Ill. Joe R. Manning, Jr., 33°
PO Box 8, Cushing, Oklahoma 74023–0008

As long as Masonry meets the real needs, including ritual, of prospective members, it will prosper.

We are not alone. Travel back a 100 years in America, to any town or city. Any night, except Sunday, you would have seen lighted windows downtown, usually in the upper stories of the buildings. Flickering shadows, cast by gaslight or kerosene lamps, crossed and recrossed the window shades as men in colorful costumes engaged in rituals of their "secret" societies of which there were hundreds.

The Masons were the largest, of course. But then there were the Odd Fellows, the Improved Order of Red Men, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Columbus, Knights of Honor, Knights of Khorassan, the Knights of Labor, and many, many more.

None of these were truly secret societies of course, although they almost all used that title. A truly secret society tries to hide the fact that it exists and certainly conceals the identity of its members. These "secret" societies appeared in parades, owned buildings identified with signs for their meetings, and participated in many public events from funerals to picnics.

Even though it was not that long ago, it is hard for most of us, today, to realize just how important these societies, especially Masonry, were in America at the turn of the century. Consider this: in the early 1900s nearly one of every four white males in America over the age of 25 was a member of the Masons. That is a larger percentage than belonged to any single denomination or even political party. Freemasonry was the largest organization in America.

Today, of course, the vast majority of these organizations are long gone and of interest only to historians and sociologists. Masonry has hung on, but that is about the best we can say at the moment. If the same percentage of the population of Oklahoma belonged to Masonry today as at the turn of the century, we would have more than 340,000 members in Oklahoma. That is ten times the actual membership today!

Since people do not join voluntary organizations which do not meet their needs in some way, another way to say the same thing is that at the turn of the century, we met the needs of one man in four. Now, we meet the needs of one man in 40. We have become, in the words of a recent article in Time "almost quaint."

What happened?

It is popular to say Masonry's decline is the fault of the world. "Men just don't believe in integrity anymore. Movies and television keep them at home. People are just too busy." These are, at best, cop-outs. Men have always been busy, and they have always found time to do the things that meet their needs. T.V. may keep the elderly in at night, but it doesn't keep the man in his 30s, 40s or 50s in at night.

Sometime in the 1940s and 1950s, we stopped meeting the needs of many men. We coasted for awhile, but the coast is over. We meet the needs of the 5% of the Masonic population which enjoys memorizing and doing ritual, which is, now, almost the exclusive activity of most Masonic Lodges. We are not meeting the needs of 95% of our own members nor the needs of 99.5% of the general population.

The needs have not changed. Masonry changed. We oriented almost exclusively on ritual. As long as we spent some time meeting other needs as well, men joined. When we stopped, membership stopped. What are some of the needs we used to meet and must meet again if we intend to survive, even prosper?

Practical Leadership Training
I don't mean formal courses in "how to lead." What we used to offer was far more effective. Young men learned leadership by watching community leaders, who were also Lodge members, work. They learned how to appoint and manage effective committees by being appointed to committees which actually had responsibilities and did things. They learned conflict resolution by watching Lodge leaders resolve conflicts. The sharpest, most skilled men in town led the Lodge. The young man learned those skills and took his place as the leader of the next generation. Only one who views Masonry today through eyes undimmed by reality could claim we still offer the same thing.

Business Connections
It is true that Masonry is not to be used for business. It is also true that men knew they could trust fellow Masons—not to give them a better deal but to give them a fair and honest deal. Virtually all the professions were represented in the Lodge.

Financial and Emotional Security
Especially in a time before government "safety nets," this was a critical consideration. A man knew, as a fact, that his widow and orphans would not starve if he were a Mason. That assurance is still important today. Starvation is not a fear, but how much would it add to the comfort of a young man if he knew past any question (as he used to know) that if something happened to him, the Lodge would watch over his family, offering guidance when it was needed and being a substitute father to his children. Many younger men are in Lodge today because the Masons were simply there when they were growing up, taking them to father-son games and banquets, and being there when they needed someone to talk to.

True Fellowship
National surveys still list this as the top need of young men in the 35-to-45 age category. This should be the need we are best equipped to handle. But ask the painful question, "If a man's idea of fellowship is NOT sitting in a Lodge school and being corrected, sometimes with ridicule, if he steps off on the wrong foot, just how much fellowship do we offer him in our Lodges?"
We have slipped quite a bit, but we still can recover our balance. We can recapture what we had. It will not be easy. We will have to fight not only the misinformation of the anti-Masons and the almost complete ignorance about Masonry of the general population. We will also have to fight those in the Fraternity who are perfectly willing to let Masonry die, so long as it doesn't change in their lifetimes. Unfortunately, our window of opportunity is not as long as their lifetimes.

But we can do it. It just takes the commitment of each of us. If we are determined, Masonry will meet the needs of young men again, and if it does that, it will thrive. If it does not, we will be one with the Order of Red Men and the Modern Woodsmen of the World. And we will deserve it. Life belongs to those who choose to live.