The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-12-18

been urging him to cast his hat into
the ring as a candidate for the grand
mastership, and had carried the mat
ter so far as to attract the serious
attention of Brother Pelham. Broth
er Jones was not so aggressive him
self, but must have allowed his
friends to work with too little eau
ton. So, the n thing left for the
Grand Master and thing which years
proved him most capable of doing,
was to eliminate Jones by taking away
all or part of his opportunity for COM
ing into close contact with the lodges
and thus becoming more popular with
the brethren.
So from the Grand East came a quiet
little idea of this sort and it was
deemed advisable to stop the Jones
boom then and there. 1t was limited
to Brother A. r. Chinn that he might
be made Grand Secretary without the
Jones for the head of the order. Broth
er Ricketts,, who had returned fresh
from an absence of four years at
school, was also a Jones supporter.
Chinn was also nominated for Grand
Master but declined in favor of the
lions had ended Brother Jones for
some reason also declined, leaving
Grand Master Pelham to compete only
against Brother John w. Wheeler,
who stood pat and was beaten by a
majority nearly ten times as great
as the number of votes he received.
Brother Jones had simply been lured
away from a certainty and when it
came to filling the office of Grand
Secretary all the proxies and votes
held by the Grand Master and his
friends were thrown to Brother Chinn
and he was elected, thus for a few
years at least leaving Grand Master
Pelham in u%ndisputed possession of
the East.
William H. Jones had made a good
secretary, and his honesty as well
as his Masonic zeal stood far above
reproach, but he was too ambitious
and his friends were too Jealous. Read
a certain speech made in the Roman
Senate after the death of Caesar.
If a change in the office of Grand
Secretary must needs be made, no
better man could be found than was
A. R. Chinn. He possessed a rare de-
gree of energy, poise and modest du-
tifulness, and though within a very
short time afterward the Grand Mas
ter had reasOn to become quite jeal-
GUS of the rising power and popular
ity of his new Grand Secretary, he
was able to dislodge him, as
he had done other aspirants. Chinn
at this time was identified quite promi-
nently in a new organization which
had been instituted by Past Grand
Master Moses Dickson, and which had
spread with great rapidity over Mis-
souri, and neighboring states. 1t is
charged with a great deal of evident
reason that the Grand Master held
this out prominently before the Ma
sons as a dangerous state of affairs
and n that would result calamitous-
ly to the craft if Chinn should be fur
Their advanced. 1t was a political tao
tic all too iniquitous, but it worked
for a long time and sufficed for the
purposes intended.
The new office of relief secretary
was voted to Brother Amos Johnson,
a man of high intelligence. persistence
and who had the backing of the Grand
Master and his proxies.
Under the ~secretaryship of Amos
Johnson the relief department took on
a higher and more businesslike tone
and he justly earned the title of the
founder of the system which is now
operating so well.
Upon the urgent appeal made by
Brother Ricketts, the next meeting was
voted to Omaha.