HELP FOR LOCAL PUBLICATIONS From personal contact, personal experience and personal choice I have been able to accumulate some information concerning the workings of the average man-loved country Masonic paper-so termed because there are so many of them and there is something so pathetic, so encouraging, so excruciatingly funny, so heroic, so wise, so sympathetic, so Masonic in them that, after we have noted the brief period of existence of so many of them, and come across one who blushingly heralds its eleventh birthday, still holding up its head and telling us that it enjoys a goodly share of friendship and prosperity-as does the Scottish Rite Bulletin, of Louisville, Ky.-does not scold the fraternity for non-support or recognition, and thanks them for letting it live, I am of the opinion that either an angel has descended into our midst, or the brethren of Kentucky are a discriminating body Masonic, and good judges of

more than one good thing.

My Louisville ideas have been largely formed by the genial Secretary General -who doesn't spell his name as he wants it pronounced-the Louisville choir with its sweet music which I yet hear, a daughter-in-law who left Louisville to civilize the Scandinavians of Minnesota, a delightfully mild-mannered Morgan Raider of the old "gentleman of the South" type, and an apotheosis. of the Daughters of the Southern Confederacy in propria persona. My

Louisville Masonic ideas must therefore be mixture out of which it would be difficult to form an idea of the people who make it possible for the editor of a Masonic publication to write as he does, and then, after an existence of eleven years, with his scissors still shining, to be modest enough to say

that his paper "is only half as good as we wish it were. Excelsior is our motto, and we will not be content or satisfied until we can furnish a bulletin that will reach the topmost rung of Masonic literature. We believe that Scottish Rite Masonry merits a truly first-class magazine, and our ambition is to supply it." Within this quotation are contained all the elements and potencies which will bring about the object of the ambition.

It is just such Scottish Rite publications as the Bulletin that, contributing the information and furnishing the inspiration, have made it possible for made and is making, and still preserve the Rite to make the strides it has its dignity and standing.

Like all other editors the Bulletin strikes the snags of lack of cooperation in obtaining local news of a proper Masonic character. Some lodges are, seemingly, very much annoyed if any infinitely more so if no notice at all is mention is made of their doings, but given; and yet it is most difficult to secure the cooperation of any of its members in sending in such notices. The secretaries seem to be entirely out of the question; they used to be the source of all authority and information; but now, since a great many of them. are receiving wages and have joined the Union, they are mere bookkeepers and minute keepers, and I have found little satisfaction in securing lodge informa

tion from them. Evidently this is the

case with the Bulletin because it prints an appeal which concisely states the need, and politely asks for assistance. With the disposition of the editors and the readiness of the brethren to appreciate a good thing, there is little doubt. that the highest hopes, as mentioned. above, will be realized; and I congratu

late the Bulletin on its standing and prospects. The clipping applies to all Masons and Masonic publications everywhere, and suggests what the individual Mason can do to help his local paper.

Correspondence is invited on all subjects relating to Freemasonry which may be properly published. There are many of the Masonic brethren who have a full knowledge of pressing questions which are uppermost in the minds of the members of the Craft suitable for serious discussion, and who can, by lending their cooperation, make the Scottish Rite Bulletin more valuable.

The pages of the Bulletin are open to all who have a genuine desire to promote the welfare of Scottish Rite Masonry and Masonry in general.

Communications from secretaries of lodges, students of the History of Freemasonry, or those who have items of interest and reports of current events will be especially welcome. The editor, although accepting no responsibility for the opinions expressed by correspondents, distinctly reserves the right to publish a portion of a letter and omit any part he does not consider interesting or essential.

All anonymous reports and letters of a personal nature will be withheld.

MASONIC RAPID TRANSIT

When Dame Nature has a job on hand she makes a thorough success of it, but she takes her own time; and, having all there is of it, she is very deliberate in her movements. A high level is to be cut down; the rain begins to wash down the loose stuff; chemical distintegration softens other parts; if in cold regions, frost aids materially, and in the course of time the hill is transformed into a level plain; but all who saw the beginning of the work have been dead so many thousands of years that there is no recollection of them. Today a hill is to be cut down; along comes the same water, but back of it is a pressure of hundreds of pounds, and the man who began the job may be able to celebrate its completion, or, if in a hurry, enough of high explosives will be used in connection with the water to insure the demolition of the unnecessary hill between meals.

We are cutting down the hill of ignorance concerning Scottish Rite philosophy today by the dynamite process, say some of the good old

brethren who deplore any progress along such lines, forgetting that if Masonry is a progressive institution it must be so evenly and harmoniously in its parts, or an undue strain would be placed on the different factors which cooperate to secure the greatest efficiency.

We believe in the infinite progressive ability of Masonry, and as our capacity for realization and understanding increases; as we can find or make accessories to aid in that understanding; as human intelligence becomes more keen and receptive; as we can bring into service all our senses instead of but one we can make quicker advances and assimilate and absorb the impressions through which we add to our understanding. I am not afraid of too speedy an increase in membership, provided we do not try to exceed the "speed limit" set by our human capacity, and do not base our estimate of progress on numbers alone.

It might be well for us to look back and see along what lines we have been traveling, not for government but for guidance. In the Grand Constitution of 1762, published by the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, in 1859, we find an example of the "time limit,' as against the "speed limit" of today. The degrees of the Rite of Perfection, including the Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason, were divided into seven classes, which include the entire twenty-five degrees of the Rite.

This division was accompanied by a minimum time in which the degree might legally be secured, and a "limit" set on the time that must elapse before passing from one division to the next. For instance, it took fifteen months to become a Master Mason; then from the Master to the Secret Master three months were consumed; from the fourth to the fifth, three months; from the fifth to the sixth, three months; from the sixth to the seventh, five months; from the seventh to the eighth, seven months, making twenty-one months in all; and to arrive at the twenty-fifth degree from that of the apprentice, took the candidate eighty-one months.

We do not know just how they conferred degrees, but from the use of the term "communicated" and a knowledge of the condition of some of the prePike-Mackey-Ladebat degrees, I am of the impression that the degrees were "communicated" in the literal sense of the word, thus bringing into play but one of our senses, that of hearing; and the degrees were not developed, as they are today, in a manner which would impress the mind without laborious effort. It is therefore no wonder they required eighty-one months for the time limit method of teaching. Remember, also, that this for only twenty-five degrees; that eventually the Supreme Council which grew out of this one by virtue of the Constitutions of 1786, forever fixed the number of degrees at thirty-three, with, as far as I can find out, the eighty-one months "time limit" still in force.

The subject is not of sufficient importance to spend much time in tracing the increase of the "speed limit," and the decrease of the "time limit," but in 1866 the statutes provided a period of two years between the fourteenth and the thirty-second; but the "time limit" had been decreased somewhat before that; how long before I do not know. In 1878 a further reduction was made to twenty-one months. In the report of the committee of 1893 on the Revision of the Statutes it is recommended that all delays in taking the degrees be dispensed with. The report was referred back to the committee, but in the Statutes of 1897 we find that, in Section 9, the statutory delays are no longer obligatory.

One of the main reasons for this action was the growing practice of working the degrees in classes; to this I might add the increased attention. attention given to the working of all degrees in classes, reunions, or at regular meetings; the sense of sight was being brought into service and, as the years moved on, Brother Rosenbaum with his stage and accessories showed us what they would add to the impressing machinery. Then Duluth, with its organ and music suited to each phase of the degrees and

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blending in as a portion of them, added another factor, until today we do not need any eighty-one months to make as firm and lasting an impression, to clinch the knowledge absorbed by the candidate through the senses of both hearing and seeing, as it was possible for those of 1800 to accomplish in a lifetime.

Some of it may be superficial, but the healthy and the essential seeds are sown in fertile soil, and I am of the opinion that we are making as nearly perfect Scottish Rite Masons now as there were before, a few giants excepted; the reason so few seem to be standing out very prominently nowadays is because there are a greater number to choose from; it requires a veritable big giant to be noticed in the company of so many other giants. But there are Masonic giants even in these days, and they are products of these conditions and, thanks to those who have preceded them of this generation, better adapted to the work of these days than the older ones would have been had they been able to continue the old methods in such active, high pressure, quick thinking and vigorous acting times as the present.

After all is it not all summed up in the allowable basic formula, "in fundamental essentials unity, in nonessentials progress?" We are as good Masons today as any that ever existed, but we are showing it in a different manner. Would any of you want to see the return of the late eighteenth century Masonry, its ideals and practices? Today we are overflowing with the spirit of Masonry, the vigor of its inspiration; unfortunately a great deal of energy is undirected, or misguided, misdirected energy, and we are drifting into vain frivolity and waste of time and money which could be expended to better advantage; we are engaged in pandering to our own selfish or commonplace ideas of sociability or what we mistakenly think constitutes rational amusement. In my opinion this condition will blow itself out as all such mistaken ideas and vagaries do, and with a return of Masonic sanity we