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Article TOO MUCH CHARITY! Page 1 of 2 Article TOO MUCH CHARITY! Page 1 of 2 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Too Much Charity!
TOO MUCH CHARITY !
PJOR some years past we have urged that the great * success of the Masonic Charitable Institutions must sooner or later lead them into trouble , if not sound the keynote of their actual downfall . We have
been laughed at for our pains , and no doubt there are many who will have the very greatest difficulty to-day to repress a smile when they understand the cause of our present lament—that there is too much charity in
our midst . Not only is there too much to meet all requirements , but also too much to hoard up for the proverbial rainy day that may never come , until with too much prosperity we have to go searching around
for a shower , and raise up instead a deluge , which shall sweep away in a moment all that it has taken years to accumulate . Dropping metaphor , we may explain that our chief fear is that the large sums our Educational and kindred Institutions are able to invest
year by year , and which seem to accumulate with really marvellous rapidity , will some day in the near future attract envious eyes , and form the basis for some expensive scheme of re-construction which would never be dreamt of save for the existence of the
accumulation , standing ready to be spent ; and which expenditure , if not actually wasteful , might at least be regarded as wholly unnecessary , from a strictly economical and rational point of view .
As we have said , we have been laughed at and ridiculed for taking so extreme a view of the situation , but it would almost seem that the time of trouble is
not so far off as we and our critics imagine , and although it has not yet happened for either of the Craft Institutions' to bring down upon themselves
official action in this direction there is no knowing how soon their turn may come , now that the crusade has been started .
It appears the Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Devonshire will be asked , at its next annual assembly , on the 26 th inst ., to agree to a motion that no more sums shall be voted for the time
being to the Mark Benevolent Fund of England , "as there is such a large unused balance in hand , " and we think there will be a feeling of curiosity in other minds than our own , as to the result of this peculiar
proposition—peculiar , yet perfectly natural , in view of all the circumstances of the case . Before giving further attention to this point we may add that the proposition to come before the Devonshire Mark
Masons stands in the name of a well known Brother , one who is credited with being a warm and respected supporter of the Degree and Fund , and consequently it is useless to urge that he is bringing forward his
proposition in ignorance of the facts of the case , or without weighing its possible and probable results . It may be that our Bro . E . H . Shorto—who makes the proposition referred to—is suffering from a supposed grievance in regard to the treatment of some particular
Too Much Charity!
candidate by the Mark Fund , but as we have on many occasions quoted in these columns , it is the boast of the Brethren of the Mark Degree that no worthy applicant was ever sent empty away after appealing to
their Benevolent Fund , while it is also equally well known that all its grants for educational or other purposes have been made without the trouble and expense of a contested election . Besides , it would be
most unwise to attempt to publicly air a personal grievance in this way , even if such existed , while , on the other hand , it is pretty generally recognised that the Mark and one or two other Funds' of Masonic
Benevolence are just now suffering from a somewhat severe attack of too much charity ! We admit the situation is a very difficult one , and we can hear the query , what are the officials of the
Institutions or Funds to do ? It would never- do for them to boldly advertise for candidates , and yet year after year we see additions being made to already large invested capitals , with no immediate prospect of
any exceptional call being made to warrant the hoarding up of such huge sums . The wasteful folly of erecting new Schools for the Boys Institution , at a cost of upwards of ^ 100 , 000 , robs us for the time being of
a prominent object lesson in that quarter , but it will not be very long before we shall see an enormous cash accumulation in connection with that Institution , unless some ready means of spending the money so freely
subscribed is speedily adopted ; while as regards the sister Charity , there we have at least - £ 100 , 000 invested , with little or no call upon it , and the great advantages of the School valued so cheaply throughout the country
that no more than thirty-three candidates come forward to compete for the sixteen vacancies to be filled at next month's election . But why should the seventeen excess be sent empty away , when there is so much
with which to feed , clothe and educate them ? If there is-no room in the existing buildings , why not extend the work of the Institution , not by extravagant expenditure in creating fresh " show places " , for future generations ,
but by . the formation of some system of outside scholarships , or in assisting the different Provincial Funds of benevolence in providing for local cases of juvenile need—which exist in their hundreds , despite the fact that so few come forward as candidates for the
Central Institutions ? It seems to us that too much is made in this direction , as is also the case in regard to the relief of indigent Brethren , of a favoured few ,
and that many to whom a little assistance would be a perfect Godsend are kept short of that little , because in such a case the right hand might be deprived of knowing : all that the left was doing .
It is very certain there must be something wrong somewhere when immense numbers of children of
worthy Masons are left uncared for by their parent ' s Brethren , and at the same time such tangible evidence is forthcoming , as is presented in connection with this proposal for the Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Too Much Charity!
TOO MUCH CHARITY !
PJOR some years past we have urged that the great * success of the Masonic Charitable Institutions must sooner or later lead them into trouble , if not sound the keynote of their actual downfall . We have
been laughed at for our pains , and no doubt there are many who will have the very greatest difficulty to-day to repress a smile when they understand the cause of our present lament—that there is too much charity in
our midst . Not only is there too much to meet all requirements , but also too much to hoard up for the proverbial rainy day that may never come , until with too much prosperity we have to go searching around
for a shower , and raise up instead a deluge , which shall sweep away in a moment all that it has taken years to accumulate . Dropping metaphor , we may explain that our chief fear is that the large sums our Educational and kindred Institutions are able to invest
year by year , and which seem to accumulate with really marvellous rapidity , will some day in the near future attract envious eyes , and form the basis for some expensive scheme of re-construction which would never be dreamt of save for the existence of the
accumulation , standing ready to be spent ; and which expenditure , if not actually wasteful , might at least be regarded as wholly unnecessary , from a strictly economical and rational point of view .
As we have said , we have been laughed at and ridiculed for taking so extreme a view of the situation , but it would almost seem that the time of trouble is
not so far off as we and our critics imagine , and although it has not yet happened for either of the Craft Institutions' to bring down upon themselves
official action in this direction there is no knowing how soon their turn may come , now that the crusade has been started .
It appears the Provincial Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of Devonshire will be asked , at its next annual assembly , on the 26 th inst ., to agree to a motion that no more sums shall be voted for the time
being to the Mark Benevolent Fund of England , "as there is such a large unused balance in hand , " and we think there will be a feeling of curiosity in other minds than our own , as to the result of this peculiar
proposition—peculiar , yet perfectly natural , in view of all the circumstances of the case . Before giving further attention to this point we may add that the proposition to come before the Devonshire Mark
Masons stands in the name of a well known Brother , one who is credited with being a warm and respected supporter of the Degree and Fund , and consequently it is useless to urge that he is bringing forward his
proposition in ignorance of the facts of the case , or without weighing its possible and probable results . It may be that our Bro . E . H . Shorto—who makes the proposition referred to—is suffering from a supposed grievance in regard to the treatment of some particular
Too Much Charity!
candidate by the Mark Fund , but as we have on many occasions quoted in these columns , it is the boast of the Brethren of the Mark Degree that no worthy applicant was ever sent empty away after appealing to
their Benevolent Fund , while it is also equally well known that all its grants for educational or other purposes have been made without the trouble and expense of a contested election . Besides , it would be
most unwise to attempt to publicly air a personal grievance in this way , even if such existed , while , on the other hand , it is pretty generally recognised that the Mark and one or two other Funds' of Masonic
Benevolence are just now suffering from a somewhat severe attack of too much charity ! We admit the situation is a very difficult one , and we can hear the query , what are the officials of the
Institutions or Funds to do ? It would never- do for them to boldly advertise for candidates , and yet year after year we see additions being made to already large invested capitals , with no immediate prospect of
any exceptional call being made to warrant the hoarding up of such huge sums . The wasteful folly of erecting new Schools for the Boys Institution , at a cost of upwards of ^ 100 , 000 , robs us for the time being of
a prominent object lesson in that quarter , but it will not be very long before we shall see an enormous cash accumulation in connection with that Institution , unless some ready means of spending the money so freely
subscribed is speedily adopted ; while as regards the sister Charity , there we have at least - £ 100 , 000 invested , with little or no call upon it , and the great advantages of the School valued so cheaply throughout the country
that no more than thirty-three candidates come forward to compete for the sixteen vacancies to be filled at next month's election . But why should the seventeen excess be sent empty away , when there is so much
with which to feed , clothe and educate them ? If there is-no room in the existing buildings , why not extend the work of the Institution , not by extravagant expenditure in creating fresh " show places " , for future generations ,
but by . the formation of some system of outside scholarships , or in assisting the different Provincial Funds of benevolence in providing for local cases of juvenile need—which exist in their hundreds , despite the fact that so few come forward as candidates for the
Central Institutions ? It seems to us that too much is made in this direction , as is also the case in regard to the relief of indigent Brethren , of a favoured few ,
and that many to whom a little assistance would be a perfect Godsend are kept short of that little , because in such a case the right hand might be deprived of knowing : all that the left was doing .
It is very certain there must be something wrong somewhere when immense numbers of children of
worthy Masons are left uncared for by their parent ' s Brethren , and at the same time such tangible evidence is forthcoming , as is presented in connection with this proposal for the Provincial Grand Mark Lodge of