mid. 
 die of it. 
 
 The field in which the principle acts is a great one ; it 
 has hitherto lain bare and uncultivated, and has grown full 
 of voluminous data, which require to be tabulated before they 
 can be fully analyzed. The fraternity need a Masonic Almanac, 
 giving the exoteric statistics throughout the country, so that 
 every member may have an easy way to learn its rise and 
 growth, and the effect of every constitution and by-law — and 
 every lodge knows what is not worth its time — and be in 
 condition to "try all things, holding fast only that which 
 is good." 
 
 I submit the following resolutions as fitted to meet the 
 difficulty, and suggest the remedies. Any lodge twenty years 
 of age and upward, especially in our large cities, would find 
 the result of the inquiry directed by the first resolution to be 
 such as would prompt it to the right action in respect to the 
 matters suggested in the second resolution. The latter is not 
 as full and complete as might be in its suggestions ; as far as 
 it goes it has received the sanction of many distinguished 
 masons, more or less intimately acquainted with the subject ^ 
 its operation might have. a much better effect in some lodges 
 than will appear at the first glance, and suggest other means 
 of giving it full effect, not necessary to be stated here. It is- 
 not a rare thing to find a lodge that has in the whole period 
 of its existence enrolled four hundred, and now has but one 
 hundred to one hundred and fifty members ; if appropriate 
 provision was made, and those under dimit and suspension 
 were treated with, many would undoubtedly return to their 
 allegiance with entire unanimity on the part of the lodge. 
 
 Jieaolved, That a. committee of five be appointed. . 1. To 
 make a complete roll of members, including all those deceas- 
 
13 
 
 ed, dimitted, and suspended for non-payment of dues since 
 the instkutioii of the lodge. 
 
 2. To make a tabular statement, giving the number 
 raised, deceased, dimitted, suspended for non-payment of 
 dues, and restored each year since the institution of the lodge. 
 
 3. To make a tabular statement giving the total amount- 
 received from initiations, and the total amount received from 
 dues each year since the institution of the lodge. 
 
 4. In respect to the last two paragraphs the committee 
 is to end each year with an^ including the night of election. 
 
 5. That so far as may be ascertained the committee state 
 the present or last known address and business of each mem- 
 her who has dimitted and not affiliated elsewhere, as well as 
 also the present or last known address and business of each 
 member suspended for non-payment of dues, and not restored, 
 and the total number of each class since the institution of the 
 lodge. 
 
 Hesolved, That the committee also examine and report 
 ■whether, upon the financial statistics and status of the lodge, 
 to be made in pursuance of the iirst above resolution, it be: 
 expedient to establish any By-Laws embodying principles of 
 the kind, or in a line with the following outline of principles; 
 and if they report in favor of one or more-, that they annex 
 to such report a copy of any such proposed By-Law to the 
 form and manner of interpolation of which they give their 
 •endorsement. 
 
 1. That any member free of dues, v/ho deposits $75, be 
 exempt from, all future dues except to the Grand Lodge ; that 
 fifty per cent, of said sum lie invested ; that the principal of 
 said fifty per cent, be kept pei-petually intact, the income 
 therefrom as well as the principal of the other fifty per cent, 
 not to be invested, to be used as the lodge sees fit. 
 
 2. That any member paying dues for twenty years be 
 €:!ceinpt from all future dues, except to the Grand Lodge. 
 
 3; That any member wishing to pay his dues by install- 
 ments, so that his entire dues for twenty years be paid in ten 
 years, have that liberty, if after paying any such installments 
 he fails to continue nntil all his dues be paid, that the amount 
 paid be credited to future dues. 
 
 4. That twenty per cent, of all initiation fees be set aparrt 
 
14 
 
 and kept on investment, the principal and income of wliicii, 
 together with tlie income of the. other fifty per cent, stated, 
 itf paragraph (I) to be first devoted to the payment of dues to 
 the Grand Lodge. 
 
 5. That any member not resident of this State, or per-^ 
 manently residing beyond five miles within tlie State, shall be 
 placed on hfilf dues. 
 
 6. That any member failing to pay dues, if unable, may 
 explain his inability to pay to the Relief Committee, and that 
 no. member making such explanation be suspended for non- 
 payment except St the instance of that committee, 
 
 7. That a dimit be issued on condition that the person 
 holding it shall notify the Secretary of the date at and the 
 lodge with which he affiliates, if he affiliates with any, and. 
 that this condition be stamped on the face of every dimit 
 issued. 
 
 8. That no member be suspended for non-payment of 
 dues on three months' notice, unless such notice be first given 
 after his annual dues to the Grand Lodge have become due 
 and have been paid. 
 
 9. That any person hereafter placed on dimit or suspen-^ 
 sion for non-payment of dxies, charged with procuring the 
 former or submitting to the latter with intent to evade dues, 
 and convicted thereof, shall be suspended for unmasonic con- 
 duct. 
 
 10. That hereafter an applicant for the degrees must bo 
 presented with a copy of the by-laws, informed of the finan- 
 cial obligations they impose, and of his own freewill certify. 
 Lis acceptance and assumption thereof in writing before initi- 
 ation. 
 
 The financial has so close a relation to the moral as to 
 be inseparable from it. The ultimate argument to which my 
 articles tend is, that there is radical and widespread error in 
 regard to the aims and forms of a dimit, and moral obliquity 
 of vision — in regard to the object and methods of "suspension 
 for non-payment of dues," the correction of both being tha 
 work of the loJ;^e3, and to ba left to time, and not to Masonic 
 Dictionaries, who cannot better the definition of these words 
 until the lodges hav(( acquired a higher estimate of their 
 meaning, and have shown it in their conduct. The power of 
 
15 
 
 the billot is withlield in mercy to a profane, but used with 
 indifference or recklessness in ihe case of a member; and 
 this indifference or recklessness is due to the laziness of the 
 lodfre in not establishiTig proper methods, and doubt as to the 
 power of the lodge, born of too religious an idea of the 
 divinity of the edicts of the Grand Lodo-e. 
 
 The ordsr of Freemasonry is a grand one — useful, power- 
 ful, magnificent ; it is not to be injured in any way by any 
 one man or any number of men ; it is a labyrinth of ties, 
 that stretch from one end' tojhe other of the earth ; its danger 
 lies in not keeping its exoteric data, its financial methods in 
 practical shape and on an even pace with the times. In the 
 esoteric ser.se it is impregnai)lc, yet the esoteric and exoteric 
 act and react on each other ; financial methods should be put 
 forward by whieli the power and principles of the institution 
 may be enhanced, brought nearer and tnade dearer to all, 
 and tinancial methods which best accomplish this result can- 
 not but result to its advantage. 
 
 For instance, we are sworn to go to the relief of a brother 
 ij] distress, to hear the secret of liis misfortune and keep it as 
 sacred within our heart as if it had never been uttered by 
 him. Why, then, humiliate him by exposure? Why not 
 let him treat with the Relief Committee, and thence shield and 
 protect him, as we shield and protect his wife and children 
 when he is dead ? Better, if that committee is tiot the pro" 
 per power to conceal what idle curiosity seeks to make known, 
 that the Master have plenary power in the premises. One 
 person is usually enough to collect a claim ; if undefended, 
 the process of law all over the world is routine, and done 
 usually by one person, or a very few, as matter of form. It 
 is only where there is a contest that a judge and jury and 
 lawyers and witnesses are brought into play. It is Free- 
 masonry that permits a large gathering of men, some bejit on 
 mercy, and some on exacting the pound of flesh, to say 
 whether a man who entered by a unanimous ballot shall not 
 be condemned and put aside for failing to pay his dues ; a 
 whole lodge called on to entbrce a penalty ; the whole com- 
 munity sitting as a jury, without the presence of the accused, 
 land c<mdemning him to disgrace and banishment ! The fra- 
 ternity at large does not recognize the absurdity of some of 
 
16 
 
 its methods. The Grand Lodge, indeed, felt it necessary to 
 say, in its last annual proceedings that the " collection of dues 
 is not a landmark." 
 
 Banks, insurance, manufacturing and other business organ- 
 izations, created by legislative act, are required to report to 
 the State annually, a statement of their finances, &c., under 
 penalty of forfeiture of their charter, yet there is nothing of 
 the kind in Freemasonry. 
 
 The Grand Lodge is blind, deaf and dumb in respect to 
 knowledge of the financial status and matters in vogue in 
 
 , its subordinate lodges, as well as with what lodge a dimitted 
 Mason affiliates, or whether he belongs to the higher grades 
 •or is a non-affiliate, or is dead, and in respect to the fate of 
 members suspended for non-payment of dues it is as ignorant 
 as it is possible to be. It is not diflieult to get at these mat- 
 ters and to put the whole fraternity in possession of the in- 
 formation it actually needs. If these matters were examined 
 
 , and put in proper shape it might be seen wnether the efficien- 
 cy of a Master consisted in securing candidates, or in enhanc- 
 iug the treasury, or in keeping the peace, or in rendering the 
 ritual, or in disposition to charity ; subjects upon which it is 
 impossible to form an opinion, unless one have as complete 
 knowledge of the circumstances of the lodge as the Master 
 himself, who from weakness on the part of the lodge in one 
 or another of these points, is frequently forced to prominence 
 in another, altogether utisuited to his taste or ability. In that 
 event there might be harmony at all points, enterprise at all 
 points, and perfection at all points, and the whole lodg0 
 might be able to act efficiently upon the principles it so well 
 teaches. 
 
 Suspension for non-payment of dues, lies at the bottom 
 ■of a principle, which alieady has a hold upon the feeling of 
 the fraternity, and seeks to embody itself in the form of lan- 
 guage. There is a wide spread belief that there is moral er- 
 ror in the present system of dimits and suspensions. The 
 honesty of the convictions of those who hold opposite views 
 of the subject is evident. It is not too much to assume that 
 in the present system, fraud is possible ; the possiblity that 
 fraud may have been committed to astounding proportions in 
 the aggregate, added to the idea that no attempt has been 
 
17 
 
 made to discover it, or checlc it, but that the information is 
 withheld from mistaken views, or indifference, or laziness, 
 permits those who are tempted to do wrong, to do so with 
 impunity. 
 
 A committee composed of Past Grand Masters Trimble,- 
 Piue and Pembroke, reported at the last annual sesfion of the 
 Grand Lodge, " that the neglect to pay or otherwise satisfy 
 the lodge, becomes contempt of its authority, and a serious 
 Masonic offence." 
 
 That is sound doctrine# The same report says, " the 
 collection of dues is not a landmark." The subordinate 
 lodges have no business to interfere with " landmarks." The 
 Grand Lodge is entitled to look beyond its own dues into the 
 finfincial system pursued by each of its subordinate lodges, for 
 mutual protection, and it may call for a complete report from 
 each lodge of the kind set forth under the first resolution above 
 given, and enforce the report annually, and thus put the frater- 
 nity at large in possession of the whole statistics ; but as to any 
 change in the financial system it must begin in the individ- 
 ual lodges, and perhaps no power other than the power of 
 recommendation on the part of the Grand Lodge could induce 
 them to look to uniformity in the movement. 
 
 Existing by-laws in their financial parts are as a rule 
 crude, and incomplete ; they need various limitations of 
 financial liability on the part of members, at the least some- 
 thing in this line to fix^a point where a Mason may elect as 
 to his liability, and having made his election, shall, if able, 
 comply with it under the penalty of being suspended for un- 
 masonic conduct, and if evading it by trick or falsehood, be 
 punished in the same way. All those non-affiliate, and sus- 
 pended for non-payment of dues, are still liable to the extreme 
 penalty, yet to-day there is no way of ascertaining who may 
 have committed fraud to gain exemption by dimit or suspen- 
 sion nor is it settled what the acts are which constitute what 
 those in high station deem " contempt of authority and a se- 
 rious Masonic offense," nor has anything been done by the 
 Grand Body whose authority is held in contempt to discover 
 or relieve the cause; on the contrary the innocent an^ guil'ty ■ 
 are put together in the same class, and suffer the same pen- 
 alty, and even the methods of departure and return, prohibit 
 incjuiry, 
 
18 
 
 Y. 
 
 I stated in the early part of my remarks that Grand Mas- 
 ters, in their annual address, have invariably and intention- 
 ally failed to recognize the growth of the higher bodies, as a 
 cause for thin attendance in the Blue Lodges. 
 
 I should not return to this again, except that a question 
 put later in my remarks, yet remains unanswered; that the 
 direction in which my remarks lay, is to most, one with M-hich 
 they are not familiar ; to many, one in which they decline 
 to look unless the necessity is unquestionable ; to some, one 
 from which they will turn in contempt unless checked by 
 th6ir inability to escape censure ; and because there is almost 
 universal error and misapprehension among Masons every- 
 where in this State, in respect to it. Question : " Ai-e the 
 200,000 Masons out of the Blue Lodge in this country, on 
 suspension for non-payment of dues, in good standing ? If 
 not, who says so ? Let the fraternity answer ; it is unable to 
 answer, for the question is too broad — unless it answers by 
 way of explanation, and what is the explanation ? as follows : 
 
 Some Grand Lodges, including our own, say they are not 
 in good standing ? The reason is the rude and crude financial 
 system in vogue in our Blue Lodges. Other Grand Lodges 
 including that of New^ York, have fled from the financial 
 policy yet pursued in this State, and perhaps originally com- 
 mon in all the Blue Lodges in this country, because the Blue 
 Lodges in these States have fled from it, in many States 
 going so far to the contrary — of suspending one for failing 
 to pay his dues, as to give every one the right to suspend his 
 dues of his own motion. Why this shift ? Because the law 
 in the York Eite is that suspension for non-payment of dues 
 in one's Blue Lodge, does not afl'ect his standing in any of the 
 bodies of that Eite from the Eoyal Arch to the Grand Encamp- 
 ment, yet, notwithstanding the shift, non-affiliates incrcase- 
 and increase until they are numbered by the hundred thou- 
 sand, "without any one being able to show that those at and 
 above the Eoyal Arch in the York Eite take advantage of this 
 e?;traordinary privilege, or pay their dues less faitijfully in 
 the Blue Lodge ; reason, they run to cover, dimits cover a 
 multitude of sins. 
 
 JTow let us pass over a hundred years in a sentence, in order 
 to get at the position of the Scottish Eite in this matter, Mo§{ 
 
1$ 
 
 Masons In this country were, at the start, taught that the first 
 three degrees were all there was in the order ; as wealth 
 and population increased, the Royal Arch and then the Tem- 
 plars appeared, the whole line being known as the York 
 Rite ; all the while the Scottish Kite was quietly lodged, held 
 in order, and kept in the back-ground until the close of the 
 war of ths Rabsllion, whsn the country began, in fact, to be 
 recognized abroad as a first-class power, and the fraternity 
 here was in need of international relations, by means of which 
 an American Mason might enter a lodge in Europe and the 
 Orient, and wjjerever the English tongue was not spoken, 
 in which the poor and the rich, the subject and the prince, 
 the Christian and the Mohammedan must meet upon the level 
 of equality ; then it was its vast machinery was set going, and 
 it rose instantaneously to power. 
 
 This was in ]867. In 1877, as already stated, the Su- 
 preme Council forbid Lodges of Perfection advancing a Master 
 Mason suspended in his Blue Lodge for non-payment of dues, 
 "in the State of his residence," the meaning of which 
 is, that in New Jersey, suspension for non-payment of dues in 
 the Blue Lodge, afEects one's standing in the Scottish Kite, 
 while, in New York, it does not, and if this is not the con- 
 struction, then the Supreme Council settles it. This was fol- 
 lowed up the next year by a proposition forbidding its sub- 
 ordinate bodies to admit a non-atfiliate as a visitor. The Scot- 
 tish Rite has, in respect to dimit and suspension, been more 
 cautious, courteous, and conscientious toward the York Rite, 
 than the latter has been to itself. The noblest acts have 
 been done by both rites, each one to the other, and yet the 
 idea that these rites stand by each other from top to bottom, 
 one on each side of the Blue Lodge, and both sworn to guard 
 it against danger, is cue that yet scarcely penetrates the Blue 
 Lodge at large — in respect to delinquent members in the Blue 
 Lodge, these rites are free from blame ; each rite incites the 
 other by example. The trouble lies in the Blue Lodge. It 
 may be asked, if the members of the higher grades in these 
 rites are as a rule prompt to pay dues in the Blue Lodge, why 
 do both rites take this position against suspension for non- 
 payment of dues in the Blue Lodge? Because the Blue 
 Lodge system is open to i'raud, not only fails to separate the 
 innocent from the guilty, but punishes and Mghteus the in- 
 
20 
 
 noccnfe, and lets, the guilty go, and because the Bine Lodge 
 fails to see that, the prevailing sentiment is that no lodge in 
 the country would suspend anj Mason for non-payment of 
 dues if unable to pa,y, and that where ability to pay exists it 
 should be enforced by charges, trial, conviction, and sentence 
 of extreme punishment, from which retreat to a dimit should 
 be cut off, and no dimit be issued except on inquiry and for 
 cause. 
 
 Let us go back where we started, to thin attendance and 
 too many lodges. Will any person, profane or initiate, please 
 tell us how to put an end to the making of lodges ? The in- 
 terior life insurance companies operating witnin the frater- 
 nity are affected by it. It need scarcely be said that these 
 were of Hebrew origin, and that lately two life insurance or- 
 ganizations, both operating outside the fraternity, have 
 caught the royal secret to such an extent that they may be 
 taken for quasi Masonic bodies, which they do not pretend 
 to be, to wit. : The Knights of Honor and the Royal 
 Arcanum, the first with a membership of 40,000 ; the second 
 with 4,000; each believing the other wrong in its central 
 principle), yet playing into each other's hands in such a way, 
 that whatever principle be proved to be the right one, shall 
 in the end be saved. If we ever find a way to put an end to 
 the making of lodges where they ought not to be made, we 
 must look to see how they are made. They are made as fol- 
 lows in nearly all our large cities : Some one wants to be 
 presiding officer, and is kept back or defeated ; he then getH 
 to be over-zealous, takes more than the usual role, until the 
 brethren believe he is not within the German Maxim, that 
 " petty men cannot forgive defeat," after which he begins to 
 find fault, moves to amend the by-laws, talks of obedience to 
 a decision of the Grand Master, always at his tongue's end ; 
 geeks to reduce tlie initiation fee and the annual dues; gets a 
 Coterin around him, creates ill-feeling among the workmen, 
 and makes it so utterly unpleasant, though not an open word 
 be spoken, that those who do not like it begin to get out, 
 suspension and dimits go on, scarcely felt for want of fre- 
 quency, until within a few years it begins to be talked of 
 ,that a number of those who really liked a little unpleasantr 
 ness have also gone out, and that one or more, on each side 
 belouging to the higher grades, and amply able to pay, refuse 
 
21 
 
 to pay their dues. In this way even strong and vigorous 
 lodges are brought to a state of universal discontent, and meet 
 some night only to leai-n that six or a dozen of those dimitted 
 Masons, who followed the lead of the one held back, or beat- 
 en, and afterwards bent sometimes on the destruction of the 
 whole fraternity, and devoting a lifetime to it, within the 
 order are standing godfathers to a new lodge, and the little 
 coterie that wrung the vitals out of the former lodge seek 
 restoration and thence take dimits and affiliate with the late- 
 ly born lodge, to which the l^der of the scheme finally comes 
 like a conqueror and is crowned. Thus a lodge is born in 
 spite and all uncharitableness, and actually grows, as it grows 
 in numbers, in Masonic prejudice, and an exalted idea that it 
 is the only lodge in the State that does justice and stan- 
 dard work. If Bismarck, or Beacon sfield, or Grant had been 
 Grand Master, and failed to say it, a proposition to give him 
 a reception and banquet would be laid on the table, as with 
 one of these men happened in the city of Cork, though the 
 communities in which these things happen are the most edu- 
 cated people in the world. 
 
 We think nothing about a thousand dimits, and another 
 thousand suspensions, followed by restorations, and then 
 dimits moving in this line here in twenty years. In fact 
 most of us never thought of the thing in this light, and when 
 we begin to think and inquire about it, it in a sort of way 
 comes to us that this metiiod of tearing things down does not 
 meet with success in a Commandery or a Lodge of Perfection, 
 though pursued for years, and that the disappointed man who 
 finally moves to reduce dues and initiations under circum- 
 stances equivalent to a motion to surrender the charter, meets 
 witli an adversary of which he has not dreamed. 
 
 The gifted and accomplished Masonic Editor of the New 
 ■ York Dittpatch, John W. Simons, 33'=', Past Grand Master of 
 the Grand Lodge of New York, after many years devoted to 
 ^i) examination of these evils, acknowledg3s that there are 
 twice too many lodges, and weighing justly the number, influ- 
 ence, character and resolution of these who mean reforma- 
 tion, says in noble language to the Blue Lodges that if the 
 number was voluntarily I'educed one half, the fraternity 
 would be in every sense better ofif, and that " tliere is a rem- 
 edy easily applied, which would in a short time give us a 
 
22 
 
 larger measure of real, solid prosperity, than this generation 
 has thought of, and, its adoption would bring home to ns a 
 lesson we all sadly need, but to which, though ever so often 
 repeated, we have not been willing to listen, ***** 
 We have simply been carrying too much sail, and those in 
 command should, like prudent mariners, take in a part before 
 it is blown from the bolt ropes." It is time the wresting of 
 the worst material from old lodges, and inserting it in the 
 foundation of new ones ended; a sound Masonic sentiment 
 on dimit, suspension, restoration and aiEliation is a graceful 
 and legal method of I'eminding each other that one-half, yea, 
 two-thirds, yea, three-fourths of our lodges came by them to 
 an easy birth, and surely they maj- by them die, without 
 pain. 
 
 Brethren : what I have said has, in many places, caused 
 unnecessary agitation. Unfriendly criticism may miss its 
 aim, and it is well to stop at the right place. Let us under- 
 stand each other ; all of us act and speak most of the time 
 without reference to the condition of non-afflliates. " Once 
 a Mason, always a Mason," is a rule to which there may be 
 an exception ; the exception proves the rule, exoepdo probat 
 regulum. It is not to be denied that a great part of the non- 
 affiliates in this country have been kept in ignorance of the 
 financial and other changes that have been made in the order 
 since they took their dimits. Ask anyone of them who. has 
 held a dimit twenty to forty years, why~Rlf''dimrtted, and 
 every other one who can remember the cause and is bold 
 enough to assert it, will answer that he was taught that 
 there was nothing in Freemasonry except the first three degiees 
 and that he found out that the Grand Lodge was ruled by 
 cliques of the new tangled York and Scottish Kites, and 
 that he regarded neither of them as legitimate. Many Mas- 
 ters formerly so taught, and believed what they taught, and 
 it seems scarcely necessary at this day to repeat it, for the. 
 fraternity is well informed that the words York and Scottish 
 are mere historical distinctions, which were never heard of 
 until the Grand Lodge was established in the beginning of 
 the last century, though the Templars were powerful centu- 
 ries before the Grand Lodge was heard of, and the Eites held 
 jurisdiction over matters as old as the Pyramids. 
 
23 
 
 In view of the history of the institution for the last fifty 
 years, and of its financial policy, the statement ought not to 
 surprise any one, that in this country the non-affiliates of the 
 Blue Lodge, together with those of the higher grades, would 
 be in the majority if Blue Lodge By-Laws in respect to sus- 
 pension for non-payment of dues were enforced. A majori- 
 ty or the present grand officers of our Grand Lodge are mem- 
 bers of both Rites, and, as a rule, the grand officers of that 
 body reach these stations by zeal and fidelity, not only in the 
 Bine Lodge, but in tlie higher grades. In all our large cities 
 the Blue Lodges, as a rule, to which there are many, very 
 many splendid exceptions, are financial skeletons. The solid 
 men of Massachusetts and of the country are moving in the 
 York and Scottish Rites, determined that their generons im- 
 pulses toward the Blue Lodge shall no longer be restrained 
 by the Blue Lodge itself, and the day of victory approaches 
 gradually, peacefully, and quietly. 
 
 In the York Rite there are four Grand Bodies in each 
 State, as shown in diagram. In the Scottish Rite there is 
 but one body of the kind, called a Council of Deliberation, 
 in which the representatives of Lodges of Perfection, Council 
 of Princes, Chapter of the Rose and Cross and Consistory, 
 meet annually, and whose edicts are law, subject to revision 
 and reversal by the Supreme Conncil. In the Scottish Rite 
 each degree is named and numbered. In the York Rite each 
 degree is named, but not usually nmnhered. ISTo one, a 
 member of the York Rite, can enter the Scottish Rite except 
 by initiation, and no one, a member of the Scottish Rite, can 
 enter the York Rite, except by initiation. Suspension for 
 unmasonic conduct, or expulsion, in the Blue Lodge, severs 
 one's relations in loth Rites as effecUmlly as if one was 
 actually tried and expelled from the higher grades. 
 
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Cornell University Library 
 HS397.P46 R3 
 
 Remarks ... on the status o' membership 
 
 3 1924 030 280 105 
 
 olin,anx 
 
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