212 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
212 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.VIII May, 1930 No.5
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THE CANDIDATE
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by: Unknown
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Freemasonry first asks questions of the candidate for initiation,
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then questions about him.
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A lodge must be satisfied as to five important matters; a
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petitioner’s motive for applying for the degrees; his physical being;
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his mental equipment; his moral character and his political status,
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using the word in its non-partisan sense.
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It is highly important that Freemasons understand that a man’s
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motives for petitioning a lodge are proper, otherwise we cannot guard
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our West Gate from invasion by those who will not, because they
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cannot, become good Master Masons.
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A man must ask for “Light, of his own free will and accord.” Not
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only must he so declare in his petition, but nine times during his
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initiation he must repeat the statement. Here grow the roots of that
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unwritten but universally understood prohibition - no Mason must ask
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his friend to join the Order.
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It is easy to persuade a friend to “join something.”
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We enjoy our country club - we would enjoy it more if our friend was
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a member. We put an application before him and persuade him to sign
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it; quite right and proper. We belong, perhaps, to a debating club
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or an amateur theatrical society, or a Board of Trade or a luncheon
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club. Enjoying these activities, we desire our friend also to have
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these pleasure so we ask him to become one of our circle.
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An entirely proper procedure in such organizations but it is a wholly
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improper course in Masonry. Unless a man petitions the Fraternity
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impelled by something within himself, he must state an untruth nine
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times in his initiation. Unless he is first prepared “in his heart”
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and not in his mind, he can never grasp the simple but sublime
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essentials of brotherhood. To ask our friend to petition our lodge,
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then, is to do him not a favor but an injury.
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In most Jurisdictions a petitioner is required seriously to declare
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upon his honor, not only that he comes of his own free will and
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accord, but uninfluenced by any hope of financial gain. There are
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men who want to become Freemasons because they believe that the wider
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acquaintance and the friends made in the lodge will be “good for
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business.” So do men join the church or a bible class because they
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believe they can sell their goods to their fellow members. But the
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man who desires to become a member of a church that he may sell it a
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new carpet will hardly be an asset to the house of God; he who would
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become a Freemason in order to get the trade of his fellow lodge
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members will hardly be in a frame of mind either sincerely to promise
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brotherhood or faithfully to live up to its obligations. Hence
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Freemasonry’s need to obtain the most solemn declaration possible of
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the secret intentions, the real motives, the hidden desires of those
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who would join our Mystic Circle.
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The “Doctrine of the Perfect Youth” is perennially a matter for
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discussion in Grand Lodges. The origin of the requirement that a man
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be perfect in all his limbs and parts goes back to the days before
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written history of the Craft. Mackey states that the first written
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law on the subject is found in the fifth article of the Old York or
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Gothic Constitutions adopted at York in A.D. 926:
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“A Candidate must be without blemish and have full and proper use of
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his limbs; for a maimed man can do the Craft no good.”
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This requirement has been repeated, and again repeated at various
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times in many different forms; in the “Ancient Charges at Making”
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(1686) and in the “Constitutions of 1722-23” which put into print the
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customs and enactments of the Mother Grand Lodge in 1717.
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The same Masonic authority makes the 18th Landmark read:
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“Certain qualifications of a candidate for initiation are derived
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from a Landmark of the Order. These qualifications are; that he
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shall be a man - shall be unmutilated - free born and of mature age.
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That is to say, a woman, a cripple or a slave, or one born in
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slavery, is disqualified for initiation into the rites of Masonry.”
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Just how strictly this law should be interpreted is a moot question,
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and different Jurisdictions rule in different ways upon it. In no
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Jurisdiction, for instance, is a man considered to be ineligible
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because he wears glasses, or has a gold tooth! In most Jurisdictions
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he must be “perfect” with two arms, two legs, to hands and two feet.
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In some Jurisdictions, if he can conform to the requirements of the
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degrees, he may lack one or more fingers not vital to the tokens; in
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other he may not.
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The foundation of the doctrine was an operative requirement;
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obviously a maimed man could not do as “good work, true work, square
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work” as the able-bodied man. The requirement has been carried over
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in Speculative Masonry. Its greatest importance today is less in the
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need for physical strength and mobility than in undoubted fact that
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if we materially alter this Ancient Landmark, these old “usages and
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customs,” then we can alter others; admit women, elect by a majority
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vote, dispense with the Tiler and hold our meetings in the public
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square! Physical qualifications have a further importance of a
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practical nature; other things being equal, the maimed man and the
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cripple are more apt to become charges upon the lodge than the strong
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and whole. Finally, the weak and feeble of body cannot offer to
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their brethren that same assistance in danger which the able-bodied
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may give.
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Inspired by patriotism some Jurisdictions have relaxed the severity
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of their physical requirements in favor of soldiers who have suffered
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in behalf of their country. Into the argument pro and con as to the
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expedience of such relaxations this Bulletin can not go. Suffice it
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here that the lodge to which an applicant applies should be
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meticulously careful to see that the candidate conforms literally to
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the requirements as laid down by the Grand Lodge.
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It is hardly necessary to say that the petition of a woman cannot be
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entertained under any circumstances whatsoever, nor need the reasons
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for it to be discussed here.
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The mental qualifications required of a candidate are dictated more
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by the desires of the individual lodges than by any stated law. Many
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Jurisdictions have ruled that a man who cannot read is not an
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eligible petitioner, for the good and sufficient reason that he who
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cannot read cannot search the Great Light, nor discover for himself
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the by-laws of his lodge, the constitution of the Grand Lodge, or the
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Old Charges and ancient Constitutions.
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The ability to read and write, however, important though it is, does
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not make a man educated! Nothing is said in our Ritual about the
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need of an education prior to becoming a Mason, but by implication a
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man is supposed to have sufficient educational background to be able
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to study the seven liberal arts and sciences. “Sufficient education”
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is a very broad phrase and may include all sorts of men, of all sorts
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of education, as, indeed, it does. A man may not know the
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multiplication table, murder the King’s English, and believe geometry
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is something to eat; and yet be a hard-working, true-hearted, single-
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minded brother to his brethren. But it will hardly be doubted that
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if all Freemasons were of such limited educational equipment the
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Order would perish from the earth from the lack of appreciation of
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what it is, where it came from, and whither is it going!
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First the friend who presents the petition; next the committee
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appointed to investigate; and finally the lodge must be the judge of
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what constitutes “sufficient mental equipment” to enable a man to
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become a good member of the lodge.
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A few ritualistic lions are in the path. He who is silly, is
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childish, in his dotage, who is insane, is known to be a fool - may
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not legally receive the degrees. It is to be noted that “dotage” is
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not a matter of years but of the effect of years. A man of four
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score, in full possession of his mental faculties is not in his
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dotage. Premature senility may attack a man in his fifties; he may
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truly be in his “dotage.” Similarly, a “fool” does not mean,
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Masonically, a man without what we consider good judgment. “Jones
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was a fool to go into that stock” - “He is foolish to try to build
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that house” - What a fool he is to sell his store now” - do not
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really express belief that the man is a “fool” in the Masonic sense,
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merely that in these particular cases he acts as we think a fool
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would act.
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Masonically, a man is a “fool” who suffers from arrested mental
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development. He is not mad, neither is he in his dotage, but he
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lacks the ordinary mental equipment and judgment ability of the rest
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of humanity. Such a one, of course, is ineligible to receive the
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degrees, since he can neither comprehend not live up to their
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teachings.
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The moral qualifications a petitioner should possess are fully
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understood by all. The petitioner must express his belief in Deity.
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No atheist can be made a Mason. He must be “under the tongue of good
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report” - i.e., have a good reputation in his community. He must
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“obey the moral law.” But just how much is included in this phrase
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is an open question.
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While a “moral man” may be hard to define, he is easy to recognize.
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Committees seldom have much trouble in ascertaining that a man
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“morally fit” to become a Mason is, indeed, so. The contrary is not
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always true - moral unfitness often masquerades under the appearance
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of virtue - hence the need for the competent committee.
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In some Jurisdictions a separate ballot is taken on the candidate for
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the second and third degrees, to test his “moral fitness,” but
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usually the ballot which elects a petitioner to the degrees is
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considered to express the opinion of the membership on all his
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qualifications at once.
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The applicant for the degrees must be “of mature and discreet age’
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(from the Old Charges). In this country that is the legal majority.
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In some foreign Jurisdictions it varies from eighteen, for a “lewis”
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or son of a Mason, to twenty-five.
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Our requirement of legal age is dictated not only by the fact that
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Masonry is for men, and a youth does not become a man until he is
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twenty-one; but because to be made a Mason in the United States a man
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must be a citizen, and citizenship, in its real sense, is not held by
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minors.
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Our political requirements are most explicit upon the question of
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being free born. Many have erroneously thought that such
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qualification was “read into” the body of Masonry to keep out men of
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the colored race. Unquestionably “free born” means not only not born
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a slave, but not born of parents who have been slaves, or whose
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forebears were slaves. Thus “free born” does bar men of African
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descent in this country from becoming a Mason.
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But the provision was an integral part of Masonic law long before
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Africans were imported into this country - see the statute from the
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Old York Constitution already quoted. The custom even goes further
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into antiquity. In the ancient Mysteries of Greece and Rome, from
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which Masonry derives something of its form, similar law prevailed.
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No man born a slave, or made a slave, even if freed (manumitted)
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could be initiated.
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It is practically a universal requirement that the candidate be a
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resident of the Jurisdiction to which he applies for a period of one
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year prior to making the application. A man who has not resided for
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a reasonable period in one place cannot have demonstrated to his
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neighbors the kind of man that he really is. A committee is
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handicapped in making an investigation of a man who is not among
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friends and neighbors. Grand Lodges are usually very strict about
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this; but Grand Masters occasionally, upon a very good reason being
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shown, grant dispensations to shorten the statutory period. A man
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who has resided in a Jurisdiction for ten months, let us say, is
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ordered to Japan for three years. He desires to become a Mason
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before he departs. If he is satisfied that the applicant can show
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the committee his moral worth, a Grand Master may permit him to make
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application and receive the degrees before he departs. During the
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war, when all requirements seemed of less than the usual importance
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when seen in the fierce white light of patriotism; length of
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residence in a Jurisdiction was sometimes lost sight of.
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A man considered worthy to have his petition placed before a Masonic
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lodge has much to recommend him. If the committee has done its work
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well, and, if on the strength of that report the lodge elects him. he
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may well feel that an important seal has been placed upon his
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reputation and character. That some committees do their work ill is
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evidenced by the occasional failures of brethren to walk uprightly.
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That the vast majority of committees are intelligent and faithful is
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proven by the reputation of the Fraternity and the undoubted fact
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that a man known to be a Master Mason is almost universally
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considered to be a good man and true!
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