171 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
171 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.II July, 1924 No.7
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FOURTH OF JULY
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by: Unknown
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As Freemasons, it is no perfunctory spirit that we remember the 148th (
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217th in 1993) anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of American
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Independence, July 4th, 1776. It is a part of the history of our country
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and the history of our Craft, in this country; and it is our belief that a
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people who forget, or treat lightly, a great past, cannot have a great
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future. If they are indifferent to, or take as a matter of course, what
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cost so much in suffering and sacrifice, they are not worthy of the
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treasure they posses.
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Happily, the old disputes which led up to the American Revolution, and the
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legacy of enmity which it left, are now faded and forgotten, and we think
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with kindness and respect of the land against which our forefathers fought.
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Since that far-off time America and Britain have joined hands in a vast
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enterprise, and their sons have fought side by side in a World War for the
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liberation of mankind and the redemption of civilization. But the American
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Revolution itself still stands, not only as the birth-hour of our Republic,
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but as the beginning of a new and great era in the history of humanity, the
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meaning and measure of which we do not yet see or understand.
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No story outside of fairyland is more romantic than the history of the
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growth and development of our Republic. He is a strange man, and no
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Patriot at all, who can read the record and not feel his heart beat faster,
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stirred by a holy memory and an honorable pride. From thirteen thinly
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settled states, united in the struggle for freedom and in loyalty to a
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newly written Constitution, our Nation has grown to be one of the greatest,
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strongest, more far-reaching nations on earth; a human marvel and a social
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wonder. Never has there been such a flowing together of peoples, such a
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blending of bloods, as in America; it is a fraternal achievement in which
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many races and many faces mingled to build a freer and gentler Fatherland
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of Mankind.
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Among the creative forces by which America has been made so great, none has
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been more benign than the influences of Freemasonry. The real history of
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Masonry in America belongs of right to the genius of poetry, and its story
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is an epic. Silent, ever-present, always active, by its constructive
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genius our Fraternity built itself into the very foundations of the
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Republic. When our fathers affirmed that "Governments derive their just
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powers from the consent of the governed," Masonry was present assenting to
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one of its own principles. What patriotic memories cluster about old Green
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Dragon Tavern in Boston! Webster called it "the headquarters of the
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Revolution," and there was also the headquarters of Freemasonry, where the
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Boston Tea Party was planned.
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As in Massachusetts, as throughout the Colonies, Masonry was everywhere
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active, indirectly as an Order, but directly through its members, in behalf
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of a nation "Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all
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men are created equal;" which is one of its basic truths. It was not an
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accident that so many Masons signed the Declaration of Independence, or
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that Washington and most of his Generals were members of the Craft. Nor
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was it by mere chance that our first President was a Mason, sworn into
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office on a Bible taken from a Masonic Altar, by the Grand Master of New
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York. Such facts are symbols of deeper facts, showing the place and power
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of Masonry in the making of a nation.
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Along the Atlantic Coast, among the Great Lakes, in the Wilderness of the
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Middle West, in the far South and the far West, everywhere, in centers of
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populations and in little Upper Rooms on the Frontier; the Lodge stood
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alongside the Home, the School and the Church. Who can measure the
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influence, much less estimate the worth, of thousands of Masonic Altars in
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this land where, all down our history, men have met in the name of God and
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the moral law, seeking to create that influence and sentiment which gives
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law its authority and touches with intellectual and spiritual refinement
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the life of society! Only a pen endowed with more than earthly skill could
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trace such an influence and tell such a story.
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As Freemasons we believe that the things that made our Republic great in
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the past - made it not only possible, but powerful - are the things that
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will make it still greater in the future. A great English editor recently
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wrote an article asking the question, what has made America great? Not its
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rich resources, he said, because other lands - Russia, for example - are
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equally rich. Nor is it intelligence and enterprise of our people, because
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others are also intelligent. No, what has made America great, he said, is
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its form of government. If ever, of any men, it can be said that our
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fathers were divinely taught and divinely led when they instituted our form
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of government, in which individual initiative is united with social
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responsibility - liberty under law, liberty founded in right and reason,
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modified by private duty, public obligation, and a sense of the common
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good.
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For that reason we need today, all of us, a new baptism of the spirit of
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citizenship, of public-mindedness, of devotion to the state for what we can
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put into it and not for what we can get out of it. So, and only so, can we
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make our form of government effective for its high ends, and vindicate the
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wisdom of our fathers. Today hardly half of our people who are entitled to
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vote ever do so on any issue. Even the excitement of a Presidential
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campaign, such as that in which we are now engaged (July 1924), does not
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bestir them from their lethargy. With such negligence and indifference how
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can the words of Lincoln be fulfilled when he declared this to be a
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"Government of the people, by the people, for the people?" The facts show
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that it is not the foreign element who fail to vote, but those who are of
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American ancestry and training.
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Here is where Masonry can render a real service, as well as in helping to
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create a more vivid sense of the sanctity of law. The increase of
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lawlessness in America in the last twenty-five years has been appalling.
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Even before the Great War some kinds of crime had increased fifteen
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hundred percent. For anyone to think lightly of our constitution, or any
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part of it, is to strike a blow at the basis of ordered civic life. To
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obey only such laws as suit our fancy or interest our appetite, is to lead
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the way to anarchy. Others, by the same principle, may disregard other
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laws - even those protecting life and the ownership of property - and the
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result will be chaos. Lincoln was right when he said that obedience to law
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must be the political religion of our Republic.
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The growth of racial rancor among us bodes no good for us or for our
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children. If left unchecked. it will poison private fellowship and pollute
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germs of ills sure to breed all sorts of social diseases. As has been
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said, no one race made America; it is a fraternal adventure of many races,
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each adding something of precious worth to the total achievement. Seven
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nationalities were represented on the Mayflower alone. By the facts of its
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history, no less than by the spirit of its laws, America must know nothing
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of the Saxon race, nothing of the Teutonic race, nothing of the slavic
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race. It must know only the Human race, of whose future and fulfillment it
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is the last great hope and promise, if it is true to its genius of liberty,
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toleration and fraternity.
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There is room for everything in America except hatred. If we have been
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careless and sentimental in the past about allowing so many people of
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different races to enter our country, we must correct the error. But those
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who are already here are entitled to our regard, and only love, good will
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and the spirit of fraternity can Americanize men and women, much less
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little children. Americanization is not a formula - it is a friendship.
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If we allow people of many races to knock at our doors, we do not want them
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to "knock" our institutions after we open the doors and admit them. Nor
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must we "knock" them. People whom we admit through the gates of America
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must not be foreigners, but friends. If they are often clannish, it is
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because we are indifferent. What we want for all is not simply freedom and
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opportunity, but fraternity - mutual respect and good will.
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Here Masonry, by its very genius and purpose, can render a real service to
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the Republic, and at the same time strengthen its foundations. An instance
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in point is the Roosevelt Lodge in Rhode Island. almost every charter
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member of which was a man of a different race. The purpose of the Lodge
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was to bring men of many races together at the Altar of Masonry, and it was
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a happy thought to name the lodge for the man who, more than any great
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American of recent times, exemplified in his spirit and temper the wider
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fraternity of races. He was the incarnation of fraternalism, and by that
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token, a truly great Mason whose soul goes marching on, leading us out of
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bitterness toward brotherhood.
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Since the Great War there has been an unhappy revival of religious
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intolerance in America. In nothing was the founding of our Republic more
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significant than in the new relation which it established between Church
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and State. Our fathers separated the two forever, but they gave equal
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liberty and honor to all elevating and benign religions. Such is also the
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spirit and teaching of Freemasonry, a great and simple principle which our
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Craft had learned and practiced before the name "United States" had ever
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been spoken. Toleration is not enough; we need insight, appreciation and
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understanding if we are to have many races without rancor, and many faiths
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without fanaticism. Our religion must be a part of our patriotism, and our
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patriotism must be religious in its depth, warmth and power. America is
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our Holy Land - sacred to our thoughts and dear to our hearts - and we dare
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not let it be darkened by lawlessness, defiled by racial rancor or
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disfigured by religious intolerance. Narrowness of thought and littleness
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of spirit are out of place in the land of the large and liberal air where
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the future of humanity lies.
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So, once more, in memory of our national birthday, all Freemasons ask all
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Americans of every race, creed and condition to renew their vows of love,
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honor and loyalty to our Constitution, our President and our flag, which is
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the immortal symbol of all that is sacred in our life, law and history.
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Nay more, we ask all to join hands and hearts in behalf of a greater
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America tomorrow, worthy of the mighty America of the past to which, like
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the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, "We Mutually Pledge to
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Each Other our Lives, Fortunes and Sacred Honor.
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