| Charity is a universal
characteristic of Freemasonry. Whether help for a community offered
by a local lodge, or a Masonic home supported by a State Grand
Lodge, or the national network of Childhood Language Disorders
centers maintained by local Scottish Rite Brethren and the Supreme
Council, Southern Jurisdiction, or the Shriners' hospitals for crippled
children, American Masons are part of a centuries-old tradition of caring. It
doesn't matter if it's a Lodge, a Consistory, or a Masonic stamp club, each will
have charity as a significant part of its activities. However varied the
activity, each effort has one goal: helping those in need.
A study of Masonic Charities is a study of the evolving
needs of American society. When food and shelter were immediate and almost daily
concerns, Masons responded with firewood and the fruits of their harvests. When
care of the aged, widows, and orphans were worries, Masons erected retirement
homes and orphanages. When education was needed, Masons built schools, and when
these basic needs moved ever farther from common experience, Masons turned their
philanthropy to crippled children, burn victims, the speech and language
impaired, cancer patients, and others.
As with most human endeavors, Masonic actions speak
louder than Masonic words. Consider the first two official actions of the Grand
Lodge of Rhode Island after organizing and installing its officers on June 27,
1791.
The Brethren walked in Regular Procession to Trinity
Church where an Excellent discourse was delivered by the Reverend William
Smith, Rector thereof, & a collection made of $11.9.4 Law. Money to be
invested into Wood & distributed to the Poor of this Town the ensuing Winter.
- Proceedings of the M.W.G.L. of Rhode Island
Even our courts have taken judicial notice of the
Masonic tradition of caring:
The objects and purposes of said Order are to nurse,
care for and to provide for its sick, afflicted and needy members und their
families, bury the dead, care for the widows of its deceased members, and care
for and educate their orphan children, and to inculcate in its members the
principles of morality, temperance, benevolence and charity and teach them
their duly and true fraternal relationship to mankind. - Denser v. State of
Missouri (1947)
With this rich tradition of sharing comes the Masonic
ideal of anonymous good works (exemplified by the Scottish Rite Almoner). This
presents a problem for historians: How can the extent of Masonic charity be
recorded in the face of a conscious effort to keep it very private? The dilemma
was partially solved by the book Masonic Charities, edited by Brothers John H.
Van Gordon and Stewart M. L. Pollard and published in 1985 by the Supreme
Council, N.M.J. At that time Brother Van Gordon undertook the unique (and
daunting) task of accounting for every dollar spent on charity by American
Masons in 1985. An updated and rewritten form of this important volume with
figures for 1990 is now being prepared and will be published jointly by the
Northern and Southern Supreme Councils. A brief preview of this new book
follows.
In the development of social services in the emerging
nation, the Masonic definition of charity diverged sharply from that of many
states. Dorothy Ann Lipson captured this idea clearly in her 1977 book,
Freemasonry in Federalist Connecticut.
Masonic charity differed in its underlying
assumptions and in its style from civic charity. In Connecticut charity was
available to the settled members of a town, regulated by law, and invoked in
times of extreme need and as a last resort. Persistent vestiges of the older
Puritan ethic; which associated misfortune with divine retribution, made
appeals to civic charity a painful necessity. Masonic charity, more broadly
defined than its civic counterpart, was available to its members in times of
personal crisis wherever they were. (p. 213)
Masonic charity was secret unlike civic charily whose
administration made the entire town privy to the needs of each recipient. The
derogation of character implicit in acknowledging poverty must have compounded
suffering. In contrast the Masons asked, " What has the world to do with
private transactions, whether a widow, an orphan, or a pilgrim has obtained
relief ?'' (p 207)
A touching example of this private, com- passionate
relief during personal crisis is cited by Prof. Dumenil on pages 208-209.
Federal Lodge in Watertown, Connecticut purchased a cow for the use of a widow
and her children, and the cow was carried on its books for several years as a
Lodge asset, presumably to spare the family the embarrassment of accepting
charity.
From the very earliest days of Masonry in America,
charity has been a concern. Look at the following extract from the 1733 By- Laws
of the First Lodge of Boston, believed to be the oldest record of American
Masons setting aside funds for charity:
Monthly Every Member shall pay at Least two shillings
more per Quarter to be applied as Charity Towards the Relief of poor Brethren.
While charity assessments were a common feature of many
early American Lodges, their records are shy about specific instances of private
relief. The first explicit record of Masonic relief in America seems to be in
the Lodge at Fredericksburg, Virginia. On November 4, 1754, "a petition from
a member and indigent Brother, John Spot- wood, was read, and on motion of the
Lodge, he was given one pound 12 shillings and six- pence 'to relieve his
necessity.' " (R. Heaton and J. Case, The Lodge at Fredericksburg, P. 34)
Grasping the subtle nuances of the inter- locking
relationships of Masonic organizations is a simple task compared to cataloging
their expenditures. As Prof. Lipson observed, ''Masonic charity was secret
unlike civic charity whose administration made the entire town privy to the
needs of each recipient. "Thus the researcher can only capture the data from aid
that went through formally organized and public Masonic activities, but even
this doesn't tell the whole story."
For example, the
Masonic
Service Association quietly oversees a Hospital Visitation Program with a
goal that every V.A. Hospital in the United States have a Masonic volunteer
working with patients. How can a value be placed on the more than 500,000 hours
a year spent on this work? It just can't be done! The best that can be done is
to catalog that fraction of Masonic philanthropy that happens to be administered
on a formal basis and to rest content in the knowledge that Masons today, as
always, are seeking to provide relief for suffering humanity.
The new book divides American Masonic philanthropies
into several major categories:
I) public hospitals and clinics;
2) medical research;
3) Masonic homes, hospitals, and orphanages;
4) scholarships and youth;
S) museums and public buildings; and
6) community support.
Each category represents the efforts of hundreds of thousands of American Masons
to put Masonic teachings into practice. The book will try to give a detailed
analysis of each category.
Note: The above article was written about the book Masonic
Charities, the predecessor to Masonic Philanthropies later written by Bro.
Morris.
Roger Ingersoll
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