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Short Talk Bulletin Vol 04 No 07
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.IV July, 1923 No.7
MASON'S FLAG
by: Unknown
In the charge to an Entered Apprentice each of us has been told:
"In the state, you are to be a quiet and peaceful subject, true to
your government, and just to your country; you are not to countenance
disloyalty or rebellion, but patiently submit to the legal authority,
and conform with cheerfulness to the government of the country in
which you live."
The second, third and fourth charges, to which all Masters must
assent before being permitted to assume the Oriental Chair, are as
follows:
"You agree to be a peaceable citizen, and cheerfully to conform to
the laws of the country in which you reside."
"You promise not to be concerned in plots and conspiracies against
government, but patiently to submit to the law and constituted
authorities."
"You agree to pay a proper respect to the civil magistrates; to work
diligently, live creditably, and act honorably toward all men."
In the ninth charge an elected Master agrees: "To promote the general
good of society, to cultivate the social virtues and propagate the
knowledge of the Mystic Arts."
None who hear these charges need to be reminded of the assurances
given them prior to their first obligation, regarding the allegiance
all owe to their country.
These matters are here rehearsed that all may recall that Masonry is,
actively and ritualistically, a supporter of established government;
those who wish further assurances may read all the Old Charges of a
Freemason for themselves, particularly the first; "Concerning God and
Religion" and second, "Of the Civil Magistrate, Supreme and
Subordinate."
A good citizen is not necessarily a Mason, but no indifferent citizen
can possibly be a good Mason. The unpatriotic Mason is an
impossibility, as much so as "Dry Water, or "Black Sunlight."
One hundred and fifty years ago this month our forefathers declared
that inasmuch as all men are created free and equal, they and their
descendants shall always be free and independent. they set up their
own government, these men who brought a new idea of government into
the world, and they fashioned that new idea of the very stuff from
which Masonry is made; aye, they cut the cloth of the flag from the
garments of Freemasonry and with every stitch which put a star in its
field of blue, they sewed in a Masonic principle of "Right,
Toleration and Freedom of Conscience." They declared against tyranny
and oppression, and they pledged their all - wealth, comfort,
position, happiness and life itself - to maintain and support this
revolutionary declaration that men are free and have a right to
govern themselves.
This is neither the time nor the place to read again the inspiring
story of the Revolutionary War, of the privations and problems of
those early days, of the power which was Washington and the fire
which was Jefferson. But, in this, the anniversary month of the
birth of this nation, all Masons may well pause for a moment in their
busy lives to think of what Masonry teaches of citizenship and
patriotism.
Ours is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the
people." All have an equal share in it; one man's vote is as big and
as powerful as the vote of another. But we do not always remember
that there is no right in all the world, whether having its origin in
God or in man, which does not bring with it a corresponding duty. We
have, so we proclaim, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness; therefore, we cannot escape the duty of seeing to it that
our fellowmen have the same right. In 1776 we declared that we were
free and equal of right; we thereby assumed the duty of maintaining
that contention before all the world; the duty of fighting for what
we claimed, no matter whom the opponent might be.
All battles are not fought with shot and shell, and not all opponents
of our idea of liberty wear the robes of George the Third. We have a
never-ending conflict with the forces of indifference, of selfishness
and of ignorance; forces which are just as powerful and just as able
to destroy this nation and this government as the armed force of men
and guns which any nation or group of nations could bring against us.
It is against these that the good citizen must always be in arms,
these which the true Mason is always willing to fight and to conquer,
even if it be himself he must first meet in conflict.
Any American citizen will resent with all the force of his being any
attempt at disenfranchisement. His vote is own; his inalienable
right, guaranteed to him under the constitution, the very heart and
soul of his Americanism. But the vote is not only a guaranteed and
inalienable right, it is a solemn duty. If all have this right, and
none use it, there can be no government (of the people). If all have
the right and only a minority use it, we have a government by the
minority of the majority. Then what becomes of our boast that this
government is "By The People?" The Mason who does not go to the
polls and register his voice, no matter how small a part of the world
it may be, not only gives up voluntarily the right for which hundreds
of thousands of patriots fought, bled and died for, but dodges his
solemn duty to the State in failing to live up to that Charge which
admonishes him to be "True To His Government and Just To His
Country."
Injustice was the underlying reason, the foundation stone on which
all the other reasons rested, which caused men to rebel against the
English King, and declare themselves independent. Taxation without
representation; the feeling that they were being exploited; that the
millions of subjects of the King, loyal and true to the ideals of the
Mother-Country as they knew themselves to be, were but pawns in a
game in which George the Third played with human destinies for purely
selfish reason; these were the bitter dregs of the cup held to the
lips of the colonists, which they could not swallow.
Injustice, inhumanity, the exploitation of the weak by the strong,
the oppression of the helpless by authority, the enslavement of men's
bodies or their souls by force - these are anathema to Americans.
And so our legal structure, our courts and out ideals of justice are
all so arranged and used that every possible protection is thrown
about a man who must stand before his fellows, accused of wrong-
doing, lest injustice be done.
At the very root of our system of justice is the jury system. But
what a mockery a "Jury of his Peers" often becomes! When it is a
mockery, it is because we, who would fight to the death under a
waving Flag of Stars and Stripes rather than let an enemy have one
inch of our sacred soil, often turn away from the call to jury duty
and allow selfish pleasure, indifference and personal convenience to
keep us from doing our share in the administration of that justice,
to promote that for which this nation was born.
A jury-serving citizen may not be a Mason, but no real Mason who
obeys the teachings of our great Fraternity will not let anything
less potent and important than his duty to his family cause him to
"Beg Off" from jury service, or try to dodge his share in the
administration of that justice which we proclaim is "For All."
It is a proud Masonic boast that politics is not discussed in lodge
rooms, and that Masonry is not a power politically. But the boast is
and should be true only when the word "Politics" and "Politically"
are used in the narrow, partisan sense. Masons cannot be, in their
lodge rooms, "Republicans" or "Democrats." But Masons can and should
take a most earnest interest in the political activities of the
nation as a whole and cast their votes and raise their voices for
those moments which are for the benefit of all.
Particularly is this true of the public school system.
The "Little Red School House," which so well served the forefathers
of this nation, is rapidly passing; the consolidated school, the
better city and town schools with new and better methods of
transportation are taking its place. But only the form of the
building and the quality of the teaching have changed; the underlying
idea is the same. And for that idea Masons have always stood firm,
and must always stand four-square.
Though our Declaration of Independence asserts that men (people) are
created free and equal, we know that no power of government can keep
them equal. Different people, different minds; different people,
different characters. All government can do and all it should do
towards preservation of equality is to assure equality of
opportunity. And that is what the public school system does,
provides an equality of opportunity by which the high and the low,
the rich and the poor, the clever and the stupid, may have equal
chances to drink from the fountain of knowledge, equal chances to
become well informed men and women, equal opportunity to rise to the
top!
With some of our greatest leaders coming from log cabins, no one in
all the world can say this nation does not practice what it preaches.
The highest gift in the hands of the nation can be and has been given
to a son of plain people, and will again. That equality of
opportunity today has its beginnings in our public school systems.
The Mason who is not interested in those schools, whether or not his
children attend them, the Mason who is not alert to prevent
encroachments upon the system, which some organizations continually
attempt; the Mason who is not a self-constituted watch-dog of
juvenile freedom and the child's right to the best education that
State can provide, has little right to wear the Square and Compasses,
and none to answer "Well!" when in some far-off day a Great Judge
shall ask him, "How Did Ye With Your Obligation as a Freemason?"
Over your head, and mine, waves the most beautiful Flag in all the
world. Its red is the red of the blood shed by selfless men, for the
establishment and the preservation of the Union. Its blue is the
blue of the sky, a symbol of limitless opportunity; the blue of Blue
Lodge Masonry, which first raised the flag aloft and whose hands have
held it high for one hundred and fifty years. Its White Stars and
Stripes symbolize purity; the purity of aim, purity of ideals, purity
of intentions and purity of purpose to sacrifice for the common good.
Let us keep the red unspotted; let us maintain the blue as loyally as
we maintain the sacred institution under whose letter "G" we meet
together; and let us, one and all, from the Worshipful Master in the
East, to the youngest entered Apprentice in the Northeast Corner of
the Lodge, keep the white unspotted, that the government "Of The
People, By The People and For The People Shall Not Perish From The
Earth!"
