government by the consent of the governed. Free it must needs be and as untrammeled as the wings of our eagle, as perfect a pattern for freedom as one could imagine.

Masonry had no rival then and has none now. The only way to conserve the rights of all the people is to keep country first always. If the Y. M. C. A. and Red Cross are engaged in such a crusade, let us give them of our Masonry, give them of our financial and the whole substance, of our moral support. That is where we should book our "stunts" for the "boys." The Y. M. C. A. and Red Cross take in any man who happens along! They do not care to know what particular habit he has been confirmed in. They shelter Germans at times. To again answer our complaining brother, I ask him to imagine a Masonry not broad enough to insist upon eliminating all signs or symbols of Masonry, upon any structure they might build near a battlefield as a shelter for men of all nations, all creeds, all colors. If such a structure were to be erected, or if such Masonry were to be found upon a battlefield, it would be unworthy of recognition by Masons. Did such a

459

house stand, my brother seeing it might stop to think that perhaps some good American, belonging to the Roman Catholic Church (American just the same), would not feel just right about accepting the hospitality of a haven built ostensibly, and maintained for, a favored class, by a certain aggregation of narrow-minded people! Let the brother stop to think of the fact that not all men are blessed with intelligent discrimination and might shrink from too close contact in the hour of trouble with a class they had always been assured was of itself evil! A Masonic sign over the door might stop a needy soul upon the threshold. and defeat the very object that Masonry stands for! We should wear no sign upon our houses intended for broad Masonic work, as a conscious reward for deeds of charity and love. toward our fellow. Let our hearts pay, if there be a reward for duty, other than the bare realization in new pledges of fealty to the cause. This consummation would be greater and more sacred, as far as our Masonry is concerned, than the display of a little compass and square could possibly be. If this is not all so, why the compass and square?

IT

T IS not altogether improbable that the last chapter in the old regime is being written. And how mightily is it being written! The sword is tracing in letters of blood the death warrant of that which was and is, and proclaiming that which is beginning and will be. The rapidity with which this is being brought about staggers the imagination even of those accustomed to the nervously sudden changes of the age.

That all great reforms have to be accomplished with fire, sword, suffering and a deluge of blood seems to be an historical necessity; but the remnant that emerges advances a degree towards civilization.

The world has been drawn into a conflict that means the birth of a new era. Instead of the aims of the leaders and perpetrators being realized the reverse has sprung into reality in every phase of the case. And how unconsciously, And how unconsciously, even from the beginning, have we labored to produce these results. Few men have been able to look far enough into the future to see what conditions would be produced by enforced vicissitudes of nations, periods, and philosophies: those who could, have been Deified and Sainted; but the great masses that have produced these results have followed a blind force that awakened in them unconsciously a habit of mind.

Our preparation for this era has been long and tedious. Our novitiate began with creation, and the trials we have passed through are but incidents in our education. The loss of a nest is a tragedy to the sparrow: the loss of a king a tragedy to the nation: the loss of a nation a calamity and an epoch marker to the world. The overthrow of a system of philosophy is attended by the pangs of readjustment and the birth of a new system is ushered in by revolution and the shedding of blood.

But what matter all of these?-they are merely incidents in the great scheme of things-but degrees in preparing mankind for a higher plane of life and the ushering in of a new regime that redounds to human happiness and fitness.

The going down into Egypt of Joseph and the subsequent bondage of the Hebrews in the land of Mitzraim, the captivity by Nebuchadnezzar; all were necessary that nations should become familiar with each other's gods and absorb that which was best and build thereon. They were preparations for something higher and nobler but were not realized at the time by the people themselves.

The rape of Belgium, the devastation of Poland, the dismemberment of Russia are likewise but incidents in the world-struggle for a change. We do not lay aside the old and take up the new without force and suffering to compel us. Our advancement comes through necessity and the keener we suffer the greater we react.

That the world will be better, that civilization will be nobler, that mankind will take its place "a little lower than the Angels" when the war clouds settle and a condition bordering on universal brotherhood obtains, none can deny. Whether it will be the culmination of our development and after this a backward swing of the pendulum, no one can prophesy; but at least, we will have attained a condition that fulfills the teachings of the Master.

That Masonry is playing a not altogether unconscious part in this role becomes more apparent as the scene shifts. Men, though at variance, have been drawn closer by the fraternalism. practiced by Masons. The fierce competition, the almost necessary resort to chicanery, even of brother with brother. in order to make a living, has been tempered by the vows of cooperation; and struggling on down the ages with

are convinced that the course she pursued was fundamentally wrong. The secondary question again is not the adequacy of the punishment which is to be visited upon the German nation, but what treatment of her in the terms of peace will be most likely to bring about her own reformation and re-establish her as an upright, self-respecting member of the international family; so that in the years to come she will conform to the dictates of humanity, and the higher laws which govern the relationships among men, not through the compulsion of fear, but because of the regeneration of her own ideals.

We are sending millions of men to Europe and many of the American people are deeply concerned for the morals of the soldier. He confronts new conditions, unusual surroundings and novel temptations, and many dangers exist because of these facts. The great danger to the American soldier, however, is not that his morals (as we generally use that term) may be corrupted. but that in the bitterness of the conflict, in the intensity of the struggle in which he participates, in the natural desire for vengeance which is aroused by the brutalities which he sees and of which he hears, in the necessity which exists for meeting brute force with brute force, his own moral sense shall be blunted and when he returns to us he shall have lost some of the finer sensibilities which enable him to apply to his individual life the principles of justice and right and brotherhood for which he is fighting. We would not have him fight otherwise; war is necessarily brutal and when he fights he must fight to win through every legitimate means; but in that very necessity lies a danger to himself and a price. which he may pay as a part of his sacrifice for his country. The great fact which we must ever keep before our eyes as individuals and as a nation is that victory in the war is a means to an end and not an end in itself, and that when the war is over it must still be our aim to attain through humanity and brotherhood the great ideals for the protection of which we have been

compelled, for the time being, to resort to the force of arms.

We hear much regarding profiteering, profiteering by capital and profiteering by labor. The essential evil of profiteering does not lie in the fact that it costs us money; we have the money and we can pay the price if we must pay it; it represents only a higher degree of sacrifice. The essential evil of profiteering is the danger that it may blunt our moral sense and that as time goes on the capitalist, the laborer and the average citizen shall feel that he is justified, for his own profit, in taking advantage of the necessities of his fellow men. All of these acts bring their indirect result upon the life of the nation just as the studied barbarity, the plundering, and international thefts of the German Empire are reflecting themselves in increased criminality. upon the part of the German citizens in numerous burglaries, in private acts of violence and in official corruption at home.

A short time ago I heard a French countess describe her work in relieving the destitute in France whose homes had been laid waste by the Hun. I was particularly interested in one incident which she related. She said that since the war broke out she had become the mother of thirty-one children. She had adopted thirty-one homeless Alsatian children, children of French descent, but who had been raised under German domination. She gathered these children together in a chateau and attempted to control them by kindness, but she found that her kindness struck no responsive chord. The only appeal to which they responded was brute force and she found it necessary to send to Paris for (as she expressed it) "a big Alsatian man" to control them. He came, but he proved unequal to the task, and she sent for another "big Alsatian man," but he also failed to control the children. She then sent for a third man and he was wise in his day and generation. He slept in the dormitory with the children, but he went to bed with his clothes on and carried a club with him, be

cause he knew that during the night he would need it to protect himself from the onslaught of these children. The only control they respected was the power of compulsion. But she said. that as time went on and she continued her efforts of kindness, the minds of the children expanded and in a very short time they learned the lesson that they should do certain things and abstain from doing others, not because they were compelled to pursue that course, but because it was right to do the one thing and it was wrong to do the other. The German government in rearing children in such an atmosphere committed a crime greater than if it had killed them in infancy. If the life of a child is cut off in infancy its spirit at least passes into the Great Beyond clean and with its moral sense unstunted. But to rear a child to respect only compulsion and force and to lose the power of self-control because of the dictates of right and wrong, is to dwarf its moral sense and to create an evil which will pass on to generations unborn; the child becomes an evil of itself and its generation and a crime against posterity.

The thing which is essential to the relations of men is faith in fellow men.

463

It is quite possible that today if we could trust Germany the nations of the would would sit together at a council table and conclude a peace which would be satisfactory to the belligerent nations and guarantee the future security of the world. Such a course, however. is impossible because she has forfeited every particle of our confidence in her good faith and her integrity. If you contemplate a business transaction with me and you ask my neighbor whether my word is good and he replies that I will keep my promise if it is in writing, you are not anxious to transact business with me. If you can avoid it, you do not care to deal with the man whom you cannot trust, who must be

watched, and whose word is not as

good as his bond.

The foundation of

all relations, whether individual or international, is good faith. It is the underlying characteristic of the great brotherhood of man, which is exemplified in the Masonic fraternity; it is the ideal which we must maintain before our eyes. If we succeed in establishing the principles of humanity and equality and food faith throughout the world, the war will be won, whatever may be the terms of peace. If we fail the war will be lost, however great may be the military victory.

ORESTES MITCHELL, President.

A. L. LOVING, Secretary.