| Article # 73 | As Others See Us
Author: W. Bro. Harry Carr, P.J.G.D. Posted on: Monday, August 25, 2003
| [ Knowledge as to how Freemasonry is practiced in different countries expands our Masonic vision and it is always very rewarding to know about the rituals and practices and their evolution. Freemasonry was and continues to be a powerful force in U.S.A, where there are 49 sovereign Grand Lodges, almost a Grand Lodge in each State, each with its own traditions. W.Bro. Harry Carr, a great Masonic Scholar of England had visited the various Masonic Lodges, institutions and Grand Lodges in U.S.A and he had delivered several lectures and presentations about his impression and assessment of Freemasonry in U.S.A, under the caption Freemasonry in US. This article is a portion of those presentations and the same has appeared in many public domains and we are reproducing the same for the purpose of Masonic Information and Research. Please read on……]
As Others See Us
by W. Bro. Harry Carr, P.J.G.D.
On my first visit, in 1960, I travelled to New York, Boston, and
Washington; then right across the country to San Francisco, Fresno and
Los Angeles. It was a seven-week Masonic tour and holiday combined,
and I gave my Prestonian Lecture to enormous gatherings of Masons in
all those cities, covering more than 7,000 miles within the American
continent. When I returned to London, the D.C. of my Mother Lodge
said, "Harry, you must tell us all about it after dinner; and we can
give you ten minutes." Brethren, it cannot be done in ten minutes,
but if you will stay with me a little longer, I shall try to keep
you interested.
My principal equipment for the tour consisted of an insatiable
curiosity, and a sufficient knowledge of English Masonic practices
to enable me to ask the right sort of questions, so that I could
make a reasonable assessment of our differences. I met and spoke to
literally hundreds of Masons from Entered Apprentices to Grand
Librarians, Grand Secretaries and Grand Masters. I saw many things
that pleased me enormously, many that horrified me; and I never
stopped asking questions! (Grand Masters are amazingly plentiful
in U.S.A., because most of them are elected for only one year.
Sad, because a good man will only rarely see the fruits of his efforts!)
As a lecturer, it is probable that I was meeting the best types of
American Masons, men with a real love for the Craft and a serious
interest in its background. I can never forget that in Los Angeles I
addressed a large gathering of Masons in a huge Masonic centre that
they had built with their own hands, working voluntarily in their
spare time under a hired architect and with a practical team of
builders who ensured that the work was well and truly done;
and I was proud to be associated with brethren of this calibre.
But of course the following impressions do not pretend to be a
complete survey, nor can they possibly be true of the whole Craft in
the U.S.A. I have simply tried to describe something of what I saw,
emphasizing our differences in practice, with a critical eye for
what seems strange to us, and with wholehearted praise where praise
is due. American Masons are warm, friendly folk, good hosts, good
company, and eager to be helpful; and if my words appear
to accentuate certain peculiarities, I must plead that they were
written without malicious intent, knowing full well that our
brethren overseas can find much in our own system and practices that
calls for criticism.
THE BACKGROUND
The first thing that is obvious to every English Mason who visits
the U.S.A., is that their Freemasonry is unlike ours. In the first
place, Masonry is not for father alone, but for the whole family.
For father, there are the usual three "Blue" degrees, and then all
the rest running right up to the 32ø. (the 33ø is by selection
and invitation; in fact, an honor, rather than a degree.) For
mother, there is the Order of the Eastern Star, the Order of
Amaranth, and several others, less well known. For boys,
aged from 14 to 21, there is the Order of DeMolay, named
after Jacques de Molai, the last Grand Master of the medieval
Knights Templar. For girls, aged 13 to 20, there is an Order called
Rainbow and another called Job's Daughters; and all these are, in a
very special and peculiar sense, Masonic. This must be explained and
I shall do so in a moment.
I have called these Orders Masonic, and it is difficult for us in
England to appreciate the point. Perhaps the following illustration
may help. In A.Q.C., Vol. 75, p. 119, we recently reviewed the
sesqui-centennial History of the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, a regular
and recognized Grand Lodge, which is in amicable fraternal
relationship with our own Grand Lodge of England. Chapter 20
in this History is entitled "Bodies Identified with Masonry in
Louisiana," (my italics) and among those listed are: The Order
of the Eastern Star, The Order of the Rainbow,The Order of DeMolay
In The Eastern Star, and the majority of the others, a genuine Masonic
relationship is an essential pre-requisite for joining, so that for The
Eastern Star, the lady candidate must be mother or wife, sister or daughter of a Freemason in good standing. For Rainbow and DeMolay,
relationship is preferable, but not essential.) There is no suggestion that these Orders are quasi-Masonic or that they attempt to copy
Freemasonry. It is best to regard them as adjuncts to Freemasonry
and in the U.S.A they are so regarded and as the youth organizations
as training-grounds for the future. The women's Orders count it a
duty and a privilege to serve Freemasonry in every possible way.
All this appears very strange to us in England, and although it may
seem wrong for a Grand Officer to say so, I like it and I believe
that it works and it has obvious advantages. In the first place,
father knows where mother is on her night out, and vice versa
and both are able to take an interest in the children's organizations.
Whether all these efforts have any marked effect on juvenile
delinquency rates in the U.S.A. would be very hard to say,
but I am firmly convinced that the "family approach" to the
Craft can do nothing but good.
A nice example of this family spirit occurred in Massachusetts where
I lectured to an assembly of some five-hundred brethren, and over
four-hundred-and-sixty of us sat down to dinner afterwards. It was
in an enormous hall, with a stage at one end, on which the Lodge
Organist was playing light music throughout the dinner. The tables
were arranged in sprigs (as in England), and everyone except the
Officers were dressed in the utmost informality. But all the
Officers were in meticulous dinner dress and throughout the evening
we were served by waitresses immaculately dressed in white from head
to foot. It was a pleasant, unpretentious meal, and all was going
splendidly when suddenly the S.W., far away in the right-hand corner
of the room, stood up and began to dance with one of the waitresses
along the gangway between the sprigs!
I was sitting at the right of the Master, and I leaned over to him
and whispered, "Worshipful Master, I thought I had seen almost
everything in the Craft, but this I have never seen. Does it happen
very often?" He turned to me with a smile and said, "I hope it does-
the lady he is dancing with is his wife. Tonight we are being waited
on by our wives, in The Eastern Star." And there were 460 at dinner!
(I was unable to find out if the husbands help with the "washing-up," but
probably they do not, because kitchens are highly mechanized in the
U.S.A.).
With this kind of background, the objectives in the Craft tend to
take on a rather different aspect from ours. Generally, they do not
go in strongly for the maintenance of large Masonic Institutions, as
we do. There are, indeed, many splendid institutions, but the
emphasis is mainly on the social side, parties, outings and
celebrations of one kind or another. A great deal is done by way of
homes and equipment for crippled children. Masonic blood banks are
a big feature, the blood being for ultimate use by Masons and non-
Masons alike. There are some Masonic hospitals, and a number of
homes for 'senior citizens'; but nobody grows old in the U.S.A. If
they are lucky enough to live that long, they become 'senior
citizens,' and in those jurisdictions that aspire to the maintenance
of institutions, it is usually the 'senior citizens' who get first
care.
Finally, I must not omit from this description of the background of
the Craft the very obvious fact that almost everyone wears a badge,
usually a 'lapel-badge', with all sorts of Masonic symbols ranging
up to the 33ø and the so-called "High Degrees' predominating. All
this might seem to be a piece of pardonable male vanity and in the
vast majority of cases it is nothing more. But the badges tend to
become a temptation, and the Masonic visitor to the U.S.A. will not
need to look far before he realizes that they are all too often used
for business.
Of all the things likely to shock an Englishman, this, I think, must
be the most distasteful; and though I am sure that many Brethren in
the U.S.A. find these practices as objectionable as we do, one has
the impression that they have grown accustomed to them, and that is
a great pity. I have heard the situation stated in a somewhat
different form. One of my American friends told me, "I wear the
badge, to show that I'm proud of my Masonry. As long as I wear it,
I'd never do anything to disgrace it; in fact, when I do business
with a man whom I recognize to be a Brother, I always try to give
him a bigger order than I would otherwise." All this is true, I am
sure, but where is there a commercial traveller among my friend's
suppliers who could resist wearing a badge under such conditions?
During a more recent visit to the U.S.A., at an informal Masonic
party in Providence, Rhode Island, I teased my hosts about this
custom of wearing Masonic badges for the wrong reasons, and when I
had finished talking, one of the Brethren said, "It is all very well
for you to talk about our using Masonry for business, but it is not
always like that. Quite often, we have to try to take an order from
a Roman Catholic, and then the badge is a liability--not an asset, "
I had to agree with him, but privately, Brethren, I'm convinced that
it is much easier to remove the badge than to change your customer's
religion!
LODGE MEMBERSHIP
Judging by our standards in England, where average membership is
around 80 per Lodge, American lodge memberships are extraordinarily
high. Consider, as an example, Washington, D.C., the capital and the
centre of government; it is virtually a city without industry. It
has about 50 lodges in all, four of them with memberships of 1,100,
1,200, 1,400, and 1,500 respectively! And these enormous memberships
are to be found in all the large cities in the U.S.A. It is, of
course, impossible to strike "average figures" as between lodges in
the small villages and those in the large towns, because they would
be misleading. But in any of the cities, one might expect the
general run of lodges to range from 400 to 800 members, with several
others running into four figures.
At the time of my visit to the U.S.A., I was already Secretary of
two lodges and I was naturally puzzled as to the reasons for these
(to us) fantastic numbers. There appear to be several reasons, and I
dare not commit myself as to their order of importance. The first
two reasons are almost national characteristics:
(a) The Americans are great "joiners," they like to be in on
everything.
(b) They admire big numbers and mass production.
(c) Most U.S.A. jurisdictions have curious regulations relating to
what they call single, dual or plural membership. Some Grand Lodges
allow only single membership, i.e., a Brother may belong to only one
Craft Lodge and no more. Others allow dual membership, usually
permitting their members to belong to one Lodge inside the State and
one outside. Only very few Grand Lodges permit their members the
same privileges as we enjoy here, of plural membership, i.e., of
joining as many Lodges as we please. It seems possible that, in some
indirect way, these regulations have the effect of channelling vast
numbers of Masons into a comparatively small number of Lodges, and
that leads to large memberships.
I realize that this may be faulty reasoning, but there is no doubt
as to the facts, i.e., that in many jurisdictions, if Lodge
memberships are to be kept reasonably low, there are simply not
enough Lodges to take the vast numbers of men who want to join. The
reasons are purely economic.
(d) Maintenance costs arc very high for Lodges and lodge buildings
in the U.S.A., and this leads to some curious results. In some
cities, when a new Lodge is to be founded, it is not uncommon to
find that the existing Lodges raise objections, because they regard
all future Masons in their territory as their own "reserve pool,"
which will help swell their own membership in due course, and thus
help them with their maintenance charges and their balance-sheets.
In effect, the Masons themselves are opposing the formation
of new lodges. (Sec the note 011 this subject in "Whither Are We
Traveling?", by M.W. Bro. Dwight L. Smith, P.G.M. and Grand
Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Indiana.)
But is it possible that there is still another reason for the large
numbers? I found that in many jurisdictions it is customary for the
Secretary to receive 1 1/2 dollars annually per head for every
member! (As a former Secretary of the Q. C. Lodge, with over 12,000
members, I must say that this idea appeals to me enormously!) In
certain jurisdictions the Lodge Secretaries receive a fixed
honorarium, instead. I do not for one moment suggest that
Secretaries are tempted to tout for members; I merely record the
differences in our respective practices.
Of course I was anxious to know how the American Lodges achieve
these memberships, and the opportunity came when I visited the Grand
Secretary's office in Boston, Mass. Among many interesting papers
that were given to me was their Year Book, containing all the
statistics for the preceding year, and thumbing through the pages
casually, I came to the section, which summarized their Annual
Returns. There were many pages of figures but, at the very end of
the list, there were the details for the very last Lodge that was
consecrated just before the book was printed, and at the time of
this Return the Lodge was only eleven months old. At that age,
(eleven months), this infant Lodge had a membership of 174; during
the eleven months it had initiated 54 Brethren, it had passed 49,
and raised 45 brethren. Mass production in a really big way!
The Lodges usually meet once a month (for ten or eleven months in
the year) for their "stated" or regular meetings, and every week, or
fortnight, for "emergent," "special" or "work" meetings.
Attendances, I am told, are proportionately low. In a Lodge of 1,000
members, an attendance of 100 at a 'Stated' meeting would be counted
good. There might be only 20 or 30 at the "work" meetings, and
these "work" meetings are, in effect, the factories where Masons are
turned out by mass production. This may sound cynical, but I
believe it is a fair statement of the situation that exists in the
larger Masonic centres in the U.S.A.
Arising from all this, perhaps the most frequent question I have
been asked in England is "With memberships of 800 to 1,500, how can
a Mason ever become Master of a Lodge? Surely he could never live
long enough." The answer is that it is easy. All he needs to do, is
to express a desire to "go on," or to "get in line" as the Americans
say, and the path is wide open for him. It is the great tragedy of
Craft Masonry in the U.S.A. that vast numbers of those who join
simply use the Craft as a springboard to the 32ø. To be Master of
a "Blue" Lodge may be very pleasant, but it is not nearly so
important as to become a 32ø Mason and a "Shriner," with all its
attendant advantages (mainly social). As a result men become
Freemasons for the wrong reasons, and the Craft is neglected in
favour of side degrees.
Among the Grand Officers who see and deplore what is happening, this
is a source of constant anxiety, frequently expressed in forthright
statements. It is a disease the presence of which is known and
understood, but the remedy, unfortunately, is still to be found.
Talk to any American Mason for five minutes, and the chances are
that he will show you his wallet containing a whole "concertinafull"
of Dues Cards, witnessing the number of "Masonic" organizations to
which he belongs. There will seldom be more than one (or two) Craft
Lodges among them; the rest are all side degrees, that are helping,
unintentionally to sap the Craft of its vitality!
CRAFT RITUAL
There are several different Craft rituals in use in the U.S.A.,
generally exhibiting only minor variations and, broadly speaking,
they are very similar to ours in England. Yet, in a very curious
way, the visitor who knows his ritual will find that the American
versions sound strangely old-fashioned, repetitive, and somehow
older than ours. Surprisingly, this is true; although the Americans
got their ritual from Britain, their ritual is, in fact, older than
ours, and that makes an interesting story.
As you probably know, our present ritual was virtually standardized
at the time of the union of the rival Grand Lodges, in 1813,, when
the 'Antients' and the 'Moderns' ultimately came together to form
the United Grand Lodge. For several years before that date,
committees of learned Brethren had been sitting, trying to evolve a
revised form of the ritual that would be acceptable to both sides.
The results of their labours, very satisfying to us nowadays, did
not meet with wholehearted approval at that time. Many changes had
been made and a great deal of symbolical material had been
discarded. Indeed, it might almost be fair to say that in cleaning
up the ritual, the baby had been thrown away with the bath-water.
American Masonic workings owe their origins, unquestionably, to
England, Scotland, Ireland, but the stabilization of their ritual
was done by an American, Thomas Smith Webb, who, although he wrote
very little of it himself, may well be described as the father of
American ritual.
In 1792, Webb, a printer by trade, settled in Albany, N.Y., and soon
afterwards he made the acquaintance of John Hanmer, an English
Freemason who was a keen ritualist and apparently very knowledgeable
about the Preston system. Webb, was then barely twenty-two years old
and their mutual interests drew them together. This was the period
when the English Masonic ritual was at its highest stage of
development.
Hutchinson and Calcott had published their works; Preston was in his
prime, and the 1792 edition of his Illustrations of Masonry had just
appeared. This was the 8th edition, as popular and successful as its
predecessors, and it was almost a bible to the English Craft. Webb
took the book, retained sixty-four pages of Preston's work intact,
word for word, cut out a few minor items, and rearranged others, and
published it in 1797, under the title Freemasons' Monitor or
Illustrations of Freemasonry. Within twenty years, the ritual in
England had been altered, curtailed and polished up, (some said,
almost beyond recognition), but not so in the U.S.A.; they preserved
it.
Look at some of our oldest Tracing Boards and you will find pictures
of the Scythe, Hour-glass, Beehive, Anchor, etc., which once had
their proper places as symbolic portions of our ritual. They have
disappeared from our tracing Boards and from the ritual; but in
America, they are still in use to this day, depicted on the Boards
and explained in their 'Monitors.' And so it is fair to say that
their ritual, though it came from us, is actually older than ours,
and it is not merely 'old-fashioned,' but also more discursive, and
by reason of their Lectures much more explanatory than ours,
especially of the symbolical meaning of their procedures.
But apart from the things we have lost, their ritual material is
essentially the same as ours, and easily recognizable. Their signs
and secrets are virtually the same as ours, except that they use the
Scottish sign for the Entered Apprentices. Their second degree is
more elaborate than ours. Their third is basically the same as ours,
but because they perform the drama as if it were a play, treating
the Candidate as though he were really H.A., the result is
occasionally rather rough and frightening, especially in those
lodges that pride themselves on the realism of their performance.
The manner in which the Americans safeguard their ritual is also
interesting. In England, our Grand Lodge views the ritual as
a 'domestic matter,' i.e., a majority of the Brethren in any lodge
may decide what form of ritual shall be worked, and unless the Lodge
was guilty of some serious breach, the Grand Lodge would not
interfere. In the U.S.A., the very reverse is the case. Each Grand
Lodge prescribes the ritual that its Lodges shall work, and usually
the Grand Lodge prints and publishes the "monitorial" or explanatory
portions of the rituals too.
Ten out of the forty-nine Grand Lodges also publish the esoteric
ritual, in code or cipher, but this is forbidden in the others.
Moreover, to prevent innovations, the Grand Lodges protect their
forms of working by the appointment of officers, called Grand
Lecturers, whose duty is not to lecture, but to ensure that the
groups of lodges under their care adhere to the official
workings. They do this by means of official demonstrations,
called 'Exemplifications,' and during my first visit, I was lucky
enough to see both first and second degrees rehearsed in this way.
The exemplifications I saw in Boston required a necessary period of
adjustment to Bostonian English, but after that I would gladly give
them full marks; the work is splendid. It is proper, perhaps, to add
a little tailpiece to this chapter, which gives an insight to the
American approach to their Masonry. I am told that in several, if
not most, of the U.S.A. jurisdictions, the Grand Lecturers are paid
for their services!
RITUALS and MONITOR
Grand Lodge practices, in regard to books of the ritual, differ from
State to State. In Pennsylvania, and California, for example, no
written or printed ritual is permitted. All tuition is, as they
say, "from mouth to ear," i.e., the Officers and Candidates must
attend at rehearsals or "work-meetings" until they have memorized
their work simply by listening to it over and over again. In some
jurisdictions each officer is responsible for training his
successor, privately, not at rehearsals. The Ritual material is
usually divided up into two categories;
(I) "Monitors" which print non-secret portions of ritual and
procedure, symbolic Lectures, etc., all in plain language.
(2) The "Rituals" proper, which arc printed (in ten States) in some
sort of cipher with . . . dots . . . in the usual places.
Books, in both categories, are supposed to be rather difficult to
obtain, but one has the impression that this is merely a case of
knowing where to look. The Monitors need not concern us here, but
the Rituals are interesting. There appear to be four different
ciphers that are mainly used. One of the most popular is a kind
of "geometrical" code, made Up of straight lines, curves, angles and
symbols, which look vary difficult but are, in fact, fairly easy to
break down.
In many jurisdictions, a two-letter code is used; usually the first
and last letters of each word, but occasionally the first two Attars
of each word. These two codes are fairly difficult to read until one
begins to have a fair knowledge of the "expected word"; but as SOON
as the phrases become familiar, the two-letter codes are quite easy
to read.
Most difficult of all is the one-letter code, in which only the
first letter of each word is used, and this is absolutely
terrifying, almost impossible to read until one has acquired a real
knowledge of the ritual.
From the Officers' point of view, all this is simply a matter of
patience and regular attendance, but for the candidates it is
another story. Here, in England, the Candidate for passing has to
learn the answers to perhaps eight or nine questions, usually
printed on cards in plain language, with perhaps one or two words
omitted. For raising he learns another seven or eight answers, and
he is through.
In the U.S.A. jurisdictions, these examinations are called
"Proficiency Tests," and they must be a really worrying
experience. For example, the E.A. passing to the F. C. has to answer
about seventy-seven questions, and recite the Obligation by heart,
before he can pass his test; the F. C. must answer some forty
questions and the Obligation from memory, and the M. M., after
he has taken his third degree, another forty or so, again with the
Obligation by heart. Then, and not until then does he become a real
member of the Lodge. Then he is allowed to sign the Register, and
enjoy the privileges of membership, including a Masonic Funeral if
he wants it.
All this would be difficult enough if the Q. & A. were printed in
plain language, but they are not. In those jurisdictions where no
printed rituals are permitted, the candidates must attend "Classes
of Instruction," usually under the care of the J. D., or S. D.,
until they have learned their work "from mouth to ear." Elsewhere,
they learn their work from the cipher books. I have a set of
the "Proficiency Tests" as used in Rhode Island, in their one letter
code and they are simply terrifying. I have been a Preceptor for
many years, and I find them difficult to read. Heaven knows how the
candidates manage--but they do.
Here, I believe it is fair to say that American Masons, in the
course of passing their "Proficiency Tests" in all three degrees,
acquire a much wider knowledge of the ceremonies and especially of
their symbolical meaning, than our candidates get in England. Their
patience and industry are more than justified. " | | [ W Bro. Harry Carr, is a Past Junior Grand Deacon of the United Grand
Lodge of England. He is a great Masonic scholar having published several articles like 600 years of Craft Rituals etc. He is the former Secretary
of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No 2076, the Premier Research Lodge in the world and he was also the Editor of the Transactions of that Lodge.
He had visited U.S.A and had delivered several scholarly Prestonian lectures there. He has to his credit numerous publications. The following had appeared in various volumes of the Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Lodge. Minutes of the Lodge Edinburgh, The Early French Exposures, The Freemason at work, World of Freemasonry are a few of them. This article is a portion of his Short Talk Bulletin “Freemasonry in the US”.] |
Click Here To Post Your Comment
acreddi wrote on Tuesday, August 26, 2003:
Subject: ExcellentVery educative article. This one article throws a lot on American masonry, and spares one of much time and many books and articles.
Nothing substitues the discourse with an experienced and learned one, particularly in our craft. I am grateful to the Webmaster for locating and publishing it, and look forward to more such personal thoyghts from experienced masons.
Bro A C Reddi |
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