E. H. ADDINGTON

28 APPENDIX—REPORT OF COMMITTEE
We do not believe that any Grand Body in Freemasonry should be
crying the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are we; but that
rather it should stand ready to recognize that wisdom may dwell with
others.
If the Freemasonry of one land is extended to three degrees instead
of one, and it is deemed best to require its governing body to be composed
only of those who have attained the third, or last degree of its
system, no body should object. So also if the Freemasons of another
State extend their system through four degrees, and require that the
members of its governing body should be of the fourth degree, no
body should object. It is not essential to the legitimacy of a Grand
Body what the number of degrees is by means of which the dogmas of
the institution are taught.
It is our further thought that it would be more profitable for us
to confine our contentions with our Brothers of other tongues and of
other climes to what is evidently essential rather than to matters that
are not so.
Might we not all of us learn something from the Mother Grand Lodge
of England. When it was brought to her attention that Governing
Bodies in the Fraternity other than herself were requiring their members
to be of the third degree, and in some instances of the thirty-third
degree, she did not, and has not denied their legitimacy because of such
action.
We are glad to note that the Grand Lodge of Iowa made the Committee
on the Eecognition of Grand Bodies permanent. We are glad because
it gives the assurance of a study of these matters, and we feel
sure that nothing but good results can spring from the study.
Upon the report of the Committee on Jurisprudence the Grand Lodge
declared that honorary membership in a Lodge should be prohibited.
The Committee said that the statutes provided who could be members
of Lodges, and that this was exclusive of any other kind of members
than those designated.
The report on Fraternal Correspondence was prepared by V. W.
Bro. Louis Block. He begins his review of our Proceedings with these
remarks:
"It is refreshing to come across a Grand Lodge which believes in
the prompt publication of its Proceedings.
"The brethren of Louisiana are also to be complimented upon the
neat and attractive cover in which their annual publication is bound.
Grand Master John S. Thibaut presented a fine annual address."
He makes copious extracts from the Address of Grand Master
Thibaut, concurring with him in most things.
Sagely he says that he hopes and trust's that the matter of physical
qualifications will some day be left to the sound judgment of the Lodge
to which the candidate applies.
He says that he thinks our Committee on Masonic Law "hit the nail
squarely on the head when writing of the immortality of the soul."