E. H. ADDINGTON

ON FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 19
Lodge of Queensland, against certain rulings of the District Grand
Master and the Board of General Purposes of that District. The matter
had to do with methods of procedure simply.
IXOBIDA, 1911.
The Grand Master, M. W. Bro. Louis C. Massey, said in his Address:
'' The year has been one of prosperity to our State. Industries
have thrived, crops have yielded good returns, and immigrants of the
best class, having recognized the advantages and possibilities of Florida,
have poured over our borders. Our population as a whole has increased
within, a decade over forty per cent, while particular counties and cities
have grown as if touched by a magic wand. Our Fraternity partakes
of the general prosperity, and now two hundred and two lodges work
under charter or dispensation and shelter between nine and ten thousand
Master Masons, living, for the most part, in contentment, peace
and harmony.
'' From tables prepared by our Brother, Alexander B. Andrews,
Jr., of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina, on the publication of the
census report, I was surprised to learn and am now pleased to inform
you that the percentage of Master Masons to the population in Florida
exceeds the percentages in the States of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
and Tennessee, and is but little less than those in Georgia, Arkansas
and Texas, in the South; while in the States of the North we exceed
the percentapes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New
Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Idaho. This is a record of which we have
a right to be proud. Let us remember, however, that the quality of
our membership is of more importance than its numbers, and continue,
both by our regulations and our practice under them, to guard the doors
of entrance with scrutinizing care.''
The following decision of the Grand Master is, in our opinion, eminently
proper:
"The ceremony of laying a corner-stone cannot be performed.when
the building has been practically completed, or when its walls have
been already built over the place provided for the corner-stone; much
less when a mere space has been left into which the corner-stone is to
be slipped. Neither will a corner-stone be laid above the first floor
of a building."
The laying, or placing, of a corner stone in a building that is completed;
and compelling of a Grand Chaplain to utter a prayer for the
safety of the workmen engaged in the erection of such building after
all danger has passed, seems to us to border closely upon the profane.
We sincerely hope that all Grand Masters will in future positively refuse
such offices.
The Grand Treasurer, E. W. Bro. Henry Robinson, reported that
the expenses of the year about equalled the receipts.
The Grand Orator, W. Bro. H. S. Yerger, delivered an oration on
Self-control.
The report on Foreign Correspondence was again the work of the
erudite and accomplished Brother, Silas B. Wright, P. G. M; Reviewing