THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

made the necessary inquiries, will report the result at the next
regular
communication and not sooner.
The authority for this deliberate mode of proceeding is to be found in
the
fifth of the 39 General Regulations, which is in these words:
"No man can be made or admitted a member of a particular lodge, without
previous notice one month before given to the said lodge, in order to
make
due inquiry into the reputation and capacity of the candidate; unless
by
dispensation aforesaid."
The last clause in this article provides for the only way in which this
probation of a month can be avoided, and that is when the Grand Master,
for reasons satisfactory to himself, being such as will constitute what
is
called (sometimes improperly) a case of emergency, shall issue a
dispensation permitting the lodge to proceed forthwith to the election.
But where this dispensation has not been issued, the committee should
proceed diligently and faithfully to the discharge of their responsible
duty. They must inquire into the moral, physical, intellectual and
political qualifications of the candidate, and make their report in
accordance with the result of their investigations.
The report cannot be made at a special communication, but must always
be
presented at a regular one. The necessity of such a rule is obvious. As
the Master can at any time within his discretion convene a special
meeting
of his lodge, it is evident that a presiding officer, if actuated by an
improper desire to intrude an unworthy and unpopular applicant upon the
craft, might easily avail himself for that purpose of an occasion when
the
lodge being called for some other purpose, the attendance of the
members
was small, and causing a ballot to be taken, succeed in electing a
candidate, who would, at a regular meeting, have been blackballed by
some
of those who were absent from the special communication.
This regulation is promulgated by the Grand Lodge of England, in the
following words: "No person shall be made a Mason without a regular
proposition at one lodge and a ballot at the next regular stated
lodge;"
it appears to have been almost universally adopted in similar language
by
the Grand Lodges of this country; and, if the exact words of the law
are
wanting in any of the Constitutions, the general usage of the craft has
furnished an equivalent authority for the regulation.
If the report of the committee is unfavorable, the candidate should be
considered as rejected, without any reference to a ballot. This rule is