GRAND REPRESENTATIVES.

The following report was submitted and adopted :

To the Grand Chapter:

The undersigned Committee, to whom was referred the portions of the Grand High Priest's address and Grand Secretary's report touching Grand Representatives, beg leave to recommend approval of all commissions issued to and from other Grand Jurisdictions, and that those recently accredited to this Grand Chapter are cordially received and greeted, and that their commissions be duly recorded.

Fraternally submitted,

W. W. ROBESON,
W. J. STOCKETT,
W. S. FARMER,

ELECTION OF GRAND OFFICERS.

Committee.

The Grand Chapter then proceeded to the election of Grand OfficersComps. A. T. Benedict and C. L. Schleet being appointed as tellersresulting as follows:

....

Aberdeen ...Grand King.

Lexington....Grand Scribe.

COMP. WM. G. PAXTON Vicksburg. Grand Treasurer.
COMP. J. L. POWER.... .Jackson ...... Grand Secretary.
COMP. REV. J. A. B. JONES.Canton

....Grand Chaplain.

...Grand Lecturer.

. Grand Captain of the Host. Grand Principal Sojourner.

COMP, T. B. FRANKLIN ..Columbus .... Grand Royal Arch Captain.. COMP. A. M. HICKS.... Myrleville.... Grand Master 3d Vail.

COMP. NOLAN STEWART....Jackson ...... Grand Master 2d Vail.

COMP. J. F. DIXON .

COMP. HENRY STRAUSS.

..Natchez ...Grand Master 1st Vail.
...Jackson

...Grand Sentinel.

REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE.

The following report was submitted and adopted:

To the Grand Chapter:

Your Finance Committee, to which was referred the reports of Grand Treasurer and Grand Secretary, fraternally submit, that they have carefully examined said reports and find them correct.

We recommend that the expense account of Grand Tyler, amounting to $32.25, and including the usual appropriation for his services, be allowed. Fraternally submitted.

E. G. DELAP,
J. C. FRENCH,
JOEL A. HEARNE,
Committee.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CAPITULAR LAW.

The following majority and minority reports were submitted: To the Most Excellent, the Grand Chapter:

Your Committee on Capitular Law fraternally beg leave to submit the following majority and minority reports:

The following question was submitted during the year by the High Priest of Walker Royal Arch Chapter, No. 28:

Some of the members of our Chapter want to get dimits without paying any dues.

I ruled that dues must be paid up to the time dimits are granted. Was my ruling correct?

Answer-By the majority of the Committee-Yes.

In

And we submit a few reasons in support of our view of the case. the first place, it seems that there is no specific Regulation of the Grand Chapter upon the main point really at issue in this case-that is, as to whether dues are paid at the end of the year just closing or in advance for the year that is to come. We think they are paid for the current year just closing. For instance, dues for 1895 are to be paid on or before the regular monthly Convocation in December, 1895, instead of at the December, 1894, convocation for the year that is to be, if it ever comes.

Now if we are right upon this point our decision, in this case, must be correct, and the ruling of the H. P. of Walker Chapter will be sus-tained.

Suppose we try to work out a case under the operation of the advance pay theory.

Companion A. was a member of Walker Chapter, No. 28, in December, 1893 Said Chapter sent up A's dues of $1.00, together with the dues of the other members for the year 1893, to the Grand Chapter, which met in February, 1894.

Everything moves on smoothly until Decomber, 3, 1894, when Companion A takes his dimit without paying any dues. The returns of Walker Chapter for the year 1894, made to the Grand Chapter in February, 1895, would of course show no dues from Comp. A.

At the February meeting of Walker Chapter, in 1895, Comp. A reaffiliates with the Chapter and continues in full fellowship, until the December meeting, 1895, when he again dimits, and so on ad infinitum. Now, pray tell us, under such a state of things, where would the Grand Chapter get its funds from? and for that matter, from whom would the Subordinate Chapters collect dues with which to meet its current expenses?

Futhermore, it seems to us those paying dues simply pay for rights and privileges that they are enjoying, or which they have already enjoyed, so far as the mere money consideration enters into the matter. Whereas, upon the other theory, i. e.. the pay-in-advance plan, members would be required to pay for something which they had never been benefitted by, and perhaps never would be.

One generation cannot, according to any method of reasoning known to us, be taxed to pay the current expenses of a succeeding generation. And so it is with all organizations of men, Freemasons as well as other classes. Hence the members of a Chapter one year cannot properly, or fairly, be required to provide means to support perhaps quite a different membership the succeeding year.

We report that we find no law of the Grand Chapter that sustains the idea that dues are collected for the succeeding year instead of the present or closing year.

Section 33, Regulations, says, "Every member shall pay an annual contribution at the meeting when the officers are elected."

But it fails, you see, to state that this payment is for the succeeding year. If it had been so intended, why did not our wise law-makers put it, like they did in the preceding section 32. in regard to fees? Listen, "Fees shall be paid in cash in advance."

Now, we think, as our law-makers did, that there is quite a difference between fees and dues.

Fees are to be paid by an outsider to get in, who perhaps could not be trusted to pay after getting in. He might not like it--hence is not to be trusted.

Dues, on the contrary, are to be paid by those who are already members and consequently trustworthy.

Again: See Section 34, Regulations: The Secretary shall, on or before election day, notify every member of his dues." What! owe dues December 1st, when he has already paid up to December 27th. See same section. "Should he allow his dues to remain unpaid, * * he shall not

be allowed to vote," etc.

Again, we exclaim, What! Condemned and punished for something he is to do, or that he may fail to do in the future?

We are aware of the fact that the law does not require Subordinate Chapters to pay dues to Grand Chapter, except for members whose names are on the roll on St. John's Day. But this law does not say, nor does it in our judgment imply, that Subordinate Chapters are prohibited from collecting dues from those who dimit during the year, to the time of their withdrawal, for the use of the Chapter in paying its current expenses to said date. Such a law would be manifestly unjust to the remaining members, and its workings would not be even that of good citizenship, much less good Freemasonry.

If there is such a Regulation in our Statutes, we think it ought to be repealed, and one adopted in its stead which would secure justice to all concerned. And the sooner the better. We believe that those who dance should pay the fiddler.

Now in regard to Section 59, of the Regulations, which says that "where the laws of the Grand Chapter are silent, the laws of the Grand Lodge in an analagous case, shall govern the Chapter," etc. It will readily be seen that the action of the Grand Lodge of 1893, does not apply to the case under consideration.

The Grand Lodge in 1893, simply says "that dues are payable annually on St. John's Day ***, and that the Grand Lodge does not exact dues from a Lodge for those who dimit between the last and ensuing festivals."

Now there is no question about this being the law of the Grand Lodge, and also of the Grand Chapter, under said Section 59, as to what either one of these Grand Bodies exact from their Subordinates in the matter of Grand Lodge or Grand Chapter funds.

But this is not the question propounded to the Law Committee. The question is: "Some members of Walker Chapter want to get dimits (not from the Grand Chapter but from Walker Chapter.) "without paying any dues."

"I ruled (as H. P. of Waker Chapter), that dues to (Walker Chapter) must be paid up to the time dimits are granted. Was my ruling correct?" So we, the majority of the Committee, maintain that the question of Grand Chapter dues is not the one submitted to us, and that the real question is, as to whether or not members of a Subordinate Chapter, after enjoying all the rights and privileges of same, for almost an entire year, have a right to withdraw therefrom without paying their pro rata of the lawful expenses of the Chapter up to the time of their leave-taking. We say, pay your share of the expenses, and depart in peace. Fraternally submitted to the Grand Chapter.

MINORITY REPORT.

J. Y. MURRY,

J. K. MCLEOD.

The Chairman fraternally dissents from the opinion of his esteemed Companions of the Committee. There is no question in all Masonry

which has occasioned so much anxiety and been the source of so much evil as the question of dollars and cents. It is the Banqu's ghost that will never down; it obtrudes itself on every occasion. It has bred disorders innumerable, disrupted bodies and alienated brethren. There are two radically opposite opinions prevailing regarding the payment of the contribution which each member is required to make to the support of bodies to which he belongs-one which has its roots deep buried in the soil of fraternity, and the other grows and thrives in the arid soil of the desert, and like it, brings forth, only flowers armed with innumerable thorns. To borrow an illustration from a recent story writer: "we might as well lay out to shake hands with a cactus and set down and give our time to digging out the prickles," as to attempt to deal satisfactorily with it. It is charged against Grand Bodies that they wind the rope of mercinariness, tighter and tighter round the Craft at each session, and that the object for which they seem to exist is to devise ways and means for extorting more and more money out of their victims. The charge is, of course, not altogether a true cne, but it has a grain of the sand of truth in it, especially to those who only know them through the tax-gatherers which levy contributions for their sustenance. It seems to me that the money idea is more prevalent in Masonry each year. I am sure that since the thousand and one fraternal societies which have sprung up in recent years at every four corners of the land, like Jonah's gourds in a night, to perish in a day, the money consideration has taken a more severe aspect with us and the tendency is towards the pay-in-so-much, to draw-out so much, idea, and the injunction "if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen into decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him," is losing its force, for it is either "pay or get out." We go on initiating candidates for the fees and drive them into non-affiliation in a few years by this incessant demand for money. Formerly, before the semi-insurance-mutual-aid-associations, it was thought expedient to collect dues once a year, but now there are those who want to count the fractions of a year, and to turn them into monthly payments, and at this rate of progress we will soon have it down to a weekly basis.

My colleagues have mistaken the spirit of our laws, which were designed to create as little friction as possible and to dispense with a complicated system of book-keeping, and therefore they speak only of "annual payments, to be made at a fixed time, viz: "at the stated convocation at which the officers are elected"; which does not mean once a month, or once a week, but just what it says, once in each year, once for an entire year, and when a member has paid the sum previously agreed upon in his Chapter, he owes nothing until the next stated convocation at which the officers are elected. It was not intended to keep the Chapter in an uproar all the year round, or to have the Secretary incessantly running round dunning everybody for their dues. The plan is simplicity itself: one payment in each year to be made at a fixed time, or if you are unable to pay, to be wiped off the slate and a fresh start made: one entry in the books each year, "paid" or "remitted." We all know each member of our Chapters who are able to pay and those who ought to have their dues remitted, and instead of all this eternal worry over a few cents, more or less, if we would only follow the plan our forefathers made for us and have the annual settlement instead of this disrupting business of attempting to screw the last cent out of everybody, whether they are able to pay or not, whether their children have bread and warm clothing and are shod and schooled, or are hungry and ragged and barefooted and ignorant, there would be more real Masonry. I would not give a snap of my finger for all the Masonry to be found in a Chapter which has the almighty dollar always in view; which says to the departing Companion, you can't go until you have paid up to the last fraction. A man had better pay something for the privilege of getting out of such a set of mercenaries.

So much for the sentiment, and now a word as to the law of the case. When one is exalted he pays a good round fee, which, whether he enters in June or December, puts him square on the books until the first annual payment falls due, that is to say, the November or December Convocation, when he pays just as all the rest of the members do, a full year's dues: if he dimits in the next June, he owes nothing, because he has really paid a year in advance. Section 33 of the Regulations for the government of Chapters, is too plain to admit of a doubt as to what it means. It says, "Every member shall pay an annual contribution of such an amount as the Chapter may, from time to time, determine, by a resolution to that effect, but when once fixed the amount of such contribution shall not be altered to take effect during the current Masonic year. The annual contribution shall be paid at the stated Convocation at which the officers are elected, and prior to the election." Now mark the words, an "annual contribution," not one aggregating so much annually. Now that's every word we have about the payment of dues, except the provision relating to those who can pay, but will not, and the release of those whose circumstances do not admit of their paying. Nothing, nothing whatever, to hang a shred upon about monthly payments; and why, simply because that law was made before the Knights of this, that and the other, had taught us the bad trick of wringing every dollar and cent we can out of the brotherhood. If my associates are correct in their views, they have got to make law and not construe it, and in my judgment, that's not the function of this committee. But as they have made the question to suit themselves, it ought not to be a difficult task to make a little law. The question they were asked to answer was, "Some of the members of Walker Royal Arch Chapter, No. 28, want to get dimits without paying any dues, saying that no dues are due until the 27th of December. Of course they could not obtain dimits if they had paid no dues, but having paid them until the 27th of December, they were square of the books and entitled to dimits as a matter of absolute right, and in my humble judgment, there is no respectable court on earth that would not so construe the contract to mean just what it says, an annual payment, and not a payment aggregating so much each year, and that when it has once been paid, there is nothing else due until the next annual payment falls due, regardless of when they dimit.

The Grand Lodge had this identical question before it in 1893. See page 48 of the proceedings. The question there was "What dues are owing from a member who dimits before the expiration of the year?" and the answer was that there was none, and the reason given was that there was no provision of law warranting monthly payments or the computtaion of the fractions of the year. The one who had paid at the last annual communication of the Lodge had paid until the next annual meeting.

As to the practical results from the working of the law as stated by my colleagues: they present as an illustration a contingency which might happen, but which it is exceedingly improbable will ever happen, and proceed to build a card castle upon it, which a breath will blow to the four winds, and the place thereof will be known no more. Where are we going to get our money from, is their cry, to which I say, appropriate that of the poor fellows who dimit before the expiration of the year for which they paid in advance. We have nothing to do with the next generation and can safely leave them to keep their own house, but what concerns us is this present year, the year we have paid our dues for. The next generation, if it follows in the mercenary footsteps of the Knights of Accumulation. will probably know nothing akin to Masonry, but will be adepts in the art of skinning the uttermost farthing out of its unlucky victims: but while we are the responsible pilots of the good old ship "Masonic," let us sail it over the course laid down upon the charts our