206 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
206 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN- Vol.I April. 1923 No.4
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"PUBLIC SCHOOLS"
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by: Unknown
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FELLOW STOCKHOLDERS:
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We are going to discuss, for a few moments, the greatest business
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enterprise in which you and I are jointly engaged. It is practically a new
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business, having been in existence, in a nation-wide way, only about
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seventy-five years. The world knew nothing about this business a hundred
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years ago, and some of our colonial fathers scoffed at it as something
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which, if it could be attained, was not worth the having. As a business,
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let us analyze it for ourselves, carefully.
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A careful analysis is justified. For this business is one which has
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greater capital invested than any other enterprise in America. Tremendous
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amounts of real estate are owned. Great buildings house the shops. There
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are officers in every city and town in the country. An army of directors
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and workers is employed. Upon this business is spent the majority of our
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peace-time taxes. Into its factories goes the most precious material that
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our nation yields. Out of it comes a product, the value of which far
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exceeds our production of foodstuffs and manufactures combined.
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This business, Fellow Stockholders, is the American Public School System.
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The product of this "factory" is the education of our children - your boys
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and girls, and mine. Upon this product depends the future of America. We,
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as a people, invest more money in it than in anything else in which we are
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interested. The system is a corporation - and you and I own and operate
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it. When we consider that the high school enrollment jumped from 915,000
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to 1,645,000 in eight years, and that only a little more than seventy-five
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years ago there were no high schools in this entire world, we begin to
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understand how gigantic an enterprise it is, and how rapidly it is growing.
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It is from these points of view that we want to discuss the public school
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system. Your child goes through the public school - how does he come out?
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You pay more actual dollars and cents for the maintenance and upbuilding of
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the public school than you do for any other peace work that you are
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interested in as a taxpayer - what dividends do you get back? Your child
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is graduated from your high school - and what sort of a job does he get?
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More important still, what kind of a job does he hunt for?
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We have the right of any stockholder to see what we are getting for our
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money. We are going to give credit for every bit of constructive work that
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enters into the product. We are going to charge every item which properly
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belongs on the debit side of the ledger. We are not going to admit that
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our efforts have been vain, these seventy-five years. We are not going to
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indict the management, except as we shall find ourselves wanting.
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Let us begin our survey.
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The community in which we live has invested thousands, hundreds of
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thousands, perhaps millions of dollars, in our "plant." Yet that plant is
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idle more than three-fourths of the time. We admit that it should be idle
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a part of the time - perhaps a little more than half. But when the plant
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operates on a thirty hour a week schedule for only thirty-six weeks, is it
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just to say - as stockholders - that the idle time is out of proportion to
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the working hours?
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We are not saying that the children and their teachers should put in eight
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hours a day, twelve months in the year. We are talking about our "plant" -
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the buildings. Are we using them efficiently? Someone may say that they
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are specially constructed, that they are not adaptable to the production of
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other things. Are we so sure? Could they not be so adapted?
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Then let us consider the managers, superintendents, and foreman. They are
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the faculty. Assuming that they are proficient, how about the way we
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handle them? Would you permit half or more of your foreman and responsible
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officers to shift from one plant to the another every year? Would you
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expect them to be satisfied and happy in an environment where they were
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unable to become acquainted with their neighbors until the year was up, or
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practically so? Would you care to have a business in which all your
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skilled operatives were changing every three years? Yet this is what
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happens to your teachers. A large percentage of them shift from place to
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place at the end of the school year; they know little of the community in
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which they teach until the school year is ended. Does this kind of
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organization develop proficiency?
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The recent War brought out the woeful lack of even the most elementary
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education in many young men of draft age, The percentage of illiteracy was
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found to be disgracefully high. Our government had to spend billions in
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training young men to understand and obey orders. We paid an immense price
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to give elementary education to these adults. Is it sound business sense
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to allow the next generation to come out of the schools as ignorant as
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these adult?
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As good as our public school system is, we find that there is a tremendous
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economic waste in its administration. Viewed from a business standpoint,
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can we afford to let this go on? The Public School system ought in any
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balanced scheme of things to link up very definitely, not only with
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"Higher Education," but with the home, business, and community life.
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Failing in this, there is an economic waste. The percentage of business
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and professional failures is an index of our school system. The percentage
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of failures is too high.
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No self-respecting citizen, no stockholder in this great corporation of
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ours, needs to be told that the ideals of educated men and women must more
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and more be made the ideals of all our people. This is what we ought to
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mean when we speak of "Americanism." No thinking man or woman owning a
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share in this "Company" can fail to realize that the cost of education is a
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productive expenditure of money, that it will pay enormous dividends, and
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that in no sense of the word is it a charity!
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It needs no argument to prove that the Public School is "Not" a place where
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political, religious, or educational "Axes" are to be ground! There should
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be no argument to prove that every one of us must understand and appreciate
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the value of the public service rendered by teachers. They should know us,
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and mix with us, and acquire a practical knowledge of the problems of life
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which we face, and which our children must face. And it is infinitely more
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important that we know the teachers into whose care we entrust our
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children. It is worthwhile, from a dollar and cents standpoint, for us to
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cultivate them, entertain them in our homes and make them feel that they
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are being relied upon, and that they can rely upon us!
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We have spoken of "Americanism." What does it mean? What should it mean
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to our children? From this standpoint what are the real needs of the
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Public School?
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"Americanism" means Equality of Opportunity," We live in no feudal age.
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There are no Barons or Lords of the Manor who hold us as chattels. Each
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man and woman is a human soul, entitled to a fair chance. Inevitably we
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are bound to each other by the ties of brotherhood, and the future of our
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America depends upon the growing of every boy and girl into a healthy,
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happy, competent manhood and womanhood, able to cope with the conditions
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that a citizen must face. Our Public School system should fit children to
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take advantage of their opportunities, and so make of themselves all that
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ambition and thrift and character may hope to attain.
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Universal education, more than anything else, must be the goal of our
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republic. Upon this rest the foundations of government, for only through
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intelligent citizens can our government continue in the years to come.
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The ban of factory production is returned goods - goods which have been
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improperly manufactured and are sent back to be worked over. Do we realize
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that there can be returned goods in our schools? Have we ever stopped to
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think that it costs as much to put a child through the same grade twice as
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it does to put two children through once? Everything which helps the child
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to learn quickly is real economy. Only if a child is healthy will he do
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the required work. Otherwise he will hold back his classmates as well as
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himself. Health becomes the greatest possible economy and if there were no
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other grounds for asking that supervision of health be exercised over all
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children, this would be enough.
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Our Public Schools can succeed only in proportion to the cooperation which
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they receive from the community. We have spoken of effective organization.
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If this is demanded by the community, we shall get the worth of our money.
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If a community demands teachers who believe in public education at State
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expense, the demand will be supplied. If the people of a community are
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determined that American ideals shall be instilled into the minds of their
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children, rather that the vaporing of foreign agitators, the schools in
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that community will have truly American teachers.
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In return for all this, the community must do its part. We must give the
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teacher a place among us. He or she must feel at home with us because they
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come into our homes. It is necessary for the teacher to know the home
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background of the child if intelligent direction is to be given. We cannot
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expect wholehearted work without some measure of appreciation.
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How long since you have attended any school activities? The enterprises
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which the teacher promotes in order to show the child how to work with
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other children, fit him for the part he is going to play in mature
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activity, and are as important as the work of the class room. The success
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of these enterprises depends upon your support, not only from the
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standpoint of the money which is spent, but because the child will have
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faith in this instruction and will believe in its importance if we, as
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parents, show him that we also believe. These enterprises are the links in
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the chain which the teacher offers as a tie between the school and the
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community. The community must not lose hold of its end of the chain.
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As individuals we have three ways in which we can become a constructive
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force for the betterment of the public Schools.
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We can do it as voters, supporting measures which benefit the Public
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Schools, and voting against the measures which are opposed to their
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welfare.
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We can do it by making our lives touch the lives of those directly
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connected with the schools. This does not mean working through a committee
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or an association. It means finding out for ourselves what the schools are
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doing. It means becoming acquainted with, and learning to know, the
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aspirations and the abilities of the teachers who guide the destinies of
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our children during school hours.
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Finally, we can give our support as parents. The child is a healthy animal
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as a rule, and has very little natural desire for an education. We must
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show him that the way to success in the world lies down the long road of
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education. We must make this road reasonably attractive. We must show him
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the education is his greatest asset.
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The Public School which brings together the children of the rich and the
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poor alike is the one great agency which makes for a responsible
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citizenship. Our children must know that the right to go to a Public
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School has been fought for. They must know what it costs in terms of money
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and sacrifice. We must realize that on the organization and influence of
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our Public School system depends the perpetuity of our Republic.
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Copyright, 1923, by The Masonic Service Association of the United States of
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America. The contents of this Bulletin must nor be reproduced, in whole or
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in part without permission. Published monthly by The Masonic Service
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Association of the United States under the auspices of its member Grand
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Jurisdictions.
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