‘Minutes That Live Through the Years’

    

In the March 1927 issue of The New York Masonic Outlook, Grand Lodge’s recently launched first magazine, edited by the great H.L. Haywood of Publicity Lodge 1000.

Monday night was the occasion of the election of officers for the ensuing year at Publicity Lodge 1000. The night of June 1 will see the installation of our officers, at which time W. Bro. Kevin will return to the East to set the Craft at work, where he’d served two terms already in the previous decade; and W. Bro. Gary will be our Senior Warden in the West again, paying the Craft our wages. Bro. Jonathan remains in the South. (If I’m standing where the sun is at its meridian, I wouldn’t move either.)

The circumstances of these staffing decisions causes me to think about lodge minutes and the institutional memory that those records ensure. Is the whole story and complete truth being recorded? That doesn’t seem to be the way lodges do it any more. But a century ago, Publicity Lodge, which then was comprised of the advertising professionals who founded the lodge and, consequently, were inclined to record, if not extol, the lodge’s doings in great detail, had a fitting philosophy. Every event deserved journalistic reportage with mementos and ephemera appended thereto.

The Masonic author Bro. H.L. Haywood was brought to New York from Iowa during the Roaring ’20s to serve as editor of our Grand Lodge’s first magazine, The New York Masonic Outlook. Being an editorial professional, he naturally affiliated with Publicity 1000. The magazine co-sponsored a contest, seeking essays on things accomplished by individual Masons, lodges, or other groups. Publicity’s secretary, W. Bro. Louis W. Bleser, won the top prize (a hundred bucks—more than $1,900 in today’s money!). The judges read the entries not knowing the names of the writers, so I wouldn’t say Haywood prejudiced the judges in his lodge brother’s favor.

In the Knights of the North decades ago, we were fond of saying If listening to the minutes is boring, then your lodge meetings are boring, so fix that. Anyway, here is that winning essay:

Minutes That Live Through the Years

By Louis W. Bleser

The entrance to the Porch of King Solomon’s Temple were two pillars of brass. They were cast in the clay grounds on the banks of the River Jordan, and made hollow for the purpose of containing the rolls and records of our ancient brethren so that they might be preserved for future generations.

I have the honor to be a Past Master and secretary of a lodge which I believe is the only one in the world composed almost entirely of advertising men. It has come to my attention, however, that since our formation five years ago, a lodge was formed in London, and another in Boston, for newspaper men. Our lodge embraces all branches of the advertising profession. So that, while we are Master Masons, we are primarily advertising men, and our training in this great field of endeavor asserts itself prominently in all our Masonic work.

The most outstanding example of this is the minute book of our lodge. It is in itself a history, rather than the usual drab, unemotional and colorless recital of facts so common to the records of any organization—Masonic or otherwise.

I most certainly sympathize with lodge or club historians if the proceedings of their organizations are in the shape of most records that I have seen. A man would have to be a genius to make any sort of an interesting story from the usual hodgepodge called “the minutes.”

Like our ancient brethren, we wish to preserve to posterity the records of our lodge, because we think they are “different”—but then, as I have said before, we are advertising men, and why shouldn’t they be?

Let me cite, briefly, some of the ways in which I think our minutes differ. If this will help that great “brotherhood of overworked secretaries” to win a little more appreciation for their work, I leave this story with them for what it is worth.

W. Bro. Bleser, as mentioned in the September 20, 1938 edition of The New York Times.

To begin with, no detail, however small, is omitted from our minutes, either to save space or “get the reading of the minutes over with.” The records of our meetings, therefore, are a little longer than in most lodges—maybe half again as long—but we try to make them interesting.

The question might rightly be asked, “Isn’t it tiresome for the brethren to listen to long minutes?” If they are the usual kind—Yes! But when they are humanized and interesting—No!

And, too, our members are “different.” They are all professional men—advertising men—and the proper recording of the proceedings of our lodge is but a written exemplification of their life’s work.

When a new member (initiate or affiliate) is taken into our lodge, we find out everything we can about him. Not just the ordinary things required on an application blank—sidelights, you might call them—but things about his family, his hobbies, his various accomplishments, et al. These facts are not gotten from the applicant as a rule, but from his proposer and others who know him intimately.

A brother dies. Usually it is customary to drape the altar for thirty days, stand in silent prayer for a minute or so, and carry a brief note in the minutes. The secretary is instructed to write a letter of condolence. Fine! But we go further. Either the secretary or one of the intimate friends of the deceased writes a beautiful memorial for the lodge minutes. Many letters are sent to the widow. A record is kept of the names of brethren attending the funeral. Newspaper clippings bearing on the death of the brother are attached and made part of the record, and any other write-ups in newspapers or magazines.

A brother goes to Florida with his family. He is there a few months when the great hurricane strikes. The secretary finally manages to get word to him and finds that he is safe, although everything he owned was practically ruined by the storm. This brother did not need our help in any way, but he wrote a long story of the havoc wrought by the hurricane, and it was printed in a magazine and a copy attached to our minutes.

Another brother is re-elected president of one of the largest and most influential business clubs in the country by a unanimous vote. It is made part of the record.

On the occasion of the celebration of Benjamin Franklin’s birthday, a number of our brethren journeyed to Philadelphia, where they took part in impressive ceremonies at the Poor Richard Club, the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, and at Bro. Franklin’s grave. A wreath was placed on his grave in the name of the lodge, honoring him first as a Mason, second as a man, and third as an advertising man. A full record, including the names of the brethren attending, appears in the minutes, together with numerous photographs which appeared in newspapers throughout the country.

In order to make it easy for the secretary (or anyone else, for that matter) to find things in our minutes, everything carries a heading. We find such things as Sickness and Distress, Degree Work, Testimonial, Petitions, Amendments, etc. Then, too, the secretary’s ledger, where a full record of each brother is kept, is cross-indexed with the minute book, so that if he dimits, or any other change occurs, a record is made in the ledger with a note referring to page so-and-so in the lodge minutes. This makes it very easy to trace things, and is a saver of time.

One of our brothers visited a lodge in Canada, and like many lodges in the jurisdictions of Canada, its members eat before their meetings. Our brother got the signature of everyone at the table and this is attached to our lodge record.

Five of our members were honored by the French government for signal work in the great business of advertising. A record of their names and decorations, and other interesting data concerning the presentations, appear in the records.

To break the regular monotony of lodge meetings, we meet regularly once a month for luncheon at which time we are addressed by some prominent speaker on either a Masonic or a business subject. And during the warm summer months the divot-diggers of our lodge hold one, two, or sometimes three golf tournaments. There is no better way of getting to know your brothers better than by things such as these away from the lodge room. Of course a record is made for the lodge minutes.

Our lodge is fortunate in having Masonic affiliations in both England and Scotland. In fact, one of our Past Masters is one of two Americans living in the States here who has been master of an English lodge. Therefore, on the occasion of the great Advertising Convention in London two years ago, we arranged to have the British Masons work a Third Degree. The affair was by invitation, and arranged by our lodge insofar as getting in touch with American Masons was concerned, informing them what to wear, etc. We also sent over our lodge aprons, suitably marked for the occasion, as British lodges do not furnish aprons as we do. Every brother has his own apron and brings it with him. They meet in full dress and enjoy a banquet. There were toasts to the King, to the President of the United States, to the Worshipful Masters, et al., including a scroll which our lodge presented as a memento of the occasion. Our minutes carry a full report, with copies of the program, menu, scroll, etc. all of which are made a permanent part of our lodge record.

Our lodge had a return visit from our British brethren the following year, and it was named “British Night.” It was a memorable occasion, some of the Scottish brethren among them being attired in their kilts. They even brought a piper.

A copy of the annual reports of the master, treasurer, secretary and others is made in the records, their original report being filed, and they are asked to sign the same so that their signatures, as well as their reports, may be preserved forever. While the method outlined above makes more work for the secretary, the lodge record is thus kept intact, and many documents are preserved that would otherwise be lost.

The most outstanding departure from the usual course of recording minutes appears in the proceedings on the occasion of the annual election of officers. For the first time, so far as the knowledge of the writer goes, the nominating speeches of all the elective officers and their speeches of acceptance appear verbatim in the record. This is, we believe, a very unusual departure, and we realize that as most secretaries do not write shorthand, this usually would be well-nigh impossible. They could make notes, however, in longhand, and check up with the brethren making the nomination and acceptance speeches later. This is especially interesting as it will give persons, who might read our record twenty years hence, a picture of the type of men holding office in our lodge in these days.

A brother is going to take a three-month trip around the world. He will write an account of his experiences for the lodge record.

On top of all this, the master (who, by the way, is a well known copywriter) is preparing a history of the lodge to be printed and named The First Five Years. It will include everything that appears in the minutes, together with photographs of members, their age, occupation, nativity, dates of initiating, passing, and raising, and affiliations with other Masonic bodies. I believe it will be one of the most interesting and unusual histories of a Masonic lodge ever printed. We plan to do this every five years.

Interesting events, such as those noted, tend to make “minutes that live through the years,” and, I believe, entitle us to say that they are “different.”

     

‘What intends the new pope for Freemasonry?’

    

ascensionpress.com

At Vatican City, the College of Cardinals elected a papal successor about an hour ago. The Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church is named Leo XIV.

You know that already, and perhaps some of you know something about him, but I don’t, other than he’s American, from Chicago, and that the experts predicted it was thoroughly unlikely an American could be elected. What I do know is the last time the church had a Pope Leo, he issued an encyclical that blasted Freemasonry in language so forceful it echoes today. Is part of that reverberation heard in the new Bishop of Rome’s choice of name?

I leave it to you to read “Humanum Genus” by Leo, Pope, XIII from April 20, 1884.

I can’t help but sympathize somewhat with that previous Leo. Through the nineteenth century, the church’s power was clipped severely, from the Philippines to Latin America to Italy itself, as nationalist freedom fighters cast off their respective yokes. Many of the leaders of these revolutions were Freemasons: Rizal, Bolivar, Juarez, Mazzini, Garibaldi, and others.

For an understanding of the disconnect between the Roman Catholic Church and Freemasonry, I also leave it to you to read Freemasonry and Roman Catholicism by H.L. Haywood in 1943, not because he was a member of my lodge, but because his writing style clarifies complicated subjects.

I noted the College of Cardinals numbers 133, which reminds me of “How good and how pleasant it is…”

     

‘A few words on the EA°’

    

We have a Ritual of Initiation upcoming at lodge in November, and our monthly magazine, The Herald, includes a few pages of educational reading focusing on a certain aspect of the EA° excerpted from Symbolical Masonry: An Interpretation of the Three Degrees by H.L. Haywood. (He was a member of our lodge a century ago, oddly enough.) Also in mind is Grand Lodge’s appeal on behalf of the Grand Lodge of Israel. Here are the relevant paragraphs:

Before a man can be persuaded to learn an art, he must realize his ignorance thereof; before he can be made to enter into a new life, he must be made to feel that he is in a natural state of ignorance in regard to that life. There is a certain method by which the candidate is prepared in our ceremonies that is designed to cause the Apprentice to know that, whatever may be his title and possessions in the world, he is poor, and naked, and blind as regards that new life which is Masonry. There is in this method no desire to humiliate him, as that word is understood, but there is every need that he experience humility, a very different thing.

Humiliation may come from disgrace, or some check of adverse fortune; humility is that lowliness of mind in which one becomes aware of his real position in the universe. To know one’s self is to be humble, for in the presence of the infinities of the universe an individual, be he the greatest of the great, is pitiably small and weak; “what is man that thou art mindful of him” is his cry, and he will be the last to strut with pride. A mere sense of humor alone would preserve a man against vanity, did he not also know that he is a frail creature, compounded of dirt and deity, hemmed in by ignorance, and weak every way. When a man compares himself with his fellows he may find cause for pride, but when he stands in the midst of that lodge which is itself a symbol of the cosmos, surrounded by emblems and images on which rests a weight of time more than that which lies upon the pyramids, where the All-Seeing Eye, symbol of omniscience, looks down upon all, he can but feel how frail, how unspeakably helpless and frail, he is. The worldling may eke out a modicum of pride in considering how much wealthier he may be, or more learned than another, but the Mason, acknowledging a law that demands he be perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect, will be more inclined to cry “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

Black Cat Caboodle

“Among the ancients,” writes Pierson, “the ceremony of discalceation, or the pulling off a shoe, indicated reverence for the presence of God.” The Pythagorean rule, that an initiate must “sacrifice and worship unshod” applied throughout the religious customs of antiquity. The priest removed “his shoes from off his feet” before entering the place of worship even as does the Muslim of today. Of this Mackey gives an interpretation as simple as it is wise! “The shoes, or sandals, were worn on ordinary occasions as a protection from the defilement of the ground. To continue to wear them, then, in a consecrated place, would be a tacit insinuation that the ground was equally polluted and capable of producing defilement. But, as the very character of a holy and consecrated spot precludes the idea of any sort of defilement or impurity, the acknowledgment that such was the case was conveyed symbolically by divesting the feet of all that protection from pollution and uncleanness which would be necessary in unconsecrated places. The Rite of Discalceation is, therefore, a symbol of reverence. It signifies, in the language of symbolism, that the spot which is about to be approached in this humble and reverent manner is consecrated to some holy purpose.

In the beginnings of the moral life of man, a place was made holy by being set apart, as the word literally means. The Sabbath was kept separate from other days; the Temple from other buildings; and the altar from all other spots of earth. This was a necessary teaching to cause men to recognize the mere existence of sacredness. But the floor of a Masonic lodge room is not made sacred in order to render other places defiled by contrast; rather is it to convince us that as the lodge is a holy place, so also should the whole world be, of which the lodge is a symbol. When men walk the common ways of life with bare feet, when they undertake every daily task with clean hands, when they seek out their fellowships with a pure heart, then will all life shine with the sanctity God intended, and the Universe be in fact, as well as theory, the Temple of Deity. In the days before our era when astrology and alchemy were seriously received by great minds, the planets were believed to rule variously over the fates of life, and each planet was supposed to be in some wise linked up with a corresponding metal. Lead was Saturn’s metal, iron belonged to Mars, copper to Venus, gold to the sun, etc. To keep one of these metals in one’s possession was to invite the influence of the planet to which it was sacred. Consequently, as a Candidate came to the Mysteries, he was divested of metals lest he bring some unwelcome planetary influence into the sanctuary.

If we find a far-off echo of this custom in our own ceremonies, we may understand that the lodge would thus symbolically exclude every jarring element from its fellowship. We may further understand it in another sense, as meaning that the possessions which secure us the services of the world have no potency in the lodge.

Of this, as we may read in his booklet on “Deeper Aspects of Masonic Symbolism,” A.E. Waite has written with characteristic insight. His words have a finality of wisdom that may fitly conclude a study of destitution:

“The question of certain things of a metallic kind, the absence of which plays an important part, is a little difficult from any point of view, though several explanations have been given. The better way toward their understanding is to put aside what is conventional and arbitrary—as, for example, the poverty of spirit and the denuded state of those who have not yet been enriched by the secret knowledge of the Royal and Holy Art. It goes deeper than this and represents the ordinary status of the world, when separated from any higher motive—the world-spirit, the extrinsic titles of recognition, the material standards. The Candidate is now to learn that there is another standard of values, and when he comes again into possession of the old tokens, he is to realise that their most important use is in the cause of others. You know under what striking circumstances this point is brought home to him.”

     

‘A simple symposium?’

    

Freemasonry in the United States likes symposia. Actually, in France too. Often day-long affairs, these events attract audiences of Masons either generally curious or drawn to a specific theme to hear the thoughts and scholarship of the empaneled speakers.

The Masonic Restoration Foundation terms its annual event a symposium. The Pennsylvania Academy does likewise for its biannual meetings. The California Symposium is next month. The George Washington Memorial has one planned for November. The Masonic Cons are symposia by another name. You get the gist.

How’s that for an etymology?

Aaanywaaay, there was a call for papers yesterday in preparation for “Now We Have Faces: The First Annual C.S. Lewis Symposium at Ulster University,” free willed (see what I did there?) for November 3.

Ignoring the nails-on-chalkboard solecism of “first annual,” this announcement illumined the novelty lightbulb I wear over my head. Brilliant! A symposium delving into one author!

Why don’t we do that in Freemasonry? Do we do that? I’m not aware of it being done.

Supposing such a symposium, I reckon it would have to focus on a prolific writer from a previous century. (The author must be deceased.) I’ll throw out a name: H.L. Haywood. A sharp thinker whose clear prose distilled Masonic teachings for readers of all levels. Plus, he was a member of my lodge ninety or so years ago.

I feel too tired to organize a day like this—and I don’t have the clout anymore—but it’s a good idea.

     

‘Haywood’s outline for Masonic education’

     

Masonic Dictionary

Although education-minded Masons in the United States a century ago did not have The Journal of the Masonic Society at their disposal, there were quality periodicals available then. One of them was The Builder.

Published by the National Masonic Research Society during the early decades of the previous century, The Builder, thanks to Editor-in-Chief H.L. Haywood, also offered a correspondence course to guide education Masons through their lodge communications and study group meetings.

A few hours ago, I spoke with Bro. Doug, chairman of my own lodge’s education committee. After we hung up, I sent him this outline I cribbed from The Builder, which published it as a kind of advertisement for this Correspondence Circle. And then it occurred to me to share it here. Excerpted:


The Course of Study has for its foundation two sources of Masonic information: The Builder and Mackey’s Encyclopedia… The Course is divided into five principal divisions which are in turn subdivided, as is shown below:

I. Ceremonial Masonry

a) The Work of the Lodge
b) The Lodge and the Candidate
c) First Steps
d) Second Steps
e) Third Steps


II. Symbolical Masonry

a) Clothing
b) Working Tools
c) Furniture
d) Architecture
e) Geometry
f) Signs
g) Words
h) Grips


III. Philosophical Masonry

a) Foundations
b) Virtues
c) Ethics
d) Religious Aspect
e) The Quest
f) Mysticism
g) The Secret Doctrine


IV. Legislative Masonry

a) The Grand Lodge
1. Ancient Constitutions
2. Codes of Law
3. Grand Lodge Practices
4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges
5. Official Duties and Prerogatives

b) The Constituent Lodge
1. Organization
2. Qualifications of Candidates
3. Initiation Passing and Raising
4. Visitation
5. Change of Membership


V. Historical Masonry

a) The Mysteries: Earliest Masonic Light
b) Studies of Rites: Masonry in the Making
c) Contributions to Lodge Characteristics
d) National Masonry
e) Parallel Peculiarities in Lodge Study
f) Feminine Masonry
g) Masonic Alphabets
h) Historical Manuscripts of the Craft
i) Biographical Masonry
j) Philological Masonry: Study of Significant Words