The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-01-17
TOTAL OF MASONS
now l,35S,792 IN
united States
First Report of Its Kind of Interest
to the Fraternity.

|
ohited states? was asked this morn
ing of w M. Conner, of this city,
Grand Master of Masons in the State
of Mississippi.
Mr.. Corners face lighted I'D in a
moment. He has been busy for sew
eral weeks preparing his address and
report for the year, which will be sub
mltted at the coming Grand Lodge
session to be held in Gulfport, Feb. 81.
AT this session the 400 lodges of Mis-
Slsslppl will be represented by that
number of masters of lodges, while
the total attendance, including past
masters, grand lodge officers and
subordinate officers will reach fully
700 or even $50.
First Report Known.
Your question brings out a curious
fact" said Mr.. Conner. You nor any
other Mason that know of, has ever
seen an accurate or anywhere near
accurate report of the combined mem
bership of all the grand lodges in the
United States. A few times l have
seen estimates, but these were always
inaccurate and hazy. There are one
and one-third million Master MasonS !
in the United States today.
"A few days ago I received a
pamphlet, a real case of a work of
love, it was written by Junior Grand
Deacon Alexander B. Andrews, Jr., of |
North Carolina. 1t came as a Christ
mas greeting and | prize it as one of |
the most valuable I have ever seen. |
By dint of correspondence with off |
GERS of each of the grand lodges, Bro.
Andrews gathered together a great |
mass of interesting data, the first l
know of in this line. When you recall
that each state has an independent
grand lodge, you can easily see there
was some work about it.
Data On All Orders.
Bro. Andrews carried out his work
% include all the branches, such as
Royal Arch Masons, Royal and Select
Masters, and Knights Templar. No
me, unless he has tried such a task,
an appreciate what patience and
ime it required.
"And then he presented it as
slight Christmas remembrance to his
rother Masons of the United States.
Many Tables of Interest.
There are several tables of interest
howing the proportion of Masons to
he population in each state. In the
United States, of every 100000 people,
,454.56 are Master Masons, while
lere are but 213.15 Knights Templar.
n Mississippi the ratio is 95219 for
Gaster Masons and 9O.31 for Knights
emplar.
There are 1858 Royal Arch Masons
l this state and 1,450 Knights Tenn ,
lar. In the United States the total
caches 351,145 Royal Arch Masons
nd 1S2,534 knights Templar.
There are 1860 Royal and Select
Lasters or Council Masons in this
ate, while in the United States there
re 91,7S0.
Orders Stronghold.
Maine has the largest proportion,
963.51 of every 100000 population.
tab has the lowest, 439.26. South
n States run below the average, be-
use of the large number of negroes. v
Intimate the negro population, the [
ito per 100000 of white population e
its the order in the lead over the T
iddle States. Ii
Louisiana shows the lowest, 1850, Il
lille Kentucky leads the South, l. IL
1877. Remember, these figures are d
e proportion to each 100000 of the
ates total population, according to
e 1910 census.
knights Templar lead in Vermont,
LEO and lowest in Louisiana, 50.S9;
though, North Carolina has only
.08. The South, however, is gaining
pidly in Templarism.
'Since no one can be a Royal Arch H
ason unless he is Master Mason
d cannot be Knight Templar until
has been made a Royal Arch
ason, you can understand why the
oportion of the Royal Arch Masons p
d knights Templar is so much low B
About 40 per cent of Royal Arch IL
asons in this state are Templars. In
the ratio is so per cent. In
yoming, 7S per cent became Tenn OF
ars, while in Pennsylvania, 81 per b,
Mt. II
New York has $4,000 Royal Arch BIZ
asons and 1873 Knights Templar, m
lille Pennsylvania has 29,030 Royal
oh Masons and 1851 Templars.
Over Million And Third.