Indiscriminate Charity

WE have so often offered remarks on the subject of Charity, that it would seem, at first sight, as if nothing’ remained for us to say in the way of fresh comment.

Certain opinions, however, that have been recently expressed in connection with a motion brought forward in Grand Lodge, and still under consideration for report at the next Quarterly Communication, induce us to turn to the matter yet again.

We have no intention of discussing now the merits of rival schemes for commemorating our Grand Master’s visit to India. As we have said already, it will be time enough for ns to assume the role of critic when the Committee has presented its plan of operation.

We are desirous of drawing attention to a part of the general question of relief, which seems to us to be of no little im-portance ; we mean the indiscriminate use of Charity.

We do not think there is much danger of Freemasonry descending to the level of an ordinary benefit society so long as the funds at the disposal of Grand Lodge and of various of our Lodges are wisely and discreetly administered.

True, when a proposal to endow one or other or all of our Charities with a certain sum by way of commemorating the Prince of Wales’s successful progress in India was mooted, there were those who somewhat ridiculed the suggestion. They urged that to give to our own Institutions would be toa certain extent an act of selfishness.

We should, in fact, be presenting ourselves with a sum more or less considerable, according as our representatives in Grand Lodge were inclined to be more or less liberal.

The occasion, it was suggested, allowed of our departing for once from the beaten track of purely Masonic Charity, and showing to the world that we were both able and willing to help others as well as the less fortunate members of our own body.

But the arguments on which this view was based did not seem to us to possess any real value. They were calculated, perhaps, to obtain a certain degree of sympathy from those who do not understand the difference between Freemasonry and what are known as Benefit Societies; but they did not and will not commend themselves to such as are thoroughly conversant with the nature and constitution of the Masonic Body.

In so far as Masonry administers relief to deserving brethren in distressed circumstances, it is undoubtedly a Benefit Society, but there is material difference between the two. Men join a Benefit Society with the deliberate purpose of Securing to themselves certain advantages in certain eventualities.

Their object is to secure, in the case of loss of occupation, sickness, or other misfortune, that they and their families shall not be in absolute poverty.

Those who join the ranks of Freemasonry do so uninfluenced by any motive of ulterior gain. We do not deny there may be sundry who, having heard of our Masonic Charities and the grants of Grand Lodge, may probably have looked on the expense of joining as a good investment.

But we should never dream of taking such as fair representatives of the general body of Freemasons. They and the motives that influence them are the exception, not the rule. We cannot see how a proposal to extend our Charities in honour of a certain event can be regarded as in any wise derogatory to the principles of Freemasonry.

Yet see we clearly enough how, if the greatest care is not exercised in dispensing our charity, the Fraternity may gradually descend from its present level and attract within its ranks a host of necessitous adventurers, whose sole object in joining will be to make as much profit as they can out of Freemasonry.

We must bear in mind, too, that’s the danger of this happening will become greater as we increase in numbers. It cannot, indeed, be too strenuously urged that while charity, in the sense of almsgiving, is a duty we all owe it to society in general as well as to Freemasonry to fulfil, it is a duty that can properly be fulfilled only with the utmost care and circumspection. The bestowal of alms indiscriminately on all who ask it is an abuse of charity.

It is, indeed, a very old story, which all of us have heard again and again discussed. But though old, it is none the less true. Ill-regulated almsgiving is a serious evil, the consequences of which are oftentimes most deplorable. And in a system of morality such as is Freemasonry, the consequences are likely to be even more deplorable still.

It is the duty of Masons, as far as their means permit, to give to all alms-seekers who may be found worthy. But too many among us, unfortunately, leave out the essential qualification of worth in the alms-seeker. With these it is enough that a brother presents himself as an applicant for assistance, to induce them to lose their purse strings.

They are themselves so generous and high minded, they do not understand a brother preying upon their kindness. Their motives in becoming Freemasons were so pure, they refuse to imagine the motives of others can possibly have been less pure and disinterested.

So profound is their belief in the beneficent effects of Masonic teaching, they will not believe there are those who, under cover of poverty, are seeking to make capital of their Free-masonry.

They have heard occasionally of Masonic impostors ; but these fellows are not Masons at all, having picked np or stolen the false colours under which they travel about in search of whom they may obtain the most plunder from.

They know that Masons, like other men, are liable to become poverty-stricken, but they are certain none ever pretend to be so, or fall into straitened circum-stances through any fault of their own.

We necessarily admire the simple-mindedness of these generous fellows, for it is only simple honest men like these who could possibly believe all Masons to be above practising the tricks and deceits of the outside world.

We cannot, however, say we attach a high value to their wisdom and discretion. They it is who encourage Masonic vagrancy.

Were it not for their ill regulated generosity, our Brother Vagabond would quickly find his occupation gone. His claims to relief will bear no inspection. He may be found impecunious, but he is so through his own moral shortcomings, or he is so only in appearance; for he finds begging and preying more profitable than working honestly for a livelihood. But the sad consequences of this misplaced charity do not end here.

The honest poor brother, whom Fortune has used hardly, finds the wherewith to relieve his necessities has been anticipated by the vagabond brother; or assistance is denied him because previous applicants for relief have turned out to be impostors.

Just as there is a class of men who think that all who seek help are equally honest, so is there another and, unfortunately perhaps, a still more numerous class, who having once or twice relieved an impostor, refuse aid ever afterwards in the belief that all applicants for charity must be “tarred with the same brush.

“Such denials are as much to be condemned as the generosity we have previously described. They proceed, too, from exactly the same cause, a want of discrimination, a refusal to find out the worth or unworthiness of those who seek relief.

Were it made a rule absolute to inquire always into the merits of all applicants, we should hear no more of good men going emptyhanded away, or of plausible vagabonds who find our doctrine of charity a source of considerable profit to themselves.

So long as it is possible for us to hear, on the one hand, of a brother thinking it almost an insult to inquire into the character of one applying for relief, so long is it likely we shall hear occasionally of the brother who has received relief squandering it at then nearest tavern or devoting it to some equally unworthy purpose.

There is little likelihood of our degenerating into a Benefit Society if we richly endow our several Charitable Institutions. The purposes to which they are devoted is the relief of the old and indigent, the widow and the orphan.

The claims of the various applicants are all most carefully sifted before their names are placed on the approved lists of candidates. Similarly, in the case of applicants to Grand Lodge, inquiry is first made whether or not they are deserving cases, and only then are they recommended.

There is great danger, however, we may become a Benefit Society if relief is administered indiscriminately to all who seek it of private members or in private Lodges.

If charity is given wholesale and without previous inquiry, we may reckon that Freemasonry will become a more numerous, but at the same time a less respectable body than it is.

Masonry will, in fact, become a profitable occupation to follow, and the needy adventurer who makes a practice of living at other people’s expense will, in time, become a conspicuous member of our Society.

During the whole of our history the utmost care has been taken to exclude this class of persons, and the same caution is more than ever necessary in these days, when the body of Freemasons is becoming more and more numerous in all countries.

One of the best means we know of for keeping these undesirable fellows outside the pale of our Society is to let the world know that the charity we dispense is not dispensed indiscriminately.

They are not likely to trouble us when they know we give only to those worthy to receive.