Omaha daily bee., 1889-09-22


mate Scottish Rite bodies neither have they
In the past prohibited the supreme council for
the United States from comforting tue Scot
tish Rite degree, for the same good reason.
Secondly, they considered the Scottish Rite
question as not being proper business for
grand lodge TO have anything TO do with,
thereby taking pattern from and following
IN the footsteps of the grand master OF the
grand lodge of England in 1919, as will be
seen from the following extract. TO be found
on page 32S Preston's Illustrations OF
Masonry: "That tho address of the 21th of
September, 1919, was received by the Nj. w.
grand master sealed, having been trans
nitted direct to him; that upon perusal his
royal highness found II to contain questions
relative to the order of the royal arch, which
could not under any circumstances, be dis
cusscd in tho grand lodge.n Note this last
paragraph well. Now in most II not all OF
the resolutions presented by the Pike men,
they craftily insert, that we decline TO enter
upon any discussion or Investigation regard-
lug the legitimacy of the several Scottish
Rite bodies,n etc. etc. Then they turn round
and declare the southern and northern bodies
to bs the only legitimate bodies. Now will
any honest man tell me how master mason
or anyone else Is to decide between us, with
out Investigation and discussion. If the
master masons arc to Judge us, then they
must first hear the evidence; If they decline
to hear the evidence, or IN other words, to
| do what the Pike members do not want them
| to do, namely, investigate, then they must
| not Judge us.
most ssssS appeal .oep to %assT pssss
as master masons, and to put
| themselves in the place of the Cerneau
| members, and ask themselves this question,
| Is this matter brought before grand lodges,
| in the interest of the blue lodges or IN the
| interest of a rite entirely foreign to
| them, aud in the interest of illgiti-
mate bodies trying to defeat rival
body, and the only legitimate one in
the United Statcsl Master mason, you who
| do not belong to any Scottish Rite, must set
| tie the question. Suppose your grand master
| should by ed'ct attempt to compel you TO do
| violence to your manhood and obligations, IN
| direct opposition to what you were most
| selemnly told before YOU became a mason
| Suppose your grand master was u member
| and agent of one Masonic Insurance com
| pany, which only takes master masons into
| membership, and that you belonged to
| another Masonic insurance company, with
| the same restriction as TO membership and
| that he was TO issue an edict compelling you
to withdraw from your company, and to join
| his on pam of expulsion! What would you
| think of such a mani Would you obey his
| order!
"Slaves may be so made and coerced, but
| men neverp'
Masons should not be deceived they
| should read all sides of the question,
| and look well into matters before deciding.
| ''rhe Pike men are making great fuss
about our sovereign grand commander visit
ing the college of rites on his visit to France
| in 1888. They try and make out that 1t was
the grand lodge section of the grand orient
| which he visited He says not, and asks the
| very pertinent question, Cannot one Scot
tish Rite member visit another Scottish Rite
member, even although the grand lodges
have interdicted master masons from visiting
blue lodges under the obedience of the
| grand orientl If Brother Gorgas visited the
grand orient or blue lodge (as master
| mason) why does not his lodge or the grand
lodge prefer charges against him! Is not
this the same old scheme of Pixies men to
tIa
words grand orient!" Now do you see
through their scheme! If Gor"as has done
wrong, it is no reason why and all the other
members of our order should be punished
for his fault Gf any. Why is 1t that these
late turn-coats from our order should wait
until now, before denouncing the acts They
knew it in June, 1885, ,as well as they do now
1t is because they were sore-headed over
fanced sights and were more easily manlp-
| ulated by the Pike men.
| The grand orient, in its relations to the
| several degrees, is not easily understood,
hence it is easy for Pike men to state the
affair in such Il manner as to place Brother
| Gorgas in bad light. Now, Brother Cor
gas states that ne visited the council of de-
| liberation of the college of rites of the grand
orient; that his visit related to Scottlsh kite
masonry only, and that he refused to visit q
| symbolic lodge in Paris, and that the rela-
tions of our body with the grand college OF
rites in France are those of one Scottish Rite
body with another, and are wholly lndepend-
|
his letter, gives this visit of Brother Gorgas
as his reason for withdrawing, and gives the
names of the grand orient officers and OF the
members of the council of the order; also,
the officers of the grand college of rites.
Some of the brethren are officers OF the
grand orient well as officers OF the college
Of rites, which is the Scottish Rite body, and
| this, he SAYS, shows beyond controversy that
they are members of ana owe allegiance to
the grand orient. Was there ever such a
shallow protest given for such traitorous
| proceeding! Cannot Il brother be an oficer
in the Blue lodge in the chapter, i'll the COM
mandery and the Scottish Rite body at the
same time! Why, you see it is done right
here all the time Now the sovereign grand
commander of the grand college OF
a blue lodge; he must be u
member or he could not be a Scottish Rite
Mason, that is very certain. knights
Templar in Iowa, we will suppose, commit
| some offense and all the knights TemplarS
in the United States are lnterdicted from Wis
| iting in Iowa. or an Iowa knight Gemplar
from visiting outside of Iowa, does this af-
feet any other body than the knights
Royal Arch Masons of any state could visit
lodges chapters in Iowa unless prohibited
by their several grand bodies. AT present
France. but Royal Arcn Masons or Scottish
Rite Masons could. This is very plain,
brethren, "The truth is mighty and must pre-
| yail.n We realize that our obligations as
master maSOnS anu as Penlle!ueu, prGCIuuc
us from calling the Pike members (who are
also brother master masons) liars, dead
beats, impostors. renegades, etc, as Albert
Pike and nearly all of his followers north
and south viciously call US, but we will en-
deavor to exercise brotherly love, relief and
truth and leave the result in the hands
Of the Supreme Grand Master of the
universe If Pike and his followers choose
to call us names and bear false witness
against us, they must reconcile such conduct
with their own consciences if they can. We
remember that mo contention should ever
arise among mason5, save that noble emula-
tion of who can best work who best agree.''
CERNEAU 33 ?
A. q, u. w.
Union Pacific lodge, No. IL, will celebrate
its sixth anniversary on Monday, September
30, by giving public entertainment. Invita-
tions will be extended to members of the